Ontario Ancestors’ six virtual presentations feature Sir Frederick Banting, researching Canadians who served in WWII, finding ancestors in jail, MyHeritage, and a case study

Branches at Ontario Ancestors are hosting six virtual presentations this week. All are open to the public, and with the exception of one, all are free.

The following times are in Eastern time.

Monday, November 18, 7:00 p.m. — Oxford County Branch
Sir Frederick Banting: The Man You Thought You Knew by Grant Maltman

Historians and scientists have deemed the discovery of insulin to be “the most significant event in the history of Canadian medical science.” Historians and authors have well documented the difference Sir Frederick Banting made with his involvement in the discovery of insulin. What has not been as effectively communicated are his many other contributions throughout the course of his lifetime. There was far more to this distinguished Canadian’s career than the often-simplified events of the insulin period. Banting’s interest in art, his military service in both world wars, and support for medical research in Canada will be discussed. Register to watch online.

Monday, November 18, 7:00 p.m. —- Sudbury District Branch
The Second World War: Researching the Canadians Who Served by Ken McKinlay

This presentation delves into the wealth of records available for researching Canadians who served during the Second World War. We’ll explore both the poignant records of those who gave their lives in service to Canada and the rich archival resources that reveal the stories of those who survived. Whether your interest lies in uncovering military service details, personal narratives, or broader historical insights, this session hopefully provides the tools and guidance to deepen your understanding of those who served Canada. Register to watch online.

Wednesday, November 20, 7:00 p.m. — Thunder Bay and District Branch
Debt, Drunk & Disordely, Vagrancy, Prostitution, Theft, Assault, Insanity: Are You Sure Your Ancestors Were Never In Jail? by Janice Nickerson

No one wants a criminal at the dinner table, but finding one in your family tree can add pizzazz to an otherwise boring list of names and dates. Did you know that 19th-century jails were full of people who just couldn’t pay their debts, got caught drinking in public, or got into one too many fights? Irish people were over-represented and women were most often incarcerated for “moral” offences. This lecture will introduce you to the wonder of Ontario jail records, and what they can tell you about your ancestors. Register to watch online.

Thursday, November 21, 12:30 p.m. — Sudbury District Branch
MyHeritage: New Features and a Canada Focus by Daniel Horowitz

Register to watch online.

Thursday, November 21, 7:00 p.m. — Hamilton Branch
The Wedge Family’s Truth and Lore by Beth Adams

While helping a cousin uncover their family history through DNA results, “stories” of connection to “the mountain” in Hamilton were discovered. This presentation will review the process that led to the discovery of the family they never knew, as well as investigating the very surprising possibility of Indigenous and UEL heritage. These “stories” have led to research in an effort to prove or disprove the Indigenous connections in an ethical and sensitive manner. Successful and unsuccessful sources will be discussed. As with most of our family trees, this one is a “work in progress” and we may find out more by November! This webinar is free to all society members. Non-members can purchase access to the live presentation and the recording for two weeks for $10. Register to watch online.

Sunday, November 24, 2:00 p.m. — Halton-Peel Branch
Second World War: Researching the Canadians Who Served by Ken McKinlay

This presentation delves into the wealth of records available for researching Canadians who served during the Second World War. Whether your interest lies in uncovering military service details, person narratives, or broader historical insights, this session, hopefully, provides the tools and guidance to deepen your understanding of those who served Canada in this terrible war. Register to watch online.

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New release of British Columbia marriage and death records

BC Archives has made available on its website this year’s release of marriage and death records.

Family historians, with relatives who lived in British Columbia, can now search marriage registrations from 1948 and death registrations from 2003 in the provincial archives’ Genealogy section.

You can now freely search the indexes to births (1854-1903), marriages (1871-1948), deaths (1872-2003), colonial marriages (1859-1872), and baptisms (1836-1888). In some cases, you can click on a link to see the digitized microfilm image of the original document.

To help navigate the vital statistics database, BC Archives created a guide.

