Canada Rowing

The son of one of my students is representing Canada in Rowing! That rowing team won Canada's first medal in 2008! GO DAVID CALDER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We're all pulling for you buddy. Pat

Go CANADA GOOOOOOO

Just watching the opening ceremonies of the 2012 Olympics, and grating zucchini. Next up: muffins, cake, and medals!!

Gooooooo CANADA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Another Fabulous TV program

I just finished watching a fab show on History Channel named "Curse of the Axe". I did a search and found it's on again later, once. It really is very very good and shows how archaeology and family history are closely tied. Give it a try. You'll learn about Canadian history, and you'll enjoy it!! And please let me know what you think? Happy Searching, Pat

Scotland's Forgotten War

BBC Scotland news presenter Jackie Bird presents a documentary tonight entitled Scotland's Forgotten War, which looks back at the Korean War of the 1950s. Accompanying the film is a short article available at www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-18768655. In the programme Jackie meets many veterans who describe the apathy they received on their return home - "We were only young... we'd start to talk about our war and be told: 'Away lad, that was nothing... I was at Dunkirk'. So we just stopped talking about it." She also accompanies veterans on a trip to Korea. Scotland's Forgotten War will be broadcast at 22:35 on BBC Scotland (the channel is available on the Sky platform if you don't live in Scotland). It will also be available for the next seven days on BBC iPlayer. UPDATE: If the Korean War, with no victory, can be so forgotten today - with 1090 UK dead, more than Afghanistan, Iraq and Falklands combined - then how will history remember Afghanistan and Iraq six decades from now? Absolutely. An absolutely brilliant programme, well worth checking out on the BBC iPlayer. (with thanks to Chris Paton) Happy Searching! Pat

WOW! Has the World Changed!!

Today, we take for granted being able to watch Wimbledon or the Olympic Games as they happen across an ocean. That only became possible on 10 July 1962, 50 years ago today, with the launch of the first Telstar satellite.

Isn't that amazing? Today we take Skype for granted and grumble if it fails us.

Enjoy your days. They pass all too quickly. I've had three funerals in the past 10 days.

Happy Searching,
Pat

England - history from feudal times

There is a series of TV programs on PBS right now (July 2012) called "Michael Wood's Story of England". It covers one village in England - not an area of family research for me - BUT well worth watching as it gives a snapshot of what all of England was like from feudal days. It also shows the massive variety of records possibly available for your English ancestors no matter where they lived. It's a fascinating show. Do a search of whatever television provider you use. I'm just watching the second show, but am impressed enough to have sought out each show and have now set the PVR to catch them all.

What a glorious day, again, here is Saskatchewan!! Worked outside this morning and am now rewarded with something interesting and educational on TV in my lovely cool house.

Happy Searching!
Pat

Why Can't We All Just Get Along?

With Thanks to the IrishTimes. com

The following article was written by esteemed Irish research John Grenham. I can't think of anything to add except to say "AMEN!"

"I recently had a long conversation with a veteran member of the Irish Family History Foundation, the umbrella group for the heritage centres behind the biggest Irish genealogy website, rootsireland.ie. The sense of outrage and persecution felt by IFHF members is extraordinary. It is largely directed at the Irish public service –civil servants, National Archives, National Library and others. And I had to tell him that, as far as I knew, the feelings were reciprocated, and just as intensely.

The situation reminds me of nothing so much as a very bad marriage breakup, with each side blaming the other and pouring out tales of monstrous injustice to long-suffering friends. And like a marriage breakup, two simple facts have to be accepted by each side for the situation to change. First, what’s done is done. Nobody has a monopoly on truth or grievance. Or, indeed, genealogical records. And second, without some cooperation, however arms-length, everyone suffers, particularly the innocent. Which is to say, ordinary researchers.

There is no shortage of areas where some collaboration could sow the seeds of tolerance. For example, the IFHF could use some of its surplus to help digitise the records of National schools, or the Valuation Office, or the Registry of Deeds. But one area stands out. The IFHF centres have no images of the church records they have transcribed. And they are currently lobbying hard to stop the National Library making digital images of Catholic parish register microfilms available online. So the centres have transcripts but no images, the Library has images but no transcripts, and researchers are stuck with the dilemma of putting blind faith in the accuracy of the transcripts or manually combing through years of images. A compromise is hardly rocket science.

In the immortal words of Helen Lovejoy, “Won’t somebody please think of the children?”

Steaks are ready!

This might be a 'woman' thing, but here's what happens to many of us, I suspect.

It's meal time which includes a BBQ. Man grabs meat [prepared by his woman], flings it on BBQ, and later, smiling ear to ear, announces 'suppers ready' when he takes it off! He also accepts all the 'congrats' for a GREAT MEAL. So where did the appetizers, salads, soup, potatoes/rice/noodles, veggies, dessert come from ............ sitting on that gorgeous table in that cleaned, scrubbed, and beautifully decorated house?????? OMG, have we women really made progress???? Wonder if our ancestor females shared these 'feelings'? I'm betting they did.

Pat