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

The world has changed for genealogists in the past three or four decades. Anyone with a computer can now obtain more genealogy information online that what any public library in a town or a small city can provide. The online information is available quickly and conveniently, is usually faster to search, and (in many cases) is available for less money. 

I hear many genealogists moan and groan because a particular online genealogy service costs money. The claim often is made that “It should be free!”  Comparisons often are made that traveling to a nearby library or archive is free so we shouldn’t pay for the online databases.

I will suggest that such claims are the result of “fuzzy thinking.”

In fact, it is often cheaper to pay for two or three online genealogy databases than it is to travel to a “free” repository to search.

Perhaps the word "free" requires some clarification. 

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/12994490.

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.

From the newspaper updates as listed this week on the Findmypast Blog:

From the Findmypast Blog:

In both of these new additions, you'll find a letter code that aligns with each service number. This code helps define the serviceman's role on the ship, and goes as follows:

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 a follow-up to my earlier article, Bending Spoons To Acquire Evernote, still available at: https://eogn.com/page-18080/12991805

Evernote is one of my favorite apps for storing random bits of information that I might want to refer to later. I believe Evernote is also used by thousands of other genealogists for many purposes, both genealogy-related and other reasons as well. However, I published an announcement 2 days ago stating that Evernote has agreed to join Bending Spoons, a leading developer of stand-out mobile apps.

The announcement has generated a bunch of comments, including quite a few that appeared in my email in-box. Apparently, many Evernote users are not happy with the announcement for a number of reasons. 

Zoho is a software company based in India that has created a lot of products that (mostly) are alternatives to well-known software products (word processors, spreadsheets, email, CRM, and more) produced by other companies. Zoho has issued a comment that says, "Hey! What about us?"

It seems that Zoho already has a very good note-taking product, called Zoho Notebook, and is inviting all Evernote users to check out the Zoho alternative.

Best of all: Zoho Notebook is available FREE of charge. The company proclaims, "Notebook is 100% Free. No catch. No advertisements. And no, we're not selling or viewing your data. If you're curious about our business model or how we secure your data, click here: https://www.zoho.com/notebook/business-model.html."

Unlike Evernote, Zoho Notebook copies all your notes to all your computers (Windows, Macintosh Apple iOS, Android, Linux, and to the cloud) and states: "The difference here is that (Zoho) Notebook allows you to sync with unlimited devices for free, while Evernote forces you to pick the two devices you want to sync with. We even encrypt your data at rest."

Zoho Notebook is one of the few note-taking apps that has a native app for the Linux operating system.

NOTE: By copying to the cloud, Zoho Notebook users always have a full backup of all Zoho Notebook data at all times. Again, quoting Zoho: "This is the Notebook you'll never lose because it syncs to the cloud and across your devices. It's always backed-up and always up to date."

While Zoho Notebook is available free of charge and contains no ads, the company does sell "Notebook Pro" for a price. The following is included in the Pro version:

More information about Notebook Pro can be found at: https://www.zoho.com/notebook/draganddrop.html. I do find it interesting that pricing for the Pro version does not seem to be listed, however.

Also, according to Zoho:

"Evernote is one of the most widely used note-taking applications in the world, but there haven’t been any major updates in recent years. Some of the features requested by their customers haven’t been developed. Some users have found that their notes don’t sync properly to all of their devices, and the restriction on the number of devices they can sync to limits their flexibility and productivity. These issues make note-takers look for alternatives.

"Zoho Notebook, launched six years ago as a simple note-taking alternative, has now grown into a full-fledged productivity application. You simply cannot ignore Zoho Notebook when you’re looking for a robust note-taking app."

You can read a lot more from Zoho's suggestion that you evaluate Zoho Notebook at: https://www.zoho.com/notebook/evernote-alternative.html

You can read a rather complementary review of Zoho Notebook by TechRadar (a web site that I trust for reviews) at https://www.techradar.com/reviews/zoho-notebook.

Comments by Dick Eastman: I haven't yet switched from Evernote to Zoho Notebook, primarily because I received the Zoho ad just a few minutes ago. However, I do plan to evaluate the Zoho product sometime in the next few days.

