New presenters Gus Casely-Hayford and Natalie Haynes join team members old and new to investigate an Iron Age settlement in Cornwall with mysterious underground passages, known as a fogou. Suspend judgement.
New presenters Gus Casely-Hayford and Natalie Haynes join team members old and new to investigate an Iron Age settlement in Cornwall with mysterious underground passages, known as a fogou. Suspend judgement.
Of Library and Archives Canada’s Co-Lab Challenges progress is reported on two projects since last month.
Women in the War remains 0% complete.
First World War Posters, with 140 images, is 99% complete, 96% last month.
Arthur Lismer’s Children’s Art Classes remains 0% complete.
John Freemont Smith remains 93% complete.
Canadian National Land Settlement Association remains 98% complete.
Molly Lamb Bobak with 226 images, is 89% complete, 88% last month.
Diary of François-Hyacinthe Séguin remains 99% complete.
George Mully: moments in Indigenous communities remains 0% complete.
Correspondence regarding First Nations veterans returning after the First World War remains 99% complete.
Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 remains 96% complete.
Legendary Train Robber and Prison Escapee Bill Miner remains 99% complete.
Japanese-Canadians: Second World War, remains 3% complete.
The Call to Duty: Canada’s Nursing Sisters remains 92% complete.
Projects that remain 100% complete are no longer reported here.
Other unidentified Co-Lab activities not part of the Challenges may have happened.
Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.
What do the British call their grandparents?
Canadian Research Knowledge Network
As of 1 April CKRN, including Canadiana, are consolidating operations in space at 395 Wellington Street. “Since March 2020, most CRKN staff have been successfully working remotely. Staff who do need to use office space to complete portions of their work, such as our digitization staff, typically use the equipment available at our Wellington St. office.”
Ukraine: Putin isn’t mad – he’s following a long-established great power playbook for conquest
London Trivia Questions
How many of these can you answer correctly? Answers next Sunday
1. What’s the title of the song by Coldplay with London in the title?
2. Which cemetery was also known as The London Necropolis?
3. What work did a resurrection man do?
4. Which cemetery was across the road from the London Metropolitan Archives
5. Which railway station had a platform dedicated for funeral trains? What was it used for in more recent years?
6. True or false? From 1760 to 1777 under George the Third it was illegal to transport a dead body across London Bridge.
7. Which London park has a pet cemetery?
8. Which notorious burial site was close to St Catherine’s House and the LSE?
Enon Chapel.
9. What was the Metropolitan Sepulchre?
10. True or false. The underground deviated from straight lines to avoid plague pits?
Support #History for Ukraine
Thanks to this week’s contributors. Ann Burns, Anonymous, Brenda Turner, Don Ross, Elizabeth Vincent, Gail Dever, Glenn Wright, Gloria Tubman, Jean A Paterson, Karen Prytula, Nancy Frey, Patti Mordasewicz, Paul Marsden, Phyllis Chapman, Rob Bennie, Timothy Dubé, Unknown.
This update has 128 additions since May 2020, now totalling 565,481 burials. At the last update the additions were from the latest period.
The bar chart shows the distribution in +/-5 year blocks. The decline since the 1870s likely reflects those not choosing a Church of England burial as well as the unavailability of registers currently in use.

A shoutout for this UK initiative.
History For Ukraine is like Live Aid for history lovers. There’s a stellar line-up of leading historians and genealogists from all over the world, and over 24 hours, they’ll be live-streaming their talks for your entertainment.
There’s no charge to watch, and throughout the live stream, we’ll be inviting you to donate to our JustGiving page, with all funds being passed to the British Red Cross Society’s DEC Ukrainian Humanitarian Appeal.
If you prefer to donate to a Canadian charity go to https://www.redcross.ca/
You get a history fix, AND the opportunity to do something positive for the people of Ukraine.
The 24-hour history marathon will be delivered by some of the world’s biggest names in history and genealogy. Show your appreciation of the speakers by donating what you can.
UPDATE
Today’s (Saturday) Globe and Mail includes an article by Bill Waiser on The Legacy of Ukrainians in Canada. He mentions descendants of pre-WW1 immigrants, Ray Hnatyahyn and Roy Romanow, as prominent contributors to Canada and that “the next wave of Ukrainian immigrants is coming … we must do all we can to ensure they find here the same opportunities to enable them to make … contributions.”
