Anglo-Celtic Connections

If you look at your genealogy database for given names in England and Wales during the 19th century, you’ll notice that Mary, John, and William were the most common names. Mary was the most popular girl’s name. John was overtaken by William in 1840, as shown in table 3 in A New Account of Personalization and Effective Communication.

According to the FreeBMD compilation of 1840 birth registrations, the top ten names for boys were William, John, Thomas, James, George, Henry, Joseph, Charles, Robert, Edward, and Richard. I find it intriguing that my two-times-great-grandfather, William Henry Northwood, born in 1840, had a two-given name combination that often appeared during that time. I wondered if it was just an illusion.

Based on the 1840 FreeBMD birth compilation, here’s the top of the order of those more frequent boys’ names in combination:

Given Names, Count
– William Henry, 2111
– John William, 811
– William John, 650
– John Thomas, 634
– John Henry, 600
– George Henry, 563
– William Thomas, 542
– George William, 524
– William James, 513
– Thomas William, 421

While William is the top first name, Henry tops the second name list. It’s not surprising that William Henry ranked highly.

It wasn’t just in 1840; William Henry peaked as a combination in 1876 with 6,772 births registered, outranking William John and John William.

What made William Henry a popular choice? I don’t know and would love to hear your ideas.

 

This week, there are some out-of-the-ordinary additions to the FMP collection that are particularly interesting for those with 20th-century Coventry ancestry and, surprisingly, beyond.

Warwickshire, Coventry, Vehicle Registrations 1921-1944
Through these records, a  search produces first name(s), last name, year, place, and vehicle registration plate. There’s information later than 1944. The linked images give the complete address, which may be far from Coventry, and information about the vehicle. Scroll side to side to ensure you found all the information.
FMP profiles the story of Sir William Lyons, co-founder of the Swallow Sidecar Company, whose brand transformed into Jaguar after the Second World War.

Warwickshire, Coventry, Company Directories and Publications 1908-1966
Over 20,000 pages from seven publication titles that can help you discover what it was like to live and work in Coventry. The two major ones are:
The Loudspeaker, 15 volumes, 1924-1966: 1924-1961
The works magazine of the Peel-Conner/G.E.C. Telephone Factories, Coventry. Includes biographical studies of staff, sports and social events, appointments and retirements, a Ladies Page, jokes, Children’s Corner, cartoons, organizational reviews, letters, trade adverts, staff weddings etc etc.,
Standard Car Review, 12 volumes, 1931-1950: 1908-1920
The works magazine of Rudge-Whitworth, Coventry, bicycle and motorcycle manufacturers. The origins of Rudge go back as far as 1869 at Wolverhampton, removing to Coventry some ten years later. These volumes include company history, staff interviews, presentations and long service awards, social events, and incredible coverage of the Rudge staff who served in the Great War.

I was interested to read a report of a 1910 works outing to Great Yarmouth, a long day starting out by train at 5:50 am, arriving back in Coventry at 2 am. It includes photos of women in long dresses on the beach.

 

Try this  website, which plots British (England, Scotland, and Wales) place names that match certain search terms on a map.
Developed by Robin Wilson, it’s based on OS Open Names.
This map is trying my LUCK – found anywhere in the name. Only three places include BALLY, common in Ireland, and several where the only locations in Wales are in Pembrokeshire, little England beyond Wales.
Canada is found in two places.

“I am none the wiser, but I am much better informed.”

There’s precedent.

1885 saw a major April snow event in Ottawa. 30.5 cm reported on the 2nd, 30.6 cm on the 3rd and another 30.5 cm on the 4th. Over 1 metre in total in 52 hours. It tapered off to 6.4 cm the following day, and 50.8 mm of rain on the 6th.

Sparks Street, 6 April 1885, Samuel J. Jarvis/Library and Archives Canada, C-002186

There’s remarkably little coverage in the Ottawa Citizen. Easter Sunday was 5 April and newspapers were preoccupied with the Riel uprising. There was mention of employing extra staff to clear roofs at Lansdowne Park and cancellation of events as guests could not get into the city.

The Ottawa Citizen ran this poem referring to astrometeorologist Ezekiel Stone Wiggins.

NOT WEATHER WISE, MUCH OTHERWISE.
BY A DRIFT-BOUND PASSENGER.
(For The Citizen.)

Heavy storm began at Ottawa 9 am. April 2; still raging, 6 pm, Apnl 3; snowfall, 24 Inches ; by far the greatest of the year.

N.B.—No warning from Wiggine.

