Maybe it’s because of our lobbying

Posted on the Library and Archives Canada webpage.

Gradual increase in services to the public in Ottawa

Starting on January 4, 2022, Library and Archives Canada’s service offerings at our Ottawa service point will gradually increase to include the following:

All collections will now be accessible, including photos, art, maps and plans, audiovisual material, literary and music fonds, preservation collection, rare books, and photo index cards.
The Textual Consultation Room (3rd floor) will now be open four days a week (Tuesday to Friday, from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.).
The Special Collections Consultation Room (3rd floor) will be open on Wednesdays, from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Exceptionally, reservations to consult the collections and resources at 395 Wellington Street in Ottawa during the week of January 4, 2022, can be made as of December 13, 2021 (three weeks in advance, rather than the usual two).

Here are more details about the reservation schedule for the next few weeks:

Beginning on December 20, 2021, time slots will be available to reserve for the weeks of January 10 and 17, 2022.
Due to the holiday season, no new appointments will be available on the following two Mondays: December 27, 2021, and January 3, 2022.
The regular reservation schedule (two weeks in advance) will resume on January 10, 2022.
To save your seat, please consult the Book your visit in Ottawa web page.

Visit our Reopening Library and Archives Canada web page for a complete overview of services available and region-specific details.

Let’s hope this good news isn’t Omicronized!

Recent Ancestry updates

In the past few days Find a Grave and newspaper indexes on Ancestry have been updated. Find a Grave added 140,432 index records (1.6%) for Canada since August while the UK and Ireland added 465.364 index records (3.5%).

Title Records
U.S., Newspapers.com Obituary Index, 1800s-current 873,029,013
U.S., Find a Grave Index, 1600s-Current 165,897,753
Canada, Newspapers.com Obituary Index, 1800s-current 31,483,712
UK and Ireland, Find a Grave Index, 1300s-Current 13,532,786
Global, Find a Grave Index for Burials at Sea and other Select Burial Locations, 1300s-Current 12,458,493
Australia and New Zealand, Find a Grave Index, 1800s-Current 9,528,642
Canada, Find a Grave Index, 1600s-Current 8,669,083
Germany, Find a Grave Index, 1600s-Current 1,675,784
Italy, Find a Grave Index, 1800s-Current 238,002
Norway, Find a Grave Index, 1800s-Current 194,340
Sweden, Find a Grave Index, 1800s-Current 141,007
Brazil, Find a Grave Index, 1800s-Current 130,541
Mexico, Find a Grave Index, 1800s-Current 48,771

Military Monday: Second World War Week

Find a huge collection of articles and podcasts on the Second World War in this History Extra special from BBC History Magazine.

https://www.historyextra.com/period/second-world-war/

The topics are: Adolf Hitler, Nazi Germany, The Holocaust, Second World War battles, D-Day, Dunkirk, Winston Churchill, Pearl Harbor, VE Day, The Battle of Britain, The Blitz, Wartime Britain, The Battle of the Atlantic, The global war, The Eastern Front.

Surprise Canadian Records from MyHeritage

When information arrived in an email from Daniel Horowitz of MyHeritage about 359 million additions in a French Historical Records collection I took a quick look for a third cousin twice removed. He was supposed to have been born in France. While I didn’t find him I noticed the records shown weren’t all French; they were in French.

The collection includes 58,114 births/baptisms, 211,983 marriages and 211,983 deaths/burials in Canada. While mostly for Quebec I spotted entries for Atlantic Canada too. There were also US events from Louisiana, Read more about the collection in this MyHeritage blog post.

Daniel also mentioned updates to Sweden, Household Examination Books, 1800–1947 with 13.2 million records added, and to Germany, North Rhine Westphalia (Arnsberg and Münster) Death Index, 1874–1938 with 4.8 million records added.

 

Digitized Irish Newspaper Additions

The British Newspaper Archive is currently working on digitizing Irish newspapers. Papers recently added are:

Kerry People 1902-1914, 1917-1922.
Dublin Weekly News: 1860, 1865, 1870, 1875, 1879-1888.
Lurgan Times: 1879-1885, 1887-1915.
County Tipperary Independent and Tipperary Free Press:1882-1896.
Irish Weekly and Ulster Examiner: 1891-1899, 1901-1926.
Cork Weekly News: 1883-1904, 1906-1907, 1910-1912, 1914-1923 + 1900, 1902 and 1920 coming soon.
Ulster Echo: 1874-1879, 1881-1890, 1897-1908 + 1881, 1886, 1890, 1902 coming soon.
Western People: 1889-1891, 1893-1912.

Additions have been made to Pue’s Occurrences: 1704-1706, 1714.