Since I haven't yet seen the Zoho product, I am not yet in a position to recommend it. However, I will say that I have been using several other Zoho products for several years and have always been satisfied with the products. Zoho seems to always produce nearly bug-free code that works well.

Is it worth the effort to switch from Evernote to Zoho Notebook?  I cannot say one way or the other just yet. however, I do plan to evaluate Zoho Notebook in the next few days.

This article is not about any of the "normal" topics of this newsletter: genealogy, history, current affairs, DNA, and related topics. However, it is a follow-up to my earlier article, Should You Abandon Twitter and Move to Mastodon?, at: https://eogn.com/page-18080/12988712

An interesting article written by Steven Vaughan-Nichols and published in the ZDNet web site may be of interest to many people who have been using Twitter but are now searching for better alternatives:

The best alternatives to Twitter include some sites you may have never heard about and one or two you have. Let's discuss.

Steven Vaughan-Nichols' article may be found at: https://www.zdnet.com/article/best-twitter-alternatives/.

 

This announcement from the Mississippi State University Libraries may be of interest to anyone with Mississippi ancestors:

Historical papers of the Mississippi Republican Party, held by Mississippi State Libraries since 1980, are available online for the first time.

Campaign photographs are among the papers of the Mississippi Republican Party, which now can be searched online through MSU Libraries. Here, Rubel Phillips and his wife Margaret, right, attend a campaign event during one of his two gubernatorial bids in 1963 and 1967. (Submitted photo)

A new finding aid—or descriptive guide—now helps researchers in electronically examining and understanding the content of the collection which dates back to 1928.

Kate Gregory, director of MSU Libraries’ Mississippi Political Collection, said the new online finding aid is “much more user friendly” for perusing the 202 cubic feet of material. MPC gathers relevant materials relating to the state’s political history and the U.S. and makes them available for public use and research. The online site is https://www.library.msstate.edu/mpc/mississippi-republican-party.

“This improvement significantly increases accessibility and discoverability for one of our most unique and comprehensive collections,” she said.

The papers are arranged into 16 topical series focusing on party organization, financial records, presidential elections, state and local elections, election returns and procedures, office files, patronage matters, federal agency contacts and biographical information. Other materials include press releases and clippings, campaign literature, election legislation, the Southern Association of Republican State Chairmen minutes, municipal committee lists and audiovisual items.

According to Gregory, the collection’s historical significance is evident in documentation of such events as the 1976 Republican National Convention that saw the Mississippi delegation at the middle of the intense struggle to decide if then-President Gerald Ford or Ronald Reagan would be the party’s nominee.

“The heavily documented internal rift among party officials had Mississippi front and center because the state held the largest bloc of uncommitted delegates,” she explained.

The papers were opened to public research by MSU Libraries’ MPC in 1984, with additions donated over the following years and the most recent included in 2000. Those interested in conducting research with the materials or donating materials are encouraged to contact MPC faculty and staff to make appointments for information and consultation at 662-325-7663 or sp_coll@library.msstate.edu.

The MPC, a division of MSU Libraries’ Archives and Special Collections, is located on the fourth floor of Mitchell Memorial Library, 395 Hardy Road. The largest MPC collections are the papers of the late Sen. John C. Stennis and Rep. G.V. “Sonny” Montgomery, both Mississippi natives and MSU graduates whose careers in Congress totaled more than 70 years.

MSU is Mississippi’s leading university, available online at www.msstate.edu.

The following announcement was written by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture:

Resource to Help Families and Researchers Explore Reconstruction and Post-Emancipation African American Life

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) announces the launch of the Freedmen’s Bureau Search Portal. The new comprehensive search platform is designed to help family historians and genealogists search for their ancestors and for scholars and students to research various topics found in over 1.7 million pages of Freedmen’s Bureau records.  

