Mel Wolfgang R.I.P.

The genealogy community lost a valued member when Mel Wolfgang passed away last Friday, July 5. A New York state resident he was the proprietor of Jonathan Shepherd Books, a frequent speaker at conferences in the US since the 1970s, and wrote a column for the New York State Archives’ quarterly magazine “New York Archives”.

He spoke in Canada at the OGS 2012 conference in Kingston where his presentations on newspaper research, New York resources, and archival tips were educational and highly entertaining. He had previously presented in 2009 in Ottawa at Gene-o-Rama.

Born in Albany, New York he was a graduate from McGill University in Montreal.   

Those who want to send their condolences may do so in the obituary guest book: http://www.newcomeralbany.com/obituary.aspx?src=value&obitid=68974&name=Meldon+J

Thanks to Gail Dever for passing along this sad news.

Irish Lives Remembered: July issue

The free online magazine Irish Lives Remembered has been mentioned here before. The July issue is now available at www.irishlivesremembered.com.  Content includes the Irish ancestry of Barack Obama, several articles on Donegal, and even one on the Halifax explosion. Recommended for those with Irish ancestry.

BIFHSGO conference

I spent part of the day on Monday with Sandra Adams, Elizabeth Kipp and Bill Arthurs planning our panel session on one name studies for the BIFHSGO conference, and recording a short promo item which will be posted in a few days, after I've had time to edit it.

Remember, there's only one month left to save on registration for the conference September 20-22 in Ottawa: http://www.bifhsgo.ca/cpage.php?pt=22  

Lost Ottawa on Facebook

There was a lot of local media coverage last week for Lost Ottawa, a Facebook community site devoted to images of Ottawa and surroundings dating from the founding of the city to the year 2000. It's now coming up on 10,000 Likes.
There's a CBC page featuring the community founder, David McGee, at http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/story/2013/07/03/ottawa-lost-ottawa-facebook-page.html
If you have historic Ottawa photos, and that includes organizations that may have a wall of photos of prominent people in the organization history, this would be a good way to protect the image for posterity.
Their similar initiative for other places. Former Ottawan Norma O'Toole, who suggested this post, mentions "Vancouver Then and Now" - Vintage photographs of Vancouver and surrounding suburb cities, throughout every era and every subject.Website: http://www.flickr.com/photos/entheos_fog... or https://www.facebook.com/VancouverThen/info
“Vintage Lethbridge” is also on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/VintageLethbridge

Loss of Lac-Mégantic Archives

Lac-Mégantic's history literally went up in smoke. According to a Toronto Star article the town's archives that had been housed at the library: baptism records that came over with colonists from France in the 17th century, local politicians' correspondence, and documents related to the various social clubs in town are gone.
What price our unique archival records? What cost their digitization?
Read the story at:
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2013/07/08/lacmgantic_casualties_include_quebec_towns_history.html?app=noRedirect

Stone and Quarry Men of the West Country

A Rootsweb database, A Genealogical Index of Masons, Quarrymen, Builders,
Carpenters and all related Occupations in Devon and Cornwall with "well over 67,000 entries" is profiled in a Facebook posting from the Quebec Family History Society. Check it out at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~stonemen/

The Ryerson Index

Ryerson is an Australian index to over four million death notices appearing in Australian newspapers along with some funeral notices, probate notices and obituaries. With four million records, and lots of ten pound poms having settled in Australia, it seemed worth a look. Its strength lies in notices from New South Wales papers and I remembered a classmate from university in England, Clive

Anthony Croxton, who died in Australia, settled there. He is listed in the index as having died nearly 20 years ago, on 12 September 1993, age 48.

Clive was a brilliant student who went on to obtain a PhD from Cambridge University, lecture at the university in Newcastle, Australia, and wrote several books. In the photo he is sitting next to the head of the department, E A Stewardson, with some guy named Reid on his other side.

There were 53 entries for people named Northwood, the name I'll be speaking of as a member of the one-name studies panel at September's BIFHSGO conference.

via a retweet by Rebel Hand.

Gourmet dining at LAC

On Friday I took my iPad into the new vending machine area at Library and Archives Canada curious to see up close the fare on offer. Closest to the door is the hot drink machine. There's a choice of two sizes for $1.50 and  $1.75 for coffee or hot chocolate.
Beside it a machine with the various Coca Cola brands.

Potato chips, other munchies and candy bars are next to a variety of sandwiches and miscellaneous solid foods.


The last vending machine with bottled water and other drinks is next to a microwave oven. Looks like you can bring your own food to reheat.

