The Genealogy Gems Podcast with Lisa Louise Cooke - Your Family History Show

Come along as we solve a family history mystery with high-tech and low-tech tools, discuss who to begin African-American research, explore newly available Canadian records, and contemplate the value of work as well as the values we want to pass on to our kids and grandkids. NEWS: Canadian Genealogical Records Now Available If you have Canadian kin, you'll be pleased to hear that the 1825 census of Lower Canada is now searchable online. The 1825 census of Lower Canada counted nearly half a million people. Heads of household were actually named, with other members of the household counted by category. You can search by household name or geographic location. The 1921 census counted 8.8 million people in thousands of communities across Canada. According to the Library and Archives Canada Blog, the population questionnaire had 35 questions. The census also collected data on "agriculture; animals, animal products, fruits not on farms; manufacturing and trading establishments; and [a] supplemental questionnaire for persons who were blind and deaf. This represents a total of 565 questions." The census was released this past June 1 from the national Statistics office to the Library and Archives. That office is processing and scanning the nearly 200,000 images for public use. It hopes to have them posted soon. You can start looking for your Canadian ancestors in the Library and Archives Canada's popular Census Indexes at which include that 1825 census and a new version of the 1891 census, too. If your family arrived in Canada after the 1921 census, check out the website for The Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21, where a million immigrants landed between 1928-1971. The much-anticipated (but little-publicized) 1921 Canadian census is now online and available for browsing at http://www.ancestry.ca/census They anticipate releasing an index later this year. When you click on the first link above, you'll see that Ancestry.ca's collection of Canadian census data goes back to 1851. Check out my post above to learn about online data back to 1825. It's getting easier all the time to find your Canadian ancestors online! Genealogy Roadshow on PBS: More Genealogy TV Lovers of Who Do You Think You Are! and other genealogy TV favorites will be pleased to know that Genealogy Roadshow is filming for airing this fall on PBS. This has already been a popular series in Ireland, where Genealogy Roadshow is in its second season. The series premieres in the U.S. on KQED on Monday September 23. Read more about it here MAILBOX: Death Certificate Confusion Scott writes: "I wanted to send this death certificate to you and maybe you could talk about it on your podcast. It's a reminder we can't take what we see at face value even from a primary source created at the time of the event. On one line it says he died Jan 17, 1937 and another it says the attending doctor saw him alive on February 17 of the same year. But then he was buried on Jan 20th. It's really not all that clear whether the events took place in January or February from just this document." Lisa's Reply: What is really fascinating about this document is how the slight variation in handwriting gives away the problem. The doctor was very detailed with the variety of dates he entered as Feb. when events took place. His "3" generally stands up or even tips forward a bit. But the Registrar, Mr. Popeland, distinctly tilts his "3" and "7" back a bit. And his hand is also heavier. Very quickly you see that Dr. Brallier completed his portion of the form and then, I would guess later, Mr. Popeland completed the remainder of the form and filed it. The big question is who made the mistake: was Mr. Popeland correct that it was January, or was Dr. Brallier correct that is was February? I searched Ancestry and MyHeritage because I was anxious to know the answer. After an initial search neither Dempsey nor his wife Ruby Lee appeared, which is rather curious. After trying all types of name variations, I finally went to our old friend, www.Google.com . I search on his wife "Ruby Lee Danner" in quotation marks and up popped one result - a court case. Searching "Dempsey Danner" in quotation marks resulted in 7 hits, 3 of which were him, including an obituary at the Arizona Obituary Archive. Dr. Braillier has been vindicated. Perhaps Mr. Popeland had filed one too many certificates that day, or had his mind on something else as he entered January in the remaining blanks. And once again, the case is made that the person who was there at the time of the event in person got it right, and the one recording the event later did not. Kate shares some old time photo resources: "…Old Time DC on Facebook. It's brilliant. It's a collection of DC photos from the past. It's not owned by anyone and anyone can post. https://www.facebook.com/OldTimeDc I love looking at old photos trying to figure out what the world was like before…It would be so wonderful if people in various cities starting compiling things li

Genealogy Gems Podcast Episode 158 August 2, 2013 NEWS: Attention Gmail Users:Google has revised the Gmail dashboard to now include tabs, separating your emails based on the type of content. Overall, I really like it, but I wanted to bring to your attention to the fact that your Genealogy Gems email newsletters will probably land in the Promotions tab, rather than your Primary tab. The problem with this is that we are used to focusing on what is in the in box in front of us, and I know I'm having a little difficulty retraining myself to check the other tabs. To ensure that you get your Genealogy Gems newsletter emails instantly, move the newsletter to your Primary tab. Click on the email to grab, drag and drop it on the Primary tab. From that point forward your newsletter emails should show up in your Primary tab, and you won't miss a thing! The Genealogy Gems Podcast App is now available for Windows 8 phone, tablets and desktop! Our app provides you the ability to stream or download free Genealogy Gems Podcast content, and even share your favorite episodes. Here's what you need to know: Phone / Tablet: First, download the Genealogy Gems phone app for $2.99 from the Windows Phone Store. Once installed, a live tile will be available on the start menu. Opening the app will provide you a list of episodes available for the show. You can swipe left or right to move through favorites, downloaded episodes, and recently played episodes. Selected episodes will be highlighted with a check mark in the corner. Tapping on an episode you wish to listen to will open an in app player. Clicking on the three dots in the lower right hand corner will open up the menu shortcuts, giving easy access to marking episodes as favorites, downloading the episodes for offline listening, or sharing the episodes out with your friends. Desktop: Download the Genealogy Gems desktop app ($2.99 from the Windows Desktop App Store.) Opening the app will provide you a list of episodes available for the show on the right with a player on the left and utilizes all the standards of the Windows 8 navigation. Selected episodes will be highlighted with a check mark in the corner. An episode can be bookmarked by marking it as a 'favorite', and episodes can be downloaded so that they are available offline. When downloading a file, the status of the download will appear. Once an episode is favorited or downloaded, you can set the app to show only those favorite episodes or those downloaded files. You can also view a list of what episodes were recently played. The Genealogy Gems Podcast app is the one and only family history podcast app available, and was named a Must Have Apps for Hobbies by App Advice. Fold3 and Ancestry Trees Now when you discover an ancestor's record on Fold3.com, you can save it to your online tree at Ancestry.com. According to Fold3.com's press release: "Whenever you see a green 'Save to Ancestry' button above a document or on a Fold3 memorial page, you can link that document or page directly to someone's profile on Ancestry." "You'll be asked to log into your Ancestry.com account, and then you'll see a drop-down list of your trees. Locate the tree you wish to save the document to, begin typing the name of the person to whom the record should be attached, choose the correct name from the list that appears, and then press save." Watch this tutorial video to learn more and see how it's done: OCLC and FamilySearch Partnership The patron catalog on FamilySearch.org is renamed the FamilySearch Catalog. It is re-branding of the FHL Catalog. FamilySearch is planning to load their catalog records into WorldCat by the end of the year. In the case of our very larger records, these may be abbreviated. Patrons discovering their catalog records on WorldCat will be able to click through from WorldCat to the FamilySearch Catalog to view the complete record. WorldCat will eventually show holdings in selected regional family history centers as well. There are currently no plans to change circulation policy. Films can be ordered to FamilySearch Centers as before. Other materials are not circulated. However, they are scanning their books and have over 80,000 of them on line. There are links to them in the catalog. They can also be searched on Familysearch.org by selecting "Books". PAF Retires If you've been doing family history research for a while, you probably have heard of (and maybe used) PAF: Personal Ancestral File software. Well, it's been hard at work for a long time--as a true pioneer in genealogy computing--and now it's retiring. It's not that your PAF software suddenly doesn't work. But as of today, July 15, 2013, you won't be able to get downloads, supports or upgrades from FamilySearch, which has made the software available since 1984. What does that mean for PAF users? The current version of PAF supports exports to GEDCOM files, still a universal file type for genealogy software. So while GEDCOMs still remain supported on other software a

In this Blast from the Past episode we are turning the time machine back to May of 2007. First up is Genealogy Gems Episode #11, first published May 07, 2007, which includes two great gems for you: How to Find Pictures from the Past with Google.com, adn a Family History Decoupage Plate Project. This is easy even for you non-crafters out there and the result is an heirloom quality decorative plate that tells an ancestors story. Then in this double header, Genealogy Gems episode # 12, which was originally published on May 13, 2007 features ancestor educational records and my Top 10 Tips for finding the Graduation Gems in your family history. Genealogy Gems Podcast Episode: #11 Original Publish Date: May 07, 2007 GEM #1 – Discover Pictures from the Past with Google One of the easiest ways to find photos on the web is with Google.com. The ability to focus your search on images is often overlooked. Let's go over the basics: Go to google.com Notice the search box at the top of the page Above the box reading left to right you will see the word WEB bolded. This means that when you enter a word or phrase etc you will be searching everything on the web. To the right of the word WEB is the word IMAGES. Click on it - and it will now be bolded. Now when you enter a word or phrase all of your results will come back as images that Google found on the internet. This could be photos, drawings, graphics, etc. There are additional "modes" you can search in with Google such as video, news, maps, books, etc. but for right now we're going to focus on images. To find photos of specific people try putting their first and last names within quotes (i.e. "laura ingalls wilder"). If you've got a bit more time or a really unusual surname, then you could just enter the name and that should get you started. You can also find photos of old items and places from your ancestor's life such as tombstones, buildings, their hometown, the kind of old car they drove. If the page containing the full image doesn't come up when you click on the thumbnail, here's what you can do: Use your mouse to highlight the URL website address that appears below the thumbnail and press Control C on your keyboard to copy the address. Click where it says "WEB" above the Google search box to go back to website searches. Place your curser in the search box by clicking inside it. Press control V on your key board and that will paste the URL address into the search box. Click the SEARCH button. The first result or two should be from that website that had the image you wanted. Look at the last line of the result for that website and click on the "cache" link. Now you are looking at a cache version, or in other words an older version of the website, hopefully BEFORE the image was removed or moved. By browsing through this version of the website, you will hopefully find the image you are looking for! GEM #2 – Mother's Day Project – Decoupage plate In my book it's not enough to find wonderful photos on the internet that help tell the story of your family's past, or have a boxful of old family photos. It's sort of like the old riddle "If a tree falls in a forest with no one to hear it, then does it make a sound?" If a photo is tucked away in a shoe box, is it adding to the value of your research? Not in my book. Family History is meant to be shared. However, I believe wholeheartedly that we, the family historian are not the primary "customer" if you will. I constantly challenge myself to see my family today as my "customer". I want the family's history to be meaningful to them and ignite in them a pride, loyalty and reverence for our family. So I'm always trying to come up with new ways to share what I've found that they will enjoy. Decoupage Photo Plate: Decoupage was a hot craft for women in the early part of the century, and it's definitely gone through resurgence in the last decade. As I mentioned in a previous episode of the podcast, my mom recently brought me a truckload of family heirlooms. She and my stepdad have taken the plunge to sell their home and travel in a motor home full time. When I was preparing for this episode, I went looking for the decoupage plate that I made her a couple of years ago for Mother's Day. I assumed it was in one of the boxes that she brought me, but I couldn't find it. When I asked her about it, she said to me, "I gave you your great grandmother's tea set, your grandmother's china, and pretty much everything else I had. But I didn't give you the plate. I'm keeping THAT!" Hearing her say that meant as much to me as the plate probably means to her. So may I just say, if you pour some love and time into creating this plate, I guarantee it will be treasured. Here's the plate I made for my mom: Wasn't she a cutie patootie?! I started by selecting photos that told the story of her childhood…at the top is a photo of the house her parents built the year she was born. Going clockwise, the next photo is her as baby, then as a toddler in her crib w

In this episode you will get a sneak peek at new changes coming in Ancestry search, and we will look for women in naturalization records. But first here is what you can do... When Technological Changes Get You Down The Mayhem commercials from Allstate are a riot, but of course all that mayhem is not all that funny when it's happening to you. Sometimes it feels like technology companies are having a little mayhem fun with us when they get us all up and running with their software program, or app, or phone, or tablet, or whatever, and then bam they change it all up. Mayhem! It's not really that we don't want new technology and that it's always mayhem. But rather: read more here MAILBOX: A Listener Takes Action and Gets a Win! In most recent Genealogy Gems newsletter called "How Google Broke My Heart" I lamented the fact that Google is no longer digitizing historic newspapers, but put out a reminder that all of the newspapers that they have digitized to date are all still available for free online. And then I shared a cool webpage that my friend Dave Barney at Google shared with me that provides an easy to browse catalogue of all of the newspaper titles and they the years they cover. In response to that article, a listener, Chris, shared what happened after reading the newsletter. Chris says... "Just read your article and went to check it out. I was able to find my grandfather's obituary, who died a month after i was born. Thanks for the tip!" So there you have it, the benefits of not just reading the Genealogy Gems newsletter, but taking action on it! I love hearing how you all take the gems and run with them! Criminal Past Follow up Here is an email from a listener with Australian roots, and they are writing in about the last episode where I was talking about the new collection of criminal records at findmypast.com: "Your most recent podcast (excellent as always!) touched on transportation of convicts from UK. The National Archives of the UK has an excellent podcast series, with many casts focused on genealogy issues. Highly recommended for anyone with UK ancestors. The podcasts are recorded talks given by their own professional Archives listeners. In one recent series, they discussed transportation, clarifying a lot of misunderstandings in the process. To start, the prisoners were not convicts in the sense that we use the term these days. Violent criminals in those days were hanged. Those transported were primarily debtors and those that committed property crimes. These folks were not forced to emigrate. Instead, they received a 7 year sentence. After completing their sentence, they were free to stay or to return to England. Perhaps the most interesting detail to me was the role the American Revolution played in the settlement of Australia. Before the Revolution, transport was to North America. After the war, that channel ceased to exist. It took several years for the British to find an alternative, Australia. So, if not for our revolution, Australia would not be what it is today." Mike has a question about how to put names to faces. He writes: "I recently came across a class photo of a company of Navy recruits graduating on 13 June 1944 in Farragut Island, Idaho. My Father is one of them. But as I was looking at this mass of individuals (many of which would be dead within the year of the photo being taken); I thought "why not put the photo out to the general public and ask people to try and ID everyone in the photo." I just do not know how to go about doing that the best way. That is when your name came to my mind to ask. Yes, I have digitized the photo, it is huge, so individuals would have to magnify the image." Lisa's Four Strategies for Crowd Sourcing Photo Identification: Well, Mike I've got 4 tips for you and anyone looking to try to put names to faces with the help of the genealogy community and the public at large. 1) www.deadfred.com - this is a free website where you can submit your photo, include as much info as you know about it, and then others can search the site and hopefully make identifications. This is a well-respected site that has been around a long time, and I have interviewed the founder (episode 74), who is great and passionate about old photos. 2) Consider creating individual photos of each man from the original digital scan. This might come in handy so that people can get a good look at their faces. 3) Consider creating your own free genealogy blog, even if it is just to post one article about the photo. Think of it as your own personal message board. You could include the photo (and some of the close-ups I mentioned creating) and then write up a description of what you know about the photo, the class, the location, etc. Make it as keyword rich as possible so that others will find it when they do Google searches on these keywords and topics. www.blogger.com is free and easy to set up in just a few minutes. 4) Another type of "personal message board" would be a YouTube video. Just f

A lot has been happening in the genealogy world while I have been on the road, and my job is to boil it down so I can bring you the best genealogy gems and that's what we are going to do in this episode. NEWS: RootsTech If you didn't make it out to Salt Lake City for the huge RootsTech conference – and I do mean huge – don't fret because they have lots of video recordings online for you including a panel that I participated in where the topic was the Future of Genealogy. If you have ever wondered what is coming down the pike, and what some of the leaders in the genealogy community would like to see, I think you will enjoy this 1 hour video session. While it was a tall order to get up there on that stage and try to foresee the future, we had fun trying. I would be interested in knowing what you think is out on the horizon for genealogy, and what you would like to see on the horizon for genealogy. Drop me an email and we'll share some of those ideas on an upcoming episode. RootsTech Report from Sunny And if you would like to hear more about what went on at RootsTech here's a RootsTech re-cap there written by our own Sunny Morton, contributing editor to Genealogy Gems. FamilySearch Records Update There are new digitized images for Australia, Austria, China, England, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, the U.S. – In fact in might be faster to announce where they are NOT digitizing records! Read FamilySearch Adds New Records Read More Family History Records at FamilySearch Your Ancestor's Criminal Past If you have British roots, you will want to check out the new collection available on Findmypast.com: a half million criminal records dating from 1770-1934! This sounds like a pretty gripping collection, whether you've got British roots or not. It contains records like mug shots, court documents, appeals letters and registers from prison ships (which were used when mainland prisons were crowded). According to Findmypast.com, the records "provide a wide variety of color, detail and fascinating social history, chronicling the fate of criminals ranging from fraudsters, counterfeiters, thieves and murderers and their victims." The 500,000 records you can search now are only a fifth of the full collection of 2.5 million that will be online soon. The company calls this the largest collection of historical criminal records from England and Wales to be published online and is done in association with the National Archives (UK). Findmypast.com members can click here to access the criminal collection directly (make sure the box for "Institutes and Organizations" is checked). Read more about it here: Find Your Criminal Ancestors: UK Collection from FindMyPast Digitized War of 1812 Pension Files on Fold3 According to the National Archives, pension files for the War of 1812 rate among their most-requested materials. But the files haven't been easy to use because they're only at the National Archives–they haven't been available in published, microfilmed or digitized form. You have either had to research the pension files onsite in Washington, D.C. or order copies from the Archives. Not exactly easy access. This is about to change. The Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS), The National Archives, Ancestry.com and Fold3.com are partners in a huge effort: to preserve and digitize 7.2 million pages of War of 1812 Pension Records and make them available for free online. Read more about it Who Do You Think You Are? TV Series Update #WDYTYA In recent weeks, reports have circulated that Kelly Clarkson has filmed an episode. A fan reported seeing her in Americus, Georgia and that they were shooting footage at Andersonsville National Historic Site. Read more about it at the Genealogy Gems Blog. Newspapers are reporting that the Danish Broadcasting Corporation is filming its own version of "Who Do You Think You Are?" According to the Bureau County Republican and the NewsTribune (Illinois Valley), popular Danish actress Suzanne Bjerrehuus was in the area filming stories of her great-great-grandparents, who emigrated from Denmark to the American Midwest in 1869. (They apparently left behind one of their six children, from whom Bjerrehuus descends.) Read the Post at the Genealogy Gems Blog Genealogy Jamboree: Get all the details about the Jamboree Banquet and Classes More details on the Genetic Conference Church Records for Genealogy on Archives.com About 4.6 million genealogical records from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) are now available on Archives.com. This project represents a unique collection for Archives.com, which partnered with the ELCA Archives to digitize and index about 1000 rolls of microfilmed records of affiliated church. According to the company, this collection represents records that have never been online before. It eliminates the major barriers we usually have in researching church records: not knowing which specific congregation an ancestor attended; not knowing where those records are now and not having

Travel back to #RootsTech - You'll hear 10 Top Tips for How to Bust Through Your Genealogy Brick Wall, and get the scoop on the new partnership between OCLC / WorldCat and FamilySearch. From Lisa: If you didn't get a chance to attend a genealogy event yet this year, don't fret, because in today's episode while I get back to my laundry and packing to travel to Tennessee to present a genealogy seminar, you are going to hear two recordings we did at RootsTech. First up is Jay Jordon, President of OCLC which you may know as the WorldCat. We got a chance to sit down at RootsTech to chat about their new partnership with familysearch which will bring the familysearch catalogue to WorldCat. Watch the Video: Then you're going to hear 10 Top Tips for How to Bust Through Your Genealogy Brick Wall – The winner of the free RootsTech registration that we gave away on the Genealogy Gems blog Sarah Stout, got an opportunity to sit down with me and Canadian Genealogy Guru Dave Obee to discuss her brick wall (read all about it here) which spanned the Canadian and US border. But the locations weren't really the important thing here. The 10 Tips that Dave dished up can really be used by every family historian to achieve genealogy success. Watch the Video: Dave Obee's Top 10 Tips: 1. Create a Timeline – "plot her life…it's easier to see the holes." 2. Understand Geography – "plot movements" 3. Find Every Possible Record 4. Understand How Records Were Created 5. Read Every Local Story in Newspapers at that Time 6. Tap into Local Knowledge – "Locals know more" (historical and genealogical societies) 7. Go There if You Can in Person 8. Look for Negative Proof 9. Collaborate with Other Researchers 10. Be Diligent About Proof Resources Mentioned in the video: Google Earth for Genealogy (video tutorial CD) Volume I and II by Lisa Louise Cooke How to Find Your Family History in Newspapers by Lisa Louise Cooke Lisa's Events: Click here to see where Lisa will be presenting next Click here to book Lisa for your next event

