A short podcast from the British Library set me thinking. It's an interview with David Pearson who discusses his book ‘Books as History: The Importance of Books Beyond Their Texts.’ It covers the importance of the physical book as an object and the changing environment of book publishing, including the growth of online content and e-readers.
Most family historians are bibliophiles to at least some extent. The attraction goes beyond the printed content.
I have a book "The Heart of London" which I only have to open a little too close to my nose to receive a prompt reminder of how much my ancestor smoked.
Another small volume "Daily Light on the Daily Path" has annotations by my great grandfather, a Church of England Minister. It has his signature and the year 1883, while he was studying divinity, on the front flyleaf.
There are annotations for January 6, 7, 15, 18, 22, 23, February 5, 15, 17, 19, 20, 21, 22, March 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 13, April 15, May 27, 28, July 6, 12, August 6, September 11, October 5, November 5, 13, 25, 29, December 5, 6, 25. Do the concentration of these dates tell me anything about his studies?
What is the significance of the notation "Mrs Greaves" against February 21st? Greaves is a name that appears in the family tree of his wife to be in 1885. Does it hint they had already met?
29 November 2008
Books as History
28 November 2008
In praise of a genealogy business
Margaret (O’Shea) Jordan writes in her Cork Genealogy blog about a deal to digitize all Irish records.
“Well done to private enterprise (Eneclann, the well-known Irish Genealogical research company) who saw the business opportunity and presumably took advantage of the dithering in other groups, to strike a deal with the Mormons.”
Read the complete posting under the title Pragmatism and Business in Genealogy.
Thanks to Marian Press for bringing this to my attention.
27 November 2008
1916 Census of the Prairie Provinces Indexing
FamilySearch is currently indexing the 1916 Canadian Census. The project is 43% complete with a goal of finishing by December 3rd. That's a tremendous rate of progress thanks to the worldwide network of indexers.
If you have some time available during the next week please download, index (or arbitrate), and submit at least one batch from this project.
If you have not indexed recently, the indexing application and help resources are available on the FamilySearch indexing Web site (www.familysearchindexing.org)
To learn more about the 1916 Census, including a few fun facts, click here.
26 November 2008
RSS feed for LAC
Library and Archives Canada have just made it easier for us to keep up with what's happening there without having to visit the LAC website.
Their new RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed provides links to news on new content on the LAC website as well as updates to existing pages. Additions, such as new finding aids and new descriptions in databases are also highlighted.
Mostly these are items that will also be highlighted on the LAC front page, and many are mentioned in this blog.
If you don't use RSS you're missing a great convenience. It may seem a bit confusing at first, but LAC has a guide, including how to find a RSS reader, here.
25 November 2008
Published by Authority
I'm turning again to the January 2009 issue of Internet Genealogy and another article that attracted my attention.
David A Norris is described as a regular contributor to various of the Moorshead Magazines publications. His second article in this issue takes a look at "The London Gazette" with the sub-head "Published by Authority" reflecting the official nature of the publication.
A full archive of the London Gazette back to the reign of Charles II is free online at www.gazettes-online.co.uk. Chances are any family with long-time roots in England will have some member mentioned in the Gazette, if not for an award or military promotion then for a change of name, notice of claims against an estate, or bankruptcy.
The article makes brief mention of colonial gazettes, especially Australia, but not a word about the Canada Gazette. That's surprising for a magazine published in Toronto.
The history of the Canada Gazette is described here.
Issues of the Canada Gazette after 1997 are available online at the website of the Canada Gazette Directorate: http://canadagazette.gc.ca/index-e.html
Library and Archives Canada are working on digitizing earlier issues. Currently approximately 30% is searchable online, including:
- Part I - 1983-1997
- Part II - 1950-1976, 1983-1997
- Part III - 1985-1997
24 November 2008
Family Networking Websites
The January 2009 issue of Internet Genealogy landed in my mailbox on Friday. It contains several informative articles, starting on page 8 with Janice Nickerson, Toronto-based genealogist and colleague on Library and Archives Canada's Services Advisory Board, evaluating sites that offer "an online place to store, develop, share and collaborate on your family tree, while keeping in touch with your relatives."
Janice found 18 such sites, but choose only four to review in any depth. These she evaluated according to the criteria: privacy, matching/merging, individual profiles, multimedia, GEDCOM Compatibility, Trees and Reports, Networking Features, Source Citations, Support, Special Features, and Price.
The only one of her top four picks with which I am at all familiar is Geni.com which she rates as extremely easy to use and comments it is free "so far." At the time Janice wrote the article Geni did not accommodate importing a GEDCOM, a capability now included. She comments that Geni's matching/merging capability limits the amount of privacy you have in your tree.
The top rated site is termed the "most sophisticated, full-featured", but I was struck by how features were mentioned as "takes a little more work", being not clear, or "it appears that."
