The following announcement was written by Findmypast:

Unearth roots in the Garden of England...

This week, we've added thousands of baptism, marriage and burial records from Kent, England. 

Spanning several locations across the county and dating as far back as 1558, these new and exclusive additions can enrich the Kent branches of your family tree with fresh discoveries. 

What's more, we're welcoming a brand-new title to our ever-expanding newspaper archive, alongside extensive updates.

Kent Baptisms

With thousands of new records from Charlton, Cliffe, Greenwich, Hadlow, Ightham, Woolwich and beyond, we've grown our Kent collection again.

Kent Marriages and Banns

We've added over 10,000 marriage and banns records from four Kent parishes. 

This latest tranche spans almost 400 years from 1558-1955.

Kent Burials

Was your ancestor laid to rest in Kent? Discover the details behind their burial with new records covering six parishes and hundreds of years.

Old news is good news...

Our newspaper archive is continuing to grow all the time. 

View this page.

This week, we've released the Newton and Earlestown Guardian and updated 30 other papers.

Here's everything we've added to the newspaper collection this Findmypast Friday:

New title:

Updated titles:

Have you made a surprising family history discovery? Whatever you've uncovered about your past, we'd love to hear about it. You can now get in touch and tell us using this handy form.

We updated three of our existing death record sets last week. Don't miss out - explore the full release for yourself.

These fancy-schmancy phones of ours sure can take some phenomenal photos, but you know what? That incredible quality also highlights just how awful our older images are in comparison.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve got tons of small-size, almost comically fuzzy old photos in my collection. And there’s not a heck of a lot the cutting-edge camera in my current phone can do to help ’em.

So what if there were a super-simple tool for sprucing up older images and bringing ’em into reasonably modern resolutions—while also making ’em crisper, clearer, and generally just better all around?

My fellow photo-finessing friend, have I got just the tool for you today.

FROM OLD TO NEW, IN NO TIME

’Twas a time when trying to take an image and make it both larger andhigher in quality was a near-impossible feat. If you somehow managed to pull it off, it’d take tons of time and complex programs to master.

➜ Not anymore. An incredibly cool new tool called Upscale makes it easy as can be to—well, upscale any old photo you’ve got in front of you.

You’ll only need about 10 seconds to do it.

You can read the full story by JR Raphael at: https://bit.ly/4dQV62t

Memorial Day in the United States is a time to honor the brave men and women who served for their country, and a day of reflection and gratitude for the sacrifices they made. At MyHeritage, we understand the importance of preserving the memories and stories of these heroes, and we are proud to offer free access to all military records on MyHeritage from May 24–28, 2024.

Search free military records now

Memorial Day offers a meaningful chance to explore your family history. Through military records, you can uncover the stories of ancestors who served, honor their sacrifices, and understand the impact they have had on our lives today.

Our extensive military record collection includes draft, enlistment, and service records, as well as pension documents. In total, we have 673 collections featuring 86 million records. These resources can provide valuable insights into your ancestors’ military service, including where they served, their ranks, and the battles they fought.

This Memorial Day, explore your family’s military history and ensure that their stories are remembered and preserved for generations to come.

Explore free military records now

We’ll take this opportunity to extend our gratitude to all the servicemen and servicewomen, past and present, for your dedication and sacrifice. Your courage will not be forgotten.

Monday in the United States is Memorial Day, a day of remembrance for those who died in our nation's service. The origins of this day of remembrance are in doubt, with more than two dozen cities and towns laying claim to being the birthplace of Memorial Day. There is also evidence that organized women's groups in the South were decorating graves before the end of the Civil War. 

Originally called Decoration Day, the holiday was officially proclaimed on 5 May 1868 by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic: "The 30th of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet churchyard in the land." 

It is believed that the end of May was chosen for the first Memorial Day because " flowers would be in bloom all over the country." 

The first state to officially recognize the holiday was New York, in 1873. By 1890 it was recognized by all of the northern states. The South refused to acknowledge the day, honoring their dead on separate days until after World War I (when the holiday changed from honoring just those who died fighting in the Civil War to honoring Americans who died fighting in any war). In 1971 Memorial Day was declared a national holiday to be held on the last Monday in May. In addition, several southern states have an additional, separate day for honoring their Confederate (Civil War) dead as follows:

Memorial Day is the perfect time to pause and remember our ancestors who fought in defense of their country. Now is the time to learn of the sacrifices, large and small, that they made so that we can all enjoy the freedoms we have today.

