Life After Family Tree Maker - What Do I Do?

Don't panic - there is time to consider alternatives!

Rick Roberts of Global Genealogy has posted an excellent article in his newsletter today.

If you're wondering what your choices are, go to this link.

Lisa Louise Cooke of Genealogy Gems also posted an article last month at this link.

Check Out Your Australian Relatives!

Ancestry is opening up their Australian records for free from January 22 to January 26 (Australian time).

Did you have a branch of your family that went to Australia? Check it out here.

FindMyPast Offers Free Access This Weekend

This weekend FindMyPast.co.uk is making billions of world records FREE to explore. From 7:00 am EST on Friday 22nd to 7:00 am EST on Monday 25th January 2016 dive into the newspaper archive, birth, marriage and death records, crime collections, and so much more.

Go to the website here.

Registration for the OGS Conference 2016 in Toronto is Now Open!

I suspect many in the OGS community have already heard the good news through e-mail promotion or social media that general registration for Conference 2016 is now open. But if you haven't...

http://www.ogs.on.ca/conference/registration/

You can register now to take advantage of the early-bird rate which ends on March 15th.

Also, don't forget to book your hotel rooms by following the link from the Conference Accomodations page (http://www.ogs.on.ca/conference/accommodation/). That way you earn the OGS group rate, and the Conference gets credited with generating the room nights (which in turn brings down the costs of our lecture rooms).

We look forward to seeing you at OGS Conference 2016!

Paul Jones

Chair, OGS Conference 2016

Durham Region Branch to form a DNA Special Interest Group

Listening to our members, we have identified a need to form a Special Interest Group focussed on Using DNA in Our Genealogical Research.

Our first [organizational] meeting will be held on Wed. Jan 20th at the Durham Branch office at the NavCan building on the south side of the Oshawa Airport at 7:30 p.m.

Here is the map for getting to the office. Remember to go north on Stevenson Rd. from Rossland Rd. (NOT Taunton Rd.).

Agenda

1. the best day to meet
2. what each of us wants to get out of learning about using DNA in genealogy
3. appointing a chairman
4. decide if we want to have a secretary to record our meetings
5. topics arising from the group

If you can't make the meeting, please e-mail Nancy Trimble, Chair of the Durham Region Branch with the best day of the month for you, so your wishes can take that into consideration when we set up our meetings.

Breaking Down Brick Walls

Come and join us at our first meeting of 2016!

On Tuesday, January 5th at the Oshawa Public Library Auditorium, Bagot Street just south of City Hall. Parking is free after 6 pm.

Searching for family history becomes frustrating if you can't locate an essential record, or the records may be from another country (in another language), or a person's maiden name may elude you. Our moderators (and the audience at large) will provide advice, relate personal anecdotes, and point attendees in the right direction to resolve such dilemmas.

This meeting will be streamed on YouTube at 7:30 p.m. (https://youtu.be/TF7fIAZUhWQ) Streaming of last month's meeting was successful, except for retention of the streamed file beyond the 4 hour replay limit. (This time, a back-up recording will be made.)