Ottawa Branch OGS publications from GlobalGenealogy.com

Since 1970 the Ottawa Branch of OGS has produced over 200 publications. Speaking to Ottawa Branch Director John Patton on Saturday I learned that these are now being published and distributed by GlobalGenealogy.com. The Branch retains copyright, is relieved of the burden of management of the inventory and fulfillment of orders, and expects to benefit from increased exposure.

The following are Ottawa Branch books now available at: http://globalgenealogy.com/countries/canada/ontario/ogs-ottawa.htm

• Surviving 1851 Census Returns of Ireland 
• Names of Emigrants, From the 1845-1847 Records of James Allison, Emigrant Agent at Montreal   
• Bell's Corners Union Cemetery [Nepean Township] 
• Birth, Marriage, and Death Notices from The Carp Review & Carleton County Advertiser 1905-1950 
• The Ottawa Citizen Birth Marriage, Anniversary, Death and Memoriam Notices 1879-1885 
• Birth, Marriage, and Death Notices from the Carleton Place Herald, 1850 to 1923   

Coming soon will be:

• Canadian Wesleyan Methodist Baptisms [5 vols]
• The Merivale Cemeteries
• Patent Holders: Goulbourn Township and Village of Richmond
• BMDs from Early Ottawa Newspapers

Expect further titles and, perhaps, other OGS branches to pick up on the opportunity to relieve scarce volunteers for more interesting challenges.

British Newspaper Archives additions for February

The British Newspaper Archive now has pages 18,501,553 (17,932,171 pages last month) from 742 (717) titles online.
There are good runs of the Boston Guardian, Bradford Daily Telegraph, Bridlington Free Press, Cambridge Chronicle and Journal, Chichester Observer, Eastbourne Gazette, Greenock Telegraph and Clyde Shipping Gazette, Jarrow Express, Kilsyth Chronicle, Linlithgowshire Gazette, Nottingham Journal, Ross-shire Journal, Skegness Standard, Star Green 'un, The Bystander, The Tatler, and West Somerset Free Press.
Maybe one day the BNA will explain why Skegness, with a population less than half that of Great Yarmouth, has years of papers digitized while Great Yarmouth has none.

TITLE	DATE RANGE
Aberdeen Evening Express	1956
Athletic News	1901-1907, 1909, 1913
Banbury Beacon	1891-1896, 1898-1900, 1902-1905
Belfast News-Letter	1919-1920, 1954
Bognor Regis Observer	1878-1879, 1881-1882, 1884
Bolton Evening News	1877, 1910
Boston Guardian	1857, 1866-1867, 1870, 1875, 1882, 1884-1887, 1889-1896, 1898-1928, 1939-1941
Bradford Daily Telegraph	1873-1874, 1879-1885, 1887-1896, 1899-1909
Bridlington Free Press	1861, 1863-1886, 1898, 1906-1907, 1910, 1913, 1924
Cambridge Chronicle and Journal	1873-1874, 1876, 1878-1888, 1890-1900
Carlisle Express and Examiner	1872, 1874-1876, 1878-1879, 1881-1885, 1887, 1890-1891, 1893-1895
Chichester Observer	1887-1901, 1903-1905, 1909, 1911, 1913-1928, 1930-1949
Daily Telegraph & Courier (London)	1890-1891, 1895, 1898
Donegal Independent	1899
Driffield Times	1937-1944
Durham County Advertiser	1862-1865, 1870, 1876, 1893-1896, 1898-1904, 1909-1910
East Anglian Daily Times	1876, 1878-1881, 1884, 1887
Eastbourne Gazette	1906-1911, 1913-1917, 1928-1949, 1951-1957
Fife Free Press, & Kirkcaldy Guardian	1956
Greenock Telegraph and Clyde Shipping Gazette	1872-1879, 1882-1893, 1899-1909
Haddingtonshire Courier	1886-1888
Herts Advertiser	1879-1893
Inverness Courier	1885, 1893-1894, 1902-1909
Irish Times	1870, 1873
Jarrow Express	1873-1889, 1896-1906, 1910
Kilsyth Chronicle	1900-1922
Kinross-shire Advertiser.	1885-1888
Lancaster Guardian	1860-1861
Linlithgowshire Gazette	1891-1918, 1921-1950
Littlehampton Gazette	1923-1938, 1955-1956
Longford Journal	1869
Montgomeryshire Echo	1891-1895, 1897-1909
Montgomeryshire Express	1875-1876, 1878, 1880, 1883-1886, 1891-1892, 1895, 1906-1907
North London News	1893
Northern times and weekly journal for Sutherland and the North	1899-1904, 1907-1910
Nottingham Journal	1860-1867, 1869-1870, 1872-1873, 1875-1876, 1878, 1880-1886, 1888, 1895, 1903-1904, 1926-1930
Oxford Times	1877, 1879, 1887, 1889
Peeblesshire Advertiser	1879, 1883-1885
Peterborough Advertiser	1955-1957
Ross-shire Journal	1878-1901, 1903-1910
Rothesay Chronicle	1883
Royal Cornwall Gazette	1901-1910
Scottish Referee	1891
Sheffield Daily Telegraph	1908, 1913
Shields Daily News	1880
Shipley Times and Express	1944
Shrewsbury Chronicle	1892-1897, 1900-1910
Skegness Standard	1889, 1923-1948, 1950-1957
Sporting Life	1881, 1884, 1897-1909
Star Green 'un	1909-1937, 1949-1957
Stonehaven Journal	1912-1917
Surrey Comet	1889, 1899
Swindon Advertiser and North Wilts Chronicle	1910
The Bystander	1903-1940
The Tatler	1901-1966
Thetford & Watton Times and People's Weekly Journal.	1933
West Somerset Free Press	1860-1869, 1873-1902, 1905-1909
West Sussex County Times	1876
Western Daily Mercury.	1880
Wexford Independent	1873
York Herald	1882
Yorkshire Evening Press	1892

OGS Conference: Ask an Expert

Here's another benefit of attending the Ontario Genealogical Society Conference, 16-18 June in Ottawa. Spend 20 minutes with an expert working toward breaking down your genealogical brick wall.
You need to write up your problem, details on what's needed are at https://conference2017.ogs.ca/specialevents/export/ (sic).
Send your write-up well in advance by email to with subject line: “Ask an Expert Query – yourlastname”.  
If OGS can match you with an expert you will be contacted to arrange a convenient time to meet at the Conference.
Give it a try. A fresh mind put to the problem might find an approach you didn't consider.  What have you got to lose?

Find Irish Burials at Historicgraves.com

Historicgraves.com is a gravestone transcription and image site with more than 80,000 names in the database, It's 98% Irish, especially strong for Cork which has nearly 25,000 records, the largest Clonfert (Cork) having 1,752 records. Limerick with nearly 22,000 is second with Glebe (Pubblebrien By) in Crecora, having 1,006 records.Tipperary has 7,880 records and Waterford 4,299.

Search by family and comprehensive hits are returned with a map of the location, listing of others recorded on the monument and a transcription.

There are 1,006 records in the UK.

Thanks to Ann Burns for the tip.

NOT in Canada Eh! - The child abuse scandal of the British children sent abroad

Despite the headline the BBC article The child abuse scandal of the British children sent abroad is referring almost entirely to Australia. A single mention of Canada comes in the sentence "An estimated 150,000 children were sent over a 350-year period to Virginia, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and what was then Southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe." Over 100,000 came to Canada as Home Children.

