From the 23andMe Blog:

This week, we released a new 23andMe+ Wellness report on seasonal allergies that is powered by 23andMe Research. 

While the sniffling, sneezing and itchy eyes that come with seasonal allergies are often triggered by pollen from blooming trees and flowers in spring and summer, many of those with seasonal allergies also have symptoms in the fall when levels of allergens from weeds and mold are at their highest.

A Common Condition

Seasonal allergies, also known as hay fever or allergic rhinitis, are relatively common. It is estimated that around 27 percent of people in the U.S. are allergic to grasses, trees, and weeds. Still, the actual percentage of people who develop symptoms of seasonal allergies is less clear. Many who might experience seasonal allergies are not exposed to pollens or allergens that would trigger a reaction, so remain unaware. The condition tends to hit women harder than men. A little over ten percent of males have seasonal allergies. More than 17 percent of women report having the condition, according to 23andMe internal data from customers who consented to participate in research. 

The US states with the least prevalence of seasonal allergies among 23andMe customers who consented to participate in research are Hawaii, New York, California, and Florida. Customers in Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Kentucky, were the most likely to report seasonal allergies.

A recent study indicated that climate change might worsen the situation for some due to the lengthening of the pollen season in North America. 

Beyond the common symptoms of stuffy noses and itchy eyes, seasonal allergies and their associated symptoms can also lead to other issues such as difficulty sleeping or difficulty concentrating during the day. In addition, individuals with seasonal allergies are more likely to develop asthma or experience difficulty breathing or wheezing.

A New Report

Our new report is powered by data from people who have consented to participate in 23andMe research and uses machine learning techniques to estimate an individual’s likelihood of having seasonal allergies to trees, grasses, weeds, and or molds.

This estimate is made using a statistical model that includes more than 6,500 genetic markers and information on an individual’s ethnicity and birth sex. You can learn more about the science and methodology behind our new report in this white paper. 

You can read more at: https://blog.23andme.com/health-traits/seasonal-allergies/

A collection of Gaelic recordings made in Nova Scotia is launched online today by the University of Glasgow.

The recordings by Professor Calum Iain N. MacLeod (Calum Iain M. MacLeòid, 1913–1977) will be held in British Academy recognised project, Digital Archive of Scottish Gaelic (DASG), led by the University of Glasgow.

The collection includes interviews, conversations, music, hymns and psalms, and songs largely from people in Nova Scotia. Most of the material is in Scottish Gaelic but some recordings also feature English and French.

Eilidh Cormack, a renowned Gaelic singer, who worked on many of MacLeod’s recordings for DASG said: “We are so fortunate that he chose to gift the University of Glasgow, where he was once himself a student, his collection and his fieldwork, and that it is still with us today.”

The collector, Calum Iain N. MacLeod, was an important figure in the history of the Gaelic community in Nova Scotia. The son of the Gaelic writer John N. MacLeod, he was brought up in Dornie and Kirkhill, Inverness-shire. He attended both Edinburgh and Glasgow universities and won recognition as a brilliant student in Celtic studies. In 1937, he won An Comunn Gàidhealach’s Bardic Crown.

During WWII, he was a major in the British Intelligence Corps serving in North Africa and across Europe. He emigrated to Canada in 1949 to work as Gaelic Advisor to the Education Department of the Nova Scotia government. And he was appointed as Professor of Celtic Studies at St. Francis Xavier University.

The new online collection of recordings will be a useful resource to all those interested in Gaelic folklore, language and song, especially in the context of Nova Scotia’s Gaelic communities.

You can read more at https://www.gla.ac.uk/news/headline_879446_en.html.

You can learn more about the Digital Archive of Scottish Gaelic (DASG) at: https://dasg.ac.uk/.

JewishGen, a nonprofit organization and website for Jewish genealogy, announced on Tuesday a partnership with the Central State Historical Archives of Ukraine in Lviv to help the latter preserve historical records that are at risk of being lost or destroyed amid the country’s ongoing war with Russia.

JewishGen is an affiliate of New York’s Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, which has donated to the Archives a planetary scanner—a device used for scanning rare books and other easily damaged documents—so archivists in Ukraine can digitize more of their records.

The Central State Historical Archives of Ukraine in Lviv is one of the largest and oldest archives in the country and holds more than 1.1 million files, dating back to the 12th century. It is located inside the 17th-century former Bernardine Monastery and Royal Arsenal in the city’s Old Town, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

You can read more in an article in the Cleveland Jewish News web site at: https://bit.ly/3LxLrju.

The following is from an article written by Scott Holland and published in the Cook County Record web site:

A federal judge has rebuffed a class action accusing Ancestry.com of violating a state privacy law by publishing yearbook photos online.

