Latest News Articles

Everyone can read the (free) Standard Edition articles. However,  the Plus Edition articles are accessible only to (paid) Plus Edition subscribers. 

Read the (+) Plus Edition articles (a Plus Edition username and password is required).

Please limit your comments about the information in the article. If you would like to start a new message, perhaps about a different topic, you are invited to use the Discussion Forum for that purpose.

Do you have comments, questions, corrections or additional information to any of these articles? Before posting your words, you must first sign up for a (FREE) Standard Edition subscription or a (paid) Plus Edition subscription at: https://eogn.com/page-18077.

If you do not see a Plus Sign that is labeled "Add comment," you will need to upgrade to either a (FREE) Standard Edition or a (paid) Plus Edition subscription at: https://eogn.com/page-18077.

Click here to upgrade to a Plus Edition subscription.

Click here to find the Latest Plus Edition articles(A Plus Edition user name and password is required to view these Plus Edition articles.)

Complete Newsletters (including all Plus Edition and Free Edition articles published within a week) may be found if you click here. (A Plus Edition user name and password is required to view these complete newsletters.)

Do you have an RSS newsreader? You may prefer to use this newsletter's RSS feed at: https://www.eogn.com/page-18080/rss and then you will need to copy-and-paste that address into your favorite RSS newsreader.



Latest Standard Edition Articles

  • 17 Oct 2023 8:13 AM | Anonymous

    Boston has created a new database and made it available to the public: what is believed to be first public database of its kind in the country: a city-commissioned record of people who were enslaved in the pre-abolition era in Boston.

    The database, which is now posted on the city's website, lists 2,357 Black and Indigenous people enslaved in Boston between 1641 and 1783, the year Massachusetts abolished slavery. And researchers believe that number is only a fraction of what they can ultimately compile.

    You can read more in the msn news web site at: https://tinyurl.com/yc8zev55.

  • 17 Oct 2023 8:06 AM | Anonymous

    The following is a notice written by Reclaim the Records:

    Updated public datasets now available for more years of the Missouri Birth Index and Missouri Death Index, including the first pandemic era death files

    Hi again from Reclaim The Records! Today we're announcing a big update to two important record sets that we initially put online a few years ago. Big, like about a million records, including the (or one of the) first-ever full state death data files available from a state department of health from the pandemic era.

    And as usual, we're releasing it all for FREE use, reuse, downloading, uploading, remixing, and — best of all — for searches on our free websites, including searching by surnames, given names, soundalike names, common nicknames, close spelling variants, wildcard searches, names combined with dates, and even searching by specific date ranges with no name data at all. Yay, open data!

    Screenshot of a graph of deaths in Missouri, 1968-2022 

    But first, the juicy backstory

    Between 2016 and 2020, our organization filed, fought, and eventually won (yay!) a huge Missouri Sunshine Law case against the state's Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS). We had asked them for something pretty simple, just lists of people who were born or who had died in the state, which is something that their state law explicitly allows, and which they had given out or sold in more limited fashion to journalists and researchers for decades. We thought such data could also be useful to genealogists and other researchers.

    Screenshot of Missouri statutes showing birth and death data is open to the public

    The data was already stored in a big agency database, so they just needed to dump it to a few files, in CSV or even Microsoft Excel format, and send them to us on a USB drive or by file transfer. And under the law, they could only charge us for the actual hours of time needed to fulfill the request and produce the files, and paid at the actual hourly rate of the lowest-paid person on their staff capable of running the export function.

    But that's not what happened. What we thought was going to be an easy-peasy public records request for a few weeks and a few hundred dollars turned into one of our most bonkers cases ever, eventually costing the taxpayers of Missouri a low six figures in attorneys fees, four separate fines, and even interest payments. See, Missouri knew that we were going to put the entirety of this public data online for free searches and free downloads and free reuse, and all that good stuff -- because that's what we do! But that would mean that DHSS, the state agency that "owned" it, would probably no longer profit from selling subsets of the data over and over every year, money that usually would have gone right back into their agency budget. They would have lost their (slightly) profitable monopoly on public data.

