Bexley, Bromley, Greenwich, Lambeth, Lewisham, and Southwark.

If one or more of those London Boroughs appears in your family history, browse to  https://ideal-homes.gre.ac.uk/boroughs.html. For each, find histories, galleries, historic maps, case studies and individuals’ contributions for communities within the borough.

BIFHSGO has an extensive list of London Resources found under its  Links to Online Resources page.

“GAIA (Genealogy AI Agent) plans and conducts research, searches billions of historical records on MyHeritage and external online sources, and presents evidence-backed findings to help users achieve breakthroughs in their research.” Check out the extended MyHeritage blog post Introducing GAIA, MyHeritage’s Groundbreaking Genealogy AI Agent.

I received advanced access and tested it against a couple of my longest-standing genealogy challenges. It made no progress and kept on asking if I had additional information. I then tried researching David Arthur Clarke, the convict mentioned in yesterday’s Weird Times blog post. Using the information disclosed in the ATiP file it identified additional sources, including an LAC file that blocked MyHeritage from accessing it directly.

You need patience to work with GAIA. It will suggest sources and offer to look them up where it can. That stops it wandering off on the wrong track — you keep control.

If you have a MyHeritage account GAIA is worth a try. Just manage your expectations.

 

• Collection Search outage: LAC’s homepage says technical issues are “currently blocking access to Collection search and other resources for some users,” and that it is working to resolve them.
• Nothing About Us Without Us
  Genealogists are LAC’s number one client group. If they were consulted, what would their priorities be for records from LAC?
  Here’s my ranked list and why I think genealogists would prioritize them.
  1.  1940 National Registration
  Potentially excellent for identifying an individual, confirming date and place of birth, address, occupation, immigration year and country of birth of parents. This was previously available from Statistics Canada before being secreted away by LAC.
  2 Post-1935 incoming passenger lists
  Important for documenting immigration after the cutoff of Canada’s principal passenger-list collection. Can establish arrival date, ship, companions and destination. Prohibitions of the Privacy Act allow release 20 years after death. That could be taken directly from various sources, such as the Canada Pension Plan and provincial records. Redaction could be made if other information on the same image shows, as is being done for the 1939 National Registration of England and Wales.
  3 WW2 service files
  Valuable for military service, next of kin, residence, occupation, and sometimes photographs, correspondence and burial details. Information from Veterans Affairs, the Canada Pension Plan or provincial sources could allow automatic and  prompt release 20 years after death.

  Other suggestions or ideas for reordered priorities welcome.

• Murder? Completed Access to information requests
  Have you tried browsing the ATiP list of previously requested packages?  There are curiosities. Request number: A-2019-03090 , documents the imprisonment of David Arthur Clarke released from a 10-year term on 2 March 1931. It was his third prison term. His crime was forgery, although he was strongly suspected to have murdered his farmer employer family. Read the story in Disappearance of the Halden Family in Quesnel.
• What’s in Collection Search?
  As of 3 November, there are 7,956,930 items (7,956,456 on 27 October) in the Archives section of Collection Search, 8,227,688 (no change) in the Genealogy section, 4,448,035 (4,446,807 ) in Library, and  436,756 (no change) in Images last week.

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 and the time which may be affected by switches from daylight saving time. For many more events, mainly in the U.S., visit https://conferencekeeper.org/virtual/.

Tuesday, 3 November

1:00 PM: What History is NOT, by Sathnam Sanghera for Gresham College.
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/whats-on/history-not

2:30 PM: Tracing Crime Through Time: Genealogy Methods for True Crime Research, by Allen County Public Library (ACPL) Genealogy Center.https://acpl.libnet.info/event/17652892

7:30 PM: Second World War: Researching the Canadians Who Served, by Ken McKinlay for Ontario Ancestors (Durham Region Branch).https://durham.ogs.on.ca/

Wednesday, 4 November

11:30 AM: Uncovering Daniel Arnold’s Parents Through Autosomal DNA, Probate Clues, and Geographic Proximity, by Nicole Elder Dyer for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/upcoming-webinars

