I have been a loyal and enthusiastic user of Evernote for years. However, that is about to change.

About a year ago, Evernote was purchased by Bending Spoons. I haven’t seen much difference in Evernote’s operation since the new owners took over. However, the price of an Evernote subscription is now increasing to a level where I am now questioning if the service is worth the new price.

In a post to the Evernote Blog, the company announced, "The price of an Evernote subscription is increasing.” In fact, it is increasing to a level where I am no longer interested in paying the new price.

The new prices are a bit complicated. You can read the details at: https://evernote.com/blog/evernote-pricing-upcoming-features-update. However, the price for private individuals is clear: $129.99 per year. I enjoy Evernote but I don’t enjoy it THAT much.

I am now looking at alternative replacements for Evernote. One that looks appealing is Joplin, a freeware open source product that seems to have a lot of enthusiastic users.

Joplin may be found at: https://joplinapp.org/.

As one of the most heavily traveled states in the country, Pennsylvania’s vast transportation network demonstrates technological changes from the 18th century to the present.

These changes, and the growth of Pennsylvania and the United States, would not be possible without bridges. Pennsylvania’s key location placed the Commonwealth at the forefront of development and application of innovative bridge technology and engineering.

From stone arches and covered bridges to metal trusses and cable suspension bridges, Pennsylvania has a diverse collection of bridge types across its landscape. This includes over 400 historic bridges, bridges that are eligible for listing, or are listed, in the National Register of Historic Places.

To showcase this collection, PennDOT created the Historic Bridges of Pennsylvania web map, an interactive GIS layer with locational and basic historical information about each bridge. It is important to note that this web map only includes extant historic bridges that are publicly owned by a federal, state, or local government agency or a toll commission organization.

The map does not include bridges owned by private entities such as railroads, businesses, or private individuals. For more information on other historic bridges that may not be featured on this map, visit the PA SHPO’s PA-SHARE website.

You can read more in an article in the pahistoricpreservation.com web site at: https://tinyurl.com/ydzu2chc.

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is scheduled to completely eliminate its veterans records backlog by January 2024, the agency said in its Fiscal Year 2023 Agency Financial Report.

The records backlog at NARA swelled during the COVID-19 pandemic, and has caused delays for veterans seeking benefits.

“Eliminating the backlog of requests that accumulated at the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) during the COVID-19 pandemic has been my top priority, said Colleen Shogan, archivist of the U.S.

“My first official trip as Archivist of the United States was to the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC), where I reinforced my commitment to eliminating the backlog, and to witness first hand the extraordinary work of NPRC staff in support of our nation’s veterans,” she said.

The report also talks about NARA’s success in expanding access to the Electronic Records Archives (ERA) 2.0 system to include other Federal agencies.

“Customer agencies now have a modern, cloud­hosted platform for records scheduling and transfer services,” added Shogan.

“ERA 2.0 improves the customer experience by providing a modern interface and dashboard to help agencies track the status of record scheduling and transfer requests through the approval process,” she said.

NARA has also successfully launched its modernized National Archives Catalog, which provides free and public access to digitized archival government documents.

“The new platform is geared towards the future as the Catalog is expected to grow from 217 million pages at the end of FY 2023 to over 500 million digitized pages in the next few years,” stated Shogan.

“New enhancements make accessing the agency’s holdings more intuitive for the user and improves the search experience by generating faster results,” stated Shogan.

The following announcement was written by the folks at: scottishindexes.com:

Discover the hidden lives of your ancestors

Scottish Indexes have reached a major milestone in their Scottish prison register indexing project. With the release of a further 180,000 prison register entries at the Scottish Indexes Conference on Saturday you can now search over half a million records from 38 Scottish prisons. Search Scotland's Criminal Database: https://www.scottishindexes.com/ScotlandsCriminalDatabase.aspx

These records are vital to exploring the stories behind our family history as well as overcoming brick walls to our research. Emma Maxwell, genealogist at Scottish Indexes, says “The census is a snapshot in time, but what happened to our ancestors on all the other days? Prison records can be a key to discovering more. For example, we may find a description of our ancestor’s tattoos or scars.”

Genealogist Graham Maxwell says “The key information given in a prison register to identify the inmate is now very useful for our research projects. While the census may give a place of birthplace of ‘Ireland’ or ‘ England’ a prison register may give us the specific county or parish. If our ancestor died before 1851 the birthplace and age could be the vital clues we need.”

Aliases and alternative surnames are given in the prison register. It could be that someone used a name to try to avoid the law but we also see multiple surnames recorded for other people. Married women usually have their maiden and married surnames included. Inmates who were illegitimate may be recorded under their biological father's name as well as their mother’s surname.

About Scottish Indexes: The indexes on scottishindexes.com are free to search and the website is managed by husband and wife team, Graham and Emma Maxwell. As well as criminal records you can search the Scottish Paternity Index, Mental Health Records, Court of Session Index and more.

