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

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

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

Show Notes Lisa Louise Cooke I am back from speaking at the Who Do You Think You Are? Live conference in London, and I've brought back some gems for you for this episode which I'm excited about. I got to spend about a week in England and this time around got to do some touring with my friend Janet Hovorka owner of Family ChartMasters. We went to Windsor castle which I've always wanted to see, and it did not disappoint. What windsor castle can teach us about family history. It's all in the details! The highlight for me was going to Jane Austen's house in Chawton, Hampshire. I'm an Austenphile, and I soaked in nooks and crannies of the home where she lived with her sister Cassandra. It was fantastic seeing the little desk where she worked on her books like "Pride and Prejudice" and "Emma." Janet and finished up the tour with tea at Cassandra's Cup teashop across the street, where hundreds of china tea cups hang from the ceiling, and where I had the best bowl of tomato soup in my entire life! Oh yeah, I was there for a genealogy conference. And yes, WDYTYA Live lived up to all expectations. Janet and I had a booth and I taught classes on Google Search and using your iPad and tablet for genealogy. The classes were sold out and people were lined up around the walls. The turn-out they get for this event is just incredible. I haven't heard the final numbers, but word is it was well over 12,000 people over the three days. So here's my own genealogy story from the event. Now, if you've been listening to the podcast for a while then you may remember me telling you about my first trip to WDYTYA Live and how after one of my presentations several of my husband's distant English Cook cousins met up with us and we sort of had an impromptu family reunion upstairs in the expo hall. One of those in attendance was Louise Cook (without the "e") who is married to my husband's cousin Peter. I know, it gets a little confusing with Louise Cook and Lisa Louise Cooke! But anyway, Louise and I stay regularly in touch, and we met up at the conference this year. She found me after one of my classes and we got to visit, and she told me that she was going to help out with her friend's society booth. So we are walking back to my booth, and when we arrive, she looks up and laughs because the Lincolnshire booth was right next to ours and there was her chair! Can you imagine if we had not already met, that Lisa Louise Cooke, and Louise Cook would have been sitting right next to each other throughout the conference not knowing that our husbands were related by way of their third Great Grandfather? ! The moral of the story: Next time you sit down at a genealogy conference introduce yourself to those next to you, you never know who you might be related to. NEWS: Find My Past Series now on the website Find My Past, the hit UK television show, is now available to view via findmypast.com. Find My Past, now entering its second season, links living individuals to real historical events found in their family tree and now Findmypast.com is the only place in the US where you can watch the show! Register on findmypast.com for free and watch Find My Past episodes that aired in the last 30 days at no cost. Missed an episode or want to watch your favorites again? Findmypast subscribers can watch all episodes for an unlimited time. Every episode will be available to watch on findmypast.com a week after it airs. MAILBOX: Delray wants to know where the Family History Podcast Show Notes have gone... "I've been listening to your podcasts for over two years now: GenealogyGems and GenealogyGems Premium. ALL of the podcasts are on my iPod, so that I can listen to them over and over. It seems each time I listen to your podcast, I learn something new that I missed last time. Somehow I missed the fact that you used to have a podcast called Family History: Genealogy Made Easy. I'm going to be teaching a class to genealogy newbies in April, so I've been listening to these older podcasts to see what you shared with beginners. You mention the "show notes" like you do in GenealogyGems, which are always a life saver when I miss a web address or something; however, I cannot locate any "show notes" for the Genealogy Made Easy show." Lisa's Answer: The Family History podcast is in a bit of transition right now. We are no longer part of the Personal Life Media network and so all of the show notes pages that they previously hosted have been removed from their website. We are now working to transition the Tunes podcast feed. As soon as that happens, we will start republishing the show on the Genealogy Gems website. Gus chimes in on Genealogy Podcast No. 148 "Here are my thoughts on internet rip offs. I have both a blog and a web site and my feelings are that if I put anything up there, people will steal anything and use it for their own use. I have copied myself from two books, one published in 1888 and another published in 1895, I don't feel that I am really stealing from these old books. In the book from 1888, I gave credit to the original author, (my ancestor) in a new book." Dan shares his experience with copyright: "When rock legend Ronnie James Dio died in 2010 I used his obituaries as a starting point for genealogical research on his ancestry, blogging about what I found at "What I have in common with Ronnie James Dio". Two people contacted me politely requesting permission to reprint the information, so in my experience people have been quite respectful of copyright. One of those people wanted to add my findings to the Hungarian Wikipedia page on Dio, increasing my reach as a blogging genealogist beyond my wildest dreams. Getting the Word out on a Genealogy Blog "I regularly listen to your podcast through iTunes and see that sometimes you feature blogs on your show. I've been meaning to write to you for quite some time now and am hoping you can let your audience know of my genealogy blog. My blog, called "No Hoof Left Behind," features a family history of the Breeding family. Our roots are specifically in the following areas: Wythe County, VA; Overton County, TN; Carroll County, AR and Tulsa, OK. Over the past two years, I have tackled genealogy from a different perspective: that of looking at my great-grandpa Hugh Breeding's trucking company. At first, I merely intended on putting together some basic facts and figures on the company and calling it a day. However, I have really gotten into the history of the company and the place it held in the trucking industry…the employee vignettes featured throughout my company research really drives home the story of the company on a more personal level as well as adding much more color to the overall history of the firm. I really like this post GEM: WDYTYA Round Up Interview with Dr. Turi King Read her bio at the University of Leicester website Read my blog on the discovery of the remains of Richard III Full interview on Premium Episode 97 Lisa's Articles: Check out my two article in the March / April 2013 issue of Family Tree Magazine The Evernote vs. Microsoft OneNote Quick Guide and The Toolkit Tutorial Using the David Rumsey Map Collection

