You know I work in support at FamilySearch.org. I use the free Personal Ancestral File software from our site to manage my genealogical data. I love the fact that it is a humongous electronic filing cabinet! Until two weeks ago I was frustrated by the fact that there was no way to link long documents to records in PAF, then I found the answer. An email from Gaylon Findlay of Incline Software revealed the secret. Treat all unsupported media types as Video Clips. Do you want to attach a 93-page book in PDF format? It is easy:

Select the individual > click the Camera icon > Add > Video Clip > Browse > Files of Type > All Files > (select file) > Open > OK > Save.

Now to view the PDF (or other unsupported media file), select the individual > click the Camera icon > select the file > click Play. The file will open in the installed program that supports that type of file. In the case of PDF, the file will open in Adobe Reader, Foxit, or whatever your default PDF reader is. How is that for neat?!!! There is no need to try to save a multi-page document as a series of individual pages, just link to the whole document.

Yesterday, I found a wonderful site that lists the residents of Lopez Island along with their Fathers, Mothers, Birthdates, and Spouses.
http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~lopezislandhistory/lopezislandnames.html

Several of the children of Andrew Buchanan and Mary Jane Booth moved to this area 100-120 years ago, and some of their descendants still live in the general area. I found it interesting to see all of the info about them and their in-laws. If you have any genealogy in San Juan County, Washington you might want to check out this site.

My cousin Darlene from Neepawa, Manitoba, is off to see "all things Buchanan" by touring the area our family came from in the western part of County Tyrone, Ireland around Castlederg. Then she will be touring the Buchanan Parish, Stirlingshire, Scotland and nearby areas. (An envious green does nothing for my complexion!) I look forward to her report and her photos in August. As one of her favorite cousins ... maybe she will let me post some here!



A friend loaned me a copy of her newly-purchased book "Google your Family Tree" by Daniel M. Lynch. So I am reading it and trying some Google tricks that I need to use more often. In the past I had used "word1 * word2" as a great way of looking for people, where the wildcard character "*" can match any character or group of characters. e.g. "John * Watson" will find John H. Watson, John Henry Watson, John Robert Watson, etc. This time it occurred to me to try the * in place of "Township" or any of its abbreviations. So I tried one of several possibilities: Buchannan "Elma * Ontario". I was pleasantly surprised to find the website of a distant cousin:
http://www.genealowiki.com/bin/view.cgi/Main/JimBenedict This site contains excellent history on the Acheson family, who were friends of my Buchanans back in Ireland and later the two families intermarried. There are scanned copies of obits, etc. It was a nice find. Thanks Google, and thanks Jim!



Now a little local news from Eastman's Online Genealogy News
http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2009/07/edmontons-photo-archives-are-now-online.html
"Edmonton's Photo Archives are now Online
The city of Edmonton, Alberta has placed more than 10,000 photos from the city archives online. The collection is expected to grow to more than 25,000 photographs. The most requested photo in the archives collection depicts a train parked on the Low Level Bridge during the flood of 1915 to keep the bridge from being swept away. ..."

Personally, I like the photos of a team of moose pulling a driver in a cart! But I am sure there are tons of interesting photos.
Image Number: EA-10-1187
Image Title: Moose Team (Pete & Nellie) at Edmonton Exhibition 1910-1911
Dates of Creation: 1910
Description: W. R. "Billy" Day Owner & Driver Photographer / Creator: George D. Clark

One of my most interesting recent contacts was from David Dickinson. It includes a link where you can read or download a history book for free. It isn't "Strathendrick and its Inhabitants from Early Times", but a related book by the same author.

"I have just acquired a first edition copy of Strathendrick and its Inhabitants from Early Times, John Guthrie Smith, 1896, originally owned by A.W.Patrick Buchanan, late of Montreal. According to his inscription, it was likely acquired in August, 1897. I’m guessing this was his base for the Buchanan book he later wrote. The book deals heavily with Buchanan history, but includes some of my Galbraith history as well. I’m guessing that you know about the volume, as it is available on Ancestry.com. There is nothing like holding the real thing in your hands though. This copy is in very good shape, compared to a copy I found about 25 years ago in UBC Special Collections.

"If on the off chance, you are descended from A.W.P.Buchanan, the same Ebay seller that I bought Strathendrick from has other items, including postal memorabilia with his name on the envelope.

"Another work of Guthrie Smith is available online: Strathblane and its Inhabitants, 1886.

