When the Cold War grew chillier around 1950, the U.S. military worried about a communist land invasion of the United States. So pilots were employed – many of them veterans of World War II – to photograph the entire country using aircraft.

This 70-year-old archive of overlapping photos was taken at different angles, providing topographic information for artillery in the event the Soviets rolled onto American soil. Such a “Red Dawn” never happened, but those pilots created an invaluable historical snapshot that predates useful satellite imagery by decades.

The collection was stored away and eventually digitized by the U.S. Geological Survey. Now the University of Montana and its partners have created a new tool, Landscape Explorer, which combines those 1950s photos with modern satellite imagery. It can be found online at https://www.landscapeexplorer.org/.

Visit the site and type in a city, location or your own address, and a slider can be pulled back and forth across the resulting image, allowing people to easily visualize the changes that have taken place during the past seven decades. At present the tool covers the American West, from the Pacific Ocean to North Dakota and down to Texas.

You can read more in an article by Cary Shimek published in the University of Montana web site at: https://www.umt.edu/news/2023/10/101723expl.php 

The same hacker who leaked a trove of user data stolen from the genetic testing company 23andMe two weeks ago has now leaked millions of new user records. On Tuesday, a hacker who goes by Golem published a new dataset of 23andMe user information containing records of four million users on the known cybercrime forum BreachForums. TechCrunch has found that some of the newly leaked stolen data matches known and public 23andMe user and genetic information. Golem claimed the dataset contains information on people who come from Great Britain, including data from "the wealthiest people living in the U.S. and Western Europe on this list." 

Within the intricate tapestry of Latino heritage, genealogy research explores the culture, migration and history that embodies the resilience and diversity of the global community celebrated throughout Hispanic Heritage Month.

Why it matters: Tracing lineage is crucial for cultural connection and historical preservation, particularly for minority communities that are often overlooked in history.

• "Particularly with Latinos, so much of our history was left out of the mainstream historical narratives," Colleen Robledo Greene, a California-based genealogist specializing in Mexican research, tells Axios.

Reality check: The percentage of Americans with Hispanic ancestry who do not identify as Hispanic is rising across generations, according to 2018 Pew Research Center data.

• More than half of U.S.-born young adults with Hispanic ancestry, whose parents and grandparents are also U.S.-born, do not strongly identify with their Hispanic ties as they assimilate into American culture.

The employees at MyHeritage are overcome with grief at the tragic deaths of Ron Shemer and Ilay Nachman, two members of the MyHeritage employee family. Ron and Ilay were murdered in the early morning of October 7, 2023 while attending the Nova music festival, at the onset of the Hamas attack on Israel. Ron was 23 years old, and Ilay was almost 24. Ron and Ilay exemplified the values that we hold dear at MyHeritage: compassion, dedication, leadership, and above all, family. To honor their memory, please take a moment to read this tribute. 

The Jefferson County Genealogical Society has announced plans to disband and end family history research assistance by the end of the year or early in 2024.

“It has been challenging to attract society members to take on officer and board member positions in recent years,” JCGS President Christine Merseal said in a written statement. “The society held on to hope during the last several meetings that a member would step forward. However, that is not the case.”

A group of Jefferson County Library employees and patrons established the JCGS in 1996 to help Jefferson County residents research their family history. Every month, the JCGS has held meetings and speaking events at the Northwest Branch of the Jefferson County Library, 5680 Hwy. PP.

“I’m incredibly proud of the Jefferson County Genealogical Society’s work to promote and encourage family history research,” Merseal said. “Our members have worked hard over the years. Genealogy is a passion we all enjoy.”

Merseal is a charter member of the organization. Throughout the history of JCGS, she has served as president for five non-consecutive terms, for a total of 10 years. She said the society will likely disband sometime between Dec. 31 and mid-January 2024.

You can read more in an article by Abby Stetina published in the myleaderpaper web site at: https://www.myleaderpaper.com/news/jcgs-to-disband/article_a3f280d0-690f-11ee-bf25-678957adabaa.html 

The Royal Albert Hall's archive has been saved from flooding and preserved in a £1m rescue operation.

The South Kensington venue's collection includes a trumpet from the opening ceremony 152 years ago and a programme designed by Pablo Picasso.

The archive spans the venue's history since its inception in the 1850s and consists of tens of thousands of items.

Chief executive James Ainscough said the collection brought "extraordinary events to life".

"This famous building has been a crucible of debate, a place of cultural and social transformation, and a prism through which to see a changing Britain," he said.

