The Society of Genealogists is offerring a series of talks, workshops, discussions and visits (for thise who can get there) that explores death, burial and remembrance from many different angles.
Find out more at https://sog.org.uk/news/in-memoriam-what-death-can-reveal-about-an-ancestor/
Choose from these selected free online events. All times are Eastern Time, unless otherwise noted. Registration may be required in advance—please check the links to avoid disappointment. For many more events, mainly in the U.S., visit https://conferencekeeper.org/virtual/.
2:30 PM: Born a Slave, Died Free: How William Got His Name Back, by the ACPL Genealogy Center (part of their free 31 Days of Family History Month).
7:30 PM: What Gravestones Can Tell You About Your Ancestors, by Laura Suchan, MA, PLCGS, for the Durham Region Branch of Ontario Ancestors.
Free Zoom Pre-registration
9:00 PM: Paternal or Maternal: Where Does This Match Fit?, by Paul Woodbury, MEd., AG®, for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
Free Live Registration via Legacy Family Tree Webinars
Event Kickoff: All About That Place (running 7 to 16 October 2026). Over 10 days of free, 10-minute presentations covering local history, research techniques, and archives, organized by the Society of Genealogists.
Free Event Details and Daily Schedule
11:30 AM: Photo Restoration Using Free and Paid Tools Like Never Before, by Kimball Carter, CG®, for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
Free Live Registration via Legacy Family Tree Webinars
12:45 PM: Cameras My Ancestors Held and What They Tell Us, by Gordon L. McBean, for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
Free Live Registration via Legacy Family Tree Webinars
2:00 PM: Generations in Focus: Preserving Family Memories Through Photography, by Angela Andrieux, for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
Free Live Registration via Legacy Family Tree Webinars
6:30 PM: Putting the History in Our Family Histories, by Curt Witcher, for the ACPL Genealogy Center (free virtual presentation exploring ancestral community histories).
7:00 PM: Postcard Analysis: Telling Stories Through a WWI Postcard, by Nolan Forsyth for the OGS Essex & Kent Branches.
Free Registration via OGS Essex Branch
All Day: All About That Place Day 2 presentations stream free via the Society of Genealogists.
2:00 PM: They Came from Virginia: A Case Study in African American Research and Methodology, by Julia A. Anderson, MA, AG®, AGL™, for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
Free Live Registration via Legacy Family Tree Webinars
All Day: All About That Place Day 3 presentations stream free via the Society of Genealogists.
10:30 AM: Genealogical Resources at the BPL and Leventhal Map Center: 24-7!, presented by Linda MacIver for the Massachusetts Society of Genealogists (MSOG) Middlesex Chapter.
Free Online Meeting Registration via MSOG
All Day: All About That Place Day 4 presentations stream free via the Society of Genealogists.
Two people tell me that Norton Antivirus is identifying this blog as a potential virus problem. I’ve only heard this from Norton users.
A couple of virus checkers found no problem with the site; maybe I angered the Norton God!
Please do me a favour and let me know if you have the same problem, whether with Norton or any other anti-virus utility. Thanks.
Think about it. https://youtu.be/OAwat51S_Sk?si=xKYGFy5wMAeWetAz
True in genealogy too?
Miscellaneous items I found interesting this week.
All About That Place?
“Running over 10 days from Wednesday 7th to Friday 16th October, and FREE, All About That Place is packed with almost 200 recorded 10-minute talks by over 150 speakers on genealogy and local history. You’ll learn research techniques, social history, tools, websites, archives, record keeping tips, ways of creating and sharing your findings… and much, much more!” The lead organizer is the Society of Genealogists.
Canada’s population clock
StatsCan displays a real-time estimate population clock. Watch as the model shows births, deaths and migration by province. Did you know the population of Ontario exceeds the total for all the other provinces, except British Columbia and Quebec. The combined populations of those two is less than that of Ontario.