Now announced, the program for Ontario Ancestors (OGS) Virtual Conference 2022, beginning on Friday 24 June with MyHeritage Day. It will require a separate registration. The Friday evening opening session promises “a first of its kind.”
The program on Saturday and Sunday will offer a total of 28 presentations of 14 sessions each day over two streams. Attendees will have access to recorded sessions until 31 July 2022.
I’m pleased to be among the presenters and looking forward to informative, interesting and inspiring presentations, most new to me. One that I’ve heard before I would highly recommend to anyone is Kyla Ubbink’s talk Canadian Wildflowers: A tale of pioneering women.
Registration opens on 1 April.
Waterford County Burial Records 1850-1950
Records from three burial grounds – St. Carthage’s (Lismore), St. Declan’s (Ardmore), and St. Otteran’s (Waterford) with over 17,000 transcript records have an exclusive index from Findmypast. The information varies between records, but you may be able to discover death date, burial date, age, and more.
Unindexed burial records for these, and for St. Patrick’s (Tramore) and St. Mary’s (Butlerstown) are here where you’ll also find Funeral Books from
Thompson Funeral Directors in Waterford for 1874 to 1918.
The Waterford City and County website also provides various other useful resources such as pdf archives of the Dungarvan Leader, Dungarvan Observer, Waterford Chronicle, Waterford Mail and Waterford News at https://www.waterfordcouncil.ie/departments/library/local-newspapers.htm
Views of Ireland
Find 117 colourized photos and illustrations, from 12 counties in the 19th century in this free-to-view collection. There is no location information other than the county.
Is there something of interest for your research in the 27 digital microfilms newly posted on Canadiana Héritage so far this month? They go back to the French Colonial period and as recently as the 1960s.
I was pleased to see the addition of the Directorate of Movements 1943 file, microfilm C-5622. There’s information on many Eastbound voyages from May to September 1943. Although there are often military personnel passenger manifests the image quality can leave much to be desired The voyages included may be found by searching at LAC’s Collection Search using the search term “C-5622”. You do need to include the quotes. There is still the question of finding them on the microfilm, I was unable to identify any logical order!
| Title | Publication Date | Identifier | URL |
|---|---|---|---|
| Central registry subject files created by the Dominion Lands Branch | 1885-1934 | T-12448 | https://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_reel_t12448/1?r=0&s=1 |
| Department of Canadian Heritage, Canadian Parks Service : Park/subject classification system | 1953-1966 | T-14245 | https://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_reel_t14245/1?r=0&s=1 |
| Department of Canadian Heritage, Canadian Parks Service : Park/subject classification system | 1939 -1962 | T-14240 | https://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_reel_t14240/1?r=0&s=1 |
| Department of Indian Affairs, Headquarters central registry system : First series | 1918-1957 | C-8523 | https://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_reel_c8523/1?r=0&s=1 |
| Department of Indian Affairs, Headquarters central registry system : thousand series | 1872-1947 | C-11550 | https://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_reel_c11550/1?r=0&s=1 |
| Directorate of Movements | 1943 | C-5622 | https://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_reel_c5622/3?r=0&s=1 |
| Dominion Lands Branch registry | 1875-1919 | T-12508 | https://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_reel_t12508/1?r=0&s=1 |
| Dominion Lands Branch registry | 1880-1957 | T-12543 | https://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_reel_t12543/1?r=0&s=1 |
| Dominion Lands Branch registry | 1892-1950 | T-12624 | https://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_reel_t12624/1?r=0&s=1 |
| Dominion Lands Branch registry | 1886-1939 | T-14452 | https://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_reel_t14452/1?r=0&s=1 |
| Indian and Inuit Affairs Program : Modified duplex numeric system | 1889-1950 | C-9486 | https://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_reel_c9486/1?r=0&s=1 |
| Land petitions and related records of the Executive Council | 1792-1841 | C-2535 | https://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_reel_c2535/1?r=0&s=1 |
| Land petitions and related records of the Executive Council | 1792-1841 | C-2547 | https://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_reel_c2547/1?r=0&s=1 |
| Land submissions to the Executive Council | 1709-1917 | C-2217 | https://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_reel_c2217/1?r=0&s=1 |
| McGinnis Family fonds | 1733-1862 | H-2938 | https://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_reel_h2938/1?r=0&s=1 |
