Bill's Genealogy Blog

Bill Buchanan is a long-time genealogy enthusiast, living in Spruce Grove, Alberta, Canada. This blog will describe my experiences as I research my family history and help others.

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Location: Spruce Grove, Alberta, Canada

I am a retired online school teacher. I love family history. Since 2007, I have spent much of my time providing part-time support for the world's largest free family history site https://familysearch.org This is very rewarding. I have helped others with the Family Tree and related FamilySearch products.
In 2010-2018 I served in the Edmonton Riverbend Family History Centre. I have a FHC blog at Bill's Family History Center Blog For information the Latter-day Saints and family history click https://www.comeuntochrist.org/

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

I gave my presentation on "Online Research: The Big 4 and So Much More" on Satuday at the Alberta Genealogical Society, meeting at NorQuest College, Wetaskiwin on October 18th. The contents and links can be seen at http://bill_buchanan.tripod.com Unfortunately I didn't get any photos. I was able to renew my acquaintence with my cousin Ken Campbell, Alice Hoyle, Claudia Malloch, Don Brossius, and a few other members of the AGS. It was a good meeting. Alberta Genealogical Society http://abgensoc.ca/ AGS is the provincial genealogical society for Alberta, Canada. I invite you to check them out. NorQuest Collegehttp://www.norquest.ca/ 209-3725- 56 Street, Wetaskiwin, AB T9A 2V6(780) 361-1380 Please note that my main website has been offline for a month and my attempts to contact the webhost by email or telephone have failed. It appears that clawz.com may have gone out of business. So my backup site http://bill_buchanan.tripod.com is now my main site.

Wednesday, October 01, 2008

Last night I had a phone call from Mervyn Buchanan. I had stayed at his house for a few days when I visited Neepawa, Manitoba in October 1962. In the evenings Merv drove me to visit various relatives, as I gathered family history information. I especially appreciated the visit we had with Mabel Claire Watson Henry at Riding Mountain. What a wonderful experience! Then on my visit to Neepawa in 1998, Merv gave me copies of the portraits of his ancestors Samuel Buchanan and Mary Watson. These are the only pictures of them that I have seen, so I have shared them with everyone interested. In his telephone call, Merv asked if it was possible to get a copy of the Buchanan history I wrote in 2006, some of which was printed in a Neepawa history book printed by Joan Dyck. I assured him that I would be sending him a complementary copy. This book is on my website and can be downloaded as an Adobe PDF file for reading or printing.


We have had the birthdays of three grandchildren in the last few months. These are wonderful, joyous occasions. Davram, Arianna, and Aaron have all passed important milestones in their lives.
I have been preparing for my presentation at the AGS meeting in Wetaskiwin on October 18th. The time is drawing short.
I am listening to an online presentation on Ancestral Quest 12.1, demonstrating its ability to interact with the new FamilySearch. I will continue to watch this with interest, as the new FamilySearch is one of my areas of product support at FamilySearch.