Following a healthy lunch I attended an APG panel discussion "From the Printed Page to the Digital Age" organized and chaired by Sharon Murphy. There were about 40 people in attendance and lots of questions from the floor.
Brian Gilchrist, who admitted being a delinquent APG member, saw the greatest change to be in technology for quality controls since he started into genealogy in 1966. He lamented the loss of access to original documents he had in the early days and the information you miss when you have to rely on a b/w microfilm copy rather than the original.
Susanna de Groot, who has 10 years experienced, mentioned the difficulty in keeping up with continual changes.
Janice Nickerson, who started in genealogy in 1982, commented that you can find simple things more easily now; that speeds up the drudgery part of the job and leaves more time for the more interesting records -- obscure documents -- and analysis.
Ruth Burkholder - commented that she finds herself more of an isolated researcher than she used to be when colleagues got together and talked more as they were searching in the same archives.
Tammy Priolo commented on the old days of working through piles of old book, and the education that resulted compared to the rapid retrieval now with the internet. She did comment that internet access had been especially valuable to her in Northern Ontario where access was previously difficult.
I couldn't keep up with the diverse bunch of questions from the audience. I asked about whether the internet was helping clients to find qualified researchers, and if there services were more widely advertised because of the internet. The responses varied, some still relying on local and personal networking, some taking greater advantage of internet groups such as APG, personal and company web sites.
Sherilyn Bell gave a most informative presentation "Weary of Y Chromosome & Mitochondrial DNA Testing?" She gave a good review of this traditional testing, then moved on to more recent developments suggesting how DNA analysis would change genealogy.
David Obee spoke on "Travel Smart with Technology." Dave travels a lot and suggests he's made most of the mistakes. As well as the well worn suggestion to prepare well, an oldie but goodie, re argued with the advice to travel light instead pointing out that it's costly to lose opportunities when technology fails. He carries backups for much of his technology. Links for his presentation are here.
The evening banquet speaker was well known author, and Ottawa resident, Charlotte Gray who spoke on her experiences in writing about women for whom she had completed biographies. In this, as in all previous talks I've heard her give, her presentation was thoughtful and well appreciated.
It was a long but enjoyable day.
30 May 2009
OGS Conference 2009 - Saturday pm
OGS Approve Fee Increase
At Saturday morning's Ontario Genealogical Society AGM the membership present voted in favour of the OGS Council motion to increase the annual fee from $45 to $60 in 2010. An amendment to stage the increase over five years failed. My amendment to institute a rebate for members who opted to receive regular publications electronically was ruled out of order.
Most speakers from the floor who addressed the motion supported the the increase, although some expressed a concern that the increase would result in fewer branch memberships.
At 11:15am I attended a presentation "Tracing Your Foremothers" by Shirley Gage Hodges, president of the Genealogical Speakers Guild. She suggested you look at what roles your ancestors have filled, friend, employee, church member, teacher, student, neighbour, and the type of records that might be available.
The presentation was well done, even though much of it was presented from a text.
The talk was interspersed with humour, such as this quote "It's the good girls who keep diaries; the bad girls never have time" by Tallulah Bankhead 1903-1968.
She ended by expressing the opinion that the most important mistake we make is spending more time in tracing back our families rather than recording our own biography.
The talk was illustrated by clear colourful slides fully legible from the back row where I was sitting.
More Irish1911 census counties online
Donegal, Cork, Galway, Wexford and King’s County (Offaly) are now available on the National Archives of Ireland site. Search here.
They comment that "Even though there is still some material missing (in particular, some Irish language returns, and corrections submitted by the public), we have decided to make the material available, in the knowledge that the vast majority of our users will be able to find what they want. Corrections and improvements will be ongoing, and we are very grateful to all users who have submitted corrections to us."
Under future plans they inform that:
"Further tranches of counties will comprise:
1. Limerick, Mayo,Waterford, Armagh, Carlow, Cavan, Clare, Fermanagh, Kildare, Kilkenny and Leitrim;
2. Londonderry (Derry), Longford, Louth, Meath, Monaghan, Queen’s County (Laois), Roscommon, Sligo, Tipperary, Tyrone, Westmeath and Wicklow.
