School maintenance staff across Minnesota have a new task on their to-do list: Report to the state the levels of lead in school drinking water.

Since 2018, Minnesota has required its schools to test for lead at least once every five years. But until an update made in the 2023 legislative session, there was no requirement that school officials report the test results to the state and no threshold for the amount of lead that requires action. The new standard, which took effect in July, requires districts to report test results and remediation efforts to the state.

Schools are now required to remedy within 30 days any faucet with lead levels higher than five parts per billion — the limit set by the Food and Drug Administration for bottled water — or else directly notify families of test results. Districts have five years to test all of their buildings and get levels under that threshold. By law, a school is not financially responsible for remediation if high lead levels are caused by lead pipes owned by a public water supply utility.

Before the updated mandates, “there wasn’t a whole lot of guidance for schools on when they take action,” said Anna Schliep, lead drinking water coordinator at the Minnesota Department of Health.

There is no safe level of lead, a dangerous neurotoxin that can cause mental and physical development problems in children, according to EPA. The metal is found in older water pipes, plumbing fixtures and even in the soldering that connects piping.

The Biden administration has attempted to tackle the problem by making water systems map lead service lines — or pipes on private property that connect homes and businesses to public water supplies. Minnesota, meanwhile, committed $240 million last year to help replace those lead service lines and is collecting information on lead pipes in a statewide map. The state Department of Health plans to create a similar map later this year showing lead levels at schools and childcare centers across the state.

Checking old plumbing

St. Paul Public Schools has more than 6,500 water taps across the district. Though district staff have been regularly sampling water since 2009, efforts ramped up this year, said Brian Bergstrom, the district’s environmental specialist. He aims to test lead levels in two buildings per month — a schedule that will ensure all taps in each of St. Paul’s 74 buildings are tested within the five-year timeframe required by the state.

“We don’t just want to meet this new number because it’s the new number,” he said. “We want to use this as the justification to take a holistic look at our aging infrastructure in a lot of our older buildings.”

Earlier this year, the district hired a plumber to replace fixtures with high lead levels. If a tap shows lead levels above five parts per billion, the water is shut off and a work order is put in, Bergstrom said. St. Paul schools facilities staff also aims to install additional filtered water fountains in buildings, for which the state offers grant money.

In Fridley schools, maintenance staff recently conducted an audit of each water fixture and implemented a schedule for custodians to flush the plumbing. The state Department of Health recommends running water through pipes to clear any stagnant supply after school breaks stretching longer than a week.

“We want this to be the last worry for our families and want them to know we’re on top of things,” said Rochelle Cox, senior officer of operations for Fridley schools. She added that testing reports and monitoring plans are available on the district website.

Jim Muenzenmeyer, buildings and grounds director for Eastern Carver County schools said the district’s previous threshold was 20 parts per billion.

“We had no problem getting to that,” he said, adding that bringing all the district’s drinking water below the new standard will be “fairly easy” but take more staff time.

Some of the highest readings are in “low-flow situations” — sinks in unused corners of older schools, like in a long-shuttered dark room once used to develop film, Muenzenmeyer said. Those taps may require a more frequent flushing schedule or removal if they are no longer needed, he said.

“We realize the importance of this,” he said. “Everyone wants clean water for our kids.”

On the 100-year anniversary of race riots erupting in the predominantly Black-populated and affluent Greenwood District in the city of Tulsa, OK, the city launched an investigation into unmarked graves in likely mass burial sites resulting from the riots. The laboratory assisting Tulsa, Intermountain Forensics, turned to the National Archives for records to help identify individuals from those graves. Based on those records, the first positive identification was made earlier this summer: a World War I veteran named C. L. Daniel.

Letter written to the Veterans Administration on behalf of C.L. Daniel’s mother citing Daniel’s death ‘in a race riot in Tulsa Oklahoma in 1921’ from the Deceased Veterans Claim File of C.L. Daniel in the National Archives at St. Louis’ holdings.

View in National Archives Catalog

The 1921 event has been called both the Tulsa Race Riot and Tulsa Race Massacre, and it resulted in a massive loss to Black lives and properties. Investigations into the excavated burial sites sought to identify the remains using a combination of forensic genealogy and community statements and family histories about family members interred after the riots. 

This extensive research led to many possible identifications, but in July it yielded its first result. Intermountain Forensics came across possible veteran matches for the burials and consulted the National Archives to confirm the identity. 

“The Intermountain Forensics 1921 Tulsa Identification Project forensic investigative genetic genealogy group  submitted several requests related to burials,” said Anna Kampwerth, a supervisory archives specialist at the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC). “The requests were for World War I–era veterans, an era heavily affected by the 1973 fire and which requires the most additional reference research for our team.” 

