Ancestry Updates Liverpool Parish Records

Updates to these Ancestry collections include adding newly accessioned parishes and more recent years

Title	New Total	Additions
Liverpool, England, Catholic Baptisms, 1741-1919	1,788,158	248,688
Liverpool, England, Catholic Marriages, 1754-1933	456,759	139,966
Liverpool, England, Catholic Burials, 1813-1985	721,392	499
Liverpool, England, Church of England Baptisms, 1813-1919	2,527,837	198,824
Liverpool, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1932	1,567,726	115,818

O/T: How good was the COVID-19 forecast?

On 7 April the Public Health Agency of Canada issued this forecast for the epidemic on 16 April.
What happened. There were 30,092 cases — well inside the range predicted.
There were 1,193 deaths, that's 870 more than at the time the forecast was made. The 500-700 range for new deaths estimated was exceeded. However, a naive forecast of exponential growth in deaths based on those to 8 April gave an estimate of 1,581 deaths by 16 April.
While the actual number of deaths exceeded the PHAC forecast it did capture the slowing of the exponential growth toll.
With a record 183 deaths added on 16 April the epidemic is far from being under control.

According to the CBC the latest models from the Public Health Agency of Canadas now projecting between 1,200 and 1,620 pandemic deaths by 21 April.

Family Tree Virtually Live starts on Friday

In lieu of its live event at Alexander Palace, the Family Tree virtually Live event will be held on 17 and 18 April on their website.

Some of the presentations, free to viewfor a limited time are, premiering on Friday:

Weddings Work and Welfare with Dr Gill Draper (Running time: Open up fresh ways to research your forebear’s lives and work using church and kirk records, from the Middle Ages to the 19th century.

Planning Your Irish Research Trip (Running time: 46:53)
David Ryan explains how to get around and which repositories to visit when planning an Irish research trip.

Turning Your Family History into a Book (Running time: 11:05)
Get tips on turning your ancestors’ lives into a compelling narrative with Ruth Badley. Learn how to write a family history for future generations to treasure.

On Saturday look for:

A Statistical Tool for Genealogy with Vincenzo Alfano (Running time: 21:54)
Are humanities condemned to not benefit from statistical modelling? Discover a ready-to-use tool to improve your genealogy research, with economist and family historian Vincenzo Alfano.

Researching Your Northamptonshire Ancestors with Angela Malin (Running time: 17:41)
Get specialist local advice to help you trace ancestors from the Northamptonshire region. Includes advice suitable for all family historians, wherever your ancestors may have lived.

Dr Gill Draper - Living the Poor Life (Running time: 36:32)
Learn how to use workhouse records to research lives under the New Poor Law's dreaded Union Workhouse, glancing back at researching earlier periods.

Other presentations are TBA - maybe one or more from Calgary's Wayne Shepheard who was originally scheduled to speak at Ally Pally. The videos will be freely available to watch until 24 April, after which they will only be available to Family Tree magazine subscribers.

Check out the full information at https://www.family-tree.co.uk/how-to-guides/family-tree-live-virtual-conference

CWGC Live

The second presentation in the new Commonwealth War Graves Commission Live series is Director of Horticulture, David Richardson, broadcasting live on Facebook at 9:30 pm EDT on Thursday 16 April.

You'll also be able to watch a recording of the live-stream afterwards.

Watch either way at www.facebook.com/commonwealthwargravescommission/

Kingston Branch OGS April Meeting Online

The Kingston Branch speaker will be Deb McAuslan presenting on "When New York Was New Netherlands", a look at 17th century Dutch settlement of New York before English occupation: the culture, the politics, and the people

The meeting will be on Zoom  at 10 am on Saturday 18 April 2020

Register in advance at:
https://zoom.us/meeting/register/upQudOigpjMoPah1NCjjoKgxQfld5c_LfA

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting on the 18th.

Major Update to The Ancestor Hunt Ontario Newspaper Links

A big round of applause for Kenneth R Marks who has just updated his Ontario newspaper links list in The Ancestor Hunt with 288 new links bringing the total to 977 titles.

Significant additions are from Arnprior & McNab/Braeside Archives​,  Canadiana Online and. Early Elgin County Newspapers.

