Anglo-Celtic Connections

Previously “Know Your Place” was an admonition to someone to respect their usually lower status in the British social hierarchy.

Today you only expect to hear it in that context on “Upstairs-Downstairs.”

These days Know Your Place is a British digital heritage mapping resource. It gives “online access to a range of historic data, but more importantly provides a place where users can add information about your local area, building a rich and diverse community map of local heritage for everyone. It’s free to use and anyone can add to the map.”

Started in Bristol, Know Your Place expanded to the West of England where it now “spans eight counties and 7279 square miles, with other counties around the UK interested in putting their areas on the map in future.” The latest, just starting online, is Worcester.

Check it out for insights into the area where your ancestors lived.

Back on 5 September 2019, on the old blog site, I posted More digital promised at LAC.

Here’s the text.

“Here’s how Librarian and Archivist of Canada Leslie Weir responded to the question “What is your primary aim as Librarian and Archivist of Canada during your four-year term?”

My primary aim is to raise the profile of Library and Archives Canada through enhanced digital presence, responsive services and public programming, and engagement with the public in our new buildings and spaces.

It will be interesting to see what “enhanced digital presence” means. Is it more exhibit type social media — Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, etc? Hopefully, it’s more than that. In the LAC 3-year plan published in May a goal was “We will increase access to our collection and expand opportunities for the public to enhance LAC’s holdings.” LAC clients will look forward to news on how that will be accomplished with digitization at a pace above that already achieved.”

Now, 20 months in, how do you judge things are going? While the best-laid plans will suffer in an age of COVID the first of the above “enhanced digital presence” is something on which many peer organizations have continued to make progress.

If you’re reading this late at night and would like to sleep soundly you’d be well advised to stop—if you’re liable to have nightmares. Come back in the morning.

DIGGINGUP1800: DISSECTING THE CRIMINAL UNDERWORLD OF BRITAINS BODY SNATCHERS is a website by Suzie Lennox. To start she recommends two of her favourite posts Stealing a Cadaver and Making a Killing.

There’s also a YouTube video Raiders of the Grave: Macabre tales of Bodysnatchers & what churches did to stop them. The presentation starts at 17:10.

A post on the site Oakum Picking In A Victorian Prison is of relevance for my family history. I used an image from that, others could be too gruesome.

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. Assume registration in advance is required; check so you’re not disappointed.

Tuesday 27 April, 2 pm:  Virtual Genealogy Drop-In, from Ottawa Branch of OGS and The Ottawa Public Library. https://ottawa.ogs.on.ca/events/.

Tuesday 27 April, 2 pm: Recent updates to MyHeritage’s historical record search engine, by Dana Drutman for MyHeritage Webinars. https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar_details.php?webinar_id=1691

Tuesday 27 April, 2:30 pm: Preparing Your Family History for Publication:
A Writing Workshop, by M. Teresa Baer for Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center. https://acpl.libnet.info/event/5013512

Tuesday 27 April, 7 pm: The Family History Reno Project, by Bob Dawes for Wellington County Branch OGS. https://wellington.ogs.on.ca/events/wellington-county-branch-the-family-history-reno-project-with-bob-dawes/

Wednesday 28 April, 2 pm: 94% European and 6% Nigerian – Tracing My Missing Nigerian Ancestor, by Yetunde Moronke Abiola for Legacy Family Tree Webinars. https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar_details.php?webinar_id=1625

Thursday 29 April, 6:30 pm: The Nuts and Bolts of Publishing Your Family History, by M. Teresa Baer for Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center.
https://acpl.libnet.info/event/5010533

Saturday 1 May, 10 am: Sisters of St. Joseph Orphanage Records, by Mary Kosta for London and Middlesex Branch OGS. https://bit.ly/LMOA-May2021

LOOKING AHEAD

4 — 6 June 2021: OGS Conference. conference.ogs.on.ca 

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

Herbert Kitcheman was born in Bradford, Yorkshire on 30 November 1869. He was the son of Robert (John?) and Mary Ellen nee Limbert, but n the 1881 census was in the home of his uncle Edward and aunt Mary Kitcheman. Together they came to Ottawa in 1883.

He was in the Active Militia in Ottawa in 1886 and appears as a civil servant with the Ottawa Post Office as of 13 April 1889. Herbert Kitcheman married Harriet Wilson in Ottawa on 31 October 1892.

Continuing service as a letter carrier, he enlisted for service in South Africa with the Royal Canadian Field Artillery. Serving from December 1899 to January 1901 he received three clasps to his Queen’s Medal.

For the Great War, he enlisted with the 69th Battalion Canadian Forestry Corps, Service Number: 2157329. Serving in Canada, England and France he was injured when a tree fell on him and subsequently discharged as unfit.

Herbert Kitcheman died at Davisville Hospital in Toronto on 26 April 1921 of carcinoma of the neck and cardiac failure.  His remains are in Sec. 41. Lot 35. South part, at Beechwood Cemetery.

