Month: November 2021

Dorothy Pauline Meyerhof (neé Ostrom) passed on 24 November 2021. She had a long-standing interest in genealogy, was an active member of several genealogical organizations, especially the Sir Guy Carleton Branch of the United Empire Loyalist’s Association of Canada where she served as the librarian.

She also had an interest in history and almost completed writing an extensive history of her local neighbourhood, Honey Gables in Gloucester, to be published posthumously. She authored a long list of scientific publications in the field of radiation protection.

Dorothy is survived by her husband of 48 years, Thomas (Tom).

Dorothy, author of “Threads in the Tapestry of Canada: Some Loyalist Descendants Buried in Beechwood Cemetery,” will be laid to rest at Beechwood alongside other Ostrom UEL relatives.

The British Newspaper Archive now has a total of 46,334,622 pages online (45,747,098 last month).

This month 172 papers had pages added (88 in the previous month). There were 37 (45) new titles. Dates range from 1731 to 1999.

Spalding (Lincolnshire) and Wisbeach (Cambridgeshire) in Eastern England had more than 40,000 pages added. Journals with more than 10,000 pages added are:

Journal	Years
Spalding Guardian	1893-1903, 1921, 1931, 1935-1943, 1947, 1953-1956, 1965-1977, 1979-1981, 1983-1984, 1995, 1998-1999
Fenland Citizen	1975-1985, 1993-1999
Newark Advertiser	1859-1878, 1892-1909, 1911, 1913-1930, 1958-1968, 1992-1993
Grantham Journal	1968-1971, 1976-1980, 1984-1985, 1997-1999
Weekly Review (London)	1862, 1864-1881
Birmingham Mail	1875-1876, 1885-1886, 1888-1889, 1899, 1902-1903, 1907-1911, 1913
Herald Cymraeg	1858-1900, 1902, 1904-1911, 1913-1916
Porthcawl Guardian	1933-1961
Stamford Mercury	1920-1921, 1923-1925, 1927, 1930, 1937, 1946-1954, 1969, 1975, 1977, 1983, 1985
Saffron Walden Weekly News	1985-1989, 1993, 1998-1999
Law Chronicle, Commercial and Bankruptcy Register	1813-1819, 1821-1847
West Ham and South Essex Mail	1888-1900, 1916-1941
Liverpool Daily Post	1886, 1892, 1896, 1902-1903
Folkestone Chronicle	1855-1857, 1859-1869, 1871-1872, 1875-1877, 1879, 1886-1892, 1897
Bury Free Press	1998-1999
East Kent Times and Mail	1872, 1874, 1892, 1933-1934, 1936, 1941, 1944-1945, 1949, 1953-1955
Caerphilly Journal	1914-1943
Beckenham Journal	1890-1911, 1913-1914

Choose from 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.

Tuesday 30 Nov. 2 pm: Virtual Genealogy Drop-In, from Ottawa Branch of OGS and The Ottawa Public Library.
https://ottawa.ogs.on.ca/events/.

Tuesday 30 Nov. 2:30 pm: Intergenerational Storytelling and Family History Activities, by Chelsea Johnson for Allen County Public Library.
https://acpl.libnet.info/event/5769480

Tuesday 30 Nov. 7 pm: Using mitochondrial DNA to Confirm Family Connections, by Mags Gaulden for Bruce Grey Branch OPL.
https://brucegrey.ogs.on.ca/3069-2/

Wednesday 1 Dec, 2 pm: The Top Ten DNA Do’s and Don’ts!, by Michelle Leonard for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/the-top-ten-dna-dos-and-donts/

Thursday 2 Dec. 8 am: Attacks on Knowledge from Ashurbanipal to Trump, by
Richard Ovenden for Gresham College,
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/ashurbanipal-trump

Thursday 2 Dec, 6:30 pm: Which DNA Test Should I Order?, by Sara Allen for Allen County Public Library.
https://acpl.libnet.info/event/5833585

Thursday 2 Dec. 7 pm: Scrapbooks – A Genealogist Gold Mine!, by Melissa Barker for OGS.
https://ogs.on.ca/zoom-meetings/december-webinar-melissa-barker/

Saturday 4 Dec. 10 am: The Passengers and Victims of the Capsizing of Victoria – Tuesday, May 24, 1881: Not all the Victoria Day Disaster Victims were on board the Victoria, by Dan Brock for London and Middlesex Branch OGS.
https://londonmiddlesex.ogs.on.ca/events/not-all-the-victoria-day-disaster-victims-were-on-board-the-victoria/

Royal Navy Officer Patrol Service Cards, dated 1904-1970 are the latest addition to Fold3, sourced from microfilm held at The National Archives, with the original paper records located at the Imperial War Museum.UK Royal Navy Records.

The RNPS operated a flotilla of small auxiliary vessels, primarily along the British coast. Two cards per record, they are organized alphabetically by name and include additional information such as:

Birthdate
Birthplace
Name of parents
Physical description
Service dates
Names of the vessels
Additional details and remarks.

