Anglo-Celtic Connections

•  Ādisōke Delay
  It doesn’t take much reading of the tea leaves to discern the implications for LAC from the Ottawa Public Library news that they are extending their lease for the present main branch until the end of 2027. I hope this is a case of good things being worth waiting for.
• Leslie Weir’s IFLA President’s Message – August 2026
• Online workshop-conference with Alexane Drolet
  LAC’s Creator in Residence will share her ideas about the importance of staying informed with quality information and reliable sources on social networks. After that, she will delve into the process of creating a short news item or post, with an opportunity for participants to begin developing their own work.  It’s at 6:30 PM ET on Thursday, 24 September 2026. Find out more at https://evenements-events.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/Events/Details/269.
• What’s in Collection Search?
  As of 14 September, there are 7,932,049  (7,930,971 on 5 September) items in the Archives section of Collection Search, 8,227,689 (8,227,688) in the Genealogy section, 4,424,294 (4,425,166) in Library, and 352,681 (352,686) in Images.
• Did You Know?
  Based on conventional gender associations of the names provided here, women hold 100% of LAC’s Assistant Deputy Minister positions (3 of 3), 70% of the Director General positions (7 of 10, including Senior DG), and approximately 48% to 50% of the Director-level positions (11 of 23 explicit Directors, or 12 of 24 if the Corporate Secretary is included). Assuming a 50/50 chance for each ADM and DG position being filled by a man or woman, the probability of exactly 10 out of 13 positions being filled by a women is 3.49%. The statistical likelihood of having at least this much of a gender skew (10, 11, 12, or all 13 positions held by women) is 4.61%.
  Most subject matter experts, archivists, and librarians entering the GLAM feeder group are women, so the internal talent pool available for promotion into management and executive ranks naturally skews female. Those without a GLAM background are drawn from the larger Public Service Executive category which is about 55% female. Organizations with strong female representation at the top can develop cultures that naturally attract, mentor, and retain other female leaders, as is the case for male leadership.
• No Updates
  It’s more than two months since LAC posted anything new under Updates on the landing page. Perhaps nothing significant has happened.  Ken McKinlay will likely be hoping nothing major changes to upset his online talk New LAC Website and Records for OGS Kingston Branch on Saturday.

Here are the contents of the new issue of BIFHSGO’s quarterly chronicle.

EDITOR AND PRESIDENT COLUMNS

FAMILY HISTORY RESEARCH
Ambition in the Age of Reform: The Short, Bright Life of Henry Barnett, by  John D. Reid
Lieutenant John McClelland Adie: 1st Canadian Motor Machine Gun, by Nigel Lloyd
Get Ready for the 2026 Conference: Scottish Resources at the Ottawa Branch OGS Library, by Pam Cooper

TECH TALK
Adding Alternate Record Interpretations, by Paul Cripwell

BIFHSGO NEWS
Memorandum of Understanding with Library and Archives Canada, by Sue Lambeth

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

As he leaves the editor role, Paul Cripwell outdoes himself in this issue with both editor and president columns, and a Tech Talk article.

Barbara Tose and Caroline Carolyn Brown will be jointly taking on the editor role, at least for the next two issues. Christine Jackson remains as deputy editor and proofreader.

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, 15 September

2:00 PM: Ottawa Virtual Genealogy Drop-In, by OGS Ottawa Branch. https://ottawa.ogs.on.ca/genealogy-drop-in-live/

2:00 PM: Ukrainian History and Families in Sudbury, by Teras (Terry) Martyn for OGS Sudbury Branch. https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/kcgPACmTReCTxhazheB80Q

2:30 PM: Beyond the Wayback Machine: Using Internet Archive for
Genealogy, for Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center.
https://acpl.libnet.info/event/17206023

7:00 PM: For Better or For Worse: Tracing Marriage & Divorce in Early Ontario, by Linda Corupe for OGS Nipissing Branch. https://nipissing.ogs.on.ca/events-at-the-nipissing-district-branch/

8:00 PM: Against The Peace and Dignity of The Commonwealth, by Claire Ammon for Legacy Family Tree Webinars. https://familytreewebinars.com/upcoming-webinars/

