From the collection held at The National Archives now available exclusively online at findmypast are Royal Air Force service records including the predecessor Royal Flying Corps and Royal Naval Air Service.
British Royal Air Force, Airmen's Service Records 1912-1939, 342,818 records.
This includes 342 with birthplace Canada, 29 British Columbia, 1 Alberta, 52 Manitoba, 219 Ontario, 37 Quebec, 15 New Brunswick, 43 Nova Scotia, 2 Price Edward Island, 10 Newfoundland.
British Royal Air Force, Officers' Service Records 1912-1920, around 101,000 records.
Four pages of original record for a Canadian flying ace show his birth date as 08 Feb 1894, in May 1915 he was declared unfit for general service, by the end of the war he had a stellar record.
William Avery Bishop
30 June 2014
Pre-WW2 RAF records at findmypast
UK academic research of genealogical interest
The UK Arts and Humanities Research Council funds some projects of interest to genealogists and family historians. Here are a few that may be of interest to you:
The London and Middlesex Hearth Tax: an analysis of the status and wealth of neighbourhoods and households on the eve of the Great Fire
http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk/project/27AC4E52-CD0D-420B-AB61-75FEEC134D8C
Sussex Church Monuments c. 1530 -1830
http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk/project/6FAB4D84-3CB5-4838-A10B-B685B0BDD212
Family Names of the United Kingdom
http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk/project/04EB9698-C3F4-4C1A-8BB1-6598FE22DB69
The Singing Landscape Project
http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk/project/6194D4B3-BAA9-4010-A2B3-96BCE8C5969B
The AHRC are also highlighting projects relating to the First World War. See the news item at http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/News-and-Events/News/Pages/Leeds-stories-of-the-Great-War.aspx
TNA podcast: Inconvenient people and how to find them: Tales from the Victorian lunacy panics
This presentation from May 29 at TNA by Sarah Wise is based on her recent book which tells the stories of the horrors of the Victorian medical system and lunacy. Often as not lunacy was used as an excuse to sideline those whose eccentricity, and often control over resources, were inconvenient to the family.
Check it out at http://media.nationalarchives.gov.uk/index.php/inconvenient-people/
29 June 2014
Guide to Norfolk Ancestors
FamilySearch have produced a detailed guide to Norfolk parish resources. Read about it at https://familysearch.org/blog/en/free-guide-norfolk-england-ancestors/.
Thanks to Gail Dever at Genealogy à la carte for the tip.
Canadian civil service lists
In the few samples I was able to view the information given was name, position, department, home address.
Earlier years, which often had more detailed information, may be found by searching Civil Service List of Canada at the Internet Archive (texts).
For more general information check the LAC information at http://goo.gl/cK4HDh.
28 June 2014
Ireland Dog Licence Registers
Maybe this should have been saved for the dog-days of summer.
FreeBMD June update - NOT
I've been wondering about the delay in updating the FreeBMD site. All is revealed with this announcement:
You might have noticed that there has been a delay with the most recent update to the FreeBMD database. We are currently planning on moving the site to new servers and we will update the database when that move is completed. We apologise for any inconvenience this might cause but hope that the move to new servers will help us to provide a better service in long run. We anticipate that the move will happen over the next couple of weeks and during that time there might be short periods where the site is unavailable, or certain facilities are unavailable, but we are working to try and keep disruption to a minimum. Thank you, in advance, for your patience whilst we complete this.
27 June 2014
BBC TV WDYTYA next series
Annual Toronto History Lecture
Generations of working people literally built the city and created the goods and services to sustain a large metropolitan population. Yet their stories are seldom told. Historian Craig Heron will explore the opportunities and challenges that members of the city’s working class have faced over the past 150 years, and will share his insights into major changes and common themes during that period, through the lives of eight different Toronto workers.
http://torontofamilyhistory.org/learn/toronto-history-lecture/
According to the weekly newsletter from the Toronto FHC the event is already over half full.
New and updated British and Canadian WW1 records on Ancestry
The following are new on Ancestry:
Canada, Ledgers of CEF Officers Transferring to Royal Flying Corps, 1915-1919, 1,210 records
This relatively small database is from the records of the Department of National Defence, RG 24. Library and Archives Canada. The records, typically two pages, include name, address, date of birth, next of kin, the officer’s movements from unit to unit, appointments and promotions, decorations and honours, medical information, and civilian employment.
England, The National Roll of the Great War, 1914-1918, 97,712 records
Substantially incomplete and compiled by subscription from family sources.
UK, De Ruvigny's Roll of Honour, 1914-1919, 26,928 records
Biographies of over 26,000 casualties of the Great War, both officers and ranks, from British Force;. 7,000 include photographs. The emphasis is on the early years of the war.
The following databases are updated:
British Army WWI Pension Records 1914-1920, 2,139,613 records
British Army WWI Service Records, 1914-1920, 3,653,052 records
British Army WWI Medal Rolls Index Cards, 1914-1920, 5,280,584 records
UK, Soldiers Died in the Great War, 1914-1919, 703,810 records
Ireland, Casualties of World War I, 1914-1922, 49,647 records
UK, Citations of the Distinguished Conduct Medal, 1914-1920, 24,928 records
UK, Silver War Badge Records, 1914-1920, 882,674 records
UK, Commonwealth War Graves, 1914-1921 and 1939-1947, 560,902 records
26 June 2014
Ancestry.ca celebrates Canada
Ancestry.ca is offering free access, with registration, to all 235 million Canadian records until July 1 at 11:59 p.m. It's not clear if this is available just within Canada or more broadly.
