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Latest Standard Edition Articles

  • 17 Jul 2023 12:05 PM | Anonymous

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

    (+) Understanding Optical Character Recognition

    The Fight Over a Confederate Statue in Arlington National Cemetery

    A New Approach to Genetic Genealogy Sheds Light on African American Ancestry

    PRONI Unveils New Searchable Names Database

    What Impact Will Artificial Intelligence Have on Genealogy Research?

    Unsolvable Cases Are ‘Solvable Again:’ Toronto Police Use Genetic Genealogy to ID Man Whose Body Was Found in 2019

    How Jews Can Learn About Their Roots From Hundreds of Genealogists

    The New England Historic Genealogical Society to Benefit From New Investment

    NGS 2024 Family History Conference Call For Proposals

    Discover York History: 100 Years of York County, Maine Newspapers Are Now Online

    Fairfield, Iowa Library’s Newspaper Archives Being Uploaded to Internet

    Belfast, Maine Free Library Becomes FamilySearch Affiliate Library

    Quest Launches Consumer-Initiated Genetic Test on questhealth.com to Deliver Personalized, Actionable Health Risk Insights

    New Seafaring Records added to TheGenealogist

    The Catholic Heritage Archive Grows With New and Exclusive Records on Findmypast

    Webinar: “Andiamo! Finding Your Italian Family”

    What Is Storj and Why Should I Care?

    Introducing the Proton Drive Windows App

    Software Creates Entirely New Views From Existing Video

    18 Unique Creative Projects to Reuse Your Old PC

    Evernote Lays Off Most of Staff, Triggering Fears of Closure
  • 17 Jul 2023 8:25 AM | Anonymous

    Members of Jewish community are being invited to delve into their ancestral history when genealogists from around the world descend on the UK later this month. 

    Dozens of family ancestry experts will be on hand to help members of the community learn to trace their roots at an international conference on Jewish genealogy, which promises to “enhance and spread knowledge and learning” around the topic through  workshops, talks and storytelling.

    This is the first time the International Conference on Jewish Genealogy, now in its 43rd year, is being staged in London.

    The event will run for four days between July 30 and August 3 and will feature more than 100 speakers, and over 200 sessions geared toward everyone from first timers to conference veterans.

    The conference is hosted by the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies  (IAJGS), an umbrella organisation of nearly 90 Jewish genealogical organisations worldwide, with the Jewish Genealogical Society of Great Britain (JGSGB) acting as the co-host.

    You can read more in an article by Daniel Ben-David published in The Jewish Chronicle web site at: https://tinyurl.com/46nuafw7.

  • 17 Jul 2023 8:18 AM | Anonymous

    Do you have home movies or home videos that are, shall we say, less than perfect? Do these have shaky video or unstable camerawork? If so, read on:

    Filmmakers may soon be able to stabilize shaky video, change viewpoints and create freeze-frame, zoom and slow-motion effects – without shooting any new footage – thanks to an algorithm developed by researchers at Cornell University and Google Research.

    The software, called DynIBar, synthesizes new views using pixel information from the original video, and even works with moving objects and unstable camerawork. The work is a major advance over previous efforts, which yielded only a few seconds of video, and often rendered moving subjects as blurry or glitchy.

    The code for this research effort is freely available, though the project is at an early stage and not yet integrated into commercial video editing tools.

    “While this research is still in its early days, I’m really excited about potential future applications for both personal and professional use,” said Noah Snavely, a research scientist at Google Research and associate professor of computer science at Cornell Tech and in the Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science.

    Snavely presented this work, “DynIBaR: Neural Dynamic Image-Based Rendering,” at the 2023 IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, on June 20, where it received an honorable mention for the best paper award. Zhengqi Li, Ph.D. ’21, of Google Research was the lead author on the study. 

    “Over the last few years, we’ve seen major progress in view synthesis methods – algorithms that can take a collection of images capturing a scene from a discrete set of viewpoints, and can render new views of that scene,” said Snavely. “However, most of these methods fail on scenes with moving people or pets, swaying trees and so on. This is a big problem because many interesting things in the world are things that move.”

    You can read more in an article published in the Cornell University web site at: https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2023/07/software-creates-entirely-new-views-existing-video.


  • 14 Jul 2023 3:54 PM | Anonymous

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

    Do you have a document or even a full-length book that you would like to enter into a computer's database or word processor? You could re-type the entire thing. If your typing ability is as bad as mine, that will be a very lengthy task. Of course, you could hire a professional typist to do the same, but that is also expensive.

