I kept my seat warm in front of the computer on Wednesday, enjoying four of the five writing and publishing webinars from Legacy Family Tree Webinars. Free to view without a membership until 30 September, they are:

Creating an Ancestor Sketch, by Thomas MacEntee. He demonstrates live how to craft compelling 3-5 page ancestor profiles complete with covers, photographs, family stories, and proper citations. His innovative use of AI tools makes the process surprisingly accessible. This is the presentation I felt I could put to immediate practical use.

Manage large writing projects through optimistic start, muddled middle, and triumphant finish, by Rhonda Lauritzen covers organizational structure and efficient workflows for writing historical fiction, memoirs, and other big projects. Learn state-of-the-art tools that will save time at (relatively) low cost or require a ridiculous learning curve.

The Five Writing Scripts of the World, by Amie Bowser Tennant introduced the 5 writing systems in the world — abugida, syllabary, logography, abjad, and alphabet. She shows the evolution of British writing styles, some of which you may have struggled to interpret. Interesting, but skip if time is short.

How to Write a Genealogical Crime Mystery Story, by Nathan Dylan Goodwin, was a peek behind the curtain of how to write your own genealogical crime mystery. He covers outlining a story, creating believable characters with realistic dialogue and shows how to incorporate genealogy into your story.

It was a clash with the BIFHSGO London SIG, so I missed Using Historical Context in Your Genealogy Writing: A Gettysburg Soldier Case Study, by Bonnie Wade Mucia.

Find links and information about all Webtember presentations at https://familytreewebinars.com/webtember/

If I could recommend just one session, it would definitely be Nathan Dylan Goodwin’s. He will be presenting the final talk, Finding Henry, at the BIFHSGO Conference, 18-19 October.

The October issue became available online on 9 September with these feature articles

Railway Ancestors
On the 200th anniversary of railway passenger travel, Mike Esbester tells the story of the railway industry,
and explains the wealth of records available to research the career of a railway worker.

Family Legends
Joanne Penn shares her insider knowledge of how genealogists prove — or disprove — family legends of
links to royalty and aristocracy.

 Harvest Traditions
Caroline Roope looks at how our ancestors harvested Britain’s crops and helped to keep the country fed.

Regular columnist Jonathan Scott looks at the best websites for researching brewers, publicans, pubs and breweries, and provides an overview for researching Essex ancestors.

Choose from these selected free online events. All times are Eastern Time, unless otherwise noted. Registration may be required in advance—please check the links to avoid disappointment. For many more events, mainly in the U.S., visit conferencekeeper.org.

Ancestry has completed the updates to U.S., Find a Grave® Index, 1600s-Current, now with 181,824,680 records. Also Web: UK, Burial and Cremation Index, 1576-2024, now has 9,040,106 records.

Next Saturday offers a choice of two major(ish) genealogy events.

1. The FamilyTreeMaker tour stop in Brockville -free, in person
2. Scottish Indexes – by donation, online

Or join us at the BIFHSGO September meeting, which is free and hybrid.

Look for others in tomorrow’s weekly post.

 

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

Findmypast Weekly Update
Focus on Somerset, some say Somersetshire. Added are transcript parish records for 10,440 baptisms, 8,472 marriages, and 7,811 burials.

288,672 pages joined the newspaper collection this week, with 15 new titles and updates to 43 existing publications. Here’s a complete list (sorry about the messed up format!)

Title	Pages	Date Range

Gresham College
The new season of online lectures starts on Tuesday, 9 September, with a talk by Professor Daniel Susskind on Automation Anxiety. 

Gary Mokotoff, R.I.P.
One of the giants of Jewish genealogy has passed away. Here is an appreciation by Susan Weinberg, President of the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies, as published by Dick Eastman.

Post-Procrastination Post
As mentioned in the OGS eWeekly, a bumper issue, yesterday was Fight Procrastination Day. That means today is officially “I’ll Start Fighting Procrastination Tomorrow Day.” Mark your calendars for next year!

Thanks to the following for comments and tips: Anonymous, Barbara May Di Mambro, Brenda Turner, Christine Jackson, Gail, Joan M Schwartz, JOHN ESTANO DeROCHE, Julia, Linda Stufflebean, Sunday Thompson, Teresa, and Unknown.

 

 

Today at Marazion, a town in Cornwall, in a Gorsedh Kernow ceremony, BIFHSGO and London SIG member John Webb is one of 22 inductees as Bards. John was recognized for promoting Cornish Identity in Canada.

Another success for genetic genealogy. You probably saw the story Human remains found in Algonquin Park 45 years ago identified thanks to the work of a genetic genealogist using autosomal DNA evidence. It’s just the latest in a long line of autosomal DNA-aided remains identified.

The Department of National Defence, Casualty Identification Program use of DNA and other techniques, is explained here.

“The Casualty Identification Program typically uses mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) to identify remains, which is passed unchanged from mother to child. Mitochondrial DNA survives well and is very stable over many generations, but its stability may also lead to similar profiles in people who are not closely related which can sometimes create false positives. Even with its limitations, mtDNA is a very useful tool that can help to establish parentage that goes back many generations.

