Mennonite Historical Society of Alberta

MHSA Annual General Meeting

Yeah, I know.  Meetings aren't your "thing".

But, without attending the MHSA AGM (complete details) on May 4-5 in Edmonton, you won't have a chance to visit with your travelling Mennonite history friends, you won't have an opportunity to help set the direction of the organization, and won't have the ability to put your two bits' worth of opinion into the budget size and composition.

And of course, there are the associated workshop sessions. And the book (Bergthal Gemeinde Buch, Hard Passages, etc.) and CD (GRANDMA, Low German, etc.) buying opportunities.

Workshop Session 1 - DNA for Genealogy

This year, Glenn Penner, professor of chemistry at University of Guelph will be giving our keynote presentation on Friday night - about the Mennonite DNA Project that he helped to establish.  If you ever wanted to know what DNA analysis is all about for genealogy, this is your opportunity to ask questions.  It will also be an opportunity to participate since he'll be bringing swab test kits with him.

Workshop Session 2 - West Prussian Mennonite Genealogical Sources

On Saturday afternoon, Glenn Penner will be giving a talk about some of the earliest souces for Mennonite genealogical work - West Prussian sources

Workshop Session 3 - GRANDMA & Brothers' Keeper
I'll also be giving a talk on Saturday afternoon on the use of GRANDMA, specifically how you can get the most out of it when you use Brothers' Keeper software to examine the data.  Bring your confusion, your questions and your challenges.

MHSA Budget

For starters, here are pie charts of our revenue and expenses for 2006 (click on the thumbnail to see a larger/clearer version):

Our projected revenue for 2007 is $9,300 with the vast majority of it coming from donations.  Book sales will help, but we will have the book publishing costs in 2007, so the real rewards from that will be likely be found in 2008.

Our projected expenses for 2007 are for $18,515 with the largest expenditures for equipment (we need one or two new computers and additional shelving), and Rent/Insurance/Utilities.

Hope you can join us - location and times are found at (MHSA AGM).

In kinship,
Judii

Copyright Law for Family Historians

The Alberta Family Histories Society (AFHS) welcomes visitors to its February program meeting where the featured content will be Canada's Copyright legislation. 

Marion Peterson indicates that Martin Kratz is the featured speaker.  Lois Sparling (AFHS member, lawyer who successfully brought the 1911 Canadian Census to the public from Statistics Canada) writes: 

This promises to be the state-of-the-art and most advanced presentation on Canadian copyright law as it applies to family history ever. Mr. Kratz is in charge of the Intellectual Property division of a big law firm and an experienced lecturer (to lawyers and law students)."

Kratz' profile is available at Bennettjones

Mark your calendars and bring your questions regarding copyright.

• Date/Time: Monday, February 5, 7:00pm
• Location: First Christian Reformed Church (3818 14A St SW).

For those interested in the other AFHS event available that evening, Jim Bowman of the Glenbow Archives will speak about their holdings from 6:30 to 7:00 pm at the same location. (Jim Bowman has recently agreed to be my mentor for difficult archival records processing decisions.  Early in his career Jim was also a volunteer at the Mennonite Historical Society of British Columbia.)

Mennonite Historical Society of Canada comes to Calgary

The MHSC and MHSA are having a combined public evening that everyone in the Calgary is welcome to attend.  Local arrangements chair, Peter Penner writes that "the purpose of this evening is to extend our knowledge of the people doing Mennonite history in the provinces".  This will be a great opportunity to learn about the Global Anabaptist and Mennonite Encyclopaedia Online (GAMEO), a project of the MHSC that MHSA is actively involved in. 

Representatives from many other Mennonite history organizations will be with us - from British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario.  And, Dr. Arthur Kroeger will speak on his family history just published by University of Alberta Press and launched this eveniung. Dr. Kroeger’s book will be available for sale and autographing.

Come early to get a good seat!

• Location:  First Mennonite Church, just West of Crowchild Trail and south of 26 Avenue SW, Calgary
• Date:  January 17, 2006

Program:

• Welcome from MHSA (Peter Penner) and First Mennonite Church (Marwin Thiessen)
• Corpus Christi Male Chorale
• History Society Reports from MHSA (Vince Friesen), GAMEO (Bert Friesen), and MHSC (Ken Reddig)
• Corpus Christi Male Chorale
• Offering for MHSA
• Congregational Song
• Speaker: Dr. Arthur Kroeger, Ottawa, author of Hard Passage: A Mennonite Family’s Long Journey from Russia to Canada, introduced by Ted Regehr, Calgary, First Mennonite Church
• Corpus Christi Male Chorale
• Expression of Thanks and Invitation (Dick Neufeld) to Reception (First Mennonite Helping Hands)