"-Cheers,
David Dickinson"

In a later message David gave me the link to this book. It is an excellent resource. After looking at all of the references to Buchanans in this book, I have a better understanding of why John Guthrie Smith has such an excellent reputation as a genealogist and historian. (Strathblane is south of Strathendrick, and Buchanans of Carbeth lived there.) It also explains why Buchanan of Auchmar stripped the ironwork and weapons from the castle of the Marquis of Montrose, and the consequences for the Buchanans. (This was a puzzle to me as the Grahams and Buchanans were normally on good terms. But civil wars cause bizarre things to happen.)

David continues in a later message:
"This is our Clan website, but most of the good stuff is in the Members Only area: http://www.clangalbraith.org/

"This link might take you to Strathendrick:
http://content.ancestry.com/Browse/BookList.aspx?dbid=17087

"I can send you a copy of the 1886 Strathblane book. It’s about 13 meg, or click here: http://books.google.ca/books?id=EkQ2AAAAMAAJ&dq=john+guthrie+smith&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=0ugWXgXhIS&sig=9CJgecijd_pJcQ1SUX3iVvtzYCo&hl=en&ei=65FDSsPfHYX2sQOJ64jvDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5

We had a telephone call about 8:15 this morning from our son Andrew, informing us that he and his wife Nicole are the happy parents of a new son, Elijah Thomas Buchanan. Mother and baby are doing well.

We called to let our other childen know. Previously this morning, Laurel phoned. She said that her oldest daughter wanted to know before leaving for school. I thought that was kind of special!

I called Mom to let her know. She has just had some more tests to try to find out where she is bleeding internally. This is definitely a worry. We hope and pray that the doctors can find the problem and correct it.

Where genealogy is concerned, I have spent some time trying to trace a message board posting back to its source so I could verify the information. It looked promising but yielded no new information.

On Monday I discovered two very distant cousins on genesreunited.com. (This is an inexpensive British genealogy site where you upload a gedcom file and they inform you of potential matches in the gedcom files of other subscribers.) I am researching the ancestors of Henry Waller /Walder and Martha New, of Rogate, Sussex, England. They are the grandparents of Martha Jane Forsbury Ing, my great grandmother. Martha's mother was Ann Waller /Walder. My Australian cousins (including Irene and Adel, mentioned later) are descendants of Martha's half-brother, James Waller.

Jackie Walder Perkins is a descendant of Ann's brother Edward Walder/Waller
Rogate baptisms: 12/04/1801 Edward Henry Martha WALLER
Rogate marriages: 08/07/1821 Banns Groom WALLER Edward Bride PESCOT Ann With consent of parents

Jackie says that the wife of William Waller or Walder c.1660 of Rogate, Sussex, England was Jane Newlin [also suggested by another very distant relative] born Hawkley, Hampshire, England. I found her christening 11 Jul 1670 Hawkley, Hampshire, England in the IGI/NFS Her father's name was Thomas Newlin. This son of a Thomas Newlin is probably an older brother: Thomas Newlin christened 31 Dec 1655 Hawkley, Hampshire, England

The other very distant cousin was Anthony Albery.
Tony gave me the long-sought christening information for Martha New!

Hi Bill
I think Martha New was born in Froxfield, Hampshire, baptised 1 May 1768 according to the IGI database, her parents being John and Elizabeth New about whom I know no more. Froxfield isn't too far from Rogate so it seems a reasonable guess.
Have opened my tree for you,
regards
Tony
Anthony Albery (Member No.124280)http://www.genesreunited.com/

Anthony Re: Re: Re: Martha New (1765) 25/05/2009 19:09:00
Hi Bill
Yes, I am a descendant of Elizabeth Walder who is my 3rd Great grandmother, she married John Wells at Rogate on 11 Oct 1826. According to the Rogate burial register, Martha New was 71 when she died in 1836. This would give a birth year of 1765, not too far out from the Froxfield baptism in 1768. I have just been finding Martha's siblings, 7 including her and all girls, from the IGI. The first was born in 1750 but still no sign of John New's marriage. [I haven't found Martha's sisters in the IGI yet! - Bill]
regards
Tony

So Tony, Jackie, and I had a miniature Waller family reunion on Monday on genesreunited.com. We represented three of the children of Henry Waller and Martha New. I thought that was rather special! (These children, our ancestors, were born about 200 years ago.) Interestingly, they both had the Waller family mapped-out exactly as I have it in the gedcom file I sent to Irene Kerr ands Adel Firth-Mason. So that was reassuring. Neither one pursued the Goldring line, so I had no chance to compare notes there.

I also shared this info with Irene and Adel, as they are very interested in our Waller ancestors.

I have finished putting William Buchanan of Auchmar's 1723 book, "A Historical and Genealogical Essay Upon the Family and Surname of Buchanan" into a genealogy database. I plan to upload a gedcom file and a descendancy chart to my web site later this week.


