Anglo-Celtic Connections

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

24 London Hills

A different perspective on global climate change
Watch to the end

UK’s rainfall records rescued by volunteer army
16 days to key in 5.4 million individual rainfall observations, each keyed four times for quality control purposes. What’s the lesson for LAC Co-Lab Challenges?

Statues have their own history

Find a Grave Index Updates
With the March update, Ancestry now has 214,754,024 index records in their Find a Grave collection. Over 109,000 are added for the UK and Ireland and over 39,000 for Canada.

Nobody does it better

History Slam 207: Navigating Online (Mis)Information

Thanks to this week’s contributors. Ann Burns, Anonymous, Brenda Turner, Don Ross, Gloria Tubman, Lynne Willoughby, Rick Roberts, Teresa, Toni, Unknown.

On 30 March 2022 from 11 am to 5 pm EDT (4 pm to 10 pm Uk time), as a fundraiser for the British Red Cross Society’s DEC Ukrainian Humanitarian Appeal. railway historians will live stream a series of 30-minute presentations. There’s a UK focus. Find the schedule at:

https://historyforukraine.co/railway-history-for-ukraine/

 

 

Middlesex Monumental Inscriptions
Nearly 4,000 transcript and image records are added to this collection from: Ealing, St Mary; Fulham, St Thomas of Canterbury; Isleworth, Quaker Meeting House; Littleton, St Mary Magdalene; Sunbury, Old Burial Ground; Teddington, St Mary; The Walled Garden, Sunbury. There are now 69,134 MIs in the collection.

Military Nurses 1856-1994
Nearly 9,000 transcript records are added to this collection. These mainly focus on military nurses who served in the Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service, the Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service (Reserve) and the Territorial Force Nursing Service during the First World War.

The information varies considerably. Those I checked were quite sparse. The collection now totals 19,731 records.

Indian Navy Records Of Service 1840-1947
This transcript set, 1,802 records sourced from the British Library, complements the Indian Army Records Of Service 1900-1947. You may possibly be able to discover crucial information such as rank, regiment, and time served.

 

Title: Arnprior McNab/Braeside Archives Update

Speakers: Kristen Mercier / Irene Robillard

Details: The Arnprior & McNab/Braeside Archives is excited to deliver an overview of their work over the last year, including the completion of two major projects: updates to the birth, marriage and death abstracts, and the digitization of local newspapers up to 1975! The Archives has also launched and improved tools for researchers, such as the digital War Memorial, places of interest maps, blogs and much more. A demonstration on how to search and browse the website will be provided!

When: 26 Mar 2022 at 01:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Register in advance for this Zoom meeting:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZckcuirqD4rE9Hybd93oeeoebBg1116Mad7

All Ottawa Branch monthly presentations are open to the public at no charge.

 

On 22 March MyHeritage added 118,637 records for Canada, Manitoba, Winnipeg Burial Records to its Death, Burial, Cemetery & Obituaries holdings. They are from Brookside, St. Vital and Transcona Cemeteries and include name of the deceased, date of burial, name of the cemetery, date of death, information about the grave and burial order number.

These records are free at the Winnipeg Municipal Cemeteries Branch website at https://www.winnipeg.ca/cemeteries/default.stm where they require separate searches at each of the three cemeteries.

 

I’m hoping there’s a typo in the program for this most interesting event. It gives times for New York as EST, but its 4 hours different from GMT until the UK moves clocks forward to summertime on Sunday morning.

I confess to not having heard of most of the headliner speakers. Some of the talks I’d most like to hear are in the early morning in Ottawa (and its suburb called New York!)

Find the program here and an abbreviated version with times in four time zones here.

The event gets underway on Saturday at 8 am Ottawa time streaming on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCO0KMC1jECX4fr0u3fopQBQ

Unfortunately, Canada has no profile and the only talk with a Canadian connection, Professor Elaine Chaus on Ukraine and Canada is scheduled at 2 am on Sunday morning!

There is no registration fee, The event is a fundraiser for the British Red Cross Society. Those of us in Canada might prefer to donate to the Canadian Red Cross  Ukraine Humanitarian Crisis Appeal.

I’m fortunate to have a family doctor, one that I trust. For routine monitoring and common issues she’s good. She refers patients to a specialist when needed. That’s as it should be as, good as she is I wouldn’t want her performing heart surgery.

Library and Archives Canada management think differently. Try and get expert advice on newspapers or maps and LAC offers a general practitioner. That was not always the case and there are legacy items, like finding aids, that can be helpful. However, many of those are only available in print versions meaning, with current restrictions on entry to the building, you’re faced with a minimum two-week delay just to see the finding aid.

A new interactive map from Historic England allows you to search and explore historical aerial imagery of England captured over the last 100 years. The Aerial Photograph Explorer map includes over 400,000 digitized photos from Historic England’s aerial photo collections.

