The following announcement was written by Findmypast:

Ireland, Diocese of Dublin Marriage Licenses, 1638-1858 

Over 98,000 records have been added to this existing collection, perfect if you have ancestors who may have lived in the Diocese of Dublin. You’ll typically find the date of registration, both spouses’ names, and sometimes occupations and residences.  

Ireland, Diocese of Dublin Wills & Grants, 1270-1858 

This existing collection has been bolstered by an additional 34,450 records. These records are from index books that were published in the 1890s, covering wills, grants of probate, or administrations recorded by the Anglican Diocese of Dublin between 1270 and 1858. 

Newspapers 

Two new titles from London, one from Guernsey, and updates to a further 17 make up this week’s newspaper releases. 

New titles: 

·         Eastern Post, 1868-1921 

·         Guernsey Evening Press and Star, 1897-1898, 1900-1909, 1911-1916 

·         Richmond and Twickenham Times, 1873-1879, 1894-1904 

Updated titles: 

·         Bexhill-on-Sea Chronicle, 1887-1889, 1896-1897, 1912 

·         Billericay Gazette, 1987 

·         Brighton Argus, 1911 

·         Brighton Gazette, 1913 

·         Brighton Herald, 1886 

·         Callander Advertiser, 1888 

·         Essex & Herts Mercury, 1833 

·         Greenford & Northolt Gazette, 1992 

·         Gwent Gazette, 1971 

·         Liverpool Daily Post (Welsh Edition), 1990 

·         Manchester Evening News, 1929-1930, 1932-1933, 1956-1957, 1959, 1989 

·         New Observer (Bristol), 1987 

·         Rutherglen Reformer, 1890 

·         St. Ives Weekly Summary, 1899, 1914 

·         Stratford-upon-Avon Herald, 1880 

·         Weekly Examiner (Belfast), 1886 

·         Wembley Observer, 1986 

The following announcement was written by the folks at TheGenealogist:

Researchers using TheGenealogist will now have access to the highest resolution and quality 1851, 1861 & 1871 census images for England and Wales ever seen online with vastly improved readability revealing even faint writing in pencil.

Building on the success of their previously upgraded 1891 census image release, TheGenealogist has now significantly improved the image quality of all its 1851,1861 and 1871 census images as well.

Clearer Images of the 1861 census finds Charles Dickens and family

TheGenealogist’s new images can really make a difference - Comparison of Old and New

Replacing the old bitonal images with high-resolution greyscale census images reveals  the details in the census columns or margins and where previously faint writing, shadows or pencil marks could render an image unreadable. 

Mark Bayley, Head of Development at TheGenealogist said:

“We’re extremely proud to announce this tremendous leap forward in clarity and readability. Thanks to the latest technology and many years of hard work, we now have the best possible images for the 1851, 1861, 1871 and 1891 census for England and Wales. It’s remarkable just how much extra detail you can see in these images.”

TheGenealogist’s “Deep Zoom” images have over 5 times the resolution of previous images and yet are still fast to view, thanks to the technology used in their image interface. Writing appears sharper on the new images and allows you to zoom in to reveal what would otherwise be illegible words on other sites. In addition TheGenealogist has the benefit of searchable occupations and addresses on their census transcripts, making them quicker and easier to find.

Read TheGenealogist’s article:  Murder in the margin! https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2023/murder-in-the-margin-1688/ 

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!

NOTE: This article is not about any of the "normal" topics of this newsletter: genealogy, history, current affairs, DNA, and related topics. However, I will suggest that all computer users should use a password manager that encrypts all of your stored password data (many password managers DO NOT encrypt all your data.) I use several other Proton products (Proton VPN, Proton Mail, Proton Drive, and Proton Calendar) and I plan to use Proton Pass as soon as it opens up to usage by the general public.

The following was written by Andy Yen, the founder and CEO of Proton:

Today, we’re happy to announce another significant milestone in the growth of the Proton ecosystem with the launch of the Proton Pass beta for Lifetime and Visionary users. Invites will roll out over the next week, and you’ll receive an email from us at your Proton Mail email address when you’re eligible.

A password manager has been one of the most common requests from the Proton community ever since we first launched Proton Mail. However, while Proton Pass uses end-to-end encryption to protect your login credentials, it will be much more than a standard-issue password manager. This will become clear over the next weeks and months as we prepare Proton Pass for a public launch later this year.

