The following is a press release written by Association of Professional Genealogists:

Do you know a young genealogist with a bright future? Encourage them to apply for the APG Young Professional Scholarship! The scholarship is awarded to students or young professionals between the ages of 18 and 35 who have a significant interest in genealogy and a strong interest in developing a professional career in the field. 

Applications for the 2023 Scholarship are due by 1 June 2023. For eligibility, judging criteria, and a link to the application, visit https://www.apgen.org/cpages/awards-young-professional-scholarship.

The scholarship winner will receive a complimentary registration for the APG Professional Management Conference (PMC) and reimbursement of up to $500 for hotel and travel expenses when attending the PMC in person. The 2023 APG PMC will be held 19-21 October 2023 in Salt Lake City, Utah, and virtually on Whova. 

The following is a press release written by the Fellows of the American Society of Genealogists:

The Fellows of the American Society of Genealogists are pleased to announce the 2023 winners of the ASG Continuing Genealogical Research Grants.

Shahidah Ahmad of Watertown, Mass., to collect, digitize, and index information about African Americans buried in Holly Hill and Cottageville, South Carolina, by interviewing residents over age 65 and using local knowledge to identify individuals and family buried in those towns, map communities, and create photographic, scanned and digital images linked with Excel master list to fill the void of less documented rural towns as an example for South Carolinian family historians. Shahidah is an Independent Genealogy Researcher and former Treasurer and Presenter of the African American Genealogical and Historical Society – New England.

Richard de Boer of Harlingen, The Netherlands, to prepare an English language overview of preserved genealogical sources (microdata) in six Western Balkans countries: Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Kosovo, and Albania, addressing the problem of language barriers and difficulty in retrieving and accessing sources. Among sources to be used are church registers and censuses, war victim lists, Ottoman tax registers and land cadastres, with the goal of publishing an overview of records by country, region, and ethnoreligious community. Richard is a professional journalist from The Netherlands, and administrator of the website www.exyugenealogy.net (“Sources for post- Yugoslav Family History”).

Stephanie Mills Trice of Silver Spring, Maryland, to lead a group of volunteers in identifying families buried at Mount Zion Baptist Church, the oldest African American graveyard in Macon, South Carolina, that dates to 1879, when field stones and periwinkle marked the graves, and for which there is no known record of interments. They will be using interviews with living story tellers, funeral programs, obituaries, photographs and digital documents, which are to be stored locally in Warren County. Stephanie is a Volunteer Oral Historian and Collaborative Partner in the Facing East 158 Voice Project of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

Jamie Wasilchenko of Newaygo, Michigan, to gather records on the population of the village of Horodylovychi in Galacia of the Austro-Hungarian Empire that was destroyed in 1939, with many of its residents, including Ukranians, Poles and Jews, forcibly removed to Soviet territory. She will be using records of the Greek Catholic church she located in the Polish State Archives that were believed to have been lost. Records of baptisms, marriages, and burials for 1873 to 1937 (about 300 pages) will be indexed and made available through the Polish Genealogical Society and placed in repositories in Ukraine and Poland, both online and offline. Jamie is a Professional Genealogist, www.ShiftingSandsGenealogy.com.

The ASG Continuing Genealogical Research Grant program was established in 2022 by the American Society of Genealogists. A decision about grants for 2024 will be made at the Fellow’s Annual Meeting in October 2023. Interested parties may obtain information from Alicia Crane Williams, FASG, Chair, Grants Committee, acwcrane@aol.com. Or write to her at 4 White Trellis, Plymouth, MA 02360-7790.

The MyHeritage Blog has an article that will be of interest to many Brazilian citizens: Obtaining Portuguese Citizenship for Brazilians. According to the article:

"Portugal has been a member country of the EU since 1986. As such, a Portuguese passport would allow its owner to travel anywhere within the European Union, crossing borders easily and experiencing much of what Europe has to offer.

"There has been much discussion in recent years about the possibility of Portuguese citizenship for those with Sephardic-Jewish heritage. If that is your background, check out this Knowledge Base article about researching your Jewish Ancestors on MyHeritage. 

"However, if your ancestors were not Sephardic Jews and instead you have Portuguese parents or grandparents, becoming a dual citizen with Portugal may still be within your reach!"

The full article is available at: https://blog.myheritage.com/2023/04/obtaining-portuguese-citizenship-for-brazilians/

The following is a press release written by the folks at FamilySearch:

RootsTech is proud to celebrate DNA Day on April 25, 2023, with 8 free online classes led by DNA experts covering a wide variety of topics. DNA Day began in 2003 as an annual celebration of the discovery of DNA's double helix structure and the important role that genetics play in our lives.

DNA can open many opportunities for personal discovery and new family connections. RootsTech DNA Day will offer a range of classes and educational opportunities for individuals interested in learning more about the role of DNA in family history and genealogy research. Highlights of the event include keynote speakers, interactive workshops, and DNA testing booths.

