Happy Canada Day
In this omnibus issue:
WVR Australia taken over by FMP
The Times Digital Archive via BANQ
London Lives (1690-1800)
Attn LAC: Being Accountable
Family Chronicle: July/Aug 2010
Self Publishing
Canada's Constitution on Display
WVR Australia taken over by FMP
As of the end of May the website for World Vital Records (Australia) is taken over by Find My Past (Australia). The new FindMyPast.com.au website has 35 million records for Australia, New Zealand, Pacific Islands and Papua New Guinea. Look for Australian directories, government gazettes, post office directories and other publications.
The Times Digital Archive via BANQ
A surprise to me is that residents of Quebec who register with the Library and Archives of Quebec (BANQ) gain free remote access to the Times Digital Archive, 1785-1985, something not accessible at Ontario libraries, or even Library and Archives Canada. The digital archives of the Globe and Mail are only available at BANQ physical locations.
London Lives (1690-1800)
If you had ancestors in London prior to 1820 try a search on the free fully searchable London Lives database www.londonlives.org/of 240,000 manuscripts from eight archives and fifteen datasets, giving access to 3.35 million names. Crime, poverty, and illness; apprenticeship, work, politics and money; how people voted, lived and died; all this and more can be found in these documents.
Attn LAC: Being Accountable
At a telephone conference call of the former LAC Services Advisory Board members we learned that the organization intends re-instituting the Board, with a goal of having the new and renewed members in place by September. That reflects the organization view that the Board has been helpful.
The imperative for the composition to be Politically Correct, with regions and client groups adequately represented, means that the Board grew to more than 30 members, which is both expensive and unwieldy. It was all too easy for client issues that LAC management deemed to be lower priority to be buried. An example is the issue of Canadian Pacific employee files held in Calgary, raised as something LAC should attempt to acquire on numerous occasions, only to be repeatedly ignored.
Further, because the Board met infrequently the agenda tended to the strategic. That's not necessarily bad although deliberation sometimes got lost in governmental gobbledygook. What was missing was a mechanism to deal with smaller more operational, and sometimes niggling, issues. At TNA this is addressed through a Users Forum, with minutes and supporting documents placed on the organization website www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/get-involved/user-forum-meetings.htm. If LAC wants to be more responsive to its clients this is the model for a mechanism it might well adopt.
Family Chronicle: July/Aug 2010
The new issue of Moreshead Magazine's flagship publication arrived on Tuesday. The feature article, highlighted with a cover photo, is "Researching Civil War Ancestors: locating records for lesser-known battles and skirmishes". The issue has articles on the US Federal Census, Revolutionary War Service, and Social Security Applications so should sell well from US news-stands.
On US records, I notice that Ancestry have updated their U.S. Compiled Revolutionary War Military Service Records, 1775-1783 database, and added the Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, 1800-1900.
Self Publishing
Popular Ontario genealogist-entrepreneur Rick Roberts spoke on self-publishing at the Upper Canada Book Fair last weekend. You can review his slides at http://globalgenealogy.com/
Canada's Constitution on Display
On Canada Day Canada's constitution goes on rare display from 10am to 3pm at 395 Wellington. Could this be a prelude to a permanent display of this and other national historic documents, in the same way that TNA exhibit the Domesday Book and other historic documents.
30 June 2010
ACC Omnibus Edition: Canada Day Special
28 June 2010
ACC Special: Ancestry FREE offer
If you're not an Ancestry subscriber, consider taking advantage of this offer which appears to be restricted to the 1911 census. www.ancestry.ca/canadaday?o_xid=37725&o_lid=37725
You do have to register.
27 June 2010
More Chelsea Pensioner Records Online
In this omnibus issue:
More Chelsea Pensioner Records Online
Ice Cream for ALL, please
More on Western Canadian Directories
Welsh Immigrant Makes Good
Summer Birth Lucky!
More Chelsea Pensioner Records Online
This week findmypast.co.uk added 96,464 Chelsea Pensioners records for the period 1855-1872 to the almost 507,000 Chelsea Pensioners records in total on the site.
