Today is the first day of the month. That is a good time to back up your genealogy files. Then test your backups!

Your backups aren't worth much unless you make a quick test by restoring a small file or two after the backup is completed.

Actually, you can make backups at any time. However, it is easier and safer if you have a specific schedule. The first day of the month is easy to remember, so I would suggest you back up your genealogy files at least on the first day of every month, if not more often. (My computers automatically make off-site backups of all new files every few minutes.)

Given the events of the past few months with genealogy websites laying off employees and cutting back on services, you now need backup copies of everything more than ever. What happens if the company that holds your online data either goes off line or simply deletes the service where your data is held? If you have copies of everything stored either in your own computer, what happens if you have a hard drive crash or other disaster? If you have one or more recent backup copies, such a loss would be inconvenient but not a disaster.

Of course, you might want to back up more than your genealogy files. Family photographs, your checkbook register, all sorts of word processing documents, email messages, and much more need to be backed up regularly. Why not do that on the first day of each month? or even more often?

Our Cyber Monday Sale starts NOW! MyHeritage DNA kits are available at the lowest price ever: just $29 USD*!

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The following is a Plus Edition article, written by and copyright by Dick Eastman. Please do not forward this article to others without the author’s permission.

One question that pops up frequently is: "What format should I use to save my files?" The question is often asked about digital pictures. Should they be saved as JPG or PDF or GIF or PNG or TIFF or some other format? Similar questions are often asked about word processing files, although there seem to be fewer options available. I thought I would offer a few suggestions and also tell what works for me.

Digital Pictures

Today's technology allows for a selection of image file formats, including JPG, GIF, TIFF, BMP, PSD, RAW, PNG, EPS, PDF, and others in a seemingly endless alphabet soup of abbreviations and acronyms.

You can find many good reasons and bad reasons for selecting any of these file formats. However, from a genealogist's point of view, there are two significant issues to deal with: image size and image compression.

NOTE: PDF files have unique advantages and disadvantages for both digital pictures and for documents. I will write about PDF separately later in this article.

Image size has been an issue since the first scanned images were stored on a computer, back in the vacuum tube days. In this case, the physical size of the picture is not the issue, but the size of the file you create is very important. That is, the problem revolves around the number of bytes required to store a faithful reproduction of the original image. 

Not many years ago, disk drives were expensive. Luckily, that problem is disappearing as the price per byte of storage has plummeted in the past few decades. Prices for one-terabyte disk drives have now dropped to the $40 range, a price undreamed of only a few years ago. It is now cost-effective to store hundreds of thousands of very large digital image files. Prices for disk storage are still dropping nearly every week.

However, file size remains an issue when transferring those files to another computer or when inserting images into a web page. Not everyone uses high-speed, multi-megabyte-per-second Internet connections. Next, even those who do use such high-speed connections find that including very large digital images in a web page results in slow performance. A high-resolution picture also might not display properly inside a web page. Such a picture might fill the entire screen or even “overflow” the screen, leaving no space for text, links, and other information in the web page. Finally, sending a hundred or so old family photographs to a cousin can be a painstaking effort if the files are very large.

The remainder of this article is for Plus Edition users only. If you have paid for a Plus Edition subscription, you may read the full article at: https://eogn.com/sys/website/system-pages/?pageId=18010.

Every parent-to-be who takes medication wants to be sure that what they put in their bodies doesn’t harm their unborn child.

Now with the new Healthy Pregnancy Hub, finding out what’s safe for mom and baby just got a whole lot easier.

The hub, launched November 19, is an innovative online resource developed by a team of over 70 researchers, including Dr. Sherif Eltonsy, an assistant professor in the College of Pharmacy.

“You shouldn’t rely on Dr. Google,” warns Eltonsy, “But that’s what we do – we look things up online.”

As a pharmacoepidemiologist who has spent nearly a decade researching drug safety and effectiveness, the new platform marks a major milestone for Eltonsy. “For years, pregnant women have had to rely on piecemeal information that may be outdated – or worse, turn to Google searches,” he said. “Now, we’re providing a centralized, evidence-based resource that they can trust.”

The hub, part of the Canadian Mother-Child Initiative on Drug Safety in Pregnancy – Outreach (CAMCCO-Outreach), offers bilingual fact sheets, infographics, podcasts and videos. It also includes a chatbot for fast, personalized answers. The site is extensive, covering everything from common medications like acetaminophen to managing chronic conditions like depression, epilepsy and asthma during pregnancy.

“Three out of four pregnant women take medication, yet accessing reliable information has been a challenge,” said Eltonsy. “We’ve designed this resource to empower women and health-care providers to make informed decisions for the safety of both mother and fetus.”

