Sunday 12 May 2019

One year later.....

Hello !

It's been a year (that flew by fast!) - time to check in.

This coming week is my and Tammy's last week of instructing "Introduction to Genealogy" through ELLA (Edmonton Lifelong Learners Association) held at the Faculty of Education- U of A. We were fortunate enough to instruct this 3 week course in 2016 and again this year. It's been wonderful to share knowledge and learn from our students too! More to come on this soon.

Alberta Vital Statistics
For anyone just learning about Alberta Vital Statistics, you might wish to review my blog posts from Spring 2017.

http://albertaresearch2.blogspot.com/2017/03/historical-vital-statistics-in-alberta.html

http://albertaresearch2.blogspot.com/2017/04/follow-up-to-release-of-alberta.html

Current availability of events found in indexes
Birth Registrations:     1898 and prior
Marriages                    1943 and prior
Death Registrations    1968 and prior

If you are using Ancestry's transcription of registrations, go to the original source and review the indexes found at the Provincial Archives of Alberta website. The correct information is required to order copies of documents.

http://provincialarchives.alberta.ca/how-to/find-birth-marriage-death-records/Default.aspx

Is the source you are sharing accurate?

Much activity on genealogy facebook pages - people sharing obituaries from newspaper databases, Sadly, do not source the copies correctly.

One example: Edmonton Journal
Beginning November 14, 1977 the Edmonton Journal started labeling pages using a letter/number system to number the pages in sections.  An obituary published February 20, 1978 is on page E2, not page 54 as newspapers.com shows it to be. Even if it is the 54th page (one doesn't know for sure unless one counts them) page 54 is not correct.  Be accurate. Be precise. The column the article appears is also important to source.

Should we be sharing the information from genealogical databases with others? To find the answer read the site's terms and conditions. Certainly, I have done it but doing it publicly could one get themselves in hot water? Something to think about.

Teaching Genealogy Research or Handing it Over on a Platter

Two quotes have been foremost in my thoughts lately:

Each One Teach One
and
Give a Man a Fish, and You Feed Him for a Day. Teach a Man To Fish, and You Feed Him for a Lifetime

Sharing our knowledge and experiences we have had on our genealogy journey with others is invaluable.

Teach others how to do genealogy research and do it correctly. Lead them to the website they need. Getting the document online for them does not teach them where to find it.

Simply sharing sources without teaching how it can be done is a further endorsement to the genealogy TV shows and commercials. You know the ones they make genealogy research look so darn easy not to mention fast. So many believe this concept, lets not empower it.

Til next time,
~Shannon


Check out my Alberta Adoption Search & Reunion page on Facebook

Information about the Alberta Adoption ~ Search & Reunion Facebook page
A place for adoptees born in Alberta and for birth parents that relinquished a child to adoption who are searching for each other.  Feel free to visit, post your search, and obtain help and assistance from the Administrator and others.

It is disrespectful to post the names of the birth mother and or birth father without their consent, so please leave full names out of the post, as it is not our secret to disclose publicly.

My name is Shannon Switzer Cherkowski.
I have solved over 450 adoption search files in the last 17 years.

I feel I have been blessed with a gift to be able to conduct this type of research and hope to advise participants on what can be done to have a successful search and reunion.

I offer research services, adoption related searches and Alberta genealogy. Feel free to contact me to discuss.