This new Ancestry transcription database has 7,076,289 20th-century records based on the Quebec government’s Registre de référence à l’état civil.
This image shows the transcript for my nearest relative. There are the usual inaccuracies one expects in a death record in another language. Christophe is Christopher. The birth year is off, and the mother is named Margaret, not Marie.

The same record at Généalogie Québec, free for Ottawa Public Library cardholders, does have the final r on Christopher.

Directorate of Movements microfilm C-5693 recently became available on Canadiana.ca Heritage. 

It comprises voyages to Europe between November 1943 and April 1944.

Canadian forces members, airmen trained under the BCATP, and others are included in the passenger lists.

There are 5,354 images covering 43 voyages.

Ships include the Pasteur (6 voyages), Ile de France (5), Aquatania (4), Queen Mary (4), and Mauretania (4).

Below is the list of voyages. Some were considered but ended up not carrying troops. I’ve added a few starting page numbers to help find a voyage of interest.

Eastbound Personnel – PASTEUR – Port of Departure – Halifax – Convoy AT-81a [USA to United Kingdom (Troops)] – HQS 63-302-786-2 (Starts at image 3).

Eastbound Personnel – BEAVERHILL – Port of Departure – Saint John – HQS 63-302-787.  (Starts at image 378).

Eastbound Personnel – MAURETANIA – Port of Departure – Halifax – Convoy AT-81 [USA to United Kingdom (Troops)] – HQS 63-302-788-1.  (Starts at image 483).

Eastbound Personnel – MAURETANIA – Port of Departure – Halifax – Convoy AT-81 [USA to United Kingdom (Troops)] – HQS 63-302-788-2. (Starts at image 817).

Eastbound Personnel – FORT TOWNSHEND – Port of Departure – Halifax – HQS 63-302-789.

Eastbound Personnel – QUEEN MARY – Port of Departure – New York – Convoy AT-82 [USA to United Kingdom (Troops)] – HQS 63-302-790. (Starts at image 1181).

Eastbound Personnel – ILE DE FRANCE – Port of Departure – New York – Convoy AT-83 [USA to United Kingdom (Troops)] – HQS 63-302-791.

Eastbound Personnel – AQUITANIA – Port of Departure – New York – Convoy AT-85 [USA to United Kingdom (Troops)] – HQS 63-302-792.

Eastbound Personnel – VESSEL – Port of Departure – San Francisco – HQS 63-302-793.

Eastbound Personnel – FORT AMHERST – Port of Departure – Halifax – HQS 63-302-794.

Eastbound Personnel – ERRIA – Port of Departure – Halifax – HQS 63-302-795.

Eastbound Personnel – FORT TOWNSHEND – Port of Departure – Halifax – HQS 63-302-796. (Starts at image 1491).

Eastbound Personnel – BAYANO – Port of Departure – Halifax – HQS 63-302-797.

Eastbound Personnel – VESSEL – Port of Departure – San Francisco – HQS 63-302-798.

Eastbound Personnel – LADY NELSON – Port of Departure – Halifax – HQS 63-302-799. (Starts at image 1610).

Eastbound Personnel – U.S.N. VESSEL – Port of Departure – Davisville, Rhode Island – HQS 63-302-800.

Eastbound Personnel – ILE DE FRANCE – Port of Departure – New York – Convoy AT-87 [USA to United Kingdom (Troops)] – HQS 63-302-801.

Eastbound Personnel – PASTEUR – Port of Departure – Halifax – Convoy AT-87a [USA to United Kingdom (Troops)] – HQS 63-302-802-1.

Eastbound Personnel – PASTEUR – Port of Departure – Halifax – Convoy AT-87a [USA to United Kingdom (Troops)] – HQS 63-302-802-2. (Starts at image 1903).

Eastbound Personnel – QUEEN MARY – Port of Departure – New York – Convoy AT-88 [USA to United Kingdom (Troops)] – HQS 63-302-803.

