Author: John Reid

So far this year FamilySearch has made changes, updated or added records, to eight indexed collections online for the UK and Ireland.

Collection Title	Records	Last Updated
England, Cumberland Parish Registers, 1538-1990	39,798	25-Jan-23
Ireland, Catholic Parish Registers, 1740-1900	1,804,845	23-Jan-23
Ireland, Prison Registers, 1798-1928	3,127,594	23-Jan-23
United Kingdom, British India Office, Births and Baptisms, 1712-1965	713,850	20-Jan-23
England, Military Pension and Service Records, 1702-1933	911,344	20-Jan-23
United Kingdom, Royal Air Force Service Records, 1912-1945	342,823	11-Jan-23
England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975	46,640,642	03-Jan-23
England Deaths and Burials, 1538-1991	15,000,390	03-Jan-23
England Marriages, 1538-1973	12,153,070	03-Jan-23

All except the 3 large BMD collections are transcriptions with linked images that are available at FamilySearch libraries and affiliate libraries.

There have been no additions to Canadian indexed records online since last August.

This collection contains 274,226 burial and cremation records from the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley from 1859 onwards. The cemeteries are:

Dudley Cemetery
Stourbridge Cemetery and Crematorium
Gornal Wood Cemetery and Crematorium
Lye and Wollescote Cemetery
Cradley Cemetery
Halesowen Cemetery
Brierley Hill Cemetery.

Records typically include the deceased’s name, year of birth, date of death, and date and place of burial. Information on the type of burial, service, and the grave’s location within the cemetery may also be included.

Today the Drouin Institute launches the 2023 edition of its contest in which 5 participants will win a 1-year subscription to GenealogyQuebec.com worth $129.

Registering for the draw just requires entering a valid email address at https://mailchi.mp/institutdrouin/concours2023en

The contest closes on 6 February.

Good luck.

The following Ancestry collections have been updated.

Web: Scotland, General and Admission Registers for Asylums, 1858-1918
Published on Ancestry9/29/2020, Updated 1/20/2023
Now with 165,561 records.

Web: Scotland, Sheriff Court Paternity Decrees, 1792-1922
Published on Ancestry3/15/2018, Updated 1/20/2023
Now with 128,825 records.

Web: Scotland, Prison Records Index, 1828-1878
Published on Ancestry 9/30/2014, Updated1/20/2023
Now with 173,186 records

Web in these titles refers to https://www.scottishindexes.com/

The TDC Library has a digital collection online that includes admission and examination registers. Find them by searching for admission or examination at https://digitalcollections.tcd.ie/. There’s also a Printed Catalogue of Graduates of the university.

I got interested in this when researching my great-grandfather who was a graduate of TCD, but appears to have been in the Birmingham area during the time I would have expected he would be studying in Dublin. It turns out it was possible to get a TCD degree by being registered by passing an exam without studying there, that’s according to the book Trinity College, Dublin, 1592-1952 : an academic history, by R. B. McDowell, D. A. Webb, a copy of which is at Library and Archives Canada.

 

For new and returning clients only, not those with an existing account, Fold3 offers unlimited one-year access for $49.95 US until 31 January.

Fold3 has nearly 600 million records from the US Revolutionary War, US Civil War, WWI, WWIl, and more.

Fold3’s collection includes original military records, photos, and stories of the men and women who served

The collection has 540 million US records, 42 million UK, 3.3 million for Ireland, and 2.6 million for Canada.

Choose from a few selected free online events in the next five days. All times are ET except as noted. Those in red are Canadian, bolded if local to Ottawa or recommended. Assume registration in advance is required; check so you’re not disappointed. Additional mainly US events are listed at https://conferencekeeper.org/virtual.

All times are ET except as noted. Those in red are Canadian, bolded if local to Ottawa or recommended. Assume registration in advance is required; check so you’re not disappointed.

TUESDAY 24 JANUARY

2 pm: OGS Ottawa Branch Virtual Drop-in.
https://meet.google.com/nvz-kftj-dax

2 pm: MyHeritage: Your Personal Genealogy Archive, by Melissa Barker for Legacy Family Tree Webinars/MyHeritage.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/myheritage-your-personal-genealogy-archive/

WEDNESDAY 25 JANUARY

1 pm: Louis XIV: Versailles, Europe and the Arts. by Philip Mansel for Gresham College.
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/whats-on/versailles-arts

2 pm:  Trail of Tears to Indian Territory, by Billie Stone Fogarty for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/trail-of-tears-to-indian-territory-by-billie-stone-fogarty-m-ed/

7 pm: Thomas Mackay & The Making of Ottawa, by Alastair Sweeny for the Ottawa Historical Society.
https://www.historicalsocietyottawa.ca/activities/events/eventdetail/85/16,17,19,21/thomas-mackay-the-making-of-ottawa

THURSDAY 26 JANUARY – SATURDAY 28 JANUARY

BROADEN YOUR HORIZONS
A selection of recent lectures from Gresham College.

 

 

 

Statistics Canada is conducting a public consultation on the 2026 Census of Population from 9 January  –  31 March.

