Blue eyed people listen up.

Ever wondered why your eyes are the colour they are? Well wonder no more.

Every blue eyed person is descended from a single European who lived around 6,000 to 10,000 years ago, according to scientists.

How did they work it out? Originally, all humans had brown eyes in various shades until there was a specific mutation that made the change.

The mutation is a gene called HERC2 and it switches off OCA2, the gene that determines how much brown pigment we make.

So that's why eyes become blue. 

As for being descended from the same person, the evidence for this is because every blue eyed person alive today has this same mutation.

You can read more in an article by Kate Plummer published in the indy100.com web site at: https://www.indy100.com/science-tech/blue-eyed-people-common-ancestor-2659832759.

Historians say the application of modern computer science to the distant past helps draw connections across a broader swath of the historical record than would otherwise be possible, correcting distortions that come from analyzing history one document at a time. But it introduces distortions of its own, including the risk that machine learning will slip bias or outright falsifications into the historical record. All this adds up to a question for historians and others who, it’s often argued, understand the present by examining history: With machines set to play a greater role in the future, how much should we cede to them of the past?

You can find this interesting article at: https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/04/11/1071104/ai-helping-historians-analyze-past/.

NOTE: This is a follow-up to my earlier article at https://eogn.com/page-18080/13159413. The newer article simply adds a few more details.

The Tennessee Historical Commission has unveiled a new online database of cemeteries in the state.

The Statewide Cemetery Map and the Tennessee Historic Cemetery Register are now available online in ArcGIS format for public use on the THC’s website. The map has been populated by data from the commission’s cemetery database, which currently contains more than 32,500 cemeteries statewide, a news release notes

"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," the release says. "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," the release adds.

You can read more at: https://tinyurl.com/2brb7xxr.

The New York State Archives has compiled a list of resources in New York of interest to genealogists. Quoting from the compiled list:

"Records in the New York State Archives document functions and activities of State government; none of the records were created for the purpose of genealogical research. However, many records in the Archives contain information on individuals. Among these records are indexes to vital records (births, marriages, deaths); records of war service (War of 1812 through World War I); land records (mostly transactions involving the Colony or State of New York); court records (including colonial wills and early nineteenth century civil cases); and records of some correctional and custodial institutions."

The list may be found at: https://www.archives.nysed.gov/research/featured-topic-genealogy.

Archives NZ says it has set up a new team to work on its breach-ridden main search system.

The high-tech replacement for its main Collections search software went badly wrong last year. The $4 million Swedish system exasperated researchers, lawyers and other users with multiple shutdowns, security breaches, delays and slow searches.

Chief archivist Anahera Morehu said they were now working with users to test-drive improvements to the system.

The team's work was "anticipated to deliver significant benefits to users".

"It will provide a better search experience for users and enable easier access to the information and data in the system, support business process optimisation, and focus on training and change management," she said in a statement.

Morehu did not give a timeframe for it all to be bedded in or say if extra funding was needed - "the department is currently in discussions around arrangements", she said.

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

(+) Publish Your Genealogy Book Online

Smyrl Has Been a Leader in Irish Genealogy for More Than 30 Years

Tennessee Historical Group Introduces Cemetery Map

King Charles Backs Research Into Monarchy's Slave Links

Joe Biden Invited to Galway After Genealogist Uncovers Family Ties to the County

Incredible Interactive New Website Brings Parts of Edinburgh, Scotland Back to Life

Library of Congress Launches Transcription Campaign for Rarely Seen Post-Civil War Petition from Black South Carolina Residents Seeking Equal Rights

Household Dust Harbors Forensic DNA Info

The 19 US States Where You Can Still Marry Your Cousin

Vianne Timmons Removed as President of Memorial University in Newfoundland Because of Questions About Her Ancestry

Qingming Festival 2023

Find your Infamous Ancestors on TheGenealogist

Findmypast Announces Newly-Digitized Records for Essex, Montgomeryshire in England

FamilySearch’s Top 30 Country Record Collection Expansions in 2022

How to Install Google ChromeOS Flex (ChromeBook) on Any Computer

Google Just Made a Big Change to How Chromebooks Apps Work

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 want to publicize this article on how anyone can add (an almost exact clone of) the Chrome operating system to almost any Windows or Macintosh computer, including to an older computer that maybe is gathering dust in your closet.

