Nu? What's New? Vol. 21 No. 10

Underlined words are links to sites with additional information.

“Deciphering Jewish Gravestones”

Philip Trauring has written an extensive (8,000 word) article on deciphering the Hebrew words and abbreviations that appear on Jewish tombstones. It is a sequel to his article on Jewish gravestone symbols published a number of years ago.

His article starts with the parsing of the Hebrew inscription on a specific tombstone. Provided is the Hebrew word, its transliteration and translation. This is followed by the complete Hebrew alphabet giving each letter’s name and English letter equivalent. Then Trauring identifies letters of the Hebrew alphabet that are easily confused because they look alike.

This is yet another major contribution Trauring has made to Jewish genealogical research. His Compendium of Jewish Genealogy is an encyclopedic list of resources for Jewish genealogy and history for just about every country in the world (Example: Samoa has two references). It contains more than 25,000 resources for pursuing Jewish genealogy research in more than 200 countries and territories.

The "Deciphering Jewish Gravestones" article can be found at https://bloodandfrogs.com/ 2020/03/deciphering-jewish-gravestones.html.

“DNA Testing Kits: What Are The Privacy Risks?”
Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter notes an extensive article on the internet about DNA testing and privacy.

Subsections include:
• Who owns the data?
• When HIPAA and other health privacy regulations don’t apply
• What about other legislation, like the GDPR?
• Unexpected consequences: when your DNA affects your insurance
• Are your parents who they say they are?
• Your privacy vs. the privacy of your family
• Using commercial DNA tests to catch a killer
• More law enforcement access on the rise
• Why is law enforcement of DNA an issue?
• DNA on the dark web: hackers want in too
• Tip of the iceberg

The article can be found at https://tinyurl.com/DNAPrivacyRisks.

Ancestry and MyHeritage Allowing Access to Irish Records
Both Ancestry and MyHeritage are allowing access to their Irish records collection in recognition of St. Patrick’s Day. The Ancestry offer ends March 18. The MyHeritage offer ends March 22. Find the Ancestry collection https://tinyurl.com/AncestryIrishOffer. The MyHeritage link is https://tinyurl.com/MHIrishC.

2020 U.S. Census Has Gone Digital

The U.S. census has gone digital. It expects the primary source of information about each household in the country to be answered by a census form that appears online. Those who do not respond will receive a form in the mail.

There are only seven basic questions asked about each member of the household:
• Name
• Does this person usually live or stay somewhere else?
• How the person is related to the head of household
• Sex
• Age and date of birth
• Is this person of Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin?
• Race

For the household:
• How many people were living or staying in this house?
• Were there any additional people staying here on April 1, 2020 that you did not include in Question 1?
• Is this a house, apartment, or mobile home?
• Telephone number

That’s it!

The form can be seen at https://tinyurl.com/USCensusForm2020.

School Records As a Source for Family History Information
Have you considered school records as a source of information about family members? School yearbooks have been known as a source, but there are many more school records, such as enrollment, attendance and grade reports.

The Ancestor Hunt has a list of websites that provide such documents at no charge. They can be found at https://www.theancestorhunt.com/school-records.html.

Latest DNA Prices
Here are the latest prices.

23andMe. Ancestry + Traits Services $99. Regular price.
Ancestry. $59. Discount ends March 18.
Family Tree DNA. $59. Discounts on other services. Discounts end March 17.
MyHeritage. $59. Offer ends March 18.

FamilySearch Adds 1M Records This Week

A list of recent additions to FamilySearch, 1M million index records, can be found at https://tinyurl.com/FamilySearch030220. This site provides direct links to the individual collections. Chile, Colombia, Dominican Republic, England, France, Ireland, Jamaica, Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico, Sierra Leone, South Africa and United States.

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

Ancestry has added/updated the following record groups at their site. The list with links to individual collections can be found at https://www.ancestry.com/cs/recent-collections. Announced collections may not be complete for the dates specified and will be added at some later date. There is also no indication of how many records were added to the updated collections.

New Collections
Ireland, Petty Session Court Registers, 1818–1926
Ireland, Prison Registers, 1790–1924
Irish Emigrants in North America,1775–1825
Maine, Faylene Hutton Cemetery Collection, 1780–1990
Maine, J. Gary Nichols Cemetery Collection, ca. 1780–1999
Maine, Nathan Hale Cemetery Collection, 1780–1980
Maine, Piscataquis County, Deed Books, 1838–1902
Maine, Tombstone Inscriptions, Surname Index, 1718–2014
Maine, Veterans Cemetery Records, 1676–1918
Maine, York County, Probate Estate Files, 1690–1917
Victoria, Australia, Battle to Farm, 1919–1935
Web: Belfast, Northern Ireland, Burial Indexes, 1869–2011
Web: U.S., Congressional Medal of Honor Society Recipients, 1839–2012

Updated Collections
Massachusetts, Boston Archdiocese Roman Catholic Sacramental Records, 1789–1900
New York, New York, Index to Birth Certificates, 1866–1909
Ohio, Birth Index, 1908–1998
Ohio, Death Records, 1908–1932, 1938–2018
UK, WWII Royal Artillery Tracer Cards, 1939–1948

Additions to FindMyPast This Week

Additions to the FindMyPast collection this week are:
• British Army, Women's Army Auxiliary Corps 1917–1920. Women who served during the First World War.
• British Armed Forces, First World War Disability & Retirement Payments For Officers and Nurses
• England & Wales Government Probate Death Index 1858–2019. More than 9M records added to this collection.

Additional information, including links to the databases can be found at https://tinyurl.com/FMPweek10.

A Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from Italy, France and “Portuguese” Communities

Avotaynu has just published Dr. Beider’s second book on surnames of the Mediterranean region: A Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from Italy, France and “Portuguese” Communities. His first book of the Mediterranean region is A Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from Maghreb, Malta and Gibraltar, published by Avotaynu in 2017.

Why “Mediterranean region” rather than “Sephardic.” Because Dr. Beider has the preciseness of a person who got his first doctorate in Applied Mathematics. He notes that the surnames of the region include names based on Arabic, Judeo-Arabic, Berber, Hebrew, Aramaic, Spanish, Judeo-Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and French. There are also Ashkenazic surnames in the region.

The book is 882 pages, hardcover. Cost is $89.00 plus shipping. Addtional informaton, including the Table of Contents and sample entry, can be found at http://www.avotaynu.com/books/Italy.html.