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Nu?
What's New? Gary Mokotoff, Editor Volume 16, Number 42 | November 1, 2015 Every
government puts value on preserving its history. That is why we have
national archives. Genealogy preserves history; the history of a
family. It cannot be done without access to records, just as historians
cannot preserve a nation's history without access to records. It is a
greater good than the right to privacy. It is a greater good than the
risk of identity theft.
Past issues of Nu? What's New? are
archived at http://www.avotaynu.com/nu.htm
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Underlined words are links to
sites with additional information.
Announce Project To Digitize Jewish Council Archives In Europe  A
consortium of seven European archive and research institutes has
received a grant from the Claims Conference for a two-year digitization
project of Jewish Council Archives in Europe. This includes archival
collections of Jewish Councils and Associations in Belgium, Czech
Republic, Finland, Hungary, Poland, Israel and The Netherlands. The
announcement indicated that online access to these documents would be
considered.During the Second World War, Jewish Councils or Associations were established throughout Europe. They functioned as representative bodies for local, regional and national Jewish communities and, as such, were sometimes closely involved by the German occupier in the execution of the extermination policy of the Nazis. Partners in the project are the Hungarian Jewish Archives, Jewish Historical Institute (Poland), Jewish Museum in Prague (Czech Republic), Kazerne Dossin (Belgium), National Archives of Finland, NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies (Netherlands) and Yad Vashem (Israel). NIOD will act as coordinator. The project is expected to be completed in July 2017. Additional information is at http://tinyurl.com/EHRIDigitization. FindMyPast Offers 1939 Register of England and Wales (Census)  FindMyPast
is making the 1939 Register available online starting November 2. The
Register is a census of the population of England and Wales—41
million people—that were taken in September 1939. It contains the
names, addresses and occupations of everyone in England and Wales at
the time, and was used as the basis for rationing, identity cards and,
in post-war Britain, the National Health Service. The fee-for-service
site is located at http://www.findmypast.co.uk/. A description on how to search the Register can be found at http://tinyurl.com/FMP1939Register.GenealogyIndexer.org Now Has Indexed 207 Yizkor Books  GenealogyIndexer.org
now has indexed the contents of 207 yizkor books. They also have added
transliteration of Latin letters into Hebrew, so it is unnecessary to
know the Hebrew spelling if searching for a surname. When there are
results, there are links to the exact page of the online yizkor book
collection at the New York Public Library at http://www.nypl.org/collections/nypl-recommendations/guides/yizkorbooks. After going to the GenealogyIndexer home page at http://GenealogyIndexer.org, change the “any Collection” drop-down menu to “Yizkor Books” and the “No Transliteration” option to “Add Latin -> Hebrew” if you are providing the Latin-letters equivalent of the surname. If providing the Hebrew characters, leave the drop-down menu at “No Transliteration.” In addition to trying the transliteration scheme, if you know the correct Hebrew spelling, also search using the correct Hebrew characters because transliterations can give false positives. Searching for “Mokotow,” in addition to locating information about family members, also provided results for the Hebrew word “write.” Also note that the Yiddish spelling of a surname may differ from the Hebrew spelling, so two searches may be necessary. A list of currently available yizkor books is at http://genealogyindexer.org/yizkor. 23andMe Now Includes Reports That Meet FDA Standards  The
DNA service, 23and Me, has made peace with the U.S. Food & Drug
Administration (FDA). In 2013, FDA sent a warning letter to the company
stating, “...you are marketing the 23andMe Saliva Collection Kit
and Personal Genome Service (PGS) without marketing clearance or
approval in violation of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (the
FD&C Act).” The letter continues with justification why the
23andMe website statements fall under the scrutiny of FDA, and why the
results of the DNA testing may lead customers to come to wrong
conclusions (false positives or false negatives) about the results
provided.23andMe now reports they are the “first and only genetic service available directly to you that includes reports that meet FDA standards.” Existing customers can now access redesigned versions of many of the same health and ancestry reports that they previously received. The full announcement is at http://mediacenter.23andme.com/blog/2015/10/21/new-23andme/. Australia Joins “Right To Be Forgotten” Proponents Jan Meisels Allen, Chairperson, IAJGS Public Records Access Monitoring Committee, reports that Google lost a case in Australia where a person sued Google for indexing a number of online reports that were defamatory to the person. The Supreme Court of South Australia agreed that Google can be held liable for the content and should be considered the “publisher” of the content. Long Form Canadian Census May Return. Meisels Allen also notes that the election of a new prime minister in Canada may signal the return of long-form census. It was a campaign promise of newly-elected Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The long-form census was cancelled in 2010—citing privacy concerns—in favor of a voluntary (opt-in) National Household Survey (NHS). The survey did not have the desired response rate. The last NHS was held in 2011 and had a 69% response rate vs. 94% of the last mandatory long-form census in 2006. Additional information is at http://tinyurl.com/LongFormCensus. Read More Records Access Alerts. Jan Meisels Allen is a prolific writer on records access matters. Nu? What’s New? does not publish all of her announcements, especially those that are specific to a region with a small Jewish history. If you would like to receive all her postings, register at http://lists.iajgs.org/mailman/listinfo/records-access-alerts. In addition to your name, registration requires the name of an Organization. Use “Nu? What’s New?.” You will receive an e-mail response that you have to reply to for the subscription to be finalized. To access the archives of the IAJGS Records Access Alerts, go to: http://lists.iajgs.org/mailman/private/records-access-alerts/. You must be registered to access the archives. FamilySearch Add 1 million Records This Week 
A list of recent additions to FamilySearch, 1M indexed records and images, can be found at http://tinyurl.com/FamilySearch102615.
