Ontario Archives Situations During COVID-19 Pandemic

The Archives Association of Ontario (AAO) Municipal Archives Interest Group have taken a COVID-19 situation survey of 17 Ontario archival organizations: Simcoe County Archives, Oxford County Archives, City of Toronto Archives, Community Archives of Belleville and Hastings County, St. Marys Museum and Archives, City of Vaughan - Archives & Records Management Services, Museum of Dufferin, Bruce County Museum & Cultural Centre, Stratford-Perth Archives, Grey Roots Museum & Archives (Grey County), City of Ottawa Archives, St. Catharines Museum, Lambton County Archives, Region of Peel Archives at PAMA, Dundas County Archives, Archives of Ontario, Norfolk County Archives.

The largest, the Archives of Ontario (AO), has 106 full-time employees and 6 part-time. All are working from home. In response to "What projects are staff working on, especially while physically
separated from your collections and facilities?" AO responded "...updating and revising internal documents like policies, procedures and protocols and reviewing our public-facing products such as research guides and pathfinders. Collections management analysis also continues, including description and authority record clean up and appraisal activities for both government and private records. More specifically, we continue to advance key initiatives and projects ... increasing our focus on engaging audiences via digital platforms, enabling increased digital access, working on digital online exhibits, creating online educational resources and maintaining an engaging social media presence, and conducting preparatory work in anticipation of a new collections management system.

The City of Toronto Archives, second largest with 20 employees, has some working from home, some not continuing to work. All 15 full-time and 1 part-time staff of The City of Ottawa Archives continue to be employed working from home except 2 who are redeployed.

Two of the smallest archives have no employees working.

All responses indicate that to the best of knowledge environmental conditions continue to be maintained for archives storage.

Thanks to Nicholas Moreau for AAO the information.

AAO has a collection of COVID-19 resources on collection care, documenting the pandemic and, working from home. The latter has a long list of things that can be done remotely.

Deceased Online adds Norwich Cemeteries: the Rackham Family

Rosary and Earlham Cemeteries, both owned and run by Norwich City Council, have just been published on www.deceasedonline.com.

Rosary Cemetery with 20,627 records, from 1821 to 2007 was the UK's first non-denominational burial ground. It has Grade II* listed status. It lies 1.5 km east of the city centre.

Earlham Cemetery with 170,930 records, from 1856 to 2008, is 2.4 km west of the city centre.

An illustration in the announcement of this addition showed a Rackham family entry in Earlham cemetery. Mary Elizabeth Mann, nee Rackham is the wife of my 1st cousin 4 times removed, so not a blood relative. As an author she was described as "brutal as Hardy, as sharply satirical as Thackeray."
She was born in Norwich on 14 August 1848 to merchant William Simon Rackham. With relatively few Rackhams in Norwich, or Norfolk, in the 1851 census it's likely the Thomas in the extract is of a previous generation. That's a rabbit hole I'll avoid at present.

Ottawa Branch Meeting Online

This Saturday, 23 May at 1 pm tune in free on Zoom for a presentation by Kyla Ubbink on Preserving Family Archives.

Preserving Family Archives: Family documents, photographs, clippings, works of art, diaries, bibles, trinkets and treasures are the physical evidence that tell the stories of our ancestors. As genealogist, much these materials wind up in your care, and knowing how to preserve them is paramount to ensuring the longevity of these pieces of family history. This presentation will explore methods of employing archival principles of preservation to the care of family memorabilia. Current and up to date practices for storing archival materials, how to detect processes of deterioration, and methods of intervention will be shared within the context of practical ‘at home’ application. Topics include proper boxes and enclosures, the use of albums, shelving, climate control, pest and mould prevention, basic cleaning and repair, and digitization.

Register in advance at:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/u5Erd-uqpjMiRJpqQ-8iD6CABdywXsUNrA

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Genealogy Meetings Online: Survey Results

57 people took the survey Are Online Meetings Toooo Looooong?

31 (54%) regularly attend in-person meetings of a family history society
42 (74%) wanted societies to offer online presentations as a regular membership benefit. Of those who regularly attend meetings only one opposed online presentations.
31 (54%) were neutral on whether online family history society meetings should mirror to the extent possible the format of in-person meetings. 23% thought they should not, 16% that they should.
28 (49%) were of the view that the optimal length of time for a presentation online is 20 - 30 minutes. 37% favoured online meetings from 30 - 50 minutes.
The question on willingness to pay for online events should have been separated into one for meetings and another for conferences. My bad. A small majority indicated a willingness to pay.

Comments were:

• Agree that presentations can be shorter but depends on the topic and how much there is to cover.  Thanks for setting up this survey.
• I never considered it before.  But, shorter presentations make sense
• Hard to say what is "optimal".  I think the availability of online presentations is reaching people who need it and so the more indepth we can go plus ample time for questions is Optimal.
• Quality of speaker's voice matters to me.
• The length of a session is dependent on the topic IMHO. Additionally, if the questions outweigh the length of the session, that usually indicates more should have been covered by the presentation 
• Yes to a presentation, no to a conference. There was no way to give both of these answers.
• Willingness to pay would depend on the potential quality Of the presentation. There is ample available material without a fee. 
• For virtual meetings it would be good to see the speakers for announcements, introductions, start of presentations, and questions -- maybe the people asking questions too, if their cameras are on.
• I think that given the demographic of genealogists and the restrictions on us going to public events, Zoom meetings will become more and more important, as we are discouraged from being together. I can cope with someone talking to me for about 40 minutes but presentations either live or online should not be longer than that. I would like to see online society meetings make better use of break out rooms where a few people could chat about the presentation. The social time and resulting friendships is an important part of why we belong to a society. On line presentations with members who live to far away to attend physically are also a great thing. Adapt or die.
• Every time I have tried to do a presentation or register I have never been able to get registered????
• Depends if we are still under lockdown. You did not make that clear. The on-line branch meetings are great for those of us who belong to many branches that we cannot travel to (e.g. Sudbury, Ottawa, Lanark. [We live in Toronto]. We have noticed attendance of over 200 people on-line - even some from America participating - don't get that many at physical meetings.
• There are still members without a computer or a reliable high-speed connection. There are others who won't use many of the social media services. Genealogy meetings are social events which are much more enjoyable than sitting in front of a monitor.
• "I do not attend Canadian online meetings because they are held in the middle of my night. Not all are repeated later for far afield members.
• "
• I would and have paid for specific online meetings or presentations but would not pay for online conferences. 
• Thank goodness for ZOOM and similar platforms, that can keep us in touch, and provide on-line courses to us. I have now attended meetings in Ottawa, Kingston, Halton-Peel, & Toronto that would not have been otherwise possible. We may well be in this isolation boat for quite some time to come otherwise.

Thanks to all who took the survey, and in advance to those organizing events who consider these opinions in their planning.

