Thomas Ing and Ancestry.com Last night at the FHC, I showed a patron the resources we have available through AncestryInstitution.com. I also mentioned the free access provided by Ancestry to many of their databases during the first week of September. This had enabled me to find the immigration of my great uncle Thomas Ing born in London, England in 1866. Name Gender Age Date of Arrival Vessel Port of Arrival Port of Departure Roll Thomas Ing Male 44 7 Oct 1911 Megantic Quebec Liverpool, England T-4782 In AncestryInstitution.com I found him in the 1916 census of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, living between the families of his brothers James and Richard in eastern Alberta at Township 33 Range 2 West of the 4th Meridian. My mother remembered:"He and Grandma Ing lived by us on the prairie. The house roof caught fire and Tom just watched as Mom (Louisa) climbed on the roof with her wash water and put out the fire. She wasn't overly impressed by his helpfulness on this occasion!" FreeReg + RecordSearch Plot The patron referred to above asked me whether I had used FreeReg in conjunction with the parish register images on RecordSearch. She said that both are still hit or miss, but she had had success in her Norfolk, England research. That caught my attention, as my Wrights were from Norfolk. She showed me what she was talking about and I saw that some of the parish records for Attleborough were browsable. I found some people I was looking for. FreeReg is great! http://www.freereg.org.uk It has transcriptions of the original records, and from the dates and places you can look for the originals in RecordSearch. (I really need to check this on FamilySearch beta too!) Fringe Benefits Last week a grateful patron came into the FHC and gave each of the staff a jar of elderberry jam that she had made. It was wonderful on French toast! On the subject of canning, we made apple pie filling from our home-grown apples by cutting each apple in half, removing the core, and slicing them in the food processor without peeling them. I think it was successful. I will know for sure when Judy starts making apple pies.