Enjoy a blast from the past with episode #10 featuring Steve Morse and his One-Step website. Then delight in Darius Gray, a genealogist and storyteller who provides tips on sharing your family history stories with your family, (recorded at #RootsTech 2013) GEM: A Blast from the Past -Episode: # 10 Original Publish Date: May 01, 2007 GEM: Stephen Morse On August 21, 2007 I attended a seminar sponsored by a local genealogical society. The speaker was Stephen P. Morse who is very well-known in the genealogy community for his ingenious database search tools available to everyone free from his website: www.stevemorse.org It's estimated that nearly 40% of Americans today have an ancestor who arrived in the United States at Ellis Island. I know I certainly do. Well, ship's passenger records are really exciting to find and to work with. If you have an ancestor who came through Ellis Island, you're going to want to make it a priority to find their record. Steve Morse, described to those of us at the seminar, the success and the frustrations that he encountered in trying to retrieve records from the ellisisland.org database. Steve experienced much of the same frustration that we often do. However, he just happens to be a world renowned engineer. He holds electrical engineering degrees from three universities, which he put to good use when he designed the Intel 8086, the predecessor to today's Pentium processor. And being an amateur genealogist he put those skills to good use by developing the One-Step Ellis Island website to make those records easier to find. Since that time the One-Step site has really been expanded to include new search capabilities and an array of color-coded search forms. Today Steve recommends use of his Gold Form that searches all New York passengers using enhanced search options. It uses the database at ellisisland.org but has its own search form and search engine that provides the enhanced features. When you use the Ellis Island website you'll most likely have to keep going back and revising and adding to your search to get what you need. But using the Steve's Gold Form website, all the search criteria are there on one page for you to choose from and use. You'll be using your search time much more effectively – and you know me, I want to get the most I can out of my research time. The One-Step website started out as an aid for finding these ship passengers in the Ellis Island database. Shortly afterwards it was expanded to help with searching in the 1930 census. Over the years it has continued to evolve and today includes over 100 web-based tools divided into twelve separate categories. They range from genealogical searches to astronomical calculations. He even has a last-minute bidding form you can use for e-bay! If you listened to Episode 3 of the Genealogy Gems Podcast on Ebay, then you know that I was excited to hear that! Please let other genealogists know about how much you enjoy the Genealogy Gems Podcast: If you're enjoying the show & have an itunes account, would you please do me a favor? Go to the Genealogy Gems Podcast listing and leave a positive review. Thanks! GEM: Interview with Genealogy Guru and Storyteller Darius Gray at RootsTech 2013 Google Earth for Genealogy Video Training Series Book Lisa to teach your genealogy group about how to use Google Earth for Genealogy! Click here to see where Lisa will be speaking next in person

Show Notes Lisa Louise Cooke I am back from speaking at the Who Do You Think You Are? Live conference in London, and I've brought back some gems for you for this episode which I'm excited about. I got to spend about a week in England and this time around got to do some touring with my friend Janet Hovorka owner of Family ChartMasters. We went to Windsor castle which I've always wanted to see, and it did not disappoint. What windsor castle can teach us about family history. It's all in the details! The highlight for me was going to Jane Austen's house in Chawton, Hampshire. I'm an Austenphile, and I soaked in nooks and crannies of the home where she lived with her sister Cassandra. It was fantastic seeing the little desk where she worked on her books like "Pride and Prejudice" and "Emma." Janet and finished up the tour with tea at Cassandra's Cup teashop across the street, where hundreds of china tea cups hang from the ceiling, and where I had the best bowl of tomato soup in my entire life! Oh yeah, I was there for a genealogy conference. And yes, WDYTYA Live lived up to all expectations. Janet and I had a booth and I taught classes on Google Search and using your iPad and tablet for genealogy. The classes were sold out and people were lined up around the walls. The turn-out they get for this event is just incredible. I haven't heard the final numbers, but word is it was well over 12,000 people over the three days. So here's my own genealogy story from the event. Now, if you've been listening to the podcast for a while then you may remember me telling you about my first trip to WDYTYA Live and how after one of my presentations several of my husband's distant English Cook cousins met up with us and we sort of had an impromptu family reunion upstairs in the expo hall. One of those in attendance was Louise Cook (without the "e") who is married to my husband's cousin Peter. I know, it gets a little confusing with Louise Cook and Lisa Louise Cooke! But anyway, Louise and I stay regularly in touch, and we met up at the conference this year. She found me after one of my classes and we got to visit, and she told me that she was going to help out with her friend's society booth. So we are walking back to my booth, and when we arrive, she looks up and laughs because the Lincolnshire booth was right next to ours and there was her chair! Can you imagine if we had not already met, that Lisa Louise Cooke, and Louise Cook would have been sitting right next to each other throughout the conference not knowing that our husbands were related by way of their third Great Grandfather? ! The moral of the story: Next time you sit down at a genealogy conference introduce yourself to those next to you, you never know who you might be related to. NEWS: Find My Past Series now on the website Find My Past, the hit UK television show, is now available to view via findmypast.com. Find My Past, now entering its second season, links living individuals to real historical events found in their family tree and now Findmypast.com is the only place in the US where you can watch the show! Register on findmypast.com for free and watch Find My Past episodes that aired in the last 30 days at no cost. Missed an episode or want to watch your favorites again? Findmypast subscribers can watch all episodes for an unlimited time. Every episode will be available to watch on findmypast.com a week after it airs. MAILBOX: Delray wants to know where the Family History Podcast Show Notes have gone... "I've been listening to your podcasts for over two years now: GenealogyGems and GenealogyGems Premium. ALL of the podcasts are on my iPod, so that I can listen to them over and over. It seems each time I listen to your podcast, I learn something new that I missed last time. Somehow I missed the fact that you used to have a podcast called Family History: Genealogy Made Easy. I'm going to be teaching a class to genealogy newbies in April, so I've been listening to these older podcasts to see what you shared with beginners. You mention the "show notes" like you do in GenealogyGems, which are always a life saver when I miss a web address or something; however, I cannot locate any "show notes" for the Genealogy Made Easy show." Lisa's Answer: The Family History podcast is in a bit of transition right now. We are no longer part of the Personal Life Media network and so all of the show notes pages that they previously hosted have been removed from their website. We are now working to transition the Tunes podcast feed. As soon as that happens, we will start republishing the show on the Genealogy Gems website. Gus chimes in on Genealogy Podcast No. 148 "Here are my thoughts on internet rip offs. I have both a blog and a web site and my feelings are that if I put anything up there, people will steal anything and use it for their own use. I have copied myself from two books, one published in 1888 and another published in 1895, I don't feel that I am really stealing from these

In this episode we wrap up my 50 Fabulous Family History Favorites List On Friday I babysat my two grandsons Davy and Joey, and I put together a little game that was prompted by a listener email. You met long time listener and Premium Member Dot in Australia during our virtual Christmas Party in episode 147, and after the show aired, Dot wrote me to say how much she enjoyed it and to tell me about a little concentration game she put together for her granddaughter. When my kids were growing up we called in the Memory Game and I know some folks call it the Match Game. But no matter what you call it, it's the game where you have a set of cards that are all pairs, and you lay them upside down in rows on the table and two at a time turn them over trying to find matches. The person with the most matches wins. Dot made up cards with photos of her family members. She writes: "She opened the little box I was holding and went through the photos one by one. We put a few pairs down at a time, and as she turned them over she matched them. I included our pets as well." I wrote Dot back to let her know that MyHeritage.com had something similar. You have to sign in to your free account. In the menu you will find the MyHeritage Family Game under the Apps tab When Davy, who is three years old, arrived on Friday I got to thinking about all this, and I quickly whipped together a set of cards using photos of family members and ancestors. How to Make a Quick Memory Game: Software: Microsoft Publisher Create one rectangle outline shape the desired size of the cards Copy and paste the shape to fill up the page. (I fit 6 cards per page) Duplicate the page enough times to have enough cards for a game. (I just started with 9 pairs) Using the Insert Picture feature, fill each rectangle with a digital photo from your computer (adjust the size of the image to fit the rectangle so all the cards would be uniform.) Print them out on Glossy Photo paper Cut out the cards It was a lot of fun and a great way to incorporate family history in to daily activities. I think when we do that it makes family history more of a natural part of our kid's lives. Dot also mentioned to me that she found an app for her iPad called Match. (Update: this app appears to be discontinued. Try Match the Memory at https://matchthememory.com/ ) And the other fun things I did this weekend was watch a movie called Play the Game. My daughter Hannah told me about it and set it up in my Netflix Instant Queue when she was here over the holidays, and we finally got a chance to sit down and watch it. If you're looking for a Valentine's movie to watch with your sweetie, this is it. It is a little independent film from 2008 starring one of my all-time favorites – Andy Griffith. It's about the relationship between a young man and his grandfather, and how they coach each other through their love lives. It's funny, and sweet, and that's very refreshing. You can check it out at the movie's website called http://www.playthegamemovie.com GEM: 50 Fabulous Family History Favorites Free ChartsGenealogy charts in one form or another have been around since people started keeping track of their family history. And even with all the technology we have today, sometimes there is just no substitute for a paper chart to help you work through the complicated relationships in your family tree. My first favorite gems are in the chart category, free charts that you can use online and offline to help you keep things organized, as well as help you share your family tree with others. 26. About Genealogy http://www.genealogy.about.com/od/free_charts/ig/genealogy_charts/ View, download, save and print free family tree charts and forms including U.S. Census Extraction forms. In this collection you will find traditional family tree suitable for printing, as well as interactive charts that allow you to type in the fields online (using the free Adobe Reader program) before saving them to your computer. 27. Ancestry.com http://www.ancestry.com/trees/charts/ancchart.aspx? Deep in the Ancestry website are a diverse collection of free downloadable forms and charts. Select from Ancestry Ancestral Form, Research Calendar, Research Extract, Correspondence Record, Family Group Sheet, Source Summary, US, UK and Canadian Census forms. 28. Family Tree Magazine https://www.familytreemagazine.com/freeforms/ Offers a wide selection of free downloadable charts including a Five-Generation Ancestor Chart, Family Group Sheet, Research Calendar, and Repository Checklist. You'll also find forms for Cemetery Transcription, Immigration, Records, Oral History, Heirlooms, and census extraction forms for every US enumeration. 29. MarthaStewart.com http://www.marthastewart.com At marthastewart.com they offer an online decorative Family Tree Fan Chart template suitable for framing. In the search box on the site's home page search for "Family Tree Charts" and you'll find several lovely charts in the results list that include instruct

Genealogy Gems Podcast Episode 150 In celebration of this 150th episode and my 50th birthday, I bring you: A Birthday from Long Ago 50 Fabulous Family History Favorites Websites: 1. Familysearch.orghttp://www.familysearch.orgThey are the leaders in free online records. While it’s tempting to just start typing in ancestors name for searches and hoping for the best, a strategic genealogist determines what type of record they want to find for a question about their ancestor, and then uses the catalogue to determine if FamilySearch has those records. Catalogue is one of the links above the search box, and while it doesn’t stand out, that link is really the key to understanding what familysearch has to offer. Click it and try out all the variations of searches from place names to keywords. 2. Ancestry.com They are the big daddy of the subscription genealogy record sites, and of course in addition to records you can build your family tree on the site. One of the questions folks usually get around to at some point is how to delete and merge data in their Ancestry family trees, and I recently posted a video by Ancestry’s Krista Cowan that explain exactly how to do it. 3. Library of congress American memoryhttp://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html I’ve discussed this gold mine of public domain free ephemera several times on the show including episode 31. and of course in Episode 54 I explained how I used the American memory website to locate the original sheet music for one of the songs in the Name that Tune segment. 4. US Bureau of Land Managementhttp://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en.htmlIf you are looking for U.S. Homestead records then this is the site for you. And if you haven’t been there in a while you’ve got to check it out because they’ve upgraded the site and added loads of new content in including original Field Notes. 5. Google bookshttp://books.google.com Premium Episode 91 – Paper, Ink and Books. One of the gems I tell my students in my Google classes is that even if they have no other interest in Google Books, go there and do a search on Ancestry Magazine, because although the magazine is no longer published, all ten years of issues are digitized, online and searchable at Google Books. Now that’s a gem! 6. Google.com How could I not include Google.com as a favorite website. I wrote an entire book about it for goodness sake. A piece of noteworthy news: have you noticed the changes to Google Image search lately? I’ll be highlighting those in an upcoming episode. 7. Stanford University’s Data Visualization Mapping Journalism’s Journey West http://west.stanford.edu/news/newspaper_visualization You can see examples of it in action at my youtube channel in the newspaper Research playlist. And I give you everything you need to know about it in my book How to Find Your Family History In Newspapers 8. The Atlas of Historical County Boundaries Published by the Newberry Library, it is a genealogist’s answer to changing county boundaries over the years. http://publications.newberry.org/ahcbp/project.html Video in Premium Episode 70 9. FamilySearch’s Research Wikihttps://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Main_Page OK if you’re not using this you are just plain old working too hard! This site is where all the greatest research minds at the Family History Library come together just to help you find your family history. I particularly turn to the Research Wiki when researching internationally as they have some fabulous international consultants who outline what you need to know get started, all the way to the depths of the most obscure records that are available. 10. Davidrumsey.comhttp://www.davidrumsey.com Genealogy is all about location, location, location, and that means that historic maps are vital to your research. David Rumsey is a cartographer here in the San Francisco Bay Area who has spent his entire life collecting over 150,000 historic maps from around the world. And over 30,000 of them have been digitized and made available online through his website. Here’s a tip: be sure to sign up for a free account to his website so that the highest resolution maps will be available to you to download. And don’t just stop with downloading the map, import your maps into Google Earth so that you can view areas today and in the past. My Google Earth for Genealogy video series shows you have to do it step by step and it’s incredible what a difference it can make to you research. I’ll have a quick little video in the show notes for you so you can see a preview of it and the other techniques I teach on the video series. YOUTUBE CHANNELS: Another fabulous gem out there is YouTube. Did you ever think that YouTube would be a fabulous genealogy gem? Well, it really is, and video is the fastest growing segment online and it’s not just cute cat videos and stupid pranks. There’s a ton of great genealogical related content, and I want to share some great family history channels to get you started 11. USNational Archives YouTube channel https://www

Genealogy Gems Podcast Episode: # 07 Original Publish Date: April 8, 2007 The April 15 tax deadline is looming: did you know that The Civil War income tax was the first tax paid on individual incomes by residents of the United States? There is a fascinating article by Cynthia G. Fox on the subject called Income Tax Records of the Civil War Years. It appears on the National Archives website and is excerpted from the Prologue Magazine Winter 1986 edition, Vol. 18, No. 4. GEM #1: Anna-Karin's Genealogical Podcast http://annakarin.libsyn.com/ Anna-Karin Schander lives in Sweden and she publishing a podcast in English about Swedish-American genealogy. It will contain both information about Swedish genealogy and history and records and what happened to the Swedes who immigrated mainly to USA (but also to other countries) and the records they left. She includes wonderful old traditional Swedish music as well. GEM #2 – A website dedicated to the only war fought on American soil by Americans: The Civil War SONG: Battle of Manassas Gov. Sam Houston-Texas: "Let me tell you what is coming. After the sacrifice of countless millions of treasure and hundreds of thousands of lives you may win Southern independence, but I doubt it. The North is determined to preserve this Union. They are not a fiery, impulsive people as you are, for they live in colder climates. But when they begin to move in a given direction, they move with the steady momentum and perseverance of a mighty avalanche." The Civil War began at Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina 146 years ago this week on April 12. 3 million fought - 600,000 died. Chances are someone in your family tree fought in the war. But one thing we know for sure, if you've traced any of your family lines back to the 1860s in the US, then you have folks in your tree who lived through and were deeply affected by the Civil War. We're going to want to learn more about their experience in order to understand their lives. This will lead us to more genealogical leads. Read about the Civil War in the newspapers that your ancestors read. In addition to the newspapers available by paid subscription on Ancestry.com, there's a terrific free resource! Go to http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/subjects/c/civil_war_us/index.html Click on The Civil War Years 1860-1866 Follow the links to topics of interest. Locate ancestors who may have fought in the war. A terrific website is the Civil War Soldiers & Sailors System Website Areas of the System: Soldiers The CWSS includes 6.3 million soldier names from the National Archives, which were compiled by NPS' in the CWSS project. As of February, 2000, volunteers in over 36 states had completed the data entry of all the 6.3 million soldier names from 44 states & territories. The two final editing processes for the records have recently been completed. Sailors The NPS and its' CWSS partners are committed to eventually include the names of all Union and Confederate Naval personnel. Given that the records sources for the Navy are not as well organized as the Army records, nor are they micro-filmed, the target date for this is still to be determined. Regiments The CWSS will include histories of over 4,000 Union and Confederate units (regiments), which will be linked to soldiers' names and battle histories. These will be completed this year as part of the CWSS site. The site currently includes regimental histories of units from 44 states and territories. Battles In the CWSS The unit histories are linked to histories of the 364 most significant Civil War battles already on the Internet from the NPS' American Battlefield Protection Program. These battle histories were compiled as part of a report to Congress by the Civil War Sites Advisory Committee. Prisoners The current version of the CWSS includes prisoner records of Union prisoners at Andersonville and Confederate prisoners at Fort McHenry. Cemeteries The National Park Service manages 14 National Cemeteries, all but one of which is related to a Civil War battlefield park. The NPS is planning on listing all names of burials in these cemeteries on the Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System. The first phase involves data taken from written records of Poplar Grove National Cemetery at Petersburg National Battlefield, and also includes images of the headstones. Medal of Honor This feature of the CWSS includes information on over 1,200 Civil War soldiers and sailors who received the Congressional Medal of Honor. And National Parks Featured areas of the site: NEW STORIES - The National Park Service Civil War Institute – Stories of the Civil War addresses the social, economic, political & military aspects of the war. EDUCATE – for teachers providing civil war curriculum materials from national parks & lesson plans on building a family history. BLACK HISTORY - Looking for more on the civil war on the internet? Check out the Military Indexes website and follow the links to a wide range of web

Welcome to the first episode of 2013, and there is certainly a lot already going on this year, and this episode is packed with genealogy news, your emails and of course gems tucked in along the way. NEWS: One of the longest running and best known websites is Cyndislist at cyndislist.com. The website is run by Cyndi Howells, and for over 16 years she has meticulously catalogued all of the websites that are devoted to genealogy. Anyone can go to cyndislist.com for free and follow the topic links to find online resources on just about any area of genealogy. Back on Nov 1, 2012 Cyndi posted an article on Facebook describing how she had discovered that another website had copied her entire website – not just a few links, but the entire website, and made it available on their website. According to Justia.com, a site that makes available public information on Dockets and lawsuit filings Cyndi's List and Cynthia Howells has formally filed a law suit against the alleged content snatching website. But the real shocker, the website in question isn't some random spam website, but rather one that was launched in 2012 by an established genealogist, Barry Ewell. The site is called MyGenShare and in addition to free content Barry offers paid membership for access to all the content. Because there is an active lawsuit the folks involved can't really talk about it, so we don't have much more information. But we will keep you informed as we learn more, and I would be interested in to know what you think. RootsMagic App for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Now Available The good news is that the free app for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch has now officially been launched and is available in the iTunes app store. According to Michael Booth, Vice-President of RootsMagic, a version of the app for Android devices will be available in the near future. While the app does not give you full functionality of the RootsMagic software, it does put your family tree information at your fingertips, and provides a lot of useful features including: Access your actual RootsMagic files via iTunes or Dropbox Easily search and explore your family tree View pictures, notes, and sources Browse lists of your information and view more information about sources, to-do items, research logs, media, addresses, repositories, correspondences, and places. Useful tools including a perpetual calendar, date calculator, relationship calculator, and Soundex calculator. RootsMagic for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch is free and now available in the Apple App Store. It does require the RootsMagic desktop family tree software or the free RootsMagic Essentials software to create, edit, or add to your genealogy files. More information is available at http://www.rootsmagic.com/ios. The Southern California Genealogical Society's popular Jamboree Extension Webinar Series. If you are looking to brush up on genealogy research or learn some new skills from the comfort of your own home, than these webinars are for you Jamboree Extension Series webinars are conducted the first Saturday and third Wednesday of each month. Saturday sessions will be held at 10am Pacific time / 1pm Eastern time. Wednesday sessions will be scheduled at 6pm Pacific time / 9pm Eastern time. For information and to register for the 2013 sessions, check out the SCGS website. Coming up in the next few months: Wednesday, January 16 - 6pm Pacific time / 9pm Eastern time. Linda Geiger Woodward, CG, CGL Documentation: Never Having to Ask, 'Where Did That Come From?' Saturday, February 2 - 10am Pacific time / 1pm Eastern time. Eric Basir Digital Organization for Documents and Photos Wednesday, February 20 - 6pm Pacific time / 9pm Eastern time. Michael John Neill No Will? No Problem Saturday, March 2 - 10am Pacific time / 1pm Eastern time Lisa Louise Cooke Time Travel with Google Earth Two National Conferences Merge Creating Larger Family History Event FamilySearch Adds New Records: Canada, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, and U.S. 40 Million New Genealogy Records To Help You Locate Your Family History 30 Years Ago Today: The Event That Changed Your Life Forever MAILBOX: Leanore wrote in to say "I listened to your virtual Christmas party where you asked each person what they were doing genealogically for Christmas. Though I've done several fun things over the years, this year I didn't do anything (except host the whole group for Christmas.) But, one of our daughters created a very special book of our family's past Christmases. We lived overseas for many years so each country has its own couple of pages with photos of our holiday celebrations there. What a "trip" and a wonderful gift!" And Jean wrote in to say: "I enjoyed listening to everyone you talked to during your virtual trip around the world. However, I must say what I enjoyed most was listening to Davey as he explored your home and the Christmas decorations. I loved listening to the young voice so filled with excitement and enthusiasm for everything he found!" Cindy

Jump on the sleigh and make the rounds with me to friends of the podcast. We'll making surprise stops at listener's homes, drinking hot cocoa with long time friends of the show and genealogy experts, visiting with the newest member to the Genealogy Gems team, and my Grandson Davy will even make a guest starring appearance!