Eastbound Personnel – AQUITANIA – Port of Departure – New York – Convoy AT-89 [USA to United Kingdom (Troops)] – HQS 63-302-804.

Eastbound Personnel – MAURETANIA – Port of Departure – New York – Convoy AT-90 [USA to United Kingdom (Troops)] – HQS 63-302-805.

Eastbound Personnel – ILE DE FRANCE – Port of Departure – Halifax – Convoy AT-92 [USA to United Kingdom (Troops)] – HQS 63-302-806-1. (Starts at image 2294).

Eastbound Personnel – ILE DE FRANCE – Port of Departure – Halifax – Convoy AT-92 [USA to United Kingdom (Troops)] – HQS 63-302-806-2.

Eastbound Personnel – ILE DE FRANCE – Port of Departure – Halifax – Convoy AT-92 [USA to United Kingdom (Troops)] – HQS 63-302-806-3. (Starts at image 3061).

Eastbound Personnel – QUEEN MARY – Port of Departure – New York – Convoy AT-93 [USA to United Kingdom (Troops)] – HQS 63-302-807.

Eastbound Personnel – AQUITANIA – Port of Departure – New York – Convoy AT-94 [USA to United Kingdom (Troops)] – HQS 63-302-808.

Eastbound Personnel – QUEEN MARY – Port of Departure – New York – Convoy AT-97 [USA to United Kingdom (Troops)] – HQS 63-302-809.

Eastbound Personnel – PASTEUR – Port of Departure – Halifax – Convoy AT-100a [USA to United Kingdom (Troops)] – HQS 63-302-810.

Eastbound Personnel – QUEEN ELIZABETH – Port of Departure – New York – Convoy AT-99 [USA to United Kingdom (Troops)] – HQS 63-302-811.

Eastbound Personnel – AQUITANIA – Port of Departure – New York – Convoy AT-100 [USA to United Kingdom (Troops)] – HQS 63-302-812.

Eastbound Personnel – ANDES – Port of Departure – Halifax – Convoy AT-97a [USA to United Kingdom (Troops)] – HQS 63-302-813-1. (Starts at image 3427).

Eastbound Personnel – ANDES – Port of Departure – Halifax – Convoy AT-97a [USA to United Kingdom (Troops)] – HQS 63-302-813-2.

Eastbound Personnel – MAURETANIA – Port of Departure – New York – Convoy AT-102 [USA to United Kingdom (Troops)] – HQS 63-302-814. (Starts at image 3960).

Eastbound Personnel – EMPRESS OF SCOTLAND – Port of Departure – Halifax – Convoy AT-103a [USA to United Kingdom (Troops)] – HQS 63-302-815-1. (Starts at image 3968).

Eastbound Personnel – EMPRESS OF SCOTLAND – Port of Departure – Halifax – Convoy AT-103a [USA to United Kingdom (Troops)] – HQS 63-302-815-2.

Eastbound Personnel – QUEEN ELIZABETH – Port of Departure – New York – Convoy AT-104 [USA to United Kingdom (Troops)] – HQS 63-302-816.

Eastbound Personnel – PASTEUR – Port of Departure – Halifax – Convoy TA-104B [United Kingdom to United States] – HQS 63-302-817-1. (Starts at image 4580).

Eastbound Personnel – PASTEUR – Port of Departure – Halifax – Convoy TA-104B [United Kingdom to United States] – HQS 63-302-817-2.

Eastbound Personnel – VESSEL – Port of Departure – San Francisco – HQS 63-302-818.

Eastbound Personnel – FORT AMHERST – Port of Departure – Halifax – HQS 63-302-819.

Eastbound Personnel – CAVINA – Port of Departure – Halifax – HQS 63-302-820.

Eastbound Personnel – BEAVERHILL – Port of Departure – Halifax – HQS 63-302-821. (Starts at image 5198).

