Names A-K
Names L-M
Names N-End
07 February 2020
Ballymena Canadians 1914-18
Names A-K
Names L-M
Names N-End
New RAF Operations Book Records released on TheGenealogist
The operations records books from TNA series AIR 27 are for various Royal Air Force, Dominion and Allied Air Force squadrons that came under British Command. A few early squadron records are from 1911 to 1918.
The records provide summaries of events and can reveal the death of aviators, crashes, as well as less traumatic details such as weather and places patrolled by the planes and where the squadrons were based as the war wore on. As aircrew personnel are named in these reports, those wanting to follow where an ancestor had been posted to and what may have happened to them will find these records extremely informative.
Read an article about this collection at https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2020/raf-operations-books-build-a-picture-of-wwii-aircrew-ancestors-action-1231/
COMMENT: I have previously used this collection at Kew to research my uncle who was killed in a flying boat accident near Oban and found information about his wartime service.
06 February 2020
UNFORGOTTEN TV Series
I was contacted by Blink Films, a UK media company preparing a series for BBC-TV. They are interested in wartime evacuees to Canada. The poster below has print is too small to be readable, so find that text alongside.
Did your evacuation separate you forever from a childhood friend or loved one?
Would you like to reunite with your host family or thank a teacher or special friend who supported you?
Are you looking for someone from This period who had a significant impact on your life?
Unforgotten is a new history format made by Blink Films for the BBC, focusing on the personal stories of ordinary people who were caught up in extraordinary events - and their quest to find the individual who helped them through.
Each episode follows individuals who each experienced a major event in living memory - for example, a natural disaster, riot, strike, war, wave of migration, health crisis or terror attack. We follow these individuals on a detective journey as they look for a long-lost friend, family member or significant stranger who helped them through this time or had a lasting impact on their life.
To find out more about the documentary series or to apply, please get in touch.
EMAIL: unforgotten@blinkfilmsuk.com or CALL: 0203 150 0777 and ask for the Unforgotten team
We look forward to hearing from you
Do genetic ancestry tests increase racism?
The abstract is copied below but the bottom line, my interpretation, is that people who understand genetics become less racist when they get their own results, and vice versa.
Abstract
Genetic ancestry testing is a billion-dollar industry, with more than 26 million tests sold by 2018, which raises concerns over how it might influence test-takers’ understandings of race. While social scientists argue that genetic ancestry tests may promote an essentialist view of race as fixed and determining innate abilities, others suggest it could reduce essentialist views by reinforcing a view of race as socially constructed. Essentialist views are a concern because of their association with racism, particularly in its most extreme forms. Here we report the first randomized controlled trial of genetic ancestry testing conducted to examine potential causal relationships between taking the tests and essentialist views of race. Native-born White Americans were randomly assigned to receive Admixture and mtDNA tests or no tests. While we find no significant average effect of genetic ancestry testing on essentialism, secondary analyses reveal that the impact of these tests on racial essentialism varies by type of genetic knowledge. Within the treatment arm, essentialist beliefs significantly declined after testing among individuals with high genetic knowledge, but increased among those with the least genetic knowledge. Additional secondary analysis show that essentialist beliefs do not change based on the specific ancestries reported in test-takers’ results. These results indicate that individuals’ interpretations of genetic ancestry testing results, and the links between genes and race, may depend on their understanding of genetics.
BIFHSGO February Monthly Meeting
At 9 am
The British Colonial America Special Interest Group (Before BIFHSGO Education Talk)
Presented by Marianne Rasmus and Susan Davis
What's BIFHSGO's newest special interest group all about? Yankee roots?
At 9:30 am
Break
At 10 am
Captain Power MBE, Halifax Harbour Pilot 1906-1954
Presented by Cathy Enright
Captain Nicholas Lamont “Mont” Power MBE, his family and their Irish heritage can be traced back to Michael Power (1806-1870) and a small town near Waterford Ireland, called Thomaston. Today 4th, 5th and 6th level direct descendants of Michael Power live in Canada, the majority in and about Halifax. Share with his granddaughter how Captain Power MBE spent his life navigating Halifax harbour as a harbour pilot. Experience fifty years of Canada’s history as seen through his daily captain’s logbook – over 200 pages handwritten from 1906 to 1956 – on how it all played out in Halifax, around and on the harbour. He recorded his observations about two world wars, the Explosion, Pier 21 immigration, the King’s visit and many family and political events. He was one of the pioneers of harbour safety standards that serve today’s mariners and the sea-faring public.