Here is the latest survey of top tweeters for #genealogy and #familyhistory in the past few days.

As previously in April and July, FamilyTreeTips2 retains the top spot. It promotes items from familytreetips.co.uk which appears to be out of Brighton, England. Remaining in second place is Heirs2U, a genealogist out of Cramlington, UK (near Newcastle Upon Tyne).

New entries in the top 20 include:

thecoadb, a US-based business that “provides access to hundreds of thousands of coats of arms, surname histories, genealogy research, and much more.”

lissity, “Genealogist knitting my tree together.”

WandaWyporska, recently appointed CEO at the Society of Genealogists.

21DayConnect, tweets for The 21 Day Family Connections Experiment, a family history project, invites individuals to increase their connections with family past and present for a consecutive 21 days. Measuring the results with both a pre-experiment and post-experiment survey.

Here’s the seasonal sale I’ve been waiting for, Legacy Family Tree Webinars at half price, the best deal in genealogy.

The offer expires on Friday 3 December. As my membership expires on 30 November I’m hoping I might qualify as new before the sale ends. (UPDATE – I did!)

A reminder of the Ontario Genealogical Society 50% off membership offer for existing members who match with a new member — they both get 50% off. I have a long list of members looking for a match but so far only matched two with new members. If you’re looking to join, or rejoin after dropping out for a year, let me know.

Bertram Anthony (Bert) Hayward passed away on November 19, 2021, at the age of 83.

Bert was named to the BIFHSGO Hall of Fame in 2019 “In recognition of his life-long interest in, and encouragement of, family history and genealogy. Bert was a volunteer for many events and projects during his time as a BIFSHGO member, usually in the background.”  He had a particular interest in home children including assisting in the Children’s Emigration Homes (Middlemore) Indexing Project.

His other interests included woodworking and photography — contributing photographs as an Assistant Editor of Anglo-Celtic Roots.

Bert, who had a career with the Canadian military, was born in Essex, England in late 1937,  son of the late Trevor Hayward and the late Phyllis Morley. He was in a Home in Essex for a while during the War.

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

How do we know the effect of boosters?

Mining the Seams workshop recordings
Talks about the archives of the coal industry in Derbyshire and Warwickshire.

Blog Posts from the Norfolk Record Office
An Enigmatic Diarist as Ever Was Known: The Syleham Diary 1784 – 1824
Great Yarmouth’s Early Modern Astrology

20 of the Most Important Moments in Internet History

Save on Fold3 New Subscriptions

Thanks to this week’s contributors. Anonymous, Brenda Turner, Gwen Gibson, John Sayers, Judith H., rob bennie, Unknown.

My Twitter feed was swamped with congratulations and support to Andrea Eidinger who posted that she had been chosen to head up the Library and Archives Canada website team starting on Monday.

Andrea describes herself as “Historian of gender and ethnicity in postwar Canada. Jewish settler living in unceded Indigenous territories.” Born and raised in Montreal, she has a B.A. from McGill University and a Ph.D. from the University of Victoria, both in History.

LAC already has a web renewal initiative underway.

West Glamorgan Electoral Registers, 1839-1925
Over 80 years of electoral records added from Swansea, Wales, 1,643,483 index records, means there are now over 3.5 million records for Glamorganshire, and 334 full record sets for Wales.

Index to Death Duty Registers, 1796-1903
Exclusive to Findmypast, 5,000 records added to this collection, now with 3,385,928 items. Records usually include a combination of the following information:

Name of testator
Address of testator
Date of Death
Name of administrator
Address of administrator

Find out more from Findmypast at
https://search.findmypast.com/search-world-records/index-to-death-duty-registers-1796-1903
and FamilySearch at https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Estate_Duty_Registers

 

The feature articles in the December issue.

PHOTO COMPETITION ON THE COVER
Share your old family photos for a chance to win £200 and other prizes in our first ever photo competition

SHARE YOUR TREE ON THE COVER
Chris Paton explains 12 easy ways to amaze your relations with your family history discoveries

TO JAB OR NOT TO JAB
The controversy about compulsory smallpox vaccination

MAKE A MOVIE
TV producerAlan Howard reveals his tips for recording your relatives’ precious memories using a smartphone

SEASON’S GREETINGS
The creation and development of the Christmas card

The county profile of this issue is research in Essex.

 

These two websites, parts of Ancestry.com empire, have modest Black Friday sale prices.

Fold3, named for the third fold in some flag-folding ceremonies honours and remembers veterans for their sacrifice in defending their country and promoting peace in the world. Reflecting the origin of the term the collection is largely US-oriented original military records, photos, and stories of the men and women who served.

The offer, good to 6 December, is 40% off, $47.95 US annually, down from $79.95 US.

https://go.fold3.com/buynow

Newspapers.com, is offering a $10 US saving when purchasing or upgrading to a Publisher Extra subscription. The Publisher’s Extra subscription, about $80 US for six months, gives access to more recent publications. The offer runs through 5 December.

https://www.newspapers.com/