Month: May 2022

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

Five things that economists know, but sound wrong to most other people

A lal-long population map of the world

Sweetness and Power: The place of sugar in modern history
Wayne Shepheard’s review of this 1985 book.

Who’s afraid of genetic ancestry?

The World’s Blackest Black

Update to 1939 Register of England and Wales
MyHeritage updated its version on 11 May, now with 34,414,430 entries. Ancestry’s version has 45,915,013 entries, and Findmypast’s, which has a reputation as the most up-to-date, has 35,223,608 entries. The population at the time was an estimated 41 million.

Thanks to this week’s contributors. Anonymous, Brenda Turner, Glenn W., Jane MacNamara, Laurie Dougherty, Teresa, Unknown.

Mapping in Megabytes
This year’s symposium will look at how computer-generated mapping is changing the way maps are produced, used and preserved and what this means for those who hold this information and make it available to the public.

PROGRAMME
10:30 Dadgoloneiddio Mapiau Cymru (Decolonising Welsh mapping) – Jason Evans (Open Data Manager, The National Library of Wales) [Welsh]
11:30 Born Again: Creating Interactive Digital Data from Historic Mapping – Jon Dollery (Mapping Officer, Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales)
2:30 Map-collecting in the Digital Age: The Legal Deposit Libraries’ Map Viewer – Dr. Gethin Rees (Lead Curator, Digital Mapping, British Library)
3:30 Preserving digital maps: one bit at a time – Sally MacInnes (Head of Unique and Contemporary Content, The National Library of Wales) & Dr. Sarah Higgins (Lecturer, Department of Information Studies, Aberystwyth University)

An event held by the National Library of Wales and the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales.

**A Welsh and English language event – simultaneous translation will be provided for presentations in Welsh**

Today, Saturday 14 May at 10 am, Anne Coulter will present  The Diary Project

An old diary that begins in 1862, is passed down through three generations and sparks a scavenger hunt. Who wrote the diary and why was it a cherished family heirloom? How do you read the handwriting? Without living family members or any context, how do you tackle such a project?

This talk will show how decoding the contents of a diary reveals a family’s history, provides colourful context and a glimpse into life in 1860s Toronto. Due to the pandemic, all the research was done from home and it is surprising what you can discover!

Register at https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAvde6trzIiGtPV51GnWohBRpCFrtB5XBXx

At 9 am Bob Butler’s presentation is Selection of Genealogy Programs and Services.

You may have been wondering when the Society AGM, usually held as part of the annual conference, will be.

This year it’s separate from the conference. The Society Office informs members should be online at 11 am on Saturday 11 June. The documentation will be mailed to those without an email address next Friday, which is when the agenda and supporting materials are expected to be posted on the Society website.

Members of BIFHSGO who are also OGS members will have an opportunity for an AGM double-header. BIFHSGO’s AGM will be at 9 am the same day followed by a Great Moments session.

Over 150,000 records, from 1867 to 1917, are in the Oldham, Lancashire, Workhouse collection of admission and discharge registers. There are three times as many entries in the last decade of the period as the first.

Transcripts provide standard biographical information and the admission or event date. The original image may show details such as notes on the state on arrival (including health conditions and financial situation), whether they were on a regular diet or ‘infirm’ diet, religious persuasion, or reason for discharge.

Starting in the late 19th century, Oldham grew to be the world’s manufacturing centre for cotton spinning.  Sadly, this collection starts too late for the 1861-65 period of the US Civil War when the industry went into a steep decline owing to limitation of raw cotton supply.

Competition from overseas saw Oldham industry decline in the 20th century.

 

 

On Wednesday, CKRN – Canadiana served a fresh smorgasbord of historical documents, most from the late 19th century.

Among the annual reports, directories, proceedings, and statements are delicacies like “Den Skandinaviske Canadiensaren” from 1887 to 1895 and “Svenska Canada-tidningen” from 1907 to 1931.

If you are interested in Kingston (ON) in 1867 and are lucky, there’s a directory where you may find an ancestor mentioned with occupation and address.

The listing of “What’s New in the Canadiana Collections” has detail on the more than 40 items added, preceded by a teaser of the eclectic content coming soon.

Bon appetit.

 

I’ve commented several times on how standard 50-minute plus 10 for questions presentations are becoming passé. TED talks are 18 minutes. The average YouTube video is 11.7 minutes, lower than I thought, as music videos average 6.8 minutes. Even gaming videos on YouTube, the longest, are 24.7 minutes.

Another indication, today, I attended an online session from the Canadian War Museum where four excellent speakers gave 10- minute presentations.

There’s an interesting initiative from the Toronto Branch of OGS following the trend —  DNA—How It Can Help Your Research.

In four parts between 18  and 26 May, starting at 7:30 pm, each evening will include several presentations of between 10 and 20 minutes.

The sessions will be recorded and available to paid registrants until about 26 June.

It looks like a deal at $20 for OGS members and $25 for non-members. Judge for yourself at https://torontofamilyhistory.org/event/dna-how-it-can-help/

With newspapers.com and The British Newspaper Archive going full tilt on adding pages to their collections how can you ensure you keep up with additions relevant to you?

The way they describe it, Newspapers.com makes it easy with Search Alert. You save your searches and receive an email when new newspaper pages are added that contain matches for your saved searches. It sounds as if it works like the Google alerts service.

As far as I can see The British Newspaper Archive has no such facility. It was suggested back in 2015 but seems to be too much of an engineering challenge for the BNA.

The retirement of Ottawa Public Library CEO Danielle McDonald was announced on Tuesday. A search firm has been retained and preliminary work is underway.

Over at Library and Archives Canada applications for five Director General positions are open until 29 May.

In the Collections Sector they are Government Record, Preservation & Digitization, and Published Heritage & Private Archives

In the User Experience and Engagement Sector they are Research and Access, and Communications and Policy.

Nine Ottawa City Councillors have announced they will not be running for their present seats in the election next November. There will also be a new Mayor as Jim Watson announced before Christmas he will not seek a further term.

From the latest Family History Federation Really Useful Bulletin, No 21 for May 2022 comes this map showing the FHSs coverage areas. It’s from an article by Elizabeth Burling of the LWMFHS.
Also in the issue, Ian Waller writes on Tracing Nonconformist Ancestors. Ian will at the BIFHSGO conference (virtually) presenting “In and Out of London.”

This Bulletin is free here. If you wish to receive the next editions subscribe via https://www.familyhistoryfederation.com/#contactlink.
Back issues are on the FHF website

Dave Annal, another speaker at this year’s BIFHSGO meeting, tweeted that he stumbled upon the Old Hampshire Mapped website.

He stumbled, I fell for far too long. Beware.

A new series, the 19th, is coming to BBC starting in late May. The subjects, most mean nothing to me, are:

• Sue Perkins – best known for presenting The Great British Bake Off and being one half of the comedy duo Mel and Sue, Perkins discovers more about her great grandfather’s experience during the First World War, whilst also learning of a poignant tale of her German ancestors plight during the Second World War.
• Richard Osman – the TV quiz-show presenter and novelist finds out more about his maternal grandfather and uncovers a story of an intriguing murder case.
• Matt Lucas – the comedian and presenter delves into the history of his maternal grandmother who came to Britain in 1939.
• Anna Maxwell Martin – the Line of Duty actor travels to Scotland and Ireland to explore her ancestry and learns more about a family tragedy.
• Ralf Little – the Manchester-born actor, famous for appearing in The Royle Family and Death in Paradise, discovers more about a talented footballer ancestor, echoing his own career as a semi-professional before he went into acting.

I hope to get to see them some day.