Anglo-Celtic Connections

These four newly published “genealogy” additions (or soon-to-be additions) to The Ottawa Public Library’s collection demonstrate the field’s expanding scope beyond traditional record-hunting.

One in Six Million: The Baby by the Roadside and the Man Who Retraced a Holocaust Survivor’s Lost Identity by Amy Fish.
Maria, found wrapped in a blanket at the side of a road near Krosno, Poland, in 1942, thought her family ties were lost forever. The book shows how the late Montreal genealogist Stanley Diamond and an intrepid band of international volunteers compared photographs with genealogical records and smuggled DNA tests to provide her an identity.
Storytelling for Genealogists: Turning Family Lineage Into Family History by Doug Tattershall (currently on order).
In fewer than one hundred pages, it shows how to start and stay on track in transforming the skeletal outline of a genealogy into an engaging family story.”
Ancestors: Identity and DNA in the Levant by Pierre Zalloua
Explores how DNA analysis reveals migration patterns and ancestral connections across the Middle Eastern region. It traces human history in the region from 100,000 years ago to the present day, questioning the correlation between genetic heritage, ethnicity and nationalism.
The Fort McKay Métis Nation: A Community History by Peter Fortna
Exemplifies community-based genealogical work, documenting the history of this Indigenous community in Alberta.

Until 2 September, over 892 million U.S. and Canadian census records on MyHeritage are free to search. The Canadian datasets include censuses from 1861-1931 (ranging from 2.7M to 10.4M records), regional prairie province censuses from 1906-1926, and early Lower Canada censuses from 1825-1842.

Tuesday saw a couple of photo presentations come my way.

First came a YouTube video AI Photo Magic That Made My Mom Cry, the latest in a series Ancestors and Algorithms: AI for Genealogy & Family History. The accompanying blurb is ‘When I enhanced a damaged 1920s photo of my great-great-grandmother using AI, my mom started crying. “It’s like meeting her for the first time,” she said. “I can see she has the same nose as me.”‘

The explanation was clear, starting with MyHeritage facilities. Although on YouTube it’s actually a podcast with just one title slide — a strange choice for a photo-oriented presentation.

In the afternoon, Legacy Family Tree Webinars featured Rick Crume with an explainer video on “5 Easy-to-Use Tools to Repair, Enhance, and Animate Your Old Photos on MyHeritage.”

Both presentations were careful to emphasize that the products should not be portrayed as the original. AI does not have any more profound insights into reality than are embedded in the image it’s fed. The modifications/ enhancements may or may not bring you closer to the truth, although they will likely appear more pleasing.

Ken McKinlay doesn’t post often to his Family Tree Knots blog. When he does, it’s always worth a look. This time, it’s News about Canada’s National Registration File of 1940.

A collection of about 1532 unique films has been transferred from Statistics Canada to the care of LAC, but is fragile 16 mm cellulose acetate film in poor condition. They will need to be kept in cold storage and digitized for public access. Will a third party be involved in the digitization?

LAC’s post Preserving the National Registration File mentions “We will be updating this page with new information as it becomes available, so please check back regularly.” Expect a lengthy wait. While that’s frustrating, we can appreciate that careful handling is needed to ensure the collection’s long-term survival and eventual accessibility for many future generations.

Wouldn’t it be welcome if LAC recognized the significance of this collection for genealogists, still the largest single client category, gave it priority and posted updates on the home page, rather than burying it under the sequence Canada.ca > Library and Archives Canada Collections access and research help > Research guides and tools > Military history > Second World War.

When we do get access, what will the registration form look like? Here’s a blog post with a sample.

The most detailed map in the David Rumsey Map Collection is “London Sheet II.100”, created by the Ordnance Survey Office in 1895 as part of the “London, Five feet to the Mile” series. It’s for the area near Hampstead Heath.

I found it by querying the Rumsey AI Search Assistant for “what is the most detailed map in the collection.” You can ask any question. Is there a map with your name?

The National Library of Scotland has a good collection of the “London, Five feet to the Mile” series.

The meetup will go ahead.

