Anglo-Celtic Connections

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

About Deacon Brodie

Deacon Brodie: the novel

FamilySearch UK & Ireland Updates for March 2025

Collection Title	Records
England, Births and Christenings, 1538-1975	45,712,328
England, Deaths and Burials, 1538-1991	14,517,219
England Marriages, 1538–1973	11,798,802
Ireland, Catholic Parish Registers, 1740-1900	9,627,508
Scotland, Births and Baptisms, 1564-1950	8,141,513
England, Devon, Parish Registers (Devon Record Office), 1529-1974	2,878,339
Scotland, Marriages, 1561-1910	2,006,971
England, Herefordshire, Bishop’s Transcripts, 1583-1900	1,608,355
England, Cumberland Parish Registers, 1538-1990	524,868
England, Northumberland, Non-Conformist Church Records, 1613-1974	451,841
England, Yorkshire, Marriage Bonds and Allegations, 1613-1887	322,926
Ireland, Inland Revenue Wills & Administration, Will Registers, 1828-1879	239,097
England, Essex, Non-Conformist Church Records, 1613-1971	179,770
England, Lincolnshire, Marriage Bonds and Allegations, 1574-1885	135,992
England, Oxfordshire, Parish Registers 1538-1904	103,707
England, Lancashire, Marriage Bonds and Allegations, 1746-1799	46,104
England, Hertfordshire, Marriage Bonds, 1682-1837	9,400
England, Surrey, Marriages Bonds and Licenses, 1536-1992	5,422

FamilySearch Canada Updates for March 2025

Canada Census, 1921	91,422
Canada, Nova Scotia, Delayed Births, 1837-1907	117,044

 

National Library of Scotland Maps Update

New Survey of the Borough of Birmingham by J. Pigott-Smith (1855)
OS 1900 Text Search – view distributions of text from OS Six-Inch 1888-1913 maps.

The Ballad of Carney and Trump
(composed by ChatGPT)

(Verse 1)
Gather ‘round and hear the tale, of power, cash, and fate,
One man played the banker’s game, one claimed to make things great.
Carney rode the markets high, with steady hands and cool,
Trump came crashing through the doors, rewriting every rule.

(Chorus)
Oh, the rates went up, the stocks came down, the headlines rolled in red,
When Carney stood, and Trump shot back, the markets shook with dread.

(Verse 2)
Carney watched the warning signs, the bubbles stretched too thin,
He knew the storm was rolling in, but Trump said, “Let’s just win!”
“Cut the rates, the money flows, who cares about the debt?”
But Carney kept the numbers tight—he wasn’t folding yet.

(Chorus)
Oh, the rates went up, the stocks came down, the headlines rolled in red,
When Carney stood, and Trump shot back, the markets shook with dread.

(Verse 3)
Trump fired shots on Twitter loud, “The Fed should play along!”
While Carney stayed behind the scenes, where central banks belong.
He warned of risks, he played it smart, he held the line so tight,
But in the end, the tides still turned—who really won the fight?

(Bridge)
Now money moves and empires fade, the cycle spins again,
One man’s rise is one man’s fall, but power never ends.

(Final Chorus)
Oh, the rates went up, the stocks came down, the headlines rolled in red,
When Carney stood, and Trump shot back, the markets shook with dread.

Thanks to Anonymous, Teresa, and Unknown for this week’s contributions.

The FreeBMD Database was updated on Tuesday 25 March 2025 to contain 292,760,582 unique records, up from 292,557,239 in the February update.
Births with more than 10,000 updates are for 1993, 1995-96, for marriages, 1994-96, and for deaths 1995.

Sourced from The National Archives (Reference WO 164) comes a newly digitised collection contains more than one million entries detailing the distribution of military prize money from 1720 to 1899. Find out about the financial rewards granted to soldiers, staff and their families for success in battle.

The collection spans 663 volumes and 1,064,391 records across more than 172,000 high resolution colour images.
Records cover significant wars such as the latter years of the American Revolutionary War, the Battle of Waterloo and the Peninsular War, as well as smaller skirmishes.
The records are fully searchable by Name of the Applicant and Soldier, Rank, Regiment, Date, Location, War and Keywords.

http://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/.

Last Minute –  Canadian Pacific Steamships Limited Archives at Ingenium

If your ancestor travelled on one of the CP Ships, notably those named for Empresses of Dutchesses, don’t miss Adele Torrance, Archivist at Ingenium, speaking on the CP Ships archive at Ingenium (Museum of Science and Technology.) The presentation, hosted by OGS Ottawa Branch, is online this evening at 7 pm ET. Register in advance for this Zoom presentation: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYrc-ChqD8tEtZdls2v07WoxPftW16pNyMU

MyHeritage adds United Kingdom, Names & Stories in Newspapers from OldNews.com

Extracted from newspaper articles using advanced AI technology developed by MyHeritage, these 499,811,557
records typically include the name of the individuals mentioned, the relationships between the individuals, the newspaper name, the publication place and date, and a snippet of text from the newspaper containing the reference.  Every record includes a summary of the article, generated automatically by AI.

