The expression 'a skeleton in the closet' refers to a secret source of shame, potentially ruinous if exposed, which a person or family makes efforts to conceal. The results of a recent DNA test illustrates this perfectly.

A man has been left devastated after his innocent activity ended up ruining his parents' marriage after 33 years.

Having a keen interest in genealogy at the time, he ordered two DNA kits - one for his dad and the other for himself and was overall excited to learn about his “ancestry composition”.

But things went horribly wrong when he noticed something was 'off'.

Taking to social media platform Reddit, he said: "I ordered myself and my dad a kit when they were on sale and we received our results a couple of days ago.

“My mother has never really been interested in genealogy or DNA stuff so I didn’t tell her about it. The first thing my dad and I did was compare our ancestry composition and I noticed it was a bit... off to say the least.

“He is highly British and Irish (most strongly connected to the UK) with a small bit of French and German. I am mostly Scandinavian (most strongly connected to Sweden) with over a quarter French and German and some Italian.”

The confused dad and his son ended up checking other family members but discovered a horrifying truth - they were not related.

“He didn’t pop up on mine and I didn’t pop up on his," he added. “There was a half sibling (sharing 26.3 per cent) and father match, however. I began freaking out and my dad got so angry.

“My mum came home and he confronted her about it. She lost it and admitted she knew I was some other man’s child all along and would’ve tried to stop us had she known we got the tests. They are now divorcing which sucks. He’s now wondering if my two younger siblings are his or not.”

You can read more in an article by Hannah Kane published in the mirror.co.uk web site at: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/i-dna-test-whim-within-30472626.

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

Members of Jewish community are being invited to delve into their ancestral history when genealogists from around the world descend on the UK later this month. 

Dozens of family ancestry experts will be on hand to help members of the community learn to trace their roots at an international conference on Jewish genealogy, which promises to “enhance and spread knowledge and learning” around the topic through  workshops, talks and storytelling.

This is the first time the International Conference on Jewish Genealogy, now in its 43rd year, is being staged in London.

The event will run for four days between July 30 and August 3 and will feature more than 100 speakers, and over 200 sessions geared toward everyone from first timers to conference veterans.

The conference is hosted by the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies  (IAJGS), an umbrella organisation of nearly 90 Jewish genealogical organisations worldwide, with the Jewish Genealogical Society of Great Britain (JGSGB) acting as the co-host.

You can read more in an article by Daniel Ben-David published in The Jewish Chronicle web site at: https://tinyurl.com/46nuafw7.

Do you have home movies or home videos that are, shall we say, less than perfect? Do these have shaky video or unstable camerawork? If so, read on:

Filmmakers may soon be able to stabilize shaky video, change viewpoints and create freeze-frame, zoom and slow-motion effects – without shooting any new footage – thanks to an algorithm developed by researchers at Cornell University and Google Research.

The software, called DynIBar, synthesizes new views using pixel information from the original video, and even works with moving objects and unstable camerawork. The work is a major advance over previous efforts, which yielded only a few seconds of video, and often rendered moving subjects as blurry or glitchy.

The code for this research effort is freely available, though the project is at an early stage and not yet integrated into commercial video editing tools.

“While this research is still in its early days, I’m really excited about potential future applications for both personal and professional use,” said Noah Snavely, a research scientist at Google Research and associate professor of computer science at Cornell Tech and in the Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science.

Snavely presented this work, “DynIBaR: Neural Dynamic Image-Based Rendering,” at the 2023 IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, on June 20, where it received an honorable mention for the best paper award. Zhengqi Li, Ph.D. ’21, of Google Research was the lead author on the study. 

“Over the last few years, we’ve seen major progress in view synthesis methods – algorithms that can take a collection of images capturing a scene from a discrete set of viewpoints, and can render new views of that scene,” said Snavely. “However, most of these methods fail on scenes with moving people or pets, swaying trees and so on. This is a big problem because many interesting things in the world are things that move.”

You can read more in an article published in the Cornell University web site at: https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2023/07/software-creates-entirely-new-views-existing-video.

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

Do you have a document or even a full-length book that you would like to enter into a computer's database or word processor? You could re-type the entire thing. If your typing ability is as bad as mine, that will be a very lengthy task. Of course, you could hire a professional typist to do the same, but that is also expensive.

We all have computers, so why not use a high-quality scanner? You will also need optical character recognition (OCR) technology.

OCR is the technology long used by libraries and government agencies to make lengthy documents available electronically. As OCR technology has improved, it has been adopted by commercial firms, including Ancestry.com, ProQuest, and other genealogy-related companies.

For many purposes, OCR is the most cost-effective and speedy method available. OCR is much better and cheaper than hiring an army of clerk typists.

OCR is actually the second step in the conversion process. The first step is to scan the document or book in question, much the same as you would scan a photograph. The scanner converts each printed page to a bitmap file, a pattern of dots that actually comprise an electronic image of the page. Software that comes with the scanner stores the file on the computer's hard drive in TIFF, JPG, or some other image format. 

