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  • 11 Oct 2022 10:31 AM | Anonymous

    My thanks to the organizers of the Family History Show for writing this report (and video) AFTER the show to document the success of the show:

    The Family History Show, London that took place at Kempton Park Racecourse on Saturday 24th September 2022 was a resounding success. The show, organised by Discover Your Ancestors Magazine went down extremely well in its new venue.

    Visitors flocked to the free talks in the large lecture theatres and had the rare chance of asking the experts for help in a one-to-one session to break down the brickwalls in their research.

    I do like the venue, it's really easy to get to from the station, I came on public transport and it was easy; I just got off at the station, walked down and there it is!”

    Elsa Churchill from the Society of Genealogists

    Steve, who attended with his wife, emailed “Just wanted to say thank you for the excellent event you laid on this weekend. First time my wife and I have been and we really enjoyed it… We loved the day and look forward to returning again soon!”

    Another visitor to the show said:

    I just felt that the location is brilliant. I love the light and the airiness of the venue. I think the venue is super, you should come here again… I'll definitely come again if you hold it here.”

    Exhibitors comments were also positive about The Family History Show and its venue:

    Terrific location, well signposted off the main roads and motorways…the catering was excellent with efficient staff, with good food and drink” – This Way Books

    It’s been really interesting coming back again and just seeing the family history community coming together again…to promote what we do and just say how friendly, collaborative and helpful this community can be.”

    Elsa Churchill from the Society of Genealogists

    Easy to get to, easy to park, easy to unload, good facilities, lovely food, plenty of loos, nice and airy with plenty of room to walk around in.” – The London Westminster & Middlesex Family History Society

    The organisers of the Family History Show London were very happy with the way the event went and are bringing it back to Kempton next year on the 2nd September 2023. With the on-site railway station, plentiful parking, food court and the courteous and friendly venue staff this is set to become a regular for family historians in London and the South East.

    See the video of The Family History Show, London 2022:

    https://youtu.be/d5g-dQMwxRE

  • 11 Oct 2022 9:48 AM | Anonymous

    The world’s largest family history gathering will return in 2023, and registration for the event is now open.

    RootsTech is scheduled for March 2–4, 2023, including an in-person event in Salt Lake City, Utah, to complement its extensive online conference. Millions of virtual and in-person attendees are expected to gather for inspiring learning opportunities that will help them connect to their family — past, present and future.

    Though 2023 marks the 13th year of RootsTech, it will be the first year since 2019 that the in-person experiences are being offered for the popular global event, which has been completely virtual since 2020 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

    “The incredible blessing and miracle of the RootsTech virtual experiences is that we were able to confirm that there are so many more people worldwide who are interested in learning more about their family history, stories and connecting,” said Jonathan Wing, creative manager for RootsTech.

    The theme for RootsTech 2023 is “Uniting.”

    “RootsTech really is about uniting … with your family first and foremost, but also to connect with stories and discovery experiences through your family history,” said Jen Allen, director of events at FamilySearch. “We connect like-minded people who want to gather and learn similar things, [and] with new knowledge, learning, innovation and services that will help you make new connections to your family history.”

    In 2022, over 3 million people participated online. Since the beginning, innovation has been a guiding principle for RootsTech. Each year, the event organizers adapt the content to appeal to people worldwide and to stay current. The 2023 event is striving to do the same by bringing the best of the virtual and in-person experiences together.

    “I think it would be really easy for people to assume we are having two separate events happening at the same time,” Wing said. “But we will be connecting what’s happening virtually with what’s occurring in person. We’re creating ways for virtual attendees to participate with some of the in-person activities."

    There will be inspiring keynotes, entertainment and more than 200 new classes at the event. The Expo Hall will also return with over 200 exhibitors, product demonstrations and interactions with research specialists.

    RootsTech is sponsored by FamilySearch. Register now at RootsTech.org.