In this episode we discuss the latest genealogy news, one listener's fabulous use of Google Alerts, and Maureen Taylor's new history film project. NEWS: Google Earth 7Google as just released Google Earth version 7. Google Earth is an amazing tool for genealogy so new enhancements are always welcome! This new version enables you to explore a number of cities around the world in 3D, from Long Beach, California, to Rome, Italy. The 3D imagery uses the enhanced modeling capabilities, previously found on only mobile devices. In my video CD Google Earth for Genealogy Volume II I go into detail about 3D models and even give you resources for how you can get your own 3D models of everything from your house, to your ancestor's home. Download the new Google Earth 7 and get even more 3D imagery. You'll find comprehensive and accurate tours of more than 11,000 popular sites around the world, including our growing list of cities where new 3D imagery is available. A big change with this new version is the tour guide feature which serves as sort of a virtual local expert that suggests places nearby that you might want to explore and providing you with background information on the location. You'll find the tour guide along the bottom of the screen, and it looks like sort of a film strip of thumbnail images representing various tours that are available. These change based on where you are on the Google Earth globe. List of updated Google Earth imagery What's new in RootsMagic 6 VideoAnd there a favorite genealogy program that just got a new fresh update. RootsMagic 6 is now available, and you can see what's new in the newest version of the genealogy database program in a brand new video they've published on their website at http://www.rootsmagic.com/webinars/ In the video you will see new features in action such as: Online Publishing Find Everywhere feature Live Timeline View WebTags CountyCheck Explorer If you are a current paid user of RootsMagic, you can upgrade for just $19.95. New users may purchase RootsMagic 6 for only $29.95. Order online at http://rootsmagic.com/RootsMagic/ Special Holiday Offer Now through Dec. 20, 2012 Order gift copies of RootsMagic 6 for just $19.95 (plus shipping). You can also order other RootsMagic products at that same $19.95 price. Order the special holiday at http://www.rootsmagic.com/holidayoffer or order by phone at 1-800-ROOTSMAGIC (1-800-766-8762). The next item here is that the Family Tree Service coming soon to FamilySearch.orgAccording to a FamilySearch press release, "Within the next few months, FamilySearch will make Family Tree available to everyone on its website. The first of many updates planned for FamilySearch.org, Family Tree will provide a free and engaging way to discover, preserve, and share your family history. Family Tree will also offer specialized tools to make temple work for your ancestors even easier and more convenient. Watch an Introduction to Family Tree that shows 7 reasons to be excited about Family Tree. Family Tree will enable you to: Save family information into a genealogy tree Edit and delete incorrect data, including relationships Connect and collaborate with others on shared family lines Show where information came from Link to online photos and documents If you have questions about what Family Tree will be like or how it will work, you can log in to a special training website that offers online courses, how-to videos, informational handouts, and step-by-step training. Get started with Family Tree today by watching the introductory video or reading about it on the training website. Family Tree will be open to everyone in the next few months. Ireland - National Archives launches new websiteThe National Archives of Ireland has launched a new genealogy website at http://www.genealogy.nationalarchives.ie/ which will initially host the 1901 and 1911 Censuses, Tithe Apportionment records from 1823-37, and Soldiers' Wills from 1914-17. New at ScotlandsPeople Scottish wills and testaments from 1902-25 now online at the ScotlandsPeople at http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/ Millions of Old Newspaper pages added to FindMyPastfindmypast.com has just published millions of pages of historical newspapers from not only England, but also across Wales and Scotland as well. This collection contains local newspapers for the period 1710-1950. More than 200 titles are included. Go to http://www.findmypast.co.uk/search/newspapers Ancestry.com launches newspapers.com On November 29, 2012 Ancestry.com Inc., announced the launch of Newspapers.com, a web site designed to offer a collection of more than 800 U.S. newspapers dating from the late 1700s into the early 2000s. Comprising more than 25 million pages, Newspapers.com offers a historical and present-day newspapers ranging from the New York Times to small town and local newspapers throughout the United States. According to Ancestry's press release "The search capabilities on Newspapers.com are specifically designed for new

In this episode I've got another blast from the past for you. We have reached deep into the podcast archive and retrieved episodes 5 and 6. In Episode 5 we touch on using the video website YouTube for genealogy, and then I walk you through how to Bring Sites Back From the Dead with Google. Then we wrap things up with a cool little way to Spice Up Your Genealogy Database. In episode 6 I have a gem for you called Cast a Shadow on Your Ancestors, and we cover the free genealogy website US GenWeb Episode: # 05 Original Publish Date: March 25, 2007 MAILBOX Email this week from Mike O'Laughlin of the Irish Roots Cafe: "Congratulations on your podcast! I am sure it will help many folks out there. I was glad to see the fine Irish families of Scully and Lynch on your latest show notes!" GEM: You Tube Follow Up Note: The Genealogy Tech Podcast is no longer published or available. YouTube in the news – the concern was raised by Viacom this month about YouTube benefiting from their programming without compensating them, which could mean copyright infringement. While the course of YouTube could change depending on the outcome of this suit, the attraction for family historians remains strong because of the nature of the content. Software mentioned: Pinnacle. Final Cut for MAC. Limits with Movie Maker I posted 2 videos – A Nurse In Training Part 1 & 2 Genealogy Gems YouTube Channel Click the Subscribe button to receive notification of new videos GEM: Bring Sites Back From the Dead with Google When you get a "File Not Found" error when clicking on a link, it doesn't mean the information is always gone forever. You may be able to find it in the Cache version. Google takes a snapshot of each page it examines and caches (stores) that version as a back-up. It's what Google uses to judge if a page is a good match for your query. In the case of a website that no longer exists, the cache copy us a snapshot of the website when it was still active hidden away or cached. Practically every search result includes a Cached link. Clicking on that link takes you to the Google cached version of that web page, instead of the current version of the page. This is useful if the original page is unavailable because of: 1. Internet congestion 2. A down, overloaded, or just slow website - Since Google's servers are typically faster than many web servers, you can often access a page's cached version faster than the page itself. 3. The owner's recently removing the page from the Web Sometimes you can even access the cached version from a site that otherwise require registration or a subscription. If Google returns a link to a page that appears to have little to do with your query, or if you can't find the information you're seeking on the current version of the page, take a look at the cached version. Hit the Back button and look for a link to a "cached" copy at the end of the URL at the end of the search result. Clicking on the "cached" link should bring up a copy of the page as it appeared at the time that Google indexed that page, with your search terms highlighted in yellow. If you don't see a cached link, it may have been omitted because the owners of the site have requested that Google remove the cached version or not cache their content. Also, any sites Google hasn't indexed won't have a cache version. Limit: If the original page contains more than 101 kilobytes of text, the cached version of the page will consist of the first 101 Kbytes (120 Kbytes for pdf files). Really looking for an oldie but a goody? Try the Wayback Machine It allows you to browse through 85 billion web pages archived from 1996 to a few months ago. To start surfing the Wayback, type in the web address of a site or page where you would like to start, and press enter. Then select from the archived dates available. The resulting pages point to other archived pages at as close a date as possible. Keyword searching is not currently supported. GEM: Spice up your database Search Google Images, then Right click and save to your hard drive. Use Silhouettes Find something that represents what you do know about that person. It really does help you see them more as a person and less as an entry in your database – their occupation, a reader, a sport, etc. Episode: # 06 Original Publish Date: April 1, 2007 You can learn more about Jewish roots at the 350 Years of American Jewish History website JewishGen, The Home of Jewish Genealogy GEM: Cast a Shadow on Your Ancestors In the episode #5 I shared a little gem that would spice up your genealogical database – adding silhouettes and artistic images to the file of an ancestor when you don't have a photograph. Probably the most famous silhouette these days are the silhouettes used by Apple for advertising the iPod digital music and audio player. It may surprise your teenager or grandchild to learn that the first silhouettes were done hundreds of years ago. Back then silhouettes (or shades as they were called), they paintings or drawings

Today's gem focuses on a challenge that we all face as family historians – getting organized, archiving all of our stuff, and digitizing materials an d photos. I know that's biting off a big chunk, but it's such an important one. And in this episode I'm going to start to break it down for your with the help of the Family Curator, Denise Levenick who has written a book called How to Archive Family Keepsakes. She's got lots of practical advice to share. NEWS: FamilySearch recently announced that their U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Community Project is Half-way to its 2012 Goal of 30 Million Records In August of this year, FamilySearch announced its next major U.S. community project-U.S. Immigration and Naturalization. The project will create an extensive, free, online collection of U.S. passenger lists, border crossing records, naturalization records, and more-invaluable to genealogy researchers. See what U.S. Immigration and Naturalization projects are currently underway, or check on their status at FamilySearch.org/immigration. You can join the community of online indexers and arbitrators helping to make passenger lists and naturalization records freely searchable on familysearch.org. Current and Completed Projects To view a list of currently available indexing projects, along with their record language and completion percentage, visit the FamilySearch indexing updates page. To learn more about individual projects, view the FamilySearch projects page. Canadian Military Records Ancestry.ca has also announced that they have launched some New Canadian Military Records Collections Read about it on my Blog: Limited Time Free Access to Canadian Military Records, and New Records Online Google recently announced that Google Maps just got the biggest Street View update ever, doubling the number of special collections and updating over 250,000 miles of roads around the world. Google has increased Street View coverage in Macau, Singapore, Sweden, the U.S., Thailand, Taiwan, Italy, Great Britain, Denmark, Norway and Canada. And they are launching special collections in South Africa, Japan, Spain, France, Brazil and Mexico, among others. . They've also recently updated the Google Earth satellite imagery database. This refresh to the imagery has now been updated for 17 cities and 112 countries/regions. So Google Earth has never been better for genealogy research. And of course if you would like to learn more about what Google Earth can do for you as a genealogist, check out my free YouTube videos which show you what you can learn in my video CD series called Google Earth for Genealogy which is available at the Genealogygems.com store. Google Earth for Genealogy Digital Video Series Genealogy Gems Premium Membership Update I'm happy to let all of you Premium members know that I've put together a quick little video that will walk you through the process of setting up your Premium podcast feed in iTunes.You'll find a link on the premium episodes page once you've signed in that will take you to the video and instructions for setting up your Premium iTunes subscription. I have also added a video recording of one my most popular classes to the Premium Videos collection. It's called How the Genealogist Can Remember Everything with Evernote. From Premium Member Kelly: "Thank you so much for your podcast on Evernote. I've been on YouTube watching videos about it but they were hard to follow and more advanced or to techie. Your podcast was easy to follow and went over the basics and I really appreciate that. I think I finally ready to try it." If you would like to be able to watch the Evernote class from the comfort of your own home please join us as a Genealogy Gems Premium Member which you can do at www.genealogygems.com MAILBOX: From Patience: "I have noticed in your podcast, other's podcasts, blogs, and at workshops I have attended that there is a concern about the next generation. I do understand, but I wanted to share with you my experience in hopes of easing everyone's worries. I am 23 years old, and let me tell you I stick out like a sore thumb at workshops as I usually am the youngest by at least 30 years. That being said when I started researching I met one of my cousins on ancestry.com, and we really hit it off we have all the same interests, and are like long lost twins. For a while I assumed that she was retired, and much much older than I, but after several emails I found out she is only two years older than me!!! I too worry about my generation, but I think after some maturing, most will at least have an appreciation for the past, and everything it has to offer, or at least I hope...But all I know is that there are two very pretty twenty something girls thousands of miles apart that would rather research and learn that go to parties...so that seems pretty hopeful I think." Jennifer Takes the iPad on the Road "Kudos for turning me on to a nifty iPad shortcut. Your latest book has some tips in the back, which is

In this episode you will hear how one man's passion for geography and history were saved from destruction, and you'll find out what a portable scanner can do for your genealogy research and mobility. My Latest Travels I wrapped up my recent round of travels last week with a trip to Sumner, Washington where I spoke at the Autumn Quest Annual Seminar sponsored by the Heritage Quest Library. It was a packed room and we spent the day talking about how to find your family history in newspapers, using Google Earth for Genealogy, how to find living relatives and most importantly how to save your research from destruction. There seemed to be a bit of serendipity involved in this particular speaking engagement, which was booked many many months ago. Recently Bill's mom made the big move to a lovely retirement home and she really wanted her kids to get together and go through the house and pick up the items they wanted to keep, and then prepare the house to be rented out. As it turned out, amazingly enough, this was the ideal weekend to corral all four kids together to do that before the renovations on the house started. So after Saturday's seminar, on Sunday we all got together and although my mother in law was very happy to have moved and really wanted to the kids to do this, it was just hard to get started. Since I didn't grow up in the house it was a little easier for me to see the task at hand from more of a practical point of view, and I was sort of nominated to guide the process. And it actually worked out really well. Everyone was very comfortable with how the remaining items were divided up, and there were lots of family photos to go around. I was fortunate enough to receive my mother-in-laws father's original Royal Typewriter. I think it's probably from about 1910 and is in pristine condition. It's all cleaned up and in my studio now inspiring me to continuing writing and blogging. And I also received a small journal with the handwritten life stories of her parents. So I have my work cut out assembling the stories and photos and I hope to get some coffee table books printed as well as do a video that the family can enjoy. We'll see if I can get that done in time for Christmas. I'm sure many of you listening have also gone through this process of closing down a parent's household. If you have an interesting story, or came across an unexpected gem email me or call and leave your story on the voice mail line at 925-272-4021 and I might just share it on an upcoming episode. Geographic History Saved Now I mentioned to you that I taught the class Save Your Research from Destruction, and though that title may sound a bit over dramatic, time and time again it proves accurate. One example is a story I recently came across originally in the LA Times Quote: "I think there are at least a million maps here," he said. "This dwarfs our collection — and we've been collecting for 100 years." Thank goodness there are folks like Matthew Greenberg, who came to the rescue of a century of old maps. He's my hero! Click Here to See it for Yourself GEM: Interview with Gordon Nuttall of Couragent, Inc. and the Flip-Pal I've been a longtime fan of the Flip-Pal portable scanner and I use mine all the time. You've probably heard me mention it before on the show, and I often have specials on the Support the Podcast page on my website where you can save money, and at the same time your purchase helps to support this free podcast. Over the years I have received questions from many of you who are trying to decide if it really makes sense to get a portable scanner, and wanting to better understand what it can do for you and how to use it. So I decided it is about time to get all the answers together for you in one podcast gem. And who better to get those answers from than the inventor himself, Gordon Nuttall, CEO of Couragent, Inc., the company behind the Flip-Pal. Use this link to Flip-Pal Flip-Pal with Wifi Thank you for helping make the free Genealogy Gems Podcast possible! Just a Few More Things Internet and Computer Prediction video Premium Episode 93 – Evernote Premium Video: How the Genealogist can Remember Everything with Evernote

Have you ever wondered how the Internet works? I mean, how data from your computer actually makes to another computer somewhere else around the world? I found a very cool video that really manages to explain a very complex process that happens in a matter of seconds in a way that actually makes a lot of sense. And yet while it made sense, after I watched it it was almost harder to believe that it really works at all because it's so amazing. Even if you are typically a person who doesn't bother to click on videos, you have got to check out How Does the Internet Work in the newest of edition of the free Genealogy Gems Podcast email newsletter. Go to www.genealogygems.com and enter your email to sign up. NEWS: RootsTechRootsTech 2013 Promo Video Ancestry Read Lisa's blog post: Money Growing on Trees: Ancestry Buying and Selling While the world's largest online family history resource, Ancestry.com, awaits a possible buyout, they are keeping busy buying other companies. Reuters reported that Permira Advisers LLP has emerged as the front-runner to take Ancestry private in a deal that could exceed $1.5 billion. (Read more about the possible acquisition at PEHUB) Ancestry also released the following press release about the company's latest acquisition, San Francisco based 1000Memories. You can learn more about 1000 Memories by listening to my interview with Michael Katchen, Director of Business Development at 1000Memories in Genealogy Gems Podcast Episode 119. Job Opening SAR Operation Ancestor Google Books Google Books and Publishers Reach Settlement over Digitization Learn more about using Google Books for genealogy in my book The Genealogist's Google Toolbox. New Premium Episode 92 Old maps can tell us a lot more than just where our ancestors lived: They put events into geographic context, reveal surprising genealogical clues, and can be incorporated into Google Earth for analysis and storytelling. In the newest episode (#92) of the Genealogy Gems Premium Podcast I'll tell you about a terrific example of a website that has set the goal of have every image they possess (allowable by copyright) digitized and on their website by early 2013 I'm also going to tell you about something pretty shocking that happened to me recently while speaking at an international genealogy conference. I was really taken by surprise, and received some unexpected questions. I will share those with you as well as some solid answers. It's another packed episode. If you are a member sign in now to start listening. Become a Member today. MAILBOX Stephanie also wrote in with an opinion about Ancestry Trees "So here are my "2 bits". I am new to all this and honestly never considered my public tree as published. I have used the Ancestry tree as a if were my workbook, just as if it were a software package like Roots Magic. Because I consider it a workbook I add names as I find them and work the family as a group to document the information AFTER I add them. It simply never occurred to me that others would see this as complete, documented information. I have kept my tree open since I want to be open to contacts. When I see hints from other trees I simply avoid the un-sourced ones. The Ancestry hints have moved me along much faster than I ever could have before. I truly hope others who get angry could see my point of view. Thank you so much for teaching us, you have made this journey so much more enjoyable and effective!!!" From Loretta: Ancestry Trees "I've had a little different reaction towards the "polluted" online trees... sarcasm. At the beginning of the year I started a blog, Barking Up The Wrong Tree. I post on Tuesdays and Fridays. Both days could be considered tips for beginners but Tuesdays are examples of what NOT to do. All the examples are actual online trees and because of the propensity of newbies to mindlessly copy other trees most examples are not just on ONE tree. It makes for a lot of head meets desk moments but I'm enjoying it. Hope you and some of your listeners will too." Ricky in Birmingham, Alabama asks about citing sources and paper and file organization <A HREF="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?rt=tf_mfw&ServiceVersion=20070822&MarketPlace=US&ID=V20070822%2FUS%2Fgenegemspodc-20%2F8001%2F57c224a1-85ab-43d7-9fb9-1175aa0b4fc7&Operation=NoScript">Amazon.com Widgets</A> GEM: New Family History Bloggers Family History blogging is hotter than ever and the ideal way to get your research out on the web where others working on the same family lines can find you through Google searches! Many of you have been taking advantage of free blogging services like Blogger at Mom Cooke's nagging here on the podcast, and reaping some rewards. So let me highlight a few listeners who have turned in their "Round To It" for a "Gitter Done!" First up

