Anglo-Celtic Connections

This release includes regimental histories, Home Guard records added to the more than 50 browsable books – Military Records | Regimental Records & Histories – collection.

History of the Dorsetshire Regiment, 1914–1919 (741 pages)
London Gunners, 1914–1918 (280 pages)
The Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry, 1914–1919 (515 pages)
The East Yorkshire Regiment in the Great War, 1914–1918 (533 pages)
The History of the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry in the Great War, 1914–1918 (471 pages)
The Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment, 1920–1950 (551 pages)
The Story of A Sector Warwickshire Home Guard, 1940–1944 (141 pages)

Also added is Sir John French’s Despatches: The Graphic Special, Nos. 1 and 2, for the early part of the Great War.

Many of these can be found on the Internet Archive and similar free online archives.

The Canadian Register of Historic Places is a pan-Canadian, publicly searchable database of over 13,500 historic sites recognized by federal, provincial, territorial, and municipal authorities. The federal government has stepped back from operating it, and it now faces imminent decommissioning,

E-petition e-7594, sponsored by MP Yasir Naqvi, calls on Ottawa to transfer stewardship of the Register to the National Trust for Canada and provide a one-time endowment to stabilize and modernize it. 1695 signatures are registered. If you’d like to help keep it alive, the petition is open for signature until August 26, 2026.

Miscellaneous items I found interesting this week.

StatsCan Labour Force Survey, July 2026
Encouraging – Canada’s unemployment rate declined 0.1 percentage points.  Meanwhile, the US unemployment rate rose by 0.1 percent. Both are likely within the bounds of survey error? 

Reconciliation or recolonization? What Canada can learn by looking abroad

Who were the Luddites? Their legacy ripples through politics, cultural commentary and literature

U.S., School Yearbooks, 1900-2016
Now with 937,013,729 records, this update follows that to Ancestry’s corresponding Canadian collection.

Binface


Thanks to the following individuals for their comments and tips: Anonymous, Barbara Tose, Gail, Glenn, Teresa, and Unknown.

What’s new at FMP this week?

Metropolitan Police, Aliens Registration Office

This new collection sourced from The National Archives (MEPO 35), registration records of 1,257 immigrants into Britain between 1876 and 1965. Find a transcript of the individual’s name, birth year, nationality, and archive reference—alongside images of the original archival cards for those born over 100 years ago. The images frequently include a photograph as well as background information such as full birth and UK arrival dates, residential and employment history, family status, naturalization records, Home Office references, and war service.

Scotland, Court & Criminal Database

FMP added 241,229 records from 1791 to 1937. Find varied transcripts of original documents from Scottish prisons, Crown Office Precognitions (pre-trial witness evidence), High Court Trial Papers, and the Fife Kalendar of Convicts (1708–1909). Each record can include extensive personal background, details of the crime, court proceedings, verdicts, sentences, and specific archival references.
See also yesterday’s post 745,162 Scottish Prisoners.

Newspapers

262,076 pages were added to the newspaper archive this week, with six new titles and updates to 43 existing publications.

New titles, all with 19th-century content, are:
Bournemouth Observer and Fashionable Visitors’ List, 1875, 1889
Carlow Independent and Leinster Agricultural Journal, 1879-1882
North Middlesex Weekly Standard, 1893-1901
Wimbledon Times and Mitcham Advertiser, 1886-1887
Wimbledon, Tooting and Merton Temperance Gazette, 1886-1887
Yorkshire Observer Budget, 1879,1895-1896, 1912.

Updates with more than 10,00 pages added, all but one for the 21st century, are:

For the UK there were no new newspapers. The following were updated. The earliest is 1811.

Here’s a summary covering four weekly update batches to the BNA between 13 July and 3 August 2026. Most additions fill gaps in existing runs (e.g., Dundee Courier now covers 1844–2005 essentially continuously). Some very long historical runs had small top-ups, e.g. Salisbury and Winchester Journal (1745 onward) and Oxford Journal (1753 onward).

New Titles
17 entries are New, including Bournemouth Observer, Carlow Independent, North Middlesex Weekly Standard, Wimbledon Times and Mitcham Advertiser, Shipping World and Herald of Commerce, Tyrawly Herald, Carlow Morning Post, Clonmel Advertiser, and Sheffield Times.

