A committee of Louisiana lawmakers will take another week to decide whether to advance a bill that would allow adopted people to obtain copies of their original birth certificates once they reach age 24.

State law currently provides adopted individuals only limited access to the information from their birth records, mostly connected to vital health data.

The author of the bill, Rep. Charles Owen, R-Rosepine, voluntarily deferred the legislation Tuesday after a morning of emotional testimony in the House Committee on Civil Law and Procedure from adoptees and adoptive parents in support of the bill and an anti-abortion group that opposes it.

One’s ability to access their own vital records might seem like a fundamental right of every American citizen, but that’s not the case in Louisiana, adoptive mother Tyler Koch said.

You can read more in an article by Wesley Muller, publioshed in the RawStory web site at: https://bit.ly/3igQ9o3.

The following announcement was written by Findmypast:

The following was written by the (U.S.) National Genealogical Society:

Our Best Pricing Ends this Week Join Us for Our First In-Person National Conference in Two Years Register Now for Early Bird Pricing

The NGS 2022 Family History Conference is the first in-person national genealogy conference in two years. We are looking forward to seeing many of you in Sacramento in just a few short weeks. If you are planning to attend, this is the last week to get $50 off the regular conference registration rate. If you're still unsure, here are three terrific reasons to register by 18 March. You get $50 off the regular price of registration. Airfares are generally less expensive the earlier you book your flight. You can lock in reservations for popular Guest Speaker luncheons, Featured Events, and Tours. Best of all you don’t have to worry if you need to cancel your registration prior to 18 April. We will give you a complete refund, no questions asked, minus a $50 service fee. For up-to-date information about conference hotels and COVID-19 policies and other rules, visit the conference website. Be sure to sign up for the NGS conference blog to receive conference news and announcements. Once you register, make sure to book your hotel room.   Have you already booked your hotel reservation? We recommend contacting the hotel to confirm that your reservation dates are correct. If you are holding multiple reservations or reservations at multiple hotels, we encourage you to solidify plans and release any dates or rooms that you will not be using. Room blocks are filling up fast and we want to make sure everyone is able to book at our discounted rates. Registration closes 18 April 2022. Register Now for Early Bird Pricing

Founded in 1903, the National Genealogical Society inspires, connects, and leads the family history community by fostering collaboration and best practices in advocacy, education, preservation, and research. We enable people, cultures, and organizations to discover the past and create a lasting legacy. The Falls Church, Virginia, based nonprofit is the premier national society for everyone, from the beginner to the most advanced family historian. Copyright © 2022 National Genealogical Society, All rights reserved.

A $10,000 federal grant is expanding the Springfield-Greene County Library's online digital collection of photographs "vividly documenting a period of rapid change in Springfield and the Ozarks."

Part of the digital collection “From the Darkroom,” library staff will add 5,000 more digital images to the nearly 29,000 images already acquired. Those images originate from the Springfield News-Leader’s estimated 2.7 million photographs and negatives from 1945 to 2011.

The project began in 2016, and the library and the Springfield News-Leader expanded their partnership in 2021 to relocate photographs and negative images to the library district’s Local History & Genealogy archives.

You can read more in an article by Andrew Sullender published in Yahoo News at https://news.yahoo.com/federal-grant-expands-librarys-online-165022772.html.

The following announcement was written by the Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives (AGRA):

DATE: 16 March 2022

Following the announcement last year that AGRA had instituted an annual bursary award in memory of Associate Dr John Burt, we are delighted to reveal the first bursary under the scheme has been awarded to Associate Dr Sophie Kay. She will use the money towards funding her studies with the IHGS.

Dr John Burt was an Associate of AGRA, based in Scotland. His sudden death last year came as a great shock to all at AGRA. His enthusiasm and willingness to help made a huge impact on the organisation and all his colleagues. Well-loved and much respected in both the medical and genealogical communities, AGRA wished to recognise his work in the form of an annual bursary. This £250 award is made to an AGRA Associate progressing to full membership. It goes towards the expenses of furthering their genealogical education.

Dr Sophie Kay, this year’s bursary award winner, said: “I’m honoured to have been chosen as the inaugural recipient of AGRA’s John Burt Bursary.”

“I never had the chance to meet John, but I do know he was held in high esteem by so many in our family history research community.”

“I’m keen to do justice to this generous award in his name through my studies for the IHGS Higher Certificate in Genealogy.”

