About 5,500 Alaskans between 1904 and the 1960s were committed to a hospital in Portland, Oregon, after being deemed by a jury “really and truly insane,” a criminal offense.

There were no facilities to treat those with mental illness or developmental disabilities in what was then the Alaska territory, so they were sent — often by dog sled, sleigh or stagecoach — to a waiting ship in Valdez. The 2,500-mile (4,000 km) journey ended at Morningside Hospital.

Many never left, and their families never learned their fate.

They are known as the Lost Alaskans.

For more than 15 years, volunteers in Fairbanks and in Portland have been working to identify the people who were committed to the hospital. Many were buried in Portland cemeteries, some in unmarked pauper graves. A few, like McCormick, have been returned to Alaska for proper burials.

You can read more at: bit.ly/3vwtuOV

A new database is available : www.lostalaskans.com. A prior blog: www.morningsidehospital.com. Alaska Natives who died at Morningside: https://www.findagrave.com/virtual-cemetery/552288. Other patients who died at Morningside: https://www.findagrave.com/virtual-cemetery/152302.

If you are looking for ancestors or other relatives who “died in the war,” this may be a help. From the tvpworld.com web site:

The Foundation for Polish-German Reconciliation (FPNP) has information on 1,200 cemeteries or memorial sites where the remains of Polish citizens rest, says Jakub Deka, chairman of the management board at FPNP — an organization that includes the documentation of Polish war graves in Germany.

According to estimates, there may be as many as 300,000 victims resting at those sites.

“Since 2017, our foundation, with the support of the Polish culture and national heritage ministry, has been intensively working on the documentation and inventory of Polish war graves in cemeteries and memorials in Germany. This is a very extensive project. I think the effects of our work are beginning to be visible,” Deka said.

“The longer we implement this project, the more we see that there is still work to do for many, many years to come,” Deka stressed, adding that the burial sites of Poles in Germany “are very numerous.”

“I’m talking about war graves, that is, graves of people who died, were killed, were murdered on German territory, or were buried there during the war years,” Deka explained noting that under German legislation “war graves are also considered to be graves of people who survived the war, were liberated by the Allies or the Soviet army and stayed on German territory, in camps for displaced persons DPs).”

“The graves of such people who died by [before] 1952 are also considered war graves.”

“Using archival materials, information from museum institutions, and cemetery administrations, we try to determine whether the graves of Polish victims still exist, in what condition they are, we visit these places, make photographic documentation, describe the cemeteries, the location of the graves. We also often document places and cemeteries where graves existed that were liquidated in the post-war years,” Dekal said.

Based on the collected materials, an online database is being created, available at www.polskiegroby.pl. An FPNP spokesperson said: “If you visit the website, you can see that an interactive map of Germany is dotted with these sites.”

“So far we have information on 1,200 cemeteries or memorials where the remains of Polish citizens are located.”

FPNP was established in 1991 as a result of an agreement between the Polish and German governments. It is a nonprofit organization working for Polish-German dialog and the victims of Nazi persecution.

An estimated six million Polish citizens were slaughtered during WWII, approximately half were Polish Jews killed in the Holocaust orchestrated by the German Nazis.

You can read more at: https://tvpworld.com/76713191/polish-war-graves-in-germany-documented. 

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

Many, or perhaps most, U.S. genealogists are unaware of a program that helps the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) make contributions to the National Archives Catalog. However, YOU can help in this all-volunteer program to help unlock history.

The Citizen Archivist program invites citizen to transcribe historical documents, tag archival photographs, or share comments with other community members. You are invited to join in! Every contribution you make helps unlock history.

You can learn more and even sign up in the Citizen Archivist Dashboard at: https://www.archives.gov/citizen-archivist.

Many DNA experts claim the fact is that anyone with blue eyes is that you all, apparently, share an ancestor. For those wondering how this is possible, they will first need to look at a study that found it can all be traced back to one person.

Healthline estimates that between 8 and 10 percent of the world's population have blue eyes. And its rarity now makes sense, as scientists revealed that the genetic mutation came from a singular human who lived between 6,000 and 10,000 years ago.

Researchers have tried to discover what caused this change by studying the OCA2 gene, which determines the level of brown pigment in the human eye, for many years.

You can read a rather detailed explanation of all this in an article by Anish Vij published in the ladbible.com web site at: bit.ly/3xiNncH.

A Titanic mystery that spanned a century was only recently put to rest when a woman who claimed to be a survivor and heiress to a considerable family fortune was exposed.

