Anglo-Celtic Connections

The Shannon Lecture Series is back at Carleton University this fall with the theme: Black Histories and Futures of Science and Technology. Curated by Alexa Lepera, Assistant Curator of Domestic Environments and Social Diversity at Ingenium, the series will explore the complex relationship between anti-Black racism and technology, highlighting how technology has both enabled Black resistance and contributed to community building and liberation.

This year’s lectures will bring together speakers from diverse disciplines to examine Black histories in fields such as transportation, agriculture, sports, science, and media. The first session, Ingenium’s Black and African Canadian Scientific and Technological Innovations Fellowship, will be held virtually on October 21 at 7 p.m. Additional sessions are planned for November, December, and January at the Dominion-Chalmers Centre.

Saturday, 28 September, marks British Home Child Day, honouring the achievements and contributions of these young immigrants.
The program brought around 100,000 young immigrants to Canada. Despite its flaws, it offered many opportunities for a better and healthier life than they might have had in Britain1. We must acknowledge the dedication of the leaders of the charitable agencies who, lamenting the plight of needy children on Britain’s mean streets, took action to move them into a more promising situation.

The children’s stories of resilience and achievement are a notable part of Canada’s immigrant heritage.

We should not sugar-coat the challenges these young immigrants faced adapting to a new country, culture, and rural lifestyle — experiences shared by many immigrants throughout Canadian history.

Many British home children found educational opportunities, developed skills, and built successful careers and families in Canada. Their contributions to Canadian society were significant, particularly in agriculture, rural development, and the military.

This nuanced understanding, free of the label of unwilling victims, allows us to appreciate the variety of home children’s experiences. Historical events often have mixed legacies.

The Canadian government actively supported and facilitated the immigration of home children, viewing it as a means to address labour shortages and contribute to nation-building. It must share credit for the successes as well as the shortcomings.

1. As a measure of health, in 1900, the infant mortality rate was 20% higher in the UK than in Canada.

From 26 to 30 September 2024, Généalogie Québec offers a 25% discount on annual subscriptions. 

This offer is available exclusively at  https://www.genealogiequebec.com/en/subscription-offer-fall2024

On Monday, I visited Ingenium’s Library and Archives, which supports museum staff and the general public in researching the history of science, technology, agriculture, food, aviation, and space in Canada.

This was my first opportunity to visit the new facility, several quantum leaps up from their cramped quarters pre-pandemic. Both visits were to explore the CP Ships collection, much of which is available on Ancestry as of June this year. Find my blog posts here, here, and here.

Although Ancestry was able to digitize most of the collection a few items proved too large, notably the plan of the various decks and some posters.

In case you’re wondering, digitization by Ancestry took about seven months at an estimated cost in excess of $200,000 if done in-house. As it was interrupted by COVID the project took longer than normal. Now, Ancestry has exclusive access for five years, after which the collection will be released and made available on the Ingenium site.

Adele Torrance(right) and Sian Jones, two staff involved, explained some of the intricacies. Marcia Mordfield (not pictured) was also on the team. Sian found herself mentioned in a document for a 1966 voyage on the Empress of Canada when as a young child she bumped her head.

The Library and Archives have a vast collection of resource material, much of which is available through interlibrary loan. Check the Library catalog and the archives’ holdings at Archeion, or email for advice on whether they have a resource useful to you.

The September update to Ancestry’s Find a Grave Index sees 156,761 additions to the Canadian collection and 334,413 to the UK and Ireland.

Public hearings on the ground floor at 395 Wellington in Ottawa mean increased airport-type security is in force.

Everyone must pass through the security checkpoint before researching on the upper floors. Aerosol items, alcohol, blades, and other weapons will not be allowed. It is unclear whether liquids will be restricted to 100 ml containers.

Read the announcement here.

Choose from selected free online events in the next five days.
All times are ET except as noted. Assume registration in advance is required; check so you’re not disappointed. Find out about many more, mainly US events, at Conference Keeper.

Tuesday, 24 September

2:30 pm: Family History Sprint: Q&A to Accelerate Your Brick Wall Research, by Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center.
https://acpl.libnet.info/event/11548564

7 pm: Al and Genealogy: Trouble Ahead? by Thomass MacEntee for OGS Wellington County Branch.
wellington.ogs.on.ca

Wednesday, 25 September

2 pm: Buried in the Federal Records Center: Uncovering XC Pension Files, by Alec Ferretti for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar/buried-in-the-federal-records-center-uncovering-xc-pension-files/

2:30 pm: Most Surnames come from Somewhere, by Howard Benbrook for the Guild of One-Name Studies.
https://one-name.org/surnamessomewhere/

Thursday, 26 September

6:30 pm: How to Be a Good Ancestor, by Karen Urbe for Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center.
https://acpl.libnet.info/event/11601508

Friday, 27 September

Webtember presentations from Legacy Family Tree Webinars.

