Month: October 2022

The regular day for the monthly BIFHSGO meeting on Saturday fell on Thanksgiving weekend. I came by OC Transpo, feeling a  seasonal chill in the morning air during the 10-minute walk from uOttawa station while enjoying the display of fall colours.

A friend had told me it would be only the second monthly BIFHSGO meeting he would miss in 20 years, so my expectation for attendance was low. He mentioned catching it on replay. However, I hadn’t expected to see just 20 people in the room! That’s significantly less than last month — blame that on Thanksgiving.

I’ve no idea how many people attended the live presentation online; probably a few times more. It’s a bit of a drag going downtown, certainly for me as Ben Franklin Place was a short drive with good free parking. That would attract folks to online attendance at present.

I enjoyed both presentations; catch them if you can when posted on the members-only part of the society website. I also enjoyed the social interaction between presentations and after.

A couple of people I spoke with mentioned service from Library and Archives Canada. According to one regular researcher, the onsite research facility at 395 Wellington is working quite well. However, there’s been no improvement in LAC’s performance in delivering online orders — months of delay experienced. A comment was that the service deterioration occurred when the Harper government cut funding and has never recovered. Virtually all the specialist expertise was lost at that time, too—something to remember come election time.

During the pandemic, all BIFHSGO meetings and conferences were virtual, which attracted more than a few members outside Greater Ottawa.

BTW, why do some people question the term Greater Ottawa but not Greater London? Ottawa is 70% larger in area. But I digress.

It has long been debated whether the society should aim to attract members from outside the local area — Greater Ottawa — perhaps transforming to BIFHSC — C for Canada. As president, I felt the society didn’t have the means at the time to provide good value to those outside the area. That’s changed, and the present Board strives to provide all members good service, local or away. That does mean providing virtual access to meetings, but the previous Ben Franklin Place meeting space is not well equipped with reliable WiFi, and the will to make the facility suitable. So it sits empty.

On 5 October, The Office of National Statistics published a table and analysis of 2021 baby names for England on Wales. That’s a 6 month lag behind a similar analysis for Scotland that appeared on 7 April. Here’s a comparative table

Rank	Boys		Girls
	E&W	Scot	E&W	Scot
1	Noah	Jack	Olivia	Olivia
2	Oliver	Noah	Amelia	Emily
3	George	Leo	Isla	Isla
4	Arthur	Oliver	Ava	Freya
5	Muhammad	Harris	Ivy	Ella
6	Leo	Finlay	Freya	Amelia
7	Harry	Lewis	Lily	Ava
8	Oscar	James	Florence	Sophie
9	Archie	Rory	Mia	Grace
10	Henry	Alexander	Willow	Millie

For England and Wales the statisticians commentary is

“Noah has replaced Oliver as the most popular name for boys in 2021, moving Oliver into second place and ending an eight-year reign at the top. Olivia remained the most popular girls name in 2021, having held the top spot since 2016. Interestingly, Noah was not top in any of the English regions, but has risen up the ranks in most regions since last year to take first place overall.

While Noah and Olivia are enjoying their places at the top, some names could be in danger of falling out of favour. Leslie has had relatively little popularity in recent years with fewer than seven boys named each year since 2018. Others such as Clifford, Nigel and Norman have not fared much better with ten or fewer boys being named. Girls’ names such as Glenda and Kerry, that were more common before, are also becoming endangered and we have seen less than five girls being named each year since 2018.

Popular culture continues to influence parents’ baby name choices. Today we have also published analysis exploring cultural influences that could be inspiring baby name trends, from hit TV shows to musical icons.”

Find the release for England and Wales at https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/livebirths/bulletins/babynamesenglandandwales/2021#top-baby-names

and for Scotland at
https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/files//statistics/babies-names/21/babies-first-names-21-report.pdf

 

 

This  27,537-item collection comprises an index to post-mortem examination records and case books produced at St. George’s Hospital and Medical School in London, England. There are links to the images of the original, which are morbid reading — save for Halloween!