The census enumerators challenge
Here is testimony of Mr. Charles James White who had acted as an enumerator for the 1881 census for an area of Mile End Old Town including Ernest Street, Ely Terrace, part of Duckett Street. He testified on 10 March 1890 before the UK Treasury committee on the census; here is an extract from his testimony found on page 81 and 82 of the report. Starting at paragraph 1850.
Q. Did you have any difficulty in distributing the papers?
A. No, because I had special advantages. I had been five years poor law officer, and under the school board for several years. I know nearly every family in the district. I could go and knock at the door, and knowing I treated them properly, they would do as much for me, and perhaps a little more, than they would for a stranger. Of course there would have been very greater difficulties for an inexperienced person.
If you will permit me, I will give you an instance or two. In Ely Terrace I delivered two schedules; on the day in question, when I went for them, the landlady gave me hers. I was satisfied with hers, as I know all the children, know her husband, what he was, and know the wife. I said, "Where is the schedule for the family upstairs?" She replied, "I do not know." I said, "Is he at home?" She said, "Yes." I said "You go on, and I will manage my business," because you see a lodger does not like a landlord to interfere – – sometimes, you know – or a landlady either. I knocked at the door. Down came a man, partially paralyzed from the waist. He said, "What do you want?" I said, "I want your schedule. Do you know that in accordance with law you are bound to fill up of this paper?" "What is it for" he said. "What is it for" said I. "Why; the government require it to know something about the statistics of the country." And he said, "Well, I do not want to bother with it." Now I said, "You did not treat me so glibly when you used to come over to the house when you were poor, look, and you may remember." Then he softened down. "Now let me proceed to business," said I. I know his name, really. I then said, "Your name is so-and-so; then the wife." There were no children. I put that down. "Now," said I, "What are you?" "A cooper," he said. "Well," I said, "are you? How long have you been a cooper?" So he said, "Why, I am a cooper." I said, "I do not think so. Do you remember when you came into the board of guardians one day and said if they gave you tools you would get work? They gave you tools, and you came back and next board day and said you could not get work. Of course we know perfectly well you could not do the work. You only labor about it in a cooper shop. Now, what are you really? You know perfectly well you could not make a tub; you could not work at it." He said "I am a laborer." "What sort of a one?" I asked. "Cannot you qualify it?" What about the shoeblack box?" "Well," he said, "I am a shoe black." You could see him a few minutes ago at the Burdett Road at work. Poor fellow, he could not work; but he might've told me the truth.
Unless you know something of those people, the census, although it may appear very accurate, it is not likely to be so. There was a brothel in the next street. The woman who kept it was convicted a little while ago as a procuress. I said when I called there, "I have instructions to have the names of everyone in the house." "The girls and all?" she said. "The girls and all," I said. When I collected the schedule it contained, as far as I can remember, her name and the names of two little boys who were in a home in Deptford. I said "You have not put down the girls in this said house. Are not the boys in the home at Deptford? I must strike those out." She took the pen and struck those out. She did it herself. I was not at liberty to do it. "Where are the girls?" I asked. "They are in bed" she said. "Well," I said, "I am going up the street, and I will call as I come back." It is a long street with about 1000 people in it. There are 500 schoolchildren that is what I know. When I came back I said: "Now, where are they?" So she called them down and we marshalled them along the passage and I cannot remember whether they put their names down or whether I did, but instead of having these girls down as servants or needlewoman, they were simply unfortunates.
Q. Had you many cases like that you had to manage in this way?
A. I believe there were several brothels in the street. I did them all about the same and there were persons who had been locked up for assaults, and some questionable characters.
The (British) Army Children Archive
The Army Children Archive (TACA) was established to collect, record, preserve and also raise awareness of the unique aspects of growing up as the child of a serving soldier in the British Army.
Check out two Flickr albums of the First World War era:
‘The Army Children of the First World War: Faces and Families’ consists of a set of photographic portraits of army children and their families photographed between 1914 and 1918. Ten images have initially been posted, after which further images will be added weekly. Any known information about the faces and families pictured, or any clues offered by the photographs themselves, accompany the images. Viewers are invited to fill any information gaps and, if possible, to identify these forgotten faces.
‘The Army Children of the First World War: a Sentimental View’ displays a selection of First World War-era sentimental postcards and ephemera featuring army children, and children generally. Many of these images were intended to tug at the heartstrings; others, to arouse patriotic feelings; another category reflects, through the prism of childhood, national preoccupations during the Great War. The initial ten images will similarly be augmented weekly.
via tweet from Family Tree Magazine.
25 June 2014
Toronto Star gives TPL over 1,000,000 photographs
News from the Torontoist blog of a major donation. Great to see the Star making the donation. Great to see the Toronto Public Library ready and willing to accept it.
Can't help but reflect that when the Ottawa Journal went out of business the photos were junked, and uncertain that the Ottawa Public Library would be ready to accept such a donation.
Back another generation, at last
Feeling in despair of ever moving your family history further back? Janet Few, who will be giving a remote presentation at the BIFHSGO conference in September, has an inspiring story about a breakthrough along her paternal line. It's one where she's been blocked since 1977.
Janet is cautious. She writes "I just can’t bring myself to ‘ink them in’. I am not sure what I am waiting for in terms of additional proof but I seem to feel I need something more. Is it just that I cannot believe that I have made progress on this line after so long?"
This looks like a case where a probability approach would help.
Irish genealogy: accentuate the negative
John Grenham's latest Irish Roots column reminds that absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, but it’s not much good as evidence of presence either. Nowhere is that more true that in Irish genealogy.
24 June 2014
Anglican Diocese of Ottawa Archives closed
It's always a good practice to call before making a visit. Information on the closure is also on the Archives answering system at 613-232-7124 Ext 234.
