LAC Co-Lab update

Here's the monthly update on Co-Lab challenges projects as of 18 December.


PROGRESS

George Mully: moments in Indigenous communities (new)

Correspondence regarding First Nations veterans returning after the First World War is 16% complete (5% last month)

Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 is 57% complete (51% last month).

Rosemary Gilliat (Eaton)’s Arctic diary and photographs is 44% complete (42% last month)

Letters from Wilfrid Laurier to Zoé Lafontaine/Laurier is 98% complete (96% last month).


NO CHANGE OR REVISED

Legendary Train Robber and Prison Escapee Bill Miner is 98% complete

War Diaries of the First World War: 1st Canadian Division is 94% complete.

The Call to Duty: Canada's Nursing Sisters is 86% complete.

Japanese-Canadians: Second World War is 61% complete.

New France and First Nations Relations is 33% complete.


NOT REPORTED

Personal Diary of the Baroness Macdonald - Lady Macdonald (95% last month).


COMPLETED

The Spanish Flu Pandemic of 1918–1919.

Correspondence between Sir Robert Borden and Sir Sam Hughes.


COMMENT

One of the indicators for the LAC Three-year plan 2019-2022 is the number of records enhanced by user contributions in the Co-Lab crowdsourcing tool. The indicator is to be released quarterly as is the indicator number of images digitized via DigiLab.

Advance Notice: Kingston District UEL Meeting

On Saturday, January 25, 2020, at 1:00 pm at St. Paul’s Anglican Church Hall, 137 Queen Street, Kingston, James Brownell, President of the Lost Villages Historical Society, will give an “armchair tour” through the Lands of the Lost Villages. There are the six villages and three hamlets that had been settled by United Empire Loyalists after the American Revolution and were swept away for the sake of “progress” and the St. Lawrence Seaway.

Attendees are invited to an optional stew and buns lunch before the meeting, 11:30 for noon seating:  warm fellowship and a way to meet new friends before the meeting — $4.00 donation for those not providing food for the lunch. All welcome.

Thanks to Nancy Cutway for the information.

LAC Scholars Program

The following is the text of a press release from Library and Archives Canada.

The Library and Archives Canada Foundation is thrilled to announce Air Canada as a Founding Partner of the Library and Archives Canada (LAC) Scholars Awards Wednesday, December 18, 2019– Ottawa, Ontario –The Library and Archives Canada (LAC) Foundation, chaired by Jacques J.M. Shore, a partner at Gowling WLG in Ottawa, is thrilled to announce that Air Canada will be the Founding Partner of the recently created LAC Scholars Awards. The LAC Scholars Awards program was created to recognize the outstanding contribution of individuals who have dedicated their lives to the creation and promotion of our country’s literary and historical heritage.

The LAC Foundation was established by a group of passionate individuals to support LAC in making its vast, invaluable and treasured collection more accessible to Canadians from coast to coast to coast, and in sharing it with those around the world wishing to gain a greater appreciation of our country’s heritage. The Foundation will also focus on raising funds to support initiatives and partnerships
to grow and preserve the LAC collection.

"We are happy that Air Canada has come on board as the Founding Partner for the LAC Scholars Awards program which celebrates individuals who are a creative force in our cultural environment and who enhance the visibility and importance of LAC to every Canadian,” says Jacques Shore, chair of the LAC Foundation. “Air Canada is not just a leading light in Canada’s transportation industry – it also lends valuable support to the arts and culture in this country. Both LAC and the Foundation are very fortunate to have them as the founding partner of the LAC Scholars Awards, helping Canadian culture and knowledge reach new heights,” says Librarian and Archivist Leslie Weir of LAC.

“Air Canada is very proud to be a Founding Sponsor of the LAC Scholars Awards that recognizes the outstanding individuals who have contributed so much to Canada’s literary and cultural heritage. This is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the work of Library and Archives Canada, its vast collection, and these individuals who champion Canada’s historical and artistic treasures, and we congratulate the recipients of the inaugural LAC Scholars Awards,” says Ferio Pugliese, Senior Vice President, Air Canada Express and Government Relations at Air Canada. Through its partnership, Air Canada will support the LAC Scholars program and the annual awards ceremony.

The recipients of the first annual LAC Scholars Awards in 2019 were announced last April:

• Marie-Louise Arsenault
• Ronald I. Cohen
• Lawrence Hill
• Frances Itani
• Shelagh Rogers

The 2020 recipients of The LAC Scholars Awards will be announced at an awards ceremony to be held in Ottawa in April 2020.

Hopefully, in 2020 they will provide a balanced recognition to historical as well as to literary heritage.

Ottawa Area Holiday Closures

Library and Archives Canada’s research facilities at 395 Wellington Street will be closed on 25 and 26 December and 1 January.

If you were hoping to take advantage of a quiet period at the City of Ottawa Archives  — sorry. An extended closure is in effect for the Reference Room which will be closed from 21 December 2019 to 1 January 2020. It will reopen with regular hours on 2 January 2020.

The Ottawa Public Library is closed on 25 and 26 December, and 1 January. On 24 and 31 December, all facilities will close at 3 pm.

Further afield, The Archives of Ontario will keep the same schedule as the OPL except closing at 5 pm.

Online things continue. A reminder that FamilySearch continues to host the Ontario 1869-1912 births, 1869-1927 marriages and 1869-1937 deaths from AO, while Ancestry.ca hosts the 1869-1913 births, 1801-1937 marriages and 1869-1947 deaths.

Family Tree Live

The second Family Tree Live event is happening at Alexandra Palace, London 17th - 18th April 2020. That's a great time for a visit, the week following Easter.

Tickets are now on sale online here where you'll also see a list of organizations exhibiting. According to a note from Karen Clare, Assistant Editor of Family Tree magazine, more are coming and there will be an announcement on speakers and topics coming soon.

WDYTYA Magazine: January 2020

Freshly on PressReader, freely accessible online through many Canadian public libraries, including the OPL, the January issue of Who Do You Think You Are? magazine leads on the front cover with news on 50 websites to watch in 2020.

Also in the issue:

Getting the most from professional researchers,
Scottish Poor Law records, by Chris Paton,
The Victorian roots of vegetarianism,
'Richard III was buried in my ancestor's back garden!',
Best websites for 18th-century research,
How Steve Cogging used genealogy to claim Irish citizenship.

Top Scottish Baby Names for 2019

National Records of Scotland is out with the provisional list of top choices for baby names for 2019 — up until 2 December.

The main points are:

Jack remained the most popular first forename for baby boys, for a twelfth
consecutive year. Oliver and James remained in second and third places,
respectively. Charlie climbed seven places to fourth.

The rest of the boys’ Top Ten were Harris (up three places to fifth), Noah (up three
places to sixth), Lewis (down one place to seventh), Leo (down three places to
eighth), Rory (up one place to ninth) and Alfie (up six places to tenth). Charlie and
Alfie were the only entrants to the boys’ Top Ten; Alexander (down four places to
eleventh) and Logan (down nine places to thirteenth) dropped out of it.

The fastest climbers within the boys’ Top Twenty were Charlie, Alfie and Max (up
six places to twelfth). There were two entrants to the boys’ Top Twenty: Theo (up
eleven places to sixteenth) and Brodie (up seven places to eighteenth).

