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Announcements
and news 2005
What
Did You Do in the (Cold) War, Daddy?
DNA
bid for US ´founding father´
Seeking
better web searches
Genetic
tests & DNA genealogy
New
articles on this web site
New
book about Swede-Finns in Oregon by the emigrant historian and writer
K-G Olin
Sorenson
proving humans all 'kin' via a DNA database
In
the Storm's eye
Who
discovered the Americas
New
on this site
Where
to Start Family History in This Technological Age
Compiling
Medical Pedigrees
Passport
register updated
New
articles on this web site
Citizens
With Two Passports
New
book: Nine migrants from Ostrobothnia to New Zealand talk about their
experiences
Sign the
GUESTBOOK
& the Guestmap
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The following article is from Eastman's Online
Genealogy Newsletter and is copyright 2005 by Richard W. Eastman.
It is re-published here with the permission of the author. Information
about the newsletter is available at http://www.eogn.com.
What Did You Do in the (Cold) War, Daddy?
If you have relatives in Poland, you now have an opportunity
to perhaps learn more about them than their immediate families
know. A list of 240,000 names of Polish secret agents, informers,
secret service employees, and victims of persecution during
the Communist era was leaked on the Internet in the last few
days and has become an instant hit. Finding a relative's name
there may explain why that person left the country suddenly
or perhaps why that person did not leave when the rest of the
family emigrated.
"Lista Wildsteina" (Wildstein's list) is now available
on many web sites and peer-to-peer file sharing networks and
was made into a searchable database. Along with the good news
for genealogists, there are worries that the list might contain
names of active security agents, still working abroad.
The searchable database is available at http://www.futrega.org/lista.
Of course, the entire site is written in Polish.
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DNA
bid for US 'founding father'
BBC NEWS World Edition Monday, 31 January, 2005, 03:17 GMT
Scientists are looking for the DNA match of a Suffolk man
who established the first English-speaking colony in America
in 1607.
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Seeking
Better Web Searches
Deluged with superfluous responses to online queries, users
will soon benefit from improved search engines that deliver
customized results
By Javed Mostafa
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Scientific American
February 2005 issue
"In less than a decade,
Internet search engines have completely changed how people gather
information. No longer must we run to a library to look up something;
rather we can pull up relevant documents with just a few clicks on
a keyboard. Now that "Googling" has become synonymous with doing research,
online search engines are poised for a series of upgrades that promise
to further enhance how we find what we need."...
| Moneymakers:
Bennett Greenspan
DNA testing crosses paths with genealogy
Houston Chronicle Jan. 17, 2005, 10:44PM
"Bennett Greenspan had hit a dead end. Years of researching
his family tree through records and documents revealed roots
in Argentina, but he ran out of leads looking for his maternal
great-grandfather. After hearing about new genetic testing at
the University of Arizona, he persuaded a scientist there to
test DNA samples from a known cousin in California and a suspected
distant cousin in Buenos Aires."
Firm
matches Icelanders' genetic makeup with region they come from
Test tracking
ancestry to island's geography is part of effort to unravel
human diseases
Nicholas Wade,
New York Times Sunday, January 2, 2005
"An Icelandic company
has developed a genetic test for analyzing where in Iceland
people come from or, if their parents or grandparents came from
different places, how their ancestry is distributed over the
island's 11 geographic regions.
The fine-scale matching
of genetic makeup to geographic origins is made possible by
the surprising immobility of human populations. At least until
the last few decades, people have tended overwhelmingly to live,
marry and die where they were born." San Francisco Chronicle,
CA - Jan 2, 2005
Book
explores DNA's role in genealogy
Lebanon Daily News, PA
- Jan 3, 2005
..."In actuality,
the book is appropriate for both genealogical beginners -- the
primer chapter of family history basics is as clear as the other
parts of the book -- as well as those who merely want to get
up to speed with the impact of DNA on genealogy. "...
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 New
book about Swede-Finns in Oregon
The writer K-G Olin in Jakobstad has recently published a new
book called "Egen lyckas smed". The book, which is in the genre
of popular history, tells about Swede-Finn immigrants in the
state of Oregon focusing on entrepreneurs.
Amongst other things the book tells about the fish wheels of
the Columbia River, about Erickson's Saloon in Portland, about
Coos Bay also known as "Little Kokkola", about the architect
John Wicks, the famous Kankkonen Brothers and many contractors
in Astoria. One chapter in the book goes into the situation
of the females as emigrants.
Half of the 440 pages in the book consists of a name list with
all the Swede-Finns Olin has found in Oregon. The list consists
of about 8.000 names.
"Egen lyckas smed" is Olin's twelfth book. It is available
only in Swedish.
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Sorenson
proving humans all 'kin' via a DNA database
The Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation is building the
world's largest correlated genetic and genealogical database,
its goal to help people with genealogical research, using documented
genetic information.
Deseret News (UT), September 13, 2004.
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Who
discovered the Americas?
Zeeya Merali Nature News Published online: 06 September 2004
Skull analysis suggests Australians got there first.
