The following is a press release written by the National Genealogical Society:

FALLS CHURCH, VIRGINIA, 6 JUNE 2023—The National Genealogical Society (NGS) and Genealogy ConferenceKeeper.org, Inc. (ConferenceKeeper), announce an agreement to merge before the end of the year. ConferenceKeeper is the most complete, entirely free, online calendar of genealogy conferences and events. "We are thrilled to welcome ConferenceKeeper and its manager extraordinaire Tami Osmer Mize into the NGS family," said President Kathryn M. Doyle.

Created in 2012, ConferenceKeeper was the brainchild of Jen Baldwin. In 2015, Baldwin passed it on to Eowyn Langholf Walker and Tami Osmer Mize. Mize has been its sole manager since 2016 and will continue in this role as a consultant for NGS.

ConferenceKeeper will continue to support local genealogical societies, libraries, and genealogy-related businesses by providing a wider audience for their programs. The website will offer its calendar of thousands of genealogical education opportunities as a free resource for everyone interested in furthering their knowledge of family history research. ConferenceKeeper will also continue to accept genealogy-related advertising. NGS member organizations will benefit from a special advertising rate and increased visibility for their events.

"ConferenceKeeper and NGS make a great match," said Mize. "Both organizations are dedicated to furthering genealogy education. With this agreement, the ability for ConferenceKeeper to reach an even wider audience will benefit those seeking education and those providing the opportunities. The efficiencies we gain together and the additional support that we can provide for genealogy organizations make this a win-win for both NGS and ConferenceKeeper." 

"We look forward to ensuring that family history researchers will have access to links to local, regional, and national conferences and events here in the United States and worldwide through ConferenceKeeper," said Doyle.

I believe virtual conferences are the wave of the future. I recently attended a 3-day genealogy conference in Salt Lake City. With the air travel, hotel expenses, restaurant meals, and conference admission, I spent more than $1,500 US. I also spent 5 days away from home: one day traveling to the event (in the cheapest airline coach seats I could find), three days at the conference, and one more day returning home. I am sure that attendees from overseas spent much more than I did.

(I am not talking about webinars that typically last for an hour or two. In this case, it was a traditional conference that lasted for one or more entire days.)

Obviously, many people are not able to pay that much money or to take that many days out of their lives to attend such an event, regardless of their interest level. Luckily, technology can provide an alternative.

Holding events online is called a "virtual conference." The presenters often remain in their homes, using their own computers and video cameras to deliver their talks, videos, and slide shows. Attendees also typically remain in their homes or go to a nearby library or office and watch the conference events live on computers. Travel expenses and meals are close to zero. Even a conference syllabus is usually available online as a free electronic download.

In addition, the virtual conference organizers do not need to spend thousands of dollars for renting a modern conference center. The end result is lower costs all around. The attendees benefit again because admittance to virtual conferences is usually much, much cheaper than attending a conference in person.

Is an online virtual conference just as effective as attending a conference in person? I will suggest it is not. There are several elements missing in a virtual conference. I know I certainly miss the camaraderie of talking with other attendees in the hallways or in social situations before, during, and after the daily conference events. Nonetheless, I will suggest that the virtual conferences do provide MOST of the benefits of an in-person conference and do so at a fraction of the price of traditional events.

There are two financial considerations:

1. The ever-increasing expenses of travel, hotels, and restaurant meals

2. The ever-decreasing expenses of producing live virtual conferences

Here is a suggestion to future conference organizers: you might want to hold your next event in the online world.

Kathy Roughan spent much of the Covid lockdown copying local land ownership records, known as ‘cancelled books’, from Clarecastle, which date as far back to the to the 19th century.

Ms Roughan physically copied thousands of entries into a spreadsheet, which then became part of the permanent digital archive for the Clarecastle Ballyea Heritage archive at: https://clarecastleballyea.clareheritage.org/.

Thanks to her efforts, others can now trace the record of their properties and home in the locality online.

Through her research, Ms Roughan said she has learned much about her family history. She is from Clarecastle originally and did a Master's Degree in History at the University of Limerick but now lives in Australia.

"I’ve been able to log the progress of particularly my grandmother’s family who I know very little about. So, for me alone it was worth doing just for that,” she said.

You can read more in an article by Paul Hyland published in the independent.ie web site at: https://tinyurl.com/mpk6293d.

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

Whew!  This is about the longest newsletter in the past year or so.

2023 Annual Symposium Genealogical Program

GENE-Y'ALL-OGY

Southeastern Genealogy Research

Join us for a day-long in-person or virtual symposium to explore the

resources and challenges for researching Southeastern heritage.

Featured Speaker: Robert S. Davis, Jr.

When:  Saturday, August 12, 2023

Time:  9:00 am - 3:30 pm  EST

Where:  First Baptist Church, 3500 Walton Way Extension

             Augusta, GA 

Cost:   In person, the symposium includes a hot Southern lunch and snacks

           AGS Members $47 and Non-Members $57 

Cost:  Virtual 

AGS Members $25 and Non-Members $35

Registration: Online at http://www.augustagensociety.org or by mail by 4 August 2023.  

