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

Get ready to lay a foundation in your knowledge of Colonial American genealogy research. Beth Foulk is here to walk us through early immigration to America, Indentured Servitude and Bondage, and the records and resources that can help you locate your ancestors from this time period. But first... NEWS: Lisa's youngest daughter Hannah got married last weekend! NGS 2014 Conference in Richmond VA In addition to teaching conference classes Lisa teamed up with Maureen Taylor (The Photo Detective) and Janet Hovorka (Family ChartMasters) to provide "Genealogy Outside the Box" free 30 minute sessions in the exhibit hall. Stay tuned for more announcements of more sessions at future genealogy conferences! New Newspaper Collection The National Library of Australia has added an additional 35 historic newspapers to their online collection at http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper. The greatest concentration of newspapers in this latest update is from New South Wales. Most of the new additions cover the date range from about 1875 to 1960, with many in the 1910 to 1945 era. Most of the additions appear to be from small towns. Hat tip to Paul Nauta at FamilySearch MAILBOX: From Chris on Family Relics: "I loved your comments on "most treasure family relic" in the latest podcast. I'm very fortunate to have pictures and artifacts from my mother's side, but unfortunately I know very little about my dad's side and have only a few things. I could relate to the woman whose answer was "nothing". One consolation for me has been a few little things I could find out with just a little digging. I wrote about it on my blog Finding the things I mentioned at least lets me stand in the shoes of my ancestors and imagine life in that place and at that time. It's not as nice as a "relic", but it brings them to life as real people. I think that's important in genealogy as well. Love the podcast!" Judy writes to as a follow up to the Google Earth for Genealogy Webinar "I was so excited about your workshop. Legacy presenters are good but you are among their best. In fact I received an email from my friend: After watching today's webinar and seeing the gal search the GLORecords for land patents I tried for William Breeding. S C O R E ! ! ! ! ! I had tried searching for land patents for William Breeding in the past with no success. My great results are due to finally getting confirmation that it is William Jackson Breeding for sure and watching this gal search today. Thanks for the heads up on this webinar!!!" Watch Google Earth for Genealogy free here at the Genealogy Gems website. Barbara is Shocked: "I really enjoy your podcasts, and was listening to your latest one when your piece about not so happy memories really struck a chord with me. I recently asked for the file of my Great Uncle from the Australian War Memorial. He was in World War I in France. I found that he had been charged with desertion and sent to goal( (jail)! What a shock, and I don't think many of the family know a lot about it. Reading through the transcript of the court marshal and the history of this time of the war, it was pretty clear he was a young man in shock after seeing several of his fellow soldiers die, who did not know what to do. He got separated from his troop and wandered around for a couple of days until he found another company and was arrested. Later he got TB and this probably shortened his life. A sad story, and during my research, I found that 306 Commonwealth solders were shot for desertion. It is quite a controversial part of our history as (thank goodness) the Australian Army refused to allow any of its soldiers to be executed, and this caused some issues with the English officers. A new law passed on November 8th 2006 and included as part of the Armed Forces Act in the UK has pardoned men in the British and Commonwealth armies who were executed in World War I. The law removes the dishonour with regards to executions on war records but it does not cancel out the sentence of death. I have decided not to put any of the information online, but keep it in the family archives. Anyone in the family who decides to go looking will find it at the war memorial site, but my uncle did not marry or have children, so that does seem to lessen the impact." Barbara also asks for your help: I am trying to track down the family of an Australian sailor from WWI who wrote some lovely postcards. I bought them at a garage sale several years ago, and have only just got around to reading them. I would really love to give them to the family, as they are very touching. I posted about them on my blog. Here is what I know from them: The writer was on board the SS Gilgai in December 1915 to February 1916, traveling from St Vincent, Cape Verde to Boston, USA. He was not the captain or 2nd officer, as these are referred to in the postcards He refers to someone, possibly a son in Australia, as Jack He refers to his wife always as My Darling Girlie He had a friend on the SS Calulu He may have been in charge of the offloading of cargo or the engines. He bought his wife a trinket made of seeds and a table centrepiece while overseas (perhaps they are still in the family?) I can be contacted via my blog Genealogy Boomerangs if any listeners have information. Any help you can give would be appreciated, and thanks again for the great podcasts, I love hearing about all your travels and experiences. Welcome to our new sponsor: MyHeritage.com! This episode is also sponsored by RootsMagic. Thank you to our wonderful sponsors for supporting this FREE podcast! GEM: Colonial Research with Beth Foulk Look for the bibliography on her website: www.genealogydecoded.com During the 1600s and 1700s three-quarters of all immigrants were indentured servants and another 50-60,000 were convicts "transported" to America and sold into "slavery" on the plantations of Maryland & Virginia as their sentence for the crime. The conditions in England were abysmal, and for many this was the only out of a broken social system that had failed them. Beth discusses: The social conditions in England The social construct that gave rise the culture of indenture Who was indentured? (male, female, young, rural) The two types of indenture. (self and spiriting (kidnapping) What life was like once in service in America. The length of term and life thereafter. The social conditions that gave rise to the shipping of convicts to America (this was before Australia became a penal colony) The black market business of shipping convicts to America. Who did this and why? How was it done? The Transportation Act of 1718 and the attempt to regulate this business. What life was like on board the ship. What the selling or auction process was like. What life was like in America as a "transported convict" Who was transported (not all convicts) Records 1718: The Transportation Act is passed, which included: 1. Who could be shipped 2. Surgeon must be on board 3. Dictated the number of convicts that could be on board Definitions: Bondage (aka Convict in England) Question: Where can the genealogist look to identify if their ancestor was indentured or in bondage? Answer: The Old Bailey Online – London's Central Criminal Court 1674 - 1913 (free) www.oldbaileyonline.org Full transcripts of every court hearing during this time period From the website: "The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 1674-1913 A fully searchable edition of the largest body of texts detailing the lives of non-elite people ever published, containing 197,745 criminal trials held at London's central criminal court. If you are new to this site, you may find the Getting Started and Guide to Searching videos and tutorials helpful." Also look for: Runaway records Newspapers of the time. Books of transcripts and abstracts of runaway notices (These could include a physical description) The pre-eminent authority: Author Peter Wilson Coldham Books in Amazon Other possible records for Indentured: Contract (very rare) Land Records Probate Deed Church (references to "Servant") Other possible records for Convicts: Census (if your ancestor is the only one with that last name in the area,that could be a clue they were a convict) There were also Political Prisoners. Look for Diary or Transcripts Visit Beth's website: www.genealogydecoded.comGo to "Indentured and Convicts" blog posts Email Beth at beth@genealogydecoded.com SONG: The Death of Wolfe (Song used with permissions from Archiving Early America website) Explore their early America music section Come all ye young men all, let this delight you, Cheer up ye, young men all, let nothing fright you, Never let your courage fail when you're brought to trial, Nor let your fancy move at the first denial. So then this gallant youth did cross the ocean, To free America from her invasion, He landed at Quebec with all his party, The city to attack, being brave and hearty. The French drew up their men, for death prepared. In one another's face the armies stared, While Wolfe and Montcalm together walked, Between their armies they like brothers talked. Each man then took his past at their retire. So then these numerous hosts began to fire, The cannon on each side did roar like thunder, And youths in all their pride were torn asunder. The drums did loudly beat, colors were flying, The purple gore did stream and men lay dying, When shot off from his horse fell this brave hero, And we lament his loss in weeds of sorrow. The French began to break, their ranks were flying, Wolfe seemed to revive while he lay dying, He lifted up his head as his drums did rattle, And to his army said, How goes the battle? His aide-de-camp replied, Tis in our favor, Quebec, with all her pride, nothing can save her, She falls into our hands with all her treasure, Oh then, brave Wolfe replied, I die with pleasure. Watch the video: Music in a Colonial Williamsburg Tavern By the Colonial Williamsburg YouTube channel For more inspiration and information search "Colonial Genealogy" at YouTube. CLOSING: Why You Do Genealogy In the Feb newsletter I shared a video where I explain why I do family history, and asked all of you to share what motivates you on the Genealogy Gems Podcast Facebook page. Here's what some of you had to say: Paul wrote: "To start with my Aunt gave me 2,000+ names when I was baptized as she knew the Church members do a lot of genealogy. Many of the stories I found were interesting. But I also got to know my father who was killed about 7 months before I was born." Tim wrote: "Just the whole destiny thing. When I go back several generations, I wonder what IF he had never married her, what IF she had not moved to this town, met her husband, what IF they had stopped having kids just before my gggrandfather was born...etc. I am who I am and where I am because of decisions that were made long ago. Just kind of cool." Margaret: "Really nice video. I pursue my family history because I want to take myself back to THEIR time, find out what their lives were like, follow their journeys, trials, tribulations and day-to-day lives. Through census records, city directories and Sanborn maps I discovered my 2nd great grandpa lived around the corner from an ice-cream store in Savannah, with a dairy right behind it! How cool is that!" Peter: "I do research because I want to know who my family is, where they came from and what they did. After a 20 year search to solve one of my family line missing links I solved it and yelled whoo who, it felt so rewarding." Margaret: "My mom had always described herself as a Heinz 57. I'm much more curious about just what/who had contributed to who I am. Having roots that reach into ancestors from Germany, England, Mexico and Spain by ways of RI, IN, TX and California make for interesting research!"

