BIFHSGO Conference 2008

Registration has just opened for the 14th annual BIFHSGO conference, 19-21 September. I may be a tad biased as chair of the program committee but I think it's the best family history conference program I've seen in Canada this year, and that includes larger conferences. Take a look and be the judge for yourself.

Sherry Irvine, the keynote speaker, will give the Don Whiteside Memorial Lecture, with an intriguing title. See the pdf brochure. It isn't broadcast loudly but Sherry's lecture is open to all without charge. Read the brochure and you're sure to want to hear the impressive speakers and topics.

This year the convenience of on-line registration is available from the conference page on the society web site using a credit card over a secure connection, or by mailing in the printable form with your cheque.

Robert F Allum

I was sorry to learn of the sudden death last Wednesday of Robert F Allum. A native of Birmingham, England, he was one of the principals behind Cold North Wind, the Ottawa-based web site that pioneered the development of Canadian newspaper digitization and indexing on the web site Paper of Record.

Notes from Gene-O-Rama

At Friday evening and Saturday's Gene-O-Rama event, at the former Nepean City Hall, I attended only one of the presentations. It was more an opportunity to talk to old friends and new acquaintances.

One nice addition to the marketplace this year was an Archives of Ontario display. It was their first appearance at this event, not overdue given that two-thirds of their clients are interested in genealogy, family and local history. Being newcomers they didn't have the choicest location but seemed to attract considerable attention running out of hard copy's of several information sheets. I had a good conversation with Sean Smith, an AO Senior Reference Archivist, advocating for a more aggressive digitization initiative, including for provincial newspapers, and a more client centred approach, especially regarding their clients who are too far from Toronto to visit often.

Don Pounder, a veteran researcher and reader of this blog, pointed out that the 19th Century British Library Newspapers database search defaults to a proximity search with a maximum four word separation. If you put AND between two terms the search is for both terms appearing anywhere in the article. Several other people commented on this database's OCR quality which they found a bit variable, sometimes surprisingly good for poor quality originals. My only experience with it impressed me positively. Can Gale can find a way to make this database affordable to the hobby genealogist?

Bruce Elliott gave me a copy of a course description and objectives sheet for a seminar course he will be running from September 2008 to March 2009 on "Gravestones and Cemeteries: Cultures of Death and Memorialization" at Carleton University. The sheet mentions public lectures as one of the results, something I look forward to hearing.

Bruce was concerned about Ottawa Branch selling off back issues of other society journals. We discussed moves to digitize back issues so making them more widely available but he is concerned about assured access. Technology may be the salvation by bringing digitization into searchable pdf within the capability and budget of smaller societies and permitting multiple electronic copies to be kept at diverse sites. Derek Hopkins of the Quebec Family History Society demonstrated a trial he has undertaken. If rights issues can be resolved monetizing, or bartering, a society archive of its own publications could be a good service for members and the community.

Ottawa Branch deserves kudos for organizing this event, the 25th edition of Gene-O-Rama.

All the fun of the fair

The weekend after Easter sees the traditional Easter Fair at Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. Held on the marketplace and adjacent open spaces it was for me as a child a landmark in the year signaling a transition from the cold, dank days of winter.

The standout feature was a tower with spiral slide winding down the outside. You paid your money, received a coconut fibre mat, climbed up the tower and slid down on the wooden slide polished by years of excited children's rides. It was also the time of year when Matthes the baker sold white and black Fair Buttons, largish round cookies (biscuits).

What were the landmark events through the year in your ancestors?

Ottawa Archives makes another step forward

Ontario Municipal Affairs Minister, Jim Watson, today, 28 March, announced the province of Ontario will provide $20 million of taxpayers money toward the construction of a 81,363 sq ft building housing the Ottawa Central Archives and Ottawa Public Library materials centre. The total costs of the building is projected as $38.63 million.

The archives will be home to several Archives partners including local genealogy groups. Minister Watson is seen greeting President of the Friends of the City of Ottawa Archives John Heney after the announcement.

19% increase in genealogy visitors

Did you do a lot of genealogy searching in February? According to comScore Inc's Canadian statistics the category genealogy saw a 19% increase in unique visitors in February over January. That's an amazing increase considering that February is a short month.

Top 10 Gaining Site Categories by Number of Canadian Unique Visitors
February 2008 vs. January 2008
     Total Canada -- Home and Work Locations(x)
     Source: comScore Media Metrix
                                              Total Unique Visitors (000)
                                        Jan-2008        Feb-2008      % Change
     Total Internet : Total Audience     23,802          23,814             0
     Genealogy                            1,705           2,021            19
     Taxes                                2,591           3,041            17
     Lotto/Sweepstakes                    5,219           5,725            10
     Weather                              9,719          10,374             7
     Automotive -- Manufacturer           4,225           4,492             6
     Real Estate                          7,107           7,265             2
     Sports                              11,887          12,032             1
     Flowers/Gifts/Greetings              5,749           5,818             1
     Car Rental                             723             729             1
     Jewelry/Luxury Goods/Accessories     1,686           1,699             1

In recent postings Randy Seaver believes he sees a bottoming out in hits, following on long term declines, on some major genealogy sites based on Alexa statistics. One swallow doesn't make a summer and I'd certainly want to see more evidence in a sustained trend.

