The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration  has allocated $600,000 to transfer digitized veterans’ records from the Department of Veterans Affairs as it continues to work through a backlog of document requests, according to details set out in a strategic plan.

The funding will be used to move files to NARA’s cloud workspace from the VA, which the Archives says will allow staff to access images and conduct day-to-day processing of veteran requests.

Details of the funding were included in a strategic plan, revealed through a Freedom of Information Act Request, and follow sustained scrutiny of the backlog by lawmakers.

NARA last May received a $9.1 million loan from the Technology Modernization Fund to update two systems that are key for furnishing veterans with documents.

According to plan documents, as of Feb. 13, the backlog of unanswered requests had fallen to 404,000 down from a peak of 604,000 at the height of the pandemic.

“NARA has allocated funding for several initiatives that will transform paper-based processes for fulfilling customer requests for paper records into fully electronic processes that rapidly deliver digitized copies to customers through secure, accessible web portals,” the agency said in the plan.

The strategic plan also allocates $400,000 to support the electronic processing of record requests, which includes the purchase of laptop computers and other technology to allow NARA staff to fulfill requests electronically.

During fiscal 2023, NARA has allocated $7.1 million to the modernization of its Case Management Reporting System (CMRS), one of the two systems at the center of the agency’s plan for furnishing veterans with documents.

NARA added also that it will allocate “additional funds” to implement secure user authentication for the public using the governmentwide authentication service Login.gov.

The following announcement was written by Findmypast:

Legacies of British Slavery 

This collection from University College London comprises individuals who were compensated in 1833 with the abolition of slavery in the British Empire. There are just over 60,000 transcripts, which can include biographical information, names of spouses, and addresses. Be sure to click through the UCL website for more detail. The Legacies of British Slavery project at UCL was designed to shed light on the ways that the slavery system has shaped British history.  

Nottingham Catholic Records 

Over 290,000 new records have been added for the Diocese of Nottingham, which covers Nottingham, Derby, Rutland, Lincolnshire and Leicestershire. The earliest records are for 1641 and run up to 1913. These detail-rich biographical records can include names of godparents, witnesses to marriages and more, and include original images to explore. Simply add Nottingham as the diocese into your search of England Roman Catholic Baptisms, Marriages, Burials or Congregational records to delve in. 

Newspapers 

Around 246,000 new pages have been added to 55 updated titles, including Scottish tabloid The Daily Record.  

Updated titles: 

