15 Sylvan St, Danvers, MA, 01923 More info here

Orphan Trains, which operated in the United States between 1854 and 1929, transported 200,000+ children from New York to the Midwest and beyond. Through oral history and genealogy research – with ongoing, diligent care of the unique records – over two million descendants live on to tell the stories of this uniquely American movement. Learn about the history, genealogy, and legacy of this movement. Led by Michael Brophy, a nationally known, professional genealogical researcher, heir search specialist, and lecturer from the Boston area. He has served as Program Director and Publicity Director for the Massachusetts Genealogical Council. Brophy was also the first Treasurer of the New England of Association of Professional Genealogists. He was featured on the Irish TV series Dead Money, a genealogy TV show about heir searchers. In 2010, Mr. Brophy was hired to conduct research for the NBC television program "Who Do You Think You Are?", on an episode dedicated to the family history of actress Gwyneth Paltrow. 

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RECORDING NOTE: This program will be recorded. All registrants will receive the recording via email within 48 hours of the program.

Presented in collaboration with the Tewksbury Public Library and other area libraries.

Here is a walk down memory lane for anyone old enough to remember the fluoroscope, an x-ray device that was available in thousands of shoe stores worldwide. It also had several proprietary names, including the Pedoscope, X-ray Shoe Fitter, and the Foot-o-scope.

Fluoroscopes were once a common sight in shoe stores. Thousands of the devices were installed in the mid-20th century. Eventually, customers, shoe salespeople, and medical authorities alike finally realized that a shoe store isn’t the best place for a boxful of radioactive isotopes.

I well remember my mother taking me to Reed's Footwear and Clothing store where she we and Bill Reed (the owner of the store) all looked at live x-ray images of my feet inserted into new shoes in the store to see if the shoes fit properly or not. 

Nobody seemed to realize these unregulated, unshielded x-ray machines were a health hazard. While they were perhaps a minor hazard to customers, they apparently caused cancer amongst shoe salespeople who were exposed to x-rays off and on, all day, every day. In 1957, Pennsylvania became the first US state to ban use of these machines. Other states and most other countries banned the use of these machines soon after.

The image above shows a typical fluoroscope. The customer, often a child, would try on the new shoes and then stand on a "platform" on the back of the device. (The platform is barely visible on the back of the fluoroscope in the above picture.) Then there are three viewing ports on top. These allowed the shoe salesperson, the customer (such as my mother), and the person wearing the shoes (that's me!) to simultaneously view the live x-rays. I well remember that I wasn't so interested in the shoes but was fascinated by the fact I could see a live image of the bones in my toes as I wiggled them a bit.

It wasn't until several years later that the risks became well-known. According to an article in Wikipedia (at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoe-fitting_fluoroscope):

"Large variations in dose were possible depending on the machine design, displacement of the shielding materials, and the time and frequency of use. Radiation surveys showed that American machines delivered an average of 13 roentgen (r) (roughly 0.13 sievert (Sv) of equivalent dose in modern units) to the customer's feet during a typical 20 second viewing, with one capable of delivering 116 r (~1 Sv) in 20 seconds. British Pedoscopes were about ten times less powerful. A customer might try several shoes in a day, or return several times in a year, and radiation dose effects may be cumulative. A dose of 300 r can cause growth disturbance in a child, and 600 r can cause erythema in an adult. Hands and feet are relatively resistant to other forms of radiation damage, such as carcinogenesis.

"Although most of the dose was directed at the feet, a substantial amount would scatter or leak in all directions. Shielding materials were sometimes displaced to improve image quality, to make the machine lighter, or out of carelessness, and this aggravated the leakage. The resulting whole-body dose may have been hazardous to the salesmen, who were chronically exposed, and to children, who are about twice as radiosensitive as adults. Monitoring of American salespersons found dose rates at pelvis height of up to 95 mr/week, with an average of 7.1 mr/week (up to ~50 mSv/a, avg ~3.7 mSv/an effective dose). A 2007 paper suggested that even higher doses of 0.5 Sv/a were plausible. The most widely accepted model of radiation-induced cancer posits that the incidence of cancers due to ionizing radiation increases linearly with effective (i.e., whole-body) dose at a rate of 5.5% per Sv."