05 February 2020
Ancestry's Path Forward
 |
| Counts of key words in "Our Path Forward" |
The main points:
Over 16 million people have DNA tested with Ancestry.
A slowdown in consumer demand across the entire DNA category over the last 18 months.
Difficult decisions (will) impact 6 percent of the workforce.
Focus and investment on core Family History business and the long-term opportunity with AncestryHealth™.
Comment: Taken together with the layoffs at 23andMe it's evident the heyday of growth of DNA testing is at an end. Ancestry is betting on the continuing revenue from core family history clients and potential in health and wellness service.
My LivingDNA Update
According to the LivingDNA documentation "Typically, recent ancestry results can trace back approximately 10 generations in your family lineage." Most of us don't know our origins back that far across our total ancestry so it could be that our expectations from what we know of more recent generations are misleading.
The table below compares my old and new results and the difference. My conclusions are:
1. My new results show a 10.7% decrease in European ancestry. This is likely owing to the new results attributing 12.2% to Levant. Add that to the 13% now attributed to South Germanic and it sums to the amount I'd expect as I had one Jewish grandparent.
2. A 52.8% decrease in Britain and Ireland is likely mainly due to the reassignment of 38.1% from Southeast England to 45.3% newly attributed to France.
3. The small amounts previously attributed to Europe (South), Europe (East) and Asia (South) no longer appear.
4. The new results are counterintuitive to my expectations from known family history, especially the decreased amounts for South Wales Border and Northwest England.
5. I'm doubtful about the validity of British Isles results for amounts less than 10%.
| Old | New | Difference | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Europe | 98.5% | 87.8% | -10.7% |
| Great Britain and Ireland | 84.2% | 31.4% | -52.8% |
| South Wales Border | 20.8% | 2.8% | -18.0% |
| Northwest England | 10.6% | 2.6% | -8.0% |
| South Central England | 9.9% | 3.4% | -6.5% |
| North Yorkshire | 4.1% | 4.1% | |
| South Yorkshire | 7.9% | 4.1% | -3.8% |
| Ireland | 7.4% | 6.4% | -1.0% |
| Northwest Scotland | 5.5% | -5.5% | |
| Devon | 5.3% | -5.3% | |
| Southeast England | 40.0% | 1.9% | -38.1% |
| East Anglia | 1.8% | 1.8% | |
| Lincolnshire | 3.3% | -3.3% | |
| Cumbria | 2.8% | -2.8% | |
| Central England | 2.6% | 1.6% | -1.0% |
| Cornwall | 2.3% | -2.3% | |
| South Wales | 1.6% | 1.4% | -0.2% |
| South England | 1.1% | 1.1% | |
| Europe (North and West) | 8.7% | 56.3% | 47.6% |
| Scandinavia | 8.7% | -8.7% | |
| France | 0.0% | 43.5% | 43.5% |
| South Germanic | 0.0% | 13.0% | 13.0% |
| Europe (South) | 4.3% | -4.3% | |
| Tuscany | 1.8% | -1.8% | |
| Iberian Peninsula | 1.3% | -1.3% | |
| Aegean | 1.2% | -1.2% | |
| Europe (East) | 1.4% | -1.4% | |
| East Balkans | 1.4% | -1.4% | |
| Near East | 12.2% | 12.2% | |
| Levant | 12.1% | 12.1% | |
| Asia (South) | 1.4% | -1.4% | |
| Pashtun | 1.4% | -1.4% |
If you've taken a LivingDNA test and received new results please share a summary in the comments.
Genealogy Books on Order by the Ottawa Public Library
Here are the genealogy books on order people are lining up to borrow from the Ottawa Public Library
Genealogy for Beginners
by Pennavaria, Katherine
Holds: 20 on 1 copy
Tracing Your Scottish Ancestors
by Clarke, Tristram
Holds: 27 on 1 copy
How to Trace Your Irish Ancestors: An Essential Guide to Researching and Documenting the Family Histories of Ireland's People
by Maxwell, Ian
Holds: 17 on 1 copy
Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and States Records: A Guide for Family Historians
by Paton, Chris
Holds: 19 on 1 copy
The Family Tree Scandinavian Genealogy Guide: How to Trace Your Ancestors in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark
by Fryxell, David A.
