The following announcement was written by Findmypast:

Findmypast adds new transcribed birth, marriage and death newspaper notices for England

England, Newspaper Birth Notices

Over 200,000 make up this collection of transcribed newspaper birth notices, making it easier than ever to find your ancestors in black and white. Spanning across England, they have a particular focus on Lincolnshire, and also include snippets from the newspapers themselves. In addition to the birth, it’s often possible to read about parents, godparents, addresses and more.

England, Newspaper Marriage Notices

Go beyond traditional marriage records with these marriage notices. You might uncover wedding guests, gifts, and even details of what the happy couple wore. There are nearly 700,000 records in this collection with additional snippets from the original newspapers.

England, Newspaper Death Notices

The largest new collection this week contains over 1.8 million death notices. It may be possible to discover short obituaries, funeral details, occupations and residences. 

Newspapers

Over 100,000 pages have been added to the newspaper archive this week, with one new title and 26 updated titles.

New titles:

• • Sutton Coldfield Observer, 1991

Updated titles:

• • Birmingham Journal, 1840
  • Carmarthen Journal, 1998
  • Chatham News, 1986-1987
  • Crewe Chronicle, 1991-1992, 1997
  • Crosby Herald, 1992
  • East Kent Gazette, 1989
  • Folkestone, Hythe, Sandgate & Cheriton Herald, 1991
  • Glamorgan Gazette, 1981
  • Heartland Evening News, 1992
  • Marylebone Mercury, 1997
  • Merthyr Express, 1988
  • North Star (Darlington), 1919
  • Nottingham Evening Post, 1969, 1987
  • Paisley Daily Express, 1993
  • Plymouth Extra, 1988
  • Port Talbot Guardian, 1990
  • Rossendale Free Press, 1988
  • Runcorn Weekly News, 1995
  • Shepton Mallet Journal, 1974
  • Southall Gazette, 1977
  • Stafford Post, 1992
  • Tamworth Herald, 1998
  • Walsall Observer, 1955
  • West Lothian Courier, 1987
  • Winsford Chronicle, 1977, 1996, 1998
  • Wokingham Times, 1994

NOTE: This article is somewhat off-topic. That is, it does not concern anything to do with genealogy, DNA, or related topics normally found in this newsletter. However, it is related to a topic often mentioned here: forensic genealogy.

NOTE: This article concerns the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, not the American network which is also commonly referred to as "ABC":

Archivists and librarians at the ABC are in shock after management unveiled plans to abolish 58 positions and make journalists research and archive their own stories.

Reporters and producers working on breaking news, news programs and daily programs like 7.30 will have to search for archival material themselves and will be expected to log the metadata of any new material into the system.

The research library staff will continue to help investigative programs like Four Corners and Background Briefing, but will not be available to assist daily news or ABC co-productions.

“After thoroughly assessing and considering all aspects of this organisational change, we have determined that work being performed by some of our ABC archives team members is no longer required, has evolved, or can be combined with other roles that fit into our plans for the future state of ABC archives,” staff were told.

You can read more at: https://bit.ly/3tr47cU.

The following announcement was written by the University of South Florida:

A new online exhibit launched today by the University of South Florida's La Florida: The Interactive Digital Archives of the Americas will provide the public with unprecedented insight into the daily lives and relationships of the multi-ethnic population that comprised St. Augustine, Fla. from the 16th-19th centuries. The Florida city is the oldest continuously inhabited European settlement in the continental U.S.

Titled “Lost Voices from America’s Oldest Parish Archive, 1594-1821,” the initiative is making St. Augustine’s diocesan archives digitally accessible for the first time to a global audience. The project is being launched in two phases. Phase I, published on June 6th, includes more than 4,000 pages of ecclesiastical records from America’s first parish. Phase II will be published later this year.

