Podcasts at BIFHSGO

As I get in the car this morning to go to the British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa (BIFHSGO) monthly meeting at 9:00 am at the Library and Archives Canada, I am reminded of the number of podcasts that are now online on their website.

For example, there is a two-part podcast with Gary Schroder, president of the Quebec Family History Society. He talks about the Cadastral Numbering System, and how they hold the key to the land records in Quebec. Gary calls it ‘the hidden history of Quebec”.

The website is at www.qfhs.ca

There are also interviews with four founding members of BIFHSGO - Fern Small, Gary Bagley, Alan Rayburn, and Bob Campbell.

There are interviews with Malcolm Moody, Canadian Archive CD Books from Ottawa www.archivecdbooks.ca/acdbcanada.html, Ed Zapletal, Moorshead Magazines www.moorshead.com, and Lesley Anderson from Ancestry.ca and Ottawa, who talks about her experiences at "Who Do You Think You Are?". The interview was recorded live in London with Lesley.

There are over 30 interviews to listen to, all of them enlightening. I think BIFHSGO is the only society in Canada which has adopted this method of doing interviews at such a prolific pace.

A big “Thank You” goes out to John D. Reid (who tells us in an interview why he blogs) http://anglo-celtic-connections.blogspot.com, Brian Glenn, and Brooke Broadbent for conducting the interviews.

So have fun listening to the podcats.

I have a feeling that BIFHSGO will be doing a lot more podcasts in the future. Another example of how social media is changing the genealogy world!

The BIFHSGO webite is online at http://bifhsgo.ca/cpage.php?pt=59

My List of Books for the Holidays

These are five books Canadian books that I have found particularly helpful to me during the past year, and which I have used in doing my own genealogy. I would suggest that you may find them helpful, too -

British Home Children: Their Stories. Compiled by the British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa (ISBN 978-1-926797-47-2). A compilation of personal essays in which 36 children tell their life stories of how they came to Canada, and the life they lived here between 1869 and 1948.

The book is available from Global Genealogy at http://globalgenealogy.com/countries/canada/home-children/resources/101189.htm

Tracing Your Irish Roots is published by Moorshead Magazines (ISBN 978-0-9781592-6-9). A great collection of fifteen articles previously printed by the publisher since 2005.

It is available through Moorshead Magazines at http://familychronicle.com/Best_of_Irish.htm

And as part of a series, her sister publication, Tracing Your English and Scottish Ancestors also has fifteen articles in it about English and Scottish genealogy.

It is available from http://familychronicle.com/best_of_engscot_contents.htm

One of the best books published in 2010—and which I use as my "go to" book on immigration, citizenship, and naturalization—is Dave Obee's book, Destination Canada: A Genealogical Guide to Immigration Records. (ISBN: 978-0-9735143-3-9)

For any questions that I am asked about immigration, I always include Obee's book in my searching for the answer because I want to make sure that I am aware of all of the facts surrounding immigration to Canada.

To read the rest of the review, go to http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2011/04/destination-canada.html.

The book is available from http://globalgenealogy.com/countries/canada/general/resources/319005.htm

Glenn Wright's Canadians at War 1914-1919, A Research Guide to World War One Service Records (ISBN13: 978-1-926797-45-5). This is a very detailed book on the resources available to a researcher on the Canadians who fought in the First World War.

A military archivist at Library and Archives Canada (LAC) before his retirement a number of year ago, he has left no stone unturned in his description of the resources available to the researcher. You can read the full review in Families, the journal of the Ontario Genealogical Society (a membership in the organization is required), or from Global Genealogy's listing at http://globalgenealogy.com/countries/canada/military/resources/101160.htm