The following announcement was issued by the Iowa Department of Public Health:

Open Adoption Records - Access to Original Birth Certificate

HF855 was signed into law on May 19, 2021. This new legislation allows an adult adoptee born before January 1, 1971 to apply for a noncertified copy of the original certificate of birth prior to adoption immediately. If the adult adoptee is deceased, an entitled family may apply for the record.

Beginning January 1, 2022, any adult adoptee 18 years old or older may apply for a noncertified copy of the original certificate of birth prior to adoption. If the adult adoptee is deceased, an entitled family may apply for the record.

• • Proper application, proof of identity and entitlement must exist before a noncertified copy of the original certificate of birth may be issued to any party.
  • Contact preference forms and medical history forms may be on file for the biological parent(s) named on the record. If the contact preference forms and medical history forms are on file, the forms will be released with the noncertified original certificate of birth.
  • Biological parents may state their preference to release their identity and option for contact, or for their identity to be redacted from the original certificate of birth prior to adoption.
  • An original noncertified certificate of birth prior to adoption may be released regardless of any contact preference forms being filed when proper application has been made and proof of entitlement exists.
  • Any adult adoptee, or an entitled person, who was born before January 1, 1971 may apply for and obtain a noncertified copy of the original certificate of birth of the adopted person who is the subject of the original certificate of birth at any time.
  • All other requests for a noncertified copy of the original certificate of birth by the adult adoptee, or an entitled person, may be submitted on or after January 1, 2022.

 

AS OF MAY 19, 2021, EXPECTED PROCESSING TIME TO COMPLETE COPY REQUESTS SUBMITTED IS 6 WEEKS

• •  Biological Parent Contact Preference Form
  •  Biological Parent Medical History Form
  •  Application to Request a Noncertified Copy of Original Certificate of Birth Prior to Adoption

 

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What does Iowa Code section 144.24A allow?

• • The new law allows an adult adoptee to request and receive a noncertified copy of their original certificate of birth that was created prior to their adoption. Biological parent information is listed on this document. 
  • The new law allows biological parents to file contact preference and medical history forms with the Bureau of Health Statistics. These forms shall be released to the adult adoptee or entitled person upon proper application.

Who else can request a noncertified copy of the original certificate of birth for an adoptee?

• • An entitled person may request and receive a noncertified copy of the original certificate of birth prior to adoption if the adoptee is deceased.

Who is an entitled person? 

• • An entitled person is the spouse of the adopted person who is deceased, or an adult related to the adopted person who is deceased within the second degree of consanguinity. The second degree of consanguinity is applied to individuals after adoption.

Who is within the second degree of consanguinity?

• • The following individuals are within the second degree of consanguinity of the adult adoptee: children, parents, grandchildren, siblings and grandparents.

Can an original noncertified copy of a birth certificate prior to adoption be released if no contact preference form has been filed?

• • Yes. For persons born before January 1, 1971, a request for a noncertified copy of the original certificate of birth may be submitted at any time.  For persons born after January 1, 1971, a request for a noncertified copy of the original certificate of birth may be requested on or after January 1, 2022.

If I am a biological parent listed on an original certificate of birth prior to adoption, when can I filed a contact preference form and medical history form?

• • The Bureau will accept contact preference forms and medical history forms immediately.  If the contact preference form and medical history form is submitted to the Bureau of Health Statistics after the release dates noted above, adult adoptees or entitled persons may have requested the original certificate of birth prior to adoption. Contact preference forms and medical history forms are provided with the noncertified original certificate of birth once filed.

Applications for a noncertified copy of the original certificate of birth prior to adoption, contact preference and medical history forms will only be accepted via mail or in-person at the Bureau of Health Statistics. These forms will not be filed at any other issuing office.

Mail contact preference and medical history forms to:

Iowa Department of Public Health
Bureau of Health Statistics
Lucas State Office Building
1st Floor, 321 E. 12th Street
Des Moines, Iowa   50319-0075

Queen Elizabeth II is looking for a new hire to be trusted with "bringing centuries of history into the digital age". The Royal Household has shared a new job advert for the position of Digitisation Technician.

A "help wanted" ad has been posted by the Royal Household of Queen Elizabeth II. The ideal candidate should be experienced at archival work. I suspect some genealogists in England may be very interested in this position.

The new hire would join a team of experts at the Queen's Berkshire home to work between February 2022 and March 2023.

During this time, the perfect candidate will tackle the challenge to "digitise material held by the Royal Archives and the Royal Collection, producing valuable content for high profile public access."

The job specification read: "You'll capture and produce high quality images of documentary items, before transferring them to permanent storage.

The help wanted advert warns, "However, it warned the "deadlines and standard of work" will be testing."

You can read more at: https://www.express.co.uk/news/royal/1541337/queen-news-queen-elizabeth-ii-hiring-windsor-castle-royal-household-royal-family-update

According to an announcement in the Digital North Carolina Blog :

“Thanks to funding from the State Library of North Carolina’s LSTA Grant and our partner, Johnston County Heritage Center, over five hundred issues from 1911 to 1925 of The Smithfield Herald are now available on our website. These issues expand DigitalNC’s previously digitized issues from 1901 all the way to 1925.”

You can check it out at: https://www.digitalnc.org/blog/additional-smithfield-herald-issues-now-available/

This is a quick note to let you know that I am back from my travels over the Christmas holidays. I went to Maine to spend a few days with family members.

You may have read about all the disruption in the airlines with cancelled and/or delayed flights. While I went to Maine last week without difficulty, the trip back yesterday was not as smooth. My first flight of the day was cancelled. The airline then re-routed me via a different route. There were some mix-ups along the way but I eventually made it home, although somewhat later than originally planned.