Here is a list of web sites that will help you learn about Memorial Day and our military heroes: 

A common misunderstanding for those who use a DNA test to search for ancestors and find an American Indian marker is that the test can't determine a specific tribe. "When someone takes a DNA test and they find a marker that indicates possible American Indian ancestry, the one thing you must keep in mind is that no DNA test – however sophisticated it may be or what degree of data they may have – can tell you the tribe," David Cornsilk said.

Cornsilk worked for 12 years with tribal enrollment at Cherokee Nation and has over 30 years of experience in genealogy research with his own company, Cherokee Genealogical Services.

The records of the Cherokee people extend back to the mid-1700s, said Cornsilk. The reason DNA evidence of Native American heritage is lacking is most tribes have not encouraged their members to take ethnicity DNA tests, Cornsilk said. "The reason is, we don't know if our information will be protected. Our privacy might be compromised. "We don't know how that information will be used. We have a mistrust of those kinds of entities because they are corporations and most of them – like 23andMe and Ancestry.com – are for entertainment purposes only."

They are not legitimate laboratories, Cornsilk said.

"Not all families do, but the mixed-blood families tend to have more records and better documentation further back, but once you hit [the year] 1800, it levels out and nearly all tribal members have virtually the same evidence of their heritage," Cornsilk said.

A common statement from folks who believe their families have Native blood, but can't find proof of it, is their ancestors didn't want to be listed on the Dawes or other rolls because they didn't want the government to know about them.

"There was no choice [but to be on the rolls]," Cornsilk said. "For the sake of argument, let's say that's true. Where are their brothers and sisters, cousins, grandparents, aunts and uncles?"

You can read more in an article by Lee Guthrie published in the tahlequahdailypress web site at: http://bit.ly/4bttRtn.

The following is an excerpt from an article by Srila Nayak as published in the Washington University in St. Louis University Libraries web site:

A new digital StoryMap project, Asia in St. Louis, traces the history and experiences of people of Chinese and Japanese descent in St. Louis, from the 1850s to the 1980s. Created by East Asian studies librarians and students at Washington University, Asia in St. Louis is an interactive, dynamic digital platform that combines maps, archival sources, photographs, and personal narratives. A unique, first-of-its-kind project on the subject, Asia in St. Louis helps us understand the locations and spaces in St. Louis that were a part of Asian American history in the region.

The project was inspired by a WashU spring 2022 course, Historical Method–Transregional History, taught by Uluğ Kuzuoğlu, assistant professor of history. “It is a learning platform for the public and the StoryMaps will also be used as instruction resources in writing classes,” said Joan Wang, East Asian and Chinese studies librarian, who led the project. Students in the College Writing course, Place & Perspective, will utilize the digital project to understand and write about the St Louis region. 

The StoryMaps offer a powerful approach to studying the geography and cultural history of St. Louis through the lives of Asian immigrants and Asian Americans. The digital project is structured around four themes: Early Chinese and Chinese Americans in St. Louis; Historical Traces of Asian Americans in St. Louis; the arrival of Japanese Americans from World War II internment camps; and Asian American Civil Rights.

The Toronto Police Service is requesting assistance identifying a woman found in Lake Ontario. On Thursday, August 10, 2017, at 5:15 p.m., officers responded to a call for an unknown trouble at Humber Bay Shores Park.

The woman is described as white, 55-70, 5'4"-5'6", 135-150 lbs., short grey hair, brown eyes. She was wearing a red tank top and navy blue pants. The woman did not have any identification or possessions with her and a composite image was released.

Attempts were made to identify the missing woman by searching through Canada-wide missing person cases and through public appeals for information, but no match was found. In January 2023, with the approval of the Office of the Chief Coroner for Ontario and Ontario Forensic Pathology Service, the Toronto Police Service began using Investigative Genetic Genealogy for this case. The investigation found distant relatives of the deceased throughout North America, most of whom traced their heritage to a specific region in Switzerland.

