Anglo-Celtic Connections

Choose from a few selected 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. Additional mainly US events are listed at https://conferencekeeper.org/virtual.

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 24 JANUARY

2 pm: OGS Ottawa Branch Virtual Drop-in.
https://meet.google.com/nvz-kftj-dax

2 pm: MyHeritage: Your Personal Genealogy Archive, by Melissa Barker for Legacy Family Tree Webinars/MyHeritage.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/myheritage-your-personal-genealogy-archive/

WEDNESDAY 25 JANUARY

1 pm: Louis XIV: Versailles, Europe and the Arts. by Philip Mansel for Gresham College.
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/whats-on/versailles-arts

2 pm:  Trail of Tears to Indian Territory, by Billie Stone Fogarty for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/trail-of-tears-to-indian-territory-by-billie-stone-fogarty-m-ed/

7 pm: Thomas Mackay & The Making of Ottawa, by Alastair Sweeny for the Ottawa Historical Society.
https://www.historicalsocietyottawa.ca/activities/events/eventdetail/85/16,17,19,21/thomas-mackay-the-making-of-ottawa

THURSDAY 26 JANUARY – SATURDAY 28 JANUARY

BROADEN YOUR HORIZONS
A selection of recent lectures from Gresham College.

 

 

 

Statistics Canada is conducting a public consultation on the 2026 Census of Population from 9 January  –  31 March.

“The online consultation questionnaire is designed to gather information about how and why Canadians use census data, the type of information they believe should be available from the census, and details of other data sources that could be used to supplement or replace current census content. The information gathered during consultations will help Statistics Canada assess the data needs of Canadians and evaluate whether emerging social and economic trends are reflected. Your feedback will help Statistics Canada determine the content of the 2026 Census of Population questionnaire.

Comments collected during the consultation may be published anonymously in the 2026 Census of Population Content Consultation Report, which will be available on the Statistics Canada website in the fall of 2024.”

The questionaure is at https://census.gc.ca/2026consultation-questionnaire .

Comment: The purpose of the census is to provide “a detailed statistical portrait of Canada and its people by their demographic, social and economic characteristics.” It’s use is “to plan public services such as health care, education, and transportation; determine federal transfer payments; and determine the number of Members of Parliament for each province and territory.”

Wikipedia has an article on Census in Canada.

Statistics Canada has repeatedly stated that given the purpose as a statistical portrait no consideration is given to genealogist requirements in formulting the census questions. That’s despite the fact that the detailed census data, with information on individuals, is required to be released to the public, at present after 92 years. If parliament did not want such release there would be no point in requiring it.

The census should, at a minimum, provide a snapshot in time to assist genealogists to accurately trace a family history.

Input to the consultation is the kind of activity a genealogical society with a mandate for advocacy should be undertaking on our behalf.

Scarlet Finders is a site for those researching British military nurses, Voluntary Aid Detachments and military hospitals in the First World War, and it includes transcriptions of records. In addition, it links to a sister site, the Fairest Force focusing on nurses’ experiences in France and Flanders during the First World War.

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

The Year of the Rabbit, or Cat
Kung Hei Fat Choy! (Cantonese) or Gong Xi Fa Cai! (Mandarin).

A Chronology of Items of Meteorological Interest
An outline of developments in understanding weather and climate.

How NARA is digitizing over 200 million pages of government records (podcast)
How many is LAC digitizing?

All About Ledgers in the Archives
From Arnprior & McNab/Braeside Archives

Should We Cancel Martin Luther King Jr.?
The latest from Dan Gardner

Tracing your Theatrical Ancestors: a Guide for Family Historians
New from Pen and Sword.

Archives Time! – Comic

Last minute notice: Home Child presentation.
The Halton-Peel Branch will welcome author Carol Marie Newall to speak online meeting today, Sunday, 22 January at 2:00 pm about her book: “Outside the Gate: The True Story of a British Home Child in Canada.”  Register in advance at: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZckc–grTsrE9SUq3a3fqsq1KZIRLdpsoVD

On Monday evening OGS Toronto Branch holds its first meeting of 2023, at 7:30 pm.

While building his family tree, Rick Hill was surprised to discover a 3^rd great-grandmother who could have boasted that three of her four grandparents were United Empire Loyalists – and she had a Loyalist great-grandfather, too! During the American Revolutionary War, these UEL ancestors – Henry Dennis, his son John, John’s wife Martha (née Brown), and Lawrence Johnson – all fled Pennsylvania. Three of the four made it out of the future USA, first to Nova Scotia, and ultimately to York Township and the town of York in Upper Canada. Their stories include the Battle of St. Lucia, the Quaker religion, losing a husband at sea, founding a settlement that banned slave masters, shipbuilding in Kingston, ill-starred actions in the War of 1812, a house at the corner of King & Yonge, a Methodist bishop, and the first customer of a new burial ground.

The evening begins with a mini presentation from Branch Chair Carol Ufford: From No Story to a Life Story—Breaking Down a Brick Wall. When Carol started working on her family history, she only knew her great grandmother’s name—and that turned out to be wrong! Carol will tell the story how, over a thirty-year time span, she managed to break down that brick wall and fill in her great grandmother’s life story.

All are welcome to attend. Weather permitting this will be a hybrid presentation, in person at Lansing United Church (Beecroft Road and Poyntz Avenue, Toronto) or register to attend virtually via Zoom:
https://torontofamilyhistory.org/event/interesting-times/

Before listing the feature articles in the February issue, a brief mention of the interview with Caroline Dodds Pennock about her new book, Savage Shores.
It traces the remarkable and little-known stories of tens and tens of thousands of Indigenous Americans who voyaged to Europe after 1492, many as slaves.

