Tuesday, September 20, 2011

BIFHSGO 2011 Conference – Day 1

A sunny, yet cool day on Friday Sept the 16th was the first day of the annual BIFHSGO Conference.

Although, I didn't attend any sessions on Friday, I did attend the Don Whiteside Memorial lecture in the evening.

Before the lecture began, we heard from Sylvie Tremblay of the Library and Archives Canada who gave us the latest news that the Home Children database http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/genealogy/022-908.009-e.html is one of the the most visited online. They will be developing more partnerships in the future as they go along in order to bring more of the records online.

The Don Whiteside Memorial Lecturer was Phil Jenkins, a local writer, musician who was born in England but now lives in the Ottawa area. His speech was entitled “Thanks for the Memories” in which he asked the central question “Do we carry the stories of our ancestors within us?”

He went on to compare and contrast Ancestral Memory (which is what we have inherited and use the first 40 years of our life) as opposed to Declarative Memory (which covers the things we have have done in the later years of our life).

If you want to hear more about the BIFHSGO Conference, visit John D. Reid's blog "Anglo-Celtic Connections" at http://anglo-celtic-connections.blogspot.com, and Elizabeth Kipp's blog entitled "English Research from Canada" at http://kippeeb.blogspot.com.

A word praise must be given to the people who contributed to the Conference Program Booklet.

It was well put together, very informative, and answered many questions because it told you who the speaking, the marketplace vendors, and where the research room was located... all held together by great advertising.