Canadian Genealogy Group to meet Nov. 14, 2012

The CCGS Canadian Special Interest Group will meet in the History Room of the Brewster Ladies' Library on Wednesday, November 14, 2012, at 10 a.m.

Bring your questions and ideas about Canadian research and join our lively and helpful discussion group!

Click for more on CCGS Special Interest Groups.

Marcia Melnyk to be Featured at Joint Meeting

For the 6th Annual Joint Meeting of the Cape Cod and Falmouth Genealogical Societies, the speaker will be the well-known professional genealogist, Marcia Melnyk. On Saturday, November 10, 2012, she will address two separate topics in two presentations:

                  GENEALOGY IN THE GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE:
                                It's a Small World After All

                  STRATEGIES FOR FINDING IMMIGRANT ANCESTORS

The meeting will begin at 10 am at St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Osterville, on Wianno Avenue (right-hand side of the street after you go through Osterville Center).  Parking is available on either side of Wianno Avenue or in back of the church. The presentations will conclude at 1pm. A special feature will again be the option of ordering a Lobster Roll Luncheon, which will be served at 1pm, followed by informal genealogical conversation. 

To order the luncheon, contact Jennifer McDevitt at jmcdevit@comcast.net by FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2012; cost is $10 and is payable as you get the lunch in the church hall. This opportunity to hear from an expert is not to be missed!!

Ancestral trails : Featured library resource for October 2012

Anyone considering a genealogy trip to the British Isles would do well to consult this comprehensive volume well in advance.  In Ancestral Trails : the complete guide to British genealogy and family history, Mark Herber has created a work that is useful for beginners and experienced genealogists alike.  The book was first published in 1997, and the fully updated and revised second edition, which we have in the Genealogy Room, in 2004 (first published in the US in 2006).

Weighing in at 873 pages, this book has

• 30 chapters, 
• 11 appendices,
• copious illustrations, 
• a comprehensive bibliography (1342 sources!) arranged by chapter heading, and an
• extensive index

Opening chapters deal with getting information from living relatives and basic sources, such as vital and census records.  All types of more advanced records are covered in succeeding chapters, including court, property, religious, military, educational, professional/trade, and more.  Herder covers special situations such as divorce and illegitimacy, as well the importance of understanding local and social history.  There's a chapter on the geographic areas of Great Britain (Scotland, etc.), and one on tracing the migrants that left Britain for other parts of the world.  Internet resources are fully incorporated into the discussion of records.

Herder uses examples from his own family history to elucidate the process of using the various types of records, with the illustrations providing samples of what one might expect to discover.  The text is peppered with initialisms (such as GRO for General Register Office), which I was pleased to find included in the index.  This volume won the [British] Library Association's prestigious McColvin Medal for an outstanding reference work.