Author: John Reid

Now underway, the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Society’s 2022 Virtual International Conference has an innovative approach, AFAIK.

The five-day conference offers 60 live-streaming presentations, 100 pre-recorded presentations and 40 group meetings. That’s quite a menu!

Having parallel conference sessions is expected, so you can’t consume everything on the menu.

IAJGS attendees can select from three participation and pricing levels — the à la carte approach.

Explorer Level, any combination of up to 20 live-streaming presentations, pre-recorded sessions, and meetings from  21-25 August.

Enthusiast Level offers any combination of up to 50 live-streaming presentations, pre-recorded sessions, and meetings from 21-25 August.

Experienced Level (full access) offers access to ALL live-streaming presentations, pre-recorded presentations, and meetings from 21-25 August.

Each level includes access to each session you paid for and access to the Expo Hall and the Resource Library until 25 October.

This flexibility would be a challenge to police in an in-person conference, not so much online, another advantage of the virtual conference world.

 

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

The Woman in the Portrait
A BBC Radio Four podcast

We thought we’d show the realities of digitising archival material to try and get rid of some of the misconceptions.

This 43-second video shows the sped up process of digitisation , when in reality this process took around 10 minutes from beginning to end. pic.twitter.com/dqAGYgJTO7

— Cambridgeshire Archives (@CambsArchives) August 16, 2022

National Library of Scotland – Maps
An article about recent experience with crowdsourced maps transcription projects, experience that might benefit LAC Co-Lab.

MyHeritage adds Canada, Quebec, Catholic Parish Marriages
65,833 entries for Quebec Catholic parish marriage between the years 1782 and 1961, including images of the original. were added on 14 August.

Will WDYTYA Survive in the US?
Partial viewership ratings indicate this summer’s series of the US WDYTYA on NBC had substantially lower ratings thar the competition on CNS and ABC. Apparantly the series has not (yet?) beem renewed.

Ukraine war prompts Baltic states to remove Soviet memorials

Thanks to this week’s contributors: Anonymous, Brenda Turner, Bruce Murduck, Belia Lewis, Craig Milne, gail benjafield, Glenn Wright, Ken McKinlay, Teresa, and Unknown.

Most genealogists with British ancestry will have, sooner or later, to tackle tracing London ancestry. This ten-week course covers how to use London archives and repositories to learn more about Londoner ancestors as well as how the geography of London affected their lives.

The course of ten 90-minute lectures starts at 1 pm ET on 6 September continuing each Tuesday for 10 weeks to 8 November. Most lectures will be recorded and available to students for two weeks. Find out more at https://societyofgenealogists.arlo.co/w/events/266-lost-in-london

The fee is  £200 with a discount to £160 for the Society of Genealogists Members.

Tuesday 6 September 2022
Stuck in London
6:00 pm – 7:30 pm BST
1 hour 30 minutes
Online
Else Churchill. The Genealogist at the Society Genealogists in London and has over 30 years of experience as a genealogist. Formerly a professional genealogical librarian and researcher, Else has worked for the SoG since 1994. She now leads on external liaison, representation, and communications; the Society’s education and publishing programmes as well as being the Society’s subject specialist.

Tuesday 13 September 2022
Charles Booth’s London Poverty Maps
6:00 pm – 7:30 pm BST
1 hour 30 minutes
Online
Inderbir Bhullar. Indy Bhullar is a curator at LSE Library where he works closely with Economics and Social Policy collections. He has spent many years investigating the Charles Booth archive which is held at the library. Much of his time is spent speaking to students, lecturers and anyone who takes interest in the collections (more often than not the Booth papers!) and bringing them to broader public attention.

Tuesday 20 September 2022
Family History Sources in the London Metropolitan Archive
6:00 pm – 7:30 pm BST
1 hour 30 minutes
Online
Tom Furber. Tom is an Engagement and Learning Office at London Metropolitan Archives, working to connect LMA’s collections with a range of users, including schools, adults, and community groups He has worked in Museums and Archives for the past ten years and enjoys sharing his fascination for London History with novices and experienced archive users alike.

Tuesday 27 September 2022
Family History Sources in the Parliamentary Archives
6:00 pm – 7:30 pm BST
1 hour 30 minutes
Online
The Parliamentary Archives collects, preserves and makes accessible the records of UK Parliament. We provide a records management service for the House of Commons and House of Lords and operate a free public archives service. Penny McMahon, Outreach Archivist will give the talk.

Tuesday 4 October 2022
Family History Sources in the Guildhall Library
6:00 pm – 7:30 pm BST
1 hour 30 minutes
Online
Melanie Strong. Melanie Strong has been working as an Assistant Librarian at Guildhall Library for the past five years, specialising in family history and genealogy. Before that they worked for five years as the Heritage Officer for Libraries at Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives. Melanie has an MSc in Library and Information Studies from City University and a BA in African/Asian history from SOAS

Tuesday 11 October 2022
Sources for London Family History Sources in the National Archives
6:00 pm – 7:30 pm BST
1 hour 30 minutes
Online
Audrey Collins worked as a freelance researcher for 15 years before she was engaged in 2001 by the Office for National Statistics as their official Census historian for the bicentenary census in that year. She also served on the advisory panel for the 1901 census digitisation project. She joined The National Archives (UK) in 2002 and has been Family History Specialist there since 2009. She regularly gives talks for the TNA and others, and is the author of several publications, including ‘Birth Marriage & Death Records: A Guide for Family Historians’ with Dave Annal, available through Pen & Sword publications.