Forecasts for noon to 2 pm:

Environment Canada:  – Chance of showers (40%). Risk of thunderstorms.

The Weather Network: Partly Cloudy, 15%

AccuWeather:  Mostly Sunny, 47%.

A line of showers passed through this morning. As of 9:30 am, the weather radar shows no organized system approaching. Pop-up showers are always possible in an unstable aimass.

Be your own judge of the weather. I’ll be going to the Westboro Beach Cafe for noon, with a visitor.

Parking for Westboro Beach is on the south side of the Parkway on Kirchoffer Ave and adjacent streets.

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

Electricity Prices
A  recent Hydro-Québec report (April 1, 2024) compares electricity prices in major North American cities, Montréal, Winnipeg, Vancouver, and Ottawa were identified as the lowest cost Canadian cities for residential customers; Montréal was by far the lowest. Edmonton, Calgary, Halifax, and Charlottetown were among the highest.

Swimming with the Tide

US 19th Century Military Forts and Voluntary Observers Weather Database

Battling deepfakes: How AI threatens democracy and what we can do about it

Why wind farms attract so much misinformation and conspiracy theory.

Thanks to the following for comments and tips: Ann Burns, Anonymous, Brenda Turner, Bryan Cook, Christine Jackson, Gail, Kim Barnsdale, Teresa, and Unknown.

Norfolk, Churchyard Graves and Memorials
Added are 9,263 records covering the 1700s to 1900s. The information is from headstone photographs, so it depends on the original inscription and what remains legible. FMP’s catalogue shows three Norfolk titles for monumental inscriptions:
Norfolk, Churchyard Graves and Memorial Transcriptions with 327,650 records;
Norfolk, Churchyard Graves and Memorials Image Browse with 226,774 records;
Norfolk Monumental Inscriptions 1600-1900’s Image Browse with 14,120 records.

Southwark, Marshalsea Prison
Just 18 records added, for the years 1761 and 1813 as FMP goes further into its partnership with Southwark Archives. Marshalsea Prison is known as the setting for Charles Dickens’ novel ‘Little Dorrit. His own father was incarcerated in this notorious, 500-year-old prison, home to debtors, pirates, smugglers and others who fell afoul of the law.

Newspapers
This week’s largest addition is the Wetherby News, with over 38,000 pages, followed by Scotland on Sunday with almost 24,000 pages. Note the addition of three Irish papers: Londonderry Standard, Leinster Leader, Armagh Guardian. Le Follet is a French fashion magazine, but with pages in English. Here are the papers with more than 10,000 new pages.

The forecast for Sunday in Ottawa hasn’t changed.

Sun, 24 Aug: Cloudy with 60 percent chance of showers. High 25.

UPDATE as of Satutday morning

Cloudy with 40 percent chance of showers. Risk of a thunderstorm in the afternoon. Wind becoming southwest 20 km/h in the morning. High 25. Humidex 31. UV index 5 or moderate.

Although my preference for a meetup remains Westboro Beach Cafe, I recognize that having an alternative in mind would be wise.  The Mill Street Brew Pub was suggested, where I’m told a reservation isn’t essential.

Let’s leave both as options. I’ll post a decision between 9 and 10 on Sunday morning after looking at the weather radar, and hope you can be adaptable.

In-person conferences have traditionally been popular among attendees, particularly for the networking and social connections they foster. However, the landscape has shifted significantly since the COVID-19 pandemic, with many events either disappearing or moving online. In Ottawa, for instance, Gene-o-Rama is no longer operating, and the BIFHSGO conference has transitioned to a virtual format.

Several factors contribute to this trend:
Organizational challenges: Coordinating in-person events requires substantial time, effort, and human resources that many organizations struggle to maintain.
Speaker expenses: The financial burden of hiring external presenters, including their fees, travel costs, and accommodation, has become increasingly prohibitive.
Rising attendance costs: Travel and lodging expenses for out-of-town participants continue to escalate, potentially limiting participation.

Additionally, for conferences hosted in the United States, there’s a hesitancy to travel from Canada owing to a lack of respect.

These combined pressures make traditional conference formats increasingly challenging to sustain.

