The Rootstech conference in Salt Lake City is over. Participants are dispersing. All I'm seeing is favourable comments, people committing to return, and folks who didn't go saying they intend to next year.
I've been casually following the event on Twitter, a few blog posts, and watched one webinar that fit into my schedule.
I doubt that I was able to read about more than a fraction of the many technological goodies on display and the announcements. One that did especially catch my attention, through tweets from Audrey Collins , was a session on "Digitizing the British Newspaper archives" given by Chris van der Kuyl who is CEO of Brightsolid.
Paraphrasing Audrey's tweets, in a project the company sees as high risk it will be digitizing material from the British Library newspaper repository for pre-1902 regional and specialist newspapers. Five specialist scanners will digest a page in 16 seconds, up to size A0, 24-bit colour, 400dpi, 8k pages a day, 1.6 TB a day total. They are seeking feedback from the genealogy community.
Hopefully Audrey will eventually have more detail on her blog The Family Recorder
It's passing strange that the information conveyed from one Brit to another in Salt Lake City.
There were a number of tweets along the lines of "technology will kill off societies", "with more of these types of conferences and virtual access, genealogy societies are becoming extinct", "if your society is producing a print publication, you are delivering an inferior, outdated product". and "Get on the bus or be left in the dust."
There's a kind of group-think that takes hold when self-selected enthusiasts gather. They're inclined to see the world the same way, and hearing interesting ideas eloquently expressed leads the group further along the selected pathway.
Let's not forget that there are many members of local family history societies who are not technology mavens and don't want to be. Even more are interested in technology as a tool to use in pursuing their family history passion, not as a passion in and of itself. Family history societies that go overboard on the technology part of IT and lose sight of the fact that it's the genealogy part most of us are interested in, risk seeing a substantial reduction in membership as people are turned off.
For the time being providing hard copy print publications are essential, not an "inferior outdated product." The joy of today's technology is that there's no reason why societies can't provide a choice between electronic and hard copy publication versions.
For another distant view of Rootstech, one with a more analytical view, see Randy Seaver's article here.
The following is an announcement from the Ontario Genealogical Society.
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Last year, 2010, was the year of the British Home Child. Over 100,000 orphaned children were sent to Canada between the 1860s and 1930s.
Many Ontario genealogists have found they have a family connection with a home child and many more will learn this as they continue their research.
As OGS commemorated the year we developed the idea of forming a Special Interest Group (SIG) focused on the British Home Children.
This group is now starting up and we're looking for all interested people to join in and share their skills and enthusiasm to continue the growth of the group.
The British Home Child SIG has been formed with the following tentative goals in mind.
To bring together genealogy researchers who have like interests in British Home Children (BHC) to share their research experiences.
To encourage possible descendants of BHC to investigate their ancestry.
To raise awareness of the history and contribution of the BHC in Canada.
To identify resources for research on individual BHC.
To identify resources for research into the social conditions in the UK and Canada which influenced the lives of the BHC
If you are interested in meeting others who share your interest in Home Children, or if you have ideas to shape this group further please contact OGS Vice President Shirley Sturdevant at vp@ogs.on.ca to find out how to get involved.
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Comment: Everyone can take advantage of the long-running Rootsweb Britishhomechildren mailing list including checking out the archives at:
Search the BRITISHHOMECHILDREN archives
Browse the BRITISHHOMECHILDREN archives
Other significant websites for homechildren resources and links are: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~tweetybirdgenealogy/homechild.html
and www.bifhsgo.ca
Mentioning breaking attendance records is getting to be routine for BIFHSGO meetings. Saturday's attendence of 225 was another instance. Although the auditorium at Library and Archives Canada can hold quite a few more the lobby looked crowded for the pre-meeting social get together.
The forenoon talk was based on the book "Beneath my Feet: the memoirs of George Mercer Dawson" which is a posthumously written "autobiography" channeled through Phil Jenkins and based on a collection of Dawson's letters. Jenkins, kept the audience in turn and often simultaneously informed and entertained with the back story, a description of Dawson's family background, reading extracts from the book and recounting interesting asides.
The picture shows Jenkins donating a copy of his book for the BIFHSGO library to librarian Betty Warburton.
Speaking to a group of friends after yesterday's BIFHSGO meeting I was surprised to learn that despite having posted frequent updates on the progress of the new City of Ottawa Archives building at Woodroffe and Tallwood some of them don't know where that is. Assuming that they were sufficiently geographically savvy to find their way home and check out this posting, perhaps this map will help.
View New Ottawa City Archives in a larger map
"Government sites, general reference sites, newspapers and sites like Wikipedia and Google were excluded."