Sergio Bonilla sued Ancestry.com in December 2020,alleging the website unjustly enriched itself by using his photo from the 1995 Omaha Central High School yearbook. He alleged this violated his rights under the Illinois Right of Publicity Act. He also brought counts of violating the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act and intrusion upon seclusion.

Ancestry initially moved for dismissal for lack of jurisdiction and failure to state a claim, which U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall granted with respect to the consumer fraud and intrusion allegations. But she denied the dismissal request for the remaining counts. She rejected Ancestry’s arguments it was immune from liability under the Communications Decency Act and that the Copyright Act pre-empted Bonilla’s lawsuit. She also said Bonilla’s claims didn’t fall under any IRPA exemptions.

After that ruling, Ancestry moved for summary judgment. Bonilla both opposed that motion and asked Kendall to order Ancestry to respond to his request for documents and other questions. Ancestry sought a protective order for discovery requests.

In an opinion filed Sept. 16, Kendall granted Ancestry's request for summary judgment to end the case.

In seeking summary judgment, Ancestry argued Bonilla’s IRPA claim was time barred. Kendall said that law doesn’t expressly place any time limits on lawsuits, but said several courts have determined a one-year limit applies because the Right of Publicity Act supplanted a common-law tort for likeness appropriation. She further explained that clock begins with the initial publication, rejecting Bonilla’s contention a different rule be applied allowing a new claim for every time a mass publication reaches a third party.

“Putting the pieces together, Bonilla had to bring his lawsuit within one year of his yearbook’s first publication,” Kendall wrote. “He did not. On June 27, 2019, Ancestry began hosting the 1995 Central High School Yearbook with Bonilla’s image. Bonilla waited until Dec. 14, 2020, to file his complaint, over a year later and outside the statute of limitations.”

In order to establish a continuing violation, Kendall continued, Bonilla would have to show continued illegal conduct, not continuing legal injury from one alleged violation. Although his photo might’ve been used in “various mediums over an extended period,” she wrote, Ancestry had a single purpose, and it “never changed, altered, reused or expanded upon the original image.” That website users might see the photo, whether on a free trial or paid membership, doesn’t affect the underlying facts.

You can read more in the original article at: https://bit.ly/3Uqafy2.

The following announcement was written by the Heredis worker co-op:

MONTPELLIER, FRANCE -, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2022 The Heredis worker co-op is glad to introduce Heredis 2023, which will be available for download starting September 20, 2022 on www.heredis.com.

This latest version of the software was conceived and designed so as to provide genealogists with an even more complete tool, meeting the needs of ALL genealogists. A genealogist who acquires Heredis should now be able to do it all from the software!

RESEARCH JOURNAL

With this thought in mind, the Research Journal was integrated in the new version. Some Heredis beta-testers were indeed using another software to keep track of their research progress.

This new tool – so useful – will allow genealogists to easily keep an eye on their research progress. No more wasting a half-hour figuring out what needs to be researched next. From now on, everything can be done in Heredis: this tool allows you to manage your genealogical activities on a daily basis but also to have a real- time vision of your research status. So much better than a pen and paper research journal: genealogists can sort their findings by project, document, place, reference or URL, by time period or direct lineage or marked persons, and then print out whichever part they want to focus on. Let us give you one example: a genealogist working on the Tommies will be able to get a clear view on his research work and see right away what part calls for additional research. He can thus generate a custom report, print it, and take it with him to the war memorial!

LOCATION WHEELS

Genealogists will definitely enjoy the location wheels! The wheels highlight ancestors’ and descendants’ origins thanks to the coloring by places: city, county, state/province, or even birth country.

To help genealogists find out more about their roots, this new variant of the Ancestors and Descendants wheels can be quite an eye-opener: genealogists will realize where their original roots are but also what gaps they may have in certain areas (see the gray areas below!). The wheel can include up to 12 generations and can be exported in PDF format and be printed.

A NEW DUPLICATES MANAGEMENT TOOL

The Heredis duplicates management tool has been completely rethought in the 2023 version. It has been improved and carefully redesigned while keeping the best assets of this feature already offered in the former Mac and Windows versions.

Genealogists will benefit from a tool with finer filters, thus offering more optimal search capabilities. As an example, the search on given names can be done requesting that at least two given names are identical.

The search can also be done based on events, excluding (or not) minor events. It can also be limited to a surname and its variants so you can start performing a gradual cleanup. Search results are thus more accurate and are displayed in a much neater way: the presentation, showing pairs of duplicates or persons next to each other, allows you to spot duplicate ancestors at a glance. You may also declare that two persons are not duplicates so they do not come up as such every time you run a search for duplicates. They can be hidden very easily thanks to the Potential Duplicates Only filter. Lastly, you can mark persons and edit a duplicates report. A great easy way to make sure you keep your files accurate and reliable!

