Anglo-Celtic Connections

Was a family member a British merchant mariner? My father was for a while.

The National Sailors and Firemen’s Union (NSFU), founded in 1893 and renamed the National Union of Seamen (NUS) in 1926 published The Seaman. It records the activities and decisions of the Union, the Merchant Navy and its workforce. The Modern Records Centre of the University of Warwick has issues of The Seaman as part of its digitized collections of Labour movement newspapers and journals.

The June 1942 issue has a table showing wages of deck and engine room mariners had more than doubled from pre-war. My father would have appreciated that!

Read about the collection, with links to the digitized issues, at https://warwick.ac.uk/services/library/mrc/archives_online/digital/unionjournals/seaman/. The corpus is not full-text searchable, so you must know the approximate year of interest.

A tip of the hat to Penny Allen, who mentioned this during Tuesday’s OGS Ottawa Branch drop-in.

Find many other Labour movement newspapers and journals in the University of Warwick collection at https://warwick.ac.uk/services/library/mrc/archives_online/digital/unionjournals/.

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The National Archives (UK) holds Catalogue Week each November, mostly unnoticed in the family history community. I was fortunate to be at Kew for one year and attended presentations. Since COVID it has become an online event, bringing together a rich, varied selection of current or recently completed projects.

This year’s event features eight blog posts and recorded presentations covering an array of subjects and periods.

Catalogue Week 2024 had eight posts and recorded presentations. Here’s my selection of three blog posts of most significant family history interest.

Cataloguing WO 423: Army Other Ranks and Nurses service records
Jack Ord explains the processes and challenges of cataloguing The National Archives’ biggest-ever acquisition of military service personnel records, discusses some of the material in the files, and highlights the latest project milestones.

Cataloguing WO 399, nursing service records
A blog post on the work of a team of volunteers who are partway through 17,000 or so individual service files of women who served in two of the largest units of military nurses during the First World War, and it transpires, some way beyond.

Maritime Royal Artillery Gunners on Defensively Armed Merchant Ships
A recently completed project to catalogue by name all the ships appearing in the series WO 435, Defensively Equipped Merchant Ships (DEMS): Ships’ Cards.

As Black Friday gets even nearer, here are the latest DNA test discounts.

From Family Tree DNA
Big Y-700:  $379 USD discounted from $449USD
Y-111: $199 USD discounted from $249USD
Y-87: $79 USD discounted from $119USD
mtDNA: $119 USD discounted from $159 USD
FamilyFinder: $49 USD discounted from $79 USD
and discounts on bundles.

From Ancestry.ca
$69 Cdn discounted from $129 Cdn

From MyHeritage
$29 USD discounted from $89 USD

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.

With the end of the month and US Thanksgiving, there’s little on offer this week 😢

It is a good week to catch up on the presentations you missed or would like to view again, perhaps those to which you have access because you paid for membership or through the RootsTech archive.

Tuesday, 26 November

10 am: Family History Research at the National Library (of Ireland), by Steven Skeldon for the National Library of Ireland.
https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/talk-family-history-research-at-the-national-library-tickets-1037736296197

2 pm: Ottawa Drop-in. OGS Ottawa Branch.
https://ottawa.ogs.on.ca/events/virtual-genealogy-drop-in-2-2024-11-26/

2:30 pm: Tracing Trades: Unearthing our Ancestors Occupations, by Kate McKenzie for Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center.
https://acpl.libnet.info/event/12019394

7 pm: Researching Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) Ancestors, by Laura Imrie for OGS Wellington County Branch.
https://wellington.ogs.on.ca/events/wellington-branch-researching-royal-canadian-air-force-rcaf-ancestors/

Wednesday, 27 November
Thursday, 28 November
Friday, 29 November
Saturday 30 November

 

 

Since I last looked at it on 12 November, over 149 million results have appeared. The US accounts for 138 million, and the UK and Ireland account for over 10 million. There are no Canadian additions.

The new UK total is 16,269,013, with England accounting for the lion’s share, 14,825,950. The remainder is Ireland (1,462), Isle of Man (1), Scotland (784,380), United Kingdom (207,772), and Wales (449,450).

The top ten counties are:

Lancashire 2,895,305
Middlesex 2,140,301, an additional 113,740 for London.
Norfolk 1,251,491
Cheshire 1,121,434
Sussex 775,127
Yorkshire 682,698
Durham 652,674
Cornwall 584,521
Devon 533,019
Essex 416,635

If you haven’t tried this experimental search I strongly recommend doing so. You do need a free FamilySearch account, 

Great Moments in Genealogy presentations are famous. Today,  Monday, 25 November, the Toronto Branch will hold a hybrid Great Moments meeting; all are invited. It will be in person at Lansing United Church and online.

Find information on speakers, topics and how to register at https://torontofamilyhistory.org/november-2024-meeting-great-moments/

 

This is a last-minute reminder that Ken McKinlay, who now needs no introduction, will present to an OGS Halton-Peel Branch online meeting today, Sunday, 24 November, at 2:00 p.m.

