Thanks to the Thelma Dingus Bryant Library in Wallace, NC (Duplin County), twenty years of the local paper The Wallace Enterprise is now online.  Over 1,000 issues covering 1931 to 1955 were digitized from microfilm.  The paper covers many local topics of the day in Duplin County and wider eastern North Carolina and had the tagline “Devoted to the Best Interests of the People of Wallace and Duplin County.” 

Front page of the June 17, 1937 issue of the Wallace Enterprise covering both Eleanor Roosevelt’s visit to the town and a better than ever Strawberry Festival that year.

The local strawberry festival which brought in crowds from all over the state to “the largest strawberry market in North Carolina” was covered yearly, as were local elections, school board discussions and lots of coverage of agriculture topics, including crop control measures, which directly affected the largely agricultural workforce in the area.  Eleanor Roosevelt visited in 1937 and gained a lot of glowing coverage when she came.  

To view all the issues of the paper, visit here.  To look at all the online North Carolina newspapers, visit the North Carolina Newspaper Collection.  

The following is a press release issued by the Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives (AGRA):

Take some time out from the seasonal festivities and the 1921 Census build up to listen to AGRA’s latest monthly podcast, all about researching Liverpool ancestors. Available from the 1 January 2022, three of AGRA’s professional genealogists – Sharon Grant, Rachel Rick and Grace Tabern – will talk you through some of the records, resources and strategies for researching your family history in this historically and culturally unique city.

With its rich history so intertwined with the lives of those who lived there, or passed through its port, the location lends itself to a fascinating, multi-stranded ancestral research journey. Liverpool became a colourful melting pot of immigrants from Ireland and North Wales, as well as having strong connections with the slave trade, and developing into a centre for migration. Its growth from a fishing village to a major shipping and trading hub, with the attendant population increase, industrial growth, varied occupations, and demographic span from extreme poverty to incredible wealth, all provides a rich canvas for family history research.

In a discussion moderated by AGRA genealogist Nick Serpell, our three experts with years of experience of research in this city, will guide you through all the intricacies.

Nick Serpell said: “Liverpool is rich in terms of the potential for family historians. A trading port into which tens of thousands of people came, mainly from North Wales and Ireland. Some moved elsewhere in the UK, many more went abroad to the United States and other destinations. Some stayed to take advantage of Liverpool's increasing wealth as a trading port. There is something for everyone here.”

AGRA’s podcasts are released on a monthly basis. Each edition tackles a different aspect of family history, and links to a section on the AGRA website with details of helpful resources and search tools.

The podcasts are available on the AGRA website https://www.agra.org.uk/ as well as on a range of podcast hosts, such as Apple.

In addition to this latest podcast, topics already covered by AGRA’s professional genealogy experts, and available to listen to are:

• House Histories.
• Ancestral Research, Getting Started - including understanding BMD and Census records.
• Research Before 1837.
• Military Research - including British service in India.
• DNA Testing and Use in Conjunction with Genealogical Research.
• Using Land Records, such as maps and tithe maps for further research.
• Commissioning Effective Research, to ensure you get the results you want and the best value for money when using a professional genealogist.
• Legal and Chancery Records.
• Researching Welsh Ancestors.

The final podcast in this latest series, to be released in early 2022, is:

February: Poor Law, Settlement Records, Workhouses & Asylums. Before the Welfare State the Poor Law was the only source of relief for the poor and destitute. Our experts examine how it worked and what records it produced.

Many genealogists use FamilySearch.org frequently and yet are not familiar with the FamilySearch Mobile Apps that are available. According to the FamilySearch Blog:

"Want to display your family story in a fun, creative way? The following free family tree templates will help you do just that. These family tree ideas not only look great on the wall, but filling out the family tree charts is a great activity to bring the whole family together!"

The article then goes on to make blank family tree charts that you can fill out and print on your local printer.

You can learn more at: https://www.familysearch.org/en/blog/family-tree-templates-family-tree-make

And more are available as well.

The following is a press release written by FamilySearch:

About FamilySearch

FamilySearch International is the largest genealogy organization in the world. FamilySearch is a nonprofit, volunteer-driven organization sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Millions of people use FamilySearch records, resources, and services to learn more about their family history. To help in this great pursuit, FamilySearch and its predecessors have been actively gathering, preserving, and sharing genealogical records worldwide for over 100 years. Patrons may access FamilySearch services and resources free online at FamilySearch.org or through over 5,000 family history centers in 129 countries, including the main Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.

