I wrote about this once before (at https://eogn.com/page-18080/10711377). However, today is April 1st, also known as April Fools' Day. It seems appropriate to me to celebrate the day by publishing something about the 3 Stooges. This article is especially appropriate on today, the day the 1950 U.S. census records are being released, because this movie is all about the earlier 1940 U.S. census.

Census enumerators (census takers) have a difficult job at best. Can you imagine The Three Stooges interviewing local residents?

In a 1940 Three Stooges movie, Larry, Curly, and Moe obtained jobs as census enumerators and were to be paid four cents per name recorded. Now I understand some of census records I have looked at in the past! I think this is the same group that visited my great-great-grandfather's house.

You can watch The Three Stooges at their best, or worst, in No Census, No Feeling at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAcSFskC0aI.

Here is a bit of trivia:

The football sequences in “No Census, No Feeling” were filmed at USC in the autumn of 1940. Some of the crowd scenes apparently were filmed during a real game.

Curly's Thanksgiving remark alludes to the 1939 law establishing Thanksgiving as a legal holiday to be celebrated on a Thursday, something that was still controversial when the movie was made a year later.

At one point, Moe says, "Wait a minute, flathead! We just got a job. We're working for the census."

Curly replied, "You mean Will Hays?" Will Hays was a reference to William Harrison Hays Sr. a United States politician, chairman of the Republican National Committee (1918–21), U.S. Postmaster General (1921–22), and, from 1922–1945, the first chairman of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA). He became the namesake of the 1930 Motion Picture Production Code, informally referred to as the Hays Code, which spelled out a set of industry moral guidelines for the self-censorship of content in Hollywood cinema.

April Fool!

Does this include you?

The following is an announcement written by Ancestry.com:

LEHI, Utah--Today, a new survey from Ancestry®, the leader in family history, found more than half (53%) of Americans can’t name all four grandparents – demonstrating a knowledge gap in key information about more recent family history. Released every 10 years, census records are one of the most valuable ways people can learn about their family’s past, as they provide rich insights into what an ancestor’s life was like at the time.

On April 1, the 1950 U.S. Census will be made public by the National Archives and Records Administration. Ancestry will then begin indexing the records state by state to make them searchable for everyone for free. People born in the U.S. before 1975 are now likely to find their parents in the 1950 census if they were U.S. residents – and those born before 2000 could find a grandparent.

While many Americans don’t know a lot about their family’s past, they want to know more. Sixty-six percent of respondents said they want to learn more about their family history and over half (51%) want stories about when their ancestors were young and what life was like at a moment in time. The 151 million newly released 1950 U.S. Census records will be a valuable resource for learning about their family members’ lives – with details like home address, occupations and salaries, names and ages for members of the household, education level, military service, and more. In fact, nearly one out of three discoveries for Ancestry customers in the U.S. is made using a census record.

“It’s exciting that younger generations now have the opportunity to learn more about family members they know, like parents and grandparents,” said Crista Cowan, Corporate Genealogist at Ancestry. “The 1950 Census provides a fascinating look at an era in our collective history but the magic happens when you discover a more complete picture of not only what your family member's life was like at a moment in time, but also how it had changed over the decades."

Ancestry will debut exclusive product features to make the most comprehensive and searchable 1950 U.S Census index, including:

• • A Personalized Guide to the Census: The Record Tour feature will provide a step-by-step guided experience, showing what’s in each census record and what it means. It can help people better understand their story and reveal new details about their relatives and their world in 1950.
  • AI Powering Quicker Discoveries: Ancestry developed precise machine learning to power its proprietary AI Handwriting Recognition technology to make every field of these records searchable, rather than just names–enabling anyone to quickly and more accurately find family members. For example, someone looking for John Smith may see hundreds of names, making it difficult to know which one is their ancestor. The Ancestry AI better pinpoints specific people to reduce the time it takes to make discoveries.
  • Look at Your Ancestor’s Life Over Time: Get snapshots of relatives’ lives across the decades by comparing multiple records–even adding additional historical context to discover what remained the same and what changed from one decade to another. For example, a great-grandfather may have been a factory worker in the 1930 Census and later a factory owner in the 1950 Census.
  • An Interactive Way to Explore Then vs. Now: By combining a census enumeration map overlay with a modern-day interactive map, users will be able to compare landmarks, roads, new developments, and other marked features on the maps to see how much has changed over the years, and how much is still the same.
  • Short Shareable Stories, Without Any Research: Simply input a grandparent’s or parent’s name, where they might have lived, and birth year and users could get brief shareable stories about an ancestor’s life at the time. With a few clicks, Ancestry technology will quickly extract key details from 1940 U.S. Census records and add historical context in short story form, including insights like where they lived, if they owned their home and its value, the level of education of everyone in the household, and more. Once the 1950 Census is fully indexed, this experience will provide stories using those records.

