Much of the U.S. is under early wintry weather conditions. Northern New England, parts of Pennsylvania and of Ohio are are receiving early season snow and ice. An "Atmospheric River" is  a bringing steady stream of rainfall to the Northwestern US. A Flood Watch is in effect for coastal Oregon and Washington State. 

But cheer up! It could be worse, you could be in Hawaii.  (Anyone who lives in Hawaii already knows what I am talking about.) "Winter wonderland" isn't a term often associated with Hawaii, but that's exactly how one meteorologist described the Aloha State on Thursday.

However, it is not uncommon for snow to fall on Hawaii's volcanic peaks given their altitude, and evenblizzard warnings have been issued in Hawaii during the winter months.

The Mauna Kea Weather Center is based on the Mauna Kea volcano. At nearly 14,000 feet above sea level, the volcano is the tallest peak in Hawaii. It is the world's tallest mountain when measured base to peak, as its base extends nearly 20,000 feet below sea level.

"It's snowing in Hawaii? At over 13,000 feet, the peaks of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa do get some snow each winter. Today is one of those days. Only researchers reside there," AccuWeather posted on X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday afternoon.

Snow is a common occurrence in the winter months at Hawaii's three tallest volcanoes—Mauna Kea, Mauna Loa and Haleakala. Mauna Kea occasionally sees snowfall during the summer months as well. However, snow rarely falls anywhere in Hawaii with an elevation below 9,000 feet, even during the winter months, according to a report by World Atlas.

You can read more in an article by Anna Skinner in the Newsweek web site at: https://www.newsweek.com/photos-hawaii-snow-temperatures-plunge-1848774.

Here is another article that is not about any of the "normal" topics of this newsletter: genealogy, history, current affairs, DNA, and related topics. However, it caught my eye. I am a very satisfied user of the Proton products and I will suggest that all computer owners who have an interest in personal privacy should at least check out the many features of Proton.

The following is from the Proton Blog:

In recent months, we’ve brought a lot of big additions to the Proton ecosystem, such as Proton VPN for Business(new window), Proton Sentinel(new window), Password Sharing(new window) in Proton Pass, and Proton Drive photo backups in beta. By comparison, we haven’t said a lot about Proton Mail and Proton Calendar, but that doesn’t mean we’ve been idle or moved our focus away from Proton’s main services. 

Instead, over the past three months, we intentionally took a different strategy for Mail and Calendar. Rather than focusing on big ticket items, we compiled a list of requests from Proton community members on how Proton Mail can make your life easier. This involved aggregating statistics from Reddit, Twitter, and UserVoice, and also analyzing data from over 100,000 support tickets dating back several years. Then we began diligently working through the list.

Why focus on small improvements rather than attention-grabbing launches? Because ever since our 2014 community crowdfunding campaign, Proton has been community supported. We don’t make money through ads and we have no venture capital investors, so you, the community, are the only people we answer to. This list reflects that as it is composed entirely of your feedback.

Today we’ve reached the milestone of 75% completion of our list, and we would like to share with you some highlights of what we’ve implemented, as well as a glimpse of what we’ll tackle next.

The full article is rather lengthy so I recommend that you read it at: https://proton.me/blog/mail-calendar-improvements-2023.

Scientists have used the remains of some 500 people to create a series of “bone biographies” that provide a glimpse inside the ordinary lives of plague survivors of the English city of Cambridge.

The skeletons, which came from a series of archaeological digs that began in the 1970s, date back to between 1000 and 1500.

During that medieval era, Cambridge was home to a few thousand people. The bubonic plague — known as the Black Death — came to the city between 1348 and 1349, killing 40% to 60% of its population, according to the study.

Archaeologists used radiocarbon dating and DNA analysis to study the bones of townsfolk, scholars, friars and merchants, eventually focusing on 16 people by examining their DNA, bodily trauma, activities and diets to paint a fuller picture of their existence, called osteobiographies. The findings appear in a study published Thursday in the journal Antiquity.

“An osteobiography uses all available evidence to reconstruct an ancient person’s life,” said lead study author John Robb, a professor at Cambridge University, in a statement. “Our team used techniques familiar from studies such as Richard III’s skeleton, but this time to reveal details of unknown lives — people we would never learn about in any other way.”

The bone biographies are available on Cambridge University’s After the Plague project website.

You can read more in an article by Ashley Strickland and Amy Woodyatt published in the CNN web site at: https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/01/world/black-death-cambridge-bone-biographies-scli-scn/index.html.

