From the reclaimtherecords.org web site:

We at Reclaim The Records are so proud to finally announce one of our largest record acquisitions to date: millions of vital records spanning over one hundred years of history for the state of Maryland.

These records have never previously been publicly available online anywhere else — not on FamilySearch and not on Ancestry and not on MyHeritage and not on [insert some other genealogy website here] — except for some records that had only been available at the Maryland State Archives‘ internal website, if you happened to be sitting in their building in Annapolis and using their in-house computers, or on their external website, but only if those records were more than a hundred years old.

This announcement is groundbreaking for us at RTR. Not only is this an unusually large cache of materials for one of our records projects, but this time, our acquisition was not limited to a basic name and date index — although we did get those, too! — but in addition to the decades of vital records indices, we also got the digital images of the actual birth, marriage, and death certificates for the state of Maryland. Yep, the real certificates. And now we’ve put them online, free!

And this story isn’t a pitch to subscribe to anything, because we don’t sell data, we release it. There isn’t any login or password for these files, and you don’t have to pay a dime to a government facility, nor to a paywalled corporate-run site. These records are all now just plain free. You can browse them, download them, or do whatever you like with them. (Of course, if you’d like say thank you for their new freedom, please skip to the very bottom of this extremely long page for a suggestion about how to do that.)

So, sit back and recover from your Thanksgiving overindulgence, while we tell you all about these amazing new files!

The full announcement is quite long so I will skip it here, You can read the entire announcement at: https://www.reclaimtherecords.org/records-request/31/.

California investigators used genetic genealogy to identify him.

Investigators using genetic genealogy have identified a teen believed murdered 49 years ago by a notorious California serial killer as being from Cedar Rapids, authorities said Tuesday.

Michael Ray Schlicht, 17, of Cedar Rapids, previously known as a “John Doe” homicide victim, was found Sept. 14, 1974, in what is now the city of Aliso Viejo, Calif., northeast of Laguna Beach, according to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department in California. He was estimated to have died three to five days before his body was found by two people who were off-roading and spotted a body over the side of the trail.

John Doe’s death initially was determined to be accidental due to alcohol and diazepam intoxication, a sheriff’s news release stated. At the time, California authorities released information to the media in hopes that someone would come forward with enough information to help them identify the man.

His fingerprints were submitted to the California Criminal Identification and Investigation Division, the Federal Bureau of Identification and Canadian authorities with negative results, according to officials. After those and other efforts were made to identify him, he was buried in an unmarked grave at El Toro Memorial Park in Lake Forest, Calif.

In 1980, Orange County homicide investigators noted there were other deaths in 1978 also due to alcohol and diazepam — sometimes known by brand name Valium — intoxication in Southern California. These deaths were classified as homicides.

Over the years, multiple young men were found dead throughout Southern California, including several within a few miles of where John Doe’s remains were discovered.

In May 1983, Randy Steven Kraft was arrested on murder charges after a California Highway Patrol officer conducted a traffic stop, according to the news release. In the front passenger seat was a dead man, identified as Terry Lee Gambrel. Around his feet were empty beer bottles and an open prescription bottle of lorazepam tablets. In the trunk, authorities found a coded list believed to be of over 67 victims of Kraft’s.

He earned the moniker the “Scorecard Killer” for the morbid catalog of his victims’ names he “scrawled on a white sheet of paper,” according to the Station 18 Blog of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. Others called him the “Freeway Killer” because Kraft was known for targeting young male hitchhikers, many times along the freeway.

You can read more in an article by Trish Mehaffey published in the thegazette.com web site at: https://tinyurl.com/2by3uanr.

This is a follow-up to an article I published yesterday at https://eogn.com/page-18080/13283809 that offers even more information:

If these changes are implemented, free users will be limited to one notebook and 50 notes.

Evernote is experimenting with severe restrictions to its free plan, which may nudge users to upgrade or quit the app entirely. According to a report from TechCrunch, some Evernote users were greeted with a pop-up message announcing that the free plan would be limited to a single notebook and 50 notes. The pop-up also introduced a "special 40 percent off" offer, encouraging users to upgrade to a paid plan to create notes and notebooks without limits.

But despite the in-app notification, Evernote's website has no mention of changes coming to its free plan. A representative for the company explained to TechCrunch that the website had not been updated because the change was not yet final. The company confirmed it has been testing the limited plan with less than 1 percent of its free users. Based on how that goes, Evernote will determine whether to implement the new plan. If that does happen, the representative said the company would then communicate the changes to “the relevant customer touch-points.”

