Enhance Research Trips; Use Websites

If you need Canadian research help, then mark your calendars for Friday and Saturday, Oct. 3 and 4, when the Alberta Family Histories Society holds its annual conference at the Crossroads Hotel in Calgary.

Featured speakers for this conference include Nora Hickey, owner and operator of a genealogical information service based in County Cork, Ireland; Sherry Irvine, author and lecturer from Victoria, British Columbia, and Kenneth Aitken, the Prairie History Librarian at the Regina, Saskatchewan Public Library, and nine others.

Cost for the entire seminar is $55 before Sept. 9, and $70 afterwards. Registration includes choices of five sessions, a handbook, coffee breaks, a wine-and-cheese reception and Saturday lunch.

For a registration form, write to Wild Rose Seminar ‘97 Registration, Box 363, Bragg Creek, Alberta, Canada T0L 0K0. Or, call Lynda Alderman at (403) 949-4093.

The seminar is sponsored by the Alberta Family Histories Society, P.O. Box 30270, Station B, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, T2M 4P1.

Visit their Web site at http://www.freenet.calgary.ab.ca/afhs/afhs.html.

Alberta residents, or those who have ancestry there, are welcome to join the membership.

Roy and Joan Burns wrote to share their Internet genealogy experiences.

They arranged a research trip to Ireland and Scotland using the Internet, and wrote to tell all of us how to do the same.

They arranged many of their accommodations in both countries through the Internet. One address they used in Scotland was boyd@holidaynet.scotborders.co.uk which furnished information and pictures of possible accommodations.

A word of caution: When arranging accommodations, if you want a private bath, you must request an “ensuite” room. Otherwise, down the hall you go.

Two Internet addresses they found helpful and recommend for those searching in the southeast of Scotland are: http://midas.ac.uk and http:/ /www.almac.co.uk/personal/vdunstan/genuki/BWK. These addresses gave detailed descriptions of many area towns and villages.

The Burns also contacted a genealogical center in Ireland, the South Mayo Family Research Centre in Ballinrobe, to determine if they needed reservations to search their records, and if there was a fee.

They were informed callers do not have access to records, but the staff would conduct an assessment of research possibilities for the Burns for $25. They would then quantify the information available and offer a quote for a full family history report - about $250.

Roy felt this was probably not a bad deal if you can’t travel there in person.

Their e-mail address is soumayo@iol.ie.

Their Web site is http://www.mayo-ireland.ie/roots.htm.

Roy states most emphatically if anyone with Internet capabilities wants to search for accommodations, genealogical groups, records centers and so forth, all they have to do is get on the Net, use a search engine (they prefer Alta Vista or Yahoo for Great Britain, Ireland and Scotland), type in the topic and hit “Search.”

That method yielded good results for them.

Thanks, Roy and Joan for sharing your Internet and research tips.

, DataTimes MEMO: Donna Potter Phillips welcomes letters from readers. Write to her at The Spokesman-Review, Features Department, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210. For a response, please include a selfaddressed, stamped envelope.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Donna Potter Phillips The Spokesman-Review