The following announcement was written by the Oregon Health Authority, then rebroadcast by the IAJGS Public Records Access Monitoring Committee's mailing list:

Last fall, Oregon suffered from severe wild fires and as a result, many families lost all their vital records. As a result, the Oregon Center for Health Statistics has issued temporary rules to waive fees for certified copies of records for these families, in accordance with the Governor’s Executive Order 20-35.  The temporary rules were in effect September 14, 2020 through March 1, 2021.  Now the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) says Oregon wildfire survivors who need some certified vital records can get them for free starting Tuesday, June 1^st through October 28, 2021.

OHA says it will charge no fee for a search and issuance of up to three certified copies of vital records requested in connection with Oregon wildfires. Those records include: birth, death, marriage, divorce, domestic partnership or dissolution of domestic partnership records.

It says customers may order up to three certificates of each type of record at no charge.

OHA says the no-fee charge applies to certified copies ordered through the State Vital Records Office and all Oregon county vital records offices. It advises that in the “Reason for Needing Record” section on order forms, customers must list “Oregon Wildfires” to receive their records free of charge.

OHA reminds that county vital records offices “must charge the same fees as the state. The fee is $0 for up to three certified copies of vital records issued June 1, 2021 through October 28, 2021 to Oregonians affected by the Oregon wildfires.”

See: https://www.oregon.gov/oha/PH/BIRTHDEATHCERTIFICATES/GETVITALRECORDS/Pages/VitalRecordsFeesforOregoniansAffectedbytheOregonWildfires.aspx

When ordering the certified copies of the vital record, the person ordering the certificates must state the reason for needing the record as “Oregon Wildfires." It is important that this information is noted on the order so the fee can be removed appropriately. If ordering over the Internet or phone, the certificate fee also will not be charged. You will still need to pay the expedite fee and Vendor fee.

The temporary administrative order Executive Order 20-35 issued September 14, 2020

Only individuals eligible to receive the vital records as outlined in law can order the certificates. Only those affected by wildfires that occurred in Oregon are eligible to get the certificates free of charge.

For more information go to: www.oregon.gov/oha/PH/BIRTHDEATHCERTIFICATES  or call  971-673-1190.

To access the previous postings about Oregon Wild Fires and Vital Records see the IAJGS Records Access Alert archives at: http://lists.iajgs.org/mailman/private/records-access-alerts  You must be registered to access the archives. To register for the IAJGS Records Access Alert go to: http://lists.iajgs.org/mailman/listinfo/records-access-alerts.  You will receive an email response that you have to reply to or the subscription will not be finalized. It is required to include your organization affiliation (genealogy organization, etc.)

Jan Meisels Allen
Chairperson, IAJGS Public Records Access Monitoring Committee

New laws in Maryland and Montana are the first in the nation to restrict law enforcement’s use of genetic genealogy, the DNA matching technique that in 2018 identified the Golden State Killer, in an effort to ensure the genetic privacy of the accused and their relatives.

Beginning on Oct. 1, investigators working on Maryland cases will need a judge’s signoff before using the method, in which a “profile” of thousands of DNA markers from a crime scene is uploaded to genealogy websites to find relatives of the culprit. The new law, sponsored by Democratic lawmakers, also dictates that the technique be used only for serious crimes, such as murder and sexual assault. And it states that investigators may only use websites with strict policies around user consent.

Montana’s new law, sponsored by a Republican, is narrower, requiring that government investigators obtain a search warrant before using a consumer DNA database, unless the consumer has waived the right to privacy.

The laws “demonstrate that people across the political spectrum find law enforcement use of consumer genetic data chilling, concerning and privacy-invasive,” said Natalie Ram, a law professor at the University of Maryland who championed the Maryland law. “I hope to see more states embrace robust regulation of this law enforcement technique in the future.”

You can read more in an article by Virginia Hughes in the New York Times at https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/31/science/dna-police-laws.html.

The mystery of 16-year-old double murder in Sweden was solved last year using data from genealogy websites, a method first used to identify and capture the “Golden State Killer” in 2018. Detailing the case in a new study, scientists in Sweden say it’s the first time this technology has been used to catch a murderer outside the US.

On October 19, 2004, an eight-year-old boy was stabbed to death while walking to school in the city of Linköping in southern Sweden. The attacker then turned on a 56-year-old woman who had just left her home and witnessed the event, stabbing her several times and leaving her for dead. The attacker fled the scene but left behind a knitted cap and the butterfly knife he used to kill the victims. Although traces of the murder’s DNA had been traced on the weapon, detectives ran out of leads and the investigation dried up.

Swedish police then became aware of the arrest of Joseph James DeAngelo – the so-called “Golden State Killer” – using genetic information from the commercial genealogy website GEDmatch. In this notorious case, police compared genetic material left at the crime scene to the DNA of people who voluntarily submitted their gene information to public genealogy databases to trace their own family tree. This was able to identify a number of DeAngelo’s family members, eventually leading them to DeAngelo himself. After following the suspect, they then picked up an unidentified object he discarded to obtain his DNA, which then linked him to a number of the crimes. The novel method proved to be a remarkable success; DeAngelo will spend the rest of his life behind bars.