None of the sites receives a ringing endorsement.
22 November 2008
A Genealogical Day in Ireland
People with Irish ancestry are always searching for some way around the lost records.
Next Saturday, November 29th 2008, Gary Schroder, one of BIFHSGO's most popular presenters from last September's conference, is offering a seminar that will examine what’s new and exciting in the world of Irish Family History and how to find your ancestors lost in Ireland.
The location is the Quebec Family History Society Library, 173 Cartier Ave., Pointe Claire
The session runs from 10 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
The fee for QFHS members is $30 - $40 for non-members
21 November 2008
The Parish: Administration and Records
What's the Avowson? What's the difference between the duties of the Parish Clerk and the Churchwardens? Can a Rector and a Vicar be the same person?
Find out about these, and a lot more information on parish officials, their duties, records they may have created or in which they be found in a recent TNA Podcast presentation by Reader Information Services specialist Mark Pearsall.
20 November 2008
Welsh Family History Archive
A good site for find out more about Wales and exploring your Welsh ancestry, especially for those who have just found a family link into Wales, is John Ball's Welsh Family History Archive.
Frequently Asked Questions
Glossary of Welsh Place-Names: Learn how to interpret Welsh place-names.
Images of Wales
Keturah's Diary:Accompany a Welsh girl on her ocean voyage to Australia in 1860
Links to On-line Resources
Llangar Parish Records
Maps of Wales
Sounds of Wales: Listen to the pronunciation of over 220 Welsh place-names.
Tallis's Topographical Dictionary
Wales of Old: Welsh family histories illustrated with fascinating old photographs.
Welsh Ancestor List
Welsh Gravestone Inscriptions: How to interpret
19 November 2008
London (England) Cemeteries
View Larger Map
I'd meant to post the address of the custom Google map of locations of London cemeteries that I used in my recent presentation in Toronto. It includes most of the burial grounds, except for the old ones in the City of London. The yellow pins are for Jewish cemeteries.
Using the My Maps facility of Google Maps you can produce a map of the locations at which your ancestor lived and where he or she died. By electronically overlaying the two you can pick out likely cemeteries.
The address is http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=102822060546051659926.00044fcedc59b4d57f997&z=10 or http://tinyurl.com/4suwfs
18 November 2008
Unlocking the riddles of Welsh Ancestry
Tonight's (18 November) OGS Ottawa Branch meeting at Library and Archives Canada, Room 156, is Unlocking the riddles of Welsh Ancestry - A Set of Keyes. It will presented by Helen Whyte, a professional genealogist who has done extensive research on the Social, Historical and Geographical links to Welsh Ancestors. The meeting starts at 7:30 pm.
The (UK) Coal Mining History Resource Centre
Bills itself as the UK's largest and most comprehensive website concerning the history of coal mining - including a name searchable database of over 164,000 recorded accidents and deaths.
The data includes extensive statistics, the youngest person in the database is age 1, the oldest age 95.
There are lists of mining disasters from 1658 to date, extensive reports for the larger incidents, maps, a scrapbook, poems and more.
17 November 2008
LAC consultation
Much earlier this year Library and Archives Canada held two open consultation sessions, afternoon and evening. Any client could come and express views on LAC abd its operations. It was a welcome initiative but hasn't been repeated. Why not?
Part of the reason may be that it was quite costly, including the need for simultaneous translation. Also, some people are reluctant to speak in a public forum.
So, would LAC consider borrowing an idea from The (UK) National Archives, a much less costly 'meet the Chief Executive' day? Here's the announcement from their website.
"On Tuesday 18 November, Natalie Ceeney will be holding surgeries in each of the main reading rooms. This is your chance to put your views or questions about the management and future direction of The National Archives directly to her.
The surgeries will be held on a first-come, first-served basis - no advance booking needed."16 November 2008
Ancestors in the Attic - Cenotaph
Ancestors in the Attic aired a one hour episode on November 15 for remembrance week that told the story of finding the fate of two WW2 Canadian servicemen in Europe through the eyes of two students investigating names on their school war memorial.
The stories were well told and although History Television includes only a single paragraph on their website the story is covered by a article in The Oakville Beaver, a news release and another from the Halton District School Board.
The fate of one of the servicemen, Major Robert Gordon Slater of the Royal Highland Regiment of Canada, was revealed when a German death certificate was discovered at Library and Archives Canada. The certificate stated he died in a hospital from shrapnel wounds after several days in captivity. I wonder if such a statement can be relied on?
15 November 2008
Family History Library Favorites
One of the websites new to me from the London in Toronto conference last Saturday, drawn to my attention by Phillip Dunn from FamilySearch.org, was fhlfavorites.com. It's a collection of resource bookmarks for genealogy.
I was a bit turned off at first as the main page was full of instructions about how to use it with Internet Explorer, and I use Firefox.