In this episode we wrap up my 50 Fabulous Family History Favorites List On Friday I babysat my two grandsons Davy and Joey, and I put together a little game that was prompted by a listener email. You met long time listener and Premium Member Dot in Australia during our virtual Christmas Party in episode 147, and after the show aired, Dot wrote me to say how much she enjoyed it and to tell me about a little concentration game she put together for her granddaughter. When my kids were growing up we called in the Memory Game and I know some folks call it the Match Game. But no matter what you call it, it's the game where you have a set of cards that are all pairs, and you lay them upside down in rows on the table and two at a time turn them over trying to find matches. The person with the most matches wins. Dot made up cards with photos of her family members. She writes: "She opened the little box I was holding and went through the photos one by one. We put a few pairs down at a time, and as she turned them over she matched them. I included our pets as well." I wrote Dot back to let her know that MyHeritage.com had something similar. You have to sign in to your free account. In the menu you will find the MyHeritage Family Game under the Apps tab When Davy, who is three years old, arrived on Friday I got to thinking about all this, and I quickly whipped together a set of cards using photos of family members and ancestors. How to Make a Quick Memory Game: Software: Microsoft Publisher Create one rectangle outline shape the desired size of the cards Copy and paste the shape to fill up the page. (I fit 6 cards per page) Duplicate the page enough times to have enough cards for a game. (I just started with 9 pairs) Using the Insert Picture feature, fill each rectangle with a digital photo from your computer (adjust the size of the image to fit the rectangle so all the cards would be uniform.) Print them out on Glossy Photo paper Cut out the cards It was a lot of fun and a great way to incorporate family history in to daily activities. I think when we do that it makes family history more of a natural part of our kid's lives. Dot also mentioned to me that she found an app for her iPad called Match. (Update: this app appears to be discontinued. Try Match the Memory at https://matchthememory.com/ ) And the other fun things I did this weekend was watch a movie called Play the Game. My daughter Hannah told me about it and set it up in my Netflix Instant Queue when she was here over the holidays, and we finally got a chance to sit down and watch it. If you're looking for a Valentine's movie to watch with your sweetie, this is it. It is a little independent film from 2008 starring one of my all-time favorites – Andy Griffith. It's about the relationship between a young man and his grandfather, and how they coach each other through their love lives. It's funny, and sweet, and that's very refreshing. You can check it out at the movie's website called http://www.playthegamemovie.com GEM: 50 Fabulous Family History Favorites Free ChartsGenealogy charts in one form or another have been around since people started keeping track of their family history. And even with all the technology we have today, sometimes there is just no substitute for a paper chart to help you work through the complicated relationships in your family tree. My first favorite gems are in the chart category, free charts that you can use online and offline to help you keep things organized, as well as help you share your family tree with others. 26. About Genealogy http://www.genealogy.about.com/od/free_charts/ig/genealogy_charts/ View, download, save and print free family tree charts and forms including U.S. Census Extraction forms. In this collection you will find traditional family tree suitable for printing, as well as interactive charts that allow you to type in the fields online (using the free Adobe Reader program) before saving them to your computer. 27. Ancestry.com http://www.ancestry.com/trees/charts/ancchart.aspx? Deep in the Ancestry website are a diverse collection of free downloadable forms and charts. Select from Ancestry Ancestral Form, Research Calendar, Research Extract, Correspondence Record, Family Group Sheet, Source Summary, US, UK and Canadian Census forms. 28. Family Tree Magazine https://www.familytreemagazine.com/freeforms/ Offers a wide selection of free downloadable charts including a Five-Generation Ancestor Chart, Family Group Sheet, Research Calendar, and Repository Checklist. You'll also find forms for Cemetery Transcription, Immigration, Records, Oral History, Heirlooms, and census extraction forms for every US enumeration. 29. MarthaStewart.com http://www.marthastewart.com At marthastewart.com they offer an online decorative Family Tree Fan Chart template suitable for framing. In the search box on the site's home page search for "Family Tree Charts" and you'll find several lovely charts in the results list that include instructions and downloadable templates. You'll also find other "good things" including free videos and family tree display ideas. 30. FamilyChartmasters.com http://www.familychartmaster.com The Family ChartMasters chart creation tool--Family ChArtist-- is a great way to make a decorative 8.5x11 chart suitable for scrapbooking, framing or other craft projects. Enter your information manually or via gedcom and choose one of the simple pedigree chart designs. You can edit your information and then choose from hundreds of borders, background and embellishments or even use your own pictures in your chart. Movies You can tell by the way I opened this show that I love a good movie, and I particularly love movies with family history themes and stories of immigration. This next group of favorites is what I consider to be some of the best: 31. Full of Life "Writer Nick and his wife Emily are expecting their first child. When a necessary home repair proves too costly to afford, Nick must swallow his pride and visit his father, a proud immigrant stonemason with whom he has a difficult relationship, and ask him to do the work. Confronting the issues of religious and family tradition which have separated father and son causes Nick and Emily to reevaluate their lives and the things they value most." Starring the incredible Judy Holliday who you'll remember from the original version of the movie Born Yesterday, and Richard Conte 32. Sweet Land Episode 30 The Movie website: http://www.sweetlandmovie.com/ When Lars Torvik's grandmother Inge dies in 2004, he is faced with a decision – sell the family farm on which she lived since 1920, or cling to the legacy of the land. Seeking advice, he turns to the memory of Inge and the stories that she had passed on to him. The movie is based on Will Weaver's short story A Gravestone Made of Wheat and shot on location in Southern Minnesota. 33. The Emigrants Starring Max Von Sydow. In episode 24 I mentioned the book which was made into a movie. Episode 24 (Swedish: Utvandrarna) "The Emigrants" is a 1971 Swedish film directed by Jan Troell. It tells the story of a Swedish group who emigrate from Småland, Sweden to Minnesota in the 19th century. The film follows the hardship of the group in Sweden and on the trip. The film is based on the first two novels of The Emigrants suite by Vilhelm Moberg: The Emigrants and Unto a Good Land." 34. America, America (British title The Anatolian Smile) A 1963 American dramatic film directed, produced and written by Elia Kazan, from his own book. In this tale, loosely based upon the life of Kazan's uncle. Turner Classic Movies has started showing it occasionally, so check their schedule. Conferences and Events One question I get asked a lot is about conferences. Most folks don't have the time or money to attend them all, and I often get asked, if I could go to just one which would it be? Well, first and foremost it's the one that has the kind of classes you are looking for for your particular research, but I do have some overall opinions on conferences that I think you really can't go wrong with. 35. SCGS Jamboree 36. FamilySearch's RootsTech 37. Mesa Family History Expo 38. WDYTYA Live in London (Update: This conference has been discontinued) 39. Alberta Genealogical Society Conference Stuff for Kids Every day that we invest in genealogy research it becomes even more important that we capture the interest of the next generation in family history. If we don't, it could all be lost and for nothing. This next group of faves are tools you can use to accomplish this important task. 40. Disney's The Tigger Movie 41. Family Tree Magazine Kids 42. Zap the Grandma Gap 43. My Boards on Pinterest My Favorite Episodes 44. The Forensic Linguist Dr. Robert Leonard Episode 89 Episode 90 45. My interview with Venice Episode 38 46. Interview with Lisa Kudrow Episode 81 47. Chris Haley sings Episode 91 48. Steve Luxenberg Episode 120 and Episode 121 49. Interview with Gena Ortega Episode 137 and Episode 138 50. Heritage Quilts Episode 39

