Evolving Trends in Genealogy
Below are genealogy and family history news stories related to evolving trends. Click on the links for the full articles.
Facebook Announces Tighter Privacy Standards - Facebook announced this week that they were going to implement tighter privacy standards. The announcement came after a year in which Facebook was heavily criticized on multiple fronts for its weak privacy settings. We were part of that criticism as the first genealogy website to warn people in the spring of this year that there were serious privacy concerns with popular genealogy applications on Facebook like We’re Related...{Click here to read the full article}
Regulator Finds Facebook has Serious Privacy Gaps - The world’s largest social networking site has been taken to task over its “serious privacy gaps”. Facebook has become the focus of an investigation by Canada’s Privacy Commissioner. The results of this investigation are likely to have significant implications for genealogy even for those genealogists who do not use Facebook...[More]
Europe Demands Privacy Standards for Social Networking Sites - European privacy regulators issued an opinion this week on how European privacy laws should apply to social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. This comes a week after regulators expressed privacy concerns over the popular genealogy application We’re Related on Facebook. European privacy laws tend to be much more expansive than other parts of the world, including the United States. As a result, European privacy regulators are in many cases setting the standards for privacy on the internet...[More]
Why Kodak Stopped Making Kodachrome Film - The Eastman Kodak Company has announced that it will stop making Kodachrome film and existing supplies are expected to run out by the fall of 2009. The company will be retiring an American icon after a remarkable 74-year career. Kodachrome film was the world’s first commercially successful color film when it was launched in 1935...[More]
Privacy Fears Raised Over Genealogy Application on Facebook - A genealogy application on Facebook has drawn regulatory scrutiny. Facebook, the largest social network in the world, has a popular genealogy application called We’re Related that allows people on Facebook to link to other family members who are also on Facebook. Now, European privacy regulators say We’re Related may be violating people’s privacy because it demands too much personal data...[More]
Obituary Photos are Getting Younger - An interesting genealogy study from Ohio State University suggests that obituary photos are showing a growing bias against aging faces. The study conducted by Keith Anderson, assistant professor of social work at the university and his graduate student Jina Han examined newspaper obituary photos in Ohio over a thirty year period from 1967 to 1997. What they found was that “age-inaccurate” obituary photos had increased significantly since the 1960s...[More]
Evolution of UK Families - The UK Office for National Statistics released a fascinating study that examines social trends in the UK. The focus of the study was the evolution of the UK family. Some of these trends will have a direct impact on genealogy...[More]
Dead Man Elected Mayor - For a genealogist, one of the most difficult things to do is letting go of the legacy of our ancestors. Apparently, this problem extends beyond genealogy as a town in Missouri voted in for mayor a man who had been dead for a couple of weeks...[More]
Why Are Newspapers Dying? - One of the unfortunate aspects of the global economic downturn is that newspapers are folding at an increasing rate. Advertising revenue is down significantly and newspapers are being forced to take significant steps to align their costs with the new economic reality. Is this a concern given the traditional role that newspapers have served as a chronicler of the life and times of our ancestors?...[More]
Waterford Wedgwood Emerges from Bankruptcy - Waterford Wedgwood, the celebrated crystal and ceramic tableware maker, has emerged from bankruptcy with a new lease on life and a radically different approach to business...[More]
Cemetery Theft on the Decline - Grave robbers have been a constant curse of burial grounds for centuries. As attested by warnings against grave robbers on the walls of ancient Egyptian pyramids, stealing from the dead is a practice as old as civilization itself...[More]
The Changing Face of Immigration in America - Genealogists in the US might be interested in a study just released by the US Census Bureau detailing the characteristics of recent immigrants to America. Given that the United States is a country of immigrants, it is interesting to note how much the pattern of immigration has changed over the last two hundred years...[More]
Who Owns Your Online Genealogy Information? - A significant number of genealogists store personal genealogy information online. This raises an interesting question: Who owns the information you post online?...[More]
Genetic Testing of Galileo’s Eyes? - Genetic testing has been a great boon to genealogists who want to trace their family history. Now Italian and British scientists want to use it to potentially rewrite history...[More]
Waterford Wedgwood Goes Bankrupt - Many genealogists are familiar with Waterford Wedgwood, the maker of fine crystal and luxury ceramics...[More]
New Standard Proposed for Genetic Genealogy Tests -Tracing ancestors through genetic genealogy tests has become popular amongst some genealogists...[More]
Wait a Second - Everyone has heard of leap years. They usually occur every four years. But have you ever heard of a leap second...[More]
A Very Interesting Definition of Spouse - There has been much discussion during the last few years over the definition of marriage and what constitutes a spouse...[more]
Cemetery Goes Green - Here is the genealogy question of the day: what is green, takes up a lot of space, can be found in most major cities, and is increasingly being thought of as an underutilized resource?...[more]
Does the US Census Undercount? - As the US gears up for the next census in 2010, questions continue to linger over the accuracy of the last census conducted in 2000...[more]
From Doubledecker Buses to Doubledecker Graves - Gravesites are an important resource for genealogists who are searching for their ancestors...[more]
Does a Company Define Your Neighbourhood? - Neighbourhoods are very important to family historians...[more]
A Diamond is Forever and So Are Your Ancestors - Diamonds are common heirlooms that are often passed down from generation to generation because of their sentimental and economic value...[more]
California Licensing Genetic Testing - California has become the first jurisdiction in the world to require companies to be formally licensed before they can offer genetic testing directly to consumers...[more]
Even at the Olympics, It is Hard to Tell Someone’s Nationality - There seems to be a new sport at the Olympics that any genealogist would readily appreciate...[more]
How to Change Your Family History with Photos - Tracing your family history through old photos is about to get much more difficult for future generations...[more]
Minorities to Become the Majority in a Generation - A generation is not a long period of time from a genealogist’s point of view...[more]
UK Considers Scrapping the Census - Throughout the ages and across all nations, one universal truth about a government census becomes evident: they are difficult, time-consuming and expensive to do...[more]
US Government Detects Immigration Fraud with DNA Testing - Governments have long used medical tests on immigrants to screen out potentially unwanted applicants...[more]
