Here is an article that is not about any of the "normal" topics of this newsletter: genealogy, history, current affairs, DNA, and related topics. However, it may interest  anyone who wants to know about AI-Image Generators:

A new user-friendly website lets anyone create up to 25 AI-generated images for free. Here's how to try it.

Need a good AI image generator? You can now try Midjourney's dedicated website for free. Midjourney CEO David Holz has announced via a Discord message that anyone can go to the website and start making images. As a special invitation, the site lets you generate as many as 25 images through a free trial.

In the past, Midjourney users had to go through Discord to create and refine AI-based images. That process required a fair amount of fiddling with text-based prompts, an often clumsy and frustrating experience. To draw in people who didn't like the Discord method, Midjourney kicked off a dedicated website late last year.

But the website was initially limited to users who had generated at least 10,000 images via Discord, excluding a lot of people. Now that the site is accessible to anyone, all Midjourney users should enjoy a much easier and smoother experience.

Signing up for the website requires an account with Google or Discord. If you've already created images via Discord, you can use that account to retrieve a history of the images you generated in the past. You can then merge your Discord and Google accounts to be able to sign in with either one. Otherwise, signing in with a Google account is easier.

After you sign in, a sidebar on the left displays tabs for different sections and tasks. Going to the Explore section lets you check out images that other people have created. The Create section displays a brief but helpful video that shows you how to get started with Midjourney. That video is also viewable in a post on X. From here, you can then request an image. Just type your prompt in the field at the top and see what Midjourney cooks up.

During the upcoming renovation process to the John McIntire Library, the Muskingum County Library System will be relocating some of its affiliated services that call the library home. 

Muskingum County Genealogical Society Treasurer Brooke Anderson shared what the organization brings to the public, along with plans for how they will continue their services throughout the library’s renovations process.

“Genealogy Society will be moving to the library at Herrold Hall at Ohio University Zanesville,” Anderson said. “Our last day here, open to the public, is Saturday, September the 13th. We then hope to reopen by either the end of October or beginning of November, out at OUZ. We will not be able to take all of our materials with us because of space. So we will be focusing on our family histories, our yearbooks, and the items that pertain more to the local area.”

The Genealogical Society is having a book sale during their normal hours of operation that will consist of duplicate materials and historical literature that has less to do with local genealogy.

“Once we are at Herrold Hall, we will announce that opening date on our Facebook, on our public library site and all of those usual sources. And we plan to be open right now, on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays. We looked at some other spaces but that was the one that had the most space to give us. That is a temporary location. Once the remodeling is done, we will be back in our same location, with a little bit more room than we have right now,” Anderson said.

The Genealogical Society has been a fixture of the John McIntire Library since 1992 serving the public by providing access to hard to find documentation inside a convenient location.

LibreOffice is my preferred word processor/spreadsheet/presentation program and otherwise is my preferred program to be used in place of Microsoft Office. I use LibreOffice multiple times per day, including once today to write this article. Not bad for a FREE program! Don’t waste your money on the (overpriced) Microsoft Office!

LibreOffice just got a major update that adds new privacy, security, productivity, and accessibility features across all its apps. It is a free and open-source productivity suite that includes a word, spreadsheet, presentation, and drawing apps, supporting both open source and proprietary (mostly from Microsoft Office) file formats

LibreOffice claims that it’s “the only software for creating documents that may contain personal or confidential information that respects the privacy of the user.” To that end, LibreOffice 24.8 introduces a new privacy feature that lets you remove personal and trackable information from any file before exporting it. Metadata like timestamps, version history, printer identifiers, author information are usually embedded in most documents. Exporting via this privacy feature makes them harder to track. Plus, LibreOffice gives you one more mode to encrypt ODF files with passwords (an open source document format).

LibreOffice

The new LibreOffice Writer interface is getting new formatting, linking, and search features. New bullet styles and a Find deck have been added to the navigator. It also offers finer control over hyphenation and drag-and-drop navigation. 