Holds: 12 on 1 copy
Unofficial Guide to FamilySearch. Org: How to Find Your Family History on the World's Largest Free Genealogy Website
by McCullough, Dana
Holds: 27 on 1 copy
Tracing Your European Ancestors
by Goucher, Julie
Holds: 27 on 1 copy
04 February 2020
Immigration Anomolies
This graph shows the way immigration sunk to extremely low values during the 1930s and the first half of the 1940s, rebounding throughout the 1950s.
Through most of the period adult male and female immigration changed together.
One exception is for the period just after the war, accounted for by war brides, especially in 1946.
The other is the 1950s when adult male immigration was way above that for adult females. What caused that?
Scottish Interest? Subscribe to Chris Paton's Revived Scottish GENES Blog
Chris is an Irish genealogist who made his home in Scotland. He's been a popular speaker at BIFHSGO, on cruises and elsewhere — we both spoke at an event in Portugal. He's also a prolific author, his most recent books being Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry through Church and State Records and Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet.
Chris tells me Scottish GENES, and at its new dedicated address, https://scottishgenes.blogspot.com will continue to cover news beyond Scotland and Ireland although I'm expecting that, with his close contacts there will be an emphasis reflecting the blog title.
Subscribe by email to Scottish GENES using the link at the top right of the page at https://scottishgenes.blogspot.com/.
03 February 2020
OGS Toronto: House of Industry
Good work by OGS Toronto Branch. Minute books and case recommendations of Toronto’s House of Industry from 1855 to 1882 are being transcribed, about 1000 case entries each year.
The House of Industry provided permanent and temporary lodging as well as food and fuel to the needy in the community, families made vulnerable by illness or injury, an absent parent or spouse, addiction, or simply temporary bad luck. They were often required to do chores in return for help. It assisted abandoned or orphaned children, often placing them as indentured servants in homes and farms in and around Toronto. See this Wikipedia entry.
There is access to these volumes at The Internet Archive:
Minute Book 1855–1859
Minute Book 1860–1862
Minute Book 1863–1866
Each completed volume has high-resolution digital images, a searchable PDF of the transcriptions and supporting notes, and a plain text file of the transcribed content. However, when you follow the link above you will see an annoyingly low-resolution copy. Scroll down several hundred pages to see options for downloading various full-text searchable formats.
A fourth volume, covering 1867–1870, will be published to The Internet Archive in the first quarter of 2020.
via a tweet by Jane MacNamara.
The Welsh in Canada
John Cabot’s ship the Mathew may have had a Welsh master, Edmund Griffiths, in 1497.
Two great Canadian explorers, Thomas Button and David Thompson, certainly had Welsh antecedents.
The Welsh provided explorers, sailors, miners, farmers, musicians, preachers, trade union leaders— and even the occasional rogue.
Those are the concluding words in an article The Welsh in Canada by Muriel E. Chamberlain published in 1998 in volume 19 of The Welsh Historical Review starting on page 265.
Another article in that volume is Falling on Deaf Ears? Canadian Promotion and Welsh Immigration to the Prairies by Wayne K. D. Davies which starts on page 679.
Volume 20 has an article Send a thousand Welsh farm labourers to Canada! by Wayne K. D. Davies which starts on page 466.
Twenty volumes of the publication, starting in 1960, are freely available online from the National Library of Wales here.
02 February 2020
How deadly is 2019-nCoV?: a century long perspective
A century ago, February 1920, saw the fourth and final wave of the influenza pandemic best known for the second wave in the fall of 1918.
The bar chart shows the peak in deaths that occurred in February 1920 in both the deaths in Canada in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission database and in Ontario Civil Registration database available on Ancestry.ca. The figures are normalized to account for the number of days in the month and the total number of deaths in each database for the two-year period.
There are 20 deaths in Ottawa's Beechwood Cemetery burial register for February 1920 where the cause of death is influenza, that's not including those attributed solely to pneumonia. Will the total number of deaths from 2019-nCoV reach that many in Canada?
Sunday Sundries
Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.
Behind The Headlines of History
New episodes of this podcast with Ancestry’s Brad Argent and genealogist Michala Hulme from Manchester Metropolitan University are posted weekly. They explore the hidden histories behind intriguing newspaper stories from the past, the latest being WWII Special – First Civilian Casualty and ‘Mend and Make Do’ in the Air.
