The State Historical Society of Missouri (SHSMO) spent much of 2021 spearheading a campaign to assemble a ton of data and information on anything and everything that has shaped the Show Me State into what it has become over the last two centuries. 

As part of the Missouri Bicentennial Project, the SHSMO partnered with organizations across the state to create and expand digital resources for the teachers, students, researchers, and citizen-historians looking to learn more about Missouri’s storied past.

At the base of it all is the SHSMO Digital Collection, which has been expanded and made easier to access than ever before, granting citizens access to thousands of maps, manuscripts, correspondences, media, and archives from throughout the state’s 200-year history. 

Details may be found at: https://www.thepitchkc.com/missouri-bicentennial-projects-allow-one-to-peruse-missouris-history-like-never-before/.

The following was written by the Southern California Genealogical Society (SCGS):

Sidney Museum and Archives set to launch new database for archives from 1912 to 2002.

A new database launching Dec. 1 will give the public a chance to search decades worth of Peninsula News Review archives.

The Peninsula News Review Digitization project saw the Sidney Museum and Archives digitize 46 rolls of 35 mm microfilm containing nearly 3,800 past issues of the newspaper, spanning 1912 through 2002.

Funding for the project came from the BC History Digitization Program based at the University of British Columbia’s Irving K. Barber Learning Centre. The program promotes increased access to British Columbia’s historical resources by supplying matching funds to digitization projects resulting in free online access to unique historical material from around the province.

The database, making the archives of the Review accessible, will make its debut on Dec. 1 at 7 p.m., when the museum staff will host a live demonstration of the Arca database.

You can read further details in an article by Wolf Depner and published in the Victoria News web site at: https://bit.ly/3li43sa.

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

"What goes around, comes around." That seems true in the case of pottery as well as stone, clay, and ceramic tablets. Japanese pottery from the Jomon period dates back more than 13,000 years and contains some of what is believed to be the oldest human writing that still exists in the world. Cuneiform tablets that contain writing created by the Sumerians have survived for 5,000 years. Acid-free paper is expected to survive only a few hundred years while today's paper – with its acids – has a much shorter life expectancy. Microfilm and microfiche are expected to last only 300 years and even then, only if it is stored under ideal temperature and humidity conditions. Magnetic tapes, floppy disks, and other modern media are expected to last only a decade or two unless someone copies those items every decade or two. (Luckily, that is easy to do.)

Perhaps the greatest threat to the storage of electronic information is a rare solar storm called the "Carrington Event." The last major Carrington Event to hit the earth took place in 1859, a time when there was almost no electronic information in existence. Studies have shown that a solar storm of this magnitude occurring today would likely cause more widespread problems for a modern and technology-dependent society.

The Carrington Event is a magnetic storm, not physical.

In the 1859 Carrington Event, papers in telegraph offices caught fire. Even with batteries disconnected, operators found that the telegraph wires could carry their messages over vast distances. This was the largest solar storm ever recorded. In 2005, a very small magnetic storm from the sun disrupted satellite-to-ground communication and the GPS system for about 10 minutes — threatening satellite-guided travel by air, sea, and land. It contained only a fraction of the power of a Carrington Event.

If a full-sized Carrington Event happened today, it would jeopardize global telecommunications, knock out orbiting satellites, and threaten to kill astronauts. It also would probably wipe out every hard disk drive, floppy disk, CD-ROM disk, flash drive, and every other form of magnetic or electronic storage, even on devices that are powered off and disconnected.

If a Carrington Event happened today, the world would likely have to deal with the simultaneous loss of GPS, cellphone reception, all computers, and much of the power grid.

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/12149168.

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 Findmypast:

With over 1.6 million Welsh electoral records and census substitutes from the Caribbean, where with this week’s Findmypast Friday update take you?

Index to Death Duty Registers, 1796-1903

Search over 5,000 brand new additions to fill any gaps in your family tree. Exclusive to Findmypast and now containing over 3.3 million transcripts and images, these records will enable you to discover English and Welsh ancestors who left estates that incurred an inheritance tax.

Created by the Estate Duty Office (later to become the Inland Revenue), each result will provide you with the name and address of the testator, their date of death as well as the name and address of the administrator. The information captured by this index may also help you obtain copies of original entries from the Death Duty Register and track down your ancestors will or administration. 

