Month: March 2023

The detailed plan is now available here. I previously posted on the financials.

In the whole document, genealog* and census occur in just one paragraph.

In 2023–24, LAC will prioritize processing of, and providing access to, the 1931 Canadian census. This collection will be the very first to be processed and made accessible to the public through DAMS. Censuses are an essential source of information for genealogical research, because they help to piece together the composition of a household and identify its members, including their age, gender, relationships, occupation and even religion. In an ongoing effort to improve the user experience and simplify research, LAC recently launched the Census Search tool, a one-stop shop for 44 million records previously held in 17 databases.

Newspapers and maps each occur once, in a paragraph referring to the 50 million items LAC continues to preserve.

Focusing in on “Providing access to documentary heritage,” a summary paragraph is:

In 2023–24 and beyond, LAC will significantly transform its services, both at its points of service and online. It will work to improve its digital presence, to make the collection more accessible and to reach more Canadians. It will prioritize the needs of users.

This word cloud shows terms in the section with ten or more occurrences. Notice ATIP and indigenous mixed amongst the expected planning terminology.

The number of images from LAC collection digitized is an indicator that has a history. In 2023-24 the target is 5.5 million, more than double that of the past two years due to additional funding obtained to digitize records related to the former federal Indian Day Schools system and to support LAC’s ATIP function.

The target is less ambitious than the 21.8 million pages  achived over three years ending in 2019 when the target was 40 milllion pages.

The figures for 2022-23 and 2023-24 are targets. A request to LAC for access to plans with earlier information, which is no longer available on the new LAC website, received a prompt acknowledgement that “due to a high volume of requests there can be a delay of up to a couple of months for a response to more complex research inquiries.”

LAC projects 3 million unique visitors to LAC’s website and online applications in 2023-24, a 10% increase.

A new section in the plan is Gender-based analysis plus. It’s getting established, as indicated in each of the seven components in “Highlights of GBA Plus Results Reporting Capacity by Program” by the sentence “This program does not collect sufficient data at this time to enable it to monitor and/or report program impacts by gender and diversity” 

It’s back to hybrid meetings on Saturday for the British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa.

9:00 am – 10:00 am:  Education Talk
Tips for Genetic Genealogy DNA Research – Presenter:  Shirley Marshall Monkhouse
This presentation will be of benefit to everyone doing family history research whether or not you have DNA results.  Shirley will provide 10 top tips and a process to organize your research.  Adopting these tips and process will save you time and effort and give you better results from your family history research and analysis of DNA results.  There will be a focus on Irish DNA and a detailed handout will be provided.

10:00 am – 11:30 am:  Feature Talk
There was a shot; after that everything is confusing – Presenter:  Shirley Marshall Monkhouse
It was 18 June 1831, a market day, and just a short walk outside the small town of Newtownbarry on the border of Co. Wexford and Co. Carlow in Ireland, when a musket shot was heard.  After that, things became confusing.  This event became known as “The Battle of the Pound.”  Shirley first learned about the affray in 2016.  She has since used the genealogical concept of “Context” research to make it easier to untangle the story and to understand its complex back history and the long-lasting outcome.

To join online register Here

“An incorrigible rogue and vagabond.”

That’s the description in the record for James Reid (no known relation) who was convicted on 5 December 1881 at Marylebone Police Court and sentenced to 2 calendar months at Her Majesty’s Prison Holloway.

This free collection of 82,679 records contains lists of prisoners tried at Middlesex or Westminster Sessions of the Peace in England, between the years 1836 and 1889. Records typically include the name of the individual, age, and the date when the trial took place. Records may also include information about the occupation, previous convictions, offense charged with, verdict, and sentence.

The calendars that are mentioned in this collection are documents or records maintained by correctional institutions or law enforcement agencies that contain information about the individuals who are currently incarcerated or have been previously incarcerated in their facilities.

Although for London, with original records at the London Metropolitean Archives, the transcription records in this collection are © The University of Sheffield.

Global Heritage Press announces two more OBOGS publications are back in print, including as pdf downloads.

Early Ottawa Valley Records
By Norman K. Crowder et al
Originally published by Ottawa Branch, Ontario Genealogical Society, 1988,
Contents include:

• Introduction
• CENSUS RECORDS
  • Census of the Township of Nepean, 1822 – Bruce S. Elliott
  • Census of the Township of Hull, 1825 – Bruce S. Elliott
  • Census of the Townships of Buckingham, Lochabour and Templeton, 1825 – Bruce S. Elliott
  • Census of the Township of McNab, 1842 – Neil Stewart
• ESTATE RECORDS
  • Probate Records in Carleton County – Bruce S. Elliott
  • Index to Huntley Township Wills – Bruce S. Elliott
  • Index to Marlborough Township Wills – Jim Kennedy
  • Index to Torbolton Township Wills – Bruce S. Elliott
  • Carleton County and Western Quebec Probates and Administrations – Bruce S. Elliott
• MILITIA RECORDS
  • Huntley Township Militia, 1829 – Bruce S. Elliott
  • March Township Militia, 1841 – De/llton R. Owens
  • Nepean Township Militia, 1828 – Bruce S. Elliott
  • Bytown volunteers, 1838 – DeAlton R. Owens
  • First Carleton Militia, 1829 – Joan McKay
  • Hull, Eardley, and Onslow Militia, 1808 – Bruce S. Elliott
• PROPERTY RECORDS
  • Carleton County Case Files: Second Heir and Devisee Commission, 1804-1895 – Bruce S. Elliott
  • Township of March Collector’s Roll, 1846 – DeAlton R. Owens
  • Township of Nepean Assessment, 1822 – Norman K. Crowder
• VITAL RECORDS
  • Some Returns of Births, Marriages and Deaths in the Perth Military Settlement, 1816-1818 – Bruce S. Elliott
• Sources
• Contributors
• Index of names (click here to browse the Index)

