Join the Royal Gorge Regional Museum and History Center (in Colorado) for another wonderful and intriguing virtual genealogy program presented by Terri Meeks. If you had early 20th-century immigrant ancestors, they may have taken advantage of the social services offered by the Settlement House Movement. Join them to hear about those who served and those who were aided by these “homes”.

This program is free and open to the public. To register for this program please go to the museum’s calendar which can be located at https://www.canoncity.org/Museum to register
for the event. Please register online or contact the museum for more information. This program will be held over Zoom from 9-10 a.m. on Saturday, July 20.

The Museum and History Center is located in the City of Cañon City’s former Municipal Building at 612 Royal Gorge Blvd. The hours of the Museum and History Center are Wednesday through Saturday, 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM. For more information, call the museum at (719) 269-9036 or email historycenter@canoncity.org.

An international conference on the restoration of damaged cultural heritage will take place next week at the National Palace Museum of Korea in Seoul.

The conference entitled “Damaged Cultural Heritage of the World: Its Restoration and Future,” hosted by the state-run museum, will bring together government officials and experts on heritage from Korea, Japan and France. The Wednesday gathering will draw on the three countries’ shared experience in restoring and using cultural heritage.

Korean officials will kick off the discussion, revisiting efforts to revive Sungnyemun, a revered landmark destroyed in a 2008 fire. It took five years to restore the gate colloquially known as Namdaemun, which sits between Seoul Station and Seoul Plaza.

Experts from Japan will discuss the restoration of Shuri Castle in Okinawa. The UNESCO World Heritage Site was also damaged by a fire, in 2019, requiring five years for a complete restoration.

French culture officials, meanwhile, will present ways to mark restoration efforts, such as establishing a museum dedicated to the destroyed cultural heritage. An example of such an effort is Notre Dame Cathedral, scheduled to reopen in December following an April 2019 fire. An exhibition exploring the highlights of the medieval Parisian cathedral’s history is underway at the National Palace Museum of Korea.

Officials from Histovery -- the French startup that specializes in augmented reality and has teamed up with the NPMK for the exhibition -- will speak about making museum experiences more immersive using digital devices.

Here is an article that is not about any of the "normal" topics of this newsletter: genealogy, history, current affairs, DNA, and related topics. However, I hope it finds a job for an unemployed person in Alabama:

Go Build Alabama Job Board is helping workers connect with career opportunities in the construction industry and beyond.

If you haven't heard, there's a new tool for job seekers in Alabama. It's called Go Build Alabama Job Board. The tool is helping workers connect with career opportunities in the construction industry and beyond. Thanks to Go Build Alabama Job Board, they'll be easier to find. 

Alabama Construction Recruitment Institute Executive Director Jason Phelps said they're about thirty days into the launch of the job board and it's very user friendly. "So for a career seeker, they just need to put in some directory information and verify an email address so that, you know, they can connect to the employers. Once they've done that, they can actually start applying for jobs that are listed on the job board. This year we're looking at close to almost 5,000 new construction jobs in the state of Alabama."

Phelps continued that this is an opportunity for us to add to the services that we have for the public and contractors out there to help them connect people with jobs that are available. In the future, other job positions beyond construction could also be listed. "Don't be too surprised to see a commercial contractor posting some of their administrative or supervision jobs there."

Phelps said another thing to note about commercial industrial construction, "... generally speaking, it's going to have higher pay wages, it's going to have benefits. And for those entry level jobs, generally speaking, they're going to be access to career development and advancement going forward. So it's really the trifecta."

On August 8, that opportunity will expand to an in person hiring event right here in Huntsville. "We are piloting or starting out with right here in the Huntsville area, August 8th at the Jaycee Community building. This is really just taking that that online presence of the job board and let's do it in person and make some of those face to face connections."

You can read more in an article  by Jasamine Byrd published in the RocketCityNow web site at:  https://bit.ly/3xQ3aAw

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

One prestigious coeducational college preparatory boarding school recently made a radical change to its library. With 159years of academic excellence, one would expect the school to be steeped in tradition. However, a visitor to the campus might be surprised to learn that the 159-year-old school's library has gone almost all digital.

In a newspaper interview, the former headmaster said, “When I look at books, I see an outdated technology, like scrolls before books."

The school reportedly is very happy with the now-completed changes. Most of the library's previous 40,000 books have since been replaced with 24 million ebooks, academic journals, image and film libraries, and other educational content. The result has been a huge increase in the information available to students, along with the cancellation of any thoughts of adding a multi-million dollar expansion to the library's building. 

That sounds like a winning combination: better service with lower expenses.

I will suggest that there is a lesson here for many specialized libraries, including genealogy libraries.

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/13378658. (A Plus Edition password is required to access that article.)

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. 

Tens of millions of descendants of Spanish and Portuguese Jewish communities, whose ancestors were forcibly converted from the 14th Century onwards, can now apply for and receive a Certificate of Sephardic Ancestry. Recent academic and genetic research has demonstrated that there are as many as 200 million people, largely in Latin and North America and Europe, who have “significant Jewish ancestry” dating back to the time of the Inquisition in Spain and Portugal.

