Sunday, March 27, 2011

Genealogy Happenings in the last Week

Hardly a week goes by when there isn't something good happening in my genealogy world.

On Tuesday, I participated in a chat session on the National Institute Genealogical Studies website.  This particular one was for those interested in the Social Networking for the Wise Genealogist which is a free course I'm taking in May.  Gena Philibert Ortega moderated the chat session that was attended by 44 people mostly in North America.  I say that because I don't know where everyone was from, but those that spoke up were from the US, Gena was in California, Sue de Groot was in Ontario and then there was me in Halifax.

In order to attend the session, I had to download the software for Live Meeting from the NIGS website which went very smoothly.  The session was in the middle of the day - luckily it coincided with my lunch break at work.  I had my headset with a microphone which was good because I was at work, but if you don't have either of those, you can listen using your computer speakers and you can type questions/answers on the chat board.

It was an interesting experience as attendees provided information about particular websites that would be considered Social Media.  Also, one attendee works for FamilySearch and I can see that being important later on.

If you want to check out the NIGS chat sessions which are open to everyone, you can see the schedule by going to the NIGS website , click on Information and then click on Live Meetings.

Then on Thursday, my friend Helen and I travelled to Truro to the Colchester Historical Society Museum and Archives to attend a lecture given by Paul W. Bennett entitled "The Little White Schoolhouse".  He talked about the beginnings of one-room schoolhouses in Nova Scotia, how a great deal of the people in the Province were opposed to their children being educated and how certain men persevered to have education standardized in the Province.  He has written a book entitled "Vanishing Schools, Threatened Communities: The Contested Schoolhouse in Maritime Canada" (ISBN9781552664018) which will be out in a month or so.

Both Helen and I have teacher ancestors and we both decided we need to find out more about their experiences as teachers and more about the schoolhouses they taught in.

We had a nice drive there and had fish and chips at Murphy's before the lecture.  I was tired at work the next day since I didn't get home until about 11:00 - past my bedtime!

Then on Saturday, we had the Genealogical Association of Nova Scotia monthly meeting/lecture.  Deborah Trask spoke about gravestones in Nova Scotia and showed us a PowerPoint of photos of examples of the types of stone and the carving she was talking about.  Very good talk.  There were about 27 people there which is a good number for our society.  We had a door prize draw and the president, Allan Marble, presented his suggestions for another of the Brick Wall queries we had received for our September lecture.  He has been selecting from those that they weren't able to work on for the September lecture.  This particular one was for the surname McDonald which is a very popular name in Nova Scotia.  We all enjoy hearing his suggestions as it helps us learn ways to do our own research.

Our next meeting is our Annual General Meeting and it will be held on May 14.  Our speakers will be from Antigonish and Kings Counties.

Today, I listed to a bit of the Friday night GeneaBloggers BlogTalkRadio program.  It's on from 11:00 to 1:00 Halifax time and I was simply too tire to stay up for it.  However, you can find the program  in the Archives and listen to it at your leisure.

Tonight, I hope to organize my notes from last week so I can focus on a couple of items to find for my Deal Family research.  I have until April 16 to pull something together.  So,

Until next time,

Happy Researching!

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Social Networking, Webinars & BlogTalk Radio

When I first started my genealogy research, I was hard-pressed to find anyone who didn't roll their eyes when I talked about it.

Now, I hardly have time to work or do my own research.  There's so much to do in the genealogy world!  Between, attending free webinars offered by the Southern California Genealogy Society, chatting on GenealogyWise or listening to GeneaBloggers Blogtalkradio shows, I barely have time to work or sleep.  O Happy Day! :)

Of course, I am also starting to work on my own genealogy.  Yesterday, I attended a meeting to learn more about the proper way to do source footnotes in a genealogy.  I learned a lot and it will make putting the genealogy together a little easier.  Then I did some research at Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management.  I have to say, trying to read Nova Scotia BMDs in church records that were recorded in German is no treat.  Especially, if you don't know German at all :)  I did find a few things, but it was long and arduous especially since I was sleep deprived after staying up late to listen to Geneabloggers most recent radio show.  However, I am now re-enthused about my own research and have vowed that I won't let it go as long as I have recently.  I need a regular fix to keep me interested.

Until next time, Happy Researching!

Saturday, March 5, 2011

New Genealogy Opportunities

I have attended a couple of free Webinars lately, the most recent this afternoon - Social Networking - New Horizons for Genealogists by Thomas MacIntee.  It was part of the Southern California Genealogy Society Jamboree Extension Series.  You can find more info and a list of upcoming webinars at http://www.scgsgenealogy.com/JamboreeExtensionSeries2011.htm  It's well worth the effort to check them out.  It's a new way of learning about genealogy from the experts and it's free!

There are other free webinars out there.  To learn about them, subscribe to a variety of genealogy newsletters or follow some genealogy blogs as they will talk about them.  Google "free genealogy webinars" and you will find a few links.  Most of the them use GoToWebinar technology so it's a good opportunity to try out the software.  A lot of genealogy societies will be using it soon - maybe even the one you belong to.

I'm really happy that I am able to take advantage of the technology available today.  It certainly makes researching genealogy more accessable from home and adds a certain amount of "fun factor" too.

Until next time, Happy Researching!