Month: September 2021

Many British men were in Canada during WW2 with the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP). Inevitably romance occurred, often marriage.

In July 1944 a train travelled from British Columbia collecting Canadian wives and children of British servicemen. After four nights in Montreal, they continued to New York, boarded the Union-Castle line “Athlone Castle” in convoy to Londonderry, onward to Liverpool arriving on Wednesday 23 August. The voyage had 2 couples, 7 unaccompanied men, 562 unaccompanied women, 265 children and infants.

The passenger list is archived at TNA; Board of Trade: Commercial and Statistical Department and successors: Inwards Passenger Lists.; Class: BT26; Piece: 1206. It’s available indexed with links to the original list image on Ancestry.

Newspaper research identifies other voyages in January 1944, November 1944, and December 1945. There were likely others.

Next Monday I expect to post on marriages to airmen from other countries.

 

Two talks live on Facebook for The Western Front Association, by Tim Cook and Bill Stewart, on Monday 27 September at 3 pm ET.

In the first presentation, Bill Stewart will bring us ‘Tubes, Typewriters, Trucks and Training 1918: The Canadian Corps’ Advantages’. Bill will examine the multiple ways in which the Canadian Corps differed from BEF formations in 1918. Some of these advantages are well understood, some are misunderstood, and some are completely missed. He will examine all these categories but will focus on the misunderstood and missed items and how they were of benefit to the Corps’ performance.

In the second presentation, Tim Cook will bring us ‘The Forgotten Liberations: The Canadian Corps in 1918’. Tim will present his new research on the Canadian liberation of French and Belgian civilians in the Hundred Days campaign. Unlike the great attention paid to the liberations in the Second World War, there is little to no discussion of these similar liberations in the First World War by Canadian soldiers. He will describe these forgotten operations and why it is important to remember them.

On Thursday MyHeritage added census transcriptions for Scotland to its collection.

The information available varies between the censuses. The source for these transcriptions is not given.

Census Year	Entries
1901	4,437,453
1891	4,015,584
1881	3,716,329
1871	3,349,107
1861	3,006,924
1851	2,912,392

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

Google Earth Timelapse
See how the landscape has changed since 1984.

Monday, 6 September, 7 pm.  Genetic Genealogy: DNA Testing Tools & Tips, by Ben Dawson​ for Leeds and GrenvilleBranch OGS.
https://leedsandgrenville.ogs.on.ca/events/leeds-grenville-branch-presentation-genetic-genealogy-dna-testing-tools-tips/

Scottish vs Irish Kilts: What’s the difference

Ancestry updates Surrey, England, Regimental Rolls and Recruitment Registers, 1914-1947, to 199,655 records.

London after the Fire, also, The Great Fire of London and the Privy Council

Der Klang der Offenbarung des Göttlichen
Relax for a few minutes. You could try playing it (several times) while working on the jogsaw
Jigsaw: City of London

Thanks to this week’s contributors. Ann Burns, Anonymous, Chuck Buckley, Ed Chadwick, Gail B, Gail R, Gary Barton, GeniAus, Glenn Wright, Judith H, KAYTHEGARDENER, Ken M, Nancy Cutway, Nancy Frey, Nancy Trimble, Patricia Abels, Teresa

Just released, 52,429 records for the Borough of Ealing in the west of London for the period just prior to the First World War. This area consists of the seven major towns of Acton, Ealing, Greenford, Hanwell, Northolt, Perivale and Southall as well as the area of Hayes, Norwood and part of Hammersmith. The records give details of houses and other buildings.

Use these land tax records, in conjunction with the census, street directories etc to build a picture of the environment. You can:

● Search for a person by name
● Search by county, parish and street
● Discover descriptions and values of the houses occupied by an ancestor
● Zoom down on the map to show the individual properties as they were in the 1910s
● Use the controls to reveal a modern street map or satellite view underlay

Find out more about The Lloyd George Domesday Survey.

A new website for the British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa will be launched next week. The address will be the same, www.bifhsgo.ca so there may be a few days during which you will not be able to access either site while the transfer takes place. If you need to consult it while in transition there’s an Internet Archives Wayback Machine recent capture.

On Saturday, 11 September at 9:30 a.m., there will be an introduction to the new website before the Feature Talk at the monthly meeting. Register. Instructions for accessing the Members’ Area will be sent to members shortly after that meeting.

Also on the 11th Gilliam Leach will present The Paulin(e) Family Reunion: Taking Family Research to the Family at the Society monthly meeting.

Before that, for those of us in the BIFHSGO London SIG, the meeting is on Wednesday 8 September. That’s also the date for the British Colonial America Group.

Starting on 19 September is BIFHSGO’s 26th Annual Conference on the theme Irish Lines and Female Finds: exploring Irish records, female ancestors and genetic genealogy. There will be 15 online sessions over 8 days between 19 and 26 September 2021. Find out more at www.bifhsgo2021.ca

Over 100,000 previously-redacted records are added to the Findmypast version of the 1939 Register for England and Wales. Records get opened as people die or they reach their 100th birthday. There are now 42,137,400 records available.

