Anglo-Celtic Connections

Today, 21 July, is climatologically the hottest day in Ottawa, according to records from the Central Experimental Farm.
It’s midway between 16 and 27 July, which all have an average daily maximum of 26.7 °C. It’s also the day with the warmest daily minimum temperature of 15.7°C.

Here’s an analysis of the recently updated historical Canadian newspapers digitized at Newspapers.com.

British Columbia dominates with over 60 publications, mostly recent issues of many small-town or regional titles (e.g., Arrow Lakes News, Sooke News Mirror, Cowichan Valley Citizen).
Ontario has eight updates, including The Toronto Star and The Globe and Mail.
Alberta: the 14 updates of recent issues are a mix of rural (e.g., Sylvan Lake News, Castor Advance) and urban (Calgary Herald and Edmonton Journal.)
Quebec, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and the Atlantic provinces: Less comprehensive, while including key publications like The Gazette (Montreal) and Telegraph-Journal (Saint John).
Yukon has one entry (Yukon News).

Here’s the full list

At 11 am, the Parliament Hill webcam shows a mix of sun and cloud, and the weather radar indicates the rain having moved well off to the east, with nothing approaching from the west.

The sun is expected to start to break through around noon. I’ll be checking the weather radar at 11 am and will be at the cafe, all being well, at noon.

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

The Infinite Complexity of History
The latest from Dan Gardner on how a basic misunderstanding puts people in danger of falling for Holocaust denial and others forms of pseudo-history

Galway, Ireland, Ballynahinch Estate Records, 1905-1940
Ancestry added this small new collection, just 2,137 records
Galway, Ireland, Ballynahinch Estate Records, 1905-1940. It has tenant records from 1905 to 1940 and visitor records from 1905 to 1970.

Family History AI Show
Only 2 weeks after the last episode, Mark Thompson and Steve Little are back with episode 27. They cover AI Image Restoration Concerns, Perplexity’s Future, Copyright Cases Are Shaping The Future of AI, Project Workspaces Help You Stay Organized. Joking about 51st state not appreciated.

Needle- The Global News Map
News stories posted in the past day pinned them on a map. Leans heavily on Canadian sources.

A cluster of Worcester and area-based papers from the 19th and 20th centuries is the highlight of the most recent additions to the newspapers.com collection.

There’s a notable, smaller presence of London-based newspapers (Hackney and Stoke Newington Recorder, The Docklands and East London Advertiser, Newham Recorder, Ilford Recorder).

Although fewer in number, papers from Cambridgeshire (The Hunts Post), Hertfordshire (Royston Crow), North Somerset (North Somerset Times), and Warwickshire (The Alcester Chronicle, etc.) broaden the geographical spread,

So far, the forecast for Sunday in Ottawa is now “Mainly cloudy. Wind becoming northwest 20 km/h gusting to 40 near noon. High 25.” No mention of showers.

A note from Christine Jackson corrects the previous information: “There’s no parking or vehicle access from the Parkway.”

Christine helpfully informs that there is a new parking lot – accessible only from the Parkway – on its south side. There’s a new traffic light there on the Parkway & pedestrian crossing over to the upper level of the Beach (with path & stairs down to the patio cafe).

Hundreds of Donegal census records, thought to have been destroyed in the Public Records Office fires in Dublin in 1922, have been recovered.

Three clusters are notable:

1821, Killymard parish, near Donegal Town. These extracts sourced from the book Killymard, ancient and modern. Attempts to track down the original notebooks containing the original transcriptions have so far proved unsuccessful.
1851, Gartan parish. Complete census records for about 15 townlands in the Glenveagh area.
1821, Clonmany and Desertegny civil parishes. All Doherty/Dogherty households and all households containing at least one person called Doherty (e.g. as servants or live-in labourers). This has resulted in the recovery of about 40% of the original census returns for both parishes.

The documents are now freely available online through the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland to mark the 103rd anniversary of the Four Courts blaze.

This news is abstracted from an article in the Donegal Daily, which includes detailed instructions on access.

Surrey, Southwark, Licenses and Trade Registers (1690-1950) 25,361 records

Findmypast has digitized these registers from Southwark (1915-1950) in partnership with Southwark Archives. The collection includes licensed coal retailers and street traders.

Records provide names, addresses, event dates, and trading details. Original documents include commodity specifications and pitch allocations. Was an ancestor engaged in Southwark street commerce? There are pages of street trading licences for pitches on East Street, one of London’s oldest, largest, and busiest markets, with a history dating back to the 16th century.

The post-war street trader registers demonstrate notable increases in both licensed traders and product diversity, reflecting economic recovery following the Second World War.

St George The Martyr Workhouse Records (1729-1838) 63,448 records

Administrative records from St George the Martyr Workhouse in Southwark, digitized through a partnership with Southwark Archives. The collection comprises Board of Guardians minutes and overseer payment documentation from 1729 until the institution’s merger into Saint Saviour’s Poor Law Union in 1836.

Records contain names, dates, occupations, admission circumstances, family relationships, clothing allowances, and staff compensation details.

Newspaper Collection Additions 202,482 pages

This week sees the publication of four new titles, as well as the addition of more than 10,000 pages to four others, with considerable coverage in the 19th century.

The IGRS is launching a new database created from a card index compiled several decades ago by the now late Patrick Smythe-Wood. It notes biographical information from Irish, and a small number of Canadian, newspapers.

Find out more at https://www.irishancestors.ie/smythe-wood-newspaper-database

Join us on Sunday at noon at the new cafe at Westboro Beach.

After several weeks when the forecast was not promising, for next Sunday it’s better — “A mix of sun and cloud with 40 percent chance of showers. High 25.” That’s a couple of degrees cooler than the July average high temperature.

If you’ve not been to the cafe since it reopened earlier in the year, it’s more or less where it was previously, just shifted a bit more toward the river.

There’s no parking or vehicle access from the Parkway. Use parking on the south side of the Parkway on Kirchoffer Ave and adjacent streets. It can get crowded.

Find the menu here.

Look for updates as the day nears.

Another nice collection from Ancestry provided in association with Cambridgeshire Libraries and Archives and the Huntingdonshire Family History Society. Each has a linked image of the original and the ability to browse each parish individually.

Findmypast also has an extensive collection of parish records for the counties,