BIFHSGO's Full House

Look at the organizations that have agreed to provide complimentary access in the Research "Room" at the British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa conference next weekend at Ben Franklin Place. All the major genealogy database companies with British content are to be available — a full house. And more. Even a couple of Quebec sites.
The "Room" is in a new location (in the hall opposite the snack bar). There will be experienced researchers to help you get started, or perhaps to struggle along with you — it's a rare person who's familiar with them all.
UPDATE: A note from conference registration reminds to come prepared with a research plan. Have pertinent family tree information handy and bring a USB/flash drive to download your discoveries―either through document download or screen capture.
Note that you will receive a voucher for 24 credits to your account on ScotlandsPeople when you pick up your registration package upon arrival at BFP.

Sunday Sundries

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

CWGC: Eyes On, Hands On
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission is launching a new volunteer scheme in the UK - NOT (YET?) IN CANADA.
 'Eyes On Hands On' will harness the existing appetite to engage with our work and create a national network of volunteers to act as CWGC’s eyes and ears on the ground.

Starting in the South-West and East Anglia teams of volunteers will be trained to give UK staff regular updates on the condition of CWGC headstones in churchyards and burial grounds in their local area.



Theatres of Revolution: The Stuart Kings and the Architecture of Disruption
Gresham College lectures are back after the summer break. The first talk online, first of a series by Simon Thurley, is about James the First's forgotten country houses, the man and the dawn of the Stuart age.

Population projections: Canada, provinces and territories, 2018 to 2068
Statistics Canada projects Ontario and Alberta would make up more than half of Canada's projected population growth between 2018 and 2068.

Population Immiseration in America
See also Popular Posts and Series from Peter Turchin.

Is that site even up?
These online resources help you find out if a site you are trying to browse is down.

Winter Watch
Today is the last day of the year when temperature above 30C has ever been recorded in Ottawa, in 1941

Five climate change science misconceptions – debunked

How DNA led Thehistoryinterpreter down the slippery slope

The blog post Online Family Trees and why I have Succumbed by one of my favourite English family historians, Janet Few, thehistoryinterpreter, starts with "I have never been a fan of online family trees."
Janet explains how taking an AncestryDNA test led to taking out an Ancestry subscription, then to adding an online tree so that more DNA matches could be identified.
Having stated that the online tree will never be her primary one Janet shows her open-mindedness by adding "maybe my opinion will change again."
Along the way, Janet laments unsourced and inaccurate trees. Perhaps that's another place where her opinion will change. An unsourced tree may be quite accurate, but from a researcher who finds arcane citations boring, or just too busy to add them.
Inaccurate tree information may just be the result of someone repeating information copied from another researcher, or sanitized information. Even well-researched information documented from a variety of sources may prove inaccurate given new DNA evidence. Is it possible that knowing the identity of the person posting the inaccurate information could be a helpful lead?
That's why I prefer to think in probabilistic terms, recognizing, in the words of Helen Leary, that “Science and the law are in agreement: there is only one way to prove kinships beyond reasonable doubt — DNA testing.”

Scotland and Ireland to the fore

Checking out the additions to the British Newspaper Archives in the past week they are:

Northern Daily Times
108 new pages

Aberdeen Evening Express
20346 new pages

East of Fife Record
13910 new pages

North British Daily Mail
16402 new pages

Aberdeen Press and Journal
9748 new pages

Notice any trend?

Aside from the 108 pages from the Northern Daily Times, which was published in Liverpool, all the other 55 thousand plus pages are from Scottish papers.

It's not as if Scotland had catching-up to do. Scottish papers account for 13% of BNA content for 8% of the UK population. Ireland is similarly over-represented while England, with 79% of the UK population, has 68% of the newspaper coverage on the BNA.

Regionally the best represented on a population-weighted basis is Tayside, followed by Northern Ireland and Lothian. The most under-represented is East England.

Findmypast adds Cumberland records, and more

New on Findmypast this week.

Cumberland Parish Records
Baptisms (76,042), marriages (37,687) and burials (61,515) for the Cumberland parishes of Dacre, Dalston, Great Orton, Holme Cultram, Kirkoswald, Lamplugh, Lanercost, Millom, Penrith, Skelton, Whicham and Wigton. These collections provided by the College of Arms, are taken from printed registers, which are linked, covering the mid-16th century to the start of civil registration in 1837.