Wednesday, 16 September

11:30 AM: MyHeritage Collection Catalog: Navigating A Great Genealogy Resource Without Getting Overwhelmed, by Melissa Barker for Legacy Family Tree Webinars. https://familytreewebinars.com/upcoming-webinars/

1:00 PM: Tell Me Y: Exploring Your Y-DNA Results on MyHeritage, by Hadar Marmor for Legacy Family Tree Webinars. https://familytreewebinars.com/upcoming-webinars/

2:30 PM: Fresh Tools for Smarter Genealogy on MyHeritage, by Daniel Horowitz for Legacy Family Tree Webinars. https://familytreewebinars.com/upcoming-webinars/

Thursday, 17 September

2:30 PM: Pioneers and Pedigrees: Early Western New York Research, by Kaitlyn Pauley for Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center. https://acpl.libnet.info/events

Friday, 18 September

2:00 PM: Husband, Father, and Revolutionary: The Case of Ramón Treviño, by Lisa Medina for Legacy Family Tree Webinars. https://familytreewebinars.com/upcoming-webinars/

7:00 PM: Uncle Will: A Story of British Home Children, by Janet Hodgkins for OGS Niagara Peninsula Branch.
https://niagara.ogs.on.ca/events/uncle-will-a-story-of-british-home-children-with-janet-hodgkins-ue-niagara-peninsula-branch-webinar-series/

Saturday, 19 September

10:00 AM: New LAC Website and Records, by Ken McKinlay for OGS Kingston Branch.
https://kingston.ogs.on.ca/events/kingston-branch-ogs-meeting-2026-09-19-new-lac-website-and-records

OGS is currently accepting proposals for their monthly 2027 Webinar Series. Webinars take place on the first Thursday of the month at 7pm ET using the Zoom platform. These sessions are open to both members and non-members.

Proposals should be sent by Tuesday, 13 October 2026 at 11:59pm ET.

Find out more at https://ogs.on.ca/webinar-submissions/

The International Bomber Command Centre (IBCC) in Lincoln has put online “the first truly comprehensive record of Coastal Command losses.”

The Royal Air Force’s ‘Cinderella Service’ is often overlooked in favour of the better-known Bomber and Fighter Commands. The mission was protecting vital sea lanes, hunting German U-boats, escorting Allied convoys and attacking enemy shipping.

Access the database by going to https://losses.internationalbcc.co.uk/,  selecting Advanced Search Filters and then Coastal Command.

The information provided is extensive, personal, aircraft, memorial, enlistment, last operation, CWGC, and TNA.

There’s also a list of others on the flight. Checking for the incident where my uncle, Edward Cowan died, I found an international crew:

a flight  sergeant from Canterbuty, Kent
a flight sergeant from Chepstow, Monmouthshore
a leading aircraftman from Newtowngrange, Midlothian
a flight flying officer from Young’s Point, Ontario
a sergeant from Hounslow, Middlesex
a flight  sergeant from Weston-Super-Mare, Somerset
a pilot officer from Victoria, British Columbia
a civilian journalist from Glasgow, Lanarkshire

The Journal of Family History is a leading resource for scholars interested in the history of the family. It continues to be the most important forum for international research on family, kinship and population from … a variety of perspectives, including gender, sexuality, race, class, and culture.

Each quarterly issue includes book reviews, some open source. Here are three published since the beginning of 2025 relevant for Canada.

Book Review: Friendless or Forsaken? Child Emigration from Britain to Canada, 1860–1935 by Ruth Lamont, Eloise Moss and Charlotte Wildma

Book Review: Finding Molly Johnson: Irish Famine Orphans in Canada by Mark G. McGowan

Book Review: Small Stories of War: Children, Youth, and Conflict in Canada and Beyond by Lorenzkowski Barbara, Kristine Alexander and Andrew Burtch, eds

Miscellaneous items I found interesting this week.

