Saturday, January 12, 2013

The Family History Writing Challenge

I just read this on Lynn Palermo's Canadian blog The Armchair Genealogists, and I thought I would pass it along to my readers –

“The Family History Writing Challenge returns for the third year of motivating family historians dedicating daily time for writing their family history stories.

Family historians wishing to take up the torch of writing their stories are encouraged to put down the microfilm and pick up the pen for the month of February, and start writing their family history stories.

Upon signing up for The Family History Writing Challenge, participating members are invited to declare a goal in the form of a word count and to commit to completing that word count during the 28 days in February. In exchange for the commitment, Lynn Palermo, Canadian blooger at The Armchair Genealogist will host of the month long challenge will send out daily newsletters that include motivational messages, writing lessons, along with instructional guest posts by leading genealogists, published authors and editors.

Lynn Palermo states, “by committing to a daily word count my hope is for all participants to make substantial headway in their family history writing goals and to create long lasting writing habits that will carry them forward throughout 2013.”

Lynn encourages members to sign up early to take advantage of the January newsletters that will help participants organize themselves to begin writing on February 1st. A forum for the event is available to participants who want to exchange ideas, struggles and successes in a more intimate atmosphere.

Special guest authors include certified genealogist, author and writing instructor Sharon DeBartolo Carmack from www.NonfictionHelp.com and author, speaker, genealogist and writing instructor Lisa Alzo from The Accidental Genealogist. Guest posts also include writer, educator, historian Biff Barnes Editor at Stories to Tell Books, author and writing coach Tami Koenig from Your Story Coach and Mariann S. Regan, author of the family memoir Into The Briar Patch blog. Lynn Palermo suggests participants should watch for future developments in coming weeks, as this list was not complete at press time.

Family historians who wish to participate in the challenge can sign up or learn more about the challenge at The Family History Writing Challenge website. The event will run from February 1st-February 28th”.

You can contact Lynn at lynn@thearmchairgenealogist.com, or go to her blog The Armchair Genealogist at www.thearmchairgenealogist.com to sign up for The Family History Writing Challenge.

Friday, January 11, 2013

Is Your Conference Listed on Conference Keepers?

Jen Baldwin of the website Ancestral Journeys of Colorado has a website that is offering to list your conference (for FREE).

I checked the International Conference site to see if there were any Canadian Conference, and there are conferences there for British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, and Manitoba.

To have your Conference listed, you can connect Jen by filling out a contact page at http://conferencekeeper.weebly.com/contact-us.html

Genealogical Classes at Tantramar Seniors’ College

This year, the college is offering 4 courses in this winter term, some of them for the first time.

Long Distance Genealogy Research – a Cooperative Workshop Approach - 9:30-11:30 am Thursdays with Barb Jardine in the Lafford Classroom, Sackville. First class: January 31st (4 weeks). Maximum: 15 (min. 10).

New Brunswick Irish History & Genealogy – 10:00-11:30 am Fridays with Linda Evans in Thomas Williams House, 103 Park Street, Moncton. First class: January 25th (2 weeks). Maximum: 10 (min. 4).

Now I Have Hundreds of Digital Photos – How do I Organize, Improve and Share Them? – 10:00-12:00 pm Wednesdays with Graham Hobster in NBCC Room A1133, Moncton. First class: January 30th (3 weeks). Maximum: 15 (min. 4).

Social Media Tools 101: Skype, Facebook and Google – 10:00 to 12:00 pm Thursday, February 28th with Brian Cormier & Dave Gallant in the Shediac Multipurpose Centre (one class only). Maximum: 12 (min. 6).

Information about registration on Monday, Jan. 14 from 4 to 5:15 p.m., please go to http://tantramarseniorscollege.ca

Thursday, January 10, 2013

NEWS UPDATE: Webinar on Indexing for the OGS TONI Project


Just read this notice of a webinar to be held for TONI indexers  -

“A webinar on Indexing for the OGS TONI project is being held for Ottawa Branch volunteers but we welcome all other interested members to join us. This session will include a short description of the project and then a demonstration on how to index a document in order to add it to The Ontario Name Index (TONI).

The webinar is scheduled for Tuesday 22 Jan 2013 at 7:30pm and will be hosted in the Ottawa Branch Live Meeting Room.

Please do so in plenty of time to join before the webinar is scheduled to start.

Please direct any queries to: toni@ogs.on.ca

Haldimand County Branch OGS Meeting

On March 5, 2013 at 1:30 p. m. there will be a meeting of the Haldimand County Branch OGS at the Haldimand County Museum & Archives, 8 Echo Street, Cayuga, Ontario.

The title of the talk will be "Open House Dead Ends", and the speakers will be members of the branch who will help in any way for those looking up information both from the branch library & museum archives.

Please bring any information that you would like help with in tracing family members in Haldimand County. Sometimes we had dead ends, brick walls & find we are at a lost of how to continue doing research for these people & places.

Go to http://www.ogs.on.ca/haldimand to get more information

Obituary on Joan Miller’s Blog


There is a note from Kevin Miller, in honour of his mother Joan Miller, whom we noted, had passed away last week.

The post contains her obituary, and he says that he will “ continue to manage and maintain this blog for as long as I can”, which is good news to fellow genealogists.

The blog is Luxegen Genealogy and Family History, and is at http://www.luxegen.ca

Land of the Morning Calm: Canadians in Korea 1950 – 1953


The Honourable Steven Blaney, Minister of Veterans Affairs has declared the Year 2013 as the year in which Canadians honour the 26,000 Canadians who served in the Korean War, with more than 1,550 casualties, including 561 who dead.

The Veterans Affairs site, called the The Land of the Morning Calm – Canadians in Korea 1950-1953 says that it “presents Korean War history and archival footage, interviews with Canadian Veterans of the Korean War and a comprehensive history calendar using an interactive format in either HTML or Adobe Flash formats.

Presented in broadcast style, complete with news anchor and video footage, this feature delivers a multimedia-rich experience for Canadians of all ages, especially youth, to better know and be thankful for the sacrifices of our Canadian men and women in uniform”.

Go to www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/collections/korea