O/T: Windows 10 Clipboard

I've struggled for a long while with copy (Ctrl+C) and paste (Ctrl+V). They or the right mouse click equivalent work well. But it has no memory back from the current item. That's annoying when you copied something, then something else but want to paste the former.

What I did not know until a couple of days ago is that Windows 10 has had a Clipboard since October 2018.

Activate it by following Settings > System > Clipboard. Then turn the Clipboard History switch on. You copy in the same way, but instead of Ctrl+V use Win+V - that's the key with the four window panes. A window opens and you select the item you want.

When will LAC reopen?

The following information is from Librarian and Archivist of Canada, Leslie Weir.

We are being very cautious in our planning for return.  Our initial top priority is the safety and security of our staff.  We have a team looking at the building, people and work to find the best ways forward.  We will maintain telework in the long term and phase onsite work back in slowly while we practice social distancing and will define have isolation of all materials coming into the facility.  And we know that we need to be ready to return to the approach over the past 9 weeks at a moment’s notice. 
And we are planning for welcoming back our users, but in a later phase, likely during the summer.

Comment:   I'm sure we all support a prudent approach to reopening the LAC physical facilities. The closure reinforces the message that the more resources digitized and online the better LAC's ability to serve clients Canada-wide whatever the physical access conditions.

The Three County Geographical Genealogy (GeoGen) Mapping Project.

As previously mentioned, in the Documentary Heritage Community Program competition for 2020-21 GANS was successful in being awarded $24,964 for the Three County Geographical Genealogy (GeoGen) Mapping Project.

The following information was kindly supplied by Paul Armstrong, Project Manager.

"This is a joint venture among several Nova Scotia Heritage organizations formed last fall with an interest in preserving and digitizing a set of very interesting historical maps created in the late nineteenth century. The maps got their name from the cartographer, Ambrose Finson Church, who led and organized the work. They are referred to as the A.F. Church maps.
Preserving these maps is an important first step, but their importance is related to the uniquely valuable genealogical information on them. As part of his topographical mapping, Mr. Church identified the location of households on the map, and wrote in the first initial and last name of the owner or head of household beside the dot. With appropriate research, the surnames can be used as a means to create links to household-level census information and other genealogical and historical data.
At the end of November, these Heritage organizations issued a Public Announcement calling for donations of the original lithograph prints, and a considerable number of donations were received. The members of this joint venture, which happen to be located in three different counties, have moved forward with a project to physically conserve and digitize a partial set of these maps. Library & Archives Canada has generously agreed to help with the financial costs of this work.
The work ultimately leads to a connection between geographical and genealogical data. We are referring to it as the GeoGen Project."

Find further information at https://www.mircs.ca/geogen/

LAC Co-Lab update for May

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

PROGRESS

Diary of François-Hyacinthe Séguin is 16% complete (7% last momth)
Correspondence regarding First Nations veterans returning after the First World War is 96% complete (84% month)
Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 is 71% complete (69% last month).
The Call to Duty: Canada's Nursing Sisters is 97% complete (93% last month)
New France and First Nations Relations is 78% complete (50% last month)

NO CHANGE OR REVISED

Women Lightkeepers: heroes by the sea is 96% complete (97% last month)
George Mully: moments in Indigenous communities is 2% complete.
Legendary Train Robber and Prison Escapee Bill Miner is 99% complete
War Diaries of the First World War: 1st Canadian Division is 94% complete
Japanese-Canadians: Second World War is 64% complete

COMPLETED

The Spanish Flu Pandemic of 1918–1919
Correspondence between Sir Robert Borden and Sir Sam Hughes
Letters from Wilfrid Laurier to Zoé Lafontaine/Laurier
Rosemary Gilliat (Eaton)’s Arctic diary and photographs (newly completed this month)

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 — I understand this is under review.

However, the last quarterly report posted was for the period July-Sept 2019. I'm told a report will be forthcoming by the end of the month.

Suggest a New LAC Co-Lab Challenge

Co-Lab is a Library and Archives Canada crowdsourcing tool aiming to make their content more accessible and usable through transcription, translation, tagging and description. LAC is actively seeking your ideas for challenges,

How do I suggest an idea for a challenge?We would love to hear your ideas! Please send us an email at bac.co-lab.lac@canada.ca with your suggestions. Make sure to include a reference number, MIKAN number or e-copy number for the record you are interested in seeing in a Co-Lab challenge.

I took up the challenge of making a suggestion and found one appropriate for the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War.

At present, there is no database of those who served in the Canadian forces during the War. The best source, service files, are restricted access. There is a source for those who served in Europe in the lists of repatriated servicemen and servicewomen. They are on open access microfilms for the Directorate of Movements at LAC in the range C-5630 to C-5650. A few of those are on Heritage, C-5636, C-5639, C-5649 and C-5650 but don't appear to be repatriation lists. The rest were not open (category 90) when those four were made available to Canadiana. They are open now.

As a start on this project, I've suggested to LAC the repatriation list for the Mauretania which transported 6,011 passengers to Halifax arriving on 10/11 December 1945. Reference:RG24-C-24-a. File number: HQC 63-303-1029. Microfilm reel number: C-5643.

What do you think? Would you help with the transcription?

When I get a response from LAC I'll post again.

If you have other suggestions for Co-Lab challenges don't hesitate to email to LAC.

Why and How to Backup Your Computer

Computer guru Charles Godwin emailed me with a backup story.

My hard drive failed Thursday morning. I do daily backups. It took to Friday to get a new drive but I fully restored by late Friday to my backup Wednesday. Probably lost 4 hours of stuff, but in my case none was irreplaceable.

I was surprised to find out it was a 3-4-year-old solid-state drive (SSD) that failed. Charles replaced it with one with double the capacity for $100.

My backup is an external HDD, and extra insurance with a Backblaze account. Backblaze should save me if a disaster at home sends both my computer and external drive to technology heaven — leaving me in the other place.

A couple of days later I got a renewal notice from Backblaze. It worked smoothly a couple of times I tested it. So I renewed.

Backblaze offers an extra month service if you use this link, and I'll get an extra month too.

Are Meetings OnlineTooooo Loooong ?

Family history society meetings online are following the physical meeting format. Why do online presentations still have to be 50 minutes plus time for questions?

When you go to a meeting in person you may well spend as much time travelling to and from the event as in the meeting. Then there's time to dress to go out. You wouldn't do all that for a 10 or 20-minute presentation, but with an online meeting there's no special dressing, no travel or parking. So why continue with the physical meeting length presentations?

TED Talks are 18 minutes, "long enough to be serious and short enough to hold people’s attention. It turns out that this length also works incredibly well online." That's from The Science Behind TED's 18-Minute Rule.

You might be interested in this series of short talks organized by The Walrus in November 2019. The average talk is 7 minutes.

The average YouTube video is less than 5 minutes.

BIFHSGO holds Great Moments in Genealogy sessions twice a year with three of four presentations of 15 minutes each. They're usually the most population meetings of the year.

And with longer presentations, there's more Zoom Fatigue.

