LostCousins again totally free
Until Monday, users of LostCousins can freely initiate contact with people who share their listed relatives.
Interactive maps
Maps, anyone? Interactive Maps is a feature available on Fandom that enables communities to design their own customized maps. It is available to any community that wants to use it.
MediaWiki code updates, August 2024
This week's "ambassador" news was more interesting than usual. But the improvements may take a while to filter through to Fandom.
- "Editors who want to re-use references but with different details such as page numbers, will be able to do so by the end of 2024, using a new sub-referencing feature. You can read more about the project and how to test the prototype.
- "Editors using tracking categories to identify which pages use specific extensions may notice that six of the categories have been renamed to make them more easily understood and consistent. These categories are automatically added to pages that use specialized MediaWiki extensions. The affected names are for: DynamicPageList, Kartographer, Phonos, RSS, Score, WikiHiero. Wikis that ha…
DNA can move sideways
DNA can move from one species to another without human help. The process is called "horizontal gene transfer". A recent article by biology staff writer Yasemin Saplakoglu in Quanta Magazine covered recent discoveries, such as:
- "a gene called BovB has moved from snakes to frogs independently at least 50 times in various parts of the planet"
- "Small snippets of DNA from a mother’s bacteria can hop to the baby’s bacteria through horizontal gene transfers even months after birth"
- (from Popular Mechanics) "By stealing genes, parasites known as horsehair worms gained the ability to control the minds of their insect hosts."
Findmypast is free this weekend 80 years on from D-Day... free* access
"Findmypast is free this weekend
"80 years on from D-Day, honour and share your ancestors' legacies on your family tree. Revive your research with free* access to family tree hints, newspapers and records from 6-10 June."
"' ' ' ' '
"*Terms & Conditions: Free access to Findmypast runs from 10:00 BST on Thursday 6 June to 10:00 BST on Monday 10 June. Almost all of Findmypast's family tree hints, newspapers and records are free to access. The 1921 Census of England and Wales and Tree Search are not included."
I shall be busy with that. --- Robin Patterson (Talk) 21:58, 7 June 2024 (UTC)
DPL and Structured Data with Structured Quotes - June 2024
Recent staff blog post https://community.fandom.com/wiki/User_blog:Lady_Lostris/Technical_Updates:_May_31,_2024 could be of interest to editors knowing a bit about coding and templates. --- Robin Patterson (Talk) 05:33, 1 June 2024 (UTC)
The link will send you somewhere but who?
https://www.google.com/search?safe=active&client=safari&sa=X&hl=en-us&sca_esv=1b97633427c5a4ec&cs=1&sxsrf=ADLYWIJMFdLXlXuaDgfJfQHFmmJ7CbbMCg:1714959803345&q=Marthe+Freo&si=ACC90ny8E30vD16OoPAAI4cStfcliGy35W8UAhb0TsHNc_ISQWmLnHqc3CRxupAXtLSGpPgetcYRHpFHq_gDvGHYKLX27Xwqv5mbLZrFfZkacRfddC8h4CUMSnrthBGiOQ8bWsFHCuM1ZrFq5KHsHLfpB7U6CKcdB4TYFh2heI_oDeWp5aQm4Ky67zEltQ1fa27cfJLH2WjvfGapzU5Z6xvcs_jAY9OOeTy7nwYgHPbuz12HQ-Fk10pMDnavl81VRDGxQApc8vTyaBWJiUzeU6WxN-4uEtF5Ww%3D%3D&ved=2ahUKEwid-IaP8_eFAxVdjYkEHZH1DkQQmxMoAXoECAoQAw&biw=1128&bih=803&dpr=2
find out
Findmypast free collections, April 2024
Family Tree Magazine lists many groups of Findmypast records that can be fully searched by registered members (and anyone can freely register): https://familytreemagazine.com/websites/how-to-search-free-collections-on-findmypast
Wiki managers etc - change, April 2024
From recent technical newsletter: "We are adapting the Wiki Representatives module on Special:Community to meet the new Community Team organization, indicating who is the Community Manager assigned to the wiki instead of a Wiki Representative."
