Podcast appearances and mentions of diahan southard

In this episode of Best Websites, Diahan Southard walks through some of the most recent updates to AncestryDNA and MyHeritage DNA.

In this episode of the podcast, host Maureen Taylor is joined by Diahan Southard, known for her expertise as “Your DNA Guide.” Diahan discusses her new book, “Monday Minutes,” which is inspired by her popular newsletter. The book is a collection of reflections on everyday moments and thoughts, aimed at connecting deeply with her audience beyond the realm of genealogy.Key Highlights:Origin and Impact: “Monday Minutes” started as a simple, fun email experiment to connect with Diahan's customers on a personal level.Content and Themes: Each Monday, Diahan shares thoughts on varied life experiences, ranging from parenting to everyday observations, which resonate deeply with her audience. These reflections encourage readers to find meaning and connection in their own lives.Journal and Reflection: Diahan's initiative evolved into a book and a journal where readers can write their reflections. This not only serves as personal documentation but also as a genealogical record, adding a personal touch to family histories.Related Episodes:Episode 250: Telling Her Story: How to Research and Write Women's HistoriesEpisode 190: Writing Genealogical Crime Mysteries with Nathan Dylan Goodwin Links:Your DNA GuideSign up for my newsletter.Watch my YouTube Channel.Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos.About My Guest:Diahan Southard, Founder and CEO, Genetic Genealogy Expert and EducatorDiahan Southard knows firsthand what a difference it can make to know where you came from. What started off as an educational and career interest in genetic genealogy became deeply personal when she used DNA to discover her mom's birth parents and connect with new relatives.Now she has 25+ years of genetic genealogy experience. She built her company, Your DNA Guide, to show that learning DNA doesn't have to be intimidating, frustrating, or require a college degree in biology. Her goal is to teach you to “Do the DNA”–and feel confident and have fun in the process!Diahan teaches internationally, writes for popular magazines, authored Your DNA Guide–The Book, and produces Your DNA Guide–the Academy, an online learning experience.About Maureen Taylor:Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective® helps clients with photo related genealogical problems. Her pioneering work in historic photo research has earned her the title “the nation's foremost historical photo detective” by The Wall Street Journal and appearances on The View, The Today Show, Pawn Stars, and others.   Learn more I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These collaborative one-on-one sessions. Look at your family photos then you and I meet to discuss your mystery images. And find out how each clue and hint might contribute to your family history. Find out more by going to maureentaylor.com and clicking on family photo investigations. Support the show

Have you ever thought about how deeply you can trace your roots with just a simple DNA test?Listen in on my conversation with Diahan Southard, a trailblazer in consumer genomics and the founder of Your DNA Guide.  She takes us through her story, starting as a microbiology student at Brigham Young University, continuing to her work with Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation, leading to her pioneering role in the field of genetic genealogy education.  Sparked by the advice of a high school English teacher and a fascination with archaeogenetics, Diahan has not only played a role in advancing the field, she has also experienced the personal and emotional impact of DNA discoveries in her own family.  In this episode, she shares her journey and invites us to discover the unexpected stories hidden within our own DNA.Follow Diahan:YourDNAGuide.comInstagram_______________________________________________Please rate and review this podcast and then share it with your family and friends.For ideas on how to connect more deeply with your family through family stories, follow Crista on Instagram @CristaCowan.

News You Can Use and Share! MyHeritage added 168 million historical records in February. MyHeritage launched OldNews.com, a new website for exploring historical newspapers. MyHeritage introduced all-new profile pages with hints. Vivid-Pix announced the roll-out of Memory Stations, integrating scanning, its correction software, tagging, and more. Findmypast has begun digitizing, indexing, and publishing British Home Children records. The National Archives (TNA) announced that it will digitize the 1941 National Farm Survey records thanks to a generous grant from Lund Trust. DNA Segment with Diahan Southard In our DNA Segment, DNA expert Diahan Southard discusses Family Tree DNA and Y-DNA haplogroups with Drew Smith. Listener Email Laura writes about backup GEDCOM files and MyHeritage, and Daniel Horowitz responds. Jenna writes to respond to Sheila's quest to digitize and tag a 30” long x 6” high-resolution photograph. She shares FamilySearch's ability to tag people in a Memory at https://www.familysearch.org/en/help/helpcenter/article/tagging-people-in-a-memory. Anne writes in response to Jean Daniels' email about researching an ancestor. Anne cites Anabaptists in New York State. Kristen is seeking more advice for locating records for a missing family member, Arthur Tozer. Ashley wrote about changes that people make to FamilySearch records without sources. Thank you to all our Patreon supporting members for their support. Your Patreon support helps us improve our technology and provide even more podcast content to you! You can join us for as little as $1 a month or as much as you'd like to contribute. Visit https://www.patreon.com/genealogyguys to get started. And don't forget to order Drew's new book, Generation by Generation: A Modern Approach to the Basics of Genealogy, from Genealogical Publishing Company (https://genealogical.com/) or Amazon.com. Please let us hear from you at genealogyguys@gmail.com.

David from Addison, Texas, is the winner of our drawing for a MyHeritage DNA kit. More drawings will be announced later this year. News You Can Use and Share! RootsTech, the world's largest genealogy conference, takes place in Salt Lake City, Utah, and online next week, 29 February through 2 March 2024. FamilySearch International and American Ancestors announced a collaboration on the 10 Million Names Project. The project “seeks to recover the names and restore information to families of the estimated 10 million men, women, and children of African descent who were enslaved in pre- and post-colonial America, including the area that would become the United States.” DNA Segment In our DNA Segment, DNA expert Diahan Southard discusses Ancestry DNA with Drew Smith. Listener Email Douglas responds regarding our discussion of slide and negative scanners. He reminds people to check with their local library for the availability of a scanner for checkout. He was able to use a Wolverine slide and negative scanner. (It and the Kodak model discussed on the last podcast are available through Amazon.) Jeannie discusses FamilySearch's computer indexing problems. Mike writes again to provide additional information about the Old Fulton Postcards website and the New York local government historians' (LGH) roles. Ryan asks about two different marriage records dated the same date in adjoining states for the same couple. Laura writes in response to Dennis' questions about writing a family history, and uses the “52 ancestors in 52 weeks” approach presented by Amy Johnson Crow. Matt is seeking a missing Pennsylvania death record from 1914. He has conducted extensive research and is looking for more suggestions. Kristen is seeking advice for locating records for a missing family member, Arthur Tozer. Thank you to all our Patreon supporting members for their support. Your Patreon support helps us improve our technology and provide even more podcast content to you! You can join us for as little as $1 a month or as much as you'd like to contribute. Visit https://www.patreon.com/genealogyguys to get started. Please also tell your friends and your genealogical society about our free podcasts, blog, and the Genealogy Guys Learn subscription education website. And don't forget to order Drew's book, Generation by Generation: A Modern Approach to the Basics of Genealogy, from Genealogical Publishing Company (genealogical.com/) or Amazon.com. Please let us hear from you at genealogyguys@gmail.com.

News You Can Use and Share! Don't miss the opportunity to win a free MyHeritage DNA Kit. Listen to the MyHeritage ad later in this episode for details on submitting your entry to our raffle. MyHeritage recapped their activities in 2023: 4M DNA kits in their database 9M faces tagged with Photo Tagger 700M historical records added in 366 new collections 320M new Family Tree profiles added 4M MyHeritage and Reimagine mobile app downloaded 19M new Theories of Family Relativity™ New AI tools added: PhotoDater™, AI Record Finder™, and AI Biographer™ 3M photo dates estimated with PhotoDater 26M photos uploaded 2,112 webinars on Legacy Family Tree Webinars 605 articles added to the MyHeritage Wiki George recaps MyHeritage's Historical Record Collections added in December 2023. Drew recaps FamilySearch's 2023 highlights. FamilySearch announced the historic release of the 1931 Census of Canada. Drew shares what to expect from FamilySearch in 2024. DNA Segment Our popular DNA Segment returns with expert Diahan Southard and Drew Smith in conversation about 23andMe. Listener Email Mike writes about genealogy podcasts and the lack of references made to the newspaper research site, Old Fulton New York Postcards website at https://www.fultonhistory.com/ for a collection of New York newspapers and postcard images, and Advantage Archives at https://www.advantagearchives.com/. Sheila writes concerning how to get a “long photo” (30” long x 6” high) scanned and then how to locate software to tag each person's face with their name. The Guys suggest obtaining advice from archivists at university archives and special collections, and state/provincial/national archives, to find out who offer large scanning jobs services. Julie writes to discuss her and her daughter's interesting DNA matches (and non-matches) with another individual on different websites. Dennis's 40 years of collecting data in Germany and Ireland was entered into Family Tree Maker and uploaded to Ancestry. The data seems to have disappeared and he asks for suggestions. He also seeks suggestions about how he and his sisters can/should format the family history they are planning to compile. Laurie writes to ask about the possibility of a researcher being able to bulk-download data from databases such as Ancestry for a specific county. Diana writes to advise us that there is a law in New York state requiring that each county have a county historian to help preserve and promote the history of that county. They can guide you to resources and other organizations. There is a website at https://www.aphnys.gov where you can identify and contact these people. Judy asks for advice and recommendations about sorting potential ancestors who share the same name in a specific area at the same time. Tom has inherited family photos, slides, and negatives from his mother. He is seeking information about scanners to effectively digitize these things. George suggests the Kodak Slide N Scan with a 5” color LCD screen which scans to an SD or SDHS card. Thank you to all our Patreon supporting members for their support. Your Patreon support helps us improve our technology and provide even more podcast content to you! You can join us for as little as $1 a month or as much as you'd like to contribute. Visit https://www.patreon.com/genealogyguys to get started. Please also tell your friends and your genealogical society about our free podcasts, blog, and the Genealogy Guys Learn subscription education website. And don't forget to order Drew's new book, Generation by Generation: A Modern Approach to the Basics of Genealogy, from Genealogical Publishing Company (https://genealogical.com/) or Amazon.com. Please let us hear from you at genealogyguys@gmail.com.

This episode celebrates 15 years of the podcast with three past interviews from Rich Venezia, Denise May Levenick and Diahan Southard.

Host Scott Fisher opens the show with David Allen Lambert, Chief Genealogist of the New England Historic Genealogical Society and AmericanAncestors.org. As the long running weekly broadcast show comes to an end, the guys begin Family Histoire News with talk of the Boston Tea Party 250th anniversary celebration this weekend. Then, David reveals his role in setting the record straight on the last survivors of the USS Oklahoma at Pearl Harbor. Ever wonder how large the largest family tree in the Library of Congress might be? Wonder no more! Then, the guys give a brief update on the 23andMe data breach. Next, Fisher shares one his most interesting interviews from earlier this year. It's with Dr. David Duffy who has discovered that DNA can be detected and connected to individuals even when taken out of the air, or from footprints on a sandy beach! What might this mean for future police work? Then, Your DNA Guide, Diahan Southard, and genealogical thriller author, Nathan Dylan Goodwin,  join the show to talk about their planned genealogical murder mystery on RootsTech eve in Salt Lake City. David then returns for another Ask Us Anything question. This one is on the use of aliases in the Revolutionary War. Fisher and David then sign off on the final segment of the weekly broadcast series, with a huge thank you to so many who have contributed to the success of Extreme Genes through the years. Stayed tuned for future, periodic Extreme Genes podcasts!

Curious about your genetic ancestry? Ready to unearth secrets about your family's past that are hidden within your DNA? Join us as we embark on a journey of discovery with Diahan Southard, creator of Your DNA Guide, who unravels the intricacies of DNA testing and genetic ancestry. Diane guides us through this enigmatic world, shedding light on the distinctions between culture, ethnicity, and heritage, and their impact on interpreting DNA test results. She introduces the concept of reference populations, highlighting its pivotal role and potential limitations in categorizing individuals to a specific location.The adventure continues as we dive deeper into the specifics of DNA ethnicity results and haplogroups. Diahan demystifies why DNA test results can vary between companies and evolve over time. She elaborates on the critical aspects of reference populations, algorithms, and statistics, and why a larger dataset can produce more accurate results. Our conversation emphasizes the importance of participating in research to improve the accuracy of results for your community, heightening the excitement of this genealogical exploration.As we round off our captivating discussion, we unveil the astonishing power of DNA testing in revealing unexpected family connections. Hear about individuals who unraveled surprising links to historical figures and places, emphasizing the significance of understanding the culture, ethnicity, and heritage of both sides of a family. Diahan offers practical tips for interpreting DNA test results, making this episode a treasure trove of knowledge for anyone intrigued by their family history or eager to learn more about the world of DNA testing. Tune in and let us embark on this journey together.Be sure to use the Coupon Code ITALIANROOTS.Farmers and Nobles traces the research path of blogger and podcast host Bob Sorrentino. Bob began researching his family roots in 2008 beginning with his great-grandfather's calling card brought from Italy by his paternal grandmother Maria Luigia Piromallo. https://www.italiangenealogy.blog/farmers-and-nobles/Your DNA Guide You don't have to learn everything about genetic genealogy before asking and answering DNA questionsDisclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the showPurchase my book "Farmers and Nobles" here or at Amazon.

Host Scott Fisher opens the show with David Allen Lambert, Chief Genealogist of the New England Historic Genealogical Society and AmericanAncestors.org. The guys open the show talking about the first ten years of Extreme Genes. David then reveals more good news for Irish researchers. Next, in Family Histoire News, Stanford University has developed a new DNA analysis technique for African-American research. Then, a Kentucky cornfield has yielded some 700 gold Civil War era coins, and they're still coming out the ground! David has more. The last slave ship, the Clotilda, is back in the news again. David shares details. And finally, this week marks the 50th anniversary of the fire in St. Louis that destroyed over 750 million records of 20th century US Army and Air Force service people. Fisher and David talk about the impact and how many of the records are being reconstructed.   Next, Your DNA Guide, Diahan Southard, joins the show to discuss the history of genetic genealogy over the last quarter century. She was there at the beginning. Diahan talks about how she got started, and in the second segment discusses what is still to come. (Hint: It's very cool!)   David then returns for two more questions with Fisher on Ask Us Anything.   That's all this week on Extreme Genes, America's Family History Show!

Host Scott Fisher opens the show with David Allen Lambert, Chief Genealogist of the New England Historic Genealogical Society and AmericanAncestors.org. DNA occupies much of the show, so David begins with another DNA discovery that is rocking the worlds of two families… and it's not the usual fare. Then, in 1872, a virus, that didn't affect humans, shut down many of the major US cities. Catch what happened. The historic Old North Church which signaled Paul Revere on his famous ride is having an inspection of a most unusual type. Hear what it is. Did you ever think a flush toilet could be 2,400 years old? Apparently so! The guys have the details. And finally, there's a party house in Rome that has been determined to have gone back almost as far as the toilet! David will fill you in. Next, over two segments, Your DNA Guide, Diahan Southard, joins Fisher to talk about DNA research “process.” What are the steps that can ultimately lead you to success? Diahan will take you through them. Then, Diahan talks about courses she'll be teaching at RootsTech, and her thoughts on the upcoming Salt Lake City megaconference. David then returns for Ask Us Anything, answering your questions. That's all this week on Extreme Genes, America's Family History Show!

Host Scott Fisher opens the show with David Allen Lambert, Chief Genealogist of the New England Historic Genealogical Society and AmericanAncestors.org.  The guys begin comparing notes on collecting 19th century family photos. Then, in Family Histoire News, word is now out that YOU can be featured in the upcoming year on Finding Your Roots on PBS with friend-of-the-show Dr. Henry Louis Gates. Hear more about it. Next, a new census is indexed and out for Scotland! David has details. In Utah, DNA experts are now involved in identifying the remains of victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.  David then talks about a World War II Pearl Harbor survivor who had a marvelous experience on the 81st anniversary of the Japanese attack on December 7. Some Navejo code talkers are now getting their due. David explains. And finally, an article talks about the benefits of recording your ancestors' and relatives' well known quotes. Then, YourDNAGuide, Diahan Southard joins the conversation talking with Fisher about her new PBS special “Your DNA Secrets Revealed.” Diahan, much to her surprise, was selected to host the show. She explains how she was “discovered,” where the show was filmed, and a little about the surprises that will be revealed, and her own enthusiasm for encouraging people to pursue their family's history. Next, Trina Galauner from sponsor Legacy Tree Genealogists visits with Fisher talking about researching Polish ancestry. Eastern Europe has always been a challenge, but Trina has some great tips to help you along and reveals some websites that may give you some very specific answers. David Allen Lambert then rejoins Fisher for another round of Ask Us Anything. That's all this week on Extreme Genes, America's Family History Show!

Host Scott Fisher opens the show with David Allen Lambert, Chief Genealogist of the New England Historic Genealogical Society and AmericanAncestors.org. The guys begin with news about DNA expert and friend-of-the-show, Diahan Southard, who has landed a hosting role on a new PBS series on DNA and secrets! Fisher and David then talk about some fun recent finds before moving on to “Family Histoire News.” First up… America's oldest person just celebrated another birthday with her 90-YEAR-OLD daughter on hand! Hear all about it. Then, archaeologists have uncovered the remains of 14 combatants from a Revolutionary battle site in South Carolina. David has more details. Then, AI is now pairing living people who were part of the Holocaust with historic photos they didn't know existed. And finally, a new database has been created of Japanese-Americans held in camps during World War II. It is remarkable how many names are in it! The guys will tell you. Then, Fisher visits with author Phyllis Biffle Elmore. Her new book is called “Quilt of Souls: A Memoir.” Phyllis talks about the quilts her older family members taught her to make, and their significance during the time of slavery. It's a fascinating story of tradition, culture, creativity, and intrigue! Next, Fisher talks with a Slovakian native who made her own escape… to Canada…in the days of Communism, as well as her daughter. Both are featured on (sponsor) BYUtv's How I Got Here. Hear all they have to say about their remarkable experience. David then returns for more of Ask Us Anything. That's all this week on Extreme Genes, America's Family History Show!

In this episode, Diahan Southard talks about building your family tree with just your DNA. Also, learn about DNAPainter.om and storytelling tools.

Today's episode of Research Like a Pro is about double cousins. Do you have any? We'll talk about how double cousins and other relatives with whom you share multiple relationships can affect DNA match analysis and genetic network analysis. Although double 3rd cousins don't always share an inflated amount of DNA, you can definitely tell they are double cousins in your network analysis. Join us as we discuss these issues. Links How Multiple Relationships Affect DNA Match Analysis - https://familylocket.com/how-multiple-relationships-affect-dna-match-analysis/  RLP 222: Multiple Relationships, Pedigree Collapse and Endogamy - https://familylocket.com/rlp-222-multiple-relationships-pedigree-collapse-and-endogamy/  Start Untangling Your Family Tree | Endogamy & DNA Course with Diahan Southard - https://www.yourdnaguide.com/endogamy/ref/12/ (This is an affiliate link. If you register, we receive a small commission, but it doesn't change the price of your registration). Research Like a Pro with DNA eCourse - independent study course -  https://familylocket.com/product/research-like-a-pro-with-dna-ecourse/ Research Like a Pro Resources Research Like a Pro: A Genealogist's Guide book by Diana Elder with Nicole Dyer on Amazon.com - https://amzn.to/2x0ku3d Research Like a Pro eCourse - independent study course -  https://familylocket.com/product/research-like-a-pro-e-course/ RLP Study Group - upcoming group and email notification list - https://familylocket.com/services/research-like-a-pro-study-group/ Research Like a Pro with DNA Resources Research Like a Pro with DNA: A Genealogist's Guide to Finding and Confirming Ancestors with DNA Evidence book by Diana Elder, Nicole Dyer, and Robin Wirthlin - https://amzn.to/3gn0hKx Research Like a Pro with DNA eCourse - independent study course -  https://familylocket.com/product/research-like-a-pro-with-dna-ecourse/ RLP with DNA Study Group - upcoming group and email notification list - https://familylocket.com/services/research-like-a-pro-with-dna-study-group/ Thank you Thanks for listening! We hope that you will share your thoughts about our podcast and help us out by doing the following: Share an honest review on iTunes or Stitcher. You can easily write a review with Stitcher, without creating an account. Just scroll to the bottom of the page and click "write a review." You simply provide a nickname and an email address that will not be published. We value your feedback and your ratings really help this podcast reach others. If you leave a review, we will read it on the podcast and answer any questions that you bring up in your review. Thank you! Leave a comment in the comment or question in the comment section below. Share the episode on Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest. Subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, or your favorite podcast app. Sign up for our newsletter to receive notifications of new episodes - https://familylocket.com/sign-up/ Check out this list of genealogy podcasts from Feedspot: Top 20 Genealogy Podcasts - https://blog.feedspot.com/genealogy_podcasts/

Host Scott Fisher opens the show with David Allen Lambert, Chief Genealogist of the New England Historic Genealogical Society and AmericanAncestors.org. Fisher talks with David about David's recent honor, and his bizarre trek across a bridge. David opens Family Histoire News with another tale from our “lost and found” department. Then, who knew that recipes could be found on gravestones? One influencer found out and has been cooking up those recipes! If you think slavery wasn't that long ago, consider the next story. A SON of a slave who had him late in life has died in his 90s. He remembered his father talking about life on the plantation pre-emancipation. David then has the story of a girl happily raised by kidnappers. She has now reconnected with her birth family. Finally, a gentleman who was the subject of a movie for his role in the theft of an iconic piece of royal history has died. David tells the tale. Next, Fisher catches up with Nathan Dylan Goodwin, the well known London Based genealogical mystery crime novelist. Nathan's latest effort, The Sawtooth Slayer is out. (And Fisher actually makes a fictitious appearance in it!) Nathan talks about the book, how he does what he does, and how you can get his latest thriller. Then, Nathan talks about plans he's made with YourDNAGuide, Diahan Southard, for the night before the opening of RootsTech, on March 1, 2023 in Salt Lake City. They'll be putting on a Murder Mystery event! Nathan shares where you can sign up. Then, BYUtv Producer Erik Christensen joins the show to talk about BYUtv's latest effort, sure to be a hit with family historians. It's called “How I Got Here,” which features family pairs, father or mother and son or daughter, who travel to the parent's homeland and learn about life before emigration. David then returns for two questions on Ask Us Anything. That's all this week on Extreme Genes, America's Family History Show!

News You Can Use and Share! The Genealogy Guys Learn subscription website has added several new written and video courses, with more coming regularly. You can subscribe at https://genealogyguyslearn.com/. MyHeritage released 22 new collections in June. Findmypast has added new records to its Middlesex Baptisms, Surrey Baptisms, and Greater London Burial Index collections. Drew highlights new and updated collections added at FamilySearch this week. DNA Segment Drew and DNA expert Diahan Southard discuss AncestryDNA's new SideView feature.  https://www.yourdnaguide.com/ydgblog/ancestrydna-sideview Vivid-Pix Memory Segment Drew interviews Allison Singleton of the Allen County Public Library about their plans to mobilize photo scanning to retirement facilities. Listener Email Kathy writes to thank George for his spot-on coverage of the 1950 U.S. Federal Census and what is and isn't available. Karen in Australia tells us the difference of update frequencies at Ancestry's ThruLines and MyHeritage's Theory of Family Relativity. Brian writes about digitizing your family history research as a method of guaranteeing that your work is preserved after you are gone. He also talks about surname binders and other organizational considerations. He suggests you check out the Ancestral Lines Pairing System at https://www.ancestrallines.net/overview/. Judith is interested in the possibility of obtaining records from the Orange Orphan Home in East Orange, Essex County, New Jersey. George responds to Jim about James Berry Holder [Sr.] and available records to verify both his birth and death dates. Mark shares his six-step plan for organizing his genealogical materials. It is a focused task list that can be used by anyone. Please Support Our Sponsors You can support our sponsors who bring these podcasts to you for free by visiting their links as follows: MyHeritage at https://www.myheritage.com/ RootsMagic at https://rootsmagic.com/ Vivid-Pix RESTORE at https://www.vivid-pix.com/restore/ Thank you to all our Patreon supporting members for their support. Your Patreon support helps us improve our technology and provide even more podcast content to you! You can join us for as little as $1 a month or as much as you'd like to contribute. Visit https://www.patreon.com/genealogyguys to get started. Please also tell your friends and your society about our free podcasts, our free blog, and our Genealogy Guys Learn subscription education website. Please let us hear from you at genealogyguys@gmail.com.

New You Can Use and Share! The Guys want to thank everyone in the genealogical community for supporting their decision to terminate sponsorship by Find a Grave and Newspapers.com (subsidiaries of Ancestry.com). MyHeritage announces the release of the addition of two significant record collections: Norway Emigration Registers, 1867-1973, and the Vienna, Austria, Jewish Emigrant Applications, 1938-1939. MyHeritage announces a new update to its Theory of Family Relativity. The Genealogist has added a link to their Map Explorer georeference facility to the 1891 Census for the UK. It allows you to jump from the census household record to a detailed map to see where your ancestors lived and explore the neighborhood. Findmypast has added half a million new records for Pennsylvania: List of British Prisoners in the War of Revolution; Episcopalian Births and Baptisms; Episcopalian Marriages; Episcopalian Deaths and Burials; and Episcopalian Congregational Records. DNA Segment DNA expert Diahan Southard returns to discuss with Drew a comparison of Ancestry's ThruLines and MyHeritage's Theory of Family Relativity. Vivid-Pix Memory Segment Drew interviews Hayley Studer, CEO of achi, to discuss achi's involvement with the study of using photographs to engage persons who have memory issues. Listener Email Mark shares information about how he has used social media to create private Facebook pages for relatives to share posts, photographs, and other information. Brian wrote to comment on the importance of sourcing all of the information you contribute to FamilySearch's Family Tree and to other online sites. Karin listens in Germany and wrote to comment about our previous discussion of African ancestry showing up in DNA results, and also shared two important online resources for German research: GEDBAS at https://gedbas.genealogy.net/?lang=en OFBs at https://ofb.genealogy.net/ Gigi wrote about having located prison records for one man at Ancestry and subsequently connecting with a half-second cousin (his daughter). Kate wrote to share her discovery of her great-uncle's prison records and mug shots at the California State Archive. Genealogy Guys Learn The Genealogy Guys Learn subscription site continues to grow. New content is regularly added, with another new video coming in early August. Subscribe to Genealogy Guys Learn at https://genealogyguyslearn.com/. Please Support Our Sponsors You can support our sponsors who bring these podcasts to you for free by visiting their links as follows: MyHeritage at https://www.myheritage.com/ RootsMagic at https://rootsmagic.com/ Vivid-Pix RESTORE at https://www.vivid-pix.com/restore/ Thank you to all our Patreon supporting members for their support. Your Patreon support helps us improve our technology and provide even more podcast content to you! You can join us for as little as $1 a month or as much as you'd like to contribute. Visit https://www.patreon.com/genealogyguys to get started. Please also tell your friends and your society about our free podcasts, our free blog, and our Genealogy Guys Learn subscription education website. Please let us hear from you at genealogyguys@gmail.com.