Please respond to the short survey. It may need a Google account.

Thanks for responding to the survey.

Ancestry updates New York, Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957

So many people arrived in New York on their way to Canada, either as immigrants or returning from pleasure or business trips that it's worth noting Ancestry's update to this collection, now with 83,000,681 records.
There are also listings for arrival in NY from or via a Canadian port. For Montreal, there are 145,344 passengers, for Quebec City 35,451, for Halifax 257,526.

Sunday Sundries

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.



The Huguenots: London's First Refugees

Ethnicity
Some argue there's no such thing as ethnicity. Others want ethnicity recorded on death certificates in England and Wales to start building a clearer picture of the impact of Coronavirus.
As F. Scott Fitzgerald is quoted “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.”

Ancestry Extra: Monday, 18 May at 10:00 a.m. EDT
Keep Calm and Carry On: Tips and Tricks for Researching Your UK Ancestors
with Celia Heritage: Ancestry ProGenealogist https://www.facebook.com/AncestryCA/

Megaliths
Is there a prehistoric stone circle, row or other feature in the UK and Ireland near your ancestral home?

Famous Hope Quotes as Charts

See 10 more by Nathan Yau at https://flowingdata.com/2020/05/08/famous-hope-quotes-as-charts/






Thomas Annan's Glasgow
Slides from 1868 mapped to a location.

Are you at greater genetic risk from Covid-19?
If you have your data from 23andMe, AncestryDNA or any other provider, you can participate in an international study to help develop new ways of analyzing your genome data (including some new COVID-19 research) and you’ll learn more about yourself from your DNA. Find out more, and be sure you're satisfied with the privacy conditions.

Ancestry Extra: Thursday, 21 May at 12:00 p.m. EDT La Collection Drouin : un incontournable de la généalogie canadienne-française, with Luc Lépine https://www.facebook.com/AncestryCA/

Thanks to this week's contributors
Ann Burns, Anonymous, Btyclk, Gail B., HChambers, Jean, Jenna Bruno, K, M. Anne Sterling, Susan Courage, Unknown, William Cookman

Ontario Civil Registration Marriages for 1938 on Ancestry

Have you been waiting for Ontario civil registration marriage records for 1938?

Ancestry is loading them to the collection Ontario, Canada, Marriages, 1826-1938.

On Friday evening when I checked there were 12 for 1938, this morning 61,373, although the total number in the collection, 9,681,280, had not changed. I suspect there are more to come.

Findmypast adds UK Electoral Registers & Companies House Directors, 2002-2020

Over 1.5 million transcript records from the original register provided by 192.com. Each transcript gives name, year, street, town, district, county, country, postcode, address, district, age guide – provides the age range of the individual, electoral roll, occupancy (years), other occupants. A company director field will show if that person is listed on the Companies House Directors register.

This is the resource you need for tracing cousins and "lost" British friends.

Findmypast adds further WW2 Records

Durham Home Guard 1939-1945
Transcript records of 83,096 individuals who served in the Home Guard in the county of Durham between 1939 and 1945. The records consist of the enrolment forms and include name, birth date and regiment. There is also an entry for death which, unless they enrolled the deceased, is erroneous. All records appear to be for men. The records are from The (UK) National Archives series WO 409  .

Faces of The Fallen 1939-1945
Over 1,000 photographic images of service personnel who lost their lives in World War 2 originally published in The War Illustrated magazine. They cover all branches of the British armed forces.

Surnames dictionary goes free during lockdown

According to an article from The Guardian, The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland is online for free for a limited time - one week.

Compiled by a team of researchers from UWE Bristol, it includes every surname that currently has more than 100 bearers, and all those that had more than 20 bearers in the 1881 census. That's tens of thousands of family names.

When I tried it here the site couldn't be reached. Try later if that's your experience.

Thanks to Susan Courage for the tip.

Newspaper Digitization Milestone

New Zealand, a country with a population about one-eighth that of Canada, has achieved six million pages digitized through the Papers Past initiative of the National Library of New Zealand. Read about it here.

To put the achievement in perspective, six million pages is 1.25 pages per person.

Australia's digitized newspaper collection TROVE, from the National Library of Australia, has 23,498,368 pages or 0.94 pages per person.

Both are free to full-text search and view.

When complete later this year the British Newspaper Archive, a cooperative project from the British Library, will comprise 40 million pages, or 0.60 pages per person on a subscription basis.

In Canada, how is Library and Archives Canada doing?  Neither the LAC project that digitized four First Nation’s titles, nor the Canadiana.ca newspaper digitization initiative gives the number of pages digitized.

FreeBMD May Update

The FreeBMD Database was updated on Thursday 7 May 2020 to contain 274,673,618 unique records (273,825,854 at previous update).

Years with major additions, greater than 5,000 records are: for births 1982, 1984-89; for marriages 1964, 1969, 1986-88; for deaths 1984-86. 1988.

www.freebmd.org.uk/

Kingston Branch OGS May Meeting Online

On Saturday, 16 May 16, 2020, at 10:00 am, Bob Dawes from Quinte Branch OGS will talk about “The Family History Reno Project”.

Most genealogists consider a DO-OVER as a way to correct inaccuracies that have crept into their family history file over time. We all improve on our research and recording skills as we get more experienced, leaving a lot of our earlier research questionable. Also, new databases and resources become available which might confirm or discount an earlier decision we made about an ancestor. 

There are two ways to approach this reconstruction: 

• The easy way or top-down approach where we methodically re-visit everyone in our file
confirming dates and adding or editing information about new individuals and events.

• The hard way or bottom up approach involves starting a new family file with ourselves and adding our parents and so on with the associated proof and sources. 

This presentation will discuss the easy, top-down approach which also allows you to continue your research while cleaning up any inaccuracies at the same time.

Genealogical Association of Nova Scotia Awarded LAC Funding

In the Documentary Heritage Community Program competition for 2020-21 GANS was successful in being awarded $24,964 for the Three County Geographical Genealogy (GeoGen) Mapping Project.

There's no further information about the project available. I'll post further when I get a response from GANS. In the meantime see https://legacy.stoepel.net/en

Find the list of 40 projects funded by the DHCP for 2020-21 here.

Wealthier Grandparents: Healthier Grandchildren

A study Grandparents’ wealth and the body mass index trajectories of grandchildren by Ying Huang published 30 April 2020 published in PLOS ONE finds that

Grandparental wealth is a critical SES marker that can play a pivotal role in influencing their grandchildren’s weight status beginning in early childhood. Grandparental wealth is an important financial resource that shapes the opportunities structure that a child faces and the environment that a child lives in. Grandparental wealth may play a role in influencing grandchildren’s BMI growth trajectories through the “purchasing” function of wealth. In other words, grandparental wealth may help grandchildren to access material goods and services that mitigate obesity risks. 

Is the author suggesting a subsidy program for grandparents in concluding "elevating the wealth levels of the grandparent generation could potentially reduce their grandchildren’s obesity risk"?

