Anglo-Celtic Connections

Here are the new and updated collections from FamilySearch since the start of the month. All but the three with the number of records highlighted have linked images  available at a FamilySearch Centre or Affiliate Library.

Collection Title	Records	Last Updated
Ireland, Catholic Parish Registers, 1740-1900	6,355,328	15 May 2024
England, Cambridgeshire Bishop’s Transcripts, 1538-1983	1,108,130	15 May 2024
England, Bristol, Non-Conformist Church Records, 1777-1936	160,422	15 May 2024
England, Navy Allotment Records, 1795-1812	485,017	15 May 2024
Great Britain, War Office Registers, 1772-1935	1,011,348	15 May 2024
Ireland Civil Registration Indexes, 1845-1958	22,263,368	15 May 2024
Isle of Man Parish Registers, 1598-2009	438,382	15 May 2024
Wales, Glamorgan, Parish Register Marriages, 1837-1922	56,282	14 May 2024
England, Cheshire, Marriage Bonds and Allegations, 1606-1900	451,783	13 May 2024
England, Middlesex, Westminster, Parish Registers, 1538-1912	Browse Images	13 May 2024
England, Warwickshire, Parish Registers, 1535-1963	2,900,867	13 May 2024
England, Norfolk Non-conformist Records, 1613-1901	4,606	13 May 2024
England, Norfolk Bishop’s Transcripts, 1685-1941	1,193,815	13 May 2024
England, Kent, Parish Registers, 1538-1911	576,558	13 May 2024
England, Devon, Parish Registers, 1538-1912	1,055,443	12 May 2024
England, Manchester, Miscellaneous Records, 1700-1916	10,536,245	10 May 2024
Ireland Census, 1851	58,795	9 May 2024
Scotland, Civil Registration, 1855-1875, 1881, 1891	535,643	8 May 2024
England, Derbyshire, Church of England Parish Registers, 1537-1918	2,953,523	8 May 2024
England, Lancashire, Liverpool, Baptisms, 1557-1919	29,838	2 May 2024
England, Lancashire, Liverpool, Banns and Marriages, 1557-1960	11,002	2 May 2024

Collection Title	Records	Last Updated
Canada, Quebec Census, 1861	1,094,774	15 May 2024
Canada Passenger Lists, 1881-1922	3,907,325	15 May 2024
Canada, Prince Edward Island Death Card Index, 1721-1905	16,686	15 May 2024
Canada, Ontario Roman Catholic Church Records, 1760-1923	Browse Images	14 May 2024
Canada, Nova Scotia Church Records, 1720-2001	215,258	13 May 2024
Canada, Nova Scotia Census, 1861	57,453	13 May 2024
Canada, New Brunswick County Registers of Births, ca. 1812-1919	51,575	13 May 2024
Canada, New Brunswick Late Registration of Births, 1810-1899	24,067	13 May 2024
Canada, Upper Canada Census, 1842	20,851	13 May 2024
Canada Census, 1901	5,343,565	11 May 2024
Canada, Quebec Catholic Parish Registers, 1621-1979	79,535	8 May 2024

Projects being funded in the 2024-2025 cycle of the Documentary Heritage Communities Program (DHCP) are now posted.

The total granted is $1.47 million. The media is $47K. The largest is $60K to the Centre d’archives régional des Îles for Building families on remote island regions: commemoration with the theme of health.

The awards cover a wide range of projects, from digitization and preservation of historical documents to oral history projects and increasing digital access to archives. This reflects a comprehensive approach to preserving cultural heritage.

The funding is distributed across all regions of Canada, including remote and underserved areas such as the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Yukon. On a per capita basis the Territories top the list.

Some projects that are national in scope are categorized as Ontario and Quebec.

While several historical societies received funding no genealogical societies are listed.

Steve Little, AI Program Director for the National Genealogical Society (US) who will be at the OGS Conference, posted a review on this new free facility from Open AI.

He terms it a “Game-Changer for Free AI Access, Possible Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR) Advance.” “The most significant beneficiaries of this release are undoubtedly the free users. In a move that disrupts the status quo, OpenAI is rolling out features previously reserved for ChatGPT Plus subscribers.”

