The three major credit bureaus have now made weekly credit report access permanent.

Monitoring your credit history regularly reduces the likelihood that reporting errors (best case) or identity theft (worst case) will derail your financial health—and you can now do this at no cost every single week, indefinitely, through Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, each credit bureau offered one free credit report per year, meaning consumers generally could obtain three reports annually before having to pay as much as $14 per request. Those same reports were made available weekly at no additional charge in early 2020, a program that was extended several times, ultimately through December 2023.

Now, free access to weekly credit reports has been made permanent so it’s easier to monitor your report regularly. While you probably don’t need to request multiple reports every week, you should be reviewing your credit monthly (quarterly at a minimum) or whenever you’re applying for financing. 

How to get your free weekly credit report

Free credit reports are available at AnnualCreditReport.com via an online form. You’ll need to provide some basic information, such as your name, Social Security number, birth date, and address(es), as well as select the bureau you wish to get your report from and answer a handful of security verification questions. 

Alternatively, you can submit a downloadable form by mail or call 1-877-322-8228 to verify your request by phone. 

Note that your credit report does not include your credit score. Many credit card companies provide customers with credit scores at no charge, though keep in mind that there are different scoring models used by lenders.

You can read more in an article by Emily Long published in the LifeHacker web site at: https://lifehacker.com/you-can-now-get-your-free-credit-report-every-week-for-1850865987 

The following is an announcement written by the organizers of The Family History Show:

The Family History Show events in England and Online were a huge success this year with bigger crowds and lots of compliments from happy attendees. 

“What an amazing day, not just for me but also all the hundreds of visitors who enjoyed and learnt so much from a series of talks all day and the great variety of helpful stalls. Many thanks to the organisers, the stallholders and of course all you lovely visitors - thank you for buying a few maps too!!” – Joss from This Way Books

We are therefore delighted to announce that in 2024 we will be adding a new event in the Midlands alongside our ever popular York, London and Online shows.

The Family History Show, Midlands will be debuting at the Severn Hall, Three Counties Showground, Worcestershire on Saturday 16th March 2024. We look forward to welcoming everyone to this fantastic centrally placed exhibition hall with plenty of free parking.

“We’ve been very busy, we’ve had lots of questions to answer and sold lots of our publications – so a very good day!” – West Surrey Family History Society

Dates for your 2024 diary!

Come and be part of a fantastic day dedicated to exploring your genealogy. We look forward to seeing you at our 2024 shows:

• Online – Saturday 10th February 2024

• Midlands – Saturday 16th March 2024 at Three Counties Showground

• York – Saturday 22nd June 2024 at York Racecourse

• London – Saturday 5th October 2024 at Kempton Park Racecourse

Be inspired by our captivating free talks, interact with experts who can help you find answers to your questions, and explore a diverse range of exhibitors, family history societies and genealogy companies from all over the country in the exhibition hall. 

These events are an absolute must for all family history enthusiasts. Come along and discover fascinating insights into your heritage or your past family. Join us and experience a great day out with lots of friendly exhibitors, complimentary talks, convenient parking at our physical shows, regular trains to York, Kempton and Great Malvern, and refreshments available all day at York, London and the Midlands show. Even if you can’t make it to our physical shows then our Online event is a must. Secure your tickets now to take advantage of our amazing advanced offers.

Make a Day of it

Book an expert session and watch a talk in the morning, then have lunch in our restaurant before finishing the day with a bit of retail therapy, chat with societies and catch another talk before you go.

The Family History Show – features:

• Free Talks held throughout the day

• Ask the Experts - Book a free personal 1-2-1 session with an expert

• Free Goody Bag on entry worth over £10. 

• Free Parking

• All Day Refreshments

• Wheelchair Friendly Venue

Early-bird Ticket Offer

Get your tickets now and save, Two tickets for £12 (£12 each on the day) and you’ll also get a goody bag on entry worth over £8. 

Early-bird Ticket Offer Get special offers for the next show here:https://thefamilyhistoryshow.com/tickets/

Ask the experts free One to One advice sessions

Find Out More at: https://thefamilyhistoryshow.com/

An article by Christina Hager published in the WBZ web site caught my eye this morning. I suspect it will also catch the eyes of many (human) genealogists:

"What's in a breed? Turns out pet owners are willing to shell out a lot to find out. Market research shows pet DNA testing is a more than $345 million industry on track to jump 85% by 2030.

"Michelle Leininger of Salem, NH, got a test kit that retails for about $80 after she adopted Jasmine, a rescue dog that looks like a German Shepherd. "Shepherds have a history of hip issues, so we wanted the DNA testing to know what her history was," said Leininger.