How are you coping during COVID-19?

Researchers from Ontario and Quebec health institutions have launched a study to examine the psychological, social, and financial impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in the general population and in people receiving care from hospitals in these provinces.

Sharing your experiences could lead to the design of better tools to help people cope when the world around them suddenly changes.

Do you have time to help? It should take between 20 and 65 minutes to complete the online survey asking about your current living and study/work situation, your physical and mental wellbeing, and how the Covid-19 pandemic is affecting your life. 

Find out more including about privacy before starting the survey at http://uottawapsy.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_dmS38xaFQeSxRB3

Short time Ancestry Free Access

Free to access on Ancestry for a very limited time — 12 May 2020 at 10 a.m. EDT to 13 May at 10 a.m. EDT. :

London, England, Poor Law School District Registers, 1852-1918
Canada Census collection
UK Census Collection
Ontario, Canada, Marriages, 1826-1937
Canada, WWI CEF Personnel Files, 1914-1918

With a library membership, these records are available through Ancestry Library Edition which is also free at home for a limited time.

Florence Nightingale at 200

Today 12 May 2020 we celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of nursing pioneer Florence Nightingale.

In founding the first nursing school, at St. Thomas's Hospital in London in 1860, she helped raise nursing to the status of a profession.

She was a proficient statistician, not the only reason I feel an affinity, and the first woman admitted to the Royal Statistical Society.

It's a mark of her continuing influence that the UK used her name for emergency COVID-19 hospitals.

The Road Less Travelled

Dick Eastman posted an opinion piece on his blog on Monday — Is This the End of Genealogy Conferences as We Have Known Them? It's timely, but I'm left wondering what he really thinks.

He writes in response to a reader query:

“Every time I look at a genealogy website these days I see lists of events which are cancelled or postponed. Some societies have adjusted to this by offering webinars or remote sessions via Zoom. We are left wondering if we will ever meet in groups, or go to our local Family History Center again. Or is this the end of genealogy as we have known it?”

Dick's opinion is "I believe the opposite is true. I believe we are seeing the new opportunities being offered to many more genealogists, opportunities we never had before."

But then Dick proceeds to list the problems with large conferences, especially costs of travel, not even mentioning the contribution of aircraft emissions to climate change. He lists the advantages of online virtual conferences and writes "I hope (they) will become more and more popular in the future, even after the present pandemic fades away."

It's not clear if Dick expects large conferences to return in the numbers and popularity of late or what the new opportunities are except for events online.

For many organizations, genealogical and family history societies included, conferences have been significant contributors to the revenue side of the balance sheet. Now with so much more easily and relatively inexpensively available online how many such presentations will we want to attend? Will societies be able to compete with familytreewebinars which has a 10-year headstart and for $50US a year offers access to more than a thousand archived presentations with new ones added every week and free to view for a few days?

The glue that keeps organizations together is the social side. Event attendees, and organizers, get to be friends. Will the glue hold if social distancing continues to have to be practiced?  Let's hope it is relaxed, if and only when risk assessors judge it prudent. If there's a second wave that could be many months.

What other new opportunities does Dick imagine?

With the pandemic, we are travelling down a road less travelled. What will the new journey entail?

Ottawa Public Library Annual Report and Second Quarter 2019 Performance

Today at 5 pm the Ottawa Public Library Board will hold its monthly meeting via Zoom. The agenda and documents are posted at https://app05.ottawa.ca/sirepub/mtgviewer.aspx?meetid=7912&doctype=AGENDA

The OPL Annual Report 2019 is on the agenda for information. Written by OPL management, not the Board, it is a publicity piece emphasizing the positive. Activities are covered and services provided quantified. The highlight was the work toward the design of the future Ottawa Public Library-Library and Archives Canada Joint Facility at 555 Albert Street which attracted input from more than 4,000 people. The only challenge mentioned is that of fair library pricing and access to eContent.

The following agenda item is the semi-annual performance report for July - December 2019. During the period OPL achieved improved results in six of its nine Key Performance Indicator measures — Percent of Available Meeting Room Hours Booked, Percent of Physical Materials Checked Out, Reach and Awareness Ratio, Total Cardholders Active in the Last 12 Months, Total Circulation, and Total Program Attendance per Square Foot. The KPI was not met for Electronic Visits, Cost Per Library Use, and Hold Time to Availability.

The number of cardholders active increased by 2.8%. Sustained over four years that would achieve an 11.7% increase. That's less than half the increase needed to reach the 2020-2023 Strategic Statement’s goal of 25% growth. How will that be achieved, or will it need rethinking in the new circumstance for library service?

OGS/Ontario Ancestors Virtual Conference 2020

What are you doing on 6-7 June? Some of us will attend the first OGS/Ontario Ancestors Virtual Conference in lieu of the planned Hamilton conference.

Here's what's on offer:

Find out about registration and bonus sessions in the days leading up to the weekend at https://virtual2020.ogs.on.ca/

TheGenealogist adds Berkshire, Cambridgeshire, Leicestershire and Oxfordshire Tithe Maps

The addition of black and white tithe maps for four English counties linked to the apportionment books will enable researchers to find the details of the plots, their owners and their occupiers at the time that the survey was taken in Victorian times.  By using the Map Explorer™ controls the researcher can then see how the landscape changes over time with the aid of the georeferenced historical and modern map layers.
Tithe maps and records were drawn up from 1836 to the 1850s, with additional altered
apportionments in later years when property was sold or divided. Tithes record levels of society from large estate owners to occupiers of small plots such as a homestead or a cottage.

Find out more in this article from TheGenealogist.

YouTube: War Children - DNA

Follows four Dutch people who were born just after the Second World War and who suspect all their lives that their unknown father was a soldier. The track runs to Canada, America and France. But only thanks to the latest DNA techniques was the riddle is finally solved. Who was their father?
In Dutch, English and French with English or Dutch subtitles. Keep the Kleenex handy!



This is one of a Dutch series "War Children" that ran weekly from mid-March.

Sunday Sundries

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.



VE Day as reported by British newspapers
"The Guardian paid particular attention to neutral Ireland, where only days earlier the Taoiseach, Eamon de Valera, had called on Dr Hempel, the German ambassador to express condolences for Hitler who had committed suicide on April 30."

Ancestry Extra Presentations

Researching British Home Children 

Date: Tuesday, May 12
Time: 10:00 a.m. EDT
Where: Ancestry Canada Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/AncestryCA/)
Description: From the late 1860s right up to 1948, over 100,000 children of all ages were sent to Canada from the United Kingdom. Known as the British Home Children, they are the ancestors of an estimated 10% of Canada’s current population. Join us as genealogist Gloria Tubman shares her advice and guidance on identifying the British Home Children in your family tree, and walks us through the resources available for uncovering their stories. 

