The following is a press release issued by the Portsmouth, New Hampshire Public Library:

Age Group: Adult

Program Description

Presented by the library’s Special Collections staff and members of the Ranger Chapter of Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), these events are free, open to the public, and appropriate for all levels of interest and experience. All levels will learn something new!

Ever feel like you've hit a brick wall in your genealogy research? You've scoured census records, birth certificates, and marriage licenses, but the trail seems cold. Fear not, fellow family history detective! John Barr, a professional genealogist, is here to show you the power of hidden treasures: derivative sources.

This program will take you on a journey beyond the typical primary documents. We'll delve into the fascinating world of history books – how they're created and the wealth of family records they can hold. John will unveil surprising examples of family information tucked away in these historical accounts.

The true magic unfolds as John demonstrates how derivative sources can act as breadcrumbs, leading you to the original documents that paint a vivid picture of your ancestors' lives. Imagine adding context to their stories by understanding the historical events that shaped their world.

Ready to unlock these forgotten gems? John will introduce you to powerful tools like WorldCat and HathiTrust to locate obscure history books. And don’t forget your citations! We’ll learn the proper way to cite derivative sources so you can be sure your research is meticulously documented. Join us on this exciting adventure and discover the wealth of information in the world of derivative sources!

This program will be held on Zoom. Register for the link!

About the Presenter

John M. Barr is the proprietor of Old Northwest Genealogy, an Indiana-based genealogy research company specializing in the 18th and 19th centuries with an emphasis on Land and Probate records. With expertise in Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, and Minnesota, John can also navigate research throughout the US. He is an active member of The Association of Professional Genealogist and has served as President of the Indiana Chapter of the APG. You can learn more about John at oldnorthwestgenealogy.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, I found it interesting:

"Missed it by THAT much"

An asteroid the size of a football stadium threaded the needle between Earth and the moon Saturday morning — the second of two astronomical near misses in three days. Near miss, in this case, is a relative term: Saturday's asteroid, 2024 MK, came within 180,000 miles of Earth. On Thursday, meanwhile, asteroid 2011 UL21 flew within 4 million miles.

But the Saturday passage of 2024 MK — which scientists discovered only two weeks ago — coincides with a sobering reminder of threats from space. Sunday is Asteroid Day, the anniversary of the 1908 explosion of a rock from space above a Russian town — the sort of danger that, astronomers warn, is always lurking as the Earth hurtles through space... In 2013, for instance, an asteroid about 62 feet across that broke apart nearly 20 miles above Siberia released 30 times as much energy as the atomic bomb that hit Hiroshima. While most of the impact energy was absorbed by the atmosphere, the detonation triggered a shock wave that blew out windows and injured more than a thousand people.

You can read more at: https://bit.ly/45NyPyY.

The Government of Canada is working to make information about residential school sites and buildings more accessible to Survivors, Indigenous communities and researchers as part of efforts to ensure that data about Indigenous Peoples is made available for their use.

Today, the Honourable Patty Hajdu, Minister of Indigenous Services, announced the launch of a new interactive mapping tool and environmental scan report of the 140 former residential schools recognized in the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement. These tools make publicly held data and information about residential schools more accessible, reducing the barriers that Survivors and their families and communities face when trying to find data and information about former sites and buildings. These tools support Indigenous Data Sovereignty, which is a key part of Indigenous cultural heritage, an important means of capturing and sharing collective stories, and central to reconciliation and Indigenous self-determination.

The Former Indian Residential Schools Environmental Scan: Status of Sites and Buildings report is the culmination of work by Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) that began in 2022–2023. The Department used publicly accessible research and datasets to investigate the current condition and ownership of former residential schools sites and buildings. ISC commissioned the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation to develop a companion report that sets out considerations, approaches and principles that should be taken into account for any local or national engagement with Indigenous partners concerning future use or protection of former residential school sites and buildings. To further complement this work, ISC created an interactive map that allows users to visualize the location and historical context of former residential school sites. The mapping application integrates contemporary and historical aerial photos, providing a powerful tool for Survivors. The environmental scan report and interactive map are now available online.

