"I read it online so it must be true!"

Are you guilty of this? If so, you may soon be referred to as "The late (insert your name here)."

Bethesda, Maryland, Nov. 04, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Americans who consider social media influential on their perceptions about COVID-19 and vaccines are far more likely than the general population to believe false and misleading information about the virus, according to a new study. Based on a survey of 3,000 U.S. adults conducted by Morning Consult on behalf of the de Beaumont Foundation and pollster and communications analyst Dr. Frank Luntz, the analysis draws a direct and irrefutable correlation between Americans’ use of social media and belief of inaccurate information. 

In addition, people who said social media is an influential source of information were 16% less likely to report that they had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. Overall, respondents said TV news or their own doctor is their most influential source of information about COVID-19. But those who said they social media is a major source were far more likely to believe false and misleading statements about COVID-19.

“This is the first global virus in the era of social media and fake news,” said Dr. Brian Castrucci, president and chief executive officer of the de Beaumont Foundation. “This isn’t just a concern about COVID-19, but about the potential of social media as a conduit for misinformation about health or any other issue.” 

Dr. Luntz added, “These results show more clearly than ever that the people who rely on social media as a primary source of information about COVID-19 -- and those who use social media most frequently -- are most likely to believe false information. Worse yet, it proves that people who most frequently share social media information are most likely to be misinformed.” 

Key findings: 

People who say social media is their primary sources of information about COVID-19 are far more likely to believe false information about vaccines.

The survey asked about 10 specific false or misleading statements, including these:

• • The true number of people infected with coronavirus is deliberately hidden from the public.
  • COVID-19 was released with the aim of destroying some of the world’s economies.
  • COVID-19 is only as serious as the common flu.
  • The COVID-19 vaccine could make people infertile and unable to have kids.
  • These new mRNA vaccines could alter your DNA.

For each of these five statements, people who said that social media was one of their most influential sources were more than 15% more likely than the general population to agree with them. But people who said doctors or state, local, or federal officials are their most influential sources of information were significantly less likely than the general population to believe them. 

People’s primary source of information is correlated with their vaccination status.

In the poll, 67% said they had received at least one vaccine dose, compared with just 56% of those who said social media is one of their main sources of information. 

Social media is reinforcing people’s reluctance to get vaccinated.

51% of unvaccinated respondents who named social media as a primary news source said social media was pushing them to wait or not get vaccinated. And people who share information on social media daily are more likely to agree with false statements about COVID-19 and vaccines.

Social media has become a leading source of information about COVID-19.

Nearly 70% of respondents said they use social media when seeking information about COVID-19, and 60% have shared information about the virus on social media.

The public is split about what should be done about misinformation and disinformation online.

When asked to choose between two options, 53% said social media companies should “restrict and/or remove what they determine to be misinformation or disinformation about COVID-19 and the vaccines,” while 47% said companies should “leave the content about COVID-19 and the vaccines alone and let the reader/viewer decide for themselves.” There’s a partisan divide on this issue, as 69% of Biden voters said social media companies should remove content, compared with only 39% of Trump voters.

Methodology

Morning Consult conducted a poll among a sample of 3,000 adults, on behalf of the de Beaumont Foundation and Dr. Frank Luntz, September 20-22, 2021. The interviews were conducted online and the data were weighted to approximate a target sample of adults based on gender, educational attainment, age, race, and region. Results from the full survey have a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.

About the de Beaumont Foundation

The de Beaumont Foundation creates and invests in bold solutions that improve the health of communities across the country. Its mission is to advance policy, build partnerships, and strengthen public health to create communities where everyone can achieve their best possible health. For more information, visit debeaumont.org.

Further details  may be found at: https://ml.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/3e35758c-44b9-4f08-87c9-b37b883c1d59

From the Fold3 Blog:

On November 11, 1921, President Warren G. Harding presided over the dedication of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C. The monument honored fallen U.S. servicemen from WWI whose remains were unidentified. The ceremony took place the same day the country was celebrating the newly declared Armistice Day holiday.

Construction begins on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, 1921

During WWI, the chaos of battle resulted in scores of unidentified dead servicemen. The creation of the memorial, also known as the Tomb of the Unknowns, was proposed in 1920 by New York Congressman and WWI veteran Hamilton Fish. Both Great Britain and France had dedicated similar monuments in 1920, and in March 1921, Congress approved the plan to build America’s tribute to unidentified fallen soldiers.

