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  • 22 Mar 2023 4:03 PM | Anonymous

    Disclaimer: Despite the name, "Life360" won't help you find your long-deceased ancestors. 

    Every time we have a disaster anywhere in this country, I think of this cell phone app. I live in Florida and last year’s hurricanes certainly reminded me of the need to find and even track the whereabouts of family members. This app answers an age-old question: "Where are you?"

    The Life360 app for iPhones and Android phones lets you know where some or all of your family members are located, plus or minus a few feet. This can be critical information when they have been evacuated to a storm shelter of some sort in advance of a hurricane or forest fire or tornado, or if they are simply stuck in a blizzard. Setting up alerts in the app will also allow you to know when family members have made it safely to their next destination.

    Even better, it works locally. You can use Life360 to keep track of children as they roam around the neighborhood. It also will keep track of senior citizens when their mental acuity and memory isn’t what it used to be. Yes, if your senior citizen relative doesn’t know exactly where he or she is and, even worse, doesn’t know how to get home, you can see their location (plus or minus a very few feet) and either talk them through the path home or perhaps jump in the automobile yourself and go to pick them up. If your senior citizen relative is hundreds or even thousands of miles away, you can call the police department in the city where that relative is located and have a police officer find them and offer assistance.

    In order to function, both you and all family members you wish to locate must have the Life360 app installed on their cell phones, and each phone must be turned on and communicating with cell towers or wi-fi hotspots. 

    Life360 also includes the ability to quickly and easily stay in touch with everyone in your family network with quick communication. It will even receive alerts when family members reach pre-determined locations. Sure, you could make frequent individual cell phone calls to each family member to check on each person’s status; but Life360 simplifies the process and then (optionally) automatically shares the results with all the other family members. You can talk to family members while knowing where they are. Have an emergency? There’s a button for that, too.

    You don't need an impending disaster to make use of Life360. If a child is carrying a cell phone with Life360 installed, the app can also can keep track of that child's location to make sure the child is still in the neighborhood, at school, or wherever he or she is supposed to be. 

    Finally, if you or a family member ever misplaces a cell phone that has Life360 installed on it, any other family member's cell phone can be used to locate the exact location of the "wandering" cell phone.

    Not bad for a free app!

    To be sure, the use of Life360 isn't limited to blood relatives. I could see this being used by many groups of adults when hunting, fishing, at the ball game, or in any other place where some people need to locate other people in the group. Everything in the app is permission-based. No one will see anything they don’t need to. Also, all the information is limited only to other members of the same group. There is no way a hacker can see where your child or your “lost” parent is located. When you create a Life360 group, you get to decide who is invited and who isn't. 

    Nobody can see anyone else's location unless the person who created the group circle gave them permission to view such information. Also, the cell phone user can turn permission off and on to see his or her location whenever he or she wants. (Don't tell your children about that feature!)

    Life360 is security-conscious. The app uses GPS technology, and your maps and chat channels are built with top-notch, bank-level security. Your locations and conversations will always be private, available only to people you invite.

    Life360 is an excellent example of 21st century solutions for age-old problems.

    In fact, there are two versions of Life360. The free version has been described above.

    In addition, a Premium version adds extra functionality:

    Set up as many places as you like, and receive automatic alerts when your family members arrive and leave from the places they frequent most. There is no need to manually query the app over and over, "Is he there yet?" 

    The free version shows where Circle members are NOW. The Premium version also shows 30 days of location history. That can be useful when talking to a teen-aged driver about where he or she went last night!

    You can see more information, including pricing information, about the added features of the Premium version at: https://www.life360.com/intl/intl-plans-pricing/ 

    Disadvantages

    Nothing is ever perfect, and this app is no exception. Obviously, Life360 relies on cell phone towers or wi-fi hotspots for communications. During a widespread emergency, such as a hurricane, the cell towers may be offline. (Where I live, cell towers are the one means of communication that have proven most reliable when normal, wired telephones are inoperative due to power outages and/or downed telephone lines. However, I believe history has been different in some other parts of the world.) 

    If cell towers are inoperative, Life360 will only work on wi-fi hotspots. Those short-range devices probably will be useless during a power outage.

