LAC corporate video

"It’s the classic situation.
You’re celebrating a friend’s birthday and you’ve been asked to find the old Year Book and some pictures that will make the event really special."

Those are the opening lines in this new Library and Archives Canada corporate video. In simple language, grade 10 level, the video conveys the message of the mission and direction of the organization. Available in both languages it has optional closed captioning.

I understand the concept and text came from the creative services group at LAC; the production was by HyperActive, an Ottawa-based video production company.

Maybe one day LAC will walk the walk as well as this talks the talk.

BIFHSGO December meeting

The December BIHSGO Great Moments in Genealogy session is always a favourite.

This time the topics and speakers are:

• How I Found 'Uncle Effie' While Helping to Research a WWII Pilot, by Mary Anne Sharpe
• Professor Robinson – Where did you come from? by Roberta Kay
• Revelations in a Paper Bag and a Shoe Box, by Anne Sterling (listen to a brief interview here)
• Fun Boy, Fly Boy, My Reclusive Uncle, by Ted Lawrence

The meeting starts at 10am on Saturday, 10 December. The location is the auditorium at Library and Archives Canada, 395 Wellington Street, Ottawa, which is where the meetings are planned to remain in 2012.

The December issue of Anglo-Celtic Roots will be available for members to collect. Editor Jean Kitchen has been working hard to solicit writers. It's paid off in this issue, I've seen some of the content.  

There will also be the usual Discovery Tables on England, Ireland & Scotland to browse and meet with family history experts; refreshments and good company.

More details on the presentations are at http://www.bifhsgo.ca/

Watson bulls through naming proposal

Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson had no presents for the heritage community this season. He marginalized the contributions of local historians by bulling through the city Finance and Economic Development Committee his choice of James Bartleman as the person for whom the main City Archives and Library Materials Building will be named.

Despite three public interventions at the meeting indicating Bartleman was not a good choice for this particular building, as he had practically nothing to do with the history of the city, counsellors acted like sheeple agreeing to the mayor's suggestion without discussion.

On the previous item Mayor Watson trumpeted how transparent the city process had been.  He was strangely quiet about that when it came to this item.

It was not supposed to be that way. I had received  an email from Tyler L. Cox of the City Clerk's office on 3 June that “the Commemorative Naming Committee ... no longer automatically moves in-camera to consider naming proposals.”

Only through the press did  it come out  that the Commemorative Naming Committee had met ... surreptitiously. The meeting was not publicised in advance so whether it was in-camera or not becomes academic. Why no transparency?

That Commemorative Naming Committee meeting endorsed Mayor Watson's selection of James Bartleman.

Given his achievements Mr Bartleman’s name could appropriately grace a city library branch, a community centre or social housing building. But his links to the heritage of this city are tenuous.

The majority of proposals received had indicated the community favoured a name that rings strongly in the annals of the city. That should have guided the Commemorative Naming Committee in deciding what weight to give to the various established criteria. It appears to be quite normal for the city to be strongly guided by the wishes of the community in question in choosing a name. Why not in this case?

There were people nominated whose names might ONLY be appropriately celebrated in a building dedicated in large part to the heritage of the City, not as with Mr Bartleman in many different types of building or facility. Mr. Bartleman’s trailblazing record of federal public service is historic in its own right, but it’s on a larger stage, not on the local scene, aside from the incidental that he happened to be a nominal resident of the City absent for much of that time due to his Foreign Service postings.

Mr Bartleman's name was bulled forward in a secretive process, one that failed to respect the wishes and initiative of those who made other proposals. Citizens need to be able to see that their proposals have been considered equitably.

Those who submitted proposals didn't even receive a simple letter of acknowledgement nor any other communication. Does such treatment do anything to encourage citizens to make honest efforts to make the city the best it can be, one that respects and remembers its heritage? Why the omission?

Much was made at the Finance and Economic Development Committee meeting of comments received in response to a notice regarding the Bartleman proposal. They were presented as favoring the proposal, but only because a large number were rejected as proposing other names rather than commenting on the proposal. Obviously if you're proposing another name you're not supporting the proposal, but that's a leap of logic too inconvenient to Mayor Watson's wishes, worthy of an election manipulating dictatorship.

