Anglo-Celtic Connections

This year’s British Isles Family History Society (BIFHSGO) conference dives deep into the forces behind Scottish migration and emigration, offering expert speakers with invaluable insights and practical strategies to help trace family lines back to a Scottish homeland. Here’s the program for this year’s virtual conference.

The program,  themed Flittin’ Day: Forces That Moved our Scottish Ancestors will include the following speakers and topics:

Sir Tom Devine	The puzzle of mass Scottish transatlantic emigration 1815 to 1914. Can it be convincingly resolved?
Professor Graeme Morton	Industrial Scotland, Industrial Dundee: Following the immigrant workforce
Dr. Frances Wilkins	The Songs that Stayed and the Songs that Were Taken Away: The Role of Music in the Lives of Scottish Migrants
Alison Spring	Researching Urban Ancestors in Scotland
Morag Peers	Crossing the Sea: Researching Scottish Ancestors
Professor Marjory Harper	Religious Movements, Fragmented Communities and Contentious Clerics: Secession, Migration and Emigration in 19th-century Scotland
Chris Fleet	Tracing Scottish Ancestors with Online Maps
Laura House	Genealogy, the Information Ecosystem, and Our Technofuture

Additionally, Graeme Morton, Morag Peers, Marjory Harper and Frances Wilkins will take part in the Expert Connect Q and A session together with additional guest experts.

For more information, visit the conference website HERE.

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 https://conferencekeeper.org/virtual/ .

Tuesday, 18 August  2026

2:00 PM EDT – Ottawa Virtual Genealogy Drop-In, for OGS Ottawa Branch
https://ottawa.ogs.on.ca/events/virtual-genealogy-drop-in-2-2026-08-18/

2:30 PM EDT – Ship Manifests and Oaths of Allegiance: Finding the Origin
Stories of 19th Century Immigrant Families, by Jeremy Verdusco for Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center.
https://acpl.libnet.info/event/16670975

8:00 PM EDT – Supercharged Research: Working with AI Tools and Meeting Genealogical Standards, by David S. Ouimette for BCG (Board for Certification of Genealogists) / Legacy Family Tree Webinars. https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/supercharged-research-working-with-ai-tools-and-meeting-genealogy-standards

Wednesday, 19 August 2026

2:00 PM EDT – DNA in Action 4 of 6: The DNA FAN Club, by Karen Stanbary for Legacy Family Tree Webinars. https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/dna-in-action-4-of-6-the-dna-fan-club

Thursday, 20 August 2026

Friday, 21 August 2026

2:00 PM EDT – Migration Pathways Between Canada and the United States You Haven’t Explored, by Kathryn Lake Hogan for Legacy Family Tree Webinars (O Canada Series)
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/migration-pathways-between-canada-and-the-united-states-you-havent-considered

Saturday, 22 August 2026

Briefly, the contents of this issue.

MARRIAGES: BEYOND THE OFFICIAL RECORD
David Annal explains why there may be more than one source of information about our ancestors’ marriages.

WHAT DID YOUR ANCESTORS DO IN WAR WEAPONS WEEK?
Discover the nationwide range of community events — held to raise funds for the machinery of war during WW2— with Janet Smith.

BOOK REVIEWS
The Secrets of Our DNA: How Genetics Has Changed the World, By Turi King.
How to Research your Second World War Ancestors, By Simon Fowler
Samuel Pepys in 50 Places and Objects, By Paul Kendall.

A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO DNA PAINTER
Donna Rutherford’s deep dive shows how to use 6 key tools from DNA Painter.

WHAT DID YOUR ANCESTORS DO IN THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION?
The experts at Findmypast explain why this pivotal period offers an opportunity to discover how our ancestors lived — and worked.

FROM HOME TO HORIZON
Julie Johnson helps us understand the real person beyond the records, as she continues her Birth to Burial series.

Miscellaneous items I found interesting this week.

GeoPuzzle – Arrange the pieces of the world!

Beyond the 15‑minute city: What really makes people want to walk

London, drawn, a sprawling AI-generated city rendered in the style of a classic SimCity map.

Reading Maps: Journeys from fiction drawn on the real world

Map tools for family history
Free tools that turn your research into a map you can share — built for genealogists, and for anyone trying to show where a story happened.

New targeted warnings for severe thunderstorms and tornadoes
Canada’s Meteorological Service, part of ECCC, is improving warnings for severe thunderstorms and tornadoes. The area alerted will now be much more precise;  you are much more likely to see dangerous weather. I experienced this on Monday when a tornado warning came on my mobile phone, but didn’t appear on The Weather Network TV channel. It became real for me when a major branch fell from a tree across my back fence and landed in my garden.

Elias Ashmole: A 17th-century weatherman?
As a former meteorologist, this article by Rebecca Rideal grabbed my attention. Even if weather history isn’t your thing, take a look at the posts on her Substack.

