Category: Uncategorized

Choose from selected free online events today. All times are ET except as noted. Assume registration in advance is required; check so you’re not disappointed. Find out about a few more, mainly US events, at Conference Keeper.

Tuesday, 3 December

8 pm: Finding Your British WWI Soldier – Dead or Alive, by Paul Milner for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/finding-your-british-wwi-soldier-dead-or-alive/

2:30 pm: Did Grandpa Work in the Tree Army? by Ronald L. Darrah for Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center.
https://acpl.libnet.info/event/12188917

Wednesday, 4 December

2 pm: DNA Case Study: Reconstructing A Family Tree Using DNA, by Michelle Leonard for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/dna-case-study-reconstructing-a-family-tree-using-dna/

2:30 pm: The British High Street at Christmas, by Annie Gray for The National Archives (UK).
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-british-high-street-at-christmas-tickets-998466248427?aff=oddtdtcreator

Thursday, 5 December

7 pm: Family Bibles And How To Locate Those Of Your |
Ancestors, by Greg Hilton for OGS.( Free to OGS members)
https://ogs.on.ca/

Friday, 6 December

2 pm: The Trifecta: Giving Light to the Lives of the Formerly Enslaved, by Nicka Smith for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/the-trifecta-giving-light-to-the-lives-of-the-formerly-enslaved/

Saturday 7 December

10 am: Delve into the Lives of your Middlesex County Ancestors through the ~~ 1931 Census, by Katherine Lake Hogan for OGS London and Middlesex Branch.
http://www.londonmiddlesex.ogs.on.ca/events

1:30 pm: The Rural Diary Archive: Transcribing Daily Life in Eastern Ontario, by Catharine Wilson for Lanark County Genealogical Society. 
https://lanarkgenealogy.com/about-lcgs/meetings-special-events/upcoming-meetings/

Every year, Legacy Family Tree Webinars offers a 50% off membership on Black Friday/Cyber Monday. That’s a one-year membership for $24.98 USD, giving unlimited access to all the recorded webinars and more at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com.

It’s the best deal in family history.

The price is valid for new memberships until  Friday, 6 December 2024.

OGS Leeds & Grenville Branch invites us to usher in the Christmas season with some family history stories!

Plan on joining on Zoom on Monday, 2 December, at 7:00 pm for a Show and Share experience!

https://leedsandgrenville.ogs.on.ca/events/leeds-grenville-branch-december-2024-genealogy-december-event-show-and-share/

 

Coming in January for early-birds, four Saturday morning online presentations from The National Archives (UK). They start at 10:30 am GMT, which is 5:30 am ET.

Saturday, 4 January
Using Discovery, The National Archives’ online catalogue
Join this webinar to get to grips with our online catalogue. As a portal into history, our catalogue is an essential research tool, holding over 37 million descriptions of records that date back hundreds of years.

Saturday, 11 January 
Researching your local history
Find out how to start researching your local history in this expert-led webinar. Discover the types of records held at The National Archives and beyond that can help you learn more about the past of your local area.

Saturday, 18 January
Researching your family history: wills
Explore the wonderful world of wills with our expert guidance. You’ll learn how to use wills to discover fascinating insights into the lives of your ancestors and how to find these wills in our collection.

Saturday, 25 January
Researching your family history: 20th century sources
Discover more about the lives of your ancestors by learning about the key 20th-century sources you can use to trace your family history, including the 1911 and 1921 censuses and the 1939 register.

 

 

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week

Non-Europeans can now apply in advance for an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) and will need one to travel to the UK from January 2025.
“Eligible visitors should apply for their ETA through the UK ETA app, which is quick and simple to use and enables most applicants to receive a decision in hours.”
“An ETA costs £10, permits multiple journeys, and lasts for two years or until the holder’s passport expires – whichever is sooner. Once granted, ETAs are digitally linked to a traveller’s passport and allow for stays of up to six months at a time – including both short trips and more extended stays. An ETA is not a visa, it is a digital permission to travel.”

Evaluating the Old Farmer’s Almanac’s Weather Forecasts
The Old Farmer’s Almanac states, “Our results are almost always very close to our traditional claim of 80 percent (accurate)”. As some studies have found, are the predictions no better than random chance?
For November for Southern Quebec, which includes Ottawa, the OFA predicted “Temp. 3C (2C above avg.); precip.100mm (15mm above avg.)”

The average employed is the 1981 to 2010 climate normal.

This November, the mean temperature was about 3.8C, compared to 1C average, right on the money for the OFA prediction – SUCCESS

The total precipitation was 52.1 mm, compared to 85 mm average, only half that predicted by the OFA – FAIL

The OFA gave November forecasts for six periods.

The prediction for 19-21 was “Rainy, quite warm”, and the 21st was the day with the most rain – 20.9 mm. SUCCESS.

The Young Canada Works 2025-2026 campaign has launched!

Kenneth Marks updated his listing of Ontario newspapers at The Ancestor Hunt in November.

Media Finally Reports that Many Canadians Oppose NATO

Thanks to this week’s contributors: Ann Burns, Anonymous, Barbara Tose, Brenda Turner, Chad, Lolly Fullerton, Penny Allen, Teresa, Unknown.

As usual, the issue offers several noteworthy articles for genealogists seeking to deepen their research. Three caught my attention.

