Do you use Wikipedia? Do you recall when it was sneered at?
After 25 years, an anniversary which was little noted, Dan Gardner rates it a rare success story in an otherwise disappointing internet landscape and a monument to what free people can do with nothing but their own intelligence and energy.
He also has suggestions on how it, and Wikimedia, could be improved.
On Saturday morning, I attended an exceptionally clear presentation by Kathryn Lake Hogan for the OGS Kingston Branch on the KKK in Canada (Ontario).
Her website, Looking4Ancestors, mentions a four-week winter workshop for genealogists who want “clearer answers, stronger evidence, and a research process that actually works”. Four two-hour weekly sessions start on 5 February. It’s very reasonably priced. Check it out at https://www.looking4ancestors.com/2026/01/smarter-genealogy-strategies-that-go.html
At the end of her presentation, Kathryn was reluctant to estimate the fraction of Ontarians who were members of, or supported the KKK. She did mention one estimate of 5,000 to 10,000 KKK members in Ontario in the 1920s.
Using back-of-the-envelope arithmetic, Ontario had a population of roughly 3 million, half male, 70% of British origin, and 70% Protestant. That’s about 750,000.
The reality is that perhaps one percent of male, British Protestant Ontarians were KKK members. Undoubtedly, a larger percentage would be sympathetic to the KKK, or some of the KKK’s beliefs. By focusing on the minority, let’s take care not to stigmatize the majority.
Miscellaneous items I found interesting this week.
Canada and the Great Irish Famine
This book by William Jenkins, published in paperback last October, has been approved for addition to the Ottawa Public Library collection.
2025 continues series of world’s three warmest years
What in Irish history “was surely a major tribute to the longevity of our race, and the healthy character of our much-abused weather”? Find out on Valentine’s Day.
New variant of the flu virus is driving surge of cases across the US and Canada
Flu activity in Canada has started to trend downward as of 9 January, following a sharp spike in mid-December.
During the peak period in late December, over 26% of all flu tests performed across the country came back positive.
In Canada, the surge was driven by a highly infectious new H3N2 subtype called subclade K. This variant is noted for causing high fevers and hitting children particularly hard compared to previous years.
Keep up to date with the Canadian respiratory virus surveillance report.
Constable’s “The Cornfield”: A Bicentenary Harvesting
From Gresham College, by Malcolm Andrews, reflections on a painting that has acquired iconic status – a marker of national identity — as a representation of typically English countryside. At 1 pm on Tuesday.
Thanks to the following individuals for their comments and tips: Anonymous, Dianne Brydon, Gail, Sylvia Smith, Teresa,
The Findmypast focus this week is on English Roman Catholic records. The collection covers dioceses including Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, Middlesbrough, Northampton, Nottingham, Plymouth, Salford, Southwark, and Westminster.
Congregational Records (5,480 additions): These include unique documents like anniversary books, lists of benefactors, parish diaries, and confirmation lists. The Archdiocese of Birmingham is particularly well-represented here.
Baptisms (14,330 additions): These records typically provide the baptism date, parents’ names, and godparents. Look out for Latinized names (e.g., Margarita for Margaret) and terms like Patrinus (godfather) or Matrina (godmother).
Marriages (7,471 additions): Transcripts often include the fathers’ names for both the bride and groom. You may also find notes on consanguinati (blood relations) where special dispensations were required.
Burials (2,138 additions): Discover burial dates and locations, often recorded in Latin (e.g., Sepultum est in).
The newspaper collection saw 15 new titles and several updates, totalling over 204,000 pages. New titles of interest for those with East Yorkshire roots include:
Hull Times (1857–1984) – a long run with 71,610 pages
Hull & Yorkshire Times (1974–1984)
Hull Star (1980–1989)
Journal (Hull) (1989–2000)
Beverley Weekly Journal (1988–1989)
Additional updates were made to the Crewe Chronicle, Coleshill Chronicle, Hertford Mercury and Reformer, and the Lincolnshire Echo.
On 15 January, Canadiana augmented its newspaper collection for London (ON) with the following issues between 1932 and 1935
For the London Evening Advertiser, there are separate files for: July 15, 1932 – December 30, 1933; January 2, 1934 – December 31, 1934; and January 2, 1935 – December 31, 1935.
The paper commenced in 1863 and ceased publication in 1936. Canadiana has 3,984 digitized issues starting in 1922.
Files for the London Morning Advertiser are for: August 1, 1932 – December 25, 1933; January 1, 1934 – October 8, 1935; and January 1, 1935 – October 24, 1935.
