Month: January 2024

Is there a postal worker in your ancestry? These 147,020 UK postal worker records on 278,540 sheets, usually two sheets per person, are handwritten onto pre-printed forms, with later records typed.  The source for the original data is The Postal Museum.

Records in the collection may include the following information:

Name
Birth date
Age
Occupation and position
Name of business
Length of Service
Salary
Date pension was granted
Death date

Here’s a profile of entries by birth decade (centered on the year given).

 

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

Who Do You Really Think You Are?
A podcast from BBC Radio 4 on the chances you are descended from royality.

The Ships of Dominion Bridge: A Second World War Story of Teamwork, Technology and Innovation by Rian Manson for the LAC Discover blog.

Nine ‘tipping points’ that could be triggered by climate change

You’ll be sorry if you miss it.
The deadline for early bird registration for OGS Conference 2024 | An Interactive Experience! is 31 January. It’s being held 14-16 June in Toronto. https://conference2024.ogs.on.ca/

Lady Killers with Lucy Worsley: Maria Manning – ‘Lady Macbeth of Bermondsey’. Podcast from BBC Radio 4

Thanks to this week’s contributors: Anonymous,  Bryan Cook, Brenda Turner, Daniel Horowitz, gail benjafield, Glenn Wright,  Helen Gillespie, Ian Barker,  Ken McKinlay, Lolly Fullerton, Paul Jones,  Sunday Thompson, Teresa,  Unknown.

 

On Wednesday Ancestry updated this index collection to approximately 3.3 million marriages (many are duplicates) from 1826 to 1939. The original sources are:

Ontario, Canada. Registrations of Marriages, 1869-1928. MS932, Reels 1-833, 850-880. Archives of Ontario, Toronto.
Ontario, Canada. Marriage License Books, 1907-1910. MS945, Reels 1-12. Archives of Ontario, Toronto, Ontario.
Ontario, Canada. Delayed Registrations of Marriages, 1892-1919. MS948, Reels 1-5. Archives of Ontario, Toronto.
Ontario, Canada. County Marriage Registers, 1858-June 1869. FHL microfilm 1030055-1030068. Family History Library. Salt Lake City, Utah (Archives of Ontario, MS 248, reels 5-18).
Ontario, Canada. District Marriage Registers, 1801-1858. MS 248, Reels 1-4. Archives of Ontario, Toronto.
Ontario, Canada. Roman Catholic Marriage Registers, 1828-1870. MS 248, Reels 20-23. Archives of Ontario, Toronto.
Ontario, Canada. Ontario Marriages, 1933-1939. Textual Records. RG 80-05-0. Archives of Ontario, Toronto, Ontario.

 

Here is my personal selection of highlights from the February issue published on 12 January. I read it through the Ottawa Public Library subscription to PressReader.

FAMILY HISTORY WELL-BEING
SURVEY RESULTS
This is the last in a series. Emma Jolly shares the perceptions of 57 respondents on the value of writing about and understanding the significance of the lives of ancestors, family history, health and well-being. It’s more a collection of ancecdotal evidence rather than a statistically significant survey.

RESEARCHING THE HISTORY OF EAST INDIAMEN
Richard Morgan on the history and East India Company. He mentions that journals, ledgers, pay-books and officer’s approvals contain information of potential genealogical interest.

A FORENSIC LOOK AT FAMILY HEIRLOOMS
Janet Few reflects on the history and role of family heirlooms. Be they medals, tableware or, as in Janet’s case, a locket, she offers advice on building a story around the item. It may enhance the item’s attraction for later generations.

YOUR DNA WORKSHOP
DNA advisor Karen Evans heips readers make sense of their DNA tests.

PRIZE PAPERS EXPLORED
An article by magazine editor Helen Tovey based on an interview with TNA’s Amanda Bevan. Prize papers are documentary evidence that could be used in a court of law to prove that the ship was an enemy vessel. TNA’s collection includes 500,000 documents originally stored in 4,088 boxes.
Explore further at https://www.prizepapers.de/

ELECTORAL REGISTERS
Family Tree Academy tutor David Annal does a thorough job in explaining these resources for genealogy —who is included and where records may be found. Note that the link to the recommended resource in the online version, https://electoralregisters.org.uk/ does not work.

A HISTORY OF EARLY BLOOD TRANSFUSION
Based in her MSc thesis at the University of Strathclyde, Pauline Jarvis investigates the history of blood transfusion in Edinburgh. There is very limited availability of blood transfusion records of genealogical interest.