Learn what a password manager is and why you need one

In 2022, Proton joined forces with SimpleLogin to bring millions of Proton users advanced Hide-my-email Aliases. Making logins more secure, more private, and easier was a core part of the original vision of SimpleLogin. In fact, Son Nguyen Kim, the founder of SimpleLogin, picked the name SimpleLogin for precisely this reason.

The merger united two organizations with a shared interest in tackling this problem. That’s why the SimpleLogin team, joined by a few engineers from Proton, spearheaded work on Proton Pass.

We’re launching Proton Pass now for two primary reasons. First, joining with SimpleLogin increased our ability to develop a new password manager without impacting efforts on other Proton services. Second, passwords are such sensitive information that an insecure password manager is a risk to the Proton community. 

If an attacker obtains your password (be it through a data breach or hacking your password manager), they can essentially bypass all of Proton Mail’s advanced encryption. Protecting your passwords properly requires a high level of competence with encryption and security, which few organizations have. We’ve always been worried about the risk posed by a major password manager breach, which unfortunately became a reality with the recent hack of LastPass(new window).

Raising the bar on security

Proton Pass is not just another password manager. It’s perhaps the first one built by a dedicated encryption and privacy company, leading to tangible differences in security. For example, while many other password managers only encrypt the password field, Proton Pass uses end-to-end encryption on all fields (including the username, web address, and more).

This is important because seemingly innocuous bits of information (such as saved URLs, which many other password managers don’t encrypt) can be used to create a highly detailed profile on you. For example, if an attacker can see that you have passwords saved for an account with Grindr, gop.com, or even a manga fan site, they’ll know a lot about you as a person, even if they can’t actually access your accounts. 

Cryptographic details matter, and Proton Pass uses a strong bcrypt password hashing implementation (weak PBKDF2 implementations have made other password managers vulnerable) and a hardened implementation of Secure Remote Password (SRP) for authentication. Proton Pass is also one of the first password managers to include a fully integrated two-factor authenticator (2FA) and supports 2FA autofill. This is meant to make it easier to use 2FA everywhere since it’s one of the most effective safeguards for your online accounts.

Read the Proton Pass security model

You can read more about Proton Pass at: https://proton.me/blog/proton-pass-beta. 

A note from Dick Eastman: I am not compensated in any way for publishing this article. The article does not contain any affiliate links or other forms of compensation. I am simply a very satisfied user of Proton’s other products and plan to switch to Proton Pass as soon as it becomes available. I decided to share the news about Proton’s latest addition with the readers of this newsletter.

From the MyHeritage Blog:

Anzac Day offers a powerful opportunity to honor the legacies of our Australian and New Zealander relatives who fought for freedom. To help make this Anzac Day even more meaningful, MyHeritage will be providing free access to all 120 million records from Australia and New Zealand, between April 20–25, 2023.

Search free Australian and New Zealand records on MyHeritage

Since last Anzac Day, MyHeritage has added around 25 million historical records from Australia and New Zealand, including a number of fascinating and valuable collections, such as New South Wales Gaol Inmates & Photos. MyHeritage is also home to important military collections such as the Anzac Memorial records, the Australian World War II Nominal Roll, 1939–1945, and more. Additional documents, such as vital records, newspapers, and government records, can help fill in more details to paint a complete picture of your relatives’ lives.

MyHeritage can help you discover and preserve the stories of your Australian and New Zealander relatives who fought for freedom, or any of your relatives from the region – so seize this excellent research opportunity when the records are free of charge. Usually, a Complete or Data plan is required to view these records, but for a limited time only, you can search and view them for free.

Note that you’ll be asked to create a free MyHeritage account to access these free records.

Search free Australian and New Zealand records on MyHeritage

Who are the heroes in your family? Whether you already remember their names at a dawn service or you have yet to learn their identities, MyHeritage can help you discover and preserve the stories of your Australian and New Zealander relatives who fought for freedom.

Lest we forget.

That's right: this lady's name is Bailey Bailey. How did that happen?

The answer is obvious but still rather unique. The lady explains, "My first name is Bailey, my husband's last name is Bailey and so in 2020, when we got married, I became Bailey Bailey.

