The following is a press release written by Stockton University:

The Alliance Heritage Center will use a new grant to create a public digital database of its collection documenting the history of Jewish farming in southern New Jersey.

The New Jersey Historical Commission recently awarded more than $300,000 to 14 organizations to explore under-represented history in the state, including $24,500 to the Alliance Heritage Center at Stockton University.

The goal of the Alliance Heritage Center is to preserve the history of the first successful Jewish farming village in the United States, the Alliance Colony in Pittsgrove Township, Salem County.

The center will use the grant to support a one-year project to create a public digital database to house its collections, said Patricia Chappine, adjunct professor of History.

“We’re very excited to start this project,” said Chappine, who works with the center and its director, Thomas Kinsella. “Adding our collections to Stockton’s online archives will make our holdings more accessible, expand our community connections and help us preserve the stories of Alliance and Jewish agriculture in the area.”

The Alliance Colony was established in 1882 by 43 original Jewish families fleeing persecution from Russia and Eastern Europe. Chappine said the center’s archives include several physical and digital collections, including manuscripts, naturalization papers, newspapers, deeds, maps, land surveys, synagogue records, photographs and oral history interviews. It also includes the bound writings of Rabbi Moses Bayuk, one of the founding members of the Alliance Colony.

“Telling complex, diverse and nuanced histories will continue to be a priority of the New Jersey History Commission, and this funding is an important next step to achieving that essential goal,” said N.J. Secretary of State Tahesha Way.

The funds are part of New Jersey’s Inclusive History Grant Program (IHGP), which was created to help commemorate the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States.

Chappine said the grants will help create a searchable online database and digital museum using the Preservica archival management software that will be open to the public.

“By expanding access to these collections, we will open these holdings to researchers who can make broad and important connections between our resources and the history of immigration and refugee communities in New Jersey,” she said. “This will ultimately alleviate the shortage of secondary sources available on the subject.”

The center also plans to use a portion of the grant to create interactive virtual exhibits with the help of Stockton students.

Two major gifts to the Stockton University Foundation helped establish the center in 2019. A $500,000 gift from an anonymous donor established a fund for the Elizabeth and Samuel Levin Director of the Alliance Heritage Center. A $200,000 gift from Bernard and Shirlee Greenblatt Brown and their children created a research endowment.

Learn more about the Alliance Heritage Center at: https://stockton.edu/alliance-heritage/.

The following announcement was written by UNC University Libraries:

You can register to attend this panel discussion at: https://unc.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_U5LfmlKYRb2C_kDzby9BuA.

Genetic engineering company Colossal Biosciences said Tuesday that it will try to resurrect the extinct dodo bird, and it’s received $150 million in new funding to support its “de-extinction” activities.

The dodo was already part of Colossal’s plans by September 2022, but now the company has announced it with all the pomp, circumstance, and seed funding that suggests it will actually go after that goal. The $150 million, the company’s second round of funding, was led by several venture capital firms, including United States Innovative Technology Fund and In-Q-Tel, a VC firm funded by the CIA that first put money into the company in September.

Dodo bird

Adding the dodo to its official docket brings Colossal’s total de-extinction targets to three: the woolly mammoth (the company’s first target species, announced in September 2021), and the thylacine, a.k.a. the Tasmanian tiger, the largest carnivorous marsupial.

If they can do that with animals, I wonder if they could do the same with humans. I really would like to ask my great-great-grandfather some questions!

Do you think you really understand your family's history? Can you look at an old photograph and guess rather accurately the year in which the photograph was taken? Yes, clothing, hairstyles, and other clues can be very helpful

OK, here is how to check your skill level.

Chronophoto presents the player with a photo and a timeline ranging from 1900 to current times. The closer you get to the exact year of the photograph's creation, the more points you'll be awarded. Some of my answers were spot on, and others were embarrassingly off. You have 5 rounds to prove yourself. 

