Here’s one that escaped my attention for the online events listing posted on Tuesday.
OGS Lambton County Branch meets on Thursday, 10 November at 7 pm ET when Ken McKinlay will present “Researching a Canadian Soldier of the Great War.” Register to attend via Zoom at https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEtdOyoqTksGNVrfjOh0Sf8fiu4QJIVB_O_
If you can’t attend, and even if you can, Ken has updated his resource pages on researching those who served Canada during the First or Second World Wars.
Whether called Remembrance Day, or Veterans Day, Findmypast and Ancestry have opened up their military collections for a limited period.
Findmypast goes a big step further with free access for signed-in users to all its records, except the 1921 census of England and Wales, from 11 to 14 November.
Ancestry’s free access to all military records ends on 11 November at 11:59 p.m. ET. Only one free access per person. Registration required.
THE Kirsty Gray has posted the program for the Winter version of THE Genealogy Show, 2 – 4 December online.
Speakers you’ll recognize, with the schedule subject to change, include Lianne Kruger, David Ryan, Thomas MacEntee, Dave Annal, Wayne Shepheard, Jackie Depelle, Daniel Horowitz, Brian Donovan, J. Mark Lowe, Mags Gaulden, M. Diane Rogers, Bruce Durie, Kirsty Gray, and Else Churchill. There are more, enough to cover one an hour for 48 hours.
Find out more at https://www.thegenealogyshowlive.com/
The postcard-size photo, with my father on the left, was taken on the street in Sydney, Australia, early in 1941. The reverse side indicates it was taken for the Leicagraph Co, 5 Strand Arcade, Sydney.
The street snapshot was a thing in Sydney, competing companies took photos of people walking in the street, then handed them a card indicating where they could go to view and buy a copy. Read all about it in a post from the Museum of Sydney.
I recall similar casual photographers at seaside resorts in the UK, decades before smartphones and the ubiquitous selfie. You may have encountered the same sort of thing — photographers poised to take photos of passengers joining a cruise. Do they still do that?
Was this a thing in Canada? The Ottawa City Archives guide to photographic collections makes no mention of street photographers. Google “street photography Ottawa” and you’ll find several people taking artistic photos of street scenes.
The Navy List, the Royal Navy’s official published list of officers, available on Ancestry, now has issues at intervals of about two years except during the two world wars when they were published more frequently.
Use it for researching the career of an officer in the Royal Navy, Royal Marines, Queen Alexandra’s Royal Nursing Service, Coast Guard, and other naval entities. The list includes both commissioned and warrant officers, and along with names, lists can indicate rank, seniority, decorations, and other details.
The Navy List includes numerous groupings. For example, officers are grouped by rank. These include admirals, commanders, captains, lieutenants, chaplains, carpenters, boatswains, artificer engineers, gunners, surgeons, and others. There are also lists of ships with their officers and current stations, as well as lists of pensioners and retired officers.
Contents varied over the years. It’s bit of a lucky dip! You will find officers in the Royal Naval Reserve (RNR—including the New Zealand Branch) and Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve (RNVR—including the South African Division), the Royal Naval School of Music, the Royal Humane Society medal roll (where you may find enlisted men included), as well as lists of clerks, schoolmasters, civilian dental surgeons, warrant writers, warrant armorers, head schoolmasters, head stewards, and others.
Findmypast has a Navy List collection from 1827 to 1945 and the free coverage via The Internet Archive/Google Books is almost as good.
Choose from selected free online events in the next five days. All times are ET except as noted. Those in red are Canadian, bolded if local to Ottawa or recommended. Assume registration in advance is required; check so you’re not disappointed. Many additional events are listed at https://conferencekeeper.org/virtual/
Tuesday 8 November, 2 pm: The science behind MyHeritage DNA testing, by Gal Zrihen for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/the-science-behind-myheritage-dna-testing/
Tuesday 8 November, 2:30 pm: Researching U.S. City Directories. by Andy McCarthy for Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center.
https://acpl.libnet.info/event/7462543
Tuesday 8 November, 7 pm: No Dead Ends: Finding Your Way Through Family Roadblocks, by Judy Nimer Muhn for OGS Essex and London-Middlesex Branches
https://essex.ogs.on.ca/meetings/essex-branch-november-2022-presentation/
Tuesday 8 November, 7 pm: Peterborough County Genealogy Website, by Fraser Dunford for OGS Kawartha Branch and Curve Lake First Nation Cultural Centre
Register by telephone at 705-657-2758 or by email: traceyT@curvelake.ca.