    We all have computers, so why not use a high-quality scanner? You will also need optical character recognition (OCR) technology.

    OCR is the technology long used by libraries and government agencies to make lengthy documents available electronically. As OCR technology has improved, it has been adopted by commercial firms, including Ancestry.com, ProQuest, and other genealogy-related companies.

    For many purposes, OCR is the most cost-effective and speedy method available. OCR is much better and cheaper than hiring an army of clerk typists.

    OCR is actually the second step in the conversion process. The first step is to scan the document or book in question, much the same as you would scan a photograph. The scanner converts each printed page to a bitmap file, a pattern of dots that actually comprise an electronic image of the page. Software that comes with the scanner stores the file on the computer's hard drive in TIFF, JPG, or some other image format. 

    Next, specialized optical character recognition (OCR) software is used to scan the image and convert it to text. Older OCR software would compare the individual letters in a stored image against stored bitmaps of specific fonts. These pattern-recognition systems worked well with high-quality scanned images of text that used exactly the same fonts as those expected by the software. In other words, it rarely worked very well. It was rare that the scanned images exactly matched the stored bitmap images of individual characters. Only a few years ago, OCR had a reputation for inaccuracy.

    Today's OCR programs have added multiple algorithms of neural network technology to analyze the stroke edge, the line of discontinuity between the text characters, and the background. Allowing for irregularities of printed ink on paper, each algorithm averages the light and dark along the side of a stroke, matches it to known characters, and makes a best guess as to which character it is. The OCR software then averages or polls the results from all the algorithms to obtain a single reading. 

    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/13228017.

    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

  • 14 Jul 2023 1:48 PM | Anonymous

    The Fairfield Public Library is undertaking a project to upload all newspapers in Jefferson County’s history so that they will be searchable online.

    The ambitious project involves digitizing newspapers from as long ago as 1847, and covers newspapers such as The Fairfield Ledger as well as newspapers that have not published for decades such as The Fairfield Tribune, The Lockridge Times and The Batavia News.

    The library is relying on the services of Advantage Archives in Cedar Rapids, which scans microfilm and uploads the scan to the internet. It converts the scan into a searchable document, so that a person doing research on a subject can enter certain keywords and discover all instances where those words appear in a newspaper article going back more than 150 years.

    Fairfield Public Library Director Alecs Schmidt Mickunas said that this service will be free, and can be accessed through the library’s website under the “Digital Library” tab and then clicking on “Electronic Resources.

    The project is already underway, and about 15 percent of the library’s microfilm collection has been uploaded to the website. The initial round of funding came from a $10,000 gift from the Fairfield Public Library Foundation. Schmidt Mickunas said the library will need to raise $53,000 to upload its entire microfilm collection, which it hopes to do gradually over the next five years as donations or grants come in.

    You can read more in an article by Andy Hallman published in the southeastiowaunion.com web site at: https://www.southeastiowaunion.com/news/fairfield-librarys-newspaper-archives-being-uploaded-to-internet/

  • 14 Jul 2023 12:43 PM | Anonymous

    With the assistance of investigative genetic genealogy, the Toronto Police Service said they have been able to identify a man found deceased in the city’s downtown core nearly four years ago.

    The body of an unidentified man was found at 901 King Street West in Toronto on July 18, 2019.

    Investigators released a description to the public in an effort to identify him and Ontario Provincial Police later created an artist’s rendition of the man.The police service’s missing persons unit issued a video appeal to encourage anyone with any information to come forward.

    Attempts to identify the man were unsuccessful until the police service turned to investigative genetic genealogy (IGG) for assistance last year.

    “In the fall of 2022, the Ontario Forensic Pathology Service provided a biological sample to Othram Inc., where a DNA profile was developed. That DNA profile was then compared to public databases,” according to a news release issued by Toronto police on Friday.

    You can read more in an article by Codi Wilson and published in the cp24.com web site at: https://tinyurl.com/mr23y66a.

  • 14 Jul 2023 12:28 PM | Anonymous

    NOTE: This article is not about any of the "normal" topics of this newsletter: genealogy, history, current affairs, DNA, and related topics. However, this article contains information that I believe all computer users should be aware of, whether they plan to use it themselves or not. However, if you are looking only for true genealogy, history, current affairs, DNA, and related topic articles, you might want to skip this one. 