News You Can Use and Share! Family Tree Magazine announced their 101 Best Genealogy Websites for Genealogy for 2022, and the Genealogy Guys Podcast was again included. MyHeritage published 11 million new German historical records (Germany, Hesse, Deaths) MyHeritage added 1.3 billion historical records in 37 collections in April and May. The Genealogist is a tiered subscription website for English genealogical research at https://www.thegenealogist.com/. They have announced the addition of georeferenced maps for the 1901 census. These allow you to search to locate people in the census and then view a map that pinpoints the residence so that you can gain a visual perspective of the exact location. Findmypast has added: British Army, Recommendations for Military Honours and Awards, 1935-1990; South Africa, Local Armed Forces Nominal Rolls, 1899-1902; Britain, Campaign, Gallantry & Long Service Medals & Awards; England, Newspaper Birth Notices; England, Newspaper Marriage Notices; and England, Newspaper Death Notices. FamilySearch has published its 100,000th article on the FamilySearch Research Wiki. FamilySearch has announced that RootsTech 2023 will be a blended conference with both in-person and virtual presentations. Drew shares highlights of new historical records at FamilySearch. DNA Segment DNA expert Diahan Southard returns with a new discussion with Drew about Y-DNA. Listener Email Mark shares information about how his Eagle Scout group project mapped and transcribed tombstones in the Aldrich Family Cemetery in his Rhode Island hometown. They then cleared tons of small brush. He has recently worked to add missing entries to Find a Grave. Julie shared the 1950 U.S. Federal Census images with her parents. She downloaded the enumeration districts in which they lived. They enjoyed taking “a virtual” walk down the streets and remembering their neighbors, playmates, and schoolmates. Julie enjoyed their stories and learned a great deal about their lives. Bill writes about how he uses the FamilySearch Family Tree In conjunction with his desktop database and trees he has loaded to Ancestry and MyHeritage. Matt is seeking additional research strategies to obtain copies of a court case in Philadelphia for a 4th great-uncle. Tom wrote about himself, his mother, and a sister having a small trace of African-American ancestry at the GEDmatch site. The Ancestry DNA matches also show a small percentage. He wants to know more. Drew provides some advice, including the possibility that this may be “noise” in the matches. Curtis is looking for mug shots for his father's father since he was arrested and spent time in prison several times. Lynn asks about what to do with one's genealogy work as inheritance. Genealogy Guys Learn The Genealogy Guys Learn subscription site continues to grow. New content is regularly added, with another new video coming in early July. Subscribe to Genealogy Guys Learn at https://genealogyguyslearn.com/. Please Support Our Sponsors You can support our sponsors who bring these podcasts to you for free by visiting their links as follows: MyHeritage at https://www.myheritage.com/ RootsMagic at https://rootsmagic.com/ Vivid-Pix RESTORE at https://www.vivid-pix.com/restore/ Find a Grave at https://www.findagrave.com/?utm_source=referral&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=genealogyguys Newspapers.com at https://go.newspapers.com/radio.php?xid=4093&utm_source=referral&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=genealogyguys Thank you to all our Patreon supporting members for their support. Your Patreon support helps us improve our technology and provide even more podcast content to you! You can join us for as little as $1 a month or as much as you'd like to contribute. Visit https://www.patreon.com/genealogyguys to get started. Please also tell your friends and your local genealogy society about our free podcasts, our free blog, and our Genealogy Guys Learn subscription education website. Please let us hear from you at genealogyguys@gmail.com.

In this episode, Brianne interviews author Diahan Southard, creator of Your DNA Guide, who brings a much-needed dose of enthusiasm to the talk about genealogy, a biological parent search, and DNA testing! Diahan's perspective adds balance to the conversation about the role and value of DNA and how it connects us to relatives living and those already passed. Listen as Diahan shares how her own DNA story began, starting in the early 2000s when the world of genetic genealogy was just getting started! Diahan's PLAN for approaching DNA testing has five key steps. Learn what she means by: - Are you asking a good DNA question? - Are you testing the right person? - Are you taking the right kind of DNA test? - Have you chosen the right testing company? - Are you performing the appropriate kind of analysis? Diahan's step-wise approach to DNA testing helps people needing an organized approach, whether you're searching for biological relatives or are using it for your family's genealogy research. Confused by the various types of "cousin"? Diahan gives a clear explanation of the difference between a first, second, and more distant cousin and how the terms "removed" and "half" fit in. Wondering whether to test yourself or another relative for genealogical purposes? Diahan shares her reasoning for starting with a test on the oldest living relative who is willing to test. Trying to put pieces together to figure out who in a family is someone's biological father? We discuss the need to be slow and methodical as you go through results and so you don't jump to the wrong conclusion, like naming the wrong brother as someone's biological father. Overwhelmed by words you come across in the DNA world like mitochondria, autosomal DNA, centimorgan, or Y chromosome? Diahan takes the mystery out of these and other commonly used terms. If you decide DNA testing might hold the key to answering your questions, know that there are sites like YourDNAGuide that help you get going and unstuck along the way and sites like Watershed DNA when an unexpected finding comes along. Find a copy of the book Your DNA Guide on Amazon in paperback or e-book or directly from Diahan's site (use the code "WatershedDNA" for a 20% discount!) and follow Diahan on social media Instagram @diahansouthard Twitter @DNAdiahan Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/YourDNAGuide/ Find more resources and guidance on WatershedDNA.com. Sign up for the monthly newsletter and never miss a new episode or announcement! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/watershed-dna/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/watershed-dna/support

Host Scott Fisher opens the show with David Allen Lambert, Chief Genealogist of the New England Historic Genealogical Society and AmericanAncestors.org. The guys begin by talking about the recent article in the Financial Times of London (subscription required) in which Fisher is quoted talking about the coming release of the 1950 US Census. Others from the genealogical community were also interviewed for the piece. Then, David talks about a Minnesota woman who recently won a Swedish reality show. You'll love the prize she won! David then talks about a remarkable article just out on human life expectancy and how much it has changed. (Imagine a time when there were NO grandparents!) Then, explorer Ernest Shackleton's legendary ship, Endurance, has been found! Catch the details. Next… it's another week with another find behind a wall! And of course that was just the beginning of the story. And finally, Fisher shares great news for New York City researchers. The Department of Records & Information Services has just released a free database of over nine million digitized images of original birth, death and marriage records covering up to 1949. There are still four million to go and the search engine needs some work, but it's up and running! Next, Fisher visits, over two segments, with Diahan Southard, Your DNA Guide, who tackles the question “Is DNA just another tool?” You may already know the answer, but many others don't. Diahan will explain, and will talk about the strategies to help you use DNA to break through your brick walls. David then returns for a pair of questions on Ask Us Anything. The first has to do with the heir to a hoarder! The second talks about the find of an ancestor on a passenger list and what those names around his ancestor's may do for further research. That's all this week on Extreme Genes, America's Family History Show!

News You Can Use and Share! MyHeritage has published 5.8 million records from 28 collections from JewishGen (https://www.jewishgen.org/) made possible through a collaboration with the Museum of Jewish Heritage (https://mjhnyc.org/) and JewishGen. Ancestry announces the new Ancestry Stories on the Ancestry mobile app to combine photographs, shared historical records, and text to craft a story about an ancestor in your family tree. George shares an excellent online resource, Immigration History, at https://immigrationhistory.org/. Drew shares complete details about the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and the upcoming release of the 1950 U.S. Census on 1 April 2022. (See the NARA page at https://www.archives.gov/research/census/1950 RootsTech 2022 arrives this week on 3-5 March. Sign up for free at https://www.familysearch.org/rootstech/. Then enjoy connecting with other attendees at RootsTech Relatives at https://www.familysearch.org/en/connect/. Drew shares his regular recap of highlights of new historical records at FamilySearch. DNA Segment Drew discusses helping adopted people with DNA expert Diahan Southard. Resources for this discussion include: https://www.yourdnaguide.com/dna-birth-family DNA Mystery Match? How to Respond DNA Support Resources for Adoption and DNA Surprises (NPE) Handling Unexpected DNA Connections DNA Test Surprise: Breaking the News with Compassion Vivid-Pix Memory Segment Drew talks with Sue Kaufman, Senior Manager of the Clayton Library Center for Genealogical Research (part of the Houston Public Library) in Houston, Texas. Listener Email Drew follows up on Kendra's cemetery project work previously discussed in Episode #401. (The Zion Cemetery Project uses Trello as a database management tool.) Kendra works with the Randolph County Public Library in Asheboro, North Carolina. They have an interactive cemetery map at https://www.randolphlibrary.org/ under History & Genealogy>Randolph County Cemeteries (or https://randolphlibrary.libguides.com/c.php?g=710731&p=8447398). Pam asked about GEDmatch (https://www.gedmatch.com/) and the ability to specify that you do or do not want your data to be accessible by law enforcement. Sunni asked about headright, especially concerning her ancestor in Georgia, and asks why headrights might possibly only be partially executed. George provides an explanation of what a headright is and how some may not have been completed. Michael asks Drew about his Boddie/Bodie family. Drew provides lots of details and refers Michael to the book, Seventeenth Century Isle of Wight County Virginia, by John Bennett Boddie. Genealogy Guys Learn The Genealogy Guys Learn subscription site continues to grow. New content is added every month, and the March 2022 video is “Using AncestryDNA Today” by Drew Smith. You can subscribe at https://genealogyguyslearn.com/. Please Support Our Sponsors You can support our sponsors who bring these podcasts to you for free by visiting their links as follows: Find a Grave at https://www.findagrave.com/?utm_source=referral&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=genealogyguys MyHeritage at https://www.myheritage.com/ Newspapers.com at https://go.newspapers.com/radio.php?xid=4093&utm_source=referral&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=genealogyguys RootsMagic at https://rootsmagic.com/ Vivid-Pix RESTORE at https://www.vivid-pix.com/restore/ Thank you to all our Patreon supporting members. Your support helps us improve our technology and provide even more podcast content to you! You can join us for as little as $1 a month or as much as you'd like to contribute. Visit https://www.patreon.com/genealogyguys to get started. Please also tell your friends and your society about our free podcasts, our free blog, and our Genealogy Guys Learn subscription education website. Please let us hear from you at genealogyguys@gmail.com.

News You Can Use and Share! The National Institute for Dementia Education recognizes the value of Photo Recognition Therapy for dementia patients. Our sponsor Vivid-Pix is an integral participant in this effort. Read the full press release at http://blog.genealogyguys.com/2022/02/national-institute-for-dementia.html. MyHeritage has added a new Table View for search results. The Association of Professional Genealogists announced their new elected leadership. The Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy (SLIG) has announced its new director, Amberly Beck. MyHeritage has established the new Chris Darrington scholarship for the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy. Full details are available at https://slig.ugagenealogy.org/cpage.php?pt=620. Findmypast has published 2.1 million records for Berkshire, England, the Jamaican Manumission Index, and new records for Norfolk, England. FamilySearch announces its plans for 2022. FamilySearch announced its 1950 US Census Community Project and has invited volunteers to participate. See details at https://www.familysearch.org/en/info/us-census/1950-census/. Drew shares his regular recap of highlights of new historical records at FamilySearch. DNA Segment Drew and DNA expert Diahan Southard discuss whether the GEDmatch website still has a role to play. More details from Diahan are here: https://www.yourdnaguide.com/upload-to-gedmatch Vivid-Pix Memory Segment Drew talks with Joshua Freitas, Chief Research Officer of the CERTUS Institute (https://www.certusseniorliving.com/certus-institute) and Rick Voight, CEO of Vivid-Pix (https://www.vivid-pix.com/). Listener Email A number of listeners shared the way that they listen to the podcast, including Pocket Casts (https://www.pocketcasts.com/); Podcast Addict (https://podcastaddict.com/); Overcast (https://overcast.fm/); and Plex TV (https://www.plex.tv/). Pat describes genealogical research through the decades. Timo responds to our listener who is seeking to translate 300 letters written in French. He has used Transkribus (https://readcoop.eu/transkribus/) and their French translation module at https://readcoop.eu/model/french-general-model/. [A download is necessary.] Vic has used Fiverr (https://www.fiverr.com/) to locate translators and has worked with a French translator. Kendra is working on several African American projects, including slave schedules, a church, and a cemetery. She asked how the research on the Zion Cemetery Project is organized. Drew and George provide lots of details, and they invite listeners to share their project information. Zion Cemetery Project Drew presented at a community meeting on 16 February 2022 at the Tampa Bay History Center. Dr. Antoinette Jackson, the Anthropology Chair at the University of South Florida and primary investigator for the project, led the meeting. She showcased the Black Cemetery Network (https://blackcemeterynetwork.org/) which was created to provide a coordinated place for Black cemetery research and preservation projects. The Guys urge our listeners to check the site, join, and to share details about projects in their areas. The first funeral in 100 years was held at Zion Cemetery on 17 February 2022. It was held to commemorate Anna Rebecca Wyche. Read the article from the Tampa Tribune at https://www.tampabay.com/life-culture/history/2022/02/17/100-years-after-the-black-cemetery-was-erased-tampas-zion-hosts-a-funeral/. Genealogy Guys Learn The Genealogy Guys Learn subscription site continues to grow. New content is added every month. You can subscribe at https://genealogyguyslearn.com/. Please Support Our Sponsors You can support our sponsors who bring these podcasts to you for free by visiting their links as follows: Find a Grave at https://www.findagrave.com/?utm_source=referral&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=genealogyguys MyHeritage at https://www.myheritage.com/ Newspapers.com at https://go.newspapers.com/radio.php?xid=4093&utm_source=referral&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=genealogyguys RootsMagic at https://rootsmagic.com/ Vivid-Pix RESTORE at https://www.vivid-pix.com/restore/ Thank you to all our Patreon supporting members for their support. Your Patreon support helps us improve our technology and provide even more podcast content to you! You can join us for as little as $1 a month or as much as you'd like to contribute. Visit https://www.patreon.com/genealogyguys to get started. Please also tell your friends and your society about our free podcasts, our free blog, and our Genealogy Guys Learn subscription education website. Please let us hear from you at genealogyguys@gmail.com.

Host Scott Fisher opens the show with David Allen Lambert, Chief Genealogist of the New England Historic Genealogical Society and AmericanAncestors.org. Family Histoire News begins with word of another major acquisition for (sponsor) Ancestry.com. This may be a big one for you if you have French ancestry. Hear all about it. Then, the Salem Witch Trials have been revisited by some middle schoolers who want to make a change in history. Catch what they're up to! Meanwhile, another “archive in the attic” has been located… and it's a big one! Hundreds of pages of documents of the enslaved that go back to the 1600s. And they were almost thrown out! Neanderthals are making news again with another discovery. Were they the first to have a local grocery store? David explains. And finally… by next year, we may well have a database of millions of graves in England covering 19,000 Anglican churchyards. Get the particulars. Next, Diahan Southard, Your DNA Guide, talks about endogamy in DNA. What really defines it and how do you deal with it should you run across it? Diahan has some helpful thoughts. Then, she talks about mitochondrial DNA, that test that follows the female direct line. How is that test best used? Diahan explains. Then, it's the Photo Detective Maureen Taylor. Maureen is part of a small organization called the Family History Metadata Working Group. Their interest is to get major databases and companies to standardize how metadata tied to photos is transferred to any and all sites when you upload your photos. (Who wants to add all that info more than once?!) Hear how you can help. Then David returns as he and Fisher tackle listener questions on the War of 1812 and a haul of old family postcards on Ask Us Anything. That's all this week on Extreme Genes, America's Family History Show!

Mirasee FM producer Cynthia Lamb chooses her favorite episode of the season to run again during the holiday break. Hear how industry pioneer Diahan Southard created an online course about DNA results that was fascinating and understandable.

In this episode, genealogist and author Judy Nimer Muhn discusses how to research ancestors who who belonged to one of the United States' five largest indigenous tribes today: Navajo, Cherokee, Sioux, Chippewa and Choctaw. Plus, Diahan Southard is back to shed some light on DNA Painter and what third-party DNA tools can tell you about your genetic ancestry.

Do you feel a spiritual connection to your ancestors? In this episode, our host Lisa Louise Cooke interviews author Lori Erickson about the connection between genealogy and spirituality. Plus, our DNA expert Diahan Southard is back to discuss how and why ethnicity estimates change, and we take a look at a Facebook group that returns lost family heirlooms to their rightful homes.

Diahan Southard is a pioneer in the world of DNA testing and family history. She founded Your DNA Guide as a way to teach anyone with DNA how to use it to find out more about themselves and their family. She is the author of Your DNA Guide - the Book, and creator of Your DNA Guide - the Academy, an online learning platform. She spends all her spare time with her three kids and especially looks forward to date night with her handsome husband. Jayne has 23 years of experience in the field of genetic genealogy. She had the extraordinary experience of being mentored by Dr. Scott Woodward and his visionary team that took shape in the earliest days of this burgeoning field. She has been a part of nearly every stage of driving the discovery process forward: field specimen collection, marker selection and assay design, data management and computational processes, analysis, and algorithms, and investigating population-level research questions. She has lectured throughout the United States and international venues on the applications of molecular biology to elucidating ancient and recent genealogical connections. She has authored and co-authored many peer-reviewed scientific publications, as well as general articles on genetic genealogy. It is a pleasure for her to see the accelerating developments in genetic genealogy, and the wide accessibility and application it has for the average human curious about their origins. Listen to Jayne and Diahan, as they discuss with Ellen and Jen: • How the two started out as college friends embarking on a research project together. • How DNA is analyzed and what the results really mean. • Ethnicity results and the clues of family history and groups or communities. • Medical genealogy with DNA testing, possibilities and current challenges. • Issues of anonymity with DNA testing. • Differences between DNA testing companies: values, terms and conditions, and what the companies do with your information. • How does knowledge of your genetic connections affect and/or define your relationships. Want to share your story or ask a question? Call and leave us a message on our hotline: 303-997-1903. Learn more about our podcast: https://iwanttoputababyinyou.com/ Learn more about our surrogacy agencies: https://www.brightfuturesfamilies.com/ Get your IWTPABIY merch here! https://iwanttoputababyinyou.com/merch Learn more about Ellen's law firm: http://trachmanlawcenter.com/ Recommended links: Book Link: https://www.yourdnaguide.com/your-dna-guide-the-book First article in in-depth series about ethnicity results: https://www.yourdnaguide.com/ydgblog/2019/4/15/dna-ethnicity-changes-thats-not-what-it-said-before free download about finding birth parents: https://www.yourdnaguide.com/dna-birth-family

Host Scott Fisher opens the show with David Allen Lambert, Chief Genealogist of the New England Historic Genealogical Society and AmericanAncestors.org. Family Histoire News begins with word of another major acquisition for (sponsor) Ancestry.com. This may be a big one for you if you have French ancestry. Hear all about it. Then, the Salem Witch Trials have been revisited by some middle schoolers who want to make a change in history. Catch what they're up to! Meanwhile, another “archive in the attic” has been located… and it's a big one! Hundreds of pages of documents of the enslaved that go back to the 1600s. And they were almost thrown out! Neanderthals are making news again with another discovery. Were they the first to have a local grocery store? David explains. And finally… by next year, we may well have a database of millions of graves in England covering 19,000 Anglican churchyards. Get the particulars. Next, Diahan Southard, Your DNA Guide, talks about endogamy in DNA. What really defines it and how do you deal with it should you run across it? Diahan has some helpful thoughts. Then, she talks about mitochondrial DNA, that test that follows the female direct line. How is that test best used? Diahan explains. Then, it's the Photo Detective Maureen Taylor. Maureen is part of a small organization called the Family History Metadata Working Group. Their interest is to get major databases and companies to standardize how metadata tied to photos is transferred to any and all sites when you upload your photos. (Who wants to add all that info more than once?!) Hear how you can help. Then David returns as he and Fisher tackle listener questions on the War of 1812 and a haul of old family postcards on Ask Us Anything. That's all this week on Extreme Genes, America's Family History Show!

How do you create an online course about DNA and make it interesting and understandable? In this episode of Course Lab, Mirasee's Danny Iny and Ruzuku's Abe Crystal talk with course creator and industry pioneer, Diahan Southard, about her course “Your DNA Guide.”

In this episode we discuss Genetic Genealogy by explaining what is genetic genealogy as opposed to traditional Genealogy, and how can we use both to work out the precise genetic relationships. I discuss who can benefit from Genetic Genealogy, how we can use it to proof our paper trail, and the existence of various types of DNA test and their purpose. I interview Diahan Southard a leading voice for consumer DNA testing, founder of Your DNA Guide, and author of Your DNA Guide the Book. Diahan answers some of the most sought out questions from the Cuban Genealogy community. She explain how to put things into perspective when it comes to having many DNA matches. In addition, She discusses a case and how she was able to help an individual using "Your DNA Guide". --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/aileen092/message

Do you want a career as a genetic genealogist? In today's episode three of the top genetic genealogists - Angie Bush, Blaine Bettinger and Diahan Southard - let you peek behind the curtain to see what their jobs are really like.   Show notes: https://www.thegenealogyprofessional.com/genetic-genealogy/

BLACK FRIDAY SALE! Use code BLACKFRIDAY for 25% off until November 30th for my VITAL RECORDS 101 online course and my full beginner online course MORE THAN A NAME..................................................................................................DNA and family history is so huge right now! But how can you use it to help build your family tree? Listen to this interview with Diahan Southard of YourDNAGuide.com where she explains what you need to know as you start to use DNA testing in your family history research.In this episode we discuss:what type of DNA test you should getwhat to do first after you've taken a DNA testwhat centimorgans are and how many matterthe differences between autosomal, Y-DNA, and mitochondrial DNAwhat to do when surprises are discoveredtop three pieces of advice for someone getting started with DNA and family historySee? We covered a lot! Be sure to listen and check out all of the goodness that Diahan has to offer in the links below!Learn and connect with Diahan:YourDNAGuide.comYourDNAGuide The BookDNA Quick Reference GuidesYourDNAGuide MentoringFollow Diahan on Instagram (@diahansouthard) Connect with me:Instagram @moderngenealogyFacebookWebsiteYouTubeRemember to use code BLACKFRIDAY for 25% off both of my online courses until Monday November 30th 2020:Go to moderngenealogy.ca/course for Vital Records 101Got to moderngenealogy.ca/fullcourse for my full beginner course More Than A Name

Discussion with Diahan Southard author of "Your DNA Guide: the book." How to successfully use DNA in genealogical research

My friend Diahan joins us to talk about her work to understand the DNA industry and interpret DNA results. Diahan, a noted author and national speaker, is a leading expert in her field addresses key questions that result from DNA results such as new family relationships. Diahan also talks about DNA and LGBTQ families. Please check out Diahan’s company web site at https://www.yourdnaguide.com or FB page at https://www.facebook.com/YourDNAGuide You can reach Diahan at guide@yourDNAguide.com Thanks for being on the podcast Diahan and all your great work!

Diahan talks about her role as the founder of Your DNA Guide and helping people uncover their heritage and sometimes their secrets. 

Host Scott Fisher opens the show with Your DNA Guide Diahan Southard filling in for David Allen Lambert. Diahan talks about the newfound benefits with the latest edition of Dr. Blaine Bettinger’s Shared cM Project. Next, Fisher and Diahan talk about a great new article on Civil War female spies. Things apparently haven’t changed much in the last hundred years as Fisher shares a story about a California mayor who got in big trouble for not wearing a mask during the Spanish Flu pandemic. Next, Fisher visits with Beverly Hewett. Ten years ago she learned from her beloved Dad that he was not her biological father. She turned to DNA five years ago, and just this past week her bio-father was identified. She explains what she learned along the way to final achieve “the big reveal.” Then, Fisher catches up with Melissa Barker, “The Archive Lady” of Houston County, Tennessee. Melissa’s been a busy archivist during the pandemic. She tells us about some great things are awaiting us when we get to the back end of the lockdown at archives everywhere. CeCe Moore, star of the ABC-TV Series “The Genetic Detective” then talks about the next episode of her show. She calls the featured case her “favorite” because it results in the exoneration of a convicted killer, and the identification of the real killer. Diahan Southard then returns for Ask Us Anything. Naturally, it’s a question about DNA. That’s all this week on Extreme Genes, America’s Family History Show!

Family Tree Magazine announced the 101 Best Genealogy Websites of 2020 and The Genealogy Guys Podcast was on the list. Thank you! The Genealogy Guys and Vivid-Pix announce two exciting programs: The Unsung Heroes Societies Grant Program will award grants to two societies each year to facilitate their digitizing, indexing, and transcribing photographs and documents. Each grantee will receive a high-quality scanner, a backup and online storage software package, and two copies of Vivid-Pix RESTORE software to improve the legibility of documents and the color/contrast of photographs, and to add image tags and other important information to the image metadata. Each grant package is valued at $500. The Unsung Heroes Awards Program continues to recognize individuals, societies, and libraries for their work in digitizing, indexing, and transcribing photographs and documents and for making that work accessible to the genealogical community. Award winners will receive a commemorative certificate, a customized mug that can include an image of their choice, and a copy of Vivid-Pix RESTORE. Individual winners will also receive a one-year subscription to Genealogy Guys Learn. Grant applications and award nominations are due by midnight EDT on 1 August 2020. Full details are available on our blog at http://blog.genealogyguys.com/2020/05/the-genealogy-guys-podcast-and-vivid.html. News You Can Use and Share MyHeritage is seeking users of their mobile app with more than 100 individuals in the app to observe their behaviors while using the Discoveries feature. Users will be interviewed while using the app. If interested in helping out, contact Keren Szabason, the Product Designer, at keren.szabason@myheritage.com. MyHeritage launched an exclusive new collection: Germany, North Rhine Westphalia, Death Index 1870-1940. MyHeritage has introduced Cross-Language Record Matches to help users locate ancestors' records in different and often unexpected languages. Joel Weintraub has been working in advance of the release of the 1950 U.S. Federal Census. He has created YouTube videos about that, as well as other topics such as immigration. Visit https://tinyurl.com/ycsg7af8 for a page showing the title of the videos, running time, and YouTube address of each of the videos Vivid-Pix brings back memories of family reunions past and makes new reunion memories for this year. See our blog post at http://blog.genealogyguys.com/2020/06/relive-past-reunions-create-this-years.html for all the details. The FamilySearch Family Tree has added support for the entry of same-sex couples. BillionGraves has launched a new feature called QualityCheck to improve the accuracy of its searchable cemetery inscriptions. The Family History Show in the UK has moved online at https://thefamilyhistoryshow.com/online. It will be held on 20 June 2020. Early-bird registration is now available. All content on British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk is currently free through 30 September 2020. See their blog at https://blog.history.ac.uk/2020/03/british-history-online-makes-all-research-content-free-to-individual-users/. Findmypast has added 1939 Register Map Search. Findmypast has added new and additional content to: British Army Service Records; Royal Engineers Journals (1939-1945); Royal Air Force, Operations Record Books (1939-1945); Royal Air Force, Combat Reports (1939-1945); England & Wales, Electoral Registers (19201932); Britain, Histories & Reference Guides; Canadian Directories & Almanacs; and Canada, Ontario, Toronto Emigrant Office Records Index. Drew recaps new record additions, updates, and indexes at FamilySearch. DNA Segment with Diahan Southard Drew and Diahan talk about why someone might not share any ethnicity with a DNA match. https://www.yourdnaguide.com/ethnicity-results Cyndi Says Cyndi Ingle discusses her own website, Cyndi's List! Our Listeners Talk to Us Lisa Tompson of the Martin County [Florida] Genealogical Society tells us what their society is doing to conduct meetings these days. Jeff shared information with Drew about Private William Boddy in the Civil War. He provided a link to Boddy's journal: http://new.webfreemanual.asia/?q=Private+william+boddys+civil+war+journal+by+william+boddy&ref=cespolora.duckdns.org&base=pdfmans. Bruce is researching the Sailors' Snug Harbor retirement home on Staten Island, New York (1833-1976) and the mariners buried there. He is compiling information and stories, and listeners are encouraged to email us if they'd like to contact Bruce about his project. Floreen wrote about Drew's interview with Diahan Southard and about her own DNA research into her great-grandfather. Judy wrote to alert people that if you are paying for someone else's DNA test, make sure you will have access to the information. The Genealogy Guys are available for webinars using Zoom, a simple-to-use online video meeting tool that handles up to 100 people logged in at a time. Our catalog of Genealogy Topics is available at https://ahaseminars.com along with information about Genealogy Webinars. Contact us to schedule a webinar for your society. Thank you again to our Patreon supporters! You can support us at https://patreon.com/genealogyguys. You can also tell your friends or your society about our free podcasts, our blog, and our Genealogy Guys Learn subscription education website. Send us email at genealogyguys@gmail.com.

