The following announcement was written by the (U.S.) National Genealogical Society:

FALLS CHURCH, VA, 30 OCTOBER 2023—The National Genealogical Society (NGS) has named Steve Little, an information systems specialist and professional genealogist, as its AI program director. He is the latest addition to the NGS education team led by Education Director Angela Packer McGhie, CG, FUGA. "Steve hit the ground running," Executive Director Matt Menashes, CAE, said. "He was our keynote speaker for an artificial intelligence webinar this past September. He introduced our members to the tools that AI brings to family history research and discussed their limitations. Little is now the instructor for our newest course, Empowering Genealogists with Artificial Intelligence."

Little is a seasoned professional with a rich and diverse career. He completed graduate-level courses in applied linguistics, specializing in natural language processing and computational linguistics, two pillars of today's large language models of AI. His lifelong interests in language, technology, and genealogy provide him with a unique vantage point at the intersection of these domains and prepare him to explain the use of this technology to others. 

"I am extremely honored and grateful to be named the inaugural AI program director of NGS," Little said. "I hope to uphold the values, aspirations, and traditions of NGS while spearheading its entry into the promising world of artificial intelligence and ensuring it aligns with the standards of our genealogical practices."

"AI has the potential to assist genealogists in their work if used carefully," said McGhie. "We are confident that Steve will provide NGS leadership with advice and guidance as the tools for genealogical research evolve. Without question, he will be a great asset as we continue to develop educational programs on the applications and limitations of AI in genealogy and family history."

Here is a list of all of this week's articles, all of them available here at https://eogn.com:        

From an article by Todd Bishop published in the GeekWire web site:

Colleen Shogan, the Archivist of the United States, discussed the National Archives‘ digital transition and use of artificial intelligence as part of a broader public conversation Thursday evening at the Seattle Public Library, led by Brad Smith, the Microsoft president, and organized by the National Archives Foundation.

The Archives is also digitizing records to make them more accessible online. Currently about 250 million records are available digitally out of over 13.5 billion total pages of records. The goal is to increase this to 300 million and eventually 500 million records digitized. Originals are preserved after scanning, Shogan said.

You can read more at: https://tinyurl.com/5n6b4zru.

Valdosta State University Archives and Special Collections has received a $22,205 grant from the Lyrasis Catalyst Fund to kickstart an effort to make South Georgia history more accessible to everyone.  

Through a five-year Community Archives Digitization, Access, and Preservation Partnership project, VSU plans to document and preserve some of the more important holdings of small historical societies and community archives across the university’s 41-county service region. This project involves digitization; metadata creation; making items accessible across multiple platforms locally, regionally, statewide, and nationally; and digitally preserving the materials within VSU’s state-of-the-art digital preservation system.

Deborah Davis, certified archivist and director of Archives and Special Collections at VSU, said the Community Archives Digitization, Access, and Preservation Partnership project is essential because community archives in rural South Georgia lack the resources to make their holdings available to researchers outside their local areas. They also need guidance on best practices for sustainably preserving their historical materials.

You can read more at: https://tinyurl.com/mw6zdjy3.

The following is a Plus Edition article written by and copyright by Dick Eastman. 

We often think of speculation in stock market, real estate, oil futures, or dot-com companies to be modern ventures for risk-taking entrepreneurs. Not so. Our ancestors were known to take perhaps even greater risks in a largely unregulated business atmosphere. Perhaps the most famous was the Dutch Tulip Mania of 1636-1637. However, it was not confined to the Dutch; many of our ancestors in other countries also joined in the frenzy. Many of them lost fortunes, large and small.

When we think of tulips, most of us automatically think of Holland. However, it is not a native plant of that country. The first tulip appeared in the United Provinces (now called the Netherlands) in 1593, when Charles de L'Ecluse (or Carolus Clusius) first bred tulips that could tolerate the harsh conditions of the Low Countries. Charles’ bulbs were sent to him from Turkey by his friend, Ogier de Busbecq.

The Netherlands was in the midst of the Bubonic Plague at the time, and Charles de L'Ecluse planned to research the tulip plant for medicinal purposes. He planted a small garden. Reportedly, some people broke into his garden and stole some of his bulbs in order to make some quick money, and in the process started the Dutch bulb trade.

The flower rapidly became a coveted luxury item and status symbol. Special breeds were given exotic names or named after Dutch naval admirals. The most spectacular and highly sought-after tulips had vivid colors, lines, and flames on the petals as a result of being infected with a tulip-specific virus known as the Tulip Breaking potyvirus.

Soon even ordinary bulbs were selling for extraordinary prices, and the actually rare bulbs were astronomical. A single Viceroy tulip bulb would sell for 2500 florins, which translates roughly to $1250 in current American dollars. A rarer Semper Augustus bulb could easily go for twice that. 

The remainder of this article is reserved for Plus Edition subscribers only. If you have a Plus Edition subscription, you may read the full article at: https://eogn.com/(*)-Plus-Edition-News-Articles/13272535.

I haven’t had a chance to check this out myself just yet. However, I received the following announcement and must say it sounds interesting:

Projectkin is different from platforms, media sites, or blogs. It’s an online community dedicated to helping family historians around the world share their stories by engaging younger generations with creative digital and hybrid-digital projects. Projects are tailored to be easy with step-by-step “recipes,” and each is mindful of preserving archives and protecting privacy.

With Projectkin, the focus is on the challenges of modern storytelling without regard to platforms or tools. Education programs demystify technologies and walk members through strategies to use the right tool for each project. Projectkin is not a platform, nor is it supported by sponsors or affiliate programs. 

