Irish and British records coming soon from Ancestry

Claire Santry's Irish Genealogy News blog has a summary of new and updated collections coming to Ancestry.co.uk in February. I was unable to confirm the information at the Ancestry site.

Some of the additions are:

Another Dublin Street Directory.
Additional Poor Law records covering settlement and removals for the unions of Bethnal Green, Hackney, Poplar, Shoreditch, and Stepney.
More than 1.5 million summaries of the vast majority of probate cases in England and Wales for 1967–1972
An update to the WW1 Pension Ledgers and Index Cards, 1914-1923 collection
A new London Poor Law Hospital Registers collection.

See further information at https://www.irishgenealogynews.com/2019/01/irish-and-british-records-coming-soon.html

University of Manitoba Digital Collections

I made a minor breakthrough on a very distantly connected branch of my family using the University of Manitoba Digital Collections which "includes images, letters, newspapers, books, and moving image and sound recordings that document the University of Manitoba's and the province's storied history."
My find was through the digitized newspaper collection with many papers including the following with longer runs: Brandon Daily Sun (1884-1917);  Brandon Sun Weekly (1884-1897); Czas (The Times) (1915-2004);  Le Manitoba (1881-1925);  Le Métis (1871-1881);  Manitoba Liberal (1871-1899); The Manitoban (1914-2012);  Minnedosa Tribune (1883-1922); Nor'Wester (1859) (1859-1869);  Portage la Prairie Weekly (1884-1916);  The Voice (1897-1918); The Winnipeg Tribune (1890-1980). Hits are highlighted on the page.

https://digitalcollections.lib.umanitoba.ca/

British Newspaper Archives additions for January

The British Newspaper Archive now has a total of  30,090,396 pages online (29,480,604 last month.)  26 papers (26 last month) had pages added in the past month. There were four new titles: Bray People, Gorey Guardian, Sunday Life, and Sunday World (Dublin).

Major additions, with more than 10,000 pages, are.

TITLE: DATE RANGE
Bray People: 1988-1997, 1999-2002, 2004-2005
Carlisle Journal: 1847, 1882-1912
Cheshire Observer: 1931-1938, 1946-1949, 1951-1979
Evening Herald (Dublin): 2005
Express and Echo: 1881-1888, 1890-1895, 1899-1900
Gorey Guardian: 1994-2006
Huddersfield Daily Examiner: 1872, 1886, 1891-1895, 1901-1904
Lichfield Mercury: 1929-1931, 1942, 1964, 1966, 1968, 1971-1973, 1985-1986, 1988-1989, 1991
New Ross Standard: 1911-1914, 1916-1986, 2002-2005
Penny Illustrated Paper: 1875-1880, 1882-1888, 1890-1899
Perthshire Advertiser: 1875-1884, 1886-1906, 1908-1913, 1920-1935, 1937-1938, 1986-1987
Sunday Life: 1988-1997
Sunday World (Dublin) 1987-1993, 1995-1996
The People: 1881-1892, 1894-1895
West Surrey Times: 1876, 1882-1887, 1893, 1895, 1899-1910, 1913-1914

ScotlandsPeople Annual BMD Update

The annual release of statutory register entries by ScotlandsPeople is out. Now available are online images of almost 200,000 births, deaths and marriages. The newly-available records consist of 98,554 Scottish births in 1918, 38,271 marriages in 1943 and 63,311 deaths in 1968. You can now search for, view and save these records on the ScotlandsPeople website.
Births in 1918 were at an all-time low since the introduction of statutory registration in 1855.

GRO price increase for English and Welsh BMD certificates

Save by acting now. A reminder that you have only until 16 February to take advantage of the £9.25 price for English and Welsh BMD certificates. The price then increases to £11.
The price for pdf versions issued by email, available only for births registered from 1837 to 1918 and deaths for 1837 to 1957, increases by £1 to £7.
In case you don't have it bookmarked the General Register Office link is https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/default.asp

FamilySeach adds Hampshire Parish Registers, 1538-1980

There are now 2,049,192 parish register entries for baptisms, marriages, and burials searchable for Hampshire, 1538-1980.

These are transcriptions only. I found no way to restrict the search to a particular parish. If you want to search by Hampshire parish the best bet is Findmypast.

Why would the citation information refer to the Lancashire Record Office as well as that for Hampshire?

Genealogical Triangulation: using coordinated DNA and genealogical databases

Can statistical techniques be used to reconcile two sources of genealogical information: record-based genealogy and genetic genealogy? Even mentioning the possibility will send some leaders in the professional genealogical community into paroxysms of denial.
Now the authors of the non-reviewed preprint Identification of anonymous DNA using genealogical triangulation, Paul M Ellenbogen and Arvind Narayanan, propose a statistical technique that "may be useful to genetic genealogy services for detecting errors, merging family trees, and improving the accuracy of their predictions. They might also be useful to researchers for constructing pedigrees, especially of isolated populations."
Ancestry, which already has large genealogical and DNA databases, is already in a position to use such a technique. As far as I know the company current matching algorithms do not do so although I'd be surprised if it was not a company area of research.

Wreck of the S.S. Nimrod

One hundred years ago today the S.S. Nimrod with a crew of 12 ran aground and sank off the coast of Norfolk while carrying 330 tons of coal from Blyth in Northumberland to the French port of Calais.

A decade before the Nimrod, already 45 years old, had a much more prestigious assignment sailing Antarctic waters carrying Sir Ernest Shackleton and his fellow explorers hoping to reach the South Pole. Nimrod was subsequently employed in sealing off Newfoundland.

Read the story The night Nimrod went down off the coast of Great Yarmouth in the Yarmouth Mercury.

The surviving crew were:
James Threwalen (or Truelsen) (First Mate)*
Russel Gregory (Boatswain)*




Other crew bodies recovered were:
William Robert Doran (Captain)
George Henry Vasil (Chief Engineer)
Charles Watson (Cook)
George Martin (Fireman)
Frank Doran (Brother of the Captain)
(Andrew) J(ohan) Sal(o)monsso(or e)n (Second Engineer)+

Others, bodies not recovered
Charlie ? (Donkeyman)
Frederick (Edward F?) Turpin (Able Seaman)
Charles Watkinson (Steward)+
Oscar Coulbeck (mess room steward)+

All identified in contemporary issues of the Yarmouth Independent. + identified in Sheffield Daily Telegraph, February 3, 1919.

Suitable and appropriate music https://youtu.be/oyb39zUqeq0

Archival research is “slow research”

For those new to research in archives, those who only occasionally use archives, and others who would benefit from having expectations managed to get the best out of archives, take a look at this article from the Peel Art Gallery, Museum and Archives on

HOW CAN YOU HELP AN ARCHIVIST TO HELP YOU? REFERENCE SERVICE FROM OUR SIDE OF THE DESK

Irreplaceable: A History of England in 100 Places

100 places that have helped to make England the country it is today, as judged by an expert from thousands of nominations in ten different categories:

Science and discovery
Travel and tourism
Sport and leisure
Homes and gardens
Music and literature
Loss and destruction
Faith and belief
Power, protest and progress
Industry, trade and commerce
Art, architecture and sculpture

https://historicengland.org.uk/100places

International Holocaust Remembrance Day

1. The latest episode of the History Extra Podcast Legacies of the Holocaust has Mary Fulbrook and Richard J Evans exploring the aftermath of the Nazi genocide. How do subsequent generations, descendants of victims, perpetrators and bystanders, deal with the legacy?

