Rick Karlin has published at article in the timesunion.com web site that should be required reading for every genealogist who has new York ancestors (even if the ancestor(s) only stayed in the state for a brief time after passing through Ellis Island). 

His article points out that the State Dept. of Health since the pandemic can take years to dig up death or birth records sought by family tree researchers:

"The popularity of TV shows like as “Finding Your Roots,” advances in DNA technology, websites like Ancestry.com and growing interest in immigration have led to a genealogy boom.

"More and more amateur genealogists are researching their family trees to trace their lineages, searches that may lead to towns in Ireland or Italy, long-lost shtetls in Eastern Europe or ancient villages in Africa or Asia.

"New York state is a ground zero for such research, given how many families can trace their roots through Ellis Island, and thanks to the state’s earlier role as one of the original 13 colonies.

"Ironically, state government is now being blamed for running in reverse of the trend, hindering work of researchers. In particular,  genealogists are roundly criticizing the Department of Health over the time they are taking to respond to record requests.

"The agency, genealogist say, has dropped what used to be an efficient system for providing key data like indexes or lists of birth, death and marriage records.

"Until a few years ago, the health department could expedite requests and even had a walk-up window at its Albany headquarters where people could ask for records in person. Now, requests have to be made online and wait times can easily run for two years or longer.

"Interviews with several genealogists and genealogy organizations suggest New York has emerged as one of the most difficult states nationally for finding vital records."

The full article is much longer and is available at: https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/genealogists-say-state-hinders-research-17909381.php

Unlock the Past is an Australian genealogy company that organized 17 genealogy / history conference cruises between 2011 and 2020. In total, 1500 people joined these cruises in groups ranging from 30 to 250 people. Now the company is considering more cruises in 2024 and beyond.

Alan Phillips (the CEO of Unlock the Past) has posted a survey on the company's web site to gauge the interest of possible future cruises. If you would like to take (one or more) cruises with a group of genealogists, along with leading genealogy presenters, take a look at the survey for possible future genealogy cruises at: https://www.gouldgenealogy.com/2023/04/unlock-the-past-cruises-2024-2026/.

Past cruises attracted genealogists from all over the world!

If you are interested, fill out the survey. This sounds like a great vacation!

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 many times about the need to make backup copies of genealogy data (and lots of other data) by genealogists and others. Here is an article by Cheryl Vaughn and published in the makeuseof.com web site that adds still more information about the subject:

"With the ever-increasing amounts of information, it becomes imperative to keep back-ups of your devices and data in external cloud storage services in case of unwanted or inadvertent loss of data. To this end, Google Drive and Dropbox are two of the most popular cloud backup solutions. However, they may not be the best fit for everyone.

"There are countless alternatives out there that offer unique features, better security, and more storage options. Here, we'll explore the best cloud storage alternatives to Google Drive and Dropbox to help keep your data safe and secure at all times."

You can read Cheryl Vaughn's recommendations at: https://www.makeuseof.com/best-backup-cloud-alternatives/

The following is a news release written by the West Virginia Wild and Wonderful Celtic Festival and Highland Games, Inc.:

West Virginia Wild and Wonderful Celtic Festival and Highland Games Inc is bringing a new Celtic festival to West Virginia.

The festival will be held each year on the third weekend in June at 4H Camp Pioneer in Beverly, West Virginia. Camp Pioneer is the perfect venue for this event. They have on-site camping and RV sites, a huge arena, livestock barns, and plenty of room.

This year’s Celtic festival will be held on June 17, 2023. Organizers have been busy preparing for this event for nearly a year now. They have lined up a huge number of activities and entertainment for their inaugural event. There will be activities for young and old alike.

Some of the activities will be Highland cows, sheep and duck herding demonstrations, and Celtic dogs. The West Virginia Highland Dancers from Elkins will be giving dance performances and a few dance lessons for anyone that would like to have a try. The West Virginia Highlanders pipe and drum band will be on hand playing their pipes and drums. There are six Celtic music bands that will play a variety of music throughout the day.

The festival will also feature Celtic ancestry tents, clan villages, live Celtic music, storytelling, blacksmith demonstrations, Celtic food, Celtic merchandise and much more. There will be fully sanctioned highland games, including a very rare adaptive, amateur, and kid’s class.

The festival is still looking for more traditional Celtic food vendors and volunteers for the event. Any non-profit organizations looking to get involved with the festival are also encouraged to reach out to the organizers.

For more information on the West Virginia Celtic Festival and Highland Games, go to the festival’s website at wvcelticfestandgames.com or email wvcelticfestandgames@gmail.com.