The Finnish American Heritage Center in Hancock, Michigan—formerly part of shuttered Finlandia University and now managed by Finlandia Foundation National—has joined UPLINK, an effort to digitize Upper Peninsula historical materials to facilitate online access and preservation. The Central U.P. and Northern Michigan University Archives hosts the UPLINK website and is the principal service site in the region.

“Our university president [Brock Tessman] has expressed great interest in increasing Northern's community engagement in the region,” said Marcus Robyns, NMU archivist. “That's precisely the idea behind UPLINK. We are using our tools and expertise to partner with U.P. heritage organizations on a low-cost method for increasing awareness of the historical records available, and ensuring easy access for generations to come. It's good that a national entity stepped in to run the center after Finlandia shut down so these important collections weren't dispersed elsewhere.”

According to its website, the Finnish American Heritage Center Joanna Chopp, the archivist at the Finnish American Heritage Center, attended an early meeting during which Robyn's outlined his vision for UPLINK. She has wanted her organization to join ever since, but the opportunity did not materialize until now.

“I look forward to being able to share even small parts of our collection online so they can be accessible to anyone,” Chopp said. “We've had researchers from as far as Finland, Japan and Canada come here. When people know we exist, they are excited to discover the wide range of materials we have here. Things will be better under the Finlandia Foundation National umbrella. They are very supportive of digitizing materials and doing outreach in the communities that may not realize we have things here they could be using.”

Chopp added that most of those doing research are genealogists. For that purpose, the center has Watia Funeral Home records and congregational church records. There is also documentation related to businesses and material on the temperance societies that used to operate in communities throughout the U.P. While the center has announced its intent to join UPLINK, digitization of its records will take some time.

UPLINK, or the Upper Peninsula Digital Network, began in 2021 with a two-year implementation grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission. It is a consortium of heritage organizations—archives, libraries, museums and historical societies—intended to pool resources and skills to make digitization and digital preservation affordable.

Visit the UPLINK website here.

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

Archivist of the United States Dr. Colleen Shogan approved 27 proposals totaling $2,009,467 in National Archives awards for projects in 25 states and the District of Columbia. The National Archives grants program is carried out with the advice and recommendations of the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC).  A complete list is available online.

In partnership with state historical records advisory boards, the National Archives awarded $795,632 for 17 State Board grants to carry out programs that assist smaller archives, provide workshops and educational tools, and provide statewide archival services. Two grants totaling $125,000 went to Archives Collaboratives. Utah Valley University was awarded a Major Archives Collaborative grant of $350,000 for its Center for Constitutional Studies to partner with the Quill Project at Oxford University to expand its undergraduate‐led digital modeling of state constitutional conventions.

Through our Publishing Historical Records program, $738,835 will go to  seven projects that document major historical figures and important eras and social movements in the history of the nation. Two new projects received their first NHPRC grants: ¡Presente!: Documenting Latinx History in Wisconsin at the University of Wisconsin and via Johns Hopkins University, a collaborative digital edition project, Kinship and Longing: Keywords for Black Louisiana, a digital edition that highlights Black life and culture of the Gulf Coast. 

In addition, through a three-year program funded by the Andrew Mellon Foundation, Planning Grants for Collaborative Digital Editions in African American, Asian American, Hispanic American, and Native American History and Ethnic Studies will go to 11 projects for a total of $1,273,022. New projects plan to document: 

The National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) of the National Archives supports projects that promote access to America's historical records to encourage understanding of our democracy, history, and culture. The 15-member Commission includes representatives from all three branches of the Federal government as well as the leading archival and historical professional associations. Archivist of the United States Dr. Colleen Shogan is the Chair, and Christopher Eck is the Executive Director. Since it was established in 1934 along with the National Archives, the NHPRC has awarded 5,200 grants for preserving, publishing, and providing access to the nation’s historical documents. 

To many Palestinians, Israel’s ongoing siege of the Gaza Strip is destroying not just buildings and human lives, but a people and their history. With Israeli strikes expected to continue after a brief pause this week, one artist is trying to preserve that history with a digital archive that gathers remnants of the Palestinian internet as it existed in the late 90s and 2000s. 

The project, called Palestine Online, began as an attempt to show the historical struggle of the Palestinian people using their own words and media, from a time when the internet was first starting to take root as a medium of self-expression. This history is written throughout the vibrant, GIF-heavy, Geocities-era web pages, revealing a personalized and intimate side of Palestinian life that is often overlooked.