Genealogy Gems Podcast Episode 150 In celebration of this 150th episode and my 50th birthday, I bring you: A Birthday from Long Ago 50 Fabulous Family History Favorites Websites: 1. Familysearch.orghttp://www.familysearch.orgThey are the leaders in free online records. While it’s tempting to just start typing in ancestors name for searches and hoping for the best, a strategic genealogist determines what type of record they want to find for a question about their ancestor, and then uses the catalogue to determine if FamilySearch has those records. Catalogue is one of the links above the search box, and while it doesn’t stand out, that link is really the key to understanding what familysearch has to offer. Click it and try out all the variations of searches from place names to keywords. 2. Ancestry.com They are the big daddy of the subscription genealogy record sites, and of course in addition to records you can build your family tree on the site. One of the questions folks usually get around to at some point is how to delete and merge data in their Ancestry family trees, and I recently posted a video by Ancestry’s Krista Cowan that explain exactly how to do it. 3. Library of congress American memoryhttp://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html I’ve discussed this gold mine of public domain free ephemera several times on the show including episode 31. and of course in Episode 54 I explained how I used the American memory website to locate the original sheet music for one of the songs in the Name that Tune segment. 4. US Bureau of Land Managementhttp://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en.htmlIf you are looking for U.S. Homestead records then this is the site for you. And if you haven’t been there in a while you’ve got to check it out because they’ve upgraded the site and added loads of new content in including original Field Notes. 5. Google bookshttp://books.google.com Premium Episode 91 – Paper, Ink and Books. One of the gems I tell my students in my Google classes is that even if they have no other interest in Google Books, go there and do a search on Ancestry Magazine, because although the magazine is no longer published, all ten years of issues are digitized, online and searchable at Google Books. Now that’s a gem! 6. Google.com How could I not include Google.com as a favorite website. I wrote an entire book about it for goodness sake. A piece of noteworthy news: have you noticed the changes to Google Image search lately? I’ll be highlighting those in an upcoming episode. 7. Stanford University’s Data Visualization Mapping Journalism’s Journey West http://west.stanford.edu/news/newspaper_visualization You can see examples of it in action at my youtube channel in the newspaper Research playlist. And I give you everything you need to know about it in my book How to Find Your Family History In Newspapers 8. The Atlas of Historical County Boundaries Published by the Newberry Library, it is a genealogist’s answer to changing county boundaries over the years. http://publications.newberry.org/ahcbp/project.html Video in Premium Episode 70 9. FamilySearch’s Research Wikihttps://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Main_Page OK if you’re not using this you are just plain old working too hard! This site is where all the greatest research minds at the Family History Library come together just to help you find your family history. I particularly turn to the Research Wiki when researching internationally as they have some fabulous international consultants who outline what you need to know get started, all the way to the depths of the most obscure records that are available. 10. Davidrumsey.comhttp://www.davidrumsey.com Genealogy is all about location, location, location, and that means that historic maps are vital to your research. David Rumsey is a cartographer here in the San Francisco Bay Area who has spent his entire life collecting over 150,000 historic maps from around the world. And over 30,000 of them have been digitized and made available online through his website. Here’s a tip: be sure to sign up for a free account to his website so that the highest resolution maps will be available to you to download. And don’t just stop with downloading the map, import your maps into Google Earth so that you can view areas today and in the past. My Google Earth for Genealogy video series shows you have to do it step by step and it’s incredible what a difference it can make to you research. I’ll have a quick little video in the show notes for you so you can see a preview of it and the other techniques I teach on the video series. YOUTUBE CHANNELS: Another fabulous gem out there is YouTube. Did you ever think that YouTube would be a fabulous genealogy gem? Well, it really is, and video is the fastest growing segment online and it’s not just cute cat videos and stupid pranks. There’s a ton of great genealogical related content, and I want to share some great family history channels to get you started 11. USNational Archives YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/user/usnationalarchivesYou’ll find hundreds of videos, and of course not every one of them would be applicable to genealogy, so I recommend you click the Browse Videos link under the banner at the top and then click Playlists. This will sort the videos into topics. And of course, as with all YouTube channels you can search by keyword in the channel’s search box in the upper right corner. Since Google owns YouTube, you can use all the Google tricks I’ve taught you over the years and in my book The Genealogist’s Google Toolbox to find exactly what you are looking for. I particularly love the 1940 census playlist and the one called Tracing WWII 12. AncestryCom https://www.youtube.com/user/AncestryCom Here again you will find an amazing number instructional videos and the great thing about Ancestry’s channel is that they give you a list of all the playlists right on the channel’s home page so you find all the videos for a particular topic you are looking for. If you are a paid subscriber to Ancestry, this channel is really key to getting the most out of the website. 13. FamilySearch Channelhttp://www.youtube.com/familysearch FamilySearch offers over 70 videos, and is a particularly worthwhile channel for folks who are new to family history research. But let me tell you, if you need a bit of inspiration, or just a feel good moment, don’t miss their new video called A Survivor’s Pearl Harbor Experience. I will have it in the show notes for you. It is one of my favorite videos. 