Alabamians have no guarantees of privacy for their data after submitting genetic samples to private companies to learn about their ancestry, but state lawmakers would like to change that.

A bill filed in the state legislature this session, called the Alabama Genetic Privacy Data Act, would require companies to get consent from consumers before sharing their genetic information with anyone else.

Currently DNA testing companies like 23andMe and Ancestry can sell customers’ data to other companies. That puts consumers at risk of having health insurers considering their genetic backgrounds when determining coverage, said the sponsor of the bill, Rep. Chip Brown, R-Mobile.

“That potentially could lead to them being discriminatory on issuing policies to certain individuals based on family histories,” he said, “And that’s something we have to protect.”

You can read more in an article by Sarah Whites-Koditschek and published in the al.com web site at: https://tinyurl.com/wprnep7j

The Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum will launch its first digital exhibition tomorrow March 8 in celebration of Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day. “Becoming Visible: Bringing American Women’s History Into Focus” is an interactive exhibition available for the public to explore on the museum’s website that confronts how women’s stories have been in a constant state of becoming visible in American history. Actor and singer-songwriter Lynda Carter, a member of the museum’s advisory council, will share introductory remarks for a virtual look inside the exhibition March 14 at 3 p.m. ET.

The 10-minute digital experience created by the woman-led digital design firm Forum One takes audiences on a visual and emotional journey through five women’s lives: Elizabeth Keckly, an author and formerly enslaved woman who became a lauded dressmaker to Mary Todd Lincoln; Margaret Knight, a 19th-century inventor who mechanized the production of flat-bottomed paper bags; Hisako Hibi, a Japanese American artist who lost much of her work after spending over three years in government detention during World War II; Isabel Morgan, a scientist who was instrumental in the development of the polio vaccine; and Hazel Fellows, a seamstress who helped create the Apollo space suits.

Narrated by curators from across the Smithsonian, the five stories are organized into themes that express how women’s history has been treated—either excluded, forgotten, almost lost, erased or obscured. Each story comes to life through objects from the Smithsonian’s collections, archival records, recorded interviews and original illustrations and animations. The exhibition opens with an introduction narrated by actress, designer and producer Rosario Dawson, who serves on the museum’s advisory council.

“This exhibition demonstrates that the disappearance of women’s stories is a systemic problem that impacts all aspects of American history,” said Melanie Adams, interim director of the museum. “Our goal is to create a more accurate and inclusive record of American history that truly honors the vital roles that women play in our nation.”

The Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum will also host a Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon March 27 where attendees will edit and create Wikipedia articles about the women represented in the exhibition. This event is presented with support from Wikimedia DC.

You can read more in a news release written by the folks at the Smithsonian available at: https://tinyurl.com/35y5ewyj

More than 60 new links have been added to the Online Death Indexes for the USA website, which is a directory of links to websites with online death indexes, listed by state and county. Included are indexes for death records, death certificates, death notices and registers, obituaries, wills and probate records, and cemetery burials.

The following book review was written by Bobbi King:

Researching Scots-Irish Ancestors
The essential genealogical guide to early modern Ulster, 1600–1800
by William J. Roulston. Genealogical Publishing Co., 2022. 606 pages.

The first edition of Scots-Irish Ancestors was published in 2005. This second edition is greatly expanded, with more than twice the content as the original, encompassing a comprehensive approach guiding readers through the intricacies of tracing Scots-Irish ancestors.

Sixteen very detailed, but understandable, chapters are categorized by record group, among them: church records (seven denominations), seventeenth-century records (plantation surveys, calendars of state papers), eighteenth-century records (religious census of 1766, United Irishmen and 1798 Rebellion), landed estate records, and more.

An introductory chapter, “A brief history of Ulster in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries,” offers readers a preliminary understanding of the cultural, social, and historical contexts that shaped the Scots-Irish experience.

The second half of the book has four appendices: records relating to parishes in Ulster, estate collections, archives and libraries, and locations in Ulster. The author’s meticulous research yields a vast list of resources. 

This is a complete resource guide for researchers exploring the rich tapestry of their Scots-Irish heritage, and embracing their ancestral roots with pride and curiosity.

Researching Scots-Irish Ancestors is available from the publisher, Genealogical Publishing Co., at: https://tinyurl.com/3cauvww8.

Citing declining interest, the Wheeling Area Genealogical Society has disbanded after 54 years in operation. The executive board of the nonprofit organization, devoted to researching recording and preserving local family history, voted to disband.

The society’s final act was presenting the Ohio County Public Library with a check for residual assets for use in continued genealogical and archival work related to Wheeling. Even though the organization is no longer, the Wheeling Room of the Ohio County Public Library will continue to house donated genealogy collections and the society’s publications, and a staff member will continue to provide support to those interested in researching their ancestral heritage.

The Wheeling Area Genealogical Society was formed on Sept. 22, 1970, after 13 people – the majority having taken the Oglebay Institute class “How to Climb Your Family Tree” – came together to create it. The first major project undertaken by the society was in 1973, when members helped pack and transport books in the West Virginia Room of the Ohio County Public Library on Market Street to the Library’s new building on 16th Street.