Caveat Emptor: Canada, Mounted Police Records, 1873-1914
This new title at Ancestry, drawn for the LAC collection., was already mentioned yesterday. Could it really be that Martin Monroe Steele, born in 1780, engaged with the Mounted Police in 1890 and was discharged in January 1808? Did he serve in an episode of Dr. Who?
I checked a few others and found numerous cases where the sequence of events doesn’t make sense, even though it’s a fair reading of the original record.
The author remains responsible for all content, regardless of source.They strike a balance between embracing new tools and maintaining historical rigour. It would be helpful if the details addressed what constitutes “significant use.” It would be helpful to include cautions about inadvertantly feeding personal information of living relatives into public AI models when editing using AI, and respect for copyrighted material that may have been inadvertantly incorporated into AI databases.
Thanks to the following individuals for their comments and tips: Ann Burns, Anonymous, Gail, Glenn Wright, Maria Laty, Teresa, Unknown.
New to MyHeritage, 1,301,873 Great War POW records indexed from files originally compiled by the International Committee of the Red Cross. The RC traced captured and missing servicemen on behalf of their families throughout the war. Alongside the main British Army and Commonwealth file, the collection includes a separate file for servicemen reported missing at Gallipoli and the Dardanelles.
Entries typically include the name of the soldier, date and place of birth, place of residence, date and place of capture, and the camp or place of internment, along with rank, regiment, service number, and next of kin where available.
Checking for a man I know was a POW, MyHeritage found 11 entries for him in the collection, which added “captured near Zonnebeke, 8th Canadians” to what I already knew. I hoped to find camp, exchange, and repatriation information. No luck.
Military Medals Awarded to Foreigners by the British Government, 1914-1920This new WW1-era set comprises 7,144 medal records. Expect to find Name, Rank, Regiment (when available), Publication, Publication Date, Event year, Section, Army, and Medal type.
A second new WW1-era title, with 4,235 records, includes similar information to the collection above.
261,688 new pages joined the newspaper archive this week, with five new mostly 19th century titles added and updates made to 44 existing publications from the late 19th century to the 21st. None are especially long runs.
New titles:
Join in person at Ottawa’s Knox Presbyterian Church (Lisgar & Elgin) or online by registering here.
Preserving Family Archives/ 9 a.m. EDT
Presenter: Kyla Ubbink
Family documents, photographs, clippings, works of art, diaries, bibles, trinkets and treasures are the physical evidence that tell the stories of our ancestors. As genealogists, many of these pieces of history wind up in your care and knowing how to preserve them is paramount to ensuring their longevity. Kyla Ubbink will advise on implementing archival principles of preservation to the care of family memorabilia. Current and up to date practices for storing archival materials, how to detect processes of deterioration, and methods of intervention will be shared within the context of practical ‘at home’ application. Topics include proper boxes and enclosures, the use of albums, shelving, climate control, pest and mould prevention, basic cleaning and repair, and introduction to digitization.
Operating a private conservation studio since 2002, Kyla Ubbink began her career through an internship with the Library and Archives Canada’s conservation laboratories in 2000 and subsequent contract positions through to 2005. Her private practice, Ubbink Book & Paper Conservation, provides professional conservation, restoration and preservation consultation services to institutions, galleries, antiquities dealers, collectors, researchers and genealogists. Kyla’s work has been integral to the collections of the Canadian War Museum, Canadian Museum of Natural History, Parks Canada, Bank of Canada, Global Affairs, Crown and Indigenous Affairs, and numerous University, archive, rare book, and art gallery collections.
