Leading off the issue Donna Potter Phillips lauds 25 years of publishing genealogy magazines from Moorshead Magazines Ltd.

Breaking Down Genealogical Brick Walls with Church Records
David A. Norris looks at church records and how they can help in getting past research roadblocks

Tell Me a Story: Sharing Your Family History Aloud
Sue Lisk suggests ideas for getting into an oral-story telling mode when the opportunity arises

Conceived Through Reconciliation: Birth of a Passion
Yvette LaGonterie embarks on a journey to uncover her Antillean roots

The Passing of The Silent Generation
Robbie Gorr looks at the necessity of interviewing senior family members

Finding Hidden Fathers
Ed Storey looks at English records that may help you to locate a missing father in your tree

Piecing Together the Puzzles of Personality
Sue Lisk looks for the clues that will help us piece together an ancestor’s personality

“Shhhh! I’ll Let You In On a Secret:
Our Female Ancestors Are Found in Ledgers” — Part 2, by Diane L. Richard

Letters Corresponding to Genealogy
Joe Grandinetti says letters home by Irish emigrants have unique relevance to genealogy

Us and Them
Stephen L. W. Greene looks at why it’s important to go beyond the bounds of your own family when doing genealogy research

Your Ancestors Come to Life!
Melody Amsel-Arieli gets into Deep Nostalgia, the animation technology from MyHeritage that can seemingly bring family photos to life

The Back Page: Do You Have a Disaster Plan?
Dave Obee reminds us why we should be prepared for catastrophic events

The Church of England is to launch a free website that will eventually, over the course of the 7-year project, list every grave memorial in every churchyard in the country.
The new free web-based record system is due to launch next spring, with the option to subscribe to additional services.
Further information from The Guardian here.

From 1-8 September 2021, free access to the Census & Voter Lists category on MyHeritage. Over 1.3 billion records, including census records from the U.S., U.K., Ireland, Scandinavia, and Canada as well as electoral rolls and other records from Australia, Venezuela, Chile, Argentina, Armenia, Greece, and much more.

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

Tuesday, 31 August, 7:30 pm: Discussion with Terry Fallis about his latest book, Operation Angus. Organized by the Ottawa Public Library and Ottawa Writers Festival.
http://ow.ly/lFjm50FVey5

Wednesday  1 September, 11 am: History of the Railways in Britain, by Ellie Jones and Mike Esbester for Findmypast.
www.facebook.com/findmypast.

Wednesday  1 September, 2 pm: Your DNA Questions Answered Live with Diahan Southard for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar_details.php?webinar_id=1641

Wednesday 1 September, 6:30 pm: Deconstructing the UK Censuses 1801 to present, by Penny Walters for Huron Branch OGS.
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIocu-urj8tGtJZqw_V3-YIP3UmpUIUKzqg

Thursday 2 September, 6:30 pm: Surprised by Your Ethnicity Estimate? by Sara Allen for Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center.
https://acpl.libnet.info/event/5549168

Thursday 2 September, 7 pm: I Found them on the Census: Now What? by Tara Shymanski for OGS.
https://ogs.on.ca/zoom-meetings/september-webinar-tara-shymanski/

Friday, 3 September, 9 am: Recovery from the Black Death in late-medieval Britain and Ireland, by Paul Dryburgh, TNA Principal Records Specialist (Medieval Records).
https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/

Friday 3 September, 10 am: Start of Webtember presentations from Legacy Family Tree Webinars. See the full program at https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar_details.php?webinar_id=1785

Saturday 4 September, 2 pm: Google is your friend, by Robin Bellamy for Simcoe Branch OGS.
https://simcoe.ogs.on.ca/events/simcoe-county-branch-google-is-your-friend-with-robin-bellamy/

Coming

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

 

 

The British Newspaper Archive now has a total of 44,623,934 pages online (44,125,390 last month).

This month 110 papers had pages added (163 in the previous month). There were 44 (73) new titles. Dates range from 1800 to 1992

Those with more than 10,000 pages added were:

TITLE	DATE RANGE
Boxing World and Mirror of Life	1894-1904, 1907-1924
Bury Free Press	1982-1986
Eastbourne Chronicle	1865-1895, 1897-1907, 1950
Liverpool Journal of Commerce	1870, 1872, 1874-1877, 1879-1882, 1884-1885, 1910-1940
London Chronicle	1800-1807, 1810-1811, 1813, 1816-1817, 1819-1822
London Mercury	1828, 1847-1848
Newmarket Journal	1882-1896, 1898-1911, 1913-1917, 1982-1984
Sheerness Times Guardian	1884-1887, 1889-1893, 1895, 1897, 1899-1900, 1902-1910, 1912-1915, 1922-1939, 1981, 1987
Suffolk and Essex Free Press	1982-1986
Week’s News (London)	1871-1879

When Winston Churchill said of the Battle of Britain “Never was so much owed by so many to so few” it wasn’t only the RAF in the skies.

