From Elsewhere

Articles and sources from elsewhere online that may just be of interest to readers of this blog.

• From the New York Times, March 25, 2019: "A Colonial Era Cemetery Resurfaces in Philadelphia." Remains buried at Philadelphia's First Baptist Cemetery were supposed to be removed and reburied back in 1860, but recent construction work at the old site as found that that did not happen.

• On March 12, 2019, Family Tree DNA (FTDNA) updated their Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. When you sign in to your account at FTDNA you will see this notice in an orange box with white print at the top on the left side (at least on a laptop). A good part of this update is in response to the public relations stumble on FTDNA's part over allowing law enforcement agencies access to customer's test results and personal information. If you have an account with FTDNA you should read this. There is now an opt-out option for those who do not wish for law enforcement agencies to have unfettered access to one's data. As the Legal Genealogist says, it's "A good start by FTDNA," but I'm in agreement here, the option should be to opt-in, and not to have to opt-out. This article in The Atlantic from March 29, explains how FTDNA went from not so much as mentioning their relationship with law enforcement agencies to their customer base to outright advertising it as a benefit for taking a DNA test with their company.

• There is a new genetic genealogy book published March 20, 2019. Advanced Genetic Genealogy: Techniques and Case Studies, Debbie Parker Wayne, editor. Here is the link to it at Amazon (please note - I do not receive any compensation from Amazon or any other commercial site that I might link to, or direct people to). I'm sure it can be found elsewhere as well. I have not read it, so I can't review it. I only hope that an e-book version becomes available at some time. Here's a bit on the book from Cruwys News, and here is more detailed overview from Genea-Musings.

• From the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society website, March 15, 2019 - New York Divorce Records for Genealogical Research, by Frederick Wertz. An overview of divorce in New York starting in the colonial period and then afterwards. Some nice links are embedded here. This is an area that is often overlooked by researchers.

•  And from beyond the world of genealogy - Fifty years ago, 1969, the Amazin' Mets won the World Series. The New York Times has a multi-article tribute to this, the greatest team story in the history of baseball. I was ten years old in 1969. Shea stadium was just a few stops towards the city on the Port Washington line of the L.I.R.R., a direct route, no changes (you had to take the L.I.R.R. to Penn Station and then a subway up to the Bronx to go to Yankee Stadium). This is the age when you get hooked. Baseball was made for ten year olds and present day MLB, which doesn't seem to realize this, would do well to focus on them more. A graphic (Comparing the Series )towards the end of this segment illustrates just how baseball has changed, and not for the better, since 1969. The games were played in the afternoon, when baseball should be played. And they were about 2 hours and 20 minutes in duration compared to over 3 hours, sometimes approaching 4 hours for nine innings in 2018. We watched all the League Championship games and the World Series games in our fifth grade classroom on the big black and white TV (we even stayed a little late to watch the end of the games). One of our classmates got to go to game 5 and came in the next day with a piece of sod from the field in a shoebox. Yes, ten years old is a ripe time for initial impressions. This New Yorker has always been a Mets fan, and although 1969 has never been matched, I don't expect it to be, and that's fine with me. It can't be. It was just too Amazin', and thanks to the NY Times we'll always have it.

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