Anglo-Celtic Connections

While I rarely read fiction, I reserved this historical novel from the Ottawa Public Library in the hope of getting a feel for the experience of my great uncle, Edward Cohen. I’d likely read an enthusiastic review.

A daring young woman who, against the wishes of her Yorkshire country doctor father and against the odds, earns a medical degree. Flouting convention, she risks everything to serve as a doctor on the front lines during World War I and learns life lessons in the darkest of times.

I struggled with the first few chapters. It seemed the women were all white hats and the men black hats. That changed as the story developed, not that it doesn’t maintain a feminist perspective.

Lecia Cornwall,  the author and Alberta resident, has previously written romance novels. That comes through in her writing, somewhat too syrupy in places for my taste. However, I did gain the renewed appreciation for the situation in medical facilities near the front I sought and that Edward would have experienced in his final hours.

I finished the book in a few days — something that’s rare for books I borrow.

Title: The Woman at the Front
Author: Lecia Cornwall
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Berkley (Sept. 28, 2021)
Format: ‎ Paperback
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 448 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0593197925
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0593197929

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/634183/the-woman-at-the-front-by-lecia-cornwall/

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

10 Quirky Museums Across Canada

340-year-old lost royal wreck found

Quality of life in Canada
Statistics Canada data for the first quarter of 2022 show more than half of the population rank their life satisfaction in the top category, with satisfaction for seniors being significantly higher,

Excess deaths in Canada
Statistics Canada data shows an estimated 40,349 excess deaths occurred in Canada from March 2020 to the middle of February 2022. That’s 95 of the 110 weeks that had deaths greater than expected. 

The AI that creates any picture you wantTheGenealogist’s Map Explorer™ now includes 1901 census

A Country Without a History?: Dispatches from a Stuck Historian

Thanks to this week’s contributors. Andrew James, Anonymous,  Gail, Teresa, Unknown.

BIFHSGO and OGS both had AGMs on Saturday.

BIFHSGO
Newly appointed to the Hall of Fame were Kathy Wallace and Sheila Faure Dohoo.

Awards were given to Mags Gaulden for best presentation by a member, David Jeanes for best educational presentation, and Anne Renwick for best article in Anglo-Celtic Roots.

The Board has new members: Dianne Brydon – President; Anne Coulter – membership; and Patricia Grainger – at large; together with those continuing their terms. Thanks to departing President – Duncan Monkhouse (who stays as Past President), Past President – Barbara Tose, Membership – Anne Burns and Lynne Baxter – Education.

OGS
The award for best “Bricks and Mortar website” went to Kawartha Branch with honourable mentions to Leeds and Grenville, and Oxford County Branches. Best “Virtual Website” went to the Irish Palatine SIG with an honourable mention to the Ireland SIG.
The award for the best newsletter went to Sudbury Branch’s Ancestor Hunting, with honourable mention to Kingston’s Relative Roots.
A citation of recognition was given to Nancy Trimble, and an award of merit to Huron County Library.
A community service award went to Catherine Bechard, and a genealogical essay prize (student) to Camryn Ruthven.

The newly elected President is Heidi Deschenes. Vice-President is Paul Goodyear, Directors-at-Large are Heather Oakley, Kathryn Lake-Hogan, Colleen L’Abbé, Ben Dawson, together with those continuing their terms.

Departing President (staying as Past President) is Heather McTavish Taylor and departing Past President Steve Fulton.

I hope I got those correct. Please let me know of anything missing or needed changes.

 

I’m chuffed to see my latest article, Was Your Ancestor Schooled in the BCATP? in print in this issue. It was a pleasure working with Editor Helen Tovey.
The article covers part of the material I’ll be presenting at the OGS conference on Saturday 25 June at 1 pm.

Highlights from the contents:

NAVAL RESERVISTS: Simon Wills decodes the uniforms
PHOTOGENEALOGY: AN INTRODUCTION: Ann Larkham unveils the first steps in creating an awesome home photograph archive/
A RETAILING REVOLUTION: Dress historian Jayne Shrimpton looks at the radical retail transformation of the British shopping scene between the wars.
DEATH DUTY REGISTERS A MASTERCLASS: David Annal shares practical advice and expert tips on using death duty registersfor family history research. Dave will be presenting at the BIFHSGO conference in September.
REMEMBERINGTHE PIONEER OF THE PACKAGE HOLIDAY Nicola Lisle looks back at the rise and fall of Thomas Cook.
WHAT MIGHT A RING SIGNIFY? Charlotte Soares on the rings that our ancestors may once have worn, and the stories behind them.

Editor Helen Tovey also compiled three GENEALOGY GADGETS AND APPS (FOR ALL OCCASIONS). One, suggested by Wayne Shepheard, also an OGS conference speaker, may be found at naturalreaders.com.

The FreeBMD Database was last updated on Saturday 4 June to contain 285,217,675 unique entries (284,959,570 at the previous update).
Years with changes of more than 10,000 additions are: for births 1990-92; for marriages 1991-92; for deaths 1987, 1990, 1992.

This week FMP throws a spotlight on collections drawn from the massive British Newspaper Archive collection. Separate collections have been extracted for births (baptisms), marriages and deaths (burials) from England. That should make the search more efficient. There are both indexes and images of the original newspaper entry.

Births comprise 204,576 entries, often the notice was published before the child’s name was selected, so it will read “of a daughter” or “of a son.” Expect to find an address and the exact date of birth.

