The following announcement was written by the (U.S.) National Archives and Records Administration:

Celebrate July 4th with the National Archives You're invited to gather at the National Archives in Washington, DC, on Friday, July 4, 2025, to celebrate the Fourth of July!  Featuring a reading of the Declaration of Independence, special performances by military bands, and remarks by Commander Everett Alvarez, Jr., the longest held American Prisoner of War in the Vietnam War and soon-to-be recipient of the Congressional Gold Medal. All July 4th activities are free and open to the public, with fun activities for the whole family.  PLUS!  The National Archives Museum will be open for extended hours on July 3rd through July 5th, from 10 a.m. until 7 p.m. ET.  (left) Every July 4, the National Archives marks the anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence with its traditional Independence Day program! (right) Commander Everett Alvarez, Jr., the longest held American Prisoner of War in the Vietnam War and soon-to-be recipient of the Congressional Gold Medal Reagan Library Celebrates Volunteer’s 100th Birthday On Monday, June 30, 2025, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum, in Simi Valley, CA, threw a surprise birthday party for longtime volunteer Beatrice Restifo in celebration of her 100th birthday! Beatrice works the Monday docent shift at the Reagan Library, and has accumulated 3,000 volunteer hours over more than 20 years.   Volunteers at the Presidential Libraries serve a variety of important functions, such as providing museum tours and visitor assistance, working with library holdings, and working with educational outreach programs. Visit the National Archives online to learn more about volunteer opportunities at a Presidential Library near you.   Check out the Reagan Presidential Library YouTube Channel for more about Beatrice. Beatrice Restifo (right) reacts as she arrives for a surprise birthday thrown for her 100th birthday by fellow docents at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library June 30, 2025. (Photo by Andy Holzman/Los Angeles Daily News) Jazz KC Portraits Jazz KC Portraits, a new temporary exhibit at the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum in Independence, MO, showcases stunning portraits–by Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Dan White–of iconic jazz musicians who have shaped the rich cultural tapestry of the city. Through these images, visitors will embark on a visual journey, exploring the rhythm, soul, and passion that define the essence of Kansas City Jazz.   Come view this curated collection of 50 beautifully framed photographic portraits made over the course of two decades (1987-2006), as well as new photos of up-and-coming artists created specifically for this display.   The Truman Museum is open Monday to Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. CT. Jazz KC Portraits will remain on display until December 30, 2025. Portrait of Kansas City-based jazz bassist Daahoud Williams, 1988 (Photograph by Dan White)

The National Archives Authority of Saint Lucia has officially announced the appointment of Mr. Patrick Freeman as the new National Archivist of Saint Lucia. The announcement was met with celebration and optimism as Mr. Freeman steps into the role with more than three decades of dedicated service to the institution.

Following a rigorous and highly competitive selection process, Mr. Freeman emerged as the standout candidate, praised for his exceptional knowledge, steadfast leadership, and forward-thinking vision for the future of archival management in Saint Lucia.

Mr. Freeman’s academic credentials include a Master of Arts in International Archives, Records and Information Management (awarded with Distinction), as well as a First Class Honours Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Social Studies, specializing in Information and Library Studies. His academic background is complemented by extensive practical experience, having represented Saint Lucia at numerous regional and international archival workshops and seminars. These opportunities have kept him at the forefront of global best practices in records management and preservation.

His appointment marks a new chapter for the National Archives as it aims to modernize and expand its reach in preserving the island’s rich documentary heritage. The Authority expressed full confidence in Mr. Freeman’s ability to lead the institution into a new era of accessibility, innovation, and national pride.

“We are confident that his leadership will greatly benefit the development and modernization of the National Archives,” a statement from the Authority read.

The National Archives Authority invites the public to join them in congratulating and warmly welcoming Mr. Patrick Freeman as he takes on this important role in safeguarding Saint Lucia’s historical records for future generations.

The following is a press release issued by the (U.S.) National Archives and Records Administration:

William J. Clinton Presidential Library and Museum 
Little Rock, AR 

Friday, July 18, 2025 - 11:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. CDT

Join us for "Picture This!" on Friday, July 18, 2025, at the Clinton Library and Museum for our next "Ask an Archivist, Converse with a Curator" event. In celebration of our new exhibition, "Portraits from a Presidency," we will showcase gifts presented to the Clinton Family during his administration. The "Ask an Archivist and Converse with a Curator" program takes place on the third Friday of every month at 11:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. While admission to the library is required, the program itself is free of charge.

All events listed in the calendar are free unless noted.

The ‘Dictionary of Canadian-isms on Historical Principles’ has been updated for the first time since 2017, and for only the second time since it was launched in 1967.

