On a recent episode of the TV genealogy show Who Do You Think You Are? Josh Widdicombe discovered he was a descendant of Edward I, who died more than 700 years ago.

But he hasn't been the only example. Soap star Danny Dyer found on the BBC family history show he was related to Edward III, Alexander Armstrong was descended from William the Conqueror and the rower Sir Matthew Pinsent was another relative of Edward I.

So what's going on? Are the genes that put kings on thrones now producing a celebrity aristocracy? Or are these just remarkable and unusual, needle-in-a-haystack, coincidences?

What this really shows, according to genealogy experts, is that if you look back far enough a surprisingly high number of people will find a royal ancestor.

You can read a lot more in an article by Sean Coughlan published in the BBC News web site at: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-59041055. 

Today is the first day of the month. That is still a good time to back up your genealogy files. Then test your backups!

Your backups aren't worth much unless you make a quick test by restoring a small file or two after the backup is completed.

Actually, you can make backups at any time. However, it is easier and safer if you have a specific schedule. The first day of the month is easy to remember, so I would suggest you back up your genealogy files at least on the first day of every month, if not more often. (My computers automatically make off-site backups of all new files every few minutes.)

Given the events of the past few months with genealogy websites laying off employees and cutting back on services, you now need backup copies of everything more than ever. What happens if the company that holds your online data either goes off line or simply deletes the service where your data is held? If you have copies of everything stored either in your own computer, what happens if you have a hard drive crash or other disaster? If you have one or more recent backup copies, such a loss would be inconvenient but not a disaster.

Of course, you might want to back up more than your genealogy files. Family photographs, your checkbook register, all sorts of word processing documents, email messages, and much more need to be backed up regularly. Why not do that on the first day of each month? or even more often?

The following announcement was written by Findmypast:

Findmypast are conjuring up witchcraft and wrongdoings in Scotland's past this week. What spine-tingling stories will you discover?

Here's what's new on the most frightening Findmypast Friday of the year.

Scotland, Names of Witches 1658

In this small but fascinating collection, you’ll find details on some of those accused of witchcraft in early modern Scotland.

1563’s Witchcraft Act made consorting with witches or taking part in witchcraft a crime punishable by death in Scotland. Around 1,500 people were executed, most of them women, until the last Scottish witch trial in 1727.

Scotland, Court & Criminal Database

Unlock criminals and victims in your Scottish family tree with this detail-rich collection. The records include names, occupations, addresses and information about the crimes.

This resource comprises prison records, precognitions and trial papers from all over Scotland, as well as the Fife Kalendar of Convicts. From fiends and felons to bone-chilling revelations, where will the dark side of your Scottish family story take you?

Newspapers

This week, Findmypast have added 19 new papers, including 13 from Scotland. The latest arrivals include:

• • Annandale Herald and Moffat News covering 1889-1892
  • Ayr Observer covering 1844, 1883, 1886-1887, 1889-1890 and 1892
  • Bridge of Allan Reporter covering 1890-1892
  • Courier and West-End Advertiser covering 1869-1880
  • Crieff Journal covering 1891-1892
  • Dufftown News and Speyside Advertiser covering 1898-1922 and 1935-1961
  • Edinburgh Evening Dispatch covering 1886-1892, 1894-1895 and 1897
  • Edinburgh News and Literary Chronicle covering 1848-1863
  • Evening Gazette (Aberdeen) covering 1882-1883, 1886-1889, and 1891-1892
  • Glasgow Property Circular and West of Scotland Weekly Advertiser covering 1879, 1883, 1886-1887, and 1890-1891
  • London and Liverpool Advertiser covering 1847
  • London News Letter and Price Current covering 1859-1865
  • London Weekly Investigator covering 1855-1857
  • North British Advertiser & Ladies’ Journal covering 1879, 1882-1883, 1885-1886, and 1889-1892
  • Northern Advertiser (Aberdeen) covering 1891-1892
  • Scottish Leader covering 1888 and 1890-1893
  • Scottish Press covering 1849-1850, 1852-1854, 1856-1857, 1859-1860 and 1862
  • Tichborne News and Anti-Oppression Journal covering 1872
  • Town and Country Advertiser covering 1834-1836

