RootsTech 2012: call for presentation proposals

The call for presentation proposals is open for the second Rootstech conference, to be held February 2-4, 2012 in Salt Lake City.

Although presentations on a wide variety of technology-related topics will be considered areas of particular interest listed by the organizers are:

• GPS and geo-mapping
• Mobile devices
• Social applications
• Imaging and visualization
• Gamification
• Cloud-based solutions

I was surprised to see no mention of DNA.

Submissions are due by June 30, 2011. Read the details at http://goo.gl/YxEHE

TNA podcast: 'Revolting to humanity': histories of mental health

Sarah Hutton, TNA's Modern Domestic Records Specialist, looks at records relating to mental health for the 19th and early 20th century.


"The 19th century ushered in a new way of seeing mental health. For the first time, 'madness' was not a condition understood as an extension of the criminal or poor classes, but as a unique social group in its own right. Central government undertook the beginnings of a structured response to the way in which those suffering from mental health problems were dealt with. By examining the development of this response, it is possible to reveal snapshots of the lives touched by mental illness during this century and the beginning of the century to follow."


One comes away with the impression that there are lots of records relating to the individual at TNA, but extreme difficulty in finding them.


Listen to this short podcast from http://goo.gl/F1EH8

Ancestry adds 1911 census images for England, Wales, Channel Islands and Isle of Man

Images, without name indexes, of some 1911 UK census records are now available at Ancestry. For the time being, the records are available as images only. They can be browsed by county, civil parish, sub-registration district, and enumeration district.

1911 Channel Islands Census

1911 Isle of Man Census

1911 England Census

1911 Wales Census

You can narrow down the number of images to sort through by searching the 1911 England & Wales Census Summary Books for the head of household to identify the district and sub-district for the family, but will then have to search manually through possibly several hundred households to find yours.

Family Chronicle now on iTunes

The following is an announcement for Moorshead Magazines

The iTunes Store now has Family Chronicle for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad! The app is $1.99 (and you get one FREE issue of your choice!) You can purchase the current issue (May/June) and the previous six issues will be available by the end of next week.

Visit http://appshopper.com/news/family-chronicle for details.

Internet Genealogy will be coming in weeks.

Hot technology, in 1851

In 1851 the Great Exhibition, or more properly the "Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations" was held at the Crystal Place in London.

The exhibits were judged in categories Raw Materials, Machinery, Manufactures, and Fine Arts, with these sub-divided into 30 classes, from Class I, Mining, Quarrying, Metallurgical Operations, and Mineral Products, to Class XXX, Sculpture, models and plastic art.

The Report by the Juries includes an evaluation of the state of the art, many with extended essays about various technologies. On photography the jury write:

"That Photography will have a great tendency to depress mediocrity, we may safely predict; that, from the date of the general application of Photography to the illustration of scenes daily passing around us, will commence a new era in pictorial representation; that it will greatly enrich us with authentic records of works, that would otherwise pass away without a single detaining effort from the hand of the artist, owing to their being of too transient a nature to admit of the accuracy and detail necessary to give it value in future ages;—is attested by the various and excellent representations which we now possess ..."

A full copy of the Report by the Juries, which may be of interest if your ancestor was involved in one of the areas discussed, is at http://goo.gl/JKzru

The National Heritage List for England

English Heritage has launched The National Heritage List for England, "a significant milestone towards achieving better understanding and protection for heritage in this country by opening up information which until now has not been easily accessible to the public."

The list includes: Listed Buildings; Scheduled Monuments; Protected Wreck Sites; Registered Parks and Gardens; Registered Battlefields.

Start your search at http://list.english-heritage.org.uk/

via Infodocket

Transcription/indexing survey results

56 people responded to the survey posted here a week ago. Thank you. The complete results tabulation is below.

Three quarters of respondents saw transcription/indexing favourably and many were open to doing so for commercial or non-profit organizations. A majority wanted to receive some individual recognition or compensation for their work, especially if it is used by a commercial organization.

10 people left comments. A couple felt the questions using the word affect were ambiguous as the tendency could be positive or negative.

Evaluating 23andMe's DNA tests

DNA diviners: Valuable service or dangerous novelty? is an article by Joseph Hall published on May 20, 2011 at healthzone.ca.

Because the article is published on a health focused site health is the focus of the article. As with much journalism it looks for controversy and sets it up with quotes like "When you first see your data it says you’re at elevated risk. . . it’s in red and you’re automatically freaked out," by Dennis McCormac, a molecular biologist with the Ontario Genomics Institute. On the other side Shirley Wu, 23andMe’s science content manager claims "there’s no evidence that people are panicking over their results or being unduly traumatized."

The comment quoted I found most puzzling was attributed to Kerry Bowman, a medical ethicist at the University of Toronto, "people who receive elevated risk information have no way to respond, other than to follow healthy lifestyles and seek recommended medical screening." It seems to me that's a highly appropriate response.

Information in the article I'd not seen elsewhere is that 23andMe has 75,000 clients, about half of whom are most interest in the data for its genealogical value. The author appeared satisfied with the genealogically-relevant data supplied by the company.

UPDATE
Another Canadian review of a 23andMe test was just posted here. 

40,000 more Scottish burial records at Deceased Online

The following information is from www.deceasedonline.com.

Nearly 19,000 records commencing 1869 for Constitution Hill Cemetery in Peterhead, Aberdeenshire are immediately available on www.deceasedonline.com. The records include digital scans of mortality registers which are rich in detail and include full names, designations of heads of families, occupations, causes of death, places of death, addresses, ages and grave references.