“These records give us biographical sketches and can help us track individuals through time," said J. Michael Francis, the Hough Family Endowed Chair of Florida Studies at USF’s St. Petersburg campus and the executive director of the La Florida project. “When combined with other records from Florida and Spain, we can flesh out stories of individuals that hardly ever appear in historical records, such as women and Native Americans and free and enslaved African Americans.”

The “Lost Voices” initiative is featured on the newly-revamped La Florida digital platform. The platform allows teachers, students, scholars and the general public to research pivotal moments in early Florida history, conduct detailed searches on individuals and demographic changes and create custom infographics from the entire collection.

The collection presently includes baptism, marriage, death and burial records, including the 1801 burial record of Georges Biassou, an early leader of the Haitian Revolution who moved with his family to St. Augustine. Other documents identify the names of dozens of runaway slaves who risked their lives to escape English plantations in search of freedom in Spanish Florida.

Some of the individuals recorded in the parish records were buried in St. Augustine’s historic Tolomato Cemetery. “Lost Voices” will enable historians to connect individuals in the cemetery to their actual historical records and start geotagging events in those individuals’ lives. The people documented in these records will also be added to a searchable population database, allowing users to link individuals to the original records in which they appear.

"Lost Voices" is translating and digitizing thousands of handwritten documents from America’s first parish, providing rare insight into early Florida history.

"This project breaks new ground by giving a voice to those who have been traditionally overlooked by the history books," said Martin Tadlock, regional chancellor of USF's St. Petersburg campus. "By enhancing those complex and nuanced stories through the use of updated technology, Dr. Francis and his team have given all of us a new and fuller understanding of Florida's rich colonial history."

Piecing together clues about the little-known lives of Native Americans, free and enslaved Africans, and conquistadors from Spain, Portugal, Germany, Ireland and elsewhere, La Florida brings early Florida’s diverse population to life through short videos, interactive maps and a searchable population database. It weaves together the lives and events of more than three centuries of Florida’s colonial past, from Juan Ponce de León’s 1513 expedition to 1821, when Florida became a U.S. territory.

“La Florida’s fundamental goal is to combine cutting-edge technology with rigorous historical research in order to share Florida’s colonial history in compelling and innovative ways,” said Rachel Sanderson, associate director of La Florida.

Francis and his team work with academic and cultural institutions to comb through thousands of pages of original documents in archives in Spain, Italy, England, Mexico and the United States. The three-year “Lost Voices” initiative built on the expertise of paleographers, historians and translators to transcribe and translate the entire collection of St. Augustine’s colonial ecclesiastical documents, which are largely written in Spanish, along with hundreds of Latin documents.

“History books are never written about common people that were the fabric of a community, but that in a sense is what the La Florida project is doing for St. Augustine,” said Father Tom Willis, the pastor of the Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine, America’s first parish. “I was born and raised here in St. Augustine, so I have always had a loving connection with St. Augustine history. And what Michael and this project have done is brought it alive in so many wonderful ways.”

The “Lost Voices” project was supported by a $250,000 major initiatives grant from the National Archives and the generous support of the Hough Family Foundation, the Lastinger Family Foundation and the Frank E. Duckwall Foundation.

A name from the past popped up today in my email in the form of a press release. It's nice to see Paul Allen is remaining active in business endeavors. The name Paul Allen appears about three-fourths of the way through this press release:

The Society for Human Resource Management’s (SHRM) innovation fund, SHRMLabs, has chosen to invest in Soar.com, an up-and-coming leader in AI workplace solutions. SHRMLabs is a critical communication channel between leaders of tech, to HR professionals who lead culture and maximize talent across global organizations.

The Society for Human Resource Management’s (SHRM) innovation fund, SHRMLabs, has chosen to invest in Soar.com, an up-and-coming leader in AI workplace solutions. SHRMLabs is a critical communication channel between leaders of tech, to HR professionals who lead culture and maximize talent across global organizations. SHRMLabs is inspiring innovation by investing in innovative companies to create better workplace technologies that solve today's most pressing workplace challenges. According to Guillermo Corea, Workplace Innovation Lab & Venture Capital leader, SHRM chose to make one of its largest investments in Soar.com because “AI has the power to decode and improve workplace interactions and learning in ways never before possible, and Soar.com has assembled an impressive team and vision to do just that. SHRM Members will benefit through access to cutting edge AI innovations that may be implemented into existing SHRM workplace offerings.”

