Anglo-Celtic Connections

I was surprised to find a reference to this mural monument in a book I recently reviewed.  The image is from the Illustrated London News of 17 November 1855;  the monument in the Cathedral Church of St Paul in London, Ontario. It pays tribute to Lt. Col. Chester and the men of the 23rd Royal Welch Fusiliers who fell at the Battle of Alma during the Crimean War (October 1853 – February 1856).

I was intrigued. The Crimea is 8,000 Km from London, ON. What’s the connection? Who was Lt. Col. Chester?

Henry George Chester purchased a commission as a 2nd Lt in 1830. He is mentioned on numerous index cards of the British Military and Naval Records (RG 8, C Series) at Library and Archives Canada, including that he succeeded to command of the 23rd Royal Welch Fusiliers at London, Canada West, on 19 May 1850 when a Maj. and became a Lt. Col. before returning to the UK in 1853.

According to The Times of 17 October 1854, he was the youngest child of Maj. Gen. Harry Chester of the Coldstream Guards and his wife Harriet (nee Clinton), and brother of Sir Robert Chester, Master of the Ceremonies.

He died in battle leading his regiment, which was part of the Light Division, on 20 September 1854.

It’s not evident why he would warrant such a memorial in London.  Were there recruits while he was in London who also participated in the Battle of Alma?

Officers of the 23rd Regiment killed and wounded were: Lieutenant Col. H. G. Chester, killed; Captain A. W. W. Wynn, killed; Captain F. E Evans, killed; Capt. J. C. Conolly, killed; Lieutenant F. P. Radcliff, killed; Lieutenant Sir W. Young, killed; Second Lieutenant H. Anstruther, killed; Second Lieutenant J. H. Butler, killed; Captain W. P. Campbell, severely wounded; Lieutenant H. Bathurst, wounded severely; Captain E. C. Hopton, wounded slightly; Lieutenant F. Sayer, wounded slightly; Lieutenant Acting Adjutant A. Applewhaite, wounded severely. The killed and wounded of this regiment numbered over 400 men.

There’s what appears to be a partial list here starting at image 92. The losses were reportedly the most of any regiment involved and more than the casualties in Tennyson’s Charge of the Light Brigade in which Toronto-born Lieutenant Alexander Roberts Dunn, saw action — the first Canadian to be awarded the Victoria Cross.

Sharing a shortish opinion piece by Dan Gardner on his PastPresentFuture blog worth reading.

we should err on the side of keeping what exists and expressing ourselves through the creation of new memorials, if not to grant past generations the respect we hope future generations will accord us, then to allow memorials to accumulate over time, like the slow accumulations of silt that build a river delta — my favourite metaphor — and leave a record of the many generations that, collectively, made the place what it is.

You might also enjoy his post Statues Have Their Own Histories.

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

Forthcoming on Ancestry (new and updated)
UK, Women’s Royal Air Force Service Records, 1918-1920
UK, Women’s Land Army Index Cards,1939-1945
UK, World War II Records and Material, 1939-1945
Edinburgh, Scotland, Army Attestation Registers, 1796-1857
UK, Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps Service Records, 1917-1920
Newspapers.com UK Obituaries
Newspapers.com UK Marriages

Remains found in France identified as Canadian soldier who died in WW1
Good news. Unfortunately, the item lacks detail. Just how confident is the identification — 90%, 95%, 99.9999%?

Margaret McMillan: Alliances and the Outbreak of the Second World War

Improving the nation’s stock for ‘Great and Greater Britain’: Eugenics in the 1920s
Pseudoscientific and moraly corrupt. LAC’s biography of Nellie McClung continues to overlook her racist/eugenicist beliefs. That’s in contrast to the biography of Emily Murphy who “expressed stereotypical and prejudiced views about various racial and ethnic groups.”

Oldest surviving map of London, from 1633, to go on display

Need More?
There’s great content every week from Australia at That Moment in Time.