OGS to Increase Fees
The Ontario Genealogical Society Board has approved an increase in the annual fee by $12, which translates to a dollar per year for the 12 years fees remained at $63. There will be a general meeting to approve what most people would accept as a reasonable increase given the recent operating deficits.

Thanks to the following individuals for their comments and tips: Anonymous, Jane MacNamara, Julia, Gail, Glenn, Teresa, TONI, and Unknown.

 

Great Western Railway Company Staff Records
Now with 556,680 results covering staff of the Great Western Railway Company — “God’s Wonderful Railway” — founded in 1835. Drawn from The National Archives’ RAIL 264 series, these registers can include name, occupation, station, appointment and birth details, and last date of service, each with a transcript and often an image. Ideal for tracing clerks, firemen, stowers and other railway ancestors.

The Ellesmere Canal Company
Now with 9,928 results relating to the Ellesmere Canal Company, drawn from The National Archives’ RAIL 827 series, including shareholders’ records and company minutes. Records include names, appointment details, stations and occupations.

Derbyshire Early Census Returns, 1695–1863
2,075 results covering parishes such as Melbourne, Hollington, Offerton and Mackworth, published in cooperation with the Derbyshire Family History Society and the Family History Federation. Each transcript includes name, event date, place, county and household reference.

Scotland Monumental Inscriptions
This collection now has: 1,223,554 results, the largest of its kind online, compiled by societies including the Aberdeen & North East Scotland FHS, Caithness FHS and the Scottish Genealogy Society.

Newspapers

England

Publication	Location	Date Range	Issues
Ashton Reporter	Ashton-under-Lyne	1889	52
Bell’s Weekly Messenger	London	1900 – 1904	261
Berks and Oxon Advertiser	Wallingford	1960 – 1963	163
Bognor Regis Observer	Bognor Regis	1877 – 1889	104
Bury Free Press	Bury St Edmunds	1897	52
Chester Courant	Chester	1830	52
County Express	Stourbridge	1919	52
Cumberland Pacquet and Ware’s Whitehaven Advertiser	Whitehaven	1774	11
Derby and Chesterfield Reporter	Derby	1841 – 1930	273
Devizes and Wiltshire Gazette	Devizes	1897 – 1913	156
Dewsbury Social-Democrat	Dewsbury	1907 – 1909	25
Hastings and St Leonards Observer	Hastings	2005	52
Kentish Express	Ashford	1983	52
Lichfield Mercury	Lichfield	2004	52
Macclesfield Express	Macclesfield	2000 – 2001	105
Nation and The Athenaeum	London	1907 – 1931	729
Northern Gardener	Manchester	1890	52
Oxford University and City Herald	Oxford	1885	52
Preston Herald	Preston	1910	208
South Bucks Free Press	High Wycombe	1889	52
Southern Times and Dorset County Herald	Weymouth	1870	53
Sporting Times	London	1869	46
St. Neots Advertiser	St Neots	1904 – 1964	1,639
Tonbridge Free Press	Tonbridge	1965 – 1966	105
Woodbridge Reporter	Woodbridge	1934 – 1936	157
Yorkshireman	Bradford	1890 – 1891	68

Scotland & Wales

Publication	Location	Date Range	Issues
Forres Elgin and Nairn Gazette	Forres, Scotland	1987	52
North Wales Times	Denbigh, Wales	1911 – 1912	104
South Wales Daily News	Cardiff, Wales	1913	308
Wishaw World	Wishaw, Scotland	2000 – 2005	264

Ireland & International

Publication	Location	Date Range	Issues
Connaught Telegraph	Castlebar, Republic of Ireland	1847 – 1867	672
Limerick Reporter	Limerick, Republic of Ireland	1882 – 1895	300
The Pilot	Dublin, Republic of Ireland	1840 – 1844	780
Times of India	Bombay, India	1906 – 1966	8,279

 

As one of 88 Canadian members of the Guild of One-Name Studies I receive the quarterly Journal of One-Name Studies.  The full-colour July-September 2026 issue, brim-full of good information, just arrived in my mail-box.

As I don’t conduct a study, and can’t conveniently attend the in-person events like UK residents — 73% of the membership — the journal is my most valuable benefit.

Leaving aside the “ado”, here are the articles I found of interest :

The Private Life of a Family Bible. The story of a purloined treasure.

The Origin & Development of a Ricketts Paternal line:. Combines Y-chromosome DNA testing, parish records, and historical geography to trace a paternal lineage back to a single medieval founder.

Joseph Chicken, Businessman & Bigamist:.He abandoned his wife and two sons, emigrated to Australia and started a second family. Becoming wealthy, he eventually reconnected with his English relatives. I have Chicken ancestors from Cumberland where he is buried.

Book Review: Genealogy Methods & Techniques. Highly recommended by reviewer, and Guild Chair, Julie Goucher. Author Karen Cummings owns Pharos Tutors which was previously owned by Helen Osborn, author of Genealogy: Essential Research Methods.