Coverage starts in 1923; there are only 116 scattered issues
If you had ancestors living in Appin, Arva, Clandeboye, Delaware, Dorchester, Glanworth, Ilderton, Lambeth, Nilestown, Thorndale or Wardsville, they may well have read these papers.
With the new year comes the opportunity to access records coming out of embargo.
TheGenealogist just added 185,396 newly opened records to their 1939 Register for England and Wales collection. Most are for people born in 1924 and 1925. Would you like to try it for free? Until 31 January, TheGenealogist is offering a 30-day free trial at https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/MGB39126/.
I couldn’t locate the Register at FamilySearch. Ancestry has 45,915,091 records, Findmypast has 36,526,334, and MyHeritage has 35,145,138 records. TheGenealogist doesn’t specify. Why the differences? Could Ancestry be including alternate spellings or married names?
Hearth taxes were introduced in the British Isles in time for the cold period of the Little Ice Age. They came with the Restoration of the Stuart monarchy. In England and Wales, they were levied from 1662 to 1689 at one shilling per hearth and collected twice yearly. It was also collected in Scotland between 1691 and 1695, and continued in Ireland into the early nineteenth century.
Hearth tax records name the head of household and the number of hearths. Many returns also list those exempt from payment, often the poor. Hearth tax records function as a quasi-census for the later seventeenth century.
Hearth Tax Digital, currently containing 370,407 entries, allows users to explore information on individual names and communities, including whether householders were men or women, their titles (such as Mr, Mrs, or widow), and, in some cases, their social roles, including medical and military occupations.
The records are published unabridged, following the layout of the original manuscripts, and are fully dated. Latin text is transcribed and translated into English, with abbreviations clearly indicated.
Find a list of the coverage at https://gams.uni-graz.at/archive/objects/context:htx/methods/sdef:Context/get?mode=records. Recent and forthcoming additions include London(City, Southwark, and Westminster), Bristol, Norwich, Yorkshire (all three ridings, plus Hull and York), and East Anglia (Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex). Improved search tools and an interactive map support both targeted research and broader exploration.
If you have impoverished Victoria ancestors, don’t miss these two articles.
Dave Annal, in his article Poverty, Illegitimacy and Lies, about Stoke-on-Trent, quotes from “Mrs Gaskell’s groundbreaking novel Mary Barton, available at the Internet Archive.
You went down one step even from the foul area into the cellar in which a family of human beings lived. It was very dark inside. The window-panes many of them were broken and stuffed with rags, which was reason enough for the dusky light that pervaded the place even at mid-day. After the account I have given of the state of the street, no one can be surprised that on going into the cellar inhabited by Davenport, the smell was so feetid as almost to knock the two men down. Quickly recovering themselves, as those inured to such things do, they began to penetrate the thick darkness of the place, and to see three or four little children rolling on the damp, nay wet brick floor, through which the stagnant, filthy moisture of the street oozed up; the fireplace was empty and black; the wife sat on her husband’s lair, and cried in the dark loneliness.
Patricia Sears’s article, “Queen Catherine Court, Ratcliff: an East London Slum,” is a deep dive into the appalling conditions in which its residents lived. Catherine Court, with five privies for sixteen houses, had a majority population of Irish origin. The clean lines of a couple of Ordnance Survey maps contrast with artists’ impressions.
Not as grim a read is Richard Tolson’s article Works of Historical Literature: Medieval Records for the Genealogist and Local Historian. It includes a timeline of interest in the unlikely event your known ancestry extends back into the period from the Battle of Stamford Bridge (1066) to the end of the War of the Roses (1346).
Always worth reading, in Revisiting Research, Chris Paton reflects on his “spectacular errors” to remind us that family history research is never truly finished. He describes a common beginner’s trap: making assumptions or following “gut feelings” rather than hard facts. He shares personal examples of how he once attached the wrong parents to an ancestor for years and missed a murder investigation because he didn’t understand a specific archival notation. He advocates applying the Genealogical Proof Standard and argues that revisiting old research is a fundamental part of the process, not a sign of failure.
I’d have to add that making errors is fundamental, it’s how we learn.