Ottawa Genealogy Meet-up

The weather was a bit questionable for the meetup at Westboro beach. To my surprise the cafe was open. Thanks to the hardy souls who made their way through the disrupted traffic. Although there were a few spots of rain we enjoyed good conversation for 90 minutes until more serious rainfall set in. 

Royal College of Nursing resources

The RCN website has a library and archives section that may be of interest to those with a British nurse in their family tree, or for in exploring the experience of someone who spent time under nursing care.

Try accessing through the genealogy and research advice page at http://www.rcn.org.uk/development/rcn_archives/research_advice_-_tracing_nurses

Check out the fully digitized British Journal of Nursing / Nursing Record 1888-1956, remember you can search for places as well as people.
Specialist libraries and archives are great places to visit in London, and RCN is in the process of improving access. Read about it at http://www.rcn.org.uk/development/library

Thanks to Evangelina Fife for the lead.

British Naval Biographical Dictionary, 1849

On Friday while at LAC an email arrived mentioning a British naval officer from the late 18th and early 19th century. I immediately thought of a fat book in a leather binding I'd seen on the open shelves. With a little help from the ever helpful staff  it was in my hands in minutes "O'Byrne, William R.. A Naval Biographical Dictionary: Comprising the Life and Services of Every Living Officer in Her Majesty's Navy, from the Rank of Admiral of the Fleet to that of Lieutenant, Inclusive. London, England: John Murray, 1849."

I got the usual thrill from handling a book of such antiquity, then found on arriving home it's on the Internet Archive at http://archive.org/details/cu31924027921372 as well as on Ancestry. The look and feel of the LAC copy stay with me, will I remember it's free online?

YouTube genealogy

Did you ever search YouTube for the term genealogy? 91,200 results! Wow! What's included?
Sorted by relevance the first results are from Lisa Louise Cooke, part of her Genealogy Gems; in case you missed it Lisa is giving several talks at September's BIFHSGO conference.
There are recent additions by US blogger DearMYRTLE, recordings of Google Hangout sessions on the recent book Mastering Genealogical Proof by, wait for it, Thomas W. Jones, Ph.D., CG, CGL, FASG, FUGA, FNGS.  The hangout sessions are the tip of the iceberg, several other study groups are underway working their way through Jones' book. For more on the study groups check out http://genealogyeducation.blogspot.ca/2013/04/gen-proof-groups-to-study-mastering.html. If you think you might be interested, not all groups have started yet, view DearMYRTLE's sessions to see if it's something in which you want to invest your time.
Genealogical organization often worry about how to appeal to young people. Perhaps DNA rather than archives is one way. Lose the talking heads and pump up the beat with an overview of several genetic genealogy services.


I left out the sites on "Fire Emblem: Genealogy Of The Holy War"

Thousand Islands Flotilla

Looking for an outing in the next few days? Along the St Lawrence River, from Kingston to Upper Canada Village, a flotilla will retrace the path of a War of 1812 event, actually 200 years ago in 1813, the pursuit of General James Wilkinson’s American army by Lt Col Morrison’s detachments and the River Flotilla of Captain William Howe Mulcaster, RN.

The Flotilla will depart Kingston on Monday, July 8, arriving at Crysler's Farm on Friday, July 13.
Tentatively, the flotilla will depart Bath on the morning of July 8 and arrive Gananoque that evening.
Depart Gananoque morning July 9, arrive Rockport in evening.
Depart Rockport morning July 10, arrive Brockville in evening.
Depart Brockville morning July11, arrive Prescott in evening.
Depart Prescott morning July 12, arrive Upper Canada Village in evening.

More information at http://celebrate1812.ca

One World - One Family conference

I`ve been working on my presentation Family Secrets Revealed by DNA Analysis which I`ll be delivering twice on August 24th at the 4th annual OWOF conference in Brampton, Ontario, organized by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
For $20, $15 if you make the early bird deadline, you get the choice of five presentations in 5 timeslots plus two plenary talks and a box lunch. Many presenters with Ontario name recognition; and quite a deal. I`m looking forward to it.
Find out more at http://www.oneworldonefamily-theevent.com/

Ancestry U.K. and U.S. Directories, 1680-1830 collection updated

This collection, somewhat misleadingly titled, has been updated with a third set of data—about 1 million records—strong on Scottish records from 1680 to 1830. It now contains nearly 100 Scottish directories published up to 1830: 37 for Edinburgh, 28 for Glasgow, three national directories, and other directories for Aberdeen, Angus, Ayr, Dundee, Greenock, Paisley, and Renfrewshire. The third set also contains all known Welsh directories, and includes directories for Baltimore, Boston, Charleston, and a few other places in the United States.
These are added to the previous 200 directories, including many London directories and other directories for Newcastle, Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield, Bristol, Liverpool, and Manchester. These sets also contain U.S. information for Albany, Boston, and Brooklyn.