West Glamorgan Electoral Registers, 1839-1925

Containing over 1.6 million records, this expansive collection details over 80 years of electoral registers and Burgess Rolls for the Borough of Swansea in West Glamorgan.

Each result will provide you with the name, address and “qualification” of the individual who had registered to vote making them a valuable census substitute. Electoral registers are also and excellent resource for exploring the history of your home or local area.

Leeward Islands Census Substitutes, 1678-1753

Search these early name lists for early settlers of the islands of Anguilla, Antigua, Montserrat, Nevis and St Kitts (St Christopher Island). Containing roughly 6,000 transcripts, this collection will provide you with the names, race, gender and location of the islands’ inhabitants as well as the date they were recorded and, in some instances, their title, age, occupation, nationality, and parish 

Newspapers

This week sees 116,740 new pages, eight brand-new Welsh titles and updates to 28 existing publications join Findmypast’s ever expanding newspaper archive.

New titles:

• • Caerphilly Journal, 1914-1943
  • Herald Cymraeg, 1858-1900, 1902, 1904-1911, 1913-1916
  • Porthcawl Guardian, 1933-1961
  • Porthcawl News, 1910, 1912-1925
  • Newport Gazette, 1857-1869, 1891
  • Cardiff Shipping and Mercantile Gazette, 1875-1881, 1883-1886, 1888-1889
  • Y Gwyliedydd, 1877-1883, 1885-1887, 1889
  • Rhondda Socialist Newspaper, 1911-1914

Existing titles:

• • Atherstone News and Herald, 1911-1912, 1950
  • Saffron Walden Weekly News, 1985, 1993
  • Hull Daily News, 1879, 1896-1899
  • Coleshill Chronicle, 1874
  • Fleetwood Chronicle, 1845
  • Press (London), 1860
  • Sun & Central Press, 1871
  • Grantham Journal, 1971, 1998-1999
  • Herts and Essex Observer, 1981
  • New Milton Advertiser, 1993
  • London and China Express, 1916-1917, 1921
  • Fenland Citizen, 1993
  • Newark Advertiser, 1992
  • Stamford Mercury, 1954, 1985
  • Spalding Guardian, 1893-1894, 1903, 1921, 1976
  • Diss Express, 1993
  • South Wales Daily Telegram, 1888
  • Y Tyst, 1893
  • Newcastle Guardian and Silverdale, Chesterton and Audley Chronicle, 1897
  • Glamorgan Advertiser, 1950
  • South Wales Weekly Argus and Monmouthshire Advertiser, 1897
  • Llanelly and County Guardian and South Wales Advertiser, 1911
  • Kilmarnock Standard, 1875-1891
  • Flintshire Observer, 1899, 1912
  • South Eastern Gazette, 1875
  • Oxford Chronicle and Reading Gazette, 1872

Going digital can save time and money and keep family traditions alive.

An article by Ashley Memory in the Wired web site will interest anyone interested in preserving and/or sharing family recipes. She writes:

"When I inherited my late grandmother’s recipes, I wanted to keep them safe and eventually hand them down to my own family. I already had my own jumbled collection, including instructions dictated by Wilma herself, images saved on my phone, Word files on my computer, and more. So I set out to find a way to organize, preserve, and share this part of our family history with everyone.

"What I learned during my research tickled me as much as memories of Wilma’s pecan pie. Organizing these records would be much easier than I had anticipated, and the journey brings home cooks like me even greater rewards than I ever imagined. Going digital saves time and money, reduces waste, and best of all, allows you to eat more healthfully by planning ahead and choosing recipes that meet personalized dietary needs. Better yet, sharing recipes and connecting with epicures across the world helps us grow and improve, just in time for the holidays."

She then goes on to write creating family cookbooks (with an option to publish them online), apps to help you get started, and ways of clipping new recipes from the web.

This will be interesting reading for the cook in the family at: https://www.wired.com/story/how-to-preserve-share-old-recipes/.