One can't complain about lack of notice. The most recent Friends newsletter and the website mention that there are regular scheduled closures each year - the last week of the months of May, June, September and December.
With the exception of those closures, and other unforseen circumstances, the Archives is open to the public on Monday and Tuesday from 9 am to noon and 1 pm to 4 pm, that's well over 500 hours a year.
Sir John Coape Sherbrooke collection
23 June 2014
Findmypast buys Mocavo
Dick Eastman reports that Mocavo, second tier genealogy search site, has been acquired by findmypast, the second acquisition by the company this month. See http://blog.eogn.com/2014/06/23/findmypast-buys-mocavo/
First Day on the Job for Dr. Guy Berthiaume
Welcome to Dr. Guy Berthiaume as he takes over as Librarian and Archivist of Canada.
On Friday an announcement of changes to the senior ranks of the Public Service sees Patrick Borbey, currently President of the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency, becoming Associate Deputy Minister of Canadian Heritage, effective July 2, 2014.
22 June 2014
Ottawa Branch OGS AGM
Saturday 21 June 2014 saw an elite group of Ottawa Branch members assembled for the Branch Annual General Meeting.
Branch Chair Norah Larocque-Cousins opened the meeting.
Recognition in the form of 30 year membership certificates went to four members, Dolly Allen was there to receive her's in person. Ontario volunteer awards to six members were announced.
Heather Oakley, who was one of the Ontario volunteer award recipients, reported on her work for the OGS awards committee. She mentioned that The Dr. Don Brearley Branch Newsletter Award had been won by The Ottawa Genealogist. A new award for the best branch website was won by Kingston Branch with an honourable mention to Quinte Branch.
Doug Gray mentioned a tentative date for the next Gene-O-Rama is 27-28 March 1915.
Following the AGM members heard from OGS Past President Shirley Sturdevant about developments which have resulted in a change in the composition of the Board of Directors, and from President Alan Campbell involving a heavier reliance on technology.
WW1 and Schools
Jeremy Paxman article on the role of British schools in WW1.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/world-war-one/10916542/First-World-War-Centenary-The-path-that-led-from-the-playing-fields-to-Flanders-Fields.html
Ottawa Branch OGS AGM
Ontario Community Newspaper Portal Survey
Do you use the Ontario Community Newspaper Portal at Our Ontario? It offers access to more than 200 years of Ontario newspaper issues, articles, genealogical resources, and clippings. The organization is looking for advice on the best ways to present and share the content.
If you have experience with the Ontario Community Newspaper Portal and newspaper content displays please take approximately 10 minutes to complete the survey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/OntarioNewsPortal. Along the way you'll see examples of how other newspaper sites tackle presentation.
21 June 2014
Peter Carruthers: Ottawa WW1 Beechwood burial
WW1 burials at Beechwood Cemetery
"In loving memory of Lieut Fergus N Black Canadian Ordinance Corps attached to 9th Batt Can Exp Force died on active service Feb 7, 1915 Aged 35 years."
Developments at PRONI
If you have Northern Ireland genealogical interest don't miss the news in Chris Paton's British GENES blog post PRONI user forum meeting - latest developments.
Findmypast adds Registers of Non-conformist Births, Marriages and Deaths
The latest addition to findmypast is two million non-conformist (includes Catholic) register entries from the TNA collection RG4, General Register Office: Registers of Births, Marriages and Deaths surrendered to the Non-parochial Registers Commissions of 1837 and 1857.
In lieu of FMP's description loof for more information at: see http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/SearchUI/details/redirect/?CATID=12173&CATLN=3
In this instance FMP is playing catch-up with Ancestry where these records, and also those of RG5 and RG8, are already included.
If FMP or Ancestry is looking for another non-conformist source why not look to the Wesleyan Methodist Historic Roll described at http://goo.gl/Lxqcib as "a unique set of 50 large leather bound volumes which are located at Westminster Methodist Central Hall in London. The volumes contain the names of over one million people who donated a guinea [£1/1/- or £1.05] to the Wesleyan Methodist Twentieth Century Fund [or The Million Guinea Fund] between January 1st 1899 and September 1909 when the fund was finally closed."
OGS Toronto Branch June Meeting
OGS Toronto Monthly Meeting – Monday, June 23rd at 7:30pm in the evening at the Burgundy Room, North York Memorial Hall, 5110 Yonge Street in Toronto (convenient access from the North York subway station).
Our featured speaker, Coral Grant, will take us on a journey of discovery back in time, beginning in Toronto’s garment district of the early 1930s and ending in 19th century Eastern Europe. The title of Coral’s talk is: “How Uncovering my Grandmother’s Deepest Secret Revealed a Rich Jewish Ancestry“.Sherilyn Bell will present a mini-presentation - Visualizing Genetic Genealogy Results – A 23andMe/Cytoscape Mashup.
20 June 2014
Wellcome and The Wipers Times
Welcome has just made much of their more recent digitized material freely available online, detailed in this blog post. you only need to click that you agree to the terms and conditions, no registration.
19 June 2014
Annual Accrual of Nova Scotia Historical Vital Statistics released
The following is a 19 June notice from Nova Scotia Historical Vital Statistics
An additional 25,589 historical vital statistics are waiting for you on www.novascotiagenealogy.com! These records were released on 31 December 2013 and since then have been digitized, fully indexed and checked for quality control. This year's accruals include 14,974 births (1913), 4,233 marriages (1938) and 6,382 deaths (1963). As usual, the birth records include some 'delayed' entries for individuals born in 1913 (or earlier) but not registered until a later date. Happy searching!
Ottawa Branch OGS AGM
The final meeting of the season takes place on Saturday, 21 June, 13:00 – 15:00 at the City of Ottawa Archives, Room 115.
