The following is a press release written today by the (U.S.) National Archives and Records Administration:

In June, the National Archives will present free public programs at the National Archives Museum in Washington, DC, at its Presidential Libraries nationwide, and online. Programs this month include our annual Genealogy Series and our Juneteenth Family Day celebration. 

The full press release may be found at: https://www.archives.gov/press/press-releases/2023/nr23-34.

MyHeritage has just announced the addition of millions of new theories to help you uncover how you’re related to your DNA Matches.

Thanks to this new update:

 • The total number of theories has grown to 136,713,021, representing a 61% increase.

 • The number of DNA Matches that include a theory has increased by 78%, to 95,691,486.

 • The total number of paths has grown by 51.2%, for a total of 998,325,515 paths.

 • The number of DNA kits with at least one theory has grown by 23.6%, to 2,353,769 kits.

 • An additional 402,255 users have one or more Theories of Family Relativity™.

Full details are available in the MyHeritage Blog at: https://blog.myheritage.com/2023/05/new-update-to-theory-of-family-relativity-2/.

The following is a press release issued by the Georgia Genealogical Society:

Atlanta, GA, 25 May 2023 - Georgia Genealogical Society seeks Executive Director for the Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research beginning with IGHR 2024. To apply, submit cover letter and resume by 21 June 2023 to Madelyn Nix, GGS President, president@gagensociety.org.

About Us

The Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research (IGHR), sponsored by the Georgia Genealogical Society (GGS), provides an educational forum for the discovery, critical evaluation, and use of genealogical sources and methodology through a week of intensive study led by premier genealogical educators who are leading researchers and scholars in the field. IGHR consists of 12 to 13 courses that take place either in person or online during the last full week of July. Students choose one course that lasts throughout the week.

Course levels range from basic skills to advanced methodology and evidence analysis designed to solve complex research problems; course topics range from resources for specific geographic locations to in-depth skill development on specific subjects, such as land records, military records, and DNA analysis.

Visit ighr.gagensociety.org to learn more.

Job Summary

The IGHR Executive Director coordinates the development, implementation, evaluation, and supervision of institute goals, objectives, and activities with the help of the IGHR Steering Committee, comprised of IGHR committee coordinators and select GGS officers, and the IGHR Advisory Council, comprised of IGHR faculty members. This is a part-time position with planning occurring throughout the year. Virtual meetings are held with the IGHR Steering Committee and IGHR Advisory Council. Hybrid meetings are held with the GGS Board. Compensation is paid annually based on a percentage of the net income and number of attendees for the current year’s institute. Payment based on our previous year’s institute would have been $9000 - $15,000. Planning for IGHR 2024 begins in August 2023, and it is expected that the IGHR Executive Director will begin orientation immediately with the IGHR 2023 Executive Committee and Steering Committee.

Key Responsibilities and Duties

Key duties should be interpreted as being descriptive and not restrictive in nature.

• Oversees IGHR and reports to GGS Board. Attends GGS Board meetings as required.

• Liaises with IGHR Advisory Council, IGHR Steering Committee, IGHR faculty, libraries staff, and event venue staff to provide a high-level educational experience. Georgia Genealogical Society • P.O. Box 550247 • Atlanta, GA 30355-2747

• Serves as contact person with IGHR faculty and libraries staff.

• Submits new course and evening session proposals to IGHR Advisory Council for approval. Communicates status of proposals and scheduling of approved proposals.

• Prepares, distributes, and manages course coordinator and instructor contracts. Submits new faculty information to IGHR Advisory Council for approval.

• Leads IGHR Steering Committee in planning the institute and recruiting committee volunteers.

• Develops, implements, and monitors IGHR budget with input from the Steering Committee. Reviews and approves all invoices before submitting to GGS for payment.

• Provides assistance to attendees with admissions, advisory, and registration services.

• Coordinates with GGS President on in-person institute venue contracts and orders.

• Consults with IGHR Technology Coordinator to select video conferencing platform for virtual institute and purchase necessary licenses.

• Facilitates event space for institute bookstore.

• Conducts faculty and attendee orientation.