  • 10 Oct 2022 8:09 PM | Anonymous

    Different cultures have varying customs of dealing with deceased ancestors. One of the more macabre is popular in Madagascar:

    "All cultures have rituals and celebrations to honor the dead—Halloween among them, even if its modern form is mostly about costumes and candy. In Madagascar, the famadihana is a ceremony during which families speak with deceased ancestors. But it involves a very different type of dressing: exhuming and rewrapping ancestors’ remains.

    "When a Malagasy person dies, it is traditional for their body to be wrapped in a sheet and placed in a family crypt, usually a large stone structure in the village where the family is from. These crypts will contain dozens of ancestors going back many generations. Once every six or seven years, the family will open the crypt for a famadihana, a day-long ceremony in which some of the ancestors are taken out, rewrapped in new sheets and returned.

    “When you get out the ancestors, and you see their remains, you cry. But it is also a moment of happiness. You are happy to see your relatives and you ask for their blessing,” says Nancy Rahaingoarivony, a Malagasy who now lives in Switzerland.

    “Physically an ancestor may be dead, but they are still there,” she adds. You talk to them, and introduce to them new members of the family. “The dead are the link between God and the living, and it is very important to respect this culture. The famadihana is when we ask our ancestors for their blessings. For the Malagasy, a successful life is one that has had the blessing of the ancestors and the grace of God.”

    You can read more at: https://bit.ly/3rMZby2.


  • 10 Oct 2022 7:55 PM | Anonymous

    From an article by Peter White published in the deadline.com web site:

    "Who Do You Think You Are?, the rebooted genealogy docuseries, is the latest unscripted series to find itself in limbo.

    "Deadline understands that the network has parked the show, which returned in July after nearly 10 years after it first aired on NBC, with no current plans for a second season. A final decision is expected to come in early 2023.

    "The show comes from exec producers Lisa Kudrow and Dan Bucatinsky."

    You can read more at: https://bit.ly/3erYxTj.


  • 10 Oct 2022 10:29 AM | Anonymous

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

    (+) The Cheap and Easy Way to Find an Ancestor's Grave

    Genealogy From State to State

    Ancient DNA Hunter Who Sequenced First Neanderthal Genome Wins Nobel Prize for Medicine

    National Archives Seeks Feedback on Draft Customer Research Agenda

    Sara & Sam Schoffer Holocaust Resource Center Launches ‘Holocaust Survivors of South Jersey’ Digital Archive and Website

    Archivists Present Research on Database Identifying Victims of Slavery

    Enslaved Family History Records Brought to Public Light by Mississippi Project

    New Polynesian Archaeology Journal Launched by University of Hawaiʻi Faculty

    North Carolina Digital Heritage Center Extends Operations With $600,000 Grant

    New Online Projects at the British Library

    Findmypast Releases New Records for Surrey, England

    Encyclopedia of Chicago

    Vermont Archives Month Theme Announced

    Spend the Night in Your Ancestors' Castle



  • 10 Oct 2022 9:30 AM | Anonymous

    In the wake of Hawaiʻi Archaeology Week (September 26–October 2), the University of Hawaiʻi Press joins two non-profit organizations to launch the Journal of Polynesian Archaeology and Research, an open-access title that will soon accept submissions for its inaugural issue.

    The new journal will be co-edited by Mara Mulrooney and Jillian Swift, who are both affiliate graduate faculty at UH Mānoa. The two editors developed the publication as a forum to bring together important research and conversations around archaeology, history and heritage management in Polynesia. The editorial board is comprised of UH faculty including Professors Patrick V. Kirch (anthropology, UH Mānoa), Ty P. Kawika Tengan (ethnic studies, UH Mānoa), Seth Quintus (anthropology, UH Mānoa) and Peter Mills (anthropology, UH Hilo), among others.

