Anglo-Celtic Connections

I was surprised the other day to discover, via a post referencing Lisa Louise Cooke, that the Google collection of historic newspapers isn’t as non-searchable as I’d thought. Here’s how to do it.

Go to https://books.google.ca/ enter the search term and hit return or the search magnifying glass. Then on the Any document drop-down select Newspapers. Click on the Any time drop-down to refine the date range.

Add additional terms to the search, like the place of interest, to further refine the results. There seems to be no way to identify at the site which newspapers are included. A sample search for the WW2 period found articles in Canadian papers The Ottawa Citizen, Montreal Gazette, Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, Toronto Daily Star, Calgary Herald, Maple Leaf, Windsor Daily Star, Regina Leader-Post, Edmonton Journal, Shawinigan Standard, St. Maurice Valley Chronicle, Sherbrooke Telegram, and Canadian Register.

There are also US and Australian newspapers. Likely the papers available are those listed by The Ancestor Hunt at https://theancestorhunt.com/newspaper-research-links.html, scroll down to Canada>Links by Province, select the province and then scroll down to Google News Archive. The same collection is available to MyHeritage subscribers.

Also new in newspapers is that Findmypast no longer provides access to Canadian or US newspapers. FMP does continue to add to the British newspaper collection, the latest being the Daily News (London) for 1846-1923, 1925, 1927, 1939. Newspapers.com continues to add US newspapers.

I’ve been looking forward to the BIFHSGO conference talks on 25 September.  Now I find the Register of Qualified Genealogists are streaming a free Conference: Genealogy and Social History: Know your Ancestors on the same day. Here’s the programme (pdf). Register at https://www.qualifiedgenealogists.org/2021-conference

Fortunately, the time difference works in our favour.  The opening presentation for RQG, What genealogists and social historians can learn from each other, by Caroline Gurney starts at 5 am ET.  Chris Paton’s talk Church and State: Ireland’s Vital Records starts at noon ET. By that time the final RQG presentation, one I’d particularly like to attend, Lying Bastards: the impact of illegitimacy on family history research, by Dave Annal, will be about halfway through.

From 20 September to 10 October, is a programme of 70+ free events, both online and in-person, organised by Dublin City Libraries, in partnership with the Dublin City Council Culture Company.

There’s too much to list here. Some of the events early in the festival are:

20 September, 7:00 pm: Wartime Work Opportunities for Irish Women, by Mary Muldowney

21 September, 6;30 pm All Quiet on the Southern Front, by Cathy Scuffil

22 September, 6 pm: Safe Haven: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies and the WWII Immigrants That Helped Shape It, by Gisela Holfter.

23 September, 6 pm:  I Live a New Life: Frederick Douglass in Ireland, by Cecelia Hartsell

ALSO

22nd Medieval Dublin Symposium
September 24 @ 2:00 pm – September 25 @ 1:00 pm

Find everything that’s available FREE at https://dublinfestivalofhistory.ie/events

Each month the Commonwealth War Graves Commission issues an appeal for next of kin for soldiers they commemorate. The September list,  which has 70 names, includes two who served with the Canadian Forces.

Driver W. G. Plumb (453108) died 21 January 1920. He was with the Canadian Army Service Corps and is interred at Camberwell Old Cemetery. It is now possible to mark the gravesite; a gravestone is being produced.

According to his attestation paper, William George Plumb was born in London on 13 November 1887 and enlisted in Niagara. It appears he chose to remain in England after the war. No cause of death is on his military file.

Private George Taylor (202042) is buried at Horningblow (St John) Churchyard. A memorial is being installed as the exact burial place cannot be located.

According to his service file, he was born in Burton on Trent on 29 July 1894 and enlisted in Toronto. His widow remarried to become Mrs Minnie Ager of 100 Sutherland Drive, Leaside, ON. He had a sister Alice living at 337 Symington Ave., Toronto. He was discharged with Tuberculosis. According to his military file, he died on 23 March 1921.

If you are related to one of the above casualties or can identify someone who is, and can provide CWGC with the documentation, please contact the Enquiries Team.

The (surprisingly) modern Middle Ages. From climate change to pandemics, Dan Jones looks at the issues that preoccupied our medieval ancestors and keep us awake at night today. Climate change, migration, populism and protest, globalization, technology.

What is history in 2021?
Suzannah Lipscomb and Helen Carr consider how we should tell the story of the past in the 21st century.

Royals in the trenches.
The British royal family emerged from the First World War stronger than ever. Heather Jones explains why.

