OntarioFamilyHistory.org

The following is a press release from the Ontario Genealogical Society

The Ontario Genealogical Society announces Redesigned GEDCOM Website – OntarioFamilyHistory.org

As the Society is moving into the digital future, we continue to seek a better understanding of the needs of the genealogical community for both digital and non-digital resources. Many of our members and of the Genealogical Community at large have adapted to the digital world and are now creating and sharing more digital documents than ever.

In recent months, the OGS has come together withCanadianHeadstones.com, to secure its future online availability and to further develop it’s web presence.  As we have begun to manage the data for this organization we have also been looking into the various websites under it’s umbrella, we have discovered a treasure trove of additional information within a website called CHFamilyTrees.com. This website allows for the uploading and management of donated Gedcom files using the software platform The Next Generation. Once we made this discovery, we then reviewed our resource management options and have decided to move and rebrandCHFamilyTrees.com to OntarioFamilyHistory.org.

This website already contains more than 830,000 Individuals and 315,000 Families within its database and cites well over 40,000 sources. One of the mandates of The Ontario Genealogical Society is to preserve genealogical information for future generations regardless of whether it has been properly or fully sourced.  This is our practise for both printed or digital donated family trees.

Maintaining websites like this requires the time, interest and attention of our volunteers. We are pleased to be able to activate this website today in a search only format. The site does allow you to contribute your GEDCOM files at this time and you will find the link on the website.  Over time and with further assistance from our volunteers, we hope to turn on other features that will allow the genealogical community to sign in and alert the volunteers of any errors or omissions, or to activate the DNA Section that is currently contained within the software.

At a time when so many resources dedicated to Canadian and Ontario Genealogy are disappearing or being archived, the OGS is committed to preserving those resources and allowing free access to those resources to interested researchers from around the world