Anglo-Celtic Connections

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. Looking for more options? Additional mainly US events are listed at https://conferencekeeper.org/virtual.

Tuesday 11 July

11 am: Navigating Maritime History: A Comprehensive Webinar, by Peter McCracken for Ohio Genealogical Society.
https://www.ogs.org/event/navigating-maritime-history-a-comprehensive-webinar-with-peter-mccracken-of-shipindex-org/

2 pm: OGS Ottawa Branch Virtual Genealogy Drop-In. https://meet.google.com/nvz-kftj-dax

2 pm: See Your Family in a Whole New Light! by Diane Henriks for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/see-your-family-in-a-whole-new-light/

2:30 pm: Hopping the Pond: Researching in Germany: What You Need to Know and Websites to Help – Part 1, by Carol Carman for Allen Country Public Library Genealogy Center.
https://acpl.libnet.info/event/8689678

6 pm: Collection Close-Ups: “New York City Birth Indexes” and “New York State Birth Indexes”, by Kalyn Loewer for New York Genealogical and Biographical Society.
https://www.newyorkfamilyhistory.org/events/collection-close-ups-%E2%80%9Cnew-york-city-birth-indexes%E2%80%9D-and-%E2%80%9Cnew-york-state-birth-indexes%E2%80%9D

8 pm: Introduction to Using ChatGPT and Family History Research, by Michelle Mickelson for St. George FamilySearch Center.
https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/St._George_Utah_FamilySearch_Center/Classes

Wednesday 12 July

8 pm: Indentured Servitude in the Mid-Atlantic States, by Craig Roberts Scott for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/indentured-servitude-in-the-mid-atlantic-states/

Thursday 13 July

6:30 pm: Chicago Genealogy Research, by Jaymie Middendorf or Allen Country Public Library Genealogy Center.
https://acpl.libnet.info/event/8689679

Friday 14 July

2 pm: Celebrating 2,000 Webinars! Plus 10 tips you can use today by Geoff Rasmussen for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/celebrating-2000-webinars-plus-10-tips-you-can-use-today/

Saturday 15 July

 

Before railways, your ancestor would use turnpike roads to get quickly between cities in the 18th and most of the 19th century in England and Wales.
The turnpike road system was not planned centrally but resulted from local enterprise, regulated through Acts of Parliament. Bodies of local trustees were given powers to levy tolls on the users of a specified stretch of road, generally around 20 miles in length. Using money secured against this toll income, a trust arranged to improve and maintain a particular stretch of turnpike road.

The development of the system meant average speeds increased from 4 mph in the 1700s to 8 mph in the 1800s

Find out just about all you could want to know about turnpikes, gates, tollhouses and associated infrastructure, with maps by county, at http://www.turnpikes.org.uk/.

This topic was a presentation at a Travel and Mobility Seminar on 13 May this year and summarized in the Journal of One-Name Studies, Volume 14, Issue 11 July-Sept 2023,

 

 

 

Chris Paton in his latest Scottish GENES Newsletter recounts a research trip to the National Records of Scotland’s Historical Search Room. He found a document he wanted to consult was held offsite, that not mentioned in the catalogue.

It’s something many of us have encountered, not just at the NRS. Catalogues are never perfect and offsite storage is common. It costs to store archival materials, and costs more in a prime central location. Simple economics demands storing materials that are rarely consulted where real estate is less expensive.

Over ten years ago I was part of a group consulted on the site for the new City of Ottawa archives. We agreed to the present location at 100 Tallwood, Nepean, recognizing it would be  less convenient to downtown, but meant all the materials could be in one place. The site has room to add additional storage onsite, is adjacent to planned rapid transit, decent bus service now, and free parking. Similar considerations must have been behind the choice of location for the Archives of Ontario at York University, with the exception of free parking!

Never assume the document you want will be readily available. Even if it is onsite it could take a while to retrieve. It may also be temporarily withdrawn. Order in advance where possible; don’t rely on the catalogue.

You can sign up for Chris’ newsletter at http://scottishgenes.blogspot.com.

This is the 80th anniversary of the allied landing on Sicilly during the Second World War. American and combined British and Canadian troops were involved from 9 July – 17 August 1943.

How deadly was the action? Agira Canadian War Cemetery contains 490 Commonwealth burials including 434 Canadians. Agira was taken by the 1st Canadian Division on 28 July 1943. An additional 35 Canadians who died during the period, but with no known grave, are among the over 3,100 Commonwealth servicemen commemorated at the Cassino Memorial.