Ice Cream for ALL, please
Have you seen the ad running on TV where new client kid is offered an ice cream, but it's refused to existing client kid? Apparently that's the tactic being employed by Ancestry in the UK in offering 25% discounts for Ancestry subscriptions to National Trust members, but only for new subscriptions.
This is one of many items, including a link to this blog (thank you Peter), in the latest Lost Cousins newsletter available at http://lostcousins.com/newsletters/latejun10news.htm
More on Western Canadian Directories
For those wondering about Saskatchewan and Manitoba directories, not mentioned in my last blog posting, take a look at the listings linked from www.daveobee.com/.
Welsh Immigrant Makes Good
Australia has a new Prime Minister. Julia Gillard is that country's first female prime minister. Her parents, John and Moira Gillard, left Barry in the Vale of Glamorgan as "Ten Pound Poms" with their two daughters in 1966 when she was age five.
Summer Birth Lucky!
From the My Heritage blog comes a posting http://blog.myheritage.com/2010/06/can-date-of-birth-affect-personality/. The abstract of the original article reports the finding that "In both genders and in all age groups, birth during the summer half-year was associated with significantly higher belief in being lucky, as compared to birth during the winter half-year, with a maximum around birth in May and a minimum around birth in November."
23 June 2010
ACC: Historical Canadian Directories Online, and more
In this omnibus issue:
Ancestry Adds Historical Canadian Directories
British Columbia City Directories
Alberta City Directories
FreeBMD Update
British Soldiers in the Boer War and at Waterloo
Drouin Collection Free
Upper Canada in 1832
Which Browser
Measure Distance on Google Maps
New Ottawa City Archives Update
Ancestry Adds Historical Canadian Directories
Ancestry.ca has issued a press release announcing "the completion of Canadian City and Area Directories, 1819-1906, a rich collection of more than 150,000 pages of historical records, the largest collection of historic Canadian directories available online. The collection includes the names of more than 7 million Canadians who lived during this 87- year-period of national growth.
The first release of City and Area Directories by Ancestry.ca in October of 2008 contained nearly 20,000 pages of records and 5.2 million names. Today’s completion adds a staggering 134,000 pages of records.
Almost anyone with an ancestor who lived in a Canadian town or city during the period from 1819 to 1906 will find an ancestor in the collection."
The breakdown of records by region with the number of original pages for each is: Ontario (84,059), Quebec (33,201), Nova Scotia (12,566), New Brunswick (11,051), National and Multi-Province (6,201), Manitoba (2,514), British Columbia (2,016), Newfoundland (1,194), Prince Edward Island (927), Alberta (16). For Ontario the collection is vastly expanded from just seven directories previously, to more than 50 for Toronto alone.
British Columbia City Directories
A post on the CanadaGenealogy, or, 'Jane's Your Aunt' blog http://canadagenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/06/bc-digitization-session-june-2010.html sent me off looking at projects underway in the BC History Digitization Program at www.ikebarberlearningcentre.ubc.ca/ps/BCDigitInfo.html
While not all of the project were that inspired I was pleased to note some newspaper digitization projects and the Vancouver Public Library's collection of digitized British Columbia city directories dates from 1860 up to and including 1915 at www.vpl.ca/bccd/index.php
That's a nice complement to the Ancestry collection which has only five Vancouver directories.
Alberta Directories
The Ancestry release only has one Alberta directory, for Calgary in 1885. There is a good collection of the province's directories, although for a later period, at peel.library.ualberta.ca/henderson.html. A tip of the hat to Heather Oakley for including this in her Interesting Websites column in The Ottawa Genealogist; it's one of the few things I miss in not being an OGS member.
FreeBMD Update
The June FreeBMD database update was installed on Monday. The database currently contains 186,909,894 distinct records (238,405,388 total records). There is the usual sprinkling of corrections and additions throughout the database. The main additions are for the 1930s and 1940s with work starting on the 1950s.
