Month: July 2022

The genealogy stars shine brightly at this year’s BIFHSGO conference. They’re gathered together in four constellations.

First, on Wednesday, 28 September, two of the presentations are of particular Welsh interest: Migration and Wales by Gill Thomas and Researching Welsh Ancestry by Derek Blount. They follow My ancestor was a liar: ignorance, half-truths or wilful deceit? by Dave Annal. All our ancestors lied, even the ones that weren’t politicians!

To wrap up the first day, we return to Ottawa for The Journey to Genealogy Services at Ādisōke by Melissa Black (OPL), Robyn FeresCameron (LAC), Julie Roy (LAC).

The conference is spread out over four days. See the full schedule in pdf here.

It can be frustrating if information comes to us too quickly. BIFHSGO has arranged the schedule, so a 30-minute break follows each 60-minute talk.

Keep coming back to the blog for further details, including on some of the individual presentations,

Ancestry has released over 1.8 million additions to these extensive Greater London collections from the original registers deposited at London Metropolitan Archives and those formerly held by the Guildhall Library Manuscripts section. Records are from over 10,000 Church of England parish registers (including Bishop’s Transcripts).

London, England, Church of England Deaths and Burials, 1813-2003 – 2,780,380 records.
The collection also includes registers of deaths and burials in workhouses operated by the Boards of Guardians covering 1834-1906. There are 46,428 records added since August 2021.

London, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812 – 18,018,976 records
This data collection contains baptism and burial records from 1538-1812 and marriage records from 1538-1753. That’s an additional 916,093 records since August 2021.

London, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1938 – 13,835,348 records
This collection has been updated since May last year when it had 13,530,740 records with the addition of those for 1937 and 1938. The addition is 209,253 records.

London, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1921 – 22,773,296 records.
This collection also includes registers of births and baptisms in workhouses operated by the Boards of Guardians.  An additional year, 1921, has been added since August last year, with 672,913 added records.

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

Baby names: why we all choose the same ones

Yorkshire, Sheffield, Air Raid Casualties, 1940-1941
FNP added an index of 659 casualties this week.

New Interactive Map and Timeline Added to Chronicling America
Library and Archives Canada could look here for inspiration.

WDYTYA on Sunday 7 pm on CTV – Allison Janney

I have literally waited all my life for this moment… pic.twitter.com/bsOkg4r0kr

— CBDude (@CBDHempFarmer) July 17, 2022

Thanks to this week’s contributors. Anonymous, Teresa, Unknown

This week, nearly 100,000 records from the West Riding of Yorkshire are added from the Family History Federation’s National Burial Index.

These additions are for 19 parishes — All Saints, St Mary, St Peter, Wesleyan Chapel, Nethertown United Reformed, St Paul, St Michael, Baptist Church, St Peter, St James, Bankshill, Bruntcliffe Lane Cemetery, Old Chapel, Queens St Wesleyan Methodist, Rehoboth Congregational, St Mary in the Wood, St Peter (Morley). Holy Trinity and St Mary (Woodkirk). They cover 1737-1954.

The burial records are derived from parish registers, bishop’s transcripts, earlier transcripts or printed registers by local family history society volunteers

The NBI now includes 12 million burial records from across England and Wales, although coverage is far from complete. Some counties, like Cornwall, are missing. There’s a listing of coverage by parish here.

Earlier this month in Sunday Sundries I gave a shoutout to this project about railway worker accidents in Britain and Ireland from the late 1880s to 1939. At the time the database documented 3,914 deaths. Information on another 17,000 British and Irish railway worker accidents between 1900 and 1939 has now been released, it’s free.

“The new data adds railway staff accident reports produced by the railway inspectors employed by the British state. Our initial coverage included 1911-1915; we’ve now filled in the gaps, to cover 1900-1910, and 1921-1939 (there’s a gap in coverage due to the First World War; nothing before 1900, and after 1939 the reports change and aren’t publicly available). Even with the 17,000 cases, this is only a fraction – around 3% – of all railway staff accidents at this time; most weren’t investigated by the state officials.

The accidents were spread around the UK and Ireland: nearly 13,000 cases in England, just over 3,000 in Scotland, about 900 in Wales and a little over 300 on the island of Ireland; not forgetting the sole case from the Channel Islands!

Around 4,500 of these incidents were fatalities; the rest injuries, varying considerably in extent and harm inflicted. Men feature more heavily than women – indeed, only 34 accidents to women were investigated by the state inspectors. The ages covered range from 7 to 82. And whilst most people included were railway employees, by no means all were: nearly 800 cases were investigated in which a non-employee was harmed.”

