A huge new collection of 45,527,734 people. 2011-2018 is long into the period when men and women were equally enfranchized.

Look to find:

Name
Residence Date
Address
Residence Place

Although residents are not eligible to vote until age 18, they can complete their registration beginning at age 16 (age 14 in Scotland and Wales). To register, one must be a British citizen, a European Union citizen living in the United Kingdom, or be one of certain individuals with permission to stay in the United Kingdom or who do not need permission.

I couldn’t find some family members who I know should be in the registers., likely as individuals had the option of declining to be included in the open register.

This is a collection to dip into when looking for a diversion. I entered just the name of my old hometown in the Description search box. It returned links to three photos described as:

Members of the WRNS remove materials from a drifter
at Gorleston Quay, Norfolk.

Storekeepers of the WRNS removing stores from a
drifter on her return from foreign service, Gorleston
Quay.

Members of the WRNS remove materials from a drifter
at Gorleston Quay, Norfolk, during the First World War.

It’s obviously posed as each shows the women doing the work while the men watch.

Here’s the lineup for the online-only BIFHSGO meeting on Saturday.

9 am: Back to Basics: Census Records, by Ken McKinlay

Census enumerations have been around for millennia. We will be looking at what census records have survived for the countries that make up the British Isles. We will also take a look at possible census substitutes to help fill in some of the gaps in the records.

10 am: Researching Female Ancestors What Could They Tell Us? by M. Diane Rogers

Researching female ancestors can be frustrating. Sometimes even their obituaries say almost nothing. Diane will provide examples of strategies to use in searching genealogical sources for information about women and in learning about women’s history resources.

Find our more, including the link to register and information about a watch party at the Ottawa City Archives, at https://www.bifhsgo.ca/events

Deceased Online recently digitized a trove of records, 87,830 names, from three historic cemeteries within the Borough of Halton in Cheshire, England. Located 20 km southeast of Liverpool, spanning the Mersey, the Borough of Halton includes the towns of Runcorn and Widnes.

The newly available records encompass Halton, Widnes, and Runcorn Cemeteries and comprise digital scans of the burial registers or computerized records and grave details for each grave and its occupants.

Halton Cemetery,  a non-denominational burial ground in operation since the mid-1800s, located by the Shopping City in Runcorn, has just 2,227 records. There are three First World War Commonwealth War Graves Commission burials.

Widnes Cemetery, also known as Widnes Gardens, at Birchfield Road, is known for its beautiful grounds and historic chapel.The collection includes 44,820 burial records from 1898 onward. The CWGC maintains 102 graves.

Runcorn Cemetery, at Langdale Road in Runcorn, comprises 40,783 records from 1860, including of 75 CWGC graves.

Also under the care of Halton Borough Council, but not in this release, is Peel House Cemetery, at Incline Way Widnes.​

Information about the cemeteries, including maps, is at https://www3.halton.gov.uk/Pages/BirthsDeathsMarriages/haltoncem.aspx

Deceased Online also holds collections from Cheshire East Council, Cheshire West and Chester Council, Trafford Council, and Salford Council – a broad range of records for research focused on Cheshire and the wider North West England region.

A series of blog posts from Hound on the Hunt, affiliated with Alberta-based Shop the Hound , each is illustrated with AI produced images.

Part One, of three so far, explores the MyHeritage AI Biographer. It provides a biographical report based on information you have entered, the historical context, and the surname.

Part Three does much the same for Ancestry, using an ancestor’s profile and Lifestory,

Part Two delves into ChatGPT. It’s by far the most interesting and ends with:

I’m fairly certain you can see that I’ve fallen down a rabbit hole.. but I think it might be a good one because it’s making me excited about working more on ChatGPT, and it’s most certainly worth the $20/month at this point, and the fun I’ve had exploring, and there’s more to come.

 

If you have Lancashire ancestry the County Archives has a lot to offer, a treasure trove of historical and cultural significance.

That includes the Red Rose Collections, with nearly 30,000 historic photographs of Lancashire people and places. Also, find indexes to two key collections: Whittingham Asylum patients from 1873-1914 and Lancashire Constabulary police officers from 1840-1925.