Today is Thanksgiving Day. One of the most traditional of American holidays, it's thought to have begun in 1621 in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

The holiday became national in 1863, and the fourth Thursday of the month has been the official day since 1941. In many of the nation’s 128 million or so households, people will share a special meal, typically turkey with all the traditional trimmings. American farmers raise around 230 million turkeys annually, in some 2,500 locations nationwide.

In a recent measure, Americans eat an average of 16 pounds of turkey each year, while the birds themselves have … or had … an average weight of about 30 pounds.

An Associated Press article states that:

"The National Park Service says it has awarded the largest single grant in the history of its American Battlefield Protection Program to help preserve one of the lesser-known Civil War battlefields.

"The agency said Tuesday that the $4.6 million grant will be used to buy and preserve 250 acres of the Williamsburg Battlefield in Virginia’s York County."

There is more to the announcement at: https://www.whsv.com/2021/11/24/4m-grant-helps-preserve-lesser-known-civil-war-battlefield/

Richard Hill has created a new web site: DNA Favorites. In a modest announcement, he described the new effort as:

"I'm sharing years of favorite resources on DNA testing for genealogy and adoptee searches. This free site includes more than 150 links to DNA tests, genetic genealogy tools, speakers, bloggers, books, Facebook groups, articles, etc. Just reading through the pages will provide beginners with a good introduction to DNA Testing."

You might want to check out the new site at: https://www.dnafavorites.com/.

Here is a (slightly edited) screen capture from the new web site:

1. Home

Link Directly to the Most Useful
DNA Testing Resources

DNA testing is hugely popular with genealogists. Furthermore, it has helped thousands of adoptees, like me, identify and reunite with our birth families.

My name is Richard Hill. I have been writing and speaking about DNA testing for more than a decade. Over the years I have uncovered a wealth of good DNA information online.

This website shares more than 150 favorite links and is a great starting point for anyone interested in DNA testing.

I suggest you start at or near the top of the menu and proceed in order from one page to the next. That provides a concise overview of DNA testing.

Then return to any page to explore the linked DNA testing resources.

Need a speaker on DNA testing topics? Learn more about Richard Hill's presentations.

Read reviews of "Finding Family: My Search for Roots and the Secrets in My DNA"

 

For an easy-to-follow introduction to genetic genealogy, get my $3.99 Kindle book.

DNA Testing is Now Easy and Cheap

When I did a DNA paternity test in 1981, I travelled to a distant lab to have blood drawn. Today, you order DNA tests online and receive a sample kit in the mail.

For AncestryDNA and 23andMe you simply spit some saliva into a tube.

For MyHeritage DNA, Living DNA, and Family Tree DNA you swab inside your cheeks.

In any case you mail the sample kit back to the lab and wait for the results to show up in your private, password-protected account.

Some of my first DNA tests for genetic genealogy cost several hundred dollars each. Now the most popular tests are all under $100. And some allow free uploads of data from tests you’ve already done.

Genetic Genealogy is Solving Many More Mysteries

While most DNA testers are genealogists trying to confirm or expand their family trees, many other uses for this technology have arisen:

• Since my pioneering example, many more adoptees are using DNA to identify birth families.

• People who know or suspect that the man who raised them is not their biological father are finding the truth and discovering new relatives.

• Donor-conceived individuals are identifying sperm donor fathers and a surprising number of half siblings.

• People curious about their ethnic ancestry, are learning where in the world their distant ancestors came from.

• Certain DNA tests report various health-related findings. Since I have no medical qualifications to judge such reports, this website does not focus on that.

• Many users of the GEDmatch website choose to share their genetic data with law enforcement, leading to victim identification and the solving of major crimes. I do so myself. Yet this is another area that is outside my primary focus.

Please Recommend Me, Richard Hill, as a Speaker

In the past decade I have given countless presentations on DNA testing topics to both national and local genealogy groups and libraries. If you belong to such a group, I would greatly appreciate you recommending me as a speaker for your group.

Located in Michigan, my ability to present in person is naturally limited by the cost of travel. Fortunately, the pandemic taught us how virtual presentations can bring speakers and viewers together regardless of geography.

Follow Me on Social Media

On Facebook, you can get DNA testing news of interest through my DNA Favorites Page.

On Twitter, you can follow me @RichardHillDNA.