Olivia was the top girls’ name for the fourth year running. Emily, Isla and Sophie
remained in second, third and fourth places, respectively.

The rest of the girls’ Top Ten were Ella (up one place to fifth), Amelia (down one
place) and Ava (up one place) both joint sixth, Grace (remained eighth), Freya (up
four places to ninth) and Charlotte (up one place to tenth). Freya and Charlotte
were the only entrants to the girls’ Top Ten; Aria (down three places to twelfth) and
Jessica (down three places to thirteenth) dropped out of it.

Freya and Ellie (up seven places to eleventh) were the fastest climbers within the
girls’ Top Twenty. There were two entrants to the girls’ Top Twenty: Rosie (up
seven places to nineteenth) and Millie (up one place to twentieth).

Other big climbers within the 2019 baby name Top Fifty charts included (for boys)
Arthur (up 20 places to 26th) and (for girls) Willow (up 10 places to 24th) and
Daisy (up 11 places to 38th). Particularly fast-rising entrants to the Top Fifties were
(for boys) George (up 13 places to joint 40th), Tommy (up 41 places to 48th) and
Andrew (up 13 places to joint 49th) and (for girls) Gracie (up 22 places to joint
39th), Hallie (up 15 places to 44th) and Ayla (up 19 places to joint 47th).

The births of 23,955 boys and 22,568 girls were registered in the period covered by
these figures. In total, 3,370 different boys’ first forenames and 4,095 different girls’
first forenames were recorded; and 2,138 boys and 2,668 girls were given names
that were unique (within the period, for that sex). The number of different names per
100 babies and the fraction with unique names were well above the levels of 10
and, much more so, 40 years ago. For example, the proportion of boys with unique
first forenames was greater this year (8.9 per cent in the period covered by these
figures) than in the whole of 2009 (6.7 per cent) or 1979 (2.3 per cent).

Jack was the first forename of only 1.8 per cent of the boys, and Olivia was the first
forename of just 1.6 per cent of the girls. Of all the boys’ births that were registered,
38 per cent had a first forename that was in their Top Fifty, and 36 per cent of all
girls had a Top Fifty first forename.

Find the detailed analysis from National Records of Scotland at https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/files//statistics/babies-names/19/babies-first-names-19-pub.pdf

Legacy Webinars this week

If you want to watch the free Legacy webinars available this week and be in the draw for freebies given away when streamed live, here are the two available this week.

Tuesday, 17 December 2019, at 8:00pm Eastern
Marriages Here, There, and Nowhere: Finding Gretna Greens and Borders
by J. Mark Lowe

Many couples chose to marry in a location away from their home. Often there were reasons why it was a more convenient location to tie the knot. Sometimes, this decision was based on a romantic location or a place that would allow them to marry quickly without a three-day waiting period. These locations are often referred to as Gretna Green, the historic town in Scotland where thousands of English couples ran because of Scotland’s sympathetic marriage laws. We will consider the reason for a different marriage location, alternate sources to determine the location, and a few of the towns known as "Gretna Greens" in the United States.

J. Mark Lowe, CG, FUGA is a full-time professional genealogist, author, and lecturer. While sharing personal experiences that help beginning and experienced researchers gain new skills and insights for research, he specializes in original records and manuscripts throughout the South. Mark lives in Robertson County, Tennessee that lies in northern Middle Tennessee along the Kentucky border.

Register here.


Wednesday, 18 December 2019, at 2:00pm Eastern
How to trace your UK ancestry
by Kirsty Gray

From the comfort of your home (outside the UK), trying to uncover your roots (whether in England, Ireland, Scotland or Wales) can be an extremely challenging task. However, it is far from impossible with a plethora of information available online from books to databases, transcriptions to images, photographs and other (numerous) online sources. This webinar will provide individual case studies to highlight what is available online and offline, hands-on tips and details of how offline material might be accessed from afar.

Kirsty Gray is a professional genealogist and ‘people finder’ who runs her own research company Family Wise Limited. As a freelance author, she has published articles in family, local and social history magazines and handbooks across the globe. She has been researching the story of her paternal West Country family for many years and, having realised in the late 1990s that her eccentric hobby was called a surname study, co-founded The Surname Society (registering the Sillifant surname) in 2014 to meet the needs of surname studiers in the 21st century. Kirsty published Tracing Your West Country Ancestors in 2013 and is a founder member and was initially Chair (now Secretary) of the Society for One-Place Studies, an international society for family and local historians.

Register here.

As usual, these will be available free on replay for a week after presentation, and indefinitely thereafter to subscribers.

2019 Genealogy Publications at the Ottawa Public Library

In 2019 (so far) 19 publications this year have been added to the Ottawa Public Library genealogy collection. 12 are currently available, 7 have a waiting list. Here they are in order in which they were acquired.

Genesis
by Cook, Robin
Audiobook CD - 2019
Holds: 16 on 4 copies

Tracing your Irish Family History on the Internet: A Guide for Family Historians
by Paton, Chris
Book - 2019 | Second edition.
Holds: 5 on 4 copies

A Broken Tree: How DNA Exposed A Family's Secrets
by Anderson, Stephen F.
Book - 2019
Holds: 5 on 4 copies

Genealogy Standard
by Board for Certification of Genealogists
Book - 2019 | Second edition.
Available

Downsizing With Family History in Mind
by Lee, Devon Noel
Book - 2019
Available

Posted in the Past: Revealing the True Stories Written on A Postcard
by Baggott, Helen
Book - 2019
Available

Les Filles du Roy: pionnières de la Seigneurie de La Prairie
Book - 2019 | French
Available

Finding your Roots: Season 5
DVD - 2019 | Widescreen version.
Holds: 26 on 3 copies

The Family Tree Guide to DNA Testing and Genetic Genealogy
by Bettinger, Blaine T.
Book - 2019 | Second edition.
Available

Advanced Genetic Genealogy: Techniques and Case Studies
Book - 2019
Available

Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love
by Shapiro, Dani
Book - 2019 | First edition.
(copies in various formats (holds), and as Express reads)

Roots Quest: Inside America's Genealogy Boom
by Hogan, Jackie
Book - 2019
Available

Distorted Descent: White Claims to Indigenous Identity
by Leroux, Darryl
Book - 2019
Holds: 22 on 5 copies

Tracing your Irish Ancestors
by Grenham, John
Book - 2019 | Fifth edition.
Available

Tracing your Female Ancestors: A Guide for Family Historians
by Emm, Adèle
Book - 2019
Available

The Family Tree Problem Solver: Tried-and-true Tactics for Tracing Elusive Ancestors
by Rising, Marsha Hoffman
Book - 2019 | 3rd edition, Expanded & updated.
Available

Tracing your Freemason, Friendly Society and Trade Union Ancestors: A Guide for Family Historians
by Weinbren, Daniel
Book - 2019
Available

Tracing your Insolvent Ancestors: A Guide for Family and Local Historians
by Blake, Paul
Book - 2019
Available

Tracing your Ancestors Using DNA: A Guide for Family and Local Historians
by Holton, Graham S. - Editor
Book - 2019
Holds: 0 on 5 copies

Two additional 2019 books are listed as on order.

