Archeologists in Norway have discovered the world's oldest dated runestone, featuring runic inscriptions from up to 2,000 years ago.

Researchers at the University of Oslo's Museum of Cultural History found the stone while investigating a burial ground in the municipality of Hole in eastern Norway in fall 2021, according to the museum.

The stone has been named "Svingerudsteinen," or "the Svingerud Stone," after the site where it was found.

Burnt bones and charcoal from the cremation pit where it was discovered revealed that the writing was carved into the reddish-brown sandstone boulder, measuring about a foot in height and width, between 1 and 250 AD.

Runes are the oldest known form of writing in Scandinavia, and the alphabet was widely used from the beginning of the Common Era (CE) and throughout the Viking Age until the late Middle Ages, according to the university.

Scandinavia has several thousand runestones from the Viking Age -- between 793 and 1066 AD -- but there is less evidence of runes from earlier times.

Of the runestones found in Norway, only about 30 are believed to date from earlier than around 550 AD.

Svingerudsteinen is the only stone found by archeologists that dates to before 300 AD. It contains the first three letters of the runic alphabet -- "f," "u" and "th" -- on one of its sides, according to the museum.

You can read more in an article by published in the CNN.News web site at: https://www.cnn.com/style/article/worlds-oldest-runestone-norway-intl-scli-scn/index.html.

Taking care of relatives' graves is an extremely important part of Seto culture. However, in recent years, many Setos living in Estonia have been unable to get to their ancestors' burial sites on the Russian side of the border to ensure their upkeep. Now, a new database has been established to help keep track of the Seto and Estonian graves in neighboring Petserimaa.

According to Ahto Raudoja, director of the Seto Institute, the Estonian-Russian border has never been as closed as it is right now. Under Raudoja's leadership, however, an extensive database of cemeteries in eastern Petserimaa has been created. The database can help people find the graves of loved ones who are buried on the Russian side of the border.

The graves of thousands of Setos and Estonians are located in the cemeteries of Petserimaa, on the Russian side of the border. Most of the graves can be found in the cemeteries of the Lutheran and Orthodox churches in the city of Petseri. Others are in Orthodox cemeteries in the towns of Taeluva, Saalessa, Mõla and Pankjavitsa.

"The Petseri Lutheran cemetery was established in 1911. The Estonians and intellectuals who lived and worked (in Petseri), are mostly buried there. However, Setos are buried in the Orthodox cemetery," said Raudoja.

In Seto culture, it is said that the path leading to an ancestors' grave cannot become overgrown. However, Setos living in Estonia have not been able to get to the graves of their ancestors buried on the Russian side of the border in order to tend to them, for several years. First, due to the coronavirus pandemic and now as a result of Russia's war in Ukraine.

You can read more in an article by Mirjam Mõttus published in the ERR.EE web site at: https://news.err.ee/1608854477/new-database-helps-setos-find-graves-of-relatives-on-russian-side-of-border.

The iconic Clerys clock was unveiled today as part of a major restoration of the landmark department store on O’Connell Street, Dublin, Ireland.

Dubliners looked on as the emerald green clock face with gold roman numerals was unveiled by Dublin’s Lord Mayor Caroline Conroy and clockmaker Philip Stokes.

To mark the restoration, a new archive of documents, artefacts, objects and images opens to the public tomorrow and will tell the story of the store, with rescued artefacts dating back to 1847.

Before the clock was unveiled, former Clerys workers exchanged warm embraces as they recalled memories of the store in its glory days.

“It’s a great buzz, I’m more than delighted,” said John Crowe, a former Clerys worker of 40 years who attended the opening.

You can read more in an article by Amy Blaney published in the Independent,ie web site at: https://tinyurl.com/mvzys92k.

You can also watch a YouTube video of the occasion at: https://youtu.be/AQypXSMoYCY.

A staggering 706,009 pages have been added to the newspaper archive this week, with 11 new titles and many more updated. 