"We are excited to celebrate DNA Day and the important role that genetics play in our lives," said Jen Allen, RootsTech event director. "This year's online event will offer attendees a unique opportunity to learn from experts in the field and explore the latest advances in DNA technology."

Keynote speakers for RootsTech DNA Day include renowned genetic genealogist Diahan Southard, founder of Your DNA Guide and renowned author and educator. She will share her expertise and insights into the field of DNA testing and its applications for genealogy research.

Nonprofit DNAngels will present successful stories profiling some of their case work in helping individuals connect with biological family members through DNA.

RootsTech DNA Day will be live on Facebook, YouTube, and RootsTech.org and will be archived after April 25 for reference throughout the year.

For more information about RootsTech DNA Day and to RSVP for each class, please visit the RootsTech Facebook page, Upcoming Events.

How to Watch DNA Day 2025 Live Content (April 25, 2023. All times are mountain daylight time.)

YouTube RootsTech DNA Day Playlist

RootsTech Facebook (See Upcoming Events calendar)

Native Bound Unbound is a multiyear project headed by former New Mexico state historian Estevan Rael-Gálvez to establish a centralized, online repository cataloging the lives of enslaved Indigenous people across the Western Hemisphere. Through March and April, Native Bound Unbound has teamed up with StoryCorps — a New York-based nonprofit centered on preserving American stories — to record conversations between descendants of enslaved Indigenous people for preservation.

The goal is for the conversations to be archived within the U.S. Library of Congress’ American Folklife Center and for them to be accessible through Native Bound Unbound’s digital archive once it is up and running.

Native Bound Unbound is a “hemispheric” endeavor, with researchers and volunteers in several U.S. states and different countries, and is likely a lifetime project, or at least one which will span multiple decades.

You can read more in an article by Nathan Lederman published in the santafenewmexican.com web site at: https://tinyurl.com/24vwm362

The Native Bound Unbound also maintains a Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100086096661423.

The following is a press release issued by the National Archives of Australia:

National Archives of Australia and Ancestry.com have collaborated to digitise 95,000 First World War records, preserving them for the future.

The project digitised series MT1486/1, which consists of records for individuals who applied to enlist in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF), and were either rejected, discharged while still in training, or went on to serve within Australia only. 

Rebecca Britt, National Archives Director of Digitisation Services said the partnership allowed for a sharing of knowledge and resources to ensure records were digitised to a world-class standard.

‘We welcomed Ancestry.com staff to our East Burwood, Victoria repository to support the project, and alongside National Archives staff, the Ancestry.com team digitised the records. This meant that the records never left the repository, ensuring security and best practice for the project.’

Jason Reeve, Head of Content and Community at Ancestry.com said the project has helped ensure this important collection is accessible for future generations.

‘Ancestry is honoured to partner with National Archives of Australia to digitise this significant collection. By ensuring that these important stories are accessible and digitally preserved for generations to come, we can contribute to the commemoration and safeguarding of this crucial chapter of Australia’s military history,’ he said.

National Archives Senior Curator Anne-Marie Condé explained the importance of these records being available digitally.

‘These records help to throw light on a significant cohort of people who attempted to enlist but were rejected. This part of the First World War story has so often been overlooked,’ she said. 

‘The most common reason for rejection was on medical grounds, but there were all kinds of reasons a person could be rejected, and together they offer compelling insights into the beliefs and world-views of the day.’ 

Series MT1486/1 is a high-use series and it now joins more than 376,000 First Australian Imperial Force service records which have already been fully digitised. 

All records are accessible to the public via RecordSearch and through the Ancestry.com family history platform. 

View the series on RecordSearch.  

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

(+)  RSS and Newsreaders Explained

What’s the Best Way to Store Data for Decades or Centuries?

U.S. National Archives' Statement on the Presidential Records Act Special Access Requests

Every Blue Eyed Person on the Planet Is a Descendant of One Single Person

Ancestry Sites Giving Away Identity of Sperm and Egg Donors

Genetic Contribution From the Stone Age May Influence Our Chance to Have a Long Life

Genealogists Announce Breakthrough in DNA Analysis of Tulsa's Oaklawn Cemetery Remains

Nonprofit Working to Solve California Cold Case With Eastern North Carolina Ties Using Investigative Genealogy

How Artificial Intelligence Is Helping Historians Better Understand Our Past

Tennessee Historical Commission Unveils Online Database of Cemeteries

Record Locations Compiled by the New York State Archives

National Archives of New Zealand Reboots Problematic Search System

The New Assistant Director at the FamilySearch Library

Tamara Martin Appointed Director of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum

The Story of China’s Largest Genealogy Collection

Browse British Calendars and Durham Baptisms Like Never Before With Findmypast's New Additions

Recently Added and Updated Collections on Ancestry.com

Census Bureau Releases New U.S. Population Estimates by Age and Sex

Bluesky - a Twitter Clone

The following is a press release issued by the U.S. Census Bureau"

The U.S. Census Bureau has released a downloadable file containing estimates of the nation’s resident population by sex and single year of age as of July 1, 2022. The file is available at www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/popest/2020s-national-detail.html. 

