Month: June 2024

When we speak of the census we’re normally referring to the nominal censuses that list all individuals, one row for each, grouped by household. Early censuses recorded just the head of household.

There are other census components which LAC recently integrated into Census Search.

Schedule B to the 1851 Census
An agricultural census with 56 columns. The first few give the Name of occupier;  Concession or range; Lot or part of lot; Number of acres of land: held by each person or family; Number of acres of land: under cultivation, and so on. That;s followed by details on production of wheat, barley, rye, peas, oats, buckwheat … tobacco … maple sugar … cider … the list continues.

Not all have survived. Most of Carleton County, Canada West, is missing,

Schedules 2–9 to the 1871 Census

Schedule 2 to the 1901 Census
This covers buildings and lands, churches and schools. The 37 columns are grouped under the headings: Reference to Schedule 1; Houses; Institutions; Real estate owned; Real estate leased or otherwise held; Church or place of worship; Sunday school; Public school. Each row ends with columns: Date of visit; The reason, if not enumerated, on first visit; Date when enumerated.

Get a 25% discount on annual subscriptions Généalogie Québec.

Again this year, to mark St-Jean-Baptiste’s Day, Généalogie Québec offers a discount you can grab from today, 20 June until the 24th.

The offer is ONLY AVAILABLE at: https://www.genealogiequebec.com/en/subscription-offer-st-jean2024

There are currently 3,839 items in Collection Search identified as Co-Lab-only contributions, down from 3,841 last month!

No progress toward completion is reported for any of the Library and Archives Canada’s Co-Lab Challenges.

Treaty 9 with 27 images remains 3.7% complete.

Mary Ann Shadd Cary remains 48% complete.

Expo67 remains 7% 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 1% complete.

John Freemont Smith remains 93% complete.

Canadian National Land Settlement Association remains 98% complete.

Molly Lamb Bobak remains 95% 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 95% 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 94% compete.

Projects that remain 100% complete are no longer reported here.

Here are the newspapers.com papers that are news or have had updates in the past month.

Unbelieveable?

That’s the number of records Ancestry lists as in their new database Canada, Newspapers.com™ Stories and Events Index, 1800’s to current.

This index allows you to search by name in Canadian newspapers available on Newspapers.com™ from the 1800s to the present. Not all newspapers from Canada are included. Links to the newspaper article in which the name was found are included in the index, and there’s an illegible snippet.

Mostly you need a newspapers.com subscription to view the article. Some of the papers may be available through a local public library subscription.

This title, added on 12 June, provides a details on Ireland’s railways, bus lines, and tramways workers before and after the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922.

Over 300,000 records give essential details including birth and death dates, occupations, salaries, and employment locations of railway workers. Find personal details such as pay adjustments, sick leave, and union affiliations.

The digitization of the records was a collaborative effort between Ancestry and the Irish Railway Record Society. It’s an example of Ancestry working with smaller, non-governmental organizations, with unique records.

Choose from selected free 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, 18 June

2:30 pm: Unraveling Ancestry in Alsace, by Kate McKenzie for Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center.
https://acpl.libnet.info/event/10840980

7 pm: Exploring Ontario Civil BMD Records, by Ken McKinlay for OGS Nippissing District Branch.
https://nipissing.ogs.on.ca/events/exploring-ontario-civil-bmd-records-presentation-by-ken-mckinlay

8pm: Editing Your Own Writing – Part 2, by Thomas W Jones for Legacy Family Tree Webinars,
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/editing-your-own-writing-part-2/

Wednesday, 19 June

2pm: Juneteenth–How Emancipation Came to Texas and How We Celebrate, by Sharon Batiste Gillins for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/juneteenth-how-emancipation-came-to-texas-and-how-we-celebrate/

9 pm: “Why We LOVE Genealogy – and Sometimes NOT!” by Edward Swierczewski, Jr.  for Southern California Genealogical Society.
https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/8948404407261510749

Thursday, 20 June

6:30 pm: Building Bridges through Time:
Genealogy ‘Virtual Legacies’ for Generations to Come, by Lisa and Kevin Desforges for Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center.
https://acpl.libnet.info/event/10909146

Friday, 21 June

7 pm: Niagara Peninsula Branch Website, by Steve Fulton for OGS Niagara Peninsula Branch.
https://niagara.ogs.on.ca/events/niagara-peninsula-branch-monthly-webinar-series-2024-2024-06-21/

Saturday, 22 June

1 pm: Researching at Quinte Branch, by Terry Buttler for OGS Quinte Branch.
https://quinte.ogs.on.ca/events/researching-at-quinte-branch

The CEF enlisted a total of 619,636 individuals. Out of these, 424,589 served outside Canada.

While I pause to recover from the OGS Conference, here’s a review of some First World War Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) statistics. You may find different stats quoted; these will be close.

Conscription became a crucial element as the war progressed and volunteer numbers dwindled.

For enlistments as a percent of population, the Western provinces, except Saskatchewan, stand out.

