FHF REALLY USEFUL Family History Show - Final Program Listing

 

FHF REALLY USEFUL Family History Show

Saturday 10 April 2021.

The final program is now set for the REALLY USEFUL Family History Show sponsored by the Family History Federation. Here is the list of great talks.

My own presentation is set for 3:30 pm UK time which is 8:30 am where I live. No worries, though. Once premiered the talk recordings will be viewable on the website for up to 7 days (availability may vary after 48 hours) finally ending at Midnight on 17 April 2021

Talks will premiere throughout the day and will not be available for viewing before the published times.

Where possible speakers will be available at the end of their talks for live questions & answers but participants will be able to leave a message on the chat on the day for a response by e-mail if the speaker is not available at the designated time.

It’s not too late to register. Go to the show website at https://www.fhf-reallyuseful.com/events/fhf-really-useful-family-history-show/

RELEASE SCHEDULE (All times are UK DST)

10.15am

·         Beginning your family history research – Steve Manning

·         Missing from home – David Eniffer

·         Mind mapping and its place in organising and guiding your genealogical research – Linda Hammond

·         Researching British India family history for free using online sources – Valmay Young and Beverley Hallam

11.00am     

·         Muck and muscle: canal & railway navvies – Ian Waller

·         The real Mr Selfridge: History of shopping – Ian Porter

·         From Victorians to Elizabethans: Some sources for tracing our English ancestors from 1901-1952 – Janet Few

11.45am     

·         Wartime volunteer medics – Ian Waller

·         Searching for ancestors when you are adopted – Penny Walters

·         The MyHeritage photo world – Daniel Horowitz

12.30pm     

·         Using Irish wills and testamentary records – Natalie Bodle

·         DNA for dummies – Linda Hammond

·         Pauper prisons, pauper palaces: Life in the workhouse – Gillian Draper

1.15pm       

·         Wills pre-1858 – Les Mitchinson

·         Coram’s children: The history of the Foundling Hospital – Jane King

·         The family detective. A forensic look at the history of family photography – Stephen Gill

2.00pm       

·         Searching for Irish Ancestors – Penny Walters

·         The art of criminal conversation: Divorce – Claire Moores

·         Deaths at sea – Ian Waller

2.45pm       

·         The Commonwealth War Graves Commission – Ian Everest

·         Researching women of the Caribbean – Sharon Tomlin

·         Give you research the WDYTYA? treatment – Sarah Williams

3.30pm      

·         Jewish Immigration to the UK from re-admission to WW2 – Jeanette Rosenburg

·         Using parish & other records to determine how natural phenomena affected people and communities – Wayne Shepheard

·         Engaging young people in family history – Merrill White

Living with a pandemic 49

 A Third Wave

While the timing of development of vaccines against Covid-19 have surpassed expectations, the distribution and deployment in many parts of the world has not kept up with the spread of infections. Much of the gap can be attributed to individuals and groups not adhering to social distancing recommendations. Many of us would call it disregard!

The result is that a third wave is upon us. We are well above the numbers that induced the changes to socialization, shopping and travel a year ago. With the latest rise, plans to open the economy have been delayed.

Adding to the problem is the increase in rapidly spreading variants of the original virus. They were rare several months ago. Now, they represent a growing proportion of cases. In Alberta, where I live, 979 of the 6,176 active cases (15.9%) have been identified as “variants of concern.”

In total there have been 1,711 people with variant cases identified of which 715 of them have recovered and 17 died.

When combining all the elements, we are seeing increasing numbers of hospitalized people, lately more every day for the past week. Of the current 280 people in hospital, 48 are in intensive care. Now almost half of them are under the age of 60.

Vaccines will help, of course. Again, here in Alberta 487,493 doses have been administered to date, with 93,414 Albertans fully immunized with two doses. The proportion of our population that has received at least one dose is still small – only 11% of the total – although most of the elderly have now had their first shot, as well as those who care for them in long term facilities. That is good news. My wife and I have had our first shot and are booked for our second in April.

