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24 November 2008

OCAPG

The Ontario Chapter of the Association of Professional Genealogists (OCAPG) quietly passed its tenth anniversary this year. That’s Ontario as in Canada, not as in California :-D
In February of 1998, the president of APG notified us of our official chapter status. From the group I initially called together two years previously, OCAPG joined the worldwide organization that now numbers well over 2,000 members. Our founding members on the application were myself, Sharon Murphy, Barbara Samson-Willis, Louise St Denis and Jeff Stewart.

What are professional genealogists and what do they do? The answer is almost as varied as the individuals and like many professions has specialties within the field. Genealogical research is the bedrock of our profession whether we work as independent business contractors, for commercial companies, for genealogical societies, libraries, publishers or family organizations. Some of the specialty research areas are heir searching, adoption, DNA and genetics, teaching and writing, lineage society applications and ethnic or geographic concentrations. Some members like to apply their expertise to website design, translation of documents, arranging and leading overseas homeland tours, photography of ancestral sites or the indexing of original records.

Mutual goals are outlined in the APG Code of Ethics: www.apgen.org. The APG mail list, one of the most active genealogy listserves on the Internet, reflects the international nature of our membership and helps provide unique insight to resources not possible ten years ago. The word professional applies not only to those who undertake work for clients. Serious family historian members approach their work with the same dedication to careful scholarship and source citation.

As the first chapter in Canada, OCAPG has seen changes and advancements over the past years. We have expanded our membership to more than 50. Not all can attend regular meetings in Toronto—our chapter mail list exists to stimulate news, information and assistance. Early days saw members who recognized a need and branched out to create the groundbreaking project called APOLROD (Association for the Preservation of Ontario Land Registry Office Documents) and the online National Institute for Genealogical Studies. We’ve had excellent committees to work on our workshops, seminar events and the essay contest. At the annual conference of the Ontario Genealogical Society, we plan special activities: “Ask A Professional” has been a popular venue for free research consultations. And ... like all genealogical groups ... we have cycles in the numbers of volunteers we can call on.

Why am I writing about this? Because the chapter seems to occupy quite a bit of my time. Because the more experienced among us can mentor the newer members. Because we need to encourage self-directed education and support and yes, even socializing. Because I appreciate the time a handful of people invest for the greater good of the membership and the profession. Because we know the value of family history and its sources and must fight, sometimes, for gaining or maintaining access to historical census returns and vital records. Because some day we will see university degree programs in genealogy and family history studies. It’s coming.


5 comments:

Sheri Fenley said...

Brenda Baby,

You know how to hot link don't ya? Well Just in case you have forgotten -
Here is the "formula"

(this is where the word for the link goes)

In this sentence "She's a Bad Mama Jama" let's say you want the word Mama to be the hot link and the link is to my website. Then the formula would look like this:

Mama

Did I help or confuse you?

Sheri Fenley said...

Oh Sh_t, I forgot, you need to be in html mode in order to see it! LOL

Charley "Apple" Grabowski said...

Hi Brenda,

You should be able to create a link with the blogger tool bar - look for the green ball. (If you use blogger in draft I think it actually says link)

For a good, but basic html tutorial check out Dave Site

My knowledge is limited but if you email me I'll help if I can.

Apple
fallnappl (at) aim (.) com

BDM said...

Thanks, Apple. The green ball was a good clue. So was Mama's hint about html mode. Maybe it worked. >:{

Janet Iles said...

Hi Brenda
Thanks for writing about our chapter. I appreciate all the work you and others do for the well being of our chapter of APG.

OCAPG member