Anglo-Celtic Connections

Over one million new free-to-view pages have recently been added to the British Newspaper Archive. Over four million newspaper pages are now free.
Here are the British and Irish newspapers released.

An interesting addition is 16 titles from the Caribbean from 1771 to 1902.

To complete the inventory, there’s New Zealand’s Lyttelton Times from 1851 to 1902.

Read the BNA blog post.

Are you taking advantage of FamilySearch updates? Indexed records are continually added; 115 collections have been updated in the past month.

You can learn about them by visiting familysearch.org, clicking Search, then Records, and BROWSE ALL COLLECTIONS. By default, the table that appears is sorted by Collection Title. Click on Last Updated to sort and find the most recent additions.

The US saw 14 additions, Italy 12, and Brazil 7. Three additional titles for Italy are browse-only. Canada saw no additions, two for Wales and once each for the UK and Ireland.

For the UK, its Maritime Births, Marriages, and Deaths, now with 56,065 records. For Wales Merionethshire, Parish Registers 1538-1912 now has 146,135 records. Ireland’s Catholic Parish Registers, 1740-1900 tops the list with 6,855,603 records.

Central and South America are well represented, likely reflecting the number of adherents to the LDS Church.

The National Library of Wales has launched a new website with names of over 240,000 of the 390,296 women who signed the historic petition demanding world peace in 1923.

Volunteers have now transcribed names on the crowdsourced project. 50,000 signatures have been verified and added to the new website, where users can search for names, houses, streets, and places. This gives people a user-friendly way of finding relatives and places of interest. The woman’s signature can be seen using the link to the original image.

The three top counties with entries are Ceredigion, Gwynedd, Conwy.

The transcription process is ongoing, and new people are being recruited to help complete the project.

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

Scrambled Maps
Drag the tiles into the correct order to restore the map of a different city of the world each day. 

A Structured Daily Routine
I asked ChatGPT for the elements of a daily routine to maintain optimal physical, mental, and overall well-being.

What’s missing? Childcare? Other?

NARA Struggles
A perspective from south of the border, with parallels to the situation at LAC.

The AI Bubble
The following is my Ai-assisted summary of an article I Studied 200 Years’ Of Tech Cycles. This Is How They Relate To AI Hype, by Jing Hu posted behind a paywall on Medium

The article discusses the cyclical nature of technology hype and investment bubbles throughout history, drawing parallels between past events and the current AI boom. It examines several historical examples, including the Canal Mania of the early 1800s, the Railway Mania of the 1840s, the electric power competition between AC and DC systems, the automobile industry boom, and the dot-com bubble. These cases demonstrate how initial excitement and investment in new technologies often lead to speculative frenzies, followed by market crashes and industry consolidations.
The text explores the psychological factors driving tech hype, such as FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out), herd mentality, and confirmation bias. It also delves into the financial aspects fueling these crazes, including speculative investing, low interest rates, and network effects. The article highlights key players in tech hype cycles, including entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, media, early adopters, and even governments, each contributing to the amplification of trends and potential overvaluation of new technologies.
Finally, the article draws parallels between historical patterns and the current AI boom, suggesting that while AI has transformative potential, investors and enthusiasts should approach it with caution. It advises readers to expect a shakeout in the AI industry, be wary of inflated promises, think long-term about AI’s impact, and focus on products that provide genuine value and efficiency improvements. The text emphasizes that while AI will likely have a significant impact on the world, its true potential may unfold over decades rather than in the short term.

Thanks to this week’s contributors: Anonymous, Basil Adam, Brenda Turner, Charles Godwin, Christol James, gail benjafield, Glenn Wright, Jane Watt, Paul Jones, Peggy Homans Chapman, Sylvia Smith, Teresa, Unknown.

23andMe, once a leader in the consumer DNA testing space, is now struggling. CEO Anne Wojcicki is alone at the helm as all seven independent board members recently resigned. Wojcicki is looking to take the company private.

While the company’s core offering—its DNA test kits—gained attention for its insights into health risks and quirky traits, now the market has shifted. 23andMe’s Ancestry Service, priced at $149 US, offers a comprehensive ancestry breakdown and over 80 personalized reports, but the service is being downgraded. Access to ‘relatives in common’ (aka shared matches) and segment data were recently removed.

Ancestry and MyHeritage offer more affordable genetic genealogy alternatives. However, the company’s core offering may no longer sustain it through the turbulent times ahead as it searches for a revenue model to stem the losses.

This post draws on this article from CNN.

