Month: October 2025

The 1871 Burke’s Landed Gentry of Great Britain and Ireland is now available through TheGenealogist.

This Burke’s is not about the titled peerage. It focuses on the “Landed Gentry,” the influential families who held land and local power but had no hereditary titles, notably the squires, magistrates, or clergy who effectively ran the parish.

The entries, in alphabetical order, include detailed pedigrees that may trace a family back several centuries. There’s extensive information on marriages, which helps connect to other families, university attendance, military service, and lists of children. They also name the family estates, which is a crucial clue for land records.

Finally, be a bit skeptical. L. G. Pine, who edited Burke’s in the mid-20th century, derided the fanciful family trees he published. He is quoted as saying:

“If everybody who claims to have come over with the Conqueror were right, William must have landed with 200,000 men-at-arms instead of about 12,000.”

The FreeBMD Database was updated on Tuesday, 28 October 2025, to contain 294,344,983 unique records, up from 294,106,424 at the previous update.

Years with more than 10,000 additions are: for births, 1993 and 1995-6; for marriages, 1995-6; for deaths, 1991, 1996-7.

A new, more modern FreeBMD website, with new features and more accessible, is now available. Try it at https://www.freebmd2.org.uk/

The original FreeBMD remains online,

Ancestry has just added an extensive set of Church of England parish records for Doncaster and about 50 nearby parishes  (e.g. Balby, Hexthorpe, Cantley), covering more than four centuries of baptisms, marriages, and burials, with over 2 million entries

The newly released collections include:

• Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1558–1812 (737,000 records)

• Marriages, 1754–1950 (652,000 records)

• Births and Baptisms, 1813–1925 (950,000 records)

• Deaths and Burials, 1813–2000 (183,000 records)

Block Review (BR) is the systematic review of a series of archived government records currently held in LAC’s permanent collection. BR was initiated in 2010. A post on the LAC website, dated 11 September 2025, lists 250 projects that examined closed government records to determine whether they could be made public. Each entry includes archival details, sample size, pages reviewed, and final or interim decisions.

Records Successfully Opened (151)

Many projects were completed with records fully released to the public. The Privy Council Office and Canadian Corporation for the 1967 World Exhibition had particularly high success rates, with entire blocks opened when no exemptions were found.

Other significant collections were opened after reviewers identified and redacted information protected under the Access to Information Act. This included substantial holdings from the Department of Trade and Commerce and the Department of Foreign Affairs.

Some blocks containing personal information were released under section 8(3) after review, including records from Finance and Veterans Affairs.

The BR sampling process accelerated decisions. For projects that resulted in release, typical sample rates ranged from 0.9% to 100%, with a median of 10%.

Stopped or Cancelled Reviews (40)

A large portion of reviews were halted when sampling revealed disqualifying content. Common reasons included solicitor-client privilege, affecting records from Finance, Transport, and Treasury Board, and sensitive personal information.

In several cases, initial samples showed no problems, but a deeper review uncovered too many potential exemptions to proceed efficiently.

Administrative & In-Progress 

As of 11 September 2025, 27 projects remain incomplete. There were 33 mystery projects, identified only as Unknown/No comment. One review was deemed not possible. Seven reviews were cancelled after discovering the Mikan database had incorrect information, and the records were already public.

It’s unclear how many of the 250 projects date back many years, potentially to 2010. How many are processed quickly and how many may have been languishing, perhaps for years? The BR system isn’t perfect; there is no perfect system. Would you rather err on the side of releasing information that should have been withheld because a sampling process was used, or withhold or delay the release of information that should be available?

In this episode, Mark Thompson and Steve Little cover: Nano Banana Comes to Photoshop, ChatGPT Projects Now Free, Citation Best Practices for Nano Banana, Sora 2 Goes Social, Claude Writes MS Office Documents.

Another insightful episode, recorded on 8 October. Find it here.

