RootsTech by FamilySearch is honored to announce its first keynote speaker, president and founder of the Dred Scott Foundation and great-great-granddaughter of Dred and Harriet Scott, Lynne M. Jackson.  A remarkable woman, Lynne Jackson will take the RootsTech main stage on Friday, March 1, 2024, to speak on the importance of remembering and connecting with ancestors, touching upon the story of her great-great-grandparents, Dred and Harriet Scott, and how their legacy has shaped her life.

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Learn more about Lynne M. Jackson

23andMe is selling everyone's DNA to the pharmaceutical industry. Yes, that includes your personal information if you are a 23andMe customer.

GSK Plc will pay 23andMe Holding Co. $20 million for access to the genetic-testing company's vast trove of consumer DNA data, extending a five-year collaboration that's allowed the drugmaker to mine genetic data as it researches new medications.

Details can be found at: https://boingboing.net/2023/10/30/23andme-to-sell-dna-records-to-drug-company.html. 

An Idaho woman who received fertility treatment from her gynecologist is suing him after she learned the doctor used his own sperm to inseminate her more than three decades ago.

A lawsuit, filed by Sharon Hayes in Spokane County Superior Court, claims former Spokane, Washington Dr. David R. Claypool violated the state's medical malpractice statute which requires doctors to get informed consent from patients for treatment. 

This spring, Hayes' 33-year-old daughter initially took an at-home DNA test seeking answers about" "ongoing health issues," the lawsuit claims, and learned not only was the ex-OBG-YN her biological father, but she shares DNA with 16 people in Washington state.

Hayes, of Kootenai County, about 30 miles east of Spokane, is the among throngs of women who have alleged they were tricked by a doctor they trusted to inseminate them with sperm from chosen or anonymous donors. The women all claim they didn't learn the identity of their child's father until their children took genetic tests − some until decades after they were born.

"My initial reaction was deep, deeply rooted guilt, for even finding out this information, because my mom never told me about any of this until I took the DNA test," Hayes's daughter, Brianna Hayes, who took the test, told KREM-TV.

Warning: This article contains personal opinions.

A newsletter reader asked, "Is there a way to print out (I know; I am bad) an item without all of the right column (Subscribe, Read, Steal, Search, Links, Etc.) being printed? A recent blog was 23 pages of the blog but would have printed out 45 pages in all. If not, OK. I can watch and halt the printing, when I remember."

My answer may have surprised the person who asked. I replied, "I strongly recommend that you NEVER print anything and thereby waste paper! I never print anything from web sites and rarely print anything from anyplace else. I work hard to keep a paperless lifestyle."

Actually, you are free to print most anything in this newsletter and even forward most items or republish them elsewhere, as you please. However, I try hard to never print anything and I suggest you do the same. Why waste paper? There are better ways to keep things for a long time!

As I wrote in an article more than two years ago:

"I have written a number of times about the advantages of a paperless lifestyle. Genealogists seem especially attached to paper. We often save photocopies of old records, old books, and much, much more. I once bought a four-drawer filing cabinet to store all my paper. A few years later, I purchased a SECOND four-drawer filing cabinet. I purchased probably more than one hundred dollars’ worth of file folders over the years. I photocopied and photocopied and stored all the paper in neatly-arranged folders.

"Sadly, I almost never opened the drawers to retrieve anything. When I did attempt to find something, I often couldn’t locate what I wanted because the document was filed in some obscure method. For instance, the marriage record I might be seeking often was filed under the husband’s surname, not under the wife’s maiden name.

"Like a recovering alcoholic, I have since broken my addiction to paper. I now live about 98% paper-free, and I love it. Almost every piece of paper that enters my house is either (1.) discarded immediately or (2.) scanned into my computer, and then the paper is discarded. I don’t ever want to go back to cluttering my life with paper. And, yes, I have multiple backups of everything worth saving; some backup copies are stored at home, and other copies are stored off-site for safety."

Life without paper is great! I can now find things easier than ever before. It saves space. I can electronically search for and find information much more easily, faster, (and cheaper) than I can on paper copies. It saves clutter. And I save money by not purchasing all that paper nor the filing cabinet(s) to store the paper.

My suggestion: whatever it is, don’t print it out!

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.