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The following announcement was written by the Council of Irish Genealogical Organisations:
Progress on the early release of the Irish 1926 census has slowed down in recent months. However, there is no substance to recent rumours that the delay has been caused by the issue of redaction of sensitive data relating to people (alive or not) who have as yet not reached their 100th birthday.
During the visit of Uachtarán na hÉireann (President of Ireland) Michael D. Higgins to the National Archives of Ireland on Thursday, 1st November, representatives of the Council of Irish Genealogical Organisations (CIGO) spoke with Minister for Arts, Culture and Gaeltacht, Jimmy Deenihan TD. Minister Deenihan confirmed that redaction is not an obstacle to the release of the 1926 census and that he would still like to see the project on course for release in 2016.
This project is working towards the day that users will be able to search any topic – be it the Civil War or the New Deal – and immediately pull up information including pictures, videos, oral histories, manuscripts and more from collections across the country.
OK, I don't understand this. I've accidentally left a few things behind in my life, but someone's ashes?
An unknown patron of the OB Suds carwash left behind a heavy metal box labeled “Henry Lefebvre: April 30, 1995” from Secure Crematorium in one of the carwash’s bays. The carwash owner turned the box over to the Ocean Beach MainStreet Association (OBMA) to help solve the mystery. A group of genealogists offered to help track down Lefebvre’s relatives.
The American Revolution museum in in Exeter, New Hampshire, is facing an uncertain future after laying off its entire staff and cancelling its fall programming as it works to develop a new strategic and operational plan. The museum’s board of governors hopes to re-open in the spring, but might not due to the museum’s financial troubles.
Holdings at the American Independence Museum include the 1721 Ladd-Gilman House, a National Landmark property, and the Folsom Tavern, built in 1775. The museum's permanent collection of documents chronicling the nation's founding includes an original Dunlap broadside of the Declaration of Independence and early drafts of the U.S. Constitution.
Many sad stories are coming out of this week's storm in the northeastern United States. Homes were lost and damage is obviously in the billions of dollars. On a personal note, many families lost family photographs, momentos, and even genealogy records.
I wrote some time ago about the new "Certificate of Irish Heritage" at http://goo.gl/atPdL and at http://goo.gl/Dlnxt. The purpose of the certificates is to "enable people who have a strong Irish connection to assert their Irishness and their heritage." Now Chris Paton has written in his blog at http://goo.gl/MUQaZ that the plan has fizzled: only 1042 people applying for a certificate in its first year - or 0.00167 per cent of Ireland's 60 million diaspora.
Click on the image to the right to view a larger version of the certificate.
The following announcement was written by FamilySearch:
2 November 2012
U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Community Project Half-way to 2012 Goal of 30 Million Records
In August of this year, FamilySearch announced its next major U.S. community project-U.S. Immigration and Naturalization. The project will create an extensive, free, online collection of U.S. passenger lists, border crossing records, naturalization records, and more-invaluable to genealogy researchers. The online volunteer community is two months into the project and aiming to index 30 million records by the end of the year. Thanks to the contributions of over 85,000 volunteers, more than 15 million records have been completed already. See what U.S. Immigration and Naturalization projects are currently underway, or check on their status at FamilySearch.org/immigration.
New Haven, Connecticut, police say superstorm Sandy has revealed a skeleton beneath the town green. The remains likely belong to one of thousands of people buried there in Colonial times. The remains will be evaluated by the state medical examiner.
Cleanup and rehabilitation efforts continue at the Michigan Technological University Archives and Copper Country Historical Collections after a fire Friday.
The fire was small and quickly contained. However, there was a 200-square-foot area of water damage. The damaged items include mining records, records from the steelworkers union at White Pine and photographs. The most sensitive documents, including genealogy records, were removed immediately before they could be damaged.
Today's children and young adults often cannot read handwriting. During the past 20 years or so, schools have been deemphasizing the skill. Many school districts are adopting something called the Common Core Curriculum, which eliminates cursive outright. The theory is that cursive is obsolete. Apparently, most writing — including class notes — is being done on laptops.
That's great for today's notes, but how does one read old notes?
The occupant of the 90-year-old cottage had died in February. Matthew Greenberg's job was to empty the home so it could be demolished and its 18,000-square-foot lot divided into two parcels. His clients had told him to rent a Dumpster and throw away whatever he found inside.
But Greenberg couldn't bring himself to do that, especially after he read a recent Los Angeles Times article about the Central Library's map collection. The small cottage contained roughly one million maps. Instead, he invited the Central Library's map librarian, Glen Creason, to Mount Washington to look at the trove.
Creason called the find unbelievable. "I think there are at least a million maps here," he said. "This dwarfs our collection — and we've been collecting for 100 years."