While 15 publications have been updated with extra pages, including:

• • Aberystwyth Observer from 1898
  • Greenock Herald from 1853, 1858, 1863, 1868 and 1878
  • Harborne Herald from 1896
  • Kentish Weekly Post or Canterbury Journal from 1726-1733, 1735-1741, 1743-1764, and 1767-1768
  • Kilmarnock Weekly Post and County of Ayr Reporter from 1856-1863
  • Lynn Advertiser from 1994
  • Newark Advertiser from 1992
  • Rhos Herald from 1898
  • Seren Cymru from 1895
  • South Wales Argus from 1911
  • South Wales Weekly Argus and Monmouthshire Advertiser from 1898 and 1910
  • St. Austell Star from 1897
  • Stamford Mercury from 1916
  • Suffolk and Essex Free Press from 1994
  • Warminster Herald from 1858, 1870-1871, 1875-1876, 1881, and 1885-1886

 

The following announcement was written by TheGenealogist:

Discover the homes of England’s most infamous monarch, English Rugby and the modern home of England's Archives in the latest release from TheGenealogist.

49,552 owner and occupier records have been added to TheGenealogist’s unique Lloyd George Domesday Survey record set this week with the release of the 1910 Land Survey records for the areas of Barnes, Hampton, Richmond upon Thames, Teddington and Twickenham.

Lloyd George Domesday Survey on TheGenealogist of land in Richmond before The National Archives was built

Family history researchers can combine these with other records such as the 1911 Census, and Trade, Residential and Telephone directories to discover more about where their ancestors lived C1910. The IR58 Valuation Office survey records give researchers additional information about their ancestors' home, land, outbuildings and property.

These occupier and ownership records can be searched for using the Master Search at TheGenealogist or by clicking on the pins displayed on TheGenealogist’s powerful Map Explorer™. This means that the family historian can see how the landscape where their ancestors lived or worked changed over time.

Only available online from TheGenealogist, these records enable the researcher to thoroughly investigate a place in which an ancestor lived even if the streets have undergone massive change in the intervening years. In TheGenealogist’s featured article on this week’s UK episode of Who Do You Think You Are? they were able to locate the exact property referred to on the census used in the TV programme researching Alex Scott’s family.

https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2021/who-do-you-think-you-are/alex-scott-1479/

Example of exclusive Lloyd George Domesday Survey locates 189 St George’s Street address of Alex Scott’s ancestor in census used in Who Do You Think You Are? episode

Read TheGenealogist’s article: The Market Garden below high water that became the site of The National Archives and the tumble down swanky office

https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2021/richmond-owner-and-occupier-records-1491/

About TheGenealogist

TheGenealogist is an award-winning online family history website, who put 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’s 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!

 

The following announcement was written by the Augusta Genealogical Society:

Following Footprints to Your Ancestors, 2021 Virtual Webinar Series

When: 13 November, 2021

Where: On Line

Register: Augustagensociety.org

Program: Evaluate Evidence Found in the Records: Now that you are learning about the variety of family history records, discover how to effectively analyze a collection of records for information and evidence and evaluate the quality of each source.

Saturday the 1 hour virtual webinar will begin at 1:00 pm (ET) or 10:00 am (PT). Registrants will be sent a link for the webinar platform via email prior to each webinar.

Presenter: Debra Brodowski

The Augusta Genealogical Society is a non-profit organization founded in September 1979.

Do you have a need for occasional (perhaps even one-time) video editor to manipulate video files? Perhaps you don't want to spend $299 for Final Cut Pro or a similar video editor? If you have such a need, I have a suggestion for you:

OpenShot

OpenShot is a free and open source video editor. Versions are available for Windows, Macintosh, and Linux. It is a powerful yet very simple and easy-to-use video editor that delivers high quality video editing and animation solutions. OpenShot offers a myriad of features and capabilities, including powerful curve-based Key frame animations, 3D animated titles and effects, slow motion and time effects, audio mixing and editing, and so much more. It also has a very simple and friendly interface.

