Author: John Reid

A gold twig resting in a rock crystal vase carved to look like water, the vase is engraved “QOWH South Africa 1900” was estimated as worth a million on the Antiques Roadshow.

Read more from the Radio Times here.

LAC is reopening at 395 Wellington Street on 13 July in a limited capacity.

Today, Monday, 12 July at 10 a.m. EST, you will be able to access the online booking system to make new reservations.

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

Mythologies: Voices from the past (video)

The Man Who Went to War With Canada

Canada has an access-to-information system in name only

The art of digitising war
How the Imperial War Museum updates, stores and protects records of past conflicts.

This Week from Nature Communications

Different environmental variables predict body and brain size evolution in Homo

Ten-year panel data confirm generation gap but climate beliefs increase at similar rates across ages

Thanks to this week’s contributors:  Anonymous, Gail Benjafield, Glenn Wright, Helen Billing, Judith H., Unknown.

Born in Brockley, Kent, England on 25 January 1884, Harry Ballard was educated at Mercers School, London, and London University.  He became a teacher at Williston High School, Clerk’s College, London, and Skerry’s College, London, the last specializing in preparing for the English Civil Service.

A few months before war was declared he came to Canada and was briefly an instructor at St George’s Residential School at Lytton, BC. He enlisted at Kamloops, BC, in June 1915, in the 102nd, later known as the 54th Battalion, Kootenay Regiment. He proceeded to England in November 1915 and as Lance-Sergeant married Dorothy Maud Gellen on 6 January 1916 in Stoke Newington, London.  Crossing to France in August he was evacuated to a hospital in England in December 1916 suffering from trench foot.

When he recovered he was transferred to the Canadian Army Pay Corps Milbank, London, and engaged in investigation work serving as Sergeant. He returned to Canada and was discharged in Victoria BC on July 7th, 1919. Employed by the information and service branch of the department of soldiers’ civil reestablishment in Victoria, in September 1919 he successfully passed the Examination for Junior Examiner of the Civil Service Commission of Canada, coming to Ottawa in January 1920.

He died age 38 of ulcers on 11 July 1921 leaving his wife and two small children, Maurice and Jean, residing at 90 Charlotte Street, and is buried in military section 29. 13-14 at Beechwood Cemetery.

I’m not a football fan, but notice that Team England will be playing Team Italy on Sunday. It seems to be a big deal!

English Heritage brings together over 32,000 surnames on the England flag online and flying over some of their properties, including Stokesay Castle, one to which I have a real if very tenuous connection!

To view the flag and search for your ancestral names visit https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/whats-on/england-united/.

Are there any players on the England team with a surname collection to your ancestry? Here is the squad announced:

Goalkeepers: Aaron Ramsdale (Sheffield United), Sam Johnstone (West Brom), Jordan Pickford (Everton),

Defenders: Ben White (Brighton), Ben Chilwell (Chelsea), Conor Coady (Wolves), Reece James (Chelsea), Harry Maguire (Manchester United), Tyrone Mings (Aston Villa), Luke Shaw (Manchester United), John Stones (Manchester City, Kieran Trippier (Atletico Madrid), Kyle Walker (Manchester City)

Midfielders: Jude Bellingham (Borussia Dortmund), Jordan Henderson (Liverpool), Mason Mount (Chelsea), Kalvin Phillips (Leeds), Declan Rice (West Ham)

Forwards: Dominic Calvert-Lewin (Everton), Phil Foden (Man City), Jack Grealish (Aston Villa), Harry Kane (Tottenham), Marcus Rashford (Manchester United), Bukayo Saka (Arsenal), Jadon Sancho (Borussia Dortmund), Raheem Sterling (Man City)

 

 

This week FMP expands the collection for those with interests in India or the Caribbean islands of St Kitts & Nevis.

British Army Embarkation Lists, 1871-1889 to India

Transcriptions from original embarkation returns, with over 100,000 entries, are catalogued in the British Library’s India Office Collection IOR-L-MIL-15 series.