Tuesday 18 October 2022
London’s Port and People: using the Port of London Authority Archive
6:00 pm – 7:30 pm BST
1 hour 30 minutes
Online
Fiona Keates. Fiona is the Port and River Archivist working at the Museum of London Docklands. Having qualified as an Archivist she went on to work at the Royal Society and NSPCC, before joining the Museum in 2018.

Tuesday 25 October 2022
Changes to London Street names and numbering
6:00 pm – 7:30 pm BST
1 hour 30 minutes
Online
Bruce Hunt. Bruce was born on Hampstead Heath and immediately fell in love with London. He worked in the Stock Exchange at the very heart of the City. He is also a qualified computer programmer and member of the London Topographical Society who has been researching his family tree for over 30 years. His maternal grandmother was born in Aveton Road, East Finchley, and his mother grew up there. As a small child, he was taken to see the houses that had not been destroyed in the Blitz, just before it was all redeveloped and the road name disappeared. The need to find missing road names and places in London led directly to the creation of his website, maps.thehunthouse.com, to share the information he found. 14 years later, it still ‘grows like Topsy’.

Tuesday 1 November 2022
How the railways shaped London
6:00 pm – 7:30 pm GMT
1 hour 30 minutes
Online
Vicki Pipe. Vicki’s curiosity in railways lies with the stories of social change, and how public transport has altered our sense of space and surroundings. She is the co-creator of All The Stations, an online documentary project which saw her visit every single railway station in the UK and Ireland. She is the author of The Railway Adventures and Great British Railways: 50 Things To See and Do, and is also a regular columnist for the industry magazine Modern Railways, where she has a focus on Community Rail. When not writing about or travelling on trains Vicki works full-time in museums. She specialises in audience engagement and has worked with artists and communities from around the world.

Tuesday 8 November 2022
Society of Genealogists library London sources
6:00 pm – 7:30 pm GMT
1 hour 30 minutes
Online
Else Churchill. The Genealogist at the Society Genealogists in London and a has over 30 years of experience as a genealogist. Formerly a professional genealogical librarian and researcher, Else has worked for the SoG since 1994. She now leads on external liaison, representation, and communications; the Society’s education and publishing programmes as well as being the Society’s subject specialist.

It isn’t every week I find ancestors in all the collections with additions at Findmypast.

Suffolk: Baptism Index 1538-1911
Over 307,000 index records have been added to this existing collection. Covering 232 churches, too many to detail here, the additions for 1813-1900 are indicated as NEW at https://www.findmypast.com/articles/suffolk-baptism-index-place-list, which lists 576 churches in total. Northeast Suffolk has many additions; this release completes the set for 1813-1900 for Suffolk baptisms at Findmypast.
Thanks are due to the volunteers of the Suffolk Family History Society.

Staffordshire Baptisms
A further 141,000 records across 28 churches have been added to this existing collection, which now stands at 2.1
million records. Many include original images where residences and fathers’ occupations may be found.

Staffordshire Marriages
Another 70,000 records have been added to this collection from 19 churches, some going back to the 1560s.

 

Of Library and Archives Canada’s Co-Lab Challenges progress is reported on three 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 9% complete, up from 8% last month.

Travel posters in the Marc Choko collection is 98% complete, 96% last month.

Women in the War remains 0% 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 is 93% complete, 92% last month.

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.

August 19 marks the 80th anniversary of the Dieppe Raid.

Known as Operation Jubilee, an Allied force of about 6,200, including 5,000 Canadians, landed on the French coast on the morning of 19 August 1942. From the moment they touched the beach, they were no match for the entrenched German forces. In vicious fighting, the landing force was overwhelmed. In all, 916 Canadian soldiers paid with their lives, 586 were wounded, and 1,946 were taken prisoner. The Dieppe Raid remains one of the worst disasters in Canadian military history.

Robert D’Aoust has researched and compiled biographical information on the 916 soldiers who died. The Sacrifice We Will Not Forget, Dieppe Raid, hot of the press, consists of three volumes and more than 1100 pages with a profile of every one of the soldiers, including extensive personal and service information, photographs, where buried or commemorated and any additional information such as action and eye-witness reports, clippings, extracts from letters and much more.

These volumes tell the story of the Dieppe Raid through the service and sacrifice of those Canadian soldiers who took part
in the operation, especially those who died on that August morning eighty years ago.

Robert has produced similar books on those who died during the Second World War. His Ultimate Sacrifice (4 volumes) pays tribute to all those who died while serving with the Royal Canadian Navy, the Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve and the Royal Canadian Naval Reserve. They Gave Their All (4 volumes) is a similar tribute to those were served and died with Canada’s Merchant Marine, unique as they contain information that is not generally or easily available.