The article describes post-WWII abuse at religious institutions and at Fairbridge Farm Schools in Australia and is prompted by an Australian Royal Commission inquiring into "institutional responses to allegations and incidents of child sexual abuse and related matters." The scope is broader than British child immigrants and focuses on

a. what institutions and governments should do to better protect children against child sexual abuse and related matters in institutional contexts in the future;
b. what institutions and governments should do to achieve best practice in encouraging the reporting of, and responding to reports or information about, allegations, incidents or risks of child sexual abuse and related matters in institutional contexts;
c. what should be done to eliminate or reduce impediments that currently exist for responding appropriately to child sexual abuse and related matters in institutional contexts, including addressing failures in, and impediments to, reporting, investigating and responding to allegations and incidents of abuse;
d. what institutions and governments should do to address, or alleviate the impact of, past and future child sexual abuse and related matters in institutional contexts, including, in particular, in ensuring justice for victims through the provision of redress by institutions, processes for referral for investigation and prosecution and support services.

Canada has had its own issues, notably abuses at residential schools. Sexual abuse of children in Canada extends to a small minority of clergy and hockey coaches. Just as it would be unjust to condemn all clergy ot hockey coaches for the abuses committed by a few it is equally unjust to condemn all child migration to Canada because a few children were abused and ill-treated.

FreeBMD February update

The FreeBMD Database was updated on Saturday 25 February 2017 to contain 260,010,700  distinct records (259,312,541 at the previous update).

Years with major updates (more than 5,000 entries) are for births: 1963-64, 1966, 1976-79; for marriages: 1965-66, 1969, 1971, 1977-81; for deaths 1974, 1976-80.

Ernest W. Painter: CEF Beechwood

Ernest William Painter was born in Ilford, Essex, the son of Albert Henry Painter and his wife Matilda nee Russell. In 1891 the census shows the family living in Stratford, London with him working as a porter for a druggist. In 1894 he married Charlotte Louisa Boneheyo (1872-1955). The birth of their daughter Christa Florence (1899-1955) was registered in West Ham as were those of their sons Ernest Albert (1901-1970) and Philip William (1905-1979).
At the time of the 1901 census he was living in West Ham working making boiled sweets for a confectioner. He emigrated to Canada in 1907. His family arrived two years later after he secured a job as a messenger with the Department of Agriculture in Ottawa on 5 August 1909. By the time of the 1911 census the family lived at 264 Albert Street in Ottawa.
He attested for service with the 207th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force in Ottawa on 19 February 1916. He was a big man, height 6 feet 1 inch, and gave a birth date of 24 April 1875.
Admitted to Highland View Hospital, Amherst, Nova Scotia with pneumonia on 20 February 1917 he died there on the 26th. He was buried at Ottawa's Beechwood Cemetery on 1 March.

Ancestry adds London, England, London Transport Staff Registers, 1863-1931

The 36,639 records in this unusual collection obtained from Transport For London provides unique insight into the careers of those employed by London Transport.
Contents in the images of the originals depend on date. As well as name you may find age, height, date of employment, date of leaving and various information about complaints, absences and penalties imposed.

Liverpool Cemeteries Online

Liverpool is the UK's seventh most populous community. The City Council manages the following area cemeteries and crematoria:

Allerton Cemetery (1909)
Anfield Cemetery and Crematorium (1863)
Bootle (1913)
Everton Cemetery(1880)
Kirkdale Cemetery (1881)
Springwood Crematorium (1975)
Toxteth Cemetery (1856)
West Derby Cemetery (1884)

About 4 Km from the terminal where many set off across the high seas for a new life lies the oldest, Toxteth Park Municipal Cemetery. Memorial inscriptions from 1856 to 2000, over 20,000 of them, have been transcribed by Robert and Rose Anderson and placed in a database. Check it out at www.toxtethparkcemeteryinscriptions.co.uk/

The Andersons have also contributed a listing of 50,784 surname entries for burials at Anfield Municipal Cemetery, the second oldest. Finding those MI transcriptions is a two step process, the first will find which transcription files have information for the surname. Start at http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ormandy/index.html

For Allerton Cemetery check out http://freepages.misc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ormandy/ which also has a few records for other locations.

Ancestry has 502,518 records for burial at Ford Cemetery and 32,804 for Yew Tree Cemetery, both Catholic but without plot numbers.

Findmypast has 2,741 burial records for St Anne, Richmond.

Burials at All Saints, Childwall, 1557-1728 are at www.lan-opc.org.uk/Liverpool/Childwall/allsaints/index.html

The Commonwealth War Grave Commission records 992 burials at Anfield with another 47 cremated, 516 at Kirkdale, 436 at Ford, 419 at Allerton, 275 at Toxteth Park, 245 at West Derby, 199 at Bootle, 106 at Yew Tree and burials at seven other Liverpool cemeteries.

For information on Jewish cemeteries see www.iajgsjewishcemeteryproject.org/england/liverpool.html

Map from Wikipedia

Findmypast spotlight on Northamptonshire and Warwickshire

Here's what's new this week in English records on Findmypast

Northampton General Hospital Admissions 1774-1846
Transcripts of 126,231 original hospital records from the Northamptonshire Record Office. Information returned is name, birth year, admission year, discharge year, nature of ailment, outcome and location information,

Northamptonshire Baptisms
Transcripts from the Northamptonshire Family History Society of 14,051 records from 34 parishes giving name, baptism year and date, denomination, relationship (son or daughter), father and mother's first name, place. The records cover the year range from 1559 through to 1901, only a few after 1850.

Warwickshire Monumental Inscriptions
From the Birmingham & Midland Society for Genealogy & Heraldry come 190,536 new transcript records added so the database, now 201,527 for municipal burial sites in Warwickshire. The index gives name, death year and place. Death dates are 1538 to 2004.

William Alexander Cameron: CEF Beechwood

Honorary Major William Alexander "Sandy" Cameron died on 24 February 1917 in Ashland, North Carolina.
Born in Thurso, Quebec on 24 November 1866, he was the fourth son of the late John Archibald and Alexandrina Cameron of Stadacona Hall, Ottawa.
He had gone south for the winter owing to poor health, diabetes and pulmonary tuberculous, which had caused him to return from England and service with the 77th Battalion of the CEF the previous September. He previously served with Ottawa's 43rd Regiment.
Cameron was a leading coal and lumber merchant. Lauded in the Ottawa Journal as a most likeable gentleman and sportsman, he had been in the forefront of local sports as president and playing member of the Ottawa Rough Riders, active in golf and rowing.

He is interred in Sec. 50. Lot 4-7N at Beechwood Cemetery.

OGS Conference in Ottawa is popular

Information from the organisers is that registration for the Ontario Genealogical Conference, 16-18 June 2017/at Algonquin College in Ottawa is running above expectation. Some of the pre-conference events are sold out including the LAC tour -- there is a waiting list. The Marketplace is almost full.

Early bird registration deadline is 31 March but don't delay. If you leave it too late you may not get in on the action. Projections are that the banquet with speaker D. Joshua Taylor will sell out. Avoid disappointment.  I have my reservation for that and the BIFHSGO-organised British Pub Night.

The college residence is presently sold out for Thursday 15 June. Accommodation is at a premium in Ottawa this year owing to the sesquicentennial celebrations so I strongly advise booking now or contacting that relative or friend who lives locally to secure their hospitality.

Finally, new this year is Using Ancestry Day on the Monday following the conference. Crista Cowan (did you catch her RootsTech session) and Anna (DNA) Swayne from Ancestry in the US will be in Ottawa to conduct the all day event.

Find out about the conference at https://conference2017.ogs.ca/

Bradford Cemeteries Online

Bradford is the UK's sixth most populous community.

Bradford Metropolitan District manages 24 cemeteries and crematoria.