Kampwerth and their colleagues used identifying information from the request to confirm relevant holdings at the National Archives at St. Louis, which shares office space with the NPRC.

“We are able to expediently provide many archival auxiliary records . . . like the Deceased Veteran’s Claim File used for the Tulsa burial identification, to facilitate NPRC’s responses to benefits cases,” said Theresa Fitzgerald, Director of the Personnel Records Division of the National Archives at St. Louis. “We look forward to further working with members of the media and other stakeholders as these identifications continue.”

Deceased Veterans Claim Files are part of the permanent holdings of the National Archives at St. Louis. These files contain records of veteran and next-of-kin claims for benefits and entitlements. They can include medical and benefits notes created by Veterans Affairs employees about the veteran’s service, as well as letters and submissions by veterans and next-of-kin to support their claims. This information makes these records important sources in cases when the original personnel file was lost in the 1973 fire. 

C. L. Daniel’s file has been digitized and is available in the National Archives Catalog. Additional Veterans Claim Files can be found across the National Archives’ holdings. 

“Requests like these generate a lot of interest in the National Archives’ holdings,” said Vivian Green, an archives technician at the NPRC. “It’s an important part of my job, and I look forward to finding more answers about our nation’s history.”

Media and genealogy-related requests can be submitted to the National Archives at St. Louis at stl.archives@nara.gov, and burial-related requests should be directed to the National Personnel Record Center through eVetRecs. 

Check the Calendar of Events for veterans-related programming throughout November, including 80th Anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge on Wednesday, November 13, at 6:30 p.m. ET and Inside the Vault: Masters of the Air: America's Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War on Monday, November 18, at 6 p.m. ET.

At the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Genealogists on October 26, 2024, the Society voted to present the Donald Lines Jacobus Award to The Vick Genealogy: The Study of a Southern American Family in White and Black, 2 vols.  (Marceline, Missouri: Walsworth Press for the Joseph Vick Family of America, 2023), by John Beatty, CG.

The author, John Beatty, CG, is Senior Librarian at the Genealogy Center of the Allen County (Indiana) Public Library, a nationally-known institution for genealogical research.

The Newberry has recently completed the digitization of over 750 maps printed in Italy during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The Franco Novacco Map Collection, one of the strongest of its kind in the world, reflects Europeans’ evolving conceptions of the world during a time of widespread exploration and colonization. 

Many of the maps in the Novacco collection feature battle scenes, such as Il Grande et miracoloso fatto d'arme navale... a black-and-white map portraying the Battle of Lepanto, created by Stephanus Ghebellinus in 1572. 

Il Grande et miracoloso fatto d'arme navale... Stephanus Ghebellinus, 1572. Call number: Novacco 4F 109 (PrCt)

A large portion of the collection includes world maps of all sizes, ranging from functional to more experimental. One 1590 cordiform map, for example, places the heart-shaped world inside of a fool's cap, resulting in an unsettling visual commentary on previous conceptions of world geography. A 1555 map, alternatively, presents the world in gores, or segmented parts, which can be cut out and pasted onto a sphere to create a globe. This blend of art, science, and history is at the heart of the Franco Novacco Collection.

Cordiform world map within fool’s cap. 1590. Call number: Novacco 2F 6 (PrCt)

“Whether you want to wander through marveling at sea monsters or compare intricate differences in representations of Rome, the Novacco Collection has something for you,” David Weimer, Robert A. Holland Curator of Maps and Director of the Hermon Dunlap Smith Center for the History of Cartography, emphasized. “These maps illustrate the startling breadth of scientific and artistic practice in Early Modern Europe.” 

The Newberry Library acquired the Novacco Collection from the Venetian map collector Franco Novacco himself in 1967. Since then, the maps have only been available for viewing on-site in the Newberry’s reading rooms. In early 2022, the Newberry received generous funding from Mr. Rudy L. Ruggles, Jr. and Barry Lawrence Ruderman Antique Maps to begin digitizing the entirety of the collection. 

World map in gores, Antonius Florianus, 1555. Call number: Novacco 4F 46 (PrCt)

Using special cameras and lenses designed for flat art photography, image technicians from the Newberry and The Digital Archive Group created high-definition images that will enable researchers around the world to study these maps in staggering detail. The Newberry Digital Initiatives and Services team then organized the digital assets, adding descriptions and metadata to improve searchability and ease of access. 