10:15 am: Church Records in Archives, by Melissa Barker
11:30 am: Top 10 Tips for Working with the Old German Handwriting, by Katherine Schober
12:45 pm: Irish Landed Estates, by Natalie Bodle
2:00 pm: Reuniting Sisters Separated During WWII After 70 Years, by Nitay Elboym
3:30 pm: Finding Origins & Birth Families: Methods That Work, by Elizabeth Shown Mills

Saturday, 28 September

1:00 pm: The Early Buildings of Kingston, 1783-1830, by Jennifer McKendry for Kingston and District Branch, United Empire Loyalists’ Association of Canada. (UELAC).
http://www.uelac.org/Kingston-Branch

2 pm: Home Children and My Connection, by Dianna Fulton 
for OGS Niagara Peninsula Branch.
https://niagara.ogs.on.ca/events-2/

Over one million new free-to-view pages have recently been added to the British Newspaper Archive. Over four million newspaper pages are now free.
Here are the British and Irish newspapers released.

An interesting addition is 16 titles from the Caribbean from 1771 to 1902.

To complete the inventory, there’s New Zealand’s Lyttelton Times from 1851 to 1902.

Read the BNA blog post.

Are you taking advantage of FamilySearch updates? Indexed records are continually added; 115 collections have been updated in the past month.

You can learn about them by visiting familysearch.org, clicking Search, then Records, and BROWSE ALL COLLECTIONS. By default, the table that appears is sorted by Collection Title. Click on Last Updated to sort and find the most recent additions.

The US saw 14 additions, Italy 12, and Brazil 7. Three additional titles for Italy are browse-only. Canada saw no additions, two for Wales and once each for the UK and Ireland.

For the UK, its Maritime Births, Marriages, and Deaths, now with 56,065 records. For Wales Merionethshire, Parish Registers 1538-1912 now has 146,135 records. Ireland’s Catholic Parish Registers, 1740-1900 tops the list with 6,855,603 records.

Central and South America are well represented, likely reflecting the number of adherents to the LDS Church.

The National Library of Wales has launched a new website with names of over 240,000 of the 390,296 women who signed the historic petition demanding world peace in 1923.

Volunteers have now transcribed names on the crowdsourced project. 50,000 signatures have been verified and added to the new website, where users can search for names, houses, streets, and places. This gives people a user-friendly way of finding relatives and places of interest. The woman’s signature can be seen using the link to the original image.

The three top counties with entries are Ceredigion, Gwynedd, Conwy.

The transcription process is ongoing, and new people are being recruited to help complete the project.

Miscellaneous items I found of interest during the week.

Scrambled Maps
Drag the tiles into the correct order to restore the map of a different city of the world each day. 

A Structured Daily Routine
I asked ChatGPT for the elements of a daily routine to maintain optimal physical, mental, and overall well-being.

What’s missing? Childcare? Other?

NARA Struggles
A perspective from south of the border, with parallels to the situation at LAC.

The AI Bubble
The following is my Ai-assisted summary of an article I Studied 200 Years’ Of Tech Cycles. This Is How They Relate To AI Hype, by Jing Hu posted behind a paywall on Medium

The article discusses the cyclical nature of technology hype and investment bubbles throughout history, drawing parallels between past events and the current AI boom. It examines several historical examples, including the Canal Mania of the early 1800s, the Railway Mania of the 1840s, the electric power competition between AC and DC systems, the automobile industry boom, and the dot-com bubble. These cases demonstrate how initial excitement and investment in new technologies often lead to speculative frenzies, followed by market crashes and industry consolidations.
The text explores the psychological factors driving tech hype, such as FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out), herd mentality, and confirmation bias. It also delves into the financial aspects fueling these crazes, including speculative investing, low interest rates, and network effects. The article highlights key players in tech hype cycles, including entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, media, early adopters, and even governments, each contributing to the amplification of trends and potential overvaluation of new technologies.
Finally, the article draws parallels between historical patterns and the current AI boom, suggesting that while AI has transformative potential, investors and enthusiasts should approach it with caution. It advises readers to expect a shakeout in the AI industry, be wary of inflated promises, think long-term about AI’s impact, and focus on products that provide genuine value and efficiency improvements. The text emphasizes that while AI will likely have a significant impact on the world, its true potential may unfold over decades rather than in the short term.

Thanks to this week’s contributors: Anonymous, Basil Adam, Brenda Turner, Charles Godwin, Christol James, gail benjafield, Glenn Wright, Jane Watt, Paul Jones, Peggy Homans Chapman, Sylvia Smith, Teresa, Unknown.