    And so, in 2016, the state of Missouri attempted to charge Reclaim The Records $1.5 million dollars (yes, you read that right!) for two simple database extracts of the basic lists of names and dates in the Missouri Birth Index and Missouri Death index. They were clearly hoping that grotesquely large dollar figure would discourage us, and make those annoying genealogists go away.

    Screenshot of the original estimate for the Missouri records - $1.5 million!

    Fast forward four years later -- although the process sure didn't seem fast at the time -- and Reclaim The Records kicked their ass in court.

    If you want a rundown of the gory details -- which ranged from padding public employee fees with fake "overhead" costs, to sudden attempts to ram a bill through the Missouri State Legislature, to their then-Attorney General now-Senator Josh Hawley getting called out by that year's Pulitzer Prize winning local reporter specifically for his office's mishandling of the case, to citations of the Merriam-Webster Dictionary in the legal filings, to the second-highest assessment of fines against a state agency in a Sunshine Law case in state history for knowingly breaking the law, and so on -- we invite you to read some our earlier newsletters all about the case:

    And some of the case's press coverage, too:

    That last article is especially important, because while we had filed our original Sunshine Law requests in early 2016 for genealogical reasons, the judge's eventual decision in early 2020 also created a strong legal precedent for the state being forced to release death data to the public for public health and government transparency reasons during the coronavirus pandemic.

    In the years since we won and put the original batches of state birth and death data online, we have gone back to DHSS with several new Sunshine Law requests for more years of data, and we're pleased to report that we haven't had a problem with them since. And these years have included, of course, the first-ever aggregated lists of people who died in Missouri during the pandemic, although of course the statewide basic death index does not show any medical information nor cause of death. Still, this is important data to be available to the public, whether individual genealogists, or journalists, or epidemiologists, or anyone who wants to see better transparency for public taxpayer-funded data. 

    Cool. What's in this new data update?

    Reclaim The Records is proud to announce the addition of the following data sets to the Missouri Birth Index and Missouri Death Index websites for free searches -- and to the public domain, for use and reuse:

    • The Missouri Birth Index has been updated with 588,542 new records from 1910-1919 and 2016-2022, for a total of 8,090,516 records covering 1910-2022.
    • The Missouri Death Index has been updated with 482,900 new records from 2016-2022, for a total of 3,081,382 records covering 1968-2022. (A Sunshine Law request for the pre-1968 death index data is in progress, but the actual death certificates from those years are already online, see below.)

    Important note: in both cases, the 2022 data files are legally considered "provisional" releases by the state of Missouri. meaning that they may have some mistakes or missing records. The finalized copies of the 2022 birth data and 2022 death data will likely be released in mid-2024, along with the provisional data sets from 2023. We've added little warning symbols next to any 2022 births and deaths that pop up in the search results to let people know about this.

    Another important note: the official 1910-1919 state birth index file is highly incomplete, because the statewide compliance with vital records registration laws was not-great back then. You might be able to find other sources for pre-1920 birth data from towns, cities, or counties that kept their own records, or from churches and religious communities, not all of whom may have reported their information to the state level. And some pre-1910 Missouri birth and death records are available on the Missouri Secretary of State's website.

    The Secretary of State's website also hosts scanned copies of all Missouri death certificates that are more than fifty years old (i.e. 1910-1972 at the moment). Over the years, these files have been name-and-date-indexed by volunteers, including indexing for the deceased person's parents' names and spouse's name for the records starting in 1955. And so we have updated our website's search results to indicate when a scanned and online copy might be available for a record in our dataset, and to link to their site, when possible.

    The original .CSV data files for the birth and death indices are also available for download, hosted at the Internet Archive, and linked from our websites. Do whatever you like with them, they're public domain. We just kindly ask that you cite us somewhere and link back to our website if you use them in something, please.

