The Ontario Genealogical Society (OGS) and the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society (NYG&B) today announced a new partnership offering reciprocal membership at a discount to all members. The two societies hope this will allow their respective members to gain access to more records and resources.
Membership discount
OGS members will receive a 25 percent discount on annual membership to the NYG&B. A similar offer is probably available to NYG&B members, but the details were not available on the OGS website when this blog post was published.
OGS president Patti Mordasewicz said, “Our respective members should benefit greatly from enhanced access to resources for researching their Ontario and New York family histories. This is of particular importance when traditional migration and settlement patterns are considered.”
“Numerous New York families had connections with Ontario,” said NYG&B president, D. Joshua Taylor, “and we look forward to working together to provide resources that help share and tell their stories.”
In presentations Mr. Taylor delivered at the OGS conference in June, he spoke about tracing families along the Canadian and New York borders and cross-border immigration patterns.
With increasing competition from online resources, genealogical societies need to develop and fine-tune their own niche, focus on the expertise they can offer their members that large companies like Ancestry and Findmypast cannot, and work more closely with other organizations.
This partnership is a great move. If genealogical societies intend to thrive, partnerships, collaboration and mergers must become part of their future. It’s been happening in the corporate world since the 1990s and earlier, and the non-profits must follow suit.
OGS and NYG&B have set a good example.
