Month: December 2022

The Canadian Virtual War Memorial (CVWM) database, and Books of Remembrance, include more than 118,000 Canadians and Newfoundlanders who have died in military service since Confederation.

It records the following breakdown from the Books of Remembrance: First World War ( 66,339 entries), Second World War ( 44,778), Newfoundland ( 2,396), Korea (516), South African War / Nile Expedition (296), Merchant Navy (2,206), In the Service of Canada (1947 – 2014) ( 1,912), In the Service of Canada, Vol II (2015 – )  (82). That’s a total of 118,525. There’s also a book for the RCMP (225).

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) maintains a database that includes 65,003 individuals who died serving with Canadian Forces during the First, and 45,388 during the Second World War.

Why the differences?

1, The Books of Remembrance seperate out Newfoundlanders from Canadians. 1,614 Newfoundlanders died during WW1, 739 during WW2. The CWGC combines them with Canadians.

2. The CWGC database records deaths by nationality of the unit in which they served whereas the CVWM includes all “Canadians” who served with Canadian and allied forces. For instance, there are 41 deaths for Canadian serving in the Royal Army Medical Corps, Canadian medical personnel were actively recruited.  More unusually, Oscar Cameron died on 24 January 1918 serving with the Australian Infantry, A.I.F. 59th Bn. His parent’s address is in Nova Scotia.

3. There could be confusion as there was no such thing as a Canadian Citizen until the passage of the 1947 Canadian Citizenship Act. Before that Canadians were legally British Subjects.

4.  The CWGC website search tool finds 143 WW1 entries and 1,289 for WW2 for merchant mariners. The Canadian Merchant Navy Book of Remembrance records 680 deaths for WW1 and 1,592 for WW2. The difference appears to reflect Canadian merchant mariners serving on non-Canadian registered ships.

In case you’re not sufficiently confused by the above, the four volume, four book set by Robert P. “Bob” D’Aoust, published under the collective title They Gave There All, lists a total of 1,701 Canadian Merchant Sailors including 5 women who died while serving with the Merchant Navy.

Canadian Merchant Navy 1939-1940 Vol. 1 – lists all 199 (198 men and 1 woman) who died serving Canada between 1939 and 1940. 305 pages

Canadian Merchant Navy 1941 Vol. 2 – lists all 483 who died serving Canada in 1941. 535 pages

Canadian Merchant Navy 1942 Vol. 3 – lists all 629 (626 men and 3 women) who died serving Canada in 1942. 723 pages

Canadian Merchant Navy 1943-1947 Vol. 4 – lists all 390 (389 men and 1 woman) who died serving Canada between 1943 and 1947. 529 pages.

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

Battersea Power Station – London’s newest attraction.
Just one of several YouTube videos.

Carleton University: Shannon Lectures

MyHeritage adds 75,722 Northern Ireland, Wills and Administrations, 1621 and 1858

Winter edition of  Irish Genealogy Matters newsletter (pdf) from the Irish Family History Foundation.

Thanks to this week’s contributors: Anonymous,  Brenda Turner, gail benjafield,  Glenn W., Nick Mcdonald, norm prince, Teresa.

If you want to take a deep dive into the famine and its impacts this 6-week lecture series, starting on Thursday 19 January at 7 pm GMT, 2 pm EST, is not to be missed.

It’s free.

Famine Lecture Series

 

Protestation Returns 1641-1642 are transcript records of those who took the oath of allegiance to the Protestant religion.

First and last name. county and parish are given, and occasional details such as “churchwarden” or “overseer of the poor”.

The counties available, with the number of records, are: Berkshire (7,497), Buckinghamshire (4,719), Cambridgeshire (2,435), Cheshire (1,372), Cumberland (18,372), Essex (6,295), Hampshire (907), Hertfordshire (1,460), Kent (9,371), Lancashire (34,912), London (1.676), Middlesex (27,223), Shropshire (1,884), Staffordshire (7,286), Warwickshire (2,985), Worcestershire (1,788), and Yorkshire (18,755).

