A new initiative to increase Black participation in genomic research has been launched by one of the oldest and largest historically Black academic health sciences centers in the U.S. in partnership with four pharmaceutical companies. One of the project’s aims is to build the world’s largest African ancestry genomics research database with 500,000 volunteer participants.

Meharry Medical College, Regeneron Genetics Center (RGC), AstraZeneca, Novo Nordisk, and Roche have teamed to create the Together for CHANGE (“Changing Healthcare for People of African Ancestry through an International Genomics & Equity”) initiative.

“People of African ancestry have been underrepresented in genomics studies, which leads to clinical genetic testing that has less reference data and less confident testing results,” said Aris Baras, MD, senior vice president, Regeneron, and head of Regeneron Genetics Center. 

The big pharmas have said they will make contributions worth $20 million during the initiative. Regeneron Genetics Center will undertake and fund the sequencing of genetic samples.

It is well documented that the representation of Black people in genomics databases is woeful and distorts medical treatment. Recent research, for example, showed that men of sub-saharan origin have a much higher risk of prostate cancer but distinctive biomarkers of the disease.

“As part of our contribution to the consortium and as a component of our ongoing African Genomics Program, Roche will be leading efforts to collect up to 20,000 samples and related phenotype data from diverse regions of Africa,” said James Sabry, global head of pharma partnering, Roche.

You can read more in an article in the insideprecisionmedicine web site at: https://tinyurl.com/mssz8f4j.

You may be interested in an article by Thorin Klosowski published in the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s web site:

In early October, a bad actor claimed they were selling account details from the genetic testing service, 23andMe, which included alleged data of one million users of Ashkenazi Jewish descent and another 100,000 users of Chinese descent. By mid-October this expanded out to another four million more general accounts. The data includes display name, birth year, sex, and some details about genetic ancestry results, but no genetic data. There's nothing you can do if your data was already accessed, but it's a good time to reconsider how you're using the service to begin with. 

What Happened

In a blog post, 23andMe claims the bad actors accessed the accounts through "credential stuffing:" the practice of using one set of leaked usernames and passwords from a previous data breach on another website in hopes that people have reused passwords. 

If your data is included in this stolen data set, there's not much you can do to get your data back, nor is there a way to search through it to see if your information is included. But you should log into your 23andMe account to make some changes to your security and privacy settings to protect against any issues in the future. 

You can read the full article at: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/10/what-do-if-youre-concerned-about-23andme-breach 

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation has identified human remains found in a dumpster in Jenkins County on February 14, 1988, as Chong Un Kim, of Hinesville, Liberty County, Georgia. Kim was 26 years old when she was found.

Chong Un Kim came to the United States from Korea in 1981 and lived in Hinesville, Georgia for years before her death in 1988.

On the afternoon of Sunday, February 14, 1988, the GBI received a request from the Jenkins County Sheriff’s Office to assist with a death investigation. The victim, wrapped with plastic and duct tape, was found inside a large, nylon suitcase that had been placed in a dumpster just north of Millen, GA in Jenkins County. The victim had been dead for about four to seven days. The cause of death was asphyxiation.

Throughout the investigation, fingerprints and dental records from the victim were compared to other missing persons from around the country. A GBI forensic artist created a sketch of what the person may have looked like which was disseminated to the public. The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NAMUS) opened a case. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) also created and disseminated a computer-generated sketch. As DNA technology advanced over the years, police resubmitted evidence to the GBI Crime Lab for additional testing. Analysts found DNA on the items submitted, but the profiles obtained were not eligible for entry into the CODIS DNA Database.

In 2023, the GBI began working with Othram, a company that uses advanced DNA testing to solve cases. Othram, Inc., based in The Woodlands, Texas, is a leader in using Forensic-Grade Genome Sequencing to develop comprehensive genealogical profiles. The GBI sent forensic evidence to Othram, Inc. Based on the DNA, a genealogical search produced investigative leads that led to Kim’s identification. The GBI notified Kim’s family in October 2023 about the identification.

“Project Justice” funded the DNA testing.

The GBI is asking anyone who may have known Chong Un Kim, or has any information about this case, to contact the GBI at 912-871-1121. Anonymous tips can also be submitted by calling 1-800-597-TIPS (8477), online at https://gbi.georgia.gov/submit-tips-online, or by downloading the See Something, Send Something mobile app. 

This article is not about any of the "normal" topics of this newsletter: genealogy, history, current affairs, DNA, and related topics. However, I believe that many genealogists use photo editing programs frequently so I suspect this article will be of interest to many genealogists.

When it comes to photo editing, Photoshop is the undisputed king. In fact, like Band-Aid or Google before it, Photoshop has become the de-facto catch-all phrase for any type of photo manipulation, regardless of the tool used. Unfortunately, Photoshop can be fairly pricey – not to mention a bit complicated to use. This list offers the best online photos editors, allowing you to skip the Photoshop price, confusion, and download.

You can read the article by Ryan Lynch published in the maketecheasier web site at: https://www.maketecheasier.com/best-online-photo-editors/ 

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

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is calling on Federal agencies to consider dedicating more resources to IT solutions that can automate the records retention of their social media records.  

In a recent report that assessed ten agencies’ social media policies, NARA explained that while all agencies are required to capture social media (SM) records, the agencies assessed did not have processes in place to verify the capture of these records.

