I've previously recommended a free subscription to Peter Calver's Lost Cousins Newsletter. The mid-January edition is an excellent example of why.
Read it and you'll learn:
1. From noon (London time) on Friday 22nd January until the same time on Monday 25th January all four of Findmypast's sites will be free (the only records excluded from the offer are the modern UK Electoral Registers and the recently released 1939 Register).
2. LostCousins is opened for free until midnight next Tuesday.
3. From the 16th February 2016, Findmypast's premium record set, the 1939 Register, will be made available to 12 month Britain and World subscribers as part of their subscription packages, giving them unlimited access to the records of 30.5 million people. [Comment: I kew this would come, but didn't expect it so soon.]
4. Findmypast is increasing the price of new subscriptions by 20% on February 16th, but.freezing the price of their next renewal on our 12 month subscription packages. [Comment: If you don't have a Findmypast subscription, and are a BIFHSGO member, now would be an excellent time to take advantage of the special BIFHSGO member discount on a subscription.]
There's lots more news where that came from.
Information from Jennifer Weymark, Archivist at the Oshawa Community Museum and Archives is that the Oshawa Newspaper Digitization Project, funded by the Government of Canada, is one step closer to completion. The hard copy newspapers have been photographed and are ready to be sent out to be made searchable and uploaded to the internet.
A donation of more hard copy newspapers to be added to the project has been received and several OHS members have come forward to assist with covering the cost of digitizing these newspapers.
Local initiatives to digitized local newspapers in Ontario are gaining momentum. When will the challenge of (properly) digitizing the Ottawa Citizen be taken up by a local group.
Last time I looked, on 8 December, 42% of the last 500 visitors to this blog were using Windows 7. That was followed by 11.6% using iOS (iPad), 10.8% with Windows 8.1, and 9.8% Windows 10.
As of today 42.4% use Windows 7, 19% Windows 10, 9.8% iOS (iPad). Windows 8.1 has dropped to 8%.
Looks like there are lots of folks like me who are happy with Windows 7 and are not yet seeking the adventure of switching to Windows 10! And I'm reading that Family Tree Maker 2014 doesn't work with Windows 10.
John Grenham surveys the availability of sources for the Irish departed in his most recent Irish Roots blog post at www.irishtimes.com/blogs/irishroots/2016/01/18/digging-up-death-records/. Also check out his Irish Ancestors site at www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/.
Bonus
You will likely also enjoy this short video on the history of Ireland
Findmypast has announced that the service provided by second-tier genealogy site Mocavo, acquired by FMP in June 2014, is being merged into findmypast.com/. That makes sense in providing FMP with additional US capability and visibility. 83% of visitors to Mocavo are from the US and it received the endorsement of uber blogger Dick Eastman quoted on the Mocavo site “All my future genealogy searches will start on Mocavo”
For Canadian researchers this amalgamation should make little difference. Findmypast.com is disinterested in Canadian records. Those who know how to perform a Google search with ~genealogy as one of the search terms are unlikely to find additional Canadian content from the Mocavo material in the merged site.
We all have objectives for our family history research, even if we haven't enunciated them. A major risk in achieving the goals is heading off along any tantalisingly interesting side track that comes into view. And the best way to avoid that is the discipline of a deadline, corralling your family history research. Committing to a presentation at a specific event is an excellent step.
Speaking to members at BIFHSGO meetings I hear all kinds of stories that would make excellent presentations and bring lessons of value to other researchers. People also tell me about techniques they've found useful. Each has the makings of an interesting presentation.
The end of this month is the deadline for sending in presentation proposals for the annual BIFHSGO Family History Conference, this year September 9 - 11, 2016. Although there are themes, Ireland and DNA, proposals for talks on any topic of interest to attendees are welcome.
Find out more at www.bifhsgo.ca/cpage.php?pt=125
The following is a letter of intent regarding a possible co-location of elements of Library and Archives Canada public interface and a new Central Library for the Ottawa Public Library system signed by the senior executives of both organizations. It was received from LAC earlier today.
A committee is established to bring forward recommendations later this year.
