Author: John Reid

An abbreviated list this week.

Choose from 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.

Tuesday 24 May. 2 pm: Virtual Genealogy Drop-In, from Ottawa Branch of OGS and The Ottawa Public Library.
https://ottawa.ogs.on.ca/events/

Tuesday 24 May. 2 pm: Jump-starting Your 1950 Census Research with Census Helper™, by Uri Goren fofrMyHeritage and Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/jump-starting-your-1950-census-research-with-census-helper/

Tuesday 24 May. 2:30 pm: Preservation Primer, Part One: The Basics of Preserving our Physical Artifacts, by Curt Witcher for Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center.
https://acpl.libnet.info/event/6588624

Wednesday 25 May. 2 pm:  Seeking the Best Evidence: Targeted Testing for Genetic Genealogy Proof, by Paul Woodbury for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/seeking-the-best-evidence-targeted-testing-for-genetic-genealogy-proof/

Thursday 26 May. 6:30 pm: Preservation Primer, Part Two: The Basics of Writing our Stories to Preserve our Families’ Histories, by Curt Witcher for Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center.
https://acpl.libnet.info/event/6588657

Saturday 28 May. 1 pm: Middleville and District Museum (Ottawa), by Museum Staff for Ottawa Branch OGS.
https://ottawa.ogs.on.ca/events/ottawa-branch-presentation-2022-05-28/

The following fallen RAF airmen are buried at Goderich (Maitland) Cemetry.

Robert Alexander Balden
Service Number: 1591999
Leading Aircraftman
Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
Age 19 years.
Son of William Reginald and Mary (Digges La Touche) Balden, of Dewsbury, Yorkshire, England. Through his mother he had notable Huguenot ancestry.

Walter William Ronald Dawes
Service Number: 153373
Flying Officer
Royal Air Force
Age 22 years.
Son of Walter Taylor Dawes and Lottie Dawes, of Alfreton, Derbyshire, England.
He had received a scholarship to Reading University.

They were killed at 11:30 am on 22 October 1944 when their Anson V aircraft crashed and burned 10 miles Northeast of 31 Air Navigation School, Port Albert.

 

In case you’re wondering, my selected system for sending the daily email stopped working a few days ago. It was abruptly terminated, without notification.

It will take a while to find an alternate. In the meantime come directly to this site. I’m also posting links on Twitter
@JohnDReid
·

 

The annual War Graves Week started on the 21st in the UK and Europe. It aims to encourage communities to come together and discover the World War heritage on their doorstep.
Although not a thing in Canada, I’m taking the opportunity this week to profile some of the 13 RAF airmen who died in Canada while training during the Second World War, buried at the well-cared-for Goderich (Maitland) Cemetery, which I visited recently.

A significant addition of Sussex parish records came to Ancestry on 19 May. For both East and West Sussex, sourced from the respective county record offices, these are transcriptions and images of the original record. The images are both linked and browsable.

Most are baptisms, marriages and burials, with the addition of nearly 30,000 East Sussex confirmations.

Title	Records
East Sussex, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1920	2,829,740
East Sussex, Church of England Confirmations, 1813-1927	29,966
East Sussex, Church of England Deaths and Burials, 1813-1995	398,334
East Sussex, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812	3,142,798
West Sussex, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1936	654,185
West Sussex, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812	1,492,381
West Sussex, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1920	1,180,923
West Sussex, England, Church of England Deaths and Burials, 1813-1995	285,817

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

You likely aren’t getting a regular daily email. I’m working on it.

Statistical “Which Character” Personality Quiz

McCord Museum has 130,000 royalty-free images online

Thanks to this week’s contributors. Anonymous, Brenda Glover, Brenda Turner, Glenn W., Jane MacNamara, Teresa, Toni, Unknown.

Overall, for England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, the British Newspaper Archive has available 7.3 pages per 100 population.

There’s a Northern bias. For Scotland and Northern Ireland, it’s 10.5 per 100 population. For England 5.1 and Wales 6.0.

That even shows within England. Northumberland (17.4), Cumberland (13.6) and Westmorland (11.1) punch above their weight. That’s except for London, the count is skewed as it’s where the national journals are assigned.

