The FreeBMD Database was updated on Friday13 May 2016 to contain 254,285,771 ( 253,717,235 last month) distinct records.
Years with major updates, more than 5,000 new entries, are for births: 1963 - 64, 1966, 1974, 1976 - 78; for marriages: 1965 - 66, 1968-69, 1971 - 72, 1976 - 77; for deaths: 1974 - 79.
14 May 2016
FreeBMD May update
Your Personal Archiving Project: Where Do You Start?
Have you been contemplating piles of stuff, the accumulation of a lifetime? Some people are so organized it's scary. For the rest of us, especially if you've been settled in the same home for years or decades with basement or attic space, there's a task ahead.
A blog post, and material referenced in it, from the Library of Congress, has advice on how the professionals deal with collections they acquire. The headings are:
- Start Simply
- Clumps
- Be Realistic About Work Space and Time
- Nothing is Perfect
- Scanning
- Disks and Digital Storage Media
- Digital Preservation
- Archiving a Life Story
The Library of Congress also has pages on “Collections Care” and “Personal Digital Archiving.
via David Rajotte's amazing Documentary Heritage News
13 May 2016
Findmypast adds London resources
This week's Findmypast additions include:
London Lives, Culture & Society 1680-1817, a collection of miscellaneous sources including criminal registers, apprentice records, coroner inquests, workhouse minutes, clerks’ papers and much more. The records are from St Botolph Aldgate, St Clements Danes, St Dionis Backchurch, St Martin in the Fields and St Luke Chelsea parishes, as well as one London guild, the Carpenters’ Company, and one royal hospital, St Thomas’ Hospital. There are transcripts and link to the image of the document provided by London Lives.
Don't have a Findmypast subscription? Don't worry. The collection is at London Lives, a fully searchable edition of 240,000 manuscripts from these eight archives and fifteen datasets, giving access to 3.35 million names.
The London Gazette, Supplements, August 1914-January 1920, includes more than 40,000 announcements of armed forces promotions, appointments of official public offices, Royal proclamations and more for the First World War era.
Don't have a Findmypast subscription? Don't worry. The collection is part of the complete London Gazette collection at https://www.thegazette.co.uk/.
Greater London Burial Index sees over 79,000 records added to the collection listing name, age, occupation, religious denomination and burial location, where available. The total collection has more than 1,5 million entries from 226 parishes in the Greater London area.
In addition the Sussex Burials dataset has additions from Hailsham Cemetery in the Wealden district of East Sussex and consist of transcripts created by the Sussex Family History Group. The collection now contains the records of 499,907 burials from the registers of 237 parishes dating back to 1530.
FamilySearch now has 2100 collections
With 204 new and updates collections (databases) since the start of the year FamilySearch has now achieved the milestone of 2100.
The US accounts for 48% of the total, the UK and Ireland 6%, Canada 5% and Australia and New Zealand 1%.
Just over 10% of the new databases are browse only, 22% do not have images associated with the indexed records and all of those are US records.
Over 47 million indexed names at the GENDEX Network
And that pales in comparison to the 47,448,496 names indexed on another Canadian Headstones project I didn't know about, the GENDEX Network. So I asked some questions of project leader Jim McKane
When did the initiative/site start?
The first GenDex was created by Gene Stark in 1996. More currently Darrin Lythgoes creator of TNG (The Next Generation) Software for online familytrees operated a GenDex website which CanadianHeadstones took over.
At what rate is it growing?
Last November it was 45M and is now 47M
What's included . . .what type of record?
A GenDex file is a text file which is created by a genealogy database program when you create the html files for a website. The GenDex file contains only the basic data about a person with the URL to the page in your website for each person. Therefore, it is a very small file which details all the information needed to index your website on GenDexNetwork.org. It ONLY contains the following: -
URL to each person on your website
First Name
Surname
Birth Date
Place of Birth
Death Date
Place of Death
Entries from a GenDex file look like this when viewed in a text editor: -
URL|SURNAME|First Name /Surname/|Birth Date|Place of Birth|Death Date|Place of Death|
I1726&tree=McKane|Mary Robena //|8 Jun 1905||27 Apr 1966||
I903&tree=McKane|ADAIR|Cecil /ADAIR/|10 Jan 1919|York, ON|22 May 1997| Grey, ON|
Not all Family Tree programs will create a GenDex file.
Why would people/organizations want their index included?
GenDex provides researchers with a quick index to ancestral names documented by the many family history websites on the Internet. We index names, birth dates, birth places, death dates and death places. Basic and Advanced search forms allow you to enter your criteria and, with the click of a button, you will be searching our database containing more than 30 million names. Those that meet your criteria are returned in a list. If you find persons of interest to you, a link will take you to their full data pages on one or more participating genealogy websites.
If you have your own family history website and want to index it with us, it could not be easier. On the GenDex home page, click on the green tab and you will find a simple form to help you upload your gendex file. No personal information is required. Your file will be imported into our database and will be among that those searched by visitors. Upload as many gendex files as you like, and refresh them whenever you wish by using the same form.
Why would they not?
Only those who want to "hide" their genealogy from fellow researchers would not wish to participate!