At present, we hope to be placing the first listed tranche online by mid – July, and the second tranche by end -August, but this is subject to our being satisfied that the data meets our required levels of accuracy.
In September, we will be rebuilding the site to include full transcription of all of the data on the household forms for 1911, including religion, occupation, relationship to head of family, literacy status, marital status, county or country of origin, Irish language proficiency, specified illnesses, and child survival information.
1901, with all data transcribed, will be launched towards the end of 2009."
29 May 2009
OGS Conference 2009 Opening
Arriving in Oakville to a warm sunny day I drove to Sheridan College and eventually found my way to registration which was quite a way from the furthest reaches of the marketplace and the main entrance. My registration package awaited, was promptly produced, and some deficiencies in the material included were quickly and cheerfully addressed.
I dropped in briefly to the graduation ceremonies for the National Institute for Genealogical Research, a happy occasion.
After a buffet dinner meeting many friends and acquaintances, see the blog posting by fellow Ottawa blogger Elizabeth Lapointe, it was off to the opening ceremonies and J. Richard Houston Memorial Lecture given by Kory L. Meyerink.
This meeting marked the official change of honourary patron, from Senator Lorna Milne to Senator Vivienne Poy. Senator Milne emphasized the work that she did to have the post 1901 censuses released is not complete as there is still the question of the default exclusion from release to be addressed. Senator Poy surprised us by mentioning she had her Chinese family history back 2000 years, and that she had a Scottish great-grandfather. She seems interested in expanding the cultural range of OGS from the traditional Anglo membership.
Kory Meyerink, gave the J. Richard Houston Memorial Lecture Beyond the Begats: Developing Biographies from Paper and Digital Sources. He emphasized the need to fill in the dash between the birth and death date, and suggested techniques by which genealogists could become family "biographers." Many of these involved looking at information on collateral lines and community experience. The lecture was illustrated with reference to Ontario Loyalist ancestors and will be published in Families.
Having driven from Ottawa prior to all this the two hour evening session felt like a bit too much of a good thing, especially when Saturday morning's first presentation starts at 8 am.
Genealogy books online
I'm informed that on Thursday Stephen Young and Rex Peterson of FamilySearch gave a presentation to Family History Centre volunteers in Toronto.
They mentioned the digitization at BYU of family histories in their collection. They gave an example of how to see a sample.
Look in the Family History Library Catalogue under author "Becker, John Adams". (The same John Becker who edits Families). If you click on his first book, you'll see a link that takes you immediately to a digital copy of the book. You should see it through this link. It's all free!
Is OGS checking for availability of the books they intend digitizing from the Society library from other sources, with deeper pockets, before going ahead?
Added note: I spoke to Stephen Young and Rex Peterson at the OGS conference in Oakville and learnt that the books available in full text are the same as those at the BYU Family History Archive.
28 May 2009
OGS Conference 2009
Early on Friday morning I'll be leaving for the OGS annual conference being held at Sheridan College in Oakville.
I expect to be at the registration desk around 4 or 5 pm on Friday and would be pleased to talk, especially about concerns on the proposed OGS fee increase.
I've already heard talks being given by Alison Hare, Marian Press and Gary Schroder, all of whom I recommend. I'm particularly looking at attending other talks on topics of my interest, likely not Ontario-specific.
Elizabeth Lapointe at Canada Genealogy will also be blogging, and twittering, from the conference. At previous conferences I've found there's so much going on people can have quite different experiences. I'll be blogging about mine here. It'll be interesting to compare our posts.
New content on the CGC website
The following information from the Canadian Genealogy Centre announces the availability of new advice pages of interest to those with Jewish and/or Polish roots; and a shorter section on heraldry.
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Information on Jewish (http://www.collectionscanada.
A page about Heraldry (http://www.collectionscanada.
Best OGS Branch web site
Three of the Ontario Genealogical Society 30 branches stand out for their web sites.
Each branch has a web site. Most provide basic information about the branch and its programs. A few show the hallmarks of considerable work that has gone into the site -- they deserve recognition.
This evaluation wasn't exhaustive, but it did have criteria: design, timeliness and unique content.
The three OGS Branches (in alphabetical order) that stood out from the others are:
(drum roll)
Durham Region, Quinte, York Region
There was another near miss.
