An article by Alva Noë and published in the NPR web site is a few years old but it contains some basic facts about genealogy-related information contained in everyone's DNA. If you haven't read the article already, you might want to do so now.

Here are some of the facts mentioned in the article:

You share no DNA with the vast majority of your ancestors.

You have more ancestors — hundreds a few generations back, thousands in just a millennium — than you have sections of DNA.

You have 64 great-great-great-great-grandparents — but if you are a man, you share your Y-chromosome with only one of them.

The amount of DNA you pass on to your descendants roughly halves with each generation. It is a matter of chance which of your descendants actually carry any of your DNA.

You can read DNA, Genealogy And The Search For Who We Are at https://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2016/01/29/464805509/dna-genealogy-and-the-search-for-who-we-are

The following announcement was written by Findmypast:

The following announcement was written by Findmypast:

Vital life event records from England and Jamaica plus a host of new and updated newspapers - here's what's new to Findmypast this week.

England & Wales Non-Conformist Births and Baptisms

Were your ancestors religious dissenters? Findmypast have added thousands of new Surrey Methodist records to this vast collection of more than 1.6 million Birth’s and Baptisms.

Each record contains both an image and a transcript of the original register. The amount of information varies, but you can generally find out the following about your non-conformist ancestors:

Historically, many non-conformists used their local parish church for registration purposes, despite their religious differences and even after the Toleration Act of 1689 granted the freedom to worship. Some non-conformists did keep their own registers, particularly for baptisms and burials in the period between 1689 and 1837, and it is these valuable records that make up this collection.

The original documents are all housed at The National Archives in Kew as part of their RG4, RG5, and RG8 series. There are more than 50 denominations covered; some of which existed only briefly and are no longer practiced today. The collection also includes a significant number of French Protestant or Huguenot records.

Jamaica life events

With improved search features, Findmypast’s Jamaican collection continues to grow. Explore over 780,000 new birth, baptism, marriage and death records to flesh out the Jamaican branches of your family tree.

Explore the collection as a whole or hone in on the record you need by searching each distinct record set:

Combine these latest releases with Findmypast’s exclusive archive of newspaper pages from the Royal Gazette of Jamaica to add detail and colour to your research.

Newspapers

Four new papers and generous updates to 12 others sees Findmypast’s newspaper collection continue to grow.

Brand new to the site this week are:

While thousands of new pages have been added to:

 

The following announcement was written by TheGenealogist:

Sandringham estate

TheGenealogist has added over 1.54 million individuals to their Norfolk Parish Record Collection and so increasing the coverage of this Eastern English county for family researchers to find their ancestors' baptisms, marriages and burial records.

These records are released in association with the Norfolk Record Office and have the benefit of high quality images to complement the transcripts, making them a valuable resource for those with ancestors from this area.

This new addition to the ever growing Parish Records collections on TheGenealogist are for fully searchable records of church registers from parishes in Norfolk. With records that reach back to the mid 16th century, this release allows family historians to find the names of forebears, their parents’ forenames, the father’s occupation (where noted), and the parish that the event took place in. Parish Records are one of the most important records for family historians to use when researching our ancestors, as they cover vital events before the introduction of civil registration for England and Wales in 1837.

Entry in the Parish Burial Register at Sandringham for Henry Cornish Henley, November 1773

This latest addition brings the total number of individuals in the parish records for Norfolk on TheGenealogist to over 11.5 million.

Burial transcript for Henry Cornish Henley November 1773 at St Mary Magdalene, Sandringham

As an example we can find the one time owner of the Sandringham estate, many years before it became the royal residence that it is today. In the Elizabethan era a manor was built on what is the site of the present house. By the 18th century, it had come into the possession of the Hoste Henley family who were descendants of Dutch refugees. In 1771 Henry Cornish Henley cleared the site to build a Georgian mansion, Sandringham Hall.

Using the Parish Records on TheGenealogist we are able to find the burial record for this gentleman and see that it was in 1773. It would seem that Henley died before the House was completed and so then it passed to his son, who would eventually sell it to a neighbour.

These new parish records are available as part of the Diamond Subscription at TheGenealogist.