Tuesday 13 January
2 pm: Using MyHeritage in Your Genealogical DNA Testing Plan, by Paula Williams for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/using-myheritage-in-your-genealogical-dna-testing-plan/
2:30 pm: Researching Your Enslaver Ancestors, by Martha Runnette for Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center.
https://acpl.libnet.info/event/15357802
Wednesday 14 January
2 pm: Where They Once Stood: Finding Your Immigrant Ancestor’s Place of Origin, by Elizabeth Williams Gomoll for BCG and Legacy Family Tree Webinars
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/where-they-once-stood-finding-your-immigrant-ancestors-place-of-origin/
7 pm: Barbara Ann Scott: Queen of the Ice, by Ryan Stevens, for the Historican Society of Ottawa.
https://tinyurl.com/HSO-14-Jan-2026
8 pm: Foundations in AI for Family History 1 of 5: What Is AI and Why It Matters to Genealogists, by Andrew Redfern and Fiona Brooker.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/foundations-in-ai-for-family-history-1-of-5-what-is-ai-and-why-it-matters-to-genealogists/
Thursday 15 January
6:30 pm: Food of My Forefathers: Applied Genealogy: The Cultural
Context of Traditional & Ethnic Foods, by Margaret (Peg) Kapustiak for Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center.
https://acpl.libnet.info/event/15260199
Friday 16 January
2 pm: Using Marriage Dispensations to Find Ancestors in Mexico, by Nefi Arenas Salazar for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/using-marriage-dispensations-to-find-ancestors-in-mexico/
7 pm: Rebuilding and Growing: Robert Nelles and Post-War of 1812 Society | , by Ken Coker for OGS Niagara Peninsula Branch.
https://niagara.ogs.on.ca/events/rebuilding-and-growing-robert-nelles-and-post-war-of-1812-society-niagara-peninsula-webinar-series/
Saturday 17 January
10 am: Hate in the North: Exploring Ku Klux Klan’s Impact on Canadian Communities, by Kathryn Lake Hogan for OGS Kingston Branch.
https://kingston.ogs.on.ca/events/kingston-branch-ogs-meeting-17-january-2026-kathryn-lake-hogan-on-hate-in-the-north-exploring-ku-klux-klans-impact-on-canadian-communities/
11 am: Guardians of England’s Poor, from Parish to Workhouse, by Angela Snedaker for The British Interest Group of Wisconsin & Illinois (BIGWILL).
https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/rsKDz5xfTQSTtzkDdpiV7w
1 pm: Intermediate DNA: Strategies for working with your matches, by Arun Konanu for OGS Quinte Branch.
https://quinte.ogs.on.ca/events/intermediate-dna-strategies-for-working-with-your-matches/
1 pm: A Celebration for the Ontario Land Records Index (OLRI), by Ken McKinlay, Chuck Buckley, Glenn Wright, Linda Corupe, and Jane MacNamara.
https://torontofamilyhistory.org/event/olri-celebration/?instance_id=1643
On 9 October 2025, LAC announced:
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.
Apparently, “Due Course” has not yet arrived. In prior years, the call for proposals had already been issued.
Few would be surprised if LAC decided that cutting the program would be a relatively painless way to save $1.5 million, plus the associated administrative costs, at a time when the organization’s total budget is being severely pruned.
Will LAC provide an update soon? Or does due course mean indefinitely?
Deceased Online has updated its website with new features and 75,000 new digital burial records for the London Borough of Havering. Spanning 1871 to 2021, this collection dates back to the borough’s Essex past.
The update includes records from four major sites:
• Romford Cemetery (Opened 1871): A 25-acre Victorian site with records dating from 1871–2021. There are 118 CWGC burials
• Rainham Cemetery (Opened 1902): Known for its historic chapel and records spanning 1902–2021. The CWGC shows 13 burials.
• Upminster Cemetery (Opened 1902): This site holds records from 1902–2021. 6 CWGC burials.
• Hornchurch Cemetery (Opened 1932): Containing records from 1932–2021, it is home to a dedicated War Graves Memorial for WWII, 105 CWGC burials.
Researchers can search for free using a last name, though records from mid-late 1994 are computerized data only
Miscellaneous items I found interesting this week.
Unlocking Family History with ChatGPT: AI Tools for Genealogy Research
Read to discover the prompt and the resources ChatGPT suggested for researching life in the early 1890s near the docks in London.
Charlotte Gray on Canada’s National Archives and Popular History
Yuletide R&R Wrapup
Over the holiday period, the blog carried a mix of Yuletide R&R and abbreviated family history posts. R&R posts averaged approximately 503 views per post, compared to only 115 views for the remainder. One R&R post reached over 1,000 views, the lowest of the more genealogy-oriented ones — just three.
LAC – What happened?
In case you missed it, here’s a response about the LAC collaborative project with Internet Archive Canada to digitize 80,000 public domain publications, dating from 1322 to 1920.
“There is a team diligently working away on digitizing books from the LAC collection, part of a three-year project. The decision was made to reach a critical mass before public access. We are just in the process of cleaning up some metadata before announcing and making available the digitized books – within the next month.”
Thanks to the following individuals for their comments and tips: Anonymous, Cheryl Bowman, Christine Jackson, Dianne Brydon, Gail, Loren Fantin, Helen Billing, Teresa, Unknown.
Dianne Brydon