These tools align with initiatives and legislation that call for Indigenous Data Sovereignty, including Action Plan Item #30 of the Government of Canada’s United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act Action Plan, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s Calls to Action and the 2023–2026 Data Strategy for the Federal Public Service. The Government of Canada, in collaboration with Indigenous partners, is committed to an open approach to the management and sharing of data to support self-determination and Indigenous Data Sovereignty.

Quotes

“The foundation of reconciliation is truth. People in Canada for too long have had the truth of colonialism hidden from them, harming us all, and delaying the healing that is essential to our country’s health and prosperity. This new tool will empower Survivors and communities in their journey toward healing from the pain and trauma caused by residential schools. It will also advance Indigenous Data Sovereignty and provide another tool of self-determination. Facing the past is painful but essential in the healing we must all do together.”

The Honourable Patty Hajdu
Minister of Indigenous Services

Quick facts

• The report provides an overview of the current condition, jurisdictional ownership and complexities related to sites and buildings of the 140 former residential schools recognized in the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement.

• The mapping tool integrates the data held by various publicly available datasets and offers users the ability to visualize residential school sites, access historical contexts, and use advanced analytical features, such as search, filters and measurement tools.

• Approximately 150,000 Indigenous children were removed and separated from their families and communities and forced to attend residential schools.

• A National Residential School Crisis Line is available to access emotional and crisis referral services by calling the 24-hour national crisis line at 1-866-925-4419.

• The Hope for Wellness Help Line is also available at 1-855-242-3310 or via the online chat function through their website.

Associated links

• Indian Residential Schools Environmental Scan: Report
• Indian Residential Schools Interactive Map
• Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement
• 2023–2026 Data Strategy for the Federal Public Service
• United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act Action Plan
• The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation
• Delivering on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's Calls to Action
• Addressing former residential school buildings and sites on reserves
• Indian Residential Schools Resolution Health Support Program

From Google’s Translate Blog:

Google Translate breaks down language barriers to help people connect and better understand the world around them. We’re always applying the latest technologies so more people can access this tool: In 2022, we added 24 new languages using Zero-Shot Machine Translation, where a machine learning model learns to translate into another language without ever seeing an example. And we announced the 1,000 Languages Initiative, a commitment to build AI models that will support the 1,000 most spoken languages around the world.

Now, we’re using AI to expand the variety of languages we support. Thanks to our PaLM 2 large language model, we’re rolling out 110 new languages to Google Translate, our largest expansion ever.

From Cantonese to Qʼeqchiʼ, these new languages represent more than 614 million speakers, opening up translations for around 8% of the world’s population. Some are major world languages with over 100 million speakers. Others are spoken by small communities of Indigenous people, and a few have almost no native speakers but active revitalization efforts. About a quarter of the new languages come from Africa, representing our largest expansion of African languages to date, including Fon, Kikongo, Luo, Ga, Swati, Venda and Wolof.

The following is a press release issued by  East View Information Services:

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

“I found it online, so it must be true!”

Of course not. If you have been involved in researching your family tree for more than a few months, you already know the truth about online genealogy data. Or do you?

You can go to almost any of today’s online genealogy sites and find information that appears to be false. I’ll pick on FamilySearch.org as it is a free and open database, making it a good example that everyone can see. However, similar examples exist on most of the commercial (paid) genealogy databases as well.

The first example is that of Mary Allyn. According to FamilySearch at http://www.FamilySearch.org, Mary married Henry L. Brooks in Connecticut on 21 April 1564.  You can find that “record” at https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/F7G9-14N. 

As I remember from my history classes in school, Connecticut didn’t exist in those days. The only people found there in the mid 1500s would have been American Indians, and the name “Mary Allyn” sure doesn’t sound like an Indian name to me! In fact, Dutch explorer Adriaen Block first visited the area in 1614. The first settlement from the New Netherlands colony was a trading post not far from present-day Hartford, and the first English settlers arrived in 1635. It would therefore seem silly to claim marriages in the area in 1564.

