The following is a press release issued by the (U.S.) National Archives and Records Administration:

Genealogy Series There are only three sessions left in the 2025 National Archives Genealogy Series. Tune in on June 3 at 1 pm ET as we chase down cops and robbers in the records. M. Marie Maxwell, archivist, will highlight what may be found in the Metropolitan Police’s Personnel Case Files and the Index to Criminal Cases and Dockets. Other DC police and criminal records, including basic strategies for locating FBI records, will be briefly addressed. Watch on our YouTube channel. Newly Digitized The Obama Presidential Library Digitization Team has now scanned over 7.4 million pages, approximately 35% of textual records in the holdings. The Obama collections team recently released a new set of digitized artifacts—the oversized materials. These extra-large items include whale baleen, walking sticks, and a zebra pelt! View the complete collection of new releases online. This President Abraham walking stick was given to President Obama by a member of the public. Image courtesy of the Barack Obama Presidential Library. D-Day Commemoration The Eisenhower Presidential Library is hosting a screening and panel discussion of the new Kansas City PBS documentary “Winning the War” on Friday, June 6 at 2 p.m. CT. Come examine the enduring legacy of World War II through the lens of Presidents Truman and Eisenhower, whose leadership played decisive roles in ending the war.  The D-Day commemoration events continue with the Symphony at Sunset Annual D-Day Commemoration Concert on Saturday, June 7. Grab a lawn chair, sunscreen, and bug spray for this outdoor showcase of patriotic and popular music from the World War II era. National Archives and Records Administration, 700 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20408

The following is an announcement written by the Augusta Genealogical Society:

AGS June Open House

Click the above link to register online. A flyer is also attached. 

See you at AGS on June 21.  

After 40 years passed since the murder of a 24-year-old in rural Iowa, DNA research allowed law enforcement to arrest a suspect in the case as stated by the Linn County Sheriff's Department.

Officials announced on Wednesday that 64-year-old Michael Schappert was taken into custody for the brutal murder of Ronald Lee Novak which occurred on December 23, 1983 in rural Walker, Iowa. Novak's friend discovered him dead in an unheated room at his residence following a robbery and burglary according to a press release from officials.

According to officials Novak sustained beatings and gunshot wounds to his chest before being discovered with his hands tied behind his back. The medical examiner determined that Novak's death resulted from a combination of injuries along with shock and hypothermia according to officials.

Investigators tested DNA from Novak's clothing and the hammer suspected to be used in the attack throughout the last decade and a half. The DNA testing process resulted in Schappert being identified as the suspect according to Linn County Attorney Nick Maybanks who announced this at Wednesday's press conference.
Genetic genealogy which involves comparing unknown DNA to the DNA of family members who submitted their samples to a database helped authorities identify Schappert. DNA analysis led investigators to three brothers and further tests confirmed Schappert as the suspect.

Officials stated that Schappert currently resides in Fairview Oregon and that he and others likely planned to rob Novak of money and marijuana when they went to his home. The murder case of Novak remains unsolved because officials think an additional suspect participated in the crime.

Linn County Sheriff Brian Gardner stated during the press conference that naming a suspect might trigger other people to provide information who previously remained silent or help them remember details after forty-one years.

Patti Wilson described the investigation as a prolonged journey for her family and expressed how uncertain she was about seeing this day arrive. Hope for finding an answer seemed to fade away. I wanted it so bad. Wilson expressed hope for the upcoming trial.

Wilson explained that her brother was elusive while they remain uncertain about his company at the time of his death since the family did not recognize Schappert. Mr. Novak's family members have suffered through pain and trauma because his murder case remained unsolved for over 40 years. Gardner said that strength is required to survive extreme difficulties while keeping faith that eventually justice will prevail over the responsible party or parties.

Schappert faces first-degree murder charges while he waits in the Multnomah County Detention Center in Portland, Oregon until an extradition hearing will send him back to Linn County, Iowa according to officials.

