Author: John Reid

Over 10 million new baptism, marriage, and burial records, the largest collection of Scottish family history records available online.

Scotland, Parish Births & Baptisms 1564-1929
Vital details of Scots from all walks of life, including some of the country’s most famous sons and daughters. — Robert Burns, Alexander Graham Bell, Scipio Kennedy and many more.

Scotland, Parish Marriages & Banns 1561-1893
Millions of new regular, irregular and cross-border marriage records are now online, some for the very first time. Rare “irregular marriages” occurred during Kirk Sessions, were not officially recorded in parish registers and were conducted without a ceremony.

Scotland, Parish Deaths & Burials 1564-2017
Millions of new records, published in partnership with local societies, archives, and volunteers including:

The Scottish Genealogy Society
Fife Family History Society
The Highland Family History Society
Dumfries & Galloway Family History Society
Renfrewshire Family History Society
Lothians Family History Society
Lanarkshire Family History Society
Glasgow & West of Scotland Family History Society
West Lothian Family History Society. \

The title Canada, Newspapers.com Marriage Index, 1800s-1999 which Ancestry introduced on 15 January is now expanded to 6,927,942 records. The index entry, based on OCRd text, is fairly basic: name, name of spouse, date and sometimes a bit more. For the colourful details of the bride’s wedding dress, where they honeymooned, etc you’ll need access to the original newspaper at Newspaper.com. It may be available through your public library,

Also updated is U.S., Newspapers.com Marriage Index, 1800s-1999  with 254,970,138 records.

Here is the latest survey of top tweeters for #genealogy and #familyhistory in the past few days.

Rank	#genealogy	Count		#familyhistory	Count
1	FamilyTreeTips2	41		FamilyTreeTips2	88
2	Heirs2U	21		Heirs2U	55
3	GeneaStudies	20		CaroleParkes1	55
4	skcgs1	18		chiddickstree	45
5	chiddickstree	16		ConfKeep	41
6	sillymummyft	15		FederationFHS	37
7	GenealogyWise	15		BeyondBrickWal1	29
8	marksology	11		MarianBWood	26
9	ClioVis	11		geneastories	24
10	BgrgSeattle	11		STTBooks	23
11	BeyondBrickWal1	11		GenesBlog	23
12	MarianBWood	10		GenealogyWise	22
13	KentuckySociety	10		karendebruyne	21
14	karendebruyne	10		GeneaStudies	19
15	bonavacantia1	10		YFH_genealogy	18
16	WSGSociety	9		LynnsWPics	17
17	pennysresearch	9		HouseHistoryHr	17
18	ConfKeep	9		GenealogyBank	16
19	AmericanCousin1	9		ClioVis	16
20	CranesfootLance	8		FamilyHistoryUK	14

As previously in April, FamilyTreeTips2 retains the top spot. It promotes items from familytreetips.co.uk which appears to be out of Brighton, England. Topics on that blog are : British Research, DNA Tips, Dutch Research, Freemason Research, French Research, General Tips, German Research, Italian Research, Military Tips, Photographs, Preservation Tips, Researching on a Budget.

Remaining in second place is Heirs2U, a genealogist out of Cramlington, UK (near Newcastle Upon Tyne).

Third is chiddickstree from Paul Chiddicks, who writes a regular column for Family Tree magazine (UK). It replaces ClioVis which drops to 7th overall.

A post yesterday on additions to the Canadiana.ca serials collection was inadvertently deleted. Here are those items again and some additions to the Heritage collection this month.

For the serials collection, which are OCRd:

Evening times star (Saint John, N.B.)  for 2 May 1910 to 15 January 1927, That’s a run of 2,177 issues with a few issues missing from the paper’s launch and, no doubt, gaps internally.

Union Publishing Co.’s farmers’ and business directory for the counties of Carleton, Dundas, Glengarry, Grenville, Lanark, Prescott, Russell and Stormont, for 1894. There are now 9 issues from 1885 to 1899.  The is a good source for finding rural land lot and concession numbers.

The additions this month to the Heritage archival collection are:

Canada. Department of the Interior : Letters patent (Western Land Grants) 1907. Microfilm C-6146 and Mikan 156853.

