Anglo-Celtic Connections

Earlier this week a NewsLeaf update arrived by email from the Ontario Genealogical Society. Three things stood out to me.

1. A survey found that three-quarters of the membership would be comfortable with a fee increase to at least $70. The current basic Society membership fee has remained $63 for 15 years. Expect an increase.
2. The biggest benefit of membership, according to two-thirds of those surveyed, is access to online records and databases. There’s a long list of databases available through the Society. A close second is webinars and educational events, although the live feed is available free to all. The member benefit is the on-demand replay. Connecting with other genealogists through the Society is a priority for fewer than 20% of members. Social media fill much of that role.
3. Government cutbacks, federal and provincial, are hurting the Society, especially its digitization initiatives. Members would be well served if the Society took a more active stance, jointly with other heritage, historical and cultural societies, in advocacy?

 

To mark Yorkshire Day, TheGenealogist released more than 378,000 names  with digitised page images from original published parish register books.

A mixture of Anglican parish registers and Nonconformist records, this release includes communities from the West Riding, except Kirkleatham, which is in the North Riding.

Harrogate Christ Church & Knaresborough (1560–1812)
Leeds (1572–1612, 1695–1722, 1722–1757, 1724–1763)
Leeds Baptisms and Burials (1757–1776)
Kippax (1539–1812)
Mirfield (1559–1700)
Kirkleatham (1559–1812)
Carlton-juxta-Snaith (1598–1812)
Rothwell (1763–1812)
Bradford Society of Friends / Quaker Registers (1650–1926)
Northowram Nonconformist Registers (1644–1752).

 

This collection, new to MyHeritage on 30 July, has 622,109 records. They typically include the name of the deceased, the date and place of death, extracted from cards at the Provincial Archives of Alberta using AI technology.

Ancestry has a similar database, which starts at 1870.

AI can make mistakes, so check the corresponding record at the Provincial Archives website at https://provincialarchives.alberta.ca/how-to/find-birth-marriage-and-death-records/death-indexes /.

Did you notice? 100 years ago, on 17 July 1926, the Canadian Legion was officially incorporated. Queen Elizabeth II granted it the title of “Royal” in 1971. The Legion remains active in Ottawa with branches across the city, from Orleans, to Richmond, to Stittsville.

Ottawa commemorated the occasion with a web post including a curated selection of photographs from the City of Ottawa Archives. Do you recognize any of the men and women in the photos?

I received Issue 7 of Helen (Tad) and Terry Findlay’s Many Families series at the June BIFHSGO meeting. It’s in magazine format, you can dip in to read any article that catches your eye. That’s what I did. There are 18 family stories in this issue, leading with a Loyalist.

Daniel Erwin, Terry’s 2 times great-grandfather, is in the story “She Could See the Giant’s Causeway from Her Cottage.” Illustrated with images from their visit, the article shows how close the claim is to the truth as explained in one of eight accompanying “Researching” articles; all have good advice. Here are the first four “Researching” items in this issue.

VERIFYING JOHN JENKINS’S MILITARY SERVICE
​Seven years of military service appears unaccounted for. Could the Records of Service be wrong? Readers can decide for themselves.

IT NEVER HAPPENED THAT WAY!
​Sometimes an illustrator can embellish a drawing for “dramatic effect.” Was this the case in the illustration depicting the attack at Ogdensburg, New York on 22 February 1813? You decide.

​JUMPING TO CONCLUSIONS
​Researching after someone has died may yield more than just a date. Here the author finds numerous references – and all with the same incorrect date. With extra sleuthing, the correct date is found.

​WHAT IS YELLOW FEVER?
​The first recorded epidemic was in 1647 on the island of Barbados. A simple bite by an infected mosquito can transmit this deadly disease to humans. There is no specific treatment other than supportive care.

As with all the previous issues, the professional design, layout and production are by Kelly Findley.

Copies of some of the previous issues are deposited at Library and Archives Canada, the FamilySearch Library at Salt Lake City. There are some issues at the OGS Ottawa Branch Library at the Ottawa City Archives.

The complete lineup of names in each issue is:
#1 Findley, Pursel
#2 Llanos, Cuenca
#3 Wickham, Durham, Rotton
#4 Mason, Girling
#5 Rostant, Kayne
#6 McAllister, Milks, Moore
#7 Jenkins, Bradley, Wilson, Erwin
#8 Borrett, Olley, Goffin
#9 Dowser, McCooey, Weatherall, Clements
#10 Pantin, Ganteaume
#11 Busby, Lacasse
#12 Carige, Mariño, Meany

If you’re interested in exploring further, contact manyfamilies@rogers.com.

 

 

Sub-titled, Britain Between the Wars, I purchased this 2026 book from Waterstones on a recent trip to England.

If you have parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, and others in your family tree who were alive between the wars (1918 – 1939), this book will provide insight into their lives and times. Demographics. Economics. The political situation. Pejudices. Art – films, books and music did they enjoyed. Did they do the Lambeth Walk? Who was famous and why?  Strikes. The BBC. About the only thing missing is the weather.

While much of the content was familiar, I grew up with the legacy, there was something new to me on almost every page.

Despite mostly favourable reviews, if I were packing just one recent British history book to bring back now, I’d examine the popular in British and Irish history books from Waterstones; there a list here.

On a drizzly Wednesday morning I made my way from the Lyon OCTranspo LRT station to the Library and Archives Canada building on Wellington Street in Ottawa. I signed in — my user card had expired — and, after depositing my jacket in a locker (not allowed upstairs, no matter how fierce the air-conditioning), took the lift to the second floor. Then I learned that user cards no longer expire.

