Do you have old floppy disks lying around that contain information you would hate to lose? They might contain genealogy data or old backup copies of income tax records or most anything else you cannot afford to lose.How long will the data last?

(Here's a hint: it won't last forever.)

Sydney Butler hass written an article that may answer some of your questions. You can read it in the How-To Geek web site at: https://tinyurl.com/3xckev5e.

The following is a press release written by the National Genealogical Society:

RICHMOND, VA, 31 MAY 2023—The National Genealogical Society (NGS) began its Family History Conference in Richmond, Virginia, on 31 May 2023 at the Greater Richmond Convention Center. Its FOCUS event—supporting genealogical society members and reference services/librarians—included a luncheon and afternoon sessions. Luncheon speaker and 2020 Filby Award recipient Kris Rzepczynski, senior archivist of the Archives of Michigan, gave a talk entitled, “Preservation and Access: Digital Initiatives at the Archives of Michigan.” NGS Awards Chair Judy Nimer Muhn presented several awards to honor the conference’s winners of the Filby Award for Genealogical Librarianship, NGS Newsletter Competition, and the Rubincam Youth Writing Competition. 

Filby Award for Genealogical Librarianship

Matthew Rutherford, curator of genealogy and local history at the Newberry Library, Chicago, Illinois, received the 2023 Filby Award for Genealogical Librarianship along with its $1,000 prize. Created in 1999 by NGS, the award is named for the late P. William Filby, former director of the Maryland Historical Society and author of many core genealogical reference tools that genealogists have relied on for decades. It is presented annually at the NGS Family History Conference. ProQuest—a provider of content, technologies, and expertise for libraries and researchers—has sponsored the award since 2006.

Rutherford works in the Genealogy and Local History Collection at the Newberry—a historically significant and extensive collection of records and databases for family history research. He began his career at the Newberry in 2004 and was promoted to curator in 2009. Since becoming curator, he has personally assisted approximately 7,500 researchers, ensuring that genealogical researchers are served in person and remotely. Rutherford has also guided the preservation, development, and expansion of Newberry’s genealogy collection.

NGS Newsletter Competition

The winners of the 2023 NGS Newsletter Competition, honoring excellence in newsletter editorship in two categories, are:

Newsletter for a Small Society with less than 500 members

Winner: Fairfax Genealogical Society Newsletter, Fairfax Genealogical Society, Editors Caroline Brethauer, Stephanie Glotfelty, Ruth Sando

Newsletter for a Large Society with more than 500 members

Winner: Jots from Western Pennsylvania, Western Pennsylvania Genealogy Society, Editor Rebecca Kichta Miller

Rubincam Youth Writing Competition

The Rubincam Youth Writing Competition was established in 1986 to encourage and recognize our youth as the next generation of family historians. It honors Milton Rubincam, CG, FASG, FNGS, for his many years of service to NGS and to the field of genealogy.

Junior Rubincam Youth Award

Winner: Adrienne Moseley, "Stories of My Mother”

Honorable Mentions: Sufi Momin, "A South Asian's Journey from Africa to America," and Elina Fahs, "A Lifetime of Happiness and Love" 

Senior Rubincam Youth Award

Winner: Theodore M. Tarter, "My Genealogical Journey: A Narrative of Risks, Sacrifices, and Adventures"

Honorable Mention: Sophia Renata Zalipsky, "A Lineage of Ukrainian-American Women Who Pushed the Boundaries of Their Time to Bring Awareness and Support for Freedom and Independence of Their Ancestral Homeland: Khemych*Sharan*Olearchyk*Zalipsky"

The NGS 2023 Family History Conference continues through Saturday, 3 June. 

A recent 24-hour power outage at my home brought the subject of emergency preparedness to mind. Power, telephone, cable television, and fiber optic lines all had been ripped off the telephone poles by falling trees in several different locations around town during a major wind storm. Not only was the power off but all the telephones in my neighborhood were dead, the cable television was also dead, and Internet connectivity by cable or fiber optic also was inoperative.  Despite these handicaps, I was able to maintain telephone communications and Internet connectivity all the time. While this outage only lasted a bit less than 24 hours, I could have maintained the same communications for a week or more without power (which I had to do after a major hurricane a few years ago).