Cemeteries and crematoria	Address	Opened
Bingley Cemetery	Bailey Hills Road Bingley	1870
Bowling Cemetery	Rooley Lane Bradford	1889
Charlestown Cemetery	Otley Road Charlestown	1863
Clayton Cemetery	Middle Lane Clayton Bradford	1928
Gods Acre Cemetery	Bradford Road Burley in Wharfedale	1873
Haworth Cemetery	Cemetery Road Haworth	1893
Ilkley Cemetery	Ashlands Road Ilkley	1878
Menston Cemetery	Bradford Road Menston	1927
Morton Cemetery	Bradford Road Sandbeds Keighley	1916
Nab Wood Cemetery and Crematorium	Bingley Road Shipley	1895
North Bierley Cemetery	Cemetery Road Buttershaw Bradford	1933
Oakworth Cemetery and Crematorium	Wide Lane Oakworth Keighley	1906
Oxenhope Cemetery	Hebden Bridge Road Oxenhope	1887
Queensbury Cemetery	West End Queensbury Bradford	1905
Scholemoor Cemetery and Crematorium	Necropolis Road Bradford	1860
Silsden Cemetery	Howden Road Silsden	1930
Stanbury Cemetery	Sladen Bridge Stanbury Keighley	1888
Steeton Cemetery	Elmsley Street Steeton	1896
Thornton Cemetery	Thornton Road Bradford	1907
Tong Cemetery	Tong Street Bradford	1860
Utley Cemetery	Skipton Road Keighley	1857
Wilsden Cemetery	Shay Lane	1922
Windhill Cemetery	Owlet Toad Windhill Shipley	1835

Not included on this list is Undercliffe Cemetery which is managed by Undercliffe Cemetery Charity in partnership with Bradford Metropolitan District Council.

Sadly, as far as I can tell, none of these have information from burial registers or memorial inscription transcriptions online.  It appears a search of original records at Bradford or Keighley Local Studies Libraries is required, or you can pay for a search at a cost of £12 (about $20 Cdn).

Findmypast has 45,982 records for the Bradford area in the National Burial Index mostly from churchyards and including 9,240 records from Eccleshill St Luke's and Norman Lane Wesleyan Burial Ground.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission show 259 burials in Bowling Cemetery, 238 at Scholemoor, 134 at Undercliffe and a few at other locations.

Find information on Bradford Jewish Cemeteries.

Ottawa Branch OGS February Meeting

Forgotten Local Heroes of WWI, presented by Brian Tackaberry, is the topic for the main part of Saturday's Ottawa Branch meeting at 1:30 pm.

"Join us for stories of forgotten local heroes ion WWI. The North Lanark Historical Society recently launched a new book entitled “Forgotten Heroes: Mississippi Mills Valour Award Recipients of the Great War". Brian Tackaberry will discuss the book which is a follow up to a previous book on local individuals who died in WWI. "Forgotten Heroes: Mississippi Mills Valour Award Recipients of the Great War" is published by the North Lanark Historical Society with financial support from the Ottawa Branch of The Ontario Genealogical Society."

The "Back to Basics" session at 10:30 am is on Directories and will be presented by Heather Oakley.
The Computer special interest group will convene afterwards, around 3 pm.

Saturday, 25 February, City of Ottawa Archives, 100 Tallwood Drive (Room 115)

OGS provides free coffee and cookies for the meeting!

Refugees in 1860 and 2017

The Union, a paper published in Ottawa, had a habit of printing fillers at the bottom of columns as amply demonstrated by the top item in this clipping from the 29 February 1860 edition.
The second reports Canada, East and West having a population "estimated to be exactly" (sic) 3 million.
The final item is about the 45,000 refugees (fugitive slaves) from the US in Canada.
That's 1.5% of the population.
At the same rate will Canada, with a population of 36 million in 2017, have the opportunity and willingness to welcome 540,000 refugees from the US?

Historical Society of Ottawa: February meeting

Friday 24 February 2017
Black History of Ottawa
Rev. Dr. Anthony Bailey

Abstract: Benedict Anderson has argued that nations are “communities of imagination”. In 2017 the imagination of the ‘community of Canada’ will no doubt be on full display as the country celebrates its 150th anniversary. The ontology of Canada’s prevailing founding settler narrative(s) as well as its too often unacknowledged multivalent history demands a problematization of the anticipated popular 150th anniversary celebrations. Canada has not fully acknowledged or come to terms with how its history – past and present has been and continues to be interrogated by indigenous reality. Further, the experience, role and contributions of people of African descent to the project of Canada, have only recently begun to gain non-tokenized recognition and celebration. Some of the contributions of people of African descent to Canadian and world history will be explored in light of the aforementioned problematized context in my Black History Month presentation.

Profile: Originally from Barbados, Dr. Bailey migrated with his family to Canada and settled in Montreal. While growing up in Montreal he pursued academic degrees in Social Work and Philosophy of Religion from McGill University. He has also earned a Masters of Divinity from the
Vancouver School of Theology and a Doctorate in Ethics and Culture from Columbia Theological Seminary in Atlanta, USA. Dr. Bailey has served in various parts of Canada as a minister, as well as in Kenya and Jamaica. He has taught part-time at the Joint Theological Colleges at McGill University and at the Theological College of the University of the West Indies. He has experience as a racial justice trainer and intercultural competence animator which he has deployed in schools, social service agencies, City Hall and churches. He has freelanced in radio and television and enjoys his family, reading, playing hockey and good films.

The meeting starts at 1 pm at the Routhier Community Centre, 172 Guigues Street

Robert Ernest Carter: CEF Beechwood

22 February 1917 saw the death due to complications of asthma of 41 year old Hon Lieutenant Robert Ernest Carter in Ottawa's St. Luke's Hospital.
He was the son of Robert Suxpitch Carter and Anna nee Goodland (not those named in CWGC records?), both of whom predeceased him. He enlisted in Toronto in July 1915 giving his occupation as designer and served with the Canadian Army Dental Corps.
He emigrated on the Dominion Line ship Canada, arriving in Montreal on 15 May 1904 having previously served in a British medical corps in South Africa.

The Beechwood Grave Reference is: Mil. Section 29. Lot 13-14, Grave 46.

Sheffield Cemeteries Online

Sheffield is the UK's fifth most populous community.

The City Council is responsible for the following 16 cemeteries.

Cemetery	Opened
Abbey Lane	1859
Beighton	1930
Burncross	1877
Burngreave	1861
City Road	1881
Crookes	1906
Darnall	1859
Ecclesfield	1920
Handsworth	1859
Intake	1880
Norton	1869
Shiregreen	1927
Stocksbridge	1950
Tinsley Park	1882
Wisewood	1933
Woodhouse	1879

Sheffield General Cemetery, opened in 1836 as a nonconformist cemetery, is owned by the City and operated by Sheffield General Cemetery Trust.

Search under Burial Records at the Sheffield Indexers for an index containing records for Abbey Lane (24,445), Burngreave (160,204), City Road (144,982), Crookes (22,066), Darnall (16,225), Handsworth (7,369), Intake (6,557), Norton (19,166), Shiregreen (17,508) and, Stocksbridge (1,009).

City Road and Burngreave Cemeteries have the most Commonwealth War Graves Commission burials.

The National Burial Index on Findmypast has 202,882 results for Sheffield including 37,465 for Tinsley Cemetery, 13,199 for Attercliffe and 1,013 for Woodhouse.