2. That podcast was posted at the same time as media were reporting on Library and Archives Canada's acquisition for $6K of the book  Statistik, Presse und Organisationen des Judentums in den Vereinigten Staaten und Kanada (Statistics, Press, and Organizations of Jewry in the United States and Canada), a detailed census of Jewish populations and organizations in North American cities. There are copies of the book elsewhere — search the title on WorldCat — but this LAC copy contains a bookplate indicating it was once part of Adolf Hitler's collection.

Despite the Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies approving LAC's purchase to avoid it falling into the hands of groups like neo-Nazis I'm doubtful about the purchase. How does it align with LAC's mandate? One might justify it under "to be a source of enduring knowledge accessible to all, contributing to the cultural, social and economic advancement of Canada as a free and democratic society." But that doesn't justify acquiring the particular volume.

 According to a CBC News item LAC curators struggled with the moral implications of purchasing the book because of the prevalence of Holocaust denial and xenophobia. While the purchase has gained LAC some publicity Jew-haters and neo-Nazis will rejoice that a volume from Hitler's collection now enjoys a place in Canada's national library.

Bad decision.

Sunday Sundries

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

Dictionary of Ukrainian Canadian Biography
The East European Genealogical Society has just published the third and final volume, covering 295 settlers who arrived in what is now Saskatchewan between 1892 and 1904, of Vladimir J. Kaye’s Dictionary of Ukrainian Canadian Biography. The work, which was completed in 1965 but remained unpublished for over half a century, is now issued with added indexes of surnames and ancestral place names. The volumes previously issued were for Manitoba (1975) and Alberta (1984). Thanks to Fred Popowich for the suggestion.

We MAY finally know what causes Alzheimer’s – and how to stop it
If you bled when you brushed your teeth this morning, you might want to get that seen to. We may finally have found the long-elusive cause of Alzheimer’s disease: Porphyromonas gingivalis, the key bacteria in chronic gum disease.

Brace for the Polar Vortex; It May Be Visiting More Often
This article from the New York Times suggests cold outbreaks from more frequent polar vortex breakdowns can be tied to climate change via a warmer Arctic Ocean as less summer ice cover means more heat absorbed.
As a former meteorologist I'm often asked about climate change. While I no longer closely follow the evolving science I do know that adding additional greenhouse gasses to the atmosphere will mean extra energy in the earth-ocean-atmosphere system which is so complex that the exact nature of the changes to be expected is problematic — but change there will be.

Data breaches are inevitable – here’s how to protect yourself anyway
1. Keep your software up-to-date.
2. Use long but not necessarily complex passwords.
3. Use multi-factor authentication.

Francis Bacon: the 17th-century philosopher whose scientific ideas could tackle climate change today
Four idols of the mind – false notions, or empty ideas – that don’t just occupy men’s minds so that truth can hardly get in, but also when a truth is allowed in they will push back against it.

Indigenous Rights and Building Pipelines

Canadian DNA Test Survey

A survey by Ottawa-based Abacus Data finds that of the 11 percent of Canadians that report having taken a direct to consumer genetic test 61% did so in whole or part to understand history and ancestry.
Those who had taken a test were more likely to see themselves as the beneficiaries whereas those who had not believed the testing companies benefited more from such testing.
About 60% of the adult population in Canada were open to ordering a home kit genetic test. Most are in no hurry, and 18% would like to do one or are actively looking into it, leaving much room to grow for the sector.
Abacus Data conclude that a proactive and consistent story of how these services could contribute to a social net benefit would go a long way in making Canadians more comfortable about the prospect of taking one of these tests.

The British Newspaper Archives just achieved another milestone

Additions to the British Newspaper Archive in the past day pushed the total to 30,011,612 pages.

153,110 pages were added in the last week.

That's  three quarters of the way to meeting the target.

The additions in the last 24 hours were:

Leicester Daily Post: 1879, 1887

Buckingham Express:1869

Evening Herald (Dublin): 2005

Sunday Life: 1988

Daily Herald: 1957

Express and Echo: 1881-1888, 1890-1895, 1891-1900

The content in the collection is now 2,449,525 pages for England, 600,683 for Ireland, 423,901 for Scotland and 83,730 for Wales.

Ancestry Updates

There are now 8,128,468 entries in Liverpool, England, Electoral Registers, 1832-1970. As shown by the bar chart coverage is best for the 1940s and 50s.




The 2,980,774 entries in Former British Colonial Dependencies, Slave Registers, 1813-1834 contain the slave registers for the following colonies, all in the Caribbean except Berbice and Sri Lanka (Ceylon), and years:

Antigua (1817-1818, 1821, 1824, 1828, 1832)
Bahamas (1822, 1825, 1828, 1831, 1834)
Barbados (1817, 1820, 1823, 1826, 1829, 1832, 1834)
Berbice (1818-1819, 1822)
Dominica (1817, 1820, 1823)
Grenada (1817-1834)
Honduras (1834)
Jamaica (1817, 1820, 1823, 1826, 1829, 1832, 1834)
Mauritius (1817, 1819, 1822, 1826, 1830, 1832, 1835)
Nevis (1817, 1822, 1825, 1828, 1831)
Sri Lanka (Ceylon) (1818-1832)
St Christopher (1817, 1822, 1825, 1827-1828, 1831, 1834)
St Lucia (1815, 1819)
St Vincent (1817, 1822, 1825, 1828, 1831, 1834)
Tobago (1819-1834)
Trinidad (1813, 1815-1816, 1819, 1822, 1825, 1828, 1831, 1834)
Virgin Islands (1818, 1822, 1825, 1828, 1831, 1834)

Information available is name of owner, parish of residence, name, gender, age, and nationality of slave.

Protecting those who no one one wants to protect

Andrew Simpson's blog post Protecting those who no one one wants to protect ............. on the streets of Manchester & Salford in 1880 is required reading for those interested in home children. It starts "History  is messy, and it can be easy to portray the children's charities as imperious, and driven by their own narrow view."

Simpson quotes Gilbert R. Kirlew writing in 1889 for the Manchester Statistical Society,“that in the great majority of cases the parent or parents of these children were drunken or vicious, and becoming the employers of their own children for the time being they provided them with the capital to become street hawkers, and expected, at least, 40 per cent in return for the outlay and labour involved”.

Were their prospects better in Canada?

In addition to material on the focus on the Chorlton area the blog has a surprising number of other posts relating to Canada.

