Parish registers of baptisms, marriages, deaths and other records for some Catholic and Church of England in Canada parishes from Nova Scotia 1720-2001 were added to FamilySearch earlier in the month.
Get ready to pay more for microfilm loans through Family History Centres in Canada and the US. The FamilySearch website announces that:
Due to the increase in the price of raw microfilm stock and the decreasing availability of this product on the market, it has become necessary for FamilySearch to increase the price of film loans in family history centers. As of 15 February 2012 the following prices will be in effect for film loans in the United States and Canada: Short-term Film Loan$7.50 Short-term Film Loan Extension$7.50 Extended Film Loan$18.75 Microfiche Loan$4.75 FamilySearch’s Microfilm Ordering service is your gateway to a vast collection of genealogical and historical records. The service allows you to reserve and loan films to family history centers and affiliate libraries. The loan is free, but there is a small shipping and handling charge for each film.
Microfilm loan from Family History Centres remains a wonderful service even at the increased price. The cost of film seems to have nowhere to go but up which would lead to further price increases, a trend technology driven as film loses economies of scale.
I'm confident the organization behind the ever expanding familysearch.org website, which already spoils us for access, has a plan to move to a service more technologically advanced and economically sustainable for its legacy collection. Maybe we'll see a digitization on demand initiative so that instead of delivering a physical microfilm a digitized version is made available, perhaps still only accessible at a Family History Centre.
Perhaps if like me there are more pubs than palaces in your family history, you will find interesting the pub history site mentioned by Gail Roger in her talk at Saturday's BIFHSGO meeting.
According to a post by Else Churchill of the Society of Genealogists the UK Advertising Standards Authority has now upheld three separate complaints about third party websites misleading customers into believing that they were ordering from the government's own website. Those third party sites are: UK GRO Certificates, UK Official Services and Vital Certificates.
According to Registrar General Sarah Rapson "It is always quicker, cheaper and safer to deal directly with the General Register Office for certificate orders."
A notice came in from Christine Woodcock of the Brant County Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society drawing attention to a blog post QR Codes for Genealogy Societies on the branch blog, one of 159 published since April last year. I tried the site to make a QR code mentioned.
It sets me wondering about other OGS branches and their blogs. There are only three others. Durham Region has a blog going since 2007, now with 257 posts. The number of posts has been declining since 2009.
The Elgin Country Branch blog has 31 posts starting in 2007, but nothing new since 2010. Ottawa Branch has 139 posts since inauguration in 2011 and has posted 11 already in February including their historically informative Timeline posts.
There's a bit more information on the new Cheshire burial records now at deceasedonline.com
Blacon Cemetery, Blacon Avenue, Chester, Cheshire, CH1 5BB
Opened in 1941
19,000 burials, dating from 20th December 1941 onwards, are available as burial register scans containing 30 entries per scan.
Chester Crematorium, Blacon Avenue, Chester, Cheshire, CH1 5BB
Opened in 1965
80,000 cremations, dated 1st November 1965 to March 1997, are available as Cremation register scans containing an average of 10 entries per scan. Computerised records are available from 1997 onwards.
Neston Cemetery, Raby Park Road, Neston, Cheshire, CH64 9SN
Opened in 1906
4,400 burials, dated 18th December 1906 to 12th November 1997, are available as burial register scans containing 8 entries per scan. Computerised records are available from 1997 onwards. Maps showing the section of the cemetery where the grave is located are also available.
Overleigh Old Cemetery, Overleigh Road, Handbridge, Chester, Cheshire, CH4 7HW
Opened in 1850 - To be added
60,000 burials, dated 12th November 1850 onwards, are available as grave register scans containing 12 entries per scan.
Overleigh New Cemetery, Overleigh Road, Handbridge, Chester, Cheshire, CH4 7HW
Opened in 1953
8,500 burials, dated 2nd April 1953 to 10th October 2011, are available as burial register scans containing 30 entries per scan. Maps showing the section of the cemetery where the grave is located are also available.
Overpool Cemetery, Rivacre Road, Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, CH66 1LG
Opened in 1913
12,600 burials, dated 22nd December 1913 to 4th October 2011, are available as burial register scans containing 14 entries per scan.
Wharton Cemetery, Crook Lane, Winsford, Cheshire, CW7 3DR
Opened in 1990
1,000 burials, dated 21st September 1990 to 19th August 2011, are available as burial register scans containing 21 entries per scan.
Everything You Need to Know About How to Find Your Family History in Newspapers, by Lisa Louise Cooke, 2012. No publisher, available from www.GenealogyGems.com. No ISBN. Paperback, 156pp, illustrations, no index. $25US
Lisa Louise Cooke is a genealogical entrepreneur, prominent as a genealogy conference speaker and for her online Genealogy Gems podcasts. She spoke at RootsTech, will be at the Who Do You Think You Are? Live event in London later in the month and, rated 9th internationally in our recent rock star genealogist poll. GenealogyGemsPodcast.com ranks 1,667,834 on Alexa.
On page 2 of this book is the disclaimer "To be clear, I am first and foremost a genealogy podcaster. My goal is to teach my listeners and readers innovative ways to use existing online tools specifically for their genealogy research." This book is a natural follow on to Lisa's book on Google and DVD on Google Earth, one suggested by Leland Meitzler when he answered "newspapers" to the question "what book do genealogists need right now?"
