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Latest Standard Edition Articles

  • 14 Sep 2022 10:38 AM | Anonymous

    The Utah lab working on the Tulsa Race Massacre graves investigation said people are starting to turn in information and DNA. People sharing that information are hopeful they could be a match with the remains found in a mass grave at Oaklawn Cemetery last summer. Intermountain Forensics said it has received dozens of submissions, of family stories and family trees.

    The genealogy team said about 70 percent of people sharing information have already taken a consumer DNA test, through places like Ancestry.com or “23 and Me.”

    Intermountain Forensics Genealogy Case Manager Alison Wilde said many of those people have uploaded their information to the databases the lab will be using going forward, which she said is "fantastic."

    So far, Intermountain Forensics said it only has two samples from the remains found at Oaklawn last summer, that it feels confident about trying to find matches with. Archeologists said they sent remains to the lab from 14 individuals found at Oaklawn.

    You can read more in an article written by Amy Slanchik and published in the newson6.com web site at: https://bit.ly/3RZd8nu.


  • 14 Sep 2022 10:29 AM | Anonymous

    In 2016, a rape victim allowed the San Francisco Police Department to collect her DNA. Five years later, that same DNA was used to arrest her for an unrelated property crime, and now she’s suing the city of San Francisco.

    “This is government overreach of the highest order, using the most unique and personal thing we have—our genetic code—without our knowledge to try and connect us to crime,” the plaintiff’s attorney said. That alleged breach of privacy could discourage sexual assualt victims from coming forward in the future, advocates claimed.

    All charges against the woman, who is identified only as Jane Doe, were dropped by San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin earlier this year. But a DA spokesperson told NPR that what had happened “was standard.” Under current California law, local forensics labs are allowed to collect, analyze, and store DNA without oversight from the state or other regulatory authorities.

    "This is government overreach of the highest order, using the most unique and personal thing we have – our genetic code – without our knowledge to try and connect us to crime," the woman's attorney, Adante Pointer, said in a statement.

    Details may be found in an article in the NPR web site at: https://www.npr.org/2022/09/13/1122670742/rape-dna-san-francisco-lawsuit.


  • 14 Sep 2022 10:12 AM | Anonymous

    The following announcement was written by the folks at FamilySearch:

    Fill in blanks in your family tree this week on FamilySearch with over 300,000 new, searchable, indexed records from the United States Bureau of Land Management Tract Books (1800 – 1955), and expanded archives for Benin, Chili, France, Mexico, Norway, Paraguay, Peru, Portugal, S Africa, and the Ukraine. Take time to browse additional United States records from Florida, Kentucky, New York, and Virginia. Follow the links below to begin searching these new records.

    Don’t see what you’re looking for? Millions of new genealogy records are added each week to make your research easier. Check back next week and, in the meantime, search existing records on FamilySearch. For other exciting genealogy content, peruse over 1,500 free, on-demand sessions from RootsTech Connect 2022.

    The lengthy list may be found at: https://bit.ly/3RKG7vo.

  • 13 Sep 2022 8:43 PM | Anonymous

    You might want to save this article someplace. I have no idea why, but many of the words used in researching your family tree are difficult to spell. I constantly see spelling errors in messages posted on various genealogy web sites. When someone misspells a word, it feels like they are shouting, "I don't know what I'm doing!"

    Here are a few words to memorize:

    Genealogy - No, it is not spelled “geneology” nor is it spelled in the manner I often see: “geneaology.” That last word looks to me as if someone thought, "Just throw all the letters in there and hope that something sticks." For some reason, many newspaper reporters and their editors do not know how to spell this word. Don't they have spell checkers?

    Cemetery - The letter "a" does not appear anywhere in the word "cemetery." You can remember the spelling by an old saying, "We go to the cemetery with E's." (ease)

    Ancestor - This simple word is often spelled “ancester,” “ansester,” or “ansestor.”

    Ancestry - This word is often misspelled “ancestory.” I often see errors when someone is referring to the ancestry.com online web site.

    History - More than once I have seen someone refer to their "family histroy" or "family histry."

    Descent - Perhaps not as common, but I have seen this spelled as "decent," which sounds almost the same.

    Descendant - it often appears as descendent, descentent and many others.

    Progenitor - I can never remember how to spell this word. I simply try to avoid it when I am writing!

    Two other words often are confused: immigrant and emigrant. Another variation is immigration versus emigration. According to Merriman-Webster Dictionary at http://www.merriam-webster.com, an emigrant is “a person who leaves a country or region to live in another one” while an immigrant is “a person who comes to a country to live there.” To repeat, an emigrant leaves while an immigrant arrives.

    The late Dick Pence was quite a storyteller, and once he told of an online genealogy article he wrote in which he poked fun at common spelling errors by genealogists. He deliberately misspelled ten different words in the article, including most of the words I listed above. In the text of the article, he never mentioned that the article was a tongue-in-cheek attempt at humor.

