Anglo-Celtic Connections

The Back to School ads are appearing as we get closer to September. They serve as a reminder that the pace of genealogy picks up too after the summer lull.

OGS has its annual conference, themed Diversity in Genealogy, from 8 – 10 September. It’s virtual. There’s a good mix of presentations and a workshop from Findmypast to start things off. Find out more at https://conference2023.ogs.on.ca/

I expect to be away taking advantage of a reduced number of tourists in Europe to visit sites in my family history. It means I don’t have to make the choice between that and other events that weekend. I’ll miss the September BIFHSGO monthly meeting; fortunately it will be recorded for later viewing by members.

Those are far from the only major events that weekend. There’s the Scottish Indexes XXI Conference, and the American-Canadian Genealogical Society Virtual Fall Conference. The Edmonton Chapter of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia is offerring a virtual Wall Breaker Conference. 

I’ll be back in good time for the 2023 BIFHSGO Virtual Conference: Scotland and Migration, being held on 28-29 October. Find out more about that at https://www.bifhsgo.ca/2023-conference

Do you have ancestors from the parishes of Balyna, part of Carbury and part of Newtown in county Kildare and the parishes of Enfield/Rathmolyon, Longwood/Killyon, Coole/Summerhill and Clonard in county Meath?

That includes the graveyards of Agher, Ardenew, Ardkill, Ballinadrimna, Broadford, Broadford Church, Cadamstown, Castlerickard, Clonard CoI, Clonard RC, Cloncurry, Clondalee, Croboy, Dunfierth, Gallow, Jordanstown, Jordanstown Church, Kilglass, Kill, Kilrainey, Kilshanroe New, Kilshanroe Old, Ladywell, Mylerstown, Newtown, Nurney, Rathcore, Rathmolyon, Templadooath, The Moy, TíCroghan.

Ancestry sourced this 11,961 record collection from the Enfield & District Graveyard Website.

MyHeritage just added a collection of 855,785 England, Lancashire, Manchester Burials.

Included are index records from 1850 to the present year for Blackly, Gorton, Manchester General, Philips Park, and Southern cemeteries, and Blackly Crematorium.

The records, also at other major genealogy sites, may be searched without charge at  https://www.burialrecords.manchester.gov.uk/ where additional genealogical information may be purchased.

Less than two weeks after LAC released the 1931 census of Canada images, Ancestry provided a name search capability. It used AI — handwriting recognition (HWR) technology. Did you rush to use the index to find the person you sought? Chances are you found them. Perhaps the person wasn’t recorded, or the technology failed if you didn’t.

HWR isn’t perfect; it makes mistakes too. That’s just as you might be unsure about a transcription and choose the wrong option!

To test this, I took a one-page sample, 50 lines, from the 1931 Canadian census. I compared the Ancestry HWR interpretation to my own. I randomly selected Sub-district: 0022 – Brantford (City), Page Number 3.  If my interpretation differed from Ancestry’s I looked for another record to check for the correct interpretation.

Of the 50 names, 11 had given and/or last names that were not correct. That’s 78% accuracy.

Out of the 50, only one given name needed to be corrected. A given name was transcribed as Crogier rather than Crozier. That’s just a single-letter difference: g and z are frequently confused, as shown in this listing.

It isn’t clear how the HWR technology works. AI is opaque about its methodology. Does it look at individual characters? If so, that 78% accuracy is only possible because the character recognition accuracy is much greater. A 99% (96.5%) character accuracy implies a 93% (78%) accuracy for a seven-letter word. 

However, more likely the HWR is recognizing the whole word rather than spelling out the letters, just as we do in reading. Problems arise for unfamiliar words, much more likely for last than given names. 

Most of the ten differences in the last name occurred because the HWR usually recognizes and interprets the ditto mark to mean use the name above. However, the ditto mark was not recognized in two of the ten cases, so no surname was provided.

The ditto causes problems where the lead person’s name is misinterpreted. In one case, the HWT interpreted Strohm as Strohn and applied it to the following two family members. There were two other similar cases.

