Some News and Views

Vimy Ridge

Today, across Canada, memorials were held in honour of Canada's victory at Vimy Ridge during World War 1. Many consider this battle, that started on April 9th, 1917, as a defining moment in Canada's nationhood, when Canada transformed from colony to country. Although other allied forces had tried vainly to take the ridge, it was the Canadian troops who finally succeeded. The battle marked the first time that all four divisions of the Canadian Expeditionary Force had joined and participated in a battle together. As far as I can tell, my great grand-uncle, James Gammie was one of the Canadian soldiers who participated in and survived this fierce battle, only to be killed over a year later in another battle. It was just a couple of months ago that Canada mourned the passing of its last surviving World War 1 veteran, John Henry Foster 'Jack' Babcock, of Kingston, Ontario.

Scareware

I thought I should share some 'techie' advice from my office about scareware, or sometimes referred to as rogueware. If you have had pop-ups saying things like "You have been infected!" or "Malware Infections Found" then you have likely been exposed to scareware, one of the latest technology scams. Essentially, scareware is fake security software. Here's the advice our IT department has offered: 1. Remain calm! Things usually can get worse if you try to click your way out of the pop-up. Clicking on 'yes', 'no', or 'cancel' might even likely cause run the scareware software to run on your computer, no matter what you click and no matter how many times you click. 2. If you are running the Windows operating system, go to your task manager (simultaneously press "ctrl+alt+delete" to open the task manager) and end the Internet browser program you are using. You may lose the page you are working on but you can go back later. Remember also to keep your anti-virus software up to date.

Who Do You Think You Are? Renewed

The new genealogy based series, Who Do You Think You Are? on NBC has been renewed for a second season, much to the delight of genealogist across North America (and beyond). No news yet on what season will cover but the series 'won' its timeslot last week to earn the renewal!

OGS Conference 2010 Just Weeks Away

The Ontario Genealogical Society's annual conference is being held from Friday, May 14th until Sunday, May 16th. This year's conference, hosted by the Toronto Branch of the OGS, will be held at the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel near Toronto's Pearson International Airport. The conference features more than 25 speakers and includes focused streams on Dutch and Italian ancestry. My wife, Ellen, and I will be attending and are looking forward to meeting among others, Lisa Louise Cooke of the Genealogy Gems Podcast who will be making her first 'north of the 49th' appearance! On-line registration for any of the six registration packages is still available along with registration for the two pre-conference programs being held on Thursday, May 13th. Hope to see you there as well.