Thanks to this week’s contributors. Alison, Ann Burns, Anonymous, Barbara Di Mambro, Brenda Turner, jon ackroyd, Pamela Wile, Teresa, Toni, Unknown.

No travelling. No expensive hotels and restaurant meals. All the conveniences of home. Registration is now open. for the 24 -26 June Ontario Ancestors (OGS to its friends) conference.

Check out the interesting lineup of presentations and other features including MyHeritage Day, You wouldn’t want to miss out. See the speakers below, find out more and register here.

As people die, and some become centenarians, their records in the 1939 Register for England and Wales are opened. This addition is 117,965 records.

Also this week over 10,000 Sheffield baptism index records from Neepsend, St Michael & All Angels Church for 1867 to 1922. The church continued in operation until 1953. You may find two entries for the same event, one with an image of the original record.

And over 60,000 baptism transcription records are added for 82 Northamptonshire churches for a total of 213,197 for the county.

 

Here’s the lineup for the new issue, on sale on 12 April.

COVER: Genealogist, Beware!
Robbie Gorr warns of scams targeting genealogists and how you can avoid being the target

English & Irish Nonconformist Records
Michelle Dennis looks at records left by those who rejected the Established Church of England

Genealogy NFTs
Lisa A. Alzo discusses transitioning from family heirlooms to non-fungible tokens

Centurial
Diane L. Richard looks at an evidence-based application to create family trees

The Future of Genealogy Conferences
Lisa A. Alzo looks at futuristic possibilities for hosting family history meetings and events

Hidden in Plain Sight
Sue Lisk says don’t pass over information you think is unimportant!

Selkirk and His Settlers
Christine Woodcock examines the life of Thomas Douglas, 5th Earl of Selkirk

Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts (MESDA)
Diane L. Richard reviews a fascinating resource covering a wide range of professions relating to the arts

Finding “Hidden Lists”
David A. Norris offers tips on how to better utilize the information found in lists

The Women’s Institute and the “Tweedsmuirs”
Sue Lisk looks at a valuable resource for genealogists with Canadian roots

How Do You Tell Your Stories?
A new regular column by Rick Voight about telling your family stories

Unusual, but Useful Record Sets at FamilySearch
Karen L. Newman looks at business and commerce records at FamilySearch

NetNotes
Internet Genealogy looks at websites and related news that are sure to be of interest

Genealogy Begins with a Question!
Experts from the Allen County Public Library’s
Genealogy Center offer tips based on questions
they receive from visitors.

Back Page: What’s in a Name?
Tell Your Stories… Now! Dave Obee stresses the importance of preserving your own stories for future generations,

A preview of the first page of longer articles is linked at https://www.internet-genealogy.com/issue_contents.htm

Meteorological April Fool.

On this date in 1939 Trans-Canada Air Lines inaugurated cross-Canada (if you ignore the Atlantic Provinces) service. The flight was from Montreal to Vancouver with lots of stops, most of them scheduled. The first was Ottawa.
The plane could accommodate ten passengers, three on the flight were women buyers from a department store, with three crew including the stewardess.

All did not go according to plan. Today, flight level is above the weather. Not so then. Icing developed as the plane started crossing the mountains. It had to turn back to Lethbridge.

The eastbound plane had to stop in Ottawa owing to a snowstorm. The passengers continued to Montreal by train.

It’s easy to overlook additions to FamilySearch collections. In March 206 indexed collections were added or had additions. For Canada, there were additions to a register of Chinese Immigration.  For England, additions were made to parish and Non-Conformist church records; Middlesex Parish Registers, 1539-1988 now has over 5.7 million entries. Three Irish titles have additions.

