After 35 years of waiting, Jackie Meggison could see someone face a jury for the death of her sister-in-law. 

“It’s a relief,” Meggison told MLive/The Ann Arbor News outside the courtroom of Washtenaw County Trial Court Judge Jinan Hamood on Tuesday morning. 

Moments before, Hamood had ruled Buster Robbins should stand trial for felony murder in the death of Beverly Ann Wivell. The ruling overturned a lower court decision from District 14-A2 Judge Karl Barr.

Barr declined to send the case to trial after a March 18 preliminary examination, saying the evidence failed to show Robbins was responsible for her death. 

“I think (Barr) was conflicted with what he should do,” Hamood said from the bench. “…That in itself should have been an indicator that the standard of exam was met.” 

Officials allege Robbins abducted Wivell, 31, from a Canton park and sexually assaulted her before taking her to Superior Township and shooting her. She was found around 10 a.m. Sept. 18, 1989, near Gotfredson Road and Ford Road in Superior Township, testified Ronald Smith, a Superior Township firefighter at the time. A nearby resident also testified to hearing a gunshot and seeing someone matching Robbins description leave the scene. 

Although detectives originally suspected Wivell’s boyfriend, they found he was at work at the time, testified Paul Wade, then a Washtenaw County Sheriff’s detective.

Swabs taken from Wivell’s body revealed DNA from her boyfriend and an unidentified man, according to testimony.

“We had no suspect at that time,” Wade said.

Other leads were exhausted, and the case sat cold until January 2024.

The virtual program, “Focus on Free Resources for New York Genealogical Research,” will be offered Tuesday, May 27 by the Southington Genealogical Society. This free event will take place at 7 p.m. at the Southington Historical Center, 239 Main St. People are welcome to view in-person with others or receive the Zoom link.

Speaker Marian Burk Wood will present the program which provides free resources from throughout New York State to investigate ancestors’ lives and family history context. Wood is the author of the genealogy book, “Planning a Future for Your Family’s Past,” and a long-time blogger about family history methodology and issues. She takes special interest in researching, preserving and sharing family history for the sake of future generations.

The Southington Genealogical Society Inc., founded in 1984, is a nonprofit organization that promotes the accurate recording, research and preservation of family history. The organization meets monthly on the fourth Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the Southington Historical Society. To receive the link for the virtual programs, email southingtongenealogicalsociety@gmail.com.

The following is a press release issued by the Strathclyde Institute for Genealogical Studies:

Strathclyde Institute for Genealogical Studies are delighted to share news of a new scholarship opportunity open to students embarking on the dissertation level of the MSc in Genealogical, Palaeographic, and Heraldic Studies.

Who is Eligible to Apply? 

• The scholarship is open to students embarking on the dissertation level of the MSc in Genealogical, Palaeographic, and Heraldic Studies.
  
  
• Students must have successfully completed the PG Diploma level of the MSc in Genealogical, Palaeographic, and Heraldic Studies by September of the current academic year.
  
  
• There is a preference for residents of the United States of America.

Applications for the 2025-26 scholarship should be submitted by Tuesday 22nd July 2025. Find out more on our website > Borders and Shires Scholarship | University of Strathclyde

Aisling Bea opens up on the emotional experience of discovering the stories of her ancestors while heavily pregnant with her own first child in her episode of Who Do You Think You Are?.

The comedian and actor was in the late stages of pregnancy whilst filming her episode of the BBC One genealogy show, where she discovered both sides of her family had been involved in some key moments of Irish history.

Her journey through Ireland on the trail of her family tree before her daughter was born in August 2024 can be seen tonight, Tuesday 20 May, on BBC One at 9pm.

Aisling Bea's family tree discoveries

Aisling Bea's great-grandfather Padraig O'Brian was at the centre of the 1916 Easter Rising. (Breda O'Sullivan/BBC)

Bea is proud of her Irish heritage and so she is thrilled to discover that her relatives were present at some key moments in Irish history, although there is an uncomfortable piece of news about one of them.

Exploring more about her three-times great-grandmother, she finds out that she actually ended up with more land to her name after the 1845 Great Famine, after other tenants were evicted.

Bea admits: "That is hard to hear...it does make me feel a little bit shameful, to be honest." She adds: "It doesn't leave me with a very proud feeling, at all."