The book aims to teach how to determine whether a newspaper existed for the desired time and location; to locate the available copies in whatever form they may exist; and to make full use of the found newspaper by scouring it for every available morsel. The back cover blurb boast is that it does so with:
- Step-by-Step Instructions
- Worksheets and Checklists
- Tons of Free Online Resources
- Websites that are worth Shelling Out a Few Bucks For
- A Massive Amount of Location Specific Websites
- A Case Study that Puts It All to the Test
The first part of the book, up to page 76, comprises introductory material and eleven chapters. Ten of those pages contain only a few lines or are blank except for the page number.
A systematic six-step approach is advocated and illustrated with a search for marriage information for Lisa's ancestors in early 1900s San Francisco in the final chapter. A strength of the book is the number of web addresses including to videos.
Two aspects surprised me.
First, the option of contacting a local public library where the event occurred to ask for help while mentioned it's not emphasized to nearly the degree to which it is helpful. Say you have a date of death and are looking for a newspaper obit. In my experience local libraries are often helpful, perhaps especially in these days when they are under pressure to justify their existence, and will search the newspaper and return a scan of the article, sometimes without charge if the search didn't take much time. But you must have a good fix on the date for this to be successful.
Second, one of the greatest problems in using digitized newspapers is that the OCR process, transferring the newspaper page image to text that can be searched, is imperfect. That merits no mention I could find in the book, an amazing omission. There are strategies that provide a partial work around.
The second part of the book comprises three long appendices occupying about the same number of pages as the first part. Appendix A lists US newspaper websites alphabetically by state, either locations with physical or digitized collections. Each allows four lines for inserting additional state sources. Appendix B does the same for international newspaper websites. There is a category for the UK and separate ones for England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The Times is not listed! Canada's listing has nine entries including the National Archives of Canada (sic). Appendix C is a 21 page listing of US libraries offering Heritage Quest Online remote access free to patrons.
I'm giving a presentation on British and Canadian newspapers for family history at the Ontario Genealogical Society conference in June, a conference where Lisa is also speaking although not on newspapers. Reading the book gave me ideas for slight modifications to my presentation and strengthened my conviction I have significant additional substance to offer.
If you're familiar with and like the pedagogical approach Lisa Louise Cooke takes this book won't disappoint.
Everything You Need to Know About How to Find Your Family History in Newspapers only became available at the beginning of February. It sells for $25 plus postage from the author.
A study reported in The Lancet, "Inheritance of coronary artery disease in men: an analysis of the role of the Y chromosome" shows British men in haplogroup I have about a 50% higher age-adjusted risk of coronary artery disease than men with other Y chromosome lineages. Cardiovascular disease is the biggest killer in the UK. The study shows the association between haplogroup I and increased risk of coronary artery disease to be independent of traditional cardiovascular and socioeconomic risk factors.
The map, an extract from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haplogroup_I_(Y-DNA), illustrates by the darker colour that in the UK haplogroup I is more common in the east of England. If there's a history of cardiovascular disease in your UK family history, especially if that ancestry is from the east of England, you're more likely to be haplogroup I. If you want to know your haplogroup for sure take a DNA test.
The BIFHSGO monthly meeting next Saturday 11 February, starting at 10am, is one I've been eagerly anticipating, and turned down another invitation to attend.
From the BIFHSGO website:
The Hanging Hales
by Gail Roger
There is no such thing as a boring family. If you haven't found something fascinating, scandalous, or downright embarrassing in your family search, you aren't looking hard enough! Some families, though, seem to have more than their share of triumphs and downfalls. Join Gail Roger as she tackles the following questions concerning an engrossing and rather eccentric branch of her family: How is she related to a well-known designer and a goddaughter of the Prince of Wales? Did her great-grandfather once hide under Charles Dickens' chair -- while Dickens was sitting in it? Why did this same great-grandfather refuse to wear a collar, even at weddings? What is a klinker and how do you make a fortune out of it? And finally, why was her great-great-great-grandmother hell-bent on seeing half a dozen men hanged? Listen to a sneek preview of her talk in an podcast interview with Brooke Broadbent.
About the Speaker
Unlike most BIFHSGO presenters, Gail Roger says she is an absolute nobody (not a view shared by people who know her.) She does have a graduate degree which she has failed to use for monetary gain; she used to teach English as a Second Language, but no more. She has been pursuing family history seriously (that is, online and taking courses) for the past eight years and for the sake of her daughters --- who aren't that interested.
Come early and browse our Discovery Tables on England, Ireland & Scotland. Meet with family history experts. Free parking is available in the lots east of the building only on Saturdays. Do not use the lot west of the building.
Extra. Gail is a Dr Who fan and recently posted this impressive video:
If your genealogy takes you to the county of Warwickshire plan on setting aside some time to examine six databases new at Ancestry, especially if you need to examine those without name indexes.
Warwickshire, England, Land Tax, 1773-1830 is the largest with 248,653 records. Search by name of the landowner or occupier, most often just the surname is given, and find the parish, sometimes the street, the amount of the tax, and the year. The database predates civil registration and the nominal census.
Warwickshire, England, Parish Poor Law, 1546-1904 contains 31,769 unindexed browse records. Information contained varies by record type. Examples of the types of records found include:
apprenticeship registers and indentures
lists of parish officers
churchwardens’ accounts
charity deeds and accounts
poor law papers
overseers' accounts
parish account books
poor rates
removal orders
settlement examinations and certificates
bastardy bonds
constables' accounts
parish minutes
pauper lunatics
lists of poor and apprentices
rent books
Warwick, England, Burial Slips from Warwick Cemetery, 1859-1968 contains 14,942 records, each with details on name, age, profession and sometimes residence address, date of death, place of death, date and sometimes time of burial, name of minister officiating at burial, grave details, from what parish removed.