The historic initiative is run by Jewish Unity Through Diversity Institute, Reconectar, an organization dedicated to helping the descendants of Spanish and Portuguese Jewish communities reconnect with the Jewish people, and Genie Milgrom, an award-winning author, researcher, documentarian, and genealogist who was able to fully document her unbroken maternal lineage 22 generations going back as far as 1405 to pre-Inquisition Spain and Portugal. Her recent film The Stone and the Flower is debuting at film festivals around the world tracing Genie’s personal story of connecting to her heritage.

To find out if you have Jewish Roots, visit: www.SephardicCertificate.com. 

Milgrom is also leading work to digitize Inquisition records that provide an unprecedented amount of genealogical information for those who seek to discover their possible Jewish roots. These and a vast array of other information on the certification website will help the descendants, otherwise known as Anousim, Marranos, Conversos or Crypto-Jews, discover their heritage.

“The Certificate of Sephardic Ancestry is historic for so many around the world and especially in Latin and North America who yearn to connect with their past and up to now have had no way to do accomplish this,” Milgrom said. “The Certification, in connection with my collection of genealogy tools specifically for those with Crypto -Jewish and Sephardic lineages that is on the website will allow them to also search for their own past and empower them in the process.”

You can read more in an article in the israel365news.com website at: https://bit.ly/3zwSMy3.

The following is an announcement written by Findmypast:

Explore new records from Peterborough to Pennsylvania.

If you have East Coast branches on your family tree, you may find a familiar name or two within over 36,000 Huguenot Society Application Papers, or within the 195,000 Roman Catholic baptism and marriage records from New York that we added this week.

Women’s Land Army Service Cards, 1939-1950

We added 36,438 Women's Land Army service cards this week. These images and transcriptions may reveal new information about your wartime ancestors.

Huguenot Society of Pennsylvania Application Papers

Was your relative a member of the Huguenot Society of Pennsylvania? Explore these 36,438 new records to find out.

New York Roman Catholic Parish Baptisms and Marriages

Researching your New York ancestors just got easier, as we've added 170,637 baptisms and 125,977 marriages from the city's Roman Catholic parishes.

Explore over 80 million pages from across the globe

We added two new English titles to our newspaper archive this week. We also updated a further existing 20 publications, taking our total page count to over 80 million. With so many fascinating titles to explore, what will you discover?

Boston Independent.

Here's everything that's been added this week. 

New titles:

Updated titles:

Episode 3 of Was Justice Served? out now

Episode 3 of our new podcast Was Justice Served? sees Jen and David dive into the mysterious death of Rose Harsent in 1902. Listen as they examine the evidence, hear testimonies from the trial, and ultimately determine whether the person responsible for this grizzly crime was brought to justice.

Listen now

Listen as they examine the evidence, hear testimonies from the trial, and ultimately determine whether the person responsible for this grizzly crime was brought to justice.

More on this topic:

English RecordsHistorical Newspapers

The National Library's collection of Finnish-American newspapers has been digitized up until the end of 1923. The collection had often received requests for digitization and is a significant source of material for the use of migration history, population history and genealogy. The papers tell the story of life in Finnish communities and are freely available everywhere through the digi.kansalliskirjasto.fi service.

Front page of Canadan uutiset from 1915. The motto of the magazine was “amity in mutual matters, freedom in private matters, and benevolence in all matters”. Source: digi.kansalliskirjasto.fi.

It is possible to make different searches in the material or, for example, browse it by title.  Some of the material can also be used on microfilmfiche at the National Library.The collection contains 174 newspaper and magazine items since 1876.

Political and spiritual associations of Finnish immigrants, as well as various local communities, published their own papers in the United States and Canada. The places of publication tell the history of Finnish settlement: Duluth, Astoria, Hancock, New York, Fitchburg, etc. Periodicals were printed in Finnish, Swedish and English. In part, the languages were mixed into Finglish, a special form of Finnish used by American Finns.  

Some publications have a link to the present day. For example, Canadan uutiset was in print until 2000 and has since merged with The Finnish Update: Pohjois-Amerikan uutiset, a politically independent newspaper.

The National Library's digitized collection of Finnish-American newspapers accumulated during the North American mass migration. The largest number of immigrants that moved to America went between the 1870s and the 1920s. The papers provide a varied picture of the everyday life of migrants and the New World, but also provide information on how Finnish and European issues were reported across the ocean.

The digital collection will be supplemented during 2024 with additional material, also digitized in the United States, copies of which have been donated to the National Library by the Library of Congress. This material comprises approximately 5,000 pages of Toveritar, Auttaja and Uusi kotimaa issues, which have been missing from the physical collection of the National Library.

In addition, Finnish-American material that was released after 1924 has been digitized to some extent. For copyright reasons, it is only available on the workstations of legal deposit libraries.

