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Deborah Barber

@hexadecibel.bsky.social
461 followers 349 following 60 posts

Genealogist, New Yorker, and Nerd. My professional site & blog is newtowngenealogy.com

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Reposted by Deborah Barber
batkaren @batkaren.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
You’ve been warned, parents.
MOVIE REVIEW
I Called Him Morgan
*** (Out of four stars)
• Directed by Kasper Collin.
Distributed by Submarine Deluxe.
• Running time: 1 hour, 29 mins.
• Parent's guide: Not rated (adult themes, drug use, murder, jazz).

[I circled JAZZ in red]
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BOO Bolander @bbolander.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
north brooklyn come through, @tkingfisher.com at twisted spine is a combo you don't want to miss out on
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Monteiro @monteiro.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Hello. They are going to try to fuck with your vote, and we are NOT going to let them. Last week I pinged my friend Dana Chisnell, who knows how elections work, and said "Hey, let’s make it hard for them to fuck with us.” Today, we are very proud to announce the HOW TO VOTE zine. howtovote.tips
howtovote.tips
How to Vote / Cómo Votar
A free field guide to what stops people from voting, and what to do about it. English and Spanish, ready to print.
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Deborah Barber @hexadecibel.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
My cats used to pull them apart to push them around and play "Somethings under the rug." I eventually gave up on FLOR tiles.
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are you not infotained @alopex-ii.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Services I provide for my cats
Chicago streets and sanitation truck with the first s missing so it says treets and sanitation
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Chaucer Doth Tweet @levostregc.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4Up...
youtube.com
A Day in the Life of an Ensh*ttificator
YouTube video by Forbrukerrådet - Norwegian Consumer Council
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Deborah Barber @hexadecibel.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
On the one hand, I'm kind of thankful that I haven't, on the other, I've always been curious about the color of my great-grandmother's hair since there are no color photos of her.
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Reposted by Deborah Barber
Association of Professional Genealogists (APG) @apgenealogists.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Records we lose today cannot be researched tomorrow. NARA is considering a proposal that could allow some federal civilian personnel files to be destroyed after 65 years. For background on this issue, visit www.apgen.org/news_manager... #APG #Genealogy
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Deborah Barber @hexadecibel.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
I saw a weird, obviously AI-generated commercial twice today and each time it was in a language I do not speak.
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Megan Smolenyak @megansmolenyak.com · 01/08/2026
It's not your imagination. Genealogists aren't the only ones struggling to get records that used to be fairly easy to obtain from the federal government . #genealogy link.propublica.net/view/5f0a06b...
link.propublica.net
“They just let the whole Privacy team go,” a now-former FOIA specialist at OPM told me by email in February 2025, referring to public records office staff. The specialist was cut the next day.
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Rachel Gunter, Ph.D. 🗃️ @phdrachel.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Please give this page a follow! It's a public history project by debbielinsleyliles.bsky.social mapping the migration of enslaved people into TX in the 19th century. & if you know anything about the Civil War, you know that's a lot of enslaved people especially from 1860-65, as slavery spread west 🗃️
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Isaac Samuel @rhaplord.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
In the 1600s, some 21,000 runaway slaves in Brazil founded an independent kingdom in the interior that lasted nearly a century (1612-1694) It had a capital of 5,000, its own king, provincial chiefs, judges, priests, and an army that raided Dutch and Portuguese plantations
A Cultural History of the Atlantic World, 1250–1820
By John K. Thornton
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💖 Birdhism Jen @birdhism.com · 17/07/2026
For real. #noai #art
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Tom Cox @dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
Almost certainly the best thing I was ever told about owls was when I met an owl handler at an owl sanctuary and he told me that the wild owls who lived near the sanctuary worried about the tame show owls there and sometimes stopped by to leave them shrews and mice as presents.
