Tuesday, February 22, 2005

Genealogy Reading- 22 February, 2005

This week, I'm reading these books:

"What's In A Canadian Name? The Origins And Meanings of Canadian Surnames", by Bill Casselman, (Toronto: McArthur & Company, 2000
and
"Chasing The Chinook: On The Trail Of Canadian Words and Culture", by Wayne Grady, (Toronto, Viking, part of Penguin Group, 1998)

Grady's book, so far, is a good read with lots of interesting asides about Canada &, although Casselman's book includes a lot of information about surnames that must be available elsewhere, he does it with a Canadian 'Who's Who' twist.
The scientist & astronaut Roberta Lynn Bondar's surname, for instance, he says is a Slavic word for a cooper---a barrel, cask or tub maker. It seems much easier to remember the meanings, done this way.

Saturday, February 19, 2005

Jane's Your Aunt? What's With This Title?

I've been using 'Jane's your aunt', for years, as in
"Press alt, control, delete & Jane's your aunt, (& Bob's your uncle),
that frozen programme's shutting down!"

As a girl, I really thought that 'Bob's your uncle' was western Canadian slang, but apparently not. It's been heard in England, & other Commonwealth countries, including Canada, since at least 1937, according to Michael Quinion, who is my favourite word expert.

Anyway, I like to feminize, or womanize, my expressions (these two words need new definitions, too!), so I started using 'Jane's your aunt'. I see on the web that a few other people use it too.

Till recently, the Toronto, (Ontario, Canada) Public Library had a great genealogy search engine called "Bob's Your Uncle, eh". That's been discontinued, although the library still has a good genealogy section in its Virtual Reference Library.

Since "Bob's Your Uncle, eh!" was so well known in Canadian genealogy, I thought 'Jane's Your Aunt' an almost perfect title for my blog about Canadian genealogy & women's history. (Could be Jeanne, in French.)

Just for the record, I was born & brought up in British Columbia, and don't think I ever heard of that 'eh' before the Bob & Doug McKenzie characters of SCTV's "Great White North" spread it all across our country in the 1970's. Now it seems a point of Canadian honour to add it in somewhere, once a day at least.





Michael Quinion's World Wide Words is at http://www.worldwidewords.org/index.htm
The Toronto Public Library's Virtual Reference Library is at http://www.virtualreferencelibrary.ca/

Friday, February 18, 2005

Genealogy Reading This Week

This week, I'm reading

Christian Names In Local and Family History, by George Redmonds (Toronto, Canada : The Dundurn Group, 2004)

Unlocking The Secrets In Old Photographs, by Karne Frisch-Ripley (Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.A. : 1991)

Return To The House Of Usher, by Robert Poe (New York, U.S.A. : Tor, 1997)
This is a modern gothic thriller/mystery with a genealogical twist.

Wednesday, February 16, 2005

Getting Organized with Dear Myrtle: Your Friend in Genealogy

I always find something of interest in Dear Myrtle's genealogical e-columns, or at her website, http://www.dearmyrtle.com/

This year, I'm determined to get organized, to root out & sort out those really old notebooks and all the photographs & bits & pieces I've inherited (& yes, even my loose pages, photocopies & notes). I'm hoping to reinforce my good habits & learn some new ones. At least two days a week, I'm taking a few minutes, usually 15, [Thank you, Flylady] to sort something genealogical.

Now, I had this idea last year, too, at least for the photographs, & I remember looking at Dear Myrtle's monthly organizational checklists. Went to look at them again, but can't find them now on her newly designed website. Lots of other good stuff there, but not those, just a couple of sad, 'dead' links. Pretty please, Myrtle, post those checklists again. I know they're a few years old & maybe you want to update them, but, please, leave us the old ones in the meantime? We genealogy people will always need organizational ideas & your checklists are great!

I did a search on the WayBack Machine & found all DearMyrtle's monthly organization checklists there. I'm going to print & keep them.