Gene-O-Rama this weekend

The Ottawa Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society presents the 2008 edition of their annual public genealogy event this weekend. The Friday evening and Saturday program is here, featuring speakers Janice Nickerson, Randy Saylor and Elizabeth Kipp, PLUS mini-lectures by Doug Gray, Doug Hoddinott, Elizabeth Kipp, and Robert Wilkins, PLUS access to a whole pile of CD and internet resources, PLUS the marketplace. It's all at Nepean Centrepointe co-sponsored by the Ottawa Public Library.

Even if you don't get to the sessions visit for a hour or two, browse and buy at the marketplace. It's a great place to meet genealogy friends old and new. I'll be at the BIFHSGO table; please stop by and say hello.

Passenger list statistics

Having completed the indexing of UK outbound passenger lists (1890 - 1960), ancestorsonboard have now compiled statistics on travellers to various countries in 5 year categories. Notice how the US (blue bars) is the most popular destination through almost the whole period, the huge number of travelers in the pre-WW1 period with Canada (red bars) taking an increasing share.

It would be nice if the company would provide a way that subscribers could develop this type of statistic from the database for themselves. At present the requirement to enter a surname precludes doing so.

OGS Newsleaf goes electronic

As a member of the Ontario Genealogical Society, since the start of the year, I was a bit disappointed that the publications I was to get didn't arrive -- I had to prompt head office in Toronto.

This morning my the first issue of e-Newsleaf, edited by Elizabeth Lapointe arrived. It's not only my first issue but THE first issue. The contents are:

Library and Archives Canada Links Canadians to Irish Roots

Moorshead Sells His Magazines

The Library and Archives Canada Does an About-Face

Toronto Branch Offers Course of Interest to OGS Members

Congratulations to OGS on this new more timely communication. And thank you to Elizabeth for mentioning this blog.

Don't renew that subscription

Friends Reunited, the UK based site that links old schoolmates based on the school they attended plans to go non-subscription. According to an article in The Telegraph "in the past year, the number of unique monthly visitors to Friends Reunited has plunged by 62 per cent." "Most of Friends Reunited's revenue is legacy revenue. They have been relying on people not cancelling their subscription."

I have previously subscribed to Friends Reunited and the companion site Genes Reunited. They helped me locate second cousins. That was several years ago. There was no real benefit after that and I dropped the subscriptions. Genes Reunited still sends emails informing me of possible matches which I now ignore. They cry wolf too often.

Why would you continue to pay for a service with no significant benefit? I advise folks to subscribe if a genealogy service or society looks beneficial, but not to renew unless you're getting your money's worth. You'll save yourself money. No responsible organization wants, or should want, dissatisfied clients or members. There's nothing like declining membership and subscriptions to help keep an organization service-oriented, or to help one that no longer serves toward its inevitable demise.

Another chance at searching 19th Century British newspapers on line

On the Society of Genealogists newsgroup Chris Watts points out a posting by "Charani" on another group:

"Gale obviously realised that there was great interest in the database so they have made a *legitimate free trial offer*

If you go to http://access.gale.com/gdctrial/ and register, using "None" in the institution field and "International" in the location field and you will get an email with your log in details from Gale
that not only lets you have access to the 19th Century British Library newspapers but The Times and many other databases to.|

I haven't tried it yet.

Commercial genealogy leader presentations at BYU

The Ancestry Insider blog has a worthwhile post summarizing presentations by two leaders of US commercial genealogy database companies at the recent Brigham Young University Computerized Family History Conference.

I'll return to Paul Allen's presentation (that's Paul the lesser of World Vital Records) in an upcoming posting.

Tim Sullivan revealed that TGN (owner of Ancestry) advances genealogy "by spending lots of money", investing "over $100 million a year providing services and growing the number of people involved in genealogy." The company will spend "over $40 million in 2008 around the world trying to get more people involved in genealogy." That's four times the company annual expenditure on "acquiring, imaging and indexing content."

A comment posted on Ancestry Insider slams TGN for "too little focus on what the customer wants, and the prime focus on what the marketing staff wants to sell them instead."

It would be interesting to know how this expenditure on promotion compares with that in comparable web-based companies. Ancestry's advertising underwrites the costs of magazines, give-aways, and TV programs like the Canadian version of "Who Do You Think You Are?" That's not to mention the demonstration rooms at conferences and sponsorship of shows. Someone pays for those and it isn't a fairy godmother. We'd all like to see more money spent on providing more resources, and more accurate transcriptions. One way, some would say the only way, to achieve that is to grow the size of the market.

Arthur C Clarke

Although it's years since I read any of his writing I was saddened to read of the death of Arthur C Clarke. I quote Clarke’s Three Laws often, especially the third when speaking of DNA analysis for genealogy.

