Anglo-Celtic Connections

BIFHSGO has announced additions to the conference program—Conference Connect and Exhibitor Connect.

Two sessions of Conference Connect will be offered on non-presentation days—Tuesday, 21 September (2–4 p.m. EDT) and Thursday, 23 September (7–9 p.m. EDT). Registrants are invited to visit one of several breakout rooms, each covering a conference theme—Irish records, female ancestors and genetic genealogy—where experienced researchers will be available to share their knowledge and exchange ideas with registrants.

There will also be two sessions of Exhibitor Connect, in which participants can visit breakout rooms hosted by conference exhibitors to learn more about their products and services. The sessions will be held on Wednesday, 22 September (2–3:30 p.m. EDT) and on Saturday, 25 September (10–11:30 a.m. EDT), just before the presentations on those days. No registration is required. You can move between sessions, ask questions or just listen and learn.

For more about the conference visit the website.

That’s right — subtracts — not adds. This time it’s less. Findmypast no longer makes available Canadian (and US) newspapers.

The papers that were available were from newspaperarchive.com, are still available at that subscription site.

Canadian newspapers were one of the few exclusive benefits Findmypast provided by way of Canadian records. Without question FMP is invaluable for the exclusive UK record, is the subscription worthwhile for Canadian research?

The FMP catalogue has 242 datasets when filtered for Canada. Top of the list by number of records is British & Irish Roots Collection with over 63 million records, a little over 11 million when filtered for Canada. Mostly these are duplicated from Passenger Lists Leaving UK 1890-1960 and census records, both available as separate FMP titles and available at competitor websites.

The World War 2 Allies Collection has over 15 million records but just over 11 thousand when filtered for Canada. They are mostly from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

This table is a complete list of FMP titles with more than 10,000 Canadian records. Most if not all are to be found elsewhere, many freely available, so is a subscription worthwhile?  Now questionable for Canadian research if you have other access.

Record Set	Canadian Records
British & Irish Roots Collection	11,235,113
Canada Census 1911	7,157,334
United States, Canadian Border Crossings	6,150,580
Passenger Lists Leaving UK 1890-1960	5,418,130
Canada Census 1901	5,167,206
Canada Census 1891	4,539,639
Canada Census 1881	4,273,962
Canada Census 1871	3,292,788
Canada Census 1861	2,764,253
Ontario Birth Index 1860-1920	2,076,058
Canadian Headstones Index	1,881,403
Canada Census 1851	1,364,597
Canada Billion Graves Cemetery Index	1,343,005
British Columbia, Canada, Death Index, 1872-1992	994,738
Manitoba Probate Records 1871-1930 Browse	802,992
New Brunswick, County Deed Registry Books Image Browse	792,235
British Columbia Estate Files 1859-1949 Browse	783,176
Ontario, Canada, Federal Census Of 1871 Ontario Index, 1871	374,095
Canadian Directories & Almanacs	356,897
Manitoba Marriage Index	154,052
Manitoba Birth Index	143,055
Ontario Genealogical Society Provincial Index	132,979
Canada, Home Children Immigration Records Index, 1869-1930	125,086
Manitoba Death Index	112,525
Prince Edward Island, Canada, 1891 Census Index, 1891	105,373
Prince Edward Island, Canada, 1901 Census Index, 1901	104,139
Lower Canada Census 1825	74,323
New Brunswick, Canada, Land Petitions Index, 1783-1918	66,872
Canada, Saskatchewan Vital Records Birth Index	64,614
Alberta, Canada, Metis National Council Historical Online Database Index, 1770-1919	60,717
Canada, Saskatchewan Vital Records Death Index	55,302
Lower Canada Census 1842	46,467
New Brunswick, Canada, Marriage Bonds Index, 1810-1932	41,282
British Columbia, Canada, Birth Registration Index, 1872-1903	36,930
British Columbia, Canada, Birth Index, 1854-1903	36,602
Canada, Ontario, Oddfellows Life Insurance Applications	31,167
British Columbia, Canada, Baptism Index, 1772-1888	30,942
Brandon, Manitoba, Canada, Estate Index, 1884-1984	29,414
Canada, Ontario, Toronto Emigrant Office Records Index	29,064
Canada, Immigrants To Canada Index, 1750-1854	25,353
New Brunswick Birth and Baptism Index 1769-1899	25,219
New Brunswick, Canada, Irish Immigrants In The New Brunswick Census Of 1851 and 1861 Index, 1851, 1861	21,048
Portage La Prairie, Manitoba, Canada, Estate Index, 1884-1984	18,455
World War 2 Allies Collection	11,376

Most of us aren’t legal eagles. Fortunately, we are being alerted to Ancestry’s  information grab by  Judy G. Russell, “One big change at Ancestry,” The Legal Genealogist (https://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog : posted 4 Aug 2021).

“In plain English, the rights to use that family photo you posted, that story you wrote and uploaded, that snippet of family history you’ve shared basically now belong to Ancestry. You can continue to use it elsewhere if you wish, since you’re still technically the owner, but you can’t do anything to stop Ancestry from using it any way it wants, forever.”

Did Ancestry give specific warning it was making this change so information could be deleted from their system.? No.  Ancestry is acting like the 800lb gorilla on the genealogical block.