How is it funded now and in the future?
There is advertising via Adsense which is our only source of revenue to keep GenDexNetwork and CanadianHeadstones.com alive other than donations.
Thanks to Jim for the information. It's free so why not give it a try?
12 May 2016
A Belleville shopkeepers census of 1924 in verse
Stores on Front Street in downtown Belleville, circa 1924 lists businesses there that existed in the 1920's. Fascinating for those with a family connection. For the rest of us a bit of doggerel with reference to at least 210 businesses and other institutions on the street.
via a note from my friend Bryan Cook who aspires to better things in his own poetry.
BIFHSGO May meeting
9:00 a.m.
Before BIFHSGO Education Talk — Skimming the Surface of British Merchant Marine Records by Barbara Tose.
10:00 a.m.
No Irish Country Doctor — Roy Thomas’ great-uncle Michael Laffan was no Irish country doctor. He spent his medical career, from 1902 to 1926, in the Royal Navy. Consulting the Navy List, Roy discovered that Surgeon Laffan served far beyond the Irish Seas in the Chinese, Australian, and South African stations, as well as the Med and waters closer to home.
Discovery Tables are: Merchant Marine Records with Barbara Tose and Archive CD Books Canada.
The meetings are free and open to all. See www.bifhsgo.ca for more details.
11 May 2016
OGS Conference ticks the boxes
Dick Eastman wrote 2016 NGS Conference in Ft. Lauderdale is a Success mentioning as a negative only that the distance between the exhibition area and the presentation venues was too great.
Having attended the same event Amy Johnson Crow was moved to write Are In-person Genealogy Events Dead? Amy comments that the NGS event attendance was down but points to several other genealogy events that remain successful. That leads Amy to dismiss the idea that webinars are detracting from conference attendance. Instead she points out that:
People can’t attend events they don’t know about.
People won’t attend things they aren’t excited about.
For the Ontario Genealogical Society Conference, Toronto, 3-5 June, social media have been well used to profile an exceptional, best-ever, line-up of speakers, Canadian and international. Both those boxes have been ticked. Kudos to the organizing committee.
That said, while I enjoy the large events, like WDYTYA? Live, and the OGS conference, as the years roll by the multi-day events become physically tiring. I like in-person presentations but would rather have the presenter do the long-distance travelling to me at a smaller local one-day event with one or two speakers and less competition for one-on-one interaction.
Women's Voluntary Service Kickstarter project
"Within two years of the outbreak of the Second World War, 1-in-10 women had set aside their own lives to volunteer and help others as members of the Women's Voluntary Services (WVS). They held the country together working tirelessly on the Home Front, but now they have been forgotten. They modestly refused recognition in their own time and their voices, those of ordinary women from our shared past, have now fallen silent; but you can help us to re-tell their stories of everyday heroism."
Read about the project and how you can help here.
10 May 2016
Using SNP Testing & STRs to enhance a genetic genealogy research project - Part 2
The second part of John Cleary's rerecorded presentation from the DNA sessions at WDYTYA? Live 2016 is now posted on YouTube. It describes how to understand the results of NGS testing of the Y-chromosome, as offered in the Family Tree DNA Big Y test.
The material is clearly presented, without intrusive background noise thanks to the rerecording. But the material is not for those who struggle with probability and statistics.
If interested you may want to go back and listed to Part 1 before going on to Part II. Or you may want to wait until Part III is posted, which will look at how to integrate these test results into your genealogy, and dedicate time to viewing them all together.
09 May 2016
John Grenham finds AncestryDNA test well worth it
John Grenham took the AncestryDNA test and found the ethnicity results "telling me nothing I didn’t know." His Irish roots are deep enough he'd be a candidate to be in the Irish reference database.
On the other hand the test identified four third-cousin families, all with extended family histories new to him. More came when he uploaded the results to GedMatch.com.
Grenham finds the test well worth it, especially if your main interest is the broader extended family.
via www.johngrenham.com/blog/2016/05/09/ancestry-dna/
OPL Annual Report for 2015 shows million dollar deficit
The 2015 annual report from The Ottawa Public Library emphasizes the scope of service:
39% of Ottawa’s population own an active OPL card.
Website visits = 15,288,991
Items borrowed = 11,425,711
In-person visits = 4,800,900
Holds Placed = 3,500,000
Items in the collection = 2,325,723
Public computer sessions = 790,367
eBook downloads = 778,760
Streaming downloads = 646,667
Wifi logins = 515,749
Music = 1,037,085
Program attendance = 235,998
Audiobooks downloads = 153,660
Magazines downloads = 128,142
Twitter followers = 5,938
Facebook page likes = 2,154
A press release puts the numbers in perspective. In-person visits stayed level with last year. Circulation rose by more than three per cent, with electronic offerings accounting for much of the increase.
The financials are not as encouraging
A $521,934 surplus in 2014 became a $1,156,194 deficit in 2015
Total income increased 1.25%, in large part to a 2.61% increase in City funding
Total expenditures increased 4.82% mostly due to an 11.47% increase in the largest expense item, salaries and benefits.
Expenditures on library materials decreased 6.64%.