Intrigued by the story, Swedish police asked higher authorities whether they could solve the Linköping murders using this DNA-based genealogy method in a pilot study. They eventually got the green light in 2019, and a new investigation got underway.

Sifting through data on the platforms GEDmatch and FamilyTree, investigators found a number of distant relatives to the DNA picked up from the crime scene. A further investigation used this lead to identify two prime suspects: two brothers. More snooping revealed one of the brothers had a direct match to the crime scene DNA, affirming his guilt.

You can read all the details in an article at https://www.fsigenetics.com/article/S1872-4973(21)00063-6/fulltext

The following announcement was written by the Genealogical Forum of Oregon:

The Genealogical Forum of Oregon has hit major milestones during its 75th anniversary year. The GFO now has:

• • Uploaded a quarter million digital pages and made them available to members in the
  • GFO website’s MemberSpace
  • Provided 503 lookups for members during the pandemic library closure
  • Hosted 253 online classes and meetings

The GFO has added 258,211 digital pages to its online library since December 24, 2020.

Thousands more are uploaded every week. Volunteers scan documents, use software to make printed text word searchable, name and organize the files, and upload them to the website. These include Oregon birth, death, and marriage records; genealogical journals; manuscript  collections; and dozens of eBooks that provide cemetery records, pioneer registers, vital records indexes, and

much, much more.

The public can get a glimpse of what is available here:  https://gfo.org/resources/memberspaceresources.html

These resources will remain available to members in the GFO’s MemberSpace, even after the library reopens for research in a few weeks. Lookups for members who cannot visit the library will continue as well. All special interest groups, seminars, workshops and board meetings will continue to be held online.

The world is digital and the GFO has embraced this new reality.

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

I am writing this article while seated at a desk in my home. I am staring at a large monitor on the desk and typing these words on a keyboard that sits on that desk. The keyboard is connected to a boxy-looking computer on my desk. This is how I use a computer most of the time. It is the same method that I used 37 years ago, in 1984.

This is modern technology?

Of course, I do also use a laptop computer, and that has changed things somewhat. Nonetheless, the laptop is merely a miniaturized copy of a desktop computer, and I use it in more or less the same manner as the desktop, except that I am not chained to the desk at home. I can use it in different locations, but the way I use it remains the same as what I was doing in 1984.

Admittedly, I also have a small tablet computer. In my case, it is an Android device but it also could be an Apple iOS tablet. My cell phone is a “smartphone,” meaning it is really a handheld computer that happens to make phone calls and it takes photographs. I even have a digital wristwatch that connects to the Internet via wireless technology and retrieves information, records my exercise, and performs other (limited) computing tasks. However, I don’t use any of these smaller devices for my writing and also do less of my genealogy work on these portable devices simply because of the constraints of the smaller screen sizes and the on-screen “keyboards.” Instead, I use desktop and laptop systems for my “serious computing.”

The hardware has changed dramatically in the past 37 years, but the method by which I use a computer remains the same: I sit in a chair and type on the keyboard and stare at a monitor.

All this is been changing for some years and now desktop computers are dropping in popularity. Sales of laptops has outnumbered the sales of desktops for the past several years. New devices, such as the Apple iPad and other tablet computers, Kindles, the various smartphones, and other portable computing devices threaten to change the way we use computers.

The desktop is dying.

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/10570804.

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 FamilySearch:

The following announcement was written by Findmypast:

Delve into thousands of new British parish records this Findmypast Friday.

Middlesex Baptisms

Findmypast have added thousands of new records to this collection. Will you unlock a new family connection?

The latest additions cover the parishes of:

• • Ealing from 1802-1812
  • Harrow from 1841-1876
  • Hayes from 1557-1812
  • Hillingdon from 1559-1876

Baptism records are some of the most important resources for every family tree. They reveal essential details like addresses, baptism and birth dates and parents' names. 

Carmarthenshire Parish Records

Privacy rules have Findmypast to expand this Welsh collection with baptisms from 1921 and marriages from 1936.

Each record comprises a transcript and black and white image of the original register. The amount of information listed may vary but, along with essential dates and locations, most records will enable you to discover the names of your ancestor’s parents and spouse.

Newspapers

In case you missed the news, Findmypast have renewed their long-term partnership with the British Library, so you can expect millions more historical newspaper pages to be published online in the coming years.

Hot off the press this week are:

• • Kirriemuir Observer and General Advertiser covering 1884-1885 and 1915-1949
  • London and China Express covering 1858-1861, 1863-1905, 1907-1919 and 1923-1931
  • Saturday Inverness Advertiser covering 1860-1879 and 1881-1882
  • Teviotdale Record and Jedburgh Advertiser covering 1855-1872, 1874-1878, 1881 and 1885-1910
  • Weekly Free Press and Aberdeen Herald covering 1879-1881, 1883-1884, 1887-1888, 1890 and 1892

While thousands of new pages have been added to:

• • Blackpool Gazette & Herald from 1894
  • Glasgow Weekly Mail covering 1869
  • Halifax Comet from 1896-1897
  • Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser from 1837
  • Northern Daily Times from 1855
  • Sun (London) from 1843
  • Weekly Journal (Hartlepool) from 1905-1906 and 1909
  • West Briton and Cornwall Advertiser from 1965-1982

The following announcement was written by TheGenealogist:

TheGenealogist has just added a marvellous new feature which makes its Map Explorer™ resource even more appealing for family historians.