It’s structured to be a non-profit so that the programming integrity can be sustained. For now, all programs and materials are entirely free. Even after non-profit formation is complete, the bulk of programming will be free even as some premium programs and benefits are reserved for donors.

Since its formation in May this year, Projectkin has grown to include several types of monthly events including, Kathy’s Corner to focus on members’ digitizing workflow, Technology Tutorials, Project Clinic brainstorming events, plus one or more member-led Project Recipe Events. An added interactive community forum creates a shared space for questions and dialog. 

To learn more and join the community, please visit projectkin.org.

Just in time for Halloween: 

TheGenealogist adds to its Court & Criminal records with a new collection of Quarter Session Registers covering a period from 1590 – 1839.

Search these records to find your miscreant ancestors brought before the local court quarter sessions. They even include those accused of practising witchcraft!

Session House, Clerkenwell c.1810

The Quarter Session Records were produced by the local courts that were traditionally held at four set times each year. These courts, presided over by two or more justices of the peace plus a chairman, would sit with a jury at Epiphany (in January), Easter (March/April), Midsummer (June/July) and then at Michaelmas (September/October). 

• Find the names of indicted persons, witnesses, and the Justices of the Peace

• Search records as far back as 1590, in the reign of Elizabeth I

• Discover indictments including Assaults, Riot, Running Unlicensed Alehouses, Not Going to Church on Sunday and even being a witch!

• Unearth Poor Law matters dealt with by the Justices including Bastardy, Compensation for Maimed Soldiers and Removal of people to their parish of settlement

Extract from the Quarter Sessions in Wiltshire, 19th April 1653

Read TheGenealogist’s featured article: Up before the Justices of the Peace –

Quarter Session records reveal everything from licencing ale houses to dealing with Witches

https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2023/up-before-the-justices-of-the-peace-6816/

About TheGenealogist

TheGenealogist is an award-winning online family history website, which puts a wealth of information at the fingertips of family historians. Their approach is to bring hard to use physical records to life online with easy to use interfaces such as their Tithe and newly released Lloyd George Domesday collections. 

TheGenealogist’s innovative SmartSearch technology links records together to help you find your ancestors more easily. TheGenealogist is one of the leading providers of online family history records. Along with the standard Birth, Marriage, Death and Census records, they also have significant collections of Parish and Nonconformist records, PCC Will Records, Irish Records, Military records, Occupations and Newspaper record collections amongst many others.

TheGenealogist uses the latest technology to help you bring your family history to life. Use TheGenealogist to find your ancestors today!

The following announcement was written by Findmypast:

A huge 25 million brand-new electoral records added for Greater Manchester Plus, new additions for London and Berkshire  

Greater Manchester Electoral Registers 1820-1940 

Over 25 million exclusive records have been added to Findmypast this week. This brand-new collection for Greater Manchester, with images and transcriptions to view, covers 1820-1940. They are ideal for tracing anyone in between census years, plus, as they contain full addresses, they are handy for house history too. You’ll typically find an ancestor’s name, home address, township and ward.  

Greater London Burial Index 

There are 396,992 new burial records for Greater London to explore, covering 1558-1901. You’ll normally spot an ancestor’s name, age at death, burial date, occupation, denomination, address and parish.  

Berkshire Baptisms 

Lastly, a further 231,375 baptisms have been added to this existing Berkshire collection. Spanning 1538 to 1923, these records contain names, baptism dates, parents’ names, residences, parishes and counties.  

Newspapers 

Did your ancestors make the news? One new title, updates to a further six, and 93,381 new pages make up this week’s newspaper release.  

New titles: 

·         Middlesex & Surrey Gazette, 1877-1878 

Updated titles: 

·         Belfast News-Letter, 1991 

·         Campbeltown Courier, 1876-1879, 1893-1950 

·         Derry Journal, 1975-1977, 1989 

·         Edinburgh Evening News, 1986-1989, 1991 

·         Lurgan Mail, 1989, 1993 

·         South Wales Daily Post, 1989 

Book bans are not going away anytime soon. One of the ways that several major U.S. libraries have elected to push back is to make many, if not all, of the books being targeted across the country available to as many people as possible. This is, of course, not a solution to the underlying problem, and every library on this list would wholeheartedly agree. These are bandaids. 

But like bandaids, they have value. This is especially true for the people most hurt and impacted by book bans: those under the age of 18 who, through no fault of their own, have lost access to a wide swath of books written with them in mind and for them to connect.

This list is as comprehensive a roundup as possible of all the U.S. public libraries offering access to banned books. It includes the name of the library, the people who are being granted access to the collections, materials within the collections, as well as any other pertinent or relevant information. 

The list will be updated as more libraries engage in this kind of access activism. Note that many of these programs operate under the banner of “Books Unbanned.” Though they will be quite similar because laws regarding libraries differ state by state and because every library collection differs from another, the breadth of access and catalogs differs in each variation of the program. Folks who qualify may apply for cards at each of the Books Unbound programs—you’re not limited to just one.

You can read more in an article by Kelly Jensen published in the bookriot web site at: https://bookriot.com/public-libraries-offering-free-access-to-banned-books/ 

World Digital Preservation Day, held annually on the first Thursday of November, celebrates best practices in archiving and storing digitized and born-digital content. Penn State University Libraries is hosting several virtual and University Park in-person events Thursday, Nov. 2.

A detailed schedule is available online. Events are listed in Eastern Time. Participants are encouraged to register online, especially those interested in bringing a physical item to the afternoon’s self-digitization session for consultation or on-site digitization.