A Cow’s Moo Killed a Child and Other Strange Victorian Deaths – So many strange ways to go.

Hierarchical Index of Verbs and Objects in Historic Coroners’ Inquests – In case you were wondering how people died in London in the late 1700s. Also, a useful index approach for those doing locality-based research or studying particular clusters of people in general.

ACPL’s Curt Witcher honored with National I Love My Librarian Award – So well deserved! He’s earned it a thousand times over. And it’s just like Curt Witcher to donate his prize to Allen County Public Library’s Genealogy Center’s gift fund.

Fun day over on Threads seeing our European genie friends joining! Used AI to make this to welcome them:

Top Photo Credit: Alan Cleaver under Creative Commons license

The post Genealogy Roundup, December 20 appeared first on Megan Smolenyak.

Introducing the New Jersey Geographic Birth Index, 1901-1929 – Hey, y’all, this is a BIG deal for those with New Jersey roots (like yours truly)! If you can, please consider making a donation to Reclaim the Records to support this kind of genealogical magic!

Top Photo Credit: Public Domain

The post Genealogy Roundup, December 1 appeared first on Megan Smolenyak.

How to Help Librarians and Archivists From Your Living Room – A few ways to volunteer your time if you’re at home and not working

Louise Penny April Newsletter – I know many of my fellow genealogists are Louise Penny fans, so I thought I’d share her newsletter for those who haven’t subscribed yet

Haven’t asked this question in ages, but I’m curious. What’s the most extreme thing you’ve done in your quest to learn about your roots? For me, it was DNA testing a Rusyn/Slovak village back in 2004 before anyone else was doing geographic projects. What about you??

Photo Credit: Arlington National Cemetery | Public Domain

The post Genealogy Roundup, April 1 appeared first on Megan Smolenyak.

10 Years Ago, DNA Tests Were The Future Of Medicine. Now They’re A Social Network — And A Data Privacy Mess. – “You might be comfortable with all of this. You might not. You should definitely think about it because when the information is your own DNA, there really is no such thing as “de-identified” data.”

Photo Credit: Mike Steele under Creative Commons license

The post Genealogy Roundup, December 18 appeared first on Megan Smolenyak.

William & Mary gets $1M grant to research links to slavery – So that’s Georgetown, University of Virginia, and William & Mary so far. Who else?

Soldier Accounted For From Korean War (Phy, H.) – So glad that Corporal Herman Raymond Phy has been identified. Had the opportunity to correct some previous research errors and find his relatives. Welcome home, Sir.

Sweden’s ‘Book Boat’ –

5 locations that are special to Irish-Americans in Ireland – I had a little something to do with two of the locations (Moneygall and Cobh) as it happens – not bad!

Mail-in DNA test results bring surprises about family history for many users – This and a number of other interesting stats about genetic genealogy

“About four-in-ten (38%) say they were surprised by what their DNA test results showed about what countries or continents their ancestors came from, while 27% express surprise at what these results indicated about their ancestors’ racial or ethnic background.”

The post Genealogy Roundup, August 7 appeared first on Megan Smolenyak.

Front Porch: Making eye contact connects generations

Photo Credit: Tunde Dugantsi

The post Genealogy Roundup, December 26 appeared first on Megan Smolenyak.

Scranton native killed in 1944 identified, will be buried Sept. 26 – Welcome home, Pfc. Willard Jenkins. Honored to have researched your family.

Here’s what’s new on Findmypast – Hey, genealogy peeps with any Catholic heritage, this is kind of a big deal – especially if you have Baltimore or NYC roots.

Nevada woman has new reason for hope on MIA/POW Day – Briana Erickson and I spoke for over an hour as part of her research for this article. Am delighted to be included.

Stop Everything, Check out this Forgotten Library For Sale – If I lived in Indiana, it would be hard to resist this!

Russian hackers no match for digital archivist – Tom Tryniski is even more amazing than we all thought.

Photo Credit: U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Michael O’Neal

The post Genealogy Roundup, September 26 appeared first on Megan Smolenyak.

Pentagon identifies Tuskegee Airman missing from World War II – So, so honored to have had the opportunity to research the family of Tuskegee airman Capt. Lawrence E. Dickson. Welcome home, Sir.

He found 15 books in a Sierra dumpster. Then he found out they belonged to Thomas Jefferson. – Check those dumpsters, y’all!

In a Historic Building, Your Feet Might as Well Be Jackhammers – An aspect I hadn’t given a lot of thought to before. Delighted that they featured the Tenement Museum, one of my favorites!

Photo Credit: DPAA | Taken by Staff Sgt. James Thompson

The post Genealogy Roundup, August 1 appeared first on Megan Smolenyak.

Ian McKellen reflects on being ‘the last McKellen’ during appearance on Who Do You Think You Are? – He’s the last in the McKellen line, but he’s a memorable last

Colonial America Tavern Signs Collection – So this evening, I might just get nimptopsical…

Family Fight Over WWI Medal of Honor Recipient’s Grave Goes to High Court

The Vast Library of Congress Card Catalog Is Gathering Dust in the Basement – “Despite the advent of the internet, Library of Congress employees fought hard to keep the old cards around as a backup.:

Good for them!

A Letter from Langston Hughes regarding Sgt. Henry Johnson – 1958 letter from Langston Hughes re: Henry Johnson who finally received Medal of Honor for WWI in 2015.

Derry women discover heirlooms of heroic aunt who defied the Nazis and died in Auschwitz

Photo Credit (Gustave Eiffel’s secret apartment): Serge Melki under Creative Commons license

The post Genealogy Roundup, February 1 appeared first on Megan Smolenyak.

Alt-right trolls are arguing over genetic tests they think “prove” their whiteness – As someone who’s been playing with DNA for 16 years, I’m happy to report that these folks are the exception. From my experience, the ones who are most disappointed with their results are those who are 100% anything. That said, it’s both sobering and heartbreaking to see genetic genealogy being used for such purposes.

It’s also interesting (and honestly, sort of a relief) to learn that my half-Slavic heritage makes me non-white in the eyes of these folks. Who knew racism had so many rules?

The post Genealogy Roundup, October 12 appeared first on Megan Smolenyak.