British Army, Royal Engineers 1900-1949
By adding over 130,000 more tracer card records this collection is now complete. Mostly for the Second World War, these tracer cards provide a headline summary of service through which a man’s movements can be tracked. They include the man’s first name/s, last name and army number, some have the date of enlistment and or date of birth, and other information in an abbreviated format. Find additional information on the contents at https://search.findmypast.com/search-world-records/british-army-royal-engineers-1900-1949

British Army Service Records
Over 6,000 new Chelsea Pensioners’ discharge documents added to the collection list the soldier’s name, birthplace, occupation, regiment, the reason for discharge, and more such as where served.  You may be able to trace life and career back to the 18th century.

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.

Friday 20 August, 2 pm: Early Ontario Research, by Janice Nickerson for Legacy Family Tree Webinars. https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar_details.php?webinar_id=1668

Saturday 21 August, 9 AM: One World One Family – FREE Virtual Family History Conference, by The Toronto Ontario Stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/one-world-one-family-free-virtual-family-history-conference-2021-tickets-161181093991

Coming

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

Between 1940 and 1944, LADY RODNEY made 40 westbound personnel voyages to Halifax, more than any other passenger vessel.  That’s a finding from extracting data on 328 voyages in files of Canada’s Directorate of Movements, the military organization that managed troop and other military transportation. According to the article The Lady Boats, by war’s end, Rodney had safely transported almost 60,000 troops in addition to another 66,000 passengers.

The Directorate of Movement files for the period, on LAC microfilms C-5704 to C-5717, are organized in roughly chronological order. Some are available in the canadiana.ca Heritage collection — C-5704 (Jan 1940 – June 1941), C-5709 (May-June 1943), C-5711 (August 1943 – Feb 1944), and C-5714 to C-5720 (from July 1944).

Ships in this collection that completed more than 10 westbound passenger voyages to Halifax during the period are:

LADY RODNEY 40
FORT TOWNSHEND 23
FORT AMHERST 20
LADY NELSON 18
BAYANO 10

It may be that the FORT TOWNSHEND and FORT AMHERST, which only appear from March 1943, were involved in coastal trade, not crossing the Atlantic.

Not all military personnel from the UK to Halifax were in ships in this database. For instance, the Duchess of Atholl, which left Liverpool for Halifax on 12 October 1940 had RAF, Fleet Air Arm, and Royal Navy personnel from barracks at Chatham, Portsmouth, Devonport

 

Compared to the giants of commercial genealogy, Ancestry, Findmypast and MyHeritage, TheGenealogist takes the road less travelled.

What’s exclusive to TheGenealogist? National Tithe Map Collection, 1910 (Lloyd George) Survey and, a Map Explorer.

Tithe records allow researchers to find land that was both owned or occupied by ancestors in the period 1837 to 1850s with some additional, altered apportionments in later years when the property was sold or divided. It was not just the wealthy landowners who are recorded in the tithe records but also those tenants who may have farmed a small plot or lived in a cottage.

A recent addition to Map Explore is Tithe Maps for Cornwall, Derbyshire, Northamptonshire and Worcestershire. There are over half a million new Tithe Plots.

 

From the City of Westminster Archives, 16,818 index records for Westminster wills and probates with links to images of the originals handwritten in Latin, later ones in English. There are also modern cards, often referring to inventories, with scant information beyond name and date.

The bar chart shows the number of records in 20 year periods centred on the date shown. The gap at 1650 reflects the drop during the Cromwell Protectorate. Only 23 entries are for the 1650s with none for 1653 and 1654.

Today is the 80th anniversary of the death of Leading Aircraftman Harry William Long of the Royal Australian Air Force. He was training at No.2 Service Flying Training School, at CFB Uplands, Ottawa.

The circumstances are given in the RAAFA Aviation Heritage Museum.

“On 15 August 1941, Harvard 2689 flown by Leading Aircraftman Long was detailed to carry out a solo night training flight. At about 0230 hours, the Instructor in charge of night flying noticed lights of an aircraft that appeared to be flying against the circuit, gliding along at a height of about 100 feet some two miles away. It disappeared and instructions were given for all aircraft flying at that time to be grounded. It was then found that Harvard 2689 with Long as Pilot was missing and searches were commenced. The wreck of the aircraft was found 5 km from the aerodrome. The pilot was seriously injured and subsequently died.”

Harry William Long was the son of Arthur Henry and Brenda Mary Long, of Balgowlah, New South Wales, Australia. By a bizarre coincidence, he was engaged to Jean Frances Lord— the only other Australian airman killed flying out of that Flying Training School had last name Lord.

He is interred at Beechwood Cemetery in Section 29, Lot 1, Grave 111.

There’s a YouTube video on the history of CFB Uplands at https://youtu.be/gIEeJc4qia4

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

Neo-Luddism
… data must be reclaimed from corporate gatekeepers and managed as a collective good by public institutions.
When I read this I recalled the massive amount of personal data held by Google, Facebook and others, far more than collected in traditional BMD and census resources of the government. Why is that data not being archived and, eventually, released for historical and family history research?