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

(+) Why and When You Should Shoot RAW Photo

A Project Is Helping to Preserve Stories of Enslaved Native Americans

Tucson, Arizona to Begin Returning Ancestral Lands to Tohono O’odham Nation

Clitheroe, Lancashire, England, 1888 to 2015 Now Online Thanks to Civic Society Efforts

National Archives of Australia Digitises 95,000 First World War Records

Resources for English and Welsh Genealogy

Obtaining Portuguese Citizenship for Brazilians

Jennifer Harrison Latest Recipient of the Wallace Clare Award

Registration Now Open for the IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy in London

Now Accepting Applications for APG Young Professional Scholarship – Apply by 1 June

ASG Continuing Genealogical Research Grant Program Announces 2023 Winners of Grants

RootsTech Celebrates DNA Day 2023 with 8 Free Webinars

Iowa County Genealogy Society Finds New Home in Millersburg

Using Google Photo’s Facial Recognition to Identify Old Family Photos

TheGenealogist Launches 3.4 Million Brand New Enhanced Census Images

Records for the Diocese of Dublin Dominate Releases This Findmypast Friday

Ancestry Survey Reveals Americans Know Little About Moms' Past–and She Wants to Tell You

23andMe’s New Depression Report

Bailey Bailey Explains How Her Extremely Unique Name Came to Be

Libby - Free Ebooks and Audiobooks

Proton Pass (a Password Manager) Announced

WhatsApp and Signal Unite Against Online Safety Bill Amid Privacy Concerns

Decentralized Twitter Competitor ‘Bluesky’ Now Has an Android App

Older Adults Use Voice Assistant Devices More Often

The following announcement was written by Ancestry.com:

LEHI, Utah--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Ancestry®, the leader in family history, released survey findings today that revealed Americans have a blind spot about what their parents’ lives were like before parenthood. In fact, only 37% are familiar with their mother’s life before having them – yet, an overwhelming majority of moms (79%) are willing to share their stories.

Despite this lack of generational storytelling, most Americans (79%) want to know more about their parents’ lives before them, but their kids haven’t asked because they think parents don’t want to share (23%) or they simply haven’t thought to ask (22%). However, parents have fantastic stories to tell – especially since 74% of moms believe they’re cooler than their kids think. Now, with new Ancestry tools that spark meaningful generational conversations and provide a way to preserve mom’s memories, everyone has the power of storytelling at their fingertips.

“Storytelling is our obligation to the next generation,” said Crista Cowan, Corporate Genealogist at Ancestry. “Records, family trees and DNA are the foundation of family history research, showing us snapshots of our ancestors’ lives and relationships between people – and Ancestry’s newest storytelling tools also allow us to share even more detail about what makes each of us, us. By adding photos and audio recordings of our family stories, memories and legacies can be preserved forever for generations to come.”

Ancestry is encouraging everyone to learn more about who mom was before them, and to discover and preserve her untold stories using its new innovative features:

When it comes to what Americans want to learn about their parents, they’re most interested in pre-parenthood adventures (52%), romantic relationships (48%) and rebellious phases (45%). Some respondents were surprised to learn things like a parent was born on a boat from Italy, faked their own death, hitchhiked across the country, composed music, performed magic, received top medals during WWII, and more.

Starting May 1, everyone can also give a gift moms will cherish long after Mother’s Day. Begin unlocking even more family stories with deals on AncestryDNA, on sale for $59 (originally $99); AncestryDNA + Traits, on sale for $69 (originally $119); and Ancestry Gift Memberships, up to 30% off.

Survey Findings

In a comprehensive look at America's knowledge of their parents’ lives before parenthood, a new OnePoll survey1 commissioned by Ancestry revealed the following additional information:

• • We Know Little About Our Mom’s Life Before Kids, Yet She’s Vital to Our Upbringing
• • Less than half of Americans (37%) are familiar with their mom’s family history/past.
  • Yet most Americans (83%) say their mom raised them the most growing up, and the majority of respondents say they feel closest to their mom out of any relative (36%), compared to dad (29%).
• • There’s a Lot We Don’t Know About Our Parents
• • When it comes to the details of our parents’ lives before they had kids, only few Americans know about what music they listened to (19%), what they struggled with growing up (14%) and what they wanted to be when they grew up (13%).
  • As adult children, more than half of Americans wish they knew more about their parents’ happiest moments (57%) and most valuable life lesson learned (53%).
  • Most parents in America (79%) think they’re cooler than their children think they are, especially Millennial parents (85%).
• • Parents Want Their Memories to Live On
• • Parents in the U.S. want to share more about their lives before having a family because they want to keep their memories alive (70%) and pass on their experiences (68%).
  • When it comes to the next generation, parents want their kids to pass on pieces of their life story, especially their happiest moment (59%), most valuable life lesson (56%) and biggest accomplishment (55%).

Ancestry invites everyone to learn more about who their parents were before them and preserve their stories for future generations. Storymaker Studio is currently free with the Ancestry mobile app. Learn more at Ancestry.com/Storymaker, and share your story on Ancestry and social media using #MyAncestryStory.

About Ancestry

Ancestry®, the global leader in family history, empowers journeys of personal discovery to enrich lives. With our unparalleled collection of more than 40 billion records, over 3 million subscribers and over 23 million people in our growing DNA network, customers can discover their family story and gain a new level of understanding about their lives. Over the past 40 years, we’ve built trusted relationships with millions of people who have chosen us as the platform for discovering, preserving and sharing the most important information about themselves and their families.