New Brunswick Births for 1924
In the past week, the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick added 11,017 birth records for 1924 quickly followed by 497 late registration of birth records for the same year.
Find a Grave Updates
Ancestry updated their version of the Find A Grave databases: U.S. (148,768,351), Global (13,393,910), UK and Ireland (6,687,310), Canada (6,103,062), Australia and New Zealand (5,442,567), Germany, (688,049), Norway (158,176), Italy (148,121), Sweden (41,561), Mexico (27,588).
The Ordnance Survey’s 1:500 Town Plans for Scotland
Hugely detailed town plans digitized and online from the National Library of Scotland. England and Wales are in the works.
George III's Collection of Military Maps
From History Extra
Heat Pump Proves to Be Economical Climate Remedy, Even in Ottawa
The treeness of the tree of historical trees of life
I do sometimes wonder about things people research!
50 Cognitive Biases in the Modern World
Thanks to this week's contributors
Anderley, Ann Burns, Barbara, BT, Celia Lewis, Claudia, judylynne, Nancy Frey, Nancy in Kingston
01 February 2020
Recognize the last name? — CWGC Beechwood Cemetery Burials: Richard Alexis Helmer
In summarizing his career the Ottawa Citizen wrote:
The late Brigadier-General Robert Alexis Helmer,, C.M.G., of the Canadian army, was a son of the late Nathaniel Helmer and Melissa Johnson Helmer, and was born in Russell, Ont., on October 12th, 1864. He was educated in the Ottawa public schools and the Ottawa Collegiate Institute. He married Miss Elizabeth J. Hannum, of Hull, P.Q.
The late General Helmer was a graduated chemist of Ontario (1885) and Quebec (1886) and successfully practiced his profession in Hull, P. Q. until 1904, when he retired.
The late General Helmer was a long time in the Militia Service of Canada. He entered the 43rd D. C. O. R. regiment as a private In 1888 and successively progressed, lieutenant, 1891; captain, 1896; major, 1899; lieutenant-colonel, 1910. He was appointed deputy adjutant-general for musketry. Headquarters staff, assistant adjutant-general for musketry, 1910; and since he has been the director of musketry. Somewhat over a year ago, he was created a brigadier-general. Since 1907 he has been commandant of the Canadian school of musketry.
General Helmer held a long service decoration and was an expert rifle shot. He was adjutant of tho Canadian Bisley team in 1899 and also of the Canadian Palma trophy team in 1901, 1902 and 1908.
He was made an alderman of the city of Hull for ten years and was mayor of Hull In 1890, and also in 1900.
In religion, he was a Methodist. He has resided at 122 Gilmour Street, Ottawa, for many years.
If the name is familiar it's because he was the father of Lieutenant Alexis Hannum Helmer, killed in action on 2 May 1915. Alexis' funeral was conducted by Lieutenant Colonel Dr. John McCrae who had been one of Alexis' instructors at McGill University in Montreal. It inspired the poem "In Flanders Fields".
Internet Genealogy: Feb-Mar 2020
Diane L. Richard looks at resources for North Carolina Masons
Obituaries in Family History Research
Joe Grandinetti offers online sources to help in searching for the deaths of your ancestors. Did you check out legacy.com for recent death announcements?
Our Ancestors' Agricultural Fairs
Sue Lisk looks at online sources for information on the agricultural fairs visited in bygone days.
The Days of Their Lives
Robbie Gorr examines sources for those important dates in the lives of our ancestors. A fun article that suggests simple ways to enhance a family history.
The Simple Grace of Everyday Objects
Sue Lisk suggests websites to help identify objects that played important roles in the lives of our families in years gone by. Following these risks leading you down a time-consuming rabbit hole.
REVIEW: A Street Near You
Tony Bandy looks at a new resource for researching World War I ancestors. A thorough review. Beware of bad information in the original record as I showed in this post last November.
Online European Archives for Family History Research
David A. Norris samples some of the many free, online resources available from European digital
collections. Another rabbit hole!
REVIEW: Writing Your Family Memoir with StoryTerrace
Tony Bandy looks at the StoryTerrace and their approach to capturing family history memories and producing a bespoke book. Two thousand dollars and up.
Don't Forget the Official Records in Your Search
Lynn Cassity looks at a collection that is a must for anyone researching the Union and Confederate Armies.