Tales from the Parish Chest: bastardy in early modern north-Essex

Sir Walter Scott
Today marks the 250th anniversary of the birth of Sir Walter Scott, one of Scotland’s most famous authors. Read the blog post from the National Library of Scotland.

How the Argyll papers can support your family history research

Plagues and classical history – what the humanities will tell us about COVID in years to come

Why eye-catching graphics are vital for getting to grips with climate change

Tortured phrases’ give away fabricated research papers

Thanks to this week’s contributors: Anonymous,
Dena Palamedes, Nick Thorne, Unknown.

TNA’s online events tend to fill up fast. On Tuesday 24 Aug 2021 at 9 am ET Tracing your criminal ancestors will give an overview of the criminal records The National Archives holds and how to search them.

“From trial and conviction to imprisonment and pardon, in just 30 minutes we’ll show how 19th and early 20th century criminal records can be used to build a fuller picture of your ancestor’s life.

This webinar will be presented by Chris Day, Head of Modern Domestic Records.”

Register from https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/top-level-tips-tracing-your-criminal-ancestors-tickets-161774555049?aff=em

BIFHSGO members have received an email “Changes to BIFHSGO membership  fees.” Like most organizations, commercial or community, BIFHSGO doesn’t like to say outright that fees are increasing. The way around it is to use the word change instead. Or in this case, maybe not — depending on your choices. Let’s unravel the knot!

The way it’s explained to me if you opt to receive the society quarterly chronicle Anglo-Celtic Roots electronically your individual membership fee for 2022 will remain $50 — no change (or increase.)

If you want a paper copy mailed the annual individual fee for 2022 will increase from $50 to $60.

The increase will not totally cover the cost of printing and mailing.

There are also changes to the cost of BIFHSGO family memberships.

How does that compare? A basic OGS membership is $63 plus fees for any branches or special interest groups, with no mailed journal.

Here’s a rundown of 2021 society membership fees across Canada

Global Genealogy has reprinted two Ottawa Branch publications that have been long out of print.

The Casselman Cemeteries, Cambridge Township, Russell County, Ontario, Canada
Originally published by Ottawa Branch, Ontario Genealogical Society, 1996, this book includes complete information transcribed from the memorial stones located in three cemeteries, plus the Casselman Family Memorial Stone and the Casselman War Memorial monument in Casselman, Cambridge Township, Russell County, Ontario. The Ste. Euphemie Roman Catholic Cemetery has the most recorded burials by far. This book includes transcriptions of memorial stones for burials earlier than 1997. Transcriptions were completed in 1995 and 1996.

St. Jacques Roman Catholic Cemetery, Embrun, Russell Township, Russell County, Ontario
Originally published by Ottawa Branch, Ontario Genealogical Society, 1982, the St. Jacques Roman Catholic Cemetery is located on Concession 8, Lot 8 in Russell Township, Russell County, Ontario. It is 0.5 miles east of the centre of Embrun Village on County Road No.3, which runs east and west dividing the cemetery into the North portion and the South portion. The north and south sections of the cemetery are recorded in this book separately, with two separate indexes that are located at the end of each section.

Rick Roberts informs that about half of the Ottawa Branch’s nearly 300 publications have been republished. They tend to reprint on demand.

This week sees over 43,000 baptism and burial transcription records from several Essex churches added at Findmypast. They are all on the east side of the River Lea, now in the London Borough of Waltham Forest and obtained from the Waltham Forest Family History Society.

Baptism records from:

Leytonstone, Holy Trinity, 1825-1907
Waltham Abbey, Waltham Abbey & Leyton Wesleyan Circuit, 1803-1837
Walthamstow, Marsh Street Congregational Church, 1787-1837
Walthamstow, St Peter-in-the-Forest, 1844-1916

Burial records from:

Chingford, St Peter & St Paul, 1813-1963
High Beach, Holy Innocents, 1884-1985
Leyton, St Mary the Virgin, 1813-1984
Leytonstone, St John the Baptist, 1834-1979
Waltham Abbey, Paradise Row Baptist Churchyard, 1825-1857
Waltham Abbey, Waltham Holy Cross, 1813-1878
Walthamstow, St Mary, 1813-1979
Walthamstow, St Peter-in-the-Forest, 1845-1949

Here are the feature articles in the September issue of BBC History magazine. It’s available through PressReader.

Hellish workhouses?
Peter Higginbotham asks if these residences for the poor merit the nightmarish reputations. (Spoiler: He explodes some myths)

Romans and fascists
Catherine Harloe explores the far right’s enduring fascination with ancient Greece and Rome.

The Man in the Iron Mask
What was the real-life identity of this celebrated prisoner? Josephine Wilkinson puts forward her theory.

Supersized Georgians
Freya Gowrley lifts the lid on satarists’ obsession with the issue of fatness in the 18th century.

Middle East Holocaust
Greshom Groenberg chronicles the little-known brutalization of Jewish people from Morocco to Iraq in the Second World War.

The Salem Witch Trials
Why did two girls’ accusations of dark magic send 19 people to the gallows in 1692? Ellie Cawthorne investigates.

Walter Scott’s genius
Annika Bautz argues that Scotland’s International image has been partly shaped by the brilliance of this nineteenth-century novelist.