Whether you are interested in uncovering military service details, personal narratives, or broader historical insights, this session aims to provide the tools and guidance you need to deepen your understanding of those who served Canada between 1939 and 1945.

Register at https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUofuqqrTgoHNMKs-qiVWTp3Z99kflBJMzo

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

The Coffer Illusion

Amazon Charts
The top 20 most-sold & most-read non-fiction books of the week. Some have been on the list for time immemorial! With less than 100 weeks on the chart, two of which I read (or started) are Nexus by Yuval Noah Harari, Revenge of the Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt, Outlive by Peter Attia & Bill Gifford (my recommendation), How to Talk to Anyone by Leil Lowndes, and Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson (not my recommendation.)

AI for Family History
Legacy Family Tree Webinars will let non-subscribers view Steve Little’s webinar Top Ten AI Genealogy Breakthroughs of 2024 for a few more days.
Some of the same material is also covered in episode 18 of Mark Thompson and Steve’s Family History AI Show podcast. If time is limited, start at 19:20 —  Free AI Tools: How To Get Premium AI Results For Free.

Finding Your Ancestors in Historical Newspapers
Kenneth R Marks, whose website The Ancestor Hunt is THE go-to place to find what historical newspapers exist online in the US, Canada and further afield,  has just published a new book titled “Finding Your Ancestors in Historical Newspapers: A Practical Guide to Improving Your Online Newspaper Research Results.” It’s available from Amazon.ca in paperback ( 131 pages) for $27.97 Cdn or Kindle for $9.99 Cdn.

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Continuing MyHeritage’s photo initiatives, there’s a new one just released, LiveMemory.™

Available exclusively to subscribers on the MyHeritage mobile app, LiveMemory™ uses AI to turn any still photo into a short video clip. It animates the scene in the photo, “reimagining it as if you had travelled back in time to watch it live. It’s the ultimate way to reminisce.”

If you already have the MyHeritage mobile app, make sure you are using the latest version by visiting the app on the App Store or Google Play and tapping Update.

See the blog for more information and to see LiveMemory™ in action.

I tried it on a photo taken by a street photographer of my father and two friends in Sydney in 1941. Their movement was quite realistic in the resulting movie, returned by email in less than 10 minutes. A background addition showed a vehicle, not in the original, looking like it was about to collide with a pedestrian! Creative!

A quick summary of this week’s additions.

British Empire Awards & Medals (1917-2023)

• Contains over 320,000 award recipients
• Includes 6,134 Canadian recipients
• Sourced from the London Gazette
• Provides details like name, rank, honour awarded, and additional context

British Army Officer Promotions (1800-1815)

• 182,000 military promotion records
• Transcripts from The London Gazette
• Includes information such as name, rank, unit, and promotion details

British Army Service Records

• 8,025 new service records added
• Covers Scots Guards, Loyal North Lancashire Regiment, and York Light Infantry
• 1,007 entries for individuals born in Canada
• Comprehensive details, including birth information, service number, regiment, and personal details
• Accompanying images provide additional context

Newspaper Collection

• 5,396 pages of West Lancashire Evening Gazette from 1999 onward added

 

Below are the stats for the change in the number of entries for the year ending November 2024. The US continues to have the largest number of entries. Canada saw the largest percentage increase, at 10.64%.

Jurisdiction	Nov 2023 Entries	Nov 2024 Entries	Percent Change
United States	1,129,742,602	1,210,247,798	+7.13%
Canada	42,320,060	46,822,811	+10.64%
UK & Ireland	30,053,253	31,400,111	+4.48%
Australia & New Zealand	5,738,512	5,764,394	+0.45%

The figures reflect Ancestry’s commercial interest. For the US, there are 356 entries per 100 population, for Canada 115, for the UK 43, and for Australia and New Zealand 18.

The November 2024 Appeal for Relatives is out from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission with 27 military graves and commemorations that require new headstones or memorials. The casualties are for dates of death ranging from 1916 to 1947, and represent various branches of the British military including the Royal Army Service Corps, Border Regiment, Royal Navy, Royal Marines, and the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force. There are no Canadians this month. The records show diverse military ranks from Private to Lieutenant Colonel, and notably includes one female service member.

I took a closer look at the three burials in Enfield Lavender Hill Cemetery. It happens to be adjacent to the Chase Farm School where my grandfather lived. All had the notation “Recent research has shown that (insert rank and name) is buried here. The Commission is in the process of producing a headstone to mark his grave.”

The In From the Cold Project  shows its value as 19 of the 27 had similar notation, including all three at the Enfield cemetery.

Two of the Enfield Lavender Hill Cemetery were named Frost, probably brothers.

Pte. Richard Frost served with the Army Veterinary Corps and died post-discharge of tuberculosis on 2 August 1916.

Pte. Frank Arthur Frost (63276) served with the Royal Fusiliers, 13th Batallion and died of a gunshot wound to the leg on 5 May 1917.

Also at the cemetery is Lieutenant Colonel John Beville Pym of the Royal Marine Light Infantry, who died of heart disease on 27 December 1916.