Anglo-Celtic Connections

This Week’s Online Genealogy Events

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, 4 February

2 pm: Ottawa Branch OGS Virtual Drop-in. https://meet.google.com/nvz-kftj-dax

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

7:30 pm: Six Free Websites Every Ontario Genealogist Needs, by Janice Nickerson for OGS Durham Branch.
https://ogs.on.ca/events/durham-branch-six-free-websites-every-ontario-genealogist-needs-janice-nickeron-u-e/

8:00 pm: Oops! Married twice (at the same time) Case Studies in Bigamy! by Helen V. Smith for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/oops-married-twice-at-the-same-time-case-studies-in-bigamy/

Wednesday, 5 February

2:00 pm: Foundations in DNA, 1 of 5: Introduction to DNA and Genetic Genealogy, by Blaine Bettinger for Legacy Family Tree Webinars. https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/foundations-in-dna-1-of-5-introduction-to-dna-and-genetic-genealogy/

7:30 pm: Exploring the Library and Archives Canada Online by Ken McKinlay for OGS Huron Branch. 
https://huron.ogs.on.ca/events/huron-branch-exploring-the-library-and-archives-canada-online-ken-mckinlay/

Thursday, 6 February

7:00 pm: Connecting Weather and Personal Histories by John D Reid for the Ontario Genealogical Society. 
https://ogs.on.ca/events/february-webinar-connecting-weather-and-personal-histories-john-reid-3/

Friday, 7 February

12:00 pm: 50 State-Level Digitized Memory Platforms You Don’t Want to Miss! by Diane L. Richard for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/50-state-level-digitized-memory-platforms-you-dont-want-to-miss/

2:00 pm: Researching Your LGBTQ+ Ancestors, by Michael J. Leclerc for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/researching-your-lgbtq-ancestors/

Saturday, 8 February

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

10:30 am: Land Records in your Pyjama’s, by Linda Corupe for OGS Simcoe County Branch. 
https://simcoe.ogs.on.ca/events/simcoe-county-branch-land-records-in-your-pyjamas-with-linda-corupe/

MyHeritage updates Ethnicity Estimates

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.

For more information, and to register, go to https://ogs.on.ca/february-webinar-connecting-weather-and-personal-histories-john-reid/

From Dan Gardner, “Beware of the demagogues”
Reagan warned us. Now Canada and the United States will both suffer.

https://open.substack.com/pub/dgardner/p/beware-of-the-demagogues

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.

For more information and to register, go to https://ogs.on.ca/february-webinar-connecting-weather-and-personal-histories-john-reid/

 

 

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.

Thanks to Glenn Wright, author of “Controversy, Compromise and Celebration: The History of Canada’s National Flag” for the reminder. He tells me that the publisher, the Historical Society of Ottawa, has received a surge in orders from Canadian schools for the anniversary.

 

This Week’s Online Genealogy Events

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

Wednesday, 29 January

2 pm:  Researching the Great Migration of New England 1620-1640, by David Allen Lambert for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/researching-the-great-migration-of-new-england-1620-1640/

Thursday, 30 January

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

Friday, 31 January

8 pm: Oops! Married twice (at the same time) Case Studies in Bigamy!  by Helen V Smith for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/oops-married-twice-at-the-same-time-case-studies-in-bigamy/

Saturday, 1 February

10 am: In search of ‘Little Johnny O’Connor’ and his family” (sole survivor of The Donnelly murders), by Dan Brock for OGS London and Middlesex Branch.
https://londonmiddlesex.ogs.on.ca/events/london-and-middlesex-branch-in-search-of-little-johnny-oconnor-and-his-family-sole-survivor-of-the-donnelly-murders

FreeBMD January Update

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.

For more information and to register, go to https://ogs.on.ca/february-webinar-connecting-weather-and-personal-histories-john-reid/

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week. In this post:

Social media is making many people more depressed – Buddhist philosophy may offer an explanation

FindmyPast Weekly Update
Three new Australian record sets this week, 89,356 additions from the state of Queensland.  Imperial pensions, criminal depositions, and dentist records are now available for the 19th and 20th centuries. Also, 49,384 parish records were added, and a new Bournemouth newspaper.

