A Russian-aligned propaganda network notorious for creating deepfake whistleblower videos appears to be behind a coordinated effort to promote wild and baseless claims that Minnesota governor and vice presidential candidate Tim Walz sexually assaulted one of his former students, according to several specialists tracking the disinformation campaign.

Experts believe that the campaign is tied to a network called Storm-1516, which has been linked to, among other things, a previous effort that falsely claimed vice president Kamala Harris perpetrated a hit-and-run in San Francisco in 2011. Storm-1516 has a long history of posting fake whistleblower videos, and often deepfake videos, to push Kremlin talking points to the West.

The propaganda unit’s work has successfully reached the highest levels of the Republican party, with vice presidential candidate JD Vance repeating at least one of their narratives. NBC reported this week that the group has pushed at least 50 false narratives in this manner since last fall, which comes amid a broader Russian government effort to disrupt next month’s election with the aim of helping former president Donald Trump return to the White House.

You can read more in an article by David Gilbert published in the Wired web site at: https://tinyurl.com/ye2x3bvk.

U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) has added more than 3,000 volumes of the Congressional Serial Set containing more than 45,000 individual documents and reports to GPO’s GovInfo, the one-stop site for authentic, published information for all three branches of the Federal Government. This comes as part of a multi-year effort with the Library of Congress to digitize and make accessible the U.S. Congressional Serial Set back to the first volume, which was published in 1817. 

“A big congratulations to our Library Services and Content Management team and our GovInfo team for their work making accessible thousands of historic documents,” said GPO Director Hugh Nathanial Halpern. “This effort to preserve our Nation’s history serves as one more way we are delivering on our vision of an America Informed. I look forward to the continued digitization of these treasured documents.”

Highlights from the newly added volumes include:

1. Annual reports of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum 
2. Reports from May and June of 1874 relating to Susan B. Anthony’s criminal trial for illegally voting in elections in Rochester, New York. (At the time, women were barred from voting under New York state laws.) 
3. Hearings on the construction of the Panama Canal
4. Compilations of the official records of the Union and Confederate armies during the American Civil War 

The United States Congressional Serial Set, commonly referred to as the Serial Set, is a compilation of all numbered House and Senate reports and documents, including executive reports and treaty documents, issued for each session of Congress. GPO is uploading volumes of the official Serial Set in phases for free public access on GovInfo. Thus far it makes available nearly 7,000 volumes, with nearly 11,000 remaining. The entire effort is expected to take at least a decade to complete.

About GPO
GPO is the Federal Government’s resource for publishing trusted information for the Federal Government to the American people. The GPO is responsible for the production and distribution of information products and services for all three branches of the Federal Government, including U.S. passports for the Department of State as well as the official publications of Congress, the White House, and other Federal agencies in digital and print formats. GPO provides for permanent public access to Federal Government information at no charge throughwww.GovInfo.gov and partnerships with approximately 1,100 libraries nationwide participating in the Federal Depository Library Program. For more information, please visit www.gpo.gov.

Jane Rothstein was named president of the Jewish Genealogy Society of Cleveland, replacing Dr. Deborah A. Katz, who recently retired as president and first vice president for programming. Rothstein also serves as the second vice-president for membership and manages the genealogy’s library collection, which is housed at Congregation Mishkan Or’s Hartzmark Library.

During her terms as an officer, Katz initiated a technology review that resulted in a redesigned website and a robust back-end structure for managing membership, finance, communications and other important functions, according to a news release. She hosted a Zoom-based presentations by local and national experts on genealogical subjects. She organized the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the genealogy department’s founding, initiated a series of small in-person discussion groups and co-organized the genealogy society’s first community family history and genealogy open house, held in August, the release stated.

Rothstein grew up in University Heights and Beachwood, the daughter of Daniel and Mary Ann (Friedman) Rothstein, and graduated from Beachwood High School in 1987. She completed her Bachelor of Arts degree at Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass., Master of Arts degree in U.S. history at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and Master of Library and Information Science degree in library science and archives management at Long Island University in Brooklyn, N.Y. She also pursued doctoral studies in American Jewish history at New York University.

