It’s possible to retrieve forensically relevant information from human DNA in household dust, a new study finds.

A North Carolina State University-led study found it is possible to retrieve forensically relevant information from human DNA in household dust. After sampling indoor dust from 13 households, the researchers were able to detect DNA from household residents over 90% of the time, and DNA from non-occupants 50% of the time. The work could be a way to help investigators find leads in difficult cases.

Specifically, the researchers were able to obtain single nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs, from the dust samples. SNPs are sites within the genome that vary between individuals – corresponding to characteristics like eye color– that can give investigators a “snapshot” of the person.

“SNPs are just single sites in the genome that can provide forensically useful information on identity, ancestry and physical characteristics – it’s the same information used by places like Ancestry.com – that can be done with tests that are widely available,” says Kelly Meiklejohn, assistant professor of forensic science and coordinator of the forensic sciences cluster at NC State. Meiklejohn is corresponding author of the study.

“Because they’re single sites, they’re easier to recover for highly degraded samples where we may only be able to amplify short regions of the DNA,” Meiklejohn says. “Traditional DNA analysis in forensics amplifies regions ranging from 100 to 500 base pairs, so for a highly degraded sample the large regions often drop out. SNPs as a whole don’t provide the same level of discrimination as traditional forensic DNA testing, but they could be a starting place in cases without leads.”

Meiklejohn and her team recruited 13 diverse households and took cheek swabs from each occupant along with dust samples from five areas within each home: the top of the refrigerator; inside the bedroom closet; the top frame of the front door; a bookshelf or photo frame in the living room; and a windowsill in the living room.

Utilizing massively parallel sequencing, or MPS, the team was able to quickly sequence multiple samples and target the SNPs of interest. They found that 93% of known household occupants were detected in at least one dust sample from each household. They also saw DNA from non-occupants in over half of the samples collected from each site.

“This data wouldn’t be used like traditional forensic DNA evidence – to link a single individual to a crime – but it could be useful for establishing clues about the ancestry and physical characteristics of individuals at a scene and possibly give investigators leads in cases where there may not be much to go on,” Meiklejohn says. “But while we know it is possible to detect occupants versus non-occupants, we don’t know how long an individual has to stay in a household before they leave DNA traces in household dust.”

The researchers plan to address the question of how much time it takes for non-occupants to be detected in dust in future studies. Meiklejohn sees the work as being useful in numerous potential investigative scenarios.

“When perpetrators clean crime scenes, dust isn’t something they usually think of,” Meiklejohn says. “This study is our first step into this realm. We could see this being applied to scenarios such as trying to confirm individuals who might have been in a space but left no trace blood, saliva or hair. Also for cases with no leads, no hit on the national DNA database, could household dust provide leads?”

The work appears in the Journal of Forensic Sciences and was supported by funding from the NC State College of Veterinary Medicine. NC State Senior Vice Provost for University Interdisciplinary Programs Rob Dunn, NC State research associates Melissa Scheible and Laura Boggs, and Darrell Ricke of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Lincoln Labs also contributed to the work.

Qingming Festival (清明节) is one of the most important traditional festivals in China. It falls on April 4th or 5th. In 2023, Qingming Festival falls on April 5th, when most Chinese people will enjoy a public holiday.

Qingming Festival is also called Tomb Sweeping Day as it is the time for Chinese people to show respect to their ancestors by cleaning their ancestors' tombs and placing offerings.

In addition, Qingming (清明) in Chinese mean 'clearness' and 'brightness'. It is the fifth of the 24 solar terms of the traditional Chinese solar calendar, marking the start of the warm weather of spring and the beginning of farm work.

There are various activities for Qingming Festival. The most popular ones, such as tomb upkeep and repair, spring outings, kite flying, and putting willow branches on gates, have been an important part of this festival since its beginning.

Tomb Sweeping — the Most Important Custom of Qingming Festival

Tomb Sweeping

People commemorate and show respect to their ancestors by visiting their graves, and offering their spirits food, tea or wine, burning incense, burning or offering joss paper (representing money), etc. They sweep the tombs, remove weeds, and add fresh soil to the graves. They might plant willow branches, flowers, or plastic plants on the tombs.

They pray before their ancestors' graves and beseech them to bless their families. However, the custom has been greatly simplified today, especially in cities, where many people only place flowers to remember their dead relatives. Because of their busy work and being far from their family homes, many young people now cannot conduct tomb sweeping in person, and online tomb-sweeping ceremonies now take place in many cities.

With different times observed regionally, ethnically, and even locally to do tomb sweeping in China, the custom mainly happens sometime during the 10 days before or after the day of Qingming Festival.

The following announcement was written by Findmypast:

Montgomeryshire Monumental Inscriptions 

This collection can help you uncover not only the final resting place of your ancestor, but how they were remembered. With these 7,412 new records, you could discover their biographical details and what was written on their headstone or urn.  

Middlesex Monumental Inscriptions 

A further 6,233 records have been added to this collection for Hounslow Cemetery, between 1839 and 2022. You may find an ancestor’s birth and death year, place of burial and what was inscribed on their headstone. In some instances, this will include other family members too.  

Essex Baptisms 

Rounding off this week’s new releases are 122,464 baptism records, which have been added to the existing Essex baptism collection. The records span from 1638 to 1922 and cover 154 churches. You should normally find an ancestor’s name, parents’ names, birth and baptism date, residence, and father’s occupation. 

Newspapers 

Five new titles and updates to a further 94 existing titles make the headlines this week.  

New titles: 

·         Flint & Holywell Chronicle, 1999 

·         Hammersmith & Fulham Independent, 1998 

·         Sheerness Guardian and East Kent Advertiser, 1858-1865, 1867-1893, 1897, 1912 

·         St. Ives Weekly Summary, 1893, 1901, 1903-1905, 1907-1910, 1912-1913 

·         Stratford-upon-Avon Herald, 1881-1884, 1888-1889, 1891-1898, 1911, 1936-1938, 1940-1944, 1946-1950, 1969, 1971-1972, 1974, 1984-1986, 1989-1999 

 

Updated titles: 

·         Beaconsfield Advertiser, 1986 

·         Bebington News, 1994 

·         Billericay Gazette, 1986 

·         Boxing World and Mirror of Life, 1905 

·         Bristol Evening Post, 1987 

·         Buckinghamshire Advertiser, 1955, 1989-1990 

·         Callander Advertiser, 1885 

·         Croydon Express, 1899 

·         Derbyshire Advertiser and Journal, 1889 

·         Dublin Sporting News, 1897-1901 

·         Essex & Herts Mercury, 1838, 1840, 1842 

·         Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, 1893 

·         Greenford & Northolt Gazette, 1982, 1988 

·         Grimsby Daily Telegraph, 1989 

·         Gwent Gazette, 1969, 1975-1976, 1981-1984 

·         Hammersmith & Chiswick Leader, 1988 

·         Harrow Observer, 1989 

·         Huddersfield and Holmfirth Examiner, 1880, 1883 

·         Isle of Thanet Gazette, 1875, 1986 

·         Kent Messenger, 1897 

·         Lady of the House, 1890-1894 

·         Leicester Advertiser, 1862, 1986 

·         Liverpool Daily Post (Welsh Edition), 1978 

·         Liverpool Weekly Mercury, 1876 

·         Louth Standard, 1950 

·         Macclesfield Times, 1931 

·         Matlock Visiting List, 1889 

·         Merioneth News and Herald and Barmouth Record, 1891 

·         Newark Advertiser, 1986 

·         Newmarket Journal, 1978 

·         Northwich Chronicle, 1989-1990 

·         Nottingham Guardian, 1861 

·         Rhondda Leader, 1986 

·         Runcorn Guardian, 1948, 1951 

·         Salford City Reporter, 1986 

·         Shepton Mallet Journal, 1975, 1988-1989 

·         South Wales Echo, 1986, 1989 

·         Staines & Egham News, 1986, 1992 

·         Truth, 1938-1943 

·         Walsall Observer, 1980, 1989 

·         Weekly Examiner (Belfast), 1872, 1887 

·         West Hull Advertiser, 1999 

·         Western Daily Press, 1986 

·         Widnes Weekly News and District Reporter, 1989-1990 

·         Wilmslow Express Advertiser, 1988-1990 

·         Woking Informer, 1986, 1993 

NOTE: This article is not about any of the "normal" topics of this newsletter: genealogy, history, current affairs, DNA, and related topics. However, I have written often about Chromebooks and, if you own a Chromebook, this article will be very important for you. (Anyone else can skip this article.)

Chrome Apps on your Chromebook is finally about to be replaced by Progressive Web Apps (PWA), with the latest Chrome stable version 112 as the starting point.

It’s an initiative almost five years in the making, and this change brings a few notable benefits.