With growing digitization technology and newly fortified digital asset management systems, this project plays a role in the Newberry’s larger goal to increase the accessibility of its collections, making it possible for anyone around the world to view renowned archival documents. 

"Although the Newberry holds one of the world's premiere map collections, this format has been significantly underrepresented in our digital library, since we lack facilities for oversize digitization," said Jen Wolfe, Digital Scholarship and Outreach Librarian. "The Novacco digital collection allows us to start to fill in that gap and open up more of the Newberry’s cartographic materials to a global audience." 

The Novacco Collection has been fully digitized and is now available as part of the Newberry’s growing, free Digital Collections, with high-resolution files available for public re-use. The maps may be of particular interest to scholars of map history, geographers and cartographers, art historians, and map enthusiasts. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Lili Pangborn is Communications Coordinator at the Newberry.

I received a somewhat frantic e-mail recently from a reader of this newsletter. She mentioned a specific genealogy CD-ROM disk that was produced a few years ago, but her question could apply to any CD disk of any topic. She wrote (in part):

"Help! I have a CD-ROM disk of [name deleted here] and it cracked. I want to replace it, but can't seem to find it anywhere. The company that produced it no longer appears to be in business. Any suggestions? Is there any other CD-ROM that has equivalent materials?"

Sadly, I was not able to offer much help. A cracked CD disk is useless, except maybe as a coaster for your coffee cup. Even a scratch the size of one human hair can render a CD-ROM disk useless; if it has visible physical damage, the problem is even worse. To make matters worse, the company that produced her disk is now out of business, so I doubt if she can find a low-cost replacement. I referred her to to eBay to see if she can find a used copy of the same CD for sale.

With a bit of hindsight, anyone can quickly determine what my correspondent SHOULD have done: she should have made a backup copy while the CD was still usable. Then again, how many of us ever do that? I know that I occasionally create CD backups although not as often as I should.

Such a solution would not have been practical a few years ago. To make it worse, many od today’s computers don’t even contain CD-ROM or DVD-ROM disk drives (although you can still purchase EXTERNAL CD-ROM drives that plug into modern computers’ USB connectors. 

Blank CD disks cost 40 cents or less when purchased in quantity at most any discount store. Making backups of your CD disks should be a trivial exercise. After all, how much would it cost you to replace a CD-ROM disk that becomes defective?

Most new computers or new CD-ROM drives include software to write to the CDs. In fact, most have an option to copy the entire contents of a disk to a new, blank disk. This is true for Windows, Macintosh, and Linux systems. Check the software already installed on your computer; I suspect you will find that you already have everything you need. If not, you can download free software that will make copies for you.

Macintosh users already have the required software: open FINDER, click on APPLICATIONS, click on UTILITIES, and then click on DISK UTILITY. In fact, the Macintosh Disk Utility will duplicate Macintosh, Windows, and Linux disks alike. If you would like a more robust disk duplicating program but one that is available free of charge, look at Burn at http://burn-osx.sourceforge.net.

Linux users have a variety of free CD-ROM utilities to choose from. I normally use K3B but can find others.

A Second Backup Plan

With today's hard drives typically having a storage capacity of a terabyte (1,000 gigabytes) or more, it is now practical to create backup images of CD disks and to store them on a hard drive or, perhaps even better, on USB flash drives. After all, one large hard drive can now store hundreds of CD-ROM disk images. Probably the best method is to create .ISO images of the original CD disks. An .ISO "image" file is a method of merging all the files on a CD into a single compressed file according to a defined format. 

You can read more about .ISO images in the Wikipedia article at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_disc_image.

The process is somewhat similar to creating a .ZIP file: many files can be combined into a single file for archival purposes. Having a single file simplifies the issue of maintaining backup copies. When needed, you can extract the .ISO file and copy it back to a new, blank CD-ROM disk or to a USB flash drive that will be identical to the original. ISO images are especially useful when the original CD contains hidden files, a common occurrence. The .ISO files will store hidden and non-hidden files alike without any extra intervention required.

A comment about USB flash drives: Flash drives are a good news/bad news situation. The bad news is that flash drives have their own issues about how long data can be stored. Seehttps://www.usbmemorydirect.com/blog/how-long-do-flash-drives-last-usb-drive-lifespans/ for all the details. The good news is that flash drives have become so cheap that you can now save 2 or 3 or even more copies on different flash drives without going broke.

My advice? Never make a single copy on a flash drive. Make at least 3 different copies onto different flash drives and then save them in 3 (or more) locations.

