The following announcement was written by Findmypast:

Montgomeryshire Monumental Inscriptions 

This collection can help you uncover not only the final resting place of your ancestor, but how they were remembered. With these 7,412 new records, you could discover their biographical details and what was written on their headstone or urn.  

Middlesex Monumental Inscriptions 

A further 6,233 records have been added to this collection for Hounslow Cemetery, between 1839 and 2022. You may find an ancestor’s birth and death year, place of burial and what was inscribed on their headstone. In some instances, this will include other family members too.  

Essex Baptisms 

Rounding off this week’s new releases are 122,464 baptism records, which have been added to the existing Essex baptism collection. The records span from 1638 to 1922 and cover 154 churches. You should normally find an ancestor’s name, parents’ names, birth and baptism date, residence, and father’s occupation. 

Newspapers 

Five new titles and updates to a further 94 existing titles make the headlines this week.  

New titles: 

·         Flint & Holywell Chronicle, 1999 

·         Hammersmith & Fulham Independent, 1998 

·         Sheerness Guardian and East Kent Advertiser, 1858-1865, 1867-1893, 1897, 1912 

·         St. Ives Weekly Summary, 1893, 1901, 1903-1905, 1907-1910, 1912-1913 

·         Stratford-upon-Avon Herald, 1881-1884, 1888-1889, 1891-1898, 1911, 1936-1938, 1940-1944, 1946-1950, 1969, 1971-1972, 1974, 1984-1986, 1989-1999 

 

Updated titles: 

·         Beaconsfield Advertiser, 1986 

·         Bebington News, 1994 

·         Billericay Gazette, 1986 

·         Boxing World and Mirror of Life, 1905 

·         Bristol Evening Post, 1987 

·         Buckinghamshire Advertiser, 1955, 1989-1990 

·         Callander Advertiser, 1885 

·         Croydon Express, 1899 

·         Derbyshire Advertiser and Journal, 1889 

·         Dublin Sporting News, 1897-1901 

·         Essex & Herts Mercury, 1838, 1840, 1842 

·         Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, 1893 

·         Greenford & Northolt Gazette, 1982, 1988 

·         Grimsby Daily Telegraph, 1989 

·         Gwent Gazette, 1969, 1975-1976, 1981-1984 

·         Hammersmith & Chiswick Leader, 1988 

·         Harrow Observer, 1989 

·         Huddersfield and Holmfirth Examiner, 1880, 1883 

·         Isle of Thanet Gazette, 1875, 1986 

·         Kent Messenger, 1897 

·         Lady of the House, 1890-1894 

·         Leicester Advertiser, 1862, 1986 

·         Liverpool Daily Post (Welsh Edition), 1978 

·         Liverpool Weekly Mercury, 1876 

·         Louth Standard, 1950 

·         Macclesfield Times, 1931 

·         Matlock Visiting List, 1889 

·         Merioneth News and Herald and Barmouth Record, 1891 

·         Newark Advertiser, 1986 

·         Newmarket Journal, 1978 

·         Northwich Chronicle, 1989-1990 

·         Nottingham Guardian, 1861 

·         Rhondda Leader, 1986 

·         Runcorn Guardian, 1948, 1951 

·         Salford City Reporter, 1986 

·         Shepton Mallet Journal, 1975, 1988-1989 

·         South Wales Echo, 1986, 1989 

·         Staines & Egham News, 1986, 1992 

·         Truth, 1938-1943 

·         Walsall Observer, 1980, 1989 

·         Weekly Examiner (Belfast), 1872, 1887 

·         West Hull Advertiser, 1999 

·         Western Daily Press, 1986 

·         Widnes Weekly News and District Reporter, 1989-1990 

·         Wilmslow Express Advertiser, 1988-1990 

·         Woking Informer, 1986, 1993 

NOTE: This article is not about any of the "normal" topics of this newsletter: genealogy, history, current affairs, DNA, and related topics. However, I have written often about Chromebooks and, if you own a Chromebook, this article will be very important for you. (Anyone else can skip this article.)

Chrome Apps on your Chromebook is finally about to be replaced by Progressive Web Apps (PWA), with the latest Chrome stable version 112 as the starting point.

It’s an initiative almost five years in the making, and this change brings a few notable benefits.