"No other venue on earth has played host to the Suffragettes, Albert Einstein and Muhammed Ali, as well as Ella Fitzgerald, The Beatles and Adele."

The archive had been stored in four different locations across the building, with the basement store repeatedly flooding and threatening to destroy some of the artefacts.

The collection is now housed in a fireproof climate-controlled studio in the building with a new reading room, and is open to historians, researchers and the public by appointment. 

It will allow the Royal Albert Hall's archivists to conduct tours of its contents for the first time.

You can read more in an article written by Jess Warren and published in the BBC web site at: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-67099592 

DNA is the key to a person’s most sacred hidden links.

Through a tiny sample of saliva you can unlock the door to one’s genetic traits, health risks, familial relationships and even ancestral roots. This most confidential information is now at risk of no longer being confidential after hackers stole genetic data from millions through popular DNA testing firm 23andMe. 

About 1 in 5 adults in America have taken at-home genetic tests. Companies that offer these tests such as 23andMe, AncestryDNA, MyHeritage and others blew up in popularity in 2017 after successful advertising campaigns and end-of-the-year price cuts made them even more accessible to consumers. The popularity of at-home DNA tests has remained ever since.

However, privacy concerns have recently come to light after 23andMe, one of the first companies to offer direct-to-consumer genetic testing, had a data breachearlier this month. Hackers performed a credential stuffing attack where cyber criminals use stolen usernames and passwords from a previous hack to gain access to accounts in the system. 

Data from profiles — which included DNA ancestry and other personal information — was compromised in the 23andMe data breach. The information was put up for sale by hackers, raising concerns and questions as to why on earth would hackers be interested in obtaining information pulled from DNA samples.

Apparently DNA data is a hot commodity on the black market, and here are a few reasons why it can be valuable to malicious actors.

However, privacy concerns have recently come to light after 23andMe, one of the first companies to offer direct-to-consumer genetic testing, had a data breach earlier this month. Hackers performed a credential stuffing attack where cyber criminals use stolen usernames and passwords from a previous hack to gain access to accounts in the system. 

Data from profiles — which included DNA ancestry and other personal information — was compromised in the 23andMe data breach. The information was put up for sale by hackers, raising concerns and questions as to why on earth would hackers be interested in obtaining information pulled from DNA samples.

You can read more, including information on how hackers can use the stolen DNA information, in an article by U-Jin Lee published in thestreet web site at: https://www.thestreet.com/technology/hackers-could-use-your-stolen-dna-data-as-a-weapon. 

The Aeolian Islands are a group of seven islands situated north of Sicily. These  include the islands of  Lipari, Salina and Stromboli. From the late 19th century there was large migration from this archipelago  to USA, Australia and other parts of the world. 

The seminar is being run both in person and online from Melbourne, Australia. 

Last year people from many countries attended live by Zoom. 

Recordings are available (for a limited time) for  those who cannot attend live.

The cost of AUD $45 is approximately $US 29.

A flyer for the Seminar/Webinar with further details may be found at: https://tinyurl.com/y2r5939k

This article is not about any of the "normal" topics of this newsletter: genealogy, history, current affairs, DNA, and related topics. However, I believe it contains information of interest to every owner of a computer:

Good software is the basis of all PC use, but many professional programs are too expensive for private use. This is where the free software-based applications step in, which, including their source code, are available free of charge on the internet. 

This immediately raises the question of quality and functionality. Don’t worry, open source software is often a real competitor to professional products. 

In this guide, we present the best open source tools for typical areas of application — from Office, to media editing, to file management and backup.

You can read the full article written by Jörn-Erik Burkert and published in the PCWorld web site at: https://www.pcworld.com/article/2091349/the-best-open-source-tools-at-a-glance.html 

A new project is underway to examine one of the British Library’s oldest and most important collections. The Cotton charters and rolls are being catalogued as part of the Library’s Hidden Collections initiative. Begun by the antiquarian and politician Sir Robert Cotton (1571–1631), and augmented by his son and grandson, the Cotton collection was the first library to be presented to the nation, in 1702, and it has been part of the British Library and its predecessor, the British Museum Library, since the latter’s foundation in 1753. The Cotton manuscripts, which include some of the most famous volumes to survive from medieval Britain, from Beowulf to the Lindisfarne Gospels, are described already on the British Library’s Archives and Manuscripts online catalogue. The whole collection was entered on the UNESCO Memory of the World UK Register in 2018.

You can read more in an article in the British Library’s web site at: https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2023/10/cataloguing-the-cotton-charters.html.