Digitization in Ontario Public Libraries

OurDigitalWorld has released a report on the current state of digitization in Ontario public libraries (PDF) – projects, best practices, capacity, and areas for improvement.
166 Ontario public libraries an estimated 85% of Ontario’s population responded to a survey last summer, a 53%
response rate which serve .

36.4% of libraries were working on digitization at the time of the survey; 12.4% within the past three years.
17.4% last digitized more than three years ago;
26.4% have never digitized, but hope to do some in the future.

The word cloud reports how libraries believe their digital
collections are being used.

Lack of resources is the main reason given for not digitizing materials, the reason I suspect OPL would give. However, it's really a matter of managerial priorities.

Why when money can be found for maker spaces can it not be found to add digitization capabilities that volunteers could use to add unique local resources to library offerings?

Find My Past adds various Scottish Records

Scotland, Jacobite Rebellions 1715 and 1745
Discover more about the Jacobites and the Jacobite rebellions of 1715 and 1745. Findmypast has digitised this expansive collection of records from The National Archives which includes lists of prisoners and those banished or pardoned along with correspondence, commission records, and briefs evidence. The rebellions had the aim of returning James II of England and VII of Scotland, the last Catholic British monarch, and later his descendants of the House of Stuart, to the throne of Great Britain after they had been deposed by Parliament during the 1688 Revolution.

Each results will include both a transcript and scanned colour image of the original document. The collection comprises of 193 pieces from 9 National Archives series so the amount of information listed will vary depending on the type and nature of the documents. Predominately covering the years 1701-1719 and 1740-1767, there are almost 76,000 in this collection of records from a significant time in Scotland's history.

Scotland, Glasgow Anderson's College Anatomy Students 1860-1874
Discover details of their class dates. Anderson College was founded in 1796 following the will of John Anderson, Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Glasgow from 1757. Initially known as Anderson's Institution, it changed its name to Anderson's University in 1828 and finally to Anderson's College in 1877. The Institution's medical school was founded in 1800 when Dr John Burns began lectures on anatomy and surgery. The medical school of Anderson's College became a separate and distinct institution known as Anderson's College Medical School in 1887.

The records consist of class rolls of those who studied under Professor George Buchanan. Each record includes a transcript and original image of the class roll that will list the names of students and the day they attended class.

Scotland, Glasgow Smallpox Vaccination Registers 1801-1854
The collection consists of ten volumes of registers recording the inoculation program that was carried out in Glasgow between 1801 and 1854. Each result will include a transcript of the original register entry that lists the name of the individual being inoculated, the date of their inoculation, their birth year, address, the name of their parent or guardian, the name of the inoculator and the results of the inoculation.

Scotland, Glasgow & Lanarkshire Death & Burial Index 1642-1855
Over 283,000 additional records spanning the years 1636 to 2001 have been added to the Scotland, Glasgow & Lanarkshire Death & Burial Index 1642-1855. This index of deaths and burials consists of transcripts of original documents covering the years of 1642 to 1855. From the index, you may learn birth year, death and burial dates, age at death, burial place, and mortcloth price.

These new additions have been provided by the Glasgow and West of Scotland Family History Society.

Scotland Roman Catholic Parish Registers
Over 223,000 new baptisms, marriages and burials have been added to our collections of Scotland Roman Catholic Parish Registers. The additions cover 471 parishes across the country and span the years 1800 to 1966. Each result will include both a transcript and image of the original register entry.

The collection of Roman Catholic Sacramental registers covers all eight Scottish dioceses: Aberdeen, Argyll & The Isles, Dunkeld, Galloway, Glasgow, Motherwell, St Andrews & Edinburgh, and Paisley, and date back to the early 17th century. The records form part of FMP's wider Catholic Heritage Archive, a groundbreaking project that aims to digitise the historic records of the Catholic Church in Britain, Ireland and North America, and additional new records will be added to these collections later in the year.

Scotland Roman Catholic Congregational Records
Over 55,000 new records have been added to the collection. Congregational records include registers of confirmations and communion recipients, as well as parish lists, seat rentals, lists of people who converted to Catholicism and more.

Congregational registers incorporate sacramental records other than those pertaining to baptisms, marriages, and burials, such as communicants (those who received Holy Communion), confirmations (those who received Holy Confirmation), sick calls (those who received the Anointing of the Sick), and first confessions (those who received Holy Reconciliation). Also find records of people who converted to Catholicism. In many parishes families could rent seats in the chapel and records list the individual names, the cost of the rental, and the location of the seat. Another register type is status animarum, Latin for 'status of the souls'. These records noted the names of all the Catholics in the area. Many include the names of head of households and the individual's residence.

Early 20th Century British Railway Accidents

From the Railway Work, Life and Death project comes  a growing database with details of British railway worker accidents investigated by the state (1911-15) & applications to the Great Eastern Railway Benevolent Fund (1913-23), for assistance after an accident.

The data is available as a downloadable spreadsheet but before doing so please go here and pay attention to the fair use and open access terms.

For other years try searching contemporary newspapers.

International Holocaust Remembrance Day

LAC is hosting a special lecture by Eli Rubenstein, National Director of the March of the Living Canada who will reflect on the Holocaust and how to respond to hatred without losing our humanity.

There will also be an opportunity to view Library and Archives Canada’s latest acquisition: a rarely seen book with insights on the Holocaust and its links to Canada. This new item is bound to attract lots of attention, so be sure to visit the website on January 23 to discover more about it!

Sunday, January 27, 2019
1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Library and Archives Canada
395 Wellington Street, Ottawa, Ontario
Free admission

Presentation in English only with simultaneous French translation

Seating is limited, so please register. 

UPDATE
The event is fully booked but you can register for the waiting list.

The Genealogist adds further prisoner records

The Genealogist has added almost 700,000 entries for prisoners in its Court and Criminal Records collection. Sourced from the HO 8 Registers held by The National Archives, these documents contain records from the years 1821 to 1876. It expands the criminal record collection to over 2.3 million individuals.

These Prison Registers give family history researchers details of ancestors who were imprisoned in a number of convict prisons from Broadmoor to the Warrior Convict Hulk. The records reveal the names of prisoners, offences the prisoner had been convicted for, the date of their trial and where they were tried.

Use the quarterly prison registers to find ancestors guilty of crimes ranging from theft, highway robbery and libel to murder; discover the sentences received; the age of a prisoner; where they were sentenced and to which prison they were sent.

Note that Findmypast also has 5,762,300 records in a collection England & Wales, Crime, Prisons & Punishment, 1770-1935 derived from the HO 8 Registers which TNA refers to as Home Office: Convict Hulks, Convict Prisons and Criminal Lunatic Asylums: Quarterly Returns of Prisoners.

Top 50 Closest DNA Matches - not US

On the Genealogy Tips and Tricks Facebook Group Blaine Bettinger posted a table "Of my top 50 closest matches (that I did not test) across all four testing companies (66 - 1,882 cM)." He used it to point out that if he had only tested at 23andMe he'd be missing 37 matches, at AncestryDNA missing 21 matches, at Family Tree DNA missing 43 matches and at MyHeritage missing 42 matches.