For Jewish burials consult www.jewishgen.org/jcr-uk/Community/Sheffield.htm

OGS Conference 2017 FastTrax Opportunity

FastTrax sessions are up to 20 minute mini presentations primarily for exhibitors in the Marketplace to present to attendees on product lines or tips and tricks, or for any interested OGS member who may have a short item of interest.
Proposals on DNA by exhibitors or members would be particularly welcome.
Some slots are taken while several good ones remain.
Submit a brief outline of the proposed session, not to exceed twenty minutes, to fastTrax.conference2017@ogs.on.ca.

Lesley Anderson on CTV Your Morning

Family Day in Ontario was the occasion for Lesley Anderson to reveal the AncestryDNA test findings of the show's hosts. Watch at
http://www.ctv.ca/YourMorning/Video/Ben-and-Kelsey-find-out-their-ancestry-through-DNA-tests-vid1061044

Ruth Blair at #OGSConf2017

In this interview Oakville genealogist Ruth Blair talks about her impressions of RootsTech 2017 and the two presentations she will be giving at OGS Conference 2017. We also give a shout out to the Alberta Genealogical Society Olde Genealogy Faire, 22-23 April 2017.
If you missed the link above find the interview HERE.

Celebrate Heritage Day in Ottawa

Heritage Day is part of Heritage Week, February 20-26, 2017, a nation-wide celebration encouraging all Canadians to explore their heritage.

In recognitions of the sesquicentennial the theme for this year's Heritage Day in Ottawa is“My Canada! / Mon Canada!”

Come to Ottawa City Hall on Tuesday, 21 February between 11:30 am to 2 pm to find out how heritage is being celebrated; and learn about services offered by local heritage organizations, public programs and special initiatives, as well as professional development and volunteer opportunities.

I'll be there at the BIFHSGO stand along with Mary Lou Simac and Anne Sterling. We hope to see you there.

Glasgow Cemeteries Online

Glasgow is the UK's fourth, and Scotland's most populous community.

The best resource found for Glasgow, and many other Scottish burials is www.memento-mori.co.uk/.
It includes index listings for Carlton, Glasgow Cathedral, Janefield, Lambhill, Necropolis, Ramshorn, Riddrie Park, Sandymount, Shettleston Old Churchyard, Sighthill, Southern Necropolis, Strathblane Churchyard, St. Andrews by the Green Churchyard, St. Kentigern’s, St. Peter’s (Dalbeth), Tollcross and, Western Necropolis.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission has Glasgow burials at: Riddrie Park,  St. Kentigern's RC,  St. Peter's RC,  Craigton,  Lambhill,  Cardonald,  Sandymount, Eastwood (Old and New),  Sighthill,  Glenduffhill Jewish, Linn (and crematorium),  Garnethill, Hebrew Congregational, Daldowie (crematorium).

ScotlandsPeople has records for St. Peter’s Dalbeth Cemetery.

The Scotland Billion Graves Index, through Findmypast, has just 899 Glasgow burials.

Neither Ancestry nor Deceased Online have Glasgow cemetery records

Glasgow Jewish cemeteries are included in the listings at www.scottishjewishcemeteries.org/

Findmypast adds Norfolk Electoral Registers and Bishop's Transcripts

Findmypast now has a large collection or printed Norfolk Electoral Registers 1832-1915, indexed with 4,557,906 entries. You can follow year by year the type of property and if owned or rented land or property (such as a freehold, a farm, or a house). For example, my ancestor in Deopham owned a mill which was initially rented out.

Photo credit: milesmilob via Visual Hunt / CC BY-SA

The collection of Bishop's Transcripts for Nelson's county, with images of the original linked, includes:

Baptisms 1685-1941: 647,395 records
Marriages 1685-1941:157,290 records
Burials 1685-1941: 434,357 records

There are a few records for adjacent Suffolk parishes in the Diocese of Norwich included.

UK and Irish records from Ancestry.co.uk free this weekend

From now until Monday 20 February you should be able to access UK and Ireland records on Ancestry.co.uk without a subscription.  You will need a free registration.

This is an opportunity to search the collections newly added this year:

Web: Moray, Scotland, Local Heritage Index, 1632-2014
Jersey, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1540-1812
Jersey, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1915
Jersey, Church of England Deaths and Burials, 1813-1940
Jersey, Church of England Marriages, 1754-1940
London, England, Stock Exchange Membership Applications, 1802-1924
London, England, Gamekeepers' Licences, 1727-1839
London, England, TS Exmouth Training Ship Records, 1876-1918

as well as the updated collections

Scotland and Northern Ireland, Death Index, 1989-2015
England and Wales, Death Index, 2007-2015
Beddington, Surrey, England, Royal Female Orphanage List of Children, 1890-1913
Somerset, England, Gaol Registers, 1807-1879
Dorset, England, Bastardy Records, 1725-1853
Gloucestershire, England, Prison Records, 1728-1914
England & Wales, Christening Index, 1530-1980
England & Wales Marriages, 1538-1988
London, England, Stock Exchange Membership Applications, 1802-1924
London, England, Freedom of the City Admission Papers, 1681-1930

Change at Living DNA

My last blog post about Living DNA showed my autosomal results described as "your DNA mix in the last 4-5 generations." Several bloggers have commented that their results have not matched their expectation in that timeframe.

While the numbers haven't changed they are now described as showing "the areas of the world where you share genetic ancestry in recent times (10 generations)." Ten generations leaves a lot more scope for uncertainty on the far side of known paper-based genealogy.

Change is good. I'd hope the company would be open about providing an explanation of why this change.

Thanks to Wendy Croome for alerting me to the change.

Library and Archives Canada Transcribes Finding Aids

A blog post from LAC announces transcription of some paper-based finding aids that were previously available only in the Reference Room at 395 Wellington Street. Chances are they won't be of interest unless your ancestor was somehow involved with the organisation, but just in case they are:

• Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Administrative Records
• Supreme Court Case Files
• Canadian Hydrographic Service

Read the blog post here,

If you're unsure about how finding aids can help try the LAC post Discover Finding Aids!

Ancestry adds records of Unemployment Relief for Canadian Settlers, 1932-1939

Mention the 1930s in Canada and depression and drought are the words that spring to mind.
This collection documents Canadian settlers who received assistance from the federal government during the period.

"Each sheet contains the name of the settler, where he is settled (Quebec and westward), the date he settled there, what he received, and when he received it. The assistance received may vary from train tickets to groceries to clothing items. There are often multiple sheets for each settler. Some of these records were written in French."

There are 5,610 records in the collection which originates from holdings at Library and Archives Canada, apparently from Department of Labour fonds (R224-0-4-E).

An East End Murder & A West End Grave

London was a gruesome place in the 1830s, witness murders to provide bodies for dissection by medical students.
An East End Murder & A West End Grave, the latest post on the Spitalfields Life blog tells the story of the Italian Boy, the connection to Charles Dickens and an effort to save another piece of London history from the developer.

Leeds Cemeteries Online

Leeds is the UK's third most populous city, home to nearly three-quarters of a million residents.

Find a list of 24 area cemeteries under the care of Leeds City Council at www.leeds.gov.uk/residents/Pages/Find-cemeteries-and-crematoria.aspx. 16 date from the 19th century.

Ancestry has a database for Beckett Street Cemetery, 1845-1987 with 187,851 entries.

Records for the Leeds General Cemetery, at St George's Fields near Woodhouse Moor, which operated from 1835 to 1969 with 97,146 burials, now converted to a park, are at https://library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections-explore/Leeds%20General%20Cemetery%20Burial%20Registers%20Index

Findmypast carries a database for 10,270 burials at Holbeck cemetery, 1895-1921.