Scotland, Forfarshire (Angus), Dundee, D C Thomson Staff War Album 1939-1945
A collection of vivid portrait images of men and women employed with DC Thompson in Dundee, who volunteered to serve during the Second World War. DC Thomson is the parent company of Findmypast. The photo album contains each employees date of enlistment, name, notable details, and most have an accompanying photograph, many in uniform. A number of those listed were captured, went missing or killed.

Ohio Directories & Almanacs
110 Ohio directories, dating from the 1700s to the 1900s, have been added to the collection of United States directories & almanacs.

International Records – Ukraine
Over 14,000 transcripts of births and baptisms spanning the years 1784 to 1879 sourced from the International Genealogical Index.

LAC Co-Lab update

Here's an update on Co-Lab projects since last month.

PROGRESS

Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 is 36% complete (29% last month).

Rosemary Gilliat (Eaton)’s Arctic diary and photographs is 40% complete (39% last month).

NO CHANGE OR REVISED

Legendary Train Robber and Prison Escapee Bill Miner is 98% complete

War Diaries of the First World War: 1st Canadian Division is 94% complete.

The Call to Duty: Canada's Nursing Sisters is 85% complete.

New France and First Nations Relations is 28% complete.

Japanese-Canadians: Second World War is 61% complete.

Personal Diary of the Baroness Macdonald - Lady Macdonald is 94% complete.

COMPLETED

The Spanish Flu Pandemic of 1918–1919.

Correspondence between Sir Robert Borden and Sir Sam Hughes.

Letters from Wilfrid Laurier to Zoé Lafontaine/Laurier.

COMMENT

One of the indicators for the LAC Three-year plan 2019-2022, released earlier this month, is the number of records enhanced by user contributions in the Co-Lab crowdsourcing tool. The indicator is to be released quarterly as is the indicator number of images digitized via DigiLab.

OGS Quinte Branch September meeting

The topic for the 21 September Quinte Branch meeting is

Discovering the Humanity in the History

Jennifer DeBruin, UE uses her research and writing to journey with her ancestors in an effort to “discover the humanity in the history.”

The meeting is at 1 pm at Quinte West Public Library in Trenton
https://quinte.ogs.on.ca/2019/07/30/discovering-the-humanity-in-the-history/

QFHS Open House

ScotlandsPeople adds more Presbyterian Church Records

Find more than 3,000 baptism records for 1752–1855, new on ScotlandsPeople, covering Presbyterian congregations in Ayrshire, Fife, Dundee Renfrewshire, Aberdeenshire and Midlothian.
Read the announcement from ScotlandsPeople.

OGS is building a photo collection of Ontario churches

Sometimes the only existing connection you have to a place where an ancestor lived is a building, often a church no longer functioning as a place of worship. Visit and it's where you gravitate.
When you can't visit OGS has a project to post photos of Ontario churches. To contribute go to https://ogs.on.ca/church-locator/.
So far only nine churches labelled Ottawa are in the collection, Britannia United, Carsonby United, Christ Church Anglican at Burritt's Rapids, Holy Trinity Anglican at Metcalfe, Our Lady Of The Visitation Roman Catholic at Gloucester, Southminster United, St. Andrews Presbyterian at Kars, Trinity Anglican at Bearbrook, Trinity United at Kars.
Search for a church photo at https://ogs.on.ca/databases/ontario-church-photo-collection/.

Often an internet search of the church name will surface photos too.

Kingston Branch: September Monthly Meeting

The OGS Kingston Branch meeting on 21 September has Judy Neville speaking on “Giving British Home Children a Voice.” The presentation gives a voice to over 100,000 children who came to Canada between the 1860s and 1940s and most often never revealed what growing up was like in that era.

More info on our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/groups/KingstonBranchOGS/ or website https://kingston.ogs.on.ca/.

Kingston Branch usually meets on the 3rd Saturday of the month, from 9:30am to noon at 56 Francis St, Kingston, Ontario. Visitors are always welcome.  There is no fee to attend.