Electoral Registers & Companies House Directors
An additional 376,089 modern electoral registers and Companies House director records are from across Britain. The total collection has more than 124 million records from England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands.

Devon BMBs
A tranche of Devon parish record transcripts is added, all for 1924.
1,849 baptisms
481 marriages
2,566 burials.

Newspapers
This week, the Brighouse Echo for 1893, 1994-1995, 1997, and 1999 and the Alnwick Guardian and County Advertiser for 1889, 1910-1911 are new, with pre-1950 content.

Pre-1950 additions are to the Buxton Herald for 1893-1894, 1900, 1905; the Harrogate Advertiser and Weekly List of the Visitors for 1854, 1860, 1866, 1872; the Tiverton Gazette (Mid-Devon Gazette) for 1903; and the Caernarvon & Denbigh Herald for 1832-1833, 1835, 1838-1839, 1841-1842, 1845, 1922.

As of Thursday, 19 September 2024, 261,233,084 results were available in the FamilySearch Labs Experimental Search. Here’s the geographic breakdown for the past 500 years.

There are several other regions, none with more than 8,000 results.

All additions for the past week have been for the USA, an increase of 63%.

As of Friday morning, the landing page for Labs at https://www.familysearch.org/en/labs/ shows the message “There aren’t any experiments available to try right now. But we are always working on new features and looking for feedback. Come back soon to see what’s available.” The page was restored as previously, except one must now specify a search term. The stats about the total number of results and used to prepare the pie chart above are no longer available.

There are currently 3,989 items in Collection Search identified as Co-Lab-only contributions, up from 3,979 last month!

There has been essentially no progress on the challenges in the past month, although owing to a change in format, an overall completion figure is unavailable for some challenges. 

Games of the XXI Olympiad, Montréal 1976 remains 79.5% complete.

Treaty 9, with 27 images, remains 3.7% complete.

Mary Ann Shadd Cary remains 47% complete.

Expo67 remains 7% complete.

Summiting Mount Logan in 1925: Fred Lambart’s personal account of the treacherous climb and descent of the highest peak in Canada remains 13% complete.

Women in the War remains 1% complete.

Arthur Lismer’s Children’s Art Classes remains <1% complete.

John Freemont Smith, RG10, Volume number: 4079 remains 88% complete.

Canadian National Land Settlement Association is substantially complete.

Molly Lamb Bobak remains 95% complete.

Diary of François-Hyacinthe Séguin remains 99% complete.

George Mully: moments in Indigenous communities remains 0% complete.

Correspondence regarding First Nations veterans returning after the First World War remains 99% complete.

Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 remains 95% complete.

Legendary Train Robber and Prison Escapee Bill Miner remains 99% complete.

Japanese-Canadians: Second World War remains 3% complete.

The Call to Duty: Canada’s Nursing Sisters is substantially complete.

Projects that remain 100% complete are no longer reported here.

More Canadian BMD information has appeared for convenient access for MyHeritage subscribers and those with free group access.

Sourced from the Drouin Institute, this collection contains 7,901,531 birth, baptism, death, and burial transcript records from 1500 onwards. Records typically include the individual’s name, date and place of birth, date and place of baptism, date and place of death, place of burial, and the parents’ names.

OGS members and Ottawa Public Library cardholders have free online group access to the MyHeritage Library Edition.

Thanks to the work of volunteers, series BT 124, registers of certificates for masters and mates, are now searchable on The National Archives (UK) Discovery catalogue. Records provide certificate numbers, birth details, certification dates, and voyage information.

A detailed blog post at https://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/tracing-merchant-seaman-in-the-19th-century/  explains the process of digitizing and indexing the records used in the transcription using the website fromthepage.com.

It also covers the complementary nature of records held by The National Archives and the National Maritime Museum, providing examples of how these records can be used together to trace a seaman’s career. It mentions the inclusion of former Royal Navy personnel in these merchant navy records and provides several examples. Two examples include mention of Canadian locations. Records mentioning many other Canadian locations, such as birthplace, are in the collection.

We can now search these records in various ways, including by name, birth details, or certification information. While BT 124 covers certificates of service for masters and mates in foreign trade from 1850 to 1888, additional registers are not yet digitized or searchable by name on Discovery. Something to look forward to!

Below is the “INSIDE THIS ISSUE …” content from the latest Family Tree magazine (UK), including ads, sponsored content and all.

6 FAMILY HISTORY NEWS
Read up on new family history-related projects, appointments & developments.

10 PROJECT: RESEARCHING AN UNRELATED COHORT
Paul Bingham and Paul Robinson share the findings of their project to celebrate the lives of 106 pioneer female doctors.