·         Accrington Observer and Times, 1912 

·         Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser, 1988 

·         Ashbourne News Telegraph, 1990 

·         Birmingham Daily Post, 1997, 1999 

·         Birmingham Mail, 1968, 1980, 1982 

·         Birmingham Weekly Mercury, 1994 

·         Birmingham Weekly Post, 1889 

·         Bristol Evening Post, 1969 

·         Buckinghamshire Advertiser, 1988 

·         Chelsea News and General Advertiser, 1991 

·         Crewe Chronicle, 1982 

·         Derby Daily Telegraph, 1984 

·         Dover Express, 1991 

·         Evening Despatch. 1938 

·         Folkestone Express, Sandgate, Shorncliffe & Hythe Advertiser, 1902 

·         Gateshead Post, 1972 

·         Gloucestershire Echo, 1992 

·         Grimsby Daily Telegraph, 1999 

·         Hinckley Times, 1998 

·         Huddersfield and Holmfirth Examiner, 1878-1879, 1881 

·         Huddersfield Daily Examiner, 1996 

·         Hull Daily Mail, 1977 

·         Leek Post & Times, 1991 

·         Leicester Daily Mercury, 1994 

·         Leicester Journal, 1781 

·         Lincolnshire Echo, 1977, 1980, 1993-1995 

·         Liverpool Daily Post (Welsh Edition), 1981-1982 

·         Macclesfield Express, 1987 

·         Marylebone Mercury, 1996 

·         Nantwich Chronicle, 1982, 1999 

·         Newcastle Evening Chronicle, 1934, 1938 

·         Northampton Herald & Post, 1993 

·         Nottingham Evening Post, 1999 

·         Paisley Daily Express, 1999 

·         Retford, Gainsborough & Worksop Times, 1982 

·         Rutherglen Reformer, 1988 

·         Saffron Walden Weekly News, 1920, 1948, 1969, 1971, 1974 

·         Sandwell Evening Mail, 1978 

·         South Wales Echo, 1993 

·         Southall Gazette, 1982 

·         Sports Argus, 1980 

·         St. Neots Weekly News, 1988 

·         Staffordshire Sentinel, 1888, 1894, 1899, 1974 

·         Staines Informer, 1993 

·         Sunday Sun (Newcastle), 1974 

·         Surrey Advertiser, 1963 

·         Tamworth Herald, 1999 

·         Thanet Times, 1993 

·         The People, 1983, 1988, 1991, 1993-1995, 1997-1999 

·         Tiverton Gazette (Mid-Devon Gazette), 1858 

·         Torbay Express and South Devon Echo, 1976, 1981 

·         Walton & Weybridge Leader, 1995 

·         West Briton and Cornwall Advertiser, 1918, 1922 

·         Winsford Chronicle, 1994 

·         Daily Record, 1996, 1998 

The following announcement was written by Ancestry:

New tools bring family history to life in sharable, bite-sized stories

Ancestry®, the global leader in family history, announced today the launch of Storymaker Studio, a new feature in the Ancestry app that easily allows users to create bite-sized stories from their family history and share them within the Ancestry community and on their personal social media channels. Now with Storymaker Studio it’s easier than ever to turn those stories, combined with personal family memories and heirlooms, into engaging, shareable content.

Storymaker Studio is a centralized, one-stop destination to curate facts, images, records and memories and tell the stories of your family history. With this new tool, members can upload and enhance photos and images, record and upload audio files (for the first time on Ancestry), integrate photos with audio, and publish their Ancestry Stories to their trees, on their personal social channels and within the Ancestry community. We all have a storyteller inside us but with Storymaker Studio you can become the storymaker for your family’s history.

“Historical records and family trees are the cornerstone of genealogy research, showing moments of times and the relationships between people in several generations of a family,” said Ancestry Corporate Genealogist Crista Cowan. “Yet all of us know they are so much more than that. They capture love stories, triumphs, struggles and bravery - the stories of our family and heritage. They are the blueprint of what makes us, us.”

To get started using Storymaker Studio, users can download or update the Ancestry mobile app and choose a story prompt. From there, they can easily add images, historical records and audio recordings to tell the story of their family and then publish to the Ancestry community, save to their tree, or share to their social media channels.

Storymaker Studio is currently free with the Ancestry mobile app. Check out the storymaker studio at https://www.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. For over 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.

The following was. written by the folks at Ancestry:

Today at RootsTech, the world’s largest genealogy conference, Ancestry^® celebrates 40 years of empowering research and personal discovery through family history. Over the past four decades, Ancestry has advanced family history through product innovations, record collections and genomic discoveries.

Largest Content Collection in History

Since the very beginning of Ancestry, we have cultivated the world's largest collection of digitized online family history content, with over 40 billion records from more than 80 countries, 70% of which are unique to Ancestry. In 2022, we introduced proprietary AI handwriting recognition technology to help us digitize records faster than ever before. We processed the 1950 U.S. Census in just nine days, whereas the manual transcription process for the 1940 U.S. Census took over nine months. We also added 5.1 billion historical records to Ancestry in just one year, a milestone that has never been achieved by any other family history organization in the world. And in 2023, we expect to add 15 billion more!