Inspired by Blaine I checked my results. Whereas Blaine's 50th match is 66 cM my top match at Ancestry is 63 cM, at 23andMe 58 cM (approx), at FTDNA 77 cM (without deducting small segments), and at MyHeritage 54 cM.

My top 50 matches are all at FTDNA, again without deducting small segments.

Could it be that so many more people in the US than elsewhere have had their DNA tested that those of us without US ancestry are out of luck? And, perhaps the prospects for the companies are limited unless they can grow their international customer base.

OGS Ottawa Branch January Meeting

Here is the schedule for Saturday 26 January at the City of Ottawa Archives, 100 Tallwood Drive (Room 115)

10:30 – 12:00: Genealogy: Back to Basics - Genealogy Drop-In
All Welcome; Come join us! Drop in to get some help on your family tree, share research strategies, & discover what resources are available for your research.  Experienced researchers from Ottawa Branch will be here to answer questions & help you get the most from library resources.  Bring your laptop, or tablet too! If you are new to family history research or need a refresher, come out and join us! Sessions are free and open to all.

13:00: Ottawa Branch Presentation: Cemetery and Monument Conservation
Networking and refreshments followed at 13:30 by announcements and presentation Cemetery and Monument Conservation (rescheduled from September)
Speaker: Catherine Paterson, PhD
This presentation will focus on the principles and practices of monument conservation in Ontario cemeteries. Using examples from several recent projects, this talk will highlight how caring for cemeteries can draw from their significance to past and present communities.

15:00: Computer Special Interest Group

Canadian Directory Search

Every so often you find yourself searching contact information for living people. A good Canadian resource to know about is likely online through your local public library.

In Ottawa the OPL provides the ReferenceCanada database from ReferenceGroup. Search 11 million Canadian households by name. phone number, address and more. It claims to be the largest such database available. Records are 100% publicly sourced to comply with Canadian privacy laws.

There's also a directory of 1.5 million Canadian companies compiled from telephone directories, annual reports, government data, chamber of commerce information, business magazines, newspapers, specialty directories, and postal services information. Non-profits like BIFHSGO and OGS are also included although the information is not up to date.

http://www.thereferencegroup.com.ezproxy.biblioottawalibrary.ca/Home/Home and logon to your account.

HSO January Meeting

3D Aerial Photographs by J.-P. Dostaler and “Show and Tell” with Jon Church is the topic for the Historical Society of Ottawa meeting on Friday 25 January 2019.
As usual the meeting is at 172 Guigues Ave. and starts at 1 pm.

FreeBMD January Update

The FreeBMD Database was updated on Thursday 17 January 2019 to contain 268,517,257 unique records, 268,185,403 at previous update.

Years with major additions, greater than 5,000 records, are: for births 1964, 1978, 1980, 1982-86; for marriages 1965, 1980, 1984-85; for deaths 1982-86.

www.freebmd.org.uk/

First Name Popularity

The blog post Fun with Flourish – how popular was your name in Victorian Britain? is worth a look.

Based on 22 million birth records transcribed by the volunteer UK Local BMD project shows the percentage of all transcribed records in which the first name appears.

There are 143,259 unique names over 177 years, over seven geographically diverse counties — mainly English.

Check the trends for your own name from the link in the Fun with Flourish blog post.

Tobogganing in Ottawa

It's cold and snowy enough for this seasonal image —wood engraving by Sydney Prior Hall and Horace Harral.

Caption references John Campbell, Marquis of Lorne, married Princess Louise, the sixth child of Queen Victoria, in 1871. He was governor-general of Canada from 1878 to 1883. He succeeded his father as Duke of Argyll in 1900. Princess Louise was injured in a sleigh accident in Canada in February 1880


Credit: Wellcome Collection.

Eleanor Kathryn Lillico RIP

Sad to report that Eleanor Lillico, well known in the Ottawa genealogical community, passed on 7 January 2019.

Eleanor was a life-long member of Bethany United Church for which she wrote a history  (pdf) for the Gloucester Historical Society.

Read the obit.

Ancestor Mobility in 1911

This bar chart from 1911 census data shows in blue the fraction of people born in a province still living in it, and in red the fraction of those living there who were born there.

Those born in BC were most likely to stay, Manitoba-born least likely.

From Manitoba westward more than half the residents were born outside the province, a reflection of those flocking to "The Last Best West". PEI had a net outflow — more born there than living in the province.

The figures are sourced from Ancestry.ca census data.

Devon Heritage and Genealogist's Psalm

There's a cornucopia of county resources at www.devonheritage.org/

Topics are: Architecture, Census, Devon County, Devonshire Rgt., Directory Listings, Education, Genealogy, History, Industry, Parish Records, People, Places, Transportation, War Memorials. They hide some fascinating resources you'd never guess would be there just from those topic titles.

The image is from a page Gone to Canada.

Thanks to Brenda Turner for the tip and pointing to The Genealogists Psalm.

Sunday Sundries

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

National Library of Scotland Ordnance Survey Maps
Digitization of the 1:10,560 National Grid 1950s-1960s series of Ordnance Survey maps is now complete for the whole UK.

Naval Marine Archive: Canadian Collection - Ships Database
Canadian ships and many ships that were foreign built but traded regularly with Canada, or were sold to Canadian owners. Where available, further details of owners, masters and voyages are also included.
via a retweet by Jane MacNamara

Mitochondrial DNA can be inherited from fathers, not just mothers
Three families identified with mtDNA heteroplasmy that could not be explained by maternal inheritance.

Meteorological Mid-Winter

If you're shivering and looking at snow falling, take heart — this is on average the coldest day of the year in Ottawa. The 18th to the 22nd have an average minimum temperature of -15.7 C. The lowest average maximum of -6.4 C occurs on the 16th to 20th.

While daily record low temperatures are bitter for another month snow cover means bright days, the sun is rising noticeably earlier and setting later.

According to the North American Ensemble Forecast System Ottawa temperatures stay well below normal through Tuesday, then a brief warming until dropping back Thursday to somewhat colder than normal conditions for the following week.

Millennials, Gen X, Gen Z, baby boomers: how generation labels cloud issues of inequality

Rationality: research shows we’re not as stupid as we have been led to believe.

Why you shouldn't follow the health regimes of these 'peak zen' people.

Ancestry Updates

Ontario or Gloucestershire ancestry? Check out the following collections which Ancestry lists as having been updated since the start of the year.

Ontario, Canada, Marriages, 1826-1936:  8,717,643 records
Ontario, Canada, Deaths and Deaths Overseas, 1869-1946:  3,241,953 records

Gloucestershire, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1813: 4,855,897 records

The Lowestoftian

Chances are there are no regular readers of the blog who attended Lowestoft County Grammar School, now known as Ormiston Denes Academy. I was a student from 1956 to 1963. Nevertheless, that won't stop me mentioning that there now online are archived issues of the school magazine, The Lowestoftian.