The project is particularly relevant now, as Palestinians in Gaza struggle to stay online and communicate with the outside world amid internet blackouts, destroyed infrastructure, and dwindling fuel supplies. 

You can read more in an article by Janus Rose published in the vice.com web site at: https://www.vice.com/en/article/5d9qab/palestine-internet-preserved-90s-gifs.

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

News stories over the past few years about the possibly unconstitutional actions of the National Security Agency (NSA) should serve as a wake-up call for all of us. Yes, there are many people and organizations trying to obtain information about you. From hackers in third-world countries, to companies trying to sell you products, to semi-secret agencies of the U.S. Government, it seems as if nearly everyone is trying to find information about you. This asks the question, “Is it Safe to Trust the Cloud?” Indeed, many people seem to have a phobia about storing their personal information on servers on the Internet.

What saddens me most of all is that the entire issue is so easily avoided: encrypt the information. When you leave your house, I suspect you lock the door. When you leave your automobile in a parking lot, you probably lock it up, too. The same should be true with your information. When you leave your information unattended, whether it is in your home when you are not present or someplace in the cloud, you should lock it up.

Simply put, encryption programs scramble data within the file or files that you specify so that no one else can access that data without the key that you keep. Security is under your control at all times because you have the key and you decide who gets copies of that key. Encryption is easy to do, requiring only a few seconds, and (in many cases) it is free of charge. 

I know that I am paranoid about security, but I worry about my personal information wherever it is stored–online or on flash drives. I also worry about data stored on my computer at home. There are thousands of hackers around the world running automated scripts that attempt to connect to individual in-home computers to access information, even information that is not stored in the cloud. This remote access is easy to block, but many people don't know how to do that.

Even higher risk is in-home physical access. Sure, I trust my family members with any information I have, but do I trust their friends who visit our home? Do I trust the plumbers, the electricians, the locksmith, the delivery drivers, and others who enter my home, sometimes when I am not there? They could easily access my computer, even if for only a few seconds.

I used to have a job fixing computers in homes and in offices. In more than one case I found viruses had been introduced to computers by babysitters. These same babysitters obviously had easy access to the entire computer's contents and could easily have copied information to a flash drive or sent it by email to another computer anywhere in the world. In most cases, the babysitters had plenty of time to do this.

I no longer have any need to employ babysitters or pet sitters, but perhaps you do. If so, you need to ask yourself if you trust that babysitter or pet sitter with all your secrets.

One simple solution will eliminate all this worry: encryption will lock out prying eyes from your data on your own computer at home as well as protect data stored on flash drives, on web servers, in the cloud, or elsewhere. 

Who cares if someone gets their hands on your encrypted files? Assuming the encryption is performed with current, state-of-the art software, nobody can read your encrypted files without knowing those magic characters that will unscramble the files–the encryption key. (NOTE: Multi-bit encryption keys are very different from simple passwords.) Luckily, there are dozens of encryption programs to choose from, and many of them are available free of charge.

Encryption is used by the military, civilian governments, and corporations to keep secret information just that: secret. The U.S. military uses advanced cryptography techniques to document war plans, inventories of atomic bombs, intelligence information, flight plans of bombers, and similar secrets. The banking industry uses encryption to safely transfer billions of dollars every day. If encryption meets the needs of these organizations, it will work for you.

To be sure, the encryption should be performed with one of the better encryption standards of today, which are available in many encryption programs available from many vendors. The secret files also must be made by using a lengthy, multi-bit key to encrypt data using cryptographic algorithm. The key length used in the encryption determines the ease with which a hacker could perform a brute-force attack; longer keys are exponentially more difficult to crack than shorter ones.

For most of us, there is no need to encrypt every file on the computer. In fact, I encrypt only a small number of files. I don't care if someone is able to find and copy my chili recipe or back issues of this newsletter or the schedule for my next airline trip. However, there are a few files that I do not wish to share with others: the list of my credit card numbers, my checking account information, the list of passwords that are too long to memorize, and similar, sensitive data. I have perhaps two or three dozen such files that I wish to keep private. Those are the only files that I encrypt. 

I encrypt those files on my home computer's hard drive, and I make sure that no plain text copy exists anywhere. Even that one copy on my hard drive is encrypted. The reason is two-fold: encrypting files on my local hard drive provides protection from babysitters, tradesmen, and that shady brother-in-law that I never quite trusted. In addition, a file that is already encrypted can be copied to any media—including flash drives, online backup services, or to the cloud—all without concern for security. If the file is properly encrypted, it will remain encrypted when copied elsewhere.