Check out the blog by talented researcher and writer Dave Allston about "west Ottawa's little-known history, with stories, photos and information covering the fascinating history of the historic Kitchissippi neighbourhoods."
The Kitchissippi Museum is virtual at present, the blog, but Dave's ambition is that "By the spring-summer, I also plan on bringing to reality an actual real-life Kitchissippi Museum! I am working now on establishing a "pop-up" museum at a location in our ward, for anywhere from 3-7 days, to share photos, artifacts, maps, videos, etc. I'm really excited about this and hope to be able to pull it off soon, perhaps to coincide with Westfest.
Still seeking volunteers? How many of the 27 Best Practices from the Idea Champions can your organization tick off as being practised?
Find all 27 here. My top five would be
1. Clearly (and often) communicate the vision.
4. Ensure that volunteers know exactly what’s expected of them.
5. Start new volunteers off small. Don’t scare them off with too huge of a commitment too soon.
7. Communicate progress being made on a regular basis. Volunteers need to see that their efforts are having impact.
20. Do your best to make sure everyone is enjoying the process of participating.
Do you agree? Are there some missing?
"The world's first modern computer, in Manchester in 1948, was followed remarkably swiftly by the first business software, but by 1968 software was in crisis and NATO called a conference. The problems were diagnosed, solutions were proposed - and largely ignored. A second Software Crisis was announced in the early 1980's and again the effective solutions were considered impractical and the practical solutions were largely ineffective. Meanwhile as Moore's Law predicted, hardware costs continued to fall exponentially, making software systems ubiquitous and leading to a third software crisis, this time of cybersecurity."View the video, read the transcript or listen to the audio while viewing PowerPoint slides at http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/a-very-brief-history-of-computing-1948-2015
8 January 1947 is a date I picked not quite at random.
It saw the birth in Brixton, south London, of David Robert Jones, in the news recently, The birth was originally registered in Lambeth under his mother's maiden name of Burns.
What was the weather like that day?
The British Meteorological Office have issues of the Daily Weather Report since the 1860s scanned and free online. For much of the period it includes a weather map showing an analysis of weather systems on the morning of that day.
A major low pressure system is off the British coast while London is in a calm area. There's a more detailed weather map for the UK and listings of weather reports for many sites on a 6-hourly basis.
The nearest weather reporting station to Brixton is at Kew, just 10 Km away. It shows that at 6 am GMT it was overcast, foggy with visibility less than 66 yards, wind calm with temperature 36F and dew point the same meaning 100% relative humidity. Pressure was 1009.4 millibars and rising slightly. By noon the fog had lifted but it was still overcast, the pressure was dropping, the wind had picked up from the ESE, temperature risen a couple of degrees. By 6 pm the temperature was up to 43F, the pressure dropping further and the wind picked up from the SSE.
Find the map and detailed weather reports at https://digital.nmla.metoffice.gov.uk/file/sdb%3AdigitalFile%7C1b5f111c-c023-47a5-88cd-b2c918a5d148/. Download the pdf for a better view.
It was a wholly unremarkable dull London day that greeted the birth of David Bowie.
Even if your interest is more in Canada than the UK the weather map may be a useful complement to Meteorological Service of Canada historical data found at http://climate.weather.gc.ca/index_e.html#access
The following is an announcement from the Association of Canadian Archivists.
The Association of Canadian Archivists is pleased to announce the completion of a 5-year sponsor agreement with Ancestry which begins in 2016. The agreement continues Ancestry's gold sponsorship of the Awards Luncheon at the annual conference. It includes a $1,200 annual scholarship which is being developed and will be overseen by the ACA Foundation. A portion of the funds will be directed to ACA's online learning program this year, and other high priority projects in future years.
England, Pollbooks and Directories, 1830-1837, contains over 62,000 records, both transcripts and images.
