A reminder about the In-Person Irish Family History Research Day with Ulster Historical Foundation speakers starting at 8:30 am at The Chamber at Ben Franklin Place, 101 Centrepointe Dr, Nepean.
Also Gene-o-Rama from OGS Ottawa Branch, an online event starting at 8:30 am, and with recordings available after the meeting — good if you can’t be in two places at once.
Sourced from the Wrexham County Borough, this MyHeritage collection has 37,655 records from the year 1876 to 2012. Records typically include the name of the deceased, year and place of death, and date of burial.
The Comonwealth War Graves Commission notes 155 burials in the cemetery including many from Polish forces and a few from Canada.
The source site at https://www.wrexham.gov.uk/services/family-history also includes indexes for births, marriages and deaths based on collaboration between the Clwyd Family History Society and Wrexham register office
Lately, I could publish every week about new and reissued books from Global Heritage Press. They’re on a tear. The latest are:
Index to Upper Canada Naturalization Registers 1828-1850
By Norman K. Crowder & Sharon Bowman
Published by Global Heritage Press, Carleton Place, March 2023
This book is a comprehensive index to the Upper Canada Naturalization Registers 1828-1850 that includes names, dates, places, volume and entry numbers, and related microfilm numbers. Check out the detailed description: Read more…
Documenting your Ancestors who served in the Canadian Infantry during WW1 & WW2
By Kenneth Cox
Published by Global Heritage Press, Carleton Place, March 2023
This guide identifies documents and resources that are available and how to access them. Heavily illustrated… two case studies provide examples of what can be achieved Check out the full description: Read more…
Marriage Records Johnstown District 1831-1842 – Upper Canada [Ontario]
By Ruth J. Wells & Alice Hughes
Published by Global Heritage Press, Carleton Place, March 2023
Filled with names, dates, places, witnesses of early marriages in south eastern Upper Canada (Ontario). Check out the full description: Read more…
Find more on offer at https://globalgenealogy.com/ and on Monday 1 May come to OPL Genealogy Day at Nepean Centrepointe Library (Ben Franklin Place) where Global Genealogy will be one of the exhibitors.
On Wednesday, 22 March 2023, a new website from former Librarian and Archivist of Canada, Ian E. Wilson, appeared.
Notable aside from being attractively designed, it covers his career and writing, and also an extensive section on Sir Arthur G. Doughty, the first Dominion Archivist of Canada. By way of tribute, 22 March is the anniversary of Doughty’s birth in 1860.
At the bottom of the main page are links to some of Wilson’s publications. It includes Reflections on Archivists and Genealogists, the 2012 Houston Memorial Lecture, published in FAMILIES, vol 52, #1. Feb 2013. He wrote “Throughout my career, I have found genealogists to be amongst the most enthusiastic, informed users of archives and our most effective lobbyists.”
Another link is to publications of The University of Waterloo Stratford Institute which Wilson headed after retiring as the first Librarian and Archivist of Canada in 2009.
The longest section is a bibliography, a step towards an understanding of the career and the vision of Sir Arthur G. Doughty. Over 90 published and unpublished works to which Doughty contributed either in whole or in part are identified.
Of the nearly 3 million updates to Find a Grave on Ancestry in the past quarter, 1.38 million are for the UK and Ireland. That’s unusual as it’s more than the US.
The percentage increase for the UK and Ireland (9.02%) isn’t quite as large as for Mexico (9.81%).
| Region | Records Mar 2023 | Records Dec 2022 | Increase |
|---|---|---|---|
| Canada | 9,537,884 | 9,417,361 | 120,523 |
| U.S. | 172,012,462 | 170,992,351 | 1,020,111 |
| UK and Ireland | 16,712,454 | 15,329,390 | 1,383,064 |
| Sweden | 367,538 | 356,925 | 10,613 |
| Norway | 216,182 | 206,975 | 9,207 |
| Mexico | 61,512 | 56,015 | 5,497 |
| Germany | 2,398,513 | 2,275,506 | 123,007 |
| Italy | 312,025 | 287,125 | 24,900 |
| Brazil | 135,589 | 132,690 | 2,899 |
| Global | 14,005,716 | 13,711,794 | 293,922 |
| Total | 215,759,875 | 212,766,132 | 2,993,743 |
A collection of 1,586,354 Church of England Hampshire parish register entries of births and baptisms running between 1813 and 1921 briefly appeared, then disappeared on Ancestry. Alphabetically the parishes range from Abbotts Ann to Yateley, including 17 Bournemouth and 14 Winchester parishes – those for Southampton are lacking.
