Each year I go to one UK family history event. This year there have been a lot of choices — mine is RootsTech London. I know of several other Canadians who have already booked to attend.
For those who prefer to reduce the stress of making arrangements, there's an organized tour being arranged by Deana and Mel Fishman out of Toronto. Below for information, I have no affiliation, is a flyer I picked up at the Ontario Genealogical Society conference.
| TITLE | DATE RANGE |
|---|---|
| Field | 1853-1856, 1858, 1860, 1862-1863, 1865-1868, 1870-1877, 1879-1881, 1884-1900 |
| Walsall Observer | 1873-1911, 1925-1933, 1958-1969 |
| Staffordshire Sentinel | 1903-1910, 1913-1919 |
| Newcastle Chronicle | 1875-1896, 1899-1900 |
| Aberdeen Press and Journal | 1980-1984 |
| Acton Gazette | 1871-1882, 1884-1885, 1887-1892, 1894-1917, 1921-1939 |
| Daily Gazette for Middlesbrough | 1901-1905, 1907, 1910, 1912 |
| Northern Ensign and Weekly Gazette | 1854, 1864, 1866, 1870-1871, 1879-1885, 1887, 1889-1892, 1895-1896, 1901, 1922-1926 |
| Aberdeen Evening Express | 1939-1945, 1980-1984 |
| Volunteer Record & Shooting News | 1884-1902 |
| Wells Journal | 1986-1988, 1990 |
| Reading Evening Post | 1982-1984, 1988 |
| Sandwell Evening Mail | 1988, 1991, 1994 |
Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.
The Winnipeg General Strike trials: a new Co-Lab challenge
This Co-Lab challenge highlights some of the public expressions of support for the strike leaders and invites participants to reconsider the verdicts of the Winnipeg General Strike trials.
The Regimental Rogue
A good Canadian resource guide for researching CEF soldiers, especially the Royal Canadian Regiment.
Ancestry has updated Birmingham, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812
You perhaps saw the story of the cemetery, burial place of about 35 Indigenous children, being handed over to the RIIS Commemorative Association.
What you likely don't know is that Linda Dunsmore-Porter started the process as Executive Director of the Saskatchewan Genealogical Society in the interest of SGS cemetery program. She phoned Regina City Hall to try to find out who owned or was in charge of the abandoned cemetery. They had no clue it existed until that phone call.
Thanks to Brenda Turner for the tip.
| The years in numbers | 2018-2019 | 2017-2018 | 2016-2017 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pages of government records opened | 3,580,226 | 10,190,631 | 8,033,794 |
| Questions answered by reference services: | 22,302 | 23,491 | 26,155 |
| Images digitized | 4,723,911 | 10,201,950 | 9,100,000 |
| Publications collected under legal deposit | 60,717 | 101,889 | 122,075 |
| New private acquisitions | 154 | 111 | 137 |
| Items loaned to museums and galleries: | 165 | 362 | 102 |
| Tours of the LAC Preservation Centre | 107 | 106 | 170 |
The treaty to end the Great War was signed on 28 June 1919. Here's eminent Canadian historian Margaret McMillan speaking at Gresham College.
At the OGS Conference last weekend Sher Leetooze, seen here with Roger, was offering her Ulster Sourcebook, now published as nine individual books, one for each county. Each has new and updated information — updated to the time of printing — which almost didn't happen in time for the conference.James Peter (occasionally Patrick) Hiney of 165 Florence Street, age 63, died at St Luke’s Hospital on 27 June 1919 following an accident at Clarella Park on the Britannia line, two days previously. The inquest found he had aggravated a prior injury while attempting to board a street car that pulled away prematurely.
Born in Dublin, Ireland he first enlisted on 4 April 1916 in Ottawa giving his birth as 28 May 1873. A professional musician, he was married to Mary Elizabeth nee William with three sons and one daughter. After a few days, he was discharged as overage and declared not eligible to reenlist.
A second attestation paper has him enlisting again in Ottawa on 18 June 1918. Private Hiney (722269) served with the Canadian Army Corps of Military Staff Clerks.
He is buried in Section 40, Lot 139E at Beechwood Cemetery.