Included are: Bath Reform Pollbook For 1837, Bedfordshire 1832 Pollbook, Bristol Pollbook 1830, Buckinghamshire Pollbook 1831, Cambridge University Pollbook 1831, Cambridgeshire Pollbook 1830, Cambridgeshire Pollbook 1832, Colchester Pollbook 1830, Derbyshire North 1832 Pollbook, Derbyshire South 1832 Pollbook, Dorset Pollbook 1831, Durham City 1832 Pollbook, Durham North Pollbook 1832, Hereford City Pollbook 1835, Hertford City Pollbook 1835, Leicester Pollbook 1832, Poll Of The Burgesses For Canterbury 1835, Quaker Annual Monitor 1833, Rochester Pollbook 1830, Shrewsbury 1835 Pollbook, Truro Pollbook 1832, Wallingford, Berkshire Pollbook 1832
The Quaker Annual Monitor lists all the British Quakers who died within the last twelve months. For many people listed, obituaries with short, and sometime long biographies including causes of death.
As the population of England at this time was about 14 million is less than one-half of one per cent.
Surrey, Southwark, Newington Apprentice Register 1891 lists the details of 427 Victorian apprentices who trained in the Newington district of Southwark (then part of Surrey).
Each record consists of a transcripts created by Peter Shilham from the original apprentice records held at the Southwark Local History Library. Each transcript will reveal an individual apprentice's name, age, the name of their master, where their master was based and the names of their parents.
Hertfordshire, Parish Registers Browse, 1538-1988 adds a browse function to thecollection of over 1.9 million Hertfordshire Parish Registers. It is now possible to browse through over 1,600 register books from cover to cover. The books contain records of baptisms, banns, marriages and burials conducted across 400 years of the county's history.
Registration for OGS Conference 2016 is open today, Friday 15 January,
Some of the activities will be very popular. Early birds, those who register before 15 March, get a discount. Both good reasons not to hesitate.
Read all about the conference, and register, at www.ogs.on.ca/conference/.
I hope to see you there.
The Police Gazette, in early years also known as Hue and Cry, contains printed publications used for communication between members of the police force in the UK between 1812 and 1927.
Issues are available for the years 1812, 1816, 1828, 1831-2, 1835, 1840, 1843-4, 1846, 1850, 1861-4, 1868, 1870 - 1882, 1889-90, 1894-7, 1899-1902, 1921-2, 1924-7. Within those years the collection is incomplete.
Look for information on wanted criminals, crimes committed, criminals who had been apprehended, and missing persons.
The collection can be searched by:
Name
Birth year
Publication year
Event year
Event location
Event Type
Role in Crime
Conviction Place
The topic for the next OGS Kingston Branch meeting is “Who Knew??!!” when 5 or 6 members will speak for 5-10 minutes each about a genealogical surprise they have found, and how/where they found it.
That’s Saturday 16 January at 10:00 am at the Seniors Centre, 56 Francis Street, Sir John A. Macdonald Room. Lots of free parking. Coffee, help and networking from 9-10.
Thanks to Nancy Cutway for the information.
Below is the text of an announcement from Library and Archives Canada showing a welcome open-minded approach on the part of LAC and the Ottawa Public Library. This could be modeled on the partnership between the Montreal Public Library and the Quebec Provincial Archives well known to Montrealers Guy Berthiaume and Minister of Canadian Heritage Mélanie Joly.
Partnership between LAC and the Ottawa Public Library
At a meeting of the Ottawa Public Library Board on January 12, 2016, it was announced that the Ottawa Public Library (OPL) and Library and Archives Canada (LAC) will explore a potential and innovative partnership opportunity with respect to the new Central Library project and the development of a landmark facility in the nation’s capital.
While acknowledging the differences and unique qualities respective to our two organizations, we both provide public services that are a source of tremendous synergy. Our goal is to explore the possibility of partnering together in a shared-use facility to offer value-added services to our clients.
Over the coming months, we will consider the terms of an innovative partnership opportunity that would allow LAC to move some activities and services from 395 Wellington Street to a joint facility with the OPL at a site in close proximity to our current location in central Ottawa.
I am very enthusiastic about this opportunity to significantly expand our client base.
I also want to assure you that there are no plans to reduce staff as part of this initiative.
This is an exciting time for LAC and the OPL, and for the National Capital Region, as we explore opportunities on this incredible city-building initiative on the eve of Canada’s 150th birthday.
I will keep you informed as we move ahead.