Major Additions to FamiySearch

A new indexed collection for England and Wales, with 3,293,133 records, is England Death Record,1998-2015. Containing names, death dates, and places, It's not the civil registration index but a compiled by Wilmington Millennium from various funeral homes in England. In a sample, I found over half had a birth date as well as death date.

Also added from over the English Channel are 25,030,960 entries from France, Insee Social Security Death Index, 1970-2019. It includes 1,515 entries with last name Smith, most born in the UK. It covers death records of French citizens that died in France, its territories or overseas between the years 1970 to 2019. For the years 1970 to 2018 the files are annual. For the year 2019, the files are monthly and quarterly. Deaths in Saint-Pierre-Et-Miquelon are included.

A Gift for Irish Researchers from John Grenham

It's an ill wind! The COVID-19 lockdown means the entire text of the 2019 edition of John Grenham's Tracing Your Irish Ancestors is up now on his website, "with completely new sections on starting out and graveyards, along with new short accounts of researching Irish ancestors in the Army, attorneys and barristers, clergymen, teachers, policemen and doctors."

How to add voice notes to your family snaps

Here's a tip, via Christine Jackson, from Family Tree UK genealogy magazine, a free web tool from One Image Video to add recordings of precious memories to your favourite family photos.

Check it out here.

Daniel McLachlin’s Legacy: Exploring the Lumber Era of the Ottawa Valley

The Arnprior and McNab/Braeside Archives has new content that documents the lumbering era of the local area and the Ottawa Valley.

This is the result of a project, "Daniel McLachlin's Legacy: Exploring the Lumber Era of the Ottawa Valley" made possible by the Documentary Heritage Communities Program offered by Library and Archives Canada.

The project allowed the digitization of:

25 McLachlin Bros. ledgers (11,606 pages)
42 maps (zoomable to high detail).
547 letters of correspondence (1,204 pages)
35 photographs
1 previously unpublished manuscript by Charles Macnamara (144 pages)

Arnprior & McNab/Braeside Archives President Irene Robillard comments that "the manuscript on life in a lumber camp by Charles Macnamara, although the old letters from the 1830s onward are fascinating.  As well there are a number of ledgers that might be of interest to family historians. Unfortunately, they are all handwritten so aren’t machine searchable.  A volunteer did add names in a few of the record descriptions so that the names can be found from a search but there is much more that could be done – if we found some time."

Check them out at https://search.adarchives.org/en/permalink/archivaldescr5952 and https://search.adarchives.org/en/permalink/archivaldescr5961

As well, there are indexes to some of the ledgers, such as Account Ledger No. 3 and Petty Cash.  These indexes have lots of names and then one can go to the actual ledger and page, as those books were digitized too.  Here is a link https://search.adarchives.org/en/permalink/archivaldescr5967

Ancestry® Extra session on Tuesday

An "extra" reminder about the Ancestry® Extra session from 10 am – 11 am EDT on Tuesday via Facebook here. 

Steve Fulton UE, President of The Ontario Genealogical Society/Ontario Ancestors will present on the work the society does and the tools they have to support your research. 

Lesley Anderson, the Ancestry spokesperson, will be sharing tips on navigating the Ontario records available on Ancestry.

Lesley and Steve will both be answering questions you have about Ontario family history research.

I've already provided them with my question on progress toward the availability of Ontario probate records online.

AND

For 24 hours Ancestry will be providing free access (with registration) to all Ontario family history records on the site.

O/T: Ignorance

Why would anybody be surprised over difficulties in managing the COVID-19 pandemic when lack of testing means we're ignorant about the extent of the problem?

Q: Canada's Public Health Agency states Canada's public health system is prepared. Since the outset, the Public Health Agency of Canada (along with public health authorities at all levels of government across the country) have been working together to ensure that our preparedness and response measures are appropriate and adaptable, based on the latest science and the evolving situation. With 717 deaths officially reported in Canada as of Sunday afternoon how does the government justify this statement?

Q: Canada's Public Health Agency states Canada's Chief Public Health Officer of Canada is in close contact with provincial and territorial Chief Medical Officers of Health to ensure that any cases of COVID-19 occurring in Canada continue to be rapidly identified and managed in order to protect the health of Canadians. 
With delays of days in reporting test results, testing being limited, and some deaths not being reported unless they occur in hospitals, how does the government justify this statement?