You can read a lot more at: https://blog.fold3.com/100th-anniversary-of-the-tomb-of-the-unknown-soldier-november-11-2021/

The following was published to the IAJGS Records Access Records Alert mailing list:

CNIL, the French Data Protection Agency has published a white paper on data and means of payment.  It may be read at:

https://www.cnil.fr/fr/la-cnil-publie-un-nouveau-livre-blanc-sur-les-donnees-et-moyens-de-paiement

The actual paper may be found at:

https://www.cnil.fr/sites/default/files/atoms/files/cnil_livre_blanc_2-paiement.pdf

This is in French only so a translation website will be necessary

https://www.deepl.com/en/translator

or

https://translate.google.com/ 

They have an online consultation open for comments until December 15, 2021.

You can send comments to:  payments@cnil.fr

Or reply on this form: https://www.cnil.fr/fr/webform/consultation-publique-donnees-et-moyens-de-paiement-enjeux-pour-les-personnes-et

“The White Paper reviews the legal points of vigilance of the CNIL in terms of the application of the GDPR in the field of payments and outlines the avenues of support for professionals in this field. By providing legal certainty, the CNIL will contribute to competitive equality between players as well as to full compliance of these players with the GDPR.”

The paper focuses on: General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR); industry insights (potential of mobile payments and the importance of maintaining payment options) and European projects-that which will crat a European bank card network

If you use Chrome as your browser it automatically will translate to English if requested.

JDSupra has a legal news blog about this which may be read at:

https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/cnil-publishes-white-paper-on-digital-2493668/

CNIL notes specific concerns with:

That paper says:

Although the CNIL does not require that payment data be stored exclusively in the EU, it does highlight the specific requirements that apply to international transfers of personal data, as well as the additional requirements resulting from recent legal developments in the EU (Schrems II)

To read the previous postings about the CNIL,  European Union’s GDPR, Schrems’ litigation, and more,  go to the archives of the IAJGS Records Access Alert at:  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

A couple of weeks ago, I published (at https://eogn.com/page-18080/12080688):

This is just a quick "head's up" notice that articles may be late or missing in this newsletter in the next couple of weeks. You see, I am moving (again).

I just purchased a new home. This is the first house I have ever owned that was specially constructed for me, according to my selection of options. It has been an exciting experience watching the construction over the past few months.

Now the work really begins. I start moving my personal belongings on Saturday, October 30. My bones are already aching from the anticipated labor.

Moving day was yesterday. I (and a moving company) moved the bulky and heavy items, such as furniture. It went well, with a few minor glitches. I did miss some days online because of lack of Internet access.

Perhaps the most ironic incident (and most frustrating) was my pre-arranged visit from a technician from a local Internet Service Provider, or ISP. You see, this is a newly-built house in a large housing project of all newly-built houses. The project is in its early stages with expectations to eventually grow into 1,000+ houses, all built in what used to be a large, open field.

The ISP's scheduling department agreed that a technician would hook up my new home to the local fiber network at a certain date and time. The tech showed up (he was only a few hours' late for the scheduled appointment). He walked in, introduced himself, and then disappeared back outside to do the scheduled work. He reappeared a few minutes later and announced that while my home was already pre-wired with fiber to the building, the NEIGHBORHOOD was not yet served by fiber or any other form of Internet access. It seems that nobody in the immediate neighborhood had a high-speed connection to the internet!

A few phone calls were made and the next day a work crew appeared and installed the fiber networking to the neighborhood and I soon had a connection. So all ended well except I had spent three days offline (two days were because I had disconnected my computers in the old location and then transported them to the new place).

So all's well that ends well.. but do you know what it is like to me to go THREE DAYS without Internet connectivity? For me, that's a lifetime!

So today's weekly newsletter is a day late and I offer my apologies.

But I am finally "at home." And, yes, my bones ache.

The following announcement was written by the Board for Certification of Genealogists (BCG):

FREE BCG-SPONSORED WEBINAR

“Planning Research”

by LaBrenda Garrett-Nelson, JD, LLM, CG, CGL, FASG

Tuesday, November 16, 2021, 8:00 p.m. EDT

Genealogical proof requires the conduct of reasonably exhaustive research. The thorough research required by the Genealogical Proof Standard should not be undertaken in a haphazard manner. This webinar provides useful tips on developing an effective research plan, including the importance of crafting a focused research question and prioritizing potentially relevant sources.

BCG’s next free monthly webinar in conjunction with Legacy Family Tree Webinars is “Planning Research” by LaBrenda Garrett-Nelson, JD, LLM, CG, CGL, FASG. This webinar airs Tuesday, November 16, 2021, at 8:00 p.m. eastern daylight time (EDT).