Over 16,000 records, dating back to 1615, for a second Peterhead cemetery, St Peter’s Churchyard, are currently being worked on and will be completed and uploaded onto Deceased Online shortly.

The database for the City of Aberdeen has also been increased with the addition of nearly 4,500 records for the small John Knox graveyard. The records are for the period 1838 to 1894 and have been transcribed from Doric language grave diggers’ registers and include various spelling inconsistencies.

The Board for Certification of Genealogists 2011 Application Guide now free online

The US-based Board for Certification of Genealogists operates a widely recognized certification process for professional genealogists. The vast majority of those certified are US-based, only eight are listed in Canada, one in the UK.

BCG tests applicants skills in: 

 understanding research sources and methods 

 planning, executing, and reporting the results of research 

 citing sources 

 evaluating evidence 

 proving kinship 

 resolving genealogical problems

Find the new 2011 edition of the BCG Application Guide which gives information on the process to become certified and an outline of the skills that need to be demonstrated at http://bcgcertification.org/brochures/BCGAppGuide2011.pdf

Stirrings at LAC

Nothing stirs within the Public Service, with an embargo declared on announcements, during a General Election. That season of winter-like dormancy has come to an end. James Moore has been reappointed as Minister of Canadian Heritage.

Just as bulbs springing to life herald Spring there are sign of new life at LAC.

First, crocuses, together with the National Capital Commission, LAC on Thursday announced Portraits in the Street: Political Culture installation in the heart of Canada's Capital. This outdoor installation, in Ottawa's Lowertown, offers "an opportunity to explore the connections between the nation's politics and its artists, performers and writers." View the press release at http://goo.gl/0eV2N

Second, daffodils, a Maps, Charts and Architectural Plans finding guide.

Third, tulips, Archives Image Search is introduced as a prototype tool that allows searching for digital images of archival material in the holdings of Library and Archives Canada (LAC). A thumbnail for each search result helps you identify records of interest quickly and efficiently. Images refers to all digital copies of documents, such as photographs, works of art, maps, textual material, stamps, etc. This prototype only searches the following fields: Name, Document Title and Location. Future iterations will search more fields and more collections.

With the new season and these signs of life, can we look forward to blooms in profusion from LAC? Remember the online resources promised for this year as recently as December 7?

"Over the next year, LAC will double the volume of its on-line content, mounting millions of genealogy images on its website in partnership with Ancestry.ca. For example, by 2011, Canadians will be able to access digitized images of original census documents from 1861 and 1871"

"By 2011, Canadians will be able to access the entire contents of the National Union Catalogue, representing more than 30 million entries, using popular on-line search engines."

Or perhaps you remember the promise, blogged here on 22 January, about the WW1 service file I had digitized using LAC's digitization on demand service, and the information that:

"there are no impediments to the file ordered being linked, that will happen with all full CEF files requested, and these constitute about a third of all digitization requests. The time frame to get the process in operation will be weeks to a few months." 

Weeks have come and gone, now four months later, the item has not been linked.

I'm looking forward to smelling the roses!

St. Gwynog-Llanwnog, St. Nicholas-Montgomery parish records on Find My Past

24,852 new Montgomeryshire parish baptism, marriage and burial records for St. Gwynog, Llanwnog and St. Nicholas, Montgomery are now available on findmypast.co.uk.

There are: 11,938 baptisms for 1574-1880; 4,238 marriages for 1575-1837 and 8,676 burials for 1575-1882,

Google Ending Their Newspaper Digitization Project

The following is from Infodocket which quotes a source in Search Engine Land

"Google’s goal to digitize all of the world’s newspapers is ending.

Matt McGee from SEL reports that after approximately 32 months after formally being announced,Google is closing it’s newspaper digitization program.

Search Engine Land also received this statement from Google:

We work closely with newspaper partners on a number of initiatives, and as part of the Google News Archives digitization program we collaborated to make older newspapers accessible and searchable online. These have included publications like the London Advertiser in 1895, L’Ami du Lecteur at the turn of the century, and theMilwaukee Sentinel from 1910 to 1995.

Users can continue to search digitized newspapers athttp://news.google.com/archivesearch, but we don’t plan to introduce any further features or functionality to the Google News Archives and we are no longer accepting new microfilm or digital files for processing.

According to McGee, about 2000 newspapers are currently listed in the newspaper directory."

Comment:  It was good while it lasted. Canadians have been particularly fortunate to have Canadian newspapers digitized by Google, especially multi-decadal collections from the Montreal Gazette and Ottawa Citizen.

Now that Google have exited the field, what next?  Whereas national libraries, sometimes with partners, in the UK, US, Australia and New Zealand have moved ahead with newspaper digitization Library and Archives have made efforts that can only be described as half-hearted.

Where's the leadership?

Trades Union records in Britain for the genealogist

The most recent Toronto Family History Centre Bulletin has an item on trades union resources at the University of Warwick, Modern Records Centre, including a collection of UK trade union, employers' and trade association archives. They have genealogical guides for: Blacksmiths, Forge & Smithy Workers; Boilermakers; Bookbinders; Bricklayers; Brushmakers; Bus & Cab Workers; Carpenters; Carvers;  Compositors; Decorators; Gilders; Ironfounders; Joiners;  Lithographic Workers; Miners; Painters; Papermakers; Picture-frame Makers; Plasterers; Printing Workers; Quarrymen; Railwaymen; Seamen; Shipwrights & Shipbuilders; Steam Engine Makers; Stonemasons; Telegraphists; Tramway Workers; Typefounders; Woodworkers.

There is also a 20,000 entry index to obituaries for Stonemasons and Quarrymen from all over England, and some further afield, at http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/library/mrc/subject_guides/family_history/stone/ with nearly .

