The first Zepplin raid and civilian bombing deaths

We are seeing, yet again, this time in Gaza, the horrifying impacts of air war on civilians.

It was on this day, 19 January 1915, at about 8:30 pm, that the first bombs of the First World War fell on Britain, at Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. According to The Times there were two civilian fatalities, Samuel Smith, age 50, a shoemaker and Miss Martha Taylor, age 72.

A newspaper report of the inquest refers to William Smith, brother of Samuel, and Jane Taylor, twin sister of Martha, has having identified the bodies. I wondered if Martha Taylor might be a relative of the late genealogist Ryan Taylor whose home child grandfather was from Great Yarmouth, but was quickly able to rule out any close relationship.

This article describes the historic event.

Transcription errors in the 1911 English census

Several letters were published in Saturday's Daily Telegraph about transcription errors in the newly released indexed 1911 English census. For example ..

[ ... Of the four pages I have downloaded, three contain errors: four incorrectly spelt surnames, two incorrect forenames and a misspelt occupation. There is a whole page where the town is given the wrong initial letter, even though the correct name appears on the Enumeration District heading...]

There's always a trade off between timeliness and accuracy, but what seems to bug people most is the high cost given the problems encountered.

via: Scottish Genealogy News and Events

GENE-O-RAMA 2009

Ottawa Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society have announced the program for their 26th version of GENE-O-RAMA, being held this year March 27 to 28.

The format is familiar, the Friday evening Pat Horan lecture, four sessions on Saturday, plus the evening banquet. The headline speakers in the main lecture room (The Chamber, no horrors!) are Dr. Bruce Curtis, Mel Wolfgang, Louise St Denis, and Terry Findley.

In some previous years when I`ve spoken at this event it has been in the smaller lecture room where the program has never been established in time for adequate publicity. The talks are often as good as or even better than those in the main lecture hall, but lack of publicity has meant smaller audiences. This year the organizers, Norine Wolfe, Doug Grey, Doug Hoddinott and Ed Kipp, have that part of the program together in good time. You can hear Sara Chatfield, Doug Hoddinott, Louise St. Denis, Robert Wilkins and Elizabeth Kipp in room 1B.

Also new this year is the ability to register online, $32 before the end of February, plus optional amounts for a box lunch and the Saturday evening banquet.

As always there is a good marketplace, and other attractions, planned

GENE-O-RAMA, one of the local Ottawa premiere genealogy events of the year, will be at Ben Franklin Place, 101 Centrepointe Drive.

PRONI catalogue now online

The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland has, finally, started making their collection catalogue available online. The eCatalogue currently contains approximately 60% of PRONI’s total catalogue entries, with the remainder to be published on an ongoing basis.

Of special interest is the ability to find emigrant letters and correspondence relating to claims to Irish property by emigrants. For example: Emigrant letter, Dr. William Campbell, Peterborough, "Upper Canada", to Rev. Robert Campbell, Templepatrick, in which he describes the hardships of the voyage and gives some account of Co. Antrim emigrants in Canada, 1832.

Also at the PRONI website, don`t overlook their other online resources:

• Ulster Covenant
• Freeholders Records
• Will Calendars

The rule of three

The February issue of the "UK" Ancestors magazine arrived today and includes an article well worth reading "How do I prove this ancestor is mine?" written by Helen Osborn. I was drawn to it by the editors comment that "Ideally, she suggests, we need to follow a "rule of three" producing three different documents that an event such as a marriage or birth took place."

I've heard this "rule" proclaimed before, notably by Mike More, chair of the Ottawa Branch of OGS in teaching a beginner session.

Helen Osborn is the managing director of Pharos Tutors so I was interested to read her rational for the rule. It turns out that while Osborn mentions the rule of three she doesn't advocate it. The article reads "The rule of three cannot settle the question of proof for us where there is conflicting evidence or lack of evidence. What is needed is a much more comprehensive and disciplined approach to our problems."

In the following section Osborn states that "genealogical facts can be established by the same basic principles of criticism as are used by historians." She suggests this as the British approach.

Osborn then summarizes the five American standards for genealogical proof for which "there is no counterpart (as yet) on this side of the Atlantic."

She points out that "as long as one source remains out there unexplored you have a potential bomb waiting to destroy your theory."