Clicking on Link to Individual Bookmarks files however brings up a panel that starts you on the road to pay dirt.
The categories are:
British Bookmarks.htm
Canada & USA Bookmarks.htm
International Bookmarks.htm
News Bookmarks.htm
Search Engines Bookmarks.htm
World Bookmarks.htm
The organization is a bit odd with British Bookmarks including Australia, Europe, India, Ireland, Jamaica, New Zealand, South Africa and West Indies, but not Canada. Perhaps its the world as seen from Utah!
Drilling down further for England leads to a categorization by county. For Norfolk there are categories for: Archives & libraries; Cemeteries; Census; Church records; Directories; Genealogy; Land & property; Manor records; Military records; Occupations; Probate records; Taxation; Visitations. Many of the census and church links are to parish level data.
Although a bit idiosyncratic you could do worse than spend an hour on a rainy November day exploring this rich site.
14 November 2008
Google's take over of PaperOfRecord.com
The Ottawa Citizen carries an article by business writer Bert Hill Google expected to take over Ottawa data firm.
It includes the information from PaperOfRecord CEO Bob Huggins, confirming a rumour that was circulating, that late in 2003 the company was close to selling its newspaper database to Library and Archives Canada for $1.2M. The deal fell apart and the sale to Google is for "much less than $3M."
It remains unclear from the article as to the terms under which the papers will be available to history and genealogy researchers going forward.
This would make an interesting case study for one of the local university business schools.
LAC puts Miscellaneous Immigration Index online
Many a Canadian with early immigrant, pre-1865, ancestors exploring his or her genealogy has longed for a passenger list to turn up. Mostly the search is fruitless, but Library and Archives Canada (LAC) has just launched an online database, Immigrants to Canada, containing early Canadian immigration records. Many relate to immigrants from the British Isles arriving in Quebec and Ontario.
Through this new database, formerly a card index known as the Miscellaneous Immigration Index, researchers can access references to lists of immigrants and other types of records created before 1865, such as declarations of aliens and names of some Irish orphans.
The coverage is far from complete as records were not systematically saved.
There are 23,482 entries in the database with arrivals from 1750 to 1854. The peak year is 1825; there are more than 2,000 entries for 1846 and 1847. Note that there are a few false values in the graph owing to multiple dates, or a range of dates, being given, e.g. 1793-1808.
13 November 2008
More on the LAC Ancestry.ca partnership
Earlier in the week I blogged on the LAC - Ancestry.ca partnership. It was also announced at LAC's web site.
Several people, myself included, have had questions about the nature and terms of the partnership. The following, from Doug Rimmer, LAC's Assistant Deputy Minister, Programs and Services Sector, provides some clarification.
"We are very excited about this partnership which will allow us to provide much greater access to records than if we simply worked alone.
From the perspective of the census records (which is the starting point for the partnership but not the exclusive focus), we intend that over a three-year period ALL of the publicly available Canadian census records will be digitized, and put online with a nominal index both on LAC's website, free of charge, and on Ancestry.ca's website. It won't all happen at once and some material will show up first on our website (such as the 1881 census) and some will show up first on the Ancestry.ca website. The agreement specifies how and when material (both images and indexes) are to be exchanged between the partners. Each partner is then free to put the material on their site as and when they choose. The reality for us is that LAC might not always post it as soon as possible due all of the other material that is being digitized and put online. We have to balance our priorities and that may mean some material has to wait. Of course, we will be making best efforts to ensure that any wait is minimized but we know that we have a lot of material coming on stream and finite resources.
This agreement meets LAC's goals of free access, non-exclusivity and value to the taxpayer. It is a non-cash agreement in which we are both sharing digital resources but neither of us is paying the other for work that is done. LAC will retain full ownership of its original records (in microfilm and any other format). This agreement will not prevent LAC from continuing to work with other genealogical partners."
BIFHSGO November Monthly Meeting
10:00 a.m., 15 November 2008 at Library and Archives Canada 395 Wellington Street
"Why History is Important",
Presented by George Laidlaw, President, Independent Writers Group.
The speaker is the author of numerous books and speaks regularly at schools and dinner clubs. He is president of the Ottawa Independent Writers Group.
Also on the 15th, at 9:00 a.m. "Searching Library and Archives Canada Collection on line", presented by Lesley Anderson, BIFHSGO Associate Education Director, Ancestry.ca Consultant.
12 November 2008
Our Ottawa still includes Culture!
It's budget time again in the City of Ottawa and staff are proposing funding cuts for heritage, festivals and the arts, from $7.5 million in 2008 to $4 million in 2009.
That's nearly half the funding in an envelope that comprises only 0.35% of the city budget.
Family history is an integral part of the heritage community in Ottawa. We need to hang together, or we'll hang separately.
Show your support by sending a clear message to the Mayor and City Councillors. There's further information in the message below from the Council of Heritage Organizations of Ottawa.
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