Month: May 2022

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

Tuesday 31 May. 10 pm: The Bones – New Zealand Civil Registration, by Fiona Brooker for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/the-bones-new-zealand-civil-registration/

Tuesday 31 May. 2:30 pm: Preserving Your Family’s History Through Scanning by Kay Spears for Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center.
https://acpl.libnet.info/event/6588685

Wednesday 1 June at 12 pm: Using FamilySearch Images, by FamilySearch Family History Library.
https://churchofjesuschrist.zoom.us/webinar/register/2016474523914/WN_M76Gn6jtSDy1GhMHhvej0w

Wednesday 1 Jun. 2 pm:  Using DNA To Solve Interlinked MysteriesSeeking the Best Evidence: Targeted Testing for Genetic Genealogy Proof, by  Michelle Leonard for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/using-dna-to-solve-interlinked-mysteries/

Wednesday 1 Jun. 7:30 pm: Indigenous Peoples, Primary Sources, and Huron County, by Michelle A. Hamilton for Huron Branch OGS.
https://huron.ogs.on.ca/

Thursday 2 June. 6:30 pm: Working with Autosomal DNA Matches Part 2, by Sara Allen for Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center.
https://acpl.libnet.info/event/6727820

Thursday 2 June. 7 pm:  What’s New on MyHeritage . com? by  James Tanner for Brigham Young University (BYU) Family History Library. No pre-registration required.
byu.zoom.us/j/97185943513?pwd=TkUyRkhucTJPMDVmRUROSm1RbWdlZz09

Thursday 2 June 7 pm: The Commonwealth War Graves Commission: Remembering the Fallen, by Coral Harkies for OGS/Ontario Ancestors.
https://ogs.on.ca/upcoming-webinars/ (scroll down)

Saturday 4 June, 4 pm: Finding Family in Western Canada, by Dave Obee for Eastern Washington Genealogical Society.
https://ewgsi.org/

The Findmypast newspaper archives, with the same content as the British Newspaper Archive, is free from 30 May to 6 June to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee.

The British Newspaper Archive now with a total of 53,458,903  pages online (50,585,003 last month). 

This month 206 papers had pages added (148 in the previous month). There were 21 (29) new titles. Dates range from 1810 to 1998.

The large number of additions is likely due to more recent issues that were born digital.

The 28 newspapers with more than 10,000 pages added are

Daily Record (Glasgow) 1986-1988, 1994-1995
Peterborough Standard 1986, 1988
Tamworth Herald 1989, 1992, 1996-1997
Ilkeston Express 1989, 1992-1997
Solihull News 1988-1989, 1994-1998
Nottingham Recorder 1981-1983, 1988, 1990-1991, 1993-1996
Nottingham Evening Post 1993-1995
Middlesex County Times 1910, 1952, 1974, 1979, 1994-1995, 1998
Heartland Evening News 1994, 1998
Huddersfield Daily Examiner 1898, 1993-1995
Huntingdon Town Crier 1987, 1989, 1991, 1993, 1996
Hertford Mercury and Reformer 1873, 1981, 1994, 1996
Bebington News 1989-1992
Solihull Times 1992, 1994-1996, 1998
Stanmore Observer 1987-1990, 1992
Nantwich Chronicle 1993-1996
Northampton Herald & Post 1990-1991
Hinckley Times 1991, 1993, 1998
Hoddesdon and Broxbourne Mercury 1993-1994, 1998
Chester Chronicle14674 1993, 1995-1996
Cambridge Daily News 1989, 1991-1992
Clevedon Mercury 1876, 1879, 1989-1991
Paisley Daily Express 1996-1997
Herne Bay Press 1883-1897, 1899-1912, 1919-1975
Harlow Star 1988, 1990-1991
South Western Star 1889-1949
National Observer (Edinburgh) 1888-1897
Birmingham Mail 1873, 1995

Eighty-two years ago, 27 May – 4 June 1940, over 300,000 troops were being evacuated as German forces overran Dunkirk.

Canadian’s role is usually overlooked. “Though Canadian troops joined the British Expeditionary Force in late 1939, there were not large numbers in France in May 1940. The Historic UK website (?) notes some Canadians were evacuated from Dunkirk, along with French, Belgian and British troops.”

That’s according to Canadians and Dunkirk which notes contributions that were certainly not insignificant.

James Campbell Clouston, born and raised in Montreal, attended McGill and joined the Royal Navy in 1918. He assumed the role of pier-master on Day 3  of the evacuation and remained at his post for the next five days and nights. Armed only with a loud-hailer and a pistol (which he had to employ at least once to restore order) Clouston ushered more than 200,000 onto ships. He was relieved, then volunteered to return, only to have the speedboat he was on attacked by dive-bombers and sunk. Clouston and a dozen sailors eventually succumbed to the frigid water and drowned.

Commander James Campbell Clouston is remembered at the Canadian Virtual War Memorial.

You may also be interested in a post from Family Tree magazine — Dunkirk painting owned by Sir Winston Churchill goes on public display. An extract is used to illustrate this post.

Discover 220,000 new marriage transcription records from  470 Herefordshire parishes between 1538 and 1838, new on Findmypast.

I found four entries for an ancestral 1822 marriage, None included the father’s name, only available for later marriages, and one gave the additional information, the home parish of the groom.

The FMP announcement on Friday mentioned the records were “provided by the Hereford Family History Society and published solely on Findmypast.” However, the record mentioned above has been available from FamilySearch for many years and is part of the Ancestry “Select” collection.

 

Excavating a Roman villa with high-status burial near Broughton Castle, Oxfordshire.

Extras here.

