The following was written by the Belgian State Archives:

Have you always dreamed of retracing your family's history? This arduous task is now made simpler thanks to the Belgian State Archives. The federal institution has just published a new website that includes some 38.6 million official documents.

It is frankly not always easy to go back to the very roots of your family tree. If your research leads you to branches that exceed the level of your grandparents or great-grandparents, you are in luck. In many families, people have no idea who their ancestors are beyond that. But the documentation to complete your lineage has now become more accessible. The State Archives has just published its new site dedicated to genealogy.

On this new platform, you can search for useful sources to learn more about your ancestors, provided they lived in Belgium. In total, millions of pages of documents have been digitised: birth, baptism, marriage, death or burial certificates, as well as all the registers (called decennial tables) that list these documents.

You will be able to browse more easily through no less than 28,527 parish registers and 36,780 civil registers, which have a total of 2.2 million pages. Consultation of these digitised archives is free of charge, but limited to ten downloads per day.

The new interface makes reading these documents faster and smoother, and the search function has been simplified. You will just need to know from which municipality the document you want to consult originates. Registers that disappeared (such as in a fire or during one of the World Wars) are also listed, so as not to waste time searching for these missing archives.

The platform will continue to evolve in the coming months. The digitisation of registers dating from 1910 to 1950 is underway in several repositories, and a new search engine allowing research to be conducted based on a personal name will be put online soon.

The following press release was written by Heredis:

French software vendor Heredis is expanding its offering and will now provide various services related to genealogical research in France. After a successful test phase, the company will officially launch its new service on January 26, 2023.

"During the Covid-19 pandemic, we suddenly had a lot of requests from our French customers who were stuck with their research and turned to us for help," said Audrey Cavalier, co-managing director of Heredis. "That led us to the idea of developing a specific genealogical service and offering it not only to French-speaking genealogists, but also to all English- and German-speaking genealogists to help them with their research in France."

This has resulted in a comprehensive range of services:

- Help with genealogical research. You don’t speak French, yet your ancestors originate from France? Our experts can conduct online searches on your behalf and locate your French-speaking ancestors!

- Deciphering and transcribing French records (soon also in Latin),

- Translations of your French documents into English (or German)

The company can rely on the expertise of its staff, which includes three genealogists who graduated in "Genealogy and Family History" from the French University of Nîmes. Specialized in genealogical research in France and equipped with German and English foreign language skills, they are at the disposal of genealogists searching in France.

In addition, Heredis also aims to increase the visibility of existing professional genealogists and offers a specific directory of professionals for each language. This will not only help to direct searches that go beyond the scope of online archives in France to the appropriate contacts, but also provide a public and free platform for professional genealogists in Europe!

For more information, visit https:// www.heredis.com/en/help-with-your- research/

Are you a professional? 


Please contact us at services@heredis.com to be listed.

ABOUT HEREDIS

Heredis has been producing technical solutions in the field of genealogy for 29 years. The French company, managed by its employees, develops genealogy software for Windows and Mac, iOS and Android as well as other products related to family research. Recently, it has also started offering genealogical services for research in France.

For more information, visit: https://www.heredis.com/en

NOTE: This article is not about any of the "normal" topics of this newsletter: genealogy, history, current affairs, DNA, and related topics. However, it is about a topic that I feel all computer users should know.

If you are looking for any of the "normal" topics of this newsletter. you might skip this one. However, I don't recommend that.

From an article by Charlie Warzel published in the MSN web site:

In February, an engineer named Dmitri Brereton wrote a blog post about Google’s search-engine decay, rounding up leading theories for why the product’s “results have gone to shit.” The post quickly shot to the top of tech forums such as Hacker News and was widely shared on Twitter and even prompted a PR response from Google’s Search liaison, Danny Sullivan, refuting one of Brereton’s claims. “You said in the post that quotes don’t give exact matches. They really do. Honest,” Sullivan wrote in a series of tweets.

[Read: Be careful what you Google]

Brereton’s most intriguing argument for the demise of Google Search was that savvy users of the platform no longer type instinctive keywords into the search bar and hit “Enter.” The best Googlers—the ones looking for actionable or niche information, product reviews, and interesting discussions—know a cheat code to bypass the sea of corporate search results clogging the top third of the screen. “Most of the web has become too inauthentic to trust,” Brereton argued, therefore “we resort to using Google, and appending the word ‘reddit’ to the end of our queries.” Brereton cited Google Trends data that show that people are searching the word reddit on Google more than ever before.