COLLECTION TITLE	RECORDS	LAST UPDATE
Canada, Registers of Chinese Immigration to Canada, 1885-1949	12,244	14-Mar-22
England and Wales Census, 1871	Browse Images	16-Mar-22
England, Gloucestershire Non-Conformist Church Records, 1642-1996	137,933	29-Mar-22
England, Herefordshire Bishop’s Transcripts, 1583-1898	1,603,017	28-Mar-22
England, Lancashire Non-Conformist Church Records, 1647-1996	686,640	31-Mar-22
England, Lincolnshire, Marriage Bonds and Allegations, 1574-1885	117,807	31-Mar-22
England, Middlesex Parish Registers, 1539-1988	5,761,662	23-Mar-22
England, Northumberland Non-Conformist Church Records, 1613-1920	411,621	31-Mar-22
England, Somerset, Church Records, 1501-1999	4,781,848	04-Mar-22
Ireland Census, 1841	15,850	28-Mar-22
Ireland Census, 1901	4,379,702	11-Mar-22
Ireland, Catholic Parish Registers, 1740-1900	653,835	17-Mar-22

Those are not the only additions.

Go to https://www.familysearch.org/records/images/ and you’ll see a counter ticking up. Just since 17 March, there are 39 image collections added for England, 322 for Scotland, 3 for Ireland. None for Wales or Canada.

The Research Wiki was updated on 23 March.

This long-awaited paperback by English professional genealogist Celia Heritage was published this month by Pen and Sword. It provides a microscope and macroscope for the topic in space and time that will open your eyes to unappreciated possibilities. Case studies, many from her own family research, bring life to the presentation. There’s also practical advice for getting the most out of exploring a graveyard or cemetery, and related resources, where an ancestor is waiting for you to find them and elements of their story.

Chapter 1, A Brief History of Death and Burial, starts with the story of  Celia’s lucky find of a memorial to great-grandparents and their children. The chapter covers the history of the way people’s bodies were disposed of, not only burial (inhumation) from 10,000 years ago to the present day, including the influence of religion.
Chapter 2, The Parish Churchyard, notes that the origins and early history of parish churchyards are undocumented. Celia advises that even though you assume your ancestor was poor, not to ignore memorials in the church and intramural burial, beneath the church floor and in crypts. Placement in a churchyard may indicate prominence in the community, depending on the era. She uses the case of the burial of a relative at Westminster’s St Martin-in-the-Fields church to suggest resources to explore to find your own long-deceased ancestor.
Chapter 3, Ex-Parochial Graveyards, explores a wide range of burial sites: Nonconformist, foreign church, Roman Catholic, Jewish, private, armed forces, institutional, prison, workhouse, hospital, asylum and plague pits. Also covered is locating defunct burial grounds.
Chapter 4, Cemeteries and Crematoria – the Nineteenth Century and Onwards, explores cemeteries as a gateway to many topics of interest aside from genealogy and history, including horticulture, nature conservation and architecture and their development.
Chapter 5, Gravestones and Gravesites, covers graves, gravestones and memorial markers. There’s helpful coverage of the evolution of styles, hints on reading eroded inscriptions and cleaning (and not cleaning). Mentioned in passing is a memorial said to be at St Paul’s Church (Cathedral) in London, Ontario. It refers to an article in the London Illustrated News and a memorial to those who died at the Battle of Alma in the Crimean War, not at the Alamo!
The final chapters rehearse the records, from those you immediately think of, like burial registers and newspapers, to records of undertakers and monumental masons, and websites.
Two appendices are followed by notes, a resource list and an index.

Cemeteries and Graveyards (Paperback)
A Guide for Local and Family Historians in England and Wales
By Celia Heritage
Imprint: Pen & Sword Family History
Series: Tracing Your Ancestors
Pages: 248
Illustrations: 30 black and white illustrations
ISBN: 9781526702371
Published: 17th March 2022

https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Cemeteries-and-Graveyards-Paperback/p/20462

Another amazing month for the British Newspaper Archive, now with a total of 49,829,385 pages online (48,548,902 last month).

This month 240 papers had pages added (186 in the previous month). There were 54 (75) new titles. Dates range from 1804 to 2008.

