MyHeritage has announced a major update to DNA Matches on MyHeritage — you can now compare your Genetic Groups to those of your DNA Matches.

According to the MyHeritage Blog:

"In late December 2020, we introduced Genetic Groups, an enhancement to our Ethnicity Estimate which increases the resolution of MyHeritage DNA’s ethnicity breakdown to 2,114 geographic regions. Since then, we’ve been working to improve the feature and add new components requested by users, and in January 2021 we released the first set of user interface improvements. 

"Comparing the shared genetic characteristics of your DNA Matches is very useful and can help you figure out how you might be related. Previously, on the Review DNA Match page, you were able to view the Ethnicity Estimate of your DNA Matches and see which ethnicities you share. Now, you can drill down even further and see which Genetic Groups they belong to, and which ones you have in common."

You can read a detailed explanation and view a number of graphics illustrating the use of the latest updates in the MyHeritage Blog at: https://blog.myheritage.com/2021/03/new-view-the-genetic-groups-of-your-dna-matches/.

An announcement from FamilySearch:

This looks like a major online event! The following is the announcement from the Genealogical Forum of Oregon:

Registration is now open!

From an article by Desmond Brown in the CBC News website:

"A former Virginia slave who was laid to rest in the Hamilton Cemetery on York Boulevard is believed to be the first Black man in Canada to have received an official U.S. Civil War headstone.

Historian Robin McKee points to the Hamilton Cemetery burial site of Nelson Stevens, a Black veteran of the Civil War. (Photo courtesy of Evan Mitsui/CBC)

"Recently, Hamilton historian Robin McKee spoke to CBC News about how he found Nelson Stevens's unmarked grave in 2007 while doing research for his Civil War-themed tour — one of several tours he has been conducting in the Hamilton Cemetery for 20 years.

"McKee learned Stevens came north to escape slavery, settled in Hamilton and enlisted to fight for the Union Army against the Confederacy as a soldier in a United States Colored Troops (USCT) regiment."

The full article may be found at: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/nelson-stevens-hamilton-cemetery-1.5965834.

My thanks to newsletter reader Jim Benedict for telling me about this story.

The following is an announcement about a new service introduced today by TheGenealogist.co.uk:

TheGenealogist has released the 1939 Register for England and Wales, adding their unique and powerful search tools and SmartSearch technology. This offers a hugely flexible way to look for your ancestors at the start of the Second World War.

TheGenealogist’s well known brick wall shattering search tools include the ability to find your ancestor in 1939 by using keywords, such as the individual’s occupation or their date of birth. You can also search for an address and then jump straight to the household. If you’re struggling to find a family, you can even search using as many of their forenames as you know.

Once you’ve found a record in the 1939 Register, you can click on the street name to view all the residents on the street, potentially finding relatives living nearby.

TheGenealogist’s innovative SmartSearch technology enables you to discover even more about a person, linking to their Birth, Marriage and Death records.

1939 saw the evacuation of thousands of children

The 1939 Register can often reveal to you important additional information about your ancestors that will help build your family’s story. The powerful keyword search can find evacuees by searching for their name and date of birth along with the keyword “evacuee”. The fact individuals are listed with their full dates of birth is a huge benefit that the 1939 Register has over the census, which simply lists the age of a person.

Take your research journey quickly forwards by using TheGenealogist’s innovative SmartSearch to jump to a person’s
• Birth Record
• Marriage Record
• Death Record

TheGenealogist makes searching the 1939 Register more flexible. Search by
• Name (Including wildcards, e.g. Win* Church*)
• Address (e.g. Whitehall)
• Keywords (e.g. Admiralty)
• First names from a family group (e.g. Winston, Clementine)

See TheGenealogist’s article on finding the highest paid Film Star and Entertainer of the time, George Formby:
https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2021/a-window-on-september-1939-and-george-formby-the-entertainer-1398/

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!

A newsletter reader asked a question today about finding and reading past newsletter articles. I am guessing that perhaps other readers have the same question. I decided to write a brief article here in case someone else has the same questions.

Questions: Are all the articles only available by searching? Isn’t there a list to scroll through?

Answer: You can easily find and read past articles.

If you already know the topic or a few words of the article(s) you seek, simply enter those word(s) in the SEARCH box that is on almost all pages in this web site. It works almost the same as searches on Google or other search engines except that it only searches in articles in this newsletter, not in the entire Word Wide Web.

The SEARCH BOX is the fastest way to find past articles if you know any of the word(s) in the article.

However, if you simply want to browse through past articles to see what has recently been published in recent months, click on the numbers shown at the top of the article listings:

Clicking on the numbers 1, 2, 3, and so on results in:

Click on #1: Show the most recent articles

Click on #2: Show the next to the most recent articles

Click on #3: Show the third most recent page of articles

And so on and on...

Clicking on those numbers shows past articles in reverse chronological order: the higher the number, the further back in time you go. 

Any questions?