The Casualty Identification Program also uses a type of nuclear DNA called Y-chromosome short tandem repeat (Y-STR). Y-STR DNA is passed from father to son and is genetically stable, but does not survive well in skeletal remains. Unfortunately, some samples from the remains do not provide a Y-STR sample that is suitable for comparison, which means this method cannot always be used.”

With autosomal DNA analysis now a well-established forensic technique, what’s holding our Department of National Defence back from doing all they practically can to identify military remains?

I woke early to a blog post Essential tools for genealogy byTeresa on her writing my past. blog. I found some interesting-looking tools that are new to me.

Her list, was inspired by  Linda Shufflebean’s more AI-oriented Essential Tools for Today’s Genealogical Research Success,

Both merit this shoutout and have been added to my long to-do list. 

Over half a million British clergy records were recently added to TheGenealogist.

From 1890 to 1952, the collection brings together:
● Crockford’s Clerical Directories (1904, 1923, 1927, 1933): the definitive reference work for the Anglican clergy, providing detailed biographical information, appointments, and career histories of Church of England ministers across the country.
● Ministers and Probationers of the Methodist Church (revised to August 31st, 1952): providing both chronological and alphabetical lists of ministers and probationers from the Wesleyan, Primitive, and United Methodist branches. Users can explore details such as years of entry into ministry, service in various circuits, duration of appointments, and leadership positions, including Presidents, Vice-Presidents, and Secretaries of Conference. An alphabetical list of deceased ministers completes this comprehensive resource.

Also, there is the London Diocesan Clergy Succession, tracing the spiritual leadership of London from the earliest times up to 1898. This work records bishops in chronological order, with extensive notes on consecrations, nominations, elections, and service dates.

Search for other sources for these records.

There’s been a lot of buzz lately about Nano Banana, Google Gemini’s latest photo editing facility. It’s free. Find it at https://gemini.google.com/app/. If 2.5Pro is not your default, select it, then click Tools and choose Create Image (located beside the banana logo).

I tried it for colourizing a photo of my great-grandmother. It did so almost instantaneously.

Were her cheeks really that rosy at age 90?

An article Restoration is Silently Erasing Our History arrived in my inbox overnight. The thrust is that AI photo restoration tools, while impressive, carry inherent biases from their training datasets. The tools impose modern Western characteristics and potentially alter original features like skin tones rather than simply enhancing photos. This stems from biased training samples dominated by the Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic “WEIRD” demographic. Also, more young people. The result? A skewed understanding of human diversity gets embedded in AI systems, causing restored photos to rewrite rather than merely restore historical images.

As with the colourized image above, an AI logo may be added to the altered image. AI is here to stay. There’s no going back. Watch for the AI logo and realize you’re getting a somewhat distorted view of the original.

Choose from these selected free online events. All times are Eastern Time, unless otherwise noted. Registration may be required in advance—please check the links to avoid disappointment. For many more events, mainly in the U.S., visit conferencekeeper.org.

Tuesday, 2 September

2 pm: Ottawa Virtual Genealogy Drop-In, for OGS Ottawa Branch
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86956419387

2:30 pm:  How the North Carolina Digital Heritage Center Makes
Local History Accessible Online, by  Kristen Merryman for Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center.
https://acpl.libnet.info/event/14272866

7:30 pm: Turning Genealogy Clues into Genealogy To-Do’s, by Thomas MacEntee for OGS Durham Branch
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/wGXkSb9YQCaez-8e9B4BFQ

Wednesday 3 September

5 am: Ancestors on the Margins: tracing misfortunate ancestors in Britain, by Janet Few for Legacy Family Tree Webinars
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/ancestors-on-the-margins-tracing-misfortunate-ancestors-in-britain/

WEBTEMBER: Germany

10:15 am: Finding Your Ancestors in German Directories by Ursula C. Krause
Wed, Sep 3, 2025:  EDT
11:30 am: Exploring Mecklenburg’s Rich History and Genealogical Treasures, by Andrea Bentschneider
12:45 pm: German Genealogy: Latest and Greatest Websites and Tools, by James M. Beidler
2:00 pm: The Emperor’s New Code, by Ute Brandenburg
3:30 pm: Eight Little-used Published German Sources, by Warren Bittner
Register individually and see the full Legacy Family Tree Webinars Webtember program at https://familytreewebinars.com/upcoming-webinars/

7:30 pm:  Breaking down Brick Walls – The GPS Approach, by Janice Nickerson for OGS Huron Branch.
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwsdOyspj8vGtGAAVzTiUSCBUYUSj5vIR4j

Thursday, 4 September

7 pm: An Ever Growing Tree: Descendancy Research and DNA Matches, by Kate Penney Howard for OGS Webinar Series
https://ogs.on.ca/september-webinar-an-ever-growing-tree-descendancy-research-and-dna-matches-kate-penney-howard/

Friday, 5 September

Saturday, 6 September

10 am: How Genealogy informs Local History – and Vice Versa, by ”London and Middlesex Branch, by Lorraine Tinsley for OGS London & Middlesex branch.
https://londonmiddlesex.ogs.on.ca/events/london-and-middlesex-branch-how-genealogy-informs-local-history-and-vice-versa/