Anglo-Celtic Connections

On Monday, Library and Archives Canada restored access to the newly released census images indexed by province, district and sub-district. The same images are available at LAC and Ancestry. If you have a choice it seemed to me the images loaded marginally faster at Ancestry.

Chris Paton has always been a popular speaker for BIFHSGO, scheduled again for conference 2023, but it’s virtual. So it can’t be that Chris was referring to in his latest Scottish GENES Newsletter post when he teased “Finally this week, I am about to sign a contract for my first overseas visit since before the pandemic for a genealogy conference (Canada, brace yourselves).”
I’m speculating that will be for the OGS conference 2024 in Toronto, and a reminder that proposals for presentations are open for that conference until the end of the month.
You might want to signed up for free to access Chris’ blog/newsletter at http://scottishgenes.blogspot.com.

MyHeritage brings photo enhancement tools introduced last year to a mobile app available on both iOS and Android.

I could tell you about it, but you’ll appreciate then more by viewing this short video,

A special issue of the journal Family & Community History on marriage in Victorian England seeks to cast new light using a variety of sources.

The articles are:
‘Train them in Habits of Morality’: Did Boarding out Deter Poor Law Children from Getting Married? by Rachel Pimm-Smith
Fractured Courtships in Britain in the Long Nineteenth-Century, by Steven King
Avoiding Attention? Assessing the Reasons for Register Office Weddings in Victorian England and Wales, by Rebecca Probert
|‘An Exceedingly Painful Case’: The Aftermath of Divorce in Mid-Nineteenth Century England and Wales, by Jennifer Aston

All are open access. There are several other in the journal; find the list at https://www.tandfonline.com/action/showOpenAccess?journalCode=yfch20
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There’s no doubt it is!

• I posted the other day about Internet Genealogy Magazine going all digital.
• The following tweet appeared on Friday.

THE Genealogy Show

Unfortunately, after careful consideration,
we have made the difficult decision to
forego the hosting of any shows in the |
year 2023. We understand that this news
may be disappointing, and we thank
everyone who has supported us by
speaking, attending and sponsoring our
shows.
Please know that we remain committed |
to providing exceptional experiences in
the future.
If you wish to help us with the possibility of
future shows, we would be extremely
grateful for any support you are able to
provide.

• I’m hearing that attendance at in-person conferences is way down from pre-pandemic times.
• Societies are finding attendance at hybrid events strongly favours online participation.
• Online presentations, many free, are providing all the “educational” opportunities many people want.
• For OGS, membership fee income increased in 2022 over 2021 by about six percent. Expenditures increased by seven percent. Without a large bequest, roughly equivalent to one year’s expenditures, the society would have shown a small annual operating deficit.
• BIFHSGO expenses in 2022 were similar to 2021, while a substantial conference surplus that year helped maintain total assets several times annual expenditures. A multi-year decline in membership continued.
• The Quebec Family History Society has gone mostly quiet. Aside from a two part Zoom session, How Do I Find My Ancestors in England and Wales? with Gary Schroder on 7 and 14 June, there have been no meetings and none scheduled.

and late-breaking from the US

• The (US) National Genealogical Society is merging with Genealogy ConferenceKeeper.org, Inc., and has acquired the Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh (GRIP).

 

 

Ancestry has activated three new social products:

Tree Collaboration – Invite family to explore your tree and even contribute their own suggestions. Choose where they can help, and decide what makes it into your tree.

Ancestry Circles – Create groups, big or small, so you can message, tag and share with the right family members and always stay in the loop on multiple conversations.

Ask Family for help – Now you can reach out to a family member, even if they’re not on Ancestry for help on a specific ancestor.

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

The World’s Most Impressive Mountain
(England has the least impressive, but no mention of Mount Blackstrap!)

Are rich people more intelligent? Here’s what the science says

Listen to Music Made From Yellowstone’s Seismic Data

How we read today– highlights on Canadian book sales.