FreeBMD May update

The FreeBMD Database was last updated on Friday 20 May 2011 and currently contains 201,359,803 distinct records (256,030,829 total records).

In this update a large number of births have been added (including mine) for 1933, 1942, 1945-1946, 1948-1949, 1951- 1953,1955.1957. For marriages the major additions are 1940-1941, 1950, 1952-1953, 1955 and 1957. For deaths 1946 and 1951-1953, 1955 and 1958.

 

Findmypast.co.uk delivers on England and Wales GRO death index

Findmypast.co.uk have now caught up with the competition with individual name England and Wales civil registration death indexes.  You no longer have to search through pages of results to see if your ancestors appeared on each page.

Better yet, you can perform an integrated search with other British death records:

England & Wales deaths 1837-2006
British nationals died overseas 1818-2005
British nationals armed forces deaths 1796-2005
British nationals died at sea 1854-1890

St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Ottawa - Baptism, Marriage and Death Records 1829-1949

St. Andrew’s, the oldest Protestant church in Ottawa, now has a publication containing its BMB records. The book is unusual. It contains transcriptions of the records by Donald A. Mackenzie and some magnificent photographs by Brian Glenn of stained glass in the church, as well as supplemental information.

It's available as a coffee table book, and dedicated to the opening of the building housing the new Ottawa City Central Archives as well as the Ottawa Public Library Materials Distribution Centre.

The book is produced by BIFHSGO and published by  Global Heritage Press.

If you're only interested in the data, and a reduced price, it's also available on CD. Find full details on this 300 page publication, and order online at http://goo.gl/XX7aZ

Ottawa Family History Centre Event

Friday evening, 20 May, starting at 6pm, the Ottawa Stake Family History Centre is hosting a series of presentations with well known local speakers. Read all about it at http://www.ottawastakefhc.on.ca/vftd.html

Following genealogy conferences from a distance

I've followed the two big genealogy conferences which ended last weekend from a distance.

In Hamilton the Ontario Genealogical Society 50th anniversary conference was held from Friday to Sunday with about 450-500 registered. Despite marking a milestone for the Society judging by Twitter and blog coverage it was low key.

Blog postings about conference presentations were lacking. Elizabeth Kipp posted about her experience running the GOONS display, and mentioned that "the conference was very well organized and moved along without a hitch."

Tweets from TOFamilyHistory mentioned events imminent at the conference, and one other who commented on "neet sessions on East European Genealogy."

Feedback afterwards was that there were some good sessions. It probably suffered from competition from NGS which drew away some regular participants.

In the USA the National Genealogical Society held its annual conference from Wednesday to Saturday in Charleston, South Carolina with 1900-2000 registered (Dick Eastman's estimate.) There was much more coverage on Twitter and by blog.

The tweets were about sessions people were going to. There was little tweeting of nuggets of information from the sessions compared to the Rootstech event earlier in the year. NGS did not have WiFi or good cellphone coverage which seems like a sad state of affairs reflecting badly on the venue. Even tweeters at the conference commented on the lack of tweets.

Blogging could have been curtailed for the same reason, and also by a nearly one day outage at the Blogger host site from noon on Thursday. Randy Seaver has compiled a list of conference blog posts at http://goo.gl/ylJEI

One person, at http://bit.ly/iBh4hQ, wrote ",,, the speakers were knowledgeable and accessible first of all, and they talked about topics of interest to me and they highlighted topics that I had not encountered before or often wondered about. Their case studies also offered more practical “hands on” experience for me to hone my skills with and to see how I matched up with the folks around me. The exhibit hall booth vendors were likewise friendly and helpful ...:

While the US genealogy stars were out for NGS, John Colletta, Tom Jones, Helen Leary, and Elizabeth Shown Mills (in alphabetical order) were all on the program, their light is less illuminating for Canadian and British genealogy.

DNA successes story

In a survey being conducted by the Southern California Genealogical Society 20% of folks, up to the time I responded, agreed with the statement "I have (DNA) results and they helped me prove or disprove a family connection."

There are many success stories, but not many that show benefits for both family history and health. One such is an out of this world story of a woman in Roswell using a test from 23andMe. Read it at:
http://roswell.patch.com/articles/at-home-dna-test-changes-roswell-womans-life

One opportunity to learn more about DNA for family history comes at the Quebec Family History Society Roots 2011 conference, June 3-5 at McGill University where I'll be presenting "DNA Testing for Genealogy: Not Just for Men."

Webinar: The New Ancestry Library Edition (ALE) Interface

For those who don't subscribe to Ancestry preferring to use it at a library through Ancestry Library Edition there's a helpful webinar covering the latest changes to the interface. It looks at the search form, the results and how to refine them, and the image viewer. It also covers some of the differences between the regular Ancestry and the Library Edition.

I found the webinar helpful even though I have a full subscription as the interface is the same except that extra items don't get in the way of the explanation. Like me, you'll probably learn about, and maybe even remember, recently added features.

Select Introduction to the New Ancestry Library Edition (ALE) Interface at http://goo.gl/pHVvr

Transcription/indexing survey

More and more organization are asking, and offering the opportunity for genealogists to transcribe or index records. It can be hard work, and also an enjoyable challenge. The organization benefits in it's ability to offer more service to its patrons.

To what extent do you agree with the following statements about transcription/indexing? The results will be shared in a few days.