To find Dear Myrtle's monthly organization checklists, go to the Internet Archive website at
http://www.archive.org/
You will see a search box titled "WayBackMachine",
Enter the URL(website address) you want, in this case: http://www.dearmyrtle.com
Press the "Take Me Back" button,
You will see search results from Jan 1996 to Feb 2005
Click on this date: Feb 08, 2004,
and the WayBackMachine will show you DearMyrtle's website as it was in 2004.

To find the monthly checklists:
When you see the DearMyrtle logo, click on "Read",
Then scroll way down to the aqua coloured "Finally Get Organized" Monthly Checklist section. You will need to scroll about half way down the page; the top menu doesn't work. The page links work though, so just click the month you want.

Happy genealogical organizing!

Wondering about Flylady? Here's her website address. She's into flyfishing, not genealogy, but her down to earth ideas about cleaning & organizing are applicable to almost anything.
www.flylady.com

Thursday, February 10, 2005

Thinking about your own website?

For anyone who was in my presentation yesterday "Thinking about your own website?", here is the corrected reference for one of the books I recommended (especially if you want to learn some HTML):

Creating a web site can be fun & easy, by Marian Press, Heritage Productions, (Book #13), Toronto, Canada, Second Edition, 2002-2003

The book's library call #s are LC TK5105.888 P74 2003 and Dewey 005.7/2 22
ISBN: 1-894018-39-7

This book is available for sale through the British Columbia Genealogical Society's Boutique
or through the National Institute for Genealogical Studies Bookstore:
http://www.genealogicalstudies.com/


Tuesday, February 08, 2005

Genealogy Websites-TribalPages.com

TribalPages does have a facility to send "invitations" to all one's friends & relatives to view your family history website. Just found it & will be sending some out tonight.
M. Diane Rogers

Monday, February 07, 2005

Genealogy Websites-TribalPages.com

Since I'm working up a presentation about developing genealogical websites,
I thought I'd give a couple of the 'free' commercial genealogy sites a go. (Yes, that's what jogged me to start this Blog, too.)

Just set up my website at TribalPages, the

"SCOTT family: Muiravonside, Dalmeny, Tushielaw, Galashiels, Grangemouth, in Scotland"

http://www.tribalpages.com/tribes/mdianerogers

TribalPages seems a very well organized & easy facility to use. It's been on-line since July 2000 & appears to have lots of happy customers. (Pity about the spelling mistakes though, & the automatic identification of me as a webmaster.)
You can download a GEDCOM if you want, but I've chosen to focus on my SCOTT family, so I'm just adding all these individuals in one by one & seeing how the process works.
I've added 10 pictures so far, & that's using up 4% of my free 10MBs...so it won't be long before I have to think about the upgrading options.
Still for someone wanting to set up a basic website to store & display their family tree, comments & some pictures, this looks like a good deal, even if you did choose to upgrade to either of the paid options.
So far, the only thing I don't see there is a quick link to send out the webpage URL to all my friends & relatives, like Yahoo has with their photo albums. Maybe TribalPages left this out as it might create a SPAM problem?
Better remember to add a link to my blog on my new website!
Done!
M. Diane Rogers

Thursday, February 03, 2005

101st Canadian Heroine-2005 Contest

Who Is Your Canadian Heroine?

Dundurn Press, celebrating the publication of Merna Forster's book, 100 Canadian Heroines, is sponsoring this contest for anyone 12-16 years of age & living in Canada. The heroine must not be among Forster's first '100 Heroines'. A brief biography of the heroine (2-3 pages) is required, and the winner's entry will be published in Forster's next book of Canadian heroines.
April 30th, 2005 is the contest deadline.
See Dundurn Press's website for details: http://www.dundurn.com/contests.html

To see which Canadian women are among the first one hundred, be sure to read 100 Canadian Heroines & have a look at
www.heroines.ca

This is Merna Forster's own website, a great resource. Check out her February feature for Black History Month in Canada in "This month in herstory," and don't miss her contest page.
M. Diane Rogers