Belfast:  The Dr Éamon Phoenix Foundation, a charity established to preserve and build upon the legacy of the late historian, today launched a new archive of On This Day articles on Irish history – including the use of AI to allow readers to listen to Dr Phoenix ‘reading’ his columns.

The daily archive series, in partnership with the Irish News, republishes historical On This Day columns created by Dr Phoenix over more than three decades.

It also features a new innovation – the use of artificial intelligence cloning technology to recreate Dr Phoenix’s distinctive voice. It is hoped this will help bring the articles to life and reach new audiences.

On This Day is an ongoing daily column in the Irish News looking back either 50 or 100 years. It was compiled by Dr Éamon Phoenix from the mid 1980s until autumn, 2022.

The articles will be published daily on the Foundation’s website and promoted across social media.

Éamon’s wife, Alice Phoenix, said: “We’re very excited to begin republishing Éamon’s On This Day columns starting from today.

“We’re starting from columns originally published in 2020 that look back at 1920 and 1970, two critical years in Irish history. Other years will be added in the future.

“This means Éamon’s editing and analysis of the key stories of each day will now be available and searchable on the internet for students, researchers and the public to inform their knowledge and understanding of Ireland’s history.”

Speaking at the launch in the Irish News offices in Belfast city centre, Mrs Phoenix added: “We are very grateful to the Irish News for not just giving permission to reproduce Eamon’s columns, but to actively assist us in publication.

“Knowing that Éamon’s On This Day work will now be reaching a wider audience means so much to myself, the Phoenix family and the Foundation.

“As the published content builds day by day, it will add greatly to the publicly available research material on Irish history and will help the Foundation’s objective to promote mutual understanding and reconciliation in Ireland through the study of history.”

The Foundation has received funding from Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs and the Magill Trust for the project.

Mrs Phoenix, who is chair of the Foundation, added: “Eamon had a distinctive voice that was much loved by many, and we are delighted to use AI voice cloning to bring these articles to readers in his unique ‘voice’.

The voice cloning was trained using hours of recordings of Éamon’s voice and has been greeted as a faithful reproduction of his soft but expressive tones.

Paul Connolly, of SmartVideo Ltd in Belfast, worked with the Foundation to deliver the On This Day and voice cloning project.

He said: “A written column is very valuable; an audio voice adds intimacy and enriches the experience.

“It will also allow us to reach new audiences – not least as we can curate and package his work, for example a podcast of all On This Days from 1920, or we can choose historical themes.

“In a world where information can be manipulated, the role of trusted institutions has never been more crucial.

“By combining technology with respect for primary sources and scholarly integrity, we can show that history remains both trustworthy and alive.”

The Foundation’s website – www.eamonphoenixfoundation.com – features tributes, images and videos of Dr Phoenix, other archive records of his work and details the Foundation’s mission.

The Irish News, with whom Dr Phoenix had a close relationship, had already donated material from its archives, including photos and articles.

The plan is to add further to the archive of Dr Phoenix’s work over time, to build a substantial body of his legacy.

RCGS' 7th ANNUAL SCHOLARSHIP WORKSHOP

Secure Register Online: Registration Link 
Date & Time: Saturday, October 4th, 2025, 9:00 AM - 3:00 PM p.m. WI time.
Cost: Paid Registration Required - all proceeds go to RCGS' scholarship fund.
Location: Join us at the Milton House Museum or view live on your Home PC or Smartphone with the Zoom app

 (see Zoom presentation link, below).

Program Presenters:

  Genealogy 101 - The basics plus expert pointers and 10 traps to avoid
      Dave Bradford, RCGS board member & webmaster
  Goodrich & Davis Families - Finding & using records to document lives
      Keighton Klos, Executive Director, Milton House Museum
  UW-Whitewater Archives - Exploring and using historical Rock County area photos, files & documents
      Jennifer Motzko, Archivist, Anderson Library, UW-Whitewater
  Fifty Fun Genealogy Activities - Family Fun, Famous Kin & Look-alikes & A.I. Photo Frolics

      Dave Bradford, RCGS board member & webmaster

How to Attend

: This Zoom presentation can be watched live at the second level Tomah Room of the Milton House Museum, 18 S. Janesville St., Milton, WI (map) at the scheduled time. Ample parking, handicap access, elevator, snacks, soft drinks and door prizes are included.  The Zoom link, and handout link below also allow participation from your home PC, Mac, or smartphone.

• Zoom Link & Passcode:  Provided with paid registration
• Register Securely Here: Registration Link

A video recording of this presentation may be seen later in the Members-Only area of the RCGS website.