Obits on Ancestry

Ancestry has a regular schedule to update its obituary information. Here’s the latest, as of 24 March 2025.

	Title		Records
	UK and Ireland, Obituary Index, 2004-Current UK and Ireland, Obituary Index, 2004-Current Published on Ancestry 2/24/2006 Updated 3/24/2025		7,769,946
	Australia and New Zealand, Obituary Index, 2004-Current Australia and New Zealand, Obituary Index, 2004-Current Published on Ancestry 12/8/2005 Updated 3/24/2025		2,394,836
	Canada, Obituary Collection, 1898-Current Canada, Obituary Collection, 1898-Current Published on Ancestry 2/24/2006 Updated 3/24/2025		11,932,632
	U.S., Obituary Collection, 1930-Current U.S., Obituary Collection, 1930-Current Published on Ancestry 12/17/2003 Updated 3/24/2025
	U.S., Cemetery and Funeral Home Collection, 1847-Current U.S., Cemetery and Funeral Home Collection, 1847-Current Published on Ancestry 4/7/2011 Updated 3/24/2025		143,602,733

Exhausting Beauty

https://philocrumbs.substack.com/p/exhausting-beauty?utm_medium=ios&utm_source=substack

Findmypast Weekly Update

This week FMP announces one of the largest additions in recent months, including a new partnership with The London Library.

“From military lists to directories and specialist newspapers, an eclectic range of records from The Library’s holdings have been digitised and published online for the first time, exclusively at Findmypast.

Oireachtas Companion 1928-1930

Did your relative shape Ireland’s future?

Delve into this unique resource to uncover the stories of those who served in Ireland’s early parliament.

Britain, Histories & Reference Guides

We added the unique Heath’s Book of Beauty to this expanding resource this week.

Spanning 1833 to 1837, this publication features engraved portraits of aristocratic women and thus offers a fascinating insight into the lives of England’s upper classes in the 19th century.

The War Office List

Covering 1866-1921, these lists can reveal where your ancestors served, how their military careers unfolded, or what became of them during wartime.

Exciting new papers from The London Library

We made a huge update to our newspaper archive this week. Vanity Fair, Cavalry Journal, The Garden and other London Library newspapers are now online for you to explore.

We added 26 new titles to the archive – but that’s not all. We also added new pages to 50 of our existing publications, so it’s easier than ever to understand the world that your ancestors lived in.

New titles:

• Cavalry Journal, 1906-1913
• Charity Organisation Reporter, 1881, 1883-1884
• Clacton Graphic and East Coast Illustrated News, 1899, 1902-1938, 1940, 1953-1956
• Clare Champion, 1903
• Cork Weekly Herald, 1885
• Drogheda Advertiser, 1897-1899, 1902, 1904-1906, 1909-1914, 1916-1924
• Gardener’s Magazine, 1826-1843
• Howdenshire Chronicle, 1890-1891
• Irish Field, 1897-1899, 1910, 1913-1918
• Irish Homestead, 1896-1899, 1910, 1914, 1920-1921
• Irish Textile Journal, 1900, 1905-1907
• La Belle Assemblée, 1806-1823, 1825-1827, 1830-1840, 1842-1846, 1848-1862, 1864-1865, 1867, 1869
• Limerick Leader, 1906-1908, 1910-1911, 1913-1918
• Local Preachers Magazine, 1856-1870, 1872-1874, 1876-1877
• London City Mission Magazine, 1841-1848, 1851-1854, 1857-1864
• Morning Mail (Dublin), 1897-1899, 1904, 1909-1911
• Nenagh Guardian, 1916-1918
• Pall Mall Budget, 1870-1879, 1889-1894
• Peel City Guardian, 1890-1896, 1898-1909, 1912-191
• Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science and Art, 1870-1879, 1882, 1884-1885, 1890-1899, 1901, 1904-1908, 1910-1921, 1924-1926, 1929-1938
  The Garden, 1900-1901, 1904-1911, 1913-1915
• Time & Tide, 1930-1935, 1937-193
  To-day, 1894-1899
• Vanity Fair, 1869-1887, 1889-1913
• Waterford Evening Star, 1917-1920
• Wicklow Press, 1907-1908, 1910-1915

Updated titles:

• Aberdeen Evening Express, 2001
• Aberdeen Herald, 1832-1843
• Banffshire Journal, 1950-1951
• Belfast Weekly News, 1901-1902
• Bell’s Weekly Messenger, 1873-1883, 1890-1895
• Brechin Advertiser, 1983, 1988
• Bucks Standard, 1920-1922
• Caithness Courier, 1988-1989
• Carmarthen Journal, 1983
• Catholic Standard, 1960-1961, 1963
• Clonmel Chronicle, 1914-1919, 1921
• Cork Constitution, 1904
• Cork Examiner, 1917
• Cork Weekly Examiner, 1913-1919
• Cumberland and Westmorland Advertiser, and Penrith Literary Chronicle, 1880-1881, 1883, 1887-1888
• Donegal Independent, 1908
• Drogheda Independent, 1956-1959
• Dublin Daily Express, 1917-1919
• Eastern Evening News, 1889
• Evening Herald (Dublin), 1891
• Farmer’s Gazette and Journal of Practical Horticulture, 1904, 1907-1909
• Fermanagh Times, 1930
• Flag of Ireland, 1881
• Folkestone Daily News, 1906-1909
• Hampshire Chronicle, 1871-1879, 1891-1894, 1911
• Illustrated Police Budget, 1897-1898, 1901-1902, 1904-1907, 1910
• Irish Independent, 1906-1915, 1917-1920, 1922-1925, 1927, 1928, 1930-1938, 1942, 1950-1955, 1957-1959
• Kilkenny Journal, and Leinster Commercial and Literary Advertiser, 1936-1939, 1942-1944, 1946, 1948-1959, 1965
• Leighton Buzzard Observer and Linslade Gazette, 1987
• Liverpool Daily Post (Welsh Edition), 1961
• Londonderry Standard, 1902, 1904, 1909, 1924, 1960-1962
• Louth Standard, 1970, 1976, 1980
• Manchester Evening News, 1971
• Montrose Review, 1989
• Morayshire Advertiser, 1870-1877
• Munster Express, 1897, 1911, 1913
• Munster Tribune, 1964-1965
• Newry Reporter, 1922-1923
• North Down Herald and County Down Independent, 1952-1957
• Northern Whig, 1963
• Oxford Times, 1871, 1913-1918
• Poor Law Unions’ Gazette, 1866-1867
• Smethwick Telephone, 1932-1933, 1935-1938
• Strabane Weekly News, 1917-1918
• The Dublin Builder, 1901, 1903-1904, 1910-1922
• The Queen, 1961, 1963
• Warder and Dublin Weekly Mail, 1909, 1911-1913, 1915-1917, 1920-1922, 1932, 1934-1938
• Waterford Mirror and Tramore Visitor, 1871
• Waterford News, 1900, 1903-1904, 1908
• Waterford Star, 1918
• Westmeath Guardian and Longford News-Letter, 1912-1921, 1925
• Western Daily Mercury, 1884
• Wexford and Kilkenny Express, 1897-1899, 1902
• Wexford Independent, 1903
• Wicklow People, 1890
• Wokingham Times, 1996-1999

Ancestry Updates

UPDATED Birmingham, England, Church of England Baptisms, 1813-1923

UPDATED London, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812

UPDATED London, England, Church of England Deaths and Burials, 1813-2003

UPDATED London, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1940

UPDATED London, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1924

Malta Archival Resources

This is a bit off-topic.

Earlier this week I had the opportunity to visit the Malta National Archives in historic  Rabat. It is housed in what was initially a “hospital” which had a foundling wheel, or “ruota degli esposti” where newborns could be left to the care of the church. Some were given the last name Esposito.

We were shown a display of some of their records of genealogical interest, including passport applications. A treasure is a bound copy volume of notaries records of birth marriages and deaths back to the 16th century. Ancestry has filmed and is currently processing it. The passport records are at the archivesportaleurope.net site. It hosts records from many countries. A search for Canada surfaced 36,639 records from various European countries.

As historic as the building is, it is not up to modern archival standards. With a total Maltese population less than that of Ottawa, it operates under severe constraints of funding while striving to preserve the much more extensive historical collection.

LAC Co-Lab Update

There are currently 4,324 items identified as Co-Lab only contributions in the collection. That’s up from 4,196 last month. The new ones include scattered cabinet conclusions from the 1940s to 1970s, and diary entries by William Lyon Mackenzie King.

Major Announcements at RootsTech

Being away meant I missed the announcements. So I asked the AI app Perplexity.