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

MyHeritage wants to know if you would be interested in them developing such a feature, that would allow you to create such videos using AI, based on your family stories?
https://blog.myheritage.com/2024/06/bringing-family-history-to-life-with-videos/

The Global Alerts Map highlights breaking news stories around the world. Filter stories by category and read the latest news updates. Zoom into any region or country of the world.

Measuring Main Streets explores what’s working, what’s not and what’s next for Canada’s main streets, empowering city builders from the neighbourhood to the national scale.

Imirce: The Kerby A. Miller Collection
Irish Emigrant Letters and Memoirs from North America

The British Library continues to suffer an outage of its website, online systems and services, including thesis access, resulting from a cyber-attack last October.

4,000 names from the Irish census of 1821 are available

Ancestry adds 26,903 records in Buckinghamshire, England, Napoleonic Register: Posse Comitatus, 1798, a record of all men in the county between the ages of 15 and 60 who could be recruited for military service. It excludes Quakers, clergymen, and those already in the military. Those ineligible to serve but who owned horses, wagons, and carts were also recorded.

Did you know
Fetherstonhaugh is pronounced Fenshaw
Ghoti is a creative respelling of the word Fish

Thanks to this week’s contributors: Ann Burns, Anonymous, Brenda Turner, Chuck Buckley, gail benjafield, Helen Gillespie, Ian Barker, Leslie Anderson, Teresa, Unknown

Fields such as finance, engineering, law, education, healthcare, arts, and social services are prominent among the 83 latest appointments to the Order of Canada. Genealogy is not explicitly mentioned. Four mention history.

David Gordon Ben, C.M.
Toronto, Ontario
David Ben is one of the finest sleight-of-hand artists in the world. An influential figure in Canadian performance art, he has spent more than four decades exploring, developing, performing and preserving magic at home and abroad. Devoted to sharing wonder, he has written important books on the history of magic and its greatest practitioners. He also co-founded Magicana, a world-renowned arts organization dedicated to the exploration and advancement of magic.

John Terry Copp, C.M.
Elora, Ontario
Terry Copp has nurtured Canadians’ understanding of our history. Professor emeritus at Wilfrid Laurier University, and the founder and director emeritus of the Laurier Centre for Military and Strategic Disarmament Studies, he fostered a rich community of scholarship and cemented Canada’s role in the Second World War. His ongoing work is a legacy to future generations and their knowledge of our past. https://terrycopp.com/

William Anthony Fox, C.M.
Peterborough, Ontario
William Fox is one of Canada’s foremost authorities on archaeology. A research fellow and adjunct professor at Trent University, this retired public servant and long-standing leader of the Ontario Archaeological Society devoted his career to advancing knowledge of Canada’s archaeological past. He was among the first to advocate the participation of Indigenous communities in preserving their material heritage, thus broadening our understanding of Canadian history.

Sylvia D. Hamilton, C.M., O.N.S.
Grand Pre, Nova Scotia
Sylvia D. Hamilton is an esteemed filmmaker, writer, poet and artist based in Nova Scotia. Her award-winning films have premiered at festivals in Canada and abroad, and are taught extensively in schools and universities across the country. Her groundbreaking body of work documents the struggles and contributions of African Canadians, particularly Black women, and have helped to enrich and reframe conceptions of Canadian history.

Here’s an (almost) complete listing of contents of the July 2024 issue.

FAMILY HISTORY NEWS
Read up on new family history-related projects, appointments & developments.

SURNAMES AS FALSE FRIENDS
Professional genealogist Chris
Paton explains how surnames may be both a blessing and a problem for our research. In his in-depth guide, he also explains how to trace changes of name.

TWIGLETS: AND SO, TO FRANCE
Tree-tracing diarist Gill Shaw starts her foray into the
records of France to map her adopted ancestor’s French
family tree

JOIN FAMILY TREE TODAY & SAVE!
Subscribe to Family Tree magazine today and never
miss an issue. Plus, you’ll save on the cover price!

