Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine: Summer 2020 Issue

This issue has a feature article on getting the most out of the records the UK National Archives has made freely available while the physical site at Kew is closed.

In Getting Married by Certificate Roberta Probert explains another option, aside from banns and less expensive than a licence, available for getting married in England and Wales.

Holiday Camps were big business on the East Coast of Norfolk and Suffolk where I was raised. Caroline Roope's three-page article summarises their history with a call out on Billy Butlin, the best-known personality in the business. It mentions he lived for a while in Canada, he served in the CEF, but not mentioning that Eaton's summer camp for employees was likely an inspiration.

There's also a five-page "Focus On" article on Welsh records and Chris Paton's article on Roman Catholic baptism records.

Canadian Public Libraries that subscribe to PressReader provide free access to the magazine.

Sunday Sundries

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

A new online exhibit from Arnprior & McNab/Braeside Archives
“White Pine College: Gillies Mill and the Village of Braeside”, an exhibit supported by the Virtual Museum of Canada’s Community Stories Investment Program.



100 Years of the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer of Canada

Facebook Ads
An advertising boycott of Facebook continues to grow; Mark Zuckerberg shows no sign of backing down. Next time you're checking out Facebook take a look at the sponsored material and recognize the companies that don't care.


Anti-Racism Training Sessions
Crime Prevention Ottawa is holding on-line anti-racism training sessions in July.
Anti-Black Racism - Monday, July 13, 12-1pm
Anti-Indigenous Racism - Monday, July 20, 12-1pm
To RSVP for either event, please visit their website at https://www.crimepreventionottawa.ca/

Police Killings
In the USA, in Canada. In both over 90% of people killed by police are male, and in both the rate is far higher for Blacks and First Nations.

My MyHeritage Canada Day Presentation — My My!
In case you missed it — https://www.facebook.com/myheritage/videos/3956403614434741

Pop culture & your family history
An online article by Moorshead Magazines regular contributor David Norris, but this for the UK Family Tree Magazine.

Thanks to this week's contributors: AGD, Anonymous, Barbara T, BT, Celia Lewis, Emma Carey, Mogan Lae, Nick Thorne, Penny, Sophronia, Steve, Teresa, Unknown

FreeBMD July Update

The FreeBMD Database was updated on Thursday 2 July 2020 to contain 275,618,339 unique records (275,163,471 at previous update).

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

www.freebmd.org.uk/

TheGenealogist Launches New Worcestershire Parish Records

In association with Malvern Family History Society TheGenealogist has added over 85,500 individuals to their parish records for Worcestershire.

Parishes in this release include Abberton, Abbots Morton, Acton Beauchamp, Alderminster, Alstone, Alvechurch, Areley Kings, Bayton, Belbroughton, Bewdley St Anne’s, Oldberrow, Shipston-on-Stour, Tidmington and Tredington.

It includes records back to the mid-16th century

● 54,948 baptismal records
● 8,703 marriage records
● 3,558 banns of marriages records
● 18,293 burials records.

Historical Irish documents burnt in Four Courts attack have been digitally restored

News of the project.

"With the help of sophisticated machine reading technology, the project aims to offer 50 million words of searchable material by 2022. Thousands of papers have already been digitised, making the continuation of work possible during the coronavirus pandemic lockdown."

"... the reclaimed material will include a book donated digitally by Harvard University from the Library of Dublin Castle, which details much of what was originally at the Four Courts facility."

www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/public-can-access-documents-destroyed-during-civil-war-1.4291969

Findmypasts adds Yorkshire Baptisms and US Records

In addition to a whole bunch of US records, see below, Findmypasy this week added over 59,000 transcript baptismal records from 13 Yorkshire parishes:

Kirkheaton, St John the Baptist from 1822-1878
Lindley, St Stephen from 1830-1902
Lindley, Thorncliffe Street from 1828-1918
Lindley, Zion (Methodist New Connection) from 1887-1919
Lindley, Zion (United Methodist) from 1793-1858
Linthwaite, Christ Church from 1828-1913
Liversedge, Christ Church from 1816-1919
Liversedge, St Barnabas from 1847-1919
Lockwood, Emmanuel from 1830-1906
Longwood, St Mark from 1797-1882
Marsden, St Bartholomew from 1734-1812
Meltham, St Bartholomew from 1669-1919
Sheffield, St Matthias, Summerfield Street from 1877-1920.