Instead of scrolling through long posts littered with pop-up ads and paragraphs of barely coherent SEO chum to get to a review or a recipe, clever searchers got lively threads with testimonials from real people debating and interacting with one another. Most who use the Reddit hack are doing so for practical reasons, but it’s also a small act of protest—a way to stick it to the Search Engine Optimization and Online Ad Industrial Complex and to attempt to access a part of the internet that feels freer and more human.

Google has built wildly successful mobile operating systems, mapped the world, changed how we email and store photos, and tried, with varying success, to build cars that drive themselves. This story, for example, was researched, in part, through countless Google Search queries and some Google Chrome browsing, written in a Google Doc, and filed to my editor via Gmail. Along the way, the company has collected an unfathomable amount of data on billions of people (frequently unbeknownst to them)—but Google’s parent company, Alphabet, is still primarily an advertising business. In 2020, the company made $147 billion in revenue off ads alone, which is roughly 80 percent of its total revenue. Most of the tech company’s products—Maps, Gmail—are Trojan horses for a gargantuan personalized-advertising business, and Search is the one that started it all. It is the modern template for what the technology critic Shoshana Zuboff termed “surveillance capitalism.”

The internet has grown exponentially and Google has expanded with it, helping usher in some of the web’s greediest, most extractive tendencies. But scale is not always a blessing for technology products. Are we wringing our hands over nothing, or is Google a victim of its own success, rendering its flagship product—Search—less useful?

You can read the entire article at: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/the-open-secret-of-google-search/ar-AAYEUAL

So what you do do to avoid the problems with Google? My advice is to use DuckDuckGo.com as your search engine. Perform all your searches with DuckDuckGo.com.

I have been using DuckDuckGo.com as my only search engine for more than a year now and I much prefer it to to Google. I suggest you try it for a few days to see if you like it.

If you don't care for DuckDuckGo.com, you might use StartPage at https://www.startpage.com/. I used it for a while and I like it. However, I prefer DuckDuckGo.com.

If you want to experiment some more, you might check out How to Remove Google From Your Life at https://www.howtogeek.com/348792/how-to-remove-google-from-your-life/. (I have replaced Google entirely.)

From the JRI-POLAND'S e-newsletter:

More than three months after suffering an external hacking attack, the Polish State Archives (PSA) has spent several months solidifying their internet security. Today, the PSA website has returned to its normal online operations. As of this writing - the JRI-Poland search results “Click to View” feature can once again retrieve images of more than 2.7 million documents from the PSA website once again!

To access the Polish State Archives web site, Go to https://www.nac.gov.pl/en/ for the English section of the web site. (Not all records are available in English. If you can read Polish, go to https://www.nac.gov.pl/.)

From the MyHeritage Blog:

In honor of Australia Day, we are delighted to announce that we are offering free access to all of the Australian records on MyHeritage — encompassing 95 million records from across 288 historical record collections!

Search 95 million Australian records for free

January 26 marks Australia Day, the national holiday that honors the history of Australians. It is our hope that offering these collections for free will provide fascinating new insights into the lives of Australians throughout history, and perhaps an appreciation for how far the world has come since then.

In the last few months, we have added over 25 new collections from Australia, bringing the total number of Australian collections to 288. The collections are from all over the country and include birth, marriage, death, naturalizations, military, passenger lists, and more types of records. Many of these collections include high-quality scans of the originals. 

One of the recent collections, “New South Wales Gaol Inmates & Photos,” offers stunning photographs of people who served in prison from 1870 to 1930, and rich details on their physical attributes, convictions, and prison sentences. In some cases, they are the only photos of these individuals that exist.

Here are a few fascinating examples from the Gaol Inmates & Photos collection:

NOTE: The full article is much longer with examples of (colorized) photographs and several example records. You can read the full article at: https://blog.myheritage.com/2023/01/australia-day-free-records-access-95-million-records-from-australia-for-free/.

The following press release was written by Discover Your Ancestors magazine:

The Family History Show is back next month! February 18th 2023

We wanted to share some great news with you: The Family History Show is back online next month!

The success of last year’s online event, much appreciated in the family history community, has convinced the organisers of The Family History Show, Online to bring it back this February 2023. With new talks and all the features of a physical family history show, this virtual event can be easily accessed from around the world in the comfort of your own home.

