A collaborative project between two critical components of West Texas A&M University’s research efforts is offering a permanent repository for vital regional history.

Cornette Library and the Center for the Study of the American West are working together to flesh out the library’s digital archive with photos, oral histories, maps and other articles that help tell the story of the region.

“We are working to protect and preserve our region’s history in a digital format so that anyone can find it,” said Dr. Alex Hunt, CSAW director, Regents Professor of English and Vincent-Haley Professor of Western Studies.

The partnership also includes Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, whose archives will store physical copies of the items.

CSAW interns—funded through grants by such entities as Xcel Energy and the National Endowment of the Humanities—are cataloging items for preservation. Among them are oral histories for CSAW’s ongoing Forgotten Frontera project; histories of Barrel and Indian Creek Ranch and Buffalo Lake; and snapshots of the life of Montie Ritchie, the grandson of pivotal area pioneer Cornelia Adair. 

“It’s not just portraits that are important historically,” Hunt said. “These photos are a great view of the everyday life of this significant man.”

The digital archive also includes the map collection of area history teacher J. Michael Harter—colorful, hand-drawn renderings of the history and geography of the Llano Estacado.

Also preserved is the Texas Panhandle Curriculum Initiative, which provides educators with lesson plans about regional topics that meet Texas Education Agency’s Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills requirements.

“It’s rewarding and comforting to have this material available online,” said Coco Duran-Anzua, a junior general studies major from Abernathy who has assisted with the Forgotten Fronteras oral history project. “What you have worked so hard on, so passionately on, is safe and available to the public. It feels more formal to have it preserved.”

Also being digitized are dozens of boxes of newsletters and photographs chronicling the history of Southwest Public Service.

Cornette’s institutional repository has been in place since 2014 and is an easily accessible repository of the vast array of WT’s contributions as a regional research university. Included in the archive are data sets from professors in WT’s College of Engineering; political science research from Dr. Dave Rausch, WT’s Teel Bivins Professor of Political Science; theses and dissertations from 2014 on; and posters from faculty and student research presentations dating back to 2020, among others.

“All of this is still growing,” said Patrick Diepen, Cornette Library archivist and manager of the repository. “We are spending more time on this project to make it grow.”

Exceling as a regional research university is the primary goal of the University’s long-range plan, WT 125: From the Panhandle to the World.

That plan is fueled by the historic One West comprehensive fundraising campaign, which reached its initial $125 million goal 18 months after publicly launching in September 2021. The campaign’s new goal is to reach $175 million by 2025; currently, it has raised nearly $160 million.

About West Texas A&M University

WT is located in Canyon, Texas, on a 342-acre residential campus. Established in 1910, the University has been part of The Texas A&M University System since 1990. WT, a Hispanic Serving Institution since 2016, boasts an enrollment of about 10,000 and offers 59 undergraduate degree programs and more than 40 graduate degrees, including two doctoral degrees. The University is also home to the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, the largest history museum in the state and the home of one of the Southwest’s finest art collections. The Buffaloes are a member of the NCAA Division II Lone Star Conference and offers 14 men’s and women’s athletics programs.

The following announcement was written by MyHeritage:

It’s that time again! We’ve just updated the data for Theory of Family Relativity™, adding millions of new theories to help you uncover how you’re related to your DNA Matches.  

Theory of Family Relativity™ is a groundbreaking feature that can save you hours of work trying to understand your connection to your DNA Matches. It utilizes MyHeritage’s huge database of 49 million family trees and 20.8 billion historical records to provide you with plausible theories about how you and your DNA Matches are related.

Since the last update, our DNA database has grown, as have the number of family tree profiles and historical records on MyHeritage. As a result, the overall number of theories has grown significantly. 

Haven’t taken a DNA test yet? Order MyHeritage DNA today!

Theory of Family Relativity™ by the numbers

Thanks to this update:

• The total number of theories has grown by 40%, to 233,400,486.
• The number of DNA kits with at least one theory has grown by 16%, to 2,947,678.
• The number of DNA Matches that have a theory has grown to 167,111,082, representing a 43% increase.
  
• The total number of paths has increased by 35%, to 1,629,635,874.
  

Viewing new theories

If new theories were found, you’ll see a purple banner at the top of your DNA Matches page. Click “View theories” to view all matches that have a theory.

Watch the video below to learn how to use Theory of Family Relativity™:

When a DNA Match has a theory, this is indicated on the DNA Match card. You can also filter your DNA Matches to only show those with a Theory of Family Relativity™. Click the “Filters” icon on the top right corner of the page. Then, click “All tree details” on the far left, and select “Has Theory of Family Relativity™.” This will display all DNA Matches that have a theory. A “NEW” badge will appear next to the theory on the DNA Match card for 30 days.