It is difficult to see that the world is close to an end of this pandemic. New cases are still much higher than they were at the start a year ago. In several regions that third wave is rising and much of it has to do with the variants. Unfortunately, in countries where the population should know better, compliance to health guidelines is still an issue.

At least among the older people, vaccines have made a significant difference. Perhaps the younger ones will eventually take note.

Living with a pandemic 48

 Are we on the cusp of a new treatment for Covid-19? Trials of a new drug in Israel are showing much promise.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HA56LCCeuMc

See also reports here:

https://www.timesofisrael.com/new-israeli-drug-cured-moderate-to-serious-covid-cases-within-days-hospital/

https://www.thenationalnews.com/mena/israeli-drug-holds-promise-of-stopping-fatal-covid-19-immune-response-1.1165647

Living with a pandemic 47

 Getting Vaccinated

I had my first jab today. Booking for those over 75 started yesterday. Of course, with over 230,000 seniors wanting to book an appointment, the website had a problem. It took me just under two hours to get through to the final process and I got my first session right on the second day.

Many people have complained about the wait or gave up too soon. The media got right on this with headlines about the slow rollout and mismanagement. But I did not experience that. Everything went smooth after a few setbacks due to the volume of activity. All the folks in the line with me to get a shot had not had a problem.

This whole situation is remarkable when you consider that we are less than a year into the pandemic. In years past research and development has taken years. Now we have several vaccines approved for use within a few months. We are getting spoiled to the extent that we now expect rollouts to happen within days with no hassles. Older people are probably the worst group as far as patience go.

We are now reaching the beginning of the end of this scourge, although there is still a long road ahead before the herd is immunized.

I hope everyone stays safe and well and has a jab of their own soon.

Living with a pandemic 46

 South Korea: A Covid-19 success story

From the time of the initial outbreak of Covid-19 a year ago, South Korea has been a leader in the control of the spread of infection and the resultant death rate.

At present (18 January 2021) the country has had 72,729 cases reported and 1,264 deaths. With a population of 51.71 million people, that represents 24.4 deaths per million. One of the lowest on the planet.

How did they achieve this?

Much of the low rate of spread was voluntary. People stayed home or away from others once they had seen the results of the experience in Wuhan, China.

The government put in place rigorous and extensive programs for testing and contact tracing using rules allowing the use of phones and credit cards to determine prior movements of people. This is unlike many western nations where people are more concerned with “privacy” issues than with national health emergencies. But the South Korean programs have probably been the most responsible for the containment of the virus along with the support of the population.

From top to bottom then from left to right: a queue in front of a pharmacy in Wonju for the distribution of masks, a drone of disinfection in Seongnam, a closed elementary school in Daegu, protest inscriptions against Shincheonji on a car, video call between members of the South Korean government, manufacturing of masks in Busan, 2020 South Korean legislative election, admission of a symptomatic patient to a hospital in Busan, portable medical negative pressure isolation stretcher in a fire station in Hoengseong, firefighters' training in Daegu, thermal camera at the entrance to Wonju hospital, temperature check at Incheon International Airport, drive-through testing in Gyeongju.

Testing numbers have been estimated a 26 to 120 times higher than in other countries in the first few months of the pandemic. Innovative drive-through centres were opened to facilitate people getting tested quickly and efficiently.

Anyone thought to have been near to infected individuals were alerted, prompting immediate testing. Travel into and out of the country was discouraged. Once identified with the virus those infected were required to go into isolation in government shelters.

There was no general lockdown of businesses but there was early closure of schools and other facilities where people would normally gather in large numbers, such as gyms and movie theatres. Major sporting activities wee allowed to go ahead in April with no fans in the stands. Easing of restrictions was only done when information about the rate of infections was better known and could be controlled.

Through April 2020, daily increases in the number of new cases were kept to single digits.

Even with the higher numbers in south Korea’s third wave of infection, the number of new cases is still well under any other country of similar size. Canada, for example, has had 18,014 deaths to date, or 479 per million people. We average over 6,000 cases per day, over 10 times the number in South Korea.

