The most secure PC operating system available today for private citizens is Linux or possibly UNIX. However, Linux is the much more popular product of the two so I will focus only on that operating system. The fact that Linux runs well on older, lower-powered PCs is a bonus. 

A few years ago, Linux had a reputation for being difficult to install, difficult to maintain, and also awkward to install new programs. Those days are now ancient history. The more popular Linux versions of today for desktop and laptop computers are easier to install, easier to maintain, easier to upgrade, and easier to add new programs than is Windows  or Macintosh. Anyone who is a computer novice should be able to learn to use a modern Linux distribution in a very short time, shorter than learning to use Windows. Most of today's more popular Linux versions are even easier to use than a Macintosh.

Comment: Watch the Mac users post messages disagreeing with me. Please don't post such comments unless you have used one of the modern, user-friendly versions of Linux for an extended period of time within the past 2 or 3 years.

On my desk, I have Macintosh, Linux, Android, and Chromebook, systems. I have quite a bit of experience with each of them

Also, Linux is cheap. Well, no... actually is is FREE. Linux-based desktop operating systems are just a free download away. Since today's Linux systems also run significantly faster on any PC than does the newer versions of Windows, you can keep using your older PC for several more years by using Linux. Another thought is that maybe you recently purchased a shiny new Windows machine and your old computer is gathering dust in the closet. If so, pull it out, download and install Linux, and learn something new. You may find that you like it!

If your present Windows  or Macintosh machine seems to be running slow, you might think about trying Linux. If you are frustrated by the constant updates and by all the privacy concerns of Windows, take Linux for a test drive.  In fact, you can even dual-boot your present computer if you still have enough disk space available. If you do that, when you boot the system, you will be asked if you want to run Windows or Linux. If you select "Windows," you will soon be running your present Windows operating system, complete with all your normal programs and data files in place.

If you select "Linux," you will soon be running the newly-installed Linux system. Not only will it be faster, it will also be much more secure. Viruses and other malware are so rare on Linux that you can essentially ignore the potential problems. To be sure, there are anti-virus programs available for Linux but I don't think many copies of those programs are sold.

Another option is to install Linux onto a CD-ROM disk, commonly called a "Live CD," or onto a flash drive. When you want to run Windows, boot up in the same manner you always have. When you want to run Linux, boot down, insert the Linux "Live CD" into the CD drive or insert the flash drive inti a USB connector, and boot up. You will then be running Linux without overwriting any information on your computer's hard drive (unless you deliberately want to overwrite something). Later, remove the Linux "Live CD” or flash drive, reboot, and you will return to normal Windows operation as if the computer has never seen Linux. 

The major drawback of "Live CDs" and flash drives is that running an operating system from a CD drive or flash drive is slower than doing the same thing from a hard drive. However, "Live CDs" are an excellent way of taking Linux for a "test drive;" try it out for a while before you make a commitment to put Linux onto your hard drive.

One of the major drawbacks is that there are very few genealogy programs available for Linux. However, there is one very good one and it is available free of charge. GRAMPS (Genealogical Research and Analysis Management Programming System) is free, open source, genealogy software. GRAMPS is easy to install, easy to use, and contains most of the features found in today’s leading Windows and Macintosh genealogy programs.

Of course, the most attractive part of GRAMPS is its price tag:  FREE. Versions for Windows and Macintosh are also available. GRAMPS may be found at https://gramps-project.org.

There are a few other genealogy programs available for Linux as well but most of them are a bit complex and require an understanding of Linux internals to make them work. For that reason, I do not recommend any of those programs to the Linux newcomer. The same is true for WINE, CrossOver, VirtualBox, and other products designed to run Windows programs on a Linux system. While all of them are very good products, the complexity of installing and configuring those products makes me hesitate to recommend them to Linux newcomers.

Want to install GRAMPS on your Linux system? If you can move and click the mouse, you can install GRAMPS and start using it within a very few minutes. That's true even if you do not know how to spell "Linux."

There are hundreds of other easy-to-use Linux applications that will perform the computer tasks that most people want: Firefox web browser, several powerful word processors, email programs, graphics and image processing programs, budget tracking tools, and lots of games. Most of these programs are available free of charge.

