Book Review: Reunion: A Search for Ancestors

Ryan Littrell approached me some weeks ago with the offer of a review copy of this book. I gladly accepted, but had to tell him other things would keep it on the back burner for a while.
I'm glad I eventually found the time.
His  story is of researching his mother's mother's paternal line of McDonald. He uses techniques commonplace to genealogists, starting with family held information and documents, following up at local courthouses, online records, visiting cemeteries and old residences.
The story takes off when he discovers that the Y-DNA of his McDonald great uncle matches that of the McDonald clan involved in the "Massacre of Glencoe". The DNA evidence provides a well defined distant landmark for subsequent research which he follows to a successful conclusion through a variety of sources and techniques familiar to US genealogists.
The book interleaves in alternate chapters the story of the search with that of the clan revealing its history and lore. They nicely converge at the end of the successful search where he "finds embers burning for him after all these years."
As a genealogist who doesn't normally deal with US records I enjoyed the story of the chase. The material on the clan must be fascinating to the many with McDonald ancestry, the name is in the the top 100 of British surnames and there's a large diaspora.
What compels someone to pursue such a quest after a distant ancestor, one of several hundred he could claim in the days of the massacre in 1692? In Littrell's case it seems to be a combination of being the maiden name of a favourite grandmother and successful pursuit to a notable event that makes for Glencoe being where his soul lies, as expressed in a quote from an Ontario genealogist named Brenda. I wonder who that could be?
I enjoyed the well written story of the genealogical chase, that of the clan was less appealing to me. My soul lies in a different direction.
The book is widely available through web bookstores or through http://ryanlittrell.com/book.html

North-East Diary 1939-1945

For those with links to the north-east of England, from the Humber to Berwick on Tweed, in the years of WW2 this site recalls those years. Rewards browsing even if your interests are not in the area for popular songs, food costs and much more of wider interest.

Thanks to Ken McLeod, via Glenn Wright, for the link.

Joan Miller RIP

Sad to learn of the passing of Calgary-based genealogist Joan Miller. Joan was an active genealogy blogger, www.luxegen.ca, a prodigious contributor to social media, and had a great interest in genetic genealogy. Active in the Alberta Family Histories Society Joan wrote regularly for the Society magazine Chinook. Condolences to her husband and family.

I had the pleasure of meeting Joan, and her husband Reg who was as enthusiastic a woodturner as Joan a genealogist, at a Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree a few years ago.

UPDATE

Your Genetic Genealgist, Cece Moore, has a fine appreciation at http://bit.ly/VMXA2Z

Interpreting London Bills of Mortality

From the 1600s weekly summaries of mortality statistics were published in London. Some of the causes listed are now obscure. If you're seriously interested in understanding the archaic terms don't watch this YouTube video .

FreeBMD January update

The FreeBMD Database was updated on Friday 4 January 2013 and currently contains 224,500,807 distinct records (283,601,398 total records).
Years with major additions this update (more than 5,000 unique records) are: for births 1943-45, 1955, 1958-66; for marriages 1952, 1956, 1960-67; for deaths 1961, 1964-68.

Top genealogy websites

GenealogyInTime Magazine is out with its list of top 100 genealogy websites for 2013 based on Alexa rankings. 24 sites are new to the list this year, 24 dropped out.
Ancestry.com leads the list by a wide margin. Compared to all websites it ranks 680th on Alexa, second is MyHeritage.com with Alexa rank 3,965th.
GenealogyInTime provides a comprehensive analysis of the data; worth a look.
Anglo-Celtic Connections just made it into the list, ranked 95th.  The analysis was kind enough not to point out that it dropped more in the rankings than any other site in the list! Several excellent blogs fell just below the mark.
Ancestry.ca (19) leads the list of Canada-based sites closely followed by GenealogyInTime (21), then Automated Genealogy (73, a substantial jump in ranking), Ontario Genealogical Society (77, new this year) and Anglo-Celtic Connections (95).
There are 14 UK sites, lead by ancestry.co.uk (6), findmypast.co.uk (14), genesreunited (24), freebmd (36) and Roots Chat (42). One Irish site makes the list, Roots Ireland (83).
Are there sites on the list you don't know that could be useful?
Thanks to GenealogyInTime for alerting me to this new list.

Ontario Township Papers

The Ontario Genealogical Society is exploring interest in indexing Ontario's Township Papers described by the Archives of Ontario as "a miscellaneous group of land-related records, which have been arranged by township name, then by concession and lot or by town name and lot number. Under any lot for which documents are available, researchers may find the following: copies of orders-in-council; copies of location certificates and location tickets; copies of assignments; certificates verifying the completion of settlement duties; copies of receipt; copies of descriptions; and copies of patents; and copies of incoming correspondence." The dates covered are ca. 1783-ca.1870.
The collection, 72 metres of textual records, is available as MS 658 on 541 microfilm reels.
As a first step OGS is seeking a project leader. Volunteers may contact OGS vice-President Mile More at vp@ogs.on.ca who would surely be open to innovative proposals to make this valuable collection more accessible to 21st century genealogists and local historians.

Blighted Nation

A series of radio programs from RTE1 on The Great Famine which struck Ireland in the middle of the 19th century, the biggest social catastrophe in Irish history.

Episode 1 deals with the arrival of the blight, the breakdown of society, starvation and disease, mass evictions, soup kitchen, workhouses, burying the dead, public works, bitter winter conditions, how the famine affected different areas and private charitable donations – the first example in history of a major international relief effort.
Episode 2 examines Britain’s response to the famine.
Episode 3 examine people’s desperation to get out of Ireland during the famine, there's a story of Irish immigrants from Strokestown who went through Grosse Île.
Episode 4 deals with the aftermath and the legacy of the famine. The starvation officially lasted for seven years but are the effects continue.
There are also podcasts.

Start at http://www.rte.ie/radio1/blightednation/

Thanks to Catherine Cavanaugh for the tip.

The Ottawa Journal, 1885-1980 on Ancestry

A nice start to the year in making Canadian records available online; 687,002 page images of The Ottawa Journal, 1885-1980 added to the Ancestry.ca collection.
At the moment the images can be browsed and perused much like the physical version of the paper. The images are chronologically indexed, in the early years to the half-year and later in the coverage to the month.
Some papers are not available:

1909, July-December is entirely missing.
1963, October, the original film was damaged and certain days or pages may be missing or illegible.
1970, January and May, the original film was damaged and certain days or pages may be missing or illegible.

