Month: August 2023

This collection of genealogical abstracts from Ireland has over one million entries, a significant addition to the available Irish resources, especially for early years. According to the Ancestry information, most pertain to wills and marriage bonds, and some miscellaneous abstracts are included. I found many indicated as “residence.”

The collection appears to have been indexed by AI handwriting recognition technology.

Testing with the surname Marmion found 30 hits with both first and last names. Ten were event-type residence, 18 wills, one marriage, and one death. Eight had additional information on event dates or relatives in the listing.

Each hit is linked to an image of the original page or a two-page image. Given my mediocre paleographic skills, I struggled to find the corresponding entry in the original. It would be helpful if it were highlighted and a transcription of the whole page was available with the hit highlighted.

Focus this week is on Derbyshire, with 450,00 new parish records. They are mainly transcripts, a few include images. They are not only from the Established Church (CofE). Baptist, various Methodist, Presbyterian and Independant congregations are included.

Baptisms
231,270 new records from across the county for the years 1524 to 1991. The total is now 1,237,175 records for 324 parishes

Marriages
114,294 added records, now totalling 776,313. Many of the early records have no last name for the bride.

Burials
108,015 new records, from 1539 to 1997.

These collections are published in partnership with Derbyshire Family History Society, the Family History Federation and FamilySearch.

Newspapers
The week also saw 155,862 pages added to eight titles.
Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, 1780, 1794
Croydon Express, 1912
Huddersfield Daily Examiner, 1970, 1972, 1977-1979
Lichfield Post, 1991
Liverpool Echo, 1968
London Daily Chronicle, 1886, 1889, 1923, 1926, 1929
South Wales Echo, 1912
Wexford and Kilkenny Express, 1900

Each year organizations federally registered as charities in Canada for tax purposes are required to file returns with the Canada Revenue Agency. Financial and other information is available on the Revenue Canada website. Search for individual society reports at
https://apps.cra-arc.gc.ca/ebci/hacc/srch/pub/dsplyBscSrch?request_locale=en.

Two societies, AGS and OGS, reported substantial financial donation in 2022.

Figures for the previous financial period (usually calendar year) follow the most recent in parentheses.

Alberta Genealogical Society

For the reporting period ending 2022-12-31, total assets of $1,041,398 ($590,395) and liabilities of $212,232 ($175,854.) The total revenue was $614,488 ($188,456.) That included an extraordinary item, a charitable tax eligible gift or gifts, totalling $422,882.  Expenditures totalled 199,863 ($183,798). The individual annual membership fee remains $50 for digital journal subscription. 

British Columbia Genealogical Society

For the reporting period ending 2022-12-31, total assets of $216,503 ($233,931) and liabilities of $20,517 ($37,201.) The total revenue was $27,392 ($29,895.) Expenditures totalled $28,201 ($29,895). The individual annual new membership fee remins $65.

Family History Society of Newfoundland and Labrador Inc

For the reporting period ending 2022-12-31, total assets of $78,308 ($80,912) and no liabilities. The total revenue was $32,500 ($35,743.) Expenditures totalled $34,912 ($27,526.) The individual annual membership fee remains $42.

Manitoba Genealogical Society

For the reporting period ending 2023-03-31 information is not yet posted. The individual annual membership fee is $60 ($50.)

For the reporting period ending 2021-12-31, total assets of $2,034,220 ($1,577,182) and liabilities of $280,466 ($271,019,) The total revenue was $1,004,580 ($552,102.) That included an extraordinary item, a gift or gifts, totalling $651,492.  Expenditures totalled  $556,489 ($518,402.) The individual annual membership fee remains $63.

For the reporting period ending 2021-07-31, total assets of $18,985 ($24,235) and liabilities of $4,593 ($7,260.) The total revenue was $29,203 ($43,066.) Expenditures totalled $31,785 ($31,269.) The individual annual fee remains at $75.

For the reporting period ending 2022-12-31 information is not posted. Individual basic annual membership remains $70.

For the reporting period ending 2022-12-31 information is not yet posted.

For the reporting period ending 2023-05-31 information is not yet posted. Individual annual membership remains $60.

Look for this post to be updated when reports for the five societies with 2022 information missing are added.

A FamilySearch collection, “Wills and deed records from the United States, 1630-1975,” was recently the subject of an experimental research project. One hundred and ten million records processed by handwriting recognition technology were opened up for searching.  Several people tried it before the experiment was closed and posted about their experience and enthusiasm on Reddit,”. A YouTube post by GenealogyTechnology demonstrated using it.

If you want to know more, the RootsTech presentation Advances in Computer Assisted Indexing of Historical Records by John Alexander from FamilySearch provides a helpful backgrounder.

In Canada, we benefitted from Ancestry’s index to the 1931 census completed in 2 days. The release was delayed for quality control.

The day is coming when AI interpretation of handwritten records will be something we can apply ourselves to a collection where online images are available. What Canadian records would you want to use it for?

The Back to School ads are appearing as we get closer to September. They serve as a reminder that the pace of genealogy picks up too after the summer lull.

OGS has its annual conference, themed Diversity in Genealogy, from 8 – 10 September. It’s virtual. There’s a good mix of presentations and a workshop from Findmypast to start things off. Find out more at https://conference2023.ogs.on.ca/

I expect to be away taking advantage of a reduced number of tourists in Europe to visit sites in my family history. It means I don’t have to make the choice between that and other events that weekend. I’ll miss the September BIFHSGO monthly meeting; fortunately it will be recorded for later viewing by members.