The transcriptions I viewed were © Cliff Webb.

Surrey Burials
Another 4,700 Surrey burial records have been added to this existing set from the 1883 publication Croydon in the Past. While the information available varies, you may see small biographies on the original images, in addition to a birth year, next of kin, and a last residence.
Surrey Burials now has 1,403,078 records.

United States, Philadelphia Genealogy Abstracts
A 2,695 item collection

Newspapers
New items in the collection are:
Croydon Express, 1878-1895, 1898, 1900-1911, 1913-1916
South London Observer, 1895, 1901-1962
Southwark and Bermondsey Recorder, 1868-1884, 1903-1920

 

Several attributes are important for a good genealogist:

1. Attention to detail: Genealogists need to be able to pay close attention to detail and analyze a wide range of documents and records to build a family tree and establish connections between individuals.
2. Persistence: Genealogy can be a time-consuming and sometimes challenging pursuit, so a good genealogist needs to be persistent and have the ability to follow leads and track down difficult-to-find information.
3. Research skills: Genealogists must be proficient in researching using various sources, including online databases, archival records, and published materials.
4. Organizational skills: Genealogists need to be able to keep track of a large amount of information and data, so strong organizational skills are essential.
5. Communication skills: Genealogists may need to communicate with a variety of people, including family members, archivists, and other researchers, so good communication skills are important.
6. Critical thinking skills: Genealogists need to be able to think critically and evaluate the reliability and credibility of different sources of information.
7. Creativity: Genealogy can sometimes require creative problem-solving and the ability to think outside the box in order to find new leads or connect seemingly unrelated pieces of information.

What do you think of that? Is something missing?

It was written by ChatGPT in response to “What are the attributes of a good genealogist?” No other information was given.

What’s ChatGPT you ask?

“ChatGPT is a variant of the GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) language model developed by OpenAI. Like other GPT models, ChatGPT is a machine learning model that has been trained on a large dataset of text and is able to generate human-like text in response to prompts. However, ChatGPT has been specifically designed to generate responses to questions and statements in a conversational context, making it well-suited for use in chatbots and other interactive applications.

The main advantage of ChatGPT and other GPT models is their ability to generate high-quality text that is difficult to distinguish from human-written text. This makes them particularly useful for tasks such as language translation, text summarization, and content generation.”

 

With this 356,840 record collection newly added to MyHeritage, you can easily access these awards without searching on the Governor General’s website.

Records date from the year 1975 onwards and typically include the name of the individual, the place of residence, the award date and the award granted. 

It does not include the one-sentence citation where available — to find that search at https://www.gg.ca/en/honours/canadian-honours/.

15 December was the official publication date for the new issue.  Here’s editor/
publisher Ed Zapletal’s description of the contents.

Welcome to our December/January
2023 issue of Internet Genealogy. Our cover feature in this issue, Sowing Some Seeds: How to Reap a Harvest for Your Family Tree, is by regular contributor Robb Gorr. Robb lays out a five point plan based on the successful techniques used by farmers that you can use to cultivate and grow your family tree.
David A. Norris returns with his article, Genealogical Records for Buffalo Soldiers and Their Families. Buffalo soldiers were the first black soldiers serving in a permanent basis as regulars rather than volunteers. David shows that records are readily available online.
In Remedies and Cures of Yesteryear, Sue Lisk looks at a number of websites that describe some of the types of treatments many of our ancestors and relatives would have been familiar with, and which they may have sought for themselves and other family members. In her second article, As the World Turned to Buffalo: The Pan-American Exposition, Sue looks at websites that focus on the technological, scientific, and artistic developments on display at the 1901 fair. In Genealogy 102, Joyce Waldorf shares tips from her years of experience gained while doing genealogy research. Julie Cahill Tarr returns with Watch YouTube Videos to Grow Your Genealogy Skills. There are many videos available covering a multitude of genealogy topics… check them out! Diane L. Richard is back with a look at PastPerfect Online, exploring some websites that might better be classified as catnip for genealogists! Australian Michelle Dennis is back with Researching Your Medical Ancestors, a look at the records you might find while researching 19th century ancestors who were medical practitioners. In Commonalities that Make Our Ancestors Unique, Lynn Cassity looks at how music can play a role in who we are. In Asylums: Places of Healing, But Also of Hopelessness, Wayne Shepheard explores and reveals the events surrounding his wife’s grandmother’s admittance to a mental hospital in Scotland in 1918. Also check out our book reviews… Joe Grandinetti looks at (and highly recommends) Sean Connelly’s recent release titled, ON EVERY TIDE: The Making and Remaking of the Irish World. LucyAnn Curling introduces her Volume One of four books, Curling Wisps & Whispers of History, THANET TO TASMANIA.