The earliest is for 1924, the most recent December 2018. The series is spotty to 1969 with a big break to start up again in 2015. I was delighted to find a list of those gaining GCE A Level certificates in my graduating year and news of retirements of fondly, and some not so fondly remembered teachers.

Does your old school have an archived magazine?

LAC Co-Lab Update

Here's an update on Co-Lab Challenge project progress.

112 images were processed during the month.

PROGRESS
Legendary train robber and prison escapee Bill Miner (81 images processed during the month) is 21% complete (0% last month). 

War Diaries of the First World War: 1st Canadian Division (7 images processed during the month) is 41% complete (30% last month).

The Call to Duty: Canada's Nursing Sisters (24 pages processed during the month) is 66% complete (64% last month).

NO CHANGE
Japanese-Canadians: Second World War is 64% complete.

Rosemary Gilliat (Eaton)’s Arctic diary and photographs is 33% complete.

New France and First Nations relations is 28% complete.

COMPLETED
The Spanish Flu Pandemic of 1918–1919.

Correspondence between Sir Robert Borden and Sir Sam Hughes.

Letters from Wilfrid Laurier to Zoé Lafontaine/Laurier.

Findmypast adds Catholic Diocese of Middlesbrough and new National Burial Index Records

England Roman Catholic Parish Baptisms
Over 65,000 exclusive new records covering 36 parishes across the Diocese of Middlesbrough for the years 1742 to 1917. With every result find an image of the original transcript from the diocese archive and a transcript.

England Roman Catholic Parish Marriages
Over 19,000 exclusive new Diocese of Middlesbrough Sacramental Register entries covering marriages preformed across 28 parishes between 1796 and 1944.

England Roman Catholic Parish Burials
Over 7,000 new and exclusive records held by the Diocese of Middlesbrough covering burial sites in 22 parishes between 1774 and 1974.

England Roman Catholic Parish Congregational records
Over 47,000 records from the Diocese of Middlesbrough covering 30 parishes and spanning the years 1743 to 1920 including anniversary books, confirmation lists, congregational lists, lists of benefactors and converts, parish diaries, and more.

National Burial Index for England & Wales
Over 717,000 new records have been added to the NBI from 288 burial places in the historic counties of Co. Durham, Northumberland and Cumberland as well as 656 burials sites across Lincolnshire. Each transcript will list a combination of name, age, death year, burial place, burial date and place of worship. The Index currently contains over 11 million records and will continue to receive regular updates.

Other additions this week are:

All Saints in Isleworth, Middlesex Baptisms 1543-1876
United States General Land Office Records 1796-2013
Irish Newspapers

The Halifax Explosion

Earlier this week I stopped by the National Gallery to visit the exhibition Masterpiece in Focus: Halifax Harbour 1918 which depicts the city’s waterfront through the eyes of artists Arthur Lismer and Harold Gilman.  The explosion devastated the area on 6 December 1917 — one of those landmark events of a lifetime.

It's a relatively small exhibit, just two rooms, one for each artist.

There's a preview video.



Library and Archives Canada offers another perspective through a podcast “Francis Mackey and the Halifax Explosion” interviewing retired teacher and author Janet Maybee about her book Aftershock: The Halifax Explosion and the Persecution of Pilot Francis Mackey which attempts to clear Mackey’s name and restore honour to the Mackey family.

Note that Janet Maybee, a real champion of LAC resources, mentions the late lamented LAC cafeteria — a resource that's now sadly lacking.

Forthcoming "Genealogy" Books

A search for genealogy on Amazon lists the following as soon to be published. Information is from the publisher.

Humanimal: How Homo Sapiens Became Nature's Most Paradoxical Creature--A New Evolutionary History
by Adam Rutherford
19 March 2019
Adam Rutherford, author of A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived: The Stories in Our Genes explores how many of the things once considered to be exclusively human are not: We are not the only species that communicates, makes tools, uses fire, or has sex for reasons other than procreation. Evolution has, however, allowed us to develop a culture far more complex than any other observed in nature. Humanimal explains how we became the creatures we are today, uniquely able to investigate ourselves. Illuminating the latest genetic research, it is a thrilling account of what unequivocally fixes us as animals--and what makes us truly extraordinary.

Great British Family Names and Their History: What's in a Name?
by John Moss
30 March 2019
For better or worse, what we are is often determined by our family; the events that occurred many years before we were born, and the choices that were made by our forebears are our inheritance - we are the inexorable product of family history. So it is with nations. The history of Great Britain has been largely defined by powerful and influential families, many of whose names have come down to us from Celtic, Danish, Saxon or Norman ancestors. Their family names fill the pages of our history books; they are indelibly written into the events which we learned about at school. Iconic family names like Wellington, Nelson, Shakespeare, Cromwell, Constable, De Montfort and Montgomery... there are innumerable others. They reflect the long chequered history of Britain, and demonstrate the assimilation of the many cultures and languages which have migrated to these islands over the centuries, and which have resulted in the emergence of our language. This book is a snapshot of several hundred such family names and delves into their beginnings and derivations, making extensive use of old sources, including translations of The Domesday Book and The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, as well as tracing many through the centuries to the present day.

The Family Tree Problem Solver: Tried-and-True Tactics for Tracing Elusive Ancestors
by Marsha Hoffman Rising
31 March 2019
The late US genealogist Marsha Hoffman Rising's newly updated bestselling book. Find answers to genealogy's toughest problems.
No information on what is added for this latest addition.

Tracing Your Irish Ancestors
by John Grenham
5 April 2019
The fifth edition of Tracing Your Irish Ancestors retains its familiar three-part structure, combining a detailed guide for beginners with thorough descriptions of all the useful sources and county-by-county reference lists. Additionally, all of the changes that have been brought about by modern technology – internet records and DNA testing, which make researching your family background easier than ever – are explained in this indispensable guide.

Kingston Branch OGS January Meeting

On Saturday, 19 January at 9:30 a.m. at the Kingston Seniors Centre, 56 Francis Street in Kingston.  Carol St. Clair will speak on "Tales of the Script: Reading and Understanding Old English Cursive".  Bring pen and paper and learn how to write Old English words. 

Also a brief educational session will be presented by Mimi Merrill, who will speak about the re-opening of the Family History Centre in Glenburnie.

Visitors always welcome.  Further info at www.kingston.ogs.on.ca

Extra.  Early Kingston city directories (1855-1923) and many other local genealogy resources are available online. The Quick Links page of the Digital Kingston website provides shortcuts to the most frequently-used sources.

Tell Multinational Publishers We Want Better eContent For Canadian Libraries

Lack of availability, high prices stand in the way of open, easy access to eBooks and eAudiobooks for Canadian readers at public libraries

The Canadian Urban Libraries Council, along with public libraries across Canada, is asking the public to help resolve these issues by demanding stronger #eContentForLibraries of major multinational publishers. Canadians can send the message on social media, tagging these publishers in their posts: Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster.