The cold?
January has been cold. No doubt about it. This year, the lowest temperature in Ottawa so far has been -21.1C, on 22 January. That’s close to the coldest day of the year on average. But it was not as extreme as the  -25C forecast a few days previously.
As I write this, the Ottawa forecast low temperature for Thursday, 30 Jan, is -26C. Let’s hope that, too, is more extreme than occurs!

My next webinar
Learn how to find weather records and understand their significance in genealogical research at “Connecting Weather and Personal Histories.” Mark your calendars for 6 February at 7 pm, hosted by the Ontario Genealogical Society.

Don’t take sides during meetings. Try on these 6 hats instead.

Benny Hill and Tony Hancock
To promote their update to the 1939 Register, 292,259 newly opened records, TheGenealogist has a press release about these British comedy legends who were recorded living near each other in Bournemouth at the outbreak of WWII.

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

 

First, the small print.

Excludes current subscribers. Your membership will automatically renew at the end of each 6‑month period and at that time your chosen method of payment will be charged $84.99 for Canada Discovery Plus or $129.99 for World Deluxe, plus applicable taxes, unless you are notified otherwise. If you don’t want to renew, cancel at least two days before your renewal date by logging into your Account Settings page.

Offer ends 27 Jan 2025 at 11:59 p.m. ET. 6‑month membership special offer prices: $42.49 Canada Discovery Plus or $64.99 World Deluxe.

 

CONTENTS
Tonight: OGS Ottawa Branch Monthly Meeting
Legislative Acts and Ontario Genealogy
LAC Co-Lab Update for December
United States, Deceased Veteran Benefit Claims
AI Astrology

Tonight: OGS Ottawa Branch Monthly Meeting

7 pm: British Home Children to Canada – Three Sisters from Kensington and Chelsea Union (Ottawa), by Gloria Tubman
https://ottawa.ogs.on.ca/events/ottawa-branch-presentation-details-tbd-2025-01-23/

Legislative Acts and Ontario Genealogy

The latest blog post from Ken McKinlay.

Smuggling gangs and coastal policing in 19th-century England

The latest blog post from TNA.

LAC Co-Lab Update for December

There are currently 4,095 items in LAC’s Collection Search identified as Co-Lab-only contributions, down from 4,096 in December.

Here is the progress on the challenges since December. Three shows progress.

Games of the XXI Olympiad, Montréal 1976 remains at 80.8% complete.

Treaty 9, with 27 images, remains 3.7% complete.

Mary Ann Shadd Cary is 69.4% complete, up from  66.1%.

Expo67 is 5.1% complete, down from 6.8%.

Summiting Mount Logan in 1925: Fred Lambart’s personal account of the treacherous climb and descent of the highest peak in Canada remains 13.4% complete.

Women in the War remains 1.4% complete.

Arthur Lismer’s Children’s Art Classes remains <1% complete.

John Freemont Smith, RG10, Volume number: 4079 remains 88.5% complete.

Molly Lamb Bobakis 95.1% complete, up from 94.7%.

Diary of François-Hyacinthe Séguin remains 99% complete.

George Mully: moments in Indigenous communities remains 0% complete.

Correspondence regarding First Nations veterans returning after the First World War remains 98.5% complete.

Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 remains 94.7% complete.

Legendary Train Robber and Prison Escapee Bill Mineris 99.5% complete, up from 99%.

Japanese-Canadians: Second World War remains 2.8% complete.

Projects that remain 100% complete are no longer reported here.

United States, Deceased Veteran Benefit Claims

From MyHeritage, records from the year 1800 onwards for all US military branches, typically including the veteran’s name, date of birth, date of death, and enlistment and discharge dates. Known as the Beneficiary Identification Records Locator Subsystem (BIRLS) availability is through the efforts of  Reclaim the Records. Beware of transcription errors, as there are no original record images. I doubt Ray A. Jones, born 1840, served between 1917 and 1945.