Further information

Finnish-American serial publications in digi.kansalliskirjasto.fi(opens a new tab)
Finnish-American serial publications in the National Library's search service(opens a new tab)

The. following is an announcement from the (U.S.) National Archives and Records Administration:

On March 24, 1958, Elvis Presley was inducted into the Army, and the document below is from his Official Military Personnel File (OMPF). Presley’s (OMPF) is considered a Persons of Exceptional Prominence (PEP) file. Persons of Exceptional Prominence (PEP) records consist of military heroes, political leaders, cultural figures, celebrities, and entertainers which are now open to the public.

Elvis Presley was a well known rock and roll music performer and actor whose career began in 1954 and continued until his death in 1977. He is known as one of the 20th century's most significant cultural figures.

Enlarge

A page from Elvis Presley's Official Military Personnel File. National Archives Identifier: 57304571.

View in National Archives Catalog

You can view and download this record from the National Archives Catalog.

An innovative digital repository on the website of the Army Women's Museum is providing valuable insights into well-preserved artifacts, archives, and exhibits related to the contributions of women in the U.S. Army.

Tracy Bradford, the curator of the Army Women's Museum, stated that the objective of this initiative is to establish an internet-based collection that will safeguard and provide access to the archive materials held at the museum for the entire nation.

The AWM's inaugural digital archive, known as "Digital Collections," will provide access to individuals unable to physically visit the museum, enabling them to virtually explore and appreciate the archives, displays, and collections.

"We aim to provide individuals who are unable to physically visit our museum with the opportunity to fully engage with all the offerings it provides," stated Alexandra J. Kolleda, education specialist at the Army Women's Museum.

In order to make this history accessible to the public, the museum undertakes the task of processing and digitizing all of their holdings, making them available online.

In order to initiate the process, it is necessary to digitally scan and upload each unique piece within a collection. Subsequently, data entries are generated for each piece, containing essential information such as the date, title, and subjects.

These items consist of photographs, certificates, postcards, and even more varied things such as an audiovisual file.

"Incorporating informative data into all the components enhances the comprehensiveness and preparedness of each collection for public accessibility," stated Kolleda.

Certain pieces may also be incorporated into the museum's virtual tours.

To access these online archives, visitors can navigate to the AWM's website homepage and scroll down until they locate a historical image depicting a gathering of women in the Army. The image will be labeled "The U.S. Army Women's Museum Digital Collections." By clicking on this photo, visitors will be directed to the digital collections section of the website.

The U.S. Army Women's Museum has developed an online archive of historical significance that is accessible to the public. Visitors to the digital collections can access special exhibits, collections, historic photos, documentations, certificates, and perform advanced searches to locate specific items.

Through the advanced search feature, users have the ability to input precise details in order to improve the effectiveness of their search. The required information includes a title, a specified period of time, an individual's name, and potential descriptions to facilitate the identification of the precise search criteria.

The overwhelming majority of artworks, which cannot be exhibited at the gallery owing to spatial constraints, will now be accessible for viewing through the online exhibition in the digital collections section of the website.

"The upload process for these collections is solely determined by the size of the collection," stated Kolleda. "A smaller collection could be processed within a day, whereas a larger collection may require two weeks or even longer."

The U.S. Army Women's Museum has developed an online archive of historical significance that is accessible to the public. The AWM aims to employ its new digital collections to educate a wide audience, including students from Virginia and other states who rely on the museum for their academic studies and school assignments.

"We believe it is our duty to make these historical documents available to the public, so that researchers, students, families, and others can easily access these exceptional primary source materials," stated Bradford.

To access the official website of the Army Women's Museum, please click on the following link: https://awm.army.mil/.

To access the digital collections of the Army Women's Museum, please click on the following link: https://awm.historyit.com/public-sites/home/digitalcollections?hsxezn=kezfcv

Two North Carolina-based genealogists, David McCorkle and Diane L. Richard, recently started GenWebinars. They sought a better chance to offer their lectures with more time, less restrictions, and at times that would most help the audience. So born GenWebinars, located at genwebinars.com.

Reviewing their Frequently Asked inquiries (FAQ) section on the website will help you find responses to your inquiries on how things will go.

They talk about the expenses of attending—usually $25—without a subscription. Zoom buys one of the lectures at a time; they also include how to engage with the speaker and so on. Every webinar runs ninety minutes, including time for questions.

The page's subtitle is "live, in-depth, and interactive genealogy webinars." Among their earlier presentations were "Tracing Landownership Over Time," "Using Artificial Intelligence Tools in Genealogy," and "Using Timelines." You can find on the website how, when, and whether past webinars are viewable.

Currently president of the North Carolina Genealogical Society, McCorkle is well renowned as the land grants specialist from North Carolina and maintains a webpage for that. Richard editor of the North Carolina Genealogical Society Journal and well-known genealogical speaker.

These GenWebinars by two seasoned professionals are absolutely worth looking at.