Findmypast will also have these in its newspaper collection.

Sunday Sundries

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

Relax with the Jellyfish at Monterey Bay Aquarium

Genealogy After Death
An article from Canada’s History magazine by Paul Jones.

TONI @13 Million
The Ontario Name Index continues to grow. Check it out at https://ogs.on.ca/toni/.

Shade Map
An interactive map that allows you to view the location of shadows from the sun throughout the day.

A Digital Map of Historical New York Offers an Extraordinary Level of Detail

We’ve Living Through the ‘Boring Apocalypse’

Thanks to this week’s contributors.  Ann Burns, Anonymous., Brenda Turner, Gail Roger, John Gilbert, Nancy Frey, Pat Jeffs, Unknown.

TheGenealogist adds North London (Middlesex) Lloyd George Domesday Survey

Over 60,000 new owner and occupier records covering Edmonton, Enfield and Southgate are now added to TheGenealogist‘s exclusive Lloyd George Domesday Survey records.

This continues TheGenealogist’s project based on the IR58 Inland Revenue Valuation Office records which were taken between 1910 and 1915. Other recent London-area additions have included Richmond, Ealing, and Haringey.

Findmypast Weekly Update

London, Synagogue Seatholders 1904 consists of 6,474 names and addresses of seatholders and officeholders in various Synagogues in Aldgate, City Of London, Dalston, Hackney, Hammersmith, Hampstead, Islington, Marylebone, Paddington, Southwark, Stepney and Stoke Newington.

Asia, Far East Directories & Chronicles 1833-1941 compiled annually from multiple sources, including government agencies and Western companies in China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, The Philippines, Indo-China, Malaysia, Siam, Borneo and The Dutch East Indies. Look for name, occupation and employer for Americans, Canadians, Australians, British and other Westerners as well as information likely to be of interest to residents in the chronicles.

Ottawa Genealogy Double-header

Ottawa sculptural signThis Saturday, 11 December 2021 enjoy two Ottawa events online and open to all.

At 9 am BIFHSGO’s Holiday Social and Great Moments in Genealogy get underway. Details are at https://www.bifhsgo.ca/events

At 1 pm OGS Ottawa Branch presentation is`They Came on Ships ~ Plotting a Course to Publishing Genealogical Research’, by David Walker. Register here.

In between, depending on where you live, you might be able to squeeze in a visit to a live event (!) the Friends of the Ottawa Public Library Mammoth Book Sale at the City of Ottawa Archives from 10 am to 2 pm. https://www.fopla-aabpo.ca/event/mammoth-book-sale/

December Additions to Canadiana Héritage

On Wednesday four new items were added to Canadiana.

Title Publication Date Identifier
Department of Canadian Heritage, Canadian Parks Service : Park/subject classification system 1911-1968 T-11009
Department of Canadian Heritage, Canadian Parks Service : Park/subject classification system 1930-1968 T-11010
Department of Indian Affairs, Headquarters central registry system : thousand series 1893-1945 C-12081
James Hargrave and family fonds 1850-1854 C-77

The most interesting of these may well be the James Hargrave and family fonds. According to his entry in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography

Throughout his career Hargrave was a prodigious letter writer, corresponding with officers all over the HBC’s vast domains. His draft letter books, which give much detail about the logistics of the trade, reveal his assiduous attempts to satisfy the needs of every district with fairness and economy. His private letters, where he appears as esteemed friend and confidant, constitute the richest surviving record of life in western Canada during the first half of the 19th century. Besides providing valuable commentary on fur trade society with its blend of Indian, British, and French customs, these letters also contain much specific information about the personal lives of many of Hargrave’s contemporaries.

The period 1850-54 saw James Hargrave ending his assignment at York Factory and moving to Sault Ste Marie. Image 3 at Canadiana Héritage summarizes the scope of the contents. It mentions small handwriting and fading of the ink.

Ancestry adds Australia Newspaper Marriage and Obit Indexes

After a period with no new or updated records Ancestry follows on yesterday’s Glamorgan Calendar of Prisoners records with two new Australian collections from newspapers, for Hamilton (1860 – 1918), Melbourne (1854 – 2000) and Sydney (1831 – 2001).

Australia, Newspapers.com Marriage Index, 1800s-current: 672,360 records.
Australia, Newspapers.com Obituary Index, 1800s-current: 5,756,110 records.

BIFHSGO Membership Renewal

If you have not yet renewed, please go to the web-site, www.bifhsgo.ca and complete your renewal. Online renewal is by PayPal or Credit Card. For assistance with the process, see the “News” page of the website.

If you are unable or unwilling to pay online, you can contact the Membership Director at membership@bifhsgo.ca