MyHeritage is offering our podcast listeners and blog readers a discount on their Complete collection through 29 May 2020. (New subscribers only.) Regularly $300.00, the price is $213.87, a great deal for all family researchers! Read our blog at http://blog.genealogyguys.com/2020/05/myheritage-offers-special-price-for.html for the details and your order form. We appreciate your feedback on our new microphones. We're working on techniques and welcome your comments. We welcome Diahan Southard to the podcast in the regular DNA Segment feature with Drew Smith. She is a leading voice for consumer DNA testing from her position as Founder of Your DNA Guide. Diahan teaches internationally, consults with leading testing companies and forensics experts, and is the author of Your DNA Guide: The Book. News You Can Use and Share MyHeritage recapped the additions to its collections for April and George shares those. MyHeritage has just added three new Greek collections: Greek Electoral Rolls (1863-1924); Corfu Vital Records (1841-1932); and Sparta Marriages (1835-1935) including images of licenses and the marriage register. Findmypast has added records: Durham Home Guard (1939-1945); Faces of the Fallen (1939-1945); UK Electoral Registers & Companies House Directors (2002-2020)' The War Illustrated (1938-1947); U.S. National Veterans Cemetery Index; Georgia WWII Draft Registration Cards (1940-1942); and additional Louisiana Draft Cards. Drew recaps new record additions, updates, and indexes at FamilySearch. DNA Segment with Diahan Southard Drew asks Diahan about why DNA testing companies give us two different numbers for each of our matches, and whether or not both numbers matter. Learn more about shared centimorgans and segment length at YourDNAGuide.com. Cyndi Says Cyndi Ingle shares some quick text tips for your computer! Keyboard tools: CheatSheet (Mac), https://mediaatelier.com/CheatSheet/ TypeIt, https://www.typeit.org Keyboard Maestro (Mac), https://www.keyboardmaestro.com AutoHotkey (Windows),  https://www.autohotkey.com Keyboard shortcuts in Windows,  https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12445/windows-keyboard-shortcuts Text expanders:  TextExpander (Windows or Mac and a Chrome extension), https://textexpander.com QuickKey (Mac),  http://quickkey-app.com Keyboard Maestro (Mac),   https://www.keyboardmaestro.com TypeIt4me (Mac),  https://www.ettoresoftware.com/mac-apps/typeit4me/ FastFox (Windows or Mac),  https://www.nch.com.au/fastfox/index.html 9 Best Text Expander Apps for Windows (Free and Paid), https://techwiser.com/text-expander-apps-for-windows/ Browser extensions and add-ons: Auto Text Expander for Google Chrome, https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/auto-text-expander-for-go/iibninhmiggehlcdolcilmhacighjamp Auto Text Expander for Firefox, https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/auto-text-expander/ Text Blaze for Google Chrome,  https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/text-blaze/idgadaccgipmpannjkmfddolnnhmeklj ProKeys for Google Chrome,  https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/prokeys/ekfnbpgmmeahnnlpjibofkobpdkifapn Shortkeys (Custom Keyboard Shortcuts) for Firefox, https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/shortkeys/ Our Listeners Talk to Us Michael discusses his big descendancy research project and has traced thousands of descendants for only several of eight brothers. Our listeners are encouraged to email us to share suggestions and to discuss their own similar projects. Sara commented on research logs and timeline software we discussed on 3 December 2019. She hasn't found the right research logs for her work. Suggestions from listeners are welcome for us to share with her. Tom is looking for a DNA researcher to analyze his wife's matches. He is looking for her father from ca. 1925 in Reno, Nevada. Anonymous is a younger member of a genealogical society. She and a few others have suggested virtual seminars/webinars but the proposition has fallen on deaf ears. She is seeking suggestions for how to move the society forward and to develop and sustain it. The Genealogy Guys are available for webinars using Zoom, a simple-to-use online video meeting tool that handles up to 100 people logged in at a time. Our catalog of Genealogy Topics is available at https://ahaseminars.com/ along with information about Genealogy Webinars. Contact us to schedule a webinar for your society. Thank you again to our Patreon supporters! You can support us at https://patreon.com/genealogyguys. You can also tell your friends or your society about our free podcasts, our blog, and our Genealogy Guys Learn subscription education website. Send us email at genealogyguys@gmail.com.

Fisher visits with the woman behind Your DNA Guide, Diahan Southard. Diahan answers the question that everyone asks… What’s next in DNA?

The Genealogy Guys Learn site (https://genealogyguyslearn.com/) April sale ends at midnight Eastern U.S. Time on 30 April. Look for details and instructions on the Genealogy Guys Blog on March 31 and at http://blog.genealogyguys.com/2020/04/the-genealogy-guys-learn-is-on-sale-for.html. Don't miss your opportunity to get written and video education and more at a bargain price, and new content is added every month. News You Can Use and Share MyHeritage makes its entire yearbook collection available for free through 23 May 2020, and you can now display pages and photos in color as well as black-and-white. AncestryDNA has added many new communities around the world, and their ethnic estimate research panel has been updated to include indigenous communities in Australia. Drew discusses Ancestry's records and developments in the coming months. The National Archives in the UK has announced that it is offering free access to its records. Check their blog at https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/about/news/digital-downloads/. A list of records available can be found at https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/?research-category=online. Findmypast has added Northumberland Baptisms and Marriages, Durham Baptisms, Surry Burials, and more. Drew recaps new record additions, updates, and indexes at FamilySearch. DNA Segment with Blaine T. Bettinger Blaine explains what a centimorgan is, who it is named for, and why it's important. Cyndi Says Cyndi Ingle discusses why working with others is so important to genealogical research. Our Listeners Talk to Us Tom discusses the recent interview with Diahan Southard and whether or not he needs her new book. Vance recounts his family's excitement at developing the family's tree, information found on our podcast episode # 295 (4 October 2015), and recording telephone calls with relatives. Organize Your Books with LibraryThing Drew reminds you to “Organize Your Books” as he wrote about on Day 11 of his January Getting Organized series of blog posts (http://blog.genealogyguys.com/2020/01/day-11-organize-your-books.html). The Guys then discuss LibraryThing (https://www.librarything.com/) and the ease of cataloguing your entire collection of books. As of 18 March 2020, LibraryThing is free and allows you to add an unlimited number of books. You can tag and organize your books into groups. There is a LibraryThing app for the Apple iOS that allows you take it with you anywhere. The app allows you to snap an image of the ISBN and immediately add the book to your library. Pre-ISBN books also are easily added using a search of author and partial title. George reminds you to back up your browser bookmarks. Thank you again to our Patreon supporters! You can support us at https://patreon.com/genealogyguys. You can also tell your friends or your society about our free podcasts, our blog, and our Genealogy Guys Learn subscription education website.

Diahan Southard is the founder and CEO of yourdnaguide.com. After getting bitten by the DNA bug as a high school student, Diahan went on to study at Brigham Young University where she earned a bachelors degree in microbiology. She worked for the Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation, one of the first efforts to create a correlated genetic and genealogical database. She is the founder and CEO of Your DNA Guide, where she walks people step by step through any kind of DNA test in a way that they can understand—and even enjoy! She has lectured around the world to national and local audiences. She is the author of several quick guides on genetic genealogy, a featured writer for Family Tree Magazine, a regular contributor to Genealogy Today, a former contributor to Genealogy Gems, and contributor to several other publications. She is also the author of the book Your DNA Guide. In the episode we talk about her conversion as a teen, what genealogy means to her, what drives her passion for DNA and genealogy study and the eternal perspective of it all. Diahan is so energetic and engaging. You will love her story!

Drew brings back Diahan Southard to Genealogy Connection in order to discuss Diahan's new book, Your DNA Guide: the Book. Diahan explains how the book is structured and outlines the 4 basic DNA research concepts that have made her own work successful. More information about the book can be found at https://www.yourdnaguide.com/your-dna-guide-the-book Diahan's previous interview can be found in Genealogy Connection #047: http://genealogyguys.com/genealogy-connection-047-diahan-southard-dna-expert-speaker-and-writer

Host Scott Fisher opens the show with David Allen Lambert, Chief Genealogist of the New England Historic Genealogical Society and AmericanAncestors.org. The guys begin the show talking about a remarkable new tool from MyHeritage.com which allows you colorize your old photos! Everyone is having a blast with it as it works well for most photos.  Fisher and David talk about some of the emotion they felt seeing their old photos in a whole new way. David then announces his appearance on the History Channel on February 19th talking about Black Patriots for Black History Month. The show is hosted by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.  Next, an African-American cemetery from the colonial era is getting the DNA treatment. A company in Texas hopes to identify descendants of those interred in the cemetery in New Hampshire. The guys then talk about the recent find of underground Nazi bunkers near the beaches of Normandy. Hear what was in them.  David is excited that NEHGS has received a collection of Roosevelt family papers from the family of Theodore Roosevelt. Hear what the collection contains. David’s blogger spotlight shines on Carl Benedict McCarthy of New York City. Find his blog at ofaplace.com. Next, Fisher visits with Diahan Southard, Your DNA Guide, who has written a book to help you strategize on meeting your DNA research goals. It is called “Your DNA Guide, The Book.” It is in presale right now at YourDNAGuide.com and you’ll be able to get your signed copy at RootsTech! Diahan explains how various DNA research goals require different strategies. She will share a couple. Then, Fisher visits with Memory Web co-founder Chris Desmond who talks about some strategies for organizing, digitizing and sharing your family photo collection. He also explains how the Memory Web app simplifies organization like no one else can. Sabin Streeter is in this week from PBS, filling in for Dr. Henry Louis Gates, talking about the latest episode of Finding Your Roots.  Sabin shares some remarkable stories from the show, one that is particularly fascinating concerning the origins of an ancestor of Tonight Show drummer Questlove. Then, David Allen Lambert returns for another Ask Us Anything listener question. This one has to do with the War of 1812. That’s all this week on Extreme Genes- America’s Family History Show!

Host Scott Fisher opens the show with David Allen Lambert, Chief Genealogist of the New England Historic Genealogical Society and AmericanAncestors.org. David begins with news that former CBS News anchor, Dan Rather, was recently presented with a lifetime achievement award and his family history by NEHGS. Then, the guys talk about a family that has had a male descendant of the same name, now, for ten straight generations! Might an eleventh be on tap? Next, who would imagine that Bonnie and Clyde are still making news 85 years after being gunned down. Find out what’s happening.  Fisher and David then talk about one family where Muhammad Ali wasn’t the only notable relative. Find out what they recently learned about The Champ’s direct ancestor. Then, two late 19th century London figures of note… The Elephant Man and Jack The Ripper… are receiving new attention. Catch the latest. 60 Minutes recently did a piece involving family history… but who knew it was all over Easter Island? Find out from the guys what’s been learned. Fisher then visits with the woman behind Your DNA Guide, Diahan Southard. Diahan answers the question that everyone asks… What’s next in DNA? Fisher and Diahan talk about the recent changes in ethnicity test results and new tools from the various companies to help us make the connections we’re looking for. Brandt Gibson from Legacy Tree Genealogists then joins the show to discuss a recent research case for a client, and how they were able to reunite an adoptee with a delighted birth father. Then David Allen Lambert returns for another Ask Us Anything segment answering questions about Civil War service and pension records and how you might be able to personally handle your Revolutionary War ancestor’s original records! That’s all this week on Extreme Genes, America’s Family History Show!

Raise your hand if you've taken a DNA test or given one to a family member.  Joining me this week is Diahan Southard, Your DNA Guide.   She's among the industry leaders teaching us about how to use DNA for family history research.  You won't forget one of Diahan's lectures!

Host Scott Fisher opens the show with David Allen Lambert, Chief Genealogist of the New England Historic Genealogical Society and AmericanAncestors.org. The guys begin by discussing an email from a listener who has discovered through DNA that she has a new cousin… one who was fathered by her uncle with his former girlfriend. The cousin thinks the results are a mistake. Then the story takes a real twist! Hear what it is. Then, in Family Histoire News, David talks about a recent gathering of descendants of United States Presidents, including one who is a GRANDSON of a president who was born in 1790! Hear which president he comes through. David’s Blogger Spotlight this week shines on the University of Portsmouth in the UK. It’s a website that can be reached at RailwayAccidents.port.ac.uk and they’re documenting all the railway accidents and the railway deaths of the 20th century there!  David then talks about his upcoming appearance at Family History Fanatics. He’ll be their guest on September 22nd 2018. Find out more at Humblegen.org. Next, Relative Race returns to BYUtv for Season 4 on Sunday September 16th at 9pm ET, 6pm PT. Fisher visits with Relative Race host Dan Debenham about what we can expect this season from this geni favorite reality show. DNA specialist Diahan Southard then joins Fisher to talk about ethnicity tests. People are often confused by their results and Diahan explains why they might not come out the way you think they would. She also reveals a recent update in ethnicity numbers with one of the major companies. Hear who it is and what to look for! Then, Tom Perry, the Preservation Authority from TMCPlace.com, reveals some of his favorite apps as he prepares you for the best way to complete your holiday family history projects. That’s all this week on Extreme Genes, America’s Family History Show!

The Genealogy Gems Podcast Episode #221 with Lisa Louise Cooke Live from FGS 2018! Lisa chats with a podcast listener, talks about vital records with Shannon Combs-Bennett and welcomes a drop-by guest, Daniel Horowitz of MyHeritage.com. Other episode highlights: Fantastic news from RootsTech; A great new resource from Library & Archives Canada; An update from Your DNA Guide Diahan Southard on MyHeritage DNA tools; The long-awaited conclusion of Project Lizzie. LIVE FROM FGS! Lisa records the podcast in the exhibit hall with guest Shannon Combs-Bennett and a live studio audience LIVE MAILBOX: CHATTING WITH JEANNETTE Jeannette from Niagara County Genealogical Society, shown here (left) with Lisa The FGS conference supports the missions and activities of genealogical societies. Learn more about FGS and find a genealogical society near you . Genealogy Gems supports societies, too! Society memberships and reprintable articles for your newsletters. Go to the Societies dropdown menu on GenealogyGems.com: If your society is interested in hosting Lisa Louise Cooke for a seminar, go to the Seminars tab and click Book Lisa. INTERVIEW: SHANNON COMBS-BENNETT ON VITAL RECORDS Learn more about using vital records in your research in the free INTERVIEW: DANIEL HOROWITZ FROM MYHERITAGE As MyHeritage's Genealogy Expert, Daniel Horowitz provides key contributions in the product development, customer support and public affairs areas. He holds board level positions at the Israel Genealogy Research Association (IGRA) and the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS) among others. Daniel served as teacher and study guide editor for 15 years for the family history project "Searching for My Roots" in Venezuela. Who: Daniel Horowitz, Lisa Louise Cooke and MORE great presenters! What: Where: Oslo, Norway at the Radisson Blu Scandinavia hotel When: November 2-4, 2018 It's open to anyone who would like to learn more about MyHeritage – including subscribers, DNA customers, those with free basic accounts, and those who haven't used MyHeritage yet but would like to find out more. Tickets include entry to the Friday night reception, keynote speeches, all conference sessions, lunch and coffee breaks on Saturday and Sunday and entry to the exclusive MyHeritage LIVE party on Saturday night. Now through September 24, register for Early Bird discount price of €75.00.  is the place to make connections with relatives overseas, particularly with those who may still live in your ancestral homeland. : it's free to get started.     Subscribe to the free Genealogy Gems newsletter to receive a free weekly email with tips, inspiration and money-saving deals. to subscribe! LIVE MAILBOX: ADRIANNE KEEPS CONNECTED WITH PODCAST may also listen to an interview with Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective, in . She's the author of , a must-have resource for identifying old photographs. BONUS CONTENT for Genealogy Gems App Users Link to: If you're listening through the Genealogy Gems app, your bonus content for this episode is a short but inspiring story from someone who came to one of my classes and then went and found something cool on YouTube relating to her family's employment with airline TWA….Don't miss it! The and is only $2.99 for . Lisa Louise Cooke uses and recommends . From within RootsMagic, you can search historical records on FamilySearch.org, Findmypast.com and MyHeritage.com. Keep your family history research, photos, tree software files, videos and all other computer files safely backed up with Backblaze, the official cloud-based computer backup system for Lisa Louise Cooke's Genealogy Gems. Learn more at . NEWS: ROOTSTECH GOES TO LONDON RootsTech will host an event in London from 24–26 October 2019 at the ExCeL London Convention Centre. Registration opens in February 2019. Find out more about RootsTech London 2019 at . NEWS: THE “UNCONFERENCE” EXPERIENCE Lisa Louise Cooke, Diahan Southard, and Sunny Morton will share a stage on October 4-5, 2018 at the SeniorExpo in Sandy, Utah. (Psst: You don't have to be a senior to attend!) Here's the scoop—and a special registration discount! Who: Lisa Louise Cooke, Diahan Southard, and Sunny Morton What: Genealogy Roots: The Un-Conference Experience! at SeniorExpo Where: Mountain America Expo Center (South Towne Expo Center), 9081 S. State St., Sandy, Utah When: October 4-5, 2018, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm   THE ARCHIVE LADY: LIBRARY ARCHIVES CANADA CO LAB The Library and Archives of Canada (LAC) has introduced a brand-new crowd sourcing opportunity for genealogists or anyone interested in records transcription: . The LAC has put a call out for volunteers to be part of a collaborative project to transcribe, add keywords and image tags, translate content from an image or document and add descriptions to digitized images using “Co-Lab” and the new “Collection Search”. The more volunteers that participate in this project, the more accessible and usable the digital collection will become for everyone. You can become a contributor in two ways: Take on a “challenge” of images put together by experts at LAC Use the new Collection Search to find materials that matter most to you, then enhance them. Anyone can now contribute to digitized images that are found while doing research. The volunteer must register and create a user account so you can keep track of the records to which you have contributed. Once this free account is established, a volunteer can contribute as much or as little as they would like. The “Challenges” are content put together under a theme. For instance, under the “Challenges” tab on the website you could choose to transcribe the “Correspondence between Sir Robert Borden and Sir Sam Hughes” The theme for this challenge is listed as “military heritage.” Or another “Challenge” someone might choose could be “New France and Indigenous Relations” whose theme is listed as “Aboriginal Heritage.” There are also new “Challenges” being posted to the site, so check back often. Maybe you would like to contribute using Collection Search. The website describes how this tool works: “When you are conducting research using our new search tool and find images, you'll see that you have the option to enable this image for Co-Lab contributions. After answering just a few short questions, you can enable an image found in Collection Search for Co-Lab use and transcribe/translate/tag/describe to your heart's content.” There is a short tutorial to get you started and show you the ropes. The launch of Co-Lab also introduces a new image viewer, which allows you to zoom in on different parts of the image or move around the image itself. This tool is useful when transcribing or adding keywords and image tags to describe all the small details. Every image in Co-Lab is subject to review by other members. If something is found to be incorrect or if you find something that is wrong, it can be marked as “Needs Review” for others to take another look and decide what is correct. The best part about this new Library and Archives Canada tool is that every contribution by the volunteers benefits fellow genealogy researchers and improves records access. Every additional tag or translation becomes new metadata and is searchable within 24 hours of the transcriptions or tagging being done. So, if you are like me and are eager to get as much genealogical and historical records online and transcribed, check into The Library and Archives of Canada's new DNA WITH DIAHAN SOUTHARD GEM: PROJECT LIZZIE CONCLUSION to read Ron's blog post announcing the satisfying conclusion of Project Lizzie. To learn more about Ron, stop over at , where Ron teaches business people how to tell stories. PROFILE AMERICA: PICTURE THIS PRODUCTION CREDITS Lisa Louise Cooke, Host and Producer Sunny Morton, Contributing Editor Diahan Southard, Your DNA Guide, Content Contributor Melissa Barker, The Archive Lady, Content Contributor Hannah Fullerton, Production Assistant Lacey Cooke, Service Manager Disclosure: This page contains affiliate links and Genealogy Gems will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on these links (at no additional cost to you). Thank you for supporting this free podcast and blog!  

Diahan Southard is a very popular speaker and writer on the topic of DNA testing. Learn more about Diahan at her website Your DNA Guide.

Diahan Southard has spent 16 years in the genetic genealogy industry.

Diahan Southard has spent 16 years in the genetic genealogy industry.

The Genealogy Gems Podcast Episode #220 with Lisa Louise Cooke   In this episode: Two major upcoming genealogy events—one with an exclusive, meaty tip; Fun travel suggestion from The Archive Lady Melissa Barker: “Archive in a backpack” DNA specificity from Your DNA Guide Diahan Southard Finding books about your ancestors' experiences and Finding your German ancestor's place of origin. This month's episode includes two “Blast from the past” segments from the original Genealogy Gems Podcast episodes 19 and 20, digitally remastered with updated show notes.  NEWS: UPCOMING EVENTS Lisa Louise Cooke, Diahan Southard, and Sunny Morton will share a stage on October 4-5, 2018 at the SeniorExpo in Sandy, Utah. (Psst: You don't have to be a senior to attend!) Here's the scoop—and a special registration discount! Who: Lisa Louise Cooke, Diahan Southard, and Sunny Morton What: Genealogy Roots: The Un-Conference Experience! at SeniorExpo Where: Mountain America Expo Center (South Towne Expo Center), 9081 S. State St., Sandy, Utah When: October 4-5, 2018, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm   Registration is now open for — its first ever international user conference—the weekend of 2 – 4 November 2018 in Oslo, Norway at the Radisson Blu Scandinavia hotel in the center of Oslo, near the Royal Palace and its magnificent gardens.  It's open to anyone, from anywhere in the world, who would like to learn more about MyHeritage – including subscribers, DNA customers, those with free basic accounts, and those who haven't used MyHeritage yet but would like to find out more. Tickets include entry to the Friday night reception, keynote speeches, all conference sessions, lunch and coffee breaks on Saturday and Sunday and entry to the exclusive MyHeritage LIVE party on Saturday night. Now through September 24, you can register at their Early Bird discount price of just €75.00.  BONUS CONTENT FOR GENEALOGY GEMS APP USERS If you're listening through the Genealogy Gems app, your bonus content for this episode is Lisa's roundup of her favorite “Christmas in August” crafts to make. The and is only $2.99 for . Make these crafts: (2-part video series with step-by-step instructions on the Genealogy Gems YouTube channel)   MAILBOX: THANKS FOR EPISODE 219! Several listeners wrote in to thank Lisa for sharing the compelling stories of Julianne Mangin's ancestors and her sleuthing process that led to them. Missed it? to listen. Watch all 3 seasons for free on BYUtv. MAILBOX: TECH TIP AND NEWSLETTER UPDATE Tech Tip: I cover lots of handy little tricks in this class, and I've got a great one to share with you today! Have you ever accidentally closed a browser tab too quickly? Maybe you were following a bread-crumb trail to get to a specific record or a found a great page buried deep in a website. That gut-wrenching moment when you close the browser accidentally has definitely plagued me before. But never fear! Restore that closed tab by pressing the following on your keyboard: Press Ctrl+Shift+T As you keep entering in the command, web pages will continue to open in the reverse-order that they were closed. So even if it wasn't the last page you closed, you can still restore it. You can also right-click on the new tab at the top of your screen and in the pop-up menu select Reopen Closed Tab. Additionally, in order to comply and as a show of good faith, we've sent an email to those of you who live in the EU and those who didn't provide a location when you signed up for the newsletter, asking you to reconfirm your newsletter subscription. Please click the opt-in button so that there is no disruption to your subscription to our free newsletter. Don't receive our newsletter yet? to subscribe!Many of you were affected by new legislation that took effect in the EU on Friday, May 25: the General Data Protection Regulation or GDPR. Though we are a US-based company, we are proud to have followers from around the world, and I want to assure everyone that your information is safe and secure with Genealogy Gems. We have updated our Privacy Policy to reflect that we want to fully comply with these new laws, and .   BLAST FROM THE PAST: A LONG LOOK SIDEWAYS Books I've found that are about specific locations and experiences that apply to my ancestors: by Janice Holt Giles (Oklahoma) by Josephine Butcher (England) by Richard Cobb (England) by Maurine Walpole Liles (Texas) by Thyra Ferre Bjorn (Sweden)  and by George and Helen Papashvily –1940 (immigrant experience)  Places to find old or out of print books: Your public library Also: consult : the ultimate genealogy-inspired reading list! Lisa Louise Cooke uses and recommends . From within RootsMagic, you can search historical records on FamilySearch.org, Findmypast.com and MyHeritage.com.     Keep your family history research, photos, tree software files, videos and all other computer files safely backed up with Backblaze, the official cloud-based computer backup system for Lisa Louise Cooke's Genealogy Gems. Learn more at .   THE ARCHIVE LADY: ARCHIVIST IN A BACKPACK to read her segment and find her go-to supply list (with recommended links!).   GEM: FINDING YOUR GERMAN ANCESTOR'S TOWN OF ORIGIN A little German village can seem like a needle in a haystack when you're starting with ancestors who made it to the shores of the United States. But once you've found that gem, it will open up all kinds of records from their native land, and likely take you back several more generations. There are three important pieces to this ancestral puzzle: the village name, the parish it belonged to and the district or kreis it was part of. Find your relatives in the most recent census and work backwards.  Look for immigration and naturalization clues (such as the year of arrival or whether they had applied for citizenship). Look for naturalization records for ancestors who may have naturalized. The naturalization process created a lot of paperwork, and in that paper work your ancestors were asked for information about where they were born, where they immigrated from, the ship they traveled on, and when they arrived in America. (The more recent the naturalization, the more likely you will find listed the place of birth, date of emigration and the ship on which they sailed.) Most applied for citizenship at one of the nearest county courthouses. Try the free GenWeb website for the county where you think your ancestors applied for citizenship to see what resources they have available. Also, look up the county courthouse online for records and contact information. Declarations of Intent:  The first document filed for citizenship Petitions for Naturalization:  The final papers If you need a little help, read these articles on tracing your German genealogy: Brush up on your .   Most recent border changes occurred in 1945 and 1871. Consult a gazetteer at the library or online, and look up the town. This should indicate the parish and Kreis. Here are more articles to help you find German places: (on one of my favorite websites for German research, the GenWiki at Genealogy.net) On the free website :  Under Search > Records, enter the last name, and the country as Germany to see if people with the same last name are listed in the same location you have pinpointed in Germany. Also on FamilySearch.org, under Search > Catalog, search by Place to see what records exist for any locale you have pinpointed. Put the village name first and then the kreis. Timelines are a great tool for seeing the bigger picture and determining how the little bits of information fall within it.  is the place to make connections with relatives overseas, particularly with those who may still live in your ancestral homeland. : it's free to get started.   GERMAN ANCESTRAL VILLAGES CONTINUED What if, as in Elizabeth's case, the passenger list and naturalization records don't state their place of origin?  Info about the “old country” can pop up in a LOT of different places: Death certificates Marriage records Church records Obituaries Tombstones & cemetery records Probate records Delayed birth certificates (these were often created when social security came into effect in the 1930s and 1940s.) The Germans to America book series should be consulted if your German ancestor arrived between 1850 and 1897. Learn more about it and search it at . If you know from which port in Germany they departed, you may be able to locate their hometown in German passenger departure lists. (See links below.) Look sideways, at brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, even friends. If you can determine where one of them was born, you will have an EXCELLENT place to look in Germany for your ancestors! In addition, determine if your ancestors had traveling companions on their way to America and look into their backgrounds. Go back to the census and check out your ancestors' first recorded American neighborhood. Where were their neighbors from?  Folks often settled near family and friends from the old country. (free at FamilySearch) While most of the Bremen, Germany passenger departure records were destroyed -- either by German officials or during WWII -- 2,953 passenger lists for the years 1920 – 1939 have survived. The Bremen Society for Genealogical Investigation, DIE MAUS, has transcriptions of these surviving Bremen passenger records . (description, search tips and links free at FamilySearch.org)  (no longer free, there is now a fee for this service) Fill out the information as completely as possible.  Make a copy of the form for your follow up records and keep it in a pending file in your desk Mark in your calendar six months from today to follow up on the request.  Also indicate that the copy is in your pending file.   DNA SPECIFICITY FROM YOUR DNA GUIDE DIAHAN SOUTHARD to read her segment and see the accompanying images.   PROFILE AMERICA: IMMIGRATION RESTRICTION   PRODUCTION CREDITS Lisa Louise Cooke, Host and Producer Sunny Morton, Contributing Editor Diahan Southard, Your DNA Guide, Content Contributor Melissa Barker, The Archive Lady, Content Contributor Hannah Fullerton, Production Assistant Lacey Cooke, Service Manager   Disclosure: This document contains affiliate links and Genealogy Gems will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on these links (at no additional cost to you). Thank you for supporting this free podcast and blog!

