These 26,819 transcripts, created from the original militia lists held by the Northamptonshire Archives, document men who served in the county’s militia. The 1762 list covers most of the county; for 1817, it covers parishes in the Towcester area; for 1819, parishes in the Daventry area; and for 1774 and 1781, the parishes in the Higham Ferrers hundred (administrative region).
The 1771 Northamptonshire Militia List comes from the original militia lists held by the Northamptonshire Record Office.
Transcripts include name, year, occupation, hundred, place, county, country, and additional notes.
Herefordshire Burial Index (1580–1812)
An additional 9,941 burial records expand coverage to 150,184 for the county in the National Burial Index. These records can help establish an ancestor’s final resting place in periods before civil registration.
Middlesex Monumental Inscriptions (1867–2022)
A further 6,635 records from Isleworth Cemetery, Hounslow, bringing the total for the county to 79,293, provides details from gravestones, often including family relationships and personal messages.
Newspaper Archive Expansion
Of particular note are 4,308 pages from the Folkestone Daily News for 1910-1914, a new title updated 1 day ago.
Compiled from funeral directors’ records and obituaries, the contents as of 10 February are: England & Wales, Death Index, 1989-2024: 7,674,311 records
Scotland & Northern Ireland, Death Index, 1989-2024
953,672 records.
MyHeritage updates 1926 Prairie Provinces Census
Updated on 9 February, now with 1,995,864 records, including images. Ancestry’s version has 2,012,756 records,
FamilySearch Experimental Full-Text Search Update
As of 11 February 2025, the FamilySearch Full Text Experimental Search has 955,716,593 records, up from 710,339,386 on 4 December. Here’s the breakdown by region:
Africa (3,792,733)
Asia & Middle East (3,139,333)
Australia & New Zealand (21,430,450)
Canada (34,636,395)
Caribbean and Central America (8,050,248)
Continental Europe (1,228,200)
Mexico (5,187,613)
Other (37,669)
Pacific Islands (1,123,539)
South America (59,639,071)
United Kingdom and Ireland (27,062,210)
United States of America (790,308,678)
The last update was on 14 January, when the following collections of Canadian and UK interest were added
Choose from selected free online events today. All times are ET except as noted. Assume registration in advance is required; check so you’re not disappointed. Find out about a few more, mainly US events, at Conference Keeper.
2:30 pm: Give Your Past a Future – An Introduction to WeAre.xyz, by Simon Davies for Allen Country Public Library Genealogy Center. https://acpl.libnet.info/event/12687468
7:30 pm: Celebrating Black History Month, by members of the Lakeshore Genealogical Society. Registration at: LGSregister@gmail.com
Thursday 13 February
6:30 pm: The Genealogy Proof Standard in Action: Finding the Parents and Siblings of a Civil War Ancestor, by Lindsey Harne for Allen Country Public Library Genealogy Center. https://acpl.libnet.info/event/12680543
10 am: “Exciting Cause: An Investigation into Women Confined in the 1890s to the Kingston Asylum for the Insane (Rockwood), Kingston, Ontario.”, by Laurie Fyffe for OGS Kingston Branch. https://kingston.ogs.on.ca/
MyStories is “a new global service that enables people to capture their personal stories in a beautiful printed book.”
New on Ancestry: Kensington and Chelsea, UK, World War II Related Records, 1939-1956
These 7,384 records contain information about air raid precautions, bomb damage, refugees and war relief, welfare work and relief, and rolls of honour. They include employee cards, applications for military medals, London Gazette articles, death and burial registers, refugee lists, and lists of air raid wardens and messengers.
A digital edition of eighteenth-century London. By mapping its print culture, literature, and trades, it aims to create both a historically accurate visualization of the city’s commerce and communications, and a record of how its authors and artists portrayed it.
Ancestry updates Australia, City Directories and Almanacs, 1845-1948
Lacking census records for Australia, directories play an important role. This collection, updated on 5 February, now has 37,480,812 records
MyHeritage France Vital Records
On 4 February MyHeritage updated: Church Baptisms and Civil Births – 171,240,855 records
Church Burials and Civil Deaths – 162,332,111 records
Church Marriages and Civil Marriages – 140,303,613 records
I’ve Got a Little List (Poilievre Problems Edition)
(To the tune of The Mikado)
Oh, Canada is struggling, yes, we’ve all heard Pierre complain,
He’ll tell you that it’s broken, but his fix might be insane!
He rails against the taxes, and he hates the CBC,
But ask him for real answers—well, he’s got none, actually!
He loves to talk of freedom and the people he’ll defend,
But only if they all agree and follow where he bends!