Calc, the spreadsheet editor, has nine new functions (many of them for better sorting and filtering). Calc also supports two new chart types (Pie-of-Pie and Bar-of-Pie) and makes them compatible with proprietary chart formats from Microsoft Office. The text inside these charts is now easily formatable via the dedicated character window. And it has been optimized for better overall performance. 

Impress (the presentation app) also gets some minor updates. You can scroll between slides, and edits made to a presentation are immediately reflected in a running slideshow. The new LibreOffice 24.8 is now available for Windows, macOS, and Linux. This new version is also the first to offer native support for Windows PCs built on the ARM architecture.

You can read more about the new release of LibreOffice at: https://www.howtogeek.com/libreoffice-24-8-release/.

Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council

A wedding party photographed in the village of Shafton, Barnsley, England

People curious to know whether their ancestors committed a crime can now access historic court records online.

Barnsley's borough archives have been made available on family history website Ancestry.

It is the first time the material has been accessible digitally and means researchers no longer have to visit the archives in person.

It is hoped the records will provide "a rich source of information" and "a fascinating glimpse" into the lives and struggles of ordinary people.

The Barnsley Archives and Local Studies service supplied 100,000 entries from baptism, marriage and burial registers to Ancestry, as well as transcriptions of more than a million cases heard in Barnsley Magistrates' Court between 1841 and 1923.

The two databases were collated and can now be viewed by Ancestry users worldwide.

The parish registers include more than 100 different churches and chapels that existed across the Barnsley area.

The colourful court records detail the petty criminals charged over matters such as theft, poaching and drunkenness.

The archives were previously only available to browse at Barnsley Town Hall.

'Valuable'

Councillor Robin Franklin, cabinet spokesperson for regeneration and culture, said: "It’s a great opportunity for people interested in the history and heritage of our borough to discover more about their ancestors and the lives they lived. 

"Whether you are looking for information on your family's and friends' religious background or if you have a criminal relative, you now have access to thousands of records from anywhere in the world.

"This is a valuable resource that we are sure people will love exploring.”

Listen to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North or tell us a story you think we should be covering here.

More than 150 films and audio reels from Richmond Police Department surveillance records will be preserved and made publicly accessible by Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries as part of a new project documenting aspects of the Civil Rights Movement in the South.

The Surveillance Media Collection includes 156 films and 13 audio reels dated between 1961 and 1973. Footage includes Black Panther Party meetings and activities; anti-draft, anti-war and anti-busing protests; student protests at local universities; and marches related to the Poor People’s Campaign, the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial and the trial of H. Rap Brown.

“In my experience, this Surveillance Media Collection is unique,” said Brian Daugherity, Ph.D., a Civil Rights Movement historian and professor in the Department of History in VCU’s College of Humanities and Sciences. “There are few archival collections – and none that I know of in the South – dealing with the Black Power movement, Black Panther Party and related individuals nationwide. The preservation and digitization of materials in this archive offers the possibility of investigating new aspects of the civil rights struggle in the South.”

The project is supported by a $24,585 grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources as part of its “Recordings at Risk” program, which is made possible by funding from the Mellon Foundation. CLIR is an independent, nonprofit organization that forges strategies to enhance research, teaching and learning environments in collaboration with libraries, cultural institutions and communities of higher learning.

You can read more in an article at: https://tinyurl.com/vhfafj7h.

The following is a press release written by the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute Diabetes Education Team:

A free and trusted comprehensive online library of educational videos that cover all you need to know about diabetes has been launched.

The online resource, DIABPEDIA, provides evidence-based information for people wanting to understand more about the management of type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes and gestational diabetes.

The videos are delivered in bite-sized pieces and topics include “What is the glycaemic index?”, “What is diabetes distress?” and “Diabetes monitoring and technology”, and useful resources like “Managing type 2 on sick days” and “Food label reading”.

DIABPEDIA was developed by the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute Diabetes Education team with funding support from the Telematics Trust. The online resource launched at the Australian Diabetes Congress in Perth this week.

