Sunday Sundries

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

Jingle Bells

Not worth it?
Local writer Dan Gardner’s PastPresentFuture newsletter/blog,  available through substack, is one I subscribe to — for free! His Christmas Potpourri includes upfront  the surprising

“Substack sets a minimum price for paid subscriptions, which the writers cannot set lower. I’m Canadian and in Canada it is, I think, CDN$7 a month. I can see why they do that. But allow me an admission against interest (as lawyers say): At $7 a month, people are paying as much or more than the cost of a subscription to a major magazine. With editors. And staff writers. And illustrators. And paper. I think highly of myself but I don’t think the newsletter I work on part-time with a team that consists of me and my dog is remotely equivalent to a major magazine.”

That made me feel better about not having a paid subscription. Perhaps I can further salve my consious by mentioning his forthcoming book How Big Things Get Done: The Surprising Factors That Determine the Fate of Every Project, from Home Renovations to Space Exploration and Everything In Between, coauthored with Bent Flyvbjerg.

ChatGPT
Following on my post What Are The Attributes of a Good Genealogist, that demonstrated what ChatGPT can do, Dan Gardner’s Christmas Potpourri item included recommended reading by Ethan Mollick and Gary Marcus. Beware, there’s lots there and they do get pretty well into the weeds.

5 senses? In fact, architects say there are 7 ways we perceive our environments

Thanks to this week’s contributors: Anonymous,  Brenda Turner, Craig Milne, gail benjafield,  Glenn W., Helen Whyte, lesley, Pat Laffey, Teresa.

Findmypast Weekly Update

1939 Register of England & Wales

About 65,000 new records have passed the required 100-year mark and have been unredacted in this latest rolling release.

FMP holds the most up-to-date version of the 1939 Register, which dates to 29 September 1939.

Ireland: Licences to Keep Arms, 1832-1836

A new collection from a parliamentary report includes those who were granted a licence to bear a weapon (either a firearm or a sword) by their local magistrate. The records normally include a name, their residence, brief details of the licence, and the magistrate. Check the original image for additional details on the wepons, such as “Two guns, one pistol and one bayonet”, “One gun”, “One single-barrelled fowling-piece.”

Newspapers

Wow!  600,000 new pages have been added this week, comprising of 19 new titles and 152 updated titles.

TheGenealogist adds Lloyd George Domesday for Berkshire and Buckinghamshire

More than 185,000 new Lloyd George Domesday land tax records have been added by TheGenealogist to its Landowner and Occupier records. Consisting of records from the counties of Berkshire and the Buckinghamshire, this release provides researchers with the ability to discover owners and occupiers of property in the period 1910 to 1915.

Covering an area of over 800 square miles, researchers can use these records to see the size, state of repair and value of the house in which their ancestors had been the landlord of, or had lived in.

TheGenealogist has linked all the records to the large scale Ordnance Survey maps that were used at the time.These detailed maps show each property plotted on detailed mapping that can be viewed with TheGenealogist’s Map Explorerâ„¢ tool. This interface will show the same coordinates on a variety of modern and historical maps. Using this allows house or family historians to see how the area they are researching may have changed over time and with it to then explore their ancestors’ locality.

  • Details of Individual properties can be found in these Lloyd George Domesday records
  • Records are linked to extremely detailed maps used in 1910-1915 and viewable on the powerful Map Explorerâ„¢
  • Ability to fully search the records by a person’s name, county, parish and street
  • The Ordnance Survey maps zoom down to show individual properties
  • Georeferenced to a modern street map or satellite map underlay the researcher can more clearly understand what the area looks like today

Areas covered in this release include:

Aldermaston, Aldworth, Amersham, Arborfield, Ardington, Ashampstead, Ashley Green, Barkham, Basildon, Beaconsfield, Beech Hill, Beedon, Beenham, Binfield, Bisham, Bledlow, Blewbury, Boveney, Boxford, Bradenham, Bradfield, Bray, Brightwalton, Brimpton, Buckland, Bucklebury, Burghfield, Burnham, Catmore, Caversham, Chaddleworth, Chalfont St Giles, Chalfont St Peter, Challow (East and West), Charlton, Chenies, Chepping Wycombe, Chesham, Chieveley, Childrey, Chilton, Cholesbury, Clewer Within, Clewer Without, Cold Ash, Compton, Cookham, Crowthorne, Datchet, Denchworth, Denham, Donnington, Earley, East Garston, East Ilsley, East Lockinge, East Shefford, Easthampstead, Ellesborough, Enborne, Englefield, Eton, Farnborough, Farnham Royal, Fawley, Fawley, Fawley, Finchhampstead, Fingest, Frilsham, Fulmer, Gerrards Cross, Goosey, Grazeley, Great Coxwell, Great Missenden, Greenham, Grove, Hambleden, Hampden (Great and Little), Hampstead Marshall, Hampstead Norris, Hanney (East and West), Harwell, Hawridge, Hedgerley, Hedsor, Hendred (East and West), High Wycombe, Hitcham, Horsenden, Horton, Hungerford, Hurley, Ibstone, Ilmer, Inkpen, Iver, Kimble (Great and Little), Kintbury, Lambourn, Langley, Leckhampstead, Lee, Letcombe Bassett, Letcombe Regis, Little Marlow, Little Missenden, Maidenhead, Marlow, Medmenham, Midgham, Mortimer, New Windsor, Newbury, Newland, Old Windsor, Pangbourne, Peasemore, Penn, Princes Risborough, Remenham, Ruscombe, Sandhurst, Saunderton, Shaw, Shinfield, Shottesbrook, Slough, Slough, Sparsholt, Speen, St Giles, St Lawrence, St Mary, St Nicholas Hurst, Stanford Dingley, Streatley, Sunningdale, Sunninghill, Swallowfield, Taplow, Thatcham, Theale, Tilehurst, Towersey, Turville, Twyford, Upton, Waltham St Lawrence, Wantage, Warfield, Wargrave, Welford, West Ilsley, West Shefford, West Woodhay, White Waltham, Winkfield, Winnersh, Winterbourne, Wokingham, Wooburn, Woolhampton & Yattendon