In the post on his AI Genealogy Insights blog he tabulates the number of errors in a handwritten probate record transcription. GPT-4o had 9 errors, compared to 17 for GPT-4 and 22 for FamilySearch.

However, on Facebook, Judy Russell recorded getting an entirely different transcription from GPT-4o– of an entirely different document — not the one uploaded. Discussion suggested the document might have been too long or the handwriting difficult. Beware!

This small, 1,474 item, database is a delight for those with nostalgia for cricket. Findout about the careers of Len Hutton, Peter May, Jim Laker and Tony Lock, not forgetting Freddie Trueman. Generations back there’s W. G. Grace and A. N. Hornby.

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

Tuesday, 14 May

2 pm: Ottawa Virtual Genealogy Drop-In, for OGS Ottawa Branch.
https://ottawa.ogs.on.ca/events/virtual-genealogy-drop-in-2-2024-05-14/

2 pm: A Closer Look at the 1850-1950 U.S. Census Records, with a Little Extra Help, by Diane Henriks for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/a-closer-look-at-the-1850-1950-us-census-records/

2:30 pm: Discover Your Veteran’s WWII Story (US), by Rebecca Poole for Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center.
https://acpl.libnet.info/event/10546480

7:00 pm: A New Look at FamilySearch and Online Records, by Julia A. Anderson for OGS Essex County Branch.
https://essex.ogs.on.ca/meetings/essex-branch-may-webinar/

7 pm: Family Tree Maker, by Mark Olson for OGS Lambton Branch.
https://lambton.ogs.on.ca/

Wednesday, 15 May

2 pm: Forgotten Records: The Record and Pension Office (US), by Craig R Scott for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/forgotten-records-the-record-and-pension-office/

2:30 pm: Where there’s a will, there’s a lawyer: using solicitor records for family research, by Trisha O’Reilly for the Guild of One-Name Studies.
https://one-name.org/solicitorrecords/

Thursday, 16 May

6:30 pm:  Cemetery Etiquette and Iconography, by Lillian Wingate for Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center.
https://acpl.libnet.info/event/10546493

7 pm: On The Wright Track: Memories from C.P.R. School Car #2, by Bonnie Sitter for OGS Sault Ste Marie & District of Algoma Branch.
https://saultanddistrict.ogs.on.ca/events/sault-ste-marie-district-of-algoma-branch-sponsored-on-the-wright-track-memories-from-c-p-r-school-car-2-bonnie-sitter

7 pm: The River Runners, by Daryl Learn for OGS Niagara Branch. 
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0scumvqDoqHtH_l9WaxcfbATQf_JMFCUIO

Friday, 17 May

2 pm: The Mexican National Archive (AGN): A Resource for Genealogists, by Nefi Arenas Salazar for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/the-mexican-national-archive-agn-a-resource-for-genealogists/

Saturday, 18 May

10 am: After You’re Gone: Future Proofing Your Genealogy Research, by Thomas MacEntee for OGS Kingston Branch. Kingston.ogs.on.ca 

1 pm: Reading Handwriting & Creating Transcriptions, by Cheryl Levy for OGS Quinte Branch.
https://quinte.ogs.on.ca/events/reading-handwriting-creating-transcriptions-with-cheryl-levy/

Now available, a powerful, state-of-the-art Photo Scanner on the MyHeritage mobile app!  Scan entire album pages or multiple loose photos in a single tap.

I gave it a trial. It picked out the images, which weren’t aligned, and straightened them. It estimated the date it was taken, for a great uncle about 15 years off. The images were then available for automated repairing, enhancing, colourizing and even animating, all on the MyHeritage smartphone app. Simple.

With the 80th anniversary the Normandy Landings in June, the cover photo and the article by military family historian Simon Fowler “Tracing ancestors in the British armed forces in WWII” are timely.
The situation for individual military service files is in flux as they are gradually being transferred to TNA. Online find war diaries for troops who landed on 6 June 1944 at Ancestry and operation record books for RAF squadrons via TNA’s website. TNA has a good WW2 guide. For records for those who died start with the CWGC. 

