This is a follow-up to yesterday's article, Russian Troops' Tendency to Talk on Unsecured Lines Is Proving Costly:

A new, free interactive course, Introduction to Cryptography, is now available. It will help students around the world get a grasp on the variety of topics this vast field offers. The Wolfram Language allows the course to deliver unique hands-on material and address questions such as “How can I secretly transmit information between two people?” and “How do cryptocurrencies operate without a central authority?”

You can start exploring the interactive course at https://www.wolfram.com/wolfram-u/introduction-to-cryptography/.

The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is asking you to help submit name updates to the index using a transcription tool available on the 1950 census website, which will help improve the accuracy of the name index. More information will be made available upon release.

The American Heritage Center (AHC) has partnered with the Wyoming State Archives and the Wyoming State Historical Records Advisory Board (SHRAB) in order to secure the grant funding necessary for the project.

The funding, from the National Historic Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC), will allow the AHC to hire a project archivist to coordinate the project. The project archivist will work alongside Wyoming records stewards to create an information network to connect institutions dedicated to preserving the state’s history.

You can learn more in an article by Brock Munoz published in the Branding Iron web site at: https://bit.ly/3Nz7W8C.

The bound and gagged body of Marise Ann Chiverella was still warm to the touch when police arrived at the refuse-strewn stripping hole in Hazle Township on the afternoon of March 18, 1964.

Yet decades would pass before the DNA technology needed to unmask the brutal murderer was finally invented. Last month, Pennsylvania State Police identified him as James Paul Forte, a bartender who died suddenly at work at the age of 38 on May 16, 1980.

The reveal was too late to bring Forte to justice, but it made headlines across the country and created a local wave of excitement about clearing cold cases. Within days, troopers began a crowdfunding effort to work another cold case, the Luzerne Foundation launched a cold-case fund and some lawmakers began calling for additional state funding to help clear unsolved murders.

"It's a great time to be an investigator right now — as long as they have the resources to use it," Luzerne County District Attorney Sam Sanguedolce said. "I could very easily see law enforcement agencies — at least the bigger ones — in the near future employing genealogists ... (to) narrow down the universe of population from everybody on earth or in the country or in the state to, now, maybe only 200 people."

But while law enforcement has seized on the technique, the practice remains controversial and has raised privacy concerns along with calls for increased regulation.

Police investigating crimes like murder or rape generally enter genetic profiles obtained from crime scenes to the FBI-maintained Combined DNA Index System — which contains more than 19 million profiles of convicted criminals and arrestees as well as forensic profiles — in an effort to identify offenders.

But if the trail goes cold via that route, forensic genealogy can give investigators another avenue to pursue.

By entering a genetic profile to commercial websites like GEDmatch or FamilyTreeDNA, investigators can seek out imperfect matches and identify an offender's relatives who have voluntarily submitted their genetic material for genealogical purposes.

The police can then zero in on the offender by studying the family tree and requesting exclusionary DNA samples from willing members.

Troopers used the same procedure and the same service — GEDmatch — to identify Forte as Chiverella's killer earlier this year.

The controversy comes into play because there are few laws regulating privacy on the commercial databases and many of the genetic testing sites have varying policies about data sharing.

"There are very legitimate privacy concerns here," Kreider said. "I think the vast majority of people who submit their data to these consumer databases are not thinking about it. They're not reading the fine print. They're just looking for some private information about their family."

You can read more in an article by James Halpin published in the Government Technology web site at: https://bit.ly/37ZzLX6.

Although the 1950 U.S. census records are not yet available to the public on the National Archives website,  MyHeritage believes the company is fully prepared.

Searching the 1950 U.S. Census records and other historical records on MyHeritage offers invaluable additional benefits:

Advanced search capabilities: Using MyHeritage’s search engine, you can search for your ancestors according to any criteria and not just name, home address, or enumeration district. You can also search according to multiple search criteria at once, allowing you to zero in on what you're looking for faster. MyHeritage’s sophisticated search algorithms can even identify nicknames and name variations from other languages.

Free access to fully indexed records: MyHeritage will be investing a great deal of funds and efforts in fully indexing the 1950 census records as soon as the images are released. Once this project is complete, we will be offering FREE access to the indexed 1950 census records.

Easily flip between records within the family: MyHeritage allows you to easily flip between census records of individuals in the same family group. Family members are listed on the record page, and you can click their names to go to their records.

Explore related records: When you are viewing records on MyHeritage, you’ll see additional historical records that mention the person you are researching. Our database includes more than 16 billion records and is constantly growing.

Receive automatic Record Matches: When you build a family tree on MyHeritage, you won’t even need to search actively. MyHeritage finds historical records that mention the people in your family tree and delivers them straight to your inbox.

Extract new information straight to your family tree: Extracting information from historical records and placing it on your online family tree is as simple as a few clicks on MyHeritage.

How-to video: MyHeritage already has already released a short video explaining how to research U.S. census records on MyHeritage. The video may be found at https://myheritage.com/census/us/.

The MyHeritage 1950 census pages are available at:

https://www.myheritage.com/census/us/1950census/

https://myheritage.com/census/us/

Please keep in mind that the 1950 data is not yet available on those pages (data from earlier census records is available there today, however).The 1950 records will start to appear on and after next Friday,  April 1st. However, the 1950 records will not be "fully populated" until several weeks later.

I have written often about the wisdom of using encryption to secure (and privatize) computer files and text communications. Of course, the need doesn't stop with text; there is an equal need to make sure no one can eavesdrop on your voice and data communications.