Next, specialized optical character recognition (OCR) software is used to scan the image and convert it to text. Older OCR software would compare the individual letters in a stored image against stored bitmaps of specific fonts. These pattern-recognition systems worked well with high-quality scanned images of text that used exactly the same fonts as those expected by the software. In other words, it rarely worked very well. It was rare that the scanned images exactly matched the stored bitmap images of individual characters. Only a few years ago, OCR had a reputation for inaccuracy.

Today's OCR programs have added multiple algorithms of neural network technology to analyze the stroke edge, the line of discontinuity between the text characters, and the background. Allowing for irregularities of printed ink on paper, each algorithm averages the light and dark along the side of a stroke, matches it to known characters, and makes a best guess as to which character it is. The OCR software then averages or polls the results from all the algorithms to obtain a single reading. 

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/13228017.

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 Fairfield Public Library is undertaking a project to upload all newspapers in Jefferson County’s history so that they will be searchable online.

The ambitious project involves digitizing newspapers from as long ago as 1847, and covers newspapers such as The Fairfield Ledger as well as newspapers that have not published for decades such as The Fairfield Tribune, The Lockridge Times and The Batavia News.

The library is relying on the services of Advantage Archives in Cedar Rapids, which scans microfilm and uploads the scan to the internet. It converts the scan into a searchable document, so that a person doing research on a subject can enter certain keywords and discover all instances where those words appear in a newspaper article going back more than 150 years.

Fairfield Public Library Director Alecs Schmidt Mickunas said that this service will be free, and can be accessed through the library’s website under the “Digital Library” tab and then clicking on “Electronic Resources.

The project is already underway, and about 15 percent of the library’s microfilm collection has been uploaded to the website. The initial round of funding came from a $10,000 gift from the Fairfield Public Library Foundation. Schmidt Mickunas said the library will need to raise $53,000 to upload its entire microfilm collection, which it hopes to do gradually over the next five years as donations or grants come in.

You can read more in an article by Andy Hallman published in the southeastiowaunion.com web site at: https://www.southeastiowaunion.com/news/fairfield-librarys-newspaper-archives-being-uploaded-to-internet/

With the assistance of investigative genetic genealogy, the Toronto Police Service said they have been able to identify a man found deceased in the city’s downtown core nearly four years ago.

The body of an unidentified man was found at 901 King Street West in Toronto on July 18, 2019.

Investigators released a description to the public in an effort to identify him and Ontario Provincial Police later created an artist’s rendition of the man.The police service’s missing persons unit issued a video appeal to encourage anyone with any information to come forward.

Attempts to identify the man were unsuccessful until the police service turned to investigative genetic genealogy (IGG) for assistance last year.

“In the fall of 2022, the Ontario Forensic Pathology Service provided a biological sample to Othram Inc., where a DNA profile was developed. That DNA profile was then compared to public databases,” according to a news release issued by Toronto police on Friday.

You can read more in an article by Codi Wilson and published in the cp24.com web site at: https://tinyurl.com/mr23y66a.

NOTE: This article is not about any of the "normal" topics of this newsletter: genealogy, history, current affairs, DNA, and related topics. However, this article contains information that I believe all computer users should be aware of, whether they plan to use it themselves or not. However, if you are looking only for true genealogy, history, current affairs, DNA, and related topic articles, you might want to skip this one. 

Proton aims to create a privacy-centric internet that empowers people worldwide to regain control of their digital lives. The company started with Proton Mail, a fully secure e-mail service that sends encrypted email messages that can only be read by the sender and by the addressee, no one else. No hackers, no corporate spies, no government spies, and no one else.

Proton later followed that up with the Proton VPN, Proton Calendar, and Proton Password Manager, all of which maintain privacy so that hackers, corporate spies,  government spies, and others cannot see what you are doing on your computer. That's the way the internet should work: total online privacy for all users.

This week the company announced the release of Proton Drive Windows app, a method of securely storing encrypted Windows files in the cloud. The present release only works on Microsoft Windows but a future release for Macintosh is promised for "real soon now."

I have been an enthusiastic user of Proton MAIL and Proton VPN for some time now. I suspect I will add Proton Drive for Macintosh as soon as it becomes available and probably will write about it in this newsletter at that time.

The key difference between Proton Drive and other cloud-based storage options is that it will offer free, encrypted file storage by default. The service will also offer all of the essentials such as multi-device syncing, offline downloads and version history. I won't describe all the rest of the new (and very different from other cloud-based file storage services) features of Proton Drive Windows App. Instead, I will simply point you to the announcement in the Proton Blog at https://proton.me/blog/proton-drive-windows.

NOTE: By the way, I am not compensated in any way for writing this article. I am simply a very satisfied user of Proton products and plan to continue using them until something even better comes along. The folks at Proton do not know that I am planning to publish this article. In fact, I doubt if the folks at Proton even know who I am.

