See YOU at the Zoomer Show

This weekend sees the Ottawa Zoomer Show 2015 at the Ottawa Convention Centre downtown. Ottawa genealogy partners the City of Ottawa Archives, Ottawa Branch of OGS and BIFHSGO are cooperating with a display and volunteers on hand to profile our organizations.

CARP members get in free by showing their membership card and anyone can print out a free admission at https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/zoomershow-ottawa-2015-tickets-14656167993 discount=FaceBookOttawa2015

Even if you know about the organizations stop by and you may win a one year subscription to Ancestry or membership in one of the societies.

The show runs Saturday May 9th : 10 am – 5 pm & Sunday May 10th : from 11 am – 5 pm
I'll be there on Sunday afternoon, likely too busy to attend the presentations: The Clutter Explosion - Where Did All This CRAP Come From; Unravel Your Knots (likely not family tree knots). I may get to hear some musical tributes.

See full details at http://www.zoomershow.com/events/ottawa2015/.

Good News for Irish Genealogists

John Grenham reports on a preview of the National Library of Ireland Roman Catholic parish registers to come online soon. In 90 per cent squint-free! on his Irish Roots column/blog he comments that "page-images from the microfilms leap to the screen at the click of a button (at least with a decent broadband connection), all instantly scrollable, zoomable, printable, adjustable."

Expected public availability is Wednesday, 8 July 2015.

BIFHSGO Conference 2015 Speakers

Now it's officially posted on the society website I can blog about the BIFHSGO conference, 18-20 September 2015.

Program chair Jane Down has organized a great contingent of speakers: In alphabetical order, the stars are:

Janet Few, voted the UK #1 Rockstar genealogist in 2014, will give two talks live and in person: Harnessing the Facebook Generation: How to Encourage Young People to Take an Interest in Family History; and Putting Your Ancestors in Their Place: Reconstructing Nineteenth-Century Communities.

Thomas MacEntee, top ten tanked Rockstar genealogist in Australia/New Zealand and the USA, and third ranked in Canada in 2015, will present Genealogy: The Future is Now,  Evernote for Genealogists, Self-Publishing for Genealogists: Tips, Tricks, and Tools and Managing the Genealogy Data Monster.

Chris Paton who tied for first place as British Commonwealth Rockstar genealogist 2014, will present Using Scottish Land Records, Scottish Inheritance Records,
and, Scottish Marriage: Instantly Buckled for Life.

Maureen Taylor, internationally known speaker and author on photo identification, photograph preservation will present  Selfies, Mugshots and Instant Pictures: Early Photography and Your Family as the Don Whiteside Memorial Lecture, Preserving Family Photographs: 1839 to the Present, Google Images and Beyond, Kodak Moments and Technicolor Dreams: 20th Century Photos and Films in the Family Archive

An additional roster of expert speakers will be detailed in a forthcoming post, or find out full details on all the speakers now at http://www.bifhsgo.ca/aem.php?eid=1.

FamilySearch adds Canada Passenger Lists, 1881-1922

This new FamilySearch database contains an index and images of ships' passenger lists for the ports of Quebec City, 1900-1921; Halifax, 1881-1922; Saint John, 1900-1912; North Sydney, 1906-1912; Vancouver, 1905-1912; Victoria, 1905-1912; and for those identified as in transit to Canada, New York, 1906-1912; and Eastern US Ports, 1905-1912. Access the database at https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1823240

This fills a gap at Library and Archives Canada in the free access to indexed records including the massive early 20th century immigration.

To search by Port of Entry and/or year of entry click on Any under Search with a Life Event and fill in the boxes under Any Place and Any Year (Range).

LAC has name indexed databases
Passenger Lists for the Port of Quebec City, 1865-1900, and
Passenger Lists and Border Entries, 1925-1935 - Nominal Indexes
as well as specialised lists such as those for Home Children. That leaves a gap at LAC which is covered by a database Passenger Lists, 1865-1922 not name indexed, only indexed by ship, data and port.