The Family History Show, Online, organised by Discover Your Ancestors magazine, is busy making preparations for its return on Saturday 18th February 2023.

You'll have the opportunity to put your research questions to an expert, watch free talks and to speak to family history societies, archives and genealogical suppliers by text, audio, video chat or email from the comfort of your own home.

Make a date in your diary and snap up an early bird ticket now for only £7! You'll also get a downloadable goody bag worth over £10.

Save the date in your diary and snap up an early bird ticket now for only £7! You'll also get a downloadable goody bag worth over £10.

Featuring All New Talks

Watch the New Talks given by Nick Barratt – Historian Author and Professional Genealogist; Keith Gregson – Professional Researcher & Social Historian; Donna Rutherford – DNA Expert; and Stephen Gill – Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society (keep an eye out for further announcements about the content of each speaker’s presentation).

Societies, Archives and Companies

Visit exhibitors, societies, archives and companies in our virtual exhibition hall. Here there will be the opportunity to talk to some of the stallholders by text, audio or video from the comfort of your own home.

Show Partners

SoG, AGRA, TheGenealogist, GenFair, S&N Genealogy Supplies

Early Bird Ticket Offer

Buy your tickets in advance and save - tickets to attend The Family History Show Online are available from the website at just £7.00 each. You will also get a FREE virtual goody bag on the day worth over £10.https://thefamilyhistoryshow.com/online/tickets/

The great Scottish poet, Robert Burns, was born January 25, 1759. In celebration of his birthday, Burns Suppers range from formal gatherings of esthetes and scholars to very informal dinners throughout Scotland and in the homes of Scottish descendants worldwide. Most Burns Suppers adhere, more or less, to some sort of time honored form which includes the eating of a traditional Scottish meal, the drinking of Scotch whisky, and the recitation of works by, about, and in the spirit of the Bard.

Almost anyone can enjoy a Burns Night celebration. All that's needed is a place to gather, plenty of haggis and neeps to go around, a master of ceremonies, friendly celebrants, and good Scotch drink to keep you warm.

I'll leave it to you to find the place to gather, the  master of ceremonies, the friendly celebrants, and good Scotch drink. However, for the haggis, you may have to look a bit harder (unless you meet in Scotland). If you leave out the legally inedible parts, haggis is edible in the United States. 

Americans can order non-traditional haggis online. 

Some years ago, I took my first trip to Scotland and, of course, I had to try the haggis. However, being a vegan in those days presented a bit of a challenge. After all, traditional haggis has MEAT in it!

I soon discovered that many Scottish restaurants serve vegetarian haggis. That seemed strange to me but I tried it found it tasted rather good. In fact, I ate vegetarian haggis several times during my twelve-day stay. The flavor varied a bit from one restaurant to the next but was always good.

In conversations with some of the locals, I found several who said they had eaten haggis quite often when they were growing up but now, as adults, they prefer the vegetarian haggis. MacSweens, (http://www.haggisuk.co.uk/) a company in Edinburg, Scotland, manufactures 1,000 tons of haggis every year. The company reports that one in four orders for haggis it sells is vegetarian.

Traditional haggis (with meat) has some ingredients that are not legal to sell in the U.S. However, vegetarian haggis is completely legal and haggis made in the U.S. will have other cuts of meat substituted to insure legality.

To learn more about Burns Dinners, go to http://www.robertburns.org/suppers/. You can find a recipe to make your own Vegetarian Haggis at http://allrecipes.com/recipe/vegetarian-haggis/ and the list of ingredients does sound much more appealing than that of the original haggis. Who wants to eat sheep’s lung anyway?

If you live in the UK, you can have traditional or vegetarian haggis delivered to your door by ordering online at https://www.haggisuk.co.uk/haggis. It is frozen so I don't think they will ship overseas. 

If you live in the US, you can have traditional or vegetarian haggis delivered to your door by ordering online at https://www.scottishgourmetusa.com/. The company even sells vegetarian haggis although the web site states that it is “out of stock” right now. You can find still other Scottish items for sale in the US at the same web site: http://www.scottishgourmetusa.com.

Sounds delicious! Please pass the neeps and tatties.

Footnote: Neeps and tatties are traditionally served with haggis. Neeps are the traditional Scottish word for turnips. For a hilarious description of neeps as spoken in Scotland, look at http://sco.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neep. 