Prospect United Church Cemetery, Beckwith Township, Lanark County, Ontario (A Pioneer Cemetery & Church of Lanark County)
By George Neville and Iris M. McLinton-Neville
Originally published by Ottawa Branch, Ontario Genealogical Society, 1976.
Contents include:

• Original title page including cemetery location details
• History of Prospect United Church and Cemetery (a Pioneer Methodist cemetery and church)
  • Early settlement
  • Rideau Circuit and the Methodist Church at prospect
  • Methodist Ministers of the Rideau Circuit (with dates)
  • Methodist Ministers of the Richmond Circuit (with dates)
  • Men of the Richmond Circuit who entered the Methodist minitry
  • The Methodist stone church at Prospect
  • Prospect Methodist cemetery
• Use of the cemetery recording -instructions for use of the plot map and numbering system
• References
• Addendum
• Transciptions of the information recorded on memorial stones
• Cemetery plot plan/map
• Index to Memorial Stone Inscriptions (click here to browse the Index)

 

Another addition to MyHeritage is based on Scottish Indexes and the original records at the National Archives of Scotland in Edinburgh (MC7 series), titled General Register of Lunatics in Asylums.

Each of the 127,746 records may contain the full name of the patient, the birth date, the admission date, the location within Scotland, and the date of death in cases where a patient died in an asylum. There’s a link to the Scottish Indexes website for further information.

While record-keeping commenced in 1858, the first volume contains records of all patients who resided in Scottish asylums on January 1st, 1858, with these patients having been admitted as early as 1807. Many of the patients in this collection spent most of their lives in an asylum.  For further background information, visit http://www.scottishindexes.com.

The theme for 2023 is Embrace Equity.

More than ever, women are integral to the success of family history societies. The president of BIFHSGO is a woman as are seven of nine Board members. The president of the Ontario Genealogical Society is a woman as are seven of the ten directors.

Here in Ottawa, the majority of the staff that we rely on in two major organizations are women, including the Librarian and Archivist of Canada and the CEO of the Ottawa Public Library.

On the occasion of International Women’s Day, thank you for your contributions

An email arrived from Ancestry.ca —”Save 30% on a 6-month membership”. The details:
“Offer ends 15 Mar 2023 at 11:59pm ET. 6-month membership special offer prices: $59.49 Canada Discovery Plus or $90.99 World Deluxe. Excludes current subscribers. Your membership will automatically renew at the end of each 6-month period and at that time your chosen method of payment will be charged $84.99 for Canada Discovery Plus or $129.99 for World Deluxe, plus applicable taxes, unless you are notified otherwise. If you don’t want to renew, cancel at least two days before your renewal date by logging into your Account Settings page or by contacting us. See Terms and Conditions.”

Those who have subscriptions know — never let it auto renew as you’ll pay more than you have to. That’s a general rule, not just for Ancestry. Let the subscription expire, then, likely in a few days you’ll receive an offer or give them a call and ask for a 50% discount. You may not get it, but you may be able to negotiate 40% or 30% discount. If they won’t budge hang up. Chances are there will be another special soon. In the meantime you likely have access to the Ancestry Library edition at a branch of you local public library,

Post a comment if you have information on your renewal experiecne to share that may help others.

Did you enjoy RootsTech? I didn’t attend nearly as much online as I anticipated, consoling myself that I could always go back later to view most of the presentations.

Of the presentations I did attend, they saved the best until the last. Diahan Southard’s dynamic presentation Shared DNA Matches – the only DNA Tool You Will Ever Need first won me over with the title. I never want to mess with segments. There was substantive content as she guided us step-by-step through her process. You’ll need to work to follow it through. She admitted it can get complicated and messy, but it’s worth it.  For those of us with ancestry outside the US, the process is limited by the lack of people who have tested.

Diahan also presented My Messy Complicated Birth Roots Story. I didn’t attend; I’ve heard it a couple of times previously and would have again if there wasn’t a conflict. I recommend it if you haven’t.

Another I attended, Different Ways to Work with Your Family Trees, had Uri Goren speaking on the MyHeritage Family Tree facility. I have over 200 people on my MyHeritage tree, but I was unaware of some of the capabilities he explained well. I came away wanting to use it more, but then reflected that MyHeritage has limited British data for hinting that’s available elsewhere. But, of course, you can always manually enter the data from elsewhere, which may be good if it causes you to examine it more carefully.