The Scottish origins of Dundee-based DC Thomson, operational partner for the BNA, show.

I can only describe Debbie Kennett’s article LivingDNA review in WDYTYA magazine as kind.

At £99 ($158 Cdn), the Living DNA test is substantially more costly than the competition.

For the price, in addition to an autosomal DNA test, it does provide basic paternal (males only) and maternal lines haplogroup reports. But there is no capability to use those to find matches, and as the autosomal database has 300,000 people, compared with 21 million at AncestryDNA, you are 70 times more likely to see an autosomal match with Ancestry.

LivingDNA breaks British Isles ancestry down into 21 regions, although none of those are for Ireland. There is also no Jewish category. Debbie comments that “the reports have generally matched my known ancestry reasonably well.” That is not my experience. LivingDNA suggests; that after Ireland (much less than other companies), North and South Yorkshire are my top regions, but I don’t have known ancestry in either of those!

If you have a test from another company there’s another option. You can upload your basic data to Living DNA for free.  It will be included in the matching database, and you will receive a basic continental-level ancestry breakdown (something you;ll have from the company youi tested with.) You can get Living DNA’s more detailed analysis for £29 ($46 Cdn.)

Debbie claims, without giving details, that as the only major genetic genealogy company that keeps all of your data in Europe, Living DNA better protects privacy and data security.

The review points out the various cons of the Living DNA test; after six years in business, it’s hard to recommend the company test compared to the competition, something Debbie’s article does not say explicitly.

Baptisms, asylum registers, WW1 hospital records, and tithe awards are included in the 350,000 new Wiltshire records this week from Findmypast via the Wiltshire FHS.

Wiltshire Baptisms Index 1530-1917 are transcriptions from parish registers and bishop’s transcripts.  The 70,000 new records come from nine parishes. The whole collection is 2,956,437 records.

Wiltshire Asylum Registers, 1789-1921 adds 27,761 transcript records from six institutions. Expect to find the name,  admission date, and age. Occupation, marital condition, place of residence, status – i.e. private, pauper, criminal, discharge date (or date of death, if death occurred at the institution).

Wiltshire WW1 Hospital Records has 6,279 records from three hospitals in Wiltshire – the Old Sarum Isolation Hospital, the Harnham Red Cross Hospital, and the Salisbury Infirmary. Expect to find: name, rank, service number and unit, age, length of service, admission date, where admitted, and details of injury or disease. There appear to be no Canadians included.

Wiltshire Tithe Award Register 1813-1882  includes 257,246 transcript entries showing the name of occupier, name of the owner, description of the property, including size and land use, and date of the survey.

Edinburgh, Scotland, Lord Provost Passports, 1845-1916, sourced from the Edinburgh City Archives, is a collection of 17,112 handwritten records.
Passports from Scotland before 1916 are rare.

Records, typically for  business travellers or the wealthy,  may include the following information:

• Person’s name
• Residence
• Date of residence
• Spouse’s name
• Names of next of kin (or reference)
• Relationships to next of kin (or reference
• Destination (often just “continent”)

There’ also a browse option in nine books.

Of Library and Archives Canada’s Co-Lab Challenges progress is reported on two, including one new since last month.

Summiting Mount Logan in 1925: Fred Lambart’s personal account of the treacherous climb and descent of the highest peak in Canada is new and 5% complete.

Travel posters in the Marc Choko collection is 52% complete, 41% last month.

Women in the War remains 0% complete.

First World War Posters, with 140 images, remains 99% complete.

Arthur Lismer’s Children’s Art Classes remains 0% complete.

John Freemont Smith remains 93% complete.

Canadian National Land Settlement Association remains 98% complete.

Molly Lamb Bobak with 226 images remains 91% 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 96% complete.

Legendary Train Robber and Prison Escapee Bill Miner remains 99% complete.

Japanese-Canadians: Second World War remains 0% complete.

The Call to Duty: Canada’s Nursing Sisters remains 92% complete.

Projects that remain 100% complete are no longer reported here.

Other unidentified Co-Lab activities not part of the Challenges may have happened.