A Successful Day for OGS Ottawa Branch

Ottawa Branch organizers were unsure how many people to expect for their Back to Basics - Getting Started session given by Mike More on Saturday morning at Ottawa`s City Archives. When 45 people showed up it was sure they were meeting a demand and that the publicity by Stephanie Dean had been effective. Others in the room also answered attendees questions after the presentation, Gloria Tubman handling home child queries. Dealing with questions on Armenian family history proved more of a challenge -- always a danger with open genealogy sessions.

The afternoon saw about 35 people in the room for the regular branch monthly meeting. Elizabeth Kipp related her experiences, benefits and contributions, as a member of the Guild of One Name Studies (Alexa rank 329,264), the new Surname Society (Alexa rank 963,721) and the Society of One Place Studies (Alexa rank 2,077,107). What's the difference between the Guild and the Surname Society? With the Guild you register to research a surname wherever it occurs and undertake to respond reasonably promptly to queries. You become the world expert. The Surname Society allows members to register their interest in as many names as they care to mention and hope to make connections.
All three societies are making use of social media. Searching on YouTube will bring up recordings of hangouts and other events from each organization.
In addition to these contributions Elizabeth mentioned she is on line parish clerk for Bishops Nympton and Winterbourne Clenstone.
About ten people stayed after the monthly meeting for the Computer Special Interest Group. Doug Grey demonstrated accessing the archives of the Ottawa Journal from the City Archives. Doug also commented how glad he is that Global Genealogy is now making publications available as pdfs mentioning particularly two volumes of The Ontario Photographers List. I had to leave the group early but not before asking about experience with Fences for Windows and receiving advice and a positive recommendation regarding malwarebytes.org.