Read more at https://biblioottawalibrary.ca/en/blogs/tell-multinational-publishers-you-want-better-econtent-libraries

Quinte Branch OGS January Meeting

The Quinte Branch of Ontario Genealogical Society invites all to its 19 January, 2019 meeting which will be the Annual Crouse Wanamaker Lecture —"Irish Famine and the Settlement of East Hungerford township of Hastings County" by Jim Kennelly.

Jim will speak about Irish emigration prior to and during the Potato Famine. In particular, he will look at the emigrants from Lord Fitzwilliam’s estate in Shillelagh, Wicklow and the large number who eventually settled in the eastern section of Hungerford, Hastings County and in the townships of Sheffield and Camden in Lennox and Addington County. Why were so many from one corner of Ireland concentrated in this area of Ontario?
 
Jim is a retired school administrator and is actively involved in the Hastings County Historical Society. He has a large connection to the emigrants from Fitzwilliam’s estate and an even larger connection to the thousands of descendants of these people who sought a better life. He and his wife, Sandy, live in Lonsdale, Ontario where they raised four daughters and are proud of their twelve grandchildren.

The meeting is at the Quinte West Public Library, 7 Creswell Dr, Trenton 1-3 pm.
www.quinte.ogs.on.ca and facebook.com/QuinteBranch.OGS

Thoughts on Finding Your Roots

After watching Finding Your Roots last evening:

I'm wondering if you're as moved by seeing your ancestor's name on a voters list the first time he was able to vote following the Second Reform Act of 1867 in the UK as Michael K. Williams was in seeing his ancestor's following the US Civil War.

Did anyone tell Felicity Huffman that millions of people in the US likely share her 9th great grandfather, that she likely inherited none of her genome from him, and that as a leader in the community he was likely complicit in suppressing rights for the indigenous people.

But none of that would make for the syrupy slop PBS served up in this episode.

Talk Genealogy Podcast: Episode #35 Marriage Registers of Old England

Another episode of Malcolm Noble's Talk Genealogy Podcast covering aspects of English marriages not dealt with in previous episodes, and several that were, was published on 4 January.
Did you know that for many years marriages could only happen in the morning, and that there were three periods during the year when marriages could not occur without special dispensation? There are other curiosities mentioned.
www.buzzsprout.com/64595/909188-talk-genealogy-podcast-episode-35-marriage-registers-of-olds-england

At the end of the episode, which runs for almost 34 minutes, Malcolm mentions that he has spoken for 20 and a bit minutes. Most of those extra 10 minutes could likely be cut to make the podcast more listenable without losing the good content.

Great Scots: Canadian Fiction Writers with Links to Scotland, 1867 to Today

Ayrshire-born Canadian publishing icon Douglas Gibson will cover Canadian history, discussing storytellers in their historic background. Among the Great Scots authors are predictable names like MacLennan and MacLeod, but also some that will surprise you!

Presented by The Scottish Society of Ottawa in partnership with the Ottawa Public Library.

Arts Court Theatre, 2 Daly St. Monday, January 21, 7:00 p.m.

Register here.

Western Canada Legal Land Description

How often when faced with the information that a relative received a land grant described as, say, Part: NE; Section: 20; Township: 24; Range: 3; Meridian: W2 have you felt no wiser. If you found it by a search in the Library and Archives Canada database Land Grants of Western Canada, 1870-1930 the map accompanying the search result is difficult to interpret..
Help is at hand at www.legallandconverter.com/. It converts to and from latitude and longitude and contains links to various map displays, including Google and Bing maps which you can zoom in and out to see the context. It's one to bookmark.

Perth & District Historical Society January Meeting

Thursday, 17 January, 2019 at 7:30pm
Perth's Royal Canadian Legion, 26 Beckwith Street E., Perth, (Toonie Donation).

"A Vision for the Perth Museum" 

Our Society's meeting for January 17, 2019 takes a different approach; we look not at history, but, instead, meet a guest who examines, displays and catalogues history, and then assists people in learning and enjoying the experience.  We take pleasure in introducing Kathryn Jamieson, the new Heritage/Tourism Manager for the Town of Perth. 

As a native of Westport, Kathryn Jamieson's new position in Perth is a return to her small-town roots in a familiar neighbourhood.  Kathryn's personal interests in arts and culture led her to Sheridan College, studying glass arts, including glass blowing.  She then incorporated an interest in history into her career as a glass artist, taking Algonquin College's Applied Museum Studies Program.  Her previous work experiences include positions at the Canadian Museum of Civilization, Canadian War Museum and 10 years at the Goulbourn Museum, culminating with Curator Manager.  In addition, Kathryn has taught two components of the Museum Management module at Algonquin College.  These previous experiences will serve her well with her position in Perth, which she assumed the past summer. 

Drawing on her past studies and work, Kathryn envisages expanding the way the Perth Museum is projected to the residents of Perth and visitors.  While she is still obtaining a feel for the job here, she is learning the strengths and weaknesses of the Museum and those of the Town.  Her concept for the future includes expanding on the heritage and tourism sector strengths that have worked so well in the past for the town, and engaging the public and their views of their local museum.  Keeping finances in mind, there are some notable points to consider: strengthening the museum's visibility, preserving and developing museum assets, and developing audience engagement. 

Speaking with Kathryn, her enthusiasm for her new position is evident.  She has noted that there is much that is positive already in place, including one of the main strengths - the people she has met.  This has been reinforced by her return to the area and the enjoyment that she, her husband and their young son have with life in Perth.  And, one might also see her at local markets with her glass blowing artwork. 

The Shutdown

Although my research doesn't normally lead me into US government websites it did this past weekend, and I was faced with this webpage from the US National Archives and Records Administration.
Dick Eastman has a list of some of the services closed by the President's shutdown.

How to access British Second World War Service Files

A BIFHSGO member asked me about accessing her father's Second World War British Army service file at the meeting last Saturday. I could only answer from memory — it's something I haven't done but it turns out I wasn't far off the mark.
The files, still with the Ministry of Defence, are open on application by snail mail for anyone who died 25 or more years ago, and otherwise to next of kin. You need to know the person’s full name, date of birth and (or?) service number in order to fill out the forms, and pay a £30 application fee. It can take several months for an application to be processed.
Official information on who can and how to apply, and the forms, is at
www.gov.uk/get-copy-military-service-records/apply-for-someone-elses-records

Free Webinar: Integrating old photos into your family history research

Maureen Taylor <@PhotoDetective >, who needs no introduction, will show how to analyze photos, upload to a personal MyHeritage website, and tag the people you want to stay connected with in this free webinar sponsored by MyHeritage.
It's at 2 pm EST on Tuesday, 22 January, 2019.

Register here.

Genealogy Drop-in at OPL/Greenboro

Three sessions are scheduled at the Greenboro Public Library Drop in to work on your family tree!  A genealogy librarian will be here to answer questions and help you get the most from library resources.