I moved to sunny Florida a few years ago so I no longer worry about snowstorms, ice storms, and similar calamities. However, all that has been replaced with the occasional hurricane. The details have changed but the number of power outages per year remains about the same. Each passing hurricane causes power outages of a few hours up to perhaps a few weeks. Life with the ability to cook food and without the capability of communicating (when the telephone lines are down) is not only inconvenient; it can even be life-threatening.

I would suggest everyone should think of their own preparedness for power outages, whether caused by weather, automobiles running into telephone poles, or any other calamities.

It is easy to find solutions for emergency lighting, flashlights, and even portable camping stoves to cook canned food. However, making sure your high-tech devices are ready requires a bit of planning, too. 

During the most recent power outage in my neighborhood, the standard wired telephones supplied by the local telephone company all were dead simply because fallen trees and telephone poles ripped the wires off the poles. However, cellular service continued to work perfectly. 

My experience over many years of storms, downed telephone and power lines, two tornadoes, and a few hurricanes have shown that cellular telephone service is always more reliable than standard wired telephone service provided by the local telephone company. Cell towers normally have emergency diesel generators that start automatically when commercial power fails. The same generators usually have enough fuel to keep them running for several days. The towers are also interconnected by microwave or other connections that do not rely on wires that get disconnected by falling tree limbs, floods, or other hazards that can kill standard telephone service. In contrast, old-fashioned telephones have fragile wires strung on poles that are easily damaged by wind and falling trees or tree limbs. Underground utility wires work much better, but even the underground wires eventually go above ground someplace.

Cellular telephones have proven to be reliable for years. While I have only been using cellular data service for 20+ years, the data service has been equally reliable during that time. 

(I did read that some cell tower generators ran out of fuel after several days following Hurricane Katrina. The fuel delivery trucks were not able to get through the flood waters for a week or more. Of course, traditional telephone lines had been inoperative during the entire time, even the first few days when cell phones were still working perfectly. In all cases, the cell phones still worked better and longer than traditional telephones, even if they were not perfect.)

While the cell towers may remain fully operational, the weak points of individual cell phones and of personal wi-fi hotspots are batteries. Most cell phones must be recharged every 24 to 36 hours. Today's personal wi-fi hotspots that provide Internet connectivity often have an even shorter operational time. They usually need to be recharged after 4 to 6 hours of use. That certainly is not long enough to handle all emergencies. The recent power outage at my home lasted almost 24 hours, but past power outages have lasted 48 to 72 hours. I have also read about hurricanes and other widespread disasters that produced power outages of a week or longer. How do we prepare for those outages? 

Two answers: generators and previously-charged batteries.

Generators

Power generators are a great solution but are expensive, bulky, and noisy for home use. Keeping a typical gasoline or diesel powered generator prepared for immediate use at any time also requires a bit of planned maintenance every few months. If you have the space and the finances for a generator, I'd say, "Go for it." However, for many people living in condos, apartments, or even in heavily populated neighborhoods, generators are not an option.

Batteries

I depend on batteries—primarily on batteries that can charge other batteries, such as cell phones, tablet computers, lanterns, and even a laptop computer. The batteries tend to be inexpensive or moderately inexpensive, never as expensive as a generator. Batteries typically require no maintenance at all other than making sure they are charged periodically and ready on a moment's notice.

Keeping a spare external battery or two for a cell phone or tablet computer is simple and not very expensive. Dozens of companies sell external batteries that will recharge a cell phone or tablet computer. These things are simple to use: keep them charged by using whatever charger is included with the battery or with the USB connector on your computer. When needed, take the charging cable that came with your cell phone or tablet, connect one end to the cell phone or tablet in the normal manner, and connect the other end to the USB connector that is built into the external battery. Wait a few hours for the charging to complete, and your cell phone or tablet is fully charged again. 