Ottawa Branch OGS May Meeting

On Tuesday, 17 May 2011, the presentation will be Perseverance, Pranks and Pride: Tales of the One-Room Schoolhouse in the Ottawa Valley by Joy Forbes, Teacher & Author, creator of one-room schoolhouses website at http://www.oneroomschoolhouses.ca/

As usual the venue is Room 156, Library Archives Canada, 395 Wellington St. Ottawa Ontario. 7pm for 7:30pm.

The BBC Domesday

Find out more about an ancestral community, almost any community covered by BBC domestic services.

To celebrate the 900th anniversary of 1066 and the Norman conquest of Britain the BBC conducted a new Domesday survey, a project that saw over a million people capture pictures, maps, video, surveys, statistics, essays and personal testimonies to help compile a digital snapshot of the country.

It is now resurrected from the original, and defunct, BBC Laserdisc format and available online at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/domesday.

One thing you notice from a 2011 perspective is the lack of hyperlinks. You can search for any location, or indeed any term, but can`t surf on further. The resurrected version, however, does have a social network aspect encouraging visitors to add content.

It`s encouraging to see that data stored in obsolete computer formats can be recovered if considered of sufficient value.

Deceased Online steps up the pace: adds Wilts, Dorset and Devon records

View Deceased Online Wilts, Dorset, Devon in a larger map

More than 54,000+ burial records from rural Southwest England are added to www.deceasedonline . with the promise of regular additions.

According to the company information:

Over 36,000 burial records from seven cemeteries in the County of Wiltshire head a range of new data for Southwest England now available on Deceased Online. The cemeteries are: Bradford-on-Avon, Hilperton (near Trowbridge), Holt (near Bradford-on-Avon), Melksham, Trowbridge (coming very soon), Warminster and Westbury, with records back to 1856 and all including burial register scans as well as grave details.

Devon With the addition of Cullompton the Deceased Online database now features two town cemeteries in the County of Devon. 6,600 new records, with register scans and grave details for all burials back to 1856, are now available. Nearby, the coastal town of Salcombe has also made its cemetery’s 3,000 records available, and these date back to 1879.
Completing the dataset for Southwest England is Blandford Forum in the County of Dorset. For this cemetery we have 7,600 records, with register scans and grave details back to 1856.

We hope to be adding many more records for the Southwest of England soon. Check out the Database Coverage section at www.deceasedonline.com to find out more details of the above and many more towns and areas in the UK.

Further recognition for Anglo-Celtic Roots

BIFHSGO's quarterly chronicle, Anglo-Celtic Roots once again received recognition at the US National Genealogical Society taking away the runner up award in the Major or Large Societies newsletter competition That's a category ACR has won for the past two years. This year's winner was The Septs, published by the Irish Genealogical Society International.

The Alberta Family History Societies' newsletter, The Chinook, took away top prize in the Local Society Newsletter category.

Congratulations to all the winners, and especially to the ACR editorial team, Chris MacPhail (editor), Jean Kitchen (copy editor), Carol-Anne Blore (assistant editor layout) and Ken Wood (assistant editor photography).

TNA Podcast: Inheritance in Scotland - testaments and retours

The latest podcasts to be posted on the TNA website is a presentation I happened to catch, and enjoy live and in person, by Bruce Durrie who is Course Director, Genealogical Studies, at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. He`s an entertaining speaker.

You don`t get as much out of it as a voice only podcast but it`s still worthwhile for those trying to figure out the Scottish system of wills.

The podcast is at http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/podcasts/

32,000 new City of London burials at FindMyPast

18th and early 19th century London burial records are now added at findmypast.co.uk. The details are:

Church	Number of  records	Years  covered
St Botolph, Aldersgate	10,797	1754 - 1812
St Giles, Cripplegate	21,423	1754 - 1812

BIFHSGO May Meeting

14 May 2011 at Library and Archives Canada, 395 Wellington, Ottawa

Yet another interesting presentation in store at 10 AM, Unravelling the Anglicization of an Irish Family to be presented by Irene Ip.

Although Irene's father's family was Irish, when he was born he was registered with a Cornish surname, a bequest from his grandmother. She had wanted her family to shed their Irishness when they decided to settle in London, England, and a change of name was the first order of business. Irene was told that the name had been O'Callaghan and that they had come from Cork, Ireland. Irene's story is how, after almost three decades, she finally tracked down her grandfather's family and found the name that should have been given to her father and so to herself. Irene will explain how name variations, together with hasty assumptions, led her on false trails, seriously impeding her research. She will talk about her visits to the Public Record Office, the National Archives at Kew, the Dublin Record Office, the Ottawa Public Library and her unexpected discovery on her home computer.

Irene Ip was born in London, England, and came to Canada in 1956 on a working holiday but decided to stay. She has been researching her English and Irish ancestors for over 30 years but more seriously since joining BIFHSGO in 2001. She was editor of Anglo-Celtic Roots for three years and is presently a member of the BIFHSGO Writing Group and was a member of the team that conducted two writing workshops for the Society.

The "Before BIFHSGO" educational sessional at 9 AM is Tips on Using PowerPoint for Genealogy Presentations, presented by Brian Glenn.

More genealogy help from Wolfram|Alpha

A computational knowledge engine may not sound promising for genealogy, but a recent blog posting at Wolfram|Alpha points out ways their website can help us. There's more than when I last blogged about it.

Relationships

You can map family relations, like this one for the aunt of the sister's husband. It does have difficulty with more complex relationships like double cousins and step relatives. It also calculates a blood relationship fraction, not the same as the shared DNA which would be nice to have.

Calendar Calculations

You can determine the day of the week for any date. Did you know the 12th of May 1945 was a Saturday (congratulations to those who share a birthday.) Also compute time difference between dates, and other calendar calculations.

