Anglo-Celtic Connections

Choose from free online events in the next five days. All times are ET except as noted. Those in red are Canadian, bolded if local to Ottawa or recommended. Assume registration in advance is required; check so you’re not disappointed.

Tuesday 12 July 2 pm: OGS Ottawa Branch Virtual Genealogy Drop-in. 
https://ottawa.ogs.on.ca/events/virtual-genealogy-drop-in-2-2022-07-12/

Tuesday 12 July 2 pm: Exploring Your Ethnicities on MyHeritage, by Gal Zrihen for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.  https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/exploring-your-ethnicities-on-myheritage/

Tuesday 12 July 2:30 pm: Preserving Documents & Photos Found in Genealogy Research by Ariel Servadio for Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center.
https://acpl.libnet.info/event/6846281

Wednesday 13 July noon: Occupied America: British Military Rule and the Experience of Revolution by Donald F. Johnson for New York State Office of Cultural Education.
http://nyslibrary.libcal.com/event/8688276

Wednesday 13 July 7 pm: An Update on What’s New at FamilySearch and the 1950 Census Indexing Project by David Rencher for the Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh (GRIP).
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYpdeiuqTksG9PEFUZE-iX96htqb48xUsN3

Wednesday 13 July 8 pm: Montana Genealogy Treasures, by Janet Thomson for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/montana-genealogy-treasures/

Thursday 14 July 6:30 pm: Live! From Midwestern Roots for Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center.
https://acpl.libnet.info/event/6846284

Thursday 14 July 7 pm: Using the Internet Archive (Archive.org) for serious genealogical research by James Tanner for Brigham Young University (BYU) Family History Library.
Click on this link at the time of the webinar
byu.zoom.us/j/97185943513?pwd=TkUyRkhucTJPMDVmRUROSm1RbW

Friday 15 July 2 pm: Colonial Spanish & Mexican Censuses & Census Substitutes, by Henrietta Martinez Christmas for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/colonial-spanish-mexican-censuses-census-substitutes/

 

Since the 7th, when Paul Barber’s OGS conference presentation was missing from the recordings, it has been found. Attendees can now view all the presentations until the end of the month.

British Army Lists & Commission Registers 1661-1826
The largest addition of the week has over 118,000 records. They span from 1661, when the British Army – then the English Army – was originally founded, until 1826. There are partial transcriptions and original publication images.

They will usually give you a full name, a regiment and rank, and an event date – which tends to be the date that the officer was commissioned.

There are four entries for John By of the Royal Engineers from 1802 to 1826. In 1802 and 1803, he was a First Lieutenant effective 19 April 1801. In 1824 (twice), a Lt. Colonel effective 2 December 1824.

British Army, Recommendations for Military Honours and Awards 1935-1990
Includes over 79,000 records covering 55 years for gallantry in the face of an enemy, meritorious service (not in the face of an enemy), distinguished service, or a combination thereof.

The majority of these records are for the British Army and dominions armies personnel, with some Royal Navy, Royal Marines, and Royal Air Force records, as well as decorations exchanged between British and Allied armies. Most are for service during the Second World War.

The records are transcripts, with a date on which the award was announced in the London Gazette given.

Britain, Campaign, Gallantry & Long Service Medals & Awards
Another 52,000 records are in this collection, bringing the total up to 6.3 million, for the Long Service Good Conduct Medal, India General Service Medal Pegu (Army) 1852-1853, and India General Service Medal Pegu (Navy) 1852-1853.

These records span the British Army, Royal Air Force, Royal Navy and Royal Marines. You’ll find records from both the World Wars and the Peninsular War, Waterloo, and other significant conflicts.

British Royal Navy & Royal Marines Service and Pension Records, 1704-1919
Nearly 20,000 additions for men who joined the Royal Navy in 1810. You may find details such as the year the pension was granted, military discharge year, length of service, and more. Where available, it’s also worth checking the original image in this collection, as it may contain additional comments. Expect to find multiple documents for the same person,

 

 

The Ottawa Public Library recently became a subscriber to the Library Edition of MyHeritage. OPL cardholders can access it free from anywhere they have internet access via the OPL website.

If you’d like a live walkthrough by MyHeritage Expert Genealogist Daniel Horowitz, there’s an opportunity on Saturday 16 July at 2 pm courtesy of the Los Angeles Public Library.

Just click on the YouTube link on the day and time to watch.
www.youtube.com/user/losangeleslibrary

 

How will the new joint LAC/OPL facility in Ottawa meet Canada’s needs in catering to researchers like academics, graduate students, authors, professional researchers for media and the like? There are ominous signs.

It seems hard to believe, but information received informally, and unverified, is that LAC is removing the Reference room, a quiet space where original documents can be consulted, from the plans for the new building. The space would be transformed to extend service to tourists in anticipation of more visitors.