And the best site:
(drum roll)
Durham Region: Unique resources, a blog and RSS feed make this well designed site the best overall.
27 May 2009
OGS develops e-Library
The following is a 27 May press release from the Ontario Genealogical Society
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The Board of the Ontario Genealogical Society has approved an ambitious program to digitize and place online the Society's provincial library.
The online e-Library will operate much as a regular library. Anyone will be able to borrow a book and, if a copy of the book is available, will receive a coded file containing the book. The patron will be able to read the book for a period of time, say two weeks, after which the file becomes unavailable. The book cannot be copied. These restrictions ensure that copyright is not infringed.
The 3 500 family histories held by the library will be scanned first. Periodicals and OGS publications still in print will not be placed online. It will take well over a year to get the entire library online. The system will be tested within the next few weeks when about a hundred books will be placed online within the Members Only section of the OGS website. The system will be available to the general public in the early fall when more than a thousand books become available.
The Society is investing $16 500 in software, to be taken from the Endowment Fund, and will incur an annual expense of several thousand dollars, essentially to ensure that copyright is not infringed. As a result there will have to be a fee for each book borrowed. The Board will determine the fee at its May meeting. It is expected to be small for Society Members and much larger for non-members. OGS Members should note that OGS in-print publications will not be included in the e-Library.
The VPL genealogy contest
Most people enjoy treasure hunts, especially genealogists and family historians. Librarians love to help people seeking information, and seeking to learn. Reference librarians are getting adept at pointing family history researchers to a range of free online databases. Put these together and you get the Vancouver Public Library's just completed genealogy contest.
More than 100 people sent in answers and the VPL gave a book prize, Finding Your Canadian Ancestors by Sherry Irvine and Dave Obee, to five people drawn from the 75 fully correct entries. Here's the VPL's contest. Why not challenge yourself?
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Answer the questions below using the following FREE Canadian genealogy databases. Each database answers ONE question.
Automated Genealogy
www.automatedgenealogy.com
www.islandnet.com/bccfa
British Columbia City Directories, 1860-1901
www.vpl.ca/bccd/index.php
Canadian Naturalization (1915-1932)
www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/genealogy/022-505-e.html
Census of Canada, 1881
www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/census-1881/index-e.html
Daniel F. Johnson’s New Brunswick Newspaper Vital Statistics
http://archives.gnb.ca/APPS/
Immigration Records (1925-1935)
www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/
In Search of Your Canadian Past: The Canadian County Atlas Digital Project http://digital.library.mcgill.ca/CountyAtlas
Prince Edward Island Baptismal Index
www.gov.pe.ca/cca/baptismal
Saskatchewan Vital Statistics – Genealogy Indexes
http://vsgs.health.gov.sk.ca/sgs_srch.aspx
Soldiers of the First World War
www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/
Western Land Grants (1870-1930)
www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/western-land-grants/index-e.html
1. What were the names of 4 children born to Margaret Walsh and James Thompson and baptised in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island during the 1860s?
Answer:
Database:
2. What was the occupation and residence of Morris Applebaum, an immigrant from Poland who became a naturalized Canadian on March 13, 1920?
Answer:
Database:
3. Where was future Canadian prime minister John Diefenbaker living at the time of the 1901 census? What were the names and ages of other members of the household?
Answer:
Database:
4. Charles Edwin Martindale enlisted as a soldier in the Canadian Expeditionary Force on May 10th, 1916. Where was he born?
Answer:
Database:
5. How many people with the surname Smith are buried at Sunnyside Lawn cemetery in Surrey, B.C.?
Answer:
Database:
6. What was the first name of the youngest person with the surname Howe to arrive in Quebec City on the Montcalm in 1925? How old was he or she?
Answer:
Database:
7. Who were the parents of Jules Ernest Azur, born in Batoche, Saskatchewan in 1906?
Answer:
Database:
8. Who did Andrew Babineau of Moncton, New Brunswick marry on December 20, 1891?
Answer:
Database:
9. Which four individuals were granted the quarter-sections making up Section 10, Township 10, Range 10, Meridian W1 in Manitoba?