RootsTech London app

The RootsTech London conference app is now available for download for Android or Apple phones.

https://www.core-apps.com/dl/rtlondon19?utm_campaign=qr

This is the same RootsTech app used for SLC - now with London content in it. If you are already in the app and looking at content from a past SLC event, simply click 'Exit to Show List' where you will see a list of all conferences and you can select 'RootsTech London 2019'

Registration opens for RootsTech 2020

Here's a press release from RootsTech.

SALT LAKE CITY (18 September 2019)—FamilySearch International has announced that registration for RootsTech 2020 Salt Lake City is now open. RootsTech is a popular 4-day annual family history and technology conference where individuals and families are inspired to discover, share, and preserve their family roots, heritage, and stories. The 2020 conference will be held February 26–29, 2020, at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. For more information, visit rootstech.org/salt-lake. Discounts are available for early registrations.

In 2019, RootsTech attracted over 20,000 attendees from 38 different countries and all 50 states.

RootsTech 2020 will celebrate its 10th anniversary and the distinguished honour that it is the largest genealogy conference of its kind in the world. The conference will feature a full lineup of inspiring and well-known keynote speakers, over 300 informative sessions, including hands-on computer workshops taught by industry professionals; interactive activities and helpful exhibitors in the expo hall; and entertaining events—all designed to inspire and empower personal family discoveries.

Conference Details

The theme for RootsTech 2020 will be “The Story of YOU.” Many of the classes, keynote address, and venue décor will reflect this theme.

“At RootsTech, we believe that the stories we’re creating and preserving today are just as important as the stories of our ancestors,” said Jen Allen, event director. “Reflecting on and celebrating each of our personal journeys is an important part of family history that we are excited to explore at the 2020 conference.”

RootsTech 2020 will also introduce learning forums—new class sessions covering a variety of specialized topics including: records access and preservation, innovation and technology, and DNA. One of these forums will be offered on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.

RootsTech 2020 will officially begin on Wednesday, February 26 with class sessions beginning at 8 AM MT. Wednesday’s general keynote session will begin on the main stage at 4:30 p.m. Steve Rockwood, CEO of FamilySearch International, will be the featured keynote speaker.

General keynote sessions on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday will begin on the main stage at 11 AM MT and will lead directly into the lunch hour.

Read more about what’s new at RootsTech 2020.

Pricing

Early bird discount pricing is available for a limited time on 4-day passes at just $169 (a $130 discount on regularly priced passes). Single day RootsTech passes are also available for $99. Both one-day and full conference passes include access to the popular expo hall and keynote sessions. Early bird pricing ends October 11, 2019.

Family Discovery Day

Registration for Family Discovery Day is also now open. The event takes place on Saturday, February 26, 2020, and is designed for families and members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This free 1-day event includes inspiring messages from Church leaders; engaging classes for families, youth, and young single adults; and evening entertainment to inspire and help families make family history connections. Family Discovery Day attendees will also have access to all the interactive activities and exhibitors found in the RootsTech expo hall. Event details, including speakers and class sessions, will be made available soon at RootsTech.org. The event is free, but registration is required.

Updated London, Poor Law and Board of Guardian Records

Updated on 16 September, Ancestry's London, England, Poor Law and Board of Guardian Records, 1738-1930 now contains 321,589 records.

Sourced from the London Metropolitan Archives, the collection includes a huge variety of different records such as:

Admission and discharge books of workhouses
Registers of individuals in the infirmary
Creed registers
School registers
Registers of children boarded out or sent to various other institutions
Registers of apprentices
Registers of lunatics
Registers of servants
Registers of children
Registers of relief to wives and children
Registers of inmates
Registers of indoor poor
Registers of deserted children

The background information given by Ancestry includes "Because the records haven’t yet been transcribed, it’s not possible to search for your relatives automatically." That's legacy text — at least some of the files are indexed. Others are available as images of the original document to browse.

They’ll help you identify which members of your family were considered poor, find out what help they received, and discover details of their everyday lives.

Checking a random sample I noticed a creed register with the notation "To Canada". I was unable to find the two young people mentioned in the home child database at Library and Archives Canada. Nothing's done and dusted!

RootsTech London anticipation builds: SOG extra

This date next month I'll be starting out on the trek from the plane to immigration at Heathrow airport and then on to my first sleep. That's well before the start of RootsTech London. Like many friends, I'll be combining the trip with family visits and some research.

