Anglo-Celtic Connections

The FreeBMD Database was updated on Sunday, 23 November 2025, to contain 294,585,442 unique records, up from 294,344,983 in October.

Years with more than 10,000 additions are: births, 1993-96; marriages, 1995-96; deaths, 1991, 1996-97.

The Holiday Legacy Webinars sale is here. Get 50% off a full year’s webinar membership and unlock instant access to 2,500+ full-length genealogy classes.

That ‘s the best bargain in genealogy.

Sadly, it’s only for new memberships. The sale expires this Sunday, 30 November 2025 at 11:59pm MT.

Hint: If you take out a new membership early, it will expire next year, well before the end of the discount period. You will be able to take out a “new” membership at that time. Even if you miss that opportunity, you may get a better-than-full-price offer after your membership expires. Companies know that it costs less to get a lapsed member to resubscribe than to enroll a new subscriber.

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 conferencekeeper.org.

Tuesday 25 November 

2 pm: Ottawa Virtual Genealogy Drop-In, for OGS Ottawa Branch.
https://ottawa.ogs.on.ca/events/virtual-genealogy-drop-in-2-2025-11-25/

2:30 pm: Mayflower Genealogy, by John Beatty for Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center.
https://acpl.libnet.info/event/14743092

7 pm: Piecing Together the Past: The Story of the Coombe Home and Uncovering the Stories of its Young Residents (+ Branch AGM), by Paul Langan for OGS Wellington Branch.
https://wellington.ogs.on.ca/events/wellington-branch-piecing-together-the-past-the-story-of-the-coombe-home-and-uncovering-the-stories-of-its-young-residents-branch-agm/

You can add a 30-day free trial of the MyHeritage Complete plan, giving access to 36.9 billion historical records and features for building a family tree and interpreting DNA results — and if you do, you also get free shipping.

Order here.

So why might you choose to test with MyHeritage DNA? After all, Ancestry DNA has a much larger database, 25+million, compared to 8 million.

1. MyHeritage has a far larger proportion of testers from continental Europe, the UK and Ireland, Israel, South America, and other global regions. AncestryDNA is heavily U.S.-centric.
2. MyHeritage offers a chromosome browser; AncestryDNA does not.
3. MyHeritage now offers whole-genome sequencing (WGS) DNA testing by default. It reads nearly the entire genome (3 billion base pairs) instead of the much smaller sample of traditional tests (700,000 base pairs). This should become increasingly significant as the WGS database grows. 

Today, 24 November 2025, at 7:30 pm, OGS Toronto Branch invites everyone to its last meeting of 2025.  Branch members will be sharing their Great Moments in Genealogy. Great Moments, mini-presentations that won’t put you to sleep, are GREAT.

Those announced so far:

• Ann Brown: Dear Wife—Notes from the trenches
• Carol Ufford: Tracing troubled roots
• Melanie Parker: The Underhills of Hillsdale Avenue
• Mike Loader: The myth of the three brothers
• Paul Jones: A deathly surprise
• Michael Nettleton: What’s in a name?
• Bev MacCulloch: The Sprouls of Glengarry

All are welcome. Please register in advance:
https://torontofamilyhistory.org/event/great-moments-2025/.

Miscellaneous items I found interesting this week.

What do trees remember?

American Ancestors New Digital Access Membership
For only $49.95/year, less than the ‘regular’ membership, this new option includes digital access to their databases and records, partner databases including NewspaperArchive, 19th Century US Newspapers, The New York Times and more; standard access to their online family tree program; and quarterly digital delivery of their magazines and the Register. Details at https://hubs.americanancestors.org/explore-your-family-history-with-our-49.95-access

BIFHSGO Conference Recordings
Until the end of the month, if you registered or would like to, catch the presentations’ recordings while they’re still available.

This is What a Step Change Looks Like
Steve Little offers a simple way to produce a creative family tree.

Recently from Gresham College
The Later Years: Organisation, Independence and Peace of Mind
Why Do We Laugh?
How Women Made the Global Economy
AI Will Be Your Overlord: Faster, Brighter, Better Than You?

Thanks to the following individuals for their comments and tips: Anonymous, Gail, Glenn Wright, Joan, Teresa, Mike More, Tracey P. Lauriault, and Unknown.