Even gasoline-powered generators are now being replaced with battery “generators.” For one example, see the Jackery line of battery banks and solar chargers at https://www.jackery.com/. With some careful planning, these devices can supply power to your home for a week or more. (When I purchased my new Florida home I also purchased a Jackery Explorer 1000 Portable Power Station that will run my entire home (except air conditioning) for quite a few hours.  With the solar charger capability, it can supply power much, much longer than a week or even more. Jackery certainly is not the only company in the business; it simply is one of the better-known brands and has many models available. It serves as an example of what is available You can find many more manufacturers of battery and solar power. 

Of course, batteries and solar power are silent. That is a big advantage for those who live in apartments as well as for anyone who might want to use the emergency power at night! 

Prices tend to be expensive but are dropping every year. Prices for simple external batteries seem to vary from $10 to $100 or more. Units like the Jackery device can cost $1,000 or much more. Of course, gas generators are almost that expensive. The cheaper batteries will recharge a typical cell phone once while the more expensive ones have higher capacities, meaning they can recharge a cell phone five times or more before requiring a recharge of the external battery itself. You certainly will prefer that higher capacity external in a week-long power outage!

I always keep more than one high capacity external battery fully charged so that I can be prepared for a power outage of several days or even longer. These same batteries are nice to throw into a briefcase or backpack when making a long trip, such as a coast-to-coast or international trip on the airlines. Using an external battery means you can keep your tablet computer charged and operational throughout the entire flight. 

I always look for external batteries with a 10,000 mAh (milli-Amp Hours) storage capacity or more. I recently purchased a 24,000 mAh external battery from an online sale. You can find these external batteries in any computer store, from Amazon, and even in some drug stores. Remember that the higher the storage capacity (measured in mAh), the more times it will recharge your cell phone during a multi-day power outage.

Some of the external batteries have a feature I like: they can be charged by built-in solar cells. The solar cells may add $10 or $20 to the purchase price but reduce the need to remember to keep them charged at all times. I keep one on the windowsill of a window facing south where it is exposed to the sun almost all day. Need a fully charged external battery in an emergency? My solar-powered battery is always ready.

Your Automobile is also a Battery Charger

One "charger" that is often overlooked is your automobile. The big battery in the car can recharge your cell phone a dozen times or more. That can keep you in communications for weeks. I always keep a charging cable for my cell phone in the automobile's glove box, along with an inexpensive adapter that plugs into the power outlet in the dashboard. These serve two purposes. First, if the cell phone battery is dead when I am driving and I need to make a call, the cable and adapter can be plugged into the power outlet and into the cell phone at any time. I then can make a call within seconds, something that is useful in emergencies. Second, if there is a power outage at the house, I can take the cell phone or tablet to the automobile and use it there, even recharge it there multiple times.

NOTE: Some automobiles only supply power to the dashboard's power outlet when the ignition key is turned on. Check yours in advance! If you want to charge your cell phone in such an automobile, you might want to invest in "power clips" that clip directly onto the automobile's battery under the hood. Any auto supply store will have these, as will Amazon and dozens of other retailers.

The Ultimate External Battery

Would you like to have the ultimate external battery that will keep your cell phone and tablet computer running for weeks? How about running a television set for several days? It will keep a power-hungry appliance operational for a few hours although not for days.

The same device can not only charge batteries, but it can also jump start dead batteries in automobiles, add air to the auto's tires, blow up beach balls, and more. Most of these external batteries also are great emergency flashlights or lanterns. 

All auto supply stores sell portable jump starters. These heavy devices always include a heavy-duty battery, capable of jump starting an automobile with a dead battery. Many of the same "jump starters" also include air compressors, lights, 12-volt power outlets, and (my favorite) even have USB connectors into which you can plug the charging cord of a cell phone or tablet. Any of these jump starters can keep your cell phone or tablet computer running for weeks. 

A few jump starters—but not all of them—also include inverters that convert the internal battery's 12-volt D.C. current into 110-volts A.C. These will power a laptop computer for many hours or even a television or possibly a kitchen appliance for a few hours. Don't try to power a device that consumes a lot of power, however. No hair dryers, curling irons, or space heaters as these will run even the biggest battery flat in a short time. I doubt if you will run the air conditioning for very long even with the biggest battery!