The Society of Genealogists is taking the opportunity to help RootsTech visitors make the most of the trip with a series of free events.
Two free lectures by the society Genealogist Else Churchill:
Tuesday, 29 October, 2-3pm, I'm Stuck! Some Ideas for Solving Genealogy Problems.
Wednesday, 30 October, 2-3pm, Surname Searching & Finding Pedigrees Online and at SoG.
 and
Tours of the society library each day from Monday to Wednesday.

Find out more and book at http://www.sog.org.uk/books-courses/events-courses/calendar-month/2019/10/

Third annual virtual conference on Scottish Genealogy Research

PRESS RELEASE

Genealogy Tours of Scotland announces the third annual virtual conference on Scottish Genealogy Research. This is the only virtual conference dedicated to Scottish research topics.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 25TH, 2020

The ViC (virtual conference) will launch on Saturday, January 25th, 2020 at 8:30 am Eastern

The line-up of talks and speakers for the day:

Glasgow’s Role in the Slave Trade on Plantations in the West Indies presented by Stephen Mullen
Using Wills and Testaments for Scottish Genealogy Research presented by archivist Margaret Fox
Using Prison Records for Genealogy Research, presented by genealogist Emma Maxwell
Using Asylum Records for Genealogy Research, presented by genealogist Emma Maxwell
Using the Records Generated Upon Death for Genealogy Research, presented by archivist Irene O’Brien
Researching Your Scottish Ancestors in British Newspapers presented by Aoife O’Connor
Canada: Land and Opportunity presented by genealogy educator Christine Woodcock

 Registration fee is just $99.99 (cad) and allows unlimited access to the talks, handouts and marketplace until midnight (eastern) on February 1st, 2020.

 *** Virtual "Seats" are limited!*** For more information or to register: http://www.genealogyvic.com/

 For questions: genealogytoursofscotland@gmail.com

 All presentations are pre-recorded and released on a timed basis throughout the day, just like an in-person conference. The live Q&A will only happen on January 25th when the presenters will be available following their presentation to answer any questions.

Comment:  I don't research in Scotland and don't know most of the presenters. Aoife O’Connor I recall giving a good webinar on the British Newspaper Archive.  Christine Woodcock is well known in the Ontario genealogy community having spoken at a BIFHSGO conference.
The cost is $99.99, or $14 per recorded presentation. The benchmark is an annual subscription to Legacy Family Tree Webinars at $50 (US) per year with a library of nearly 1,000 presentations and new presentations added weekly.

DNA.Land is closing

Kudos to those behind DNA.Land for choosing the ethical high ground.
No ifs, ands or buts ... DNA.Land with its 163,237 genomes is closing as an academic research project. All accounts and contributed data will be permanently deleted and erased from the DNA.Land servers on September 30th, 2019.
That's in contrast to the situation with the Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation database which was acquired in 2012 along with GeneTree.
The scientists behind DNA.Land announce their intention of relaunching it as a commercial initiative, DNA.Land 2.0.

Northern Ireland Tithe Applotment Books

On his British Genes blog, Chris Paton reported "some very exciting news" from the latest stakeholder meeting at the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland.

In particular Tithe Applotment Books (Northern Ireland) from PRONI will be imminently (perhaps not my November) available online to browse as large scale PDF documents, via a 'View digital object' button on the catalogue entries.

PRONI will be adding to its site a how-to user guide to explain how to work through the collections.

Gene-O-Rama 2020 announcement

In recent years Ottawa Branch's Gene-O-Rama has featured Ontario-based keynote speakers as befits an OGS/Ontario Ancestors organization.
At Saturday's branch meeting I learned that, as it gets ready to celebrate its 50th-anniversary, Gene-O-Rama will be going beyond the borders — the keynote speaker will be Chicago-based internationally known Thomas MacEntee.
Thomas is a frequent speaker and webinar presenter. He consistently ranked in the top ten in my Rockstar Genealogist poll and was a popular speaker at the 2015 BIFHSGO conference.

BIFHSGO History: 2002 Conference

As I wasn't able to be at Susan Davis's presentation 25 Years of Storytelling at Saturday's BIFHSGO meeting I don't know whether she mentioned what is possibly the most quirky event in BIFHSGO history which happened at the 2002 conference. Many may not remember or have been involved in the Society at the time. Here's the way it was reported in The Citizen of 22 September 2002.