Because the technology is more accurate for first than last names, if the full name search isn’t successful, consider searching by omitting the last name while adding an age, birth year, or place to limit the number of hits.

You may be interested in the YouTube video below explaining Ancestry’s HWR technology.

For a very limited time, for $49 Canadian, the MyHeritage DNA test is available. Take a look at the details of this very special offer here.

They were there is a collection of people and stories building on a core of Battle of Britain legends and flying aces and similar Army, Navy, Civilian and Resistance legends, 154 people in total.
Scroll down on the page to see an index of places and actions. Clicking on Canada reveals 23 matches. Read about Canada-born Ian Roy MacLennan, Alexander Beaufort Fraser Fraser-Harris, David George Evans, Robert M ‘Bob’ Elder, and others whose connection to Canada was temporary.

The 2023 Toronto History Lecture will be held online via Zoom on Tuesday, August 8, at 7:30 pm EDT. It is free, but you must register. (It will be recorded, so if your schedule or time zone doesn’t accommodate 7:30, you can time-shift.)

During the early 1900s, Toronto experienced rapid changes due to industrialization, migration, and the implementation of major infrastructure projects. One of the most significant undertakings of this time was the construction of the Water Supply Tunnel in Toronto’s harbour, which was also the site of a notable archaeological discovery. Huron Elliott, a miner from the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, arrived in Toronto in 1907 to work on this project. Tragically, he and three other workers lost their lives just days later. Eric Sehr will delve into the unique story of Huron Elliott, a rare account of an Indigenous person actively shaping Toronto’s growth and development in the early 20th century. Additionally, he will examine the significance of the Water Supply Tunnel project to commemorate the workers who died building the essential infrastructure that Toronto relies on today.

Eric Sehr is an urban planner and an ardent admirer of Toronto. His interests include maps, old newspapers, and the tales that they hold. For over ten years, he has devoted his time to researching and writing about the history of Toronto, which he shares on his blog, “Toronto Shaped.” Through this blog, Eric delves into the people, places, and plans that have left an indelible mark on the city’s past and present. You can find his work at torontoshaped.wordpress.com.

Click here to register for The 2023 Toronto History Lecture. It is free!

The 2023 Toronto History Lecture will be dedicated to the memory of long time Toronto Branch member Ron Junkin, in recognition of his many volunteer contributions to the Branch over 45 years.

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

Daily Mirror, England, January 23, 1923

Here’s a tabulation of the FamilySearch titles that have seen updates in the past month. All, except for the London Electoral Registers, are name indexed and most have linked images of the original.

The FMP record collection grew by 14,479 records this week as they come out of embargo.

For Devon, baptisms are augmented with 2,111 new records, transcripts and the original record images from 1923. The marriage and banns collection has 2,609 new records, and there are 380 new burial records. Parishes with additions include Lydford, Cornwood, and Eggbuckland.

For Leicestershire, there are now 5,240 baptisms added from the year 1923, both transcriptions and images. Also 1,546 marriages along with 2,424 banns from 1938, and 169 burials from 1998.

Also announced this week is the availability of over 400,000 new pages from The Scotsman for 1951 to 2002. That means 48,799 issues, 786,514 pages of The Scotsman for 1817-2002 are now available through the British Newspaper Archive and Findmypast.

Copied below, buried in the LAC blog, is a useful update for those of us who’ve been curious about progress since the new LAC website was introduced a year ago. It explains changes that have been made in response to user feedback.
Notable is that about one-third of the visits, through the “Help with your research” page, were for genealogy and family history. Another 25% were for military history, likely also related to searching an individual.

Toward the end of the blog reveals the comments they are working on now:
– What is or isn’t available at LAC, especially in terms of modern records
– How to access obituaries on the LAC website
– How to find some of our smaller databases (like Second World War Service Files – War Dead, 1939 to 1947)

If you have comments on changes to the site that would help with your interest, be it about the user experience or content, be it family history, military or any other, LAC would welcome your feedback at servicesweb-webservices@bac-lac.gc.ca.

Improving your online experience: Analytics, feedback, improvements, user experience and changes to come on our new website