Of course, Linux can also use nearly all the web-based applications, including Ancestry.com, MyHeritage.com, FamilySearch.org, Findmypast.com, WeRelate.org, WikiTree.com, The Next Generation of Genealogy Sitebuilding, WebTrees, and many, many more cloud-based program as well.

Another "problem" (well, it isn't much of a problem) is deciding which version of Linux you want to use. There are dozens of Linux versions, called "distributions." Each has its own strengths and weaknesses. If you do not know which version is best for you, I suggest you start with Linux Mint. You can always switch to something else later, after you gain experience with Linux and can better decide which version best fits your needs. 

Comment: In this case, the word "Mint" refers to the tasty and aromatic herb, not to the place where they make money.

Linux Mint is a good place for newcomers to begin. It is available in two versions and both versions, the Mate and Cinnamon desktop environments, of Linux Mint should prove familiar to Windows converts. Since Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu (another popular and friendly version of Linux), there are a ton of compatible programs that are easily downloaded.

Another great thing about Linux Mint is that it only uses LTS versions of Ubuntu for its base.  Those buzzwords can be loosely translated as meaning, "this version of Linux is mature and is expected to be around for a long time to come."

Linux Mint's minimum system requirements are 2 GB of RAM, 20 GB of disk space, and a resolution of 1024 x 768. For a more comfortable experience, 4 GB of RAM is recommended. 

Recommended system requirements: 

That old PC in your closet probably meets those requirements.

You can learn more about Linux Mint at https://www.linuxmint.com/. If you would like to do some reading first before diving in, look at the documentation (available in many languages) at https://www.linuxmint.com/documentation.php.

So, is Linux and specifically Linux Mint perfect? No. Absolutely not. However, it is really good and will work just fine on most older PCs built 3 to perhaps 8 years ago. There is also a Macintosh version as well. Mac users will want to first do some reading by starting at: https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=321387.

Linux, and especially Linux Mint, is easy to install, easy to use, fun, educational, and available free of charge. What do you have to lose?

JonBenét Ramsey’s father, John Ramsey, still believes there's a chance her murder will be solved nearly three decades later after a DNA breakthrough.

“We are encouraged that the police will finally use the FBI’s skills and resources to help solve our case,” John, 81, told The U.S. Sun on Thursday, December 26, which marked the 28th anniversary of JonBenét’s death.

John plans to have a sit-down with new chief of Boulder Police Stephen Redfearn about the case. They specifically will discuss recruiting the FBI to help and using new DNA testing to narrow down their suspect list.

“Suppose they now use cutting-edge DNA labs to develop a DNA profile in the proper format for familial genealogy research," John noted. “In that case, we have pretty good odds of finding the killer’s identity.”

John and Redfearn are expected to meet in January to address assistance from advanced forensic experts, according to Today. DNA profiling involving genealogy work has proved successful in the past with high-profile cases such as that of the Golden State Killer.

The renewed interest in JonBenét's case comes after Netflix released their three-part docuseries Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey. JonBenét was found dead at age 6 in 1996 in the basement of her house hours after she had been reported missing. Her official cause of death was asphyxia by strangulation associated with craniocerebral trauma, and her death was ruled a homicide.

Over the years, the Boulder police looked into many suspects and theories, including her brother, Burke Ramsey, and JonBenét's parents, Patsy and John. A grand jury voted to indict the pair in 1999, but the indictment was never signed by the Boulder district attorney due to a lack of evidence. The couple were exonerated in 2008 and continued to advocate for JonBenét's murderer to be found. (Patsy died of ovarian cancer in 2006.)

"What we are advocating for — and have been doing so for the last year or so, aggressively, is we know there's five or six items that were taken from the crime scene. They were sent into a lab for DNA sampling and were not sampled," John told the camera in the three-part doc. "We want those items sampled. We want what has been sampled to be retested. Then use the public genealogy database to look for — not only a match — but a similar relative. That's been used very successfully in the last few years by police departments to find the killer of very old cold cases."

A spokesperson for the Boulder PD told Us Weekly in a November statement that they are "aggressively investigating the case and pursuing all avenues." Meanwhile, a source connected to the authorities shared with Us that there have been "new sets of eyes" on the case in an attempt to find "anything that could have been overlooked."

