The Genealogy Guys Podcast & Genealogy Connection

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The Genealogy Guys Podcast #126 - 2008 February 18 Feb 20, 2008

Show notes

George reports on the genealogy news this week: Julia M. Case, beloved genealogist and author at RootsWeb has died; Moorshead Magazines has begun a new magazine called Discovering Family History for beginning genealogists and those who want a refresher, and a premier online issue is available for free at http://www.discoveringfamilyhistory.com; and other stories.

The Guys share listener e-mail including: places for locating French records; safety of publishing family trees on the Internet; validating the contents of a lost family Bible; responses to the topic of how to avoid genealogy burnout; and they share feedback on their new Down Under: Tampa series at RootsTelevision.com.

The Genealogy Guys Podcast #125 - 2008 February 11 Feb 11, 2008

Show notes

This week's news includes: Ancestry.com has added a huge collection of African-American records with the Freedmen's Marriage Records and the Southern Claims Commission Collection at Ancestry.com; the 1911 Irish Census is beginning to be made available at http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie, and the 1862 Dublin City Street Directory is now online at http://www.libraryireland.com/Dublin-Street-Directory-1862/Home.php; and a new book by Terry Reigel titled A Primer for The Master Genealogist is now available from Wholly Genes Software.

The Guys discuss news about DNA, including: "One Embryo from Three Parents" in a case where mitochondrial disease has been corrected with a third person's mitochondrial DNA; and an intriguing finding by scientist Hans Eiberg in Norway about blue-eyed persons and their common forebear 6,000 to 10,000 years ago.

The Genealogy Guys make their television debut today at Roots Television in a new series, "Down Under: Florida." The series is not unlike PBS' "History Detectives" in that they investigate persons in the past whose cemetery markers and stories have piqued their interest. Check out the first of their new online television programs. The Guys describe for listener (and now viewer!) Donna in Hawaii the production process.

Listener e-mail includes: discussion of Horry and Marion Counties in SC; comments about the genealogical value of address books; and more.

The Guys talk about climatic changes and their effects on our ancestors, including the influence on their migrations and settlements.

The Genealogy Guys Podcast #124 - 2008 February 3 Feb 05, 2008

Show notes

This week's news includes: the funeral for Gordon B. Hinckley, 97, in Salt Lake City on 2 Feb. Mr. Hinckley was the president of the LDS church since 1995; FamilyLink.com, Inc. (http://www.familylink.com) launches their World Collection containing more than 1.5 billion names from 35 countries; and beginning this week, George will be writing a weekly column for Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter (http://blog.eogn.com/).

Drew discusses search strategies for researching common surnames, such as his own: Smith. The Guys discuss ways to avoid "Genealogy Burnout." And finally, Drew discusses the value of his parents' address book in extending his research.

The Genealogy Guys Podcast #123 - 2008 January 26 Jan 27, 2008

Show notes

This week's news items include: James LeVoy Sorenson, renowned medical device inventor, entrepreneur, and philanthropist died on 20 January 2008 at 86 – his companies list includes the non-profit Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation which provides DNA testing; Genealogical.com has launched a new blog at http://GenealogyandFamilyHistory.com; a wiki is available for users of FamilySearch and the LDS Family History Centers, at http://www.familysearchwiki.org.The Guys respond to listener e-mail, including: genealogy software questions about DNA information and the GEDCOM 5.5 format standard; a site for sharing serialized family history information, with a sample at http://wwar1.blogspot.com; a suggestion to visit the extensive Genealogy and Family History Links Library at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~genealogylinks/; Bryan Mawer's Sugar Refiners and Sugarbakers website at http://home.clara.net/mawer/intro.html about the sugar industry, primarily in the UK (16th-20th centuries); and a question about when ships' crew were included on manifests (and other forms), including information about INS requirements – at http://www.archives.gov/genealogy/maritime/great-lakes-crew-lists.html.

