Anglo-Celtic Connections

This database comprises 152,303 civil defence records from the City of Westminster, primarily from the two main report centres located at City Hall and Victoria Library.

The records focus on the civilian experience and civil defence operations, and include: employment records, incident reports (detailing enemy action and post-raid damage), rationing records, personal papers, applications to volunteer for Air Raid Precautions (A.R.P.) services, mixed correspondence from field workers, and photographs (which may only be found by browsing the collection’s images)

Depending on the record type, you may be able to find: full name, nationality, age, and birth date, address, occupation, employment start and end dates, military service date, rank, and unit, casualty date and place, death date and place, and the name and relationship of a relative. However, many records contain scant information, such as meeting minutes that refer to a person only as “Mr. Smith.”

The National Archives (UK) has made available further military records received from the British military.

The latest Ancestry release is UK Military Service Records, 1939-1959, with 247,029 records from series WO 422 now available for British infantry soldiers discharged as over age between 1939 and 1959. Records for Royal Artillery, Royal Engineers, Cavalry, and Guards Regiments are not included.

These records typically include names, birth dates, occupations, physical descriptions, next of kin, and regiment information. Many are attestation forms with details about enlistment addresses, birthplaces, service history, wounds, and medals received.

274 reported their birth location as Canada, while 19,854 reported the United States.

Digitization is ongoing with more records to be added online, likely in a continuing partnership with Ancestry.

From 1939 to 1945, exit visas were required for individuals planning to leave Canada by ship, unless they were serving in the military. The source is Library and Archives Canada/Privy Council Office/RG 2, A-l-a,

The 1,242 records in the collection may include: Name, Age, Birthplace, Place of residence, Marital status, Name of spouse, Destination, Reason for emigrating.

The latter includes caring for an ailing relative and getting married. Some were for family reunification or to pursue a career, such as journalism or to receive an award.

The MyHeritage DNA test is now $45 CAD until 9 November 2025!

That’s 68% off.

For those who are new to MyHeritage, the offer also includes a free 30-day trial of the MyHeritage Complete plan, giving access to all family tree tools and 36.7 billion historical records — plus free shipping with the trial.

Choose from these selected free online events. All times are Eastern Time, unless otherwise noted. Registration may be required in advance—please check the links to avoid disappointment. For many more events, mainly in the U.S., visit conferencekeeper.org.

Tuesday 4 November

1 pm: Minor Criminal: The Trial of the Man Who Murdered My Grandmother, by Daniel Finkelstein, for Gresham College.
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/whats-on/minor-criminal

2:30 pm: Artificial Intelligence & Ancestry: Navigating the Future of
Genealogy, by Lori Samuelson for Allen County Public Library Genealogy Centre.
https://acpl.libnet.info/event/14845244

7:30 pm: Ancestral Mapping Using Google Earth Pro, by David Joiner for OGS Durham Region Branch.
https://ogs.on.ca/events/durhams-november-4th-virtual-meeting-ancestral-mapping-using-google-earth-pro/

8 pm: Finding your family’s footprints in Ireland, by Maggie Gaffney for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/finding-your-familys-footprints-in-ireland/

Wednesday 5 November (Guy Fawkes Day)

10 am: Navigating the (NLS) Maps Website for the National Library od Scotland.
https://www.nls.uk/whats-on/navigating-the-maps-website/

2 pm: Informed Consent: DNA’s Essential Ethical Underpinning Colonial New York Research, by Judy Russell for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/informed-consent-dnas-essential-ethical-underpinning/

7:30 pm: The Early Settlement of Bayfield, by Julia Armstrong for OGS Huron Branch.
https://huron.ogs.on.ca/events/2232/

Thursday 6 November

8 am: How Women Made the Global Economy, by Victoria Bateman for Gresham College.
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/whats-on/women-economy

7 pm: Invaded! The Fenian Raids and the Canadian Response, by Kathryn Lake Hogan for OGS.
https://ogs.on.ca/events/november-webinar-invaded-the-fenian-raids-and-the-canadian-response-kathryn-lake-hogan-2/

Friday 7 November

2 pm: Stump Craig: U.S. Revolutionary War, by Craig R Scott for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/stump-craig-u-s-revolutionary-war/

Saturday 8 November

9 am: Where are My Military Records? by Ken McKinlay for BIFHSGO.
10 am: Military Moments by Carol Annett, Susan Smart and Sally Doherty for BIFHSGO.
https://www.bifhsgo.ca/events

10:30 am: The Dieppe Raid: Honouring the Soldiers by Telling their Stories, by Jayne Turvey for OGS Simcoe County Branch.
https://simcoe.ogs.on.ca/events/simcoe-county-branch-the-dieppe-raid-honouring-the-soldiers-by-telling-their-stories-with-jayne-turvey/

The headline from the new episode by Mark Thompson and Steve Little is: Browser Wars Heat Up, What AI Can Learn from AOL, Anthropic’s Speedy New AI Model, Simple Path to Better Prompts.