Chrome Apps (and by extension, the Chrome Web Store) had been around for more than a decade, believe it or not, installing apps, extensions, and themes for millions of users on the Google Chrome browser. Most people who used Chromebooks had a love-hate relationship with apps found on the Chrome Web Store as many of the apps (such as Zoom, Pocket, Skype, etc.) were websites that had less functionality than their mobile app counterparts and less cross-device support (where apps won’t size properly with a tablet or laptop, for example).

With PWAs — which are essentially more advanced versions of Chrome Apps — almost all the negatives of Chrome Apps are negated. PWAs run technically as a website, but mimic their native mobile application, with most, if not all, of its functionality. PWAs are more scalable for different display sizes. Another big plus is that PWAs, like your mobile apps, are maintained by the developers, so updates are automatic and don’t require users to visit the Web Store for updates

You can read the full story in an article by Aaron Leong published in the DigitalTrends.com web site at: https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/google-just-made-a-big-change-to-how-chromebooks-apps-work/.

US President Joe Biden has been invited to include Galway on his itinerary when he visits Ireland next week after a genealogist found links between his family and the county.

Megan Smolenyak said she has found another branch of cousins to the 46th US President, who has long-established family ties in Louth and Mayo.

“I’m an Irish American myself so I have always had an interest in high-profile individuals with Irish heritage. Way back when he was Vice President I decided to look into his roots to learn a bit more,” Ms Smolenyak told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland.

“He’s famously proud of his Irish heritage so I was curious to learn the exact details - which family members [came to the US], when did they come and what was their backstory.

Ms Smolenyak said it was tricky to identify the newest members of Mr Biden’s ancestral linkage as it stretched back to the famine era when records created for those who emigrated to the US were “skimpy”.

You can read more in an article by Eoghan Moloney published in the Independent.ie web site at: https://tinyurl.com/mvrx6txy.

King Charles has given his support to research that will examine the British monarchy's links to slavery, Buckingham Palace said on Thursday, after a newspaper report said a document showed a historical connection with a transatlantic slave trader.

The Guardian said an archive document discovered by historian Brooke Newman showed that in 1689 King William III had been given 1,000 pounds of shares in the Royal African Company (RAC) which was involved in the transportation of thousands of slaves from Africa to the Americas.

The recently discovered document was signed by Edward Colston, a slave trade magnate whose history became widely known after protesters pulled down a statue to him in Bristol, southwest England, and threw it in the harbour during 2020 Black Lives Matter protests.

"This is an issue that His Majesty takes profoundly seriously," Buckingham Palace said in a statement.

You can read more in an article by Michael Holden published in the Yahoo web site at: https://news.yahoo.com/king-charles-backs-research-monarchys-114738037.html.

Memorial University of Newfoundland's governing body has removed president and vice-chancellor Vianne Timmons from her position. The move comes after Timmons announced on March 13 she was taking a voluntary, six-week paid leave of absence from the president's office amid public scrutiny following a CBC News investigation into her statements on her Indigenous ancestry and past membership in an unrecognized Mi'kmaw First Nation group.

In a press release sent Thursday afternoon, Memorial University's faculty association called on the board to "engage an expert on Indigenous identity to conduct an independent investigation, as other universities have done, into the alleged false claims of Indigenous identity and their broader implications."

"Memorial cannot investigate itself," said the release. 

Timmons told CBC News in an interview Feb. 28, and has reiterated in the weeks since, that she believes she has always been clear in specifying that while she has Mi'kmaw ancestry, she does not claim an Indigenous identity. She said she publicly discussed her ancestry to honour her father's wishes. 

But for a period of at least seven years, many of Timmons's professional biographies noted she was a member of the Bras d'Or Mi'kmaq First Nation in Cape Breton. It was listed on her publicly posted CV for at least five years. 

The group is not recognized by the Union of Nova Scotia Mi'kmaq or the federal government, though they say they plan on seeking status.

Timmons told CBC News she held the membership for a year, around 2009.

The membership line appeared in a biography as late as 2018, used for the independent advisory board for Senate appointments in 2018. The line did not reappear when she returned to serve on the board, which reports to the prime minister, in 2021.

It also did not appear on a 2019 copy of her resumé. 

You can read more in an article by Ariana Kelland  published in the CBC web site at: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/vianne-timmons-mun-1.6803740.

Even though it’s a brand new map, people have been dying to get onto it for centuries.

The Tennessee Historical Commission’s new Statewide Cemetery Map and Tennessee Historic Cemetery Register are now available in ArcGIS format for public use on THC’s website. The Tennessee Historic Cemetery Preservation Program has created a map in ArcGIS format of the state’s historic cemeteries available to the public. The Tennessee Historical Commission defines historic cemeteries as those 50 years old or older. Identifying locations of the state’s numerous cemeteries is an on-going project and the map is subject to change as more information is available.