    Proton aims to create a privacy-centric internet that empowers people worldwide to regain control of their digital lives. The company started with Proton Mail, a fully secure e-mail service that sends encrypted email messages that can only be read by the sender and by the addressee, no one else. No hackers, no corporate spies, no government spies, and no one else.

    Proton later followed that up with the Proton VPN, Proton Calendar, and Proton Password Manager, all of which maintain privacy so that hackers, corporate spies,  government spies, and others cannot see what you are doing on your computer. That's the way the internet should work: total online privacy for all users.

    This week the company announced the release of Proton Drive Windows app, a method of securely storing encrypted Windows files in the cloud. The present release only works on Microsoft Windows but a future release for Macintosh is promised for "real soon now."

    I have been an enthusiastic user of Proton MAIL and Proton VPN for some time now. I suspect I will add Proton Drive for Macintosh as soon as it becomes available and probably will write about it in this newsletter at that time.

    The key difference between Proton Drive and other cloud-based storage options is that it will offer free, encrypted file storage by default. The service will also offer all of the essentials such as multi-device syncing, offline downloads and version history. I won't describe all the rest of the new (and very different from other cloud-based file storage services) features of Proton Drive Windows App. Instead, I will simply point you to the announcement in the Proton Blog at https://proton.me/blog/proton-drive-windows.

    NOTE: By the way, I am not compensated in any way for writing this article. I am simply a very satisfied user of Proton products and plan to continue using them until something even better comes along. The folks at Proton do not know that I am planning to publish this article. In fact, I doubt if the folks at Proton even know who I am.

  • 14 Jul 2023 8:38 AM | Anonymous

    The following is a press release issued by TheGenealogist:

    New Seafaring Records

    TheGenealogist has just released a range of records that will appeal to many British family historians with seafaring roots. As an island nation, we have seen countless ancestors go to sea, especially in the two World Wars. Whether our forebears served in merchant vessels or in warships, this latest release has records of interest for those with both types of sailors in their family trees.

    Researchers can use these records to reveal names, dates and information about ancestors who were recorded in a number of Navy Lists for the Royal Navy (RN) that cover both WW1 and WW2. Family historians looking for Merchant Navy (MN) mariners killed or who died on service in WW1 will also find something in this release for them, as well as gaining access to names for merchant seamen honoured with medals and awards between 1914-1918. 

    For those who have lost seafarers, whether in either the Royal Navy or the Merchant Navy, then this collection of records is a useful addition. Family history researchers will be able to look for ships that were sunk. The new resources include Merchant Shipping Losses 1914-1918, and the British Merchant Vessels Lost or Damaged by Enemy Action During the Second World War 1939-1945. For the Senior Service’s vessels, the Returns Showing the Losses of Ships of the Royal Navy 1914-1918 will give details of the ship and where it was sunk.

    Fully searchable by name or keyword from TheGenealogist’s Master Search. The new additions include records from a variety of sources, including:

    The Navy List 1914
    The Navy List January 1916
    The Navy List April 1918
    The Navy List August 1937
    The Navy List October 1937
    The Navy List July 1943
    The Navy List April 1945
    Return Showing the Losses of Ships of the Royal Navy 1914-1918
    Merchant Adventurers 1914-1918
    Merchant Shipping Losses 1914-1918
    British Merchant Vessels Lost or Damaged by Enemy Action During Second World War 1939-1945

    To learn more about how this collection of records helped us in the research of a mariner whose daring deeds earned him a VC read TheGenealogist’s article: Under the “Red Duster” and the White Ensign.

    https://thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2023/under-the-red-duster-and-the-white-ensign-2246/

    About TheGenealogist

    TheGenealogist is an award-winning online family history website, who put a wealth of information at the fingertips of family historians. Their approach is to bring hard to use physical records to life online with easy to use interfaces such as their Tithe and newly released Lloyd George Domesday collections. 

    TheGenealogist’s innovative SmartSearch technology links records together to help you find your ancestors more easily. TheGenealogist is one of the leading providers of online family history records. Along with the standard Birth, Marriage, Death and Census records, they also have significant collections of Parish and Nonconformist records, PCC Will Records, Irish Records, Military records, Occupations, Newspaper record collections amongst many others.

    TheGenealogist uses the latest technology to help you bring your family history to life. Use TheGenealogist to find your ancestors today!

