The CEF enlisted a total of 619,636 individuals. Out of these, 424,589 served outside Canada.

While I pause to recover from the OGS Conference, here’s a review of some First World War Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) statistics. You may find different stats quoted; these will be close.

Conscription became a crucial element as the war progressed and volunteer numbers dwindled.

Province/Territory	Total Enlistments	Enlistments as % of 1911 Population	Conscripts
PEI & NS (combined)	39,419	6.48%	5,442
New Brunswick (NB)	27,061	7.69%	5,157
Quebec (Que)	88,052	4.40%	19,050
Ontario (ON)	242,655	9.62%	27,087
Manitoba (MB)	66,240	14.35%	6,787
Saskatchewan (SK)	41,689	8.47%	8,204
Alberta (AB)	48,885	13.05%	5,987
BC & Yukon (BC&Y)	55,570	14.06%	5,641
UK & BWI	3,079	–	–
USA	6,986	–	–
Total	619,636	–	83,335

For enlistments as a percent of population, the Western provinces, except Saskatchewan, stand out.

About 86% of Canadian residents who served were volunteers.

British Columbia and the Yukon had the highest volunteerism, with 89.85% of enlistments being volunteers.

Manitoba followed closely with 89.76%.

Ontario had 88.84% volunteer enlistments and by far the highest total enlistment.

Alberta also showed a strong volunteer rate at 87.75%. Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia combined had a volunteer rate of 86.20%. In contrast, New Brunswick and Saskatchewan had lower volunteer rates at 80.94% and 80.32% respectively.

Quebec had the lowest volunteer percentage at 78.37%, reflecting the province’s strong resistance to voluntary enlistment and the contentious implementation of conscription.

I was at first surprised that Saskatchewan had much lower volunteer rates than the two neighbouring provinces. Did it reflected the significant population of recent immigrants, particularly from Eastern Europe, less connected to the British Empire?  Being a primarily agricultural province, the economic necessity of maintaining agricultural output may have mitigated against volunteering.

I’m writing this as the OGS conference in Toronto has just concluded. It was a wonderful experience, expertly organized by the team, most from OGS Toronto  branch, under the leadership of Ann Brown.

I attended talks by Blaine Bettinger, Dinah Southard,  James Thomson, Jonny Perl, Mags Gaulden, Mark Thompson, Paul Jones, Paul Milner, Sunny Mason, and Steve Little (online).

There’s not one I wouldn’t happily attend again. I hope to find the time to do so for those that have recordings available for a limited time.

It was also a pleasure to meet with friends, new and old. They were from as far afield as the UK and California.A large contingent came from Ottawa.

The 2025 conference will be a one-day specialist event on 31 May 2025 in London Ontario. OGS considers Ottawa to be considered a major location for OGS conferences and will likely be expected to host sometime after 2025.

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

Good Environmental News
https://theconversation.com/the-last-ozone-layer-damaging-chemicals-to-be-phased-out-are-finally-falling-in-the-atmosphere-232045

Out of Africa – The Story of Human Migration

 

Genealogical citations. Like fibre in the diet, we’re told they’re good for us.

They aim to provide evidence of the sources used, facilitate others’ review and evaluation of the evidence, and make it easier to find the source in the future.

With those benefits come disadvantages, notably that they take up paper and ink when printed while being passed over by most readers. They are tedious to produce.

Following on a test of Cite-Builder and ChatGPT4.o on a Canada 1901 census example, here’s another for an English baptismal record using ChatGPT4.o. I prompted for the citation in Evidence Explained format. The result varies depending on the source – Ancestry/Findmypast/
MyHeritage/FamilySearch – as it should be.

Given the strictures of Evidence Explained, I doubt these are fully format compliant, but they are considerably less tedious to produce, and have all the information,  and perhaps more, than you might want.

From Ancestry
Northwood, William Henry. Baptism, 26 December 1845, Birmingham, St Philip, Warwickshire, England. Birth, 9 June 1840. Age 5. Father: John Northwood. Mother: Jane Northwood. “Birmingham, England, Church of England Baptisms, 1813-1922.” Ancestry.com. https://www.ancestry.com.

From Ancestry using information in Sources
Northwood, William Henry. Baptism, 26 December 1845, Birmingham, St Philip, Warwickshire, England. Birth, 9 June 1840. Age 5. Father: John Northwood. Mother: Jane Northwood. “Birmingham, England, Church of England Baptisms, 1813-1922.” Library of Birmingham; Birmingham, England, UK; Birmingham Church of England Parish Registers; Reference Number: Dro 25; Archive Roll: M43. Ancestry.com. https://www.ancestry.com.

From Ancestry, requesting an abbreviated version
Northwood, William Henry. Baptism, 26 December 1845, Birmingham, St Philip, Warwickshire, England. Library of Birmingham; Birmingham Church of England Parish Registers; Ref. Dro 25; Archive Roll: M43. Ancestry.com.