An estimated 10,000 machines were sold in the US, 3,000 in the UK, 1,500 in Switzerland, and 1,000 in Canada before authorities began discouraging their use. It seems that several shoe salespeople later developed various forms of cancer, but no follow-up studies were ever conducted simply because nobody ever kept records of the people who had been exposed.

I find it interesting that Bill Reed, the owner and chief salesperson at the small Reed's Footwear and Clothing store mentioned earlier, lived to be 88 years old; it appears that the fluoroscope did not affect his health very much!

The Toledo, Ohio Police Department has announced that The Porchlight Project will be providing funding to help identify a Toledo Jane Doe who was found nearly 40 years ago.

TPD says on June 16, 1987, the body of a young woman was found behind an auto repair shop on Collingwood Blvd. near I-75. Her body was wrapped in a pink-colored cloth and she was wearing Jordache jeans. 

Officials say she had been dead for at least several days when she was found. It also appeared that her body was set on fire in an attempt to destroy evidence.

The woman was described as the following:

In order to help identify the woman, TPD Detective Jason Mussery requested funding for new DNA testing and genetic genealogy from The Porchlight Project, an Ohio nonprofit that raises money to help solve cold cases.

TPD says The Porchlight Project has agreed to fully fund the initiative and will contract with Othram for testing and genealogy.

“The Toledo Police Department has never given up on giving this young woman her name,” said Nic Edwards, a spokesperson for The Porchlight Project. “I believe this young woman‘s parents and siblings are still alive and I’m sure they’re heartbroken not knowing where she has been all this time.”

If you have any information about this case, contact the Toledo Police Department Investigative Services Bureau at 419-245-3142.

The West Virginia Department of Health’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, alongside the West Virginia State Police, the West Virginia Fusion Center, and Marshall University, has made significant strides in forming the West Virginia Forensic Genealogy Commission. This initiative aims to expedite the identification of unidentified human remains, offering hope and closure to families statewide.

The commission is the culmination of efforts led by state legislators, including Senators Vince Deeds and Tom Takubo, who championed the enabling legislation.

Secretary of Health Sherri Young emphasized the commission's importance: "This represents a crucial step in restoring hope and closure to families facing the pain of uncertainty. We will leverage the latest forensic technology to treat unidentified remains with dignity."

Matt Izzo, Chief Administrator of the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, noted, "This collaboration provides a more efficient avenue for submissions, addressing the backlogs created by previous processes."

An agreement with Marshall University and the West Virginia State Police Forensic Lab allows for DNA profiling of unidentified remains. To date, over 32 cases and multiple samples have been processed, enabling potential matches through the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) or direct familial comparisons via the Marshall University Forensic Science Center. Law enforcement will assist in collecting reference samples from family members when leads arise.

Laura Kuyper, Director of the Marshall University Forensic Science Center, stated, "We are honored to support this program, which will enhance traditional DNA testing with next-generation sequencing technologies."

Senator Vince Deeds commented, "As a former law enforcement officer, I know how vital it is to provide closure to families. This commission is a powerful tool for identifying the unidentified and a lifeline for those seeking answers."

Senator Tom Takubo added, "This partnership illustrates the power of strong government support for private-public collaborations, showcasing the incredible outcomes that can be achieved. I am confident this initiative will set new standards for law enforcement procedures in West Virginia and nationwide.”

Jack Luikart, Director of the Fusion Center, added “We are very thankful for the opportunity and look forward to collaborating in the effort to bring new technology and resources to our state’s law enforcement to resolve unsolved crimes. Our goal is to make West Virginia the leader in this area of expertise.” 

Since launching in late spring, the commission has achieved two positive identifications within three months, with ongoing investigations. If initial efforts are inconclusive, the commission will partner with the RGEN Company and the West Virginia Fusion Center to create genealogical profiles using ancestry databases, providing another potential identification pathway.

Grand Prairie Police Cold Case Detectives, with the assistance of the Texas Department of Public Safety, have solved a 16-year-old cold case.

On Aug. 8, 2008, at around 6:15 p.m., the Grand Prairie Police Department responded to assist the Grand Prairie Fire Department with a structure fire in the 2600 block of Channing Drive. Inside the residence, firefighters located a deceased male who was identified as Raymond Hernandez, 45 years of age.