Marriages, 681,852 entries, will give the names of the groom and bride, their residence places, marriage place and date and sometimes the father’s names.

Deaths,  1,827,488 entries. will give name, age, residence, name of spouse, possibly name and residence of father.

For other events with names, the good, the bad, the fortunate and the unfortunate, search the newspaper collection.

 

Act now!

There’s a 50% discount ending 7 pm ET on Friday 10 June. 12:00 BST.

https://www.findmypast.co.uk/1921-census

The 50% off discount is automatically applied at checkout, with no code required. No subscription is needed to take advantage of the offer. 12-month Pro subscribers who already benefit from 10% off 1921 Census purchases will automatically have their discount increased to 50% for the offer period. The offer applies only to 1921 Census image and transcript purchases.

If you don’t already subscribe, you’ve missed out on the June issue of the FHF Really Useful Bulletin.

It includes news of the passing of the Federation’s founder chairman—Iain Swinnerton, and a lead article by Wayne Shepheard on The Great Storm in the UK of 1703.

You can subscribe from https://www.familyhistoryfederation.com/resources-newsletter; that page also includes links to past issues, but not the June issue yet.

The Bulletin also has news from UK local FHSs and the Federation.

And I can’t miss the opportunity to mention that Wayne Shepheard will be presenting at the OGS/Ontario Ancestors conference 2022, coming up later this month,

Solving a 100-year-old mystery using DNA
Voices from a Silent Past
Lost Connections Found

The presentation titles are intriguing.

This Saturday discover the stories as told by Jennifer Hill, Christine Jackson, and Sue Lambeth in BIFHSGO’s semi-annual Great Moments session.

Find out more at https://www.bifhsgo.ca/events

Register free online for the session, starting at 10 am ET on Saturday.

BIFHSGO members, remember the AGM starts at 9 am.

3 – 2 – 2 – 1 …..

Diane L. Richard, a genealogy professional since 2003, who has been writing and lecturing since 2006, including at the OGS/Ontario Ancestors conference later this month, has three articles in this issue. In addition to her regular Net Notes column, she reviews Early American Sources and what the Permanent Legacy Foundation has to offer.

Two articles are by Lisa Alzo. Review: Adobe Photoshop Elements 2022 suggests that you can probably save your money and continue to use earlier versions of the program for core tasks. Not mentioned are alternative free programs, such as Photopea, which is online. Lisa’s other article, ten Ways to Share Genealogy at Your Family Reunion suggests ways to build fun into a family gathering as boxes, lines, charts, and citations don’t do it!

Being flexible and respectful of the other person’s needs and preferences, which are subject to change, is the advice in Sue Lisk’s article From You to Me and Back, which focuses on communication with older relatives. In Logging and Our Ancestors, Sue’s other article explores the history of logging in Northern Ontario, Minnesota and North Carolina, the camps where the men worked, and their experiences through several websites devoted to the subject.

Most contributors have one article, David A. Norris, Robbie Gorr, Karen L. Newman, Colleen Callahan Gilbert, Michelle Dennis, Rick Voight, The Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center, and Dave Obee, who reflects on What Will the Future Hold for Genealogy Research in Ukraine?

www.internet-genealogy.com

 

This collection, new to MyHeritage, contains 89,235 Quebec Catholic parish burials between the years 1798 and 1979.  The transcription records typically include the name of the deceased, year of birth, date and place of burial, name of the father and name of the spouse.

Most of the records are for Montreal’s Notre-Dame cemetery supplemented by those from Immaculée Conception, Trois-Rivières.

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

Tuesday 7 June. 2:30  pm: Tips for Searching Newspapers.com, by Melissa Tennant for Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center.
https://acpl.libnet.info/event/6729027

Tuesday, 7 June, 7:30 pm: An Introduction to GEDmatch, by Mags Gaulden for OGS Durham Region Branch.
https://ogs.on.ca/events/an-introduction-to-gedmatch-with-mags-gaulden-durham-region-branch-june-meeting/

Tuesday 7 June, 10 pm: Government Gazettes as a Genealogical Resource, by Helen V. Smith for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/government-gazettes-as-a-genealogical-resource/

Wednesday 8 June, 7:30 pm: Strategies for Dealing With Endogamy, by Paul Woodbury for he Jewish Genealogical Society of New York and the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society.
https://www.newyorkfamilyhistory.org/events/dealing-with-endogamy

Wednesday 8 June, 8 pm: Documents + DNA + Method + a little bit of Luck: Combining Tools to Find Biological Family, by Elizabeth Williams Gomoll for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/documents-dna-method-a-little-bit-of-luck-combining-tools-to-find-biological-family/

Thursday 9 June, 9 am: Tracing First World War Ancestors, by Norfolk (UK) Records Office.
https://norfolkrecordofficeblog.org/events-in-march-june-2022/

Thursday 9 June. 6:30 pm: Journey to the West of the West: Genealogical Treasures at the Sutro Library by Dvorah Lewis  for Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center.
https://acpl.libnet.info/event/6710338

Saturday 11 June. 9 am: BIFHSGO Annual General Meeting. www.bifhsgo.ca

Saturday 11 June. 10 am: Great Moments in Genealogy, with four BIFHSGO speakers.
www.bifhsgo.ca

Saturday 11 June 11 am: OGS Annual General Meeting.
www.ogs.on.ca