Deceased Online has a small database for Bagley Lane Burial Ground taken from the records of removal of graves and tombstones from disused and closed burial grounds and cemeteries, RG37, transcribed from TNA.

Information on 4,727 burials at Lawnswood Cemetery is at https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=cr&CRid=2204881

The Yorkshire Indexers have some Leeds and District monumental inscription transcriptions at http://www.yorkshireindexers.info/gallery/browseimages.php?c=27

Don't overlook the 151,579 entries for Leeds in the National Burial Index, available through Findmypast.

Find information on Jewish burials at http://www.jewishgen.org/jcr-uk/Community/Leeds/cemeteries/New%20Farnley%20Cemetery/Cemetery_menu.htm

Quinte Branch OGS, February Meeting

"Tales of the Script: Learning the Alphabet" is the Branch February presentation by Carol St Clair.

Learn about old handwriting styles from the 19th century and using that knowledge to navigate handwritten records of the 1800s.
   
Carol stumbled across graphology in high school and set out to debunk it by taking Handwriting Analysis courses. Ultimately, she became a Certified Master Graphologist and Document Examiner, with an interest in her family history after discovering the handwriting of her great-great grandfather. She has extensive training in bringing old handwriting to life and an addiction to genealogy.

Everyone welcome, bring a friend.  Saturday 18 February, 1-3 pm at Quinte West Public Library.

More at www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~canqbogs/meetings.htm

Who do you think is being featured in WDYTYA on TLC?

Cable channel TLC announces the new season of the US version of Who Do You Think You Are?

Featured are:
Jessica Biel makes surprising discoveries that change what she thought knew about her heritage.
Julie Bowen uncovers the story of two relatives whose moral codes are from opposite ends of the spectrum.
Courteney Cox traces her maternal line back seven centuries to the Medieval times to discover royalty in her lineage and an unbelievable tale of family drama.
Jennifer Grey uncovers new information about the grandfather she thought she knew, learning how he survived adversity to become a beacon of his community.
Smokey Robinson searches for answers behind the mystery of why his grandfather disappeared from his children’s lives and finds a man tangled in a swirl of controversy.
John Stamos digs into the mystery of how his grandfather became an orphan, and learns of tensions between families that led to a horrible crime.
Liv Tyler learns that her family is tied into the complicated racial narrative of America.
Noah Wyle unravels the mystery of his maternal line, uncovering an ancestor who survived one of America’s bloodiest battles.

The season gets underway on Sunday, 5 March at 10 EST.

via a blog post from Thomas MacEntee.

CEF Service Files Digitization: February 2017 Update

As of 15 February 2017,  404,164 (387,710 last month) of 640,000 files are available online via the LAC Soldiers of the First World War: 1914–1918 database.

The latest digitized is from Box 6831 (6526 last month) and last name McGee (Murray). Library and Archives Canada is digitizing the service files systematically, from box 1 to box 10686, which roughly corresponds to alphabetical order.

16,454 (9,481) files were digitized in the last month. At that rate the project would be complete by May 2018.

Birmingham Cemeteries Online

Note: This post is superseded with the appearance of www.birminghamburialrecords.co.uk/.

Birmingham is the UK's second most populous city, over one million inhabitants.

The City Council, has responsibility for cemeteries and crematoria at Brandwood End, Handsworth, Key Hill, Kings Norton, Lodge Hill, Quinton, Sutton Coldfield, Sutton New Hall, Warstone Lane, Witton and Yardley. They are listed at www.birmingham.gov.uk/cemeteries/. Don't be deceived by the statement "Browse records within Cemeteries and crematoria", it provides basic information on the facility, not those interred.

Key Hill (from 1836) and Warstone Lane (from 1848) were the first cemeteries. In October 2011 I blogged about the Jewellery Quarter Research Group (JQRG) putting online over 11,000 memorial inscriptions for Birmingham's Key Hill Cemetery. In the intervening years the group has been active. The website www.jqrt.org/ now has searchable databases of burials and memorial inscriptions for Warstone Lane in addition to Key Hill.

The Birmingham and Midland Society for Genealogy and Heraldry has an index to four cemeteries
Handsworth Cemetery (1909 – 2010) 73,982 names
Key Hill Cemetery (1836 – 2006) 60,069 names
Warstone Lane Cemetery (1848 – 2007) 91,707 names
Witton Cemetery (1863 – 2011) 467,659 names.

If you find someone of interest the Society offers a look-up service.

If you're looking for earlier burials try the National Burial Index, available through Findmypast, with 195,413 entries for Birmingham.

Also try the records of removal of graves and tombstones from disused and closed burial grounds and cemeteries, RG37, transcribed from TNA by Deceased Online. They are for Brandwood End Cemetery, Handsworth Cemetery, Lodge Hill Cemetery, Mayers Green Congregational Church (West Bromwich),  Sandwell Road (West Bromwich), Society of Friends Burial Ground, St Mary's Burial Ground, St Thomas Churchyard, Witton Cemetery,and Yardley Cemetery

For more recent burials try http://genealogy.birmingham.gov.uk/ wirh coverage since the mid 1990s and some earlier/

Find information on Jewish cemeteries at www.iajgs.org/cemetery/england/birmingham-west-midlands.html

Kingston Branch OGS February Meeting

The Kingston Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society will meet at the Kingston Seniors Centre, 56 Francis Street in Kingston, on Saturday, 18 February at 10 a.m.  Annual General Meeting plus Joanne Stanbridge , Local History and Genealogy Librarian at Kingston Frontenac Public Library will speak on "Back to Basics: My Favourite Tips and Strategies."

Visitors welcome.  Further details at www.ogs.on.ca/kingston

The Gazettes

Either it changed recently or I`m way behind the times. The collection of the London, Edinburgh and Belfast Gazettes that used to be at Gazettes Onone is now at The Gazette.
All the same information is still there, back 350 years, but you select London, Edinburgh or Belfast through a filter on the results.
There are a few short explanatory videos, with recognition that genealogists are a major client, at www.thegazette.co.uk/videos
The Republic of Ireland has its own gazette Iris Oifigiúil published since January 1922, but the online archive only goes back to 2002.
According to information at http://timeline.ie/dublin-gazette-iris-oifigiuil/ at the website of the Oireachtas Library you can download pdf copies of the predecessor Dublin Gazette from 1750 to 1809.  Each download covers a decade of the publication, which can then be searched for any term you are looking for.

Society Journal Dsitribution

With postage costs rising, concern for the environment and pervasive use of the web for genealogy, the trend is to switch distribution of genealogical and family history society quarterly or triannual (three-times-a-year) publications to electronic means. The table below shows the situation for some major anglophone societies across Canada. The information is gleaned from the society websites which in some cases is ambiguous. Corrections welcome. Digital includes both email distribution of a pdf and availability through a website. Some "digital" societies make allowance for legacy members who do not have web access.

Society	Publication	Availability
AGS	Relatively Speaking	Publication under review
BCGS	The British Columbia Genealogist	Hardcopy
BIFHSGO	Anglo-Celtic Roots	Digital option
FHSNL	Newfoundland Ancestor	Digital only
GANS	The Nova Scotia Genealogist	Digital only?
MGS	Generations	Digital option
NBGS	Generations	Hardcopy
OGS	Families	Digital only
PEIGS	Newsletter	Hardcopy?
QFHS	Connections	Hardcopy
SGS	Bulletin	Digital option
VGS	Journal	Digital option

Perth and District Historical Society February Meeting

The society meeting of February 16, 2017, will explore what the well-dressed woman wore at thw time of Confederation, 150 years ago.