By collaborating with Indigenous groups and culturally diverse communities, the team has also worked to ensure the content is inclusive and sensitive to the needs of underrepresented groups. “Our goal is to provide information that resonates with all Canadians, no matter their background,” Eltonsy said.

“This project has been years in the making. To see it come to fruition – and to know it will make a real difference  –  is incredibly rewarding,” he said. “It’s about empowering families with knowledge and filling a gap that’s existed for far too long.”

For more information, visit the Healthy Pregnancy Hub at healthypregnancyhub.ca.

In a Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania, limestone mine, 220 feet underground, you can find the Bettmann Archive, a cache of 11 million photographs and film negatives featuring images of Albert Einstein, the Hindenburg explosion and the Apollo 11 moon landing, among many others. Getty Images acquired the collection in 2016.

The limestone mine is a perfect place to house such an important resource. It is temperature- and humidity-controlled and is kept under tight security. Visitors are searched before they enter, as are their vehicles and belongings. Advanced preservation methods allow the materials held inside to be viewed by present and, the hope is, future generations. 

Picturing Black History uses images from the Bettmann Archive to tell previously untold stories from the lives of Black people, said Nicholas Breyfogle, one of the book’s editors and a history professor at The Ohio State University. The book was published this month.

“We were able to embrace the power of images to really be able to capture stories from Black history,” he said. “We live in a very visual world. [We] use these images to tell the stories of everything from oppression and resistance to perseverance, resilience and joy, to everyday life and political moments ... to bring all of that out of the archives, into the world.”

Breyfogle is joined in the editor role by Steven Conn, a history professor at Miami University. Breyfogle and Conn edit Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspectives. After the civil unrest in 2020, Getty Images approached Ohio State and Miami about using their historic images to better understand racial injustice in the United States. So far, this collaboration has created the book and a Picturing Black History website.

Also serving as editors are two Ohio State doctoral students: Daniela Edmeier and Damarius Johnson. For them, the book was a special opportunity. 

A workstation in the Bettmann Archive.

“I feel like the chance to work on something like this, as a graduate student, is unheard of,” Edmeier said. “As grad students, especially as historians, we’re deep in the archives. It’s easy to be in your insular little bubble, so to be working on a project that’s so forward facing, that’s collaborating with an organization like Getty, I don’t think I’ve ever had an opportunity like this.”

Johnson was struck by how valued his and Edmeier’s input was. 

“The reception we’ve had from the larger team is important. Conversations could be had between the folks who started the project,” he said. “Graduate students having this much input is awesome. There was a baseline principle that we work as a team and have input from the team in equal balance.”

Having the chance to go down to the Bettmann Archive was remarkable, they agreed.

“Even entering the mine (that houses the archive), you’re going through extreme security,” Edmeier said. “You’re brought in on a golf cart, you’re going literally into a hollowed-out mountain, it’s dark and cold. You see other areas for this branch of the military or that organization. We’re in the epicenter of valuable information, a collection of American history that most people aren’t even aware exists, much less have the opportunity to physically enter.”

Having access to images and being able to discuss them on-site was invaluable, Johnson said.

“There are thousands of images we looked at. We’re having conversations back and forth about these images, in this mine. We’re thinking about how they’ll fit within the structure of the book,” he said. “Our table of contents was set; we knew who the contributors would be and we needed supplementary images. So, there was a lot of conversation, even in the mine.”

In addition to research experience, Breyfogle said, graduate students get valuable career training.

“These are a set of skills that are essential as one goes off into the job market,” he said. “Editing, budget management, engaging with the larger public on a topic, teaching the broader public. It’s a way to train a whole series of skills and opportunities that most graduate students don’t have.”

Proceeds from book sales will support more opportunities for work, research, and education in Black history, he said.

George Robinson has been charged with three counts of first-degree murder in connection with the 1997 killing of 17-year-old James Hutson

Sullivan County Sheriff's Office, TN

Nearly three decades after a teenage boy was found murdered and his mother sexually assaulted inside a Tennessee home, authorities have arrested a suspect.

George Robinson has been charged with three counts of first-degree murder in connection with the 1997 killing of 17-year-old James Hutson after his DNA was allegedly connected to the crime scene, the Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office said in a press release on Nov. 22.

On Sept. 6, 1997, the teenage boy was found stabbed to death and his mother, Mary Hutson, sexually assaulted in their Kingsport, Tenn., home, authorities said. DNA evidence was collected at the scene and submitted for testing. However, no match was found and the case eventually went cold.

WJHL reports Mary passed away about a year later.