We Must Have Swam Over - Research Strategies, Tips and Tricks for Finding Your Immigrant Ancestors 

Date: Thursday, May 14
Time: 12:00 p.m. EDT
Where: Ancestry Canada Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/AncestryCA/)
Description: Finding your immigrant ancestors can be tricky. Join us as Cara MacDonald, Manager of Reference Services at the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21, shares her research process and tips for locating those hard to find immigration records. From the "why" behind being unable to locate difficult records to effective wildcard searching and gathering information from non-immigration sources, this workshop will help take your genealogy skills to the next level.

Debutantes at the St Andrew's Ball in Montreal, 1897-2019
Archivist Gillian Leitch has compiled this list of 2131 debutantes and 111 escorts.

The Preparation of Records for Deceased Online

Why Are More Men Than Women Dying Of COVID-19, except in Canada?
An in-depth study of 5683 deaths attributed to COVID-19 in England and Wales (unrefereed) found that death from COVID-19 was strongly associated with: being male (hazard ratio 1.99, 95%CI 1.88-2.10). Data for 48 countries reporting at Global Health 50/50 show only Canada with more COVID-19 deaths for women than men. Why? See also FiveThirtyEight.

Thanks to this week's contributors
Brenda Dunne, David Thompson, Glenn Wright, Jenna Bruno, John McConkey, K. Clifford, Sophronia, Unknown.

Tracing the History of your Ottawa Property

One of the most frequently asked questions at the City of Ottawa Archives is regarding researching the history of a property.
Now the archives have a useful  23-page research guide available free at https://documents.ottawa.ca/sites/documents/files/Tracing%20Historical%20Properties_en_0.pdf

After the introductory material, it covers land records, by-laws and minutes, directories, voters lists, assessment and collector rolls, maps and plans, architectural and construction records, newspapers, photographs and manuscripts.

This would be a most worthwhile resource to consult before venturing to research property at the City Archives. While other resource locations are touched on the guide would be of greater value if it gave them greater attention, especially the Ottawa Public Library which is only mentioned once.

NEW: MyHeritage Canadian Newspapers

Within a day of posting my last YouTube newspaper video, I discovered something new. MyHeritage has added Canadian newspapers to the collection, and they're full text searchable. There are many, not all the Canadian papers in Google News Archive — 6,961,070 pages in 345 newspaper titles.

The search includes options for first and last name, publication title, date and place, and keywords. There are options for exact searches and translations. An advanced search adds flexibility on publication date. Hits are returned with the newspaper title, date and page number along with a section of the transcribed text around the hit. Click through for a full-page image.

It helped me — I discovered two articles about my great uncle in Tisdale, Saskatchewan.

If you use newspapers in your family history research this addition substantially increases the value of a MyHeritage subscription.

I've updated the video linked from here.

WW 2 Era Photos at Findmypast

Photos from the Findmypast Photo Collection are available FREE (with registration) until 7 am ET on Friday15 May.
It includes subjects: Armed Forces/War (4,733), Evacuees (62), Life Events (433), Other (841), School (626), Sport (485), Work (270), World War 2 Home Front (1,065).
Search by keyword; such as war, boxing, 1920s, Home Guard, Arsenal, women, etc. or just by year, subject or country. There are 520 photos for keyword Canada sourced from Library and Archives Canada.
Use the arrows on either side of the photo to discover more. Search FREE Photos.

OGS/Ontario Ancestors Opens Webinar Library

Now, until August 31, many of the webinar presentations in the OGS/Ontario Ancestors 5-year webinar library are freely accessible to all.

The 23 webinars for which consent has been received are live linked at https://ogs.on.ca/past-webinar-recordings/ along with listing for those for which permission is yet to be received.

Thanks for OGS/Ontario Ancestors, and Director David Thompson for letting me know.

Life in Occupied Holland

Commemorating the seventy-fifth anniversary of Victory in Europe Day, Spitalfields’ Life published an account of life in occupied Holland.

https://spitalfieldslife.com/2020/05/08/ali-touws-war-x/

World War II Canadian Army photographs

Canadian military personnel en route to Canada aboard
R.M.S. MAURETANIA,
 Gladstone Docks, Liverpool, England, 5 December 1945. 
Library and Archives Canada / PA-131774

So timely, photographic albums, known as the “Army numerical” series, are now available to the general public online for the first time from Library & Archives Canada.

In total, 110 albums (8441 photographs) on 8327 album pages, about 62,000 b&w  photographs and negatives taken between 1941 and 1946, have been scanned and converted into 103 separate PDF files, along with OCR (optical character recognition), to allow each of the .pdf albums to be text searchable.

What's in the collection?

The photographs are arranged numerically, chronologically and by region. Volumes 1-58 depict operations in the United Kingdom; volumes 59-73 are designated generally as DND; volumes 74-107 show North West Europe; the last three albums of the 110-volume series are titled: Secret 1; Secret 2; and Secret 3. United Kingdom albums include such subjects as: Army training; troop arrivals and departures; invasion exercises; hospitals; Royal visits; Dieppe survivors; Investitures at Buckingham Palace; mail ships; War Brides; funerals; mining in Wales; Canadian Forestry Corp in Scotland; sports meets; etc. DND albums consist of mainly Canadian troops in North Africa, Canada and Australia, Sicily and Italy. North West Europe albums are comprised of mainly Canadian troops in Belgium, France, Holland, and Germany. The many subjects depicted in this sub-series include: Canadians in action; Invasion Operations; refugee evacuations; CWACs; Victory Loans; tanks; mine-clearing school; POWs; Landing Beaches; German prisoners; Royals inspecting troops; Canadian General Hospitals; Nursing Sisters; cemeteries; mines; snipers; Amphibious Operations; Dieppe Raid; Red Cross; sweeping the shipping channel; Russian Generals; evacuation of Belgium children to Switzerland; D-Day Landings; Churchill visit; pipeline construction; liberation of concentration camp; surrender of Nazis to Foulkes; official delivery of surrender terms; liberations of Utrecht and The Hague; Montgomery meets Rokossovsky; peace celebrations; disarming program; bomb damage seen from air; Food and Surrender Conference; Victory Parades; Germans removing minefields; Canadian repatriation; Canadian War Art exhibition; etc.”

Read the details at https://canadianfilmandphotounit.ca/2020/04/12/library-archives-canada-army-numerical-series-110-albums-now-available-online/where you find a link to search the collection.

WW II: those who served in Europe

Even after 75 years there is no database of Canadians who served in Europe in the Army, Navy and Air Force.

One source that is (somewhat) available is lists of soldiers repatriated.

According to the official history on VE Day the strength of the Canadian Army in the United Kingdom and on the continent of Europe was 281,757 all ranks.  Repatriation started in the following month when 15,665 men and women of the Army left the UK. In July, 33,775 Army personnel moved towards Canada. By the end of December 184,054 Army men and women had returned. The period of the largest movement was December 1945 and January 1946 when 82,474 of all ranks returned. The strength of the overseas army on 31 January 1947 was down to 630 all ranks.