Read more at www.railwayaccidents.port.ac.uk/names-still-spoken-our-new-data-release/ and/or download the spreadsheet

Airmen Died In The Second World War, 1939-1946
Documents nearly 129,000 service personnel who died whilst serving under Royal Air Force control or with their own national air services during the Second World. “The first comprehensive and detailed record to be published of all British, Commonwealth, Dominion and European Allied airmen who died while under Royal Air Force control or with their own national air services during the Second World War.”

Here’s a sample.

First name(s) Henry Eric
Last name Maudslay
Age 21
Birth year 1922
Service number –
Rank Squadron Leader
Function pilot
Service Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
Unit or regiment 617 Squadron
Death year 1943
War Second World War, 1939-1945
Command Bomber Cmnd
Aircraft type Lancaster III
Aircraft serial ED937
Base Scampton, Lincs
Burial place or memorial Reichswald Forest War Cem, Germany
Cause of death Killed in Action
Death date 17/05/1943
Honours DFC
Native of Broadway, Worcs
Notes Damaged by its own bomb and shot down by flak at Klein-Netterden near Emmerich when returning from the Eder Dam during Operation Chastise
Record set Airmen Died In The Second World War, 1939-1946
Category Military, armed forces & conflict
Subcategory Second World War
Collections from Great Britain, UK None

Bomber Command Losses 1939-1945
“Of the 125,000 Aircrew who served in Bomber Command during the Second Wold War, nearly three quarters were killed, seriously injured or taken Prisoner of War and over 40 per cent were killed whilst serving, giving the highest rate of attrition of any Allied unit. Each man was a volunteer, and their average age of death was only 23.”

Here’s a sample.

First name(s) Henry Eric
Last name Maudslay
Birth year 1922
Age 21
Service Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
Squadron number 617
Rank Squadron Leader
Service number 62275
Year 1943
Death year 1943
Father first name Reginald Walter
Mother first name Susan Gwendolen
Cemetery memorial Reichswald Forest War Cemetery
Death date 17 May 1943
Next of kin Son of Reginald Walter and Susan Gwendolen Maudslay, of Broadway, Worcestershire.
Rank as transcribed S/L
Trade Pilot
Url View source website
Record set Bomber Command Losses 1939-1945
Category Military, armed forces & conflict
Subcategory Second World War
Collections from Great Britain, England

 

The Friends of the Ottawa Public Library monthly Mammoth Book Sales event is on Saturday, 23 July at 100 Tallwood Drive (10 am- 2 pm). That’s the building housing the Ottawa City Archives.

There will be great deals on used books, CDs, DVDs, and audiobooks in great condition.

Not all the books will be mammoth!

New on MyHeritage, 616,486 transcript records of births and baptisms from the Bailiwick of Jersey. Records typically include the name of the child, date of birth, date and place of baptism, name of parish, and the names of the parents. Dates range from the first half of the 16th  to mid-20th century.

The source appears to be Jersey Heritage, see https://catalogue.jerseyheritage.org/.

There is also coverage for various periods by Ancestry, Findmypast, and FamilySearch.

 

A presentation was just added to the schedule for the first session of the BIFHSGO conference on Wednesday, 28 September.

At the OGS conference, the Ottawa Public Library and Library and Archives Canada were given the opportunity to present on their new combined facility. They will now have an opportunity to present to the BIFHSGO audience.

Here’s how BIFHSGO describes the session.

The additional conference session will be an interactive discussion on a topic of great interest to genealogists and family historians, especially those in Canada. Reference Services Manager Julie Roy and Senior User Experience Designer Robyn Feres-Cameron from Library and Archives Canada, along with Library Planning Consultant Melissa Black from the Ottawa Public Library, will describe the draft plans for their new joint facility, named Ādisōke (Anishinaabemowin for “storytelling”). When the facility opens in 2026, the two institutions will provide their services to family history researchers in the same building.

The session, to be held on 28 September from 7 to 9 p.m., offers conference attendees an opportunity to contribute to “co-designing” these services by describing their ideal “service journey” through the new facility. The speakers will ask questions such as how users prepare for research, what they expect to see in research spaces, and what resources and help they need to support their projects. This welcome consultation should improve everyone’s Canadian research efforts in the future.

For details on the conference program and how to register, go to https://www.bifhsgo.ca/2022-BIFHSGO-Conference

COMMENT

It was unclear how the mundane responses to the mundane questions for audience participation at the OGS session, supposedly for “setting everyone up for success,” would contribute to planning genealogical services. I hope the BIFHSGO session builds on and not just repeats that.