British Soldiers in the Boer War and at Waterloo
Ancestry has added "UK, Casualties of the Boer War, 1899-1902" with Force, Regiment, Battalion, Battery/Corps, Rank, Name, Casualty type, date, and place information on over 65,000 soldiers who either died or were wounded during the conflict. Information on 453 Canadians is included.
UK, Waterlpo Medal Role, 1815, contains information extracted from the Waterloo Medal Book (original at The National Archives, reference MINT 16/112) on soldiers who fought at Waterloo, as well as to those in preceding actions at Ligny and Quatre Bras. It was given to approximately 39,009 men and effectively forms a roll call of Wellington’s army. Information in this database includes: Name of soldier, Title, Rank, Regiment, Sub Unit, Fate.
Drouin Collection Free
Ancestry.ca is giving three days of free access to the fully searchable indexes for the historic Drouin Collection on the occasion of Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day. Many people of UK origin living in Ontario as well as Quebec may be found in Drouin.
Upper Canada 1832
If you're looking for contextual material you may find something of interest in "Statistical sketches of Upper Canada: for the use of emigrants (1832)" www.archive.org/details/cihm_32368
Which Browser
Is your web browser up to date? If not you may have problems with some of the genealogy sites you visit. Ancestry recommends Firefox 3 for both Windows and Macintosh as well as Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 for Windows. As of June 2009 Ancestry is no longer optimized for Internet Explorer 6, and support for Internet Explorer 8 is not yet complete. 32 % of visitors to this blog use Firefox3.6; 28% use IE7.0 and 17% use IE8.0.
Measure Distance on Google Maps
I use Google Maps a lot for locating places in my family history and examining the geographic context. One thing I've missed is a distance measurement tool which is available on Google Earth. Now Google Maps Labs has added a tool which when activated adds a small ruler at the bottom of the map. Click on the ruler and you'll be able to use the distance measurement tool by clicking on the map and tracing the path you want to measure.
New Ottawa City Archives Update
I took pictures at the new building on 22 June. Unfortunately it's not quite as well along as depicted in this artists impression o
n a billbo
ard at the site.
20 June 2010
TNA Labs, and more
In this omnibus edition:
TNA Labs
Lost Cousins Newsletter, census edition
LAC Awards
UK WDYTYA celebrities
OGS Blog
BIFHSGO News
The Upper Canada Book Fair
TNA Labs
The (UK) National Archives Labs is a new test area for prototypes of online resources. Currently it includes three areas:
UK history photo finder allows you to search and view digitised historical photographs of the UK and Ireland. Starting with the Dixon-Scott collection, which holds more than 14,000 photographs taken in the 1920s-1940s.
Valuation Office Survey maps of England and Wales from 1910 to 1915 allows you to search for a particular name within a large number of records from the TNA collection. You can and identify and order items from nearly 50,000 Valuation Office Survey maps.
Person search, still in development, permits searching for a particular name within a large number of records from the TNA collection including a number of First World War records, Royal Navy records, criminal registers, law suits, wills and pension records.
LostCousins Newsletter, census editionThe latest newsletter from LostCousins includes items on:What DID happen to the 1931 Census? Is the 1921 Census in good condition? When will the 1911 Scotland census be released? Read it at
http://lostcousins.com/newsletters/jun10news.htm
LAC Awards
UK WDYTYA Celebrities
If you've never heard of most of the celebrities who will be appearing in the eighth series of the BBC TV program "Who Do You Think You Are?" you're not alone. The BBC announcement talks about "TV legend Bruce Forsyth", hardly a household name in North America. Others are film star Rupert Everett, gardening presenter Monty Don, soap star turned pop singer Jason Donovan and actors Robert Penry Jones and Alexander Armstrong. The lack of name recognition is undoubtedly why the British series hasn't been picked up in North America.