  The Genealogy Gems PodcastEpisode #219 with Lisa Louise Cooke In this episode, Lisa shares the stories of Julianne Mangin, who has explored the tragic and twisted stories of her ancestors, Graziella and Philippe Metthe. These stories caught Lisa's eye: “The tragic tale with its surprises along the way was tantalizing enough, but the real intrigue for me was from a genealogical point of view – the confusing records and the fascinating news accounts that help shed light on them.” Julianne Mangin is a retired librarian and web developer who took up genealogy in 2012, hoping to make sense of her mother's brief and disconnected family stories. After five years of dogged research, she has written down her family story in the form of a memoir in which she pieces together the family saga and writes about how the experience changed her. She hopes that she can find a publisher for her completed manuscript. She maintains a website at  where she posts articles about her genealogical discoveries and insights. Family Stories…we all have them. Passed around the dinner table, over the phone, and in hushed voices around the corner of a doorway. When we are children they come from the mouths of our elders, which cements them firmly as told. No deviations, because after all, they were told by grownups. And some of those stories aren't really stories at all. Just fragments really. Juicy pieces of gossip or bottom lines that are meant to explain away the past, and firmly place a period at the end. No more discussion. Julianne Mangin had heard stories like these all of her life, mostly from her mom. The stories of how her grandmother and grandfather married in 1922, and then 2 months later Grandma left Grandpa. And then Grandma's 10 years committed to a mental institution. Yes, they were fragments really more than complete stories. Julianne's mother was the family historian and when pressed for details, it was a bit like pulling teeth. Oh, and yes, there was the story about Julianne's great grandfather abandoning her great grandmother, and then she was committed to a mental institution, and then they pulled out all her teeth! Julianne's mom was the genealogist of the family and by all appearances had all those census records, birth certificates and other dry documents firmly in hand. (And as for asking for more details on those unusual and mysterious stories, that was a bit like pulling teeth, too.) Julianne's family history was an entangled web of lies, pain, loss and madness. On her website , she describes it “a Dickensian tale of immigration, poverty, mental illness, family betrayal and ultimately redemption.” In this episode of the Genealogy Gems Podcast, we're going to unravel the story of how madness in a family nearly buried the truth of the family's history. And how bringing that truth out into the light brought with it healing and created a passionate, new genealogist. Along the way, you'll hear some of the strategies that Julianne used find that truth; methods that just may help you to flesh out the true details of one of your family's stories. Quote-worthy statements from Julianne: “I had been a reluctant genealogist most of my life until I realized genealogy's power to unlock family secrets and make sense of the stories Mom told me about her family.” “My grandfather left my grandmother and so she became insane, and then some doctor thought it was a good idea to pull out all her teeth. End of story! And that was it.”  “It's just psychologically better to really know where you're really from and what really happened before you.” “That takes me to another one of my mother's cryptic stories which was that she said that as a child her mother grew up in a shed.” Julianne used Sanborn fire insurance maps to find the shed, and visited it personally. Resource: (requires to access)   Lisa Louise Cooke uses and recommends . From within RootsMagic, you can search historical records on FamilySearch.org, Findmypast.com and MyHeritage.com.   Keep your family history research, photos, tree software files, videos and all other computer files safely backed up with Backblaze, the official cloud-based computer backup system for Lisa Louise Cooke's Genealogy Gems. Learn more at .   The Metthe family cast of characters: BEATRICE METTHE (1901-1966) was Julianne's grandmother. She had four siblings: Leonard, Dinorah, Joseph, and Pauline. Her parents were: PHILIPPE METTHE (1877-1937) and GRAZIELLA BONNEAU (1878-1910). Both of them were born in Quebec. They married in 1899 in Danielson, Connecticut. Philippe's parents were DAVID METTHE (1851-1912) and ROSALIE LAPOINTE (Abt. 1852-1923). David was born in Quebec (Julianne's not sure where Rosalie was born or if Lapointe is her real name). They married in Danielson in 1873. David and Rosalie had 11 children. Philippe was the second oldest. Graziella's parents were PIERRE BONNEAU (1853-1911) and AZILDA DAVIGNON (1855-1912). They were born in Quebec and married there in 1876. They immigrated to the U.S. in 1885 when Graziella was seven years old. Pierre and Azilda had 10 children. Graziella was the second oldest. The mysterious 1920 U.S. Federal Census record: Philippe says he is single Marie says she's the wife of the head of household Family lore was that Philippe went back to Canada, but this entry is in MA Julianne's approach: Research all the possible areas and “what ifs”. Look in Quebec church records for a marriage (not found) Look in MA vital records for a marriage (not found) Try to find Marie E and Charles D in some other family group in 1910 She searched for Marie E and Charles D and limited their location to CT, and found them with a George Metthe (Philippes brother!): Where is George? “This is why I got hooked on genealogy. There are now digitized sources out there that help you answer questions like that!” She found him in the newspapers Newspaper research resources: by Lisa Louise Cooke tutorials (Premium eLearning membership required) Must-search digitized US historical newspaper collections: (free) (search for free: subscription required to view search results) (search for free: subscription required to view search results)    is the place to make connections with relatives overseas, particularly with those who may still live in your ancestral homeland. : it's free to get started.   French-Canadian research resources:   Julianne is thankful that: Her mom's family was from Quebec: their records are so great and detailed. There were a lot of bad actors in her family so they showed up in the newspapers More quotes from Julianne: “My motivation for being a genealogist was to learn more about my mother's curiously insensitive behavior.  But when I put it all together, one of my reactions was of relief. I was relieved because things made sense. And you know at that point in my life when I started genealogy I was in my mid-fifties and I just wanted a family story that made sense. As sad as it was, things were starting to make sense now.” “Well one of the things that I say repeatedly is that writing this book and writing this story of my family was a way of showing how family history is empowering and also it's got the potential to heal old wounds by bringing up the truth.” “I would just like to say that I hope that my story helps other people, and I hope they get genealogical ideas from the little victories that I've had. I hope also that people who come to my blog   can see how I've used family history to change myself, into someone who understands more about where I'm from, and being more empathetic to people who are suffering from things like mental illness, or from trauma. I just hope that what I do helps others, even though part of me just wants to tell my story.” THE GENEALOGY GEMS TEAM TOGETHER ON ONE STAGE FOR TWO DAYS! Who: Lisa Louise Cooke, Diahan Southard and Sunny Morton What: Genealogy Roots Conference at SeniorExpo Where: South Towne Expo Center, 9081 S. State St., Sandy, Utah (just 30 minutes from the Family History Library in Salt Lake City!) When: October 4-5, 2018, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm to learn more!   PRODUCTION CREDITS Lisa Louise Cooke, Host and Producer Sunny Morton, Editor Hannah Fullerton, Audio Production Lacey Cooke, Service Manager Disclosure: This document contains affiliate links and Genealogy Gems will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on these links (at no additional cost to you). Thank you for supporting this free podcast and blog!

The Genealogy Gems Podcast Episode #217 with Lisa Louise Cooke In this special episode, host and producer Lisa Louise Cooke takes a look at the Golden State killer, one of the most notorious crime sprees in recent memory. She'll talk about the role that DNA testing played in an ultimate arrest, and the impact that these events are having on genealogists and the use of DNA in genealogy. The Golden State Killer “” docuseries (As an Amazon Associate, Genealogy Gems earns from qualifying purchases) 48 Hours episode on CBSNews.com (44-minute episode) Between 1974 and 1986, activities attributed to the Golden State Killer include at least 12 murders, more than 50 rapes, and over 100 burglaries in California from 1974 through 1986. The criminal's methods led some investigators to believe that these differently-labeled criminals were very likely one in the same. In 2001, DNA definitively linked several rapes in Contra Costa County believed to have been part of the East Area Rapist series, a series of murders in Southern California. In 2011, DNA evidence proved that the Domingo–Sanchez murders were committed by the same man, known as the Golden State Killer. BONUS CONTENT for Genealogy Gems App Users If you're listening through the Genealogy Gems app, don't forget to check out your bonus content for this episode! The and is only $2.99 for  is the place to make connections with relatives overseas, particularly with those who may still live in your ancestral homeland. : it's free to get started. makes it easy and fun for Mom to share stories with loved ones every week. At the end of the year, she'll get them all bound in a beautiful hardcover book. Strengthen your bond as you get to know her in a whole new way! Go to for $20 off when you subscribe. Give a gift for Mother's Day that is actually a gift for you, too! Help solve DNA mysteries with these resources: “A DNA Match with No Tree? No Problem!” and “Take Control of Your Family Tree,” by Lisa Louise Cooke by Diahan Southard DNA Testing by Diahan Southard Caution: In this episode, Lisa shares her personal opinions on the use of technology for crime fighting and the implications for DNA testing for genealogy. She encourages everyone to do their own homework and make informed decisions in line with their own values, opinions and objectives.  Reality check: “The only way to ensure privacy is to never put anything of any kind online. Just like the only way to ensure you will never be in a car accident is to never—under any circumstances—get in a car.” Read more about DNA testing company partnerships: “,” Wired.com article by Katie M. Palmer, published 21 July 2015, on Ancestry.com's partnership with Google-owned Calico biotech firm “,” Wired.com article by Davey Alba, published 12 January 2015, on 23andMe's partnership with Pfizer Several ways we already use DNA matches Genealogists use to build family trees Adoptees use to identify birth parents (or other biological relatives) Orphans trying to find long lost siblings and relatives Anyone looking for estranged family members Researchers identifying unidentified human remains, including POW/MIAs Lisa Louise Cooke uses and recommends . From within RootsMagic, you can search historical records on FamilySearch.org, Findmypast.com and MyHeritage.com. Keep your family history research, photos, tree software files, videos and all other computer files safely backed up with Backblaze, the official cloud-based computer backup system for Lisa Louise Cooke's Genealogy Gems. Learn more at . More information on DNA testing by Diahan Southard “,” News.com.au article by Gavin Fernando, published 3 May, 2018. “When you test, you are also making a decision on behalf of your parents, siblings, children, grandchildren, and future descendants. Regardless of good intentions or stated ethics codes in the genealogy community, it isn't possible to write and get the express permission of everyone who could be affected by you having your DNA tested.” –Lisa Louise Cooke How Genealogy Gems can help you—whether you test or not! Keep listening to the for genealogy news, tips, inspiration and strategies (DNA is one of many tools talked about!) Read free online articles at . to read dozens of articles on DNA. to view our complete line of DNA quick reference guides , to get access to all the Premium video classes and the entire Premium Podcast: new monthly episodes plus the full archive of more than 150 previous ones. PRODUCTION CREDITS Lisa Louise Cooke, Host and Producer Sunny Morton, Editor Diahan Southard, DNA Content Contributor Hannah Fullerton, Audio Editor Lacey Cooke, Service Manager Disclosure: This document contains affiliate links and Genealogy Gems will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on these links (at no additional cost to you). Thank you for supporting this free podcast and blog!

The Genealogy Gems PodcastEpisode #212with Lisa Louise Cooke In this episode, Lisa Louise Cooke speaks with Contributing Editor Sunny Morton about turning our fleeting scraps of recollections into meaningful memories. Also: Genealogist Margaret Linford tells us how she got started in family history. Like many of our best stories, it's not just about her, but someone who inspired her. 2017 could be called “the year of DNA.” Diahan Southard looks back with a special DNA news digest. Finding missing ancestors: tips and success stories from Genealogy Gems fans NEWS: WIKITREE HONOR CODE Learn more about using individual v. global/community family trees on Ancestry.com, FamilySearch.org, Findmypast.com and MyHeritage.com in Sunny Morton's quick reference guide, NEWS: FAMICITY ADDS GEDCOM UPLOAD NEWS: DNA YEAR IN REVIEW WITH DIAHAN SOUTHARD As evidence of its now proven usefulness in genealogy research, the genetic genealogy industry is growing at a fast pace. Ancestry.com has amassed the largest database, now boasting over 6 million people tested, and is growing at breakneck speeds, having doubled the size of its database in 2017. As the databases grow larger and our genealogy finds become more frequent, we can't ignore that this kind of data, the correlated genetic and genealogical data, amassed by these companies, has great value. In November, announced an effort by their scientific team to “study the relationship between genetics and behavior, personal characteristics, and culture.” These studies are not new, as is in open hot pursuit of the connections between genetics and our health, and always has been. All of our genetic genealogy companies are involved in research on one level or another and every person who swabs or spits has the opportunity to participate in other research projects ( to read up on the consent policies at each company). At the time of testing, you have the option to opt in or out of this research, and the ability to alter that decision at any time after you test, by accessing your settings. According to an article in , it seems we as a community are very interested in helping with research: 23andMe reports an over 80% opt-in-to-research rate among their customers. And I've got some breaking news for you: Family Tree DNA just started a to reinforce the message that they will never sell your genetic data. That's another important topic worth talking about in a future episode, so stay tuned! All our genetic genealogy companies realize that you might want to do more with your data than just look for your ancestors. This year has partnered with in an effort to provide insight into your health via your genetic genealogy test results. Of course is the leader in health testing when we look at our top genetic genealogy companies. This year finally succeeded in , a huge leap forward in their efforts to provide health testing directly to consumers. While health testing has certainly seen an explosion of interest this year, it is not the only way that our companies are using the data they have amassed. took the DNA and pedigree charts of two million customers who consented to research and, using some really fancy science, were able to provide amazing insight into our recent ancestral past with the creation of their genetic communities. These genetic communities enhance our understanding of our heritage by showing us where our ancestors may have been between 1750 and 1850, the genealogical “sweet spot” that most of us are trying to fill in. , a relative newcomer to the genetic genealogy arena, announced in October of 2017 their intention to use their database to help create a One World Family Tree. To do so, they are collecting DNA samples from all over the world, specifically those who four grandparents lived in close proximity to each other. Along with this announcement, is allowing individuals who have results from other companies and want to help with this project, to transfer into their database. So it seems that with growing databases come growing options, whether to opt-in to research, to pursue health information from your DNA test results, or to help build global databases for health or genealogy purposes. Recognizing the growing appeal to non-genealogists as well, added to their list of options the ability to opt-out of the match page, and there are rumors that will soon be adding the option to opt-in to matching (they do not currently have a cousin-matching feature as part of their offering). It can be tricky to keep up with all that goes on, but be sure we at Genealogy Gems are doing our best to keep you up-to-date with any news that might help you make better decisions about your genealogy, and ultimately better equipped to find your ancestors. GENEALOGY GEMS NEWS (publishing later this month) NEW Premium Video: “” This video answers the questions: What is cloud backup? Why should I use cloud backup? How does cloud backup work? Is cloud backup safe? What should I look for when selecting a cloud backup service? My personal cloud backup choice to subscribe to Genealogy Gems Premium membership   Donna Moughty's Irish Guide series has proven so popular, we've added a third one: This Guide explains how and why Griffith's Valuation was done, and how to use it to glean the most information about your family. After Griffith's Valuation, the Revision Books allow you to follow the land and in some cases, to the 1970s, possibly identifying cousins still living on the land. This quick reference guide includes: Explanation of the columns in Griffith's Valuation Rules under which Griffith's Valuation was done. Tips for using Griffith's to find your family Using the Revision Books to identify life events The Tithe Applotment, an earlier tax list Landed Estate Courts Estate Records Pre-ordering is open for the print version: shipping starts around Dec. 11, 2017. The digital download version will be available for purchase around the same time. Get the and SAVE! The bundle includes:  Guide #1: Preparing for Success in Irish Records Research Guide #2: Irish Civil Registration and Church Records Guide #3: Land, Tax and Estate Records in Ireland BONUS CONTENT in the  If you're listening through the Genealogy Gems app, your bonus content for this episode a reading of an excerpt of by Thomas Kibble Hervey (The chapter Signs of the Season) published in 1845 – available for free in Google Books. The and is only $2.99 for MAILBOX Learn more about using Google Books and Google Patents in Lisa Louise Cooke's book,   Keep your family history research, photos, tree software files, videos and all other computer files safely backed up with Backblaze, the official cloud-based computer backup system for Lisa Louise Cooke's Genealogy Gems. Learn more at .   Lovepop Cards Unlock special pricing for 5 or more cards AND get free shipping on any order by going to   GEM: MARGARET LINFORD'S GENEALOGICAL ORIGINS to read Margaret's memories and see her pictures of Grandma Overbay Start creating fabulous, irresistible videos about your family history with Animoto.com. You don't need special video-editing skills: just drag and drop your photos and videos, pick a layout and music, add a little text and voila! You've got an awesome video! Try this out for yourself at .   INTERVIEW: TURN MEMORY FRAGMENTS INTO MEANINGFUL STORIES Sunny Morton is a Contributing Editor at Genealogy Gems and presenter of the new Premium Video, “Share Your Own Life Stories More Meaningfully” ( to watch a quick preview). She is also author of (use coupon code GEMS17 for an extra 10% off by December 31, 2017). Strategies for turning memory fragments into meaningful stories (learn more about all of these in the Premium Video, ): Gather together even the smallest fragments of your memories together by writing them down. Think about what missing details you could research by finding pictures, books, chronologies, maps and other resources (both online and offline). Look for common patterns or recurring themes in groups of memory fragments. (For example, Sunny shared memories of swimming in this episode.) What kind of story do these memories tell over time about your personality, circumstances, relationships or other aspects of your life?   PRODUCTION CREDITS Lisa Louise Cooke, Host and Producer Sunny Morton, Editor Diahan Southard, Your DNA Guide, Content Contributor Hannah Fullerton, Audio Editor Lacey Cooke, Service Manager Disclosure: This page contains affiliate links and Genealogy Gems will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on these links (at no additional cost to you). Thank you for supporting this free podcast and blog!   FREE NEWSLETTER: Enter your email & get my Google Research e-bookas a thank you gift! to receive a free weekly e-mail newsletter, with tips, inspiration and money-saving deals.    

The Genealogy Gems Podcast Episode 207 with Lisa Louise Cooke In this episode, Lisa welcomes Mary Tedesco, a co-host of PBS' Genealogy Roadshow. Mary shares stories and tips about tracing Italian and Italian-American roots. Also: FamilySearch updates since the end of microfilm lending (and how YOU helped make the last days of lending more effective); A listener uses Google to find her mysterious great-grandmother, with a success story she calls a “game-changer” for her genealogy research. GET THE APP If you haven't downloaded the Genealogy Gems app for easier listening on your mobile device, consider doing so now. If you're listening through the Genealogy Gems app, your bonus content for this episode is…. The and is only $2.99 for Windows, iPhone and iPad users.   NEWS: FAMILYSEARCH RECORDS ACCESS UPDATE ALL of the microfilmed records that have been rented in the past 5 years have now been digitized, over 1.5 million films. From now on, if you need a film that hasn't been digitized yet, you can call FamilySearch Support toll-free (866-406-1830) and request it for the priority digitization list. They continue to digitally scan about 1000 films per day. (That sounds like a lot, but at this rate it will still take them until 2020 to be done.) New digital images are being put in the FamilySearch Catalog as soon as possible. This is not the main digital record search area! It will take collections a while to appear here. Instead, under the Search tab, select Catalog, and then search by place and record type or other categories. This is a master catalog of all the Family History Library's collections, online and offline, and when you click on an item's individual description, you'll be able to see a link to its digitized version if it's available. If you or anyone else had any films on loan in family history centers and FamilySearch affiliate libraries when the lending program ended, those automatically have extended loan status, which means they can stay there indefinitely unless the management decides to send them back. If all else fails, you can still go to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, UT and order microfilmed records to view, or you can hire someone to do it for you. FamilySearch Affiliate libraries now have access to nearly all of the restricted image collections as family history centers. to read or listen to Lisa's special interview with Diane Loosle of FamilySearch. It goes into much more detail about accessing records on the site, at affiliate libraries and more. to read the August 30, 2017 update from FamilySearch. To save 30% off a Care.com Premium membership, visit  when you subscribe.   I had so much fun opening the box. They even sent me an apron! Visit and use promo code gems30 to save $30 off your first week of deliveries.   NEWS: FREE WEBINAR 9/23 LIVE FROM NYC Lisa Louise Cooke's Genealogy Gems presents: Reveal Your Unique Story through DNA & Family History Sponsored by Animoto Saturday, September 23, 2017 11:00 AM EST Register now Turn DNA results into your family history Turn your family history into a compelling story Turn your compelling story into a video! Learn from Lisa Louise Cooke, Diahan Southard and Animoto's Beth Forester: - Your DNA testing options (there are more than you think), and possible outcomes - The best free resources for going beyond DNA, back several generations in your family (quickly!) - Creative ideas for filling in the story gaps - How to expand your story in ways you never expected by finding DNA connections - Share the story you've uncovered with the world through riveting video Can't attend live? to receive the slides and the video recording afterward. Lisa chat with Hannah about Hurricane Harvey Keep your family history research, photos, tree software files, videos and all other computer files safely backed up with Backblaze, the official cloud-based computer backup system for Lisa Louise Cooke's Genealogy Gems. Learn more at .   MAILBOX: KRISTIN'S SUCCESS STORY “Among the handful of mystery photographs of my grandmother as a child and the strangers who sat beside her, was a brief article from a newspaper. It was a lesson in manners, titled ‘Silence is Golden' and it was written by Merton Markert, a student of the Modern Classics. A photo of a young woman with a disheveled Gibson hairdo was attached.” by Lisa Louise Cooke teaches the search strategies you need to do searches like these. Try ! Lisa found a listing for a commencement program from 1902, old post cards of the school, and other yearbooks from Lancaster High School. Sign up for a free Ebay account, run a search, and then click to Follow the search. You will then be alerted to future auctions that match your criteria. for tips on finding yearbooks and other school records. Genealogy Gems Premium member perk: has great tips for using Ebay to find family history treasures. to learn more about Premium membership.     INTERVIEW: MARY TEDESCO MARY M. Tedesco is a professional genealogist, speaker, and author. She is a host and genealogist on PBS' Genealogy Roadshow” and Founder of . Mary speaks fluent Italian and travels often to Italy to conduct client genealogical research and visit family. She is co-author of .             to watch a free interview with Mary Tedesco with more tips on doing Italian genealogy research.   GENEALOGY GEMS BOOK CLUB by Helene Stapinski tells the story of the author's journey to Italy to learn the truth behind the family stories about her Italian ancestors. Tune in to later this month to hear an excerpt from a conversation with Helene Stapinski. (The entire interview will play in .)    MILITARY MINUTES: DRAFT REGISTRATIONS INTRODUCING MICHAEL STRAUSS Michael Strauss, AG is the principal owner of and an Accredited Genealogist since 1995. He is a native of Pennsylvania and a resident of Utah and has been an avid genealogist for more than 30 years. Strauss holds a BA in History and is a United States Coast Guard veteran. BONUS handout to celebrate this new segment: for a 4-page handout on U.S. draft registration records by Michael L. Strauss. FREE NEWSLETTER: Enter your email & get my Google Research e-bookas a thank you gift! to receive a free weekly e-mail newsletter, with tips, inspiration and money-saving deals.    

The Genealogy Gems Podcast Episode #205 with Lisa Louise Cooke This episode breaks two huge pieces of genealogy news and shares two great conversations: FamilySearch ends microfilm lending:  how you can get the records you need; RootsMagic adds Ancestry.com compatibility: sync your Ancestry.com tree to your master RootsMagic file and search Ancestry.com from within the software; Melissa Barker, the Archive Lady, talks about visiting archives to explore original manuscript record treasures; Nicole Dyer shares a fun family history activity idea to do with kids—do you have a family gathering coming up that could use this inspiration? A SURPRISE IN MY MAILBOX! NEWS NEW PREMIUM VIDEO! Lisa Louise Cooke shows you how to use the free Google Earth Pro software to create your own historic map collection customized for your genealogy and family history research. By the end of this class you'll have a permanent collection of hundreds of gorgeous historic and vintage maps from around the world, organized and ready to use for family history. to watch a free preview of this full-length video class. Genealogy Gems Premium website members can watch the whole thing: to learn more. LISA: I thought the resolution of the jpg version wasn't good, so I just left this ad as text. The 4th Annual Northwest Genealogy Conference This episode today is brought to you by the 4rd Annual Northwest Genealogy Conference, hosted by the Stillaguamish Valley Genealogical Society, north of Seattle in Arlington, WA. Centering on the theme, “Where Does Your Story Begin?” it's four days PACKED full of genealogy. There will be well-known and respected keynote speakers, including our friend and genetic genealogist Diahan Southard, speaking on DNA; Kenyatta Berry of Genealogy Roadshow fame, speaking on Caribbean research and using slave schedules in research; and Daniel Earl speaking on Putting History in Your Family History. Starting off with the Free Day Wednesday afternoon, Speaker Peggy Lauritzen will address beginner's issues in her Genealogy 101 presentation, which is also a good refresher for the more seasoned genealogists.  There will be such great genealogical information for all levels, AND it'll be lot of fun! Between classes take a chance to meet a distant cousin with the “Cousin Wall”. Participate in the genealogy-related scavenger hunt, the Wednesday evening meet and greet and the Friday dress-as-your-ancestor day, and much, much more! Go to  for details and to register. Check it out now -- registrations are limited, so it's good to get in early. It's August 16-19, 2017. It'll be a great show: don't miss it! INTERVIEW: MELISSA BARKER, THE ARCHIVE LADY Melissa Barker is a Certified Archives Records Manager, the Houston County, Tennessee Archivist and author of the popular blog and bi-weekly advice column . She has been researching her own family history for the past 27 years. Preserve your own family archive: Items in danger: Original items in attics, basements What to preserve first: The most precious and original items you have! Restoration tips: Clean documents and photos with archival sponges. Lay the item perfectly flat. Gently place a finger or hand to hold it steady. Work with the sponge from the center outward, in small sections. Keep two-dimensional items as flat as possible. Encase fragile items in Mylar sleeves (buy from archival supply companies). Visiting an archive: Call ahead! Don't trust the operational hours from the website. Ask about parking – it's often very limited. Ask ahead about access to archival items of interest. Archive etiquette: Follow the rules. Be courteous when working with staff. Museums, societies, archives, and libraries may all have collections in back rooms you can't see—but you can ask for them. Vertical Files – in folders in cabinets Manuscript Collections – underused in genealogy! Ask for finding aid. Loose Records – the working papers of a court case, for example Unprocessed Records – not yet incorporated into the official collection Tips for using your mobile devices in archives: Ask for procedures for taking photos with your own device. There may be rules against this or a use fee. Capture the source information by photographs: cover page, page number, folder, box number, manuscript collection name, etc. BONUS CONTENT for Genealogy Gems App Users If you're listening through the Genealogy Gems app, your bonus audio content for this episode comes from Melissa Barker, the Archive Lady,  with more about finding and using original manuscript records in your genealogy research. The and is only $2.99 for . Lisa Louise Cooke uses and recommends family history software. From within RootsMagic, you can search historical records on FamilySearch.org, Findmypast.com and MyHeritage.com. RootsMagic is now fully integrated with Ancestry.com, too: you can sync your RootsMagic trees with your Ancestry.com trees and search records on the site. Learn more about Keep your family history research, photos, tree software files, videos and all other computer files safely backed up with , the official cloud-based computer backup system for Lisa Louise Cooke's Genealogy Gems. Learn more at .   INTERVIEW: NICOLE DYER Nicole has been researching her ancestors and delighting in their stories for the past 15 years. Nicole volunteers at the Tucson Family History Center teaching a family history story time group for young children.    Lisa suggested the free program Jing for video screen capturing: (Full disclosure: this podcast blog contains affiliate links. We will be compensated if you make a purchase through our link. Isn't that an awesome way to help keep the free podcast free?!) and start a free trial Start creating fabulous, irresistible videos about your family history with Animoto.com. You don't need special video-editing skills: just drag and drop your photos and videos, pick a layout and music, add a little text and voila! You've got an awesome video! Try this out for yourself at .  is the place to make connections with relatives overseas, particularly with those who may still live in your ancestral homeland. : it's free to get started. GENEALOGY GEMS BOOK CLUB: A FAMILY HISTORY MURDER MYSTERY! Journalist Helene Stapinski's new family history memoir:   A story of poverty and power, love, tragic decisions, and a courageous and desperate woman's leap for a new life across the ocean continues to unravel a past Helene explored in her fantastic first family history memoir, . Find a whole list of fabulous family history-inspired reading at the   PRODUCTION CREDITS Lisa Louise Cooke, Host and Producer Sunny Morton, Editor Vienna Thomas, Associate Producer Lacey Cooke, Service "Happiness" Manager

