Anglo-Celtic Connections

Headlining the August WDYTYA issue is Sporting Ancestors by Keith Gregson, author of a book by the same title. He explains how football, rugby, cricket and tennis among others exploded in popularity in the UK in the Victorian period, culminating in the re-establishment of the Olympic Games. Look to digitized newspapers as a major source for finding family members competing, as I did to find a relative playing cricket for Rokeby, Saskatchewan. You may be lucky and find preserved ephemera such as scorecards, club programs, magazines and annual reports.
Nick Peers writes in Photo Books on how you can bring your photos together in a professionally printed book to be treasured down the generations (perhaps)!
Felix Rowe writes about The Packet Service, the way mail was transported outside Great Britain before being contracted to private companies like Cunard around 1850,

Other content is how to get more out of trade directories and a masterclass guide to Prairie Province’s censuses of 1906, 1916 and 1926.

A reminder that the issue is available free online through Press Reader at the Ottawa Public Library website and many other Canadian public libraries for their subscribers.

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

Tuesday 27 July 2:30 pm: Using Maps for (US) Genealogy Research, by Philip Sutton for Allen Country Public Library Genealogy Center. https://acpl.libnet.info/event/5312286

Wednesday 28 July, 2 pm: Specialized Lineage Societies – more than just DAR, Dames and Mayflower, by Kimberly Ormsby Nagy for Legacy Family Tree Webinars. https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar_details.php?webinar_id=1637

Thursday 29 July, 6:30 pm: The 21st Century Bookshelf:
Books, Manuscripts, & Documents in the World of Bytes: Finding Your Ancestor’s Five Senses, by Curt Witcher for Allen Country Public Library Genealogy Center. https://acpl.libnet.info/event/5322266

Coming

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

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission records 2,856 locations in Canada where they have memorials to 18,851 war dead.

Row Labels	FWW Casualties	SWW Casualties	Total Casualties
Alberta	432	644	1076
British Columbia	751	740	1491
Manitoba	669	553	1222
New Brunswick	328	287	615
Newfoundland and Labrador	131	347	480
Nova Scotia	1013	3469	4482
Ontario	2741	3556	6298
Prince Edward Island	85	100	185
Quebec	956	1055	2011
Saskatchewan	367	632	999
Yukon Territory	0	2	2
Grand Total	7473	11385	18861

For both wars, Ontario has the most commemorations, followed by Nova Scotia and Quebec.

The Halifax Memorial commemorates 3,141 Canadian and Newfoundland sailors, merchant seamen, soldiers and nursing sisters who lost their lives at sea, and also bears the names of men of the Canadian Army stationed in Canada who have no known grave, most from the SWW.

The Ottawa Memorial commemorates 820 commemorates men and women who lost their lives while serving or training with the Air Forces of the Commonwealth in Canada, the West Indies and the United States and who have no known grave.

There are 1,726 Canadian locations with a single burial.

896 locations in Ontario have CWGC commemoration, 622 for the First World War, 541 for the SWW.

Cemetery	First World War Casualties	Second World War Casualties	Total Casualties
OTTAWA MEMORIAL	0	820	820
TORONTO (PROSPECT) CEMETERY	400	248	648
TORONTO (MOUNT PLEASANT) CEMETERY	125	105	230
OTTAWA (BEECHWOOD) CEMETERY	99	113	212
KITCHENER (WOODLAND) CEMETERY	40	162	202
TORONTO (ST. JOHN’S NORWAY) CEMETERY	118	79	197
TORONTO (MOUNT HOPE) CEMETERY	79	73	152
KINGSTON (CATARAQUI) CEMETERY	61	85	146
LONDON (MOUNT PLEASANT) CEMETERY	97	44	141
HAMILTON CEMETERY	128	12	140
OTTAWA NOTRE DAME CEMETERY	42	73	115

 

Stop by at www.facebook.com/myheritage today (Monday 26 July) at 2 pm ET when I’ll be offering another pub quiz.  How many of the 20 questions can you get right, by guess or knowledge.

Years ago at TNA I was lucky to be able to attend a memourable talk by Paul Carter. So when I saw he was giving an online talk on Friday I made sure not to miss it.  He used letters to the Poor Law Commissioners in London, archived in series MH 12 at TNA, to illustrate paupers concerns of being denied any relief, the breakup of home and family, medical care, and workhouse conditions.

Paul pointed out that the study is only possible as all material, including incoming letters from the poor, were in bound volumes, otherwise the letters would likely have been discarded as ephemera — just as happened in Canada with letters in First World War military files.

The talk, and the equally informative question period, is to be made available on TNA’s website.

There’s another opportunity to hear Paul on the Victorian Poor: In Their Own Write: Punishing the Victorian Pauper Complainer, on Friday 13 August at 9 am ET. Book tickets at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/in-their-own-write-punishing-the-victorian-pauper-complainer-tickets-161770404635?aff=wowp

Paul mentioned a forthcoming book, In Their Own Write, to be published by McGill-Queen’s University Press next year (with luck).