Autopsy results determined Hernandez was the victim of a homicide. DNA from a possible suspect was collected at the scene and entered into the CODIS in November 2008. At the time, there was no matching DNA in CODIS to identify the potential suspect, nor were there any other cases where this suspect’s DNA profile matched any other victims.

In February 2022, Grand Prairie Police (Texas) Cold Case Detectives began collaborating with the Texas Department of Public Safety – Texas Rangers to utilize the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI). Forensic genetic genealogical testing of the potential suspect’s DNA was searched through a third-party laboratory.

In September 2024, an investigative lead was developed through the genealogical search. Detectives were able to obtain a DNA sample and confirm the lead.

On Oct. 4, 2024, Grand Prairie Police Cold Case Detectives, with the assistance of the Texas DPS-Texas Rangers and the Lufkin, Texas Police Department, arrested Jerry Lee Gardner, 44 years of age, at his residence in Lufkin, for the murder of Raymond Hernandez.

He is currently in the Grand Prairie Detention Center on the charge of Capital Murder with a bond set at $1,000,000.

On Aug. 23, the Chester Fritz Library made a unique donation to Norway House, a Minneapolis-based Norwegian cultural center. Curt Hanson, head of Elwyn B. Robinson Department of Special Collections at the library, drove to Minneapolis with 150 bygdebøker in tow.

Bygdebøker, roughly translated as “farm books” or “village books,” are invaluable resources for genealogists. They contain detailed family lineages and local histories from Norway. Each book covers the history of a specific Norwegian county (referred to in Norway as et fylke), complete with family and school pictures and legal and death records, among other things.

Hanson said that UND’s Arnie G. Brekke Bygdebøk Collection is the largest of its kind in the U.S. and, with more than 1,600 volumes, rivals some of Norway’s collections.

“We’ve been collecting bygdebøker since the 1980s, because North Dakota has such a large population with Norwegian ancestry,” Hanson said. “Arne Brekke, who taught in the Languages Department, helped the library start its collection, and he’s largely responsible for how big it is today.”

Bygdebøker are not widely circulated, and many are written exclusively in Norwegian, so finding specific volumes outside of Norway is a rarity. This specificity has made them a frequently requested resource at the library, Hanson said, which motivated the library to expand its collection. But over the decades, the library ended up with more duplicate volumes than it knew what to do with.

Mike Swanson, a former Chester Fritz Library archivist, proposed that UND donate its duplicates after he learned that Norway House was expanding its building. This expansion, which opened in 2022 with a ribbon cutting attended by Queen Sonja of Norway, includes a space for genealogical research materials and other historical texts provided by the library.

“They’ve just kind of been sitting in a room collecting dust here at the library,” Hanson said. “When Mike found out that Norway House was building up its own library, we thought it was the perfect opportunity to give these books to people who would really appreciate them.”

Race Fisher, development associate at Norway House, said the donation will be an important addition to the library’s growing collection. While many of the books are untranslated, aspiring genealogists need only a few words to navigate the texts and connect to their history, Fisher said.

“It’s incredible what you can find in these books,” he said. “Sometimes they’ll trace your family back as far as the 1600s; a few pages of a bygdebøk can uncover centuries of family history. But it also allows people to make tangible connections to people in contemporary Norway.

“It’s this kind of circular exchange that happens when people do genealogical research.”

As a cultural center, Norway House is in the business of connecting its American patrons to their ancestry and heritage. Until now, they’ve regularly tapped UND and other institutions for help with bygdeboker, but Fisher hopes that having a collection in-house will encourage visitors to reflect on Norway’s history and their own as their recent renovations continue to bring foot traffic.

“UND’s reputation for having this great collection of bygdebøker, and the University’s willingness to help people as they begin this journey has been really meaningful,” Fisher said. “We’re really grateful for UND’s willingness to make this contribution. It’s so exciting to offer these resources to our patrons and the larger Norwegian American community.”

A Russian-aligned propaganda network notorious for creating deepfake whistleblower videos appears to be behind a coordinated effort to promote wild and baseless claims that Minnesota governor and vice presidential candidate Tim Walz sexually assaulted one of his former students, according to several specialists tracking the disinformation campaign.