"No one is off the table. This case is still wide open," the insider noted. "We are after the truth, whatever that is. We are going to leave no stone unturned. The kindest thing we can do for the Ramseys is to solve this."

A West Bloomfield man has been sentenced on a sexual assault case that dates back more than 25 years. 

Kurt Alan Rillema, 52, pleaded no contest in December to criminal sexual conduct in the third and fourth degree regarding an assault that happened in September 1999, the Oakland County Prosecutor's Office reported in a press release Thursday. 

He was sentenced Wednesday to 10 to 15 years in prison. 

"The Oakland County Prosecutor's Office only consented to the plea agreement after consulting the victim and obtaining her approval," the press release said. 

Genetic genealogy testing of DNA evidence connected Rillema to the case, in which a woman, then 22 years old, was sexually assaulted at Twin Lakes Golf Club in Oakland Township. Investigators did obtain DNA at the time, but didn't have a suspect. 

Investigators eventually made the connection through DNA evidence collected on a July 2000 case involving another woman, then 19, who was attacked at a golf course at Penn State University. Investigators in both states sought the help of DNA technology company Parabon NanoLabs, which can use genetic genealogy and other research methods to search for potential relatives in public databases and build out family trees.  

Through that research, the potential suspects were narrowed to three individuals. 

The next break in the investigation happened after Michigan police obtained a DNA sample of Rillema through a Styrofoam coffee cup he had used. 

The Oakland County Sheriff's Office Special Investigations Unit worked with police from Penn State and State College, Pennsylvania, on the case. 

"Rillema will serve serious prison time for his crime," Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald said in the announcement. "I know reliving this trauma after so many years wasn't easy for the victim. Her strength sustained this case, and I applaud the relentless work by law enforcement that allowed us to deliver a just ending for her.

Genealogy Bank is a subscription-based records database that has digitized, indexed and archived billions of family history records found in newspapers, census records, government documents and other historical records in all 50 states. Individuals interested in their family history can conveniently search and discover census records, obituaries, birth, marriage, death notices and much more. Learn how this database could be an indispensable part of your genealogy tool kit. Thursday, February 13, 2025.  On Zoom and in person at Cooper Memorial Library.  This Hybrid program is free and open to the general public. Meet in room 108 at 4:00 pm for refreshments and log into Zoom at 4:30. Presentation starts at 5 pm, and Q&A will directly follow the program.  Cooper Memorial Library is located at 2525 Oakley Seaver Dr., Clermont.  Registration for Zoom is required : https://tinyurl.com/GenealogyBank13Feb430pm

Speaker: Melony Young is a seasoned Customer Support Director and Corporate Trainer and has played a crucial role in developing and training teams at companies like American Express, The American Red Cross, Wayfair, and currently, GenealogyBank.com, and the entire consumer division of NewsBank, Inc. Melony has also been known to “dabble” in acting and voiceover work.

Melony developed a love and respect for genealogy work through her grandmother Arlene’s lifelong passion for family history and research and continues this legacy through an ongoing project with her children and grandson to capture and document life events and memories. Family history research and DNA testing even helped her connect with her half-brother. 

If you're wanting to learn more about genealogy, you're in luck as Richland (Washington)Public Library has a new database for folks to use.

Heritage Hub, the online genealogy resource, can be used to discover obituaries, funeral home notices, and other articles spanning more than 300 years.

Not only that, but the database can pull content from all 50 U.S. states and territories.

Whether you're interested in your ancestry or doing a school project, Heritage Hub is available for free.

"A lot of people like trying to figure out maybe like, family history, or maybe things that happened in the past, and so they're just trying to put information together. Sometimes people are just curious about family history. I remember in school I had to do a family tree, and so that would've been a nice resource to have for those types of projects," said Michael Scarfo, User Experience Supervisor for Richland Public Library.

You can use it at the library or at home, but you'll need your Richland Public Library card number if you're accessing it from home.

To reach the database, click here, then scroll down until you see the Genealogy category, and then click on Heritage Hub.

From there, you will be prompted to enter your Richland Public Library card number.

After that, you will then be free to use the database by typing in the first and last name of a person, death year if you have that, and any other keywords that could help you find who you're looking for.

