Month: November 2022

For the second successive month, there is no progress on Library and Archives Canada’s Co-Lab Challenges reported, perhaps because they are difficult to find on the new LAC website.

Expo67 remains 0% complete.

Summiting Mount Logan in 1925: Fred Lambart’s personal account of the treacherous climb and descent of the highest peak in Canada remains 11% complete.

Travel posters in the Marc Choko collection remains 98% complete.

Women in the War remains 0% complete.

Arthur Lismer’s Children’s Art Classes remains 0% complete.

John Freemont Smith remains 93% complete.

Canadian National Land Settlement Association remains 98% complete.

Molly Lamb Bobak remains 93% complete.

Diary of François-Hyacinthe Séguin remains 99% complete.

George Mully: moments in Indigenous communities remains 0% complete.

Correspondence regarding First Nations veterans returning after the First World War remains 99% complete.

Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 remains 96% complete.

Legendary Train Robber and Prison Escapee Bill Miner remains 99% complete.

Japanese-Canadians: Second World War remains 0% complete.

The Call to Duty: Canada’s Nursing Sisters remains 92% complete.

Projects that remain 100% complete are no longer reported here.

Other unidentified Co-Lab activities not part of the Challenges may have happened.

UPDATE — ONLINE ONLY

On Saturday, 19 November, at the Ottawa City Archives and online.

Title: I Found Them… They’re Mine
Speaker: Gordon L. McBean
Details: Different researchers come to different conclusions, Who is right? What do you need to do to prove you have the correct information? Through several case studies of Ontario families, we will look at how standard Genealogical research techniques can and were used to find the truth when we find conflicting evidence.

https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYlcO2grTMsGdM_wLDyCwQDavER-89ZuGDL

All Ottawa Branch monthly presentations are open to the public at no charge.

To be followed at 3 pm by a DNA Tools Zoom at 3pm with Jason Porteous. Jason will focus on the DNA database program called Genealogical DNA Analysis Tool (GDAT) (the replacement for Genome Mate Pro (GMP)). Jason can also talk about Reverse Phasing your DNA kit or Visual Phasing for those with enough sibling kits. Register for the workshop at https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYtf–orzsjGtGo0HYwhzTtAj4r2bX6Ei1N

British Royal Navy & Royal Marines Service and Pension Records, 1704-1939
Added this week are 93,000 records from ADM362 for 1925 to 1939 and 29,000 records from ADM363 between 1925 and 1929.

In both additions, transcriptions and images of the original, you’ll find a letter code that aligns with each service number. This code helps define the serviceman’s role as follows:

F – Fleet Air Arm.
J – Seaman and Communications Branch.
K – Stokers.
L – Officers’ Cooks and Stewards.
M – Miscellaneous.
SS – Short Service, Seamen and Stokers.
SSX – Short Service Seamen.
Pensioners – no prefix.

To search these records, use the advanced search page and filter to series ADM362 for the 1925-1939 additions, or ADM363 for the 1925-1929 additions. They’re a continuation of FMP’s British Royal Navy Seamen 1899-1924 collection, so if your ancestor did join before 1925, you may have already found them here.

Royal Navy Officers’ Service Record Cards & Files, 1840-1920
Nearly 6,000 officer card transcriptions for the Royal Navy, Royal Naval Reserve, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve and Women’s Royal Naval Service. Find name, birth date and place, rank and service number.

This is a major update. Ancestry now has 2,963,607 early East Sussex BMBs, part indexed parish registers with linked images, part parish register transcriptions.
When last listed on the blog, in May, there were only 398,334 records.
There’s no detail on what’s been added.

Posted by  Claire Santry, Irish Genealogy News , the 1926 Census of Ireland will be released online and free in April 2026. The project will be carried out by the National Archives of Ireland.

https://www.irishgenealogynews.com/2022/11/release-date-for-1926-census-of-ireland.html

Hi LAC, how about some news on the availability of the  1931 census of Canada after it’s released to you next summer?

Do you know the significance of 3.14159265358…, 29.92, and 9.81? 

What about 929?

If you wander the shelves at your local library looking for genealogy books, you find them under the Dewey Decimal Classification 929.

This matrix, see a full-size version at Library Thing, shows how 929, Genealogy and Heraldry, fits within 92, biography, genealogy and insignia, that within 9, history and geography.

The row below shows the sub-categories of 929 indicated by the number after the decimal. Below are the number of entries in that category saved by Library Thing users. Click on any one of them at Library Thing and scroll down to see selected works in the category. You can also click to see further sub-classifications. Go far enough and you’ll find 929.1072041 includes

Tracing Your Irish History on the Internet by Chris Paton
Researching Scots-Irish Ancestors: The Essential Genealogical Guide to Early Modern Ulster, 1600-1800 by William Roulston
Scottish Genealogy by Bruce Durie
Who Do You Think You Are? Encyclopedia of Genealogy by Nick Barratt.

What about those other numbers?

You probably recognized 3.141… I could go on …as the value of pi, the ratio of the circumference to the diameter of a circle.

A pilot would recognize 29.92 as the altimeter setting used at or above 18,000 feet. It’s the average air pressure, at sea level, the height of a barometer column of mercury in inches.

If you literally fell off your chair puzzling over these, you’d fall under gravity at an acceleration of 9.81 metres per second squared. Fortunately not too far!

Too easy? What about 1.618033988749?

