New on MyHeritage, 616,486 transcript records of births and baptisms from the Bailiwick of Jersey. Records typically include the name of the child, date of birth, date and place of baptism, name of parish, and the names of the parents. Dates range from the first half of the 16th to mid-20th century.
The source appears to be Jersey Heritage, see https://catalogue.jerseyheritage.org/.
There is also coverage for various periods by Ancestry, Findmypast, and FamilySearch.
A presentation was just added to the schedule for the first session of the BIFHSGO conference on Wednesday, 28 September.
At the OGS conference, the Ottawa Public Library and Library and Archives Canada were given the opportunity to present on their new combined facility. They will now have an opportunity to present to the BIFHSGO audience.
Here’s how BIFHSGO describes the session.
The additional conference session will be an interactive discussion on a topic of great interest to genealogists and family historians, especially those in Canada. Reference Services Manager Julie Roy and Senior User Experience Designer Robyn Feres-Cameron from Library and Archives Canada, along with Library Planning Consultant Melissa Black from the Ottawa Public Library, will describe the draft plans for their new joint facility, named Ādisōke (Anishinaabemowin for “storytelling”). When the facility opens in 2026, the two institutions will provide their services to family history researchers in the same building.
The session, to be held on 28 September from 7 to 9 p.m., offers conference attendees an opportunity to contribute to “co-designing” these services by describing their ideal “service journey” through the new facility. The speakers will ask questions such as how users prepare for research, what they expect to see in research spaces, and what resources and help they need to support their projects. This welcome consultation should improve everyone’s Canadian research efforts in the future.
For details on the conference program and how to register, go to https://www.bifhsgo.ca/2022-BIFHSGO-Conference
COMMENT
It was unclear how the mundane responses to the mundane questions for audience participation at the OGS session, supposedly for “setting everyone up for success,” would contribute to planning genealogical services. I hope the BIFHSGO session builds on and not just repeats that.
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 19 July 2:30 pm: What’s New in Family Tree Maker Q and A Discussion, by: Mark Olsen for Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center. https://acpl.libnet.info/event/6853618
Wednesday 20 July 2 pm: One hour to master your camera settings, by Jared Hodges for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/one-hour-to-master-your-camera-settings/
Thursday 21 July 6:30 pm: Zoom Lens Genealogy, by Susan L. Ennis for Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center.
https://acpl.libnet.info/event/6846757
Of Library and Archives Canada’s Co-Lab Challenges progress is reported on four since last month.
Summiting Mount Logan in 1925: Fred Lambart’s personal account of the treacherous climb and descent of the highest peak in Canada is 8% complete, up from 7% last month.
Travel posters in the Marc Choko collection is 96% complete, 65% last month.
Women in the War remains 0% complete.
First World War Posters is 100% complete, 99% last month.
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 is 92% complete, 91% last month.
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.
There were 15 19th-century additions to the online serials collection of Canadiana.ca on Friday.
Just as today, the almanacs offer homely advice, curiosities, astronomical information, and fanciful weather predictions. They promoted incredible patent medicines “useful in coughs and colds, curing them”, “sweating, aching, tired, tender swollen feet are cured”, “corns, chill blanes, frost bites, bunions, soft corns, ingrowinjg toenails are cured”, “cures old cases of coughs and bronchitis”, “lumbago and rheumatism is greatly relieved”, “a certain cure for cholera infantum”, Parke’s Liver Cure was advertized as “a most efficient remedy for all stomach and liver, dyspepsia, costivness, coated tongue, pimples, headache, dizziness, faintness, female weakness, general debility, chill fever, nausea, kidney trouble, malaria, palpitations of the heart, and nervous disorders.”
Today we have fake news!
You could perhaps find an ancestor mentioned in one of the annual reports or calendars. They could be in the administration, on the staff, a graduate (for a college), or, more likely, a donor. Even those who gave 50c might be included.
| Title | Publication Date | Series | URL (if online) |
| Almanack : the mystery explained | 1885 | 8_01925 | https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.8_01925 |
| Annual report of the Montreal Maternity for the year ending … | 1887-1900 | 8_01916 | https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.8_01916 |
| Annual report of the University Lying-in Hospital, Montreal | Eleventh; Thirteenth-Fourteenth; Sixteenth-Seventeenth; Twenty-First; Twenty-Third-Thirty-First; Thirty-Third-Thirty-Sixth; Thirty-Eighth-Forty-Second | 8_01914 | https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.8_01914 |
| Calendar / McMaster University | 1888/9 – 1900/01 | 8_01920 | https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.8_01920 |
| Calendar / Woodstock College | 1887/8 | 8_02021 | https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.8_02021 |
| Calendar of the University of New Brunswick, Fredericton | 1861/62; 1863/64 – 1870/71; 1872/73; 1874/75 – 1883/4 | 8_01919 | https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.8_01919 |
| Constitution, by-laws and rules of order, of the Ontario Teachers’ Association : together with the minutes of the … annual meeting … | 1872 | 8_02455 | https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.8_02455 |
| Minutes of proceedings of the General Council of Medical Education and Registration of Upper Canada | 1867 | 8_01921 | https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.8_01921 |
| Pain-killer almanac & family receipt book | 1867 | 8_01923 | https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.8_01923 |
| Parke & Parke’s almanac | 1898 | 8_01917 | https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.8_01917 |
| Parke’s almanac | 1897 | 8_02578 | https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.8_02578 |
| Proceedings / Medico-Chirurgical Society of Montreal | 1882/3; 1883/4/5; 1885/6/7; 1887/88/89; 1889/90/91; 1892/93; 1892/93/1893/94 | 8_01931 | https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.8_01931 |
| The Household almanac | 1900 | 8_01917 | https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.8_01917 |
| The Household almanac | 1889 | 8_01918 | https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.8_01918 |
| The Pain-killer annual and household physician | 1871 | 8_02433 | https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.8_02433 |
Tune in to a TNA webinar on Wednesday 20 July at 2:30 pm ET to hear Lindsey Fitzharris, author of The Butchering Art, which won the PEN/E.O. Wilson Prize for Literary Science Writing, is interviewed on “the touching true story of Harold Gillies, the pioneering surgeon who rebuilt the faces of the First World War’s injured heroes, and in the process ushered in the modern era of plastic surgery.”
