Although the 1950 U.S. census records are not yet available to the public on the National Archives website,  MyHeritage believes the company is fully prepared.

Searching the 1950 U.S. Census records and other historical records on MyHeritage offers invaluable additional benefits:

Advanced search capabilities: Using MyHeritage’s search engine, you can search for your ancestors according to any criteria and not just name, home address, or enumeration district. You can also search according to multiple search criteria at once, allowing you to zero in on what you're looking for faster. MyHeritage’s sophisticated search algorithms can even identify nicknames and name variations from other languages.

Free access to fully indexed records: MyHeritage will be investing a great deal of funds and efforts in fully indexing the 1950 census records as soon as the images are released. Once this project is complete, we will be offering FREE access to the indexed 1950 census records.

Easily flip between records within the family: MyHeritage allows you to easily flip between census records of individuals in the same family group. Family members are listed on the record page, and you can click their names to go to their records.

Explore related records: When you are viewing records on MyHeritage, you’ll see additional historical records that mention the person you are researching. Our database includes more than 16 billion records and is constantly growing.

Receive automatic Record Matches: When you build a family tree on MyHeritage, you won’t even need to search actively. MyHeritage finds historical records that mention the people in your family tree and delivers them straight to your inbox.

Extract new information straight to your family tree: Extracting information from historical records and placing it on your online family tree is as simple as a few clicks on MyHeritage.

How-to video: MyHeritage already has already released a short video explaining how to research U.S. census records on MyHeritage. The video may be found at https://myheritage.com/census/us/.

The MyHeritage 1950 census pages are available at:

https://www.myheritage.com/census/us/1950census/

https://myheritage.com/census/us/

Please keep in mind that the 1950 data is not yet available on those pages (data from earlier census records is available there today, however).The 1950 records will start to appear on and after next Friday,  April 1st. However, the 1950 records will not be "fully populated" until several weeks later.

I have written often about the wisdom of using encryption to secure (and privatize) computer files and text communications. Of course, the need doesn't stop with text; there is an equal need to make sure no one can eavesdrop on your voice and data communications.

That is a lesson learned recently by Russian soldiers and their commanders while serving in Ukraine. The lack of encryption on voice communications has literally cost the lives of a number of people.

Hopefully, the risk is not all that great for the majority of us who are not involved life-or-death battlefield activities. Nonetheless, do you care if someone from the government or the "other" political party or the Mafia or the two-bit criminal down the street is listening in on all your conversations?

Alex Horton and Shane Harris have written in The Washington Post about the experiences of Russian soldiers talking over clear (unencrypted) communications paths at: https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Russian-troops-tendency-to-talk-on-unsecured-17031606.php.

COMMENT: For your cell phone conversations, you should be using Signal, used by tens of thousands of people to keep their conversations private. Signal works on voice, text messaging, and even on two-way video conversations. It is available for Windows, Macintosh, iPhone, Android, and some Linux systems. It even allows Windows computers to communicate with Macintosh and similar mixing of technology.

Signal is used by law enforcement officials, bankers, stock brokers, and international criminals alike to prevent anyone else from listening in to their conversations. If it is good enough for them, it is also good enough for me and you to use. However, BOTH users in a communication must be using Signal in order to privatize the conversation. See https://signal.org/en/ for more information.

Who is listening to YOUR phone calls?

(DHS) announces the launch of their new digital collections platform. The nonprofit has begun digitizing collections to enhance access to DHS resources for local, regional, and national audiences. It offers access to primary source information to everyone from researchers, teachers and students, as well as to the general public.

DHS collaborated with the JP Morgan Chase “Force for Good” program, an initiative designed to bring sustainable technology solutions to nonprofits worldwide, to launch the digital collections platform. The program provided organizational and logistical support.

Leigh Rifenburg, DHS Chief Curator, described the initiative. “Our digital collections site is about sharing DHS collections and making them accessible to researchers, regardless of location. As the demand for digital access continues to grow, we’re thrilled to connect anyone interested in Delaware history with our resources, here at home and around the world.” According to Executive Director David Young, “The digitization of our collections is a prime example of Delaware Historical Society’s commitment to bringing Delaware’s diverse and fascinating stories to life. We are engaged in many innovative and ambitious programs that demonstrate Delaware’s unique and important place in history.”