The comedian showed a childhood photo of herself. (Helen O'Sullivan/BBC)

However, the comedian's family pride is reignited once more when she finds out the fascinating story of her great-grandfather's role in the 1916 Easter Rising. He had protested over British rule in Ireland by filling out a census in the Irish language, one of just two men of hundreds with his surname to do so. He was also involved in campaigning and marches that put him at the centre of the rising.

"Oh wow, that makes me so proud," she says.

Another family story that leaves Bea beaming is the tale of her great-great-grandmother who moved to the remote Blasket Islands to become one of its first teachers, continuing to teach into old age after bringing up her own children.

A pregnant Bea smiles as she says: "You see, people do keep working when they have children!"

Aisling Bea reflects on pregnancy and family history

Reflecting on what she has found out during the episode, Bea says proudly: "I feel like on this journey, there have been such specific points in history that I learned about as a kid during school - the famine, the 1916 rising, the revival of the Irish culture. And now suddenly, I have all of these personal connections and stories within all those moments in history, whether it was my three-times great-grandmother surviving on her own as a widow through the famine period, or my great-grandfather being directly involved in the build-up towards the 1916 rising. Or even my great-great-grandmother who ends up on the Blasket Islands as one of the first teachers to go out there and educate the kids out there.

"It's just sort of blown my mind and given me a really interesting different point of view on so many moments that I felt I knew so well and no know so personally."

She continues: "They all fit into two things that I carry passionately about me in life, which is feminism and the placement of women and their voices, and Ireland and our culture. I can't believe how much of that voice has come into the stories and I just feel so lucky to be exploring this journey while being about to create my own little line."

Looking at her bump, she jokes: "So hopefully you don't disappoint us all!"

Who Do You Think You Are? airs on BBC One at 9pm on Tuesday, 20 May.

The DNA testing firm 23andMe says it has entered into an agreement to be acquired by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals for $256m (£192m).

It comes two months after the company filed for bankruptcy protection in the US.

23andMe said Regeneron had committed to comply with its privacy policies as part of the deal, and that Regeneron has security controls in place to protect user data.

Last month, the firm agreed to have an ombudsman oversee the protection of user data in response to demands by several state attorneys general in the US.

The officials expressed concern over the potential for unscrupulous buyers to wield the data against consumers.

Regeneron will acquire nearly all of 23andMe's assets, the company said in a statement.

Its subsidiary Lemonaid Health will be wound down under the agreement.

23andMe will continue to operate as a wholly-owned unit unit of Regeneron, which said it would use the firm's data for drug development.

"We are pleased to have reached a transaction that maximizes the value of the business and enables the mission of 23andMe to live on, while maintaining critical protections around customer privacy, choice and consent with respect to their genetic data," said 23andMe's board chairman Mark Jensen.

The deal was made through auction last week as part of the company's bankruptcy proceedings.

The company declined to comment further when approached by the BBC.

A company's struggles

23andMe was co-founded in 2006 by Anne Wojcicki who served as CEO until stepping down in March.

Over the years, the company received high-profile endorsements from celebrities including Oprah Winfrey, Eva Longoria and Snoop Dogg.

23andMe went public in 2021, which saw its value top $6bn - but it never turned a profit.

The once-celebrated company has struggled amid weak demand for its testing kits and never managed to redefine its business model.

A subscription service failed to gain traction with customers and efforts to use its massive trove of data to move into drug development also faltered.

Then in 2023 the company experienced a data breach that exposed the genetic data of millions of users.

The firm ultimately settled a lawsuit alleging it failed to protect the privacy of nearly seven million customers whose personal information was exposed.

Hackers gained access to family trees, birth years and geographic locations, by using customers' old passwords, but the company maintains the data stolen did not include DNA records.

Two months after the settlement, it slashed 200 jobs - about 40% of its workforce.

Ms Wojcicki tried to take the company private but was not open to a third-party takeover.

Legacy of Data

When 23andMe filed for bankruptcy protection in March, attorneys general from multiple US states advised its customers to purge their information from the firm's database.

At the time, the company said it would continue to protect customer data as laid out in its privacy policy, and any buyer of the company would have to abide by laws that apply to how customer data is treated.