New in 2023

This year we are excited to announce that Ancestry has been awarded the rights to digitize and publish more than 3 million UK Ministry of Defense Service Records that will be made available only on Ancestry between 2024-2029. This will be the largest project around a particular set of records The National Archives has ever awarded to a partner. The digitization of these valuable records will enable people to access never-before-seen documents from World War II online. In addition, we will utilize our proprietary AI handwriting recognition technology to process the 1931 Census of Canada as soon as available, and expand our collection of Newspapers.com™ Stories and Events Index to new states on a monthly basis. We’ll also be adding new collections of Catholic, Episcopal and Lutheran church records within the U.S. and additional military and occupational records from the UK and Ireland.

Innovation through DNA Science

AncestryDNA^® continues to be at the forefront of the industry, most recently with the debut of its SideView™ technology. This year, we are expanding on this innovation with the launch of DNA Compare, which can give you a side-by-side look at your matches’ DNA results, as well as adding new communities and traits. DNA Compare will make receiving and viewing your DNA results with your matches that much more collaborative.

Storymaker Studio

In addition to our unmatched digitized content collection, Ancestry is proud to launch Storymaker Studio, a centralized, one-stop destination to curate facts, images, records and memories and create engaging, shareable stories. With this new tool, members can upload and enhance photos and images, record and upload audio files (for the first time on Ancestry), integrate photos with audio, and publish their Ancestry Stories to their trees, on their personal social channels and within the Ancestry community. We all have a storyteller inside us but with Storymaker Studio you can become the storymaker for your family’s history.

Checkout Storymaker Studio now at ancestry.com/c/products/storymaker or download the Ancestry mobile app.

The following press release was written by MyHerigae:

One of the most important benefits of taking a DNA test is the matches that you receive. DNA Matches reveal many relatives you never knew about before, based on shared DNA inherited from common ancestors. However, the relationships to your DNA Matches can be confusing. This results in many users not understanding how they are related to most of their DNA Matches, which holds them back from using the matches to advance their family history research and make new discoveries.

Today we’re excited to announce the release of cM Explainer™, an innovative, free new feature on MyHeritage that estimates familial relationships between DNA Matches with high accuracy. This helps overcome the challenge of understanding relationships to DNA Matches. For every DNA Match, cM Explainer™ predicts the possible relationships between the two people and the respective probabilities of each relationship, estimates who their most recent common ancestor(s) could be, and displays a diagram showing their relationship path.

DNA Matches are characterized by the amount of DNA shared between two individuals, measured using a unit of genetic distance called centimorgans (cM). cM Explainer™ is unique in the way it uses both the centimorgan value as well as the ages of the two individuals (if known) to fine-tune its predictions, making MyHeritage the only major genealogy company to offer relationship prediction at this level of granularity and accuracy.

cM Explainer™ is fully integrated into the MyHeritage platform to shed light on any DNA Match found on MyHeritage, and is also available as a free standalone tool to benefit individuals who have tested with other DNA services.

How cM Explainer™ works

cM Explainer™ was developed by MyHeritage in collaboration with Larry Jones, developer of the cM Solver technology. We exclusively licensed this technology from Jones, and our Science team enhanced it further over a period of five months to create an industry-leading solution for genetic genealogy that is exclusive to MyHeritage. Among the enhancements are an age algorithm developed by MyHeritage’s Science team that greatly enhances the prediction by adjusting the probability of each possible relationship, and a slick user interface that displays possible relationships and their probabilities. cM Explainer™ includes useful features such as the ability to filter the predictions by full and half relationships, and to display the probable most recent common ancestor(s) (MRCA) of a match.

The ages of the two people who match each other are instrumental in predicting their relationship. They help rule out impossible relationships and adjust probabilities when multiple relationships are possible. For example, half siblings typically share the same amount of DNA as a grandparent and grandchild. But if the two people are of a similar age, they are probably half siblings. If they are 60 years apart, they are more likely to be a grandparent and grandchild. Other relationships may be possible for the same amount of shared DNA, such as an uncle and nephew, and knowing the ages can help determine which one is more likely. In many cases, the ages don’t make a selection clear-cut, but they affect the probability of each possible relationship, providing useful predictions you can apply to your research.