In this episode we are pulling back the curtain on the Antiques Roadshow, as well as talking a bit about what to include and not include in your family tree. I'm just back from Odessa Texas where I presented a full day seminar at the Permian Basin Genealogical Society. I got to enjoy a big dose of Texas hospitality and had an absolutely wonderful time. Next up I'm heading to Kelowna British Columbia for the Kelowna & District Genealogical Society Harvest Your Family Tree 2012 Conference where I will be again doing four presentations as well as a Meet the Speakers panel. MAILBOX: Family Tree Magazine Digital Subscriptions from Kathy: "I subscribe to Family Tree Magazine. Can I download my print subscription to my iPad....as you can with other subscriptions? Or do I need to pay for each issue that I download? Family Chart Masters helped me with my Family Tree Chart. It was beautiful and was a hit at our Family Reunion. Janet was so helpful. Thank you for the recommendation. Love your podcasts." Lisa's Answer: The Family Tree Magazine digital subscription is separate from the print subscription, unless you have purchase their VIP Subscription. So you can either purchase individual digital issues from the Shop Family Tree Store, or you can purchase a separate annual digital subscription. I think they keep it separate because not everyone wants both. Click here for a $10 off coupon for ShopFamilyTree and when you use that link it also supports the free Genealogy Gems Podcast. Thank you! Get Lisa's Book: Mobile Genealogy Paperback Replacement for RAOGK From Mary in Iowa: "In Podcast #139, Ricky asked about a successor to the Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness website. There are actually three Facebook groups (not pages) carrying on the task of looking up genealogy information and other requests. They are RAOGK, RAOGK - USA, and RAOGK - International. You need to be a member of the Facebook group to post a message or request, but most requests for membership are granted quickly." Generous Genealogists Gen Gathering Scott from Oakland Maine: "I am in need of some advice regarding an un-cooperative family member. My father's brother wants nothing to do with our family, and in years past once referred to himself as the "black sheep". He has absolutely no interest in genealogy and is not at all willing to be a part of the family story that I am putting together. My question is, how do I reference this character in my tree." Lisa's Answer: I imagine every family has a tough nut on a branch of the family tree! I'm a firm believer in the truth, and what I would do if it were me is to include basic data (that is publicly available) on him on my private, personal family tree. On trees and other info you make available publicly, (such as an online family tree) I would list him and his immediate family only as "Living" and whether they are male or female. In the end you have to do what seems right for you. From Glenn: "Just wanted to say a quick thanks for both podcasts you produce…I've been interested in the Family History for some time…Recently my interest has arisen again, of course I have made classic mistake in not documenting everything, and just collecting names, dates and so forth. So in the last 6 months I've been citing sources and updating the database. One of the quandaries I have is when do you stop, not so much vertically, but how wide do you go, in relation to cousins, second cousins and families? Probably the main question I have is trying to decide whether to get a subscription to Ancestry.com or not, I feel I'm at that stage where online document will help out, in filling in the leaves on my branches." Lisa's Answer: Go as wide as you want and are interested in. I would recommend adding basic info for someone you find who you won't be pursuing, so that if down the road you run in to a brick wall and you need to do some cluster research or reverse genealogy, you will have new leads to follow. RE: Ancestry - I think you will find that Ancestry membership is a very cost effective and time saving way to do your research. Mine has been invaluable. See if you can find a 7 day free trial to check it out and confirm they have the kinds of records you need. GEM: Diane Haddad Pulls Back the Curtain on The Antiques Roadshow Diane Haddad is the Managing Editor at Family Tree Magazine. Music in this segment: The Antiques Roadshow Remix By The Elusive MrHatchard Available on the SoundClick.com website GEM: Halloween History Tidbits Halloween Mason Jar Lanterns Vampire Hunting Kit from the 1800s Follow Lisa on Pinterest GEM: Newspaper Milestones On September 15, 1982, USA Today began publishing On September 18, 1851, the New York Times issued its first edition On September 25, 1690, the first newspaper in America was published for one day in Boston before being shut down by British authorities unhappy with its content. Get Lisa's Book How to Find Your Family History in Newspapers Paperback

Published Sept 11, 2012 Enjoy a Blast from the Past with Genealogy Gems Podcast Episode 140. You'll hear episodes 3 and 4 from 2007. Show Notes EPISODE 3 - Originally Aired March 11, 2007 A big thanks to Bill Puller of the Genealogy Tech Podcast, for mentioning the Genealogy Gems Podcast in his March 7 blog. New to Podcasting? How to Subscribe to this podcast for FREE GEM: GOOGLE ALERTS & EBAY FAVORITE SEARCHES (aka eBay Alerts) GOOGLE ALERTS: Check out Bill Puller's podcast Episode #8 of the Genealogy Tech Podcast You can create a thousand! (Idea: Start with those items you highlighted in your family journals (See episode #2 below) EBAY FAVORITE SEARCHES: How to create a Favorite Search in eBay: Enter keywords in to the "All Items" SEARCH box click SEARCH (Consider clicking the Search title and description box to insure you are getting everything) Once you get the search refined to give you good results, click "Add to my Favorite Searches" (just below the search line on the right side of the screen) This opens a window where you can elect to create it as a new search, or replace one of your existing searches. Usually you will just be creating a new search. Make sure the "Email me" box is clicked so you will receive email notifications when new items are listed. You can choose how long you want to receive emails. (This can be modified at any time through My EBay) Click SAVE SEARCH You'll probably receive your first emails tomorrow morning! Examples: LARSON screwdriver SPORAN – San Joaquin Cotton Oil bale of cotton GEM: FAMILY HISTORY DISPLAYS Shadow Box "L J Larson" Diana's Wall Display EPISODE 4 - Originally Aired March 17, 2007 HAPPY ST. PATRICKS DAY 19 Presidents of the United States have claimed Irish heritage. One-third to one-half of the American troops during the Revolutionary War 9 of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence were Irish Americans. Today, approximately one in four Americans can trace their ancestry in part to Ireland. A Tribute to My Irish Roots-"Michael Lynch came to America first, and bought his land in Wisconsin in 1857. He then wrote to a friend still in Ireland, and asked him to find him an Irish wife. Margaret Scully was 16 at the time and agreed to go. She traveled with her brothers Dan & Tom Scully in 1860. They were married April 10, 1860 in Stillwater, MN." Michael's land was covered in timber. He cleared all the land with oxen. Margaret was very afraid of the Indians. There were terrible Sioux Indian uprisings in the area at the time. Family she would not stay in their cabin alone while Michael was clearing the land. So she would take the children and hide in the woods." Margaret (nee Scully) Lynch Born July 17, 1839 in Limerick, Ireland She died at the age of 87 and left behind 7 of her 8 children, 40 grandchildren and 34 great-grandchildren. Find your Irish ancestors now with this book: In Search of Your British and Irish Roots: A Complete Guide to Tracing Your English, Welsh, Scottish, & Irish Ancestors [Paperback] Buy through our Amazon search box and support the free podcast. Angus Baxter wrote a terrific book about finding your German ancestors which I found invaluable. "In Search…" will take you step by step back to Britain and Ireland, even if you are new to family history research. From the MAILBOX: Kay Alderman saying that she's enjoying the podcast and has added Genealogy Gems to her new genealogy blog called Another Amateur Genealogist. (Update: no longer available) DVD Gem: Berkeley Square My eldest daughter and I have been glued to this DVD since we started it. We are both HUGE Pride & Prejudice fans (The A&E version) and are thrilled to find a serial of the same caliber. Berkeley Square follows the intertwining lives of three London nannies at the turn of the 20th century. Each episode (and there are 10 – yummy!!) is packed with romance, intrigue, and plot twists that have kept us glued to the couch. We'll be watching these nannies over and over in the future just as we do Lizzie and her sisters! Buy Berkeley Square through our Amazon search box and support the free podcast. GEM: YouTube.com YouTube.com lends itself beautifully to family history research by offering a very creative method for not only sharing family photos and videos, but really telling your families story. What is it? YouTube is an online video streaming service that allows anyone to share videos with others by uploading them to the site. In addition, it allows member to view the videos of others. The website address is youtube.com Sign up is easy and free:(Update: If you have a free Google account that will be your YouTube account) To become a member of YouTube, go to the "Signup" page (http://www.youtube.com/signup), by clicking SIGN UP in the top right corner of the home page. Choose a user name and password, and enter your information. Click the "Sign Up" button and you're done. Caution: Be aware that there is objectionable content on YouTube. Nonetheless, it is a powerful mediu

Published August 29, 2012 Let's get ready to go back to school - family history school! And I've got some exciting new to tell you about! Genealogy Gems Podcast Episode #139 brought to you by two times Grandma Lisa Louise Cooke. Yes, indeed my second little Grandson was born on August 15, 2012 about 2 ½ weeks early, and he and his mommy my daughter Vienna are doing marvelously. His name is Joseph, and we'll all be calling him Joey which I absolutely adore, and even better his middle name is Cooke. Life is good, and being a Sha Sha as Davy calls me is heaven on earth that's for sure. Genealogy News: This month Ancestry announced that it has completed the records indexing process for the 1940 U.S. Federal Census, which you can find at www.ancestry.com/1940census. Since the initial release of the 1940 U.S. Census by the National Archives in April, Ancestry.com has progressively published information state by state. But now, no longer will you have to look up enumeration districts. Now all 134 million records are now searchable for free by name, date, place of birth and other key information recorded in the census. You'll also be able to make corrections or update information that is incomplete, leading to a better overall database of information. Assisting you with navigating the 1940 U.S. Census is Ancestry.com's Interactive Image Viewer, which enables users to browse document pages with simple graphical overlays. The viewer adds highlights, transcriptions and other functionality directly on the Census page. This enables users to access small census fields by scrolling over them and getting a pop up that magnifies the information that was recorded by census takers. In the 1940 census you find information on whether your ancestor's owned or rented their home, the value of the residence and how many people lived there. For the first time, census takers in 1940 also asked questions specific to income and education. And you may be surprised what you will not find, like details on military service, whether they could read or write, and whether they spoke English which were all questions that were asked in prior censuses. You will find the 1940 census in its entirety at www.ancestry.com/1940census FamilySearch Volunteer Opportunity: US Immigration & Naturalization Genealogy Project FamilySearch also has indexed the 1940 Census with the help of more than 160,000 volunteers, and they are launching a new volunteer opportunity. Now they are turning their attention to the U.S. Immigration & Naturalization Community Project, an indexing effort to make passenger lists, naturalization records, and other immigration related records freely searchable online. Hundreds of thousands of North American volunteers are expected to contribute over the next 18-24 months, focusing initially on passenger lists from the major US ports. If you of your genealogy society wants to pitch in you can visit familysearch.org/immigration for all the details. Read more about it: Indexing Volunteers Invited by FamilySearch to Join new US Immigration and Naturalization Community Genealogy Project Bids to Buy Ancestry Reported by Reuters to be Lower than Hoped In my last Premium podcast, I mentioned that Chronicling America, the Library of Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov Congress' historical newspaper website, sent out a newsletter on using Civil War maps printed in the New York Daily Tribune. I just have to share more on this with everyone! Civil War Maps for Genealogy Available in Online Newspapers And finally, here's something fun from George Mason's University's History News Network website: If you have teens in your family then chances are you have heard the phrase OMG which stands for oh my God. But have you ever wondered who started it? You may have thought it was Alicia Silverstone in the 1995 movie Clueless, but actually you have to dig much further back in history to find its origins. All the way back to 1917 in fact. Read the rest of the story MAILBOX: Amy in Santa Rosa, CA posted the following question on the Genealogy Gems Facebook Fan page: "On your podcast, I hear you recommend Roots Magic for genealogy software, but I have a Mac and as far as I can tell, it only works with PCs. I thought at one point you mentioned you were starting to use a Mac, so I'm wondering if you use different software on the Mac or if you use a PC for your genealogy software. I used to use Family Tree Maker before my PC crashed, but thought I'd do some research before buying software for the new Mac …Just thought I'd get your opinion, since I value your expertise on the podcast. It is probably just as well that my PC crashed because I never did any source citations (didn't know about it when I started genealogy and now it just scares me!), so I'll be learning how to do that as I add names back in..." Lisa's Answer: While I use both Mac and PC, I only do genealogy on the PC which I prefer. I did publish a seri

Published August 8, 2012 In the last episode we took a big bite of food family history, and in today's episode I've got part 2 of my interview with Gena Philibert Ortega, author of From the Family Kitchen: Discover your Food Heritage and Preserve Favorite Recipes. MAILBOX: From Alvie in Lakeland Florida: "Would it be possible to share the recipe for the cookie - was it a sour cream cookie? The one your husband loves. My wife loves to bake cookies to share and she has all sorts of recipes and folks rave about her cookies." Lisa's Answer: You'll find the sour cream cookie recipe that I talked about in the interview at the bottom of a blog post that I did a while back called "Family History Never Tasted So Good" You'll see a picture there of my husband with his Nanna, and at the bottom of the post just click the image of the cook book page and it will be large enough to read the recipe. http://lisalouisecooke.com/?s=sour+cream From Tina: "I've just been watching your video about the Toast-tite. I remember we had something similar (although it wasn't called a Toast-tite) when I was growing up in Brazil - except that it was square (kind of makes more sense when the bread is square ...) and it made simply the best toasted cheese sandwiches ever! And when I went back to Brazil in the mid-1980s, you could STILL buy them! I wish I still had one - they were far better than the electric toasted sandwich maker that I bought later on ... I love foodie memories!" From Laurie in Ridgefield, WA: "I want to share with you a craft project that I created for my two grown sons. I didn't realize at the time that what I created fit into the topic you have discussed about how to get the family involved in history. At the time I not even created a family tree yet! As I am sure you are aware we pass down recipes within a family and as it grows and moves away those tastes of "home" are often missed. It could be Grandmas bread baking or an aunts cookies. Memories etched deep in our senses. Both of my boys have called me from the grocery store to ask how to cook a favorite dish. This got me to thinking close to the holidays about a homemade cook book filled with family favorites. I scoured the old copy of the church fund raiser, a cookbook my mother in law submitted recipes too. Digging up more favorites from my recipe box and contacting family members asking them for a favorite recipe along with any story that went with it. I then purchased blank cookbooks in a binder style. Transcribed onto the computer as documents printed to PDF, each recipe has its own page that lists the person's name and any story & tips. This gift turned out to be the highlight of the day and they poured over it and then I heard them talking about the food and memories. Now, my boys tell me when I cook something new and very good… that's one for the book. It has turned out to not be just a book on a shelf but one they use often." From Carol in Flagstaff, AZ: "I have several interesting cookbooks pertaining to my history. One is a Joy of Cooking, published during WWII, which includes a section on meal planning during rationing. The other is from a Norwegian heritage society in Seattle…What would be good ways to share this information with other Family Historians? (I could scan portions of the books.)" Lisa's Answer: Be sure to check the copyright of the old cook books you have. Do a Google Search on "copyright guidelines" for more information. I think a great way to share them would be to blog about them. And if you want a quick and easy way to start blogging for free watch my How to Blog Your Family History Videos at the Genealogy Gems YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/genealogygems Blogging is not only a great way to share with your family and friends, but your articles will be searchable by Google which means other folks out there who are interested in the same things can find your blog and comment. And chances are you could possibly use brief excerpts of the books in an editorial fashion in a blog, but again just read through some of the copyright guidelines available online. You could also create a book where you share the original recipe, then include "your take" on the recipe, and include photos of you making the dish and old family photos that tie in. I have a series of Premium Podcast Episodes with videos that show you how to use print on demand services to create your book quickly and easily online, and affordably. The beauty of print on demand is that you only pay for exactly the number of books you want. There's no minimum order number. And if your family and friends want a copy than can buy it right from the website rather than you having to be the middle man, which is especially nice for folks who live across the country from you. From Sean: "I enjoyed that episode and it got me thinking of our cookbooks. I've got a recipe box that came to us via my wife's grandmother that I'll be taking a closer look at this weekend. As for me, my first cookbook

Published July 22, 2012 In this episode author Gena Philibert Ortega and I talk about her new book From the Family Kitchen: Discover your Food Heritage and Preserve Favorite Recipes. Who doesn't love yummy home cooking? There is a lot to be learned about our ancestors, and in particular those elusive female ancestors, through a study of our culinary history. We'll be talking about the invaluable genealogical records that are so often over looked, ways that you can really dig in to your fabulous food family history, and I'm even going to share a recipe and utensil that our grandmother's use and that you can still use today to make super scrumptious treats for your family. (Video coming to the Genealogy Gems YouTube channel!) NEWS: Speaking of grandmas, I finally found my awesome grandma in California in the 1940 census and it was a snap because the California index along with several other states on July 13, 2012 by Ancestry. Grandma and Grandpa were just 3 months away from moving in to their first real home which they were in the process of having built, and from the birth of their first child, my mom. FamilySearchFamilySearch continues to add records to the free familysearch.org website. They just announced that they have added the 1881 and 1891 Scotland Census Indexes and Millions More records for Brazil, China, Ecuador, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and Other Countries. Lisa Louise Cooke's Genealogy Gems website: We've got an entirely new website for you, and thanks again to all of you who have been writing in. I know we've had some hiccups along the way getting the Premium feed switched over, but that's up and running now, and let me remind you, Premium Members are now getting all 88 Premium Episodes published to date. In the past you would get the most recent 6 episodes and then a new one each month. But now, you have a wealth of episodes available to you. I can't tell you how thrilled I am to be able to make all of the content available to you Premium Members, it's something I've wanted to do for a long time but the old site just couldn't handle it. Premium Membership is now a HUGE value – same price, at least for now - $29.95 gets you one whole year's access to all of those episodes. Donna wrote: "My question is how do I access the early premium episodes, I always listen to Genealogy Gems / Premium via iTunes?" Lisa's Answer: Sign in to your premium membership. From the menu go to Premium Episodes and there you will find instructions for updating your premium podcast feed. It's important to delete your current premium feed in iTunes first and add the new feed. The need feed will download all the episodes for you and then bring you the new ones as they are published. Mike wrote in to say: "The new website looks great. Having recently redesigned one at work, I know how much time it can take. I particularly appreciate the back catalog of premium podcasts and have started listening to them. And I hope that your video on hard drive organization will finally motivate me to get electronically organized. Keep up the good work!" Lisa's Answer: Thank you very much Mike I really appreciate it! I am really tickled that the new site was Randy Seaver's Tuesday Tips on July 10, 2012 on his wonderful Genea-Musings blog which you will find at www.geneamusings.com Lisa Louise Cooke's Genealogy Gems website his Tuesday's Tip - Lisa Louise Cooke's Genealogy Gems Website Thank you Randy! Life After iGoogle Follow up In Genealogy Gems podcast episode #136 I gave you a neat solution to the demise of iGoogle. As you know Google has announced it will be discontinuing iGoogle which is the way you can customize the Google homepage just for you, and here on the podcast we've talked many times about how to customize it specifically for genealogy research. Now while it won't go away until later in 2013, there's no time like the present to make a switch and Netvibes.com is a great alternative. So in our last episode I walked you through a special process for converting your tabs and your RSS feed gadgets to a new free Netvibes account to get you started in the transition. And I also published a video at the Genealogy Gems YouTube channel to show it to you step by step. I've heard from many of you that you love the Netvibes solution: Nanby said: "Thanks for saving our iGoogle pages. I am going to work on your solution." Lee wrote: "Looking forward to your help in converting from iGoogle, and LOVE that all the Premium podcasts are available. Thank you thank you!" Kim commented on the Genealogy Gems blog: "I glanced at NetVibes this weekend, but knew you would be addressing the issue! I loved your comment, ".....this will be fun"! You actually make it so easy for us to follow along and yes, even make it 'fun' :) Appreciate the tutorial and I'll be watching for more." I you've been trying to get your genealogy vibe on by converting from iGoogle to Netvibes but you're having trouble (and I've heard from a couple of you) rest assured

Published July 8, 2012 Everyone is concerned about Google pulling the plug on iGoogle, but in today's episode I have a fantastic solution for you. And you will find the companion video at my Genealogy Gems YouTube channel and as the video bonus content in the Genealogy Gems Podcast App. And the new Genealogy Gems website has been launched! It's here! I promised you it was coming and it has. The brand new website is up and running at genealogygems.com and at lisalouisecooke.com. You'll find Lisa Louise Cooke's Genealogy Gems in both places. The old site was 5 years which is ancient in techie years, so it was time. Back in the Fall of 2011 I began laying the framework for the new site, well aware that the old one had become cluttered, and it wasn't keeping up with all the new versions of web browsers out there. Things were starting to not display properly. A few months later in March 2012 listener and Premium Member Simona wrote me to tell me she had noticed it too. And she had some opinions about the magazine delivery nature of the podcast episodes. The original model for the premium podcast was like a magazine. When you subscribe you get the last few episodes, and then each new episode as it was published. After about 3 months the oldest episode would drop off and the new one would come on. There were a few reasons for this which included the capabilities of the old site. Here's what Simona had to say: "I downright LOVE your productions Lisa and think you are the sweetest and smartest. But I get frustrated and even -dare I say- annoyed with the shelf life limit of your premium podcasts. You see I very rarely hard-wire sync my idevices to my notebook pcs. So I end up missing more premium podcasts than I download and listen to." OK, well I obviously completely agree with Simona on her comments on the website, and the email just helped support the decision I had made to invest in a new site. And I hope Simona and all of you are happy with all the changes and upgrades. NEW SITE UPGRADES: Everything is on one site: The blog, the free episodes, Premium Membership, and our brand new store. The free iTunes podcast feed and the Premium feeds are both functioning now. Premium Membership includes ALL past episodes, and continued access to those episodes while you are a member. But the big news for Premium members is that premium membership is no longer a magazine subscription model. I've built a site that is set up to hold all the gems I've created for you over the last 5 years, and the many more years to come. Yep, right now we are on Premium episode #88 and ALL 88 episodes are available to you as part of your premium membership. What we are creating for you is a growing catalogue of gems and tutorials and genealogy entertainment that you can tap into when you want it. And Genealogy Gems Premium Membership gives you access to all of it! And of course each month we are adding new premium episodes and videos so that catalogue will just keep growing and growing. You know sometimes a gem or topic isn't what you need this week, but it's exactly right for what you want to do 2 months from now. Now you can sign in to your membership and grab the gems you need when you need them. And I hope you are as excited about the amount and accessibility of content as I am! Now Simona brought up a question about accessing the premium episodes and downloading them to her devices. Here's the thing – as I've said many times before iTunes doesn't support premium membership sites, so we have had to custom build a feed for you so that at least you can add your premium content through iTunes. But for now that still means plugging in your iPod. Technology is moving quickly though and we are constantly searching for ways to make that process easier, and unfortunately we have to rely on Apple to help make that possible. I'm really proud that we have managed to build a way to deliver premium content to you through iTunes and I'll let you know if and when we develop a method for wireless download, as is available for the free podcast through our Genealogy Gems App (available in the iTunes app store and at Amazon for Android.) And I'm very happy to say that the response to the new website has been 100% positive. I had braced myself for some folks who didn't want change, but so far not a one. You were ready for an upgrade as much as I was. Here's what just some of you had to say: Robin in Ohio says: "Your new web page is AWESOME! Love the colors, layout and info. All your Gems are sooooo helpful, upbeat and truly some great genealogy fun!!! I look forward to listening to your podcast while riding my bike and gardening. You are such a genealogy-go-getter and amazing example to me. Thanks for sharing so many GenGems and some of your life events along the way. It makes the person behind the cyber voice so pleasantly real. Thanks for sharing your talents with me" Sue in Nevada says "What a drastic difference! It is so neat, concise, and user-friendly. C

