The following announcement was written by Ancestry.com:

LEHI, Utah--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Ancestry®, the leader in family history, released survey findings today that revealed Americans have a blind spot about what their parents’ lives were like before parenthood. In fact, only 37% are familiar with their mother’s life before having them – yet, an overwhelming majority of moms (79%) are willing to share their stories.

Despite this lack of generational storytelling, most Americans (79%) want to know more about their parents’ lives before them, but their kids haven’t asked because they think parents don’t want to share (23%) or they simply haven’t thought to ask (22%). However, parents have fantastic stories to tell – especially since 74% of moms believe they’re cooler than their kids think. Now, with new Ancestry tools that spark meaningful generational conversations and provide a way to preserve mom’s memories, everyone has the power of storytelling at their fingertips.

“Storytelling is our obligation to the next generation,” said Crista Cowan, Corporate Genealogist at Ancestry. “Records, family trees and DNA are the foundation of family history research, showing us snapshots of our ancestors’ lives and relationships between people – and Ancestry’s newest storytelling tools also allow us to share even more detail about what makes each of us, us. By adding photos and audio recordings of our family stories, memories and legacies can be preserved forever for generations to come.”

Ancestry is encouraging everyone to learn more about who mom was before them, and to discover and preserve her untold stories using its new innovative features:

When it comes to what Americans want to learn about their parents, they’re most interested in pre-parenthood adventures (52%), romantic relationships (48%) and rebellious phases (45%). Some respondents were surprised to learn things like a parent was born on a boat from Italy, faked their own death, hitchhiked across the country, composed music, performed magic, received top medals during WWII, and more.

Starting May 1, everyone can also give a gift moms will cherish long after Mother’s Day. Begin unlocking even more family stories with deals on AncestryDNA, on sale for $59 (originally $99); AncestryDNA + Traits, on sale for $69 (originally $119); and Ancestry Gift Memberships, up to 30% off.

Survey Findings

In a comprehensive look at America's knowledge of their parents’ lives before parenthood, a new OnePoll survey1 commissioned by Ancestry revealed the following additional information:

• • We Know Little About Our Mom’s Life Before Kids, Yet She’s Vital to Our Upbringing
• • Less than half of Americans (37%) are familiar with their mom’s family history/past.
  • Yet most Americans (83%) say their mom raised them the most growing up, and the majority of respondents say they feel closest to their mom out of any relative (36%), compared to dad (29%).
• • There’s a Lot We Don’t Know About Our Parents
• • When it comes to the details of our parents’ lives before they had kids, only few Americans know about what music they listened to (19%), what they struggled with growing up (14%) and what they wanted to be when they grew up (13%).
  • As adult children, more than half of Americans wish they knew more about their parents’ happiest moments (57%) and most valuable life lesson learned (53%).
  • Most parents in America (79%) think they’re cooler than their children think they are, especially Millennial parents (85%).
• • Parents Want Their Memories to Live On
• • Parents in the U.S. want to share more about their lives before having a family because they want to keep their memories alive (70%) and pass on their experiences (68%).
  • When it comes to the next generation, parents want their kids to pass on pieces of their life story, especially their happiest moment (59%), most valuable life lesson (56%) and biggest accomplishment (55%).

Ancestry invites everyone to learn more about who their parents were before them and preserve their stories for future generations. Storymaker Studio is currently free with the Ancestry mobile app. Learn more at Ancestry.com/Storymaker, and share your story on Ancestry and social media using #MyAncestryStory.

About Ancestry

Ancestry®, the global leader in family history, empowers journeys of personal discovery to enrich lives. With our unparalleled collection of more than 40 billion records, over 3 million subscribers and over 23 million people in our growing DNA network, customers can discover their family story and gain a new level of understanding about their lives. Over the past 40 years, we’ve built trusted relationships with millions of people who have chosen us as the platform for discovering, preserving and sharing the most important information about themselves and their families.

