Choose from these selected free online events. All times are Eastern Time (ET), unless otherwise noted. Registration is assumed to be required in advance—check the links so you’re not disappointed. For more events, mainly in the U.S., visit Conference Keeper.

Tuesday, April 29
2 pm: Ottawa Virtual Genealogy Drop-In, for OGS Ottawa Branch
https://ottawa.ogs.on.ca/events/virtual-genealogy-drop-in-2-2025-04-29

2:30 pm: It’s All Greek to Me!: A Beginner’s Guide to Greek Genealogy  by Logan Knight for Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center
https://acpl.libnet.info/event/13207139

Wednesday, April 30

2 pm: Invaded! The Fenian Raids and the Canadian Response, by Kathryn Lake Hogan for Legacy Family Tree Webinars
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/invaded-the-fenian-raids-and-the-canadian-response/

Thursday, May 1

7 pm: Power and Politics of Colonization: The Canada Company, by Christine Woodcock for OGS.
https://ogs.on.ca/may-webinar-power-and-politics-of-colonization-the-canada-company-christine-woodcock/

Friday, May 2
2 pm: Nach Kanada! Immigration of Germans to Canada, by Dave Obee for Legacy Family Tree Webinars
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/nach-kanada-immigration-of-germans-to-canada/

Saturday, May 3

10 am: Hidden Treasures: Family Stories in Museum London’s Collections, by Amber Lloydlangston for OGS London and Middlesex Branch.
https://londonmiddlesex.ogs.on.ca/events/london-and-middlesex-branch-hidden-treasures-family-stories-in-museum-londons-collections/

A week or so ago, I came across a mention of the community of Potterspury in Northamptonshire for the first time. It was in an article by Lolly Fullerton, Using Artificial Intelligence to Write an Ancestor’s Story, in a late 2023 issue of the Bruce County Genealogical Society’s Bruce Bulletin. The article, based on a timeline from Ancestry, showed where ChatGPT had gone astray but still provided a good start for writing a family story.

One thing missing was information about the community in the late 18th century. Googling “Potterspury” pointed to several resources: a Wikipedia article, a volume of British History Online (originally published as part of the Victoria County History for Cleley Hundred), the Potterspury History Group website, and GENUKI. I learned that Potterspury lay on the Roman road Watling Street, meaning it had better-than-average communication with distant places and businesses serving travellers.

Then, on Sunday, a post titled The Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Perplexity AI for Family History by Denyse Allen landed in my inbox. She wrote that Perplexity’s real strength is “finding sources to turn your genealogy facts into interesting family history writing.” I tried it, asking: “I’m researching a person born in Potterspury, Northamptonshire, in 1798. Please find resources to explore life in that place in those times.” Perplexity does a better job than Google with more complex queries.

The response named the same major resources that Google had identified, plus a few tangentially relevant ones. It also suggested useful follow-up questions like, “What were the main industries in Potterspury during the late 18th century?” and “How did the presence of coaching inns impact the local economy?”

You can take these sources and have AI draft a short paragraph—likely all you need about the community. Perplexity isn’t the best AI tool for writing; you might prefer ChatGPT, Claude, or one of the others. Just don’t accept what it writes without checking the facts, cutting the fluff, and refining it so the final product fits your style. Don’t be afraid to refine again and again until you get something you like, or exhaust what you can get if using a free version.

 

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

25 Years of Genetic Genealogy: A Conversation with Bennett Greenspan

Best UK history and family history podcasts

Ask AGRA
In his podcast from the Associaton of Genealogists
and Researchers in Archives, panels of experts
discuss everything you need to know to research your
British family history.

Journey Through Time
Historians Sarah Churchwell and David Olusoga on Journey expose forgotten history, and bring to light extraordinary events you should have heard of.

Mentioned In Dispatches
Historian Dr Tom Tharpe presents this wde-rangng.
podcast, produced by the. Western Front Associaton.

Time Team Digs at Sutton Hoo.

Last year, Time Team wase granted a one-month opportunity to dig at a site adjacent to Sutton Hoo in Suffolk. Now the first two nearly hour-long episodes about the dig are available on YouTube. More to come.

Unearthing a Real Victorian Workhouse! | with Tony Robinson

This YouTube video from History Hits sees an exploration of Workhouse life, and death, in The Strand Workhouse in Central London. Among those interviewed are experts Peter Higgenbotham and Paul Carter,  RECOMMENDED

Fans of Nathan Dylan Goodwin will be interested to learn of the publication of his latest fiction book, rooted in  factual technique,”The Hollywood Strangler.”