The records, from the Hampshire Record Office, were name searchable with links to the originals which were browsable.
What happenned? They may be back by the time you see this.
In the meantime, Findmypast has over 600 thousand transcript records for baptisms from the Hampshire Genealogical Society. FamilySearch has over 2 million parish register entries and Bishops transcripts for BMBs of all types with transcriptions viewable for registered readers and images viewable at FSCs and affiliate libraries.
Here’s an example of the information you’ll get from a search of this database which is new to Ancestry. It’s a basic index.
There’s the same data at the Archives of Alberta site, with additional births registered up to 1903, at https://provincialarchives.alberta.ca/how-to/find-birth-marriage-and-death-records/birth-indexes . There you need to select the first letter of the surname, then scroll through the index, some hand written, to find the year the person was born in order to locate their name and registration number. Then order a digital copy of the full records delivered by email for $5.25.
Ancestry provides a more flexible search — by first name or birth place if that’s all you know.You still have to order through the Archives of Alberta site to get the full information.
Senior product manager John Alexander describes “how FamilySearch is training AI to read and transcribe information from billions of historical documents at an uncanny rate” in an article from Deseret News.
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. Additional mainly US events are listed at https://conferencekeeper.org/virtual.
TUESDAY 21 March
2 pm: Ottawa Branch OGS Virtual Genealogy Drop-In.
https://meet.google.com/nvz-kftj-dax
2:30 pm: Democracy’s Data: Reading Hidden Stories in the 1940 (US) Census, by Dan Bouk for Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center.
https://acpl.libnet.info/event/8052097
7 pm: BMS2000, Researching Your French Canadian Ancestors, for OGS Nippising District Branch.
https://nipissing.ogs.on.ca/researching-your-french-canadian-ancestors/
8 pm: Uncovering Immigrant Origins Through Cluster Research, by Dana Palmer for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/uncovering-immigrant-origins-through-cluster-research/
WEDNESDAY 22 March
2 pm: PERSI 2.0: The New PERSI for Everyone, by Sunney Morton for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/persi-2-0-the-new-persi-for-everyone/
THURSDAY 23 March
6:30 pm: Researching in UK Archives from Abroad, by Helen V. Smith for Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center.
https://acpl.libnet.info/event/8056427
FRIDAY 24 March
SATURDAY 25 March
Did you register for Gene-o-Rama or Irish Family History Research Day?
Now indexed on the UK National Archives Discovery catalogue are personnel cards from 417 boxes in the series WO 416 — War Office: German Record cards of British and Commonwealth Prisoners of War and some Civilian Internees, Second World War.
Roger Kershaw’s blog post on the completion of the project mentions, “Of the 185,000 opened records, 100,000 relate to British Army personnel, 5,200 to Australian forces, 2,800 to New Zealand forces, and 4,600 to South African forces.”
No Canadians? Yes, there are. Search Canad* and find 4,494 hits. I searched for a Canadian Reid as an example.
It turns out Stanleigh Lowry Reid was from Ottawa, son of Irish-born Frank and Ellen Lowry Reid. The entry shows he died so there are entries in records from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Canadian Virtual War Memorial and a service file.
One project reports progress among the Library and Archives Canada’s Co-Lab Challenges.
Mary Ann Shadd Cary is 5% complete, last month 3% complete.
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 13% complete.
Women in the War remains 1% 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 3% complete.
The Call to Duty: Canada’s Nursing Sisters remains 93% complete.
Projects that remain 100% complete are no longer reported here.
Other unidentified Co-Lab activities not part of the Challenges may have seen progress.
Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.
The Globe Flight Time Map
The approximate estimated time it would take to fly from any location on Earth to anywhere else on the planet.
The Museum of Broken Relationships
Ancestry wins contract to digitise MoD records
The National Archives have announced that the contract for digitising the military records that are in the process of being transferred from the Ministry of Defence has been awarded to Ancestry. Three million records for personnel who served after 1920 will be made available exclusively at Ancestry between 2024-2029. (via Peter Calver’s LostCousins newsletter).
OurDigitalWorld Newsletter – March 2023
Thanks to this week’s contributors: Ann Burns, Anonymous, Brenda Turner, Donna, gail benjafield, Jean Kitchen, Joanne, Kenneth R Marks, Nick McDonald, norm prince, Robert Ross Halfyard, Susan Gingras, Sylvia Smith, Teresa, Unknown, William Cookman