O Wiggins, O! delusive prophet Wiggins !
Though your very dubious fame has spread
abroad,
The behaviour of the weather in those diggins (sic)
Plainly tells us your pretensions are a fraud.

That rude March would have his equinoctial bluster
It was safe for any almanac to say ;
But if special storm predictions would pass muster,
They must specify the place and name the day.

Scaring honest peorle living by the ocean,
Threatening tempests which neglected to appear ;
You malcted (?) sailors, chiefly Nova Scotia,
A badly needed fortnight’s wage last year.

And now, Wiggins, what on earth have you been doing,
Say where’s your vaunted skill in Zadkeil lore,
While ‘neath your very nose a storm was brewing,
The like of which we’ve rarely seen betore.

Yet not a whisper from our Mahdi prophet!
Our oracle of Ottawa was dumb!
If still you stride the tripod, pray get off it —
Collapse, subside, come down, ah, Wiggins, come.

We railway travellers had from you no warning.
Driifts bar our progress, engines shrick in vain ;
Here we must shiver tiil to-morrow morning—
sweet our revenge if you were on our train.

Too long imposed on women of both sexes,
ln time the errant humbug to explode,
Which reasonable people often vexes.
You gales foretell— Pshaw, Wiggins, you “be blowed “!

Two feet of snow-fall! Wild nor’-easter blowing ! .
The third of April. Storms defy all rule.
No hint from Wiggins. Needs there further  showing : ;
That weather wisdom makes its April fools?

Note:  Significantly less snow was recorded on those April 1885 days at the Experimental Farm station. Snowfall is notoriously difficult to quantify.

2-5 April is Archives Awareness Week in Ontario. This year, the Archives Association of Ontario selected “Access your Archives” as its theme, asking its members to:

• Tell us about a unique outreach initiative your archive has been working on.
• How do you provide access to your archives collection?
• In what ways do you make your collection accessible or hope to?
• What challenges do archives face in making records accessible while respecting users and donors?
• What archival process or specific record in your collection keeps you up at night?
• Developments in new networks and collaborations.

I’m sure AAO is hoping to profile good news stories. Good things are happening in various corners of the province we don’t usually hear about, and I hope to read about them.

There’s the other side of the story. Allan Greer, a professor emeritus of history at McGill University, posted an opinion piece on the Active History blog worth reading —  LAC: The Scandal of the Archives. 

The part that resonated most with me as a user of digitized resources from LAC was, “The problem is not with digitization per se, but with the chaotic way in which LAC has dumped their collections onto the internet.” Digitised microfilm is made available through Canadiana Heritage and is divorced from any finding aid. Greer concludes:

Archives don’t simply store and conserve documents; they structure and organize them, carefully recording the provenance of government records, collections of private papers, films, recordings, images, etc. LAC has always been very good at this and generations of archivists built up an infrastructure of guides and finding aids, but instead of using these resources to curate their online collections, the archives seem determined to hide the results of their past efforts from the eyes of researchers.

The National Health Service is offering free testing for faults on the genes BRCA1 and BRCA2, which are associated with a higher risk of some forms of cancer, to anyone in England with at least one Jewish grandparent.

According to jewishbrca.org, whereas women in the general population have an 11.5% chance of developing breast cancer, for those with one (or more) Jewish grandparents, the chances are 65-79% with the BRCA1 mutation, and 61-77% with the BRCA2 mutation.

For men, chances of prostate cancer, which are 0.1% for men at large, rise to 21-35% for the BRCA2 mutation.

Here are the feature articles from the new issue, and selected highlights.

Parish Registers
Jonathan Scott unveils his region-by-region guide to the essential websites that can help you uncover 500 years of family history. It’s mostly an update on what’s available on the usual suspects: Ancestry, Findmypast, TheGenealogist, FamilySearch, freereg, and local sites.
Agricultural Prizes
Nina Hoole explains what the prizes awarded at agricultural shows can reveal about our ancestors. I identified folks in my family tree who moved from north to south Norfolk though prize announcements in the British Newspaper Archive, available through Findmypast.
Crime & Punishment
In “The Long Arm of the Law”, Angela Buckley investigates how the Victorians cracked down on a growing problem. Again, in my experience newspapers are the best resource for finding those involved in criminal cases.
Irish Newspapers
Genealogist Nicola Morris shares her expert advice for
using Irish newspapers to boost your research

Best Websites
Jonathan Scott picks the best online resources to
explore the origins and history of your family name,
including digital dictionaries and one-name studies.

British Army Officers
In the Masterclass series, Phil Tomaselli explains how to research British Army officers’ families as a major release arrives on Ancestry.