No 1 Squadron of the RCAF, redesignated No 401 Squadron in Britain to avoid confusion, was part of the Battle, active on this date and for 53 days from 24 August 1940.

In 1,694 sorties (1,569 operational hours and 1,201 non-operational), three pilots were killed, thirteen wounded, and 17 aircraft lost.  The squadron claimed 30 enemy aircraft destroyed, eight probably destroyed and 35 damaged. 

There’s a brief history in Among Canada’s “Few”: The RCAF’s No. 1 Squadron in the Battle of Britain. Aircrewremembered.com has a memorial page for the first Canadian pilot killed — Robert Lesley Edwards.

It takes more than the pilots to make a functioning fighter squadron. The contributions of the ground crew who kept the aircraft flying is described in The Unsung Heroes: The Ground Crew of No. 1 (RCAF) Squadron. Several are mentioned by name. Trades such as clerks, cooks, motor mechanics, batmen, waiters and general-duties airmen should not be overlooked — pilots who are unfed and poorly supported don’t perform well!

All their names are in the passenger list for the Duchess of Atholl, on which they travelled from Halifax to Liverpool, arriving 20 June 1940. It’s available on microfilm C-5610 at Canadiana Heritage.

The officers, travelling first-class, are listed on images 18 and 19; also 66.

The NCOs travelling second-class, are listed on images 22 and 23..

A nominal roll with number, rank and trade as well as surname and initials of NCOs and other ranks starts at image 67 (surnames A-C), continuing with images 68 (C-G), 69 (G-L), 70 (M-R), and 71 (R-Y).

 

 

I’d like to be positive.

On 30 August 2019 Leslie Weir assumed the role of Librarian and Archivist of Canada. Faced with the extraordinary challenge of COVID-19 for most of that period, something nobody anticipated, it would hardly be surprising if things she set out to achieve were not accomplished.

What was achieved? Based on the LAC news items posted, the key items are:

1. 1. LAC/OPL building
   2. COVID-19
   3. Indigenous

The negotiation and agreement on the joint building took place while Guy Berthiaume was Librarian and Archivist. The design was already underway two years ago. It has proceeded. The major improvement, to make the building net carbon neutral, should likely be most credited to two environmentally concerned Cabinet Ministers.

COVID-19 was a challenge. Did LAC make adjustments and maintain productivity? Did employees work from home, with appropriate altered objectives where necessary, in the same way as at peer institutions internationally? In a year when one would expect clients to turn more to online resources visitors to the LAC website were down 3% in 2020-21 compared to the previous year. There is now a major backlog of ATIP requests, well beyond legislated timelines for response. Staff are stretched beyond reason. Delays for other requests extend beyond a year.

LAC received special funding in order to respond to demands regarding Indigenous languages and cultures. In 2020–2021, 27 of the 28 commitments in LAC’s Indigenous Heritage Action Plan made “significant progress and are
on the way to being completed.” However, LAC failed to seize the opportunity of the discovery of residential school graves to inform Canadians about the relevant resources held by the institution.

There are rumours of problems of mismanagement, inappropriate hiring and plummeting morale. While I can’t verify them if true they should be a concern.

I’d like to be positive. Projects, like the new storage facility, have moved forward as previously planned. For the coming months, as we all learn to live with COVID, staff will be returning to their duties and the public should once again be able to avail themselves of all the resources LAC has to offer.  Will there be an effort to reduce backlogs, reach out to provide the user community (including genealogists — mostly ignored although the largest user group) with new access and service as much as possible in the new normal?

Now two years into the mandate, compared to your expectations, what letter grade would you give Leslie Weir for her leadership achievements at Library and Archives Canada?

Each Friday in September: 30 live and pre-recorded webinars in all free to view through the end of the month.

Register here for the live presentations. The pre-recorded presentations will be available at
www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com/Webtember.