Warwickshire, England, Occupational and Quarter Session Records has 7,283 unindexed records that may be browsed by record type including: boat (canal barge) owners records; flax bounty records; lists of freeholders entitled to vote, largely 18th century; lists of freemasons; hair powder certificates, recording tax levied on everyone using hair powder at the end of the 18th century; gamekeepers records;
hearth tax returns; jurors' lists which can include occupation and street/residence;
printing press owners records.
Warwickshire, England, Bastardy Orders, 1816-1839 contains 1,058 name indexed records with the name of the mother and assumed father, but not the child, the parish and a date for the court action.
Warwickshire, England, Militia, 1776-1825 contains 1,055 name indexed records, primarily certificates verifying a man’s service, account statements related to reimbursements to his family for his service, notices of commissions that were to be printed in a gazette, and documents outlining qualifications to serve as a Deputy Lieutenant.
The following is a notice from Library and Archives Canada.
Gatineau, February 8, 2012—Library and Archives Canada (LAC) is pleased to announce the release of the new podcast series, Discover Library and Archives Canada: Discover Library and Archives Canada: Your History, Your Documentary Heritage. Developed and produced by the Resource Discovery Sector at LAC, the series showcases treasures from our vaults and explores topics such as Aboriginal peoples, transportation, immigration, genealogy, government, as well as military and peacekeeping. With new episodes released monthly, the podcasts will guide you through our many services and introduce you to the people who acquire, safeguard and make known Canada’s rich documentary heritage.
The first podcast, not quite 25 minutes in length, is about Project Naming which aims to identify people in photos from LAC's collection from Inuit communities. Like many of LAC's best project this is probably one which would never have been funded under the so called Modernization initiative as it relates neither to government documents nor publications acquired under Legal Deposit.
A couple of interesting looking datasets for Kent genealogy. Access requires a sign-in which may mean travel to a Family History Centre unless you have access through a qualifying organization.
England, Kent, Land Tax Assessments, 1689-1832 offers 86,160 images organized by parish (380 of them).
England, Kent, Wills and Probate, 1440-1881 offers 347,164 images for the Archdeaconry of Canterbury, Archdeaconry of Rochester, Diocese of Canterbury, Diocese of Rochester, Exempt Deanery of Shoreham and, Peculiar of the Rector of Cliffe.
For the Archdeaconry of Canterbury the record types are: account papers, administration bonds, caveats, guardian registers, inventories, miscellaneous court papers, miscellaneous court papers index, renunciation papers and, wills.
Starting on February 9 about 185,000 burial and cremation records from West Cheshire & Chester Council will become available through deceasedonline.com. Included are records for Chester Crematorium in Blacon and cemeteries in Blacon, Overpool, Neston and Wharton. Records from Overleigh cemetery will be made available in two phases, more modern records (from 1953) will be available later in February and all other records in late Spring.
Searching is free, scans of registers to view, print and/or download providing details such as full names, the deceased’s address details, age, parish and grave reference and in some cases the occupation of the deceased will be on a fee basis.
The burial records will also provide details of all those buried within graves, helping researchers to establish other family links, as well as grave number references.
The Essex Record Office have made available digital images of many parish registers and some wills, with no name indexing, through a subscription site at http://seax.essexcc.gov.uk/EssexAncestors.asp
The new issue of Connections, the Quebec Family History Society journal. includes a communication from the ERO drawing attention to the service and commenting that the service doesn't seem to be as well known in Canada as the UK and Australia.
Exchanges on the ESSEX-UK Rootsweb list late in 2011 drawing attention to some poor quality images were addressed in a posting from the ERO informing they had traced the problem to a poorly performing digital camera and that the images are being replaced. From this and other Rootsweb exchanges it appears the ERO is notably responsive to clients. It may pay to find some Essex ancestors; perhaps in your genealogy you think of them as Londoners but family members may have moved to live just across the county boundary in Leyton or West Ham.
Essex Ancestors subscriptions available are: 1 Day (24 hours) - £5.00; 1 Week (7 days) - £15.00; 1 month (30 days) - £25.00; 6 months (182 days) - £50.00; 1 year (365 days) - £75.00
As mentioned last August 537,583 records for the Church of England in Essex, both Parish Registers and Bishops’ Transcripts, are now on FamilySearch here.
These are records indexed through Ancestry`s World Archives Project where volunteers index the records. As Ancestry describes them:
This is a collection of valuation rolls for the County of Perth, Scotland that run from 1885-1988. The rolls contain more information than the cess or stent rolls, which recorded just the tax portion of the valuation, while the valuation rolls deal solely with the value of the property. The (printed) valuation rolls name the proprietor or tenant, describe or name the property and give an annual rental value.
The valuation rolls do have some peculiarities, though. Until 1884, tenants or occupiers with a lease less than one year or value of less than £4 per annum were omitted. Street naming and numbering also didn’t come into prevalence until 1930, which makes it difficult to identify some properties.
The valuation rolls contain:
Parish
Year
Proprietor
Tenant
Description of property
Yearly rent or value
The Guardian has a page in commemoration of this bicentennial of the birth of Charles Dickens, http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/series/charles-dickens-at-200. It includes a short video of Dickens' London, starting with an image of Somerset House, which housed probate records when I first started researching family history.
If you visit on a smartphone you will now see Anglo-Celtic-Connections custom formatted for your device. That's a simple option on Blogger so it's not as if much effort was required. Please let me know if it causes any problems.