As for BC birth registrations, the next time a new collection will be released is 120 years after the 1904 births were registered. That suggests we may see them in 2024 or perhaps early next year. Or perhaps I’m just an optimist.

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This week’s crème de la crème — November 16, 2024

Some of the bijoux I discovered this week.

Crème de la crème of genealogy blogs

Blog posts
Researching Ancestors: The Enemy Within? by Kathleen Brandt on a3Genealogy.

WWII Morning Reports Using the NARA Catalog by Dr. Margaret M. McMahon on A Week of Genealogy.

British Home Children – Emily Boys- Emily Boys High by Linda Seccaspina on Linda Seccaspina.

Finding a Will of an English Earl or What’s in a Name? by Ken McKinlay on Family Tree Knots.

How to Read an Italian Birth Record REVISED by DiAnn Iamarino Ohama on Fortify Your Family Tree.

Bite-Sized Greek Genealogy: Free Companion Booklet Now Available by Carol Kostakos Petranek on Spartan Roots.

 The Value of Negative Evidence: What Henderson Weatherford’s Absence Reveals by Diana Elder on Family Locket.

FamilySearch CETs by Louis Kessler on Behold Genealogy.

More Fortunate Finds on Facebook by Nancy Gilbride Casey on Leaves on the Tree.

My Most Used Genealogy Tool: DNA Painter’s Shared cM Project Tool by Diane Henriks on Know Who Wears the Genes in Your Family.

New Leeds Method Videos & Resources! by Dana Leeds on Genealogy with Dana Leeds.

Genealogy Proof Series – Creating Genealogy Proof Tables by Roberta Estes on DNAeXplained.

Articles
‘National shame’: country’s largest military cemetery could run out of funding by Kelly Grieg, CTV News, Montreal, Quebec.

Four new Collections in DRI from Clare Memories / Cuimhneamh an Chláir, Digital Repository of Ireland, Dublin, Ireland.

The Detached Papers: New records on the transatlantic slave trade on Discovery, The National Archives, Kew, Surrey, England.

DNA firm holding highly sensitive data ‘vanishes’ without warning by Zoe Kleinman, BBC, England.

For more gems like these throughout the week, join the Genealogy à la carte Facebook group. When you submit your request to join, you will be asked to answer two quick questions about your family history research.

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New Brunswick death registrations for 1973 now online

The Provincial Archives of New Brunswick has added 5,142 death registrations for 1973 to its searchable vital statistics database.

In October, the provincial archives uploaded marriage registrations for 1973.

Next we should see 1928 birth registrations.

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Qualicum Beach Family History Society closes its doors with presentation by Dave Obee

There’s unfortunate news in the genealogy world in British Columbia.

The Qualicum Beach Family History Society will hold its very last meeting on Wednesday, November 20, before closing for good after 20 years.

The speaker for the evening will be Dave Obee, publisher and editor of the Times Colonist and a well-known family historian and speaker. He has written a dozen books on family history and local history topics and received a number of awards. Many have benefitted and continue to benefit from the vast number of Canadian resources on his website, CanGenealogy.

This is a hybrid meeting, starting at 7:00 p.m. Pacific time. The presentation is free to all, in person and online.

Mr. Obee will present in person to deliver the presentation, Destination Canada.

More than seven million people arrived in Canada from Europe, the United States and Asia between 1815 and 1930. This session deals with the wide variety of sources that deal with immigration to Canada, including ship passenger lists (available from 1865 through 1935), border crossing records and naturalization and citizenship documents.

The in-person presentation will take place at Rotary House, 211 Fern Road West in Qualicum Beach.

If you cannot attend in person, it will also be available on Zoom. To register for the presentation on Zoom, please send an email to presentations@qbfhs.ca.

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Findmypast Friday updates — Military records

This week, Findmypast updated four military record sets.

The biggest update is in the Prisoners of War 1715-1945 collection, to which they’ve added 200,000 records. They’ve also bolstered the British Army Soldiers’ Medical Records and added more than 6,000 records for the Women’s Royal Navy, spanning 1914 to 1918.

British Armed Forces, First World War Soldiers’ Medical Records
More than 20,000 images and transcriptions were added to the British Army Medical Records.

Prisoners of War, 1715-1945
Findmypast also updated their Prisoners of War collection. There are 20,000 new Second World War additions to search.

British Women’s Royal Naval Service Ratings’ Service Registers, 1918-1919
They made improvements to this existing set of Women’s Navy Service Registers, so you can now discover age, next of kin details and images for many records.

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Ancestry offers two DNA webinars, and you can watch the first one today

Ancestry has organized two free webinars that will be presented by Crista Cowan. Registration is required for both.

The first webinar, Ancestry Pro Tools: Taking Your Family Tree to the Next Level, takes place today, November 13, at 1:00 p.m. Eastern time.

If you’ve been climbing your family tree for a while, you are ready to explore it in a whole new way. Ancestry Pro Tools gives you access to features designed to help you navigate the growing amount of information you’ve collected about your family, improve your tree’s accuracy, and showcase the people in your tree like never before. Join Crista for a guided tour of smart filters, tree checker, tree mapper, enhanced shared matches, and more. By the end of this session, you’ll be ready to make even more discoveries. Register here.

Ancestry’s second webinar, AncestryDNA 201, will be presented on Wednesday, December 11 at 1:00 p.m. Eastern time.

This beginner-friendly webinar will give you the information and skills you need to make the most out of your AncestryDNA Match List so you can keep making meaningful family history discoveries. Crista will guide you through how to determine your genetic relationship with your matches, how to create custom groups, and how to keep your discoveries organized in a way that will lead to even more discoveries. Whether you just got your AncestryDNA results or have had them for a while, you’ll learn how to navigate your AncestryDNA Match List with confidence. By the end of this session, you’ll have a solid foundation to keep exploring! Register here.

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FamilySearch celebrates its 130th anniversary 

FamilySearch International, a global nonprofit, is celebrating 130 years of revolutionizing family discovery and connection.

Following its founding as the Genealogical Society of Utah on November 13, 1894, the organization has been committed to inspiring people everywhere to connect with their family — across generations, past, present, and future. FamilySearch continues to make significant strides in fulfilling that mission.

FamilySearch milestones in recent years

    • In 2021, FamilySearch completed the monumental feat of digitizing its 2.4 million rolls of microfilm containing historical genealogical records from 200+ countries and principalities and making them easily viewable online through a new image viewer. The free online collections provide patrons with easy access to information for more than 11 billion ancestors.
    • FamilySearch began using Artificial Intelligence advancements to help index its billions of newly digitized, historical genealogical documents more quickly. The AI is being trained to read ancient handwriting from digital copies of old records in a growing number of languages, enabling quicker record searches and more discoveries. Online volunteers help refine the accuracy of the AI’s output and record indexes by using FamilySearch’s new Get Involved tool.
    • RootsTech by FamilySearch, the premier global family discovery event, began offering free online access to its classes during the global pandemic, further expanding the reach of the conference to millions of participants worldwide. The 2024 event attracted nearly five million online attendees, and participants made more than 350 million family connections.

FamilySearch stands as the largest global genealogical organization, with more than 1.5 billion people in its collaborative online family tree. It has more than 18 billion searchable historical records and images today — a three-fold increase since 2019. In addition, there are more than 6,000 FamilySearch centres around the world.

Steve Rockwood, FamilySearch CEO, said, “FamilySearch is all about building relationships — helping each of us discover more about ourselves and our family connections. We invite individuals worldwide to utilize our free services to preserve and share the fond family memories that are in their minds and hearts. We are honored to help make these joyful and inspirational family discoveries happen at an accelerated pace and are excited for the future. The best is yet to come.”

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More free online Canadian newspapers available on The Ancestor Hunt

Kenneth R. Marks has added more links to free historical Canadian newspapers on his website, The Ancestor Hunt.

He recently updated the newspapers for Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Nova Scotia.

The good news continues for family historians with Canadian roots. Mr. Marks plans to update the other provinces in a week or two.

There are tens of thousands of links to historical online newspapers in the US, Canada and elsewhere in the world on The Ancestor Hunt.

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Ontario Ancestors hosts seven virtual presentations this week

It’s another good week at Ontario Ancestors with plenty to learn from seven virtual presentations. All are open to the public and all are free, with the exception of one presentation that charges a fee for non-society members.

The following times are in Eastern time.

Tuesday, November 12, 7:00 p.m. — Essex County Branch
A Tour of the Franco-Ontarian Research Centre

Essex County Branch volunteers will give a tour of the Franco-Ontarian Research Centre that has been in Essex County, helping researchers with their French genealogy for more than 40 years. They have amassed a huge resource collection.

The Essex County Branch is assisting in the digitization of many of the documents in their collection but so many of the documents are under copyright and can only be viewed at the Centre. Register to watch online.

Tuesday, November 12, 7:00 p.m. – Lambton County Branch
Winter of Discontent by Jean Rae Baxter

This presentation is based on the speaker’s book, Battle on the Ice “Winter of Discontent,” the 1837-1838 Patriot Revolt. It focuses on what caused it and the importance of the Battle of Pelee Island on March 2, 1838. Register to watch online

Wednesday, November 13, 7:00 p.m. — York County Branch
The Representation of the First World War in Film by Cameron Telch

Cameron Telch is a third-year doctoral candidate in Educational Studies at Mount Saint Vincent University on the underrepresentation of shell shock in Canadian war museums within the frameworks of critical theory and difficult knowledge. Register to watch online.

Thursday, November 14, 7:00 p.m. — Haldiman-Norfolk Branch
Finding North American Passenger Lists by Tara Shymanski

Are you missing a key genealogy clue because you haven’t found a passenger list? Do you know when your relatives first stepped on North American soil? Learn where to find passenger lists, and tips to figure out when they arrived, and how to find  finding passenger lists for elusive ancestors.

This webinar is free to all society members. Non-members can purchase access to the live presentation and the recording for two weeks for a fee of $10. Register to watch online.

Thursday, November 14, 7:30 p.m. — Toronto Branch
Unwritten Chapters: Unveiling Ancestral Narratives with Y-DNA and MTDNA by Katy Rowe-Schurwanz

You may have already done autosomal DNA testing or are planning to. But if you haven’t done any Y-DNA or mitochondrial DNA testing, you might be missing out on information that can really help you make new discoveries about your ancestors. Katy Rowe-Schurwanz will explain what these two other DNA tests are and how they can help. The session, including discussion, will be recorded and available for a limited time to Toronto Branch members only. The webinar is free and open to all. Register to watch online.

Friday, November 15, 7:00 p.m. — Niagara Peninsula Branch
The Great War and the White Plague, 1914–1950 by Eric Story

Eric Story will discuss how the medical war unfolded from 1914 to 1918, specifically through one of the gravest diseases of the twentieth century — tuberculosis. “The Great White Plague,” as it was commonly called, instilled intense fears of not only death but also long-term chronic illness. In addition, it forced the Canadian government to rethink its approach to healthcare across the country after the war was over. Mr. Story will explore this overlooked wartime disease and its ramifications on individuals diagnosed with it as well as the country at large. Register to watch online.

Saturday, November 16, 10:00 a.m. — Kingston Branch
Travels With My Aunt:  Adventures in Europe, 1914 by Barbara Tose

In 1914, Nellie Miller and Eliza McAlpine, two ladies from Lindsay, Ontario, set off for the adventure of a lifetime — a grand tour of Britain and Europe. When Barbara Tose started researching her family history, she discovered in her grandmother’s truck the letter her great-great aunt Nellie wrote to her brother telling him about the trip. In her presentation, Barbara will weave the stories from Nellie’s 29-page letter with momentous events of that summer, especially those leading to the start of World War I. Register to watch online.

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