1 Research Methodology: All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from a OnePoll survey on behalf of Ancestry. Total sample size was 2,000 US adults evenly split between millennials, Gen X and baby boomers. Fieldwork was undertaken between April 12 - 17, 2023. The survey was carried out online.

Free ebooks & audiobooks from your local library! Borrow best-sellers and read anytime, anywhere.

All over the world, local libraries offer millions of ebooks and audiobooks. You can borrow them — for free, instantly — with a library card and Libby: the award-winning, much-loved app for libraries.

In the beautiful, intuitive ebook reader:

• Adjust text size, background color, and book design
• Zoom into magazines and comic books
• Define and search for words and phrases
• Read and listen to read-alongs with your kids
• Add bookmarks, notes, and highlights

In the audio player:

• Slow down or speed up the audio (0.6 to 3.0x)
  
• Set a sleep timer
  
• Simply swipe to skip forward and backward
  
• Add bookmarks, notes, and highlights

Libby is built by the team at OverDrive, in support of local libraries everywhere.

To join Libby, first download the Libby App from the Android Play Store or the Apple App Store, depending if you are using an Android or an Apple cell phone.

I was previously unaware of this service but I just added it to my cell phone this morning. I have only used it for a few minutes but, so far, it looks like a winner!

Happy reading!

NOTE: This is a follow-up to a previous article that published on April 17: Bluesky - a Twitter Clone that is still available at: https://eogn.com/page-18080/13170409.

In 2019, Jack Dorsey announced a project to “create an open and decentralized standard for social media.” Bluesky has spent the past several years developing the underlying protocol. After an iOS app in February, Bluesky for Android is now available as an invite-only beta. 

The foundation of Bluesky is the Authenticated Transfer (AT) Protocol. Meant to support “large-scale distributed social applications,” tentpoles include account portability, algorithmic choice, interoperation, and performance. You can find the protocol overview here.

The app, which is meant to be a reference client, is quite straightforward with four tabs:

• Home: “Following” is the default feed with “What’s hot” helpful when starting out 
• Search
• Notifications
• Account

A navigation drawer can be opened by tapping your profile picture in the top-left corner. This lets you access settings, switch themes (similar to the Twitter UI), and send feedback. You’ll also see how many invite codes you have. Those are issued after “you’ve been on Bluesky for a little longer.”

It launched first on iOS in late February and Bluesky for Android is now available (via The Verge). The latter experience is pretty basic with performance just okay for an initial release.

Bluesky is on the Play Store today and still invite-only. New sign-ups are able to join with a code from an existing user or the waitlist here. 

You can read more in an article by Abner Li in the 9to5google.com web site at: https://9to5google.com/2023/04/19/bluesky-android-app/

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 grown to depend on my Amazon Alexa device for all sorts of things and thought this article might interest some of this newsletter's readers to perhaps purchase one or more Alexa devices (or a competitive device). If used frequently, it will simplify your life!

Older adults use voice assistant devices more often with training and flyers with instructions to complement their daily routine, according to a new University of Michigan study that looked at long-term usage.

Voice assistants, such as Amazon’s Alexa and Google Nest, are low-cost computing devices that use voice and conversation as the primary interaction modality. In recent years, they have become increasingly popular with hands-free methods to retrieve information or to listen to music.

These devices also provide better information access for older adults, who may not use computers and mobile devices due to late-life vision or motor disability.

Older adults use voice assistant devices more often with training and flyers with instructions to complement their daily routine, according to a new University of Michigan study that looked at long-term usage

Voice assistants, such as Amazon’s Alexa and Google Nest, are low-cost computing devices that use voice and conversation as the primary interaction modality. In recent years, they have become increasingly popular with hands-free methods to retrieve information or to listen to music.

These devices also provide better information access for older adults, who may not use computers and mobile devices due to late-life vision or motor disability. The researchers also noted that some participants felt Alexa also provided comfort through conversations, especially valuable when they were lonely.

If you are an older adult, you may find Alexa (or one of its competitors) to be a very useful addition to your life.

You can learn more in an article  in the University of Michigan web site at: https://news.umich.edu/alexa-set-the-alarm-for-me-to-take-my-medication/

You'll have to excuse me now as it's time for my two-way video chat on Alexa with my grandchildren...

Digitised versions of the Clitheroe Advertiser and Times have been been made free and available to all online thanks to the work of Clitheroe Civic Society and partners.

In 2017, hard copies of historic Clitheroe Advertiser and Times editions were placed into the archive of Clitheroe Civic Society following the relocation of the newspaper office to Burnley.

Much conservation of the editions was required and generous funding was obtained from The Bowland Trust to re-bind many of the hard copy volumes and also to digitise the microfilm of these editions.

Due to the sheer size and number of editions available from 1888-2015, it became too large a job for the civic society itself to make these editions accessible online outside of a hard drive and the society was determined to ensure that these editions were made freely available to all in the community and beyond.

You can read the full story in an article by Dominic Collis published in the burnleyexpress.net web site at: https://www.burnleyexpress.net/heritage-and-retro/heritage/historic-clitheroe-advertiser-archive-from-1888-to-2015-now-online-thanks-to-civic-society-efforts-4113988.