LaBrenda Garrett-Nelson, JD, LLM, CG, CGL, FASG is a trustee and President of the Board for Certification of Genealogists, as well as a Fellow of The American Society of Genealogists. She earned a BA from John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York, and both a law degree and a master of laws degree from the New York University School of Law. After working as a corporate tax attorney for thirty-five years, she turned her attention to her longtime avocation of genealogy and is now focused on writing and teaching. She also serves as Registrar General of the Sons and Daughters of the United States Middle Passage, a national lineage society that honors ancestors who were enslaved in the United States.

In 2016 she published A Guide to Researching African American Ancestors in Laurens County, South Carolina and Selected Finding Aids, an award-winning book that was hailed in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s long-running genealogy column as a model for researching African Americans in South Carolina and other states. She is also the author of the Alabama Guide in the National Genealogical Society's Research in the States series, published in 2021.

She was the mentor of ProGen 37 and is the SLIG course coordinator for that institute’s African American genealogy track. She has also served on the faculty of other SLIG courses and three other institutes: the Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh, the Genealogical Institute on Federal Records, and the Institute of Genealogy & Historical Research. Visit her website at https://www.labgarrettgenealogy.com.

When you register before November 16 on our partner Legacy Family Tree Webinars website (http://legacy.familytreewebinars.com/?aid=6093), you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar. Anyone with schedule conflicts may access the webinar at no charge for one week after the broadcast on the Legacy Family Tree Webinars website.

Following the free period for this webinar, BCG receives a small commission if you view this or any BCG webinar by clicking our affiliate link: http://legacy.familytreewebinars.com/?aid=2619. For access to all BCG webinars, see the BCG Library at Legacy Family Tree Webinars (Webinar Library - Legacy Family Tree Webinars).

To see the full list of BCG-sponsored webinars for 2021, visit the BCG blog SpringBoard at Board for Certification of Genealogists Sponsors 2021 Free Webinars. For additional resources for genealogical education, please visit the BCG Learning Center (BCG Learning Center).

The directors of 3 Beis Dins in the United States are calling for stricter Birur Yahadus background checks following the news of a newlywed man being suspected as Muslim.

In light of the tragic story which hit the news today, where it was discovered that a Choson might have not been Jewish, after the officiating Rabbi didn’t check properly, and as a result some have condemned the Shliach who relied on the officiating Rabbi and participated in the wedding, a conference call took place today between directors of Batei Din in America, who deal with these issues on a daily basis, and they issued the following letter to the Shluchim mentioning the plan to create an office which will assist Shluchim with Birur Yahadus, Sidur Kidushin and more.

You can read more at: https://collive.com/beis-din-directors-call-for-stricter-jewish-genealogy-checks/

Click here for the full letter in Hebrew and English.

CROTON-ON-HUDSON, NEW YORK, Nov. 8, 2021 -- The all-volunteer US Black Heritage Project has announced the Black Heritage Family Builders Program. Genealogy volunteers with experience researching African-American families are now offering to build a family tree for anyone with Black heritage for free, without any obligation, and with privacy protections.

"Understanding our past and honoring our ancestors is vital to understanding ourselves," says US Black Heritage Project Coordinator Denise Jarrett. "If you have always wanted to find out about your family's heritage, but don't know where to begin, our WikiTree volunteers are eager to help you get started."

To request this free service, a person only needs to provide the volunteers with enough information to connect to a single African-American family member who can be found in the 1940 US Census or other public records from the 1940s. The connection to this person can be fully private. Information from before the 1940s will be public on the WikiTree platform so that it is available to all descendants and cousins.

"I believe every African American should trace their family tree, but it can be hard or expensive to get started. The Family Builders Program will generously assist thousands of Black Americans in restoring the names of their ancestors."

--Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr., Professor of African and African American Research at Harvard University and host of PBS TV's "Finding Your Roots"

The goal of the Family Builders Program is to make it easier for all African Americans to connect with their roots and family members. It also contributes to the US Black Heritage Project's goal to add 50,000 African-American profiles to WikiTree in 2021. Every African-American tree that is grown and connected makes more connections possible.

For more information, see the US Black Heritage Family Builders home page.

For most of us, if we were to discover a few pieces of old mail we would probably just throw it in the trash, right?

Well, that's not the case for Steven Ellis, a member of the Facebook group Vanished Kalamazoo. Recently, Steven shared a post along with a few photos of what looks like antique envelopes. The caption read,

"I found some old envelopes the other day from 1926-1929 addressed to 512 Alcott St. In googling the address, it appears that it is now a vacant lot/woods to the right of the house shown at 516 Alcott (at Adelade St) The letters were addressed to Mrs Sam Scott, Mrs Martha LaPorte and Mrs Frank Stern? Three different families sharing the house? Did anyone grow up near here or know the families?"