1. When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.

2. The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.

3. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Accord to his obituaries 1, 2, Arthur Charles Clarke was born on December 16 1917 at Minehead, Somerset. The son of a British postal-service engineer (Charles) who turned to farming, he was born in his grandmother's house in southwest England. His mother, Nora, had worked as a post-office telegrapher before marrying. When he was 13, his father died. While the running of the farm fell to him and his mother, plus three younger siblings.

The parents marriage was registered in the 3rd quarter of 1915 in Williton, Somerset, at which time the husband was listed with middle initial W and wife as Mary N J Willis. His mother's birth was registered at Williton in the last quarter of 1892. According to the 1901 census she was the second daughter of John Willis, a cattleman, and his wife Hannah who lived in Carhampton, Somerset.

The paternal line is not as clear. The best fit in the 1901 census for his father is Charles W Clarke, age 14, born in Bishops Lydeard, Somerset, the eldest son of Thomas Clarke, age 47, born in Six Mile Bottom, Cambridgeshire, a sub-postmaster and his wife Elizabeth, age 40, born in Bishops Lydeard.

Find My Past completes UK outbound passenger list project

This is a day I've been waiting for.

Find My Past have released the final decade of passenger lists, allowing you to search from 1890 all the way up to 1960, for folks leaving the UK. There are now more than 24 million passengers, across 164,000 exclusive passenger lists.

This dataset has to be the jewel in the company crown for those whose genealogy involves people who left Britain. It can act as an index to help find people who migrated to Canada in the early years, from 1890. Use it to find the voyage then check the incoming passenger lists which generally provide more information on the individual. The last few years are the only resource available for the period. I've already found some friends, and not found others yet, who migrated in the last decade.

Ian Wilson takes international role

A tip of the hat to Ian Wilson, Librarian and Archivist of Canada, recently elected unopposed as President of the International Council on Archives (ICA). The two-year mandate will begin at the end of July 2008, following the ICA 6oth Anniversary Congress in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Mr Wilson takes over at a time of change for ICA, a global network of more than 1,400 institutional members in 190 countries. A new Secretary General for the Council Secretariat in Paris will also take up duties at the same time. More information here.

Canadian Great War Project

Malcolm Moody's most recent Archive CD Books Canada newsletter mentions a biographical database of all the Canadians who took part in The Great War being developed. The current database contents are available at www.canadianGreatWarProject.com.

With presently 83,028 soldier entries there's quite a way to go yet to the goal of 619,636 who served in the CEF. They'd appreciate help, including adding information from non-official sources.

The site is also worth visiting for the extensive background material accessible from the menu on the left side of the home page.

If searching for CEF fatalities don't forget the Maple Leaf Legacy Project as well as the Commonwealth War Graves Commission database.

Genealogy and Local History for All

"Genealogy and Local History for All: Research services for multicultural communities" is the title of a conference being held at Library and Archives Canada on August 6-7, 2008. This is a satellite conference to the World Library and Information Congress and the IFLA General Conference (International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions) taking place Quebec City from August 10 to 14, 2008. Watch the LAC web site, and this blog for further information.

19th Century British Library Newspapers - FREE TRIAL

There's a posting on the Glamorgan list with information on a free trial of this collection of 2 million pages of 19th century British newspapers. Well worth checking out at:

http://trials.galegroup.com/palci07/

I don't know how long it will last for free!

Too late! It's over!

LAC scanning and indexing project

LAC has posted a timely notice regarding a proposed scanning and indexing project with The Generations Network (Ancestry). Read the full text here.

This is an important initiative for genealogy. Similar arrangements by NARA and TNA with TGN and other companies have and are making records available online, at a price, where they would otherwise only be accessible by visiting the institution and searching the record by eye. At a minimum nothing in these agreements reduces access by those who choose not to purchase.

The proposal appears to go at least one step further by making images scanned by TNA available free online, but unindexed. Further, it appears TGN may be agreeing to expand free access to these records for visitors to LAC and other Canadian libraries and archives.

For those who already have subscriptions, or ready free access through a local public library, the choice of Ancestry, the company with the largest subscriber base, as a partner is welcome.

However, LAC needs to ensure that the company it neither getting nor perceived to be getting a sweetheart deal. Thus the statements "This notice provides interested parties with an opportunity to comment on the proposed arrangement, including interest in similar projects" and "The following does Not constitute a call for tender or request for proposal" appear somewhat contradictory.

It should be clear that the agreement with TGN is not exclusive. Other organizations must be free to propose and undertake similar work under a parallel agreement with LAC on the same or other records.

Interestingly NARA also have a recent notice on their web site about a proposed agreement with TNA. LAC could benefit from using some of the language of that proposal. In particular:

- The first selection of archival materials will be a test project and, upon its mutually satisfactory review, the parties will define and continue to define additional archival materials to be digitized and will produce project plans for succeeding projects.
- NARA's agreement with TGN will be non-exclusive. NARA has already reached digitizing agreements with other entities and will continue to consider additional agreements.

Inconsiderate

I don't know the name of the person who parked this car straddling two parking spaces at Library and Archives Canada on March 12, and also stayed beyond the time limit. I do know they inconvenienced others.