• Researches, compiles, prepares, and reviews data-based reports on the institute and shares with IGHR and GGS. Shares faculty evaluation reports with relevant course coordinators and individual faculty members.

Performs such additional duties and responsibilities as defined in the Georgia Genealogical Society Policies & Procedures Manual and/or other duties as requested by the GGS President.

Qualifications and Skills

Supports and facilitates positive interaction with others by demonstrating individual maturity, respect for others, and a team-centered approach.

Possesses and utilizes:

• working knowledge of event management skills

• ability to manage a collaborative process

• effective communication skills (both written and oral)

• effective organizational and time management skills

• ability to apply analytical and critical thinking skills and prepare accurate report of results

• familiarity with genealogy research skills

• broad understanding and knowledge of marketing and the importance it has for the viability and long-term success of IGHR

• knowledge of grant writing process and financial management 

Experience with a genealogy institute as an attendee, instructor, or organizer is preferred but not required.

The following is a press release issued by the (U.S.) National Archives and Records Administration:

WASHINGTON, May 24, 2023 – Acting Archivist of the United States Debra Steidel Wall has awarded 47 grants totaling $6,510,701 for projects in 27 states and the District of Columbia to improve public access to historical records. The National Archives grants program is carried out through the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC). A complete list of new grants is available online.

Two projects went to support professional development: the Archives Leadership Institute for training mid-career archivists and eLaboratories for online training for practitioners in historical and scholarly digital editions. Each project is located at the University of Virginia.

Grants went to 17 edition projects to publish the papers of key American figures such as Frederick  Douglass and Jane Addams, as well as cross-cutting projects such as the Chinese American WWII Veterans Online Resource and Last Seen: Finding Family After Slavery, which is digitizing records of “Information Wanted” advertisements placed in newspapers across the United States by formerly enslaved people searching for family members and loved ones after emancipation.

Five projects will enhance Public Engagement with historical records:

“Teaching Care: Building a History Curricular Library of Chicago’s Black Nurses,” an initiative of the Midwest Nursing History Research Center at the University of Illinois, Chicago;  

Stillman College’s collaborative research program on African American female land owners in Alabama’s Black Belt;

Lewis & Clark College’s Vietnamese Portland Archive;

A new embedded Exhibit Tool for the University of Northern Iowa Fortepan.us, a digital archival platform; 

The Chicago Covenants Project, which draws on volunteers to locate, digitize, and make available racially restrictive covenants in the analog land records from Cook County, through a project sponsored by Virginia Tech University.

An additional 21 archival projects will preserve film and video, and manuscript collections documenting Black American history, labor records, theatrical collection, early legal records in Arizona, colonial diaries from Westchester County, feminist history collections at West Virginia University, women’s history at the University of Utah, a history of the 1939 sit-in at the Arlington (VA) Public Library, and the records of Quaker-operated Indian Boarding Schools.

Christopher Eck, Executive Director of the NHPRC, presented the grant applications and policy issues to the full Commission. The Archivist of the United States, Colleen Shogan, is the Chairman of the Commission. Established in 1934, the NHPRC awards grants for preserving, publishing, and providing access to historical documents.  

The UK version of Who Do You Think You Are? will broadcast its first installment on Thursday 1st June 2023. An article in the RadioTimes.com web site lists everything you need to know about the 2023 season.

Check it out at: https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/documentaries/who-do-you-think-you-are-2023-release-date/.

Colleen Shogan just became the Archivist of the United States at the National Archives and Records Administration.  Joe Napsha apparently interviewed Ms. Shogan and then posted an article in the triblive.com web site describing how she developed her strong interest in history.

You can find the interesting article at: https://tinyurl.com/mrxhcdpu

Being a picky eater as an adult isn't uncommon, but is it etched into your DNA blueprint? Some people argue that food preferences are all about habit, while others are adamant that sensitivity to taste is the source.

Science—and an AncestryDNA® + Traits test—may offer deeper insights into the genetics of your food preferences.

You can read this interesting article at: https://www.ancestry.com/c/traits-learning-hub/picky-eater.