Soon Ancestry will be launching a World Archives Project, volunteer indexing of the birth, marriage, and death notices. In the meantime a card index of births, marriages and deaths reported in the Ottawa Journal, from December 21, 1885 to January 10, 1922 is at the main branch of the Ottawa Public Library. You can also use Ontario civil registration records, available on Ancestry to 1913 for births, 1928 for marriages, and 1938 for deaths as a guide on where in the images to look. For obits use burial records for Beechwood cemetery at Ancestry. For Pinecrest and some other local area cemeteries try the Canadian Gravemarker Gallery.
You might also want to try the collection of the Ottawa Citizen, kludgy as it is, through Google at http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=QBJtjoHflPwC

These images were from microfilms donated to the City when the Journal folded and now in the collection at the City of Ottawa Archives. This is another good example of a local archives taking advantage of a partnership with a commercial organization, in this case Ancestry.ca, to make a resource more widely available without in any way taking away from the free access available at the original depository. In this case the free access is even enhanced through Ancestry Library subscriptions widely available at public libraries.

UK, Outward Passenger Lists, 1890-1960 now on Ancestry

A major database of 23,768,544 records starts off the year for ancestry.co.uk.  UK, Outward Passenger Lists, 1890-1960 is taken from series BT27. Records of the Commercial, Companies, Labour, Railways and Statistics Departments. Records of the Board of Trade. Previously, and still available from findmypast.co.uk, or through original records at The National Archives at Kew, the database contains passenger lists recording the names of people leaving from UK ports for destinations outside of Europe.
The information is name indexed and linked to the original image in colour.
Details you may find include:
name; age at departure; gender; profession; last address in the UK; last country of permanent residence; country of intended permanent residence; port of departure
country of departure; date of departure; port of destination; country of destination; ship name; shipping line; ship master’s name.
Although the information on these lists is generally less than in the corresponding incoming lists at Library and Archives Canada, also on ancestry.ca, the period of coverage extends further and for the first decade includes Canadian ports for which no incoming lists were kept. You may also find the outgoing lists easier to read giving a lead on the Canadian incoming list to consult, especially as the passenger number, often easier to read than the name, is the same on both lists.

Call for presentation proposals: OGS 2014

Here's early notification and call for presentation proposals from The Niagara Peninsula Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society for the Society's annual conference, May 1 - 4, 2014 at Brock University.

The conference theme is GENEALOGY WITHOUT BORDERS.

Although borders are an important aspect in defining a country, they also often delineate an area of genealogical study. In the past, genealogists often had to travel across borders to complete family histories in their genealogical area. Today's genealogist can often cross these borders while sitting at a desk. We can trace the movement of settlers from European countries from the American states and other provinces to Ontario.
We invite seminar proposals with this theme in mind.
Our Saturday and Sunday, May 3rd and 4th seminar sessions are generally fifty minutes in length with ten minutes for discussion. We also have workshops on Friday, May 2nd, which are of three hours duration. We invite lecture and workshop submissions on a broad range of genealogical topics which will help to solve family history problems by any of the following methods.
1. Use of technology in genealogy (DNA, internet, software etc.)
2. Records at a distance (especially Eastern USA and European)
3. War records, 1812, W.W. 1
4. Land records, census, directories,
5. Early Ontario records, prior to 1869 and their repositories
6. Proposals are also solicited for the broader genealogical categories including the histories associated with the War of 1812, methodology, analysis and problem solving used in genealogy

Each proposal should include the following information:
a. Speaker’s full name, address, telephone and e-mail address
b. Title of the presentation, not to exceed fifteen words, and a brief but comprehensive outline
c. Lecture summary, not to exceed twenty-five words, to be used in the program registration brochure
d. Identification of the audience level; beginner, intermediate, advanced or all levels
e. Speaker biography, not to exceed twenty-five words
f. Resume of recent lectures by the speaker
g. Presenters may submit any number of proposals.

Complete proposals should be emailed to conference2014@ogs.on.ca by May 15, 2013

If using a Power Point presentation, then the image should be easily read at a distance of 20 metres or 65 feet.
If your proposal is accepted, you will be notified in early summer and we will request that you provide a 4 page summary of your talk or workshop for our syllabus by Dec. 31st, 2013. This should include references and web addresses mentioned, sample screen images etc. It will be submitted electronically (in Word, RTF or PDF format).
Please include your approximate travel costs, economy class to St. Catharines, Ont. Canada. Besides remuneration, food and lodging will be based upon the number of lectures given and transportation expenses will depend upon the speaker’s home address. Workshop fees may be negotiated.
Questions can be directed to conference2014@ogs.on.ca
Please Note: We are looking for speakers who would be open to being streamed out from the conference to those individuals who cannot travel but still wish to join us. As well, we are looking for speakers who may be interested in speaking but cannot travel as we can stream you in to the conference.

Deceased Online plans for 2013

According to Richard Gray from Deceased Online the company will be at least doubling the database size during 2013 and will be announcing some exciting news during February and March on many new and important additions.

Over the Christmas/New Year period data for a total of 41 burial sites (cemeteries and churchyards) throughout Fife in East Scotland was added and these comprise nearly 80,000 names with the records dating back to 1635.  The records comprise photographs of headstones and memorials together with the digitized carefully transcribed inscriptions from all.  There are now nearly 1.2 million burial records in Scotland on the Deceased Online website.

Toronto Trust Cemeteries indexing project closes in on the finish

Jane MacNamara, who leads the Toronto Trust Cemeteries indexing project for Ontario Genealogical Society's Toronto Branch, wrote with the news of the project. Roughly 229,000 records have been since the project started on September 30, 2009 with good progress in 2012 and the end in sight for 2013. Read all about it at http://torontofamilyhistory.org/projects/.