Published June 19, 2012 In this episode we're going to follow up on Episode #133 and my interview with Henry Louis Gates about his show Finding Your Roots with an conversation with one of the celebrities profiled on the show, Linda Chavez. NEWS: FamilySearch FamilySearch announced that it hit the halfway point for creating a searchable index for the 1940 U.S. census, which has been an unprecedented genealogical community effort made up of more than 125,000 volunteers More states will be added in the coming weeks. You can follow the day-to-day indexing status at the1940census.com dashboard and search completed states at www.familysearch.org/1940census However, the 1940 census is not the only record collection that FamilySearch has been working on . They have recently added project for records from Argentina, Mecklenburg, Germany, Italy, Norway—1875 Federal Census [Part F], Panamá, Slovensko, and Venezuela Find My Past TV SeriesAs you know by now the TV series Who Do You Think You Are? in the US has been cancelled. However, genealogy themed television in the UK seems to continue to thrive. According to an article on the UKTV website called "UKTV signs deal with Brightsolid for second series of AFP Find My Past on Yesterday" Read the article here My HeritageOn June 11, 2012: MyHeritage held an international online press conference and announced that it has reached the milestone of one billion profiles. The billion individuals in nearly 23 million family trees, created by the millions of families using MyHeritage worldwide, constitute a gigantic network for discovering family heritage and connecting to relatives. Read more about it here MAILBOX: Janelle Collins in Australia: "Thanks to your podcast on creating a Google blog I've started one of my own! … Do I need to have my ancestors' names in the blog title rather than in the text of the post itself for a search to bring up my blog post?" "Also, LOVED the 10 Minutes More song...Do you know if there are lyrics available so I can show it to my husband to read instead? Many thanks for all your hard work in making so many podcasts. I listen to them daily while I drive to college and back most days." Lisa's Answer: Congratulations on your blog! When it comes to optimizing your blog for search, you want keywords included that other genealogists will be searching for. So include them when possible in both the title and the body of the blog post. Consider also adding location names or other significant keywords that people will be looking for, and links to relevant websites. You can find lyrics on the Genealogy Widower Facebook fan page. Alvie in Florida: "I just got back from my morning bike ride - usually an hour - and I enjoyed listening to your interview with Dr. Gates. He is such a fascinating man. Of course, I would never take away from the whole the fact that your interview skills played an enormous role in eliciting the right responses. You were keenly aware of your audience and their desires. Thank you for this fantastic podcast." Richard in Sacramento, CA: "I was wondering when someone would do it, and you did. Thanks. As all of the various genealogy blogs concerned themselves for three years with "Who Do You Think You Are", Henry Louis Gates Jr. competed against two of those years. In both cases, I personally believe that he did a much better job than the NBC series." Jay in Brisbane, Australia is New to Genealogy: "I really want to thank you for your show. Not only have I found each and every episode informative and inspiring (and, yes, I've downloaded every single episode in iTunes!), helping me get starting growing my fledgling family tree, but you've also inspired me to start a blog to document my efforts and share the stories I discover." If you are new to genealogy like Jay is, listen to my Family History: Genealogy Made Easy podcast. If you haven't already discovered it, you've got another 46 episodes ahead of you. :-) Also New to Genealogy From Ricky: "I got totally hooked on Genealogy research this past January. In this short amount of time, I have gained A LOT of information and documents. I have listened to your podcasts. ALL of the Family History Made Easy, ALL of the Genealogy Gems and now I've started the Family Tree Magazine podcasts. I just can't get enough. I've subscribed to GG and FTM on iTunes, and I am a Premium GG subscriber. Now that I'm learning how I SHOULD HAVE been doing my research, I have a question. Should I, STOP and go back and try to do good source citations to all of the information I currently have??? Thank your for your advice." Lisa's Answer: The answer is yes. However, all though it sounds like a lot of work, you'll actually benefit not only by verifying all of the data and getting it sourced properly (which will pay off big dividends in the long run) but all genealogists experience new finds and insights when revisiting sources. You know more than you did when you first got the information, and that helps you see thing

June 11, 2012 Episode 134: You asked for it! Here's a blast from the past: Episodes 1 & 2 of the Genealogy Gems Podcast! Episode 01 February 25, 2007 by Lisa Louise Cooke My goal in creating this podcast is to provide you with inspiration and innovation to help you get the most of out your research time. There's never enough time to work on your family tree, is there? So when you have some precious moments to dig into your roots, you want to be mining gold nuggets, not dead ends. Genealogy Gem: Google.com allows you to restrict search results to a specific website. 1 - Go to your favorite genealogy website 2 - Highlight the website address (URL) 3 - Hit the Control key and the letter C at the same time on your keyboard (this copies the website address to your computer's clipboard.) 4 - Go to Google.com 5 - Click in the Google search box to place your cursor there 6 - Hit the Control key and the letter V at the same time on your keyboard (this pastes the website address in the search box that you just copied from the other site.) 7 - Hit the HOME key on your keyboard (this takes your curser to the beginning of the URL address in the search box) 8 - Now type a keyword you want to search (a surname for instance) 9 - Hit the space bar on your keyboard 10-Then type SITE: (be sure to include the colon after the word SITE:) 11- Click the SEARCH button You will receive search results just like a regular Google search, except these results show only pages where your keyword appears in the website you chose to search, rather than every website on the internet! Believe me, once you use this gem, you will never go back to slogging through hundreds of pages that have nothing to do with your family. Try it today! I hope you'll subscribe to this podcast so you won't miss a single gem packed episode. Email me with feedback, suggestions, and questions. GEM: Transcription of Family Journals & Letters Start with what you know. Then talk to your oldest relatives first before you lose them. Ask for letters and journals Invest time into combing through and transcribing them into a digital format (such as a Word document) Print it out and go through it with a highlighter Highlight, names, places, dates, etc. Create a list of the highlighted items and do a Google search on each (both text & images where applicable) Transcription is worth it! One of my inspirations: the autobiography of my husband's grandfather Raymond Harry Cooke born March 6, 1894 in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England. This journal led to the discovery of the following photograph... The Rose Theatre Staff in 1914 (Material courtesy of the City of Regina Archives": Bottom left corner: Raymond Harry Cooke. To his upper right, Miss Belle Osborne. They later married, and remained so for over 50 years. Please email feedback and questions. Be sure to let me know how you heard about the podcast.

May 19, 2012 Discover what Dr. Henry Louis Gates hope to convey in the final episode of his series Finding Your Roots. NEWS: I just returned from NGS and had a chance to visit with many listeners including: Lisa Lisson of the Are You My Cousin? blog www.areyoumycousin-Lisa.blogspot.com and Debra writes the Deb's Research blog www.debsresearch.blogspot.com I also taught classes while there. My first class was on using the iPad for Genealogy, and while I think the students learned a lot, I know I certainly did. Folks were coming up to me throughout the conference sharing their favorite apps and tricks. Great app for the Kids: Talking Tom Cat (Android) GEM: App Jumping If you have an iPad, you probably find yourself using a couple of different apps at a time. When you are in an app, just use four fingers and swipe side to side to jump from app to app that you currently have open. For this to work you need to make sure that you have "Multi-tasking Gestures" activated under the "General" tab in your Settings. GEM: Four Finger Swipe Now as you are doing the Four Finger Swipe you'll probably notice that you have some apps open that you no longer need open, and if they are open they are taking up battery resources. It's a good idea to close these down, which is more than just pressing the HOME button to get out of the app. Use four fingers and swipe from bottom to top and this will reveal a horizontal line of the apps you have open. Press and hold one of the apps to start them all shaking and a minus sign will appear on each. Press the minus sign on each app you are not currently using to close them. NEWS: Ancestry publishes collection of WWII Cadet Nursing Corp Files New National Archives Video Gives an Inside Look at Civil War Widow's Pension Digitization Project 1940 Census Update from FamilySearch GEM: Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. What does it mean to be Latino? On May 19, 2012, the season finale of Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr., the PBS TV series that explores race and identity through the genealogy of some of America's best-known personalities, seeks to answer that question. Through the family histories of actors Michelle Rodriguez and Adrian Grenier, and Linda Chavez, an author, syndicated newspaper columnist and political analyst for FOX News, viewers will discover that Latino identity emerged from the tangled histories of European, Native-American and African peoples. The three subjects of Sunday's episode all share Spanish colonial roots, yet each views their identity very differently: as Native American, Puerto Rican, Dominican or simply Latino. At the helm of this series is Henry Louis Gates Jr. He holds a Ph.D. in English Literature, and is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor at Harvard University, as well as the director of the W.E.B Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research. He's best known for PBS productions like African American Lives, Oprah's Roots, and African American Lives 2. This week I was fortunate to grab some time with this very busy man to talk about the final episode of this newest series, Finding Your Roots. Get Lisa's Free Newsletter Sign up for my free Genealogy Gems newsletter. If you do you'll receive my free ebook 5 Fabulous Google Search Strategies for the Family Historian absolutely free, and that's a sweet deal indeed!

Published May 3, 2012 Decipher your ancestor's head gear with Maureen Taylor (AKA The Photo Detective) with tips from her new book Bonnets and Hats. And then grab your spouse for a genealogical musical number. NEWS: Thanks for the Shout Outs: Branching Out Through the Years New German podcast Going the Extra Yad by Emily Garber Cooke-ing at the Arizona Family History Expo, 20-21 Jan 2012 Size Doesn't Matter at the Jen on Gen blog FamilySearch Update The 1940 U.S. census indexing project was launched this April as part of a broad online community effort. - Over 85,000 volunteers have already completed 20 percent of the census project. - A record number of active indexers used the program in a single day—34,947 volunteers. - In one day more than 3.2 million records were indexed and 1.5 million were arbitrated. Recently Completed Projects The Genealogy Gems News Blog Pinterest Third most popular social networking My pinterest boards http://pinterest.com/lisalouisecooke/ Pins from genealogygemshttp://pinterest.com/source/genealogygems.tv/ Follow me on pinterest icon MAILBOX: Sterling is lucky to have old family photos but needs some help preserving them. He writes: "I've become a regular listener of your Genealogy Gems podcast and I find that I'm enjoying it as much as any of the NPR radio shows that are my listening mainstays. I've learned so much from listening to you over the past few months and I'm deeply grateful. I have a question that perhaps you or one of your listeners know the answer to. I have a family photo album, circa 1915, in which all the photos have been glued to black construction-type paper…Can you or anyone listening suggest a safe method for removing these photos from their old pages in order to recover the information that's on the backs of them? An answer from The Practical Archivist Sally Jacobs Family Tree Magazine article / answer Sally also writes: "My advice was to use interleaving sheets to protect the image side of the photographs from the acidic paper, rather than deconstruct her ancestor's scrapbook. That advice still stands, but your listener has brought up one of the few exceptions to this rule: Information has been written on the back of the glued photographs. That doesn't mean I'm giving Sterling a green light to soak his ancestor photographs. NOTE: Water and photographs should not be mixed by anyone who isn't a trained conservator! The scrapbook format is difficult to process because of the different elements from which it is made. The adhesive may be water soluble and simple to soak off. Try to isolate a leaf of the book with some plastic sheeting (i.e. place a piece of plastic under the leaf to avoid damaging the leaf below). Place a damp piece of blotting paper over one of the newspaper clippings under a light weight. Leave it for about twenty minutes then very carefully, using a spatula, lift the newspaper from the leaf. Place the newspaper clipping between two pieces of dry blotting paper to dry." Thanks to Sally Jacobs the Practical Archivist. You can get lots more greats preservation advice from her at www.practicalarchivist.com Swedish TV Series: Line in Denmark wrote in again to give us an update on a popular Swedish TV show about family history: "I have some exiting news about the Swedish tv show that I mentioned in my last email. "Everything for Sweden." On this link they are looking for new contestants for the second season! "I have taken up your advice on contacting long lost family members. I still don't have the courage to phone them, but instead contacting them on e-mail. So far it has been a big success. I would never have done it if I hadn't listened to your show. So thanks! Love your podcasts - please keep on making them!" Beverly Loves the Podcast: "I'm a relatively new listener and premium member. I was bitten by the genealogy bug when I was about 12 years old and now I'm a grandmother. I've been calling myself a reformed genealogist because the "bug" has been dormant for a while…Thank you for all you share with your listeners. You have a real gift for communicating in a clear and personable way. I look forward to all your gems I have yet to uncover." Get your free audio book and over 40,000 audio book titles to choose from at Audible: http://www.audiblepodcast.com/gems GEM: Interview with The Photo Detective Maureen Taylor, author of the book Bonnets and Hats Link for Hat video GEM: The Genealogy WidowerThe other day I was doing my usual trolling of the web searching for new genealogy gems, and I found a very musical oe that I want to close out the show today with. If you have a wife or husband like mine who really isn't in to genealogy, gather them around the computer or iPod because I've actually got something on the show they are going to totally identify with. This is a special song that comes to us from Michael Stewart also known as The Genealogy Widower… You can download a free copy of Michael Stewart's song the Genealogy Widower here.

April 26, 2012 NEWS: The big news is Ancestry.com's acquisition of Archives.com Read all about it at the Genealogy Gems News Blog My Classes at the Genealogy Jamboree Conference: TH-001 - Conversation with the Author: Steve Luxenberg and Annie's Ghosts TH-013 - Common Surname Google Search Strategies SA-020 - Sharing The Joy: Projects That Will Captivate The Non-Genealogists In Your Life SA-034 - The Google Earth Scavenger Hunt – Fascinating Family History Fun! SA-040 - 10 Ways to Add Volume to Your Family History with Video MAILBOX: Ashley discovers the important of citing her genealogy sources: I wanted to drop you a note to express my deepest thanks for all of the work that you put into the podcast. I'm just shy of 30 years old and I've been working on my family tree since I was about 15, but even after all of that work, I'm still learning something new every day! …I wanted to share with you is that I just finished listening to episode 20 of the FH:GME podcast (all about the GPS and the importance of sourcing) and my own sad tale with sources: Like I said, I started family tree research when I was about 15. I stumbled on a four page report that my grandmother had ordered through a professional genealogist in the 1970s and was immediately hooked. Unfortunately, NOTHING is sourced in that report. I asked my Gramma about it and she told me that even she had found some errors (for example: she had four older half-siblings that were stillborn or died shortly after birth. The report said that they were all born and died in February, which my Grandmother adamantly claims isn't true.) But I based almost my entire tree on that report. Then I made things worse by accepting any family trees on Ancestry.com as fact, adding names, dates and information willy nilly from people who may or may not have been related to me. It wasn't until I realized that one branch of my tree had "traced" itself back to Julius Caesar (who was his own grandfather, according to the tree) that I went, "... wait a minute." I'm starting the process of creating a new, sourced, accurate tree. It's probably going to take me just as long to fill out the branches, but it will be worth it in the end. And I have you, and the fantastic resources you bring to the podcast, to thank! Thank you so very, very much. Your podcasts are such an invaluable tool and listening to them make me so excited to try a new method in my own research. Jack in Newport News, Va wants to know what do to with the folks who may or may not be ancestors: "We all are searching for the "right" people but sometimes we find, or seemingly find, the "wrong" people. With the massive number of records on-line these days, it seems quite easy to find someone with the right name and age-range and, often even close to the right area. Sometimes I can eliminate a find based on some fact, but often there's less certainty. What is the suggested best practice for handing a wrong, or possibly wrong, person/fact?" Lisa's Answer: This is a good question and one we all face at some point. In the end I think it comes down to two things: 1. What works best for you 2. And however you decide to handle it, do it consistently! My personal preference is to make notes in the correct person. If there is no "correct" person in my database, then I will create an "unknown" person in that spot and start adding my finds to that profile, even if it's just in the notes section, so that it's all in one place. It's critical to cite your sources on ALL data along the way so that you know where it came from and you can find it again. Challe needs help saving old books: "What does one do to get the information out to the next generation that might not have access to these books? How do you continue the work without reinventing the wheel of all the research that they did? How do you make corrections if needed? I am concerned that the information will be lost and I am unsure as to what to do about it." Lisa's Answer: I turned to my friend and book publisher Leland Meitzler owner of Family Roots Publishing at www.familyrootspublishing.com, for an answer to your question and here's what he said: "This is an ongoing conundrum, and a question that's not easily answered. The bottom line is that the person should contact the next of kin, and attempt to buy the copyright, or at least the publication rights - just as a publisher would do. And it needs to be in writing. Failing that, use the "data" within a succeeding publication, being very careful to obtain, and cite the original sources, and if those are not available, cite the book and author without copying word for word what they published. Honestly, it's tricky, and not something I'd want to attempt. If the book was published prior to 1923, all this is not an issue. The item is in the public domain. If published after that date, but before 1978, there's still a good chance that the book may be out of copyright, if the author didn't renew. After January 1, 1978, the copyrig

Published April 16, 2012 In this episode learn more about APG, find out what's new with RootsMagic 5, and get started searching the 1940 census. NEWS: Diane Haddad and I just spent some time on the Family Tree Magazine podcast going over everything that's been happening with the release of the 1940 census. Diane is the Managing Editor of Family Tree Magazine and writes the Genealogy Insider blog, and she's been doing a terrific job covering the records release, indexing efforts and early finds in the 1940 census. You can hear the entire April episode of the Family Tree Magazine podcast at www.familytreemagazine.com/podcast And you can read more about it my article called Genealogy Just Got More Exciting! The 1940 Census is Here at the Genealogy Gems News Blog. where you can read about the official opening ceremony at the National Archives and check out a really cool infographic put out by Archives.com that guides you through the process of finding your relatives in the 1940 census before the index is finished and released. Because there isn't a searchable name index yet, you'll need to follow a simple three step process: #1 Write down where you ancestor lived. You can ask older references, check old city directories, voters registrations, previous census and the like to come up with a pretty reliable list. #2 Go to 1940census.archives.gov Enter your family's location to find their enumeration district. This is key to finding them without a published index. #3 Use the Census Maps to narrow your results #4 Enter the enumeration district number to view the image Who Do You Think You Are? on NBCIf you've been enjoying the new season of the TV series Who Do You Think You Are? on NBC, then you're really going to enjoy the deleted scenes videos I have for you on the Genealogy Gems News blog. Edie Falco Rita Wilson Parks and Recreation Star Discovers His Family History in Who Do You Think You Are? Rob Lowe National Archives The National Archives continues to publish some great videos on their YouTube channel and here's one that I really enjoyed: National Archives Video Offers Peek Inside Preservation Lab Also part of that series is another new video that the National Archives released on … Titanic at the National Archives – 100 Years New Free RootsMagic Webinars Announced RootsMagic has released Version 5. At the Ohio Genealogical Society conference in Cleveland I got a chance to sit down with Bruce Bruzbee, the President of RootsMagic and he tells us what's new. It was so great to have a chance to sit down with Bruce and hear about all the upgrades, and he mentioned the free webinar series that they've been doing, and all of those have been recorded and are on their website at RootsMagic.com Installing and Upgrading RootsMagic 5 New Media Tagging in RootsMagic 5 New Source and Citation Features in RootsMagic 5 New Research Logs and Manager in RootsMagic 5 New Timeline View in RootsMagic 5 Installing and Upgrading Personal Historian 2 Apr 19 - New County Check in RootsMagic 5 Apr 26 - New Reports and Options in RootsMagic 5 To sign up for the free webinars, visit the webinar page at: http://www.rootsmagic.com/webinars Read RootsMagic Update Released and Free Webinar Thanks for the Shout Outs: Genealogy Gems Premium Podcasts and the iPad by Jenna, Desparately Seeking Surnames Blog A blog post about genealogy books and their authors By: Carolyn L. Barkley, Genealogy and Family History Blog How to Recover from a Genealogy Slump From Eylse's Genealogy Blog MAILBOX: From Jean: "Thank you so much for letting me be a gem!". I loved how you played the "Cooke's reel to reel version and then the iTunes version of "Thine Alone". I definitely spent a lot of time talking with myself and debating whether I had the nerve to send that email! I know you've always said that almost all contacts with genealogists are extremely rewarding, but this was just about my first attempt at communication. I am so delighted that it solved your mystery! …You have a marvelous gift for making all of us feel special, and you've certainly helped me get even more motivated to explore my family history, thanks again." From the Voice Mail Line: "What do you do with big or numerous files? How do you annotate them in your tree for future reference when you pass the tree on or share it with others? I'm talking about PDFs of big books or articles or a large collection of photos where hundreds of megabytes may be involved. They're too cumbersome to keep inside programs but they should still be referenced to be able to find that file later on." Lisa Recommends: Cite your sources! Send large files for free with www.yousendit.com Share large files for free with www.dropbox.com GEM: Interview with Kenyatta Berry, President of the Association of Professional Genealogists (APG) Kenyatta D. Berry is a lawyer, businesswoman and genealogist with over 15 years experience in genealogy research and writing. A strategic and tactical professional with over twelve years pr

Published March 22, 2012 Genealogy Gems Book Club: Our featured book is Running Away to Home by Jennifer Wilson. In this book, Jennifer takes us on a once and a lifetime genealogical journey where she walked in her ancestors shoes and lived among their descendants. Get the Book at Amazon: and help support the free Genealogy Gems Podcast. Thank You! Visit Jennifer Wilson's website: http://www.jennifer-wilson.com About Jennifer: Jennifer Wilson has been writing for 15 years for folks like Esquire, National Geographic Traveler, Better Homes & Gardens, Traditional Home, Budget Travel, AAA Living, Parents, Midwest Living, Iowa Outdoors, the Chicago Tribune, the St. Paul Pioneer-Press, (the dearly departed) Gourmet and many others. SPECIAL VIDEO CONTENT: watch on The Genealogy Gems YouTube Channel Genealogy Gems App Users will find a special video about the interview as bonus content for episode 129. Get the app for iPhone / iPad Get the Android App at Amazon (Search "Genealogy Gems") If you enjoyed this episode and the video, please do me a favor and click the thumbs up button for the video at YouTube, you'll find it right under the video. And you'll also find ways there on Youtube to share the video through Facebook and Twitter for all you Tweeters out there. Thank you for sharing! Click here for more information on Jamboree.

