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Latest Standard Edition Articles

  • 3 Jul 2023 5:21 PM | Anonymous

    I have been predicting for years that microfilm is about to disappear. Major proof of that has just been announced by FamilySearch:

    Due to the rapidly diminishing supply of microfilm, the ability to request copies of microfilms from the Granite Mountain Record Vault to be viewed in the FamilySearch Library will no longer be available after Saturday, July 15, 2023. We are currently working on alternate methods of access for microfilmed records that cannot be released to the public online. We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience as we develop these alternative options.

    If you have any additional questions, you may contact the Family History Library at FHL-SLC-FilmRequests@churchofjesuschrist.org.  

  • 3 Jul 2023 4:53 PM | Anonymous

    The following announcement was written by the organizers of the 2023 International Conference on Jewish Genealogy:  

    Join us for the 2023 International Conference on Jewish Genealogy, where genealogists from around the world will come together for an unforgettable gathering.

    We are excited to meet in person in London, England from Sunday, July 30 to Thursday, August 3, 2023 after a long wait since our last in-person event in 2019.

    We are happy to share that early bird pricing has been extended until July 15th.

    This year’s conference features more than 100 speakers covering virtually every aspect of Jewish genealogy over the course of 200 sessions. Conference track themes are Commonwealth Track, Jewish Communities Worldwide and the Shoah, Migration, Methodology, Technology/Computer Labs, DNA, and Storytelling.

    The Conference will include lunches, computer labs, and networking through Special Interest Groups (SIGs) and Birds of a Feather (BOFs) sessions. An Exhibitor Hall and Resource Room will include genealogy experts, mentors, and archivists, and free access to online genealogy databases for a one-stop research experience at the conference site.

    Don't miss out on this incredible opportunity to expand your knowledge, connect with fellow genealogists, and contribute to the field of Jewish genealogy. Visit our website at www.iajgs2023.org to find all the conference details and register for the event. We can't wait to see you in London!

  • 3 Jul 2023 4:42 PM | Anonymous

    In honor of July 4th, MyHeritage explored the family history of Steve Doocy, host of Fox & Friends, and surprised him with information about his connection to the first 3 presidents of the United States: George Washington, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson.

    You can learn a lot more about Steve Doocy’d ancestry in the MyHeritage Blog at: https://blog.myheritage.com/2023/07/steve-doocy-of-fox-friends-discovers-hes-related-to-the-first-3-presidents-of-the-united-states/ 

    Watch the video segment from the Blog at: https://youtu.be/49oU-YK4JH4

  • 3 Jul 2023 4:38 PM | Anonymous

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

    (+) Using a Cell Phone When Traveling Overseas

    18 Million Records Categories Added to MyHeritage in the First Half of June 2023

    More Than 100 U.S. Leaders — Lawmakers, Presidents, Governors and Justices — Have Slaveholding Ancestors, a Reuters Examination Found

    Catholic News Archive Adds 14 More Years of the Catholic Standard & Times to Its Digital Collection

    “Overcoming Pitfalls” Virtual Genealogy Class slated for July 8

    ‘Map’ of French Canadian Population Uses Genes and Genealogy

    From the Montana Historical Society: Digitized Haynes Photographs Provide World-Wide Access

    Queens and the Bronx New Naturalization Database Now Online

    New Military Records from Washington State

    Hermitage Amsterdam Rebrands as H’ART Museum

    ‘Reconstructing the Black Archive’ Aims to Create a More Complete Picture of History in South Carolina

    To Save Cherokee Language, a Digital Tool Shares Tales of Standing Rock and Big Snake With the Next Generation

    Ancestry Releases New Database Containing Historical Records From Chinese Exclusion Act Era

    SLIG Announces Scholarship Recipients for the 2023-2024 Program Year

    Register Now for London Conference on Jewish Genealogy

    Jerusalem Cinematheque's Israel Film Archive Is Launching a Brand-New Website

    Nearly Two Thirds of Family Historians Are Distressed by What They Find – Should DNA Kits Come With Warnings?