The US records include:
Over 16 million US marriages
Over 432,000 records of United States, Pennsylvania, Civil War Veterans' Card File
United States, New Jersey, Military Records Index
Over192,000  additional records from New Jersey covering the American Revolutionary War, Civil War, and the First World War
Over 14,000 records from United States, Rolls Of The Soldiers In The Revolutionary War, from 15 publications available as pdfs.

FamilySearch Record Update

For the week of 29 June 2020 FamilySearch reports the following British and Canadian indexed records have been added to existing collections where there are no associated digital images.

Collection	Indexed Records
Canada Census, 1851	181,017
Canada, New Brunswick, County Register of Births, 1801-1920	12,319
Nova Scotia Deaths, 1864-1877	17,475
England, Gloucestershire Non-Conformist Church Records, 1642-1996	153
England, Herefordshire Bishop's Transcripts, 1583-1898	468
England, Middlesex Parish Registers, 1539-1988	84,281
England, Northumberland Non-Conformist Church Records, 1613-1920	332
England, Yorkshire Marriage Bonds and Allegations, 1613-1887	619

Héritage Collection Transcription Crowdsourcing Project

The CRKN (Canadian Research Knowledge Network) Transcription Project is a pilot initiative to crowdsource transcriptions for content in the Héritage collection, part of the Canadiana collections.

It launches initially with staff from 12 participating member institutions.

Participating institutions will use a transcription crowdsourcing tool developed by CRKN Associate Member Our Digital World to transcribe four collections contained in Héritage, which include both English and French materials. They are:

• Collection de la famille Beauharnois
• Department of Indian Affairs : Office of the Civil Secretary in the Province of Canada, 1844-1861
• Fonds Louis-Honoré Fréchette
• War Diaries of the First World War 

These transcriptions will be used by the CRKN team to enhance full-text search and metadata.

The pilot phase involves CRKN member institutions. In the future, it might be extended to include genealogical and family history societies, and individuals.

More at https://www.crkn-rcdr.ca/en/crkn-launches-pilot-transcription-project

Canadian Genealogy Resources Online

Here are links to the Canadian genealogy resources mentioned at the end of my MyHeritage Canada Day presentation.

www.lac-bac.gc.ca/eng/

www.cangenealogy.com/

https://anglo-celtic-connections.blogspot.ca/

https://genealogyalacarte.ca/

https://familytreeknots.blogspot.com/

https://findingyourcanadianstory.blogspot.com/

http://ukcdngenealogy.blogspot.com/

CWGC Sites in Canada

For Canada Day Catherine Paterson, Work Manager for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, posts on five Canadian CWGC cemeteries and memorials which you probably never knew existed: 

• a single burial in Oxbow, Saskatchewan, 
• burials at a WW1 Training Camp Carberry, Manitoba, 
• Knox Presbyterian Cemetery nearby to the WW2  #1 Bombing and Gunnery School in Jarvis, Ontario,
• Vancouver's  Mountain View Cemetery, the largest concentration of military graves in Canada with 581 war dead,
• the Halifax Memorial commemorating more than 3140 soldiers, sailors, and nursing sisters who were lost at sea during both World Wars. 

On 1 July we also remember the dead of The Newfoundland Regiment who died in the Battle of Beaumont-Hamel.

Your Genealogy Today: Double Issue

The July/August 2020 issue, combined with that for May/June 2020 will be available on 8 July.

Here's the tentative table of contents:

COVER: Family Gatherings: Let’s Talk!
Melissa Barker offers tips and tricks to get your family talking about family history

The Benefits of Lineage Societies for Genealogists
Karen L. Newman looks at why a membership can be beneficial

The Power of People – Voices via Petitions: Part 2
Diane L. Richard continues her search for documents that gave our ancestors a voice

Was Your Ancestor A Bootlegger?
Kim Simpson discovers a serious error in her research and details the steps taken to make it right

Microhistory in Genealogy – A Closer Look
Joe Grandinetti looks at the benefits of putting your ancestors lives “under the microscope”

The Louisiana Division
Leslie Michele Derrough tours a fascinating archive with a vast historical collection

A Taste of the Past: Food & Your Family Story
Karen Dustman looks at how baking, food and food memories provide a wealth of material for a family history or a memoir

The Road Less Travelled: Starting at Home
Sue Lisk says consider yourself as the central figure in your family history

