Month: March 2022

This week Findmypast headlines the 7,914  entries in the Quaker Women’s Petition, 1659. This anti-tithe petition delivered to Parliament was organized by the Society of Friends, or ‘Quakers’.  Not all signatories were followers of the faith, but all disagreed with the taxes imposed by the Church of England. The index, created from an early 1900s transcription, gives first and last name and location which is typically a county or group of counties.

A larger new collection, over 50,00 records, is Lincolnshire burial transcriptions for the parishes of Horncastle (1559-1684, 18,039 records), Louth (1754-1812, 4,939 records), Bourne ( 1562- 1562,  19,574 records) and Great Grimsby (1855-1943, 14,712 records).

They’re the 800 lb gorilla of the genealogy world. You can’t ignore them — and they got that way for a good reason.

Here’s the company press release.

LEHI, Utah–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Taking photos and attaching them to a family tree on Ancestry can help people preserve images and memories, help connect family members with information they would never have found otherwise, and build ​​deeper connections with loved ones. That’s why Ancestry^®, the global leader in family history, today announced its exclusive partnership with media preservation and archiving specialist company Photomyne.

By integrating Photomyne’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) based technology, Ancestry customers will get an even easier way for family historians to digitize old family photo albums, by scanning and uploading multiple photographs at once through the Ancestry mobile app.

“Almost everyone has a shoebox filled with old family photos and albums that sit on a top shelf in their closet. The problem with that is that no one sees or shares them and they are often forgotten,” said Heather Friedland, Chief Product Officer at Ancestry. “With the Photomyne technology integrated into the Ancestry mobile app, you can now easily and quickly scan full pages of multiple images from your photo albums at once and with a click, have them automatically digitized and saved to Ancestry. Uploading your photos to Ancestry ensures your family memories are preserved and your family’s stories will be cherished for generations.”

Unlike other scanning tools, Photomyne’s AI technology uses the phone’s processor and their proprietary algorithms to:

• Auto-detect image boundaries and auto-crop photos
• Scan multiple images from one page and split into individual images
• Enhance and restore the quality of images

“They say a picture is worth a thousand words and photos are more valuable now than ever with the rise of user generated content,” said Photomyne CEO Nir Tzemah. “We are excited to be able to give the Ancestry community an even easier way to upload, scan, enhance and share priceless family images and memories.”

Ancestry customers will now also be able to upload and share images of photo albums previously added to Ancestry and apply the same auto-cropping, rotation, and image enhancement.

Beginning today, anyone can get started by downloading the Ancestry app and creating a free account.

COMMENT: I’ve not been able to try these, possibly because the release for Android platforms is delayed, while IOS is active.

For RootsTech, MyHeritage announces a dedicated hub where visitors can learn about everything related to the 1950 census, prepare for its launch, and search the collection.

MyHeritage will start fully indexing the 1950 census records as soon as the images are released on 1 April. Once this project is complete, MyHeritage will be offering free access to the indexed 1950 census records.

MyHeritage 1950 census page: https://www.myheritage.com/census/us/1950census/
U.S. Census Hub: https://myheritage.com/census/us/
Blog post with more details about the release of the 1950 census: https://blog.myheritage.com/2022/01/1950-census-release-is-coming-up-soon/

Comment: With MyHeritage indexing this census, as well as the consortium of Ancestry and FamilySearch, we can look forward to a real test of present-day indexing capabilities — accuracy as well as timeliness.

Find your strays in West European in this new Ancestry collection,  786 million records for eight EU countries with dates ranging from 1995 to 2015. Data available is Name, Residence Date, Street Address, Residence Place, Postal Code. But NOT phone number!

Here are the details

As posted on the LAC website on 2 March 2022.

Statement by the Librarian and Archivist of Canada on the situation in Ukraine

I’ve attended a couple of presentations on the recently released census of England and Wales, and some other small jurisdictions. They were mostly clear so I almost didn’t go to Paul Milner’s Tuesday evening presentation for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.

I did, and I’m really glad. So did a slew of people who posted positive comments. Paul gave a clear explanation of the census basics and then went on to a fascinating case study of his own Milner ancestry. He worked the investigation resolving transcription errors and complementary sources breaking down a long-standing brickwall.

I strongly recommend taking 75 minutes out of your day to view it, free for a week for all at https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar-library/, Afterwards, it will be in the subscriber library.

In association with RootsTech, until Sunday, new subscriptions can be purchased at half-price using the coupon code rootstech22.

The war on the web is heating up. Although I doubt this blog would be a target it could get caught in a larger battle. And there’s always the potential for more mundane technical issues.