The radical Wedgwood
Tristram Hunt reveals how an English potter embedded activism into his celebrated earthenware.

Romancing the Tudors
Sarah Gristwood chronicles how Henry VIll and Elizabeth I used courtly love to further their agendas,

In the shadow of 9/11
David Reynolds (emeritus professor of international history at Cambridge University) asks if the events of 11 September 2001 really were a turning point in world history.

“How will 9/11 be regarded at the 50th anniversary in 2051? Will it be seen as having led America, fatally, to ignore the resurgenceof China? Or as exacerbating the toxic cocktail of the Middle East, with its unresolved problems going back to the fall of the Ottoman empire in 1918? Perhaps, by 2051, 9/11 will seem far less important than Covid 19 – the onset of an era of zoonotic diseases, passing from animals to humans, which affected daily life across the world much more profoundly?Or maybe, by mid-century, the climate emergencywill dwarf all other issues, and our grandchil dren will point to a crucial tipping point in climate change that this generation failed to address. I’d put my money on climate, not Covid or China.”

The future for the past
Four historians discuss the issues shaping the study of history in universities, from Covid-19 to calls to decolonise the curriculum.

Some of these items are on the History Extra podcast.

Choose from free online events in the next six 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 6 Sept, 2 pm: Virtual Genealogy Drop-In, from Ottawa Branch of OGS and The Ottawa Public Library.
https://ottawa.ogs.on.ca/events/.

Tuesday 6 Sept, 2:30 pm: History at Your Fingertips: A Guide to Hoosier State Chronicles and Indiana Memory, by Justin Clark for Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center.
Register here.

Tuesday 7 Sept, 7 pm: I Just Can’t Get Enough of Eastern Europe, by Eva Kujawa​ for Durham Branch OGS
https://easterneurope.ogs.on.ca/events/cant-get-enough-of-eastern-europe/

Wednesday 8 Sept. 7:15 pm: Mixing DNA with a Paper Trail, by Penny Walters​  for York Branch OGS.
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYkc–tqTstG9G1d5LmX4hia49Ep9oPlnl4

Wednesday 8 Sept, 8 pm: Tracing Your 20th Century English Ancestors, by Paul Milner for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/tracing-your-20th-century-english-ancestors/

Thursday 9 Sept, 6:30 pm: Moving Beyond Hit or Miss Genealogy to a Genealogical Plan, by Pat Stamm for Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center.
Register here.

Friday 10 September, 10 am:  Webtember presentations from Legacy Family Tree Webinars. See the full program at https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar_details.php?webinar_id=1785

Friday 10 Sept, 7 pm: That Bubblin’ Crude: Early Oil in Kent County, by Deanna Bullard for Kent Branch OGS
https://kent.ogs.on.ca/events/zone-township/

​Saturday 11 Sept, 9:30 am: Launch and Tour of BIFHSGO’s New Website, by Sheila Dohoo Faure for BIFHSGO.
www.bifhsgo.ca

Saturday 11 Sept, 10 am: The Paulin(e) Family Reunion: Taking Family Research to the Family, by Gilliam Leech for BIFHSGO.
www.bifhsgo.ca

Saturday 11 Sept, 10 am:  Cross-Border Cousins: Tip-toe Through Canadian Records, by Steve Fulton​ for London Middlesex Branch OGS
https://londonmiddlesex.ogs.on.ca/events/cross-border-cousins-tip-toe-through-canadian-records/

Saturday 11 Sept. 11 am: Victoria County Histories, by Caroline Gurney for International Society for British Genealogy and Family History
https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Qn-qL_vORWqxt27beRTIgw

Saturday 11 Sept, 1 pm: Dr. William Arthur Rupert Michell (1879-1966), by Karen Prytula for Ottawa Branch OGS 
https://ottawa.ogs.on.ca/events/seasons-in-the-wind-tales-of-lanark-county-and-a-new-day-dawning/

Sunday 12 Sept. 2 pm:  Finding your Female Ancestors in Upper Canada, by Linda Corupe​ for Halton-Peel Branch OGS

Coming

19 – 26 September 2021: BIFHSGO Conference. Irish Lines and Female Finds: Exploring Irish records, female ancestors and genetic genealogy. www.bifhsgo2021.ca/.

 

Many British men were in Canada during WW2 with the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP). Inevitably romance occurred, often marriage.

In July 1944 a train travelled from British Columbia collecting Canadian wives and children of British servicemen. After four nights in Montreal, they continued to New York, boarded the Union-Castle line “Athlone Castle” in convoy to Londonderry, onward to Liverpool arriving on Wednesday 23 August. The voyage had 2 couples, 7 unaccompanied men, 562 unaccompanied women, 265 children and infants.

