Received at the Library

The October 2018 issue of Mass-Pocha describes the annual conference of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Boston.  Thee were several presentations on DNA.  CeCe Moore,described what happened when she got all her relatives to do DNA tests --  she listed an incredible set of coincidences discovered by newly connected long-lost relatives -- rather mind-blowing!  Another presentation tells the tale of a discovery of a presumably unintentional switch of infants at a hospital in the Bronx in 1913.DNA testing is leading to a lot of world-shifting discoveries, use at your own risk!

The cover story in Internet genealogy for Oct./Nov. 2018 reminds us that the Digital Public Library of America is a great place to start for historical background and context for our ancestors' stories.  In addition to texts, there are images, video and sound files, in this union catalog of online resources.  Tools for family history writers are reviewed: Grammarly, GrammarCheck, Cliche Buster, and Passive Voice Detector.  Are you on board with the bullet journal craze?  Using Evernote you can go digital with this method of planning, organizing, and tracking your genealogy research. David Norris explores Naval Muster Rolls, newly available records for researching your naval ancestor.  Sue Lisk explores websites that help identify occupations from the past, in various languages -- cool!  (Do you know what an "iron puddler" is??)  Another article suggests ways to get a picture of your ancestor's financial circumstances, and yet another collects websites with information on indentured servants.