Family history research; you don’t know what you may find 

Global Genealogy: Canada’s history & genealogy store

Have you checked out the offerings at the new and updated globalgenealogy.ca? The focus is now very much on Canada and Canadian authors. Material is being added each week.

Robert Fitzroy empowered individual sailors to use their own judgment about the weather forecast.

MI5: Official Secrets – podcast

Learn from guests Gill Bennett, a historian specializing in secret intelligence and former Chief Historian at the Foreign Office, and Mark Dunton, Principal Records Specialist at The National Archives.

Federal Websites Quiet

A reminder that during the federal election, most departments are not permitted to make new announcements. Websites remain without updates. We still receive essential services, such as weather reports and forecasts. Let’s look forward to a flood of new developments when the results are confirmed, and hope that means a government wanting to enhance openness, not shut it down.

The Toronto History Lecture

Scheduled for Tuesday, 5 August 2025, for its 14th season, the organizers seek proposals to speak, or speaker recommendations, by 1 May. See the Call for Proposals at:
https://torontofamilyhistory.org/learn/toronto-history-lecture/

Findmypast Weekly Update

Climate Change

I asked ChatGPT to create an image in abstract artwork that visualizes the agony of future generations and the sorrow and regret of present generations who failed to act on warnings about climate change and its impacts. Use a vibrant neon colour palette and visual metaphors, rendered in a textured mixed media style.

The following are UK and Ireland collections, updated by FamilySearch within the past month, all with images of the original documents linked.

Here are the Canadian updates, each with linked images except the two Nova Scotia collections added near the end of March.

There have been no additions to the Full Text Search collections since 20 March 2025.

MyHeritage has significantly boosted its offerings for Canadian family historians with the recent addition of four collections. Check them out if you have Quebec ancestry—or even a broader interest in Canadian genealogy.

Quebec Vital Records: Births, Marriages, and Deaths

The largest of the new collections is Canada, Quebec Marriages, comprising over 15 million records from 1747 onwards. These typically include the names of both the bride and groom, their parents, and the location and date of the marriage. You may even find references to previous spouses.

Canada, Quebec Births, with 7.7 million entries dates back as far as 1675. Most records include not only the child’s name and birth/baptismal details, but also the names of parents and godparents.

Rounding out the trio is Canada, Quebec Deaths, 1724–2013, adding nearly 3 million records. These typically list the name of the deceased, along with the dates and places of death and burial, and sometimesthe names of parents and spouse.

While these records have been available in other forms, such as the Drouin and BMS2000 systems, the integration within MyHeritage’s platform provides new access.

Canada Newspapers from OldNews.com

Also new is a Canadian newspaper collection from OldNews.com, featuring 1.76 million digitized pages from 243 titles. Covering everything from national to local papers, the range extends from the mid-1700s to the early 2000s. Names of relatives, social notices, obituaries, and even incidental mentions are now searchable thanks to OCR technology.

Choose from these selected free online events. All times are Eastern Time (ET), unless otherwise noted. Registration is assumed to be required in advance—check the links so you’re not disappointed. For more events, mainly in the U.S., visit Conference Keeper.

Tuesday, April 15

2 pm: Ottawa Genealogy Drop-in, for OGS Ottawa Branch.
https://meet.google.com/nvz-kftj-dax

7 pm: North Bay’s “Pest House”, by Ann Smith for OGS Nipissing Branch.
https://nipissing.ogs.on.ca/events/nipissing-branch-north-bays-pest-house/

Wednesday, April 16

2 pm: Beautifully lay out and print your family history book on any budget, by Rhonda Lauritzen for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/beautifully-lay-out-and-print-your-family-history-book-on-any-budget/

2:30 pm: How Conflicts Around The World Shaped My Family, by Claire Topping for Cambridgeshire and Huntingtonshire FHS.
https://www.chfhs.org.uk/how-conflicts-around-the-world-shaped-my-family-with-claire-topping-487

7 pm: Diseases and Yesterday’s Remedies, by Elizabeth Briggs for OGS Thunder Bay Branch.
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/8HGJ8XScTdyJMnVCId-Dsg

7 pm: Kingston’s Kathleen Hammond, the Lusitania and the White Plague, a story of World War I happiness and tragedy, by Sandy Camp gue, a story of World War I happiness and tragedy, by Sandy  Bell for the Kingston Historical Society.

https://kingston.ogs.on.ca/events/kingston-historical-society-16-april-2025-meeting-presentation/

7 pm: A New Museum for the Outaouais, by Jean-Marc Blais and Stephen Quick for Heritage Ottawa.
https://heritageottawa.org/events/seeing-big-new-museum-outaouais

Thursday, April 17

6:30 pm: The Family History That Wasn’t: How an Unexpected Discovery Redefined Our Identity, by Allison Lawrentz Barnhart for Allen Country Public Library Genealogy Center.
https://acpl.libnet.info/event/13226018

Friday, April 18

Saturday, April 19

10 am: Are you a “trust-me” genealogist?”  “Why would anyone believe what your research says? by Heather Oakley for OGS Kingston Branch.
https://kingston.ogs.on.ca/events/kingston-branch-meeting-april-19-2025/

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

Do Inuit languages really have many words for snow? The most interesting finds from our study of 616 languages

From The Conversation. For a bit of fun, try the Concepts across Languages tool.

