Blog Content
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Ancestry Survey Reveals Americans Know Little About Mom’s Past
May 1
Ancestry, the leader in family history, released survey findings that revealed Americans may have a blind spot about what their parents’ lives were like before parenthood. In fact, only 37% are familiar with their mother’s life before having them - yet, an overwhelming majority of moms (79%) are willing to share their stories. Despite t...
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New York’s Hart Island Is Becoming A Park
Apr 25
Hart Island was once a penal colony, and it has been run since the 19th century by New York’s jail system, which used inmate gravediggers and kept it off limits until 2021, when the city transferred the island over to the parks department, The New York Times reported. Now, in a remarkable break with the decades-old policy of keeping...
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MyHeritage Has New Look for Historical Records
Apr 20
We’re pleased to announce that we enhanced the look of the category and collection pages on MyHeritage’s search engine for historical records, making them easier to use. This continues a redesign that started several years ago. On MyHeritage, historical records are arranged in categories, for example Birth, Marriage and Death, Census, I...
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23andMe Discusses COVID-19 Three Years Later
Apr 18
In early March 2020, the World Health Organization declared we were in the middle of a worldwide pandemic. Three years later, and few things left untouched by the COVID-19 virus. Almost seven million people worldwide have died, and untold millions are still struggling with long COVID. Yet, looking at all that has happened and continues to tran...
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California’s Reparations Task Force Will Debate Eligibility
Apr 13
California’s Reparation Task Force will is examining the historic harms of slavery and anti-Black racism in California. Last summer, the task force released a preliminary report (PDF) detailing California’s history of enslavement and its many decades of discriminatory policies - in housing, education, health care, criminal justice and othe...
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23andMe Knows You’re Special
Apr 11
23andMe knows that you are special. But you might be even more special than any of us suspected, and we want to learn a little more about that. 23andMe’s unique research model allows our scientists to leverage data from millions of customers who consent to participate in our research. This gives data at unprecedented scale to reveal more ...
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FamilySearch’s Top 30 Country Record Collection Expansions in 2022
Apr 6
Hundreds of millions of new searchable genealogy records from 30+ countries. Just in case you missed it, FamilySearch finished 2022 with an amazing number of new, free, fully-searchable genealogy records online. Over 420 million indexed records were added to 30 free online country collections, and millions more were added to over 100 more new ...
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Ancestry Shares Corporate Responsibility Progress
Apr 4
Ancestry, the global leader in family history published its second annual Impact Report, detailing the company’s corporate responsibility approach and announcing progress against goals in three core areas: ethical business practices; diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI); and community impact. Demonstrating a commitment to a better future, ...
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A Property Flipper Bought A Black Cemetery
Mar 28
The city of Tampa had a plan for taking ownership of the abandoned Memorial Park Cemetery, which they had been maintaining since the owner died in 2018, Tampa Bay Times reported. They placed a lien on the 104-year-old Black cemetery for what they were owned for maintenance, knowing it would be foreclosed upon and then available for them to ...
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California’s Reparations Task Force Could Implement A Freedman’s Bureau
Mar 23
California’s Reparations Task Force has concluded its two-day public meeting geared toward compensating Black Americans affected by the legacy of slavery. But the nine-member body is a long way from the finish line, The Sacramento Bee reported. The panel has until July 1, 2023, to submit a final report to the California Legislature. In th...
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Ancestry Launches Storymaker Studio
Mar 21
Ancestry, the global leader in family history and consumer genomics, announced the launch of Storymaker Studio, a new feature in the Ancestry app that easily allows users to create bite-sized stories from their family history and share them within the Ancestry community and on their personal social media channels. Now, with Storymaker Studio, ...
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Parkinson’s Disease And The Microbiome
Mar 16
The human body plays host to trillions of microbes - such as bacteria, archaea, and fungi - collectively called the microbiome. Over the past few decades, it has become abundantly clear to the scientific community that the microbiome plays an essential role in our development, physical health, and mental well-being. This latter connection, ...
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MyHeritage Launches 3rd DNA Quest Initiative
Mar 14
It gives us great pleasure to announce the launch of a third installment of DNA Quest, our worldwide pro bono initiative to reunite adoptees with their birth families through genetic testing. As part of this installment, we are donating 5,000 free DNA kits to adoptees and people seeking family members placed for adoption. Learn more and app...
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Ancestry Celebrates 40 Years of Family History Discovery
Mar 9
At RootsTech 2023, the world’s largest genealogy conference, Ancestry celebrated 40 years of empowering research and personal discovery through family history. Over the past four decades, Ancestry has advanced family history though product innovations, record collections and genomic discoveries. Largest Content Collection in History Si...
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23andMe Adds 43 More Genetic Groups
Mar 8
23andMe has added finer detail for customers to improve our Ancestry reports and features. This update is part of our continuing effort to improve Ancestry reports and features. It will also allow customers with ancestry from those regions to see connections back to 43 genetic groups - 29 in Spain (including the Canary and Balearic ar...
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