Congratulations to Jane and team members Barry, Joyce, Verna, Heather, Marg, and Valerie who have each indexed and/or arbitrated over 5,000 records

WDYTYA Live presentations from TNA

WDYTYA Live at Olympia in London, 22-24 February, continues to enhance the series of presentations again this year. Talks in The National Archives Theatre now announced are:

Friday 22 February
11am:  Merchant Navy with Janet Dempsey
3pm:    Tracing Caribbean Ancestors with Guy Grannum

Saturday 23 February
11am:  Tracing HM Customs Ancestors with James Cronan
3pm:    BMDs Overseas with Keith Mitchell

Sunday 24 February
11am:  First World War Records with John Wood
2pm:   Criminal Records with Nigel Taylor

Fortunately these don't clash with my session at 2pm on Saturday although with such a rich program hard choices between excellent presentations will always have to be made.

Vancouver’s History Online

A short article in the Globe and Mail profiling work underway by Vancouver Archives staff – digital conservator Sue Bigelow, archives manager Heather Gordon, and city archivist Les Mobbs – exploring intensively to make the city’s history available in all the ways that people use now - digitization, map scanners, blogging, YouTube, Historypin and Flickr for displaying historical photos and videos. Read the article at: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/putting-vancouvers-history-online/article6825147/

It's good to see this type of initiative, look for news of a partnership initiative of the Ottawa Archives coming soon.

Is your local archives doing something innovative. Please post a comment or send a tip.

 

 

FTDNA sale extended

There's a short extension of the Family Tree DNA year end sale, until 3 January, a bonus for excessive procrastinators.

Thanks to Barbara Tose for the tip.

Backup reminder

The first day of a new year would be a great time to back up your computer data, especially your genealogy files which should be small enough to go on a flash drive. Even better is online backup, just make sure you can recover from the cloud, or a high capacity external drive.

Make it a new year resolution to backup your data, every month at least.

Benchmarks update for December and 2012

First post for the new year -- a final look at how various genealogy sites fared in 2012 -- benchmarks as of 31 December 2012. Comparable figures are for (a month ago, and a year ago where available). The higher the Alexa ranking the more popular the site.
Most sites sank in the Alexa rankings. Exceptions were the DNA sites which gained, likely on the basis of the year end sale for Family Tree DNA and a major price reduction for 23andMe. The British Newspaper Archive likely dropped as Find my Past subscribers gained access without a separate subscription.
Familysearch.org has 1,413 (1,373, 1,008) record collections: census & lists 117 (117, 88); birth, marriage, & death 863 (839, 602); probate & court 131 (126, 68); military 100 (100, 83); migration & naturalization 73 (67, 45); other 129 (124, 62). It has Alexa rank 5,003 (4,689, 6,218).
Ancestry.com has Alexa rank of 671 (635); ancestry.co.uk ranks 7,578 (7,005) and ancestry.ca 33.316 (32,157). There are 31,322 (31,308) datasets in the collections including 1,939 (1,939) for Canada, 1,692 (1,691) for the UK and, 25,042 (25,030) for the USA.
Findmypast.co.uk has an Alexa rank of 22,549 (22,166). Findmypast.com ranks 112,252 (77,362).
Family Tree DNA has 401,047 (399,775, 355,935) records in its database. It ranks 30,503 (30,819, 51,424) on Alexa. 23andMe ranks 32,707 (36,074).
GenealogyinTime.com ranks 35,112 (32,399); Mocavo.com has rank 51,202 (43,256)
Britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk contains 6,165,662 (6,011,380, 3,276,840) digitized pages adding 4,977 (4,432) pages per day. Additions during the month are: Aberdeen Journal 1901, 1904, 1908 - 1909, 1941 - 1942, 1947; Berkshire Chronicle 1827 - 1870; Cambridge Independent Press 1839 - 1841, 1843, 1848, 1850; Dundee Advertiser 1881; Gloucester Journal 1837; Hartlepool Mail 1883; Isle of Wight Observer 1852, 1862; Post., The 1915, 1922, 1926; Sligo Champion 1923; Taunton Courier, and Western Advertiser 1848, 1959, 1961; West London Observer 1954 - 1957. Alexa rank 141,975 (138,232, 97,044).
Cyndislist.com claims 325,756 (325,441) total links in 192 (192) categories, with 1,797 (1,801) uncategorized. Alexa rank 79,154 (73,900, 98,926
FreeBMD has 223,319,729 (223,319,729) distinct records, Alexa rank 82,569 (71,576, 110,903).
UKBMD provides 2,369 (2,369) links to web sites that offer on-line transcriptions of UK births, marriages, deaths and censuses. Alexa rank 311,218 (258,900, 375,712).
CanadianHeadstones.com has over 548,000 (528,000) gravestone photo records from across Canada. It scores 631,105 (623,601) in Alexa traffic rank. The Canadian Gravemarker Gallery, with over 695,000 (680,000, 500,000) photographs from across Canada, ranks 864,650 (659,400, 1,956,006).
bifhsgo.ca ranks 1,700,945 (1,035,279), qfhs.ca ranks 2,376,742 (2,245,656), ogs.on.ca 187,234 (178,241).

And in case you're curious, Anglo-Celtic Connections has 4,240 (4,156, 3,130) posts, It continues a long slide in Alexa rank to 273,701 (229,950, 150,366).

Did I miss something significant? If so please post a comment with statistics.

 

Thanks to contributors for 2012

2012 saw just over 1,100 items posted on the blog. That was made possible by many of you who helped and encouraged this year by posting comments, questions, providing information, completing polls and surveys, or publicizing the blog, including;
Alec, Alex, Alison, Alona, Amy, Andrew, Ann, Anne, Annette, Anonymous, Archivus, Astrid, Audrey, Barb, Barbara, Bill, Bob, Brenda, Brian, Brooke, Bruce, Bryan, caiteile.com, Cannuk, Carol, Carolyn, Catherine, Cecil, Cece, Celia, Charles, Chris, Christina, Christine, Claire, Claudia, Crissouli, Darryl, David, Dawn, Debbie, Debra, Del, Derek, Diana, Diane, Dick, Don, Dorothy, Douglas, DWP, Ed, Elayne, Elizabeth, Ellen, Eric, Gail, Gary, Geoff, Glenn, Gordon, GordSK, Greta, Gwyneth, Harold, Harry, Heather, Helen, Hugh, Ian, infolass, J, J Brian, J Paul, James, Jane, Janet, Janice, Jean, Jeff, Jennifer, Jess, Jill, Jim, Jo, John, Kanata Barrie, Little London Observationist, Lois, Lucille, Jill, Judith, Judy, Katherine, Kathy, Kelt, Ken, Kirsty, Kyla, Leighann, Lesley, Linda, Lisa, Lucille, Luvvie, Lyn, Lynda, Lynne, Malcolm, Marcus, Marcy, Margaret, Marian, Marion, Marjorea, Mark, Mel, MelMcL, MHD, Michael, Mick, Mike, Murray, Myron, Nancy, Nathan, Old Census Scribe, OnceCanadianByHeritage, Pat, Patricia, Patrick, Patti, Paul, Pauleen, Penny, Persephone, Randy, Regina, Richard, Rick, Rod, Roger, Ross, Roy, rquacke, Ruth, Salli, Sandra, Scott, Sharon, Shauna, Shelley, Sherry, Shirley Ann, Simon, Steve, Susan, Tamara, Teribus, Terry, Thomas, Tony, Trudi, Tyrone, Unknown, Wallace, Wayne, Yolanda.

