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

Tuesday 4 Jan. 2:30 pm: Using US Records to Find Your Immigrant’s Link to the – Old Country, by Sara Allen for Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center. https://acpl.libnet.info/event/6008785

Tuesday 4 Jan. 7:30 pm: In Search of Home: Migration into, out of and within Canada, by Dave Obee for Durham Region Branch of OGS
https://durham.ogs.on.ca/

Wednesday 5  Jan. 2 pm: The Only Thing You Need to Know About DNA and Genealogy, by Diahan Southard for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/the-only-thing-you-need-to-know-about-dna-and-genealogy/

Thursday 6 Jan. 11 am: The 1921 Census is Here. by FMP and DNA staff
www.facebook.com/findmypast.

Thursday 6 Jan. 6:30 pm: Fireside Chat – DNA, by Sara Allen and Allison Singleton for Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center.
https://acpl.libnet.info/event/6009517

Thursday 6 Jan. 7 pm: The Importance of Blending Family Oral History with Solid Genealogical Research Techniques, by Richard Doherty for OGS (Ontario  Ancestors)

Friday 7 Jan, 2 pm: Researching during the slave era (1817-1865), by Shelley Viola Murphy for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/researching-during-the-slave-era-1817-1865/

Saturday 8 Jan.  9 am:  Kirk Session Records for Family Historians (Education Talk), by Kate Keter for BIFHSGO. https://www.bifhsgo.ca/events

Saturday 8 Jan.  10 am: Branching Out. by Kate Keter for BIFHSGO. https://www.bifhsgo.ca/events

Saturday 8 Jan.  10 am:  Understanding and Making the Most of Your Family Photos, by Stephen Gill for London-Middlesex Branch of OGS.
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIlceqgqDspE92wKgkRhq5zCtgSSmMwHvE6

Saturday 8 Jan. 2 pm:  Dutch Genealogy. by  John Boeren for Huron Branch of OGS. https://huron.ogs.on.ca/ TO BE RESCHEDULED

I was given a hardback edition of Army Girls as a Christmas gift. Published in the UK in November, it’s not yet sold in Canada although it can be shipped from the UK.

These women served in the UK, and later overseas, with the Auxilliary Territorial Service (ATS), which in 1949 became the Women’s Royal Army Corps. They included my mother who, among other things, served on an anti-aircraft gun site. I hoped to learn from the book about her life experience in the ATS.

The book is “the intimate story of the final few women who served in World War II and are still alive to tell their tale. They were female soldiers in a war Britain wanted to fight without conscripting women. It was a vain hope, by December 1941 for the first time in British history women were called up and a generation of girls came of age in khaki, serving king and country. Barbara trained to drive army-style in giant trucks and Grace swapped her servant’s pinafore for battledress and a steel hat, Martha turned down officer status for action on a gun site and Olivia won the Croix de Guerre in France.”

At first, the ATS was not popular with young women, and with their parents who had to agree to single women’s enlistment, owing to the history of women camp followers and prostitutes. Initially circumscribed by ideas of what a woman was capable of, as the war wore on and the lack of men to perform various tasks became apparent, women took on expanded responsibilities — short of firing weapons. They acquired skills, and made friendships, while in the ATS. The former became a gateway to a career after the war — my mother became a teacher after having had an instructor role with the ATS.  However, the post-war period, cut off from those friendships, perhaps in a new marriage and as a mother (remember the baby boom) was perhaps as much of a challenge as that on enlistment.

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

The 1921 Census of England and Wales is almost here

According to this video, the process of preparing the census for online access on 6 January started 3 years ago. so it can be available at the start of the release period. How much preparation will be done to ensure Canada’s 1931 census, due for release next year, is promptly available?

Victorian cemeteries: When were they founded, and where can you find online records?

Five ways the internet era has changed British English – new research

Victorian Knitting Manuals Collection

Treasure trove includes record for almost all land in Ireland
Watch the video, then contemplate how many other obscure record sets exist in other jurisdictions that don’t have the unfortunate motivation of the losses at the Four Counts to prompt making them available.

The Most Scathing Book Reviews of 2021

Thanks to this week’s contributors. Anonymous., Barbara Di Mambro, Basil Adam, Brenda Turner, Crissouli, Douglas, gail benjafield, Glenn Wright, Jesiica Phillips,  jon ackroyd, Judy Thamas, Karen Holt, Nick McDonald, Teresa, Unknown.

On New Year’s Eve Library and Archives Canada posted “While all services (including those delivered in person) remain unchanged for the moment, LAC will continue to monitor the pandemic situation closely, and clients should be aware that some adjustments may eventually be required based on directives and advice from public health authorities.”

Throughout the pandemic, LAC has been ultra-cautious. As a result, clients have been missing research opportunities that they might have had — say if the organization was part of the private sector with income depending on the service supplied.

In deciding on “adjustments” LAC, and other Federal GLAM organizations, should look at the overall risk for a visitor, and an employee, including the risk on the journey to work on public transit and in day-to-day life in the community.

Happy New Year

Some major events we already know about in 2022 promise just that.

1. Release of the 1921 census of England and Wales on 6 January.
2. Release of RAF operational record books on Ancestry, likely in January.
3. Rootstech, 3-5 March
4. US 1950 census becoming available in April.
5. OGS Conference, 24-26 June.

I’ve already noted the program of Legacy Family Tree Webinars  throughout the year.

Also a year of monthly webinars from OGS.

Resolve to take advantage. That’s a resolution you can keep.

The British Newspaper Archive now has a total of 46,849,782 pages online (46,334,622 last month). A year ago there were 40,568,308 pages online.

This month 123 papers had pages added (172 in the previous month). There were  16 (37) new titles. Dates range from 1704 to 1999.

Journals with more than 10,000 pages added are:

Diss Express: 1956-1970, 1992, 1999
New Milton Advertiser: 1932-1958
Railway News: 1864-1918
Ulster Echo:  1874-1890, 1897-1908
Cork Weekly News: 1883-1923
Liverpool Journal of Commerce: 1861-1862, 1864-1867, 1869, 1871, 1890-1891, 1897, 1899-1905
Newark Advertiser: 1862, 1864-1865, 1868-1869, 1871, 1876, 1878-1891, 1897, 1904-1905, 1908-1909, 1911, 1914, 1917, 1958, 1963, 1966-1968
Irish Weekly and Ulster Examiner: 1891-1899, 1901-1926
Western People: 1889-1891, 1893-1912
Bromley & West Kent Mercury: 1919-1950
India: 1890-1921
South London Mail: 1888-1906

The schedule of Family Tree Webinars presentations is out.

As usual, there are many to choose from, all free if you watch them live or within a week of the live presentation.  You can reserve your space, and record it in your calendar so you don’t forget, from the listing at https://familytreewebinars.com/upcoming-webinars/?list_view=true&multiple=true

There are new initiatives too!

If you subscribe you have access to all these, some extras, the whole back catalog, and the handouts.

Thanks to Gail Roger for the idea.

A bonus NFB classic

Weather permitting, here’s some inspiration to get out and enjoy the season.