In a similar vein, you can find a birth record in FamilySearch for John Smith born in Hadley, Massachusetts, on 6 May 1600, as listed at https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/FHGP-ZHL. That is obviously twenty years before the Pilgrims arrived in Massachusetts and 59 years before the town of Hadley was first settled! 

A third example is for a location I know well. Again, looking at data in FamilySearch, Sophia Robinson is listed as born in Thetford Township, Orange County, Vermont, on 1 May 1604, shown at https://bit.ly/3L1LC7x. That's a neat trick considering that 1604 was many years before the first settlers arrived in Vermont and 157 years before the town of Thetford was created in 1761!

I picked on FamilySearch.org simply because it is a free site and the claims are easily found. However, if we look at most any other online genealogy database containing “records” submitted by the general public, we will see thousands of similar, obvious errors.

These are but a few of the obvious errors; there are many thousands more. In fact, most of the errors are not so obvious. I picked a few examples of births before each area was settled, but most errors sound much more plausible. A birth in Massachusetts in the 1700s or in Texas in the late 1800s might be equally inaccurate but much less obvious since those areas were well populated at the time.

Shouldn’t these so-called “facts” be checked? Isn’t the Internet increasing the amount of bad data floating around? Isn’t it a bad thing to allow false information to be posted online where others will find it?

Let’s study each of those questions:

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/13375891. (A Plus Edition password is required to access that article.)

If you are not yet a Plus Edition subscriber, you can learn more about such subscriptions and even upgrade to a Plus Edition subscription immediately at https://eogn.com/page-18077. 

Canada Day is a time to celebrate the spirit and heritage of what it means to be Canadian. It’s a day to reflect on Canada’s history, diverse cultures, and the shared values that make Canada unique. In the spirit of celebration, MyHeritage is thrilled to offer free access to all 135.4 million Canadian historical records on MyHeritage for a limited time, from June 27 to July 2, 2024.

Search Canadian records for free!

MyHeritage has 183 collections from Canada, including vital records (birth, marriage, and death), census records, immigration and passenger lists, military records, and newspapers pages. Among these collections, we have recently added the 1931 Canada Census, complete with an index created by MyHeritage. These records provide a wealth of information that can help you piece together your family tree and gain insights into the lives of your ancestors.

By exploring your Canadian roots, you not only pay tribute to your family’s history but also enrich your understanding of the broader Canadian story.

Take advantage of this limited-time offer and start discovering your Canadian roots today!

Happy Canada Day! 

The following is a press release written by the folks at the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy: 

Claudia Gibb Sudweeks is the research manager for a small genealogy company. She loves the challenge of using records around the world, from a variety of cultures. She is finishing her AG credential in the US Mid-Atlantic region and has earned her certificate with the GenProof 83 group. Formerly the secretary for the Utah Genealogical Association, Claudia is now a member of the UGA board, serving as the NGS delegate. She is also the president of her local community historical society in Highland, Utah. Claudia grew up in the Washington, D.C. area, where she learned to love history and historic preservation. She has loved genealogy as long as she can remember and is grateful for school assignments and family trips to reunions, cemeteries, and libraries, which amplified her interest. Claudia took genealogy classes in college and has helped others with family history in the 30+ years since, professionally taking clients since 2013. She and her husband, Sterling, also ran a small video biography company. They have six children, plus four gained by children's marriages, and several bonus children who have lived with them over the years. They also have seven wonderful grandchildren, plus some extras. About the UGA Jimmy B. Parker Scholarship Named in honor of Jimmy B. Parker, whose legacy of service to the genealogical community covered more than 50 years, this full-tuition scholarship is awarded to an individual who has demonstrated commitment to genealogical excellence and community involvement. The scholarship originated in 2012. As the scholarship recipient, Claudia will receive full tuition to one Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy 2025 or SLIG Spring Virtual 2025 course. Congratulations, Claudia!

The research from EPIC the Irish Emigration Museum has discovered the US singer has Irish heritage on both sides of her family. You can read much of her Irish ancestry at: https://www.newstalk.com/news/taylor-swifts-love-story-irish-roots-of-singer-revealed-1736809.