Prices for the multi-purpose jump starters run from perhaps $40 up to $200 or so. The most expensive ones seem to appeal to professional mechanics. I probably wouldn't pay more than $125 or so. In fact, I paid exactly $125 a few years ago for a heavy-duty “jump starter” with a powerful internal battery and have used it several times since then. 

Make sure the unit you buy has a "trickle charger" that you can leave plugged in all the time. Not all jump starters offer this. Leaving the battery charger connected all the time can "cook" (ruin) the battery in a jump starter that is not designed to be connected all the time. The better jump starters will include trickle chargers that can be left plugged in all the time.

Of course, these multi-purpose jump starters have many more uses than simply starting automobiles. I always keep a plugged-in jump starter in my garage and often use it to jump start a neighbor's automobile or to inflate flat tires for the same neighbors. It is always ready to power my cell phone, laptop, and tablet computers for a week or more. Of course, it also remains charged and available for any power outage at any time. 

Be careful: these jump starters are heavy! That's because they have a heavy-duty battery that can keep your cell phone running for weeks.

Summation

In order to be prepared for power outages, you have multiple options to choose from. One person's best choice might not be appropriate for another person, depending upon requirements, locations, and local weather patterns. Apartment and condo owners have different requirements from those of homeowners. However, I hope this article provides fodder for your thought processes to help you decide what is best for you. 

The time to plan ahead is NOW, before the snow flies and before hurricane season arrives.

Hey!  I need someone to blame! Why not my ancestors?

An interesting article by Hillary Andrews has ben published in the New York Post web site:

If you love summer but can’t get enough sleep with the warm temperatures and longer days, you are not alone. 

There is a medical reason why late spring and summer have you tossing and turning instead of snoozing.

Dr. Sampson Davis, an emergency medical physician, said you can blame your caveman ancestors.

“The thing with sleep, which is interesting, is that we’re used to cooling environments, cave-like,” Davis said. “We need it to be cool, dark and uninterrupted. What happens with the summertime – it’s hot, and the days are longer. So that hormone called melatonin, which is released when the sun goes down tends to be released later, which makes summer sleeping a little bit more difficult.”

You can read the full article at: https://tinyurl.com/r2zb6fbp.

The following is a press release written by Vivid-Pix:

Family Matters, a National Genealogical Society and Vivid-Pix Community Outreach Program

National Genealogical Society logo

Vivid-Pix logo

RICHMOND, VA, UNITED STATES , May 31, 2023 -- Today the National Genealogical Society (NGS) and Vivid-Pix announced the launch of an equipment and software lending service for their Family Matters Community Engagement Program. The Family Matters program combines NGS’s vast membership with ready-to-use solutions from Vivid-Pix and NGS to assist families and loved ones with their family history pursuits.

Public interest in family history is at an all-time high. Yet, an imbalance exists between that interest and the public’s understanding of genealogy and family history research and tools. Family Matters is designed to increase family history education and programming by inviting new audiences through the doors of family history societies, libraries, archives, and museums.

The Family Matters Community Outreach Toolkit combines the Vivid-Pix Memory Station™ (scanning hardware, and software that improves images and captures stories), with turnkey marketing and education materials. “The Toolkit provides organizations with the tools needed to connect with the public and attract new audiences to the wonderful world of family history,” said Rick Voight, CEO of Vivid-Pix. 

“The opportunities for genealogy and family history organizations to expand public programming are unlimited,” said Matt Menashes, CAE, executive director of NGS. “With this equipment, software, and educational programming, genealogy organizations can open the world of family history to new audiences including youth groups, community centers, senior living facilities, and local business organizations.”

“Recording and sharing our life stories become more important as we mature. In addition to providing education to assist all individuals in sharing their stories, we are particularly pleased that genealogy organizations can help teach caregivers how to use family history and photo reminiscence to support loved ones with memory loss,” said Voight. “Organizations can provide programs that teach family and professional caregivers how to use photo reminiscence to improve connectedness and quality of life for loved ones experiencing cognitive loss.”

