The following is an announcement from the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS):

Looking for a brick wall breakthrough? Wondering what records you should search for? The IAJGS invites the entire genealogical community familiar with researching Jewish ancestry to preview the draft DoJR Record Type Taxonomy for Jewish Genealogy and provide comments from Monday 5 July through Sunday 18 July at https://dojrww.org/taxonomy.

A comprehensive checklist of types of records that can provide information to discover your ancestors is an invaluable tool for successful research. “Such a tool has existed for the general genealogy community, but not for the Jewish genealogy community — until now,” observed Marlis Humphrey, chairman of the executive committee of the DoJR (a project of the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS) Documentation of Jewish Records Worldwide) and IAJGS past president.

Long overdue, the Taxonomy helps beginners learn what sources exist, while experienced researchers can use it as a comprehensive checklist for defining their research needs and plans. DoJR created the new research tool as a by-product of its construction of JCat, an online, first-ever master catalog of all record collections holding Jewish genealogically relevant data.

After the close of the public comment period, comments will be incorporated into the draft Taxonomy. The resultant baseline V1.0 DoJR Record Type Taxonomy for Jewish Genealogy will be published at the 41st IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy (https://iajgs2021.org) on 5 August 2021 and posted to https://dojrww.org/taxonomy.

About IAJGS and DoJR

The International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS) is an independent non-profit umbrella organization coordinating the activities and annual conference of 95 national and local Jewish Genealogical Societies (JGS) around the world. Contact your local JGS for more information: https://www.iajgs.org/membership/member-societies/

The Documentation of Jewish Records Worldwide (DoJR) project is creating the first ever online catalog of all surviving records of our Jewish ancestors wherever they led their lives worldwide. The catalog, JCat, will enable every individual curious about their family history to discover their Jewish ancestors and connect to living relatives. The catalog will be a global reference for all the records that document individuals, inform their life stories, and enable the building of family and community histories, preserving Jewish history and heritage. DoJR is a project of the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies. For more information contact info@dojrww.org.

The following announcement was written by Findmypast:

Findmypast mark Canada Day and American Independence Day with new Revolutionary War records, Canadian life event indexes and more in this week’s Findmypast Friday update.

Manitoba Vital Records

Do you have roots in the Canadian province of Manitoba? Discover family milestones in brand new birth, marriage and death indexes. The new Manitoba records now available to search on Findmypast include;

• • Over 107,000 Manitoba birth records
  • Over 56,000 Manitoba marriage records
  • Over 76,000 Manitoba death records

Essential for growing your family tree, birth, marriage and death records will reveal important dates and locations as well as the identities of parent’s, spouses and children.

United States, Census of Revolutionary War Pensioners, 1840

Explore the veterans and widows of the American Revolution by identifying them on the list of pensioners, taken as part of the United States Federal Census of 1840.

In 1840, a census was undertaken of surviving revolutionary war veterans and widows as part of the sixth census of the United States. The material consist of transcripts and images that are listed geographically, starting with Maine and moving south. This special census may provide names of multiple family members, which is not included in the population schedule of the 1840 US census.

United States, British Loyalists

Not everyone in British America wanted independence. Trace those loyalists and their intriguing stories in this unique collection of publications.

This record set consists of PDF images from 22 combined publications from across British America, covering everything from orderly books to subscription lists.

United States, Lord Dunmore's Ethiopian Regiment, 1776

This small but eye-opening record set lists enslaved people who answered Lord Dunmore’s call to arms during the American Revolution.

Compiled from a number of sources, Findmypast have created a searchable index of all known individuals who joined Dunmore's unit. In it, you'll discover their names, aliases, ages and, in some cases, what became of them after the war.

Newspapers

Three new papers have joined the Findmypast archives this week, including a publication designed for British emigrants moving to America. 12 existing titles have also been updated with additional pages. 

