From an article by Kylie Mar, Host & Producer of Yahoo Entertainment:

On a new episode of Who Do You Think You Are? airing Sunday, Oscar-winning actress Allison Janney found out her connection to the Mayflower in 1620.

Due to her strong bond with her grandmother, Janney was interested in learning more about the maternal side of her family. On her ancestral journey, the actress traced her family tree all the way back to her 11-times great-grandfather Stephen Hopkins, who was born in 1582. Janney learned that Hopkins first arrived in Bermuda, which ultimately became the first English plantation, in the year 1609 — more than a decade before the Mayflower's trip across the Atlantic. The actress then traveled to Bermuda to learn more about Hopkins's journey and experience, and it was there that she learned her ancestors ended up and died in Massachusetts.

At the Pilgrim Hall Museum in Plymouth, Janney was told Hopkins was "a familiar name in these parts" due to the fact that he, his second wife and four children traveled to Massachusetts on the historic Mayflower in 1620.

It is historically known that, after a grueling 10 weeks at sea, the Mayflower reached America and dropped anchor in Cape Cod, Mass. However, before they set foot ashore, the "Mayflower Compact" was written and signed. As Janney kept reading, she was then shocked by the sight of her 11-times great-grandfather's name signed as a witness on Nov. 11, 1620, on what was essentially one of the earliest expressions of representative government in America.

"Stephen Hopkins is absolutely unique for having a foothold in the establishment of three English plantations. Being at Jamestown, being there at the beginnings of what became the English plantation in Bermuda as well, and then being here, arriving on the Mayflower in 1620 for the founding of Plymouth Colony," explained Donna Curtin, executive director of the Pilgrim Hall Museum.

Janney was amazed by the fact that her ancestor was the only person to have been a part of all three established colonies, and the fact that she has a connection to the Mayflower "in a huge way." And after learning how admired he was, Janney wasn't at all surprised to find out that he later became an elected official and the governor's assistant. However, she was astonished to learn that the Pilgrim Hall Museum still owned an artifact that once belonged to him.

You can read more at: https://yhoo.it/3z6jKbY

The following was written by the U.S. Library of Congress:

Interested in learning more about what’s new in the Library of Congress’ digital collections? The Signal now shares out semi-regularly about new additions to publicly-available digital collections and we can’t wait to show off all the hard work from our colleagues from across the Library. Read on for a sample of what’s been added recently and some of our favorite highlights. Visit here for previous updates.

What’s new on loc.gov?

Shippen Family Papers

The Manuscript Division has recently released the Shippen Family Papers, a collection of 6,500 items (15,666 images) digitized from 15 reels of previously produced microfilm, which document this wealthy and powerful group of Philadelphians connected by blood and marriage who reached the height of their influence in the mid-eighteenth century. The Shippens were merchants, doctors, lawyers, and landowners, who held offices in Pennsylvania’s colonial government and were connected by marriage to other influential colonial families, including the Livingstons of New York and the Lees of Virginia. The papers chiefly concern the family of William Shippen Jr. and consist of correspondence, diaries, account books, estate papers, and business, financial, and real estate papers, including maps and deeds. They reflect the family’s experiences during the Revolutionary War, their participation in the Philadelphia social circle that surrounded George Washington during his presidency, and the family’s engagement with national politics. The collection is notable for its documentation of the lives of women family members through diaries, letters, and such ephemera as embroidery patterns.

Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve Collection

The Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve collection consists of interviews and photographs by Mary Hufford and Tom Tankersley in December 1985 for the American Folklife Center, comprising part of the preliminary fieldwork for a proposed cooperative project with the National Park Service’s Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve in southern Louisiana. The collection includes audio recordings of a tour of Plaquemines Parish; interviews regarding fur trapping; and tours of the Barataria Marsh with park staff. Photographs document a local cemetery, boats, waterways, traditional foods and housing, the preparation of nutria hides, Park Service staff, and aerial photographs of the Mississippi Delta. Manuscripts include descriptive logs and a final travel report written by Mary Hufford.

