Genealogy giant Ancestry is laying off about 6% of its 1,700-person workforce, citing a slowdown in the genetic testing market.  Sales of genetics tests reportedly have slowed, with Wall Street signalling that the consumer genetics "fad" is over. The news comes just weeks after 23andMe also announced plans to lay off 100 employees, citing the same pressures.

On Wednesday, Ancestry CEO Margo Georgiadis wrote in a blog post that the company is laying off 6% of its 1,700-person workforce, or roughly 100 employees. In the post, Georgiadis cited the slowdown in the consumer genetics market as the reason, noting that the market is at an "inflection point," and most early adopters have already taken one of the tests.  

The layoffs come just weeks after rival 23andMe also laid off 100 employees, representing about 14% of its staff. 

"Over the last 18 months, we have seen a slowdown in consumer demand across the entire DNA category," Georgiadis wrote in the post. "Future growth will require a continued focus on building consumer trust and innovative new offerings that deliver even greater value to people."

Family Tree Magazine (familytreemagazine.com) has published a new book, “Genealogist’s Guide to Getting Organized,” a good guide for all of us whether you have decades of genealogy research papers, or just a few.

It’s always important to have best practices in mind.

This 102-page, softcover book starts with “Top Secrets” from professional genealogists sharing how they have stayed organized. Tips include keeping a research log, recording what you find — and also where you did not find anything — using research checklists, and using systems that work for you.

Next comes “Habits to Make,” like citing your sources, making time to keep things organized, and keeping a master family tree, among others.

You can read more in an article by Kenneth H. Thomas Jr published in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution web site at: https://bit.ly/3xR7Q8A

A California lawmaker has unveiled plans for a 'Genealogy Office' to decide which residents are genuine descendants of slaves and could get life-changing benefits payouts.

Steven Bradford, a Democratic state Senator for LA County, proposed bill SB 1403 to create a controversial genealogy unit to 'confirm reparations eligibility' of applicants.

The state's first-in-the-nation reparations task force last year decided that some residents should win $1.2 million payouts as compensation for injustices from the slavery era onwards.

But lawmakers have struggled to turn those plans into reality, and have advanced several bills to devise a working reparations scheme amid fears of spiralling costs in a cash-strapped state. 

Bradford's bill, which was amended this month, aims to solve the problem of working out who is in line for a payout.

Its planned genealogy team would 'support potential reparations claimants by providing access to expert genealogical research to confirm reparations eligibility,' says the bill.

It would also offer 'expedited assistance with the reparations claims process.'

You can read more in an article by by James Reinl published in the dailymail.co.uk web site at: http://bit.ly/3Q6ol7e.

On April 8, I published an article telling how to obtain email messages listing all the newly-published articles on this web site. If you would like to read that article again, you can find it at: https://eogn.com/page-18080/13340293.

The new procedure seems to be working well. I have even received a few email messages thanking me for the article and the new service from Blogtrottr. However, is it possible that you would like to receive the email messages in a somewhat different format? Perhaps you would like receive more or fewer email messages per day? (2/4/6/8/12 hourly or daily digests of those email messages are available.) Perhaps you would prefer to have those email messages sent to a different email address? Perhaps you would prefer to read those new email messages in a Firefox feed reader? Perhaps you would prefer to have the option of adding static text or tags to the email subject?

Or perhaps you would prefer to unsubscribe from those messages? (Horrors!) Details for all that may be found at: https://blogtrottr.com/help/.

Or perhaps you would prefer to not see the advertisements in those messages? (That costs a little bit of money.) Instructions may be found at: https://blogtrottr.com/pricing/.

Seen on the back of an automobile today:

“HISTORY BUFF"
“I’d find you to be more interesting if you were dead."

Does anyone know where I can find one of those bumper stickers?  I want one!

The Department of History at the University of Limerick, Ireland is delighted to invite you to an event entitled 'Researching and Studying the History of the Family' on Thursday, 18 April 2024 from 1200-1430 (UTC+1 – Irish Summer Time - for those outside of Ireland click here to see what time this is for you https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?msg=Researching+and+Studying+the+History+of+the+Family&iso=20240418T12&p1=1964&ah=2&am=30). This event will appeal to anyone interested in history, including genealogists and family historians.

Part of the Limerick Lifelong Learning Festival, this 2.5-hour seminar with staff and students of the MA History of Family will provide you with a sense of what researching and studying the history of family involves. Participants are invited to attend in person at the Special Collections & Archives Training Room (GL0-068), Glucksman Library, University of Limerick or you are welcome to attend online via Microsoft Teams.

View the programme and register to participate in the event.

https://www.ul.ie/artsoc/events/researching-and-studying-the-history-of-the-family

If you have any queries or issues registering, please contact rachela.murphy@ul.ie. We look forward to welcoming you on the day.

An interesting story that will interest many of use who own old (and deteriorated) daguerreotype photographs:

Techniques developed by researchers from Western University to create images from old, badly tarnished photographs could also be used to study other historic artifacts and fossils and prevent corrosion on modern materials.   

Chemistry professor T.K. Sham

Chemistry professor Tson-Kong (T.K.) Sham and his colleagues recently confirmed a new synchrotron imaging technique they developed is just as effective for retrieving corroded daguerreotypes – the earliest form of photographs – as a strategy they first reported in 2018, and can also be used no matter how badly damaged the image surface is from natural corrosion or cleaning attempts. The new research, which used beamlines at the Canadian Light Source (CLS) at the University of Saskatchewan, is published in the Journal of Cultural Heritage. 

“This technique can be used widely in all walks of science, from looking at tissues to materials science,” Sham said.  