I’ve said it before; it bears repeating. Don’t delude yourself that just because a photo portrait is from the 19th century, it’s a true representation of the sitter. Photos were routinely touched up to make people appear as they would want to be seen. No wrinkles. If you insist that images manipulated by AI have to be cited as such, shouldn’t you also do the same thing for those old studio portraits?

As LAC is dealing with significant budget cuts, I’m wondering what to make of the following notice, posted without fanfare on 9 October.

Important notice
The call for proposals for the Documentary Heritage Communities Program  (DHCP) scheduled for this fall is postponed. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Updates will be provided in due course.

There’s precedent. The DHCP was inaugurated in 2015, replacing a similar program cut in a previous budget crunch.

The DHCP objectives are:

Increase access to, and awareness of Canada’s local documentary institutions and their holdings, specifically:
– Conversion and digitization for access purposes;
– The development (research, design and production) of virtual and physical exhibitions, including travelling exhibits;
– Collection, cataloguing and access-based management; and
– Commemorative projects.

Increase the capacity of local documentary heritage institutions to better sustain and preserve Canada’s documentary heritage, specifically:

– Conversion and digitization for preservation purposes;
– Conservation and preservation treatment;
– Increased digital preservation capacity (excluding digital infrastructure related to day-to-day activities);
– Training and workshops that improve competencies and build capacity; and
– Development of standards, performance and other measurement activities.

Has LAC decided that the DHCP objectives are less of a priority than other activities?

The Board of Trustees voted on 19 October 2025 to award this designation to Alison Hare, CG^® Retired (2024). The announcement read:

Alison became Certified Genealogical Research Specialist (CGRS) 784 on 15 July 1999 (converted to CG on 15 July 2005). She served as a BCG trustee from 2009 to 2018. In 2008, she was appointed as BCG’s Judge Coordinator, an anonymous appointment where for over a decade she worked behind the scenes, including the implementation of rubrics for portfolio evaluations. She produced a judging procedure manual, guidelines for evaluation comments, and a renewal manual, with several revisions between 2011 and 2017. She worked on the ad hoc DNA standards committee tasked to produce the improved DNA standards approved in 2018, leading to the 2019 revision of Genealogy Standards. On 10 May 2019, she was presented The Donn Devine Award for Extraordinary Service to the Board for Certification of Genealogists (https://bcgcertification.org/about#alison-hare-cg).

Locally, Alison was active in both BIFHSGO, where she is in the Hall of Fame, and OGS.

Congratulations, Alison, and thanks to Brenda Dougall Merriman, also CG^® Emeritus, for stimulating this post.

Elissa Scalise Powell was also granted CG^® Emertus recognition.

Choose from these selected free online events. All times are Eastern Time, unless otherwise noted. Registration may be required in advance—please check the links to avoid disappointment. For many more events, mainly in the U.S., visit conferencekeeper.org.

Tuesday 28 October

2 pm: MyHeritage Secrets: How to Animate Photos, Preserve Stories, and Research Smarter, for MyHeritage and Legacy Family Tree Webinars
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/a-myheritage-webinar-3/

2 pm: Ottawa Virtual Genealogy Drop-In, for OGS Ottawa Branch
https://ottawa.ogs.on.ca/events/virtual-genealogy-drop-in-2-2025-10-28/

2:30 pm: Tracing Family Roots Through German Words, by Gabi for Allen County Public Library Genealogy Centre.
https://acpl.libnet.info/event/14503801

7 pm: Taming the Digital Tiger, by Michael Nettleton for OGS Wellington County Branch.
https://wellington.ogs.on.ca/events/wellington-branch-taming-the-digital-tiger/

Wednesday 29 October

1 pm: “National” Family History Month Wrap Up, by Crista Cowan for Ancestry.
events.zoom.us/ev/AsDff-eAXq4N1kCgZ4KCKoH49RLpcyYhOCApqYj67drI3YT72jXw~AicdNsNiFQjU9lbijbwlFHfRnx9QDHwU0BVc8SLU3-eN8Veiy8MCN2TspQ