What happens if a hacker later obtains a copy of my encrypted file? Nothing.

However, any time I want to view the file, I can enter the encryption key and see the original contents. There are three caveats, however:

1. To later read the encrypted file on a different computer, that computer must have the same encryption program or a compatible one. That is, if I encrypted the file with program XYZ, I must later use program XYZ or a program that is compatible with XYZ to decrypt the data and display it on the screen. However, there are a few programs that will create self-extracting encrypted files; those files can be opened on the receiving computer with no encryption software. 

2. I can never, ever forget the encryption key. (A key is somewhat like a password. Actually, keys and passwords are not the same thing, but they are used in a similar manner.) If the original encryption key gets lost, the encrypted file becomes useless. There is no recovery method, and you will never read the information in that file.

3. The encryption key now becomes the most sensitive piece of information of all. I need to protect that encryption key from outsiders. 

NOTE: Public and private key encryption is a method that avoids some of the issues with keeping some keys private. However, it also adds some new complications that are equally complex, if not more so. I will skip over a discussion of public and private key encryption as that is an advanced topic that is beyond the scope of this article, and also because most private individuals have little need for a complex system simply to restrict access to a few files. If you have an interest in public-key cryptography, you can read several detailed articles about its inner workings on the World Wide Web. You might start at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public-key_cryptography.

A quick search online will produce information about dozens of available encryption programs. Luckily, many of them are available free of charge. I haven't had a chance to try all of these, but all of the following enjoy a good reputation.

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/13286020.

Genetic testing company 23andMe announced on Friday that hackers accessed around 14,000 customer accounts in the company’s recent data breach.

In a new filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission published Friday, the company said that, based on its investigation into the incident, it had determined that hackers had accessed 0.1% of its customer base. According to the company’s most recent annual earnings report, 23andMe has “more than 14 million customers worldwide,” which means 0.1% is around 14,000.

But the company also said that by accessing those accounts, the hackers were also able to access “a significant number of files containing profile information about other users’ ancestry that such users chose to share when opting in to 23andMe’s DNA Relatives feature.”

The company did not specify what that “significant number” of files is, nor how many of these “other users” were impacted.

You can read more at: https://tinyurl.com/bd2b5tuy.

December 1, 2023—Bellville, Ohio: The Ohio Genealogical Society (OGS) announces a request for lecture proposals for the 2025 conference “Light Up Your Genealogy” to be held April 30-May 3, 2025, at Kalahari Resort & Conference Center in Sandusky, Ohio.

Topics being considered include but not limited to the following: immigration, census records, religious groups, migration, origins of early Ohio settlers, and the Old Northwest Territory, “movers and shakers” of early Ohio, the industrial age, utilizing land records, military records, technology (including usage mobile devices, apps, social media), DNA, organization, society management and development, and methodology, analysis, and problem solving in genealogical research, Ohio history and its records, archives and repositories.

The program committee is specifically seeking new, unusual, and dynamic proposals. Think outside of the box!

Interested speakers are strongly encouraged to submit multiple proposals for either one-hour general sessions, or two-hour workshops. There is no limit to the number of proposals a speaker may submit. The deadline for submission of lecture proposals is May 31, 2024.

Submit proposals in PDF format. Each proposal must include the following to be considered:

Submit all proposals via e-mail to ogsconference@ogs.org no later than Midnight EST May 31, 2024. Multiple proposals may be sent in one email. Please limit your emails to no more than two (2) emails. Speakers are required to use an electronic presentation program. Projectors will be provided by Kalahari Resort & Conference Center.

Compensation

Selected speakers receive an honorarium, travel compensation, conference registration, hotel, and per diem based on the number of days lectures are presented. (Sponsored speakers will only receive conference registration and syllabus materials. See more about sponsorships below.)

Sponsors

Societies and businesses are encouraged to submit proposals for sponsored talks. The sponsoring organization will cover speaker’s lecture(s) honorarium. Sponsored speakers will abide by all speaker deadlines. Sponsored speakers will receive complimentary OGS conference registration and electronic syllabus materials. The deadline to submit sponsored lectures is also May 31, 2024.

Additional information

Camera-ready syllabus material, due February 1, 2025 is required for each general presentation and will be included in the syllabus distributed to all conference registrants.

