If your name is McKenna, a two-day event on Friday 13 and Saturday 14 June in Monaghan (Ireland) might just interest you.

The Clan McKenna international gathering commences on Friday 13 morning at 11am with a walking tour of Monaghan town, accompanied by a tour guide. 

In the afternoon there is a tour of Monaghan County Museum followed by a talk by local historian Brian McDonald after which a buffet is being served. The venue for this is the magnificent Peace Campus.

On Saturday 14 at 10.30am – 12.30pm it's a return to the Peace Campus for a DNA/Genealogy workshop conducted by Connor McKenna.   

Immediately following this there will be a visit to Donagh Old Graveyard where the remains of the last McKenna chieftain lies and also the ancestors of General Don Juan McKenna, military officer and hero of the Chilean War of Independence and recognised as the co-liberator of Chile.

The gathering will culminate with an inaugural dinner in the Sliabh Beagh Hotel in the beautiful rural North Monaghan area of Knockatallon. Coach transport will be provided to the hotel taking in enroute places of interest on The McKenna Trail such as Errigal Old Graveyard & Liskenna Fort said to be where McKenna finally killed the deer he had been hunting for two nights. 

On the night outgoing chieftain for the past 3 years Marilyn Stoecklein will relinquish her role and pass the McKenna staff and cloak to Siobhan McKenna of Monaghan town. 

All details of the Clan McKenna International Gathering 2025 are available from: clannmckenna@gmail.com or the secretary at 00353 (0)87 755 9095

The following is an announcement written by MyHeritage and ScanCafe:

MyHeritage has just launched a new partnership with ScanCafe, the leading photo and video digitization service in the U.S.! To celebrate the launch of the partnership, MyHeritage users will enjoy 50% off at ScanCafe for a limited time! This collaboration makes it easy for MyHeritage users in the U.S. to digitize their old photos, slides, negatives, and home videos, and have them automatically transferred for safekeeping on MyHeritage through a secure account integration. Once on MyHeritage, users can organize and enhance their photos and enrich their family trees. Founded in 2006, ScanCafe has already digitized over 250 million memories, making them an excellent choice for anyone looking to protect their family’s legacy and make it accessible for future generations. You can read more about this new partnership in the blog post.

The founder of 23andMe opens new tab, Anne Wojcicki, requested a U.S. judge to reopen the genetic testing company's auction because she received backing from a Fortune 500 company valued at over $400 billion.

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

Genealogy Series There are only three sessions left in the 2025 National Archives Genealogy Series. Tune in on June 3 at 1 pm ET as we chase down cops and robbers in the records. M. Marie Maxwell, archivist, will highlight what may be found in the Metropolitan Police’s Personnel Case Files and the Index to Criminal Cases and Dockets. Other DC police and criminal records, including basic strategies for locating FBI records, will be briefly addressed. Watch on our YouTube channel. Newly Digitized The Obama Presidential Library Digitization Team has now scanned over 7.4 million pages, approximately 35% of textual records in the holdings. The Obama collections team recently released a new set of digitized artifacts—the oversized materials. These extra-large items include whale baleen, walking sticks, and a zebra pelt! View the complete collection of new releases online. This President Abraham walking stick was given to President Obama by a member of the public. Image courtesy of the Barack Obama Presidential Library. D-Day Commemoration The Eisenhower Presidential Library is hosting a screening and panel discussion of the new Kansas City PBS documentary “Winning the War” on Friday, June 6 at 2 p.m. CT. Come examine the enduring legacy of World War II through the lens of Presidents Truman and Eisenhower, whose leadership played decisive roles in ending the war.  The D-Day commemoration events continue with the Symphony at Sunset Annual D-Day Commemoration Concert on Saturday, June 7. Grab a lawn chair, sunscreen, and bug spray for this outdoor showcase of patriotic and popular music from the World War II era. National Archives and Records Administration, 700 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20408

The following is an announcement written by the Augusta Genealogical Society:

AGS June Open House

Click the above link to register online. A flyer is also attached. 

See you at AGS on June 21.  

After 40 years passed since the murder of a 24-year-old in rural Iowa, DNA research allowed law enforcement to arrest a suspect in the case as stated by the Linn County Sheriff's Department.

Officials announced on Wednesday that 64-year-old Michael Schappert was taken into custody for the brutal murder of Ronald Lee Novak which occurred on December 23, 1983 in rural Walker, Iowa. Novak's friend discovered him dead in an unheated room at his residence following a robbery and burglary according to a press release from officials.

According to officials Novak sustained beatings and gunshot wounds to his chest before being discovered with his hands tied behind his back. The medical examiner determined that Novak's death resulted from a combination of injuries along with shock and hypothermia according to officials.

Investigators tested DNA from Novak's clothing and the hammer suspected to be used in the attack throughout the last decade and a half. The DNA testing process resulted in Schappert being identified as the suspect according to Linn County Attorney Nick Maybanks who announced this at Wednesday's press conference.
Genetic genealogy which involves comparing unknown DNA to the DNA of family members who submitted their samples to a database helped authorities identify Schappert. DNA analysis led investigators to three brothers and further tests confirmed Schappert as the suspect.

Officials stated that Schappert currently resides in Fairview Oregon and that he and others likely planned to rob Novak of money and marijuana when they went to his home. The murder case of Novak remains unsolved because officials think an additional suspect participated in the crime.

Linn County Sheriff Brian Gardner stated during the press conference that naming a suspect might trigger other people to provide information who previously remained silent or help them remember details after forty-one years.

Patti Wilson described the investigation as a prolonged journey for her family and expressed how uncertain she was about seeing this day arrive. Hope for finding an answer seemed to fade away. I wanted it so bad. Wilson expressed hope for the upcoming trial.