Those names include bloggers, Facebook and Google+ posters, tweeters and folks who send out information on new resources from various organizations from the family history community.

Thank you all, not forgetting the readers who make the blog worthwhile, a Happy New Year.

 

Year in review summaries

Genealogy bloggers aren't immune from the urge to look back as the year draws to a close.
Roberta Estes, has posted the top ten genetic genealogy happenings at http://bit.ly/VbVSbZ
Chris Paton looks back through the files of his British GENES blog, giving excellent coverage of UK and Ireland developments, Jan through April at http://bit.ly/TnzYEr, May - August at http://bit.ly/RouOIB, and Sept-Dec at http://bit.ly/WSSqVc

I'm looking forward, especially to the release of the 1921 Canadian census this year. It was taken on 1 June 1921 so should be available very soon after the anniversary date. We'll see how serious Library and Archives Canada is about online service. I'm hoping for some turn around from the performance that led to the comment made following Cecilia Muir's presentation at the ACA conference in June that "LAC has lost its soul & its way."

The Family History Show: Surrey History Centre

The most recent edition of The Family History Show, with Nick Barrett and Laura Berry is a rainy day visit to the Archive of the Year 2012 award winner, the Surrey History Centre.

The show is about equally divided between exploring the resources of the Centre and an advertorial for sponsor My Heritage.

In Laura Berry's interview with staffer Jane Lewis they point out the online index to records of the Royal Philanthropic School, Redhill (pdf). More than 1,000 of the children are noted as subsequently moving to Canada, sometimes with the name of the ship or destination given.

Scouting around the site you will see news of the Centre's cooperative project with Ancestry. There's a long list of records being photographed for publication online:


Church of England parish registers from 1538 (baptisms to 1912, marriages to 1937 and burials to 1987)
Land tax records 1780-1832
Electoral registers 1832-1945
Brookwood Hospital Woking, Registers of Admissions 1867-1906
Holloway Sanatorium, General Registers 1885-1904
Calendar of prisoners: Surrey Sessions and Assizes 1848-1902
Freeholders Lists 1696-1824
Licensed victuallers 1785-1903
Queen's Royal West Surrey Regiment enlistment registers 1920-1946
Queen's Royal West Surrey Regiment transfers in registers 1939-1947
Queen's Royal West Surrey Regiment World War II Honours Indexes [1939]-1946
East Surrey Regiment enlistment registers 1920-1946
East Surrey Regiment transfers in registers 1924-1946
East Surrey Regiment 21st - 24th Battalions the London Regiment Nominal Rolls of Officers 1914-1919


I notice that Ancestry is now at work photographing the Electoral registers 1918-1945 which should be completed by the end of March.

AFHS Chinook: table of contents

The latest issue of the Alberta Family Histories Society quarterly magazine Chinook features articles on the theme “Find YOUR Tree in the Forest”

President’s Message – Lorna Laughton
Greetings from the AGS – Les Campbell
Community Spirit Grants – Ruth Sutherland
Editor’s Observations – Wayne Shepheard
Call for Articles – Local Resources and Archives; (Way) Back in Time
Getting the Most from the FamilySearch Website – Peter Darby
What’s Out There – Linda Murray
Finding the Living: Not an easy task for genealogists – Thomas MacEntee
Computer Tricks – Jim Benedict
Delivering Genealogy Programs via Videoconferencing – Penny Allen
Library Research – Lois Sparling
Surname Connections; Federation of Family History Societies Report – Ann Williams
Budget Cuts at LAC – Laura Kirbyson
Once Upon a Time in the Graveyard – Nancy Millar
AFHS Projects – Heather Williams
Periodicals Place: The Breeze and Chinook
Calgary Public Library – Christine Hayes
AFHS Annual General Meeting – First Notice
Events – Laura Kirbyson
AFHS Membership Information and Application Form
AFHS Publications for Sale and Order Form
AFHS Objectives; Contact Information; Board of Directors and Committees

The Society next monthly meeting on Monday, Jan 7, 7-9 p.m. sees Lois Sparling
speaking on Four Reasons to Use Land Records in Your Research

Yuletide R&R - Max Bygraves

Unashamed nostalgia. Max Bygraves, an all round entertainer of my childhood who died this past August. There are a video medley and anecdote at



Also a couple of popular kid-oriented audios here and here.

Saint-John-at-Hampstead parish churchyard stories

The London Borough of Hampstead has a major conservation project for Camden's Hampstead Parish Churchyard which includes an online education resource and audio exploration of the stories of some of the people who are buried at Saint-John-at-Hampstead.

66 items are highlighted including overviews of the church and churchyard; most relate to individuals.

About two-thirds have associated recorded interviews with direct descendants and family members, as well as academics and experts. Those featured range from the famous,  painter John Constable, inventor John Harrison, to victim of a body snatching John Lloyd and rough sleeper Tom Sneddon.

"The Sound Trail is designed to add a new dimension to the written histories of this remarkable and picturesque place, whose original churchyard is the oldest surviving unspoiled churchyard in the centre of greater London. This was officially closed in 1878, but in 1812 an additional burial ground was created, now closed for burials.