1 Research Methodology: All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from a OnePoll survey on behalf of Ancestry. Total sample size was 2,000 US adults evenly split between millennials, Gen X and baby boomers. Fieldwork was undertaken between April 12 - 17, 2023. The survey was carried out online.

Free ebooks & audiobooks from your local library! Borrow best-sellers and read anytime, anywhere.

All over the world, local libraries offer millions of ebooks and audiobooks. You can borrow them — for free, instantly — with a library card and Libby: the award-winning, much-loved app for libraries.

In the beautiful, intuitive ebook reader:

• Adjust text size, background color, and book design
• Zoom into magazines and comic books
• Define and search for words and phrases
• Read and listen to read-alongs with your kids
• Add bookmarks, notes, and highlights

In the audio player:

• Slow down or speed up the audio (0.6 to 3.0x)
  
• Set a sleep timer
  
• Simply swipe to skip forward and backward
  
• Add bookmarks, notes, and highlights

Libby is built by the team at OverDrive, in support of local libraries everywhere.

To join Libby, first download the Libby App from the Android Play Store or the Apple App Store, depending if you are using an Android or an Apple cell phone.

I was previously unaware of this service but I just added it to my cell phone this morning. I have only used it for a few minutes but, so far, it looks like a winner!

Happy reading!

NOTE: This is a follow-up to a previous article that published on April 17: Bluesky - a Twitter Clone that is still available at: https://eogn.com/page-18080/13170409.

In 2019, Jack Dorsey announced a project to “create an open and decentralized standard for social media.” Bluesky has spent the past several years developing the underlying protocol. After an iOS app in February, Bluesky for Android is now available as an invite-only beta. 

The foundation of Bluesky is the Authenticated Transfer (AT) Protocol. Meant to support “large-scale distributed social applications,” tentpoles include account portability, algorithmic choice, interoperation, and performance. You can find the protocol overview here.

The app, which is meant to be a reference client, is quite straightforward with four tabs:

• Home: “Following” is the default feed with “What’s hot” helpful when starting out 
• Search
• Notifications
• Account

A navigation drawer can be opened by tapping your profile picture in the top-left corner. This lets you access settings, switch themes (similar to the Twitter UI), and send feedback. You’ll also see how many invite codes you have. Those are issued after “you’ve been on Bluesky for a little longer.”

It launched first on iOS in late February and Bluesky for Android is now available (via The Verge). The latter experience is pretty basic with performance just okay for an initial release.

Bluesky is on the Play Store today and still invite-only. New sign-ups are able to join with a code from an existing user or the waitlist here. 

You can read more in an article by Abner Li in the 9to5google.com web site at: https://9to5google.com/2023/04/19/bluesky-android-app/

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 grown to depend on my Amazon Alexa device for all sorts of things and thought this article might interest some of this newsletter's readers to perhaps purchase one or more Alexa devices (or a competitive device). If used frequently, it will simplify your life!

Older adults use voice assistant devices more often with training and flyers with instructions to complement their daily routine, according to a new University of Michigan study that looked at long-term usage.

Voice assistants, such as Amazon’s Alexa and Google Nest, are low-cost computing devices that use voice and conversation as the primary interaction modality. In recent years, they have become increasingly popular with hands-free methods to retrieve information or to listen to music.

These devices also provide better information access for older adults, who may not use computers and mobile devices due to late-life vision or motor disability.

Older adults use voice assistant devices more often with training and flyers with instructions to complement their daily routine, according to a new University of Michigan study that looked at long-term usage

Voice assistants, such as Amazon’s Alexa and Google Nest, are low-cost computing devices that use voice and conversation as the primary interaction modality. In recent years, they have become increasingly popular with hands-free methods to retrieve information or to listen to music.

These devices also provide better information access for older adults, who may not use computers and mobile devices due to late-life vision or motor disability. The researchers also noted that some participants felt Alexa also provided comfort through conversations, especially valuable when they were lonely.