Experts believe that the campaign is tied to a network called Storm-1516, which has been linked to, among other things, a previous effort that falsely claimed vice president Kamala Harris perpetrated a hit-and-run in San Francisco in 2011. Storm-1516 has a long history of posting fake whistleblower videos, and often deepfake videos, to push Kremlin talking points to the West.

The propaganda unit’s work has successfully reached the highest levels of the Republican party, with vice presidential candidate JD Vance repeating at least one of their narratives. NBC reported this week that the group has pushed at least 50 false narratives in this manner since last fall, which comes amid a broader Russian government effort to disrupt next month’s election with the aim of helping former president Donald Trump return to the White House.

You can read more in an article by David Gilbert published in the Wired web site at: https://tinyurl.com/ye2x3bvk.

U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) has added more than 3,000 volumes of the Congressional Serial Set containing more than 45,000 individual documents and reports to GPO’s GovInfo, the one-stop site for authentic, published information for all three branches of the Federal Government. This comes as part of a multi-year effort with the Library of Congress to digitize and make accessible the U.S. Congressional Serial Set back to the first volume, which was published in 1817. 

“A big congratulations to our Library Services and Content Management team and our GovInfo team for their work making accessible thousands of historic documents,” said GPO Director Hugh Nathanial Halpern. “This effort to preserve our Nation’s history serves as one more way we are delivering on our vision of an America Informed. I look forward to the continued digitization of these treasured documents.”

Highlights from the newly added volumes include:

1. Annual reports of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum 
2. Reports from May and June of 1874 relating to Susan B. Anthony’s criminal trial for illegally voting in elections in Rochester, New York. (At the time, women were barred from voting under New York state laws.) 
3. Hearings on the construction of the Panama Canal
4. Compilations of the official records of the Union and Confederate armies during the American Civil War 

The United States Congressional Serial Set, commonly referred to as the Serial Set, is a compilation of all numbered House and Senate reports and documents, including executive reports and treaty documents, issued for each session of Congress. GPO is uploading volumes of the official Serial Set in phases for free public access on GovInfo. Thus far it makes available nearly 7,000 volumes, with nearly 11,000 remaining. The entire effort is expected to take at least a decade to complete.

About GPO
GPO is the Federal Government’s resource for publishing trusted information for the Federal Government to the American people. The GPO is responsible for the production and distribution of information products and services for all three branches of the Federal Government, including U.S. passports for the Department of State as well as the official publications of Congress, the White House, and other Federal agencies in digital and print formats. GPO provides for permanent public access to Federal Government information at no charge throughwww.GovInfo.gov and partnerships with approximately 1,100 libraries nationwide participating in the Federal Depository Library Program. For more information, please visit www.gpo.gov.

Jane Rothstein was named president of the Jewish Genealogy Society of Cleveland, replacing Dr. Deborah A. Katz, who recently retired as president and first vice president for programming. Rothstein also serves as the second vice-president for membership and manages the genealogy’s library collection, which is housed at Congregation Mishkan Or’s Hartzmark Library.

During her terms as an officer, Katz initiated a technology review that resulted in a redesigned website and a robust back-end structure for managing membership, finance, communications and other important functions, according to a news release. She hosted a Zoom-based presentations by local and national experts on genealogical subjects. She organized the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the genealogy department’s founding, initiated a series of small in-person discussion groups and co-organized the genealogy society’s first community family history and genealogy open house, held in August, the release stated.

Rothstein grew up in University Heights and Beachwood, the daughter of Daniel and Mary Ann (Friedman) Rothstein, and graduated from Beachwood High School in 1987. She completed her Bachelor of Arts degree at Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass., Master of Arts degree in U.S. history at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and Master of Library and Information Science degree in library science and archives management at Long Island University in Brooklyn, N.Y. She also pursued doctoral studies in American Jewish history at New York University.

She has taught Jewish studies at New York University, the Center for Jewish History, Texas Christian University and the National Havurah Committee’s Summer Institute and worked in the archives of the American Civil Liberties Union and the New York Public Library. She is the librarian and archivist at Congregation Mishkan Or, positions she previously held at The Temple-Tifereth Israel.

As president, Rothstein’s top priority is to help build and strengthen the genealogy society’s volunteer base: to work with members to identify volunteer opportunities that reflect their interests and skills, according to the release. The genealogy society will continue to offer world-class programming through Zoom and focus on partnerships with the broad Cleveland and Jewish genealogy-related communities, the release stated.