You can read more in an article by Stephanie Barnes published in the Engadget web site at: https://tinyurl.com/4bnkvdhv. 

The following is a press release issued by the (U.S.) National Archives:

WASHINGTON, November 28, 2023 –  In December, the National Archives will present free public programs at the National Archives Museum in Washington, DC, at its Presidential Libraries nationwide, and online. Programs this month include concert series and tree-lighting ceremonies, as well as a continuation of the Ask an Archivist, Converse with a Curator program.

(In person) Winter Wonderland
Saturday, December 2, at 11 a.m. CT
George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum, College Station, TX
Open to the public
Join us at Travis Fields for a magical holiday experience for the entire family. Shop local vendor booths, participate in fun winter games, pet Santa’s reindeer, and enjoy holiday performances. Presented by the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library & Museum, Winter Wonderlands at Travis Fields is the place to be this season!

(In person) Abilene Municipal Band's Holiday Concert
Sunday, December 3, at 2 p.m. CT 
Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum, Independence, MO
Open to the public
Enjoy an afternoon concert filled with holiday magic! The Abilene Municipal Band will perform its annual Christmas concert filled with traditional and beloved holiday tunes!

(In person) Santa at the Center
Sunday, December 3 and 10, at 12 p.m. CT
William J. Clinton Presidential Library and Museum, Little Rock, AR
Open to the public
Meet Santa Claus and celebrate the holidays like it’s 1993! Thirty years ago this year, the Clintons spent their first holiday season in the White House. Join us at the Clinton Center for a family-friendly holiday celebration. Chris Kennedy, a professional Black Santa who was featured in the documentary film Santa Camp, will be our special guest of honor!

(In person) Sunday Concert Series at the Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
Sunday, December 3, 10, and 17, at 2 p.m. PT 
Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, Yorba Linda, CA
Open to the public
December 3: Placentia Community Chorus
December 10: KidSingers
December 17:  Golden State British Band

(In person) Tree-Lighting Ceremony
Monday, December 4, at 6:30 p.m. CT
George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum, College Station, TX
Register to attend in person
Join us as we light the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library Center's Community Christmas Tree! Modeled after the tree-lighting ceremony that takes place annually on the White House grounds, the ceremony begins at 6:30 p.m. and will include musical entertainment and a special guest tree lighter. The ceremony will take place outside, and a reception will follow inside. Throughout the month, we encourage people to take their family pictures in front of the beautifully decorated and lit tree.

(In person) Pearl Harbor Day Film Screening: TORA! TORA! TORA! (1970)
Thursday, December 7, at 2 p.m. ET
Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, Hyde Park, NY
Register to attend in person
The Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum presents a Pearl Harbor Day film screening of the 1970 Academy Award–winning film TORA! TORA! TORA! in the Henry A. Wallace Center at the FDR Library.

(In person) Holiday Open House Events: Decorations, Children's Reading Festival, Cards for Sailors, Santa, and Refreshments
Saturday, December 9, at 9 a.m. ET
Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, Hyde Park, NY
The annual Holiday Open House will take place at the Roosevelt Library and the Home of FDR National Historic Site. Both the Home and the Roosevelt Library study will be decorated for the holidays as they were during the Roosevelt Presidency. The annual Children’s Reading Festival will be held in the Henry A. Wallace Center at the FDR Library, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on December 9. Children's book authors will read from and sign copies of their books. Featured books will be available for purchase. In addition, there will be live music, photos with Santa, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., and holiday card-making for sailors on the USS Rooseveltbeginning at noon. Refreshments will be served in the visitor center throughout the afternoon.

(In person) 2023 Holidays in the Rotunda
Saturday, December 9, at 10 a.m. CT
George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum, College Station, TX
Register to attend in person
Get into the holiday spirit with our annual Holidays in the Rotunda celebration. This free event takes place in front of the museum’s magnificently decorated Christmas tree in the Rotunda. Live holiday entertainment, along with ornament-making in Santa’s Workshop, will get you in the yuletide spirit. Santa Claus will be here to hear your children’s wish lists, so bring your cameras! Cookies, hot chocolate, and punch will be served.