The table below shows the number of deaths of Canadians in the LAC Killed in Action database for the Second World War on days with more than 200 fatalities.
You don’t have to know military history well to recognize the first two dates and understand the clustering of most of the others.
Can you name any battles associated with the other dates? What do you know about the large numbers of fatalities on 23 May 1944? Why is 26 February 1945 the only winter month in the top ten?

Irish Central has news of this resource, the first tranche of which is coming soon.
“In January, staff at Tipperary County Council Library Service undertook an ambitious project to commence digitizing its Famine-related Minute Books from the Poor Law Unions in Borrisokane, Cashel, Clogheen, Clonmel, Nenagh, Roscrea, Thurles, and Tipperary.”

Tipperary Studies says: “After the initial launch in May, work will continue on the digitization of the remaining minute books, a work that will bring the record collection up into the early decades of the 20th century.”

Find out the details at https://www.irishcentral.com/news/tipperary-famine-era-records

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

Appropriately confusing

Do British websites use biscuits?

Success
In case you didn’t notice, following a blog post on the old site CWGC: Appeal for Relatives about T Bremner who served with the Canadian Field Artillery and died 20 April 1916, one person posted they were successful in finding relatives and informed them. Congratulations and thanks to “Unknown.”

Stephen Lewis is fighting for his life

Three New Reprints from OGS Ottawa Branch and Global Genealogy
Dalesville Public Cemetery, Chatham Township, Argenteuil County, Quebec
St. Mungo’s United Church Cemetery, Chatham Township, Argenteuil County, Quebec.
St. Matthew’s Anglican Church Cemetery – Grenville Village, Grenville Township, Argenteuil County, Quebec

Maps and the Canals
From the British Library via Documentary Heritage News

Ancestry has updated the New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957 title to contain 95,796,124 records.

In April 2021, Ontario is facing a large public information mess that is a self-inflicted wound rooted in political ineptness.
An opinion piece by Jack L. Rozdilsky, Associate Professor of Disaster and Emergency Management, York University, Canada

What’s Hidden Behind a Bitly Link?

Thanks to this week’s contributors: AC, Alison, Anonymous, Ed Chadwick, egailb, ELK, Gail Benjafield, glassgal, Glenn Wright, Sheila Faure, Susan Courage, Unknown.

British Army, Royal Engineers 1900-1949
The first phase of this new release, for surnames from A-H, has over 92,000 tracer cards, mostly from World War 2

FMP states “Tracer cards track a soldier’s movement within and between regiments. The records can reveal names, army numbers, dates of birth, and enlistment, all useful detail for fleshing out your family tree.”

However, FMP also states “Tracer cards can be hugely complex, and the information on them is usually in abbreviated format.”  There is a partial list of abbreviations linked which, although somewhat helpful, still left me scratching my head over undecipherable content.

British Army, Coldstream Guards 1800-1947
Browse page-by-page, through a range of different records to uncover details of those who served in this famous regiment. The collection includes:

Casualties 1939-1947
Courts Martials 1800-1815
Decorations and Rewards 1914-1918 and 1939-1948
Discharges 1884-1947
Enlistments 1884-1947
Missing in Action 1939-1945
Nominal Roll of 1st Battalion men serving in Sudan 1932-1933
Officers’ Record of Services 1861-1915
Shanghai Defence Force 1927-1928
South African Campaign 1899-1902
Succession Book of 2nd Battalion officers 1797-1926
Succession Book of Officers 1826-1936
Record of Campaigns 1854-1895

As well as browsing through the records in this addition, you can also pinpoint military ancestors in the searchable collection.

I’ve not examined this collection.

We all love stories. Toronto Branch of OGS is offering the opportunity to subscribe to “four extraordinary case studies, each with its own intriguing twists and turns. Our speakers will tell us about the roadblocks they faced, and the sources and techniques they used in their quests to separate fact from fiction.” They are:

Wednesday 16 June
Misbegotten, Misled, Mistaken
Lecturer: Paul Jones

Thursday 17 June
The Curious Case of Dr. Henry Head Gray
Lecturer: Jane MacNamara

Wednesday 23 June
FAKE News! Read all about it!
Lecturer: Guylaine Pétrin

Thursday 24 June
The 1815 Murder behind Toronto’s Oldest Ghost Story
Lecturer: Eamonn O’Keeffe

This series, organized by the Toronto Branch Education Committee, with Patricia Blackstock leading this particular initiative, looks like a good bet. I’ve subscribed.  Find out more and register here.

via the British Library.

An additional 95,000+ records are now accessible in the FMP version of the 1939 Register for England and Wales. These are usually batches of records unredacted as people pass their 100th birthday or their death is reported.

Interestingly, if you search the database for people born in 1921 there are 8,464,807 results. That’s almost ten times the number with births registered that year! It’s equally large for prior years. The total appears to include about 8 million records with no name or date of birth.

Find out more about the 1939 Register at https://www.findmypast.co.uk/1939register