Click “View theory” to see the detailed path showing how the algorithm arrived at the proposed relationship. In certain cases, multiple possible paths may exist for a given theory. If more than one path exists, you can toggle between them on the page. Having more than one path for a theory strengthens its reliability.

It’s important to review the relationship path(s) for each theory, and decide for yourself if the theory is reasonable. If it appears to be correct, you can confirm the theory using the button that appears directly above the chart showing the relationship path. If the theory seems incorrect, you can reject it.

Confirming or rejecting a theory (click to zoom)

How can I increase my chances of receiving theories?

To boost your chances of receiving a theory, continue growing your family tree. The more details you add, especially about your great-grandparents and other distant ancestors, the more discoveries you’ll receive. These could lead the algorithm to uncover new theories about your relationships to your DNA Matches. You can also encourage your relatives to grow their family trees and take a DNA test, to increase your chances of making new discoveries.

All users who have new theories will receive an email from MyHeritage letting them know there’s a new theory to review. Theory of Family Relativity™ is a premium feature on MyHeritage. To view a full theory, a site subscription (Premium, PremiumPlus, Complete, or Omni) is required. Users who upload their DNA data to MyHeritage can pay a one-time unlock fee to access advanced DNA features.

Haven’t taken a MyHeritage DNA test yet? There’s no time like the present! Join in the fun and order your DNA kit today!

Editor’s note: In the UND LEADS Strategic Plan, the “Service” core value calls on the University to “promote the arts and humanities, which contribute to the cultural vibrancy of the state and help attract and retain talent in our communities.” 

The story below describes a philanthropic effort by the Chester Fritz Library to share one of its rich arts-and-humanities collections with a Minneapolis nonprofit, an effort in line with the best traditions of the UND LEADS Strategic Plan.

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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 a fylker), complete with family and school pictures and legal and death records, among other things.

Hanson said that UND’s Arnie G. Brekke Bygdebok 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.”

Here is another reason to quit smoking: it could prove your identification in a major crime.

New DNA recovered from a discarded cigarette has helped police in Washington state make an arrest in a decades-old cold case, authorities said this week.

Dorothy Marie Silzel was last seen alive on Feb. 23, 1980, in Kent, Washington, the Van Buren County Sheriff's Office said on social media. She was found dead in her condo three days later after a welfare check was requested. Local police found that she had been sexually assaulted and deemed her death to be a homicide via strangulation, according to the Seattle Times.

DNA evidence was collected from the crime scene, CBS affiliate KTHV reported, but it wasn't until years later that the technology would advance enough to help link that evidence to possible suspects. In March 2022, Kent police began pursuing possible DNA matches and came back with 11 suspects, according to the station. Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson said on social media that his office's sexual assault kit initiative funded forensic genetic genealogy testing that "narrowed the list of suspects."

One of those suspects was Kenneth Kundert, who at the time was living in Van Buren County, Arkansas. He had lived and worked in Seattle in 1987, but no earlier records were available. Police also found that he had a family member who had lived near Silzel at the time of her murder, and he had misdemeanor convictions in King County throughout the 80s and 90s, according to the Seattle Times.

Kundert was already under investigation for assault in Arkansas, and during an interview with him about the crime, Van Buren County detectives tried to get a sample from him, but according to charging documents and police, he put extinguished cigarettes and a water bottle that he drank from in his pocket and declined to give a voluntary sample.

Kent police began conducting surveillance on Kundert while he lived in Arkansas. Eventually, he dropped a cigarette before entering a store. The cigarette was recovered and tested for DNA.

The DNA on the cigarette matched the DNA that was found in Silzel's condo, police said.

A note to readers in other countries: ITV is a British television network.

NI actor Jimmy Nesbitt is set to explore his ancestry in an ITV series. DNA Journey with Ancestry is returning with six new celebrity pairings.

The celebrity duos delving into their families’ histories this series are Ricky Tomlinson and Sue Johnston, Jo Brand and Julian Clary, Fay Ripley and Hermione Norris, Sam Thompson and Marvin Humes, Sarah Parish and Jimmy Nesbitt, and John Simm and Philip Glenister.

A statement added: "In this fifth series produced by Voltage TV, Mitre Studios and Ancestry, the new celebrity twosomes set off in pursuit of where they come from and unearth secrets from their past in a life-changing and emotional voyage of discovery that takes us from Canada to London and France to Jamaica.

