Anglo-Celtic Connections

Here are the feature articles from the new issue, and selected highlights.

Parish Registers
Jonathan Scott unveils his region-by-region guide to the essential websites that can help you uncover 500 years of family history. It’s mostly an update on what’s available on the usual suspects: Ancestry, Findmypast, TheGenealogist, FamilySearch, freereg, and local sites.
Agricultural Prizes
Nina Hoole explains what the prizes awarded at agricultural shows can reveal about our ancestors. I identified folks in my family tree who moved from north to south Norfolk though prize announcements in the British Newspaper Archive, available through Findmypast.
Crime & Punishment
In “The Long Arm of the Law”, Angela Buckley investigates how the Victorians cracked down on a growing problem. Again, in my experience newspapers are the best resource for finding those involved in criminal cases.
Irish Newspapers
Genealogist Nicola Morris shares her expert advice for
using Irish newspapers to boost your research

Best Websites
Jonathan Scott picks the best online resources to
explore the origins and history of your family name,
including digital dictionaries and one-name studies.

British Army Officers
In the Masterclass series, Phil Tomaselli explains how to research British Army officers’ families as a major release arrives on Ancestry.

Treemily.com
Nick Peers reveals how to create a stylish family history
chart using the website, and reveals some issues

Devonshire Archives
In the Around Britain series, Jonathan Scott explains how the collections held in archives in Exeter, Plymouth and Barnstaple can help your research.

There’s lots more, all available free if your public library provides online access.

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

Tuesday, 2 April

7:30 pm ET – They Sure Moved Around! by Sher Leetooze for OGS Durham County Branch.
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAude2grzstHNx8Tsob2Zit6OsZ05EHGdda

8 pm ET – The Power of AncestryDNA, by Crista Cowan for NGS (USA) and Ancestry.com.
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMlc-2qrTwuGNan4Ur0KssfsyjM6vXxp30y#/registration

9 pm ET – Non-Conformism in England and Wales, by Jenny Joyce for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/non-conformism-in-england-and-wales/

Wednesday, 3 April

2 pm ET – Solving a Virginia Mystery Using DNA, by  Paula Williams for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/solving-a-virginia-mystery-using-dna/

7:30 pm ET – The Canada Company, by David Yates for OGS Huron Branch.
https://huron.ogs.on.ca/events/huron-branch-canada-company-david-yates/

Thursday, 4 April

2 pm ET – Researching Family History at Your Library with MyHeritage Library Edition, by Daniel Horowitz for MyHeritage and Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/researching-family-history-at-your-library-with-myheritage-library-edition/

7 pm ET – How at-DNA and Big Y-DNA lead to the Big Surprise! by Edward Swierczewski Jr. for OGS
https://ogs.on.ca/events/society-webinar-how-at-dna-and-big-y-dna-lead-to-the-big-surprise-edward-swierczewski-jr/

10 pm ET – Drought and Family History, by Wayne Shepheard for Campbell River Genealogy Society (BC).
https://www.crgenealogysociety.ca/events/regular-meeting-7-9-pm-details-click-here-9/

Friday, 5 April

2 pm ET – From This Day Forward – Documenting Marital Unions of Enslaved and Emancipated Persons, by Renate Yarborough Sanders for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/from-this-day-forward-documenting-marital-unions-of-enslaved-and-emancipated-persons/

Saturday, 6 April

1:30 pm ET – The Rice Lake Trading Post, by Robert Pearce for the Lakeshore Genealogical Society. 
Email LGSregister@gmail.com to register.

2 pm ET – The Spirit of Orillia, by David Town for OGS Simcoe County Branch.
https://simcoe.ogs.on.ca/branch-meetings/

 

Congratulations to the Society of Australian Genealogists, which has announced a competition highlighting the growing awareness of the use of Artificial Intelligence within the Family History Community.

This shows image-ination. Not the same old same old.

https://www.sag.org.au/ai-image-competition

Good news. The digital archive’s reappearance, serving more than Toronto, is another step in the library’s recovery from a ransomware attack.

Search over 180 thousand items or browse in categories such as primary source material: Canadian WWI Posters, Canadian WWII Posters, Prohibition in Ontario, War of 1812, and WWII: Canadian Women.

https://digitalarchive.tpl.ca/

Do you love digging into the past? Non-profit heritage organizations offer opportunities. Seniors, especially those at or past retirement, bring valuable life experience and specialist skills. Volunteering is a chance to expand horizons, find new challenges, and connect with a dedicated community.

Volunteers with family history, genealogy, museums, historical and similar heritage non-profits can get these benefits:

• Maintain Skills: Use your specialist knowledge as part of the organization’s team. Don’t let the financial, organizational, communications, research or leadership skills you developed over a career atrophy.
• Deeper Knowledge: Work with historical records, learn new research techniques, and gain insights you might not find on your own.
• Sense of Community: Connect and contribute with others who share your passion for history and family, make new friends.