GEDCOM 7 COMPATIBLE IMPORT

Heredis 2023 now offers the possibility to read files in the GEDCOM 7 format, a new international standard recently launched by FamilySearch. This standard is no longer limited to text data and makes it possible to include images and other types of files (Word, PDF, and more). Heredis users will be able to import genealogical data, media included, from genealogists who use a software or website other than Heredis! A valuable timesaver so you can be fully dedicated to your genealogical work!

IMPROVEMENTS

The Heredis Team is constantly improving software features and user-friendliness. Here are some examples:

•Highlighting complete persons: if a person is marked as complete, the corresponding icon will show in the Persons panel, as well as in the Branches and Summary panels.

•Merging even more detailed data: the Personal Data box now displays its full content so you get a better idea of what is about to be merged. Shared events can also be managed in greater detail to allow for a higher-quality merger.

Summaries have been significantly improved: thanks to the integrated zoom, get easy access from the summary to a person’s media and sources, in HD, with the carousel and navigation bar to scroll through all the media. The summary content is locked while you navigate in your family tree so you can keep useful information visible. The results of your searches are also displayed in the summary.

•Emphasizing sources! The source media is displayed under the tab for the event. Users can freeze this picture in the summary panel and type data in the Details tab! Thanks to the integrated zoom, you no longer need to open the picture using another software!

•Additional info: the age of the primary person and of their parents – providing they are alive – is automatically displayed under Immediate Family!

•Support tools: "Check a genealogy..." is a feature that can repair a genealogy file considered as damaged. A technical FAQ is available directly from the software.

•Zoom in on the World: the icons for direct- line ancestors are now displayed in the list of persons.

NEW GENERATION APPS

Starting with Heredis 2023, a new generation of mobile applications for iOS and Android are being released. Whether it is used independently or along with the software, the new Heredis 2023 application for tablets and smartphones is now available for a fee (please see the Heredis Newsletter sent last June). We used this opportunity to add a few new features: a new design with a Day/Night mode, the import of GEDCOM 7 files, the option to enter additional search details on Events, to enter Facts, and even the addition of + buttons for spouses and children in Immediate Family for the Android version... From now on, users of these mobile versions will have access to tech support during the whole time the application is available.

A team of Utah experts with unique expertise has started to examine a grave site for hundreds of people killed in the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.

Sorting out the remains will not be easy for the team at Intermountain Forensics in Millcreek but recent advances in technology have made their work possible.

“It’s been a solemn honor,” said Danny Hellwig, Director of Laboratory Development. “We’ve been contracted to take 14 bodies, of which we’ve got two samples; one bone sample and one tooth sample.”

All of them were found in a mass grave in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Hellwig said, “Using some really intense forensic DNA to come up with identification for genetic genealogy.”

It’s technology that not many people have but Intermountain Forensics hopes it will help better understand what happened.

You can read more in an article by Mike Anderson published in the KSL-TV web site at: https://bit.ly/3BYoRxx.

From an article by Patrick Terpstra and published in the wmar2news.com web site:

A WMAR-2 News investigation has learned the Maryland Department of Health quietly stopped implementing key parts of a landmark privacy law meant to protect ancestry data online.

The law, enacted last year, was seen as a model for other states looking to set standards for when law enforcement can tap into DNA uploaded by Americans researching their heritage.

“States that don't have a law like ours, it's kind of the wild west,” said Natalie Ram, law professor at the University of Maryland.

The state’s law set some of the first limits in the nation on forensic genetic genealogy, a technique used occasionally to help crack the toughest murder and rape cases.

Authorities take DNA from a crime scene, and if they can't find a match to known offenders in law enforcement databases, they compare the sample to profiles for millions of Americans whose DNA is online from ancestry research.

You can read more at: https://bit.ly/3SgJom0.

The following announcement was written by TheGenealogist:

This major milestone means that the whole Greater London Area is now searchable by name, address or location.

TheGenealogist has today confirmed that The Lloyd George Domesday Survey is now complete for all of the Greater London boroughs, as well as for North Buckinghamshire.

Over 1.6 Million records are now searchable, with 118,437 records in this latest tranche.

This is a key resource for those researching London in the Edwardian period.

This latest release completes the IR58 Valuation Record Offices records for London. You can now research into and discover detailed information on the houses your ancestors occupied in the capital between 1910 and 1915.

Mark Bayley, Head of Content for TheGenelaogist said:

“This is great news for family historians, local historians and those researching house histories. These records are linked to our powerful Map Explorer interface so you can see your ancestor’s home pinned on a contemporary map and discover where they went to work, school, church or even find their local watering hole!”