The Genealogy Gems Podcast with Lisa Louise Cooke Episode #203 This episode features a special interview with renowned Canadian expert Dave Obee. He shares his favorite tips on researching the Canadian census—his insights are fascinating whether you have Canadian ancestors or not! Also in this episode: an inspiring adoption discovery, DNA testing news at 23andMe, a tip for incorporating family history into a wedding, and a brand-new resource that can finally help you solve one of genealogy's most perplexing questions. NEWS: ATLAS OF HISTORICAL COUNTY BOUNDARIES UPDATE   LINK: NEWS: 23andME DNA TEST UPDATES for the full news and Diahan's comments MORE recent DNA news: for the full story, with comments and step-by-step instructions on updated myOrigins tool Get help with DNA testing at both these sites with these quick reference guides by Diahan Southard:       NEW! GENEALOGY GIANTS GUIDE by Genealogy Gems Editor Sunny Morton to watch the presentation that inspired this guide: a popular RootsTech 2017 lecture comparing the four major genealogy records websites: Ancestry.com, FamilySearch.org, Findmypast.com and MyHeritage.com.   LINK:   Available in or format This comprehensive quick reference guide explains: How knowing about all four websites can improve your family history research How the sites stack up when it comes to the numbers of historical records, names in trees, DNA profiles, site users, site languages and subscription costs Unique strengths of each website and cautions for using each What to keep in mind as you evaluate record content between sites Geographic record strengths: A unique table has an at-a-glance comparison for 30+ countries How to see what kinds of records are on each site without subscribing How family trees are structured differently at these websites—and why it matters Privacy, collaboration and security options at each site How DNA testing features differ at the two websites that offer it What you can do with free guest accounts at each website Subscription and free access options   MAILBOX: LIZ ON FINDING CHUCK'S BIRTH FAMILY to learn more about Diahan Southard's genetic genealogy video tutorials—and a special discount price for Genealogy Gems fans. LINK TO: https://www.yourdnaguide.com/genealogy-gems-dna-tutorial Lisa Louise Cooke uses and recommends family history software. From within RootsMagic, you can search historical records on FamilySearch.org, Findmypast.com and MyHeritage.com. In the works: soon RootsMagic will be fully integrated with Ancestry.com, too: you'll be able to sync your RootsMagic trees with your Ancestry.com trees and search records on the site. Keep your family history research, photos, tree software files, videos and all other computer files safely backed up with e, the official cloud-based computer backup system for Lisa Louise Cooke's Genealogy Gems. Learn more at   MAILBOX: THANKS FOR 1940 CENSUS TIPS Kate Eakman shares tips for understanding the 1940: or to them on Genealogy Gems Podcast episode 201 MAILBOX: WEDDING TIP Before a wedding: start an online family tree and invite each family member to add what they know!  Go to:   Our sponsor for this episode: StoryWorth Give Mom the gift of StoryWorth this Mother's Day Visit to get $20 off Visit: INTERVIEW: DAVE OBEE Continuing our celebration of Canada's 150th birthday! is an internationally-renowned Canadian journalist, historian and genealogist. Dave is a columnist for Internet Genealogy and Your Genealogy Today (formerly Family Chronicle). Dave has also written about family history for Canada's History and Your Family Tree in the United Kingdom.   Put Dave's books on your shelf: Canadian census tips from Dave Obee: The 1901 census is his favorite because it says for the first time where people had come from He starts his searches on Ancestry.ca but census databases are free to search on Marital status may not have been totally accurate. They only captured single or married or windowed. Divorced was not captured. There are two different types of enumerations: de facto and de jure, and the rules were different. This means your ancestor could be enumerated in multiple locations Lisa Louise Cooke Googled the Canadian Census Enumerator Instructions for 1901:   More on Canada genealogy research: Claire Banton in Our Sponsors: Start creating fabulous, irresistible videos about your family history with Animoto.com. You don't need special video-editing skills: just drag and drop your photos and videos, pick a layout and music, add a little text and voila! You've got an awesome video! Try this out for yourself at .  is the place to make connections with relatives overseas, particularly with those who may still live in your ancestral homeland. : it's free to get started. BONUS CONTENT for Genealogy Gems App Users If you're listening through the Genealogy Gems app, your bonus content for this episode is EXTRA special! It's an exclusive conversation between Your DNA Guide and Cece Moore of DNA Detectives on researching adoption or unknown parentage. Don't miss it! The and is only $2.99 for . GENEALOGY GEMS BOOK CLUB Our featured genealogy book club author this month is Miss Fannie Flagg! by Fannie Flagg Read more tips on discovering the historical context of your ancestor's lives: PRODUCTION CREDITS Lisa Louise Cooke, Host and Producer Sunny Morton, Editor Diahan Southard, Your DNA Guide, Content Contributor Lacey Cooke, Service Manager Vienna Thomas, Associate Producer

  with Lisa Louise Cooke    In this episode, I chat with Angela Walton-Raji, expert in U.S. and African-American research, about tips for interviewing relatives and taking your African-American family tree back to the era of slavery. Other highlights of this episode include: A RootsTech 2017 recap, with info on archived streaming sessions; Great news from Findmypast about its new Catholic Heritage Archive; A ground-breaking study from AncestryDNA that identifies specific migration patterns among genetically-related clusters of people; Follow-up mail from Lisa's Episode 200 celebration; An expert Q&A on finding relatives who don't appear in the census where you expect them to; A teaser clip from the upcoming Genealogy Gems Book Club interview with Annie Barrows, author of The Truth According to Us. ROOTSTECH 2017 RECAP Genealogy Gems booth streaming sessions are on the . "Like" our page, and then scroll down to Videos and click See all (shown here). You'll find: Lisa Louise Cooke: Google search methodology for genealogy, using Google Earth for genealogy and creating memorable, easy family history videos; Diahan Southard: Understanding your DNA ethnic pie chart; Amie Tennant: Digital journaling and scrapbooking; Sunny Morton: Jogging your memories and “Genealogy Jackpot” (on researching her ancestors' survival of the Great Johnstown flood of 1889.   POPULAR ROOTSTECH STREAMING LECTURE “THE BIG 4” NOW ONLINE and catch a summary of its main points Catch our future free Genealogy Gems streaming sessions on Facebook! "Like" and follow the .   GENEALOGY GEMS APP BONUS MATERIAL If you listen through ) and ), your bonus material for this episode is a short video clip showing a time-lapse perspective on RootsTech 2017 from the exhibitor hall.   NEWS: FINDMYPAST CATHOLIC HERITAGE ARCHIVE : Archdiocese of Boston and New England Historic Genealogical Society plans to bring 10 million+ parish records online MAILBOX: Robin mentioned she's learned so much from Lisa on these topics: , , , , How to organize electronic files (see the free ) software for writing family history  Start creating fabulous, irresistible videos about your family history with Animoto.com. You don't need special video-editing skills: just drag and drop your photos and videos, pick a layout and music, add a little text and voila! You've got an awesome video! Try this out for yourself at . Keep your family history research, photos, tree software files, videos and all other computer files safely backed up with Backblaze, the official cloud-based computer backup system for Lisa Louise Cooke's Genealogy Gems. Learn more at . INTERVIEW: ANGELA WALTON-RAJI Angela Walton-Raji instructs the . Purchase it with this link and use coupon code GEMS17 for 10% off, valid through 12/31/17. Angela's oral history questions: What to ask your elders Did they happen to know anyone who had been born a slave when they were a child? Who was the oldest person that you remember when you were a child? And did that person ever talk about anyone who may have been enslaved? What do you know about where the family was from? (Were we always from Georgia, or, were we always from Pennsylvania, or was there a time when we came from another place? (Read more about the she mentioned.) Why did we move? Who remembers that journey? Were people involved in the Civil Rights movement, in the , with the , or other important events in their lifetime? What kinds of things did they see? Who in the family participated in the military (in World War II, I, the Spanish-American War)? African-American military units through the mid-20th century were still referred to as Buffalo soldiers. (She mentioned the , a unit of all-black World War II paratroopers. is the place to make connections with relatives overseas, particularly with those who may still live in your ancestral homeland. : it's free to get started.     Lisa Louise Cooke uses and recommends . From within RootsMagic, you can search WebHints on FamilySearch.org, Findmypast.com and MyHeritage.com. Soon RootsMagic will also be able to search records and even sync your tree with Ancestry.com, too.         EXPERT TIP ON FINDING ANCESTORS “MISSING” IN CENSUSES Kate Eakman takes on a Gems listener question from someone who has already done a lot of work trying to locate a relative in the 1940 U.S. census provides expert genealogy research service that works with your research goals, budget and schedule. The Legacy Tree Discovery package offers 3.5 hours of preliminary analysis and research recommendations: a great choice if you've hit a brick wall in your research and could use some expert guidance. GENEALOGY GEMS EXCLUSIVE OFFER: Go to and use coupon code GEMS100 to save $100 off your purchase of research services (expires 4/30/17).   DIAHAN SOUTHARD: STUDY BREAKTHROUGH There is no doubt that this is an exciting time to be a genealogist. Here at Genealogy Gems, we are announcing new record collections online every month, advances in genealogy databases and their ability to retrieve the information we are looking for, and of course, DNA testing. There really has been no time in history where such a wealth of information about our past has been so readily available to so many. In another ground-breaking development in the DNA world has been a recent publication in a scientific journal by the scientific team at . It is titled, “Clustering of 770,000 genomes reveals post-colonial population structure of North America.” Or, in more understandable terms, “Your DNA can tell us where you came from in America in the last 500 years.” Wow, right? So how did they do this? Well, the power really is in the numbers. In this particular paper they used 770,000 people, but now that they are approaching having testing 4 million people, you can bet the same principles will be applied to a larger data set and we will see even more as a result. But even though it takes a large data set to accomplish this, it really all still comes down to the relationship of two people. To start, Ancestry determines how just two people are genetically related. Then they find how those two are related to a third, again, looking only at pairs of people. This goes on and on and on until everyone in the group as been compared. Then we use a graph to plot those relationships, with those more closely related clustering around each other.  Then the real key, the point where we see the marriage of genetics and genealogy: they add in the family history information for each of these individuals in the cluster. What they found was astounding. They have displayed the data in Figure 3 in the paper: Distribution of ancestral birth locations in North America. Summary map from Nature Communications; click to see article with full explanation of map data. Image used with permission of Ancestry.com. It is a map of the United States with colored dots scattered across the landscape. The location of the dots corresponds to the genealogy of those tested, while the color of the dots relates to their genetic clustering. Those who clustered closest together are the same color. The result is a nearly perfect rainbow, with each color holding its respective spot on the map, with very little overlap between groups. (There are actually two maps in the paper, just to make things easier to see.) We might be tempted when looking at the maps to think, oh, well, of course there is a large population of European Jews in New York, everyone knows that, no breakthrough there. But it IS!! This isn't their family history, or their accent or their culture that is telling us this, it is their genetics! As if that wasn't exciting enough, further on in the paper they describe how we can trace migration patterns of different groups over just a few generations. In the paper they specifically mention French Canadians and Cajuns/Acadians, but this same principle can theoretically be applied to dozens of other groups. For example, let's say you have an ancestor in Texas about 4 generations ago, but you aren't sure where she came from. If technology like what is published in this paper ever reaches your testing company, your DNA could tell you that you fit into the Lower South group, meaning that your ancestor likely hails from, well, the South!  This is just a glimpse into what the advances in genetics are bringing to your genealogy toolbox. So hang on to your hats, and keep tuned in here at Genealogy Gems for all of the latest updates.   GENEALOGY GEMS BOOK CLUB   by internationally best-selling author Annie Barrows It's the summer of 1938, and wealthy young socialite Miss Layla Beck is now on the dole as a WPA worker, assigned to write a history of the small town of Macedonia, West Virginia. As she starts asking questions about the town's past, she is drawn into the secrets of the family she's staying with—and drawn to a certain handsome member of that family. She and two of those family members take turns narrating the story from different points of view, exploring the theme that historical truth, like beauty, is often in the eye of the beholder. Annie Barrows is also the co-author of . This novel takes place after World War II in a London recovering from the Blitz and an island recovering from German occupation. At the heart of Guernsey is an unlikely love story and the inspiring tale of a community that took care of each other in their darkest days with humor, compassion and good books. and how you can listen to Lisa's upcoming exclusive conversation with author Annie Barrows about .   PRODUCTION CREDITS Lisa Louise Cooke, Host and Producer Sunny Morton, Editor Amie Tennant, Content Contributor         Diahan Southard, Your DNA Guide, Content Contributor Lacey Cooke, Service Manager Vienna Thomas, Associate Producer Hannah Fullerton: Production Assistance     FREE NEWSLETTER: Enter your email & get my Google Research e-bookas a thank you gift! to receive a free weekly e-mail newsletter, with tips, inspiration and money-saving deals.      

The Genealogy Gems Podcast Episode 199 with Lisa Louise Cooke In this episode, Lisa celebrates Canada's 150th anniversary with Clare Banton from Library and Archives Canada. You'll also hear how Lisa will be marking another anniversary in 2017: the 10th year of this Genealogy Gems podcast. More episode highlights: An inspiring follow-up email from Gay, whose YouTube discovery Lisa shared in episode 198, and a great conference tip from Barbara just in time for RootsTech. Genealogy Gems Book Club Guru Sunny Morton announces the new Book Club title. Your DNA Guide Diahan Southard shares thoughts about DNA testing with kids. JOIN THE CELEBRATION! 10th ANNIVERSARY AND 200th EPISODE You're invited to send in well-wishes and win a chance at a prize! Email Lisa by January 31, 2017 at OR call her voicemail line at 925-272-4021. Share your first and last name, email address and where you live (your last name and email address won't be shared on the podcast); Share a memory of listening to this podcast, such as: When did you start listening? What's one of your favorite things you've learned from this show?   Lisa will randomly select one response to receive a free year of . Thanks for helping all of us here at Genealogy Gems celebrate 10 years of doing something we love!   NEWS: ROOTSTECH 2017 RootsTech will be held on February 8-11, 2017 in Salt Lake City, UT: . Lisa will be live-streaming FREE sessions the marked session via the free Periscope app. Get it in  or . Sign up for a free account and follow Lisa Louise Cooke to tune in. Sign up for notifications in Periscope, and your phone will “ping” whenever Lisa starts streaming! Broadcasts stay in the Periscope app for 24 hours. Like and follow the  to hear about more streaming sessions! NEWS: FAMICITY KICK-STARTER is a free, private website for families to share pictures, videos, memories, family activities and the family tree. The company has been very successful in France where it was launched, and the founder is working to bring the new English platform to the United States. He's launched a Kickstarter campaign to support their U.S. launch. to support it.   Lisa Louise Cooke uses and recommends . From within RootsMagic, you can search WebHints on FamilySearch.org, Findmypast.com and MyHeritage.com. Soon RootsMagic will also be able to search records and even sync your tree with Ancestry.com, too.         Keep your family history research, photos, tree software files, videos and all other computer files safely backed up with Backblaze, the official cloud-based computer backup system for Lisa Louise Cooke's Genealogy Gems. Learn more at .   MAILBOX: YOUTUBE DISCOVERY FOLLOW-UP Remember the YouTube success story from ? Gay as a young woman attended a dedication ceremony for the saline water treatment in Freeport, Texas—and with Lisa's tips she found video footage on YouTube.   Gay wrote back to send us more about that, including this page from her diary that day and this news clipping. Check out the news clipping to see why that plant was so important, Pres. John F. Kennedy gave the dedication speech. (See what newspapers can tell you?!) Find your own family history on YouTube. to learn how or read an entire chapter on YouTube in Lisa Louise Cooke's book, , 2nd revised edition. to learn how to turn family stories and artifacts like these into videos to share with relatives. Learn to find articles such as this one that can put your family's story in context—locally and even nationally. Read by Lisa Louise Cooke. MAILBOX: BARBARA AT NGS Speaking of that book, Barbara gave a thumbs-up to Lisa's book, , which helped her find an obituary for someone. She was very excited! Barbara shared a great idea, too: make your own genealogy calling cards. She loves meeting new people at genealogy conferences and likes to be able to follow up with them. She trades business cards. What would YOU put on a genealogy calling card? What about your name and contact information, family surnames and locations, other special research interests and your genealogy blog or website (if you have one).   INTERVIEW: CLAIRE BANTON, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA (LAC) Claire Banton obtained her Masters of Library and Information Studies degree in 2006. She has worked in Reference Services at LAC for 10 years, where she has enjoyed learning something new every day. She is currently Chief, Orientation Services, where she works with an awesome team who help people search for information. She loves being an information detective and helping people overcome their research challenges.  Claire's tips for genealogy research with LAC: LAC is very different from the average library. It is both a national library () and a a national archive (). You don't have to have an account to search.  Start with the whether you are visiting in person or not. There are loads of free databases and some unindexed digitized records. The will tell you what they do and don't have.  There was no border control from the US to Canada prior to 1908, so there are no Canadian records of earlier crossings. [Tip: see border crossings to the US, 1895-1956 at and for quick answers. to get more in depth answers: provide background information ahead of time. to explore (and join) Canada's 150th birthday celebration.   GENEALOGY GEMS BOOK CLUB by internationally best-selling author Annie Barrows (co-author, and author, Ivy and Bean, children's book series) It's the summer of 1938, and wealthy young socialite Miss Layla Beck is now on the dole as a WPA worker, assigned to write a history of the small town of Macedonia, West Virginia. As she starts asking questions about the town's past, she is drawn into the secrets of the family she's staying with—and drawn to a certain handsome member of that family. She and two of those family members take turns narrating the story from different points of view, exploring the theme that historical truth, like beauty, is often in the eye of the beholder. to read an introduction to using WPA records for genealogy. and how you can listen to Lisa's upcoming exclusive conversation with author Annie Barrows about .   DNA WITH DIAHAN: DNA TESTING FOR KIDS?! I was talking with a fellow mom the other day about all the demands that are placed on kids' time today. They have school and homework, many have after school sports and clubs, religious meetings, some have jobs or at least chores at home, not to mention all the time required to text, check social media, and hang out with friends. As parents and grandparents, we want our children to spend time on things that matter, things that will prepare them for their future lives and mold them into their future selves. According to a , if we want to encourage kids toward an activity that will positively impact them, we should steer them toward family history. The researchers reported that “children who know stories about relatives who came before them show higher levels of emotional well-being.” Now, I know I don't need to convince you of this. You are already sold on genealogy. But I share this in the hope that it will push you over the edge and this will erase any hesitancy you have about sharing this love with your children and grandchildren. Now, since you know this is me, the genetic genealogist talking, you can probably guess what I'll suggest for getting kids interested in family history. DNA testing is a great way to personally and physically involve them. First of all, there is the tangible process of taking the sample at home, and the marvel at how such a simple act can produce the amazing display of our ethnicity results. Since each of us is unique, it will be fun for them to compare with you and other relatives to see who got what bit of where. This will naturally lead to questions about which ancestor provided that bit of Italian or Irish, and wham! You'll be right there to tell them about how their 5th great grandfather crossed the ocean with only the clothes on his back, determined to make a new start in a new land. If there are parts of the ethnicity report that you can't explain, use that as a hook to encourage them to start digging and to find out why you have that smattering of eastern European or south east Asian. Taking them for a tour of the DNA match page you can show them how they share 50% of their DNA with their sister (whether they like it or not!) and how they share 25% with you, their grandparent! DNA test results give kids a totally unique look at their personal identity with technology that is cutting edge. Looking at their DNA test results can turn into a math lesson, a science lesson, a geography lesson, a lesson on heredity or biology, a discussion on identity—wherever you want to go with it! DNA is the perfect introduction to the wonders that genealogy can hold, especially for children who are so good at wondering.  to learn more about Diahan's series of how-to videos, available to Gems fans for a special price. Or start your DNA journey with two guides that will help you get started with kids' genetic genealogy:   PROFILE AMERICA: ELLIS ISLAND to watch the official, award-winning documentary shown at Ellis Island—free online at YouTube.   PRODUCTION CREDITS Lisa Louise Cooke, Host and Producer Sunny Morton, Editor Amie Tennant, Content Contributor         Diahan Southard, Your DNA Guide, Content Contributor Lacey Cooke, Service Manager Vienna Thomas, Associate Producer

The Genealogy Gems Podcast with Lisa Louise Cooke In this episode, I'm celebrating the 100th episode of another podcast I host: the Family Tree Magazine podcast. So I'll flashback to one of my favorite interviews from that show, an inspiring get-in-shape conversation for your research skills: how you can strengthen your research muscles and tone those technology skills to find and share your family history. More episode highlights: News on Chronicling America and Scotland's People; Comments from guest expert Lisa Alzo on millions of Czech records that have recently come online; A YouTube-for-genealogy success story from a woman I met at a conference; An excerpt from the Genealogy Gems Book Club interview with Chris Cleave, author of Everyone Brave is Forgiven; Diahan Southard shares a DNA gem: the free website GEDmatch, which you might be ready for if you've done some DNA testing. Listen now - click the player below: NEWS: Genealogy.coach NEWS: GENEALOGY WEBSITE UPDATES NEW RECORDS ONLINE: FREE CZECH RECORDS AT FAMILYSEARCH.ORG On browse-only records: Though not fully indexed, the new Czech browse-only records number over 4 million. learn how to use browse-only collections on FamilySearch.org. Lisa Alzo, Eastern European genealogy expert and author of the new book comments on the significance of these records coming online: “These records are a real boon for Czech researchers because at one time the only to get records such as these was to write to an archive and taking a chance on getting a response or spending a lot of money to hire someone to find the records or to travel there yourself to do research in the archives.   The church records contain Images and some indexes of baptisms/births, marriages, and deaths that occurred in the Roman Catholic, Evangelical Lutheran, and Reformed Church parishes, as well as entries in those registers for Jews.  Land transactions containing significant genealogical detail for a time period that predates parish registers. The collection includes records from regional archives in Opava and Třeboň and from the district archive in Trutnov. School registers contain the full name for a child, birth date, place of birth, country, religion and father's full name, and place of residence. While researchers should keep in mind that not everything is yet online,and FamilySearch will likely add to its collection,  having these records from FS is an amazing resource for anyone whose ancestors may have come from these areas. And hopefully there are more records to come!” GENEALOGY GEMS NEWS Story of My Life by Sunny Morton, life story-writing journal available as a and as a Diahan Southard will be at the in Dublin, Ireland, October 21 to 23, 2016   Genealogy Gems app users:  For those of you who listen to this show through the Genealogy Gems app, your bonus handout is a PDF document with step-by-step instructions and helpful screenshots for Google image search on mobile devices. The and is only $2.99 for   Lisa Louise Cooke uses and recommends . From within RootsMagic, you can search historical records on FamilySearch.org, Findmypast.com and MyHeritage.com. And in the near future, RootsMagic will be fully integrated with Ancestry.com, too: you'll be able to sync your RootsMagic trees with your Ancestry.com trees and search records on the site.   Keep your family history research, photos, tree software files, videos and all other computer files safely backed up with Backblaze, the official cloud-based computer backup system for Lisa Louise Cooke's Genealogy Gems. Learn more at . Review your search results—especially those that pop up in the Images category.   MAILBOX: Robin's YouTube Success Story YouTube video with Robyn's father: has an entire chapter on using YouTube to find family history in historical videos   MAILBOX: FEEDBACK ON THE PODCASTS Free, step-by-step podcast for beginners and a “refresher” course:   SHAPING UP WITH SUNNY MORTON celebrates 100th episode   Sunny Morton has get-in-shape advice for us—from strengthening research skills to toning tech muscles--from the article "Shaping Up" featured in the  More resources for genealogy education: GENEALOGY GEMS BOOK CLUB: , the best-selling novel by British author Chris Cleave. A love story set in World War II London and Malta. This story is intense, eye-opening and full of insights into the human experience of living and loving in a war zone—and afterward. is inspired by love letters exchanged between the author's grandparents during World War II. Video: for more Genealogy Gems Book Club titles is the place to make connections with relatives overseas, particularly with those who may still live in your ancestral homeland. : it's free to get started.     GEDMATCH WITH DIAHAN SOUTHARD, YOUR DNA GUIDEThe genetic genealogy community has a crush. A big one.  Everyone is talking about it. “It has such great features.” says one. “It has a chromosome browser!” exclaims another. “It's FREE!” they all shout. What are they talking about? GEDmatch is a mostly free online tool where anyone with autosomal DNA test results from 23andMe, FTDNA, and AncestryDNA can meet and share information. All you need to do is download your data from your testing company and upload it into your newly created GEDmatch account. GEDmatch is set up just like your testing company in that it provides two kinds of reports: ethnicity results, and a match list. Remember that ethnicity results, meaning those pie charts that report you are 15% Italian and 32% Irish, are based on two factors: a reference population and fancy math. GEDmatch has gathered data from multiple academic sources to provide you with several different iterations of ethnicity reports. This is like getting a second (and third and fourth, etc) opinion on a science that is still emerging. It is a fun exercise, but will likely not impact your genealogy research very much. The more important match list does allow you to see genetic cousins who have tested at other companies. Of course, only those who have downloaded their results and entered them into GEDmatch will show up on your list. This means GEDmatch has the potential to expand your pool of genetic cousins, increasing your chances of finding someone to help you track down that missing ancestor. Many also flock to GEDmatch because they were tested at AncestryDNA and thus do not have access to a chromosome browser. A chromosome browser allows you to visualize the physical locations that you share with someone else. Some find this to be a helpful tool when analyzing their DNA matches (though in my opinion it is not essential). GEDmatch also has some great genealogy features that let you analyze your pedigree against someone else's, as well as the ability to search all the pedigree charts in their system so you can look specifically for a descendant of a particular relative. However, even with all of these great features, GEDmatch is still yet another website you have to navigate, and with that will be a learning curve, and certainly some frustration. So, is it worth it? If you are fairly comfortable with the website where you were tested, and you are feeling both curious and patient, I say go for it. It's too much to try to tell you right this minute how to download your data from your testing site and upload it to GEDmatch. BUT you're in luck, I've put step-by-step instructions for getting started in a FREE tutorial on my website at . After you've done the upload, you may need a little bit more help to navigate the GEDmatch site because there are so many great tools on it. I recently published a , where I have condensed into four pages the most essential features of GEDmatch to get you started and help you make use of this tool for genetic genealogy. Using my guide is an inexpensive and easy way to get a lot more out of a free online resource. I will also be adding more GEDmatch tutorials to my online tutorial series later this fall, which Genealogy Gems fans get a nice discount on ( for that discount). By the way, have you tried GEDmatch? I would love to hear about your experiences. You can email me at .   DNA QUICK GUIDE BUNDLES: NEW AND ON SALE by Diahan Southard: GEDmatch: A Next Step for your Autosomal DNA Test Organizing Your DNA Matches: A Companion Guide Next Steps: Working with Your Autosomal DNA Matches   by Diahan Southard with ALL 10 Guides Getting Started: Genetics for the Genealogist Autosomal DNA for the Genealogist Mitochondrial DNA for the Genealogist Y Chromosome DNA for the Genealogist and Testing Companies: Understanding Ancestry: A Companion Guide to Autosomal DNA for the Genealogist Understanding Family Tree DNA: A Companion Guide to Autosomal DNA for the Genealogist Understanding 23 and Me: A Companion Guide to Autosomal DNA for the Genealogist and Advanced Tools Next Steps: Working With Your Autosomal DNA Matches Organzing Your DNA Matches GEDmatch: A Next Step for Your Autosomal DNA Test   Genealogy Gems Podcast turns 200: Tell me what you think?As we count down to the 200th episode of the free Genealogy Gems Podcast, what have been YOUR favorite things about the podcast? Any particular topics, interviews or segments of the show? What keeps you coming back? What would you like to hear more of? Email me at genealogygemspodcast@gmail.com, or leave a voicemail at (925) 272-4021, or send mail to: P.O. Box 531, Rhome, TX 76078. FREE NEWSLETTER:  