Note the error where the total income for 2014 has been carried over to 2015. The deficit figure is correct.
While expenditures on physical facilities are managing to retain patron visit numbers steady patrons are taking more advantage of web-based services. Is the allocation of funds reflecting those changing service preferences?
Comics
Alter Ego: Comics and Canadian Identity, an exhibit opening on May 12 at Library and Archives Canada, set me thinking about the comics I read and traded as a kid in England.
The Beano is still going strong under the proprietorship of DC Thomson, which is the parent of Findmypast and the British Newspaper Archive.
The Dandy ceased print publication in 2012 but still appears online, again a DC Thomson property.
The Eagle had a more educational ambition, but not as much as the non-comic The Children's Newspaper. Bother are defunct.
08 May 2016
FamilySearch adds Ontario, District Marriage Registers, 1801-1858
Images for district marriage registers, most between the 1830s and 1850s, are now available on FamilySearch for browsing.
There are 2,738 images in total for the districts of Bathurst (1831-1848), Brock (1838-1858), Gore (1842-1855), Home (1816-1857), Huron (1841-1849), Johnstown (1801-1872), London (1833-1855), Newcastle (1839-1854), Ottawa (1816-1853), Prince Edward (1833-1846), Talbot (1838-1857) and Victoria (1839-1858).
For some districts there is a typed name index.
07 May 2016
Resurrect ScotlandsPeople credits
The following items are from the latest ScotlandsPeople Newsletter.
Resurrect Credits
From 00:01 (BST) on Friday 6 May 2016 to 23.59 (BST) on Sunday 22 May 2016. you can reactivate your inactive ScotlandsPeople credits for FREE.
Do so by entering the voucher code spring2016 into the voucher code box on the Shopping Basket page here. Please note that the voucher code is case sensitive (i.e. all lower case with no spaces) and must be typed exactly as above.
Free Online Book: ‘The Surnames of Scotland’ by George F. Black
The Surnames of Scotland: Their Origin, Meaning, and History, by George Fraser Black, 1866-1948) is for anyone who wishes to discover more about Scottish surnames – especially people who live outside Scotland.
Black’s book, published in 1962, is now available for FREE on the web at the Hathi Trust Digital Library. To read the book, just go to this website page.
Findmypast adds more Yorkshire parish records
Yorkshire records are featured in an impressive collection of additions to Findmypast this week which also includes 10 million new US marriage records.
The gem for England is the collection of parish baptisms, banns, marriages and burial records with transcripts and image of the original records for Yorkshire compiled from the East Riding Archives and Local Studies Service, the Borthwick Institute for Archives (University of York), the North Yorkshire County Record Office, Teesside Archives, Sheffield Archives and Local Studies, and Doncaster Archives and Local Studies.
Over 2.2 million new baptism records are added to the collection of Yorkshire Baptisms, for 1538-1914, which now contains over 4.4 million records from parish churches right across the county.
Yorkshire banns for 1653-1930 adds 203,000 new records, now containing over 541,000 records.
The Yorkshire marriages collection is now more than doubled to contain 2,312,255 records from 1539 to 1930.
With the addition of 1.5 million records Yorkshire burials 1538-1989 now contains 3,245,487 results.
Also added are more than 34,000 assorted Yorkshire records, ranging from parish magazines to school registers and Kelly's directories sourced from Anguline Research Archives and Yorkshire Ancestors. It's a bit of a lucky dip with publications such as Owners of Land in Yorkshire, 1871, Leeds in the Great War, Poll Book of Hull, 1832 & 1835, Craven District Household Almanac 1928 & 1932 and History & Antiquities of Hemingbrough.
06 May 2016
FTDNA FF & mitochondrial test on sale for Mother's Day
As a Mother's Day special for $228US FamilyTree DNA is offering the combined Family Finder & mtFull Sequence Bundle, that's $70 off the regular price.
Family Finder is good for establishing near term relationships. With the mtFull Sequence test you could, just maybe, find if you're one of a select group related to Richard III. Don't count on it!
Government of Canada improves Access to Information
While most of us don't use Access to Information to obtain information from the federal government perhaps we should. This notice directs departments to waive all Access to Information fees apart from the $5 filing fee which may be less costly that previous service fees.
The switch to Windows 10
It's three months since I last reported on which operating system the last 500 visitors to this blog use.
On 3 February 42% used Windows 7, that's now 33%. 12% were using Windows 10 which has now grown to 22%.
I've not yet switched my old laptop to Windows 10 which I've been using on a new machine. The transition rs reasonable and I expect to make the switch before the free upgrade period ends in June.
The Scowcroft Diaries: a Lancashire resource
If you have family history from east central Lancashire, an area triangulated by Bury/Bolton, Preston and Burnley, there's a new resource coming that may well be of interest.
Amalgamated indexes of several diaries in the possession of Arthur W. Critchley and his Scowcroft relatives are being compiled and will be made available through the initiative of BIFHSGO colleague Bryan Cook.
Compiled from sources, the two major of which cover the years 1772-1884 and 1861-1910, the focus is on local events with some content from the rest of the British Isles and 19th century emigration destinations.
Stay tuned for further information on content and access.
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