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

Genealogists are generally concerned with long-term data preservation. A lot of genealogists believe that the only method of preserving data is to print the information on paper. Yet, many of us have handled old pieces of paper that are decaying, crumbling, or fading to the point that the information is not readable. In fact, most paper manufactured in the past 75 years or so contains acids that will hasten the deterioration of the information you wish to preserve. 

Even worse, the inks and laser printer toner we use today will fade in a few years, even if the paper survives. I already have papers in my filing cabinet I wrote or photocopied 25 or 30 years ago that have faded quite a bit. Some are already difficult to read because of faded ink or photocopy toner. Those papers probably will be unreadable in another 25 or 30 years. 

As we have seen recently in several places around the world, paper is especially fragile. Paper documents are easily destroyed by fires, floods, earthquakes, mold, mildew, or building collapse. On several occasions, valuable paper documents have been lost forever due to simple burst water pipes.

In archivist circles, the preferred solution is to “digitize data so as to preserve it.” However, even digitizing requires some serious precautions and planning. In the past few years, the common choice for long-term digital data storage was CD-ROM or DVD-ROM disks. However, the technology has only appeared in the past three decades; so, we do not yet know if these devices will store data for a century or more. Some studies indicate that the information may not last that long. In fact, there is proof that some CD-ROM disks may not reliably last even one decade! Perhaps one out of every ten disks will become unreadable within ten years with a higher percentage suffering the same fate over 20 or 30 years.

Perhaps of even greater concern is the fact that CD-ROM and DVD disks are slowly disappearing. Many laptop computers and more than a few desktop computers of today do not contain CD-ROM disk drives. Even Netflix has switched from renting movies on CD-ROM disks that are mailed to the customers to online “streaming video.” Almost all music today is rented or purchased from online services, such as from iTunes, Amazon Music, Google Play, Spotify, or other subscription-based services. 

Record stores, CD-ROM stores, and video rental stores have almost disappeared. When was the last time you rented a movie on a DVD disk? Even record stores are closing or changing their business practices. The preferred method of obtaining music nowadays is to download it online. 

Online distribution is replacing CD-ROM distribution of data, audio, and video media. 

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/13283273.

The following announcement was written by Findmypast:

National Burial Index for England & Wales  

This week’s largest release sees over 122,000 burial records added to this existing collection. Unique to Findmypast, these new records are for the county of Herefordshire. They span 300 years, between 1539 and 1840. You may discover your ancestor’s name, date and place of burial with these transcriptions.   

Kent Burials - Medway 

There are just over 14,000 new records for Medway in Kent in this week’s release. They cover 1981 to 2020. From these records, you can expect to learn a full name, age, birth year, burial date and place and residence. In some cases, an occupation is also included, along with any dedication featured on the deceased's grave.  

Kent Burials – Dunns Funeral Directors Registers 

Last but not least, we've also added 1,478 records from the town of Bromley to our collection of Kent Burials. Taken from two local parishes, these new additions span 1803 to 1839. These records, taken from registers kept by Dunns Funeral Directors, contain both a transcription and an image of the original register. In addition to a full name and age, you'll learn a birth year, burial date and place from these records. In some cases, an occupation is also listed, as well as additional notes - such as marital status, parents' names, and whether the deceased was a foundling. 

Newspapers 

Did your ancestors make the news? Three new titles, updates to a further 12, and over 160,000 new pages make up this week’s newspaper release.  

New titles: 

·         Ascot Times, 1986-1987 

·         Crowthorne Times, 1983 

·         Newtownabbey Times and East Antrim Times, 1987-1989, 1991-1999 

Updated titles: 

·         Belfast News-Letter, 1996, 1998 

·         Bracknell Times, 1985 

·         Central Somerset Gazette, 1993-1995 

·         Cheddar Valley Gazette, 1996-1997 

·         Edinburgh Evening News, 1994 

·         Football Post (Nottingham), 1998 

·         Jewish World, 1899, 1902-1904, 1907 

·         Larne Times, 1987, 1989 

·         Londonderry Sentinel, 1961-1962, 1966, 1968-1976 

·         Lurgan Mail, 1986-1987, 1992, 1994-1999 

·         Mid-Ulster Mail, 1994 

·         Shepton Mallet Journal, 1992-1993, 1996, 1998 

The University Libraries are digitizing the complete archive of the student-run newspaper since its inception on Oct. 19, 1893. The Nevada Sagebrush student newspaper is now entirely online with articles posting almost daily.

This year we actively celebrate the University’s history leading up to the Sesquicentennial celebration on Oct. 12, 2024. The University Libraries are hard at work researching the past, preserving it, and making this history as accessible as possible to the modern-day audience. Part of that work includes digitizing historical records, and one fascinating bit of history is the student-run newspaper. 

The University of Nevada, Reno was founded on Oct. 12, 1874, and just 19 years later, on Oct. 19, 1893, the students of the University published the first edition of a student-run newspaper, which they called The Student Record.

The student newspaper, now called The Nevada Sagebrush, states its simplified mission on its website: 

“The Nevada Sagebrush aims to keep students, faculty and the University of Nevada, Reno community updated on all matters concerning the Nevada campus.” 