About 86% of Canadian residents who served were volunteers.

British Columbia and the Yukon had the highest volunteerism, with 89.85% of enlistments being volunteers.

Manitoba followed closely with 89.76%.

Ontario had 88.84% volunteer enlistments and by far the highest total enlistment.

Alberta also showed a strong volunteer rate at 87.75%. Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia combined had a volunteer rate of 86.20%. In contrast, New Brunswick and Saskatchewan had lower volunteer rates at 80.94% and 80.32% respectively.

Quebec had the lowest volunteer percentage at 78.37%, reflecting the province’s strong resistance to voluntary enlistment and the contentious implementation of conscription.

I was at first surprised that Saskatchewan had much lower volunteer rates than the two neighbouring provinces. Did it reflected the significant population of recent immigrants, particularly from Eastern Europe, less connected to the British Empire?  Being a primarily agricultural province, the economic necessity of maintaining agricultural output may have mitigated against volunteering.

I’m writing this as the OGS conference in Toronto has just concluded. It was a wonderful experience, expertly organized by the team, most from OGS Toronto  branch, under the leadership of Ann Brown.

I attended talks by Blaine Bettinger, Dinah Southard,  James Thomson, Jonny Perl, Mags Gaulden, Mark Thompson, Paul Jones, Paul Milner, Sunny Mason, and Steve Little (online).

There’s not one I wouldn’t happily attend again. I hope to find the time to do so for those that have recordings available for a limited time.

It was also a pleasure to meet with friends, new and old. They were from as far afield as the UK and California.A large contingent came from Ottawa.

The 2025 conference will be a one-day specialist event on 31 May 2025 in London Ontario. OGS considers Ottawa to be considered a major location for OGS conferences and will likely be expected to host sometime after 2025.

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

Good Environmental News
https://theconversation.com/the-last-ozone-layer-damaging-chemicals-to-be-phased-out-are-finally-falling-in-the-atmosphere-232045

Out of Africa – The Story of Human Migration

Genealogical citations. Like fibre in the diet, we’re told they’re good for us.

They aim to provide evidence of the sources used, facilitate others’ review and evaluation of the evidence, and make it easier to find the source in the future.

With those benefits come disadvantages, notably that they take up paper and ink when printed while being passed over by most readers. They are tedious to produce.

Following on a test of Cite-Builder and ChatGPT4.o on a Canada 1901 census example, here’s another for an English baptismal record using ChatGPT4.o. I prompted for the citation in Evidence Explained format. The result varies depending on the source – Ancestry/Findmypast/
MyHeritage/FamilySearch – as it should be.

Given the strictures of Evidence Explained, I doubt these are fully format compliant, but they are considerably less tedious to produce, and have all the information,  and perhaps more, than you might want.

From Ancestry
Northwood, William Henry. Baptism, 26 December 1845, Birmingham, St Philip, Warwickshire, England. Birth, 9 June 1840. Age 5. Father: John Northwood. Mother: Jane Northwood. “Birmingham, England, Church of England Baptisms, 1813-1922.” Ancestry.com. https://www.ancestry.com.

From Ancestry using information in Sources
Northwood, William Henry. Baptism, 26 December 1845, Birmingham, St Philip, Warwickshire, England. Birth, 9 June 1840. Age 5. Father: John Northwood. Mother: Jane Northwood. “Birmingham, England, Church of England Baptisms, 1813-1922.” Library of Birmingham; Birmingham, England, UK; Birmingham Church of England Parish Registers; Reference Number: Dro 25; Archive Roll: M43. Ancestry.com. https://www.ancestry.com.

From Ancestry, requesting an abbreviated version
Northwood, William Henry. Baptism, 26 December 1845, Birmingham, St Philip, Warwickshire, England. Library of Birmingham; Birmingham Church of England Parish Registers; Ref. Dro 25; Archive Roll: M43. Ancestry.com.

From Findmypast
Northwood, William Henry. Baptism, 27 December 1840, Aston Juxta Birmingham, Warwickshire, England. Birth year 1840. Father: John Northwood. Mother: Jane Northwood. “England Births & Baptisms 1538-1975.” Transcript, Findmypast.co.uk. https://www.findmypast.co.uk. Index © IRI. Used by permission of FamilySearch Intl.

From MyHeritage
Northwood, William Henry. Birth, 9 June 1840, and christening, 27 December 1840, Aston Juxta Birmingham, Warwick, England. Father: John Northwood. Mother: Jane Northwood. “England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975.” Indexing Project (Batch) Number C01168-2. System Origin: England-ODM. GS Film number 919793. MyHeritage. https://www.myheritage.com.

FamilySearch suggested citation
“England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975”, database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NY1G-3RS : 4 February 2023), William Henry Northwood, 1845.

From FamilySearch results
Northwood, William Henry. Christening, 26 December 1845, St Philip, Birmingham, Warwickshire, England. Birth, 9 June 1840. Father: John Northwood. Mother: Jane Northwood. FamilySearch. https://www.familysearch.org.