You can see the photos of the envelopes here.

You can see the photos of the envelopes at https://wkfr.com/vintage-letters-found-kalamazoo/.

The following announcement was written by Findmypast:

Explore thousands of new wartime records, special interest newspapers and more

Explore newly-opened 1939 Register entries, brand new baptism records and a handy new search tool this Findmypast Friday.

1939 Register

We’ve opened over 57,000 previously-redacted records from one of the most important twentieth century genealogical resources for England and Wales. Taken on the eve of WW2, the 1939 Register enables you to discover exactly where, how and with whom your ancestor were living. You can also search the register by address to explore the history of a home and see who was living there in 1939.

As the official home of the 1939 Register, Findmypast holds the most the most up-to-date and extensively-detailed version available online.

1939 Register – Special Interest Groups search

Findmypast have also created a new search feature to help you find special interest groups in the 1939 Register. Using their new search field, you can focus your research on disabled people, evacuees, refugees, heavy workers, Welsh language speakers and more.

Northumberland Baptisms

Spanning 1753-1919, delve into over 9,000 additional baptism records from several Northumberland parishes. The churches covered by Findmypast’s latest Northumberland update include:

• • Blanchland, St Mary
  • Harbottle
  • North Shields, Bankside Independent
  • North Shields, Low Meeting House Unitarian Chapel
  • North Shields, Middle Street Mission
  • North Shields, Secession Church
  • North Shields, Union St Baptist
  • Tynemouth, Holy Trinity (Western Town)
  • Tynemouth, St Peter (Low Town)

To see everything Findmypast’s growing Northumberland collection covers, check the parish list.

Durham Baptisms

Findmypast have further expanded this collection with over 3,000 records from St Paul’s Church in Ryhope. The latest releases cover 1889-1903.

Baptism records are essential for taking your family tree back further. They reveal important information on your ancestors' lives including birth years, baptism dates and parents' names.

Newspapers

Findmypast have added over 99,000 brand new pages including seven brand new special interest titles which provide an incredible snapshot of early twentieth century culture. From cars to yachts, from movies to the modern man, these fascinating, full colour titles provide vivid insights into what life was like over one hundred years ago.

• • Children’s Paper covering 1920-1925
  • Gallery Gazette covering 1921
  • Irish Exile covering 1921-1922
  • Modern Man covering 1908-1915
  • Motor Owner covering 1919-1930
  • Movie-Land covering 1921
  • Yacht Owner and Motor Boat Owner covering 1924

While additional pages have also been added to six existing titles, including:

• • Bootle Times from 1886
  • Leicester Evening Mail from 1917-1918
  • Newark Advertiser from 1931-1957
  • Spalding Guardian from 1903-1911, 1913-1918, 1920-1930, 1932-1934, 1944-1946, 1948-1952, 1958-1960, 1964, 1976, 1978-1979, 1982 and 1985
  • Staffordshire Newsletter from 1982
  • Stamford Mercury from 1954-1985 and 1987

 

A NEW online resource will help “unlock history” by giving access to First World War archives.

The Ogilby Muster (TOM) has launched following a four year project funded by a LIBOR grant from the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Salisbury-based Army Museums Ogilby Trust.

It is an online platform which provides access to archives held in regimental museums across the UK - preserving the experiences and memories of those who served in the First World War for future generations.

Trustee of the Army Museums Ogilby Trust the Hon Katherine Swinfen Eady, said: “With the opening of the TOM Platform we are given a wonderful key to unlock history. As historians this is an invaluable gift, as family members researching their beloved lost relatives, it is equally as important.

“TOM allows us to piece together the truth left behind by the subjects, to build up that wonderful pattern of a jigsaw and find the missing fragments of information. It is especially important as it will help us all further our knowledge and understanding of not just the military side of the First World War, but the social aspect of an event in history that affected and shaped this country and the world.”

With more than 75 participating collections, and more set to join in 2022, TOM will eventually hold more than two million items including some never-before-seen material.

Covering the period 1900 to 1929, the platform contains documents, photographs, letters, diaries and more, all related to the British Army and the men and women who served.

The Trust’s director Andrew Lloyd says the digitisation of these archives provides a legacy for the future and that a key aim of the project was to make as much of this material as possible available to the public.

At the moment there are about 1.7 million items on the online platform.

You can read more about this new online resource in an article by Kay Griffin published in the Salisbury Journal at: https://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/news/19687940.ogilby-muster-first-world-war-online-archive-set-launch/.