Published March 9, 2011 In this episode we'll talk to Chris van der Kuyl, CEO of brightsolid. Who Do You Think You Are? Live 2012 By Andrew Martin of the History Repeating Blog Mark Olsen of MyHeritage / World Vital Records WDYTYA recap at the MyHeritage blog WDYTYA Live 2012: MyHeritage Highlights Else Churchill and her team from the Society of Genealogists in the UK really do a brilliant job organizing the classes for Who Do You Think You Are? A Day Just for Me South Davis Family History Fair NEWS: Watch recorded presentations from RootsTech 2012 I'm honored that my Genealogy Podcasts and Blogs 101 class is included in the group. I really enjoyed introducing more people to podcasts and blogs I've heard from a lot of folks that this really opened their eyes to a medium they didn't realize was out there for them to enjoy for free. Debbie writes: "Wow. All I can say is Wow. I am a 52 year old mother of 4 in Bountiful, Utah. I have been watching the RootsTech Live presentations online and have just finished watching yours. It was amazing and inspiring. I consider myself somewhat tech savvy but have veered away from Blogs. (Just the sound of the word Blog infers something that will weigh you down.) But after your presentation I am anxious to try iGoogle and add blogs and podcasts tailored to my interests. I had no idea. And thanks for pointing out the Google blog search option. All the genealogy-focused search options now available through Google are exciting. I am hopeful you will add all your RootsTech presentations to your podcasts. They sound fascinating." And during that presentation I encouraged viewers to get their own genealogy blog started so that they can get information out there that might help them connect with other genealogists researching the same family line. And Carol wrote me shortly after the conference to let me know that she did just that! She writes: Skeletons in the Closet Marlene also wrote in about RootsTech. She says: "The Rootstech Conference was so awesome. I learned so much about podcasts, I am willing to try it out. But first I am the craft queen, especially when it comes to crafting my family history. The last day of the Rootstech I had to leave early. I didn't get to your last class that I had waited so long for. Do you have a podcast of the steps for creating the crafts you make with your family history?? I see the instructions, but I wanted to watch you in action. p.s. Thanks so much for your signed book on find family through newspapers. I can't wait to get started. Marlene" Genealogy Gems YouTube channel: Family History Christmas Stocking Project Part 1 Part 2 And the 4 part Family History Christmas Wreath series Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Also, several projects discussed in class are featured in my book "Genealogy Gems" available at my Lulu Store. MAILBOX: Name That Tune - Family History Mystery Solved! Hi Lisa, I love your podcasts, but I'm still catching up!! Back in 2009. you ran a series of "Name that Tune" challenges, which I absolutely loved, I think I have old time music in my DNA. It took me a day to recognize the "Missouri Waltz," I knew "The Dark Town Strutters Ball" right away; when I was little I named my doll "Honey" and always thought of those first lines "I'll be down to get you in a taxi, Honey...", I knew "I'll see you in my dreams" don't know if you are old enough to recall "Sing along with Mitch" when it was on TV, but we had all Mitch Miller's Sing Along albums and "I'll See you in my dreams" was among them. Okay, so that brings me to the reason for this email. In Episode 56, you celebrated "I'll See you in my dreams" and then played a brief 30 seconds of another tune, it was a violin instrumental. Well as I said I've listened up to 59 and I've never heard the result for that last tune. I think it may be "Thine Alone" by Victor Herbert. It was from the operetta "Eileen". Herbert was born in Ireland and emigrated to America, his more famous songs include "Ah Sweet Mystery of Life" and "The March of the Toys" from "Babes in Toyland" but he seems to have written hundreds of songs. You had a loyal listener named "Jeannie" who called you with the names of the first 4 songs, I laughed at the similarity in our names, but anyway, I'm going crazy, did anyone else ever recognize that song? If you go to iTunes, there is a good instrumental version of "Thine Alone" on the Album "The Music of Victor Herbert & Sigmund Romberg" performed by George Melchrino. It is a lovely song. I can't tell you how many wonderful memories those songs gave me!! Yes, I am working on my Family History and really enjoy all your podcasts, videos, blogs and advice. I did finish your Family History: Genealogy Made Easy podcast series, got to get to work on the Family Tree Magazine Podcast too!! Thank you so much for all you do! Jean Sue: "Robert Arbuckle Handwriting Analysis" Paula really is amazing and if you'd like to learn more about her and handwriting analysis head over to paulasassi.

Published Feb 21, 2012 In this episode you'll hear from UK presenter and historian Nick Barratt. GEM: Listener Betty Wynn Betty talks about how she uses my book The Genealogist's Google Toolbox. The Genealogy Gems Podcast app GEM: Interview with Nick Barratt http://www.nickbarratt.co.uk/ "Dr Nick Barratt obtained a PhD in history from King's College London in 1996, editing the 1225 Exchequer pipe roll and several Exchequer receipt rolls from the 1220s when the National Archives: Public Record Office maintained a site at Chancery Lane. On joining the National Archives: Public Record Office at Kew later the same year as a reader adviser. Nick started work in television whilst working at the BBC as a specialist archive researcher for a number of programmes. His valuable links to the largest archival institutions in the country and expertise helped lay the foundation of the network he has in place today. This network allows Nick and his team of researchers to effectively complete projects in any archive across the country."

Published Feb 10, 2012 In this episode we cover the latest news from RootsTech 2012, my video interview with Nick Barratt, and an in depth look at Find A Grave with the website's creator, Jim Tipton. NEWS: Watch the recording of my presentation Genealogy Podcasts and Blogs 101 RootsTech 2012 website. It's part of the Saturday Recap Video. Roots Tech was the public debut of my new book Everything You Need to Know About How to Find Your Family in Newspapers and I just want to thank everyone for the amazing response. It's really obvious that a comprehensive book on newspaper research was LONG overdue. Get the book at the Genealogy Gems Store. Autographed copies still available a very limited time Read more about and watch my chat with Genealogy Gems Podcast listener and contest winner Carol Genung. GENEALOGY GEMS APP BONUS CONTENT: Listen to the interview with podcast listener and contest winner Carol Genung. Watch my chat with television presenter and historian Nick Barratt. Brightsolid (Now FindMyPast)Now one of the big players in British online records brightsolid made a HUGE splash at RootsTech 2012 not only with it's huge and colorful display at the front of the Exhibit Hall, but also by announcing while there that they have formally entered the US genealogy market with the launch of a ground-breaking, "pay-as-you-go" website: www.censusrecords.com. Read all about it: Brightsolid Enters US Genealogy Market With Censusrecords.com Customers of the new site will be able to search all US census records from 1790 to 1930 and it will also house the 1940 US census records, when they are released later this year. My Heritage / World Vital RecordsAlso making news was MyHeritage.com. They have recently acquired World Vital Records.com and now are also making a splash onto the U.S. scene. I spoke with CEO Gilad Japhet and he told me they have just opened a U.S. office in Provo Utah and will be introducing some exciting new changes in the near future that take advantage of the huge new record collection they have acquired from World Vital Records and will make it easier than ever to build your existing MyHeritage family tree. FamilySearch Launches Mobile Indexing AppFamilySearch announced a mobile Indexing App at RootsTech that is meant to expand the capability of volunteers to help make the world's historic records searchable online. The mobile device app works on Apple iPads, iPhones, and Droid smartphones. MAILBOX: From Pat in New York: "Lisa--Once again I find myself driving along listening to you and mentally adding "To Do" items faster than the speed limit will allow! :) It's like having tea again with a childhood friend -- your comforting tone is oh-so-soothing at the end of the day for the drive home." Read Pat's blog post at http://dalpiazryan.blogspot.com/2011/10/stroll-back-in-time-to-ellicottville-ny.html "Lost Goose" newspaper notice which was a particular gem found in old small town newspapers. From Tina in the UK: "Your new newspaper book: I wondered if the content might be solely to do with US newspapers, or do you cover other countries too? I'm interested as I haven't had a lot of luck." The book is first and foremost a newspaper research process. This applies to newspapers regardless of their location. It does however include a fairly extensive International newspaper Appendix. It is of course impossible to make it complete, however it will certainly give you some great leads, and also provide you with a sense of what is out there and other types of similar websites to look for. While newspaper research starts online, it very often ends offline. And certainly the worksheets would be applicable to all newspaper research. Sandi wrote: "Just got my signed copy today. Thanks, Lisa! I know I will get lots of GEMS :) I foresee this being a well-used workbook." Nancy wrote: "Got my signed book in the mail today. Well done. Lots of fantastic tips. and references for all states. I'm reading through it. Thanks, Lisa, for a great book" Newspaper Lecturer Bret Petersen wrote: "I sure wish that I had had a book like that when I started researching newspapers!" Question from Dave: "It's funny that I feel like I can call you Lisa although I have never met you in person. I just renewed my premium membership for the second year So I have been following you for quite a while. I love your shows; Gems, premium, and family tree magazine! I listen regularly and always can't wait for the next issue to come out!" "On to my question: I was reviewing your hard drive organization videos (fantastic by the way) and noticed you mentioned Springfield Ohio as an ancestral home. I too have relatives there. I am currently fascinated by my civil war veteran ancestor Samuel S Cowan…I was wondering where to locate possible obituaries for Springfield? What News Papers were commonly read there? Thanks again for all you do to feed mine and others addiction to family history!" Check out Dave's photographs of the Jerseyville IL Victorian Da

Published Jan 24, 2012 In this episode Genealogist Shirley Gage Hodges will share her genealogical wisdom with you as well as talk about her status as "perennial student." NEWS Marilyn attended my class called Inspiring Ways to Captivate the Non-Genealogist in Your Life and wrote in "I attended your class during the Arizona Family History Expo. I enjoyed it very much!" Hear Me in Persongo to the Genealogy Gems Website at www.genealogygems.com and Seminars in the menu. That's what I do to be sure I'm in the right place at the right time! Jamboree:The 43rd Annual Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree is now officially open for registration Burbank, CA June 8 through the 10 of 2012. My Brand New Book is Available: Everything You Need to Know About How to Find Your Family History in Newspapers Here's what Steve Luxenberg, Washington Post associate editor and author of Annie's Ghosts: A Journey Into a Family Secret said about the book: Annie's Ghosts: A Journey Into a Family Secret "Read it. Study it. Absorb it. But above all, use Lisa Louise Cooke's new book as the guide and instructional tool that it is meant to be. As a veteran of research and libraries, I found all sorts of nuggets and new resources. Beginners will find an embarrassment of riches, including an impressive appendix with a comprehensive list of online routes to national, international and local newspapers. This is as close as you'll get to one-stop shopping for learning about historical newspaper research." And that's really what I wanted it to be – One stop shopping for everything you need to know about finding your family history in newspapers. There are some incredible stories out there waiting to be found, and this book is going to get you there! MAILBOX: Myron from Iowa writes: "I have a Genealogical Gem that I think you would like to hear about. I have a recording of my Great Grandma's voice. My father served in the army 1946-1950, sometime while he was in the service his family took a trip from Nebraska to New York City. While visiting the Empire State Building, at the top there was this coin operated machine that would cut your own record, recording your voice, that you could mail to your friends. My mom has that record. I recorded the record to a wav file and it sounds really bad. I don't understand German so I hope they aren't saying anything bad. Enclosed are some photos of it and the wav files from it." Is there anyone out there who speaks German who could translate this recording for Myron? If that's something you can help with, that would be amazing. Please email the written translation to me. I'll share the results here on the show. there was definitely genealogically serendipity involved in this email from Myron because just before receiving it I had come across a video on YouTube that I thought was absolutely wonderful, and right along the same lines. Story Corps at Vimeo Video: No More Questions! No More Questions! from StoryCorps on Vimeo. GEM: Interview with Genealogist Shirley Gage Hodges, "The Perennial Student" "Everyone has something to learn." You can read Shirley's articles on genealogy at the Global Gazette The Genealogical Speakers Guild The Immigration Experience Genealogy Gems App users check the Bonus Content for this episode for additional Immigration notes from Shirley! What keeps Shirley motivated: Finding the stories of her ancestors Learning more about ancestor's connection with our country The lesson Shirley learned after her search for Grandpa Larkin: "We do have to be so careful! He was a grand old gentleman, and I would have loved to have him as a Grandfather." Alas it turned out the he was someone else's Grandpa! Shirley Has Her Eye on the Future with These Historical Projects: The Harvey Girls Amazing Women of the West Creating a Family History Christmas Wreath. Learn how to make one for yourself! Watch all 4 episodes of Family History Christmas Wreath at the Genealogy Gems YouTube channel. CLOSING: Thanks for the Shout Out I want to say thank you to some bloggers who have given me a shout out lately: The Root Cellar Sacramento Genealogical Society Posted the blog article Searching for Common Surnames about my recent speaking engagement at the Sacramento Central Public Library. And Genealogy Blogger and podcast listener Kim Von Aspern invite me to sit down with her a few weeks ago for one on one interview and she is publishing it as a blog series at her Le Maison Duchamp blog at lemaisonduchamp.blogspot.com Check out her articles: Lisa Louise Cooke in Sacramento Interview with Lisa Louise Cooke Part 1 Interview with Lisa Louise Cooke Part 2

Published Jan 10, 2012 What's Black, and White and READ all over? Your Ancestors in old newspapers! In fact, your ancestors could be anywhere! Most likely they were mentioned at some point in their own local paper, but they might also show up in a neighboring towns paper, or in a paper located thousands of miles away. Nothing is more exciting than finding information in an old newspaper that adds to your family history! And I've been working feverishly on a new book that I can finally tell you about that is going to finally give you the answers and resources you need to be successful finding your ancestors in the new. It's called Everything You Need to Know About Finding Your Family History in Newspapers and that's exactly what it is. It's everything you need to know. This book is going to change all that. I spell out a step-by-step process and give you a worksheet you can copy and use again and again. There are tons of websites, search tips, and 3 very Cool Online tools that probably aren't using but you should be! Stay tuned because we'll be doing an official launch very soon, and I'm going to have a very special opportunity for you to get a signed copy of the book first. NEWS: Polish Genealogy Podcast by Dave Newman New Website: http://polgenpodcast.com. Also now in iTunes Keynote Workshop at Who Do You Think You Are? Live in London I'll be on the panel discussing genealogy social networking. RootsTech Schedule is FINALLY published! My Classes at RootsTech: Thurs. Feb 2 at 11:00 am a hands on Google Workshop Friday Feb. 3 at 9:45 am Genealogy Blogs and Podcasts Saturday Feb. 4 at 1:45 Inspiring Ways to Captivate the Non-Genealogists in Your Life Improved Blog Search from Google Now you can search for blogs specifically focused on the family history topics that mean the most to you! New Google Search Option: 1. Go to Google.com 2. Search on specific keywords (ex. County Cork Ireland Genealogy) 3. Click "More" in the Search Options Column on the left side of the page 4. Click "Blogs" 5. Click "Homepages" or "blog Homepages" 6. Now your search results are for blogs focused on those keywords and not just individual articles 7. Click the RSS or "Google" button to add the blog to your Homepage in a Gadget (Learn more about transforming Google.com into your own Genealogy Research Dashboard by becoming a Genealogy Gems Premium Member) MAILBOX: Timothy wrote: "I want to thank you for having Steve Luxenberg on podcast episodes #120 and #121 to discuss his book Annie's Ghosts." PBS documentary "Triumph at Carville: A Tale of Leprosy in America" http://www.pbs.org/triumphatcarville "Your interview with Steve also spurred me on to conduct further research into two other folks that I have been researching, both of whom died in the South Carolina State Hospital. The following brief history is from the South Carolina Department of Archives and History, "The State Dept. of Mental Health has undergone several name changes in its history. The original name was the South Carolina Lunatic Asylum (1821-1895) which was followed by the South Carolina State Hospital for the Insane (1896-1919), the South Carolina State Hospital (1920-1963), and finally the State Dept. of Mental Health (1964 to the present)." I am now currently awaiting to hear back from the archives." Book Reviews Have a Voice: Post positive reviews on Goodreads, Amazon and Lulu for genealogy books you enjoy! Richard Needs Your HelpAs I was going back over some items I have in my Aunt's photo collection, I found two items that I can't seem to find out anything about. Maybe you or your listeners can help. They are called "Foto Folds" and are raised pictures in a foldable container. I've attached three photos: 1) Foto Fold – Closed image shows the two closed. One is the back and the other the front which is die cut. 2) Foto Fold – Opened image shows both opened. One is a single picture and the other my Aunt, Her Brother and their Mother. 3) Foto Fold – Side View shows that the item is not flat but raised. The raised part fits into the cut out piece on the right which then closes to the foldable container. They are most likely dated between the late 1940s and early 1950s. What do you think our descendants will wish they had of ours 100 years in the future? Chris in Norwalk, CT chimed in with "Voice recordings (or, to go a bit further, video). My family has had a touch of music for a few generations now. My great-grandfather was a musical performer & my great-grandmother played piano. In fact I had recorded him singing shortly before he died. Unfortunately, the tape was lost long ago. In another branch of my family, I had a great-grandfather who was a bandleader in Providence, RI. He played cornet & years later my father took it up as well…I play as well, but can't hold a candle to him. I wish I thought to record him as well." Google Earth Sharon in White Lake, MI "I watched your Google Earth for Genealogists webinar on the Roots Magic It was fantastic. In October, I