As one example, SHRM selected Soar.com to provide a new powerful AI video search experience for SHRM members that will unlock the value of their video content from webcasts to conference presentations and keynotes. SHRM’s video archive will now be fully searchable so that members can quickly find and jump to specific segments or highlights within their video archive. Moreover, members can share clips with others to bring greater visibility to SHRM’s video assets. Nick Schacht, Chief Global Development Officer, believes this will “enhance the value our members receive from on-demand access to important knowledge, and make it easier to share their discoveries with others.”

SHRMLabs joins the ranks of other early investors in Soar.com such as Sandler Training CEO, Dave Mattson, former Rackspace CEO & Chairman, Graham Weston, and BuiltBar Founder, Nick Greer among others. Mattson shared his decision to invest was based on his trust in Soar.com CEO & Founder, Paul Allen and the team he assembled. He is betting on their proven track record (Allen previously was CEO & Founder of Ancestry.com) and their mission to “help humans become better humans”.

SHRM’s support of an AI workplace solutions company like Soar.com will add to SHRM’s ongoing effort to champion innovation in the workplace, by:

• • Helping personalize the learning experience

  • Enhancing workplace communication and culture

  • Help learning communities feel more connected

  • Revolutionizing the way learning translates into application and eventual mastery

AI has the power to give rapid feedback to employees across all digital communication channels, assist in developing positive habits, and help each employee feel more connected and appreciated in the workplace.

To learn more about SHRMLabs, please visit https://www.shrmlabs.com/.

About SHRM

SHRM, the Society for Human Resource Management, creates better workplaces where employers and employees thrive together. As the voice of all things work, workers and the workplace, SHRM is the foremost expert, convener, and thought leader on issues impacting today's evolving workplaces. With 300,000+ HR and business executive members in 165 countries, SHRM impacts the lives of more than 115 million workers and families globally.

SHRM is a global organization that empowers members to lead fulfilling workplaces where employees thrive. “HR champions culture, HR maximizes talent, HR accelerates performance and HR optimizes information,” said Nick Schacht, Chief Global Development Officer of SHRM on the AI To Uplift Humanity podcast, produced by Soar.com.

“SHRMLabs is inspiring innovation to create better technologies that solve today's most pressing workplace challenges by supporting tech innovators and startup companies in the workplace technology industry,” explained Guillermo Corea, managing director of SHRMLabs speaking to SHRM Online. Learn more at SHRM.org and at SHRMLabs.com.

About Soar.com

Soar.com is the latest tech startup from Paul Allen and Clint Carlos. Allen was the founder and CEO of Ancestry.com and Carlos is a three-time HR tech founder and former volunteer member of AZSHRM state council. Soar.com is focused on uplifting humanity through AI. Its AI video platform fulfills that mission by giving frictionless access to learning insights when they’re needed most. “SHRM members who use the AI video platform will feel as if they have perfect recall,” Allen said. “When struggling with a challenging workplace situation or talent issue, an HR executive can search through every parallel experience to get the knowledge they need within seconds. We are thrilled to see how global HR leaders will transform their work cultures to uplift humanity.” Learn more at Soar.com.

NOTE: This article is off-topic. That is, it does not concern anything to do with genealogy, DNA, or related topics normally found in this newsletter. However, it focuses on one of my other interests: online privacy. I will suggest everyone who is online should be equally interested in this article. Big Brother is watching you in India, the USA, and elsewhere!

Virtual private network (VPN) provider Surfshark is shutting down physical servers in India, in response to India's top cybersecurity agency's data demands. It thus becomes the second such company after ExpressVPN to pull out its servers in the country after CERT-In issued a directive on April 28 mandating VPN companies to maintain basic information about customers.

