Nu? What's New? Vol. 20 No. 38

Underlined words are links to sites with additional information.

Talk to Friends and Relatives After They Die
Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter reports that a company in California named Here After has announced it is working on an Alexa-style “bot” that uses artificial intelligence software to let people “talk” with deceased friends and relatives. The device uses voice recordings made before a person dies to create the bot. Loved ones later can talk, joke, and reminisce with the bot, as if the friend or relative is still alive.

Additional information can be found at https://blog.eogn.com/2019/09/23/talk-to-friends- and-relatives-after-they-die/.

Claiming the Holocaust Never Happened Is Not a Form of Freedom of Expression

Jan Meisels Allen, Chairperson of the IAJGS Public Records Access Monitoring Committee, reports that the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that denying the Holocaust ever happened is not a form of freedom of expression protected under the European Human Rights Convention. The Court ruled in the case of Udo Pastoers who suggested in a 2010 speech that the Holocaust never occurred. The Court stated that Pastoers was fairly convicted against intentional defamation of Jewish people under Germany’s laws. His complaint that he was denied a fair trial in Germany was also rejected by the Court.

Additional information is at https://tinyurl.com/HolocaustDenierRuling.

23andMe Adds More Precise Ancestral Regions as Well as Family Tree Builder

23andMe has announced they are adding new populations in South Asia, North Africa and western Asia to their ancestral DNA analysis bringing the total number of regions covered worldwide to more than 1,500. For example, what was previously the “Broadly South Asian” population will now be broken into seven more granular populations: Central Asian, Northern Indian & Pakistani, Bengali & Northeastern Indian, Gujarati Patidar, Southern Indian Subgroup, Southern Indian & Sri Lankan and Malayali subgroup.

23andMe has also added a feature that builds a family tree based on DNA shared between you and other 23andMe subscribers. Customers will also be able to add names to the family tree whether or not those individuals have been tested by 23andMe. As the 23andMe database grows, customers may see their trees expand.

For additional information, see https://tinyurl.com/23andMeTree.

FamilyTreeDNA Forms Investigative Genetic Genealogy Unit

FamilyTreeDNA’s parent company, Gene by Gene, has appointed genetic genealogist Dr. Barbara Rae-Venter as director of its newly formed Investigative Genetic Genealogy Unit. Dr. Rae-Ventner is recognized for her groundbreaking work in the Golden State Killer case. She was named one of Time's 100 most influential people of 2019, and Nature’s 10 people who mattered in science.

Dr. Rae-Venter stated, “Their willingness to work with law enforcement to help solve the most violent of crimes, through crime scene DNA matching, takes great corporate courage. I am honored to be part of the Gene By Gene team as we forge the future for investigative genetic genealogy and a safer society.” Gene by Gene notes that the success of investigative genetic genealogy has been demonstrated in more than sixty arrests of suspected murderers and rapists since the Golden State Killer break in April of 2018.

The complete announcement can be found at https://tinyurl.com/FTDNAIGGU.

23andMe Lowers Cost of DNA Tests
In a rare move, 23andMe has lowered the costs of their autosomal DNA testing service by $20 and the health and ancestry service by $50.

Costs for autosomal testing by the major DNA testing services now are:
23andMe. $79. Offer ends October 15.
Ancestry. $99. Regular price.
Family Tree DNA. $79. Regular price.
MyHeritage. $79. A $59 offer expires today, October 6.

FamilySearch Adds Nearly 5M Records This Week

A list of recent additions to FamilySearch, nearly 5M indexed records, can be found at https://tinyurl.com/FamilySearch093019. Almost all of the records are church related. Exceptions are two additions: France, Gironde, Civil Registration (1696–1912); and Illinois, Kane County, Elgin, Gail Borden Public Library District, Local Newspaper Obituary Digital Index (1922–2017).

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.

New Collections at Ancestry.com
The only new items at Ancestry this week were updates to their FindAGrave collection.

Do You Subcribe to AVOTAYNU?

Each year AVOTAYNU publishes more than 300 pages of useful, interesting information about Jewish family history research that can help you in your research. Now in its 35th year, an index to the first 24 volumes is available to all the major articles.

Published quarterly, our contributing editors from 15 countries throughout the world regularly gather important information that appears in our issues. Our publishers, Gary Mokotoff and Sallyann Amdur Sack, are on a first name basis with officials at institutions containing genealogical data throughout the world. Some institutions are U.S. National Archives, U.S. Library of Congress, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Leo Baeck Institute, Yad Vashem and Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People.

Subscribe now at http://www.avotaynu.com/journal.htm.