One of the last great mysteries of the Titanic was solved in 2013 thanks to a DNA test that proved a woman who claimed she was a child survivor of the tragic Titanic sinking was a fraud.

Two-year-old Loraine Allison is believed to have been the only child from first or second class who died during the sinking of the Titanic. She was traveling aboard the luxury liner with her parents, Hudson, a Canadian entrepreneur, and Bess, her seven-month-old brother Trevor, and an entourage of servants.

Reports say that when the ship struck the iceberg, Trevor was taken to a lifeboat by a maid, Alice Cleaver. Loraine, Hudson, and Bess did not survive, and only Hudson's body was ever recovered. 

2

Alice Cleaver with Trevor Allison, survivors of the sinking of the RMS Titanic after disembarking from the RMS Carpathia. (Public Domain / New York Herald)

However, in 1940, Helen Loraine Kramer, now styling herself Loraine Kramer, claimed to be the missing child. She told a radio show that she had been saved at the last moment when her father placed her in a lifeboat with a man whom she had always thought was her father.

She claimed the man, whom she called Mr. Hyde, raised her as his own in England before moving to the US. She claimed he only told her the ‘truth’ shortly before his death.

Kramer also claimed that Hyde disclosed his real identity as Thomas Andrews, Titanic’s designer who was thought to have died on board.

The full story may be found in an article in the Irish Central web site at: bit.ly/3VD8vEz.

My thanks to newsletter reader Yvonne Dolbec for telling me about this story.

Today is the first day of the month. That is a good time to back up your genealogy files. Then test your backups!

Your backups aren't worth much unless you make a quick test by restoring a small file or two after the backup is completed.

Actually, you can make backups at any time. However, it is easier and safer if you have a specific schedule. The first day of the month is easy to remember, so I would suggest you back up your genealogy files at least on the first day of every month, if not more often. (My computers automatically make off-site backups of all new files every few minutes.)

Given the events of the past few months with genealogy websites laying off employees and cutting back on services, you now need backup copies of everything more than ever. What happens if the company that holds your online data either goes off line or simply deletes the service where your data is held? If you have copies of everything stored either in your own computer, what happens if you have a hard drive crash or other disaster? If you have one or more recent backup copies, such a loss would be inconvenient but not a disaster.

Of course, you might want to back up more than your genealogy files. Family photographs, your checkbook register, all sorts of word processing documents, email messages, and much more need to be backed up regularly. Why not do that on the first day of each month? or even more often?

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 I suggest that all computer users should be familiar with this new technology:

Without a question, the Internet has completely changed the way we live. It has altered the way we communicate, travel, work, get information, and engage with one another. We benefit from an increased degree of freedom as a result of the democratization and decentralization of information. As a result, the public's access to information about issues affecting both the globe and themselves has increased significantly thanks to the Internet. The mainstream media and centralized authorities are losing influence as a result of the Internet.

But not everything is perfect. We have overlooked—or have been forced to overlook—something as significant in our haste to seize the liberties provided by the Internet: our privacy. People often forget that they are the real product of these new free services, as billions of people rush to sign up for the newest social media networks.

Parts of the Internet became factories for data collecting, with important user information and data being handed on to the platforms' real customers — the highest bidder — thanks to incentives from "free" platforms and peer pressure. Large swaths of the Internet were taken over by a few dominant firms, which harvested data property that did not belong to them, weakened privacy rights, and made censorship easier. (Can you say "Google" or "FaceBook" boys and girls?)

Privacy awareness has increased as a result of this centralizing influence as well as other worries about accessibility, surveillance, and net neutrality. In order to provide a more democratic, private, secure, censorship-resistant, and decentralized Internet of the future, there is an increase in the use of VPN and DPN services.

Virtual private networks (VPNs)

I rather like the Wikipedia definition of VPNs:

"A virtual private network (VPN) is a mechanism for creating a secure connection between a computing device and a computer network, or between two networks, using an insecure communication medium such as the public Internet.

A VPN can extend access to a private network (one that disallows or restricts public access) to users who do not have direct access to it, such as an office network allowing secure access from off-site over the Internet.

The benefits of a VPN include security, reduced costs for dedicated communication lines, and greater flexibility for remote workers.

A VPN is created by establishing a virtual point-to-point connection through the use of tunneling protocols over existing networks. A VPN available from the public Internet can provide some of the benefits of a private wide area network (WAN)."

You can read more about VPNs on Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_private_network as well as on dozens of other web sites.