The records are described at Library and Archives Canada as "Directorate of Movements" and are in the National Defence records, microfilm only, originals likely destroyed after filming. The marine activities rail and air activities are on microfilms C-5547 to C-5568 and C-5589 to C-5741.

Many of the reels are on Heritage/Canadiana but none I could find had the repatriation passenger lists. There were some images like that below, many are fuzzy, that document where individuals in a Corps which was on leave would be -- often the wife.

I'm told that when Canadiana acquired "Directorate of Movements" microfilm from LAC many were not open, but they are now. When LAC reopens we'll see if we can get them made available to Canadiana. A step toward a searchable list.

Another source is lists published in newspapers. Some Ottawa examples are:

List of Names of Ottawa Cameron Highlanders and Other Troops Aboard Mauretania
The Ottawa Journal (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) 07 Dec 1945, Fri Page 7

List Names of 558 Ottawa and District Troops Expected to Arrive at Halifax January 2
The Ottawa Journal (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) 31 Dec 1945, Mon Page 8

Families Jam Ottawa Station to Welcome Returning Glens
The Ottawa Journal (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada)31 Dec 1945, Mon Page 9

Today: Snowbirds Operation Inspiration

Hopefully, they can dodge the showers in the forecast.

Vernon Directories Project Update

At the last mention of this project on 21 March, there were 754 Vernon Ontario directories digitized and searchable online. Extracting the entries from the FamilySearch catalogue, and removing what appear to be duplicate listings, there are now 827 entries.

County	City	Volumes	Date Range
Wentworth	Hamilton	118	1901-2010
Brant	Brantford	99	1912-2012
Middlesex	London	92	1912-2009
Ontario	Oshawa	60	1929-2001
Kent	Chatham	47	1902-2004
Wellington	Guelph	42	1901-1979
Hastings	Belleville	40	1909-2009
Ontario	Whitby	38	1960-2001
Perth	Stratford	31	1902-2011
Leeds	Brockville	29	1923-1907
Grey	Owen Sound	29	1928-2006
Halton	Burlington	28	1977-2008
Waterloo	Galt Preston	25	1910-1972
Simcoe	Barrie	21	1937-1999
Renfrew	Pembroke	17	1938-1995
Waterloo	Berlin - Kitchener	15	1903-1986
Welland	Fort Erie	14	1973-2006
Peterborough	Peterborough	14	1922-1985
Hastings	Trenton	11	1976-1999
Kent	Wallaceburg	11	1975-2004
Lambton	Sarnia	10	1920-2012
Cochrane District	Timmins	9	1979-1998
Algoma District	Sault Ste. Marie	6	1908-1943
Simcoe	Orillia	4	1939-1984
Simcoe	Barrie & Orillia	3	1937-1950
Waterloo	Bridgeport	3	1903-1913
Norfolk	Simcoe	3	1977-1983
Lambton	Point Edward	2	1920-1921
Wentworth	Ancaster	1	2011-2011
Wentworth	Dundas	1	2011-2011
Brant	Paris	1	2012-2012
Algoma District	Steelton	1	1908-1908
Wentworth	Stoney Creek	1	2011-2011
Wentworth	Waterdown	1	2011-2011

QFHS Free Events on Zoom

Visit www.qfhs.ca for more information on these events and others. To sign up to receive an invitation to the Zoom sessions send an email.

Friday, 8 May
Free and Virtual Story of the 1855 ROBERT CORRIGAN MURDER with Steve
Cameron  (Community Events)
1:00 pm to 2:00 pm
Murder at the fair!! Ribbonmen in the hills, armed Orangemen on the roads, a body-snatching, a train derailment, a lost cemetery and soldiers searching for the hidden accused. This 1855 flare-up almost caused the downfall of the government at the time. It is a complex and fascinating story of early social tensions in the area.

Friday, 22 May
Free Virtual Guest Lecturers (Community Events)
1:00 pm to 2:00 pm
Gary Schroder will speak on What's New in Irish Genealogy.

Sunday, 24 May
Free Virtual Lecture: A Journey with Elsie  (Lectures)
2:00 pm to 3:00 pm
“A Journey with Elsie”
Speaker: Helene Jasmin, Author
This is the story of a pioneer horticulturist who designed her English gardens (Reford Gardens) for 30 years She was an activist for the voice of women, cofounding the still active club WCCM (Women Canadian Club of Montreal). Elsie Meighen was born in Perth (ON) in 1872. When her family moved to Montreal’s Square Mile, her personal life changed. In October 1918, she inherited the estate of her uncle, George Stephen, in Grand-Metis, halfway between Quebec City and Gaspe.
This is a personal invitation to meet ELSIE, an icon in our Canadian heritage. The author will also provide links with PHOEBE Nobbs Hyde from Greenwood House in Hudson, an icon in our area. Two outstanding women.

Thursday, 11 June
Free Virtual Genealogy Question & Answer Session  (Community Events)
7:00 pm to 8:00 pm
A group of researchers will be available to answer any genealogy-related question you might have.

Sunday, 28 June
Free Virtual Lecture: The 1833 SUITOR/LANE MURDER with Steve Cameron  (Community Events)
2:00 pm to 3:00 pm
Free land, a fight for turf and a shot in the early morning. The story has many surprises: no oral tradition, a public hanging, transportation to Van Diemen’s Land and a discovery of the ancestor!

AND

What's New
One-to-one Virtual Genealogy Sessions
Cost is $25 per hour. Once your payment is received our researcher will contact you to set up a session. All fees go toward QFHS operating costs. qfhs@bellnet.ca

BIFHSGO May Meeting Online

The next BIFHSGO monthly meeting is online via Zoom on Saturday 9 May at 10 a.m.

Hitch, Hockey's Unsung Hero: The Story of Boston Bruin Lionel Hitchman

Hitch, Hockey’s Unsung Hero, is a biography by Pam Coburn about her grandfather, Lionel “Hitch” Hitchman, who played hockey in the NHL for 12 seasons (1923-1934).

The story follows the Hitchman clan through the hardships of the second industrial revolution in England to “sudden” respectability in Toronto. After WWI, the family relocated to Ottawa where Hitch became the most talked-about newcomer, excelling at every sport he tried. The Ottawa Senators took notice, and he turned pro, helping them win the 1923 Stanley Cup. But Hitch was later sold to the Boston Bruins under cloudy circumstances. He flourished as captain, leading his new team to their first Stanley Cup and to the greatest NHL season of all time. Pam’s talk will focus on the first three chapters of her book, detailing the research that went into the discovery of the Hitchmans’ life in England, their move to Canada and the raising of a hockey superstar.

About the speaker

Pam Coburn spent two years researching and chronicling this untold story of her grandfather, "Hitch". In her younger days, Pam was a figure skating coach and also played varsity basketball at the University of Ottawa. Transferring to LaSalle College in Philadelphia, she continued to coach skating while completing a business degree. After returning to Canada, Pam took on progressively complex management positions and spent nearly ten years at Skate Canada as Executive Director and CEO. She currently specializes in digital communications. In her spare time, Pam enjoys being with her partner, Andre, and the four adult children who grace their lives.

