Anglo-Celtic Connections

On 30 April LAC posted a notice Update – Delays in responding to Access to Information Act and Privacy Act requests

The notice explains that “ability to respond within legislatively prescribed timelines to requests made under the Access to Information Act and Privacy Act has been greatly affected by both a marked increase in volume and health and safety measures related to the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Translated “greatly affected by” means LAC has failed to meet “legislatively prescribed timelines.”

The notice continues:

“We understand that such delays are difficult for our clients, and we are doing everything we can to remediate this exceptional situation.

Rest assured that we are actively looking at innovative processes and human resource solutions to address these delays and meet our increasing demand.”

LAC wants our trust. What does “actively looking at” really mean?  How can we be confident this is not just bureaucratic verbiage, as in this line from Yes Minister?

“under consideration” means “we’ve lost the file”; “under active consideration” means “we’re trying to find it”.

When will LAC move beyond looking to action?

Ancestry dropped the other shoe, the baptismal records mentioned in a previous post last Saturday about London parish marriages and banns.

London, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1920 now has 22,108,614 records.

So far the “full list of the Church of England parishes in London can be found in the more help section” is not available.

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

Tuesday 4 May, 7:30 pm: Tracing 20th-Century Ontarians, by Janice Nickerson for OGS Durham Region Branch. https://ogs.on.ca/events/tracing-20th-century-ontarians-with-janice-nickerson

Tuesday 4 May, 10 pm: Comparing Australian Content on the Giant Genealogy Websites, by Sunny Morton for Legacy Family Tree Webinars. https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar_details.php?webinar_id=1601

Wednesday 5 May 11 am: House History (UK), by Ellie Jones and Melanie Backe-Hansen for Findmypast. https://www.facebook.com/findmypast

Wednesday 5 May, 2 pm: Solving a Brick Wall with DNA – A Case Study, by Larry W. Thomas for Legacy Family Tree Webinars. https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar_details.php?webinar_id=1626

Wednesday 5 May, 7:30 pm: Unlocking Inmate Stories: Research & Interpretation at the Huron Historic Gaol, by Sinead Cox for OGS Huron County Branch. https://huron.ogs.on.ca/events/may-5-huron-co-jail-and-its-people-sinead-cox/

Thursday 6 May, 12 noon: Skimming the Surface: A Look into Ontario Land Records. From FamilySearch. https://churchofjesuschrist.zoom.us/webinar/register/7216142063477/WN_TCYwA9ihRYCOzvO9-gAmSw

Thursday 6 May, 8 pm: Discussion: Finding Your Ancestors on the Map, by Richard Ruggle for OGS.  https://ogs.on.ca/zoom-meetings/may-webinar-richard-ruggle/

Friday 7 May, 2 pm: Researching the Descendants and Ancestors of the Weeping Time People, by Brian Sheffey for Legacy Family Tree Webinars. https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar_details.php?webinar_id=1676

Saturday 8 May, 10 am: A Russian Revelation: A Family Shaped by Significant Historical Events, by Marianne Rasmus for BIFHSGO. https://bifhsgo.ca/eventListings.php?nm=127#er566

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/.

An Index to surviving records of Wills, Grants and Administrations held by The National Archives of Ireland (NAI) for 1484-1858 is a recent addition to TheGenealogist. Records include the NAI reference, Use it to order a copy of the document. The Index of Irish Wills 1484-1858 features:

More than 100,000 names,
Easily Searchable by Name, County, Address and Keyword,
Can provide dates, occupation, status and place of abode.
Can provide a reference and link to order the document from the NAI.

If you have access to Ancestry see Dublin, Ireland, Probate Record and Marriage License Index, 1270-1858 with 115,989 records. On MyHeritage see Irish Wills, 1484 – 1858 with more than 70,000 wills available.

Based on Library and Archives Canada data for Canadian servicemen and servicewomen killed in action for which no exact birth date is known, their most likely year of birth was 1920.

The table below gives the birth dates for which more than 20 fatalities were recorded. They range from March 1920 to May 1921

Birth Date	Number of Deaths
05 Oct 1920	25
27 Apr 1921	24
02 Mar 1920	22
10 Jan 1921	22
19 Oct 1920	22
08 May 1921	21
11 May 1921	21
21 Aug 1920	21
21 Mar 1921	21

The data triggered in my mind my uncle Edward, who died in a flying accident serving with the RAF. I checked my database. Yes, he was born on 7 March 1921, within the range of those dates.

Today, 2 May, is the anniversary of the 1885 Battle of Cut Knife Hill.  Fatalities included volunteers William B Osgood(e) and John Rogers from the Ottawa Company of Sharpshooters.

Ottawa’s Cartier Square Drill Hall is the site of a statue in their honour, funded by public subscription.  The bas-relief portrait of Osgood(e) is on one side of the monument.

“To honour and remember the sacrifices of the more than 118,000 Canadians and Newfoundlanders who, since Confederation, have given their lives serving in uniform.” Those are the words used to describe the Canadian Virtual War Memorial and Books of Remembrance. With the exception of NWMP the 1885 North-West Canada fatalities are missing, the only soldiers not memorialized in this way. That’s something Canada’s Department of Veteran’s Affairs acknowledges is deliberate.

While we speak and write about them they will be remembered.

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

14-15 May 2021 – 31^st Canadian Military History Colloquium
This year’s CMHC is free online, but registration is required. For more information visit https://canadianmilitaryhistory.ca/events-page/annual-colloquium/.