This Fall’s Canadian Fashion Statement

Royal Society of Canada Fellow Inductee
“Rod Phillips (Professor of History at Carleton University)  is an internationally renowned historian whose definitive works—13 books translated into 10 languages— have redefined his scholarly fields by centring family, divorce, and alcohol within broader contexts of social, cultural and political change. Demonstrating exceptional leadership in his field, he has
served as Editor-in-Chief of the flagship Journal of Family History for 30 years and served as President of the Society for French Historical Studies.”

Using Online Records to Find Our Emigrating & Immigrating Ancestors with Melissa J Ellis: Monday 14 September 7 PM.
This  Bruce County Genealogical Society workshop will examine the push and pull factors that had our ancestors leaving their countries of origins for a new life in a new country. We will learn of early types of Emigration schemes that helped our ancestors establish themselves in Canada, and the background history to the types of documentation that was created once they arrived. We will have a look at Immigrating groups of people and what history can tell us about why they left their home countries. We will review research suggestions to help us explore the large databases and find ancestors.

Scottish Indexes Conference XXXIII – Saturday 19 September 2026

 

FamilySearch has been busy so far this September, rolling out a wave of new and updated collections. There are 219 collection titles added or updated. Major additions are for Italy (117), United States (32), Portugal (19), and Brazil (15).

England and Wales, Census, 1921 was updated on 2 September), now with 38,425,632 records.

England, Hertfordshire, Parish Registers, 1538-1912 was also updated on 2 September for 1,204,675 records stretching back nearly 500 years.

Welsh parish register collections were added for four counties simultaneously, all updated 11 September, each for 1538-1912:

Glamorganshire — 736,069 records
Denbighshire — 692,616 records
Pembrokeshire — 320,072 records
Brecknockshire — 202,792 records.

Ireland, Petty Sessions Court Registers, 1828-1912  were updated on 11 September to 21,821,540 records.

Rounding out the UK additions, United Kingdom, World War I Service Records, 1914-1920 were updated on 10 September) to 4,219,495 records,

British Army, Army Lists 1839-1946

Updated with 15,103,833 records, these are essentially the British Army’s official or semi-official published lists of officers, showing who held commissions, their rank, regiment and, in many cases, movements and honours.

The components are:
1839–1915 Hart’s Army List Annual/other editions
1879–1922 Official Quarterly Army List Quarterly
1913–1919 Quarterly lists, including WWI Quarterly
1914–1918 Monthly Army Lists Monthly
1923–1950 Half-Yearly Army List Twice yearly
1938–1941 Half-Yearly Army Lists Twice yearly
1940–1946 Quarterly Army Lists Quarterly

Britain from Above, England Collection, 1919-1953

These over 82,000 photographs are from the AFL03 Aerofilms collection, held by Historic England. Search by location, keyword, year or reference. Each photograph is geolocated with latitude and longitude details and contains notes that give further context.

Note that both of the above are available elsewhere, including at free sites.

Newspapers

256,884 pages were added this week, with six new titles and updates made to 35 existing newspapers.

New titles:

• Birmingham Daily Mercury, 1855–1857
• Freeman’s Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser, 1823–1824
• Halfpenny Weekly, 1885–1890
• Illustrated London Clipper, 1876
• Liverpool Journal and Lancashire Weekly Express, 1879
• Northern Telegraphic News, 1856

Updated titles:

• Brighton Examiner, 1870–1871, 1873, 1883
• Cambridge Town Crier, 2000, 2005
• Carmarthen Journal, 2005
• Chatham, Rochester and Brompton Observer, 1966
• Derby Express, 2000–2002
• Dundee Courier, 1817–1820, 1823–1829, 1834–1836, 1839–1843
• Forward (Glasgow), 1915, 1950
• Hindoo Patriot, 1889–1891
• Jersey Evening Post, 1919
• Manchester & Salford Advertiser, 1846
• Northern Scot and Moray & Nairn Express, 1947, 1979
• Pink (Newcastle), 1993–1999
• Preston Pilot, 1850
• Shamrock, 1875, 1883
• Shipping World and Herald of Commerce, 1910–1912, 1914–1918
• Skelmersdale Advertiser, 2003
• Society Times, 1886–1888
• Stockport Times, 2005
• Stroud News and Gloucestershire Advertiser, 1881–1882
• Surrey-Hants Star, 2000, 2004
• The Record, 1882–1883, 1885, 1888, 1890, 1895, 1898
• Times of India, 1912–1913, 1926–1928, 1937, 1951, 1962–1964
• Tyrone Courier, 1910–1913
• Uxbridge & W. Drayton Gazette, 2000
• Uxbridge Informer, 2000–2001
• Vale Advertiser, 2000, 2002
• Western Daily Press, 1951
• Winsford Chronicle, 2000, 2003
• Worthing Herald, 2005
• Yarmouth Mercury, 1882–1883, 1888
• Yorkshireman, 1888