 

 

The very latest UK title at FamilySearch is United Kingdom, British Royal Navy Ships’ Musters, 1739-1861 with 280,357 transcript records. Find out more about these records, sourced from the UK National Archives via Findmypast, here.

Other additions to FamilySearch UK transcripts this week.

Collection	Indexed Records
England, Middlesex Parish Registers, 1539-1988	84,783
England, Essex Non-Conformist Church Records, 1613-1971	8,854
England, Lancashire, Marriage Bonds and Allegations, 1746-1799	4,988
England, Northumberland Non-Conformist Church Records, 1613-1920	4,215
England, Lincolnshire, Marriage Bonds and Allegations, 1574-1885	100
England, Hertfordshire, Marriage Bonds, 1682-1837	45
England, Gloucestershire Non-Conformist Church Records, 1642-1996	25
England, Herefordshire Bishop’s Transcripts, 1583-1898	2

There are no Canadian additions this week. See the complete list of additions.

Sales on DNA tests come along frequently — the exception being when you really want one to resolve a long-standing issue. That’s the way of the world.

If that’s your situation now you’re in luck. FamilyTreeDNA has summer sale prices on all its products. Check them out at www.familytreedna.com/

While the number of records in Carmarthenshire, Wales, Anglican Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1560-1994 remains at  1,086,426 this update adds images of the original parish registers to the transcriptions.

A 3-minute video from Dr. Spike Gibbs of the LSE

http://www.lse.ac.uk/lse-player?id=eb01116c-106a-4035-8126-2896f9f8e0e5

Choose from free online events in the next five days. All times are ET except as noted. Those in red are Canadian, bolded if local to Ottawa. Assume registration in advance is required; check so you’re not disappointed.

Tuesday 3 August, 2 pm: Virtual Genealogy Drop-In, from Ottawa Branch of OGS and The Ottawa Public Library. https://ottawa.ogs.on.ca/events/.

Tuesday 3 August, 2:30 pm: New York State Censuses: You Won’t Believe What’s Hiding In There! by Jeanette Sheliga for Allen Country Public Library Genealogy Center. https://acpl.libnet.info/event/5421040

Tuesday 3 August. 10 pm: Burying the Body in England by Helen V. Smith for Legacy Family Tree Webinars. https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar_details.php?webinar_id=1604

Wednesday 4 August 2021,  7:30 pm: Surprising stories with the writing of the book “The Lobb Family”, by Alison Lobb for Huron County Branch OGS. https://huron.ogs.on.ca/events/aug-4-huron-co-branch-webinar/

Thursday 5 August, 6:30 pm: Testing Your Relatives’ DNA: What You Can Learn. by Sara Allen by Allen Country Public Library Genealogy Center. https://acpl.libnet.info/event/5421917

Thursday 5 August  7:00 pm: Google Maps for Migration, Brick Walls and Organizing a Trip to Your Ancestor’s Home, by Lianne Kruger for OGS.
https://ogs.on.ca/zoom-meetings/august-webinar-lianne-kruger/

Friday 6 August, 2 pm: Freedmen’s Bureau Labor Contracts, by Bernice Bennett for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar_details.php?webinar_id=1678

Saturday 7 August, 2 pm: Simcoe County Branch – My Ancestors in the Hudson’s Bay Fur Trade, by Janice Nickerson for Simcoe County Branch OGS
https://simcoe.ogs.on.ca/events/simcoe-county-branch-my-ancestors-in-the-hudsons-bay-fur-trade-with-janice-nickerson/

Coming

19 – 26 September 2021: BIFHSGO Conference. Irish Lines and Female Finds: Exploring Irish records, female ancestors and genetic genealogy. www.bifhsgo2021.ca/.

 

MyHeritage announces the acquisition of a controlling interest in French genealogy company Filae.

Following the acquisition, Filae’s exclusive historical record collections comprising more than one billion records will be made accessible to MyHeritage users.

The answer to the trivia question about the size of the MyHeritage database will soon need updating!

Read the details in the press release.

 

The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan saw more than  131,000 Second World War Canadian and Allied aircrew trained at nearly 200 establishments located in almost 150 communities across Canada. There’s a list of locations by province here.

In the Ottawa area locals are aware of flight facilities at Uplands, Rockcliffe and Carp that were used and are still operational airports. There were also relief landing fields including Edwards, Ontario – Relief for No. 2 SFTS Ottawa (Uplands) at 45° 18′ 12″ N  075° 28′ 00″ W.

Turning to Google Maps to find out what’s there now?

The level ground is ideal for a solar farm. According to this article, the 60,000 solar panels installed on 100-acres in 2012 have a maximum capacity of 10 MWAC, enough to power about 3,000 homes.

Up close the array is impressive — and environmentally friendly. Monarch butterflies were outside the boundary fence when I visited.

A 2017 study for the City of Ottawa identified three other solar farms in the area: Arnprior (20 MWAC ), Burritts Rapids (7 MWAC), and Greely (10 MWAC). It suggested 0.5% of the area of Ottawa, the equivalent to 23 eighteen-hole golf courses, could be allotted with the ability to host 580 MWAC of generation.

The challenge of climate change is as big as that of the World Wars and may well require as significant a change in society.