Read TheGenealogist’s article: To the Cottage Born https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2022/to-the-cottage-born-1645/

Yuletide R&R

Starting tomorrow, Yuletide R&R posts will keep the blog active while I’m otherwise occupied. Expect mostly humourous items, many classics from previous years.

Today, in celebration of Hanukkah, enjoy this music.

This week’s online genealogy events

Choose from a few selected 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. Additional mainly US events are listed at https://conferencekeeper.org/virtual.

TUESDAY 20 DECEMBER

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

2:30 pm: New York State Genealogy, by Sara Allen for Allen County Public Library Genealogy Centre.
https://acpl.libnet.info/event/7602962

8 pm: Wayward Girls: A Context Case Study, by Stephanie O’Connell for BCG and Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/wayward-girls-a-context-case-study/

WEDNESDAY 21 DECEMBER

2 pm: Designing with Canva for Your Genealogy, Society, or Business, by Colleen Robledo Greene for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/designing-with-canva-for-your-genealogy-society-or-business/

THURSDAY 22 DECEMBER

6:30 pm:  Resources for Oregon Research, by Dawn Carlile for Allen County Public Library Genealogy Centre.
https://acpl.libnet.info/event/7571433

Anytime: Christmas Carols and Nostalgia, by Jeremy Summerly. A Gresham College classic from 9 Dec 2021.
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/carols-nostalgia

FRIDAY 23 DECEMBER

Anytime: Christmas Lies and Legends, by Judith Flanders. A Gresham College classic from 9 Dec 2020.
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/christmas-legends

SATURDAY 24 DECEMBER

Anytime: The Man Who Invented Christmas: Film Adaptations of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, by Christine Corton. Gresham College classic from 10 Dec 2019.
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/christmas-carol

 

Co-Lab updates for December

For the third successive month, there is no progress to completion for Library and Archives Canada’s Co-Lab Challenges, perhaps because they are difficult to find on the new LAC website. However, one challenge reported less progress than last month.

Expo67 remains 0% complete.

Summiting Mount Logan in 1925: Fred Lambart’s personal account of the treacherous climb and descent of the highest peak in Canada remains 11% complete.

Travel posters in the Marc Choko collection is 96% complete, last month 98% complete.

Women in the War remains 0% complete.

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 remains 93% complete.

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.

The LAC Departmental Results Report for 2020-2021 included the information “There were a total of 16,205 contributions from the public.” No further detail was provided.

Ottawa Public Library becomes FamilySearch Affiliate Library

Joy to the World Ottawa Genealogists.

We’ve been waiting for it for a long time.

Ottawa Public Library is now a FamilySearch Affiliate Library. That means library clients will now have greater and more convenient access to the wealth of genealogical resources available through FamilySearch at OPL’s 33 branches.

Due to contractual obligations, some images are only viewable online through FamilySearch centers and Affiliate Libraries
Through the affiliate program, OPL customers have access to over 350 million additional records that are otherwise restricted. This resource is available for in-library use only.

At the branches, you will have to log on to the WiFi network if using your own computer, then into your OPL account, then into FamilySearch using your own unique FamilySearch username and password.

The same resources continue to be available at the LDS Church Family History Center on Prince of Wales Drive which is open for limited hours on Wednesdays and Thursdays.

Use and enjoy.

Find a Grave updates on Ancestry

The databases were updated on 16 December with nearly 4.5 million addition since August 2022. The US accounts for 2.2 million additions.

Canada has 331,370 additions for the four-month period, a rate well ahead of the annual number of deaths of 323,221 reported by Statistics Canada.

Country August 2022 December 2022 Increase
U.S. 168,814,684 170,992,351 2,177,667
UK and Ireland 14,651,323 15,329,390 678,067
Global 13,288,732 13,711,794 423,062
Australia and New Zealand 9,833,836 10,351,076 517,240
Canada 9,085,991 9,417,361 331,370
Germany 1,999,171 2,275,506 276,335
Sweden 313,255 356,925 43,670
Italy 269,307 287,125 17,818
Norway 200,269 206,975 6,706
Brazil 132,347 132,690 343
Mexico 52,524 56,015 3,491
Totals 218,641,439 223,117,208 4,475,769

The standalone Find a Grave website, now operated by Ancestry, was created in 1995.