Ancestry dominates this week’s genealogy news with a new update for AncestryDNA genetic communities! Also new from Ancestry this week are big updates to collections for England and Canada.
Featured: AncestryDNA News
Announced on Tuesday, February 19: “AncestryDNA has launched 94 new and updated communities for customers of African American and Afro-Caribbean descent. These updates mean that in addition to enabling the African American community to dive deeper into their family history, they can also discover how their family connects to historical moments in time, such as the Great Migration–the movement of 6 million African Americans out of the rural South during the mid-1900s.
AncestryDNA can connect members to communities of people who lived and traveled with their ancestors 70-300 years ago–including communities of people who were enslaved in the US and Caribbean then later flourished in the South or traveled northward in the 1900s during the Great Migration.
400 years after the first documented arrival of Africans in the English colonies, Ancestry can map out the forced and voluntary migration patterns of African American and Afro-Caribbean communities, then connect their descendants to that history using their DNA.
These new insights, provided using our unique Genetic Communities™ technology, can reveal the roles and unique impact your ancestors played in history. Ancestry’s unmatched combination of the world’s largest consumer DNA network and millions of family trees allows our customers to see this level of precision and trace how their ancestors may have moved over time.”
New and Updated English Genealogy Collections
If your ancestors hailed from England, you will love these new and updated genealogy records that Ancestry has added to their collections!
New: London, England, Poor Law Hospital Admissions and Discharges, 1842-1918 — After the Poor Law Act of 1834, workhouses became the main vehicle of assistance for the poor. Conditions were very hard and many of those who entered workhouses needed medical care. Infirmaries attached to workhouses, and administered by the Poor Law Unions were used to provide some relief for the impoverished elderly, chronically ill and anyone who suffered from one of many ailments prevalent at the time. You might find your ancestor’s name, admission date, age, death date, discharge date, and Poor Law Union.
Updated: London, England, Selected Poor Law Removal and Settlement Records, 1698-1930 — The records in this database relate to settlement and removals in the unions of Bethnal Green, Hackney, Poplar, Shoreditch, and Stepney. They include examinations and settlement inquiries, registers of settlement, orders of removal, and other documents. Details included in these records vary widely, depending on the document. An order of removal may contain a name, age, current parish, and parish being removed to. A settlement register may note number of children and marital status.
Updated: London, England, Poor Law School District Registers, 1852-1918 — These records are made up of lists of children who were admitted to and discharged from District schools across London. When education was required, children could be discharged from their schooling if they were needed to work to help support the family. The records vary by school and some are more detailed than others.
Updated: Somerset, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1531-1812 — This database includes records with dates ranging from 1531 up until 1812, after which George Rose’s Act called for preprinted registers to be used for separate baptism, marriage, and burial registers as a way of standardizing records. See the browse on the right to determine which parishes are included in this collection and the date coverage for each parish.
Updated Ontario, Canada Genealogy Records
Ancestry has also made updates to their vital records collections for Ontario, Canada! Discover your ancestors in the updated collections noted below.
Ontario, Canada Births, 1858-1913 — This database is an index to over 2 million births that were registered in Ontario between 1869 and 1913. Each name is linked to an image of the actual birth register or certificate in which the individual was recorded. Additional information may be found on the image that is not included in the keyed index.
Ontario, Canada, Marriages, 1826-1937 — This database is a collection of approximately 3.3 million marriages recorded in Ontario, Canada between 1826 and 1937. Additional information may be found on the original record. Be sure to view the corresponding image, if there is one available. If no online image is available, be sure to use the information found in this database to locate your ancestor in the original records that the index references – more information is usually available in the records themselves than is found in an index.
Ontario, Canada, Deaths and Deaths Overseas, 1869-1947 — This database is an index to over 2 million deaths that were registered in Ontario from 1869 to 1947. The database also includes deaths of Ontario military personnel overseas from 1939-1947. You might discover your ancestor’s name, death date, estimated birth year, birthplace, and Ontario county of death.
Bring your story to life at Ancestry
Ancestry has always been one of the genealogy giants in the family history community, and they continue to be one of the largest databases in the world for genealogists. With over 10 million DNA profiles, billions of records, and millions of family trees, it’s a goldmine of genetic and genealogical matches for you to discover those hidden ancestor gems. Start with a free trial, take a DNA test, or upload a tree to get started today.
Lacey Cooke
Lacey has been working with Genealogy Gems since the company’s inception in 2007. Now, as the full-time manager of Genealogy Gems, she creates the free weekly newsletter, writes blogs, coordinates live events, and collaborates on new product development. No stranger to working with dead people, Lacey holds a degree in Forensic Anthropology, and is passionate about criminal justice and investigative techniques. She is the proud dog mom of Renly the corgi.
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