Anglo-Celtic Connections

The Office for National Statistics has tabulated the top 100 baby names across 13 years, from 1904 to 2024. For England and Wales, they reveal lifecycle patterns. For girls, the multi-generational endurance of Elizabeth stands out, the only one to remain in the top 100 throughout the whole period.

The Long-Lasting

Elizabeth, Emma, Sarah, Emily, Alice

Elizabeth stayed in the top 20 to 1964, peaking in 1954 at #8 just after Queen Elizabeth’s coronation. It gradually fell to #62 in 2024.

The Meteoric Rise and Fall

Susan, Tracy, Nicola, Sharon, Jacqueline

Susan is completely unranked in the early decades, skyrockets to the top spot in 1954 and 1964, then crashes out of the top 100 by the 1990s. Why did it become so popular?

The Rise

Olivia, Sophie, Jessica, Grace, Freya

Olivia enters near the bottom at #91 in 1994, climbs to #8 in 2004, to #2 in 2014, and reaches the #1 spot in 2024.

The Fall

Mary, Margaret, Dorothy, Edith, Annie

Mary tops the chart in 1904 and 1914, then begins a slow, majestic downward glide: #2 in 1924, #3 in 1934, #4 in 1944, #9 in 1954, #30 in 1964, and finally #97 in 1984 before exiting. It likely reflects the evolution from a society where churchgoing was the norm to one where fewer than half the population identifies as Christian.

Perhaps, like me, there’s someone in your family tree who died in the First World War and has no known grave. There’s a forlorn hope the body might be discovered. It happens. Recent military burial services this month demonstrate the varying success of modern efforts in identifying casualties using DNA, artifacts, and historical records.

Six soldiers from the Queen’s Royal West Surrey Regiment, discovered in a Belgian trench in 2020, were successfully identified and buried under named headstones at the huge Tyne Cot Cemetery, Belgium. Their recovery site included shoulder titles and Lewis Gun repair equipment, which perfectly matched a 1918 regimental diary entry detailing a direct mortar hit on a six-man machine gun team. This specific context allowed investigators to narrow down candidates, locate descendants, and secure positive DNA matches for all six men.

By contrast, three other Commonwealth soldiers were buried this month, two at Tyne Cot, without identification. Despite targeting DNA testing toward a specific artillery brigade known to be in the area in October 1917, investigators have not yet found a match.

The DNA identification of the six was done by tracing and contacting descendants and confirming with DNA testing. This, along with the inability to DNA-identify the three, suggests autosomal DNA testing was not used.

The AGM got underway on Saturday, 13 June 2026, on time, with about 30 people in the room, more online.

The Bottom Line

BIFHSGO concluded its 2025 fiscal year with a net deficit of $3,298, which was notably lower than that projected.

Total revenue dropped to $26,955, driven by a contraction in membership fees which fell by 9%.

The conference returned a profit, comfortably beating its conservative $3,100 revenue projection.

The Society remains structurally sound with $96,026 in total net assets.

Two members had reviewed the financial statements and found they fairly represented the society’s financial situation.

There was unanimous agreement not to hire an external auditor again for 2026, as permitted by legislation for organizations with under $ 1 million in revenue. That saves about $5,000.

Several members spoke on financial and volunteer issues.

Two long-serving members, Mary-Lou Simac and David Jeanes, were inducted into the BIFHSGO Hall of Fame.

There were two nominations from the floor as Directors in addition to those identified in advance. See the new Board here. Those who could attend the AGM are in the photo.

Scotland, Red Book of Scotland (1100–1600)

Find 99,822 records added from this multi-volume genealogical reference for tracing medieval and early modern Scottish lineages. It focuses primarily on land-owning families, and gentry.

Scotland, People of Clackmannanshire (1700–1850)

Adding 23,284 records, these social history records capture church communicants, in kirk session censures for absence, or within local community disputes.

Scotland, Modern and Civil Deaths & Burials (1855–2024)
This collection has 8,504 new transcripts giving the individual’s full name, birth and death dates, grave number, cemetery location, and the name of the registrant.

Sussex Baptisms (1538–1921)

Transcripts of 7,810 records added, bringing the full collection to over 17,000 records.Find names, baptism dates, locations, parental details, and occupations. The sources are Billingshurst Local History Society, Family Roots (Eastbourne & District Family History Society), and the Tunbridge Wells Family History Society.

Newspapers

Miscellaneous items I found interesting this week.

