Month: May 2023

An intriguing tweet from Denys Allen gives a five-step recipe for producing a first-draft family history from a timeline using ChatGPT. https://twitter.com/denys_allen/status/1650513345051521028

I tried it using Bing Chat. It made a bold attempt at a life story for an individual in my family tree.

I’d forgotten to include the name, so it made one up.

It made up a name for his father who I’d mentioned was a Jewish immigrant. It assumed he was from Poland and so was his wife. Not true

It wrote his father was a merchant. Not true, he was a teacher.

I mentioned he was killed at YPRES III and it wrote he was hit by shrapnel and buried with the marker a Star of David.  He was killed there, the rest is fantasy.

There were several other things it simply made up.

I was able, in stages, to edge it toward a more accurate biography by adding additional information, mentioning what was false, and asking for a rewrite.

I’m sure it would have done better given a more complete timeline, which would take about as much effort as writing the final product.

From The Festoon: a collection of epigrams, ancient and modern. Panegyrical, satyrical, amorous, moral, humorous, monumental, with an essay on that species of composition
Publication date 1767.

East Sussex, England, Wills and Probate, 1518-1858

This index includes 183,021 probate records made up of wills, inventories, and administrations proved in the Church Courts of the Archdeaconry of Chichester and Lewes, Deanery of South Malling and the Deanery of Battle from the 14th century to 1858.

An index entry might appear like:

Name William Knight
Record Type Probate
Will Place Sussex, England
Probate Date 15 Nov 1785
Probate Place Sussex, England
Description Archdeaconry of Lewes: Original Wills, Registered

It’s linked to an image of the original — reading it is sure to be a challenge.

West Sussex, England, Marriage Licences, Wills and Probate, 1521-1858
This collection includes marriage licences, wills and probate records from West Sussex, England, dated between 1521 and 1858,  155,661 records in total.

Here’s an example of the index

Name Mary Knight
Record Type Probate
Residence Place Wisborough Green
Will Place Sussex, England
Probate Date 1 Dec 1841

It’s also linked to an image of the original, the full text of which which may be before the page you’re initially taken to.

 

With major additions via FamilySearch this week, the total baptism, marriage and burial count for Findmypast’s Sussex transcript collection is over 800,000.

Ceremony	Years	Records
Baptisms	1172 – 1979	269,119
Marriages	1504 – 1937	268,217
Burials	1274 – 1996	301,731

Is the baptism of John Roberts on 1 2 August 1172 at Clymping for real, or a typo?

 

The FreeBMD Database was updated on Saturday, 29 April 2023 to contain 288,037,409 unique records, 287,797,659 last month.

Years with more than 10,000 additions are: for births 1992-94, for marriages 1991 – 93, and deaths 1987, 1990, 1992-93, 1995.

 

If you can pinpoint an ancestral home the more than 1,300 new maps of England and Wales, from the National Library of Scotland, could help dig deeper. They show for various years from 1900 to 1972  the Administrative Counties, Municipal Boroughs, Urban and Rural Districts, and Civil Parishes needed to know where in the administrative structure relevant records would be found. The maps were usually published for each county in England and Wales at a scale of half-inch to the mile or 1:126,720 (metricated to 1:100,000 from the 1960s).

There’s a convenient graphic interface here.

On selected sheets, Parliamentary Constituency boundaries are also included (usually shown in green), as well as various Judicial Boundaries, including Commission Of The Peace and Petty Sessional Divisions (usually shown in blue), ca. 1966-73. boundaries in the 20th century. These include administrative and judicial areas and show their changes over time. All are prior to the major changes in 1974.

A complete list of recent map additions by the National Library of Scotland is here.

Search all 1.1 billion U.K. historical records at MyHeritage from  4–8 May 2023! That’s 635 collections, including birth, marriage, death, census, baptisms, wills and probate, military, and more. 

Adverse weather didn’t dampen the enthusiasm of those who came to the Monday 1 May 2023 event at Nepean Centrepointe, sponsored by the Ottawa Public Library. We were entertained and informed by four presentations, two by Daniel Horowitz, Mags Gaulden, and Glenn Wright. Several exhibitors added to the opportunity.

Daniel Horowitz, from MyHeritage in Israel, kindly made Ottawa a stop between events in Ohio and Massachusetts.

Global Genealogy offered bargains on Pen and Sword books and UK booklets from Gould Genealogy and History of Australia.

Patricia McGregor Books and Ephemera offerred a selection of hard to find used and out of print books.

 

Speaker Glenn Wright chats with Ken McKinlay, who helped with facilitating questions, before his evening presentation for OGS.