    And indeed, it's that time in our newsletter when we mention our website again. We like getting public data released to the public. We really, really like it, even if it sometimes involves a multi-year fight with a state (or city, or federal agency, or government archive or library) to get it. This Missouri case was a particularly crazy case, but we have a lot of cases (several we haven't even announced publicly yet!) where the behavior of government agencies has been less-than-awesome, and we could sure use some help fighting them in court, when needed.

    And we can only do that with your help. If you like seeing records like these Missouri vital indexes go online for free, for everyone, forever, and you want to see us keep doing this kind of thing, and in more states nationwide, please consider making a donation to help fund our work. We really appreciate your support! You can donate on our website.

    Thanks, and we hope you enjoy the new data!

  • 16 Oct 2023 2:02 PM | Anonymous

    "If we carry on the way we're going, we're going to have to concrete the whole planet just to store the data that we're generating," explains a deputy lab director at Microsoft Research Cambridge in a new video.


    Fortunately, "A small sheet of glass can now hold several terabytes of data, enough to store approximately 1.75 million songs or 13 years' worth of music," explains a Microsoft Research web page about "Project Silica". (Data is retrieved by a high-speed, computer-controlled microscope from a library of glass disks storing data in three-dimensional pixels called voxels):

    Magnetic storage, although prevalent, is problematic. Its limited lifespan necessitates frequent re-copying, increasing energy consumption and operational costs over time. "Magnetic technology has a finite lifetime," says Ant Rowstron, Distinguished Engineer, Project Silica. "You must keep copying it over to new generations of media. A hard disk drive might last five years. A tape, well, if you're brave, it might last ten years. But once that lifetime is up, you've got to copy it over. And that, frankly, is both difficult and tremendously unsustainable if you think of all that energy and resource we're using."

    Project Silica aims to break this cycle. Developed under the aegis of Microsoft Research, it can store massive amounts of data in glass plates roughly the size of a drink coaster and preserve the data for thousands of years.

    You can read more in an article in slashdot.org at: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/23/10/14/236219/is-glass-the-future-of-storage

  • 16 Oct 2023 10:53 AM | Anonymous

    Here is a list of all of this week's articles, all of them available here at https://eogn.com:      

    (+) Why You Need a Temporary Credit Card Number

    23andMe Says Private User Data Is Up for Sale After Being Scraped

    23andMe: Columbus Woman Scared After DNA Leaked By Hackers

    COPYRIGHTS and Other Legal Things for this Newsletter

    Innovation Aided Completion of 2020 Census, But Coverage and Data Quality Issues Persist

    Everything You Need to Know Before Attending the World's Largest Genealogy Conference (RootsTech)

    Smithsonian Folkways Opens Digital Archive to Monthly Donors

    Historical City Directories From Across Georgia Are Now Freely Accessible Online

    Do You Suffer from Paraskevidekatriaphobia?

    FamilySearch Opens New Center in Las Vegas

    Unveiling YourTour™: Your Ultimate Live Genealogy Experience

    Boston Archdiocesan Archivist Helps Lead Effort to Uncover Church Records of the Enslaved

    Shropshire Archives Service Adds 500,000th Entry to Digital Catalogue

    Uncover 400 Years of Oxfordshire History This Findmypast Friday

    National Tithe Record Collection for England & Wales Now Complete on Map Explorer™ From TheGenealogist

    BCG-sponsored Legacy Family Tree Webinar, Oct 17

    Photographs of African-Americans in Slavery

    State Historical Society of Missouri gets Excellence in Genealogy & Local History Award

    Guilty Plea in Two 40-Year-Old Murders Hinged on Genetic Genealogy

    San Francisco Mystery Images Find a Permanent Home (Where You Can See Them Too)

    A New Virtual Museum Helps Visitors Learn About Florida's Civil Rights Leaders

    Boston Philanthropists Launch New Effort to Ship Floridians ‘Banned Books’

    IPFS Explained - How You’ll Store Files in the Future


  • 16 Oct 2023 8:13 AM | Anonymous

    The brown ink, handwritten in Latin, bleeds through the thin, yellowed paper of the baptismal record. The record is so old that it predates the establishment of the Diocese of Boston in 1808. Back then, the diocese was a mission, and the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, where this record is from, was simply known as the Chapel of the Holy Cross.