AI Astrology

Did you know you can ask Open Ai’s ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude and Google’s Gemini to cast astrological birth charts. Just give it date of birth, time of birth and place of birth. They provide different levels of detail. For amusement only!

This Week’s Online Genealogy Events

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, 21 January

2 pm: Ottawa Virtual Genealogy Drop-in, by OGS Ottawa Branch.
https://ottawa.ogs.on.ca/events/virtual-genealogy-drop-in-2-2025-01-21/

2:30 pm: Piecing Together the Past: Tools and Techniques for – African American Genealogy, by Sarah Day for Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center.
https://acpl.libnet.info/event/12433567

8 pm: The Everleigh Sisters: A Case Study in Conflict Resolution, by Karen Stanbary for Legacy Family Tree Webinars and BCG.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/the-everleigh-sisters-a-case-study-in-conflict-resolution/

Wednesday, 22 January

2 pm: Using the Collaborate Tool at FamilySearch, by Karen Clifford for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/using-the-collaborate-tool-at-familysearch/

7 pm: The Abbot of Kingsmere: MacKenzie King and His Ruins, by Peter Coffman for Heritage Ottawa. 
https://heritageottawa.org/events/abbot-kingsmere-mackenzie-king-and-his-ruins

Thursday, 23 January

7 pm: British Home Children to Canada – Three Sisters from Kensington and Chelsea Union (Ottawa), by Gloria Tubman for OGS Ottawa Branch.
https://ottawa.ogs.on.ca/events/ottawa-branch-presentation-details-tbd-2025-01-23/

Friday, 24 January

2 pm: 10 Practical Uses of AI for Family History, by Andrew Redfern for Legacy Family Tree Webinars. (Members only)
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/10-practical-uses-of-ai-for-family-history/

Saturday, 25 January

5 am to 7 am, and 9 am to 11 am: East Surrey Family History Society Virtual Family History Show
https://www.familyhistoryfederation.com/london-westminster-middlesex-fhs-1975

How to Browse All Digitized Titles in Chronicling America

How and why the UK National Archives move documents offsite

Ancestry Announces Leadership Transition

Deb Liu to step down. , Howard Hochhauser, presently Chief Financial and Chief Operating Officer, appointed new President & CEO effective 1 February.

The Family History AI Show: EP22: The Google Empire Strikes Back: Deep Research Challenges Perplexity, NotebookLM’s Big Updates, and Facebook Adds AI to Groups

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week. In this post:
Extreme Cold Warning
Congestion Pricing
FindmyPast Weekly Update
New on Ancestry
British Newspaper Archives Update
Newspapers.com Canadian Updates
Identifying a Canadian Birth Mother: A DNA Story

Extreme Cold Warning

Overnight temperatures in Ottawa are forecast to drop below -20C on Monday and Tuesday nights. Those would be the coldest since February 2023. Be prepared if you’re looking skyward to see the rare alignment of six planets on 21 January.

Congestion Pricing

On Sunday, 5 January,  New York City became the first in the US to implement congestion pricing. It costs $9 for passenger vehicles during peak hours and $2.25 off-peak to enter Manhatten’s busiest part. Congestion pricing has existed in London, Singapore and Stockholm for years.
https://grist.org/article/the-climate-benefits-of-nycs-hard-won-congestion-pricing-plan/

FindmyPast Weekly Update

The 89,704 Kent monumental inscriptions added bring the total to 106,278. These index entries provide name, age at death or birth year, denomination and place. Year of death is not given. There is a link to the Kent FHS with more detail, usually for £2.50, £4.00 for some. For those interested in the name Keel, are now 26 items in the collection.

Kent, Freemen of Canterbury has 18,380 records which document those granted the honour of Freedom of the City of Canterbury from the 16th to 19th centuries. Find the name of the master, father and spouse. The records are from the Canterbury Cathedral Archives .