Ongoing testing, distribution of information and cooperation of South Korea’s people have combined to allow the country to manage the pandemic very well.

Living with a pandemic 45

 
Living Online…

The online experience was new to many people in 2020. Some even learned new techniques such as group meetings through Zoom and other similar programs. Having to stay home has meant using the Internet to find information, to shop, to communicate and to do many of the things we would normally do in person.

For my part, life has not changed a great deal, other than fewer trips to local restaurants and shops. Not being able to visit with friends and relatives, especially our children and grandchildren, has been the worst experience.

For many years, at least since I retired from the workforce, I have spent a great deal of time online, researching ancestors and writing articles about genealogy. If anything, I have learned about even more places to find records and data. I had seven articles published last year and two so far this year. Two more are scheduled and several others are in draft form at present. And I have made good progress researching the lives of some specific ancestors.

Missing our normal Christmas get-together and unable to share special occasions like our 50^th anniversary, though, was the pits. I don’t want to miss those kinds of things again! We were fortunate that our children and grandchildren could connect online.

In December many countries approved vaccines to combat this deadly infection. Those were developed in record time, compared to past epidemics. So, we are lucky. But it will take almost a year before everyone in Canada, for example, who wants a shot to get one. In most regions, people are now complaining about what they perceive to be slow rollouts of vaccines. That is likely to continue until the Fall.

Infection numbers of Covid-19 have never been higher. World-wide over 90 million cases have been confirmed and 1.9 million people have died from the effects of the virus. This second wave is relentless. Several countries now have reached a mark of over 1,000 deaths per million population. Canada is at 450 per million. Canada’s cases today total 664,606 which represents 3.3% of all tests. Very high!

In Alberta, where I live, there have been over 1,200 deaths, still low compared to other provinces and countries, but still alarming. The pattern still shows the average age of those succumbing is 82 years but there is a greater number of people contracting the disease who are much younger. Everyone is at risk.

Lockdowns and curfews persist everywhere but people still think they can travel freely and without danger to themselves or others they may come in contact with when they get home. Consequently, following each of the major holidays in the past year, there have been spikes in cases.

We are weathering the storm, but you can tell people are more stressed and more worried, as much from the loss of jobs and incomes as from getting sick.

Natural Disasters and Family Misfortunes 20: 1929 Newfoundland Earthquake & Tsunami

 
A recent blog post on Watts Up With That? was titled, Raise your hand if you knew Newfoundland was devastated by a major tsunami in 1929. I had to raise my hand because, probably like many other people, I did not know that.

This is one of those stories that is close to home (at least it is in Canada, if on the other side of the country) which too often we do not study about enough. When I got to looking up the event, I discovered that there is quite a lot of information about the event along with considerable scientific research on the physical aspects of this tsunami and tsunamis in general using this example.

The 1929 tsunami was the result of a magnitude 7.2 earthquake and subsequent slump of debris in the Laurentian Channel on 18 November 1929. The centre of the disturbance was about 150 miles south of Newfoundland.

Map showing intensity of earthquake felt throughout Maritime Canada from 2011 report by Natural Resources Canada

The tsunami generated by the earthquake struck southern Newfoundland about two and a half hours after the event. It came in three pulses causing sea level to rise over 20 feet. At the heads of inlets, the water was over 40 feet higher than normal. According to the government report, “In more than 40 villages in southern Newfoundland homes, ships and businesses were destroyed. More than 280,000 pounds of salt cod were lost. Total property losses were estimated at more than one million 1929 dollars [$14.5 million today].”

Map showing extent of damage along the Burin Peninsula of Southern Newfoundland from 2011 report by Natural Resources Canada

The Burin Peninsula had been isolated prior to the earthquake when a storm the previous weekend had broken the one strand of telegraph wire that connected the area to the rest of the province. The tsunami took care of the rest of the communications infrastructure along the southern coast.