Mags Gaulden from Grandma’s Genes during her dynamic presentation, getting her steps in and reporting progress on her Islandmagee ancestry.

The exhibitor’s perspective. Chris Moody from Archive CD Books Canada in the foreground with some of their books for sale, Kyla Ubbink from Kyla Ubbink Book and Paper Conservation, Daniel Horowitz from MyHeritage, Ottawa Stake Family Search Centre and Ottawa Public Library.

Event co-sponsors the British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa and Ottawa Branch Ontario Genealogical Society (Ontario Ancestors) enjoyed the opportunity to speak with members and prospective members.

Daniel Horowitz, from MyHeritage who gave two presentations consults with Barbara Tose who calmly managed the idiosyncrasies of the audiovisual system.

Ottawa Public Library had staff on-hand at a table displaying some of their genealogical resources. In the background the Friends of the Ottawa Public Library Association specially opened their bookstore which featured a display of family and local history books for sale.

Thanks to the event organizers, Emma Fernandes (OPL), Verna Preston (OPL), Romaine Honey (Ottawa Branch OGS) and Sue Dawes (BIFHSGO). Also to Ann Burns for contributing photos.

 

 

 

Having recently posted the hatches and matches, now come the dispatches – Hampshire Church of England burials. There are 304,643 entries between 1813 and 1921 and the records include linked images of the register entry.
There’s a browse capability, always useful if you suspect a transcription error; beware  — placenames do change — the village known as Oakley is included as Church Oakley.  One omission is the July 1817 burial of Jane Austen in Winchester Cathedral.

 

Choose from 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, 2 May

1 pm: British Coronations: A History, by Alice Hunt for Gresham College.
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/whats-on/british-coronations

2 pm: Ottawa Virtual Genealogy Drop-In, by OGS Ottawa Branch. https://meet.google.com/nvz-kftj-dax

2:30: HistoryForge: Mapping Your Family History, by Eve Snyder for Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center.
http://acpl.libnet.info/event/8367036

7:30 pm: Old Brock Township: Origin & Key Events, by Larry Doble for OGS Durham Region Branch.
https://ogs.on.ca/events/durhams-may-2nd-meeting-old-brock-township-origin-key-events/

10 pm: Convicts: From Trial to Freedom, by Kerry Farmer for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/convicts-from-trial-to-freedom/

Wednesday, 3 May

2 pm
Using multiple WATO analyses to break through a brick wall, by Maurice Gleeson for Legacy Family Tree webinars .familytreewebinars.com/webinar/using-multiple-wato-
analyses-to-break-through-a-brick-wall/

7:30 pm: Decoding the Dash: Build the Stories of Their Lives, by Dave Obee for OGS Huron County Branch.
https://huron.ogs.on.ca/events/huron-branch-decoding-the-dash-build-the-stories-of-their-lives-dave-obee/

Thursday, 4 May

1 pm: A History of Barts, Britain’s Oldest Hospital, by Charles Knight for Gresham College.
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/whats-on/barts-900

7 pm: Always Get Your Man: Researching the Men of the Mounted Police, 1873-1920, by Glenn Wright for Ontario Genealogical Society.
https://ogs.on.ca/may-webinar-always-get-your-man-researching-the-men-of-the-mounted-police-1873-1920-glen-wright/

Friday, 5 May

2 pm: Working on the Railroad: Pullman Porters and Maids, by Janice Lovelace for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/working-on-the-railroad-pullman-porters-and-maids/

Saturday, 6 May

10 am: Introduction to Evernote for Genealogy, by Lisa Louise Cooke for OGS London and Middlesex Branch.
https://londonmiddlesex.ogs.on.ca/events/london-middlesex-branch-introduction-to-evernote-for-genealogy/

Ottawa’s (almost) annual Jane’s Walk happens next weekend, 6-7 May. Don’t miss the opportunity to get in some gentle exercise while learning about aspects of local history and environment.

This year there are 37 events across the city. See the schedule and sign up at https://www.janeswalkottawa.ca/walks/current

Congratulations to Peter Calver on the anniversary of the day Lost Cousins went live —  1 May 2004.  There are more than 70,000 subscribers to his newsletter, which is a few more than Canada’s Anglo-Celtic Connections! 

To celebrate, and to honour the coronation on Saturday, the LostCousins database will be totally free until 9 May.

You can read the 19th Birthday Issue of Peter’s free newsletter, and I recommend you do, here.

It includes a valuable masterclass on tracking down English pre-1837 baptisms and marriages (some of the county links didn’t work) and a recommendation on which autosomal DNA test to buy – bigger is better.