Would you like to receive daily email updates showing all the newly-added articles on this web site in the past 24 hours?

These notices are easy to add and, best of all, are available free of charge. Even better, if you later change your mind and no longer wish to receive those email messages, you can unsubscribe within a few seconds.

There was a previous service that previously sent email messages of all the newly added articles added to this web site in the past 24 hours. However, it was a bit awkward to use, it cost me money, and the third-party service that produced it recently stopped offering it.

This new service removes me from the equation completely. I like that. And the fact that it is free to newsletter readers is even better.

The new service is Blogtrottr at https://https://blogtrottr.com. (Notice there is no letter "e" in the word Blogtrottr.) The service has lots of options, including the capability to filters that enable you to include or exclude updates based on the item contents. The items you receive can be (at your option) HTML emails or plain text. Your updates can be sent as a PDF, or as plain text or HTML (with embedded images) attachments for easy offline or e-book reading. There are several more options as well (details are on the Blogtrottr web site.)

Blogtrottr will send the ENTIRE articles, not just the URL and the first line or two.

The emails sent by Blogtrottr will contain advertising, not unusual in any of the so-called "free services." I found the ads were not terribly intrusive. 

In short, you own your own subscription. You can add, delete, or change the email address at any time. Not bad for a FREE service!

To sign up for this FREE service:

1. Open up a web browser (most any web browser will do) and go to https://blogtrottr.com. 

2. Under the "Getting Started" section, enter the RSS news feed URL of this web site: https://eogn.com/page-18080/rss (you might want to copy-and-paste that for convenience but you can also enter it manually.)

3. Next, enter your own email address.

4. Finally, enter how often you wish to receive the email messages, The options are: Realtime digest, 2 hours digest, 4 hours digest, 6 Hours digest, 8 hours digest, 12 hours digest, or Daily digest. (I might suggest "Daily" unless you really don't mind lots of email messages!)

5. Click on "Feed Me."

To prove that you're not a robot, you will have to click on a checkbox on the next screen you see labelled "Security check."

That's It!

Finally, Blogtrottr will send you an email asking "Was that you that sent the request?" Reply in the affirmative and then sit back and wait for the email messages to roll in. If you selected the Daily digest option, your first email will be sent to you about 24 hours later. 

You might consider adding busybee@blogtrottr.com to your address book or spam whitelist to placate any overexcitable spam filters.

I have been using this service for a few days and it seems to work well. In short, you own your own subscription. You can add, delete, or change your email address at any time. Not bad for a FREE service!

Have questions about Blogtrottr? Most questions are answered at: https://blogtrottr.com/help/.

The following book review was written by Bobbi King:

African American News in the Baltimore Sun, 1870–1927
by Margaret D. Pagan. Genealogical Publishing Co., 2021. 98 pages.

Ms. Pagan has researched through and curated newspaper articles from the Baltimore Sun spanning the years 1870 to 1927 providing an overview and insight into local, national, and international events that shaped the African American communities during a time of social and political upheaval. Although published in Baltimore, the newspaper had expanded coverage to include news from all along the Eastern Seaboard, from Florida to New England, and a few other states.Each newspaper article is dated and the event described. Some examples:Aug 14, 1890   Private John Gordon of the 25th Infantry won the department gold medal as the leader of ten marksmen on the Army’s Department of Dakota team.

Apr 07, 1915    Pullman sleeping car porters went on the witness stand before the United States Commission on Industrial Relations and told of how much the tipping system meant to them. They testified that their salary of $27.50 per month could not pay expenses on the road without the tips they receive, to say nothing of paying rents and maintaining families.

Oct 06, 1924    The Colored World Series between the Negro National League champion, the Kansas City Monarchs, and the Eastern Colored League champion, the Hilldale Club, was played at the Maryland Baseball Park in Baltimore. Of the ten games played four different cities, the Monarchs won in Chicago. (The article lists the names of the players.)

There are over 800 newspaper articles cited, with an extensive index listing more than 1000 names and events. Included are articles about meetings of Baltimore’s Brotherhood of Liberty, precursor to the Niagara Movement and the NAACP, as well as coverage of the efforts to install Black teachers in the segregated schools of Baltimore.

This is an important addition to the genre of compilations that document the African American experience in the late 19th and early 10th centuries. It offers an historic portrait of communities grappling with the complexities of race, identity, and freedom in post-Civil War America.

African American News in the Baltimore Sun is available from the Genealogical Publishing Co. (the publisher) at: https://bit.ly/43GP7bZ and from amazon.com at: https://bit.ly/3TGoi2Z. 

The California State Archives has announced the release of new videos detailing African American genealogical resources available at the State Archives, coinciding with the upcoming Family History Week activities.

From April 1 to 6, the California State Archives will collaborate with the Sacramento Genealogical Society, Center for Sacramento History, California State Library, Sacramento Public Library, Yolo County Archives, FamilySearch, Placer County Museums, California State Parks and Sutter County Museum to host a free six-day series of events featuring 16 classes on genealogy-based topics. These events aim to assist participants in uncovering their ancestors’ significant life events and the stories that define them.

Multiple events highlight African American genealogical research, including “U.S. Colored Troops Pension Records of 1890” presented by Denise I. Griggs on Saturday, April 6, from 11 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. at the California State Archives.