But its privacy policy also included language which allowed for personal information to be accessed, sold, or transferred if it was "involved in a bankruptcy, merger, acquisition, reorganization, or sale of assets".

23andMe agreed to a court-appointed overseer of customer genetic data after several states alleged the company was failing to take data security seriously enough.

The Gibraltar National Archives is inviting volunteers to support its ongoing efforts to preserve and promote Gibraltar’s historical records.

The initiative is particularly aimed at retired individuals who are interested in staying intellectually active, engaging with others, and contributing to the protection of the community’s historical legacy.

Volunteers with a background or interest in history, genealogy, library science, education, museum work or similar fields are encouraged to apply. The Archives is seeking individuals who value the stories of the local community and are keen to participate in meaningful historical work.

Archivist Gerry Wood said: “Whether you have worked in a related field or are simply an enthusiast with time to give, we welcome your interest.”

“Please consider volunteering at the Archives so that together we can ensure that the history of our community is preserved and appreciated for generations to come.”

For further information or to express interest, individuals can contact Gerard Wood by phone on 200 79461 or by email at gerard.wood@gibraltar.gov.gi.

Getty Images and Ancestry.com collaboration will digitize thousands of historical photographs and documents dating back to 1854, ensuring pivotal American stories survive for future generations

A major initiative to protect and digitize irreplaceable historical materials from Historically Black Colleges and Universities has gained momentum as Getty Images and Ancestry.com join forces in a landmark preservation effort. The collaboration aims to create comprehensive digital archives for ten selected HBCUs, rescuing visual artifacts, documents, and institutional records that might otherwise be lost to deterioration or obscurity.

The partnership represents a significant expansion of Getty’s HBCU Grants program and addresses a critical gap in American historical documentation. By digitizing these materials, the initiative will make centuries of Black educational history accessible to researchers, educators, and the public while ensuring these institutions maintain full ownership of their historical narratives.

Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, recognized as the first degree-granting HBCU, has become the initial participant in the program. The university will digitize approximately 700 photographs along with crucial institutional records dating back to its 1854 founding charter, creating a comprehensive digital archive that spans nearly 170 years of educational history.

Experts note the particular significance of these preservation efforts given that traditional historical documentation, including U.S. Census records, has often inadequately recorded Black American experiences. The initiative promises to fill critical gaps in the national historical record while providing valuable resources for genealogical research and academic scholarship.

From photography to comprehensive archives

The Getty HBCU Grants program launched in 2021 with an initial focus limited to photographic preservation. However, program leaders quickly recognized the need for a more comprehensive approach to safeguard the broader range of historical materials held by these institutions.

This expanded vision led to the partnership with Ancestry.com, which brings specialized expertise in digitizing and cataloging historical records. The collaboration now encompasses various artifacts beyond photographs, including administrative documents, student records, correspondence, and other materials that collectively tell the story of these pivotal American educational institutions.

Program administrators have emphasized the untapped potential of these collections for research, licensing, and educational storytelling. The digitization process will make previously inaccessible materials available to scholars and the public, creating new opportunities to understand and appreciate the contributions HBCUs have made to American society.

Lincoln University leads preservation effort

As the first institution participating in the expanded program, Lincoln University brings exceptional historical significance to the initiative. Founded in 1854, it holds the distinction of being the first degree-granting HBCU in the United States, with records spanning the post-Civil War era through the civil rights movement and into the present day.

The university has committed approximately 700 photographs to the initial digitization effort along with institutional records dating back to its founding charter. These materials document generations of students who pursued higher education despite significant social and legal barriers, providing crucial context for understanding African American educational history.

University administrators have framed the preservation work as documenting American history rather than solely Black history. The digitized materials will showcase the achievements of African Americans when provided educational opportunities, offering important counterpoints to incomplete historical narratives about Black educational attainment and professional accomplishment.

Student engagement through archival work

The initiative incorporates an educational component by involving current HBCU students in the preservation process. Participating students receive stipends sponsored by Denny’s to support their contributions to the archival work, providing both financial support and professional development opportunities.

Student participants gain valuable experience in archival techniques including sourcing, dating, and contextualizing historical materials. This hands-on training provides marketable skills while connecting current students with their institutions’ histories, creating intergenerational continuity in preserving these educational legacies.