She has taught Jewish studies at New York University, the Center for Jewish History, Texas Christian University and the National Havurah Committee’s Summer Institute and worked in the archives of the American Civil Liberties Union and the New York Public Library. She is the librarian and archivist at Congregation Mishkan Or, positions she previously held at The Temple-Tifereth Israel.

As president, Rothstein’s top priority is to help build and strengthen the genealogy society’s volunteer base: to work with members to identify volunteer opportunities that reflect their interests and skills, according to the release. The genealogy society will continue to offer world-class programming through Zoom and focus on partnerships with the broad Cleveland and Jewish genealogy-related communities, the release stated.

The genealogy society’s current membership is 223, about a third of whom are from outside Ohio, according to the release.

“Woman in Gold” with Randy Schoenberg, presented in partnership with Case Western Reserve University’s Siegal Lifelong Learning program will be held at 7 p.m. Nov. 6.

Schoenberg, an attorney, genealogist and filmmaker will discuss his work as the attorney for Maria Altmann in her quest to recover family treasures looted by the Nazis in World War II, including the so-called “Woman in Gold,” painter Gustav Klimt’s famous “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer.”

To register for the free program, visit http://shorturl.at/f2Vpm.

For membership and general information, visit our website at: http://jgscleveland.org.

The National Archives of Ireland project has announced that as part of a €5 million project the Republic of Ireland's 1926 Census results will be available online, free of charge, from April 2026.

Personal information entered on individual census forms can be published 100 years after a census is taken. Since the personal information contained in the 1901 and 1911 census returns was published a decade ago, public interest in genealogy has mushroomed, and this continues with a growing interest in the detail contained in the 1926 census.

These returns contain the personal details of each individual alive at the time in Ireland. The 1926 census collected 21 data sets such as name, age, sex, marital status, religion, housing conditions and ability to speak Irish. It is planned to digitize and publish all data sets. This information will undoubtedly provide a fascinating snapshot of life in Ireland in 1926 and will be of great use to both the Irish public and diaspora worldwide.

On the night of 18 April 1926, the population of Ireland was 2,971,992 with 49% female and 51% male. At the previous census in 1911, the population was 3,139,688 demonstrating a reduction of 5.3% in the population in 15 years to 1926.  Dublin was the only county to record an increase in the population of almost 6% in the intercensal period, while all other counties recorded a loss.

In 1926, a total of 92.6% of the population was Catholic and 18.3% could speak Irish. Of those employed, 51% were in agricultural occupations, 4% were fishermen, 14% were in manufacturing and 7% were domestic servants. 

At present, the 1926 census is stored in 1,344 boxes, containing over 700,000 return sheets, each measuring approximately 630mm x 290mm (A3 is 297x430mm). The returns are laced together in 2,464 canvas portfolios each representing an enumeration area within each of the 26 counties.

The first full government census of Ireland was taken in 1821 with further censuses at ten-yearly intervals from 1831 through to 1911. A census was taken in June 1921, in England, Scotland and Wales but not on the island of Ireland because of the War of Independence. The first census of the population of the Irish Free State was taken on 18 June 1926.

The 1926 census returns, and indeed, all censuses less than 100 years old, remain under the legal control of the Central Statistics Office (CSO). To date censuses have been taken in 1926, 1936, 1946, 1951, 1956, 1961, 1966, 1971, 1979 (the census due in 1976 was canceled as an economic measure), 1981, 1986, 1991, 1996, 2002 and 2006. The returns for 1926 - 1946 and part of those for 1951 are held in the National Archives, but they remain under the control of the Central Statistics Office. The more recent returns are still held by the Central Statistics Office.

The 1926 census consists of 630,048 household returns with one census return sheet per household along with around 70,0000 enumerators’ sheets. Each return measures approximately 630mm x 290mm (A3 is 297x430mm). The returns are laced together in 2,464 canvas portfolios each representing an enumeration area within each of the 26 counties. The entire census is stored in 1,344 boxes.

