THE FED SETS NEW RULES FOR DNA CRIME SOLVING

This was posted a few weeks ago by the US Justice department.

Justice Department sets rules for using genealogy sites to solve crimes

It wants to balance justice with privacy concerns.

Investigators have used genealogy sites to solve a string of cold cases in recent years, but the US hasn't really had a firm stance on how and when to use those sites. There's now a basic framework in place, however. The Justice Department has established interim rules that determine how this forensic genetic genealogy can be used to tackle unsolved violent crimes. Officials portray it as striking a balance between the desire to solve crimes with the protection of privacy and civil freedoms.

The policy generally limits law enforcement to considering genealogy sites when a candidate sample belongs to a possible culprit, or when a likely homicide victim is unidentified. Prosecutors can greenlight the use of these sites for violent crimes beyond murder and sexual assault, but only when the circumstances create a "substantial and ongoing threat" to the public. Agencies can't use the sites unless a sample has first been uploaded to the FBI's DNA profile database and hasn't produced a match. Also, the investigators in the relevant jurisdiction need to have followed "reasonable investigative leads," and case info need to be entered into national databases for missing people and violent criminals.

There's more even after meeting these rules. FBI lab officials have to evaluate the suitability of a sample and suggest "reasonable" alternatives to genealogy sites when possible. The investigators must then agree with prosecutors that genealogy is a suitable option. If they get the go-ahead, they have to explicitly identify themselves as law enforcement to these sites, use only sites that make clear the police have access, keep data as private as possible and obtain consent from third parties before collecting any reference samples. Any analysis on a covertly-obtained sample will require a search warrant, and samples have to be limited to the identification purposes necessary for the case.

If there's a lead, the case holders have to turn back to conventional investigation methods.

Any genealogy profiles and account info will be treated as confidential, and there are tight controls on what happens if a suspect faces charges. If they're charged after a genealogy profile has been entered into an open DNA database, the investigators will have to remove that profile. Samples, profiles and accounts have to be destroyed once there's a verdict, while Department elements have to routinely document instances where genealogy sites were used, including the sites in question and the ultimate outcome.

The temporary policy takes effect November 1st, while a final policy is due in 2020. It's safe to say there's a clear goal at this stage -- the DOJ wants law enforcement to avoid using genealogy sites as much as possible, and leave an extensive record of what happened. It might not completely alleviate privacy concerns, but it could prevent obvious abuses of sensitive genetic data.

Via: CNET

Source: Department of Justice, (PDF)

RULE 6 OF GENEALOGY EXPLAINED

James Tanner in his blog, Genealogy's Star, discusses rule 6 of the Rules of Genealogy.

Expanded Commentary on the Rules of Genealogy: Rule Six

Posted: 26 Sep 2019 07:29 AM PDT

I have slowly been going back to the list of the Rules of Genealogy and writing about each individual rule. There are presently 12 Rules. Here is the current list from my blog post of 19 July 2019. 

• Rule One: When the baby was born, the mother was there.
• Rule Two: Absence of an obituary or death record does not mean the person is still alive.
• Rule Three: Every person who ever lived has a unique birth order and a unique set of biological parents.
• Rule Four: There are always more records.
• Rule Five: You cannot get blood out of a turnip. 
• Rule Six: Records move. 
• Rule Seven: Water and genealogical information flow downhill
• Rule Eight: Everything in genealogy is connected (butterfly)
• Rule Nine: There are patterns everywhere
• Rule Ten: Read the fine print
• Rule Eleven: Even a perfect fit can be wrong
• Rule Twelve: The end is always there

In this post, I am expanding on Rule Six: Records move.

Upon reflection, it is quite easy for even experienced genealogical researchers to find themselves in a situation where they ignore and are trapped by one of these rules. One of the common situations where this rule applies in the United States involves the so-called "burned counties." See "Burned Counties Research." As the FamilySearch.org Research Wiki article points out, "The phrase "burned counties" was first used for research in Virginia where many county records were destroyed in courthouse fires, or during the Civil War."