Records for two English counties were added to Ancestry on 10 September.

There’s a single title, Suffolk, England, Bishops’ Transcripts, 1560-1853 with 4,365,339 records, and four sets of Church of England parish records for Berkshire with almost as many records in total.

The Suffolk BT records had links to images of the original. I don’t recall finding dates for both private and public baptisms for the same child as I did for my ancestors in Barrow.

For Berkshire there is a single title, Berkshire, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1538-1812 for the early period, and separate titles for Baptisms, 1813-1925, Marriages and Banns, 1813-1941, and Burials, 1813-1998. Again, all have original image links.

 

 

	Title		Records
	Suffolk, England, Bishops’ Transcripts, 1560-1853		4,365,339
	Berkshire, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1813-1941		546,515
	Berkshire, England, Church of England Burials, 1813-1998		325,233
	Berkshire, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1538-1812		2,055,425
	Berkshire, England, Church of England Baptisms, 1813-1925		1,470,200

You remember where you were. It was 8:46 am, I was at my computer, saw a breaking news report, and went to my TV in time to witness the attack on the South Tower 17 minutes later.

Twenty-five years later, it’s both history and family history.

200 or so aircraft, many of which were of U.S. registry, were heading for the continental U.S. All were diverted to alternate airports in Eastern Canada.  Simultaneously, over the North Pacific, commercial carriers en route from Asia to North America were being diverted to airports in Western Canada, primarily Vancouver. In total  239 diverted aircraft from overseas as well as those destined for the U.S. and Canada landed safely in Canada without incident. Of these, 38 went to Gander, 1 to Deer Lake, 21 to St. John’s, 8 to Stephenville, 7 to Goose Bay, 47 to Halifax, 10 to Moncton, 10 to Mirabel, 7 to Dorval, 14 to Toronto, 4 to Hamilton, 15 to Winnipeg, 6 to Edmonton, 13 to Calgary, 1 to Yellowknife, 3 to Whitehorse and 34 to Vancouver.
https://knightsinfo.ca/cdnwtc.html

Accommodating more than 33,000 passengers and aircrew was a huge challenge for Canadian communities, particularly for smaller ones like Gander, which welcomed a large number of passengers and accommodated them in their homes and public facilities.

By 16 September all diverted planes had departed with their passengers, and their memories, back to their intended destinations.

If a family member was one of the passengers and crew, it would be a significant part of their life story.

Unlike the roll of Canadians who died on that day, there is no consolidated list of those diverted to Canada. How can you find out about their experience?

As always, start with what you know and information held within the family. If the person is living, it would be a good opportunity to record their recollections. Ask: What was the flight number? Where were you going?,Where did you stay? Do you remember the name of your host family? Did you keep in touch with anyone? Did you ever return?

For background, the 2014 government publication A Diary Between Friends includes an overview of the experiences of diverted passengers and Canada’s response overall. Sadly, the friendship of those days is now all too strained.

Search newspapers, not just Canadian but also hometown papers. They may be among the most useful for reconstructing an individual’s experience.

Twenty-five years later, it’s time to ensure their experience is incorporated into your family history. What about your own recollections?

Dating from 1948 to 1969, 184 issues of the publication NRC Research News  have been added to the Canadiana Collection.

It includes detailed information on staff appointments, departures, and awards, making it an excellent resource for those studying the careers of Canadian and international scientists at the National Research Council.

NRC Research News was a precursor to the NRC’s Science Dimension, which was added to Canadiana in 2025.

Sadly, NRC Research News is not yet full-text searchable. Science Dimension is.