  • 14 Jul 2023 8:23 AM | Anonymous

    The following is a press release from Findmypast:

    England Roman Catholic Parish Baptisms  

    A brand-new diocese joins the Catholic Heritage Archive this week. 243,092 Catholic baptisms for Leeds have been added into this existing record collection, covering the years 1757 to 1913. With images and transcriptions, you can expect to learn names, birthdates, baptism dates and the parish, in addition to both parents’ names. Some original images also include addresses and godparents’ names, so be sure to check. 

    England Roman Catholic Parish Marriages 

    A further 56,525 Catholic marriage records have been added, again for the Diocese of Leeds. These cover the years 1776 to 1913. You may discover names of both spouses, fathers’ names, marriage date and parish. 

    England Roman Catholic Parish Burials 

    If your Leeds ancestor was Catholic and died between 1759 and 1913, you may find them in these 26,195 new records. Details within the records vary, but you might learn names, ages, birth and death dates and the parish.  

    England Roman Catholic Congregational Records 

    Rounding off the new Leeds Catholic records are 152 congregational records, spanning 1798 to 1845. Again, details vary, but you may find a combination of name, age, birthdate, event date, parish and deanery.  

    Newspapers 

    Three new titles, updates to a further 10, and over 43,000 new pages make up this week’s newspaper release. 

    New titles 

    ·         Stowmarket Weekly Post, 1905-1917 

    ·         Darlaston Weekly Times, 1882-1887 

    ·         Waterford Citizen, 1871, 1885 

    Updated titles 

    ·         Crediton Gazette, 1882 

    ·         Enniscorthy Echo and South Leinster Advertiser, 1917 

    ·         Free Press (Wexford), 1912-1915, 1917-1921, 1923  

    ·         Huddersfield and Holmfirth Examiner, 1861-1863, 1865-1867, 1870, 1872, 1939-1949, 1951, 1978-1979 

    ·         Limerick Echo, 1903 

    ·         Loughborough Herald & North Leicestershire Gazette, 1883, 1888  

    ·         Newmarket Journal, 1921-1925, 1927-1928  

    ·         Stalybridge Reporter, 1907 

    ·         Stratford-upon-Avon Herald, 1964-1968  

    ·         Suffolk and Essex Free Press, 1960, 1962-1963, 1980 

  • 13 Jul 2023 4:58 PM | Anonymous

    Call For Proposals

    NGS 2024 Family History Conference

    EXPANDING POSSIBILITIES
    17-18 MAY 2024

    AND 

    FOCUS
    16 MAY 2024

    SUBMISSION DEADLINE

    11:59 p.m. ET, 18 August 2023

    The National Genealogical Society (NGS) invites innovative proposals for its 2024 Virtual Family History Conference Expanding Possibilities and preconference FOCUS sessions for genealogy society and reference services leaders. 

    Expanding Possibilities in Family History

    This year’s theme, Expanding Possibilities, is focused on innovation and finding new ways to solve problems. For the main conference, we seek session proposals that creatively teach genealogical concepts or highlight innovative tools and techniques for family history research. We encourage submissions that

    • include innovative use of technology, including tools in the Zoom and/or Whova platforms used by NGS for virtual events
    • facilitate audience interaction beyond the traditional question-and-answer period at the end of the presentation
    • use multiple examples and cases from diverse families in presentations
    • discuss artificial intelligence (AI) in genealogy research or how genealogy organizations use AI to preserve or increase access to genealogically important records and data.

    Since this is a virtual conference, proposers should consider the content they intend to present in the context of teaching methods that encourage online interaction with students.

    NGS will host an online meeting (see below) to facilitate open discussion about innovative ways to approach lectures for 2024.

    Topic Areas

    NGS encourages proposals of interest to family historians from beginning to advanced levels. Conference topics under consideration include the following and more:

    Cultural and Community-Specific Research 

    Researching family connections in the diverse population groups throughout the United States and their ancestry worldwide, including African American, Asian and Pacific Islander, European, LGBTQIA+, Middle Eastern, Hispanic and Latin American, and Native American families.

    DNA

    DNA methodology, results interpretation, case studies correlating genetic and documentary evidence, and DNA analysis tools.

    Land and Maps

    Federal and state land records, mapping tools, sources and techniques for recreating neighborhoods, and using land records to solve difficult problems.

    Methodology

    All aspects of family history methodology, from basic organizing tips to source documentation, planning, research techniques, and interpreting findings.

    Military

    Sources and techniques for researching military ancestors, emphasizing early American wars.