• I wanted to order a series of London (England) city directories that I’d consulted many years back. It took the second-floor help desk a while to find the right catalogue entry. The desk staff placed the order for me specifying the years I needed. There was a hiccup, the helpful reference technician got back to me so the items had to be reordered on Friday.  As of Tuesday the order is “Not ready for pick up”.

• I next went to the south side of the second floor, to the Alfred Pellan Room, to see how the Creative Space initiative mentioned last week was faring. There were activities laid out for kids and families, but no clients when I looked in. A helpful staff member told me as many as ten people had dropped by at once. Not pictured is a table with two typewriters that, apparently, youngsters can’t resist. The whole thing is a trial run for a proposed feature at the new Ādisōke facility.
• On the third floor, in the genealogy consultation area, there were three clients. I was told the plan is to move all of that area’s holdings to its counterpart at Ādisōke, a shared space with the Ottawa Public Library.
• What won’t be making the move is the full city directory collection, along with many of the open-shelf microfilms. These will have to be ordered in. Anyone trying to follow a person through a run of successive directories can expect delays in retrieving several volumes at a time from off-site storage, to say nothing of the wear on materials in transit. Perhaps, in time, they’ll be digitized, copyright permitting.
• My last stop was the north side of the third floor, the document and microfilm consultation areas, where I counted fifteen clients in all. Everyone I dealt with was helpful, if constrained by uncertainties about the client experience at Ādisōke.
• Nothing about us without us.
  Serious academic, professional, and individual researchers remain concerned research efficiency will suffer with the move to Ādisōke when resources are no longer available self-serve. Has that community been consulted, and listened to? Could LAC be open about the cons as well as the pros of the move, and how they will address the cons?

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 https://conferencekeeper.org/virtual/

Tuesday, 28 July

2:00 PM: Clusters and Triangulation: Turning DNA Matches into Family Connections, by Loïc Duchamp for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/clusters-and-triangulation-turning-dna-matches-into-family-connections

2:30 PM: Canadian Citizenship by Descent: Genealogy and the
Amended Citizenship Act, by Mike Sainsbury for Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center.
https://acpl.libnet.info/event/16709797

Wednesday, 29 July

2:00 PM: Mastering Mid-Atlantic Research: Resources and Methodologies for ICAPGen Accreditation, by Alice Childs, AG®, for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/mastering-mid-atlantic-research-resources-and-methodologies-for-icapgen-accreditation

Thursday 30 July – Saturday 1 August

The FreeBMD database was updated on Friday, 24 July 2026 to contain 296,256,811 unique records, up from 296,061,731 last month.

Years with more than 10,000 additions are: 1994-96 for births, 1995-96 for marriages, and 1996-97 for deaths.

Reviewing the significant

Turn-of-the-Century Birth Peak & Mid-Century Baby Boom: Total births reached an all-time historical peak in 1903 (1,934,153 births) and experienced a prominent mid-century surge peaking in 1964 (954,322 births) before tapering off in the 1970s.

World War I Demographic Impact: Births dropped to a low in 1917 (683,164 births) during WWI, followed by a sharp post-war demographic rebound in 1920 (978,628 births).

World War II & Post-War Marriage and Birth Spikes: Marriages reached an all-time historical peak in 1940 (1,000,178 marriages) at the start of WWII, followed by a post-war birth boom in 1947 (935,118 births).

1918 Flu Pandemic Mortality Peak: Deaths reached an intense local maximum in 1918 (617,529 deaths), reflecting the global Spanish Flu pandemic and late-war mortality.

Lowest Number of Deaths: Remarkably, 8 of the 10 years with the lowest number of deaths were in the 1920s.

The Netherlands and US take the lion’s share of these 180 additions. Two Canadian newspaper titles, 39,495 pages, and five newspaper titles from England, 13,235 pages, all from the 21st century, are added.

Country	Newspaper	Location	Coverage	Pages Added
Canada	Glanbrook Gazette	Caledonia, Haldimand, Ontario	2012–2023	19,680
	The Sachem	Dunnville, Haldimand, Ontario	2012–2023	19,815
England	Ilford and Redbridge Post	London, Greater London	2007–2008	70
	Thurrock and Lakeside Post	Grays, Essex	2007–2008	70
	The Peninsula	London, Greater London	2007–2010	789
	The Docklands	London, Greater London	2007–2011	8,979
	Harleston Mercury	Harleston, Norfolk	2012–2018	3,327

Miscellaneous items I found interesting this week.

Chapman and André 1777 map of Essex

Can You Guess?

Need a Modern US Version

Thanks to the following individuals for their comments and tips: Anonymous, Carlos Rivera, Dawn Kelly, Donald Read, Gail, Teresa, and Unknown.

 

In partnership with the Royal Navy Museums, FMP added four new record sets unique to Findmypast this week.

British Royal Navy, Courts Martial
118 records and 119 images, covering 1912 to 1942.

British Royal Navy, Punishment Books
1,320 records and 509 unique images.

Naval Charitable Societies Subscription and Grant Books
141,880 subscription and grant book records in 5,302 images from a selection of naval charitable societies, spanning 1791 to 1942. 

British Armed Forces, Schoolmistresses and Nurses’ Pensions
1,689 unique records tell the story of schoolmistresses and nurses in the British Armed Forces between 1909 and 1928.

Newspapers
Additions are three new titles and updates to 33 existing publications. The Record, published in London, has editions as early as 1838, good for researching nineteenth-century Anglican clergy, missionaries, teachers, or prominent evangelical families. It can be a rich source of biographical information that is often unavailable in local newspapers.