A tattie is a word used in Scotland for potato, as explained at http://sco.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tattie.

Here is a bit of advice to anyone thinking of getting married: first research your genealogy as well as that of your partner. Just ask Marcella Hill.

Marcella recently shared a video detailing how the horrific revelation came about in her video captioned “I accidentally married my cousin.”

Marcella starts by telling viewers that she has never revealed this secret to anyone. She says she and her husband were relaxing on the couch, searching for names for the baby they were having.

The couple decided to go through FamilySearch to see if either one of them has a name that stood out in their bloodline. As Marcella and her spouse browsed through grandparents, mentioning their names, her husband said, “Oh, that’s funny. We have the same grandma and grandpa’s names.”

Doubtful, Marcella looked over her husband’s family and told him that she believed he was mistakenly logged into her account. After taking a closer look, the pair realized that he was logged in correctly and that Hill’s grandfather and her husband’s grandmother were first cousins.

The couple decided to get both grandparents on the phone and ask if they knew each other.

“Sure enough, they sure do. They lived together when they were growing up as children,” she says.

Marcella tells viewers that she and her husband are third cousins. 

“And, when I go to my family reunion, he gets to go to his, too… at the same time!” as the video ends.

In a follow-up video, Marcella defended her situation further when a viewer asked how she hadn't realized she was related to her husband at her wedding.

"Wedding? What wedding?" Hill asked before explaining, "We got married in a courthouse after work on a Wednesday." She shared photos of the event and noted that no extended family members — or cousins — were there.

You can read more in an article by NyRee Ausler published in the yourtango.com web site at: https://tinyurl.com/msrsfpc3.

Have you and your spouse researched BOTH of your family trees?

“A cousin is a ready-made friend for life.”

Researchers have developed a new machine-learning model to detect cancers that are in their early stages of disease by examining DNA fragments from cancer cells in the blood.

A University of Wisconsin­–Madison research team was able to detect cancer in the bloodstream in most of the samples tested, it said. 

Muhammed Murtaza, professor of surgery at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health based in Madison, Wisconsin, led the study, which was published recently in Science Translational Medicine, a medical journal from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, according to the study’s press release.  

"We’re incredibly excited to discover that early detection and monitoring of multiple cancer types are potentially feasible using such a cost-effective approach," said Murtaza in the press release. 

Earlier detection of many cancers will lead to better outcomes for patients, the release noted.

"We’re incredibly excited to discover that early detection and monitoring of multiple cancer types are potentially feasible using such a cost-effective approach," says the lead author of a new study. (iStock)

Although other scientists are also developing blood tests to detect cancer earlier, the present technology has limitations, such as cost and the "sensitivity" of the test.

Sensitivity, in this case, refers to the ability of the test to correctly detect the presence of cancer, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). 

How is the test done?

When cells die as part of the body’s natural process of cell turnover, fragments of DNA are released outside the cells. These start to circulate in the bloodstream — namely, the plasma, which is the liquid portion of the blood, according to the researchers. The research team hypothesized that cancer cells have DNA fragments that are different from healthy cells, specifically where the DNA strands "break." Nucleotides, which are the "building blocks of DNA," surround these break points. 

The research team used a special technique that the study named Genome-wide AnaLYsis of FRagment Ends — or GALYFRE — to analyze the "cell-free" DNA from 521 samples.

You can read more in an article by Shiv Sudhakar published in the Fox News web site at: https://www.foxnews.com/health/cancer-blood-test-dna-hope-earlier-detection-researchers.

The following press release was written by American Ancestors/New England Historic Genealogical Society:

American Ancestors Announces Annual Young Family Historians Essay Contest Now Accepting Essays for 2023 Contest, Cash Prizes for Grades 4–12

Accessible, Student-Centered Curriculum Offers K–12 Educators Practical, Classroom-Ready Lessons for Teaching History Through Family Stories and Connections

January 23, 2023—Boston, Massachusetts—The 2023 American Ancestors Young Family Historians Essay Contest is now open! This national essay contest, sponsored by American Ancestors, a non- profit genealogical organization, is open to any student currently enrolled in grades 4–12. Home- schooled students are also eligible to participate.

The contest asks students across the nation to

• explore what they’ve learned about themselves,
  
• the community, and the nation by reflecting on a
  
• story from their personal family history. Essays
  
• must be submitted by April 1, 2023, and six winners will be announced in early June 2023.
  

