Anglo-Celtic Connections

Choose from selected free online events in the next five three 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. 

The latest addition to the National Library of Scotland’s online maps collection is Historic parks in England map viewer, 1890s-1900s.

This viewer allows you to explore the evolving boundaries of England’s ancient parks and designed landscapes.

What green space was near an ancestral home?

The OS Historic Parks Layer draws on analysis of over 10,000 maps and 1,701 map tiles from the OS 6-Inch 2nd Edition England Maps (1888-1915). Machine learning and deep learning technologies were used to identify and classify the historic symbology used for parks, gardens, and designed landscapes.

Diane Brook’s article, Ancient DNA for Genealogy, featured on the cover, summarizes what is known about our shared human past as revealed by artifacts, remains and DNA.
Of interest for those like me with a male line signature type R1b, once thought to be original to the first European farmers, ancient DNA shows that R1b did not occur in Europe before the Early Bronze Age Eastern Ukraine Yamnaya migration.
The article concludes by explaining what information about the ancient components of a client’s DNA 23&Me, LivingDNA, FamilyTreeDNA, and Gedmatch provide.

Calgary genealogist Wayne Shepheard, in The Plague Years, writes on the periods of the Back Death and its aftermath, 1846-1352, and the Great Plague of London in 1665. He exploits the scant records, which are not available in most areas. It recommends “it may be worthwhile for genealogists to look beyond just the parish register and BMD numbers to see what the environmental conditions were like. The rates of death and how families were impacted may demonstrate more about the causes of death, aside from epidemics such as plague.”

There’s lots more. You could spend hours chasing the leads in the issue. Be selective. In her editor’s column, Helen Tovey mentions recently just concentrating on “one family history point at a time—focussing on enjoying it, turning it over in my mind, and seeing what more I can uncover, slowly and carefully chipping away.
And it feels as though it’s time very well (and peacefully) spent.” Was she inspired by Thinking Fast and Slow? After all, no fight or flight danger needs immediate response in genealogy.

National School Admission Registers & Log-Books, 1870-1914, is augmented with 6,600 images and transcriptions from the Latymer Upper School in Hammersmith, Middlesex, from 1870 to 1914.

These school records include basic information like names, birth details, and admission dates, as well as school location and parental information. You often find additional rich details such as admission numbers, religious instruction exemptions, residence, parental occupation, previous schooling information, reasons for absences, and exam results.

British In India, Directories 1792-1959
Find 104,830 directory images from India, beginning with British occupation in the 19th century and spanning up to post-independence, from 1947.

Newspapers
This week, the archive grew by 202,120 pages with updates to 19 existing publications, most post 1960. New this week are Derbyshire’s Glossop Times, 1877, 1889-1891, 1894, and Milton Keynes Citizen, 1989, 1993, 1995.

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

If you enjoyed the previous episode of the Our DNA Journey series with Johnny Vegas and Alex Brooker, you may like this one.

LMA RIP
The London Metropolitan Archives (LMA) is being renamed The London Archives. Will the acronym be TLA, following TNA, or just LA?  The three-letter acronym (TLA) is standard.
https://news.cityoflondon.gov.uk/city-archives-ditches-metropolitan-to-end-confusion-over-collections-and-reach-out-to-new-audiences/

New TNA Guides
The National Archives has new guides providing a brief overview of resources that can help trace family history from the UK to its former colonies. They are introductions to the sorts of records held, with links to guides providing more detailed advice on how to find the records in TNA’s collection.
North American ancestors – an overview

FamilyTreeDNA users can now easily transfer their family trees to MyHeritage for free.
https://blog.myheritage.com/2024/07/new-collaboration-with-familytreedna/

Maps
Although not Ancestry’s strength, three new browseable map collections were added on 15 July.
UK, General Map of Great Britain, 1935-1937, an image-only collection of a fourth-edition Ordnance Survey map of Great Britain at a scale of one-quarter inch equals a mile.
UK, Bacon’s Atlases, 1900, images of maps showing details of cities and villages, roads, railroads, and topographical information.
Europe, Cassini Maps, 1800-1960 providing snapshots of Europe, capturing over 150 years of jurisdictions and geographical features.

Climatologically today, 21 July, is the hottest day of the year in Ottawa.
At the Experimental Farm, the local station with the longest record, the average maximum temperature is 26.7C, the average minimum 15.7C.
That doesn’t mean the heat is behind us. The record for hottest days in Ottawa extends to the second week of August.

Find over one million (1,006,342) records in this collection from the Gwent Archives.

The records, mostly registers of workhouse admissions, document those who sought relief provided to individuals by workhouses. The collection also has registers of births, marriages, and deaths compiled by the workhouses. Most records are for workhouses in Abergavenny, Bedwellty, Chepstow, Monmouth, Newport, and Pontypool.

There are currently 3,893  items in Collection Search identified as Co-Lab-only contributions, a jump from 3,839 last month!

A new challenge, Games of the XXI Olympiad, Montréal 1976, appeared.