Find this interesting site at http://gis.camden.gov.uk/geoserver/SoundTrail.html

via tweet posted by Ancestree Research

DNA poll

Back in August OGS conducted a poll on use of DNA in genealogy. As I prepare for a Before BIFHSGO presentation on January 12 I went back to have a look and found quite a few more responses. Here are the results

Have you used DNA testing as an aid in building your family tree?

• Yes and it was very interesting, glad I did it (49%, 70 Votes)
• No, but I am considering it (31%, 44 Votes)
• Yes, but nothing helpful or surprising turned up so buyer beware (8%, 11 Votes)
• Have never even considered it, will never do it! (6%, 8 Votes)
• Looked into it but decided it was not for me (5%, 7 Votes)
• Awaiting my results now! (3%, 5 Votes)

Total Voters: 143

And if you're still one of those lacking a DNA test a final reminder you have until the end of the year to take advantage of the Family Tree DNA special.

Yuletide R&R - extra

This is a last minute substitution for the previously scheduled item.  You may recall this WDYTYA parody.

It's better in reality

Thanks to Gail Dever for posting this on Facebook.

Deceased Online adds headstone collections for 18 Fife burial sites

Records for 18 more burial grounds, cemeteries and churchyards in Fife have been added to the Deceased Online headstone collection from Scottish Monumental Inscriptions (SMI)


The records available date back to 1753, feature 39,000 names and comprise photos of headstones together with carefully transcribed digitized inscriptions for easy reading

There are now 51 burial sites in the Fife headstone collection available to search; click here to view the full list

In total, there are now headstone collections from nearly 250 cemeteries, burial grounds and churchyards across Scotland featuring over 300,000 names

The SMI records are included in the main search indexes on the website so that names and dates can be searched for in the usual way

With the main collection of burial records, there are now nearly 1.1 million burial records in Scotland available on Deceased Online.

 

Via Richard Gray at Deceased Online

 

Family Tree DNA sale reminder

All good things come to an end, and that includes the promotional prices at Family Tree DNA valid through December 31st.

New Kits Current Group Price SALE PRICE Y-DNA 37 $149 $119 Y-DNA 67 $239 $199 mtFullSequence (FMS) $299 $199 SuperDNA (Y-DNA 67 and mtFullSequence) $518 $398 Family Finder $289 $199 Family Finder + mtDNAPlus $438 $318 Family Finder + mtFullSequence $559 $398 Family Finder + Y-DNA 37 $438 $318 Comprehensive (FF + FMS + Y-67) $797 $597 Upgrades Current Group Price SALE PRICE Y-Refine 12-25 Marker $49 $35 Y-Refine 12-37 Marker $99 $69 Y-Refine 12-67 Marker $189 $148 Y-Refine 25-37 Marker $49 $35 Y-Refine 25-67 Marker $148 $114 Y-Refine 37-67 Marker $99 $79 Y-Refine 37-111 Marker $228 $188 Y-Refine 67-111 Marker $129 $109 mtDNAPlus $149 $129 mtHVR1toMega $269 $179 mtHVR2toMega $239 $179 mtFullSequence Add-on $289 $199

To order this special offer, log in to your personal page and click on the Order An Upgrade button in the upper right corner. A link to the login page is provided below. ALL ORDERS MUST BE PLACED AND PAID FOR BY MONDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2012 11:59:00 PM CST TO RECEIVE THE SALE PRICES.

The Family Finder test at regular price $289 is now considerably higher than being offered by competing companies. 23andMe now offers a test with greater coverage for $99 plus shipping. AncestryDNA offers a comparable test for $199.
FTDNA is known for service and educational materials, and the size of its database for which the company's advantage for this test is not evident. Although it does not typically aim to compete on price I'd be surprised if the $289 is not substantially reduced permanently in the near future.

Yuletide R&R - My Blackberry is not working

Scotland's top baby names for 2012

Jack and Sophie were the most popular baby names in 2012, National Records of Scotland has announced.   

New data shows Jack remains the top boys’ name with Lewis in second place – both for a fifth consecutive year – and Sophie is the most popular girls’ name for the eighth year in a row. 

Between them, Jack and Lewis have been the top two boys’ names for the past 14 consecutive years.  Jack has been number one (with Lewis second) in 10 of those years, and Lewis has been top (with Jack second) for the other four.

Riley is the only new entrant to the boys' top ten, rising 11 places to third. James, Logan and Daniel are fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively.  Ethan, Harry, Alexander and Oliver make up the rest of the boys' top ten.

Max, Tyler, Alfie, Mason and Liam have moved into the top 20. Those falling down the ranking include Ryan, Cameron, Matthew, Aiden and Jayden. 

Emily climbed four places to second in this year’s list.  Olivia, Ava, Lucy and Isla are third, fourth, fifth and sixth respectively.  Lily has fallen from second to seventh.  Jessica, Amelia and Mia complete the girls’ top ten. Erin, Kayla, Abbie and Megan are less popular than last year. 

National Records of Scotland registered the births of around 27,700 boys and 26,400 girls in the first 11 months of 2012. The top 50 boys’ first names accounted for 44 per cent of all those registered and the top 50 girls’ first names accounted for 41 per cent of the registrations.

Parents chose almost 7,400 different first forenames for their children and nearly 4,800 of these were unique.

Big climbers in the 2012 baby name charts include:

• Riley (up 11 places to third)
• Max (up 15 places to 11th)
• Tyler (up 20 places to 12th)
• Mason (up 13 places to 18th)
• Harris (up 20 places to 29th)
• Amelia (up 20 places to ninth)
• Millie (up seven places to 11th)
• Ella (up eight places to joint 25th)
• Poppy (up 11 places to 34th)
• Orla (up 19 places to 36th)

The full publication is available at Babies' First Names 2012,

Yuletide R&R - Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie

LAC as lender of last resort

• LAC have announced their intention to continue to make interlibrary loans as “lender of last resort” starting in September 2013 in order to support access to unique materials only available in LAC’s collection. There will be a gap from now to that time, one for which LAC's answers are to visit LAC in person, hire an agent, or request copies at 40 cents per page, intellectual property right permitting.
  
  Based on previous demand LAC expects the new system will apply primarily to monographs, as well as some newspapers and serials that are unique to LAC’s holdings.
  