In addition, the Red Rose Collections provides access to an index of newspaper articles from the early 19th century onwards. These articles are not linked, but held on microfilm and cuttings in files in libraries across Lancashire and serve as a chronicle of the Duchy’s past. The British Newspaper Archive and Newspaper.com may provide more convenient access,

If you don’t find what your looking for try searching LANCAT, Lancashire Archives online catalogue, containing descriptions of over 1.5 million documents from within the collections. There’s also a useful church registers guide.

The PRDH (Programme de recherche en démographie historique) database contains a directory of civil status records (baptisms, marriages and burials) in Quebec (1621-1799), a genealogical dictionary of families (1621-1765) and a directory of couples and descendants.

I received an email that today PRDH is adding 738,696 records, 544,537 individuals and 94,264 families to the database. That’s the second largest update in its 24 year history.

The PRDH database, with records to 1861, along with Généalogie Québec, is openly available to Ottawa Public Library cardholders.

Choose from selected free online events in the next five days. All times are ET except as noted. Assume registration in advance is required; check so you’re not disappointed. Find out about many more mainly US events at Conference Keeper at https://conferencekeeper.org

A quick look at some of the the contents in the latest issue.

Workhouse records — Peter Higginbotham’s comprehensive guide to the
documents generated by the Poor Law.

Bigamy — Bigamy laws have changed over the centuries. Fairly constant, though, is the differing treatment of female and male bigamists. Rebecca Probert explains.

Tuberculosis  — Michelle Higgs investigates the development of special hospitals where one of the deadliest diseases of Victorian Britain were treated.

Travel and passenger lists —  Chloe O’Shea shares her expert advice for locating and using records left by people who travelled overseas — whether to start new lives or for work or leisure.

The Holocaust — Jonathan Scott reveals his go-to list, best websites for researching ancestors touched by the Holocaust.

Kent — Jonathan Scott digs into the archives in Kent with a complete guide to family history records in the county.

Family historians seek out every scrap of evidence to help in understanding our relatives and society. Here’s an underexploited resource.

Canada’s National Registration File of 1940
Data collected in 1940 is a treasure trove, in some respects better than a census, but not as available as it shoud be. Each person interviewed, aged 16 or older by 1946, provided:

Full Name and Permanent Postal Address,
Age (last birthday) and their Date of Birth,
Conjugal Condition,
Types and Numbers of Dependents solely supported by the registrant,
Name of the Country in which they were born, and where each of the registrant’s parents were born,
Nationality, Year of Immigration and of Naturalization
Languages spoken,
Education, Health, and General Physical Condition,
Occupation or Business, including the number of years in that situation.
Farming Experience, several detailed questions including can you milk a cow (Prime Minister King said he could.)
Previous Military Service.

The questions were slightly different for men and women — men were not asked about there skill in basic cookery!

Current Availability
Statistics Canada holds the records for eight million Canadians which were compiled in August 1940 in three days under the authority of The National Resources Mobilization Act and the War Measures Act. Stats Can will release data if certain privacy restrictions are met, but at an hourly research rate of $91.37.

Experience in England and Wales
The UK conducted a similar registration in September 1939. Through a partnership with Findmypast, data from that Register for England and Wales is now available online. It’s at an affordable price and has proved its worth for researchers, genealogists, and history enthusiasts alike.

Protecting Privacy
Privacy can be protected . Canada’s Privacy Act balances privacy with accessibility. It permits disclosure of personal information more than 20 years after death. You don’t need to provide proof of death if the person would be 110 years old. The partners in England and Wales redacted  necessary information while making the bulk available for research and analysis. 

Why Not in Canada?
Making the National Registration File of 1940 broadly available would open up new avenues for research for family historians. It could shed light on demographic trends, migration patterns, and societal changes during a pivotal period in Canada’s history.

The feasability of making the data available while respecting privacy concerns is already demonstarted in the UK.  Why not apply that experience to Canada? Why not release this valuable resource for genealogists, historians, and the general public through a partnership arrangement?

For the government (Stats Can), the contracting company, and the public it could well be a win-win-win.

Our family history societies, and the broader historical community would be meeting their advocacy mandate by lobbying for broad accessibility of Canada’s National Registration File of 1940.

When this collection, from WO 344 at TNA, was posted last August, it had 83,560 records. Now there are 90,993.
437 records that mention Canada and 260 Canadian.