Some damage from the earthquake and tidal wave had been reported in towns further up Placentia Bay to the northeast, but news of the disaster along Burin Peninsula was not relayed for over two days. Newspapers across the country shouted reports of the disaster which had killed 27 people and caused untold destruction.

Because of the market crash the previous month, much attention from the news media was being directed at the international economy. What was happening in the natural world did not get much notice. And being cut off from the world by broken telegraph lines on land and submerged cables running across the ocean floor of the Grand Banks. Over several hours following the earthquake, 12 trans-Atlantic cables were cut.

Map showing location of broken cables resulting from the earthquake and debris flows; source Earth Magazine website

Eventually the world heard about the disaster and relief came in the form of food, blankets, medical supplies, and doctors and nurses. Some areas partially recovered, in terms of infrastructure at least, in a few years; others never did. Many families were impacted and a few entirely wiped out.

These kinds of events are not unique. They have happened along coastal margins for hundreds of millions of years. They achieve notoriety when communities are destroyed, and people are killed. Some events may go unnoticed by the outside world for years because of competing news stories, their remote location or, in this case, the break in communications.

The Truth Behind the White Christmas Dream

The title of this blog post is not mine. I found it in the Blog of The British Newspaper Archive. The piece was written by Rose Staveley-Wadham and published on 10 December 2020. 

I could not write about this subject any better than did Rose, so I recommend readers of this blog go read Rose's post, The Truth Behind the White Christmas Dream.

We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a much improved New Year!

Living with a Pandemic 44

The Forgotten Generation 

 In a recent blog post a fellow genealogical blogger made a point about elder people being a disposable generation, with infection rates of Covid-19 soaring all around them and transmission mainly by younger people being careless. 

https://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2020/09/no-longer-silent-or-boomers-we-are-now.html 

We are possibly not so much disposable as forgotten. 

If you are a retiree, then you have likely already been more at home that you were a few years ago. If you are lucky, your children and grandchildren live close by and you can visit them while maintaining a family bubble. Larger gatherings, though, are not permissible, whether by government edict or just common sense. 

If your family is not near where you live, as ours are, you are pretty much out of luck. Younger families, as they should, have their own concerns, with work, social networks and school-aged children. Our children stay in touch regularly by telephone, video chats and social media connections. But it is not the same as when we could all travel and visit in person. 

I often wonder if this is how we are going to spend our twilight years – basically in isolation. 

The second wave is upon us with a vengeance now, as was predicted last spring. This one is much worse, again as I think we knew it would be given the pattern of previous pandemics. 

In the province of Alberta, not unlike other jurisdictions, we are seeing records for confirmed new cases and hospitalizations set almost every day. More rigorous rules were instituted last week so it will be a while before we know whether they will have any impact on altering the trend.

And once again, it is cutting a swath through continuing care homes, as one newspaper headline pronounced yesterday. It seems we – and I mean those in charge whether at municipal, provincial (state) or federal level – have not learned anything from the first wave. No new rules were put in place to prevent the spread through care homes, even though we knew that the elderly were particularly vulnerable to this disease and that those confined to long-term facilities were really in jeopardy as they could not escape the wave of infections. 

In Alberta, 66% of the 590 covid-19 related deaths so far have been people aged 80 or over. And 64% of the total have been linked to long-term care and supportive living sites – patients and health-dare workers. These are disturbing numbers and quite likely were entirely avoidable if more attention had been paid to changing the way these facilities operate after what happened earlier in the year. 

In the City of Calgary, as shown below, there are outbreaks in most continuing care facilities, with 36 deaths. The dark blue areas are the hardest hit areas for case numbers. Other cities in the province have similar numbers.

Overall, in most areas around the world, this second wave threatens to overwhelm health systems. And yet there are still those people out there who refuse to accept the situation as being real, as being dangerous or as being something they have any responsibility to change their habits for. The anti-maskers, for example, are out in force, whining about their rights having been abrogated. It’s as if they do not recognize that there are other ways to voice their opinions on masks or restrictions on gatherings other than showing up in large super-spreader mobs. They are mostly younger people, too, who think the health emergency does not impact or apply to them. 