If evidence uncovered using the most common sources paints a reasonably consistent picture perhaps you can be reasonably sure you've got at the truth without worrying about those potential bombs.

Most legal disputes get settled without becoming court cases; the facts don't warrant further argument. Even when matters do get settled in court there is no 100% certainty that the truth is found, as indicated by the number of convictions overturned by DNA evidence.

Should the genealogist following the proof standard now be required to have explored the potential of a DNA bomb?

1911 census for England and Wales now available

The following is a press release sent by Findmypast.com:

1911 CENSUS GOES ONLINE
* Online access to the records of 36 million people in 1911
* Major new family history resource

36 million people were recorded in the census taken on the night of Sunday, 2 April, 1911. Today, after nearly 100 years, these census records are available to the public at www.1911census.co.uk.

The census covered England, Wales, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands, as well as recording those aboard Royal Naval and Merchant vessels at sea and in foreign ports and, for the first time in a British census, full details of British Army personnel and their families in military establishments overseas. It is the most detailed census since UK records began and the first for which the original census schedules have been preserved - complete with our ancestors' own handwriting - providing a fascinating insight into British society nearly a century ago.

From today over 27 million people's census entries - 80 per cent of the English records - will be available. A further nine million records of people from the remaining counties of England, Wales, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands, as well as the naval and overseas military records, will be made available over the coming months.

www.1911census.co.uk is easy to access and enables the public to view high quality colour images of their ancestors' original handwritten census returns. Transcribed text versions of the records ensure they are fully searchable by name or address.

Public demand for the 1911 census, which will be a key resource for family historians, has resulted in the records being released earlier than the scheduled 2012 date. To make this early online release to the public possible, the 1911 census team worked around the clock for two years - scanning on average one census page per second. In line with data protection legislation, certain sensitive information relating to infirmity and to children of women prisoners will be held back until 2012.

Comprehensive and rigorously tested, www.1911census.co.uk has been developed by UK-based family history website findmypast.com, owned by brightsolid, in association with The National Archives.

Elaine Collins, Commercial Director at findmypast.com, said: "The 1911 census offers a crucial new entry point to family history research for a wide range of people, from novice family historians to seasoned genealogists who have hit a 'wall' in their family tree research. As well as helping people trace their ancestors, these records shed more light on our ancestors' day-to-day lifestyles, providing a snapshot of a day in their lives, with details of their occupations, housing arrangements and social status."

The 1911 census is huge - occupying over two kilometres of shelving - an incredible eight million paper census returns have been transcribed to create over 16 million digital images. This makes the 1911 census one of the biggest digitisation projects ever undertaken by The National Archives in association with a commercial partner.

Oliver Morley, Director of Customer and Business Development at The National Archives, commented: "This is a major achievement. By teaming up with findmypast.com, we are bringing history to life for millions. This remarkable record is available online to researchers and family historians all over the world for future generations. The 1911 census is a poignant reflection of how different life was in early 20 century Britain, before the Great War."

Due to the widespread popularity of family history, it is anticipated that www.1911census.co.uk will experience a high level of visitors logging on to search the records, especially in the first weeks of launch.

Elaine Collins, Commercial Director at findmypast.com, advises: '"We aim to deliver a quality service that has high but not infinite capacity. If visitors do experience a short delay in accessing the records via www.1911census.co.uk soon after launch, we would advise them to try again later when the website becomes less busy. www.1911census.co.uk is here to stay and access to the online census records will be unlimited permanently from today."

Handwritten records
Completed by all householders in England and Wales on Sunday, 2 April 1911, the census records show the name, age, place of birth, marital status and occupation of every resident in every home, as well as their relationship to the head of the household.

People will also have unique access to their ancestors' handwriting as the original householders' schedules were preserved and used as working documents rather than copying the details in to summary books as was the case in previous census years.

The records contain details about the lives of many important British historical figures, such as David Lloyd George, the contemporary Prime Minister H.H. Asquith and 'Bloomsbury Set' author Virginia Woolf. The launch of the records also creates a starting point for people to trace their own family tree by looking up their parents, grandparents and great-grandparents who were alive in the year 1911.