    International African American Museum Visitors Share Their Stories

    Virtual and Augmented Reality Bring Historical Objects to Life

    From TheGenealogist: New Occupational Records Reveal Biographical Details of Those in the Arts - Find Out More About Ancestors Who Were Writers, Artists, Actors and More

    New Partnership Between Findmypast and Library and Archives Canada Reveals Secrets of 1931 Census

    Findmypast Records Release: Discover Duels and Exciting New Records From the US and Canada

    It is the Third Day of the Month: Back Up Your Genealogy Files

    Your Blood Type Can Make You More Likely to Get COVID, New Research Suggests

    RSS Reader Apps to Change How You Get News Feeds and Updates

    Tor Browser Is Very Much Still a Thing and Getting Updates
  • 3 Jul 2023 7:54 AM | Anonymous

    If you have ancestors who have served at a military base in Washington State, you’ll love a new collection of US, Washington State Military Records, 1855-1950. This collection contains more than 140 thousand records for service members in Washington State. These records reveal rich details, including birthdate, occupation, family members, military service, and more. The collection dates to 1855, some 30 years before Washington became a state. 

    This collection of records includes all the personnel who SERVED in the state; it is not limited to those from Washington who simply JOINED the military.

    You can read more about this new database at: https://blog.fold3.com/new-military-records-from-washington-state/.

  • 3 Jul 2023 7:43 AM | Anonymous

    A little more than 93 years ago, Abraham Kaplan became naturalized as an American citizen at Queens Supreme Court in Jamaica, officially swearing allegiance to the county he had arrived to 17-years earlier. 

    Kaplan, at that point a 35-year-old Jewish man in the laundry business, had come to the United States as Ahram Kapelowitz from Poland on the vessel Ultonia. He stepped into the country on Christmas Eve of 1913. On the day that he renounced the State of Russia and the Republic of Poland, he was living with his wife, Eva, and their three children on 106th Street in Ozone Park.

    Kaplan’s naturalization record, along with thousands of others, can now be found through the new free online naturalization documents database, a joint project from the Queens Public Library and the Office of Court Administration.

    The new program, which can be seen at NYnaturalizations.com, gives public access to around 400,000 naturalization records signed in the courts of Queens and the Bronx between 1794 and 1952. 

    The database is the culmination of a plan that was hatched four and a half years ago and unveiled Thursday at the Queens Public Library on Merrick Boulevard. 

    You can read more at: https://queenseagle.com/all/2023/6/29/go-back-in-time-with-the-courts-new-naturalization-database

  • 3 Jul 2023 7:20 AM | Anonymous

    Today is the third day of the month. I usually post a message on the first day of the month reminding everyone to make backups of their genealogy files (and other important files as well). However, the first day of July fell on Saturday and I normally don't post new articles on the weekend. So, here it is: this is this month's reminder article.

    Oh, yes, after you make the backups, test your backups! You wouldn't be the first person to discoiver your backups didn't do what you thought they were doing at a time when you desperately need to recover something!

    If you are not familiar with my "normal" monthly reminder messages, you can read a recent one at: https://eogn.com/page-18080/10151012. Othrwise, consider this article to be your monthly reminder. 

  • 30 Jun 2023 5:41 PM | Anonymous

    NOTE: The following article does not contain any genealogy-related information. 

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

    Planning a Europen (or other foreign) vacation this year? You might be aware that using a U.S. cell phone while traveling to other countries (or vice-versa) usually will either be (1.) impossible or (2.) very expensive. Some American cell phones don't work at all in other countries. The North American cell phones that do work overseas use the Global System for Mobile Communications (usually abbreviated to GSM) protocol; but, using North American GSM phones in foreign countries can be very expensive. 