The fabulous owl, Lady Jane Grey, with her handler, Pete, in Totnes, Devon, in 2016.
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Deborah Barber @hexadecibel.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
Better them than us?
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Deborah Barber @hexadecibel.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
Fidelis Care, my health insurance provider through the ACA, is using this as an excuse to raise premiums for 2027.
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Danielle Froom 🏳️‍🌈 @danifroom.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
Wow holy shit www.them.us/story/daught...
them.us
Daughters of the American Revolution Live Up to Their Name by Rejecting Ban on Trans Women
“Transgender Americans are patriots, family members, volunteers, historians, and descendants of Revolutionary War ancestors just like anyone else.”
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Prisonculture @prisonculture.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
What this press release from the Council is saying about the libraries is deeply misleading and y'all should stop doing this: council.nyc.gov/press/2026/0... "Library Support and Restoration: $34.7 million" - THIS IS MONEY THE MAYOR HIMSELF HAD CUT FROM THE PREVIOUS YEAR'S BUDGET.
council.nyc.gov
Speaker Julie Menin and New York City Council Announce Agreement with Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Fiscal Year 2027 Budget
New York City Council
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Jay Willis @jaywillis.net · 28/06/2026
Once again, if you have never been to a WNBA game, I am pleading with you to go. The best vibes of any sporting event I have ever attended. The nonbinary lawyer who got presented with an award during a timeout for their work with LGBTQ kids seeking asylum got a standing ovation.
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Deborah Barber @hexadecibel.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Do you live in or near Queens and want to learn to read and write cursive? The Bowne House is giving a workshop for adults and teens! www.bownehouse.org/events/cursi... By the way, the Bowne House has some really great historical documents in their archives. #genealogy #queensnyhistory
bownehouse.org
Cursive Handwriting Workshop Series for Teens and Adults (4 Sessions) — Bowne House
Discover the art of cursive handwriting in this engaging workshop designed for teens and adults. Whether you are learning cursive for the first time or looking to improve your penmanship, participants...
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Deborah Barber @hexadecibel.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Does anyone actually call my Queens District the "Commie corridor" or did someone come up with that for a news story? Because today is the first time I ever heard it called that.
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Thor Benson @thorbenson.bsky.social · 21/06/2026
The reflecting pool is being sabotaged by paid protistas
Britannica page on algae
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Prisonculture @prisonculture.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
I learned about this app last week: libraryscout.app Find free classes, workshops, clubs, and events happening at a NYC public library near you.
libraryscout.app
Library Scout
Discover, save, and manage public library classes personalized to your interests.
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Gullah Museum of Georgetown @gullahsc.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
There’s a saying passed down from earlier generations of Black Texans who were there for the first Juneteenth: “It was not a piece of paper that freed the slaves, but the men with the guns.”
U.S. Colored Troops
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Mad Scholar Frights @mattzollerseitz.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
GET THEIR ASSES
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Greg Pak @gregpak.net · 15/06/2026
Hey, friends in NYC! Early voting in the D primaries has begun! Find a polling site and view your sample ballot here: vote.nyc/page/find-yo... And read on for some suggestions of folks I'd highly recommending voting for!
vote.nyc
Find Your Poll Site | NYC Board of Elections
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Deborah Barber @hexadecibel.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
People like to hate on the Blues Travelers, but I saw them in concert & they put on a great show.
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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 22/05/2026
As a science fiction writer I really fucking resent tech bros for ruining the phrase "artificial intelligence." 80 years of it being all about cool androids and interesting computers destroyed by five years of "Spicy autocorrect making everything shittier for money." NEVER FORGIVE.
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Comfortably Boo @numb.comfortab.ly · 18/05/2026
Martin A. Brooks 🇺🇦
@mart_brooks
“This video demonstrates….”