Genealogy Gems Podcast Episode 189 NEWS: Relative Race BYUtv's new reality series Relative Race () premiered on February 28, 2016. The show “features four married couples as they travel across the US in search of long lost relatives, armed with only paper maps, a rental car, a $25 per diem and a flip phone.” (Interview with two contestants later in the show.)   Databases of Runaway Slave Notices on new websites that will launch databases of runaway slave notices: Irish Collections and Tips from Findmypast for 1670-1900 at Findmypast.com (FREE FOREVER to search), with links to free     , head of Irish Data and Development at Findmypast on getting started in Irish research   MyHeritage Updates Its Search Technologies from the MyHeritage blog.   MAILBOX: Marquise' new blog:   Kim recommends my for beginners and those who want a “genealogy do-over.” She particularly mentions a three-part series on immigration and naturalization records in Episode 29, Episode 30 and . Matt's suggestion for : leave virtual flowers on the “tombstones” of deceased relatives so other relatives can find you: Create a free individual log-in from the home page of the website After logging in, go into an individual record, where it shows your ancestor's tombstone information. Click on the button that says, “Leave flowers and a note.” Select among several different images of flowers. Choose whether to leave a note and your name. Others who view this tombstone profile can click on your screen name and contact you through the site.                     INTERVIEW: Janice and Patrick Wright from Relative Race host Dan J. Debenham described how BYUtv's original competition reality show came into being: “What could we create that would be very different from what's currently out there and that would show people discovering family all across the country?" Four teams race from San Francisco to New York in 10 days. Their goal?  Find unknown relatives, complete challenges, and don't get eliminated. In this episode you will hear from Team Black: Patrick Wright is an executive at Alpha Media, a growing radio broadcast media company based in Portland, OR; Janice is a freelance Media Consultant. They joined the Relative Race show because they love travel and adventure.    BOOK CLUB: Interview excerpt with Tara Austen Weaver on Orchard House Author Tara Austen Weaver talks about gardening and family, and how tending a garden isn't so different from nourishing family relationships.   DNA GEM: 3 Reasons to Test with Diahan Southard My youngest child, Eleanor, is nearly 8, so it was fun to have a 2 year old over the other day. She loved following Eleanor around, and Eleanor was equally thrilled to have someone to mentor in the ways of big girl play. I took special delight in listening to my daughter's patient and surprisingly complete answers to our guest's constant inquiries of “Why?” It got me thinking about the Whys of genealogy, and especially of genetic genealogy. I decided that there are three main reasons to have your DNA tested for genealogical purposes. It is primary information. In genealogy, primary information is given by a source with firsthand knowledge of an event, with the best primary information being created at or around the time of the event. I think we can safely say that DNA falls into that category on both counts. Therefore, it is an excellent source of genealogical information and should be obtained as part of a thorough genealogical search. It is a unique record. DNA possesses several qualities that make this record type stand out from the rest. First and foremost, it cannot be falsified in any way. No name change, no deception, no miscommunication or misspelling can tarnish this record. Even if it is not a complete record of our family history, the story that it does tell is accurate. It is a physical link to our past. So much of genealogy work, especially in today's digital world, is intangible. We add ancestors to our pedigree charts with a click of our mouse, having no idea of their physical characteristics, never once setting foot in the same places that they did, or if they preferred bread and butter or toast and jam. But with the advent of DNA testing, I am able to see a physical connection between me and my ancestor. The first time I saw it seems unremarkable. It was just a blue line on top of a grey line, representing the location in the DNA where I had the same information as my cousin. But that line meant that we had both inherited a physical piece of DNA from our common ancestor, Lucy J. Claunch. That realization didn't add names or dates to my pedigree chart- Lucy had been on my chart since the beginning. But it did add a sense of purpose and reality to my genealogical work. In short, it inspired me to know more about Lucy and to tell her story because I felt inextricably tied to it. Perhaps many of you don't need a DNA test to feel similarly motivated, you already understand what I learned: Her story is my story. But because I have her DNA in me, I am able to take that idea one step further. Because she lives on in me, my story is her story. So I better make it a good one. Has your DNA motivated you to find out more about your story? Genealogy Gems readers and listeners get a special price on Diahan Southard's DNA Video Training    PROFILE AMERICA:  

Genealogy Gems PodcastEpisode 186 This month's episode celebrates upcoming holiday family time with a special segment on interviewing relatives. Diahan Southard offers her thanks for DNA connections that are helping fill holes left by adoption. And you'll hear about: a great new resource from MyHeritage for connecting with other researchers, family history poetry from two Gems listeners, letters from the Gems mailbox and an excerpt from our new Genealogy Gems Book Club interview, which will appear in full later this month in the next Genealogy Gems Premium podcast. NEWS: MyHeritage Search Connect Genealogy companies are getting smarter, there's no doubt about it. The latest smart-searching feature from MyHeritage.com is one great example. MyHeritage recently released . This is new technology that helps you find others who have been searching for the same rare surnames that may be on your family tree. Here's how it works. For several years, MyHeritage has kept a database of who is searching for what ancestors. I can only imagine how huge that database is!  They have now put that database to use as a social networking tool. They whittled it down, at least for now, to just those folks searching for rare surnames. Just that database has 30 million names in it! Now when you search for those rare surnames in the SuperSearch area of MyHeritage, results from the database of other searchers are included in your search results (and they even get translated if needed, thanks to MyHeritage's Global Name Translation tool). You can click to look at their larger search history to see if this is really a match for you, then contact them through the site. You can also search on that database separately . The database will continue to be updated weekly, so it will stay fresh. Also, you can opt-out if you DON'T want your past or current searches to be included in it. All you have to do is log in to your family site and click on your name in the upper right-hand side of the screen. Select ‘My Privacy, then on ‘My member preferences' on the left and uncheck ‘Enable Search Connect™'.”                 GEMS NEWS: Contest Results Recently we ran a contest celebrating our milestone 1000th blog post on the Genealogy Gems website. We counted down our Top 10 posts of 2015 and many of you helped us share those posts on Facebook. Charles Meiser was one person who helped, and he won a copy of the Video course  by our very own Contributing Editor Sunny Morton.                     I do have a nice consolation prize for those who didn't win: a coupon code for 25% off your own copy of . Her class is packed full of strategies to help you finally get your family history written. And her approach really helps you think outside the box about what really constitutes family history writing. She shares some fun and fantastic ways of passing along your family history without writing a 300-page volume.  GEMS NEWS: Write of Your Life Podcast A few months ago I was interviewed on the Write of Your Life podcast. The thrust of what I talked about was the importance of what I call “family founders,” those people we can look to in our tree for inspiration and think of as role models. Family history helps modern families grow and heal. The people we meet on our family tree—people with the same genes we have—inspire and teach and motivate us in ways they never could have imagined, and maybe we never could have, either, until we “met” them. to listen to the interview. And then I'd love to hear from any of you about how family history has meaning in YOUR life.     MAILBOX: Where I'm From Poems On the show I shared two special poems that have come in on the Genealogy Gems voice mail. You may recall that we have invited everyone to write their own version of poet George Ella Lyon's “Where I'm From” poem. Between now and the end of the year, I encourage you write your own poem. Just make a list about where you're from—the places, people, sights, sounds, smells, tastes, phrases, songs and rhythms that are part of your story. Shape it into a poem. Then call in to share it with us on our voicemail at (925) 272-4021. Those who do so by December 30, 2015 will be eligible for a chance to win a one-year Genealogy Gems Premium membership or renewal. Next month, I'll share a couple more of your entries on the podcast. Give it a try! to learn more about this contest.   MAILBOX: The Case of the Missing Parents ContinuesI continue to hear feedback from our response to a reader question in which Sunny and I shared . I read some of your additional suggestions on . Lynn wrote in with her own “missing parents” case. The key strategies I suggested are: Cluster research, in which you try to recognize little migratory groups and use other members of the group to learn more about your own ancestor of primary interest. It's a concept that Contributing Editor Sunny Morton wrote an entire how-to class on. She gave some great tips from that class in the , which I also host. That brick-wall-busting class is called . DNA testing. Depending on which test she takes, her results may lead to common relatives descended from those “missing” parents. I recommended the I offer through the Genealogy Gems website. It's an inexpensive and helpful way to start your DNA journey. As your DNA journey progresses, written by our resident DNA expert, Diahan Southard, can help with next steps.   SPECIAL INTERVIEW: Kathy Hawkins: Interviewing Tips for Older RelativesKathy Hawkins is a music therapist and a Master Trainer for a program that works with memory-impaired adults. I asked her questions about aging and memory and how the severity of Alzheimer's or dementia affect the quality of someone's memories. We talked about strategies for asking questions that will elicit better memories, understanding the possible limitations of those memories and how to how to have more meaningful conversations with someone who suffers from severe memory loss. Here are four tips she shared that I especially appreciated: Cut out the phrase, “Do you remember?” Ask instead specific questions about “who, what”….etc. I've seen people shut down when they feel like it's a memory test. Don't put that kind of pressure on them. Your tone and your approach are so important. Don't be sing-songy or condescending: they're not a child. Treat them like an adult. The emotional integrity of someone's story is still often intact, even with memory-impairment. The emotion attached to a memory or a person will likely be really sincere. But their chronology or details may get confused with other similar events that were also true. From the genealogy researcher's point of view--whenever you can, verify facts (especially dates) with other sources. Don't make everything about what they remember (or don't). Be interested in who they are now: their thoughts and creativity. Kathy shared information about , which teaches caregivers how to have more meaningful, joyful interactions with memory-impaired loved ones. to see a pdf with some creative storytelling and arts materials that Timeslips offers.                 BOOK CLUB: Excerpt from Citizens Creek This month, over on the Genealogy Gems Premium podcast, our Premium members will hear an exclusive interview with Lalita Tademy, author of . In this episode, we also play a brief excerpt for you. If you're enjoying these snippets of interviews and you're not already a Premium website member, consider whether it's finally time to take the plunge. With , one LOW price gets you an entire YEAR's access to current and ALL back episodes of the monthly . That podcast is like this podcast—but on steroids. You get MORE meaty interviews, more fun conversations and exclusive, full-length interviews with the authors of our Book Club selections. You also have access to , which if you were to take them at conferences or purchase something like them from another web site would EACH be more expensive than the entire annual membership price. Why not try it for a year? Get as much out of it as you can—there's definitely a year's worth of materials to watch and listen to. At the end of the year, YOU decide whether to renew—I never auto-renew my subscribers. It's always your choice to continue to enjoy .             DNA GEM: Filling Empty Seats at the Table with DNAAt this time of year when many of us are spending more time with family than we otherwise might, we often reflect on the empty seats at our table. We think of those who weren't able to travel to the family gathering, and back to those who have passed on. For some however, a long empty seat has been filled this year, thanks to the assistance of a DNA test. Earlier this year of Mary McPherson and her cousin Dolores Washington-Fleming who discovered a common connection through Peter Edward Williams. Mary is a descendant of his wife, and Dolores through his slave. Mary and Dolores welcomed this new connection and shared information about their common ancestor.  As they reunited for the first time, perhaps they talked about what life might have been like in the 1850's in the south, and how their ancestors would've never guessed that the two of them would be gathered around the same table. As word spreads of the power of DNA testing to reveal the secrets of the past, many adoptees are flocking to genetic genealogy testing companies with the intention of filling the empty seats at their holiday tables.  The reported a touching story of Khrys Vaughan who felt her identity crumble when she found out she was adopted. Turning to DNA testing she was able to connect with cousins and feel a biological connection she didn't know she had been missing. Even though she still has many open seats at her table, she felt that filling even one meant that she was no longer biologically adrift, but could now look at someone and say, “This is my family.” A similar broke recently out of California. Just days old, Jen Chervin was found outside a hospital in Yuba City, CA. That was 40 years ago. But this year, Jen used the power of the genetic genealogy database in combination with some serious genealogy work to find her parents. While neither is in a position to openly embrace her as a daughter at this time in their lives, Jen now has a name card to place at seats of honor around her holiday table, all thanks to a simple saliva test. This has been a landmark year in my own family. In one seeming miracle after another, I have added the names of maternal grandparents and great grandparents to my family tree as DNA testing has helped my mom fill in some of the missing pieces in her life. We have had a true Texas welcome from some of her paternal second cousins, and an outpouring of kindness from a maternal second cousin. While our place cards for mother and father are only tentatively penciled in, I know as I look around our genetic holiday table, I am excited about the new faces I see and I can't wait to learn more. If you want to get started filling seats at your table, there is no time like the present to give yourself, or someone else, the present of DNA testing! The first rule in DNA testing is to test the oldest generation. So parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles should be first on your list. If you are that oldest generation, then pat yourself on the back and get swabbing! The savvy shopper begins with the test for all interested parties, and the YDNA 37 marker test from Family Tree DNA for all males. Then sit back and wait for the results to roll in! As they do, check back here at Genealogy Gems for tips on how to use that data to fill seats at your holiday table next year. And turn to Diahan Southard's DNA quick reference guides in the Genealogy Gems store at   PROFILE AMERICAThe US Census Bureau's tells us that “111 years ago, Connecticut inventor Harvey Hubbell moved household electricity from “shock it to socket.” In November 1904, he received a patent for the world's first detachable electric plug: the two-, now sometimes three-prong plug familiar to us today. Remarkable as it sounds, at the time electric terminals would extend out from a wall, and any electrical device had to be hardwired to them--a time consuming process with a chance of electrocution. Hubbell was no one-hit wonder, as in the 1890s he created an electric switch and patented the pull-chain electric light socket.”  

This month all of us here at Genealogy Gems are celebrating reaching a milestone 1000 blog posts on our website. But we're not just celebrating our own genealogy writing. We're celebrating YOURS! Today I have a special segment that celebrates what YOU have shared with us about your adventures in family history blogging. I also have a short, fun family history writing challenge to share with everyone, not just those who blog. I'll introduce that challenge with a surprise guest—the poet laureate of Kentucky. Genealogy Gems App Users: Check out the Bonus Content video NEWS: More U.S. Marriage Records OnlineHave you noticed on our blog that every Friday we report new genealogy records online? Well, last week was a doozy in terms of U.S. marriage records. We had heard through the grapevine that FamilySearch had set itself to the task of tracking down every possible marriage record for the U.S. and it looks like they're having some success! At FamilySearch alone last week, they published or updated indexed  marriage records in , , , , , , , , , and . Louisiana's collection alone contains over a million entries, and Pennsylvania's dates to the 1600s! But FamilySearch isn't alone in the marriage record publishing frenzy. We noticed that Ancestry has just added  new marriage indexes for ,  and . Of course, not every ancestor who married stayed that way: Ancestry has also updated its  collection and added a new collection of  records. A lot of these are older but you'll be surprised at how far into the 20th century some of these new marriage record collections are. Use these to recharge your research if you've stalled somewhere on your U.S. family tree! NEWS: National Archives (U.S.) Doing More DigitizingThe U.S. National Archives has signed contracts to digitize more of its historical records. The  are with FamilySearch and , and the records in question will include various items with births, marriages, deaths, immigration and military service information. So the National Archives has partnered with these organizations in the past, but this time around, the contract allows them to get records online faster by uploading digitized and partially-digitized collections before they're even indexed, like FamilySearch already does. There are new provisions to protect personally identifying information, and will have a shorter window of exclusivity with their content. They invest in record digitization and indexing so they will have exclusive access to the images and indexes for a period of time, after which the National Archives can put the material on its site and share it with other partners. It's a win-win even for those who don't subscribe to Ancestry: you'll just have to wait longer to win! And FYI, in case you wonder why FamilySearch and Ancestry seem so favored, the U.S. National Archives does sign content partnerships with other companies. Findmypast has a contract pending, and there's already a contract with military records site Fold3. NEWS: for Mac and More I recently heard two really great pieces of news about genealogy software--for Mac users! First, is now available for FREE!  This is the get-started version of RootsMagic which introduces you to this excellent family history software. If you're still exploring which family history software is best for you, give it a try! If you decide to upgrade to the full, paid version of the software, the transition is seamless and easy. Speaking of a full Mac version of RootsMagic, you may recall that last year they launched MacBridge for RootsMagic. This was really a great step forward, but there was an additional fee and it required extra steps to download and use. But now when you buy RootsMagic 7, you can install it on both Windows and Mac computers in your household....So your single purchase includes licenses for both. Great, right?! So if you already own RootsMagic 7 for Windows, you can head back to their website, and download RootsMagic 7 for Mac any time and use the same registration key that you got with your original purchase. And something I really love about Rootstmagic is the free and easy to access support they provide their users. There's nothing worse than struggling to use your genealogy software when you're hot on the trail of ancestors. Well they have just published two new free PDF RootsMagic user guides – one that's all about installing RootsMagic for Mac, and another guide on how to create a Shareable CD. So now you have lots of new things to do when it comes to Rootsmagic.   MAILBOX  This month we are celebrating 1000 blog posts on the . It's hard to believe we're up to 1000 different posts on family history news, tips, stories and more! Who knew there was so much to say? But our blog is only a drop in the genealogy-blogging bucket! I keep hearing from so many of you about your blogging successes. So here's a taste of what I'm hearing: “I absolutely love blogging about my family,” commented Diane on the . “Once I got serious, 2 years ago, I have really enjoyed it. I've connected with cousins and made many new friends. I write tips to help other researchers and that's also been very rewarding. It's a regular part of my life now. I would really miss it if I couldn't write.” Here's another one. Debra wrote in to say, “I have been reading about blogging for genealogy on your website and finally decided to bite the bullet and start one. Now I am trying to figure out how to get it noticed and remembered that you asked us to send you the link if we started one, so here is the information.” Her blog: , at . I took a quick peek at it. It's still a young blog, but I have to say that Debra is going about this the right way. Her blog posts are packed with family names and locations that can help other relatives find her, if they're searching for those same names and locations online. She's also got great stories and memories in her posts, which she's added documents and photos to. That content will keep interested relatives reading, once they've discovered her, which may take some time—but it's worth it! A new podcast listener and blogger wrote to me recently. Jolanta is a Polish immigrant to Northern Ireland and a professional translator. She says, “I only just discovered podcast as a medium and your podcast in particular. I am loving it! Love the book club, the tips and really everything about it! I drive a lot and it is recorded loud enough to comfortably listen in a car (unlike some other podcasts) and I still have quite a lot of shows to go so I will be occupied for a while!” She goes on to say, “Motivated by your show, I decided to take a plunge and start my own blog…I am not a native English speaker, but this is a way to challenge myself. I only have one post up so far and the next one nearly ready, but the more I listen to your podcasts the more ideas I have.” Since she wrote us, she's added more to her blog at . I'm so pleased that the show is inspiring Jolanta, because she's inspiring me! What a feat, to blog in your second language! She says that as an immigrant, she feels doing her genealogy is even more important, because since she left 11 years ago, her daughter has been born. Jolanta says, “She needs to know where her roots are!” and I couldn't agree more. Good for her! Another Debra wrote in recently with this comment: “I am fairly new to your podcast series; I enjoy listening while I work on my quilting projects. You have inspired me to start a family history blog as a starting base for writing my family history. Last week, I listened to one of your early podcasts on the subject of cold-calling. I was amazed to hear how difficult it is for many people to reach out to others for help with their research into their own family history. I took that topic and wrote a blog entry about the first cold-call that I remember. It has inspired me to write about more cold-calls in the near future. I would like to invite you to read that entry on my site, . Thank you for your excitement and your inspirations.”  Well, you're welcome, Debra, and thank you for sharing your blog post with your experience cold-contacting a distant relative: an experience that actually led to meeting that relative, who introduced her to another relative who lived in the old family home, which had a family burial plot in her back garden! What a great contact and friendship she describes! Mike from Sydney, Australia wrote to say, “Congratulations on a great podcast from Down Under. I listen to every episode during my travels to and from work. I recently watched your 'how to blog your family history' series on YouTube and became motivated to finally 'get on my butt' and do something. Your recent episode 184 with Judy's blogging experience was the clincher. I have now proudly given birth to my first blog at And it wasn't painful. It has only taken about 20 years since blogging has been around! Thank you for inspiring me and all your other listeners.” It feels so good to hear that so many people are getting into the spirit of blogging their family history! It's never too late to start! I'll share one last letter from Chris, who wrote in after we announced the new Chris says, “Since you turned everyone on to this latest resource I thought I'd share the results.” She sent me a link to her about using these, where she reports: “I was very lucky. I knew enough information to make a smart guess at exactly where to look and within half an hour I had baptismal records for three people in my dad's family.” In fact, these relatives she talks about have the surname Cooke, just like my married name. Do you still need more motivation to get blogging? I came across a marketing blog post on the power of blogging for businesses. Well, we as family historians are in the business of sharing our family history stories. So I think about things from that point of view when I hear the following, taken from a post on . First, businesses that blog attract two-thirds more potential customers than those who don't. Likewise, family historians who share their family history online can attract interest from lots of relatives, including those they've never met and those they never knew were interested in family history! Second, blog posts can pull in new customers for businesses whether you wrote them yesterday or years ago. It's worth updating older blog posts with more current information and keeping your current contact information on your blog, even if you're not actively adding to it right now. Third, marketing experts say that by 2020, customers are expected to manage about 85% of business without even talking to a human. Wow! I think we'll see some trending that direction in family history research, too. Increasingly, our relatives are likely looking for their family history online first—not as much by reaching out to distant relatives and relatives-of-relatives by mail or phone, though I still encourage that cold-calling approach that worked so well for Debra. Fourth, the only thing blogging costs is TIME! This speaks for itself. No expensive mailings or printing copies of books and photos, hoping your relatives will pay you back. Fifth, and finally, blogs are considered a highly trusted source for accurate online information. The personal touch of a blog, together with your responsible research and the sources you cite, can help your relatives trust what you're telling them.   GENEALOGY GEMS FOR SOCIETIES A few months ago I heard from Richard. “I have been asked by my local genealogical Society to conduct and present at the meeting in August. My thought for the class was Internet Genealogy and providing a comprehensive overview on how members and non-members can increase their sources and find ‘hidden' records on line. Can I include images of your website and small clips of some of your online free videos as part of the presentation? I would of course include the source information and provide credit for you. I am also planning to hype up your podcast as well since it has given me a number of new outlooks on the best hobby in the world. Thank you again for your continued information and assistance in every media format known.” Thank you, Richard! I'm so glad he wants to share Genealogy Gems with his local society. I've actually heard that from so many of you that I've created a new program to meet this need. Genealogy Gems for Societies is a premium subscription service just for genealogical societies and groups, such as libraries. This is a cost-effective way for groups to enjoy my high-quality family history video presentations their regular meetings. It includes: A year-long license to show video recordings of my most popular classes as group presentations Permission to republish articles and blog posts from our enormous online archive—remember? we're up to 1000 blog posts now!—in your society newsletter. (Your newsletter editor will LOVE this feature!), and Discounts for your society and its members on Genealogy Gems live seminars and purchases from our online store.   INTERVIEW: Where I'm From with George Ella Lyon Today I arranged for a special segment that Contributing Editor Sunny Morton recorded with George Ella Lyon, the poet laureate of Kentucky, George Ella Lyon, whose own poem on family identity has inspired hundreds of people to write their own and has even become an official statewide initiative in Kentucky! One of those who wrote their own version of the poem was Sunny's own 11-year old son Alex. Enjoy the conversation—and listen for that writing invitation I told you was coming! George Ella Lyon is the Poet Laureate for the state of Kentucky and the author of a very popular family history writing exercise based on her poem, “Where I'm From.” She uses her poem to encourage others to make lists about where they're from, and shape them into their own poems. As she says on her , “the poem as a writing prompt has traveled in amazing ways. People have used it at their family reunions, teachers have used it with kids all over the United States, in Ecuador and China; they have taken it to girls in juvenile detention, to men in prison for life, and to refugees in a camp in the Sudan.” The “Where I'm From” poem has inspired a current initiative by the to encourage people to reflect on and document their own heritage. Of course, we hope this conversation will inspire YOU to write about where you're from, too! Here are some of George Ella Lyon's tips on writing your own version of “Where I'm From:” Just list whatever comes to mind to start: food, music, landscapes, people. Be open to whatever you think of. This is a process. It may take several days to craft your list.  Later, as you organize what you write into its final shape, go back and see which lines have the most energy. Read it out loud. What order feels right? The last part of my poem is a reflection, but yours doesn't have to be. Have fun! Don't criticize yourself. You can do this many times over the course of time. I have! You can write “Where I'm From” from your current point of view or looking back. Tell us where you are from!We would love to have you share your version of George Ella Lyon's poem with Genealogy Gems! l invite you to call in and read your version of the poem on my voicemail: (925) 272-4021. Be sure to leave your name, phone number, and email address (phone and email will be kept private and NOT played on the show) so that you can be entered to win 1 year of Genealogy Gems Premium Membership (new or renewal). One lucky winner will be randomly selected on 12/31/15.    DNA GEM: Ethnicity Results: Exciting or Exasperating?Diahan Southard, Your DNA Guide at Genealogy Gems Facebook follower Kate Vaughan recently wrote in expressing her frustration with her ethnicity results provided by . She gets right to the point when she writes, “the way they refer to the results is confusing.” Kate, you are not alone. Many genealogists have been lured into taking the autosomal DNA test at one of the three major DNA testing companies just to get this glimpse into their past. Remember that the autosomal DNA test can reveal information about both your mother's side and your father's side of your family tree. Many take the test hoping for confirmation of a particular ancestral heritage, others are just curious to see what the results will show. Though their purposes in initiating the testing may vary, the feeling of bewilderment and befuddlement upon receiving the results is fairly universal. Kate has some specific questions about her results that I think most will share. Let's take a look at a couple of them. First up, Kate wants to know if our family tree data in any way influences the ethnicity results provided. The answer is an unequivocal “no.” None of the testing companies look at your family tree in any way when determining your ethnicity results. However, the results are dependent on the family trees of the reference population. The reference populations are large numbers of people whose DNA has been tested and THEIR family history has been documented for many generations in that region. The testing companies compare your DNA to theirs and that's how they assign you to an ethnicity (and place of ancestral origin?).  Next Kate asks, “Do they mean England when they report Great Britain?” Or to put it more broadly, how do these testing companies decide to divide up the world? All of the companies handle this a little bit differently. Let's look at Ancestry as an example. When you login to view your ethnicity results, you can click on the “show all regions” box below your results to get a list of all of the possible categories that your DNA could be placed in. These 26 categories include nine African regions, Native American, three Asian regions, eight European regions, two Pacific Island regions, two West Asian regions, and then Jewish, which is not a region, per se, but a genetically distinct group. Clicking on each individual location in the left sidebar will bring up more information on the right about that region. For example, clicking on Great Britain tells us that DNA associated with this region is primarily found in England, Scotland, and Wales, but is also found in Ireland, France, Germany, Denmark, Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, and Italy. Basically, this is telling us that people with generations of ancestry in Great Britain are quite a genetic mix from many areas. The first chart here shows that if we are to test the DNA of 100 natives of one of these primary regions (England, Scotland or Wales) then 50 of them will have the great Britain “pattern” of DNA covering 60% or more of their entire genome, and 50 of them will have that pattern in less than 60% of their DNA. The fact that this half-way number is so low, only 60%, tells us that there is a lot of uncertainty in this ethnicity estimate because there is so much mixture in this region. Kate, for you that means that when you see Great Britain in your ethnicity estimate, it could mean England, or maybe it means Italy- Ancestry can't be certain. But that uncertainty isn't the same for every region. Pictured here is also the ethnicity chart for Ireland. You can see that half the people who are native to Ireland will have 95% or more Irish DNA.  Kate, for us this means that if you have Irish DNA in your results, you can be pretty certain it came from Ireland. From these tables you can see your membership in some regions is more robust than others, and Ancestry is using these tables to try to help us tell the difference. In the end, the ethnicity results reported by each DNA testing company are highly dependent on two factors: the reference populations they use to compare your DNA against, and the statistical algorithms they use to compute your similarities to these populations. Every company is doing both of these things just a little bit differently. Kate, if you want to get another take on your ethnicity results, you can take your data over to Family Tree DNA, or you can be tested at 23andMe. A free option is to head over to Gedmatch and try out their various ethnicity tools. If you need help downloading and transferring, you can head over to my website: .  Most people have found after searching in multiple places that their “true” results are probably somewhere in the middle. While these ethnicity results can be interesting and useful, for most they will just be a novelty; something interesting and exciting. I have found that their most useful application is acting like a fly on a fishing line. They attract our family members into DNA testing where we can then set the hook on the real goal: family history.    PROFILE AMERICA: The Statue of Liberty had a birthday just recently! On October 28, 1886, the now-famous Statue of Liberty was dedicated in New York Harbor in New York City. Every school child in the U.S. knows this was a gift from France. According to Profile America, “the statue was the first glimpse of America for more than 20 million immigrants who came through nearby Ellis Island, chiefly from Ireland, Germany, Italy, and Poland. In 1910, the year of the greatest influx, some 15 percent of the U.S. population was foreign-born.” Each of those 20 million immigrants to the U.S.—and each of our other ancestors from all over the world—has a unique story. Of migration or change, loss and love, being favored by fate--or not-so-favored. All the stories I find—and all the stories I hear and read from YOU—tell me that we have so much to learn from our ancestors' lives, so much to be inspired by. Their stories shape us and, in so doing, become part of OUR stories. That gives us double the stories to tell! I invite you to get sharing those stories, if you aren't already. Blog if that works for you, because the world is your audience. Or write something else and share it in another way. Put together a short biography of a fascinating ancestor. Transcribe an old diary or interview. Write about your research journey and how your findings inspired you. However you most want to share it: just DO it! Your own legacy will love on. The legacies of those who love from the past will live on. And legacies of those yet to come will benefit from that which you've left for them.