For many students, the archival work may reveal connections to their own family histories, as multiple generations of families have often attended the same HBCUs. This personal dimension adds emotional resonance to the technical aspects of preservation work while highlighting the community-building function these institutions have served.

Preservation amid political challenges

The expansion of this preservation initiative comes during a period of intense debate about how American history should be taught and remembered. Recent political developments have included challenges to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs at various educational levels, raising concerns about historical erasure.

Some political figures have advocated for limiting educational content that examines complex or challenging aspects of American history, promoting instead what they term “patriotic education.” These proposals have raised alarms among historians concerned about potential censorship of important historical narratives.

Against this backdrop, the Getty and Ancestry.com partnership takes on additional significance as an effort to ensure that authentic, primary-source materials from HBCUs remain accessible regardless of political currents. By digitizing these records, the program creates a durable historical resource that can inform accurate understanding of American educational history beyond political fluctuations.

Ownership and institutional control

A key element of the program design ensures that participating HBCUs retain full copyright ownership of all digitized materials. This provision addresses historical concerns about exploitation of cultural materials and guarantees that institutions maintain control over how their histories are presented and utilized.

The ownership structure allows schools to make informed decisions about public access, licensing, and other uses of their historical materials. This approach recognizes the cultural and financial value these archives represent while respecting institutional autonomy in managing historical resources.

Program leaders have emphasized that this ownership model distinguishes the initiative from other digitization efforts that might separate historical materials from their institutional contexts. By keeping control with the originating institutions, the program aims to preserve not just the content but also the context and significance of these historical records.

Expansion to additional institutions

Following the pilot phase with Lincoln University, the program aims to incorporate nine additional HBCUs into the preservation effort. Program administrators are actively encouraging more institutions to apply for participation as the initiative scales up its operations.

The selection process will consider factors including the historical significance of available materials, their physical condition, and the institutional capacity to support the digitization process. Priority may be given to collections at particular risk of deterioration or those with exceptional historical importance.

Each participating institution will receive technical support, funding, and expertise to ensure their materials are properly preserved according to archival best practices. This support extends beyond the initial digitization process to include ongoing digital preservation and potential integration with existing institutional archives and special collections.

Long-term impact on historical research

Historians and archivists anticipate that this preservation initiative will significantly enhance research possibilities related to African American educational history and broader social developments. By making these materials digitally accessible, the program removes geographical barriers to research while ensuring fragile physical materials remain protected.

The digitized collections will offer resources for scholars studying various aspects of American history, including education policy, civil rights activism, professional development, and community formation. The materials also provide important primary sources for understanding how HBCUs functioned as centers of intellectual and cultural life throughout different historical periods.

For genealogists and family historians, particularly those researching African American family histories, these records may provide crucial documentation otherwise difficult to locate. Student records, photographs, and institutional documents often contain information about individuals who might be poorly documented in other historical sources, making these archives valuable for personal as well as academic research.

We've got all the details about who's eligible for the massive 23andMe data breach settlement and how to make a claim -- plus, who might be able to get as much as $10,000.

Go to https://www.cnet.com/personal-finance/are-you-eligible-for-23andmes-30-million-data-breach-settlement-find-out-here/ 

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, it is a topic that I suggest that all computer users should be familiar with this new technology:

This is an article I published some time ago, although it has now been updated with some new information based upon a hardware purchase I made recently.

Without a question, the Internet has completely changed the way we live. It has altered the way we communicate, travel, work, get information, and engage with one another. We benefit from an increased degree of freedom as a result of the democratization and decentralization of information. As a result, the public's access to information about issues affecting both the globe and themselves has increased significantly thanks to the Internet. The mainstream media and centralized authorities are losing influence as a result of the Internet.

But not everything is perfect. We have overlooked—or have been forced to overlook—something as significant in our haste to seize the liberties provided by the Internet: our privacy. People often forget that they are the real product of these new free services, as billions of people rush to sign up for the newest social media networks.

Parts of the Internet became factories for data collecting, with important user information and data being handed on to the platforms' real customers — the highest bidder — thanks to incentives from "free" platforms and peer pressure. Large swaths of the Internet were taken over by a few dominant firms, which harvested data property that did not belong to them, weakened privacy rights, and made censorship easier. (Can you say "Google" or "FaceBook" boys and girls?)