The 1926 census collected 21 data sets. These include:

1) Name and surname

2) Relationship to head of household.

3) Age (in years and months).

4) Sex.

5) Marriage or orphanhood.

6) Birthplace (including name of parish).

7) Irish language.

8) Religion.

9) Occupation and employment: personal occupation.

10) Occupation and employment: employment/name of employer.

11) Information regarding present marriage required from married women: number of completed years and months of present marriage, and number of children born alive to present marriage.

12) Information regarding present and previous marriages required from married men, widowers and widows: the number of living sons, daughters, step-sons and step-daughters under 16 years of age, whether residing as members of this household or elsewhere.

13) The total area in statute acres of all agricultural holdings (if any) situated in the Irish Free State of which persons usually resident in this household are the rated occupiers.

For more details on the 1926 Census visit: CSO.ie.

A mom faces a murder charge 30 years after she left her newborn in a grocery bag along the side of a California road, police said.

On Thursday, the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office announced the arrest of Pamela Ferreyra. She was charged with murder and is being held in a California jail on $1 million bond.

The newborn was found along the side of Garin Road in 1994 by a man collecting aluminum cans, according to KSBW. The newborn - who became known as Baby Garin - was wrapped in a grocery bag.

"He opened up that paper bag and discovered something that nobody ever wants to find," the sheriff’s spokesman Andy Rosas said, according to KSBW. "When the person looked inside, they discovered the deceased baby boy’s body."

Investigators said Baby Garin was born alive but died later. An autopsy could not determine the exact cause of death. Police believe the child died between November 1, 1994, and December 3, 1994.

The case was unsolved for decades but was reopened in 2023. Advancements in DNA technology allowed investigators to use genetic material from the case to try and develop leads.

From there, a company was able to offer a lead on the baby’s family, according to USAToday.  That led to Ferreyra’s arrest being ordered last week.

Monterey County Assistant District Attorney Matt L’Heureux told media outlets that they believe Ferreyra has other children.

He also said he couldn’t speculate on what was going through Ferreyra’s mind for the last 30 years.

"We run into a variety of different reactions. Some of them seem to think that they have gotten away with it and are very surprised. Some of them have been waiting for that knock on the door for decades," L’Heureux said. "I couldn’t tell you which situation this falls under but we’re happy this day has come."

Beginning U.S. genealogists soon learn that the 1890 census records were destroyed in a fire in the basement of the Commerce Building on January 10, 1921. Many people who would like to see these records just shrug their shoulders and move on.

A short search on the Web, however, soon reveals that not all of the records were destroyed. In fact, census fragments for 1890 in Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, South Dakota, Texas, and the District of Columbia survived and are available now.

The morning after the fire 1921 fire, Census Director Sam Rogers reported the extensive damage to the 1890 schedules, estimating that only 25 percent of the records were destroyed, with 50 percent of the remainder damaged by water, smoke, and fire. Salvage of the water-soaked and charred documents might be possible, reported the bureau, but saving even a small part would take a month, and it would take two to three years to copy and save all the records damaged in the fire. The preliminary assessment of Census Bureau Clerk T. J. Fitzgerald was far more sobering. Fitzgerald told reporters that the priceless 1890 records were "certain to be absolutely ruined. There is no method of restoring the legibility of a water-soaked volume."

Had the fire occurred in the year 2024, many of the volumes could have been saved. Today, water-soaked documents can be freeze dried, removing the water without creating additional damage to the pages. Unfortunately, such technology was not available in 1921.

Speculation and rumors about the cause of the blaze varied widely. Many suspected that a carelessly discarded cigarette or a lighted match was the cause. Employees were questioned about their smoking habits. Others believed the fire started among shavings in the carpenter shop or resulted from spontaneous combustion. At least one woman from Ohio felt certain the fire was part of a conspiracy to defraud her family of their rightful estate by destroying every vestige of evidence proving heirship! However, the true cause of the fire was never proven. 