Ukraine war now longer than the First World War – the similarities are unsettling
An opinion piece that holds that casualties on both sides are about the same, not much larger for Russia as often stated. How can you know the truth when the contest is also in the media? Sources such as the Guardian suggest that Russian losses are probably substantially higher than Ukrainian losses.

County Wicklow Heritage
Wicklow roots? You may be amused by wandering through these pages.

A New Home for TNA Blogs

GEDminer
A free, privacy-first GEDCOM analysis tool that helps family historians and genealogists understand, validate, and improve their family tree data – entirely in the browser. This is a notice; I’ve not tried it.

Latest Updates from Ancestry

	Title		Records
	Web: Manitoba, Marriage Index, 1881-1945		507,141
	UK, Recommendations for Honours and Awards, 1935-1944		178,284
	Web: Saskatchewan, Canada, Birth Index, 1875-1924		1,178,570

Full-Text Search + Research = A Win!
Another instructive post from Ken McKinlay on his Family Tree Knots blog shows how Full-Text Search started him on a journey to identifying early 19th-century ancestry in Ireland.

Funny British Sayings
You’ll be Gobsmacked, and I’m not taking the Mickey.

Thanks to the following individuals for their comments and tips: Ann Burns, Anonymous, Barbara May Di Mambro, Brenda Turner, Gail, Sunday Thompson, Teresa, and Unknown.

 

 

The data below for 21 societies were collected from their websites on 11 June 2026.

$50 is the median annual fee.

UPDATE: Kelowna & District Genealogical Society, annual fee of $50.

There is a bimodal clustering: a low-fee group ($10–$25, mostly small local/county societies, and a higher cluster ($50–$75, mostly large provincial/national-scope societies).

To evaluate whether your society offers value for money, further analysis of benefits would be essential. Higher fees may include print journals, research databases, or dedicated library access; lower fees may offer only newsletters or occasional access to in-person meetings.

Society	Annual Membership Fee (CAD)
Nanaimo Family History Society	$35
Campbell River Genealogy Society	$40
Victoria Genealogy Society	$65
BC Genealogical Society	$65
Alberta Genealogical Society	$50
Alberta Family Histories Society	$55
Saskatchewan Genealogical Society	$70
Manitoba Genealogical Society	$60
Ontario Genealogical Society	$63
Upper Ottawa Valley Genealogical Group	$10
Bruce County Genealogical Society	$20
Lanark County Genealogical Society	$35
British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa	$50
Quebec Family History Society	$75
Société généalogique canadienne-française	$50
Société de généalogie de Québec	$50
Société historique acadienne	$40
New Brunswick Genealogical Society	$40
PEI Genealogical Society	$25
Genealogical Association of Nova Scotia	$59
Family History Society of Newfoundland and Labrador	$45

 

 

This will be of interest on the off chance you have someone in your family tree who worked in Eastern, North Eastern, Scottish, Southern, Western and London Midland regions of British Railways from the late 1940s through to the early 1960s?

If so, you’ll want to check out more than 60 issues of British Railways regional magazines now online from TheGenealogist. Included are staff changes, appointments, transfers, promotions, retirements, long-service presentations, workplace presentations, obituaries, sporting reports, staff outings, social club news, photographs, departmental updates and stories from depots, stations and offices across the regions.

On Saturday at 9 AM, BIFHSGO’s Annual General Meeting will be held for members. On the agenda are reports, elections to the Board of Directors for President, Vice President, Treasurer, Communications and Membership, and presentation of awards.

All are welcome to join at 10 AM; there will be three Great Moments presentations:

William Wallace: Family Myth, Brick Wall, Loyalist
Presenter: Carolyn Brown
Breaking the brick wall of this Loyalist ancestor meant first exploding a family myth and then using every genealogy pathway to learn his true origin.

Secrets: The Pullman Family Revisited
Presenter: Patty McGregor
Patty’s grandmother, Sadie Pullman Weir (1896-1981), had always wondered about her father’s origins. The search to find the family of her father, John Pullman (1841-1905), was the subject of a BIFHSGO talk back in 2003. As it turned out, his weren’t the only secrets the Pullman family kept close. New information has challenged those original findings, and led to questions about the well-documented ‘paper trail’.