The FreeBMD database was updated on Thursday, 24 April 2025 to contain 292,983,734 unique records, updated from 292,760,582 in March.

Years with major additions of more than 10,000 index records are, for births 1993, 1995-96, for marriages 1994-96, and for deaths 1995.

Suffolk Records

This week FMP adds 575,174 transcript parish baptismal, marriage, and burial records from the Suffolk Family History Society.

Suffolk Baptisms
The lion’s share this week is 354,307 baptism records added from across the county. The total is now 1,043,652 transcript records, mostly for the 18th and 19th centuries.

Suffolk Marriages
These 190,030 unique new transcriptions detail marriages that took place in Suffolk between 1753 and 1816. The total is now 450,243.

Suffolk Early Burials
From 1538 to 19109, find 62,194 transcriptions in this collection. When searching by place do so from the advanced search.

Suffolk, Graves and Memorial Inscriptions
There are also 20,837 new grave and memorial inscription records.

Findmypast has several additional, smaller, Suffolk collections:
Suffolk Beneficiary Index 1847-1857
Freemen Of Ipswich, Suffolk
Suffolk, Lambert’s Family Almanack 1858-1917
Suffolk Registers & Records
Suffolk Testator Index 1847-1857

Newspapers
The East Suffolk Gazette, if only 156 pages, is one of the 22 newspaper additions and updates this week.

MyHeritage  Adds Canada, Home Children Immigration Index, 1869-1932

This, the latest Canadian collection to be added to MyHeritage, contains 246,528 immigration records of “Home Children” – young migrants sent from the United Kingdom to Canada between the years 1869 and 1932 as part of various child migration schemes.

With around 100,000 children, perhaps as many as 130,000 according to some exceptionally generous counts, who arrived in Canada as Home Children, it’s obvious there are multiple records.  It includes not only passenger lists, as suggested by “Immigration Index” in the title. They typically include the child’s name, date of birth, date and port of departure, date and port of arrival, destination in Canada, and occasionally additional notes on the child’s background or placement.

The data is sourced from Library and Archives Canada, much of it available thanks to cooperating organizations like the British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa.

Who Do You Think You Are Magazine

The feature articles in the May 2025 issue are:

VE Day On the Front Line
Phil Tomaselli reveals how the Second World War ended |in Europe and what happened next — and how you can | uncover your own family’s experiences during the war
8 Reasons Why You Wouldn’t Survive the 17th Century
It’s a miracle that any of our forebears in the 17th century lived to see the 18th considering the multitude of threats that they had to overcome, says Janet Few |
Meet The Celebrities!
Rosemary Collins reveals the stars of the new BBC TV series of Who Do You Think You Are? — Andrew Garfield, Ross Kemp, Aisling Bea, Diane Morgan, Will Young, Mishal Husain, Fred Serieix and Layton Williams.
Victory At Last
Jad Adams recalls how we celebrated VE Day 80 years ago, including the future Elizabeth Il dancing the conga.

There’s research advice on British relations who lived in India,  online resources to help you research the English Civil War,  how to use masters’ and mates’ certificates to trace a Merchant Navy forebear, and an eight-step-by- step procedure on how to use the power of Al to transcribe handwritten documents for free with ChatGPT.

There are the usual regular columns, including news that the complete archive of Soldier, the official magazine of the British Army launched during the Second World War, is now free to read online. Back issues are at  soldier.army.mod.uk/archive/ .

A reminder that you likely have free online access to the magazine as a cardholder at your local public library

Choose from these selected free online events. All times are Eastern Time (ET), unless otherwise noted. Registration is assumed to be required in advance—check the links so you’re not disappointed. For more events, mainly in the U.S., visit Conference Keeper.

Tuesday, April 22

2 pm: Wiki Tree by Mags Gaulden for OGS Sudbury Branch
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/UC9i0DzOTAGP3qwbF2ET0g

2 pm: Digging Deeper Into Your DNA: Exploring Roots in the Distant Past with MyHeritage’s Ancient Origins, by Gal Zrihen for Legacy Family Tree Webinars
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/digging-deeper-into-your-dna-exploring-roots-in-the-distant-past-with-myheritages-ancient-origins/

2:30 pm: Verifying Your Genealogical Tree with DNA Results, by Sara Allen for Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center
https://acpl.libnet.info/event/13226018