I'm part way into reading the 2010 book Arrival City by Toronto journalist Doug Saunders. Early, on page 46, Saunders discusses migration in terms of a more nuanced analysis, due to Charles Tilly, than simple push and pull factors where migration happens as the grass is seen to be greener on the other side of the hill.
The diagram from Tilly's 1976 paper Migration in Modern European History, according to Google it's frequently cited, shows four migration types in terms of the commitment to the change and the distance involved. Simple mobility, such as moving to a different house on the same street, is also shown. It might also involve regularly communting long distances to work in a distant community, even to another continent. Circular migration might have a seasonal pattern, such as involved with moving grazing herds from low to high altitude pastures, or Dorset fishermen going to Newfoundland for the summer fishing. Chain migration involves a person pioneering a migration of a larger group from the same origin community. Career migration might be a move to a location of greater opportunity for the skill or profession. These three involve a distinct break from the place of origin, if only temporary for Circular, whereas with Local migration the distance and cultural break are less marked.
It might be worth thinking about where migrations in your family fall in this classification scheme in writing a family history.
For a second day I'm having to write that if I was in the UK I'd have been able to watch a BBC TV program that profiled a resource from The (UK) National Archives. The documentary 'Bomber Boys' told the story of RAF Bomber Command, and showed a document at TNA, the 'Butt Report' within file AIR 8/1356, which demonstrated how ineffective bombing raids were in the first two years of WW2. According to a Wikipedia article:
Of aircraft recorded as attacking their target, only one in three got within 5 miles [(8 kilometres)].
Over the French ports, the proportion was two in three; over Germany as a whole, the proportion was one in four; over the Ruhr it was only one in ten.
That lead to Bomber Harris being put in command, coincidentally at a time when the four-engined Lancaster bomber became available. Kudos to the communications folks at TNA, or whoever else is responsible for ensuring the organization got proper credit. Exposure through a program such as this, presumably watched by millions, should be a wake up call to those who continue to rely on counts of researchers visiting the organization in person or online as the primary index of its impact.
Had I been in the UK to view the BBC TV 4 program Bullets, Boots and Bandages which aired last Thursday evening I'd have seen the host examining long scrolls, lists of sick soldiers from the time of Henry V, during the Hundred Year's War between England and France. These are part of the collection at TNA, see their notice.
The programme explains the history and importance of supply in making an army effective, the kind of thing the BBC does so well. Did you know tinned food was available as early as the first quarter of the 19th century, or that they had telegraph communications to Balaclava via an undersea cable during the Crimean War.
Stories Through Data from Ross Forrest on Vimeo.
This video used at RootsTech in one of the non-streamed presentations is a simple clear explanation of moving from traditional records typically used in compiling a basic genealogy, census and civil registration, to the alternative records that can be drawn on to compile a family history.
There's been a lot of talk leading up to the release of the US 1940 census in April, supposed to be online but without a name index on the 2nd of April. There's competition between at least two-non-government groups to name index it and make it freely available.
Canada's 1921 census is supposed to be released to LAC in January next year, 2013. What are LAC's plans to make it available in a timely manner? When will it be online, in accordance with LAC's expressed intent to make popular datasets available to everyone via the web?
LAC monitors this blog. Please may we have information on plans.
If you start counting, or rather estimating, about 50,000 years ago when Homo sapiens first walked the earth, there are now 15 dead people for every person living. Learn how that conclusion is reached at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16870579
Ottawa folk who missed Kyla Ubbink's workshop at last September's BIFHSGO conference have another opportunity on March 3 with an event sponsored by Ottawa Branch OGS. It will be held from 1pm to 4 pm at the City of Ottawa Central Archives, 100 Tallwood Drive. There's further information at http://www.ogsottawa.blogspot.com/2012/02/storing-and-preserving-family-archives.html
You're looking at a photo taken with my iPhone, thus the poor quality, taken during one of the Friday RootsTech presentations streamed live. I've been watching on my laptop (bottom), got fed up with it so went out and purchased a $12 HDMI cable to connect my TV (42in).
I was surprised at the crispness of the picture (top), the photo doesn't do it justice, except in comparison to the laptop. Also the audio came through without any additional connection. And it was plug and play once I set the TV to the appropriate HDMI input. Now I can sit in a more comfortable chair to watch. It's surprising how much better the presentations became too!
From 1699 to 1838 findmypast.co.uk has 38,269 new Lincolnshire parish marriage records for 76,538 people online. The parishes included are:
Aisthorpe, Aubourn Barlings, Bassingham, Blankney, Blyborough, Blyton, Boothby
Graffoe, Boultham, Bracebridge, Branston, Brattleby, Broxholme, Burton by Lincoln, Caenby, Cammeringham, Canwick, Carlton le Moorland, Cherry Willingham, Coates by Stow, Cold Hanworth, Coleby, Corringham, Doddington Pigot, Dunholme, Dunston, Eagle, Fillingham, Firsby by Saxby, Fiskerton, Gainsborough, Gate Burton, Glentham, Glentworth, Greetwell, Hackthorn, Harmston, Harpswell, Heapham, Hemswell, Hykeham, Ingham, Kettlethorpe, Kirkby Green, Knaith, Laughton, Lea, Lincoln Cathedral, Lincoln St Benedict, Lincoln St Botolph, Lincoln St John, Lincoln St Margaret, Lincoln St Mark, Lincoln St Martin, Lincoln St Mary le Wigford, Lincoln St Mary Magdalen, Lincoln St Michael on the Mount, Lincoln St Nicholas, Lincoln St Paul in the Bail, Lincoln St Peter at Arches, Lincoln St Peter at Gowts, Lincoln St Peter in Eastgate, Lincoln St Swithin, Marton, Metheringham, Navenby, Nettleham, Newton on Trent, Nocton,
Normanby by Spital, North Carlton, North Scarle, Norton Disney, Owmby by Spital,
Pilham, Potterhanworth, Reepham, Saxby by Owmby, Saxilby, Scampton, Scopwick,
Scothern, Skellingthorpe, Skinnand, South Carlton, Spridlington, Springthorpe, Stainton by Langworth, Stapleford, Stow, Sudbrooke, Swinderby, Thorpe on the Hill, Thurlby by Lincoln, Timberland, Torksey, Upton cum Kexby, Waddington, Washingborough, Wellingore, Welton by Lincoln, Willingham by Stow, Willoughton.