Net Notes
Internet Genealogy looks at websites and related news that are sure to be of interest.
Back Page
Dave Obee expresses his frustration with some family history terminology.
31 January 2020
Findmypast adds to Durham BMB Records and Royal and Imperial Calendars 1767-1973
| Place | Year from | Year to | Record count | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Auckland | 1650 | 1878 | 7,602 | Marriages |
| Auckland St Helen | 1593 | 1869 | 7,012 | Baptisms |
| Bishopwearmouth, St. Michael & All Angels | 1607 | 1859 | 38,101 | Burials |
| Crook | 1843 | 1914 | 2,233 | Baptisms |
| Crook | 1845 | 1914 | 684 | Marriages |
| Esh, St Michael & All Angels | 1801 | 1842 | 232 | Burials |
| Fatfield | 1879 | 1970 | 1,794 | Burials |
| Gateshead | 1583 | 1889 | 23,713 | Baptisms |
| Gateshead | 1558 | 1899 | 35,191 | Marriages |
| Great Stainton | 1561 | 1812 | 910 | Baptisms |
| Great Stainton | 1561 | 1837 | 542 | Marriages |
| Greatham | 1564 | 1862 | 2,034 | Marriages |
| Houghton Le Spring, St. Michael & All Angels | 1657 | 1924 | 26,429 | Burials |
| Medomsley | 1608 | 1846 | 3,088 | Baptisms |
| Medomsley | 1608 | 1841 | 2,328 | Marriages |
| Monkwearmouth | 1768 | 1902 | 35,782 | Baptisms |
| Monkwearmouth | 1583 | 1901 | 23,472 | Marriages |
| Monkwearmouth, St. Peter | 1683 | 1891 | 16,715 | Burials |
| Newbottle | 1851 | 1945 | 6,374 | Burials |
| Ryhope, St Paul | 1829 | 1937 | 4,693 | Burials |
| Ryton | 1650 | 1890 | 29,324 | Baptisms |
| Ryton | 1581 | 1910 | 19,174 | Marriages |
| South Shields, Holy Trinity | 1834 | 1917 | 5,262 | Burials |
| South Shields, St Simon | 1880 | 1993 | 2,856 | Burials |
| Southwick, Holy Trinity | 1845 | 1988 | 2,617 | Burials |
| Stanhope | 1609 | 1900 | 18,659 | Baptisms |
| Stanhope | 1613 | 1901 | 15,203 | Marriages |
| Washington, Holy Trinity | 1604 | 1900 | 8,322 | Burials |
Britain, Royal and Imperial Calendars 1767-1973
This expansive collection of more than three million records from The National Archives includes lists of all the official departments of state, and branches of public service, the law, the church, national or commercial companies and institutions, and many additional articles of public utility.
Staff may be searched for by first and last names, and year.
Each record includes a link to a transcript and original image. Transcripts typically show first name(s) or initials, last name, year and source information. Images might add the department or organization and a page number. You can browse forward and back page by page.
The collection does not include a browse capability, except page by page. However, once in a volume you can edit the last four digits in the web address to find a huge variety of information.
What might you find?
Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington was also Knight of the Elephant of Denmark.
On 26 December 1833, there was an eclipse of the moon visible at Greenwich with totality between 8:43pm and 10:21pm.
In the same year, there were duties payable on male but not female servants; the duties were greater if the employer was a bachelor.
Would you binge watch genealogy?
You'll need time to rest up so this is advance notice.
The marathon will begin on Thursday, 12 March at 5 P.M. ET through to Friday, 13 March, at 5 P.M.