More than 2,500 flights were canceled Monday as Covid cases surge across the globe. Of the more than 2,500 canceled flights, nearly 1,000 were within, into or out of the United States, according to FlightAware. Almost 8,000 flights are delayed.

My difficulties seem rather minor compared to what many other people encountered.

Digital Curator Dr Mia Ridge writes, In case you need a break from whatever combination of weather, people and news is around you, here are some ways you can entertain yourself (or the kids!) while helping make collections of the British Library more findable, or help researchers understand our past. You might even learn something or make new discoveries along the way!

Mia Ridge writes: Living with Machines is a collaboration between the British Library and the Alan Turing Institute with partner universities. Help us understand the 'machine age' through the eyes of ordinary people who lived through it. Our refreshed task builds on our previous work, and includes fresh newspaper titles, such as the Cotton Factory Times.

Your contributions will not only help researchers - they'll also go on display in our exhibition! 

You can read more at: https://blogs.bl.uk/digital-scholarship/2021/12/crowdsourcing-opportunities-with-the-british-library-.html 

From an article by Vera Miller published in the LostRussianFamily web site:

For years, I have heard my grandmother’s brother was named after a brother who died as a baby. No one could tell me when this child was born, except he was born before 1927.

On Christmas morning, I discovered a new database from the City of Kyiv archives. The archives has indexed more than 190,000 birth records for 1919-1936 here. Yes, it is in Ukrainian but it is a very simple database. (See below for directions on using this database without knowing Ukrainian.)

I searched for my great-grandfather’s surname to see how many people would appear for Trunov. Only a mere 16 results appeared for this common Russian surname.

Only two people have the same full name as my grand uncle and his brother in this database. One person has been confirmed as the grand uncle I knew so I am confident the other boy born in 1923 is my other grand uncle. I have already found my grand uncle’s scanned birth record from Kyiv on another database. It would be shocking if the baby born in 1923 is not my grand uncle.

My mother remembers that her mother told her that the child died before he turned two years old. Besides requesting the 1927 birth record, I will request a search of death records to completely close the story on this grand uncle.

You can read the remainder of the story, including details on how you can use this new Ukrainian Database, at: https://bit.ly/3pq0LFA.

The following announcement was written by FamilySearch:

FamilySearch expanded its free online archives this week with over 35M Catholic records from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Spain, Uruguay, and Venezuela, plus expanded collections for England, Estonia, Kiribati, Samoa, and S. Africa. The United States added New York Passenger Lists 1897–1902, War Relocation Authority Rosters 1942–1946, Oklahoma, Garfield County, Obituaries, 1963–1986 and Virginia County Marriages 1771–1989. More Find a Grave indexed Records were also added.

Find your ancestors using the free archives listed below. Millions of new genealogy records are added each week to make your search easier.

Don’t see what you’re looking for? Check back next week and, in the meantime, search existing records on FamilySearch. For other exciting genealogy content, peruse over 1,000 free, on-demand sessions from RootsTech Connect 2021.

The list is long, much too long to list here. However, you can find the full list at: http://link.mediaoutreach.meltwater.com/ls/click?upn=XRV9iUJtib-2FXPsf5qOJoBgDEQU6hlyJc5OTqxSSks-2Bf0L8FHnZO-2BbvC-2BZ-2Fy5MgGG6C9TMKXEwTdPjTMlzZJcqCNsEsoifTTlEjnqWhdKNjg-3DMwHs_tZ6gW1CmgmiDSdvJ3JBgYs3HSfOVphhNp65w58kvggjbkZGvckbSQ8J2IpVcmlmIkbSImLbZw-2FuMDooihXRxFDwoMEhz47bPhkK22SO643zIG3S7NJ-2FVdCledo-2BKNS3j-2FS-2BZ-2BS6npJiO80vjm5ZOAidh1uusn5iPqYm7PwVISdOem2qnNcUid5VgXHMV8WejmToVzHp6dhtSTHEGj3hdTPWWyJA9dHIYHR4hP9peKU-2FeZpTMxSd-2B862vUt8E10KkMyd64RPaJx3TjdUXuOm6TsJrANcfSx7hRhdlMrx-2FccVvIjU6jC-2B3VCz8ZobuY3Bw7H9NnESTEXvy-2BVC-2FXNFPf1H-2B7of2ubyPqoEyvPZXLnbpiB4S9Jatt3pCL4Kg1cr5hNjEipFjpidigU2IyKnt4g-3D-3D

Nicka Sewell-Smith offers some great ideas for adding more data to your family tree. You can find her article at https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/how-to-trace-your-family-history-on-a-heritage-trip-according-to-a-genealogist/ar-AAS3NO6?li=BBnbklE

Analysis of ancient DNA from one of the best-preserved Neolithic tombs in Britain has revealed that most of the people buried there were from five continuous generations of a single extended family.

By analyzing DNA extracted from the bones and teeth of 35 individuals entombed at Hazleton North long cairn in the Cotswolds-Severn region, the research team was able to detect that 27 of them were close biological relatives. The group lived approximately 5700 years ago—around 3700-3600 BC—around 100 years after farming had been introduced to Britain.

Published in Nature, it is the first study to reveal in such detail how prehistoric families were structured, and the international team of archaeologists and geneticists say that the results provide new insights into kinship and burial practices in Neolithic times.

You can read the full story at https://phys.org/news/2021-12-ancient-dna-reveals-world-oldest.html.

My thanks to newsletter reader Dean McLeod for telling me bout this story.

Two other newsletter readers also sent links to a DIFFERENT and more comprehensive article that describes (partially) the above story at https://phys.org/news/2021-12-harvard-geneticists-ancient-britain-insights.html