My email inbox on Thursday contained the latest issue of “The Ottawa Genealogist.”  It’s full of locally relevant genealogical content and more.

I’d normally overlook the item Malta, Monumental Inscriptions. Mike More included it in his regular selection of items from Dick Eastman’s newsletter. Having just booked a vacation there, it attracted my attention. Searching the CWGC and LAC WW2 Service files websites, I found four RCAF casualties memorialized on the Malta Memorial in Floriana, Valletta, with associated Ottawa addresses: 113 Henderson, 54 Balsam, 960 Gladstone,  and 114 Driveway. 

This is a reminder that Kyla Ubbink will present Restorations of Biblical Proportions for the branch on Saturday at 1 p.m., a hybrid meeting.

Kyla discusses the challenges conserving family Bibles. “Covers have become detached, the glues are failing, the pages are loose, and sometimes even the leather is rotting away, but family bibles can be saved. Old glues can be replaced with new glues, the pages secured, and tears repaired. Bindings are restored by inserting new material beneath the original leather, and dyes and leather dressings return luster and beauty. It takes technical knowledge, patience, an aptitude for meticulous work, and on occasion leads to uttering under your breath to an all-knowing deity.”

https://ottawa.ogs.on.ca/events/restorations-of-biblical-proportions-ottawa-2/

Here’s something different.

In 2022-23, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada awarded a total of $16.3M to 182 people in its postdoctoral fellowships program. There were 650 total applicants.
Leaving aside stop words, this word cloud shows the terms most often found in the award titles.

Here, as a service to the academic community, are five titles for post-doctorate fellowship applications, produced by Microsoft’s Copilot AI facility, most likely to be successful, based on the terms in the word cloud:

“Exploring the Role of Women in Contemporary Canadian Politics: A Comparative Study”

“Toward Understanding the Social Context of Digital Healthcare in Canada: An Analysis of Care Models”

“Examining the Intersection of Culture and Mental Health in Indigenous Communities: A Transformative Approach”

“The Effect of Climate Change on Community Participation in Sustainable Development: A Case Study from Columbia”

“Gender, Violence, and Decision Making in Modern Democratic Systems: A Comparative Analysis”

According to the AI, “these titles incorporate the most popular terms and related terms, and address a variety of academic fields. They are likely to be successful given their relevance to current research trends and societal issues. Naturally the success of an application also heavily depends on the quality and novelty of the proposed research, not just the title.”

The Coalition for Canadian Digital Heritage has issued Year in Review 2023. Here are the main points.

1. Strategic Framework: CCDH finalized and published its strategic framework in the first half of 2023. This was a collaborative effort undertaken by committee members and stakeholders.
2. Working Groups Formation: In the second half of 2023, CCDH shifted its focus to actualizing strategic priorities. This was done through the formation of working groups that correspond to the three primary strategic priorities established in the framework.
3. Community Growth: CCDH aspires to grow its community into a diverse and highly representative coalition of practitioners across memory organizations in Canada.
4. Re-envisioning of the National Heritage Digitization Strategy: Emerging from an extensive national, multi-sectoral consultation and strategic planning process in 2022-2023, CCDH is a re-envisioning of the National Heritage Digitization Strategy.
5. Enhancing Digital Presence of Canada’s Cultural Heritage: CCDH aims to bring diverse people and organizations together to leverage collective knowledge, infrastructure, and resources to enhance the digital presence of Canada’s cultural heritage.

It would appear no actual material was digitized through the initiative in 2023. Will that happen in 2024?

FamilySearch has now added three new collections to the FamilySearch Labs facility which uses handwriting recognition technology. They add to the  U.S. Land and Probate Records 1630-1975 and Mexico, Notarial Records, 1600-1909 introduced at Rootsech.

The additions are:

US Plantation Records cs. 1700s-1865
Victoria, Australia Probates 1853-1976
Auckland, New Zealand Wills and Probates 1834-1997

A quick look at the New Zealand Wills and Probates for a post-WW1 will found that, while the document in question was largely typewritten, not surprising for the period, handwritten information inserted was well interpreted. That was true for a document handwritten in exceptionally clear writing from the same period.

The website invites us to “Check back regularly as new collections will be added.” Canada and UK please!

https://www.familysearch.org/search/full-text

Here are the major articles I browsed in the new issue.

MAPPING THE DEVELOPMENT OF A
PLACE THROUGH TIME
Discover how more specialist records can add context to a
family history, enabling you to research the locations your ancestors once lived and worked, with Chris Paton,

Chris uses his Scottish weaver ancestors as a case study. The article concludes with a nine-step guide to systematically learning about the locality and community in which your ancestors once lived.

