An article about privacy and DNA that I will suggest should be required reading for every genealogist who has submitted or is thinking of submitting DNA information to a publicly-available database is available in the govtech.com web site. It states (in part):

"Vera Eidelman, staff attorney for the ACLU's Speech, Privacy and Technology Project, said people need to think about the wealth of information they're giving up when they use genetic testing kits for fun."

"Genetic testing kits give users a fun look into the past. But what could be at stake in the future is cause for concern among privacy advocates.

"When people think of genetic testing kits, they typically think of companies like 23andMe or Ancestry.com.

"These companies allow you to spit into a tube and mail off your DNA-rich saliva. They report back with information about who your family is, where they're from, famous relatives and, with an upgrade, genetic markers indicating possible diseases you may have inherited.

"This alone concerns organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union.",

The article points out that "Ancestry.com, 23andMe, and My Heritage DNA bar law enforcement from use."

You can find the article at: https://www.govtech.com/news/why-users-should-consider-where-genetic-testing-data-ends-up

From an article by Michael Walsh and published in The Register Citizen web site:

"A grant received by the Sharon Historical Society and Museum will allow the nonprofit to fully catalog and document its large collection of Frances Morehouse Kelsey’s work.

"Kelsey, a well-known Sharon resident, died in 1999 after a life spent documenting daily life in the town and the northwestern part of Connecticut. Much of that work was donated to the historical society in 2019 by Kelsey’s family.

"Now, thanks to a $50,000 grant received from the Institute of Library and Museum Services, the nonprofit is going to have the ability to finally process what they said is a room full of materials."

You can read many more details in the article at: https://bit.ly/3ATTzE7.

“If you find yourself struggling to know how to find your ancestors, FamilySearch has a new search experience that can help you find your ancestors in a quick and easy way without having to sign in. The FamilySearch Discovery Search experience provides a way to quickly search select databases on FamilySearch—the tree, records, memories, and last name information—all at the same time. This is a great way to get started with your family history and connect with your ancestors quickly!”

You can learn more at https://www.familysearch.org/blog/en/discovery-search-experience/.

"Regina Vaughn has been painstakingly tracing her family legacy dating back to slavery to keep a vow she made to her late mother more than a decade ago.

"She has spent countless hours, days, nights, weekends, sometimes holidays through weary and watery eyes from all of the tears while trying to uncover her lineage, primarily through written documents and files on microfilm."

It’s been 123 years since the infamous 1898 Wilmington Massacre and the first grave of one of the Black people killed during that tragic day has been discovered.

Joshua Halsey is buried in an unmarked grave in Pine Forest Cemetery off Rankin Street. Members of a non-profit research group called Third Party Project were able to locate his grave after handwritten maps in the Pine Forest registry were digitized.

“When that was digitized, we were able to go through it and start finding some names that were attached to these families,” said John Sullivan of Third Person Project. “Step by step that narrowed down the place where they could have been in the cemetery and then from there we were able to get it from just a meter or so from where the burial is.”

Halsey was just 40 years old when a group of angry white men shot and killed him just outside his home.

You can read the details in an article by Frances Weller published in the WECT web site at: https://www.wect.com/2021/10/12/grave-1898-victim-discovered-funeral-planned-123-years-later/.

The following is a message sent by Deborah Lee Stewart, President, Middlesex Chapter of the Massachusetts Society of Genealogists:

"Dear Friends - I am saddened to report that a long-time member of the Middlesex Chapter, Helen Schatvet Ullmann has passed away. From MSOG: "Helen was the 2019 recipient of the MOST Robert J. Tarte Award, given to those who have been distinguished for their exceptional, outstanding service that promotes the study of Family History and Genealogy and openness of Massachusetts's public records. She was a longtime member of the MASSOG editorial board and will be missed by many." She was a driving force in the genealogical community and among other things a long-time editor at NEHGS."

Gee, I was delighted when I was able to trace my own ancestry back a few centuries. This fellow certainly has me beat!

From the Newsweek web site:

"Darrell “Dusty” Crawford, whose Native American Blackfoot name is Lone Bull, looks over his results with fascination. He’d taken a DNA test with an outfit called Cellular Research Institute (CRI) and learned much about his heritage. What he doesn’t know yet is that the conclusions will also have implications for all Native Americans.

"Tracing back history

"The immediately astonishing thing about Crawford’s test is how far back the scientists at the CRI have traced his genetic history. In fact, the company has said that it has never managed to delve this far back in time before. And this achievement could force a rethink on the history of humans in the Americas.