Details about whether Schappert has hired an attorney to represent him were not immediately known.

People who possess new information about the investigation or know additional potential suspects in this case should reach out to the Linn County Sheriff's Office.

The following announcement was written by Reclaim The Records:

www.ReclaimTheRecords.orgView this e-mail in your browser our fifty-third always stay gracious best revenge is your paper newsletter The New York State Death Index, 1880-2017 We won. We won! Hello again from your friendly neighborhood historical records nerds at Reclaim The Records. We have a very big victory to share with you today: We just won the first-ever public release of the FULL New York State Death Index, from 1880 through the end of 2017. We won this data through a multi-year Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) suit filed against the largest government agency in the state, which eventually worked its way up the highest court in the state. After years of litigation, the New York State Court of Appeals has just handed us a resounding win in Matter of Reclaim the Records v. NY State Department of Health, ordering the state Department of Health (DOH) to turn over numerous fields of information from the New York death index through 2017. The Court of Appeals has also ordered the DOH to justify to a lower court judge through an "in-camera review" the withholding or production of any remaining data fields they might have in their possession, going field‑by‑field for all available years, with a legal presumption of public access for almost all of them. In total, RTR will be receiving information on more than ten million deceased New Yorkers, along with some "extra" fields of indexed information that the state has never released before. And for nearly half of these records, the official death information had never previously been accessible to the public in any form. And as soon as they hand over the data to us, we’re going to publish everything online, for free, in both searchable and downloadable formats, without any restrictions or usage contracts or paywalls, so that neither the state nor commercial entities can ever withhold it again. Because that’s how we roll here. Public data belongs to — and will be returning to — the public!   OMG. What? How?!?! Here’s how it went down. Back in 2021, we submitted our Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request to the New York State Department of Health (NYS DOH), asking them for copies of nearly all of the state’s extant death index records, covering all years from the start of state-mandated records collection in 1880 through the end of the year 2017. After asking the DOH politely, we were told no – twice. What we really wanted was all the data, in text format, for every year, for the state of New York. That’s not too much to ask, right? So when they denied our FOIL request, we sued the government, because obviously. And after nearly four years of work, three rounds of brief-writing and expert affidavits, two appeals to two different courts, and plenty of bureaucratic foot‑dragging, we finally heard the good news. Last Thursday, New York’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, finally said the magic words we’d been waiting for: Give. The. Files. To. The. Public. You guys…? We won. We won big. Here’s the link to the Court of Appeals' decision and it’s so, so good, not only for what it says about public access to historical (and modern!) records, but for the way the court supported and even strengthened the state Freedom of Information Law itself. This ruling is a BFD not just for genealogists and historians, but for anyone who wants to ensure that government records mustbe accessible to the public. We’ve also posted the full text of many other relevant court documents to our website, from our side and from the state, along with our wonderful amici(friend of the court briefs) that were submitted in support of our case, one of them from the Justice Committee (thank you, Gideon!) and one of them from two well-known professional genealogists who do a lot of work in Surrogates' Court (thank you Roger and Debra!). We also posted the formal press release we wrote up announcing our historic victory. Check them out! And we would be remiss if we didn’t give a huge thank you to our primary attorney in this case, the indefatigable Michael Moritz, whose unusual background as a Big Law attorney by day and a Genealogist by night certainly came in handy when helping us craft the legal strategy for this case. You can watch the official video of Michael arguing for our case in front of the Court of Appeals, in case you want to see what it looks like when a panel of top state judges star in an episode of Law and Order: Special Genealogy Unit. (We’ve also written a whole lot more nerdy discussion about the history of what years and fields and formats and images and datafiles (etc.) were and are available, and what we know we’re going to get in this win, and what we think we will likely get in this win. And it’s all online here on our website, if you want to nerd out with us about the details.)   Where do we go from here? We’re not sure yet how long it will take to get the data from the DOH, even with the Court of Appeals’ order, but things should move faster now. We might even get the production of the "basic" fields of death index information before we hash out the legal status of all the other "extra" data fields. What we can say for sure is that as soon as we get the materials, we’ll clean the data, build search tools, and as always publish every last line in free, downloadable, reusable formats. Then we’ll turn to the next locked archive in the next jurisdiction, and do this again! And we couldn’t do it without you guys!   Help Us Keep Fighting – Donate Today! Reclaim The Records is a small but mighty organization that fights for public access to historical records. We don’t take government funding — we rely on grassroots support from people like you. If you believe in open records, transparency, and genealogical rights, please make a donation today. Every dollar goes directly toward legal efforts, public awareness campaigns, and the fight against record closures — and the fight forawesome new records acquisitions, like this one! Here’s how you can support us, and our work. Thank you! Because history should never be padlocked, your happy friends at Reclaim The Records