I've been enjoying time at home getting the new house decorated. I have a wonderful sort of wall niche area in the living room that is perfect for a family history display, so the wheels are turning on what I want to do there. I've been pinning lots of ideas on Pinterest for that. And of course I'm getting in my time with my grandsons Davy and Joey. Now that Joey is a year and a half and running all over the place, it's just playtime bedlam at Sha Sha's house. I'll be speaking in Round Rock, TX at the Williamson County Genealogical Society How to Reopen and Work a Genealogical Cold Case But soon May will be here and that means I'll be heading to the National Genealogical Society Conference in Richmond Virginia. And we are going to do something very unique at NGS this year. In addition to my three scheduled presentations, we've got ourselves some extra booth space this year, and I'll be giving what we are calling Outside the Box Sessions. You know how it is, you head to a big conference, and you're running for one 1 hour session to the next. And they are usually pretty big classrooms. Well, we are going to getting outside of that box, and holding 30 minute sessions in our booth area on the topics you've told me you want most. As presenters we don't get to have the final say on which of our presentations is selected for the main conference, so it's really exciting to have this unique way of offering the topics you ask us for. It's a smaller intimate setting, the sessions will be packed with tips you can start using right away, all participants will get a free ebook of the handouts for those quickie sessions, we'll have prizes and you'll even have some treats to nibble on. I am really excited about doing this, and I think you'll find it refreshing, fun and informative. I'll doing four sessions – one each day of the conference Ancestral Time Travel with Google Earth Evernote Quick Tips for Genealogists Tablet Tips and Tricks for Genealogists Google Search Strategies And, I've invited two of my dearest friends, Janet Hovorka of Family Chartmasters, and The Photo Detective Maureen Taylor to join me and present some of their most popular topics! So in all, you'll have a dozen ½ hour sessions to choose from to reinvigorate your genealogy research. If you want to get outside the box, come hand out with us, get the ebook, nibble on some treats and get away from the huge crowds. New Videos at the Genealogy Gems YouTube Channel: Genealogy Crowdsourcing: 4 Strategies and 4 Tips for Your Brick Wall! with Drew Smith A Sneak Peek at What Will be Included in the Future FamilySearch App with Brian Edwards 5 Tools for Paying it Forward in Genealogy With Michael Cassara A conversation with long time Genealogy Gems listener Michael Cassara who presented a session at RootsTech this year and I thought it was so interesting I asked him to sit down with me to talk more about it. Michael shares one of the ways that he likes to give back to the genealogy community. He buys old inexpensive photographs and does his best to track down family members today and get those ancestors back in to the hands of their families. And he shares some of techniques he uses to do that which you could certainly use in your own family history research. MJ watched the video and left this comment: "I sooo agree with the karma of sharing our genealogy and our photos. I love the Find a Grave / BillionGrave photo idea. And I know myself about good karma. I found some studio photos of a distant relative, contacted a direct descendant and sent the photos to him. He wrote back and said "my Dad looks just like his grandmother, and never knew it before! And what a gift for my son." A few weeks later a postcard collector wrote me and asked if I wanted postcards sent by my grandfather. You bet! She sent 3 envelopes full with photos of my grandparents, my great grandparents and possibly my great great grandmother as well as aunts, uncles and cousins. I had never seen most of them before. What a gift." Go to www.Youtube.com/genealogygems and watch the video and leave your comment about your experiences. Not all Family History is Happy Memories In what seems to be the exact opposite of the usual obituary you come across as you are searching through newspapers, The Blaze reported that a Reno newspaper has removed an obituary supposedly submitted by children glad their mother was dead. The obituary was published in the Reno Gazette-Journal last September in acknowledgement of the death of Marianne Theresa-Johnson Reddick. "Marianne Theresa Johnson- Reddick born Jan 4, 1935 and died alone on Sept. 30, 2013. She is survived by her 6 of 8 children whom she spent her lifetime torturing in every way possible. While she neglected and abused her small children, she refused to allow anyone else to care or show compassion towards them. When they became adults she stalked and tortured anyone they dared to love. Everyone she met, adult or child was tortured by her cruelty and exposure to violence, criminal activity, vulgarity, and hatred of the gentle or kind human spirit…" Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/son-wrote-vicious-obit-reno-mom-insists-completely-true-article-1.1454890#ixzz2yWNXowqD http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/09/11/children-celebrate-mothers-death-in-unusual-obituary-branding-her-as-cruel-abusive/ Nobody's family is perfect. Certainly mine isn't. But I do think that one of the incredible things that Family history can do is shed light on the truth, and provide the power to change things for the next generation and make a difference. I'll never forget back in probably about 2008, early on when I first started speaking at conferences regularly, I was at a Family History expo in the exhibit hall, and a local man, who appeared to be homeless, came in to the public hall, and he was absolutely distraught and angry about the pain he endured at the hands of his family, and he was hurt and deeply angry to see the family history expo being held there. In the end security guards helped lead him away, and I felt so sad for him because he was obviously in incredible pain, and he most likely didn't have the ability or resources to actually reap some of the benefits that come from learning about your history, your whole family's history. Not just the line of people who got way off track and caused pain, but as we know there are infinite lines out there, and there's a lot to learn from all of them, so that history does not repeat itself. And just as importantly, that we have the opportunity to discover the gems in our tree, the unsung heroes, people who did do a good job and contributed to society. In the end, we get to pick who we admire, and we get to decide those areas that we will not perpetuate. After all, if our history stays in the dark, it is apt to look and feel even larger and scarier, but it is also apt to repeat itself. I'd love to hear from you on this subject. You don't to share specifics. But how has learning more about your family history empowered you. And if you think it has caused harm, I'd like to know more about that too. Finally, to wrap up this segment before we get to the mailbox, I just want to send out a big thank you to some very nice folks out there in the genealogy community. Evernote for Genealogists Thanks Yous As you probably know by now we published our Evernote for Genealogists quick reference guides, and I just want to take a moment to thank the wonderful bloggers out there who helped spread the word about these 4 page cheat sheets. A big thank you to: Thomas MacEntee: Hack Genealogy"You know what I love about these guides on Evernote? They are easy-to-use, the information is laid out in a format that makes it easy to find what you need, and it truly is something you can keep referring to as you work your way through Evernote and its features." Randy Seaver, Genea-Musings Amy Coffin of the We Tree Blog"I hate to sound like a salesperson, but I found this quick guide to be helpful and extremely easy to read. The tables are concise and the lists of quick keys are impressive. This guide is a keeper." Renee Zamora of Rene's Genealogy Blog Sue Maxwell, The Granite Genealogy Blog Ancestry Insider Blog DearMYRTLE James Tanner, The Genealogy Star Blog"I had been using Evernote extensively for quite some time. But was faced with dilemma when the program began to evolve rapidly. I simply lost touch with all the features being added and did not understand why I ran out of storage space and was shut down when I didn't purchase some upgrade. So, I transferred what I was doing on Evernote and used alternative products. So, solely because of this handy guide, I now understood the product. I already had the program on all my devices so transitioning back is as simple as clicking. What I needed clarified was how the program functioned vis a vis the difference between the "free" version and the "paid" version. With that out of the way, I am back in the Evernote use realm. Now, I probably could have figured out all the stuff from the Evernote website, but this made it easier for me to get going and actually do something." Thanks again to all the bloggers who took the time to give the guides a test run. They are available in our store both for Windows and for Mac. Genealogy Gems Premium Members can enjoy several Evernote videos as part of Premium Membership: How the Genealogist can Remember Everything with Evernote (Beginner) How to Organize Your Research with Evernote (Intermediate) Making Evernote Effortless (Intermediate) BRAND NEW! New RootsMagic Video Our long time podcast sponsor RootsMagic just published a new video I think you'll be very interested in. It's called Importing an Ancestry Family Tree into RootsMagic. Have you been wondering how to do this? Well, now they have a short video that will show you how. Currently this is limited to trees that you are the owner / manager, since Ancestry doesn't appear to allow downloading a tree belonging to someone else. You'll find the video at the RootsMagic YouTube channel MAILBOX: From Jane in Edmonton, Alberta: "Need your advice (as I am sure do thousands of others!!) First of all, let me take time to let you know how much I am enjoying my subscriptions to your Genealogy Gems and your podcasts. I purchased subscriptions at the Alberta Genealogy Conference in Edmonton last year, and have been thoroughly enjoying them. I am still very much a genealogy novice. I have dabbled on Ancestry for a number of years, but have never really had time to devote properly. Last year I decided to try to get a little more serious, and joined the local Genealogy Society, and having retired in December, I finally feel like I should be back on this in earnest, and am wondering if you could give me some needed advice. I love Ancestry.ca, and have also dabbled in Scotland's People, the free BMD Index out of England, and of course, Family Search with the LDS. I am finding, however, that I often end up wandering around in circles and mazes as one thing leads to another, and another, and ... I am sure you know what I am talking about. I'm now wondering if I would be best to take it one person at a time - to find out as much as I can about that person in that point of time, before going on to another. I seem to be jumping back and forth between my Dad's family, my Mom's family, their families, etc. until there are times that I find myself at a certain point, only to wonder "Where was I going with this?" I have started trying to make notes about facts as I spot them, but setting them aside to continue on the current charted course, but find that I end up hopelessly out of order and just as lost. Any advice as to how to attack this would be appreciated more than you can imagine! I am afraid that, sadly, I am one of those individuals who is now wishing I had asked more questions when I was younger, as I am now the "older" generation, and so am relying on my own memories of stories told by my parents and grandparents back when I was young enough that I'm not sure I paid attention. I do have four siblings, but when I speak to them, I often wonder if we all grew up in the same family, as their remembered timelines differ greatly on some events than my own." You are not along in this genealogical dilemma! It's easy to let the records start to take over and lead you around. One way to combat that is to set a genealogical goal - define what it is you want to know. It might be something very specific about a particular ancestor, or it might just be to fill in the blanks on one particular family. Early in my research focused on one grandparent, and working backwards, I would strive to fill in all the blanks on that person, then their parents, then their siblings. I wouldn't "leave" that family until I felt that I had filled in as much of the family group sheet as possible. In fact, we have sort of lost track of the "family group sheet" in this technological age. But it is an excellent tool for keeping you on track and focused on the blanks that need to be filled. An additional strategy is to have a process for dealing with information that comes your way that is a bit off track. Often we feel like we have to pursue it or we'll lose it. I like to use Evernote (free at evernote.com) to capture data that I'm not ready to deal with right now, but definitely want to pursue later. I create an Evernote "notebook" for that family surname, and a note book called "future research". Drag and drop "Future Research" onto the family surname notebook which will create a "stack." Now you can create notes and drop them into the "Future Research" notebook which is inside the applicable family. Add tags to your note like "newspaper," "death record," etc. and some good searchable keywords so that the note will be easy to find when you need it. Now you can capture the item, file