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

One of the big challenges in genealogy software is sharing of data when two or more researchers are working on the same family. The most common scenario is when each person has his or her own genealogy database. However, as different members of the project discover new data and enter it into their own databases, how does the information automatically get updated to others without requiring each person in the project to manually re-enter the same data?

The quick answer is “via GEDCOM files.” However, anyone who has ever tried this way of merging small bits of information from multiple researchers into the database of each participant can tell you that it is no small task. GEDCOM was designed for a one-time data import. While possible, it is difficult to use GEDCOM for frequent small updates.

Luckily there is an easier method of sharing genealogy databases. Anyone with a Windows, Macintosh, or Linux system can set up a private file-sharing network. For the remainder of this article, I will focus on Windows solutions. However, similar programs are available for Mac and Linux systems as well.

By using a file-sharing program, you and your cohorts can establish a private, encrypted network across the Internet. The only people who can access the data are the ones to whom you grant access. All data is fully encrypted and protected by user IDs and passwords. The more popular methods are free of charge.

File-sharing programs are as also called “peer-to-peer” networks, or simply P2P. In this case, peer-to-peer means that there is no central file server involved. Each participant’s computer can exchange data with every other participant’s computer across the Internet, assuming that each computer’s owner gives access to the other participants. In fact, the menus allow each owner to share as much or as little data as he or she wishes. For this discussion, I will assume that the owner of each computer has decided to share either one file or one entire subdirectory although other options are available.

P2P networks became popular with the original Napster music-sharing network. Napster’s success spawned hundreds of other P2P networks , many of them with far more powerful capabilities than the original network. Many of the early networks were used for illicit activities, such as sharing copyrighted music, videos, and other content. However, as the software has matured, P2P networks have become “legit.” To be sure, a few wide-open networks still exist and are anonymously sharing files against the terms of copyrights, licenses and laws. However, newer, private P2P networks have become respectable; they can respect copyrights and laws. In fact, P2P networks are now becoming useful in corporations as well as for personal use.

You can install a P2P application in your computer and then designate what files will be made available to others as well as to whom they are available. You can share photographs, documents, and even genealogy databases. Yes, you can even share copyrighted materials, but all of that is under your private control. You are responsible for all material that you share.

Anyone who is to be allowed onto your private P2P network will need to install the same software on his or her computer. Once installed and logged on, the individuals you allow into your network can access the files you make available. Conversely, you can access the files that they decide to share, if any. All participants must have an Internet connection at the time they are sharing data. However, these networks work well on dial-up as well as broadband connections.

“Wait a minute,” you say. “Can’t I do the same if I set up an FTP server on the Internet?” The answer is, “Yes, you can -- if you’re more technical.” You can create FTP or Web servers if you have the knowledge required. However, such servers require a knowledge of Web technology and at least moderate skills at configuring servers. Establishing a P2P network is far simpler -- so simple that most non-gurus can create such a network within minutes without assistance.

You can also find some public file-sharing networks that run on some company’s server. These may be free or charge a modest amount. Most of the ones I have seen insert obnoxious pop-up ads all over the place. They also limit you as to how many megabytes you can share. The private P2P networks described here will not display pop-ups, and file sizes are limited only by the space on your hard drive.

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An intriguing DNA project from Oxford and Harvard researchers promises, "We’re analysing DNA from ancient and modern humans to create a ‘family tree of everyone’"

According to information on the project's web site:

Did you know that it’s now possible to sequence all of your DNA for about the cost of a smartphone? This will reveal your unique genetic makeup, and can be used to work out the similarities and differences between yourself and other people around the world at a genetic level.

But how can you make sense of this information, and what does your genetic variation tell you?

In our research group at Oxford University’s Big Data Institute, we think the key to understanding this is held in our ancestry, and in particular in the genetic genealogy that relates us all. This describes how you and everyone else have inherited different parts of your genome from different ancestors. If we could learn this genealogy and decipher where and when they lived, we could uncover all of the history written in our genes – how our ancestors moved around the world and the evolutionary processes that created us all.