“A diabetes diagnosis can be overwhelming, and incorrect or poor management of diabetes can have significant impact on the health of someone living with diabetes, so it’s vitally important that people can access correct and appropriate information,” Associate Professor Neale Cohen, head of the Baker Institute Diabetes Clinical Research lab, said.

“We developed DIABPEDIA because we wanted there to be a comprehensive resource that is a trusted, single destination for diabetes information.

“There is a lot of information that can be found about diabetes online and on social media, but it’s not always evidence based. Our team of diabetes experts at the Baker Institute have pulled together the information contained on DIABPEDIA so visitors to the site can be safe in the knowledge that the information they are seeking is accurate, up to date, and backed by research.”

While DIABPEDIA does not replace a diabetes management team, it is a useful resource for anyone touched by diabetes, including those who live with the disease, their carers, and teachers and sports coaches.

 DIABPEDIA builds upon the suite of evidence-based resources housed on the Baker Institute website’s Health Hub, which includes fact sheets, diabetic-friendly recipes, and information about the Institute’s clinical research trials.

The following is a press release written by the Texas State Library and Archives Commission:

The Texas State Library and Archives Commission (TSLAC) has announced new and revised finding aids recently made available online, along with fresh uploads to the Texas Digital Archive, its repository of electronic items.

The State Archives preserves and documents the heritage and culture of Texas by identifying, collecting and making available for research the permanently valuable official records of Texas government, as well as other significant historical resources. Finding aids are written guides to archival records, including descriptive information and a folder inventory, and help researchers in the use of holdings that have been prepared for research. 

The full list of recent updates to finding aids and digital images can be found in the State Archives’ quarterly blog post, New Online.

Maintaining the official history of Texas government, TSLAC preserves more than 200 million pages of archival documents and more than two million volumes of printed library materials. The State Archives holds records dating back to the 18th century, as well as newspapers, journals, books, manuscripts, photographs, historical maps and other historical resources. The Texas Digital Archive manages, preserves and facilitates access to TSLAC’s electronic records collections, including those transferred by state agencies or digitized by the State Archives. All records visible in this portal are unrestricted and available for public use. Browse, search, view and download more than ten million digital items at www.tsl.texas.gov/texasdigitalarchive.

Highlights of these newly accessible records include a variety of state, local and manuscript collections. The Texas Department of Agriculture audiovisual materials consists of 16 mm motion picture films and digital copies of the original audiotape and video recordings documenting the department’s activities, including many of the agency’s programs and events, public appearances of commissioners Jim Hightower and Rick Perry, and interviews with agricultural producers in Texas, 1969-1999 and undated. The majority of the films have been digitized and are available to view online in the Texas Digital Archive.

A revised finding aid for the Texas Secretary of State colonization records is also now available. Colonization records were created to document the efforts of the Republic of Texas to encourage the immigration of new citizens by the signing of contracts with agents, similar to the Mexican government’s empresario grants, and the enforcement of the agreements contained within those contracts. Types of records include lists of immigrants, contracts, correspondence, reports, resolutions, petitions and proclamations, 1820-1879, and undated. Alphabetical name card indexes of people emigrating to Texas as colonists under the Peters, Castro, and Fisher-Miller contracts have been digitized and are part of the Texas Digital Archive.

The Texas State Parks Board Civilian Conservation Corps drawings, including an online search portal, has been updated. Records comprise blueprints, maps, drawings, correspondence and reports that detail the plans for additions, renovations and construction of parks and park facilities in Texas by the CCC, 1905-1974, and undated, bulk 1933-1945. These records document designs intended for 40 sites across Texas that were for the most part developed to be state parks, though materials on several municipality-operated parks are also present. The designs describe a range of park facilities, including common buildings, landscaping, cabins, roads, bridges, water and sewer systems, dams and site furniture.

Additional Texas Supreme Court records have been digitized (with Opinions and M case files added periodically) to the Texas Digital Archive. The records consist of case files, applications, opinions, dockets, indexes, register, and minutes covering the period 1840-2004. Also present are the records of the Texas Commission of Appeals, consisting of opinions, dockets and minutes, dating 1879-1892, 1918-1943. 