'Fertility Census'
The 1911 census was the first to ask questions relating to fertility in marriage. Married women were asked to state how long they had been married and how many children had been born from that marriage. The census also provides a fascinating snapshot of the population of the country just a few years before a whole generation of young men perished in the Great War of 1914-1918.

How to use the 1911 Census records

* Log on to www.1911census.co.uk and register for free
* Search for an ancestor in 1911 by entering their name
* If the name is common you can enter their approximate year of birth, which will help to narrow down the results
* Search for an address to look up the history of your house or an ancestor's address in 1911 (this function will be available in summer 2009)
* Pay as you go to view each record. You will be charged 10 credits per transcript and 30 credits for each original household page. Visitors to the website can buy 60 credits for £6.95.
* Findmypast.com vouchers will also be valid on 1911census.co.uk. Vouchers can be purchased from The National Archives bookshop and redeemed on findmypast.com. Credits can then be spent on both findmypast.com and 1911census.co.uk.
* For more information about using the 1911 census for family history research, 'Census: The Expert Guide' by Peter Christian and David Annal is available from The National Archives online bookshop at www.nationalarchives.gov.uk

Brand New Online Course: Introduction to One-Name Studies

The following press release is posted for information.

The Guild of One-Name Studies and Pharos Teaching and Tutoring Ltd are pleased to announce a brand new five week introductory course on One-Name Studies, starting 27th April 2009. This is the first course of its kind, either online or in the classroom. The new online course will be a guide and introduction to One-Name Studies, run by online genealogy specialists Pharos Tutors assisted by the considerable experience of the Guild of One-Name Studies, probably the most dedicated group of genealogists in the world.

The course covers surnames and their history; core records needed for one-name studies; the analyses of one-name data and all the practical aspects of running a one-name study.

Prospective students can pay and enrol via the Pharos website – www.pharostutors.com at a price of £42.99. The Guild of One-Name Studies will also be offering free membership to the Guild for the remainder of the financial year for all non-Guild members who sign up for this course.

The course is suitable for all genealogists who have an interesting or unusual surname, or who wish to research their surname in greater depth. It will also be of significant interest to existing one-namers.

Helen Osborn, Managing Director of Pharos Teaching and Tutoring Ltd, said today

“We were delighted to be approached by the Guild who share our vision for genealogy education and we look forward to working with them on this and future projects.”


Cliff Kemball, Guild Treasurer & project mentor for Pharos courses, said today

“The availability of this introductory course on One-Name Studies is a significant development in the Guild’s aim to increase the facilities available to its members and in its charitable aim of advancing the education of the public in one-name studies”

Contacts:

Pharos Tutors: Helen Osborn
Telephone: 020 8542 6552
Email: helen@pharostutors.com
Website: http://pharostutors.com


Guild of One-Name Studies: Cliff Kemball
Telephone: 0208 467 8865
Email: treasurer@one-name.org
Website: www.one-name.org

5% of Brits of Canadian origin

I missed this interesting posting from Ancestry which appeared before Christmas.

Your Family Tree, volume 73

I picked up a copy of the February 2009 issue at W H Smith. It's a magazine to which I once subscribed, sold with the cover title "Your Family History" in Canada.

It was surprising to find the cover CD plastered with the words FIND YOUR FAMILY'S COAT OF ARMS. The CD contains a digitized copy of the 1902 directory Armorial Families produced by S&N Genealogy. You'd think that a specialist magazine wouldn't be continuing the fiction that there is any such thing as a family coat of arms.

The best article was on nonconformist records, many newly online, authored by Paul Blake.

Am article on "Finding Parish Records Online" gives the tip that "the most underused and potentially most exciting free source of printed parish register transcriptions is the Internet Archive (www.archive.org), and its companion Open Library (www.openlibrary.org). The latter site had the following announcement of interest that it would be nice to see the Ottawa Piblic Library, and others, emulating.

Introducing Scan-On-Demand!

In partnership with the Internet Archive and OpenLibrary.org, the Boston Public Library is excited to announce a new program to allow users and patrons to "Scan-on-Demand". It's easy and free! Books are delivered to you, electronically, in 5-7 days

The issue contains a lot of hype about "Who Do You Think You Are? LIVE" the show being held from 27 Feb to 1 March at National Hall, Olympia in London.

URGENT - Aboriginal Records Request

The following is posted at the request of Janice Nickerson. Please contact her at the coordinates given if you can help.