EXTRA

The Transformation of Historical Research in the Digital Age, by Ian Milligan — a book now available free online.

Thanks to this week’s contributors: Anonymous, Brenda Turner, Bruce Murduck, gail benjafield, Jackie Corrigan, Ken McKinlay, Lynne Willoughby, Mark Hall, Michael Harrison, Nick McDonald, Pamela Wile, Robert Halfyard, Teresa, Unknown.

New this week, 151,918
Britain, School and University Students records that span nearly 700 years covering the following schools, colleges and universities.
Ackworth School, Yorkshire (1879-1930)
Balliol College Oxford (1832-1914)
Blundell’s School, Tiverton, Devon (1770-1882)
Bootham School, York, Yorkshire (1822-2011)
Bromsgrove School, Worcestershire (1750-1910)
Carlisle Grammar School, Cumberland, (1264-1924)
Charterhouse School, London & Surrey (1614-1900)
Clifton College, Gloucestershire (1862-1912)
Derby School, Derbyshire (1570-1901)
Duke of Northumberland’s School, Alnwick, Northumberland (1811-1911)
Dulwich College, Surrey (1619-1926)
Durham School, Durham (1840-1912)
Edinburgh Academy, Midlothian (1824-1914)
Epsom College, Surrey (1855-1905)
Eton College, Berkshire (1893-1899)
Exeter College Oxford (1318-1878)
Free Grammar School of Queen Elizabeth, Horncastle, Lincolnshire (1854-1894)
Free Grammar School of Queen Elizabeth, Wakefield, Yorkshire (1591-1891)
Giggleswick School, Yorkshire (1499-1921)
Haileybury School, Hertfordshire (1862-1900)
Harrow School, Middlesex (1801-1893)
Keble College Oxford (1870-1925)
King’s College Cambridge (1797-1925)
King’s School, Rochester, Kent (1835-1920)
Kingswood School, Somerset (1746-1897)
Leeds Grammar School, Yorkshire (1820-1900)
Leys School, Cambridgeshire (1872-1911)
Loretto School, Musselburgh, Midlothian (1825-1925)
Merchant Taylors School, London, Middlesex (1871-1900)
Merchiston Castle School, Edinburgh, Midlothian (1833-1903)
Quaker schools, York, Yorkshire
Radley College Oxford (1847-1904)
Repton School, Derbyshire (1557-1905)
Rossall School, Fleetwood, Lancashire (1844-1894)
Rugby School, Warwickshire (1675-1905)
Sedbergh School, Yorkshire (1546-1909)
Sherborne School, Dorset (1823-1892)
Shrewsbury School, Shropshire (1798-1898)
St Lawrence College, Ramsgate, Kent (1879-1924)
St Peter’s School, York, Yorkshire (1828-1844)
Wellington College, Crowthorne, Berkshire (1859-1923)
Westminster School, London (1859-1923)
Winchester College, Hampshire (1836-1890)
Wycliffe College, Stonehouse, Gloucestershire (1836-1890).
As the register books were published independently and for a variety of purposes, the brief details, such as attendance information, biographical detail, home addresses, you’ll find will differ.

The England, Roman Catholic Parish collections adds 9,948 Southwark baptism records for the years 1871 to 1923; 1,010 Congregational records and images for the Southwark’s Roehampton, St Joseph, for the years 1870 to 1920; and 94 new marriage records for Roehampton (St Joseph) and Peckham (Our Lady of Sorrows) for 1882 to 1913. 

The FreeBMD Database was updated on Thursday 1 June 2023, to contain 288,291,718 unique records, 288,037,409 at the previous update.
Years with more than 10,000 additions are, for births 1992-93, for marriages 1991-93, for deaths 1870, 1987, 1990, 1993, 1995.

Go to the LAC website and find the link posted to access the 1931 census on Thursday is no more, and there’s a News post.