A woman is warning others about DNA tests because her niece's results uncovered a shocking family secret which led her to end all contact with her mother.

As internet-based DNA tests become easier to purchase many people are discovering fascinating information about their family roots.

A woman warns others about DNA tests because her family experienced disaster when what started as harmless fun turned disastrous.

Her auntie continued in the thread: The mother experienced shock when she discovered her child's existence despite having ended her affair to protect her family's stability.

She completely misunderstood and thought she was pregnant with her partner's child. She loved him deeply yet she chose not to dissolve their marriage because of this.

NOTE: Here’s another article that is not about any of the "normal" topics of this newsletter: genealogy, history, current affairs, DNA, and related topics. However, I suspect some of this newsletter’s readers might be interested in setting up an Article Archiving Service (and I hope they do so).

Mozilla killed Pocket, but your bookmarks don't have to die. Here's how to self-host ArchiveBox - with a little help from ChatGPT - and take ownership of your reading archive.

Now that Pocket is shutting down, what are those of us who rely on article archiving to do? You could try switching to another cloud archiving service like Raindrop.io, but as nice a service as it is, it's run by just one dude in Kazakhstan.

If a billion-dollar company like Mozilla can't be bothered to keep its Pocket archiving service running, it's something of a risk to rely on a lone developer, no matter how talented or well-intentioned. 

Instead, how about self-hosting your own article archiving service on your own computer gear? That way, you own it all and nobody can shut it down.

As it turns out, there's an open-source project (of course there is!) called ArchiveBox that does just that. In this article, I'll show you how to set it up. In a subsequent article, I'll show you how to get whatever data you managed to recover from Pocket into ArchiveBox.

You can read the full article at https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-to-set-up-your-own-article-archiving-service-and-why-i-did-rip-pocket/.

NOTE: This article is not about any of the "normal" topics of this newsletter: genealogy, history, current affairs, DNA, and related topics. However, genealogy and related topics often attract an older crowd so I suspect many readers of this newsletter will be interested in the following article.

From https://www.psypost.org:

In the 21st century, digital technology has changed many aspects of our lives. Generative artificial intelligence (AI) is the latest newcomer, with chatbots and other AI tools changing how we learn and creating considerable philosophical and legal challenges regarding what it means to “outsource thinking”.

But the emergence of technology that changes the way we live is not a new issue. The change from analogue to digital technology began around the 1960s and this “digital revolution” is what brought us the internet. An entire generation of people who lived and worked through this evolution are now entering their early 80s.

So what can we learn from them about the impact of technology on the ageing brain? A comprehensive new study from researchers at the University of Texas and Baylor University in the United States provides important answers.

Published in Nature Human Behaviour, it found no supporting evidence for the “digital dementia” hypothesis. In fact, it found the use of computers, smartphones and the internet among people over 50 might actually be associated with lower rates of cognitive decline.

What is ‘digital dementia’?

Much has been written about the potential negative impact from technology on the human brain.

According to the “digital dementia” hypothesis introduced by German neuroscientist and psychiatrist Manfred Spitzer in 2012, increased use of digital devices has resulted in an over-reliance on technology. In turn, this has weakened our overall cognitive ability.

