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