Wednesday, 16 January, 2019 - 10:30am - noon
Wednesday, 20 February, 2019 - 10:30am - noon
Tuesday, 19 March, 2019 - 10:30am - noon

That's in the Computer training room, 363 Lorry Greenberg

Sunday Sundries

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

Digital Archive Ontario has Ottawa Frozen in Time
Ottawa features in some of the vintage images from Digital Archive Ontario, a website for finding historical photos, maps, postcards and rare books — all digitized by Toronto Public Library.
https://torontopubliclibrary.typepad.com/local-history-genealogy/2019/01/ontarios-wintry-scenes.html

Listen Real-Time
It's like Google Analytics Real-Time, but for podcast episodes. These are the podcast episodes being listened to via Listen Notes right now.

How to Delete Your Online Accounts but Keep Your Data
Basic steps for deleting your accounts across 15 different services.

Canada’s Top Ten Weather Stories of 2018
From David Phillips and the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society.

Near Real-time Airflow 
Various projections. Use the EARTH hamburger icon at bottom left to change parameters - before you leave for the airport check out the 250 hPa image to see whether your flight will be with or against the jet stream.
See the whole of 2018 here.

Enough is Enough
This review article finds no clear evidence of a beneficial effect of supplements on all-cause mortality, cardiovascular disease, or cancer.
NOTE: I'm not a medical doctor. Consult your own physician.

β-carotene, vitamin E, and possibly high doses of vitamin A supplements are harmful. Other antioxidants, folic acid and B vitamins, and multivitamin and mineral supplements are ineffective for preventing mortality or morbidity due to major chronic diseases. Although available evidence does not rule out small benefits or harms or large benefits or harms in a small subgroup of the population, we believe that the case is closed— supplementing the diet of well-nourished adults with (most) mineral or vitamin supplements has no clear benefit and might even be harmful. These vitamins should not be used for chronic disease prevention.

Remove image background for free

Remove.bg is a free service to remove the background from any photo to isolate at least one person in the image. It works 100% automatically.
Unlike other background removal utilities you don't have to manually select the background/foreground layers to separate them - just select your image and instantly download the result image with the background removed. The output image is limited to 500 × 500 pixels.

I find it works pretty well

I Vow to Thee ...

On this date 101 years ago in Washington DC outgoing British ambassador to the United States of America,, Sir Cecil Arthur Spring Rice, penned familiar words, his last poem

I vow to thee, my country—all earthly things above—
Entire and whole and perfect, the service of my love, 
The love that asks no question : the love that stands the test,
That lays upon the altar the dearest and the best : 
The love that never falters, the love that pays the price,
The love that makes undaunted the final sacrifice.

And there’s another country, I've heard of long ago— 
Most dear to them that love her, most great to them that know—
We may not count her armies : we may not see her King—
Her fortress is a faithful heart, her pride is suffering— 
And soul by soul and silently her shining bounds increase,
And her ways are ways of gentleness and all her paths are Peace.

Spring Rice came to Ottawa, before a planned return to the UK, staying at Rideau Hall where he died of heart failure on 14 February. He is buried at Beechwood Cemetery.

Kent is featured in Findmypast additions

New this week in Findmypast:

Kent Baptisms: over 23,000 new records covering Anglican and Wesleyan baptisms in Dover, Gravesend, Higham, Nettlestead and Maidstone have been added to our collection of Kent parish baptisms spanning the years 1736-1917 .

Kent Marriages: over 22,000 new records covering 9 Anglican parishes in Aylesford, Boxley, Higham and Nettlestead have been added to the collection and are now available to search.

Kent Burials: over 203,000 additional records covering the former Grange Road Cemetery in Gillingham, now a public open space, Fort Pitt Military Cemetery and the cemetery in Robin Hood Lane, Chatham have been added to the collection.

1939 Register update: over 53,000 additional 'open' records have been added to the 1939 Register.
The 1939 Register now contains more than 34 million searchable records.

Devon Social & Institutional Records: over 76,000 new records added to the FMP collection of Devon Social & Institutional Records gathered by the Devon Family History Society from a wide range of local records covering daily life in the 18th and 19th centuries. There are 132 separate sources mainly covering working life, but also containing a fascinating collection of criminal and poor law records, early local censuses, town lists, photographs and even admission registers for a homes for "Friendless and Fallen Girls".

TheGenealogist adds further Worcestershire and Headstones Records

The following is a press release:

More than 144,700 Worcestershire Baptism records added to TheGenealogist and a further 20,000 individuals on Headstones.

TheGenealogist is releasing the records of 144,793 individuals added to their Worcestershire Baptisms (in Partnership with Malvern FHS) and an additional 20,000 individuals on headstones from the UKIndexer project where volunteers help their fellow genealogists by indexing and/or photographing the monumental inscriptions in churchyards and cemeteries.
● Discover dates of ancestors’ baptisms
● Glean names of parents of those baptised in Worcestershire
● Headstones give dates and name details of those buried and sometimes familiar relationships
● Memorials can reveal information not recorded elsewhere for ancestors

Headstones being released this week includes the transcriptions and the images for those at St Giles, Imber on Salisbury Plain, useful for those with ancestors buried there as it is only open a few days a year. St Giles'; Church is in the deserted village of Imber, Wiltshire and was built in the late 13th or early 14th century. The village falls within the British Army's training grounds on Salisbury Plain and is deserted as a result of the entire civilian population being evicted in 1943 to provide an exercise area for American troops preparing for the invasion of Europe during the Second World War. Once the war came to an end the villagers would have liked to return but were not allowed. The church today is without its pews and its font was moved to Brixton Deverill while the pulpit has been sent to

Winterbourne Stoke. St Giles’ seating, bell and two effigies are now housed at Edington Priory. The Church of St Giles is open for visitors and services on specified days of the year when the Ministry of

Defence allows access. St Giles is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a Grade I listed building, and is now a redundant church in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust.
These fully searchable records released this week are available now to Diamond subscribers of TheGenealogist.Read their article: TheGenealogist adds to its Headstone collection to reveal some fascinating celebrities.