The following is a press release issued by TheGenealogist:

New Seafaring Records

TheGenealogist has just released a range of records that will appeal to many British family historians with seafaring roots. As an island nation, we have seen countless ancestors go to sea, especially in the two World Wars. Whether our forebears served in merchant vessels or in warships, this latest release has records of interest for those with both types of sailors in their family trees.

Researchers can use these records to reveal names, dates and information about ancestors who were recorded in a number of Navy Lists for the Royal Navy (RN) that cover both WW1 and WW2. Family historians looking for Merchant Navy (MN) mariners killed or who died on service in WW1 will also find something in this release for them, as well as gaining access to names for merchant seamen honoured with medals and awards between 1914-1918. 

For those who have lost seafarers, whether in either the Royal Navy or the Merchant Navy, then this collection of records is a useful addition. Family history researchers will be able to look for ships that were sunk. The new resources include Merchant Shipping Losses 1914-1918, and the British Merchant Vessels Lost or Damaged by Enemy Action During the Second World War 1939-1945. For the Senior Service’s vessels, the Returns Showing the Losses of Ships of the Royal Navy 1914-1918 will give details of the ship and where it was sunk.

Fully searchable by name or keyword from TheGenealogist’s Master Search. The new additions include records from a variety of sources, including:

The Navy List 1914
The Navy List January 1916
The Navy List April 1918
The Navy List August 1937
The Navy List October 1937
The Navy List July 1943
The Navy List April 1945
Return Showing the Losses of Ships of the Royal Navy 1914-1918
Merchant Adventurers 1914-1918
Merchant Shipping Losses 1914-1918
British Merchant Vessels Lost or Damaged by Enemy Action During Second World War 1939-1945

To learn more about how this collection of records helped us in the research of a mariner whose daring deeds earned him a VC read TheGenealogist’s article: Under the “Red Duster” and the White Ensign.

https://thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2023/under-the-red-duster-and-the-white-ensign-2246/

About TheGenealogist

TheGenealogist is an award-winning online family history website, who put a wealth of information at the fingertips of family historians. Their approach is to bring hard to use physical records to life online with easy to use interfaces such as their Tithe and newly released Lloyd George Domesday collections. 

TheGenealogist’s innovative SmartSearch technology links records together to help you find your ancestors more easily. TheGenealogist is one of the leading providers of online family history records. Along with the standard Birth, Marriage, Death and Census records, they also have significant collections of Parish and Nonconformist records, PCC Will Records, Irish Records, Military records, Occupations, Newspaper record collections amongst many others.

TheGenealogist uses the latest technology to help you bring your family history to life. Use TheGenealogist to find your ancestors today!

The following is a press release from Findmypast:

England Roman Catholic Parish Baptisms  

A brand-new diocese joins the Catholic Heritage Archive this week. 243,092 Catholic baptisms for Leeds have been added into this existing record collection, covering the years 1757 to 1913. With images and transcriptions, you can expect to learn names, birthdates, baptism dates and the parish, in addition to both parents’ names. Some original images also include addresses and godparents’ names, so be sure to check. 

England Roman Catholic Parish Marriages 

A further 56,525 Catholic marriage records have been added, again for the Diocese of Leeds. These cover the years 1776 to 1913. You may discover names of both spouses, fathers’ names, marriage date and parish. 

England Roman Catholic Parish Burials 

If your Leeds ancestor was Catholic and died between 1759 and 1913, you may find them in these 26,195 new records. Details within the records vary, but you might learn names, ages, birth and death dates and the parish.  

England Roman Catholic Congregational Records 

Rounding off the new Leeds Catholic records are 152 congregational records, spanning 1798 to 1845. Again, details vary, but you may find a combination of name, age, birthdate, event date, parish and deanery.  

Newspapers 

Three new titles, updates to a further 10, and over 43,000 new pages make up this week’s newspaper release. 

New titles 

·         Stowmarket Weekly Post, 1905-1917 

·         Darlaston Weekly Times, 1882-1887 

·         Waterford Citizen, 1871, 1885 

Updated titles 

·         Crediton Gazette, 1882 

·         Enniscorthy Echo and South Leinster Advertiser, 1917 

·         Free Press (Wexford), 1912-1915, 1917-1921, 1923  

·         Huddersfield and Holmfirth Examiner, 1861-1863, 1865-1867, 1870, 1872, 1939-1949, 1951, 1978-1979 

·         Limerick Echo, 1903 

·         Loughborough Herald & North Leicestershire Gazette, 1883, 1888  

·         Newmarket Journal, 1921-1925, 1927-1928  

·         Stalybridge Reporter, 1907 

·         Stratford-upon-Avon Herald, 1964-1968  

·         Suffolk and Essex Free Press, 1960, 1962-1963, 1980