it away, and stay focused on the task at hand. If you would like to learn more about how to use Evernote for genealogy I have a quick reference guide (PDF) in my store that will work wonders in keeping you organized. From Mary Jane in KY "Thank you Lisa, I received your ebook fine, and now have it installed on my desktop. I've been watching a lot of your videos, have watched the ones where you had interviews at Rootstech. Each day I watched on my computer, the selected Rootstech programs as they were presented. Last week our Kentucky Genealogical Society and Kentucky Historical Society had an all day Saturday viewing of 10 of the programs given out there. It was a special program that the Kentucky Historical Society and Kentucky Genealogical Society were chosen to participate in viewing - called a Family History Fair. Your program was one of them - How to Use YouTube for Family History: Setting Up Your Own YouTube Channel. And all those syllabi were available for us to print in advance. We had 135 people to attend. We were very privileged and it was much appreciated by a large crowd of people. You are such a pretty gal, with a bubbly personality. Kiss those babies for me. I've just become a great grandmother. I really enjoy your Genealogy Gems, have received your newsletters for several years, but I don't use anything but the computer. It's something about the older generation not being able to learn all these other gadgets." You can watch free videos from the RootsTech 2014 genealogy conference at https://rootstech.org/about/videos/ From Steve in Cedar Falls, Iowa This is all your fault :) Yes, this is your fault! That sounds ominous, but this is a good thing! I say your fault because you are the one who encouraged me, on your blog, to start blogging about family history. I started two blogs- one for the paternal side and one for the maternal side. The paternal blog is schellseekers.blogspot.com and the maternal blog is happekotte.blogspot.com. My intent was to create a place where family could see the family history that I had found. But something else happened in addition to this intent. A guy in New York came across my maternal blog and emailed me that he had something I might be interested in. It was about my third great grandfather who was born in Germany. Before he came to America, he was a part of a German colony in Guatemala. I knew that, but had no proof of when and where he married or even where in Germany he was from. This gentleman from New York is originally from Guatemala and is connected to my third great grandmother who was also part of this colony. He sent me a copy of an original church record from Guatemala giving the date they were married in Guatemala AND the name of the town in Germany that he was from and his date of birth. It gets better! The German town was named Rellinghausen. When I put Rellinghausen in Google Earth, it kept taking me to Recklinghausen. Now this Recklinghausen is just north of Essen which is the place that I thought the family was from, so it seemed reasonable to assume this was the place and it had been misspelled in the Guatemala document. I order LDS microfilms from Recklinhausen and found not even one instance of the name from 1816 to the 1840s! So, I ruled out Recklinghausen. Next I entered" Rellinghausen" into Wikipedia and found that Rellinghausen had been a separate town before 1910. In 1910, it was annexed by Essen! That's why it was not showing up on Google Earth! Next step was to contact the diocese in Essen about possible records for this ancestor. With the help of Google Translate, I wrote to the diocese office (found with a Google search) and gave the name and date of birth for this third great grandfather. I received an email back from a church secretary who said she was sending it on to someone who might help. About two weeks later, I received an email from the parish priest from the church in what was once Rellinghausen. Attached was all of the birth information including parents. I probably would have never found this otherwise! So, yes, this is all your fault and I'm VERY happy to blame you! Thanks so very much for the encouragement!" Lisa's Answer: What an incredible story! I will happily take the blame for any part of it. :-) Google Books Tip: Be sure to search Google Books specifically for "Rellinghausen" "happekotte". A few interesting things in there. Google Translate Tip: And remember that using Google Translate will change "happekotte" as well as prevent you from seeing some snippets on books not fully available. So you'll want to search both in German and English. Steve's Reply: "Thank you for the additional ideas for searching. The ideas that you put out there on your podcasts, the contacts someone makes through a blog, looking at possible clues in other public trees on Ancestry ALL go to show you that genealogy is much more fun and much more successful when it involves collaboration. Thanks again." - Steve From Carol: "I'm new into genealogy. I've worked on my maternal grandfather's side of the tree and had some success. Yay! Now I'm trying to work on my maternal grandmother's side and it is more difficult. I seem to be generating a lot more paper and search theories this time. Is there anything out there that is a digital basic checklist. Something that you can check off - like census, birth record, death record, etc. Love all your Evernote tips!" Free Records Checklists and Forms: Family Tree Magazine www.familytreemagazine.com/freeforms Ancestry.com www.ancestry.com/trees/charts/ancchart.aspx? From Kris: "The last few months, I've begun packing up our house in Santa Clara, CA for a major life change. This requires dividing up our 'worldly possessions' into 2 parts (one for France and one for our US home, which will be in Florida). I spent whole days listening to your pod casts (via the app which I love on my iPhone 4s) and made it back to 2011. Your pod casts are wonderful and as the family genealogist (for mine and my husband's family), listening to you gave me renewed energy during the long, tedious days of packing. It occurred to me that after all this effort, I will have much more time to work on my family histories and pursue the huge file I have titled "needs further research." My favorite podcast moments thus far are: listening to your moving challenges as you relocated to Texas (misery loves company : ), the guest who stated that it is 'not advised' to shred original documents after digitizing them, the 'Flip Pal' interview, the daunting task of catching up on technology and the learning curve that comes with that, and your suggestions for all of us to make the family names and dates more interesting, in order to get other family members excited about our family history. Thank you for all you do for genealogists! I met you once at our local library where you gave your Google class, and hope we cross paths again. In the meantime, be kind to yourself. Get well soon! WEDDING IDEAS From Kirsty: "I have some very happy news. I got engaged last week, a very happy time for us. I remember you had talked about a family reunion sometime in the past , and I wonder if you had any tips of getting family history information out of my family while there are all at the wedding." Lisa's Answer: Congratulations on your engagement! How exciting. I've been busy planning my youngest daughter's wedding. She's getting married in May. I would suggest searching family reunion websites for ideas you can convert to a wedding reception. A search of Google and Pinterest.com should help you locate them. If you have your guests seated at tables, that's a great opportunity to provide an icebreaker that can double as a family history gathering opportunity. You could have a form at each place setting for them to fill out. If you are having a videographer, you could have a short list of questions at each table, and when he comes to their table he records them answering the questions. (What's your earliest child hood memory? Who's the earliest ancestor you have a photograph of? What are three things you remember about Great Grandmother? Etc.) If you they won't be at tables, you could have a family history table (next to another table they are likely to visit such as guest book table) and have your activity there. Let them know that this is their gift to you. You could even have some sort of treat or little sticker they can wear that says "I shared the family history, have you?" (In the U.S. when you vote they often give you a little lapel sticker that says "I voted.") Or you could create the "Sweet Memories Candy Bars" that feature family history that I write about in my book Genealogy Gems: Ultimate Research Strategies.

The Genealogy Gems Podcast Episode 13 Originally Published 2007 Remastered March 2014 By Lisa Louise Cooke From the MAILBOX Hello Lisa: I have just finished listening to your podcast on tracing family members through school records. You mentioned some sources to research. Alan's Website Many years ago I came across a list or resources to be found in the home. I still have the photocopy I made, but it does not say who originally created it. I believe I found it at my local LDS. Anyway since putting it on my site, I and others who have come to that page have added to it. I really like your show and look forward to receiving your newsletter. Allan Scahill GEM: Memorial Day & WW II Service Records With the month of May comes Memorial Day, and in Episode Thirteen I thought it would be a good time to do a quick check for some military records. If you have relatives who served in World War II here are a couple of free 'must check' websites for you. The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA): www.archives.gov/aad The WWII enlistment records for the years of 1938 through 1946 are listed on the NARA website. These records contain the majority of enlistments, approximately nine million men and women who enlisted in the U.S. Army, including the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps. What I like about the NARA records is that they include the Army Serial Number, which I've not seen on the Ancestry version of the records. And of course they are free at the NARA website. They also have searchable WWII Prisoner of War Records. Another great website for searching for soldiers traveling overseas or returning home after the war is Steve Morse's All New York Arrivals Search Form. I hadn't thought of searching for traveling soldiers until I heard Steve Morse speak about it at a recent seminar. As soon as I got home from the seminar, I used his form and immediately found my Great Uncle Elzie returning home on the Ile de France after being injured in the D-Day invasion. With the availability of New York passenger lists up to 1957, many new research doors have been opened. If you'd like more information or historical background on Memorial Day, visit the U.S. Memorial Day website. GEM: Family History Books By now you may have seen my videos A Nurse In Training Part 1 & Part 2 on my YouTube channel. A Nurse In Training didn't actually start out as a video but rather a book. I have found that by breaking up my research into digestible chunks of time and self-publishing them in hard cover books my extended family is able to understand and enjoy our family's history. I started self-publishing about a year ago. We don't live close to our families, so Christmas gifts have to be purchased ahead of time and shipped. Family history books turned out to be a fantastic way to start sharing some of my research findings in an affordable way that could be easily mailed. In the past I've sent CDs full of photos and documents. But in the end I think they were a bit overwhelming to the non-genealogists in the family. I think there are many reasons for this: Computer CDs are perceived as something technical and hard to use. The material is chopped up, and individual photos and documents don't tell a particular story smoothly and easily. I think they're also perceived as very time consuming. Folks just don't feel like they have the time to sit down and really give it the attention it deserves. Also, many people find reading on a computer screen hard on the eyes. The solution: a good old fashioned book! Books are still hard to beat for telling a story in words and pictures in a user friendly way. But where to begin the story, and where to end it? That's the big question! The temptation is to tell the story of one generation of the family. That's usually just too big of a project to take on. The book will likely end up being lots of dates and names and not a lot of room for much else. And there's always the risk that it won't be completed if it's too large an undertaking. I wanted my family to get to know these people in our family tree intimately. That meant focusing in much closer than an entire generation of the family. In the end, I started with my favorite ancestor: my grandmother. I've transcribed many years of her diaries as I talked about in Episode Two. One of the stories that really emerged out of them was her years spent in nurses training in the 1930s. I learned so much through her journal entries, and I knew I had a good collection of photos from that period. I decided that my starting point would be her graduation from high school and her decision to enter the nursing field. By the time I had pulled everything together from 1930 to 1933, I had more than enough for a nice size book. It's really important to create your book with your audience in mind. Your audience is your family member who will be reading the book. Here are my Top Six Tips for making your book fascinating to your reader: #1 The Should Book Convey An Overall Theme Start by reviewing all the available material you have. That will give you a good sense of what the time period was like for your ancestor. You'll also start