The following is a press release written by the Genealogy Guys, George G. Morgan and Drew Smith:

The Genealogy GuysSM Podcast, a service of Aha! Seminars, Inc., is pleased to welcome two new sponsors to its family.

Effective immediately, Newspapers.com® and Find a Grave® are the newest sponsors of The Genealogy Guys Podcast and the Genealogy Connection podcast.

Newspapers.com is the largest online newspaper archive consisting of 695 million+ pages of historical newspapers from 22,000+ newspapers from around the United States and beyond. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Ancestry®.

Find a Grave, begun in 1995, houses the largest international graving community in the world. It is the best place online to look for burial and other final disposition information for your family, friends, and famous people. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Ancestry.

The Genealogy Guys Podcast, started in 2005, is the longest-running genealogy podcast in the world, with thousands of regular listeners around the globe. Co-hosts George G. Morgan and Drew Smith share news, interviews, book reviews, listener email, and more in each episode, available for free at http://genealogyguys.com, and through podcast apps.

Aha! Seminars, Inc. (http://ahaseminars.com) is a Tampa-based company specializing in delivering genealogy seminars for genealogical societies in the United States and abroad. It also provides genealogical continuing education through Genealogy Guys Learn, its online subscription site at https://genealogyguyslearn.com.

Here is a press release from our friends at FamilySearch:

SALT LAKE CITY, UT—In 2021, FamilySearch completed the digitization of its massive microfilm collection—2.4 million rolls to be exact—and welcomed over 1 million people to its first all-virtual RootsTech Connect online event. FamilySearch International noted these and other 2021 achievements among its efforts to help create fun, free, family discoveries for individuals worldwide, and create the family tree of humankind.

FamilySearch Family Tree

Imagine billions of people making new family connections by sharing what they know about their family history to a free online family tree that ultimately constitutes the family tree of humankind. That is one long term goal of the FamilySearch Family Tree. 

Crowdsourcing contributors worldwide added information about millions of deceased relatives to the FamilySearch Family Tree in 2021, making a total of 1.38 billion people now searchable in the world’s largest collaborative—and free—family tree!

Users also added hundreds of millions of sources—supporting facts—to their ancestors’ personal pages in the Family Tree. Sources can come from personal family records or hints generated by FamilySearch’s growing historical record collections. As the family tree of humankind grows, the number of ancestors that users have in common will also expand. Sources are important because they help strengthen the genealogical accuracy of ancestor pages—particularly for common, shared ancestors.

See what discoveries are waiting in the FamilySearch Family Tree for you. It’s free.

FamilySearch Searchable Records

To expand the branches of your family tree, you typically need access to genealogical records—documenting birth, marriage, death, census, military service, etc. FamilySearch now offers more than 14.3 billion searchable names and images from historical records from your ancestral homelands all over the globe. FamilySearch’s predecessors began gathering records in 1893 and started making these available on microfilm in 1938.

A major FamilySearch milestone in 2021 was the completion of the monumental task of digitizing its 2.4 million rolls of microfilm (See FamilySearch Completes Digitization of Massive Microfilm Collection). The initiative makes billions of ancestors from over 200 countries and principalities more readily discoverable online. FamilySearch’s Explore Historical Images feature enables users to effectively peruse digitized images from most of the microfilm collection online and more with a free FamilySearch account.

FamilySearch also added hundreds of millions of new, searchable, historical records in 2021. The top expansions included collections for Scandinavian countries (Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland), the Netherlands, Spain, the Caribbean and Pacific Island countries, the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States, Mexico, Uruguay, Venezuela, Peru, and more.

Search these free collections to see what was added for your ancestral homelands in 2021 now using the enhanced search feature at FamilySearch.org.

FamilySearch Discovery Experiences

Global interest in personal family connections continues to grow. FamilySearch experienced over 200 million visits in 2021, with visitors combing through online ancestor records to extend their family tree and add family memories.

 2021 enhancements that visitors can now enjoy include new discovery pages for ancestors in the family tree. These pages are an easy way to see your relative’s life story at a glance, view photos and stories, and understand the historical events they may have lived through.