NARA found that most records management (RM) programs reported that they needed more staff, technological know-how, or technological tools to ensure the consistent capture and management of social media records.

The report recommended that agencies “should consider using digital archiving applications to centralize and automate the capture of SM records across the agency.”

Additionally, the report found that some agencies used third-party applications to capture their social media records for retention and disposition.

However, NARA said some of these applications did not offer “sufficient” electronic records management (ERM) capabilities “or required users to separately elect and pay for a la carte services to get ERM features, but most agencies did not pay for such services.”

For this reason, NARA recommended that agencies that rely on a third-party application to capture their social media records “must assess and confirm that the service provider offers ERM functionalities that sufficiently captures, preserves, and maintains its SM records per Federal recordkeeping requirements.”

NARA also said that these records “must be managed throughout their lifecycle and ensure that the application can maintain and export its SM records in file formats that meet NARA’s format guidance for transferring permanent electronic records.”

Overall, NARA recommended that agencies should dedicate more resources to IT solutions that can help agencies to automate their social media records-keeping duties.

The following announcement was written by Findmypast:

Newspapers 

Did your ancestors make the news? One new title, updates to a further three, and 106,898 new pages make up this week’s newspaper release. Plus, our newspaper search has had a makeover, with some handy new tools to try. It's now even easier to add richness to your family stories.  

New titles: 

·         Commercial Daily List (London), 1869-1870  

Updated titles: 

·         Belfast News-Letter, 1977-1978, 1988-1989 

·         Derry Journal, 1990, 1992 

·         Lurgan Mail, 1897-1914, 1916-1925, 1927-1984  

Ireland, Dublin Church of Ireland Baptisms 

There are 23,914 images and transcriptions to explore in this brand-new collection, spanning 1619 to 1865. You can typically expect to find a name, baptism place and date, parents’ names and father’s address. 

Ireland, Dublin Church of Ireland Marriages 

Also new, there are 23,101 marriages to delve into, covering 1619 to 1800. You’ll normally find both spouses’ names, occupations, the marriage date, place and the groom’s residence. 

Ireland, Dublin Church of Ireland Burials 

Lastly, there are 44,175 burial records in this new collection. They cover the years 1618 to 1800, and you may uncover an ancestor’s name burial date and residence.

When the Cold War grew chillier around 1950, the U.S. military worried about a communist land invasion of the United States. So pilots were employed – many of them veterans of World War II – to photograph the entire country using aircraft.

This 70-year-old archive of overlapping photos was taken at different angles, providing topographic information for artillery in the event the Soviets rolled onto American soil. Such a “Red Dawn” never happened, but those pilots created an invaluable historical snapshot that predates useful satellite imagery by decades.

The collection was stored away and eventually digitized by the U.S. Geological Survey. Now the University of Montana and its partners have created a new tool, Landscape Explorer, which combines those 1950s photos with modern satellite imagery. It can be found online at https://www.landscapeexplorer.org/.

Visit the site and type in a city, location or your own address, and a slider can be pulled back and forth across the resulting image, allowing people to easily visualize the changes that have taken place during the past seven decades. At present the tool covers the American West, from the Pacific Ocean to North Dakota and down to Texas.

You can read more in an article by Cary Shimek published in the University of Montana web site at: https://www.umt.edu/news/2023/10/101723expl.php 

The same hacker who leaked a trove of user data stolen from the genetic testing company 23andMe two weeks ago has now leaked millions of new user records. On Tuesday, a hacker who goes by Golem published a new dataset of 23andMe user information containing records of four million users on the known cybercrime forum BreachForums. TechCrunch has found that some of the newly leaked stolen data matches known and public 23andMe user and genetic information. Golem claimed the dataset contains information on people who come from Great Britain, including data from "the wealthiest people living in the U.S. and Western Europe on this list." 

On October 6, 23andMe announced that hackers had obtained some user data, claiming that to amass the stolen data the hackers used credential stuffing -- a common technique where hackers try combinations of usernames or emails and corresponding passwords that are already public from other data breaches. In response to the incident, 23andMe prompted users to change their passwords and encouraged switching on multi-factor authentication. On its official page addressing the incident, 23andMe said it has launched an investigation with help from "third-party forensic experts." 23andMe blamed the incident on its customers for reusing passwords, and an opt-in feature called DNA Relatives, which allows users to see the data of other opted-in users whose genetic data matches theirs. If a user had this feature turned on, in theory it would allow hackers to scrape data on more than one user by breaking into a single user's account.

Within the intricate tapestry of Latino heritage, genealogy research explores the culture, migration and history that embodies the resilience and diversity of the global community celebrated throughout Hispanic Heritage Month.

Why it matters: Tracing lineage is crucial for cultural connection and historical preservation, particularly for minority communities that are often overlooked in history.

• "Particularly with Latinos, so much of our history was left out of the mainstream historical narratives," Colleen Robledo Greene, a California-based genealogist specializing in Mexican research, tells Axios.

Reality check: The percentage of Americans with Hispanic ancestry who do not identify as Hispanic is rising across generations, according to 2018 Pew Research Center data.

• More than half of U.S.-born young adults with Hispanic ancestry, whose parents and grandparents are also U.S.-born, do not strongly identify with their Hispanic ties as they assimilate into American culture.

You can read more in an article by Madalyn Mendoza published in the Axios web site at: https://www.axios.com/local/san-antonio/2023/10/13/hispanic-heritage-month-latino-ancestry-genealogy.