"The test came back with results showing not only German Shepherd, but also listed 14 other breeds. "How is she part...Chihuahua? You know, it just didn't make any sense," said Leininger.

"So, the WBZ-TV I-Team came with more tests from different companies to compare. All came back with some German Shepherd, but the percentages ranged from 65% to just 29%. Aside from that, the three companies showed a puzzling hodgepodge of other breeds. One included Great Pyrenees, another came back with Siberian Husky, another listed Korean Jindo, and the list goes on.

"Here's the biggest surprise: Leininger also collected a sample from her own human cheeks. When the I-Team sent it in, the results listed her as 28% Bulldog, 40% Border Collie, and 32% Cane Corso. 'Some people might agree,' she joked, but added that she wouldn't bother ever testing one of her pets again. 'I wouldn't waste the money,' she said."

You can read more in the article at: https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/i-team-accurate-pet-dog-dna-testing-human/.

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

Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc. and the Oklahoma Historical Society have come to an agreement permitting OHS to place tens of thousands of editions of The Edmond Sun archives on its Gateway to Oklahoma History website.

The Edmond Sun was the oldest publishing paper in Oklahoma at the time it closed in May 2020 and its website was taken down. The newspaper’s first issue published in July 1889, 18 years before Oklahoma statehood.

“I am very happy that the Oklahoma Historical Society and CNHI were able to come to an agreement regarding the placement of The Edmond Sun archives on the Gateway to Oklahoma History website,” said Trait Thompson, executive director of the Oklahoma Historical Society. “CNHI recognized the value of The Edmond Sun to the historical record of Oklahoma and negotiated with the OHS in good faith.”

Prior to the agreement, OHS was only permitted to digitize issues of The Edmond Sun that published before 1964 under federal copyright law. But with approval from CNHI, all issues of The Edmond Sun can now be placed on the website for public access.

You can read more in an article by Joe Tomlinson published in the NonDoc web site at: https://tinyurl.com/3xfdsn53.

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

This is Part #1 of a 2-part series.

We often take email for granted these days. For many people, it is a process of writing a quick note, reading a return note, clicking DELETE, and then moving on. However, is deleting a good idea? I can think of at least two reasons why we might want to archive all our email messages, both sent and received. One reason is genealogy-related, the other is not.

Did you inherit family heirlooms of love letters great-grandfather sent to great-grandmother during the war? Or perhaps other letters written for other purposes? While love letters are always great for sentimental reasons, other letters, even business correspondence, can offer great insights into the lives of our ancestors. Will your descendants have similar feelings about the correspondence that you write?

Of course, nowadays the art of writing letters on paper, sealing them into an envelope, and mailing them is quickly becoming lost. Future genealogists probably will not have letters available from the early twenty-first century in the same manner that we save letters from earlier times. Today, email is the preferred method of correspondence. Are you going to deny your descendants access to your correspondence?

Another reason for saving email messages is for you to retrieve such messages in the future. I have saved all my email messages for years and frequently refer to past messages. What was Aunt Mildred's telephone number? How about remembering a relative's birthday? Then again, how about that message that a distant cousin sent about his or her findings in the family tree? If you keep an archive of all your past messages, finding that information again is trivial.

Luckily, archiving all your messages is easy to do. You probably don't even need to change your email address or the service you presently use. 

NOTE: I save all "meaningful" messages. I don't save spam mail, and I delete the quick replies, such as, "Got it. Thanks for the info." I also delete the email messages from companies that say, “We are having a sale this weekend.” I consider those to be semi-spam and not worth saving.

However, any longer messages in the past few years that contained any meaningful information are now saved on my hard drive with backup copies saved in “the cloud” for safety. Even better, I can find any words or phrases inside any past email message within seconds.

I will separate the remainder of this article into two sections: (1.) short-term archiving and (2.) long-term archiving. In this case, "short-term archiving" means "for a few years." I want to save all my meaningful email messages for a few years in such a manner that I can refer back to information conveniently at any time. I typically care about information sent within the past five years or so. 

"Long term archiving" is more for the purpose of preserving information for future generations. In this case, I am thinking about practical methods of saving email messages for ten years or perhaps even 100 years or longer. I also need to make those messages available to others in a format that can be accessed for many years into the future.

Let's look at "short-term archiving" first.

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/13258099.

More than 6,000 pages of Grand Jury Presentments and Query Books have been digitised by Kildare County Archives. They are now online, free to download in pdf format and to explore to your heart's content. 

