If you love privacy, there's a lot to love about Signal. This is another "off-topic" article but one that every computer owner who cares about privacy should be aware of:

The secure messaging app Signal has been around for years. But thanks to heightened awareness of the need for privacy the app recently exploded with new users. 

Known for its end-to-end encryption and independent structure as a non-profit organization run by a foundation — not a big tech company — Signal has previously been the communication method of choice for activists, people in the hacker community, and others concerned about privacy.

In recent years, Signal has also been investing in more infrastructure and features to support its users. That's a good thing: Signal first saw an increase in users in the spring of 2020 as people participating in anti-racist protests around the murder of George Floyd realized how closely law enforcement was surveilling them and asking companies to hand over user data. It’s only become more popular since then.

So, thinking about joining Signal? Bottom line: If you care about privacy, it’s a good idea. Here’s what you need to know.

OK, so what is Signal?

Signal is a free, privacy-focused messaging and voice talk app you can use on Apple and Android smartphones and via desktop. All you need is a phone number to join. You can text or make voice or video calls with friends, either one-on-one or in groups, and use emoji reactions or stickers just like in other apps. But there’s one big difference: Signal is actually really private.

You can read all about Signal at: https://bit.ly/3iunprx.

NOTE: This article is "off topic." It has nothing to do with the normal topics of this newsletter: genealogy, history, DNA, lifestyles of our ancestors, and similar topics. However, it does reflect interest in computing and other state-of-the-art technology and I suspect many readers of this newsletter are also interested in those topics so I am including it.

If you are looking only for articles relating to genealogy and related topics, you might want to skip this article.

Quoting a new article on Microsoft's web site at https://bit.ly/3isPsaU:

"Today we’re excited to announce Windows 365, a cloud service that introduces a new way to experience Windows 10 or Windows 11 (when it’s generally available later this calendar year) for workers from interns and contractors to software developers and industrial designers. Windows 365 takes the operating system to the Microsoft Cloud, securely streaming the full Windows experience—including all your apps, data, and settings—to your personal or corporate devices. This approach creates a fully new personal computing category, specifically for the hybrid world: the Cloud PC."

Another quote from the same web site:

"Much like how we’ve embraced the cloud for other products, our vision for a Windows 365 Cloud PC is to deliver a new way to experience Windows through the power of the cloud—while solving both novel and traditional challenges for organizations. This new paradigm isn’t just about allowing and securing remote access. The user experience is more important than ever for attracting and retaining talent, improving productivity, and ensuring security.

"The Cloud PC draws on the power of the cloud and the capabilities of the device to provide a powerful, simple, and secure full Windows 10 or Windows 11 experience that you can use to empower your workforce, regardless of location or device. Windows 365 provides an instant-on boot experience that enables users to stream all their personalized applications, tools, data, and settings from the cloud across any device including your Mac, iPad, Linux device, and Android. The Windows experience is consistent, no matter the device. You can pick up right where you left off, because the state of your Cloud PC remains the same, even when you switch devices. You can get the same work done on a laptop in a hotel room, a tablet from their car between appointments, or your desktop while you’re in the office. Seasonal workers also can ramp on and off according to the needs of the business, allowing the organization to scale for busy periods without the complicated logistical and security challenges of issuing new hardware. Further, companies can be more targeted in how they outfit specialized workers in creative, analytics, engineering, or scientific roles who need greater compute power and access to critical applications."

The article goes on to describe Microsoft's latest release: the Windows 365 Cloud PC.

If you only have one computer and have no desire to add more or a newer computer, this new product won't interest you. However, if you are thinking of purchasing a new and more powerful Windows computer or perhaps an additional laptop, tablet, or perhaps a second computer for the office or for home, this article will explain how to gain a more powerful system at (perhaps) a cheaper price.

The Windows 365 Cloud PC is intended to be used as your only computer but available at multiple locations. This piece of magic is accomplished by having the customer rent a new, high-powered Windows system that is installed "in the cloud." That is, the new Windows system will be installed in (possibly multiple) data centers, possibly in different locations around the world, and being accessed via low-powered computers remotely through the Internet. This "remote computer" could be an older, lower-powered Windows computer or even a Macintosh, a Linux system, a laptop, an iPad, or even a (less than $100) Raspberry Pi. It also could be easily portable so that the user may access the Windows 365 Cloud PC from any location: from home, from the office, from on-board an airliner, or perhaps from a hotel room in a foreign county.