Date	Time (ET)	Live/Pre-recorded	Speaker	Title
3 Sep	10:00am	Live	Geoff Rasmussen	FAN Club in Action: a Simple Case Study
	11:00am	Live	Roberta Estes	Paint Your Way Up Your Tree with MyHeritage and DNAPainter
	12:30pm	Live	Peggy Clemens Lauritzen, AG	America’s Turnpikes, Rivers, and Canals
	2:00pm	Live here	Anita Wills	Notes and Documents of Free Persons of Color
		Pre-recorded	Teresa Steinkamp McMillin, CG	Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of German Military Records
		Pre-recorded	Dr. Bruce Durie	How Can I Get a Legal Coat of Arms in Scotland?
		Pre-recorded	Denise May Levenick	Seventeen Secrets to Successful Scanning
		Pre-recorded	Mary Kircher Roddy, CG	Finding Jane Graham’s Parents: Using Clusters and Records in Three Countries
10 Sep	8:00am	Live	Carol Baxter	British and Irish Given Names – Part 1
	9:30am	Live	Daniel Horowitz	Don’t Believe Everything You Read
	11:00am	Live	Craig R. Scott, MA, CG, FUGA	The Loyalists That Stayed Behind: The Reintegration
	12:30pm	Live	DearMYRTLE and Russ Worthington	NEVER GIVE UP: 5 Strategies for Overcoming Genealogical Angst
		Pre-recorded	Carol Baxter	British and Irish Given Names – Part 2
		Pre-recorded	Debra Renard	What are the Odds? Finding Answers Using DNA Painter’s WATO Tool
		Pre-recorded	Schelly Talalay Dardashti	Did your Abuelita…? Seeking Jewish Heritage
		Pre-recorded	Melissa Barker	Diaries, Journals and Calendars: Preserving and Document Your Ancestor’s Day-to-Day Life
17 Sep	9:30am	Live	James Tanner	Researching Immigrants to New England in the Great Migration, 1620-1640
	11:00am	Live	Janice Lovelace, PhD	Afro-LatinX in the Old West
	12:30pm	Live	Daniel Horowitz	Genealogy on the Go with the MyHeritage Mobile App
	2:00pm	Live here	Lianne Kruger	A Toboggan Ride Through Canadian Records, eh!
		Pre-recorded	Rebecca Koford, CG, CGL	Out of the Ballot Box: Voter Registrations & Records
		Pre-recorded	Marie Cappart	Beneluxury archives! How to get the best out of belgian, dutch and lux archives online
		Pre-recorded	Fiona Brooker	A Step Through Time(lines)
24 Sep	8:00am	Live	Michelle Leonard	Inferred Matching Explained
	9:30am	Live	Thomas MacEntee	The Mysterious Death of Anna T. McPhillips
	11:00am	Live	Judy G. Russell, JD, CG, CGL	“Twelve Good and Lawful Men”: Jury Lists in Genealogy
	12:30pm	Live	Paul Woodbury	Where Did That Come From?! Tracing the Origins of Unique Ethnicity Admixture
		Pre-recorded	Michael L. Strauss, AG	Roosevelt’s Tree Army: Researching the Civilian Conservation Corps
		Pre-recorded	Lisa Toth Salinas	Beginning Hungarian Genealogy
		Pre-recorded	Cathie Sherwood	One family, many connections: Using the FAN club in one Australian locality

 

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

A Colorful Animated Short About the Inevitable Isolation That Comes With Digital Addiction

Derelict London Tours
Not what I’d think of as a tourist attraction
https://londonist.com/london/things-to-do/derelict-london-best-walking-tours

The Internet Archive has been fighting for 25 years to keep what’s on the web from disappearing and you can help

Ancestry Updates US  Find a Grave Index, 1600s-Current, now with 163,896,145 records.

BC Marriage and Death Registration Update
Now available, marriage registrations from 1945 and death registrations from 2000.

Canadian university libraries shine during pandemic
Could the same be said for Library and Archives Canada?

Have you been enjoying the LAC website this weekend?
The site was unreachable for most of Saturday and early Sunday – back now.

Thanks to this week’s contributors.

The FreeBMD Database was updated on Thursday 26 August to contain 281,618,901  unique records (280,862,829 at the previous update). Years with major additions of more than 10,000 records are, for births 1986-87 and 1990-91, for marriages 1986-90 and for deaths 1986-90. 

Continual adjustments are made to earlier entries. For years before 1986 in the latest update, 477 births were added and 1706 deleted; for marriages, 442 added and 475 deleted; for deaths, 821 added and 983 deleted.

This time its Ancestry playing catchup with a record set that’s also on Findmypast.

Web: Saskatchewan, Canada, Death Index, 1889-1949,  66,164 records

Web: Saskatchewan, Canada, Birth Index, 1875-1919,  785,477 records

The leading Web indicates basic information from free web records and provides links to the original sites where you can view the full record, including any associated images. 

The Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives (AGRA) has announced a new series of family history podcasts.

While I was unable to find information on the AGRA website, WDYTYA magazine has the first episode, entitled Commissioning Effective Research, being released on 1 September.

Five further episodes, to be launched on the first of each month, will examine legal and Chancery records, Welsh ancestors, manorial and estate records, Liverpool ancestors and the Poor Law, The podcast will be available on agra.org.uk and various podcast services.