This line from the listing of "50 helpful genealogical websites," selected by Kory Meyerink of ProGenealogists.com and published in the Mormon Times, explains why this seems like an odd mixture. They are certainly far from the top sites that I use, several I've never heard of, likely owing to their US orientation..
Here are the top 20.
Rank — Website — Coverage/content (past rankings)
1. Ancestry.com $ - Ancestry.com is the leading genealogical data site and includes articles, instruction and reference help. (1>1>1)
2. MyHeritage.com - Focuses on genealogy community building and networking. (3>3>3)
3. FindAGrave.com - This database of 57 million cemetery inscriptions adds about a million per month and often includes tombstone photos. (7>7>7)
4. FamilySearch.org - This major data website sponsored by the LDS Church includes the IGI, census records, the library’s catalog and a growing collection of historical records from throughout the world, along with instruction and reference help. (4>5>5)
5. Genealogy.com $ - A major data site, includes family trees, instruction and reference help. (5>2>4)
6. Geni.com – Free, with the world’s largest collaborative family. (31>8>18)
7. MyFamily.com - Hosts family websites for sharing photos, genealogy and more. (33>5>5)
8. FamilyLink.com $ - One of the most popular Facebook applications helps people identify and network with their family and search billions of records. (2>80>72)
9. RootsWeb.com – One of the largest, free, user-contributed data sites, includes 575 million names in family trees, also instruction and reference help. (6>4>2)
10. AncestorHunt.com – Free genealogy search engine linking to free data. (11>11>12)
11. AccessGenealogy.com – Millions of names in 250,000 pages, along with links to free data; especially useful for Native American information and some data. (13>14>13)
12. SearchForAncestors.com - Interactive directory of free genealogy websites and data. (12>19>21)
13. GenealogyBank.com $ - 1 billion exclusive records from 4500 newspapers and historical books. (19>31>41)
14. USGWArchives.net – A large collection of free data, arranged by state and searchable across the entire collection. (8>not ranked)
15. CyndisList.com – The best subject catalog of genealogy webpage links. (14>17>15)
16. Interment.net - Transcribed and indexed cemetery inscriptions. (16>16>16)
17. OneGreatFamily.com $ - A family tree sharing and collaboration website. (9>11>9)
18. GenealogyToday.com - Includes instruction, reference articles and some unique data collections. (10>12>11)
19. SurnameWeb.org – A collection of surname website links; online since 1996. (48>62>26)
20. FindMyPast.co.uk $ - (Back in) 650 million British records of many types (formerly FindMyPast.com). (57>46>50)
Note: $ - website requires a fee for services.
Read the rest here.
On 10 February FamilySearch added the following:
England Deaths and Burials, 1538-1991 15,078,612 records
England Marriages, 1538–1973 15,673,510 records
The general source information is "derived from digital copies of originals housed in various repositories throughout England." To find the specific source search the source film number in the Library catalog. Perhaps one day they'll make it a direct link.
Also added are:
England, Cheshire Non-conformist Records, 1671-1900 157,094
Wales Deaths and Burials, 1586-1885 1,296
I was impressed to learn that 3,000 people are attending the Rootstech conference in Salt Lake City this week. Although it's the conference's first year, it already has an attendance larger than any other US genealogy conference.
What this means, and the way times are changing, was crystallized for me in the following tweets:
The following is an announcement from the Toronto Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society.
The Toronto Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society will be co-hosting a full day Scottish Family History Workshop with the Canadiana Department of the North York Central Library on Saturday, 18 June. Designed for experienced family historians, the workshop will feature presentations by Chris Paton from Ayrshire, Scotland, as well as Toronto Branch members James F.S. Thomson and Marian Press.
Full program and registration details are now available on the Toronto Branch website at www.torontofamilyhistory.org. Register soon to take advantage of early-bird discounts and avoid disappointment - space at this workshop is limited.
Comment. For Toronto-based folks on a limited budget and whose research has a Scottish focus this looks like a better bet than the OGS conference in Hamilton
On my way to Library and Archives Canada for a meeting I found myself walking from the bus with Wayne W Walker, formerly Director of the Ottawa Stake Family History Centre who introduced me to family history research at the FHC many years ago. He told me he was working on a personal project concerning WW1 servicemen and servicewomen from his native Digby County in Nova Scotia.
in 1998 Wayne told one of the most intriguing family history research stories I have ever heard. It was printed in Anglo-Celtic Roots, BIFHSGO's quarterly chronicle, and is available as a Classic on the BIFHSGO website, under the title A Special Find, for your enjoyment.
As usual, Ancestry tells you there is updating, but not where.
In the discussion of this dataset Ancestry do mention that some of the images are in colour to improve legibility. Maybe that's what's new. That's not something Find My Past has done for 1841, although if memory serves they have to be given credit for raising the bar by being the first company to make colour images available.