    Dick soon received an email message from an irate lady who apparently didn't realize it was a deliberate attempt at humor. She scolded him for his spelling errors, writing, “Mr. Pence, you should be ashamed of yourself. I am an English teacher and I want to tell you that I found seven spelling errors in your article!”


  • 13 Sep 2022 12:32 PM | Anonymous

    I have written a number of times about Chromebooks (see https://eogn.com/sys/website/system-pages/?pageId=SysSiteSearchResults for some of my past articles about Chromebooks). I must admit that I have fallen in love with these low-cost, simple to use laptop and desktop computers.

    These low-cost computers do most everything that users want from their computers. If you use your computer primarily for email, Facebook, word processing, and general internet surfing, then you will probably really enjoy a Chromebook.

    Chromebooks (and Chromeboxes) are very stable and fast as well as lightweight and compact.

    Note: A Chromebox is simply a Chromebook computer built into a normal desktop configireation, not a laptop. You can read more about Chromebox computers in a Wikipedia article at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromebox

    A typical Chromebox

    Chromebooks (and Chromeboxes):

    • Have a longer battery life than most Windows and Macintosh laptops. The Hewlett-Packard Chromebook 14 G4 is rated at 8.25 hours of normal use before needing a battery recharge.
    • Speed - Chromebooks can power up and be ready to use in around eight seconds.
    • Never get viruses or malware (Malware is short for malicious software).
    • Security - The Chrome OS has built-in virus and malware protection that is continually updated to the latest version, so you never need to worry about malicious files when using a Chromebook.
    • Run faster than similar applications on Windows or Macintosh laptops of similar processing power (and higher prices).
    • Have a default setting of storing all files in the cloud for safety and convenience (although this default can be over-ridden, if you wish).
    • Automatic operating system software updates in a manner that is mostly invisible to the user.
    • Have Offline Productivity for most applications (although not all).
    • Most applications are available free of charge (with a few exceptions).
    • Parental Controls - Chromebook users can create supervised accounts to track or limit online activity for kids online. This makes the Chromebook a great family-friendly laptop.
    • Sync - Chromebooks (and Chromeboxes) sync all your apps and passwords with Chrome browsers on other computers. So, if you use the Chrome browser at work or on another home computer, your bookmarks and other preferences will automatically sync to your Chromebook and vice versa.
    • Cloud Storage - You get 100 gigabytes of Google Drive storage free for two years with all new Chromebooks. This is a considerable amount of space. Comparable services from Dropbox, OneDrive, or Box will cost you an additional subscription. With a Chromebook, you get a decent amount of cloud storage for free.
    • Webcam - a buit-in video camera is included for Zoom and other online video conferencing apps.

    So how much does all this capability cost? $99.99 (U.S.) right now (I am going to round that up by a penny and call it $100.)

    That is the price right now for a Hewlett-Packard Chromebook with a 14-inch screen, available from Walmart (yes, from THAT Walmart). You can see it for yourself and even order it for home delivery at: https://bit.ly/3ddsKVI. (That price even includes free shipping!)

    OK, there are a few drawbacks. For instance:

    At this price, you have to realize you are not getting a high-powered super-computer. It has a 2.16 GHz Intel Celeron processor of modest power (although more than enough power for a Chromebook).

    It has a 14-inch display screen (anyone with vision difficulties might prefer a larger screen). It also does not contain a touch screen.

    While it includes wi-fi (with IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, and Bluetooth), it does not have a built-in ethernet connector for direct connection to a network.

    Again, you can see this computer at https://bit.ly/3ddsKVI.

    Note: I believe this is a sale price and I have no idea how long it will be on sale.

    Please be aware that is not an affiliate URL and I am not compensated in any way by Hewlett-Packard, WalMart, or anyone else for publishing this article. I am simply a very satisfied Chrombook user (see https://eogn.com/page-18080/12840186 for my experiences with my latest Chromebook which is NOT a Hewlett-Packard Chromebook 14 G4). I simply want to notify my readers of a bargain that I probably would buy for myself if I didn't already own a similar Chromebook (and a Chromebox besides).


  • 13 Sep 2022 11:33 AM | Anonymous

    From the MyHeritage Blog:

    We have been growing our content team and ramping up our pace of publishing new collections of historical records, to help our users progress in their family history research and make incredible discoveries. In this post, we’re excited to share our largest collection update yet. The 74 new collections we’ve published include 130 million records of many different types, including birth, marriage, death, census, immigration, civil, military, newspapers, will and probate records. Showing MyHeritage’s commitment to advance genealogy globally, the new records come from many countries: the U.S., the U.K, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Finland, France, Italy, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Scotland, and Spain. Following this update, MyHeritage’s database of historical records has now grown to 18.6 billion records.

    Below are some highlights of the new collections, listed by country. Click the collection name to learn more about the collection and to search it.

    The long, long list of newly-added collections may be found in the MyHeritage Blog at: https://bit.ly/3xkiiCO.
  • 13 Sep 2022 10:37 AM | Anonymous

    British royal expert and genealogist Myko Clellend says he recently discovered Queen Consort Camilla‘s great, great, great grandfather was “responsible for building part of Buckingham Palace”.