The Family Tree Scandinavian Genealogy Guide: How to Trace Your Ancestors in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark
by Fryxell, David A.
Holds: 11 on 1 copy

Unofficial Guide to FamilySearch.Org: How to Find Your Family History on the World's Largest Free Genealogy Website
by McCullough, Dana
Holds: 26 on 1 copy

Free MyHeritageDNA upload ends soon

I missed posting when first announced that you can upload your raw DNA data file to receive free access to all MyHeritageDNA features. It usually costs $39 to get full access. The offer ends on 18 December, but the free access will continue.
I wish I'd remembered this when asked recently about where to upload AncestryDNA results so you can take advantage of a DNA browser that AncestryDNA declines to provide.

Ancestry.ca Draw Winners

The lucky winner of the draw for a one-year Ancestry.ca subscription at Saturday's "Great Moments" BIFHSGO meeting was Ruth Kirk.  Ruth is a long-time society member having served as Director (Communications) in the early 2000s.

In the afternoon, the draw for an AncestryDNA test was at the Ottawa Branch of OGS meeting held at the Ottawa City Archives. The winner, drawn by guest speaker Kyla Ubbink, was the Branch Chair, Doug Gray. Doug has announced he will be stepping down as Chair in June.

Congratulations to the winners, thanks to the folks at BIFHSGO and Ottawa Branch who distributed draw tickets and, of course, thanks to Ancestry.ca for supporting the blog, BIFHSGO and Ottawa Branch of OGS.

Minister of Canadian Heritage Mandate Letter

While much of the letter sent to Minister Guilbeault is boilerplate — sent to all Ministers, the specifics identified are:

• Work with all cultural and creative sectors on the successful delivery of initiatives and new funding announced in previous Budgets.
• Create new regulations for social media platforms, starting with a requirement that all platforms remove illegal content, including hate speech, within 24 hours or face significant penalties. This should include other online harms such as radicalization, incitement to violence, exploitation of children, or creation or distribution of terrorist propaganda.
• Co-lead work with the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry to modernize the Broadcasting Act and the Telecommunications Act, examining how best to support Canadian content in English and French and ensure quality affordable internet, mobile and media access. 
• Work with the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry to introduce legislation by the end of 2020 that will take appropriate measures to ensure that all content providers, including internet giants, offer meaningful levels of Canadian content in their catalogues, contribute to the creation of Canadian content in both Official Languages, promote this content and make it easily accessible on their platforms. The legislation should also consider additional cultural and linguistic communities.
• Continue to fully implement the Indigenous Languages Act in order to preserve, promote and revitalize Indigenous languages in Canada, with long-term predictable and sufficient funding to support the implementation of the Act.
• Co-develop, with Indigenous Peoples, a framework for repatriating Indigenous cultural property and ancestral remains.
• Provide funding and support for the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Métis Nation entering Confederation.
• Strengthen the regional mandate of CBC/Radio-Canada to broadcast more local news and require CBC/Radio-Canada to open up its digital platform.
• Increase annual funding for Telefilm Canada.
• Make the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Heritage Centre a national museum.
• Review our national museums policy to ensure that people can access Canadian history across the country, with better access to digital collections. Introduce the Culture Pass, a $200 credit that every Canadian child will receive when they turn 12 years old to be used to access theatres, museums, galleries, workshops and other cultural venues and local Canadian content.
• Work with the national museums to increase Canadians’ awareness of climate change.
• Work with the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry and the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada to advance Canada’s Digital Charter and enhanced powers for the Privacy Commissioner, in order to establish a new set of online rights, including: data portability; the ability to withdraw, remove and erase basic personal data from a platform; the knowledge of how personal data is being used, including with a national advertising registry and the ability to withdraw consent for the sharing or sale of data; the ability to review and challenge the amount of personal data that a company or government has collected; proactive data security requirements; the ability to be informed when personal data is breached with appropriate compensation; and the ability to be free from online discrimination including bias and harassment.
• Work with the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry in reviewing the Copyright Act.
• Support the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry to create new regulations for large digital companies to better protect people’s personal data and to encourage greater competition in the digital marketplace. A newly created Data Commissioner will oversee those regulations.
• Work with the Minister of Foreign Affairs to introduce a new Cultural Diplomacy strategy with at least one international mission each year to promote Canadian culture and creators around the world.
• Work with the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, who is the Minister responsible for Parks Canada, to provide clearer direction on how national heritage places should be designated and preserved and to introduce new comprehensive heritage legislation on federally owned heritage places.
• Support local journalism and develop business models that facilitate private giving and philanthropic support for professional journalism and local news.
• Work with the Minister of Health to implement the pan-Canadian Concussion Strategy and raise awareness for parents, coaches and athletes on concussion treatment.
• Lead preparations for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games and future international sporting events.
• Create greater links between our elite athletes and young Canadians to promote health and achievement among youth.
• Continue to work with partners, including provinces and territories, to foster an environment that is safe, welcoming and inclusive in the sport and cultural industries.
• Foster a national culture of safe sport, including physical safety, sporting environments free of harassment, promoting diversity and inclusion in sport and research into injury prevention.
• Develop additional programming to increase Canadians’ participation in sport, with a particular focus on Indigenous Peoples. This should increase awareness of the physical and mental health benefits of participation in sport.

You have to work hard reading between the lines to find anything in which Library and Archives Canada is anything but a supporting player.

The National Institute for Genealogical Studies Blog

Did you know that the National Institute for Genealogical Studies has a blog, and has had since 2013?
Although much is of interest only to Institute students there's content of more general interest too.
Those with Colonial American ancestry should check out recent posts focusing on Mayflower ancestors.
Earlier this year there were articles on men's, women's and military clothing you might find in old photographs.
You can search the blog and subscribe at http://blog.genealogicalstudies.com/

Sunday Sundries

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

Did you know?
England's shortest county boundary is 20 yards (18 m) between Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire. See www.blanchflower.org/tripoints/quad.html

Birmingham: see how it grows
From a blog created by the staff of The Library of Birmingham, Archives & Collections to explain the workings of their service and their collections.

ThruLines™ Hint
If you're fed up with going to AncestryDNA ThruLines and seeing the same old same old, click on the Filter drop-down. If the number in parenthesis appended to "Ancestors with new DNA matches" is zero you'll know there's nothing new.

He Drowned With His Money Belt On.
On April 26, 1867, which was a Friday, James Smith Bangs and his companion, a man only identified as “Oram,” loaded their canoe to travel the Madawaska River from Bangs’ trading store at Combermere to his home in Arnprior. About 15 miles downstream they came to the rushing spring water at the Snake Rapids, and their canoe upset. 
That's the start of an article by semi-retired Ottawa lawyer Donald Macdougall in the November issue of OGS Families. OGS members can read the rest online.

Who’s killing Canadian non-fiction?
A Globe and Mail opinion piece by Kenneth Whyte.