12:45 PM: How did you find that?! Discovering the stories in your family research (a case study), by Sharon Hoyt for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/upcoming-webinars

2:00 PM: Pity the Poor Pfuhl: Proving an Immigrant Identity, by Warren Bittner for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/upcoming-webinars

3:30 PM: Advanced Genealogical Problem Solving: A Case Study, by Michael D. Lacopo for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/upcoming-webinars

7:30 PM: Beyond the Census: Bringing Your Farming Ancestors to Life, by Deb McAuslan for Ontario Ancestors (Huron Branch).
https://huron.ogs.on.ca/

Thursday 5 November
7:00 PM: Chelsea Pensioners in Upper Canada, by Linda Corupe for OGS.
https://ogs.on.ca/events/november-webinar-chelsea-pensioners-in-upper-canada-linda-corupe-2/

Friday, 6 November
2:00 PM: Navigating the New England Region: Strategies and Resources for ICAPGen Accreditation, by Bonnie Wade Mucia for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/upcoming-webinars

Saturday, 7 November

11:00 AM: The Filles du Roi Informational and Statistical Project” and “The Acadian Expulsion Memorial List Project” presented by Nicole Gallant-Nunes for the American-Canadian Genealogical Society.
https://acgs.org/free-webinar-with-genealogist-nicole-gallant-nunes/

 

Go to www.findmypast.com using incognito mode.  If interested, give it a try. Please post a comment on your experience.

 

 

FamilySearch added 196 collection titles to “Records” in October..

The top 5 Countries by Number of Titles

United States: 24 titles
Guatemala: 24 titles
France: 15 titles
Brazil: 12 titles
Germany: 11 titles

The top 5 Countries by Net-New Number of Records

United States: ~131,000,000 net-new records (driven by massive federal census batches, U.S. residence histories, public records, and military draft/enlistment registers)

United Kingdom: ~5,000,000 net-new records (headlined by the major rollout of free name-indexed entries from the 1921 Census of England and Wales, plus wills and regional parish/electoral updates)

Brazil: ~1,000,000 net-new records (spanning civil registration and Catholic church records across multiple regions)

Philippines: ~2,100,000 net-new records (consisting of expanded civil registration and church records)

France: ~600,000 net-new records (comprising regional parish, civil registration, and historical census entries)

FamilySearch added 7 titles to its “Full Text” collection, the largest share being U.S. residence histories (spanning 1793 to 1964) with over 3.64 million records, alongside a massive nationwide biographical collection spanning centuries (2.25 million records) and a specialized local focus on Utah biographies (2.2 million records). Smaller targeted residence and directory collections were added for Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, and Panama.

 

Miscellaneous items I found interesting this week.

National Folklore Collection UCD Digitization Project
Try searching this site for a place in your Irish family history. There are currently 786,170 manuscript pages, 14,076 photographs and 329 hours of audio in this collection that might add colour to your family story.  I looked for Kilkeel and found an item about the Big Wind of 6 January 1839, maybe it blew my Great-Grandfather across to Liverpool!

Transforming the British Library
Here’s food for thought for genealogy societies experiencing a decline in membership numbers.
“Interim Chief Executive Jeremy Silver outlines our plans to modernise our spaces, improve access, and keep our world-class collections free for everyone.” “Institutions that endure are rarely those that refuse to change. More often, they are those that understand which parts of their heritage are sacred, and which must evolve.”

Find a Grave Index Updates
On 27 October Ancestry updated their Find A Grave Index collections for a range of locations, including Canada, and the UK & Ireland.

Nancy Rimmer RIP
Spouse of long-serving BIFHSGO treasurer Tom Rimmer, Nancy (Agnes), nee Blair, a native of Dunfirmline, Scotland, passed away last August at age 94.

FamilySearch Updates Canada, Prairie Provinces, Census, 1926
Census returns for Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta; now with 48,436 Images and 2,114,538 persons.

Addition to Internet Archive Canada LAC Collection
On 23 October the book “Recollections of Russia during thirty-three years’ residence“” was added to the IAC LAC collection. That was the sixth addition this year. ONLY THE SIXTH. Thousands have been promised.