Microsoft does not supply software to create .ISO files. However, most third-party CD and DVD burning utilities will add that capability. If you do not presently own a Windows program that creates .ISO images, InfraRecorder at http://infrarecorder.org/ does a great job of creating ISO disks on Windows systems. Best of all, it is free, open-source software that doesn’t include junkware. Insert a disc, click the “Read Disc” button, and select a source drive to read from and destination ISO file to create.

Macintosh users already have all the software needed to create .ISO files; look at Disk Utility as described earlier. Several free Linux utilities are available to copy disks and to create .ISO files; look for the program called K3B or something similar.

A Word About Copyrights

Anytime you make copies of something, you should stop to think about copyright laws. In the U.S., copyright laws generally allow you to make backup copies of anything you legally own for your own personal use. However, you cannot give or sell copies to anyone else without the copyright holder's permission. As long as you make backup copies and keep them strictly for your own use, you should not have a problem with copyright laws.

Your Action Plans

I'd suggest you look at all the CD-ROM disks you already own. Which ones would be disastrous if they were damaged beyond repair? Make a copy of those disks NOW!

In September 2024, we published 56 million historical records from 8 collections. The newly added records are from the United States, Canada, France, Ireland, and Poland. They include births, deaths, burials, and marriage records. Some of the collections also include images.

Search them to discover a family treasure!

More details about each of the collections added may be found in the MyHeritage Blog.

From an article by Carol DiPirro-Stipkovits:

I have loved maps since grade school, and I’m still fascinated by them. I’ve been gifted several over the years and my home now has a dedicated wall to hold the collection of both those and estate sale finds, which includes a large pull-down from a local elementary classroom dated 1964. Am I aging myself? Do these still exist? 

Understandably, when I discovered the David Rumsey Historical Map Collection, I was thrilled. David Rumsey is President of Cartography Associates, a digital publishing company based in San Francisco. In 1980, after a successful career in real estate, Rumsey, who is clearly even more fascinated with maps than I am, began to collect eighteenth and nineteenth century maps of North and South America, the era during which modern cartography began. Eventually, he expanded his collection to rare sixteenth through twenty-first century maps of America, North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Pacific, Arctic, Antarctic, and the world. The collection now contains over 150,000 maps and other cartographic items and is one of the largest private map collections in the world. In 1995, Rumsey made his collection available to the public by building the online David Rumsey Historical Map Collection. There are now over 130,000 items online with new additions being added regularly. The collection is available on his website davidrumsey.comfor free viewing.

How can these maps help genealogists? Old maps bring your ancestors’ hometowns to life. They give you a glimpse at what the world looked like when your ancestors lived there and what was happening at that time. You can also see borders change over the years. 

To search this collection, find as much information about your ancestor’s hometown as possible—country, state, ancestral town name, other geographical details such as nearby villages, rivers, railways, etc. These are all clues to find the right place on a map. I pay attention to railways as I have ancestors who were employed as trainmen so likely lived close by. Use the search box at the top right of the site. If you can’t locate your ancestral town, try searching nearby village names. 

If your ancestor lived in an area that was involved in a disaster, say the Chicago Fire or San Francisco earthquake, using these as search terms may show reconstruction plans or detailed drawings of buildings that were damaged or destroyed. 

The newest feature is “search by text on maps,” which can be accessed next to the search box. A quick search of “Tonawanda” came back with 694 results. The maps can be viewed by hovering your cursor over each result. When you find a map you’re interested in, choose ‘Open in Georeferencer’ and use one of my favorite tools on this site: map overlays. There’s so much you can do with this feature including overlaying it with a modern map to find lost street names.  You’ll want to play with opacity until its easily readable. Clicking Compare in the bottom right will give you additional maps of the same area. 

Historic Scottish “cabinet papers” dating from the period leading up to parliamentary union with England have been published online for the first time.

Researchers have spent four years painstakingly transcribing and editing the records of the Scottish Privy Council, described as one of the “most important” parts of Scottish government, between the years 1692 and 1708.

The records, which have now been published in a freely-accessible online database, provide “key insights” into the executive government of the day during a period that included revolution, Jacobitism, and the formation of the union with England.

Alastair Mann, honorary senior research fellow at the University of Stirling, said: “The Scottish Privy Council was one of the most important institutional branches of Scottish government in the early modern period, focusing on the period from the revolution of 1689 to the union of 1707.

“This record is the nearest we have to ‘cabinet papers’ of the time and provides key insights into executive government during a dynamic period of revolution, Jacobitism, famine, economic struggle and parliamentary union with England.”

The Scottish Privy Council Project was launched in 2020 and saw researchers at the universities of Stirling and Dundee study, edit and translate more than three million words contained in the records.

