The following is an extract from an article in the MyHeritage Blog:

We are delighted to announce that MyHeritage published 11 million historical records from two death collections that include images: Germany, Hesse, Deaths, and an update to Germany, North Rhine Westphalia Deaths 1874–1938. The North-Rhine Westphalia death collection is exclusive to MyHeritage and cannot be found on any other commercial site. With this update, the total number of German historical records on MyHeritage is 187 million.

More details about each of these collections may be found at: https://blog.myheritage.com/2022/05/myheritage-publishes-11-million-german-historical-records/. 

As a frequent user of Google's Duo, I was a bit disappointed to read this announcement:

Note: Google's app called Duo (today) is much like Apple's FaceTime except that it works on both Android and Apple iOS phones. I find it to be very useful for communicating with others, regardless of which brand of cell phone they have. Unfortunately, Apple's FaceTime only works on Apple hardware.

Google announced today that it's combining two of its video-calling apps, Duo and Meet, into a single platform. The Verge reports:

Pretty soon, there will be only Google Meet, and Google's hoping it can be the one calling app users need for just about everything in their lives. By bringing them both together, Google's hoping it can solve some of what ails modern communication tools. [...] Over the last couple of years in particular, Meet has become a powerful platform for meetings and group chats of all kinds, while Duo has stayed more of a messaging app. Google promises it's bringing all of Duo's features to Meet going forward and seems convinced it can offer the best of both worlds.

It's not quite right to say that Duo's being killed, though. The app, which Google originally launched in 2016 as an easy way to make one-to-one video calls, does a number of useful things that Meet doesn't. For one thing, you can call someone directly -- including with their phone number -- rather than relying on sending links or hitting that giant Meet button in your Google Calendar invite. Duo has always been more like FaceTime than Zoom in that sense. (Google also launched an iMessage competitor, Allo, at the same time as Duo. Allo didn't turn out so great.)

As the two services become one, Google is leaning on Duo's mobile app as the default. Pretty soon, the Duo app will get an update that brings an onslaught of Meet features into the platform; later this year, the Duo app will be renamed Google Meet. The current Meet app will be called "Meet Original," and eventually deprecated. This sounds... confusing, but Google claims it's the best way forward.

I'll withhold final judgement about the wisdom of this move until I have a chance to use the new Google Duo/Meet. However, I do have some reservations.

The following is from the South China Morning Post:

China has a grand plan to digitalise and connect the country’s cultural resources, from libraries to television channels, into a massive ‘digital culture infrastructure and platform’ by 2025. According to the newly published national strategy on ‘cultural digitalisation’ by the Chinese Communist Party and the State Council, the country will build a “national culture big data system” by 2035 to allow digitalised cultural products to be ‘shared by all people’.

You can read more at: https://bit.ly/3zt9BYL.

The following is from the MyHeritage Blog:

Just before the release of the 1950 U.S. Census in April 2022, we released the Census Helper™, a tool that scans your family tree and compiles a list of your relatives who are very likely to be found in census records. In the initial release, the Census Helper™ calculated a list of family members to find in the newly released 1950 U.S. census records as well as all available U.S. census collections. Now, we have expanded the Census Helper™ to include census records from other countries, so people with roots in places outside the U.S. can take advantage of it as well — and we’ve added some handy interface improvements that we’ll expand on below.

Use the Census Helper™ now for free

The Census Helper™ is a powerful free tool that offers help with census research and enables you to focus your research. Armed with the list it creates, you’ll know exactly which family members to search for in census records. 

Genealogists were excited to jump-start their research ahead of the 1950 U.S. Census release: for example, Maureen Taylor, the “Photo Detective”, commented on how quickly it helped her. “This is very handy!” she wrote. “I hadn’t gotten around to making a list. The Census Helper™ did it in seconds.” 

With this current update, the Census Helper™ now supports nationwide censuses in the United States, Canada, England and Wales, Scotland, Ireland, France, Denmark, and Norway. 

The full article is much longer. You may read the entire article at: https://blog.myheritage.com/2022/05/myheritage-census-helper-gets-a-major-upgrade/.

A newsletter reader asked, "How can I encourage people to sign up for electronic delivery of our quarterly newsletter? I am sending out 15 by email and 405 by US Postal Service. Any savings we can spend on other worthwhile activities."

My suggestion is simple and I know it has been effective for others. First, you need to determine how much it costs to print and mail the printed newsletter. Calculate the printing costs, the postage, the cost of envelopes (if used), and any labor charges incurred.