Tell me it ain’t so!

That’s a cause for concern for many, including family historians as many of us go beyond filling out names and BMD facts in our family tree to explore their lives in the context of the times — family history, not just genealogy.

Family historians are using military service files, war diaries and any number of resources not strictly genealogical in nature. Beyond that, BIFHSGO volunteers spent untold hours sifting through Department of Agriculture files to identify home children. 

The needs of those doing academic research, including graduate students, professional researchers, authors and others in original documents, must be prioritized. There is nowhere else for them to access LAC’s unique records. Their work is core to the LAC mandate.

Three questions used at the OGS conference, see below,  were barely a start on consultation. Much more is promised. During the OGS presentation, attendees were told all ideas were welcome. In ending the session, Julie Roy from LAC assured us that the conference session was “just the beginning of the consultation. We will ask you more questions in the future.” Nothing more specific. No contact information was given, the project website at https://inspire555.ca/ includes a link for subscribing for updates and providing feedback.

More than responding to questions, like the three at the OGS conference, is needed if the facility is to meet Canada’s needs. Will there be focus groups and sessions where existing and potential clients can interact with each other and senior staff answer questions, not only ask them? Beyond that, there should be an ongoing User Advisory Group, much as exists at TNA. https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/about/get-involved/have-your-say/user-advisory-group/

Our communities need a commitment by LAC management that they will maintain and enhance the research facility for professionals, along with staffing the facility with professional librarians and archivists with the specialist knowledge needed to advise on making use of the collections.

Summary of the “The Journey to Genealogy Services at Ādisōke,” the opening session of the OGS conference on Friday, 24 June.

Billed as “discuss, explain, and listen to [Y]OUR opinions on the new genealogy services centre being built in Ottawa,” the “listen to [Y]OUR opinions” segment involved three questions about the “journey.”

1. It is the morning of your big visit to Ādisōke. You are packing your bag for a day of research. What’s in your bag? What physical things are you bringing? What materials have you prepared on your computer or on your phone?

Answers were requested in a word, and the results were displayed in real-time in a word cloud.

The top result was Laptop.

2. You are now at Ādisōke. What genealogical services are you expecting? Who is there to speak with you? Where do you go for help? What do you do by yourself?

The top result was Self-service microfilm readers.

3. It’s time to leave Ādisōke for the day. What are you leaving with? Is there anything more in your bag? Is there anything new on your computer? Did you make any new contacts?
Enter a word?

The top result was Knowledge.

That was followed by a time for questions. The public space at 395 Wellington will no longer be available, although some storage may remain for a while. The resources in the present genealogy area will be retained in the new building.

It’s unclear how much of the other reference material, like city directories and newspapers used by family historians but not in the present genealogy area at LAC, will be readily available as at present, or digitized. I understand the present collection of family histories is to be available.

The schedule this week was interrupted by the Rogers failure.

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

Irish GenPod
Irish genealogist Paul Gorry chats with people who are involved, in various ways, in Irish Genealogy.

Ancestry updates Quebec, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1968 to contain 29,376,363 records.

WDYTYA US returns to NBC

The World’s Crookedest Street

OGS Kingston Branch Summer Sale of Publications

Six strange statues
The charity ArtUK has created a photographic database of 13,500 works of public art.

Dark matter: our review suggests it’s time to ditch it in favour of a new theory of gravity
While the furthest thing from a cosmologist I’ve been skeptical about the idea of dark matter since I first heard of it. Ezekiel Stone Wiggins, genealogist among other talents, proposed that the failure of the positions of the moon and planets to predict the weather was because there was a dark moon, without any other evidence for its existance.

Thanks to this week’s contributors. Anonymous, Gail, Glenn W., Romaine Honey, Teresa, Unknown.

Canada, Obituary Collection, 1898-Current, now has 10,989,643 records, up from 10,878,408 items in April (+111,235) and 9,387,518 in June last year.

U.S., Obituary Collection, 1930-Current, now has 200,519,892 records, up from 198,633,254 items in April (+1,886,636) and 191,120,426 in June last year.

UK and Ireland, Obituary Index, 2004-Current,  now has 6,730,647 records, up from 6,700,836 records in April (+29,809) and 6,470,815 in June last year.

Australia and New Zealand, Obituary Index, 2004-Current, now has 2,118,339 records, up from 2,093,598 records, in April (+24,781) and 1,982,265 in June last year.

Caribbean, Obituary Index, 2003-Current, now has 97,400 records, up from 97,330 records in April (+70) .

There was probably a technical glitch in the recording of Paul Barber’s presentation Understanding the Past – To Improve Our Future at the OGS conference. Pity.
The link to all the other OGS/Ontario Ancestors presentations is https://conference2022.ogs.on.ca/conference/. You do need to be registered to view them.