    Thomas P. Lester, director of the Archdiocese of Boston Archive and Library, carefully runs his finger along the text to find the names he is looking for.

    "It's a pain to pick through the Latin," he explains.

    In the messy cursive scrawl, he finds it: Jan. 25, 1790. Lucius, John and Mary, children of Peter and Rebecca of Bristol, Rhode Island, are baptized, in the presence of their sponsors. Beside the names of the sponsors are the words "Tres servi in hoc oppido."

    While those words could translate to "Three servants in this town," Lester believes that it translates to "three slaves in this town."

    It is unknown whether those words refer to the baptized or their sponsors. Their stories -- their last names, their family history, their social status, and their eventual fates -- seem to end there. Like many enslaved people in the historical record, their lives are mysteries illuminated only by scant fragments.

    "This might be the only written record of someone," Lester said.

    You can read more in an article by Wes Cipolla published in theBostonPilot web site at: http://www.thebostonpilot.com/article.php?ID=195857#


  • 16 Oct 2023 8:10 AM | Anonymous

    Shropshire (England) Council’s archives service has added its 500,000th image to its digital catalogue – meaning more information is available online to researchers and historians.

    The main function of Shropshire Archives service is to ensure the preservation of archive documents, photographs and other media relating to the geographical county of Shropshire and to make these available for consultation by the public.

    A wide range of items are acquired (by deposit or gift) from both official and private sources that relate to almost all aspects of the history of Shropshire.

    The digitised items include photographs, documents, watercolours and maps and more items will be added as part of the service’s ongoing programme of digitisation.

    You can read more in an article published in the shropshire.gov.uk web site at: https://newsroom.shropshire.gov.uk/2023/10/shropshire-archives-500000th-entry-digital-catalogue/ 

  • 16 Oct 2023 8:07 AM | Anonymous

    FamilySearch has renovated a 1932 revival-style Tudor chapel to create a new center in Las Vegas, Nevada.

    The new center features a computer lab with 47 computers and 10 interactive discovery stations for visitors of all ages and groups interested in learning more about their family heritage. A play area for small children is also available for parents.

    The free center also provides equipment for people who want to convert old photos, slides, negatives, 8mm film, VHS videos, books and other heirlooms to digital form. The center recommends bringing a portable memory drive to store new digital files.

    You can read more in an article by Trent Toone published in thechurchnews web site at: https://www.thechurchnews.com/members/2023/10/13/23915880/familysearch-opens-new-center-in-las-vegas.

  • 13 Oct 2023 7:30 PM | Anonymous

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

    One of the things I detest about many web sites is that when you sign up for a subscription and pay with a credit card, the site automatically renews your subscription when it expires. Some web sites will automatically renew without even the courtesy of notifying you in advance. They keep on billing, and you cannot easily shut down the offending vendor. 

    NOTE: Subscriptions to the Plus Edition of this newsletter DO NOT automatically renew. I consider that to be a shoddy business practice and I will not do that to my subscribers.

    Of course, you could cancel the credit card itself, but that usually isn't convenient. 

    Another risk, although rare, is that someone might obtain your credit card number surreptitiously and make illegal charges against it. While all online charges are insured by the credit card companies so that you will never lose any money, going through the process of filing a claim and getting your money back can be inconvenient, at best. I think it is better to stop such an illegal transaction BEFORE it occurs.

    Luckily, these problems are easily prevented if you take appropriate steps in advance.