The 22 newspapers with more than 10,000 pages added are

TITLE	YEARS
Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser	1982-1985, 1987-1988
Birmingham News	1988, 1990-1991
Birmingham Weekly Mercury	1987, 1989, 1991-1992
Burton Daily Mail	1912, 1988-1989, 1992
Civil & Military Gazette (Lahore)	1845, 1847-1876, 1913-1928, 1930-1934, 1962
Constitution	1827
Daily Record	1989-1991
Essex Weekly News	1862-1881, 1883, 1885-1915
Frontier Sentinel	1904-1960
Grimsby Daily Telegraph	1991
Harlow Star	1986-1987, 1989
Herapath’s Railway Journal	1844-1848, 1852-1903
Hertford Mercury and Reformer	1990-1992
Herts and Essex Observer	1983, 1990-1991
Hoddesdon and Broxbourne Mercury	1990-1992
Huddersfield Daily Examiner	1911-1913, 1989, 1991-1992
Ireland’s Saturday Night	1874, 1895-1922, 1924-1929, 1931-2008
Lynn Advertiser	1946-1949, 1958-1962, 1964-1966
North Star (Darlington)	1887-1896, 1901-1910, 1912-1914, 1917-1918, 1921-1923
Nottingham Evening Post	1985-1986, 1989-1991
Nuneaton Chronicle	1911-1912, 1921-1943
Walsall Observer	1912-1913, 1919-1924, 1934-1938, 1946-1948, 1950-1952, 1954, 1956-1957

Announcing Nearly 35 Million Pages of Canadian Newspapers!

A blog post from newspapers.com announces the addition of millions of new pages of Canadian content — papers from Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Quebec,  Saskatchewan, and the Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut.

Many of the papers are available only with an extra cost Publishers Extra subscription, especially for many post-WW1 issues.

The papers added are not named. I think the Montreal Star is one of them.