Drew and George discuss the explosion of social networking sites for genealogists and some of the issues regarding choosing one or more to use. The list includes: Geni.com (http://www.geni.com/), Famillion (http://www.famillion.com), Ancestry.com (http://www.geni.com/), OneGreatFamily.com (http://www.onegreatfamily.com), FamilyTreeDNA.com (http://www.familytreedna.com/), MyHeritage.com (http://www.myheritage.com/), 23AndMe (https://www.23andme.com/), MyHeritage.com (http://www.myheritage.com/), ItsOurTree.com (http://www.itsourtree.com/ and available in multiple languages), Amiglia.com (http://www.amiglia.com), Kindo.com (http://kindo.com/), and TreeX.com (http://treex.com/tree/). Others include KinCafe (http://www.kincafe.com/), FamilyLink (http://www.familylink.com/ - formerly WorldVitalRecords.com), OurStory.com (http://www.ourstory.com/), WeRelate (http://www.werelate.org), and Famiva (http://www.famiva.com/).

Drew has revived his personal blog with a new name, Internet domain, and a new look. The blog, called Rootsmithing, can be found at http://rootsmithing.com.

The Genealogy Guys Podcast #122 - 2008 January 16 Jan 17, 2008

Show notes

This week's news includes many announcements. Memeria (http://www.memeria.com) launches the first house-call photo-scanning service; another genealogy podcast is available -- Genealogy Gems at http://www.genealogygemspodcast.com; WorldVitalRecords.com has changed its name to FamilyLink.com (http://www.familylink.com) and has formed partnerships with other companies in recent months; RootsMagic announces its 2008 Genealogy Cruise to the Mexican Riviera on Sept. 28 to Oct. 5, and details can be found at http://www.RootsMagicCruise.com. There are also many seminars coming up this year: San Luis Obispo County Genealogical Society (Feb. 2) (http://www.kcbx.net/~slogen/); St. George family History Expo 2008 (Feb. 8-9) (http://www.myancestorsfound.com/events/upcoming.php?event_id=1); Czechoslovak Genealogical Society International Symposium (April 11-12) (http://www.cgsi.org/news.asp?intNewsID=129); North Carolina Genealogical Society's 3rd Annual Speakers Forum (April 11) (http://www.ncgenealogy.org); Federation of East European Family History Societies Conference (August 1-3) (http://feefhs.org/). The Guys respond to a load of listener e-mail this week! Danny, as a Mac user, can't use Clooz and so has made use of a free version of software program called Mac Journal; Drew discussed software options for Scott's family which just celebrated its 101st consecutive family reunion; Michael loves U.S. Federal Agricultural Census records, but hates the microfilm – and he and George urge Ancestry.com and HeritageQuest to bite the bullet and digitize these and the remaining U.S. census records; several users commented on the need for the GEDCOM facility to be updated to also include graphics, while The Guys agree that software packages and online sites should be able to synchronize the data between both!

The Genealogy Guys Podcast #121 - 2008 January 6 Jan 09, 2008

Show notes

Welcome to The Genealogy GuysTM Podcast for 2008!

George begins the 2008 news with a press release from Wholly Genes, Inc., of Columbia, MD, about the new Version 7.0 of The Master Genealogist (TMG) genealogy database software; George will be appearing at the all-day Mississippi Genealogical Society Confernece in Pearl. MS, just outside Jackson, on Saturday, 19 January – more information is available at (601) 924-9346; the Whitier Area Genealogical Society will feature expert genealogist, writer, and librarian Lloyd DeWitt Bockstuck at its 25th Annual Genealogical Conference on 23 February 2008 – Contact Miriam Benell at dandmbenell@earthlink.net for more information; the Southern California Genealogical Society has announced its conference details at jamboree@scgsgenealogy.com, and both Drew and George will be there this year!

The Guys discuss some user e-mail as always, and then focus on what is happening and coming for genealogy in 2008.

