Genealogists’ Magazine, March 2023

The March issue of Genealogists’ Magazine, the Journal of the Society of Genealogists, dropped into my mailbox on Tuesday, 30 May — yes, that is the March issue — the slight aroma of salt coming from the cover could be a hint about the delay.

The issue starts out, after the administrative preliminaries, with several articles elucidating the genealogy of the Great and the Good — starting with the male line ancestry of King Charles III. 

If you’re interested in the history of records, there’s a solid article by John Winthrop on the legacy of William Dade. The late 18th and early 19th centuries saw a movement to add greater details to BMB records. A prime mover, not the only one was Rev Willliam Dade.  You can get a a map and spreadsheet showing 170 parishes with Dade or Dade-like registers at http://englishancestors.byu.edu/pages/dade-registers.

The article that most caught my attention was Six Essentials for Kick Starting Your Family History Journey. Compiled by the Society of Genealogists social media team with Emma Jolly, Natalie Plithers and various Tweeters, it’s an assemblage of tips, whether you’re new or an old-hand looking for a refresher.

  1. take a genealogy course. 
  2. create dedicated time for exploring your family history
  3. sign up for newsletters
  4. plan your genealogy events with Conference Keeper https://conferencekeeper.org/
  5. use tools to bookmark online articles, stop losing your discoveries.
  6. broadening your knowledge,

British Newspaper Archives May Additions 🇬🇧

The total number of pages online is, 67,854,558 an increase from 67,551,163 last month.

This month 80 papers had pages added (113 in the previous month). There were no new titles. Dates range from 1848 to 1995.

The 10 newspapers with more than 10,000 pages added are:

TITLE DATE RANGE
Altrincham, Bowdon & Hale Guardian 1871, 1874-1887, 1893-1894, 1898
Bayswater Chronicle 1860-1873, 1878, 1893, 1896, 1909-1939, 1944-1949
Devizes and Wilts Advertiser 1858-1871, 1873-1916
Downham Market Gazette 1879-1889, 1891-1895, 1897-1911, 1913-1916
East Anglian Daily Times 1874, 1877, 1882-1883, 1886, 1888, 1898-1899, 1913-1916
Haverhill Echo 1922, 1925-1946, 1971-1975
Huddersfield Daily Examiner 1928, 1945, 1949, 1955, 1957, 1961, 1982
Loftus Advertiser 1879-1895, 1897, 1899-1906, 1909-1916
Oban Times and Argyllshire Advertiser 1901, 1929-1960, 1987-1988, 1990-1994
Sheerness Guardian and East Kent Advertiser 1894-1896, 1899-1911, 1913-1932, 1934-1939

Good to see Norfolk being paid some attention with the addition of two newspapers on the list, and the addition of 1911 for the Yarmouth Mercury.

This Week’s Online Genealogy Events

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 30 May

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

2:30 pm: Uncover Your Family’s Story Using the Periodical Source, by Elizabeth Hodges for Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center.
https://acpl.libnet.info/event/8367457

Wednesday 31 May

2 pm: Finding Chinese Railroad Worker Files in the U.S., by Grant Din for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/finding-chinese-railroad-worker-files-in-the-u-s/

6:30 pm: Finding the records for “impossible” genealogy: Lessons learned from a Chinese genealogist. by Linda Yip for Oakville Public Library.
https://attend.opl.on.ca/event/8492419.

7 pm: The Secret Murder of Country Constable John Morrison, by Ivan Tanner & Gerard Boyer for the Historical Society of Ottawa and the Cumberland Township Historical Society.
tinyurl.com/HSO-31-May-2023

Thursday 1 June

6:30 pm: What’s New with DNA at MyHeritage? by Daniel Horowitz for Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center.
https://acpl.libnet.info/event/8624191

Friday 2 June

9 am: Sensation, scandal and shock:1963, by Mark Dunton for TNA.
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/sensation-scandal-and-shock1963-tickets-546205233557

2 pm: Afro-Louisiana History and Genealogy, 1718-1820, by Nicka Smith for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/afro-louisiana-history-and-genealogy-1718-1820/

Saturday 3 June

10 am: Chippewas of the Thames First Nation – The Longwoods Treaties, by Brandon Graham for OGS London & Middlesex Branch.
https://londonmiddlesex.ogs.on.ca/events/london-middlesex-branch-chippewas-of-the-thames-first-nation-the-longwoods-treaties/

2 pm: Genealogical holdings of the Orillia Public Library, by Jayne Turvey for OGS Simcoe County Branch.
https://simcoe.ogs.on.ca/branch-meetings/

MyHeritage adds Scotland, Moray Local Heritage

This collection of 567,773 records, People of Moray, contains individuals from or connected to the county, sometimes known as Elginshire, Scotland, from the year 1400 onwards. Records typically include the name of the individual, date and place of birth, date and place of marriage, date and place of death, and the names of the parents and the spouse.