The following announcement was posted to the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies’ Public Records Access Monitoring Committee’s mailing list and is republished here with permission:

The IAJGS Records Access Alert previously reported that the Public Buildings Reform Board (PBRB) has recommended the closing and sale of Seattle’s national archives facility without any public input. Records include those of Washington State, Orgon, Idaho and Alaska dating back to 1840. Little has been digitized. The records move would be National facilities in Riverside California -over 1,000 miles away. This is a critical loss to the millions of residents in the states that currently are covered by the Seattle facility.

The sale was approved by the Office of Management and Budget. This would severely hamper access for people in the Pacific Northwest: Alaska, Idaho, Orgon and Washington State.

Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson previously stated he would to try and prevent the sale via lawsuit. Additionally Washington, Oregon and two dozen Native American and Alaska Native tribes and cultural groups are suing the federal government to stop the sale of the National Archives building in Seattle. Earlier this month a bipartisan group of US Senators and members of the House of representatives from Washington, Oregon. Idaho and Alaska sent a letter to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) asking them to stop the sale. All but one federal lawmaker in the four states signed the letter; the lone holdout was Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Central Washington). The sale is opposed by all 8 US Senators and many US Representatives from Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Washington State.

The US Senator Patty Murphy (D-WA) has introduced a bill, called “Assuring Regular Consultation to Have Indigenous Voices Effectively Solicited Act’’ – or “ARCHIVES Act” for short – to retroactively amend the original FASTA legislation. FASTA is an Obama-era law that was used by an obscure federal agency to target the Seattle facility, and other valuable federal real estate, for closure and rapid sale. Joining Senator Murphy as cosponsors of the bill to prevent the sale of the Pacific NW NARA office are: Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA); Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley (both D-OR.)

Murphy’s bill says that for federal properties targeted via FASTA, “if the proposed sale or transfer would affect access to Federal agency services by a federally recognized Indian Tribe, the relevant Federal agency shall consult with all Tribal governments that may be so affected.” The ARCHIVES Act further states that in most cases, “Federal civilian real property may not be sold or transferred under this Act … if the proposed sale or transfer would substantially reduce or eliminate access to Federal agency services by a federally recognized Indian Tribe.” This Tribal consultation did not happen with the Seattle branch of the National Archives – which houses more than 150 years-worth of federal materials related to Tribes in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Alaska – until after the intent to sell was first reported by KIRO Radio in early 2020.

A draft of Murphy’s bill may be read at: https://www.murray.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/9284316b-2e3c-406d-a765-5c6610f02e13/archives-act-text.pdf.

At the time of writing this posting the bill number was not posted to the bill.

See news article: https://mynorthwest.com/2714428/senators-archives-act-stop-sale-seattle-facility/

Senator Murray's press release may be read at: https://www.murray.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/newsreleases?ID=3F61E004-1C91-4076-B357-1A798F7B4E7A.

To read the previous postings about the potential closing of the Washington NARA Office, 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

The following announcement was written by the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy (more commonly known as SLIG):

SLIG is pleased to announce that applications are currently being accepted for the following scholarships:

UGA Jimmy B. Parker Scholarship: Named in honor of Jimmy B. Parker, this full- tuition scholarship is awarded to someone who has “demonstrated commitment to genealogical excellence and community involvement.” Full details here.

Laura G. Prescott SLIG Scholarship: This scholarship was created by friends and colleagues in honor of Laura G. Prescott (1958-2018) and her passion for genealogical education, this scholarship awards full tuition and hotel accommodations to SLIG, SLIG Academy, or SLIG Virtual. Full details here.

SLIG Scholarship for First-Time Institute Attendees: Created in 2016, this scholarship is awarded to students who have never previously attended an institute program and who wish to elevate their education to new heights. Full details here.

SLIG Intermediate Foundation Scholarship: This scholarship provides full tuition to the SLIG Virtual Intermediate Foundations course. Targeted to institute attendees who desire to strengthen their research knowledge and skills at an intermediate level, in preparation for future institute courses. Full details here.

Deadlines: Applications for all four scholarships are due no later than June 1, 2021. Winners will be announced after July 1, 2021.

Complete details for each of these opportunities and information about scholarships available through other organizations may be found at SLIG.ugagenealogy.org.

The Georgia State Archives in Morrow has reopened by appointment only.

Genealogists and historians now have access to the reference library, microfilm library, computer terminals and original records by appointment. Appointments can be scheduled Tuesdays through Saturdays: Morning: 9:00 to 12:00; afternoon: 1:00 to 4:00.

Please use Ask an Archivist Form  or call 678-364-3710 to schedule your appointment or enquire about resources.

From an article by Mary Nickles and published in the KJZZ website:

A cutting-edge project at Brigham Young University uses family history and DNA research to prevent cancer.

"It's definitely saving lives," said Julie Stoddard. She and fellow researcher Jill Crandell are working on a public health initiative called "Connect My Variant."

Stoddard and Crandall got involved when a researcher studying hereditary cancer, Dr. Brian Shirts at the University of Washington, started finding that people with the same genetic variant often shared a common ancestor, Crandell explained.

Shirts asked BYU's Center for Family History and Genealogy to track down the family trees of those people, so relatives can be warned of cancers that commonly strike before screenings can catch them.

You can read the full article at: https://kjzz.com/news/byu-research.