to understand their goals, experiences, and emotions. Ultimately a theme should begin to surface. In the case of A Nurse In Training, I wanted to communicate my grandmother as a young woman taking on a new adventure away from home that ultimately led to this warm, caring woman's successful career as a nurse. I also tucked a bonus subplot in there of how she just happened to meet her husband at the same time! You don't need every scrap of research and every photo to get this theme across. It's your job to be a sharp editor and to pick out the critical pieces. You want the words and photographs that clearly communicate your theme to the reader. #2 Create a Book that can be Read in One Sitting Like it or not, if it takes too long read, they probably won't. Strive to create a book that doesn't look intimidating. I create books that are ten to twenty double sided pages. People will be willing to pick up a thinner book off the coffee table. If it's well done they'll find that all of a sudden they've finished the entire book without wanting to put it down. The final goal is that they will walk away with a real sense of having gotten to know that ancestor. #3 Your Book Should Contain the Best of What You Have This goes back to conveying the theme and being a strict editor. My grandma had many funny stories, but there just wasn't room for all of them. I picked the best of the best. Anyone who reads the book should hopefully come away with the fact that she had a sense of humor and could laugh at herself. So keep the content of your book focused, full of graphics and photos, and including the best of the best. If you can capture their interest in the first three pages, you'll have them for the entire book. #4 Include Lots of Photos and Graphics A picture is definitely worth a thousand words. Since the number of words in this size book will be limited, photographs will be your best friend. If you're lacking in family photos, many of my previous podcasts will give you countless ideas for locating associated photos. In A Nurse In Training I included scanned images of skating rink tickets, programs and announcements from my grandma's scrapbook, and journal pages in my grandmother's own hand. These types of items really add texture and interest to your book, as well as help the reader to see that you've really done your homework. #5 Keep It in Chronological Order This may seem obvious, but it's easy to get side tracked and start going back and forth in time. Believe me, for the reader's sake keep things in chronological order. You as the researcher know this information backwards and forwards, but this is probably your reader's first exposure to it. Be gentle with them and keep it straight forward and simple. Your reader will thank you. #6 Go for High Quality High quality glossy pages, good image quality and a hard cover binding all shout to the reader "I'm worth your time, read me!" For example, I found a drawing of Dameron Hospital where my grandmother worked, but it was a low quality image and didn't translate well in the book. As much as I wanted to include it, I ended up leaving it out. I'm glad I did; it wasn't critical to the book and there were other ways to communicate the hospital to the reader. Keeping these tips in mind, let's talk about how to publish your own family history book. I create my books in the Kodakgallery which is now Shutterfly at www.shutterfly.com. There are several websites out there offering the ability to publish your own book. I chose Kodakgallery because the program was very easy to use, the price was competitive, publishing and shipping time was FAST, and the quality was excellent. I saw a book that a friend of mine published of his father's World War II service years and it was gorgeous. Again, quality is really key. Hopefully, these books will become family keepsakes and you'll want them to be the highest quality possible. I use the Classic Photo Book style which is 9" x 10-1/4" in size and includes ten double sided pages for a total of twenty pages, but you can certainly add more. It comes in a hardcover that you can do in linen fabric, smooth matte or leather. It also includes a window in the front cover that you can see your first photo through. I really like that feature because it never fails to capture people's curiosity and entice them to pick up the book and take a look. They also have a larger Legacy Photo book which is 12" x 14". This is the size my friend used that worked really well because he was including large images of newspaper pages about the war. I'm going to walk you through the steps of setting up a book in Kodak Gallery because it's a resource I feel very comfortable recommending. But again, there are other options out there, and my guess is that the publishing process would be pretty similar. I have provided a Kodak Gallery link for you at my website at GenealogyGems.TV on the STORE page. If you decide to use Kodak, I would really appreciate you accessing it through this link because it will help support the production costs associated with producing this podcast. In the Photo Books area of the website, click CREATE BOOK. The first thing you'll do is choose a cover material for your book. I used black leather for A Nurse In Training which is really nice and has a light sheen to it. It is $10 more than linen or matte. I created a Guest Book for my daughter's wedding where the right side pages were photos of the happy couple and the left side pages had space for guests to sign and write notes. I used linen for that cover in the color "baby pink" and really liked that as well. Ultimately, I think it comes down choosing a cover style that compliments the theme and contents of the book. Once you've made your selection, click the NEXT button. You will then need to choose a page design for your book. For A Nurse in Training I used the design "Time After Time." It has a lovely antique look. Go ahead and pick one you like. Don't worry, you can always change the page design any time before you make your final purchase. When you're ready, click NEXT. This will bring up a box asking if you want to auto fill your book with photos you've already uploaded to the website, or if you want to add them page by page. If this is your first book, I think page by page is the way to go. Now you're getting to the fun stuff: adding content to your book. Anywhere you see a text box you just click inside of it and start typing. The space for text can be somewhat limited though, so always preview your pages to be sure you didn't lose any text. To upload photos look below the image of the book and click the UPLOAD PHOTOS link. You can browse your hard drive and select the photos and images you want to include. On the publishing page your photos will appear beneath the book. Just grab the photo and drop it into the DRAG PHOTO HERE box where you want it to appear. You can preview the pages as you go by clicking PREVIEW right below the book spine. Images can be adjusted with zoom & arrow movement features. Keep clicking next page until you have filled all the pages. Each page layout can be altered by clicking the CHOOSE PAGE LAYOUT button in the upper corner of the page. Using a variety of layouts can add a lot of interest to your book. Ultimately you'll be selecting the layouts that accommodate your images and text. Don't be afraid of leaving white space on pages. It makes the book easier to read and enjoy. Another nice feature of the book is the cover page. Select a good, clear, preferably simple photo of your subject for the cover page. It will be seen through a vellum page from the cover. Under the photo you will want to put the title of your book, and on the second line add your name as author. On the backside of the cover page you will want to create your dedication page using a text only page layout. Here's an example of what you could write: First Sentene: State who the book's audience is Second Sentence: Give credit to those who contributed materials Third Sentence: STate your personal goal for the book, as well as your name and the year published. I gave copies of my book about my grandma to my mom and my uncle. It was the first time in years that I've seen tears in my uncle's eyes. He loved it; no toaster or tie could have made a better Christmas gift. The following Christmas I did a book about my father-in-laws WWII naval years and sent a copy to everyone on my husband's side of the family. In the months following as I received RSVPs for my daughter's wedding they were still raving about the book and how much it meant to them. More than anything, they were so surprised to realize how little they knew about their father's patriotic service. It's a joy to create these books as well as to give them. They've stimulated wonderful family conversations and I know they won't end up in the next garage sale. Remember: your research can be fascinating and understandable to others in your family. It just takes a little creativity and effort. What good is it sitting on a shelf? Don't wait until you are done with your research. It will never happen. Start putting pieces of your family history directly into your family's hands with a beautiful family history book.

In this episode you'll hear what you've been missing and how to get it from the Ancestry Wiki. Also how to do a very specialized type of Google search you may have never tried, a French-Canadian genealogy resource, and more. Top 10 Reasons I Moved to Texas: 10. They have something here, it's called weather 9. I live on an acre now so my neighbors don't complain that they hear me over here talking to myself 8. There's a Soft Surroundings store in Southlake! And a Pottery Barn, and a Coach purse store, and… 7. Genealogy Bloggers Amy Coffin and Caroline Pointer. If you know them, you understand 6. Wise County has just launched a new genealogy society and they wanted a speaker who lived less than three hours away 5. It's been almost 10 years since I filmed a reality TV show out here, so I figure they've moved on. 4. My cat Ginger is from Texas and what she meows goes 3. After 18 years in California I finally get to have a pool in my backyard 2. They don't have chicken fried steak in California 1. My Grandsons - Davy and Joey! The Piece of Family History that Miraculously Made Its Way Back to This Indianapolis Woman A few years ago while attending a genealogy conference, I decided to conduct some on-the-fly interviews for The Genealogy Gems Podcast. I asked folks to tell me about the most prized family heirloom that they possessed. I heard about everything from the door knob of a woman's parent's bridal suite, to the bedazzling flapper dress worn by a great grandmother. All were interesting, but I was stopped in my tracks when one woman looked at me with pain in her eyes and declared "I have nothing. Not a thing. My cousins destroyed everything." It was a difficult concept to digest. As the acknowledged "keeper of the family history flame" in my family, I've been fortunate enough to have inherited an abundance of family heirlooms from both sides of my parent's families. How sad it would be to have nothing concrete to hold in your hand; nothing to help you feel the generations that held the item before. Since that day I've remained inspired to help people find ways to track down information and artifacts that make up their family history. Time and time again, I've found that just when you thought there was nothing left to find, an item will resurface. The Galaxy Quest movie quote (surely based on the famous words uttered by Winston Churchill in 1940) is one I cling to when it comes to genealogy: "Never give up! Never surrender!" This motto has never been so gloriously justified as it was recently when a woman from Indianapolis, Indiana received the surprise of a lifetime this Christmas. The Purple Heart awarded to Pat Davis' father, (a father she never met) was found recently and returned to her. Watch the compelling video below where the daughter holds the unearthed piece of family history in the palm of her hand. Kyla wrote: "I had old photos and letters returned to me by a woman who found me on a genealogy message board. Her father had obtained them from my brothers who were throwing them away. It was like a miracle." NEWS: RootsTech 2014 may have come to an end, but SCGS Jamboree is just around the corner I'm pleased to return this year to speak at the 45th Annual Southern California Genealogy Jamboree. This popular conference, hosted by The Southern California Genealogical Society, runs June 6 to 8, 2014 in Burbank, California, USA. The theme of the 2014 Jamboree is Golden Memories: Discovering Your Family History. It promises to pack tons of fun into a long weekend, as it always does. My classes on Friday and Saturday include: Who Needs Google Reader? Flip Out Over Genealogy Content with Flipboard! Learn how to use the free Flipboard app to turn your favorite genealogy web content into your own free customized digital magazine. You will flip over how fun and easy they are to create and share. Perfect for genealogists and societies! Ultimate Google Search Strategies for Genealogists Learn Google search techniques, tricks and tips to achieve better genealogical search results, and then elevate your search to a strategic level. Finally, see how all of this applies across the spectrum of free Google Tools. How to Create an Exciting Interactive Family History Tour with Google Earth. Learn to tell your ancestor's story in a captivating multi-media way in Google Earth. Incorporate images, videos, genealogical documents, and historic maps and bring it all together in a virtual family history tour for sharing and research analysis. SCGS Jamboree 2014 welcomes 55 speakers, over 60 exhibitors, 134 class sessions for a variety of experience levels, and special events. Online registration is open on