Vaccines appear to be on the way now with a few countries approving their use. But the numbers of individual doses that will be available mean that it could take a year before most of the population of any region has been immunized. We still do not know how long these vaccines will last, though. Or whether the expectations of how effective they are indicated to be will be true. But at least it’s a light at the end of a tunnel. 

Notwithstanding all of this, Christmas will be very different this year. It will be the first that we will not share in person with any family member. That’s going to be sad. 

I hope the “Forgotten Generation” fares well through Christmas into the vaccination era and that somehow measures can be taken to diminish the strain, stress and death-rates for this (our) group of people.

Obtaining Information During the Covid-19 Restrictions

 As I am working on a number of stories about ancestors, I have had many occasions to contact archives, libraries and other institutions for information. But wherever you go these days, there are restrictions in place for access.

Many offices, government and otherwise, have been closed with some employees working from home. That means they do not have access to the actual files unless those records have been digitized. Even then, getting copies made can be more time-consuming and difficult.

Last fall, I ordered a copy of military records from the UK Ministry of Defence for a relative that served with the British Army during WWII. They were just in the process of getting the file copied when they were locked down in the spring. I realized that this would be a problem so did not pursue the matter until the summer. Their office was completely closed for five months. An email message from them in July told me that they were doing some processing but that it could take many more months to get the results. The file finally arrived in the mail in October.

Some archives, such The National Archives (UK) have opened on a limited basis. Only a few people have been able to visit the premises and orders for record copying can only be sent in on weekends. At least it is something. Unfortunately, it did not last long as a new lockdown this past week shut down in person visits again.

I have been able to put in an order for a document to be copied online (you can only do so on weekends). I hope to get the copy with a month. For records that are already digitized, one can now download many more files than was the case in the past.

I have been busy getting copies of ships’ crew lists for vessels my great-grandfather served on in the early 20^th century. All of it was achievable because people were in the archives offices and able to access the records. The Glamorgan Archives in Cardiff, Wales, has been very helpful even with limited staff onsite.

Some sites, such as the Maritime History Archive only offer access online, but it still depends on someone being able to get to the place where files are stored in order to make copies. The MHA has been exceedingly cooperative in looking up information and making digital copies.

Having access to database subscriptions has meant that I could continue to search for and find records for many people and events. For those that do not have such access or cannot visit family history offices to use their facilities, the current situation must e very frustrating.

We are being challenged to find different ways to get information or falling back on some of the old ways – such as email – to make contact with various groups. Libraries and archives offices are understaffed all over the world, so it takes much more time to get acknowledgment and results of requests. When you live a long way away from locations where records are kept, as I do with respect to British files, you are somewhat used to doing things online or waiting for files to be sent.

Mother Nature does not care much for our little dilemmas, though. We may as well get used to using different methods and experiencing longer wait times until this latest pandemic passes.

Season of Storms

This is the time of year when most major tropical storms form in the Atlantic Ocean and begin their journey westward. The hurricane season normally begins in late spring (May of June) and ends in late fall (November or December). September in the peak month.

Atlantic hurricanes can generally be more frequent and intense between the time La Niña and El Niño conditions are present, although it is not a hard and fast rule. This year (2020) is one of those years. So far there have been eight storms of hurricane intensity out of 24 tropical or subtropical cyclones.

According to the US National Weather Service:

El Niño produces stronger westerly wind at upper levels of the atmosphere across the tropical Atlantic than in normal non-El Niño seasons. This increases the total vertical wind shear, basically shearing the tops from developing storms before a healthy circulation can form. El Niño events generally suppress Atlantic hurricane activity so fewer hurricanes than normal form in the Atlantic during August to October, the peak of Atlantic hurricane season.

During La Niña, westerly winds high in the atmosphere weaken. This results in an expanded area of low vertical wind shear, allowing more Atlantic hurricanes to develop during La Niña events. La Niña increases the number of hurricanes that develop and allows stronger hurricanes to form.