In August 2023, members of the Toronto Police Service, with the assistance of the RCMP Liaison Program, reached out to police in Switzerland. Through continued collaboration, the investigation focused on a woman who was reported missing in Switzerland in September 2017.

A DNA comparison between the deceased woman and relatives of the missing person confirmed that the cases were a match. Swiss police notified her family.

As the woman's death is not considered a criminal matter, the woman's identity is not being released.

The 1960 U.S. Census is the next census scheduled to be released to the public in the year 2032. That’s only 8 years from now. I certainly am anxious to see those records. A recent discussion has erupted over the preservation of the original data. It reminds me of the controversy about the 1960 U.S. Census.

For years I have heard stories about the 1960 U.S. Census. The stories vary a bit on each telling but usually say something like, “the 1960 U.S. Census was stored on a computer media for which there no longer was any equipment to read it. The census data has been lost because of the change in technology.”

I always doubted that story. I was just starting my career in computers in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and I remember well the tape drives of that era. I spent many hours repairing those half-inch and three-quarter inch tape drives that weighed 800 pounds each! I think I still could disassemble and reassemble a Honeywell 204B-9 half-inch tape drive while blindfolded. That device was a maze of electronics (without integrated circuits), disk brakes, a big vacuum pump, and numerous solenoids. 

Since I am familiar with both the old and the new technologies involved, I decided to investigate the 1960 census story. In fact, David G. Hendricks, a historian at the U.S. Census Department, long ago wrote the true story of what happened. Here is what I learned:

The 1960 census returns were recorded on paper, then microfilmed in 1961 for long-term storage. In addition to the microfilm, the Census Bureau also creates many reports from the information obtained in each census. These reports are mostly demographic in nature. They describe the ethnic make-up of the U.S. population. They also document American migration patterns and even tell how many bathrooms are in the average American home. 

In 1961 the staff at the Bureau of the Census had access to a brand-new electronic behemoth known as a “computer.” In order to simplify some of the data analysis that the Census Bureau must conduct, the staff used the new computer to create the “microaggregation files” that contain statistical information. This information had been entered on punch cards in earlier censuses, but magnetic tape was the storage medium of choice in the sixties. The Bureau of the Census had the required data keypunched and then stored on 9,121 reels of magnetic tape: 7,297 reels created with UNIVAC II-A tape drives; 1,678 tapes created with UNIVAC III-A tape drives, and another 146 magnetic tapes created on still other brands of tape drives. The reports needed were generated and printed on paper. Once the reports were completed, the tapes were placed in storage.

Following consultation with staff of the National Archives in 1975, the Census Bureau created a plan to provide for the "adequate retention of the 1960 data." The plan specified that the Census Bureau would copy only 642 reels of tape onto more modern storage media – at least, modern by 1975 standards. The other reels of tape were deemed to be unimportant and of no long-term value. 

All of the stories about loss of 1960 Census data revolves around the 642 reels of tape readable only by UNIVAC II-A tape drives. By 1975, the UNIVAC II-A tape drives were obsolete. Despite the challenge, the Census staff managed to find some old tape drives still in use that could read the tapes. These old drives were installed on a computer system which also had newer drives installed, so a tape conversion seemed simple. By 1979, the Census Bureau successfully copied 640 of the 642 II-A tapes onto newer-format tapes. The two tapes that were not copied were, in fact, missing. The missing tapes had 7,488 records, or about 0.5 percent of the total of approximately 1.5 million records that had been identified as having long-term value. Of the 640 tapes that were located, only 1,575 records (or less than .2 percent of the total number of valuable records on II-A tapes) could not be copied because of deterioration.

The bottom line is that 99.3% of the 1960 microaggregation data was saved on modern tape formats and can be read today. Every decade or so, the data will again be copied onto modern media of the time. Remember, too, that the findings of the original study had already been published on paper in the 1960s, and that the paper findings are also preserved. 

As mentioned earlier, censuses prior to 1960 had the microaggregation data entered on punch cards. However, those cards were always thrown away after the studies were completed and published (on paper). The loss of 0.7% of the 1960 microaggregation data files on magnetic tape doesn’t seem like such a big loss. That is still 99.3% more data preserved than any earlier census. As historian David G. Hendricks of the U.S. Census Department wrote to me, “these files performed their function, and all of the data are available on paper, if not electronic, form; so none of the information from the 1960 census has been lost.”