Loree Tannett, who has already made a name for herself in Perth in the realm of period dress and costume, will bring a light-hearted presentation of the whys and wherefores of 1860s dress, demonstrating the lengths that the genteel woman went through in the course of dressing for her daily activities.  To aid in this, Loree will clothe a very animated, and perhaps talkative, mannequin.

Clothing in Canadian towns at the time of Confederation was generally similar to that found in Britain and also the United States during its Civil War period, although fashions in Canada were somewhat behind by about 20 years.  Fashion for towns people was continually transitioning during the 1800s, and the 1860s was no exception.   On the other hand, clothing in the rural areas tended to be more functional and less likely to reflect changing fashions, staying relatively constant over the years.

Loree has had a lifelong interest in costume and design.  She has experience with making costumes for live theatre and film, dancing and skating, historical events, and clothing for weddings and other special occasions.  In addition, she enjoys researching and experimenting with various fibers and techniques for using fibers artistically.

Loree and her husband, Jack, moved to Perth from Calgary three years ago, looking for a small town with a thriving arts community.  Since arriving in Perth, Loree has immersed herself in Perth life, serving on the Perth 200th committee, producing clothing of the 1816s era for re-enactments, judging at the Town Criers competition, making costumes for some Studio Theatre productions; she is also a members of the Perth Fair Board for the home crafts,

The meeting, at 7:30 pm, is at Perth's Royal Canadian Legion, home of the Hall of Remembrance, 26 Beckwith Street E., Perth, at 7:30pm (Toonie donation).
-----------------------
For more information, call 613-264 8362 or 613-264 0094 or visit our website at www.perthhs.org .
To contact us by e-mail or to unsubscribe from our mailings, kindly address your e-mail to: perthhs@gmail.com

Who Do You Think They Are?

What do these men have in uniquely common? What's the significance of the colours? Post your answer as a comment. Bragging rights!

Leverage the OGS Conference

If you plan on attending the Ontario Genealogical Society Conference in Ottawa, 16-18 June 2017, an event to remember, why not plan on staying a few extra days to follow up on some loose ends in your family history, or help celebrate the sesquicentennial.

Unless you registered already you're too late to participate in the conference's conducted tour of Library and Archives Canada. But you won't be too late to visit the building at 395 Wellington Street, on the Ceremonial Route, to do your own research.
You will need a reader card and, just as with any research visit, need to prepare. Read the advice at the LAC website. In particular, be aware that much of the archival material is stored offsite. It can take days for delivery so order well in advance.
For advice on genealogy resources look to the staff in the Genealogy Room on the 3rd floor at 395 Wellington.
For those with Ottawa ancestors the City Archives is a 15 minute walk from the conference site at Algonquin College.

The National Gallery, War Museum, and Canadian Museum of History (formerly Museum of Civilization) are not to be missed. Take a stroll to Parliament Hill and to the nearby Bytown Museum by the flight of locks between the Rideau Canada and Ottawa River.

Go to www.ottawa2017.ca/for 150 reasons to be in Ottawa in 2017, and that doesn't even include the OGS conference.

Back to RootsTech

If like me you had other things to do than watch presentations streamed live from Rootstech you can watch recordings of many talks at your own convenience -- for free. Go to www.rootstech.org and scroll down to Did You Miss a Session?

Some BIFHSGO colleagues mentioned these talks from Thursday and Friday:

Thursday
Diahan Southard, Your DNA Guide: DNA: The Glue that Holds Families Together

Friday
Judy G. Russell: Mothers, Daughters, Wives: Tracing Female Lines
Sunny Morton: Big 4: Comparing Ancestry, findmypast, FamilySearch and MyHeritage
Jen Baldwin: Cross the Atlantic with Religious Records

It was too early to hear comments on Saturday's presentations.

How LAC Implemented Trump's Agenda

In Canada we're accustomed to seeing news reports showing Canada ranking a bit behind Scandinavian but ahead of most G7 countries on measures of social development.
Nicka Smith, a genealogist and photographer,
wrote a blog post Why Genealogists Should Care About Trump’s Agenda pointing out that during the election campaign the now president proposed closure of two critical departments in the federal government, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for Humanities (NEH).  It would cut funds for the operation of the National Digital Newspaper Program, and  Chronicling America, which offers over 11 million pages digitized and searchable online.
That would send the US back to where Canada is today, no national program for newspaper digitization. There is a patchwork of newspaper digitization: some excellent free local initiatives, such as for Victoria's British Colonist; some newspapers, like the Ottawa Journal, on pay sites; and some digitized as images only with no search capability.
Is Library and Archives Canada, the Canadian federal department that has lead responsibility in preserving and making available Canada's documentary heritage, proud to have implemented Donald Trump's agenda years before he came on the political scene?

Longevity and Migration

There has been a flood of articles from the academic community in the past few days using genealogical and genetic genealogical big data. They are aimed at the academic community, replete with technological terminology so that I doubt one in a hundred genealogists can critically evaluated the articles' methodology and results. I count myself in the 99%.

Quantitative analysis of population-scale family trees using millions of relatives, available as a preprint, not yet peer reviewed, is one the layman stands a bit more of a chance of understanding.

The study draws on data for 86 million individuals contributed by more than 3 million genealogists to geni.com, a division of MyHeritage. Quality control to eliminate obvious errors yielded a database of 5.3 million separate family trees the largest of which contained 13 million individuals and spanned 11 generations. About 30% came from North America, 50% from Western Europe and Scandinavia, 5% from the British Isles, and the remainder more than 100 other countries.

Testing these trees against a small DNA database showed a non-paternity rate of 1.9% and non-maternity rate of 0.3% per generation (meiosis).

The heat map has colours corresponding to the fraction of deaths reported at a certain age per year. Notice the decrease in infant and child mortality since the 19th century.

Regarding longevity the study found a tendency for longer-lived parents to have longer-lived children but less so than in previous studies. There was a slightly increased tendency for men to live longer if their father did and the same for women and their mother. However, hereditary was much less of a factor than environment overall.

On migration it was found that females migrated more but over shorter distances than males in Western societies. That’s consistent with women moving to the husband’s workplace on marriage. Men showed a greater tendency for longer range migration as shown by his children being born in a different country than the father, but not so much for the mother.

Couples born in adjacent locations are more likely to be genetically related - 4th cousins before 1850. Later society became more mobile and couples were more likely to be born further apart (greater marital distance). For every 70Km increase in marital distance the genetic distance relationship increased by one meiosis.

There's much more in the article, which also includes information on how to access the anonymised database, at www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/02/07/106427.1

As I was writing this item the news arrived that Yaniv Erlich, corresponding author of the study, has been appointed Chief Scientist at MyHeritage.

Online from RootsTech: Saturday

Here's today's schedule of streamed presentations from RootsTech with EST timing.

10:30 a.m.–noon | RootsTech General Session
Speakers: Cece Moore, Buddy Valastro

1:00 p.m.–2:00 p.m. | Journaling Principles That Work
Speaker: Steve Reed

3:30 p.m.–4:30 p.m. | Don’t Just Be a Searcher, Be a Researcher
Speaker: Crista Cowan

5:00 p.m.–6:00 p.m. | Creating Google Alerts for Your Genealogy
Speaker: Katherine R. Wilson10:30 a.m.–noon | RootsTech General Session
Speakers: Levar Burton, Special Guest Panel

Find the stream at https://www.rootstech.org/

OPL Lecture: Researching British Home Children

Saturday, 18 February at 10 am Gloria Tubman will give a two hour presentation on British Home Children at Nepean Centrepointe, 101 Centrepointe.Room 1B

The British Child Emigration Movement brought some 100,000 children to Canada in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  Considered “waifs and strays”, these children were sent overseas to escape the harsh realities of Industrial-era Britain. When they arrived in Canada, they were placed in foster homes, usually farms, where it was thought that fresh air, education, and hard work in the Canadian countryside would lead to healthier and better lives for them.  In some cases this was true; in others it most definitely was not.  While some home children were welcomed into their new Canadian homes with love, others were considered no more than free labour or domestic servants.
Today, a million Canadians can trace their ancestry to a Home Child, whether they realize it or not.  Since 2010, the Year of the British Home Child in Canada, resources for genealogical and historical research on home children have steadily increased.  