  Likely those most seriously impacted will be in the university community. The Ottawa Public Library inform me that only 3% of their ILL requests go to LAC. Owing to proximity you'd think the OPL would be making more use of LAC than other public library systems.
  
  The bottom line is that the new policy may well not produce as much in the way of decreased demand to LAC as the policy would suggest.
  
  

FREE Ancestry Access

Ancestry.ca is offering free access, with registration, to more than 300 million
records from Canada and around the world through December 29th.

Once you have registered Ancestry will send you a user name and password to access the records. If you haven't already, you will be prompted to register once you start trying to search and view the records. After December 29, 2012, you will only be able to view these records using an Ancestry.ca paid membership.

Find My Past in 2013

In 2013 findmypast.co.uk is promising millions more newspaper pages, a new collection of crime, courts and convicts records in partnership with The National Archives, electoral rolls 1832-1928 and India Office records in partnership with the British Library, thousands of new parish records every month.

I received FMP two discount subscription offers. The better offer, good until midnight on January 13th, is 20% off the regular subscription price. that's the discount previously routinely offered for renewals, the best you'll usually find.

The discount code is: BRANDYBUTTER. The real thing is irrestible, the discount subscription with the growing newspaper collection is not far behind if you're looking for a new subscription.

Yuletide R&R - Max Miller

By special request, a stage performance by popular British comedian Max Miller.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nm61yavCp-o

Yuletime R&R - Rowan Atkinson

A personal favourite for Christmas Day

Yuletide R&R - Hancock - The Blood Donor

"The Blood Donor" is perhaps the best known episode from the comedy series Hancock, the final BBC series featuring British comedian Tony Hancock. First transmitted on 23 June 1961.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pC1-Mrlm3TU

 

Balancing the budget on the back of community groups

It looks like the government wants to drive community organizations out of meeting at 395 Wellington in Ottawa. In addition to the increase in room rental cost at LAC, there is now a surprise additional fee to get access to wireless internet. The facility, operated by Public Works and Government Extortion Services Canada now charge $125 per meeting. If they worked in the building, not at all certain, a rocket/turbo stick would seem to be a better option.

Thanks to Mike More, OGS vice-president for the tip

Yuletide R&R: Are You Being Served? Christmas

 

Ancestry updates Pallot's Marriage Index for England: 1780 - 1837

Now updated to include 1,697,636 entries at Ancestry.co.uk, Pallot's Index to Marriages covers all but two of the 103 parishes in the old City of London. The dates span the time from 1780 to the onset of General Registration in 1837. Also included are entries from 2,500 parishes in 38 counties outside of London-many not available in other sources. Several of the registers transcribed in Pallot's index no longer exist, having been destroyed since they were indexed.

Yuletide R&R - Two Ronnies: Four Candles

 

Ancestry updates West Yorkshire, Non-Conformist Records, 1646-1985

Ancestry.co.uk has loaded additional search and browse files for Baptist, Congregationalist and Independent, Moravian, Methodist, Inghamite, Quaker, and Presbyterian records for Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds and Wakefield.


The breakout of year ranges per event type are:

Births and Baptisms: 1646-1910
Marriages and Banns: 1659-1935
Deaths and Burials: 1656-1985
Residence: 1772-1973

Essex Ancestors update complete!

From the Essex Record Office:

"Our regular users may already be familiar with our Essex Ancestors service, which allows subscribers to view digital images of Essex parish registers and wills.

These are two of the most important and useful resources for family historians. Parish registers contain baptisms, marriages and burials for each parish in Essex, while wills can give you fascinating information about your ancestor’s lives."  

More

Thanks to Gail Dever for another great tip.

The End of the World

In recognition of the supposed end of the world today according to the Mayan calendar, a skit from is Beyond the Fringe's (Peter Cook, Dudley Moore & co).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSZ2by7M9NI

Christmas blogging plans

As in previous years the number of visitors to the blog has dropped off, less new information is coming out on planet family history. I could struggle and likely produce only boring posts. None of us want that.

Besides we all have other things to do. So it's a good time to pause regular blogging.

Yuletide R&R, British comedy and nostalgia items that tickle my fancy, are scheduled in advance as in previous years, and some end of year articles. There may be a day or so without posts.

All being well blogging will be back to normal early in January with the promise of interesting new items.

The indexed census from LAC

Library and Archives Canada have announced on their blog that, starting with 1906, nominal indexed Canadian census returns are becoming available from them online. In total there will be 15 databases on Canadian census returns from 1825 to 1916, comprising more than 32 million records.

I'm informed that the source for the nominal indexes is a mixture of the results of agreements between Ancestry.ca, Family Search and the Manitoba Genealogical Society, revised to provide accurate references to geographical metadata such as district and sub-district numbers, names and descriptions.

There will apparently be a facility for users to suggest corrections.

Free credits on Find My Past UK

The following is information from Montreal genealogist, and faithful reader of the blog, Gail Dever:

The UK version of Findmypast is offering 50 free credits, provided you use the promo code, SNOWFLAKE, before January 2. The credits are good for 90 days. No credit card information is required. They only request first and last name, email address, password, country and level of experience.

I signed up to determine if there is a difference between the UK version and the US version as far as the types of records they each offer. So far, the only difference I have seen is in the layout. Nevertheless, I continue to compare, hoping to find records that are new to me.

Now, if someone could offer a similar deal for the Irish version, I would be very happy.

Here is the link to the offer:

http://www.findmypast.co.uk/content/start-your-family-tree-week/index

Thanks to Gail for the tip, a nice Christmas present from Find My Past.

Interlibrary loan and LAC

I had the opportunity to speak with a manager from Library and Archives Canada, who wished to remain anonymous, about the organization's role in Interlibrary loan (ILL). It's a talk I'd been hoping to have for some while?

He noted that, as reported in La Presse, and in this post from Library Boy, LAC will now only be making loans as a lender of last resort, when no other available copy can be located in Canada after a diligent search.

LAC will continue to operate and maintain the Amicus database which will facilitate libraries across Canada locating available copies.

Materials available on microfilm, and for which intellectual property rights make it possible, will be available digitally from LAC at 40 cents per page.

LAC is aiming to digitize its public domain materials over the next three years, such as newspapers more than 90 years old. No digitization arrangements are in yet place to do so, nor are they anticipated to be in place for several months. As we know at LAC, nothing good happens quickly if at all.