"Crawford lives in Heart Butte, Montana, a city located in the 1.5 million acres of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in the north-west of the state. With a population of more than 17,000, the Blackfeet Nation is one of America’s largest Native American tribes. Three other Blackfeet reservations are located in Alberta, Canada."

You can read all the details at: https://bolt.newsweek.com/s/man-oldest-dna-native-to-america.

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

Disclaimer: I had to think for a while to decide if I even wanted to write about this topic. It is a bit controversial, and I am not sure that I approve of it for private web sites. However, the topic is timely, and I think you should be aware of this information, whether any of us approve of it or not. In fact, I think you should be aware of this so that you can understand why some sites are trying to obtain some of your money—and how. The information is provided here for your education only and should not be interpreted as an endorsement or a recommendation by me.

This week I will tell you how to make money from your genealogy web site. Yes, it is true: you can place genealogy data online about Aunt Gladys, Uncle Sylvester, and all the other outlaws in the family tree and even make a bit of money doing so. You will quickly ask, “How much money can I make?” I can only answer, “It all depends.” You might only make enough to buy a cup of coffee, perhaps not even at Starbucks’ inflated prices. Then again, rumors float around claiming that a handful of genealogy-related sites are making thousands of dollars per month.

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/11506368. 

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 following announcement was written by TheGenealogist:

TheGenealogist has just released records of baptisms, marriages and burials from Wexford Catholic Parish Records and new Dublin Will and Grant Books to provide a valuable resource for those researching Irish ancestry.

The Dublin wills are from the Deputy Keeper Of Ireland, Index To The Act or Grant Books, and To Original Wills, of The Diocese Of Dublin 1272 -1858 (26th, 30th, and 31st Report) and cover an area that is bigger than the current County of Dublin as the diocese included a sizeable part of County Wicklow, some substantial parts of southern and eastern County Kildare, as well as smaller portions of Counties Carlow, Laois (Queen’s County) and Wexford.

The Wexford Parish records, which are being released at the same time, have been newly transcribed by TheGenealogist and also benefit from their SmartSearch that enables subscribers to look for the parent’s potential marriage records from baptism records and also potential siblings. Each result also has a link to view the registers on the National Library of Ireland’s website should the researcher wish to see an image of the actual page of the Catholic parish register.

This new release, now available to all Gold and Diamond subscribers of TheGenealogist will be a useful resource for those researchers who wish to find out more about their Irish ancestors.

Read TheGenealogist’s article: George Harrison’s Wexford ancestors found in the Irish Parish Records https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2021/george-harrisons-wexford-ancestors-found-in-the-irish-parish-records-1473/

About TheGenealogist

TheGenealogist is an award-winning online family history website, who put a wealth of information at the fingertips of family historians. Their approach is to bring hard to use physical records to life online with easy to use interfaces such as their Tithe and newly released Lloyd George Domesday collections.

TheGenealogist’s innovative SmartSearch technology links records together to help you find your ancestors more easily. TheGenealogist is one of the leading providers of online family history records. Along with the standard Birth, Marriage, Death and Census records, they also have significant collections of Parish and Nonconformist records, PCC Will Records, Irish Records, Military records, Occupations, Newspaper record collections amongst many others.

TheGenealogist uses the latest technology to help you bring your family history to life. Use TheGenealogist to find your ancestors today!

The following announcement was written by Findmypast:

Discover your ancestors’ school days in thousands of new records and explore the latest updates to Findmypast’s newspaper archives this Findmypast Firday.

National School Admission Registers

Findmypast have added thousands of new school records from Halifax, Yorkshire spanning 1859-1922 to there ever expanding collection of British school records.

Search these new additions to gain rare insights into your ancestor’s childhood and reveal their birth date, admission year and the school they attended. You may also discover their parents’ names, father’s occupation, exam results and any illnesses that led to absence from school.

This latest tranche of school records is published in partnership with the Family History Federation and Calderdale Family History Society. The schools and years covered are:

Now containing over 9 million records, the National School Admission Registers & Log-books collection is the result of a landmark project between schools, record offices and archives in England and Wales. Never before have so many organisations come together to create a digital version of their records. This is an ongoing project to scan and transcribe school admission registers and log-books from around the country.

Does your heritage lie in the UK’s largest county? Findmypast’s Yorkshire collection is second to none. Delve into millions of parish records, 90 regional newspapers and so much more.

Newspapers

Hot off the press, the latest papers to join the Findmypast newspaper Archive are:

While 18 publications have been updated with additional content covering the following date ranges :