These transcriptions typically do not include parents names. A few do include year of birth.
The first episode of the 3rd season of the US version of Who Do You Think You Are? aired on NBC, and CITY-TV in Canada, on Friday evening. Two uncles from different sides of the family had been imprisoned, one fighting for the legitimate government, the other against, and both got a sympathetic treatment. Your opinion please?
The new series of Who Do You Think You Are? is starting tonight, 3 February, at 8pm EST on NBC. It is also being shown in Canada in CITY-TV which is an over the air channel in Ottawa for which cable or satellite service is not required.
In London the British Library in a commercial partnership has two apps for smartphones and tablet computers.
Royal Manuscripts has 58 "outstanding royal manuscripts, 500 high-resolution images, expert videos." Their original app, Treasures, has "over 100 unique or rare items: the original version of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the world’s oldest bible, priceless hand-painted medieval books, Nelson’s battle plan for Trafalgar, sketches by Leonardo, a 1664 plan of New York, ‘The Tyger’ in William Blake’s hand, and many more... arranged in easy-to-browse sections: Science, History, Music, Literature, Faith and Religions, Maps and Views, and Illuminated Manuscripts. The Treasures app, with updates, one of The Sunday Times top 500 apps, is discounted until 10 February at £1.49 (iPhone and Android) or £1.99 (iPad).
Check out other entrepreneurial initiatives of the British Library.
In Ottawa, Library and Archives Canada has placed online 14 photographs in a Flickr set on Prime Minister Louis St Laurent, an exciting enough initiative to warrant a posting on the LAC blog.
I'm told that LAC, nominally open to commercial partnerships, is hidebound by bureaucratic delay and overhead such as to discourage all but the most determined. With present regulations LAC managers have no incentive to enter such partnerships. As a consequence economic and cultural benefit that could be spun off from the LAC collection is being denied us.
So instead of growing the pie LAC is slicing a diminishing pie differently. As posted on the LAC website service to those whose needs require them to travel to the main physical client service site at 395 Wellington Street in Ottawa is being reduced, and access restricted, in a move that appears to be moving toward making service so inconvenient as to discourage visits. Then they can claim, as they already are, that demand is declining so they can cut services and hours even further. Will we reach the stage where service will only be provided from a hut on the Rideau Canal skateway during Winterlude?
Valerie Burton, Chair of the Maritime History Research Unit at the Memorial University in St John's, Newfoundland, gave this talk at The (UK) National Archives on 8 December 2011. She is knowledgeable and speaks clearly.
I wish I could recommend the podcast more enthusiastically. But despite her mentioning the problem faced by people listening to the podcast of not having the visual aids used in the room she ended up not making adequate allowance. The impression I got was of a lot of good content not particularly well organized, a comment made more generally by students on her page at RateMyProfessors.
The problem was exacerbated by the inaudibility of some passages, something I've commented on frequently. You'd think TNA could have done something about it by now out of simple courtesy to listeners. In person in the room it's not an issue as most speakers don't need the sound system; but one wonders if anyone from TNA ever checks to experience the frustration to which they are subjecting podcast listeners.
The UK's Family History Magazine posted a tweet a day during January with no or low cost hints on upping your family history research game. These helpful tweets are now compiled together on one page at http://goo.gl/eb4Fj.
Today leading UK family history website findmypast.co.uk has published online for the very first time just under 100,000 records of Thames watermen and lightermen, spanning the years 1688 to 1949.
Watermen were highly skilled boatmen who carried passengers up and down and across the Thames in row boats, steam boats, sailing boats and vessels. Lightermen worked on cargo boats rather than passenger vessels.
The collection comprises the following records:
names of competitors and those eligible to compete in the Doggett Coat & Badge Hanover prize race 1715-2010 - including details of where they were from, the date of the race and their position in the race. This is the oldest annual sporting event in the world and first took place on 1 August 1715 between London Bridge and Chelsea. The records give the name of every known competitor, including those who were unsuccessful in the drawing of lots at Watermen's Hall or the trials held at Putney.
Corporation of Trinity House licences issued to ex-mariners to ply their trade as Thames Watermen between the dates 1829 and 1864 , giving the date and their age when the licence was issued;
Company of Watermen & Lightermen of River Thames Binding records 1692-1949 (apprenticeship records);
a register of contract licences for over aged boys 1865-1926;
binding dates and birth proof affidavits 1898-1949;
reassignments 1698-1908: a list of apprentices who were reassigned from one master to another, with information about both the masters and the apprentices.