Brand new to the site are:

• • American Settler covering 1880-1892
  • Essex Times covering 1870, 1873, 1875, 1878, 1880-1882, 1884-1888, 1890-1896, 1898-1899, 1903-1907 and 1909-1913
  • Kentish Express covering 1979-1982

While new pages and date ranges have been added to:

• • Dundee Courier from 1997
  • Evening Irish Times from 1901-1904 and 1906-1914
  • Gorey Correspondent from 1873-1874, 1877-1878 and 1881
  • Halifax Evening Courier from 1898
  • Larne Reporter and Northern Counties Advertiser from 1871-1872, 1874, 1876, 1884, 1888-1889, 1891, 1899-1900 and 1903-1904
  • Luton Times and Advertiser from 1855
  • Morning Herald (London) from 1865-1869
  • Rochdale Times from 1913
  • Seren Cymru from 1851
  • Staffordshire Newsletter from 1934-1971 and 1973-1985
  • Teviotdale Record and Jedburgh Advertiser from 1857
  • West Briton and Cornwall Advertiser from 1991-1992

If you use an e-reader of most any sort, you will want to read How to Read E-Books for Free Without Pirating Them published in the LifeHacker web site at: https://bit.ly/368CNUY. The article states:

"Depending on where you live, your library may already have an extensive collection of e-books available. For example, the New York Public Library (NYPL) allows New York residents to sign up for a digital library card and check out available titles. You can sign up online, create a username (usually your email address or member number), and enter a password. You’ll then have access to their library of e-books through the app SimplyE. Other library systems across the country may have similar programs; visit your local library’s website for more information.

"If a digital library card isn’t an option in your area, literary site Goodreads also published a short list of e-readers that are great for e-borrowing across the United States and Canada. Libby’s online readers’ app makes e-borrowing simple and links to your e-reader, Kindle, or Kindle app. The company OverDrive created Libby to link public libraries with readers for easy online borrowing; approximately 90% of libraries are reportedly connected to OverDrive and Libby, but you can search for participating libraries on their website to confirm this resource is available in your area."

The article then goes on to describe several methods of borrowing books from various libraries, depending upon which software products the various libraries use.

Again, the article may be found at: https://bit.ly/368CNUY

The following is a message posted to the IAJGS (International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies) Public Records Access Monitoring Committee and is reposted here with permission:

Governor on DeSantis  (R) signed HB 833 on June 29, 2021. The law becomes effective on October 1, 2021.

The law prohibits DNA analysis and disclosure of DNA analysis results without express consent including the collection or retention of DNA samples of another person without express consent for specific purposes. 

The new law may be read at: https://tinyurl.com/xbhzw2n5

Or full url:

https://www.myfloridahouse.gov/Sections/Documents/loaddoc.aspx?FileName=_h0833er.docx&DocumentType=Bill&BillNumber=0833&Session=2021

To read the previous IAJGS Records Access Alert postings about DNA,  Florida privacy issues, and more go to: http://lists.iajgs.org/mailman/private/records-access-alerts/. You must be registered to access the archives.  To register go to: http://lists.iajgs.org/mailman/listinfo/records-access-alerts  and follow the instructions to enter your email address, full name and which genealogical  organization with whom you are affiliated   You will receive an email response that you have to reply to or the subscription will not be finalized. 

Jan Meisels Allen
Chairperson, IAJGS Public Records Access Monitoring Committee

Today is the first day of the month. That is still 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?

When Bob Eliot rushed to his parents’ apartment in Co-op City in the Bronx in the autumn of 2011, he was not expecting to discover a secret that would change how he and dozens of other people view their lives, their families, and their pasts. Eliot, a retired IBM engineer and sales executive in his mid-50s who lived on Long Island, was simply fulfilling the obligation of a son. His 86-year-old father had smashed his head, needed to go to the hospital, and had called to ask Eliot to stay with his mother.

Adele Eliot had severe dementia, and Eliot was accustomed to sitting with her as she asked the same question over and over. On this day, she repeatedly said to him, “Bobby, how are your eyes?” He told her that he had the beginning of cataracts. “It makes sense. My grandmother had them,” he added, referring to his paternal grandmother.

His mother stared at him and replied, “He’s not your father. You should be happy. That whole family is crazy.”

Eliot was shocked. Was his mother saying his dad was not truly his father? Maybe this was the dementia talking, he thought. He asked her to explain. But she slipped into a fog and would say no more.

The remainder of the story is lengthy, but fascinating. I suspect you will enjoy reading of the mystery and how it was solved. Yes, genealogy and NNA were involved.