Chrome Apps (and by extension, the Chrome Web Store) had been around for more than a decade, believe it or not, installing apps, extensions, and themes for millions of users on the Google Chrome browser. Most people who used Chromebooks had a love-hate relationship with apps found on the Chrome Web Store as many of the apps (such as Zoom, Pocket, Skype, etc.) were websites that had less functionality than their mobile app counterparts and less cross-device support (where apps won’t size properly with a tablet or laptop, for example).

With PWAs — which are essentially more advanced versions of Chrome Apps — almost all the negatives of Chrome Apps are negated. PWAs run technically as a website, but mimic their native mobile application, with most, if not all, of its functionality. PWAs are more scalable for different display sizes. Another big plus is that PWAs, like your mobile apps, are maintained by the developers, so updates are automatic and don’t require users to visit the Web Store for updates

You can read the full story in an article by Aaron Leong published in the DigitalTrends.com web site at: https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/google-just-made-a-big-change-to-how-chromebooks-apps-work/.

US President Joe Biden has been invited to include Galway on his itinerary when he visits Ireland next week after a genealogist found links between his family and the county.

Megan Smolenyak said she has found another branch of cousins to the 46th US President, who has long-established family ties in Louth and Mayo.

“I’m an Irish American myself so I have always had an interest in high-profile individuals with Irish heritage. Way back when he was Vice President I decided to look into his roots to learn a bit more,” Ms Smolenyak told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland.

“He’s famously proud of his Irish heritage so I was curious to learn the exact details - which family members [came to the US], when did they come and what was their backstory.

Ms Smolenyak said it was tricky to identify the newest members of Mr Biden’s ancestral linkage as it stretched back to the famine era when records created for those who emigrated to the US were “skimpy”.

You can read more in an article by Eoghan Moloney published in the Independent.ie web site at: https://tinyurl.com/mvrx6txy.

King Charles has given his support to research that will examine the British monarchy's links to slavery, Buckingham Palace said on Thursday, after a newspaper report said a document showed a historical connection with a transatlantic slave trader.

The Guardian said an archive document discovered by historian Brooke Newman showed that in 1689 King William III had been given 1,000 pounds of shares in the Royal African Company (RAC) which was involved in the transportation of thousands of slaves from Africa to the Americas.

The recently discovered document was signed by Edward Colston, a slave trade magnate whose history became widely known after protesters pulled down a statue to him in Bristol, southwest England, and threw it in the harbour during 2020 Black Lives Matter protests.

"This is an issue that His Majesty takes profoundly seriously," Buckingham Palace said in a statement.

You can read more in an article by Michael Holden published in the Yahoo web site at: https://news.yahoo.com/king-charles-backs-research-monarchys-114738037.html.

Memorial University of Newfoundland's governing body has removed president and vice-chancellor Vianne Timmons from her position. The move comes after Timmons announced on March 13 she was taking a voluntary, six-week paid leave of absence from the president's office amid public scrutiny following a CBC News investigation into her statements on her Indigenous ancestry and past membership in an unrecognized Mi'kmaw First Nation group.

In a press release sent Thursday afternoon, Memorial University's faculty association called on the board to "engage an expert on Indigenous identity to conduct an independent investigation, as other universities have done, into the alleged false claims of Indigenous identity and their broader implications."

"Memorial cannot investigate itself," said the release. 

Timmons told CBC News in an interview Feb. 28, and has reiterated in the weeks since, that she believes she has always been clear in specifying that while she has Mi'kmaw ancestry, she does not claim an Indigenous identity. She said she publicly discussed her ancestry to honour her father's wishes. 

But for a period of at least seven years, many of Timmons's professional biographies noted she was a member of the Bras d'Or Mi'kmaq First Nation in Cape Breton. It was listed on her publicly posted CV for at least five years. 

The group is not recognized by the Union of Nova Scotia Mi'kmaq or the federal government, though they say they plan on seeking status.

Timmons told CBC News she held the membership for a year, around 2009.

The membership line appeared in a biography as late as 2018, used for the independent advisory board for Senate appointments in 2018. The line did not reappear when she returned to serve on the board, which reports to the prime minister, in 2021.

It also did not appear on a 2019 copy of her resumé. 

You can read more in an article by Ariana Kelland  published in the CBC web site at: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/vianne-timmons-mun-1.6803740.

Even though it’s a brand new map, people have been dying to get onto it for centuries.