Published Dec 10, 2011 This Sha Sha has been busily working to finish making Davy's birthday present since his big birthday number 2 is coming up on Dec. 15. In Genealogy Gems Podcast episode #119 I told how I decided to make Davy a Blues Clues card table playhouse. You remember throwing a blanket over a card table when you were a kid and it became a play house on a rainy day, right? Well this one was a bit challenging because there is no pattern for a Blue's Clues playhouse so I just made it up as I went along. But thanks to the Internet and my trusty iPad I was able to come up with something that looks pretty close to the real deal. Here are a few snapshots of the playhouse. And it doesn't just look like Blue's house from the outside, but I lined the panels with fabric that looks like the wallpaper in her house, and even sewed some features in felt like the table and telephone and the framed picture of the felt people on the wall. You know to me what we are doing today with our kids and grand kids and in some cases great grand kids is just as important as researching our family history – in fact it's more important! Creating memories with our loved ones is creating family history right now. And to me there's nothing more important than that. Get your free audio book and over 40,000 audio book titles to choose from at Audible: http://www.audiblepodcast.com/gems NEWS: Genealogy Gems Premium Members have been enjoying episodes on the Premium podcast lately covering how to use the iPad and other tablets out there in the marketplace for our family history. New Ancestry App UpdatesAncestry.com has a popular free app that lets you take your Ancestry.com family tree with you on your iPad. The newest version of the app now includes the shakey Leaf Hints that you also see on their website. Plus there is a simple merge tool that helps you quickly add new relatives and information to your family tree. It also allows you to automatically adds information to photos, allows you to change your tree privacy settings, adds an integrated user feedback support feature, and is faster and more stable than previous versions. New Free Podcasts by National Archives Records Administration in iTunes U The Civil War podcast World War II in the News video podcast features WWII news reels Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Update for Those Seeking Family History Documents Irish Records: FindMyPast.ie has recently announced that they have launched exclusive access to the Irish Prison Registers 1790-1920. The collection is made up of over 3.5 million entries across 130,000 pages. New Library and Archives Canada Blog: Provides useful tips and recommend tools to help you discover your documentary heritage and navigate the LAC website. Lisa's Book Featured in Online MagazineThe Genealogist's Google Toolbox was featured in the most recent issue of Shelf Unbound magazine. (p.40) A big thank you to all of you who have bought the book because those purchases I think helped bring it to the attention of a non-genealogy publication! My Presentation Schedule for 2012 Feb 2 – 4 RootsTech 2012, Salt Lake City, UT We'll be celebrating the 5 year anniversary of The Genealogy Gems Podcast! FamilySearch has just announced that the RootsTech 2012 Developer Challenge contest. RootsTech will reward developers who introduce the most innovative new concepts to family history with $10,000 in cash rewards and increased visibility. Feb 24-26 - Who Do You Think You Are Live! In London. Presenting Harness the Power of Google Earth for Your Family History and Google Search Strategies for the Family Historian. And I am very excited to have been invited to be part of a very special panel discussion on using technology for genealogy as well. March 3 Utah Genealogical Assocation Family History Fair in Bountiful, Utah March 10 Full day seminar at the Family History Society of Arizona, Phoenix, AZ April 12 – 14 Ohio Genealogical Society Confedrence, Cleveland, OH April 28 Full day seminar at the San Mateo Genealogical Society, San Mateo, CA May 5 San Luis Obispo Genealogical Society, San Luis Obispo, CA May 9 – 12 National Genealogical Society Conference, Cincinnati, OH I'll be there not only debuting some brand new presentations, but you will also find me at my booth in the exhibit hall so be sure and come on by and say hi. June 1 – 3 Ontario Genealogical Society Conference in Kinston, Ontario Canada. RootsMagic has just released a brand new version 5 The new version 5 of RootsMagic now offers us a Timeline view. Now we can really put a person's life in context with events from their own life and from the lives of family members. But the awesomeness doesn't stop there. They have added even more customer requested features: a research manager which lets you create and track unlimited research logs, the ability to filter the people view, as well as enhancements to multimedia, sources, to-do lists, and much more. There's a little something for everyone! See the free demo o

Published Nov 27, 2011 In this episode you are going to hear from Forensic Genealogist Leslie Lawson. Genealogy News Return of Who Do You think You Are? NBC has just announced that the TV series Who Do You Think You Are? will be returning to television screens here in the U.S on Friday, February 3 at 8pm. Since this falls at the same time as the RootsTech conference I wouldn't be surprised if they plan a group screening for attendees. RootsTech 2012 The winner of the free RootsTech 2012 registration is Carol Genung. So I look forward to seeing Carol there and hopefully many of you listening – there's still plenty of time to register for the conference at rootstech.org. And for those of you unable to attend I'll have videos that bring the experience to via your computer in the comfort of your own home. New Records at FamilySearch They've added a wde range of new records from 20 countries, including Australia, Austria, Canada, Chile, England, Dominican Republic, Germany, Italy, Philippines, and the U.S. The U.S. additions include records from California, Illinois, Indiana, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin. RootsMagic Update RootsMagic has released a minor update (4.1.2.1) which fixes a few issues. Read more at the RootsMagic blog Google Milestones Google Earth has now had more than 1 billion downloads! Read the blog post Google celebrated it's 15th birthday in September 2011. 1000Memories Shoebox App 1000Mempories has launched a new free iPhone app called "Shoebox" that they say is like putting a scanner in your pocket. See more about it here Watch a short commercial video Listen to Lisa's interview with Michael Katchn of 1000Memories in Episode 119 MAILBOX I had the pleasure of being invited up to Victoria British Columbia in October 2011 to give a full day seminar on using Google for Genealogy at the Victoria Genealogical Society. I had a marvelous time and I've had the pleasure of hearing from several who were in attendance that day including this email from Mike who wrote in to say. "I couldn't make the seminar, sadly, but my better half -- Kate -- went and she came home brimming over with ideas, two books, a couple of DVDs and a ton of excitement! We've been putting some of your ideas to great use, and having some walls get knocked down. Outstanding stuff! I've also started listening to the GenealogyGems podcasts starting with #21, and in the first episode I already found some great hints on how to get US Naval records for my great-grandfather. Where have you been all my life?! Thank you again for everything you do for the Genealogical community. You ARE one of the Genealogy Gems!! " Feedback on Steve Luxenberg Interview A topic causing my mailbox to overflow was my interview with Steve Luxenberg and his wonderful book Annie's Ghost Episode 120 Episode 121 Maureen posted on my Facebook Wall" "Genealogy Gems episodes 120 and 121 are, by far, two of the best family history research podcasts that I've ever heard. Steve Luxenberg author of Annie's Ghost was full of great research ideas. These podcasts are keepers!" Brandt posted: "Thanks for the interviews with Steve Luxenberg and the recommendation for Annie's Ghosts. I LOVED the book, and the interviews added a lot to it. Hope he writes another one soon!" Larraine posted: "Annie's Ghost by Steve Luxenberg is excellent. I can't put it down! It's thanks to you Lisa that I discovered the book after listening to your podcasts." Julie M. emailed: "I just had to tell you how enjoyable your interview with Steve Luxenberg was! After the first part, I immediately ordered his book for Kindle (through your site, of course) and started it right away. It is compelling reading and I'm hooked on it. What a great story told by a quality story-teller! I find it hard to put it down and look forward to getting back to it as quickly as possible. Perhaps you need to start a "good reads" section in your podcasts or newsletters. Hooked on your podcasts and trying to catch up on all of them." I think that's an excellent idea! Email or leave a voice mail and tell me if you would be interested in a Genealogy Gems Book Club. Find out more about the book at steveluxenberg.com. Click on "Behind the Book," to view documents not part of the print edition. More Terms of Endearment for Grandparents: And there's another topic that we've discussed here on the show that you've been continuing to write me about and that is terms of endearment for our Grandparents. Sharon's cute quip: "When my son was born, my father would lean over him and put his hand on his belly and shake him a little bit saying "You little bum, you little bum!". Well guess what my son started calling Grandpa from the moment he could form the word, "Bum!…As always Lisa, thanks for informative and entertaining podcasts!" What Will Our Descendents Covet? In this next email, long time listener Pat poses an interesting question: What do you think our descendants will wish they had of ours 100 years

Published Nov 3, 2010 In this Genealogy Gems Podcast Episode 121 and part 2 of my interview with Washington Post editor Steve Luxenberg, author fo Annie's Ghosts. From the emails, Tweets and Facebook posts I've received from so many of you, it sure looks like you enjoyed part 1 of the interview in episode 120 as much as I enjoyed doing it. Jenna at the Seeking Surnames blog tweeted "the Annie's Ghost podcast was great! It's a close runner up to the Sha Na Na Guy as my favorite!" Jenna is referring to Dr. Robert Leonard who I interviewed in episode 89 and 90 about the topic of Forensic Linguistics. I have to agree that Dr. Leonard is one of my all time favorite guests, and Steve is certainly up there with him! And you'll remember that I introduced Part 1 by reading the email from Jay in New York. Well after listening to episode 121 Jay sent me a follow up email saying, "Awesome interview with Steve Luxenberg about his book "Annie's Ghosts". It hit the nail right on the head. Thank you!" Steve is such a riveting writer and speaker, and it's fascinating to hear how someone who is not a genealogist, but rather a journalist approached his family history search in an effort to find the answers to mysteries in his families. I can't tell you how much I enjoyed reading Annies Ghosts. This book inspired me, gave me concrete ideas for pursuing my own family history research, AND kept me on the edge of my chair. What could be better? GEM SERIES: My Life & Times with Sunny Morton My Life & Times: A Guided Journal for Collecting Your Stories (Use the above link to purchase the book at Shop Family Tree and you'll get free shipping and you'll be supporting this free podcast. Thank you!)

Published Oct 20, 2011 Fire up your Kindle! In this episode I'm going to introduce you to the author or a riveting book full of secrets, family history, and discoveries! GEM: Interview with Steve Luxenberg, author of Annie's Ghosts We're going to mix things up a bit in this episode, and I want to start off with an email I received recently from Jay in New York who writes: "I have been catching up with all of your family history podcasts. Over the years I have collected a wealth of information on the family. Some good, some not-so-good, some out in-the-open, some hidden. How do you deal with revealing "forgotten" items about family members to other family members? I had an uncle who had a marriage at a very young age, and would like to have forgotten about it. My mother told me about it. I put it on the tree. While showing off the fruits of my labor to his family this "forgotten" marriage was revealed with not happy responses. The things we find in our tree may not always be "good", How does a person deal with that? and revealing it to others?" This is a great questions, and it's sort of a cooincidence that this episode's publish date coincides with Family history Month and Halloween because we're going to explore ghosts and skeletons in the closet. But actually there's nothing really spooky here, but rather these are things that can be found in many family. Secrets, small and large. Skeletons in the closet that are often closely guarded by others in our family. It's a tricky business navigating your way through the shakier branches of the family tree, so I've invited a special guest to the show who has done an incredible job of climbing those branches in his own family. Steve Luxenberg is a Washington Post associate editor and award-winning author. In his 25 years at The Post, he has headed the newspaper's investigative staff and its Sunday section of commentary and opinion. Steve is going to join me for the full episode to talk about investigating and dealing with family secrets as he did in his book Annie's Ghost. It's a riveting tale that kept me feverishly tapping the "Next Page" key on my kindle. Annie's Ghosts: A Journey Into a Family Secret is about a family secret that Steve stumbled upon in the late 1990s. His mother, who had always claimed to be an only child, had a sister, Annie. And while that was a big surprise all by itself, it was just the beginning of a series of secrets and revelations that Steve unearthed by tapping into his long career as an investigative journalist, and employing newly found genealogy techniques and strategies. In this interview we talk about being aware of what's missing in records and stories, rather than just focusing on what is on the page. For those of you who are Premium Members this discussion is a great follow up to Premium Episode #77 where we talked about being more keenly aware during our research. Steve's also going to share he thoughts on storytelling, which he truly masters in this book. And then we get into some of the genealogical techniques he used. How to avoid Tainting Memories in Interviews, and how to balance the give and take as well as win trust with the person you are interviewing. And speaking of trust Steve describes how he was able to be incredibly successful in obtaining sensitive documents and getting cooperation from various government agencies and other repositories. He's also going to tell us about a little known legal maneuver that he made that really made the difference for him in obtaining some of the most closely held documents and how you can use it too! And finally he'll share his personal feelings about what it was like to get a add a new member to his family, his long lost Aunt Annie. Resources Mentioned: Dillingham Commission's report on immigration, in digitized form, courtesy of the Stanford U. library. Vol. 4 describes immigration conditions in Europe (much of it focusing on Italy, if I remember correctly), and Vol 37 examines voyage conditions, focusing on steerage. http://www.ebrary.com/stanford/Dillingham1.html Quotes from Annie's Ghosts: "What I didn't expect, as the week wore on, was that the family would expand to take in a new member. But that's what happened. As people dipped in and out of the records, as the debates flew about what we knew and what we didn't and whether we should be digging around in the past, Annie gradually became a part of the family consciousness. She was no longer just a name on a hospital record. She was no longer just a secret." "I stopped thinking like a son and started thinking like a journalist." "I offer to send her the letters; it's an unexpected present for her, and I'm glad to be able to make the offer, because it allows me to give as well as take, something reporters can't often do. It's also a good way to win trust." "I want to make sure that if she knows about Annie, she tells me before I tell her, so that I capture her spontaneious memory first." Stay tune - Episode 121 wil feature pa

Published Oct 5, 2011 When you were little did you play in card table tents or forts? I sure did. When I was wandering around the house complaining of being bored on a rainy day, my mom would pull out the old folding table used for card games, throw an old blanket over it, pull out some old pots and pans and hand them to me and tell me to go play house. Something magical seemed to happen when I crawled under the fabric walls. My imagination would let loose and I could happily play for hours. So I've decided to create a special card table house / fort for my grandson Davy. Davy loves the old TV show "Blue's Clues" which was hugely popular here in the U.S. when my kids were little. Nowadays the only place I seem to be able to find it is on Netflix and YouTube. Blue is a dog and she lives in an adorable little yellow house with a red roof with her friend Steve who follows her clues. Last week I headed to the fabric store with my trusty iPad full of photos I found online of the inside and outside of the Blue's Clues house, and I spent two hours up and down the aisles looking for the closest matching fabrics I could find. Each side of the house is double sided – the outside fabric is the bright yellow and the inside is one that looks like the wall paper in blue's house. And of course it will have the windows and curtains, and flowers and lizards and frogs on the outside and I even found a little unfinished wooden mailbox at the fabric store that will be transformed into the purple mailbox outside Blue's house. If Davy has half the fun playing in his Blue's Clues house as I am having making it then it will be a big success! In addition to creating The "Blue's Clues fort" for Davy's birthday which is in December, I also still need to come up with Christmas present for the family. Last year I did calendars for everyone in the Cooke family that sported images for events related to each month. This year I'm thinking about framing charts. It's amazing I haven't gotten around to this already, but I think it's about time. My friend Janet Hovorka just happens to own the company Family ChartMasters and she's going to be here in a day or two for the Family History Expo being held in my area (Northern California) this weekend. So I will be picking her brain and spending a good deal of time on their website. She told me that I have there are loads of new styles of charts to choose from. If you're looking for Christmas present ideas for the family this year, why not consider a family tree chart? Hopefully you've got your genealogy data in a database so you can just export your gedcom and make it gorgeous for a gift they can enjoy for years to come. If you decide you'd like to check out Family ChartMasters– which of course I highly recommend – I'd really appreciate it if you would click the image above to visit their website because when you do you are also supporting this podcast and making it possible for me to keep the free podcast episodes coming. So thank you very much! And by the way, many of you have asked what happened to our Amazon links on the website which were another way that you were helping to support the podcast. Well, Amazon dropped their California affiliate producers because of some recent tax law changes. But I just got an email saying they are reversing that. This is awesome news because I just can't get through all my Christmas shopping without Amazon, and I know that many of you shop online too. So I'm going to get that reinstated asap – keep an eye out for the Amazon links on the homepage at genealogygems.com and I will also return it to the toolbar. (UPDATE: The Genealogy Gems Toolbar has been discontinued) Thanks for being patient and being such incredible supporters of this little old podcast! NEWS: WDYTYA Entertainment Weekly website is reporting that Marisa Tomei has just been added to the roster of celebrities who will be featured on the new season of Who Do You Think You Are? here in the US. Joining here are Martin Sheen and actor Blair Underwood. FamilySearch has added records for China, Hungary, Mexico and U.S. Records Include Illinois, Maryland, New York and Washington. Ancestry.com announced the release of the 1930 Mexico National Census and it's free to the public. Ancestry.uk also recently added some new records. Two million railway employment records from the UK National Archives are now available on the site. Convict records available for free online for Australia The free Convict Records website at http://www.convictrecords.com.au is based around the British convict transportation register compiled by the State Library of Queensland - it includes about three-quarters of the 160,000 convicts transported to Australia between 1787 and 1867. Database of Virginia Slave Names The RVA NEWS is reporting that the Virginia Historical Society has launched an online and searchable database called "Unknown No Longer: A Database of Virginia Slave Names." It's a free service featuring a sizable portion

Published Sept 17, 2011 Everyone has a special name for grandparents in their family. In ours we have Nanna, Grandma, and even Pat-Pat. I look forward to the day my grandson Davy calls me Grandma. While I wait, tell me the unusual terms of endearment used in your family for grandparents. Email or leave a voice mail and be included on the show: (925) 272-4021 Listen to the episode: NEWS: FamilySearch has added millions of new records of both Confederate and Union soldiers who served in the American Civil War. Also now available for viewing are newly added notarial records from Canada, church records and civil registrations from Mexico, and records from England. www.familysearch.org From the UK National Archives: The UK National Archives announced that findmypast.co.uk has just released 1 million Merchant Navy seamen records, dating from 1918 to 1941. Useful guides at the UK National Archives website to help with your research into merchant seamen. Apprenticeship recordsOver half a million records of apprentices have been added to the Ancestry.co.uk site. They cover Scotland, England & Wales during the years 1710-1811. To learn more about apprenticeship records, check out the TNA Research Guide to Apprenticeship Records Australian military recordsYou can now access the records of Australian soldiers who fought in the Great War free at the National Archives of Australia website. If your relative was an Australian soldier, the Office of Australian War Graves at the Australian Government Department of Veteran's Affairs website offers free photographs of Australian solder's graves. Our wonderful sponsor RootsMagic is offering 2 new webinars absolutely free. What's New in Personal Historian 2 Creating a Shareable CD with RootsMagic If the webinars don't fit your schedule they will be posting a recording of the class on their website at www.rootsmagic.com/webinar that you can watch at your convenience absolutely free! And it stays free – it doesn't disappear in a month. I love that about the RootsMagic webinars! Lisa's Upcoming Speaking Engagements: 9/25/11 - Sacramento Public Library, Sacramento, CA 10/7 & 8/11 - Northern California Family History Expo, San Mateo, CA 10/21/11 - Waterloo Iowa Public Library Webinar 10/22/11 - Webinar for the Hayden Idaho Family History Center Fall Family History Seminar 10/29/11 - Victoria Genealogical Society Seminar, Victoria, British Columbia 11/11 & 12/11 - Georgia Family History Expo, Duluth, GA Feb 2 – 4, 2012 – RootsTech, Salt Lake City, UT MAILBOX: As you'll remember I had an interesting conversation with DearMYRTLE in Episode 117 about the abbreviation FL that showed up in podcast listener Dot's family history research. She was wondering what it stood for, and DearMYRTLE was intrigued as well so she did a bit of investigation on it which we discussed in the show. Well several of you wrote in with your thoughts on the subject: Sean writes: "My first thought was that the abbreviation would stand for "found living" and it sort of makes sense based on the discussion. Finding this abbreviation in research could provide an important clue to narrow down when and where a person lived." And Dot chimed in with: "Rob and I do however think there is a time when it is handy for genealogists to use it. If you don't have birth and death dates, we think that instead of having nothing, fl. gives you dates as a rough guide as to when the ancestor lived and you can always extend the dates once more information is found." Dave wrote in with a different take: "It does refer to someone's "productive" time, but typically it refers the time that someone is known to have practiced their profession. Usually, it is used when no biographical information exists…In genealogy, it is less likely that this kind of sourcing is useful, since the person is tied, biologically, to a time and place. We know the age ranges for life events, so we can guess better. That said, it is very useful to be able to interpret information of this kind." It's always nice to hear when the gems I talk about here on the show sparkle in your own research. Tina wrote in recently to share not one but two examples: "I just wanted to thank you for putting the idea into my head that Paula Sassi might be able to contribute something to my knowledge about a relative… I gave her a bit of background to the handwriting I submitted and she came back with insights and suggestions in areas that I hadn't mentioned, but nonetheless knew or suspected - all astonishingly accurate. I am just so grateful to her - and to you!" "And can I give you another thank you? This is an old one, but still the most useful tip I think I have ever had: go back and look at original documents again, and again, and again. Each time I do so, I seem to notice something I had missed the first few times, or now meant more because I had more information. Invaluable. Thank you!" Thomas On Facebook asked about using children's sidewalk chalk as a mediaum to read graveston

Published Sept 6, 2011 Are you having a Picnic? Problem In Chair Not In Computer! Google self-driving car crash was caused by human error - says Google They had a recent failure but Google says it wasn't the car it was a PICNIC! See the photos at Jalopnik Genealogy Gems YouTube channel Kiera posted on my Facebook wall after the webinar saying "I listened to your Webinar on Google Tools today. I wanted to hit myself over the head for not having those tips sooner. I've put them to use today, and already, they're helping me immensely! A million thanks!!!!!!!!" Book Lisa to Speak If your genealogy society doesn't have the budget to fly out speakers in person, webinars are a fantastic alternative. Find out more about how to book for to speak to your group. NEWS: AppList for Hobbies has finally been released! We also had some exciting news around here recently. Appadvice.com published their AppList for Hobbies and named the Genealogy Gems Podcast app as a must have for family history. In other genealogy news, Ancestry made an interesting move recently. They decided to put out a press release about the fact that the images and indexes to the 1940 U.S. Federal Census will be made free to search in the United States when it becomes available in mid-April 2012. Interestingly it was just before Archives.com made their big announcement that they are going to be addint the entire US Federal Census to their website. I blogged about this at length in an article on my website called Archives.com Makes their Big Move. It really is going to be interesting to see Archives approach to challenging the Big Fish, and Ancestry's response to being challenged. Footnote.com has decided to focus primarily on military records, and they have a new name for it that reflects that. Footenote.com will now be known as Fold3 which comes from the third fold in a traditional military flag folding ceremony. Ancestry has also explanded their U.S. School Yearbook Collection MAILBOX: I caught by surprise the other day when Ruth replied back to that email and she said: "I owe you a Thank You! I have learned so much about Google in just the first 50 pages! Wow! Do to time constraints, most of my genealogical research is conducted online and Google is certainly my favorite search engine. You book is a fantastic guide to the Google universe! P. S. I've been listening to The Genealogy Gems Podcast for a long time. Also a great help to my research!" Aisha wrote: "I grew up away from my extended family and my grandparents died before I got to know them. So, genealogy is helping me to connect and learn about my relatives. Thanks for the tips and gems." To learn more about vital records check out my Family History: Genealogy Made Easy Podcast series. Episode 3 focuses on the search process and specifically death records. Maria asked "What should my next research step be? I've been googling his name, as well as searching on Ancestry.com. My MIL may have half-siblings, and a biological father who could still be alive somewhere! I would love to further my research...Any suggestions would be appreciated! I love your podcast!" In addition to standard genealogical searching methods, focus on unique identifiers about the man. A name of one of the boyfriends siblings? His father's occupation? One of their neighbors? How far he lived from her? Something that can be used to narrow down the right man in the census. When things look the same on the surface, we need to find what is unique about them and follow that lead. Good luck Maria! Randy in Nebraska wrote in with a question just about everyone faces at some point. He says: "My questiion is: how do you cite information from someone else's work while they have great citations themselves? How much should a person retrace sources when the information is 'published' on the internet or in family histories?" Published family histories are wonderful finds, and yet they can have errors or omissions. First I would spot check a number of the sources to see if they are verifiable and accurately recorded. Ideally you would verify all of them, but realistically that is difficult to do with lengthy published works. Also published and properly cited family histories are in a different category than a family tree published online, which can be notoriously inaccurate and not properly sourced. It's very easy for errors to get picked up and added to an online family tree. I would recommend that you read the article Using Published Family Histories from the Mar-Apr 2002 issue of Ancestry magazine, page 46 free on Google Books. And as for proper citations, the go-to book is Evidence! Citation & Analysis for the Family Historian by Elizabeth Shown Mills. Ericson in California wrote to tell me that he's been bit – hard! He writes: "Thank you for all the guidance and inspiration you have given me. In a matter of six months, I've caught-up listening to your Family History podcast, Family Tree Magazine podcast and the Genealogy Gems premium

Published August 20, 2011 This special episode of the Genealogy Gems Podcast was recorded in front of a live audience at the Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree held in June 2011 in Burbank, CA. My special guests are Allison Stacy, publisher of Family Tree Magazine, and Paula Sassi, Certified Graphologist. Paula analyzed the handwriting of Allison's ancestor Amelia Essel. Writing sample: She also interpreted the handwriting of John Owen Dominis, the ancestor of our contest winner Heather Wilkinson Rojo.

