Anglo-Celtic Connections

You are invited to the free British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa hybrid meeting on Saturday, 12 September.

At 9:00 AM, Paper, Photos, and the Unexpected: What do Museums and Archives Want from Family Historians? with panellists: Arlene Doucette, Collections Specialist, Dress and Insignia and Alain Simard, Collections Specialist, Archives, from the War Museum, and Jon Stewart, volunteer with the Pontiac Archives. They will share practical advice on identifying historically significant items and deciding when donations may be appropriate. Learn what kinds of documents and artifacts are most sought after, what institutions can and cannot accept, and how seemingly ordinary family items can help tell the larger story of a community, occupation, migration, faith tradition, or era.

At 10:00 AM, Small Moments

BIFHSGO members will share a small moment; significant, but smaller and less earth-shattering than a Great Moment. It is a short story about an interesting finding from family history research.

A Mirror to the Past – Carol Annett
A Tragedy that Triggered a Wedding – Paul Cripwell
An Elusive Nephew – John Reid
My Granny’s Bible – Nancy Higgins
When is a Horse Not a Horse? – Gil Croome
A Suite Story Uncovered – Dianne Brydon

Join us in person at Knox Presbyterian Church (Lisgar & Elgin) in Geneva Hall. Please use the Garden Entrance on Elgin Street. Limited free street parking is available on Saturdays, and the City Hall Parking Garage is available for $2.00.
Join online by registering here , covering both sessions.

• Story-Telling: Immersive Vault at Adisoke
  A large-scale interactive wall, the Immersive Vault “transforms LAC’s collections into living experiences where objects, images, voices and memories come together to reveal the many stories that shape Canada’s documentary heritage.”
• LAC records too difficult to digitize!
  If true, this article from Juno News, citing a Tuesday, 25 August  2026 article from Blacklock’s Reporter, shows LAC is content to hoard. “Seventy-eight percent of records, 860 million pages, are still inaccessible.”  Why? “boxes must be physically retrieved from storage,” and  the problem of removing “clips, staples and other fasteners.”
  Leslie Weir, Librarian and Archivist of Canada, recently returned from a trip to the annual IFLA conference in Busan, Korea. She is IFLA President. It’s sad that, with all that talent assembled in one place, she couldn’t learn from other organizations successfully managing digitization for access.
• What’s in Collection Search?
  As of 5 September, there are 7,930,971 items in the Archives section of Collection Search, 8,227,689 in the Genealogy section, 4,424,294 in Library and 352,681 in Images.

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 https://conferencekeeper.org/virtual/

Tuesday, 8 September

2:30 PM: Getting Started With FamilySearch, by Allison DePrey for Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center.
https://acpl.libnet.info/event/17132339

7:00 PM: INK2 – The Reboot, by Art Rhyno for OGS Essex Branch. https://essex.ogs.on.ca/meetings/

7:00 PM: Start, Search, Discover: Genealogical Essentials for All Explorers, by Christine Hayes for OGS Lambton County Branch (Zoom, online only). https://lambton.ogs.on.ca/

7:30 PM: Using DNA to Answer Geography Questions, by Dave Obee for OGS Durham Region Branch. https://durham.ogs.on.ca/

Wednesday, 9 September

The following are Legacy Family Tree Webinars Webtember presentations.

10:00 AM: Novel NYC Records, by Alec Ferretti for Legacy Family Tree Webinars. https://familytreewebinars.com/upcoming-webinars/

11:30 AM: 5 Ways Tax Lists Can Assist Your Pennsylvania Research, by Katy Bodenhorn Barnes for Legacy Family Tree Webinars. https://familytreewebinars.com/upcoming-webinars/

1:00 PM: 10 New Tools for Pennsylvania Research, by Kory L. Meyerink, MLS, AG, FUGA, for Legacy Family Tree Webinars. https://familytreewebinars.com/upcoming-webinars/

2:30 PM: Top 10 Websites for Ohio Genealogy, by Dana Palmer, CG®, CGL®, for Legacy Family Tree Webinars. https://familytreewebinars.com/upcoming-webinars/

Wednesday, 9 September

7:00 PM: Ottawa Then and Now, by Catherine Willis-O’Connor for the Historical Society of Ottawa
https://www.historicalsocietyottawa.ca/activities/events/eventdetail/208/16,17,18,19,20,21,22/ottawa-then-and-now