If you are an older adult, you may find Alexa (or one of its competitors) to be a very useful addition to your life.

You can learn more in an article  in the University of Michigan web site at: https://news.umich.edu/alexa-set-the-alarm-for-me-to-take-my-medication/

You'll have to excuse me now as it's time for my two-way video chat on Alexa with my grandchildren...

Digitised versions of the Clitheroe Advertiser and Times have been been made free and available to all online thanks to the work of Clitheroe Civic Society and partners.

In 2017, hard copies of historic Clitheroe Advertiser and Times editions were placed into the archive of Clitheroe Civic Society following the relocation of the newspaper office to Burnley.

Much conservation of the editions was required and generous funding was obtained from The Bowland Trust to re-bind many of the hard copy volumes and also to digitise the microfilm of these editions.

Due to the sheer size and number of editions available from 1888-2015, it became too large a job for the civic society itself to make these editions accessible online outside of a hard drive and the society was determined to ensure that these editions were made freely available to all in the community and beyond.

You can read the full story in an article by Dominic Collis published in the burnleyexpress.net web site at: https://www.burnleyexpress.net/heritage-and-retro/heritage/historic-clitheroe-advertiser-archive-from-1888-to-2015-now-online-thanks-to-civic-society-efforts-4113988.

The following is a Plus Edition article written by and copyright by Dick Eastman. 

If you have a digital camera with advanced features, and if you have a photo editing program with advanced features, and if you have plenty of disk space on your hard drive, I'd suggest that you create your photos in RAW format.

What is RAW?

This is one time in technology when a 3-letter term is not an abbreviation or acronym for three words. In this case, RAW is just that: raw, unprocessed, unrefined, unchanged, original. In this case, RAW means that the image is just as the camera saw it; the picture has not yet been processed by the camera.

Most digital camera owners do not realize that, when they push the shutter, the camera takes the picture, PROCESSES IT, and then stores the processed image in the camera's internal memory card or whatever media is used. The picture stored inside the camera is actually quite different from what the camera saw and, for simpler applications, that is a good thing.

When you push the shutter on your digital camera, a lot of things happen very quickly. The lens opens, and the image sensor is exposed to light. The image sensor is a device that converts an optical image to an electric signal. The sensor captures light and converts it into electrical signals. 

The interesting thing is that the image sensor doesn't see light in the same way that you and I do. That is, an image sensor doesn't see bright greens as greens and pinks as pinks. In addition, the brightness may not be the same to an image sensor as it is to a human eye. A section of the photograph may seem brighter or darker to an image sensor than it does to us humans.

The default setting on most digital cameras is to send the newly-captured signal through some electronics to convert the image to something close to what the human eye sees, then save the output of that conversion process. A very complex process called demosaicing (explained at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demosaicing) first determines the color of each pixel. The resulting color image is then adjusted in various ways, including being white balanced to compensate for the type of light you were shooting in. Then the image is sharpened, compressed so that it doesn’t take up as much space, and finally stored on your memory card. Most of today's digital cameras will store the image in JPEG (or JPG) format, which has already been compressed and (sometimes) has already lost a bit of the original sharpness. 

NOTE: More expensive digital cameras typically add more options, including the ability to store photos in TIFF format, non-compressed JPEG format, or in unprocessed RAW format. Saving images in a raw format allows the user to demosaic the image(s)  using software, rather than using the camera's built-in firmware.

TIFF and non-compressed JPEG formats are great for maintaining crystal clear, uncompressed images. However, both TIFF and non-compressed JPEG pictures have already been processed to some degree by the electronics in the computer. As a result, the camera has already converted the RAW image into what the camera's designers hope is a proper rendition of the image for the human eye. Colors have already been changed, and brightness has already been adjusted. The result most times is a close approximation of what the human eye sees. The key words in that sentence are "most times."