“You could determine whether or how a metal may be corrosion-resistant. Or in the case of an already corroded material, you can learn what the product of that corrosion is and its distribution on the surface, and then you can work back and think about how to prevent that corrosion from happening.”  

Sham said many applications are possible because synchrotron X-ray is very tunable, which means it can pick out any element and find out what its chemical surrounding is and where it is placed in the sample, even imaging it layer by layer. 

You can read more in an article published in the westernu.ca web site at: https://news.westernu.ca/2024/04/reviving-daguerreotypes/ .

A scant hope of catching the Zodiac Killer perhaps lies on the back of a postage stamp, licked by the murderer 50 years ago.

The arrest of Joseph James DeAngelo, the man law enforcement believes is the East Area Rapist, has sparked myriad questions about the use of genealogy websites to revive long-cold cases. After DeAngelo’s capture, investigators revealed they submitted the East Area Rapist’s DNA to an open-source genealogy website called GEDmatch, where it found a match with a relative who also used the service. Detectives were then able to narrow their list of suspects, eventually arresting DeAngelo on suspicion of a string of rapes and murders across the state during the 1970s and 1980s.

Armed with millions of DNA profiles, uploaded online by curious family-history seekers across the world, could investigators finally decipher the Zodiac’s identity?

Like most things about the Bay Area’s most infamous serial killer, the answer is murky.

Unlike the East Area Rapist, Zodiac didn’t leave his blood or semen at the crime scenes. The 1968 murders of David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen on Lake Herman Road and the 1969 attack on Michael Mageau and Darlene Ferrin at Blue Rock Springs Park were committed with a gun, as was the murder of San Francisco cab driver Paul Stine. The remaining attack, on Cecelia Shepard and Bryan Hartnell at Lake Berryessa, was done with a knife.

There is no confirmed DNA evidence from Zodiac at any of the scenes.

The closest police have to Zodiac’s DNA are the stamps he used to post his cryptic letters. In the early 2000s, San Francisco investigators developed a partial profile by testing saliva traces retrieved from beneath a stamp. Because the profile is incomplete, it cannot rule anyone in. 

But it did rule out long-time suspect Arthur Leigh Allen in 2002.

You can read more in an article in the AOL News web site at: http://aol.it/4aDIbz1

The following is an announcement from the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania:

Fraktur, or the iconic German American “fractured” manuscript and print folk art style, has historically been lauded as an emblematic regional style in North America. This talk highlights instead the global implications of the oeuvre of a specific scrivener, Friedrich Krebs. Krebs, a former Hessian soldier and the most prolific of all known fraktur artists, embellished many of his illuminated certificates with embossed and gilt papers cut from elaborate brocade sheets imported from Germany. The effect was an intricate, decoupage-like fraktur that linked the German American home with both international trade and global styles, challenging traditional interpretations of fraktur as a typically “regional” American tradition. Presenter: Trevor Brandt Cost: FREE When: Thursday, Apr. 18, 2024 at 7 p.m. ET Where: Zoom About the speaker: Trevor Brandt is a PhD Candidate in art history at the University of Chicago. His research focuses on devotional material culture, connecting German American fraktur with the folk arts of German-speakers in Central and Eastern Europe. He previously served as the curator of the American Swedish Historical Museum in Philadelphia and is currently the managing editor of Americana Insights, a nonprofit publication dedicated to early American folk art. Trevor holds an MA from the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture and a BA from the Pennsylvania State University. Register Now There is limited seating. Register now while spots are still available! Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania Email Phone: 267-686-2296 Become a member Donate

First, they found a way to release the “trapped” data from the Canadian census over the last 70 years. 

Then, Western researchers translated the information into an easy-to-use format by creating an online map and portal illustrating the changes across the country. 

The potential is immense.  

Professor Zack Taylor (Christopher Kindratsky/Western Communications)

Click on a neighbourhood, and you can find population details on everything from age to household income to religion to transportation choices. The UNI-CEN Canadian Neighbourhood Change Explorer allows researchers to track shifts in census areas dating back to 1951.

“There’s all kinds of trapped data that people can’t really use, because it’s stuck in ancient formats, practically back to the punch card. All that information is just sitting there,” said Western political science professor Zack Taylor, who led the project. 

The census is conducted every four years by Statistics Canada. 

The new platform was created by researchers at Western’s Network for Economic and Social Trends (NEST), an umbrella group for eight research centres within the Faculty of Social Science. The team partnered with Esri, a geographical analysis software company and Mitacs, a non-profit research agency that works to connect academics, government and public and private sectors. 

To create the new digital tool, Taylor and his team had to grapple with a major challenge: Each census release isn’t necessarily compatible with the one before it.  

The questions posed to Canadian households change from one census to the next. So do geographic boundaries, like those of cities or individual neighbourhoods. Those tweaks, even when minor, make direct comparisons difficult. To further complicate analyses, census data is often shared in different formats. 

A screenshot showing one elment of the UNI-CEN Neighbourhood Change Explorer platform. 

“While it is possible to join things up across time, to a limited degree, it’s really hard to do over a long period of time,” Taylor said. 

“With support of the Faculty of Social Science dean’s office, we started to convert this data that’s there but rarely used, because it’s so inaccessible in a common format. But then we thought, ‘how do we help people understand the potential of this? How do we dramatize the use of it?’”  

Not just for researchers 

Taylor hopes the UNI-CEN Canadian Neighbourhood Change Explorer will be used well beyond the university environment. It can provide key details to government departments, high school students and non-profit organizations seeking data on the people they serve, he said. 

Taylor also wants to see teaching materials developed to encourage use of the tool. 

Among the population data that can be mined: 

You can read more in an article by Megan Stacey published in the westernu.ca web site at: https://news.westernu.ca/2024/04/neighbourhood-census-data/