    In order to locate a specific family member, that person must have a cell phone with him or her and the phone must be turned on, along with the Life360 app. I suspect anyone aged 7-years-old or older can find a way to turn off the app or simply turn off the phone. (My experience has shown that teenagers will NEVER turn off their phones!)

    During extended power outages, a cell phone's battery may go flat. (The Life360 app will notify the user when the battery is low.) Low batteries are easy to prevent with any of today's low-cost external batteries that connect to the cell phone's USB connector. However, many people do not carry such a battery with them. For automobiles, a low-cost power cord that plugs into the automobile's power socket that is on or near the dashboard will power a cell phone for weeks, even if the auto is stuck in a snowbank or if the cell phone’s internal battery is dead. You DO keep such a power cord in your automobile, right?

    Summation

    The Life360 app is not a perfect solution for all situations. However, it greatly REDUCES the problems of locating and communicating with family members in times of need. Live360 also includes a full range of support from live agents, certified specialists, and 24/7 emergency dispatchers. That is useful even if the app is installed on only one family member’s cell phone.

    The Life360 app is installed on my cell phone. I don't use it often; but, when I do need it, I am glad it is there and running.

    The Life360 app may be found in the Apple iPhone app store and in the Google Play Store (for Android devices).  I suggest you start first with the free version and use it for a while. Then, if you decide to upgrade to the Premium version, you may do so later at any time.

    More information about the Life360 app may be found at https://www.life360.com. (Watch the video on that web site.)

    NOTE: I am not compensated in any way for writing and publishing this article. I am simply a user of Life360 and I decided to share the info about it with my readers.

  • 22 Mar 2023 11:29 AM | Anonymous


    UPDATEDU.S., Find a Grave™ Index, 1600s-Current

    3/16/2023

    UPDATEDU.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947

    3/15/2023

    UPDATEDSouthern Christian Advocate Marriage Notices, 1867-1878

    3/9/2023

    UPDATEDOklahoma and Indian Territory, U.S., Dawes Census Cards for Five Civilized Tribes, 1898-1914

    3/6/2023

    NEWIllinois, U.S., Catholic Diocese of Joliet, Sacramental Records, 1800-1976

    3/6/2023

    UPDATEDPennsylvania, U.S., Death Certificates, 1906-1969

    3/1/2023

    NEWNew Hampshire, U.S., Newspapers.com™ Stories and Events Index, 1800's-current

    2/27/2023

    NEWSouth Dakota, U.S., Newspapers.com™ Stories and Events Index, 1800's-current

    2/27/2023

    NEWWest Virginia, U.S., Newspapers.com™ Stories and Events Index, 1800's-current

    2/27/2023

    NEWFlorida, U.S., Newspapers.com™ Stories and Events Index, 1800's-current

    2/27/2023

    UPDATEDTexas, U.S., Marriage Index, 1824-2019

    2/23/2023

    UPDATEDNorwell, Massachusetts, U.S., Directory, 1894

    2/23/2023

    UPDATEDColorado, U.S., Select County Marriages, 1863-2018

    2/22/2023

    UPDATEDVirginia, U.S., Marriage Registers, 1853-1935

    2/17/2023

    UPDATEDVirginia, U.S., Birth Registers, 1853-1911

    2/17/2023

    UPDATEDU.S., Newspapers.com™ Obituary Index, 1800s-current

    2/17/2023

    UPDATEDVirginia, U.S., Death Registers, 1853-1911

    2/17/2023

    UPDATEDJackson County, Michigan, U.S., Rural Directory, 1918-1923

    2/15/2023

    UPDATEDIdaho, U.S., Marriage Records, 1863-1971

    2/8/2023

    UPDATEDIdaho, U.S., Divorce Records, 1947-1969

    2/8/2023

    NEWMaine, U.S., Burial Records of the Togus National Home for Disabled Veterans, 1874-1938