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

Essex and Suffolk Interest
A shoutout to http://essexandsuffolksurnames.co.uk/
with parish register transcriptions and family history. Worth scanning if you have an area of interest. The most recent post is nearly 1,000 marriages from 1562-1667 for Barking, Suffolk, including Needham Market and Darmsden. No transcriptions for these marriages are available anywhere else.

Large trees are essential for healthy cities – IN THEIR PLACE
Alison Munson and Anaïs Paré of Laval University, writing in The Conversation Canada, seemingly never considered the disadvantages of urban trees.

• Nine people killed by falling trees in the storm of 21 May.
• Property damage in the tens of millions.
• Disruption to livelihood, businesses and remediation costs.
• Inconvenience due to leaves and other shedding from trees.
• Shading of roofs making photovoltaic solar panels uneconomic.
• Cost of tree maintenance.

Trees, especially large trees, belong in forests, woodlands and parks, away from vulnerable urban infrastructure.

Mighty (from Family Tree DNA)
Did you know typing at 200 letters per minute, it would take a human 29 years to type out the whole genetic code (without stopping for a break)?

OGS/Ontario Ancestors Conference 2022: what’s on the schedule?

24 June, 9 am: MyHeritage Day: a deep dive.
24 June, 7 pm: Opening Session, followed by “The Journey to Genealogy Services at Ādisōke” by Library & Archives Canada / Ottawa Public Library
25 & 26 June: 28 diverse, inclusive and educational presentations. At 1 pm on the 25th: Second World War British Migrants to Canada, by John D. Reid.

The cost is $79 for Conference and $25 for MyHeritage Day. Everyone who registers for Conference on or before June 1 will be entered into the Early Bird prize draw.

Thanks to this week’s contributors. Anonymous, Brenda Turner, Glenn Wright, Jane MacNamara, Randy Seaver, Teresa, Toni, Unknown.

Find over 720,000 entries, transcriptions and page images, from the following titles in this new Findmypast collection.

Bailey’s Northern Directory (York Section) – 200 entries, 1770s-1780s
Cook’s York & District Directory – 81,609 entries, 1893 – 1902
Holden’s London Directory (York Section) – 323 entries, 1803 – 1811
Johnson & Tesseyman’s City Of York Directory, 32,774 entries, 1872 – 1876
Kelly’s City of York Directory – 61,898 entries, 1861 – 1955
Kelly’s Directory (York Section) – 9,906 entries, 1905
Parsons & White’s Directory (York Section) – 446 entries, 1830
Pigot’s General Directory (York Section) – 1,637 entries, 1816 – 1829
Slater’s Commercial Directory of Yorkshire & Lincolnshire – 2,183 entries, 1849
Stevens’s City of York Directory – 36,854 entries, 1881 – 1885
Universal British Directory (York Section) – 300 entries, 1789
Watson’s York City Year Book – 448,203 entries, 1920 – 1951
Wells’s York & District Directory – 11,355 entries, 1889
White’s Directory of York – 13,968 entries, 1895
White’s General Directory of Kingston-Upon-Hull & York (York Section) – 9, 003 entries, 1851
William’s City of York Directory – 9,918, 1843 – 1844

 

The London Metropolitan Archives (LMA) quarterly newsletter includes news of a new interface and viewing process for maps on the London Picture Archive site.

Maps now have a dedicated page on the site at https://www.londonpicturearchive.org.uk/maps giving access to over 1,500 maps. 

Also published online to the London Picture Archive for the first time are the London County Council Bomb Damage Maps. LMA’s Digital Services team have digitally joined the 110 sheets to create a top-level index image, which users can zoom into for a detailed view of London’s streets.

Also added a selection of new maps, including Booth’s Descriptive Map of London Poverty, Jewish East London and created further index pages for key London maps including Horwood’s 1799 survey and Ogilby and Morgan’s 1676 survey  with more to come in the year ahead.

This is a new collection on Ancestry, just 3,374 records for the Napoleanic War era.

It’s sourced from the following holdings of the City of Westminster Archives Centre.

Liberty of the Rolls: Certificates of Enrolment and Embodiment of Militia Men and Substitutes, 1779-1813

Liberty of the Rolls: Constable´s Return of Persons Liable to Serve in the Militia, 1806

Liberty of the Rolls: List of Persons Liable for Service in the Militia, 1783

Liberty of the Rolls: Names and Addresses of Principals and Substitutes, 1797

This new collection from TheGenealogist has almost 60,000 records from the 1851 Dublin City Census Index.

This index, compiled in 1915, before the mass destruction early census records, may be searched using name, address or keywords.

The heads of household index covers the parishes of
St. Andrew’s, St. Anne’s, St. Audeon’s, St. Bridget’s, St. Catherine’s, St. George’s, St. James’s, St. John’s, St. Luke’s, St. Mark’s, St. Mary’s, St. Michael’s, St. Michan’s, St. Nicholas Within, St. Nicholas Without, St. Patrick’s Deanery, St. Paul’s, St. Peter’s, St. Thomas’s, St. Werburgh’s and the civil parish of Grangegorman.

Ancestry’s new Scottish National War Memorial collection includes names and details of people killed during the First and Second World Wars. Information about each person may include:

First and last name
Military rank
Service number
Military awards and medals (decorations)
Birthplace
Date of death
Place of death
Cause of death
Unit name.

The Scottish National War Memorial, from which Ancestry’s collection is scraped, commemorates nearly 135,000 Scottish casualties in the First World War, 1914-18, more than 50,000 in the Second World War, 1939-45, and the campaigns since 1945, including the Malayan Emergency, the Korean War, Northern Ireland, the Falklands War and the Gulf War.