The reality is that there is no urgency in deciding this issue. This committee could have refer the nomination back to the Commemorative Naming Committee, without passing any judgement on the merit of Mr Bartleman, with a request for reconsideration in a more transparent process sensitive to the wishes of the community.

Use Ctrl-F to making finding easy

I was surprised to read in the My Heritage blog that 90% of people don't use the Ctrl-F command to find items on a web page. It's something I use every day.

To see how this works, hold down the Ctrl button, the Command button if you use a Mac, and press F. When the box appears  type in your search term. Try typing the word useful, then click to start the search.  Scroll through the hits highlighted in the text until you come to the hidden one. Then highlight that whole line.




There are other useful Ctrl commands covered in the My Heritage blog post.

QFHS December meeting: Life in Edwardian Montreal

Unfortunately the Quebec Family History Society and BIFHSGO meetings are on the same day, next Saturday 10 December, so I won't be in Beaconsfield to hear Robert N. Wilkins, a regular contributor to the Montreal Gazette, speaking about life and death in Edwardian Montreal.

The meeting starts at10:30 AM at Briarwood Presbyterian Church, 70 Beaconsfield Blvd., Beaconsfield.

Canada 150: hearing with LAC

The House of Commons Canadian Heritage Committee met on Tuesday morning continuing with the early stages of its study of Canada’s 150th anniversary. The witnesses were from the National Film Board of Canada and Library and Archives Canada (Daniel Caron).

From the opening statements made on behalf of both organizations it was clear that neither have specific plans for 2017. They spent their time describing their programs, directions, and how those equip the organization to contribute to the celebration.

Planning for the 150th is desirable, but we should be realistic about what is possible. Looking back to the 50th anniversary of Confederation, it was a low key affair. Canada was enmeshed in The Great War and there was little appetite for celebration while Canadians were dying in France and Belgium. Also the Centre Block of the parliament building lay in ashes. None of that was anticipated in December 1911. Are we any better today at predicting the situation in 2017?

The bulk of the questions from committee members were to the representatives of the National Film Board.

You should be able to listen to the 110 minute session from http://www.parl.gc.ca/CommitteeBusiness/CommitteeMeetings.aspx?Mode=1&ControlCallback=pvuWebcast&Parl=41&Ses=1&Organization=CHPC&MeetingNumber=17&Language=E&NoJavaScript=true

Daniel Caron's opening statement runs from about 12 minutes into the recording to 24 minutes.

Global Genealogy Bestsellers

Once again this year here, from Sandra Roberts of Global Genealogy, is the company list of bestsellers, books you might want to consider as a gift for your favourite Canadian genealogist.

1. Canadians at War, 1914-1919: A Research Guide to World War One Service Records, by Glenn Wright
2. British Home Children: Their Stories, compiled by BIFHSGO
3. Dictionary of Scottish Emigrants to Canada Before Confederation (pre-1867) Vol. 1, 2, 3 & 4, by Donald Whyte.
4. Le Tanguay Collection, Version 3.0 - TWO CD SET, by Cyprien Tanguay and Joseph-Arthur Leboeuf

5. King's Daughters and Founding Mothers: The Filles du Roi, 1663-1673 (2 Vol. Set) , by Peter J. Gagné (only 6 stock, appears to be out of print)

6. The Search for Heinrich Stief, A Genealogist on the Loose, by Les Bowser  

7. Early Ontario Settlers, A Source Book, by Norman Crowder

8. Ontario People: 1796-1803, by Keith Fitzgerald

9. Discover Scottish Church Records, by Chris Paton

10. A Genealogical Gazetteer of England, compiled by Frank Smith

Sandra comments that some of their other popular products this season are:
Magnabrite Magnifiers in a number of sizes
Gravestone rubbing kit (a big hit in the US).
"Quick Sheets" or "Genealogy at a Glance" sheets (the one for Michigan is going great guns.)

More information, and order at www.globalgenealogy.com

The People's Post

A 15 part series of programs under the title "The People's Post: A Narrative History of the Post Office" is underway on BBC Radio 4. It explores the development of the Royal Mail, an institution tracing origins back to Henry VIII.

The first episode, The Secret Room, covered the origins of the postal service and how, during the English Civil War and Cromwell's interegnum the postal network became an important instrument of state control. In a secret room deep in the post office building, agents opened and copied letters from suspected dissidents on a grand scale.