I need help gathering illustrative examples for a soon-to-be published guide
to Aboriginal genealogical research in Central and Eastern Canada. I will
pay $25 per document to anyone who can send me a copy of a Civil
Registration, Will or Estate Record, Newspaper item, School Record, Land and
Property record, Notarial record from New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, PEI,
Newfoundland and Labrador, in which an Aboriginal person is featured,
preferably explicitly identified as such. I also need non-church documents
from Quebec, and Newspaper items, School Records, or Land and Property
records for Ontario. I only need one of each type of document for each
province. The deadline is January 25th. Please contact me directly for
details: Janice Nickerson, janice@uppercanadagenealogy.com, 416 920-2206.

BIFHSGO January Meeting

This month's presentation, at 10:00 a.m., 10 January 2009 at Library & Archives Canada, is "The LDS Pioneering Spirit Continues"

Shirley Ann Pyefinch will speak about what the LDS Family History center and the Family History Department has to offer researchers and explain the pioneering technology that is being used to disseminate family history information to the world.

Come early for the pre-BIFHSGO presentation (at 9:00 a .m.) "Searching the Drouin Collection" by Brian Glenn.

Cold snap in London

The the 6 January headline in the London Evening Standard read "-10C, colder than the Antarctic." It didn't seem that cold to me. Gloves were not essential for a short walk.

Journeying through London by bus isn't as simple as by underground. Finding the right route, where to board and get off, are a bit more tricky. Through the bus windows, after wiping away the condensation, you get a new perspective seeing buildings, parks and roads and linking up places you know of, but don't know.

I headed for the Hackney Archives searching for a death notice for my great-great-grandfather in the Hackney Gazette. No luck. Only a couple of issues I looked at for January 1882 had any death notices, just two people each, plus a few more detailed mentions in coroner's reports. The other major content was reports of Vestry and Board of Guardians meetings, plus pages and pages of small ads.

January 1882 was also cold, and misery was rife. The Gazette's editor saw fit to reprint this poem:

BE KIND!

Nothing to eat on this cold, bitter day,
No raiment of warmth, and no-where to lay;
Begging our way for a morsel of bread,
Oh, that my children and I were all dead.

We see warm-clad strangers pass on along,
With glow on their cheeks, and hearts full of song;
Thoughtless, and heedless of sorrows of others,
Forgetting that God made us sisters and brothers.

Friendless we wander from morning to night,
Day after day, with prospects less bright;
In madness of want, we curse our existence,
No raiment of warmth, no means of subsistence.

Fellow creatures be kind to those who are poor,
Turn empty away no soul from your door;
'Tis little they ask, 'tis easy to give,
Remember the maxim - "Live and let live."

A day is approaching when all shall be equal,
Forget not - to life hereafter the sequel;
The reckoning of action to friend and to brother,
The command to us all is - "Love one another."

January 12th, 1881 H.G.W.

Getting lost in London

When in London observe, but beware, the helpful signposts. I got lost following one pointing to the London Metropolitan Archives. Walking from the Society of Genealogists, unhelpfully, someone had turned it around. I noticed others in the same state.

There's such a richness of resources in London you may benefit from if (and when) you do get lost.

I stumbled on the Islington Local History Centre. If you research in London you've probably used the LMA. The nearby Islington LHC is worth a visit if your research includes Islington, or Finsbury, Barnsbury, Bunhill Fields, Canonbury, Highbury, Tollington Park.

There are several other such London borough archives not to be overlooked. Why? You'll get more help from the locally knowledgeable staff than at a larger institution and access to specialized resources, such as local histories, clipping files and newspapers.

Outliers

I've been reading British-born, Canadian-raised, author Malcolm Gladwell's latest book, Outliers: the story of success. He points out that, given a reasonable level of intelligence, personal success depends on being raised in a favourable environment, and on hard work. Hardly news, but Gladwell's writing draws you in with examples of how this applies to well known people. It's a framework against which you might usefully consider your ancestor's, or your own, family story.

For example, early in the book he points out that successful Canadian hockey players are almost all born in the early months of the year, a result of teams being made up in the pre-teen years of kids born during a single calendar year and the kids born early in the year having the advantage of being better developed than those born a few months later. At that age a few months make a big difference. As a result those born in the early months tend to get labelled as talented and selected for more intensive training.