From Findmypast
Northwood, William Henry. Baptism, 27 December 1840, Aston Juxta Birmingham, Warwickshire, England. Birth year 1840. Father: John Northwood. Mother: Jane Northwood. “England Births & Baptisms 1538-1975.” Transcript, Findmypast.co.uk. https://www.findmypast.co.uk. Index © IRI. Used by permission of FamilySearch Intl.

From MyHeritage
Northwood, William Henry. Birth, 9 June 1840, and christening, 27 December 1840, Aston Juxta Birmingham, Warwick, England. Father: John Northwood. Mother: Jane Northwood. “England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975.” Indexing Project (Batch) Number C01168-2. System Origin: England-ODM. GS Film number 919793. MyHeritage. https://www.myheritage.com.

FamilySearch suggested citation
“England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975”, database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NY1G-3RS : 4 February 2023), William Henry Northwood, 1845.

From FamilySearch results
Northwood, William Henry. Christening, 26 December 1845, St Philip, Birmingham, Warwickshire, England. Birth, 9 June 1840. Father: John Northwood. Mother: Jane Northwood. FamilySearch. https://www.familysearch.org.

This week the FMP focus is on one of the smaller, both for size and population, of England’s ancient counties.

The Bedfordshire Baptisms collection now includes 10,239 new images and transcriptions, covering 274 years. This brings the total number of baptism records to 150,239.

In addition, the Bedfordshire Marriages collection has 5,529 new records. These records, dating from 1538 to 1812, bring the total number of marriage records to 120,529.

The Bedfordshire Burials collection has been enriched with 7,748 new records. These date from 1538 to 1812, increasing the total number of burial records to 130,748.

A smoother experience. That’s what Findmypast promised in a notification that their app has a new look and feel.

It’s free to download on Android devices in the USA, Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, and Apple/iOS devices, except in New Zealand!

Find out about its capabilities and what’s new at https://www.findmypast.com/page/app

An exceptional day organized by Paul Jones. Presentations by Steve Little (2), Blaine Bettinger (2), and Daniel Horowitz, shorter “Great Moments” presentations and a panel session.

Mark Thompson, Blaine Bettinger, and Daniel Horowitz chaired by Jonny Perl.

Recordings are to be available to those registered in person and online, for 45 days, and subsequent registrants.

In this issue, President Dianne Brydon kicks off the year-long celebration of BIFHSGO’s 30th year.  It outlines plans and goals after summarizing the Society’s history and accomplishments.

Heather Ashe recounts how she uses DNA matches to research a relatively undocumented Irish ancestry.

Marnie McCall describes the records she found—and where she found them—to fill out the family’s story of the emigration of her German ancestors who arrived in Canada via Russia.
Allenby is a renowned name in British military history.

Sheila Dohoo Faure recounts the story of a soldier whose short career was eclipsed by his famous father in the continuing series on soldiers who passed through the No. 1 Canadian Casualty Clearing Station.

My regular column, Cream of the Crop, wraps up the issue, updating on techniques and resources.

Anglo-Celtic Roots is one of many benefits of BIFHSGO membership.

Two Ancestry databases were updated on 10 June.

UK and Allied Countries, World War II Liberated Prisoner of War Questionnaires, 1945-1946
129,525 entries

Records in this collection may include: Name, Rank, Service number, Ship name, Unit name, Birth date, Enlistment date, Capture date and place, Escape attempt details.

The information in the questionnaires can be used to verify where and when captured during the Second World War. You also may discover information on serious illnesses during captivity, and any courageous acts by fellow prisoners of war. Authorities were interested in attempted escapes, evasive activities and any people who helped them during an escape attempt.

Canada, Incoming Passenger Lists, 1865-1935
8,306,700 entries

Despite the “About” information showing the collection containing records for Quebec Ports (May 1865–Jun 1908, Jun 1919–Jul 1921, Apr 1925–Nov 1935), there are entries from 1908 to 1919 as well as the seperate database Canada, Ocean Arrivals (Form 30A), 1919-1924.

 

L’s mother requested her husband’s war record three years ago. It’s just been received 18 months after she died.

Regrettably, L’s request for his uncle’s records, sent six months after the first, is still awaiting a response … frustration. 

The backlog could be significantly shortened, leading to more timely responses. A collaboration with LAC to digitize all WW2 service files, ensuring that only those beyond the 110-year after-birth or 20 years after-death embargo period are released online, could be a mutually beneficial solution. LAC has previously worked with FamilySearch, Ancestry and perhaps others to make records available. Why not again?

Legacy Family Tree is one of the leading pieces of genealogical software in North America, along with Family Tree Maker and RootsMagic.

The learning curve is sufficiently steep with any of these that changing software is not to be done lightly.

With the new Legacy Family Tree 10 for Windows, would FREE be enough to get you to at least download it and try it? I have and was quickly able to transfer one of my databases via Gedcom. I do need to spend more time with it.

Be your own judge, Start here with an introduction to the new version, links to download it and to helpful videos.

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 at https://conferencekeeper.org