The upcoming 15 minutes episodes this week are:

The London Penny Post
A Culture of Letters
The Mail Coach
Freepost

You can listen to BBC Radio 4 online, the program airs at 8:45am EST. While there does not appear to be availability as a podcast there is an omnibus edition scheduled for 4pm EST on Friday.

OGS conference registration open online

Online registration is now open for the OGS conference 2012, click here.

FreeBMD December update

The FreeBMD Database was last updated on Sun 4 Dec 2011 and currently contains 209,323,684 distinct records (265,436,329 total records).

This update includes a large number of births for 1938, 1940, 1943-45, 1949, 1952, 1954-55, 1957-1959; marriages for 1920, 1952-55, 1957-59; and deaths for 1883, 1946, 1951, 1953-55, 1957-59, 1961.

Universal access to all knowledge

You've got to love the "Can Do" approach of the Internet Archives, as evident in this brief summary of a talk given on 20 November by Brewster Kahle

.... the Wayback Machine copies every page of every website every two months and makes them time-searchable from its six-petabyte database of 150 billion pages. It has 500,000 users a day making 6,000 queries a second.

Contrast that with the "can't do" attitude here.

 "Exponential growth of information means that we cannot capture and preserve all of it"

DNA for Genealogy

On Tuesday December 6, 2011 The Jewish Genealogical Society of Ottawa will host a presentation by Jay Sage explaining the basics of human genetics, the different types of testing available, the costs involved, and how to use the results of the analysis to further one's genealogical research.

Jay Sage served as co-president of the JGS of Greater Boston from 2000 to 2003, is currently co-editor of the Society's journal, Mass-Pocha, and is a member of the IAJGS board of directors.

Proceedings get underway at 7:30 pm at the Soloway Jewish Community Centre,  21 Nadolny Sachs Private, Ottawa.

The presentation is open to the general public and free of charge.

Ten gift suggestions for the family historian

Shopping for a gift for a genealogist? Looking for ideas on hints to drop? Here's my 2011 list of seasonal gifts.

For those who will not cite their sources encourage them with Elizabeth Shown Mills Quicksheets on Citing Online Historical Resources, and Citing Ancestry.com Databases & Images. There's also a Quicksheet on Genealogical Problem Analysis- A Strategic Plan- Evidence! Style. Check out globalgenealogy.com or amazon.com, amazon.ca or amazon.co.uk. Less than $10.

There is a good selection of publications available from Moorshead Magazines. As well as a subscription to one (or more) of their magazines, Family Chronicle, Internet Genealogy and History Magazine, they have a selection of their own and other's publications at http://www.familychronicle.com/books.htm

I'll have more on books in another post.

Getting into electronics, everyone needs to back up the family history on their computer. There are various ways to do so. One of the easiest and most secure is to put the files on a USB flash drive, also known as jump drive, data stick and other names. Store it off-site, with a friend or relative or put it in a bank safety deposit box. Capabilities and capacities vary. I found a Kingston DataTraveler G3 8GB USB 2.0 Drive at Future Shop for $9. Walmart has a SanDisk Cruzer™ Micro 8.0 GB for $12. There's lots more choice.

If you listen to genealogy webinars and podcasts you may get frustrated by the sound quality from built-in speakers. I'm now using an iHome speaker purchased from Walmart for less than $20.

Consider a headset for those long Skype conversations with distant cousins, or to use with speech to text software like Dragon Naturally Speaking. I found models by Logitech at Staples for $25 and up.

A digital audio recorder can come in useful for preserving those conversations with the keepers of the family memories. Staples.ca have models from less than $50 and up by Sony and Olympus. Panasonic have some more expensive models. Make sure you can transfer them, perhaps via USB, to your computer for storage on that USB flash drive.

However, if you're looking at the high end of that range you might want to consider an iPod Touch starting at $200 for the most recent 8GB model. With two video-capable cameras and a microphone it does most of what an iPhone does for considerably less money, except you only get online through WiFi. One of Canada's top genealogists got one a couple of months ago and is delighted with it.

Warning -- once you put your foot in that territory it's a slippery slope to iPhone, iPad. I'm a happy iPhone user continually tempted by the iPad, also looking at the competition.

There are actually more than ten suggestions, and you can add to that number by sharing in a comment.