Collection updates and migrations

Foreign Legal Gazettes: Legal Gazettes have been added for Morocco, Venezuela, and Paraguay, ranging in publication date from the 1970s to 2019.

National Screening Room: To celebrate Juneteenth, NAVCC/MBRS digitized and made available two classic films: Caldonia (1945; starring Louis Jordan) and Of One Blood. Additionally, 11 films from the George Stevens Collection (World War II color footage) are now available.

Military Legal Resources: The site migration has been completed, including the addition of Civil War Military Trials, and contextual guides to the presentation have been added to Articles and Essays.

Occupational Folklife Project: The following collections have been added to the Occupational Folklife Project online presentation in recent months: The Ransomville Speedway: Dirt Track Workers in Western New York and Cement workers in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley

New datasets

The World Digital Library Dataset has been added to the Selected Datasets Collection! This LC-published dataset collects the metadata for all items from the World Digital Library (WDL) project in seven languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish). All item records include narrative descriptions submitted by the contributing partners and enhanced by WDL researchers to contextualize the item and its cultural and historical importance. For additional context on the WDL collections, please click here.

New OA eBooks

Over 500 new open access titles added to the collection! Some highlights include books about films and cinema including The greatest films never seen: the film archive and the copyright smokescreen, The cinema of Mika Kaurismäki: transvergent cinescapes, emergent identities, and Filmische Poetiken der Schuld: die audiovisuelle Anklage der Sinne als Modalität des Gemeinschaftsempfindens.

And check out titles about different languages recently added to the collection, such as The Flamingo Bay dialect of the Asmat language, English and translation in the European Union: unity and multiplicity in the wake of Brexit, and Language, nation, race: linguistic reform in Meiji Japan (1868-1912).

New digitized books

So far this year, over 70,000 new digitized general collections books have been added to the Selected Digitized Books collection through the new digital content management platform, totaling over 18 million pages of content all with full searchable OCR text. Some highlights include Instructions for crochet work, Heller’s guide for ice-cream makers, Great cats I have met; adventures in two hemispheres, The Faery queen, first book, Card-sharpers, their tricks, exposed; or, The art of always winning, The busy beavers of Round-Top, Confessions of a palmist, and A library of wonders and curiosities found in nature and art, science and literature.

And some seasonal additions to the collection include Diary of a summer in Europe, 1865, Whoopee! the story of a Catholic summer camp, Brief summer rambles near Philadelphia, After icebergs with a painter: a summer voyage to Labrador and around Newfoundland, and How the “Fourth” was celebrated in 1911; facts gathered from special reports.

New crowdsourced transcriptions

The By the People crowdsourced transcription program recently added over 9,000 volunteer transcriptions into loc.gov, bringing the program’s lifetime total to over 132,000. These transcriptions now enable enhanced discoverability and accessibility of digital collections here at the Library. New transcriptions are now available for the following collections:

• • William A. Gladstone Afro-American Military Collection
  • Legal Reports (Publications of the Law Library of Congress)

Additions to the Library’s Web Archives

The Web Archiving Team has added newly released content for 92 items on loc.gov. The archives coming out of embargo include additions to 28 collections and content spanning 22 countries and 18 languages. The new releases include content in government, political science, European studies, Latin American studies, law, journalism, public health, education, and more. A highlight this month is:

• • The East European Government Ministries Web Archive added 19 new items. The archives includes websites of East European government ministries and agencies, which are primary sources for the study of all aspects of political, economic, and social life in the region. The collection includes content from eighteen countries: Albania, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Ukraine.

And a few more interesting finds include…

• • East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention, addition to the Comics Literature and Criticism Web Archive
  • Alice in the Pandemic: A Virtual Opera, addition to the Coronavirus Web Archive
  • Migrant Zine Collective, addition to the Zine Web Archive
  • Women in Music (WIM), addition to the Professional Organizations for Performing Arts Web Archive

I just checked this web site and found a number of Genealogy, History, and Heritage events listed, including: Sedalia Center (in Virginia), Scottish Tartan Festival (in Louisiana),and other heritage events (although some of them are listings of past events).