For me, the gem was hidden in a short section on major improvements in transcribing old handwriting. There’s a link to a blog post Has Google Quietly Solved Two of AI’s Oldest Problems? by Canadian historian Mark Humphries.

He found that a Google AI Studio transcription model that was tested on five documents (~1,000 words, 10% of total sample) achieved 1.7% character error rate (CER) and 6.5% word error rate (WER)—roughly 1 in 50 characters incorrect, including punctuation and capitalization. Most errors were punctuation and capitalization rather than actual words, with many involving ambiguous cases. Excluding these ambiguous punctuation and capitalization errors, the modified rates dropped to 0.56% CER and 1.22% WER—approximately 1 in 200 characters wrong when only counting substantive word errors.

Further analysis revealed that what began as a test on the readability of old documents may now be uncovering, by accident, the beginnings of machines that can actually reason in abstract, symbolic ways about the world they perceive.

The model that produced those results was available for only a short while as a test. If it’s generally as successful as described, it will surely become openly available. and stimulated even better performance in other facilities that rely on handwriting recognition technology, like FamilySearch Full Text Search.

Each year, organizations federally registered as charities in Canada for tax purposes must file returns with the Canada Revenue Agency. Financial and other information is available on the CRA website. Search for individual society reports at https://apps.cra-arc.gc.ca/ebci/hacc/srch/pub/dsplyBscSrch?request_locale=en.

Alberta Family Histories Society

For the reporting period ending 2024-12-31, total assets of $330,267.00 and liabilities of $14,280.00. The total revenue was $112,858.00. Expenditures totalled $66,052.00. Membership fee information not available.

Alberta Genealogical Society

For the reporting period ending 2024-12-31, total assets were $1,044,448.00 ($988,796, $1,041,398), and liabilities were $205,018.00 ($176,915, $212,232). Total revenue was $229,365.00 ($246,265.00, $614,488.00). Expenditures totalled $201,816.00 ($263,550.00, $199,863.00). The individual annual membership fee remains $50 for a digital journal subscription.

British Columbia Genealogical Society

For the reporting period ending 2024-12-31, total assets of $226,720.00, ($226,340, $216,503) and liabilities of $12,185.00 ($28,665, $20,517). The total revenue was $31,454.00 ($27,239.00, $27,392.00). Expenditures totalled $28,164.00 ($25,550.00, $28,201.00). The individual annual new membership fee remains $65.

British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa

For the reporting period ending 2024-12-31, total assets of $115,722.00 ($117,792, $119,762) and liabilities of $16,398.00 ($15,526, $16,770). The total revenue was $31,489.00 ($34,687.00, $28,096.00). Expenditures totalled $34,431.00 ($35,413.00, $31,405). The annual membership fee remains $50.

Family History Society of Newfoundland and Labrador

For the reporting period ending 2024-12-31, total assets and liabilities were not reported. The total revenue was $29,799.00. Expenditures totalled $29,042.00. The membership fee is $45.

Genealogical Association of Nova Scotia

For the reporting period ending 2024-12-31, total assets of $309,092.00 and liabilities of $1,243.00. The total revenue was $115,687.00. Expenditures totalled $84,792.00. The membership fee is $59.

Manitoba Genealogical Society

For the reporting period ending 2024-03-31, total assets were $75,899.00 ($72,957, $87,173) and total liabilities of $7,993.00 ($3,701, $13,100). Total revenues were $89,163.00 ($76,848.00, $69,300.00) and expenditures were $90,522.00 ($81,675.00, $58,815.00). The individual annual membership fee remains $60.

New Brunswick Genealogical Society

For the reporting period ending 2024-12-31, total assets and liabilities were not reported. The total revenue was $2,900.00. Expenditures totalled $8,774.00. Membership fee begins at $40.

Ontario Genealogical Society

For the reporting period ending 2024-12-31, total assets of $1,957,257.00 ($2,105,846, $2,034,220) and liabilities of $209,829.00 ($302,835, $280,466). The total revenue was $727,335.00 ($584,120, $1,004,580). Expenditures totalled $781,892.00 ($534,363.00, $556,489.00). The individual annual membership fee remains $63.

Quebec Family History Society

For the reporting period ending 2024-07-31, total assets of $15,239.00 and liabilities of $0.00. The total revenue was $18,333.00. Expenditures totalled $30,244.00. The membership fee remains $75.

Saskatchewan Genealogical Society

For the reporting period ending 2024-12-31, total assets of $184,571.00 and liabilities of $24,749.00. The total revenue was $234,510.00. Expenditures totalled $193,435.00. The basic membership fee is $70..