14. UniversalNewsReels http://www.youtube.com/user/UniversalNewsreels?feature=watch With over 600 videos you are almost guaranteed to find something on any world even topic. According to the channel’s description: “In the pre-TV era, people saw the news every week in their neighborhood movie theaters. Newsreels were shown before every feature film and in dedicated newsreel theaters located in large cities. Universal Newsreel, produced from 1929 to 1967, was released twice a week. Each issue contained six or seven short stories, usually one to two minutes in length, covering world events, politics, sports, fashion, and whatever else might entertain the movie audience. These newsreels offer a fascinating and unique view of an era when motion pictures defined our culture and were a primary source of visual news reporting.” I fully admit that one of my favorites in the bunch is Much Ado About Hairdos filmed right here in the San Francisco Bay area in the early 1950s. I think I might give that Leopard hairstyle a try. 15. Library of Congress channel http://www.youtube.com/user/libraryofcongress1218 videos. Use the Playlists! You’ll find Timeless treasures and contemporary presentations from the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. at the Library of Congress Channel. The Library is the steward of millions of recordings dating from the earliest Edison films to modern day presentations held at the Library. Again look to the playlists link to help you sort through the videos. Some gems of note are the Spanish-American War playlist of videos, and America at Work, America at Leisure playlist which is an incredible collection of 150 films. Here’s a description of that playlist from the channel: “Highlights include films of the United States Postal Service from 1903, cattle breeding, fire fighters, ice manufacturing, logging, gymnastic exercises in schools, amusement parks, boxing, expositions, football, parades, swimming, and other sporting events. The majority of the films presented here are from the Paper Print Collection, while the remainder are from the George Kleine Collection, both residing in the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division (M/B/RS) of the Library of Congress. Both of these collections have printed catalogs available in the Motion Picture and Television Reading Room at the Library. The films were selected from these two collections on the basis of the activities pictured in the films and the quality of the available prints. As many different types of work, school, and leisure activities as could be found were sought in order to show the broadest possible representation of activities at the turn of the century. The selection is limited, however, by what is available from these collections; not every possible occupation or leisure activity from the turn of the century is represented. The films in the Paper Print Collection were deposited for copyright from 1894 to 1912 as positive pictures on paper. Many were deposited in this manner on paper rolls frame by frame. For preservation and access purposes, the Library of Congress has made 16mm prints of these Paper Print titles, and has more recently been making 35mm prints of selected titles.” This collection is a wonderful way to revisit how folks spent their time in the early part of the 20th century. 16. Depression Era Cooking with Clarahttp://www.youtube.com/user/DepressionCookingClara Cannucciari is 96 year old cook, author great grandmother and YouTube star. In these fabulous videos Clara recounts her childhood during the Great Depression as she prepares meals from the era. You’ll learn how to make simple yet delicious dishes while listening to stories from the Great Depression. If you love these videos as I do, you’ll love Clara's book: "Clara's Kitchen: Wisdom, Memories, and Recipes from the Great Depression" and I’ll have a link to that in the show notes. 17. Mike O’Laughlin Channel http://www.youtube.com/user/MickthebridgeIf you have Irish roots this is a must see channel. Mike is an author of Irish Books, a producer of the Irish Roots Café Podcasts, and a lover of Irish folk Songs. And he’s been at all this since 1978. You’ll find over 25 videos including some really wonderful old Irish songs sung by Mike himself overlaying some captivating imagery. MOBILE APPS: 18. Flipboard http://www.flipboard.com Download the free app, sign up for your free account, and then load Flipboard up with RSS feeds for all your favorite genealogy blogs, podcasts, and video channels. You will end up with a gorgeous color “glossy magazine-like” layout that you can easily flip through and enjoy.in iTunesIn Google Play 19. Dropboxhttp://www.dropbox.comsign up for a free account and then download dropbox to your computers and mobile devices. You will then have seamless file sharing and synchronization, as well as the added benefit of having your files backed up on the Cloud.In iTunesIn Google Play 20. Pinteresthttp://www.pinterest.comThink of Pinterest as a fun online bulletin board that makes it easy to store and share the gems you find on the Web. Check me out on Pinterest and follow my family history boards: http://pinterest.com/lisalouisecooke/In TunesIn Google Play 21. Evernotehttp://www.evernote.comEvernote can help the genealogist remember everything! Sign up for a free account, download the desktop client to your computer, and then get the free apps for your mobile devices and you’ll be all set to start taking notes of every kind. Notes are automatically synchronized so you are never caught working on an old version. Genealogy Gems Premium Members can watch the video of my full length Evernote for Genealogy class.In iTunes In Google Play 22. RootsMagicHot off the press, this long awaited free app allows you to take your entire genealogy database with you! Check out the free recorded video webinar called RootsMagic for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch at http://www.rootsmagic.com/Webinars/ In iTunes 23. CycloramicShell out 99 cents and you’ll have an app that will spin your iPhone around in a circle taking glorious panoramic videos and photographs. Just set your iPhone on Vibrate, set it on a flat smooth surface and watch it spin.In iTunes 24. Best Phone SecurityThis free iPhone app is produced by RV AppStudios LLC. According to the app’s description “It senses when it's been touched or moved. Then, a loud alarm starts blaring and a bright red light flashes, making the joke on the thief! To stop the alarm you have to enter your security PIN. Use alarm on your iPhone/iPod/iPad when in public or also to catch those sneaky friends and family who try to peek into your iPhone when you're away. What really happens when you're in the shower, sleeping, or just away from your device. Use this high quality app to trigger an alarm.” This could come in very handy when you are researching at libraries!In iTunesIn Google Play 25. PocketboothBy Project Box, 99 centsSnap old time photo booth film strips with your family and friends. A fantastic activity for Family Reunions!In iTunesIn Google Play Stay tuned for the next episode where we wrap up with the second half of the list!