Guy Berthiaume
Librarian and Archivist of Canada
Are you more active in researching your family history stimulated by family gatherings at Christmas? John Grenham's writes in his latest Irish Roots column "Immediately after Christmas, traffic to genealogical websites spikes and for five or six weeks thereafter the number of research inquiries and of visitors to archives and libraries grows and grows."
He doesn't state where the statistics on which he bases this opinion come from - just that when "traffic to a genealogy site quadruples over 48 hours, the same 48 hours year-in year-out, it becomes crystal clear that Christmas is the spur."
Or is it?
James Tanner commented in a post Seasonal Changes in Genealogy Interest on his Genealogy's Star blog in May 2013 that "Interest in genealogy peaks in about February or March and then slides downhill until August. With Fall and back to school, interest begins to pick up again and the cycle starts over."
The nearly ten years of stats for my blog show rather low activity immediately after Christmas with visits per day growing through January and reaching a peak in early March. Could it be that family history is a more comfortable indoor occupation with less competition from gardening, golf and other outdoor recreational activities during the Northern hemisphere winter.
Several short transcription volumes are being published by Ontario military historian and genealogist Ken Scheffler. The two most recent, presently available free in the Kindle store, are:
Canadian Casualties: Toronto World -- April 1915, published on 7 January 2016
and
Canadian Casualties: Toronto World – December 1915, published 5 January 2016
Other Kindle publications in the series, for July through October 1915, were published in December and are now listed for $1.38 Canadian. However, Lulu.com has some of these without charge.
For deaths the information is very much the same as at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. For those and others Library and Archives Canada's Soldiers of the First World War database of attestation papers and an increasing number of service files will likely have much the same information, and more. There are always exceptions.
Other First World War era publications by Scheffler at lulu.con are Canadian Expeditionary Force enlistments by regimental number of the 193rd, 230th, 232nd, 233rd, 234th, 235th, 254th and 255th Battalions.
The latest weekly email newsletter from the Ontario Genealogical Society has (at least) two items of interest.
On Thursday, February 4, 2016 - 7:00 PM ET Dr. Janet Few will be presenting a free webinar, open to members and non-members alike, A to Z of Family History: an alphabetical journey through some less well known sources for British Family History.
Janet is always worth listening to. I know one of the 100 places available is taken. Don't be left out. Register early at http://bit.ly/ogswebinars
In other news, in March the OGS Provincial Office will be moving to 2100 Steeles Avenue West, Unit # 202, Vaughan, Ontario L4K 2V1. Check out the location at https://goo.gl/5HMikZ
Over 16,000 new records covering the parishes of Addington, Ash, Cuxton, Ridley and Offham have been added to the FMP collection of Kent baptismal records - now over half a million records from 123 parishes for dates from 1538 to 1988.
New records from five Kent parishes are now available to search in the FMP Kent banns collection now 26,176 entries covering 57 parishes: Addington, St Margaret, Aldington, Allington, Appledore, Ash Next Sevenoaks, St Peter & St Paul, Barming, Biddenden, Bilsington, Birling, All Saints, Bonnington, Borden, Boughton Aluph, Boughton Monchelsea, Brabourne, Bredgar, Brenchley, Brenzett, Brookland, Broomfield, Burham, St Mary The Virgin, Burmarsh, Charing, Chart Sutton, Cuxton, St Michael & All Angels, East Farleigh, East Sutton, Eastchurch, Ebony, Frindsbury, Frittenden, Harrietsham, High Halden, Hinxhill, Iwade, Kenardington, Kennington, Kingsnorth, Langley, Leeds, Lenham, Little Chart, Lower Halstow, Luddesdown, Monks Horton, Offham, St Michael, Orlestone, Ridley, St Peter, Ryarsh, St Martins, Shadoxhurst, Shepherdswell (Sibertswold), Teston, Trottiscliffe, Ulcombe, Upchurch, Warehorne, Westwell, Woodchurch.
Over 4,000 records are added to the FMP Kent marriage records for the parishes of Addington, Ash, Cuxton, Ridley and Offham. Kent marriage now comprises over 369,000 records from 146 parishes that date from 1538 to 1987.