Wilson explained that her brother was elusive while they remain uncertain about his company at the time of his death since the family did not recognize Schappert. Mr. Novak's family members have suffered through pain and trauma because his murder case remained unsolved for over 40 years. Gardner said that strength is required to survive extreme difficulties while keeping faith that eventually justice will prevail over the responsible party or parties.

Schappert faces first-degree murder charges while he waits in the Multnomah County Detention Center in Portland, Oregon until an extradition hearing will send him back to Linn County, Iowa according to officials.

Details about whether Schappert has hired an attorney to represent him were not immediately known.

People who possess new information about the investigation or know additional potential suspects in this case should reach out to the Linn County Sheriff's Office.

The following announcement was written by Reclaim The Records:

www.ReclaimTheRecords.orgView this e-mail in your browser our fifty-third always stay gracious best revenge is your paper newsletter The New York State Death Index, 1880-2017 We won. We won! Hello again from your friendly neighborhood historical records nerds at Reclaim The Records. We have a very big victory to share with you today: We just won the first-ever public release of the FULL New York State Death Index, from 1880 through the end of 2017. We won this data through a multi-year Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) suit filed against the largest government agency in the state, which eventually worked its way up the highest court in the state. After years of litigation, the New York State Court of Appeals has just handed us a resounding win in Matter of Reclaim the Records v. NY State Department of Health, ordering the state Department of Health (DOH) to turn over numerous fields of information from the New York death index through 2017. The Court of Appeals has also ordered the DOH to justify to a lower court judge through an "in-camera review" the withholding or production of any remaining data fields they might have in their possession, going field‑by‑field for all available years, with a legal presumption of public access for almost all of them. In total, RTR will be receiving information on more than ten million deceased New Yorkers, along with some "extra" fields of indexed information that the state has never released before. And for nearly half of these records, the official death information had never previously been accessible to the public in any form. And as soon as they hand over the data to us, we’re going to publish everything online, for free, in both searchable and downloadable formats, without any restrictions or usage contracts or paywalls, so that neither the state nor commercial entities can ever withhold it again. Because that’s how we roll here. Public data belongs to — and will be returning to — the public!   OMG. What? How?!?! Here’s how it went down. Back in 2021, we submitted our Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request to the New York State Department of Health (NYS DOH), asking them for copies of nearly all of the state’s extant death index records, covering all years from the start of state-mandated records collection in 1880 through the end of the year 2017. After asking the DOH politely, we were told no – twice. What we really wanted was all the data, in text format, for every year, for the state of New York. That’s not too much to ask, right? So when they denied our FOIL request, we sued the government, because obviously. And after nearly four years of work, three rounds of brief-writing and expert affidavits, two appeals to two different courts, and plenty of bureaucratic foot‑dragging, we finally heard the good news. Last Thursday, New York’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, finally said the magic words we’d been waiting for: Give. The. Files. To. The. Public. You guys…? We won. We won big. Here’s the link to the Court of Appeals' decision and it’s so, so good, not only for what it says about public access to historical (and modern!) records, but for the way the court supported and even strengthened the state Freedom of Information Law itself. This ruling is a BFD not just for genealogists and historians, but for anyone who wants to ensure that government records mustbe accessible to the public. We’ve also posted the full text of many other relevant court documents to our website, from our side and from the state, along with our wonderful amici(friend of the court briefs) that were submitted in support of our case, one of them from the Justice Committee (thank you, Gideon!) and one of them from two well-known professional genealogists who do a lot of work in Surrogates' Court (thank you Roger and Debra!). We also posted the formal press release we wrote up announcing our historic victory. Check them out! And we would be remiss if we didn’t give a huge thank you to our primary attorney in this case, the indefatigable Michael Moritz, whose unusual background as a Big Law attorney by day and a Genealogist by night certainly came in handy when helping us craft the legal strategy for this case. You can watch the official video of Michael arguing for our case in front of the Court of Appeals, in case you want to see what it looks like when a panel of top state judges star in an episode of Law and Order: Special Genealogy Unit. (We’ve also written a whole lot more nerdy discussion about the history of what years and fields and formats and images and datafiles (etc.) were and are available, and what we know we’re going to get in this win, and what we think we will likely get in this win. And it’s all online here on our website, if you want to nerd out with us about the details.)   Where do we go from here? We’re not sure yet how long it will take to get the data from the DOH, even with the Court of Appeals’ order, but things should move faster now. We might even get the production of the "basic" fields of death index information before we hash out the legal status of all the other "extra" data fields. What we can say for sure is that as soon as we get the materials, we’ll clean the data, build search tools, and as always publish every last line in free, downloadable, reusable formats. Then we’ll turn to the next locked archive in the next jurisdiction, and do this again! And we couldn’t do it without you guys!   Help Us Keep Fighting – Donate Today! Reclaim The Records is a small but mighty organization that fights for public access to historical records. We don’t take government funding — we rely on grassroots support from people like you. If you believe in open records, transparency, and genealogical rights, please make a donation today. Every dollar goes directly toward legal efforts, public awareness campaigns, and the fight against record closures — and the fight forawesome new records acquisitions, like this one! Here’s how you can support us, and our work. Thank you! Because history should never be padlocked, your happy friends at Reclaim The Records

A woman is warning others about DNA tests because her niece's results uncovered a shocking family secret which led her to end all contact with her mother.

As internet-based DNA tests become easier to purchase many people are discovering fascinating information about their family roots.

A woman warns others about DNA tests because her family experienced disaster when what started as harmless fun turned disastrous.

Her auntie continued in the thread: The mother experienced shock when she discovered her child's existence despite having ended her affair to protect her family's stability.

She completely misunderstood and thought she was pregnant with her partner's child. She loved him deeply yet she chose not to dissolve their marriage because of this.