Comment.

Unlike Julie Andrews in the Sound of Music, who “started at the very beginning, a very fine place to start”, in perusing the magazine I usually start at Dave Obee’s Back Page. This time he Searches for Genealogical Gold with a great-grandfather who dissappeared while heading to the Yukon Gold Rush.

That reminded me of my 2xgreat-grandfather who dissappeared from England. He was eventually found in the US Army in Texas during the Red River War, a period covered in the David A. Norris article, Genealogical Records for Buffalo Soldiers and Their Families. It covers some of the same records I used in exploring my ancestor’s service.

In reading Julie Cahill Tarr’s article Watch YouTube Videos to Grow Your Genealogy Skills you may reflect of the value of the advice available there on almost any topic, not just genealogy. YouTube is another rabbit hole too!

I found this issue to be particularly good for me, well worth the $19.95 for an annual subscription.
https://your-genealogy-history-store-cda.myshopify.com/collections/frontpage

 

There are two featured articles in the issue.

Websites To Watch
Jonathan Scott looks at what’s in store for UK family historians in 2023. There are no censuses  or similar nation-wide databases due for release. All the major organizations will continue to add records, there’s even mention of records “for the wider Commonwealth” from Findmypast. The Institute of Historical Research at british-history.ac.uk has secured funding to put approximately 40 volumes of recent Victoria County Histories online over the next five years. Refreshed websites with (hopefullly) greater functionality can be expected.

Animal Magic
Reviews the history of pet ownership in Britain, something that had a boost from Queen Victoria and soared during the
Covid-19 pandemiic. Caroline Roberts’ article mentions the Club Row Market in Bethnal Green which began as a songbird
market in the early 1800s, and expanded into surrounding streets. She mentions an 1874 essay collection The Wilds of London, by James Greenwood, a veritable rabbit hole for anyone interested in London in the period.

A reminder that WDYTYA magazine is one of those available through PressReader and possibly your local public library.

These collections compiled from newspapers and other sources were updated on 13 December 2022. Note the loss of over 5 million records for the UK and Ireland! It does not appear to be a typo.

Title	Years	Records	April 2022 Records
Australia and New Zealand Obituary Index	2004-Current	2,176,759	2,093,598
Canada Obituary Collection	1898-Current	11,091,760	10,878,408
U.S. Cemetery and Funeral Home Collection	1847-Current	112,820,031	101,800,384
U.S. Obituary Collection	1930-Current	202,415,958	198,633,254
UK and Ireland Obituary Index	2004-Current	1,448,328	6,700,836

The annual Departmental Results Report, tabled in the Commons, is available here.

Included were five mentions of genealog*, one for census, and two for newspapers (both indigenous).

Considering the core responsibility of providing access to documentary heritage, the table shows four of the six performance targets were met or exceeded. Note that the column headings are incorrect, shifted back one year. LAC informs it will be corrected.