The genealogy society’s current membership is 223, about a third of whom are from outside Ohio, according to the release.

“Woman in Gold” with Randy Schoenberg, presented in partnership with Case Western Reserve University’s Siegal Lifelong Learning program will be held at 7 p.m. Nov. 6.

Schoenberg, an attorney, genealogist and filmmaker will discuss his work as the attorney for Maria Altmann in her quest to recover family treasures looted by the Nazis in World War II, including the so-called “Woman in Gold,” painter Gustav Klimt’s famous “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer.”

To register for the free program, visit http://shorturl.at/f2Vpm.

For membership and general information, visit our website at: http://jgscleveland.org.

The National Archives of Ireland project has announced that as part of a €5 million project the Republic of Ireland's 1926 Census results will be available online, free of charge, from April 2026.

Personal information entered on individual census forms can be published 100 years after a census is taken. Since the personal information contained in the 1901 and 1911 census returns was published a decade ago, public interest in genealogy has mushroomed, and this continues with a growing interest in the detail contained in the 1926 census.

These returns contain the personal details of each individual alive at the time in Ireland. The 1926 census collected 21 data sets such as name, age, sex, marital status, religion, housing conditions and ability to speak Irish. It is planned to digitize and publish all data sets. This information will undoubtedly provide a fascinating snapshot of life in Ireland in 1926 and will be of great use to both the Irish public and diaspora worldwide.

On the night of 18 April 1926, the population of Ireland was 2,971,992 with 49% female and 51% male. At the previous census in 1911, the population was 3,139,688 demonstrating a reduction of 5.3% in the population in 15 years to 1926.  Dublin was the only county to record an increase in the population of almost 6% in the intercensal period, while all other counties recorded a loss.

In 1926, a total of 92.6% of the population was Catholic and 18.3% could speak Irish. Of those employed, 51% were in agricultural occupations, 4% were fishermen, 14% were in manufacturing and 7% were domestic servants. 

At present, the 1926 census is stored in 1,344 boxes, containing over 700,000 return sheets, each measuring approximately 630mm x 290mm (A3 is 297x430mm). The returns are laced together in 2,464 canvas portfolios each representing an enumeration area within each of the 26 counties.

The first full government census of Ireland was taken in 1821 with further censuses at ten-yearly intervals from 1831 through to 1911. A census was taken in June 1921, in England, Scotland and Wales but not on the island of Ireland because of the War of Independence. The first census of the population of the Irish Free State was taken on 18 June 1926.

The 1926 census returns, and indeed, all censuses less than 100 years old, remain under the legal control of the Central Statistics Office (CSO). To date censuses have been taken in 1926, 1936, 1946, 1951, 1956, 1961, 1966, 1971, 1979 (the census due in 1976 was canceled as an economic measure), 1981, 1986, 1991, 1996, 2002 and 2006. The returns for 1926 - 1946 and part of those for 1951 are held in the National Archives, but they remain under the control of the Central Statistics Office. The more recent returns are still held by the Central Statistics Office.

The 1926 census consists of 630,048 household returns with one census return sheet per household along with around 70,0000 enumerators’ sheets. Each return measures approximately 630mm x 290mm (A3 is 297x430mm). The returns are laced together in 2,464 canvas portfolios each representing an enumeration area within each of the 26 counties. The entire census is stored in 1,344 boxes.

The 1926 census collected 21 data sets. These include:

1) Name and surname

2) Relationship to head of household.

3) Age (in years and months).

4) Sex.

5) Marriage or orphanhood.

6) Birthplace (including name of parish).

7) Irish language.

8) Religion.

9) Occupation and employment: personal occupation.

10) Occupation and employment: employment/name of employer.

11) Information regarding present marriage required from married women: number of completed years and months of present marriage, and number of children born alive to present marriage.

12) Information regarding present and previous marriages required from married men, widowers and widows: the number of living sons, daughters, step-sons and step-daughters under 16 years of age, whether residing as members of this household or elsewhere.

13) The total area in statute acres of all agricultural holdings (if any) situated in the Irish Free State of which persons usually resident in this household are the rated occupiers.

For more details on the 1926 Census visit: CSO.ie.