Invitations to speak will be issued by mid-June, 2024. Syllabus format guidelines will be sent to speakers at that time. The deadline for acceptance and submission of signed speaker contracts is July 15, 2025. Letters of regret will not be sent out until all invited speakers have responded.

About the Ohio Genealogical Society

The Ohio Genealogical Society, founded in 1959, is the premier Ohio family heritage resource and the largest state genealogical society in the United States. Our mission is to protect and share Ohio’s family history resources, develop engaging educational opportunities, and connect genealogists. The Ohio Genealogical Society uniquely creates a network of Ohio expertise that lets genealogists discover their families, so they feel personally enriched, and confident in their results.

Your participation as a speaker for the Ohio Genealogical Society's annual conference is greatly anticipated. We look forward to hearing from you.

The following is from the BillionGraves Blog:

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is changing the way BillionGraves transcriptions are done and we are so excited to tell you all about it!

Sooo Many Transcriptions. . .

A few years ago, if I uploaded my gravestone photos while at the cemetery, they would be transcribed before I could drive home! In just 15 minutes hundreds of the records would be transcribed! Seriously. Volunteers typed every name and date on every gravestone in just a few minutes. It was amazing! BillionGraves volunteer transcribers are AWESOME!

This was possible at that time because there were many more transcribers than photographers. But over the years, the photographers began to outnumber the transcribers. This change meant that when I uploaded photos, they often just sat there, waiting and waiting. Sometimes it was a year or more before the names and dates were transcribed!

Yes, I could have transcribed my own photos. But I live in an area where photos desperately need to be taken before the gravestones deteriorate so I felt that, for me, taking photos was a more important goal. I also love being outside in the cemetery.

I just hoped that others would transcribe my photos soon. Fortunately, there are others that LOVE to transcribe!

Angela Pecoraro of Meriden, Connecticut is one of BillionGraves’ top transcribers, having completed more than 68,500 transcriptions so far! But eventually, even Angela felt the weight of trying to transcribe so many headstones.

More than a year ago, Angela wrote to us with concern, saying, “The reality of over 2 million stones waiting for transcription is daunting. I’ve done 60,316 and helped 9,800 people as of today. As a genealogist I wish we could get more people to transcribe that’s for sure.”

Working Toward a Solution

BillionGraves’ tech team took the need for more transcriptions seriously and began to look at using artificial intelligence (AI) to help with the problem.

Eek! Did I just hear some of you in the background shouting, “NO, AI!!”

Oh, dear. I get it. It’s hard to adapt to new technology. Past generations have resisted giving up their horses for “horseless carriages” (cars) or giving up typewriters for computers.

You may have even heard on the news – or read on the internet – that some people have been using AI for evil purposes. That’s true. But it also can be used for good and pure purposes such as helping people find their ancestors and grow their family trees.

Using Artificial Intelligence to Transcribe Headstones

Besides, you have already been using AI for a long time, you know that right?

You tap on the microphone on your phone, speak, and your voice is converted into written text. That’s AI at work.

You type something on your computer a little too fast and it is spelled wrong. Then suddenly, without you doing a thing, it is spelled correctly. That’s AI again.

So why not use AI to transcribe headstones?

Is it Perfect?

AI still has a long way to go. It’s not perfect. But it is helping tremendously to be able to transcribe millions of BillionGraves’ headstones quickly and efficiently. In the first few weeks, AI had completed more than half a million transcriptions (including many of mine, hurrah!).

BillionGraves tech team is finding that the transcriptions are “spot-on” about 80% of the time. But the rest of the time, we need your help! Human volunteers are needed to do quality-control checks on the transcriptions that were done by AI.

Technically, It’s “Machine Learning”

Technically speaking, BillionGraves is using “machine learning” to transcribe. It’s a branch of AI.

Here is a dictionary definition of “machine learning”: “the use and development of computer systems that are able to learn and adapt without following explicit instructions, by using algorithms and statistical models to analyze and draw inferences from patterns in data.”

So every time you correct a transcription, you are helping the BillionGraves tech team to make the machine learning process better.

(By the way, there aren’t really robots sitting at computers transcribing. That’s just a picture I created using AI. But you knew that, right? Just checking.)

An Example Where Your Help is Needed

Computers are faster than human brains but human logic can do what machines will never be able to do.

The full article goes on for quite a bit longer. You can read the full story at: https://blog.billiongraves.com/artificial-intelligence-for-billiongraves-transcriptions/.