Ancestry has long covered the period with a name indexed database Canadian Passenger Lists, 1865-1935.

Dr Guy Berthiaume at the City of Ottawa Archives

On the evening of Thursday 30 April 2015 Dr Guy Berthiaume Librarian and Archivist of Canada gave a talk with title Something old, something new: Access at the heart of LAC’s mandate at the City of Ottawa Archives to a meeting sponsored by the Friends of the City of Ottawa Archives and the Archives Association of Ontario Eastern Chapter. Here are some items I noted.

In Canada, unlike in a few other countries, the experiment of putting the National Library and Archives together has been successful, and the winners are the clients. You get archival and library material in one location, unlike in London or Paris.  (Not mentioned was that this was true before the organizations were amalgamated)

The First World War (FWW) digitization initiative was cited as one of the most ambitious initiatives for making such records accessible to the public online, something increasingly being demanded by clients. LAC has the largest and most significant collection of FWW records in Canada - official records and medals, journals, photographs, art, music and letters. Taken together they tell compelling stories of the men and women who served.

The types of records most requested from LAC, according to a recent survey, are for genealogy followed by those for the FWW. They beat out rare books, cabinet documents and events.

Digitization imaging of the CEF service files responds to the top two areas identified in the survey and is the most ambitious such project ever undertaken by LAC. 400 lbs of fasteners have been removed from the documents (there was some discussion on what to do with them - melt down for "medals" for those who did the work, sell as scrap, cast into FWW souvenirs for sale.)

The four key commitments made when Dr Berthiaume joined LAC were reviewed and progress to date reported. He spoke about public programming, both at 395 Wellington, hobbled as this may be by the decision of a previous Librarian and Archivist to turn over the ground floor of the building to Public Works, and through partnerships where LAC materials are loaned to other institutions. Examples are the loan of a copy of the Canadian Bill or Rights and the Proclamation of the Constitution Act signed by the Queen to the Canadian Museum of Human Rights in Winnipeg; for an exhibition of Daguerreotypes being mounted at the National Galley of Canada this fall; and half the items in an exhibition for Canada150 at the Museum of Civilization Canadian Museum of History.

Tribute was made to the Friends of LAC for their financial contribution for acquisitions and their continuing support as ambassadors for LAC.

In closing he stressed again that it's vital that members of the various organization that are part of the heritage community work together.

There were questions related accessibility at 395 Wellington, exhibition space at 395, interlibrary loan, microfilm loan and the last-copy policy; the poor state of microfilm readers at LAC; access to subject expert archivists, acquisition policy (national ve provincial and territorial vs local), the digital challenge, administrative records of the Ottawa Hospital, and accessibility to items stored offsite.

After questions Dr Berthiaume mentioned consultations taking place shortly toward development of a three-year plan. There are no details. I will post as they become available. Stay tuned.

Texts of such talks, about one a week are given, are sometimes posted at http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/news/speeches/Pages/default.aspx

Talks were also given by Ottawa City Archivist Paul Henry and Archivist John Lund. Stay tuned.

"No one on the planet is a true native"

A worthwhile read from the Wall Street Journal

Ancient DNA Tells a New Human Story
Armed with old bones and new DNA sequencing technology, scientists are getting a much better understanding of the prehistory of the human species, writes Matt Ridley

http://www.wsj.com/articles/ancient-dna-tells-a-new-human-story-1430492134

Food for Thought for Genealogy Societies

In An Open Letter to Genealogy Societies blogger Susan Petersen vents on seven frustrations with some of our organizations. Hopefully not all apply to any one society.

Have you been driven to quit a society because of one of these? What about other reasons. I've quit when membership had served its purpose after I joined for a specific purpose such as in conjunction with a conference discount. I've also quit because the society didn't give value for money to remote members.

May Backup Nag

It wasn't until I started this post that I remembered I hadn't started my monthly hard drive backup. It's not too late..

Just do it.