At RootsTech 2025, several major announcements were made:

1. AncestryDNA “Matches by Cluster” Feature: A new tool for visualizing DNA matches connected to a common ancestor, available later this year for Pro Tools users1.
2. AncestryDNA Feature to Attach DNA Matches’ Lines to Your Tree: An expanded feature allowing users to add DNA matches’ lineages to their family trees1.
3. FamilySearch’s New Catalog: Updates to the catalog include improved place standardization and digitized images1.
4. Ancestry Networks: A beta feature for creating networks of friends, family, and associates within Ancestry trees15.
5. MyHeritage CousinFinder: A tool using SmartMatch technology to find cousins without DNA testing1.
6. FamilySearch Together App: An app for families to share stories and memories privately1.
7. Mitotree by FamilyTreeDNA: A new mitochondrial DNA tool for genealogical research4.

How many would see the FamilySearch new catalog as the highlight? It’s my top priority amongst them to explore when I return.

OGS Sudbury District Branch invites you, and everyone else, to attend a timely presentation:

Irish Immigration to Canada

Presented by Jillian van Turnhout.

At 1 pm Monday 17 March

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/WGpkCUlCQ6WRkH7M91OVKw#/registration

Trumps Policy Might Be Simple Spite

https://theconversation.com/donald-trumps-foreign-policy-might-be-driven-by-simple-spite-heres-what-to-do-about-it-252099

Ancestry New and Updated Records focus on Dumbartonshire, Scotland.

Findmypast Weekly Update

(As described by FMP)

This week’s biggest update takes the form of 6,264,500 images and transcriptions added to the English Directory collection.

Searchable by name, year, location, occupation and more, these records may shed light on the lives and jobs of your ancestors.

Ireland Huguenot Histories

This unique new collection tells the story of Ireland’s Huguenots – a group of French Protestants who settled in Ireland (among other places) between the 16th and 19th centuries. It is searchable by name.

Whether you’ve got a Huguenot ancestor or are just interested in Irish religious history, the 2,578 records in this new collection allow us to delve deeper into previously untold stories.

Irish cemetery records

We also updated our Irish cemetery records this week, with 3,600 new additions for you to explore. These essential sources form the building blocks of your family tree.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=ySFQXF8Zzi8%3Fstart%3D5%26feature%3Doembed

If you have Irish roots, is your ancestor among those named?

New pages from Dublin to County Clare

Continuing the theme, we’ve added four Irish titles to our newspaper archive this week.

Zozimus, 18 January 1871.

Within the pages of Zozimus, you’ll find comics and illustrations depicting the prominent social, political and religious issues of 19th-century Ireland. Although this Dublin-based magazine ran for just two years (1870-1872), its pages offer an immersive insight into Irish society at the time.

New titles:

• Zozimus, 1870-1872
• New Ross Reporter, 1897-1901, 1903, 1907-1910
• Clare Champion, 1910-1916
• Offaly Independent, 1910-1911

Sources and Citations

The top 90% of genealogists who meticulously cite their sources should thank me—I help make their ranking possible!

Teresa, from the Writing My Past blog, is surely among the best. Her post, My Sources and Citations Toolbox, is a must-read for anyone striving to improve their citation game.

https://writingmypast.wordpress.com

Généalogie Québec Giveaway

The Drouin Institute is once again holding a giveaway in which 5 participants can win a one-year subscription to Généalogie Québec.
The contest will run from Thursday, March 13, 2025, to Monday, March 24, at 3 p.m. EST.

To register for the giveaway, simply enter your e-mail address in the form at this address:
https://mailchi.mp/institutdrouin/genealogygiveaway

OGS Kingston Branch Meeting

The March meeting brings a return of popular speaker Thomas MacEntee with “10 Must-Haves for Genealogy & Family History Success.” To register use the link:    https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUpc-2tqD4uGdTHwxgmmc9qiZ2cdHPMQXv8/.

TheGenealogist Releases Over 350,000 Lloyd George Domesday Survey Records for Essex

http:www.thegenealogist.co.uk

RootsTech

For the first time in several years I missed RootsTech, preferring a snow-free vacation. The website claims attendees from 214 countries, 473,648 participants, which is less than previous online RootsTechs as I recall.

I’ve only started to review six of the presentations I identified as of particular interest. I started with the Innovation and Tech Forum. FamilySearch, MyHeritage, Storied, SOAR (Family Scribe), Remento, and Ancestry. The power of commercial enterprise is on show in every one of them, and every one featured AI capabilities. Worth a look.

RootsMagic

The following is a notable offer from RootsMagic.

“Save up to 50% on our software, including Personal Historian 3, Family Atlas, and the all-new RootsMagic 10 for only $20!

Even if you missed joining us in person, you can still claim this special offer online at www.NotAtRootsTech.com. This exclusive discount is only available through Friday, March 14, at 11:59 pm MST.”

“Our RootsTech discount is now live – 50% off webinar memberships through Saturday.”