Privacy awareness has increased as a result of this centralizing influence as well as other worries about accessibility, surveillance, and net neutrality. In order to provide a more democratic, private, secure, censorship-resistant, and decentralized Internet of the future, there is an increase in the use of VPN and DPN services.

Virtual private networks (VPNs)

I rather like the Wikipedia definition of VPNs:

"A virtual private network (VPN) is a mechanism for creating a secure connection between a computing device and a computer network, or between two networks, using an insecure communication medium such as the public Internet.

A VPN can extend access to a private network (one that disallows or restricts public access) to users who do not have direct access to it, such as an office network allowing secure access from off-site over the Internet.

The benefits of a VPN include security, reduced costs for dedicated communication lines, and greater flexibility for remote workers.

A VPN is created by establishing a virtual point-to-point connection through the use of tunneling protocols over existing networks. A VPN available from the public Internet can provide some of the benefits of a private wide area network (WAN)."

You can read more about VPNs on Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_private_network as well as on dozens of other web sites.

Private Networks That Are Decentralized

Decentralized Private Networks, sometimes known as decentralized VPNs (often abbreviated to DPN or DVPN), function similarly to virtual private networks (VPNs) in that they transit web traffic via encrypted tunnels over decentralized networks as opposed to centralized ones. Higher security levels are ensured by serverless and distributed architecture, which prevents user data from being tracked, compromised, or subpoenaed.

VPNs are growing in popularity as people become more conscious of privacy concerns and challenges related to data and information centralization. Blockchain and cryptocurrency innovators are already taking advantage of this need to provide decentralized enhanced security for online users.

User devices function as the client (typically individual Internet users) and a server or multiple servers (such as Amazon Web Services or Google or even individual desktop or laptop computers in use in private homes) in a decentralized private network such as Deeper Network or Mysterium Network. Additionally, the IP addresses automatically shift in accordance with their routing rules, creating global tunnels to connect to other nodes.

Note: Private Network and Mysterium are two different DPNs that are popular. Deeper Network is a hardware implementation whereas Mysterium is a software implementation. With Deeper Network you pay (expensive) fees as a one-time fee when you purchase the hardware but it is free forever after that (and one option allows you to even make money) whereas Mysterium is a more traditional service that is free to join but you do pay a modest monthly fee every month after that if you use the service.

Similar to virtual private networks (VPNs), decentralized private networks have the advantage of not requiring a central point of control. This indicates that the network cannot be taken down and that there are no central locations to attack. Because no centralized supplier has access to the data that users were attempting to secure, the individual users (clients) also retain control over their data.

For instance, Deeper Network and possibly other DPNs integrate blockchain technology, network security, and the sharing economy to build a worldwide peer-to-peer network that provides the same level of resistance against censorship and data theft as conventional VPNs, but without the requirement for a central server. The same is true with other services that enable total privacy for information sharing between apps, users, and organizations, such as Mysterium Network and HOPR.

Deeper Network and Mysterium and others insure privacy and increase security simply because there is no central organization that can retain records that can be subpoenaed by central governments. Rather than use high-tech language to explain how DPNs work, I will revert to a non-technical explanation:

DPNs work by creating an environment whereby interested users can "meet" and negotiate connection services. It is as if a client in Singapore says "I am available" and a client in the United States says "I am looking for an available client in Singapore." The two clients remain anonymous to each other, then connect and data is exchanged directly between the client in the United States and the client in Singapore" with no other "middleman" involved. The client in Singapore typically provides data from local online connections in Singapore, encrypts it, and then provides that data to the client in the United States. Unlike traditional VPNs, the central DPN organization does not know which clients are communicating with each other and never sees the data being exchanged. Therefore, a central government or any other organization or an individual hacker cannot monitor the connection and cannot later obtain any records of what transpired, even with a subpoena.

In addition to software, there are hardware solutions that, such as Deeper Connect, also establish a private network that allows users to browse the Internet normally through a DPN. These hardware-based decentralized DPNs provide a one-time purchase option without a subscription. Additionally, DPN users have the option to profit from sharing their unused bandwidth with other users.