Our Lopsided Genetic Inheritances
Diane Helentjaris explains why every grandparent does not give 25 percent

City Directory Abbreviations
Gena Philibert-Ortega suggests taking time to understand the abbreviations used in directories

The Back Page:
Dave Obee suggests checking those distant DNA matches to break through brick walls

The voice of the poor in 19th-century England and Wales

A blog post In Their Own Write: Three million words! from the UK National Archives describes a 95% complete project, disrupted by the pandemic, to transcribe a collection of correspondence between central Poor Law authorities and local Poor Law Unions, dating from 1834 to 1900 found in series  MH 12.  It documents the thoughts, concerns and battles of the poor in Victorian England and Wales.

To date 6,666 of nearly 7,000 letters found have been transcribed.

At the end of the project, all the transcriptions will be loaded into a free-to-access database.

The Week's Online Genealogy Events

Choose from online events in the next four days. All times at ET.

Tuesday 30 June, 2 pm: Virtual Genealogy Drop-In, from OGS Ottawa Branch and The Ottawa Public Library. Join here.

Tuesday 30 June, 10 pm: The 1939 Register for Family Historians, by Fiona Brooker. Information and register here.

Wednesday 1 July, 11am:  Irish Research Q&A, with Fiona Fitzsimons and Brian Donovan (FMP)

Wednesday 1 July, 2 pm ET:  Three Key Canadian Resources from MyHeritage, and some Free Websites, by John D Reid, at www.facebook.com/myheritage/.

Friday 26 June, 11 am: Friday's Live, with Ellie (FMP)

British Newspaper Archives additions for June

The British Newspaper Archive now has a total of  37,517,070 pages online (37,141,188 last month).

24 papers (6 last month) had pages added in the past month. There were 12 (2) new titles. Dates ranged from 1747 to 1991. The South Yorkshire Times and Mexborough & Swinton Times, with
48,996 pages from 1877 to 1959, is the major addition.

The complete list of additions during the month:

My Canada Day Presentation for MyHeritage

At 2 pm ET on Canada Day I shall be on Facebook with Canadian Esther Shuman, now working with MyHeritage in Israel, talking about Canadian resources on MyHeritage, and some complimentary free Canadian genealogical resources.
It's part of the MyHeritage Facebook Live series and available for replay after the event. It would be good to have a few friends online while it's live.
I'll be featuring the census, exclusive newspaper and military resources available through MyHeritage illustrating their use with an Ottawa case study.
Come join me at 2 pm EDT at www.facebook.com/myheritage 

The Reopening in Ottawa - Maybe

The first GLAM institution in Ottawa to reopen to the public is announced.

"The National Gallery of Canada announced on 26 June that it will reopen on Saturday, 18 July 2020. For this first phase of reopening, the NGC will reduce its operations to four days, from Thursday to Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and until 8 p.m. on Thursdays. The number of visitors will be also limited to ensure the safety of the public and Gallery staff."

The Canadian Museum of Nature is tentatively planning to reopen in September.

There is no indication of an opening date for other NCR cultural attractions, the Canadian Museum of History, Canadian War Museum, Canadian Science and Technology Museum, Canadian Agriculture and Food Museum, Canadian Aviation and Space Museum, and Library and Archives Canada.

Similarly, there is no reopening news for the Bytown and other museums in the
Ottawa Museum Network.

There is no further news on any reopening of city facilities, including the City Archives. Meeting facilities seem likely to remain closed for some time.

Although this is an inconvenience let's understand and support prudence in reopening.

OGS President Steve Fulton on Advocacy

As shown at the top of the society website, advocacy is one of three signature OGS activities.

In his latest video, linked within the Ontario Ancestors eWeekly Update - 27 June 2020 and also on the society website, President Fulton talks about advocacy. It's in response to a query from a gentleman — I wonder who that might be?

Steve prefers to use the term Outreach rather than Advocacy. In the video, he mentions activities like attending RootsTech and digitization of the North Bay Nugget newspaper that he and another volunteer  (volunteers?) are doing as outreach. Good initiatives.

Google the terms. Advocacy is defined as "public support for or recommendation of a particular cause or policy." The definition of Outreach is "the extent or length of reaching out." Outreach is a more inclusive term that might be interpreted to include the other two signature activities, education and preservation.