Welcoming new editors
Interesting posting in latest tech news:
[New Experiment] Welcome messages on Message Wall for first-time editors: New editors on wikis will receive an automated message from Fandomstaff thanking them for their contribution and encouraging them to visit Special:Community. While for the duration of the experiment local moderators cannot change the wording of the welcome message, they can edit the content on Special:Community to make sure the wiki’s to-do list is up to date.
Findmypast has advantages - here are tips
For Great Britain and Ireland ancestry, Findmypast is often the best big site to search. Much of it is free. Here's a recent "masterclass" on how to get the best out of it: https://www.lostcousins.com/newsletters2/jun23news.htm#Masterclass
MyHeritage DNA cheaper than ever?
Dick Eastman's recent newsletter advises that MyHeritage DNA kits are now $36. The relevant anonymous article is headed "The MyHeritage DNA Kit Is Now Available for Just $36, Which Is Equal to the Lowest Price Ever".
The website says the price (equal to NZ$64 and about 40% of the regular price) "includes applicable taxes and excludes shipping charges".
Georgia (US) city directories, 2023
Anonymous posting on https://eogn.com/page-18080/13265000 says "Georgia Public Library Service has completed a two year-long project to digitize 214 city directories ... now full-text searchable and freely available in the Digital Library of Georgia."
DNA kit for $36
from 6th to 9th August, 2023, MyHeritage DNA kits are on sale for what may be the lowest-ever price: $36 ($64 in New Zealand) plus shipping! https://www.myheritage.com/dna?utm_campaign=Flash%20DNA%20Sale (Thanks to Dick Eastman for info.)
Apparently extended to November or later.
Canada records briefly free 2023
Noted in a link from Dick Eastman's newsletter:
"As Canada Day approaches, we're thrilled to share that MyHeritage is offering free access to all our Canadian records from June 29 to July 2, 2023! Our vast range of Canadian records includes 176 featuring 103,662,055 records, including immigration documents, military records, census data, and more.
"This limited-time free access provides an unparalleled opportunity for those with Canadian heritage to explore their roots and learn more about their ancestors."
See https://www.myheritage.com/canada-records.
LGBTQIA+
Well, How do I start this blog.
So My Name is George Martin Warren and How did I know that I was GAY.
2009/10
I went to Primary school and I don't remember much but I do remember that A friend of mine went there and one day in year 2.
He stand up and said that he was leaving and My Mum said that I started up and walked to the back of the class room crying and I don't know why.
Maybe back then My mind was say to me "George your gay". I didn't have the words then because I grow up with sign language for 5/6 years old And couldn't be able
to speak until year 2.
2018/19
I went to high school and in year 10/11 I met the newest class mat in my class and went I so him I felt in love with him and so in year 10 for one day of the week we went to college an…
One million active WikiTreers
"Over 100,000,000 people have visited our ancestor profiles over the years, but this is the first time we have had 1,000,000 active WikiTreers at the same time."
(Familypedia is a little way behind.)
Anzac celebration - free records
For Anzac Day: MyHeritage offering free access to all Australia and New Zealand records, 20-25 April! (Thanks to Dick Eastman for alerting us to that.)
LostCousins will be free as a way to celebrate Coronation
From May 1 to May 9 (UK time), LostCousins will be totally free to use. The advantage for members who are currently on the free basic plan is that you will be able to contact members who have registered the same ancestors as you, instead of having to wait for a paying member to contact you. So catch up on your entries in time for the start of the free contact period.
China - genealogy preserved in Shanghai
Dick Eastman's newsletter has revealed that the refurbished Shanghai library has hundreds of Chinese genealogies, many of them illegally saved during a period when the Government wanted to destroy references to the past. See https://eogn.com/page-18080/13164985.