The BBC ran an article on the 10 most unusual newspaper names and followed up with a list of 50 strangest newspaper names contributed by readers.
In the Ottawa area the champion in that race must be the Low down to Hull and back news. published since 1973 from Chelsea, Quebec and for which there is an archive collection at LAC.
A last minute reminder that the topic for this evening's meeting of the Comox Valley Family History Research Group is "Dating Old Photographs." The presentation is by Linda Hargreaves starting at 7:00 pm at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1901 20th St., Courtenay
Many of us are familiar with the National Institute for Genealogical Studies and it's managing director Louise St. Denis. I'm pleased to see the Institute taking a new direction, as announced in a press release referenced by Randy Seaver.
(Toronto, February 7, 2011) Louise St. Denis, Managing Director of the National Institute for Genealogical Studies, has announced that the Institute has acquired the website, GenealogyWise (www.genealogywise.com). The Genealogy Community Director of GenealogyWise, Gena Philibert Ortega, has also officially joined the Institute. She can be reached at (genwise@genealogicalstudies.com).
"I would say that GenealogyWise is a great fit with the National Institute's goals. GenealogyWise is a place to connect with new found cousins, share resources, and learn more about genealogy. As part of the National Institute, GenealogyWise members will benefit from the opportunities that the National Institute provides," said Gena.
GenealogyWise is the social network for genealogists. This is the place to network with other researchers, and make discoveries about your family history.
You can join or create surname, locality, or topic groups. The Group feature allows you to collaborate, share, and ask questions of other members.
You can also join the Chat Room for a quick question about research, a chat with fellow genealogists, or attend one of our educational presentations. As well, you can post a blog entry or a forum question from the GenealogyWise homepage. This is a great way to share your knowledge on a genealogy topic or to ask a question.
To date, there are over 23,000 members online.
A new feature will be added - the Live Meeting. GenealogyWise members will be able to access Live Meetings onsite, and this will open up more education opportunities to members that the Institute has to offer.
You can read the full release at Randy's blog.
I had an inking something like this was possible some months ago. As Randy points out GenealogyWise was formerly a companion site to WorldVitalRecords. That might be another site to watch as a possible acquisition.
In the UK February is Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Trans History Month. The most recent TNA podcast features Dr Louise Chambers speaking on "Fictional Obscenities; Lesbianism and Censorship in the Early 20th Century", a talk presented last autumn. She uses case studies and documentation from TNA to investigate the societal approach to what were originally termed invert sexual tendencies.
The talk mentions genealogy and while there is no reference to sources likely to contain information on individuals in your family tree the attitudes towards people now referred to as part of the LGBT community may help throw light on the lives of your ancestors involved.
Access the talk, and a caution on language, here.
I can't recall where or when I heard the quote that one learns despite the educational system rather than because of it. It's facile. We all have teachers to thank for our educational achievements, but a recent study reported in PLOS One, Added Value Measures in Education Show Genetic as Well as Environmental Influence, indicates a grain of truth. It gets back to the old nature vs nurture debate.
Here's the abstract from the article by Haworth et als.
Does achievement independent of ability or previous attainment provide a purer measure of the added value of school? In a study of 4000 pairs of 12-year-old twins in the UK, we measured achievement with year-long teacher assessments as well as tests. Raw achievement shows moderate heritability (about 50%) and modest shared environmental influences (25%). Unexpectedly, we show that for indices of the added value of school, genetic influences remain moderate (around 50%), and the shared (school) environment is less important (about 12%). The pervasiveness of genetic influence in how and how much children learn is compatible with an active view of learning in which children create their own educational experiences in part on the basis of their genetic propensities.Would this bear out in your family history? Do smart parents in your family tree who placed an emphasis on bringing out the innate abilities of a child raise them to succeed despite the educational environment - one room schoolhouse or costly private school? What about the children of less intelligent parents but raised in a community, like Scotland, that put an early emphasis on education?
I finished watching a PBS American Experience episode on former US President Ronald Reagan and coincidently stumbled on an article by John Grenham in the Irish Times of 31 January. He uses Reagan as an example of the hazards of drawing conclusions about connections too readily.
Take the Irish ancestry of Ronald Reagan. The earliest documented ancestor is Michael Regan, who married in England in 1852 and recorded his father as Thomas. The English 1851 census (very fortunately) gave Tipperary as his place of origin and his age as 21. So far, so good. The researchers who searched Tipperary parish registers did indeed find a Michael, son of Thomas Regan, baptised in Ballyporeen in 1830. But at least 20 of the 53 Catholic parishes of Tipperary have no records for the years around 1830. Both Michael and Thomas are unimaginably common forenames and there were at least 60 Regan households in the county at the time. So it is perfectly likely that more than one Michael, son of Thomas, was baptised in the relevant period.