Directorate of Movements : Marine files 1945 . Microfilm C-5635 and Mikan 135140. The file includes information on the military voyages of the Ile de France that arrived in Halifax on 21 October 1945 with 9900 passengers and the Lady Nelson arriving Halifax on 6 November 1945 with 500 passengers.

Nominal rolls and paylists for the Volunteer Militia 1855-19141879-1897 . Microfilm T-16674 and Mikan 194987.

 

Headlining the August WDYTYA issue is Sporting Ancestors by Keith Gregson, author of a book by the same title. He explains how football, rugby, cricket and tennis among others exploded in popularity in the UK in the Victorian period, culminating in the re-establishment of the Olympic Games. Look to digitized newspapers as a major source for finding family members competing, as I did to find a relative playing cricket for Rokeby, Saskatchewan. You may be lucky and find preserved ephemera such as scorecards, club programs, magazines and annual reports.
Nick Peers writes in Photo Books on how you can bring your photos together in a professionally printed book to be treasured down the generations (perhaps)!
Felix Rowe writes about The Packet Service, the way mail was transported outside Great Britain before being contracted to private companies like Cunard around 1850,

Other content is how to get more out of trade directories and a masterclass guide to Prairie Province’s censuses of 1906, 1916 and 1926.

A reminder that the issue is available free online through Press Reader at the Ottawa Public Library website and many other Canadian public libraries for their subscribers.

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. Assume registration in advance is required; check so you’re not disappointed.

Tuesday 27 July, 2 pm: Virtual Genealogy Drop-In, from Ottawa Branch of OGS and The Ottawa Public Library. https://ottawa.ogs.on.ca/events/.

Tuesday 27 July 2:30 pm: Using Maps for (US) Genealogy Research, by Philip Sutton for Allen Country Public Library Genealogy Center. https://acpl.libnet.info/event/5312286

Wednesday 28 July, 2 pm: Specialized Lineage Societies – more than just DAR, Dames and Mayflower, by Kimberly Ormsby Nagy for Legacy Family Tree Webinars. https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar_details.php?webinar_id=1637

Thursday 29 July, 6:30 pm: The 21st Century Bookshelf:
Books, Manuscripts, & Documents in the World of Bytes: Finding Your Ancestor’s Five Senses, by Curt Witcher for Allen Country Public Library Genealogy Center. https://acpl.libnet.info/event/5322266

Coming

19 – 26 September 2021: BIFHSGO Conference. Irish Lines and Female Finds: Exploring Irish records, female ancestors and genetic genealogy. www.bifhsgo2021.ca/.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission records 2,856 locations in Canada where they have memorials to 18,851 war dead.

Row Labels	FWW Casualties	SWW Casualties	Total Casualties
Alberta	432	644	1076
British Columbia	751	740	1491
Manitoba	669	553	1222
New Brunswick	328	287	615
Newfoundland and Labrador	131	347	480
Nova Scotia	1013	3469	4482
Ontario	2741	3556	6298
Prince Edward Island	85	100	185
Quebec	956	1055	2011
Saskatchewan	367	632	999
Yukon Territory	0	2	2
Grand Total	7473	11385	18861

For both wars, Ontario has the most commemorations, followed by Nova Scotia and Quebec.

The Halifax Memorial commemorates 3,141 Canadian and Newfoundland sailors, merchant seamen, soldiers and nursing sisters who lost their lives at sea, and also bears the names of men of the Canadian Army stationed in Canada who have no known grave, most from the SWW.

The Ottawa Memorial commemorates 820 commemorates men and women who lost their lives while serving or training with the Air Forces of the Commonwealth in Canada, the West Indies and the United States and who have no known grave.

There are 1,726 Canadian locations with a single burial.

896 locations in Ontario have CWGC commemoration, 622 for the First World War, 541 for the SWW.