The database may be found at: https://yhoo.it/3b7BZFV.

Here is the press release:

RALEIGH, NC / ACCESSWIRE / July 20, 2022 / Each year thousands of fairs and festivals take place across North America. From arts and crafts, to music and carnivals, festivals and fairs are part of North American culture.

From spring to winter, FestivalNet® covers 18,000 events around North America, each of which attracts hundreds or thousands of patrons, vendors, and visitors, creating opportunities in each host city, and a chance to experience new and exciting exhibits, games, food, and entertainment.

This quarter, FestivalNet® highlights its innovative and comprehensive database of festivals and fairs throughout North America, offering a valuable resource for visitors, vendors, and promoters to take advantage of.

The 2022 Festival and Fair Database

Committed to maintaining the largest database of fairs and festivals throughout North America, FestivalNet® is excited to present its updated database for 2022.

Meticulously curated, this extensive database is updated daily, featuring over 18,000 events including:

• • Craft shows and craft fairs

  • Home and garden shows

  • Fine art shows

  • Street festivals

  • Music festivals

  • And more…

An Incredible Resource for Vendors, Visitors, and Promoters

FestivalNet® was created out of a love and passion for all things festival and fair. For more than two decades, FestivalNet® has worked hard to create the largest, most accurate, and comprehensive database of festivals and fairs throughout North America.

Covering Canada and the United States, FestivalNet's website is a valuable resource for professional artists, craftspeople, musicians, performers, agents, researchers, vendors, production and service providers, and more.

Intuitive Platform with Advanced Search Filters

FestivalNet's website was designed with the end user in mind, featuring an easy to navigate interface that connects its members with the information they need.

Members can search for festivals, events, and fairs using a wide range of useful filters including:

• • State / Province

  • City or Zip code Radius

  • Month or Date Range

  • Events with entertainment

  • Type of Event

  • Attendance

  • Deadlines

  • Whether or not food is needed

  • Juried Art Shows

  • Virtual shows

With a few clicks, visitors will be presented with customized search results. Each event listing includes critical information such as event dates, event contact information, event description, and the official website for the event.

A Convenient and Time-Saving Tool

Millions of individuals enjoy festivals and fairs each year. Similarly, the industry directly or indirectly employs tens of thousands of vendors, musicians, artists, promoters, and more.

For these individuals, FestivalNet® offers a convenient, accessible, time-saving tool. Those who make their living from such events can quickly locate opportunities for their business, while patrons can find interesting and entertaining events to attend.

Vendor Marketplace and Tools

In addition to its robust database of fairs and festivals, FestivalNet® offers several tools and resources for vendors. Its integrated online marketplace can be used to buy or sell a wide range of products ranging from handmade crafts, to commercially produced items.

Registered organizers and promoters can list their event on FestivalNet® for free. With over 1.3 million visitors a month, the website is an ideal place to help festivals, fairs and events gain more exposure.

FestivalNet® Pro Membership

Starting at just $15/month, with heavy discounts for 3-month and 12-month subscriptions, FestivalNet® offers a full suite of value-driven benefits for its members.

Features of Pro Level Membership Include:

*All basic features, plus

• • Complete event details

  • Full event rating details

  • Web link in festival biz directory ($35 value)

  • 10 item online store in our Marketplace

  • Add music, video, images to optional community profile

  • Promoters: Upload show applications

  • Build custom events list

  • Add notes on shows

  • Set reminders & appointments when booking shows

  • Map your search results and MyList

Call for Artist and Featured Events Products

Impactful Event Promotion and Marketing Packages

Gain additional exposure for an upcoming event with FestivalNet's ‘Call for Artist' or ‘Featured Events' products and reach more attendees, vendor types, artists, crafters, and performers.