Navigating the Future: Proceedings of the Annual Conference 2026. A collection of one-page summaries of presentations given at the Guild annual conference last April. Four papers were devoted principally to AI, “not because it was viewed as a solution to every problem, but because it is already becoming part of the everyday toolkit of family historians.”

DNA for your One-Name Study. The article ends with “The most consistent complaint I hear about DNA testing for genealogy is: “I wish I had done it sooner.”

Shepheard Families in South Devon. Canadian genealogist Wayne Shepheard does a deep dive into the statistics of his family surname and variants. Beware drawing conclusions from patchy data.

Like many genealogy organizations, Guild membership is declining, down 3.5% in the past year.

When searching for an elusive person in your family tree, you greet each new database with hope. Mine, for my first cousin twice removed, were dashed. Nothing like his name, variously spelled, is found in this collection, new to Ancestry, of 8,807,213 Maltese BMD  records.
Dated between 1500 and 1983, they come via The National Archives of Malta, in Rabat. The collection has many records written in Italian, also in Maltese, Latin, and English.
Most, if not all, indexes or transcriptions are linked to images of the original.

• In March 2022 an ATIP request was made for files dating from 1945 to 1953 classified as Government of Canada archival records. As of 31 March, four years later, it was one of 2,186 records so classified which were late.  While the backlog of requests for Records of former Canadian Armed Forces members and former public servants saw a substantial decrease in the year, that for Government of Canada archival records has barely moved. Does the Federal Government believe that is acceptable performance? Is the problem a deficiency in management of the program, a lack of resources, a mix, or something else? In either case, it’s the responsibility of the Carney government to address delays that make a mockery of the legislation.
• Last week, in a post that got substantial attention, I reported that “An order for publications (directories) I placed on 24 July was “Not ready for pick up” 11 days later.” It turns out the problem was a deficiency in reporting through the online system. A piece of paper had been left in the “R” shelf at LAC informing that the years requested are not in the collection. Are we expected to hang around 395 Wellington waiting for a piece of paper to appear? If there’s an online system to communicate to clients about the status of orders, why not use it for prompt notification?
• Maps are documentary heritage. Once upon a time, LAC had a map collection. It probably still does, but it’s so neglected as to be practically invisible. There isn’t even an entry for Maps in LAC’s A to Z research guides and tools facility.  It’s not as if the research guides are being neglected. 2SLGBTQIA+ related resources research guide was recently added.
• It’s not just LAC.  Cuts are being made to heritage-memory institutions at the local and provincial levels as well as federal. A grassroots group of archivists, historians, genealogists, museums, and gallery workers is formed — the Canadian Cultural Heritage Advocacy Committee . If you’re concerned, sign up at the website for their email newsletter.
• There’s an addition to the LAC Collection at the Internet Archive Canada, an 8-page poem “Lines on the massacre of Oszmiana”?  Should there be a CanCon requirement?

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 https://conferencekeeper.org/virtual/

Tuesday, 11 August

2:00 PM: Using the Scandinavian Church Records on MyHeritage.com, by Jenny Hansen for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/using-the-scandinavian-church-records-on-myheritage-com

2:30 PM: What Can DNA Really Tell You? DNA and Genealogy Basics, by Collette Fenlason for Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center.
https://acpl.libnet.info/event/16670925

Wednesday, 12 August

2:00 PM: Citations Made Simple: Strategies for Every Genealogist, by Lisa Stokes for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/citations-made-simple-strategies-for-every-genealogist

Thursday 13 August – Saturday 15 August

 

Two new presentation apps for family historians. I suspect they’re the product of vibe coding . This is for information; I’ve not tried either one.

The free TreeAlive turns your family tree into a short animated historical map from the years your family lived them.

“Your map is built in your browser, and we keep no copy of your tree on our servers unless you choose to share it. Only locations are sent out to place them on historical maps.”

MemriTree “turns your spoken or typed memories into well-written stories, complete with watercolor-style illustrations that help bring them to life.” Scroll down to check out examples.

This release includes regimental histories, Home Guard records added to the more than 50 browsable books – Military Records | Regimental Records & Histories – collection.

History of the Dorsetshire Regiment, 1914–1919 (741 pages)
London Gunners, 1914–1918 (280 pages)
The Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry, 1914–1919 (515 pages)
The East Yorkshire Regiment in the Great War, 1914–1918 (533 pages)
The History of the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry in the Great War, 1914–1918 (471 pages)
The Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment, 1920–1950 (551 pages)
The Story of A Sector Warwickshire Home Guard, 1940–1944 (141 pages)

Also added is Sir John French’s Despatches: The Graphic Special, Nos. 1 and 2, for the early part of the Great War.

Many of these can be found on the Internet Archive and similar free online archives.