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

Published Dec 10, 2007 SHOW NOTES Exclusive Kodak Gallery Discount: 20% OFF Photo books, Calendars & Cards through Dec. 11, 2007! Go to the for more information and to find the link to Kodak Gallery. Got an iTunes Account? If you're enjoying the podcast, I'd appreciate it if you left a 5 Star positive review at the Genealogy Gems iTunes page. This link will take you there: . Thanks! NEW: The Book Has Gone Digital! Genealogy Gems: Ultimate Research Strategies is now out of print. GEM: U.S. Passport Applications on Ancestry.comMy from December 5, 2007 continued...Not wanting to leave the database empty handed, I decided to search for some of my favorite Hollywood film stars: Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks. Lesson 1: Be sure when you are searching the database to click the NEXT button and check the backside of the application page for a photo. Douglas Fairbanks & Mary Pickford Passport Photos Lesson #2: If your ancestors were servants or employees of those that may have traveled, it would be worth searching for those employers. GEM: The History of Sound RecordingsYou know the invention of sound recording was quite a milestone in genealogy if you think about it. Never before had we had documentation of our ancestors voices. There is certainly something very special about hearing not just the words, but the tone, and inflections. Well, all of this sound recording was made possible by Thomas Edison, who 130 years ago this week . Book: Innovate Like EdisonA new book by Edison's Great Grand-niece Sarah Miller Caldicott and Michael Gelb. at the Library of Congress at the Library of Congress LISA'S 10 GOLDEN RULES for making your own family history sound recordings. #1 Get a reliable and affordable method of digital recording. Free recording/editing software: For portable recording you could use a handheld digital recorder, but I like to use my iPod with the from Episode 22 of the Genealogy Gems Podcast. #2 Make A List of Those You Would Like to Interview #3 Prepare Your Questions Ahead of Time #4 Keep The Interview Relaxed And Comfortable. #5 Don't Worry About Getting Everything The First Time #6 Respect the interviewees wishes #7 Take The Time To Edit #8 Make Cataloguing A Priority #9 Get Written Permission If You Plan On Sharing The Recording #10 Follow up with a thank you

Who Do You Think You Are? airs on Friday nights at 8:00 p.m. on NBC. Premium episode 43 features Lisa Kudrow in part 2 of a behind the scenes question and answer (available for a limited time.) British Records: 1883 - 1900 are now available at National Archives UK at the National Archives Genealogy Gems Podcast "Now this is what genealogy is all about!" Download the FREE at Rootsmagic GEM: Interview with Susanna deGroot, PLCGS Great websites for Dutch research: (National Archives) of the Netherlands More information on the in Toronto, Canada May 14-16, 2010 GEM: Family ChArtist Interview with Janet Hovorka, Owner of

Published Sept 6, 2011 Are you having a Picnic? Problem In Chair Not In Computer! r - says Google They had a recent failure but Google says it wasn’t the car it was a PICNIC! See the photos at Kiera posted on my Facebook wall after the webinar saying “I listened to your Webinar on Google Tools today. I wanted to hit myself over the head for not having those tips sooner. I've put them to use today, and already, they're helping me immensely! A million thanks!!!!!!!!” Book Lisa to Speak If your genealogy society doesn’t have the budget to fly out speakers in person, webinars are a fantastic alternative. Find out more about . NEWS: AppList for Hobbies has finally been released! We also had some exciting news around here recently. Appadvice.com published their and named the Genealogy Gems Podcast app as a must have for family history. In other genealogy news, Ancestry made an interesting move recently. They decided to put out a press release about the fact that the images and indexes to the 1940 U.S. Federal Census will be made free to search in the United States when it becomes available in mid-April 2012. Interestingly it was just before Archives.com made their big announcement that they are going to be addint the entire US Federal Census to their website. I blogged about this at length in an article on my website called It really is going to be interesting to see Archives approach to challenging the Big Fish, and Ancestry’s response to being challenged. Footnote.com has decided to focus primarily on military records, and they have a new name for it that reflects that. Footenote.com will now be known as Fold3 which comes from the third fold in a traditional military flag folding ceremony. Ancestry has also explanded their U.S. School Yearbook Collection MAILBOX: I caught by surprise the other day when Ruth replied back to that email and she said: “I owe you a Thank You! I have learned so much about Google in just the first 50 pages! Wow! Do to time constraints, most of my genealogical research is conducted online and Google is certainly my favorite search engine. You book is a fantastic guide to the Google universe! P. S. I've been listening to The Genealogy Gems Podcast for a long time. Also a great help to my research!” Aisha wrote: “I grew up away from my extended family and my grandparents died before I got to know them. So, genealogy is helping me to connect and learn about my relatives. Thanks for the tips and gems.” To learn more about vital records check out my Family History: Genealogy Made Easy Podcast series. focuses on the search process and specifically death records. Maria asked “What should my next research step be? I've been googling his name, as well as searching on Ancestry.com. My MIL may have half-siblings, and a biological father who could still be alive somewhere! I would love to further my research...Any suggestions would be appreciated! I love your podcast!” In addition to standard genealogical searching methods, focus on unique identifiers about the man. A name of one of the boyfriends siblings? His father's occupation? One of their neighbors? How far he lived from her? Something that can be used to narrow down the right man in the census. When things look the same on the surface, we need to find what is unique about them and follow that lead. Good luck Maria! Randy in Nebraska wrote in with a question just about everyone faces at some point. He says: "My questiion is: how do you cite information from someone else's work while they have great citations themselves? How much should a person retrace sources when the information is 'published' on the internet or in family histories?” Published family histories are wonderful finds, and yet they can have errors or omissions. First I would spot check a number of the sources to see if they are verifiable and accurately recorded. Ideally you would verify all of them, but realistically that is difficult to do with lengthy published works. Also published and properly cited family histories are in a different category than a family tree published online, which can be notoriously inaccurate and not properly sourced. It's very easy for errors to get picked up and added to an online family tree. I would recommend that you read the article Using Published Family Histories from the Mar-Apr 2002 issue of Ancestry magazine, And as for proper citations, the go-to book is Evidence! Citation & Analysis for the Family Historian by Elizabeth Shown Mills. Ericson in California wrote to tell me that he’s been bit – hard! He writes: “Thank you for all the guidance and inspiration you have given me. In a matter of six months, I've caught-up listening to your Family History podcast, Family Tree Magazine podcast and the Genealogy Gems premium podcast. To date, I have cataloged 265 individual relatives. My parents think I've gone off the deep-end with this bug! Is there an easier way to understand and remember the degree/removal terminology, such as "first ...