Major Updates
150 titles received new page additions across the four update dates (3 August, 27 July, 20 July, 13 July 2026). The largest single additions (by page count) are:

Ancestry’s latest database update is Web: Scotland, Prison Records Index, 1791-1937, updated on Thursday, 6 August.  It gives name, gender, age, birth date (year), birth place, residence place, imprisonment date, imprisonment place, prison, occupation, and url. That link is to Graham and Emma Maxwell’s Scottish Indexes Scotland’s Criminal Database  where you can order the full record.

On Tuesday, 4 August 2026, an updated title Canada, Selected School Yearbooks, 1901-2010 appeared on Ancestry with 2,776,380 entries, an increase of 404,105 since February 2022.

Detaiis provided include: name, yearbook date, school, and school location. There are links to page images with many photos. Some also give birth year and age, which appear to be AI estimates, not to be relied on.

Best coverage is Ontario records, increased to 1,737,652 from 1,650,659, followed by Quebec which now has 232,324 up from 221,006, British Columbia now has 212,859, up from 201,341

Ottawa has 132,195 records, virtually the same as in 2022.

• Co-Lab. There are 3,434 entries in the LAC Collection Search for Co-Lab only. That’s a substantial increase from 3,122 entries on 23 February 2026. Seven of 15 Co-Lab Challenge projects have seen progress since February.

• Why the delay? What hasn’t increased in the past month is the number of items added in 2026 to the Internet Archives Canada LAC collection. It’s still four. Nor have there been any additions to the Canadiana and Heritage collections sourced from LAC hosted by the Canadian Research Knowledge Network. An unknown number of files listed in Collection Search are digitized and held by LAC but not linked for online access. Some relate to WW1.
• Digitization as the key to increased user autonomy. According to its 2026–27 Departmental Plan, “In 2026–27, LAC … will aim to add 500,000 new digitized and described images to its online holdings, which users will be able to browse, search, discover, view and download on their own. This self-service access will allow users to better explore and use the collections in ways that can meet their objectives and needs.”
• The 1940 National Registration has been in LAC’s hands for a year with no news since March. There is currently no access.
• An order for publications (directories) I placed on 24 July is “Not ready for pick up” 11 days later.

On 1 August, Ancestry posted a collection of 13,785,767 records in the database Wiltshire, England, Electoral Registers, 1832-1975. There are gaps for WWI from 1916–1917 and WWII from 1940–1944.

Details included: Names, registration parish, street address, registration year, polling district, and parliamentary division.

The original records are held by the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre in Chippenham, published in partnership with Wiltshire Council.

I missed posting this last week.

England, Calder and Hebble Navigation Company
The larger of this week’s two Yorkshire canal collections, with 90,905 records covering 1796 to 1949, documents one of England’s earliest successful canal navigations. The Calder and Hebble Navigation Company was established in 1758 to improve navigation on the River Calder between Wakefield and Sowerby Bridge in West Yorkshire, with the navigation opening officially in 1770. Its staff included engineers, clerks, labourers, lock keepers and many others, and the records — drawn from The National Archives RAIL 815 series — encompass company minutes, letter books, and accounts. If your ancestors lived and worked in West Yorkshire during the Industrial Revolution, this collection is well worth exploring.

England, Huddersfield Canal Company
This collection of 10,473 records documents the workings of the Huddersfield Canal Company from its establishment in 1794 through to the 19th century. The company was founded to build a canal linking Huddersfield with Lancashire across the Pennines — a formidable engineering challenge that resulted in the highest canal stretch in Britain when completed in 1811. The records, drawn from The National Archives RAIL 838 series, include shareholders’ records, committee minutes, appointments, and records of payment, and may name anyone from company shareholders to labourers carrying out work on the canal.

Both canal collections shine a light on working life during the Industrial Revolution, and the gradual decline of the waterways as railways expanded from the 1830s onwards.

Newspapers: 261,496 New Pages
Five new titles were added and 46 existing publications updated this week. A review of BNA additions and changes in July will follow soon.

Originating from Manx National Heritage, the Manx Museum in Douglas, Isle of Man, come 949,781 BMB records new to Ancestry. There are riginal record images linked. The collection covers 36 parishes; some records were lost “due to fires, destruction, and inconsistent record keeping.”

Until 1757, any resident of any age could marry without a marriage license or a banns publication. Residents on the Isle of Man tended to marry at younger ages than elsewhere in the British Isles.

FamilySearch also has a similar collection with images.

Findmypast has a larger set of transcription records extending into the 21st century.

MyHeritage also has a transcription collection.