Don't throw away that old laptop just yet.

Chromebooks are a great alternative to traditional laptops and PCs. Running ChromeOS, they are cheap, powerful devices that provide all the functionality you could ask for. Even better, the best Chromebooks on the market are relatively inexpensive. But you don't need to buy a Chromebook to try out ChromeOS. Google lets you experience the operating system on your old laptop or PC through ChromeOS Flex.

What is ChromeOS Flex? And how do you install it on your old PC or laptop? Read an article by Rajesh Pandey to find out. The article is in the Android Police web site at: https://www.androidpolice.com/google-chromeos-flex-install-guide/.

NOTE: Chromebooks (as well as computers with Chromeos Flex software installed) make excellent devices for children, adolescents, senior citizens, and other non-computer-literate adults.  They are easy to use, never get viruses, and automatically install software updates without user actions. I strongly recommend you install Chromeos Flex (it’s easy to install) on an older laptop or desktop computer and then give it to a non-computer-literate person.

All that is required is 2 simple steps:

1. Create a bootable ChromeOS Flex USB drive to try ChromeOS Flex prior to installing it.
2. When you’re ready, install ChromeOS Flex on your PC or Mac to replace your operating system.

You can learn even more about Chromeos Flex  (even for use on Macintosh and Windows systems) at https://chromeenterprise.google/os/chromeosflex/.

Interactive website brings Leith as it was in 1892 back to life using historic street map data interlaced with old photographs, newspaper clippings, post office directory listings and people's own memories.

Using historic street maps, vintage photos, newspaper clippings, post office directory data, and people's own memories, Old Leith Rediscovered allows locals to explore Edinburgh's famous port as it was at the end of the 19th century.

The interactive site features a zoomable version of Charles Goad's 1892 Fire Insurance Plan of Leith, which captured the streets and structures of the old Leith in extraordinary detail, giving information on everything from the names of businesses, what they did there and the construction materials used in individual buildings. 

The Goad map is overlaid on a current map of the city of Edinburgh so that you can see how the 1892 Leith compares with the modern-day version.

Premises noted on the map are brought back to life with the inclusion of clickable points of interest that display historic photographs, news reports and information relevant to the time in question.

Users can also select by building type, and have the ability to highlight old Leith's many pubs, banks and restaurants at the click of a button.

You can read more in an article by David McLean published in the EdinburghLive web site at: https://tinyurl.com/3b7pszzu.

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

Publishing genealogy books has always been an expensive undertaking. Most genealogy books are self-published by the authors. That is, each author pays all the printing costs and then tries to recover his or her expenses by selling individual copies of the book. Publishing expenses typically run several thousand dollars, even tens of thousands if you wish to publish a lot of books. Then the author has to learn new business skills in order to warehouse and advertise the books, take orders, pack them, ship them, and keep track of all the finances. 

Of course, no genealogy book is ever really “finished.” Corrections and newly discovered information should be added, but that is difficult to do with printed volumes. I would also suggest that collaborative efforts are not well served by traditional printed books; many who buy the books could add supplemental information about extended relatives if there was a mechanism for doing so.

Of course, in this day and age we all know that books can be published online or on CD-ROM. In fact, the trend is obviously in that direction. Major genealogy book publishers are now publishing more and more CD-ROM disks or posting new books online. An author also can simply write the book in a word processor, as always, and then have the result converted by various software packages into HTML pages that are ready for uploading to a web server. Such information can be corrected easily, and newly-discovered information can be added at any time. The economics are simple: the printing cost of hundred of books is the equivalent of paying web server hosting fees for thousands of months. An online site makes your “book” available to millions around the globe, unlike printed books. 