It is indisputable that records are destroyed by fires and other causes. What is meant by Rule Six is a simple fact, the records you are searching for may have been kept in some other location rather than the particular building, usually a courthouse, that burned down. Record loss is a real problem but it is not an excuse for failing to do systematic and careful research. In almost every case where someone has told me that their ancestors' records were lost in a courthouse fire, the person making this statement has not verified what, if any, records are still available. There is a statement on the FamilySearch Research Wiki page that summarizes what our reaction should be to "burned counties" in particular. The quote is "This is not magic. We cannot make missing records re-appear, but we CAN learn to make progress without them."

Another interpretation of Rule Six refers to the simple fact that records can be moved from their original location and could be found far away and even in a country different than that of their origin. I am writing here about "paper" records. The actual, physical recording of events. This commonly occurs when records are gathered to a "centralized" repository or when people immigrate from country to country or place to place. A good example of this rule is the entire United States Archives and Records Administration. This federal agency has vast warehouses of records parodied in the movie starring Harrison Ford called Raiders of the Lost Ark. Where is the warehouse and how do you gain access to the records?

Jurisdictional boundaries change, people move from place to place, governments rise and fall, all of these and many more conditions can cause specific records to be physically stored in places far removed from their original location. Genealogical research is part art and part science. Finding where records are located is more than simply looking online or referring to an excellent source such as the FamilySearch Research Wiki. Another example. Let's suppose you are looking for an ancestor that worked for a railroad in the United States. Where would you go to find his or her records? The Research Wiki has over 1,500 listings for railroad records. Where are all these records located? They are certainly not all in the same place. How many places do you think you might have to search?

It is true that records move and this rule is one that needs to be taught and emphasized continually.

HOW TO DIGITIZE YOUR FAMILY PHOTOS

how many of your photos and documents are safely digitized? the process used to be a monster task. It's a lot easier now.

Harry Horton posted a description of the process he went through. Then commented how it was easier now.

"Now I just had to get through all the physical photos. There were thousands of them. Feed scanners cost a fortune and flatbed scanners take an awful long time so I put technology to work and decided to scan them using my phone. When I started I had an iPhone 7+ which had a pretty good camera, and using the app Scannable it could straighten and crop the photos so they were virtually ready to process without image editing. Even so the process of “pick up camera, take image, put down camera, move photos to the side, and replace it with the next photo”, was quite long winded and didn’t get the best results. So I built myself a lightbox. A cardboard box, bottom up with a hole cut out in the top(bottom) where I could lay the phone and the camera could look through the hole. Inside the box I used an LED rope light (£10 off ebay) and stuck it to the walls of the box to give the proper illumination and positioned low down to prevent reflections. Then right at the bottom of the box, where the lip touched the table I cut out recesses so images could be fed in from one side and taken out the other. The Scannable app takes a shot whenever it finds a rectangular object in front of it, so I didn’t even need to touch the phone. Position photo in centre of lightbox directly underneath camera, app snaps an image, take photo out and position the next one. This way I could get through one hundred photos in 10-20 minutes. And to be honest the results were pretty damn good. OK, not professional digital archiving, but certainly a lasting family record that could be shared with others.

I worked through the physical photos like this in batches. Once a batch was scanned it was moved into PhotoMill, dated and geotagged then in to Photos and the people tagged before moving on to the next batch. For the older photos it becomes more difficult to know when or where they were taken and all you can do is infer the year and place, but it is still worth trying to date and tag every single one. If you have no idea of the location (such as a studio portrait which many very old photos are) then pick a default location such as the centre of the town where your family historically resided.

I went through a similar process for slides although I had to use a proper scanner for them, I had a Canon 9000F Mk II which did a good job, I also used this for scanning very important photos if I wanted very good quality. Once this was complete I had a full record of 19,000 photos of my whole family for 150 years and right around the globe and by uploading them from Photos to iCloud they are all with me everywhere I go in a portable easily searchable format. The earliest photo on my phone is dated 1853.

Archiving It is now essential that all this work is safely backed up.

Personally, I used my smart phone and a Shotbox (cost about $175) to do digitize many documents when access to scanners wasn't available. Many local public libraries, college libraries, as well as  FamilySearch libraries and Discovery Centers have automatic feed and flat bed scanners. Some also have the ability to digitize slides and negatives.