    First, let's stop this "automatic renewal" process that is common on some web sites. I recently signed up for a (non-genealogy) web site's daily newsletter that provides investment advice. The site asked for my credit card number, requesting payment for one month's subscription. However, I did notice the small print on the sign-up page, stating that the site would automatically charge my credit card every month for renewal.

    Such a policy apparently is perfectly legal, but I consider it inconvenient and a bit shady. I was signing up for something I had never seen before, something that I hoped would be worthwhile. In my mind, I was willing to pay for a month as a "trial subscription;" but I was not prepared to pay month after month for something I had not yet seen.

    To be sure, there usually is a mechanism to cancel the subscription at any time. However, my past experience with such cancelation procedures is that they are often confusing and difficult to use. Often there is no method to cancel online; you have to call a telephone number and talk to someone with a nearly undecipherable accent. I suspect many people want to cancel, encounter the difficult cancellation procedure, and then give up. They continue to pay for something they no longer want. I decided to not let that happen to me.

    I solved this by using a credit card that expires at the end of this month. If someone tries to renew a subscription after the expiration date, the credit card bounces because it has expired. This prevents any attempted new charges. (I could have made it expire 2 or 3 months from now or on any date I specify.) I know the company will need to contact me when the renewal time approaches. I can then make the decision whether or not I wish to renew. I am in the driver's seat, not the company that wishes to charge my card.

    Unfortunately, you might not have a credit card that expires this month. In fact, neither did I – until I created one. Luckily, that is easy to do with some credit cards. A number of credit card companies will allow each customer to generate his or her own limited version of their real credit card – a disposable version that cannot be used beyond the limit that the customer dictates. In the earlier example, I used one such disposable credit card to thwart a web site’s automatic subscription renewal.

    Disposable credit cards are useful for many purposes. In many cases, you can limit the amount to be charged on the card. For instance, I might want to make an online purchase for $49.95. I can create a disposable credit card number that is authorized for a maximum total of $60 in charges. The extra ten dollars will handle shipping charges and sales tax, if any, but will block higher charges. If anyone attempts to charge the card for more than my $60 max, the transaction will be rejected by the credit card company.

    Some credit card companies, although not all, will also allow "one-time use" numbers. That is, the credit card number can only be used one time. If anyone tries to enter a second charge for the same card number, it will be rejected.

    A "disposable" credit card number is sometimes called a "virtual" credit card number because it’s not quite real. There is no physical credit card. The credit card number only exists in the issuing bank's servers. The beauty of a disposable credit card number is that it provides a method to avoid using your real credit card number. I used to use Bank of America's ShopSafe service, but Bank of America apparently no longer offers that service. A few other banks may offer "virtual debit card programs" but fewer and fewer banks offer them these days. Luckily, one commercial company has stepped in and now offers "virtual debit card programs"to anyone.

    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/13267144.

    If you are not yet a Plus Edition subscriber, you can learn more about such subscriptions and even upgrade to a Plus Edition subscription immediately at https://eogn.com/page-18077


  • 13 Oct 2023 11:54 AM | Anonymous

    The following announcement was written by Findmypast:

    OxfordshireBaptisms 

    This brand-new collection includes over 233,000 records from the existing England Baptisms collection, in addition to 20,185 new records. As building blocks of your family tree, you’ll want to delve into these if you have Oxfordshire ancestors. You’ll typically find a name, birthdate, baptism date, place, and both parents’ names. The records span an impressive 426 years, from 1524 to 1950.   

    Oxfordshire Marriages 

    Also new, this set includes existing records and around 13,098 brand-new ones, totalling 67,864. Spanning 1538 to 1936, you should find a name, spouse’s name, place and marriage year.  

    Oxfordshire Burials 

    Lastly, there are 34,612 brand-new burials into this new set, totalling 37,241 with the existing records. Covering 1558 to 1976, there are records from every parish across Oxfordshire. You’ll usually find a full name, birth year, burial year and place.  

