Anglo-Celtic Connections

Moving from its crampled quarters in Clerkemwell has opened up thinking for The Society of Genealogists (SOG).

This article from History First starts with news that handwritten family trees containing names of a million and a quarter people from the medieval period onwards will be shared online.

The real news is found later. The idea is to make the new SOG headquarters not only a hub for family historians, but also the wider history community. 

“The new building is really going to be a destination for people,” said SOG CEO Wyporska, adding that new facilities might include a café and exhibition space and there would be a busy programme of on-site courses and events. “It’s putting the society back into society. I’m really looking forward to making this a really lively venue, as well as somewhere where you might be just sitting, having a cup of tea in between your research and overhear a conversation and your mind starts to work. And then you have a three-hour long chat.”

Historic family trees with 1.25m names to go online

Live via Zoom, a series of free presentations by GRIP in association with various sponsoring organizations. Pre-Registration is required through the sponsoring organizations’ links below. KEEP THE CONFIRMATION EMAIL that the sign-up generates. This will be the ONLY reminder and contains the link to join the meeting at the appropriate hour. You will need to register for each meeting separately.

Tuesday, June 21, 2022: Sponsored by Western Pennsylvania Genealogical Society. Presenter Debbie Abbott, Ph.D. “Through the Eyes of a Genealogist: Paul Newman”

Wednesday, June 22, 2022: Sponsored by Bucks County (PA) Genealogical Society. Presenter CeCe Moore. “Serendipitous Story of John Doe and an Adoptee: Searching for Identity”

Thursday, June 23, 2022: Sponsored by Mid-Atlantic Germanic Society. Presenter Michael Lacopo. “Methods for Identifying the German Origins of American Immigrants” 

Monday, July 11, 2022: Sponsored by North Hills Genealogists. Presenter Karen Stanbary, MA, LCSW, CG^®. “It’s All About Respect: Clinical Tips to Manage Uncomfortable Conversations about Surprising DNA Test Results”

Tuesday, July 12, 2022: Sponsored by Western New York Genealogical Society. Presenter Annette Burke Lyttle. “Reconstructing the Lives of Our Farming Ancestors”

Wednesday, July 13, 2022: Sponsored by FamilySearch. David Rencher, AG, CG, FUGA, FIGRS, “An Update on What’s New at FamilySearch and the 1950 Census Indexing Project” 

Thursday, July 14, 2022: Sponsored by Orange County, California, Genealogical Society. Presenter Rich Venezia. “Alien Registrations in America”

Presentation details are at https://www.gripitt.org/evening-programs/

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 21 June. 2 pm: Virtual Genealogy Drop-In, from Ottawa Branch of OGS and The Ottawa Public Library.
https://ottawa.ogs.on.ca/events/

Tuesday 21 June, 2:30 pm: Finding the Unknown Parents of Your 19th Century Ancestors, by Sara Allen for Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center.
https://acpl.libnet.info/event/6730803

Tuesday, 21 June. 8 pm: Negative Evidence: Making Something Out of Nothing, by Denise E. Cross for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/negative-evidence-making-something-out-of-nothing/

Wednesday 22 June, 2 pm: Irish Emigration to North America: Before, during and after Famine, by Paul Milner for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/irish-emigration-to-north-america-before-during-and-after-famine/

Thursday 23 June, 6:30 pm: Who are All These People?
How you CAN figure out identities of people in your photos, by Tina LaFreniere for Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center.
https://acpl.libnet.info/event/6728150

Friday 24 June – Sunday 26 June: OGS/Ontario Ancestors Conference.
https://www.conference2022.ogs.on.ca

Saturday afternoon saw an online ceremony recognizing the 163 graduates of the National Institute of Genealogical Studies since just before the pandemic.

Congratulations to the following Canadians whose achievement was celebrated — perhaps you know one of more of them.

Charles (Chuck) L Buckley – Canmore, Alberta
Annette Dunford – Dour-Dummer, Ontario
Judith Fayter – Ridgetown, Ontario
Kendra Gaede – Winnipeg, Manitoba
David W Gray – Toronto, Ontario
Beatrice Hale – Oshawa, Ontario
Karen Henkelman – Calgary, Alberta
Dianne Kayess – Georgetown, Ontario
Lyn Kendell – Holland Landing, Ontario
Carol MacKay – Qualicum Beach, British Columbia
Suzanne Mainprize – Frankford, Ontario
Evelyn Page – Grimsby, Ontario
Dahlia Petgrave – Ancaster, Ontario
Kathryn Potter – Ancaster, Ontario
Kathleen Rae – Edmonton, Alberta
Ronald J Raymer – Toronto, Ontario
Linda Ryall – Fall River, Nova Scotia
Carolyn Trickey-Bapty – Hamilton, Ontario
Carol Walsh – Cochrane, Alberta.