 

Vendor tables will be available.

The U.S. Census Bureau reported that it would delay the release, and narrow the scope, of some of the most detailed data from the 2020 census — until next year.

Detailed numbers dealing with household types — such as if the household is a family — broken down by race and ethnicity, and whether homes are owned or rented, won’t be released until September 2024, more than four years after the data’s collection in the once-a-decade head countof every U.S. resident, the Census Bureau said.

Also being delayed until September 2024 is the release of numbers on household and family sizes. This data set will also be much more limited than anticipated. It will only be released for the entire United States and individual U.S. states because a controversial new privacy methodimplemented by the Census Bureau couldn’t guarantee individuals wouldn’t be identified at smaller geographies.

The following was written by Library and Archives Canada:

After a tremendous take off for the launch of the 1931 Census on June 1, traffic increased rapidly. Our system started showing signs of slowing down, followed by difficulties with loading images. Unfortunately, this affected our users’ online experience, and we apologize for the inconvenience. We are as disappointed as our users, given the tireless work that went into preparing for the 1931 Census release and the anticipation around that release.

We are actively working on finding technical solutions and testing is ongoing.

While we do not have a timeline to offer at the moment, giving our users a great online experience with the 1931 Census data is our top priority.

Thank you for your patience.

The Jewish Museum in Prague has launched an informative web site with online exhibits about the eclectic material discovered in genizas in a dozen synagogue buildings that have been researched in the country since the 1990s.

Looking up in the restored synagogue in Březnice, where a geniza was found

The web site, in Czech and English, grows out of its “Secrets in the Attic” project, which — as we posted last year — has displayed geniza material in two thematic exhibitions mounted in regions where the findings come from.

 The current exhibition, at the West Bohemian Museum in Plzen, is up until June 25.

Genizas are depositories of worn out or disused ritual and other objects which for religious reasons cannot simply be thrown away. Sometimes they are buried in Jewish cemeteries; often they are hidden away in the attics or walls of synagogues.

Synagogue in Úsov, Czech Republic, where one of the genizas was found

Since the 1990s, researchers from the JMP surveyed 13 sites in Bohemia and Moravia and obtained more than 3,000 finds, the oldest from the 16th century and the most recent from the 19th century.

You can read more in an article in the jewish-heritage-europe.eu web site at: https://jewish-heritage-europe.eu/2023/06/01/czech-republic-geniza/. 

From an article by Ashley Zlatopolsky published in the thejewishnews.com web site:

In Judaism, we often hear the expression “may his or her memory be a blessing” when someone passes away.

I don’t recall where I first heard it, but someone once told me that as long as we continue to remember those who have since passed on, they remain alive. It’s only when we forget, that people — and eventually memories — begin to slip away.

It’s a guiding principle, along with the Jewish belief to honor the deceased, regardless of whether that person lived 20 or 200 years ago, that fuels my passion for genealogy and family history. By learning about our past — and the names and stories behind it — we continue to keep these precious memories alive for many generations to come.

JewishGen is the world’s leading organization in preserving this history. As the largest digital repository for Jewish family history information in the world, this free and searchable website houses millions of Jewish records from countries around the world, some of which are hundreds of years old. On JewishGen, people can search their family history to find ancestors, make genealogical trees and even discover living relatives.

Now, JewishGen Ukraine Research Division — which focuses solely on Ukraine records — is on a mission to preserve and digitize 1 million records in Ukraine by summer 2023.

These records, which are some of the last remaining documentation of hundreds of thousands of Jews who lived in the former Russian Empire (which included Ukraine), are at risk of disappearing forever.

You can read the full article at: https://thejewishnews.com/2023/05/04/jewishgen-preserving-jewish-history-in-ukraine/.

No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz has taken the tennis world by storm. The reigning US Open champion, who is attempting to win his first French Open title in Paris, actually has French family roots.

MyHeritage.com has traced and can confirm that Carlos Alcaraz’s maternal grandmother’s line goes back to his 3rd great-grandparents, Jean-Nicolas Egler and Marie Eugénie Jeannenot, who married in 1858 in Baume-les-Dames, in Doubs, in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in Eastern France. Marie Eugenie was born in the same area, in Besancon, in 1840 while Jean Nicolas was born in Gondrexange, in Moselle in 1835.

Carlos Alcaraz Family Tree

Jean-Nicolas Egler was a railway labourer, and his parents were weavers. After France lost the war against Prussia, people born in the territories annexed by the German Empire had the option of choosing to retain French nationality. In August 1872, Jean-Nicolas Egler chose to keep his French citizenship, while he was already living in Malaga, Andalusia, Spain. His son, Carlos Egler Yeanot (Yeanot a Hispanization of his mother’s French family names, Jeannenot), who lived and died in Sevilla, Andalusia, Spain, was Carlos Alcaraz’s great-great-grandfather.

With his French roots in tact, Alcaraz continues to be a fan-favourite not only in Paris, but around the world as well.