The portal allows users to search records from the United States Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, commonly known as the Freedmen’s Bureau. Congress created the Freedmen’s Bureau after the Civil War to assist in the political and social reconstruction of post-war Southern states and to help formerly enslaved African Americans transition from slavery to freedom and citizenship. From 1865 to 1872, the Freedmen’s Bureau created and collected over 1.7 million handwritten records containing the names and information of hundreds of thousands of formerly enslaved individuals and Southern white refugees.   

The search portal combines data created by two different NMAAHC initiatives into a single searchable platform. In 2015, NMAAHC, FamilySearch International, the California African American Museum and the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society collaborated on a crowdsourcing project to index the names, dates and locations found in the records. Data created from the project—nearly 2 million indexed names—was transferred to the NMAAHC in December 2016.  

Shortly after the indexing project was complete, NMAAHC and the Smithsonian Transcription Center began a crowdsourcing effort to fully transcribe all of the more than 1.7 million pages, including labor contracts, land leases, marriage certificates, hospital registers, ration orders, teachers’ reports and personal testimony. To date, over 400,000 pages of records have been transcribed and are fully searchable.  

The portal allows users to search indexed data for specific names, places and dates and transcribed data for topics, subjects, institutions and any other keywords and phrases. By bringing these two data sets together, the Freedmen’s Bureau Search Portal creates unprecedented research possibilities and access to this invaluable set of records.   

The portal and the ongoing Freedmen’s Bureau Transcription Project provide a better understanding of Reconstruction and post-emancipation African American life and allow African Americans to connect with their ancestors in a way that was previously thought impossible.  

Volunteers Can Join the Freedmen’s Bureau Transcription Project  

The museum is leading a volunteer effort to transcribe the digitized records of the Freedmen’s Bureau so they can be more useful for scholars and genealogists researching the Reconstruction era. To learn more about the Freedmen’s Bureau Project, the public can visit the Robert Frederick Smith Explore Your Family History Center on the museum’s second floor or the Smithsonian Transcription Center webpage to volunteer.   

About the National Museum of African American History and Culture  

Since opening Sept. 24, 2016, the National Museum of African American History and Culture has welcomed more than 8.5 million in-person visitors and millions more through its digital presence. Occupying a prominent location next to the Washington Monument on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the nearly 400,000-square-foot museum is the nation’s largest and most comprehensive cultural destination devoted exclusively to exploring, documenting, and showcasing the African American story and its impact on American and world history. For more information about the museum, visit nmaahc.si.edu follow @NMAAHC on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram or call Smithsonian information at (202) 633-1000.  

A team of researchers led by scientists from the University of Edinburgh completed the largest genetic study to date looking at dyslexia and linking the condition to genes associated with neurodevelopment.

Dyslexia is estimated to affect between 5 to 17 percent of the population. It impacts a person’s reading ability and often runs in families.

A team of researchers led by scientists from the University of Edinburgh completed the largest genetic study to date looking at dyslexia and linking the condition to genes associated with neurodevelopment.

Dyslexia is estimated to affect between 5 to 17 percent of the population. It impacts a person’s reading ability and often runs in families.

You can see the full study in Nature Genetics.

The researchers also assembled a list of answers to questions on the study, its purpose, and how the genetic study was conducted here.

From an article by Stuart Isett and published in the Fortune web site:

Deb Liu, former Meta executive and current chief executive officer of Ancestry.com, addressed the gloomy economic climate on stage at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Next Gen conference on Tuesday.

You can read more at: https://tinyurl.com/2s3pbtfk

Here are some photos automatically generated by MyHeritage's new software (with further examples and explanation available in the MyHeritage Blog at: https://blog.myheritage.com/2022/11/introducing-ai-time-machine-transform-yourself-into-a-historical-figure-using-everyday-photos/):

Here is MyHeritage Founder and CEO Gilad Japhet as a Viking

Fast forward AI Time Machine™ again. This time, Gilad is in the 1960’s and 1970’s as a hippie, or maybe a co-founder of Apple Computers?

Yes, it also works for females. Here is Maya Lerner, MyHeritage’s SVP Product, in different themes.

Reminder: this works with any digital photograph. You can create new "pictures" of yourself, your relatives, or your ancestors!

What do YOU want to be?