At the end of January 1921, the records damaged in the fire were moved for temporary storage. Over the next few months, rumors spread that salvage attempts would not be made and that Census Director Sam Rogers had recommended that Congress authorize destruction of the 1890 census. Prominent historians, attorneys, and genealogical organizations wrote in protest to Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover, the Librarian of Congress, and other government officials. The National Genealogical Society and the Daughters of the American Revolution formally petitioned Hoover and Congress, and the editor of the NGS Quarterly warned that a nationwide movement would begin among state societies and the press if Congress seriously considered destruction. The National Archives quickly denied that the records would be destroyed.

By May of 1921, the records were still piled in a large warehouse without proper storage. The records were quickly deteriorating as summer heat approached in the non-air conditioned warehouse. Census Director William Steuart ordered that the damaged records be transferred back to the census building, to be bound where possible, but at least put in some order for reference.

The water-soaked records remained at the census building for nearly eleven years, apparently not well cared for. In December 1932, in accordance with federal records procedures at the time, the Chief Clerk of the Bureau of Census sent the Librarian of Congress a list of papers no longer necessary for current business and scheduled for destruction. He asked the Librarian to report back to him any documents that should be retained for their historical interest. Item 22 on the list for Bureau of the Census read "Schedules, Population . . . 1890, Original." 

The Librarian identified no records as permanent; the list was sent forward, and Congress authorized destruction of the remaining 1890 census records on February 21, 1933. Despite assurance by census officials in 1921 that the damaged records would not be destroyed, government bureaucrats did exactly that in the 1930s. Even worse, damaged and undamaged pages alike were destroyed. The entire process was not well publicized, with only minor notes buried inside governmental reports. The date of the actual destruction of the 1890 census records was never recorded although it probably was in 1935.

It seems sad that Washington bureaucrats quietly destroyed these valuable records without public review and scrutiny. However, the story does not end there. The bureaucrats overlooked some records! In 1953 National Archives found an additional set of 1890 census record fragments. These sets of extant fragments are from Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, South Dakota, Texas, and the District of Columbia. These surviving fragments were preserved and microfilmed. They are still available today, despite the "common knowledge" that the 1890 U.S. Census was destroyed in a fire. 

Before you disregard this census, you should always verify that the schedules you seek did not survive. If you are looking for ancestors in 1890 in Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, South Dakota, Texas, or the District of Columbia, you might have a pleasant surprise. Be aware that the surviving records are only a tiny fraction of the total records, even for those states. For the General Population Census Schedules, more than 6,160 persons are included in the surviving fragments. 

Admittedly, these are very small fragments of the original records. Small fragments also have been preserved of the following 1890 records:

Schedules of Union Civil War Veterans or their widows

Oklahoma territorial schedules

List of selected Delaware African-Americans,

Statistics of Lutheran congregations

Statistical information for the entire United States

You won't know if your ancestors' records are still available until you check. 

You can view National Archives Microfilm Publication M407 (3 rolls) and a corresponding index, National Archives Microfilm Publication M496 (2 rolls). Both microfilm series can be viewed at the National Archives, at the regional archives, at the thousands of LDS Family History Centers around the world, and at several other repositories.

For more information, look at the National Archives' web site at https://www.archives.gov/research/census/microfilm-catalog/1790-1890/part-08.

The following is a press release issued by the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration:

Last week Archivist of the United States Dr. Colleen Shogan announced a new Strategic Framework for the National Archives. The framework, a template that will guide the development of a full Strategic Plan, charts a course for the agency that emphasizes building digital capacity, scalability, and responsibly embracing technological innovation.