The weather outside may be frightful, but BIFHSGO’s delightful meeting this Saturday, 13 January, goes ahead totally online. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Here are the meeting details straight from the BIFHSGO website.

Back to Basics: Scotland / 9 a.m. EST

Presenter: Ken McKinlay

In this Back to Basics session we will be looking at the various collections and sites that can help us research our kin who came from Scotland.

You’ve Got Mail: Rent and Associated Agricultural Terminology in Scottish Records, circa 1500-1750 / 10 am EST

Presenter: Robert Urquhart

Family historians, when researching Scottish ancestry, come across terms covering agricultural weights and measures for produce and livestock in diverse records such as testaments, marriage contracts, bonds, rental agreements, leases and tax rolls, and even in civil, criminal and church court minute books. These words and phrases often concern the rental or ownership of land and buildings and the management of debt.

Dictionaries and word lists can help identify and explain the words and phrases concerned, but it is useful to have a grasp of the theory and implications of rent paid in agricultural produce as well as money, and how the value of agricultural produce was estimated.

This talk will not be an exhaustive list of Scottish weights and measures but will focus more on how these occur in early modern Scottish records, in conjunction with terminology such as rent/maill, liferent, annualrent and ferdcorn/thirdcorn. It will be part etymology, part legal theory and part social and economic history. Robert will discuss how certain key ideas were expressed in 16th to 18th century sources and will look at what the produce and livestock mentioned in records tell us about everyday life in early modern Scotland.

Robert Urquhart is a retired archivist from Fife. He worked in local archives in Glasgow and Ayrshire before joining the National Archives of Scotland (now the National Records of Scotland), where he worked for 20 years on opening access to archives via the Internet. He was involved in making available online such record series as wills and testaments, tax rolls and kirk session records, and he also coached researchers on how to read early modern records via the Scottish Handwriting website (at www.scottishhandwriting.com ). Robert now runs Abbotshall Palaeography (www.abbotshall.net ), a small business offering palaeography tuition and transcription services.

Join by registering Here. This registration covers both events.

Anglo-Boer War Records 1899-1902

Covering the years 1899-1902, 24,088 new transcriptions have bolstered this existing collection.

Don’t look for Canadians. I found only one listed, George A S Sparkes of Strathcona’s Horse. That’s out of a total of 7,368 Canadians and 12 Nursing Sisters who served in South Africa. Strathcona’s Horse embarked 28 officers, 512 other ranks from Canada for South Africa in March 1900.

Find information on Canadians from the Library and Archives Canada research guide South African War, 1899-1902 – Service Files, Medals and Land Applications .

Derbyshire Births & Baptisms
An additional 13,932 non-conformist baptism transcriptions, from 1760 to 1966 appear this week. This collection, now totalling 1,251,107 entries, including duplicates. It’s published in partnership with Derbyshire Family History Society, the Family History Federation and FamilySearch Intl.

Yorkshire Monumental Inscriptions, Exley Cemetery
The Yorkshire monumental inscriptions collection was also updated this week with 6,979 additional records between the years 1626 and 2023.
There seems to be confusion about the cemetery name. Exley does not appear in FMP’s Yorkshire monumental inscriptions parish list. Google maps, and a sign on at the entrance shown on Street View indicate a name Elland Cemetery with address 30 Exley Ln, Exley, Elland HX5 0SW, United Kingdom

Checking for new resources at canadiana.ca, there were none, a pop-up survey appeared. It was short. Genealogy was a prominent response option. It ended by asking for email address if interested in providing further input.

If you go to canadiana.ca and the survey pops up, please respond to reinforce the significance and potential significance of the site for genealogy.

Genealogical Query Optimization (GQO) is the process of crafting a clear, concise, and effective question that will help you find genealogical information. A well-written query can save you time and frustration. It will attract the attention and assistance of others who may have relevant knowledge or resources. It can also serve as cousin bait.