New titles: 

·         Blaydon Courier, 1929 

·         Evening Echo (Cork), 1904, 1909, 1914 

·         Football Echo (Sunderland), 1956 

·         Islington News and Hornsey Gazette, 1918 

·         Manchester City News, 1901-1902, 1904, 1906, 1910, 1914, 1937 

·         Southport Guardian, 1901, 1906, 1921 

·         Sports Post (Leeds), 1925 

·         St. Pancras Guardian and Camden and Kentish Towns Reporter, 1881, 1908, 1910, 1912, 1918 

·         Thomson’s Weekly News, 1933 

·         Whitehaven Advertiser and Cleator Moor and Egremont Observer, 1918 

·         Yorkshire Evening News, 1907, 1914 

Updated titles: 

·         Accrington Observer and Times, 1920 

·         Aldershot News, 1907, 1909 

·         Ashby Mail, 1999 

·         Atherstone News and Herald, 1986 

·         Axholme Herald, 1993 

·         Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, 1778 

·         Birmingham Daily Post, 1902-1909 

·         Birmingham Mail, 1919-1920, 1992 

·         Birmingham News, 1999 

·         Cambridge Town Crier, 1999 

·         Cannock Chase Post, 1999 

·         Caterham Mirror, 1999 

·         Catholic Times and Catholic Opinion, 1903 

·         Cheltenham News, 1999 

·         Chertsey & Addlestone Leader, 1999 

·         Cheshire Observer, 1863 

·         Chester Chronicle (Frodsham & Helsby edition), 1997 

·         Coleshill Chronicle, 1981 

·         Dorking and Leatherhead Advertiser, 1999 

·         Dorset County Chronicle, 1929 

·         Durham Chronicle, 1916 

·         Ealing & Southall Informer, 1999 

·         East Kilbride News, 1992 

·         East Sussex Focus, 1992 

·         Esher News and Mail, 1986-1987, 1989, 1992-1993, 1996-1998 

·         Evening Despatch, 1950 

·         Evening Herald (Dublin), 1949 

·         Faversham Times and Mercury and North-East Kent Journal, 1998 

·         Gainsborough Target, 1998-1999 

·         Gateshead Post, 1979, 1983, 1990, 1995, 1997-1999 

·         Grimsby Daily Telegraph, 1992 

·         Harrow Informer, 1999 

·         Hertford Mercury and Reformer, 1953 

·         Hinckley Times, 1989 

·         Horncastle Target, 1998 

·         Hounslow & Chiswick Informer, 1983, 1985 

·         Huddersfield and Holmfirth Examiner, 1875-1876, 1881, 1884, 1887 

·         Huddersfield Daily Examiner, 1875-1876, 1880, 1883-1884, 1887 

·         Hull Daily Mail, 1974-1977, 1982-1983, 1986, 1990, 1994-1995, 1999 

·         Huntingdon Town Crier, 1999 

·         Irvine Herald, 1980-1981, 1983-1985 

·         Lanark & Carluke Advertiser, 1999 

·         Leatherhead Advertiser, 1998-1999 

·         Lincoln Target, 1999 

·         Lincolnshire Echo, 1951, 1953, 1956-1958, 1960, 1962-1964, 1967-1976, 1978-1983, 1985, 1988-1989, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1997-1998 