"Using advanced DNA technology and genealogy, the duos will unlock hidden secrets from their family trees as they discover amazing revelations about their descendants, fascinating stories of unknown ancestors and meetings with no living relatives that spark deep connections to the past and present."

Do you remember “Roots”, the TV series authored by Alex Haley? Or perhaps you do not remember it but would like to learn about the series? Either way, Nancy Battick has written an article that will interest you.

Nancy’s article, "What ‘Roots’ gave to genealogy?” may be found at: https://observer-me.com/2024/08/26/opinion/what-roots-gave-to-genealogy/

The following book reviews were written by Bobbi King:

The Genealogical Publishing Company continues to publish extensive compilations from David Dobson.

Irish Emigrants in North America, Consolidated Edition, Parts One to Ten.                                  2023. 835 pages.

The earliest Irish immigrant to America likely arrived to Roanoke, Carolina, in 1586, signaling the flow of Irish immigrants into the 1600s and 1700s, comprised mostly of indentured servants and prisoners of war banished to the plantations. In the 1600s, forced transports of Irish sent them to the West Indies. After the Napoleonic Wars of 1815, the British Government sent former soldiers and their families to Canada. Through the 1800s, the growth of transatlantic trade and the sufferings of the potato famine solidified Irish emigration into American ports and inland communities wherever their labors were needed.

This one book holds the ten editions of the Irish Emigrants in North America books published from 1994 to 2020. Each book is reproduced exactly as originally published.

Jana Broglin’s very comprehensive index of names covers all ten editions, including persons within the emigrant entries who might be otherwise overlooked, such as spouses, other next of kin, signatories, ship captains, and others.

Scottish Trade with Colonial Charleston, 1683 – 1783. 2018. 369 pages.

Charleston, or “Charles Town” then, dominated commerce of the southern region of South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia during America’s colonial years. During the 1700s, the Scotch-Irish and the German peoples were predominant emigrants settling the Thirteen Colonies. 

This is a study of the trade between Scotland and Charleston, focusing on examinations of the slave trade; types, quantities, and origins of goods shipped; the importance of family connections and networking in the success of trade; and the sizes and types of ships.

Scottish Soldiers in Colonial America, Part Six and Scottish Soldiers in Colonial America, Part Seven. 2023.

Scottish soldiers were present in the Americas during the 1600s, serving in English regiments as well as Netherlands or other European power militias. Former soldiers, after the wars, settled in the colonies and Canada well into the 1800s. These books contain names of settlers, the units in which they served, and their places of settlement.

The Covenanters of Scotland, 1638 – 1690. 2023. 263 pages.

In 1638, Scotland enacted a National Covenant, demanding Scottish parliaments and assemblies completely free of the royal control of King Charles I. The Covenanters, supporters of the Covenant, were soldiers and countrymen who formed an army that confronted the regiments of King Charles. This book contains names of Covenanters who participated in the conflicts. Entry examples:

DUNBAR, ROBERT, born 1634, son of Ninian Dunbar of Georgehill, a prisoner of war who was transported to Boston, Massachusetts, in 1650, died on 19 September 1693.[Source].

DUNGALSTONE, NICOLL, in Larg, was accused, in Kirkcudbright in October 1684, of conversing with rebel John Carsan in June 1684. [Source].

Scots-Irish Links, 1575 – 1725, Part Eleven. 2021. 125 pages.

This volume continues the compilation of names of Scottish settlers in Ireland. This volume sources documents in the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland and the National Records of Scotland where records document the economic links and shipping ports that facilitated emigration to Ireland.

Anglo-Dutch Links, 1560 – 1860. 2020. 104 pages.

This book identifies English people who settled in the Netherlands, as well as Dutch or Flemish people who settled in England. Religious refugees, traders and craftsmen, and the establishment of universities facilitated settlement of populations between the two countries.

The People of Argyll, Bute, and Dunbarton, 1600 – 1699. 2023. 174 pages.

This book identifies persons living in the regions of Argyll, Bute, and western Dunbartonshire during the 1600s, families mostly of Gaelic origin. A rural area with few burghs, conflicts ensued among Scottish clansmen and the English kings. The documents in the National Records of Scotland in Edinburgh are largely the sources for this compilation.

David Dobson continues to assemble a substantial set of collections serving the Scottish and Irish researchers.

Mr. Dobson’s books are available from the publisher, Genealogical.com as well as from Amazon.com.