This site provides direct links to the individual collections. They
include records from Argentina, Brazil, Czech Republic, Dominican
Republic, El Salvador, Ukraine (church records) and the U.S. state of
Montana. Note that at the website, announced collections may not be complete for the dates specified and will be added at some later date. Also note that counts shown in the announcement are the number added, not the total number available in the collection, which can be greater. FamilyTreeWebinars.com Now Has 275 Genealogy Courses  FamilyTreeWebinars,
a producer of online webinars for genealogy, now has a backlog of 275
courses that are available by subscription. They include a combined
1,203 pages of instructors' handouts. The company also has a policy of
offering new webinars for free if watched live when they are first
presented. The planned programs for November can be found at http://familytreewebinars.com/upcoming- webinars.php. One is “Mapping Madness” presented by Ron Arons, a member of the JGS of San Francisco and frequent lecturer at Jewish Genealogical Societies and annual conferences. The lecture will teach where to find historical maps online and off and discover mapping tools that help understand our ancestors' migration patterns. Included will be such map sources as Google Maps, Bing Maps, MapCruncher, AniMap, etc. Courses can be viewed on computers, smart phones, tablets or other mobile devices. Additional information is at the company’s website: http://FamilyTreeWebinars.com. Ancestry Mexico Launches With More Than 220 Million Records 
Ancestry has a new website—http://ancestry.com.mx—designed
for Mexicans and Mexican Americans. It is completely in Spanish. Any
subscriber who considers his/her native tongue to be Spanish may want
to consider this version of Ancestry. The company stated the site
includes more than 220M searchable historical records from Mexico,
including new birth, marriage, and death records dating back to the
1500s. In celebration of Dia de los Muertos, Ancestry will provide free access to these new records through November 2. Morse Site Helps Search Canadian and British Censuse The Stephen P. Morse One-Step site recently added the 1921 Canadian census to its collection of Canadian and British censuses that can be searched from this portal. The site now includes: • 1851–1921 Canadian Census • 1881 Canadian Census • 1901 Canadian Census • 1841–1901 British Census • 1901 British Census They can be accessed at http://stevemorse.org/#canadian. Those entries preceded by a dollar sign ($) indicate complete information requires a paid subscription to the host site; in this case Ancestry.com. NEHGS Offering Free Access to Cemetery Databases Through November 7  The
New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) is offering access at
no charge to their collection of American cemetery databases accessible
through November 7. Some are specifically Jewish, namely:• American Jewish Historical Society – New England Archives: Jewish Cemeteries in Massachusetts • Charleston, South Carolina: Inscriptions in Old Jewish Cemeteries, 1762–1903. The site is located at http://www.americanancestors.org/free-cemetery-databases. Registration is required. It appears not to be possible to search all cemetery databases at one time. The one database outside New England other than the Charleston one mentioned above is for Brooklyn cemetery inscriptions. It contains no information for Jewish cemeteries. Holocaust Center for Humanity Opens in Seattle If you are planning to attend the annual IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy in Seattle this summer, be aware there is a new Holocaust museum in the city. The Henry and Sandra Friedman Holocaust Center for Humanity is located at 2045 2nd Avenue in Seattle. Their opening hours are limited: Wednesdays, 10:00am–4:00pm; 1st and 3rd Sundays, 10:00am–4:00pm. Their website is at http://www.holocaustcenterseattle.org/.
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