·         Liverpool Daily Post, 1879, 1904 

·         Liverpool Daily Post (Welsh Edition), 1979 

·         Liverpool Evening Express, 1901 

·         Loughborough Echo, 1989 

·         Maghull & Aintree Star, 1999 

·         Middleton Guardian, 1918 

·         Newcastle Daily Chronicle, 1924-1925 

·         Northampton Herald & Post, 1999 

·         Rhondda Leader, 1991 

·         Rhyl, Prestatyn Visitor, 1999 

·         Rossendale Free Press, 1999 

·         Ruislip & Northwood Gazette, 1999 

·         Sevenoaks Chronicle and Kentish Advertiser, 1999 

·         Solihull News, 1986 

·         South Wales Echo, 1993, 1995-1996 

·         St Neots Town Crier, 1999 

·         Staines Leader, 1999 

·         Stanmore Observer, 1999 

·         Stockport Express Advertiser, 1998 

·         Stockport Times, 1999 

·         Sunbury & Shepperton Herald, 1998-1999 

·         Surrey Herald, 1999 

·         Surrey Mirror, 1961, 1963-1968, 1970, 1997, 1999 

·         Surrey-Hants Star, 1999 

·         Sussex Daily News, 1917 

·         Sutton Coldfield Observer, 1999 

·         The People, 1999 

·         Thetford & Watton Times, 1914-1916 

·         Uttoxeter New Era, 1893-1894, 1904, 1907 

·         Wellingborough & Rushden Herald & Post, 1999 

·         Winsford Chronicle, 1990 

·         Worcester Journal, 1907 

·         Yorkshire Evening Press, 1905 

·         Yorkshire Gazette, 1903 

·         Holborn and Finsbury Guardian, 1891 

·         Luton News and Bedfordshire Chronicle, 1926, 1958 

·         Lynn Advertiser, 1978-1979 

An online resource holds records of human tissue held in more than 300 local United Kingdom museums.

Honouring the Ancient Dead (HAD) has completed the first major edition of its Your Local Museum database, which brings together records of ancient human remains held in more than 300 museums. All the museums seem to be in   the British Isles.

Each entry records how many ancestral remains the museum has in its collection, whether any are on display and what policies the museum may have for their care.

The resource is open for anyone to use and can be maintained by museums themselves through the HAD website, or via the organisation’s team. HAD uses the term “ancestors” rather than human remains in order to emphasise that human tissue, such as bones, skulls and cremated ash, belonged to individual people who may be ancient relatives of Britain’s modern-day population.

HAD was founded in 2004 to advocate for the respectful treatment of the bodies of the UK’s ancient dead and their related funereal artefacts, usually in the context of archaeological excavations and subsequent storage or display.

The new online database, which has been 14 years in the making, was created with the aim of understanding the scale of ancestral remains stored in British museums and allowing anyone to discover what is held at their own local museum.

In a statement the organisation said: “HAD would like to take this opportunity to thank all those museums, and their busy staff, for providing the responses that made compiling this database possible over the last 14 years. It is a credit to the museum profession that so many obviously care deeply about the ancestors in their care.”

You can read more at: https://www.museumsassociation.org/museums-journal/news/2023/01/honouring-the-ancient-dead-completes-database-of-ancient-human-remains/#.

For further details and access to the database visit HAD’s website at http://www.honour.org.uk/.

Hundreds of court documents from the 1692 Salem Witch Trials are being transferred from the Salem museum where they have been stored for more than four decades to the newly expanded Judicial Archives facility in Boston.

The 527 documents — which include transcripts of testimony and examinations, depositions, warrants for apprehension and other legal papers — were moved to the Peabody Essex Museum in 1980 for safekeeping, officials said Thursday.

Although the museum had acquired some documents on its own, most had been stored at the clerk’s office at Essex County Superior Court, the museum said.

To properly preserve them, the documents need to be stored under the proper environmental conditions, including at or below 70 degrees Fahrenheit (21 degrees Celsius), at 50% relative humidity, and in low-light conditions, Dan Lipcan, director of the museum's Phillips Library in Rowley, said in a statement. They are also kept in acid-free folders and boxes and in fireproof cabinets.

“We are grateful to PEM for its capable stewardship of these invaluable documents and gratified that the state can now welcome the Salem Witch Trials documents home to the Judicial Archives,” Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Kimberly Budd said in a statement. “The court deeply appreciates the extraordinary public service that the museum has provided in caring for this unique collection for more than 40 years."

The SJC, the state's highest court, traces its origins to the witch trials. Originally the Superior Court of Judicature, created in November 1692, one of its first tasks was hearing the cases of 26 people accused of witchcraft. Twenty-three were found not guilty, and the other three were later pardoned, according to the court's history.

The witch trials were fomented by superstition and fear of disease, outsiders and Native Americans, and were stoked by petty jealousies and personal vendettas involving several families. Of the 20 people convicted of witchcraft and subsequently put to death, 19 were hanged and one was crushed to death by rocks.

The story and tragedy of the trials resonates to this day.

You can read more in an Associated Press article at: https://www.wral.com/hundreds-of-salem-witch-trials-documents-get-new-home/20670428/.

