Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Psst...need a catalogue for your library?

Thanks to Marnie Oakes, who sent in a 'quick tip' to Ancestry's Weekly Journal & to DearMyrtle, who noticed it, I just discovered www.LibraryThing.com, a very cool website.

I have lots of books & I am an active BookCrosser, so some of my collection is listed on the World Wide Web already, but my genealogy collection is not. I can already see so many possibilities for LibraryThing in genealogy.

It's quick & easy to register & to enter books, & so easy to edit & find them in your 'catalog' once they are in there & you can keep your information private, if you like. Right now, I can list up to 200 books there for free; it's $10. U.S. for a year or $25 U.S. for a lifetime, after that. Sounds like a bargain, really. This idea & website is put together by Tim Spalding, a web designer from Maine, U.S.A. Thanks, Tim!

You can 'tag' each book with a descriptive word or several, same as often is done now for photographs on the web. I've just started---these are the tags showing for me:
conservation (1), edwardian history (1), family u.k. (1), fashion history (1), genealogy (9), genealogy organization (1), genealogy u.s. (1), genealogy websites (1), gps (1), heirlooms (1), history u.k. (1), history u.s. (1), journal (1), photographs (3), photography u.k. (1), photography u.s. (1), preservation (1), victorian history (1), writing (2)

After you enter 10 books, the site 'suggests' books that other people with your same books or tags have on their lists. Very interesting.....as we used to say. Have a look!

LibraryThing: www.librarything.com

Dear Myrtle: www.dearMyrtle.com

Ancestry Weekly Journal, 10th April, 2006: http://blogs.ancestry.com/circle/?cat=9

BookCrossing: www.bookcrossing.com

P. S. April 26th....been playing with my library catalogue all night!
Lots of books are off the real shelves & onto my virtual ones.
I should have mentioned that LibraryThing has links to worldwide libraries, including Canadian ones! Grand!
Thanks again, Tim

Thursday, April 06, 2006

Joining a Genealogical Society-How to Find Relatives & Make Friends

Well, this weekend, I am off on a short road trip to the Washington State Genealogical Society Conference in Olympia, Washington, U. S. A.

Joining a local genealogical society & attending conferences & workshops as often as possible are two of my first recommendations to any budding genealogist.

You will find friends in any genealogical group, (maybe even cousins!) and you will always learn something---usually from people with experiences in the records you need or in researching the places your ancestors came from, but sometimes you will learn new skills & techniques, or take a fresh look at old ideas--- the importance of patience, curiosity and dogged determination, for example---from people whose expertise seems unrelated to your own family research.

Check on the World Wide Web to see what genealogical or family history societies are in your area. If there's not one, perhaps your local historical or heritage society has a genealogical committee. If not, look at starting your own group. Genealogical frustrations shared are frustrations halved, and those wonderful feelings accompanying a genealogical 'ah ha!' are more than doubled when shared.

If you're in Canada, check out these websites to look for a genealogical group near you:

British Columbia Genealogical Society : www.bcgs.ca

NWT Genealogical Society: www.ssimicro.com/nonprofit/nwtgs
** this website is currently unavailable. If someone has a new web address for the society, please let me know. Thank you!

Alberta Genealogical Society : http://abgensoc.ca

Alberta Family Histories Society : http://www.afhs.ab.ca

Saskatchewan Genealogical Society : http://www.saskgenealogy.com

Manitoba Genealogical Society : http://www.mts.net/~mgsi

Ontario Genealogical Society : http://www.ogs.on.ca

Quebec Family History Society: http://www.cam.org/~qfhs/index.html

Fédération québécoise des Sociétés de généalogie: http://www.federationgenealogie.qc.ca

Genealogical Society of Nova Scotia: http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Recreation/GANS

New Brunswick Genealogical Society: http://www.nbgs.ca

The Prince Edward Island Genealogical Society: http://www.peigs.ca

Family History Society of Newfoundland & Labrador : http://www.fhsnl.ca

Sunday, April 02, 2006

Canada---Moving Here, Staying Here

Moving Here, Staying Here, Library & Archives Canada's new website is up. Lots of great information already & much, much more is promised for the future.

Already this will serve as a good introduction to the documents associated with immigration available at Library & Archives Canada.

Some new databases with digitized images are available:

Upper Canada and Canada West Naturalization Records (1828-1850)
Montreal Emigrant Society Passage Book (1832)
Port of New Westminster Register of Chinese Immigration (1887-1908)

Moving Here, Staying Here Website: http://www.collectionscanada.ca/immigrants
French & English

Don't forget that the Nanaimo Family History Society is indexing passenger lists from the ports of Halifax & Quebec (including Montreal) from 1900 to 1921 & has made the work done already available on-line: http://members.shaw.ca/nanaimo.fhs/