The following TNA research guides are of interest:

Poverty and Poor Laws: https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/poverty-poor-laws/

Workhouse inmates and staff https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/workhouse-inmate-or-member-of-staff/

Workhouses: https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/workhouse/

Anglican Baptisms, Marriages and Burials records,  provided in association with Archifrau Cymru: Archives Wales, are updated for:

Merionethshire, Wales,  1568-1994, now with  510,239 records
Monmouthshire, Wales, 1551-1994, now with  1,805,836 records
Montgomeryshire, Wales, 1569-1994, now with  1,205,155 records

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

Climate and mountains shaped human ancestral genetic lineages

LAC Podcast Episode 67 – LAC is a gold mine!
An apt analogy!

The Time of Cholera: A Case Study about Historical Context
A reminder that if you don’t have a Legacy Family Tree Webinars subscription you have until the 27th to view Alison Hare’s presentation for free.

Finding on the Ground: Then and Now in Ontario
The latest blog post from Ken McKinlay explaining the use of Ontario land records, this post for an urban area.

Thanks to this week’s contributors: Anonymous, Family History Finds Judith H., Unknown.

Scotland, Modern and Civil Deaths & Burials 1855-2021
Over 62,000 additions to discover the details of death, burial, residence, occupation and next of kin in this growing national collection. It now contains 3,382,827 records.

This is a compilation from “a number of sources, including local government burial indexes held by various councils and archives, volunteer & local family history society transcriptions, modern records of funeral homes and civil registers.”

However, many entries have no name/ Lots of anomalous transcriptions may be found with no original image. If you are looking for an elusive ancestor with first name Han Ary Redd or Hee Ee Be and no last name check out the listings for Perthshire!

Australia, Inward, Outward & Coastal Passenger Lists 1826-1972
Over 25,000 additions to a collection of passenger lists and migration records that contain movement to, from and around the country appear this week. Each record includes a transcript and many also include an image of the original record. The content varies.

Canada, Black Nova Scotians 1784-1837
With 8,254 entries, find individuals who escaped slavery in South Carolina and Virginia, but also the slaves of British Loyalists. You will find those who merely passed through, living their lives for a few years before moving on elsewhere. FMP is vague about the sources.

Also added this week is a large number of newspapers, many just single years. They include The Lowestoft Journal for 1914, the first East Coast East Anglian addition in many weeks,

Born in Islington, London, England on 17 August 1882, son of  Ernest Percy Montague White and Lizzie nee Hayden, Percy Ronald White was baptized on 5 August 1883 at Islington St Mary.

The family came to Canada in 1890. He married Florence G Plumb on 12 September 1905 giving his occupation as clerk. From April 1907 he worked as a clerk with the Department of Marine and Fisheries and served 4 years with the Governor General’s Foot Guards.

He attested on 17 March 1915 enlisted with the 39th Batallion proceeding to England in June that year. He suffered a leg injury in a motorcycle accident and subsequently transferred to the Royal Flying Corps.  While flying over German lines in May 1918 he was shot in the arm, forced to land and became a POW.  The image is from his file from the ICRC.

He died in hospital in Toronto on 24 Juy 1921 of intestinal cancer and is interred in Section 29 at Beechwood Cemetery.

I was at the Archives to research on Thursday morning,  At present, you need an appointment. Having an appointment has advantages.  Olga knew what I wanted and had the volumes I needed to hand with a generously distanced workspace set up.

Encountering City Archvisit Paul Henry on leaving he mentioned that the next stage of opening up is anticipated for 7 September. Partner library volunteers will be able to work again. Lessons have been learned during the pandemic and it won’t be business as before COVID.

Paul even suggested that they’re thinking about opening the meeting space although not immediately after the 7th.

A project to catalogue 30,000 items — only vaguely labelled boxes — like “legal” written on the outside — has just started with the first 100 boxes done. 

Did you know the current Archives Building has now been in operation for 10 years!

Here, from Amazon.ca. are genealogy books expected to be released later this year.

British Census, The, by Simon Smith
Shire Publications
Paperback
$18.81
This title will be released on July 27, 2021.
Kindle Edition
$9.99 $15.20

Tracing your Ancestors using the UK Historical Timeline: A Guide for Family Historians
by Angela Smith and Neil Bertram
Pen and Sword
Paperback
$30.50
This title will be released on August 18, 2021.

Place-names and the Local Historian, by Nollaig O Muraile
Four Courts Press
Paperback
$31.00
This title will be released on November 29, 2021.

Identifying Cap Badges: A Family Historian’s Guide
by Graham Bandy
Pen and Sword
Paperback
$39.50
This title will be released on December 7, 2021.

On The London Historians’ Blog, Alan Fortune reviews a new book Secret Ealing by Paul Howard Lang & Dr Jonathan Oates.

He comments “it provides some valuable nuggets of information to supplement the contents of works on Ealing’s history already in existence, as well as stories with which tour guides, for example, could amuse and entertain their audiences.”

Other comments: “illustrated by excellent photographs”, “some chapters are rather dry and factual; others are livelier and more discursive”, “the book has no bibliography or index.”

Read the review at https://londonhistorians.wordpress.com/2021/07/19/secret-ealing/