Benefits Include:

• • Appearing on special featured events or artists webpage, homepage map, and more

  • Appear in monthly artists newsletter reaching over 74,000 artists

  • Top position on all public member's search results and high ranking webpages for up to 11 months

  • Appear in the Call for Artists weekly e-blast, reaching 69,000 members

About FestivalNet®

For 26 years, FestivalNet® has been a pillar of the fair and festival community throughout North America. Its database of events is one of the largest in existence, offering a wealth of helpful information for patrons and vendors alike.

With an integrated marketplace and promotional tools, vendors can tap into FestivalNet's 30+ million monthly viewership to find their audience and promote their products, services, and events.

Those interested in learning more about FestivalNet® or its services are encouraged to reach out via its official website for more information.

Website: https://festivalnet.com
Phone Number: +18002003737
Email: info@festivalnet.com

I don't know if the risks described in this article are overblown or not. However, I will leave it to the DNA experts to read the article and decide for themselves (and hopefully tell the rest of us about the risks).

Could your aunt's (or your) genealogy research be used to kill you? From an article by Joel Gehrke of the Washington Examiner:

Your aunt's genealogy hobby could  help China or Russia design a biological weapon to kill your family.

That risk alarms policymakers and officials in the United States, even if it's a remote prospect for most people. The emergence of such technology could allow rogue regimes to develop exquisite assassination programs with more than the usual impunity.

"There are now weapons under development, and developed, that are designed to target specific people," Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO), a member of the committees that oversee the Pentagon and the U.S. intelligence community, said Friday at the Aspen Security Forum in Aspen, Colorado. "That's what this is, where you can actually take someone's DNA, you know, their medical profile, and you can target a biological weapon that will kill that person or take them off the battlefield or make them inoperable."

The most sophisticated U.S. rivals could use such methods to open a new front against the American population, another senior lawmaker added, through the targeting of food supplies on a vast scale.

"If we look at food security and what can our adversaries do with biological weapons that are directed at our animal agriculture, at our agricultural sector ... highly pathogenic avian influenza, African swine fever," said Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. "All of these things have circulated around the globe, but if targeted by an adversary, we know that it brings about food insecurity. Food insecurity drives a lot of other insecurities around the globe."

The lawmakers outlined those risks to elaborate on a warning aired more obliquely by Army Gen. Richard Clarke, the commander of U.S. Special Operations Command.

You can read the entire article at: https://bit.ly/3RPIb61.

(+) Subtitle: How to Also Save Money on Your Present Cell Phone Bill

(+) Sub-subtitle: How to Save Money on Cell Phone Calls When Traveling Overseas

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

NOTE: This article has nothing to do with genealogy. If you are looking for genealogy articles, you might want to skip this one. However, I decided to write it after reading a comment by a newsletter reader.

I have read comments from several people saying they wished they could use a cell phone but they cannot because there is little or no cell phone coverage at their home. With today's technology, that should not stop them from having a cell phone for use at home and elsewhere. In most cases, using the new technology will provide cheaper and better service than traditional telephone and cellular companies. In fact, cell phone calls placed from within your home with the method I am about to describe usually are free of charge because those calls do not count as “cell phone minutes” being used. However this solution will only work for anyone who has a broadband Internet connection with wi-fi in the home.

Another benefit of this solution is to avoid the outrageous international roaming charges incurred when using a cell phone in a foreign country.

Perhaps the biggest money-saving benefit is to cut costs on one's present cell phone and traditional telephone bills. In fact, many people (including me) even decide to cancel the old-fashioned dial-up telephone service in their home and use their cell phone as their only phone.

To start with, why do you own both a cell phone and a dial-up phone? There are many possible answers, but the two that I hear most often are these:

"It is too expensive to use my cell phone as my only phone because I have to pay for all the minutes I use."

"Cell phone service is unreliable or nonexistent where I live."

Both problems are easy to solve with today’s so-called “smart phones.”

If you can cut your monthly cell phone bill so much that it becomes cheaper than your dial-up phone's monthly bill, wouldn't it be better to have only one phone and to use it for all your calls, both incoming and outgoing? Don't forget that most cellular services also can (optionally) transfer your present home phone's number to your cell phone. You won't even need to notify friends, relatives, or business associates of a new phone number. Your old number will simply be transferred to your cell phone.