The records usually include:
Age (in year and months)
Approximate birth year
Regimental number
Rank
Regiment
Enlistment date
Embarkation date
Ship name
British Library India Office reference.

Many records only give the first initial. Are you up to the challenge of determining which of the 569 J Smith’s included is yours?

St Kitts & Nevis Baptisms 1716-1881
With an area of 269 square km and a population today just over 50,000 it’s unsurprising this collection has just 8,730 records. Of those 899 indicate “slave,” ending in 1834. Most of the records are for the later part of the period.

The August issue of BBC History, on newsstands and online on 8 July, features Oliver Cromwell on the cover —  Ronald Hutton’s article Cruel Cromwell examines the reality of Oliver Cromwell as a vindictive and bloodthirsty liar.

There are two articles on the French Revolution. Marisa Linton traces the descent from idealism to factionalism and brutality. Ian Mortimore shares 11 ways in which the French Revolution influenced Britain, from fashion to warfare.

The June issue of Canada’s History leads with After the Pandemic looking at the clues past pandemics may provide for our future. Ingenious Immitations reveals that many works attributed to Cornelius Krieghoff are fakes.

That’s lots more, both magazines available free through many Ontario Public library subscriptions to Press Reader.

 

Signatures magazine “seeks to provide a look at LAC’s treasures and the expertise involved in acquiring, preserving and supporting access to our shared history for the benefit of present and future generations.”

From the table of contents below you can see the coverage is wide ranging. The articles that mention geneal* are bolded.

• Introduction
• Demystifying Research with Experiential Learning Workshops
• The Dominion Bridge Company Archives
• Knowledge Mitigates Risk: Successful Proactive Block Review Project
• Highlights of the Canadian National Railways Reappraisal
• Housing Our Histories and Creating Capacity
• Reappraisal and Renewal in Renfrew
• Through the Looking-Glass: The Refracted World of Copyright
• Signatures Interviews
  • Émilie, Ovila and Blanche in the Archives: An Interview with Arlette Cousture
  • Literature, Learning and Life at the CBC: An Interview with Adrienne Clarkson
• LAC Perspectives
  • Regional Services / Online Public Programming
  • Winnipeg / Railway Land Development Records
  • National Capital Region / LAC Is Turning Green!
  • Ottawa / Dr. Guy Berthiaume Honoured
• LAC Looks Forward to the Next Decade
• On Loan from LAC

“Digital” gets 16 mentions,  “digitization” two. Neither of those two are in the article “LAC Looks Forward to the Next Decade.”  Will LAC not bring the legacy material we seek into the digital age? The present lack of digitization initiatives is not encouraging as the present is often the best predictor of the future. Surely LAC could find something more current to cite than the amalgamation of the National Library and Public Archives nearly two decades ago to show that “LAC is a world leader.”

Of the 33 men listed as serving with Canadian units in the WO 90 Courts Martial database at https://www.amymilnesmith.com/court-martial-records four received sentences of 10 years penal servitude. Two, serving with the Canadian Mounted Rifles in South Africa, were convicted of assisting the enemy on 13 June 1900.

The service file for Private W Pearce for the South African War at Library and Archives Canada gives his name as William, age 20 years and 1 month on enlistment on 28 Dec 1899, birthplace Bristol, England, father S. Pearce and mother S. Pearce.

A ship passenger list for the SS Dominion for May 1888 shows the family of Stephen Pearce (39) and Sarah Pearce (39) with children Henry (20), Emma (18), Thomas (14), Alfred (12), William (9), Stephen (4), and James (1). There’s a marriage record for Stephen Pearce and Sarah Ann Bentley in the September quarter of 1867 in Pewsey district.

Although the 10-year sentence was handed down in June 1900 he was soon free. In 1903 in Toronto there was a marriage of William Pearce, age 22, son of Stephen and Sarah, to Ina Jamieson. On 13 April 1904, William Walter Pearce was born in York Region to William and Ina. In the 1911 census William, age 7, is listed as a border with Alfred, likely his uncle.

