Edna James, Female Pilot WWII: Remembering the Unrelated

As you sift through your numerous hints, trying to discern the bits and pieces of your ancestor's lives, do you take time to really read the details you know are not related to your family? Do you truly notice the unrelated? Or do you just ignore and move on? Occasionally, a hint for someone not in your tree may offer an interesting glimpse into a part of history you might otherwise overlook.

I admit, I'm usually focused on the person I'm working on. Does the hint seem to match? Yes or no. Sometimes, it takes a little digging...ok, sometimes a lot...but other times it's a simple no. Regardless of why I ignore a hint, I add a brief note how/why I came to the conclusion, just in case I need to re-evaluate in the future. But occasionally, as I'm reviewing, something will pique my interest and I'll read on, even thought I know it's not about someone in my family tree.

Today, I was researching Edna Varnes (1898-1973). She had 3 husbands, one of whom was my 2nd cousin 2x removed (David Reuben James). They were married in 1935. I stumbled on an indexed hint from the U.S., World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946, for an Edna James who enlisted in the Women's Army Corps, Inactive Reserves, as an Aviation Cadet on October 24, 1942. It's slightly unusual to find a woman enlisting for flight training and I was intrigued. I really wanted her to be my Edna James! Alas, she was single and had completed 4 years of college, ruling her out.

But the Edna James in the hint seemed interesting. At 63" (5'3") tall and just 118 lbs, she was just a little slip of a thing. Imagine her learning to fly an airplane! In WWII, women served an important role in aviation. They were part of the Women's Air Force (WAF), Women's Air Corp (WAC) and Women's Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) While they weren't involved in active combat, they did fly missions here at home. They moved planes from one area to another, transported cargo, assisted with training flights and most importantly at the time, freed up male pilots for combat missions. Wikipedia has a nice synopsis on these brave, adventurous and important women who flew in WWII. 

I wasn't able to find much about Edna James. I know she was born around 1898. She completed 4 years of college and had a "professional occupation". In 1942, at the age of 44, she was single and felt the calling to both support her country and embark on an interesting future. She hailed from Ohio, and enlisted there. Her service number was A-501308. A quick Google ties this service number back to the Women's Air Corp (WAC). While I wasn't able to pinpoint who her parents were, or anything else about her life, I feel compelled to say "Thank you for your service Edna James.  You helped pave the way for women of the future."

Image by Vlad Min from Pixabay

MyHeritage May Be Ending RAW DNA Uploads From Other Sites

 

In the last couple of days, there's been a lot of chatter in forums about MyHeritage terminating the ability to upload DNA results from other sites. Up to this point, users had been able to upload their results from other DNA testing services for free, and see matches from the MyHeritage database. From a user perspective, this was a great way for users to connect with additional family members, and potentially break down more brick walls.

From a business standpoint (in my personal opinion), this was always a great boon for MyHeritage as well. I don't know how many users took advantage of this feature, but certainly it helped grow the size of their database more quickly, making them one of the bigger genealogy sites, with in excess of 9 million DNA profiles. The downside of this was many users probably uploaded, took advantage of the matches, and never subscribed. I'm sure they're hoping selling their DNA kits, instead of allowing free upload, will create a more consistent revenue stream. Since the price of their test is often less costly than Ancestry, it may work to their advantage. Will people who test with them be more inclined to subscribe? It's probably a coin toss. Some will, some won't.  

More interestingly, in the last couple of weeks, I've watched a couple news programs (sorry, I can't remember the exact episodes and despite endless Google searches, I can't find the info) where they publicly said DNA had been uploaded to the MyHeritage database to assist in solving law enforcement cases. I was quite surprised given the Terms of Service for MyHeritage state: "MyHeritage prohibits law enforcement use of it's DNA Services." This is the type of information usually associated with GEDmatch, not MyHeritage. Here is an excellent Fox News interview with CeCe Moore delving a bit deeper into this subject.

While it may technically not be illegal to upload, I'd argue every genealogist, law enforcement official and family historian has an ethical obligation to adhere to each site's Terms of Service. Users have every right to expect privacy, unless they specifically opt in to a site allowing law enforcement participation. I personally feel anyone uploading surreptitiously, knowingly violating both Terms of Service and the privacy rights of users, is not a very good ambassador for the genealogical community. This kind of behavior sows the seeds of distrust in the general public, and once people are convinced it's not safe to do DNA testing, it can be almost impossible to convince them otherwise.