Interpreting Ambiguous Words

If you have a word in a document in which you can only make out some of the letters try Wolfram|Alpha's capability to find words that fit the pattern, even when the first letter, or letters, are unreadable.

Also helpful for recreational word puzzles.

A new version of The Master Genealogist?

Wholly Genes have just released a free beta version of The Master Genealogist, version 8. TMG is genealogy software that I've never got into. Those who do swear by it, other discouraged by its real or reputed steep learning curve swear at it.

If your tempted now would be a good time to try it. The beta version will expire in 30 days.  Find it at http://goo.gl/6GKLV

Deceased Online adds Rushden, Northamptonshire, burial records

View Rushden Cemetery in a larger map

Deceased Online now have approximately 13,650 burial records, with associated burial register scans, available for Rushden Cemetery, in Northamptonshire, from November 1888 to the present. The most recent 3 years are withheld.

Painting the family portrait

As you research further back in your family history the picture of your ancestors fades. All you have left is the begats, who was born where and when, married who where and when, had children where and when, and died where and when. 

Odds are those distant lives were ones of challenge and triumph, but you don't have the option of learning about them from an interview or heart to heart conversation. What you can do is build on what you already know; squeeze more out of the information you already have by looking at it from different perspectives.

That comes across in reading The Pecking Order: which siblings succeed and why by Dalton Conley who is now Dean for Social Sciences at NYU.

Conley is quick to point out that many factors influence how a person develops. Knowing basic family facts doesn't mean we can confidently predict in any particular case. Seemingly random events can have significant ripples across time. Particular talents may trump other factors. But there are some tendencies which when put together with other scraps of evidence may sketch a family portrait.

Here are some of the key points:

• In a conventional family the children are genetically close and share a family environment, the two biggest factors determining development. 
• A wealthy family with a bigger resource pie to share can provide more opportunity for the children, including living in more desirable communities with better facilities. 
• Children of a poor family, or one with many mouths to feed, often have educational opportunities, and future prospects, curtailed for economic reasons.
• The  resource pie can grow or shrink depending on the success, and survival, of the breadwinner(s) which can differentially influence older and younger children.
• A local extended family, think of holiday meals with grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins and second cousins, can compensate for or sometimes aggravate the family situation. 
• The older child starts out with more individual attention which declines as the resource pie gets shared more with increasing family size.
• Birth order is less significant than family size and child spacing. Often the oldest and youngest (mistake) children in a large family do better than the middle children. 
• If a parent dies the eldest child at home is often expected to take on increased domestic responsibilities which may impact on education, but also cause them to accept responsibility more easily. Adult siblings who have already left the family home will likely be relatively less affected.
• Pre-school children often adjust better to migration than older children.

The Pecking Order: which siblings succeed and why by Dalton Conley, published in 2004, received mixed reviews. Some reviewers didn't like the anecdotal style. Borrow it through your local public library or purchase through Amazon which has multiple copies for resale at http://goo.gl/CjQ8k

40,000 new Gloucestershire records at Findmypast.co.uk

New records from Cam, Coaley, Dursley, Nympsfield,Owlpen, Slimbridge, Stinchcombe, and Uley in Gloucestershire are added to the Findmypast.co.uk parish records collection. These are baptismal, marriage and burial records for 1695 to 1796.

Separating chromosomes and progress in DNA analysis

A couple of DNA related items in the news (technology phobia alert).

A short article in Technology Review holds out the prospect of being able to analyse each member of a chromosome pair individually rather than as segments which are part of one or other of the chromosomes as at present.  This should mean greater confidence in identifying whether DNA cousins are related by descent rather than just chance matching. See the article at http://goo.gl/Mmazd

Meanwhile, as reported in GenomeWeb Daily News at http://goo.gl/rABbe the cost of DNA analysis continues to fall. The company Complete Genomes service "starts at $9,500 per genome for small order sizes to between $5,000 to $7,500 per genome for orders in the hundreds of genomes." Illumina now offers "human whole-genome sequencing services to $5,000 per genome for projects of 10 samples or more, and $4,000 for projects of 50 samples or more.

Such prices do not include the consumer level database service essential for the genealogist.

Watson withdraws Whitton nomination

Celebrate. According to an Ottawa Citizen report Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson has withdrawn his nomination of Charlotte Whitton as the person after whom the new City Archives and Library Distribution Centre will be named. http://goo.gl/G7QH0

Lincolnshire parish records online

Lincs To The Past, from the Lincolnshire Archives, is an attractive website which should get high marks for content. You can find some great resources... if you know how! If you don't you can waste lots of time trying to figure it out.

Find Lincolnshire parish register information by going to http://www.lincstothepast.com/home/, clicking on Advanced Search on the ribbon near the top, then enter your search terms and, importantly, click the button for Images before clicking the Search button.

You'll get an array of thumbnail images which when clicked on bring up the Zoomify image browser. Then scroll around the images until you find what you're looking for. Also look for the term in the list beneath the image.

Overall, it's a useful resource for those Lincolnshire roots, spoiled by poor navigation.

BC and Irish genealogy educational handouts

One benefit for us all of a cooperative program between the BC Genealogical Society and the Vancouver Public Library is a series of multi-page handouts available free on various aspects of family history.

The two most recent are Researching your British Columbia Ancestors by BCGS President M. Diane Rogers; and Genealogy in Ireland by Eunice Robinson.

There are earlier handouts, none more than a year old, on Legacy (Family Tree), Scottish Military, Australia and New Zealand Military Records,and Analyzing Historical Photos, as well as quite a few other shorter ones. Browse them all from http://www.bcgs.ca/bcgs_handouts.htm

Did your ancestor have an accent?