Published August 6, 2011 In this episode you're going to learn the details that go into planning a trip to your ancestor's homeland. NEWS: Read Jenna's blog post called Monday Midwest Family history Expo posted on 8/1/11. GEM: More Online Newspapers This week the Library of Congress updated Chronicling America to include newspapers from 3 new states added to the program in 2010 and additional coverage for 1836-1859. New Mexico, Tennessee and Vermont are now included with 22 other states and the District of Columbia in Chronicling America's almost 4 million pages of historic newspaper pages, published between 1836 and 1922. So you can start searching at http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/ Swedish Genealogical Society of Colorado is going to host the SwedGenTour 2011 September 17, 2011 8:30 am to 4:30 pm, Aurora, Colorado. You can register at the SGSC website Genealogy Gems Podcast App Users are getting a special bonus with this episode. Swedish Researcher Yvonne Hendrickson has graciously provided a a terrific pdf file called How to Find Your Swedish Roots. Get the app for the iPhone & iPad Get the app for the Android GEM: Railway Records Ancestry.ca has partnered with the UK's National Archives to launch the Railway Employment Records, 1833 – 1963, an online collection containing the employment-related records of British railway workers dating back to the invention of the locomotive in the early 19th century. The records date from 1833 and by the middle of the 20th century. FamilySearch FamilySearch recently announced that they have digitized historic records from eight countries and added them to FamilySearch.org. In addition to 1.8 million new U.S. records, collections from seven other countries were added including Canada, Czech Republic, France, Italy, Mexico, Philippines, and Poland. Newspapers The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) announced on July 27, 2011 awards totaling $3.8 million to 13 institutions representing their states in the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP). These means there will be new digitized historic newspapers coming to the free Chronicling America section of the Library of Congress website in mid-2012. Your chance to help bring the 1812 records Indiana Genealogical Society - You can find out more about the IGS $10,000 Match Challenge .Thanks for a wonderful podcast and all your genealogy gems! Visit Tina's Blog: http://genwishlist.blogspot.com New Video Cast on YouTube on UK News Genealogy Gems video channel at YouTube packed with over 50 family history related videos. Nick Barratt and Laura Berry of Your Family History magazine out of the UK at www.your-familyhistory.com. They have created a new YouTube video channel called appopriately enough Family History Show. MAILBOX: RootsMagic questions so I went right to the source Bruce Buzbee, founder of RootsMagic and he's got the answers. "Would I create a "land" fact in the entry for my great-grandfather, and just describe the land in it? Thanks again for your terrific podcasts. I just started listening to the Family Tree podcasts, and am excited to start using the tips shared in those episodes as well." Bruce recommends adding a "Property" fact type (which is one of the fact types built into RM and which is officially supported in GEDCOM). You can use the date field to show the time period the land was owned, and can use the note to enter any description of the land. Then he recommends using the various documents as sources for that fact type. When you are adding a new source to RM, you can type "land" into the "Search for source type" field on the "Select Source Type" screen to filter the list of source types down to ones relating to land records. Kai has a question about image and source citations. "I've always attached source media to events/facts and now I'm wondering whether there's any point in going through and removing every media item from the individual events/facts and instead attaching it to the relevant source. Since sharing events between people is so easy, I haven't seen much point in doing it before now." Bruce says there probably isn't a compelling reason right now to move existing images from events to sources or citations. There may be in the future, but we would also work to make it easier to do that at that time. Kai's second question is "I'm wondering whether you record your negative research (i.e. searched particular resource, nothing found) within RM." Bruce says "RootsMagic allows you to add facts (of any type... birth, marriage, death, etc) and set the "Proof" for that fact to "Disputed" or "Proven false". It then draw that fact on screen with a redline through it. Second, when entering a source citation, you can enter the "Quality", which follows the BCG standard and allows you to set the "Evidence" to negative. However, that doesn't mean the source is wrong. It means that the source didn't contain the information you expected to find in it." And finally Kate wrote in asking for help with

Published July 21, 2011 Git yer lasso and git ready for the Genealogy Records Roundup in this episode. Then I'll show you how to improve your online security, introduce you to family history blogger Becky Jamison, and share my own person story of genealogical serendipity. Records Round Up The Library and Archives Canada has announced the launch of an updated version of its finding aid to locate electoral districts in its federal voters' lists collection from 1935 to 1980. This updated version provides for each of the 892 microfilm reels of the collection, the electoral year, the province, the exact name of the electoral district and the page numbers for each microfilm. You can find it at http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/genealogy/022-911.006-e.html The Library and Archives Canada also recently announced the release of a new version of the online database Lower Canada Land Petitions (1626-1865). This version includes digitized images of the actual petitions for all individuals listed in the database. Corrections to entries, including suggestions received from users, have also been integrated into this updated version. You can find the database at www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/lower-canada/index-e.html. FamilySearch has added Free Records for 10 Countries. And their U.S. collection additions include records from Iowa, Indiana, Louisiana, Ohio, Vermont, and Wisconsin. Collections covering several countries were updated. Germany and Mexico church records were the two largest collections added. You'll also find 25 million new images of historic records for 16 countries including records for Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, England, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Peru, Poland, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Wales AND over 8 million civil registration records for the Netherlands. The 1930 U.S. Census indexing project is also coming to a completion. They will now start some new U.S. projects that you might want to consider helping out with as a volunteer. They have plans to building a nationwide marriage index. There are several projects already underway, and many new marriage projects are coming. They have started a Civil War era initiative that will include record collections expanding before and after the Civil War, which should come in very handy. Archives.com. While they are newcomers to the genealogy records field, they are getting new records out there as well. Archives.com recently announce that there are 17 million new U.S. vital and military records available on Archives.com! These new birth, death, marriage, and military records make up 30 unique collections. Here is a quick summary of the new records: Military Personnel Records - including personnel records from the Vietnam War and Gulf War eras. They boast nearly 16 million in all, and say that these records cover individuals who served in the Air Force, Army, Marine Corps, Navy, and National Guard. In the Vital Records category they have added Texas Birth, Death, and Marriage Records - dating anywhere from 1800 to 2011 and cover the following counties: Fort Bend, El Paso, Cooke, Montgomery, Tarrant, Burnet, Hood, Denton, and Kaufman. There are 1.4 million new Texas records in total. They have also added Colorado Marriage and Death Records from Delta County, located in the western part of the state. Over nine thousand new records have been added. South Carolina Marriage Records - a collection of four thousand early South Carolina marriages covers years 1641 to 1799. Comprehensive listing of all of these newly added records Future U.S. Records: 1940 Census Here in the U.S. we are already talking about records that aren't due for another year. Yep, we're talking the 1940 US Population Census Schedules. It's still more than 9 months away, but in the time it takes to bring a new descendant into the world the National Archives will be delivering the 1940 US Population Schedules to the public. And there are a couple of guys who have been on the forefront of this event, none other than Steve Morse and Joel Weintraub. And Joel has been my special guest on a past Premium episode. Of course we are all chomping at the bit to dig into the 1940 census even though there won't be an index when it's first released. However, the guys have put out a press release about what you can do to get ready to search, so let me give you the scoop here: It says: "It will not be name indexed, so it will be necessary to do an address search in order to find families. Address searching involves knowing the ED (enumeration district) in which the address is located.. The National Archives (NARA) earlier this year indicated they had plans to make available in 2011 the 1940 ED maps of cities and counties, and ED descriptions, but their recent move to consider having a 3rd party host all the images may have appreciably set back this timetable. The only website that currently has location tools for the 1940 census is the Steve Morse One Step site (http://st

Published July 4, 2011 In this episode you'll pick up tips for family history writing success from John Paul Godges, the author of Oh, Beautiful, An American Family in the 20th Century. Jamboree Genealogy Gems Podcast LIVE! featured Allison Stacy, publisher of Family Tree Magazine and Handwriting Expert Paula Sassi Click the "Like" button on the Genealogy Gems Facebook Fan page Genealogy Gems Facebook Fan Heather Wilkinson Rojo's letter dated May 11, 1887 written by her first cousin 4 times removed John Owen Dominis was featured. What a fascinating story that turned out to be. The Live podcast is coming soon! Read the Family Curator blog where Denise Levenick did a nice write up of the Live Genealogy Gems Podcast. Genea-musings Blog photos from Jamboree Colorado Family History Expo Bev wrote me after the Colorado conference to say... "Thank you so much for your help in getting this up and running for me. I went to all of your classes on Saturday at the Colorado Expo and I learned so much from you and enjoyed your very upbeat and enthusiastic demeanor. I love your book on the Google Toolbox. I had no idea that Google had so much to offer. And you made it so simple to understand for someone who is somewhat knowledgeable about computers like me. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I can't wait to see your next book." Ruby Coleman's review of my book The Genealogist's Google Toolbox at her Genealogy Lines Blog. Thanks Ruby! MidWest Family History Expo In Overland Park Kansas July 29 & 30, 2011 Click here for more info Northern California Family History Expo San Mateo County Event Center Oct 7 & 8, 2011 Georgia Family History Expo in Duluth GA November 11 & 12, 2011 New Television Programme: Find My Past on the UK's Yesterday Channel UKTV has signed a deal with Brightsolid, the company that owns Find My Past and Genes Reunited, to launch a new 10-part one-hour series called Find My Past. Each week the show will use the findmypast.co.uk website to focus on a famous moment – such as Dunkirk or the Jack the Ripper attacks – to connect "three seemingly unrelated members of the public." Genealogy Gems named one of the 101 Best Websites The Genealogy Gems website has been named one of our annual 101 best family history websites in the September 2011 issue of Family Tree Magazine. Check out the full list MAILBOX: New listener Barbara from Sydney Australia "I just wanted to thank you for your genealogy gems pod cast. I discovered it recently and downloaded all the episodes so I can listen to them on my commute to work on the train. It is the best ½ hour, each way, of my day and this morning I had to drive to work and really missed listening to you! Only 2 weekends ago I had an email from a cousin in California I knew nothing about, and she was able to give me some clues that meant I was able to find my (I should say our) family in Ireland. I think that making that connection has been the most fantastic thing about researching my family history so far. My mum always said we had family in the US, but I never knew who they were. Now I have a cousin there. How fantastic! Thanks again for your pod cast, It's really fun to listen to, and I thought you might like to know how far you have traveled." Ancestry Thoughts Carol wrote in to share her thoughts on Ancestry and other genealogists she's attempted to contact for collaboration: "Almost everyone I have contacted has chosen not to respond – either their email bounces or there's just silence. This 'silence' is so prevalent in my genealogical inquiries (historical societies, message boards, surname websites, etc) that I have to wonder if genealogy is a collaborative sport at all. Carol also shares her Ancestry wish list: "Here's what I want from Ancestry (besides better indexing): - I want members to populate their public trees with accurate info (tall order, I know). - If they're using Ancestry as a whiteboard, then make it a private tree. - I don't want Ancestry deciding what's correct info and what isn't. - And I would like the courtesy of a reply when I attempt to make contact or to correct wrong information. Thanks, Lisa, for providing tips and techniques to the genealogical podcast community – keep up the good work!" Marilyn also wrote in with a common question of folks new to family history about Ancestry and Family Tree Maker. Just Do It Roger emailed recently about how timely Episode 112 was: "The Christmas gift was still given but how grateful we are for the precious moments we shared. You never know – do it while you have time. So, thanks again for another great podcast and for all you do." GEM: Interview with the author of Oh Beautiful! John Godges John's Three Point Process for Writing About Family History: Outline: Start with a hypothesis providing a focused theme and starting point. Including and excluding info. John carefully selected his chapter titles because they are what guided him in his writing. Talking: Having a talkative family is helpful, but even if your

Published June 20, 2011 Get ready to be inspired while you listen to kids embracing their family history at the Southern California Genealogy Jamboree Kid's Camp lead by Charlotte Bocage. In this episode you'll hear from the instructors, kids, parents and grandparents that all shared a very special day exploring the joy of genealogy. Genealogy Gems Podcast App users can also check out Bonus Content: Genealogy Blogger Elyse Doerflinger of Elyse's Genealogy Blog shares with the kids her favorite place to go digging for records Get the iPhone / iPad App Get the Android App

Published May 28, 2011 This week we did a 90 minute presentation of Google Earth for Genealogy for RootsMagic and the response has been fantastic. I've had so many emails from those of you who attended, and I can just read the excitement in your words. After the Google Search Tips and Tricks webinar Penny wrote: "Loved your last webinar for RootsMagic. I had the reputation for being pretty sharp with Google searching, but you leave me in the dust." And Eileen wrote: "Fantastic webinar! I can't wait to try it out!" And after the Google Earth for Genealogy webinar Valerie wrote in saying : "Great show, learned a lot!!! Cant wait to get started with Google Earth!!! Ordered your 2 disks right after the webinar!!!" Mary says "Your Google Earth webinar this evening was golden! Thank you for giving so much to the genealogy community." Kim wrote: "GREAT Webinar....learned so much.....I'll never get any rest, tonight! Thanks Lisa!" Click here to view recordings of the webinars NEWS: Genealogy Gems Premium Podcast Episode 69 features an interview with Richard Gray Deceased Online.com just added 175,000 Northamptonshire burial and cremation records to their website and they should be available online by early July. The first data release comprises burial records for seven towns in the English East Midlands area of north/northeast Northamptonshire: Broughton, Burton Latimer, Cransley, Desborough, Pytchley, Rothwell and Rushden. In all, there are approximately 24,000 records in the first batch of data, dating back to 1888, the largest of which is Rushden. The data comprises register scans and grave details for all 24,000 burials. Photos of all memorials in Broughton, Cransley and Pytchley cemeteries are also included and there are some photos for memorials in other cemeteries. The remaining 151,000 records are from Kettering's two cemeteries, London Rd and Rothwell Rd, and the town's Crematorium which serves a large area stretching across much of north Northamptonshire and into the neighbouring west Cambridgeshire and south Leicestershire. These are expected to be added to the Deceased Online database in early July so put it on your calendar to check back on the website then. FamilySearch just Completee the 1930 Mexico Census and have announced it is Now Available Online for Free! These are part of a total of 59 collections that were updated in this release, comprising 25 million new images and records for 19 U.S. states and 16 countries. You can search all of these updated collections now for free at http://www.FamilySearch.org . Updated Genealogy Gems App The Genealogy Gems Podcast app has been updated and is now iPad compatible, in addition to other improvements. Get the Genealogy Gems iPhone App Get the Genealogy Gems Android App The Genealogist's Google Toolbox at the Genealogy Gems Store Google has abandoned their master-plan to archive the world's newspapers Google announced this month that they have notified their partners in their News Archive project that they would stop accepting, scanning, and indexing microfilm and other archival material from newspapers, and was instead focusing its energies on "newer projects that help the industry, such as Google One Pass, a platform that enables publishers to sell content and subscriptions directly from their own sites." Thanksfully, Google did say in a press release email that it would continue to support the existing archives it has scanned and indexed. It added, "We do not, however, plan to introduce any further features or functionality to the digitized news product." So it's not going away, it's just not going to grow or be officially supported. What we don't know is whether Google will finish indexing the newspapers it has already scanned. I hope so, but many folks out there aren't very optimistic about it...We may still see this content pop up in other places, and I will keep my eyes and ears open for that and let you know when I know more. Seems like a GREAT opportunity for sites like Ancestry or Genealogy bank to step in don't you think? MAILBOX: As we approach the memorial day holiday, Brandt from Washington wrote in with a question about Military Records. He writes: "I recently found this Civil War pension application index record for one of my ancestors, Alexander B. Shute (and he sent me the card which you can see in the show notes). The index references two applications for pensions, one for an invalid, and one for his widow. Do you know how I could go about finding these applications? I'm very interested in seeing what they can tell me about Alexander. Thanks for the fantastic podcast, and keep the gems coming!" Diana Chrisman Smith, an instructor for Family Tree University provides an answer: "For Civil War veterans, the invalid file for the veteran and the widow's file are filed together at the National Archives (NARA) in Washington, DC. If there was a file for a minor child, it would also end up in the same file. There is a project underway in partners

Published May 17, 2011 In this episode we cover little white lies told at the turn-of=-the-century about divorce, and The Photo Detective Maureen Taylor joins us from Who Do You Think You Are? Live in London. "Cooincidence or Genealogical Serendipity?" "Like" the Genealogy Gems Podcast at Facebook. NEWS: National Archives EStore Opens Online "Bargain Vault" Click the Bargain Vault link in the menu The National Archives UK 9 June 2011, they will be taking part in #AskArchivists Day along with other archives from around the world. #AskArchivists on Twitter AncestorSync™ A new service helps you synchronize between your computer desktop family tree database programs and some of the popular online family tree websites. Ancestry.com WebSearch Example of WebSearch: Louise M. Chrisman who died in Indiana. MAILBOX: Genealogy Gems Premium Membership includes the webinar recording of Getting the Scoop on Your Ancestors From Old Newspapers Google Search Tips and Tricks webinar recording at Rootsmagic Genealogy Gems Store Upcoming webinar If you would like to talk to Lisa about possibly doing a webinar for your group, email [email protected] Lisa's Seminars and Webinars at Genealogy Gems Juliana asks about PAF and records from Brazil FamilySearch has been adding records from Brazil recently. Search the FamilySearch Wiki on brazil research. Elizabeth has a question about turn of the century divorces: "I have found a handful of couples that around the turn of the century that had separated or divorced, but one or both of the people told the census taker they were "widowed". Until I realized this was happening I simply took the "widowed" at face value and moved on. Are there resources you might suggest for finding divorce information around the turn of the last century?" Marriage and Divorce, 1867-1906 Volume I by the Department of Commerce and Labor Bureau of the Census from 1909. This is an incredibly comprehensive book covering marriage and divorce statstics for not only the U.S. but around the world. On page 50 the report comes right out and states: "It should be remembered, however, that in th eUnit3ed States the number of divorced persons reported by the general census of population is grossly deficient, because many persons who are divorced, being sensitive in regard to the fact, report themselves as single or widowed." Search "Divorce" in the Family Search Wki GEM: The Photo Detective at WDYTYA in London Interview with Maureen and some of the folks waiting in line Websites mentioned in this episode: http://www.maureentaylor.com/ http://www.whatsthatpicture.com Photos through the Ages using http://www.flickr.com) free signup Lisa's upcoming appearances: The Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree June 9-11, 2011 teaching classes and presenting the Genealogy Gems Podcast Live! http://www.scgsgenealogy.com/2011jam-home.htm The Colorado Family History Expo June 24 & 25, 2011. Midwest Family History Expo in Overland Park, Kansas on July 29 & 30, 2011