You can read more at: https://bit.ly/3xjfPHX as well as in my earlier articles at https://eogn.com/page-18080/12787685 and at https://eogn.com/page-18080/12803622.

After a two-year hiatus, the St. Charles (Illinois) Public Library will resume its Genealogy After Hours from 5 to 9 p.m. Saturday. New and experienced genealogists will have exclusive use of the library’s materials and public computers, giving them access to many of the library’s services for genealogy research, according to a news release from the library.

Participants can use available computers or bring a laptop and use the library’s WiFi network to search the library’s databases.

Three professional genealogists and several volunteers will be on hand to assist with research or ancestry and family tree maker questions. Attendees can save images to a flash drive and take advantage of scanning, copying and printing during the event. Tours of the library’s genealogy collection will be available.

Registration is required for this event and can be done by phone or in person at the library’s Research and Reading Desk. Details may be found at: https://bit.ly/3xemNhk and at: https://www.scpld.org/.

Historian Jessica Marie Johnson leads several teams tapping into the power of datasets to uncover new truths about Black history. Black Beyond Data is part of an occasional series that highlights Johns Hopkins faculty whose work examines issues around racial inequity, discrimination, and structural racism.

On a spring day in 1751, Charlotte, an enslaved teenage girl, went on a quest to petition the wife of the governor of Louisiana to grant her freedom. Charlotte had become acquainted with a ship captain recently arrived from Martinique, Sieur Pierre Louis Batard. He had promised to help Charlotte arrange an audience with the governor's wife, Madame de Vaudreuil.

On this May morning, Batard sent word to Charlotte that de Vaudreuil was willing to meet. Charlotte hurried to Batard's home, but he was not there. She spent the day awaiting his arrival in his house. But as evening arrived, so did a group of soldiers sent by Sr. d'Erneville, the man who both had fathered her and owned her. Charlotte hid under some mosquito netting in Batard's bedroom. When the soldiers discovered her, she asked them to look at the situation from her perspective; she just needed to wait a little longer for Batard to return. Charlotte explained that if they returned her to d'Erneville, he "would have her whipped unmercifully." She even offered them a sum of cash, 100 livres, that she had carried with her.

"Charlotte did more than run away from her father and owner," Jessica Marie Johnson writes in her book, Wicked Flesh: Black Women, Intimacy, and Freedom in the Atlantic World. The book won the 2021 Wesley-Logan Prize from the American Historical Association. It also won the 2020 Kemper and Leila Williams Prize in Louisiana History, among other accolades. "She combined flight, appeal, allyship, and willfulness in her defiant bid to escape bondage. She demanded to be heard."

Telling Black stories

Johnson is an assistant professor in the Department of History at Johns Hopkins and a non-resident fellow at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. She discovered Charlotte's story buried in the Records of the French Superior Council of Louisiana and the Louisiana Historical Center. Charlotte's bravery, quick thinking, and confidence emerge from these records, much as the courageous young woman emerged from her hiding place in the ship captain's room.

This is one of Johnson's passions as a historian. To tell the stories of Black people—particularly Black women—in the Atlantic African diaspora during the centuries of slavery. She highlights the relationships, warmth, and intimacy they created despite the harshest of circumstances, as well as the ways in which they wielded intelligence, creativity, and interpersonal skills to strive for freedom.

But Johnson is equally committed to opening access to the myriad amounts of data that contain information about Black life and Black people, both historical and contemporary. Databases that contain information drawn from records as disparate as the manifest of slave ships, court records, and African American newspapers. She presides over and consults on numerous research projects in which other scholars are mining data sets. Their goal: to discover the lives of Black people who would otherwise be lost to time.

The full story is much longer but you can find it in its entirety at: https://hub.jhu.edu/2022/06/02/black-beyond-data-jessica-marie-johnson/.