Two Favourite Canadian Websites for Genealogy

After the Ottawa Branch OGS meeting on Saturday two people back of locally prominent websites compared notes.

On the right is Al Lewis whose Bytown or Bust, more than 1500 pages on immigration and settlement in Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec including the Cities of Ottawa and Hull / Gatineau 1600 to 2013, is a must for area researchers. There are posts at a rate of about one a day, not every day. With such a large collection using the search box to find the person or other subject of interest is the best way to go.

On the left is Cliff Seibel, a Board member at Canadianheadstones.com. Cliff, who has a particular interest in Russell county, took time out to come to the Computer Special Interest Group later in the afternoon. He is heavily involved in photographing headstones and adding them to the site. The photography, he said, is the easy part. In a row of uniformly spaces stones you can achieve a rate of one image per six seconds, being careful to avoid getting your shadow in the photo. Processing the photos and extracting the information for the index can take a couple of minutes or more depending on the complexity, especially if there are multiple names. He usually photographs during the summer and processes during the winter.
Both sites are free to  use. Ad support generates about enough revenue to cover site hosting costs.  .