Following the business of the Ottawa Branch Annual General Meeting, outgoing OGS President (Shirley Sturdevant) and incoming President (Alan Campbell) will provide an update on the Ontario Genealogical Society including: governance and structure, OGS Board and Provincial Office activities and plans for 2014.
Phillimore Atlas and Index of Parish Registers on Ancestry
The 1995 edition which cost £50 is kept handy at my desk.
Now Ancestry has made a version available as part of a subscription. You get the ability to search by country (England, Scotland or Wales), county, registration district and parish. The example is for Evenley, Northants and shows a map reference. Unfortunately the grids on the sides of the maps are missing. All maps have a grid range from A1 to M10, with the letters falling along the longest side.
For England and Wales I now tend to turn to FamilySearch England Jurisdiction 1851 which has more comprehensive information -- and will likely be available when Ancestry is not!
Quinte OGS Branch June meeting
"Learn strategies and techniques on how to get the most out of the Canadian census records in order to gain a better understanding of your ancestors. This webinar will put those techniques into practice by following three different families (Canadian, French-Canadian & African Canadian) through the census records.
Kathryn Lake Hogan is a professional genealogist, author and educator as well as the driving force behind LOOKING4ANCESTORS. Specializing in Canadian and English research, Kathryn has earned the Professional Learning Certificate in Genealogical Studies (PLCGS) with the National Institute of Genealogical Studies. She enjoys lecturing on a variety of family history topics at genealogy and historical society meetings, workshops, regional conferences and webinars.
Starting with her own family history research over 10 years ago, Kathryn has not only made genealogy her passion, she has also dedicated herself to helping others discover the joys of family history and how to locate their own ancestors."
18 June 2014
More Welsh Newspapers
100,000 pages have been added to Welsh Newspapers Online for a total of 725,000 pages. Additions this update are:
Barry Herald 1896-1910
Brecon County Times 1866-1869
Cambrian Daily Leader 1913, 1919
Cheshire Observer 1901-1908
Chester Courant 1897-1908
County Echo [Pembrokeshire] 1893-1896; 1901-1910
Glamorgan Free Press 1897-1899
Glamorgan, Monmouth and Brecon Gazette 1832-1843
Gwyliedydd Newydd 1910
Herald Cymraeg 1901-1910
Herald of Wales and Monmouthshire Recorder 1897
Llan 1881-1910
Llanelly Mercury 1897; 1909-1910
Llanelly Star 1910
Llangollen Advertiser 1909-1910
North Wales Gazette 1808-1816; 1823-1825
Pembroke County Guardian 1898-1910
Pontypool Free Press 1859-1869; 1872-1893
Rhedegydd 1878-1879; 1886; 1889; 1893-1910
Rhos Herald 1909-1910
Seren Gomer 1814-1815
Tyst a'r Dydd 1871-1891
Tyst Cymreig 1867-1870
Tyst 1892-1910
Welsh Gazette 1899-1910
Wythnos a'r Eryr 1899-1903; 1909-1910
Findmypast acquires Origins
The findmypast blog announces that pioneer online genealogy company origins.net has been acquired by the company.
Hint: Check Hometown Newspapers
17 June 2014
Dublin electoral lists
John Grenham's Irish Roots column for June 16 highlights Dublin City Library and Archives electoral lists. 1908, 1909 and 1910 are currently available free at http://www.dublinheritage.ie/burgesses; 1911, 1912 and 1915 are coming.
16 June 2014
Claire Santry: must follow for Irish genealogy news
British Military Nurses
A nice find by Gail Dever is this site of interest to anyone with a British military nurse in the family tree, from before WW1 thru WW2. You might want to start with the page on researching a nurse or hospital.
15 June 2014
BIFHSGO Service Completed
Glenn Wright became Past President following Saturday's BIFHSGO meeting. At the meeting he expressed appreciation to Mary Ann Sharpe who leaves the Board having served two years as President and four as Past President.
BIFHSGO AGM and Board
Saturday 14 June 2014 saw a large group of members, well above the 25 needed for a quorum, attend the British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa Annual General Meeting.
President Glenn Wright summarised the annual reports. which are available on the society website. He noted there was an average attendance of about 180 at monthly meetings. Membership had declined slightly, from 628 in 2011 to 625 in 2012 and 623 in 2013.
The financial statement showed a surplus of $15,737 for 2013, up from 4,309 the previous year thanks in large part to a particularly successful conference.
It was announced that owing to a large increase in costs for renting the auditorium at 395 Wellington monthly meetings will be moving to the former Nepean Council Chambers at Centrepointe in January, a move which appeared to be greeted with membership approval when the magnitude of the rent increase at 395 was explained by Treasurer Marnie McCall.
After considerable debate it was decided to retain the services of an accredited auditor for 2014.
President Glenn Wright presented two certificates in recognition of excellence for presentation and writing, the subject of another blog post.
Barbara Tose was acclaimed as the new society President. Shown in the photo (l-r) are Anne Sterling, Mary-Lou Simac, Susan Davis, Marnie McCall, Glenn Wright, Jane Down, Barbara Tose and Ken McKinlay. Directors not present were Dave Cross and Mary Donnelly.
BIFHSGO Winners
On the left Barbara Tose was recognised as having made the best presentation by a member during the year as voted by the membership. Her presentation was Travels With My Aunt: Adventures in Europe 1914.
On the right Christine Jackson received a certificate for the best article published in Anglo-Celtic Roots. The Cowley Family Saga appeared in the Fall 2013 issue. Christine, who last month received an award from the Sussex Family History Group in a writing competition, is now working on a second Cowley article taking the family history back to England.