Putting the shoe somewhat on the other foot, here's a British perspective on the US version of WDYTYA, the Sarah Jessica Parker episode, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/7826465/Who-Do-You-Think-You-Are-BBC-One-review.html
OGS Blog
As of 14 June the Ontario Genealogical Society has a new blog. There are lots of postings. Can they keep up the pace? Check it out at www.ogs.on.ca/ogsblog/
BIFHSGO News
The Society Annual General meeting held on Saturday 19 June 2010 saw the presentation of awards and election of a new Board.
The award for best article in Anglo Celtic Roots was presented to Carol Annett. Best presentation by a member at a monthly meeting during the year, based on a vote by the membership, went to Glenn Wright for his presentation at the February meeting "Just Names on a List? Let's Take Another Look at Passenger Manifests"
Glenn Wright was also named to the BIFHSGO Hall of Fame in recognition of his many contributions to family history and the society.
Four new directors and the new president were elected. The new President is ... you guessed it ... Glenn Wright.
The Upper Canada Book Fair
The 26th and 27th of June will see the Upper Canada Book Fair, held at the Ecoty Education Centre, near Perth, Ontario. A full schedule of talks and panel discussions is set for both days, including lectures by most of the 20 or so authors who will be attending with copies of their books for sale. Author/speakers in attendance include Rick Roberts, Janet Uren, Edwinna von Baeyer, Dianne Graves, Charlotte Gray and more. Admission is $15 for one day, $25 for both http://ecotay.com/upper-canada-book-fair-programme/
16 June 2010
ACC Special: 16 June 2010: SCGS Jamboree Wrapup
In this issue:
Pier 21
BIFHSGO Monthly Meeting and AGM
Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree Wrap-up
Pier 21
On Monday, the House of Commons voted unanimously to designate Pier 21 as Canada’s national immigration museum. More at: http://thechronicleherald.ca/Front/1187383.html
BIFHSGO Monthly Meeting and AGM
Starting at 9am on Saturday June 19 at Library and Archives Canada the meeting will highlight
GREAT MOMENTS IN GENEALOGY presentations by BIFHSGO Members:
"Miracles Do Happen" by Shirely-Ann Pyefinch
"Finding Uncle Bernard or How Not To Do Genealogy" by George Swift
"Lily, Thistle, Fur and Feather: The Ancestry of Flore Couvrette" by Carol Annett
"The Importance of Being Ernest" by Chris McPhail
"Albert Edward Weir, Adopted Son: The Search for His Parents" by Patricia McGregor
Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree Wrap-up
Here are thoughts on the talks I heard at the Jamboree held in Burbank from 11 to 13 June 2010.
Friday
Kathryn Hope Borges, who is director and co-founder of the International Society of Genetic Genealogy, spoke on "Exploring Your Surname" including formation of surnames, understanding the surname, one name studies, and DNA studies. I was fortunate to be able to sit down with her after the presentation to discuss DNA, and especially autosomal DNA analysis. She helped establish a link to a DNA cousin of mine.
Arlene Eakle, a founder of the Association of Professional Genealogists, spoke on migration patterns into the central US showing how ethnic migration was often highly geographically circumscribed, otherwise termed chain migration. Her's was the only presentation I attended that did not use PowerPoint.
Saturday
Suzanne Russo Adams from Ancestry.com in a crowded session spoke on what's new on Ancestry.
Bennett Greenspan, founder of Family Tree DNA gave an overview of the company autosomal test called Family Finder. By the first week of July he expects to provide a percent origin figures for DNA, later an X-DNA browser, and in the fourth quarter a new analysis tool - likely one that will identify people who match on a specific DNA segment. Unlike 23andMe he was unwilling to give information on the number of clients the company has for its autosomal testing.Throughout the Jamboree the company exhibit was always busy.
Joanna L Mountain spoke on 23andMe's autosomal testing for genealogical purposes. The company now has about 40,000 clients, about 20,000 of North European origin, that's for health and genealogical interests combined. They will soon be providing more refined analysis on ethnic and national origin.
Shelley Talalay Dardashti lectured on DNA projects showing many Ashkanazi Eastern European Jews were of Iberian Sephardic origin.
Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak gave a new presentation "Neglected History" on some of bit players in American history that she has been researching.