Good governance is the missing prescription for better digital health care

10 Things Fund Managers Say and What They Actually Mean

CWGC burial at Beechwood Cemetery: Alfred Hardie

Born 17 January 1878 in Islington, London, Alfred Hardie was the eldest son of Thomas and Mary Jane (nee Stammers). In 1881 his father was a solicitor's managing clerk.
He emigrated to Canada on the Dominion in 1899 and married Elizabeth Augusta Heinrich in Lethbridge, Alberta in 1907. They had a daughter Jocelyn Ruby.
He tried to enlist in Canada but was rejected for heart disease. Returning to England he was successful in enlisting with the Canadian Army Pay Corps at Shorncliffe, Kent.
He returned to Canada, became a Freemason but died of "natural causes" on this date a century ago at 97 Metcalfe Street, the Civil Service Club, in Ottawa.
Acting Corporal Hardie is interred in Sec. A. Range 37. Grave 43 at Beechwood Cemetery.

Call for Conference Presentation Proposals: BIFHSGO

The next annual British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa conference takes place at Ben Franklin Place, Nepean, on 25-27 September 2020. The overall theme is:

Irish Lines and Female Finds: Researching Your Irish and Female Ancestors

There's a call for presentation proposals with a deadline of the end of January.

Did Your Ancestor Have a Tattoo?

This graph, from Google's Ngram English corpus of books, shows that the word tattoo grew in frequency through the Victorian period, and took off in the 1980s.

Even if your ancestor wasn't a convict or a sailor they may have ben tattooed. Today, one in five Britons reportedly have a tattoo.

How tattoos became fashionable in Victorian England is a long(ish) read from The Conversation with data sourced from the Digital Panopticon

Findmypast adds Scottish, Yorkshire and OGS Records

Scotland, Renfrewshire Death & Burial Index
This index of deaths and burials, covering the years of 1471 to 2017 has 26,009 records. The collection covers Abbey, Cathcart, Erskine, Greenock, Houston & Killellan, Inchinnan, Kilbarchan, Kilmalcolm, Neilston and Renfrew. Some records include occupations, residences and even cause of death.

Scotland, Stirlingshire & Perthshire Burials
Search this index of 82,975 burials for the years 1755 to 2019. It covers Aberfoyle, Balfron, Balquhidder, Bannockburn, Buchanan, Buchlyvie, Callander, Cambusbarron, Doune, Drymen, Dunblane, Fintry, Gargunnock, Gartmore, Killearn, Killin, Kilmadock, Kippen, Lecropt, Logie, Port Of Menteith, St Ninians, Stirling, Strathblane, and Thornhill. From the index, you may learn birth year, death and burial dates, age at death and burial place.

Yorkshire Memorial Inscriptions
Nearly 14,000 new records have been added for churches in Coxwold, Easingwold, Foston, Halifax, Haxby & Wigginton and Holtby as well as King Cross Methodist Cemetery. There are now 151,838 records in this transcript collection.

PERiodical Source Index - Update
The PERiodical Source Index (PERSI) enables you to easily locate key information about people and places. From the FMP announcement, the update includes "Thousands of new images from the Ontario Genealogical Society", but with no further detail.

This week's update to British & Irish Newspapers was 103,570 new pages, six titles — five of which were from Scotland.

OGS Webinars for 2020

Here's the complete list of OGS webinars scheduled for 2020.

2 Jan: Thomas MacEntee - Smarter Search Strategies
5 March: Ute Brandenberg - Hidden Gems in German & Polish Archives
2 April: Blythe Kareen - Tracing Family History Using the Archives of Ontario Collections
7 May: Beverly MacCulloch - Using Ontario's Township Papers
4 June: Jenna Lemay- Researching Indigenous Ancestors in Northern Ontario
2 July: Tim Janzen - Tracing Ancestral Lines in the 1700s using DNA
6 August: Bruce Durie - Using ScotlandsPeople for ALL your Scottish Genealogical Needs
3 September: Lynn Palermo - Get with The Plan: 7 Simple Steps to a Research Strategy
1 October: Serge Paquet - Pre-1869 Birth, Marriage and Death Records
5 November: Michael Strauss - Researching Your Canadian Ancestors in the First World War
3 December: Janice Nickerson - Religious Newspapers: Not just for the Clergy!

The initial webinar presentation is free and open to all, however, registration is limited and attendance is restricted to the first 500 persons signing in to the webinar presentation. Society members may view recordings of webinars after the presentation date by logging into the Society website

Global Genealogy at Saturday's BIFHSGO Meeting

In addition to everything mentioned on the blog yesterday, there's the opportunity for Christmas shopping with Global Genealogy starting at 9 am at Ben Franklin Place.
What do they have? Check them out at http://globalgenealogy.com/ and call ahead in case they weren't planning on bringing what you want. I'm sure they'll have AncestryDNA kits at a great price.

Ancestry updates Jersey records

Ancestry's database, Jersey, Church of England Deaths and Burials, 1813-1940 was updated on 9 December to contain 121,178 records. The information is from Jersey Heritage.

Search results are returned with name, age and/or birth year, death date, burial date, and parish. A link to the original record image may provide additional information such as a spouse's name.

26% of the records are for deaths between 1840 and 1860; 16% are from the 20th century.

Ancestry also has Jersey Church of England Records from 1540 – 1915 for baptisms and 1540 – 1940 for marriages. Jersey Heritage has a subscription database with many additional island resources.

A New Home Children Research database from BIFHSGO

The British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa announces the release of a new Home Children research database containing over 14,000 entries, being the names of children brought to Canada by various agencies from the UK during the years 1869-1892. The database is now available in the Research & Projects section of the BIFHSGO website. It can be found as "RG17 Index" in the *NEW* or Home Children menus.

RG17 (Record Group 17) is a collection of the Canadian Department of Agriculture records. Prior to 1892 (when it was taken over by the Department of the Interior), the Immigration Branch was under the jurisdiction of this department. The General Correspondence Series includes correspondence between the Immigration Branch and various UK sending organizations.

These records have not been microfilmed and are only available at Library and Archives Canada (LAC) in hard copy form. They are stored off-site and are difficult to access so BIFHSGO volunteers extracted all mention of Home Children from within these records.

This transcription work was carried out between 2009 and 2011 by the following volunteers: Jean Eppich, Marlyn Henry, Robert Manchip, Audrey McAllum, Frank McAllum, Marnie McCall, John Mullin, John Sayers (Team Leader), Audrey Stiles, George Swift

725 volumes (physical boxes) covering the years 1869 to 1896 were searched for files. Some years had no files while others had many files. The years with most names mentioned were 1886 to 1891. 14,169 names were extracted, some repeated in several entries. Other than the ships manifests, this set of records provides the most complete set of Home Children names for the period 1869 to 1892.

The transcribed records have been merged into LAC’s Home Children database as part of an agreement forged between LAC and BIFHSGO in 2006. However, BIFHSGO is now offering researchers a targeted view of the RG17 records here on its website. Click on one of the links below to view records in spreadsheet form. They may be searched using the CTRL+f function.

Ottawa Genealogy Double Header on Saturday

Saturday 14 December is another opportunity for a full day of family history in Ottawa. The morning is at Ben Franklin Place 101 Centrepointe Drive, in Nepean; the afternoon at the City Archives building, 100 Tallwood, in Nepean.