To build a family tree for free and stay up to date on when census records from each state are fully searchable, visit Ancestry.com/1950Census. Share your discoveries using #MyAncestryStory and tune into the Ancestry Facebook, Instagram and TikTok to learn more tips and tricks for exploring the 1950 U.S. Census.

About Ancestry
Ancestry®, the global leader in family history and consumer genomics, empowers journeys of personal discovery to enrich lives. With our unparalleled collection of more than 30 billion records and over 20 million people in our growing consumer DNA network, customers can discover their family story and gain a new level of understanding about their lives. For over 30 years, we’ve built trusted relationships with millions of people who have chosen us as the platform for discovering, preserving and sharing the most important information about themselves and their families.

*Data from a survey conducted by OnePoll on behalf of Ancestry from March 17 to March 22, 2022, with a panel of 2,113 Americans, including 1,911 from top 10 DMAs and 202 from Salt Lake City, UT.

Will you soon have drugs that are custom-made for your DNA? Your genetic code or DNA is an instruction manual for how your body operates. The field of matching drugs to your DNA is known as pharmacogenomics.

Some drugs are completely ineffective or become deadly because of subtle differences in how our bodies function.

The British Pharmacological Society and the Royal College of Physicians say a genetic test can predict how well drugs work in your body.

You can read more in an article by James Gallagher published in the BBC News web site at: https://www.bbc.com/news/health-60903839.

More than two decades after the draft human genome was celebrated as a scientific milestone, scientists have finally finished the job. The first complete, gap-free sequence of a human genome has been published in an advance expected to pave the way for new insights into health and what makes our species unique. Until now, about 8% of the human genome was missing, including large stretches of highly repetitive sequences, sometimes described as "junk DNA." In reality though, these repeated sections were omitted due to technical difficulties in sequencing them, rather than pure lack of interest.

Sequencing a genome is something like slicing up a book into snippets of text then trying to reconstruct the book by piecing them together again. Stretches of text that contain a lot of common or repeated words and phrases would be harder to put in their correct place than more unique pieces of text. New "long-read" sequencing techniques that decode big chunks of DNA at once -- enough to capture many repeats -- helped overcome this hurdle. Scientists were able to simplify the puzzle further by using an unusual cell type that only contains DNA inherited from the father (most cells in the body contain two genomes -- one from each parent). Together these two advances allowed them to decode the more than 3 billion letters that comprise the human genome.

The science behind the sequencing effort and some initial analysis of the new genome regions are outlined in six papers published in the journal Science. You can read more by starting at: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abp8653.

The following announcement was written by Findmypast:

MyHeritage has just added a really cool feature to be used with the 1950 U.S. census. Simply upload your family tree GEDCOM to MyHeritage at https://www.myheritage.com/census-helper and then receive a FREE analysis in preparation for the 1950 US Census.

I just used it and have my list ready for when the 1950 U.S. census goes live tomorrow. (If you already have your family tree on MyHeritage, as I do, you don't have to upload a GEDCOM file. The new Census Helper will look at your present genealogy database that is already stored on the site.)

The Census Helper™ scans your tree and automatically compiles a list of individuals appearing in it who are very likely to be found in the 1950 U.S. census, along with relevant details. Armed with this list, you’ll know exactly which family members to search for in the newly released records, and your research will be much more focused. You’ll also be able to research those individuals in the census records with the click of a button.

If you don't already have your family tree uploaded to MyHeritage, this is a fast and easy method to get started. And, once again, this is FREE and it is also available NOW.

You can learn more about the Census Helper™ in the MyHeritage Blog at: https://blog.myheritage.com/2022/03/jump-start-your-1950-u-s-census-research-with-the-census-helper/.