Was your ancestor noticeable in the community for their accent, and did it have an influence on how they were regarded? Was there an immigrant peer community where they lived? Perhaps they were outgoing enough to fit into their new community without feeling different. Or perhaps the new community was not open to newcomers. The introverted may have had particular difficulty fitting in. Consider these factors as you attempt to understand the family place in, or apart from, the community as you write your family history.

There's a throw away line in a book I'm reading that an immigrant, or migrant, retains their accent unless moved to the new environment before around the time of puberty. In the normal course of events, short of intensive speech therapy, your adolescent accent is yours for life. This is something I can attest to having arrived in North America at age 21. However, my speech is noticeably North American to British ears, perhaps a matter of vocabulary as much as accent.

The British Isles map above is from http://www.mywiseowl.com/articles/British_English. There's an interesting map of North American languages and dialects at http://www.quichua.net/AmEng/index_files/AmericanEnglishDialects.gif

Whitton is a questionable choice

Ottawa City Council appears ready to name of the new Central Archives and Ottawa Public Library Technical Services Facility as the “Charlotte Whitton Archives and Library Building."

It is an unfortunate choice.

In an editorial on 23 July 1954 the Ottawa Citizen commented that Mayor Whitton had "running battles" with the Library Board, "starting with her ill-informed opposition to a bookmobile." These had included her opposing the Library Board choice for City Librarian.

On April 22 1969 there is an article "New Library Stalled by Whitton" reporting on her move for reconsideration by Council of a decision to move ahead on the Main Library.

Whitton was a divisive figure in City politics, an advocate for neither library nor archives. Her sharp tongue, as in her well known quote “Whatever women do they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily, this is not difficult” was hurtful. In a facility which is seeing welcome cooperation between those two parts of the city administration which have not always worked cooperatively, it would be unfortunate if the facility were encumbered with a name that fails to engender a cooperative spirit.


It's as if the city built a recreation centre for OCTranspo drivers, and then insisted on naming it after Larry O"Brien.

The facility name should better be one that celebrates the city heritage and cultural achievements, not another monument to a City politician whose contributions to the activities of the organizations housed therein are at best dubious.

WorldVitalRecords update

With only a few US twigs in my family tree the databases of WorldVitalRecords.com are not usually of much interest for me. While there are UK records many are esoteric, and the larger ones duplicate databases to which I already have access.

The site has been looking tired and there hasn't been much new of late. However, Randy Seaver points out that WVR now has a new look, and some new databases. That's welcome.  Read Randy's blog post here.

A little DNA genealogy analysis

Warning: this posting is on the technical side. If you're math/science averse you may want to skip this one.

In preparation for a presentation at the Roots 2011 conference, and a dress rehearsal at the Ottawa DNA interest group on 28 May, I've been looking at some autosomal DNA results from 23andMe.

I've found a case of a mother-son pair which has almost 150 identifiable partial matches with other people (DNA cousins) in the company (23and Me) database. Each point in the chart below represents a DNA cousin, more often a male, with the position on the horizontal axis the percent shared DNA with the mother, and on the vertical axis with the son.

I expected that at maximum the son would share all the same DNA as with the cousin, and as a minimum none. Whether the son inherits all, most, a little, or none of the DNA the mother has common with the "cousin" is supposedly random. It depends on which sections of chromosomes are inherited by the son.

Surprisingly there were 10 cases where the son had more DNA in common with the "cousin" than did the mother. Did he inherit the excess serendipitously from the father, or is there another explanation?

Notice on the plot that there are no points below 0.1% son shared DNA. The company does not make available results where the percent shared is so small. Also there are only three results where the mother shared DNA is less than about 0.28%, likely as the son's shared DNA is less than 0.1% in these cases.
A best fit trend line through the data (in red) and a best fit line forced to go through the origin (in black) are shown. The latter, which goes some way to compensating for the lack of data below 0.1%, has a slope a bit less than 70%. On the face of it on average the son inherits a bit less than 70% of the mother's shared DNA, not the average 50% according to theory.

Historical Account of the ... Regiment

Just added to the Internet Archive are a series of potted histories of British Regiments from their formation to about the mid-19th century. You won't find mention of individuals, other than commanding officers. Use these publications to see what actions the regiment was engaged in while your ancestor was enlisted.

There's a list of these histories below, but its best to browse the listing here which may also surface other publications of British military interest at the Internet Archive.

Historical record of the First, or Royal Regiment of Foot [microform] : containing an account of the origin of the regiment in the reign of King James VI of Scotland and of its subsequent services to 1846

Historical record of the Forty-second, or, the Royal Highland Regiment of Foot [microform] : containing an account of the formation of six companies of Highlanders in 1729 ... and were regimented in 1739 and of the subsequent services of the regiment to 1844

Historical record of the Forty-Sixth, or the South Devonshire Regiment of Foot [microform] : containing an account of the formation of the regiment in 1741 and of its subsequent services to 1851

Historical record of the Fourteenth, or the Buckinghamshire Regiment of Foot [microform] : containing an account of the formation of the regiment in 1865 and of its subsequent services to 1845

Historical record of The Fourth, or, Royal Irish Regiment of Dragoon Guards [microform] : containing an account of the formation of the regiment in 1685, and of its subsequent services to 1838

Historical record of The Fourth, or, The King's Own Regiment of Foot [microform] : containing an account of the formation of the regiment in 1680, and of its subsequent services to 1839

Historical record of The Fourth, or The Queen's Own Regiment of Light Dragoons [microform] : containing an account of the formation of the regiment in 1685 and of its subsequent services to 1842