The Thames is the only river in the United Kingdom that Parliament regulates for the training and apprenticeship of young men to the trade of watermen and lightermen. Originally boys were bound to a master (or mistress, who was normally the widow of a freeman) for one year. During the 19th century, however, the apprenticeship period was altered so the boy served between five and seven years, completing his apprenticeship at the age of 21.
Amy Sell of findmypast.co.uk said: "We often get asked about researching Thames watermen ancestors, so it's very exciting that these records are now available for anyone to search online for the first time. There's a rumour that one of my own ancestors won the Doggett Coat & Badge race, so I can't wait to take a look. And if you find one waterman or lighterman in your family tree, it's likely that you'll find more, as this tended to be an occupation that ran in families."
The 99,140 new records can be searched from the Education & work area at findmypast.co.uk. They form part of the Thames-side and Medway collection, which also contains parish baptism, marriage and burial records for the region.
Note that these are transcriptions. original images are not available. None of the transcriptions I viewed had a birth date, age or parent name.
RootsTech, the largest genealogy event of its kind this year, have scheduled fourteen sessions to be broadcast live from Salt Lake City and free over the Internet. They will available through RootsTech.org.
The presentations are, with times converted to Eastern Standard Time (EST):
Thursday, February 2
10:30-noon, Inventing the Future, as a Community (Keynote Address) by Jay L. Verkler
1:00 pm-2:00 pm, Do I Trust the Cloud? by D. Joshua Taylor
3:45-4:45 pm, Effective Database Search Tactics by Kory Meyerink
5:00-6:00 pm, Twitter – It’s Not Just “What I Had for Breakfast” Anymore by Thomas MacEntee
6:15-7:15 pm, Eleven Layers of Online Searches by Barbara Renick
Friday, February 3
10:30-11:30 am, Exabyte Social Clouds and Other Monstrosities (Keynote Address) by Josh Coates
11:45-12:45 pm, Publish Your Genealogy Online by Laura G. Prescott
1:00 pm-2:00 pm, Optimize Your Site for Search Engines by Robert Gardner
3:45-4:45 pm, Genealogists “Go Mobile” by Sandra Crowly
5:00-6:00 pm, Google’s Toolbar and Genealogy by Dave Barney
Saturday, February 4 10:30-11:30 am, Making the Most of Technology to Further the Family History Industry(Keynote Address) by Tim Sullivan and Ancestry.com Panel
11:45-12:45 pm Genealogy Podcasts and Blogs 101 by Lisa Louise Cooke
1:00 pm-2:00 pm, Future of FamilySearch Family Tree by Ron Tanner
3:45-4:45 pm, Privacy in a Collaborative Environment by Noah Tatuk
This is a great opportunity to "attend" some interesting-sounding presentations without the hassle and expense of travelling to the event.
Trying to decide? Find out more about these and other presentations by checking out the free syllabus material. You can download the whole thing, 82MB, from RootsTech-AllSyllabi.zip or individual session syllabi by browsing the schedule. If you learn better from textual material that may be all you need.
Keep up with other things going on through the eyes of the official bloggers, unofficial bloggers like Audrey Collins, and Twitter using the hashtag #rootstech.
On their survey response 124 people took advantage of the opportunity to leave comments. Find suggestions for many other people who should have been nominated and comments on some of the nominees. This documentation may be the most valuable part of the survey, evidence for you to examine when looking for sources for conference and meeting presentations and written material. It's also the longest post from the survey. Everything is in there, good and bad, except a couple of names and email addresses deleted to protect privacy. There are also comments on the inclusion of Justin Bieber -- deleted from the Wordle!
At the end of the comments you have an opportunity to answer a couple of Yes/No questions which will help decide whether the survey is worth repeating. Please complete it.
Here are the comments:
"I wish I'd thought to nominate Jackie Depelle, who is a good speaker who also does a great job of organising genealogy seminars and fairs in the UK. Maybe next year?!
1. I have only voted for people I have seen present. 2. I'd like to be able to give a minus vote to some on this list as they definitely don't deserve to be here. I fear that some people just put forward names of their mates without being too objective.
Justin Bieber?! Would have liked to be able to vote for Graham Jaunay.
Need more choices from genetic genealogy.
Special mention for Chris Paton, prolific blogger and tweeter. Expert, interesting and up to date. Down to earth and amusing.
The Beebs? Lol
Justin Bieber? Daniel Caron? He never speaks to anyone for God's sakes. Are you nuts, John? Or are these turkeys you added for fun?
Where is Jill Ball?!
John Reid should be on this list too; but Justin Bieber? not so much! lol
Colleen Fitzpatrick is extraordinary. Towering intellect, excellent, informative and well-prepared lecturer, entertaining. Megan Smolenyak and Michael Gandy are excellent. It's been many years since I heard Smolenyak (in Toronto), but was impressed. For Gandy (in London) minor marks off for no slides, but a hand-out- topic was dissenters. Good speaker. We also hired Michael Gandy for a private consult and he was well-prepared, having studied our presentations ahead of time - good direction on where to go next. Gary Schroder is very very good. Have heard him several times now (Ottawa)and am impressed by his handle on Quebec genealogy.Good speaker. Alison Hare is very very good. Compelling presentation on follow-up to Snow's Broad Street Pump.
John D. Reid should be on the list too.
wow had to really narrow down my choices, I could go on and on, so many are deserving!
Justin Bieber? Where does he live and research?
I don't see David Lambert here. What about George Geder and Henry Louis Gates.