The editors of the dictionary at the University of British Columbia (UBC) say it is the third edition of their lexicon, which is appearing digitally the first time.

The dictionary includes about 14,500 meanings to more than 12,000 Canadian terms.

Stefan Dollinger, a professor in UBC Department of English language and literatures, says he and his team have added new meaning in this edition.

“We added about 180 new meanings that were overlooked that we discovered,” he said.

He says it includes many First Nations terms for the first time.

Another new entry that was added is “Elbows Up”.

“The original hockey related meaning is from the 1970s, and the new one is from March 2025,” Dollinger explained.

Launched three years ago, the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland is now home to over 350,000 records and 250 million words of searchable Irish history. Led by Trinity College Dublin and supported by the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport, the project brings together historians, computer scientists, archivists, and librarians working to digitally recreate Ireland’s destroyed public record office and its lost collections.

A total of 75 memory institutions across the island of Ireland and around the world are contributing digital images of replacement documents, transcripts and duplicates to the Virtual Treasury. This includes core partners National Archives of Ireland (NAI), Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI), The National Archives UK (TNA), the Irish Manuscripts Commission (IMC) and the Library of Trinity College Dublin.

19th-century census

Among new treasures freely available online today for the first time are 60,000 names from the 19th-century census destroyed in 1922. Painstakingly compiled from transcriptions preserved in the National Archives of Ireland and the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, these recovered transcripts of census returns reveal ordinary lives across the island of Ireland in the decades before and after the Great Famine.

New in the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland for 2025:

• Population Portal: genealogical riches include 60,000 names from the 19th-century census destroyed in 1922. (NAI, PRONI, Trinity)
• The Age of Revolution Portal: documents illustrate the drama of the 1798 Rebellion and Ireland’s links to the American Revolution. (PRONI, NAI, Library of Congress, TNA)
• The Age of Conquest Portal: five million words of Anglo-Norman (1170-1500) Irish history translated into English. (TNA, IMC, NAI, Trinity)
• State Papers Ireland: (1660–1720) over 10 million words on governing Ireland in the dramatic years following Cromwell’s death. (TNA)
• Knowledge Graph Explorer: a powerful new tool for identifying people and places, and the links between them, in the records. (ADAPT Research Ireland Centre)

Trinity historian Dr Peter Crooks, Academic Director of the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland, said “We are excited to release our latest collections freely online for citizen researchers, students, and the academic community.

The scale, scope, and significance of these materials is remarkable. They will be of huge interest to anyone exploring Ireland’s story as a global island. Thousands of names of individuals from before and after the Great Famine; extensive intelligence reports from the Tudor era; and a host of medieval records presented in English alongside the original Latin parchment — these vast and varied collections are a testament to the power of collaboration.

“A stand-out for me is the extraordinary detective work by our research team and partners in Dublin and Belfast on the pre-Famine census returns. Millions of names were lost, tragically, in 1922 when those records went up in flames. But today, on the 103rd anniversary of the fire, we are releasing more than 60,000 names newly recovered from those very census returns. It’s a tremendous achievement. What we have uncovered after years of painstaking archival work will help families across the world trace their story deeper into the Irish past.”

The Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland is supported by the Irish Government through funding from the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport under Project Ireland 2040 and is freely and permanently available online at Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland (virtualtreasury.ie).

He added that "the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland has enabled local communities and family historians to explore their own histories in new ways, through the freely accessible archival records and innovative technologies. This creative approach, underpinned by academic rigour, allows for new perspectives and a greater understanding of what we thought we knew already.  It is very inspiring to see how the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland has encouraged and stimulated new research and scholarship.  I encourage everyone to delve into the Treasury and its archival collections, and discover for themselves the riches contained within these records.”

Dr Linda Doyle, Provost of Trinity College Dublin, added: “The Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland is a beacon project demonstrating the power of interdisciplinary research, advanced technologies and strong partnerships to achieve significant societal impact.

"The release of so many fascinating new records for free to the public is another impressive milestone and will be of interest to diverse audiences interested in preserving and exploring our shared past. The project is underpinned by rigorous academic scholarship, the ethical application of artificial intelligence, as well as many fruitful collaborations.”

Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland

The Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland (VRTI) is an all-island and international research partnership working to reconstruct the Public Record Office of Ireland — a magnificent archive destroyed in 1922 at the outset of the Civil War. It was launched by Taoiseach Micheál Martin in 2022, as a living legacy from the Decade of Centenaries, to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the destruction of Ireland’s public records dating back to the 13th century.