Cemetery	First World War Casualties	Second World War Casualties	Total Casualties
OTTAWA MEMORIAL	0	820	820
TORONTO (PROSPECT) CEMETERY	400	248	648
TORONTO (MOUNT PLEASANT) CEMETERY	125	105	230
OTTAWA (BEECHWOOD) CEMETERY	99	113	212
KITCHENER (WOODLAND) CEMETERY	40	162	202
TORONTO (ST. JOHN’S NORWAY) CEMETERY	118	79	197
TORONTO (MOUNT HOPE) CEMETERY	79	73	152
KINGSTON (CATARAQUI) CEMETERY	61	85	146
LONDON (MOUNT PLEASANT) CEMETERY	97	44	141
HAMILTON CEMETERY	128	12	140
OTTAWA NOTRE DAME CEMETERY	42	73	115

 

Stop by at www.facebook.com/myheritage today (Monday 26 July) at 2 pm ET when I’ll be offering another pub quiz.  How many of the 20 questions can you get right, by guess or knowledge.

Years ago at TNA I was lucky to be able to attend a memourable talk by Paul Carter. So when I saw he was giving an online talk on Friday I made sure not to miss it.  He used letters to the Poor Law Commissioners in London, archived in series MH 12 at TNA, to illustrate paupers concerns of being denied any relief, the breakup of home and family, medical care, and workhouse conditions.

Paul pointed out that the study is only possible as all material, including incoming letters from the poor, were in bound volumes, otherwise the letters would likely have been discarded as ephemera — just as happened in Canada with letters in First World War military files.

The talk, and the equally informative question period, is to be made available on TNA’s website.

There’s another opportunity to hear Paul on the Victorian Poor: In Their Own Write: Punishing the Victorian Pauper Complainer, on Friday 13 August at 9 am ET. Book tickets at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/in-their-own-write-punishing-the-victorian-pauper-complainer-tickets-161770404635?aff=wowp

Paul mentioned a forthcoming book, In Their Own Write, to be published by McGill-Queen’s University Press next year (with luck).

The following TNA research guides are of interest:

Poverty and Poor Laws: https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/poverty-poor-laws/

Workhouse inmates and staff https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/workhouse-inmate-or-member-of-staff/

Workhouses: https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/workhouse/

Anglican Baptisms, Marriages and Burials records,  provided in association with Archifrau Cymru: Archives Wales, are updated for:

Merionethshire, Wales,  1568-1994, now with  510,239 records
Monmouthshire, Wales, 1551-1994, now with  1,805,836 records
Montgomeryshire, Wales, 1569-1994, now with  1,205,155 records

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

Climate and mountains shaped human ancestral genetic lineages

LAC Podcast Episode 67 – LAC is a gold mine!
An apt analogy!

The Time of Cholera: A Case Study about Historical Context
A reminder that if you don’t have a Legacy Family Tree Webinars subscription you have until the 27th to view Alison Hare’s presentation for free.

Finding on the Ground: Then and Now in Ontario
The latest blog post from Ken McKinlay explaining the use of Ontario land records, this post for an urban area.

Thanks to this week’s contributors: Anonymous, Family History Finds Judith H., Unknown.

Scotland, Modern and Civil Deaths & Burials 1855-2021
Over 62,000 additions to discover the details of death, burial, residence, occupation and next of kin in this growing national collection. It now contains 3,382,827 records.

This is a compilation from “a number of sources, including local government burial indexes held by various councils and archives, volunteer & local family history society transcriptions, modern records of funeral homes and civil registers.”

However, many entries have no name/ Lots of anomalous transcriptions may be found with no original image. If you are looking for an elusive ancestor with first name Han Ary Redd or Hee Ee Be and no last name check out the listings for Perthshire!

Australia, Inward, Outward & Coastal Passenger Lists 1826-1972
Over 25,000 additions to a collection of passenger lists and migration records that contain movement to, from and around the country appear this week. Each record includes a transcript and many also include an image of the original record. The content varies.

Canada, Black Nova Scotians 1784-1837
With 8,254 entries, find individuals who escaped slavery in South Carolina and Virginia, but also the slaves of British Loyalists. You will find those who merely passed through, living their lives for a few years before moving on elsewhere. FMP is vague about the sources.

Also added this week is a large number of newspapers, many just single years. They include The Lowestoft Journal for 1914, the first East Coast East Anglian addition in many weeks,