First, the writers tried to steal some of the genealogists’ cheese slices. Then, the genealogists grabbed handfuls of the writers’ Timbits. The war is not over.
The unusual food fight is taking place this weekend at 395 Wellington St.
That is the home of the National Archives of Canada, the National Library of Canada and considerable confusion.
The 6th annual Ottawa International Writers Festival had booked meeting room space this weekend with the National Library. The British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa had booked meeting room space this weekend with the National Archives.
The problem is the library and archives share the same meeting room spaces. And as every neophyte physics student knows, two bodies can not occupy the same space at the same time. The genealogists and the writers are, however, trying. But with mixed success.
The only near casualty came Friday evening when, according to witnesses, a 10-year-old girl attending the writers festival reached for a genealogical cheese slice. Someone the writers nicknamed “the catering Nazi” was reported to have almost slapped the child. But cooler heads prevailed.
A sort of uneasy truce has been called between the two groups as they both try to salvage their respective gatherings from disaster. Arrangements were made so some competing events of each group would be held in hallways and foyers as well as the official meeting rooms.
That meant that yesterday afternoon, for example, a writers festival discussion on gay marriage in the foyer of the auditorium was invaded by scores of genealogists moving into the auditorium. Most of the invading genealogists tried to be quiet as they tiptoed toward the auditorium, making detours to hit the Timbits. But some were extremely noisy.
“Holy (expletive deleted)!” Sean Wilson, the writers festival’s artistic director, exclaimed at one point when a group of elderly British descendants, with extremely healthy vocal chords, stood on the sidelines interrupting the gay marriage discussion.
Mr. Wilson stood up, grimaced and made a beeline for the British descendants. They retreated down a hallway.
Mr. Wilson used such adjectives as “disruptive,” “disheartening” and “frustrating” to explain his festival’s dilemma.
His language was stronger than that used by a panel of high-profile international writers yesterday afternoon, discussing everything from the bombing of “Palestine” to China’s persecution of Falun Gong. Egyptian writer Mohammed Salmawy criticized the bombing. Chinese writer Jiang Zilong defended the persecution on the grounds Falun Gong practitioners have become “too political.”
Some of the history society people interviewed said they were coping well with the double booking, but unanimously added, with just a hint of venom: “We booked this place a year ago.”
The writers festival booked several months ago and, Mr. Wilson said, checked three times since then with the archives to ensure the space was not double booked. Festival organizers were worried about such an eventuality because it happened to them last April, when author Rohinton Mistry was scheduled to give a reading at the National Library and the National Archives booked the same space for the same time. Mr. Mistry and hundreds of fans were forced into the foyer. Mr. Mistry was not pleased.
Actually, anyone who is a regular attendee at library-archives events knows this is a problem that has existed for several years. It’s always blamed on a computer glitch. Apparently, no one at 395 Wellington has figured out all you need to avoid confusion is a calendar and a pen. When someone calls to book, you write down the name on the calendar. End of confusion, as long as there is only one calendar.
The writers festival was given the space from the National Library for free, so organizers can’t demand a refund. All previous writers festivals were held at the National Arts Centre without this kind of glitch. The National Library was expected to become the new festival home for many years. That, Mr. Wilson says, is now in doubt.
The confusion at 395 Wellington should be over by tomorrow. The British descendants wrap up their gathering today. The writers continue until next Saturday.

Two riled BIFHSGO members wrote to the Citizen about the article.