This new release covers the following parishes:

Acle, Alby, Aldborough, Aldeby, Alderford, Antingham, Ashwellthorpe, Ashwicken with Leziate, Aslacton, Aylmerton, Aylsham, Babingley, Bacton, Banham, Banningham, Barford, Barney, Barton Bendish St Andrew and St Mary with All Saints, Bebingley, Beechamwell (alias Beachamwell), Beeston Regis, Belaugh, Billingford, Bixley, Blakeney, Blickling, Blofield, Bodney, Booton, Boughton, Bracon Ash, Bradfield, Brampton, Brancaster, Braydeston, Breckles, Briston, Brooke, Brundall, Buckenham, Bunwell, Burgh St Margaret and Billockby, Burgh St Peter, Burlingham St Edmund, Burnham Deepdale, Caister next Yarmouth, Caistor St Edmund with Markshall, Calthorpe, Carleton Rode, Castle Acre, Castle Rising, Castleacre, Caston, Chedgrave, Clippesby, Cockley Cley, Cockthorpe, Colkirk and Colkirk with Oxwick, Colney, Coltishall, Corpusty, Costessy, Cromer, Crownthorpe, Croxton, Denver, Dersingham, Dickleburgh with Langmere, Didlington, Diss, Docking, Downham Market, Drayton, Dunston, Earlham St Anne with St Elizabeth, Earlham St Mary and Earlham with Bowthorpe, East Carleton, East Dereham, East Tuddenham, Eaton St Andrew and Christchurch, Eccles, Edgefield, Edingthorpe, Erpingham, Fakenham, Felthorpe, Fersfield, Field Dalling, Filby, Flitcham, Flordon, Fordham, Foulsham, Framingham Earl, Freethorpe, Fundenhall, Gately, Gayton, Gayton Thorpe, Gaywood with Bawsey and Mintlyn, Geyton Thorpe, Gimingham, Gissing, Glandford, Great Ellingham, Great Hautbois, Great Hockham with Little Hockham, Great Massingham, Great Melton, Great Moulton St Michael with Little Moulton, Great Plumstead, Great Snoring, Great Witchingham with Little Witchingham, Great Yarmouth, Great Yarmouth St Andrews, Great Yarmouth St Nicholas, Great Yarmouth St Peter, Gresham, Grimston, Griston, Guestwick, Hackford, Hackford with Whitwell, Haddiscoe, Hales, Hampstone, Hapton, Hardley, Hargham, Hassingham, Haveringland, Heacham, Heckingham, Heigham Holy Trinity, Heigham St Barnabas with St Bartholomew, Heigham St Philip, Heigham St Thomas, Hellesdon, Hempnall, Hempstead by Holt, Hempton, Hevingham, Hickling, Hillington, Hingham, Hockering, Hockwold cum Wilton, Holme Hale, Holme next the Sea, Holt, Honingham, Horning, Horsford, Horsham St Faith and Newton St Faith, Howe, Howe with Little Poringland, Hunstanton St Edmund, Ickborough, Illington, Ingworth, Itteringham, Kelling, Kempston, Ketteringham, Kilverstone, King’s Lynn St John the Evangelist, King’s Lynn St Margaret with St Nicholas, Kirby Bedon, Kirstead with Langhale, Knapton, Lakenham (old) St John, Lakenham St Alban, Lammas with Little Hautbois, Langley, Limpenhoe, Lingwood, Little Barningham, Little Cressingham, Little Ellingham, Little Massingham, Little Plumstead, Little Snoring, Little Walsingham, Little Witchingham, Ludham, Martham, Mattishall, Mautby, Merton, Mile Cross St Catherine, Morley St Botolph with St Peter, Morningthorpe, Morton, Morton On The Hill, Moulton St Mary, Mulbarton, Mundesley, Narborough, Needham, New Buckenham, New Catton Christ Church, New Catton St Luke, New Lakenham St Mark, Newton Flotman, North Creake, North Elmham, North Lopham, North Tuddenham, North Walsham, North Wootton, Northwold, Norton Subcourse, Norwich St Andrew, Norwich St Augustine, Norwich St Benedict, Norwich St Catherine Mile Cross, Norwich St Clement with St Edmund, Norwich St Etheldreda, Norwich St George Colegate, Norwich St Giles, Norwich St Helen, Norwich St James with Pockthorpe, Norwich St John de Sepulchre, Norwich St John Timberhill with All Saints and St Michael at Thorn, Norwich St Julian, Norwich St Martin at Oak, Norwich St Martin at Palace, Norwich St Mary Coslany, Norwich St Mary in the Marsh, Norwich St Mary Magdalene with St James the Great with Pockthorpe, Norwich St Michael Coslany, Norwich St Paul, Norwich St Peter Mancroft, Norwich St Peter Parmentergate, Norwich St Saviour, Norwich St Stephen, Oby, Old Buckenham, Old Catton, Old Lakenham (St John with All Saints), Ormesby St Margaret with Scratby, Oulton, Overstrand, Oxwick All Saints, Paston, Poringland, Postwick, Pulham St Mary Magdalene Alias Pulham Market, Quidenham, Rackheath, Raveningham, Redenhall with Harleston and Wortwell, Reepham with Kerdiston, Ridlington, Ringstead St Andrew, Ringstead St Peter, Rollesby, Roughton, Roydon, Runcton Holme with South Runcton and Wallington, Runton, Saham Toney, Sandringham, Saxthorpe, Scottow, Scoulton, Sea Palling, Sedgeford, Seething, Shelfanger, Sheringham, Shimpling, Shingham, Shipdham, Shouldham, Shropham, Sidestrand, Snetterton, Snettisham, South Lynn All Saints, Southrepps, Spixworth, Sporle with Palgrave, Sprowston and Beeston St Andrew, Stalham, Stanhoe with Barwick, Stiffkey, Stoke Holy Cross, Stow Bedon, Stradsett, Strumpshaw, Suffield, Sutton, Swaffham, Swafield, Swainsthorpe, Swannington, Swanton Abbot, Tacolneston, Talconeston, Tharston, Thetford St Cuthbert, Thetford St Mary, Thetford St Peter, Thompson, Thorpe Abbotts, Thorpe Episcopi, Thorpe Hamlet, Thorpe Market, Thorpe next Haddiscoe, Threxton, Thurlton, Thurne with Ashby and Oby, Thwaite All Saints, Titchwell, Tivetshall St Mary and St Margaret, Toft Monks, Toftrees, Tottenhill, Tottington, Trowse, Trunch, Watlington, Watton, Weeting, Wells next the Sea, Wendling, Wereham, West Lexham, West Lynn, West Newton with Appleton, West Tofts, Westacre, Weston Longville, Weybourne, Wheatacre, Wickmere with Wolterton, Wilby, Winfarthing, Winterton with East Somerton, Witton (near Blofield), Witton (near North Walsham), Wolferton, Wood Dalling, Wood Norton, Woodton, Wormegay, Worthing, Wreningham, Wymondham.