    Newspapers 

    One new title, updates to a further 22, and over 96,538 new pages make up this week’s newspaper release. 

    New titles: 

    ·         Scottish Cinema, 1919-1920 

    Updated titles: 

    ·         Aberdeen Free Press, 1881 

    ·         Ballymena Observer, 1959-1984 

    ·         Belfast News-Letter, 1987, 1990, 1992 

    ·         Bolton Journal & Guardian, 1910 

    ·         Brighton Argus, 1899 

    ·         Chard and Ilminster News, 1912 

    ·         Derry Journal, 1981, 1988, 1993-1994 

    ·         Downham Market Gazette, 1912 

    ·         Evening Star, 1910, 1912 

    ·         Evesham Journal, 1873 

    ·         Guernsey Evening Press and Star, 1899, 1910 

    ·         Kent Messenger & Gravesend Telegraph, 1900 

    ·         Londonderry Standard, 1853 

    ·         Maidstone Journal and Kentish Advertiser, 1911 

    ·         Man of Ross and General Advertiser, 1872 

    ·         Manchester City News, 1937 

    ·         North Middlesex Chronicle, 1876 

    ·         Northern Daily Telegraph, 1911-1912 

    ·         Northwich Guardian, 1897 

    ·         Southern Weekly News, 1900 

    ·         Uganda Herald, 1936 

    ·         Wicklow News-Letter and County Advertiser, 1914 

  • 13 Oct 2023 11:44 AM | Anonymous

    Pinpoint your English and Welsh Ancestors on the map

    TheGenealogist has announced the completion of its project to link all the National Tithe Record Collection for England & Wales with its powerful Map Explorer™.

    Family historians are now able to view their ancestors’ land and homes plotted on historic Tithe maps that have been georeferenced, allowing you to see the location on today's Modern Street and Satellite maps to see how the area has developed over time. 

    Tithe record books and maps cover the majority of England and Wales and were created by the 1836 Tithe Commutation Act. This required tithes in kind to be converted to monetary payments, known as tithe rentcharges. The Tithe Survey was established to find out which areas were subject to tithes, who owned them, who occupied the various parcels of land, the usage of the land, how much was payable and to whom. These maps and apportionment books were the product of that survey and have been digitised by TheGenealogist.

    Tithes usefully record all levels of society, from wealthy landowners to tenant farmers and cover the majority of England and Wales. They are a valuable resource for family and house historians as they can provide insights into land and property ownership, occupancy and usage, dating back before the first searchable census. 

    TheGenealogist has painstakingly georeferenced their tithe maps, which means you can view them layered on top of modern day maps and satellite images, using their intuitive Map Explorer™. This allows you to pinpoint a record to the exact same location on various historical and modern maps, even when the landscape has completely changed over the years.

    This final release of the Welsh tithes marks the completion of our project.These records, in combination with Map Explorer, make it easier than ever to learn about our ancestors’ lives and the places they lived and worked.” Mark Bayley, Head of Online Content at TheGenealogist.

    This week’s release adds to the many types of records that can be viewed in Map Explorer™. This includes the Lloyd George Domesday land tax records, the UK census 1871-1911, the 1939 Register, the Headstone CollectionWar Memorials and the Image Archive.

    To learn more about TheGenealogist’s powerful Map Explorer™, please visit https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/maps/

    Feature Article Case Study

    Read our feature article where we use the records on Map Explorer™ to take a look at Thomas Rees, an agricultural labourer, leader of the first Rebecca Riots and, under a unique Welsh tradition, a freeholder of a cottage that he built in one night!
    https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2023/found-in-the-welsh-tithe-records-the-cottage-built-in-one-night-6801/

    About TheGenealogist

    TheGenealogist is an award-winning online family history website, which puts 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 and 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!

Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter









































Powered by Wild Apricot Membership Software