Some web servers will even host your book free of charge although they will surround it with their paid advertising. Whatever web hosting service you select, the information in your online “book” is available to and easily searched by many more people than will ever see a printed genealogy book.

In the past few years, numerous genealogy books have been published in just this manner: the entire document is written in a word processor and is then uploaded and published on the web server as a static document. That is, the author creates the electronic version of a printed book. Others on the web can read it. However, I will suggest that there is even better technology available today. You can use this new technology to publish a book about your ancestors, the tax lists of your county, or the muster roll of a Civil War regiment. 

Unlike printed books and static web pages, you can allow others to easily contribute still more information to the publication that you create. In effect, your work becomes a living, breathing publication with a life of its own. Over time, it can be refined time and time again, providing an even better service to all future readers. The technology I am about to describe is inexpensive and easy to use, even for non-technical authors.

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/13160673.

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. 

It’s possible to retrieve forensically relevant information from human DNA in household dust, a new study finds.

A North Carolina State University-led study found it is possible to retrieve forensically relevant information from human DNA in household dust. After sampling indoor dust from 13 households, the researchers were able to detect DNA from household residents over 90% of the time, and DNA from non-occupants 50% of the time. The work could be a way to help investigators find leads in difficult cases.

Specifically, the researchers were able to obtain single nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs, from the dust samples. SNPs are sites within the genome that vary between individuals – corresponding to characteristics like eye color– that can give investigators a “snapshot” of the person.

“SNPs are just single sites in the genome that can provide forensically useful information on identity, ancestry and physical characteristics – it’s the same information used by places like Ancestry.com – that can be done with tests that are widely available,” says Kelly Meiklejohn, assistant professor of forensic science and coordinator of the forensic sciences cluster at NC State. Meiklejohn is corresponding author of the study.

“Because they’re single sites, they’re easier to recover for highly degraded samples where we may only be able to amplify short regions of the DNA,” Meiklejohn says. “Traditional DNA analysis in forensics amplifies regions ranging from 100 to 500 base pairs, so for a highly degraded sample the large regions often drop out. SNPs as a whole don’t provide the same level of discrimination as traditional forensic DNA testing, but they could be a starting place in cases without leads.”

Meiklejohn and her team recruited 13 diverse households and took cheek swabs from each occupant along with dust samples from five areas within each home: the top of the refrigerator; inside the bedroom closet; the top frame of the front door; a bookshelf or photo frame in the living room; and a windowsill in the living room.

Utilizing massively parallel sequencing, or MPS, the team was able to quickly sequence multiple samples and target the SNPs of interest. They found that 93% of known household occupants were detected in at least one dust sample from each household. They also saw DNA from non-occupants in over half of the samples collected from each site.

“This data wouldn’t be used like traditional forensic DNA evidence – to link a single individual to a crime – but it could be useful for establishing clues about the ancestry and physical characteristics of individuals at a scene and possibly give investigators leads in cases where there may not be much to go on,” Meiklejohn says. “But while we know it is possible to detect occupants versus non-occupants, we don’t know how long an individual has to stay in a household before they leave DNA traces in household dust.”

The researchers plan to address the question of how much time it takes for non-occupants to be detected in dust in future studies. Meiklejohn sees the work as being useful in numerous potential investigative scenarios.

“When perpetrators clean crime scenes, dust isn’t something they usually think of,” Meiklejohn says. “This study is our first step into this realm. We could see this being applied to scenarios such as trying to confirm individuals who might have been in a space but left no trace blood, saliva or hair. Also for cases with no leads, no hit on the national DNA database, could household dust provide leads?”

The work appears in the Journal of Forensic Sciences and was supported by funding from the NC State College of Veterinary Medicine. NC State Senior Vice Provost for University Interdisciplinary Programs Rob Dunn, NC State research associates Melissa Scheible and Laura Boggs, and Darrell Ricke of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Lincoln Labs also contributed to the work.