"I thought, oh you know what, this is cool - it's the same name twice but it's unique, you don't hear of people with double names often," she said. "Nobody pressured me into doing it, it's not seeking attention, it's just cute, it's cool, it's just the way things played out."

You can read more at: https://tinyurl.com/5f43s7tk.

Lindsayanne Brenner has written an article that I might suggest should be required reading for all new genealogists. Using Google Photo’s Facial Recognition to Identify Old Family Photos describes methods to both use old-fashioned methods ("ask your older relatives to identify people in old photos") as well as the newest high-tech techniques ("Google photos began identifying faces of my ancestors, identifying individuals despite their changes over a lifetime").

You can find this interesting article at: https://www.hawk-hill.com/old-photos-facial-recognition/.

The following announcement was written by the Council of the Irish Genealogical Research Society:

The Council of the Irish Genealogical Research Society is pleased to announce that the latest recipient of the Wallace Clare Award is Dr Jennifer Harrison, a genealogist and historian from Queensland, Australia, where she is an honorary research fellow in history at the University of Queensland.

Dr Harrison’s contribution to the study of Irish genealogy and history in the Australian state of Queensland is unrivalled. Over decades she has conducted in-depth research on original material in Ireland and Australia to expand the understanding of migration from Ireland to Queensland of convicts, free settlers and members of the colonial administration. Her experience as a genealogist and an academic historian has given her the skills to research and interpret the available records and to enrich the understanding of early European settlement in the colony.

Dr Harrison has been involved in genealogy for over four decades. She is an academic historian with wide ranging interests, primarily in relation to European migration to what became the state of Queensland, Australia. Her work has been acknowledged with the Fellowships of the Federation of Australian Historical Societies and the Royal Historical Society of Queensland. Her study of Irish migration to the state has resulted in an extensive body of published work in the form of books, chapters in edited works and articles in academic journals. In addition, since the foundation of the quarterly magazine Irish Roots in 1992, her regular column on the Australian connection had appeared in every single issue.

In accepting the award, Dr Harrison said "I am overwhelmed to be the recipient of the Wallace Clare Award, particularly when I think of so many potential candidates all around the world. With my dear friend Dr Perry McIntyre, we have been fortunate enough to have visited Ireland very regularly over the years and in our travels and during our research we have been blessed to participate in many conferences and seminars. Additionally, so many opportunities to contribute to events and to write papers and give presentations over the years have been offered.

"Also we have availed ourselves unceasingly of the irresistible treasures available at various repositories all over the beautiful island of Ireland. In the course of our sojourns, and return visits to Australia by several of the inspirational people we have encountered, we have developed many close attachments to people and places. I am so glad that William Butler Yeats has already expressed my heartfelt appreciation so effectively for me: “Think where man’s glory most begins and ends, and say my glory was I had such friends.” Because every time I think of a library, centre, archives or site, it is inevitably connected with some very treasured person. In Ireland, I have had the very best of support and friendship in all my academic and family history endeavours.

"I am particularly grateful to Tony McCarthy of Cork who in 1992 not only proffered friendship but also the prospect of writing for the new magazine he was about to found, Irish Roots. Who would have thought 31 years later that Julie and Maureen Phibbs (who now publish the magazine) would still be wholeheartedly supporting the Australian column for which have I enjoyed submitting stories for more than 120 issues."

IGRS Chairman Steven Smyrl said "Dr Harrison's contribution to the study of the Irish in Queensland, and by extension Australia, is unparalleled. Her ability to successfully link the often limited surviving sources in Ireland with records and material in Australia has more than amply demonstrated the considerable impact that the Irish have made to the development of both Queensland and wider Australia over the past 235 years. Her output is prolific: two books, eight book chapters, innumerable journal articles and many conference papers. Her regular column in the quarterly magazine Irish Roots has helped to demystify genealogical research for both the amateur and the seasoned professional alike. I have met Jennifer many times over the years during her trips to Ireland and can say that her knowledge of Ireland, its history and the sources for it, is expansive, and she is a most worthy recipient of this Award."