Wednesday 9 November, 8 pm: The Migration of European Ancestors: Their Experiences and the Records, 1820-1920, by Nancy Loe for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/the-migration-of-european-ancestors/
Thursday 10 November 6:30 pm: Making the Genealogy Center in Fort Wayne Your Research Assistant, by Curt Witcher for Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center.
https://acpl.libnet.info/event/7462578
Friday 11 November: Respect the gap.
Saturday 12 November. 9 am: Anxious Mothers, Voluntary Aid Workers and Military Nurses: Letters from Canadian women during the First World War, by Melanie Morin-Pelletier. At 10 am: Stories from the War, by Carol Annett, for BIFHSGO.
https://www.bifhsgo.ca/events
ADVANCE NOTICE
Tuesday 15 November at 2:00pm the Ottawa Public Library, Greenboro branch is offerring a 60 minute session on Getting Started in Genealogy. Log in with an OPL membership card to register.
https://biblioottawalibrary.ca/en/event/getting-started-genealogy
Marguerite “Grete” Hale (née Morrison), a member of the Order of Canada, passed on 28 October, at age 93.
She was President of Beechwood Cemetery and Foundation, where she fought for its very existence for all Canadians; and founder of the Friends of the National Library of Canada. From 2011 to 2013 she served as the first-ever female Honorary Colonel of the Governor General’s Foot Guards.
https://www.legacy.com/ca/obituaries/theglobeandmail/name/marguerite-hale-obituary?pid=203144620
Thanks to an access to information request to the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, we now have a history of the numbers of historians and archivists and librarians employed by Library and Archives Canada and its predecessor organizations.
At a glance, going back as far as 1990, it’s clear there has been a dramatic decrease in the total number of professionals employed to fulfil LAC’s mandate for Canada’s documentary heritage, mainly owing to the reductions in the employment of librarians. While the decline started before the amalgamation of the two founder organizations in 2004, the focus here is subsequent developments under Conservative and Liberal administrations and the four people who have held the title of Librarian and Archivist of Canada.
| Lib/Arch | Wilson | Caron | Berthiaume | Weir | Total | |
| Conservative | Chg in Hist. & Arch. | 9 | -29 | 23 | 3 | |
| Change in Libr. | -33 | -62 | 3 | -92 | ||
| Liberal | Chg in Hist. & Arch. | -5 | 30 | -44 | -19 | |
| Change in Libr. | -9 | 5 | -10 | -14 | ||
| Both | Chg in Hist, & Arch. | 4 | -29 | 53 | -44 | -16 |
| Change in Libr. | -42 | -62 | 8 | -10 | -106 | |
| Total | -38 | -91 | 61 | -54 | -122 |
Since 2004 the professional establishment of LAC has declined by 122, about half of the initial establishment. All but 16 of the decease was in the librarian category.
Under various Conservative administrations, the decrease was 89, with a slight increase in historians/archivists and a reduction of 92 librarians. Liberal administrations account for 42 reductions, reasonably balanced with slightly more historians and archivists leaving.
The tenure of the four Librarian and Archivists of Canada saw very different outcomes.
Guy Berthiaume increased the complement by 61, 86% historians and archivists. Increases occurred under both Conservative and Liberal administrations.
The most significant decline, 91 in total, two-thirds librarians, was during the four-year tenure of Daniel Caron. The second largest drop, 54 in total, 80% historians and archivists, is during the present term of Leslie Weir, which started in 2019, just in time for the pandemic!
Overall, the decline has been at the expense of specialist expertize; LAC now has no staff dedicated to newspapers and maps. Response to requests for materials, formal and informal, is glacially slow. Resources devoted to digitization to facilitate access across Canada to some of the more used resources are much less than when First World War service files were digitized.
This data was obtained via a post in Documentary Heritage News, Vol 16, No 10 referring to Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat – Access to Information Request A-2022-01290.
It’s been suggested that some of the changes may have been owing to reclassifictions. The chart below shows the year by year number of full time equivalents from the establishment of LAC.
While reclassifications may have occurred, the dip for the Caron disaster in 2012 is evident, as is the increase through the Berthiaume years. The most recent two years are from plans. not actuals.
Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.
