The ‘Dictionary of Canadian-isms on Historical Principles’ has been updated for the first time since 2017, and for only the second time since it was launched in 1967.

The editors of the dictionary at the University of British Columbia (UBC) say it is the third edition of their lexicon, which is appearing digitally the first time.

The dictionary includes about 14,500 meanings to more than 12,000 Canadian terms.

Stefan Dollinger, a professor in UBC Department of English language and literatures, says he and his team have added new meaning in this edition.

“We added about 180 new meanings that were overlooked that we discovered,” he said.

He says it includes many First Nations terms for the first time.

Another new entry that was added is “Elbows Up”.

“The original hockey related meaning is from the 1970s, and the new one is from March 2025,” Dollinger explained.

Launched three years ago, the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland is now home to over 350,000 records and 250 million words of searchable Irish history. Led by Trinity College Dublin and supported by the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport, the project brings together historians, computer scientists, archivists, and librarians working to digitally recreate Ireland’s destroyed public record office and its lost collections.

A total of 75 memory institutions across the island of Ireland and around the world are contributing digital images of replacement documents, transcripts and duplicates to the Virtual Treasury. This includes core partners National Archives of Ireland (NAI), Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI), The National Archives UK (TNA), the Irish Manuscripts Commission (IMC) and the Library of Trinity College Dublin.

19th-century census

Among new treasures freely available online today for the first time are 60,000 names from the 19th-century census destroyed in 1922. Painstakingly compiled from transcriptions preserved in the National Archives of Ireland and the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, these recovered transcripts of census returns reveal ordinary lives across the island of Ireland in the decades before and after the Great Famine.

New in the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland for 2025:

• Population Portal: genealogical riches include 60,000 names from the 19th-century census destroyed in 1922. (NAI, PRONI, Trinity)
• The Age of Revolution Portal: documents illustrate the drama of the 1798 Rebellion and Ireland’s links to the American Revolution. (PRONI, NAI, Library of Congress, TNA)
• The Age of Conquest Portal: five million words of Anglo-Norman (1170-1500) Irish history translated into English. (TNA, IMC, NAI, Trinity)
• State Papers Ireland: (1660–1720) over 10 million words on governing Ireland in the dramatic years following Cromwell’s death. (TNA)
• Knowledge Graph Explorer: a powerful new tool for identifying people and places, and the links between them, in the records. (ADAPT Research Ireland Centre)

Trinity historian Dr Peter Crooks, Academic Director of the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland, said “We are excited to release our latest collections freely online for citizen researchers, students, and the academic community.

The scale, scope, and significance of these materials is remarkable. They will be of huge interest to anyone exploring Ireland’s story as a global island. Thousands of names of individuals from before and after the Great Famine; extensive intelligence reports from the Tudor era; and a host of medieval records presented in English alongside the original Latin parchment — these vast and varied collections are a testament to the power of collaboration.

“A stand-out for me is the extraordinary detective work by our research team and partners in Dublin and Belfast on the pre-Famine census returns. Millions of names were lost, tragically, in 1922 when those records went up in flames. But today, on the 103rd anniversary of the fire, we are releasing more than 60,000 names newly recovered from those very census returns. It’s a tremendous achievement. What we have uncovered after years of painstaking archival work will help families across the world trace their story deeper into the Irish past.”

The Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland is supported by the Irish Government through funding from the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport under Project Ireland 2040 and is freely and permanently available online at Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland (virtualtreasury.ie).

He added that "the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland has enabled local communities and family historians to explore their own histories in new ways, through the freely accessible archival records and innovative technologies. This creative approach, underpinned by academic rigour, allows for new perspectives and a greater understanding of what we thought we knew already.  It is very inspiring to see how the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland has encouraged and stimulated new research and scholarship.  I encourage everyone to delve into the Treasury and its archival collections, and discover for themselves the riches contained within these records.”

Dr Linda Doyle, Provost of Trinity College Dublin, added: “The Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland is a beacon project demonstrating the power of interdisciplinary research, advanced technologies and strong partnerships to achieve significant societal impact.

"The release of so many fascinating new records for free to the public is another impressive milestone and will be of interest to diverse audiences interested in preserving and exploring our shared past. The project is underpinned by rigorous academic scholarship, the ethical application of artificial intelligence, as well as many fruitful collaborations.”

Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland

The Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland (VRTI) is an all-island and international research partnership working to reconstruct the Public Record Office of Ireland — a magnificent archive destroyed in 1922 at the outset of the Civil War. It was launched by Taoiseach Micheál Martin in 2022, as a living legacy from the Decade of Centenaries, to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the destruction of Ireland’s public records dating back to the 13th century.

VRTI is engaged in research at the forefront of technology, including the ethical use of Artificial Intelligence. This research is led by the Research Ireland-funded ADAPT Centre and computer scientists in the School of Computer Science and Statistics. VRTI is committed to bringing Irish history to the people. It has delivered eight local roadshows from Donegal and Derry to Cork and Waterford since 2023, with Youghal and Limerick to follow next on the list. A new digital exhibition, "Collecting Ireland’s History", exploring the crucial role of Libraries in Ireland and Britain in the recovery of Irish records, was launched in June 2025.  

Knowledge Graph Explorer

The VRTI platform has been upgraded with powerful new features, including the Knowledge Graph Explorer developed as part of a research collaboration with ADAPT Research Ireland Centre. This exciting new tool based on semantic web technology research, harnesses the power of linked data to reveal connections across the archive in a format accessible to the general public, and is the first of its kind for Irish historical research.

The VRTI in numbers

• A quarter of a billion searchable words of Irish history
• 350,000 replacement records
• 60,000 additional names for family historians to explore
• 75 partner archives, libraries and organisations worldwide
• 3 state archives sharing their records and expertise
• 10 Gold Seams containing particularly important sets of documents
• 16 Curated Collections highlighting significant historical topics
• 11K person details in the Knowledge Graph
• 67K place details in the Knowledge Graph
• 2.9 million triples of information in the Knowledge Graph

The Allen County Public Library (in Fort Wayne, Indiana) is encouraging people to dive into their history this summer at the Genealogy Center. 

The ACPL Genealogy Center is a world-renowned location for its collection and knowledgeable staff. For the public to start their family tree, they can take advantage of many resources, such as asking a genealogy librarian and scheduling a consultation. The Genealogy Center also hosts many events free to the public, such as the DNA and Genealogy Interest Group on Thursday, July 3. The Genealogy Center is open during the library’s operating hours. 

From Sunday, August 10, to Thursday, August 14, the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS) annual conference will be held in Fort Wayne. The conference will take place across from the Main Library at the Grand Wayne Center. Registration is now open for the IAJGS 2025 conference.

The following is an announcement from MyHeritage:

Just in time for U.S. Independence Day, MyHeritage is offering free access to the entire collection of 151,432,486 U.S. newspaper pages on OldNews.com from July 3 to 5, 2025! This is a great opportunity to uncover family stories, local happenings, and historical context in American papers dating back generations. Whether you’re looking for an ancestor’s wedding announcement or just curious about your town’s July 4th headlines from the past, there’s a treasure trove waiting on OldNews.com. It’s a limited-time opportunity to dig deep without a paid subscription. Feel free to use the graphic above, and check out the blog post to learn more.  Also, we created two super fun AI videos in honor of July 4th: one showing “behind the scenes” of the declaration’s signing, and one imagining the British people reacting to the declaration of independence. Please enjoy, and have a chuckle. Enjoy!

The following is a press release issued by the (U.S.) National Archives and Records Administration:

Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library 

1000 Beal Ave. Ann Arbor, MI 48109

Tuesday, September 2, 2025 - 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. EDT

The author of two major oral histories about the turning points of World War II — the D-Day invasion of Europe as well as the Manhattan Project and the atomic bombings of Japan — Graff will discuss the legacy of the Greatest Generation, how World War II changed the world, and the first-person realities of fighting in the greatest conflict humanity has ever known.

Following the talk there will be a sale and signing of two of his books, “When the Sea Came Alive: An Oral History of D-Day” and “The Devil Reached Toward the Sky: An Oral History of the Making and Unleashing of the Atomic Bomb.”

A bankruptcy judge has approved the sale of the insolvent genetics firm 23andMe to a nonprofit run by one of the company's co-founders. The deal effectively avoids the controversial transfer of DNA data to a third party.

The prospect of 23andMe's trove of genetic information on millions of people passing to the highest bidder had sparked outcry when it was announced in May that New York-based Regeneron Pharmaceuticals had won an auction to acquire the firm for $256 million.