The Canadian War Museum has a transcript of an interview with Robert Kingstone which includes a description of the chaos of the landing in Sicilly.

Even though it’s chock full of interesting history, I rarely go to the Dictionary of Canadian Biography website. At the most recent visit, I found new biographies for BELL, FREDERICK McKELVEY; GREEN, THOMAS DANIEL; BÉDARD, JULIEN-AUGUSTIN and MACDONALD, ANNIE CAROLINE.

I checked it recently, not for the content so much as to see the length of the citations. Take the first paragraph of one for this recent addition.

MACDONALD, ANNIE CAROLINE , missionary, social reformer, and interpreter; b. 15 Oct. 1874 in Wingham, Ont., fourth of the five children of Peter Macdonald, a medical doctor and future Liberal mp , and Margaret Ross; d. unmarried 18 July 1931 in London, Ont., and was buried in Wingham.

The hatch, match and dispatch information is there, but with no citations to where the detail can be found. A genealogist might shudder at the omission.  Where do you come down in between wanting a series of facts, or a presentation of the significance of the person’s life. For me there’s enough in the article to allow follow-up with research in civil registration, census and other sources if you want, without being directed by a traditional citation.

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

Paul Milner to speak at OGS Conference 2024
Paul is added to the marquee speaker roster.

3000+ Most Popular AI Websites Sorted By Monthly Traffic

Mapping Loch Ness Monster Sightings

A Walking Poem
Short poems based on your current location.

Support the Internet Archive

I’m unsure if this is new or just new on YouTube.

While the BBC’s Who Do You Think You Are? series continues to be popular,  according to TVLine, no new NBC  episodes are being made as of May 2023.

Welcome. I hope you’re feeling in good health.

Today has the fewest deaths of any day during the year. That’s according to 2016 – 2019 statistics for Ontario, available from Statistics Canada. July averaged 262 deaths per day during the period. A curve fitted to the monthly figures has a minimum on this date, give or take a few days depending on the curve fit.

Britain & Ireland, Naturalisations 1603-1700
This new collection of 12,959 records may help you discover if your ancestor became a British citizen in the 17th century. The collection is derived from the  413-page “Letters of Denization and Acts of Naturalization for Aliens in England and Ireland, 1603-1700”, edited by William Arthur Shaw. Documentary sources for denization are drawn from the Patent Rolls and a number of subsidiary sources including the Signet Office Docquet Book and the Privy Seals as well as the Patent Rolls of Ireland and span the period from the reign of James I, through the Interregnum and Restoration, up to around 1700. Shaw’s book was published by The Huguenot Society of London in 1911.  The FMP collection provides an index linked to images.

Lincolnshire Baptisms
A further 231,796 baptisms have been added to this existing collection, spanning 1539 to 1922. You get a transcription and link to the original record image.  The collection totals 2,630,292 entries with more to come — no 1877 entry for Justin James (Jimmy) Simpson yet!

National Burial Index For England & Wales
Another 10,401 transcriptions have been added to this record collection, for the county of Herefordshire between 1631 and 1812. These records, now totaling over 12 million, are published in partnership with the Family History Federation.

According to a post from WDYTYA? Magazine the GRO has launched a new scheme allowing instant access to 1837-1922 birth records and 1837-1887 death records by downloading them as digital images!

The digital images cost £2.50 each and are available to view immediately after purchase. These are images of the entry in the GRO register. not certificates.

This is a beta testing phase publicly available to all registered users of the GRO website.

A 30 June post by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission gives a survey of records at The UK National Archives, Library and Archives Canada and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. They come in all different shapes and sizes and provide a wealth of information, with many available online.

Recognize these names? Mags Gaulden, Tara Shymanski, Dave Obee. They made some of the most watched FamilyTreeWebinars.com presentations in June 2023!

6. Discovering More From Your Next Generation Sequence (NGS | Big Y) Test by Mags Gaulden
10. Finding Your Ancestors in Canadian Land Records by Tara Shymanski
11. A Fresh Light on Old Newspapers by Dave Obee
23. 6 Clues Revealed in Census Records by Tara Shymanski.

See the complete list at https://news.legacyfamilytree.com/legacy_news/2023/07/top-10-genealogy-webinars-plus-the-1-rated-june-2023.html

Access to these and all others in the Legacy Family Tree Webinar library are available with a webinar membership. In my opinion it’s the best deal in genealogy (I don’t get a kickback!) It’s even better when there’s a sale!