In addition to software, there are hardware solutions that, such as Deeper Connect, also establish a private network that allows users to browse the Internet normally through a DPN. These hardware-based decentralized DPNs provide a one-time purchase option without a subscription. Additionally, DPN users have the option to profit from sharing their unused bandwidth with other users.

The information handled by the DPNs are more secure than traditional VPNs. Even if a government agency issues a subpoena to obtain information from a DPN owner, there is no information available that can be supplied. 

All of this combines to produce a more pleasurable, safe, and genuinely private network for Internet browsing. In addition, most DPNs are available either free of charge to the end user or else may be available at greatly reduced charges when compared to traditional VPNs. 

DPNs have a strong chance of guiding the Internet from its current state to a safe communication area where ethics and technology converge to protect individual liberty, freedom, and dignity.

I recently purchased a hardware DPN device from Deeper Network and installed it next to my in-home router. Now everything on my network, including my cell phone, my laptop, and even my thermostat are using the Internet in a safe and encrypted manner (I don’t know if I really need to use an encrypted connection for my thermostat but it doesn’t seem to have any drawbacks). At least I know that all my communications are safe and secure from prying eyes.

The Hays Public Library celebrated the renovation of the Kansas Room with a Chamber in Hays ribbon cutting on Friday.

The Kansas Room is in the basement of the library. It holds circulating books on Kansas and from Kansas authors and reference materials on local history and genealogy.

The $170,000 project included moving the stacks to the west side of the basement to allow for more seating, programming and study space, Jeremy Gill, Kansas Room coordinator, said.

Brandon Hines, library director, said the Kansas Room is the final piece in a five-year renovation of the entire library. Much of the library had not been updated since the 1960s. The Kansas Room had last been updated in 2004.

Renovations on the first and second floors began in 2020.

Hines said the library staff wanted to create space in the basement where people could study or do research.

"We wanted to create a quiet reference-type space on the lower level because if you have been in the library on the main floor or especially the children's library on the second floor, it's not really the shushing library that you might have grown up with," Hines said. "There's a lot of activity."

Paul-Wertenberger Construction was the general contractor on the project.

Lead donors on the project included the estate of Ann Liston and the Robert E. and Patricia Schmidt Foundation. 

Major contributors who gave between $1,000 and $10,000 included Diana Pantle, Ken and Rose Marie Staab, Layton and Jerry Kaiser, Kyle and Stephanie Carlin, Friends of the Hays Library, Carol Vajnar, Sharon Dreher, Heartland Community Foundation, Teget Foundation, Cloud Storage, Kent and Ruth Deines, Jon and Cindy Lightle, the Hines family and Paul-Wertenberger Construction.

Gill said the Kansas Room is officially named the Dorothy B. Richards Kansas Room, which was named for the library director who created the collection as a shelf in the original Carnegie Library in Hays.

The collection grew to a room in the Carnegie Library's basement and was eventually moved to the present library.

"There haven't been a lot of Kansas Room librarians or coordinators over the years, and I really do appreciate the work and effort of all of those different people," Gill said.

The collection also contains rare books, books on the Great Plains, a local photo collection and local yearbooks.

"It's fun to see people go down memory lane with those kinds of things," he said. 

The library has a complete collection of Fort Hays State University yearbooks but is missing a few yearbooks from area high schools, or their copies have been well-worn from use, Gill said.

Residents can contact Gill at the library if they want to donate materials to the collection.

The Kansas Room has a bank of computers for research and an overhead scanner for digitizing images.

"I get emails and phone calls from all over the country and sometimes all over the world," Gill said. "It's a really special place."

After COVID, the Kansas Room initiated a coffee hour during which residents can talk to Gill and each other about local history.

That group meets at 10 a.m. Thursday mornings in the Kansas Room.

Hines said, "This place is just a collection of things without people like Jeremy. Jeremy is the one who connects people. He is the one who tells these stories about everything we have. Without people connecting with people, this would not be what it is."

"The Kansas Room is like a lot of other components of the library. It has its own little life. We have the children's area and the young adults' area. It has this life because of the people."

You can learn more about the Hays Public Library and the Kansas Room at hayslibrary.org. Follow the library on Facebook for information on upcoming events.