One of the more frontier presentations I attended was Creating the DeepBand: An Anchor Beyond the Census in England by Richard Taylor Rowley. The summary posted was:

Where can solid ground for genealogical research be found in pre-census England? The reality: As family trees continue to be pushed back further in time, more and more researchers are moving into this pre-census territory but often are not well-equipped to navigate it. Learn about DeepGen’s effort to create an England-wide band of integrated data for reference by the many intrepid travelers now working in the pre-census realm.

He used a polling app, menti.com, to ask the audience questions based on the results of his analysis for Northampton, like “What percentage of children died before the age of eight (1670 – 1726)?”

He has developed terminologies like Exploratory and Settled Genealogy. He regards exploratory as traditional, whereas Settled uses techniques familiar to those who have pursued a one-place study. He used an example where he separated what appeared to be one family into two based on an occupation found in a will. He also mentioned machine learning and artificial intelligence, along with several other newly invented terms. So what’s promotion and what’s really new?

You may be interested to read Janet Few’s RootsTech Roundup starting here.

RootsTech 2024 is from 29 February – 2 March.

 

There’s welcome news from Library and Archives Canada on the process toward the release of the 1931 census on 1 June 2023.  Already completed are:

• Transfer
  Receive 1931 Census from Statistics Canada in the form of 187 microfilm reels. (microfilmed in 2005-2006.)
• Add to collection
  Assign reel numbers and location, create archival description, and add the record to Collection Search.
• Digitization
  Digitize microfilm reels, and verify each census page image by image—234,678 images in total.

Information on further steps toward release, and beyond, are included here.

At RootsTech Ancestry indicated they’d be processing the images just as they did the 1950 US census. If that precedent is anything to go by it shouldn’t take more than a few days, or weeks if they’re cautious and want to check the accuracy is adequate.

Census Background
There were 40 basic questions on the population schedule, divided into the following categories:
(1) Order of visitation, name, locality, description of dwelling;
(2) Personal description (family, sex, conjugal condition, age);
(3) Political status (birthplace, year of immigration, year of naturalization, nationality, origin, language);
(4) Social condition (literacy, school attendance, religion);
(5) Economic condition (occupation, industry, earnings, unemployment, disability).

There was no question on fertility (number of children).

Canada’s population first exceeded 10 million in 1931 and had grown by 18% since 1921.

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 7 March

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

7:30 pm: Away to Canada, by Barbara Dickson for OGS Durham Branch.
https://ogs.on.ca/events/durhams-march-7th-2023-meeting-away-to-canada/

WEDNESDAY 8 March

7:30 pm: Searching for Irish Ancestors, by Penny Walters for OGS Huron Branch.
https://huron.ogs.on.ca/events/huron-branch-dr-penny-walters-searching-for-irish-ancestors/

8 pm: Written in Stone: In-Depth Study of a Gravestone, by Gena Philibert-Ortega for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/written-in-stone-in-depth-study-of-a-gravestone/

THURSDAY 9 March

3 pm: Finding Your Ancestral Homestead, by Sheilagh Doerfler for American Ancestors.
https://www.americanancestors.org/events/finding-your-ancestral-homestead

FRIDAY 10 March

9 am: The Prize Papers: a New Frontier in Global and Maritime History, from The UK National Archives.
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-prize-papers-a-new-frontier-in-global-and-maritime-history-tickets-482335688027

2 pm: An Introduction to Using WordPress to Build a Blog or Website, by Elizabeth Swanay O’Neal for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/an-introduction-to-using-wordpress-to-build-a-blog-or-website/

7 pm: Online Newspaper Research – Tips & Techniques for Better Results, by Kenneth R. Marks for OGS Kent Branch
https://kent.ogs.on.ca/events/kent-branch-online-newspaper-research/

SATURDAY 11 March

9 am: Tips For Genetic Genealogy DNA Research, by Shirley Monkhouse for BIFHSGO.
https://www.bifhsgo.ca/events

10 am: There was a shot; after that everything is confusing, by Shirley Monkhouse for BIFHSGO.
https://www.bifhsgo.ca/events

The FreeBMD database was updated on 1 March 2023 to contain 287,549,647 unique records, that’s an increase from 287,085,185 at the previous update on 1 February — 16,588 per day.

Years with more than 10,000 additions are, for births 1991, 1992, and 1994; for marriages 1991 – 1993, for deaths 1987, 1990 – 1993.

In the Main Estimates for 2023-24 tabled in the House of Commons,  Library and Archives Canada is allocated $203.8 million, a decrease from $222.3 million for 2022-23. Operating expenditures increase by $31.1 million, while Capital expenditures decrease by $52.8 million.

Another way to slice the pie is according to core responsibilities.

Although superficially, it looks like bad news, the increase in Internal Service could be an accounting move of activity; some changes may reflect the end of a specially funded program. I’ll wait until the details in the 2023–24 Departmental Plan, not yet tabled in the Commons, become available to conclude how service is affected.