The following is a message sent by the IAJGS Public Records Access Monitoring Committee and republished here with permission:

In 24 hours we have gotten the attention of  the NYC Department of Records & Information Services (DORIS) known to us as the Municipal Archives.  “…heard the positive news that DORIS does not "necessarily" intend to charge license fees for using genealogy records. DORIS recognizes the proposed changes are unclear and has indicated some clarifications will be made before the final rule is published. BUT...there is no guarantee that we will be consulted in advance on the FINAL RULE. Your comments are still NEEDED by October 23 as it still is not clear if personal usage of a vital record certificate is  still at risk beyond the purchase and use by one person.” 

The devil is in the details and we have not seen the changes in the proposed rule. Plus, it is VERY unique for an agency which proposes a rule to change the wording before a hearing, and whether that is considered “legal” or only the wording in the actual proposed rule at this point is  unknown.

The latest is posted by the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society (NYG&B) and can be read at:

https://www.facebook.com/nyfamilyhistory/posts/3392122924143166

You do not have to be a subscriber to Facebook to access the post. 

This is the wording of the post: 

IMPORTANT UPDATE: Wow! What an impact many of you have made in just 24 hours. BUT WE NEED EVERYONE'S COMMENTS IN THE PUBLIC RECORD by October 23.   

In response to your initial comments, we heard the positive news that DORIS does not "necessarily" intend to charge license fees for using genealogy records. DORIS recognizes the proposed changes are unclear and has indicated some clarifications will be made before the final rule is published. BUT...there is no guarantee that we will be consulted in advance on the FINAL RULE.       

While the application of licensing fees may not apply to vital records, it is not clear if personal usage of a vital record certificate is still at risk beyond the purchase and use of the certificate by one person. 

As written, the rules limit individual use of these records, "Reproductions are provided for the researcher's personal use only. Reproductions may not be reduplicated, published, or transferred to another individual or institution." 

We still need to consider that we do not know what we will find in the final rule before publication. This is also about the wider licensing wording, e.g. "permission to use", and the restrictive language and fees that apply to other "archival sources" which are public records at MUNI.  As written, the rules still require a license for educational, scholarly, non-profit, and media use.

Clarification is needed here: genealogists are educators and scholars! 