BIFHSGO

In lieu of an educational presentation at 9am "BIFHSGO will host pot luck social, with samples of your best Christmas baking welcome. Tea, Coffee and some baked goods by the Board will be provided. Come early and catch up with fellow members while enjoying some Christmas cheer."

The pace picks up at 10am with Great Moments in Genealogy. The presentations are:

I Was There:  Growing up in Northeast England during the Depression
Wilf Tarbet’s Great Moment is a firsthand account of life in Jarrow, North East England, growing up during the Depression in a town where there was very little work.  He will share details of his grandparents’ appalling living conditions.

New member Wilf Tarbet has researched his family history over the years, and after several years away he has picked it up again.  He hopes his reminiscences will put flesh on the bones of the census data.

Treasures in The Attic
Gil Croome took a family story from his childhood, used the internet to confirm it … and then a came a great moment.

Gil Croome has been interested in genealogy since he wore short pants and asked his Grandfather Croome about where the family came from. His unpaid career of trying to connect all the Croomes has now lasted longer that his paid career with the end being a one name study is not yet in sight. By training a forester but by occupation an editor, tidying up trees has come naturally.

The Sail-Maker's Palm
A tool, owned by a former merchant seaman, started as merely an object of a child’s curiosity, but subsequently connected to a distant ancestor's work, and an understanding of how it was adversely affected by the end of the Napoleonic wars.

Maureen Amey grew up in London, England and immigrated to Canada in 1977. She has been researching and writing about her family history since the 1970s. This year, she rejoined BIFHSGO after being away for a few years.  Maureen is a member of the Writing Group.

Far From Home: Mission Accomplished
Twelve years ago, Diana Beaupre and Adrian Watkinson of Canterbury, England, launched Far From Home, a project to locate, record, research and visit all 3902 gravesites of Canadian Great War casualties who died and are commemorated in Great Britain. The project concluded in September 2019 with one last road trip to visit several gravesites and to place a memorial to all these Canadians in Scotland.
Glenn Wright is past-president of BIFHSGO and author of Canadians at War, 1914-1919: A Research Guide to World War One Service Records. It was a privilege for him to be involved with the Far From Home project over the years, even more so to take part in the final journey, to visit several cemeteries and be present at a very special service of remembrance to honour all those who rest "far from home".

Attendees will be eligible to win a draw prize of an ancestry.ca subscription donated by the company. Make sure to collect your draw tickets in the foyer.

Ottawa Branch, OGS

The action moves over to the City Archives at 11:30 am when you are invited to bring a “brown bag” lunch. There will be brief presentations by local genealogy special interest groups: Irish, Scots, the Master Genealogist, DNA and British Colonial. Coffee and tea will be available throughout the session. Kudos to those who bring their own cup or mug. Networking and refreshments continue to 1:30 pm when professional conservator Kyla Ubbink will share practical tips on how to care for your collections.

"Family documents, photographs, artwork, and memorabilia are treasures that not only provide documentary evidence but also tell great stories that we want to preserve and care for. Learn how to apply archival principles of preservation to your home collection and find out about great, new products and innovations in the realm of caring for collections."

Thanks to a donation from Ancestry.ca there will be a draw for an AncestryDNA test. Make sure you get your tickets.

Following the meeting, at about 3 pm, there will be the final session of the Computer Special Interest Group.

MyHeritage LIVE 2020 in Israel

The following is from a blog post by MyHeritage.

MyHeritage LIVE 2020 will take place on October 25–26, 2020 at the Hilton Tel Aviv. Set in landscaped Independence Park, this upscale hotel is a short 8-minute walk from the Mediterranean beachfront and just 5 km from the Tel Aviv-Savidor Center train station.

If you haven’t visited Tel Aviv yet, now is your chance to experience a beautiful, vibrant city that’s known as a “city that never sleeps,” making it a perfect fit for night owl genealogists who toil late into the night to work on their research. Explore the past and experience new cultures in a truly unique country steeped in ancient history. 

In addition to a plenary session from MyHeritage Founder and CEO Gilad Japhet, there will be multiple lectures, panels and workshops covering genealogy and DNA, as well as sessions from local speakers covering Israeli resources and Jewish genealogy.

We’ve lined up an excellent array of international speakers for the event including Roberta Estes, Thomas MacEntee, Dick Eastman, Diahan Southard, and Lisa Louise Cooke. Joining them from Israel will be Garri Regev and Rony Golan along with others to be announced soon. From the MyHeritage team, you will hear from Gilad Japhet, Founder and CEO; Maya Lerner, VP Product; Schelly Talalay Dardashti, U.S. Genealogy Advisor; Michael Mansfield, Director of Content Operations; Daniel Horowitz, Genealogy Expert; and more.

Conference tickets include access to lectures, workshops, coffee breaks, lunches, and the MyHeritage party, all of which you don’t want to miss!MyHeritage LIVE 2020

As I've never been to Israel I'm seriously considering attending.

This announcement was mentioned in Daniel Horowitz's recent free webinar 2019 - A Year in Review: new records and features in MyHeritage. 

Ancestry adds UK Officer Service Records

From the UK National Archives, record group WO 76, Ancestry's UK, Officer Service Records, 1764-1932 has 129,218 entries.

The following information can be found, where available: Name, Name of relative(s), Relationship to serviceman, Place and date of birth, Place and date of death, Age, Place and date of enlistment, Place and date of discharge, Gender, Marital Status, Regiment and unit, Service rank, Service number, Marriage date.

The bar chart shows the distribution of year (+/- 10) of birth and enlistment. The collection is most likely to be useful for the 19th century. Notice that many more records include enlistment year than birth year.

From the catalogue description for WO 76 "the series includes services of Royal Artillery officers, 1771 to 1870, and one volume of returns made in 1861 by officers of the Indian Army (Artillery)."

Ancestry provides no images but TNA mentions that "records within this series are available to download free of charge as part of the Digital Microfilm project."

Speaking Opportunity Down Under

Do you have what it takes to be a presenter at a major conference — along with Blaine Bettinger, Paul Milner and Judy Russell? Those are the speakers announced so far for Family History Down Under (FHDU), 22-26 March 2021, Sunshine Coast, Queensland.

Did you notice they're all US residents? Maybe there should be some Canadian content too.

Here's information on presenting opportunities.

"All up we will have nearly 100 topics, including talks and workshops. Half of these will be done by the seven headline speakers.

We now invite expressions of interest from others with recognized expertise and experience for the remaining places available on the program.

This is a significant international conference which is already attracting interest and excitement from prospective speakers and attendees from overseas as well as Australia.

If you'd like to be part of this and know more about speaking opportunities, please email alan@familyhistorydownunder.com for a preliminary registration of interest form and speaker information sheet.

This promises to be a conference experience like no other in the best conference/holiday setting Australia has to offer. If the Sunshine Coast, Australia is on your bucket list of places to visit, there will be no better excuse or opportunity than Family History Down Under.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Alan Phillips (Unlock the Past)
P: (08) 8263 2055 . . . . . international+61 8 8263 2055
E: alan@familyhistorydownunder.com
W: www.familyhistorydownunder.com
FHDU Facebook group . . . . . FHDU Facebook event"

GEDmatch acquired

From a press release by Verogen:

"GEDmatch, a pioneer in consumer genealogy, today announced that it has joined with forensic genomics firm Verogen, Inc. in a move that allows the company to ensure ongoing privacy protections and enhance the customer experience for users of its website.