Newly revised local records finding aids include Galveston County (Tex.) County Court records, 1838-1956, and Galveston County (Tex.) Justice of the Peace records, 1870-1976.

The Joseph Dillard Gates manuscript collection, 1818-1925, and undated, is also available for research, with the majority of the materials now digitized and part of the Texas Digital Archive. The Gates family were landowning Anglo-Texans in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with members who served in the Texas Revolution and in the Civil War for the Confederacy, and who were first based in Gonzales County, where they were active in ranching and local politics. The collection documents the financial and business lives of Samuel Hardin Gates, his son, Joseph Dillard Gates, and his grandson, Amos Hardin Gates, as they amassed an estate of more than 644 acres between 1852 and 1920.

Researchers are invited to visit the State Archives during public service hours: 9:00 a.m. – 4:45 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, and 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. on the second Saturday of each month. Appointments to use archival materials are encouraged but not required. For more information, see www.tsl.texas.gov/arc/visit.

Other newly published finding aids include the Texas Department of Agriculture meeting minutes, agenda, and supporting documentation, 1924-2021; Texas Historical Commission Historic Sites Division presentations, 2011-2015; Texas Historical Commission executive director files, 1953-2009; Texas Historical Commission Archeology Division records, 1995-2001; Texas Veterans Land Board records, 1968-2019; Texas Department of Water Resources water planning files, 1954-1974; Texas Parks and Wildlife Department Law Enforcement Division records, 1960-1996; Texas Parks and Wildlife Department Texas Sesquicentennial project files, 1975, 1984-1987; and Texas Board for Supplying the Public Buildings and Grounds of the State with Water minutes and report, 1883.

Additional recently revised state records finding aids include the Texas Attorney General’s Office Hetty Green case file, 1891-1941; Texas Secretary of State candidate campaign contribution and expenditure records, 1918-1992; Texas Secretary of State political action committee campaign contribution and expenditure records, 1972-1993; Texas Secretary of State voter registration lists, 1867-1870; Texas Education Agency Office of the Commissioner of Education records, 1929, 1933-1937, 1940-1971; Employees Retirement System of Texas records, 1942-2022; Texas Governor Mark White records, 1947, 1962-1987; Texas State Board of Pharmacy records, 1907-1949, 1969-1970, 1984-2023; Texas Department of Agriculture records, 1924 to 2021; and Texas State Board of Control records, 1854, 1885-1890, 1909-1979, 1987.

A full list of all of TSLAC’s finding aids may be viewed at www.tsl.texas.gov/arc. A comprehensive, up-to-date list of all recently added and updated finding aids can always be found in TSLAC’s online catalog at https://bit.ly/TSLACnewcollections.

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The Texas State Library and Archives Commission provides Texans access to the information needed to be informed, productive citizens by preserving the archival record of Texas; enhancing the service capacity of public, academic and school libraries; assisting public agencies in the maintenance of their records; and meeting the reading needs of Texans with disabilities. For more information, visit www.tsl.texas.gov.

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

Downloading files with any of the conventional file transfer systems may be expensive for businesses and annoying for consumers. It loads a lot on the file server housing the file(s). Thousands of users might try to download the files at once whenever a corporation uploads fresh software into its file servers. The burden is overwhelming if the data are big, say a full CD or DVD disk. Take the 1940 U.S. census, for example, which was just published recently. Unable to manage the volume generated by thousands of genealogists seeking to download and examine the census photos, the servers slowed to a crawl.

Hardware and bandwidth to handle the load have cost many businesses tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of dollars. Regarding Microsoft's servers used for software patch distribution, the business has spent millions of dollars on infrastructure and bandwidth required to manage updates alone.

Those businesses who neglected to invest in hardware and bandwidth found their servers crippled under strain and thousands of unhappy consumers unable to get the files they were looking for.

