The headline on the announcement from The (UK) National Archives is Our fees are changing from 1 April 2017. Why not be up front about it - - most fees are INCREASING!
Most likely to impact those of us using TNA remotely is the price for a digital download going from £3.45 to £3.50. I won't get upset about that.
While a few prices are not changing, including do it yourself copying, many are increasing. For example: To make a copy of a Naturalisation Certificate, and providing the necessary authentication for that Certificate, cost per certificate, increases from £25.95 to £27.40.
The increasesgo into effect on 1 April 2017.
There are changes underway at TNA in the physical layout on the 1st floor too. Read the announcement, especially if you plan on visiting prior to mid-May, at www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/about/news/changes-in-the-first-floor-reading-rooms/
This is catching up with the new records posted by Findmypast.com (or .co.uk) last week.
AncestryDNA tested Bondi Beach apartment block residents in an online series ‘It’s a Small World’ for a DNA journey of discovery. Four 5 minute soft advertorial segments.
Two events with guest speakers are being offered by the Ottawa Public Library in March.
1. Forensic Genealogy and Adoption: Tracking Down Your Living Limbs
Looking for living people can be one of the most difficult genealogy problems! Adoptees tracing their birth family and those looking for long-lost relatives or friends face a daunting task. Learn how to find the “living limbs” in your family tree, using both traditional and genetic genealogy resources, including social media searches, newspapers, courthouse sources, and genealogy programs. Presented by Mags Gaulden, Grandma’s Genes..
Carlingwood
Monday Mar 20, 2017 at 6:30pm
2. Keeping the Past for the Present and the Future: Preservation Techniques for the Home Archive
Stop the deterioration of your family's photographs and other memorabilia. Learn how to avoid damage, find out about safe handling and storage practices, and explore digitization options. In this special 3-hour workshop, Kyla Ubbink of UBBINK Book and Paper Conservation will offer demonstrations and hands-on activities for simple and practical techniques to give you the skills to start saving your family archives now.
Greenboro
Saturday Mar 25, 2017 at 1:00pm
Registration in advance is required through the OPL website.
Ancestry make updates to existing collections which often go without much publicity. For example
Sutton, Surrey, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1940
Sutton, Surrey, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812
Sutton, Surrey, England, Church of England Deaths and Burials, 1813-1985
Sutton, Surrey, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1915
Also, now with 42,741,627 entries
UK, City and County Directories, 1766 - 1946.
The index was created using text recognition software, not transcribed, so expect to find peculiarities such the first name as that of a place. They're easy to spot.
Did you remember your monthly hard disk backup on the 1st? If not this is your 2nd chance. Do it now.
BIFHSGO colleague Ken McKinlay has his own advice on backing up at http://familytreeknots.blogspot.ca/2017/03/backing-up-what-is-important.html
How many people will brave the cold of next Saturday morning for a presentation by Errol Collins on "The Big Y," a Y-chromosome direct paternal lineage test designed to explore deep ancestry?
Big Y is a SNP test offered by Family Tree DNA using Next Generation Sequencing. It helps place men more precisely on our common paternal tree than is possible with STR testing and is increasingly being used in surname studies.
I'm hoping Errol will also discuss the additional analysis of the test results available at extra cost through YFull including an extended range of STR results.
The meeting starts at 9:30 at the Ottawa City Archives, 100 Tallwood.
The January group meeting was standing room only. As this is a more advanced presentation it may not be quite as crowded but consider arriving early to reserve a seat and take advantage of the time to network.
1 March is St David's Day, patron saint of Wales.
Family Tree Magazine marks the occasion with a blog post Top free websites to trace your Welsh ancestors.
The BIFHSGO conference, 29 September – 1 October, 2017 will include material of special relevance for those researching Welsh ancestry. Stay tuned for news on the programme coming soon,
When both Claire Santry and John Grenham write about an Irish resource you know something interesting is happening.
Claire writes about the 21 February update to the Registry of Deeds index project with 225,142 index entries from 25,551 memorials of deeds.
John Grenham celebrates the availability of microfilm image files through FamilySearch.
Claire points to a helpful guide to using the virtual microfilms of Registry of Deeds books.
I've not had a chance to test these on my elusive John Marmon, or more likely his father Peter (maybe), in County Down. It's likely my last hope.
The Historical Society of Ottawa meeting on Friday saw Rev. Dr. Anthony Bailey speaking on Ottawa's Black History. Along the way he stated that there is no such thing as race.
As a member of the human race I was surprised.
Rev. Bailey mentioned a 1950 UNESCO Statement on Race (starts on page 30 at http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0012/001229/122962eo.pdf)
The Oxford English Dictionary has the following primary definition of race
A group of people, animals, or plants, connected by common descent or origin.
In its widest sense the term includes all descendants from an original stock, but may also be limited to a single line of descent or to the group as it exists at a particular period.
Oxford Reference says of race:
A classification system used to categorize humans into large and distinct populations. Race is not to be confused with ethnicity; the answer to the question ‘does race exist?’ is, biologically no, socially yes.
The same source says of ethnicity:
A highly elastic concept applied to groups who say they share or are perceived to share some combination of cultural, historical, racial, religious, or linguistic features. Ethnicity also often implies shared ancestral origins; thus there is thematic overlap with the older concept of peoples and some modern notions of race.
So race is "not to be confused" with the "highly elastic concept" of ethnicity which includes racial features in its definition!
At the end of his presentation I asked Rev Bailey whether he had any concern that DNA tests offered for genealogy risked exacerbating racial divisions. He appeared not to think so citing the difference between concepts of ethnicity and race.