To maximize the accuracy of the relationship predictions, MyHeritage’s Science team developed an age algorithm by first examining age difference distributions among parents and children, and siblings (calculated separately for full and half siblings), based on extensive research using empirical aggregated data from family trees.

We further derived age difference distributions for all other relationships by combining those for parents, siblings, and children along a standard genealogical path. For example, the distribution of the age difference between an uncle and his nephew (see bottom graph below) is estimated by considering all potential ages of the nephew’s parent, and then adding the age difference between the nephew and his parent (see middle graph) and the age difference between the parent and the uncle (see top graph). On the graphs below, you can see that the average age difference for Parent, Uncle/Aunt, and Parent’s Cousin are similar, but the distribution is more widespread for Uncle/Aunt, and even more so for Parent’s Cousin because of the additional age differences between siblings. More generally, using the age difference allows us to rule out some relationships and assign more accurate probabilities to the remaining possible relationships. Since shared DNA and age difference complement one another, this method provides better results than those provided by shared DNA alone, and is useful even when only one individual’s age is known.

You can read more at: https://tinyurl.com/49dvjkjf.

The following press release was written by the folks at MyHeritage. You can also view a video about the same topic at: https://www.youtube.com/embed/N1Rx4sO5qpE:

Adding color coding to your family tree can make it easier to navigate. At MyHeritage, we previously implemented color coding in Fan view of the family tree, as well as in the Family Tree Timeline. Today, we’re happy to announce the addition of color coding for family trees across the two main views of the tree: Family view and Pedigree view. This addition is both visually appealing and makes it incredibly easy to understand your family tree at a glance.

We’ve also made several new product enhancements to help you better understand the relationships in a family tree. These include the addition of an icon indicating a blood relationship in the left profile panel, and the ability to view the relationship and the relationship diagram in family trees where you aren’t a member. We’ve also added color coding when viewing the family tree of a Smart Match or DNA Match, so you can better understand how you might be related to the site manager or DNA Match.

How color coding works

Color coding displays each branch of the family tree in a different color by painting all direct ancestors in a given branch in a particular color. Direct ancestors on your paternal grandfather’s side are colored blue, your paternal grandmother’s side is green, your maternal grandfather’s side is red, and your maternal grandmother’s side is yellow. Your descendants, if you have any, appear in purple. As part of this product update, we’ve switched the order of the colors in Fan view and the Family Tree Timeline to follow the same pattern of blue-green-red-yellow, making the use of color coding consistent across the website and aligned with the industry convention.

Once color coding is enabled for Family view or Pedigree view, it’s applied across all family trees and family sites in your MyHeritage account. Color coding is automatic — there’s no manual work involved to color code the branches of a family tree (but the colors cannot be customized). Color coding is available on the MyHeritage website when you visit it using a desktop browser or a mobile web browser. It will be added to the family tree on the MyHeritage mobile app later on.

You can read much, much more in the MyHeritage Blog at: https://blog.myheritage.com/2023/03/introducing-color-coding-for-family-trees/

Are you afraid that you won't know anyone at RootsTech?  The organizers have a tool for you!

There is a "Relatives at RootsTech" feature that lets you see how you're related to the other 650,000+ RootsTech attendees. Just use RootsMagic to update FamilySearch Family Tree to see how you connect to interested genealogists worldwide.

Amongst the announcements:

• Magic Eraser for iPhones and Androids
• Emoji Kitchen now supports more emojis
• Superzoom in Chrome
• Google Keep widget and shortcuts
• Annotate PDFs in Google Drive (I consider that to be a "biggie")
• Google Meet sounds better than ever
• Chromebooks now support Fast Pair
• Google Pay’s new payment animations

Details may be found at: https://www.lifehacker.com.au/2023/02/all-the-new-android-features-google-announced-today/.