Enlarge

The Lenexa, KS, Federal Records Center is one of more than 30 NARA locations across that country that house millions of cubic feet of records. (National Archives photo by Darryl Herring)

“Our mission is both straightforward and complex: We preserve, protect, and share the historical records of the United States to promote public inquiry and strengthen democratic participation,” said Shogan. “The goals outlined in this framework will guide our efforts as we successfully navigate the complexities of the rapidly evolving digital landscape and strive to engage all Americans in meaningful ways.” 

One of the agency’s key objectives outlined in the framework is to incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) into archival recordkeeping and information-sharing practices to make it easier for everyone to use the records held by the National Archives. As a nonpartisan institution dedicated to making the nation's history accessible, the National Archives does not change the records within its holdings or interpret them. Making technology tools including AI and machine learning available to researchers and the public can enable more Americans to have greater success navigating the agency’s vast holdings.

NARA's early AI projects have showcased the technology's strengths by improving response times for records requests and making information from holdings more easily understood. One of the first uses of AI at NARA, in 2022, helped identify names in the 1950 Census before the records were released. Census records are a rich resource for genealogists—but it can be difficult and time-consuming to find names. These names were handwritten by census takers and can be difficult to read. NARA was able to use AI to identify names and make the records searchable within the National Archives Catalog, making it easier for the public to search and find family members in the census on the day that it was released.

While working to eliminate a backlog of National Personnel Records Center records requests from veterans and their families that had built up early in the pandemic, NARA also conducted a promising proof of concept for the use of AI-driven Robotic Process Automation (RPA), which may help the agency more efficiently manage routine operations in the future. In both projects, AI directly supported the work of archivists and made smaller pieces from large quantities of information accessible to the public more quickly.

Additional projects are exploring how AI can improve the efficiency of conducting Freedom of Information Act and other document reviews, capture metadata in microfilm digitization, safeguard personally identifiable information (PII), and perform natural-language search queries in digitized records. A pilot project is in development to test the capacity of AI to perform user-directed search queries. Known as ArchieAI, the pilot is slated to be opened to the public for testing and feedback in December 2024.

Every AI project at the National Archives depends on the expertise of multidisciplinary teams of  employees to establish use cases, document testing, set parameters, and validate results. The agency is conducting these projects within the context of a larger U.S federal framework for trustworthy use of AI, including guidance outlined in the Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of AI and an AI risk management framework from the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Project results will be used to further develop AI governance at the National Archives, which will weigh innovation, risk management, and resources. 

AI is also being tested as an administrative business tool to help NARA employees work more efficiently in day-to-day tasks. Employees in the pilot project can access Google Gemini AI capabilities within the Google applications used at NARA for help summarizing documents, writing emails, and creating presentations and data visualization. The Gemini pilot greets employees with a message that reminds pilot users that no data will be shared outside of the National Archives environment and will not be used to train Google’s AI model.

National Archives Chief Information Officer Sheena Burrell stated, "AI technology has the potential to revolutionize the way we work at NARA. By automating routine tasks and providing us with new tools to analyze and understand our data, AI can help us to be more efficient, effective, and responsive to the needs of our customers."

NARA’s inventory of AI use cases to date are listed on its website.

Generative AI systems, such as ChatGPT, are trained on large datasets to create written, visual or audio content in response to prompts. When fed real images, some algorithms can produce fake photos and videos known as deepfakes. 

Content created with generative artificial intelligence (AI) systems are playing a role in the 2024 presidential election. While these tools can be used harmlessly, they allow bad actors to create misinformation more quickly and realistically than before, potentially increasing their influence on voters. 

Domestic and foreign adversaries can use deepfakes and other forms of generative AI to spread false information about a politician’s platform or doctor their speeches, said Thomas Scanlon, principal researcher at Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute and an adjunct professor at its Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy. 

“The concern with deepfakes is how believable they can be, and how problematic it is to discern them from authentic footage,” Scanlon said. 

Voters have seen more ridiculous AI-generated content — such as a photo of Donald Trump appearing to ride a lion — than an onslaught of hyper-realistic deepfakes full of falsehoods, according to the Associated Press. Still, Scanlon is concerned that voters will be exposed to more harmful generative content on or shortly before Election Day, such as videos depicting poll workers saying an open voting location is closed. 