Congratulations and best wishes also to Angela Breidenbach who takes over leadership of the Institute and to founder Louise St Denis on her retirement.

If someone of interest for your family history served in the Defence Forces in Ireland from 1922 onwards, or received a medal or pension for service during the Easter Rising or War of Independence, there may to be reference to them within The Irish Military Archives genealogy section.

New features in the popular online-only Military Service (1916-1923) Pensions Collection include a fatalities map, which notes 1,077 individuals who died in the period 28 June to 31 December 1924; a Fatalities timeline; admin files; selected operations from Brigade Activity Reports & an online exhibition called Stories of the Dependents.

via blog post at Irish Genealogy News.

Of Library and Archives Canada’s Co-Lab Challenges progress is reported on two.

Summiting Mount Logan in 1925: Fred Lambart’s personal account of the treacherous climb and descent of the highest peak in Canada is 7% complete, up from 5% last month.

Travel posters in the Marc Choko collection is 65% complete, 52% last month.

Women in the War remains 0% complete.

First World War Posters, with 140 images, remains 99% complete.

Arthur Lismer’s Children’s Art Classes remains 0% complete.

John Freemont Smith remains 93% complete.

Canadian National Land Settlement Association remains 98% complete.

Molly Lamb Bobak with 226 images remains 91% complete.

Diary of François-Hyacinthe Séguin remains 99% complete.

George Mully: moments in Indigenous communities remains 0% complete.

Correspondence regarding First Nations veterans returning after the First World War remains 99% complete.

Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 remains 96% complete.

Legendary Train Robber and Prison Escapee Bill Miner remains 99% complete.

Japanese-Canadians: Second World War remains 0% complete.

The Call to Duty: Canada’s Nursing Sisters remains 92% complete.

Projects that remain 100% complete are no longer reported here.

Other unidentified Co-Lab activities not part of the Challenges may have happened.

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

Dave Obee Presentations
Today (Sunday) at 2 pm from Halton Peel Branch OGS, find out about Tracing Forward to Find Distant Cousins.  Register here. There are also opportunities to learn about Changing Places, Changing Borders: Overcoming geographic challenges in Eastern Europe next Saturday, and  A Fresh Light on Old Newspapers next Sunday at Dave’s OGS Conference presentations.

FamilyTreeDNA
Until 20 June find discounts on various of the company tests.

Saying NO to Facebook (Meta)
On Friday ResearchBuzz, one of my go-to sites, posted a Facebook Update. It included that Facebook failed again to detect hate speech in approving ads that used dehumanizing hate speech to call for the murder of people belonging to each of Ethiopia’s three main ethnic groups. Facebook prohibits gun sales on its service, but buyers and sellers can violate the rule 10 times before they are kicked off the social network. And, the majority of people encountering crypto scams on social media do so on Meta properties, including WhatsApp.

Not in Canada, Eh!
Another example of the sorry state of Canada’s declassification regime — Studying Canada’s Cold War? Go East, young scholar … and maybe skip Ottawa. That’s hot on the heels of Canada, a Country Without a History?

It’s part of a pattern. As family historians we know that post-1935 passenger arrival lists, and WW2 service files, and the 1940 national registration are all unavailable, or only available after jumping through bureaucratic hoops and tolerating long delays. Even then there can be exhorbant costs.

While LAC is focusing on its new palace at 555 Albert the access part of its mandate takes a back seat.

What’s New?
A blog post this week from UBC includes an explanation of how to use an advanced search query to compile a list of new items added this year. At LAC’s collection search you can also specify a year in the advanced search. Entering 2022 finds 11,401 items, 40 of which are archival. One of those is “Ministerial correspondence of the Office of the President [textual record]“, not so informative as it fails to mention the organization! Would that be President of Canada Post, the Museums Corporation? Turns out it’s CIDA. Why not give the organization name rather than just reference RG74? Could it be they want to preserve some of the mystique of the discipline — nothing new about that!

On a lighter note!

Thanks to this week’s contributors.  Anonymous,  Brenda Turner, Gail, Glenn Wright, Teresa, Unknown.

Like many events having seen the advantages of moving online, but also regretting the lack of the social aspect of an in-person conference, RootsTech 2023 will comprise a hybrid online and in-person event. Here’s the announcement.

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH—RootsTech, the world’s largest family history gathering is back in 2023 with an in-person event in Salt Lake City to complement its massive online conference. Mark your calendars for March 2–4, 2023, to join millions of virtual and in-person attendees for inspiring keynote addresses, instructive classes, innovative technologies, and most of all, the ability to connect people to their family—past, present, and future.