Here’s the complete list of papers with more than 20-year runs

Province	Newspaper	Year Range
NS	The (Halifax) Evening Mail	1894 – 1930
NS	The Halifax Herald	1880 – 1905
QC	Montreal Gazette	1785 – 1866
QC	The (Montreal) Gazette	1857 – 2022
QC	The Montreal Star	1869 – 1979
ON	Aurora Banner	1900 – 1925
ON	The Brantford Daily Expositor	1880 – 1917
ON	The Brantford Weekly Expositor	1850- 1916
ON	The (Brantford) Expositor	1918 – 2005
ON	The Hamilton Spectator	1850 – 1900
ON	The (Kemptville) Weekly Advance	1907 – 1933
ON	The Kingston Daily News	1851 – 1901
ON	The Kingston Whig-Standard	1849 – 2014
ON	The Weekly (Kingston) British Whig	1861 – 1924
ON	The Lanark Era	1895 – 1919
ON	The (Niagara) Times	1895 – 1915
ON	North Bay Nugget	1909 – 2014
ON	Ottawa Daily Citizen	1846 – 1897
ON	The Ottawa Citizen	1896 – 2022
ON	The Ottawa Journal	1885 – 1980
ON	Owen Sound Sun	1897 – 1918
ON	The (Owen Sound) Sun-Times	1927 – 2014
ON	(Owen Sound) Times	1871 – 1919
ON	The Sault Star	1901 – 1930
ON	St Catherines Standard	1891 – 1916
ON	National Post	1907 – 2022
ON	Magyar Elet Hungarian Life (Weston)	1957 – 1992
ON	(Weston) Times and Guide	1890 – 1935
ON	The Windsor Star	1892 – 2022
MB	(Winnipeg) Free Press Prairie Farmer	1892 – 1931
MB	Heimskringla	1924 – 1951
MB	Manitoba Free Press	1874 – 1920
MB	The Winnipeg Sun	1980 – 2007
MB	The Winnipeg Tribune	1890 – 1949
SK	Regina Sun	1986 – 2014
SK	The (Regina) Leader-Post	1883 – 2022
SK	(Saskatoon) Star-Phoenix	1902 – 2022
AB	Calgary Herald	1888 – 2022
AB	The Calgary Albertan	1906- 1980
AB	Weekly Albertan	1895 – 1920
AB	Claresholm Local Press	1926 – 1968
AB	Didsbury Pioneer	1903 – 1958
AB	(Didsbury) Mail	1968 – 2015
AB	(Edmonton) Boyle-McCauley News	1979 – 2020
AB	Edmonton Journal	1903 – 2022
AB	The Edmonton Bulletin	1903 – 1951
AB	Fort McMurray Today	1974 – 2014
AB	The (Grand Prairie) Daily Herald-Tribune	1964 – 2015
AB	Irma Times	1922 – 1968
AB	The (Leduc) Representative	1907 – 1939
AB	The Lethbriage Herald	1905 – 1983
AB	The Lloydminster Times	1907 – 1968
AB	Red Deer Advocate	1904 – 2014
BC	100 Mile House Free Press	1968 – 2008
BC	The Abbotsford News	1977 – 2008
BC	Alberni Valley Times	1967 – 1992
BC	(Burns Lake) Lake District News	1975 – 2010
BC	The Chilliwack Progress	1891 – 2007
BC	The (Grand Forks) Gazette	1905 – 1970
BC	Hope Standard	1958 – 1994
BC	Houston Today	1969 – 2007
BC	Ladysmith-Chemainus Chronicle	1957 – 1991
BC	Langley Advance	1931 – 2009
BC	Nanaimo Daily News	1874 – 2009
BC	(New Westminster) The North Shore Press	1913 – 1935
BC	Quesnel Cariboo Observer	1908 – 2017
BC	Richmond Review	1932 – 2008
BC	Salmon Arm Observer	1976 – 2007
BC	The Eagle Valley News (Sicamous)	1979 – 2007
BC	The Interior News (Smithers)	1910 – 2007
BC	Surrey Leader	1929 – 2006
BC	Terrace Standard	1988 – 2010
BC	(Vancouver) Daily News Advertiser	1890 -1917
BC	The (Vancouver) Province	1894 – 2022
BC	The Vancouver Sun	1912 – 2022
BC	The (Vancouver) Weekly News-Advertiser	1888 -1911
BC	Vancouver Daily World	1888 -1924
BC	Vernon News	1891 – 1916
BC	The Victoria Daily Times	1884 – 1952
BC	(Victoria) Times Colonist	1885 – 2013
BC	The (Williams Lake) Tribune	1983 – 2006
YK	Whitehorse Daily Star	1901 – 2021

New to MyHeritage, from Scottish Indexes, a collection of High Court Precognitions and Trial Papers from 1800 to 1916.

“This collection (of 138,934 index records) consists of three sets held at the National Archives of Scotland in Edinburgh, precognitions (AD14 and AD15) and trial papers (JC26) of the High Court of Justiciary, which is the highest criminal court in Scotland. Records may contain the full name of the individual, age, residence, date and place of the event, name of the court, and various information related to the proceeding.”

Find more about these records in the Scottish Indexers Learning Zone.

Australia, Queensland Funeral Home and Burial Records is a collection of 633,015 records from the 19th and 20th centuries. Look for the full name of the deceased, age at death, burial date, burial place, and various notes such as whether the record is from a funeral home or a cemetery. These are also available on FamilySearch, Findmypast and Ancestry.

I occasionally find people complaining about the subscription genealogy companies adding collections available elsewhere, especially if they are free at the other source.  It’s a matter of convenience. Rather than hunt around various sites, some of which you may not know about or be ones you wouldn’t think to be relevant, you get an integrated search capability. That’s worth something. It’s why I know where a direct line ancestor, one who disappeared from English records, ended his days an ocean away from his birthplace.