The Genealogy Guys Podcast #120 - 2007 December 29 Dec 31, 2007

Show notes

George begins with two pieces of news: he will be appearing at the Mississippi Genealogical Society's Conference on January 19th. For more information, call 601.924.9346. He also announced that he is discontinuing his long-running "Along Those Lines ..." column, which began on AOL, then appeared for years at Ancestry.com, and has been a blog for the past two years. The blog at http://ahaseminars.livejournal.com/ will remain online through April 2008.Listener e-mail provided some great information this week: Jerry highly recommends the Fujitsu Scansnap S510 scanner for its lightening speed, accuracy, and automatic feed. (Click here for a link to the Fujitsu product information.); The Guys do accept friend links at LibraryThing, and George has just been designated a LibraryThing Author; Megan tells about her research into an heirloom "True Lover's Knot"; Rollin asks about how to record a confusing death date, and shares information about a free Windows screen capture program he likes -- FastStone Capture 5.9 at http://www.faststone.org; Find-a-Grave's Rich Hrazanek reports that there are now over 20 million interments recorded at the site; and Patty asks about the indexing by Ancestry.com of the Drouin Collection and George refers her to Suzanne Adams at Ancestry for a status.George discusses the progress of Web-based resources over the last 15 years, including databases, blogs, wikis, podcasts, and video. He especially likes RootsTelevision at http://www.rootstelevision.com which features lectures, conferences, different ethnic research resources, military research hints, DNA research discussions, genealogy for kids, reunions, and much more. The Guys will have more to say about RootsTelevision in 2008!The Guys spent the last segment of the show recapping genealogical news, additions, developments, people losses, conferences and cruises, books, and more in 2007.HAPPY NEW YEAR!

The Genealogy Guys Podcast #119 - 2007 December 22 Dec 23, 2007

Show notes

George begins with the genealogical news:

▪ FamilySearch and The Generations Network, Inc., parent company of Ancestry.com, today announced an agreement that provides free access of Ancestry.com to patrons of the Family History Library in Salt Lake City and the 13 largest regional family history centers effective today.

▪ Ancestry.com added 340.2M new names last week, including digitized and indexed newspapers from 10 U.S. states and 2 Canadian provinces, more than 4,5 new BMD records, and updated the British Telcom U.K. telephone directories with more than 71M new names.

▪ Ancestry.com also unveiled its new Learning Center at its U.S. Web site this week. It is now a multimedia experience with video tutorials and multiple new sub-screens with well-organized content.

▪ The California Genealogical Society and Library celebrates 110 years with an all-day seminar by nationally-recognized "Photo Detective? Maureen A. Taylor. Ms. Taylor's lectures will focus on identifying and dating old photographs, preserving family photos, and identifying immigrant clues in photos. More information is available at http://www.calgensoc.org.

▪ The Denver Public Library has just received an IMLS grant of $778K to digitize historical materials in its collection relating to Denver and its historical neighborhoods, and will partner with other regional libraries. Read all about this project at http://www.thecherrycreeknews.com/content/view/2148/2/.

The Guys share listener e-mail and commentary about: Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps; professional looking "homemade? tombstones using pure White Portland Cement and metal molds – and an example of the result can be accessed here; a suggestion to look further into the new Ancestry.com U.S. Passport Applications database for more than just the front/back of the application – often lots more information and photographs are included; filing systems are discussed; and a listener in Germany listens while driving the autobahn!Drew discusses Macintosh operating systems and browsers, and then recaps new Macworld (http://www.macworld.com/) reviews of four genealogy programs: Reunion 9.04 from Leister Productions (http://www.leisterpro.com); MacFamilyTree 4.4 from Only Mac Software (http://www.onlymac.de) ; Heredis 10.2 from DSD Concept (http://www.myheredis.fr); and iFamily for Tiger 2.2 by KS Wilson & Associates (http://ifamilyfortiger.com).George discusses a compilation book published by Ancestry.com in 2002 titled French-Canadian Resources, an excellent resource for those with French-Canadian ancestors.