FamilySearch is thrilled to continue the legacy of hosting RootsTech in the effort of uniting families. The 2023 event marks the 13th year of this global gathering. In 2022, over 3 million people participated online. Since the beginning, innovation has been a guiding principle for RootsTech. Each year, the event organizers adapt the content to appeal to people worldwide and to stay current. The 2023 event will be no different.

“We feel compelled to keep learning and evolving,” said Jen Allen, RootsTech event director. “We are constantly seeking new ideas to help expand reach outside the industry and create engaging and educational experiences for RootsTech attendees.”

The 2023 event will welcome speakers from all over the world covering a host of genealogy-related subjects. There are many announcements yet to come about RootsTech 2023, but Allen said the virtual experience will remain free and open to everyone all over the world. The in-person event will have a cost (to be determined) associated with registration and will feature exclusive classes with enhanced features like live Q&As or in-depth workshops and case studies. In addition, the in-person event will have unique connection experiences and of course, the energetic expo hall, which is a favorite of past RootsTech attendees.

Allen said that participants will enjoy invaluable experiences discovering family connections, regardless if they attend virtually or in-person. “We are excited to continue to serve the millions of people who attend virtually each year and look forward to welcoming those who will attend in-person in Salt Lake City.”

For more information or to sign up for updates, visit RootsTech.org.

Seventy years ago today, 18 June 1952, Bill C-245,  to establish the National Library, received Royal Assent. That was one of the critical milestones, from the introduction of the Bill by Prime Minister Louis St Laurent on 20 May 1952 to passage by the House of Commons on 27 May to passage by the Senate on 3 June.

A fire in the Library of Parliament in August 1952 accelerated plans for establishing the National Library. On 22 December, Dominion Archivist W Kaye Lamb received the additional appointment as National Librarian, and a site near the Supreme Court on Wellington was mentioned as the future site for the Library. Work had been underway for four years, with two and a half million books catalogued. A monthly list of new Canadian publications was also being prepared.

Proclamation of the Act came on 1 January 1953.

For the early history of the National Library, during the tenure of Dr. Lamb, see https://archivaria.ca/index.php/archivaria/article/download/10972/11905/

Did you ever own a Ford, a Mustang, Bronco or F-150? If so, there’s a website to bring back memories of the vehicle. It’s bright and shiny, just like that car, station wagon or truck when it was new.

If you remember the year and model, you’ll find the original brochure you browsed before buying on the Ford Heritage Vault.

On 17 April 1982, the same day the Queen signed the constitution on Parliament Hill, I took delivery of my only Ford. It rusted; I drove it until seat support started penetrating the floor! Whether the website too will rust remains to be seen!

Lamentably, we record the passing of two people involved with Home Children.

Kay Lorente died Monday morning at The Perley and Rideau Veterans’ Health Centre. She was just passed her 92nd birthday.  Predeceased by her husband Dave, they were jointly inducted into the BIFHSGO Hall of Fame in 2000.
The 1991 founders of Home Children Canada, Dave and Kay, assisted countless Canadian Home Children families and their descendants in accessing their personal records.
They were active in raising national and international consciousness through lectures, reunions, the placement of plaques, and compiling Canadian Home Children’s family histories.

Dr. John Dickenson, a former professor at Liverpool University and researcher on Canada’s Home Children, also passed on Monday after a stroke. He visited Ottawa and spoke at the 2014 BIFHSGO conference on Mrs. Birt Home Children and those who served in the First World War. He also advanced BIFHSGO  research as an advisor.

Norfolk, Churchyard Graves and Memorial Transcriptions, previously released as a page-by-page browsable collection, are now fully searchable. Included are 266,158 records from memorials photographed by the licensor, Louise Cocker, with entries as late as 2021. It consists of 345 places, including ruined or abandoned cemeteries and some locations which are now usually off limits to non-military personnel. I was hoping Bradwell would be included . . .  alas.

Britain, Naturalisations 1844-1990 has 98,346 entries.
Over 70% are for the 1960s and 1970s, and only 13 before 1940. According to the release information, the records usually include a combination of the following information:

Name(s)
Age or date of birth
Names of parents, or spouse and children, if applicable
Place of origin and original nationality
Residence
Naturalization certificate date and number

Russia was the origin of the most significant number of naturalized, followed by India and Poland.

Other records added this week are for the Caribbean — St Vincent’s most populous parish, St George — for 1765-1820, there were 3,475 baptisms and 1,534 marriages.