In the coming months, the Census Bureau will release additional population estimates for cities and towns, as well as national, state and county population estimates by age, sex, race and Hispanic origin.

I know that many readers of this newsletter are (or were) enthusiastic users of Twitter. If that includes you, you may be interested in this article by Jay Peters published in theverge.com web site:

Bluesky is really, really fun.

Yes, the platform is essentially just Twitter but decentralized. And yes, the Jack Dorsey-backed Bluesky is one of many services emulating howTwitter looks right now. But after spending a few hours in Bluesky since getting my beta invite this week, it’s so far the service where I feel the most joy.

Similar to Mastodon, Bluesky is a federated social network, which, at its most basic level, means that users can participate through different providers instead of a huge central one. The easiest comparison is email: if you have Gmail, you can send an email to somebody on Apple’s iCloud, and they can reply back to you.

Bluesky lets you pick from different hosting providers. When I joined the app on Tuesday, I picked the default, which is Bluesky’s own system. (There’s an option to join other providers, but I don’t know what options are available or how to set them up. This may be user error or ignorance.) From there, I set my username, which reads more like a domain — jaypeters.bsky.social — and I’ll talk about that a bit more later.

When I first got to the “Following” feed, it was empty, but as I explored more, it didn’t take long to discover that Bluesky already has an extremely active user base that’s now dealing with an influx of newbies like me. Very soon in my Bluesky journey, I stumbled upon a post from Jay Graber, the CEO of Bluesky, that helped me get a sense of what I was in for.

“It was getting pretty scene-y here so we just emailed 5K people from our waitlist, say hi when you see them trickle on!” Graber wrote. In a reply, Graber added “densely connected subgraph of twitter power users who just joined, meek 5k people who gave us their email and filled out a form ”

Cruising the “What’s hot” section that day was a mishmash of simple internet delight.

You can read the full article at: https://tinyurl.com/yps4mm3a.

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

Your paperboy just got smarter. This article will tell you how to easily read more information on the Internet in a shorter period of time. In short, you can use much of the Internet without all the clutter.

I used to spend 2 or 3 hours per day visiting specific web sites over and over in an attempt to find new information. I regularly visited CNN.com looking for news, weather.com looking for the latest weather forecast for my home town, various stock market web sites, and, of course, genealogy sites looking for information about a variety of topics. The old method meant visiting each and every web site, one at a time, then waiting for the page to appear on my screen, then looking at menus to find the new information, waiting again for the new pages to appear, and so on. It was a tedious way to search for new information.

Today I can accomplish the same thing within a very few minutes instead of spending hours searching for elusive information. Today I "subscribe" to CNN.com, weather.com, stock market quotes, and many other web sites. New information automatically appears on my computer's screen whenever I want; I no longer have to open a web browser to visit dozens of web sites in search of new information. I only see new information. Older information that has already appeared on my screen earlier is not displayed to me a second time. Most of the advertisements are also not displayed although a few do manage to appear. The result is in the a form of a "custom newspaper" designed for me, containing new information about topics of interest to me.

My computer automatically retrieves information daily from dozens of web sites, using RSS format. RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, is a method of publishing and subscribing to to frequently updated content, such as blog entries and news items. In short, many web site(s) publish information in RSS format, and software in my computer automatically retrieves that information in RSS format and displays it on my screen in an easy-to-read format. 

A newsreader, sometimes called a feed reader or simply an aggregator, is client software that you can download and install in a computer or perhaps is available on a Web site which aggregates or consolidates data that has been published in RSS format. In either case, you can "subscribe" to news headlines, blogs, podcasts, and video blogs in a single location for easy viewing. You do not need to "surf the web" looking for content; the new information is automatically delivered to you in a packaged and convenient manner.

RSS-formatted data works well for information that changes often. For instance, stock market information and weather forecasts are a natural fit for RSS newsfeeds. The same is true for the latest news and even for new articles posted to a genealogy newsletter's web site, such as www.EOGN.com. Almost all genealogy blogs also offer RSS newsfeeds. 

RSS newsreaders reduce the time and effort needed to regularly check for updates to multiple websites, creating a unique information space or "personal newspaper." Once subscribed to a feed, a newsreader is able to check for new content at user-determined intervals and display the updates for you. 

The remainder of this article is reserved for Plus Edition subscribers only. If you have a Plus Edition subscription, you may read the full article at: 

https://eogn.com/(*)-Plus-Edition-News-Articles/13168394.

If you are not yet a Plus Edition subscriber, you can learn more about such subscriptions and even upgrade to a Plus Edition subscription immediately at https://eogn.com/page-18077.