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.

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.