NGS member organizations can borrow equipment via an online request form. NGS will ship the Vivid-Pix Memory Station™ directly to those organizations. They only need to pay for return shipping. Vivid-Pix will supply software and training materials via download. NGS organization members can participate in this program immediately and begin to plan for when and how to take advantage of this new partnership.

Information and video about the program are available online. 

About Vivid-Pix
By inventing and harnessing technologies, Vivid-Pix helps individuals, families, friends, and organizations with their most treasured memories. Vivid-Pix solutions help family historians and caregivers use Photo Reminiscence Therapy to assist persons experiencing cognitive decline and dementia. Vivid-Pix patented software has been sold in over 120 countries, improving old, faded photos and documents.

About NGS
Founded in 1903, the National Genealogical Society (NGS) inspires, connects, and leads the family history community by fostering collaboration and best practices in advocacy, education, preservation, and research. We enable people, cultures, and organizations to discover the past and create a lasting legacy. The Falls Church, Virginia, based nonprofit is the premier national society for everyone, from the beginner to the most advanced family historian.

MyHeritage has announced the launch of Reimagine, a groundbreaking new mobile app for family photos. Reimagine harnesses the power of MyHeritage’s world-class AI technologies for improving historical photos, and boasts a powerful photo scanner that enables high-speed scanning of entire album pages. Reimagine is available on both iOS and Android.

The first step to digitally preserving family photos stored in photo albums and shoe boxes is to scan them. To meet this need, Reimagine is a one-stop-shop where you can scan, improve, and share your photos, and indulge that sweet sense of nostalgia. Reimagine comes with a state-of-the-art, multi-page scanner feature developed by MyHeritage’s AI team. This enables quick and easy scanning of entire album pages or multiple standalone photos in a single tap. The scanner then uses cutting-edge, cloud-based AI technology to automatically detect the individual photos and crop them, saving hours of work traditionally required with other scanners. Scanned photos are saved in an album within the app and backed up to an account on MyHeritage.

In just a few taps, an old, damaged black and white photo can be scanned and beautifully restored, enhanced, colorized, and even animated. The improved photos, or their original scanned versions, can easily be shared with family and friends on social media, or through your family site on MyHeritage.

Why Reimagine?

Many users who first encountered MyHeritage thanks to features like Deep Nostalgia™ and MyHeritage In Color™ expressed interest in a photo-centric app with a more affordable, photos-only subscription.

Reimagine meets this need, enabling you to preserve, improve, and share family photos, all from a standalone photo app. Its sleek design and functionality make the app easy to use, and with its best-in-class scanner, storage capacity, and AI photo enhancement tools, Reimagine is the ideal home for cherished family photos old and new. For details about Reimagine’s affordable subscription plans, see the section on cost below.

Reimagine currently supports 11 languages: English, French, German, Spanish, Dutch, Danish, Portuguese (Brazil), Swedish, Norwegian, Italian, and Finnish. Additional languages will be added in the future.

Download Reimagine from the App Store or Google Play.

Integration with MyHeritage

If you already have a MyHeritage account, log in to Reimagine using the same email and password that you use on MyHeritage. Users who manage multiple family sites can direct their photos to the family site of their choice, or create a new, dedicated family site for Reimagine, if they prefer to keep the photos separate from their MyHeritage family site.

You can read a lot more about Reimagine in the MyHeritage Blog at: https://blog.myheritage.com/2023/05/introducing-reimagine-an-innovative-photo-app-by-myheritage/. 

Over the past 13 years, Tim Taylor and Christine Dennison have scoured the ocean floor using autonomous underwater robots to discover and document the wrecks of seven US submarines lost in World War II. But their most recent discovery, of which they are releasing video footage and photos in anticipation of Memorial Day, has a particularly personal resonance.

The USS Mannert L. Abele, which the explorers found 4,500 feet under the Pacific Ocean and 81 miles from the nearest landmass, was the first American ship sunk by an unusual type of rocket-powered Japanese kamikaze plane. Part of Taylor’s interest in undertaking the search stemmed from knowing that his father had cheated death when an explosive-laden Japanese kamikaze plane bounced off the bulwark of his own ship near the coast of Okinawa.