Adair Family
In an effort to demonstrate the full power and potensial of FamilyPedia, for the last few weeks I've gone all out to record as much as possible about one of the my ancestral lines, the Adair Family. This family line is rich in history with a colorful first family member and connections to early European notables of the Medieval Era. and also it demonstrates the many powerful tools of this platform in one place.
Check out the following examples of FamilyPedia at its best:
- Adair Family - History of the Family and list of Notable Adairs, many featured in Wikipedia and elsewhere
- Adair Family Ancestry - Traces the family line to earliest times including English, French, Irish, Welsh, and Scottish Royalty
- Robert FitzGerald (1366-1445) - AKA: Robe…
Very cheap DNA tests, 2022
MyHeritage celebrated Black Friday in 2022 by offering its lowest ever price for DNA kits. $US38, $NZ59 - and free shipping for two or more.
1950 US census free online
MyHeritage has now put most of the 1950 US census online - free to view. Not quite all of it yet, and no indication of whether it will always be free.
Nov 2022 free records from Findmypast
This arrived in my inbox today:
- "Explore more free records than ever before until 14 November
- "Dear Robin,
- "This Remembrance weekend, Findmypast is offering free access to more records than ever before.
- "Discover the military heroes in your family in the largest collection of British Army records anywhere online. Or trace their stories from cradle to grave, with billions of detail-rich family records. ..."
That's rather misleading. It's not just the soldiers' family records. It's almost everything. Website says this:
- "Almost all of Findmypast’s records and newspapers are free to access. The 1921 Census of England and Wales is not included."
Registering with Findmypast is free. It is a great source for UK ancestry. I've gained much from it even outs…
Prepare for MW 1.39
The staff blog has this week reported as follows:
In early 2023, Fandom will be upgrading from MediaWiki 1.37 to MediaWiki 1.39. This continues our commitment to keep MediaWiki, the software that powers Fandom, up to date on a regular basis. This will be our second upgrade (following the jump from 1.33 to 1.37 earlier this year) since the launch of the Unified Community Platform (UCP) in 2020.
There's more explanation at https://community.fandom.com/wiki/User_blog:Brandon_Rhea/Fandom_will_be_upgrading_to_MediaWiki_1.39_in_2023
The free SMW mailing list has had recent postings about MediaWiki 1.39. The most recent:
You can report/document the issues you run into on the SMW issue tracker at
https://github.com/SemanticMediaWiki/SemanticMediaWiki…
Black Death affects us 7 centuries later
The 14th-century plague that killed over a quarter of Europe's population left a genetic legacy. Ancient skeletons have given up their DNA to show that one particular gene greatly increased people's chance of survival. "Survival of the fittest" strikingly illustrated. The proportion of 21st-century people with that gene is distinctly higher than in pre-plague times. See https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/477234/black-death-700-years-ago-affects-your-health-now and https://www.nhpr.org/2022-10-19/black-death-survivors-gave-their-descendants-a-genetic-advantage-but-with-a-cost for details. And rats were probably not to blame - rather unhygienic humans - https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/348195/black-death-spread-by-humans-not-rats-study .
LostCousins free till October 10
LostCousins.com is completely free till 10 Oct 2022. That means you can contact people with whom your documented relatives match. (The normal free membership - which every serious family historian should have - allows you only to list your relatives who appeared in various censuses and to hope that a paid member will contact you if there is a match.)
Syntax highlighting warning
From this week's MediaWiki tech news:
"Syntax highlighting is now tracked as an expensive parser function. Only 500 expensive function calls can be used on a single page. Pages that exceed the limit are added to a tracking category..."
2022-07 new MediaWiki version
From the latest tech report - Wikitech-ambassadors mailing list -- wikitech-ambassadors@lists.wikimedia.org - "The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 5 July. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 6 July. It will be on all wikis from 7 July". Does that include us?
Free newspaper access, June 2022
"Dear Robin,
"Hold the front page! Free access to our newspaper archives ends on 6 June."