“After a tremendous take off for the launch of the 1931 Census on June 1, traffic increased rapidly. Our system started showing signs of slowing down, followed by difficulties with loading images. Unfortunately, this affected our users’ online experience, and we apologize for the inconvenience. We are as disappointed as our users, given the tireless work that went into preparing for the 1931 Census release and the anticipation around that release.

We are actively working on finding technical solutions and testing is ongoing.

While we do not have a timeline to offer at the moment, giving our users a great online experience with the 1931 Census data is our top priority.

Thank you for your patience.”

The apology and your disappointment is noted. It’s easy to thank us for our patience, but with LAC’s continuing underperformance, patience becomes exhaused.

Would it be too much to expect that LAC would have enough consideration for its clients to direct them to the free availability of the census images at Ancestry?

Our community should be asking Leslie Weir, recently reappointed Librarian and Archivist of Canada, where the buck should stop, to investigate and reveal why with all the time LAC had to prepared the launch, it was such a failure.

Show leadership!

Part of LAC’s mandate is “to be a source of enduring knowledge accessible to all, contributing to the cultural, social and economic advancement of Canada as a free and democratic society.” How does LAC management know what knowkedge its single largest client group, genealogists, wants made available?

Here’s my experience with the census release.

The census came online at 8 am on Thursday, 1 June at the LAC website.

By 8:30 am the site was overloaded and delivering only page load errors.

At 9 am still delivering page load errors. At 9:35 am delivering images, intermittantly page load errors.

At 9:50 am LAC Tweeted “The 1931 Census sure is a hit! Within one hour, we have received over 3600 hits.

Due to high levels of traffic, the web page is slower than usual. We appreciate your enthusiasm and patience!”

6:20 pm and LAC’s 1931 census webpage has a notice “Due to high levels of traffic, all our search engines, including the one for browsing the 1931 Census, are slower than usual. We appreciate your patience while navigating our website.”
In fact the website is delivering the message “Unable to open [object Object]: Error loading image at https://central-d.dev.bac-lac.gc.cal.item/?id=e011742967&app=census1931&op=img”

9 pm:  No service loading images continues.

LAC would gain credibility if it acknowledged that since the first few hours in the morning there has been essentially no 1931 census service, instead of suggesting it’s just slower.

11 am: Finally, LAC Tweet “We’re solving some technical issues about access to the #1931Census. We’re as disappointed as you, and working tirelessly to restore access as soon as we can. Thanks for your patience.”

11 am:  Ancestry.ca now have the 1931 Census of Canada as browse images. It’s free, just a free or paid account. https://www.ancestry.ca/search/collections/62640/.
Tip of the hat to Ken McKinlay who found a work around not involving Ancestry before their access became available.

The following is a “Special Announcement for Readers of Internet Genealogy” 

We have been confronted with a huge increase in our printing bill which has made it impossible for us to continue printing the magazine in the traditional way. We would have to increase our subscription price for the print version up over 40% which we know is not something our readers are prepared to pay. We have very little outside advertising, so we do not have a way to help offset the additional cost for this increase.

Going forward, we are going to focus on producing the magazine in an electronic PDF format and will be using a new platform that allows you to view the magazine through your computer, iPad or e-reader just like a regular magazine. You will also have the option to download the PDF version of the magazine to your computer for safe keeping (you select “Download Complete Flipbook” to download the complete issue in PDF Format). We plan to reduce our in-house ad’s and increase the editorial to provide more information for our readers starting with the June/July 2023 issue.

Please copy and paste the following link into a new browser window for a preview of the online edition of Internet Genealogy:

https://online.flippingbook.com/view/10739108/

COMMENT
Yet another sign of the changing times. The global magazine publishing market is in decline and shifting to online, even though that means losing some traditional customers, including public libraries unless made available through their online subscriptions.
Digital magazines have lower cost of production and distribution. The time required for production is reduced and distribution is instantanious. That means the possibility of being more timely.  There are additional possibilities for enhanced content, such as audio, video and personalization, beyond simple clickable links to external resources depending on the online format.