Food-fight article ignored compromise and common sense
Re: Food fight erupts as two festivals collide, Sept. 22.
The article by Paul Gessell was an opportunity missed. In line with the Law of Parsimony — report only what is supported by the facts — the following are the facts:
1. Neither the Ottawa International Writers Festival (OIWF) nor the British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa (BIFHSGO), nor the National Archives of Canada (NAC) was informed of the double-booked spaces by the National Library until two weeks before the events.
2. I was informed by a number of members who are writers and were planning to attend both events.
3. When informed, BÎFHSGO was told there was no problem except for one room (154) — we were asked by the NAC to use room 129 — a compromise that we accepted.
4. When we set up our exhibitors’ space in the auditorium foyer (as we have done for the past three years), we found out from the organizers of OIWF that it had events planned for that space and the auditorium.
5. Neil Wilson, director of the OIWF and his organizing staff, Gabrielle Blais, the NAC director-general of client services and her staff, myself and the BIFHSGO conference planning group worked out a number of practical options, supported by Ian Wilson, the national archivist.
6.     These compromises, by both OIWF and BIFHSGO. with the support of NAC staff and the
commissionaires on duty, resulted in few complaints by attendees of both events, except for a few small incidents when members of both groups were unaware of the compromise arrangements.
And what did Mr. Gessell focus on? An attention-getting headline in, if you will pardon the pun, poor taste. What an opportunity missed. Instead of the negative journalism, he could have emphasized the common sense, co-operation and compromise which both organizations practised when a difficult situation was thrust upon them. At no point was I approached for my reaction as the “other offended party.” And I was on site all day Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
I would also note that the Citizen, along with other media, is going to have to search for better descriptions of those over the age of 65 than “elderly British descendants” — an offensive adjective for an active, growing part of the community.
Gerry Glavin, Ottawa, Co-ordinator, BIFHSGO conference 2002

Negative focus
As a member of the British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa, I attended our annual fall conference where we shared space with the Ottawa International Writers Association. Hundreds of writers and genealogists behaved with grace and co-operation in the difficult situation of being required to share space and relocate events at short notice, through no fault of their own. The National Archives and National Library staff did everything possible to remedy the booking error and accommodate everyone’s needs.
The writers’ association invited the genealogists to attend its events at the price designated for its own members, and our society was very happy to sign up a new member from the writers’ group. Good humour and goodwill predominated through the stress of the space sharing. That was the important news, and it was completely ignored in your reporter’s negative and mean-spirited article which focused on a greatly exaggerated and isolated incident.
Ruth Kirk, Ottawa

Google the Citizen journalist's name and you'll find that Paul Gessell "For the last three decades while based in the Ottawa area, he has focused on the collision of art and politics."

Sunday Sundries

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

Three Outstanding Collections Added to the Canada Memory of the World Register

Visualising newspaper data
Here's the type of initiative LAC could well learn from.

Restless Sleep With Age
Can’t sleep? Don’t worry. It’ll probably be worse when you’re older (but worrying won't help)!

Good Luck Professor Spiegelhalter
A 56-minute podcast from BBC Radio 4. In Good Luck Professor Spiegelhalter, the Winton Professor for the Public Understanding of Risk at Cambridge University looks at notions of luck in gambling, traces the origins of how we think about fate and fortune, the religious and psychological view of luck and how the emergence of theory of probability changed our view of it. "Luck is chance taken personally."

RootsTech London full schedule

The full schedule of talks, filling in 19 slots previously gaps, is now posted at https://www.rootstech.org/schedule/.
Genetic genealogy is well catered for with one or more talk in every session including five by Debbie Kennett, four by Maurice Gleeson, three each by Michelle Leonard and Jonny Perl, and two each by John Cleary, Ugo Perego, Donna Rutherford and Diahan Southard.

TheGenealogist expands School and University Register collection

The record sets named in following press release from TheGenealogist includes those for Upper Canada College.

New School and University Registers

As children go back to school, TheGenealogist has just released a diverse batch of school and university records to join its ever-growing education collection.

Researchers can use this new data to find ancestors who attended or taught at a variety of Educational establishments between the 1830s and 1930s. Also listed are the names of those who held high office in the institutions, such as the patrons, deans, visitors, professors, masters in the case of universities and the principles and governors in the case of schools.

Use these records to add colour to a family story and glean important information from the biographical details to use in further research.

The list of records included in this release are:

St. Lawrence College Ramsgate Register, 1879 to 1911
Upper Canada College Address List 1829-1929
The Report Of The President Of Queen's College Belfast 1896-1897
The Glenalmond Register 1847-1929
Clifton College Register 1862-1912
Edinburgh Institution 1832-1932
King Williams College Register 1833-1904
The Bradfield College Register 1850-1923
The Old Denstonian Chronicle 1915
The Old Denstonian Chronicle 1916
The Old Denstonian Chronicle 1917
The Old Denstonian Chronicle 1918
The Old Denstonian Chronicle 1919
Isle of Man, King William's College Register 1833-1927
Ireland, The Campbell College Register 1894-1938
Eton College, Easter 1862
Keble College Register, 1870-1925
Rathmines School Roll, 1858-1899
Charterhouse Register 1911-1920 Vol. III
Cheltenham College Register 1841-1927
Alumni Carthusiani, 1614-1872

This expands our extensive education records collection.