Specific Scottish additions are:
Aberdeen: 1824, 1825, 1827, 1828, 1829, 1830
Angus: 1829, 1830
Ayr: 1830
Dundee: 1782, 1809, 1818, 1822, 1824, 1829
Edinburgh: 1774, 1776, 1778,1780, 1782, 1794, 1797, 1800, 1801, 1804, 1805, 1806, 1807, 1808, 1809, 1810, 1811, 1812, 1813, 1814, 1815, 1816, 1817, 1818, 1819, 1820, 1821, 1822, 1823, 1824, 1824 [diff. ed.], 1825, 1826, 1827, 1828, 1829, 1830
Glasgow: 1801, 1803, 1804, 1805, 1806, 1807, 1809, 1810, 1811, 1812, 1813, 1814, 1815, 1816, 1817, 1818, 1819, 1820, 1821, 1822, 1823, 1824, 1825, 1826, 1827, 1828, 1829, 1830
Greenock: 1815, 1820, 1828
Paisley: 1810, 1812, 1820, 1823, 1827, 1828
Renfrewshire: 1829, 1830

Also included are book subscription lists, journals, society membership lists and some miscellaneous sources.

Ottawa Summer Genealogy Meet-up

Join me and some friends for the second annual Ottawa Summer Genealogy Meet-up. Weather permitting it's taking place on the patio at the cafe at Westboro beach this Sunday, 7 July, from 11:30 am. It's informal chat, no need to prepare unless you want to swim afterwards.

The forecast so far is promising. Low 20. High 28. It will be cooler by the water. Bring protection from the sun.

Checkout the map at http://goo.gl/maps/01DE

Pay more for less

John Grenham's latest column in the Irish Times comments on the theory that copper-mining Bronze-Age warriors invaded Ireland some 2,500 years ago and all but exterminated the farmers already living there.
The theory is attributed to "a spokesman for IrelandsDNA, a commercial DNA testing company that also trades as ScotlandsDNA and BritainsDNA."
This is a company that has a reputation for publicity-seeking announcements. Grenham comments that "technically speaking, it is one of the most advanced genealogical DNA-testing outfits in Europe, and shouldn’t need to attract customers by associating itself with such theories." One wonders.
What other commercial "genealogical DNA-testing outfits in Europe" are there? Oxford Ancestors is the only one I know of and they charge very high prices.
As far as I'm aware IrelandsDNA advertised Fatherline YDNA test of over 15,000 Y chromosome markers is more than any other product on the market at a  cost of €229 (over $300 Cdn)
Their Motherline mitochondrial DNA test is of 3,000 markers, which is much less than offered by Family Tree DNA and only 200 more than included in the 23andMe test.
Their All my Ancestry test is of 250,000 autosomal markers at a cost of €209 ($285 Cdn), less than half the markers tested by Family Tree DNA and 23andMe for $99.
Some people hold that by testing with a British or European company they will receive a test more applicable to their ancestry. I know of no evidence to support that belief.

UK, Extracted Probate Records, 1269-1975 updated in Ancestry

Back in the early days of Ancestry this type of database, such as "Wills of the Archdeaconry of Suffolk, 1620-1624", was Ancestry's bread and butter.
These records are little more than an index as shown in the example. Most are from the first half of the period and would pertain to the well to do; don't expect to find Ag Labs.

Name:	Allcroft, Thomas
Dates:	1634
Place:	Shropshire, England
Book:	Baptisms and Burials, 1769-1799. (Baptism)
Collection:	Shropshire: Lichfield - Wills and Administrations, 1516-1652
Volume:	Series V.-1624-1652
Chapter:	1634
Text:	1634 Allcroft, Thomas

BBC News - Shielding Commonwealth war graves from the ravages of time

BBC News - Shielding Commonwealth war graves from the ravages of time
http://feedly.com/k/1cTbI3b

Discovery of the 'Champlain' astrolabe

This year being the 400th anniversary of the exploration of the Ottawa River by Samuel de Champlain a new exhibit at Pinhey's Point, an Ottawa historic site and museum, features a hitherto unseen manuscript account of the discovery of the 'Champlain' astrolabe, and an exploration of its contested status as a cultural symbol.
The exhibition runs at Pinhey's Point until August 31, 2013 when it will move to
Carleton University Department of History for two months.
For more on the celebration of the Champlain Quadricentennial see http://champlain2013.ca/en