Is there a reluctance to acknowledge the existence of race due to abhorrence of racism? The OED defines racism as:
A belief that one’s own racial or ethnic group is superior, or that other such groups represent a threat to one's cultural identity, racial integrity, or economic well-being.
Notice race and ethic are used considered equivalent.
Would we deny the existence of capital if we abhorred capitalism?
Following my question colleague Bryan Cook commented that DNA shows we are all "out of Africa."
The British Newspaper Archive now has pages 18,501,553 (17,932,171 pages last month) from 742 (717) titles online.
There are good runs of the Boston Guardian, Bradford Daily Telegraph, Bridlington Free Press, Cambridge Chronicle and Journal, Chichester Observer, Eastbourne Gazette, Greenock Telegraph and Clyde Shipping Gazette, Jarrow Express, Kilsyth Chronicle, Linlithgowshire Gazette, Nottingham Journal, Ross-shire Journal, Skegness Standard, Star Green 'un, The Bystander, The Tatler, and West Somerset Free Press.
Maybe one day the BNA will explain why Skegness, with a population less than half that of Great Yarmouth, has years of papers digitized while Great Yarmouth has none.
TITLE
|
DATE RANGE
|
|---|---|
| Aberdeen Evening Express | 1956 |
| Athletic News | 1901-1907, 1909, 1913 |
| Banbury Beacon | 1891-1896, 1898-1900, 1902-1905 |
| Belfast News-Letter | 1919-1920, 1954 |
| Bognor Regis Observer | 1878-1879, 1881-1882, 1884 |
| Bolton Evening News | 1877, 1910 |
| Boston Guardian | 1857, 1866-1867, 1870, 1875, 1882, 1884-1887, 1889-1896, 1898-1928, 1939-1941 |
| Bradford Daily Telegraph | 1873-1874, 1879-1885, 1887-1896, 1899-1909 |
| Bridlington Free Press | 1861, 1863-1886, 1898, 1906-1907, 1910, 1913, 1924 |
| Cambridge Chronicle and Journal | 1873-1874, 1876, 1878-1888, 1890-1900 |
| Carlisle Express and Examiner | 1872, 1874-1876, 1878-1879, 1881-1885, 1887, 1890-1891, 1893-1895 |
| Chichester Observer | 1887-1901, 1903-1905, 1909, 1911, 1913-1928, 1930-1949 |
| Daily Telegraph & Courier (London) | 1890-1891, 1895, 1898 |
| Donegal Independent | 1899 |
| Driffield Times | 1937-1944 |
| Durham County Advertiser | 1862-1865, 1870, 1876, 1893-1896, 1898-1904, 1909-1910 |
| East Anglian Daily Times | 1876, 1878-1881, 1884, 1887 |
| Eastbourne Gazette | 1906-1911, 1913-1917, 1928-1949, 1951-1957 |
| Fife Free Press, & Kirkcaldy Guardian | 1956 |
| Greenock Telegraph and Clyde Shipping Gazette | 1872-1879, 1882-1893, 1899-1909 |
| Haddingtonshire Courier | 1886-1888 |
| Herts Advertiser | 1879-1893 |
| Inverness Courier | 1885, 1893-1894, 1902-1909 |
| Irish Times | 1870, 1873 |
| Jarrow Express | 1873-1889, 1896-1906, 1910 |
| Kilsyth Chronicle | 1900-1922 |
| Kinross-shire Advertiser. | 1885-1888 |
| Lancaster Guardian | 1860-1861 |
| Linlithgowshire Gazette | 1891-1918, 1921-1950 |
| Littlehampton Gazette | 1923-1938, 1955-1956 |
| Longford Journal | 1869 |
| Montgomeryshire Echo | 1891-1895, 1897-1909 |
| Montgomeryshire Express | 1875-1876, 1878, 1880, 1883-1886, 1891-1892, 1895, 1906-1907 |
| North London News | 1893 |
| Northern times and weekly journal for Sutherland and the North | 1899-1904, 1907-1910 |
| Nottingham Journal | 1860-1867, 1869-1870, 1872-1873, 1875-1876, 1878, 1880-1886, 1888, 1895, 1903-1904, 1926-1930 |
| Oxford Times | 1877, 1879, 1887, 1889 |
| Peeblesshire Advertiser | 1879, 1883-1885 |
| Peterborough Advertiser | 1955-1957 |
| Ross-shire Journal | 1878-1901, 1903-1910 |
| Rothesay Chronicle | 1883 |
| Royal Cornwall Gazette | 1901-1910 |
| Scottish Referee | 1891 |
| Sheffield Daily Telegraph | 1908, 1913 |
| Shields Daily News | 1880 |
| Shipley Times and Express | 1944 |
| Shrewsbury Chronicle | 1892-1897, 1900-1910 |
| Skegness Standard | 1889, 1923-1948, 1950-1957 |
| Sporting Life | 1881, 1884, 1897-1909 |
| Star Green 'un | 1909-1937, 1949-1957 |
| Stonehaven Journal | 1912-1917 |
| Surrey Comet | 1889, 1899 |
| Swindon Advertiser and North Wilts Chronicle | 1910 |
| The Bystander | 1903-1940 |
| The Tatler | 1901-1966 |
| Thetford & Watton Times and People's Weekly Journal. | 1933 |
| West Somerset Free Press | 1860-1869, 1873-1902, 1905-1909 |
| West Sussex County Times | 1876 |
| Western Daily Mercury. | 1880 |
| Wexford Independent | 1873 |
| York Herald | 1882 |
| Yorkshire Evening Press | 1892 |
