No comments about Irish Migrants in the Canadas: A New Approach, Second edition.

No comments about Companions of Champlain.

No comments about A Very Fine Class of Immigrants: Prince Edward Island's Scottish Pioneers, 1770-1850.

No comments about The Uncounted Irish in Canada and the United States.

No comments about Bird's Eye Views: Historic Lithographs of North American Cities.

1 comments about Finding Your Canadian Ancestors: A Beginner's Guide.

1. "Finding Your Canadian Ancestors: A Beginner's Guide" is a superbly written and organized introduction for novice genealogists on tracing and recording their ancestry using Canadian genealogical resources. The information on Canadian genealogical records is organized by record type and then again according to province. Both government and ecclesiastical records, as well as Aboriginal, Acadian, and Loyalist records, are discussed. Of special note is the information provided about online resources, including the extensive holdings of Library and Archives Canada. Co-authored by genealogical research experts Sherry Irvine and Dave Obee, "Finding Your Canadian Ancestors" is the perfect introduction for aspiring and practicing genealogists wanting to utilize Canadian resources and records for their genealogical researches. Also very highly recommended for personal and genealogical library reference collections are two other specialized genealogical research guidebooks from Ancestry Publishing: David S. Ouimette's "Finding Your Irish Ancestors: A Beginner's Guide" (9781593312930, $14.95) and Kip Sperry's "A Guide To Mormon Family History Sources" (9781593313012, $16.95).

No comments about Cougar Annie's Garden.

5 comments about Running in the Family.

1. I read this book for a Canadian fiction class and really liked it. The language was so interesting and different from anything I had read before. It is a wonderful story about a wacky family. There are good times, bad times, funny stories, tragic stories, and just plain wacky events. It really makes you want to take a look into your own family and find out all of the "juicy" details. I really liked the book and I would recommend it to anyone looking for an interesting story.



2. Ondaatje seems to be trying too hard. The language is overly flowery and the plot is often lost beneath the mound of words. It does have a few good moments, some funny, some touching. But in general, I spent most of this book irritated by the grandois manner of the author, as if by writing in a vague and pretty-fied manner, his words will sound important and deep.
   Maybe it's just me, but I find that vague does NOT equal meaningful.



3. I thoroughly enjoyed this book for its exotic locale and irreverent description of the author's own family. In fact, it made me laugh out loud in places.



4. The times in the recent past that we have read about Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, in the newspapers has concerned the Tamil Tigers who have finally been crushed and one wonders if they were fighting against a government controlled by Ondaatje-type people. The author's father was such a dedicated drunkard that its possible he actually was schizophrenic. I like the author best for his humorous detail but he never seems to get hold of a story too well and kind of staggers around with the shreds of it. At the end, I wondered was Doris his mother name or his stepmother's. Kudos to his mother for actually leaving his father and going to England where she earned her own living. The author doesn't think much of her but I do. What a brave woman. Is the author also a drunkard, I wonder?



5. Ondaatje at his loftily lyrical, yet unpretentious best. An undoubted favorite among Canadian literary memoirs, this is the story of Michael Ondaatje's crazy family, who were among the ruling class in colonial Ceylon, now known as Sri Lanka. The writing is a beautiful spectacle but the content is highly personal, at times almost vulnerable for all the impenetrability of the prose.
   
   Also the book is very funny. Ondaatje views his family as ridiculous and distances himself from them, but does so with an unmistakable love. Any scorn (a feeling anyone with a ridiculous family will find reflexive and familiar) seems squeezed out and we are left with a sense of reconciliation and the poetry of all things.

5 comments about The Lonely Land (Fesler-Lampert Minnesota Heritage Book Series).

1. I was looking on information on old canoe routes of the voyageurs and I came upon this book. It tells the experiences of Olson, a famous naturalist of the 50's and 60's, and 5 of his friends, as they paddle three wood and canvas canoes down 500 miles of the Churchhill River in Saskatchewan in 1960. Olson describes the setting and experience so completely, including diary entries of famous fur trappers who traveled the same route, that I have thought of nothing else but going to see the country he describes, the Canadian Shield of Northern Saskatchewan. It is a different place now than it was 40 years ago, less lonely I imagine, but still something I must do. I would recommend this book to anyone who longs to experience this land, North America, before it became overpopulated.



2. It's a great book. I haven't paddled the Churchhill River yet, but rivers closeby, and you still find the wilderness and the loneliness that Sig Olson describes. After reading this book and others by Sig Olson I just want to go out paddling and enjoy the wilderness.