The webinar is open to the public; pre-registration is a must.  Register at: https://bifhsgo.ca/

CWGC: #SHAREYOURTRIBUTE and CWGC Live

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission invites us to submit a tribute for a loved one or to leave a message of remembrance using the form on this page.

On Thursday at 9:30 am in the next CWGC Live presentation Director of Works, Jon Gedling, explains care for the historic global estate of 23,000 cemeteries and memorials.

Watch CWGC Live here

If you can't watch live recordings of past live-streams are here. 

YouTube: Family Secrets Revealed in Free Archival Canadian Newspapers Online: Canadawide Initiatives

Explores Google News Archive, Canadiana.ca, the Canada Gazette and more newspaper resources useful for exploring your hidden or forgotten Canadian family history. It ends with my wish list for improvements.

Who Do You Think You Are? June 2020

Feature articles from the June issue, just out are:

Records Of The Poor 
Stuart A Raymond tells you how to make the most of the key online documents that reveal your family's struggles

Interwar Photographs
Catherine Troiano reveals the trends in photography
between the world wars, and offers photo-dating advice

Historical Pageants
Paul Readman explains why historical pageants were so popular with our ancestors during the 20th century

The research advice category includes a record masterclass on tracing an officer's career with free online Navy Lists and; new ways to search unindexed FamilySearch records.

There's also the latest in Who Do You Think You Are's complete county guides, this one for Derbyshire.

The magazine is available free to patrons of the many public libraries in North America that subscribe to PressReader.

FamilySearch Updates for England

On Monday FamilySearch issued a list of new and updated records for the week of 4 May 2020. It detailed the collections involved in the addition of 6 million new, free, historical records. Here's an extract of the result table detailing the English records.

Collection	Indexed Records	Comments
England, Cumbria Parish Registers, 1538-1990	221,041	Added indexed records to an existing collection
England, Essex Non-Conformist Church Records, 1613-1971	48	Added indexed records to an existing collection
England, Gloucestershire Non-Conformist Church Records, 1642-1996	30,752	Added indexed records to an existing collection (Some Restrictions Apply)
England, Index to Register of Passport Applications, 1851-1903	376,488	New indexed records collection
England, Northumberland Non-Conformist Church Records, 1613-1920	22,249	Added indexed records to an existing collection
England, Yorkshire Marriage Bonds and Allegations, 1613-1887	16,762	Added indexed records to an existing collection

Notice the collection, England, Index to Register of Passport Applications, 1851-1903, with the largest number of records is also the sole new one. Its index is from FindMyPast and includes the name and passport issuance date for individuals who applied for a British passport before they were mandatory for travel. Like all the other additions this week there are no associated images.

Two Irish additions this week are Ireland Civil Registration, 1845-1913 with 78 added indexed records to an existing collection; and Ireland, Medical Directory for Ireland, 1858 with 2,373 new indexed records.

MyHeritage Ask The Expert Sessions

Do you use MyHeritage, or thinking of using it? If so there's a series of short expert sessions available in at 1 pm ET on Tuesdays and Thursdays in May.

5 May: Profile Page: More than Just Names and Dates
The profile page on MyHeritage allows to see not only all of an individual's details, but also their close family, matches, and images as well as a summary of all the information you have on them. Learn how best to take advantage of this page.
Register at https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/677266583705323788

7 May: Sharing and Interacting with Others on MyHeritage
Contacting other users can help you make new family connections and fill in gaps in your research. Learn to use the MyHeritage messaging system and to invite family members to view and collaborate with you on your family tree.
Register at https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/1683409883073914380

12 May 5 Tips for Managing DNA Kits
Learn how to navigate and organize your DNA Matches, use the Chromosome Browser to explore your connections, and manage multiple DNA kits on MyHeritage.
Register at https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/4618836548887040524

14 May: Watch Webinars at Your Leisure with MyHeritage and Legacy
Discover a world of knowledge and expertise that you can access at your leisure on MyHeritage and Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
Register at https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/5912615388616652556

19 May: Family Tree Builder: Free Software for Documenting Your Genealogy
MyHeritage offers a free downloadable software that you can use to build your family tree offline, with unique features and capabilities. Learn to harness the power of Family Tree Builder.
Register at https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/8782880597321268748

21 May: How to Manage Your Raw DNA Data from MyHeritage
When you test with MyHeritage DNA, your data belongs to you. Learn to manage your raw DNA data so you can use it however you like.
Register at https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/1038208763313631756

26 May: Organizing Family Photos on MyHeritage
Learn to upload and organize your photos on MyHeritage: utilize folders and albums, tag your family members, and share your photos with your loved ones.
Register at https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/4958277778614179852

28 May: Honing Your MyHeritage Skills with the Knowledge Base
Every day is a new day to learn. Learn to leverage the wealth of articles, webinars, and how-to videos on the Knowledge Base to improve your knowledge about MyHeritage at your convenience.
Register at https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/9161533710229764364

O/T: social risks during the COVID-19 pandemic

Two graduate students at the University of Toronto penned Why it's not OK to take small social risks during the COVID-19 pandemic: U of T experts. One of a range of articles on the pandemic posted on U of T News it was widely circulated.

It states plainly their opinion that taking a risk-reduction approach to social distancing for COVID-19 won’t work.

The reason? "every close contact with someone else – even if they are asymptomatic – risks transmitting the virus" and "loosening social distancing measures, despite how safe it might seem, can increase the number of people who will require admission to hospital or tragically die from this infection."

No risk is not an option. Get out of bed and increase your risk of falling. Stay in bed and suffer bed sores, loss of muscle mass, strength and bone mass.

Prudence, and authorities, recognize that even in these times we occasionally need to get groceries, with precautions, accept deliveries at home, pass each other on the street at 2m separation, and go to work if it's deemed essential. All of those constitute a prudent risk reduction approach, not zero risk, which according to the article won't work.

We'll see.

Royal Flying Corps: People Index

Compilations of resources for those who served with the Royal Flying Corps (May 1912 to March 1918), Royal Naval Air Service (July 1914 to April 1918) and the successor RAF are available in spreadsheets organized by surname. These are large files. Surname B comprises 41,981 lines, the surname P file has 22.113 lines.

There are often multiple entries for each individual, officers and non-officer aircrew. Depending on the source information available is surname, rank, initials, forename(s), date of birth, regiment, squadron, source, reference, and more. The database does not give a complete history of each individual, download the Military record from the AIR 76 series in the (UK) National Archives for the full-service history of an Officer.

There are many Canadians. The B surname file has 670 entries for Canad*, the P list 416. William Avery (Billy) Bishop has 25 lines of information, Lester Bowles Pearson just one line.

Access these lists at www.airhistory.org.uk/rfc/people_index.html, and the parent site airhistory.org.uk for the early history of aviation from a UK perspective based upon original research material.