“The online consultation questionnaire is designed to gather information about how and why Canadians use census data, the type of information they believe should be available from the census, and details of other data sources that could be used to supplement or replace current census content. The information gathered during consultations will help Statistics Canada assess the data needs of Canadians and evaluate whether emerging social and economic trends are reflected. Your feedback will help Statistics Canada determine the content of the 2026 Census of Population questionnaire.

Comments collected during the consultation may be published anonymously in the 2026 Census of Population Content Consultation Report, which will be available on the Statistics Canada website in the fall of 2024.”

The questionaure is at https://census.gc.ca/2026consultation-questionnaire .

Comment: The purpose of the census is to provide “a detailed statistical portrait of Canada and its people by their demographic, social and economic characteristics.” It’s use is “to plan public services such as health care, education, and transportation; determine federal transfer payments; and determine the number of Members of Parliament for each province and territory.”

Wikipedia has an article on Census in Canada.

Statistics Canada has repeatedly stated that given the purpose as a statistical portrait no consideration is given to genealogist requirements in formulting the census questions. That’s despite the fact that the detailed census data, with information on individuals, is required to be released to the public, at present after 92 years. If parliament did not want such release there would be no point in requiring it.

The census should, at a minimum, provide a snapshot in time to assist genealogists to accurately trace a family history.

Input to the consultation is the kind of activity a genealogical society with a mandate for advocacy should be undertaking on our behalf.

Scarlet Finders is a site for those researching British military nurses, Voluntary Aid Detachments and military hospitals in the First World War, and it includes transcriptions of records. In addition, it links to a sister site, the Fairest Force focusing on nurses’ experiences in France and Flanders during the First World War.

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

The Year of the Rabbit, or Cat
Kung Hei Fat Choy! (Cantonese) or Gong Xi Fa Cai! (Mandarin).

A Chronology of Items of Meteorological Interest
An outline of developments in understanding weather and climate.

How NARA is digitizing over 200 million pages of government records (podcast)
How many is LAC digitizing?

All About Ledgers in the Archives
From Arnprior & McNab/Braeside Archives

Should We Cancel Martin Luther King Jr.?
The latest from Dan Gardner

Tracing your Theatrical Ancestors: a Guide for Family Historians
New from Pen and Sword.

Archives Time! – Comic

Last minute notice: Home Child presentation.
The Halton-Peel Branch will welcome author Carol Marie Newall to speak online meeting today, Sunday, 22 January at 2:00 pm about her book: “Outside the Gate: The True Story of a British Home Child in Canada.”  Register in advance at: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZckc–grTsrE9SUq3a3fqsq1KZIRLdpsoVD

On Monday evening OGS Toronto Branch holds its first meeting of 2023, at 7:30 pm.

While building his family tree, Rick Hill was surprised to discover a 3^rd great-grandmother who could have boasted that three of her four grandparents were United Empire Loyalists – and she had a Loyalist great-grandfather, too! During the American Revolutionary War, these UEL ancestors – Henry Dennis, his son John, John’s wife Martha (née Brown), and Lawrence Johnson – all fled Pennsylvania. Three of the four made it out of the future USA, first to Nova Scotia, and ultimately to York Township and the town of York in Upper Canada. Their stories include the Battle of St. Lucia, the Quaker religion, losing a husband at sea, founding a settlement that banned slave masters, shipbuilding in Kingston, ill-starred actions in the War of 1812, a house at the corner of King & Yonge, a Methodist bishop, and the first customer of a new burial ground.

The evening begins with a mini presentation from Branch Chair Carol Ufford: From No Story to a Life Story—Breaking Down a Brick Wall. When Carol started working on her family history, she only knew her great grandmother’s name—and that turned out to be wrong! Carol will tell the story how, over a thirty-year time span, she managed to break down that brick wall and fill in her great grandmother’s life story.

All are welcome to attend. Weather permitting this will be a hybrid presentation, in person at Lansing United Church (Beecroft Road and Poyntz Avenue, Toronto) or register to attend virtually via Zoom:
https://torontofamilyhistory.org/event/interesting-times/

Before listing the feature articles in the February issue, a brief mention of the interview with Caroline Dodds Pennock about her new book, Savage Shores.
It traces the remarkable and little-known stories of tens and tens of thousands of Indigenous Americans who voyaged to Europe after 1492, many as slaves.

The interview is also online in the History Extra podcast. Apparently, a large proportion went to Spain and Portugal, but I can find no reference to studies in Iberia that mention finding corresponding DNA.

Feature articles are:

Medieval marvels
lan Mortimer hails the staggering progress – in everything from medicine to exploration — achieved by our medieval ancestors.

Histories of fear
Kate Summerscale explores what five phobias reveal about our anxieties though the centuries.

A golden age for women?
Marion Turner on what Chaucer’s Wife of Bath can tell us about a time of great change for women.

How the Holocaust began
James Bulgin on how the German invasion of the Soviet Union triggered a policy of annihilation in eastern Europe.
As with all things holocaust, this is nighmare-inducing reading.

Forgotten Tudor voices
Lucy Wooding profiles eight people whose experiences shed light on the challenges of life in the 16th century.
An easy read for thise with a short attention span.

The chaotic 17th century
Jonathan Healey argues that people power drove the unrest that buffeted England in the age of Charles 1 and Oliver Cromwell.