Today and tomorrow I'm at Library and Archives Canada in Ottawa attending the 'Genealogy and Local History for All: Research services for multicultural communities' conference organized by the Genealogy and Local History (GENLOC) and the Reference and Information Services (RISS) sections of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) in co-operation with Library and Archives Canada - a conference intended for "librarians, archivists and those who provide library services to the genealogy and local history public." This could include people from many family history and genealogy organizations, as well as historical societies and even museums.
There are few attendees who aren't 'real' librarians - a bit disappointing - but there are several very well known Canadians, including Dave Obee from British Columbia, the genealogy writer and speaker, who'll be discussing Eastern European genealogy tomorrow. He is also the writer behind the Victoria Times Colonist's 150th Anniversary book "Making the News: A Times Colonist Look at 150 Years of History" and the history articles featured in the paper and on the website recently.
Elizabeth LaPointe, writer and editor, is at the conference too. She is now the editor of the Ontario Genealogical Society's e-NewsLeaf and the International Director At Large for the International Society of Family History Writers and Editors (ISFHWE}.
John Reid, another Canadian genealogy blogger, is here too. He's from the British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa and has already reported on the opening sessions at this conference.
From the library community, there is Janet Tompkins from the Vancouver Public Library who spoke today on Chinese Canadian genealogy and demonstrated the new Chinese-Canadian history wiki. Also at the conference is Laurie Cooke from the Genealogy section of the Cloverdale Branch of the Surrey Public Library - certainly the best library in the west for Canadian genealogy.
Today there was much news of interesting things to come - more about some of that later - but watch for an 1881 Canadian census index with census page images on Library and Archives Canada's website....any minute... This project is in co-operation with FamilySearch which is represented at the conference and yes, I understand the index is the same one available already at Familysearch.org. (Is the PRDH, at the Université de Montréal, still indexing the 1881 and 1851/2 Canadian censuses?)
Also new yesterday and of particular interest to British Columbians was the announcement by Library and Archives Canada of a new strategic partnership between Jonathan J. Kalmakoff, developer of Doukhobor.org - currently the website for reseearching Doukhobor roots. Kalmakoff and LAC will identify materials in the LAC collections which relate to Doukhobor genealogy and history and develop a thematic free guide to these, as well as a specialized LAC web page.
LINKS
Cloverdale Branch, Surrey Public Library: http://www.spl.surrey.bc.ca/Programs+and+Services/Genealogy/default.htm
Doukhobor Genealogy, Jonathan J. Kalmakoff: http://www.doukhobor.org
GenealogyCanada, Elizabeth LaPointe's blog: http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com
150 Years, Making the News, Times Colonist: http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/features/150/index.html
CanGenealogy, Dave Obee's selection of the very best Canadian links: http://www.cangenealogy.com
Anglo-Celtic Connections, John D. Reid: >http://www.anglo-celtic-connections.blogspot.com
Chinese-Canadian Genealogy, Vancouver Public Library: http://www.vpl.ca/ccg/index.html
Chinese-Canadians: Profiles from a Community, a wiki project of Vancouver Public Library and Library and Archives Canada:
http://ccgwiki.vpl.ca
2 comments:
Thank you for your report on this conference. I'm interested in the news for two reasons. One, I am always looking for helpful resources (online or off) to help trace the many Canadian lines of myself and my husband. The second reason is the links you provided for Chinese Canadians. One of my students in one of my recent Online Genealogy classes has Chinese Canadian ancestry. Her father immigrated from China to Canada, and that is her brick wall! I think these links may be useful to her.
It's good to hear about these presentations, Diane. I hope you will tell us more about them.
Brenda
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