Visit digital.dehistory.org to view the digitized photographs and documents. Get a glimpse of daily life in Delaware’s past. Explore Sussex, Kent, and New Castle Counties as they developed through the centuries. Read primary sources about enslavement, liberation, and abolition. More will be added each month, so check back often.

When J. Grant Stevenson completed his Master’s thesis, he took it to a Provo printer to get it priced out. When he got the bid he said he could buy a printer and do it himself for less money — so he did.

That was 66 years ago. Stevenson started his business with one printer in the basement of his home and it grew there for 10 years until it was moved to its current home on Cougar Boulevard.

It was Stevenson’s Genealogical Center in the early years, but changed over time to Stevenson’s Genealogy & Copy Center. The business is now run by the founder’s son, Chris Stevenson.

Stevenson’s Genealogy and Copy Center will close its doors for the final time on Saturday. While no one bought the business itself, the building has been sold and Chris has until March 31 to vacate the building. He officially retires April 1.

You can read more in an article by Genelle Pugmire published in the Daily Herald web site at: https://bit.ly/36tIBfr.

This week will see a major event for U.S. genealogists. This is an event that only happens once every ten years. On Friday,  April 1, the National Archives (NARA) will release the 1950 U,S,. census records.

The census was sequestered by law for 72 years. If you were born after April 1, 1950, you will not appear.

You will be able to view the census for free at a number of websites, including archives.gov, Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org. There isn’t currently a complete index, but the National Archives (NARA) has posted a name and location index on a separate website.

To learn more, go to archives.gov/news/articles/1950-census-access, as well as archives.gov/research/census/1950 for various webinars about the index. Other groups have begun creating their own index, including Ancestry.com.

In the meantime, in order to find your family members, you need to know where they were living in 1950. Then, if you use Stephen Morse’s guide to the enumeration districts at stevemorse.org, you will know where to start looking. Search for the state, the county and then the district and browse until you find the street and your family.

Various national and local groups are participating in helping further index the 1950 census. FamilySearch.org and the National Genealogical Society, working together, are the lead groups and are inviting local societies to participate.

OK, here is a question for you: Who is the first person you are going to look up in the 1950 census? A parent? A grandparent? Someone else?

As for me, I have a simple answer to that question. I am going to look up... myself. After spending hundreds of hours looking at various census records (and more) over the past 37 years, I am finally going to look for my own record.

Oooops! I just revealed my age!

A comprehensive index of more than 6,000 Gaelic songs composed, sung, or published in Nova Scotia were launched during a live event in Port Hawkesbury, Nova Scotia on Saturday, March 26, 2022 in what is called the 'Language in Lyrics’ Project.

For the past four years, Cape Breton University’s Dr. Heather Sparling, Canada Research Chair in Musical Traditions and Professor of Ethnomusicology, together with co-applicants Roibeard (‘Robby’) Ó Maolalaigh, Professor of Gaelic and Celtic Studies at Glasgow University, and Lewis MacKinnon, Director of Nova Scotia Gaelic Affairs, have led a team of researchers to compile the Nova Scotia Gaelic song index by drawing from print media, archival recordings, and private collections. The goal was to identify songs that could provide the foundations of a Nova Scotia Gaelic language corpus, which could be used for research, analysis, and possibly a future dictionary of Nova Scotia Gaelic.

You can read more in the Cape Breton University web site at https://bit.ly/3ILvN18.

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

Storing information "in the cloud" have fewer security issues than storing data on your own hard drive or in a flash drive but that doesn’t mean that you can ignore the security issues involved. security issues, although not as many. Luckily, those issues are also easily solved. Let's start first with a definition of the cloud.

What is The Cloud?

The word "cloud" is a collective term. The cloud is not a single thing. Rather, it is a collection of hardware, software, data, and networks. It exists in thousands of data centers located around the world. No one company or government controls the cloud; it is a collection of many things owned and operated by thousands of different corporations and non-profit organizations.

