Sunday Sundries

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

The Material Culture of Wills, England 1540-1790
Find out about a project by the University of Exeter to use Transkribus handwriting recognition technology, along with a cadre of volunteers, to transcribe a selection of PCC wills.

What Winter?
This meteorological winter (DJF) Ottawa broke a record. The lowest recorded temperature was -18.7C on 21 January, more than 2 degrees warmer than the next warmest since records began in 1872. Accompanied by very limited skating on the Rideau Canal, snowfall much below average (so far) and the exceptionally early opening of the Quyon Ferry service, it has been an exceptional year so far.

Britain’s oldest synagogue in City of London could be plunged into darkness amid fresh skyscraper plans

Irish Emigrant Letters and Memoirs from North America

BIFHSGO Annual Conference
The dates, 26-27 October, are announced. Ireland is the theme.

Thanks to this week’s contributors: Ann Burns, Anonymous, Barbara May Di Mambro, Brenda Turner, gail benjafield, Patte Wood, Teresa, Unknown.

2 Replies to “Sunday Sundries”

  1. Thank you for this edition of “Sunday Sundries”. Serendipity strikes. The link entitled “Irish Emigrant Letters and Memoirs …” contains a database at the University of Galway featuring letters written to Patrick Nowlan in Sissiboo/Weymouth, Nova Scotia from his father and brother between 1841 and 1847. There is also a missive from John McAlpine to Captain John G. Nowlan, the son of Patrick, written in 1866. Patrick Nowlan married my fifth grand-aunt, Mary Grant, and had one son with her, the industrious John Grant Nowlan. They and other Nowlan relatives are mentioned in my recent book “The Descendants of John Grant and Mary Sabean: Associated Families of Southwestern Nova Scotia and New England. The Nowlan letter “fonds” retained at Library and Archives Canada are the subject of an outline research project resulting from my book. Thank you so much for this. I also live in Ottawa!

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