the Jamboree website, and the Marriott's website is ready to take your reservation. Hope to see you there! Read more about it here. Genealogy Test Reveals Dad's DNA Swapped in Artificial Insemination It's not uncommon for genetic DNA tests to reveal that you're not related to people you thought you were. But here's a twist I've never heard before. A family who had a daughter by artificial insemination of the husband's sperm eventually decided to do some DNA testing for family history. Imagine the wife's shock when she discovered that her husband and daughter shared no DNA! They got a bigger shock when they did a little research. Apparently the biological father worked at the lab that handled the family's insemination process. The man is dead now, but it appears he may have deliberately swapped in his own sample for the father's. Of course lots of questions have come up–including how many other children may have received the DNA of a man who was a convicted kidnapper. My heart goes out to this family and to others who now fear their genetic fatherhood was hijacked. Read the full story here (it's popped up in several news outlets now, but I first saw it at KUTV.com). Watch the video at the Genealogy Gems Blog Newly Remastered and Republished Podcast Episodes Family History Episode 16 – The Family History Library Catalog Family History Episode 17 – Using Family History Centers Part I Family History Episode 18 – Using Family History Centers Part II What's New at Evernote"Synchronization is now about 4X faster than ever before. This applies to any version of Evernote that you use. Sync now often takes a couple of seconds to complete, and when you get a new phone or computer, downloading your notes will take much less time. If you have a small account, you might not notice that much of a difference. On the other hand, if your account is large, or you've been using Evernote for many years, or you share notebooks with other users, or your entire company uses Evernote Business, you'll see massive improvements." A detailed overview of what Evernote did is now on their Tech Blog. BillionGraves Now Accepting Your Documentation I'm hearing so much these days about source citation and I love it! Everyone seems to be getting smarter and better at sourcing their research finds. And genealogy websites are making it easier and more collaborative. Here's just one example, an announcement just made by BillionGraves: "After months of work in response to hundreds of user requests, BillionGraves has added several new features designed to validate and enhance the headstone records found on BillionGraves. The Supporting Record feature now allows users to upload evidence-based documents that support the BillionGraves records that have been collected through our mobile Apps. This means that users are now able to upload headstones, birth/death, burial, marriage, cremation, and many other types of records without needing a smart phone. Thousands of records are being uploaded every day and are breaking down genealogy brick walls and making connections that once seemed impossible. While working closely with our users and genealogists we found that there were many headstones and burials that just couldn't be accounted for with our current systems; including unmarked graves, cremation scatterings, destroyed stones, and so on. Our Supporting Records features eliminate this problem while maintaining the validity and accuracy of the BillionGraves database." MAILBOX: Answer to A Genealogical Google Search Question Jo-Anne: "Is there a Google Earth Cd of the 1932 L.A. Olympic Games?" Lisa's Answer: I would try the following Google Search as follows... "1932" Los Angeles "Olympic Games" "google earth" .KMZ Quotation Marks around a word or phrase mean that the word or phrase must appear in all results. Adding .KMZ or .KML tells Google that you want Google Earth files as the highest priority. Put quotation marks around the file designation and you've just told Google to ONLY return Google Earth files. Lisa wants to know: "What type of Google Earth files / maps / tours would you be interested in finding?" What Would You do? From a concerned listener: "I have a dilemma I'm not sure how to handle. I have a recent ancestor that I never met, but my parents knew. This ancestor did some remarkable things in his lifetime, but also some terrible things to members of his family, some of whom are still living. I want to write about the good things he did, but I don't want to upset the relatives he hurt. Do you have any suggestions on how to handle recent ancestors with difficult pasts?" Lisa's Answer: I'm sure different folks have different ideas on this. But for me, living relatives come first. If it causes pain to someone living their life today, then I would hold off. I would also feel I was being somewhat deceptive to write up only the positive elements of their life. Deception can be created by omission. And our life activities are interconnected. For example, if a man built and incredible company, it might have been at the expense of his children if they never received his love or time. That is part of the story. To tell the true and complete story, I don't believe the genealogist can cherry pick. And therefore there are times when we must leave stories and lives alone until telling their stories would no longer cause harm to living people. I certainly would not want to allow "terrible things" to continue by bringing it back up in public. That's just my personal opinion on the situation. I hope all goes well in whatever you decide. Lisa wants to know: What do you think? Have you faced this situation, on either end? A Podcast for French-Canadian Research: Maple Stars and Stripes Thank you to our wonderful sponsor GEM: The Ancestry Wiki with Crista Cowan In this gem, Crista Cowan explains how to find the wiki, how to search it, and how to explore it because "we don't know what we don't know." From Ancestry: "Do you want to know what birth records exist for a specific county? Did you just discover that your ancestor was in the military and need to know what military records might give you the most information about him? The answers to these (and MANY other) genealogy questions can be found in the Ancestry.com Family History Wiki." Producer: Vienna Thomas Contributing Editor: Sunny Morton

Genealogy Gems Podcast Episode 163: Get ready to flip out with me over Flipboard. It's a free app and web tool that you have to see to fully appreciate. In this episode I'll take you behind the scenes at Flipboard in the Silicon Valley and talk to the folks who create the product that helps you enjoy the online content you love. I'll also share a little discovery I made about family history when I threw my back out over the holidays (there's got to be an easier and less painful way to do family history research!) and get you up to date on all the genealogy news. The back pain in my family history was there all the times but I didn't recognize it! My Great Grandmother Louise's "hand on hips" stance in many of the old family photos was more than just a sassy attitude. It reflected a family history of back pain that plagued my grandmother, my uncle, and me. And what do you suppose folks will think a 100 years from now when the news stories are long gone, and they are reviewing the footage of the sign language guy at Nelson Mandela's funeral? A reminder that not everything we see in old home movies and photos may necessarily be as it seems? NEWS: Read: iTunes hits 1 Billion podcast subscribers Happy 4th Birthday Genealogy Gems App! Get the App: For Android For iPad For iPhone For Windows 8 New Episodes of Family History: Genealogy Made Easy Podcast Episode 9 The fourth annual Rootstech conference, hosted by FamilySearch, will be held February 6-8, 2014 at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City, Utah. In addition to renowned keynote speakers, the conference features over 200 classes, hundreds of booths in a huge Expo Hall, and evening events. Pinterest Pinterest as has given users three more "secret" boards where you can pin privately. Visit Lisa's Pinterest boards at www.pinterest.com/lisalouisecooke MAILBOX: Keith wrote: "I previously wrote you a few months ago when I launched my own blog, sonofswift.tumblr.com. I am happy to report that tomorrow marks my 150th post. Thank you for reading my first message on your show. I have since had it listed on Geneabloggers and started a weekly picture post, Wordless Wednesday. After spending a considerable amount of time trying to break down brick walls, I'm currently focused on learning about my, and my wife's, great grandparents, which I call "thickening the branch. In the new year I plan on releasing eBooks containing all my research from the past six months with accompanying trees. All of it is thanks to guidance I get from listening to your podcast. Thank you for all that you've done and will continue to do." www.Megankeith.com/past Sonofswift.tumblr.com Congratulations on your blog's milestone! Now anytime someone searches Google for one of your ancestors they will find you. I'm so happy to hear that the podcast has been helpful to you in your journey. From Maryann: "Sitting here addressing Christmas cards and grabbing a bit of lunch when I decided to check my email. Spotted your email and opened it up. Skimmed through it, went back to the top again to check out more of what you wrote about the RootsTech 2014 Flipboard magazine you put together. Looked over at the stack of cards still waiting, but thought I'd grab a few minutes to just get it downloaded. Thanks to your book, I already have and use Flipboard, so it didn't take long to find the magazine and subscribe. It looks FANTASTIC. Can hardly wait to sit down and spend time reading through the articles and watching the videos. Right now, though, that stack of cards is shouting me, so I'd better set aside my iPad (after reading your book, I chose a mini, and am forever grateful for the help your book gave me, especially in setting up my apps) and get back to them." And Taunja is also flipping over Flipboard: "I've had Flipboard on my smartphone and didn't know what to do with it! Just subscribed to the Rootstech magazine and it looks wonderful...thanks so much! Looks like a better learn a little bit more about Flipboard." GEM: Flipboard Interview If you've been listening to this podcast since the beginning, or have gone back and caught up on the previous episodes, then you know that I was a big advocate of iGoogle as a way to stay organized online. And one of the things I used to love to organize were all my favorite podcasts, blogs, and videos having to do with family history. I say used to because back in November 2013 Google did away with iGoogle, much to my dismay. They want their users to focus on Google+, which frankly is not a favorite of mine. In fact I was just reading the other day that Google's CEO was saying that they made a big mistake in underestimating social media online, and that has put them in a position of constant catch up. Well, it didn't take long to track down some great alternatives, and in this gem I want to focus on the one I flipped out over for tracking and enjoying my favorite online media like blogs and videos. It's called Flipboard, and if you have my book Turn Your iPad into a Genealogy Powerhouse, then you're probably already familiar with it. Now wait, don't turn off this episode because you don't have an iPad. You don't need one to use and enjoy Flipboard. It's a free app for Android and Apple devices – so we're talking all kinds of smart phones and tablets can use it. Now while the app allows you to pull together all your favorite RSS feeds together and displays them in a beautiful way, Flipboard also has a Magazine feature. In a recent issue of the free Genealogy Gems eNewsletter – which you can sign up for on our homepage at www.genealogygems.com – I wrote an article all about a magazine I created all by little self using the free Flipboard web tools. These magazines – and I really call them magazine issues, because they are like stand along issues of a magazine – can be viewed on your computer web browser as well as the app, and you can add content from all over the web, and share it with others. When I saw the magazine feature for the first time my mind just started racing with all the genealogical possibilities. I've created several free magazines that you can enjoy, and I'll tell you more about how to access those at the end of this segment. But first, we're going to head to the Silicon Valley and meet with the folks at Flipboard to get an up close and personal look at the company, the app, and these awesome magazines. In this interview I travel to Flipboard's offices in Palo Alto, the home of a few names you might recognize, such as Facebook, and meet up with Todd Lapin. He is on Flipboard's editorial team and runs their new blog focused on discovering of great content http://magazines.flipboard.com and he also runs their MagMakers twitter handle: https://twitter.com/FlipboardMag RootsTech 2014: Where Genealogy and Technology Converge is a free magazine available in the free app https://flipboard.com/ and on the web at http://tinyurl.com/RootsTech2014. The magazine pulls together great web content from RootsTech speakers, exhibitors, and official bloggers in one beautiful and convenient place. Looking for more great genealogy themed Flipboard magazines? Check out two more new issues from Lisa Louise Cooke: Using Newspaper for Genealogy and Family History Using Historic Maps for Genealogy and Family History Genealogy Gems Premium Members can hear for about using Flipboard for Genealogy in the upcoming Premium Episode #106 later this month. The episode will also include additional notes and instructions. Click here to become a Genealogy Gems Premium Member today.

