There is an interesting article by Leah Hendry published in the CBC News web site that may be of interest to many genealogists:

As more police forces crack decades-old cold cases with the help of genetic genealogy, Montreal police have yet to have a major breakthrough on a case of their own.

The lack of progress — at least publicly — is raising concerns about the Montreal police department's priorities at a time when both the Sûreté du Québec and neighbouring Longueuil police have used new forensic methods to solve cases long thought to be unsolvable.

Last spring, Longueuil police solved the 1975 murder of Sharron Prior and in 2022, Quebec provincial police tracked down the man suspected of killing Guylaine Potvin, a 19-year-old slain in Saguenay nearly 24 years ago. He is now on trial for first-degree murder and sexual assault.

Both cases analyzed Y chromosome DNA — which traces paternal ancestry — to help match an unknown profile with a potential family name. Armed with new leads, police then used traditional policing techniques to zero in on a suspect.

Stéphane Luce runs a non-profit organization that raises awareness of unresolved missing persons and murder cases in Quebec. He says it's about time Montreal had a win.

The Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) created a cold case unit in the spring of 2019 which now has eight investigators.

"With this new technology it could be a good thing for the investigators to put their nose in a file and find out if there's DNA and good DNA to be worked on," said Luce, president of Meurtres et Disparitions Irrésolus du Québec.

Stéphane Gauthier was kidnapped on his way to meet his mother and her boyfriend in Montreal's Plateau neighbourhood on Dec. 21, 1982. (Meurtres et Disparitions Irrésolus du Québec)

Luce's organization has pushed the SPVM to re-examine several unsolved murders, including that of 12-year-old Stéphane Gauthier, who was abducted and murdered just before Christmas in 1982.

Luce believes Gauthier's case is a perfect candidate for advanced genetic testing because unidentified DNA was found at the crime scene.

You can read the full article at: http://tinyurl.com/bdp2ehak

The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity named the University of South Florida (USF) and the Florida Holocaust Museum as the permanent home of the papers and artifacts of Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor who became an esteemed humanitarian, writer and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. 

Wiesel’s physical and digitized papers, including correspondence with world leaders, unfinished manuscripts, photographs and video and audio recordings will be housed and catalogued at the Nelson Poynter Memorial Library’s Special Collections Department on the USF St. Petersburg campus. Artifacts from his collection, including his Nobel Prize, the contents of his personal office and library, and a variety of artworks will become a cornerstone of the permanent exhibition at the museum, which is located in downtown St. Petersburg, FL. 

The announcement was made at the Florida Holocaust Museum’s annual “To Life” Gala on February 3.

With this trove of historical documents and research materials, USF plans to create the Elie Wiesel Center for Humanitarian Ethics. The new center will feature an historical archive and searchable database, allowing researchers and educators to delve deeper into the Holocaust and apply Wiesel’s teachings to contemporary genocides, crimes against humanity and assaults on human rights. 

“We are honored to work together with the Florida Holocaust Museum to create a hub of humanitarian activity and education worthy of such an extraordinary man,” said Rhea Law, president of the University of South Florida. “Together, we will build a center of intellectual activity that reflects Wiesel’s own life and learning. We are grateful for the trust placed in our university and stand ready to turn this vision into a reality.”

You can read more in an artilce by Matthew Cimitile published in the stpetersburg.usf.edu web site at: http://tinyurl.com/rf68xb2a.

Users can easily access books via mobile app using their library card

The New Jersey State Library (NJSL), an affiliate of Thomas Edison State University, is pleased to announce the statewide roll out of the Palace Project, a new digital library service that offers free ebooks and audiobooks in one easy-to-use app. Through the Palace app, library users have access to over 20,000 items curated by the Digital Public Library of America and the New Jersey State Library. The app contains a vast collection of ebooks and professionally narrated audiobooks, ranging from classic novels to the latest bestsellers. Additionally, the State Library has curated its own digital lending collection within the app – the New Jersey Topics Shelf. This growing collection of digital books features New Jersey biographies, inventions, events, photographs and much more.

Users can access the Palace app on their preferred mobile device via download from the Apple or Google Play stores. The process for signing up is completely self-contained within the app, and will require an email address and authentication through geolocation (anywhere in NJ). Books can be borrowed and read on your mobile device, and downloaded for use when you are not connected to the internet.