    “There’s been a few generations’ gap but it seems that her ancestor must be looking down and really smiling at the fact that his descendent is now occupying the building that he worked to hard on,” he told Sky News Australia.

    “It’s so fresh and new that I don’t think many people know about it just yet.”

    Myko Clellend


  • 13 Sep 2022 10:19 AM | Anonymous

    Note: This article is not about any of the "normal" topics of this newsletter: genealogy, history, current affairs, DNA, and related topics. However, genealogists are major users of books and anything that affects book publishing will sooner or later affect genealogists.

    Rising paper prices are forcing publishers to change. From the Economist: That way, a publisher can find paper for things it wants to print, even in times of shortage. The industry is now going through another period of scarcity, and the war is again the cause (along with the pandemic). The cost of paper used by British book publishers has risen by 70% in the past 12 months. Supplies are erratic and also expensive: paper mills shut down on days when electricity is too expensive. The card used in the hard cover was sometimes impossible to obtain. The whole trade is in trouble. It doesn’t affect every author: the new thriller by Robert Galbraith, better known as JK Rowling, clocks in at 1,024 pages and has reached the top of the UK bestseller lists this week. But the other books have to change a bit. Pick up a new release in a bookstore, and if it’s from a smaller publisher (as they suffer more from price increases), you may find yourself in the hands of a product that, like wartime books, bears the mark of its time.

    Blow on its pages and they may rise and fall differently: some books use cheaper, lighter paper. Look closely at its print and you may notice that the letters are moving closer together: some cost-conscious publishers are beginning to reduce the spaces between characters. The text can also move closer to the edges of the pages: the publication margin shrinks in every sense. Changes of this nature can cause concern for publishers. A book is not just words on a page, says Ivan O’Brien, head of The O’Brien Press in Ireland, it must appeal to “all the senses”. The pleasure of a book that lies easily in the hand – not too light and not too heavy; pages cream; beetle-black fonts are what publishers want to keep. […] Because at the heart of the publishing industry lies an unspeakable truth: most people can’t write, and most books are very bad. Readers who struggle with volume often assume it’s their fault. Reviewers who have read many more books know that this is not the case.

    Comment by Dick Eastman: With all these difficulties faced by book publishers, we all can expect more and more ebooks to be published in the future. I see that as a positive thing.


  • 12 Sep 2022 6:36 PM | Anonymous

    Magnetic audiotape was the workhorse of radio in the 1980s, in KGOU's early days of serving the campus community at the University of Oklahoma with music and a few NPR programs. Local news and feature interviews, and sometimes whole radio shows were recorded on reels of tape and saved for future use, or erased and recorded over with the next episode.

    But audiotape begins to deteriorate after about 10 years, depending on how and where it is stored. If properly cared for, it can last longer, but is likely to start to disintegrate or suffer severe loss of audio quality with the passage of time.

    The American Archive of Public Broadcasting, a collaboration between the Library of Congress and GBH, has been working against time to save and digitize early public radio recordings on tape or other technology that has come and gone since, such as audio cassettes or digital audio tape (DAT). The work was begun in 2013 with funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and later, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. In 2019, AAPB expanded its efforts, launching a fellowship program to place graduate fellows with university programs to help local public stations preserve their archives.

    “We don’t really know everything we have on reel-to-reel tape, or how far back it goes,” said Jim Johnson, KGOU’s program director. “It wasn’t labeled very well, or the label has come off or faded over the years. But we know we have recordings of KGOU coverage of the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, and also some programming by and for Native Americans that is culturally important.”

    You can read a lot more in an article by Laura Knoll and published in the KGOU web site at: https://bit.ly/3U6Qg7e.


  • 12 Sep 2022 6:20 PM | Anonymous
    Here is a list of all of this week's articles, all of them available here at https://eogn.com:

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

    (+) Where is Genealogy Software Headed?

    WorldCat.org and Genealogy: A Powerful Combination

    How Archives Went From ‘National Treasure’ to Political Prey

    Use This Free Tool to Restore Faces in Old Family Photos

    Family History Down Under 2022

    Registry of Deeds Index Project Ireland: Names Index Exceeds 500,000 Records

    Where Are You From? Find Out Using These Irish Surname Maps

    5 Million Photos of Graves Now Available at Geneanet

    Major New Project to Reveal New Insights Into 19th Century British and Other Immigrant Sailors in the U.S. Navy

    Oxford University Project Aims to Preserve Second World War Memories

    New Digital Archive Protecting Legacy Of Piping In Scotland Goes Live

    Jersey Heritage and Société Jersiaise Combine Forces to Create an Online Catalogue of the Island's History

    Saving the World's Synagogues from Destruction

    Months After Genealogy IDs Victim as Michigan Woman, Her Killer Was Identified in the Same Way

    What’s New Online at the Library of Congress – Summer 2022

    Mapping Company Develops Web App to Provide Context, Resources During Local Wildfires



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