The map has been populated by data from the Commission’s cemetery database, which currently contains more than 32,500 cemeteries statewide. 

The public map contains various overlays which will enable the viewer to compare a cemetery’s location topographically, geographically, and even historically as Tennessee county borders have often shifted over the decades. THC hopes this map will be a valuable tool for historians, genealogists, developers, landowners, realtors, and state agencies for the purpose of preserving and protecting burial sites.

The Tennessee Historic Cemetery Register is intended to provide the public with a way to extensively document historic cemeteries for the purpose of preservation efforts.

“Not only is the register intended to honor a particular cemetery, but it also provides a way to attract and increase public interest, maintenance and community involvement,” notes Graham Perry, who coordinates the Historic Cemetery Program for the Commission. Applications to submit a cemetery for the Register are available on the THC website.

Submissions that meet an established criteria will be automatically added to the Historic Register. Neither the THCR nor map include prehistoric Native American cemeteries.

For more information about the Tennessee Historical Commission, visit the THCR website at https://tinyurl.com/4tey323c.

Genealogists, especially those genealogists with Irish ancestry, owe a lot to Steven Smyrl. He’s the guy whose work and campaigning got the law changed in both jurisdictions in Ireland so that death records began to note important bio data. Death records in the Republic of Ireland used to be worthless because they recorded no vital details about the deceased. Mr Smyrl was responsible for greatly improving things by getting the law changed so that all death registrations would include the person’s date & place of birth and their father & mother’s name.

He has also been responsible for numerous other changes to Irish records of interest to genealogists. He has been described as the “most knowledgeable Irish genealogist on the planet.”

You can read all about Steven Smyrl’s contribution to Irish genealogy in an article by Peter McDermott published in the IrishEcho web site at: https://www.irishecho.com/2023/3/smyrl-genealogy.

The following is from FamilySearch:

Hundreds of millions of new searchable genealogy records from 30+ countries

Just in case you missed it, FamilySearch finished 2022 with an amazing number of new, free, fully-searchable genealogy records online. Over 420 million indexed records were added to 30 free online country collections, and millions more were added to over 100 more new collections from archives all over the world. See the list below for the 30 country collections with the largest additions in 2022. Discover your ancestors today for free at FamilySearch.org.

FamilySearch has over 300 camera teams worldwide helping to digitally preserve and provide access to the world's historical genealogical records. It then utilizes a combination of handwriting recognition artificial intelligence and online volunteers worldwide to make those records discoverable online for free at FamilySearch.org.

Top 30 Countries for Records Added in 2022 on FamilySearch.org.

FamilySearch's Top-30 Countries for Indexed Records in 2022

FamilySearch's United States historical record collections led out in 2022 with 114 million new records from almost every state in the union, including expansions in nationwide collections such as the 1950 US Census, US City and Business Directories, Bureau of Land Management Tract books, and military records like the US Enlisted and Officer Muster Rolls and Rosters. The US updates were spread across 94 different record collections. 

The largest country collections expanded in 2022 were the United States, Brazil, France, Ukraine, Great Britain, Switzerland, Germany, the Philippines, and Spain. FamilySearch added more than 27 million records from Ukraine, including Church records from Dnipro, Cherkasy, Kharkiv, Kiev, Odessa, and Zaporizhzhia.

Millions more records were added for Armenia, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Canada, El Salvador, Estonia, Guatemala, Hungary, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Slovakia, South Africa, and Venezuela, Costa Rica and Bolivia. 

The Find-A-Grave Index, a collection of information from the world's cemeteries, added more than 7 million searchable names. 

New records on FamilySearch continue to support fun family discoveries and research around the world.

FamilySearch adds millions of new digital images and searchable indexes to its collections weekly, and historical collection updates are published weekly in the FamilySearch Blog and monthly in the FamilySearch Newsroom. To stay abreast of collection updates frequent the FamilySearch Blog regularly or subscribe to the FamilySearch Newsroom for monthly updates.

For users with a free FamilySearch tree, FamilySearch continues to use its search algorithms to match newly indexed records against user trees. When a high confidence match is made, users are notified through the Hints feature in the Family Tree. Users should continue to expand their trees and check back frequently to make more discoveries. 

Continue to discover your ancestors for free at FamilySearch.org.