The annual RootsTech conference is opening this morning in Salt Lake City. (Well, technically it opens a couple of hours from now. It is 6:00 AM local time as I write this.) However, as with any major conference, activities really started the day before with “sessions before the opening.” I see lots of people I know in the local restaurants and elsewhere so it is obviously a good-sized crowd gathering for this conference.

I am going to make one important point this early in the morning: if you cannot be here in person, you can still attend (FREE of charge) virtually. Simply open your computer, smartphone, or tablet computer and watch many activities from your living room or any other location of your choice.

Multiple activities are being broadcast worldwide on the Internet and the conference organizers are expecting thousands of people around the world to attend “virtually.” Some of them probably will lose sleep because of timezone differences.

In countries where English is not the dominant language, many viewers will listen to the events spoken in local languages being spoken by native speakers located near them in their local countries or nearby.

Yes, this is a major production involving thousands of people (both producing the conference as well as attendees) from around the world.

To attend the conference virtually with your computer, open a web browser and go to: https://www.familysearch.org/rootstech/.

To attend from your smartphone, tablet computer, or other mobile device, go to the Apple App Store or to the Google App Store as appropriate, and search for RootsTech. Once you find it, click on INSTALL or DOWNLOAD to download a special app created for this conference and within a minute or two, you can be watching the events live from Salt Lake City. The apps and the web site also provide all sorts of information about schedule times, speakers, and much, much more

.NOTE: Many, of the events are also being recorded on videotape and will be available “on demand” on your computer, smartphone, or tablet at a later date and time after being edited a bit. The dates of the rebroadcasts have not yet been announced but will be announced as the videos become available.

OK, I am going to shut down and go participate in today’s activities live.

See you at RootsTech (either in person or virtually!)

The following press release was written by  Vivid-Pix:

Public interest in genealogy is at an all-time high. At the same time, many genealogy organizations are challenged to expand public outreach. With millions of DNA testers and even more people interested in family history, there is an imbalance between the public’s interest in genealogy and its understanding. The Family Matters program is designed to help the genealogy community and society.

“Family Matters provides organizations with the tools needed to connect with the public, combining the Vivid-Pix Memory Station™ scanning, image improvement and story-capturing software; education on photo organization, family history, storytelling and photo reminiscence; and turnkey marketing to attract new audiences to the wonderful work that these organizations do,” said Rick Voight, CEO of Vivid-Pix.

“We are particularly excited that the toolkit includes a focus on memory care,” said Matt Menashes, Executive Director of the National Genealogical Society. “Many of us, Rick and myself included, have cared for loved ones, aging parents and grandparents with cognitive decline. Family history and photo-reminiscence help capture the stories of loved ones and improve cognition. With programming for caregivers and family members, the genealogy community can have a big impact on society and an even bigger impact on an individual’s quality of life.”

Genealogy organizations now have access to a turnkey solution for public programming. The program assists organizations to reach new audiences, including caregivers, that can help more people do their family history. In doing so, organizations gain opportunities to increase membership and develop new volunteers and leaders.

Video about the program is available at: https://www.vivid-pix.com/familymatters/

About Vivid-Pix
Vivid-Pix helps individuals, families, friends and organizations with their most treasured memories by inventing and harnessing technologies. Vivid-Pix Solutions (https://www.vivid-pix.com/solutions/) assists family historians, as well as paid and unpaid caregivers, to assist with cognitive decline and dementia through Photo Reminiscence Therapy. Vivid-Pix patented software has been sold in over 120 countries, improving old, faded photos and documents.

About NGS
Founded in 1903, the National Genealogical Society (NGS) inspires, connects, and leads the family history community by fostering collaboration and best practices in advocacy, education, preservation, and research. We enable people, cultures, and organizations to discover the past and create a lasting legacy. The Falls Church, Virginia, based nonprofit is the premier national society for everyone, from the beginner to the most advanced family historian.