    Records and Repositories

    The use of record types such as religious, military, immigration, tribal, land, court, and vital records; the use and content of local, regional, and national record repositories.

    Regional Research

    The history, records, repositories, and ethnic and religious groups of specific United States regions, with special emphasis on migrations into, within, and out of the region, origins of early settlers, and history of native people.

    Technology

    Online databases, websites, and tools for accessing digitized record images, computer applications for organizing and preserving information, and advances in artificial intelligence.

    Women

    Methods and records for researching, and stories about, women throughout the American experience.

    Writing

    Techniques and tools for communicating family history information, from family sketches to articles for peer-reviewed journals.

    FOCUS for Genealogy Organization Leaders

    For FOCUS, we seek proposals highlighting innovative public outreach and engagement programs, and ways that genealogy organizations can plan and conduct those programs. Expanding on the success of the annual SLAM! Idea Showcase, FOCUS sessions this year should highlight genealogy organizations’ activities to encourage people to explore their family history and learn more about genealogy. We encourage submissions that

    • provide information about successful public outreach programs that other organizations can replicate
    • include information about how the program was organized, including planning tips, tools, and techniques
    • highlight innovative marketing techniques your organization used to reach the public
    • provide details about financing such programs, including revenues, expenses, and net revenue goals and how those are determined.

    In addition, NGS also encourages presentations that facilitate the development of public outreach programs that genealogy organizations can adopt for America’s 250th birthday in 2026.

    Sponsored Lecture Proposals

    A limited number of sponsored lecture proposals for the main conference and FOCUS will be accepted from genealogy organizations and companies in 2024. Sponsors pay any speaker fees directly and agree to a minimum sponsorship fee of $750 per lecture payable to NGS.

    How to Propose

    Use the submission portal to submit regular sessions for the main conference, sponsored sessions for the main conference, or FOCUS sessions for genealogy organizations.

    NGS is seeking sessions that can be presented in three possible virtual formats:

    1. Live broadcast with live virtual Q&A
    2. Pre-recorded broadcast with live Q&A, and
    3. Pre-recorded on-demand presentation with Q&A via asynchronous use of the Whova app.

    Select your preferred format(s) as part of the submission process. NGS reserves the right to invite proposals in any format.

    NGS members will receive first consideration as speakers.

    Speakers who wish to submit lecture proposals may submit up to four proposals electronically. Each submitted proposal requires the following information:

    • Speaker’s full name, mailing address, telephone, and email address
    • Presentation title, not to exceed fourteen words
    • Lecture summary for program brochure, not to exceed twenty-five words
    • Lecture outline, not to exceed 1500 words
    • Speaker’s biography, not to exceed twenty-five words
    • Speaker’s recent lecture experience, including a listing of national or regional conferences where the speaker has presented in the last three years
    • Identification of the appropriate audience level: beginner, intermediate, advanced, or all.

    NGS encourages new, innovative topics and presentations. Please do not submit a proposal for a lecture that has been presented previously at a regional, state, or national level events, is scheduled to be presented before May 2024, or is available for free online. Presentations that have been given to small local groups are okay.

    Speaker Honorarium

    Speakers for Expanding Possibilities will receive a $750 honorarium and complimentary registration for the conference.

    FOCUS presentations should be submitted on behalf of a genealogy organization. The organization will receive a $500 honorarium, and the speaker will receive complimentary registration for FOCUS.

    Be Prepared

    NGS has a free webinar, Becoming a Better Conference Speaker: Proposals and Preparations, which can be found at the National Genealogical Society YouTube channel. Speakers are encouraged to view the video before beginning the proposal process. Topics covered include lecture proposals, presentations, syllabus materials, communications, and delivery.

    Acceptance notifications and speaker contracts will be issued in the fall of 2023. Syllabus material, due 1 March 2024, is required for each lecture or presentation and will be included in the compendium distributed to all conference registrants (main conference) or as an Information & Answers Series paper for genealogy organizations (FOCUS).

    Online Meeting for Proposers

    On 20 July 2023, at 8:00 p.m. ET, NGS will host an open discussion to assist potential main conference speakers on innovation in presentations and methods to encourage audience interaction via Zoom and Whova. Register here.

    A similar meeting to assist FOCUS proposers will be held on 27 July 2023, at 8:00 p.m. ET. Register here.

    NGS requires Zoom authentication to participate in online meetings. You must have a Zoom account (free or paid) to participate.

    Submit Proposals Here

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