Anglo-Celtic Connections

With the 26 January update, there are now 6,996,449 entries in the Canada, Newspapers.com Marriage Index, 1800s-current. The latest appears to be for October. 2021. The US index now has 265,548,230  entries.

This week 2.1 million Berkshire baptisms, burials, marriages and banns transcripts have been added to FMP.

The over 1 million baptism records, between 1538 and 1917, often include sources from both the parish records and bishops transcripts. While that means fewer events than records it’s good to have both as you may get more information in one than the other. I found another sibling for my 2xgreat-grandmother.

With these additions, there are now 1,456,503 burial transcripts and  956,431 marriages and banns in this Berkshire collection. Again expect more than one record for the same event. 20 marriage events for a surname of my interest were in 33 records.

False claims of ancestry are nothing new. There was a living to be made a century and more ago in producing false personal genealogies back to notable people.

These days the motivations may be different, but the practice remains.

On Monday evening, in an OGS Toronto Branch presentation, Daryl Leroux, an expert on French-Canadian Genealogy, shared findings from his 2019 book Distorted Descent: White Claims to Indigenous Identity. He examined the increasing numbers of white French-Canadians identifying as Indigenous on the basis of false genealogies back to women like Marie Sylvestre who were not aboriginal but are claimed to be.  Leroux stated these are used to justify claims to aboriginal rights, such as fishing rights and land claims, and by organizations to inflate numbers of Indigenous employees.

Leroux was quick to state he would not enter into the discussion of what should be the criteria for “status” He was pointing out the numerous cases where the ancestry was false.

An article in today’s The Conversation Canada,  We are facing a settler colonial crisis, not an Indigenous identity crisis, provides further food for thought.

“The issue is that in their rush to “indigenize,” universities have created the conditions whereby someone who has mined the genealogical archives can access a position reserved for an Indigenous person, displacing those of us who are connected to and claimed by a living community/Nation of people.”

Subscribers will know I’m a fan of the work done by the Arnprior & McNab/Braeside Archives on newspaper digitization. So I was pleased to see their comprehensive blog post Behind the Archives’ Door: The Newspaper Project. It celebrates the completion of a project funded by the New Horizons for Senior’s Program of Employment and Social Development Canada.

To access the search function on the Archives’ website and the finding aids, click here.

On 5 January LAC posted a tweet with this before and after image of the August 1922 Dominion Government Telephone Directory. LAC added that after 100 hours of conservation it is in excellent shape to be digitized and can remain on the consultation shelf for a while longer.

Why would LAC not immediately digitize and withdraw the original from routine consultation?

Did you know there are 19 directories in the series, from 1922 to 1948. All are indicated in the catalogue as “not available”, some temporarily, some permanently?   Why is LAC not digitizing them, or making them available for digitization, just as it has with its Vernon Ontario directories?

Those with a long memory may recall that in February 2009 LAC issued a Request for Expressions of Interest (RFEOI) “in order to identify collaborative opportunities for the digitization of its diverse collections. Arrangements could include digitization and/or the creation of nominal indices or other research tools.” https://anglo-celtic-connections.blogspot.com/2009/02/lac-opens-doors-wide-for-collaborative.html

More recently Leslie Weir promised “enhanced digital presence” when she became Librarian and Archivist of Canada. https://anglo-celtic-connections.blogspot.com/2019/09/more-digital-promised-at-lac.html
What has been done?  Should LAC look again at issuing a Request for Expressions of Interest?

On Tuesday Ancestry posted the following updates. Notice Norway and Mexico posted decreases.

Title	25-Jan-22	03-Nov-21	Chg	% Chg
U.S., Find a Grave Index, 1600s-Current	166,390,138	165,337,431	1,052,707	0.63
UK and Ireland, Find a Grave Index, 1300s-Current	13,696,805	13,369,742	327,063	2.39
Global, Find a Grave Index for Burials at Sea and other Select Burial Locations, 1300s-Current	12,528,218	12,332,919	195,299	1.56
Australia and New Zealand, Find a Grave Index, 1800s-Current	9,571,171	9,478,641	92,530	0.97
Canada, Find a Grave Index, 1600s-Current	8,740,755	8,575,861	164,894	1.89
Germany, Find a Grave Index, 1600s-Current	1,734,545	1,635,287	99,258	5.72
Italy, Find a Grave Index, 1800s-Current	240,830	234,439	6,391	2.65
Norway, Find a Grave Index, 1800s-Current	194,943	202,299	-7,356	-3.77
Sweden, Find a Grave Index, 1800s-Current	151,112	136,898	14,214	9.41
Brazil, Find a Grave Index, 1800s-Current	130,692	130,344	348	0.27
Mexico, Find a Grave Index, 1800s-Current	48,863	49,397	-534	-1.09

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

Tuesday 25 Jan. 2 pm: New Records on MyHeritage, by Mike Mansfield for MyHeritage and Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/new-records-on-myheritage-2/