Those are far from the only major events that weekend. There’s the Scottish Indexes XXI Conference, and the American-Canadian Genealogical Society Virtual Fall Conference. The Edmonton Chapter of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia is offerring a virtual Wall Breaker Conference. 

I’ll be back in good time for the 2023 BIFHSGO Virtual Conference: Scotland and Migration, being held on 28-29 October. Find out more about that at https://www.bifhsgo.ca/2023-conference

Do you have ancestors from the parishes of Balyna, part of Carbury and part of Newtown in county Kildare and the parishes of Enfield/Rathmolyon, Longwood/Killyon, Coole/Summerhill and Clonard in county Meath?

That includes the graveyards of Agher, Ardenew, Ardkill, Ballinadrimna, Broadford, Broadford Church, Cadamstown, Castlerickard, Clonard CoI, Clonard RC, Cloncurry, Clondalee, Croboy, Dunfierth, Gallow, Jordanstown, Jordanstown Church, Kilglass, Kill, Kilrainey, Kilshanroe New, Kilshanroe Old, Ladywell, Mylerstown, Newtown, Nurney, Rathcore, Rathmolyon, Templadooath, The Moy, TíCroghan.

Ancestry sourced this 11,961 record collection from the Enfield & District Graveyard Website.

MyHeritage just added a collection of 855,785 England, Lancashire, Manchester Burials.

Included are index records from 1850 to the present year for Blackly, Gorton, Manchester General, Philips Park, and Southern cemeteries, and Blackly Crematorium.

The records, also at other major genealogy sites, may be searched without charge at  https://www.burialrecords.manchester.gov.uk/ where additional genealogical information may be purchased.

Less than two weeks after LAC released the 1931 census of Canada images, Ancestry provided a name search capability. It used AI — handwriting recognition (HWR) technology. Did you rush to use the index to find the person you sought? Chances are you found them. Perhaps the person wasn’t recorded, or the technology failed if you didn’t.

HWR isn’t perfect; it makes mistakes too. That’s just as you might be unsure about a transcription and choose the wrong option!

To test this, I took a one-page sample, 50 lines, from the 1931 Canadian census. I compared the Ancestry HWR interpretation to my own. I randomly selected Sub-district: 0022 – Brantford (City), Page Number 3.  If my interpretation differed from Ancestry’s I looked for another record to check for the correct interpretation.

Of the 50 names, 11 had given and/or last names that were not correct. That’s 78% accuracy.

Out of the 50, only one given name needed to be corrected. A given name was transcribed as Crogier rather than Crozier. That’s just a single-letter difference: g and z are frequently confused, as shown in this listing.

It isn’t clear how the HWR technology works. AI is opaque about its methodology. Does it look at individual characters? If so, that 78% accuracy is only possible because the character recognition accuracy is much greater. A 99% (96.5%) character accuracy implies a 93% (78%) accuracy for a seven-letter word. 

However, more likely the HWR is recognizing the whole word rather than spelling out the letters, just as we do in reading. Problems arise for unfamiliar words, much more likely for last than given names. 

Most of the ten differences in the last name occurred because the HWR usually recognizes and interprets the ditto mark to mean use the name above. However, the ditto mark was not recognized in two of the ten cases, so no surname was provided.

The ditto causes problems where the lead person’s name is misinterpreted. In one case, the HWT interpreted Strohm as Strohn and applied it to the following two family members. There were two other similar cases.

Because the technology is more accurate for first than last names, if the full name search isn’t successful, consider searching by omitting the last name while adding an age, birth year, or place to limit the number of hits.

You may be interested in the YouTube video below explaining Ancestry’s HWR technology.

For a very limited time, for $49 Canadian, the MyHeritage DNA test is available. Take a look at the details of this very special offer here.

They were there is a collection of people and stories building on a core of Battle of Britain legends and flying aces and similar Army, Navy, Civilian and Resistance legends, 154 people in total.
Scroll down on the page to see an index of places and actions. Clicking on Canada reveals 23 matches. Read about Canada-born Ian Roy MacLennan, Alexander Beaufort Fraser Fraser-Harris, David George Evans, Robert M ‘Bob’ Elder, and others whose connection to Canada was temporary.

The 2023 Toronto History Lecture will be held online via Zoom on Tuesday, August 8, at 7:30 pm EDT. It is free, but you must register. (It will be recorded, so if your schedule or time zone doesn’t accommodate 7:30, you can time-shift.)

During the early 1900s, Toronto experienced rapid changes due to industrialization, migration, and the implementation of major infrastructure projects. One of the most significant undertakings of this time was the construction of the Water Supply Tunnel in Toronto’s harbour, which was also the site of a notable archaeological discovery. Huron Elliott, a miner from the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, arrived in Toronto in 1907 to work on this project. Tragically, he and three other workers lost their lives just days later. Eric Sehr will delve into the unique story of Huron Elliott, a rare account of an Indigenous person actively shaping Toronto’s growth and development in the early 20th century. Additionally, he will examine the significance of the Water Supply Tunnel project to commemorate the workers who died building the essential infrastructure that Toronto relies on today.

Eric Sehr is an urban planner and an ardent admirer of Toronto. His interests include maps, old newspapers, and the tales that they hold. For over ten years, he has devoted his time to researching and writing about the history of Toronto, which he shares on his blog, “Toronto Shaped.” Through this blog, Eric delves into the people, places, and plans that have left an indelible mark on the city’s past and present. You can find his work at torontoshaped.wordpress.com.

Click here to register for The 2023 Toronto History Lecture. It is free!

The 2023 Toronto History Lecture will be dedicated to the memory of long time Toronto Branch member Ron Junkin, in recognition of his many volunteer contributions to the Branch over 45 years.