    2/8/2023

    UPDATEDIdaho, U.S., Birth Records, 1861-1919, Stillbirth Index, 1905-1967

    2/8/2023

    UPDATEDIdaho, U.S., Death Records, 1890-1971

    2/8/2023

    UPDATEDTerritorial Enterprise (Virginia City, Nevada), 1886-92

    2/6/2023

    UPDATEDSouth Carolina, U.S., Death Records, 1821-1971

    2/6/2023

    UPDATEDAudrain County, Missouri, U.S., Marriages, 1870-1917

    2/2/2023

    UPDATEDNew Jersey, U.S., Compiled Marriage Records, 1684-1886

    2/2/2023

    UPDATEDCarroll County, Kentucky, U.S., Marriages, 1838-1920

    2/2/2023

    UPDATEDLicking County, Ohio, U.S., Farm Directory, 1915-1920

    2/2/2023

    UPDATEDCohasset, Massachusetts, U.S., Directory, 1894

    2/1/2023

  • 22 Mar 2023 8:08 AM | Anonymous

    This winter, the Digital Library of Georgia released several new grant-funded newspaper titles to the Georgia Historic Newspapers website. Included below is a list of the newly available titles.

    Titles funded by the Diocese of Savannah

    Southern Cross (Atlanta), 2001-2008

    Titles funded by the Forsyth County Public Library

    Forsyth County News, 2013-2016, 2018-2019

    Titles made available as part of the Georgia Newspaper Project’s Born Digital Program

    Banks County News (Homer), 2016, 2022

    Barrow News-Journal (Winder), 2022

    Braselton News, 2018

    Jackson Herald (Jefferson), 2022

    Madison County Journal (Hull), 2022

    Millen News, 2022

    Pickens County Progress (Jasper), 2007

    True Citizen (Waynesboro), 2022

    Titles funded by the Georgia Public Library Service

    Charlton County Herald (Folkston), 1908-1929

    Titles funded by the Lucy Hilton Maddox Memorial Library

    Early County News (Blakely), 1953-1967

    Titles funded by the National Digital Newspaper Program with a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities

    Atlanta Georgian, 1914

    Cordele Daily Sentinel, 1920

    Cordele Dispatch, 1916-1920

    Cordele Dispatch, 1926-1927

    Cordele Dispatch and Daily Sentinel, 1920-1926

    Dawson Journal, 1883-1887

    Dawson News, 1889-1925

    Fitzgerald Enterprise, 1902-1912

    Fitzgerald Leader Enterprise and Press, 1921-1927

    Fitzgerald Leader, 1921

    Leader-Enterprise (Fitzgerald), 1912-1915

    Leader-Enterprise and Fitzgerald Press, 1915

    Leader, Enterprise and Press (Fitzgerald), 1915-1921

    Lee County Journal (Leesburg), 1904-1923

    Marietta Journal, 1907-1909

    Marietta Journal, 1918-1924

    Marietta Journal and Courier, 1909-1918

    South Western News (Dawson) 1887-1889

    Weekly Georgian (Atlanta), 2013

    Titles funded by the Newton County Public Library System with donations from Dr. Thomas Crews and Dr. R. Steven Whatley

    Covington News, 1924-1942

    Titles funded by the R.J. Taylor, Jr. Foundation

    Abbeville Chronicle, 1898-1901

    Advertiser (Fort Gaines), 1887-1890

    Arlington Advance, 1879-1882

    Blairsville Herald, 1892-1902

    Clinch County News (Homerville), 1898-1911

    Conyers Weekly, 1883-1888

    Cordele Sentinel, 1899-1902

    Enterprise (Carnesville), 1890-1892

    Fitzgerald Enterprise, 1895-1912

    Fort Gaines Sentinel, 1895-1902

    Gibson Record, 1892-1933

    Hamilton Journal, 1889-1906

    Haralson Banner (Buchanan), 1884-1891

    Jesup Sentinel, 1890-1901

    Jones County News (Gray), 1895-1906

    Lincoln Home Journal (Lincolnton), 1898-1902

    Piedmont Republican (Jasper), 1891

    Pike County Journal (Zebulon), 1888-1902

    Schley County Enterprise (Ellaville), 1886-1888

    Schley County News (Ellaville), 1889-1900

    Southeast Georgian (Kingsland), 1895-1932

    Spring Place Jimplecute (Spring Place), 1891-1903

    Sylvania Telephone, 1879-1907

    Titles funded by the Watson-Brown Foundation

    Atlanta Georgian, 1915

  • 21 Mar 2023 5:00 PM | Anonymous

    Genealogy site FindMyPast has released two new sets of Irish probate records from the 19th century.