    “The Journal of Polynesian Archaeology and Research will continue the tradition of publishing cutting-edge results of archaeological research in Hawaiʻi and throughout Polynesia, as well as providing a forum for discussion and debate regarding archaeological practice in the region,” noted Kirch. “I expect that the journal will be an essential resource for both scholars and the engaged public.”

    Free and open access

    For more than three decades, both of the journal’s sponsoring organizations—the Society for Hawaiian Archaeology and the Easter Island Foundation—have been committed to promoting research and dialogue on the archaeology of Polynesia. While distribution of previous publications were limited to members, this new journal will be published open-access and freely available to all readers.

    You can read more at: https://www.hawaii.edu/news/2022/10/04/new-polynesian-archaeology-journal/

  • 10 Oct 2022 9:26 AM | Anonymous

    For many Americans, finding a family's history is a relatively straightforward process. Multiple research options allow people to find their people from the moment they stepped onto the shores of this country and even before.

    The problem with genealogical research for many African Americans is that before 1870, there were very few records because they were not documented as human beings but as property.

    However, an ongoing multi-state project enlisting help from three universities and libraries hopes to build a bridge for African American families wanting to trace their roots.

    The Lantern Project is an effort to scan and make available to the public legal records documenting enslaved persons. Probate records and various other legal records from the early 1800s have been or are being scanned and will be available to people doing family history research or anyone interested.

    This effort is intended to shine a light – thus the name Lantern – into ancestry that has been difficult to trace. The project has scanned Adams County court records from early statehood and some from Washington and Lowndes counties.

    Six institutions are participating in the project: Mississippi State University, University of Mississippi, Delta State, Historic Natchez Foundation, Columbus-Lowndes Public Library, and Montgomery County (Alabama) Archives.

    You can read (much) more at: https://bit.ly/3yvurFg

  • 7 Oct 2022 9:50 PM | Anonymous

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

    If you own a smartphone (Android or iPhone), you already have all the hardware needed to easily locate cemeteries and, in many cases, even go quickly to specific tombstones within each cemetery. You will need a bit of software, but that is available free of charge from several vendors. You will also need to spend a bit of time online, preparing for the trip.

    To find a tombstone, first look on these two great genealogy resources: Find-A-Grave and BillionGraves. Not all tombstones have been catalogued on those two sites just yet; but there are millions of tombstones listed so far, and more are being added daily.

    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/12946739

    If you are not yet a Plus Edition subscriber, you can learn more about such subscriptions and even upgrade to a Plus Edition subscription immediately at https://eogn.com/page-18077.


  • 7 Oct 2022 10:44 AM | Anonymous

    Swedish geneticist Svante Pääbo has won the Nobel Prize for medicine for pioneering the use of ancient DNA to unlock secrets about human evolution.

    The Nobel Committee said Monday that Pääbo “accomplished something seemingly impossible” when he sequenced the first Neanderthal genome and revealed that Homo sapiens interbred with Neanderthals. His discovery was made public in 2010, after Pääbo pioneered methods to extract, sequence and analyze ancient DNA from Neanderthal bones. Thanks to his work, scientists can compare Neanderthal genomes with the genetic records of humans living today.

    “Pääbo’s seminal research gave rise to an entirely new scientific discipline; paleogenomics,” the committee said. “By revealing genetic differences that distinguish all living humans from extinct hominins, his discoveries provide the basis for exploring what makes us uniquely human.”

    Pääbo found that most present-day humans share 1% to 4% of their DNA with Neanderthals, meaning Neanderthals and Homo sapiens must have encountered one another and had children before Neanderthals went extinct around 40,000 years ago.

    He has worked as the director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany since 1997, and is an Honorary Research Fellow at London’s Natural History Museum.

    “His major contribution is being a pioneer in recovering ancient DNA and that has been extremely important in the study of human evolution.” Chris Stringer, research lead in human evolution at that museum.

    You can read a lot more in an article by Rob Picheta and Katie Hunt published in the CNN web site at: https://cnn.it/3EGTJ7B.


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