| Militia and Defence : Nominal rolls and paylists for the Volunteer Militia | 1872-1914 | T-16773 | https://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_reel_t16773/1?r=0&s=1 |
| Parish registers : Quebec | 1721-1783 | C-1472 | https://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_reel_c1472/1?r=0&s=1 |
| Privy Council Office, Orders in Council : Minutes, annexes and reports | 1952 | T-5244 | https://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_reel_t5244/1?r=0&s=1 |
| Western land grants | 1911-1912 | C-6312 | https://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_reel_c6312/1?r=0&s=1 |
| Western land grants | 1911 | C-6314 | https://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_reel_c6314/1?r=0&s=1 |
| Western land grants | 1917 | C-6518 | https://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_reel_c6518/1?r=0&s=1 |
| Western land grants | 1918-1919 | C-6566 | https://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_reel_c6566/1?r=0&s=1 |
| Western land grants | 1920 | C-6629 | https://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_reel_c6629/1?r=0&s=1 |
| Western land grants | 1923 | C-6697 | https://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_reel_c6697/1?r=0&s=1 |
| Western land grants | 1928 | C-6740 | https://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_reel_c6740/1?r=0&s=1 |
| Western land grants | 1929 | C-6751 | https://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_reel_c6751/1?r=0&s=1 |
| Western land grants | 1930 | C-6763 | https://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_reel_c6763/1?r=0&s=1 |
In my email on Wednesday came information from two researchers.
One reported ordering a volume of open records from a Prime Minister’s papers from Library and Archives Canada and being told they would not be available for 7 months.
The other ordered three volumes for First World War research. The next day came information that all three volumes are not available until the third week of October 2022 because records are being moved from one preservation centre to another.
Why such a long dark period? I’m told the last time a major move was made records were not available for 2 weeks.
Did LAC consider those, like graduate students needing to complete a thesis and without the luxury of waiting around for 7 months at the convenience of LAC? Why would LAC not even give notice prominently on the website of the prolonged unavailability of material?
If you are faced with this denial of timely access to legitimate requests for public records I suggest filing a formal Access to Information application with LAC. It will cost you $5. By law, you should receive the information requested in 30 days. Extensions are permitted for cause, but one can appeal to the Information Commissioner who would likely hold that such an extended delay is unreasonable given that it’s due to the way LAC chooses to manage the move.
The last and now Emeritus Librarian and Archivist of Canada Guy Berthiaume was quoted as saying that “preservation without access is simply hoarding.”
To reflect reality, will the organization change its name to Hoarding Canada?
For St Patrick’s Day, a cornucopia of lectures about Irish history, the famine, well-known historical figures, etc.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=trasna+na+tire+lectures+
Be aware, there are lots of ads inserted.
Find out why you might here.
That’s from IrishCentral where you can also read
The ODW Newsletter, just out, profiles these activities which should help the family historian if successful.
NHDS Strategic Planning Underway
The National Heritage Digitization Strategy is undertaking a series of broad-scale consultations as part of a strategic planning process, with a report due in the summer of 2022. Some key themes/takeaways so far:
LAM Community Newspapers Working Group
The Ontario LAM Community Newspapers Working Group is comprised of members from the Archives Association of Ontario (AAO), the Archives of Ontario (AO), the Ontario Library Association (OLA), the Ontario Genealogical Society (OGS), OurDigitalWorld organization (ODW), Toronto Public Library (TPL), and Library and Archives Canada (LAC). Formed in response to the mass closure of newspapers that occurred in late 2017, the group’s aim is to work together amongst the Library, Archives and Museum (LAM) community in Ontario to ensure the preservation and access of community news content as part of the historical record. Please feel free to get in touch with us about our work, and/or to share any news or concerns you may have about community newspapers by sending an email to: CommunityNewspapersON@gmail.com
Comment: Both these activities barely register on my radar screen. Did I miss something from OGS on the newspapers working group which appears to have no web presence?
You can subscribe to the ODW Quarterly Newsletter at https://ourdigitalworld.us4.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=a44e6c427dcc76c98e2bd623c&id=f366343f27