Genealogy Gems Podcast Episode: # 07 Original Publish Date: April 8, 2007 The April 15 tax deadline is looming: did you know that The Civil War income tax was the first tax paid on individual incomes by residents of the United States? There is a fascinating article by Cynthia G. Fox on the subject called Income Tax Records of the Civil War Years. It appears on the National Archives website and is excerpted from the Prologue Magazine Winter 1986 edition, Vol. 18, No. 4. GEM #1: Anna-Karin's Genealogical Podcast http://annakarin.libsyn.com/ Anna-Karin Schander lives in Sweden and she publishing a podcast in English about Swedish-American genealogy. It will contain both information about Swedish genealogy and history and records and what happened to the Swedes who immigrated mainly to USA (but also to other countries) and the records they left. She includes wonderful old traditional Swedish music as well. GEM #2 – A website dedicated to the only war fought on American soil by Americans: The Civil War SONG: Battle of Manassas Gov. Sam Houston-Texas: "Let me tell you what is coming. After the sacrifice of countless millions of treasure and hundreds of thousands of lives you may win Southern independence, but I doubt it. The North is determined to preserve this Union. They are not a fiery, impulsive people as you are, for they live in colder climates. But when they begin to move in a given direction, they move with the steady momentum and perseverance of a mighty avalanche." The Civil War began at Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina 146 years ago this week on April 12. 3 million fought - 600,000 died. Chances are someone in your family tree fought in the war. But one thing we know for sure, if you've traced any of your family lines back to the 1860s in the US, then you have folks in your tree who lived through and were deeply affected by the Civil War. We're going to want to learn more about their experience in order to understand their lives. This will lead us to more genealogical leads. Read about the Civil War in the newspapers that your ancestors read. In addition to the newspapers available by paid subscription on Ancestry.com, there's a terrific free resource! Go to http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/subjects/c/civil_war_us/index.html Click on The Civil War Years 1860-1866 Follow the links to topics of interest. Locate ancestors who may have fought in the war. A terrific website is the Civil War Soldiers & Sailors System Website Areas of the System: Soldiers The CWSS includes 6.3 million soldier names from the National Archives, which were compiled by NPS' in the CWSS project. As of February, 2000, volunteers in over 36 states had completed the data entry of all the 6.3 million soldier names from 44 states & territories. The two final editing processes for the records have recently been completed. Sailors The NPS and its' CWSS partners are committed to eventually include the names of all Union and Confederate Naval personnel. Given that the records sources for the Navy are not as well organized as the Army records, nor are they micro-filmed, the target date for this is still to be determined. Regiments The CWSS will include histories of over 4,000 Union and Confederate units (regiments), which will be linked to soldiers' names and battle histories. These will be completed this year as part of the CWSS site. The site currently includes regimental histories of units from 44 states and territories. Battles In the CWSS The unit histories are linked to histories of the 364 most significant Civil War battles already on the Internet from the NPS' American Battlefield Protection Program. These battle histories were compiled as part of a report to Congress by the Civil War Sites Advisory Committee. Prisoners The current version of the CWSS includes prisoner records of Union prisoners at Andersonville and Confederate prisoners at Fort McHenry. Cemeteries The National Park Service manages 14 National Cemeteries, all but one of which is related to a Civil War battlefield park. The NPS is planning on listing all names of burials in these cemeteries on the Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System. The first phase involves data taken from written records of Poplar Grove National Cemetery at Petersburg National Battlefield, and also includes images of the headstones. Medal of Honor This feature of the CWSS includes information on over 1,200 Civil War soldiers and sailors who received the Congressional Medal of Honor. And National Parks Featured areas of the site: NEW STORIES - The National Park Service Civil War Institute – Stories of the Civil War addresses the social, economic, political & military aspects of the war. EDUCATE – for teachers providing civil war curriculum materials from national parks & lesson plans on building a family history. BLACK HISTORY - Looking for more on the civil war on the internet? Check out the Military Indexes website and follow the links to a wide range of web resources. http://www.militaryindexes.com/civilwar/ Genealogy Gems Podcast Episode: # 08 Original Publish Date: April 15, 2007 It's Tax Day – Check out your ancestor's tax records using the links at http://www.cyndislist.com/taxes.htm GEM #1: Great San Francisco Earthquake Song: "Hello, Frisco!" By Harvey Hindermeyer, a 1915 wax cylinder recording by The Edison Co. 101 years ago, on April 18, 1906 at 5:13 am an earthquake nearly 8.0 on the Richter Scale hit San Francisco. A slip in the San Andreas Fault caused Shock waves up and down the Pacific Coast. Hundreds Died. Fires did the most damage. My Great Grandma was 7 months pregnant with my maternal grandfather when the quake struck. They were living at on Kentucky St., in the city at that time, and I can't imagine what she must have gone through. In 1906 my Great grandpa worked as a motorman on a cable car. Shortly after the earthquake he went into a very sensible new career – Life Insurance Salesman! A great place to start learning more about this moment in American History is at the USGS website Next stop…The Virtual Museum of the city of SF April 18-23 Earthquake Timeline Earthquake Newspaper Clippings Eyewitness Accounts "Who Perished"; List of Dead from the 1906 Earthquake San Francisco Fire Department Report U.S. Army & Navy Operations During the Earthquake and Fire Engineering and Scientific Reports Relief and Recovery Efforts San Francisco One Year Later Photographs of the 1906 Disaster Audio: When I did a search in Google for San Francisco Earthquake Audio I found "Remembering the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake" an audio recording by National Public Radio. The website not only allows you to listen to the original broadcast, but offers a truly multimedia presentation including a timeline, photos, and videos Book Resource: Earth Shook, the Sky Burned, the ; 100th Anniversary Edition: A Photographic Record of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire But how were genealogy records impacted by this catastrophic event?" The San Francisco 1906 Earthquake Great Register. Led by Gladys Hansen, San Francisco City Archivist Emeritus and her team. Video of Gladys talking about the project: On the website, Gladys Hansen states the following "Because of government and financial interests of the time, the official San Francisco death toll has always been extolled as remarkably small. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors official count in 1907 was only 478. It was thought that a high death toll would hamper the rebuilding and repopulation of the city." Originally Gladys focused on the 1906 Earthquake Dead using the death dates between April 18, 1906 - May 19, 1906. However with the Governor's Earthquake Task Force now defines an earthquake death as "… an immediate fatality resulting from an earthquake or an earthquake-caused injury or illness that becomes fatal within a period of ONE YEAR following the earthquake." This dramatically broadens the scope of the research. Gladys and her team are now embarking on an effort to compile an accurate account of those affected by the 1906 earthquake. This time they are looking for information on everyone who was in San Francisco at that time, not just those who died. They consider all stories. Book Resource by Gladys Hansen Denial of Disaster: The Untold Story and Photographs of the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 GEM #2 Shake Up Your Research Strategy Step 1: Locate the event on a Timeline. History.com – This Day in History Step 2: Internet Searches Google (For Alerts see Episode 3) Google Images Ancestry EBay (see Episode 3) State Historical Society State Archives Census – Find neighbors and do a quick Google & Ancestry search on them. YouTube.com (see Episode 4 for more info on using YouTube) Lisa's playlist on YouTube.