Here are tips on GQO:

• Start by considering where to send your query. Where is it likely to be seen by those with expertise in the area(s) of interest? Is it geographically specific? Does it relate to a specialist occupation, religious or military group? Try a Facebook page, or a local family history or other specialist society forum.
• Start your query by selecting a person and write a heading that summarizes your question. Include their name, time period, and location. For example, “Seeking information on the origins of John Smith , born c. 1837 in either Liverpool, Lancashire, England or Kilkeel, County Down, Ireland, died 1914 in Carmarthen, Wales.”
• Provide adequate background information. Give the full name, known by names, dates and places of their birth, marriage, death, and other significant events. Depending on the query parent, sibling, spouse, children and other FAN club people should be mentioned. Be selective — don’t swamp with detail, espcially irrelevencies no matter how fascinating! Less can be  more. Make detail available by linking to a family tree or other resource.
• If trying to resolve conflicting evidence, as above, mention it. In my case he’s listed as born in Liverpool in the Welsh censuses for 1881, 1891 and 1901 censues, but in Kilkeel in the 1911 Welsh census. Also, mention resources you have already tried that didn’t help. In my case he has not been found in the censuses of 1841 to 1871.
• GQO is a skill.  Frame your query in a straightforward manner so that the person reading it can quickly and clearly understand the situation. Any response that isn’t spam deserves a friendly, polite reply. Keep anyone who expresses continuing interest in the loop.

If you’re seeking additional advice have a look at The Dos & Don’ts of an Effective Genealogy Query, Writing a Query and Writing an Effective Genealogical Query

 

From MyHeritage, 371,696 records for those serving in the British Army and Air Force in 1920.

Information is sparse. It usually only has the first name, initials, last name, and various service numbers, but it does include the date of birth.

I’d forgotten how drastically the forces were reduced from WW1 when over 3 million.

UK Ordnance Survey Maps, published in 1973, came out of copyright on 1 January 2024. The National Library of Scotland was on the ball, making 1,868 maps at scales of 1:1,250 to 1:10,560 available online. These include 1,151 detailed maps at scales of 1:1,250 and 1:2,500 covering areas in Scotland, and 717 less detailed maps at scales of 1:10,000/1:10,560 covering areas in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. More detailed maps for other areas are coming.

This month NLS also added a Woodland in Scotland map viewer, 1840s-1880s.

Read more at https://maps.nls.uk/additions/#155

 

 

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Choose from selected free (except OGS Thursday event free only to members) online events in the next five days. All times are ET except as noted. Assume registration in advance is required; check so you’re not disappointed.  Find out about many more mainly US events at Conference Keeper at https://conferencekeeper.org

Tuesday 9 January

2 pm: Ottawa Virtual Genealogy Drop-in. Ottawa Branch OGS.
https://ottawa.ogs.on.ca/events/virtual-genealogy-drop-in-2-2024-01-09/

2 pm: The Latest Photo Feature from MyHeritage, by Tal Erlichman for MyHeritage and Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/the-latest-photo-feature-from-myheritage/

2:30 pm: Saving Your Memories One Photo at a Time, by Tabitha O’Connor for Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center.
https://acpl.libnet.info/event/9721543

Wednesday 10 January

7 pm: ACGSI Hybrid Program: Citing Sources Without Stressing Out, by Amy Johnson Crow for Allen County Genealogical Society of Indiana.
https://www.acgsi.org/
Check out the handout at https://www.acgsi.org/handout.pdf

8 pm: A military heritage: Finding your British army lineage in pre-20th century records, by Cathie Sherwood for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/a-military-heritage-finding-your-british-army-lineage-in-pre-20th-century-records/

Thursday 11 January

Friday 12 January

Saturday 13 January

5:30 am: Using First World War Army Records, by Will Butler for The National Archives (UK).
https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/about/visit-us/whats-on/online-events/

9 am: Back to Basics: Scotland, presented by Ken McKinlay

10 am: You’ve Got Mail: Rent and Associated Agricultural Terminology in Scottish Records, circa 1500-1750, by Robert Urquhart.

British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa (online only)
https://www.bifhsgo.ca/events

Here’s the letter I had published on page A13, column a in Saturday’s Ottawa Citizen.

Library service is failing

I am deeply concerned about the state of our city’s infrastructure and services. With successive years of sub-inflation funding, we’re living the two-centuries-old wisdom of Benjamin Franklin: “The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.”

A glaring example is our Ottawa Public Library, which fails to meet the needs and expectations of our growing and diverse community. Compared to readers in other Canadian cities, we travel further to a branch, especially in urban areas where many low-income and marginalized residents live. The alternative services that are supposed to fill the gap, such as bookmobiles and lockers, are unreliable and inadequate. No wonder the number of library cardholders is failing to keep up with our growing population.

The Library Board needs to lead and address issues that affect the quality and accessibility of the service. The City Council, which funds the library service, needs to be informed and involved in finding solutions and allocating resources. The library service is not a luxury, but a necessity for our community’s education, culture, and well-being.

John D. Reid, Ottawa