And now he’s knocking on the door, but here’s what will be missed,
If Pierre becomes the PM—well, I’ve got a little list!
(Chorus)
I’ve got a little list, I’ve got a little list,
With all the things that Pierre would break—they surely would be missed!
He talks about affordability, but has no plan at all,
Just blames the Bank of Canada, like they caused housing’s fall!
He says he’ll cut the carbon tax and make life cheaper too,
But never says what else he’d do to fix what’s overdue!
He mocks the “woke elites” and how they’ve ruined all our lives,
Yet spends his days on Twitter posting rage-bait to survive!
He blames the press, the gatekeepers, and “elites” for all the grift,
But somehow, when he cashes in—it isn’t on his list!
(Chorus)
I’ve got a little list, I’ve got a little list,
And all his contradictions, well, they surely won’t be missed!
He claims he’s tough on China, yet his MPs take their cash,
And suddenly that convoy’s fine—don’t question, don’t rehash!
He hates when laws are weak on crime, but here’s the biggest quirk:
He loved it when his party slashed the cops and prison work!
And though he rails at handouts and the way that cash is spent,
His gold-plated pension stays—that’s quite convenient!
So if he wins, good luck to us, we’ll finally see the twist—
That when he runs the country, we’ll all be on his list!
Thanks to Ann Burns, Anonymous, Barbara Tose, Gail, Gail Roger, John Estaño DeRoche, Maureen Guay, Teresa, and Unknown for this week’s contributions.
Mark Thompson and Steve Little offer AI Predictions for 2025
What We Can Look Forward to In 2025
01:02 AI Agents: The Next Big Thing
08:06 Local Language Models: Improved Privacy and Security
13:09 Social Media Chatbots: Coming to Your Groups 18:24 AI Writing Tools: The New Normal
24:16 AI Costs: Dropping Fast
30:43 The AI Horse Race: Who Will Lead?
Anti-Predictions: What Won’t Happen in 2025
36:01 Handwritten Text Recognition
40:21 AI-Generated Family Trees and Diagrams
44:06 Generated Text in Images
Andrew Carnegie was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist.
TheGenealogist adds Lloyd George Domesday Record Collection for Dorset
In partnership with The National Archives, TheGenealogist now has early 20th-century records for Dorset covering 1,000 square miles and documenting 128,485 individuals and organisations.
A shout-out to Penny Allen’s blog. Penny is a Canadian librarian-genealogist living and working in London, so her blog has that unique perspective. Penny also does Lookups in London and UK Archives as time and resources permit.
NLS Maps News
New online! Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 maps (published in 1974), these ‘OS Landranger’-style maps and provide a colourful overview of the landscape. The maps cover most of England and Wales (with northern England added next year as the maps go out-of-copyright). Keep up with recent additions to the National Library of Scotland online map collection at https://maps.nls.uk/additions/.
Ancestry offers $10 bait!
Until 11 February, Ancestry is offering new subscribers the first 4 months of World Deluxe membership for $10 per month. Unless you cancel at least two days before your renewal date by logging into your Account Settings page or by contacting Ancestry, the subscription will automatically renew at the end of the 4‑month period at $29.99 per month.
Choose from selected free online events today. All times are ET except as noted. Assume registration in advance is required; check so you’re not disappointed. Find out about a few more, mainly US events, at Conference Keeper.
2:30 pm: Recognizing Inaccurate and Misleading Genealogical Records, Citations, and Sources, by Bryan L. Mulcahy for Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center. https://acpl.libnet.info/event/12680398
BIFHSGO Monthly Meeting 9 am: Excel and Family History: How they can work together, by Paul Cripwell. 10 am: E.F. Kelly and The Champagne of Ginger Ales, by Dawn Kelly https://www.bifhsgo.ca/events
More refined ethnicity estimates are now being provided by MyHeritage. Previously I had an estimate of 61.8% Irish, Scottish, and Welsh combined. Now it’s 36.3% Scottish and Welsh, 21.3% English, and 12.5% Irish. That’s 70.1% combined.
Compare those to Ancestry‘s 50% for England and Northwest Europe with a possible range of 35 to 57%; 18% Ireland, with a possible range of 11 to 25%; 5% Scotland with range 0 to 16%; and 3% Wales with range 1 to 8%. Family Tree DNA suggests 40% Central Europe and 29% Ireland. LivingDNA has 46.1% Great Britain and Ireland, including 8.9% Ireland. Also 39.5% France! 23andMe estimates 75.5% British and Irish combined, with no quantitative breakdown.
Two other announcements are expected from MyHeritage this week.
Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.