That sort of misinformation, he said, could prevent voters from casting their ballots because there will be little time to correct the false information. Overall, AI-generated deceit could further erode voters’ trust in the country’s democratic institutions and elected officials, according to the university’s Block Center for Technology and Society, housed in the Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy. 

“People are just constantly being bombarded with information, and it's up to the consumer to determine: What is the value of it, but also, what is their confidence in it? And I think that's really where individuals may struggle,” said Randall Trzeciak, director of the Heinz College Master of Science in Information Security Policy & Management (MSISPM) program.

Leaps and bounds in generative AI

For years, people have spread misinformation by manipulating photos and videos with tools such as Adobe Photoshop, Scanlon said. These fakes are easier to recognize, and they’re harder for bad actors to replicate on a large scale. Generative AI systems, however, enable users to create content quickly and easily, even if they don’t have fancy computers or software.

People fall for deepfakes for a variety of reasons, faculty at Heinz College said. If the viewer is using a smartphone, they’re more likely to blame a deepfake’s poor quality on bad cell service. If a deepfake echoes a belief the viewer already has — for example, that a political candidate would make the statement depicted — the viewer is less likely to scrutinize it.

Most people don’t have time to fact-check every video they see, meaning deepfakes can sow doubt and erode trust over time, wrote Ananya Sen, an assistant professor of information technology and management at Heinz College, in a statement. He’s concerned that ballot-counting livestreams, while intended to increase transparency, could be used for deepfakes. 

Once the false information is out there, there’s little opportunity to correct it and put the genie back in the bottle. 

Unlike previous means of creating disinformation, generative AI can also be used to send tailor-made messages to online communities, said Ari Lightman, a professor of digital media and marketing at Heinz College. If one member of the community accidentally shares the content, the others may believe its message because they trust the person who shared it.

Adversaries are “looking at consumer behavioral patterns and how people interact with technology, hoping that one of them clicks on a piece of information that might cascade into a viral release of disinformation,” Lightman said.

It’s difficult to unmask the perpetrators of AI-generated misinformation. The creators can use virtual private networks and other mechanisms to hide their tracks. Countries with adversarial relationships with the U.S. are likely weaponizing this technology, Lightman said, but he’s also concerned about individuals and terrorist groups that may be operating under the radar.

What voters need to know

People should trust their intuition and attempt to verify videos they believe could be deepfakes, Scanlon said. “If you see a video that's causing you to have some doubt about its authenticity, then you should acknowledge that doubt,” he said. 

Here are a few signs that a video could be a deepfake, according to Scanlon:

You can read more in an article by Emma Folts published in the CMU web site. 

Around 1987, there was a man who had a vision for Italian genealogy.  His name was Dr. Thomas Militello, from California and eventually Nevada.  Dr. Tom had trouble trying to find genealogists who were researching the same towns as he was, and what surnames they were researching.  Keep in mind that this was the late 1980s so ancestry.com and FamilySearch did not exist as we know them today and social media was years in the future.

Dr. Tom founded a group called POINT, which stands for Pursuing Our Italian Names Together.  The objective of POINT was to get people to join the group and share information about the Italian surnames and towns they were researching.  They would receive a book with everyone’s surnames and towns, and eventually Dr. Tom created a quarterly magazine called POINTers with articles on research methods, trips to Italy, etc.

In the 1990s, former Fra Noi writer Tony Lascio founded a local chapter of POINT so Chicago-area Italian genealogists could get together and trade information.  Eventually 27 more chapters popped up around the country, including my north suburban chapter that I ran 2001-2014.

You may remember how often I wrote about the doings of the POINT group and chapters way back when I inherited the Fra Noi genealogy column after Tony passed away in 2004.

Dr. Tom was forced by failing health to cease POINT operations in 2013, and he passed away in 2019.  Most of the chapters faded off for various reasons.  So, we are back to not having a way to look for people who are researching the same Italian names and towns that we are. Or are we?