Treemily.com
Nick Peers reveals how to create a stylish family history
chart using the website, and reveals some issues

Devonshire Archives
In the Around Britain series, Jonathan Scott explains how the collections held in archives in Exeter, Plymouth and Barnstaple can help your research.

There’s lots more, all available free if your public library provides online access.

Choose from selected free online events in the next five days. All times are ET except as noted. Assume registration in advance is required; check so you’re not disappointed. Find out about many more mainly US events at Conference Keeper at https://conferencekeeper.org

Tuesday, 2 April

7:30 pm ET – They Sure Moved Around! by Sher Leetooze for OGS Durham County Branch.
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAude2grzstHNx8Tsob2Zit6OsZ05EHGdda

8 pm ET – The Power of AncestryDNA, by Crista Cowan for NGS (USA) and Ancestry.com.
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMlc-2qrTwuGNan4Ur0KssfsyjM6vXxp30y#/registration

9 pm ET – Non-Conformism in England and Wales, by Jenny Joyce for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/non-conformism-in-england-and-wales/

Wednesday, 3 April

2 pm ET – Solving a Virginia Mystery Using DNA, by  Paula Williams for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/solving-a-virginia-mystery-using-dna/

7:30 pm ET – The Canada Company, by David Yates for OGS Huron Branch.
https://huron.ogs.on.ca/events/huron-branch-canada-company-david-yates/

Thursday, 4 April

2 pm ET – Researching Family History at Your Library with MyHeritage Library Edition, by Daniel Horowitz for MyHeritage and Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/researching-family-history-at-your-library-with-myheritage-library-edition/

7 pm ET – How at-DNA and Big Y-DNA lead to the Big Surprise! by Edward Swierczewski Jr. for OGS
https://ogs.on.ca/events/society-webinar-how-at-dna-and-big-y-dna-lead-to-the-big-surprise-edward-swierczewski-jr/

10 pm ET – Drought and Family History, by Wayne Shepheard for Campbell River Genealogy Society (BC).
https://www.crgenealogysociety.ca/events/regular-meeting-7-9-pm-details-click-here-9/

Friday, 5 April

2 pm ET – From This Day Forward – Documenting Marital Unions of Enslaved and Emancipated Persons, by Renate Yarborough Sanders for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/from-this-day-forward-documenting-marital-unions-of-enslaved-and-emancipated-persons/

Saturday, 6 April

1:30 pm ET – The Rice Lake Trading Post, by Robert Pearce for the Lakeshore Genealogical Society. 
Email LGSregister@gmail.com to register.

2 pm ET – The Spirit of Orillia, by David Town for OGS Simcoe County Branch.
https://simcoe.ogs.on.ca/branch-meetings/

 

Congratulations to the Society of Australian Genealogists, which has announced a competition highlighting the growing awareness of the use of Artificial Intelligence within the Family History Community.

This shows image-ination. Not the same old same old.

https://www.sag.org.au/ai-image-competition

Good news. The digital archive’s reappearance, serving more than Toronto, is another step in the library’s recovery from a ransomware attack.

Search over 180 thousand items or browse in categories such as primary source material: Canadian WWI Posters, Canadian WWII Posters, Prohibition in Ontario, War of 1812, and WWII: Canadian Women.

https://digitalarchive.tpl.ca/

Do you love digging into the past? Non-profit heritage organizations offer opportunities. Seniors, especially those at or past retirement, bring valuable life experience and specialist skills. Volunteering is a chance to expand horizons, find new challenges, and connect with a dedicated community.

Volunteers with family history, genealogy, museums, historical and similar heritage non-profits can get these benefits:

• Maintain Skills: Use your specialist knowledge as part of the organization’s team. Don’t let the financial, organizational, communications, research or leadership skills you developed over a career atrophy.
• Deeper Knowledge: Work with historical records, learn new research techniques, and gain insights you might not find on your own.
• Sense of Community: Connect and contribute with others who share your passion for history and family, make new friends.

In Ottawa and area, get started with the list of member organiztions of the Capital Heritage Connection, formerly CHOO/COPO, at https://www.capitalheritage.ca/member-category/all-members/.

As I was finalizing this, I came across the article If you want to be truly happy in retirement, say goodbye to these 12 habits.

April is Global Volunteers Month.

Thanks to those who have volunteered with heritage organizations over the years.

 

I’m hoping it’s not the weatherperson playing an April Fool joke.

After an early April storm in the middle of this week, probabilities for clear to partly cloudy skies for the solar eclipse on 8 April have been getting stronger with time.