WDYTYA: Josh Widdicombe

Much to my surprise, I found the first episode of the new BBC series of Who Do You Think You Are? on YouTube.

He also discusses it on a BBC comedy show.

The episode was fun, not a lot of genealogical research though. Nobody pointed out that having Edward 1 as your 23-times great-grandfather means he is one (or more) of 16.7 million ancestors in that generation. It goes back to around 1300 when the population of Britain was around 3.5 million (with substantial uncertainty.) Lots of pedigree collapse. Likely anyone with a deep history in England could make a credible claim to be Widdicombe’s cousin.

Sunday Sundries

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

via Persephone from Post-it Notes from Hades who is blogging this month,.

Lost and Fonds: Declassification of Government Documents in Canada
Recording of a video conference building by an article in the Literary Review of Canada that explored the state of the declassification of government documents in Canada by former NATO archivist Paul Marsden. 2 hours.

Canada is aiming for carbon neutrality and that will mean big changes to how we produce and consume energy

Sub-Sub-Sub Island on Victoria Island
The largest island in a lake on an island in a lake on an island.

A good job for robots, found – dealing with our embarrassing problems

Timpeall na Tíre
An initiative that invites you to delve into the story of Ireland, as told through the NLI’s rich and varied collections of digitised material.

Anonymous, Brenda Turner, Dianne, Dorothy Kew, Elizabeth Kipp, Gail, Maureen, Nancy Frey, Unknown

Deceased Online completes Barking and Dagenham cemetery collection

Records for Rippleside Cemetery are now available to view on www.deceasedonline.com alongside Chadwell Heath and Eastbrookend Cemeteries.

The records comprise digital scans of the original burial registers up to 2006, computerised records from 2006 to 2019, and grave details for each of the graves and their occupants.

Some of the very early scans for Rippleside were badly corrupted and therefore some records from the 1890s and early 1900s are computerised data only.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission lists 214 burials at Rippleside, 74 for the First World War. One Canadian, Pilot Officer Owen C B Crump from Windsor, Ontario, who died on 17 December 1941 at age 20 is in the cemetery.

Canadian archives need the funding to maintain themselves in working order

Karen Dubinsky, who teaches in the departments of Global Development Studies and History at Queen’s University, has penned an opinion article in the Toronto Star.

Why she asks, when schools and libraries are figuring out how to open safely and have been open for well over a month, are some of Canada’s major archives so slow to reopen? She cites the situations at Libraries and Archives Canada, the City of Toronto Archives and the Ontario Archives.

Read the full editorial at The End of History? Why we must reopen the archives.

While I agree on the need for more funding that’s not the only issue.

Findmypast Weekly Update: school records

National School Admission Registers is an exclusive database on FMP. This update, for Halifax, Yorkshire for 1859-1922, adds a few thousand records to those available to search from 41 counties in England and Wales.

The schools and years covered are under the titles (sometimes more than one school):

Haugh Shaw, 1892-1922
Akroyd Place Board School, 1896-1919
Heath Grammar School, 1874-1875
Halifax School Board, 1859-1884
Halifax Technical College, 1902-1910

The National School Admission Registers & Log-Books 1870-1914 collection is one I found useful in researching for my November BIFHSGO mini-presentation. With 9.3 million records it deserves to be better known.

FHF Really Useful Family History Show

25 talks for £10. At $1.70 Cdn per talk, that’s quite a bargain, if the topics are relevant to you.

Some presentations of interest to me are:

London Burials and how to find them! and;
The City livery companies.

Great war widows and emigration and; Chatham Dockyard: The Rise and Fall of a Military Industrial Complex.

Why the Welsh Left Wales and; Land of Song.

If I only attended those it would be $2.82 per talk, quite a bargain!

Christine Woodcock and Wayne Shepheard add a Canadian element. Scotland, Jamaica, Nigeria and British India all get a mention.

And I wouldn’t want to miss Janet Few speaking on “Genealogy: the next generation.” It starts in a session at 1 pm ET on Friday 12 November, the only one that’s live. The others, recorded, will premiere on Saturday 13 November and remain available until 6:59 pm on 28 November. That’s just as well as Saturday 13 November is also the date for the BIFHSGO November meeting.