Obviously there are more internet resources than in 1987 to try to find fellow researchers.  They aren’t organized like POINT was, but you can look in a lot of places.

Naturally, social media is a great place to find kindred spirits.  I have looked for genealogy groups for several provinces and regions in Italy and found some connections that way.  Sometimes there’s a genealogy group just about a single town!  There doesn’t seem to be much about genealogy research of specific surnames, but once you join the province or town group, if someone is actively researching that surname, you’ll find ’em!

Both FamilySearch and Ancestry.com allow us to upload our family trees, and each site lets you search other peoples’ trees in the hope of finding a family match, or at least finding who submitted a tree from your town with your grandfather’s surname.  As with any genealogy site, not everyone is actively researching or answering the notes written to them.  So don’t be surprised if your question goes unanswered.  But sometimes these sites show how recently someone has been logged in, and this can help you determine whether the contact is likely to respond soon.  Once you upload your tree, other people might find you and start a family-data-exchange that could be very beneficial.

I am specifically using these sites to try to find people who might have visited Italy and worked with, or photographed, the church records from the ancestral town.  If you are already working with civil records on FamilySearch or Antenati, everyone has basically the same access to the same records.  But if you find that “player” who went to the old hometown and worked with the church records, it might be a gold mine!

And while researching this column, I discovered that the old POINTers archives were acquired by IGG, Italian Genealogy Group.  https://www.italiangen.org/pointers-archive/  You have to be a paid member of IGG to get to these, and the information may be out of date.  Find the name of a person researching your name and town in an old POINTers.  Then use social media to find that person so you can contact them, or their descendants, today.

If you have success using any of these methods, please email me at italianroots@comcast.net and put “POINT” in the subject line.  Happy hunting!

LEGO History enthusiasts have just gotten an early Christmas present! The LEGO Group (specifically the Archivists/Curators/Historians) have quietly launched a very exciting new feature on the LEGO History section of their website – a searchable database cataloguing the complete collection of Wooden Toys from The LEGO Group’s very early years!

For those who appreciate LEGO’s history and heritage, this is an exceptionally huge deal as there is now this treasure trove of official information from 1932-1959, when LEGO founder Ole Kirk Kristiansen began designing and producing wooden toys.

The database is a huge leap forward for digitising all of this official information from LEGO’s nascent years , and allows you to search by product name, product number, launch year and exit year, both in English and Danish. 

For a spot of realism, all the images in LEGO’s former catalogues were in black and white, so the images uploaded to the database have stay trued to the original look. There are still plenty of images that haven’t been uploading yet, but a message in the Introductory section states that “they will get there”. 

I’m not an authoritative LEGO Historian by any means, but I have a deep passion for this era of The LEGO Group’s history, and am slowly adding to my own personal archive of LEGO Wooden Toys, so I’ve been spending a lot of time flicking through the pages and immersing myself in the photos. 

There’s stuff I’ve never seen before like the Hare Wagon (that I’m not sure is documented anywhere else online) and I also loved seeing the wooden Castle.

Another cool thing I’ve seen that’s completely new to me is the Ball Conveyor from 1953, which looks like the ancestor of the Great Ball Contraption! 

And yes, you can also check out items like the Wooden Rifle, Peace Gun and Blunderbuss too!

This thing is just a treasure trove of early LEGO History, and will be an invaluable tool for amateur LEGO Historians and Collectors who want to learn more about LEGO’s Wooden Toys, but also as official reference material. 

Do check out the LEGO Wooden Toy archive and while you’re there, the entire LEGO History section is a fantastic resource for those who can’t quite get to Denmark and visit The LEGO House history collection, or the LEGO Idea House. 

To get the latest LEGO news and LEGO Reviews straight in your inbox, subscribe via email, or you can also follow on Google News, or socials on Facebook, Instagram (@jayong28), Twitter or subscribe to the Jay’s Brick Blog Youtube channel.

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