FindmyPast Weekly Update
Over a million parish records for Bedfordshire, transcriptions sourced from FamilySearch, are added Baptisms — 459,413 parish baptisms as far back as the 16th century. Marriages — 221,522 records from 1538 to 1881.
Burials — 360,442 burial records from 1451 to 1998.
Find additions to 68 newspapers in the past week.
The Old Farmer’s Almanac for January
This January, the mean temperature in Ottawa was -9.6C; the OFA prediction of -8.0C was warmer than the actual and the long-term mean. Only four days had a maximum above freezing. FAIL
The OFA predicted 65 mm of total precipitation at Ottawa; the actual was 23.5 mm, outside one standard deviation. FAIL
Map of Early Modern London?
From the University of Victoria, a digital edition of the 1561 Agas woodcut map of London. It comes with a clickable list of “Locations by category,” which helps orient to present-day locations.
Connecting Weather and Personal Histories
Don’t miss it, on 6 February at 7 pm, hosted by the Ontario Genealogical Society. I will cover the impact of weather on living conditions, travel, farming, and significant weather events in Ontario. You’ll learn how to find historical weather records and understand their importance in family history research. The presentation includes captivating quotes from historical figures like Catherine Parr Traill and Samuel de Champlain, who describe the challenges posed by weather in their times.
Canada, Hudson Bay Company Corporate and Employment Records, 1766-1926
New on Ancestry, 124,430 records in a unique early collection. “This collection includes records of employees, investors, stakeholders, and associates, and other assorted records of the Hudson’s Bay Company that were produced between 1790 and 1910. Employee records may include: ledgers with lists of employees and corresponding information,individual employee contracts with typed text and handwritten biographical information, and handwritten wills of employees. Records that use the word “servant” refer to an employee of the company. The documents are written in English and French.”
When I tried it the transcriptions were not being served, but the original images were fine.
WDYTYA Magazine: February 2025
The feature articles in this issue are: Sort Your Research with Timelines
A look at the benefits of constructing a timeline in exploring an ancestor’s life, or part of it, and helpful facilities from Ancestry, FamilySearch, FindmyPast and elsewhere. Irish Migration in 5 Records Tips on finding ancestors that moved from Ireland to America. The Birth of the British Chippy
The story of the contested origin of this British “delicacy.”
Also in the column Family Hero, is a “celebration of ancestors who embarked on a terrifying journey to start a new life in Canada.” The journey, for the family with English roots, was from Nebraska to Alberta.
FamilySearch Full Text Search
A search for records between 1525 and 2024 now yields 955,002,536 results. Here’s the content by region.
It’s Cold in Ontario
Chances are last night was one of the, if not the coldest of the year, whether you’re reading from Almonte, Byng Inlet, Cochrane, Colpoy’s Bay, Dryden, Fort Severn, Georgian Bay, Goderich, Guelph, Haileybury, Kenora, Kingston, London, Matheson, Merritton, Moosonee, Muskoka, North Bay, Ottawa, Paris, Parry Sound, Prescott, South Porcupine, Thunder Bay, Toronto, or Windsor,
Those are among the places to be mentioned in my presentation, “Connecting Weather and Personal Histories,” hosted by the Ontario Genealogical Society, next Thursday, 6 February, at 7 pm.
On 28 January 1965, sixty years ago, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II officially approved Canada’s official flag — the single red maple leaf. The declaration was signed at Buckingham Palace by Prime Minister Lester Pearson.
Choose from selected free online events today. All times are ET except as noted. Assume registration in advance is required; check so you’re not disappointed. Find out about a few more, mainly US events, at Conference Keeper.
Tuesday, 28 January
2:30 pm: Forgotten Women: Researching the Marginalized Women on Your Family Tree, by Janet Few for Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center. https://acpl.libnet.info/event/12451846
6:30 pm: Bringing Green Book Locations to Life, The
Chitterling Circuit, BBQ, and more, by Shamele Jordon for Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center. https://acpl.libnet.info/event/12451854
The FreeBMD Database was updated on Monday, 27 Jan 2025, to contain 292,327,249 unique records, updated from 292,099,269 in December. Years with more than 10,000 updates are 1993, 1995-96 for births, 1994-96 for marriages, and 1994-95 for deaths.
Did you know?
The Great Lakes Storm of November 1913 was Ontario’s most deadly weather disaster. This catastrophic event resulted in the sinking of 38 ships and the loss of 244 lives. I will mention this and much more in my presentation, “Connecting Weather and Personal Histories,” to be hosted by the Ontario Genealogical Society at 7 p.m. on February 6.
Saturday 15 February