The cloud also may be envisioned as the next evolution beyond the World Wide Web. While the original World Wide Web delivered information one-way to the user, the cloud does all that and more. The cloud provides two-way data as well as multi-user and even collaborative applications. Do you use Google Docs? If so, you are already using the cloud. Do you use Find-A-Grave? If so, you are already using the cloud. Do you pay bills online? If so, you are already using the cloud. The same is true for Facebook, Flickr, Shutterfly, Twitter, Mozy, Carbonite, Gmail, and thousands of other cloud-based services.

On thing that is radically different with using the cloud is that applications may be stored in remote servers located around the world, not in your own computer’s hard drive. However, the use of remote applications, or “apps,” stored in the cloud is optional; you can still continue to use the applications stored in your own computer or use the apps in the cloud or, in some cases, even use a combination of both.

Gmail is a good example of using software in the cloud.

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/12681343.

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.

The Congregational Library & Archives is pleased to announce the launch of its digital archive which contains over 100,000 images across more than 4,000 extraordinary historical records that illuminate New England history. Records from over 100 New England churches in 90 communities, with most records dating between 1634 and 1850, are freely available for those interested in learning more about the history of their state, community, or family.

Congregational church records in CLA’s collection offer a rich and remarkable view of life in colonial and early-American New England. Well before the writing of the Constitution, each member in the early Puritan churches had an equal vote, with the power to govern themselves and to choose their own ministers. The records of these congregations document births, deaths, and marriages, but also open a window onto the lives of ordinary people deliberating on matters both sacred and secular. For much of the colonial period, church business was town business, and so beyond the usual information on births, deaths, and marriages, church records show ordinary people making decisions about property, taxation, and their representation in the larger affairs of the colony or state.

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

UMass Boston’s Joseph P. Healey Library has launched RoPA, the Roadmap for Participatory Archiving, at ropa.umb.edu.

Supported in part by a National Leadership Grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), RoPA is an online resource designed to guide libraries and cultural organizations through the process of collaborating with community members to plan engaging and inclusive participatory archiving events and to create digital collections. 

RoPA is a response to an increasing interest in public digitization events, which are part of the emerging phenomenon of participatory archiving. At these events—commonly called “scanning days” or “digitization days”—individuals connected with a theme, topic, event, or community come together to share personal and family photographs and stories, which are copied and added to a digital collection.

More and more, librarians and museum curators recognize the potential for these types of projects to break down hierarchies and enrich local, regional, and national histories. By playing an active role in selecting and describing what should be preserved in an archival collection, community members can transform our collective understanding of the past. Through participatory archiving, these groups come together to build a more inclusive archival record.

“We created RoPA to answer calls from colleagues around the country for guidance on how to undertake participatory archiving projects in their own communities,” explains Carolyn Goldstein, coordinator of the Healey Library’s Mass. Memories Road Show program.

The Mass. Memories Road Show is a statewide, event-based participatory archiving program pioneered by UMass Boston that documents people, places, and events in Massachusetts history through family photographs and stories. For this program, archivists and public historians in the Healey Library at UMass Boston work in partnership with local planning teams and volunteers to organize free public events where individuals bring photographs to be copied and included in a digital archive. Since its launch in 2004, the Mass. Memories Road Show has digitized more than 12,000 photographs and stories from across the Commonwealth, creating an educational resource of primary sources for future generations.

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

Professional and avid amateur photographers alike spend a lot of time and money obtaining the best cameras possible, often constrained only by the limits of their financial resources. I have seen more than one amateur photographer traveling with a huge bag stuffed with cameras, lenses, strobe flash devices, tripods, and more. However, my impression is that the more items you carry, the greater the likelihood of missing the best shots. By the time the photographer removes the needed equipment from the camera bag, connects everything together, and fiddles with the settings, the "spur of the moment" shot has passed. More than one “Kodak moment” has been missed because of the complexity of the camera equipment being used.

Of course, there is another problem: are you going to carry that heavy camera bag full of gadgets with you everywhere you go? Sure, you will carry it when you expect opportunities to arise, but what about those unexpected opportunities? Will you carry that camera bag to the grocery store? To the gas station? You never know when a picture opportunity will appear in front of you. Wildlife crossing the road, children at play, a beautiful sunset, an auto accident, and other "picture opportunities" will not wait until you can get your camera and accessories set up.