We are anxious to see in writing, clarifications DORIS intends to make. 

The hearing date is fixed as October 23…please continue to inform others and ask everyone to act by learning more at https://www.newyorkfamilyhistory.org/access-alert.

 Please be active on this issue---we can’t be silent!

To access the previous  postings on the IAJGS Records Access Alert about the NYC DORIS/Municipal Archives go to the archives of the IAJGS Records Access Alert at:  http://lists.iajgs.org/mailman/private/records-access-alerts/.

You must be registered to access the archives.  To register go to: http://lists.iajgs.org/mailman/listinfo/records-access-alerts  and follow the instructions to enter your email address, full name and which genealogical  organization with whom you are affiliated.   You will receive an email response that you have to reply to or the subscription will not be finalized.

Jan Meisels Allen
Chairperson, IAJGS Public Records Access Monitoring Committee

I am pleased to announce that the new website for my newsletter is now online. It is also installed on a new web hosting service in the cloud. The new site at http://eogn.com replaces both the old website at the same address AND the former Plus Edition website at http://eognplus.com.

That's right. There is now one new web site for everyone. You can access it whether you have a Plus Edition subscription, a Standard Edition subscription, or no subscription at all. Visitors (without subscriptions) will be able to read Standard articles, but only subscribers can post comments. As always, Plus Edition subscribers can also read articles written especially for them.

Note: Anyone who visits the new site but is not yet subscribed is now called a “visitor.” You may remain in “visitor” status forever, if you wish. Visitors (without either free or paid subscriptions) will be able to read Standard articles and read messages in the new Discussion Forum, but will not be able to post comments or new messages. Only subscribers can post comments or new Discussion Forum messages. As always, Plus Edition subscribers can also read and comment on articles written especially for them.

The new website features:

1. An all new look-and-feel that should be easier to navigate.

2. No more PayPal. Instead, the new website accepts VISA, MasterCard, and Discover credit cards. The credit card companies all guarantee protection of your payment against fraud. (They also guaranteed PayPal payments in the old web site, but lots of people didn't know that.)

3. If you don’t want to pay online by credit card, you can ask for an invoice (a billing statement) that you can then pay by check or some other means. However, the subscription will not begin until your full payment by credit card, check, cash, waterfront property, or other method has been received at EOGN.COM’s "corporate headquarters" (which is really a corner of a bedroom in my home).

4. You can choose to get either a daily email summary of all articles published since the last email summary. If you don’t want to get any email summaries at all, you can opt out of the mailings at any time. For those who use RSS newsreaders, RSS format files are also available. With this new process, all emails from EOGN.COM will be sent to you more reliably than ever before. You and I can both bid farewell to those third-party (and sometimes erratic) companies that used to do the mailings for me.

You will also be able to change the email address on your account all by yourself, and it will take effect immediately.

NOTE: This email message was sent to you by the new email sending capability built into EOGN.COM.

4. A new Discussion Forum is built into the new website. This is a place for you to post questions or comments about any genealogy-related topic, ask for assistance, compare notes with other genealogists, and more. I suspect this will become a very popular service.

5. Cloud-based! The entire EOGN.COM website now runs in the cloud. No, it won't be running on a PC in my living room, in a single sever in a data center on the other side of the world, or anything similar. EOGN.COM now uses cloud services just like Netflix, Gmail, Microsoft Office 365, Amazon, eBay, and many other popular web sites. By running in the cloud, all these web sites achieve 99.99% or better uptime.

At any moment, you will be accessing the newsletter's multiple servers in California, New Jersey, Dublin, Tokyo, Beijing, Singapore, or elsewhere; you won't know—and most likely you won't care! All you will know is, "It just works!"

6. No viruses! The cloud servers are monitored 24 hours a day by system professionals using all the latest anti-virus and anti-malware techniques.

Note: Actually, the old newsletter web site never had a virus either; but it depended upon me to monitor everything. I feel a lot better with cloud services gurus monitoring and protecting everything 24 hours a day. I can sleep better now.

6. Hardware agnostic and mobile friendly! You will be able to access all functions on the new EOGN.COM whether you are using Windows, Macintosh, Chromebook, Linux, iPad, or Android devices. You even can use your "smartphone." The new website automatically adjusts its appearance to display on your device's screen (although using a very small screen size may not be an optimum user experience).