(In person) The Kay R. Pace School of the Arts Holiday Concert
Saturday, December 9, at 11 a.m. ET
Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum, Atlanta, GA
Open to the public
Get into the holiday spirit as the Kay R. Pace School of the Arts Choir presents songs of the holidays. This choir will have you singing and dancing all day long!

(In person) Seeking Truth in an AI World: Surviving Deepfakes Deception, and Discrimination 
Tuesday, December 12, at 6:30 p.m. CT 
Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library and Museum, Austin, TX
Register to attend in person 
How can people, companies, schools, and governments navigate what is true and what is false in a world with artificial intelligence able to create deepfakes—fake articles, schoolwork, or even military intelligence—and discriminate in the process? Join us to explore this question and more in a new world of artificial intelligence. Confirmed speakers include: Chelsea Collier, founder of Digi.City, editor-at-large for Smart Cities Connect, and research assistant for Good Systems, and Doreen Lorenzo, assistant dean, School of Design and Creative Technologies, The University of Texas at Austin. Moderated by Craig Watkins, Ernest A. Sharpe Centennial Professor and the executive director of the IC2 Institute at the University of Texas at Austin.

(In person) Ask an Archivist, Converse with a Curator
Friday, December 15, at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. CT
William J. Clinton Presidential Library and Museum, Little Rock, AR
Open to the public
“Presents for the President: Happy Holidays, President Clinton!” The President gets Christmas and holiday gifts just like all the rest of us. While some may want to give him a lump of coal, others send along heartfelt gifts of the season. The Clinton Library and Museum holds the program “Ask an Archivist, Converse with a Curator” on the third Friday of every month at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. 

Traditional measurements of genetic ancestry rarely offer information on specific ancestors in a family tree. A new approach to genetic ancestry developed by Stanford researchers yields insight into African American history by providing estimates of the number of African and European genealogical ancestors in typical family trees.

Family trees, photo albums, and grandparents are often the go-to sources of information for people curious to know who their relatives were. Genetic ancestry is also a useful tool, but these measurements typically provide data on percentages of different populations in a person’s ancestry, not on specific people. Now, a new study led by researchers from Stanford and the University of Southern California introduces a new way to think about genetic ancestry, revealing information that approximates the number of people from a source population.

The researchers apply this new approach to the genetic and genealogical history of African Americans from the 1600s to the present to estimate the number of African and European ancestors who appear in a randomly chosen African American person’s genealogy. The authors provide context for their results by using a historical book written about several generations of the family of Michelle Obama, the former first lady of the United States, as an example.

Jazlyn Mooney, a former postdoctoral scholar in the Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences, now a Gabilan Assistant Professor of Quantitative and Computational Biology at USC, is the lead author. Noah Rosenberg, the Stanford Professor of Population Genetics and Society and professor of biology in the School of Humanities and Sciences, is the senior author. The study summarizing their results published July 6 in Genetics and is the cover story.

Here, Mooney and Rosenberg discuss their new approach and how it helps fill a gap in the ancestry of African American people descended from Africans forcibly transported to the United States as enslaved captives during the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

You can read more in an article by Holly Alyssa MacCormick published in the stanford.edu web site at: https://tinyurl.com/mrx3yn48.

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, I suspect it will interest anyone who has a need or at least an interest in low-cost, but powerful, Windows computers.

At first glance, it may look like a Fire TV Cube, but the new Amazon WorkSpaces Thin Client is not for spending time watching Thursday Night Football or bingeing Invincible. As the name suggests, it’s intended for enterprise workers to reduce an employer's technology costs and provide enhanced security.

For a significant portion of the workforce, some form of remote and hybrid work is here to stay, particularly in industries such as customer service, technical support, and health care. Enabling people to work in this way, securely and at the scale large enterprises require, poses real challenges. Employees need quick, reliable access to a variety of business applications and data—regardless of where they are working. Enter the Amazon WorkSpaces Thin Client.

For the first time, AWS adapted a consumer device into an external hardware product for AWS customers. Melissa Stein, director of product for End User Computing at AWS, oversaw the Amazon WorkSpaces Thin Client project.

"Customers told us they needed a lower-cost device, especially in high-turnover environments, like call centers or payment processing," said Stein. "We looked for options and found that the hardware we used for the Amazon Fire TV Cube provided all the resources customers needed to access their cloud-based virtual desktops. So, we built an entirely new software stack for that device, and since we didn't have to design and build new hardware, we’re passing those savings along to customers.”