Where did your ancestor stand in his or her cohort?

He also points out the significance of when and where you are born, whether at a time of relatively low birthrate when peer competition isn't too fierce. Entering the job market at a time when a new skill set is especially highly valued is also favourable. Unfortunately this isn't something you can forecast, only explain in retrospect.

It's a recommended read.

Happy New Year, happy birthday John D Reid

John Dowsley Reid, no relation, was born in Prescott, Ontario, 150 years ago on 1 January 1859. He represented the federal riding of Granville in the House of Commons from 1891 to 1921 including serving as an influential minister in the Borden administration during the First World War. He was appointed to the Senate that same year where he served until his death in 1929.

He was the son of John Reid, an Irish immigrant. His mother was Jane Dowsley.

He married Ephie Elizabeth Labatt, a granddaughter of John Kinder Labatt (1803 - 1866) founder of the brewing company of that name, on 25 January 1899.

Anglo-Celtic Connections year in review

A quick look back at 2008 on Anglo-Celtic Connections, via the first item published each month.

January - Canadian roots of the British holiday camp
February - A major expansion at World Vital Records
March - Capital collections
April - Do you You Tube?
May - A model for LAC accountability to users
June - Live and in person
July - Happy Canada Day
August - Canada features in the British Library Annual Report
September - Why the conference?
October - Canadian Census of Industrial Establishments 1871
November - Safely stored but not forgotten
December - LAC, where are the podcasts?

Time out to enjoy the season

Genealogy news drops off at this season so expect postings here to be light while I enjoy an extended family Christmas and New Year holiday.

Best wishes for 2009.

Year end interview with Else Churchill

As the Genealogist with the Society of Genealogists in London Else Churchill has her finger on the pulse of genealogy in England and Wales

Asked what has been the biggest advance in genealogy in Britain in 2008 she suggested, after some thought, the appearance online of nonconformist registers from TNA (RG 4 and 5) and Fleet marriages. I'd expected her to mention new databases from SOG, which she did, but indicated they are only just getting started -- much more to come next year.

The led into a question on 2009. Without hesitation she named the launch of the indexed 1911 UK census as the most anticipated event. It will be especially helpful for those struggling in the post 1901 census period where the mother's maiden name was not yet recorded in the birth indexes. Else mentioned a short term beta test of that census for the counties of London/Middlesex, Witshire and Warwickshire. See: http://betav3.1911census.co.uk

Else anticipates there will be a gradual rollout of counties to avoid the painful experience of database crashes experienced when 1901 was released.

SOG has a number of new publications in the series My Ancestor Was A ... to appear in 2009, including servants, firemen, shopkeepers, miners and taylors. Else also mentioned a new book on the UK census by Peter Christian and David Annal which she has reviewed.

2009 will be no less challenging a year for genealogy than for any other discretionary business in this period of economic upheaval. Companies will need strong financial backing to survive and some amalgamations and even failures might be expected. Else was too discrete to name names.

Karsh Centennial

More Cornish parish records added to findmypast.com

The following is a press release from findmypast.com:

Nearly two million more parish records have been added to the Parish Records Collection on findmypast.com. 1.8 million baptism, marriage and burial records from the County of Cornwall have now gone live and can be searched at
http://www.findmypast.com/parish-records-collection-search-start.action?redef=0&event=B. The records have been compiled by Cornwall Family History Society.

The Parish Records Collection brings together in one easy-to-search central place the disparate records from local parishes, which members of local family history societies have been compiling since 1994, under the guidance and encouragement of the Federation of Family History Societies (FFHS). It includes records from parish registers, non-conformist registers, Roman Catholic, Jewish and other registers as well as cemetery and cremation records.

Thanks to the cross-database search facility at findmypast.com, you can search for your ancestor by surname across all the records on the site without needing to know where in the country they came from.

LOCAL CORNISH CELEBRITIES

Among the famous names that can be found in the new Cornish parish records at www.findmypast.com is Sir Humphry Davy, chemist and inventor of the miner's safety lamp, whose baptism is recorded on 22 January 1779 in Penzance.

There are now over 22.4 million parish records online at findmypast.com, with more to follow in the coming months.