Wondering how to get your kids and grandkids engaged in family history? Looking for worthwhile activities for the kids over the Christmas break? In this episode author Janet Hovorka provides answers. Our children are the future of our families, and there's no better time to help them engage, explore and enjoy their family history! App Users: Be sure to check out the audio Bonus Content in the Genealogy Gems App! NEWS: Congratulations to the winner of the 1 year digital subscription to Family Tree Magazine. Amanda's Blog: ABT UNK Tips for Collaborative Genealogy Read about FamilySearch Updates Include VA Pension Cards, South American Records Where You Can Find Over a Million British Church Records that are Now Indexed! MAILBOX: From Gary: "There was a recent episode of the Las Vegas Based "CSI" show in which a genealogist was used to help solve a crime and the head CSI guy (Ted Dansen) and the Genealogist debated about Genealogy being a science. Only took them 1 hr (and 30 commercials) to do what takes us a live time –Hummmmmm!!!" Premium member Roger in Utah: "Thanks for another great podcast – this time on MY ancestral homeland of Norway. I have spent many hours using the digitalarchivet.no website. While you can use the English version, parts of it are only in Norwegian. Norway, like most Scandinavian countries, has put nearly all of their parish records online. It is a wonderful resource. You have to learn what some of words are, such as birth, Christening, confirmation, marriage, death, etc. But even just these can help a lot. If you learn a few more Norwegian words, you can more fully access the vast amount on information available on that site. In that podcast you also talked about taking a risk and contacting someone about possible family information. Through some of my Norwegian research I found a man who lives in a little town about an hour north of Oslo. He is the leader of a group called the Hadelandlag Society. Hadeland is a region of Norway. I got an email address for this man, Ole, and contacted him. He has been wonderful to me. He went to a local repository and looked up information on my family from the information I gave him. Of course, I thanked him profusely for helping someone he did not even know. We have now emailed several times. Certainly the "risk" paid off. I have also found some US chapters of the Hadelandlag Society and have become a member. And I found some distant cousins as a result, one in Canada, and one in Minnesota. We email somewhat regularly. See what taking the "risk" can do." Matt Has a Mystery and is Looking for Extra Sets of Eyes: "Thank you for your podcasts! … even listening to the older podcasts can provide needed perspective on how to break through your brick walls. Speaking of brick walls, mine may be crumbling. I've been trying to trace the parents/ancestors of my great-grandmother. Up until this past summer, I had no information whatsoever. On May 30, 2013, I found an 1855 New York State Census entry that may tell me who her family is. I wrote up a blog entry about the current status of the search and I'd be interested in your thoughts." Matt's Blog From Alan in Minneapolis, MN: "I started listening to the podcast about a year ago, and it's been a great reminder of things that I had forgotten how to use Google for. Thanks to your hints, I've found descendants for 2 of my wife's great-great uncles who moved away from the farm in Illinois and we lost track of. The Google tips from early on in the series have even helped in projects at work- my colleagues think I'm spending hours searching for things that I'm finding in a couple minutes with some of the tricks. Also after hearing about blogging your family history for at least the last 3 pod casts, I've finally decided to take the leap and start publishing my discoveries on a blog (groundhoggenealogist.blogspot.com) so I can post there rather than send emails and miss some of the cousins or send Facebook messages and miss the others. I've only written two posts (one's up one set to publish Sunday morning), but I hope this is something I can keep up. Just a note to say thanks." Janice in Montreal started a genealogy blog: "I attended several of your presentations at the BIFHSGO conference a few weeks ago and really enjoyed them. Partly as a result of hearing your advice, I have started a blog on which I'm posting the short family history articles I've been writing, as well as comments on the research process. The story called "An Economic Emigrant" explains why I'm a Canadian rather than an American. Please take a quick look when you get a chance." writinguptheancestors.blogspot.ca. Ethan is looking for some Fold3 help: "I recently went to look for the graves of my great-grandparents and learned in doing so that their son, my grandpa's brother, died in WWII. Since he has a very common name, George L. Allen, I have been unsuccessful in trying to look up his records on fold3.com or other search engines. Any hints on how to narrow my search? This is the information I was able to obtain just from his headstone: Private First Class, 63rd armored infantry battalion, 11th armored division. He died Jan 6, 1945, just as the war was dying down. Other than that, I don't know if he was in the Pacific or in Europe. My fold3.com search yields thousands of results. Any help would be appreciated!" Lisa's Answer: Fold3.com does have some educational videos on YouTube. In particular: How to Search on Fold3. If you don't get the full answer you are looking for, leave a comment on the video to ask a more specific question or ask how to contact them with your question. YouTube is interactive when it comes to comments and I would anticipate they would respond. Family Tree Magazine Webinar Recording: Making the Most of Fold GEM: Helping Your Kids and Grandkids Engage in Family History with Janet Hovorka Janet is the author of the book Zap the Grandma Gap Available Workbooks: My British Ancestor My Swedish Ancestor My Civil War Ancestor My German Ancestor Above: Janet Hovorka, Owner of FamilyChartmasters Visit the free Website for more Zap the Grandma Gap CLOSING: Sign up for the FREE Genealogy Gems Newsletter at www.GenealogyGems.com Explore Lisa's brand new Pinterest Board: Best U.S. Libraries for Genealogy Follow Lisa at Pinterest

I was so impresssed with Yngve Nedrebø, the Chief archivist at Riksarkivet (National Archives of Norway) who I recently interviewed for the Family Tree Magazine podcast that I'm publishing an extended version of that interview here on the Genealgoy Gems Podcast. This is a "must hear" for those with Norwegian heritage. In this episode you'll also hear from a fellow listener and get a chance to see his family history tour that he created in Google Earth using the techniques I teach in the Google Earth for Genealogy video CD series. And we'll get a taste of the history of coffee. Linda from Ventura Seminar writes in about her recent success: "I just loved your presentation Saturday at the Ventura Genealogy Seminar. I learned so much and feel very enthused to really get to work on all this. In fact I was so encouraged I got brave and called a telephone number that I had found for a possible 1st cousin, once removed. And surprise, it was him and we had a lovely 30-minute conversation and I'm going to send him information and he and his wife invited me to Florida to visit!! How about that. It was so exciting, still haven't gotten over it." Linda said that she was encouraged enough to get brave and make that telephone call. That can be a pretty scary thing. We all have things that we need a bit of bravery to do. And that brings me to an important question that I posed in the most recent edition of the free Genealogy Gems Newsletter. Having you taken a technological RISK lately? This was the key question I posed in the newsletter: Are you fully embracing technology so that you can connect with those that matter to you, both living and in your family tree? There's not as much RISK as you might think. As I always say in my classes: "you can't break it, so go for it and give it a try!" And of course Genealogy Gems is here to help. MAILBOX: Eric shares his Google Earth Family History Tour: "This is my most complex Google Earth Project ever. I hope you enjoy it. It's really been a hit with my family. They don't glaze over right away, LOL! Visit Eric's blog to see his tour. After viewing it I couldn't help but wonder if there was video out there. And sure enough I found a few. I'm sure there are more with potential: B17s taking off from Podington: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qVAHmO0AnA Focke-Wulf Fw 190: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdPv0h5Kpm4 YouTube video update: If you've had trouble embedding videos recently in your own family history tours, or genealogy blog, it's actually YouTube that is causing the problem. If you look closely at the YouTube embed code they are (for some unknown reason) leaving off the "http:" and so the code doesn't work. Copy and paste the embed code into a Google Earth placemark and then correct the URL so it is complete and it will work for you. (Do note though that the person who uploaded the video can opt not to allow it to be embedded. If that's the case, there will be a statement on the video page) A Different Kind of Map: Mapping Arlington Cemetery Cameron is Looking for Death Certificates "I am 23 year old recent graduate of nursing school and a huge fan of your Genealogy Gems podcast. I've been researching my family history for about 5 years off and on, and I've discovered more than I've ever imagined. I've been listening two your show for about 3 months now after I discovered it, and I appreciate all of the helpful tips. However, I still have a little problem. I can't seem to find the maiden name of one of my recent ancestors Sallie Mosley. She was born in 1863, I assume in Emanuel County, Georgia. She married James Mosley in the 1880's. I know that the courthouse in Emanuel county burned several times, so that could be why I can't find a marriage record. I have found a death certificate on Ancestry, but isn't very detailed unless you order the certificate. If I visited the courthouse, could they possible dig up a detailed death certificate?" From Lisa: I ran a quick Google search and found the following on the Emanuel County, Georgia records site: "Death certificates are open to the public. You must be a member of the immediate family to acquire a death certificate with the cause of death. Our Death certificates on the local level begin at 1927 and back to 1917 in our state office." So depending on when she died they may be able to be of help. I would also recommend contacting local historical and genealogical societies. They often have the inside scoop on what's available and how to access it locally. A quick Google search should help you make contact. Run the search in Google Earth and it will plot them out for you on the map! GEM: Norwegian Genealogy and the National Archives of Norway One of the shining stars on the Internet that offer rays of research hope for those with Norwegian heritage is the National Archives of Norway's Digital Archive. Lisa's special guest: Yngve Nedrebø, Chief archivist at Riksarkivet. http://www.arkivverket.no/eng/Digitalarkivet GEM: Wartime Coffee Bean Counting Given what seems to be the ever-growing profusion of coffee vendors, imagine what a crisis it would be if coffee were suddenly rationed. That's exactly what happened this month in 1942 because the war had interrupted shipments and people were hoarding coffee. But rationing lasted only until the next summer. It's thought that coffee was introduced into America by Captain John Smith, one of the founders of the Jamestown Colony in Virginia. Its popularity jumped after both the Boston Tea Party and the beginning of Prohibition. For those who don't make their own coffee, there are just over 19,000 coffee shops across the country, and they sell more than $10 billion worth of coffee a year. You can find more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau, online at . Sources: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/coffee-rationing-begins http://jamestowncoffee.com/the-history-of-coffee-in-america/ http://globalreach.blogs.census.gov/2013/06/26/coffeedata/