In 2023, investigators reopened the case and began reviewing evidence with help from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. That May, the DNA evidence from 1997 was sent to Othram Labs, a genetic genealogy company based in Texas, and Robinson was identified as a potential suspect, per the release.

Authorities said they recently obtained a DNA sample from Robinson and compared it to the DNA evidence taken from the crime scene in 1997. Forensic scientists then alleged that Robinson’s DNA was a confirmed match to the DNA evidence.

On Nov. 20, a grand jury indicted Robinson on the murder charges. According to WJHL-TV, First Judicial District Attorney General Barry Staubus said Robinson has not been charged in connection with Mary’s sexual assault due to the statute of limitations.

When authorities tried to arrest Robinson that morning, they said he barricaded himself inside his Kingsport, Tenn., apartment. The county SWAT team arrived and tried to negotiate with Robinson, but he “refused to cooperate,” authorities alleged.

After several hours, authorities were able to enter the apartment, where Robinson shot himself, per the release. Authorities said he was taken to a local hospital for treatment, but did not share details regarding his condition.

Google Labs, the experimental arm of the tech giant, has introduced a new online project that offers an entertaining variation of the game of chess.

The web experiment is named GenChess, which, as the name implies, uses Gemini Imagen 3, Google’s image generation model, allowing players to customize their own chess pieces using text prompts.

To try the game, users must sign in with a Gmail account. Once logged in, they can select the “Generate” button and type in the desired theme for their chess set, such as one inspired by sushi or pizza. 

GenChess offers two styles: classic and creative. The classic version resembles a traditional chess set, while the creative version is more abstract. After the model generates a complete set, players have the option to edit individual pieces. For example, if the king doesn’t meet expectations, users can provide additional text prompts to refine its appearance.

Once players are satisfied with their customized chess set, they can generate an opponent to play against. In our testing, Google matched our sushi-themed set with a bot’s taco-inspired chess set. Players can choose between three difficulty settings (easy, medium, and hard) and two timer options (5/3 or 10/0).

Google’s latest web experiment is simple yet functional. A spokesperson told us it’s mainly designed to “show the collaboration between AI, design, and chess, making it possible for anyone to play with image generation,” they said. 

As part of the announcement for GenChess, Google revealed four additional chess-related initiatives coinciding with the kickoff of the World Chess Championship, which began on Monday. This includes Google’s partnership with the International Chess Federation (FIDE), which invites people to take part in a coding challenge to create AI chess engines on Kaggle, a Google-owned platform for data scientists and machine learning engineers.

Additionally, the Chess Gem game for Gemini will launch next month. This new conversational offering allows players to engage in chess games within the Gemini app, where they can test their skills against a language model and even engage in light-hearted banter. However, this feature will only be available to Gemini Advanced subscribers.

Museums around the UK will have the opportunity to display rare artefacts salvaged from protected wreck sites that have been saved from auction by the Maritime Archaeology Sea Trust.

The trust, which works to ensure a sustainable future for underwater maritime heritage sites, struck a deal with the privately owned Charlestown Shipwreck & Treasure Museum to acquire the most important artefacts in its collection before they went to auction earlier this month.

It was announced in August that the museum building and its contents would be put up for sale by Smit Associates, a group of companies in Cornwall owned by the Eden Project co-founder Tim Smit. 

The collection of around 8,000 shipwreck and maritime artefacts was put together in the 1960s and early 1970s by the famous wreck diver Richard Larn. It has been described as “practically impossible to duplicate” following Unesco’s introduction of a ban on diving wrecks up to 200 miles offshore.

The planned sale led to fears in the heritage community that the unique collection would be dispersed and lost to the public.

On the eve of the sale, which took place on 6-7 November, the Maritime Archaeology Sea Trust (Mast) reached an agreement with the museum to prevent 500 of the most significant artefacts in the collection from going to auction.

Salvaged from protected wreck sites, the 500 artefacts have been identified by Historic England as the largest and most important collection of objects from shipwrecks in the UK.

The material was retrieved from 12 Designated protected wrecks with the same status as the Mary Rose, including Royal Navy warships such as HMS Ramillies, HMS Association and English and Dutch East India Company wrecks.

Mast is planning local and national opportunities with museums around the UK to share and learn from the collection, which it says “not only tells the story of the development of maritime archaeology in the UK but also the history and archaeology of the Royal Navy and the development of international trade”.

The trust has been supported by the National Museum of the Royal Navy and Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust.

“I’m delighted and relieved in equal measure that Mast has been able to save this priceless collection that can tell countless stories of the history and archaeology of the Royal Navy and the development of global trade through the centuries,” said the trust's CEO Jessica Berry. 