14 June 2014
Lincolnshire Poor Law Removals 1665-1865
Other recent additions are:
Epsom College England Deaths 1899-1945 consists of 650 records containing the details of former pupils who were killed while serving in the military between 1899 and 1945.
Bromsgrove School Deaths 1899-1945 with 195 records containing the details of former pupils who were killed during military service between 1899 and 1945.
Wyggeston Grammar School England Deaths 1939-1945, 136 records with details of former pupils who were killed in the Second World War.
Find the complete list at http://100in100.findmypast.com/
Survey of London: Battersea
According to the Bartlett School of Architecture, the new home of the Survey, the two volumes are fully illustrated books, with around two hundred new drawings, a similar number of new photographs, and altogether more than 900 illustrations.
Volume 49, which contains a general historical introduction to Battersea, is arranged thematically to cover all building types (except housing), including public buildings, hospitals, churches, schools, buildings for entertainment, shopping, railways and industry - with a whole chapter on the power station - parks and open spaces, New Covent Garden Market, the heliport as well as a chapter on the current large-scale regeneration of Nine Elms.
Volume 50 follows more traditional Survey lines and is divided topographically into nineteen chapters, with a general introduction to housing history in Battersea.
Digitized versions of previous Survey of London publications are at http://www.british-history.ac.uk/place.aspx?gid=74®ion=1
13 June 2014
British Red Cross Register of Overseas Volunteers 1914-1918
February saw the reprint of an interesting not so little book, 464 pages, British Red Cross Register of Overseas Volunteers 1914-1918: Including - Voluntary Aid Detachments, Order of St John, First Aid Nursing Yeomanry, ... Hospitals, Covering All Theaters of War.
Described as a reprint of the final, and largest, British Red Cross list giving information of over 18,000 women and men who undertook more routine jobs - cooks, laundry maids, wardmaids, dispensers, drivers etc. It provides individual detail (name, rank, unit, destination).
The new reprint sells for £43.18, and I didn't find any copies of previous printings in libraries outside the UK.
findmypast comes to the rescue with a similarly titled database, not cited but likely an earlier edition with over 17,000 entries. It provides Name, Title, Rank, Certificate number, Department, Destination - where stationed overseas, Passport Number; not much to go on unless the name is fairly distinct.
12 June 2014
Household Cavalry Service Records
Lives of the First World War
For me the Beechwood cemetery walking tour last Sunday revealed the lives of the great and the good but overlooked the ordinary soldier. I'm slowly exploring the lives of the 98 WW1 soldiers in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission database buried at Beechwood Cemetery. Some will be posted here on their anniversary of death.
Gail Dever on her Genealogy à la carte blog mentioned the IWM Lives of the First World War website which would be a good place to archive and consolidate such stories.
What about other cemeteries? Will any person or organization take on that task for those with no descendants or close relatives? How many of the 277 WW1 CWGC burials at Montreal's Mount Royal Cemetery, the 248 at Notre Dame des Neiges, the 62 at Kingston's Cataraqui Cemetery, the 12 at Belleville Cemetery, the 126 at Toronto's Mount Pleasant, and many others. There are 2,844 cemeteries with WW1 and WW2 CWGC burials in Canada, many with a single burial like the Czar Cemetery in Provost, Alberta, which holds the remains of Canada's first WW1 fatality.
Compiling these stories is a fitting tribute and also a great way to sharpen your research skills.
I'm reminded that the Perth (Ontario) Royal Canadian Legion, 26 Beckwith Street E., has a Hall of Remembrance,which commemorates the stories of area residents in the world wars. For information about visiting the museum, phone the Legion’s office at 613-267-4400, or the lounge at 613-267-1148.
BIFHSGO June meeting and AGM
Great Moments in Genealogy session where you can learn how four members made a great discovery.
Grandma Ruth’s New Fur Jacket
By Susan Davis
In her 1956 diary, Ruth Robinson records the fact that she received her lovely fur jacket October 31st. In a later entry, she records feeling somewhat uncomfortable wearing it to the church for the first time. Today, the mink jacket lives on in the form of two furry teddy bears and Ruth’s life lives on in the words she wrote in her diaries from 1944 to 1964. After receiving three of her diaries in 2012, Susan happily became the caretaker of the collection in 2013.
About the Speaker
As an adolescent, Susan Davis volunteered at her local library. When returning books to their shelves, her two favourite sections were biographies and mysteries. Family history research provides her with lots of life stories to read and puzzles to solve. As the daughter of an army cook, Susan grew up loving her parents’ Eastern Townships of Quebec roots. She and her mother spend many happy hours discussing these family stories.
A Tale of Illegitimacy, Music, Mistresses and the Windham-Guises
By Gillian Leitch
In search for her Cutler ancestors, Gillian Leitch stumbled upon a fascinating group of people. The deeper she dug into the family tree, the more interesting they became. Gillian found clerics, musicians and mistresses, all leading to the amazing story of Elizabeth Windham Guise. This has definitely been one of the great moments in her genealogical research. This is an update on Gillian’s article in the fall 2013 issue of Anglo-Celtic Roots.
About the Speaker
Gillian Leitch is a professional historian who works at CDCI Research in Ottawa. Besides her keen interest in genealogy, she is a specialist in nineteenth century Canadian history, and recently edited a book on Doctor Who.
John Armstrong Fielder – Is This All There Is to Him?
By Judy Thamas
This WOW moment is a result of following inspiration after Judy thought that she had gathered all the facts that she could from public sources. The inspiration was that she should Google her grandfather’s brother’s name. A website that she had not particularly noted came up with a piece of unexpected information. This lead to a letter to Who Do You Think You Are? magazine, and back to the website to correspond with the webmasters until contact was made with the person who posted the information and a surprising result.