The Tennessee Historical Commission’s new Statewide Cemetery Map and Tennessee Historic Cemetery Register are now available in ArcGIS format for public use on THC’s website. The Tennessee Historic Cemetery Preservation Program has created a map in ArcGIS format of the state’s historic cemeteries available to the public. The Tennessee Historical Commission defines historic cemeteries as those 50 years old or older. Identifying locations of the state’s numerous cemeteries is an on-going project and the map is subject to change as more information is available.

The map has been populated by data from the Commission’s cemetery database, which currently contains more than 32,500 cemeteries statewide. 

The public map contains various overlays which will enable the viewer to compare a cemetery’s location topographically, geographically, and even historically as Tennessee county borders have often shifted over the decades. THC hopes this map will be a valuable tool for historians, genealogists, developers, landowners, realtors, and state agencies for the purpose of preserving and protecting burial sites.

The Tennessee Historic Cemetery Register is intended to provide the public with a way to extensively document historic cemeteries for the purpose of preservation efforts.

“Not only is the register intended to honor a particular cemetery, but it also provides a way to attract and increase public interest, maintenance and community involvement,” notes Graham Perry, who coordinates the Historic Cemetery Program for the Commission. Applications to submit a cemetery for the Register are available on the THC website.

Submissions that meet an established criteria will be automatically added to the Historic Register. Neither the THCR nor map include prehistoric Native American cemeteries.

For more information about the Tennessee Historical Commission, visit the THCR website at https://tinyurl.com/4tey323c.

Genealogists, especially those genealogists with Irish ancestry, owe a lot to Steven Smyrl. He’s the guy whose work and campaigning got the law changed in both jurisdictions in Ireland so that death records began to note important bio data. Death records in the Republic of Ireland used to be worthless because they recorded no vital details about the deceased. Mr Smyrl was responsible for greatly improving things by getting the law changed so that all death registrations would include the person’s date & place of birth and their father & mother’s name.

He has also been responsible for numerous other changes to Irish records of interest to genealogists. He has been described as the “most knowledgeable Irish genealogist on the planet.”

You can read all about Steven Smyrl’s contribution to Irish genealogy in an article by Peter McDermott published in the IrishEcho web site at: https://www.irishecho.com/2023/3/smyrl-genealogy.

The following is from FamilySearch:

Hundreds of millions of new searchable genealogy records from 30+ countries

Just in case you missed it, FamilySearch finished 2022 with an amazing number of new, free, fully-searchable genealogy records online. Over 420 million indexed records were added to 30 free online country collections, and millions more were added to over 100 more new collections from archives all over the world. See the list below for the 30 country collections with the largest additions in 2022. Discover your ancestors today for free at FamilySearch.org.

FamilySearch has over 300 camera teams worldwide helping to digitally preserve and provide access to the world's historical genealogical records. It then utilizes a combination of handwriting recognition artificial intelligence and online volunteers worldwide to make those records discoverable online for free at FamilySearch.org.

Top 30 Countries for Records Added in 2022 on FamilySearch.org.

FamilySearch's Top-30 Countries for Indexed Records in 2022

FamilySearch's United States historical record collections led out in 2022 with 114 million new records from almost every state in the union, including expansions in nationwide collections such as the 1950 US Census, US City and Business Directories, Bureau of Land Management Tract books, and military records like the US Enlisted and Officer Muster Rolls and Rosters. The US updates were spread across 94 different record collections. 

The largest country collections expanded in 2022 were the United States, Brazil, France, Ukraine, Great Britain, Switzerland, Germany, the Philippines, and Spain. FamilySearch added more than 27 million records from Ukraine, including Church records from Dnipro, Cherkasy, Kharkiv, Kiev, Odessa, and Zaporizhzhia.

Millions more records were added for Armenia, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Canada, El Salvador, Estonia, Guatemala, Hungary, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Slovakia, South Africa, and Venezuela, Costa Rica and Bolivia. 

The Find-A-Grave Index, a collection of information from the world's cemeteries, added more than 7 million searchable names. 

New records on FamilySearch continue to support fun family discoveries and research around the world.

FamilySearch adds millions of new digital images and searchable indexes to its collections weekly, and historical collection updates are published weekly in the FamilySearch Blog and monthly in the FamilySearch Newsroom. To stay abreast of collection updates frequent the FamilySearch Blog regularly or subscribe to the FamilySearch Newsroom for monthly updates.

For users with a free FamilySearch tree, FamilySearch continues to use its search algorithms to match newly indexed records against user trees. When a high confidence match is made, users are notified through the Hints feature in the Family Tree. Users should continue to expand their trees and check back frequently to make more discoveries. 

Continue to discover your ancestors for free at FamilySearch.org.