This sounds like a Herculean task. Without the genomes of everyone who ever lived, what could we possibly know about people who lived thousands or hundreds of thousands of years ago?

We’ve approached this task by devising a series of elegant computer algorithms which take genetic similarities and differences in a dataset of many individuals, and accurately reconstructs relationships among them.

Unifying modern and ancient genomes

Building on this approach, in our new research we describe the story of recent evolution among 215 diverse human populations from varying times and geographic locations.

The genealogy – lines of descent from our common ancestors – includes the genomes of 3,601 people from three separate datasets, as well as eight high quality ancient genomes. These came from three Neanderthals (an extinct human subspecies who lived in Eurasia until around 40,000 years ago), a Denisovan (another human subspecies more recently discovered from a shard of bone found in a Siberian cave), and a family of four humans from the Afanasievo culture who lived 4,500 years ago in south Siberia.

The unified genealogy, or “family tree”, explains the genetic relationships of these thousands of genomes to one another.

AWA, whose goal is to preserve global memory and cultural heritage for future generations, is an initiative of the Norwegian company Piql, which collects and stores its partners’ contributions in a secure vault repository set deep in a decommissioned coal mine in Svalbard, Norway, just some 600 miles from the North Pole.

Designed to withstand natural and man-made disasters, in the safest location on earth, data stored here will last for centuries. Much of our heritage is stored digitally and, despite best efforts to protect it for the future, it can be exposed to risks, either from the online environment or just from the limits of modern storage technology. The combination of resilient long-term storage technology and the remote, safe and cold conditions found on Svalbard, enables data to live on into the distant future.

Established in 2017, the Arctic World Archive (AWA) holds an impressive collection of valuable digital artefacts and irreplaceable information from around the world, with over 15 contributing nations.

AWA is home to manuscripts from the Vatican Library, political histories, masterpieces from different eras (including Rembrandt and Munch), scientific breakthroughs and contemporary cultural treasures.

You can read a lot more in the AWA web site at: https://arcticworldarchive.org/.

Archivists in Torreyson Library at the University of Central Arkansas have recently digitized more than 1,000 historical photographs. The collection, which can be accessed here, includes buildings, social activities and student life dating back to the school’s beginning in 1907. 

The process has taken several months and interim archivist Daniel Klotz says this is just a start. His office has been collecting images since 1986 and is constantly acquiring more photos to digitize. 

“Our goal is to make the collections more accessible,” Klotz said. “With this project, anyone can find a photograph by typing in keywords. So if someone is interested in what student life looked like in the 1920s, they could click on ‘students’ and see all the photos of come up.” 

The UCA collection has dozens of categories which include buildings, group and individual shots, residence halls, music, athletics and several others. Klotz scans each photo (some of which are on glass plates) and adds captions and metadata to each image. 

You can read more at https://bit.ly/3y8weQx.

Geneanet has a special offering to American and German non-Premium members: free access from October 1-6 (inclusive) to the web site's German collections and Genealogy Library (books & newspapers).

October 3 is Tag der Deutschen Einheit (Germany Unity Day), a national holiday since 1990, which celebrates the reunification of Germany at the end of the Cold War. And October 6 is German-American Day, when 40 million Americans celebrate their German heritage.

As Sean Daly, the U.S. Community Manager at Geneanet described it: We call our event "Ahnenfest" which means "Ancestor Festival". It's a different kind of Oktoberfest!

Here is the announcement from Geneanet:

Do you have roots in Germany? October 3 is Tag der Deutschen Einheit (Germany Unity Day), a national holiday since 1990, which celebrates the reunification of Germany at the end of the Cold War. And October 6 is German-American Day, when 40 million Americans celebrate their German heritage. At Geneanet, we have decided to celebrate these two holidays with Ahnenfest — Ancestor Festival –, a week of free access to our Premium German records and collections!

In the past few months, millions of European data points have been added to Geneanet. Indexes of over 55 million German birth, marriage, and death register entries are now available, and more are coming.