Life in Britain 200 years ago

An amusing item in the BBC online magazine "Headlines from 1811: Riots, cuts and a snake-eating cow" illustrates how our problems were often their problems.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15945306

TNA Podcast: Making geographical sense of the census

From the day long conference on the census held at TNA on Saturday 1 October 2011 comes this talk by university geographer Humphrey Southall who looks at the bewildering variety of geographical parameters that have been associated with the census since 1801 to the present.

Unusually, and very welcome, the slides accompanying the presentation are available online; it`s a big download. Toward the end the presentation he switches to an online example from Ashby de la Zouch, Leicestershire, from the Vision of Britain website.

There is some annoying variation in volume as the speaker moves back and forth which would be corrected if TNA would splurge for a head-attached mic, something I've already suggest to them.

While the talk doesn't have much directly for the genealogist it might help you explore how your ancestor managed to switch geographical area between censuses while staying in the same house.

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/podcasts/making-geographical-sense-census.htm

Ottawa Public Library 2012-2015 draft strategic plan

The following is from the OPL website:

The Ottawa Public Library is asking Ottawans to contribute to its planning.
You are invited to complete a short survey pertaining to the Library’s 2012-2015 Draft Strategic Plan. It includes the Library’s specific objectives, related to strategic directions including relevant and vital services and spaces enabled by a commitment to innovation, engagement and excellence.

Feedback will help inform the OPL Board about the needs of the Ottawa community in future planning for the Library.

The draft Strategic Plan and the survey will be available to citizens between November 28 and December 7, 2011.

Thank you for taking the time to fill out the survey below.

Read the 2012-2015 Draft Strategic Plan here

Fill out the survey here

ACOM finishes November on an uptick

ACOM, Ancestry.com's stock, has had a rough year.

From a high near $45 at the beginning of August the price settled below $30 in mid-September.

It was mostly a no cheerfulness November on stock markets, with ACOM sharing in the ride. It traded between $22 and $25 managing to gain 80c on the 30th in a positive market. It lost half that gain on December 1st.

The third quarter financial report issued at the end of October saw Ancestry.com subscribers increase 24% , and revenues increase 30% year-over-year.

Less encouraging is that subscriber churn was 4.2%, the fourth highest, and subscriber acquisition cost the second highest in the company history of 13 quarters.

Analysts continue to rate the stock a strong buy, or buy. Interestingly that's an opinion that hasn't changed since 3 months ago when the stock peaked at twice the current price!

FMP adds 1861 Scottish census, Manchester Police Index 1812-1941 and Prestwich Asylum Admissions 1851-1901

Three new databases, all transcriptions or indexes without original images,  appeared at Find My Past for the end of the month.

The 1861 census of Scotland is now available adding to those for 1841 and 1851. Note that there is no separate database entry, you search 1861 and select Scotland in the drop down menu for country.

The Manchester Police Index 1812-1941 contains 10,636 records with information about: age, place of birth, religion, trade and whether married or single. You may also be able to find out details of previous employment – in many cases involving military service – or reason for leaving.

Prestwich Asylum Admissions includes  22,722 records of male and female admissions from January 1851 to March 1901 containing basic information on: when the patient was admitted, age, occupation, marital status, religious affiliation and number of children, as well as an outline of how they came to be admitted. Later admissions may be supplemented by a photograph.

These are indexes with no access to original images.

More at http://www.findmypast.co.uk/content/news/manchester-police-prestwich-asylum.html

Governor General's History Awards

His Excellency the Right Honourable David Johnston, Governor General of Canada will present the Governor General's History Awards, a newly expanded set of national honours in the field of Canadian history, on December 12, 2011 in Ottawa at 10 a.m. at Rideau Hall.

Some of the award winners are:

The Governor General's History Award for Popular History - The Pierre Berton Award - 'J'ai la memoire qui tourne' - produced by Guylaine Maroist and Eric Ruel, two filmmakers from Montréal, for their multi-media project about the history of Quebec.

The Governor General's History Award for Scholarly Achievement - The Sir John A. Macdonald Prize - Michel Ducharme, a professor from the University of British Columbia, who authored Le concept de liberté au Canada a l'epoque des Revolution atlantiques (1776-1838).