From the BA Festival of Science, Exeter, UK
"The first colonizers of the Americas came from Australia,
according to archaeologists who have analysed skulls from 12,000-year-old
skeletons found in California. The finding contradicts the traditional
view that the first immigrants were the ancestors of modern
Native Americans."
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Tre generationer
Sonck by Harri Blomberg (In Swedish)
Three generations Sonck . The famous Finnish architect Lars
Sonck had roots in Southern Ostrobothnia
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Tips for genealogy research provided
Joplin Independent. Updated: 2004-08-06 13:56:46-06
Perhaps, no hobby or research effort has benefited more from
the Internet than genealogy, according to David Burton, civic
communication specialist, University of Missouri Extension.
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Compiling Medical Pedigrees
By Judy Florian, former Registered Nurse
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When doctors, nurses, and hospital staff ask about medical history
of a person's family, they are primarily interested in (in this order):
- Your own medical
history
- Both of your parents'
medical history
- Your siblings'
(but not stepsisters or stepbrothers) medical history
- Paternal grandparents'
medical history
- Maternal grandparents'
medical history
Beyond these, medical
histories are not considered as important, although some doctors *might*
ask you to also include:
- Aunts' medical
history (the full sisters of your father and/or mother)
- Uncles' medical
history (the full brothers of your father and/or mother)
- First cousins'
medical history
However, it is unusual
for doctors to ask about the health of your aunts, uncles, and cousins.
Most adults will
know already that the primary organ categories asked about are: Heart,
lung, renal (kidney), pancreas, and liver which cover the primary
large group diseases such as:
HEART: Heart attack
(M.I. myocardial infarction), arrhythmia (abnormal heart rate),
CHF (congestive heart failure), and hypertension (high blood pressure).
LUNG: Asthma, COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), and
tuberculosis.
RENAL: Kidney failure, hypertension (high blood pressure, which
can affect kidney function).
PANCREAS: Diabetes --high blood sugar.
LIVER: Liver failure, etc.
Doctors also ask
for other specific diseases that can affect one or more body organs,
such as:
CANCER (can affect
skin or any organ).
ALCOHOL ABUSE (affects liver and changes blood chemistries).
CHEMICAL ABUSE/DRUG ABUSE (affects liver; can affect blood and other
organs if person has used IV drugs, e.g., "shooting up").
While there are many
diseases that are considered hereditary or to "run in the family,"
there are actually few diseases where it would be any more beneficial
to know more than three generations of history. This means you, your
parents and your four grandparents.
Diseases considered
to be truly genetic include those such as blood diseases (example:
sickle cell -- important to know if there is African American bloodline
in "white" families); blood-clotting deficiencies; rare/true chromosomal
abnormalities like in mental retardation, and "orphan" diseases such
as Noonan's Syndrome. For the true genetic chromosomal diseases or
rare orphan diseases it would be good to know a more extensive history.
For more information on rare orphan diseases see: http://www.rarediseases.org/
So, while it is interesting
for families to know "heart attacks have been frequent in my primary
family line for 150 years," doctors for the most part will still only
be interested in three generations of medical history. Only when there
is a rare diagnosis might an in-depth medical genealogy be worthwhile
-- at least in today's medical world. Possibly in years to come, medical
research will find a useful way to use the medical genealogies that
researchers have compiled -- but authentic medical research must set
certain criteria to have the research be valid, so in fact, our medical
genealogies may end up still only being of interest to genealogy researchers.
One area that will
become increasingly important, however, is the question: did you and
your children have complete series of childhood immunizations? Many
children did not have all or only some immunizations and perhaps booster
shots were skipped. There is discussion now about how boosters only
protect people for X number of years. Americans, for the most part,
do not remember the rampant illness, debility and deaths caused by
communicable diseases such as whooping cough, smallpox, and polio.
Even measles and mumps can kill from opportunistic infections that
can come with a major illness.
So while you are
collecting your ancestors' medical histories, pull out your children's
immunization records and talk to your doctor about what might still
be needed.
Previously published
in RootsWeb Review: 11 August 2004, Vol. 7, No. 32.
The Passport Register
of the Institute of Migration has been updated
10 000 new records added,
the register contains now circa 170 000 records. 29.7.2004
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EMBASSY OF FINLAND, WASHINGTON, D.C., Consulate General of
Finland, New York and Los Angeles
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"Dual citizens - a new resource to Finland. One of them, American-born
Anna Kattan, 28, is a happy Finn since this January.
The largest number
of declarations of all nations have been submitted in the United States
since the new Nationality Act in Finland. Already 644 Americans have
submitted a declaration in order to regain their Finnish citizenship."
 New
book
Harriet Jossfolk & Mikaela Berg: Då
långt borta är hemma. Nio röster om österbottnisk
emigration till Nya Zeeland.ISBN 952-5496-11-2 Scriptum
Förlags AB
"When far away is at home"
Nine immigrants talk about emigration to New Zealand.
Landet
långt borta och nära Vbl 24.04.2004
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Photos & documents. Queries about unidentified
objects & persons in photos:
click at the thumbnails
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