11,000 new records are added to the Kent Burial Records collection which now comprises over 395,000 burials and 112 parishes dating from 1538 to 2006.
Devon, Plymouth & West Devon Electoral Registers 1780-1973 from findmypast provides 74,093 records with images of the original.
As these records originate over such a long period of time the contents, and terms governing who qualified to be included, varied. Check out http://search.findmypast.com/search-world-Records/devon-plymouth-and-west-devon-electoral-registers-1780-1973 for details.
The Doing Our Bit blog on military and family history research, from Victoria BC based Steve Clifford, has a post estimating when Canadian Expeditionary Force service files at Library and Archives Canada will be digitized.
Based on completing digitization by the end of 1918 the estimate is that 2016 will see work being done on surnames starting with G into the start of M surnames.
One of the by-products of the post's table of the number of surnames in the file for each initial letter, is an estimate of how far you need to go into an unindexed alphabetically ordered file, like a microfilm, to find a surname.
D is one-quarter of the way through, G one-third, K one-half, M two-thirds, and P three-quarters.
Here's the complete table.
| Surname | Start | End |
|---|---|---|
| A | 0 | 2.9 |
| B | 2.9 | 12.7 |
| C | 12.7 | 20.7 |
| D | 20.7 | 26.0 |
| E | 26.0 | 27.5 |
| F | 27.5 | 32.0 |
| G | 32.0 | 38.4 |
| H | 38.4 | 45.2 |
| I | 45.2 | 45.6 |
| J | 45.6 | 47.9 |
| K | 47.9 | 50.3 |
| L | 50.3 | 56.0 |
| M | 56.0 | 68.3 |
| N | 68.3 | 69.8 |
| O | 69.8 | 71.1 |
| P | 71.1 | 76.0 |
| Q | 76.0 | 76.2 |
| R | 76.2 | 81.0 |
| S | 81.0 | 89.2 |
| T | 89.2 | 92.7 |
| U | 92.7 | 92.9 |
| V | 92.9 | 93.7 |
| W | 93.7 | 99.4 |
| X | 99.4 | 99.4 |
| Y | 99.4 | 99.9 |
| Z | 99.9 | 100.0 |
Brush up and raise your knowledge of the history of Canadian curling. Curl up with this new LAC podcast (mp3) to counter and take out the winter blues.
It's all button(ed) up in just over 22 minutes. Take out the preliminaries and skip to 2:20 to get to the lead in to the interview with curling historian Warren Hansen.
Is it a hit? Many may find it too heavy by the end, a drag. Enthusiasts will get a bounce.
The preparations had been made well in advance. Now Britain was at war, and as the uniformed army prepared to face the enemy, a civilian army was mobilised at home. National Registration Officers, registrars, and 65,000 enumerators set about the huge task of registering every man, woman and child in a single weekend. It all went remarkably smoothly. This is the story of the 1939 Register for England and Wales, how it was taken, and what happened next.Find it at http://media.nationalarchives.gov.uk/index.php/using-1939-register-recording-uk-population-war/
Saturday 9 January has presentations from two of the society's leading members.
Between the two talks is a half hour meet and greet, the opportunity to browse display tables. Also I recently learned the used book store operated by Friends of the Ottawa Public Library, just inside the main entrance at Ben Franklin Place, opens early to accommodate browsers during the break and, space permitting, will try and feature books relevant to the meeting topic, or family history in general. Sales of donated books, with volunteer staff, benefit the library operation.
Helen Osborne has a variety of online course of interest to those wanting to improve their British genealogy skills and knowledge.
