Ottawa Branch member Allan Lewis has a large web site for history and genealogy in the Ottawa area. It is located at www.bytown.net and consists of about 1,600 web pages (so far). The site has a dedicated Google search engine on every page, where visitors are able to search for surnames, geographic locations or subject matter. It also covers immigration from the U.K and Ireland as well as emigration from Ontario to the United States and Western Canada in the 1800’s. Visitors are able to contact others who fall within their circle of family research and, by e-mail to me, can post inquiries and interact with other researchers. This web site is free.
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Library and Archives Canada has been booked for Gene-O-Rama 2013 on 5-6 Apr 2013. If you would like to help organize and host this event, please let me know. Thanks.
On Saturday, November 26, 2011, Sandra Joyce will read from her book “The Street Arab – The Story of a British Home Child” from 7 – 9 pm at the Collected Works Bookstore and Coffee Bar at 1242 Wellington Street, Ottawa. The book was launched as part of the celebrations of the British Home Child Day on September 28 at Upper Canada Village.
Sandra Joyce was unaware until the death of her father in 2002, that he was a home child. She and her sister found a family history in Scotland as a result of the records they discovered through their research. After uncovering her father’s story, Joyce was left wondering “how many other home children had similar circumstances.” She wrote the historical fiction novel for “all those who suffered the silent stigmatism associated with home children.” Incorporating various events and circumstances uncovered in her research, Joyce has woven a story that could representative of any number of home children.
Any person interested in British Home Children should find this evening of interest as Sandra Joyce will discuss her own story and how her research led her to write this book.
We continue to seek volunteers to work on your Board or on other tasks for the Branch. The descriptions of the Board positions are listed at http://ogsottawa.on.ca/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/OB-Job-Descriptions-2010web.pdf. Most of these jobs will require 5-6 hours of work per month.
For those of you willing to do something less onerous, there are a number of other tasks:
1. Program Committee: We hold ten general meetings per year, which require a speaker. The committee is responsible to solicit suggestions for speakers and then arrange their attendance. Much of this can be done from a distance with other members filling in with the local requirements. The more volunteers for the committee, the less work for each
2. Library Volunteer Coordinator: We have about 24 volunteers who spend a few hours in the City Archives each month to help visitors to our library. The schedule has been established but there are often changes needed to meet personal needs. Most changes are handled between the volunteers. There are also a couple of empty slots on the schedule that are filled on an ad hoc basis by the volunteers. We need somebody who can keep track of the changes, make sure that the volunteers are reminded of the changes, nag the volunteers to fill the empty slots, advise Archives staff of the changes, etc. This can all be handled by e-mail. If there is a need to meet with staff, I or another local members will be able to do that.
3. TONI Coordinator. The Ontario Name Index is a project of the Society and each branch needs to have a Coordinator.
4. Assistant webmaster: Our webmaster has set up the website to allow Board members and other volunteers to amend the parts that pertain to them. However, not all the volunteers have the requisite computer skills and the webmaster does not have the time to do it all himself. If you are familiar with WordPress, or would like to learn, you could be brought up to speed and given the access to allow you to handle the changes needed. This includes such items as posting meeting details, updating the list of volunteers, etc.
5. Cemetery Committee: Although the winter weather limits the seasons for this work, our new Coordinator will need volunteers to transcribe and to help prepare the transcriptions for the publisher. This is not a priority task at this time but we can keep your name until needed.
6. TONI Indexers. The Ontario Name Index (TONI) shows where information about a particular name can be found. The project has barely started and we are looking for individuals: You will take information from a document (the source) and enter it into a spreadsheet, preferably Microsoft Excel.
7 Other projects. Do you have another idea for a project that will help genealogists? We will be willing to help you make it possible.
We are also looking into some other ideas that will encourage attendance at meetings. I still need to sort them out but you may have some ideas of your won. Even a simple task such as bringing the juice and cookies to the meetings would free me from one task. Let me know if you have any questions or any other ideas. Thanks very much
We have converted the library to the Dewey Decimal system. This should make it easier to use the catalogue and to browse the shelves.
Starting in September, Ottawa Branch will be holding its meetings at the new City of Ottawa Central Archives at 100 Tallwood Drive. The exception will be the annual Ryan Taylor memorial Lecture which will remain at Library and Archives Canada for the foreseeable future.
Tallwood Drive is just south of the Peter D. Clark Long-Term Care Home, just west of Woodroffe Avenue and not far from the Nepean Centrepointe Library. There is free parking to the south of the building, accessed from Tallwood Drive. Transitway routes 94 Woodroffe / Millennium, and 95 Barrhaven / Orleans stop at the building. Local bus routes 156, 172, 174, and 178 are also available.
Juice and cookies will be served at 7:00pm with the formal meeting beginning at 7:30pm.