On a personal note, our weather has been rather pitiful, with occasional snow, but it is getting much better this last few days. I rented a roto-tiller, as mine refused to start despite all of my efforts. The rental unit worked perfectly, and took less time than my old tiller. I have to admit I found the more powerful tiller a bit stenuous for someone as out-of-shape as I am.

On Mothers Day we were not expecting any of the kids home since our church meetings are in the afternoon. (We share a chapel with another congregation, and we get mornings on alternating years.) After we got home, Blaine phoned and asked if they could come over, we said "Yes, but it will only be us." About 10 minutes later I heard a car door slam, and thought "That was fast!" I looked out of the window and saw Laurel's family, followed about 10 minutes later by Andrew's family, then eventually Blaine's family.

Rob was working, and Evelyn's family and James' both had car problems. But we had a good-sized group and had a wonderful time.

During the week we replaced the alternator and battery in Evelyn & Ed's car, so they have transportation again. I dropped my copy of the Consumer Reports Annual Auto Issue over at James & Karin's house, and the car they bought was a new Hyundai Elantra , one of Consumer Reports' "Best Buys". That should solve their car problems for a few years. Evelyn and Ed are probably a few years from being able to do so. We hope for the best.

So far our blue 2001 Pontiac Sunfire is still doing well at 325,000 km. I was not worried about driving it to Lethbridge and back. Saturday May 16th we drove down to Lethbridge for Judy's brother's wedding. We enjoyed meeting Anna, Bob's fiancee and much of her family. Anna and Bob met through their karaoke club, and after the wedding supper, it was dancing and karaoke time. (In case you wonder, I am a good listener.) Then Sunday we stopped off for church at Claresholm, and drove back home in time for my weekly 8 pm online FamilySearch group meeting. I am keeping very busy, and Judy has been busier than ever, planting the garden.

But we are enjoying life.

In 2002 I purchased a reprint of "A Historical and Genealogical Essay Upon the Family and Surname of Buchanan" by William Buchanan of Auchmar, originally published in 1723. My latest project has been creating a lineage-linked file of the main lines in PAF by systematically copying information from the book. I had expected to find this already done, but didn't find it.

Then I found the book itself as part of a larger book in Google Books!

Auchmar's longer book is the "family Bible" of Scotland's clans and especially (you guessed it) Clan Buchanan.

You can read the book online or save a copy! "Miscellanea Scotica - Memoirs of the ancient alliance between France and Scotland"! Cheers for Google Books!
http://books.google.com/books?id=WmouAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA198&lpg=RA1-PA198&dq=Scots+wedset&source=bl&ots=TJDC_RvI29&sig=ehCqayJBZOpDFdVCau4svGzRdfA&hl=en&ei=CDf_SY6jJpDksgPg3sneAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3#PRA1-PR1,M1
Or this shorter address: http://tinyurl.com/ceqopa

This is a treasure you are not going to want to miss. The early stories of Buchanan of Arnpryor are wonderful. (starting at page 200) This is where the story of the "King of Kippen" comes in and other fun stuff as well as the "boring genealogy". I had to chuckle at the story of the Irish wet nurse who scares off a bullying laird after he threatens to burn the castle down if she doesn't leave.

I noticed with sadness the reference to John Buchanan, grandson of Andrew Buchanan 2nd laird of Arnpryor being killed in the battle of Glenfruin. This is sometimes called "the last clan battle", with some Buchanans and Grahams supporting Clan Colquoun of Luss against Clan MacGregor and its allies. This battle (and the massacre of students who foolishly went there to watch) was "the straw that broke the camel's back". Luss knew how to rally public (and royal) opinion to their cause. 50 women paraded the bloody shirts of their slain husbands, brothers and sons before the king! Clan MacGregor was outlawed and for several generations the death penalty awaited anyone who dared to take that name upon themselves!


Another book I found online this week is the "Buchanan of Montreal" genealogy, which brings Auchmar's genealogy forward in time.
THE BUCHANAN BOOK - THE LIFE OF - ALEXANDER BUCHANAN, Q.C., - OF MONTREAL, FOLLOWED BY AN ACCOUNT OF THE FAMILY OF BUCHANAN, BY ' A. W. PATRICK BUCHANAN, K.C - PRINTED FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION.

Patty Hopkinson had recommended this book to me recently. I was delighted to find it!http://www.archive.org/stream/buchananbooklife00buchuoft/buchananbooklife00buchuoft_djvu.txt
It may provide additional clues to our Buchanans. I will examine it after getting my present projects wrapped up.


One last thing, Patty sent me an email message today saying that a perfect DNA match (67 markers) has been found with a member of a different Buchanan family from County Tyrone. Their genealogy goes back to the same 1700's time period as ours, but further matches should help us with the "paper trail" further back in time!