There’s a handy list compiled by Jeanette R Rosenberg detailing the resources recommended in a talk “Researching Jewish Genealogy Sources for Your One-Name Study” given online on Wednesday afternoon. Find that links list on her Round2It Genealogy blog.

If you’d like a more British-oriented Jewish list try this.

At the OGS Conference opening session the addition of further genealogical resources from the Ottawa Public Library was hinted at.

MyHeritage Library Edition is now available —and there is remote access! Here’s the announcement from OPL.

(Genealogy Research – In the library, at home, or on the go)

MyHeritage Library Edition is one of the largest, most internationally diverse genealogy databases of its kind. It contains billions of historical records from all over the world to support family history research. The search engine’s automatic handling of translations, synonyms, and spelling variations of millions of names in multiple languages is unparalleled.

Remote access and a mobile-friendly interface make it the most convenient genealogy product for our customers.

Many OPL customers have enjoyed the temporary at-home access to Ancestry Library that was provided during the pandemic—by adding the MyHeritage Library Edition, OPL will again be able to provide a convenient remote access service, so that you can enjoy genealogy research from the comfort of your home.  In addition, My Heritage Library Edition also provides additional information not available in Ancestry.

The MyHeritage Library Edition includes an ever-growing archive of international records and documents, including those from Filae, a leading genealogy service in France that specializes in French family history. These additional database records, provide valuable support to the diversity of our Ottawa area residents and communities.

Please note that Ancestry Library is still available for in-library use. We hope those two leading English genealogy resources plus other free resources such as FamilySearch.org will meet the needs of our genealogy users and take your genealogy research to the next level!

Please note:

MyHeritage Library Edition differs from the consumer version of My Heritage

Personal authentication and all personalization features, such as tree creation, have been expressly disabled in the Library Edition by design to protect the privacy of users.

Comment: This announcement refers to the Ottawa Public Library, As yet MyHeriatge is not online for Toronto Public Librray cardholders, althoughTPL does offer remote access to HeritageQuest and Fold3.

At the UK National Archives, a search of the online catalogue for Canada finds 45,576 results and for Ottawa 3,133 results. You can filter the results by time period and various archives beyond TNA.

If you can localize your interest visit the county record office online where you’ll find material in addition to that in the catalogue. Here’s a tiny sample.

The Derbyshire Record Office has an active blog. Searching in the updated online catalogue shows 259 entries for Canada and 12 for Ottawa.

The Norfolk Record Office is active on Twitter. The online catalogue shows 437 results for Canada, 8 for Ottawa.

The Lancashire Archives and Record Office offers “Thoughts from Lancashire Archives podcast”. There are 308 hits for Canada in the online catalogue and 16 for Ottawa.

The Dorset History Centre has an active blog. Find 130 items for Canada in the online catalogue and 2 for Ottawa.

There’s a list of county record offices here, and a longer list from TNA with other archives here.

As of 8 pm on Tuesday evening, the recordings available are:

OnLand and FamilySearch: Best Friends for Land Registry Records, by Jane E. MacNamara

Obituaries as Priceless Genealogy Resources, by Daniel Horowitz

Loyalist History through Early Ontario Cemeteries, by
Stuart Lyall Manson

Using Oral Histories in Your Genealogical Research, by
David Ryan

Why Did Our Ancestors move between Canada and USA?, by Gordon L. McBean

Telling the Stories that Matter, by Rick Voight, Vivid-Pix

Second World War British Migrants to Canada, by John D. Reid

Wanted Dead or Alive:  Peter Loucks UE (?), by Chuck Buckley

Researching the Bluebirds: On the Trail of the Canadian Nursing Sisters, by Melanie Morin-Pelletier

Prison and Court Records, by Andrea Lister

Researching Canadian Farmers: Your Ancestor was not Just a Farmer, by Jean Hibben

What You Don’t Know about the Canadian Census (Ontario Focus), by Janice Nickerson

Photo Album Mysteries Unveiled, by Debra Honor UE

If I Only Knew Then What I know Now! Doing Genealogy the Right Way, by Daniel Horowitz

Understanding the Past – To Improve Our Future, by Paul Barber

Jewish Canadians in the Spanish Civil War, by Michael Petrou

Let Your Fingers Do the Walking – Favourite Online Resources, by Diane Richard

Natural Phenomena and Their Effects on the Lives of Our Ancestors, by Wayne Shepheard

Mohawk Participant in the War of 1812, by Eric Pouliot-Thisdale

Genetic Genealogy: DNA Testing, Tools & Tips, by Ben Dawson

The Art of Slow Genealogy, by Tara Shymanski

Researching a Soldier of the Great War, by Ken McKinlay.

Just seven more to come!