The Governor General's History Award for Excellence in Museums - The History Alive! Award - Centre des sciences de Montreal for their exhibit entitled 'All Hands to Battle! Life in the Port of Montreal'.
The Governor General's History Award for Excellence in Community Programming - St. Joseph and Area Historical Society for a community theatre production entitled 'Narcisse: The Father of the St. Lawrence Seaway' and Société d'histoire de Saint-le-Grand for 'Les Grands Basilois'.

See the press release, which includes honourable mentions, at http://goo.gl/3uFns

British Newspaper Archive - review

The much anticipated British Newspaper Archive is online!  It boasts 3,088,748 pages as of the end of November with a promise of adding 8,000 new pages every day. In ten years time up to 40 million pages are promised, and if history is anything to go by that will be achieved sooner. 9,695 pages were added the first day.

I was interested to find out what's available, and how likely you are to find what you're looking for -- if it was printed, and what it costs.

Availability is easy and well documented. There are presently 174 titles in the collection, 145 from England, 19 from Scotland, 6 from Wales, 3 from Ireland, and 1 from the Isle of Man.

According to the website "The first stage of this project focuses on runs published before 1900 and includes titles from cities such as Birmingham, Derby, Manchester, Nottingham, Norwich, Leeds and York, along with local titles from London boroughs." Here are the top 20 papers which have the most issues available.

Newspaper Issues Years 

Morning Post  22256 1801-1900 

Caledonian Mercury  19165 1720-1867 

Western Times  15724 1827-1940 

London Standard  14043 1827-1900 

London Daily News  12438 1846-1900 

Dundee Courier  11251 1844-1900 

Freeman's Journal  11043 1820-1900 

Belfast News-Letter  10776 1828-1900 

Morning Chronicle  10655 1801-1865 

Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser  10496 1825-1903 Glasgow Herald  9521 1820-1900 

Birmingham Daily Post  9216 1857-1900 

Leeds Mercury  8775 1807-1900 

Manchester Evening News  8551 1870-1903 

Sheffield Independent  8181 1819-1900 

York Herald  8167 1801-1900 

Liverpool Mercury  7465 1811-1900 

Nottingham Evening Post  7113 1878-1944 

Aberdeen Journal  7064 1798-1900 

Bristol Mercury  6828 1716-1900  

Indicated in red are newspapers that also have content on the 19th Century British Library Newspaper online collection, sometimes more, sometimes less. To save, if working on a pay per view basis, it would be wise to investigate availability there, often free at a public access site such as the LDS Family History Centres.

A couple of newspapers are represented by only single issues, the "Ayr Advertiser, or, West Country Journal" and the "Elgin Courant, and Morayshire Advertiser". 

Assessing how likely you are to find what you're looking for, if it was printed, is much less certain. Here are two examples of the snippet view you can view for free as a result of a search showing the quality of the text recognition.  

f Mr. Robert Digby, of Barrow ; Mrs. Briggs, wife of Mr. Henry Briggs, of the Plumber's Arms, Denston ; Mrs. Webb, wife of Mr. Webb, a respectable farmer, of Brebbenham. Corn Returns. — Prices of wheat made at the Corn Exchange. Week ending July 6 ... ?

-oit Marmon..oad Sonhec; orof . K.Up-stree holserer Quen-steetPortea, unnigham HATEROYAL, COMMRIJ OD Iy as IESEE.Aim MANAGER, MR. H. L Authorised to Perform the Pieces of the D ,oue Authors' Society. . LAST WEEK OF MR. J.CLARE - of wales's, Ad hi, S ... ?

As yet there is no study of the quality of the text recognition. It is likely to be quite variable from paper to paper as found in the study of the 19th Century British Library Newspaper collection. On average, there was about a 2 in 3 chance of a proper name being correctly recognized in the 19th Century British Library Newspaper collection study.

A welcome feature is the capability, pioneered by the National Library of Australia, to allow users to correct text.

Finally, what does it cost?

A 2 day package of 500 credits is £6.95 GBP; a 30 day package of 3,000 credits is £29.95 GB.

What do you get for a credit? Viewing a B&W page over 107 years old costs 5 credits, a colour scanned page over 107 years old costs 10 credits. They new scanning is being done in colour. A more recent page (within 107 years) 15 credits. 

A full year unlimited subscription is £79.95 GBP, about $128 Canadian.

I suggest trying it. Searching and viewing the snippet result is free.