Read our article:
https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2019/find-ancestors-in-education-records-1180/

These records and many more are available to subscribers of TheGenealogist.co.uk

Correction for Cream of the Crop

The latest issue of BIFHSGO's Anglo-Celtic Roots, Volume 25, Number 3, arrived in my mailbox yesterday. It's not yet online. There's incorrect information in my Cream of the Crop column. When written it was correct.

Global Genealogy will not now be selling copies of Blaine Bettinger's latest book, the second edition of The Family Tree Guide to DNA Testing and Genetic Genealogy.

Amazon has it at $33.58, plus tax and shipping. There's a Kindle edition at $14.99.

Findmypast Berkshire, Derbyshire and International Records

New this week on Findmypast

Berkshire Marriages Index
Over 63,000 additional records added for 16 parishes across the county for a total of 378,772 records. The additions consist of transcripts provided by the Berkshire Family History Society that may reveal age, marital status, residence, occupation, father’s name and spouse’s details. Some records may also include the names of witnesses and additional notes.

Berkshire marriages cover more than 156 parishes in Berkshire between 1538 and 1933.  The transcripts were created by both Findmypast and the Berkshire Family History Society using original marriage registers and bishop’s transcripts held by the Berkshire Archives. A further set of records originates from the Phillimore Marriage Registers with links to the original publish images — also available through archive.org/.

Derbyshire Deaths and Burials
Over 23,000 Derbyshire Family History Society transcripts have been added for 12 cemeteries around the county. The collection now totals 626,050 records from 1538 to 1998 and many without a burial year. As well as revealing the final resting place, these records may also reveal their age at death, birth year, death year, burial date and if they died paupers. Some records may also list next of kin.

Irish Boundary Commission Records 1924-1925
Just in time for BREXIT, these are records for The Irish Boundary Commission set up to determine the boundary between the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland. Findmypast has digitised this collection of more than 47,000 records from The National Archives which include the Commission’s minutes, papers, correspondence and report of the Irish Boundary Commission, and records of oral and written evidence submitted to it.

British In Ceylon Parish Records
From 1815 until 1948, Sri Lanka, formerly known as Ceylon, was a British colony. The 4,500 records in this collection span that period and have been collected and transcribed by the Kabristan Archives. They include the names of those who were serving in Ceylon and were married, died, or had children there. Over a thousand names of those who served in Ceylon during the First World War are also included.

International records update - Russia
Does your family tree have Russian roots? Search for your Russian ancestors in more than 325,000 baptisms, marriages and burials. These three indexes from FamilySearch will provide essential names, dates and locations.

GEDMatch Notifications

Did you receive the following message from GEDMatch?

The purpose of GEDmatch is to provide tools to our fellow genealogical researchers.

However, we also wish to remind our members of another use that we believe is especially important.

That use is to bring a sense of closure to families who have suffered deeply because a violent crime was perpetrated on them or a member of their family. Here is a story one family victim placed on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlbfAYVtnq8&feature=youtu.be

Some people feel there may be good reasons for not making their information available for this use. We understand and make it easy for them to protect their information from being compared to criminal cases. All they have to do is make sure the police badge icon on their GEDmatch home page has a red “X” through it. If the red “X” is missing, see below.

We recommend and encourage opting-in. For those who wish to make their information available to solve violent crime cases, get perpetrators off the street and give closure to victims, this is done by ensuring that the police icon on their GEDmatch home page does not have a red “X” over it. A simple click on the icon will add or remove the “X”. This should be done for kits that are yours or for which permission has been given or for deceased persons whose information you manage.

Many of these families have suffered for decades. They need your support. We hope you will encourage others who have been genealogically DNA tested to also add their information.

We believe it is the caring thing to do.

GEDmatch Management

I admit to being torn. While I believe in the value of DNA matching for catching criminals I am not in favour of the death penalty and would not want my DNA to be the evidence that resulted in an execution.

What do you think?