Author name: Ruth Blair

Ruth’s Recommendations

Here are my favourite blog posts from this past week.

Library and Archives Canada Blog has a post announcing that “Lester Bowles Pearson Images Now on Flickr.” I remember Lester B. Pearson as Prime Minister. He won a Nobel Peace Prize for his suggestion to the United Nations about a peacekeeping force to help prevent issues during the withdrawal of British, French and Egyptian forces from the Suez Canal. Pearson was Prime Minister during Canada’s Centennial celebrations and Expo ’67 in Montreal.

Randy Seaver of the Genea-Musings blog wrote an “eBook Review – My Family History Toolbox, by Paul Larson.” This sounds like an interesting addition to the genealogist’s library.

Fiona Fitzsimons, of Eneclann, continues with her informative expert series on the findmypast.ie blog with a post called “Griffith’s Valuation, the gateway to Irish research.”

The National Archives Blog has a post on the subject of biodiversity in the area surrounding The National Archives called “Swanning around…” I love these posts because it shows that the archives is not just an edifice where records are preserved, they preserve the area surrounding their building as well.

Cassmob of the Family history across the seas blog has a post called “Insights into Australia: a book list.” Here she provides a list of reading materials to help you understand your ancestor’s experiences living in Australia.

What were your favourite blog posts this past week?

Let me know in the comments below.

Other bloggers that write their own lists are:

Genea-Musings – Best of the Genea-Blogs

British & Irish Genealogy

©2012 – Blair Archival Research All Rights Reserved

BIFHSGO and my visit to Ottawa

Last weekend I had the pleasure of speaking at the British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa monthly meeting. The topic of my presentation was “A Brick Wall Chisel: The Cluster Research Project.”

The presentation looked at how using a cluster research project can help you break through some of the brick walls you may encounter during your research. This is a technique I have successfully used many times for clients and in my own research.

I arrived in Ottawa a few days early to enjoy the city and spent some time researching in Library and Archives Canada. I went to the National Gallery of Canada and wandered around ByWard Market.

I came across a very interesting sign outside a pub.

Parliament may not have been sitting but the nice weather brought out the crowds and the patios were doing very good business.

If you get the chance to visit Ottawa and attend a BIFHSGO event I would recommend it. The people of BIFHSGO are terrific hosts.

©2012 – Blair Archival Research All Rights Reserved

Ruth’s Recommendations

Here are my favourite blog posts from this past week.

The ActiveHistory.ca blog had a post called “The Popularity of Remembrance” which looks the many events that are being remembered this year and how the act of remembrance is conducted. Last week was the 95th anniversary of Vimy Ridge which represents Canada’s coming of age.

Come Here to Me! has a post called “Some foreign media coverage of key Civil War events.” This looks at the Irish Civil War. There is an image that shows people in the street picking up pieces of paper in Sackville Street (O’Connell Street now) after the explosion at the Four Courts (public record office).

Enniskerry Local History blog has a post called “A Letter to Henry Grattan: The life of labourers in 1796” which makes for very interesting reading. It provides a list of the average prices for provisions.

John D. Reid of the Anglo-Celtic Connections blog gave a wonderful review of my presentation “A Brick Wall Chisel: The Cluster Research Project” which I presented at the British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa last Saturday.

Irish Genealogy News had two posts this week: “Was Dracula Irish?” and “Dracula was Irish – the genealogical evidence.” The first post talks about the centenary of the death of Bram Stoker who wrote Dracula. He was an Irish-born author. The second post provides evidence, discovered by FindMyPast Ireland, to suggest that the character of Dracula was Irish.

The FamilySearch TechTips blog had a post called “Using Pinterest for Genealogy.”

Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter had a post called “Genealogy Tourism” which looks at the rising popularity of this type of tourism. If you would like to travel back to Ireland to do research you could decide to join our group “Touring the Research Trail in Dublin” in 2013. You can find out more about our trip here.

What were your favourite blog posts this past week?

Let me know in the comments below.

Other bloggers that write their own lists are:

Genea-Musings – Best of the Genea-Blogs

British & Irish Genealogy

©2012 – Blair Archival Research All Rights Reserved