How’s LAC doing?  The response to the poll on the letter grade you’d give to LAC in fulfilling the aims stated by Librarian and Archivist of Canada Leslie Weir 20 months ago wasn’t huge. The median response was letter grade D, the most frequent F.

This past week Ancestry added a collection of 19th-century census records for Denmark, including for Greenland and the Faroe Islands.

The Francis Frith Collection website has added 1,097 new photos of Cornwall, Gloucestershire and 614 cities, towns and villages.

A Meta-Scientific Perspective on “Thinking: Fast and Slow”
“… if Kahneman wrote a second edition, it would be very different from the first one. Chapters 3 and 4 would probably just be scrubbed from the book.” Long.

https://punatorium.com
Don’t believe everything you see at the Oscars. Everyone is a paid actor.

Thanks to this week’s contributors: Anonymous,  gail benjafield, Glenn Wright, Keith Hanton, Kris, Lynne W., Mike, Teresa, Unknown.

A few days ago Ancestry announced they would be adding 374,498 London parish baptism and marriage records with 26,033 images in May

Jumping the gun London, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1936 was updated on 29 April to contain 13,530,740 records. There’s a name search and the ability to browse records by the parish.

How many records have been added for marriages and banns? For which parishes and time periods? It’s not specified but must be substantial and likely for later years.

You may find two entries one for banns, the other to the marriage. For one of my ancestral marriages, the index showed the banns being read well after the marriage – a transcription error. Fortunately, the indexes are linked to images so the conflict was easy to resolve.

Contents for the new issue which will be available on 10 May.

Treasured Connections to Your Past
Joe Grandinetti says those keepsakes can add important context to your family history

When One is Enough
Sue Lisk looks at concentrating on an individual in a family tree when doing research

The Cleveland Connection
Richard H. Goms Jr. recounts a search for living cousins descended from Prussian ancestry

“For It’s a Jolly Good Song …”
David A. Norris looks at traditional special songs for special occasions

Honoring Your Ancestors: Veterans Societies
Karen L. Newman looks at lineage societies for ancestors who served and were honorably discharged

Why Didn’t I Learn Sooner….and Better?
Donna Potter Phillips offers her regrets on not being a better genealogist

“Colored News” – Part II
Diane L. Richard continues on with this hidden, though, invaluable goldmine

Tracing Paths of Divorce
Sue Lisk says there are many ways to approach the puzzle of a divorce in a family tree

Center For American War Letters
Leslie Michele Derrough looks at the importance of preserving our ancestors’ wartime correspondence for future generations

Notes From Across the Pond
Steve Ward looks at postcards and how they were the favorite communication method of the early twentieth century

Getting a Better Read on Your Ancestors
Lauren A. O’Hagan shows how book inscriptions can help you further your family history research

The Back Page: Please… Show Me the Proof!
Dave Obee needs your help in tracing an ancestor. Are you up for a challenge

This is major. The first addition to Deceased Online this year. It’s huge from a cemetery that long resisted making its records available online.

The largest cemetery in the UK, Brookwood Cemetery in Surrey, also known as the London Necropolis,  now has records available to view on www.deceasedonline.com.

The records comprise approximately 243,000 individual burial records. Dates are from 1854 to 2016. There are burial register scans for all records and details of other grave occupants. Many records also have maps showing the approximate location of the grave.

There is a free quick search available. You need to have purchased at least one pay-per-view voucher within the last six months, or have a subscription, to perform an advanced search that allows you to specify the cemetery.

Brookwood holds the graves of 325 Canadian dead from the First World War and 2,404 from the Second World War.

Before mentioning the new records, there’s an opportunity to explore the FMP collection of British census records for FREE this weekend until 5 am on Monday 3 May. It’s not clear whether it’s just on findmypast.co.uk or also on findmypast.com/.

Now the additions.

For Monmouthshire, the additions mentioned are over 8,300 baptism records from 1921 for 70 parishes. I could only find 3,784.  Also mentioned over 5,600 marriage and banns records from 1936. I found 2,852 for 41 parishes. 

For Glamorganshire, the additions are baptisms from 1921, I found 2,264 for 112 parishes; and marriages and banns from 1936. I found 5,828 for 56 parishes.

 

Today, 30 April, marks the 80th anniversary of the sinking of the only troopship carrying Canadian Army troops to be lost during the Second World War, resulting in the loss of 207 lives.

I recognized the ship name as a few months earlier, in September 1940, the S.S, Nerissa had brought 16 boys and 18 girls to Halifax, N.S. on their way to British Columbia as part of the CORB scheme to evacuate children from Britain.

As mentioned in the OGS eWeekly Update, today also sees the publication of the second edition of “S.S. Nerissa, the Final Crossing”, by William Dziadyk, a retired naval officer. Revised, “This second edition is the result of feedback from readers, and additional research and analysis related to:

• Nerissa’s many wartime sailings prior to and including her final crossing of the North Atlantic;
• Personnel and other records;
• Public relations dilemmas in both Canada and the UK; and
• Inclusion of additional humanizing details to a tragic story.

New material also includes contextual details of the overall Battle of the Atlantic war efforts, and Bletchley Park’s advances in decrypting German naval Enigma encoded messages … during the few weeks before and after the sinking of the S.S. Nerissa.”

Available at www.amazon.ca/dp/B08X3Q84BK