Use this once and you will delete everything made by Google from your hard drive:

Software engineer Vishnu Mohandas decided he would quit Google in more ways than one when he learned that the tech giant had briefly helped the US military develop AI to study drone footage. In 2020 he left his job working on Google Assistant and also stopped backing up all of his images to Google Photos. He feared that his content could be used to train AI systems, even if they weren’t specifically ones tied to the Pentagon project. “I don't control any of the future outcomes that this will enable,” Mohandas thought. “So now, shouldn't I be more responsible?”

Mohandas, who taught himself programming and is based in Bengaluru, India, decided he wanted to develop an alternative service for storing and sharing photos that is open source and end-to-end encrypted. Something “more private, wholesome, and trustworthy,” he says. The paid service he designed, Ente, is profitable and says it has more than 100,000 users, many of whom are already part of the privacy-obsessed crowd. But Mohandas struggled to articulate to wider audiences why they should reconsider relying on Google Photos, despite all the conveniences it offers.

Then one weekend in May, an intern at Ente came up with an idea: Give people a sense of what some of Google’s AI models can learn from studying images. Last month, Ente launched  https://Theyseeyourphotos.com,  a website and marketing stunt designed to turn Google’s technology against itself. People can upload any photo to the website, which is then sent to a Google Cloud computer vision program that writes a startlingly thorough three-paragraph description of it. (Ente prompts the AI model to document small details in the uploaded images.)

The full article is rather long. You can find the full thing at:  https://arstechnica.com/ai/2024/12/new-website-shows-you-how-much-google-ai-can-learn-from-your-photos/. 

The Adai Caddo Indian Nation is pleased to announce it has been recognized by the Louisiana Genealogical and Historical Society (LGHS) as one of the state’s indigenous tribes. As part of this recognition, the Adai Caddo Indian Nation was recorded in the official state registry of indigenous tribes in Baton Rouge. 

John Avery
Adai Caddo Indian Nation
email us here

Karen Cydrus and Deborah Deal, 2026 OGS Conference Co-Chairs, are happy to announce that they are now accepting speaker proposals for the 2026 OGS Conference which will be held April 29 through May 02, 2026 at Sharonville Convention Center in Sharonville, Ohio. Proposal deadline for the 2026 OGS Conference is May 31, 2025 via email at ogsconference@ogs.org.

On Aug. 28, 1988, Pierce County Deputies (Washington) responded to a call of a body found in the Puyallup River near Sumner, Washington. A fisherman had located the body of a woman, identified two months later as Tracy Whitney.

Detectives were called out to the scene and an autopsy was performed. The autopsy revealed Whitney's cause of death to be asphyxia by strangulation and probable smothering. She had several blunt force injuries and was believed to have been sexually assaulted. Her death was ruled a homicide and DNA swabs taken from the body.

Detectives interviewed everyone who knew or had dated Whitney to try and find the killer. Unfortunately, the case went cold for years.

In 2005, DNA collected at the crime scene was sent into CODIS; however, no matches could be found. With a grant offered by the Washington State Attorney General’s Office in 2022, the cold case detective sergeant submitted the DNA to a third-party lab for genetic genealogy—and they found a match.

The suspect, John Guillot Jr., died a few weeks prior. Detectives matched the suspect DNA to Guillot’s biological son to confirm Guillot Jr. was the suspect. There were no connections between Tracy and Guillot Jr., and detectives believe this was a stranger abduction, rape and murder.

From: https://www.digitalnc.org/blog/franklin-county-library-system-brings-a-new-partnership-and-new-family-records/

Thanks to our new partners at Franklin County Library System, we are excited to announce that nearly a thousand new funeral programs and obituaries are now available on DigitalNC. The funeral programs and obituaries are divided by name and date and can be found in three records on our site:

• Franklin County Funeral Programs, Alston to Kingsberry
• Franklin County Funeral Programs, Lee to Young
• Franklin County Funeral Programs, 2015 to 2022

These funeral programs and obituaries, dating from 1944 to 2022, represent generations of history for many African American families from or associated with Franklin County. The majority of these programs can be found divided among Franklin County Funeral Programs, Alston to Kingsberry, and Franklin County Funeral Programs, Alston to Kingsberry – both of which include indexes at the beginning that list the individuals included in the record. 

To easily search for names within each record, users can locate the search bar titled “Search within this record:” at the bottom of the record viewer and type in the last name of the individual(s) they are looking for. Although many last names are found in several programs and obituaries, this search feature is still a great place to start narrowing down a search. The location of the search bar is indicated by a yellow arrow in the screengrab to the right!