From an article by Brendan Scott published in Roots Ireland:

We are delighted to announce the addition of 579 Lease Abstracts for the Manor and Lordship of Monaghan (1679-1810) to the Roots Ireland database! These leases not only name the people who have agreed the lease, but also often mention other people and their properties in the leases and as such are a very useful census substitute for Monaghan.

For an up to date list of sources for Monaghan and to search these records, go to https://rootsireland.ie/monaghan and login or subscribe if required.

For more information about Roots Ireland, go to https://youtu.be/KG4VDiIq5gY.

I recently received a message from a newsletter reader that disturbed me a bit. He wrote, "I have been doing genealogy research for 10-15 years but only through the Internet." He then went on to describe some of the frustrations he has encountered trying to find information. In short, he was disappointed at how little information he has found online.

I read the entire message, but my eyes kept jumping back to the words in his first sentence: "... but only through the Internet."

Doesn't he realize that 75% of the information of interest to genealogists is not yet available on the Internet? (75% is a “guesstimate” on my part. It might actually be a higher or lower number, but in any case, the MAJORITY of genealogy information is not yet available online.)

To be sure, many of the biggest and most valuable resources are now available online, including national census records, military pension applications, draft cards, many passenger lists, land patent databases, the Social Security Death Index, and more.

The national databases were the "low hanging fruit" a few years ago as the providers of online information rushed to place large genealogy databases online. These huge collections benefited a lot of genealogists; these databases were the first to become indexed, digitized, and placed online. We all should be thankful that these databases are easily available today and are in common use.

As the national databases became available to all, the online providers of genealogy information moved on to digitize regional and statewide information. State or provincial censuses, birth records, marriage records, death records, naturalization records (which originally were recorded in many local and state courts), county histories, and much, much more are still being placed online. 

Of course, this is great news for genealogists who cannot easily travel to the locations where the original records are kept. For many of us, this is even better than having information on microfilm. Most of us don't have microfilm readers at home, but we do have computers.

Yet, I am guessing that 75% of the information of interest to genealogists has not yet been digitized. Why would anyone want to look for genealogy information "... only through the Internet?"

State censuses, birth records, marriage records, death records, naturalization records, county histories, and more are all "work in progress" projects. That is, they are not yet complete. In fact, I doubt if all of them will be available online for at least another two decades! If you only look online, you are missing a lot.

In many cases, church parish records, local tax lists, school records, land records (other than Federal land grants), and many more records are not yet available online and probably won't be available for many years. If you are limiting yourself to "... only through the Internet," you are missing 75% of the available information.

If you have the luxury of living near the places where your ancestors lived, I'd suggest you jump in an automobile and drive to the repositories where those records are kept. There is nothing that matches the feeling of holding original records in your hand. Make photocopies or scan them or take pictures of them or do whatever is possible to collect images of the original records.

If you do not know where to start, I would suggest reading “Begin your genealogy quest” at https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/Begin_Your_Genealogy_Quest for some great “getting started” information. Also, check out the links to many valuable tutorials and reference material in my earlier articles. 

Which option would you prefer: accessing 25% of the available records or 100% of the available records?

A controversy involving genealogies in New Hampshire highlights it may be difficult to prove one's ancestry. Within a few weeks of starting her first term, State Representative Sherry Gould filed a resolution to give her American Indian tribe — the Nulhegan Band of the Coosuk Abenaki Nation — state recognition in New Hampshire.

Under the language of the resolution, which would have made the Nulhegan Band New Hampshire’s first recognized tribe, the group would become eligible for federal housing funding for tribes and the right to sell arts and crafts as “Indian-made,” among other benefits.

Gould’s bill stalled in the House about a month later. But her new public role, and her effort to win official recognition for her tribe, have shined a new light on a longstanding controversy around the question of who has the authority to represent the Abenaki community.

The effort is controversial because there are no formal historic records identifying the Nulhegan Band of the Coosuk Abenaki Nation as Abenaki.

You can read all about the controversy in an article by Julia Furukawa published in the New Hampshire NHPR web site at: https://tinyurl.com/bdes9eeb.