Findmypast has come up with another free period. Registration is free. Try it! I've never paid a cent or dollar but have acquired heaps of info from that UK company.
100,000,000,free records
Findmypast.co.uk now has over a hundred million free records (and several hundred million that can be searched but not fully examined free most of time).
I have been researching my family for 4years, I always uplift and praise my ancestors. It is so hard to find substantial information. I know alot has gone on in history. I'm just doing my part.
Khan Dracon/I have been researching my family for 4years, I always uplift and praise my ancestors. It is so hard to find substantial information. I know alot has gone on in history. I'm just doing my part.
Samiul Hafiz
Samiul Hafiz (Born 17-10-2000) is an Artist, Graphic Designer, Content Creator, And Video Editor who has been in the Graphic Designing industry since 2017. Samiul Hafiz is a Dhaka-based Artist, Graphic Designer, Content Creator, And Video Editor. The founder of Samiul Hafiz Studio has started Graphic Designing and Video Editing at the young age of 18; he learned various Graphic Design, Music-related strategies, tactics and became a successful Graphic Designer And Music Producer. Career -------- He is also an artist, has published several kinds of music on every music platform. Apart from business, he creates videos, writes blog posts, records podcasts about digital marketing and Blogging use Facebook page, Instagram to teach many valuable …
The FamilyPedia's purpose?
Hello everyone! Sometimes, about this great wiki, I think:
¿Who founded Familypedia? ¿What's the real purpose? ¿When it was founded? ¿Why did they choose family pages? I know, this is so confusing, hope ones reply me . Considering I not edit too many on this wiki, I've heared many about this. ¿How it feels have a wiki with many editors? we have more than 200 pages. We're the 2nd most big wiki (1st, ScratchPad Wiki).
On any time, this will be migrated to the UCP? This wiki uses the old classic editor and doesn't have Discussions. I think many about that. Another question is why doesn't have a Discord server, or, MediaWiki:ImportJS page: I know, the page exists, but all the scripts they imported are broken or archived. Why it doesn't have a …
Meet Fuyad Hasan Bhoyan As A Successful Musician And Entrepenure Of Bangladesh
Fuyad Hasan Bhoyan (born Jan 25 ), is a Bangladeshi singer-songwriter, and music producer. Fuyad is a multi-instrumentalist who taught himself how to play the drums, guitar, bass guitar, piano, and was in his high school band, playing alto, tenor, and baritone saxaphone. Even though he was also musically gifted with a voice to sing, he rarely sang because of his shyness.
Fuyad was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh. At an early age he was immersed in music. His father was and is currently the lead soloist at the church of his upbringing. His father helped to nurture his musical talents, spending countless hours with his son, singing and playing various instruments. At age 2 he first held a drumstick, and at age 5 he became the drummer for the church…
Easter 2021 freebies
"Free access to Ancestry.co.uk this weekend ENDS MONDAY
"LostCousins is FREE for Easter ENDS WEDNESDAY"
Quoted from the email that announces the LostCousins newsletter, which is totally free and gives several handy tips two or three times a month. Check the website - https://lostcousins.com - where I have found "cousins" and started profitable correspondence.
I tried ancestry.co.uk; their "free" was qualified thus:
- "*Free access ends 5 Apr 2021 at 11:59 p.m. To view these records you will need to register for free with Ancestry.co.uk with your name and email address. We will then send you a username and password to access the records. After the free access period ends, you will only be able to view the records in the featured collections usin…
Bio of Rakib Al Hasan
Rakib Al Hasan is a young famous Author, Entrepreneur, Activists, Youth Leader, Politician & Public Figure from Bangladesh. His total publishing book number is seven. His several books are going to be translated in different languages. He also writes in different intellectuals topics in International renowned media. He also works on Youth Leadership field globally. He is serving several International Organisations as Ambassador. He has been awarded so many International award & honour so far.