Alan MacDonald, senior lecturer at the University of Dundee, said: “Privy Council records were edited and published in a series of printed volumes – nearly 50 in total – covering the period 1545 to 1691.

“Given the importance of the Privy Council in early modern Scotland, these volumes quickly became central to Scottish historical scholarship, sustaining countless books, articles, and doctoral theses with the breadth and richness of material they contained.

“However, the withdrawal of public funding in the 1970s meant that the final tranche of Privy Council records, covering the years up to the council’s abolition in 1708, has always remained unpublished.

“While most of the Privy Council’s registers were written in something very close to the English of the period, they presented some linguistic difficulties, especially around the use of specifically Scots terms, chaotic punctuation, and a wholly unstandardised approach to spelling.”

Dr Mann added “It is our hope that this website and its records are a foundation for research into government and policy in a dramatic period of flux and transition in the economic, political and social life of the people of Scotland.”

The Scottish Privy Council Project was funded by the Leverhulme Trust.

The database can be found at https://spcr.ac.uk/.

The following is an announcement written by Findmypast:

This Findmypast Friday, discover three centuries of global history.

We've updated our South African record collection this week, adding over 1.6 million baptism, marriage and burial records from across the country to three of our existing record sets. 

These new additions cover the years 1660 to 1996, so there are over 300 years of global history to delve into. We've also added pages to ten newspaper titles, spanning from 1910 right up to 2003.

South Africa Baptisms

We updated our South African baptisms this week - there are around 1.2 million new and improved records for you to discover, with both images and transcriptions available.

South Africa Marriages

There are also new images and transcriptions to explore within our South Africa marriage set. These additions are from Cape, Free State, Kwazulu-Natal and Transvaal.

Explore this record.

In addition to both spouse's names and ages, you may be able to glean an address, a marriage place and additional notes from within these records. Be sure to check the original image to ensure that no key information is missed. 

South Africa Burials

Rounding off this week's trio of South African updates we have 400,546 new and improved burial records, from four provinces across the country. 

New pages from Skegness to Sussex

There are 153,774 new pages to discover this week. 

West Lancashire Evening Gazette, 1 April 1953.

We've updated ten regional titles including the West Lancashire Evening Gazette and the Sussex Express.

Here's a full rundown of what we've added to our newspaper archive this Findmypast Friday. 

Updated titles:

• Bucks Advertiser & Aylesbury News, 1990, 1992, 2000
• Dewsbury Reporter, 1990, 1994-1995, 1999-2002
• Epworth Bells, Crowle and Isle of Axholme Messenger, 1911-1915, 1935-1939, 1951-1959, 1970-1973, 1994-1995, 1997, 2000-2003
• Halifax Evening Courier, 1991-1992, 1995, 1997
• Leighton Buzzard Observer and Linslade Gazette, 1994-1996, 2001-2002
• Littlehampton Gazette, 1979-1980, 1992
• Skegness Standard, 1989-1990, 1992, 2003
• Sussex Express, 1965-1973, 1985, 1992, 1994-1995
• West Lancashire Evening Gazette, 1953, 1974, 1987, 1999
• Worthing Herald, 1990, 1992

Last week we added over 13,000 19th century military records - explore the full release here.

Solve a WW2 mystery

For the third weekend of our family history challenge, it's time to jump forward to the eve of the Second World War.

Using the 1939 Register, see how the family's life looked on the brink of yet another global conflict. What can you discover with this detail-rich resource?

Tune into the Family History Show

Join Ellie and Liam for the Family History Show, as they dig into the life of Audrey Hepburn using some fascinating family history records.

Watch now

Today is the first day of the month. That is a good time to back up your genealogy files. Then test your backups!

Your backups aren't worth much unless you make a quick test by restoring a small file or two after the backup is completed.

Actually, you can make backups at any time. However, it is easier and safer if you have a specific schedule. The first day of the month is easy to remember, so I would suggest you back up your genealogy files at least on the first day of every month, if not more often. (My computers automatically make off-site backups of all new files every few minutes.)

Given the events of the past few months with genealogy websites laying off employees and cutting back on services, you now need backup copies of everything more than ever. What happens if the company that holds your online data either goes off line or simply deletes the service where your data is held? If you have copies of everything stored either in your own computer, what happens if you have a hard drive crash or other disaster? If you have one or more recent backup copies, such a loss would be inconvenient but not a disaster.

Of course, you might want to back up more than your genealogy files. Family photographs, your checkbook register, all sorts of word processing documents, email messages, and much more need to be backed up regularly. Why not do that on the first day of each month? or even more often?