Thursday, 10 September

Friday, 11 September

9:00 AM Researching your (UK) local history, by Jessamy Carlson for the National Archives (UK).
https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/whats-on/events/researching-your-local-history/

2:00 PM: Researching in Middlesex, by Dr Nick Barratt for Legacy Family Tree Webinars. https://familytreewebinars.com/upcoming-webinars/

7:00 PM: My Journey of Discovery – Truth About my British Home Child Grandmother, by Colleen Glassford for OGS Kent Branch. https://kent.ogs.on.ca/

Saturday, 12 September

9:00 AM BIFHSGO Monthly Meeting
https://www.bifhsgo.ca/events

RootsIreland is the coordinating body for 34 local genealogy centres dedicated to preserving and sharing Ireland’s ancestral records.

Presently, a 25% discount is being offerred on an annual account which gives instant access to more than 23 million Irish records.

But go to https://www.rootsireland.ie/ifhf/subscribe.php to see an even greater discount on a 6-month subscription. 

I see no end date for the discount. It could end anytime.

Miscellaneous items I found interesting this week.

Congratulations to David Rajotte on publishing Vol 20, No 1 of Documentary Heritage News.

A New Season of Talks from Gresham College
Providing outstanding educational lectures, talks and events for the public free of charge. Usually at 1 pm ET.

A Practical Guide to Artificial Intelligence in Family History Research
Linda Hammond penned this article in the July issue of the Family History Federation Really Useful Bulletin.

The Findmypast focus switches to New York this week, specifically the Trinity Episcopal Church.

Baptisms: 37,052 records for 1749 to 1885.
Marriages 28,988 records for 1746 to 1886.
Burials, 47,326 records for 1746 to 1958

Also, 6,239  additions to the United States Military, Gallantry Awards 1917-1919.

Newspaper additions are;

New titles:

• Bath and Cheltenham Gazette, 1854, 1877–1879, 1889
• Dartford Chronicle, 1877, 1879, 1889
• Evening Post (Exeter), 1901–1902
• Hindoo Patriot, 1903–1911, 1913–1920
• Oldham Evening Chronicle, 1880–1882
• Tipton & Great Bridge Times, 1889

Updated titles:

• Aberdare Times, 1871
• Anfield & Walton Star, 2000
• Belfast Weekly News, 1884
• Brighton Times, 1869, 1883, 1887, 1891–1892
• Burton Evening Gazette, 1890–1892, 1894–1895, 1897
• Carlow Post, 1874–1876, 1878
• Catholic Times and Catholic Opinion, 1899
• Colchester Gazette, 1911
• County Express; Brierley Hill, Stourbridge, Kidderminster, and Dudley News, 1873
• Coventry Evening Telegraph, 2002
• Derby Daily Telegraph, 2003
• East Anglian Daily Times, 1919
• Enniskillen Chronicle and Erne Packet, 1883
• Evening Star, 1890–1891, 1918–1919
• Fairplay, 1918
• Financial Reformer, 1859, 1870, 1874–1879, 1887
• Garstang Courier, 2005
• Ilford Recorder, 1919
• Jersey Independent and Daily Telegraph, 1887
• Linlithgow Advertiser, 1998, 2005
• Ossett Observer, 1868, 1873, 1889, 1897, 1912
• Roscommon Herald, 1907
• Sandwell Evening Mail, 2000–2001, 2004
• Saunders’s News-Letter, 1798
• Seren (Bala, Wales), 1889–1890, 1894–1907
• Solihull News, 2000–2002
• Solihull Times, 2000, 2002
• Southall Gazette, 2001–2003
• Sporting Chronicle, 1931, 1946
• Suffolk Chronicle, 1898
• Thame Gazette, 2005
• The Record, 1891–1894, 1896–1897, 1899
• West Sussex County Times, 2005
• Whitby Gazette, 2005
• Whitby Times, 1881, 1888–1889
• Wolverhampton Express and Star, 2005

Six of the ten August additions to Canadiana are Streetsville/Port Credit newspapers, covering substantial runs from 1890 through 1923. Further issues, to 1927, are listed as coming soon.
Both communities are now within the City of Mississauga.

After an extended quiet period 19 additions were made to the Héritage collection at CKRN on 3 September 2026.

The records cover several categories:

• Land and Settlement: Includes central registry subject files from the Dominion Lands Branch (1873-1947), Upper Canada Land Petitions (1797-1811), and multiple Western Land Grants from the early 20th century.

