Anglo-Celtic Connections

Former Executive Director of the Ontario Genealogical Society, Fraser Dunford, has been named Regional Rep for Central Canada for the Guild of One-Name Studies.

A professional engineer, former academic and university administrator with 40 years of genealogy experience, he is the author of Municipal Records in Ontario: History and Guide.

Do you have Irish roots? Ottawa’s Beechwood Cemetery is hosting a book launch of Fifty Irish Lives in Canada on Tuesday, 12 May at 6:30 PM.

The book explores over three centuries of Irish contribution to Canada, highlighting individuals whose lives helped shape the country’s political, cultural, and social landscape. Contributors Mark McGowan, Michael McBane, and several local authors will be present, offering insights and perspectives on the stories that define this collection, honouring Canadians who claim Irish heritage today by telling the hardships and triumphs of their ancestors in this land.

Find out more here.

It’s revealed in the information accompanying Ancestry’s new collection, Edinburgh, Scotland, Mortcloth Records for St Cuthbert Burial Grounds, 1780-1854.

A mortcloth was a ceremonial cloth that people would rent and drape over a coffin at a funeral.

Information (that may be) available in these records is: Name, Age, Death date, Burial date, Purchase date, Name of spouse, Names of parents. There an abstract and link to the original register image.

I didn’t anticipate finding any of my relatives among the 81,407 records in the collection. There are 293 Reid entries. From the image, you can learn the burial location’s quadrant and section, the diseases the person may have had, and the amount paid by the family. However, a large part of the register is financial, showing the cost of various services rendered, like grave digging. The mortcloth was often the major cost.

Mortcloth records appear particularly in Scotland. https://yourscottisharchives.com/mortcloths

You can still secure a full year of Legacy Family Tree Webinars for just $25—that’s 50% off the regular price.

This offer now ends on Sunday, 10 May.

Chris Paton draws our attention to a list of dissertations written by students of the University of Strathclyde’s genealogical studies programme. You can search for past topics on LibraryThing. https://www.librarything.com/catalog/gsholton/yourlibrary. 

There are 814 entries. Searching for England yields 96 dissertations, Scotland 81, Wales 12, Ireland 18, and DNA 13.

Canada yields 18 entries. If you’re studying Home children, there are at least a couple of interest.

Who were the pauper children sent out from the care of West Derby Board of Guardians, 1883-1895 and how did those emigrated to Canada differ from those sent to the various English locations? by Janice Tullock.

How did migration to Canada impact the mortality rates and welfare of British Home Children under Maria S. Rye’s care between 1868 and 1896? by Georgia Lush.

Library Thing provides a catalogue entry, sadly, with no link to the dissertation itself. Chris suggests in his blog post “dissertations may be shared if those who have written them give permission to do so, and dependant on how busy the university staff are to make such enquiries of past students.”

Miscellaneous items I found interesting this week.

On 21 April, Librarian and Archivist of Canada, Leslie Weir, was a witness before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates. Assisting her were Jennifer Schofield, Assistant Deputy Minister, Collections Sector, who responded with detail to several questions, and Jean Deschamps, Acting Assistant Deputy Minister, Corporate Services Sector, and Chief Financial Officer.

Much of the questioning focused on LAC’s decision to allocate a major part of its funding cuts to the Access to Information activity, particularly staff cuts. LAC does not meet the legal requirement 20% of the time in responding to ATIP requests.

It was noted that during COVID, staff were unable to access required records, resulting in a growing backlog. In the past year, it has been cut in half. MPs were concerned that the rate of progress would not be sustained with fewer staff.

Part of the information given was that a large part of the requests are for military files related to the Second World War.  A new policy, that files for individuals born 110 years ago will no longer be reviewed. should help reduce the backlog.   That applies to 30% of the files today, and 54% by 2030.

However, I heard no commitment to digitize those files and make them freely available for online self-service, cutting the human out of the loop in the same way as for earlier military files.