Harun Ar Rashid Bangladeshi Social Activist
About:
Harun Ar Rashid (Bengali: বইপ্রেমী হারুন-অর-রশীদ; 8 August 1983) is a Bangladeshi social activist. He started a social movement of distributing books for free. He is known as “Alor Ferrywala,” the distributor of light. He was awarded the ‘Prime Minister Award 2001. He spread the word of the book everywhere and promote the maximum of any type of book non commercially & non profitably. So far He has given reviews of hundreds of books which have been able to create a readership. This includes delivering books from house to house, delivering books to saloons & delivering books to various libraries. Also often we arrange tea chats for the author reader which has been creating a strong bond with the people in the book world.
Born:
Harun Ar Ra…
Bangladeshi Social Activist
The world has radically changed due to unprecedented advancement of information technology. There is no denying that human life has become so easier thanks to global digitalization.
People can communicate in every corner of the globe within seconds via internet. Social media such as Facebook, twitter have become daily companion. Youths cannot think a day without internet. Regrettably, they read books less. The spend most of their time on internet. Such trend is surely harmful for future generation.
Drug abuse is now a dangerous social problem in Bangladesh. Youths are getting addicted to drugs posing a devastating effect. In such a situation in the society, Harun Ar Rashid, a book-loving man, is on a mission to enlighten people by distributi…
I was wondering how to add the campaign box to a wiki
I work on a fictional war wiki and want to add campaginboxes and military navigation but whenever I try I just get script errors and broken templates. I was wondering if anyone can help?
- The underlying problem is that Wikia's version of LUA does not have all the features that the Wikipedia version has. This affects the handling of arguments. I see two different solutions:
- You can look through the edit history of the template you are interested in, and copy the last version before the conversion to LUA. This will work for old templates. You could also check Familypedia, and see if we are still using on old version.
- You could copy the template and associated module(s) from Wikipedia, and fix the argument handling code. I think I have got that t…
Roots tech 2021 genealogy conference
See |https://www.rootstech.org RootsTech.org] for to join the World largest family history conference. Because it is virtual it is Free to all to join this year.
S. Prestly Blake - Dies at Age 106 - CoFounder of Friendlys Ice Cream
Stewart Prestly Blake (1914-2021) - died this week at age 106. Eagle scout who founded the famous "Friendly's Ice Cream Parlor" in Springfield, Massachusetts. This successful businessman lived to age 106.
Mohammad Nayem
Mohammad Nayem (Bron 15–06–2002) is an Entrepreneur, Blogger, And Digital Marketer who
has been in the digital marketing industry since 2018
Mohammad Nayem is a Dhaka-based entrepreneur, influencer, digital marketer, Blogger And the founder of Yeager Digital has started digital marketing at the young age of 16, A young digital marketer, entrepreneur and social media influencer Mohammad Nayem breaks all the ads to be a social media sensation and has made it big in the digital marketing space. Nayem started his journey with nothing but happens to be at the top currently in the digital content creator and digital marketing space.
Career
He is also a self published author, has published several books on the subject of digital marketing, personal b…
The moment I find something new on my forefathers:
Pop - This morning was another of those special moments when you find your direct ancestor (my grandfather's grandfather) name on a historical plaque, but it is misspelled (James Rickey = James Richey). The Adair's and Mangum's on here were all immediate cousins & in-laws and they were known to arrive here together in 1857. Adair Spring Monument in Washington, Utah.
LostCousins free till January 18
Thanks to tighter UK lockdowns (where one person in every 50 has COVID-19), Peter Calver has generously extended free subscribership of LostCousins. In normal times non-paying members can only register their ancestors who appeared in any of several censuses, but subscribers (and now anybody before January 19) can initiate contact with other members who share those ancestors - thus finding Lost Cousins.
Quick Guide to Familypedia's powerful Semantic Media Wiki Tools.
We have a new article available to help you see just how powerful FamilyPedia's tools are: Familypedia Introduction to Semantic Media Wiki Tools