You can read A Bronx Tale: One Sperm Donor, 19 Siblings, and Six Decades of Secrets by David Corn, published in the Mother Jones web site at: https://bit.ly/3hgOZIk.

My thanks to newsletter reader Yvonne Dolbec for telling me about this story.

Census records are amongst the primary tools of genealogists. Even so, those of us who have been reading them for a while can tell you that the records are not as reliable as we would wish. I am still trying to find great-great-granddad in the 1850 census although he appears hale and hearty in the enumerations of 1840, 1860, 1870 and 1880. His absence in 1850 is still unexplained. Still, my quandary is minor compared to some others. For instance, the 1990 census is thought to have missed one native American in eight. Thousands of others – perhaps millions – have been missed in census records taken over the past two centuries.

America’s first census was carried out in 1790, and it was groundbreaking in many ways. It was the first to be mandated in any country’s constitution. It also caused America’s first presidential veto when George Washington, on the advice of Thomas Jefferson, disagreed with legislation defining how this “apportionment” was to be carried out. Washington’s primary objection to the proposed amendment was that “there is no one proportion or divisor which, applied to the respective numbers of the States, will yield the number and allotment of representatives proposed by the Bill.” It is interesting to note that today’s fixed allocation of 435 seats also does not pass the test established by President Washington.

An article from 2007 in The Economist compares the U.S. Census with similar efforts in other countries. It states that In 1634 Governor John Winthrop of the Massachusetts Bay Colony estimated the local population rather than counting it exactly.

When a Census Bill was debated in Britain in 1753, Matthew Ridley, the member of Parliament (MP) for Newcastle, gave a speech saying that there was among the people “such a violent spirit of opposition to this Bill, that if it be passed into a law, there is a great reason to fear, they will in many places oppose the execution of it in riotous manner.”

The same article also states, “Where government is oppressive, people want to keep out of censuses, lest information they provide is misused. Where government provides, people want to be in censuses, and to boost their numbers, in order to claim a larger share of the goodies.”

The Nazis used population records to round up Jews into concentration camps. As a result, Germans are still reluctant to be counted.

In 1936 Stalin told his officials that the following year’s census would find a total population of 170 million—a figure that did not account for his slaughter of millions in famines and purges. The enumerators (census takers) found only 162 million people and revealed other unwelcome facts, including that nearly half the population of his supposedly atheist country was religious. With this news Stalin denounced the count as a “wrecker’s census” and had the census takers either imprisoned or shot.

A new count in 1939, apparently conducted by a new team of enumerators, gave Stalin his figure of 170 million.

You can read more about census records in the article in The Economist at http://www.economist.com/displayStory.cfm?story_id=10311346.

Census enumerators (census takers) have a difficult job at best. Can you imagine The Three Stooges interviewing local residents?

In a 1940 Three Stooges movie, Larry, Curly, and Moe obtained jobs as census enumerators and were to be paid four cents per name recorded. I watched the movie today, and now I understand some of census records I have looked at in the past! I think this is the same group that visited my great-great-grandfather's house.

You can watch The Three Stooges at their best, or worst, in "No Census, No Feeling" at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAcSFskC0aI.

Here is a bit of trivia:

The football sequences in “No Census, No Feeling” were filmed at USC in the autumn of 1940. Some of the crowd scenes apparently were filmed during a real game.

Curly's Thanksgiving remark alludes to the 1939 law establishing Thanksgiving as a legal holiday to be celebrated on a Thursday, something that was still controversial when the movie was made a year later.

At one point, Moe says, "Wait a minute, flathead! We just got a job. We're working for the census."

Curly replied, "You mean Will Hays?" Will Hays was a reference to William Harrison Hays Sr. a United States politician, chairman of the Republican National Committee (1918–21), U.S. Postmaster General (1921–22), and, from 1922–1945, the first chairman of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA). He became the namesake of the 1930 Motion Picture Production Code, informally referred to as the Hays Code, which spelled out a set of industry moral guidelines for the self-censorship of content in Hollywood cinema.

The following announcement was written by FamilySearch:

The following announcement was written by FamilySearch: