Anglo-Celtic Connections

Browse over 10 million listings, 200,000 playable programmes (some not available outside the UK) and even early editions of Radio Times magazine at https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/.

If you grew up listening to the BBC this is a real nostalgia trip.

The collection has staff details from wage books, time books and insurance books. These are registers of those employed at the original site at which Jameson Irish Whiskey was distilled until 1971.

While Ancestry notes there are over 1 million records the information is scant. Names are often just surname and an initial, and sometimes just “Mr Smith.” You’ll find in which department J Smith worked, how much they were paid, insurance paid, etc. If you can identify your person you may be able to discern the period(s) they were employed.

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

Dead reckoning: Canada’s national cemetery is bringing truth about residential schools to light.

Something’s rotten in the state of the internet, and archivists are worried

Are advertisers coming for your dreams?

Amsterdam is laying down a model for what tourism should look like after COVID

How a Scottish graveyard in Kolkata revealed the untold stories of colonial women in India

TheGenealogist has added 24 million transcript records from the Census of Scotland 1841-1901. Already available on Ancestry, Findmypast and in part on FreeCEN and MyHeritage, they are transcripts, the images being available exclusively on ScotlandsPeople.

The Society of Genealogists announce the last day they will be open at their Charterhouse Buildings location is Saturday 17 July. The collection will be inaccessible and kept safe pending a move — location in London to be announced.  Digitization work with archive partners will continue.

Is the new feed working for you?
I’ve had one comment about an annoyance with the new feed of the daily update email now it’s switched to MailPoet. Let me know about your experience, positive or negative.

Thanks to this week’s contributors:  Anonymous, Brenda Maitland, Brenda Turner, Celia Lewis, Douglas Wallace, Gail B., Glenn Wright, Unknown.

Here’s a report on progress with Library and Archives Canada’s Co-Lab Challenges since last month.  No challenges report progress and two are less complete this month than last!

While other Co-Lab activity may have happened, the Challenges are a FAILURE this past month.

John Freemont Smith remains 89% complete.

War Diaries of the First World War: No. 2 Construction Battalion is 99% complete, 100% last month.

Canadian National Land Settlement Association remains 94% complete.

Molly Lamb Bobak remains 88% complete.

Diary of François-Hyacinthe Séguin remains 98% complete.

George Mully: moments in Indigenous communities remains 2% complete.

Correspondence regarding First Nations veterans returning after the First World War remains 99% complete.

Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 is 95% complete, 96% last month.

Legendary Train Robber and Prison Escapee Bill Miner remains 99% complete.

Japanese-Canadians: Second World War, remains 61% complete.

The Call to Duty: Canada’s Nursing Sisters remains 93% complete.

Projects that remain 100% complete are no longer reported here.

Sad to relay the news of the death of Father Edward J. R. Jackman, one of the prominent Jackman family of Toronto. A researcher and author, through his Foundation he made donations to a wide variety of non-profit organizations including in the history and heritage sector.  A notable example is the Petworth Emigration Project.

St. Michael’s Remembers Edward J. R. Jackman, OP (1940-2021)

 

There’s a reissue of a 51-page publication Four North Plantagenet Township Cemeteries, Prescott County, Ontario originally published in 1998 by Ottawa Branch OGS. 
This new reprint, published by Global Heritage Press, Ottawa, includes all the original content up until the original publication, for:

Glenburn Cemetery [previously Methodist]
George’s Lake United Cemetery [previously Methodist]
St Leon the Great Roman Catholic Cemetery
The Church of the Good Shepherd Anglican Cemetery (abandoned).

Find out more, order the book in hardcopy or as a downloadable pdf, and view the index for each cemetery at http://globalgenealogy.com/countries/canada/ontario/eastern-ontario/resources/otw-9808.htm

Over 800,000 additions to a collection of over 6.6 million records, means you’ve got more chances than ever of finding a criminal connection. The new records from series MEPO 6, PCOM 2, and PCOM 4 include mugshots, prison registers, visitors’ details and many victims of crime.

On Monday 28 June, at 6 pm, American Ancestors (the New England Historic Genealogical Society) is hosting a presentation in the American Inspiration author series.

Just before Canada Day, join us for a spirited evening featuring scholar Stephen Bown and his compelling narrative history of Canada’s famous Hudson’s Bay Company. Follow its rise from a small 1670 trading business backed by Royal Charter through its intersections as a political and economic force working with indigenous people as well as French, and American settlers on both sides of the 49th parallel and beyond. The Company became the single biggest political and economic force in North America, influencing the lives of people from Hudson’s Bay to the Pacific Ocean.

See Bown’s illustrated presentation and insights on this rich and peopled history; and his discussion of Canada, then and now, with fellow countryman Jeff Breithaupt.

Register at https://wgbh.zoom.us/webinar/register/4816208575540/WN_cu9cYcs9QD23CP3PJkHPPA

There are over 1 million index records, 1,037,567 according to the catalogue entry, in this newly available collection.

Taken from a 16-volume series, commonly known as the Casey Collection, it is a compilation of Irish genealogical and historical records from parts of counties Cork and Kerry — Roman Catholic, Church of Ireland, and Quaker birth, baptism, marriage, death, and burial records transcribed from parish and civil registers.

“You can search the database using the indexed fields or browse by volume. The information contained within this collection includes the following:

Name
Gender
Event type (birth, marriage, death, and burial)
Date range
Denomination
Event barony
Event county
Event parish
Birthdate
Event date
Marital status
Age at time of event
Death district
Father’s name
Mother’s name
Next of kin’s name
Relationship.

More genealogical and historical information can be found by viewing the images.”

For those who lead an impoverished life,  not being members of the British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa, here are the contents of the latest Anglo-Celtic Roots issue. The feature articles, in bold, continue with stories of war brides from the previous issue.

From the Editor.
From the President.
Ida Naylor Bancroft Cooke, War Bride (Brenda Turner).
Our Journey to Canada: Nancy (Nan) Archibald, née Chester, 1921–2021 (Nan Archibald and Margaret Amoroso).
A Tale of Three War Brides (Lynne Willoughby).
The Cream of the Crop (John D. Reid).
Membership Report (Ann Burns).

The present very generous practice is to make a pdf of the issue available to all after a year.

This is an especially rich Internet Genealogy issue for those of us who research in England.

The lead article Researching English Criminal Ancestors, by Australian Michelle Dennis, presents the evidence used to reveal the life and fate of her criminal ancestor. The five-page article is brimming with resources and links illustrated by the case of a relative, Mary Ann Stow, born in Greenwich in 1844. Canadians can only salivate at the mention of “the fabulously free on-line historical newspaper and record resource Trove, the National Library of Australia’s collection of online newspapers, gazettes, images, maps, diaries, letters and so much more at www.trove.nla.gov.au.”

Exploring City Directories Online in England and Wales, by Ed Storey covers how to use directories and supplemental material you might use. The focus is the University of Leicester special collection of directories that includes at least one directory from every county in England and Wales.

For the magazine’s US readers there are articles on Florida and North Carolina family history. David A. Norris looks at online sources for locating gravestone inscriptions for ancestors who served with the US military.

For us all my favourite regular contributor, Sue Lisk, looks at online collections of oral histories and why they can be valuable to family historians, and also online sites that help understand how general stores played a role in our ancestors’ lives. Sue includes Canadian content in both articles.

Another regular columnist, Tony Bandy, reviews MobileFamilyTree, available exclusively on iPhone and iPad devices utilizing iOS 11.4 and up.

A second article by David A. Norris, Deciphering Elusive Surnames, looks at coping with troublesome handwriting and smudged letters. That’s a nice complement to Dave Obee’s back page article on Perils of Deciphering Old Handwriting.

Find a snippet of the longer articles and subscribe at https://www.internet-genealogy.com/issue_contents.htm.