The Grand Jury system of local government was set up in the medieval period. It was initially concerned with the administration of justice, and juries were made up of wealthy local landowners. The Courts sat just twice a year, at the spring and summer assizes. By the 18th and 19th centuries, the Grand Jury had taken on more responsibilities including the management and maintenance of hospitals, asylums, dispensaries, gaols and some other public buildings, and the provision of roads.

The books contain the names of many individuals: contractors taking on public works, medical staff and those caring for deserted children. 

You can read more in the irishgenealogynews web site at: https://www.irishgenealogynews.com/2023/09/county-kildares-grand-jury-presentment.html. 

The following is a press release written by FamilySearch:

People of all ages will want to take advantage of the new, free Logan Utah FamilySearch Center to make fun personal and family discoveries. The center is located at 165 East 2200 North in North Logan, Utah. It offers some of FamilySearch’s signature interactive discovery experiences found only at select facilities worldwide. The center will open Monday, September 25, but a public open house will be held Friday, September 22, 1–5 pm, and Saturday, September 23, 9:30 am–3 pm. The center is free to the public.

Logan FamilySearch Center Services

Individuals, families, youth, and special interest groups will enjoy discovering their family history and stories together using 13 discovery stations with fun, interactive experiences: All About Me, Compare-a-Face, Picture My Heritage, My Famous Relatives, and Where I Come From. There is also a recording room, Record My Story, to digitally capture personal and family memories on video for posterity’s sake.

The center offers 33 patron computers, plus a computer learning lab that can support groups of up to 18 persons. In addition to free monthly classes, a staff of local volunteers is ready and willing to make your visit a success. A play area for small children is well-situated with 3 workstations so parents can explore their family history without leaving their children unattended. There’s even an open kitchen and snack area for guests who want to make an all-day excursion out of their visit.

If you have family memories on old photos, slides, negatives, film, videos, and reel-to-reels, the center has the equipment needed to convert those to digital so you can preserve and easily share them online or on a portable hard drive.

Visitors are sure to have quick successes, capitalizing on FamilySearch’s vast historical resources and free access to premium online genealogy services.

Prepare for Your Visit

For the best-personalized experiences, plan ahead. Create a free FamilySearch Account online. (Don’t forget the log-in and password you create!) Add what you know about your family in the FamilySearch Family Tree.

Introduce your family and friends to a lifetime of family discovery experiences. Plan a visit soon to the Logan Utah FamilySearch Center.

Logan Utah FamilySearch Center Details

Address: 165 East 2200 North, North Logan, Utah, 84341

Phone: 1-435-755-5594

About FamilySearch

FamilySearch International is the largest genealogy organization in the world. We are a nonprofit, volunteer-driven organization sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Millions of people use our records, resources, and services to learn more about their family history. To help in this great pursuit, FamilySearch and its predecessors have been actively gathering, preserving, and sharing genealogical records worldwide for over 125 years. People access our services and resources free online at FamilySearch.org or through over 5,000 FamilySearch centers in 129 countries, including the main FamilySearch Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.

An epic legal affair involving artworks looted by the Nazi regime drew to a close on Wednesday in Lower Manhattan, where the works were handed over to the descendants of a Jewish collector who was murdered during the Holocaust.

The artworks, by the renowned Austrian artist Egon Schiele, were forcibly taken from Fritz Grünbaum, a Jewish cabaret performer who was killed in 1941 at Dachau concentration camp, according to descendants of the artist as well as a pivotal court ruling.

The pieces ended up, over the span of many decades, at various museums, including the Museum of Modern Art and the Morgan Library, both in New York, eventually becoming the subject of a series of federal and state court cases.

“I don’t think it’s an overstatement. Today is historic and groundbreaking,” said Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, at whose office the handover ceremony took place and which helped orchestrate the return. “We are returning these beautiful works, these drawings, to their rightful home. To their family.”

You can read more in an article by Arun Venugopal published in the gothamist web site at: https://gothamist.com/news/7-artworks-seized-by-nazis-returned-to-descendants-in-ny. 

There are certain standards that are a part of every American Football contest.

One is the goalposts. Another is the kickoff. Quite another is the passing game. Players are protected head to knee with padding. And just about every play begins with both sides of the ball getting into a huddle.

Why do players gather together like that? Where did this originate? Why are there different styles of huddles? Is there a connection to genealogy?

You can read a rather lengthy and explanatory article written by Barry Shuck published in the dawgsbynature web site at: https://www.dawgsbynature.com/2023/9/20/23863651/genealogy-in-american-football-the-huddle.