Sunday
Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak spoke on her research on unclaimed persons, people found dead whose relatives are being sought by county coroners. See www.unclaimedpersons.com, www.unclaimedpersons.org, and two year old Facebook group which has tackled 240 cases in two years with 185 of them resolved.
Lisa Louise Cooke reviewed strategies to find living relatives. She mentioned that social networks are fast becoming a prime source for tracing the living. In a separate conversation with Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak she commented that the greater availability of state civil registration records, despite the pressures of overzealous privacy advocates, was the greatest advance in this field in the past year.
Ron Arons, who appeared for most of the conference in a convict suit, told a "putting flesh on the bones" story about researching his great-grandfather who served in Sing Sing convicted of bigamy.
Curt Witcher from the Allan County Public Library spoke on WorldCat.
I'd have to judge the jamboree a significant success. Well over 1600 people registered, and with speakers and exhibitors the number was probably close to 2000 making it the second-largest family history event in the USA. There was a considerable blogger presence, many of them sitting together blogging. Presentations from the two major providers of autosomal DNA analysis services for genealogy was a significant attraction. Genetic genealogy has suddenly come of age. Words are from vendors was that they generally had a successful event, commercially encouraging following similar success at the NGS and OGS conferences
13 June 2010
ACC Special: 13 June 2010
I'm attending the Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree in Burbank and enjoying the company of other genealogy bloggers, DNA enthusiasts and other family historians. About 1600 people are attending in a facility which allows for at least eight parallel sessions, a large marketplace and lots of casual meeting areas.
The meeting is exceptionally well organized by the Southern California Genealogical Society, which has no paid staff, yet puts on this large conference each year. I suspect that profits from the jamboree allow the Society to keep membership fees low, much lower than, say, the Ontario Genealogical Society.
Several Canadians are participating including Ed Zapletal and Rick Cree from Moorshead Magazines; and multi-talented Dave Obee who is most recently author of Destination Canada. Louise St-Denis from the National Society for Genealogical Studies is giving several presentations on Canadian topics.
As is common with US conferences I have attended the basic registration fees are kept low by not offering free refreshments, minimizing and generating revenue from additional cost lectures, breakfasts, banquets, advertising, etc.
Amongst the most interesting topics were two talks by rival autosomal DNA testing companies, 23andMe and Family Tree DNA. Both announced no cost extensions to their offerings giving new or additional information on geographic or ethnic origin.
11 June 2010
Free access to Findmypast: World Cup Special
An interesting announcement of a very limited time offer from Findmypast. The first England game is Saturday against the USA. We all know who we want to win don't we!
CALLING ALL WORLD CUP WIDOWS AND WIDOWERS!
The World Cup is now upon us and we thought it would only be fair to provide some entertainment for any non-football fans out there:
Whenever England play a match, you'll be able to access all our records for free!*
What you need to know about this fantastic offer:
- When England play, you don't pay: 30 minutes before each England game kicks off, all the records on findmypast.co.uk will be free to view for 3 hours
- You can view original images and transcriptions of all our records for free including birth, marriage and death records 1538-2006, census records including the 1911 census and our Chelsea Pensioners British Army Service Records 1760-1913 - to name just a few
- Normally you would need a subscription or PayAsYouGo credits to view our records - some of which normally cost 30 credits each - so to be able to see them for free is a rare opportunity
- Keep an eye on our blog for a competition question to enter during each England match. You'll need to answer all the questions correctly for a chance to win, so make sure you don't miss any. The prize is a goodie bag containing a digital camera, vouchers for a year's Full subscription plus much more
All you need to do to make use of this unique offer is register on findmypast.co.uk as you'll need to sign in to view the records. Visit our World Cup page for more information.
If you need a helping hand with your research, take a look at our video tutorials or our Getting Started page which provide clear advice on how to use our records.
We'd love to hear about any discoveries you make while our records are free to view - post anything you'd like to share with us and our readers on our Facebook page.
Please pass this on to friends, family or anyone else you think might want to make the most of our free family history records.