Three areas of concern regarding the use of technology have previously been noted:

1. An increase in passive screen time. This refers to technology use which does not require significant thought or participation, such as watching TV or scrolling social media.
2. Offloading cognitive abilities to technology, such as no longer memorising phone numbers because they are kept in our contact list.
3. Increased susceptibility to distraction.

Why is this new study important?

We know technology can impact how our brain develops. But the effect of technology on how our brain ages is less understood.

This new study by neuropsychologists Jared Benge and Michael Scullin is important because it examines the impact of technology on older people who have experienced significant changes in the way they use technology across their life.

The new study performed what is known as a meta-analysis where the results of many previous studies are combined. The authors searched for studies examining technology use in people aged over 50 and examined the association with cognitive decline or dementia. They found 57 studies which included data from more than 411,000 adults. The included studies measured cognitive decline based on lower performance on cognitive tests or a diagnosis of dementia.

A reduced risk of cognitive decline

Overall, the study found greater use of technology was associated with a reduced risk of cognitive decline. Statistical tests were used to determine the “odds” of having cognitive decline based on exposure to technology. An odds ratio under 1 indicates a reduced risk from exposure and the combined odds ratio in this study was 0.42. This means higher use of technology was associated with a 58% risk reduction for cognitive decline.

This benefit was found even when the effect of other things known to contribute to cognitive decline, such as socioeconomic status and other health factors, were accounted for.

Interestingly, the magnitude of the effect of technology use on brain function found in this study was similar or stronger than other known protective factors, such as physical activity (approximately a 35% risk reduction), or maintaining a healthy blood pressure (approximately a 13% risk reduction).

However, it is important to understand that there are far more studies conducted over many years examining the benefits of managing blood pressure and increasing physical activty, and the mechanisms through which they help protect our brains are far more understood.

It is also a lot easier to measure blood pressure than it is use of technology. A strength of this study is that it considered these difficulties by focusing on certain aspects of technology use but excluded others such as brain training games.

These findings are encouraging. But we still can’t say technology use causes better cognitive function. More research is needed to see if these findings are replicated in different groups of people (especially those from low and middle income countries) who were underrepresented in this study, and to understand why this relationship might occur.

A question of ‘how’ we use technology

In reality, it’s simply not feasible to live in the world today without using some form of technology. Everything from paying bills to booking our next holiday is now almost completely done online. Maybe we should instead be thinking about how we use technology.

Cognitively stimulating activities such as reading, learning a new language and playing music – particularly in early adulthood – can help protect our brains as we age.

Greater engagement with technology across our lifespan may be a form of stimulating our memory and thinking, as we adapt to new software updates or learn how to use a new smartphone. It has been suggested this “technological reserve” may be good for our brains.

Technology may also help us to stay socially connected, and help us stay independent for longer.

A rapidly changing digital world

While findings from this study show it’s unlikely all digital technology is bad for us, the way we interact and rely on it is rapidly changing

The impact of AI on the ageing brain will only become evident in future decades. However, our ability to adapt to historical technological innovations, and the potential for this to support cognitive function, suggests the future may not be all bad.

For example, advances in brain-computer interfaces offer new hope for those experiencing the impact of neurological disease or disability.

However, the potential downsides of technology are real, particularly for younger people, including poor mental health. Future research will help determine how we can capture the benefits of technology while limiting the potential for harm.

Archivists and Indigenous researchers are actively seeking ways to lessen the effects of a sudden federal funding reduction from last month which affected organizations working to maintain the history of Indian boarding schools.

The coalition’s Deputy CEO Samuel Torres stated they had received slightly more than half of their $500,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

The research team continues their hidden work to populate the database while consulting with tribal nations over sensitive information release.

President Trump requested Shelly Lowe of the Navajo Nation to step down as chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities in March. 

No Native American had previously held that position until she became the first person to do so.