From the few search results I can find, several people have inquired of MyHeritage, but I have not seen any official announcement confirming the removal of the free DNA upload feature. I have seen screenshots similar to the one below, and scores of users saying they no longer have the option to upload. My personal MyHeritage account (with a paid Omni subscription) seems to be unaffected, and I still have the option presented to upload. While I can click to start a new upload, I have not tried to complete the process (since my tests are already uploaded to the site).

So, where does this leave us? If you have not previously uploaded, and you have an interest in doing so, I'd recommend trying to do it now, as the future of this feature on MyHeritage is unclear. If you're looking to upload to other sites to get more matches, FamilyTreeDNA (FTDNA), LivingDNA and of course, GEDmatch, are still allowing uploads to the best of my knowledge. This could be a strategic change by MyHeritage to increase revenue. It could be an attempt to get ahead of any bad press and reassure users their data will remain private. It could also be selectively rolled out to specific countries or states. We'll just have to wait and see if there's some kind of official statement or blog post by MyHeritage.

I'm a big fan of using DNA as I research my family tree. I hope the increase in use of DNA by law enforcement doesn't end up creating more roadblocks for those of us who embrace DNA as a part of our regular research. While I wholeheartedly support solving cases, including use of DNA uploads on sites who allow it, I do not condone intentionally violating the privacy of millions of people just to get a single conviction. This is simply my opinion, and every person is free to have their own, even if we don't agree. While MyHeritage isn't my number one go to site, I'd hate to see them come under scrutiny for acts they may have been unaware of or didn't condone.

First Impressions: Family Tree Maker 2024 (FTM 2024)

First - Happy Mother's Day to all the moms!

Earlier today, I noticed in one of my Facebook groups, some users were receiving the long awaited FTM2024. I quickly Googled and found it was released yesterday. I advance purchased this last year, and have been anxiously awaiting the release. As with previous versions, the emails with download links are being metered out so they don't overwhelm their servers. My email arrived just a few minutes ago, and I was off to the races to download!

The download process itself was straightforward. As always, be sure you have backup of your existing tree. This is important because the new version converts the file, and if anything goes wrong, you definitely want a backup. I also noted, this is a full installer. Once installed and you've verified it's working, you can safely delete your previous version of FTM. This version has been enhanced to provide better speed and stability for very large trees. My tree is not large, so I may or may not see any speed improvements. After install, I compacted and backed up for good measure. I didn't notice any big difference in the time it took to do this. If you use Family Book Creator, there's also a free upgrade available to use with the new FTM update.

I installed with no issues at all. The conversion process was quick, and my workspace opened with no issues whatsoever. Connecting to Ancestry and FamilySearch were both easy to do. I was disheartened to see color coding hasn't been expanded yet, but I know it's a much requested feature and perhaps it will come in a future release. The new feature I do like is the Easy On the Eyes feature. This allows you to expand the section of the workspace you're using (by clicking a button in the section you want to enlarge. Click the button again and it reverts to standard size). The font size increases in only the selected section, but makes text SO much easier to read. No more squinting and wrinkling up my nose trying to read text in my tree! There are additional new features for Tree Vault users (I'm not one of them) and for those who enjoy collaboration, a Connect Workspace. Additionally, the Turn Back Time feature has been increased to 5000 changes (in case you realize far too late you've changed something you shouldn't have). Photo Darkroom has more new tools for those who like to edit their photo media (again, something I rarely do). The Companion Guide (digital version) is available from the Help menu and goes into more depth on the new features and how to use them.

While I'm sure there are many other smaller changes, the overall workspace itself is pretty much identical to the layout you're likely used to. There are no glaringly obvious changes to the user interface. I suspect most changes are under the hood - preparing for future updates. I did test sync both ways and it worked as expected. Typically, I only sync down, but I edited a few media captions and tested the upload. While it did seem to hang for about 30 seconds, it eventually completed with no errors. Since I generally work on Ancestry, with sync down to FTM, I'm going to have to poke around to look at how some of the other new features work. I suspect they'll be much more valuable to those who work primarily in FTM.

I'm very glad the new release is out, but I do hope we'll see some additional updates over the coming months. The overall improvements for users like me appear to be minimal. None the less, I like to make sure my software is up to date since it is my primary backup of my Ancestry tree. And who knows? I may find more of the improvements as I spend time with the update. All in all, updating and testing it out took less than 30 minutes. I was very pleased with the upgrade experience and I'm looking forward to checking it out further.