Nottingham’s Old General
Presenter: Marianne Rasmus
While researching one of her direct lines, Marianne Rasmus stumbled across a distant cousin, whose otherwise unremarkable life made an unforgettable impact on the people of Nottingham—a story which remains part of the city’s lore to this day. Beginning with a present-day search for a statue, Marianne will examine available records and newspaper articles and share the remarkable story of Nottingham’s Old General.

Plus a Book Grab at the breaks.

For details, go to https://www.bifhsgo.ca/events

A hiatus in updating UK Historical Records at FamilySearch, since the start of June, is over. Six collections have been updated. The Bedfordshire, Lincolnshire and Armed Forces collections have images.

	Collection Title	Records	Updated
	England, Bedfordshire, Parish Registers, 1538-1983	369,450	9 June 2026
	England, Northamptonshire, Non-conformist Records, 1651-1895	69,192	9 June 2026
	England, Lincolnshire, Parish Registers, 1538-1990	1,312,197	8 June 2026
	England, Surrey, Parish Registers, 1536-1992	1,733,702	8 June 2026
	England and Wales, National Index of Wills and Administrations, 1858-1957	8,412,453	8 June 2026
	England, Armed Forces and Overseas Vital Records, 1360-1981	19,923	5 June 2026

I have found no additions to Full Text Search since 18 May, nor any updates in June for Canada in Historical Records or Full Text Search.

Growing up in England, Trevor was the first name of two people in my school class.

Trevor entered the top 100 boys names list in the 1910s, peaked at 30th in the 1950s and fell out in the 1980s. Below is a bar chart of the individual birth registrations from FreeBMD.  What influenced the popularity?

The roots are Welsh. The Trefor surname combines tref, meaning homestead or settlement, and mawr, meaning large. It started to appear as a family surname transfer. Upper-class families used it to preserve a maternal lineage or honour a prominent landowning family, such as the Barons Trevor.

Trevor slowly migrated into England. Over 10% of the Trevors in England in 1921 were born in Wales. The name was part of a broader late-Victorian and Edwardian fashion for adopting Celtic given names. 

Parents are often inspired by notable figures and celebrities such as Queen Victoria, Shirley Temple, Princess Diana, and Kylie Minogue. The mid-20th century is where, on top of an existing increase, Trevor experienced its meteoric rise.  British actor Trevor Howard became a household name following his starring role in the 1945 film Brief Encounter. His career continued through the 50s and 60s. Also, the post-war era saw a shift to two-syllable names that could be easily shortened to a sharp, single-syllable : Trev, Kev (Kevin), Nev (Neville), and Bev (Beverley).

Trevor’s decline was swift, as it was associated with the baby boomers and Gen X. It became dated, a “dad name.”

In Canada, the name trajectory was similar. Perhaps the most famous Canadian was Trevor Linden, drafted 2nd overall by the Vancouver Canucks in 1988, a franchise captain, and a community leader in British Columbia. Trevor Daley was another NHLer. 

I’m planning a couple of follow-on posts on UK first names that are long-lasting, have meteoric rise-and-fall, and show slow-rise and slow-fall trends.

These are essential records, especially before civil registration. The updates are for the other end of the period as they come out of embargo.

London, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813–1925 now contains over 23.9 million records

London, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754–1941 has also been updated, with over 14.3 million entries.

Both collections, from records at the London Archives, were updated on 9 June 2026.

For both these collections, on the page showing the hit details, Ancestry usually has a Listen and Explore link, an invitation to “Get the story behind this record for (the person’s name).”Give it a try. It provides the opportunity in the right-hand column to Listen to their story. Compiled by AI, depending on your level of expertise, you may find it expands your understanding, or it’s merely AI slop.

Press coverage of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s latest foreign trip notes that his first stop is Ireland, where he has strong ancestral roots.

According to an article from EPIC, the Irish Emigration Museum, three of Mark Carney’s four grandparents trace their origins to Counties Mayo and Cavan.

On his paternal side, his grandfather Robert Carney, who had served in the IRA during the War of Independence, and his grandmother Nora Moran from County Mayo, emigrated when opportunities in the west of Ireland following independence remained limited.

His grandmother Margaret Frances Gaffney’s journey takes the family from coal prospecting in Cavan during the 1860s and 1870s, to the coalfields of Lanarkshire in the 1880s. Coming to Canada, settlement was in the booming colliery town of Wellington, now part of Nanaimo. There, she married John Anthony ‘Jack’ Kemper, born in Dallas, Texas. Both of his parents were born in Germany.

Mark Carney is eligible for Irish citizenship, and maybe for US citizenship.