The solutions I suggest here will provide complete cell phone coverage within 100 or perhaps 200 feet of your home. If you are further away, you will be dependent on whatever signal your cell phone company can provide. That's still better coverage than what your present dial-up telephone company provides.

How It Works

Assuming you have broadband internet service in your home for this solution, you need to add Wi-Fi to that service. Doing so is fairly straightforward and involves little or no extra cost.

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/12857957.

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.

Actor (and executive producer of the "Who Do You Think You Are?" genealogy TV program) Lisa Kudrow recently sat down on the 3rd Hour of TODAY to talk about her executive produced NBC series “Who Do You Think You Are?” and how the show personalizes people’s genealogy.

She also tells why she thinks that genealogy has become so popular in recent years.

You can watch her guest appearance at: https://on.today.com/3B68u1P (make sure you "Tap to Unmute.")

The following announcement was published by the Louisiana Department of Health:

Pre-Adoption Birth Certificates

Parental Contact Preference Form - To Be Completed By Biological Parents Only

Louisiana law now allows a birth parent to place a parent Contact Preference Form in the "sealed file" of the child who was adopted. The birth parent(s) may state his or her wishes regarding being contacted. The completed form will be placed in an envelope with the original birth certificate. The Contact Preference Form is considered a private communication from the birth parent to the child and no copies of the form will be given to anyone other than the child.

If the adult adopted person requests a copy of their original birth certificate after the Contact Preference Form has been filed, that form will be given to the adult adopted person along the pre-adoption birth certificate. The information on the birth certificate in the file is shown as it was provided by the birth parent(s) at the time of birth. The law does not require the adult adopted person to follow the preference as stated by the parent on the form.

Parental Contact Preference Form 

Adoptee Information for Obtaining Pre-Adoption Birth Certificates 

Louisiana law directs the State Registrar to establish a new birth certificate after an adoption takes place. The new birth certificate is substituted for the original birth certificate in the files, and the original birth certificate is placed in a "sealed file." (LA RS 40:73). In the 2022 Regular Legislative Session, the legislature amended the vital records adoption laws to allow an adopted person who is 24 years of age or older whose original birth certificate was placed in a "sealed file" to obtain a non-certified copy of the original birth certificate from the State Registrar.

Who May Request a Copy

• • The person named on the birth certificate - no other family member.
  • The person must be 24 years of age or older.
  • The person must have been born in Louisiana.
  • The person must have had an original birth certificate removed from the files due to an adoption.

What Will the Applicant Receive

• • The applicant will receive a copy of the original birth certificate clearly marked that it is not a certified copy and it may not be used for legal purposes. The information on the birth certificate in the file is shown as it was provided by the birth parent(s) at the time of birth. These documents do not contain medical or other information about the birth parents.
  • The revision of the law in 2022 allows birth parent(s) to submit a Contact Preference Form which will be placed in the sealed file upon receipt. If a Contact Preference Form is in the file at the time the original birth record is requested, it will be sent to the applicant.

How Should These Records Be Ordered

• • Applicants must clearly state they are seeking their original birth record prior to adoption if you are not able to use the application form below. Without this information, we will send the current legal record.
  • Must submit proper fees and valid acceptable photo identification document.
  • Complete the Adoptee Application for Pre-Adoption Birth Certificate

Identification Requirements

Persons who apply for a copy of a Birth and/or a Pre-Adoption certificate must submit a copy of their identification in the form of one primary document or two secondary documents. Please refer to the Identification Requirements for more information.

Adoptee Application for Pre-Adoption Birth Certificate

These records cannot be ordered over the Internet since we must have the applicant's original signature on the request.