All this discussion of magnetic tape really isn’t important to genealogists anyway. All of the microaggregation files on magnetic tape mentioned here did not have any genealogy value since there were no names or street addresses listed. Genealogists should have no fears about “missing data.” The magnetic tapes only stored a subset of the census data, a subset of no interest to genealogists.

The original 1960 U.S. Census documents were recorded on microfilm in 1961, and all that microfilm is still in good condition, locked up at the National Archives. In other words, images of the original documents have been preserved. Admittedly, very few people have seen these microfilms so the genealogy public dors not know if they are still readable or not.

In compliance with U.S. laws, the complete 1960 U.S. Census documents on microfilm will be released to the public in the year 2032, 72 years after the original enumeration. I hope to be around to read those films!

May is Jewish American Heritage Month and an online exhibit is sharing the voices from Jewish neighborhoods in and around Boston.

“We want people to understand the contributions that Jewish Americans have made to our immediate neighborhoods and to our larger community and country,” said Rachel King, executive director of the Wyner Family Jewish Heritage Center at American Ancestors.

The Jewish Heritage Center has an extensive archive of historical photos and documents, but volunteers have now interviewed people who grew up in Jewish neighborhoods in Chelsea, Lynn, Dorchester and Roxbury.

Sara Lee Callahan, who grew up in Chelsea in the 1940s, said the Jewish Neighborhood Voices exhibithelps people understand the history of the neighborhoods that may not be apparent today.

“Except for Native Americans, none of us came from here. We all came from different parts of the world,” Callahan said.

Herb Selesnick helped conduct interviews and said he found commonalities in the stories that he hopes can help unite people.

You can read more in an article by John Atwater published in the WCVB.com web site at: https://bit.ly/4bqbiGg

The following is a press release from the (U.S.) National Archives and Records Administration:

Did you know that the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) isn’t just a building in Washington, DC? It’s actually a collection of more than 40 facilities nationwide, including field archives, federal records centers, and presidential libraries.

Enlarge

A selection of images from archival holdings at National Archives facilities around the country. These images and many others will be featured on the new Highlights from Our Holdings at the National Archives web page.

To better highlight the archival holdings nationwide, the National Archives established a new web page: Highlights From Our Holdings at the National Archives. Seven locations are currently linked from the page: Atlanta, Boston, Fort Worth, Philadelphia, Riverside, San Francisco, and Seattle. Each of those pages features 10–14 records from their holdings, and there are 75 featured records thus far.

“In addition to what is already highlighted on the page, we plan to create pages for the National Archives at Chicago, the National Archives at Denver, the National Archives at Kansas City, the National Archives at New York City, and the National Archives at St. Louis, as well as pages highlighting our holdings in College Park, MD, and Washington, DC,” said Erin Townsend, Communications Coordinator, Research Services.

The new web pages contain an array of documents that will be interesting to a wide audience.

"In some cases, we have featured documents relating to well-known individuals, such as the naturalization records of Maria Von Trapp and Marlene Dietrich, the bankruptcy petition for Edgar Allen Poe, and the World War I draft registration card of Herman ‘Babe’ Ruth,” said Lori Cox-Paul, Director, Field Records Division. “In other cases, we have chosen documents relating to individuals whose stories have been told in movies, such as the memo disbanding the racially segregated work unit Dorothy Vaughan worked in. Her story was told in the film Hidden Figures. We have also included the Slave Manifest listing Solomon Northup, whose story was told in Twelve Years a Slave.”

The web pages will also serve to highlight well-known events, such as the Mount Saint Helens eruption in 1980, as well as lesser-known, but equally important, stories from American history. Site users can view a photograph of womenwho served as Yeomanettes in 1918, the first women to enlist in the U.S. Navy, and a photograph of sailors who served on the USS Mason (DE-529), the first U.S. Navy ship with a predominantly Black crew.

“We’ve also highlighted the different formats of records we hold, including an architectural drawing for the initial design of Seattle’s iconic Space Needle and the elevation plan of Boston’s Custom House Tower,” Cox-Paul said. “And for fun, we included an engineering drawing created by the Forest Service Region 8 office showing detailed designs for cocktails.”