DREADED INSTITUTION: A HISTORY OF THE
WORKHOUSE
Author Susie Kearley considers the conditions in
which inmates lived and worked.

‘PROOF’ OR WORKS OF FICTION
Family Tree Academy tutor David Annal invites us to reflect on how far we can rely on the details in official records and why erroneous information may have crept in.

REUBEN JOYNES: WEAVER & ACTIVIST
Family historian Sue Tumer recounts her ancestor’s life
experiences, the desperation that drove him to leave & the compassion that made him fight for workers’ rights.

SHAPE UP YOUR SEARCH SKILLS IN 5 STEPS
Dr Sophie Kay shares five very practical tactics to start
using today for successful family history searching.

DNA WORKSHOP
DNA advisor Karen Evans helps readers solve mysteries surrounding the identities of a grandfather, a great-grandfather & a possibly prestigious surname connection.

PRINTING FAMILY TREES WITH ANCESTRY (Ad)

GETTING STARTED & KEEPING ORGANISED
Tips for family history newbies (or those looking for a
refresher) on helpful websites, how to keep your records
tidy & how to remember what you’ve found out.

PHOTO CORNER
Proto-dating expert Jayne Shrimpton shares valuable:
dating clues.

THOUGHTS ON…
Diane Lindsay says she’s really tried not to have fun with Hints, but…

Three more databases in Findmypast’s Home Child initiative celebrate the contribution of these children who journeyed to Canada thanks, in part, to the support of the Canadian government.

Home Children Burial Index
This new index, created in partnership with Home Children Canada, includes burial information for over 7,000 Home Children.

Home Children Enlistments and Military Deaths
This brand-new collection tells the story of Home Children who went on to enlist in armed forces across the Commonwealth between the 1890s and the 1950s.

Home Children Hazelbrae Barnardo Home Index, 1883-1923
These 9,050 new records document Home Children that were received at the Hazelbrae Barnardo Home in Ontario, Canada between 1883 and 1923.

A British genealogy podcast from Mell Turford. It’s new to me. Each episode is about 30 minutes. https://armchairgenealogy.com/ . Episodes are:

Brad Argent from Ancestry Studios” TV series chats about DNA and newspaper research
Helen Tovey, editor of the UK’s Family Tree Magazine, chats with the Genealogy Guy
Nick Barratt about his research & work on “Who Do You Think You Are?” TV series
Chat with Ted Udall (from Somerset and Dorset Family History Society )
Paul McNeil hints & working on the ITV series ‘DNA Journey’
Donna Rutherford talks about the basics (101) of DNA
Mark Bayley (of The Genealogist website) talking about their new historic maps facility
Welcome to the Podcast (2 minutes)

Just 186 years ago, did your ancestors participate in celebrations? The coronation of Queen Victoria took place on 28 June 1838.

The occasion was not just a royal affair in Westminster Abbey. Joyful celebrations marked the occasion in marketplaces and usually tranquil village greens. This poster, for Wells, Somerset, vividly captures the amusements.

Here’s a newspaper report on the celebrations at St Neots.

A triumphal arch was erected at the entrance to the town from the bridge, in the centre of which was suspended a crown with V.R., composed of flowers, which was done by the Misses Brown, who displayed great taste. At ten o’clock the gentry paraded the town with a band of music and a beautiful banner, with the inscription “ Victoria ; long may she reign.” At two o’clock 1,500 sat down to dinner in the market place, the band playing. At four o’clock the sports commenced on the common, which afforded excellent fun :—the best race was between Mr. J. Smith’s and Mr. H. Shepherd’s horses ; donkey racing ; treacle-bun catching ; pole swarming ; grinning, &c. &c. About five o’clock the women had tea on the market-hill. A splendid display of fireworks took place at ten o’clock, much to the satisfaction and delight of the inhabitants.