In computing, a “thin client” often refers to a simple hardware device optimized for the cloud—in this case, the AWS Cloud. By offloading processing power to the cloud, thin clients can be designed as simple, low-cost devices without advanced hardware capabilities.

Take a spin around the Amazon WorkSpaces Thin Client, and you’ll notice no visible differences from the Fire TV Cube. However, instead of connecting to your entertainment system, the USB and HDMI ports connect peripherals needed for productivity, such as dual monitors, mice, keyboards, cameras, headsets, and the like. Inside the device is where the similarities end. The Amazon WorkSpaces Thin Client has purpose-built firmware and software; an operating system engineered for employees who need fast, simple, and secure access to applications in the cloud; and software that allows IT to remotely manage it.

This “windows computer in the cloud” will be more powerful than the typical Windows computer installed in a home and will sell for $195 (U.S.)

You can read more at: https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/aws/amazon-workspaces-thin-client. Another, more detailed, article about the same subject may be found at: https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/new-amazon-workspaces-thin-client/.

This article is not about any of the "normal" topics of this newsletter: genealogy, history, current affairs, DNA, and related topics. However, it is a “sign of the times,” which I believe will be of interest to genealogists and historians. It appears that printed publications are disappearing and, in some cases, are switching to digital publishing.

From Slashdot:

After 151 years, Popular Science will no longer be available to purchase as a magazine. "Cathy Hebert, the communications director for PopSci owner Recurrent Ventures, says the outlet needs to 'evolve' beyond its magazine product, which published its first all-digital issue in 2021," reports The Verge. From the report: 

PopSci, which covers a whole range of stories related to the fields of science, technology, and nature, published its first issue in 1872. Things have changed a lot over the years, with the magazine switching to a quarterly publication schedule in 2018 and doing away with the physical copies altogether after 2020. In a post on LinkedIn, former PopSci editor Purbita Saha commented on the magazine's discontinuation, stating she's "frustrated, incensed, and appalled that the owners shut down a pioneering publication that's adapted to 151 years worth of changes in the space of a five-minute Zoom call."
"PopSci is a phenomenal brand, and as consumer trends shift it's important we prioritize investment in new formats," Herbert tells The Verge. "We believe that the content strategy has to evolve beyond the digital magazine product. A combination of its news team, along with commerce, video, and other initiatives, will produce content that naturally aligns with PopSci's mission." PopSci will continue to offer articles on its website, along with its PopSci Plus subscription, which offers access to exclusive content and the magazine's archive.

If you use Google Drive, you better check to see if all your files are still there.

It looks like Google Drive is experiencing some issues with disappearing files. Multiple users have taken to the Google Support forum to report that they lost access to some of the files that they’ve uploaded to Google Drive, with them seemingly fully gone from the cloud service. Google recommends you don’t make any changes to your Google Drive if you’re affected while the company investigates the issue.

When did you last change your passwords? If you are like the majority of people, it has been a while. The time to change your passwords is NOW. 

The following is from an article in the Georgia Tech web site:

Three out of four of the world’s most popular websites are failing to meet minimum requirement standards and allowing tens of millions of users to create weak passwords. The findings are part of a new Georgia Tech cybersecurity study that examines the current state of password policies across the internet.

Using a first-of-its-kind automated tool that can assess a website’s password creation policies, researchers also discovered that 12% of websites completely lacked password length requirements.

Assistant Professor Frank Li and Ph.D. student Suood Al Roomi in Georgia Tech’s School of Cybersecurity and Privacy created the automated assessment tool to explore all sites in the Google Chrome User Experience Report (CrUX), a database of one million websites and pages.  

Li and Al Roomi's method of inferring password policies succeeded on over 20,000 sites in the database and showed that many sites:

The researchers also discovered that only a few sites fully follow standard guidelines, while most stick to outdated guidelines from 2004. The project was 135 times larger than previous works that relied on manual methods and smaller sample sizes.

More than half of the websites in the study accepted passwords with six characters or less, with 75% failing to require the recommended eight-character minimum. Around 12% of had no length requirements, and 30% did not support spaces or special characters.

Only 28% of the websites studied enforced a password block list, which means thousands of sites are vulnerable to cyber criminals who might try to use common passwords to break into a user’s account, also known as a password spraying attack.

You can read more at: https://tinyurl.com/mtn6et3b.

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/.