Download the full Workshop Brochure below in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format: 

https://www.rcgswi.org/uploads/6/4/0/0/64001321/rcgs_scholarship_workshop_brochure_oct_4_2025.pdf

The Murrieta Public Library is inviting community members to explore their family history at upcoming Genealogy Meet-Up on select Thursdays, September 25, October 23, November 20, and December 18, from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m.

Designed for adults 18 and older, the meet-up will provide guidance for beginners interested in getting started with genealogy research. Participants of all experience levels are welcome to attend and share tips, resources, and techniques with others who share an interest in tracing family roots.

The program is free to attend, and registration is not required.

The Murrieta Public Library is located at 8 Town Square.

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

William J. Clinton Presidential Library and Museum 
Little Rock, AR 

Friday, September 19, 2025 - 11:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. CDT

Join us for "Presidential Portraits: The Photographs That Inspired" on Friday, September 19, 2025, at the Clinton Library and Museum for our next "Ask an Archivist, Converse with a Curator" event. In celebration of our new exhibition, "Portraits from a Presidency," we will dive into Presidential photographs that served as potential inspirations behind the artwork, not only looking at the art of photography but also the history of the Presidential portrait itself from President George Washington onwards. The "Ask an Archivist and Converse with a Curator" program takes place on the third Friday of every month at 11:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. While admission to the library is required, the program itself is free of charge.

Dr Cassidy’s success makes her the eighth researcher in Trinity’s Department of Genetics (School of Genetics and Microbiology) to secure a prestigious ERC award. Those eight individuals have secured a total of ten such awards between them.

Dr Lara Cassidy has secured European Research Council (ERC) funding of €1.5 million to lead a new Starting Grant research project, LIFETIMES, which will utilise thousands of ancient and modern genomes to tell the story of three medieval Irish communities, whose burial grounds remained in use for almost a millennium.

Building on key innovations in ancient DNA analysis, Dr Cassidy and her team aim to reconstruct a set of unbroken family trees, spanning dozens of generations. Such pedigrees can provide exceptional temporal resolution to the archaeological record – by situating individual burials within larger genealogies, a millennium of human history can be viewed as a series of interconnected lifetimes.

Medieval Ireland is the perfect setting to carry out such an ambitious project; it has a remarkably rich historical and archaeological record, as well as excellent ancient DNA preservation and the long-term local population continuity needed to carry out genealogical analysis at this scale.

Dr Lara Cassidy said: “I’m still pinching myself and feel truly honoured to have received this award. It is a dream to be able to carry out this research. We are only just beginning to appreciate the potential of genealogical approaches in ancient genomics and I am so excited to help push the field in new directions.”

“There is a lot of inspiring work happening at the moment, both in ancient DNA and archaeological science more broadly. This project builds on this momentum and I’m very grateful to my peers, mentors and collaborators.”

The genealogical approach taken in LIFETIMES will allow the researchers to follow individual communities across centuries of cultural and demographic transformation, opening up new windows onto the medieval world. They will explore how the life histories of men and women changed through the generations.

Genetic data inform on both mobility and reproductive behaviour, providing insights into systems of marriage, fosterage, inheritance and even political alliance and upheaval. The pedigrees will also be used to trace shifts in population health, from genetic disease risk to infectious diseases that leave behind their own DNA signature. The researchers are even hoping to catch some of the culprits behind infamous epidemics recorded in the medieval Irish Annals.

The team will then ask how these evolving community and life histories relate to the deeper demographic tides of the island. They will examine how changes in individual fertility, mobility and lifespan relate to broader patterns of population growth, decline and migration. In doing so, it will not only address longstanding issues within insular history (e.g. language dispersals, disease risk, past pestilence, gender dynamics) but provide fresh insights into the fundamental interactions between genes, culture and the environment.

Dr Linda Doyle, Provost & President, Trinity, said: “I want to offer my warmest congratulations to Lara. She has always been an amazing scientist and her research is absolutely fascinating, having already made international headlines on several occasions, appearing in Nature and The New York Times. Not alone is there rigorous academic research behind this particular work, there is also huge public interest. I am delighted it will be enabled to expand further with this ERC Starting Grant.”

Prof. Sinead Ryan, Dean of Research at Trinity, added: “I offer my warm congratulations to Lara on securing this prestigious ERC Starting Grant, which recognises both her exceptional talent and the originality of her research. The School of Genetics and Microbiology at Trinity College Dublin continues to attract and nurture the very best early career researchers in the field.”

The ERC, set up by the European Union in 2007, is the premier European funding organisation for excellent frontier research. It funds creative researchers of any nationality and age, to run projects based across Europe. The ERC offers four core grant schemes: Starting Grants, Consolidator Grants, Advanced Grants and Synergy Grants.