Société de genéalogie de Québec

For the reporting period ending 2024-04-30, total assets of $295,467.00 ($294,804) and liabilities of $295,467.00 ($294,804 (sic)). The total revenue was $126,081.00 ($131,549). Expenditures totalled $125,418.00 ($123,705). The individual annual fee remains $50.

Victoria Genealogical Society

For the reporting period ending May 31, 2024, Total assets and liabilities were not reported. Total revenues were $27,802.00 ($21,680.00, $25,410.00), and expenditures were $28,342.00 ($26,507.00, $28,230.00). The individual annual membership fee is increased to $65.

Key observations from the additions:

• Alberta Family Histories Society had an impressive surplus of $46,806 (70.8% surplus ratio)
• Saskatchewan Genealogical Society had a healthy surplus of $41,075, heavily supported by provincial government funding ($170,000)
• Quebec Family History Society had a significant deficit of $11,911 (65% deficit ratio), reducing their already modest net assets to $15,239

The latest annual report highlights how TNA is not just a consumer of technology; it combines traditional custodianship with the development of new technologies to preserve, interpret, and share its vast collections. Organized around three themes—Collections & Archives, Digital & Data, and Conservation & Heritage Science—it showcases partnerships, community collaborations, and innovations in optical character recognition, handwritten text recognition, and AI-driven approaches, to make records more accessible and relevant.

Of particular interest for family history:

• The Material Culture of Wills, 1540–1790 project, using handwriting recognition to reveal everyday lives and possessions in early modern England,.
• Digital initiatives, such as Project Odyssey and AI-driven text recognition tools, enhance access to historical documents and metadata.
• Public engagement programs, such as “Weather in the Archive,” connect archival materials with environmental and historical themes that are relevant to genealogical storytelling.

The Untold Stories on Cenotaphs

On Monday evening, at 7:00 pm via Zoom,  a timely presentation for OGS Leeds and Grenville Branch by Blake Seward,

Irish Accent Challenge

Ancestry updates Find a Grave Index Updates

End of month updates for Germany, Norway,  Sweden,  Global, Italy, Australia and New Zealand, Canada, and Mexico,

Archives of Ontario RG 1-100 Patent Plans Update

Ken McKinlay has posted a highly detailed description of the new access to these early Ontario land records.

Reclaiming wellness: Key factors in restoring optimal well-being in the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging

According to this study reported in PLOS One, one-quarter of older adults with suboptimal well-being can improve to the point of regaining optimal well-being. Strategies for regaining optimal well-being include engaging in an active and healthy lifestyle —such as maintaining a healthy body weight, not smoking, becoming physically active, finding ways to address sleep problems, preventing and managing chronic diseases, maintaining psychological and emotional wellness, and fostering social wellness.

A poem by Thomas Hood

No sun – no moon!
No morn – no noon –
No dawn – no dusk – no proper time of day.
No sky – no earthly view –
No distance looking blue –
No road – no street – no “t’other side this way” –
No end to any Row –
No indications where the Crescents go –
No top to any steeple –
No recognitions of familiar people –
No courtesies for showing ‘em –
No knowing ‘em!
No traveling at all – no locomotion –
No inkling of the way – no notion –
“No go” by land or ocean –
No mail – no post –
No news from any foreign coast –
No park, no ring – no afternoon gentility –
No company – no nobility –
No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease,
No comfortable feel in any member –
No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,
No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds,
November!

Thanks to the following individuals for their comments and tips: Alison Hare, Ann Burns, Basil Adam, Brenda Turner, Glenn Wright, John Webb, Ken McKinlay, Kyla Ubbink, Leslie Anderson, and Unknown.

Leicestershire Electoral Registers 1836-1970

This collection of 10,420,906 records documents voters across Leicestershire for over a century. Find names, addresses, years, and districts for residents of Leicester city and the surrounding towns and villages, great for extending the coverage and filling in between censuses.

Leicestershire Monumental Inscriptions

From the 1400s to the 2000s, 414 records for burials in churchyards, cemeteries, and mentions on war memorials. Transcripts and images may reveal other family members buried in the same plot.

Lincolnshire Workhouse Guardians’ Minutes 1837-1902

These 10,529 records document residents and applicants for poor relief. The minutes note out-relief payments, apprenticeships, settlement cases, and doctors who treated sick paupers. The Lincolnshire Family History Society compiled this collection.

Twelve Newspaper Titles

Five new titles join the archive, including Allen’s Indian Mail (London, 1843-1891) and Y Celt (Wales, 1881-1891).

I purchased a 150-year-old book at last weekend’s Ottawa Antiquarian Book Show. It had never been read. How do I know? Most of the pages were “unopened”, meaning pages were still connected at the edge.

I’ve had previous experience botching the job of cutting the edge, so I sought advice from the ever-helpful Kyla Ubbink, of Ubbink Book & Paper Conservation. She said I needed a very sharp knife, then offered to do it for me. I was delighted to take advantage of her professional expertise. The knife is at the lower left of the image.