Historical record of The Nineteenth, or, The First Yorkshire North Riding Regiment of Foot [microform] : containing an account of the formation of the regiment in 1688 and of its subsequent services to 1848

Historical record of The Second, or, Queen's Regiment of Dragoon Guards, (Queen's Bays) [microform] : containing an account of the formation of the regiment in 1685 and of its subsequent services to 1837

Historical record of the Seventh, or, Princess Royal's Regiment of Dragoon Guards [microform] : containing an account of the formation of the regiment in 1688 and of its subsequent services to 1839

Historical record of the Seventh Regiment of Light Dragoons-Lancers [microform] : containing an account of the formation of the regiment in 1759 and of its subsequent services to 1841

Historical record of the Seventh Regiment, or, The Royal Fusiliers [microform] : containing an account of the formation of the regiment in 1685, and of its subsequent services to 1846

Historical record of the Seventh, or, The Surrey Regiment of Foot [microform] : containing an account of the formation of the regiment in 1758, and of its subsequent services to 1848

Historical record of the Seventy-First Regiment, Highland Light Infantry [microform] : containing an account of the formation of the regiment in 1777, and of its subsequent services to 1852

Historical record of the Seventy-fourth Regiment (Highlanders) [microform] : containing an account of the formation of the regiment in 1787, and of its subsequent services to 1850

Historical record of the Seventy-Third Regiment [microform] : containing an account of the formation of the regiment from the period of its being raised as the Second Battalion of the Forty-Second Royal Highlanders in 1870 and of its subsequent services to 1851.

Historical record of The Sixty-Seventh, or, The South Hampshire Regiment [microform] : containing an account of the formation of the regiment in 1758 and of its subsequent services to 1849

Historical record of The Thirty-ninth, or, The Dorsetshire Regiment of Foot [microform] : containing an account of the regiment in 1702 and of its subsequent services to 1853

Historical record of The Thirty-Fourth, or, The Cumberland Regiment of Foot [microform] : containing in account of the formation of the regiment in 1702, and its subsequent services to 1844

Historical record of the Thirty-first, or, The Huntingdonshire Regiment of Foot [microform] : containing an account of the formation of the regiment in 1702, and of its subsequent services to 1850, to which is appended an account of the services of the Marine Corps, from 1664 to 1748 : the Thirtieth, Thirty-First and Thirty-Second Regments having been formed in 1702 as Marine Corps, and retained from 1714 on the establishment of the army as regiments of regular infantry

Historical record of the Twenty-Third Regiment, or, The Royal Welsh Fusiliers [microform] : containing an account of the formation of the regiment in 1689 and of its subsequent services to 1850

Historical record of The Twentieth, or, The East Devonshire Regiment of Foot [microform] : containing an account of the formation of the regiment in 1688, and of its subsequent services to 1848

Historical record of the Sixteenth, or, The Queen's Regiment of Light Dragoons, Lancers [microform] : containing an account of the formation of the regiment in 1759 and of its subsequent services to 1841

Historical record of the Sixteenth, or the Bedfordshire Regiment of Foot [microform] : containing an account of the formation of the regiment in 1688 and of its subsequent services to 1848

Historical record of the Thirteenth, First Somerset, or the Prince Albert's Regiment of Light Infantry [microform] : containing an account of the formation of the regiment in 1865 and of its subsequent services to 1848

Historical record of the Twelfth, or the East Suffolk Regiment of Foot [microform] : containing an account of the formation of the regiment in 1685 and of its subsequent services to 1847

Historical record of the Tenth, the Prince of Wales's Own Royal Regiment of Hussars [microform] : containing an account of the formation of the regiment in 1715, and of its subsequent services to 1842

Historical record of the Tenth, or the North Lincolnshire Regiment of Foot [microform] : containing an account of the formation of the regiment in 1685, and its subsequent services to 1847

Historical record of the Sixth, or Inniskilling Regiment of Dragoons [microform] : containing an account of the formation of the regiment in 1689, and of its subsequent services to 1846

Historical record of the Sixth, or Royal First Warwickshire Regiment of Foot [microform] : containing an account of the formation of the regiment in the year 1674, and of its subsequent services to 1838

Historical record of the Sixth Regiment of Dragoon Guards, or the Carabineers [microform] : containing an account of the formation of the regiment in 1685, and of its subsequent services to 1839

Historical record of the Third, or Prince of Wales' Regiment of Dragoon Guards [microform] : containing an account of the formation of the Regiment in 1685, and of its subsequent services to 1838

Do you know TONI?

One of the Ontario Genealogical Society 50th anniversary projects is The Ontario Name Index, TONI for short.

With just 79,621 records available at present it's just getting started. Only records contributed by Wellington (the majority) and Kawartha Branches are now online. There is a promise that it will "quickly become large – perhaps as many as fifty million entries."

Here's a sample of a search on everyone's favourite surname.

As indicated by the t in the sources column, most of the data at present is from tombstones, likely a duplication of the data from the Ontario Cemetery Ancestor Index but with pay per view access to a more complete record. 

Other sources to be added are birth, christening/baptism, death, funeral card, family history, marriage, newspaper article, obit, township papers and Tweedsmuir history.

Even with the starter database it's easy to anticipate problems with common names not being well enough distinguished to make a pay per view purchase attractive. 

Find TONI at http://www.ogs.on.ca/home/TONI.php

Top US baby names 2010

The US Social Security Administration has just released their top name list for 2010.

For baby boys the top five are: Jacob, Ethan, Michael, Jayden and William

For baby girls it's: Isabella, Sophia, Emma, Olivia and Ava.