If you are not able to use the application form, you may send a letter containing the following information to locate your current legal record:

• • Your full name as it appears on your current legal birth certificate
  • Date of birth
  • Parish of birth
  • Full maiden name of mother as it appears on your current legal birth certificate
  • Full name of father as it appears on your current legal birth certificate
  • Your mailing address and telephone number where we can reach you during the day
  • Your original signature and date of signature

Documentation of a Change of Name 

If the name on your ID is different from your name at the time of your adoption, you must provide documentation that will prove you are the person listed on the birth record. (For applications by mail, attach an original certified copy of the requested documentation. Your original documents will be returned to you with the completed order). For example:

• • If your ID shows a married name, provide a certified copy of your marriage certificate that shows your name as it appears on your current (adoptive) birth certificate and your name after marriage as it appears on your ID.
  • If your ID reflects a legal change of name, provide a certified copy of your legal change of name decree that shows your name as it appears on your current (adoptive) birth certificate and your legal name as decreed by a court and as appears on your ID.

Sending the Request for Pre-Adoption Certificate

Please be sure to sign and date the request. The request will not be processed unless it is signed by the applicant. Include the non-refundable fee of $15.50 for processing the request. Checks or money orders should be made payable to "Louisiana Vital Records."

Mail the application or letter of request along with fees and ID to:

Louisiana Vital Records

Attn: Pre-Adoption Certificates
P.O. Box 60630
New Orleans, LA 70160

For more information, call (504) 593-5100.

Rare documentation of the Portuguese Inquisition with detailed information about the sentencing trials which took place 500 years ago have been digitized for the first time in the Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People Jerusalem's National Library of Israel.

The documents include printed versions of sermons preached by two priests at the end of the trials they presided over and a bound 60-page manuscript from the 18th-century that documents the first 130 years of the Portuguese Inquisition tribunal's activities.

The trials mainly occurred in Lisbon, with a brief mention of trials in Tomar.

Written in Portuguese, the manuscript holds information about trials conducted by inquisitors from 1540 to 1669 against Jews newly converted to Catholicism who were accused of continuing to secretly practice Judaism. Included are details of the trials including dates, names of priests who participated and numbers of victims sentenced in each one.

The document is known in English as "An Accounting of All the Autos-da-Fé that Took Place in Lisbon."

Autos-da-fé, or acts of faith, were public spectacles in which the sentences of Inquisition victims were read and executed by the authorities.

The summaries were written at a time when the inquisitors, or someone who took part in the trials, felt the need to keep a record of the work of the Inquisition as a positive thing, noted archivist Pnina Younger. Based on the handwriting, all of the summaries were written by one person, she said.

Those summaries were later bound into a volume in the 18th century as a memorial to the cruelty of those trials, she explained. The volume also includes a summary list of the trials written on separate paper which she believes was compiled in the late 19th or early 20th century based on the handwriting and the type of paper used.

You can read more in an article by Judith Sudilovsky and published in the National Catholic Reporter web site at: https://bit.ly/3PKvJm7.

The following announcement was written by Findmypast:

In March of 2018, MyHeritage launched a pro bono initiative called DNA Quest to help reunite adoptees with their biological families. During the course of this initiative, we donated around 20,000 MyHeritage DNA kits to people seeking answers about where they came from. It’s impossible to know exactly how many of these donated kits facilitated reunions, but in the 4 years since the initiative began, the stories have been constantly rolling in. (Have a story yourself? Please share it with us!)

We received the following email from Ashleigh Brown, a DNA Quest beneficiary from Canada who found her sister as a result of her MyHeritage DNA test.

Ashleigh’s story

Your kit helped me find my biological family… and a whole lot more!

I always knew I was adopted… both my adopted brother and me. We grew up with Caucasian parents, so my mom just always told us. She had told me that she knew I had an older sister and that my biological mother had a few more children before me.  

I have wanted to know my biological family my entire life, especially my sister. I tried asking on adoption sites and randomly looking for the name on my birth certificate… all in vain. 

Then I saw the MyHeritage pro bono adoption program, DNA Quest, and wanted to give it a shot. So, I sat down and wrote my story to you. 

You can read the full, story at: https://blog.myheritage.com/2022/07/dna-quest-helped-me-find-my-birth-family-and-a-whole-lot-more/.