Thanks to the following individuals for their comments and tips: Ann Burns, Anonymous,  Gail, Glenn Wright, Helen Billing, Nancy Cutway, Teresa, Unknown.

Dorset Early Census Returns, 1724-1821

Dorset ancestors can be hard to find before the national census began in 1801, and this collection helps fill the gap. It includes the returns compiled by the Rev Dawnay in 1724, 1725 and 1769, drawn from M.B. Weinstock’s research in Old Dorset. Dawnay listed 156 houses with 605 inhabitants, recorded by sex and marital status. The collection also draws on Overseers of the Poor accounts, which record rent, allowances and help given in times of sickness, including one smallpox outbreak. Provided courtesy of Dorset FHS.

International War Memorial Photographs

This new collection brings together photographs of war memorials from well over a hundred countries and territories, from imposing national monuments to modest village plaques. The images are searchable by country and conflict, with coverage ranging from the English Civil War and Napoleonic Wars to both World Wars and more recent conflicts. For family and local historians, they offer a way to see where ancestors were remembered, including memorials in places you may never be able to visit.
There are 381 entries for Canada, 17 of them for Ottawa.

Newspapers

This week’s update adds 274,462 pages across four new titles and updates to 32 existing publications.

New Titles

Title	Date Range	Pages
The Two Worlds: A Journal Dedicated to Spiritualism, Occult Science &c.	1887-1891	3,008
Largs & Millport Weekly News	1877-1890	1,828
Conjuror’s Magazine	1791-1793	892
Theatrical and Musical Guide	1884-1886	572

Updated Titles with Over 10,000 Pages Added

Title	Date Range	Pages
Bristol Evening Post	2001-2004	91,724
Nottingham Evening Post	2000	28,774
South Wales Echo	2005	22,408
St Neots Town Crier	2000-2004	19,310
Times of Ceylon	1917-1940	18,952
Ceylon Observer	1864-1891	13,854
Wokingham Times	2000-2004	11,732
Capital (Calcutta)	1919-1928	11,442
Runcorn Weekly News	2004-2005	10,866

Ancestry’s title Web: Ireland, Census, 1901 now has 4,441,893 records. This update fixes broken links and adds 11480 records. Original data is from Census of Ireland 1901/1911 at The National Archives of Ireland. http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/search/

Ancestry’s UK, Wartime Records and Material, 1914-1918, 1939-1945 now has 30,182 records. It contains military and wartime images from The Imperial War Museums, the majority are photographs, but also includes illustrations, letters, newspapers, and other miscellaneous printed materials, such as military papers, leaflets, and posters.

BIFHSGO’s 2026 conference did something smart: three of its seven speakers were university professors. Professors teach for a living, so they tend to be both knowledgeable and comfortable in front of an audience.

How do you find them? Start with a university history department’s list of courses. Western University’s course offerings are a good example. Many of the courses are about topics family historians care about:

• “Anarchy in the UK”: Postwar Britain Through Popular Music
• Victorian Murder and the Justice System
• Police Work and Forensics in Victorian Britain
• Crime and Society in England, 1800–1900
• The Victorian Worldview: Nineteenth-Century Britain

Each title hints at a possible talk. If your ancestor appeared in a Victorian court record, a talk on the justice system would help you understand what you found.

Each course has a description of how students may, and may not, use AI. There’s a considerable difference. Another course faces AI head-on. Digital Research Methods with Artificial Intelligence, covers using large language models and other computational techniques “to find and evaluate digital sources and use them for research purposes”. How timely.

Do you need speaker inspiration? Browse a nearby university’s course list and note any titles that match your society’s interests. Then send the professor a friendly email.

New to MyHeritage on 26 October 2026, New York City Departing Passenger and Crew Lists, 1948-1956 has 5,551,717 records for ship and aircraft departures.
15,794 show birthplace as Canada, 46,042 as England, 17,681 as Scotland. 2,690 as Wales, and 38,152 as Ireland.
Unexpectedly, I found two departures for a relative who, temporarily, lived in Toronto.