*All records available using our Full subscription (including the 1911 Census) will be free: Living Relatives searches and Memorial scrolls are not included.
09 June 2010
ACC Omnibus Edition: 9 June 2010 Nova Scotia Vital Records .. and more
In this issue:
Family Tree DNA special offer on Y-DNA tests
Deceasedonline.com adds more than 50,000 English records
Nova Scotia Vital Record Indexes at Ancestry
How Time Flys
arti-FACTS: Antiques and Heritage Preservation Day
Beechwood Cemetery Walking Tour
Family Tree DNA Special Offer on Y-DNA tests
FTDNA has promotional prices for the following tests until June 25 in conjunction with the Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree. Kits need to be paid for by June 30, 2010.
Y-DNA37 for $119 (Regular price would be $149)
Y-DNA67 for $199 (Regular price would be $239)
Y-DNA37+mtDNA for $159 (Combined test would cost $238)
Info is at www.familytreedna.com/group-join.aspx?code=D37109&Group=SCGS
Deceasedonline.com adds more than 50,000 English records
Before the end of July, around 243,000 burial records going back to the late 18th century will be added to www.deceasedonline.com comprising computerised records, digital scans of burial registers and details of grave contents. As well as additions in Aberdeen already mentioned look for:
- In Salcombe in the South Hams district of Devon, 2,100 records from Shadycombe Cemetery, opened in 1879, and 1,000 burial records from Bonfire Hill Cemetery, opened in 1941.
- 40,000 records from Newark Cemetery in Nottinghamshire, opened in 1856, which includes a large area and memorial dedicated to Polish soldiers and military stationed in the UK during WW2.
- From the London Borough of Brent, Carpender’s Park Cemetery, located near Watford in Hertfordshire, approximately 10,250 burial records for this relatively new cemetery opened in 1954.
Nova Scotia Vital Record Indexes at Ancestry
Indexes to Nova Scotia Births, 1836-1907, Marriages, 1763-1932, and Deaths, 1864-1877, 1890-1957 are now available to Ancestry.ca subscribers. To use the facility you have to agree to additional non-disclosure terms. As with England and Wales, indexes only are available. Full certificates have to be purchased from the government agency which can be done through a direct link from Ancestry.
How Time Flys
On 10 June 2009 Ancestry.ca announced the world-first online launch of the historical Canadian Censuses, 1851-1916, with 32 million names.
arti-FACTS: Antiques and Heritage Preservation Day
On Saturday June 12, 2010, from 11am to 3pm, the Canadian Association for Conservation is holding an event at Library and Archives Canada. Attendees will learn how to store, handle, and care for antiques as well as what conservation and restoration treatments are available. Bring in your antiques for a personalized consultation by a professional conservator. More than half a dozen experts with various specialities will be available. Appraisals are not being provided. Admission is $5.
This event is being held on the final day of the Canadian Association for Conservation annual conference, this year being held in Ottawa from June 10-12. There is more information on the conference at www.cac-accr.ca/english/e-CAC-conference.asp
Beechwood Cemetery Walking Tour
Sunday, June 13, 2010 2:00 p.m.
Theme: Photographers of Ottawa
Admission is free
06 June 2010
ACC Omnibus Edition: 6 June 2010: Beyond Google, and more
In this issue:
Search Engines for Genealogy: Going Beyond Google
Most Popular Genealogy Software
1901 Irish Census Now Online
Yet More Chelsea Pensioners Records
Lancashire Businesses Online
Ancestry Adds Dunfermline Journal, 1851-1931
Re-activate ScotlandsPeople credits
Abbreviations Used in Canadian Military Service Files
Search Engines for Genealogy: Going Beyond Google
A useful article from the new My Heritage blog covers search engines Wolfram Alpha, Blinkx, Boardreader, and Colleacta. They won't supplant Google, but do supplement it for some specialized searches.