Bram Cohen began considering the difficulty in distributing thousands of copies of massive files. Eventually the college dropout began programming code to offer a better path. At last he called his program BitTorrent. It replaces the several file download systems that have been applied in the past. Bram hands his program away free of charge. 

The file transfer protocol now makes about forty-three percent to seventy percent of all the Internet traffic. 

Millions of downloads of BitTorrent today include both official software releases and other massive files as well as illicit download of copyrighted movies and music. Though, like many other things, users have discovered ways to engage in illicit activities using BitTorrent, the protocol itself is 100% lawful.

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/13397237 (A Plus Edition password is required to access that article.)

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. 

Located in the eastern portions of Muskogee County is a cemetery that is both a national historic landmark and final resting place for Trail of Tears survivors, outlaws and Cherokee Nation dignitaries. 

The Cherokee National Cemetery was designated by the tribe as a national cemetery before the Civil War and maintained until 1906. That year it was transferred to the town of Fort Gibson in Indian Territory as part of the federal government’s suppression of the Cherokee Nation and implementation of Oklahoma statehood. After the transfer, the cemetery became known as the Citizen’s Cemetery to avoid confusion with the federal government’s Fort Gibson National Cemetery one half-mile north. It is now known as the Cherokee National Cemetery. 

“We have a portion of the cemetery that is Cherokee, White and mixed,” said local historian and Cherokee Nation citizen Marcia Blackard Elliott. “More acres have been added on the lower portion and the upper portion, where all the dignitaries are buried. You don’t have to buy a lot if you wish to be buried there if you are descended from any of those people. But on the lower portion, which is also known as the Citizen’s Cemetery, you do have to buy your lot.”

The cemetery was deemed the Cherokee National Cemetery by the Benge and the Willey families, Cherokee families who deeded it over to the town of Fort Gibson when it became the Citizen’s Cemetery for a while. 

“We still have a plaque out front that says Cherokee National Cemetery,” Elliott said. 

Twelve people buried in the cemetery survived the Trail of Tears. Their graves have been marked with metal plaques by the Oklahoma Trail of Tears Association. 

You can read more in an article by Will Chavez published in the cherokeephoenix.org web site at: https://tinyurl.com/na4b2rte.

The following is a press release written by the Texas State Library and Archives Commission:

The Texas State Library and Archives Commission (TSLAC) has announced new and revised finding aids recently made available online, along with fresh uploads to the Texas Digital Archive, its repository of electronic items.

The State Archives preserves and documents the heritage and culture of Texas by identifying, collecting and making available for research the permanently valuable official records of Texas government, as well as other significant historical resources. Finding aids are written guides to archival records, including descriptive information and a folder inventory, and help researchers in the use of holdings that have been prepared for research. 

The full list of recent updates to finding aids and digital images can be found in the State Archives’ quarterly blog post, New Online.

Maintaining the official history of Texas government, TSLAC preserves more than 200 million pages of archival documents and more than two million volumes of printed library materials. The State Archives holds records dating back to the 18th century, as well as newspapers, journals, books, manuscripts, photographs, historical maps and other historical resources. The Texas Digital Archive manages, preserves and facilitates access to TSLAC’s electronic records collections, including those transferred by state agencies or digitized by the State Archives. All records visible in this portal are unrestricted and available for public use. Browse, search, view and download more than ten million digital items at www.tsl.texas.gov/texasdigitalarchive.

Highlights of these newly accessible records include a variety of state, local and manuscript collections. The Texas Department of Agriculture audiovisual materials consists of 16 mm motion picture films and digital copies of the original audiotape and video recordings documenting the department’s activities, including many of the agency’s programs and events, public appearances of commissioners Jim Hightower and Rick Perry, and interviews with agricultural producers in Texas, 1969-1999 and undated. The majority of the films have been digitized and are available to view online in the Texas Digital Archive.