IF YOU CAN'T READ IT, TRY THIS

This is one way to improve your skill at reading old handwriting. It was posted by  Genealogy Tip of the Day. When It’s Difficult To Read Posted: 23 Sep 2019 08:07 PM PDT I’m transcribing a will from Middlesex County, Massachusetts, in the mid-18th century. The handwriting is difficult to read. One way is to try and force yourself to figure out every word in order and struggle with them without reading the entire document. That’s a mistake–particularly when something is a challenge. Instead try and get as much of it as you can by doing a “relatively quick sweep.” Don’t read too quickly, but get the words you can and move on. Put brackets in those places you can’t immediately read and go forward. Sometimes reading more will help you read earlier parts of the document either because the handwriting is better or the same phrase is repeated to where it “clicks.” Then go back. Try reading it out loud. To build your skills, start with more recent documents and transcribe those. Read transcriptions of other documents. Become familiar with legal terminology and the way things are phrased. Transcription skills are not developed overnight.

HOW IS THIS FILE ORGANIZED

Land, probate and court records may seem disorganized, but they usually are. The secret is finding out how. Genealogy Tip of the Day posted this item.

Genealogy Tip of the Day

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Review That Index and Practice Posted: 19 Sep 2019 09:03 PM PDT When using any handwritten index to local land, court, or probate records for the first time, take some time to familiarize yourself with how it is set up and organized. Indexes can vary from one office to another and the indexing scheme that was used in one location can vary from what’s used in another. Assuming they are all the same can cause you to overlook records. This index from Clinton County, New York, indexed records by the name of the grantor and grantee, but the last names were not just broken up by the initial letter of the first name, they were broken up in to subsections based upon the first and second letters of the last name. A hurried researcher, not familiar with the index might overlook references needed. Another good exercise is to pick one record at random in the record books and then see if it can be found in the index. This section of the index only includes the last names beginning with the letter A and then having a second letter that  appears alphabetically between i and j in the alphabet (notice the A – i – l in the upper left hand corner of the image).

SIGNING OUT OF GOOGLE ISN'T AS EASY AS YOU THINK

If you've used Google on a Library computer and signed out, you may not have been completely signed out. That may sound a bit crazy, but if you sign into Google, It really doesn't want to let you go.

After signing out of Google on one of the Zone office computers, I was surprised the next day to find Google still knew me when I opened chrome. All of the tab settings were mine, not the standard ones. Consequently, the following was created.

HOW TO REALLY GET OUT OF GOOGLE ON LIBRARY COMPUTERS

1. Click EXIT (in upper right corner - 3 dots by photo)
2. OPEN CHROME
3. Click on person image
4. Click on CLOSE ALL WINDOWS
5. Click on 3 dots in the right hand corner of THE PERSON IMAGE in the center of the page
6. Click on REMOVE PERSON 

ANCESTRY TURNS OVER A NEW LEAF

"A New Leaf" is the title of a new TV series by Ancestry on NBC. You may want to check it out,

Posted by Ancestry Team on September 24, 2019 in Website

Hosted by Daisy Fuentes, “A New Leaf” Highlights the Value of Understanding One’s Family History

Set your DVRs and mark your calendars — we have a new television show debuting on NBC!

We heard your feedback: You love “Who Do You Think You Are?” – but also want to see everyday people embark on journeys of personal discovery too. So, we bring you – “A New Leaf”!

Each week “A New Leaf” will follow people on the cusp of key life inflection points, who using family history, genealogy, and sometimes AncestryDNA® analysis will go on a journey of self-discovery and learn from the past while looking to the future. In partnership with Ancestry, Fuentes will join families as they learn the importance of appreciating and understanding their family history and ancestors in order to make important life decisions. 

 We sat down with Jennifer Utley, director of research at Ancestry to learn what it takes to make “A New Leaf” episode come to life.

 “A New Leaf” will be included in the Saturday NBC morning programming block, The More You Know, beginning October 5, 2019.  Please check your local listings.