Friends of Iowa PBS, in collaboration with the Iowa Genealogical Society, will offer a winter workshop series aimed at beginner and intermediate genealogy enthusiasts. 

The "Genealogy for All: Essential Tools, Records and DNA Insights" program will consist of four virtual sessions designed to help participants explore public records and gain insights into their ancestral heritage.

The workshop series, which will take place via Zoom, will cover various aspects of genealogical research, including organizing research, military and immigration records, naturalization processes and DNA analysis. The sessions will also focus on two key resources for family history research: FamilySearch and Ancestry.

Each two-hour session will feature a combination of lecture, discussion, and Q&A time, along with handouts for participants to use. The sessions will be recorded, allowing registrants to review the material at their convenience. However, due to the interactive nature of the workshop, participants are encouraged to attend live.

"We’re thrilled to collaborate once again with the Iowa Genealogical Society, providing individuals with valuable tools and insights to delve into their family history," said Darla Hassebroek, donor engagement manager at Friends of Iowa PBS. "This workshop offers an incredible chance for participants to connect with their heritage and discover the fascinating stories that make up their family’s legacy."

Registration for the full series costs $100, which includes live access to all four sessions, recordings, and supplemental materials. Tickets are available for purchase at here. You do not need to be an Iowa resident to participate.

Video footage of all General Synods going back to 1988 and documentaries of all 11 Sacred Circles has now been digitized—converted from videotape into a format that can be processed by computers—and will soon be fully indexed in a free online archive that a leading scholar calls useful not just for church historians, but for all interested Anglicans.

Anglican Video—a ministry of General Synod that produces video resources, comprising senior producer Lisa Barry and project manager Shane Roberts—is leading the digitization project. Barry outlined the project in a Nov. 8 presentation to Council of General Synod (CoGS). Former church librarian Karen Evans, brought on board to identify and transcribe all the videos, called the digitization project “an incredible gift to historians” who now have access to church history not just on the printed page, but as Anglicans experienced it at the time.

Alan Hayes, professor emeritus of church history at Wycliffe College and member at large of the Canadian Church Historical Society, said the digitized videos—which are available online at archives.anglican.ca, complete with identifiers and official transcriptions—would assist historians in their work.

“I think it’s really useful,” Hayes told the Anglican Journal. “It’s not just for professional church historians. I can imagine lots of Anglicans being interested in that to look things up.”

Aside from preserving old video recordings and making them more accessible to researchers, digitization—converting them into data files—can prevent loss of quality in future migrations (though poor digitizing, such as the use of data compression to save space, can result in quality loss). Digitization also makes it easier to copy videos and allows them to be transferred electronically, so that they no longer need to be physically mailed.

The impetus for the digitization came in 2016, when a parish contacted Anglican Video looking for footage of the 1993 apology by then-primate Archbishop Michael Peers for the Anglican Church of Canada’s role in residential schools.

“That piece of video has been viewed literally thousands of times and we’ve had literally thousands of requests for it,” Barry said. When Anglican Video staff grabbed the video from their library to make a copy for the parish, they were aghast at the level of deterioration they observed on the tape.

“That was scary for us,” Barry recalled. “We realised that all of our 30-plus years of recorded footage, the tapes had started to deteriorate.” Anglican Video began checking all their tapes. While they had backed up footage of Peers’ apology and other important clips, Barry said, they realized they needed to find a long-term solution.

Through conversations with General Synod archivist Laurel Parson, they developed a plan to preserve their footage through digitization. The Anglican Church of Canada supports the project through a Ministry Investment Fund grant. Determining that they could not digitize their entire library, they chose to focus on digitizing each General Synod they had filmed, as well as their documentaries of each Sacred Circle.

Anglican Video has now reached both of these goals, digitizing every General Synod and every Sacred Circle documentary. However, the question arose as to how people could access the digitized videos and find what they were looking for.

Enter Karen Evans, who joined the project and began watching, naming and indexing all digitized footage. As of Nov. 8, Evans had indexed all but four General Synods, totalling 325 hours of footage; and all Sacred Circle documentaries, totalling nearly 14 hours.