Each lecture will be 45 minutes long, including 10 minutes for questions at the end. Here's the schedule with my top three picks highlighted:
| Title | Speaker | ET |
|---|---|---|
| How Do I Know It's Correct: Evidence and Proof | Rebecca Koford, CG, CGL | Thu Mar 12, 5pm |
| Not Who He Once Was: Tips for Finding Your Name-Changing Ancestor | Mary Kircher Roddy, CG | 6:00 PM |
| A Vast and Virtual Genealogical Library is Waiting for Your Exploration | Mike Mansfield | 7:00 PM |
| How DNA Influences Our Identity | Diahan Southard | 8:00 PM |
| Searching By Name: Swedish Records Using ArkivDigital | Kathy Meade | 9:00 PM |
| Advanced Googling for Your Grandma | Cyndi Ingle | 10:00 PM |
| Can a Dead Man Sign a Deed? | Kelvin L. Meyers | 11:00 PM |
| Civil Registration in Australia | Helen V. Smith | Fri Mar 13, 12am |
| Four Sources for New Zealand Family History | Fiona Brooker | 1:00 AM |
| Documents of Death | Helen V. Smith | 2:00 AM |
| MyHeritage DNA 101 | Ran Snir | 3:00 AM |
| Emigration via Hamburg | Andrea Bentschneider | 4:00 AM |
| Thankful Villages: the Impact of World War One on Communities | Kirsty Gray | 5:00 AM |
| Empower yourself with the MyHeritage DNA Health test | Shahar Bitton | 6:00 AM |
| How to Use Dutch Parish Records from the 17th and 18th Century | John Boeren | 7:00 AM |
| Researching a Hessian Soldier | Craig R. Scott, MA, CG | 8:00 AM |
| Researching Scandinavian Ancestors? It's Amazing What You Can Learn | Mike Mansfield | 9:00 AM |
| Black, Yellow, Red: Find Your Belgian Ancestors! | Marie Cappart | 10:00 AM |
| The Third Coast: How the Great Lakes Shaped America | Cari Taplin, CG | 11:00 AM |
| Digital Image Workflows That Really Work | Denise May Levenick | 12:00 PM |
| The Coded Census: Deciphering U.S. Census | Thomas MacEntee | 1:00 PM |
| Advanced Features of MyHeritage.com | Daniel Horowitz | 2:00 PM |
| The Science of Family History | Devin Ashby | 3:00 PM |
| My Ancestors Were Normans - Oh Really? Prove It! | Dr. Bruce Durie | 4:00 PM |
Tune in and out when you want, view recordings that will be available free for a week, or watch them anytime with a webinar membership to FamilyTreeWebinars.com.
British Newspaper Archives additions for January
The 8 newspapers with more than 10,000 pages added during the month are:
| TITLE | PAGES | YEARS |
|---|---|---|
| Times of India | 42030 | 1861-1865, 1867-1888 |
| Caernarvon & Denbigh Herald | 12588 | 1850-1872, 1874-1877, 1897 |
| Richmond & Ripon Chronicle | 12180 | 1855, 1860-1864, 1866-1876, 1878-1888, 1890-1894 |
| Halifax Evening Courier | 28342 | 1899, 1901-1909, 1911-1913, 1915-1921 |
| Brecon County Times | 27394 | 1866-1870, 1872-1896, 1899-1933 |
| Huddersfield Daily Chronicle | 34002 | 1873-1874, 1876-1882, 1884-1888, 1890-1896, 1899-1900 |
| Kilkenny Moderator | 10800 | 1825, 1903, 1905-1906, 1908-1924 |
| Truth | 48432 | 1903, 1928-1937, 1944-1957 |
30 January 2020
Captured in German Occupied Territory
John Archombault. Date of Birth: 3 October 1907.
[William Francis] Hull. Date of Birth: [unspecified].
Stuart [A] Kettles. Date of Birth: 01/09/1919.
Jean Gerstil. Date of Birth: 2 September 1914.
James Douglas Appleyard. Date of Birth: 7 February 1913.
Name: Jean Lastel ? Date of Birth: 02/09/1914.
Ralph Reynolds Henderson. Date of Birth: 24/7/1914.
Marian Kotlarz. Date of Birth: 14/07/1919.
Eric John Durnford. Date of Birth: 20/12/1916.
Douglas Michael [J] Labelle. Date of Birth: 09/07/1919.
Howard Henry Lee. Date of Birth: 06/12/1916.
Rene Goenette. Date of Birth: 16/10/1915.
They were also all born in Ottawa.
They are identified in a project to catalogue The (UK) National Archives WO 416 series of individuals captured in German-occupied territory. So far catalogued are more than 110,000 of an estimated 200,000 records relating to individuals.
Read about the project in Roger Kershaw's blog post War behind the wire: The story of allied civilians in occupied Europe during the Second World War.
To date records for 572 individuals are identified in a search for Canada, 1,941 in a search for Canadian at https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C14541141.
The records have not been digitised and cannot be downloaded. You can order records in advance to be ready for you when you visit Kew. Or, you can request a quotation for a copy to be sent to you.
I found the stories of some of these men simply by Googling.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