    In short, here is the situation for most American cell phone owners

    1. A CDMA cell phone purchased from a U.S. company  generally will not work in Europe, the British Isles, nor in many other European countries. These are CDMA phones, a system not used in Europe, the British Isles, not in many other countries. 
    2. A GSM cell phone purchased from T-Mobile, AT&T, Rogers (in Canada) and a few other cellular companies should work in Europe, the British Isles and many other foreign countries as these are GSM phones, the same standard used in most other countries. However, leaving the original SIM card in the phone will usually result in high roaming charges. 
    3. An unlocked GSM phone purchased from a third-party should work at reasonable prices in Europe, the British Isles, Australia, New Zealand, and many other countries if you purchase a local SIM card in that country. This will work only on UNLOCKED GSM phones which often are not sold by the North American cell phone companies.

    See the note below about “dual mode” phones that are capable of operating on both GSM and CDMA networks.

    All of the solutions I will describe do cost money. The casual traveler who is planning a single trip overseas may find it cheaper to simply carry a normal GSM cell phone purchased from a North American cell phone company and to pay the roaming charges for calls placed or received while traveling. However, for the frequent traveler, or the person who makes a lot of phone calls, or the person who wishes to give a cell phone to a child or grandchild who will study abroad for a semester or longer, the following ideas could save hundreds of dollars in unnecessary expenses. Another solution is to wait until you arrive in Europe (or elsewhere) and then purchase a local cell phone there. However, for a short trip, that may be the most expensive solution of all. 

    First, U.S. cell phones operate on one of two different standards: GSM or CDMA. GSM is the cell phone standard used throughout Europe, the British Isles, Australia, New Zealand, and in mother countries. However, in the U.S., only AT&T and T-Mobile use GSM. Most others (with a few exceptions) use CDMA. The two standards do not work with each other's cell towers. GSM phones can only communicate with GSM cell towers, and CDMA phones can only communicate with CDMA towers. 

    GSM is the standard in Europe, and is one of several protocols available in North and South America, Africa, Asia, Oceania, and the Caribbean. GSM is the best choice for global travelers who want to take their phone when they go abroad. Sadly, several U.S. cell phone companies’ phones do not use GSM and therefore will not make a connection in many overseas countries. Even those that do use GSM, they may be “locked” to only work on one particular (North American) network and therefore will be useless when overseas.

    NOTE: You can purchase a special (and more expensive) dual-mode phone that operates on both GSM and CDMA. Dual mode phones are available at rather high prices from several companies. 

    With GSM phones, all the information about your cell phone number and the provider you use is stored in a plug-in SIM card. If you can swap SIM cards, your GSM phone then switches instantly to the provider of the new SIM card. Switching to a new SIM card also provides a new phone number, one that is assigned to the country where the SIM card was purchased. However, not all GSM phones allow for swapping SIM cards because the phones are “locked” to only one network..

    In contrast, converting a CDMA cell phone to a different provider is considerably more complex. With CDMA, it is cheaper and easier to purchase a new phone than to convert an existing unit.

    You would think that simply purchasing a GSM phone before you leave on your trip would give you everything you need, right? Unfortunately, the more cost-effective solution is a bit complex. To be sure, all the GSM phones will work in Europe and in many other places, although the cell phone companies in those countries will charge high roaming charges if you use the SIM card that came with the phone purchased in the U.S. from AT&T or T-Mobile.

    In the U.S. and Canada, most cell phone companies only sell phones that are "locked" to their own networks. This is even true for GSM phones. If you purchase a GSM phone from AT&T, it will only operate if an AT&T SIM card is inserted in the phone. The same is true for T-Mobile phones: a GSM phone from T-Mobile purchased in the U.S. normally only works when a T-Mobile SIM card is used. If you insert a SIM card from any other cell phone provider, an error message will be displayed and the phone will not work. However, GSM phones purchased from third-party merchants often are “unlocked.” That is, they will operate properly with a SIM card from any cell phone company.

    Both the AT&T and T-Mobile phones are true GSM phones, so you can take them overseas and make phone calls with them, even with the original SIM card in the phone. You can also receive incoming calls that were placed to your U.S. phone cell phone number. However, you will normally pay roaming charges for use of the cell phone with your “home” SIM card while in another country. The roaming charges vary from country to country, but they can be as high as $2 a minute or more in some places.