Comment by Dick Eastman: I have used some of these documents at the Peabody Essex Museum many, many years ago. (None of my ancestors were mentioned in the papers except one reference to one of my ancestors supplying an affidavit to the court stating that he believed one the accused witches was innocent. 

I do believe the new move of the documents is a good thing as the new location has better climate control that will preserve the documents for many more years.

Forensic Genealogy. What is it? How does it work? What are some practical examples of its use?

Criminology, aside from fingerprint technology -- thre's been no greater development in solving crimes than DNA. And now that tech has expanded with the use of forensic genealogy -- the marriage of DNA using public genealogy databases to identify criminals by identifying their relatives and then closing the circle and coming up with a suspect.

FOX 10's John Hook talks to Dr. Colleen Fitzpatrick, a pioneer in the discipline, who has solved murders. She's revealed identities of murder victims and unraveled countless mysteries.

You can watch a YouTube video that answers those questions and more. John Hook of FOX 10 Phoenix interviews Dr. Colleen Fitzpatrick, a pioneer in the discipline, who has solved murders,  revealed identities of murder victims and unraveled countless mysteries.

All this and more is available at: https://youtu.be/whfBq3pNle4

Who are we, really?

For many, the best way to answer that question is to dig into their genealogical pasts, amassing family trees that go back generations, supported by birth certificates, immigration documents, municipal records and whatever else can be tracked down. Before the dawn of the personal computer, that task was a prodigious and labor intensive undertaking.

But it’s a personal journey that has become considerably easier in the last decade or so thanks to the widespread digitization of public records and document archives and technological advancements that have turned genealogical research into a user-friendly, plug-and-play process.

The engine behind much of that research evolution is a genealogical products and service industry that generated some $3.5 billion in revenues in 2021 is expected to grow to over $8 billion annually by 2030.

Search specialist and veteran entrepreneur Kendall Hulet knows a thing or two about genealogy and search services having spent 14 years upgrading the search functions for family history giant Ancestry.com and launching his own mobile browser, Cake, a few years back.

Now, Hulet is CEO of Storied, a newly announced rebrand of newspaper and record archive service World Archives which was acquired in 2020 by Charles Thayne Capital. Storied is looking to make stories, from relatives as well as the important people in our lives outside the family circle, an integral part of building family histories.

“Records are awesome and a lot of family history sites are really good at hosting records and making them searchable,” Hulet said. “Right now, when discussions about family history happen, people’s eyes glaze over a little because it’s not stories they’re hearing, just a list of facts and dates.

“But stories are what really matter. Telling stories around campfires has been happening throughout our history and it’s how humans are hardwired to communicate.”

Storied is getting a running start as a new genealogy service, thanks to the billions of domestic and international records already amassed by World Archives.

While Storied is continuing to build out that database, its new platform offers tools to create, document and share stories from family members and the pivotal, nonfamily members who’ve impacted life stories and whose narratives complete the richer tale of a life lived, Hulet said.

You can read more in an article by Art Raymond published in the Deseret News web site at https://tinyurl.com/2zrdnhf2

You can also watch a YouTube video that describes Storied at https://youtu.be/ESYJZGGGCbU.

The devastation of the plague pandemic left such an incredible genetic mark on humanity that it's still affecting our health nearly 700 years later.

Up to half of people died when the Black Death swept through Europe in the mid-1300s.

A pioneering study analysing the DNA of centuries-old skeletons found mutations that helped people survive the plague.

But those same mutations are linked to auto-immune diseases afflicting people today.

The Black Death is one of the most significant, deadliest and bleakest moments in human history. It is estimated that up to 200 million people died.

Researchers suspected an event of such enormity must have shaped human evolution. They analysed DNA taken from the teeth of 206 ancient skeletons and were able to precisely date the human remains to before, during or after the Black Death.

The analysis included bones from the East Smithfield plague pits which were used for mass burials in London with more samples coming from Denmark.

The standout finding, published in the journal Nature, surrounded mutations in a gene called ERAP2.

If you had the right mutations you were 40% more likely to survive the plague.

You can read more in an article by James Gallagher published in the BBC News web site at: https://www.bbc.com/news/health-63316538.