Jeremy Gibson RIP
Sad to record that British genealogist, author of numerous Gibson Guides, passed last week.
FamilySearch Records not available!
One does wonder when you get an email with the title New Free Historical Records on FamilySearch: October 2022, and find
United Kingdom England, Devon, Ford Park Cemetery and Torquay Cemetery Burials, 1848-1974 listed as having 113,264 indexed records, and
United Kingdom England, Hampshire, Portsmouth, Cemetery Records, 1881-1918. with 129,284 indexed records
and neither is available.
MyHeritage DNA Deal
MyHeritage wants you as a customer for their DNA test, so until 8 November 8 at 11:59 PM are offerring their DNA test at $57 Cdn, with free shipping if you order two or more. They claim to be the leading DNA test in Europe. Find out more here.
This is not an affiliate link.
How to Test a Suspicious Link Before Clicking It
Advice from How-To Geek
Thanks to this week’s contributors: Anonymous, Barbara Di Mambro, Brenda Turner, Teresa, Unknown, Wesley Johnston.
SOG announced the new home for their library, archive and social venue for genealogists, local and family historians.
It’s Unit 2, 40 Wharf Road, London, N1 7GS. The wharf referred to is off the Regent’s Canal.
Plans for refurbishment are afoot, with the objective of opening in the first half of 2023.
SOG advises “the venue is easily accessible from Euston, Kings Cross and Paddington.” It’s about an hour from Heathrow via the Heathrow Express. From Waterloo Station, where I’d arrive for a day in London, it’s about 40 minutes which does involve a fair amount of walking.
SOG has initiatives to add more exclusive content online, and a new search platform.
Scotland, Poor Law & Poor Lists
This week FMP added 16,820 transcript records from:
Dreghorn Poor Relief, 1872-1901
Inverness Poor Relief, 1846-1894
Wick Poor Relief, 1870-1887
Stirling & Perthshire Poor Relief, 1816-1899
Dreghorn takes the majority of these records, and they also hold the most detail. However, many of these records will give you information such as occupation, residence, any disabilities, financial situation, parents’ or spouse’s names, marital status, religion, and when they applied for relief. Extra notes might provide family details.
Scotland, Occupations & Professions
An additional 16,000 records are now in this collection from:
Merchants Matriculat in the Company of Merchants of Edinburgh, 1687
Scotland, Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons 1581-1873
A history of the Society of Writers to Her Majesty’s Signet, 1890
Scottish Seafarers Index
Fife Shopkeepers and Traders
These transcripts have informative additional notes.
Newspaper additions this week include the Peebles News for 1896-1920
As we get ready to turn our clocks back, anyone with a membership that renews on a calendar year basis will start getting reminders. My latest was from Megan Houston, the Executive Director of the Ontario Genealogical Society.
After informing that “Your involvement is extremely (my emphasis) important to us and very much appreciated,” come the incentives.
“EARLY BIRD PRIZES. Renewing in November means that you will be entered into the Early Bird Prize draw with the chance to win everything from OGS Memberships to book prizes. We thank our friends at Shop the Hound, Global Genealogy, and the National Institute for Genealogical Studies for their generous donations this year, we truly appreciate their support. Please take a moment to check out their websites and learn more about them!
NEW MEMBER REFERRAL BONUS. Are you an existing member who knows someone who might be interested in joining the Society? When they are ready to sign up, make sure they include your email in the “Referral” box on the membership page, and you will get $15 added onto your account to use in the Marketplace, including adding Branches/SIGs to your membership account.
Not up for renewal just yet? – We’ve got you covered! This Referral Bonus is available to members all year round.
Do you have more than 1 person you want to refer? Refer them all, and $15 will be added for each referral you make.”
If you happen to be wanting to join OGS as a “new” member feel free to put johndreid at gmail dot com in the referral box. One person, not me, has already benefitted!
The OGS annual membership fee remains at $63.00. You can add branches or special interest groups with fees ranging from $5-$15 depending on the branch or special interest group.
https://ogs.on.ca/society-membership-system/
A note on the OGS memberhip system; while for most existing members the renewal works on a calendar year basis some newer members renew on the anniversary of the date they joined. You can renew up to 60 days in advance.
All BIFHSGO memberships run on a calendar year basis. Individual memberships with a digital copy of Anglo-Celtic Roots are $50.00
https://www.bifhsgo.ca/membership-essentials