These changes at LAC were explained as necessary because of the organization budget cut and in light of a continuing drop in demand for ILL service. Last year there were 34,000 requests for material loans. The trend continued this year and the drop would have been several thousand more if the program had continued.

Recent requests comprise roughly one third books and monographs, one third microfilms, and one third other such as theses and government publications. A substantial part was requests from inside the federal government. Many of the ILL requests could not be met for various reasons, perhaps only a preservation copy available or too fragile.

COMMENT

Apparently LAC has made no evaluation of the impact of these changes on Canadian libraries and their more than 25,000 ILL clients! Will LAC decide it can ignore a similar number of clients who visit 395 Wellington and close public access entirely?

2011 comparative census population statistics

I'd been wondering what happened to the 2011 census results for Scotland. Data for England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and for Canada, were released months ago. I normally think of Scotland's GRO as being prompt in delivering results, especially the annual statistics on baby names which should be out for 2012 any time, months ahead of the rest of the UK.

Well, Scotland released the first part of their census data a few days ago so now that we have the figures, and as the flow of genealogy news has slowed down for Christmas, here are the populations in perspective.

The UK had a 2011 population of 63.2 million, Canada 33.5 million, Ireland 4.6 million.

For the sub-component jurisdictions

1. England: 53.0 million (39 est)
2. Ontario: 12.9 million (40.4)
3. Quebec: 7.9 million (41.9)
4. Scotland: 5.3 million (41)
5. British Columbia: 4.4 million (41.9)
6. Alberta: 3.6 million (36.5)
7. Wales: 3.1 million (41)
8. Northern Ireland: 1.8 million (37)
9. Manitoba: 1.2 million (38.4)
10. Saskatchewan: 1.0 million (38.2)

Further Scottish Monumental Inscriptions from Deceased Online

Thirty more burial grounds, cemeteries and churchyards have been added to the Deceased Online headstone collection from Scottish Monumental Inscriptions (SMI)

"Records available comprise photos of headstones together with the carefully transcribed digitised inscriptions for easy reading

The new records are for the Angus Council and Dundee City Council areas in North East Scotland with records dating back to 1754

In total, there are now SMI headstone collections from over 230 cemeteries, burial grounds and churchyards across Scotland."

Archives good news

There's so much gloomy news about archives and libraries these days that it's a positive pleasure to learn something good. This is repeating a comment posted by Michael T R B Turnbull, thank you, to one of my previous blog items about the Scottish Catholic Archives.

There seems to be a widespread misconception that Columba House at 16 Drummond Place, the home of the Scottish Catholic Archives since 1958, is closed for the foreseeable future.
In fact, the opposite is true. Columba House, with its incredible storehouse of documents, is very much open for business, but, due to staffing shortages, offering a reduced service for the time being.
Researchers should have no problem accessing the collection, making an appointment by emailing archivists@scottishcatholicarchives.org.uk or telephoning 0131 556 3661.
I was there last week. The service was professional, the reading room cosy, the wireless connection excellent and the documents, as ever, fascinating. The presence of other researchers from many parts of Scotland and overseas, added to the positive experience.

Ireland, Landed Estate Court Files, 1850-1885 at FamilySearch

Just appearing on FamilySearch, index entries to 107,598 images of "Ireland, Landed Estate Court Files, 1850-1885". The index contains name, event type, year and county. For example, there are several records for Hannah, John, Robert and George Robert Storey in Fermanagh. Images are only available when using the site at a family history center or to "signed-in members of supporting organizations."

Update: Chris Paton has additional information on his British GENES blog at http://bit.ly/TuqFkJ.

Ancestry sale on hold

From Bloomberg.com:

Ancestry.com Inc. (ACOM) officials can’t proceed with the $1.6 billion sale of the family-history website to Permira Advisers LLP until it discloses more information about the deal before a Dec. 27 shareholder vote, a judge ruled.

Read the full item at http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-17/ancestry-com-sale-to-permira-barrred-from-proceeding-1-.html

TCD Library’s Digital Collections

John Grenham's latest Irish Roots column throws the spotlight on Trinity College Dublin Library’s Digital Collections (digitalcollections.tcd.ie). There would appear to be 4,703 works in the collection.

I didn't find navigation obvious. Grenham clearly got further with it than I did to laud "the extraordinary range of its contents" and find "from the point of view of genealogy, the most directly useful items are the eighteen manuscript volumes of Trinity’s own admission and matriculation registers from 1607 to 1907."

Google Zeitgeist 2012: A Year In Search

Just because I like it!

Newfoundland, Catholic Church Records, 1793-1945 at FamilySearch

Just added, baptisms, marriages and deaths from some Newfoundland Catholic parishes. Browse through 6,071 images.

Coverage, years vary by parish.

Bulls Bay: Saints Peter and Paul
Ferryland: Holy Trinity
Flatrock: Holy Trinity
Freshwater: Holy Rosary
Placentia: Sacred Heart
Portugal Cove: Holy Rosary
Salmonier: Saint Joseph's
St Bernard's: Sacred Heart
St John's: Basilica of Saint John the Baptist and Saint Patrick's
Torbay: Holy Trinity

https://familysearch.org

A sad tale: Library and Archives Canada

Last Sunday saw a one-day conference at the War Museum in Ottawa on the commemoration of the First War. Aside from a variety of speakers several organizations were present to publicize what they are planning for 2014-2018. One institution in this country, the one that holds virtually all of the official records of the war, Library and Archives Canada, was conspicuous by its absence. It's not exactly a long way for LAC to travel to the War Museum. The Archives of Ontario managed to make the trip from Toronto and had a booth.

A recent post by LAC stated that there are four exhibits by the organization on display in different parts of the country, yet they're unable to get to a one-day event in their backyard dealing with the Great War for which they hold such great records!


This is yet another LAC instance of all talk with little real delivery. I'm informed that Librarian and Archivist Daniel Caron believes that recent media coverage of the organization he heads is inaccurate. He wants to re-establish the integrity and professionalism of the organization. There is no question regarding integrity and professionalism of the staff, only that of some top management. Caron is the head of the organization. He must face up to the reality of the situation, not just the perception, and his very personal responsibility for the decline of LAC services.