“Records in this collection may include the following information:
Name
Age at time of death
Occupation
Date of admission
Date of death
Names of the attending doctors
Diseases and cause of death
Doctor’s notes on the case”

It was more affordable. That was the comment during Tuesday evening’s hybrid meeting of Durham Branch of OGS when the host site for local digitized newspapers was mentioned.

Canadian Community Digital Archives aims to provide very high-quality images, with no compromise in image fidelity, in a simple and cost-effective way for Libraries, Historical Societies and other community based orginizations to share their historical content online.

The site presently hosts 169,558 pages of newspapers, clippings and photographs.

There are 33 newspaper titles for Bracebridge, Brampton, Comwall, Goderich, Hanover, Huntsville, Newmarket, Oshawa, Port Hope, Sudbury, and Uxbridge.

All are OCR’d and hits are highlighted on the image of the original, not always easy to spot.

The standouts in the collection are:

The Huntsville Forrester with 104,224 pages from 1895 to 2018,
Bracebridge Gazette with 13,902 pages from 1903 to  1955, Bracebridge Herald Gazette with 19,624 pages from 1955 to 1986
Muskoka Herald with 15,754 pages from 1888 to 1955.

The site provides a repository for small newspaper collections, 14 having fewer than 100 pages.

Do you have ancestors who were baptised, married or buried at Kingston upon Thames, All Saints, between 1813 and 1825? If so, rejoice. There aren’t many additions, a total of just 4,339 records which must be record-breaking!

Subscribers also get access to two newly digitized newspapers:

Building News, 1854-1855, 1862, 1869-1891
Hornsey & Finsbury Park Journal, 1879-1915

And updates to 12 other newspapers, the most notable being:

Leicester Daily Mercury, 1963, 1966, 1973,
1975-1979, 1990-1992, 1994-1995
Staffordshire Sentinel, 1888, 1950-1952,
1955, 1957-1958, 1960, 1963-1967, 1969-1973, 1976-1980

 

One year ago I stopped using Facebook in protest of their profits before people culture.

I deleted Facebook

At the end of the post I wrote “If things get fixed I would maybe return.”

Have things changed?

New items like Meta Dissolves Team Assigned To Police Potential Ethical Issues Of Facebook, Instagram are of concern.

If you use Facebook, or other Meta products, what’s your recent experience?

RootsTech is back, 2-4 March 2023. with registration now open. The online event is free. The in-person experience in Salt Lake City, Utah is $98 — plus travel and accommodation.

I recommend registering now for the online version at RootsTech.org. If you do decide to make the trek to Utah, tardily in the footsteps of the Mormon Pioneers, you can always register for the in-person event later.

No program has been announced yet, just “inspiring keynote addresses, instructive classes, innovative technologies, and the opportunity to connect to family—past, present, and future.”

Register at RootsTech.org.

Here are the UK newspapers.com additions in the past month.