    A new collection of more than 300,000 records created by the British Government's Inland Revenue Wills & Administration between 1828 and 1879 is now available to view on the site. 

    The collection was created to determine tax obligations on Irish estates and features a number of rare documents that predate the Irish Famine. 

    "These important records are a rare survival of priceless information about early Irish wills," FindMyPast said.

    The collection includes indexes for all years between 1828 and 1879, while it also includes surviving registers from 1828 to 1839 which contain extracts from the original documents. 

    You can read more in an article in the IrishCentral web site at: https://www.irishcentral.com/roots/genealogy/findmypast-irish-probate-records

  • 21 Mar 2023 9:37 AM | Anonymous

    Portrait Gallery Research and Conservation Project Used Getty Grant To Create a Microsite Featuring 1,800 Paper Silhouettes From Political Elite to Everyday People.

    The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery has announced the launch of William Bache’s Silhouettes Album, a microsite featuring new research and digitized images for 1,800 cut-paper silhouettes by Anglo-American artist William Bache. In addition to presenting portraits of famous figures like Thomas Jefferson and Martha Washington, the digital project restores the identity of previously unknown individuals rarely encountered in Federal-era portraiture—from traveling entertainers to tavern keepers and dance instructors. 

    Your ancestors probably are not listed in this collection but how will you know unless you check it out yourself?  Read more about it in the Smithsonian’s web site at: https://www.si.edu/newsdesk/releases/smithsonians-national-portrait-gallery-reveals-identities-hundreds-people-early

  • 21 Mar 2023 9:14 AM | Anonymous

    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 information that I believe every computer user, and especially Twitter users, should know.

    Ever since Twitter has been hemorrhaging users who no longer like the new owner's ideas of what the service should be like, millions of people have switched to Mastodon. Unlike Twitter, Mastodon is a non-profit, decentralized, and self-hosted social platform and a popular alternative to Twitter. Unlike Twitter, which is operated by one centralized entity, Mastodon has thousands of distributed servers known as “instances.”

    Each instance hosts the users’ posts and profile information, allowing for independent networks with varying themes and topics. This type of decentralization has several advantages, including enhanced privacy and an improved user experience.

    When you join a Mastodon instance, you will be connected to other users who share your interests. Your timeline will then feature posts and conversations related to topics you are interested in.

    You can also customize the type of content that appears in your timeline by using the “muting” feature, allowing you to filter out specific topics or conversations that don’t interest you.

    However, there is one major drawback to Mastodon: it is very different from Twitter and is somewhat complex to use. 

    Now Brian Harnish has written a user's guide to using Mastodon. I strongly recommend reading Harnesh's guide first before attempting to learn the ins and outs of Mastodon. You can find it at: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/mastodon-social-media/481639/

    Mastodon is still relatively new, so there will surely be updates and improvements in the future. If Twitter isn’t meeting your needs anymore, it may be time to try Mastodon.

  • 20 Mar 2023 12:39 PM | Anonymous

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

    (+) Obtain an ISBN Number for Your Genealogy Boo

    Getting Started Finding Your Family Tree

    The Myth of Wearing White Gloves

    How FamilySearch Is Using the Future to Discover the Past With AI

    In Case You Missed It, Here’s a Look Back at What Happened at RootsTech 2023

    From RootsTech 2023: What’s New at MyHeritage

    Storied Launches StoryAssist™, the First AI-Powered Online Family History Story Generator

    1931 Census Of Canada To Be Released On June 1, 2023

    Canada’s Greeks Share Their Stories in a Virtual Immigration Museum

    Leslie Weir Reappointed Librarian and Archivist of Canada

    Biden’s Nominee to Be Archivist Goes to the Full Senate

    Vicksburg, Mississippi Situated to Become Genealogy Hub for USCT Descendants

    Saint Patrick Wasn’t Irish!

    Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum Launches First Ever Boston Tea Party Descendants Program

    NEH Grant Helps Mason, Partners Create Digital Archive of Civil War Graffiti

    Navigating Passenger Lists: Arrivals to the United States (an Online Seminar)

    Celebrate Your Irish Heritage With Findmypast

    Private Internet Access Now Gives You Unlimited Connections

    TouringCars.Net Launches Comprehensive Touring Car Database


  • 20 Mar 2023 8:22 AM | Anonymous

    A man from Hania in Crete, who wished to remain anonymous, says in his interview: “In that period all the people wanted to leave Greece, all the people wanted to go to the ships. All the youth wanted to go somewhere. The years back then were difficult as well… And I liked the ships. I wanted to travel and that’s why I left.”

    “Then how and when did you emigrate to Canada?” asks the researcher. “I didn’t emigrate. The ship had come here to Canada and I stayed illegally, like many others have stayed here.”

    That testimony is accompanied by an extract from the Globe and Mail newspaper from January 27, 1962, with a headline reading “1,000 Ship-Jumpers in Montreal,” which refers to the story of two sailors who abandoned ship and spent nearly two years, without papers, in Montreal.

    These and many more stories form the core of the Virtual Museum of Greek Immigration to Canada, an initiative that is part of the Immigrec project, and an interdisciplinary educational partnership that comprises research teams from three Canadian universities with Greek studies programs (McGill, Simon Fraser and York) and the University of Patras, with the support of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation.

    Pier 21 at the port of Halifax; the arrivals area at Vancouver Airport; the Montreal rail station: the points of entry illustrate Canada’s immigration policy. Each is represented in the virtual museum with an explanation of their role and extracts of interviews with immigrants who tell the story of their arrival in the North American country. The museum also includes newspaper articles on the subject, official documents, photographs from family albums and photographs of memorabilia presented by the Greek emigres to the researchers.

    If you have Greek ancestors in Canada, you will want to read this article by Maro Vasiliadou published in the ekathimerini web site at: https://www.ekathimerini.com/society/diaspora/1206817/canadas-greeks-share-their-stories/.


  • 20 Mar 2023 8:15 AM | Anonymous

    An interesting article by Rebecca Olds and published in the Deseret News web site will interest many genealogists:

    FamilySearch has made more than 2.6 billion historical resources available to the public, and according to John Alexander who is a senior product manager there, there’s a lot more on the way. It’s just a matter of getting the documents transcribed.

    More than 5 billion more documents — collected and converted to digital images — need to be transcribed to make them searchable and usable in FamilySearch’s database.

    And 1 to 2 million more are added every single day.

    With the development of new artificial intelligence technology, there’s more hope of getting billions of records to families looking for information about their relatives in as little as five years. And it’s already being tested and used.

    “In just a couple of hours, the computer can index more than you or I could do in a whole lifetime if we did nothing besides indexing for the rest of our lives,” Alexander said. “So in terms of efficiency, it’s very fast.

    Currently, it’s being taught — yes, “taught” like a child — English, Spanish and Portuguese, with plans for Italian in 2023.

    Teaching AI to read hand-writing

    You can read the full article at: https://www.deseret.com/2023/3/18/23622262/ai-family-history-familysearch.

  • 20 Mar 2023 8:05 AM | Anonymous

    In a stroke of sheer coincidence, two recent developments at the local level have left Vicksburg primed for a new opportunity as a hub for genealogy.  

    Both the National Park Service’s announcement of a project to disinter and catalog remains of U.S. Colored Troops in the Vicksburg National Cemetery and the Warren County Board of Supervisors’ decision to devote more than $400,000 in ARPA funds to digitizing records dating back to 1807, more people than ever will have the ability to unlock their family’s history.  

    One of the many unhealed scars of slavery is the lack of ancestral information available to people in the Black community. In many cases, the only way to determine African heritage is through DNA testing. Family histories are garbled due to the routine splitting of family units and inadequate recordkeeping in terms of birth and death records in the Antebellum period.

    You can read more in an article in the Vicksburg Post at: https://tinyurl.com/2p8zspd3.


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