Image Archive pictures located on georeferenced old and modern maps using the Map Explorer™

Already boasting georeferenced historical and modern maps, Tithe Records and Maps to look for your Victorian ancestors’ homes, Lloyd George Domesday Records and Maps for nearly one million individuals, Headstones and War memorials, the mapping interface now also allows TheGenealogist’s Diamond subscribers the ability to also see what their ancestors’ towns and areas in the U.K. once looked like. With the addition of these period photographs of street scenes and parish churches where researchers' ancestors may have been baptised, married and buried, this new feature allows subscribers to jump back in time.

This release sees the ever-multiplying collection of historical photographs from TheGenealogist’s Image Archive accessible for the first time from inside Map Explorer™ as a recordset layer. The various images for an area have their locations pinpointed on the maps allowing family historians to explore their ancestors’ hometowns and other landmarks from around their area.

When viewing an Image Archive record in TheGenealogist’s Map Explorer™, the family history researcher is shown the image’s location on the map as well as from what point of view the photographer took the photo. Also included underneath the historical image is a modern map and street view (where it's available) so that the person researching their past family’s area is able to compare the picture from the past with how the area looks today. When used in conjunction with the other georeferenced maps and associated records, TheGenealogist’s Map Explorer™ is a highly valuable tool for those researching their family history.

See the photo location, the photographer position, plus a modern map and street view (where available) enabling a comparison to be made of the image and how the area looks today

Watch this short video to learn more about this great new feature: https://youtu.be/Mt5f-mAyJ5Q

You can read more and see examples in the article: Images from ancestors’ hometowns on Map Explorer™ allows us to “see” where they lived through their own eyes.

https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2021/images-from-ancestors-hometowns-on-map-explorer-allows-us-to-see-where-they-lived-through-their-own-eyes-1416/

About TheGenealogist

TheGenealogist is an award-winning online family history website, which puts 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 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!

I recently received an e-mail from someone who has the same last name as my own. She had searched the web and found that I often write about genealogy and occasionally about coats of arms and crests. She sent me an e-mail that said (in part), "I am looking for a copy of the Eastman family crest because my son would like to have one."

She and I exchanged a couple of emails, and I explained that there is no such thing as a family crest. Each person has to apply for permission to display his or her own crest and is not authorized to share it with others. In my message, I used the word "crest" but didn't mention "coat of arms."

She then she wrote back, "If there is no family crest, do you have a coat of arms for the Eastman name? If you do, could I please have a copy of it for my son? He wants to have it for a tattoo he is going to have put on his back."

A tattoo? Gasp!

He wants to have a tattoo of something that isn't his? I'd suggest that the son think long and hard about the wisdom of doing that.

I have written several articles about the "propriety" of displaying coats of arms or family crests when you do not have written permission from the heralds to do so. (Heralds are the people who issue crests and coats of arms.) Many other people have written similar articles.

I won't repeat all the information here. Instead, I will suggest that, if you have an interest in the subject, you should read some of the following articles now before doing anything that is difficult to reverse:

Misconceptions About Family Coats of Arms -  https://www.thoughtco.com/family-coats-of-arms-1422009

Family Coats of arms, Crests and other such misconceptions -  http://www.naught.org/coa.html

Fancy your own coat of arms? -  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/659526.stm

The above is an incomplete list; a search on Google or other search engines will find many more, similar articles. The National Genealogy Society's Consumer Protection Committee also provides additional information about the shoddy businesses that create and sell coats of arms.

I wonder if my correspondent's son is still interested in the tattoo.

The R.38/ZR-2 exploded mid-flight in front of onlookers in Hull, Yorkshire, England on 24 August 1921, before crashing into the River Humber, killing most of the crew.

The airship, called the "Titanic of the skies", was on a test flight before being handed over to the US Navy.

Historic England wants to create an online archive about the disaster.

The 695ft long (212m) airship was built at Cardington, Bedfordshire, but was based at Howden, East Yorkshire, to complete its test flights. It was due to fly to Pulham in Norfolk ahead of a final handover to the US, but it had to return due to bad weather. Last checks on its steering caused the light structure of the airship to break apart.

In total, 44 of the 49 British-American crew died in the resulting catastrophe.

It was designed to be the first of four ships that could patrol far out to sea for up to a week at a time, to combat the German U-boat threat.

44 of the men pictured above died in the crash

Ahead of the anniversary, Historic England has commissioned a crowdsourcing project to create an online archive of materials relating to the disaster.

Keith Emerick, from Historic England, said: "Like the Titanic, the R.38/ZR-2 was the most advanced of its kind at the time. It was larger, faster and could fly higher than any of its predecessors."

You can read more in an article in the BBC News web site at: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-humber-57260147.