BIFHSGO's Anglo-Celtic Roots - Spring 2012

The Spring 2012 edition of the newly-revamped Anglo-Celtic Roots has just been received, and the new format lends itself very well to the writings of the members of BIFHSGO.

Under the title of "Family History Research" are four articles - Perhaps Love: A Postcard from the First World War; Little Girl Lost – and Found; The Yacht Armide; and Eleanor, Ellen and Francis.

In "Techniques and Resources" are the articles The Cream of the Crop, and The Bookroom.

There is the "BIFHSGO News" section in which they have put the Notice of Annual Meeting and Minutes of 2011 AGM; Website Access; Great Moments: June Meeting; and the Membership Report.

Anglo-Celtic Roots is published four times a year; this is in addition to an electronic newsletter issued once a month via email.

Over 20 informative and interesting articles have been reprinted and made available online as "Classic Articles" at www.bifhsgo.ca/cpage.php?pt=33, while past issues are available in the "Members Only" section at http://bifhsgo.ca/members.php.

Anglo-Celtic Roots - Winter 2011

The first article in the Winter 2011 edition of Anglo-Celtic Roots, the newsletter of the British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa (BIFHSGO) www.bifhsgo.ca, belongs to Sharon Callaghan.

While reading through "Genealogy Clues – Know Your Sources", I discovered that it is the first time I have seen Quebec records explained in this way. (This is important to me. Although my husband has had his genealogy done as far as BMDs are concerned, the article goes way beyond that, with additional records).

She divides records into four distinct categories – Most Common Searches, which includes directories, censuses, and BMDs; Less Common Searches, which includes obituaries, coroner's reports, and wills; Uncommon Searches, which includes groups, institutions, and photographers; and Most Uncommon Searches, which includes newspapers, and notaries.

I will be taking this copy of Anglo-Celtic Roots with me when I go to Quebec City later this year to do more research on my husband's genealogy.

Other articles include "What Happened to the Hodge Home Children?" by Bryan D. Cook; "'Hugh' Wouldn't Thought It?" by Christine Jackson; "The Cream of the Crop" by John D. Reid; and "The Bookworm" by Betty Warburton.

As usual, another great issue!

BIFHSGO Fall Newsletter

While the Conference is going strong, I took a few minutes earlier this week to write down some notes from the Fall 2011 edition of Anglo-Celtic Roots, BIFHSGO's newsletter.

It should be noted that Jean Kitchen is the new Editor of the newsletter, having taken over from Chris MacPhail.

One of the articles, Her Majesty's Hospitality, by John D. Reid, is about the everyday life in the Coldbath Fields Prison where his great-grandfather spent a four-month sentence for embezzling 30 pounds from his employer – the London and County Bank Branch on Oxford Street in London.

John went to the London Metropolitan Archives, looked through the files, and discovered what life was like for his great-grandfather while at the prison.

Michael De St. Croix and Bryan D. Cooke have written a 6-page article on Florence O'Bayle's Irish-Anglo-Canadian Lineage (Michael's grandmother) to try and produce the correct genealogy of her life in England before she came to Canada, - and once here, her marriage to W. T. Tully, a railway executive.

You are taken through the process, and follow as they go through the marriage records, the baptism records, the confirmation records, and the Oath of Identity for the Old Age Pension in Canada.

Elizabeth Kipp returns again to bring us up-to-date with the yDNA results of the Blake family. The yDNA test now shows that there were two Theophilus BLAKEs, and the family is descendant from the Blake who emigrated from the British Isles in 1745, was located at Chester County, Pennsylvania, and by 1764 was living in Bath County, Virginia, and not from the other Theophilus Blake, who lived in New Hampshire.

The fourth article by Bill Arthur tells the story of how the Arthur and Hamilton families crossed in Ireland, back in the 14th Century, and how he awaits more surprises as a newly-discovered researcher enters the picture.

You can read the story in his article Homeward Bound from Bannockburn: Another Great Moment.

The website for BIFHSGO is http://www.bifhsgo.ca