“Mast has now taken the collection out of private ownership so its risk of being dispersed again has now gone forever.”

Smit said: “We, at the Shipwreck & Treasure Museum, are delighted that Mast is buying the artefacts from what are now protected wrecks, saving a unique collection for the nation. It is especially pleasing as Mast is made up of members who themselves have dedicated so much of their lives to exploring our underwater heritage.”

The remainder of the museum's collection went under the hammer earlier this month, attracting more than 2,000 bids from bidders all around the world. One model ship sold for £5,800, while a lump of coal salvaged from the Titanic fetched £1,800.

A spokesperson for Lay's Auctioneers, which undertook the sale, said: “Although controversial locally, the sale of the museum was a pragmatic decision by Tim Smit, its owner. It is a large damp, granite building and many of the most sensitive historic artefacts were deteriorating.

“Although the popular museum paid its way, it didn't generate the capital investment needed to refurb the building and purchase much-needed climate-controlled cabinets. Smit, a wreck diver himself, said it was always a priority to keep the collection together if he could.”

The museum building is being sold through SBC Property with an asking price of £1.5m.

Mast was founded as a charity in 2011 by the maritime archaeologist and author Jessica Berry, to protect maritime underwater cultural heritage through archaeology, research, study, dissemination and education.

On the day after Christmas in 1996, John and Patsy Ramsey woke up to discover their 6-year-old daughter, JonBenét, a child beauty queen, was missing from the family's Boulder, Colorado, home.

A handwritten ransom note demanding $118,000 — John's exact bonus that year — was found on the stairs by the kitchen. Seven hours later, John discovered his daughter's lifeless body in a small room in the basement.

For decades, the case has captivated the nation.

Now, 28 years later, John Ramsey remains hopeful that his daughter's killer will be caught. He believes new DNA technology could aid police in re-investigating JonBenét's murder, a case that drew global attention.

JonBenet's autopsy determined she had been sexually assaulted and strangled, and her skull was fractured. Unknown DNA was found under her fingernails and in her underwear.

The Ramseys quickly became suspects, even though no evidence connected them to the crime.

The Ramseys have consistently claimed they were not involved in JonBenet's murder. However, the Boulder District Attorney's Office took 12 years to fully exonerate the Ramseys and their son, Burke.

As the weeks passed without any arrests in the case, a media frenzy began to build, fueled by nonstop tabloid images of JonBenét competing in beauty pageants.

A number of suspects surfaced, including a man named John Mark Karr, who confessed to the killing in 2006. However, his DNA did not match the evidence, so he was never charged. The case remained open.

You can read more in the ABC News web site at: https://abcnews.go.com/US/jonbent-ramseys-father-advances-dna-technology-police-solve/story?id=116129328

Thanks to our spectacular partners at Queens University of Charlotte, DigitalNC is pleased to announce a brand new collection of scrapbooks, newspapers, and newsletters are now available online! The records stretch from as far back as 1921 to as recent as 2005, and encompass a vast experience of student life at one of Charlotte’s most historic campuses. Two hundred issues of student newspapers will join a pre-existing collection already hosted online at NC Digital, extending our digital coverage of the publication by almost a decade!

The newspaper, then known as the Queen’s Blues, span from 1920 to 1931, during the period when Queen’s University was a private Christian woman’s school. Both the paper’s articles and advertisements position themselves at this historic intersection, serving the needs of yesteryear’s college girl. Front-pages are often arranged in order to feature articles on Sunday seminars alongside opera reviews, and ads for charity-drives frequently feature alongside flash sales for the fanciest flapper fashions. A Queen’s girl is portrayed as both demure and mindful, but also modern and urbane. Of particular interest is the Queens Jester section on the back page of each issue, which includes a column of student-submitted jokes and humorous observations. While some may not have aged well, many still elicit a sensible chuckle. 

Issues of The Queen’s Chronicle are also included in this collection. These are fourteen issues of student newsletters published nearly eight decades after issues of Queens Blues. Ranging from 2002 to 2005, the pages of the newsletter reflect the similarities and differences of student life at Queens’ campus through the decades. Particularly noticeable is the addition of male students’ voices featured within the newsletters’ pages, as well as an increased focus on sports such as lacrosse, soccer, and basketball.

You can read issues of both The Queens’ Chronicle and Queens’ Blues, as well as five new scrapbooks, online now at DigitalNC. Interested in learning more about Queens University? You can find their partner page online at DigitalNC here, or navigate to the university’s website here. Thanks again to our amazing partners for making this collection possible.