Wiltshire Burials provides 55,967 new records for burials
between 1559 and 1837, bringing the total for this index to 2,151,528.

New on Ancestry

Updated is Quebec, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1968, now with 41,012,638 records.
New is Ballymena, Antrim, Northern Ireland, Headstone Inscriptions, 1671-1996, with 10,193 records.

British Newspaper Archives Update

There are now 88,412,104 pages in the collection. In the past month, the following six new titles were added:
Bournemouth Times and Directory (1934–1950)
Cannock Chase Chronicle (1987–1995, 1997–2003)
Walsall Chronicle (1991, 1993–1995, 1998)
Louth Leader (2004)
Northern Weekly Gazette (2003)
Midland Counties Express (1995, 1998–1999).

Many of the additions are for 2004. Here are the top ten by number of pages added.

Newspaper Title	Number of Pages	Date Range
People’s Friend	64,074	1869–1928
Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette	60,068	1990–1991, 2004
Northampton Chronicle and Echo	54,962	1951, 1988, 1990, 1995, 2004
Milton Keynes Citizen	33,650	2003–2004
Cannock Chase Chronicle	31,220	1987–1995, 1997–2003
Ross-shire Journal	42,326	1877, 1913–1994
Epworth Bells, Crowle and Isle of Axholme Messenger	30,238	1905–2004
Walsall Chronicle	27,798	1991, 1993–1995, 1998
Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail	27,694	1976–1977, 2004
South Yorkshire Times and Mexborough & Swinton Times	24,556	1950–1951, 1953–1955, 1974, 1976–1991

Newspapers.com Canadian Updates

Here are the Canadian newspaper updated in the past month, including only those that date back for more than a century. Many of the updates are adding 2024, those earlier are bolded.

Newspaper	Location	Years	Pages
Gleaner	Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada	1818–1837	725
The Fountain	Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada	1847–1847	8
The Hamilton Spectator	Hamilton, Ontario, Canada	1852–2024	2,251,324
The Gazette	Montreal, Quebec, Canada	1857–2024	2,189,000
The Leader-Post	Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada	1883–2024	1,372,215
Daily News Advertiser	Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada	1887–1917	98,577
Calgary Herald	Calgary, Alberta, Canada	1888–2024	2,545,971
Vancouver Daily World	Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada	1888–1924	164,187
Telegraph-Journal	Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada	1874–2024	944,622
The Times-Transcript	Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada	1875–2024	900,366
Daily Gleaner	Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada	1884–2024	991,437
The Windsor Star	Windsor, Ontario, Canada	1893–2024	1,611,978
Waterloo Region Record	Kitchener, Ontario, Canada	1893–2024	1,367,539
The Province	Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada	1894–2024	2,410,673
The Times	Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada	1895–1915	8,042
The Ottawa Citizen	Ottawa, Ontario, Canada	1898–2024	2,120,889
The Toronto Star	Toronto, Ontario, Canada	1900–2024	3,895,092
Edmonton Journal	Edmonton, Alberta, Canada	1903–2024	2,101,100
National Post	Toronto, Ontario, Canada	1907–2024	869,051
The Vancouver Sun	Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada	1912–2024	2,225,506

Identifying a Canadian Birth Mother: A DNA Story

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

 

Canada, Names & Stories in Newspapers from OldNews.com has 382,759,442 entries. United Kingdom, Names & Stories in Newspapers from OldNews.com has 44,766,610.

These collections contain records of names, events, and stories extracted from newspaper articles using advanced AI technology developed by MyHeritage.
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. Records may include events such as birth and marriage announcements, obituaries, public achievements, business events, and more. Records often include additional details such as residence, occupation, and associated locations or institutions. Every record includes a useful summary of the article, generated automatically by AI.

Whereas the Canadian coverage is for various regional papers, most, if not all, of the UK entries are from the London, Edinburgh and Belfast Gazette.