“This new e-reading experience allows users to access thousands of free books in one simple app. It offers unique content, including many titles without holds, waits or checkouts, making it perfect for use in the classroom, for book clubs and community events, and for those who just love to read,” said Michael Maziekien, Shared Services Project Specialist, New Jersey State Library. “The Palace mobile app transforms the way our patrons engage with our collections, making it easier than ever to explore, learn and connect.”

Learn more about the Palace Project, and how to access the Palace app, at: www.njstatelib.org/thepalaceproject.

Congress wants to know what agencies know about UFOs, and, under a new law, agencies have to tell them.

New records management provisions included in the recently enacted 2024 defense policy bill require federal agencies to organize and tag records related to what the government calls "unidentified anomalous phenomena" or UAP. 

Agencies have until the end of the current fiscal year to "review, identify, and organize each UAP record in its custody for disclosure to the public and transmission to the National Archives," according to a memo sent Tuesday afternoon from Laurence Brewer, chief records officer for the U.S. Government, and Chris Naylor, NARA's executive for research services, to federal agency records managers.

A new, central collection of UAP records will be housed at the National Archives and Records Administration.

The law passed without measures sought by backers, notably Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., that would have set up a presidential commission with the authority to declassify records pertaining to UAP.

"For decades, many Americans have been fascinated by objects mysterious and unexplained and it’s long past time they get some answers,” Schumer said last July when the bipartisan legislation was introduced. "The American public has a right to learn about technologies of unknown origins, non-human intelligence, and unexplainable phenomena.

You can read more at:  https://www.nextgov.com/digital-government/2024/02/national-archives-tees-new-rules-ufo-records/393982/

NOTE: The following article does not contain any genealogy-related information.  However, it is a heart-warming story that I think should be shared.

At 10 years old, Harper Borders has dealt with Joubert Syndrome her whole life, leading to developmental delays, mobility issues, and blindness. Harper goes to Marshall Pediatric Therapy to see Chloe Isaacs, who had an idea to get Harper a posterior walker

"I had had this idea for a long time for Harper just to give her some type of independence,” Isaacs said. “With the use of her sight cane, it made it really hard for her to use any type of walker, but she really needed that stability, too. There was nothing out there on the market, like I searched and I searched. Nothing came up.”

Chloe heard about a nonprofit in Cincinnati called "May We Help You". This group enlisted a local robotics team from Ross High School to build the kind of walker Harper needed.

“The students just took off with the idea and created, well, they put together, kind of built their own walker,” Harper’s mother, Sarah Borders, said. “They put sensors on the walker that can detect objects two feet in front of Harper when she's using the walker.”

“They started this project in June,” Isaacs said. “And right before Christmas, we got the phone call that it was ready, and everybody was so excited; it was like a little Christmas miracle.”

A few of the students traveled down to Lexington on January 8 to deliver the walker to Harper. The walker uses the sensors and vibrates when an object stands in the way of Harper, so she can maneuver around whatever lies in front of her.

“It was all that we could do not to cry and just hold back tears,” Isaacs said. “I mean, it was a dream come true; I have searched and searched, trying to find something like this out there. To hear that the boys were just so passionate about it too, I think, also helped the project come to life because when you throw that passion and that love in the air, it's just differen different.”

You can read more in an article by Caleb Barnes published in the http://tinyurl.com/3kmew3j3.

More and more African Americans are chiseling their way through the infamous 1870 "brick wall" and digging up their ancestral roots. Today, at least 19 states have chapters of the Afro-American Historical Genealogical Society (AAHGS).

"If you have those enslaved ancestors, as most folks who identify as African Americans — whose families have been here for awhile — what is known is that we were not treated as people. We were treated as possessions," explained Bessida Cauthorne-White, who is the president of the Middle Peninsula African-American Genealogical and Historical Society. 

1870, five years after emancipation, is the first time formerly enslaved African Americans were listed on the federal census. Before that, the names of slaves were scattered throughout historical documents listed amongst the property of their enslavers.

For 30 years, Newport News genealogist and genealogy educator Renate Yarborough Sanders has combed through thousands of documents connecting the dots between back then and now. 

"1870, where people refer to it as this brick wall... instead of seeing it as this brick wall, I see it as the place where we can determine which road we go down with our research. Are we looking for someone who was likely enslaved or are we looking for someone who we have found to be a free person of color?"

Newly digitized records living on the internet have made the genealogical journey much more accessible. 