ERC Starting Grant awards support excellent Principal Investigators in starting their own independent research teams or programmes. These grants, which support five-year projects, are among the most sought-after and competitive in the world of research.

Since the inception of the ERC, Trinity has participated in 92 projects with a value of roughly €149 million. This new award will join 40 active projects hosted at Trinity, including Starting,Consolidator, Advanced and Synergy Grants. For more information on Trinity’s past and present projects, see ERC Awards at Trinity.

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

The “Greatest Generation” at the Ford Presidential Museum The Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum is honoring the “Greatest Generation” at the Museum in Ann Arbor, MI, featuring a new, limited-time pop-up exhibit.  This exhibit, Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum Celebrates the Greatest Generation, runs until September 7, 2025, using original artifacts, photographs, and text to highlight military service, life on the home front, and presidents who served. Visitors will learn about President Ford’s Naval service, including his role as editor of the USS Monterey’s newsletter. A Navy mess table, made by Steelcase, will also reveal Grand Rapids’ surprising connection to the Japanese Instrument of Surrender.  This pop-up exhibit is free and open to the public in the Museum lobby. To learn more, visit the Ford Library and Museum website. A collection of some of the artifacts on display as part of Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum Celebrates the Greatest Generation. (Courtesy of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum) The First Continental Congress and the Articles of Association The First Continental Congress met beginning September 5, 1774, in Carpenters’ Hall in Philadelphia, PA. 56 delegates from 12 colonies (Georgia was absent) assembled to the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia, the largest city in British North America at that time. While many major accomplishments came out of this Congress, including the passing of a Declaration of Rights against Great Britain, it also resulted in developing and establishing the Articles of Association, urging all colonists to boycott British goods- unless the British government rescinded the Intolerable Acts. Visitors to the National Archives Museum can see the original Articles of Association, on display as part of Opening the Vault, a new temporary exhibition series that displays some of the most historically valuable and iconic artifacts in American history for the first time in many years.  Click here to learn more about the First Continental Congress, or visit the National Archives Museum website to see the virtual exhibit for Opening the Vault: The Beginning of Our Union. Page three of the Articles of Association. NAID: 6277397 George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum Kicks Off 35th Anniversary of Desert Shield/Desert Storm (1990-2025) Series On Thursday, August 28, the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum launched a series honoring the 35th anniversary of Desert Shield/Desert Storm (1990-2025).   The kick off event, “From the Abyss of War to the Bliss of Freedom,” featured a reception and program with former CIA intelligence executive Eman Blair. Blair shared her journey to become a proud U.S. citizen, following the leadership of President Bush that facilitated her family’s survival amidst the Iraqi invasion, occupation, subsequent liberation by coalition forces, and the rebuilding of Kuwait.  The 35th Anniversary of Desert Shield/Desert Storm series is free and open to the public. The next program will feature Ambassador Ryan Crocker on September 23, 2025. Click here to learn more about the events exploring various aspects of the conflict throughout Fall 2025 and Spring 2026.  Eman Blair speaking at the “From the Abyss of War to the Bliss of Freedom” program as part of the Desert Shield/Desert Storm 35th Anniversary Series at the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum, Thursday, August 28, 2025. (Courtesy of the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum)

In April 1998, the body of an unidentified Black female were discovered in Lake Ray Hubbard in Collin County, Texas. At the time of the discovery, the woman was wearing black Adidas jogging pants, gray socks, and black Adidas athletic shoes. The woman's height was estimated to be 5'7" and her weight was approximately 170 pounds. Her age could not be determined. With few leads to go on, the woman became known as Collin County Jane Doe. Details of the case were entered into National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) as UP3612. A forensic sketch depicting the woman's likeness was developed and released to the public in hopes that it would generate leads about her identity. 

In 2024, the Collin County Medical Examiner's Office partnered with Othram to use Forensic-Grade Genome Sequencing® and forensic genetic genealogy to develop new leads in the case. Forensic evidence was delivered to Othram's laboratory where scientists successfully developed a DNA extract and then used Forensic-Grade Genome Sequencing® to build a comprehensive DNA profile for the woman. Othram's in-house forensic genetic genealogy team used the profile in a forensic genetic genealogy search to develop new investigative leads that were returned to law enforcement.

Using this new information, a follow-up investigation was conducted leading investigators to potential relatives of the woman. A reference DNA sample was collected from a possible relative and compared to the DNA profile of the unidentified woman using KinSNP® Rapid Relationship Testing. This investigation led to the positive identification of the woman, who is now known to be Penny Gunn, who was also known as Penny J. Morris, born in August 1962. Penny would have been 35 years old at the time that her body was found.

