Gene-O-Rama 2015

Still jet-lagged from recent travels I decided not to attend this year's Ottawa Branch OGS Gene-O-Rama event held this past Friday evening and Saturday but did stop by for an hour to catch up in the marketplace. Heather Oakley, co-Chair for the event along with Branch Chair Doug Gray, told me that attendance was up from 2014; the marketplace was buzzing.

As I didn't attend any sessions I can't comment on the presentations, I did catch a few seconds of Lesley Anderson and Glenn Wright's well attended presentation The Circle of Life: Ontario Vital Records while visiting displays located at the back of the Cafetorium. The ongoing presentation meant I couldn't speak with Malcolm and Chris Moody from Archive CD Books Canada.

Global Genealogy had a prominent display of publications from Australian publishing company Unlock the Past for which they have the North American distribution rights. Rick and Sandra Roberts explained that by printing these in Canada they could sell for much less than if they had to import. Some of the authors in this series, Janet Few, Thomas MacEntee and Chris Paton will be speaking at the BIFHSGO conference in September. Maybe Global Genealogy will be able to negotiate a similar arrangement with British publishers, like Pen and Sword, to bring the price of their books down too.

Rick and Jennifer Cree from Moorshead Magazines showed an array of their magazines and Tracing Your Ancestors Series magazine-format publications, the most recent of those being on Italian Genealogy. Rick seemed pleased with the acceptance of Your Genealogy Today, the renamed Family Chronicle magazine. They have ideas for further Tracing Your Ancestors Series issues but nothing to announce yet.

Kyla Ubbink of Book and Paper Conservation told me the presentations she's been giving on archiving digital resources for the Ottawa Public Library have been very popular; another, Caring for Your Digital Photographs for the Ottawa City Archives, is scheduled for 2 May. She recommended Googling "digital preservation coalition" for those like me who may not appreciate what's involved - apparently there's more to it than LOCKSS - Google that too if need be.

In the same room Ken McKinlay seemed to be having a more tranquil time with the computer resources giving free access to ancestry.com and findmypast.com than on Friday when there were internet connection problems. Ken mentioned having attended a recent event at the War Museum when an episode from the soon to be aired muilti-part television and online Documentary series, The Great War Tour with Norm Christie was shown.

There were several stands from non-commercial groups.

The Ottawa Stake Family History Centre was there with news on the next Voices from the Dust event, now also billed as Ottawa's Rootstech, to be held on the afternoon of Saturday 20 June.

Heather Oakley had showed me a book published by Archives Lanark which was supported by a grant from Ottawa Branch. Published in the series Rural Schools it was on Drummond Township, 260 pages with lots of photos of pupils and teachers in the one-room schools which were the foundation of the education system until the 1960s. Others in the series are for Lanark, North Emsley, Ramsey and Packenham.  There a good chance of finding a photo of relatives who attended a school in the area -  Cliff Adams who briefly attended one of the schools told me he found six of nine cousins.

Gary Schroder mentioned that for the Quebec Family History Society forthcoming Roots 2015 conference, June 19-21 at McGill University groups will be coming in from nearly New England states.

BIFHSGO President Barbara Tose and publicity Director Mary-Lou Simac filled me in on the hugely successful Ulster day the society held while I was away. Not only did it demonstrate how popular one day events can be, something Toronto Branch of OGS have demonstrated in spades for years, but it also showed ways of coping with a capacity crowd at the Centrepointe facility.

Although I didn't get to attend any of keynoter Janice Nickerson's lectures we did chat briefly about the OGS 2016 conference being held in Toronto. Apparently they aim to put a premium on innovation in selecting presentation topics. It may be good for the environment but recycling, recycled presentations from previous OGS and other local events, are less likely to find a place on the program.