Welcome to the first episode of 2013, and there is certainly a lot already going on this year, and this episode is packed with genealogy news, your emails and of course gems tucked in along the way. NEWS: One of the longest running and best known websites is Cyndislist at cyndislist.com. The website is run by Cyndi Howells, and for over 16 years she has meticulously catalogued all of the websites that are devoted to genealogy. Anyone can go to cyndislist.com for free and follow the topic links to find online resources on just about any area of genealogy. Back on Nov 1, 2012 Cyndi posted an article on Facebook describing how she had discovered that another website had copied her entire website – not just a few links, but the entire website, and made it available on their website. According to Justia.com, a site that makes available public information on Dockets and lawsuit filings Cyndi's List and Cynthia Howells has formally filed a law suit against the alleged content snatching website. But the real shocker, the website in question isn't some random spam website, but rather one that was launched in 2012 by an established genealogist, Barry Ewell. The site is called MyGenShare and in addition to free content Barry offers paid membership for access to all the content. Because there is an active lawsuit the folks involved can't really talk about it, so we don't have much more information. But we will keep you informed as we learn more, and I would be interested in to know what you think. RootsMagic App for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Now Available The good news is that the free app for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch has now officially been launched and is available in the iTunes app store. According to Michael Booth, Vice-President of RootsMagic, a version of the app for Android devices will be available in the near future. While the app does not give you full functionality of the RootsMagic software, it does put your family tree information at your fingertips, and provides a lot of useful features including: Access your actual RootsMagic files via iTunes or Dropbox Easily search and explore your family tree View pictures, notes, and sources Browse lists of your information and view more information about sources, to-do items, research logs, media, addresses, repositories, correspondences, and places. Useful tools including a perpetual calendar, date calculator, relationship calculator, and Soundex calculator. RootsMagic for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch is free and now available in the Apple App Store. It does require the RootsMagic desktop family tree software or the free RootsMagic Essentials software to create, edit, or add to your genealogy files. More information is available at http://www.rootsmagic.com/ios. The Southern California Genealogical Society's popular Jamboree Extension Webinar Series. If you are looking to brush up on genealogy research or learn some new skills from the comfort of your own home, than these webinars are for you Jamboree Extension Series webinars are conducted the first Saturday and third Wednesday of each month. Saturday sessions will be held at 10am Pacific time / 1pm Eastern time. Wednesday sessions will be scheduled at 6pm Pacific time / 9pm Eastern time. For information and to register for the 2013 sessions, check out the SCGS website. Coming up in the next few months: Wednesday, January 16 - 6pm Pacific time / 9pm Eastern time. Linda Geiger Woodward, CG, CGL Documentation: Never Having to Ask, 'Where Did That Come From?' Saturday, February 2 - 10am Pacific time / 1pm Eastern time. Eric Basir Digital Organization for Documents and Photos Wednesday, February 20 - 6pm Pacific time / 9pm Eastern time. Michael John Neill No Will? No Problem Saturday, March 2 - 10am Pacific time / 1pm Eastern time Lisa Louise Cooke Time Travel with Google Earth Two National Conferences Merge Creating Larger Family History Event FamilySearch Adds New Records: Canada, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, and U.S. 40 Million New Genealogy Records To Help You Locate Your Family History 30 Years Ago Today: The Event That Changed Your Life Forever MAILBOX: Leanore wrote in to say "I listened to your virtual Christmas party where you asked each person what they were doing genealogically for Christmas. Though I've done several fun things over the years, this year I didn't do anything (except host the whole group for Christmas.) But, one of our daughters created a very special book of our family's past Christmases. We lived overseas for many years so each country has its own couple of pages with photos of our holiday celebrations there. What a "trip" and a wonderful gift!" And Jean wrote in to say: "I enjoyed listening to everyone you talked to during your virtual trip around the world. However, I must say what I enjoyed most was listening to Davey as he explored your home and the Christmas decorations. I loved listening to the young voice so filled with excitement and enthusiasm for everything he found!" Cindy has a Question about Place Names: "I'm trying to clean up my place names in my database and I came across some that are before a state became a state and even some before we were even a country. I have an ancestor who died in 1704 and my tree reads: Worcester, Massachusetts, USA. OR, Should I be naming places for what they are now? I think it should be the name that the place was at the time of the event, but I seem to be the only one." Lisa's Answer: There are arguments on both sides. A quick Google search served up several writings on the subject in support of both using the modern location, and using the location at the time of the event. I'll have links in those in the show notes for you. Modern location article At the time of the event article Personally, I use the location name at the time of the event. Many times I have to do a lot of work to determine the name of a location at the time of the event (like a German village that now is technically Poland), and it would be easy to lose track of that. And besides, when I am looking for the records, I typically need to look under the village name. Another consideration is that place names continue to change. So if you use "modern day" names, they are only as accurate as the date you entered them. To play it safe, I often include the modern day name in parenthesis so that I have everything I need just in case. Most important: being consistent and doing what works well for you. I got an email from two brand New Genealogy Bloggers: The first is Vickie Long and she says: "I have been listening to your podcasts for months – and I'm almost caught up to the current one. Tonight I took the plunge and with the help of my dear husband I started a genealogy blog – TurnTheHearts.weebly.com. Thanks for your encouragement." Or use the URL Address: http://turnthehearts.weebly.com/turnthehearts.html and Jackie in Australia also has a new blog: "Am very excited to continue learning and adding to my Blog - you have inspired me to do this and I am having lots of fun - some of my family are keen for me to keep doing this! My blogspot is only a baby at the moment - I'll give you the address - but please remember it's only just been conceived!" raymonddodd.blogspot.com Congratulations to you both for putting your family history out there and I wish you great success and hopefully even a few new cousin connections! QUICK GEMS: 5 Reasons You Need the New YouTube App for Family History How the Census will Change in the Future The Wild West of Sound Today and in the 19th Century Search Tips for Finding Tricky Names and Spellings in Ancestry.com and Google CLOSING: The Google Earth for Genealogy class video is now available to view for free on the Genealogy Gems website.