You can read more in an article by California Secretary of State Dr. Shirley N. Weber published in the yubanet.com web site at: https://bit.ly/49i084t

The following is a press release written by the Augusta (Georgia) Genealogical Society:

When:  Saturday, April 27, 2024 Time:  11:00 am - 12:00 pm  EST 

Where:  Online 

Price:   FREE to AGS members or $10 for nonmembers

Limited seating to view the virtual presentation will be offered at Adamson
Library. To reserve a seat, please call (706) 722-4073

Click here to register,  Augusta Genealogical Society

Limited seating to view the virtual presentation will be offered at Adamson
Library. To reserve a seat, please call (706) 722-4073

Click here to register,  Augusta Genealogical Society

Here is an article that is not about any of the "normal" topics of this newsletter: genealogy, history, current affairs, DNA, and related topics. However, it is a topic that is very popular these days.

A new website launched by the New York State Mesonet at the University at Albany will offer real-time access to weather data statewide around the total solar eclipse on April 8.

A total solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between Earth and the sun, completely blocking the sun’s face. In total, 55 NYS Mesonet sites will experience totality during the eclipse, and every site will be above 90 percent at the peak of the eclipse crossing the region. 

As the eclipse traverses New York, the Mesonet will be tracking weather data from each of its network sites, including environmental variables such as wind speed, solar radiation, temperature and relative humidity. 

The Mesonet eclipse website, which is now available to the public, offers live weather information and camera images from each of its 126 standard sites, with updates every five minutes, along with additional data from its specialized networks.

The entire Mesonet network will track weather data around the total eclipse in real time, including 55 sites in the path of totality.

“This new website will offer the first interactive Mesonet tool that allows people to see a full day of data from all 126 stations all at once,” said Nathan Bain, senior software engineer at the NYS Mesonet. “When people interact with the dashboard, they will see Mesonet stations of interest highlighted across the page, starting and ending times of the eclipse for each station, and photos taken every five minutes. As the eclipse traverses the state, markers on the graphs will indicate when the eclipse is starting and ending, allowing people to easily see how the eclipse impacts the weather.”

You can read more in an article by Mike Nolan published in the University of Albany web site at: bit.ly/3VHXQbI

Nancy Battick has written an interesting article in her Family Discoverer column in the Piscataquis Observer newspaper's web site:

"Let’s continue talking about the uses of AI — artificial intelligence — in genealogy. 

"AI is being used to create pedigree charts, write family histories, and translate documents. When you “chat” with an assistant on a genealogical website you are probably chatting with AI. Reaching a human to ask a question is going to be more difficult in the future. 

"AI chat programs are out there and can help genealogists find material, edit photos and add material to files. There are several such programs, and if you want to explore them, you can. I saw demonstrations and wasn’t impressed, but I can see where a tech maven would be thrilled."

She goes on to offer lots of “hints and kinks” for using AI in genealogy searches. You can read the full article at: https://observer-me.com/2024/04/02/opinion/ai-in-genealogy/

US immigration announces 'third gender option' on citizenship form.

As of Monday, immigrants can now select a third gender option, or "X," when applying for naturalization.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) released a news alert that revealed that it had revised Form N-400, the Application for Naturalization, to provide "Another Gender Identity," the first USCIS form to do so.

"Historically, USCIS forms and associated documents have only offered two gender options: ‘Male (M)’ and ‘Female (F).’ This has created significant barriers for requestors who do not identify with either of those options. Limiting benefit requestors to two gender options also creates administrative challenges for USCIS when we receive birth certificates or other official government-issued documents with a gender other than M or F," the statement read.

You can read further details in an article by Lindsay Kornick in the Fox News web site at: https://bit.ly/4ahXWvi.

 

In the past few weeks, I received several email messages from readers of this newsletter expressing frustration with not being able to find some articles listed in my weekly email messages. Apparently, these folks did not know how to use the numbers at: https://eogn.com/page-18080.

Thousands of articles are still available in the eogn.com web site.

I answered frustrated readers in email but also decided to post the same instructions here for everyone to see. 

Actually, there are two different ways of finding older articles (perhaps 4 or 5 days old up to 4 years old.)

Method 1:

This works best to find articles that are only a few days old:

Go to https://eogn.com/page-18080.

Scroll down the page for a bit and look for the numbers:

Number 1 is the default, that shows the latest articles

Clicking on number 2 will display the older articles (from a few days ago).

Clicking on number 3 will display even older articles (from a few days or maybe a week ago).

Even older articles may be found by clicking on even higher numbers.

Method 2:

To find still older articles (up to 4 years old) use the search box that is shown on most of the pages in this web site:

(It works in a similar manner to Google and other search engines: enter a word or a phrase and press ENTER. You will then see a list of all articles that contain that word or phrase.) Click on the article title of your choice.

That’s it!

A hundred years ago, thousands of Black residents visited Washington Street for something modern Columbians take for granted — getting a photo taken. There, they found the studio of Richard Samuel Roberts, whose side-job portraits captured a slice of Black Columbia in the 1920s and ’30s, posed in front of painted backdrops and wearing everything from wedding dresses to work uniforms and sailor costumes.

You can find the full article at: http://bit.ly/3TODfjI.

A group of young people with noble roots, led by art historian Villő Szekeres-Ugron, embarked on an ambitious project: the Hungarian Noble Photographic Archive (MaNeFo), reports kronikaonline.ro. This initiative aimed to preserve and digitize photographic material related to the Hungarian nobility.

The inspiration for the project stemmed from a digitization competition, highlighting the importance of safeguarding cultural heritage. Collaborating with organizations such as the Castellum Foundation and the Association of Hungarian Historical Families, Villő Szekeres-Ugron spearheaded the endeavor. Funding from the National Cultural Fund’s College of Photography and generous contributions from private donors facilitated the project’s initiation.

The core focus of the project lay in digitization efforts, overseen by Ms. Szekeres-Ugron and an advisory board. Their goal was to ensure accessibility of the digitized material to researchers and historians. 

You can read more at: http://bit.ly/43EZFbm.