As a RootsTech London Ambassador, I receive an admission pass to award to some lucky blog reader. This is a heads-up that the opportunity to enter will start on 1 July, Canada Day when I'll post the details on how to enter.
If you already purchased a RootsTech London pass you can still enter and will receive a refund if you're the winner.
The opportunity will be open until the end of the day (EDT) on 7 July to accommodate those who may be away on and around Canada Day.
Also in RootsTech London news, just announced, the popular UK vocal group Tre Amici will be special guest performers in the entertainment part of the event on the main stage on Friday, 25 October at 6 PM.
Two well-known US presenters are featured this week in the Legacy Webinar series with suggestions helpful to all, beginner and beyond.
On Wednesday, at 2 pm EDT, Marian Pierre-Louis presents 5 Steps to Becoming a Good Ancestor
Genealogists are very good at researching and learning about their ancestors' lives. But sometimes they forget that it is important to provide information about themselves for their own descendants. In this presentation we'll provide five ways to leave traces of yourself (and your research) for those who come after you. Register here.
What technology tips can help you with your genealogy research? Make a goal this month to try a new technology tip each day and this webinar will help you! We'll look at tips to help you enhance your email, use shortcuts, conduct better searches, and use your cell phone for genealogy. When we are done, you'll be able to do more with less time and learn tools that will help you in your research and personal life. Register here.
Finding evidence that you’re a descendant of a particular ancestor is one of the powerful applications of DNA testing. AncestryDNA has created a groundbreaking new way to make those kinds of powerful discoveries. We call it DNA Circles™ and it’s currently available in BETA for AncestryDNA customers.Now, as of 1 July, DNA Circles is disappearing. When that was mentioned at the recent OGS Conference some were disappointed.
DNA Circles re-imagines what matching can do. It goes beyond finding a common ancestor with your DNA matches and can link you to additional AncestryDNA members with the same common ancestor thus creating a Circle of people who are all related.
Félicitations
On this date in 2014 Guy Berthiaume assumed the duties of Librarian and Archivist of Canada. While he has announced his retirement he has agreed to extend the term until his successor, Lesley Weir, assumes that role after Labour Day.
An audio of an interview he kindly granted me looking back at his time at LAC, and further back in his career, is no longer available online. If you'd like to review it please contact me at john dot d dot reid at gmail dot com/.
Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.
Congratulations to the following graduates of the National Institute for Genealogical Studies program who received their diplomas at a Friday afternoon ceremony held in conjunction with the annual conference of the Ontario Genealogical Societ in London, Ontario.
A dose of Scottish culture.
From the 2016 census, showing that cities now have large areas with more than 50% of their population foreign-born. That includes me!
Ancestry frequently updates ethnicity estimates. They're doing it again, and providing more spatial resolution — Ancestry Communities. Check your results to see if there's been an update. According to this AncestryDNA blog post over 225 new AncestryDNA communities, including more than 120 relating to Canada, are added.
What might you expect? As they say "your mileage may vary."
The major change to my ethnicity percentages has England, Wales & Northwestern Europe increasing from 19% previously to 44%. There's an error band on the present estimate of 44%—57%. The gain comes with the elimination of 11% for Europe West, 4% for Caucasus, 1% for Europe East, >1% for Iberian Peninsula and, a change from 11% Scandinavia to 3% Norway. Changes to other area are within the error ranges.
The greater spatial resolution shows ancestry in the overlapping areas East Midlands & the Potteries and The Potteries. Those both include the birthplace of a great-grandfather. My other seven great-grandparents origins are within broader areas identified.
On Thursday, 20 June at 7:30pm PDHS turns to visual arts of paintings and sculptures - and the Canadian side of Frederic Remington’s work.
Frederic Sackrider Remington (1861-1909) is well-known as an artist of the American West. He explored the frontier between civilisation and the wilderness, in a body of work that includes over 3400 flat works, 22 subjects in bronze and 8 books. Remington placed an emphasis on the “types” who shaped, and were shaped by, the frontier experience: cowboys, soldiers, mountain men, explorers, coureurs de bois, voyageurs, and peoples of the First Nations.