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

In this episode we discuss the latest genealogy news, one listener's fabulous use of Google Alerts, and Maureen Taylor's new history film project. NEWS: Google Earth 7Google as just released Google Earth version 7. Google Earth is an amazing tool for genealogy so new enhancements are always welcome! This new version enables you to explore a number of cities around the world in 3D, from Long Beach, California, to Rome, Italy. The 3D imagery uses the enhanced modeling capabilities, previously found on only mobile devices. In my video CD Google Earth for Genealogy Volume II I go into detail about 3D models and even give you resources for how you can get your own 3D models of everything from your house, to your ancestor's home. Download the new Google Earth 7 and get even more 3D imagery. You'll find comprehensive and accurate tours of more than 11,000 popular sites around the world, including our growing list of cities where new 3D imagery is available. A big change with this new version is the tour guide feature which serves as sort of a virtual local expert that suggests places nearby that you might want to explore and providing you with background information on the location. You'll find the tour guide along the bottom of the screen, and it looks like sort of a film strip of thumbnail images representing various tours that are available. These change based on where you are on the Google Earth globe. List of updated Google Earth imagery What's new in RootsMagic 6 VideoAnd there a favorite genealogy program that just got a new fresh update. RootsMagic 6 is now available, and you can see what's new in the newest version of the genealogy database program in a brand new video they've published on their website at http://www.rootsmagic.com/webinars/ In the video you will see new features in action such as: Online Publishing Find Everywhere feature Live Timeline View WebTags CountyCheck Explorer If you are a current paid user of RootsMagic, you can upgrade for just $19.95. New users may purchase RootsMagic 6 for only $29.95. Order online at http://rootsmagic.com/RootsMagic/ Special Holiday Offer Now through Dec. 20, 2012 Order gift copies of RootsMagic 6 for just $19.95 (plus shipping). You can also order other RootsMagic products at that same $19.95 price. Order the special holiday at http://www.rootsmagic.com/holidayoffer or order by phone at 1-800-ROOTSMAGIC (1-800-766-8762). The next item here is that the Family Tree Service coming soon to FamilySearch.orgAccording to a FamilySearch press release, "Within the next few months, FamilySearch will make Family Tree available to everyone on its website. The first of many updates planned for FamilySearch.org, Family Tree will provide a free and engaging way to discover, preserve, and share your family history. Family Tree will also offer specialized tools to make temple work for your ancestors even easier and more convenient. Watch an Introduction to Family Tree that shows 7 reasons to be excited about Family Tree. Family Tree will enable you to: Save family information into a genealogy tree Edit and delete incorrect data, including relationships Connect and collaborate with others on shared family lines Show where information came from Link to online photos and documents If you have questions about what Family Tree will be like or how it will work, you can log in to a special training website that offers online courses, how-to videos, informational handouts, and step-by-step training. Get started with Family Tree today by watching the introductory video or reading about it on the training website. Family Tree will be open to everyone in the next few months. Ireland - National Archives launches new websiteThe National Archives of Ireland has launched a new genealogy website at http://www.genealogy.nationalarchives.ie/ which will initially host the 1901 and 1911 Censuses, Tithe Apportionment records from 1823-37, and Soldiers' Wills from 1914-17. New at ScotlandsPeople Scottish wills and testaments from 1902-25 now online at the ScotlandsPeople at http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/ Millions of Old Newspaper pages added to FindMyPastfindmypast.com has just published millions of pages of historical newspapers from not only England, but also across Wales and Scotland as well. This collection contains local newspapers for the period 1710-1950. More than 200 titles are included. Go to http://www.findmypast.co.uk/search/newspapers Ancestry.com launches newspapers.com On November 29, 2012 Ancestry.com Inc., announced the launch of Newspapers.com, a web site designed to offer a collection of more than 800 U.S. newspapers dating from the late 1700s into the early 2000s. Comprising more than 25 million pages, Newspapers.com offers a historical and present-day newspapers ranging from the New York Times to small town and local newspapers throughout the United States. According to Ancestry's press release "The search capabilities on Newspapers.com are specifically designed for newspapers enabling users to easily search by keywords, location, time period and newspaper name." The yearly subscription rate is $79.95 for subscribers and $39.95 for Ancestry.com or Fold3.com members. Newspapers.com also offers a 7-day free trial that can be activated at www.newspapers.com. Ancestry has launched a new Community Support site at Ancestry.comYou can access Community Support by clicking on "Get Help" at the top of the Ancestry.com homepage. Once on Online Help, you will see a button for "Ask the Community" on the right hand side. That link will take you directly to Ancestry's new Support Communities. MyHeritage Buys Geni.comMyHeritage have just bought our long-term rival Geni.com - and also raised $25million in new funds. As a larger community, the users of MyHeritage and Geni.com will now receive matches with the other website family trees, and MyHeritage's Record Matching, will benefit Geni's users, who will get access to historical records never available before on Geni.com. MAILBOX: Jessica has a new blog and a question about photo storage: "…after about the 10th podcast in a row where you encouraged us to start our own blog, I finally got the message. I started my very own "geneablog" a couple of weeks ago. I only have three posts so far, but I'm pretty proud of it. Please check it out and let me know what you think. I'd love you to let your listeners know too, because that would be even more feedback! I am writing my blog from the perspective of my relentless quest to better understand the life of one particular ancestor of mine, William Park. I call it "Knowing William" and it writing it really makes me happy." Visit her blog at http://williamparkfamilyhistory.blogspot.com/ "I recently listened to episode 119 where you talked to Michael Katchen from 1000memories. I went to the site, signed up, and uploaded pics to my first shoe box. In the interview I remember words like "social networking", "memorials", and "genealogy". I am confused. All I saw on the site was my shoe boxes and some not-very-informative FAQs. I know it has been a while, but have they changed the whole premise of the website in less than a year?" Lisa's Answer: Congrats on your new blog! Remember posts can be short and sweet, and pack them with searchable keywords so other researchers can find you in Google Search. RE: 1000Memories. They have indeed changed up the website since the interview. I agree with you, it seems watered down now, and not as obvious as to how to make the most of it. They seem to be focused on "simplicity." Barbara Shares A New Use for Google Alerts"My Great Grandfather, Edmund Charles Clark, was a builder in Bendigo, and many of his houses still stand in Wattle Street Bendigo today. I spent a lovely day photographing them, but I cannot go up and knock on all the doors however! So I have a cute way of finding out just what those houses look like today especially on the inside. I have an alert in Google for "Wattle Street, Bendigo" and it works a treat. Every so often one of the homes goes up for sale or rent, and one of the real estate websites has pictures of both inside and outside. These come up on my search and I get to see inside the homes that are still standing. One is up for rent at present and here are the pictures from Realestate.com.au of 172 Wattle Street. Isn't it lovely? It is still much in original condition. The Google alert function is really useful for genealogy, and I first found out about it from Genealogy Gems – so thank you very much for the gem." GEM: Maureen Taylor's new gig – bringing revolutionary war history to filmPamela Pacelli Cooper, President, Verissima Productions Maureen Taylor, Author of The Last Muster Revolutionary Voices: A Last Muster Film, Directed by Maureen Taylor with Verissima Productions New Gem for Premium Members! Sign in to your Membership and go to Premium Videos to view the brand new video Genealogy on the Go with the iPad (and tablets too!) The iPad is built for hitting the road and is ideally suited for family history due to its' sleek lightweight size, gorgeous graphics and myriad of apps and tools. In this class I will teach you "the tablet mindset", the best apps for the tasks that genealogists want to accomplish, and my Top 10 list of iPad Tips and Tricks. By the end of class you will be able to turn your iPad into a family history powerhouse! Become a Premium Member Here