In this episode you will meet other listeners who are getting the word out about their family history through blogging as well as give you some genealogy blogging pointers,and I will introduce you to one of my first "Favorite Genealogy Gems" Look who I ran into in Detroit: Steve Luxenberg, author of "Annie's Ghosts" Cruise with Lisa It's always a joy for me to get to get out and about and meet so many of you in person. And, have I got an amazing event to tell you about where we can get together in person, talk genealogy and experience the joy of travel! I've just signed on with Unlock the Past Cruises for their 2014 British Isles Cruise. Presenters page Itinerary: day 1 – depart Tilbury, London – 6pm (boarding from 12.30pm) day 2 – at sea day 3 – Invergordon, Scotland – 7.30am-10pm day 4 – Kirkwall, Orkney Islands – 7am-6pm day 5 – Stornoway, Outer Hebrides – 7.30am-10pm (transfer to shore by tender) day 6 – Tobermory, Isle of Mull – 7.30am-4pm (transfer to shore by tender) day 7 – Dublin, Ireland – 8am-5.45pm day 8 – St Mary's, Isles of Scilly - 9am-6pm (transfer to shore by tender) day 9 – St Peter Port, Guernsey - 7.30am-6pm (transfer to shore by tender) day 10 – Honfleur, France – 9am-5pm day 11 – arrive Tilbury, London – 9am You'll have around 40 topics to choose from, held mostly in the evening so there will be loads of time to explore the landscape. My understanding is that this cruise is filling up very quickly so if you're interested be sure and click the links above for more details. Brand New in the Genealogy Gems Store Evernote for Windows for Genealogists Quick Reference Guide "a nice easy to grab and use laminated cheat sheet that can instantly answer your most important questions and give you easy ways to use Evernote more quickly and efficiently." Evernote is certainly the fastest-growing note-taking technology out there, so it is no wonder that it is incredibly popular with genealogists. But there is so much packed in to it that I notice that many genealogists aren't taking full advantage. Keep this handy cheat sheet close at hand and you'll have everything you need. This four page laminated guide includes: A Getting Started Checklist Quick Key Break Out Boxes – packed with keystrokes to speed up your use of Evernote Specialized Note-taking Actions How to Get the Most Out of Clipping Tips for Maneuvering the Desktop Client Genealogical Organization Recommendations Little Known Search Strategies Specialized Genealogy Focused Techniques such as Source Citation Tips, Clipping Recommendations, and Using Reminders Evernote Premium vs. Free Comparison Also available for UK, Canada or Australia shipping Genealogy News: ANCESTRY.COM and FamilySearch recently announced that they have made an agreement to jointly make a billion global records available online over the next five years by digitizing, indexing and publishing the records from the FamilySearch vault. Ancestry.com expects to invest more than $60 million alongside thousands of hours of volunteer efforts facilitated by FamilySearch. The companies also announced in early 2013 an additional project where they plan to publish 140 million U.S. Wills & Probate images and indexes over the next three years—creating a national database of wills and other probate documents spanning 1800-1930 online for the very first time. Daughter Receives WWII Soldier Father's Letter Decades Later Watch the Video: MAILBOX: In this episode we celebrate listeners who are sharing their family history through blogging: New Blogger Keith is a Son of a Swift http://www.megankeith.com/past I have run a personal family history site for the past five years and now, based on your advice, launched my own genealogy blog. I already had a tumblr account, so I started sonofswift.tumblr.com (Son of Swift is a translation of my name from the original Gaelic, O'Seibhleain). Thanks for the great idea and I will continue to listen as I conduct my research into the future." Chris is Now Blogging http://leaftwigandstem.blogspot.com/ "OK listening to the folks in your latest podcasts convinced me. I started my own genealogy blog last month. So far there's not a lot of "traffic" but I've gotten good reviews from the family members…Hoping you have some tips in mind for a future podcast...sort of a maintaining a blog for the long run -tips and tricks type thing. Take a look and let me know what you think. LOVE the podcast." Follow up from Chris: "After getting my feet wet, I decided to join GENEABLOGGERS network at www.geneabloggers.com . Wow. My first goal was realized just after that. I found another blogger who is a "double cousin" through two different branches of my family. Thanks so much for your advice." Margaret is on a Family Album Journey familyalbumjourney.blogspot.com "I started my blog a couple of years ago, but I decided to really blog regularly back in May. I'm using the photos in my Davis ancestors' family albums from the 1880s as a springboard for my blog posts. They lived in Savannah, so I'm really focusing a lot on Savannah history and the photographers there. It's been fun. I took a break when I went on a family vacation in July, so I'm struggling to get back in the rhythm of posting. I tend to do a lot of research just for my posts, so it can take a lot of time, but I love it! Thanks for the inspiration and all the great information." Wayne Uses Blogging to Discover Genealogy http://discovergenealogy.blogspot.ca/ "I have started a new blog about genealogy. It is a place where I can tell stories, relate experiences and pass along tips discovered while doing research on my family; through volunteer activities, including as an Online Parish Clerk; and from projects completed as a genealogical consultant. The first post is in place and I have many more in preparation." Premium Member Sandy is Digging into her Family Roots http://diggingintomyfamilyroots.blogspot.com/ "I am a new blogger, on your last podcast you said to email a link to our blogs. I watched your videos to get me started. i do have fun with it. I hope you like it." Sandy's blog has been featuring a series of letters home written during World War II." Steve is Poking Around the Past http://pokingaroundinthepast.com/ "On September 1st I finally managed to get my family history blog started, and I'd like to invite you to take a look. I call it Poking Around in the Past, and I gave you a mention (link) in my first post." From Gloria who describes herself as "A Die Hard Fan" http://familylinks.blog.com "I have a blog but haven't really dedicated it to genealogy although it ties in sometimes as I use it for building my platform for my upcoming adoption memoir. Feel free to take a look at Family Links Matter. I put together a Facebook group page—The Groton, MA LONGLEY line—and family members post and share info, pictures, and a lot more. I met a third cousin and her daughter, several 7th cousins, and more. It's a great resource for all of us. Check it out Groton MA line LONGLEY https://www.facebook.com/groups/34724192366/ Lisa's Blogging Tips Include great visuals – old photos, public domain images, etc. Your readers will enjoy them and they may help in your blog's Google search results ranking. Give your readers an easy way to subscribe by email Give it a try by subscribing to the Genealogy Gems Blog through email using https://blogtrottr.com/ Instructions for Subscribing to a blog via email: (feel free to add these to your blog) Look for the orange RSS button to get the feed address for a blog or podcast. Copy the RSS feed address for the blog Example: The Genealogy Gems blog the feed is http://lisalouisecooke.com/feed/ Go to www.blogtrottr.com Paste the blog feed URL in the "Feed" field on the Blogtrottr website In the next field type in your email address Select how often you want to receive the email notifications of new posts Click the orange "Feed Me" button Emails of new posts will now be delivered to your email address as requested Let your readers know that the service is available to them by adding a Text Widget to the side bar of your blog with the above instructions and a link to Blogtrottr. Try assigning themes to your blogging days. It can help you get a jump start on writing, as well as help you determine which areas are your favorites that you may want to focus on my more in the future as your "niche." Check out Geneabloggers at www.Genealogybloggers.com for genealogy blogging support and theme ideas. Break up long posts into several posts. They are easier for you to publish, and easier for your readers to consume. Collect blogging ideas in Evernote. Set up a notebook called "Blogging Ideas" and tags for your various subject areas such as: Family lines / surnames such as "Johnson Family" Location based subjects such as "Texas History" Focus areas such as "Memoirs", "Old Photos" etc. Learn everything you need to know about using Evernote for genealogy by becoming a Genealogy Gems Premium Member. In addition to over 100 exclusive Premium episodes, membership includes my one hour Evernote class video, and the Evernote instructional mini-series. Get the Evernote for Windows for Genealogists Quick Reference Guide in the Genealogy Gems Store GEM: Lisa's Favorite Genealogy Gems (Just in time for Christmas!): Espy Frames by Jen Garrett As I get older, I find myself tiring of the same old gift giving every year. You know how it is – we all have too much stuff, and what we become more and more interested in is that which will last, and have a lasting impression on our family and those we love. So as I travel throughout the year I keep my eyes peeled for things that really stand out – items that are truly Genealogy Gems. Wonderful products that I want for my own home and family, and ones I think that you will appreciate and enjoy as well. So I've decided that Lisa is going to have her Favorite Genealogy Gems. And the first one that I want to introduce you to today are Espy Frames by Jen Garrett. I will never forget taking my annual walk through the Ohio Genealogical Society Conference exhibit hall this last year. I really didn't expect to see anything earth shattering or new. But when I reached the end of the first row and turned the corner I was instantly mesmerized by what I saw. Laid out across a long table, and hanging on the walls behind it were the more glorious and spectacular frames I had ever seen. Most were large thick frames around mirrors, but a few encompassed vintage photos. But they had three very important things in common. They all were dripping with vintage gems, jewels, charms, buttons and antiques. They were all one-of-a-kind pieces of art, and each one told a very unique story. Oh, and they had one more important thing in common. They were all created by Jen Garrett. In this gem segment of the podcast I want to introduce you to Jen. She is a very special lady, which an incredible talent for story telling through these incredible art frames. I hope you come away with is that there are new and creative ways to help tell you ancestors story. I have a very special hand tinted photo from the 1930s of my beloved Grandma Alfreda Burkett in her nursing cap, taken the day she graduated from nursing school. She looks so young, and beautiful and full of excitement for her new career, which would last for over 50 years. I've waited to hang that photo in my home because I knew it deserved a special frame, and I've just never found one that did it justice. The frame that I bought that day, absolutely does it justice. It's covered in vintage items from that era, all with a medical theme Exclusive Collection Hand Selected by Lisa I noticed it right away because the frame held a photo from that same era of another young nurse. She has been replaced with Grandma Burkett's photo, and this framed piece is now, truly, a family heirloom. It hangs in my Genealogy Gems office, and it will be handed down for generations to come. Jen's frames are an investment well worth making. And if you would like to acquire one of these very special frames you will find an exclusive collection now in the Genealogy Gems website store, just in time for the holidays. The frames are all truly incredible works of art! Even if you aren't interested in purchasing a frame, may I encourage you to just go and window shop. You'll be inspired. And once a frame I this collection has been purchased it's gone forever, because they really are one-of-a-kind. Be sure to click on them to see the enlarged view. The photos don't do the frames justice, but the larger images will give you a taste of all of the incredible and intricate details in them. On a PC you can hold the Control key and plus the plus key (+) to zoom in even further. Enjoy! Join Today: Genealogy Gems Premium Membership Sign up for the Free Newsletter on the www.GenealogyGems.com homepage and get the free ebook 5 Fabulous Google Search Strategies for the Family Historian as a thank you gift!