“I am confident that we have found an ideal partner for GEDmatch,” said founder Curtis Rogers. “Verogen understands our philosophy and shares the vision of GEDmatch, which has always been about using science to connect people,” Rogers said. “Verogen is able to support our growth while staying true to our roots.”

GEDmatch allows users to upload genetic profiles created by other genealogy sites in order to expand the search for familial links. GEDmatch’s database currently has more than 1.3 million customer profiles and is gaining as many as 1,000 new users every day."

There's more on what this will mean and the community reaction on Debbie Kennett's blog at https://cruwys.blogspot.com/2019/12/gedmatch-has-been-acquired-by-forensic.html 

English and Irish records added to FamilySearch

The following English and Irish records are added to FamilySearch for the week of 9 December 2019. None have digital images associated.

Collection	Indexed Records	Comments
England, Herefordshire Bishop's Transcripts, 1583-1898	599	Added indexed records to an existing collection
England, Huntingdonshire Parish Registers	52,367	Added indexed records to an existing collection
England, Oxfordshire Parish Registers 1538-1904	51,159	Added indexed records to an existing collection
England, Yorkshire Marriage Bonds and Allegations, 1613-1887	2,587	Added indexed records to an existing collection
Ireland, James Alexander Henderson, The Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory for 1856	37,363	New indexed records collection
Ireland, Thom's Irish Almanac & Official Directory 1868	103,355	New indexed records collection
Northern Ireland, Tithe Applotment Books, 1822-1837	175,575	New indexed records collection

See the complete list here.

MyHeritage adds mystery Canadian Burial Index

On 4 December MyHeritage added this large database.

Canada, Burials, 1800-2019 FREE NEW
2,137,853 records
This collection is an index to burial records from Canada. Records typically list the name of the deceased, death year, birth year and burial place. Burials usually took place with a few days of death.

The search form has space for death place and keyword but they are not functional.

A search returns name, birth year, death year, and burial place.

I found records from all provinces except Newfoundland and Labrador.

There's no information about the source(s).

Poverty and Crime in 1830s Liverpool

Proceedings of the Statistical Society of London, Vol. 2, No. 12 (1837—1838) contains the following items:

A report, drawn up by Mr. Langton, "Upon the Number of inhabited Courts and Cellars, occupied as Dwellings in Liverpool in 1835-6" was then read.
The number of the former was 2,271; of the latter 7,493, which are mostly dark, damp, confined, ill-ventilated, and dirty. Thus, not less than one-seventh of the population of Liverpool dwell in cellars; for, supposing each cellar to contain one family, averaging four persons, there will be about 30,000 persons inhabiting cellars out of a population of 280,000.
These statements, exaggerated as they might appear, were confirmed on the following day by a Liverpool gentleman, who reported that, feeling doubtful of their accuracy, be had procured a similar report from the police, in which the numbers exceeded those stated by Mr. Langton.

Mr. Walmsley, of Liverpool, read a Paper “ On the State of Crime” in that town; which confirmed a previous Report upon the same subject. It was stated that the number of criminals in Liverpool consisted of 4,200 female thieves and prostitutes, and 4,520 males; of the latter 2,270 were professional, and the remainder occasional thieves. The annual amount of their profits and plunder was estimated at £700,000; and Mr. Walmsley, who is the chief of the police at Liverpool, assured the Section that, upon a second examination, the calculation appeared by no means exaggerated.

Genealogists' Magazine: December 2019

Volume 33, Number 4 of the Society of Genealogists quarterly magazine features a long read "Civil Registration and Clergymen on Trial" by Gwyneth Wilkie.  The article documents cases where clergymen failed to report on marriages they conducted and the efforts, including legal, to remedy the situation.
In case this detailed description of transgressions leads to the belief that BMDs are significantly deficient Wilkie quotes from a July 1839 report by the Statistical Society of London.

Important and obvious as are the applications of the registered facts, the measure had to encounter considerable opposition. Its advantages were scarcely perceived at first by the multitude; and some of the clergy of the Established Church thew obstacles in its way, under an erroneous apprehension that the registration of births might interfere with the administration of baptisms. By taking active steps to make known in every way the nature, advantages, and obligations of the Act, and by firm, but conciliatory conduct, the Registrar-General appears to have exceeded beyond the most sanguine expectations, in obtaining, during the first year of its operation, an almost complete register of deaths and marriages. The register of births is less complete; but this is owing to the want of a clause in the Act to render the information on births imperative. 

Shorter items in the issue are:

Further Observations on the Form of the Bride's Signature in Marriage Registers 1754-1837, by John Wintrip
Improving indexes to sources over time, by Barney Tyrwitt-Drake
Leutnant J N Meiser - follow-up, by Karen J Douglas and Dr Colin R Chapman FSG
RootsTech London 2019, by Emmy Jolly and Else Churchill

The Mystique of Money: Tax Culture and ‘Race’ in Two Centuries”

The Ottawa Historical Association's next presentation of its 2019-20 Speaker Series is at the Ottawa Art Gallery (50 Mackenzie King Bridge) on Tuesday, 10 December:

“The Mystique of Money: Tax Culture and ‘Race’ in Two Centuries”

 A public lecture by Shirley Tillotson

The mystique of money is about its power both to hide and to reveal. Using examples from her recent book, Give and Take: The Citizen-Taxpayer and the Rise of Canadian Democracy (UBC Press, 2017), and from the Dalhousie University inquiry about its connections to race and slavery in the 1810s, Tillotson will explore both sides of the mystique of money and especially its relationship to systems of racial power.

Shirley Tillotson is Professor Emeritus in the Department of History at Dalhousie University.

This presentation is sponsored by the Canadian Historical Association, which named Give and Take as the 2019 Best Scholarly Book in Canadian History. Copies of Give and Take will be available for purchase at the presentation, courtesy of Perfect Books.

The presentation will begin at 7:15 p.m.
Parking is available at the nearby Rideau Centre.

All are welcome!

Sunday Sundries

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

The Genealogical Society Observer
While researching for an article I was directed to this monthly publication of the Genealogical Society of Utah. Written for employees and volunteers, it contains news about the Society with a leavening of humour. The item below is from volume 5, no. 1 (Jan. 1969).

If you want to know the real purpose of the LDS genealogical endeavours check out the editorial on page 3 of the issue. It's no secret but rarely so plainly stated.

Illustration from "For Surprises, Shake that Family Tree" from the Ottawa Journal, 19 March 1949. The article mentioned a move by the Ontario Historical Society to add a genealogical section to its quarterly publication.

Vernon Ontario Directories
There are now 473 directories advertised as in the collection of Ontario directories, up from 465 when mentioned on the blog on 26 November.

19th-Century London’s Extreme Wealth and Poverty, Mapped
A review of a new edition of the always fascinating Charles Booth’s London Poverty Maps.

