In Canada, only in Newfoundland and Labrador is 23 April significant as St. George’s Day. The public holiday celebrates the province’s British heritage. It’s observed on the nearest Monday to give a three-day weekend.
Celebrate with me under the full moon with this thoughtful article.
Hurrah for Gilbert & Sullivan: How Two 19th Century English Social Critics Can Still Teach Us Today
Choose from selected free online events in the next five days. All times are ET except as noted. Assume registration in advance is required; check so you’re not disappointed. Find out about many more mainly US events at Conference Keeper at https://conferencekeeper.org
Until 28 April, Legacy Family Tree Webinars is offering new members a one-year membership at half-off, that’s $25 US. Not to be missed — here.
Tuesday, 23 April
2 pm: Using Artificial Intelligence Tools to Expand Your Genealogical Research Universe, by James Tanner for Legacy Family Tree Webinars and MyHeritage.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/using-artificial-intelligence-tools-to-expand-your-genealogical-research-universe/
2:30 pm: DNA Relationships Explained: Known Relatives, by Sara Allen for Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center.
https://acpl.libnet.info/event/9991678
7 pm: Shamrocks, Leprechauns, and Harps: Researching Your Irish Roots, by Sarah Cochrane for OGS Wellington County Branch.
https://wellington.ogs.on.ca/events/wellington-branch-shamrocks-leprechauns-and-harps-researching-your-irish-roots
Wednesday, 24 April
2 pm: Where Fact Meets Fiction: behind the scenes of a genealogical crime mystery, by Nathan Dylan Goodwin for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/where-fact-meets-fiction-behind-the-scenes-of-a-genealogical-crime-mystery/
Thursday, 25 April
6:30 pm: How to Tap into Tax Records to Enrich Your Genealogy Research, by Jennifer Dunn for Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center.
https://acpl.libnet.info/event/9989105
Friday, 26 April
7 pm: Navigating Newspapers.com, by Jenny Ashcraft for OGS Niagara Peninsula Branch.
https://niagara.ogs.on.ca/events/webinar-series-newspapers-com-jenny-ashcraft/
Saturday, 27 April
1 pm: Early Loyalists of Ontario, by Jo Ann Tuskin for Kingston and District Branch, United Empire Loyalists’ Association of Canada
http://www.uelac.org/Kingston-Branch
Today is Earth Day. I wondered how genealogical organizations are doing.
Kudos to Ancestry, which last month published its 2023 Impact Report. It’s the third in an annual series documenting its progress toward “building a more connected, resilient and sustainable future for generations to come,” and organized into three main sections: ethical business practices, diversity, equity & inclusion, and community impact.
Here, I’ll focus on carbon emissions, which are reported to be reduced by 21% in 2023. That follows an emissions cut of 32.9% year-over-year in 2022.
The report includes the following table:
Scope 1 covers emissions from sources that an organisation owns or controls directly – for example from burning fuel in its fleet of vehicles (if they’re not electrically-powered).
Scope 2 are emissions that a company causes indirectly and come from where the energy it purchases and uses is produced. For example, the emissions caused when generating the electricity used in their buildings.
Scope 3 encompasses emissions that are not produced by the company itself and are not the result of activities from assets owned or controlled by them, but by those that it’s indirectly responsible for up and down its value chain. An example of this is purchase, use and dispose of products from suppliers. Scope 3 includes all sources not within the scope 1 and 2 boundaries.
For perspective, the 2023 total is the equivalent of 6,401,336
miles driven by an average gasoline-powered passenger vehicle. For an Earth Day perspective, that’s 257 times around the earth at the equator.
Some of Ancestry’s specific reductions:
“In Dublin, we moved to a new office space with a green lease in a LEED Platinum-rated building that reduced our footprint by more than 50%.”
On June 1, 2023, Ancestry added a new fulfillment center for the Eastern U.S. in Nashville, Tennessee lowering carbon emissions from U.S. shipping by more than 25%.
Those follow reductions achieved in 2022 by closure of Ancestry’s Salt Lake City office and the transition to
100% renewable energy by Scope 3 data center provider AWS.
These major reductions likely represent the low hanging fruit. A minimum 5% reduction in emissions annually is anticipated for the future.