Answer:
Database:
10. In which township in Brant County, Ontario was Alfred Jones living around 1875?
Answer:
Database:
11. How many people with the surname Douglas, born in Scotland, were living in Manitoba in 1881?
Answer:
Database:
12. What was the occupation of H.H. Burr of New Westminster, B.C. in 1877-1878?
Answer:
Database:
The answers may be found on the VPL website.
This would be a good model for other libraries to adapt.
Thanks to Janet Tomkins of the VPL for the lead.
26 May 2009
A treasure trove of First World War photographs
The UK Independent publish, for the first time, newly discovered photos showing allied soldiers on their way to the Somme.
You can read the full story of how these images came to be taken, recovered and restored here, along with a link to view many of them.
Some of the more interesting photos, including one with a Canadian military insignia on one of the buttons, are here.
Thanks to M. Diane Rogers for the tip. Diane has a longer posting on her CanadaGenealogy, or, "Jane's your Aunt" site.
British army lists free online
Looking for an ancestor who was an officer in the British Army? If so he should appear in the Army Lists which where published starting in 1642.
The lists give more detail for more senior offices. For Lieutenants and below it's typically just name and promotion dates.
You may not find the originals easy to access, but if he served between 1778 and 1892 he may be in the free Army Lists now online through the Internet Archive (direct link to search results.) It has substantial gaps, and there seems to be no way to search for a particular year. Below is a selection that may help you get started.
A list of the officers of the army and of the corps of royal marines 1778
A List of the officers of the Army and of the Corps of Royal Marines 1826
Hart's Annual Army List, Militia List, and Imperial Yeomanry List 1840
Hart's annual army list 1845
The New Army List 1845The East-India Register and Army List 1845
Hart's Annual Army List, Militia List, and Imperial Yeomanry List 1850
Hart's annual army list, militia list, and imperial yeomanry list 1855
THE NEW ARMY LIST AND MILITIA LIST JANUARY 1855Hart's Annual Army List, Militia List, and Imperial Yeomanry List 1860
Hart's Annual Army List, Militia List, and Imperial Yeomanry List 1865
the new army list militia list and indian civil service list 1880
Hart's Annual Army List, Militia List, and Imperial Yeomanry List 1890
25 May 2009
Ancestry deception
In a recent posting on the Ancestry Town Hall Meeting this blog noted that "Ancestry apparently have a relationship with some of their harshest critics. If you want to have your gripes addressed it seems it's good to be a really squeaky wheel."
Squeak. Here's an appalling case of Ancestry deception. Squeak. Squeak.
Ancestry recently made available selected issues of Crockford's Clerical Directories. These contain biographies of Anglican clergy in the UK. They also provides other information such as details about the Anglican churches and benefices in England, Wales, 
and Ireland. The years covered are 1868, 1874, 1885, 1898, 1809, and 1932.
Here's the search dialog box that appears when you attempt to search these volumes. There's space for first and last names and other information. But, try a search and you'll find that names were never identified as such in the digitization. Search for a man with last name Newby and you'll get lots of hits for a place called Newby, and some for people named Newby. There's no discrimination. The hits for the surname don't appear first. It's simply deception that you can search specifically for a name.
Aside from that problem this is an example of OCR'd documents with a poor quality OCR - likely one of the earlier efforts from the now defunct Archive CD Books UK. My great grandfather appears in the 1898 issue but he won't appear when you search from the form. Only because the listing is alphabetical was I able to track him down.
24 May 2009
FreeBMD update
Nearly 1.5 million new unique index entries were added to the FreeBMD database on Saturday 23 May. The new data is mainly from 1927 to 1939. Gaps continue to be filled in earlier years. The most recent year with 10,000 index entries is 1939 for births, 1945 for marriages and 1935 for deaths.
Which Canadian newspaper? Turn to McKim
McKim's Canadian Newspaper Directory claimed to be "a thoroughly complete and up to date hand-book
of Canadian Journalism." The main purpose was to assist potential advertisers. It included circulation ratings and details concerning each paper.
It also served as a mini-gazetteer.
Genealogists turn to newspapers for birth, marriage and death notices, and family historians know they contain much more of interest. But which paper do you look for if your ancestor's community didn't boast a paper? As shown in the extract, McKim's directory can help as the listing for each community with a paper including surrounding towns and villages where no papers were published.