http://blog.myheritage.com/2010/06/genealogy-search-engines-going-beyond-google/
Most Popular Genealogy Software
The Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree gets underway on Friday and as a prelude the organizers collected a variety of information from registrants. Family Tree Maker remains the most popular genealogy software, mentioned by 21.5% of registrants responding. Next amongst the stand-alone dedicated genealogy programs is Legacy Family Tree (10%) and RootsMagic (7.4%). However, Ancestry Online Family Trees, word processing and spreadsheet software were each mentioned more than Legacy. See the full result at:
http://genealogyjamboree.blogspot.com/2010/06/jamboree-factoid-software-programs-used.html
1901 Irish Census Now Online
Long awaited, the complete name indexed 1901 census of Ireland is now available at: www.census.nationalarchives.ie
According to www.rte.ie/news/2010/0602/1901census.html since the 1911 Census was put on the internet three years ago, just under seven million visits have been recorded to the website.
Yet More Chelsea Pensioners Records
Almost 100,000 new Chelsea Pensioners British Army Service Records, for 1855-1872, are added to findmypast.co.uk. You can now search 96,434 records and 437,825 images for this period. This new batch of records brings the total amount of Chelsea Pensioners records and images on findmypast.co.uk to 506,870 records and 3,196,935 images.
Lancashire Businesses Online
The University of Manchester has placed the records of 3000 small businesses between 1760 and 1820 online- most relating to Manchester and Liverpool. You can search via name, business and document for your grocer or wheelwright ancestor and read documents related to them. www.northwestfamilybusiness.arts.manchester.ac.uk/Intro.aspx
Ancestry Adds Dunfermline Journal, 1851-1931
This is a page image database for the Dunfermline Journal, the main local newspaper of Dunfermline, Scotland, dating from 1851-1931. There is no full text search capability. The issues available are monthly from 1851 to 1862. 1863 to 1871 is missing, and the subsequent issues are weekly.
Re-activate ScotlandsPeople credits
ScotlandsPeople is offering all customers who have existing credits in their account the opportunity to re-activate and use the credits at no cost through the use of a voucher code. Use the free voucher code SCOTLANDSPEOPLE which will re-set the credit expiry to 90 days in their account. Customers may use this voucher any time until 1.00 p.m. on Thursday 17th June, 2010. The voucher may only be used once in each account. For information on how to use the voucher code go to www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/content/help/index.aspx?1359
Abbreviations Used in Canadian Military Service Files
Puzzled by a military abbreviation? If its in a Canadian Military Service file a new webpage developed by the Genealogy Services of Library and Archives Canada can likely help. See: www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/genealogy/022-909.011-e.html.
02 June 2010
ACC Omnibus Edition 2 June 2010
In this issue:
A.COM May Update
FindMyPast adds to Chelsea Pensioners' Service Records Online
TNA Podcast: Lost London Pubs
Local Studies: Historical Content - Ottawa and Environs
A.COM May Update
Ancestry.com followed the rest of the market down in May, falling from $20.20 at the start of the trading month to close the month at $16.87. It fell as low as $15.49 on May 25. There was some favourable market comment on May 23 which may have helped the stock rebound. http://seekingalpha.com/article/206507-ancestry-com-the-future-of-history?source=yahoo
FindMyPast adds to Chelsea Pensioners' Service Records Online
findmypast.co.uk now have records for more than 500,000 Chelsea Pensioners' of the British Army between 1873-1900 available to search online . The records include servicemen born in the UK and throughout the world, including India and Jamaica.
TNA Podcast: Lost London Pubs
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/podcasts/lost-london-pubs.htm
The book "The Mysteries of London" mentioned toward the end of the talk can be read free online at www.victorianlondon.org/mysteries/mysteries-00-chapters.htm
Local Studies: Historical Content - Ottawa and Environs
Well hidden but worth finding in the new Ottawa Public Library website is a section compiled out of the Ottawa Room with resources categorized under the headings: Arts & Entertainment; Community; Economy; Festivals; General; Historical Buildings;Immigration/Settlement; Miscellaneous; People; Religion; Sports & Recreation; Transportation.