Pure advocacy has an OGS history with effective initiatives going back many years such as preservation of cemeteries, the release of the census, recognition of home children, preservation of land records, and more. OGS used its corporate voice, along with others, to promote action for the benefit of our community and Canada.

Organizations like the Archives of Ontario and Library and Archives Canada identify family historians as their largest client group. They want to serve those clients well, but can only do so if they know what they want. Part of the difficulty they face, especially at the national level, is that there is no single voice speaking for the whole genealogical community. That's unlike librarians, archivists, historians, publishers and authors who have organizations they can include in consultations.

Unless you identify and communicate what you want how will AO and other organizations with which we interact know what we want?  Being consulted doesn't mean getting what you want, but as a community, we need our respected representative organizations like OGS to make our needs known. If not others with other interests and strong voices make their priorities known and win out.

Tracing Family and Friends online

From Archives and Collections @ the Library of Birmingham (UK), a blog post covering, in five easy to follow categories, ways to reconnect with those in the UK you've have lost touch with or not seen in a while:

Telephone Directories
Marriage, Death & Burial Indexes
Electoral registers
Message Posting services
Tracing services

 https://theironroom.wordpress.com/2020/06/22/tracing-family-and-friends-online/

Also, check out their list of useful website for archives in the West Midlands at https://theironroom.wordpress.com/useful-websites-in-the-west-midlands/

Sunday Sundries

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

If you enjoyed Catherine Tate in the video posted with David Tennant a few weeks ago



Why good people manage badly
Executives will almost always prefer to spend tens of millions on new IT systems (that rarely improve company performance) rather than spend 15 minutes a month speaking to front-line employees directly.

Why the Anthropocene began with European colonisation, mass slavery and the ‘great dying’ of the 16th century
An opinion piece from Mark Maslin, Professor of Earth System Science, University College London and Simon Lewis, Professor of Global Change Science at the University of Leeds and, UCL.

Free Scottish Indexes Conference - 11 July 2020 
The first few presentations at this online event are announced. Donations accepted to cover costs.




Thanks to this week's contributors: Anonymous,  BT, Btyclk, Dorothy Kew, E Gail Benjafield, Jon, Lisa Tremblay-Goodyer, Norm Prince, Paul Milner, Stephanie Stone, Unknown

Findmypast Weehly Update: Saskatchewan Vital and England & Wales Roman Catholic Records

Canada, Saskatchewan Vital Records Birth Index has 64,614 records from 1867 to 1919. The coverage is incomplete, especially before 1885 and after 1908.
It's a fairly complete index with first and last name, sex, birth year, birth date, birthplace, father's and mother's first and last names.

Canada, Saskatchewan Vital Records Death Index has 55,302 records from 1893 to 1949. In addition to name, sex and death date the records may include parents' names, but not age

The above are freely available at the Saskatchewan eHealth website.

England Roman Catholic Parish Registers
Exclusive baptism, marriage, burial and congregational records from the Archdiocese of Southwark are added to the Findmypast Catholic collection.
Baptisms from 84 parishes in Kent and Surrey are typically from 1884 to 1910, a total of 213,484 records.
Marriages from 71 parishes are typically from 1892 to 1910, a total of 51,718 records.
Congregational records for 64 parishes, the bulk for Southwark Catherdal,  are typically from 1883 to 1909 and total 127,090 entries.
Burials typically from 1879 to 1910 total 22,403 records in 35 parishes.

England & Wales, Roman Catholics, 1717
In partnership with The National Archives, FMP adds to this collection which now has 107,019 records from the Forfeited Estates Commission: abstracts of estates of Popish recusants.

"Abstracts of estates usually incorporate alphabetical lists of convicted recusants registered in the various counties and some towns, in England and Wales. The returns include those estates which were described in the register, but for which no valuation was given.

Included is a large collection of deeds and other documents produced before the Commissioners of the Forfeited Estates and relating to the estates of persons attainted during the rebellion of 1715. Some of these documents date back at least to the sixteenth century. They are arranged for the most part under the names of the attainted persons. They include original claims of the various persons upon the several estates forfeited to the Crown; proceedings of the commissioners, including correspondence, minutes and memoranda, accounts, lists and schedules, and inventories of documents; returns by clerks of the peace of the names and estates of papist recusants in England and Wales arranged by counties; rentals and particulars of estates sold; and information respecting lands given to superstitious uses."