    NOTE: The first time I took my new GSM phone to England and used it frequently, my next monthly bill was for mode than $300 (U.S.) for “roaming charges.”

    Luckily, you can purchase "unlocked" GSM cell phones from a number of vendors – just not from a cell phone company. I have seen unlocked GSM cell phones sell for as little as $20 although that is probably for a cheap and cheesy phone that may not work well. There are a lot of cheap cell phones with marginal performance sold in third-world countries, and they occasionally show up in the American market as well. I'd suggest purchasing only well-known, reliable brands of phones, such as Motorola, Nokia, Apple, LG, Samsung, HTC, Kyocera, Google, Sanyo, and others. If you have any doubt about the phone you are considering, you might want to enter its model number followed by the word “review” in Google to find reviews of that model written by previous purchasers.

    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/13222374.

    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

  • 30 Jun 2023 4:20 PM | Anonymous

    The following announcement was written by TheGenealogist:

    A new release of records by family history website TheGenealogist allows English, Scottish and Welsh family historians to discover useful information on a myriad of people. From ancestors who were writers, artists, actors and many other professions, this collection opens up the lives of these people for the researcher. 

    Using entries recorded in a number of biographical resources Diamond subscribers of TheGenealogist can fill in gaps with tantalising facts about the person. Facts which can lead on to all sorts of other records and avenues for investigation.

    [Biographical Records from TheGenealogist]

    The name rich resources that make up this release augment TheGenealogist’s already extensive Occupational Records. Fully searchable by name or keyword from TheGenealogist’s Master Search, the new records come from a variety of publications, including:

    • Contemporary Biographies at the Opening of the 20th Century, Volume I
    • Contemporary Biographies at the Opening of the 20th Century Volume II
    • The Green Room Book 1907
    • The Dramatic List 1879
    • The Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook 1908
    • The Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography 1863

    Researchers can use these records to fill in gaps in the lives of individuals, discover stories and anecdotes about the person, read facts which may lead you on to research other records and point you towards more avenues for investigation.

    To learn more about how this collection of records helped us in the research of A Child Actress who Managed The Prince of Wales’s Royal Theatre read our article here:

    https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2023/a-child-actress-who-managed-the-prince-of-waless-royal-theatre-2051/

    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!

  • 30 Jun 2023 3:59 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, it is about a method of insuring your online privacy.

    You say you don't mind if Google, Facebook, tour internet service provider (ISP), and dozens of other online services spy on everything you do online? If so, you might skip this article.

    However, I will suggest that anyone who is concerned about online spying should read this article.

    From an article by icon Thomas Claburn published in TheRegister web site:

    The Tor Browser, which strives to provide anonymity online rather than the limited data sharing internet companies call "privacy," has reached version 12.5, a milestone that brings usability and accessibility improvements alongside attention to legacy issues.

    The name Tor stands for "The Onion Router" and refers to a method of network communication developed back in 2002 that uses encryption and multiple relay nodes in an effort to keep the user anonymous.

    "The aim of Tor is to improve your privacy by sending your traffic through a series of proxies," the Tor Project explains on its website. "Your communication is encrypted in multiple layers and routed via multiple hops through the Tor network to the final receiver."

    The Tor Browser, based on the Extended Support Release of Mozilla's Firefox, provides a way to connect to the Tor network. It makes an effort to provide – but does not guarantee – anonymity. It does so by: making the user's internet traffic appear to come from a different IP address, thus obscuring the user's location; preventing someone watching your local traffic (e.g. your ISP) from seeing or limiting your website visits; and routing connections through multiple relays.

    The Tor Browser and associated onion services are often used by journalists, human rights advocates, and others in adversarial environments where the threat model goes beyond marketers. Criminals may do so too, but as the Tor Project argues, they have better options.

    Other browsers also support connection through the Tor network, such as OrbotOnion Browser and Brave.

    You can read more at: https://www.theregister.com/2023/06/25/tor_browser_update_improves_interface/.

    The Tor Project (and browser) is available at: https://www.torproject.org/.

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