I have written often about the trend of books, magazines, and newspapers to stop publishing on paper and to expand their digital publications. Now another major publisher is making the transition.
Newsweek will switch to an all-digital format in early 2013. As part of this transition, the last print edition in the United States will be the December 31 issue.
This is an unusual story. I don't remember ever hearing of something like this before. The Three Valley Museum in Durant, Oklahoma and the Bryan County Genealogy Society have canceled a planned “ghost stories” historical tour at Highland Cemetery, following a storm of protests on Facebook.
The event on Oct. 27 would have chronicled the lives of six individuals and involved people dressed in period clothing. The event was to be a fundraiser for both organizations.
An attorney suing the city of Sandy Springs, Georgia, for rejecting his plans to build a house on land containing a little-known historic Heard Family Cemetery may have trouble proving he has a clear title to the property, records show. The city on Sept. 27 responded to the lawsuit, saying that the property was intended for “perpetual” use as a cemetery. The city has asked a Fulton County Superior Court judge to dismiss the lawsuit.
An article by Dan Whisenhunt published in the Reporter Newspapers states a small family cemetery containing the body of Confederate War veteran Heard. He later became a judge. He left the land to be used for “perpetual” use as a cemetery. It is believed that several of Judge Heard's relatives are buried in the same cemetery.
Secretary of State Brian Kemp announced the closure “with great remorse” on Sept. 13 as the way his office will meet a required state budget cut of $732,626, or 3 percent. The governor later stated the State Archives would remain open but the definition of "open" hasn't been clarified. Apparently "open" means a skeleton staff that is unable to handle research requests. Even the research rooms will be closed most of the time.
State archives staff numbered more than 100 in the early ’80s when it operated out of a facility in downtown Atlanta. Staff was down to about 40 employees when the archives moved in 2003 to Morrow, near the entrance to Clayton State University. Today, there are 10 employees who, on Nov. 1, will be cut to just three – two archivists and a maintenance worker.
The Great Hunger years of Ireland were from 1845 to 1852. 1847 was the worst year of all. Now Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut is set to unveil the first Great Hunger museum which shows the history of that terrible era through art and artifacts.
The legacy of Black 47, as it came to be called, is still being felt in myriad of ways in Irish society and culture and its shadow has played out in our history in ways that we are still only beginning to apprehend. By 1852 the Irish population was cut in half; by 1900 they were cut in three quarters. During the famine the British government never closed the ports or reduced the tariffs. Instead they shipped out food that could have saved the starving.
Permira Advisers LLP has emerged as the front-runner to take genealogy website Ancestry.com Inc private, two people familiar with the matter said, in a deal that could top $1.5 billion.
The price under negotiation could not be learned, but sources familiar with the matter had previously told Reuters that Ancestry was seeking more than $35 per share for a sale, valuing the company at over $1.5 billion.
Writing in the Bedford (New Hampshire) Journal, Teresa Santoski describes a "cold case" that is still actively being investigated. Former Police Chief David C. Bailey, now retired, is working with genealogist Melinde Byrne to identify a body found in 1971 but never identified.
Byrne began working on the case in November 2008, when she was asked to teach a class on forensic genealogy at Boston University. Forensic genealogy, she said, is “the study of kinship and identity as it pertains to the law.” Byrne selected three cases to present to her students, one of which she wanted to be an unresolved case. She chose the Bedford Jane Doe because, living a few miles away from where the body was discovered, it literally hit close to home.
This is a follow-up to the earlier article, "Genealogy is the Second-most Popular Topic on the Web?" at http://goo.gl/737Ui: According to an article in Bloomberg Businessweek:
Today, genealogy ranks second only to porn as the most searched topic online. According to a January 2012 report by market research firm Global Industry Analysts, an estimated 84 million people around the world spend anywhere from $1,000 to $18,000 a year in search of their ancestors. Visitors to online genealogy sites are mostly white women, 55 and older, who browse the Internet from home—or, says [Ancestry.com PR Director Sean] Pate, “your Aunt Betsy, who’s got a real rabid appetite for digging into family roots.” It’s a demographic projected to grow 36 percent by 2020, three times as fast as any other group.
The following announcement was written by the Family History Information Standards Organisation, Inc. (FHISO):
London (United Kingdom) and Gilbert, AZ (USA) — September 24, 2012 — Calico Pie Limited and Family History Information Standards Organisation, Inc. (FHISO) announced today that Calico Pie has finalised its plans to become a founding member of the organisation. As part of this process, Calico Pie has designated its founder, Simon Orde, to be an organisational member representative. Simon will participate with other FHISO members from the global genealogical community in the development of standards for the digital representation and sharing of family history and genealogical information.
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