Now, to be blunt: this free software is not the full equivalent of the $299 Final Cut Pro. However, if your needs are simpler and you perhaps don't need all the capability of the high-priced software, you may find the FREE OpenShot meets your need perfectly. I have been experimenting with OpenShot for the past few weeks and I find it meets my admittedly simple needs perfectly.

Amongst the capabilities are:

The above is an abbreviated list; the full list may be found at https://www.openshot.org/features/.

You can also download the complete User Guide and read more about it to see if it will meet your needs at https://www.openshot.org/user-guide/.

You can learn a lot more about OpenShot and even download and install the complete program at https://www.openshot.org/.

Again it is FREE, simple to use, and has a surprising number of features.

A sample of hair belonging to the legendary 19th century Native American leader Sitting Bull has allowed scientists to confirm that a South Dakota man is his great-grandson.

Sitting Bull

Scientists took DNA from a tiny sample of Sitting Bull's hair that had been stored in Washington DC.

It showed that Ernie LaPointe, 73, is his great-grandson.

The new method allows analysis of family lineages with DNA fragments from long-dead people.

You can read more about this story in the BBC News web site at: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-59062133.

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.

Facebook is one of the most popular apps available on the World Wide Web. I know that thousands of genealogists log onto the web site daily. Now the company is changing its name. It is now called "Meta."

Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg made the announcement at an event outlining a new push into the ‘metaverse.'

The company has received multiple black eyes in recent years because of its questionable business practices.

The name change comes as the world's largest social media company battles criticisms from lawmakers and regulators over its market power, algorithmic decisions and the policing of abuses on its platforms.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg, speaking at the company's live-streamed virtual and augmented reality conference, said the new name reflected its ambitions to build the metaverse, rather than its namesake social media service.

The metaverse, a term first coined in a dystopian novel three decades ago and now attracting buzz in Silicon Valley, refers broadly to the idea of a shared virtual environment which can be accessed by people using different devices.

"Right now, our brand is so tightly linked to one product that it can't possibly represent everything that we're doing today, let alone in the future," said Zuckerberg.

The company, which has invested heavily in augmented and virtual reality, said the change would bring together its different apps and technologies under one new brand. It said it would not change its corporate structure.

The tech giant, which reports about 2.9 billion monthly users, has faced increasing scrutiny in recent years from global lawmakers and regulators.

In the latest controversy, whistleblower and former Facebook employee Frances Haugen leaked documents which she said showed the company chose profit over user safety. Zuckerberg earlier this week said the documents were being used to paint a "false picture."

You can read more in any of hundreds of online articles that have appeared on the web in the past few hours. Perform a search on your favorite search engine for "Facebook" or "Meta."

The following announcement was written by MyHeritage:

Halloween is almost upon us, and to celebrate, MyHeritage is providing free access to all death records added to MyHeritage before October 2021 for one week only: October 27–November 2!

Search free death records on MyHeritage

The records in this category include death, burial, and cemetery records as well as obituaries. These records are crucial sources of information for family researchers. Death certificates are typically issued within days of a death and can contain many details about a person’s life, such as their age at death, place of birth, parents’ names and origins, and the cause of death. The name of the person who provided these details may also be mentioned, and this can also be an important clue that can help you locate new relatives.

Burial and cemetery records can supplement death certificates and offer additional information, while obituaries may provide rich details about the person’s life: their interests, profession, passions, and connections in the community.

From last Halloween until the beginning of October, we added more than 37 million records to an already enormous collection of death records, burial records, cemetery records, and obituaries — bringing the total to 586,664,785 records. During that time, 11 collections were added or updated, including collections from Brazil, New Zealand, the United States, Poland, France, and more. So even if you’ve had a chance to peruse MyHeritage’s death record collection in the past, it’s worth taking a look to see if there’s anything new concerning your family history.

Don’t miss this chance! Search free death records on MyHeritage now.