The investigation into Penny Gunn's last days and death continues. Anyone with information about Penny Gunn should contact the Dallas Police Department Cold Case Supervisor Sergeant Jeffrey Hunter at jeffrey.hunter@dallaspolice.gov or call (214) 671-3661.

A portion of Othram's casework costs associated with the advanced DNA testing and forensic genetic genealogy completed in this case was contributed by donors through a DNASolves® crowdfund. We are grateful to everyone that helped crowdfund this case and other DNASolves cases. Remaining costs for the advanced DNA testing and forensic genetic genealogy used in this case was provided by NamUs, a national program that assists the criminal justice community with the investigation and resolution of missing, unidentified, and unclaimed persons cases across the United States and its territories. NamUs is funded and administered by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) and is managed through a contract with Research Triangle Institute International (RTI). Othram is grateful for the support of RTI, NamUs, and the NIJ.

The identification of Penny Gunn represents the 21st case in the State of Texas where officials have publicly identified an individual using technology developed by Othram. Visit DNASolves to learn about other Texas cases where your support can help bring long-awaited answers to families.

The Lorain County Chapter of the Ohio Genealogical Society is welcoming Thomas MacEntee, as guest presenter for its upcoming meeting at 7 p.m. Sept. 8.

MacEntee, author, educator, student, advocate, marketer, storyteller and entrepreneur, will show guests how to harness the power of artificial intelligence to assist in translating, transcribing and summarizing a variety of genealogy records, according to a news release. His presentation will cover the best AI platforms as well as how to craft a solid prompt to get you the results you need.

This free online Zoom program is open to the public. To receive the ZOOM link for the meeting, email meetings@loraincoogs.org.

The Utah 100 Award event is the first and best of its kind. We recognize Utah’s 15 largest revenue companies, 100 fastest growing, and a select list of newer, Emerging Elite Companies. This is MountainWest Capital Network’s flagship event, with over 1,000 business leaders in attendance.

The Top 15 Annual Revenue Companies are ranked according to the highest total dollar growth from last year. The Utah 100 Companies are ranked according to a weighted average calculation of percentage and dollar growth. Companies are only eligible to be included in 1 award category. First consideration will be given to the Top 15 Annual Revenue category

The following announcement was written by the BCG Education Fund:

The BCG Education Fund is pleased to announce our Fall 2025 Putting Skills to Work event which will be held virtually Saturday, 8 November 2025, beginning at 11:00 a.m. (Eastern) / 8:00 a.m. (Pacific) and ending at 7:00 p.m (Eastern)/4:00 p.m. (Pacific) including breaks. The cost to register is $95. Registration opens Thursday 4 September at 12:00 p.m. (Eastern)/ 9:00 a.m. (Pacific) at https://bcgedfund.org/putting-skills-to-work Attendance is capped at 60 attendees. The event will not be recorded or live-streamed.  Instructors: Carolyn Ladd, JD, CG, AG and Judy G. Russell, JD, CG, CGL, FUGA Detailed Workshop Description: Finding historical records about our families is just the first step to telling their stories fully and accurately. Genealogists and family historians must understand every word of those records in the context of the law that applied at that time and place. This workshop will guide participants through the skills of source citation, transcribing handwritten records, abstracting key details from those records, and analyzing the meaning of the records through the prism of the law with the aim of reconstructing a family’s history. Hands-on exercises in source citation, transcription, abstracting, evidence analysis and legal research and analysis will be key elements. Attendee Prerequisite Knowledge: None required. Pre-Workshop assignment: Students should carefully read the first two chapters of Elizabeth Shown Mills, Evidence Explained (3d edition, 3d edition revised, or 4th edition). Please note, this workshop is an updated version of the 2021 Putting Skills to Work workshop, “Understanding the Records, Understanding the Law” led by Stefani Evans, CG, and Judy G. Russell, JD, CG, CGL, FUGA. Instructor Bios Carolyn Ladd, JD, CG®, AG® holds a Certified Genealogist® credential from the Board for Certification of Genealogists® and has been accredited in African American genealogy by the International Commission for the Accreditation of Professional Genealogists (ICAPGen). She is a published author -- a book based on her Kinship Determination Project is in the FamilySearch Library. She is passionate about identifying ancestors, learning their stories, and preserving them for future generations. Carolyn is a practicing lawyer and works in-house at a Fortune 100 company. Judy G. Russell, The Legal Genealogist®, is a genealogist with a law degree who provides expert guidance through the murky territory where law and family history intersect. An internationally-known lecturer and award-winning writer, she holds credentials as a Certified Genealogist® and Certified Genealogical Lecturer® from the Board for Certification of Genealogists® and is a Fellow of the Utah Genealogical Association. Her blog is at https://www.legalgenealogist.com.