I'd like to see Nanette Napoleon on the list, or Dakota Brown, too.
I would say Thomas MacEntee is at the tip of my list.
Thomas MacEntee is, far and away, my favorite of the group listed. He combines being informative with being entertaining. No one dozes when Thomas speaks.
Marian Pierre-Louis, while not quite as entertaining as Thomas, has a wealth of knowledge and the ability to present in a way that makes the most difficult concepts comprehensible.
Great idea - I now have even more people's names to go searching to see why others think they're the greats in genealogy. Thanks John for doing this!
I would have voted for Penelope Christensen, but she is not on the list. Will nominate her next year. Fun survey, John.
Could only for those that I have seen already, I would be able to have a better answer after Rootstech. This is a great idea that should be used after all conferences.
Are you kidding me??.....Justin Bieber?? He isn't even a rock star of music, which he attempts to sing! But thank you for the opportunity to show my appreciation for the hard working men and women of genealogy!
I would add Carolyn Gerard
I'd like to add Tamura Jones, and Ben Sayer to this list
Myra Vanderpool Gormley (http://www.genealogywise.com/profile/MyraVanderpoolGormley) should be on your list as well.
I don't see her listed but Linda Woodward Geiger
Love the Justin Bieber reference! Lots of names I have never heard of - but hopefully I will have a chance to hear/read them over the next few years! Did not see John Reid on the list!
There are so many who do so much, through their presentations, articles, books, websites, blogs or just with the amount of help they give to so many so willingly.. enough rock star genealogists to hold a Genealogy Live Aid Event!
My first choice is definitely Dave Obee (my husband has resigned himself to me being a Dave Obee "Groupie"). Second choice is Megan Smolenyak. They both have a wonderful sense of humour and I could listen to either of them all day and come away with so much new knowledge.
James F.S. Thomson is a genealogy rock star par excellence! He is tremendously knowledgeable and is extraordinarily generous with his time and talents to other genealogists of all levels. Recently I had occasion to work with him in a course on genetic genealogy and saw first hand his superior creativity and attention to detail.
If we were able to vote for someone postumously my vote would go to Bridgett Schneider who started Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness.
Missing from this list are Jill Ball aka Geniaus and Maria Northcote of Genies Down Under podcast.
Particular kudos to Dr. Jane Lyons, whose untiring passion to guide others in researching their Irish family roots, and whose expertise and commitment to digging, digging, and then digging some more to get that sought-after genealogical link, inspires a virtual 'family' of over 2,000 searchers, through the World-Wide Web.
A lot of names on this list haven't spoken in Australia and New Zealand
Justin Bieber? Really?
(It's Curt B. Witcher, not Kurt.)
Justin Bieber? Really?
All of the presenters I have attended seminars with have been exceptional so it is difficult to choose. I have taken online classes with Sherry Irvine and have found them exceptional.
And Tamura Jones
I can't believe Helen Leary wasn't nominated!! We need a write-in campaign.
sad to see my name isn't on here. I can tell my life choices have taken a toll on my genealogy career :(
Only sorry I didn't hear about this when you were nominating. Lots of great ones left out.
Because I extremely enjoy all presentations by Nualla Farrell-Griffin I expected her to be nominated and did not check the nominated list before closing. That was my grievous error. To me she's the best.
Too many contributors to New England genealogy are missing. Number One would be Robert Charles Anderson.
How did Justin Bieber make this list? ;-}
Had the pleasure of seeing Pat Ryan at the AGS Conference in 2011. http://patryangenealogy.blogspot.com/ She is also a Rock Star Genealogist!
Justin Bieber ? LOL !
A few I have never heard that I might like to hear are on this list
Being in Australia, very few are seen and heard; it's mainly what's been read. Justin Bieber????? Really!!!
Add Sharon Tate Moody, Ann Staley, and Elmer Spears to this list,too.
Drew and George... of course!
Warren Bittner is the top of the rock stars to me. #2 is a tie--the ever-generous Steve Morse and Cyndi Howells. I would vote for more, but some are a bit washed up; others need to get over themselves. (Well, they do.)All votes are speakers I have heard.
I think Kurt Witcher should be spelled with a "C", not a "K"
Justin Bieber, an interloper???
I didn't know Justin Bieber was a genealogist.
was someone joking? ... Daniel Caron?
They are all great
Justin Bieber????
I think anyone who shares their work, works to help others, helps with making records accessable to all is a rock star. Also those who help newbies get started, volunteers with groups such as Unclaimed Persons and Families For Forgotten Heroes, or who volunteered with RAOGK is a rock star. There is no one rock star, or king or queen of genealogy. There are a lot of talented, caring people who share their skills everyday. They all deserve a thank-you for the work they do.
Mark Lowe has been a tremendous source of help and inspiration for our genealogical society. His knowledge and expertise is invaluable to those researching the Southeast United States and beyond. He's our Rock Star Genealogist regardless of the vote outcome.
I have heard project director of Polonica Americana Research Institute (PARI) Cecile Wendt Jensen speak and found her extremely knowledgeable and informative.
Thank you!
NOT Justin Bieber of course!
J Mark Lowe "Rock Star" for Robertson County Tennessee. Great person too
I'd give Elizabeth Shown Mills five votes, if I could. :-)
Lisa is the greatest!!!! She has passion and talent in presenting information that WE can USE!
You missed Arlene H. Eakle and Ruth Ellen Maness.