That is a lesson learned recently by Russian soldiers and their commanders while serving in Ukraine. The lack of encryption on voice communications has literally cost the lives of a number of people.

Hopefully, the risk is not all that great for the majority of us who are not involved life-or-death battlefield activities. Nonetheless, do you care if someone from the government or the "other" political party or the Mafia or the two-bit criminal down the street is listening in on all your conversations?

Alex Horton and Shane Harris have written in The Washington Post about the experiences of Russian soldiers talking over clear (unencrypted) communications paths at: https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Russian-troops-tendency-to-talk-on-unsecured-17031606.php.

COMMENT: For your cell phone conversations, you should be using Signal, used by tens of thousands of people to keep their conversations private. Signal works on voice, text messaging, and even on two-way video conversations. It is available for Windows, Macintosh, iPhone, Android, and some Linux systems. It even allows Windows computers to communicate with Macintosh and similar mixing of technology.

Signal is used by law enforcement officials, bankers, stock brokers, and international criminals alike to prevent anyone else from listening in to their conversations. If it is good enough for them, it is also good enough for me and you to use. However, BOTH users in a communication must be using Signal in order to privatize the conversation. See https://signal.org/en/ for more information.

Who is listening to YOUR phone calls?

(DHS) announces the launch of their new digital collections platform. The nonprofit has begun digitizing collections to enhance access to DHS resources for local, regional, and national audiences. It offers access to primary source information to everyone from researchers, teachers and students, as well as to the general public.

DHS collaborated with the JP Morgan Chase “Force for Good” program, an initiative designed to bring sustainable technology solutions to nonprofits worldwide, to launch the digital collections platform. The program provided organizational and logistical support.

Leigh Rifenburg, DHS Chief Curator, described the initiative. “Our digital collections site is about sharing DHS collections and making them accessible to researchers, regardless of location. As the demand for digital access continues to grow, we’re thrilled to connect anyone interested in Delaware history with our resources, here at home and around the world.” According to Executive Director David Young, “The digitization of our collections is a prime example of Delaware Historical Society’s commitment to bringing Delaware’s diverse and fascinating stories to life. We are engaged in many innovative and ambitious programs that demonstrate Delaware’s unique and important place in history.”

Visit digital.dehistory.org to view the digitized photographs and documents. Get a glimpse of daily life in Delaware’s past. Explore Sussex, Kent, and New Castle Counties as they developed through the centuries. Read primary sources about enslavement, liberation, and abolition. More will be added each month, so check back often.

When J. Grant Stevenson completed his Master’s thesis, he took it to a Provo printer to get it priced out. When he got the bid he said he could buy a printer and do it himself for less money — so he did.

That was 66 years ago. Stevenson started his business with one printer in the basement of his home and it grew there for 10 years until it was moved to its current home on Cougar Boulevard.

It was Stevenson’s Genealogical Center in the early years, but changed over time to Stevenson’s Genealogy & Copy Center. The business is now run by the founder’s son, Chris Stevenson.

Stevenson’s Genealogy and Copy Center will close its doors for the final time on Saturday. While no one bought the business itself, the building has been sold and Chris has until March 31 to vacate the building. He officially retires April 1.

You can read more in an article by Genelle Pugmire published in the Daily Herald web site at: https://bit.ly/36tIBfr.

This week will see a major event for U.S. genealogists. This is an event that only happens once every ten years. On Friday,  April 1, the National Archives (NARA) will release the 1950 U,S,. census records.

The census was sequestered by law for 72 years. If you were born after April 1, 1950, you will not appear.

You will be able to view the census for free at a number of websites, including archives.gov, Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org. There isn’t currently a complete index, but the National Archives (NARA) has posted a name and location index on a separate website.

To learn more, go to archives.gov/news/articles/1950-census-access, as well as archives.gov/research/census/1950 for various webinars about the index. Other groups have begun creating their own index, including Ancestry.com.

In the meantime, in order to find your family members, you need to know where they were living in 1950. Then, if you use Stephen Morse’s guide to the enumeration districts at stevemorse.org, you will know where to start looking. Search for the state, the county and then the district and browse until you find the street and your family.

Various national and local groups are participating in helping further index the 1950 census. FamilySearch.org and the National Genealogical Society, working together, are the lead groups and are inviting local societies to participate.

OK, here is a question for you: Who is the first person you are going to look up in the 1950 census? A parent? A grandparent? Someone else?

As for me, I have a simple answer to that question. I am going to look up... myself. After spending hundreds of hours looking at various census records (and more) over the past 37 years, I am finally going to look for my own record.

Oooops! I just revealed my age!

A comprehensive index of more than 6,000 Gaelic songs composed, sung, or published in Nova Scotia were launched during a live event in Port Hawkesbury, Nova Scotia on Saturday, March 26, 2022 in what is called the 'Language in Lyrics’ Project.

For the past four years, Cape Breton University’s Dr. Heather Sparling, Canada Research Chair in Musical Traditions and Professor of Ethnomusicology, together with co-applicants Roibeard (‘Robby’) Ó Maolalaigh, Professor of Gaelic and Celtic Studies at Glasgow University, and Lewis MacKinnon, Director of Nova Scotia Gaelic Affairs, have led a team of researchers to compile the Nova Scotia Gaelic song index by drawing from print media, archival recordings, and private collections. The goal was to identify songs that could provide the foundations of a Nova Scotia Gaelic language corpus, which could be used for research, analysis, and possibly a future dictionary of Nova Scotia Gaelic.

You can read more in the Cape Breton University web site at https://bit.ly/3ILvN18.