In fact, you probably have a very good camera, and there is a high probability that you are already carrying it with you everywhere. In fact, it is probably a better camera than anything you were using a few years ago.

Today's smartphones not only take very good photographs, but they also capture video and will even record audio. Not bad for a tiny device that is almost always on your belt, in your pocket, or in your purse!

The camera that is built into the modern smartphone has many uses that a genealogist will find both helpful and convenient. You can use it to take digital photographs of original records when visiting a local county courthouse. You can also take pictures of pages in a book while at the library. Even better, you can find several OCR (optical character recognition) apps for iPhone and Android phones that will convert the text in those images into computer-readable text.

The same smartphone also will help you find courthouses or your great-grandparents' homestead by using its internal GPS and a mapping program. You can even carry your entire genealogy database, including pictures and notes about source citations, with you at all times.

Of course, you can also use the same mobile device for dozens of other tasks: keep your agenda in a digital calendar, read and write email, surf the web for all sorts of purposes, measure your heart rate, keep your shopping list, keep your spouse's clothing sizes for reference when buying gifts, check for lower prices of items you find in a store (by scanning the UPC code), manage your finances, avoid speed traps, store business cards, store important documents, record notes (either as text or as recorded audio notes), play music, watch movies, store recipes, set an alarm clock, scan a receipt for tax purposes, translate foreign language text, find nearby restaurants, stores, gas stations, and ATMs, tune a guitar, and play games. There are apps available for all these activities and many more.

Oh yes, your smartphone can also make telephone calls.

How good a camera is in your smartphone? Internal cameras in smartphones vary widely, but most of today's units can take 8-megapixel pictures or better. If you wish to print photos, keep in mind that 300 pixels per inch (PPI) is widely accepted to be as sharp as the eye can see for photo prints. A 5x7-inch photo at 300 PPI weighs in at 3 megapixels while an 8-by-10-inch photo requires about 8 megapixels for good-looking prints.

In addition to the size and quality of the lens and sensor, there's also the image processor to consider. However, the quality of image processing is much more difficult to measure. Most modern, high-end smartphones have dedicated graphics processors built into the processor chip. Since these processors are hardware-accelerated and not just software-dependent, they can quickly render images like photos, videos, and games without overtaxing the main application processor.

While the camera in your phone suffices for everyday pictures, you can get SLR-quality photos with the purchase of add-on adapters. Some companies offer adapters that let you use your camera lenses on the iPhone, and others offer their own lenses.

Of course, you are not limited to still photography. There are many ways to take advantage of your phone’s video and audio capabilities as well. A 20- or 30-second clip of a child blowing out birthday candles can be a priceless video to be shared for generations. Want to interview an older relative about his or her life and about long-deceased relatives they remember? Use the audio recording capabilities built into your phone. You may need an audio recording app, but dozens of those are available free or at very low cost in your phone's app store. One of my favorites, the free Evernote app will record up to 2 hours in an audio note for free accounts and up to 4 hours for premium accounts.

In short, a smartphone is one of the best tools available for genealogists and millions of others alike. Best of all, this small package is normally close by, wherever you are.

If you are thinking of purchasing a new digital camera, I would suggest that you might instead invest in a higher quality smartphone than what you already have. The most expensive smartphones of today will usually cost less than the combination of a cheap cell phone and a good camera. With a good quality smartphone, you have all sorts of other applications available as well!

If you haven’t done so already, invest in a car charging kit to help make sure your phone is ready when you want to use it. These chargers cost ten to twenty dollars each and are available in thousands of retail outlets. A charger that plugs into your auto's dashboard power connector is also great insurance for extended power outages, such as hurricanes, blizzards, and other disasters that can rip power lines and telephone lines off the street-side poles. An automobile battery can keep a cell phone powered on and operational for weeks, even when standard telephones are useless. I leave a charger cord in my automobile's glove box all the time.

Besides the ability to make telephone calls whenever needed, a good smartphone ensures that you will always be ready to capture your family history as it’s being made.