See the complete list of the top ten, and explore US fashions in names at http://www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames/

I try and keep track of baby names in Canada and the UK. There is an amazing difference in when the list is released, if at all. Scotland is usually first, before the end of the year. Jack and Sophie were Scotland’s top baby names in 2010.

Improved searching at Findmypast.co.uk

Findmypast are now providing a single search capability combining their records for England & Wales births 1837-2006, British nationals born overseas 1818-2005, British nationals born in the army 1761-2005, and British nationals born at sea 1854-1887. 

There is a similar capability for England & Wales marriages 1837-2005, British nationals married overseas 1818-2005, British nationals married in the army 1796-2005, British nationals married at sea 1854-1908.

For death records? Early last year paying clients were promised a complete indexing of England and Wales death records by the end of the year. It didn't happen. The company reneged on the commitment choosing to pursue other priorities. That's a black mark on their record. Why couldn't they deliver "half a loaf" as they did with the phased release of Chelsea Pensioner records?

This present announcement claims "We're very close to completing our project to fully name index our death records. Once this is complete, we will combine all our death records into one search to finish the series."

Canada's vulnerable federal records

In the US, by law, federal agencies have 30 years to turn over all the records that must be permanently retained by the National Archives.  But the US National Archivist David Ferriero, in testimony before the US House of Representatives, stated his belief that such a long time-frame is a recipe for lost documents and a spotty historical record, especially in this age of electronic records.


In Canada, by contrast, there is no law requiring such deposit.  As long as the agency or department claims they are working records they may retain them with their files. Thus we have the absurd situation that only incoming ships passenger lists up to 1935 are held at Library and Archives Canada. Canada's National Librarian and Archivist apparently sees no problem with this.

More on the census logo

My last post was barely published when Sherri Pettit, coordinator of the CanadaGenWeb & OntarioGenWeb emailed me letting me know about the origin of the census logo that SGS is using on their website.

Sherri originally created the logo for the OntarioGenWeb's Census Project (http://ontariocensus.rootsweb.com) for the 2006 census and updated it earlier this year to reflect the 2011 census. The updated logo first appeared on the census project website in early March and was later added to CanadaGenWeb (http://canadagenweb.org) and the CanadaGenWeb update blog (http://canadagenweb.blogspot.com).

Thanks for your initiative Sherri.

I've added the logo to this blog for the duration of the census campaign as a reminder. Hopefully others in the Canadian genealogical community will also add the logo. I've also added links to the organizations that add the logo or otherwise publicize the need to make a positive decision.

Canada census 2011

A mailing from Statistics Canada arrived on May 3, but it didn't contain a census form. Instead it had a web address for providing the information online, www.census2011.gc.ca/, and a 15 digit access code. Also included were instructions on how to obtain a paper copy which involved calling a 1-866 telephone number and entering the 15 digit code. Successfully doing that was acknowledged with the information that the paper copy should arrive in five days.

On the website a section called "Genealogy corner" includes the information that:

The 2011 Census questionnaire contains a question that permits you to be part of the history of Canada. If you check yes to this permission question, your descendants will be able to do family and genealogical research on you and your family in the future.

There is further information in a Q/A

Q. Why am I being asked for permission to make my census information available in 92 years?

A. Starting in 2006, respondents to the census are asked if they want their personal census information publicly released after 92 years. For those who give explicit permission for the public release of their 2011 Census information, Statistics Canada will transfer that information to Library and Archives Canada in 2103, which in turn will make it publicly available. For those who do not give permission, their personal information will not be transferred.

Sadly, the information provides no encouragement to provide permission in recognition of the value of the information for historical social research.

The logo at the top is from the Saskatchewan Genealogical Society website. It's unfortunate that none of the other Canadian genealogical or family history societies websites I visited, including AFHS, AGS, BCGS, BIFHSGO, OGS, and QFHS, reflect any effort to encourage members and others to provide such permission. 


As the ultimate custodian of these records, which ideally would be as complete as possible, why would LAC not also encourage providing permission?

Scottish Monumental Inscriptions and Deceasedonline

In the latest news posting on the Scottish monumental inscriptions website they report they now have over 100,000 images from various cemeteries across Scotland available on CD. They are photographing 1 to 8 burial grounds per day at the moment, (mainly weekends) and transcribing of over 300 cemeteries across Scotland is going well.

They now have an agreement with Deceasedonline. Records for Fife, Inverness and Perthshire were added to the deceasedonline website in February and more is promised. This is welcome as few of us have any need for more data CDs beside our computer containing only one or two items of interest.

England Jurisdictions 1851

Here's one of the great resources for English family history research that seems to be not as well known as it should be. It's not totally new, but because it gets overlooked, I'll briefly profile it again.

Can't find the ancestors' record in the home parish, then look in adjacent ones. In which Poor Law Union, where your needy ancestors might find help, was the ancestor's parish? Experienced family historians know that maps can be a best friend and help sort out confusing situations.

Here's an example from my ancestry. The parish of Ellastone is in Staffordshire. It's in the rural Deanery of Uttoxeter, also in Staffordshire. However, the Poor Law District is Ashbourne, named for the larger community which, like most of the District, is in Derbyshire.

Try it at http://maps.familysearch.org/. You'll like it.

Londonremembers.com

One of the first things visitors to London learn is that it's packed with history. Walk down almost any street and you'll find a monument, or one of the famous blue plaques marking where something notable happened, often the residents of a renowned person.

Londonremembers.com aims to capture all the memorials in London, 8311 subjects (people, events, etc.) to date on 1966 memorials, at 1534 sites. It's better experienced than described, and contains an amazing variety of items. Why would Ottawa find its way onto the site?