| Course Title | Starting Date | Course Length | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan-16 | |||
| Beginners Guide to Creating and Researching Your Family Tree (#020) | 1/1/2016 | 3 Weeks | £22.99 |
| Introduction to One-Name Studies (#901) | 1/8/2016 | 5 Weeks | £49.99 |
| Introduction to Medieval Genealogy (#501) | 1/11/2016 | 5 Weeks | £49.99 |
| One-Place Studies - Research from a New Perspective (#317) | 1/11/2016 | 3 Weeks | £35.99 |
| Tracing Beneficiaries - A Step by Step Guide (#741) | 1/27/2016 | 5 Weeks | £54.99 |
| Feb-16 | |||
| So You Think You Know Family Search - A Guided Tour (#206) | 2/2/2016 | 4 Weeks | £39.99 |
| Professional Genealogist - Become one, become a better one (#941) | 2/26/2016 | 4 Weeks | £47.99 |
| Mar-16 | |||
| Dead and Buried, Not Forgotten - Churchyards, Cemeteries … (#214) | 3/8/2016 | 2 Weeks | £27.99 |
| Your Military Ancestors (#224) | 3/31/2016 | 4 Weeks | £45.99 |
| Apr-16 | |||
| Scottish Research Online (#102) | 4/5/2016 | 5 Weeks | £49.99 |
| Organizing Your Genealogy (#202) | 4/5/2016 | 3 Weeks | £33.99 |
| Tying the Knot - Marriage and its Records (#212) | 4/12/2016 | 3 Weeks | £34.99 |
| Victorian Families - Your Ancestors in the Census (#208) | 4/20/2016 | 5 Weeks | £49.99 |
| The National Archives Website and Catalogue - Finding People (#207) | 4/22/2016 | 3 Weeks | £34.99 |
| Victorian Crime and Punishment - Courts, police and prisons (#308) | 4/26/2016 | 5 Weeks | £45.99 |
The UK National Archives announce "changes", mostly increases, effective 1 February 2016.
| Service | 01-Feb-16 | Previous | Increase % |
|---|---|---|---|
| Digital download from nationalarchives.gov.uk | £3.45 | £3.30 | 5 |
| Self-serve copying in the reading rooms | £0.30 | £0.25 | 20 |
| Research per 15 min | £27.30 | £25 | 9 |
John Grenham's perspective on the revolution in Irish genealogy online research of recent years:
" . . . organisations and individuals flung themselves at it, without any overall plan or risk/benefit decisions, with plenty of bitter rows and committee wars. It happened the Irish way, in other words."The result is that "Irish research is now almost laughably simple," although maybe not simple enough for an Irish-American from Kansas!
For a limited time you can search the Catholic Parish Register indexes at ScotlandsPeople for free. This applies to Catholic Births, Marriages, Deaths indexes until 9 January at 23:59 GMT.
Images will cost 5 credits per record to view.
Friends have suggested the following items.
The Monty Python dead parrot sketch was included in another version in a previous year, now resurrected!
Thank you Bryan.
The suggestion from Christine is Tommy Cooper who had a unique sense of humour (thanks be) ... two cannibals were eating a clown. one said to the other, does this taste funny to you!
Try this one:
From month to month Alexa rankings of websites move up and down, especially those with rank in the hundreds of thousands and greater. Longer term rankings will change as more sites come online even with the same activity at a site. Here are the rankings for genealogy sites at the end of 2014 and 2015, and the percentage changes calculated so a positive change accompanies a more favourable ranking.
| Site | 2015 | 2014 | Trend (%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| familysearch.org | 3,147 | 3,591 | 12 |
| ancestry.com | 531 | 740 | 28 |
| ancestry.co.uk | 4,494 | 5,105 | 12 |
| ancestry.ca | 16,056 | 19,287 | 17 |
| myHeritage.com | 4,692 | 6,673 | 30 |
| findmypast.co.uk | 14,031 | 17,512 | 20 |
| findmypast.com | 42,665 | 70,312 | 39 |
| canadiana.ca | 839,453 | 437,933 | -92 |
| familytreedna.com | 16,138 | 22,110 | 27 |
| 23andMe.com | 7,602 | 11,143 | 32 |
| isogg.org | - | - | - |
| genealogyintime.com | 94,657 | 52,225 | -81 |
| mocavo.com | 50,051 | 38,496 | -30 |
| eogn.com | 88,866 | 58,419 | -52 |
| lostcousins.com | 209,824 | 155,676 | -35 |
| britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk | 76,973 | 81,203 | 5 |
| newspapers.com | 12,909 | 17,750 | 27 |
| cyndislist.com | 76,047 | 35,149 | -116 |
| freebmd.org.uk | 63,737 | 63,079 | -1 |
| canadianheadstones.com | 571,301 | 445,215 | -28 |
| deceasedonline.com | 506,561 | 867,879 | 42 |
| bifhsgo.ca | 2,012,054 | 3,937,595 | 49 |
| ogs.on.ca | 463,116 | 403,476 | -15 |
| qfhs.ca | 9,308,553 | 4,206,665 | -121 |
| torontofamilyhistory.org | - | - | - |
| ngsgenealogy.org | 336,273 | 404,747 | 17 |
| americanancestors.org | 114,911 | 110,060 | -4 |
| scgsgenealogy.com | 980,171 | 1,120,531 | 13 |
| sog.org.uk | 879,196 | 668,105 | -32 |
| anglo-celtic-connections | 423,651 | 267,312 | -58 |
Each year since 2006 Tamura Jones has given a personal overview of the year's technologies, events, companies, products & services, and highlights a few trends. It includes bests, worsts, honourable and dishonourable mentions. Read it at www.tamurajones.net/GeneAwards2015.xhtml
Tamura has strong opinions. Your's may differ just as your needs likely differ.