7 pm: The Mystery of Funeral Records, by Scott Young for OGS Wellington Branch.
https://wellington.ogs.on.ca/events/wellington-branch-the-mystery-of-funeral-records/

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Wednesday, April 23

CELEBRATE ST GEORGES’S DAY 

2 pm: Hot Off the Digital Press: Utilizing Substack for Blogging and More, by Daniel Loftus for Legacy Family Tree Webinars
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/hot-off-the-digital-press-utilising-substack-for-blogging-and-more/

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Thursday, April 24

1 pm: Getting Started with BHC Research, by Gloria Tubman for OGS BHC SIG.
https://bhc.ogs.on.ca/events/bhc-sig-getting-started-with-bhc-research-gloria-tubman/

6:30 pm: Are You Eligible for Italian Citizenship?, by Ariana Franco for Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center
https://acpl.libnet.info/event/13207027

7 pm: The Peter Robinson’s Settlers DNA Project, by Matt Barry for OGS Ottawa Branch.
https://ottawa.ogs.on.ca/events/ottawa-branch-presentation-details-tbd-2025-04-24/

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Friday, April 25

2 pm: Translating, Transcribing and Summarizing Documents Using AI, Thomas MacEntee, Legacy Family Tree Webinars
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/translating-transcribing-and-summarizing-documents-using-ai/

7 pm: 10 Years of Niagara Branch Research Problem Solving, Bill Young, Niagara Peninsula Branch, Ontario Genealogical Society
https://niagara.ogs.on.ca/events-2/

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Saturday, April 26

1 pm: Experiences of some of the Loyalists and settlers who lived in the American colonies during the Revolutionary War, by Cheryl Levy for Kingston and District Branch of the United Empire Loyalists’ Association of Canada.
https://kingston.ogs.on.ca/events/uelac-kingston-meeting-presentation-to-be-announced/

 

There are currently4,249  items identified as Co-Lab only contributions in the collection. That’s a major drop from 4,324 last month. Perhaps it has something to do with change to the search engine that powers Collection search.

Here are the project changes since December

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

Family history research; you don’t know what you may find 

Global Genealogy: Canada’s history & genealogy store

Have you checked out the offerings at the new and updated globalgenealogy.ca? The focus is now very much on Canada and Canadian authors. Material is being added each week.

Robert Fitzroy empowered individual sailors to use their own judgment about the weather forecast.

MI5: Official Secrets – podcast

Learn from guests Gill Bennett, a historian specializing in secret intelligence and former Chief Historian at the Foreign Office, and Mark Dunton, Principal Records Specialist at The National Archives.

Federal Websites Quiet

A reminder that during the federal election, most departments are not permitted to make new announcements. Websites remain without updates. We still receive essential services, such as weather reports and forecasts. Let’s look forward to a flood of new developments when the results are confirmed, and hope that means a government wanting to enhance openness, not shut it down.

The Toronto History Lecture

Scheduled for Tuesday, 5 August 2025, for its 14th season, the organizers seek proposals to speak, or speaker recommendations, by 1 May. See the Call for Proposals at:
https://torontofamilyhistory.org/learn/toronto-history-lecture/

Findmypast Weekly Update

Climate Change

I asked ChatGPT to create an image in abstract artwork that visualizes the agony of future generations and the sorrow and regret of present generations who failed to act on warnings about climate change and its impacts. Use a vibrant neon colour palette and visual metaphors, rendered in a textured mixed media style.

The following are UK and Ireland collections, updated by FamilySearch within the past month, all with images of the original documents linked.

Collection Title	Records	Last Updated
Ireland, Catholic Parish Registers, 1740-1900	9,719,140	18 April 2025
England, Lancashire, Marriage Bonds and Allegations, 1746-1799	46,104	18 April 2025
England, Northumberland, Non-Conformist Church Records, 1613-1974	451,841	18 April 2025
England, Yorkshire, Marriage Bonds and Allegations, 1613-1887	322,926	18 April 2025
England, Lincolnshire, Marriage Bonds and Allegations, 1574-1885	135,992	17 April 2025
England, Surrey, Marriages Bonds and Licenses, 1536-1992	5,422	17 April 2025
England, Hertfordshire, Marriage Bonds, 1682-1837	9,400	17 April 2025
England, Herefordshire, Bishop’s Transcripts, 1583-1900	1,608,355	17 April 2025
England, Essex, Non-Conformist Church Records, 1613-1971	179,770	17 April 2025
England, Oxfordshire, Parish Registers 1538-1904	103,707	11 April 2025
Ireland, Valuation Office Books, 1831-1856	4,133,425	28 March 2025

Here are the Canadian updates, each with linked images except the two Nova Scotia collections added near the end of March.