It’s not clear whether these figures are based on independant audits and how Ancestry compares to its peer group.
The April branch meeting, open to all, will take place on Monday, 22 April, at 7:30 p.m. Alison Lau, Ancestry’s General Manager in Canada, will be in person at Lansing United Church to provide an overview of how Ancestry developed Handwriting Technology to help researchers find their ancestors in the 1931 Census of Canada. Alison and her team will also provide updates on other products and services from Ancestry Canada.
As a prelude, Marian Press will explain how two treasured pieces of family memorabilia provided clues for her family history research.
Soon after I posted about the outage, ODW services & digital collection sites were restored on 15 April. That includes Our Ontario, VITA TOOLKIT, Community Newspapers and Government Documents back in service,
The outage was caused by a ransomware attack on 25 February. Around that time, Jess Posgate of ODW gave an online presentation that I’ve had time to forget. Unfortunately, there’s no up-to-date video on ODW on YouTube to refresh my memory.
Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.
Revealing images that seemed lost forever
Who gets the most federal research funding? Danielle Smith might be surprised by what the data shows
Caring about the Past: Engaging with Historical Empathy
The 2024 Canada’s History Forum
Online Event, Thursday, April 25, 2024, 6pm – 9pm Eastern
Free to attend, but pre-registration is required.
These Words Make it Obvious That Your Text is Written By AI
Artificial Intelligence Startup Launches Ever-Expanding Library of Free Stock Photos and Music
Thanks to this week’s contributors: Anonymous, Brenda Turner, David Madeley, Empty Branches on the Family Tree, Nick Mcdonald, Sunday Thompson, Teresa, Unknown.
Although the end year in the title is 1949, there are now deaths for 1950 in the database. That’s 43,453 death registrations added. a couple of hundred fewer than the 43,641 deaths in 1949.
The number of deaths in this Ancestry database totals 4,200,698.
The Archives of Ontario holds death registrations to 1952.
None of Library and Archives Canada’s Co-Lab Challenges appear to be reporting any progress.
Treaty 9 now has 27 images, apparantly no change from last month.
Mary Ann Shadd Cary remains 47% complete.
Expo67 remains 7% complete.
Summiting Mount Logan in 1925: Fred Lambart’s personal account of the treacherous climb and descent of the highest peak in Canada remains 13% complete.
Women in the War remains 1% complete.
Arthur Lismer’s Children’s Art Classes remains 1% complete.
John Freemont Smith remains 93% complete.
Canadian National Land Settlement Association remains 98% complete.
Molly Lamb Bobak remains 95% complete.
Diary of François-Hyacinthe Séguin remains 99% complete.
George Mully: moments in Indigenous communities remains 0% complete.
Correspondence regarding First Nations veterans returning after the First World War remains 99% complete.
Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 remains 95% complete.
Legendary Train Robber and Prison Escapee Bill Miner remains 99% complete.
Japanese-Canadians: Second World War remains 3% complete.
The Call to Duty: Canada’s Nursing Sisters remains 94% compete.
Projects that remain 100% complete are no longer reported here.
This week’s FMP focus is new transcript records for Kiddington and Chadlington in Oxfordshire sourced from FamilySearch.
Oxfordshire Baptisms
Over 6,200 new baptism records, bringing the total to 260,211. The top three in the collection by record count are:
| Rank | Parish | Record Count |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Banbury | 26978 |
| 2 | Bampton | 13659 |
| 3 | Chipping Norton | 8561 |
Oxfordshire Marriages
The newest marriage and banns records span from 1576 to 1930, totalling 72,782.T he top three in the collection by record count are:
| Rank | Parish | Record Count |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Banbury | 13934 |
| 2 | Oxford | 8168 |
| 3 | Bampton | 4842 |
Oxfordshire Burials
Dating from 1576-1948, there are now a total of 41,327 records. The top three in the collection by record count are”
| Rank | Parish | Record Count |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Banbury | 3650 |
| 2 | Chipping Norton | 1508 |
| 3 | Charlbury | 1070 |
Find the year range and record count for each parish at Oxfordshire Parish Lists.
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.
It would appear no actual material was digitized through the initiative in 2023. Will that happen in 2024?