One item that caught my attention this year is an honourable mention to the new Canadian Government
"After elections this year, the new Liberal government reinstated the mandatory long-form census that was scrapped by the Conservative government five years ago. They replaced it with a voluntary National Household Survey (NHS), that had significant shortcomings.What Tamura may not recall is that under present legislation no individual information from any census since 2011 will EVER be released unless the person responding makes a deliberate choice to have it opened 92 years later. The default is that it will remain closed -- forever.
Like many other governments, the Canadian government collects census data to support data-based decision-making, but keeps census data around for researchers."
First up in 2016, after a wish for a Happy New Year, a look at how your favourite genealogy sites did according to Alex ranking during December. There were 9 gainers, 21 losers including all the major commercial sites except the dedicated genetic genealogy sites.
| Site | 31-Dec | 30-Nov | Trend (%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| familysearch.org | 3,147 | 3,016 | -4.34 |
| ancestry.com | 531 | 511 | -3.91 |
| ancestry.co.uk | 4,494 | 4,261 | -5.47 |
| ancestry.ca | 16,056 | 15,708 | -2.22 |
| myHeritage.com | 4,692 | 4,660 | -0.69 |
| findmypast.co.uk | 14,031 | 13,502 | -3.92 |
| findmypast.com | 42,665 | 37,107 | -14.98 |
| canadiana.ca | 839,453 | 711,869 | -17.92 |
| familytreedna.com | 16,138 | 16,466 | 1.99 |
| 23andMe.com | 7,602 | 8,398 | 9.48 |
| isogg.org | 200,846 | 200,787 | -0.03 |
| genealogyintime.com | 94,657 | 85,201 | -11.10 |
| mocavo.com | 50,051 | 46,432 | -7.79 |
| eogn.com | 88,866 | 89,080 | 0.24 |
| lostcousins.com | 209,824 | 203,192 | -3.26 |
| britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk | 76,973 | 75,687 | -1.70 |
| newspapers.com | 12,909 | 13,252 | 2.59 |
| cyndislist.com | 76,047 | 76,845 | 1.04 |
| freebmd.org.uk | 63,737 | 59,301 | -7.48 |
| canadianheadstones.com | 571,301 | 410,442 | -39.19 |
| deceasedonline.com | 506,561 | 437,327 | -15.83 |
| bifhsgo.ca | 2,012,054 | 2,777,127 | 27.55 |
| ogs.on.ca | 463,116 | 561,542 | 17.53 |
| qfhs.ca | 9,308,553 | 5,543,649 | -67.91 |
| torontofamilyhistory.org | 1,700,044 | 1,606,673 | -5.81 |
| ngsgenealogy.org | 336,273 | 363,929 | 7.60 |
| americanancestors.org | 114,911 | 109,403 | -5.03 |
| scgsgenealogy.com | 980,171 | 1,204,862 | 18.65 |
| sog.org.uk | 879,196 | 602,477 | -45.93 |
| anglo-celtic-connections | 423,651 | 315,795 | -34.15 |