In fact, no camera electronics or any other automated method of converting RAW images into TIFF or JPEG is ever perfect. As good as these conversion processes are, they are never flawless in all conditions. A picture taken in the shade may not properly convert the one bright spot in the corner. A picture of red flowers may not properly interpret the green leaves or the yellow ribbon used to tie the flowers together. Many digital cameras struggle to get white balance properly adjusted. 

Again, all of this takes place inside your camera. You, as the human photographer, have no control over this conversion process UNLESS YOU SHOOT RAW.

Another issue is the number of pixels stored – in other words, the clarity. RAW files allow for much more editing than JPEG files. Your camera probably captures RAW images with 12 to 14 bits of data per pixel, but a JPEG file can only hold eight bits of data per pixel. This means that, when you shoot in JPEG mode, one of the first things your camera does is throw out a bunch of data that it captured. Most of the time, this data loss doesn’t matter as you still get an image that has the full range of tone and color that your camera can yield. But if you like to edit a lot, or if you plan on adjusting the contrast and color to extreme degrees, then this loss of data could mean trouble. RAW gives you more options.

A RAW image is just that: raw, unprocessed, unrefined, unchanged, original. In this case, RAW means that the image is just as the camera's image sensor saw it; the picture has not been processed by the camera. If you change the settings in your camera to store pictures in RAW format, the camera bypasses the conversion process. Whatever the image sensor saw is stored directly into the memory card with no conversion whatsoever. 

The problem is that the image sensor didn't see what the human eye would have seen. The RAW image stored in the memory card will actually look much worse to the human eye than a normal processed TIFF or JPEG image. That's where software comes in.

The remainder of this article is reserved for Plus Edition subscribers only. If you have a Plus Edition subscription, you may read the full article at: 

https://eogn.com/(*)-Plus-Edition-News-Articles/13176536

If you are not yet a Plus Edition subscriber, you can learn more about such subscriptions and even upgrade to a Plus Edition subscription immediately at https://eogn.com/page-18077. 

The Tucson City Council unanimously approved the process to begin returning 10.6 acres of ancestral land to the Tohono O’odham Nation.

Council Member Lane Santa Cruz headed the initiative to return land on Sentinel Peak back to the tribe.

“We don’t honor and revere our indigenous people, the people who made this city possible,” Santa Cruz said. “The relationship that indigenous people have with the land is what we need to pay attention to and listen to.”

The foot of Sentinel Peak is widely considered to be the birthplace of Tucson. But before the city became what it is now, it was home to ancestors of the Tohono O’odham and Hohokam tribes for 4,500 years. The city’s Spanish name even came from the O’odham village name S-cuk Son, meaning “at the base of the black hill.”

You can read more in an article by Paola Rodriguez published in the azpm.org web site at: https://tinyurl.com/mr2kzvh9.

The Iowa County Genealogy Society has moved from its previous home in North English. The genealogy library is now located at the west end of the former school building in Millersburg. The public is invited to come see what the group has to offer.

Genealogy is the study of your family history. We have a library where you can do research. You do not have to be a member, but membership is welcomed. Books cannot be checked out. They need to be available for research and are difficult to replace if damaged or not returned.

The collection concentrates on Iowa County, as there would not be enough room for other counties and states. Most counties have their own collections. There are a few items from other areas, mostly those that are our neighbors.

You would be surprised at how much you can find in one room. There are thousands of obituaries that are user friendly. Newspapers going back to the 1800s are available on microfilm. Census records for Iowa County are on microfilm also. There are family histories, cemetery records, town histories, county histories, church histories, atlases and much more.

The society is a nonprofit, volunteer organization. We survive on donations and some money from the county. There is a copier for patrons’ use and we would like a donation for copies.

An open house from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday, May 6, will celebrate the new location. Door prizes will be given.

The Iowa County Genealogy Society  web page may be found at: https://iagenweb.org/iowa/research/ICGS.htm. 

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!