I'd like to see two others added to the list. Dae Powell - shoestringgenealogy.com Jayne McCormick - bitsofbluengray.com
Apparently this is a popularity contest, as I am familiar with some of the listed people and they have done nothing in the way of presentations or articles. Some prior vetting is in order, at least to determine if the candidate has published something or otherwise shown a reason to be considered authoritative. Just posting online on message boards or maintaining a personal blog should not be sufficient. Why put effort into a contest if the result is to demean genealogy ?
heather Garnsey and martin killion working together make the most formidable act ever
Lisa is wonderful. I look forward to her podcasts every month. Her discussions are illuminating and upbeat. I am looking forward to purchasing her next book and hope she has many more.
Excellent idea ... I sense you are having some fun with this, I hope others do too. While Justin Bieber would undoubtedly attract a younger crowd and Daniel Caron no crowd at all, all of your choices deserve recognition for their contributions to genealogy and family history. Well done!
Where's Helen F. M. Leary???
Lisa woke me up and has me back on the trail.
He is a great great genealogist!!!!! We love him here in Alabama.
I try to hear as many of Mark's presentations as possible. Love to hear and talk to him.
Another name I would like to submit is Fawne Stratford-Devai.
Lisa rocks!
And Simon Fowler.
Maybe one day I will be up there =0) Love the Justin Beiber add in!
Sorry, some of the names I've never heard of though I'm still scratching my head about the inclusion of Justin Bieber???? A few I didn't see on the list but who I think should be included are Vicki Ethridge, Perry McIntyre, Richard Reid, Christine Yeats and Angela Phippin.
I love JAne Lyons way of expressing herself, she makes me feel genealogy is part of today as well as past times. Patricia Gallivan
Have listened to John Grenham speaking a few times at Back To our Past exhibition - just excellent.
Disappointed not to see Cora Num of Australia on the list.......... and that I can only vote for Chris Paton once!
tá gach duine iontach everyone is very good
J. Mark Lowe should be added to the list.
You missed some that should be on the list.
David Rencher should be on this list!
Kimberly Powell should be on this list.
Poor selection
Who snuck Justin Bieber onto the list? Shame on you! Seriously, my absolute favorite is John Philip Colletta. He could read to you out of the phone book and come up with interesting observations and insights and keep an audience riveted.
What ?
Megan Smolenyak's lecture on Finding the Right Annie Moore (first Ellis Island immigrant) is my favorite!
Elissa Scalise Powell should have been on the list. There are so many on the list I have never heard so cannot comment on them. Justin Bieber???? Is this whole thing a joke?
Why is Eileen O'Duill,CG not on the list?
Barbara Vines Little should be on your list
I know a few genealogists who do not lecture, but are far bigger Rock Stars than alot of the people on this list. Your poll is entertaining though and I enjoyed playing along.
Elissa Scalise Powell should be a choice
This is rather silly and pointless. Your lists miss many bright young and not so-young genealogists and genealogy educators.
What about Pam Cooper
I must confess that I do not know all of the names, so that I therefore have a 'bias' against those, even though they are likely deserving.
I would also have voted for Paul Milner if he had been on the list.
Justin Bieber? LOL. :-)
George's book "How to do everything - Genealogy" has given me so much to think about in my quest to learn about my family.
If I had to pick one it would be Thomas W. Jones
You are missing several...
Have ticked those I know through workshops. However Anthony Adolph is known through contacting me re a gen project he was working on.He subsequently looked up data for me in London which was of some merit as we were working on the same Greek family.
Please add Greg Hilton
Curt is still a rockstar even when his name is Spelled incorrectly. ;)
Shauna is an expert in her fields and her books are enlightening and very readible
There are so many more great ones that should be included in this vote, especially David Rencher.
Sandra Luebking was a rock star as well.
Realistically I will only vote for those I have heard - some like Michael Gandy I would go anywhere, any time, not only such amazingly good information but so entertaining and interesting as well, same as Martyn Killion - never forget his talk - about emigration to Australia - 'they didn't swim!!" or whose writings I have frequently read in magazines or books. Again great to see some Aussies making the list Great survey
Wow. I recognize only a fraction of these people. Makes a list of people I should check out!
Justin Bieber LOL
Fun! I am so proud of her! She does great work for the genealogy community!
I would add Geoff Rasmussen from Legacy - a great speaker and always fun.
Justin Bieber? Lol !
What? No Jane MacNamara???? Jane has been a rock at Toronto Branch OGS for more years than she probably wants to admit. Jane leads absolutely amazing tours to SLC ANNUALLY, does the Summer Camp in Toronto, and is an incredible teacher and role model. She is also unassuming, will stop and say hello, answer questions and has done tons of research that she has made available to help others.... I think all the 'rock stars' who know Jane on this list - with the exception of The Bieb - would vote for her as well.
LESLEY ANDERSON IS THE NUMBER ONE ROCK STAR!
Missing Jill Sybalsky from your list. www.jillsgenealogy.com
I wish I knew more of this professionals.
Would also include Marie Melchioir, Constance Potter.and Elissa Powell Curt Witcher spells his name with a C.
Lesley Anderson, when speaking to the media, always presents her information in a candid, knowledgeable manner. She is interesting too and never dry!
Just found out about this on Sat evening and so no time to go back over my notes of the various OGS conferences to find the names of the speakers that I found to be excellent. Their names are probably here, but the ones I've voted for are the ones from whom I've taken courses - absolutely outstanding. Also thought the Heber book was extremely well written. Think also that Jane Macnamara would merit inclusion on this impressive list. BTW, are there 2 Justin Biebers? Or is this a joke? :-)"
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