Episode 63 History Detectives: A Conversation with Tukufu Zuberi

04/12/09 • 38 min

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

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

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Episode 62: Let's Go Genealogical Channel Surfing!

March 28, 2008 . The show is all about making improvements and changes in your life and I got a chance to share what genealogy has meant in my life and how it can be a positive journey for everyone regardless of their background. Jim Mowatt over at the HistoryIne podcast invited Lisa to be a part of the show. Jim has always been a macro history guy, but he has finally caught the genealogy bug and he invited me to come on and give a pitch to his listeners about why researching their own family history can be fascinating and actually dove tail into their love of world history. Historyzine Episode 14. Genealogy Gems was featured in the March 20, 2009 World Vital Records Newsletter. I recently interviewed Steve Nickle the President and Chief Operating Officer for familylink about their brand new website that will be launched here in the next few months called GenSeek. . In today's episode it's time to shake off Winter and we're going to do some Genealogical Channel Surfing! GEM: Part 3 of Lisa's Interview with Darby Hinton, Actor and Producer Grab your surf board and get ready to ride the wave of the final segment of my interview with Darby Hinton who played Fess Parker's son for 6 years on the old Daniel Boone series. In today's episode Darby is going to tell us all about his brand new television series that he's working on called Hintons Living History. Darby Hinton shared what it was like growing up in Hollywood the son of an actor, and a child actor himself. I got a chance to share the research that I did on the Hinton Family Tree with Darby & his wife Shan. In this final interview, Darby explains how his background in Hollywood and his interest in his family history have merged together in an exciting new television series that he's producing called . GEM: Hang Ten with Ken Marks, Executive Producer of Legend Seekers. We spent of my Family History Genealogy Made Easy podcast talking to Ken about this new show that features the discovery and portrayal of real life family history stories. In today's interview, Ken is going to give us a personal look at their brand new website that just launched this week, and how YOU can submit your own family stories for inclusion in the series! So grab your remote and get ready to channel surf the genealogy wave! GEM: Profile AmericaA Favorite Drink Goes on Sale March 30, 2009 GEM: Who Do You Think You Are TV Series Scheduled Bloggers are reporting that the new Who Do You Think You Are TV series which is coming to America from the UK has won it's spot back on the Spring calendar. It's great to see this wave of genealogy shows hitting the airwaves, and my hope is that it will bring genealogy to the forefront of the television viewers minds as a fun and challenging endeavor. for the free Genealogy Gems e-Newsletter

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Episode 64: Online Source Citations, GOOGLE Tip, Stephen Danko, Maureen Taylor

April 26, 2009 Get a free copy of my e-book 5 Fabulous Google Strategies for the Family Historian as a thankyou for NEWS: Lisa discusses 9 newspaper databases being launched by Genealogy Bank MAILBOX FOLLOWUP: Russ Worthington's answers to a listener's question on familial relationships in Family Tree Maker. Listen to GEM: Online Downloadable Source Citations It's A Gem of An Idea! Mark Tucker who writes the ThinkGenealogy blog posted a provocative video on April 20, 2009. The blog post is entitled . The heart of his proposal is this: In order to encourage quality genealogy research among their customers, shouldn't the websites that sell access to genealogical records online also provide a source citation for those records that the user can download and include in their research? As it stands today, when we download let's say a page from a census record or a page from a newspaper, there's often times nothing on the digitized image itself to indicate which database it came from, or even a location or date. Mark emailed me to say âever since our interviews in St. George, I have not stopped thinking of ways to get the message out for simplifying citing sources using Evidence Explained. And he sent me a link from Elizabeth Shown Mills. Randy Seaver's comments on the subject at the This last week I had a chance to sit down and interview genealogy blogger and lecturer for the Family History: Genealogy Made Easy podcast and I took the opportunity to ask him for his input. We really need to hear from at this point are the genealogy subscription records websites themselves. It's their product that we are talking about. And in the end, these digitized genealogy records we are talking about citing sources for are indeed "products." And for companies like Ancestry and World Vital Records / familylink.com this is about business. I contacted both Ancestry and World Vital Records to do brief interviews with their reps about this proposed idea, and how they see it potentially fitting in to their future business plan, and also to hear what they think of this grass roots effort amongst their valued customers - In these tough economic times it must be great to see the interest that their customers have in their product and their willingness to stay engaged with them and provide input as to what elements could be added to their products to add increased value and draw for their customers. I've done many interviews with folks from Ancestry with the help of their very efficient and responsive publicist, as well as interviews with folks at familylink. Most recently I had a great time interviewing the COO of familylink Steve Nickle who gave us a terrific sneak peek at their newest venture called Genseek. And you can listen to that interview in Genealogy Gems Podcast . In this episode I will play for you the responses from both Ancestry and familylink / World Vital Records to my inquiry about whether record sites providing source citations for the records they provide to their customers. Yep, you heard it correctly. For the first time in two years of this podcast not only did they not provide a telephone interview, they didn't respond to my inquiry at all. That's never happened before. The silence is deafening! As a genealogy media producer I'm pretty disappointed in both Ancestry and World Vital Records responses because any time they send out a press release or want to talk about a new venture they are launching I have welcomed the information and provided it here on the show and on my blog, as so many of us who podcast and blog do â and that kind of passing the word on has got to help their bottomline. This is the first time that I haven't had a reply within 24 hours of an interview inquiry with Ancestry. And I think that tells us a lot! Elizabeth Shown Mills: "I suspect they'll do that catch-up (and she's referring to how these companies will have to go back and cite sources for the thousands of databases they've built up over the years) only if newer companies adopt Mark's recommendation and the older companies then feel the pressure to compete." So what do you think? This is one of those questions that affects all of us. or leave your comment on the Genealogy Gems voice mail line at (925) 272-4021 and I will play it on the next episode. Let your voice be heard! GEM: Google News Timeline The Google News Timeline has been discontinued. GEM: Interview with Maureen Taylor Maureen discusses her upcoming appearance at the Southern California Genealogical GEM: Profile America Casey Jones Share the Podcast...If you enjoyed what you heard in todayâs show and you find this free podcast helpful then be sure and spread the word. Podcasts are still fairly new to most folks, and your friends, and genealogy society may just need someone like you to introduce them to the wonderful world of free podcasts. So I hope you'll help me get the word out by sharing the website address