The new "Russia's War in Ukraine" collection seeks to document Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022 which resulted in a full-scale war after eight years of military conflict between Russian and Ukraine. Content includes news portals (such as Kyiv Independent, Euromaidan Press, and 24tv), digital library or archive websites with important cultural and historical data (e.g. Institute of History Digital Library, Ukrainian Institute of National Memory), government and civil society websites (e.g. Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, People for UA, Defense UA), documentation of the war and resources for refugees (e.g. Civilian harm in Ukraine, My story of the war in Ukraine, Info Help UA), and social media related to the war (accounts of President Zelensky, Dmitro Kuleba, Vitali Klitschko, Cabinet of Ministers, etc).

The purpose of this project is to make data pertaining to the ongoing war easily available to researchers as well as to preserve important information that could be at risk if Ukraine's internet and digital infrastructure were damaged. 

You can read more in an article published at https://huri.harvard.edu/news/web-archive-preserves-data-related-russias-war-ukraine.

Just a quick reminder: The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration will release the 1950 U.S. census records tomorrow (Friday) for the first time in 72 years. However, what is being released now is the raw (unedited and unindexed) data, not the nice and neat indexed data we have enjoyed in previous censuses (censi?). That comes later.

The 1950 US Census Community Project is a national collaborative effort that uses the Internet, artificial intelligence, and a massive volunteer workforce to make these census records searchable online. However, that will be built by the volunteers in the following weeks and will not be available tomorrow. In fact, YOU can help build these indexes.

The outcome of this amazing initiative benefits everyone. Not only will every page of the 1950 US census be digitally preserved forever (starting now), but the general public will soon have convenient access to volumes of rich historical information that could provide the missing links to their own family histories.

You can learn more about this voluntary indexing at:

https://blog.myheritage.com/2022/01/1950-census-release-is-coming-up-soon/

https://www.ancestry.com/corporate/blog/ancestry-apply-handwriting-recognition-artificial-intelligence-create-searchable-index-1950-us

https://www.familysearch.org/1950census/

https://www.archives.gov/research/census/1950

https://eogn.com/page-18080/12683626

and probably another dozen or more web sites. Use your favorite search engine to find them.

If you have not been paying attention to the news of the Russian-Ukrainian war, it probably is because you felt you were not affected. Unfortunately, that is not true for millions of computer users in countries all over the world. If you use Kaspersky antivirus software in your computer, please be aware that you should replace it... NOW!

Kaspersky antivirus software is produced by a Russian company. The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has warned that many Russian-written software products have recently been modified to collect personal information about the user (name, address, email address, installed software, and more) and to possibly create damage to the computer(s) being used.

There is no evidence that Kaspersky has done this. However, if the Russian government should order such spying capabilities be added in the future, Kaspersky will have no choice but to comply with that order. 

Kaspersky's products have already been banned from U.S.-government owned computers for several years.

WHAT IS A BACKUP?

A backup is a copy of all your important files — for example, your family genealogy, photos of your ancestors and your grandchildren, home videos, documents and emails. Instead of storing it all in one place (like your computer or smartphone), you keep a copy of everything somewhere safe.

Losing your files is way more common than you’d think.

• One small accident or failure could destroy all the important stuff you care about. For instance:
• 21 % of people have never made a backup
• 29% of data loss cases are caused by accident
• 113 phones are lost or stolen every minute of every day
• 30% of all computers are already infected with malware

Source of this information: https://worldbackupday.com/en

It’s time to actually take action. Get started today to better protect your data!

I normally post a message on the first day of each month, advising everyone to back up their files that day (or even more often). Because World Backup Day is today, I am publishing my monthly reminder one day early this month:

It is (almost) the First Day of the Month: Back Up Your Genealogy Files

Today (Actually, it is tomorrow) is the first day of the month, an excellent time to back up your genealogy files. Then test your backups!

Your backups aren't worth much unless you make a quick test by restoring a small file or two after the backup is completed.

Actually, you can make backups at any time. However, it is easier and safer if you have a specific schedule. The first day of the month is easy to remember, so I would suggest you back up your genealogy files at least on the first day of every month, if not more often. (My computers automatically make off-site backups of all new files every few minutes.)

Given the events of the past few months during the pandemic with genealogy websites laying off employees and cutting back on services, you now need backup copies of everything more than ever. What happens if the company that holds your online data either goes off line or simply deletes the service where your data is held? If you have copies of everything stored either in your own computer, what happens if you have a hard drive crash or other disaster? If you have one or more recent backup copies, such a loss would be inconvenient but not a disaster.

Of course, you might want to back up more than your genealogy files. Family photographs, your checkbook register, all sorts of word processing documents, email messages, and much more need to be backed up regularly. Why not do that on the first day of each month? or even more often?