The Guys wish everyone a very Happy Holiday Season!

The Genealogy Guys Podcast #118 - 2007 December 14 Dec 17, 2007

Show notes

The Guys go straight to listener e-mail this week: the value of contacting genealogical societies for obit & funeral notice lookups and copies; Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps that have been made available at state sites, such as Florida (http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/UFDC/?c=sanborn), Georgia (http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/sanborn), and South Carolina (http://www.sc.edu/library/digital/collections/sanborn.html) and digital cameras used by The Guys: Pentax A20 Option Megapixel camera (see review at http://www.dpreview.com/news/0608/06082103pentaxa20.asp).Drew recaps the instructions for accessing older podcasts. He also shares his "Genealogy Society Tip of the Week" about expending a little extra money for name/quality speakers for your society to attract visitors and new members.George recaps the importance of making contact with and/or joining genealogical societies where your ancestors lived. They can also provide obituary and funeral notice lookups and copies from their local card or online computerized index files. The Guys discuss the negative side of sharing information about living family members, especially when one becomes a debtor who becomes the subject of debt collectors. Some debtors are now accessing genealogical database as vehicles to persecute and ride relatives of a debtor, and that is illegal Listener Nancy details the underhanded tactics of collectors who began contacting siblings, children, aunts, uncles, and grandparents of the debtor to harass and dun then for their relative's debt. George discovered that every state in then Union has laws governing collection agencies. Most, if not all, cannot by law contact anyone other than the debtor and his/her spouse directly. Contact with your state Attorney General's office to determine what YOUR rights are and what a collection agency can and cannot do. You will often find that the collection agent/agency is exceeding his or her authority. George discusses his Pentax Option A20 (10 megapixel) digital camera, its features, and how he uses the Text setting and other features in his genealogical research. Drew talks about Chris Dunham's "The Genealogy" site at http://www.genealogue.com and the Genealogue Challenge. George reminds listeners that The Genealogy Blog Finder is also one of the features of this great site.George reviews William Dollarhide's new two-volume book set titled Census Substitutes & State Census Records. Volume I covers the Eastern States and Volume II covers the Western States. The books are available through Family Roots Publishing Company at http://www.familyrootspublishing.com.

The Genealogy Guys Podcast #117 - 2007 December 5 Dec 06, 2007

Show notes

The week's news includes: NARA partners with TOPICS Entertainment to produce two filmed histories on DVD - WWII: A Filmed History and Aviation" A Filmed History from the National Archives, both 24-CD sets; Ancestry.com has completed digitizing and indexing the British Telephone Books, 1880-1984, the full collection of the British Telcom Archives collection; the Florida State Genealogical Society awards it's prestigious Award for Outstanding Achievement in Florida Genealogy to Hal J. Becker; readers of Oklahoma Living magazine have voted to award the Muskogee Public Library the best library in the state; Wholly Genes, Inc., announces its 2008 genealogy cruise with details at http://www.WhollyGenes.com/cruise.htm.The Guys share reader e-mail about: inexpensive headstone options, including requesting markers from the Department of Veterans Affairs at http://www.va.gov/; more about DNA testing; binder organization and filing techniques; methods of locating military service numbers include: - Check county clerks' offices and post offices for registered DD-214s - Check funeral home records - Contact the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis - Contact the Department of Veterans Affairs - Some states have veterans databases online, such as Utah, Florida, and MissouriMichigan's genealogical library facilities are touted at the Library of Michigan and the Archives of Michigan, as well as the Detroit Public Library's Burton Historical Collection. George's "Web Site of the Week" is "Expert Links: English Family History and Genealogy," a massive collection of wonderful Web links at http://www.pricegen.com/english_genealogy.html?cpn=wvrnewsletter. Drew's "Society Tip of the Week" addresses membership directories, benefits, issues, and publishing options.

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