3. I first obtained this book in my youth through the old Outdoor Life Book Club (which also introduced me to other classics such as John J. Rowlands' Cache Lake Country). I'm not sure I read The Lonely Land all the way through at that first encounter, but I recently rediscovered it when cleaning out a family home. I picked it up out of nostalgia, but I soon found that I couldn't put it down.
   
   Apart from the inherent interest of its subject matter -- the majestic wilderness of central Canada's Churchill River drainage -- I was quickly taken by the immediacy of Olson's account. The wind, the waves, the thunder of approaching rapids all spill off the page in vivid detail, as do the detailed descriptions of each night's camp and its routines. As compelling is the exuberance of Olson and his five companions as they explore pristine lakes, shoot the Churchill's wild water, and find refuge time and again on the solid, reassuring outcrops of the Canadian Shield.
   
   Finally, at each stage of the journey, Olson quotes from the journals of those who came before him, the "bourgeois" who led the brigades of voyageurs into the heart of the Lonely Land in search of furs. Men like Alexander MacKenzie, George Simpson, and David Thompson, who worked for the Hudson's bay Company or its competitors: the record of their observations informs Olson's account with vivid descriptions of the land as well as a sense both of how much and how little had changed over the one hundred and fifty years since they had last paddled, poled, and lined their way up the same great river system.
   
   I know that Olson has many well-regarded books to his credit, but a new reader could do worse than enter this world of woods and water by way of The Lonely Land.



4. This book is an account of Olson's canoe journey down long stretches of the Churchill and Sturgeon Weir rivers in Saskatchewan. Olson was a leading popularizer of the notion of wilderness, associated with the North Country of Minnesota and Canada.
   
   The story of someone else's canoe journey risks being mind-numbingly boring: "we paddled, portaged falls, and then paddled some more." Olson's story isn't any different than that basic narrative, but he manages to make the journey more lyrical. Observations about the empty land they traverse, the comraderie of the company of six, reminiscences of the voyageurs of old, and occasional encounters with other people leaven the basic narrative.
   
   It's a great read, and I literally didn't put it down (I was stuck on a transatlantic flight, but even so). Heartily recommended.



5. Great to be able to get an out of print book at a good price and prompt turn around. Product exactly as described. Thank you!

5 comments about The Researcher's Guide to American Genealogy, Third Edition.

1. Since its first edition in 1972, and especially with the completely revised and greatly expanded 2nd edition in 1990, this comprehensive work has become the standard guide and textbook in the pursuit of U.S. genealogical research. Beginning with the background to research -- what "research" actually means, specialized terminology, basic principles, library fundamentals, and all the rest -- Greenwood teaches you, with great clarity and many examples, how to identify what information you need, how to go about locating it, and how to organize it once you've found it. The second, much larger part of the book, leads the reader through the use, analysis, and interpretation of all the major sorts of documents and records out there: Compiled sources (including a discussion of the nature of compilations), vital records, census returns, wills and probate records (and how to become comfortable with legal terminology), local and federal land records, civil and criminal court records, church records, records relating to immigration, military records, and cemetery and burial records. He discusses the nature of abstracting, clears up common misconceptions about court records, points out the limitations of the census, and presents a largely rewritten discussion of the standards of evidence. When the 2nd edition came out a decade ago, the author thought his book would probably never need another major revision, just minor updates. But that was before the personal computer and Internet revolutions forced him to rethink his position, and this edition includes an entirely new and rather lengthy chapter on the appropriate use of the computer in genealogical research and also on its built-in limitations. He also took the opportunity to add a chapter on the legal issues relating to women's property rights, and (of course) made all those minor corrections and updates he had expected. Bluntly, if you can afford only one how-to book for your home genealogy shelf, get this one.



2. This book was purchased as a textbook for a research class. Had I known this valuable and helpful information, much of my past research time would have been shortened and to the point. Especially great is the rational behind the suggestions and the reviews of important points.



3. This is a great primer for researchers. Basic research techniques are explained and detailed. Lots of tips and tricks. Some of the techniques are a little too detailed like how to compose a letter and create a manual filing system but all in all a very worthwhile book. Also some of the information is a bit dated but most of it is timeless. I'm certain that I'll be referring to it for many years to come.



4. I look forward to putting this reference book to good use. It has a lot of good information.



5. I have been involved with geneology a long time, this book is clear, concise, and extremely helpful.