Exploring the History of British Health Care

The King's Fund, an independent charity working to improve health and health care in England, is digitising all of its publications since its foundation in 1897. About half are available with the remainder to be imaged later this year.

None are of them are of general genealogical interest. I found a couple in the digital archive which although dated may be useful background for those with ancestors or relatives who were involved with health care.

The development of the London Hospital System, 1823-1982
1986
Rivett, Geoffrey
This history begins with the foundation of the Lancet in 1823, and ends in 1982 with the restructuring of the National Health Service, when the management of hospitals in isolation from other health services had ceased.

Sources for the history of nursing in Great Britain
1984
This is a guide to researching the history of nursing covering the research method and the major readings in the discipline of history which will help anyone interested in the history of nursing to develop that interest in the ways most appropriate to them.

New Datasets from Findmypast

This Friday`s regular updates at Findmypast are:

England and Wales, The Society of Friends (Quaker) Births 1578-1841 contain 234,534 records, both a transcript and an image of the original documents. Post 1776 birth records contain the date of birth, place of birth including the locality, parish and county, the parents’ names, often including the occupation of the father, the child’s name and the names of witnesses.

England and Wales, The Society of Friends (Quaker) Marriages 1578-1841 contain over 90,710 records, a transcript and an image of original material. Post 1776 marriage records include the names and often occupation of the father of both bride and groom as well as the signatures of all witnesses present – frequently quite a long list with family of the bride and groom listed separately. These later records will also sometimes record the form of words spoken by the bride and groom in their vows.

England and Wales, Society of Friends (Quaker) Burials 1578-1841 with over 258,790 records contains a transcript and an image of original material. The amount of information varies, most list the name of the deceased, their date of death, the name of the grave digger and the family member who signed the agreement for interment.

Surrey, Southwark, St George The Martyr Workhouse Records, 1729-1826 has 21,781 results Each record includes a transcript of details taken from the original records, details vary. Most include: Name, Year, Event date, Narrative (notes in the minutes which may include: age, condition at arrival to the workhouse, names of relatives or spouse, clothing allowance; or if they are staff, wages paid), Occupation, Archive, Archival reference, volume number and folio.

I omitted mention of last weeks Friday additions, updates to Yorkshire parish records

Yorkshire Baptisms,1538-1914, now with over  1.9 million records including images of the original registers.
Yorkshire, Bishop’s Transcripts of Baptisms,  1578-1914, now with over 2.5 million records
Yorkshire Banns, 1653-1930, now has over 365,000 records of marriage banns.
Yorkshire Marriages,  1539-1930 now contain over 915,000 records
Yorkshire, Bishop’s Transcripts of Marriages, 1534-1899 now has over 1.2 million records
Yorkshire Burials, 1538-1989 now contain over 1.4 million records
Yorkshire Bishop’s Transcripts of Burials 1578-1972 with over 1.9 million records

These Yorkshire records are variously sourced from the Borthwick Institute for Archives, University of York, Doncaster Borough Council, The East Riding Archives & Local Studies Service, North Yorkshire County Record Office, Sheffield City Council Libraries Archives and Information Services and, Teeside Archives.

Benchmarks Update for April

It was an average month for genealogy websites, as many sites gained as declined in Alexa rank. Coverage of isogg.org was initiated with the April rank at 205,767, higher than all the society websites except americanancestors.org.

Alexa Rank.

Website	30-Apr	31-Mar
familysearch.org	2,870	2,967
ancestry.com	599	614
ancestry.co.uk	4,771	4,755
ancestry.ca	17,709	17,167
myHeritage.com	5,068	4,775
findmypast.co.uk	16,291	16,325
findmypast.com	47,758	48,901
canadiana.ca	360,114	315,966
familytreedna.com	19,297	19,892
23andMe.com	8,362	7,991
genealogyintime.com	65,640	65,983
mocavo.com	37,338	37,797
eogn.com	56,513	56,371
lostcousins.com	205,955	239,425
britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk	88,557	78,498
newspapers.com	14,732	15,215
cyndislist.com	40,580	38,632
freebmd.org.uk	57,000	61,318
canadianheadstones.com	451,185	419,208
deceasedonline.com	514,404	467,288
bifhsgo.ca	4,460,404	2,792,147
qfhs.ca	3,026,717	3,203,250
ogs.on.ca	469,233	441,720
ngsgenealogy.org	225,565	253,705
americanancestors.org	129,544	133,841
scgsgenealogy.com	1,180,142	1,271,210
sog.org.uk	515,492	589,462
anglo-celtic-connections	376,957	370,259