If you subscribe and don’t get the daily email with a notice about recent posts please try going directly to the site at www.anglocelticconnections.ca.

An extra shoutout for Mags Gaulden and Glenn Wright who are at the virtual podium today, 2 March 2022.

At 2 pm Mags will speak on a topic close to her heart,  Using WikiTree’s DNA Features in Your Family History Research.

WikiTree is one of the Global family Trees available online that works collaboratively to have an accurate, single family tree. You may have heard of WikiTree, but did you also know that WikiTree does DNA as well? WikiTree has very robust DNA features which can identify testers who may match you in the DNA connections section of an ancestor’s profile. We will work the features and show you how to further your family history research using WikiTree and its DNA features.

It’s on Legacy Family Tree Webinars so a major audience is expected.  Register at https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/using-wikitrees-dna-features-in-your-family-history-research/

At 7:30 pm my good friend, Glenn Wright will present Early Military History in Canada and Huron Involvement for Huron Branch OGS.

A past president of BIFHSGO and member of its Hall of Fame, Glenn was an archivist and historian for the National Archives of Canada, the Department of National Defence and the RCMP.

Register in advance at https://huron.ogs.on.ca/events/huron-branch-early-military-history-in-canada-and-huron-involvement-glenn-wright/

Updates, bolded below, are available with the passage of another year at https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/

Available are: Birth register records – 1864 to 1921; Marriage register records – 1845 to 1946 & Death register records – 1871* to 1971.

If you’re lucky you’ll get through to an image of the original record. Not so lucky! Then expect an index or a full transcription. Whichever, they’re free

One of the basics of genetic genealogy is to search as far and wide as possible. That means getting your DNA data, or that of whomever a match is wanted, into as many databases as possible.

Here’s the time-limited offer from MyHeritage that will add your data for matching in their 5+ million DNA client database.

From 1-8 March 2022, people who have taken a DNA test with other services will be able to upload their DNA to MyHeritage and enjoy all their advanced DNA features for free. They include Ethnicity Estimates, Chromosome Browser, Theory of Family Relativity™️, and more.

Visit myheritage.com/dna/upload to get started.

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

Tuesday 1 Mar. 2:30 pm: Fireside Chat: Researching Your Female Ancestors by Librarians of the Allen Country Public Library Genealogy Center. https://acpl.libnet.info/event/6235152

Tuesday 1 Mar. 8 pm: Exploring the new 1921 UK Census, by Paul Milner for Legacy Family Tree Webinars. https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/exploring-the-new-1921-uk-census/

Wednesday 2 Mar. 2 pm: Using WikiTree’s DNA Features in Your Family History Research by Mags Gaulden for Legacy Family Tree Webinars. https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/using-wikitrees-dna-features-in-your-family-history-research/

Wednesday 2 Mar. 7:30 pm: Early Military History in Canada and Huron Involvement, by Glenn Wright for Huron Branch OGS.
https://huron.ogs.on.ca/events/huron-branch-early-military-history-in-canada-and-huron-involvement-glenn-wright/

Thursday 3 Mar. 8 am: Life in a Revolutionary Decade in Britain (1649-1660), by Anna Keay for Gresham College.
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/revolutionary-decade

Thursday 3 Mar. 6:30 pm: Working with Autosomal DNA Matches for Beginners, by Sara Allen for Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center.
https://acpl.libnet.info/event/6235155

Thursday 3 Mar. 7 pm: An Irish War Widow in Upper Canada, by Janice Nickerson for the Ontario Genealogical Society.
https://ogs.on.ca/zoom-meetings/janice-nickerson-an-irish-war-widow-in-upper-canada/

Saturday 5 Mar. 10 am: Brick Street Cemetery (1816-2022): Rediscovering the Past using Traditional and Modern Techniques, by David Long for London -Middlesex Branch OGS.
https://londonmiddlesex.ogs.on.ca/events/london-middlesex-branch-friends-of-brick-street-cemetery/

Saturday 5 Mar. 2 pm: The History of Collingwood, by Carole Stuart for Simcoe Branch OGS.
https://simcoe.ogs.on.ca/events/simcoe-county-branch-the-history-of-collingwood-by-carole-stuart/

Today, Tuesday 1 March 2022 is Pancake Day, or Shrove Tuesday. For kids it was, and could still be, more important than Valentine’s Day which could occur before or after depending on the date of Easter.

History Extra has an article The history of Shrove Tuesday: why do we eat pancakes?  It includes a recipe for Swedish Semla buns— no mention of the calorie content!

1 March is also St David’s Day. Those with Welsh ancestry may want to add a side of Leeks.