“My thanks to AGRA for this wonderful support in my professional development.”

Congratulations from all at AGRA to Sophie on her achievement.

Applications from Associates for the next award will need to be submitted by 31 December 2022. AGRA will issue details in due course.

FURTHER INFORMATION:

More information about AGRA can be found at its website at https://www.agra.org.uk/

Several justice experts are now calling for reform of the U.S. census after its bureau admitted in a recent report that it undercounted Black, Latino and Indigenous Americans as part of the 2020 census, while overcounting white and Asian Americans.

The census results are far-reaching throughout the federal government and American society. The data, collected once a decade, is used to determine how much political representation communities receive, how districts are drawn, and how more than $1.5 trillion in federal funding is allocated across the country for basic services like education, food and health care.

“[The census] is the foundation of our democracy,” Kelly Percival, senior counsel and census expert at the Brennan Center for Justice, told Yahoo News. “And so when we know inequalities are happening like this, we're baking inequity into our democracy from the start if we don’t fix this problem.”

You can read more in an article by Marquise Francis published in Yahoo News at https://yhoo.it/3u5GZjN. 

Want to find when your great grandmother was born? Or the date your grandparents tied the knot?

These records and more may be part of 9.3 million pieces of historical vital data just added to the city’s website.

The city Department of Records & Information Services launched a new online vital records platform that lets visitors search and view historical New York City records of birth (1866-1909), death (1862-1948), and marriage (1866-1949). 

Access to the records is free of charge.

High-quality copies can be downloaded and printed from the site at no charge.

The new online vital records platform may be reached at https://a860-historicalvitalrecords.nyc.gov/.

Beyond the reports of undercounts and overcounts in population totals, there is another takeaway from the post-mortem of 2020 census data issued on Thursday: This could be the last census of its kind.

The next census will be taken in a nation where Amazon may have a better handle on where many people live than the Census Bureau itself.

For some advocates of a more accurate count, the era in which census-takers knock on millions of doors to persuade people to fill out forms should give way in 2030 to a sleeker approach: data mining, surveys, sophisticated statistical projections and, if politics allows, even help from the nation’s tech giants and their endless petabytes of personal information. The Census Bureau itself has yet to leap very far into that new era. But it has hinted recently at a “blended” approach in which official census figures could be supplemented with reliable data from government records and other sources.

You can learn more in a YouTube video at https://youtu.be/S3YbdaJJaQ8.

The Law Reform Commission, through the Statute Law Revision Programme (SLRP), has launched its public consultation on statutory and prerogative instruments made between 1821 and 1860. The SLRP is the national programme to identify and remove obsolete and spent primary and secondary legislation from Ireland’s legislative stock…

Of particular interest to local and family historians will be the 2,503 proclamations offering rewards for apprehending suspected criminals around the island of Ireland.

This is a PDF file at: https://www.lawreform.ie/_fileupload/press%20releases/PR%20-%20SLRP%20-%202022.pdf.

I have written often about the need for genealogists (and others) to make frequent backups of their databases. The exact method of making these backups isn't the most important factor involved; any method that reliably produces the required results is a good method.

Having said that, I must also chime in with two more critical and related suggestions: (1.) Making only one backup is insufficient (backups often become corrupted and that usually isn't discovered until the moment of maximum need: when you need to restore some critical bit of information and (2.) keeping backups in the same place as your computer doesn't provide protection against fire, floods, earthquakes, blizzards, and other natural in-home disasters. (Off-site backups are much safer and therefore better.)

It was with delight that I recently discovered an article written by Fergus O'Sullivan and published in the How-To Geek web site:

The 5 Best Free Cloud Storage Services

As the title suggests, O'Sullivan lists the better-known cloud-based file storage services, the allotment of free storage each service offers, and what extras are included with each offer.

The amount of free storage space varies from one service to another, ranging from 5 gigabytes to 20 gigabytes (for the first year only). You probably should back up more than that but starting with the various free services allows you to "try it before you buy it" and also to first become accustomed to the service(s) that you try.

My recommendation: every genealogist (and others) should read this article. This article isn't written just for genealogists but it certainly does apply to genealogy record-keeping.

You can find "The 5 Best Free Cloud Storage Services" at: https://www.howtogeek.com/787191/best-free-cloud-storage-services/.