12 A GUIDE TO TRACING MARINER ANCESTORS
Nicholas Dixon provides a tour of the must-search records and how to interpret them.

18 DEAR PAUL
Tuck into Paul Chiddicks’ latest selection of genealogical novelties sourced from the family history scene.

24 ACADEMY: TRACING ARMY ANCESTORS
Family Tree Academy tutor David Annal advises on pre-1914 military research.

30 TWIGLETS
The latest chapter in Gill Shaw’s enchanted family fairy tale.

33 YOUR 6-STEP PLAN TO BRICK-WALL SMASHING RESEARCH
Phil Isherwood demonstrates the value of using a Research
Methodology to make progress on even the toughest of cases.

46 HOW ANCESTRY’S ‘ENHANCED SHARED MATCHES’ CAN HELP YOU
DNA Workshop advisor Karen Evans is on hand to explain to
benefits to your research.

52 CHOOSING THE BEST DNA TEST FOR YOU
Michelle Leonard advises on the key points to consider.

56 SPOTLIGHT ON
Read about the latest society in our series (The York FHS).

58 JOIN FAMILY TREE TODAY & SAVE
Save on your family history learning with Family Tree.

60 Q&A
Our experts pit their wits to solve reader puzzles.

63 WHICH ANCESTRY MEMBERSHIP IS RIGHT FOR YOU?Find the one to suit your research needs and your pocket.

64 PHOTO CORNER
Jayne Shrimpton helps to put dates to pictures from the past.

66 DIARY DATES
Your round-up of the latest genealogy events.

68 YOUR LETTERS
Readers share their views.

70 CLASSIFIED ADS
Professional researchers, and more. Be sure to mention Family Tree when responding to adverts!

Choose from selected free online events in the next five days.
All times are ET except as noted. Assume registration in advance is required; check so you’re not disappointed. Find out about many more, mainly US events, at Conference Keeper.

Tuesday, 17 September

2 pm: Ottawa Virtual Genealogy Drop-in, for OGS Ottawa Branch. 
https://ottawa.ogs.on.ca/events/virtual-genealogy-drop-in-2-2024-09-17/

2:30 pm: Pioneers and Pedigrees: Early Western New York Research, by Kaitlyn Pauley for Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center.
https://acpl.libnet.info/event/11543641

8 pm: A Myriad of Slave Databases, by LaBrenda Garrett-Nelson for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/a-myriad-of-slave-databases/

Wednesday, 18 September

2 pm: Practical chromosome mapping: gaining insights from segments of DNA, by Jonny Perl for Legacy Family Tree Webinars. Recommended.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/practical-chromosome-mapping-gaining-insights-from-segments-of-dna/

7 pm: Childhood Interrupted: A Child Migrant’s Journey as told by her daughter, Kathryn Adams (Rescheduled)
https://lambton.ogs.on.ca/events/lambton-branch-childhood-interrupted-by-kathryn-adams/

7 pm: A History of the Orillia Opera House, by Chris Decker for the Orillia Museum of Art and History.
http://www.orilliamuseum.org/7-24

Thursday, 19 September

6:30 pm: Unlocking Paternal Ancestry Through Y-DNA tests, by Scott Tribble for Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center.
https://acpl.libnet.info/event/11544430

7 pm: Trace Your French-Canadian Ancestors to France and Find Records, by Jean-Yves Vanier-Verbeek for OGS Sault Ste Marie & District of Algoma Branch.
https://saultanddistrict.ogs.on.ca/events/sault-ste-marie-district-of-algoma-branch-trace-your-french-canadian-ancestors-to-france-and-find-records-jean-yves-vanier-verbeek/

Friday, 20 September

Webtember presentations from Legacy Family Tree Webinars.

10:15 am: The Real Life of New England Vital Records, by Diane MacLean Boumenot
11:30 am: Broken Branches: How to Detect Cases of Misattributed Parentage in Your Family Tree,  by Paul Woodbury.
12:45 pm: Using the Hudson Bay Company Records for Genealogy Research, by Tara Shymanski.
2:00 pm: Researching in Jalisco, by Lisa Medina
3:30 pm: 5 Ways to Make the Most of MyHeritage.com Photo Tools, by Maureen Taylor

Saturday, 21 September

10 am: Researching Indigenous Ancestors in Ontario, by Jenna Lemay for OGS Kingston Branch.
https://kingston.ogs.on.ca/