BIFHSGO May Meeting

Jonathan F. Vance, Distinguished University Professor and J.B. Smallman Chair in the Department of History at Western University, returns to BIFHSGO giving two presentations this Saturday, 13 May.

At 9:00 a.m. he will give the Before BIFHSGO Education Talk — They Didn't Write Names on These!: Decoding the Postcard. Using images from his own own collection of 30,000 postcards, he will go through a few of the 'trade secrets' for getting information out of often anonymous photos.

At 10:00 a.m., following announcements, the presentation is Was Your Ancestor at Vimy?: Making Sense of the Battle on the Ground. Prof Vance will talk about Vimy Ridge and what the genealogist can do to locate an ancestor on that hill in April 1917. The digitization of records has been a great help, but there are still many mysteries to be solved in military records. As Canada's most famous battle, Vimy Ridge has been the subject of more history books than just about any other battle. But that one battle was made up of tens of thousands of individual stories.

BIFHSGO monthly meetings, open to all with free admission and parking, are held at The Chamber, Ben Franklin Place, 101 Centrepointe Drive, Ottawa.