The passenger list is archived at TNA; Board of Trade: Commercial and Statistical Department and successors: Inwards Passenger Lists.; Class: BT26; Piece: 1206. It’s available indexed with links to the original list image on Ancestry.

Newspaper research identifies other voyages in January 1944, November 1944, and December 1945. There were likely others.

Next Monday I expect to post on marriages to airmen from other countries.

 

Two talks live on Facebook for The Western Front Association, by Tim Cook and Bill Stewart, on Monday 27 September at 3 pm ET.

In the first presentation, Bill Stewart will bring us ‘Tubes, Typewriters, Trucks and Training 1918: The Canadian Corps’ Advantages’. Bill will examine the multiple ways in which the Canadian Corps differed from BEF formations in 1918. Some of these advantages are well understood, some are misunderstood, and some are completely missed. He will examine all these categories but will focus on the misunderstood and missed items and how they were of benefit to the Corps’ performance.

In the second presentation, Tim Cook will bring us ‘The Forgotten Liberations: The Canadian Corps in 1918’. Tim will present his new research on the Canadian liberation of French and Belgian civilians in the Hundred Days campaign. Unlike the great attention paid to the liberations in the Second World War, there is little to no discussion of these similar liberations in the First World War by Canadian soldiers. He will describe these forgotten operations and why it is important to remember them.

On Thursday MyHeritage added census transcriptions for Scotland to its collection.

The information available varies between the censuses. The source for these transcriptions is not given.

Census Year	Entries
1901	4,437,453
1891	4,015,584
1881	3,716,329
1871	3,349,107
1861	3,006,924
1851	2,912,392

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

Google Earth Timelapse
See how the landscape has changed since 1984.

Monday, 6 September, 7 pm.  Genetic Genealogy: DNA Testing Tools & Tips, by Ben Dawson​ for Leeds and GrenvilleBranch OGS.
https://leedsandgrenville.ogs.on.ca/events/leeds-grenville-branch-presentation-genetic-genealogy-dna-testing-tools-tips/

Scottish vs Irish Kilts: What’s the difference

Ancestry updates Surrey, England, Regimental Rolls and Recruitment Registers, 1914-1947, to 199,655 records.

London after the Fire, also, The Great Fire of London and the Privy Council

Der Klang der Offenbarung des Göttlichen
Relax for a few minutes. You could try playing it (several times) while working on the jogsaw
Jigsaw: City of London

Thanks to this week’s contributors. Ann Burns, Anonymous, Chuck Buckley, Ed Chadwick, Gail B, Gail R, Gary Barton, GeniAus, Glenn Wright, Judith H, KAYTHEGARDENER, Ken M, Nancy Cutway, Nancy Frey, Nancy Trimble, Patricia Abels, Teresa

Just released, 52,429 records for the Borough of Ealing in the west of London for the period just prior to the First World War. This area consists of the seven major towns of Acton, Ealing, Greenford, Hanwell, Northolt, Perivale and Southall as well as the area of Hayes, Norwood and part of Hammersmith. The records give details of houses and other buildings.

Use these land tax records, in conjunction with the census, street directories etc to build a picture of the environment. You can:

● Search for a person by name
● Search by county, parish and street
● Discover descriptions and values of the houses occupied by an ancestor
● Zoom down on the map to show the individual properties as they were in the 1910s
● Use the controls to reveal a modern street map or satellite view underlay

Find out more about The Lloyd George Domesday Survey.

A new website for the British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa will be launched next week. The address will be the same, www.bifhsgo.ca so there may be a few days during which you will not be able to access either site while the transfer takes place. If you need to consult it while in transition there’s an Internet Archives Wayback Machine recent capture.

On Saturday, 11 September at 9:30 a.m., there will be an introduction to the new website before the Feature Talk at the monthly meeting. Register. Instructions for accessing the Members’ Area will be sent to members shortly after that meeting.

Also on the 11th Gilliam Leach will present The Paulin(e) Family Reunion: Taking Family Research to the Family at the Society monthly meeting.

Before that, for those of us in the BIFHSGO London SIG, the meeting is on Wednesday 8 September. That’s also the date for the British Colonial America Group.

Starting on 19 September is BIFHSGO’s 26th Annual Conference on the theme Irish Lines and Female Finds: exploring Irish records, female ancestors and genetic genealogy. There will be 15 online sessions over 8 days between 19 and 26 September 2021. Find out more at www.bifhsgo2021.ca