Next, send an announcement to all members that they now have an option: each member can now receive the newsletter at no additional charge if they accept it electronically. That means by email or on the society's web site or both. Those who wish to continue with the printed version can do so but at an additional charge that is equivalent to the actual cost to the society for printing and mailing.

For instance, a quarterly newsletter that isn't too thick will cost perhaps $2.00/year per addressee for postage. Printing might be another $1.00/year. There may or may not be additional charges. In this case, it seems fair that those who insist on printed newsletters should pay an additional $3.00/year.

Those who will accept the newsletter electronically continue at the old rate.

Substitute your own numbers in place of the above example.

The simple method of doing this is to create a PDF version of the printed newsletter. Free PDF software is already included in your Macintosh and in later Windows computers. For older Windows systems, you can obtain FREE PDF software from a number of sources. The expense to the club for additional software is zero and the amount of time required to create the PDF version can be measured in seconds. You can then send the PDF newsletter by email or upload it to the society's web site or do both.

Will you receive some complaints? Probably. However, I suspect the number of complaints will be small. After all, you are offering a choice of delivery options and both are priced according to the actual expense to the society.

As my correspondent stated, "Any savings we can spend on other worthwhile activities."

Are you interested in creating a web site to show your genealogy? Or for most any other purpose? You can create simple web sites for any purpose: showing the scores from your bowling league, to promote a Cub Scouts den, to promote a historical site in your home town, or most any other purpose. You can do that even if you possess minimal technical skills,

Hugo is a Static Site Generator that allows you to create a website with little to no coding experience. You can use pre-built themes as a base for your website design. This allows you to focus more on populating the site with your content.

Because Hugo is mostly used for static websites, it’s perfect for creating blogs, portfolios, or documentation sites.

You can easily set up and create a Hugo website with your Windows or Macintosh computer using a pre-built Hugo theme. With just a few short steps, you can then add content and pages to your website using Markdown.

All of this is covered in an article by Sharlene Von Drehnen and published in the Make Use Of web site at: https://www.makeuseof.com/hugo-start-create-simple-website/.

A highly-regarded Scottish photographer has donated more than one million of his images to a university archive with the collection capturing more than 30 years of the ways of a nation.

Mr Sutton-Hibbert, a founder member of the Document Scotland photography collective, added: “Today, people everywhere are taking photos on smartphones and publications and websites are using this content from the public.

“But the danger is if that photo is not being archived. Is that image going to be looked after in 50 years time? How will it be accessed? How will you find it, where will it be?

"There is a great need for photographers to work in a documentary fashion. That is why archives like St Andrews are so important for the nation.”

You can read more in an article by Alison Campsi published in the MSN News web site at: https://bit.ly/3x2hgKm.

The Sussex Parish Registers span from 1538 to 1995, and are now available to browse on Ancestry.

It displays 6.5 million records of baptisms, deaths, marriages and burials in the county.

The register includes detail of the first documented marriage between a trans man and a woman in the UK; Victor Barker, born Lillias Irma Valerie Barker, met wife Elfirda Haward, and married at St Peter’s church, Brighton, in 1923.

You can read more in an article written by Zac Sherratt and published in The Argus web site at: https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/20175189.records-sussex-people/.

The locations of Jewish heritage sites in Ukraine were passed on to Anatoly Viktorov, Russia's Ambassador to Israel by Yaakov Hagoel, the chairman of the World Zionist Organization (WZO) on Wednesday.

In light of the great risk of damage to national Jewish heritage sites in Ukraine, Hagoel shared a map of the Jewish heritage sites in Ukraine with the Russian ambassador in order to avoid as much accidental damage to the sites as possible.

The map was created following a special field survey conducted recently by the organization in light of the continuing fighting. The survey examined the conditions of the Jewish heritage sites in Ukraine.

You can read more in an article written by Zvika Klein and published in the Jerusalem Post at: https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-707725.

The story of how Elizabeth was exonerated is fascinating. Turns out, eighth graders at North Andover Middle School took an interest in her case during a civic engagement project they were assigned to. According to their history teacher, Carrie LaPierre, the students spent nearly a year investigating Elizabeth’s testimony, writing letters to legislators pushing for her pardon, and even crafting the bill that exonerated her.

You can read more in an article in The Guardian at https://bit.ly/3zbacOB.