Newspaper	Change	Place	Pages	Years
Evening Standard	Updated	London, Greater London, England	2,365,163	1897–2022
The Guardian	Updated	London, Greater London, England	1,106,085	1821–2022
Leicester Mercury	Updated	Leicester, Leicestershire, England	710,195	1919–1996
Derby Evening Telegraph	Updated	Derby, Derbyshire, England	633,221	1933–1990
Herald Express	Updated	Torquay, Devon, England	560,430	1940–1999
Bristol Evening Post	Updated	Bristol, Avon, England	132,464	1939–1965
The Hinckley Times	Updated	Hinckley, Leicestershire, England	104,211	1925–1999
Scunthorpe Evening Telegraph	Updated	Scunthorpe, Humberside, England	103,842	1939–1999
Derby Daily Telegraph	Updated	Derby, Derbyshire, England	74,853	1881–1932
Walton and Weybridge Informer	Updated	Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, England	37,806	1986–1995
Stanmore Observer	Updated	Harrow, London, England	37,332	1987–1994
The Ormskirk Advertiser, etc.	Updated	Ormskirk, Lancashire, England	36,633	1855–1995
Surrey Herald	Updated	Chertsey, Surrey, England	33,494	1986–1995
Horley Mirror: Incorporating Horley Advertiser and County Post	Updated	Horley, Surrey, England	21,523	1986–1995
Hertfordshire Mercury	Updated	Hertford, Hertfordshire, England	21,041	1991–1994
The Advertiser	Updated	Eccles, Greater Manchester, England	20,945	1987–1995
Belper Express	Updated	Belper, Derbyshire, England	20,750	1989–1996
Burntwood Mercury	Updated	Burntwood, Staffordshire, England	19,467	1990–1995
Surrey Mirror	Updated	Reigate, Surrey, England	18,708	1986–1995
Wellingborough and Rushden Herald and Post	Updated	Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, England	17,603	1989–1995
The Harrow and Northwood Informer	Updated	Harrow, London, England	13,535	1986–1994
Evening Post	Updated	Bristol, Avon, England	10,715	1958–1999
The Staffordshire Sentinel and Commercial and General Advertiser	Updated	Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England	10,086	1854–1881
Horncastle Target	Updated	Horncastle, Lincolnshire, England	8,678	1991–1994
Manchester Metro News	New	Manchester, Greater Manchester, England	7,941	1993–1994
Stockton and District Herald and Post	Updated	Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England	7,769	1992–1994
Blairgowrie Advisor and East Perthshire News-Rewview	Updated	Blairgowrie, Tayside, Scotland	7,401	1879-1994
Neath Guardian	Updated	Neath, Wales	5,489	1990-1994
Stanmore, Edgware Observer	New	Harrow, London, England	4,914	1994–1995
Axholme Herald	New	Epworth, Humberside, England	713	1992–1999
Oadby and Wigston News: Incorporating the ‘Oadby and Wigston Advertiser’	New	Oadby, Leicestershire, England	256	1984–1985
Loughborough News	New	Loughborough, Leicestershire, England	248	1984–1985
Leicester Advertiser	New	Leicester, Leicestershire, England	144	1984–1985

There were no additions for Ireland.

For Canada, The Abbotsford News was updated so there are now 126,033 pages for 1977–2008. There were also additions for several current paper’s issues for recent months.

On 7-8 October 2002, the National Library of Canada, the forerunner of Library and Archives Canada, held an event, “Canadian Newspapers Online: A National Consultation,” in the Auditorium at 395 Wellington Street.

What happened as a result? Twenty years of LAC inaction speak for themselves.

Here, for the record, is the agenda for that event, the last time LAC did anything along the lines of its supposed leadership role within the Decentralized Plan for Canadian Newspapers.

 

Several resources mentioned during the recent BIFHSGO conference are new to me.  The Underground Map was one. It’s not the familiar map of “The Tube.”

“The Underground Map is a project which is creating street histories for the areas of London and surrounding counties lying inside the M25.

In a series of maps from the 1750s until the 1950s, you can see how London grew from a city which only reached as far as Park Lane into the post war megapolis we know today. There are now over 85,000 articles on all variety of locations including roads, houses, schools, pubs and palaces.”

It’s a BIG project and there’s certainly no guarantee you’ll find a history for a street in your family history. I didn’t have much luck finding a history for streets of my interest although there were places nearby.

https://www.theundergroundmap.com/

 

Here are the new items “on the horizon” this month from Ancestry for the UK.

Post Mortem Examinations and Case Books

UK, British Air Force Lists, 1919-1945

Ireland, Royal College of Physicians Registers, 1667-1920

St Margaret’s Church, Westminster, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812

UK, World War II Photographs, 1939-1945

UK, World War II Records and Material, 1939-1945.

There will also be an update of UK, World War II Alien Internees, 1939-1945.

In the long international list is Niagara, Ontario, Canada, Niagara Indexes, 1783-1977.

 

On Tuesday, 4 October Ottawa’s Public Library Board announced that Sonia Bebbington will be the new CEO of OPL, effective 31 October.

Previously Director-General for Information and Document Resource Services of the Library of Parliament, she has a Master of Library & Information Science degree from The University of Western Ontario, Master of Arts in English Language and Literature/Letters from the University of Waterloo, and Bachelor of Arts in English Language and Literature/Letters from The University of Western Ontario.