In this episode I've got another blast from the past for you. We have reached deep into the podcast archive and retrieved episodes 5 and 6. In Episode 5 we touch on using the video website YouTube for genealogy, and then I walk you through how to Bring Sites Back From the Dead with Google. Then we wrap things up with a cool little way to Spice Up Your Genealogy Database. In episode 6 I have a gem for you called Cast a Shadow on Your Ancestors, and we cover the free genealogy website US GenWeb Episode: # 05 Original Publish Date: March 25, 2007 MAILBOX Email this week from Mike O'Laughlin of the Irish Roots Cafe: "Congratulations on your podcast! I am sure it will help many folks out there. I was glad to see the fine Irish families of Scully and Lynch on your latest show notes!" GEM: You Tube Follow Up Note: The Genealogy Tech Podcast is no longer published or available. YouTube in the news – the concern was raised by Viacom this month about YouTube benefiting from their programming without compensating them, which could mean copyright infringement. While the course of YouTube could change depending on the outcome of this suit, the attraction for family historians remains strong because of the nature of the content. Software mentioned: Pinnacle. Final Cut for MAC. Limits with Movie Maker I posted 2 videos – A Nurse In Training Part 1 & 2 Genealogy Gems YouTube Channel Click the Subscribe button to receive notification of new videos GEM: Bring Sites Back From the Dead with Google When you get a "File Not Found" error when clicking on a link, it doesn't mean the information is always gone forever. You may be able to find it in the Cache version. Google takes a snapshot of each page it examines and caches (stores) that version as a back-up. It's what Google uses to judge if a page is a good match for your query. In the case of a website that no longer exists, the cache copy us a snapshot of the website when it was still active hidden away or cached. Practically every search result includes a Cached link. Clicking on that link takes you to the Google cached version of that web page, instead of the current version of the page. This is useful if the original page is unavailable because of: 1. Internet congestion 2. A down, overloaded, or just slow website - Since Google's servers are typically faster than many web servers, you can often access a page's cached version faster than the page itself. 3. The owner's recently removing the page from the Web Sometimes you can even access the cached version from a site that otherwise require registration or a subscription. If Google returns a link to a page that appears to have little to do with your query, or if you can't find the information you're seeking on the current version of the page, take a look at the cached version. Hit the Back button and look for a link to a "cached" copy at the end of the URL at the end of the search result. Clicking on the "cached" link should bring up a copy of the page as it appeared at the time that Google indexed that page, with your search terms highlighted in yellow. If you don't see a cached link, it may have been omitted because the owners of the site have requested that Google remove the cached version or not cache their content. Also, any sites Google hasn't indexed won't have a cache version. Limit: If the original page contains more than 101 kilobytes of text, the cached version of the page will consist of the first 101 Kbytes (120 Kbytes for pdf files). Really looking for an oldie but a goody? Try the Wayback Machine It allows you to browse through 85 billion web pages archived from 1996 to a few months ago. To start surfing the Wayback, type in the web address of a site or page where you would like to start, and press enter. Then select from the archived dates available. The resulting pages point to other archived pages at as close a date as possible. Keyword searching is not currently supported. GEM: Spice up your database Search Google Images, then Right click and save to your hard drive. Use Silhouettes Find something that represents what you do know about that person. It really does help you see them more as a person and less as an entry in your database – their occupation, a reader, a sport, etc. Episode: # 06 Original Publish Date: April 1, 2007 You can learn more about Jewish roots at the 350 Years of American Jewish History website JewishGen, The Home of Jewish Genealogy GEM: Cast a Shadow on Your Ancestors In the episode #5 I shared a little gem that would spice up your genealogical database – adding silhouettes and artistic images to the file of an ancestor when you don't have a photograph. Probably the most famous silhouette these days are the silhouettes used by Apple for advertising the iPod digital music and audio player. It may surprise your teenager or grandchild to learn that the first silhouettes were done hundreds of years ago. Back then silhouettes (or shades as they were called), they paintings or drawings of a person's shadow. They were popular amongst English royalty and the art form quickly spread to Europe. A silhouette can also be cut from black paper, and was a simple alternative for people who could not afford other forms of portraiture, which, in the eighteenth century, was still an expensive proposition. The word took its name from Étienne de Silhouette, but it's uncertain as to whether his name was attributed because he enjoyed this art form, or as the story goes because the victims of his taxes complained that they were reduced to mere shadows. Either way, the popularity of Silhouettes hit new heights in the United States where they were seen in magazines, brochures and other printed material. But they faded from popularity as Photographs took over in the 1900s. As a follow up, I want to share with you a simple technique for creating your own silhouettes. You can use ordinary snapshots to create a visual family record. Take a photo of a person in profile against a neutral background. Blanket the photo background with white acrylic or tempera paint Fill in the image with a heavy black permanent marker, curing the shoulders down for a classical pose. Add fun details like cowlicks, eyelashes, hats, and jewelry that express the person's personality with a fine felt-tip pen. Photocopy the doctored photos onto quality art paper. Since glossy papers work print best, you could also use your computer scanner to scan the image into your hard drive. From there you can add it to your database, or print it out onto glossy photo paper for mounting. To represent folks in your family tree, create a silhouette of your father to represent his Great Great Grandfather, and add a farmer's hat and rake to represent his profession of farming. Chances are dad has inherited some of his profile anyway. Have fun with it and be creative. But of course be very sure to label to silhouette appropriately as a creative interpretation rather than a literal rendering. You can also do silhouettes of your family including extended family and arrange the portraits together on a wall. Use black painted frames in a variety of shapes and sizes and hang in a way that represents the family tree / relationships. Check out the Art Café Network website for a Short History of Silhouettes by Katherine Courtney. For More detailed how-to information, they have additional pages on cutting. 2 Silhouette books to turn to: Silhouettes : Rediscovering the Lost Art by Kathryn K. Flocken Old-Fashioned Silhouettes (Dover Electronic Clip Art) (CD-ROM and Book) GEM: GenWeb Pages Last year the website celebrated its 10th Anniversary. The USGenWeb Project consists of a group of volunteers working together to provide Internet websites for genealogical research in every county and every state of the United States. The Project is non-commercial and fully committed to free access for everyone. Organization within the website is by state and county. You can go to the homepage of the website and click on the state of your choice from the left hand column. From the state page you can select the county you wish to search in. However, when I know they name of the county I want to search in, I've found it's often quicker just to search at google.com and do a search like "genweb sibley county mn" The choice is yours. Remember to use the Google search gem that I gave you in episode one (see episode #134 http://www.genealogygemspodcast.com/webpage/episode-145-a-blast-from-the-past ) to quickly search within the county website. Many don't have search engines of their own, and so that's when I first really started using that search technique. These county sites are often very rich though, and after a focused search, it's rewarding just to wander the site. It will help you become more familiar with the county! You'll likely find databases of Births, Deaths, Marriages, townships histories, plat maps, surnames, and a host of other topics. Because each county has its own volunteer coordinator, the information you will find varies from county to county. And as always, info is being added regularly, so you need to book mark them and return on a regular basis to see what's new. Be sure and share your resources as well. That's the power behind the GenWeb project – volunteers. Volunteering your county resources will enrich other's experience and will likely lead to connections that will continue to further your own research. Book Mentioned in this episode: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Online Genealogy, Second Edition by Rhonda McClure