I’m pleased to give a shout-out to one forthcoming in-person event.

The Moose Jaw and Regina Branches of the Saskatchewan Genealogical Society are hosting a one-day, in-person conference at the Atlas Hotel, 4177 Albert Street in Regina on Saturday, 27 September 2025.

Presenters include Gordon McBean (Artificial Intelligence), Dave Obee (DNA – “Squiggly Lines and Spit”), Thomas MacEntee (“Genealogy Do Over”) and Tammy Vallee (“Uncovering Identity – The Role of Genealogy in Indigenous Ancestry”.

Registration forms are available on the SGS website at https://saskgenealogy.com – just click on the 2025 Conference button on the home page.

Early bird registration deadline has been extended to  29 August 2025. The regular registration deadline is 15 September 2025.

As Moose Jaw and Regina are about an 80-minute drive apart, I suspect many attendees will make it without needing the expense of overnight accommodation, perhaps even with carpooling to reduce costs further.

Anonymous posted a comment to my blog post “Recent FamilySearch Updates

” Is it not me? Or does Canada not have any full-text search collections?”

FamilySearch does indeed have Canadian titles in its full-text search. The first arrived on 8 August 2024; there are now 129 Canadian collection titles. The latest were added on 2 July 2025.

Here’s a breakdown of records by province/jurisdiction. You will notice that the titles are often misleading about the actual content. “Canada, Alberta, Military Service, from 1814 to 1832” shows a date range way before the province was established!  That’s not a major issue if you find a record through a search of the complete collection.

• Quebec: The combined collections for Quebec, Canada East, Lower Canada, and New France have a total of 13,959,625 records. The largest single collection is “Canada, Quebec, Legal, from 17 February 1920 to 10 November 1920” with over 13.5 million records.
• All Canada: The collections that are jurisdiction-wide across Canada (e.g., “Canada, Probate Records,” “Canada, Homestead Records”) contain a total of 22,236,762 records. “Canada, Probate Records, 1600-2020” and “Canada, Homestead Records, 1600-2011” are the two largest collections in this category with 14,226,803 and 8,313,535 records respectively.
• Ontario: The collections for Ontario and Upper Canada total 2,756,151 records. “Canada, Ontario, Properties, from 1800 to 1955” is the largest collection in this group with 1,891,971 records, followed by “Canada, Ontario, Legal, 1851” with 552,404 records.
• New Brunswick: The New Brunswick collections have 1,500,432 records. The “Canada, New Brunswick, Properties, 1786” collection is the largest with 1,342,450 records.
• Nova Scotia: The collections for Nova Scotia have a total of 1,300,750 records. “Canada, Nova Scotia, Properties, from 3 March 1983 to 4 March 1983” holds the majority of these with 965,858 records.
• Saskatchewan: The Saskatchewan collections total 3,955,607 records, with the “Canada, Saskatchewan, Legal, 2006” collection containing the vast majority at 3,829,143 records.
• British Columbia: British Columbia collections have 197,363 records. The largest is “Canada, British Columbia, Legal, from 1300 to 1987” with 119,321 records.
• Alberta: The Alberta collections have 33,306 records, with the largest being “Canada, Alberta, Military Service, from 1814 to 1832” at 16,128 records.
• Newfoundland and Labrador: Collections for Newfoundland and Labrador have a total of 499,313 records. “Canada, Newfoundland, Military Service, from 1913 to 1919” is the largest at 470,453 records.
• Manitoba: The collections for Manitoba total 36,135 records. The largest is “Canada, Manitoba, Military Service, from 1940 to 1947” with 10,925 records.
• Prince Edward Island: Prince Edward Island’s collections total 40,329 records. “Canada, Prince Edward Island, Legal, from 1786 to 1930” is the largest with 15,040 records.
• Northwest Territories: The Northwest Territories collections have 884 records, with the largest being “Canada, Northwest Territories, Properties, from 1799 to 1870” at 820 records.
• Yukon: The single Yukon collection, “Canada, Yukon, Migrations, from 1924 to 1956,” contains 7,106 records.