It is not well known that Canada was an integral part of Remington’s vision of the frontier experience. From his earliest work in magazine illustration to the masterful oil paintings created at the end of his career, Canada was central to his basic concept of North America. For him, the frontier was a region of international scope. As an historical and cultural backdrop, the Canadian stage was equal to that of the U.S., and for some of his purposes, superior. And, throughout his life and career, Remington was deeply tied to the culture and landscape of the eastern woods and waters, with Quebec, Ontario and northern New York a persistent focus of his work.
Laura Desmond, Education Specialist at the Frederic Remington Art Museum in nearby Ogdensburg NY, will present an overview of Remington’s Canadian subjects, illustrating her presentation with a wide range of Remington’s paintings and drawings. She will also explore how his Canadian-themed works are both typical and distinct from those depicting his U.S. subjects.
Desmond has worked at the Remington Museum for two years, creating educational programmes that expand and deepen an understanding of Frederic Remington’s work, and of art and art-making more generally. She also assists the Museum Curator in the design, research, installation and presentation of exhibits at the Museum. Laura Desmond's previous museum experience includes collections, exhibitions and programme delivery at the Potsdam Public Museum and at the Richard F. Brush Art Gallery in Canton NY.
The meeting is at Perth's Royal Canadian Legion, 26 Beckwith Street E., Perth, (Toonie Donation).
From Lifehacker. You likely already know.
https://lifehacker.com/how-do-i-digitize-and-share-a-ton-of-old-family-photos-1835484124
To ratify the Actions of the Board of Directors for the period through June 21, 2019.
It's an agenda item for the Annual General Meeting of The Ontario Genealogical Society, something I've not seen before.
The world has changed substantially reflected in reduced society memberships at a time when one might expect retiring baby boomers to swell the ranks. That's not just in OGS, not just in family history societies.
This precipitated the Society launch of a brand, Ontario Ancestors, legally registered as a business name for use by The Ontario Genealogical Society.
It's not unusual for businesses to have a variety of brands. Cheerios, Häagen-Dazs, Yoplait, Nature Valley, Pillsbury and Betty Crocker are General Mills brands.
But in the case of Ontario Ancestors, it's not a product under the company umbrella, it's the whole organization and so appears as a re-brand replacing The Ontario Genealogical Society. The Board of Directors denies this — "a re-brand was not the intention."
What was the intention? Ontario Ancestors distinguishes the Society from US Societies that also use OGS — Ohio, Oregon and Oklahoma. The hope is the brand will sell better in the large US market and bring in new members.
The new brand surely won't be successful as just a cosmetic change. How will the organization evolve to serve the more distributed membership as well as the existing membership and society at large?
OGS has not been static. Province-wide or rather more than province-wide services like the eWeekly Update and webinars are examples of services recently introduced. There is a growing social media presence. Is that enough?
At the heart of the society are Ontario-based volunteers, and volunteer fatigue is a major issue. OGS Branches have closed, or struggle along with the same people in leadership roles. There's a hollowing out. Attend any meeting and you'll hear a plea for people to fill vacant positions, often to an audience many of whom have already done their time.
That's despite the established finding that volunteering provides benefits like better health, living longer, emotional support, less social isolation and, feeling of contributing to a greater good.
The move to market the Society in the US is unlikely to bring in volunteers at the branch level. Is the future of OGS as a stronger centralized organization with weaker branches?
Pro or con Ontario Ancestors I encourage you to attend the OGS Annual General Meeting to be held on Saturday, June 22nd at 10:00 am at the London Convention Centre, London, Ontario. Express your views, politely — Directors are volunteers too — but firmly.
Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.
Essex's medieval history
A blog post summary of a meeting held on 18 May looking at Essex as a county on the Edge of England, London and rebellion. Thanks to Brenda Turner for the tip.
Old Photos of Essex Kent & London
A Facebook page. Thanks to Ann Burns for the tip. Also from Ann, a map of London from 1572.