A revised finding aid for the Texas Secretary of State colonization records is also now available. Colonization records were created to document the efforts of the Republic of Texas to encourage the immigration of new citizens by the signing of contracts with agents, similar to the Mexican government’s empresario grants, and the enforcement of the agreements contained within those contracts. Types of records include lists of immigrants, contracts, correspondence, reports, resolutions, petitions and proclamations, 1820-1879, and undated. Alphabetical name card indexes of people emigrating to Texas as colonists under the Peters, Castro, and Fisher-Miller contracts have been digitized and are part of the Texas Digital Archive.

The Texas State Parks Board Civilian Conservation Corps drawings, including an online search portal, has been updated. Records comprise blueprints, maps, drawings, correspondence and reports that detail the plans for additions, renovations and construction of parks and park facilities in Texas by the CCC, 1905-1974, and undated, bulk 1933-1945. These records document designs intended for 40 sites across Texas that were for the most part developed to be state parks, though materials on several municipality-operated parks are also present. The designs describe a range of park facilities, including common buildings, landscaping, cabins, roads, bridges, water and sewer systems, dams and site furniture.

Additional Texas Supreme Court records have been digitized (with Opinions and M case files added periodically) to the Texas Digital Archive. The records consist of case files, applications, opinions, dockets, indexes, register, and minutes covering the period 1840-2004. Also present are the records of the Texas Commission of Appeals, consisting of opinions, dockets and minutes, dating 1879-1892, 1918-1943. 

Newly revised local records finding aids include Galveston County (Tex.) County Court records, 1838-1956, and Galveston County (Tex.) Justice of the Peace records, 1870-1976.

The Joseph Dillard Gates manuscript collection, 1818-1925, and undated, is also available for research, with the majority of the materials now digitized and part of the Texas Digital Archive. The Gates family were landowning Anglo-Texans in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with members who served in the Texas Revolution and in the Civil War for the Confederacy, and who were first based in Gonzales County, where they were active in ranching and local politics. The collection documents the financial and business lives of Samuel Hardin Gates, his son, Joseph Dillard Gates, and his grandson, Amos Hardin Gates, as they amassed an estate of more than 644 acres between 1852 and 1920.

Researchers are invited to visit the State Archives during public service hours: 9:00 a.m. – 4:45 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, and 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. on the second Saturday of each month. Appointments to use archival materials are encouraged but not required. For more information, see www.tsl.texas.gov/arc/visit.

Other newly published finding aids include the Texas Department of Agriculture meeting minutes, agenda, and supporting documentation, 1924-2021; Texas Historical Commission Historic Sites Division presentations, 2011-2015; Texas Historical Commission executive director files, 1953-2009; Texas Historical Commission Archeology Division records, 1995-2001; Texas Veterans Land Board records, 1968-2019; Texas Department of Water Resources water planning files, 1954-1974; Texas Parks and Wildlife Department Law Enforcement Division records, 1960-1996; Texas Parks and Wildlife Department Texas Sesquicentennial project files, 1975, 1984-1987; and Texas Board for Supplying the Public Buildings and Grounds of the State with Water minutes and report, 1883.

Additional recently revised state records finding aids include the Texas Attorney General’s Office Hetty Green case file, 1891-1941; Texas Secretary of State candidate campaign contribution and expenditure records, 1918-1992; Texas Secretary of State political action committee campaign contribution and expenditure records, 1972-1993; Texas Secretary of State voter registration lists, 1867-1870; Texas Education Agency Office of the Commissioner of Education records, 1929, 1933-1937, 1940-1971; Employees Retirement System of Texas records, 1942-2022; Texas Governor Mark White records, 1947, 1962-1987; Texas State Board of Pharmacy records, 1907-1949, 1969-1970, 1984-2023; Texas Department of Agriculture records, 1924 to 2021; and Texas State Board of Control records, 1854, 1885-1890, 1909-1979, 1987.

A full list of all of TSLAC’s finding aids may be viewed at www.tsl.texas.gov/arc. A comprehensive, up-to-date list of all recently added and updated finding aids can always be found in TSLAC’s online catalog at https://bit.ly/TSLACnewcollections.

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