About the Speaker
Judy Thamas grew up in southern Ontario and has spent a good majority of her adult life either as a wife of a member of the Canadian Forces or as a reservist in the Primary Reserve or a combination of both. Thanks to the military, she has lived on both coasts of Canada, in Ottawa, and in Germany. She has worked for the private sector as a bookkeeper, factory worker, and in administration. Judy retired from the Reserves in September of 2010 after 24 years as a musician, a cook and a clerk. She first started working on her family history in 1976. Since her retirement, she fills her days with family history.
Finding My Great Great Grandmother in London, England
By Brian Chamberlain
Brian will speak on his great-great-grandmother, Maria Matilda Snooks. The talk will look at research done to find her here in Canada and where she came from in England, using various techniques, sources and Ancestry.com.
About the Speaker
Brian Chamberlain was born into a military family in Barrie, Ontario. In 1967, he moved to Ottawa in 1967 and has lived here ever since. He graduated from Algonquin College twice, first in Business and later in Records Management. His genealogy research began when he inherited a family genealogy for the McKenzie family. Brian is now working on writing his family history.
The location is Library and Archives Canada, 395 Wellington Street, Ottawa, Ontario. Visitors are welcome. Free admission.
11 June 2014
FamilySearch adds Ontario Births, 1869-1912
Transcriptions of records of civil registration of Ontario births are now available free at FamilySearch.org. The collection runs to 1912, Ancestry.ca has an extra year and also links to images of the original. FamilySearch makes no reference to Ancestry so this appears to be an independent transcription. If you couldn't find an expected registration on Ancestry check this version as maybe there was an indexing error.
10 June 2014
The Future of the Canadian Archival Community
A report: Vision 2017: The Future of the Canadian Archival Community: The Canadian Archives Summit: Conclusions, Observations and Possible Next Steps (pdf) authored by Sean Berrigan, Marianne McLean and Jan Michaels, dated May 2014 has now been issued by the organizers of last January's Summit.
The report is part of an ongoing process; it contains the notice that it includes "recommendations and opinions that have been provided by the authors. The report is not approved by the Summit Organizers and should not be treated as such. It is meant to stimulate and encourage ongoing discussions."
This reflects the finding that: There was general consensus that while there is a need for a new vision and blueprint, there was not a clear understanding of what was needed, what its shape or composition should be and how to get there.
Clearly more work is needed, reflected in the presence of 64 question marks in the document compared to 122 sentence ending periods!
Victoria Census of 1891
09 June 2014
FTDNA Father's Day Sale
Belling the cat in genealogy
You likely remember the fable about the mouse that suggested tying a bell around the cat's neck so that when it was on the prowl they would be warned. The only problem was finding a volunteer to tie the bell -- a good idea in theory, troublesome in practise.
That came to mind on Friday when I was listening to Blaine Bettinger's streamed presentation from the Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree "DNA and the Genealogical Proof Standard." Blaine posed the question of how much by way of resources, financial and time, were implied by the GPS requirement to conduct a reasonably exhaustive search. In the case of DNA where a client may be looking for an answer in a couple of months, but it's impractical to complete a DNA test in that time, what do you tell a client? Given that the average non-paternity rate is maybe 1 or 2 percent per generation, and maybe you're looking back 5 generations, is the 5 to 10 percent possibility of non-paternity which could be detected by DNA tests enough to preclude you claiming your research meets the GPS?
08 June 2014
The future of genetic genealogy
It may not be available for very long so for those interested I recommend priorizing a visit to http://new.livestream.com/wab/scgs-embed and Bennett Greenspan's Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree presentation The Future of Genetic Genealogy.
Researching your Irish ancestry online
I'd not intended listening to Maurice Gleeson's talk streamed from the Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree Researching your Irish ancestry online & at minimal cost but found myself doing so as he's entertaining as well as knowledgeable. With over 100 slides for the 60 minute presentation he wasn't able to do justice to them all. There was material new to me. Slides for that and his other presentations are at http://dnaandfamilytreeresearch.blogspot.ca/p/presentations-downloads.html
Advance notice: One World-One Family family history conference
If your summer plans include being in the Toronto area consider attending the 5th annual One World-One Family family history conference to be held on Sat. Aug. 23, 2014 from 9 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. at 10062 Bramalea Rd. The program includes:
Visit www.oneworldonefamily-theevent.com/ for more information.
07 June 2014
QFHS Event: Wills, wills and more wills
"If there's a Will there's a way to discover a lot more detailed information about your ancestors family history."Lecturer: Gary Schroder
Date: Saturday, June 14th, 2014
Time: 10:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Location: The Quebec Family History Society Library and Heritage Centre
173 Cartier Avenue, Pointe-Claire, Quebec
Telephone: 514-695-1502
$30 for members, $40 non-members
LAC WW2 war dead service files augmented
LAC now has an expanded version of the service files of the Second World War – War Dead, 1939-1947 Database. It now has more than 1000 complete digitized service files; that's still not quite 2% of files for Canadian servicemen and servicewomen killed in action in WW2.
http://goo.gl/Ad0VsF
06 June 2014
Annual Beechwood cemetery walking tour
Marking the anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War the annual Beechwood tour this Sunday includes five stops at the grave-sites of men and women who fought in the trenches in Europe, cared for the injured or guided the country through the difficult war years. The tour will include war-time Prime Minister Sir Robert Borden, nurse Minnie Gallagher and Lt Alexis Helmer, whose death inspired John McCrae’s famous poem, ‘In Flanders Fields.’ Costumed actors will bring these historical figures to life.