A key objective, Evans told CoGS, is making sure that all material is accessible in a user-friendly way online. To this end, she said, “We want to create a text record that is complete, accurate and free of editing for interpretation.” Deeming summaries for each speaker or presentation insufficient, Anglican Video decided it was necessary to create authoritative verbatim transcripts of everything said in the digitized videos.

To aid in this process, they used the AI transcription software Simon Says, which includes time codes for new speakers; then carefully went through the transcripts to correct any errors. While transcription takes longer than producing summaries, Evans said, it is ultimately more efficient, since researchers who want to know exactly what is said in videos would end up producing their own transcripts.

“We wanted to produce a neutral record,” she said, noting that every researcher brings their own perspective or bias which might have coloured their impression of summaries.

“Every time you produce a summary, you’re making judgements,” Evans said. “You’re saying this is what’s important and perhaps even more importantly, what isn’t. We have removed that. What you have is a complete unadulterated record.”

The resource of video with transcriptions, Evans said, “continually illustrates how our past informs our present—with challenges, but also with hope and inspiration.”

Hayes says having access to indexed digital video footage from these General Synods and Sacred Circles will allow historians and others to see the dynamics of discussions over contested issues for themselves.

Researchers’ ability to study past synods has fluctuated over the history of the church, he says. In the 19th century, weekly Anglican church newspapers would report on provincial synods, and later General Synod, with speaker-by-speaker summaries of what was said.

By the 20th century, reports were getting briefer with less information, as Hayes says he found in writing a book on the history of the Anglican Church of Canada. By the 1920s and 1930s, he says, “some important decisions are being made where you’re relying on, really, skeleton notes in the minutes about who moved something and where it was reviewed.”

Even when the church press, by then the Canadian Churchman—later the Anglican Journal—provided more information, Hayes says, “you didn’t have a sense of all the different points of view that were being expressed and the passions that you could say were expressed. That’s been true ever since.”

Watching video and reading transcripts of every General Synod as well as Sacred Circle documentaries, he says, “is a great way to know who’s speaking and what they’re speaking about, what the issues are considered to be, what the pros and cons are, how much passion is going into it and how divided [opinion] is.”

Hayes says making the videos freely available online with official transcripts also shows the commitment of the Anglican Church of Canada to transparency—providing a way “to let people know that this is not stuff that happens in a corner behind closed doors secretly… They can watch it years later and know exactly what happened. I think that’s just good for the reputation of the church—to be transparent about decision-making.”

The Delaware & Hudson Railway Historical Society, Inc., (D&HRHS) on Jan. 17 announced its establishment. Its goal is to not only “preserve, interpret, and celebrate the rich history of the Delaware & Hudson Railway and its predecessors,” but also “reinvent what it means to be a member of a historical society in the digital era.”

This New York 501(c)(3) non-profit organization “is about more than just preserving artifacts,” D&HRHS President and Director Brad Peterson said. “It’s about keeping the spirit of the Delaware & Hudson [D&H] Railway alive for future generations, using 21st century tools to connect enthusiasts worldwide.”

D&H—“the longest-running transportation company in U.S. history”—operated from 1829 to 1991, when it was purchased by Canadian Pacific (now Canadian Pacific Kansas City).

The new railroad historical society said is it distinguishing itself from similar groups “by operating almost exclusively online, with membership options … available exclusively via Patreon.” Additionally, it will produce the Champlain Shield digital newsletter, host virtual events featuring interviews with D&H veterans and historians, and partner with other preservation organizations “to maximize impact while maintaining low overhead costs.” Now up and running and available to members is the organization’s interactive online archive of more than 1,700 D&H documents, drawings, maps and photographs.

D&HRHS also reported acquiring the historic D&H RS3 locomotive #4085 on Nov. 24, 2024, which it aims to preserve. The project, it said, reflects the group’s commitment “to protecting and showcasing significant artifacts” that tell the D&H story, and locomotive #4085 represents a key piece of the railway’s legacy, “embodying the innovation and engineering that defined the D&H.” 

Currently located at the Erie Turntable in Port Jervis, N.Y., the unit is slated for restoration at the Saratoga, Corinth & Hudson Railway, which operates a portion of the former D&H Adirondack Branch based in Corinth, N.Y.