Log in and register for this experience at https://biblioottawalibrary.ca/en/event/researching-british-home-children-education

English Roman Catholic records now at Findmypast

Findmypast have reached an agreement with the Roman Catholic Birmingham Archdiocesan Archives and Westminster Archdiocesan Archives to make available sacramental records older than 110 years.

The project, known as The Catholic Heritage Archive, starts online with 488,505 baptisms, 94,717 marriages, 49,880 burials, and 160,393 congregational records.

Baptismal records may include: Birth date, Baptism date, Church, Parish, Father’s name, Mother’s name, Godparents, Priest

Marriages list Marriage date, Church, Parish. Spouse’s name, Spouse’s parish, Father’s name, Spouse’s father’s name, Witnesses’ names, Priest

Burials give Age, Death date, Burial date, Church

Congregational documents include anniversary books, confirmation lists, congregational lists, lists of benefactors and converts, parish diaries, and more. Most records will list the individual’s name, date or year of the event, and contain additional remarks related to the event.

Many records are in Latin.

Online from RootsTech: Friday

Here's today's schedule of streamed presentations from RootsTech with EST timing.

10:30 a.m.–noon | RootsTech General Session
Speakers: Levar Burton, Special Guest Panel

12:30 p.m.–1:30 p.m. | RootsTech Innovator Showdown Finals

2:15 p.m.–3:15 p.m. | Mothers, Daughters, Wives: tracing Female Lines
Speaker: Judy Russell

3:30 p.m.–4:30 p.m. | Censational Census Strategies
Speaker: Mary Kircher Roddy

5:00 p.m.–6:00 p.m. | Big 4: Comparing Ancestry, findmypast, FamilySearch, and MyHeritage
Speaker: Sunny Morton

6:30 p.m.–7:30 p.m. | Cross the Atlantic with Religious Records
Speaker: Jen Baldwin

Find the stream at https://www.rootstech.org/

Ancestry updates England and Wales, Death Index, 2007-2013

Some companies may know more about us than we do ourselves. While there's no database of anyone who ever used Google, and most companies keep what they know about us under wraps, here's information, via Ancestry, one company has collected about recent deaths in England and Wales.

Ancestry offers original data from GreyPower Deceased Data. compiled by Wilmington Millennium, an index that covers approximately 55% of the total deaths that occurred from 2007 - 2013.
The index provides name, gender, date of birth or age at death, date of death, and residence place at death.

UPDATE:  Now added, Scotland and Northern Ireland, Death Index, 1989-2015

Online from RootsTech: Thursday

Here's the Thursday schedule of presentations streamed from RootsTech with EST timing

10:30 a.m.-noon | RootsTech General Session
Speakers: Steve Rockwood, Jonathan and Drew Scott

1:00 p.m.–2:00 p.m. | Getting Started in Genealogy
Speaker: Kelli Bergheimer

2:15 p.m.–3:15 p.m. | DNA: The Glue That Holds Families Together
Speaker: Diahan Southard

3:30 p.m.–4:30 p.m. | DNA Matching on MyHeritage
Speaker: Dana Drutman

5:00 p.m.–6:00 p.m. | Jewish Genealogy: Where to Look and What’s Available
Speaker: Lara Diamond

6:30 p.m.–7:30 p.m. | Family History Is Anything but Boring
Speakers: Crystal Farish and Rhonna Farrer

Find the stream at https://www.rootstech.org/

Wolfe's Battle Orders

A newspaper report from 84 years ago today tells of finding General Wolfe's original battle orders in preparation for the attack on Quebec in 1759.
The article reports the document was to be deposited at the National Archives. Did that happen? Has the document been displayed?

The article is in a newspaper digitized by the National Library of Singapore. It's in The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser, 9 February 1933.

No need to ask why Singapore.  Library and Archives Canada
continues to ignore newspapers, and still has no newspaper digitization program. It's yet another illustration that ambition is wanting at both the political and public service level, in digitizing Canada's heritage, well voiced by Micheal Geist in this article.

Online from RootsTech

For those who would like to catch some highlights of RootsTech streamed, here is the schedule for today, Wednesday, with EST timing.

11:00 a.m.–noon | Keynote— Summit General Session
Speakers: Steve Rockwood, Liz Wiseman

12:15 p.m.–1:15 p.m. | Industry Trends and Outlook
Speakers: Craig Bott and Guest Panel

1:30 p.m.–2:00 p.m. | Innovation—Best Practices and Applications
Speaker: Cydni Tetro

Find the stream at https://www.rootstech.org/

FamilySearch adds British Newspaper Archives, Obituaries

The British Newspaper Archives, a collaborative project between Findmypast and the British Library, has made available to FamilySearch a collection of indexes of  obituaries covering the period 1800-1900.

You can search by name and, optionally, birth, marriage and death places and dates. The image shows an example of the information returned.

You can view the original newspaper article, or browse newspapers, at an LDS Family History Centre or as a signed-in member of supporting organizations (usually means an LDS member.)

BIFHSGO February Meeting

The main event at 10 am this Saturday, 11 January, is a presentation The Queen’s Coachman — Our Only Claim to Fame, by Christine Jackson

Coming as she did from generations of agricultural labourers, Christine Jackson was happy to find that her Sussex-born great-grandmother’s brother provided her working class family with its only known claim to fame. For, so the story went, a certain Edwin Miller had been Queen Victoria's coachman! This nugget of information, backed up by some fading and undated photocopies of newspaper clippings, was all she had to begin illuminating the life of a man whose retirement was significant enough to be reported in newspapers around the world. Christine will relate how she used newspaper reports, census returns, parish and civil registrations, probate records, the royal archives and the Internet to piece together the story of a man whose life parallels the reign of Queen Victoria and proudly reflects the transportation business from a long-gone era.

The 9 am Education Talk will be Introduction to WikiTree presented by Leanne Cooper who will discuss how and why she uses WikiTree to document her genealogy research and give tips on its use.

It's all happening at The Chamber, Ben Franklin Place, 101 Centrepointe Drive, Ottawa, Ontario
Saturday, February 11, 2017.

Further information at www.bifhsgo.ca, and don't forget about Global Genealogy's huge used book sale happening in the atrium.

These are free events. All welcome. Free parking.

New Parish and War Memorial Records from The Genealogist

The following is from a news release from TheGenealogist.

TheGenealogist Launches over 282,000 Parish Records, plus 43,000 New War Memorial Records

The Genealogist​ has added to the millions of its UK Parish Records collection with over 282,000 new records from Essex, Cumberland and Norfolk​ making it easier to find your ancestors’ baptisms, marriages and burials in these fully searchable​ records covering ancient parishes. Some of the records go back as far as 1672.

The new release of War Memorial records means there are now over 350,000 searchable records.
This latest release includes war memorials from London, ​along with further English counties including ​Cumbria, Berkshire, Warwickshire and Suffolk​. The collection also stretches across the globe to encompass new War Memorials situated in Perth, Australia​ and the Province of Saskatchewan in Canada​.

Read the complete release here.