From October 1-6, 2022 inclusive, take advantage of our rich collections with advanced search options such as search by couple, by occupation, by parents, by events, as well as spelling variants, geographic area and wildcards. And search our Genealogy Library with millions of books and newspapers. To guide you in these options, a help page is available. Tap into thousands of archival records, books and newspapers and grow your tree easily.

The US Census Bureau estimates that nearly 15% of Americans have German ancestry and in many counties of the Midwest, over 40% of residents have German ancestry

Did your German ancestors live in New York City’s Kleindeutschland (Little Germany)? You may be interested in our collaborative General Slocum project which documents the 700 German-American families impacted by the 1904 steamboat disaster in New York.

Our General Slocum Families Trees project has documented hundreds of German-American families in New York in 1904

To benefit from this offer, no payment information is required. Just log in with your free account and enjoy your Ahnenfest week!

Here are some interesting facts to ponder:

According to a research study by Pew Research, circulation of newspapers peaked in the late 1990s at over 62 million with an advertising revenue of nearly $50 billion. Fast forward to 2020 — circulation is barely reaching 24 million, and advertising revenue has declined to just over $9 billion. Translation: more people read newspapers today than ever before, except for the fact that they are now reading electronic print, not print on paper.

More video was uploaded to YouTube in the last two months than all the video broadcast by ABC, NBC, and CBS combined since 1948.

Wikipedia was launched in 2001. Since then this online encyclopedia has grown to more than 6 million articles in the English version alone, far more than any encyclopedia ever printed on paper.

In February, 2008, U.S. presidential candidate John McCain attended numerous campaign fund raising activities and raised $11 million. During the same time, his competitor, Barack Obama, attended no fund raising activities at all and raised $55 million from online social networks.

The computer in your cell phone today is a million times cheaper and a thousand times more powerful and about a hundred thousand times smaller than the one computer at MIT in 1965.

The computer that used to fit in a building now fits in your pocket, what fits in your pocket now will fit inside a blood cell in 25 years.

And here's the statement that got me thinking: The mobile device is now the world's primary connection to the Internet.

The following announcement was written by Findmypast:

Less than a year after raising seed funding from Milwaukee venture capital firm Gateway Capital Partners and relocating from Madison to Milwaukee, health data technology startup Geno.Me (pronounced "genome") is ready to go to market.

Geno.Me is a data exchange platform that connects researchers with anonymized health data and pays consumers who opt to share their own medical and genomic records from sites like Ancestry.com and 23andMe. The company has raised a total of $400,000 (U.S.) in funding over 1 round. This was a Seed round raised on Nov 11, 2021.

It is a data exchange platform that links a person’s genetic report with their electronic health records.

The company’s platform connects electronic health record data with genomic information from services like 23andMe, MyChart and Ancestry.com in hopes of furthering medical research. Individuals who share their data with the platform are compensated on a monthly basis, while the business promises them total privacy and anonymity.

These linked datasets are encrypted and sold to companies conducting precision health research and developing pharmaceuticals.

Geno.Me was founded by Britt Gottschalk, a management consultant who has worked in health care, insurance and business communications.

The company was just launched and there isn't much information about it available online. You can see the limited information that has already been published at https://www.yourgeno.me/. However, I suspect we all will hear more about Geno.Me before long.

From an article by Bryan Grabauskas published in the wibw.com web site:

The legacy of a former Kansas judge is helping others leave their mark.

The Kay McFarland Japanese Garden played host to the launch of “Lasting Legacy Online.”

It is a website allowing users to log their own life stories to share with their loved ones.

Funding provided through the McFarland Living Trust will help preserve stories forever and keeps it free to use.

“You are able to upload documents, photographs, songs, recipes; anything that is of value to you and that you want to continue to pass on to your family and friends,” said Shawn Wesner, Communications Expert for Lasting Legacy Online. “This is the website where you can do it all.”

Details may be found at: https://bit.ly/3UOroBA