Genealogy requires students to engage in historical thinking and it empowers them to create historical narratives for themselves. Students can explore their roots and make real-world, personal connections to history, while developing critical research skills such as chronological thinking, supporting claims with evidence, and identifying lessons from the past.

Cash prizes will be awarded for the best essays. Six essays will be awarded, in three categories (grades 4-6, grades 7-8, and grades 9-12). Winners will receive $500, and Semifinalists will receive $250.

American Ancestors, the world’s oldest and largest genealogical society, is dedicated to youth education and supporting educators, both in the classroom and at home. Teachers, librarians, and at-home instructors can use lessons and inclusive teaching strategies from our free Family History Curriculum to help students explore their roots.

Family History Curriculum experience.

The American Ancestors Family History Curriculum offers inclusive teaching strategies and easy- to-use lesson plans for classroom teachers, informal educators, after-school programs, and homeschool educators. The lessons are designed to foster the development of critical thinking and research skills that students can use to make meaningful connections to the past.

The curriculum is available to all educators for free in the form of an online download at

AmericanAncestors.org/family-history-curriculum

“As leading educators in the family history space, we are committed to supporting teachers with the tools to get young people excited about history,” said Dustin Axe, curriculum author and head of youth programming at American Ancestors.

“This curriculum is the first of its kind—a detailed but flexible plan teachers can easily incorporate into their existing approach to classroom instruction. As a licensed social studies teacher who has taught in museum and cultural institutions for almost two decades, I can empathize with teachers who need practical materials that work right away,” added Axe.

Lessons are designed to be accessible to students of all backgrounds, cultures, religions, and family configurations. The curriculum defines genealogy in the broadest possible terms, and encourages students to define family for themselves, fostering an environment in which students feel comfortable exploring their roots. Students can personalize their research based

A new, innovative educational curriculum aims to empower students of all backgrounds to discover their personal connection to history. Developed over several years by a team of professional educators and genealogists at American Ancestors—a national center for the study of family history, heritage, and culture— the American Ancestors Family History Curriculum leverages genealogical research methods that any student, regardless of ancestral origins and family configuration, can use to learn more about our shared human on their unique history and they can research anyone they consider part of their family, including close friends.

According to James Triesler, an award-winning educator from Virginia with more than twenty years of classroom experience, incorporating genealogy into the classroom has a demonstrably positive effect: “Educators are not just teaching history, they're creating historians. This new curriculum encourages students to make connections with the past, strengthen relationships in the present, and leave a record for the future. This will change both the way history is taughtand the way that students view history.”

The curriculum contains multiple lesson plans for grades 4 through 6 and teaching strategies that can be used to enhance genealogy lessons for any grade. Teachers can freely download the full curriculum as a PDF or they can download it lesson-by-lesson at AmericanAncestors.org. Handouts and activities are provided as editable Google Docs, which can be personalized to the needs of any student. A letter to parents and guardians about the aim and scope of the curriculum is available in English and Spanish.

Teachers interested in learning more can also take advantage of free one-on-one or department-level Teacher Trainings with the Education & Programming staff at American Ancestors, who will help teachers create personalized plans to incorporate content, lessons, and teaching strategies into existing curricula. Training is available to teachers in grades K through 12.

Created for Educators, by Educators

The American Ancestors Youth Education Program for Family History was developed by a team of professionals with extensive expertise in genealogy, experience with adult and youth education, and familiarity with schools across the country. The curriculum took nearly three years to complete, with experts providing strategic input and recommendations for the research, development, evaluation, and expansion of all trainings, lessons, and materials.

About American Ancestors and New England Historic Genealogical Society

American Ancestors is a national center for family history, heritage, and culture. It is the global brand of New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS), America's oldest and largest genealogical society (founded in 1845). American Ancestors serves more than 350,000 members and millions of online users engaged in family history nationally and around the world through its website AmericanAncestors.org with more than 1.4 billion names in its databases. Located in Boston’s Back Bay, NEHGS is home to a world-class research center and archive, an expert staff, and the Wyner Family Jewish Heritage Center. It maintains a publishing division which produces original genealogical research, scholarship, and educational materials, including the Register, the flagship journal of American genealogy since 1847; American Ancestors, its award- winning magazine; and Mayflower Descendant, a quarterly journal of Pilgrim genealogy and history.