D&HRHS’s senior advisors include Carl Belke, former President, D&H Railway; Dennis Shaffer, former Vice President of Marketing, D&H Railway; Bill Collins, former Vice President of Administration, D&H Railway; and Jim Howarth, former General Manager of Marketing, D&H Railway.

To learn more about the group and how to become a member, click here.

Episodes of five historic WOUB TV series are now available for streaming on the free PBS App. The programs from the WOUB archive include two documentaries, a teen dance show, an educational series on government, and 36 episodes of a nationally syndicated children’s show.

“We are so excited to be able to share these programs with the community for free on the PBS App,” said WOUB General Manager Mark Brewer. “We know the programs mean a lot to so many people in our region.”

Some of the shows were produced in the 1960s and were originally recorded on two-inch quadruplex videotape. The others were on a variety of tape formats that were popular at the time. All had to be digitized to be uploaded.

“The WOUB Archive Room contains a variety of media, each saved on the preferred format at the time they were recorded,” said Digital Broadcast Archivist Kaycee Warren. “As time passes, viewing the oldest formats require obsolete machinery. We send these formats to be restored and digitized. The film and quad tapes are deteriorating, and we are working quickly to save the content.”

Merlin the Magician (episodic series) was produced by WOUB and premiered in 1964. It appeared on more than 70 television stations across the nation. 36 episodes are available for streaming. The show’s host was Bob Faulkner. Joe Berman, a longtime Ohio University professor, was the producer and director.

Opening the Door West: The Story of the Ohio Company of Associates (documentary) is the story of how the Ohio Company organized the first American settlement in the Northwest Territory, perhaps the most important unknown chapter in American history.

Passion Works: A Story of Flying (documentary) tells the early story of a thriving arts studio designed around the talents of artists with developmental disabilities. Told through heartwarming stories and eye-popping art, the film reveals how an active community arts program can inspire, transform and even transport people to new passions and new places.

Take Me to Your Leaders (episodic series) is a six-episode educational interactive series on Ohio government. Each episode explores the roles of different government leaders at the state, county and school district levels.

Teen Beat (episodic series) was a 1960s live Bandstand type show produced at WOUB that won a national Broadcast Media Award. There are three episodes uploaded for streaming.

You can watch any of these programs now by downloading the free PBS App or visiting pbs.org.

From: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250115254005/en/en/Ancestry-Announces-Leadership-Transition

Ancestry, the global leader in family history, announced that its Board of Directors has selected Chief Financial and Chief Operating Officer Howard Hochhauser to succeed Deb Liu as the company’s President & CEO effective February 1. Hochhauser will continue to serve as a member of the Board.

“Leading Ancestry over the last four years has been both demanding and fulfilling. I have been inspired by the company’s mission and by the journeys of personal discovery that we have enabled for our customers since I joined the company in March 2021. I’m proud of all that the team has accomplished in service to our customers and I’m confident the company is well positioned for future success,” said Liu. “Working alongside Ancestry’s talented and purpose-driven team has been an honor and I know I’m leaving the company in Howard’s very capable hands.”

Hochhauser said, “I’m honored to serve as Ancestry’s next President & CEO. I have never been more confident in the future success of the company. As the global leader in Family History, we have a strong brand, exceptional talent, unparalleled content, the world’s largest consumer DNA network and a loyal base of subscribers. I look forward to building on our momentum.”

“Deb has had a tremendous impact on the business, building a strong foundation for future growth, strengthening our team, and evolving our products,” said Sir Mark Thompson, chairman of Ancestry’s Board of Directors. “On behalf of the Board and our employees, I want to thank Deb for her many contributions and wish her the very best in her next chapter.”

Thompson added, “Howard has been with Ancestry for more than 16 years and deeply understands the business, its culture, and our customers. He has been instrumental in building our strategy and we're confident that he and the management team will accelerate growth in the years to come.”

Ancestry’s Board of Directors has initiated a search for a new CFO.

About Ancestry

Ancestry®, the global leader in family history, empowers journeys of personal discovery to enrich lives. With our unparalleled collection of more than 60 billion records, over 3.5 million subscribers and over 25 million people in our growing DNA network, customers can discover their family story and gain a new level of understanding about their lives. Over the past 40 years, we've built trusted relationships with millions of people who have chosen us as the platform for discovering, preserving, and sharing the most important information about themselves and their families.