Also featured on the front cover are:

Marriages and Maps: Tracking Down Elusive Ancestors
Wayne Shepheard explains how combining parish records and 19th-century maps proved key to establishing the identities of two of his most elusive family members.
.
Sneaking Up on a Brick Wall
Persistence, a new research approach, and a smattering of well-earned genealogical good luck saw family historian Peter
Day smashing down a brick wall that he’d been faced with for the past 15 years. He shares how he succeeded in the end…

DNA Workshop: Quick and Dirty Trees
DNA guru Karen Evans shows how to collect family history information quickly and the advantages of doing so.

The issue became available on 10 May; access free online in Canada through your public library.

The CEF network of medical facilities made a major contribution during the First World War. They included four casuality clearing stations, 10 stationary hospitals, convalescent hospitals, and 16 general hospitals.

The 16th Canadian General Hospital, renamed from the Ontario Military Hospital, treated over 25,000 First World War soldiers.  Staffed solely by Ontario medical professionals, the Government of Ontario paid $2 million for its construction in Orpington, Kent. It opened in early 1916 and functioned until September 1919. 

Read the story of the hospital and Dr. L. Bruce Robertson, a surgeon from the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, who pioneered WW1 blood transfusions for wounded soldiers and worked at the hospital.

Orpington (All Saints) Churchyard Extension holds the graves of 88 CEF fatalities, over half from the Canadian Infantry.

 

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

Seidlitz powder
While researching my two-times-great grandmother I came across this 1896 small ad.
I thought I’d never heard of “Seidlitz powder.” Wikipedia points to a familiar song by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong, with the lines “We two should be like clams in a dish of chowder / But we just fizz like parts of a Seidlitz powder.” https://youtu.be/VMUFn9D6xR8?si=i9b2WFbXclgc2icP

On Bill 18: Danielle Smith, the Calgary School, and the Politics of Academic Freedom

Genetic stigma and the use of genetic ancestry tests by white nationalists
Despite expectations of using genetic tests to establish a strict white identity, some white nationalist groups incorporate members based on cultural definitions of whiteness, even when genetic results differ. This inclusive approach stems from pragmatic concerns, as overly exclusionary policies may hinder the group’s demographic survival.

Ancestry announces  largest public-private and archive collaboration to date with the National Archives and Records Administration (US). 

Place and Poetry in premodern Scotland

Thanks to this week’s contributors: Ann Burns, Anonymous, Helen Gillespie, Pamela Wile, Sunday Thompson, Teresa, Unknown.

 

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) will be at the Canadian Tulip Festival at Commissioner’s Park at Dow’s Lake in Ottawa to talk about their work in commemorating war dead.

The CWGC will have a tent and information table in front of Dow’s Lake Pavilion.

Saturday, May 11 (10:00am-6:00pm)
Sunday, May 12 (10:00am-3:00pm)
Saturday, May 18 (10:00am-6:00pm)

Given the dates, I can almost guarantee that you won’t find anyone you can connect to in Ancestry’s new England, Medieval Soldier Database, 1368-1374. It’s before the systematic keeping of parish registers.

Ancestry lists the contents as 15,000 records taken from The Soldier in Later Medieval England. University of Southampton: Henley Business School. That source covers the period 1369 and 1453 derived from muster rolls.

In 20 generations or so from then until now there’s a good chance one or more of those named will be your ancestor, if your English heritage goes back that far.

This Saturday, 11 May 2024

9:00 am — 10:00 am EDT: Education Talk
Back to Basics: Immigration and Emigration Presenter: Ken McKinlay.

10:00 am – 11:30 am EDT: Feature Talk
My Farrell Brick Wall and New Cousins: From Inchigeelagh, Cork to Holytown, Scotland and St Andrew’s West, Ontario – Presenters: Helen O’Farrell Sloan and Dena Palamedes

This is a story of how patience, persistence and DNA can crumble a brick wall and reveal a new family.

Dena’s third great-grandfather, Thomas O’Farrell, was not to be found after 1851. His origins and ultimate outcome were unknown, a proverbial brick wall. Eight years after Dena’s family first started DNA testing, they found a match only an hour from home in Kemptville, Ontario, and the brick wall crumbled. This is the story of how two families reconnected and the search to find out more about Thomas’ two brothers.

Join in-person in Geneva Hall at Knox Presbyterian Church, 120 Lisgar St. on the corner of Elgin St, or online by registering here.