The chances for the continental U.S. and the Caribbean Islands to experience a hurricane increase substantially during La Niña and decrease during El Niño.

El Niño and La Niña also influence where Atlantic hurricanes form. During La Niña, more hurricanes form in the deep Tropics from weather disturbances that originate over North Africa. These systems have a much greater likelihood of becoming major hurricanes, and of eventually reaching the U.S. and the Caribbean Islands.

The incidence of hurricanes is higher during the neutral phase (when neither El Niño nor La Niña are in effect) than during El Niño. Although hurricanes occur more often during La Niña episodes, significant tropical weather events have occurred during the neutral phase. For example, the record shattering 2005 hurricane season that included Katrina and Rita occurred during the neutral phase. Hurricane Andrew, the most destructive United States hurricane of record, made landfall along the Gulf coast during a neutral phase of the El Niño/Southern Oscillation in 1992.

Superstorm Sandy, struck in 2012, during the tail end of an extended (2012-2012) La Niña event. It was the one of 18 named storms that year and the second major hurricane of the season. Damage totaled US$70 billion along its route from the Caribbean to New England, with 233 people killed. While only a category 3 storm, what made it so devasting was that it came ashore in the highly populated and developed area of New Jersey and New York.

Radar image of Hurricane Sandy on 29 October 2012 as it approached the Jersey shore

The Great New England Hurricane was also one of those. It struck New England in late September 1938 was a major storm that just preceded the 1938-39 La Niña event. Few people will remember this event or perhaps even read much about it as it competed with pre-WWII news out of Europe. But it was one of the deadliest storms to hit North America. The 1938 hurricane season produced nine tropical storms of which four developed into hurricanes.

Its westward track across the Atlantic missed most of the land masses around the Caribbean. It rapidly developed into a category 5 storm east of Florida with over 160 mph (260 kph) sustained winds. Coming up against a cold front, it then took a right angle turn to the north. It decreased in intensity but was still at category 3 when it made landfall on Long Island.

According to the National Hurricane Center:

Blue Hill Observatory, Massachusetts measured sustained winds of 121 mph with gusts to 183 mph (likely influenced by terrain). A U.S. Coast Guard station on Long Island measured a minimum pressure of 27.94 in. Storm surges of 10 to 12 ft inundated portions of the coast from Long Island and Connecticut eastward to southeastern Massachusetts, with the most notable surges in Narragansett Bay and Buzzards Bay. Heavy rains before and during the hurricane produced river flooding, most notably along the Connecticut River. This hurricane struck with little warning and was responsible for 600 deaths and $308 million in damage in the United States.”

Nearly 9,000 homes and buildings were destroyed, and 15,000 damaged. Nearly 3,000 ships were sunk or wrecked. Power lines were downed across the region, causing widespread blackouts. Innumerable trees were fell ed, and 12 new inlets were created on Long Island. Railroads were destroyed and farms were obliterated (This Day in History).

Aftermath of Great New England Hurricane of 1938 – photos from The Boston Globe archive (other photos on National Weather Service website here)

Hurricanes are one of those types of events that cause widespread destruction. Prediction as to how and when the biggest ones may occur is still difficult. Even the less intense storms can be devastating if they come onshore where there are many people.

·         The deadliest storm was the 1900 Great Galveston Hurricane when between 8,000 and 12,000 people were killed. It struck a lowland region with a very high population.

·         The costliest was Hurricane Katrina in 2005 with damage tagged at US$160 billion.

·         The highest wind speed at landfall was recorded during the Hurricane Allen onslaught in 1969, which attained sustained winds of 190 mph (305 kph).

·         The most active season was 2005 when 15 storms developed into hurricanes.

It is difficult to see any trend in the number or intensity of hurricanes over the last century and a half.

The point here is that what we see today in terms of natural disasters is not dissimilar to what has gone on in the centuries past. Mother Nature frequently interferes with communities and the lives of people, in uncontrollable ways. And she will continue to do so.