2 pm: Colonial New York Research, by Kory Meyerink for Legacy Family Tree Webinars
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/colonial-new-york-research/

Thursday 30 October

6:30 pm: Uncovering Truth Through DNA, by Nicole Price for Allen County Public Library Genealogy Centre.
https://acpl.libnet.info/event/14504401

Friday 31 October

2 pm: Using Google Earth Web to Tell Your Family History Migration Stories, by Colleen Robledo Greene for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/using-google-earth-web-to-tell-your-family-history-migration-stories/

Saturday 1 November

OGS Records to Research: Exploring the Power of Archives

10:00am – Exploring Library and Archives Canada Online – Ken McKinlay

11:30am – Uncovering Family Histories in the Online Collections from OurDigitalWorld – Walter Lewis

1:30pm – An Apple A Day – Linda Corupe

3:00pm – Exploring Un-indexed Records with Family Search Labs: Unlocking Hidden Gems in Genealogical Research – Linda Debe

Free to OGS Members, $25 for non-members, with access to the recordings for 30 days.

Historian, author and great Canadian Tim Cook has died at 54.

He was the Chief Historian and Director of Research at the Canadian War Museum.

Dr. Cook was highly respected for his extensive work on Canadian military history, particularly Canada’s involvement in the two World Wars. His contributions deeply influenced the Canadian War Museum and the understanding of Canada’s military past. He authored 19 books and numerous scholarly articles and won several prestigious awards, including the C.P. Stacey Prize and the Ottawa Book Award.

He was also a member of the Royal Society of Canada and the Order of Canada.

Miscellaneous items I found interesting this week.

The Dead From Down the Street

Perhaps you’ve discovered a 1914-18 War casualty whose home was near where you lived. For its Monday, 27 October meeting online, OGS Toronto Branch welcomes Drew von Hasselbach, who “will share the names of First World War dead who had roots within blocks of our homes, and show us how to track their enlistment, service and stories. You may never see some of the houses on your street the same way again.”

Before that, Nat Johnson-Tyghter, an Academic Librarian with OISE, will present A Tapestry of Educational History. Let’s hope that will include setting the record straight on the much-maligned Egerton Ryerson.

More info and register here.

Committed to memory

From the Globe and Mail, historian-author Charlotte Gray speaks with Librarian and Archivist of Canada Leslie Weir and former U.S. National Archivist Colleen Shogan about how to preserve history, why it matters, and why it will be important to be able to take selfies alongside important Canadian documents at Adisoke.

Call for Speakers for the Ontario Ancestors Conference 2026

12-14 June 2026 are the dates for OGS’s online conference, titled ‘Steamships to Microchips’. ‘Microchips’ means Artificial Intelligence and other technology; ‘Steamships’: Immigration and Transportation. That’s a date for your new year diary.
The Call for Speakers, with an easy online form to submit your proposal(s), is at  https://ogs.on.ca/conference-speaker-submission-page/.  Be sure to send them by Monday, 1 December 2025.

How higher states of consciousness can forever change your perception of reality

Thanks to the following individuals for their comments and tips: Anonymous, Gail,  Kim Barnsdale, Penny, Teresa, and Unknown.

To date, in October 2025, FamilySearch’s Full Text Search has added 1,004 new collections, focusing heavily on Legal, Religious, Marriage, and Death records. The bulk of the new records originates from Latin America (especially Brazil, Venezuela, and Mexico), Portugal, Spain, the United States, and the Netherlands.

Additions for Canada

Additions for the United Kingdom and Ireland

The additions predominantly consist of large-scale Poor Relief and Religious record sets.

The largest collections added, each contributing over 10 million records, are  from the United States and Spain:
United States, Tennessee, Legal, 1896;
Spain, Valencian Community, Legal, from 1588 to 1599 ;
United States, New York, Legal, 1985 ;
Spain, Andalusia, Legal, from 1782 to 1860, and
United States, Wisconsin, Legal, from 1921 to 1978.