Careful. This is a mega rabbit hole

COMMENT: At the same site are a collection of photos taken from ground level. I was happy to find this image of the mouth of the River Yare in 1947 showing the parade of herring drifters in and out as I remember them.

Today, 23 March is World Meteorological Day as proclaimed by the World Meteorological Organization. While meteorology, the science of weather and the atmosphere, may not feature in your family history it could. There are 3,165 entries in Ancestry’s Canada Voters Lists, 1935-1980 collection with occupation meteo*.

More likely of interest is the weather on a special day, birthday, graduation, marriage or a memorable extreme weather event, like the 1998 Ice Storm, or one that changed the course of someone’s life.

Historical weather data for Canada may be found starting at https://climate.weather.gc.ca/historical_data/search_historic_data_e.html

For the UK check the Daily Weather Report /Daily Weather Summary (METDLA/6/1/1) back to 1860 along with other resources at the Complete Archive from the Digital Library and Archives of the British Meteorological Office.

Scottish prison registers

ScotlandsPeople now have admission entries of thousands of prisoners indexed to be searched using the prison registers search page. People from a broad range of backgrounds can be found in the prison registers and there is a wealth of information in these volumes for the genealogist and social historian alike.

The first set of released records concern admissions to Perth Prison between 1867-1879 and 1888-1921 which can be searched for free on ScotlandsPeople and the images viewed and downloaded for a small fee. This equates to over 50,000 indexed entries for Perth Prison over this period and includes details of both male and female prisoners.

Bibliography of Edinburgh History

You know of New Edinburgh, Ottawa. What about Old Edinburgh?

The Old Edinburgh Club is Edinburgh, Scotland’s local history society, concerned with all aspects of the city’s history and development.

They have a free online Bibliography of Edinburgh History to help anyone interested in exploring the city’s rich heritage, culture, economy, politics and society across the city. Inevitably, much of the history of Edinburgh as capital city is that of Scotland itself. The content ranges in time from prehistory to modern times.

Explore the Bibliography 

Today marks the 162nd anniversary of the birth of Canada’s longest-serving and most distinguished National Archivist. While the Dictionary of Canadian Biography still hasn’t published one there are biographies in The Canadian Encyclopedia and Wikipedia. I’m told a dedicated website is in preparation with some unique content.

The National Archives, and later Library and Archives Canada, has thrived under inspired leadership, survived not-so-inspired leadership, and on more than one occasion had its reputation tarnished by unfortunate and lacklustre appointments to the role.

If you pass by Ottawa’s Notre Dame Cemetery today I hope you’ll find Sir Arthur resting in peace and not hear him turning in his grave. You’re unlikely to find his statue behind 395 Wellington marching to the front in protest as one recent commenter suggested could happen.

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.T

Tuesday 22 Mar. 2 pm: Virtual Genealogy Drop-In, from Ottawa Branch of OGS and The Ottawa Public Library.
https://ottawa.ogs.on.ca/events/

Tuesday 22 Mar, 2 pm: A Deep Dive into Deep Nostalgia™, by Masha Novak for MyHeritage and Legacy Family Tree Webinars. https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/a-deep-dive-into-deep-nostalgia/

Tuesday 22 Mar, 2:30 pm: Jumping the Pond: Beginning to Research Your European Immigrant Ancestors, by Allison Singleton for Allen Country Public Library Genealogy Center. https://acpl.libnet.info/event/6235265 

Tuesday 22 Mar, 3:30 pm: The Life & Legacy of George Bradshaw: how Bradshaw’s company produced guides and handbooks, by David Turner for NorthWest Kent FHS http://www.nwkfhs.org.uk/events/overview/all-upcoming-meetings/zoom-talks/the-life-legacy-of-george-bradshaw

Tuesday 22 Mar, 7 pm: The Geography of Genealogy, by Dave Obee for OGS Wellington County Branch. https://wellington.ogs.on.ca/upcoming-events/

Wednesday 23 Mar, 2 pm: Get ‘Grammin’! How to Instagram Your Family History, by Elizabeth M. O’Neal for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/get-grammin-how-to-instagram-your-family-history/

Thursday 24 Mar. 6:30 pm: Preserving Your Ancestor’s Textiles and Handmade Treasures, by Melissa Barker for Allen Country Public Library Genealogy Center. https://acpl.libnet.info/event/6235264

Saturday, 26 Mar. 1 pm: Arnprior McNab/Braeside Archives Update, by Kristen Mercier / Irene Robillard for Ottawa Branch OGS.
https://ottawa.ogs.on.ca/events/ottawa-branch-presentation-2022-03-26/

Saturday 26 Mar. 24 hour event. History For Ukraine. https://historyforukraine.co/

Saturday 26 Mar. All Day. Legacy Irish Genealogy Conference, with Natalie Bodle, John Grenham and David Ouimette. Pre-recorded at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com/Conference