Remove car lanes, restrict vehicles and improve transit to reduce traffic congestion
Although promoted as the best option in one of the sources cited the article does not mention congestion pricing. That source is also cautious about enthusiasm for public transit —"there is such an enormous latent demand for road space ... that whenever a driver shifts onto public transportation, another one quickly grabs the open lane.

Why Don’t We Know More About the Subway Cost Disease?
If better research could cut construction costs by 1%, it would be worth spending tens of millions on that research. It might be true for Ontario's rapid transit systems too.

How can we actually create happy societies?
Creating a happy society does not just depend on creating the right conditions. It also depends on creating the right institutions and processes for discovering those conditions.

LAC Quarterly Progress Report

LAC recently posted 2019-2022 Three-Year Plan Progess Report: Second Quarter 2019-2020

At the half-year mark LAC is on-target to meet or exceed 6 of  8 indicators reported.

I'm impressed that LAC is more than half-way to the annual target of 3,500,000 images digitized from LAC’s collection. It would be interesting to know what record sets are involved and the format of the original.

Co-Lab and DigiLab activities that require input by non-LAC personnel, be they individual volunteers or staff of other organizations using these LAC facilities, are falling short of the target.

OGS Ottawa Branch Golden Anniversary Family History Project

The following is information from OGS Ottawa Branch.

To help celebrate the 50 years of Ottawa Branch, we would like members to donate a copy of their family history to our Branch library. Every family history sent in during 2020 will be noted in the library catalogue as a Golden Anniversary and will be marked on the spine or cover (to make them easier to identify on the shelves) with a small gold coloured symbol.

If you have already donated a family history, consider updating it with any new information. These family histories will join the over 800 family histories now in our library, ensuring that the stories are never lost.

As well, the Branch is indexing all the library’s family histories in TONI, the Ontario Name Index. To speed this task, we would ask you to send us an electronic version of either the whole family history or the index if you have one. These files will be used only to add the names to TONI. Please send the files to toni@ogs.on.ca with the name of your family history in the subject line.

I wondered what constituted a suitable donation. Here's a reply:

We normally accept only properly formatted genealogical information (paper or electronic format); electronic files must be readable by a web-browser on a Windows machine (e.g., pdf or html). We may accept useful items that can be catalogued and placed on the shelves, even if in a three-ring binder and never published. All materials proposed for donation will be reviewed prior to accepting it since everything must be put through a triage process before it comes into the building. Ideally, family histories should be indexed for easier research access.

Interview with Charlotte Gray

Following the publication of Murdered Midas, I had the good fortune to chat with author Charlotte Gray about the book, her background and writing.



To keep the length to 20 minutes, much too short, I had to leave some segments I enjoyed on the cutting-room floor.
I particularly regret having to cut part of Charlotte's answer to my final question about authors she's enjoyed. The author omitted is Stacy Schiff, and especially her book on Cleopatra — check out YouTube videos where Schiff is interviewed.
After I recorded this TVO aired an interview with Charlotte that focuses almost exclusively on the story told in the book. View it here.

Last minute notice: DNA Workshop

The following is information about a meeting organized by Ottawa Branch, OGS on Saturday, 7 December⋅13:00 – 17:00 at the City of Ottawa Archives, 100 Tallwood Drive (Room 228).

Jason Porteous will again help you to use Genome Mate Pro (GMP). You need not have prior knowledge of the program. Jason will get you through uploading your match info into a database. After that it's fairly easy to learn through playing around with the various tools inside.

Bring your laptop. The GMP database is set up to work from it. Download your match information. This can be done for FTDNA (csv match file on main matches list at bottom, and csv segment list from Chromosome viewer page), for MyHeritage it is a somewhat complicated process that I can cover. For 23andMe it is also complicated but doable using third party site DNAGedcom, and for Ancestry it can't be done directly but is doable indirectly by matching others from Ancestry or any company who have transferred to the third party site GEDmatch . I recommend everyone, regardless where originally testing, transfers to GEDmatch to allow across company comparisons and to generate the largest match list of genetic cousins possible. Please read their terms of service closely. 

We will not be providing refreshments but you are welcome to bring your own coffee/tea and water bottles can be filled at the water stations in the City Archives. We will be upstairs in Room 228.

Jason may also go over the new tools from Borland Genetics which allow you to partially/fully phase your DNA test results (ie. separate your maternal from paternal chromosome to create a "mono" DNA kit that on GEDmatch will only return matches to one parent while also greatly reducing false matches). He's also open to discussing chromosome mapping as well.

Findmypast adds modern UK records

United Kingdom Deaths 2007-2017
Over 2.7 million additions from across England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, and Isle of Man have been added to the collection. These transcripts, provided by Wilmington Millennium, provide the individual’s name, date and location of death.

UK Electoral Registers & Companies House Directors 2002-2019
Over 981,000 new additions are now available to search. This collection enables you to search registers of UK directors whose companies are registered with Companies House along with the UK’s electoral registers beginning from 2002. There are more than 115 million records available.

Cornwall Burials
Over 76,000 additions covering 57 assorted parishes across the county. This collection now has over 280,000 records covering more than two hundred parishes. Each transcript will reveal a combination of birth year, death year, burial date and burial place. Some records may also include relative’s names.

Also added this week, as well as further digitized Scottish newspaper pages, is a browse collection of New York, Marriage Index Cards (Force-Vorce Family) published in partnership with the New York Genealogical & Biographical Society. It's in BETA and undergoing evaluation and testing. The marriage index includes names, event dates and generation numbers.

Saints by Sea

The Saints by Sea website contains first-person accounts of international converts who were among the about 90,000 Latter-day Saint converts arriving in the US from 1840 to1932.

The Saints by Sea website complements the Mormon Pioneer Overland Trail Database, which covers crossing the plains.

No Sweat Tech: Using YouTube to Learn More about Your Family History

An article from the Saturday Evening Post by the estimable Tara Calishain on using Spotify and YouTube ("an incredible wealth of video that stretches back into the 19th century") to prompt recollections from her grandmother.

Where did they walk? Online Database of British and Irish Hills

Your British and/or Irish ancestors most likely walked, to get to and from school or work (uphill and against the wind both ways), to visit friends and relatives, or for the enjoyment of the countryside.

For the latter check out the Hill Bagging database. It has information on 19,507 British hills and 1,451 for Ireland.

Find out what's available by clicking on Mountain Search from the left-hand menu, scroll in and click "Show all hills within map bounds" from the text beside the map.

Two entries are for hills I climbed to as a teen near the village where my grandmother lived in North Yorkshire, Captain Cook's monument on Easby Moor and Roseberry Topping. This YouTube video makes the point on the opportunity for enjoyment of the countryside for the urban dweller.

OGS 2020 Webinars Announced

Although the last OGS webinar of 2019 is not yet presented — Linda Corupe will speak on “Upper Canadian Justice“ on Thursday 5 December at 7pm (register here) — the webinar program for the first half of 2020 is now announced.