Ancestry pays up

Ancestry.com will pay $12.5 million to Kanata-based DNA Genotek to settle a dispute regarding patent inflingement. DNA Genotek is a subsidiary of OraSure Technologies as a result of a takeover in 2011.

DNA Genotek has granted Ancestry.com a royalty-bearing, non-exclusive, worldwide license to certain of its intellectual property related to the collection of DNA from human saliva for use in its genetic testing services and products. The license is limited to saliva DNA collection kits sold or used as part of Ancestry's genetic testing service. Ancestry.com has also provided a royalty-free, non-exclusive license to patents covering its existing saliva DNA collection kit to DNA Genotek.

Read the details at www.genomeweb.com/business-news/dna-genotek-ancestrycom-settle-legal-disputeé.

How to Write Your Personal or Family History

There's no lack of encouragement and advice on writing your family history. Google writing family history and a zillion results are returned. Most major conferences have one or more presentations on the topic. The OGS Conference in June has a half-day workshop Plot a Family History Story to be given by Lynn Palermo.

Check a bookseller inventory and find offerings like How to Write Your Family History: A Guide to Creating, Planning, Editing and Publishing Family Stories, by Noeline Kyle. Like most publications by Unlock the Past it's a slim volume, 32 pages, 5 x 8", staple bound and selling for $14.50 Cdn.

If you're looking for something more substantive consider How to Write Your Personal or Family History: (If You Don't Do It, Who Will?). The author, Katie Funk Wiebe, grew up in northern Saskatchewan, the daughter of Russian-German (Ukrainian) immigrants. She is professor emeritus of Tabor College, a Mennonite liberal arts college in Hillsboro, Kansas, who retired in 1990 after teaching English and journalism for 24 years.

I've not read the book. The publicity blurb describes it as "a practical—and encouraging—how-to book  . .  . a serious but accessible resource for undertaking your personal or family history writing."
If interested take a look inside at the table of contents and first chapter from here.

The new edition of the book, originally published in 2009, becomes available on Tuesday on Kindle, text to speech enabled, at $10.94 Cdn or as a paperback, 241 pages, 6 x 10" at $16.99 Cdn plus shipping.

The Financial Health of Canadian Genealogical Societies 2015

Each year organizations federally registered as charities in Canada for tax purposes are required to file returns with the Canada Revenue Agency. Part, including financial information, is available on the Revenue Canada website. You can search for individual society reports at http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/chrts-gvng/lstngs/menu-eng.html.

This is being posted much later than in previous years as the report for BIFHSGO was very late in appearing online. The report for OGS is still not online although OGS assures it was submitted well in advance. See the comment posted from OGS below.

Of 10 societies with information currently available for 2015 three had a surplus of revenue over expenditure. Most others had a deficit well covered by assets.

Below is a summary of reports for 2015 with comparative figures for 2014, 2013 and 2012 in parentheses where available.

Alberta Genealogical Society
Total assets of $595,845 ($558,845, $606,312, $540,282), and liabilities of  $ 251,116 ($213,134, $257,883, $200,592). The total revenue was $294,466 ($208,033, $229,344, $254,380). Expenditures totaled $295,448 ($210,752, $250,276, $218,231). The individual annual membership fee remains at $50.

British Columbia Genealogical Society
Total assets of  $209,347 ($206,451, $203,542, $203,016) and liabilities of  $7,600 ($7,810, $9,268, $10,085). Total revenue was $34,030 ($33,923, $27,625, $24,783). Expenditures totaled $30,925    ($29,555, $24,991, $22,502). The individual annual membership fee remains at $45.

British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa 
Total assets of $98,897 ($121,878, $104,683, $90,374) and liabilities of $14,120, ($20,170, $32,716, $30,607). Total revenue was $59,872, ($71,443, $70,738, $54,675). Expenditures totaled $66,583, ($63,844, $55,000, $50,366). 91% of expenditures were categorized as "Other".The individual annual membership fee is increased $5 to $45 for 2017.

Family History Society of Newfoundland and Labrador Inc
Total assets were $25,523 ($29,166, $43,130) and liabilities $14,098 ($16,072, $15,867).  Total revenue was $ 34,368 ($29,729, $35,226) and expenditure $36,037 ($44,364, $32,525). The individual membership fee is $42.

Manitoba Genealogical Society
Total assets of  $47,734 ($37,118, $55,341, $50,743) and liabilities of  $7,927 ($7,208, $19,157, $22,458). Total revenue was $41,899 ($47,388, $47,727, $60,780). Expenditures totaled $32,060  ( $49,679, $48,942, $59,162). The individual annual membership fee remains $50.

New Brunswick Genealogical Society 
No report for 2015 is yet posted. The figures for 2014 were total assets were$177,857 (182,016, $194,048) and liabilities of $13,844 ($13,224, $21,542). Total revenue was $37,517 ($33,846, $37,121). Expenditures totaled $43,588 ($39,396, $36,974). The individual annual membership fee remains $35.

Genealogical Association of Nova Scotia
GANS had total assets of $281,182 ($307,796, $303,274) and liabilities of $1,553 ($0, $0). Total revenue was $42,800 ($45,693, $32,549). Total expenditures were $69,858 ($44,703, $30,717). The Association's annual membership fee is increased to $39.

Ontario Genealogical Society
No report for 2015 is yet posted as of 6 February 2017. Information from OGS is that it was submitted well in advance but not posted by CRA. See comment below.

Québec Family History Society
Total assets of $ 48,701 ($50,072, $53,800, $65,742)  Liabilities totaled $8,529 ($7,304, $5,111, $7,899). Total revenue was $42,468 ($42,545, $44,095, $60,623). Expenditures totaled $45,064 ($49,054, $50,878, $47,420). The annual fee remains at $75.

Saskatchewan Genealogical Society
Total assets of $ 114,170 ($86,875, $106,334, $46,921). Liabilities totaled $ 135,921 ($127,116, $125,662, $65,054). Total revenue was $237,391 ($239,577, $256,667, $261,767). Expenditures were $252,436 ($260,490, $268,140, $262,316) Basic annual membership remains $50.

Société généalogique canadienne-française
Total assets of $363,189 ($373,417, $339,405  $347,834). Liabilities totaled  $63,648 ($67,351, $39,685, $68,013). Total revenue was $231,117 ($202,946, $215,399  $248,240). Expenditures were $195,137 ($202,782, $201,759, $220,556.) Basic annual membership is increased $5 to $50.

Victoria Genealogical Society
Total assets of NA(NA,  NA, $24,786) and liabilities NA (NA, NA, 0). Total revenue was $ 34,048  ($40,412, NA). Expenditures totaled $44,502 ($42,629, $35,790). Individual annual membership remains $50.

Note
The Quebec Family History Society continues with the highest annual membership fee ($75), the New Brunswick Genealogical Society the lowest ($35).

Huge Used Book Sale

Take pity on the servants. Don't plan on coming to next Saturday's BIFHSGO meeting by sedan chair if you'll be returning with a lot of books.
Global Genealogy will be bringing "a huge number" of used books for sale at reduced prices.
That's next Saturday, 11 February 2017 at Ben Franklin Place, Nepean Centrepointe.
That's the icing on the cake of another promising BIFHSGO monthly meeting program. Details later in the week.

23andMe Sale, but not in Canada

Until Valentine's Day, 23andMe have reduced prices on both their Ancestry and Health + Ancestry tests. The prices quoted are for the US service.
The Canada service didn't show a sale when I checked, and only offers the combined test at $249 Cdn. There's likely shipping on top of that.
Unless you're interested in the health results the best reason for testing with 23andMe is to extend the number of people with whom you might find a genetic