LAC fell short of the target of 3.5 million holdings (Images) digitized, to be achieved by 31 March 2022. 

“In 2021–22, LAC digitized 2.4 million documentary heritage images, a crucial step in making them more accessible and in facilitating research for genealogy, litigation, land claims, agreements, inquiries and commissions.”

Of these images, 14,729 were digitized for LAC’s various Indigenous initiatives, and 274,598 as part of the Ādisōke project, the joint facility with OPL. LAC restored and resized 2,188 high-resolution digital watercolour images to make them available on both the LAC website and the portal of the international project entitled The Watercolour World.

LAC also processed 2,376,718 images (44,090 files) from Service Files of the Second World War – War Dead, 1939–1947. The records were digitized by one of LAC’s external partners, but substantial file manipulation and conversion were required to make the records available online (in 2022–23).

In a footnote LAC explains — “The target of 3.5 million images was not met for several reasons. The priority for digitization was support for reprography, ATIP requests and requests associated with the settlement of the Federal Indian Day School Class Action. The COVID-19 pandemic and health restrictions also impacted the absenteeism rate of staff who are normally required to be present at the worksite, which is the case for digitization staff. In addition to the digitization target, LAC processed 2.4 million images digitized by a partner to make them available on its website, which took eight months of work.”

Thanks to LAC for providing me the following.

As a result of an external digitization partnership in 2013-14, a selection of Service Files of the Second World War – War Dead, 1939–1947 were digitized.  In accordance with the partnership agreement and after a seven-year exclusivity of these records on the partner’s site, the digitized copies were returned to LAC in 2021.  In order for LAC to make these records available online, extensive processing and conversion of the files was required. The Digitization Services Division was responsible for this task.  As a result of this project, 2,376,718 images contained in the 44,090 service files were processed.  These records will be online and available to the public sometime in fiscal year 2022-2023.

The partner mentioned is Ancestry.ca; the records have been openly available online.

COMMENT

The target of 3.5 miilion images digitized, which was missed by 1.1 million images, was already inadequate. Here’s the historical record.

Year	Digitized (million)
2021-22	2.4
2020-21	2.2
2019-20	3.5
2018-19	4.8
2017-18	10.2
2016-17	9.3
2015-16	12

Google defines digitization as “the conversion of text, pictures, or sound into a digital form that can be processed by a computer.”

Would most people consider processing records scanned years ago, with online access through the partner, and now processed for online access on the LAC website, to be to be digitization?

But more important, why is LAC’s “digitization” goal so lacking in ambition when it’s the only affordable way to access LAC records for many of us across our large country?

In 2023 LAC will have the opportunity to show ambition isn’t lacking when the 1931 census is released to LAC from Statistics Canada’s control on 1 June.

Two major new databases, electoral registers for East and West Sussex, arrived on Ancestry on 12 December.

For West Sussex, the 8,208,872 entries are for 1832 to 1963.  East Sussex has some earlier records, from 1705, and a total of 20,425,086 entries.

There are gaps for 1916-1917 and 1940-1944.

Expect to find: Name, Address, Name of the city or district, Parish name and, sometimes, occupation.

The database is compiled from printed registers through OCR transcription with links to the original record.

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 mainly US events are listed at https://conferencekeeper.org/virtual.

TUESDAY 13 DECEMBER

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

2 pm: Looking Back & Peeking Ahead: 2022 at MyHeritage, by Daniel Horowitz for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/looking-back-and-peeking-ahead-2022-at-myheritage/

WEDNESDAY 14 DECEMBER

7pm: How to Organize All of this Genealogy Stuff! by Lisa Louise Cooke for Allen Country Public Library Genealogy Center.
https://acpl.libnet.info/event/7574694

THURSDAY 15 DECEMBER

FRIDAY 16 DECEMBER

2 pm:  How the West Was Won in Canada, by Lianne Kruger for  Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/how-the-west-was-won-in-canada/

SATURDAY 17 DECEMBER