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 like this Old TIme DC Facebook page. Many families have shared interest in various places and streets but most people didn't think to take photos of those things." Lisa's Tip: Try searching for names of towns and keywords like "photos" and "history" to see if there are similar groups on Facebook that can benefit your research. My example: I found a similar Facebook page for Margate Kent https://www.facebook.com/MargateHistory. It's a terrific use of social media! GEM: Interview with Dr. Deborah Abbott Genealogy Gems contributor Sunny Morton interviews Dr. Deborah Abbott, Ph.D., an adjunct faculty member at the Institute of Genealogy & Historical Research (IGHR) at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama and currently serves as a Trustee on the Board of the Ohio Genealogical Society (OGS). Dr. Abbott specializes in African American genealogy, slavery, court records as well as methodology. Her genealogical research project about an African American Family from Kentucky entitled "From Slavery to Freedom to Antioch" was highlighted in the Cleveland Plain Dealer (Ohio) Newspaper under the title "Six-Volumes to Amplify a Family History" in 2008. In this Gem Dr. Abbott shares her strategies for Starting the Search for African American Roots: Interview your family (both blood and non-blood!) Ask open ended questions Generate feelings Get an entire social history if you can. Try asking a question to frame the question. Like "who was the president when you were 12?" Debbie's Favorite Resources: Ancestry.com and Familysearch.org. Opened at the same time! Go back and forth between the two. Think of Ancestry as "the index" and FamilySearch as the "images." Example: Ohio Death Index 1908-2007 Slave Research: Follow the Census Research slave holder Pay attention to who is in the house, and who lives around them. Sometimes slave holders and former slaves share first names in addition to last names. "Once we get into the slave era African-America are no longer people, they are property." You are looking for people as you would other property like land. You must look at the people making the transactions, all the way through their death. Ohio had laws that governed the movements of African-Americans in the early years. Understand the history and the laws in the location and timeframe you are researching. In Ohio –African-Americans had to register. Free Family History Festival Sat. Sept. 28, 2013 Detroit Public Library – Main Branch Debbie will be teaching on techniques for tracing African-American Roots Lisa will be teaching on Ultimate Google Search Strategies and Tips and Get the Scoop on Your Ancestors with Newspapers. Lisa's Personal Thoughts on the Value of Work, Looking to Ancestors for Values, and Passing on our Family's Values to our Kids and Grandkids.

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 and online family tree hosts, you'll be able to transfer the data from your tree. Those who want to continue to use FamilySearch products (like Family Tree) are advised by FamilySearch to switch to software that partners with FamilySearch: Ancestral Quest, Legacy Family Tree or RootsMagic. Learn more about the PAF discontinuation, what it means to you and supported software options at FamilySearch. And just to put in a plug for RootsMagic, a Genealogy Gems Podcast sponsor, RootsMagic 6 is the only software that is "share+ certified" by FamilySearch for use with Family Tree: the only software, as RootsMagic says, "certified to collaborate and share data and sources with FamilySearch Family Tree." If you're already using RootsMagic 4 or 5, you'll need to upgrade. Purchase RootsMagic 6 or order your upgrade here: http://rootsmagic.com/Store/RootsMagic/ And speaking of RootsMagic: Now you can find short training videos in addition to free full-length webinars on RootsMagic's new YouTube Channel, RootsMagicTV at http://www.youtube.com/user/RootsMagicTV/videos If you're a RootsMagic user (or may be interested in becoming one), FamilySearch Family Tree or PAF user, you'll love these helpful tutorials. And let your voice be heard: They are even taking suggestions for topics to cover in future short videos, too! email them at support@rootsmagic.com. British Research The London Metropolitan Archives says that half the inquiries they receive are from family historians. This is likely due to their rich resources, click here to peruse the collection: http://preview.tinyurl.com/k75c59e Because there is such a strong genealogy interest in the LMA, they are making a huge effort to reach out to genealogists. They're all about educating us and sharing what's at LMA through their website, hands-on classes, remote research services and partnerships with data sites like Ancestry and FindMyPast. All this from a city archive! Check out this video they've made for family history researchers: http://youtu.be/OKLmWKJWkqE Were Your Ancestors "Vicious" or in "Chronic Want"?London Poverty Maps Map It Out! There is a fantastic blog posting on Mad About Genealogy about the Booth Poverty Maps, which look like a riveting way to understand your ancestor's 1880s London neighborhood. http://www.madaboutgenealogy.com/booth-poverty-maps/ According to blogger Linda Elliott, "Booth employed a team of social investigators who walked around the London streets often in the company of the local policeman and recorded what they saw and heard. The notebooks that they filled out can be viewed online and make for fascinating reading with amongst other findings they record what the policeman thought of each street and sometime each building and its inhabitants." The Charles Booth Online Archive Linda describes each category in greater detail in her blog post, along with everything a genealogist needs to know to use the maps MAILBOX: Response to the update on Ancestry from Allen: "I just listened to your most recent show and wanted to comment on the Ancestry.com search updates you discussed. I'm sure you have a direct line to them and wanted to offer some suggestions they might be able to use. First, and I think you may have mentioned this specifically, it would be nice if there were a way to exclude certain records from a search, either automatically or by selection. In particular, I am thinking that if I have a 1920 Census record attached to a person, there should be some way to exclude 1920 Census results from a search. Clearly that is not a record I need if that person already has one attached. Secondly, and related to the first, it would be nice if there were some "level of confidence" or other rating one could apply to a record match. That way I could attach a record to a person with no confidence but still have it reference a certain person, or with a moderate confidence or high confidence. This might also apply to relationships as well. I think this would go a long way toward solving the problem of people posting incorrect information on their tree and others copying it. The truth is, there is all kinds of information that we associate with our trees that we're not completely sure about but still feel reasonably confident about, but if there were some way to make that know, both to ourselves and others, it would help the situation. Ancestry.com could then incorporate these into my first search suggestion, so that records with a high confidence would trigger a filter to remove other similar records that would not apply. In any case, I love the show. Keep it up." From Debbie Cook: My son sent me the interesting link below to a Flickr page that I thought might interest your subscribers. They are older photos superimposed on to the existing landscape at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrsultan/sets/72157626149118210/ UPDATE: Genealogy Gems Toolbar has been discontinued. Sarah wrote in to say: "I want to learn how to use Roots Magic 6 that goes to Trees" Lisa's Answer: You can watch the free RootsMagic class on "Using FamilySearch Family Tree with RootsMagic" on their website at http://rootsmagic.com/webinars/ From Sherry, a Premium Member from British Columbia: "I wrote to you several months back to tell you about my new family history blog, "My Descent into Descent", (http://mydescentintodescent.blogspot.ca), and how you inspired me to create it. Well, you've also inspired me to use my new iPad, which my husband gave me for Christmas, as a tool for my research, and now for blogging. Recently, my sister and I took our long-awaited "Family History Road Trip" to New England, and I took my iPad along to blog from the road! I also brought along a keyboard, and would blog in the morning, using the Blogger app, while my sister and niece were still asleep. It was fun to share our experiences almost as they were happening, as well as the crisp and clear photos I was taking with my iPad. As my sister was more interested in the stories from our mutual family tree and less in the research, we tried to plan our trip to include destinations which would interest us both. As I have discovered that we are Mayflower descendants, one of the places we visited was the Plymouth Plantation in Plymouth, Massachusetts. As you may know, it includes a near authentic replica of the village of Plymouth circa 1627, and has actors portraying the roles of the people living there that year. They are well-versed in the stories of the pilgrims they are portraying, and stay in character while they are conversing with you. I was hoping I might run into an actor playing one of our ancestors, but I couldn't believe our luck! Of the handful of actors we met, two were portraying our ancestors, Hester Cooke and Richard Warren! Who actually gets to talk to their long departed ancestors on a family history road trip? Thank you so much for the many ways you inspire and inform us all. I would very much like to recommend to your listeners that they consider blogging their family history. Since I started my blog in November, I have had over 4,000 hits, when I only expected to receive a few. Most excitingly, I had always wanted to connect with the descendants of my great grand aunt Lily. After telling the story of that part of the family in depth over several blog posts, I waited for several months before I heard anything. As it turned out, some of her descendants were curious about their family history, and while Googling some of the names, my blog popped up! They could not believe their good fortune in finding out so much about their tree all at once! I plan to visit them this coming week. They are excited to meet me and my husband, and have a family Bible to show me." Leigh has a new genealogy blog! "I just wanted to let you know that I've been listening to your old Podcasts and working my way up to the present. I'm on Episode 80 now, and I'm learning so much from you. It has never occurred to me to start a blog, but after listening to your advice on the subject, I finally decided to give it a whirl. I mentioned you and your Genealogy Gems podcast in the post and linked to your page. I've heard you say that you appreciated that on previous podcasts, so I thought it would be okay. If you'd like, you can view the blog at http://thesegenesfit.blogspot.com/ . I love your podcasts, and once I'm caught up, I'm planning to become a Premium member. Thanks for pushing me out of my comfort zone!" Winnie the Pooh Quote: "You can't stay in your corner of the forest, waiting for others to come to you; you have to go to them sometimes." Thank you to our sponsor RootsMagic.com GEM: Behind the Scenes of the TV series Who Do You Think You Are? with Producer Allie Orton It was a sad day when NBC cancelled Who Do You Think You Are? here in the U.S., but genealogists are now drying their eyes and grabbing their popcorn because it's returning to TV this month. The TLC channel has picked up Who Do You Think You? and the first episode featuring singer Kelly Clarkson premieres on July 23, 2013. Here to tell us all about it is Producer and Research Manager for the series Allie Orton. She's a graduate of the University of Southern California, and began work as a researcher on the first U.S. season of "Who Do You Think You Are?" back in 2008. In her current role she oversees research development, coordinates communication between Ancestry.com and the research staff, and shepherds these compelling stories to completion! In this interview Allie shares: How she got involved in the show The impact of the cancellation How celebs are selected The research team makeup The art of storytelling Kelly Clarkson episode Stand out moments If it is getting any easier to produce the show Her favorite episode (hint: it's this season) Her favorite person (OK, people!) to work with How she'll be spending her time during the premiere What you can expect to see this season Book referred to: Labor of Love, Labor of Sorrow: Black Women , Work, and the Family, from Slavery to the Present Exclusive for Premium Members: Allie's Advice for Genealogists in Genealogy Gems Premium Podcast Episode 100 STAY IN TOUCH: You can stay in touch with me all month long by subscribing to the free Genealogy Gems Newsletter right on the homepage of my website www.genealogygems.com And here's a thought to ponder until we meet here again: People don't care what you know until they know that you care