Robert Fitzroy and Origins of Weather Forecasting

Today 30 April 2015 marks the 150th anniversary of the death by suicide of Robert Fitzroy, pioneer of weather forecasts in Britain. There's a good read about him from the BBC at The birth of the weather forecast.

More on the 1939 Register for England and Wales

On 24 September 1939 enumerators distributed forms which were compiled into a register of the population of England and Wales. The forms were collected on 29 September. Although it was not a census much of the information collected was census-like. Information in the record is Address; Surname; First Forename; Other Forename(s)/Initial(s); Date of Birth' Sex; Marital Status,Occupation, whether a member of the armed forces reserve (although that was not captured consistently.) For those in an institution there will be an indication of the person's status.

As there was no census in 1941, taking the regular decennial census was hardly a priority, this is particularly valuable information. Also the 1931 census was destroyed so this is the only thing close to as census between 1921 and 1951.

Findmypast in partnership with The National Archives are publishing the 1939 Register online. Digitization of 7,000 volumes with 40,000,000 entries is in progress. The originals are paper copies, not microfilm, so the image quality is good.

Good news is that the collection is substantially complete, no known missing pages, and organized with occupants of a house together. The cost to access is undetermined. Will it be part of the regular Findmypast subscription? Let's hope so but if not it will certainly cost less that the current £40.

Not so good news is that there is a legal embargo on availability of records for living people under 100 years of age. Findmypast will screen records to identify the deceased and open records if a person can be proved to be deceased. This will be particularly valuable for those who emigrated and died overseas.

There will be an indication of when people in a household have been redacted.  Also members of the Armed Forces were not listed as they had already been called up for military service. However, membership of Naval, Military or Air Force Reserves or Auxiliary Forces or of Civil Defence Services is available if collected.

Behind the scenes the project is a substantial employer with people conserving the originals since late summer last year, scanning, indexing and quality control.

The database should be available "towards the end of this year."

I'd like to thank Jim from Findmypast for filling in some of the gaps in information available on this dataset.

British Medical Directories coming to Ancestry

The Wellcome Library has announced the start of a project to digitize some of its family history materials in partnership with Ancestry.co.uk.
The digitized images will be freely accessible through the Library website and will become available from early 2016.

The published journals included in this project are:

- the Medical Directory
- the Midwives Roll
- the Medical Students’ Register
- the Medical and Dental Students’ Register
- the Dentists Register.

Also to be digitized are the Queen’s Roll from the Queen’s Nursing Institute archive (Library ref. SA/QNI/J.3) and membership records from the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy archive (Library ref. SA/CSP/D), as well as a manuscript dated 1658 that contains the names of witches in Scotland (Library ref. MS.3658).

Irish genealogy takes a big step forward on Wednesday 8 July

THE source for Irish Genealogy News, Claire Santry, has posted NLI announces date for launch of RC registers' website. Silicon Republic posted Irish genealogy resource with 400,000 Catholic parish records to go online.
The NLI website will be displaying images, unindexed except for the parish, which have previously been available on-site in Dublin.

FamilySearch adds Saskatchewan Cemetery Transcripts

Added to the sources for Saskatchewan burials are 164,737 index records covering 1850 and 1994 at FamilySearch. These are transcripts of tombstones from various unidentified cemeteries in the province made available by the Saskatchewan Genealogical Society.

There are other, better sources.

Ancestry has 274,801 records in an All Saskatchewan, Canada, Burial Index, 1802-2011.