Find out more and buy tickets at www.fhf-reallyuseful.com/

 

Irish Emigration Lists, 1833-1839

New on Ancestry, this collection containing 3,124 records is an index for residents of County Antrim or County Derry~
Londonderry in Northern Ireland who emigrated between 1833 and 1839. The records in this collection were compiled from notebooks kept during the Ordnance Survey of Ireland and are organized by county, church parish, and last name.

Documentary Heritage Communities Program

The call for DHCP proposals began on 13 October  2021 for projects starting 1 April 2022. The deadline to submit applications is 12 January 2022, at 11:59 pm, Pacific Standard Time (PST). Not-for-profit genealogical organizations are eligible.

There’s a lot of really helpful information to help in writing a successful proposal. The guidelines have changed since last year.

Having served on the DHCP external advisory committee my experience is that only strong proposals will get funded. There’s no point in writing a proposal at the last minute — it shows and wastes everyone’s time.

https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/services/documentary-heritage-communities-program/Pages/dhcp.aspx

Family Tree Magazine: November 2021

Here’s an almost complete TOC for the new issue.

FAMILY HISTORY NEWS Rachel Bellerby reports on the latest from the world of family history.
ALCOHOL INSANITY Archivist Lisa Edwards looks at Victorian attitudes to mental health and the long-reaching consequences on our families.
TRACE YOUR FAMILY HEROES Explore the military collections on Ancestry.
IRISH LAND RECORDS Family historian Chris Paton provides an overview of some of the land records useful for Irish-based research.
A MINI GUIDE TO STARTING GENEALOGY Here are some tips to kick-start your family history search.
TWIGLETS Gll Shaw unravels more Riboldi riddles & colourful characters.
REALLY USEFUL FAMILY HISTORY SHOW TALKS Peruse the full program of the upcoming online show from the Family History Federation.
TWIGs Gill Shaw stumbles upon another unexpected turn of events.
TURN BACK TIME Try out the easy-to-use photo restoration tool Vivid-Pix.
THE VALUE OF USING ORIGINAL RECORDS Family Tree Acadamy tutor David Annal shows how they can help to find that incontrovertible link.
IN SEARCH OF A FAMILY LEGEND Clare Kirk weaves a masterful account of her complex history.
WHY FAMILY HISTORY MATTERS Chris Broom reflects on the unique nature of each of us and the importance of family history.
YOUR DNA WORKSHOP DNA advisor Karen Evans helps to piece together some very confusing pieces of a DNA puzzle.
BOOKS With Helen Tovey & Rachel Bellerby.
EUROPE’S WORST EARTHQUAKE Dr. Simon Wills provides tips to research the victims & heroes.
YOUR QUESTIONS Experts step up to help.
SPOTLIGHT ON. Cumbria Family History Society with John Steel.
DIARY DATES Essential family history dates.
LETTERS Readers have their say.
DREAMING OF ANCESTORS Diane Lindsay’s sleep has been interrupted by an ancestral visitation from a Regency forebear.

Interactive Map of Election Violence Events in England and Wales, 1832–1914

Was your ancestor involved in electoral violence? Likely not, but you probably don’t know. Check out this map showing English and Welsh election violence that occurred during the 20 General Elections between 1832 and 1914. It contains nearly 3,000 events, ranging from outright riots, involving multiple deaths, to minor incidents, such as the breaking of windows.

via Maps Mania

QFHS Fall Seminar

This Saturday, 16 October, the Quebec Family History Society offers four online presentations by speakers Luc Lepine and Gary Schroder,

The Presentations:

10:00 to 11:00 – How to Use Civil Registrations of Births, Marriages, and Deaths to find your Ancestors in England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales in the 19th and 20th Centuries. With Gary Schroder

11:00 to 12:00 – What are the easiest ways to find your French Canadian Ancestors? With Dr. Luc Lepine

1:00 pm to 2:00 pm – How to Find and Use Cemetery Records in Quebec. With Gary Schroder

2:00 pm to 3:00 pm – How to Use the Lepine Militia Database for Anglophones in Quebec during the early 19th Century, currently over 35,000 entries. With Dr. Luc Lepine.

Cost: $25. Payment options – online (click here) or by cheque (click here for address). Your payment will be your reservation. Space for this seminar is limited.

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