Twisted Truth: Understanding Robert Carney’s Legacy and Confronting the Dangers of Denialism

The Strategic Exploitation of Conspiracy Theories by Populist Leaders

The hybrid meeting on Saturday, 12 April, focuses on the Society’s 30th Anniversary.

At 9 am, Nigel Lloyd and Sheila Dohoo Faure will give an introduction to the No. 1 Canadian Casualty Clearing Station Project.

Just over 10 years ago, BIFHSGO launched a new research project: transcribing the 879 World War I soldiers’ death records appearing in a diary maintained by chaplains at No. 1 Canadian Casualty Clearing Station. The diary’s information on these deaths was transcribed and added to BIFHSGO’s online Name Index. As a tribute to the centenary of WW I, BIFHSGO volunteers began writing biographies of the 879 soldiers. Nigel Lloyd will present the background and approach to this project, while Sheila Dohoo Faure will identify some of the more interesting soldier stories and present one soldier’s life.

At 10 am, Sue Lambeth presents the 30th Anniversary Spotlight on BIFHSGO’s research and projects.

She will describe initiatives undertaken over the past 30 years that highlight our collective achievements and the important work of our many volunteers. She will also reflect on how past and current initiatives are helping us to develop new innovative projects and connections with others.

Free to explore online until 8 May, Findmypast marks the upcoming 80 year anniversary of Victory in Europe by opening the 1939 Register.

For each person living in England and Wales (and some from the Isle of Man and Channel Islands), it typically includes: name, full date of birth, marital status, occupation, and address. Updates were made after 29 September 1939, mostly for name changes due to marriage.

Scotland compiled its own version not yet publicly available.

Two new military collections are now on Ancestry

UK, WWI Hospital Registers, 1915-1919

The collection is an index of 818,003 British military hospital records from the First World War, including admissions and discharges from facilities such as field ambulances, casualty clearing stations, hospital trains, and ships. While the records are index-only on Ancestry, they may link to original documents on Fold3 and Forces War, which may offer additional details like medical diagnoses, hospital names, and lengths of stay. The collection includes entries for both servicemen and servicewomen, including members of the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps and other wartime organizations. It also contains records for non-British individuals treated in these hospitals, including members of the Chinese Labour Corps. It includes nearly 5,000 Canadian service personnel.

UK, Recommendations for Honours and Awards, 1935-1990

An index of 348,129 military personnel recognized for gallantry or distinguished service in the British and allied armed forces. It includes recommendations, award lists, and London Gazette announcements for members of the Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force. While the collection primarily covers post-1950 records due to archival practices, it offers valuable genealogical insights such as rank, service details, award names, and in some cases, narratives describing the actions that led to the award. The index is hosted by Ancestry, with access to original documents via Fold3 or Forces War.

These records, held at The National Archives in Kew, span a period marked by major global and regional conflicts. British forces were involved in events like the Spanish Civil War, World War II, Cold War-era conflicts in Asia and Africa, and later engagements including the Falklands War and Gulf War.

Two new large US databases are now on MyHeritage.

New York, New York City Air Arrivals, 1957- 1962
Created by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and related authorities to document the arrival of international airline passengers and crews. . The 3,911,129 records, with images, typically include the name of the passenger, date and place of departure, date and place of arrival, and the nationality of the passenger. Some records include the date and place of birth.

United States, World War II Draft Registrations, 1940-1947
This collection contains WW2 United States Selective Service System registrations. The 42,012,273 cards, indexed with AI,  include personal details such as names, birth dates, addresses, and occupations,

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

The pannotype mystery

Take a Media Vacation
Close your eyes and imagine you’ve travelled to a holiday destination. Do it without leaving home — skip the journey. Enhance the experience by listening to a local radio station via Radio Garden. There’s also TV Garden if you’d rather keep your eyes open.

Finding and Navigating the Old Maps of Ireland.

Ancestry updates Web: Quebec, Canada, Marriage Contract Index, 1761-1941 (in French). Now with 71,094 records.

GLAM Makeover at AO

See also https://ischool.utoronto.ca/news/a-glam-makeover-for-the-archives-of-ontario/. 

This initiative appears to involve presenting existing finding aids in a new visual graph format rather than any full-text digitization of records.

Thanks to Ann Burns, Anonymous, Brenda Turner, Chuck B., Teresa, and Unknown for this week’s contributions.