There's a Rootsweb hosted Saskatchewan Cemeteries Project with entries from over 3,300 cemeteries.

An SGS database has over 500,000 records of individuals buried in cemeteries and/or burial sites in 299 rural municipalities in the province but the results returned by the free search are not very informative.

Want to be a better Ontario genealogist? Here's how.

From Sunday June 7, 2015 at 5:30 pm to Friday June 12 you can undertake guided research at Toronto's almost annual Genealogy Summer Camp,

Designed mainly for out-of-town family historians with Ontario roots, this unique program takes researchers to different archives and libraries each day. Each day starts with a tutorial or tour of the venue, followed by your own research with our guidance. Spend less time finding the archives, and more time finding information.

Jane E MacNamara, who is the leader, tells me there are still a few spots left. People are already coming from BC, AB, NY, PA, as well as Ottawa and the GTA.

Find out more here and consider adding on an extra day on Saturday the 6th for the OGS Toronto Branch Genetic Genealogy Workshop.

Maximising Cultural and Genealogical Heritage in Ireland

When John Grenham writes in his Irish Roots blog, in an article with the title Catherine Murphy for Taoiseach, referring to a government report, that "Anyone with even the remotest interest in Irish genealogy should read it," we should pay attention. I'd go further as a few of the 37 recommendations several are of wider significance than just for Ireland.

For example:

"It must be recognised that the majority of our genealogical records are public goods and public access is the desired goal."
"We must explore private sector income options that would add to the income of the cultural sector. This income must be in addition to central funding and must be ring-fenced for the institutions."
"Any funds raised through commercial partnerships must be ring fenced and used in addition to State funding."
"The system must be designed with the end user in mind."
"Indexes must be made fully available online as well as physically on location. Online researchers should not be disadvantaged."

It will be instructive to witness the response to the report. Is the Irish government committed to cultural and genealogical heritage as part of a national post-industrial strategy?

 

Get 40% off Ancestry.ca memberships

40% discount is about as good as it gets for Ancestry memberships.

Take advantage of the offer:

Canada Deluxe Annual Membership at the special offer price: $71.88,
World Deluxe Annual membership special offer price: $179.88.

Customers will be billed the annual price in one up-front payment. Offer available until 11:59 p.m. ET on April 30 2015. Go to http://goo.gl/jdF8go

Thanks for the tip to Susan Gingras Calcagni.

Your Genealogy Today: May/June 2015

For some people old family photographs are a focus of their family history interest. They produce multiple copies sending them to new found cousins as a way to draw their interest. A photo sent along with a Christmas card helps cement the relationship. This issue of Your Genealogy Today helps you understand, preserve and make good use of your heritage images.

Here's the complete table of contents for the 54 page May/June issue.

DNA & Genealogy. Column by Diahan Southard

Strangers in the Attic: The Era of CDVs and CCs

George Matheson looks at the once-popular Cartes de Visite and Cabinet Cards of a bygone era

Genealogy Tourism, Column by Ed Zapletal

Organizing and Caring for Old Family Photographs
Jacky Gamble offers six hints for giving those old family photographs a longer life

Family Time
David A. Norris explores watches and clocks as family history and heirlooms

Doubled! Baptismal Registrations of 19th Century Austrian Military Offspring
Smiljka Kitanovic explains why some births in 19 century Austria-Hungary were recorded twice leaving a bonus for family historians

Finding Caroline Tanner Bailey —Through Bits and Pieces

Robin Bailey discovers how several small clues from photos, books and other sources led to a successful search for her great-grandmother

Writing Your Family History in Five Steps
Barbara Krasner offers tips on how to record your family history in written form for future generations

Finding My Zitko Ancestors
Wynne Crombie shares her heart-warming experience of her first visit to an ancestral village on the island of Vis

Sacrifice for Victory: Rationing during World War II
Carol Richey looks at how your home front ancestors were affected by the measures taken to support the war effort

Advice from the Pros. Column by Lisa Alzo.

The Back Page. Column by Dave Obee