OGS Members - Welcome to our First Webinar of 2015

From the Ontario Genealogical Society's e-Weekly Update: In Search of Your Scottish Ancestors Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2015 @ 7:00 p.m. ET Speaker: Christine Woodcock: https://www.genealogytoursofscotland.ca  While many people want to know more about their Scottish heritage, they don't know where to begin. Fortunately, researching our Scottish ancestors is a fairly easy task. Knowing where to look is usually where we get tied up. This talk will get you started in researching your Scottish ancestry as well as how to make the most of your research. Christine Woodcock was born in Scotland and raised in Canada. She is a genealogy educator with a particular expertise in Scottish records. She is also a lecturer, writer and blogger with a focus on Genealogy, Using Online Resources, Connecting through Social Media, and, of course, Scottish ancestry. She runs Scottish research trips to the Scottish Archives in Edinburgh to help genealogists discover their Scottish heritage. OGS webinars are free to OGS members. Up to 100 people can access this webinar at one time. The room will open 10 minutes before the session is scheduled to start. It is no longer necessary to pre-register for webinars but if you would like a personal reminder, please contact Brenda at provoffice@ogs.on.ca. The Webinar is accessed through the Members Only area of the OGS website by using the following method: 1. Go to www.ogs.on.ca and Log In 2. Click on Members Only on the extreme right side of the green menu bar that stretches across the top of the home page. 3. Choose Webinars, then Upcoming Webinars. If you have never connected to a webinar with Adobe Connect, there are complete instructions at the bottom of this page. It is a good idea to do this a couple of days ahead of time!

December Meeting - Come Early for the Special Webinar!!

Come to the Durham Region Branch meeting on Tues, Dec 2 at 7 pm in the Basement Auditorium at the Oshawa Public Library, Bagot St, Oshawa (just south of the City Hall). We will be joining the OGS webinar (see description below). NOTE: This is ½ hour earlier than usual. After the webinar, we will be having a "Show & Tell / Bring & Brag" session, followed by "pot-luck" Christmas goodies. Coffee, tea and apple cider will be provided. Everyone is welcome! The Write Stuff: Using Nonfiction Writing Techniques to Write a Better Family History

Tuesday December 2, 2014 @ 7:00 pm Speaker: Lisa Alzo www.lisaalzo.com  As genealogists we often focus on facts and uncover so much that our research produces nothing but lists. But do you really know what happened between the dashes of your ancestors’ lives? This presentation will discuss how to using nonfiction writing techniques to produce a “can’t put down” family history that will keep the pages turning for generations. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

DNA holiday sale time!

DNA testing has become a hot topic in the genealogy world lately. Are you ready to take the plunge??


Well, Judy Russell, the Legal Genealogist, just let the news out 2 days ago on her blog: Family Tree DNA has announced a sale on all their DNA tests for the entire month of December.

Maybe you know a genealogist who wants a really neat Christmas present. Or maybe it's the time to treat yourself. Now's definitely the time to order!

See Judy's blog post at:
http://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog/2014/11/25/its-beginning-to-look-a-lot-like/

The British Newspaper Archive reaches 9 million pages

There are now 9 million historical newspaper pages to explore at The British Newspaper Archive (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk) after the website reached a major milestone this week. 

Product Director Ian Tester commented, ‘We’re thrilled to have reached 9 million pages and have already started chasing the next big milestone. Customers tell us that they’re making amazing discoveries every day, whether they’re researching their family history, the First World War or the history of their local area. Our focus on local titles means that you can find stories from all around the UK and with the recent addition of more Irish titles, we’re becoming a more useful resource all the time’.

The British Newspaper Archive has grown massively since it was launched in November 2011. 282 British and Irish newspaper titles are now online, covering 1710-1954.

45 newspaper titles added so far this year

Thousands of pages are added every week, so coverage will just keep getting better. More than 2 million pages and 45 new titles have been added to The British Newspaper Archive so far this year, including the Daily Mirror, Daily Record, Dublin Monitor, Lancashire Evening Post, London Evening Standard and Sports Argus.

Register for free at www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/account/register to receive monthly updates about what’s being added to the website.

Vote for the newspapers you’d like to see online

Is there something you’d like The British Newspaper Archive to digitise? You can now suggest titles and vote for other people’s suggestions on the website’s feedback forum:http://help-and-advice.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/forums/243704-newspapers-we-should-add-next

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The British Newspaper Archive is a partnership project between the British Library and Findmypast. From November 2011 to 2021, up to 40 million pages from historical newspapers across the UK and Ireland (spanning the period 1700 to 1954) will be uploaded to www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk.

The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. It provides world class information services to the academic, business, research and scientific communities and offers unparalleled access to the world’s largest and most comprehensive research collection.

Index to Scottish Valuation Rolls Free on ScotlandsPeople

From ScotlandsPeople:

We're delighted to announce the Release of Valuation Rolls 1875! You can search the index for free until 31st December 2014.

see the link here

Vital & Court Records for USA

I just received notice about a website that helps people researching their family history/genealogy in the United States. The site is www.county-clerks.com and was recently updated to include the Official contact details for every single county clerk in the USA.

If you were not aware, researchers trying to learn about their family history in the USA need to contact a county clerk if they are in search of any court records as well as marriage, divorce, birth and death records (vital records). County-Clerks.com makes it easier for people to contact the county official they need to find for this research.

There are no other sites like it (vitalrec.com for instance hasn't been updated in years) and it serves as a valuable resource for people looking for archived records. This has the potential to be a valuable resource for US researchers.

Mocavo - Free Access to Gold Membership for the Weekend

What better way to top off Mocavo's Back to School Week than with an Open Access to Universal Search weekend? Usually you need to be a Mocavo Gold member to search all of our databases at once, but for this weekend only, you can search more than420,000 databases to your heart's content. Kick start your research today and see who you will discover.
 

Start Searching Now