While I don't doubt the agency is doing what it can under the circumstances these kinds of obvious cosy half-truths do nothing to lend credibility.

FreeBMD April Update

The FreeBMD Database was updated on Thursday 9 April 2020 to contain 273,825,854 unique records (273,498,540 at previous update).

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

www.freebmd.org.uk/

Private Memorials on the Western Front

After the Great War of 1914-19 some bereaved families erected private memorials to their loved ones on the battlefields of France and Flanders. This guide is to help visitors find these memorials, and to tell the story of each one.
They include memorials to Cedric Dickens, a grandson of Charles Dickens, and Francis Dodgson, said to be "kin" to Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson).

www.westernfrontassociation.com/world-war-i-articles/private-memorials-on-the-western-front/

Quebec Family History Society Virtual Sessions

Friday, 17 April
Free Virtual Genealogy Question & Answer Session (Community Events)
1:00 pm to 2:00 pm
On Zoom
A group of researchers will be available to answer any genealogy-related question you might have.
Please sign up to receive an invitation to the Zoom session. Send us an email. 
Donations through CanadaHelps gratefully accepted.

Friday, 8 May 
Free Virtual Featured Stories (Community Events)
1:00 pm to 2:00 pm
On Zoom
Guest speakers will share their own genealogical discoveries.
Please sign up to receive an invitation to the Zoom session. Send us an email.
Donations through CanadaHelps gratefully accepted.

Friday, 22 May
Free Virtual Guest Lecturers (Community Events)
1:00 pm to 2:00 pm
On Zoom
Gary Schroder will speak on What's New in Irish Genealogy.
Please sign up to receive an invitation to the Zoom session. Send us an email. 
Donations through CanadaHelps gratefully accepted.

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.

Sunday Sundries

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

Ontario History Journal Digital Archive
The Ontario Historical Society has, for the first time, made the entire run of over 120 years of the Society’s Ontario History journal available online. The OHS has digitized the full text of over 2,000 articles and book reviews, making the archive the largest single collection of stories about Ontario’s history. Although accessing the articles is a membership benefit indexes are free to search at https://ontariohistoricalsociety.ca/index-to-ontario-history/. I suggest searching the author indexes which give the full article title and volume in which it was published.

Stately Home Tours
Sit back, relax and take in the splendour of four magnificent county homes.

Ken McKinlay's Guide to Parish Registers
If you don't subscribe to Ken McKinlay's Family Tree Knots blog (why wouldn't you!) you may not be aware of the indexes he has recently prepared for various Parish Register microfilms held by LAC and now freely made available online via the Héritage project. He has them for Ontario, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Be aware that some microfilms have records for more than one province.

Ancestry Extra webinars this week
At 10 am, Tuesday 14 April, Ontario Ancestors: How and where to find them with Lesley Anderson and Steve Fulton.
At 12 pm, Thursday 16 April, Uncovering Your Loyalist Roots with Lesley Anderson

Find these at the Ancestry Canada Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/AncestryCA/)

Double Duty CWGC Cemeteries
I asked the CWGC if there were cemeteries with burials from both wars. The answer I received was for CWGC operated Bus House in Belgium (196 FWW, 70 SWW) for one, and St Desir in Normandy (4 FWW, 570 SWW). Many other cemeteries with CWGC burials have both, Ottawa's Beechwood Cemetery has 100 FWW burials and 113 SWW.

And



I hope no sheep were harmed while starring in the video.

Thanks to this week's contributors
Anonymous, Bob Lamoureux, Bruce, BT, Denis, Eurekaro, Glenn Wright, John McConkey, Ottawan, Sophronia, Teresa, Unknown

Coronavirus R&R

Slim pickings this week!

