Family historians love to share their research with their relatives, but what if your family doesn’t read the book you spent years writing? You don’t want all that effort to go to waste, do you? Over the last dozen years or so, I’ve developed lots of sneaky ways to make gifts and games out of my research. I’ve introduced a new game at each family gathering, getting everyone from my then five-year-old nephew to my 80-year-old father involved, and given dozens of family history gifts that actually got noticed! This presentation will demonstrate, with visual examples, a variety of ideas ranging from quick and easy ‘teasers’ to complex projects that really showcase your findings.
Janice Nickerson is a professional genealogist based in Toronto.
In non-pandemic times, she spends much of her time in archives and libraries searching old manuscripts, registers and copybooks for clues to her clients’ family histories.
These days, she’s discovering newly digitized documents and giving Webinars through Zoom.
Her expertise includes Upper Canadian history, Ontario criminal justice records, turning bare bones genealogies into shareable family stories, and using genealogy gifts and games to create a legacy.
In addition to helping her private clients discover their ancestral heritage, Janice does heir searching for Canadian provincial public trustees, writes and lectures on a variety of genealogical topics.
Her books, Crime and Punishment in Upper Canada: A Researcher’s Guide (2010), and York’s Sacrifice: Militia Casualties of the War of 1812 (2012) were both published by the joint imprint of the Ontario Genealogical Society and Dundurn Press.
Janice is a proud 8th-generation Canadian, with English, German, Irish, Welsh and First Nations ancestry.
Her company website is UpperCanadaGenealogy.com