These records are from The Moray Council and include local government archives from the 13th century to 1975, local newspapers, gravestone inscriptions, non-established church records to 1855, architectural plans, books, family histories and more. However, the nature of the source was not given in a few results I checked. Therefore, treat them as clues rather than sources.

Military Monday: Obituary: James Eagle served in the Canadian military after suffering residential school

He served his country in the Korean War as a member of the Canadian military despite suffering the indignities of the residential school system as a boy.

In doing so, he once told an interviewer, he was joining hands with the more than 8,000 Indigenous people who fought for Canada in the First and Second World Wars.

“It’s very important to do our bit for the country,” he said. “And we aboriginal people are forgiving people, and I forgave what they did to me at residential school to serve my country.”

Read the full Ottawa Citizen article at https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/obituary-james-eagle-served-in-the-canadian-military-after-suffering-residential-school

Towards Open Scholarship: A Canadian Research and Academic Library Action Plan to 2025

This joint report by the Canadian Association of Research Libraries’ (CARL) and the Canadian Research Knowledge Network’s (CRKN) documents strategic approaches and a rearticulation of the role of Canadian research and academic libraries.

As patrons of the product of academic research, but not partners, the genealogical community has an interest.

What specifically is in the action plan of interest. The initiatives are grouped under the headings:
1. Disseminate and preserve Canadian scholarly outputs
2. Improve the discovery and tracking of Canadian content
3. Fund international open scholarship research platforms, infrastructures, and services
4. Influence policy developments in Canada
5. Support innovation

While many are far into the academic weeds the following will be worth following to see if they are successful. Hopefully there will be periodic progress reports.

1.5. Enhance the Canadiana collections and infrastructure to support Canadian researchers and facilitate large-scale content growth. (Lead: CRKN)
4.5. Advocate for the expansion of digitization of heritage content, with other stakeholders across the GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums)
sector (Lead: CRKN for CCDH with CARL)
5.3. Engage with local and disciplinary communities and funders and other academic stakeholders to help advance and support the adoption of open scholarship practices. (Co-leads: CARL, CRKN)
5.4. Transform CRKN’s Canadiana research infrastructure to embrace open standards and community-led development. (Lead: CRKN)
5.5. Explore the implications of artificial intelligence systems and quantum computing on the future of the open scholarship landscape (Lead: CARL)

OGS Toronto Branch May Meeting

Photo by Maarten van den Heuvel on Unsplash

Scandal, Slavery and Survival: More Tales from New France is the topic when Dawn Kelly and Carol Ufford speak to a hybrid meeting of OGS Toronto Branch at 7:30 pm on Monday, 29 May.
That is preceded by a shorter presentation The Saga of a Boy of the Third Class about her 4X Granduncle, an Australian pioneer settler, by Diana Thomson.
You can attend virtually via Zoom, register via
http://torontofamilyhistory.org/event/scandal-slavery-survival-new-france/

 

Findmypast adds more Manchester records

Having announced its Manchester Rate Books release earlier in the week, Findmypast has now added complementary records.

A browseable version of these Manchester rate books fills in the gaps between the five-yearly indexed versions. Start at the first image of any given book, then use the ‘forward’ or ‘next’ arrow, to click through to the images, just as if you were browsing through the original volume. For example, for Stockport Council there are 32 browsable rate books between 1883 and 1923 complementing the indexed ones from 1886 to 1921.

Also released this week, Lancashire, Oldham Inquisitions 1905-1917, 749 files with an index and images of the original. If the John Smith included who died there in 1916 was yours, you may be interested to know the cause was shock while lighting a match.

This week’s newspaper additions include three new Manchester area titles.

Altrincham, Bowdon & Hale Guardian, 1871,
1874-1887, 1893-1894, 1898

Ashton Standard, 1858-1861, 1865, 1877, 1879,
1889, 1896-1897

Bolton Journal & Guardian, 1876-1877, 1879-1880,
1889, 1897, 1899, 1916-1918

 

Catching up with MyHeritage

In honour of US Memorial Day, MyHeritage is offering free access to all 83.1 million of their military records, from May 25–30, 2023. Explore the military records for free.

Updated data for the MyHeritage Theory of Family Relativity™ means millions of new theories, a 61% increase, have been developed to uncover new DNA Matches. Do you have your DNA data at MyHeritage? Even if you didn;t take a test with them you can transfer existing autosomal test data from another company and get the advantage of more tests for comparison.

Expect more next week …