Published July 5, 2010 The LIVE Genealogy Gems Podcast #91 has been reformatted for the iPod. You may need to delete the downloaded episode from iTunes and download it again by clicking the GET button to get the reformatted video. "Attend the Jamboree virtually" by checking out these online resources: The Blog posts about Jamboree: "I especially enjoyed her presentation on Google Earth for Genealogy" by Craig Manson by Joan Miller by Schelly Dardashti Blog by Cheryl Upcoming Conference: 42nd BYU Conference on Family History July 27-30, 2010 BYU Conference Center, 770 E. University Parkway, Provo, UT Information Family History Expo in Pleasanton, California New at FamilySearch: New Family History Library in Riverton, UT Library of Congress Who Do You Think You Are? UK lineup announced Find out what the Brits think of the U.S. version of the show Lisa's guest blog series at Family Tree Magazine's MAILBOX: Update: iGoogle as been discontinued Liz Thompson wrote: "You sure interview some interesting people!" Brandt Gibson wrote to say how the Genealogy Gems Podcast has helped him get the scoop on his ancestors! "Thanks for helping restore my faith in a gold mine of genealogical information!" Check out the Get the Scoop on Your Ancestors in Old Newspapers recorded webinar which is part of New Listener Blogs: Marie Peer asked who the podcast guest was that provided custom family charts: Janet Hovorka of Generation Maps. Marie wrote: "Thank you for the excellent podcasts. I really enjoy listening to them. I keep thinking that you are going to run out of topics but you don't. You are very creative." Darren Engh posted on Facebook about a website he really likes called for records in Norway. He asked for recommendations for information about Candian immigration. Lisa recommends the book by Dave Obee. (This link supports this free podcast - thanks!!) GEM: Interview with Dave Obee "Every province is different. Canadian research is fairly recent research." Canada doesn't have anything like the SSDI. Websites the Dave recommends:

Published April 12, 2009 SHOW NOTES Family History: Genealogy Made Easy podcast The Genealogical Proof Standard is a tool that the pros use and I really want to encourage all researchers professional or not, to follow it as well because it causes you to stop and think before passing on information. In episode 23 I'm providing you with a free downloadable research worksheet that incorporates the elements of the GPS while prompting you to find and even more importantly document those sources. NEWS: In March Ancestry reported that they added or updated more than 775 databases and or book titles on Ancestry.com. That's an average of more than 35 titles each weekday. New and Updated Content and Web Site Improvements at Ancestry are covered. MAILBOX: Listener Question regarding Family Tree Maker 2009 Platinum Edition. "I have at least one instance in my husband's tree where two first cousins married. This, of course means that some of the tree overlaps itself. I can not get the FTM software to recognize that the people are the same-Do you or any of your listeners know if I am just missing something or can it not be done?" If you have an answer to this dilemma please at or call in and leave the answer on the voicemail line to be played on the next episode at (925) 272-4021 GEM: Interview with Tukufu Zuberi By now you have probably heard that the Southern California Genealogical Society is holding their annual Jamboree on June 26 through the 28. But what you may not know is that there's a lot more to the Jamboree than just great classes and the exhibitors. For example, at the Friday night banquet they have arranged for a very special keynote speaker - and I'm really excited to have him on the show with me today. You know his as one of the sleuths on the PBS series , Tukufu Zuberi. Dr. Tukufu Zuberi is an important academic voice. He is the Lasry Family Professor of Race Relations, Professor and Chair of the Department of Sociology, and the Faculty Associate Director of the Center for Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania He is best recognized for his research on African and American society, and for developing and expanding the Africana Studies program at the University of Pennsylvania and receive the FREE 20 page downloadable e-book 5 Fabulous Google Research Strategies for the Family Historian