Thanks to Glenn Wright for alerting me to this resource.

Sunday Sundries

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

In the new normal will OCTranspo be fit for purpose?

COVID-19 and the Blitz

In London the most recent four week period had as many deaths as the worst four weeks of the Blitz, and will exceed it when the next weekly figures are issued next Tuesday.

It could take two years for the economy to recover from the coronavirus pandemic

Literally, letting off some steam (audio)

Ancestry Extra

On Tuesday, 5 May at 10:00 a.m. EDT
Researching Your WWII Commonwealth Ancestors
Ancestry ProGenealogist Simon Pearce will share advice and guidance on how to tackle your WWII research, highlighting resources available to discover the stories of your ancestors that served in the Canadian military and across the Commonwealth. He’ll then be conducting a live Q&A. This session is free and no registration is required.

On Thursday, 7 May at 12:00 p.m. EDT
Finding the Unknowable
Jewish families often think that records of their Eastern European families prior to the Holocaust, or prior to their emigration from Eastern Europe were all destroyed during World War II. Although many records did not survive, many did, and can, with diligent searching be found. Janette Silverman will be discussing some research techniques and resources available digitally and visiting ancestral towns to find out more about your family before they emigrated.

Find these on the Ancestry Canada Facebook Page (www.facebook.com/AncestryCA/)

Problem, Opportunity ... both?

Some have spent the time sequestered at home on the couch binge-watching Netflix and BritBox.

Some have seized the opportunity to work on their family history, taken advantage of resources opened up for free for a limited time, contributed to online indexing, learned from the increasing number of educational opportunities (webinars) and got down to writing up aspects of their family history.

Some genealogical and family history societies have laid back: annual conferences cancelled without any thought to a replacement; monthly and special interest group meetings cancelled or replaced half-heartedly with online presentations.

Some genealogical and family history societies have seized the opportunity: opened up what would have been branch meetings free to all online; promoted online indexing and other opportunities to contribute productive time. Layers of London has the Tracing Charles Booth's poverty maps project involving no transcription.

The pandemic is leaving many people with time on their hands. Societies that present meaningful opportunities to fill the void stand more chance of thriving. Those that sit back will likely see the result when the time comes for membership renewal and people consider whether they get value for money.

Family Tree Webinars
Otherwise, Legacy Family Tree Webinars, are seeing a huge leap in attendance in their free genealogy webinars. I wonder why!  Here's what on tap in May:

Smarter Search Strategies for Genealogy by Thomas MacEntee
Crčme de la crčme: Targeted Autosomal DNA Testing to Isolate Pertinent Genetic Cousins by Paul Woodbury
Fridays in May: Your Questions Answered LIVE—Tech with Thomas by Thomas MacEntee
Leveraging MyHeritage's German Resources Effectively by James M. Beidler
The Ultimate Family History Interview by Nicka Smith
Fridays in May: Your Questions Answered LIVE—DNA with Diahan by Diahan Southard
Discover the Holdings of German Archives by Teresa Steinkamp McMillin, CG
Timesaving Apps for Busy Genealogists by Lisa Alzo
Fridays in May: Your Questions Answered LIVE—Legacy software with Geoff by Geoff Rasmussen
Enlightened Design with the MyHeritage Chart Creation Tool by Janet Hovorka
Mistrust Transcriptions: And Here's Why by Dr. Bruce Durie
Fridays in May: Your Questions Answered LIVE—More Tech with Thomas by Thomas MacEntee

Sale of defective parrot

Thanks to this week's contributors
Anonymous, Bruce Elliott, Bryan Douglas Cook, BT, Btyclk, Carol Graham, Celia Lewis, delynnpar, Gail Benjafield, Jane Down, Jenna Bruno, Kenneth R Marks, Romaine Honey, Wayne Shepheard

Ottawa Citizen Archives at the Ottawa Public Library

The Ottawa genealogical community has been pushing for access to the historic Ottawa Citizen through the Ottawa Public Library for several years. Now it's here and free. Check out the announcement at  https://biblioottawalibrary.ca/en/resources/ottawa-citizen-proquest-historical-newspapers-0

FTDNA Mother's Day Sale

Here are the latest holiday offers from Family Tree DNA, good until 10 May.

Additions to Find A Grave in April

Ancestry regularly updates the records in Find A Grave. Here they are in each category at the end of April, the additions during the month and the percent increase.

Group	30 April	Increase	% Increase
Australia and New Zealand	6126303	227334	3.9
Mexico	32434	1165	3.7
Sweden	53768	863	1.6
Germany	1042536	15696	1.5
UK and Ireland	7569936	102213	1.4
Italy	179166	2418	1.4
Canada	6733928	74499	1.1
Norway	164882	1335	0.8
Brazil	127419	203	0.2
US	157358808	0	0.0

Findmypast weekly update: death and taxes

Scotland, Edinburgh & Lothian Death and Burial Index
Trace Edinburgh and Lothian ancestors in this collection of death and burial records — 63,990 new burial transcripts from the parishes of Restalrig Churchyard and Edinburgh, St Cuthberts.

Scotland, Aberdeenshire Poll Tax 1696
Transcripts with the most important family tree details, as well as digital copies of the original records could tell you:

Name
Occupation and status
Where they lived
Their landlord's and/or tenant's name
Amount assessed

You may also be interested in Poll tax rolls, 1694-1698 from ScotlandsPlaces.

Yorkshire Memorial Inscriptions
Another 7,639 records have been added from Calderdale Family History Society. The update covers seven graveyards in Halifax and the surrounding area:

Blackley (Baptist) from 1791-1978
Halifax, All Souls, Boothtown (Anglican) from 1833-1997
Halifax, St Thomas the Apostle, Claremount (Anglican) from 1810-2019
Copley, St Stephen (Anglican) from 1867-1993
Eastwood (Congregational) from 1616-1991
Elland, Huddersfield Road (Wesleyan Methodist) from 1807-1891
Elland, Providence (Congregational) from 1821-1899

Cambridgeshire Burials
An update to the Cambridgeshire burial collection with a further 3,279 records from Fenland Family History Society. This update covers the 11 acre Wisbech, Mount Pleasant Cemetery from 1900-1968.

Your Genealogy Today: May/June 2020 Issue

The following notice is posted at www.yourgenealogytoday.com/May_June_2020_Issue.html

Due to the Covid-19 outbreak and the interruption to our press schedule, the May/June 2020 issue will now be renamed the July/August 2020 issue. It will also be released as a combined May/June and July/August 2020 issue as Volume 6, Number 2 & 3. We are only printing copies for subscribers; no copies will be available on newsstands until further notice. The action taken is unprecedented in the history of publishing our magazines. Please know that all Your Genealogy Today active print and PDF edition subscribers will automatically get an extension of one issue on their subscription – guaranteed! We will endeavor to keep you informed should there be any further delays, and we apologize for any inconvenience this has caused.