The Windows 365 Cloud PC has almost all the same capabilities as a standard Windows PC and can be used as the user's only computer (not counting the remote computer that simply provides a screen, keyboard, and mouse).

I travel a lot and would love to travel with a tiny laptop, iPad, or Android tablet computer and to still have access to all my files and to a high-powered computer from any location, even from Singapore or from Moscow. If you travel frequently, you may want the same thing.

If you do not travel much and have no need for a second, remote computer, this probably will not appeal to you.

To read more about this new Windows 365 Cloud PC, read the full introduction on Microsoft's web site at: https://bit.ly/3isPsaU.

This new device is generating a lot of publicity and you can find dozens of more articles, each describing the new product from a different author's viewpoint, by going to any internet search engine and performing a search for "Windows 365 Cloud PC".

I expect to write about my own "hands on" experience from a genealogist's viewpoint as soon as these things become available and I can get my hands on one (remotely, of course).

There is a Constitutional issue brewing in the United States concerning the use of genetic genealogy to solve major violent crimes. Which is greater: the constitutional guarantees of personal privacy or the need to find and apprehend the culprit?

An article by Dan Grossman published in the WTVR.COM web site summarizes both sides of these contradictory issues. You can find the article at: https://bit.ly/3xQqo44.

A condensed edition of the Maine State Library reopened this past week, in temporary quarters on State Street.

The library’s much smaller spot at 242 State St. is in a state building that over the years has been home to offices of the state Department of Health and Human Services, Public Utilities Commission, and Department of Motor Vehicles. The new location is expected to be its home for about two years, while work continues to remove asbestos and perform mechanical upgrades at its longtime regular home at the state Cultural Building, which is undergoing about $15 million in renovations.

With only about 5,500 square feet of space for the public, versus the permanent library’s 22,000 square feet of availability, space is tight, and the collection of books and other materials is limited to about 25% of what was once on hand. But nearly the full complement of materials is in storage fairly nearby in a Winthrop warehouse, and can be made available to borrowers within one to three days or so, if requested.

You can read the full story by Keith Edwards at: https://www.centralmaine.com/2021/07/15/maine-state-library-reopens-in-temporary-quarters-in-augusta/.

The following was a message posted to the IAJGS (International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies) Records Access Alert mailing list and is republished here with permission:

In December 2017, Montana started to issue new birth certificates with an updated name and gender upon request of an affidavit from the individual, a government-issued ID showing the correct gender or a court order. No court order or proof of surgery is required. (https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5a2314a3a803bbf60aea3d4d/t/5b589c8b0e2e723fea135c41/1532533901004/Trans+birth+cert+change.pdf)

In 2021 a new law was signed, MT SB280 https://legiscan.com/MT/text/SB280/id/2375525/Montana-2021-SB280-Enrolled.pdf,  which states that the sex designation on a birth certificate can only be changed if the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services "received a certified copy of an order from a court indicating that the sex of an individual born in Montana had been changed by surgical procedure." The law suit further states, Montana's law requires an individual to reveal their private medical information in a public court proceeding, and, as a result, "deprives that person of their rights to equality and privacy in violation of the Montana Constitution."

On July 16, 2021, two transgender persons sued the date over the law that makes it difficult for transgender people to change their sex on their birth certificates. The suit says, the law prohibits trans people who don't want or can't afford gender-affirming surgery from obtaining accurate birth. The plaintiffs argue in their lawsuit that the measure violates their constitutional rights to privacy, equal protection of the law and due process. Being sued are: state of Montana, Governor Greg Gianforte, the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services and Adam Meier, the state health department's director.

According to NBC News, Twenty-three states allow self-attestation to change a gender marker on a birth certificate and do not require surgery nor a court order, according to the Movement Advancement Project, a nonprofit LGBTQ think tank. Fourteen states allow an M, F or X, a nonbinary gender marker, on birth certificates.

https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-news/aclu-sues-montana-transgender-id-law-requiring-proof-surgery-rcna1440

Jan Meisels Allen
Chairperson, IAJGS Public Records Access Monitoring Committee

If you're looking for free ebooks to download and dive into, these digital libraries are worth checking out.

With the advance of digital technology, more and more people are choosing ebooks and audiobooks over printed books. Amazon alone offers millions of ebooks in every category you could think of. Some are free, while others come with a hefty price tag.

The good news is, you can always head over to a digital library to get the information you need when you need it. You just need to know what to look for. With that being said, check out these five digital libraries for free ebooks, audiobooks, and other online resources. There are thousands of books available, all are free, and quite a few of them are genealogy books.