LAC has reformatted the way Co-Lab Challenge items are presented on the website. Therefore, progress from previous months cannot be evaluated as previously. Is that a tactic to obscure the lack of interest in the challenges?

 

Here’s one I missed in Tuesday’s blog post.

TOPIC: Maps Useful in Tracing Family History

SPEAKER: Margaret (Peg) Mackle Kapustiak.

WHEN: Saturday, July 20, 2024 – 11 AM to 1 PM, Eastern Time (US & Canada)

WHERE: BIGWILL meeting via ZOOM, free to attend!

Peg Kapustiak’s topic will be “30 Different Maps, plus Using the Internet to Locate Maps Useful for Family History.” The past is not hidden; we see it every day, though we often do not even know it. Maps can unlock details about your family or lead you to new resources. Peg will help us explore various kinds of maps, look at details included and not included, and offer suggestions on locating maps for the British Islands, using various sources, including the Internet.

Register in advance for the Zoom meeting:

https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMlcuygrz4jGdMDcsIV9gdkdJ973myICpDz

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. No registration is necessary for the live meeting at the Church.

Peg Kapustiak’s presentations and handouts are designed to provide you with extremely practical tips, ideas, links, and sources. She has been a genealogist and family historian for 46 years and has researched her family history in the Chicago area, the Midwest, New England, and New York state plus ten countries in both Europe and Asia, when she lived overseas. She has provided over 180 talks to organizations both nationally and internationally in the past 24 years, is the author of one book and 56 research articles and currently volunteers at five historical/genealogical organizations.

I’m suggesting just one YouTube item this week. It’s English with a home child Canadian connection.

There’s an accent challenge. To understand more of the audio turn on the captions, which struggle to capture the words properly.

Membership in many genealogical societies is declining, and volunteers are becoming increasingly difficult to find. Our societies face a dual challenge: retaining older members while appealing to an increasingly diverse population.

The Greying Membership

1. Natural Attrition: Our older members face health issues, reduced mobility, and, inevitably, mortality.
2. Fixed Incomes: Some retired members may struggle with membership and other costs of pursuing the hobby as living expenses rise.
3. Technology Gap: Some older members find it challenging to adapt to the march of technology, like DNA and AI.
4. Research Plateaus: Long-time members may feel they’ve achieved their goals and exhausted their research possibilities.

Changing Demographics

5. Increasing Diversity: Canada’s communities are becoming more multi-ethnic, with many new residents having little connection to the traditional focus areas of established genealogical societies.
6. Different Historical Narratives: Immigrants from various parts of the world may not see their histories reflected in our societies’ resources or programs.
7. Language Barriers: Non-native speakers might find participation challenging if societies operate primarily in English or French.
8. Varied Genealogical Traditions: Different cultures have diverse approaches to family history, which may not align with Western genealogical methods.

The Youth Factor

9. Lack of Interest: Younger generations typically show less immediate interest in family history.
10. Different Engagement Styles: Younger people prefer digital, on-demand resources and shorter items (TLDR) over traditional formats.
11. Time Constraints: Younger adults, juggling careers and young families, have limited time for hobbies. Many societies have recruited from those at or nearing retirement.
12. Alternative Platforms: Social media and online communities provide alternative spaces for genealogical discussions.

Bridging the Gaps

To address these challenges, societies need to evolve:

• Diversify Focus: Expand resources and programs to cover a broader range of ethnic and cultural backgrounds.
• Digital Adaptation: Embrace technology for virtual meetings, online resources, and social media engagement.
• Intergenerational Programs: Create mentoring opportunities between older and younger members.
• Cultural Education: Offer workshops on various cultural approaches to family history.
• Flexible Membership: Provide options that accommodate different levels of engagement and financial situations.
• Community Partnerships: Collaborate with cultural organizations and schools to raise awareness and interest.
• Relevant Programming: Develop events that connect family history to current social and cultural issues.

Can societies become more inclusive and dynamic, continuing to serve existing members while welcoming new voices, approaches and perspectives?

The (US) Board for Certification of Genealogists (BCG) has issued an Interpretation Regarding the Use of AI. It reads, in part

“No material in an initial application may have been reviewed, critiqued, or proofread by another individual.” These restrictions apply to the use of AI, with these exceptions:

• • Applicants may use AI-powered search tools such as search engines, genealogy-company hints, and online trees.
  • Applicants may use spelling and grammar checking tools.
  • Applicants may translate documents—except the BCG-supplied document—with the help of translation tools.”

Posting on Facebook, Blaine Bettinger comments:

Although there are some issues, I think it is a good start. I don’t expect this policy to last long given how professional genealogists are already integrating AI into their workflow, but it is a very good interim policy.

Blaine missed his calling as a diplomat!

I’d call it a tiny step. It demonstrates how conservative BCG is, avoiding the fact that AI is already changing how we do many things. Professional genealogy is no exception. The test is the quality of the final product of the individual being assessed— the tools used are irrelevant.