You can find out more about these records at https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/lloyd-george-domesday/ or come along to TheFamily History Show, London this Saturday (24th September), where both Mark Bayley and Nick Barratt the well known Researcher, Academic and TV presenter will be discussing the records amongst many others. You can buy tickets ahead of the day at a discounted price here: https://thefamilyhistoryshow.com/london/tickets/

The original IR58 records were collected by the Inland Revenue for their Valuation Office Survey, referred to as the Lloyd George Domesday Survey after the Liberal Chancellor of the Exchequer of the time. Safely stored at The National Archives they have been transcribed and digitised by TheGenealogist. The resulting crisp and clear page images of the field books, with details of the surveyors’ reports, are linked to zoomable large scale OS maps used at the time. Each plot on a road is identified on the map; this allows Diamond subscribers of TheGenealogist to find their ancestors’ house location in a street and then explore the neighbourhood.

Many of the field books in this collection are extremely detailed in the descriptions of the houses and will give the researcher a fascinating insight into the size and the state of repair of the property in which their ancestors had lived.

TheGenealogist now intends to extend this important dataset out into the rest of the country in future releases.

Read our article: Snapshot of Edwardian London revealed in Land Tax Records https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2022/snapshot-of-edwardian-london-revealed-in-land-tax-records-1616/About TheGenealogist

TheGenealogist is an award-winning online family history website, who put a wealth of information at the fingertips of family historians. Their approach is to bring hard to use physical records to life online with easy to use interfaces such as their Tithe and newly released Lloyd George Domesday collections.

TheGenealogist’s innovative SmartSearch technology links records together to help you find your ancestors more easily. TheGenealogist is one of the leading providers of online family history records. Along with the standard Birth, Marriage, Death and Census records, they also have significant collections of Parish and Nonconformist records, PCC Will Records, Irish Records, Military records, Occupations, Newspaper record collections amongst many others.

TheGenealogist uses the latest technology to help you bring your family history to life. Use TheGenealogist to find your ancestors today!

When Stockton University professor Michael Hayse and some students started working in 2019 on a project to catalog South Jersey Holocaust survivors, they thought it would take about a year, and net a few hundred names.

Sylvia and Zalman Levin with baby Emanuel at an Austrian Displaced Persons Camp, 1946 (Photo Credit: Stockton University)

But three years later, the project continues, and now hundreds of involved students have found the names of 1,500 Holocaust survivors who live or lived in Atlantic, Cape May, and Cumberland counties.

The digital archive of documents, copies of memoirs, and ancestry information is housed at The Sara and Sam Schoffer Holocaust Resource Center at Stockton University.

“Some of our Holocaust survivors include someone who was born in Czechoslovakia, whose parents were told they can send one child on a train called The Kindertransport to England. You can only send one. That child went and she never knew what happened to her sister and her mother,” Rosenthal said.

Just recently, Rosenthal said the researchers at Stockton were able to tell the survivor (who has since passed) what happened to her mother and sister. They were murdered, she said.

You can read a lot more information in an article by Jen Ursillo published in the nj1015.com web site at: https://bit.ly/3DGia4d.

The following is from an article written by Mike Schneider and published by PBS (the Public Broadcasting Service):

Some census takers who falsified information during the 2020 count didn’t have their work redone fully, weren’t fired in a timely manner and in some cases even received bonuses, according to the U.S. Commerce Department’s watchdog group.

The findings released Friday by the Office of Inspector General raise concerns about possible damage to the quality of the once-a-decade head count that determines political power and federal funding,

Off-campus students at colleges and universities were likely undercounted since the census started around the same time students were sent home to stop the spread of COVID-19 in March 2020, the review found.

During the 2020 census, The Associated Press documented cases of census takers who were pressured by their supervisors to enter false information into a computer system about homes they had not visited so they could close cases during the waning days of the census.

Supervisors were able to track their census takers’ work in real time through mobile devices that the census takers used to record information about households’ numbers, demographic characteristics and members’ relationships to one another. As a result, supervisors would get alerts when actions raised red flags about accuracy, such as a census taker recording data on a home while far away from the address or a census taker conducting an interview in just a few minutes. As a quality control check, others census takers were sent back to homes to re-interview residents.

The Inspector General’s probe concluded that some alerts weren’t being properly resolved, some re-interviews weren’t properly conducted and that the work of some census takers whose work had been flagged for falsifying data had not been reworked to fix its accuracy. In fact, some census takers whose work was flagged for falsifications were given more cases, weren’t fired and were reassigned to other operations, the report said.

Of the 1,400 census takers who were designated “hard fails” because questions about the accuracy of their work, only 300 were fired for misconduct or unsatisfactory performance. Of the 1,400 “hard fail” census takers, 1,300 of them received bonuses ranging from $50 to $1,600 each, the report said.

You can read still more about this story at: https://to.pbs.org/3Lwnqtg.