McKim directories for 1899, 1905, 1909 and 1919 have been digitized for the Internet Archive by the University of Toronto. See a clickable list here.
I find the Flip Book (beta) reader to be best as it allows zooming and searching.
23 May 2009
Rare British books on CD for genealogy
In their May newsletter Archive CD Books Canada announce they have just, in the last few days, completed an agreement to carry the products of Anguline Research Archives. Anguline is a British based digital reproduction specialist and has a catalogue of over 300 titles, rare books on CD at an affordable price for the local and family history researcher.
These products should start appearing in the Archive CD Books Canada catalogue in next few weeks.
You can subscribe to the Archive CD Books Canada free newsletter, and keep up with news from them and their international partners, from their home page here.
22 May 2009
Paper of Record on WVR
Paper of Record, containing digitized version of Canadian and foreign newspapers, is said to have been resurrected and a contract signed with WorldVitalRecords.com. It appears the link is not yet established.
Are your ancestors lost in London?
If you have ancestors who lived in London you may well have spent time with maps trying to figure out just where they lived. London is so vast its easy to get lost. Some resources I've found helpful are the various maps free online from Map and Plan Collection Online, MAPCO.
The site offers a wide variety of maps, from Roman times to the early 20th century, many in colour and with impressive sufficient resolution.
The site is frequently updated with additions and improvements.
The image is a degraded overview, hopefully clear enough to give a general impression but degraded sufficiently to keep me out of copyright problems, of Cross's New Plan Of London 1850. At 4½" to 1 statute mile it is a work of art and close enough to the 1851 census to be helpful in locating roads once you zoom in.
Stanford's Map Of London Showing The Boundaries Of Parishes, Ecclesiastical Districts, And Poor Law Divisions 1877 is 3" to 1 statute mile. Use it to locate the church your ancestor may have used, and the records of which may contain information on baptisms and marriages.
MAPCO has maps from further afield than London. Set aside some time when you visit as it's all too easy to get drawn in.
21 May 2009
New appointments at LAC
The organization remains Library and Archives Canada, but the faces are changing following the appointment of Dr. Daniel J. Caron as Librarian and Archivist of Canada. The appointments and deployments below are now announced.
Doug Rimmer, formerly Assistant Deputy Minister, Programs and Services Sector has been appointed Assistant Deputy Minister, Documentary Heritage Collection Sector. He replaces Ingrid Parent who has accepted an appointment as University Librarian at the University of British Columbia.
Zahra Pourjafar-Ziaei becomes A?/Assistant Deputy Minister, Corporate Management Sector. She had previously served at Deputy Chief Technology Officer
Marie-Josée Martel becomes Assistant Deputy Minister, Programs and Services Sector. She came to LAC in September 2008 from Treasury Board Secretariat where she was Executive Director, Service Sector. She will also Chair the LAC Services Advisory Board.
Sean Berrigan, formerly Director-General in the Strategic Office, assumes the role of Senior Advisor to the Librarian and Archivist of Canada.
Most of the names are new to me. As is common at the Public Service executive level, corporate memory is scarce in these appointments. If you have information or opinion they should be aware of to help them provide better service they all have email which can be found through GEDS, the Government Electronic Directory Service.
20 May 2009
DAR vs DNA
In the spring 2009 issue of the journal of genetic genealogy Whit Athey writes an editorial "DAR versus DNA". The stimulus is an article in American Spirit, the magazine of the Daughters of the American Revolution which explains why at the present time DAR rejects any DNA evidence submitted as a part of an application for membership. DAR’s contention is that DNA evidence does not provide sufficient accuracy to prove descent from a revolutionary soldier.
Athey concedes this for most cases. He points out however that in all cases it can add supporting evidence. Further, DNA can certainly disprove a relationship - something that most applicants would not willingly delve into given the possibility of non paternity events.
If DAR and other lineage societies were serious wouldn't they ask for ALL evidence, not just that they have grown comfortable with over the years, and require applicants to submit a DNA test result and demonstrate in the light of that evidence how the claim to be a descendant is at least plausible? Otherwise can the exploration of the evidence be said to be reasonably exhaustive as specified in the Genealogical Proof Standard?
The editorial is worth the read.