The following announcement was written by the folks at TheGenealogist:

These records cover wanted persons, absentees and deserter records in TheGenealogist’s latest release.

Over 56,000 individuals and 20,802 further aliases from The Police Gazette have been released by TheGenealogist covering the years 1901, 1911, 1921 and 1931 and are now available to Diamond subscribers in their UK Court and Criminal Records Collection.

Searchable by name, alias, offence among other keywords, these records have been transcribed by volunteers from UKIndexer to provide an effective resource for discovering descriptions of our wayward ancestors.

MEPO 6 on TheGenealogist includes the Police Gazette for 1901, 1911, 1921 and 1931

These newly released UK Police Gazette records (sometimes known to researchers by its historic name of Hue and Cry) are a part of the MEPO 6 criminal records on TheGenealogist that also include Habitual Criminals Registers and Miscellaneous Papers.

The images of the pages from the Police Gazette publication on TheGenealogist were originally published by the Metropolitan Police and circulated to Police forces in the British Isles. They include a number of portraits of the offenders and always give descriptive written details of the individuals. Expect to see the names of persons charged who were known but not in custody, and also the description of those who were not known, their appearance, dress, and every other mark of identity that could help identify the person. Also included in the Police Gazette were the names of accomplices and accessories, with every other particular that may lead to the apprehension of the individuals.

Wanted for Theft and Desertion

Sections of the Police Gazette were devoted to “Deserters and Absentees” from the military and those “Discharged for Misconduct”. These provide interesting details about ancestors missing from the Army and the Navy. As an example we can find Albert Eyre, 45, a Colour-sergeant in the 1st Battalion Royal Rifles Reserve Regiment. He appears firstly in the alphabetical list on the front page of “Deserters and Absentees from Her Majesty’s Service” in January 1901.

Albert Eyre in the portraits of persons wanted and list of Deserters and Absentees from the Police Gazette 

Eyre then warrants several mentions, including a photograph of him, on the inside pages of subsequent editions. He had by then also become wanted, along with a female accomplice, by Portsmouth Police for “Stealing a considerable amount of Money.” The fugitive was described as: age 45, height 5 ft. 5 in., complexion sallow, hair brown, moustache and imperial dark, eyes grey; dress, black overcoat, dark suit, grey cap.

We can read that he had left Portsmouth accompanied by an unnamed woman whose unflattering description is also published: age 23 (looks older) height 5ft. 5 in., stout build, complexion sallow, hair (short) dyed auburn colour, 1 front tooth deficient.

TheGenealogist has an extensive Court and Criminal Records collection that can be used to discover trouble-making ancestors that include the MEPO 6 records that embrace Registers of Criminals as defined by sections 5-8 of the Prevention of Crimes Act 1871, with examples of the Police Gazettes. 

Read TheGenealogist’s featured article where a search of the MEPO 6 Criminal Records discovers female gang leaders known as the Queen of the Forties: https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2023/the-queens-of-the-forties-1683/

About TheGenealogist

TheGenealogist is an award-winning online family history website, which puts 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!

I am not offering this article as medical advice! After all, there is increased risk of children suffering genetic defects like extra fingers and toes. However, if you are seriously thinking about marrying your first cousin, you really need to first check an article by Cassidy Morrison published in the DailyMail web site.

And, oh yes... also check with a lawyer.

According to the article:

"Studies show that children born of two blood-related parents have double the risk of congenital problems such as heart and lung defects, cleft palettes, and extra fingers.

"Children of inbreeding are also twice as likely to be treated for an illness requiring antipsychotic medicines, like schizophrenia.  

"Yet despite the known risks of inbreeding in humans, 19 US states and the District of Columbia still allow marriages between first cousins. They mostly fall on the coasts and in the southern states."

You can learn a lot more at: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-11934633/The-19-states-marry-cousin-despite-inbreeding-risks.html.

Of course, numerous people have married their first cousins in the past:

Queen Victoria married her first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, in 1840.

In 1919, famed physicist Albert Einstein married Elsa Lowenthal, who was his first cousin on his mother's side as well as his second cousin on his father's side.

Jerry Lee Lewis married his first cousin, Myra Gale, when she was 13 and he was 22 years old.

At age 27, American poet Edgar Allan Poe married his first cousin, Virginia Eliza Clemm, while she was just 13 years old.

Composer Johann Sebastian Bach married his first cousin, Maria Barbara, in 1701. She was a vocalist, and together, they had seven children.