I'm told that Caron is encouraging staff to: Inform. Consult. Participate.
One need look no further than the Great War conference to see how seriously "Participate" is being taken.
"Consult" appears to be directed within the organization. At this time when jobs are being cut how many staff are going to be prepared to speak out and deviate from the party line? The exceptions appear to be an annual meeting with archival and library organizations and set piece appearances by senior staff at conferences such as the Canadian Library Association. There is no consultation with users struggling to make the system work for them, and with the thousands of now former remote clients who will no longer have access to the collection through interlibrary loan.
"Inform" is the best of this lot. We learn on a weekly basis of a couple of dozen images from the collection placed on Flickr to mark timely special occasions, semi-annual podcasts, which to give credit are well done, and the touring exhibits. Weight that against being informed that interlibrary loan is cut, no more funding for the National Archives Development Program although LAC wants to rely more on smaller partner organizations for delivery.

Just released are results of a survey of 400 members of the Canadian Library Association. It found overwhelmingly agreement, 98% of respondents, that cuts will impact both local and national library services. Areas most likely to be affected were identified, and include: access to material/information, research, interlibrary loans, Community Access Program, preservation, staffing cuts, digital issues. CLA, which had previously been criticized for not taking a strong enough stand, is preparing follow up actions based on these survey results.

As we come to the end of a sad year for a once proud organization it has to be said that not all the blame for the LAC's situation can be laid on the organization management. Heritage Minister James Moore clearly doesn't care and acts as if he has no responsibility for this organization which part of his ministerial portfolio. As another Caron, the NDP Heritage critic put it, Moore is "washing his hands" of the situation and referring all questions to public servants. It's not good enough.

Longing for an old fashioned English Christmas?

Is this your idea of an old fashioned Christmas?

"a gregarious and largely adult affair, held amidst the laden tables of baronial halls, and imbued with the concept of a time of license and the suspension of the normal rules of society."

According to the December newsletter (pdf) of the The English Diaspora Project that was the nature of the pre-Victorian Christmas, as depicted by Dickens in ‘Mr Fessiwig’s Ball’ in A Christmas Carol.

From the same project comes this short video on St George's Societies - Ottawa and Toronto even get a mention.

Deceasedonline.com adds Bolton's Westhoughton cemetery records

The following is a notice from deceasedonline.com

Burial records for the 6th of Bolton Council's 7 cemeteries are now available.

Westhoughton Cemetery dates back to 1858 and includes many interesting burials and memorials

Its most famous feature is the memorial to the Pretoria Pit (Hulton) disaster of December 1910

This was Britain's 3rd worst ever mining disaster when an underground explosion claimed the lives of 344 miners, most local to the area, leaving many families devastated

The data for Westhoughton comprises:

Details of all graves indicating those buried in each grave

Scans of all burial registers

Cemetery maps indicating grave locations

For full details of Westhoughton and all of the Bolton cemeteries click here

Records for Horwich Cemetery will be available very soon and Bolton's Overdale Crematorium records will follow shortly.

 

TNA podcast: Tracing Huguenot Ancestry

The history and records of the Protestants who fled to England, and in more limited number to Ireland and Scotland, from France and the Low Countries between the 16th and 18th centuries. This clear and well organized presentation, recorded in late November, is by TNA podcast regular Dr Kathleen Chater who has Huguenot ancestry.

http://media.nationalarchives.gov.uk/index.php/tracing-huguenot-ancestors/

LAC 1906 census index release date

Library and Archives Canada tweets release of 1906 census nominal index for the Prairie Provinces will be on January 8th. 1916 census to follow at undetermined date.

Don't want to wait? Go to http://automatedgenealogy.com/census06/ or to www.familysearch.org for a full transcript.

WDYTYA competitions

If you're attending Who Do You Think You Are? Live at London's Olympia, 22-24 February, still thinking about it, or even if you're not planning on attending this year, here's an opportunity to grab a prize.

Likely a subscription to the Radio Times isn't of interest if you're outside the UK, you don't have to enter for that, but they'll be lots of interest in the online course offerred jointly by The Federation of Family History Societies (FFHS) and Pharos Teaching & Tutoring.

Enter for one or more of the prizes at: http://www.whodoyouthinkyouarelive.com/competitions

I notice WDYTYA? Live is featuring an expanded Military Pavilion this year as interest grows toward the 100 year anniversary of The Great War in 2014.

The future of the monarchy in Canada

From activehistory.ca, a thoughtful article on a sometimes sensitive topic. As a dual citizen whatever Canada decided about the monarchy I'd have a monarch as long as Britain, or maybe in view of the Scottish referendum I should say England, does.
In any event Canada would likely opt to remain part of the British Commonwealth and, as did South Africa which has it's own head of state, so maintaining a link with the British monarchy.

OGS Ottawa Branch December meeting

Many OGS Branches forgo a December meeting, not so Ottawa Branch which meets on Saturday, 15 December for a presentation "Perils and Petticoats: Exceptional Women of the War of 1812"

Few women’s stories appear in Canadian history books as their contributions to the War of 1812 are overlooked. Canada’s bicentennial commemoration is the perfect time to tell about six real women whose husbands marched off to war to defend the British colonies. These women’s stories are about bravery, devotion and perseverance.

The presentation is by historical researcher, and Board Member of the Goulbourn Museum, Kurt Johnson.
The meeting runs from 13:00 – 15:00 at the City of Ottawa Archives, 100 Tallwood Drive, Room 115, and may be simulcast for members

Shipping DNA kits

If you've seen the $99 autosomal DNA test offer from 23andMe, reduced from $299, you've likely given it more than passing consideration. However, delve a bit further and you're probably in for a none too pleasant surprise. While their standard shipping fee is $9.95 in the US the company charges exorbitant shipping fees internationally. For Canada shipping is $59.95. If you think that's bad be thankful you're not in Albania, Azerbajan, Belarus or Croatia where shipping now costs more than the test.

There's an interesting alternative, other shipping service providers, and they may also be useful for more than DNA. Options are suggested by The International Society of Genetic Genealogy on a new web page "Shipping DNA Kits".

The situation is particularly bizarre in Ottawa as the spit collection system used by 23andMe is the product of an Ottawa company, DNA Genotech.