Chronophoto is available at: https://www.chronophoto.app/

NOTE: This article is not about any of the "normal" topics of this newsletter: genealogy, history, current affairs, DNA, and related topics. However, it is about another interest of mine: Chromebooks. I also believe that many readers of this newsletter share my interest.

Chromebooks are designed to work with Google services first and foremost, but they also work well with everything from Linux apps to cloud gaming platforms. Google is now working to improve Microsoft 365 on Chromebooks.

Google announced that it is working with Microsoft to offer “a guided setup experience that takes them through the process of installing the Microsoft 365 web app and connecting Microsoft OneDrive to their Chromebook Files app.” The new integration will be available sometime in the next few months, and will appear earlier in the Chrome OS Dev and Beta channels.

There aren’t many specific details yet, but it sounds like opening Microsoft Office files from local storage (like a USB drive or the Downloads folder) will display a prompt for setting up Microsoft 365 on your Chromebook. Files that are opened through this method will be moved to Microsoft OneDrive, where the changes will be synchronized in the cloud.

Want to try something new? Something that is at the bleeding edge of technology? Read on...

A sleek tool called Andi combines the convenience of a chatbot with the credibility of a standard search setup—and it might just be the answer we need.

Suggestion: to try something that I know works, go to https://andisearch.com/ and enter:

What is eogn.com?

After that, use your own imagination to create search terms for items that interest you.

The following announcement was written by the British Library Board:

Our current exhibition, Alexander the Great: The Making of a Myth (closing soon on 19 February!), displays striking images of Alexander in medieval manuscripts of his legendary life. Many of these are already fully digitised, including high-status works of art like the Talbot-Shrewsbury Book and other superbly-illustrated Alexander legends in the British Library's collections.

Alexander fighting dragons, in the Talbot-Shrewsbury Book (Rouen 1444–1445): Royal 15 E VI, f, 21r

You can read a lot more and view more images at: https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2023/01/three-alexander-the-great-manuscripts-newly-digitised.html. 

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

(+) QR Codes Create Internet-Connected Tombstones – A Good or Bad Idea?

Woman Learns She Unknowingly Married Her Cousin

Heredis Is Launching Its Genealogical Search Service for the Genealogists With French Roots

Illinois State Archives Says Death Certificates Database Updated to 1971

American Ancestors Announces Annual Young Family Historians Essay Contest

Polish State Archives Website is Back Online

New England Quaker Records to Be Digitized

Archives New Zealand in Danger of Running Out of Space

China-Based Firm Signs With Genealogy Society to Help Chinese Singaporeans Trace Roots

Tracing Belgian Family Trees Made Easier by Massive New Archive

The Family History Show Is Back Next Month! February 18th 2023

Grammy-Winning Musician Anthony Hamilton Teams With africanancestry.com to Challenge Fans to Unlock the Power of Their Ancestors

Cancer Blood Test Using DNA Fragments Brings Hope for Earlier Detection, Say Researchers

Findmypast Adds Thousands of New and Exclusive Military Records

The Open Secret of Google Search

NOTE: I know that a few people in Singapore subscribe to this newsletter. This article is for them.

When a Chinese Singaporean in his 50s sought help to find out more about his late father, genealogist Huihan Lie and his team immediately scoured databases of Chinese ancestors and conducted field investigations in China.

They found out that the father was a seaman from Fujian who fought in World War II and that the client had a half-sister in Liverpool, England. 

On Saturday, the company inked a memorandum of understanding with the non-profit Genealogy Society Singapore to work together over three years to help Chinese Singaporeans trace their roots. The services include roots and genealogy research projects focusing on pre-migration family histories in China, China roots trips and the creation of publications.

The society will market the services to potential customers here such as clan associations, private businesses, civic organisations and individuals.

Mr Ng Yew Kang, 82, its president, said: “Many Chinese Singaporeans have little knowledge of their ancestry, where they came from and how their ancestors migrated from China to Singapore. By the time they want to learn more... many elderly family members would have died, taking the memories with them.”

You can read more at: https://tinyurl.com/3956sry9.