It was refreshing to see LAC managers being asked probing questions, not only from opposition members.

A video of the hearing, which runs for about 50 minutes, is at https://parlvu.parl.gc.ca/Harmony/en/PowerBrowser/PowerBrowserV2?fk=13449931

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Durham Diocese Probate Index, 1663-1869

These 566,645 additions cover over 200 years of legal and personal history, providing a window into the estates and legacies of those in the North East. It includes 134 Chickens.

National Burial Index for England & Wales

The burial records collection has been expanded with 223,246 additions spanning back as far as 1538. The whole index is now over 12 million records, including 627 Chickens.

Cumberland and Lancashire Burials

In partnership with the Cumbria Family History Society, Findmypast has published over 80,000 burial records. These additions cover 46 locations across the region from the 17th to the 20th century and appear within the Cumberland Burials and Lancashire Burials record sets. 11 Chickens in total.

Newspapers
Another 340,466 pages were added this week, with five new titles and updates to 21 existing publications.

New titles

• English Chartist Circular, 1841-1843

• English Leader, 1866-1867

• Grimsby Advertiser, 1861-1887

• Putney & Wandsworth Borough News, 1885-1895

• Wearside Catholic News, 1907-1908, 1914-1934

Updated titles:

• Bookseller (1979–1995)

• Coventry Evening Telegraph (2003-2004)

• Dundee Weekly News (1885–1950)

• Mining Journal (1845-1856)

• Portsmouth Times and Naval Gazette (1898–1928)

• Reynolds’s Newspaper (1950-1962)

• South Wales Echo (2001-2002)

• Sporting Post (1924-1950)

A reminder that the half-off for new members offer from Legacy Family Tree Webinars is continuing until Sunday. More here.

Newspapers.com is offerring 25% off gift subscriptions until 11 May. Subscribe here.

MyHeritage is offerring 25% off MyStories books with the code MOTHER25.

A recent study in Biology Letters (2025) confirms that while men are generally taller and heavier, these “sexy and formidable” traits are high-maintenance and come with a hidden biological cost that may impact long-term survival.

The Sensitivity of Stature

Researchers analyzed global data and found that as living conditions improve, men’s gains in height and weight are more than double those of women. In the UK, records from the early 20th century showed men’s heights increasing by 0.69 cm every five years, compared to just 0.25 cm for women.

This suggests that the male body is highly “condition-dependent.” When nutrition is poor or disease is high, male growth is the first thing to be sacrificed. Women, by contrast, are more resilient; their bodies are built to withstand environmental fluctuations without compromising their development as severely.

The Connection to Longevity

This biological resilience likely plays a role in why women consistently live longer than men. The study and its companion research highlight several key factors:

• Resource Management: Women have smaller frames and less metabolically demanding organs. This makes the female body more “efficient” at surviving on fewer calories and resisting stress.

• The High Cost of Growth: The same hormones, like testosterone, that drive the development of a “formidable” male body can be taxing on the immune system.

• Maintenance vs. Muscle: By not investing as heavily in extreme physical size, the female body can divert more energy toward cellular repair and long-term maintenance.

Ultimately, while a taller, heavier frame may have offered advantages in our evolutionary past, it remains a “high-risk, high-reward” strategy. The very traits that make the male body formidable also make it more vulnerable, leaving the more “resilient” female body better equipped for the long haul.

On 27 April, FamilySearch added over 6.4 million UK (England) records in four collections to the Full Text Search collection.

United Kingdom, England, Deaths, from 1922 to 1938
United Kingdom, England, Marriages, 1897
United Kingdom, England, Properties, 1961
United Kingdom, England, Religious, from 1792 to 1814

The records are a very mixed bag. I hoped a search of just the updates would be possible. Judging by the types of records returned and their dates, I recommend instead doing a whole corpus search for your term (name) of interest, then filtering down by place and date range.