VRTI is engaged in research at the forefront of technology, including the ethical use of Artificial Intelligence. This research is led by the Research Ireland-funded ADAPT Centre and computer scientists in the School of Computer Science and Statistics. VRTI is committed to bringing Irish history to the people. It has delivered eight local roadshows from Donegal and Derry to Cork and Waterford since 2023, with Youghal and Limerick to follow next on the list. A new digital exhibition, "Collecting Ireland’s History", exploring the crucial role of Libraries in Ireland and Britain in the recovery of Irish records, was launched in June 2025.  

Knowledge Graph Explorer

The VRTI platform has been upgraded with powerful new features, including the Knowledge Graph Explorer developed as part of a research collaboration with ADAPT Research Ireland Centre. This exciting new tool based on semantic web technology research, harnesses the power of linked data to reveal connections across the archive in a format accessible to the general public, and is the first of its kind for Irish historical research.

The VRTI in numbers

• A quarter of a billion searchable words of Irish history
• 350,000 replacement records
• 60,000 additional names for family historians to explore
• 75 partner archives, libraries and organisations worldwide
• 3 state archives sharing their records and expertise
• 10 Gold Seams containing particularly important sets of documents
• 16 Curated Collections highlighting significant historical topics
• 11K person details in the Knowledge Graph
• 67K place details in the Knowledge Graph
• 2.9 million triples of information in the Knowledge Graph

The Allen County Public Library (in Fort Wayne, Indiana) is encouraging people to dive into their history this summer at the Genealogy Center. 

The ACPL Genealogy Center is a world-renowned location for its collection and knowledgeable staff. For the public to start their family tree, they can take advantage of many resources, such as asking a genealogy librarian and scheduling a consultation. The Genealogy Center also hosts many events free to the public, such as the DNA and Genealogy Interest Group on Thursday, July 3. The Genealogy Center is open during the library’s operating hours. 

From Sunday, August 10, to Thursday, August 14, the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS) annual conference will be held in Fort Wayne. The conference will take place across from the Main Library at the Grand Wayne Center. Registration is now open for the IAJGS 2025 conference.

The following is an announcement from MyHeritage:

Just in time for U.S. Independence Day, MyHeritage is offering free access to the entire collection of 151,432,486 U.S. newspaper pages on OldNews.com from July 3 to 5, 2025! This is a great opportunity to uncover family stories, local happenings, and historical context in American papers dating back generations. Whether you’re looking for an ancestor’s wedding announcement or just curious about your town’s July 4th headlines from the past, there’s a treasure trove waiting on OldNews.com. It’s a limited-time opportunity to dig deep without a paid subscription. Feel free to use the graphic above, and check out the blog post to learn more.  Also, we created two super fun AI videos in honor of July 4th: one showing “behind the scenes” of the declaration’s signing, and one imagining the British people reacting to the declaration of independence. Please enjoy, and have a chuckle. Enjoy!

MyHeritage just added audio recording and transcription — and enhanced editingMyHeritage MyHeritage capabilities — to MyStories! Many people are eager to tell their stories, but some are more comfortable talking than typing. With the addition of audio recording and transcription, MyStories users can now record their story in their own voice with the click of a button. We’ve also made it easier to format text and reposition photos — giving users more control over the layout of the book. This update is available in all supported MyStories languages, and audio files can be downloaded and shared with family too. Check out the blog post for screenshots and step-by-step instructions.

The following is a press release issued by the (U.S.) National Archives and Records Administration:

Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library 

1000 Beal Ave. Ann Arbor, MI 48109

Tuesday, September 2, 2025 - 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. EDT

Register for the program here 
Watch the program live here

The author of two major oral histories about the turning points of World War II — the D-Day invasion of Europe as well as the Manhattan Project and the atomic bombings of Japan — Graff will discuss the legacy of the Greatest Generation, how World War II changed the world, and the first-person realities of fighting in the greatest conflict humanity has ever known.

Following the talk there will be a sale and signing of two of his books, “When the Sea Came Alive: An Oral History of D-Day” and “The Devil Reached Toward the Sky: An Oral History of the Making and Unleashing of the Atomic Bomb.”

A bankruptcy judge has approved the sale of the insolvent genetics firm 23andMe to a nonprofit run by one of the company's co-founders. The deal effectively avoids the controversial transfer of DNA data to a third party.

The prospect of 23andMe's trove of genetic information on millions of people passing to the highest bidder had sparked outcry when it was announced in May that New York-based Regeneron Pharmaceuticals had won an auction to acquire the firm for $256 million.

Details may be found at: https://www.npr.org/2025/06/30/nx-s1-5451398/23andme-sale-approved-dna-data