Kin support and the English poor: evidence from Lancashire, c.1620–1710
Advance Notice: Kitchener Public Library Genealogy Fair
KPL is organizing its seventh annual Genealogy Fair on Saturday, November 2, 2019. The event will run from 9:30 am to 4 pm at the Central Library — open to the public with no admission charge.
From Spitalfields Life — RootsTech London attendees beware!
Happiness may be a choice – except that it’s constrained by vested economic interests
Mentions the Canadian Index of Wellbeing.
Cars of the future that will help fight climate change
"EVs have great potential to reduce emissions, they won’t as long as they’re charged using electricity generated from the same old dirty fossil fuels."
How's your library service? How is it changing? Is the Ottawa Public Library typical?
Some items in a draft OPL Strategic Plan 2020-23 caught my attention:
Kent Baptisms
New transcript records covering two new parishes, Fawkham St Mary (1,501 records) and Northfleet St Botolph (18,125 records), have been added to the collection of Kent parish baptisms.
Kent Marriages and Banns
The parish of Northfleet St Botolph with 8,952 transcript records has been added to the collection.
Kent Burials
Over 14,000 new transcript records from the parishes of Fawkham, St Mary (947 records) and Northfleet, St Botolph (13,537 records) are now available to search.
England, Phillimore Marriage Registers, 1531-1913
A new, fully searchable collection of Phillimore Marriage Registers containing approximately 2.3 million names and record marriages is now available at Findmypast from more than 1,500 parishes in
Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Cheshire, Cornwall, Cumberland, Derbyshire, Devon,
Dorset, Essex, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Hertfordshire, Huntingdonshire, Kent, Leicestershire,
Lincolnshire, London, Middlesex, Norfolk, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Somerset, Suffolk, Warwickshire, Wiltshire, Worcestershire, Yorkshire West Riding.
Search to view a transcript or an image of the original published page.
Scotland, Scottish Peerages
Explore this comprehensive history of the Scottish peerage between 1716 and 1914. The collection includes nine volumes of The Scots Peerage along with six other titles including a single-volume Jacobite peerage, all pdfs.
International Records Update – Denmark
More than 6.9 million baptisms, marriages and burials in three new Danish indexes spanning the years 1635 to 1917 are now available to search and will generate hints against your Findmypast family tree.
On Saturday, 15 June "Doing research from a distance using the Archives of Ontario's website" is the topic for the Branch meeting at Quinte West Public Library, 7 Creswell Dr, Trenton 1-3 pm.The FreeBMD Database was updated on Wednesday 5 June 2019 to contain 270,304,784 unique records (269,939,666 at previous update).
Years with major additions, greater than 5,000 records, are: for births 1964, 1978, 1982, 1984-86; for marriages 1965,1980, 1984-86; for deaths 1984-86.
www.freebmd.org.uk/
The British Columbia Archives now offers online access to births (1854-1903), marriages (1872-1943), deaths (1872-1998), colonial marriages (1859-1872) and baptisms (1836-1888). The recent additions are 1943 marriages and 1998 deaths with 1904 births to be added soon.
Many but not all have images of the original registration. and it's free!
Two of the speakers at the Ontario Genealogical Society (Ontario Ancestors) conference in London, starting on Friday next week, are also scheduled speakers at RootsTech London in October. Yes, both conferences are in London — but on opposite sides of the Atlantic.
David Allen Lambert from the New England Historic Genealogical Society (American Ancestors) will present a Friday 21 June workshop Virtual Family Reunions: Embrace Social Media to Reunite Your Distant Cousins, the that evening Charity Begins in Our Home and two presentations during the regular sessions Before They Were Loyalists: Researching Colonial New England and New York Ancestors and Researching Canadian and American World War I Veterans. At RootsTech he is presenting Online Family Reunions – using Social Media to locate cousins to share and preserve Family History.
John Boeren will present How to Start Your Research in the Netherlands on Sunday 23 June. Sadly it's in the same timeslot as the presentation I'm giving with Glenn Wright. In October his RootsTech talk is Tracing Your Ancestors in the Netherlands.
Not to be overlooked at the OGS conference are the FastTrax sessions (pdf), 30-minute mini-information presentations, offered on Saturday and Sunday exclusively by exhibitors in the Marketplace hall.