More information about our partner, Franklin County Library System, can be found on their website here. 

Visitors can find all collections contributed by the Franklin County Library System on their partner page here.

Want to convert data from one format to another? Bookmark this web site: https://www.calculatorsoup.com/

Today is the first day of the month. That is a good time to back up your genealogy files. Then test your backups!

Your backups aren't worth much unless you make a quick test by restoring a small file or two after the backup is completed.

Actually, you can make backups at any time. However, it is easier and safer if you have a specific schedule. The first day of the month is easy to remember, so I would suggest you back up your genealogy files at least on the first day of every month, if not more often. (My computers automatically make off-site backups of all new files every few minutes.)

Given the events of the past few months with genealogy websites laying off employees and cutting back on services, you now need backup copies of everything more than ever. What happens if the company that holds your online data either goes off line or simply deletes the service where your data is held? If you have copies of everything stored either in your own computer, what happens if you have a hard drive crash or other disaster? If you have one or more recent backup copies, such a loss would be inconvenient but not a disaster.

Of course, you might want to back up more than your genealogy files. Family photographs, your checkbook register, all sorts of word processing documents, email messages, and much more need to be backed up regularly. Why not do that on the first day of each month? or even more often?

Our Cyber Monday Sale starts NOW! MyHeritage DNA kits are available at the lowest price ever: just $29 USD*!

Curious about your roots? Looking for a holiday gift that truly connects? MyHeritage DNA is the perfect choice. Discover your ethnic origins across 2,114 geographic regions and connect with relatives you never knew about. Millions of people around the world trust MyHeritage to help them explore their family history—now it’s your turn!

But don’t wait too long—this incredible deal won’t last forever. Order now to take advantage of this record-low price and enjoy free shipping when you purchase two or more kits.

Why MyHeritage DNA?

• Lowest price ever: Just $29 USD!
• Discover your roots: Explore your ethnic origins in stunning detail.
• Find family connections: Connect with relatives from around the globe.

This is the perfect opportunity to give the gift of discovery this holiday season—or treat yourself to a deeper understanding of your family story.

⏳ This sale is only available for a limited time—don’t miss out!
Order now: myheritage.com/dna

*Prices may vary by location and are displayed in your local currency at checkout.

The following is a Plus Edition article, written by and copyright by Dick Eastman. Please do not forward this article to others without the author’s permission.

One question that pops up frequently is: "What format should I use to save my files?" The question is often asked about digital pictures. Should they be saved as JPG or PDF or GIF or PNG or TIFF or some other format? Similar questions are often asked about word processing files, although there seem to be fewer options available. I thought I would offer a few suggestions and also tell what works for me.

Digital Pictures

Today's technology allows for a selection of image file formats, including JPG, GIF, TIFF, BMP, PSD, RAW, PNG, EPS, PDF, and others in a seemingly endless alphabet soup of abbreviations and acronyms.

You can find many good reasons and bad reasons for selecting any of these file formats. However, from a genealogist's point of view, there are two significant issues to deal with: image size and image compression.

NOTE: PDF files have unique advantages and disadvantages for both digital pictures and for documents. I will write about PDF separately later in this article.

Image size has been an issue since the first scanned images were stored on a computer, back in the vacuum tube days. In this case, the physical size of the picture is not the issue, but the size of the file you create is very important. That is, the problem revolves around the number of bytes required to store a faithful reproduction of the original image. 

Not many years ago, disk drives were expensive. Luckily, that problem is disappearing as the price per byte of storage has plummeted in the past few decades. Prices for one-terabyte disk drives have now dropped to the $40 range, a price undreamed of only a few years ago. It is now cost-effective to store hundreds of thousands of very large digital image files. Prices for disk storage are still dropping nearly every week.

However, file size remains an issue when transferring those files to another computer or when inserting images into a web page. Not everyone uses high-speed, multi-megabyte-per-second Internet connections. Next, even those who do use such high-speed connections find that including very large digital images in a web page results in slow performance. A high-resolution picture also might not display properly inside a web page. Such a picture might fill the entire screen or even “overflow” the screen, leaving no space for text, links, and other information in the web page. Finally, sending a hundred or so old family photographs to a cousin can be a painstaking effort if the files are very large.

The remainder of this article is for Plus Edition users only. If you have paid for a Plus Edition subscription, you may read the full article at: https://eogn.com/sys/website/system-pages/?pageId=18010.