The Sacrifice We Will Not Forget, Dieppe Raid and Robert’s previous books are available from Lehmann Bookbinding Ltd, info@lehmannbookbinding.com/.

You may also find the volumes at a local library.  Ultimate Sacrifice is available at the Canadian War Museum and the Ottawa and Toronto Public Libraries.

Thanks to Glenn Wright, who penned this post.

The first new records posted by Deceased Online this year are now available — over 200,000 cremation records from Leicester City Council’s Gilroes Crematorium. Some 218,000 cremations, and 135,000 burials at the adjoining cemetery, have taken place at Gilroes.

These register scans for all but the latest records cover from 1902, when the crematorium opened, one of the oldest, to 2019.

Less complete information on cremations since 1950 may be found free at the Gilroes Crematorium Book of Remembrance.

Leicester burial records are also updated at Deceased Online with additional records up to 2019.

Deceased Online is working on more than 2,000,000 additional burial and cremation records to add to the over 30 million records from over 1,000 locations across the UK now available.

Thinking of a genealogy trip to Scotland? If so, you will want to dip into this special Scotland 2023 souvenir edition, an annual that will help you plan your travels beyond the archives and libraries in 2023 and beyond.

Available through PressReader which is likely online for free through your public library, the magazine brings you “a curated collection of inspiring travel tales, all tinged with the history and heritage. In 100 pages, you can read about some of our most impressive castles and stately homes-many of which are still the family seats of some of Scotland’s most powerful clans.”

Coverage is Southwest Scotland, the Borders, Glasgow & the Clyde, Edinburgh & Lothians, Fife, Argyle & Lomond, Perthshire& Stirlingshire, Northeast Scotland, The Highland, and The Islands.

Discover handpicked top attractions, events, travel tips  and places to eat and drink — you wouldn’t want to miss out on where to dine on braised pork cheeks, venison carpaccio and buckwheat gnocchi in Glasgow! Want more? Lots of web links are included to keep you in the know about developments since publication.

The most recent addition to the 2022 BIFHSGO conference website is a short “In their own words” video by Andrea Heatherington whose presentation is on the emigration of WW I widows.

It joins those by Alan Ruston, Gill Blanchard, Derek Blount, and Ian Waller. 

Dave Annal, Mia Bennett, Beryl Evans, Janet Few, Caroline Gurney, Paul Milner, and Gill Thomas are the other speakers. BIFHSGO expects to add “In their own words” videos from most if not all of them. Stay tuned.

Time is ticking down to the start of the conference,  watch it happen and link to the videos at www.bifhsgo.ca/2022-BIFHSGO-Conference. That’s also where you’ll find the link to register.

The following information received by email from the Ottawa Public Library is encouraging.

“Before the pandemic, a customer suggested that the OPL become an affiliate library of this organization. We followed up by email with FamilySearch.org, during the pandemic, while our branches were closed, I received an affiliate agreement from the organization

Since customers have to come into the library physically to access this resource because remote access is not available, we suspended this project simply because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The pandemic isn’t over, but our branches are now open. I will discuss this with my managers and will let you know our decision as soon as possible.

OPL strives to provide the best Genealogy resource to our community, I just want to let you know that we just added MyHeritage Library Edition on July 1, 2022. By adding the MyHeritage Library Edition, OPL can provide convenient remote access genealogy services for our customers.”

The following is an announcement of a new feature on Findmypast of interest to subscribers.

“With Tree Search, you can search other Findmypast members’ family trees for your deceased ancestors (those marked as deceased on a family tree or aged over 110 years old).

Search for ancestors you have in common with others
Gather information from other members’ research and even privately message that member.

If a tree owner has shared their deceased ancestors, you can review details such as names, other relatives, and milestone moments, with the option to add them to your own family tree to help it grow.

You can use Tree Search for free when logged into your Findmypast account via the site menu or directly from your family tree builder. To view search results in more detail, you will need an active, valid subscription or a 14-day free trial.

Other members viewing your family tree information can’t change or edit it. They can only see some details from your tree, and if relevant, they can add them to their own. This will only ever be for deceased ancestors or those over 110 years old.

In time, you will be able to view entire family trees of other Findmypast members, featuring all their deceased ancestors, provided they have opted-in to sharing this information.”

COVID broke the mould on conferences. Suddenly, by necessity, the virtual conference came into vogue.

Have a conversation with someone involved with a family history society these days and the topic of in-person vs virtual vs hybrid conferences is bound to come up. People miss personal contact, absent with a virtual event, but relish the wider range of speakers possible online and the lower cost. How can you create conferences that combine the most valuable features of the various types?

This is an issue for all kinds of organizations, especially, although not just, those with geographically dispersed membership.

The article The Many Faces of Meetings: A Taxonomy of Emerging Models for In-Person and Hybrid Conferences examines seven models. Have you heard of the Hub and Spoke, and the Parallel models?

The leadership of our societies will want to be open to exploring new models.