List of churchyards and burial grounds in this release
Bedfordshire: Lidlington Graveyard, Lidlington; St Andrew, Ampthill; St Lawrence, Wymington Buckinghamshire: St Leonard, Chesham Bois Devon: St Clement, Powderham; All Saints, Kenton Dorset: St Andrew, Fontmell Magna; St Aldhelms, Upton; Church of the Ascension, Woodlands; St Wolfrida, Horton; Sherborne Abbey, Sherborne; St Mary Magdalene, Fifehead Magdalen; St Nicholas, Edmondsham; St Gregory, Marnhull; All Saints, Chalbury; St Laurence, Farnham; St Peter, Pimperne; Holy Trinity, Stourpaine; St Mary, Iwerne Minster; All Saints, Kington Magna Essex: North Road Burial Ground, Westcliff-on-Sea Gloucestershire: St Barnabas, Snowshill; St Peter, Daylesford; Hailes Parish Church, Hailes; St Mary, Driffield; Hampshire: All Saints, Minstead Herefordshire: St Peter and St Paul, Weobley Lincolnshire: St Paul, Morton, Gainsborough London: St Pauls Burial Ground now West Hackney Recreation Ground, Hackney North Yorkshire: St John and All Saints, Easingwold; St John the Evangelist Catholic Church, Easingwold; Christ Church Cemetery, Marton cum Grafton Northamptonshire: St Mary’s Rushden, Rushden; Rushden Cemetery, Rushden; All Saints, Earls Barton; Earls Barton Baptist Church, Earls Barton Oxfordshire: St Mary, Swinbrook Shropshire: St Catherine, Eyton on the Weald Moors; St Cuthbert’s Donington, Albrighton, Wolverhampton; St Bartholomew, Tong Somerset: St John the Baptist, Biddisham; St Nicholas, Brockley; Sawbridgeworth Cemetery, Sawbridgeworth; St Lawrence, Rode; St Lawrence, Cucklington; St Nicholas, Henstridge Suffolk: St Mary, Grundisburgh Wiltshire: St Editha, Baverstock; St Martin, Barford St Martin; St Margaret of Antioch, Corsley; Christ Church, Warminster; Holy Trinity, Bradford on Avon; Baptist Burial Ground, Crockerton; St Leonard, Sutton Veny; St Peter Ad Vincula, Tollard Royal; St Aldhelm, Bishopstrow; Holy Trinity, Dilton Marsh; Christ Church, Bradford on Avon; St Giles, Imber; St John, Warminster; St John the Baptist, Bishopstone Worcestershire: St Eadburgha, Broadway Yorkshire: New Connexion, Shepley, Huddersfield; St Pauls, Shepley, Huddersfield; St Thomas, Thurstonland; St Lucius, Farnley Tyas; Christ Church, New Mill, Holmfirth.

List of Worcestershire Parishes
Beoley, Birtsmorton, Clent, Cradley Nr Ledbury, Ripple, Severn Stoke, St. Peter The Great, Tenbury Wells, Upper Arley, Upton On Severn, Upton Upon Severn, White Ladies Aston, Whittington, Wolverley, Worcester All Saints, Worcester St Albans, Worcester St Clement, Worcester St Clements, Worcester St Helen, Worcester St John Of Bedwardine, Worcester St Martin, Worcester St Michael, Worcester St Nicholas, Worcester St Swithun, Worcester St. Helen, Wribbenhall, Wyre Piddle

Maintaining an Organized Computer

If you've ever had problems finding things on your computer you may find this explanation of an organization system helpful.

Cyndi Ingle, of Cyndi's List fame, gave this presentation on Wednesday evening. It's available free for the next few days.  There's nothing extra to buy, unless you want to use a lot of cloud storage.

Recommended. The sound occasionally drops which perhaps explains why it runs a bit longer than normal.

https://familytreewebinars.com/download.php?webinar_id=882

FamilySearch adds Great Britain, War Office Registers, 1772-1935

This addition is from the (UK) National Archives in Kew, WO 25, which is a collection of documents of various kinds, including regimental descriptions, succession books, commissions, appointments, descriptions, returns of services, casualties, half pays, pensions, and gratuities.

Most are for the first half of the 19th century.

The indexed information is limited: typically name, event type, event place and sometimes age. More detailed information is in the image of the original record which is only available at FamilySearch authorized locations.

There's a long list of these WO 25 records here. Some are for the Royal Canadian Rifles from 1841 to 1870.

Also from WO 25, Ancestry has Canada, British Regimental Registers of Service, 1756-1900.

National Gallery and LAC Partnership

In a CBC interview, as he finishes a decade as head of The National Gallery of Canada, Marc Mayer gave a shout out to partnerships as a way of doing business, and makes specific mention of Library and Archives Canada.
Another point he made was about the need to attract visitors to the Gallery by presenting exhibitions by artists with name recognition. Is there a parallel strategy for LAC?

OGS Conference 2019 - registration now open

The website for the 21-23 June, 2019 OGS Conference in London, Ontario, is live and registration is now working. 

For information, to book tours, workshops, lectures and more..... https://conference2019.ogs.on.ca/ .

Some events sell out rapidly so book early — unless you like being disappointed!

BIFHSGO January Meeting

Saturday, 12 January, 2019

A Brief History of BIFHSGO: celebrating 25 years  (Before BIFHSGO Education Talk)
9:00 am to 9:30 am
The Chamber, Ben Franklin Place, 101 Centrepointe Drive, Ottawa, Ontario

The Cowkeeper’s Wish: Transforming Family History into a Great Story
10:00 am to 11:30 am
The Chamber, Ben Franklin Place, 101 Centrepointe Drive, Ottawa, Ontario

Gathering names and dates of ancestors is an addictive, exhausting task, and while it’s satisfying to put the facts in order and fill in a tree’s branches, what’s more fascinating is exploring who these people were as individuals and how they fit into the times and places they occupied. Anyone who’s snooped in their own tree knows that even the most ordinary family contains great stories. Kristen den Hartog and Tracy Kasaboski discuss how to create a rich and wonderful story from a family archive, drawing on official documents as well as personal treasures like photographs, letters, and passed-down memories, and weaving them with events of the times. The sisters’ latest book, The Cowkeeper’s Wish, spans nearly a century, and is set in both England and Canada. They’ll talk about finding the thread of their story and putting several generations in context.

About the speakers

Kristen den Hartog and Tracy Kasaboski are sisters and co-authors of two family memoirs. The Occupied Garden: A Family History of War-Torn Holland was published to rave reviews in 2008 by McClelland & Stewart, and chronicles the lives of their father’s family in the Netherlands in WW II. Their most recent collaboration, The Cowkeeper’s Wish: A Genealogical Journey, delves into their maternal British roots, beginning in the 1840s, when their 3-times great-grandfather walked from Wales to London with his cows, in search of a better life. A working-class chronicle stitched into history, the tale follows the family line for nearly a century, through poverty, war, and love, and ends with the authors’ grandparents in London, Ontario, in the 1930s. The sisters blog about eclectic offshoots from their genealogical journey at thecowkeeperswish.com.

Open to the public

The Middlemore Index

BIFHSGO has it's first success of 2019 — a very much updated version of the Middlemore Index. It's thanks to a project championed over many years for BIFHSGO by Patricia Roberts-Pichette, with help from many others in the Society.

The Index contains the names of the approximately 5,000 children brought for settlement in Canada between 1873 and 1932 by John T. Middlemore and his agency―known as the Children’s (Middlemore) Emigration Homes. There's much more than the names — it draws together references from up to ten documents for each child.

A good place to start in is with the Guide to the Middlemore Index and Sources for complete details. If like most of us you prefer to dive right in go here. You'll find an alphabetical menu organized by surname initial. Clicking on the file of interest brings up a mass of information; you'll then turn to the guide to help understand WDH you're seeing.

BIFHSGO has declared copyright for the Index and it may not be downloaded or printed.