Details may be found at: https://www.npr.org/2025/06/30/nx-s1-5451398/23andme-sale-approved-dna-data 

The following is a press release issued by the (U.S.) National Archives and Records Administration:

Rare Documents on Display for 4th of July In celebration of Independence Day, from Thursday, July 3, through Sunday, July 6, 2025, the National Archives in Washington, DC, will display several historic documents related to the Declaration of Independence as part of its Opening the Vault exhibition. This will include Richard Henry Lee’s June 7, 1776, resolution calling for independence and a July 5, 1776, original Dunlap Broadside first-edition printing of the Declaration of Independence. The museum will be open for extended hours July 3 to 5 from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. ET. Admission is free and timed entry tickets are encouraged, but not required. Fourth of July Celebration at the National Archives in Washington, DC  NAID: 445648247 80th Anniversary of the Signing of the UN Charter The United Nations was established after World War II with a stated purpose of maintaining international peace and security. On June 26, 1945, in San Francisco, CA, the UN was formally established with the signing of the UN Charter.   To celebrate the 80th anniversary of the signing of the Charter, the National Archives worked with the United Nations to loan the original charter to be exhibited at the UN headquarters in New York City. The UN Charter on loan from the National Archives to the United Nations in New York City. X post from @USUN. From the Stacks: Pirates! The oldest records in the holdings of the National Archives at Atlanta are minutes from the English Province at South Carolina. They document the proceedings at the court in Charles Town (now Charleston) from 1716 to 1763. This page shows the minutes of November 12, 1718, in which Stede Bonnet, one of the most notable figures during the Golden Age of Piracy, was sentenced to death for his conviction on two charges of piracy for the capture of the sloops Francis and Fortune. This court had jurisdiction for crimes committed on the high seas and heard numerous cases involving other pirates and their crimes in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico. Those pirates who received a guilty verdict were ordered to be “hanged by the neck until dead.” Minutes of the British Vice Admiralty Court, dated November 12, 1718. View in National Archives Catalog. Part of NAID: 334339257, Court Minutes, 1716–1763.

The following is a press release issued by the Georgia Public Library Service:

CONTACT: Deborah Hakes, Georgia Public Library Service, dhakes@georgialibraries.org

ATLANTA, GA – The Georgia Public Library Service is pleased to announce the addition of new content to the Digital Library of Georgia and the Georgia Historic Newspaper Project, making more of Georgia’s rich history accessible to the public from anywhere with an internet connection.

“Our library staff has thoroughly enjoyed being able to go online and open this time capsule showing businesses, places, and events from the early to mid-1900s in Hall County,” said Ronda Sanders, genealogy and local history librarian at Hall County Library System. “We look forward to the wonderful stories and recollections that our patrons will share with us as the ‘old timers’ fondly reminisce about their childhood memories.”

The newly digitized collections include historical materials from public libraries across the state:

• 1975 Peach County tornado photographs from Peach County Public Libraries
• Clay County Garden Club records from Kinchafoonee Regional Library from 1955-57 and 1982-84
• Ray Lathem Postcard Collection from the 1930s-40s from Hall County Library System
• Carroll County Historic Photographs from the early 1900s from the West Georgia Regional Library System

In addition to these unique collections, several new newspaper titles have been digitized, adding thousands of pages of historical news. These titles fill in gaps in the historical record for counties that did not have materials in the Georgia Historic Newspaper Project:

• Heard County, GA: Heard News and Banner (Franklin) for West Georgia Regional Library (18,566 pages)
• Treutlen County, GA: Treutlen Soperton News for Oconee Regional Library System (12,498 pages)
• Long County, GA: Long Ludowici News for Three Rivers Regional Library (5,760 pages)
• Brantley County, GA: Brantley Nahunta Banner/Brantley Enterprise for Three Rivers Regional Library (12,296 pages)
• Clay County, GA: Fort Gaines Tribune/Weekly Chronicle/Defender/ Fort Gaines Sentinel/Southwest Georgian for Kinchafoonee Regional Library (8,867 pages)

“These newly digitized newspapers provide rich resources for genealogical and local history research and ensure that more Georgians can access their communities’ history,” said Josh Kitchens, director of Archival Services and Digital Initiatives at GPLS.

The public can freely access these digitized materials through the Digital Library of Georgia website and the Georgia Historic Newspapers website.

​​This digitization project is part of a larger effort to provide access to a more comprehensive selection of Georgia’s historical and cultural newspapers. Since 2006, Georgia’s public libraries have funded over 1.1 million of the 2.4 million pages of digitized content in the Georgia Historic Newspapers portal.