Alan C. Smith’s Are We Related? Modelling Ancestry and Kinship explores ancestral connections with a scientific approach. Rich with charts and diagrams, the article presents a mathematical model to estimate the number of ancestors, factoring in pedigree collapse and population size. Smith bases his calculations on his own ancestry—an intriguing case study that raises the question: how representative are these figures for others?

Phil Isherwood’s Free Online Family History Books highlights valuable, accessible resources. The article features a table of 40 top family history sites, including links to Debrett’s/Burke’s Peerage, Poll Books, Electoral Registers, Gazetteers, Post Office Directories, Trade Directories, and Quarter Session Records—essential research tools.

Finally, David Annal from Family Tree Academy examines the vast but underutilized potential of Court of Chancery Records. He discusses the challenges genealogists face with these documents: access is limited to Kew reading rooms, the records are cumbersome, and navigating bundles can be daunting. Yet, the rewards for perseverant researchers could be significant.

This week has 8,161 records added for Middlesex, Greater London and Scotland.

Also added are 122,203 newspaper pages from the 19th and 20th centuries in two updated titles.

Greater London Burial Index
This week’s most significant update consists of 5,941 records for St Katherine’s Coleman Church in the parish of Aldgate East added to the Greater London burial records.

Scotland, Episcopalian Church Members
There are 1,834 new record transcriptions of the names of Scottish Episcopalian Church members between 1661 and 1861.

London and Middlesex baptisms, marriages and burials
From the Russian Orthodox Church, three different record sets covering from 1811 to 1921.

Over 100,000 new newspaper pages
This week pages were added for two existing newspapers from the 19th and 20th centuries. They are the Alnwick Guardian and County Advertiser, 1892-1894, and Daily Record, 1983.

The Family Histories Podcast (UK), free from wherever you get your podcasts, “aims to be a positive, conversational, fun show about family history and our family historians – the often un-sung heroes tirelessly breathing life back into our collective social history.”

Each episode features an interview by Andrew Martin with a genealogy-addicted guest, finding out about how they got hooked on family history, how they research, and their challenges and thoughts on the genealogy industry. The guest then shares a life story of one of the most fascinating relatives they’ve uncovered in their research before facing the dreaded brick wall – where they plea to listeners for help.

In the 8th series from November, there are four episodes available to view now:

‘The Marchioness’ with Bob Sorrentino
When a Marchioness takes charge and enriches the arts, and access to education for women.
Series Eight, Episode One. Released: 5th November 2024.

‘The Twin’ with Sylvia Valentine
When a twin’s traits echo throughout their siblings and their descendants.

‘The Collier’ with Adam Simpson-York
When a man goes from the danger of the mines to the horrors of the Death Railway.

‘The Nightingale’ with Danielle and Dr. Galeet Dardashti
When a man becomes a singing sensation during a power cut.

Three more episodes are coming in the series, and many more are in the archive.

 

This Saturday is Small Business Saturday, a day to shop locally and support the small businesses in our community or wherever you are. If you’re out shopping this weekend, consider showing one of our local businesses your patronage.
On Saturday and continuing on Sunday, 1 December, 613 Christmas Flea is at the Field House, Carleton University. Saturday 10 am – 6 pm and Sunday 10 am – 4 pm. 200 vendors!
Patricia McGregor will be there with an assortment of books, postcards, other ephemera, prints, posters and a variety of antiques and collectibles.

The FreeBMD Database was updated on Wednesday 27 November 2024, to contain 291,940,581 unique records, up from 291,727,471 a month ago.

The years with more than 10,000 additions are 1993-96 for births, 1994-95 for marriages and deaths.

As family historians, we wonder about the lived experiences of our ancestors – including the challenges they faced when travelling. When my ancestor Robert Reid moved from Longtown, in Northern Cumberland, to the London area in the mid to late 1840s, how long did it take, and what was the journey like?

I thought the University of Cambridge Travel in Times website would provide insight — it is with a certain hesitation I mention it,

According to the site’s About tab, its journey planer allows three choices:

Plan a journey around England and Wales on horseback c.1680.
Plan a journey around England and Wales by stagecoach c.1830.
Plan a journey around England and Wales by train, using a bicycle to get to the nearest train station.
(A fourth choice provides modern car-based routing, using OpenStreetMap, by way of comparison).

I found it hit or miss, often reverting to the Cambridge to London default journey rather than the one I wanted. It could be I misunderstood the procedure. It is a free site, so one can’t complain.

My query about the Longtown to London journey was informed by videos showing the evolution of the turnpike road, railway and navigable waterway networks. The availability of a train would depend on when he travelled in the later 1840s.

Was a family member a British merchant mariner? My father was for a while.

The National Sailors and Firemen’s Union (NSFU), founded in 1893 and renamed the National Union of Seamen (NUS) in 1926 published The Seaman. It records the activities and decisions of the Union, the Merchant Navy and its workforce. The Modern Records Centre of the University of Warwick has issues of The Seaman as part of its digitized collections of Labour movement newspapers and journals.

The June 1942 issue has a table showing wages of deck and engine room mariners had more than doubled from pre-war. My father would have appreciated that!

Read about the collection, with links to the digitized issues, at https://warwick.ac.uk/services/library/mrc/archives_online/digital/unionjournals/seaman/. The corpus is not full-text searchable, so you must know the approximate year of interest.

A tip of the hat to Penny Allen, who mentioned this during Tuesday’s OGS Ottawa Branch drop-in.

Find many other Labour movement newspapers and journals in the University of Warwick collection at https://warwick.ac.uk/services/library/mrc/archives_online/digital/unionjournals/.

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