• Indigenous and Departmental Records: Extensive files from the Department of Indian Affairs Headquarters central registry system (such as the “red series” and “thousand series” spanning from the late 19th to mid-20th centuries), Indian Affairs Annuity Paylists, and the Indian Affairs Black Series.

• Transportation and Immigration: Features Department of Transport civil aircraft files and a specific passenger list for Halifax (1925-1935).

• Military: Includes nominal rolls and paylists for the Volunteer Militia from the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Curious about how artificial intelligence is changing family history? 

Wednesday, the first day for Legacy Tree  Webinars Webtember series,  streamed three back-to-back sessions, tackling AI from different angles — transcription, land records, and locality research.

For non-subscribers they are available for playback for a week.

Using AI to Answer the Big Three: What, Where, and Why of Ancestor Locations — Diana Elder, AG, AGL

Diana Elder, focused on locality research — arguably one of the most time-consuming parts of genealogy — and how AI tools can speed up the process of identifying what records exist for a place, where to find them, and why an ancestor might have settled there in the first place.

Top 5 AI Tools for Transcribing Handwritten Historical Documents — Nicole Elder Dyer

Deciphering old, faded, and unfamiliar handwriting is a familiar challenge for the family historian.. Her webinar was notable for evaluating the Large Language Models — ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude in their various flavours, giving comparative results on character and word recognition rates. She then sumarizes her explorations some lesser-known tools, including Archive Studio, a Canadian model.

Using AI to Analyze Land Records and Reconstruct Family Narratives — Thomas MacEntee

Rounding out the day, Thomas MacEntee’s session covered how AI can help interpret dense legal language in deeds and court records, map family migrations across property transactions, and turn raw record data into a coherent narrative about an ancestor’s life. US oriented.

None of the speakers suggest AI replaces the researcher — accuracy checks and source verification are still for your due diligence, especially for challenging names and dates. Recent improvements are impressive — each shows a concrete way to fold these tools into your existing research process to save time and, in some cases, spot connections you might otherwise miss.

• How Do You See LAC’s Role?

Here are some ideas from Gemini.

• Challenges for LAC

ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude were asked about the organization’s top three challenges.
ChatGPT
1. Making the enormous collection accessible
2. ATIP backlog and delays
3. Resources for modernization.
Gemini
1. Severe Access to Information (ATIP) and Declassification Backlogs
2. Digital Transformation, Digitization Scale, and Search Discovery
3. Resource Constraints and Institutional Dual-Mandate (Archives/Library) Friction.
Claude
1. Access-to-information backlogs
2. Chronic underfunding and budget cuts
3. Digital preservation and record-keeping in the digital era.

ChatGPT commented: “The ATIP problem gets more attention because it involves a statutory obligation and measurable backlogs, but the much bigger long-term issue for researchers is the huge quantity of material that remains undigitized, inadequately described or difficult to discover. LAC’s own 2024–25 user survey identified more digitization, better search, and richer collections among the principal areas users wanted improved.”

• Should LAC Have An Advisory Council?
  The Library and Archives of Canada Act S.C. 2004, c. 11 has a provision that “The Minister may establish an Advisory Council to advise the Librarian and Archivist with regard to making the documentary heritage known to Canadians and to anyone with an interest in Canada and facilitating access to it.”  Would LAC benefit from arm’s length advice? Yes, if it is committed to taking, or being required to take, independent advice seriously, including advice that challenges its assumptions. Otherwise, the organization judges the advisors don’t appreciate the full picture, and the advisors feel like they’re pushing on wet noodles.A good first step would be for the Minister to seek arm’- length advice on the need for an Advisory Council from respected experts, selected and convened by, say, the Royal Society of Canada.
• Ādisōke
  Did progress come to a halt? After posting updates in May and June, and two in April, nothing has been reported for two months.

I registered. The conference program is too good to miss, even though I don’t have much in the way of confirmed Scottish ancestry. It could be hidden. Ancestry DNA finds I’m 20% Central Scotland & Northern Ireland; MyHeritage 36.3% Scottish and Welsh.

Register here. If you’re a BIFHSGO  member, sign in first to see the member’s rate. For full information about the online event go to https://www.bifhsgo.ca/2026-conference .

To save aggravation with payment, check out the instructions. That’s what I should have done!

I saw this ad on Facebook. If you want to subscribe, I hope you can find way in. As usual, its not good for existing subscribers.