The interview is also online in the History Extra podcast. Apparently, a large proportion went to Spain and Portugal, but I can find no reference to studies in Iberia that mention finding corresponding DNA.

Feature articles are:

Medieval marvels
lan Mortimer hails the staggering progress – in everything from medicine to exploration — achieved by our medieval ancestors.

Histories of fear
Kate Summerscale explores what five phobias reveal about our anxieties though the centuries.

A golden age for women?
Marion Turner on what Chaucer’s Wife of Bath can tell us about a time of great change for women.

How the Holocaust began
James Bulgin on how the German invasion of the Soviet Union triggered a policy of annihilation in eastern Europe.
As with all things holocaust, this is nighmare-inducing reading.

Forgotten Tudor voices
Lucy Wooding profiles eight people whose experiences shed light on the challenges of life in the 16th century.
An easy read for thise with a short attention span.

The chaotic 17th century
Jonathan Healey argues that people power drove the unrest that buffeted England in the age of Charles 1 and Oliver Cromwell.

This week it’s all about recent deaths, from November 2020-November 2021.

184,062 records are added to the England & Wales Deaths 2007-2021 collection.

13,886 records added to Scotland, Modern And Civil Deaths & Burials 1855-2021.

2,052 additions to Ireland, Northern Ireland Deaths 1998-2021.

In addition to the name, expect to find the exact death date, place and postcode. Many records have birth date information.

This collection of transcriptions has been compiled from civic records and funeral homes, and is published as a result of the partnership with Wilmington Millennium Ltd.

Also added this week are 706,009 newspaper pages, with 11 new titles and many more with additional years,

 

Three projects report progress to completion for Library and Archives Canada’s Co-Lab Challenges, with one finished.

Expo67 remains 0% complete.

Summiting Mount Logan in 1925: Fred Lambart’s personal account of the treacherous climb and descent of the highest peak in Canada is 13% complete, last month 11% complete.

Travel posters in the Marc Choko collection is 100% complete, last month 96% complete.

Women in the War remains 0% 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 remains 93% 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 is 93% complete, last month 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.

Ottawa Branch OGS invites everyone to a presentation, in person at the Ottawa City Archives or online, Transcribing Goulbourn Project (Ottawa), by Sarah Holla.
https://ottawa.ogs.on.ca/events/transcribing-goulbourn-project-ottawa/

Quinte Branch OGS would like you to attend the presentation OnLand for Genealogists, by Ken McKinlay, online at
https://quinte.ogs.on.ca/2023/01/16/onland-for-genealogists/

All Global Genealogy in-stock items are on sale at 20% off orders greater than $25 until Sunday 22 January at midnight Eastern Standard Time!

No coupon code is required…automatically discounted in the shopping cart

This is the only discount event planned for 2023.

Here’s a look at the main contents for the February issue:

FAMILY HISTORY NEWS
Rachel Bellerby reports on the latest from the genealogy scene.

DEAR PAUL
Paul Chiddicks looks at wonderful family heirlooms and other family history miscellany,

THE FAMILY HISTORY REVOLUTION
Janet Few reflects on the past and the future of our favourite pursuit. Janet writes “… the opportunities to ‘do family history’ badly are legion. I could build a family tree of epic proportions in a few hours. It would be unsubstantiated, lacking in citations and inevitably incorrect, but I could claim it as mine and share it with the world for others to graft on to their own family trees in a similarly unthinking way.”

Janet objects to a person getting enjoyment out of the process and the result. Many of us enjoy doing things, and because of lack of expertize do them badly, including duffers on the golf course struggling to get their score lower than their 10-pin bowling score. There’s nothing new about bad family trees, back to the days when professionals made up ancestors to satisfy the egos of their clients, which it did. Even the most assiduously BCG-approved-researched ancestry may well have errors, as DNA matches can reveal.   As always — caveat emptor.

WHAT’S HERALDRY EVER DONE FOR US?
Chris Broom’s enthusiasm for this historic topic is more than a littie infectious!

SCOTLAND’S 1921 CENSUS NOW ONLINE FOR YOU
Chris Paton explores the latest census.

TRACING YOUR HOLOCAUST ANCESTORS
Simon Fowler looks at the resources to help trace family impacted.
Many more records than I knew exist.

YOUR 7 STEPS TO GETTING STARTED WITH FAMILY HISTORY
Discover your first steps, and learn how to begin an onine family tree.
A guide from Findmypast.

A GUIDE TO THE CENSUS
Family Tree Academy tutor David Annal gives a useful overview of this most useful of resources – with challenges to you to try at home!

DNA WORKSHOP
DNA Advisor Karen Evans reminds us that no question is too daft, and steps up once again to help a reader.

GENEALOGY GADGETS
Readers share their famiy history gadget favourties.
Most attention is paid to the free FTAnalyzer program which helps with an overview of a GEDCOM and finding possible errors.

LOVE TOKENS
Charlotte Soares indulges in romantic history

BOOKS
Latest history-inspired reads to enjoy.
“Gripping to the point of being un-put-downable, the core story is fascinating to anyone who enjoys crime novels, and particularly those with an interest in the use of DNA in genealogy research.” is the enthusiastic review of Nathan Dylan Goodwin’s The Sawtooth Slayer. https://www.nathandylangoodwin.com/

PHOTO CORNER
Photo-dating expert Jayne Shrimpton

THOUGHTS ON… ‘
Diane Lindsay’s genealogical ponderings.

Another date for your calendar. Heritage Day at Ottawa City Hall is back on Tuesday, 21 February.