In this episode I'll kick things off with two fabulous online resources I think are Gems. Two of you wrote in with your own advice, one on saving your genealogy from theft and another with another tip on digital preservation. I found a funny poem online that the author gave me permission to share. And then Sunny will join me to announce our next Genealogy Gems Book Club pick—and we may or may not digress a little to talk about other fun things on our minds. So sit back and relax—or do whatever you love to do while listening to podcasts—and let's get started. NEWS: Ancestry Web Indexes Did you see the recent article on the Genealogy Gems website about Ancestry Web Indexes? These are FREE resources that anyone can access. You don't need to be an Ancestry subscriber or even create a free login on the site. Here's what they're all about. For the past few years, Ancestry has been indexing databases from other websites on their own site. They're not stealing data or take credit for data from other places—everything is fully cited and points to the original sites. Ancestry is extending the power of its ability to help users find their family history online wherever it may be. They're taking advantage of the fact that it's already a place where people are looking and their site's powerful search tools. What I think is cool is that you may have a better search experience at Ancestry than you would at the original site. Some sites that host databases or indexes don't offer very flexible search parameters. If you search for Elizabeth Madison, they may not recognize “Beth” or “Lizzie” as acceptable search results, or alternate spellings of her last name. But Ancestry does. A subscription to that original site may be required to see any images or other content that's members-only. But if there's data out there, I want to know about it. Then I can decide whether I want to get access to it. Another bonus is that a lot of their big Web Indexes are from sites that are not in English. This gives English-speakers a portal to that data, in case they are intimidated by trying to search a site in another language or by applying Google Translate, which I teach about using in my book . Anyway, I think it's just one more online tool we should all know about! Just within the past few weeks, here are a few new Ancestry Web Indexes: (that's Emigration with an E—for people moving OUT of the country), more than 300,000 records from 1868 to 1908. An Indiana Marriage Index for 1806-1861, with another 300,000 records; Montreal, Canada and dating back to the 1760s; Alberta, Canada newspaper back to 1889; and , and for Gallatin, Montana back to the mid-1800s. Here's a tip that wasn't in our article: you can search for Ancestry Web Indexes by going to Ancestry's drop-down Search menu. Click on Card Catalog, and do a title search for the word “Web.” You'll see lots of results that say “Web:” followed by the name of the index. Just another helpful tip to get the most out of one of the world's biggest genealogy websites, whether you're a subscriber or not!   NEWS: Bomb Sight websiteWe've probably all seen images from the World War II bombing of London  in movies. You see Londoners hunched in tube station tunnels during air raids in The Imitation Game. In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the Pevensie children are evacuated to the countryside to escape the Blitz. But for anyone who didn't experience it themselves or grow up in the shadow of those bombed-out buildings, we don't really GET the Blitz, when the Germans bombed London regularly for several MONTHS. There's a new website and mobile app that that reveals the Blitz in a new way: Bomb Sight, . The core of this site is a digitized version of 559 bomb census maps that show where each and every bomb fell between July of 1940 and the following June. These maps were classified until 1971, and were previously only available in their fragile, original condition in the British National Archives. Now you can explore all those neighborhoods and read about the individual bombs that devastated them. You can even see related historical images and read stories and memories. It's stunning to look closely at a neighborhood and see how densely the bombs fell. It's also stunning to pan out to the widest view and see SO many dots. So many bombs. So much destruction. Take a few minutes, won't you, and explore BombSight.org, and you'll have a whole new appreciation for the bombing of London.   MAILBOX: Advice to a new family history bloggerRecently Judy wrote to me after she attended one of my presentations. She says, “Just wanted to know I took your advice and started a blog on one of my cold cases. Here's the link if you'd like to see it: ” So I took a look at Judy's blog. Here is a summary of my comments: Her posts are packed with genealogical data She shows great use of search keywords: she even included all the name spelling variations! In addition to the wonderful information her blog provides to readers, it's also wonderful Google “cousin bait” because others searching for all those names and places will find her I would love to see a "Next Steps" list after the Questions list (which I think was a great addition to the post) A Sobering Reminder about Computer Backups I met Kathy from Carmel Valley, California on the Legacy Genealogy Cruise this past June, which was SO much fun! Afterward, Kathy sent me this note: “Hi Lisa, I hope all is well with you and your family. I am still thinking about our lovely Caribbean cruise. I thought you might share a reminder with your listeners. My husband and I were out of town last week and were robbed. The robbers took only electronics (thank goodness) and did not mess up the house….another thing to be thankful for. But your listeners can not rely on external hard drives as backup. If the external hard drive is by the computer….the robbers will take that as well. Thank goodness we had a web-based backup. So we did not lose our precious research or photographs. It could have been so much worse. This is just another reason why your listeners should look at BackBlaze or another company that provides the same service. I am grateful that I did. Yes, we have to purchase new computer equipment….BUT we have our research and our photos. Gratitude, gratitude.” I'm so sorry Kathy was robbed. But I'm so glad she didn't lose the most important part of her computer: what was on it. And I sure appreciate her sharing her close call with us. We've heard it before: the way to keep from losing copies of anything is to keep multiple copies in multiple physical locations. Kathy mentioned robbery, but another common scenario that would take out all your in-house computer storage is a natural disaster—a flood or fires, like the ones that recently plagued Carmel Valley where she lives (I hope Kathy wasn't affected). But it's a lot of work to back up everything yourself on an ongoing basis and keep distributing it to multiple physical locations. A cloud-based backup service does this work for you: both the backup and the offsite storage! Here at Genealogy Gems, I trust Backblaze as our official cloud-based computer backup service. Do your homework and find what's right for you. But I did my homework and I recommend Backblaze. It's less than five bucks a month for the peace of mind and security that your computer's contents will ALWAYS be safely stored and available for you to retrieve from their secure online vault. I encourage you to check them out at . Digital file storageAfter listening to the most recent Genealogy Gems podcast episode, Bill wrote in with this great comment: “I was very interested in listening to podcast Episode 183 since one of its major segments dealt with preservation of old photos and videos. For the last three years (as time permits), I've been scanning my (and my wife's family's) old photos - mainly black and white. This is still a work-in-progress. Tried to do a good bit of reading about this subject (on the Internet) before I started. Also attended a genealogy seminar in 2009 where one of the presentations covered digital photo preservation.  “Based on what I've read and heard, the ‘experts' generally appear to recommend using the .tif file format (versus jpg, gif, png, bmp) for capturing and retaining any photos you deem valuable or important. This decision seems to be driven by the loss-less nature of the .tif format versus the "lossy" nature of the other formats. There's no question that a .tif version of a given image is substantially larger than its jpg counterpart, too. Since the choice of a file format is a pretty basic (and important) aspect of the digital preservation process, I was surprised it wasn't mentioned in the podcast or associated notes. “After exploring the for a while, I located a page there that compares the various file formats for photos, videos, etc.” Then Bill shared this with me. I loved hearing from Bill. He's absolutely right that TIF is preferred over JPG for just the reasons he mentioned. Kristin and I didn't cover that in our conversation due to time constraints, and the fact that we've covered the advantages of TIF over JPG several times before in past Genealogy Gems episodes (like with Sally Jacobs, The Practical Archivist, which is available for free online). We addressed image resolution because this is a specific area we haven't covered as much. Just a reminder, the Genealogy Gems coupon code for Larsen Digital is still good! The code is Gengem10, and it's good for 10% off services like digitizing old photos and your family videos and film reels. Visit their website at www.larsendigital.com, call them at 800-776-8357 or send an email to .                 GEM: “Open Letter Grandma” Recently I came across this wonderful poem that resonated so well with me—and made me laugh—that I got the author's permission to share it on the podcast. It's called “Open Letter to Grandma” by Amie Bowser Tennant, and it's posted on her blog, . (.)                 GENEALOGY GEMS BOOK CLUB: Our next Genealogy Gems Book Club pick is by New York Times bestselling author Lalita Tademy. Some of you have probably read her previous novels, Cane River and the sequel Red River. Cane River was an Oprah Book Club selection. I read these a few years ago and really enjoyed them. So I was really excited when I heard she had a new novel out. And even more excited when I found out I'd get to interview her for Genealogy Gems Book Club! Citizens Creek is a novel, but it's based on the lives of real people. The publisher describes it as “the evocative story of a once-enslaved man who buys his freedom after serving as a translator during the American Indian Wars, and his granddaughter, who sustains his legacy of courage. “Cow Tom, born into slavery in Alabama in 1810 and sold to a Creek Indian chief before his tenth birthday, possessed an extraordinary gift: the ability to master languages. As the new country developed westward, and Indians, settlers, and blacks came into constant contact, Cow Tom became a key translator for his Creek master and was hired out to US military generals. His talent earned him money—but would it also grant him freedom? And what would become of him and his family in the aftermath of the Civil War and the Indian Removal westward? “Cow Tom's legacy lives on—especially in the courageous spirit of his granddaughter Rose. She rises to leadership of the family as they struggle against political and societal hostility intent on keeping blacks and Indians oppressed. But through it all, her grandfather's indelible mark of courage inspires her—in mind, in spirit, and in a family legacy that never dies. “Written in two parts portraying the parallel lives of Cow Tom and Rose, Citizens Creek is a beautifully rendered novel that takes the reader deep into a little known chapter of American history. It is a breathtaking tale of identity, community, family—and above all, the power of an individual's will to make a difference.” Contributing Editor and Book Club Guru first considered this book for the Genealogy Gems Book Club because of the compelling history told about both Native Americans and African Americans. “But then,” she says, “the characters' stories became more personal and more relatable and more obviously about family, relationships and legacy. We see how the experiences of one generation shape them—and how they shape themselves--and what effects all this has on the next generation. We see how the next generations look backward for inspiration and support and guidance, to see how best to manage in the present and think about the future.” Next episode, Sunny will share a couple of passages from the book about Rose, Cow Tom's granddaughter, who becomes the keeper of his secrets.   DNA GEM: Some Suggestions for the Empty Handed Genetic Genealogists with Diahan Southard “Over one million people have had their DNA tested for genealogical purposes, and that number is climbing fast. If we were able to survey all of those who have tested, how many would answer that they are fully satisfied with their results? I think the level of satisfaction we feel with our genetic genealogy experience has everything to do with our expectations going in. “What did you expect going in? Many are drawn to genetic genealogy by the pretty pie charts and maps that reveal our mix of ancestral heritage. If they are expecting a nice addition to their coffee table pieces, they are pleased. If they are expecting a crystal ball into their ancestral heritage, they are often disappointed. “Likewise, when you see a 2nd-4th cousin on your match page, you may have every expectation that you can figure out how you are related to each other. But when that common ancestor remains elusive, many fear that the test is not helpful, or worse, inaccurate. “Recently we heard from Jenna on the . Jenna has followed the autosomal DNA testing plan perfectly: She tested first with Ancestry, then transferred to Family Tree DNA. She even went the extra step and uploaded her results into GedMatch, a free third party tool, and yet, she feels she hasn't made any positive connections. “For anyone in this situation, here are 2 explanations, and 2 next-steps to help set good expectations for your genetic genealogy experience. “First, you need to know your own family history. If your family is not from the United States, or have only recently immigrated to the United States, you will not find very many matches in the databases. This will change as time moves on and genetic genealogy gains greater exposure and acceptance in other markets.  “If you do have ancestry from the United States, but are still coming up empty handed, it might be because you happen to be the pioneer in your family, the first to jump into genetic genealogy. While 1 million people is a lot of tested individuals, I am consistently surprised by the number of people I meet who have never heard of using DNA testing in genealogy. “Unfortunately, both of these explanations just require patience to be resolved. But, while you are waiting, here are 2 tips to get the most out of what you have: “First, as our Facebook friend suggested, start with a goal. In her case, she is interested in her paternal grandmother's father. Anytime you are researching a male, if you can find his direct paternal descendant, a living male with his surname, you should have him take the YDNA test. “In the absence, or in addition to that, having as many descendants of your ancestor tested as possible will help you fill in the genetic gaps that naturally occur as DNA is passed down. But short of throwing more money at the testing companies, you can search each database by surname and location to look for others who might share these genealogical characteristics with the individual you are looking for. “My second tip is to focus on your closest genetic match and use all the available tools to investigate your relationship. This will involve using the Common Matches tools found at , , and . In this way you can find multiple individuals that may all be related to you through a single common ancestor. You can then use their known genealogies to look for overlapping genealogical information, like surnames and locations to help you identify your shared common ancestor. “Most people that I talk to who feel like their DNA has left them empty handed are just simply not aware of how to use the tools and clues at their testing company to tease information out of their matches. That I why I have written the genetic genealogy quick guides that do take you step by step through your results to make sure you are making the most of your DNA test results. “You can find these guides under the . I also offer customized DNA guidance like the help I've been giving Lisa, which she's talked about in her free weekly newsletter. If you're interested in a consultant, find me through my website, .”—Diahan Southard    

In this episode, a special expert joins us to talk about digitizing and storing your old movies, videos, and pictures—even further updating those old movies you've already put on CD. You'll hear a juicy clip from our exclusive Genealogy Gems Book Club interview with the editor of the new Laura Ingalls Wilder biography, Pioneer Girl. And Your DNA Guide is here with a story of DNA and the President. NEWS: AncestryDNA Common Matches Genealogists are losing sleep lately because of a new DNA tool, but in a good way! I'm talking about AncestryDNA's release of its Common Matches tool. Diahan Southard, our resident DNA expert, shared the breaking news on our website recently, within hours of when the new tool when live. She loves it so much she's already spent hours using Common Matches, which she says is blowing her genealogy mysteries wide open. This tool pulls out shared matches between two people who match at 4th cousins or closer. The tool is on AncestryDNA's main match page, between the “Pedigrees and Surnames” filter and the “Map and Locations” filter. This will take you to a blog post on our site with Diahan's great visuals and explanation of how to use this new tool. We heard from Alana on Facebook after she read Diahan's post. She said, “I stayed up for hours past my bedtime last night resolving hundreds of mystery matches. Everything makes so much more sense now. I've been mentally begging them to come up with a way to search for two surnames: this does an even better job than that. I did think it was funny how they broke the news by trying to sell me more tests. Oh well. I am SO thankful for this extremely useful new tool!” Have you tried it? Let us know how it works for you. We'd love to hear your success stories and how you're making the most of DNA testing for genealogy.    DOUBLE YOUR CLOUD BACKUP SECURITY Recently , a sponsor of this podcast, let us know that we can now activate an extra layer of security to better protect the data we have stored with them.   The feature is called two-factor verification. It requires that we present both our account credentials and a verification code from a second device to gain access to our Backblaze account. That means someone who was trying to steal our data would have to have both our account information and access to the phone that's tied to the account. The option to require both these security steps can make Backblaze's solid security even more powerful. It's like you're giving Backblaze permission to lock the doors to your data with two different keys instead of a single one, because you're willing to take the time to use that second key whenever YOU need access.   This is just one more reason I'm glad I've chosen Backblaze as the official cloud-based computer backup service of Genealogy Gems! I sleep more easily knowing Backblaze is backing me up, 24/7, without me having to do anything but live my life, create and edit the many files that bring you this show, and keep my Backblaze subscription current!     NEWS: RootsMagic Update for FamilySearch Family Tree If you're a RootsMagic user, did you install the required update recently so it will continue to work with FamilySearch? On July 30, last month, FamilySearch made some changes to its own site, which required RootsMagic to tweak things on their end to keep up.   If you're running , look for the “Update Available” indicator in the lower right corner of your RootsMagic 7 program screen, and click on it. You will then be able to continue working with FamilySearch Family Tree as if nothing has changed. If you're running Rootmagic 6, you can either upgrade to version 7 for around $20 or you can download the free RootsMagic 7 Essentials version and switch back and forth between them with the same database. Thanks for helping us spread the word to other RootsMagic users who are now scratching their heads when trying to work with FamilySearch FamilyTree!   MAILBOX: Keeping Track of Your Master Family Tree We recently heard from a new RootsMagic user, who bought the software to keep track of his family tree. He was still finding it difficult to corral all his data in one place. He wrote, “I have my family tree splattered everywhere: FamilySearch, MyHeritage and Ancestry. I'm afraid of losing control of my tree and would like some advice on keeping things straight. Each of the sites I go on seem to offer different information, so I started posting information on different sites. Can you offer any suggestions that I can use to centralize my data across different sites?” This is NOT just a problem Louis is having! In fact, I venture a guess that most people with online trees in more than one place have this problem and some may not even realize it. I look at my RootsMagic database on my computer as my MASTER database and tree. I may post things online, but only copies. Websites come and go and I want to keep ownership of my own master file on my own computer. With this kind of thinking, I can post my tree online but not lose control of it! When I post tree data online, I'm going fishing for family, so to speak. I'm trying to connect with cousins and gain research leads. With that in mind, I upload only the portion of the tree for which I want to generate those connections and leads. I don't put my entire tree on each site because I don't want to get bogged down with requests and alerts for far flung branches that I'm not focused on researching right now. To do this I make a copy of my database, edit it to fit my research, and then upload it. As I find documents and data on genealogy websites, I may “attach” them to the tree on that site, but I always download a copy and retain that on my computer and make note of it in RootsMagic. That way I retain control of my tree and my sources.   V and start boosting your genealogy research                 GEM: Digital Preservation If you're lucky enough to have old home movies, then you are probably really concerned about how to preserve them and how to get them into some kind of format that you can share with your family and use in your own family history projects. And what about digitizing and preserving our old photos? We all have those. It can all seem like a pretty daunting task, and that's why I've invited Digital Film Conversion expert Kristin Harding from  in for a chat. Here at Genealogy Gems we've been talking lately about the importance of backing up all your computer files, particularly since our experience with our new sponsor Backblaze has shown us how easy and inexpensive it is to have a first-rate cloud back-up service. But there's an important step that has to happen before you can back something up: you have to digitize it in the first place! Bonus! Here's a coupon code for :  Gengem10 gets Genealogy Gems listeners 10% off!  Call with any questions at   1-800-776-8357 or send an email to .   Tips for digitizing still images Prioritize items that are the oldest, most special or rare, fragile or deteriorating (capture that image before it crumbles or fades). Resolve to scan at a higher resolution: Scan old family pictures at 600dpi for 4 x 6 photos. Very small photos (and images you want to enlarge from a small portion, like a group photo) should be 1200 dpi. That way, when you enlarge them, you'll get the sharpest, most clear image possible. Consider the benefits of a professional scanning service like Larsen Digital: Professional scanners are faster and you get better color quality and contrast in your digital image. When customers bring in their photos, they all say “I just don't have the time to do this myself!” Also, once a photo is scanned, it then usually needs to be cropped and digitally color corrected. Navigating your way through Photoshop if you are a novice can be time consuming & frustrating, and a pro can do this post-scanning editing.  Customers usually have slides and negatives, which are much more complicated to scan than photos. They often turn these over to a professional scanning company to ensure that they preserving their family memories at the highest quality. Learn more about how to organize the filenames of all your old images in a two-episode series on the free Family History Made Easy podcast: episodes and can also access my 2-part instructional video series, “” (where you can WATCH how to organize your computer files).   What about moving images? So many of us have old home movies. And we have them in lots of different forms like Super 8, and VHS. You are pretty adamant that we should preserve our old home movies as MP4 digital video files, not just on DVDs and CDs as many of us have done over the past several years. DVD's don't last forever! The ability to read DVDs from our devices is already fading. Digital video files also offer the convenience to edit your footage and upload files online to easily share with friends & family. But it is convenient to have these on CD and DVD, also, to easily share with relatives and pop into a DVD player (for those whose televisions aren't hooked into their computers). These “hard copies” can be kept in a safety deposit box for safe-keeping. When MP4s are saved on our hard drives, then they're easier for our cloud back-up service to keep backed up. A final tip: save multiple copies of all these to multiple locations. Kristin advises that all media should be stored in at least two places, preferably 3. “For example, your home computer would be one location; I think an external hard drive is always a smart bet because computers crash all the time. I personally believe that storing it with a cloud provider is critical to ensure that your media never gets lost or erased. If you have your files backed up into different locations, no matter what disaster strikes, (computer crash, floods, fire, moving) you will always have a copy safe somewhere.” Bonus! Here's a coupon code for :  Gengem10 gets Genealogy Gems listeners 10% off!  Call with any questions at 1-800-776-8357 or send an email to .        GENEALOGY GEMS BOOK CLUB: Pioneer Girl - an interview with editor Pamela Smith Hill Listen to  an excerpt from our interview with Pamela Smith Hill, editor of , edited by Pamela Smith Hill, is the never-before-published autobiography Laura wrote in the 1930s. The stories and memories she shares in it are the basis for her popular Little House children's series.   Get the Full Interview:  have exclusive access to the full interview in the upcoming Genealogy Gems Premium podcast episode 127, to be published later this month. Your membership—just one low annual fee--gives you access for a full year to all the monthly Premium podcasts as well as past ones, so you can hear our interviews with other fantastic authors on books we've loved. You'll also have access to our full series of Premium how-to videos, which include the Ultimate Evernote Education series, Google and Google Earth, and my other hottest topics.   DNA GEM: William Harding DNA test New evidence in a 90 year old paternity case came to light recently in the form of a DNA test.  While most cases of unknown paternity include an unwed woman and a child, this one had the unique distinction of also involving the president of the United States. recently named former president Warren G. Harding (1865-1923) as the father of Elizabeth Ann Blaesing after her son, James Blaesing, and two individuals related to the Hardings, were found to have shared DNA. Just to be clear, the DNA test results don't and can't name a specific relative as the shared source of any two individual's DNA. Though we would like it to be, it is not DNA in, ancestors name and birth certificate out. The actual report from the testing company was that James Blaesing and Peter and Abigail Harding were second cousins.  This means that the shared ancestral couple for these three has to be among their 4 sets of great grandparents. The DNA alone cannot tell us which set. It was a combination of the DNA and the known genealogy that provided such a high level of confidence in this case. While there are certainly mixed feelings among members of the Harding family about this new evidence, this is clearly a win for DNA. A man who was thought to have never had children did in fact have one child, and now a grandchild. This preserves a genetic legacy for his family line that might have otherwise been lost. This is also a clear win for the power of curious descendants and the healing balm of time.  It was actually Harding's grand niece and grand nephew who instigated the testing out of a pure desire to know the truth.  Time has allowed them this curiosity without threat of scandal and technology has provided the necessary tools to once and for all more fully understand their ancestor and the life he lived. AncestryDNA declared after this story broke that DNA testing can rewrite history, which may be true.  However, I prefer to think of DNA testing not as white out that can erase false accusations, but rather as a filter that allows you to separate fact from fiction so that history can reflect lives rather than lies. Here's a that also comments on the lack of African DNA in Harding's descendants. Get Diahan's DNA  to help you easily navigate your own genetic genealogy journey. Diahan Southard offers DNA consultations to help you with your results.     

Have you had your autosomal DNA tested and now you are confused?  Allow Diahan Southard to explain how you can organize, analyze and understand your results. In the year 2000 Diahan Southard found herself in the right place at the right time.  As an undergraduate in Microbiology, the laboratory she had been volunteering in was headed to Egypt to collect more samples for genetic study from an abandoned cemetery just outside of Cairo. While that trip never materialized, that research study became the foundation of the Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation (SMGF), for whom she would work for the next 10 years. Her duties at SMGF and her sister companies were varied, from laboratory work to marketing to customer service. All of her knowledge and experience have culminated into her current position as Your DNA Guide. She writes for Family Tree Magazine, and is the Genetic Gem at Lisa Louise Cooke’s Genealogy Gems, blogging and podcasting about DNA and genealogy. Diahan's lectures are always fun, upbeat, and full of energy.  She has a passion for genetic genealogy, a genuine love for people, and a gift for making the technical understandable. guide@yourDNAguide.com www.yourDNAguide.com  