The 1910 US census for Clayton, Genesee County, Michigan offers a tempting looking later record for William and his wife Ida. William Pearce, age 30, born Canada, a farm manager went to the US in 1908, followed a year later by his wife Ina (28), son Joseph (9) and Lillian (1), both born in Canada.

Any other suggestions for his later life?

 

From the Champlain Society — Witness to Yesterday podcast series, A History of Immigrant Arrivals through Pier 21 in Halifax.

Listen to an interview of Steve Schwinghamer, the co-author along with Jan Raska of Pier 21: A History published by the University of Ottawa Press.

Between 1928 and 1971, Pier 21 was the main gateway for immigrants arriving in Canada.  It’s now the site for the Canadian Museum of Immigration. The author is a historian in the Exhibitions, Research and Collections department of the Museum.

Check out other episodes in the Witness to Yesterday series at https://champlainsociety.utpjournals.press/podcast

Put 3-5 March 2022 aside on your schedule. FamilySearch announced those as the dates for RootsTech Connect 2022 as a fully virtual family history event.

Registration for the completely virtual and free event will open in September. 

Find out more at https://media.familysearch.org/rootstech-connect-2022-aims-to-repeat-success/.

Of the 33 men listed as serving with Canadian units in the WO 90 Courts Martial database at https://www.amymilnesmith.com/court-martial-records four received sentences of 10 years penal servitude. Two, serving with the Canadian Mounted Rifles in South Africa, were convicted of assisting the enemy. The date of the sentence is 13 June 1900. It’s likely only part of the sentence was served, perhaps at Pretoria, perhaps in the UK.

Private J Hopkins was sentenced for “assisting enemy with arming by allowing Boer Burghers in arms to retain rifles.”  According to a brief mention in Painting the Map Red by Carman Miller, Hopkins and a colleague William Pearce caught a group of Boer’s, took their rifles and then sold them back to them!

There are identical short paragraphs in the Ottawa Citizen and Ottawa Journal on 8 August 1900 giving his background. An article in the Globe on the same date adds that he was “well known in Toronto. He belonged to a local volunteer corps and afterwards joined the Canadian Dragoons. He had been two years in that corps when he enlisted in the Canadian Mounted Rifles for service in South Africa.”

His claim for a service medal and clasps was rejected in 1905.

His service file shows he was John Alexander Hopkins, a steam fitter who enlisted in Toronto on 26 December 1899 giving his age as 24 and next of kin his brother, Thomas S Hopkins.

There’s a 13 January 1876 birth registration for John Alexander Hopkins, son of George Hopkins and Sarah Sophia Scripture in Whitby, Ontario.

His father died on 16 October 1878.

In the 1881 census, for Toronto, there’s a household with W.H. Scripture 24, Elizbth. Hopkins 56, Sarah Hopkins 30 (Widow), Thos. Hopkins 8, Harrie Hopkins 6, John Hopkins 5, George Hopkins 3.

His mother died on 22 January 1898.

An Ancestry contributed family tree links to a US WW1 Draft Card for John A Hopkins in Lincoln County, Nebraska, USA, birth date 13 Jan 1876.

The same tree shows a US Social Security claim for John Alexander Hopkins, birth date: 13 Jan 1876, birthplace: Ontario, Canada, father: George W Hopkins, mother: Sarah Sophia, SSN: 520073560 and a June 1937 note confirming his name. The SSN Area Number 520 indicates issued in Wyoming.

Checking Ancestry’s collection with a US focus shows a death registration index record for John Alexander Hopkins, accidental death at age 74 on 17 July 1950 in  Lusk, Niobrara, Wyoming, USA.  He is in the same place in the 1930 and 1940 census, single, entry into the US shown as 1910, living as a lodger/border with Mary M. McGinnis, occupation painter/odd jobs.