The event starts at 2pm. Refreshments will be served after the tour. Enter by Beechwood Avenue entrance. Tour and parking are free. Wear good walking shoes.
D-Day 70th Anniversary: James Doohan (1920-2005)
"I'm given' her all she's got, Captain!" were not the words spoken by Lieutenant James Doohan who had a command in 'D' company of the Winnipeg Rifles on storming Juno Beach. The company moved off the beach quickly and cleared a path through the minefield at La Vallette. Then they headed for Graye-sur-Mer and cleared the town of the Germans. They advanced further making good progress.
Doohan was shot in the hand and chest, a silver cigarette case stopped the bullet to the chest, and lost a finger on his right hand.
Those words, or similar, had to wait until after when Doohan, as the actor who played Chief Engineer Montgomery “Scotty” Scott of Star Trek, was called upon to pull the the USS Enterprise out of yet another tight situation. After D-Day Doohan was evacuated to hospital in Basingstoke, as if "beamed up" from further fighting during Operation Overlord.
Read more in James Doohan's 1996 autobiography Beam Me Up, Scotty.
05 June 2014
Ancestry exits some services
Pharos Teaching and Tutoring forthcoming courses
Pharos Teaching and Tutoring is out with the list of course offerings for the three months starting in July.
July
So You Think You Know Family Search - A Guided Tour (#206)
The Poor, The Parish and the Workhouse - Records in in the 18th and 19th Centuries (#203)
One-Place Studies - Research from a New Perspective (#317)
August
Old Handwriting for Family Historians (#417)
Ireland - A Practical Approach to Family History (#103)
September
Scottish Research Online (#102)
Your Military Ancestors (#224)
Organizing Your Genealogy (#202)
Victorian Crime and Punishment- Courts, police and prisons (#308)
Researching Your Welsh Ancestors (#119)
Fixed in Time and Place - Using Directors & Gazetteers (#311)
Professional Genealogist - Become one, become a better one (#941)
The National Archives Website and Catalogue - Finding People (#207)
Introduction to One-Name Studies (#901)
There's more information on these, and for periods beyond, at http://www.pharostutors.com/coursesmainsd.php
04 June 2014
New season US WDYTYA? announced
Who Do You Think You Are?returns for its second season on TLC and its fifth season overall on Wednesday, July 23 at 9/8c. The second season of TLC's genealogy docu-series "Who Do You Think You Are?" will feature six new journeys with Valerie Bertinelli, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Lauren Graham, Kelsey Grammer, Cynthia Nixon, Rachel McAdams and her sister, Kayleen McAdams.
Also, TLC has acquired 10 episodes from the show's previous seasons on NBC. The episodes feature Matthew Broderick, Lisa Kudrow, Rob Lowe, Reba McEntire, Tim McGraw, Gwyneth Paltrow, Sarah Jessica Parker, Brooke Shields, Vanessa Williams and Rita Wilson.
Read the announcement at http://www.thewrap.com/tlc-who-do-you-think-you-are-season-5-lineup-preview-premiere-date/
London Life in Sound
Go to www.soundsurvey.org.uk/ but make sure you set aside time to explore, it can draw you in. There's historical content, like comments of people watching the Battle of Britain, pub sing-alongs. ambient recordings of streets, the underground and at the British Library.
The blog has an item on the Cities and Memory project "mapping the real and imagined sounds of the world."
03 June 2014
Faces reconstructed from DNA data
A video on the BBC website http://m.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-27668747 is accompanied by the text "Today we can all look online to find out who our ancestors were, and soon geneticists hope that DNA can show us their faces as well."
The reality is in an article published in PLOS Genetics, http://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1004224 "Modeling 3D Facial Shape from DNA". It concludes in part "... much more work is needed before we can know how many genes will be required to estimate the shape of a face in some useful way and many more populations need to be studied before we can know how generalizable the results are ..."
I'd like to see a comparison between a face and the corresponding reconstruction, then a side by side reconstruction of a face, with corresponding photographs from same sex siblings, to see just how much discrimination is possible.
In the meantime it's a nice "gee whiz" media item.
SCGS Jamboree Free online sessions
The Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree is offering fourteen free streamed sessions this year -- sessions over the three days.
To register for a session, go to http://www.scgsgenealogy.com/Jamboree/2014/LiveStream.html and click on the link for the desired session(s) and follow the directions. You will receive an emailed confirmation. The same link provides information on five pay per view DNA sessions on Thursday.
Friday, June 6
FR009 - Friday 1:00PM (4PM EDT) - Judy G. Russell JD, CG, CGL - "Dowered or Bound Out: Records of Widows and Orphans"
FR018 - Friday 2:30PM (5:30PM EDT) - Blaine Bettinger PhD, JD - "DNA and the Genealogical Proof Standard"
FR027 - Friday 4:00PM (7PM EDT) - Paula Stuart-Warren, CG, FUGA - "Manuscript Finding Aids: Locating Migrating Family Records"
FR034 - Friday 5:30PM (8:30PM EDT) - F. Warren Bittner, CG - "Proof Arguments: How and Why"
Saturday, June 7
SA003 - Saturday 8:30AM (11:30AM EDT) - F. Warren Bittner, CG - "Elusive Immigrant!"