“He was on the deck and had come out to get supplies,” Taylor recounted to me. “As he opened the hatch, the kamikaze was heading right at him. His buddy on the 40-millimeter gun struck it.” Not everyone was so lucky. Taylor pointed out that “We lost over 12,000 men at Okinawa.”

Taylor and Dennison are ensuring that more families of those lost know where their loved ones’ deep-water graves reside. They are racing against time as underwater development threatens many of these wrecks. On Memorial Day, some people remember history, but Taylor and Dennison do them one better by fighting to preserve it.

Budget constraints hinder the Navy from devoting resources to undertaking these kinds of searches, according to Taylor, and his team is showing how private groups can fill the gap. While it’s understandable that the Pentagon doesn’t devote more funding to recovering historic remains given its needs for the present and future, it’s also unfortunate that such important work doesn’t have stronger public support.

For Taylor and Dennison, it’s important to preserve the history of these wrecks and respect the sanctity of those entombed within them. And as the ranks of those alive during World War II have shrunk, it’s vital to give those who remain closure while it’s still possible.

You can read more in an article by Sébastien Roblin published in the CNN web site at: https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/27/opinions/memorial-day-weekend-technology-honor-wwii-dead-kamikazes-roblin/index.html. 

NOTE: This article is not about any of the "normal" topics of this newsletter: genealogy, history, current affairs, DNA, and related topics. However, it is about a new technology that may improve the lives of millions of people. Therefore, I suggest this should be publicized everywhere to make people aware of this new product.

If you have hearing impairments or someone you know has hearing impairments, ranging from a slight hearing loss to total deafness, you will be interested in a new product from Xander.tech.

The company's soon-to-be-released product is a set of smart glasses that display real-time captions of what other people are saying. You no longer will be left out of conversations: technology can save the day! All conversations held in front of the wearer will appear as text in the eyeglasses worn by that wearer.

The glasses are lightweight, comfortable, and feel natural. The caption display is inobtrusive, allowing the wearer to follow conversations while looking directly at the speaker and surroundings. XanderGlasses allow people who are hard of hearing (or completely deaf) to clearly understand who is speaking to them, whether at home, work, or in a noisy public venue. This helps people feel more confident and relaxed during conversations.

XanderGlasses are not yet available. However, the company has shown prototypes and has created a waiting list for people who wish to purchase the glasses as soon as they become available. You can learn more and even sign up for the waiting list at: https://www.xander.tech/xanderglasses.

Google recently introduced what I believe is a revolutionary feature: Magic Eraser. However, it is powerful enough to cause some questionable "damage" to older family photographs.

Sometimes things get in the way of the perfect photo — like an accidental photobomb or power lines you didn’t notice. They can distract from the photo, pulling attention from what you were really trying to capture. 

Removing distractions from photos isn’t an impossible task, but it typically requires sophisticated editing tools, know-how and time.

However, Google has released software that automates the task, called Magic Eraser. It helps you remove those distractions in just a few taps right in Google Photos. And you’re not limited to newly captured photos — you can clean up all your photos, even those taken years ago and laster saved as digital images. 

Magic Eraser can detect distractions in your photos, like people in the background, power lines and power poles, and suggest what you might want to remove. Then, you can choose whether to erase them all at once or tap to remove them one by one.

HOWEVER, Rebecca Onion has published an article that suggests you should use this new-found power with great caution. She uses photographs taken in the 1980s (long before digital photos came on the scene) to illustrate her concerns.

Rebecca writes, "People’s relationship to photographs, and to strangers, is not the same as it was when I was young. Because we have smartphones, and thousands of jpegs taken at each individual event to pick from, why wouldn’t we pick the frames with no randos in them for our albums, before even considering Magic Eraser?"

I am not sure I agree with Rebecca Onion’s views but her comments will make me pause and consider her comments before deleting the images of people who “photobombed” my older photos. 

You can read her article at: https://slate.com/human-interest/2023/05/magic-eraser-google-photos-family-album.html