You can read more in an article in the timesleaderonline.com website at: https://tinyurl.com/48ym866r

The Columbus Metropolitan Library will unveil a trove of Columbus history this month, gathered for more than 150 years by Columbus Dispatch journalists.

Library CEO Patrick Losinski and Dispatch Executive Editor Michael Shearer will host a special event at 3 p.m. Wednesday in the Main Library to discuss the new partnership and digital resources that will be free to the public. The event will allow the community to share what types of content are most important to them.

The library's local history & genealogy department has been archiving the 152-year-old newspaper's collection of newspaper clippings, newsroom artifacts, microfilm and microfiche, digital images, photo prints and negatives for several years. More than 6,000 already-scanned images will initially be available. The collection is the largest donation of archival material in the history of the 23-branch library system.

This physical archive alone comprises about 750 boxes, the bulk of them photographs, that the library took ownership of in June.

"The earlier stuff, for me, is the most valuable," said Angela O'Neal, manager of the history and genealogy department. "If this doesn't get saved by us, it won't be available for future generations, to help people have a sense of place and understand how they got here as a community."

The growing database will be accessible through the library's My History collection. Online searchers should look under “Browse by Collection” and then select “Columbus Dispatch Collection.”

You can read more in an article by Dean Narciso published in the Columbus Dispatch web site at: https://tinyurl.com/2eerwm7r.

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

Do you believe your DNA test results are accurate?  You might want to reconsider based upon the experience of one person. WBZ News reported its investigations team receiving dog breed results from the company DNA My Dog after two people sent in a swab sample – from their own cheeks.

According to the results from the Toronto-based company, WBZ News reporter Christina Hager is 40% Alaskan malamute, 35% shar-pei and 25% labrador.

Hager also sent her samples to two other pet genetic testing companies. The Melbourne, Australia- and Florida-based company Orivet reported that the sample “failed to provide the data necessary to perform the breed ID analysis”. Meanwhile, Washington-based company Wisdom Panel said that the sample “didn’t provide … enough DNA to produce a reliable result”.

WBZ News’ latest report comes after its investigations team sent in a sample from New Hampshire pet owner Michelle Leininger’s own cheek to DNA My Dog last year. In turn, the results declared Leininger 40% border collie, 32% cane corso and 28% bulldog.

You can read more in an article at: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/mar/13/dog-human-dna-test.

The Digital Library of Georgia (DLG) and the New Georgia Encyclopedia (NGE) are pleased to present Georgia Exhibits’ newest exhibition, curated by Kailey Joy McAlpin, “‘Thy Neighbor As Thyself’: The Women Who Shaped Georgia’s Civic Landscape.” 

Kailey Joy McAlpin, a Ph.D. student at Georgia State University, explores Georgia’s women reformers of the Progressive Era, some of whom include Mary Latimer McLendon, Mildred Lewis Rutherford, Carrie Steele, Helen Pendleton, Lugenia Burns Hope, Jessie Daniel Ames, Selena Sloan Butler, Martha Berry, and Julia Flisch.

“Lugenia Burns Hope.” 1871/1947. February 27, 2024. Courtesy of New Georgia Encyclopedia

These women came from different class backgrounds and had different racial attitudes and practices. McAlpin uses the theme and motto “Thy Neighbor as Thyself” to center the work done by Black women during the Progressive Era, both with and without the support of their white Progressive counterparts.

McAlpin’s work dedicates itself to bringing the differences between white and Black women reformers to light. She explains that access to materials, resources, and support was much more abundant to white women than their Black peers, not to mention the actual risk of life and limb posed to Black women, particularly with regard to suffrage.

You can read more in an article by Cheylan Baker published in the usg.edu web site at: https://blog.dlg.galileo.usg.edu/?p=8689. 

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

This article describes a method of killing two birds with one stone.

The first question concerns corruption within your genealogy database. Is your data still good? Or have read errors or write errors managed to corrupt the database? When you make a backup, are you backing up a good database or are you simply making a (corrupted) copy of a corrupted database? The problem is real and has happened to quite a few genealogists.

The second question concerns the integrity of your database. Are you confident of the accuracy of your genealogy data? You might be amazed at how many databases I see that include mothers giving birth at the age of eight, marriages at age twelve, or deaths at the age of 135. Sometimes you even find a person with a birth date prior to those of his parents. Download almost any GEDCOM file from the Internet and I suspect you can find similar problems.

Such errors are easy to create. Sometimes selecting the wrong person in original records can cause such errors. Copying someone else's errors can cause other errors. Mistakes also occur because you had a keystroke error when entering the data; attempting to type 1835 on the keyboard can easily result in 1885 being pressed on the keys.

I found such errors in my own database some time ago when I checked. This was embarrassing at the time, but I am very glad that I found an easy solution to identify many of these errors. Nothing is ever perfect and this method is not guaranteed to catch 100% of the errors. However, it will catch many of them and I will gladly settle for that.

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/13330223. (A Plus Edition password is required to access that article.)