How I want tech stuff explained to me in order of preference:

1) A well written technical document.
2) A maintained wiki.
…
998) Spray painted on the side of a cow.
999) A video.
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Sarah Rose @thesarahrose.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
The good taxpayers of New York have given me a pair of Meta glasses because I am low vision disabled, and I seem to have used them more than a lot of people on here, so let me say a little about my experiences:
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Deborah Barber @hexadecibel.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
Attention anyone researching people in Massachusetts: www.massgencouncil.org/post/act-now...
massgencouncil.org
ACT NOW! Gov. Healey’s Supplemental Budget Contains Both Good and Very Bad News for Genealogists
There is an important legislative development that could significantly affect access to Massachusetts vital records and the future of genealogical research in the Commonwealth.  What Has HappenedOn Ap...
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Deborah Barber @hexadecibel.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
Would you believe that my high school in Nashville, TN, U.S. was called McGavock? It was named after David Harding McGavock (1826-1896) who lived nearby.
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Citizen.Coping @propcazhpm.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
Saw it in an art show called "Counterhistories", in show on "Art & Democracy", and in show on the 250th Anniversary of U.S. more recently. Kent State (1970) is not completely forgotten like some U.S. atrocities like the Orangeburg Massacre that killed students in 1968, but important to talk about.
zinnedproject.org
Feb. 8, 1968: Orangeburg Massacre
Two years before the Kent State murders, 28 students were injured and three were killed in Orangeburg, South Carolina — most shot in the back by the state police while involved in a peaceful protest.
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Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
Unfortunately, this piece on The Great Resegregation has aged well. www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...
If the Great Resegregation proves successful, it will restore an America past where racial and ethnic minorities were the occasional token presence in an otherwise white-dominated landscape. It would repeal the gains of the civil-rights era in their entirety. What its advocates want is not a restoration of explicit Jim Crow segregation—that would shatter the illusion that their own achievements are based in a color-blind meritocracy. They want an arrangement that perpetuates racial inequality indefinitely while retaining some plausible deniability, a rigged system that maintains a mirage of equal opportunity while maintaining an unofficial racial hierarchy. Like elections in authoritarian countries where the autocrat is always reelected in a landslide, they want a system in which they never risk losing but can still pretend they won fairly.
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Deborah Barber @hexadecibel.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
New Englanders are also good at boiling the flavor out of vegetables. (Source: Grandma born in Boston)
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Áine ní Donnghaile 🍃🌳 ⚾ 🫖 💙☘ 🍷💉🌊 @ainedonnghaile.bsky.social · 05/04/2026
In honor of the day #TheRising #IrishGenealogy #FamilyHistory
youririshheritage.activehosted.com
Easter 1916: The Rising That Still Echoes in Your DNA
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Sara Georgini @sarageorgini.bsky.social · 03/04/2026
🗃️ Super excited to share that we’re hiring at the Adams Papers, come work with us! @mhs1791.bsky.social www.masshist.org/admin/upload...
masshist.org
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Deborah Barber @hexadecibel.bsky.social · 03/04/2026
My tax software keeps sending me emails promising me a "maximum refund," yet I never get one.
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Marian Burk Wood @climbingfamilytree.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
#NewYork #Genealogy #FamilyHistory Good news: FamilySearch volunteers are currently scanning genealogy books & documents at the New York State Library. Can't wait to see/search these on FamSearch later in 2026! More info: www.familysearch.org/en/newsroom/...
familysearch.org
FamilySearch and the Office of Cultural Education Collaborate to Expand Access to Genealogy Records • FamilySearch Newsroom
Documents from the New York State Library and New York State Archives to Be Made Available for Free
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Deborah Barber @hexadecibel.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
Someone I know might be interested! (It’s me, & probably @vermilionink.bsky.social)
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Andrew Lawrence @ndrew.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
oh my god is it a calf, please tell me its a calf
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Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.blacksky.app · 07/03/2026
omg, nailed
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Jesspooka Kant 🎃 @jessdkant.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
Reposting this because, hilariously, someone running an AI news aggregator just plagiarized the hell out of it and got shared 3x as much as the original post. So you know, here's the actual piece. Where I talk about LLMs making copies of copies of copies of copies and how that drives disinformation.
jessk.org
AI update: replication crisis — Jessica Kant
Regardless of who actually prints a story, it is the merger of social media and machine learning which increasingly drives narratives in the immediate wake of a major event. The next time a catastroph...
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Megan Smolenyak @megansmolenyak.com · 11/02/2026
Just about everything I love about #genealogy can be found in this article. The world needs more people like John Mills! www.courant.com/2026/02/10/c...
courant.com
CT man connects Black families with long-lost history. ‘The work he does is truly a blessing’
“We give people their history. Then we try to inject those stories and those people into the communities that they’re from,” the Bloomfield man said.
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Deborah Barber @hexadecibel.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
David Bowie “It’s Gonna Be Me (With Strings)
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ConferenceKeeper Free Calendar of Genealogy Events @conferencekeeper.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
Feb 10 (V) – Chronicling America for Historical Research hosted by Library of Congress (Free) For details & registration, see www.loc.gov/item/event-4... #genealogy #familyhistory
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✨chipzel @chipzel.bsky.social · 01/02/2026
you: [stressing for days to send the perfect single email] billionaires: hi, . w=en r we mee&ting to do iLlegiL stuff , . ?
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