Collection Title	Records	Last Updated
Canada, Nova Scotia, Delayed Births, 1837-1907	117,044	17 April 2025
Canada, Ontario, Tax Assessment Rolls, 1827-1922	6,231,709	11 April 2025
Canada, Registers of Chinese Immigration to Canada, 1885-1949	121,193	11 April 2025
Canada, Immigration Records, 1919-1924	745,062	11 April 2025
Canada, Nova Scotia, Births and Baptisms, 1702-1896	138,957	28 March 2025
Canada, Nova Scotia, Marriages, 1711-1909	18,221	28 March 2025
Canada Census, 1921	91,422	26 March 2025

There have been no additions to the Full Text Search collections since 20 March 2025.

MyHeritage has significantly boosted its offerings for Canadian family historians with the recent addition of four collections. Check them out if you have Quebec ancestry—or even a broader interest in Canadian genealogy.

Quebec Vital Records: Births, Marriages, and Deaths

The largest of the new collections is Canada, Quebec Marriages, comprising over 15 million records from 1747 onwards. These typically include the names of both the bride and groom, their parents, and the location and date of the marriage. You may even find references to previous spouses.

Canada, Quebec Births, with 7.7 million entries dates back as far as 1675. Most records include not only the child’s name and birth/baptismal details, but also the names of parents and godparents.

Rounding out the trio is Canada, Quebec Deaths, 1724–2013, adding nearly 3 million records. These typically list the name of the deceased, along with the dates and places of death and burial, and sometimesthe names of parents and spouse.

While these records have been available in other forms, such as the Drouin and BMS2000 systems, the integration within MyHeritage’s platform provides new access.

Canada Newspapers from OldNews.com

Also new is a Canadian newspaper collection from OldNews.com, featuring 1.76 million digitized pages from 243 titles. Covering everything from national to local papers, the range extends from the mid-1700s to the early 2000s. Names of relatives, social notices, obituaries, and even incidental mentions are now searchable thanks to OCR technology.

Choose from these selected free online events. All times are Eastern Time (ET), unless otherwise noted. Registration is assumed to be required in advance—check the links so you’re not disappointed. For more events, mainly in the U.S., visit Conference Keeper.

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Tuesday, April 15

2 pm: Ottawa Genealogy Drop-in, for OGS Ottawa Branch.
https://meet.google.com/nvz-kftj-dax

7 pm: North Bay’s “Pest House”, by Ann Smith for OGS Nipissing Branch.
https://nipissing.ogs.on.ca/events/nipissing-branch-north-bays-pest-house/

Wednesday, April 16

2 pm: Beautifully lay out and print your family history book on any budget, by Rhonda Lauritzen for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/beautifully-lay-out-and-print-your-family-history-book-on-any-budget/

2:30 pm: How Conflicts Around The World Shaped My Family, by Claire Topping for Cambridgeshire and Huntingtonshire FHS.
https://www.chfhs.org.uk/how-conflicts-around-the-world-shaped-my-family-with-claire-topping-487

7 pm: Diseases and Yesterday’s Remedies, by Elizabeth Briggs for OGS Thunder Bay Branch.
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/8HGJ8XScTdyJMnVCId-Dsg

7 pm: Kingston’s Kathleen Hammond, the Lusitania and the White Plague, a story of World War I happiness and tragedy, by Sandy Camp gue, a story of World War I happiness and tragedy, by Sandy  Bell for the Kingston Historical Society.

https://kingston.ogs.on.ca/events/kingston-historical-society-16-april-2025-meeting-presentation/

7 pm: A New Museum for the Outaouais, by Jean-Marc Blais and Stephen Quick for Heritage Ottawa.
https://heritageottawa.org/events/seeing-big-new-museum-outaouais

Thursday, April 17

6:30 pm: The Family History That Wasn’t: How an Unexpected Discovery Redefined Our Identity, by Allison Lawrentz Barnhart for Allen Country Public Library Genealogy Center.
https://acpl.libnet.info/event/13226018

Friday, April 18

Saturday, April 19

10 am: Are you a “trust-me” genealogist?”  “Why would anyone believe what your research says? by Heather Oakley for OGS Kingston Branch.
https://kingston.ogs.on.ca/events/kingston-branch-meeting-april-19-2025/