Here’s a bit of fun from MyHeritage for when you get tired of wrestling with the strictures of the Genealogical Proof Standard!

“Using advanced technology, AI Time Machine™ creates stunning images of a person in different time periods throughout history. With the AI Time Machine™, you can see yourself as an Egyptian pharaoh, a medieval knight or a Viking, a 19th-century lord or lady, and much more, in just a few clicks! Watch this video to see how it works – do you recognize the person used for the video :-).

 

 

This collection of 83,318 transcript records contains burials from cemeteries in Stirling and Perthshire, Scotland. 

Typically included are name, death date, age at death (sometimes birth year), burial date, cemetery, and coordinates of the grave.

About 80% of the burial are in Stirlingshire, the most frequently mentioned locations being Bannockburn, Ballengeich Cemetery, Stirling, and Logie.

In Perthshire, Dunblane, Callander and Kilmadoc are the most frequently mentioned.

Two feature articles prompted by the demise of the late Queen lead off the feature articles in the new Canada’s History issue. Carolyn Haris reviews Elizabeth’s 70-year reign as Queen of Canada, while Christopher Moore rehashes the challenges surrounding any change from the monarchical system.

Michael Dupuis recounts the saga of devastation and rebuilding after the Halifax explosion of 6 December 1917 when a model district named Hydrostone was constructed.

Amongst the regular departments is a column by Paul Jones on the good, bad and ridiculous of genealogy. Can you guess at the identity of any of those mentioned?

There’s also an extended books section, beyond the usual review of those newly published, including two on First World War nurses, plus a book and gift guide in time for the holiday season.

 

Dr Sarah Lockyer
@S_Lockyer
I’d like to sincerely thank a past supervisor & manager who were terrible. It is incredible what I learned from them regarding what not to do.

I now find myself supervising more people & as long as I do the exact opposite of those 2 atrocious examples, I’ll do a good job.

GOOD LUCK!

Choose from selected 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. Many additional events are listed at https://conferencekeeper.org/virtual

TUESDAY 15 NOVEMBER

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

2 pm: Getting Started in Genealogy, Ottawa Public Library, Greenboro branch  https://biblioottawalibrary.ca/en/event/getting-started-genealogy

2:30 pm: Reaching Local Youth by Raising the Dead, by Mona Vance-Ali for Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center.
https://acpl.libnet.info/event/7465886

8 PM: Their Mark Here: Signatures and Marks as Identifying Tools, by Nicole Gilkison LaRue for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/their-mark-here-signatures-and-marks-as-identifying-tools/

WEDNESDAY 16 NOVEMBER

2 pm: Hunting For Henry: A Case Study Using Collaterals, by Teresa Steinkamp McMillin for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/hunting-for-henry-a-case-study-using-collaterals/

2 pm: The Anthropocene: Inside the Quest for the Human Epoch at Crawford Lake, Ontario, by Tim Patterson for Carleton University Science Café.
https://science.carleton.ca/cu-events/science-cafe-the-anthropocene-inside-the-quest-for-the-human-epoch-at-crawford-lake-ontario/

THURSDAY 17 NOVEMBER

6:30 pm: Navigating the (US) Records from The War of 1812, by Brian Rhinehart for Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center.
https://acpl.libnet.info/event/7465815

FRIDAY 18 NOVEMBER

2 pm: Newspapers in Mexico, by Lisa Medina for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/newspapers-in-mexico/

7 pm: Canadian Nurses in the First World War, by Ann McKibbon for Niagara Peninsula Branch OGS.
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMpdOysrjsuHdLXq-u-NMpdXoFVZFbG3ilr

SATURDAY 19 NOVEMBER

10 am: Meningful Gift Giving, by Christine Woodcock for Kingston Branch OGS.
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZItdOCrrz4pGNDdDZjAfyaKXQHblgKen9wg

1 pm: I Found Them… They’re Mine (Ottawa), by Gordon McBean for Ottawa Branch OGS
https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYlcO2grTMsGdM_wLDyCwQDavER-89ZuGDL

1 pm:  Great Moments, by Rick Hill: The Suspicious Death of Edward Navin; Wayne Wickson: Miracle Process for Cleaning Gravestones – Safely; Jane Simpson: “Just A Mere” – Just a House! for Qunite Branch  OGS.
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAqdeihqzwoGNf85h53aX-AMvvlLJxE-kz5

for Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center.

The website Researching the Lives and Records of WW2 Soldiers, by Robert Clark, includes a table of number blocks assigned to each corps or regiment of the WW2 British Army. This may be helpful if you have a number but don’t know the unit.

The numbers were allocated on joining, Beware, the soldier may have only been with that corps or regiment for a short time before transfer. The number stayed with them.

The Royal Artillery was assigned over one million numbers, just 599 to the Band of the Royal Military College.

Sub-blocks may have been allocated to various enlistment centres.

Find the table at http://www.researchingww2.co.uk/army-numbers-british-army-ww2/.

Canadian Army
WW2 Canadian Regimental Numbers had blocks with a letter prefix referring to the military district. For instance, the prefix B, for Trooper Anthony Dashney, Service Number: B/83334, who served with the  Royal Canadian Armoured Corps, indicates MD2 (Central Ontario including Toronto and northward). See https://www.canadiansoldiers.com/procedures/regimentalnumber.htm/.

Stay tuned for more detail on allocation of sub-blocks of numbers for the WW2 Canadian Army.