Find out more and register at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-facemaker-the-battle-to-mend-the-disfigured-soldiers-of-world-war-i-tickets-350467025307
Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.
Scandal at Dolphin Square: Book review
British Library fascinating collection items
Two-Factor Authentication Saves Frustration
Emergency climate briefing to UK MPs
Thanks to this week’s contributors. Anonymous, Brenda Turner, Gloria Tubman, Linda Reid, Teresa, Unknown
If you haven’t checked for a “lost” Canadian ancestor in the past year I suggest taking advantage of the large addition to Ancestry’s Canada obituary index from newspapers.com.
| Index | July 2022 | Sept 2021 | % increase |
| Australia | 5,807,702 | NA | NA |
| Canada | 41,457,491 | 31,113,161 | 33.2 |
| US | 964,204,708 | 843,651,119 | 14.3 |
The data runs from the 1800s to the present and coverage depends on the newspapers in the collection. Find out about which they are from https://www.newspapers.com/browse/
Five new US collections are released by Findmypast this week/
Pennsylvania, List of British Prisoners in the War of Revolution
Within this collection, are British and German Hessian soldiers who were captured during the war, giving an insight into their military experience. Information you may find alongside an ancestor’s name includes their ship or unit, where and when they were captured, and occasionally extra remarks such as whether or not they were being considered for a military exchange.
Pennsylvania, Episcopalian Births and Baptisms
Over 117,000 Episcopalian births and baptisms from the late 1600s to the mid 1900s. Information may include a combination of event year (birth or baptism), full name, parents’ names and parish.
Pennsylvania, Episcopalian Marriages
153,000 records giving date of marriage, spouse’s name, any witnesses to the marriage and often the person who officiated the ceremony.
Pennsylvania, Episcopalian Deaths and Burials
Over 135,000 records in this collection with information ranging from place, parish, and death or burial year.
Pennsylvania, Episcopalian Congregational Records
The original Anglican congregations in Pennsylvania included Christ Church, Philadelphia (est. 1695), Trinity Church, Oxford (est. 1698), St David’s, Radnor (Est 1700) and St. Thomas, Whitemarsh (est. 1702). Originally, there was only one diocese throughout the entirety of Pennsylvania, but in 1865, the Diocese of Pittsburgh was established to encompass every parish west of the Allegheny Mountains. By 1910, there were several dioceses spanning across the state, and by the 1920s these dioceses saw a vastly increasing growth in population. The type of records will differ per collection, but you may be able to find registers of communion, vestry minutes, membership lists and administrative records.
Do you know a young person who might be interested in the opportunity to help Library and Archives Canada and be paid for it? Perhaps a family member, a young friend or a neighbour might qualify and find the experience a valuable addition to their resume.
The 2022-2023 Youth Advisory Council on Service Transformation
This year’s council will be different. It will consist of 12 students and young professionals aged 16 to 25 coming from all over Canada, who will help us transform our services to the public.
As a YAC member, you would:
If we accept your application, you’ll be signing a service contract. We’ll pay you for the work at a fixed monthly rate of $225 once that month’s assignments are complete. The maximum amount you can receive for the duration of the contract is $1,800.
FamilySearch are promoting the US 1950 census amongst their volunteer indexing projects.
Delve a bit deeper and you’ll find projects to index Irish Church Records, 1740-1913. Here are the areas and status.
Armagh— Indexed 85%, Reviewed 85%
Carlow— Indexed 43%. Reviewed 42%
Cavan—Indexed 37%, Reviewed 37%
Clare— Indexed 16%, Reviewed 16%
Cork (Part A)—Indexed 99%, Reviewed 99%
Cork (Part B)—Indexed 17%, Reviewed 17%
Derry—Indexed 41%, Reviewed 41%
Donegal—Indexed 26%, Reviewed 26%
Down—Indexed 47%, Reviewed 47%
Dublin—Indexed 36%, Reviewed 36%
Fermanagh—Indexed 20%, Reviewed 20%
Galway—Indexed 71%, Reviewed 71%.
Amongst the other projects is one for England.
Middlesex—Parish Registers, 1556–1987 [Part B], Indexed 19%, Reviewed 18%
A publishing Society founded in 1880, the London Topographical Society‘s purpose is to assist the study and appreciation of London’s history and topography by making available facsimiles of maps, plans and views and by publishing research.
The Society’s journal, the “London Topographical Record,” published since 1898, is available to read in digital format through to Volume 29, published in 2006. More than 300 articles, many with illustrations, cover a broad spectrum of London’s past.
As the Society’s interests are places rather than people, you are unlikely to find a mention of someone in your family tree unless they were a member or author of an article. I’m fortunate that Thomas Fairman Ordish, one of the founders, journal editor and Hon Vice-President, is in mine (perched off on the side.)
You may find this list of 39 websites with a London focus more interesting.