The Ontario Genealogical Society has announced that several branches and one SIG will wind up operations by the end of the year. They are:

Bruce and Grey
Elgin
Haldimand-Norfolk
Perth
and the Genetic Genealogy SIG

Other societies are facing difficulties.

Why?

The digital age has fundamentally changed how people research their family history. Websites like Ancestry.com and FamilySearch have digitized millions of the most useful records, allowing people to do research from home. This has reduced the need to visit local society libraries or attend in-person meetings.

Some societies are finding that an increasing proportion of their membership has ancestors from the area, but not where they presently live. Recruiting those remote members for leadership roles is a greater challenge.

Older generations founded many societies, which now struggle to recruit younger members and volunteers to take on leadership roles.

Some are slow to adopt technology, such as using social media, running webinars, and providing information on how technology can assist their research and help them tell family stories. This makes them less relevant to today’s genealogists.

Extended passive listening, as in the traditional 50-minute lecture, leads to mental fatigue, with people checking out, mentally drifting, or focusing on distractions. Studies show that maximum information retention usually occurs in the first 10 to 18 minutes of a lecture. This can be mitigated by incorporating breaks, Q&A opportunities, or scheduling several shorter presentations back-to-back.

With declining membership, societies find it harder to cover operating costs and maintain physical facilities.

The Ottawa Public Library has several genealogy research guides acquired in 2025.

Three books by Thomas MacEntee are on order:

1. The Big Book of Genealogy Lists (2025) – 19 holds
2. Ancestor Sketch: How to Turn Years of Genealogy Research Into A Captivating Family Story (2025) – 12 holds
3. AI and Genealogy: A Practical Guide to Summarizing, Transcribing, and Translating Historical Documents (2024) – 9 holdsOthers are
4. DNA: A Guide for Family Historians, edited by Graham S Holton (2025) – 10 holds
5. Tracing Your Family History Using Irish Newspapers and Other Printed Materials: A Guide for Family Historians by Natalie Bodle (2024) – 4 holds
6. World War I Genealogy Research Guide: Tracing American Military and Non-combatant Ancestors by Debra M. Dudek (2024) – 3 holds
7. Tracing Your Marginalised Ancestors: A Guide for Family Historians by Janet Few (2024) – 6 holds
8. Searching for Your Chinese Birth Family by Wesley Hagood (2024) – 0 holds
9. Irish Canadian Ancestors: Using Canadian Strategies and Records to Irish Identify Origins by Dwight Radford (2025) – 11 holds
10. Storytelling for Genealogists by Doug Tattershall (2024) – 3 holds.

This collection, sourced from the Worcestershire Archive and Archaeology Service, includes 366,964 marriage records from the county.

Most records include images of the original documents, while some offer indexed information only. The documents consist of marriage registers (multiple marriages per page) and marriage licenses (for single marriages). They can confirm the date and place of an ancestor’s marriage, along with the names, and residence parishes. Licenses can contain handwritten details not abstracted with additional information, such as the name of a parent or guardian approving the marriage of an underage person.

If you have Worcestershire ancestors, visit the Worcestershire Archive and Archaeology Service website to explore its resources. You never know!

Two collections, sourced from The Royal Mail Archive at The Postal Museum, have recently been updated on Ancestry, offering insights into the lives of postal workers.

UK, Royal Mail Pension and Gratuity Records, 1834-1970

Pensions were granted to civil servants who served for ten years or more or retired due to medical reasons. If a person died while working, a gratuity was paid to their next of kin. Women forced to resign upon marriage also received a gratuity, a practice that continued for the Home Civil Service until 1946.

These 661,010 records often include a wealth of detail, including name, birth date, age, occupation, length of service, salary, and the date the pension was granted or the date of death. If you don’t find a record, check their service length, as ten years was required for eligibility.

UK, Postal Establishment Books, 1691-1979

This extensive collection of 1,273,579 records encompasses the employment of “established” workers, who were higher-grade employees with salaries, benefits, and pensions, such as clerical staff and postmasters.

Look here for name, date of birth, occupation, employment history, length of employment, and salary. Though women began working for the Post Office in 1870, the “marriage bar” often restricted them from established positions until 1946. Use his database for tracking early and mid-career postal service employment details.