It’s also easier than ever to see what FamilySearch can tell you about your relatives with the discovery search feature. This search allows you to see results from the Family Tree, historical records, memories and a surname search, all at the same time.

Finding Help with Family History

Need help with your family history? FamilySearch made wonderful enhancements to its menu of helpful services in 2021. You can now simply type in a topic or challenge, and suggested results will appear. The new FamilySearch Community forum enables you to easily find family history solutions and ask questions from—or even join—a helpful community of conscientious volunteers worldwide who are quick to respond—for free.

For those just getting started, FamilySearch also has a new page to guide you through your family history journey. From personal discoveries, to searching records, to creating a family tree or having family history fun, this page can get you started with simple steps.

Get started on your family history journey.

RootsTech Connect 2021 HighlightsRootsTech Connect welcomes millions of people worldwide to celebrate family and make family connections at the world’s largest family history conference and year-long learning platform. It offers thousands of classes, inspiring speakers, and meaningful activities that lead to fun family discoveries and foster new connections. Undaunted by the uncertainties surrounding COVID-19 and related travel restrictions, the 2021 event was held entirely online for the first time. The results were amazing and far reaching. The all-virtual RootsTech Connect 2021 attracted more than 1 million participants from 242 countries and territories (see RootsTech Attracts Over One Million Participants). 

A key learning is attendees are as intensely interested in connecting with their living relatives as they are in discovering their ancestors. The stunning demand for the online event led Steve Rockwood, FamilySearch CEO, to declare online learning a new core FamilySearch priority. He said FamilySearch would continue to explore ways to effectively globalize and localize learning and discovery experiences.

Register now for RootsTech Connect 2022 (March 3–5, 2022). It’s free! 

QUICK ROOTSTECH CONNECT 2021 LINKS

• Keynotes
• DNA
• Connecting with Family
• Getting Started
• Winning Song Contest Entries

Family History Library Reopening

People from all over the world flock to Salt Lake City, Utah, every year to take advantage of the abundant genealogical resources of FamilySearch’s Family History Library. The library serves beginner and professional family history patrons from all over the world and is a popular tourist attraction for the state of Utah.

The library was happy to begin a phased reopening starting in July 2021 (See FamilySearch Family History Library Reopening), following its closure on March 13, 2020, due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. The Library took advantage of the prolonged closure to make needed renovations that will significantly improve patron discovery and research experiences. Enhancements include the addition of state-of-the-art patron workstations with dual monitors and adjustable height desks to accommodate sitting or standing preferences, enhanced workflow throughout the facility, a new patron dining area, and the addition of nearly 40,000 books from new acquisition and long-term storage.

The library also added or upgraded free patron services (Visit the new Family History Library web page). Guests can sign up for free, one-on-one virtual consultations with a research specialist (available in multiple languages). If you can’t come to the Library, a staff member can retrieve a book from its shelves or help you find what you’re seeking through the new record lookup service. In FamilySearch Communities online, guests can receive assistance from volunteers worldwide, including locating or interpreting ancestor records, asking questions, or sharing their expertise with others. The library also continued to expand its popular free online classes and webinars. 

Find and share this announcement and additional images online in the FamilySearch Newsroom.

About FamilySearch

FamilySearch International is the largest genealogy organization in the world. FamilySearch is a nonprofit, volunteer-driven organization sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Millions of people use FamilySearch records, resources, and services to learn more about their family history. To help in this great pursuit, FamilySearch and its predecessors have been actively gathering, preserving, and sharing genealogical records worldwide for over 100 years. Patrons may access FamilySearch services and resources free online at FamilySearch.org or through over 5,000 family history centers in 129 countries, including the main Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.

© 2021 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved.

Discover more family connections on FamilySearch this week in 15 million new church records from Spain, Venezuela, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico, and 3 million civil registration records were added for Brazil. Collections were also expanded for Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, and states throughout Mexico (Aguascalientes, Campeche, Chihuahua, Distrito Federal, Guanajuato, Guerrero, Jalisco, México, Nayarit, Nuevo León, Oaxaca, Puebla, Querétaro, San Luis Potosí, Veracruz, and Yucatán, among others), plus more records added to United States collections (Illinois Cook County Births 1871–1949, Missouri Obituaries 1880–1990, Texas Grimes County Deeds 1869–1917, and Virginia County Marriages 1771–1989).

Find your ancestors using the free archives listed below. Millions of new genealogy records are added each week to make your search easier.

Don’t see what you’re looking for? Check back next week and, in the meantime, search existing records on FamilySearch. For other exciting genealogy content, peruse over 1,000 free, on-demand sessions from RootsTech Connect 2021.

NOTE: The full list of newly-added records is very long, too long to list here. However, you can view the full list at: https://bit.ly/34b8xuP

The following press release was written by 23andMe:

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Dec. 28, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- 23andMe Holding Co. (Nasdaq: ME) (“23andMe”), a leading consumer genetics and research company, today announced the results of the completed redemption (the “Redemption”) of all of its outstanding warrants (the “Warrants”) to purchase shares of Class A common stock of 23andMe that were issued under the Warrant Agreement, dated October 1, 2020 (the “Warrant Agreement”), by and between 23andMe and Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company, as warrant agent. The Warrants include the public warrants (the “Public Warrants”) issued as part of the units sold in the initial public offering (the “IPO”) of 23andMe, which was formerly known as VG Acquisition Corp., and the private warrants that were sold in a private placement simultaneously with the IPO.

On November 22, 2021, 23andMe issued a press release stating that it would redeem all of the Warrants that remained outstanding following 5:00 p.m. New York City time on December 22, 2021 (the “Redemption Date”) for a redemption price of $0.10 per Warrant.

In connection with the Redemption, approximately 23,901,466 Warrants were exercised, representing approximately 95% of the outstanding Warrants.

In connection with the Redemption, the Public Warrants stopped trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market and were delisted. The Redemption had no effect on the trading of 23andMe’s Class A common stock, which continues to trade on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker symbol, “ME.”

About 23andMe
Founded in 2006 and headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, 23andMe is a leading consumer genetics and research company. 23andMe’s mission is to help people access, understand, and benefit from the human genome. 23andMe has pioneered direct access to genetic information as the only company with multiple U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorizations for genetic health risk reports. 23andMe has created the world’s largest crowdsourced platform for genetic research, with 80% of its customers electing to participate. The 23andMe research platform has generated more than 180 publications on the genetic underpinnings of a wide range of diseases, conditions, and traits. The platform also powers the 23andMe therapeutics group, which is currently pursuing drug discovery programs rooted in human genetics across a spectrum of disease areas, including oncology, respiratory, and cardiovascular diseases, in addition to other therapeutic areas. More information is available at www.23andMe.com.

Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included or incorporated in this press release, are forward-looking statements. The words “anticipate,” “believe,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intends,” “may,” “might,” “plan,” “possible,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “should,” “would,” and similar expressions may identify forward-looking statements, but the absence of these words does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking. The forward-looking statements contained herein are based on 23andMe’s current expectations and beliefs concerning future developments and their potential effects, but there can be no assurance that these will be as anticipated. These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties (some of which are beyond the control of 23andMe), or other assumptions that may cause actual results or performance to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, those risks factors described in the “Risk Factors” section and other sections of 23andMe’s most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and other current and periodic reports 23andMe files with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time. Investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date they are made. Except as required by law, 23andMe does not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

Contacts
Investor Relations Contact: investors@23andMe.com
Media Contact: press@23andMe.com

Claire Cronin was born to the son of an Irish immigrant from the Inishowen Peninsula in Northern County Donegal and all four of her mother's grandparents were Irish.

Claire Cronin was born Clare McLaughlin in Brockton, Massachusetts to parents, James Daniel McLaughlin and Phyllis Virginia Lucey who married in the early 1950s. James Daniel McLaughlin was the son of an Irish immigrant from the Inishowen Peninsula in Northern Co. Donegal and all four of Phyllis Lucey’s grandparents were Irish.

On both sides of her family, they experienced the terrifying ordeal of eviction as they were thrown out of their homes and off the land, leaving young and old without a place to go. Profiteering landlords saw a way of increasing their income by ridding themselves of these small holder tenants. It is not surprising that so many found other opportunities elsewhere.

You can learn the details at: https://www.irishcentral.com/roots/irish-ancestry-claire-cronin