Kyla was a part time professor of Cultural Preservation for Algonquin College’s Archives and Records Management Program from 2007 through 2019. She has several publications in professional periodicals, is a regular presenter at conservation conferences, and provides workshops and lectures for community groups and heritage professionals. Kyla recently served on a Canadian Standards Review Board to assess and update the standard for “Permanence of Paper for Records, Books and Other Documents”. She has also fulfilled the role of treasurer and secretary for the Canadian Association for Conservation of Cultural Property’s Board of Directors.
https://bookandpaperconservation.com/
Presenter: Pierre Brault
How do playwrights research their historical theatre productions? Ottawa actor/playwright Pierre Brault will describe the process he used to discover background information for his historical works featuring Patrick Whelan, Thomas MacKay and Colonel By, the central figures in three of his plays. Pierre will explain how he uses this information to animate their lives on the stage and will read from some of his most well-known works.
Pierre Brault is a multi-award winning actor/ playwright/ comedian whose solo works have been performed across the globe.
http://www.pierrebrault.com/
The outline for the latest episode was posted on 24 September.
I particularly appreciated Mark Thompson’s explanation of “setting up a scheduled agent that checks Ancestry, MyHeritage, Findmypast, Library and Archives Canada, and other repositories each week for newly released records in the places he researches, and compares how Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini handle the job.” That looks like a way of helping with my more routine blog posts,
Toward the end Mark and co-host Steve Little had an informative discussion on calls to slow down AI development, separating real risks from headlines.
Here’s the complete outline
00:06 Family History AI Show Academy: Advanced Family History AI Course
01:35 Trends from the East Coast Genetic Genealogy Conference: Adoption Goes Mainstream
05:46 Today’s Headlines: A Preview of the Episode
In the News
07:18 New Features at Ancestry: Document Transcription and AI Stories
11:18 Artificial Intelligence Model News: Claude Fable 5.1, GPT-6 Astra, and Navier-Stokes
20:34 Another Round of Simplification: Claude Merges Chat and Cowork, Custom GPTs Retire
Tip of the Week
30:05 Scheduling Your Artificial Intelligence Agent: Weekly Checks for New Record Collections
RapidFire
42:56 Claude Memory: Editable, Project-Aware, and Worth Checking
49:50 Apple’s Smarter Siri (Again): Google Gemini Under the Hood
54:03 Calls to Slow Down Artificial Intelligence: Separating Real Risks from Headlines
Final Thoughts
1:16:53 Episode Wrap
TheGenealogist is marking Lincolnshire Day, 1 October, with the release of new parish registers, marriage licences and local history
publications spanning the Tudor period to the early 20th century.
The newly released Lincolnshire publications include:
● The Registers of Coleby, Lincolnshire, 1561–1812
● The Parish Registers of Alford & Rigsby, 1538–1680
● The Parish Registers of Bourne, 1562–1650
● The Parish Registers of Gainsborough, Volume I, 1564–1640
● The Parish Registers of St Margaret in the Close, Lincoln, 1538–1837
● Lincoln Marriage Licences, 1598–1628
● Notices of the History and Antiquities of Spalding
● The Lincoln Pocket Guide (1880)
● Guide to Lincoln Castle (1924)
● J. Charles Cox’s Lincolnshire
Below are the updates to Full Text Search listed for this month. Do you notice anything about the dates? Do miracles happen?
|
|
Collection Title |
Records |
Last Updated | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States, GenealogyBank Obituaries, Births, and Marriages, 1980-2015 | 8,180 | 16 September 2026 | ||
| United States, Virginia, Biographies, from 1005 to 2014 | 1,026,511 | 16 September 2026 | ||
| United States, Virginia, Others, from 2010 BC to 2033 | 182,744 | 16 September 2026 | ||
| United States, Maryland, Legal, from 14 May 1894 BC to 2011 | 7,563,263 | 7 September 2026 |
Here’s a summary of top updates from February to date
| Country | Cumulative Records Added (Feb–Sep 2026) |
| United States | 147,815,479 |
| Peru | 7,261,514 |
| United Kingdom | 6,338,501 |
| Mexico | 2,717,878 |
| Argentina | 564,309 |
There could be other updates and additions available only at FamilySearch Affiliate Libraries of FamilySearch Centres.