The Wallace Clare Award is named in honour of Rev. Wallace Clare (1895-1963), a Catholic priest and keen academic who founded the IGRS in 1936. This was as a response to the great conflagration of 1922, which consumed almost the entire contents of Ireland’s Public Record Office. Fr. Clare initiated the Society's core policy of maintaining a library which 87 years later holds an invaluable collection of transcripts and abstracts compiled from documents subsequently destroyed in the fire. He was the author of the first ever book on Irish ancestral research, A Simple Guide to Irish Genealogy, published in 1937. Unsurprisingly, Fr. Clare was the first individual to be elected a Fellow of the IGRS in 1937.

Do you have ancestors in England or Wales? The former Roman province of Britannia much later became the former British Empire, with its colonizers around the globe. And while every region in England has kept specific cultural traditions, the Welsh have maintained their identity and indeed their language to this day. 

Learn about resources to help you find your forbears! You can find An extremely brief history of England and a very long list of English and Welsh genealogy resources (some of which are new to me) and a lot more in the Geneanet Blog at: https://en.geneanet.org/genealogyblog/post/2023/04/resources-for-english-and-welsh-genealogy.

Depression is an all-too-common mental health condition that affects millions of people worldwide. In the United States alone it’s estimated that one in five people will be diagnosed with some form of depression in their lifetime.

23andMe’s new Depression Report is powered by data from people who have consented to participate in 23andMe research. The report uses machine learning techniques to estimate an individual’s likelihood of being diagnosed with depression.

The estimate is made using a statistical model that includes thousands of genetic markers and information on an individual’s ethnicity and birth sex. You can learn more about the science and methodology behind our new report in this white paper.

Note that 23andMe’s genetic health report on depression can provide users with helpful information on their estimated genetic likelihood of being diagnosed with the condition, but it is not a substitute for clinical diagnosis and treatment.

What is depression?

Depression, itself, is not just about feeling sad or down. Those feelings are experienced by everyone. Depression is a more persistent and sometimes chronic condition that manifests itself in people differently.

There are several factors that contribute to whether someone develops depression. Genetics can play a role but so do other factors. Some of those other factors include trauma, or other life events, as well as environmental factors and/or chemical imbalances in the brain. Studies have shown that stress, poor diet, lack of exercise, and substance use can also contribute significantly to depression. In addition, other factors like discrimination due to race, sexual orientation, gender expression and identity, also play a role in depression, as does social isolation. 

Symptoms for depression often include feelings of sadness, hopelessness, and or worthlessness. These feelings might also be accompanied by a lack of interest in activities that one previously enjoyed, or a lack of energy, or difficulty sleeping or concentrating. Some people with depression may also experience unexplained changes in appetite, aches and pains or issues with their digestive system. And in some cases, people with depression can have thoughts of harming themselves or suicide.

With the right resources and support, individuals dealing with depression can manage their symptoms and lead fulfilling lives.

Genetic factors

While it is but one of many factors that contribute to a person’s likelihood of developing depression, genetics can help explain how and why some people develop depression.

Depression is known to run in families, and it is also highly genetically correlated with anxiety. 

You can read more in an article in the 23andMe blog at: https://blog.23andme.com/articles/23andmes-new-depression-report.

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 a subject that I feel all computer users should be familiar with, especially those in the United Kingdom:

Encrypted chat apps sign open letter warning of ‘unprecedented threat to safety and security’ of UK citizens.

The rival chat apps WhatsApp and Signal have joined forces in a rare show of unity to protest against the online safety bill, which they say could undermine the UK’s privacy and safety.

In an open letter signed by the heads of both organisations as well as five other encrypted chat apps, the executives say the bill could be used to in effect outlaw end-to-end encryption, which prevents anyone but the intended recipient of a message from seeing its contents.

“The bill provides no explicit protection for encryption,” they say, “and if implemented as written, could empower Ofcom to try to force the proactive scanning of private messages on end-to-end encrypted communication services, nullifying the purpose of end-to-end encryption as a result and compromising the privacy of all users.

“In short, the bill poses an unprecedented threat to the privacy, safety and security of every UK citizen and the people with whom they communicate around the world, while emboldening hostile governments who may seek to draft copycat laws.”

Last month, WhatsApp’s chief, Will Cathcart, said the app would leave the UK rather than submit to a requirement to weaken encryption.

You can read more in an article by Alex Hern published in The Guardian web site at: https://tinyurl.com/mrxamt4x.