Findmypast now has 300,000 photos from the vast archive of The Francis Frith Collection, the majority taken in Great Britain and Ireland. Why, you may well ask, would you want to access the collection through FMP rather than directly at www.francisfrith.com/? FMP explains “Having found your ancestor in documents such as census returns and birth, marriage and death records, it is now possible to quickly view images of the places they would have grown up in. There is a link back from each record on Findmypast to the same record on the main Francis Frith website, and options to buy high-quality prints and other items.”

All historic burial records from Leicester City Council’s cemeteries are now available to view on www.deceasedonline.com.

The records available are for:

Belgrave Cemetery, 15,554 records, from 1881 to 2015, with 49 Commonwealth War Graves.
Gilroes Cemetery, 137,005 records, from 1902 to 2015, with 75 CWG
Saffron Hill Cemetery, 26,250 records, from 1931 to 2015, with 83 CWG
Welford Road Cemetery, 213,400 records, from 1849 to 2015, including 258 CWG.

The records comprise digital scans of all historic burial registers and computerized data for the most recent, maps showing the section in which the grave is located, and grave details for each of the graves and their occupants. Some details on register scans are masked for the last 15 years in order to comply with data protection.

In preparation for Deceased Online are 143,500 records from Gilroes Crematorium dating from 1902.

FTDNA now paints each chromosome according to ethnicity. That’s something 23andme has done for many years. How do they compare?

The FTDNA site results are found under Results & Tools > Autosomal DNA > Chromosome Painting. You choose a colourful painted chromosome image, either Super Population or Continent.  Also available are tabular detailed results. 

In my case, the Continent results are all European, except for regions on chromosomes 1, 9, 13, 14, 15, 21 and 22 which are not assigned.

For Super Population my results, shown in part in the image, have segments for Western Europe, European Jewish (EJ) and Eastern Europe (EE). As I have all UK ancestry, except a Dutch Jewish line from my maternal grandfather, I was expecting to see one of each chromosome pair coloured for EJ ancestry, with maybe EE on the same chromosome.

My results had 11 instances where only one of the pair had EJ painted, sometimes with also some EE. 11 chromosomes were painted with EJ and/or EE on both sides. With EJ/EE on both chromosomes, one of each pair had the lion’s share. It appears the segments are not always properly assigned to the appropriate member of the chromosome pair.

I had 46 EJ segments in total.

In my results at 23andme only one of each pair was ever coloured for Ashkenazi Jewish (AJ_. Seven pairs showed no AJ. I had 32 AJ segments in total some of which bridged more than one EJ segment.

To bolster faith in the results both company’s analyses identified many of the same chromosome segments as Jewish.

Thanks to Gail B for the tip.

Now try Bicester, Leominster, Southwark.

In May 2019 a report “Evaluation of the Co-Lab Initiative: 2016–2017 to 2018–2019” was published. Three recommendations were made to which, with a reservation on the first, LAC management agreed.

Recommendation 1: As the initiative evolves, document the strategic thinking around Co-Lab and its future directions.
Recommendation 2: Define and document what success for the initiative is and how it will be demonstrated.
Recommendation 3:
a. Ensure that the reporting system currently being developed identifies meaningful performance measures that include output and outcome indicators.
b. Ensure that consistent performance data is gathered as the initiative evolves to ensure that progress toward expected results can be demonstrated over time.
c. Document the rationale for any major changes to performance measurement.

Anticipated completion dates of December 2019 and September 2021 were stated. It is now September 2021.  Are performance indicators now being monitored on a quarterly basis as stipulated to be completed by this month in recommendation 3b?

In view of the lack of any progress on the Co-Lab challenges last month, and very limited progress previously, will LAC management conduct or commission a follow-on review? 

Leading off the issue Donna Potter Phillips lauds 25 years of publishing genealogy magazines from Moorshead Magazines Ltd.

Breaking Down Genealogical Brick Walls with Church Records
David A. Norris looks at church records and how they can help in getting past research roadblocks

Tell Me a Story: Sharing Your Family History Aloud
Sue Lisk suggests ideas for getting into an oral-story telling mode when the opportunity arises

Conceived Through Reconciliation: Birth of a Passion
Yvette LaGonterie embarks on a journey to uncover her Antillean roots

The Passing of The Silent Generation
Robbie Gorr looks at the necessity of interviewing senior family members

Finding Hidden Fathers
Ed Storey looks at English records that may help you to locate a missing father in your tree

Piecing Together the Puzzles of Personality
Sue Lisk looks for the clues that will help us piece together an ancestor’s personality

“Shhhh! I’ll Let You In On a Secret:
Our Female Ancestors Are Found in Ledgers” — Part 2, by Diane L. Richard

Letters Corresponding to Genealogy
Joe Grandinetti says letters home by Irish emigrants have unique relevance to genealogy

Us and Them
Stephen L. W. Greene looks at why it’s important to go beyond the bounds of your own family when doing genealogy research

Your Ancestors Come to Life!
Melody Amsel-Arieli gets into Deep Nostalgia, the animation technology from MyHeritage that can seemingly bring family photos to life

The Back Page: Do You Have a Disaster Plan?
Dave Obee reminds us why we should be prepared for catastrophic events