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 may interest  anyone who wants to know about AI-Image Generators:

A new user-friendly website lets anyone create up to 25 AI-generated images for free. Here's how to try it.

Need a good AI image generator? You can now try Midjourney's dedicated website for free. Midjourney CEO David Holz has announced via a Discord message that anyone can go to the website and start making images. As a special invitation, the site lets you generate as many as 25 images through a free trial.

In the past, Midjourney users had to go through Discord to create and refine AI-based images. That process required a fair amount of fiddling with text-based prompts, an often clumsy and frustrating experience. To draw in people who didn't like the Discord method, Midjourney kicked off a dedicated website late last year.

But the website was initially limited to users who had generated at least 10,000 images via Discord, excluding a lot of people. Now that the site is accessible to anyone, all Midjourney users should enjoy a much easier and smoother experience.

Signing up for the website requires an account with Google or Discord. If you've already created images via Discord, you can use that account to retrieve a history of the images you generated in the past. You can then merge your Discord and Google accounts to be able to sign in with either one. Otherwise, signing in with a Google account is easier.

After you sign in, a sidebar on the left displays tabs for different sections and tasks. Going to the Explore section lets you check out images that other people have created. The Create section displays a brief but helpful video that shows you how to get started with Midjourney. That video is also viewable in a post on X. From here, you can then request an image. Just type your prompt in the field at the top and see what Midjourney cooks up.

During the upcoming renovation process to the John McIntire Library, the Muskingum County Library System will be relocating some of its affiliated services that call the library home. 

Muskingum County Genealogical Society Treasurer Brooke Anderson shared what the organization brings to the public, along with plans for how they will continue their services throughout the library’s renovations process.

“Genealogy Society will be moving to the library at Herrold Hall at Ohio University Zanesville,” Anderson said. “Our last day here, open to the public, is Saturday, September the 13th. We then hope to reopen by either the end of October or beginning of November, out at OUZ. We will not be able to take all of our materials with us because of space. So we will be focusing on our family histories, our yearbooks, and the items that pertain more to the local area.”

The Genealogical Society is having a book sale during their normal hours of operation that will consist of duplicate materials and historical literature that has less to do with local genealogy.

“Once we are at Herrold Hall, we will announce that opening date on our Facebook, on our public library site and all of those usual sources. And we plan to be open right now, on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays. We looked at some other spaces but that was the one that had the most space to give us. That is a temporary location. Once the remodeling is done, we will be back in our same location, with a little bit more room than we have right now,” Anderson said.

The Genealogical Society has been a fixture of the John McIntire Library since 1992 serving the public by providing access to hard to find documentation inside a convenient location.

LibreOffice is my preferred word processor/spreadsheet/presentation program and otherwise is my preferred program to be used in place of Microsoft Office. I use LibreOffice multiple times per day, including once today to write this article. Not bad for a FREE program! Don’t waste your money on the (overpriced) Microsoft Office!

LibreOffice just got a major update that adds new privacy, security, productivity, and accessibility features across all its apps. It is a free and open-source productivity suite that includes a word, spreadsheet, presentation, and drawing apps, supporting both open source and proprietary (mostly from Microsoft Office) file formats

LibreOffice claims that it’s “the only software for creating documents that may contain personal or confidential information that respects the privacy of the user.” To that end, LibreOffice 24.8 introduces a new privacy feature that lets you remove personal and trackable information from any file before exporting it. Metadata like timestamps, version history, printer identifiers, author information are usually embedded in most documents. Exporting via this privacy feature makes them harder to track. Plus, LibreOffice gives you one more mode to encrypt ODF files with passwords (an open source document format).

LibreOffice

The new LibreOffice Writer interface is getting new formatting, linking, and search features. New bullet styles and a Find deck have been added to the navigator. It also offers finer control over hyphenation and drag-and-drop navigation. 

Calc, the spreadsheet editor, has nine new functions (many of them for better sorting and filtering). Calc also supports two new chart types (Pie-of-Pie and Bar-of-Pie) and makes them compatible with proprietary chart formats from Microsoft Office. The text inside these charts is now easily formatable via the dedicated character window. And it has been optimized for better overall performance. 

Impress (the presentation app) also gets some minor updates. You can scroll between slides, and edits made to a presentation are immediately reflected in a running slideshow. The new LibreOffice 24.8 is now available for Windows, macOS, and Linux. This new version is also the first to offer native support for Windows PCs built on the ARM architecture.

You can read more about the new release of LibreOffice at: https://www.howtogeek.com/libreoffice-24-8-release/.