Date	Presenter	Topic
2 January	Thomas MacEntee	Smarter Search Strategies
6 February	Mags Gaulden	DNA Databases
5 March	Ute Brandenberg	Hidden Gems in German and Polish Archives
2 April	Blythe Kareen	Tracing Family History Using the Archives of Ontario
7 May	Beverley MacCulloch	Using Ontario's Township Papers
4 June	Jenny Lemay	Research Indigenous Ancestors in Northern Ontario

Registration for the 2020 webinars will open shortly.

Lisgar Collegiate Institute Yearbooks

From 1883 to 2006-2007 find yearbooks, Vox Lysei, for Lisgar (Ottawa) Collegiate Institute at https://www.lisgar.net/.

The first few years are handwritten. Printed editions appear to be OCRd and searchable one-by-one.

Find many photos of students and staff, individually or in groups.

The 1919 issue includes the names of former students who died in the Great War including the years they were at the Institute.

Advance Notice: Family History Down Under

If you've always wanted to visit Australia and would like to do so in conjunction with "A Major World Class Genealogy Conference," consider adding 23-26 March 2021 to your trip plan.

Unlock the Past is organizing the event on Queensland's Sunshine Coast, a bit over an hour outside Brisbane.

Two of the headline speakers are Blaine Bettinger and Paul Milner. Five more headliners will be announced.

Find out more here (pdf).

New time for 4 Dec Getting Started in Genealogy

Monday's post originally had this event starting at 2 pm. That is now changed to 1 pm.

FamilySearch adds Lincolnshire, Parish Registers, 1538-1990

Transcriptions of 3,947,025 Lincolnshire Church of England parish register entries of baptisms, marriages, and burials are announced in the FamilySearch newsroom. The original records are from the Lincolnshire Record Office.

There are more, as noted in a post on 11 May 2019, from Findmypast which has Lincolnshire entries for 2,037,145 baptisms, 130,601 banns, 976,293 marriages and 1,809,363 burials.

The records are not available at Ancestry or MyHeritage.

NPE Rates

A recently published study of extra-pair paternity (EPP), often called NPEs, in the Netherlands and Belgium shows that historical rates were low overall (∼1%) but higher for urban populations than rural and for those with low socioeconomic status. Combining the two the rate was ∼5.9% among urban families with low socioeconomic status.
That means for the 15 couplings back to your great-great-grandparents there would be a 14% chance of at least one NPE at the overall average 1%, but a 60% chance for urban families with low socioeconomic status.
The table shows the probability a person has one or more NPEs, cumulatively back for a specified number of generations, starting with parents at one generation.

Generations	Couplings	1% NPE Rate	2% NPE Rate	6% NPE Rate
1	1	1	2	6
2	3	3	6	17
3	7	7	13	35
4	15	14	26	60
5	31	27	47	85
6	63	47	72	98
7	127	72	92	100
8	255	92	99	100
9	511	99	100	100
10	1023	100	100	100

Northern Ireland's Tithe Applotment Books go online

Claire Santry posted on Friday that PRONI has released its newly digitized collection of Tithe Applotment Books from 1820 to 1840 online. They can be searched at the townland level within each parish pdf but are not indexed by the householder's name. Go to her post for the detail.
Claire also has news of other releases from PRONI.

This Experienced Amateur Family Historian Gets it Wrong

In a single sentence I blew it while interviewing Charlotte Gray.

You were born in Sheffield in Yorkshire. A little genealogy research says your father was John Gray, your mother Kathleen Beckett and their marriage was registered in Norwich, in my birth county of Norfolk. 

Immediately after I named each of her parents Charlotte cried "Wrong."

How did I end up with egg all over my face?

Charlotte's Wikipedia page gives her birth date as 3 January 1948. Using FreeBMD I found a birth registration in the index with her mother's maiden name.

I didn't know if there were siblings so went looking for them in Sheffield. There was only one, Nicholas R Gray with birth registered in the last quarter of 1946.

So I looked for the marriage of a Gray to a Beckett. From 1940 onward there were none in Sheffield but there was a marriage of John A. Gray to Kathleen M Beckett in the 1st quarter of 1945, a respectable period before the birth of Nicholas. It was in Norwich, but then lots of marriages occurred in places where servicemen met their match while posted away from home during the war.

Had I had time, which I didn't, I could have ordered her birth certificate which would give the parents names.

Is there any other way using readily available documents online I could have avoided this blunder?

My interview with Charlotte, whose latest book is Murdered Midas: A Millionaire, His Gold Mine, and a Strange Death on an Island Paradise, will be posted shortly.

Dec 4, 2019 Getting Started in Genealogy

Let's explore family trees!

Ottawa Public Library (OPL) presents a seminar on Genealogy with tips on researching your family tree. Come one come all to the Hunt Club Riverside Park Community Centre on Wednesday, 4 December from 1 to 2:30 pm in the Riverside Room. This a free seminar!

Note the new time!

Internet Genealogy Dec - Jan 2020

There's a good mix of content in this latest issue.

Memphis Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1878
Calgary researcher-writer Wayne Shepheard researches an epidemic from which more than 20,000 died people along the Mississippi River. He delves into records, including an 1879 book that lists the dead, using his own surname (with variants) to bring home the individual impacts behind the statistics.

More Than a Matter of Trust: Evaluating Website Reliability
Sue Lisk looks at ways to identify whether a particular website is a dependable source of information. Things to look for — common-sense and uncommon-sense.

Building Up Your Family History with Architectural Databases
David A. Norris looks at a valuable set of resources for family historians.

Taking Better Tombstone Photos
Robbie Gorr outlines four easy steps for getting the best possible results when taking photos of your ancestors’ gravestones. Will well repay the time spent reading it.

Researching Métis Ancestry in Your Scottish Family History
Christine Woodcock, Canada's Scotland expert, explains the origins, story and how you might have a connection to the Métis Nation.

Researching Military Records of African American Ancestors
Diane L. Richard reveals where to find records for pre-20th century conflicts

Remembering Those Who Have Fallen
Tony Bandy looks at the CommonwealthWar Graves Commission and our family histories. A good overview of cwgc.org and related sites. I was a bit surprised not to see a mention of burials of Second World War RAF personnel in the US, notably the largest number at Montgomery (Oakwood) Cemetery Annexe, Alabama.

HistoryPin: Tell and Share Your Stories!
Diane L. Richard looks at the thriving sharing platform

NetNotes
Internet Genealogy looks at websites and related news that are sure to be of interest

Back Page
Dave Obee suggests tailoring your queries for the best search results

Subscribe to Internet Genealogy at https://internet-genealogy.com/

Sunday Sundries

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

Top 5 topics addressed by LAC's Reference Librarians

Handwriting recognition casts new light on climate change from NIWA, on Vimeo.



Atlantic slavery left its mark not just in wealthy city centres, but among the rural poor too
The role of mid-Wales, also Newfoundland and Slovakia in the slave trade.

Reminder: Documentary Heritage Communities Program Webinar
3 December.

So is it nature not nurture after all? 
An opinion piece from The Guardian on Robert Plomin's book Blueprint: How DNA Makes Us Who We Are.

Hours of daylight mapped as a function of latitude and time of year
A neat graphic. At the equator, the day length never changes.

Tweet of the Week
The concept of "proper English" is a construct based in racism, sexism, classism, colonialism, and imperialism.