Findmypast adds Durham and Northumberland Records

Northumberland and Durham Memorial Inscriptions
With the addition of 28,424 transcripts, from the Northumberland and Durham Family History Society, there are now 142,900 transcripts in this collection.
The 18 parishes added are:

Parish/Memorial location	County	Years	Count
Croxdale, St Bartholomew	Durham	1847 - 1986	283
Easington, St Mary	Durham	1698 - 1934	720
East Rainton, St Cuthbert	Durham	1863 - 1994	524
Gateshead, St Mary	Durham	1632 - 1898	4,390
Heworth, St Mary	Durham	1654 - 2017	8,423
Lamseley, St Andrew	Durham	1621 - 1992	1,674
Seaham, St Mary the Virgin	Durham	1696 - 1993	555
Bedlington, St Cuthbert	Northumberland	1699 - 1994	1,107
Beltingham, St Cuthbert	Northumberland	1760 - 1993	535
Haltwhistle, Holy Cross	Northumberland	1742 - 1908	259
Hebron, St Cuthbert	Northumberland	1718 - 1993	777
Hexham, St Andrews Cemetery	Northumberland	1675 - 1940	63
Ingram, St Michael & All Angels	Northumberland	1675 - 1994	484
Jesmond, St Andrew's Cemetery	Northumberland	1831 - 2002	4,337
Longhirst, St John the Evangelist	Northumberland	1864 - 1994	451
Ovingham, St Mary the Virgin	Northumberland	1631 - 1963	1,005
Rothbury, All Saints	Northumberland	1688 - 1978	2,057
Ulgham, St John the Baptist	Northumberland	1621 - 1994	780

Northumberland Baptisms
Parish registers and bishop’s transcripts are added from the College of Arms, Durham University Library and the Northumberland & Durham Family History Society. The 35,392 records added are from seven parishes, 28,305 from Newcastle upon Tyne, St John, bringing the collection total to 739,660 baptisms.

Northumberland Marriages
This collection sees 1,998 marriage records from St Peter’s Church, Cambois between 1866 and 1925 added to the site for a collection total of 425,265 records.

Durham Baptisms
Records from four Durham parishes: Denton, St Mary; Hurworth, All Saints; Kirk Merrington, St John the Evangelist; and Pittington, St Laurence are added, totalling over 4,400 baptism records bring the county total to 921,469 parish baptisms.

The Local Historian

All issues of the British Association for Local History's quarterly, The Local Historian, are available free to view during the pandemic. Normally only issues older than three years are available free of charge. The publication goes back to 1952 when it was known as The Amateur Historian.

Here's the table of contents from the January 2020 issue.

Contents
Review article: books on the local history of women and suffrage Show more
Review article: books on aspects of local history in the West Country Show more
Reviews
London’s East End A Guide For Family And Local Historians Show more
Government And Society In Thirteenth Century Cumberland: The King Of Scots And The Liberty Of Penrith Show more
The Religious Census Of Cumbria 1851 Cumberland, Westmorland And Furness Show more
The Birmingham Parish Workhouse, 1730-1840 Show more
Church Surveys Of Chichester Archdeaconry 1602, 1610 & 1636 Show more
Stories Of Solidarity Show more
The Singing Milkmaids: Life In Post-restoration Huntingdonshire C.1660-c.1750 Show more
Bovril, Whisky And Gravediggers The Spanish Flu Pandemic Comes To The West Midlands (1918 To 1920) Show more

Clicking Show more brings up a summary. To read the complete article you need to download the whole issue as a pdf.

New BIFHSGO Home Child Database: Father Hudson's Photos

This new collection consists of 146 photos of children with their guardians, the Sisters of Charity of St Paul and photos of former residents as adults, some in military uniform. All are related to the Father Hudson initiative which established a home at 1153 Wellington Street in Ottawa for Catholic boys (and later also girls) brought from Britain.

The photo collection was donated to Home Children specialist John Sayers who obtained permission to have it published on the BIFHSGO website.
The original photos were monochrome but as part of the website project, they were colourized using the MyHeritage Colorization process.

238 people in the photos are identified, including 15 with Father Hudson.
BIFHSGO is pleased to present the photos and various indexes of the names linked to images in the Research and Projects section of its website in the Home Children menu.

There's an index of 15 who saw military service, two of whom gave their lives. The image is of Bernard Newton, originally from Wolverhampton, killed in action on 8 August 1918. His attestation paper includes one of the most unusual occupations I've seen.