NOTE: This is a slightly updated version of an article I published a few years ago. A couple of newsletter readers have sent messages to me in the past few days expressing dissatisfaction with records that were available online on various genealogy web sites but recently have disappeared. I am offering this republished article as an explanation on why we should not be surprised when that happens. I will also offer a suggestion as to making sure you keep your own copies of online records that are valuable to you.

Two newsletter readers sent email messages to me recently expressing dissatisfaction that a set of images of vital records has been removed from a popular genealogy site. Indeed, removal of any online records of genealogical value is sad, but not unusual. Changes such as these are quite common on FamilySearch, MyHeritage, Ancestry.com, Fold3, FindMyPast, and many other genealogy sites that provide old records online. Removal of datasets has occurred dozens of times in the past, and I suspect such things will continue to happen in the future. I thought I would write a brief explanation.

In most cases, information of genealogical value obtained from government agencies, religious groups, museums, genealogy societies, and other organizations is provided under contractual agreements. The contracts specify what information is to provided, how it is to be made available, and what price the web site has to pay to the provider for the records. All contracts also have a defined expiration date, typically 2 years or 3 years or perhaps 5 years after the contract is signed.

When a contract nears expiration, the two parties usually attempt to renegotiate the contract. Sometimes renewal is automatic, but more often it is not. Maybe the information provider (typically an archive) decides they want more money, or maybe they decide they no longer want to supply the data to the online genealogy service. For instance, in the time the information has been available online, the information provider may have learned just how valuable the information really is. The information provider may decide to ask for more money or may even refuse to provide the information any more since the provider may have a NEW plan to create their own web site and offer the same information online on their new site for a fee.

Sure, that stinks for those of us who would like to have free information everywhere; but, it makes sense to most everyone else. I am sure the budget officer at most any state or local government archive thinks it makes sense.

Every contract renegotiation is different, but it is not unusual to agree to disagree. The contract ends, and the web site provider legally MUST remove the information from their web site. The same thing frequently happens to all the other online sites that provide old records online.

Moral of this story: If you find a record online that is valuable to you, SAVE IT NOW! Save it to your hard drive and make a backup copy someplace else as well. If there is no option to save, make a screen shot and save it on your hard drive or some other place where it will last for many years. Just because you can see the record online today does not mean that it will be available tomorrow.

A DNA test has shown that the Loch Ness Monster is an algae-based creature, filmmakers claim.

Investigators collected water samples from the famous Scottish loch's Borlum Bay during the largest search for Nessie in over 50 years.

Matty Wiles, 49 and Aga Balinska, 42 were volunteering as part of the search, which took place over the last weekend of August this year.

A very, very old claimed photograph of the Loch Ness Monster

They went for an early morning swim at 6.30am and saw two humps and a third appendage, possibly a head, in the water.

They took photos and videos and shared their findings with Loch Ness Exploration, a group set up to research the mysteries of loch and coordinated the search.

Documentary producers working on new TV series, Weird Britain, by Dragonfly Films were there to chronicle the hunt for Nessie as the season finale of their series.

They decided to collect water samples to send for eDNA analysis.

Environmental DNA (or eDNA) analysis is a new method of amplifying traces of DNA left behind by an animal in its habitat, the environment in which it lives.

The samples were sent to a private laboratory called Jonah Ventures in Boulder, Colorado, USA which was founded in 2013 with the aim of helping other scientists answer ecological questions by sequencing environmental DNA.

The tests detected two types of algae, with experts claiming it suggests Nessie may be algae-based.

TV presenter and cryptozoologist Ken Gerhard said: ''The tests only detected algae, which of course is exciting news if we consider the possibility that Nessie is a giant algae blob monster.”

This article is not about any of the "normal" topics of this newsletter: genealogy, history, current affairs, DNA, and related topics. However, I suspect lots of people will be interested in this:

Whether you're a coder or a total beginner, Amazon might have an AI class for you. Amazon wants you to work in AI. More specifically, they want to train you on the skills necessary to handle one of these jobs.

In a blog post on Monday, Amazon announced "AI Ready," the company's new initiative to give two million people access to free AI skills training by 2025. In total, the company is offering eight new classes, for free, for varying experience levels and purposes. In addition, AI Ready aims to offer a new generative AI course to more than 50,000 high school and university students. The company has also formed a new partnership with Code.org to teach students about generative AI.

But back to the free classes: Whether you're a total beginner to the world of AI, or you're an experienced person looking to boost your skills, Amazon believes it has a class for you in AI Ready. (There are more than 80 other AI classes and resources Amazon hosts on AWS, but not all of them are free.) 

The classes range in length, experience level, and topic, and the list covers a variety of different use cases. I can imagine Amazon's "Introduction to Generative Artificial Intelligence" course, for example, being useful for anyone looking to gain a baseline understanding of how generative AI works.

You can read more at: https://lifehacker.com/tech/amazon-offering-ai-classes-for-free.