SA019 - Saturday 10:00AM (1PM EDT) - Judy G. Russell, JD, CG, CGL - "Staying out of Trouble: The Rights and Responsibilities of Today's Genealogist"
SA027 - Saturday 11:30AM (2:30PM EDT)- Michael Leclerc - "Researching Your New England Ancestors"
SA037 - Saturday 2:00PM (5PM EDT) - Bennett Greenspan - "The Future of Genetic Genealogy"
SA039 - Saturday 3:30PM (6:30PM EDT) - Dr. Maurice Gleeson - "Researching Your Irish Ancestry"
SA053 - Saturday 4:00PM (7PM EDT) - Cyndi Ingle - "The Internet: A Genealogist's Printing Press"
Sunday, June 8
SU009 - Sunday 8:30AM (11:30 AM EDT) - D. Joshua Taylor - "Resources of the DAR: Beyond Revolutionary War Soldiers"
SU012 - Sunday 10:00AM (1PM EDT) - Dawn Thurston - "How to Write a Personal History that Captures your Interesting Life"
SU020 - Sunday 1:00PM (4PM EDT) - Dr. Maurice Gleeson - "Ireland and the Slave Trade"
SU036 - Sunday 2:30PM (5:30PM EDT) - Denise Levenick - "Dirty Pictures: Save Your Family Photos from Ruin"
02 June 2014
British WW1 stories
Find out about the impact of the Great War on Britain from a local perspective from the BBC website at http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww1/ww1-at-home/find-locations/. Enter a community name or postal code and find stories for it and neighbouring communities. Did you know that pubs in Carlisle were nationalized? I couldn't get some of the A/V material to play but the text is interesting.
Monthly backup nag
When I returned from my English vacation my main laptop wouldn`t boot. Subsequent investigation found the motherboard was fried. Fortunately I had backups of the material on the hard drive.
As it turned out BIFHSGO colleague Doug Hoddinott was able to retrieve the laptop`s hard drive and install it in an external case so I have access to the files, but not the programs. You may not be so fortunate. It's not too late; complete your monthly backup today.
The Stage Archive
The June issue of the UK's Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine includes a Best Websites article on Theatre. It recommends six websites for researching theatrical ancestors, the top pick of which is archive.thestage.co.uk
01 June 2014
WW1 Limerick diaspora
An interactive map showing where each of the Limerick natives in the WW1 Commonwealth War Graves Commission database are commemorated across the world is the topic of an article Remembering the 1,000 Limerick soldiers who died during World War I.
One of them died in Canada. He is recorded as Private John Martin O'Donoghue of the 14th B. Canadian Infantry (Central Ontario Regiment), buried in Montreal`s Notre Dame Neiges Cemetery.
His military records show he attested in August 1916 under the surname O`Donohue, occupation steamship officer, and that he died on 9 October 1918 of broncho-pneumonia following influenza.
Thanks to Gail Dever of Genealogy à la carte for the tip.
Benchmarks update for May
Another month come and gone; May did so very quickly for me. Here`s how major genealogical sites did during the month.
Familysearch.org has added or updated record collections for a total of 1,776 (1,762). Census & lists account for 153 (156); birth, marriage, & death 1,044 (1,037); probate & court 178 (173); military 124 (123); migration & naturalization 121 (118); and with a change in categories, other 147 (149); miscellaneous 9 (6). Familysearch.org has Alexa rank 4,413 (4,451).
Ancestry slipped in rank on the .com site 729 (710); the .co.uk continuing to advance 8,036 (8,485) while .ca advanced to rank 26,201 (27,485). The number of datasets in the collection grew to 32,258 (31,775) thanks to collections added from familysearch; including 1,980 (1,979) for Canada, 1,802 (1,781) for the UK, 138 (136) for Australia and, 25,649 (25,237) for the USA.
MyHeritage.com's Alexa rank declined to 7,104 (6,893)
Findmypast had another good month with .co.uk leaping in Alexa rank to 17,734 (21,453), while .com edged further ahead to 84,262 (84,684).
Family Tree DNA returned to it`s rank two months ago 27,671 (29,227). 23andMe ranks 13,838 (12,777) continuing the decline with the FDA halt to its personal genetics health business.
GenealogyinTime.com at 31,596 (32,960) continue a drift up the rankings; Mocavo.com retreated to rank 38,566 (28,751), while eogn.com slipped further to rank 26,928 (23,384).
Britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk contains 8,093,304 (7,894,131) digitized pages, an average addition of 6,424 (7,436) pages per day; Alexa rank 139,165 (127,378). A full list of recent additions is at http://goo.gl/88JleK
Newspapers.com contains 3.106 (3,061) newspapers including 668.905 (668,385) pages for England and 1,584,686 (1,523,074) pages for Canada with substantial additions for the Vancouver Daily World (1888 - 1924) in May. The Alexa rank bounced back to 23,580 (24,228).
Cyndislist.com claims 331,374 (331,043) total links in 205 (205) categories, with 990 (1,285) uncategorized; Alexa rank continued to advance to 38,412 (46,142).
FreeBMD.org.uk has 238,293,287 (237,672,737) distinct records, the Alexa rank jumped to 54,787 (63,126).
Deceasedonline.com continued to gain in rank, 595,341.
CanadianHeadstones.com has 864,000 (830,000 at the end of March) gravestone photo records from across Canada. Alexa rank is rapidly improving 420,710 (407,816 at the end of March).The Canadian Gravemarker Gallery (gravemarkers.ca), has over 843,743 (820,000 at end of March) photographs from across Canada took a big Alexa hit to rank 12,588,695.
Bifhsgo.ca declined to rank 1,826,487 (1,508,466), qfhs.ca edged up to rank 3,730,389 (3,794,396), and ogs.on.ca advanced to rank 392,622 (396,009). In the UK sog.org.uk returned to it`s rank two months ago 626,637 (541,620).
And in case you're curious, Canada's Anglo-Celtic Connections has 5.648 (5,584) posts; on Alexa the .ca site advanced to rank 407,703 (478,971).
Did I miss something significant? If so please post a comment with statistics if applicable.