Private Networks That Are Decentralized

Decentralized Private Networks, sometimes known as decentralized VPNs (often abbreviated to DPN or DVPN), function similarly to virtual private networks (VPNs) in that they transit web traffic via encrypted tunnels over decentralized networks as opposed to centralized ones. Higher security levels are ensured by serverless and distributed architecture, which prevents user data from being tracked, compromised, or subpoenaed.

VPNs are growing in popularity as people become more conscious of privacy concerns and challenges related to data and information centralization. Blockchain and cryptocurrency innovators are already taking advantage of this need to provide decentralized enhanced security for online users.

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/13336441 (A Plus Edition password is required to access that article.)

If you are not yet a Plus Edition subscriber, you can learn more about such subscriptions and even upgrade to a Plus Edition subscription immediately at https://eogn.com/page-18077. 

The following is an announcement written by the folks at Findmypast:

Explore England's past in more vivid detail than ever before, with an exciting new newspaper title and over 1.6 million new records.

It's never been easier to connect with your global roots. This Findmypast Friday, we've added 1,675,862 brand-new records - rate books, electoral registers and monumental inscriptions from Malta and Manchester. 

But that's not all. We also bolstered our newspaper collection, adding 112 years of the beautiful and photo-rich Country Life magazine. We also updated one of our existing publications - read on for a full rundown of all that's been added this week.

Malta, Monumental Inscriptions

This brand-new collection of grave records from Malta covers almost 200 years, from 1829 right up to 2022. There are 6,026 images and transcriptions for you to explore, from the follow cemeteries:

• Ta' Braxia Cemetery
• Sliema War Memorial
• Pembroke Military Cemetery
• Malta Memorial
• Imtarfa Military Cemetery
• Kalkara Cemetery 
• Valletta Cemetery

Whether you've got Maltese roots or your ancestor fought abroad during either of the World Wars, you may find a familiar name or two amongst the many military graves in this set. 

With a quick search, we uncovered the grave of the publisher and military man Hugh Alexander Pollock, who was married to two famous British writers - Enid Blyton and Ida Pollock. 

Hugh Alexander Pollock, who died on 6 November 1971.

Pollock served in both World Wars. In World War 1 he fought with the Royal Scots Fusiliers, while he was a part of the Auxiliary Military Pioneer Corps in the Second World War.

Manchester Electoral Registers 

This week's biggest update comes to our Manchester electoral registers. Spanning 120 years (from 1820 to 1940), there are over 1.2 million new additions to discover.

You may be able to discover the names and addresses of your Manchester ancestors with these 1,285,051 new transcriptions and images. 

Manchester Rate Books

We've also made another big Manchester addition, in the form of 384,785 new Rate Book records. 

These images and transcriptions span from 1820 to 1940, and may help to illuminate key details about the lives of your ancestors in the North West of England. 

Introducing Country Life

We're delighted to announce the addition of the glossy magazine Country Life to our archive this week. For the first time, you can explore a wealth of beautiful photos documenting rural Britain's history and its people. From landscapes and formal gardens to socialities and politicians, all manner of people and places are featured in the pages of Country Life. 

Country Life, 7 January 1971. 

There are pages spanning 112 continuous years for you to discover, starting with the magazine's founding in 1897 and stretching right up to 2009. 

Country Life, 21 July 1994.

With the addition of 509,799 new pages to our collection, we've passed an exciting landmark - a grand total of 75 million historical newspaper pages. It's never been easier to seamlessly search over 300 years of history through the headlines of the day. 

New title:

• Country Life, 1897-2009

Updated title:

• Hawick News and Border Chronicle, 1891

Last week, we added over a million Scottish records - explore the full release for yourself today. 

Have you made a surprising family history discovery? Whatever you've uncovered about your past, we'd love to hear about it. You can now get in touch and tell us using this handy form.

More on this topic:

Historical Newspapers

Are you passionate about uncovering family histories and preserving Ohio’s rich genealogical heritage? The Ohio Genealogical Society is on the lookout for a talented Assistant Editor to join their dynamic team for the Ohio Genealogical Society Quarterly!

If you have a knack for storytelling, an eye for detail, and a love for all things genealogy, this could be the perfect role for you! As Assistant Editor, you’ll play a vital role in shaping and sharing fascinating stories that connect generations and communities across Ohio.

Ready to dive into a world of discovery and make a meaningful impact? Don’t miss out on this incredible opportunity! Download the full job description and apply now and be part of a passionate community dedicated to preserving Ohio’s genealogical treasures.

Visit https://www.ogs.org/ogs-seeks-assistant-editor/