JENKINTOWN, Pennsylvania (GBT) — The National Archives and Records Administration released the 1950 Census online last Friday, April 1st, 2022. Every ten years the administration publicly releases the census taken 72 prior to the release date. Prior to April 1st, the most recent census released by the administration was the 1940 census, which it released on April 1st, 2012. Each census release is a bonanza for genealogists, who can trace family relationships, movements, and occupations through the documents.

MYKOLAIV, Ukraine (GBT) — The website of the State Archive of Mykolaiv Oblast is back up as the Russian Army closes in on its seat. The site first went down on the 23rd of February, when Russian soldiers first invaded the country. The condition of the archive facility is unclear, as fierce fighting has been reported near Mykolaiv's southern border. Some residential buildings have either suffered serious damage or were destroyed.

MYKOLAIV, Ukraine (GBT) — International news outlets including Al-Jazeera, The Times of Israel, and the New York Times have reported that Kherson fell to Russian troops last Wednesday, the first such city to fall to the invading Russian army since it invaded Ukraine on the 23rd of February. Kherson is some 40 miles southeast of the port and shipbuilding town of Mykolaiv. Several Anflick vital records are presumably stored in the Mykolaiv Oblast Archives.

JENKINTOWN, Pennsylvania (GBT) — Season 2, Episode 3 of the Genealogy By Tim G. podcast will be delayed as RootsTech 2022 winds down. The annual genealogy convention offered updates in several corners of the genealogy industry. "I wasn't as productive with it as I wanted to be," said Tim G., proprietor of the Genealogy By Tim G. website. "I put a lot of time this weekend on my email server, and I made some progress on that beyond what I accomplished when I first attempted it in the summer of 2020, so I only managed to catch a few of the presentations." Among the presentations Tim saw were MyHeritage's unveiling of its new LiveStory feature, RootsTech's Innovator's Portal, and Ancestry®'s introduction to the forthcoming 1950 census release.

JENKINTOWN, Pennsylvania (GBT) — Tim G. registered for RootsTech 2022 last week. RootsTech is one of the nation's largest and most popular annual genealogy conferences, and has been informing and inspiring genealogists of all skill levels since 2011. Organized by FamilySearch International, the conference has traditionally taken place at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. The conference was held as a free online event in 2021 after the COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of in-person events across the nation. Tim G. attended portions of last year's the event, and hopes to participate more in this year's event, which will take place during March 3-5.

JENKINTOWN, Pennsylvania (GBT) — The GenealogyByTim.com server received a hard drive update last week. Its original 160GB hard drive was replaced with a larger 320GB drive. The 2.5 inch, IDE hard drive was purchased from eBay seller hbr2015 in mid-January.

KYIV, Ukraine (GBT) — The website of the State Archival Service of Ukraine is down following last night's invasion by the Russian military. The outage is among many to have been reported across the nation, including those of several Ukrainian government agencies and media outlets. Data Centre Dynamics, Ltd., has reported that "the public-facing websites of the Cabinet of Ministers, Security Service of Ukraine, the Verkhovna Rada legislature, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were brought offline by DDoS attacks on the 23rd, according to Ukraine’s Center for Strategic Communications." Kyiv Internet traffic was also reported to have dropped 60 percent over the course of the day.