You can find an excellent list of free (and mostly out-of-copyright) books in an article by Andra Picincu in the Make Use Of web site at: https://www.makeuseof.com/digital-libraries-download-ebooks-free/.

A South Carolina family reunited a Bible they found in a junk yard with the family it belongs to in Virginia.

Two years ago, Gena Greer, of Simpsonville, South Carolina, says her son found an old Bible while searching for car parts with his dad at a junk yard.

“My son said, ‘Hey Dad, look what I found,’" Gena's husband, Tyler Greer, said. "And it was a Bible. I didn’t know what he had found. I thought he was looking for the part we had gotten.”

Greer says his son found the Bible laying on the floor of a van in the junk yard.

“Things just don’t happen just by chance," Tyler Greer said. "There’s definitely a reason.”

He says he and his son went to pay for some car parts along with the Bible that day.

“And the guy went, ‘That’s between you and God. I’m not going to charge you for a Bible. If you found it, it’s meant to be, so I’m not going to charge you for a Bible,’” Tyler Greer said.

You can read more about this discovery and even watch a video about it at: https://bit.ly/36Jq63d.

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

Most all paper manufactured in the past one hundred years or more contains acids. If left untreated, these acids will slowly decompose the paper itself. The use of acids in the manufacture of paper did not become popular until the early 20th century. Older newspapers of the 19th century were printed on paper that had no acids so they tend to last much longer.

Newspaper clippings or any other documents not printed on acid-free paper will eventually disintegrate. Today's newspapers usually contain more acids than other paper so newspapers are often the first to disintegrate. Luckily, modern science has created methods of slowing down or even stopping the decay of such paper.

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/10756851.

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.

From an article published in the romea.cz web site:

News server Denik.cz reports that the State Regional Archive (SOA) in Třeboň, Czech Republic has released on its website its archival collection of digitalized documents about the WWII-era concentration camp called the Zigeunerlager (in Czech, Cikánský tábor) at Lety; the digital collection was created in collaboration with the Institute of the Terezín Initiative in Prague as part of a project called the "Database of victims of the national socialist persecution of 'gypsies‘". "Several years ago we agreed with the Institute of the Terezín Initiative in Prague that we would like to make this collection publicly accessible as part of a project called the "Database of victims of the national socialist persecution of 'gypsies‘" supported by Bader Philanthropies," the director of SOA Třeboň, Václav Rameš, told Denik.cz.     

"The Institute digitalized this collection and experts from our archive then adapted it for our conditions," the director said, adding that the archival documents provide basic information about the creation and existence of all of the camps serving different purposes and of different levels of significance that appeared on the territory of Lety municipality, especially between 1940 and 1943, as well as up until 1945, when the Second World War ended. "There are, for example, lists of the gendarmes ordered to serve at the camp and above all there is documentation about those imprisoned there," the director said.

You can read more at https:/bit.ly/3xLEV19.

The following announcement was written by TheGenealogist:

TheGenealogist has now added a total of over 1 million individuals to its unique Lloyd George Domesday Survey recordset with the addition this week of 85,959 individuals from the 1910s property tax records for the Borough of Haringey. Covering the areas of Hornsey Central, Hornsey East, Hornsey West, as well as Tottenham A, Tottenham B, Tottenham C and Wood Green this week’s release is made up of maps and field books that name property owners and occupiers in a exclusive online resource that gives family history researchers the ability to discover where an ancestor lived in the 1910-1915 period.

When combined with other records such as the 1911 Census, the IR58 Valuation Office records give researchers additional information about their ancestors' home, land, outbuildings and property. While these records may be searched from the Master Search or main search page of TheGenealogist, they have also been added to TheGenealogist’s powerful Map Explorer™ so that the family historian can see how the landscape where their ancestor lived or worked changed as the years have passed.

All of the contemporary OS maps are linked to field books that reveal descriptions of the property, as well as listing the names of owners and occupiers. This release makes it possible to precisely locate where an ancestor lived on a number of large scale, hand annotated maps for this part of London. These map the exact plots of properties at the time of the survey and are layered over various georeferenced historical maps and modern base maps on the Map Explorer™. Only available online from TheGenealogist, these records enable the researcher to thoroughly investigate a place in which an ancestor lived even if the streets have undergone massive change in the intervening years.

Read TheGenealogist’s article that finds the Tottenham cottage responsible for giving the old Spurs football ground its popular name: https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2021/haringey-land-valuation-records-uncovers-the-modest-house-that-gave-its-name-to-a-famous-football-stadium-1429/

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!