Choose from free online events in the next five days. All times are ET except as noted. Those in red are Canadian, bolded if local to Ottawa or recommended. Assume registration in advance is required; check so you’re not disappointed.

Tuesday 19 July 2:30 pm: What’s New in Family Tree Maker Q and A Discussion, by: Mark Olsen for Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center. https://acpl.libnet.info/event/6853618

Wednesday 20 July 2 pm: One hour to master your camera settings, by Jared Hodges for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/one-hour-to-master-your-camera-settings/

Thursday 21 July 6:30 pm: Zoom Lens Genealogy, by Susan L. Ennis for Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center.
https://acpl.libnet.info/event/6846757

 

Of Library and Archives Canada’s Co-Lab Challenges progress is reported on four since last month.

Summiting Mount Logan in 1925: Fred Lambart’s personal account of the treacherous climb and descent of the highest peak in Canada is 8% complete, up from 7% last month.

Travel posters in the Marc Choko collection is 96% complete, 65% last month.

Women in the War remains 0% complete.

First World War Posters is 100% complete, 99% last month.

Arthur Lismer’s Children’s Art Classes remains 0% complete.

John Freemont Smith remains 93% complete.

Canadian National Land Settlement Association remains 98% complete.

Molly Lamb Bobak is 92% complete, 91% last month.

Diary of François-Hyacinthe Séguin remains 99% complete.

George Mully: moments in Indigenous communities remains 0% complete.

Correspondence regarding First Nations veterans returning after the First World War remains 99% complete.

Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 remains 96% complete.

Legendary Train Robber and Prison Escapee Bill Miner remains 99% complete.

Japanese-Canadians: Second World War remains 0% complete.

The Call to Duty: Canada’s Nursing Sisters remains 92% complete.

Projects that remain 100% complete are no longer reported here.

Other unidentified Co-Lab activities not part of the Challenges may have happened.

There were 15 19th-century additions to the online serials collection of Canadiana.ca on Friday.

Just as today, the almanacs offer homely advice, curiosities, astronomical information, and fanciful weather predictions. They promoted incredible patent medicines “useful in coughs and colds, curing them”, “sweating, aching, tired, tender swollen feet are cured”, “corns, chill blanes, frost bites, bunions, soft corns, ingrowinjg toenails are cured”, “cures old cases of coughs and bronchitis”, “lumbago and rheumatism is greatly relieved”, “a certain cure for cholera infantum”,  Parke’s Liver Cure was advertized as “a most efficient remedy for all stomach and liver, dyspepsia, costivness, coated tongue, pimples, headache, dizziness, faintness, female weakness, general debility, chill fever, nausea, kidney trouble, malaria, palpitations of the heart, and nervous disorders.”

Today we have fake news!

You could perhaps find an ancestor mentioned in one of the annual reports or calendars. They could be in the administration, on the staff, a graduate (for a college), or, more likely, a donor. Even those who gave 50c might be included.

Title	Publication Date	Series	URL (if online)
Almanack : the mystery explained	1885	8_01925	https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.8_01925
Annual report of the Montreal Maternity for the year ending …	1887-1900	8_01916	https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.8_01916
Annual report of the University Lying-in Hospital, Montreal	Eleventh; Thirteenth-Fourteenth; Sixteenth-Seventeenth; Twenty-First; Twenty-Third-Thirty-First; Thirty-Third-Thirty-Sixth; Thirty-Eighth-Forty-Second	8_01914	https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.8_01914
Calendar / McMaster University	1888/9 – 1900/01	8_01920	https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.8_01920
Calendar / Woodstock College	1887/8	8_02021	https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.8_02021
Calendar of the University of New Brunswick, Fredericton	1861/62; 1863/64 – 1870/71; 1872/73; 1874/75 – 1883/4	8_01919	https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.8_01919
Constitution, by-laws and rules of order, of the Ontario Teachers’ Association : together with the minutes of the … annual meeting …	1872	8_02455	https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.8_02455
Minutes of proceedings of the General Council of Medical Education and Registration of Upper Canada	1867	8_01921	https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.8_01921
Pain-killer almanac & family receipt book	1867	8_01923	https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.8_01923
Parke & Parke’s almanac	1898	8_01917	https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.8_01917
Parke’s almanac	1897	8_02578	https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.8_02578
Proceedings / Medico-Chirurgical Society of Montreal	1882/3; 1883/4/5; 1885/6/7; 1887/88/89; 1889/90/91; 1892/93; 1892/93/1893/94	8_01931	https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.8_01931
The Household almanac	1900	8_01917	https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.8_01917
The Household almanac	1889	8_01918	https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.8_01918
The Pain-killer annual and household physician	1871	8_02433	https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.8_02433