You can read more in an article by Janet Roach published in the 13newsnow web site at: http://tinyurl.com/39aa594j.

More than a hundred guests from as far as Colorado and Georgia poured into the National Archives Museum for a fun and historic sports-themed sleepover during the first weekend in February.  Guests get ready to go to sleep in front of the Constitution, February 3, 2024. National Archives photo by Jenna Edwards. It was the first National Archives Sleepover hosted by Dr. Colleen Shogan since her swearing-in as Archivist of the United States in May 2023, and it was the first sleepover since February 2020, when the tradition was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  “Whether you play them or watch them, sports have helped shape America and they provide a connection to our past,” Shogan told guests during her welcome remarks. “We’ve got records about some of our greatest athletes and sports moments here at the Archives.” For this sports-themed sleepover, Shogan wore a Pittsburgh Steelers jersey. Jackie Robinson, alongside his wife Rachel, both portrayed by reenactors from Bright Star Theatre, engaged guests with his experience of becoming the first African American to play in the Major Leagues and to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.  Children asked the reenactors thoughtful questions about Robinson’s involvement in the civil rights movement. Other activities included a scavenger hunt, arts and crafts, historical trivia, and the opportunity to write a letter to the President of the United States. Guests of all ages loved posing for selfies and family photos as they explored the Rotunda after hours.  The National Archives has hosted sleepovers at the National Archives Museum since 2014. Children between the ages of 8 and 12 and their chaperones experience the rare opportunity to sleep beside the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, and the Bill of Rights. The following morning, they are treated to a pancake breakfast served by the Archivist of the United States.  “It is fascinating to interact with [the founding] documents I have read about my entire life and never imagined I would get to experience in person,” said Paula Hopkins, who accompanied her daughter, Maci, and two granddaughters, Aaralyn and Everleigh.  Patrick Madden and Dr. Colleen Shogan flipped and served pancakes on Sunday morning. February 4, 2024. National Archives photo by Jenna Edwards. Another guest, Delencia Williams, hugged her son, Apollo, for one final photo moment before he made a beeline to the snack table. “I cannot believe I get to see Jackie Robinson, the Declaration of Independence, and National Treasure all in one night,” she said. Yes, you heard that correctly—the film National Treasure played in the William G. McGowan Theater, accompanied by popcorn served by Shogan. Alternatively, guests could retire to their sleeping bags in the Rotunda while the documents were being “put to sleep.”  “We got to hear the alarm!” brother and sister Navah and Yaron Schultz shared with palpable enthusiasm on Sunday morning.  “I was in the bathroom and missed it,” their mom, Talya, laughed. “This has been such an incredible experience.” Adults enjoyed coffee and a buffet breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, and potatoes. Children lined up for plain, chocolate chip, and banana pancakes served (and flipped with style!) by Shogan and Patrick Madden, Director of the National Archives Foundation. After breakfast, guests visited the National Archives Store before departing at 9 a.m. “I didn’t realize the extent of what was planned. I appreciate the love and care that went into every detail of this event,” said Jessica Behrman, a National Archives at Denver employee who attended the Archives Sleepover with her daughter, Johanna. The next sleepover is scheduled for October 19–20, 2024. For more information and to register for future sleepovers, visit www.archivesfoundation.org/sleepover. Questions about the event should be directed to info@archivesfoundation.org. This National Archives Sleepover is made possible in part by the National Archives Foundation.

Newspapers provide readers and researchers with incredible information on events, people, places, attitudes and opinions from the far to the recent past.

The Society houses hard copies of local papers from the 19th and 20th centuries, but they are in fragile condition. Starting forty years ago the papers were filmed and microfilm copies were created. This microfilm is owned by and housed at the Rockville Public Library, where it is accessible for use only via a microfilm reader. As we move into the digital age, VHS, in cooperation with the Rockville Public Library, is scanning the microfilm to digital files that will be made available free  to everyone anytime from an online hosting source. Researchers, genealogists and students of the past will appreciate access to this rich archive.                                             

Local papers selected for digitization:

The Vernon Historical Society has employed professional archivist Nicole Besseghir as project manager to help guide us through the digitization process and facilitate work on  the project. She has extensive experience in both historic newspaper digitization and working with local history collections. Nicole is managing the project on VHS’s behalf, which includes advising the VHS director and newspaper committee on project steps and decisions, project planning, coordinating and communicating with vendors, preparing materials for digitization, working on quality review of the digital files and preparing them for upload to the database.