7. A new smartphone app will soon be available. You will be able to access everything in the newsletter’s web site with customized apps designed for that purpose. These iPhone, iPad, and Android apps are already available to me, but I need to customize them for use with EOGN.COM. I have been rather busy building the website in the cloud. With that new website up and running properly, configuring the new smartphone and tablet client is next on my to-do list.

8. Lots of disk space is available now, and I can always pay for more space, if needed. The maximum available size in the cloud is "infinite" although I am not prepared to pay for quite that much space. As one insurance company advertises, "Only pay for what you use."

Downsides

1. If you expect the all-new web site to be perfect in every way the instant it becomes available, you may be disappointed. This first release will be version 0.9. Like most software, you can expect later versions to squash bugs, correct typo errors, and provide new functions based on user suggestions. In short, I expect this to be a "work in progress" for a while.

2. You will have to create a new password. Modern security techniques require that user passwords never be visible to anyone other than the user, not even to me as your system administrator. As a result, when I moved your existing customer record to the new EOGN.COM website, complete with email address and subscription level, your old password did not move to the new website. Instead, I created a temporary password for you. Now, the first time you log on, you will be asked to change this temporary password to one of your own choosing. You can re-enter your old password, if you wish, or create a brand-new password. Your choice.

I could go on and on... But probably the best advice I can offer is, "Check out the new EOGN newsletter for yourself at https://eogn.com.

I'll "see" you online!

- Dick Eastman

The following is an excerpt from an announcement by the organizers of the FHF REALLY USEFUL Family History Show, an online virtual event sponsored by the Family History Federation:

The Family History Federation and Parish Chest report an excellent uptake of tickets on the “early-bird” bookings for the FHF REALLY USEFUL Family History Show. Bookings are increasing daily – the 1,000th booking will be suitably rewarded!

There will be twenty-four presentations and talks by specialists providing helpful and interesting information for everyone from beginners to seasoned researchers.

All presentations will be available online for ticket holders for 48 hours after the show.

Regular announcements providing further details of the presentations and talks at the show will be on the show website and associated media. https://www.fhf-reallyuseful.com.

Great news for anyone researching Irish ancestry! An article in the IrishCentral website states:

"Irish birth and marriage certificates from as far back as 1864 are now available for free online, while death certificates between 1878 and 1968 are also accessible.

"A plethora of Irish genealogy records were made available online thanks to a joint initiative from the Department of Culture, Heritage, and the Gaeltacht and the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection, in 2019.

"A wealth of historical registers of marriages, births, and deaths are available to view for free on the website Irish Genealogy and covers births from 1864 to 1918, deaths from 1878 to 1968, and marriages from 1864 to 1943.

"The new additions include deaths in 1967 and 1968, births in 1917 and 1918, and marriages from 1864 to 1869 and 1942 to 1943..."

You can read all the details in the IrishCentral website at: https://www.irishcentral.com/roots/genealogy/irish-genealogy-resource-free.

An online video about DNA, produced by Momondo, is very impressive. I would suggest every genealogist should watch it. Perhaps every human on the face of the earth should view it. I decided to encourage YOU to click on https://youtu.be/tyaEQEmt5ls  to see what a DNA test could do for you.

I was not familiar with Momondo so I looked it up on Wikipedia.org:

“Momondo (stylised momondo) is a travel fare aggregator and travel fare metasearch engine. Momondo also operates a travel information blog, Inspiration. The website is a white-label of the Kayak.com subsidiary of Booking Holdings.”

So why would a “travel fare aggregator and travel fare metasearch engine” produce videos about DNA? It seems that the company asked 67 people from all over the world to take a DNA test.

I am not going to give you the results. The video will do that.

Check it out for yourself. Watch the DNA Journey at https://youtu.be/tyaEQEmt5ls.

My thanks to Terry Mulcahy for telling me about the video.

I had hoped to announce this weekend that the new replacement for this newsletter’s web sites had been launched. But of course things never go exactly as planned.

See https://blog.eogn.com/2020/08/31/eognplus-com-website-is-offline-and-here-is-the-plan/ and https://blog.eogn.com/2020/09/21/update-eognplus-com-website-is-offline-and-here-is-the-plan/ for the history of how the web sites got into their present condition.

The new web site is waiting for “one more thing.” Unfortunately, it is a background check of me supplied by an outside company and I have no control over when it will be received. I also suspect that during the pandemic, all of that company’s employees are working from home which possibly will slow things down a bit.

All I can say is, “Any day now.”

I do expect to send an email notice to all subscribers on the day the new website goes online, replacing the old websites. Stay tuned…