HOW SHOULD WE DEAL WITH FAMILY SECRETS?
All families have mysteries, secrets and even scandals, but how do we deal with them. Charlotte Soares reflects on this sensitive subject detailing some of the circumstances that were kepy secret. She concludes that time turns what was once a shuddering scandal to gold dust for more removed generations of family historians.

FAMILY HISTORY & Al
Fiona Brooker explores how Artificial Intelligence is being used in family history. In five pages gives a nice summary. Toward the end she recommends joining the Facebook Genealogy and Artificial Intelligence group (https:// www.facebook.com/groups/genealogyandai/) to see how genealogists are using the tools.

BOGUS COATS OF ARMS
Richard Morgan makes a cool appraisal of the historic
record of heraldry and the enduring popularity of bogus coats of arms

YOUR DNA TEST COMPARISON GUIDE
Karen Evans guides us through the pros and cons of the autosomal DNA tests currently on the market. There’s good advice, including wait for the sales. With DNA day coming yo later this month the sales are already being advertised.

FAMILY TREE ACADEMY: CENSUS CASE STUDY
David Annal responds to a reader query about a man who had at least five children, but left little in the way of baptism records, or proof of marriage.

7 pm: Newspapers.com Tips and Tricks by Ann Smith for OGS Nipissing Branch.
https://nipissing.ogs.on.ca/events-at-the-nipissing-district-branch/

The latest release from TheGenealogist contains over 10 million new individuals recorded in directories from the first two decades of the 20th Century. This virtual bookshelf stacked with volumes from the early 1900s to 1929 includes publications from all over the United Kingdom and Ireland. It includes more than 70 London directories, 42 from 1900 to 1940.

There’s a list of all the directories available from TheGenealogist at https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/coverage/directories/#includes

The Battle of Jutland, which took place on 31 May 1916, changed the course of the war because it diminished the German naval fleet’s capabilities to such an extent that they couldn’t fight at sea again, That’s despite a major imbalance in casualties; the UK had over 6,000 killed,  Germany had over 2,500 killed.
Ancestry has added 61,495 records for the battle which may include:

Name
Birth date and place
Service dates
Military occupation
Military service number
Rank
Branch.

These records are based on a secondary historical source by jutlandcrewlists.org.

For those who died there’s more information at The Battle of Jutland Casualty Database and the Commonweakth War Graves Commission.

Mostly, FamilySearch has been concentrating on its South and Central American collections of late. For the record, earlier this month, several English databases were updated

This week, Sunday Sundries looks at recent posts on Atlas Obscura, a global community of explorers, who have together created a comprehensive database of the world’s most wondrous places and foods

The Ancient Female Alchemist Whose Name Is in Your Kitchen

The Rare, Sweet Bread That Brings Road-Trippers to a Small Georgian Village

How to Be a Food Bank Influencer

Gastro Obscura’s Essential Places to Eat and Drink in Istanbul

Next Time, Travel to Another Beautiful Country to See the Future Eclipse

My Life in Three Places with Rick Steves (podcast)

Thanks to this week’s contributors:  Anonymous,  Brenda Turner, Bryan Cook, Doug C., gail benjafield, Teresa, Sunday Thompson, Unknown.

At 7 pm on Monday, you can catch the latest update of  Ken McKinlay’s presentation, Doing Family Tree Research in Your Pajamas.

“The overarching focus of this presentation is to examine various online resources for finding information on your family’s history. The talk starts by discussing how one might organize the material (paper or electronic) and mentions various software before diving into online resources and key types of records.”

It;s a Zoom-only presentation from OGS Sudbury District Branch, register at
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZArc-uuqDMjHdHKCpNGVAfHziuW8K5NJQ3-

KEEP YOUR PAJAMAS ON FOR THIS 10 PM SESSION

Marianne Rasmus, BIFHSGO Program Director, is the guest speaker presenting A Russian Revelation, A family shaped by significant historical events for a Nanaimo Family History Society meeting on Monday, 15 April, starting at 10 pm ET.

“We have all hit our fair share of brick walls while doing family history research, but how about an ‘Iron Curtain’?  When Marianne Rasmus began exploring her family history, little was known about her maternal grandmother’s ancestry. Her grandmother had died before Marianne knew to ask her about her childhood, her emigration from Communist Russia in 1926, or how she adjusted to life in Canada. Starting with a handful of names, Marianne will reveal the process and sources used to discover a deep maternal heritage about which she knew little, and the circumstances which made it challenging to learn.

Marianne will share how historical events in both Canada and Europe affected her grandmother in a life-altering fashion, and how perseverance and a little DNA shed light on long-unanswered questions.”

Register to attend by Zoom by clicking on Add to Calendar at https://nanaimofamilyhistory.ca/event/nfhs-general-meeting-4/