Benefits of Newspaper Digitization

The Tolland County area is underrepresented in the digitized newspapers that are currently available online. This project will bring more than 100 years of Tolland County newspapers and history online for the first time.

Making historic newspapers available digitally vastly expands their accessibility, usability, and findability especially with functions to search for names of people and events over periods of time.

Digitizing and viewing the newspapers on the computers also makes them easier to read than on microfilm and in print, since the computer allows users to zoom to better view the content. They can also save and print the articles.

A wider range of audiences will be able to access and utilize the historic newspapers once they are digitized and online.

The ability for the newspapers to be used in classrooms and in schoolwork will allow educators to incorporate them into their teaching and classroom activities.

Now other cultural heritage institutions will be able to make use of the papers for their own work.

Our Hosting Site

Once digitized and reviewed, the newspapers will be loaded into an online database, the Connecticut Digital Archive (CDTA), where they can be viewed and searched by anyone. They can be found by utilizing an internet search engine and by directly visiting the database.

CTDA is operated and maintained by the University of Connecticut as part of their Digital Preservation Repository Program. The database was created over a decade ago and the CTDA team continues to improve and meticulously manage the database and serve its members.

Project Fund Raising

To complete this project, we must raise $25,000. We have applied for a grant from a local bank foundation. However, we will need additional funds to reach our goal.

To donate by mail, please send a check to the Vernon Historical Society, PO Box 2055, Vernon, CT 06066. Please write "Newspaper Project" on the memo line of the check.

To Donate Online, go to https://www.paypal.com/donate/?campaign_id=AN4M85TVV9QDQ.

If you used and enjoyed Twitter, I will suggest you try BlueSky. It appears to be a much better product, much like the way Twitter used to operate, but better.. Here is a quote from BueSky’s announcement:

After almost a year as an invite-only app, Bluesky is now open to the public. Funded by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, Bluesky is one of the more promising micro-blogging platforms that could provide an alternative to Elon Musk's X (previously known a Twitter). Before opening to the public, the platform had about 3 million sign-ups. Now that anyone can join, the young platform faces a challenge: How can it meaningfully stand up to Threads' 130 million monthly active users, or even Mastodon's 1.8 million? 

Bluesky looks and functions like Twitter at the outset, but the platform stands out because of what lies under the hood. The company began as a project inside of Twitter that sought to build a decentralized infrastructure called the AT Protocol for social networking. As a decentralized platform, Bluesky's code is completely open source, which gives people outside of the company transparency into what is being built and how. Developers can even write their own code on top of the AT Protocol, so they can create anything from a custom algorithm to an entirely new social platform. 

"What decentralization gets you is the ability to try multiple things in parallel, and so you're not bottlenecking change on one organization," Bluesky CEO Jay Graber told TechCrunch. "The way we built Bluesky actually lets anyone insert a change into the product." This setup gives users more agency to control and curate their social media experience. On a centralized platform like Instagram, for example, users have revolted against algorithm changes that they dislike, but there's not much they can do to revert or improve upon an undesired app update.

Retired Marine Leander Holston had uncovered some interesting facts about his family. Using the genealogy website MyHeritage to build a family tree, he’d created an extensive database of relatives going back three generations on his father’s side. He learned about uncles he’d never met and discovered that the surname passed down to him by his father was only carried by a few of the men in his family.

But when it came to researching his mother’s roots, Holston wasn’t having as much success. Drawing on census records, he identified his maternal grandmother, whose maiden name was Dixie Pearson. Though a man named John or Henry Pearson appeared to be her father, their birth dates weren’t quite lining up. He was born in the 1870s; Holston had expected his great-grandfather to be born a few decades earlier, closer to the 1850s. Despite his best efforts, he was stumped.

Then, during a trip to Washington, D.C. for his wife’s birthday in August 2023, Holston visited the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), where he stumbled upon the Robert Frederick Smith Explore Your Family History Center. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, visitors can sign up for free, in-person group genealogy sessions hosted by the center’s staff and volunteers. Hourlong, one-on-one virtual sessions are also available, so when Holston returned home to Pineville, North Carolina, he decided to turn to the NMAAHC genealogy team for advice from afar.

You can read more in an article by Tracy Scott Forson published in the Smithsonian web site at: http://tinyurl.com/3f7es7e7.