Tuesday 25 Jan. 2:30 pm: Researching Scots-Irish Ancestors, by John Beatty for Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center.
https://acpl.libnet.info/event/6010585

Wednesday 26 Jan. 2:30 pm:  Flappers, flights and freedom: a social history of the 1920s, by Kate Williams for the (UK) National Archives.
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/flappers-flights-and-freedom-a-social-history-of-the-1920s-tickets-221285630277?aff=hp

Thursday 27 Jan, 7 pm: Optimizing Your Searches on the Internet – It’s More Than FamilySearch and Ancestry, by Maureen Brady for Brigham Young University Family History Library. Click on the link at the time of the webinar byu.zoom.us/j/97185943513?pwd=TkUyRkhucTJPMDVmRUROSm1RbWdlZz09

Saturday 29 Jan. All Day. Family Tree Webinars offers five presentations, fours from their archive, one new, as the first in a series of free monthly online genealogy conferences in 2022.

Speaker	Title
Teri E. Flack	Organization: Create a Finding Aid to Locate Your Records (brand new)
Mary Hill	Get Organized Using the FamilyRoots Organizer Color-Coding System
Cyndi Ingle	Maintaining an Organized Computer
Lisa Louise Cooke	Organize Your Online Life
Thomas MacEntee	You Can Do This: Photo Organizing and Preservation

www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com/Conference

 

There were 307,205 deaths in Canada in 2020, the year in which the COVID-19 pandemic began, an increase of 21,935 (+7.7%) over the 285,270 deaths observed in 2019. Life expectancy fell by more than half a year in 2020, the largest single-year decline in Canada since national vital statistics started to be collected in 1921

That’s the lead in Monday’s release Deaths, 2020 from Statistics Canada.

The pandemic has had a significant impact on mortality in Canada, contributing to, but was not the only reason for, the decline in life expectancy.

For the 50-75 cohort the gain in life expectancy since 2016 almost compensated for the loss in 2020.

From 24 January to 5 February MyHeritage is making available, free and unlimited use of In Color™, Photo Enhancer, and Photo Repair tools. 

Read more about the new colourization capability on the MyHeritage blog post.

Here’s my own test using a portrait of Ottawa businessman William Northwood (1844 – 1928) who is likely my distant cousin.

Which would you rather include in a family history?

The feature articles in the February issue.

Who is Britain’s  greatest monarch
Twelve historians tell us who they believe to be the most influential king or queen of the past thousand years.

A national institution
In the second part of our series on the BBC’s history, David Hendy traces the corporation’s journey from happy-go-lucky upstart to national institution.

The Nazis’ Soviet nemesis
Richard J Evans chronicles the German invasion of the Soviet Union, a titanic clash that cost Hitler the war.

Resisting the Romans
Miles Russell on the British tribe that decided that the best way to deal with Rome’s legions was to ignore them.

Detecting the dead
Fiona Snailham and Anna Maria Barry explore Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s obsession with the supernatural.

Lore of the land
From King Arthur to Harry Potter, folklore continues to define British idenüty, argues Francis Young.

A unique Caribbean voice
Stephen Bourne introduces Alfred Fagon, a writer who helped transform black British theatre in the 1970s and 80s.

A book review of George V: Never a Dull Moment, by Jane Ridley, echos his nomination as one of the greatest British monachs.

This photo posted on Twitter shows the memorial at Reading Cemetery to H. G. L. Smith, with the word (SLOPE) beneath the name and the inscription “Sergt Maj Princess Patricia Canadian LI. Died at Boulogne. France. Feb 2ND 1915 of wounds received in action. And laid at rest here, Aged 36. “For Honour and the Empire.”

The tweet pointed out it’s one of the rare cases of being repatriated after death. This is not a situation of the body being spirited away by the family contrary to regulations. The British government’s prohibition on exhumation and repatriation of soldiers remains only came into force the next month, March 1915.

Henry George Leslie Smith has a service file at Library and Archives Canada . He was born in London, England, worked for CN, had served in the South African War, and was medically examined in Ottawa on enlistment. His next of kin was his mother, Sarah Brown, a resident of Reading.

The word SLOPE beneath his name is a mystery. Any thoughts?

While Smith was legitimately returned from France other remains were repatriated without permission, and not just across the English Channel. According to Ottawa Citizen writer Brian Deachman, 65 war dead from Europe returned to Canada contrary to the policy of burying the dead nearby where they fell.

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

Friends of Friendless Churches

FHF Really Useful Podcast on social media

How to find out about your seafaring Dorset ancestors

Under the Influence: Long Overdue: The Creative Boom of Library Marketing
The long-running Under the Influence program is a personal favourite on CBC radio. Skip past the ads and intro to 2:00.

‘In the name of God, go’

Thanks to this week’s contributors. Anonymous, Beverly A. Craig, Brenda Turner, Glenn Wright, Ken McLeod, Nancy Frey, Unknown.