In Ottawa and area, get started with the list of member organiztions of the Capital Heritage Connection, formerly CHOO/COPO, at https://www.capitalheritage.ca/member-category/all-members/.

As I was finalizing this, I came across the article If you want to be truly happy in retirement, say goodbye to these 12 habits.

April is Global Volunteers Month.

Thanks to those who have volunteered with heritage organizations over the years.

 

I’m hoping it’s not the weatherperson playing an April Fool joke.

After an early April storm in the middle of this week, probabilities for clear to partly cloudy skies for the solar eclipse on 8 April have been getting stronger with time.

The collection added to 89 newspapers in March, compared to 120 last month. That includes seven new titles: Country Life; Prisoners of War News; The Regiment; Gravesend Messenger; Kent County Examiner and Ashford Chronicle; Scarborough Evening News; Brighouse Echo.

The earliest date is 1850.

The collection now totals 75,449,460 pages, up from 74,399,999 in the February update. Just two papers had more than 10,000 pages added.

Now available for 1897-2009, Country Life, with 509,579 pages, is an outstanding addition.  it addresses the interests of the “civilised person in the old sense of the word, someone as much at home working in the garden as seeing an art exhibition, as fascinated by the nesting habits of birds as the restoration of a state bed, as concerned about pollution as much as who will win the Boat Race.” Also lots of ads for properties for sale.  https://www.countrylife.co.uk/country-life/country-lifes-120-year-journey-began-thanks-visionary-founder-146435.

The other major addition is the Scarborough Evening News,  1889, 1986-1997.

, 

 

Happy Easter! 🥚🐇🐾

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

Cranky Uncle

What is the ‘new climate denial’ and how does it impact our response to climate change?

Daniel Kahneman, renowned psychologist and Nobel prize winner, dies at 90

On the necessity of a sin: Why treating AI like a person is the future

Fifth Annual 24-Hour Genealogy Webinar Marathon
Starting at 5 pm ET Thursday, 11 April. Hosted by FamilyTreeWebinars.com and MyHeritage, it’s free!

Church of England Cornwall Parish records were added to MyHeritage on 27 March, sourced through FamilySearch.

Births and Baptisms
This collection contains 968,495 birth and baptism records, with images, between the years 1571 and 1960. 
Marriages
377,612 transcripts and images, 1569-1938
Burials
376,294 transcripts and images, 1572-2010.

Here are the counts for 40-year intervals.

Remember, Cornwall has a selection of parishes with Online Parish Clerk pages.

Manchester Electoral Registers
Discover the names and addresses of Mancunians from 1,285,051 new transcriptions and images. Records indicated to be up to 1970, but there’s an anomaly after 1940 – each year finds exactly 12,413 results!

Manchester Rate Books
How to reconcile the information FMP gives about these records?
– 384,785 new Rate Book records.
– “These records comprise almost five million names of taxpayers from the early nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century in the boroughs which now make up Greater Manchester.”
– 14,336,653 found by searching with no criteria entered.

No argument, these are “an excellent census substitute and usually record the following detail:
• Name of Occupier (head of household)
• Name of Owner
• Description of the property (house or business)
• Street Address/Township/Parish
• Rate to be paid (e.g. poor rate, water rate)
• Amount to paid
• Date paid or any default on payment

Every fifth year’s rate books are indexed to coincide with census years for parts of the following boroughs:

• Bolton 1916-1936
• Manchester 1706-1941
• Oldham 1841-1936
• Rochdale 1826-1921
• Stockport 1886-1921
• Tameside 1846-1936
• Trafford 1836-1931
• Wigan 1806-1936”

Malta, Monumental Inscriptions
These grave records from Malta cover almost 200 years, from 1829 right up to 2022. There are 6,026 images and transcriptions for you to explore, from the follow cemeteries:

Ta’ Braxia Cemetery
Sliema War Memorial
Pembroke Military Cemetery
Malta Memorial
Imtarfa Military Cemetery
Kalkara Cemetery
Valletta Cemetery

 

Ten days out, when weather forecasts just marginally show some skill. The good news is that the forecast probabilities for 8 April from the North American Ensemble Forecast System (NAEFS) show less precipitation for the St Lawrence Valley than before. The probabilities of overcast skies are edging down. You may need those eclipse glasses.

https://weather.gc.ca/ensemble/naefs/EPSgrams_e.html

New to MyHeritage on 27 March find 632,593 burials, 1,607,084 marriages, and 2,373,480 births and baptisms for parishes in Manchester, Lancashire, England.
The records, with images of the original, go back as far as the 16th century for the Church of England in Greater Manchester and are sourced via FamilySearch.