    Genealogy Gems Podcast Episode 180 with Lisa Louise Cooke   Welcome to episode 180 of the Genealogy Gems podcast! Today we're talking about big names, like Ancestry and Google and FamilySearch. We're talking about big numbers—the possible price tag for Ancestry at auction—and small numbers: a handheld computer for under $100. We're also talking about road trip tips, an important online Civil War database, a leading Canadian digital archive and EXCLUSIVE tips for using FamilySearch's free digitized book collection, which now tops 200,000 titles. And because I've gotten so much demand for it, I'm sharing tips for backing up your data at Ancestry—not just your tree but your sources and DNA, too. Mixed in with all this news and how-tos is an assorted cast of listeners-with-questions and an inspiring story about long-lost siblings reunited by radio. Let's get started! NEWS Certainly some of the biggest news buzzing around the genealogy world is the possible sale of Ancestry. Reuters that the buyout firm that owns most of Ancestry has hired investment bankers to put the company up for auction. The price tag, they say? Between $2.5 billion and $3 billion. So what could this mean for customers? Of course, it's far too soon to say. Ancestry currently delivers over 15 billion genealogy records to over 2 million subscribers. Their current trajectory includes acquiring even MORE records pretty aggressively, which we love. But as I'm sure we've all experienced at one time or another, though, when any type of company gets sold, things can change. Or we could continue to see business as usual at the shaky-leaf genealogy giant. Mybest advice to those of you whose master family trees are on Ancestry is to download and backup your data. I'm not being alarmist or saying the sky is falling here! This announcement is simply a good opportunity to do something we routinely recommend anyway. I'll have specific advice for downloading your tree, checking your source material and getting your raw DNA from Ancestry later in the podcast. In another piece of news, have you notice that Google is now answering the questions you google instead of just giving you search results with the keywords in your questions? Say you Google the question, “What county is Chicago in?” Google will respond at the top of your search results with a big, fat “Cook County” headline followed by some key facts about the county. Google's also creating a bit of a stir with its new Chromebit; it's a Chrome OS full size computer about the size of your hand, and it plugs into an HDMI on our computer. This sounds like a great option for on-the-go genealogical computing! A lot of folks aren't fully cloud-based and they really don't ever plan to be: they like to work from a hard drive or desktop of some kind. So this offers them a portable way to do that. You could plug in at a public terminal--say at a library--or at someone else's home computer, or even a television so that you could share pictures on a big screen. And best of all the Chromebit is as affordable as it is portable!  reports that Google says the Chromebit will be less than $100! MAILBOX Recently we heard from Jennifer, who is taking a little road trip, as many others of us in the northern hemisphere are contemplating in June. She asks a great question: “I'm tagging along on my husband's thesis research trip to Columbus, Ohio. I have some ancestors from other parts of Ohio. I was wondering what exactly I could look for in a state's capital city's collections and archives? I was thinking that the state capital may have a “gem” that I couldn't find elsewhere, or even duplicated information [from local repositories].” Jennifer is definitely thinking along the right lines! Here's our advice: At the state government level there are often two key resources: the state library and the state archives. These might be combined. One might be called the state historical society. You just have to look for each state. In Ohio, the serves as the state historical society and official state archives. But there is also a that serves as a repository for government documents and a resource for other libraries. Each has resources for genealogists, online and in-house. Look for some links to these in our show notes. In addition, public libraries of major cities often have excellent local history and genealogy collections. This is definitely true of the in Ohio's state capital! We suggest you contact librarians before you go and ask what they have that can't be found anywhere else, both on a state level and for locales you are researching. Often times that will include photograph collections, materials on old businesses, and newspapers on microfilm. If you can formulate specific genealogical questions that you want to try and answer and share those ahead of time with the librarian that will help her guide you toward the unique gems. Every state library and archive is unique, so consulting by phone with the reference librarian is the best way to go. Recently Tom wrote in with a question about a Civil War veterans database: “I've been a listener of your podcast for quite a long time. Great job. (Thanks, Tom!) “We have a grass-roots group trying to locate and document . Is there a good website where I can enter a name and unit identification and get results of the person's [Civil War] service?  I'm having a really hard time finding US Navy sailors.” It sounds like Tom is conducting a very worthwhile project! An excellent resource–but still in progress for sailors with only about 20% of them–is . The site describes its resources as a “database containing information about the men who served in the Union and Confederate armies during the Civil War. Other information on the site includes histories of Union and Confederate regiments, links to descriptions of significant battles, and selected lists of prisoner-of-war records and cemetery records.” This is an excellent resource for soldiers. As far as sailors go, the site says, “The Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System currently contains [only] the records of approximately 18,000 African American sailors, though additional records will be added in the future. The information in the Sailors Database is derived from enlistment records and the quarterly muster rolls of Navy vessels." A Howard University research team is behind this stellar effort, using muster rolls to fill in missing data or correct apparent misinformation. to an article from the National Archives about African-American servicemen in the Navy during the Civil War. If a Navy ancestor isn't among those already listed, my first instinct is always to turn to Google searches first. I ran a search in Google Books for free digitized books meeting the criteria “civil war” “sailors” and there are some resources there as well. I'll put a link to these results in the show notes. Just one example? , which appears to be a published list of those who served from Manchester, N.H. You can learn more about Google searching for “niche” topics like this in the fully-revised and updated 2nd edition of my book, . Finally, we heard from Alexis with this energetic note about her ”genealogy podcast marathon:” “I just had to email you and say thank you for all you do!  I am 23 and finding that I am obsessed with family history.  No one around me seems to understand why but I love it.  And I was thrilled when I found your podcast!  Though still pretty young, I've been behind on some technologies like podcasts but now I'm addicted to those too.  It makes work so much better. Though I wish I didn't have to work at all so I could just research and apply what you teach us instead. Wouldn't that be great?!  I have been on genealogy podcast marathons. I'm still quite behind on genealogy gems since I just found you now in 2015 but I'm working through it!  And I started a blog of course. I just mentioned you in my last post as well. It's called Geneaholic Confessions at . It's just getting started but I really want to be a part of the geneablogger community ‘cause it sounds like you guys have tons of fun! Thanks for all you do!                 GEM: PROTECTING YOUR ANCESTRY DATA Okay, I promised you some tips for protecting your data on Ancestry, which you should do regularly whether the site is under threat of new management or not. First, download your current tree(s) to GEDCOM files onto your computer. Under the Trees tab, choose Create and Manage Trees. For each tree you have, choose Manage Tree, then Export Tree. At this point the green button should say “Download your GEDCOM file.” Just click on it and it will download. If you're having difficulty, click “download tips” underneath the green button. I've heard that some of you have had difficulty downloading your trees to specific software, like Family Tree Maker or RootsMagic. For Family Tree Maker, read on syncing your updated online tree to your Family Tree Maker software. RootsMagic users should watch on importing your Ancestry tree into RootsMagic. Consult if you still need help. Next, check your sources! The Ancestry help section states, “Any pictures, charts, books, views, or similar items found in the original file will not be included in the [downloaded] GEDCOM. Vital information, notes, and sources are usually retained after conversion.” Check your GEDCOM to see whether your source notes are intact. Then make sure you have copies of documents, videos, photos and other items you may have attached to your tree. You don't want them to disappear, should there be a hiccup (or worse) in service. Finally, if you have used AncestryDNA, download a copy of your raw DNA data. to show you how. We especially recommend this step! These tests are expensive. Tests for loved ones who are now deceased can't be repeated. And Ancestry when the company has switched directions. (Again, I'm not trying to be alarmist about this, just cautious.) If you have relied on Ancestry or any other cloud-based service to host your only or master family tree, I recommend you do some homework and consider keeping your master tree on your own computer, and a backup file with all your other backup files. We here at Genealogy Gems use Backblaze as our backup service and we love them (visit for more information).           GEM: TIPS FOR USING FAMILYSEARCH'S DIGITIZED BOOK COLLECTION So here's another tip for you. Google Books, which I mentioned before, isn't the only place to find digitized family history books online. Another free and growing resource is .  They've reached a milestone 200,000 titles! This collection began 8 years ago and includes "family histories, county and local histories, genealogy magazines and how-to books, gazetteers, and medieval histories and pedigrees,” according to the landing page. Digitally-archived volumes like these are so valuable because they are immediately accessible and because they are keyword-searchable. Here are three search strategies to use for these: ·         Look for only a surname (in case the first name is written different ways or a different relative is mentioned). ·         In addition to surnames, search for the name of a neighborhood, street, church, school, business, type of work or other keywords that pertain to your family. ·         Use the Advanced Search feature to focus your search, like for a keyword in a title, or a type of publication like a periodical. Once you're reading a book, you can click on the info icon (a circle with an “i” in it on the upper right) to see more information about the book, including source citation and copyright information. We were curious about how well FamilySearch's digital book Viewer interfaces with mobile devices. So we asked FamilySearch. Turns out, this is still a work in progress and in fact some browsers work better than others. Dennis Meldrum at FamilySearch told us that “Safari does not work well with the Viewer.” Neither do mobile devices like the iPhone or iPad. “The Viewer works best with IE or Firefox. It also works with Chrome, but the Adobe Tools do not work. We are aware of the limitations of the Viewer and are working to replace it by the end of the year." GEM: CANADIANA DIGITAL ARCHIVE Speaking of digital libraries and archives, I've got a great one to share with you. If you have Canadian roots, you should be searching Canadiana () regularly for family history information. Recently described Canadiana as “a digital initiative of extraordinary scale,…a joint effort of 25 leading research institutions, libraries and archives working together with the goal of creating Canada's multi-million page, comprehensive online archive.” Its digital collections chronicle Canada's past since the 1600s and most of its content is free. For example, the free “aims to digitize, preserve and make accessible Canada's archival materials for Canadians and the world." Their large collection of genealogy materials so far includes immigration records, church records, land records, family histories, voters' lists and more. Military history, government documents and aboriginal records are also well-represented. Check back often! More is coming, like and records of the Another part of Canadiana is . This gateway to digital collections from 40 repositories points to 65 million pages! Sample subjects include  Ontario genealogy and War of 1812 campaigns. This portal is also free to use. One part of the site that's awesome but NOT free? , with 5 million images already and expected to grow to 16 million. A subscription will run you $10/month or a year for $100, says that site, I'm assuming in Canadian currency. This is “a full-text collection of published documentary material, including government documents and specialized or mass-market periodicals from the 16th to 20th centuries. Law, literature, religion, education, women's history and aboriginal history are particular areas of strength.” The site describes itself as “the most complete set of full-text historical content about Canada, including books, magazines and government documents.” Tip: scroll down on the home page to click the Genealogy and Local History portal, but don't ignore the rest of the site! GENEALOGY GEMS BOOK CLUB This month we feature a meaty excerpt from our interview with Nathan Dylan Goodwin, author of . Genealogy Gems Premium subscribers can access the full interview in this month's podcast episode. He tells us how he got started; we talk about the plot and characters and the challenges of creating genealogical mysteries with dangerous consequences for the present and more!   DNA GEM: INTEGRATING GENETICS AND GENEALOGY TOOLS Our very own Diahan Southard, Your DNA Guide, joins us now. She talks about how the ideal genetic genealogy interface creates a seamless transition between genetics technology and genealogy research. AncestryDNA, she says, is really pioneering the integration with its newest product update. Read more about it PROFILE AMERICA Here's a this-month-in-history from . Ninety-one years ago this June, "Congress passed — and President Coolidge signed — the Indian Citizenship Act, which stated 'all noncitizen Indians born within the territorial limits of the United States be, and they are hereby declared to be, citizens of the United States: Provided that the granting of such citizenship shall not in any manner impair or otherwise affect the right of any Indian to tribal or other property.' "Prior to this act, about two-thirds of American Indians were already citizens by other provisions. Universal voting rights lagged until 1957, as various state laws were amended. Today, there are over 2 million single-race American Indians possessing this full citizenship and 566 federally recognized tribes." Wow, I had no idea there were so many federally recognized tribes! I close today with a story Contributing Editor Sunny Morton recently read about long-lost relatives who were reunited. We hear lots of stories like that now, relatives who rediscover each other online or through DNA tests. But this story happened in 1926! Sunny found the story in a newspaper article. The children of a man named Alonso Jones were sitting around one day listening to the radio. Then they heard the announcer say, "Alonso Jones, wherever you are, listen...Your sister wants to see you at Worthington, Ohio. She has not seen or heard from you in forty years. You were born at Antiquity, Meigs County, Ohio, at the time of the Civil War...." "You were reared by Captain William Roberts, an Ohio River flat boat man. You went with him on a produce boat when you were a boy and ran away while the boat was lying at the bank in Arkansas." The article reports that the man telegraphed his sister and arranged to meet her. All because she'd had a dream that the radio could help her find her brother, and she tried it, and it worked. What an inspiration! It reminds me of the value of thinking outside the box, of using all available technologies, and of never giving up when we are looking for family. Forty years after she lost her brother, she still thought of him, and she finally figured out how to find him.  Click below to visit our YouTube channel:

Have you ever felt like you got the short end of the genealogy stick when it comes to family heirlooms? Maybe you haven't inherited much in the way of family photos or memorabilia, or maybe you feel like you've tapped out all the potential goodies that are out there to find. In this episode I'll share an email I got from Helen, because she reminds us that you should never say never.  I've also got another amazing story about an adoption reunion. And we'll also check in with our Genealogy Gems Book Club Guru Sunny Morton about this quarter's featured book, The Lost Ancestor by Nathan Dylan Goodwin. And of course all kinds of other genealogy news and tips for you.  We're going to take all that genealogy and technology noise out there and distill it down into the best of the best, the genealogy gems that you can use. I'm just back from several weeks on the road. Since we last got together in episode 178 I've been to Cape Cod to talk to the Cape Cod Genealogical Society about Time Travel with Google Earth, and all you Genealogy Gems Premium Members have that video class and handout available to you as part of your Premium membership – and if you're not a member click Premium in the main menu at genealogygems.com to learn more about that.  And then Bill and I headed to Providence, RI where I was the keynote at the NERGC conference. That was my first time ever to New England so it was a real treat. And we teamed up once again with the Photo Detective and Family Chartmasters and held our free Outside the Box mini genealogy sessions in our booth which were very popular. Then I had a 2 day turnaround and Lacey and I were off to Anchorage Alaska to put on an all-day seminar at the Anchorage Genealogical Society.   Another great group of genealogists! And Lacey and I added an extra couple of days to explore, and explore we did. We booked a half day ATV tour to explore the National forest outside Anchorage. Now this was before the start of tourist season, so there we are, to gals driving out of town, onto a dirt road and waiting at the meeting spot in the middle of nowhere where we met Bob the Guide. He looked like he was straight out of Duck Dynasty! He showed us how to drive the ATVs, assured us that the bears weren't quite out yet, and then packing his side arm pistol lead us out into the wilderness for 4 ½ hours of amazing scenery. It was like we had the entire forest to ourselves. This guide would pull over every once and while, whip out a telescopic lens on a tripod and in seconds would zero in on something way over on the mountain across the valley, and he'd say “look in there. See that clump of snow with legs, that's a Mountain Goat, or that's a Dall Sheep.” It was incredible. We saw moose, and muskrat, the biggest rabbit's I've ever seen in my entire life, which Bob the Guide called bunnies, and he was right, the only thing we never saw was bear. But that was just fine with me and Lacey! So after our mountain safari we flew home and I gave an all-day seminar in my own backyard in Denton, TX, and then Bill and I jumped in the suburban and drove to St. Charles Missouri where I spoke at the National Genealogical Society Conference. St. Charles is just on the other side of the river from St. Louis, and we were pleasantly surprised to find the a quaint little main street. Diahan Southard Your DNA Guide here at Genealogy Gems was with us and Diahan and I drug poor Bill in and out of every “foo foo potpourri” shop they had when we weren't busy meeting so many of you at the booth or in class. It was a 4 day conference, which is A LOT of genealogy, but we had a blast and again teamed up with Family Chartmasters, The Photo Detective and Family Tree Magazine for an Outside the Box extravaganza of free sessions in the booth. And this time Diahan Southard joined in with sessions on Genetic Genealogy. And all this reminds me of an email I received recently from Shelly. She writes: “I am a new listener and new premium member of Genealogy Gems.  Thanks for getting me motivated to organize my research and get back into learning my family history. I had never thought about attending a genealogy conference before but listening to your podcasts has gotten me interested in going.  There is a conference coming up in less than two weeks only 1 1/2 hours from me in St. Charles, Mo. I can't afford to attend the actual conference, but would it be worth it to just go to the free exhibit space? I listened to one of your podcasts that mentioned you and a few others give free mini classes. Please let me know what you think. Thanks, Shelly” I told Shelly that I thought it would absolutely be worth it. In fact, that is one of our goals with our free Outside the Box sessions in our booth - to give everyone a free opportunity to experience a genealogy conference. The hall is very large, there will be loads of exhibitors, and you not only attend any and all of our sessions, but at most larger conferences you'll usually also find companies like Ancestry, MyHeritage and FamilySearch holding sessions at their booths. Well Shelly took my advice and she wrote back. She says: “Thanks for your encouragement to attend the NGS exhibitor area!  I was able to attend on Friday and enjoyed looking at all the booths and talking to some of the exhibitors.  I was also able to attend a few Outside the Box sessions also, although yours were too crowded to see or hear very well!  Thanks so much for doing this.  While waiting for a free session to start in another area, I overheard two men talking about DNA for genealogical purposes and privacy.  My ears perked up as they discussed an instance where a DNA sample sent to Ancestry.com was used to help solve a crime committed by a relative of the DNA tester.  I don't have enough information to form any opinions on that case, but the question of privacy came up when I was asked my mother to take a DNA test for me.  The first thing she said was that it sounded interesting but she was worried whether the government or the police could get ahold of the information.  I encouraged her to read the privacy information on the site and to let me know, but I told her I didn't see how anyone could get the information.  Her curiosity got the better of her, as I knew it would, and she agreed to the testing and I am awaiting the results.  The funny thing is that my mother does have a criminal history and has served over ten years in prison (I was raised by my father from age 5).  Hopefully there aren't any serious unsolved crimes my mom has been involved in!  She is 64 now so hopefully the statute of limitations has passed for most crimes.  I will let you know if the FBI come knocking on my door :)” I want to say thank you to all of you listening who stopped by the booth and welcome to all our new listeners who got to know us at these recent conferences and seminars, we are very glad you are here! Recent Family Tree Magazine Evernote Webinar: In the last year I've moved from Earthquake central (California) to Tornado Alley (Texas) and it's been a bit of an adjustment to say the least. 2 weeks ago while I was presenting a webinar on using Evernote for genealogy for Family Tree Magazine when my husband silently placed a note in front of me. It said that we were under tornado watch and if it got any worse he was hauling me off the computer and into the storm shelter! I hung in there, and thankfully it blew over and we finished the webinar. Genealogy wins again! (And yes, the video of the webinar is coming soon to Premium Membership.) Then last night we spent about an hour in our shelter room while our county got pummeled with torrential rain, non-stop lightening, and yes, even a few tornadoes touched down. Our devoted dogs Howie and Kota instinctively blocked the doorway to the shelter in an effort to keep us safe. They did a good job, and all is well! All this threat of danger and destruction has reinforced my decision to bring into our Genealogy Gems family a brand new sponsor. Backblaze is now the official back up of Lisa Louise Cooke's Genealogy Gems. If you've been to the RootsTech conference then you may already be familiar with them. Backblaze is a trusted online cloud backup service that truly makes backing up all your most precious computer files super easy.  The thought of losing my genealogy files is too much to bear. Now I can concentrate on keeping my loved ones safe through the storms of life because I know Backblaze is taking care of my files and photos! Many of you have asked me which company I use to back up my files. I've done my homework and Backblaze is my choice. I invite you to visit and get all your files backed up once and for all.   “Dear Lisa, Thanks for the latest email. I have been using Backblaze for a year now. I thankfully have not needed their complete services :-), but I love the feeling of being protected. Have a great weekend! It was so nice to meet you at Roostech in February. Thanks, Ellen” Tyler Moss, the dean of Family Tree University wrote me after a recent webinar I gave for them: “One woman typed an ellipsis (…) in to the chat box. I messaged her back and said “I'm sorry, did you mean to send a question? All I see are three periods.” And she said, “Oh no, I'm just in wonder at all the awesome things I can now do in Evernote!” The webinar we were doing was called “Enhance Your Genealogy with Evernote” and in that session which we recorded on to video as well I covered 10 terrific genealogy projects you can use Evernote for to improve your research, organization and productivity.  My motto these days is, save time by being more efficient so you have more time to spend with your ancestors, and that's what this training session was all about. And the good news for all of you who are Genealogy Gems Premium Members is that the video and downloadable handout are coming very soon to the Premium Videos section of genealogygems.com. Look for the announcement of its release in our weekly free newsletter. You can sign up for the free Genealogy Gems weekly e-newsletter on our homepage. GEM: Evernote Library Project Create an Evernote Genealogy Book Library: Create a new notebook called “Library” With your smart phone or tablet, snap photos of the cover of each of your genealogical books Send the photos to the Library notebook in Evernote (on your mobile device tap the share icon and tap Evernote. You will need to have authorized the Evernote app.) Another option is to email them to your unique Evernote email address which will also place them in Evernote. Evernote will apply Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to each image making them keyword searchable. To see if you already have a book, tap the notebook and then search an applicable keyword. Inspiration and motivation from Helen: A recent email from listener Helen reminds us to search our basements and attics for unique and amazing family history finds. There's no substitute for being able to tell family members' stories through their own words and photographs. “I just had to tell you about my recent find. My late father-in-law served in the Canadian Navy for 39 years, entering Naval College when he was only 14. Most of my knowledge about his life came from talking with him before he died. Of course, then I did not know the questions to ask. “About a month ago, I was preparing for a lecture on his life for a local World War 1 Seminar. I starting looking around in our basement as I knew we had some material from when we cleared out his house when he died, but I had no idea of just what exciting material I would find. “I found his personal diaries, with the earliest from 1916! The journals give an amazing first-person record of naval service from a person who devoted his life to the service of his country. I was able to weave his actual words into the somewhat dry official record of his long time service [ending with] his being presented with a Commander of the British Empire medal shortly before his retirement. “I am so grateful that the family saved these invaluable documents through the myriad of moves that a naval officer's career entails. In a different box, I found his photographs from the same era—some even earlier than the journals. I am now seriously considering publishing the journals along with the photographs, as they deserved to be shared.” Genealogy Gems Premium members can to access Premium podcast episode 116 to hear a discussion between two authors of books on life-story writing, and to access a Premium podcast AND video on how to make a family history video Her Birth Mom Was Her Co-Worker! Birth Family Reunion A woman recently went searching for her birth mom after receiving a copy of her adoption records (these  in her home state of Ohio). She didn't have to search very far: just in a different department at her workplace. “When [La-Sonya] Mitchell-Clark first received her birth records in the mail on Monday and saw the name Francine Simmons, she immediately plugged it into Facebook,” reports the story on . It didn't take long for her to recognize her mother as a woman who worked at the same business she did. “Following a tearful reunion, the two…discovered that they live just six minutes away from one another,” reports the article. La-Sonya also learned that she has three birth sisters, one of whom also works at the same company. Wow! Company picnics and water cooler chats must suddenly seem a lot more meaningful after this birth family reunion. Learn to use your own DNA to search for genetic relatives (whether you're adopted or not!) in our with CeCe Moore, a leading expert who appears regularly on television shows to talk about finding family with DNA.     Genealogy Gems Book Club Our featured book for the 2nd quarter of 2015 is Sunny's Book Recommendations: by Nathan Dylan Goodwin by Nathan Dylan Goodwin by Stephen Molyneux by Yaron Reshef Jimmy Fox's Nick Herald Genealogical Mystery series: , and Nathan Dylan Goodwin does have two other titles in the same series. I've read them both. Hiding the Past takes us into a genealogical mystery set in World War II and it's a similar type of read as The Lost Ancestor. I enjoyed it. The Orange Lilies is a novella set at Christmastime. Here Morton puts his skills to work—and his emotions—to confront the story of his own origins and a family story from the Western Front in World War I a century ago. It's a more personal story and Nathan I think is pushing into newer territory as a writer in dealing with more intimate emotion. But I like seeing Morton have these experiences. I also have a few more titles to recommend along these lines. It's that “If you liked this book, we think you'll also like…” The Marriage Certificate by Stephen Molyneux. This is a novel. I opened to the first page and the About the Author made me laugh: Stephen, amateur genealogist, lives in Hampshire and the South of France with two metal detectors and a long-suffering wife.” The book opens with a scenario many of us may be sympathetic with. A genealogy buff buys a marriage certificate he sees on display at an antiques gallery. He begins researching the couple with an idea of returning the certificate to them. Eventually he uncovers several secrets, one with some money attached to it, but others are also chasing this money. It may sound a bit far-fetched but it doesn't unfold that way. I like the surprise twists that bring the story into the present day. I also liked living out a little fantasy of own through Peter, the main character: that of being that genealogical research hero who brings something valuable from the pasts to living relatives today. Another book I recently enjoyed is Out of the Shoebox: An Autobiographical Mystery by Yaron Reshef. This one's a more serious, and I think a little more sophisticated, read. In this memoir (so a true story), Yaron gets a phone call about a piece of property his father purchased in Israel years ago. He and his sister can inherit it, but only if they can prove that man was their father. He goes on an international paper chase into the era of World War II, the Holocaust and the making of Israel. Then a forgotten bank account surfaces. There's more, of course, in Yaron's two-year quest to understand the tragedies of his family's past and recover some of its treasures. There's another series I've been made aware of but haven't read yet. This is Jimmy Fox's Nick Herald Genealogical Mystery series: Deadly Pedigree, Jackpot Blood and Lineage and Lies. The hero is an American genealogist who lives and works in New Orleans, of course one of the most colorful and historical parts of the U.S. I'll put links to all of these on our Genealogy Gems Book Club webpage, which you can find at .  

In this episode we are going to check in with our Genealogy Gems Book Club Guru Sunny Morton on our featured book , and some additional books you'll want to add to your reading list that also provide insight in to how you can approach writing your own family's history. And Your DNA Guide here at Genealogy Gems, Diahan Southard, will be here to tell you how to Social Network Your YDNA with Surname Projects But first I've got the RootsTech Run down for you. Last week I spoke at RootsTech 2015 which was really a two-fer conference of both RootsTech and the Federation of Genealogical Societies national conference. So needless to say it was bigger than ever. If you didn't attend, why should you care? Because FamilySearch which is the organization behind RootsTech has really, and I mean really, upped the family history game if you will. Even though they are a non-profit, they are really leading the industry, and having a huge impact on the types of genealogy resources and services that are being developed, which directly affect your family history research. And “Family History” is the key phrase there. At a FamilySearch VIP event I attended the leadership made a point of saying there is a distinct difference between genealogy and family history. We may often use these terms interchangeably, but they made this point with purpose, to drive home the fact that they are concerned with more than just genealogy; the building of your tree and tracing of your lineage. They are extremely focused on “family history”, and from what I know about you, you are too. Family history is the holistic approach – the stories, the photos, the legacy you are creating through your research. It's not that its critical which words you use, but I think they focused on the distinction to really help the community understand what their focus is. For example, the keynote speakers included Former first Lady Laura and Jenna Bush, (who by the way did a phenomenal job and were witty and thoroughly enjoyable),   as well as Donny Osmond, and American Idol star David Archelta. There were some negative comments about these choices floating around on social media before the conference, but for anyone who attended and saw the presentations it all made perfect sense. They all spoke, and sometimes sang, to the heart of family history. I know for all you listening, your heart is certainly in it. They offered incredible inspiration and I think everyone walked away rejuvenated and recommitted to their research. And research just isn't the right word. They came away motivated to continue on the legacy of family history they are building. And really that is the job of the keynotes. To set the tone and inspire and motivate, because there were plenty of  indepth classes and a huge variety of topics to fulfill the educational component of why we attend conferences . Let me give you a run down on some of the stats: FamilySearch, which was formerly the Genealogical Society of Utah, celebrated its 120th birthday last fall. It now operates 300 cameras in 50 countries around the world collecting digital genealogical sources. They released two mobile apps in 2014, FamilySearch Tree, the mobile companion to Family Tree on the FamilySearch website, and The Family Search Memories app which helps you collect, preserve, and share your favorite family photos, stories and spoken words. They are launching a new indexing program which will be part of the FamilySearch website which can be used on most desktop computers, notebooks and tablets. And to give you an idea of the scope of FamilySearch Indexing , there are 321,000 volunteers who have indexed 160 million records in 2014 alone, bringing the total of records indexed to 1.26 billion. These are records being made available to all of us free on the familysearch.org website. In June of 2014 FamilySearch surpassed publication of 1 billion images. It took 7 years to get there and the billionth image was published in FamilySearch's growing collection of Peruvian records. IF you consider that a single digital image can have several historic records on it, that means there are actually billions of record images on FamilySearch. FamilySearch projects that it will take just 3 to 5 years to publish the next billion images. And as for new record collections, in 2014 FamilySearch published 38 million obituaries, 10 new Freedmen's Bureau field office collections, and new and updated collections all around the world. One of the coolest things they unveiled is their new Discovery Centers. This is something that they announced last year, and our contributing editor Sunny Morton got a chance to go through the one in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in Salt Lake City while at the conference.  Here is a link to . The FamilySearch Discovery Center is focused on offering families simple and powerful in-person family history experiences. Each visitor gets a unique, personalized experience where they learn about themselves and where their family came from, and how they lived. They can even record a video about themselves or a family member.  You're in luck if you live in the Seattle area because a center is expected to open there in June of 2015. The two centers will serve as a testing ground to fine tune the centers and then open more around the world.   (Image above: Amy, Sunny and Lisa at the Genealogy Gems booth) So while I was at the conference I presented three classes for FGS which included using Evernote for Genealogy which was a packed house, using criminal cold case strategies for your brick wall genealogical cases, and video marketing for genealogy societies. For RootsTech I taught Turn your iPad into a Genealogy Powerhouse and, and building a genealogy business which was for the Rootstech Innovator Summit.   (Image above: Lisa and Diahan filming a segment at RootsTech) And of course we had the Genealogy Gems booth in the massive expo hall where we teamed up with FamilyChartmasters, The Photo Detective and Family Tree Magazine to once again present  our Outside the Box booth sessions where folks could join us for ½ hour session on topics like Google Search, Evernote and a whole lot more.   NEW! Map for African-American Genealogy Resources after the Civil War The time period after the U.S. Civil War is a messy era for searching for African-American ancestors from the South. Millions of people were emerging from slavery, without documented histories of who they were or who they were related to–many without even consistent first and last names. A new website helps researchers locate important African-American genealogy resources from the post-war Reconstruction era.  is a map-based tool for helping you find the Freedmen's Bureau offices and hospitals, Freedman's Bank offices, “Contraband Camps,” U.S. Colored Troops battle sites and other locations nearest your ancestors that may have created records about them. Many of these record sets are just coming online or are newly indexed and are free to search, so the timing couldn't be better. What it is a fantastic tool! I'm so pleased to see this site. Now those who know what location they're starting with can easily glance at a map and click to see which of these resources exist in a specific locale and where to find them online or offline. Listen to my interview with African-American genealogy research expert Deborah Abbott, PhD, in the FREE   Danish GenealogyMyHeritage has announced a new arrangement with the Danish National Archive to digitize, index and make available online millions of Danish genealogy records. According to MyHeritage, these include: “Danish national censuses, including approximately 9 million images and 31 million records, covering the years of 1787 through to 1930.  One of the most enlightening sources of historical content, census records provide a glimpse into a family's past listing information about each household including the names of occupants, information on residence, ages, places of birth and occupations. Church records (3.9 million images) containing approximately 90 million names from 1646 to 1915. The Parish Register provides information regarding anyone who was born, baptized or confirmed (after 1737), married or died in a particular parish. The records include rich information about a person's family: for example, for baptisms they list the date of birth, date of baptism, name of the child, parent's names, occupations and residence, and often names of witnesses and godparents.” According to MyHeritage, “The records, spanning almost 300 years, provide a window to the lives of Danish ancestors during fascinating periods in history including the Napoleonic wars, liberalism and nationalism of the 1800s, the Schleswig Wars and industrialization. “The records will illuminate the lives and times of noted Danish historical figures such as Kierkegaard and Niels Bohr. Celebrity fans will be able to look into the family history of Danish Americans such as Scarlett Johansson and Viggo Mortensen for clues on their success. Many of the records will be made available on MyHeritage as early as April 2015 and the rest will be added during the year. MyHeritage is a leader in family history for those with Nordic roots and is “the only major company providing services in Danish, Norwegian, and Finnish. With more than 430,000 users in Denmark and an additional 600,000 registered users in Sweden, 500,000 in Norway, and 280,000 in Finland, MyHeritage has amassed the largest Nordic user base and family tree database in the market.” Just one more reason we at Genealogy Gems are pleased to have MyHeritage as a    MAILBOX From Judy: "After reading your message about "getting materials back home", I thought I'd share something I've begun. Because of working on family genealogy, I have become the recipient of several family items. We have no children, just a niece and nephew who do not live nearby. So...To make sorting things easier for family at the end, I've begun a photo album with pictures of family heirlooms with a message included that tells whose item it was or who made it and/or a story about why it has been special. I'm in hopes that at least they can try to find and save these items instead of trying to guess or having to take the time to go through all of the family binders where most are also recorded."   From Sharon in California About Nov. 13 newsletter: "Lisa, in today's email you talked about walking through your front door and seeing things differently.  Since you are a big fan of Google and Google Maps, I wanted to tell you about a speaker that we had at our San Ramon Valley Genealogical Society meeting one time who talked about using maps in genealogy.  And he said the first map we should use is the map of our house.  I thought that was a little Silly, until I thought about the first house I remember, when I was 3 or 4 years old (and I'm now 74).  As I walked up those stairs to our apartment, I remembered so many things about that house.  As I “mapped” the layout of the house, each room brought back Memories.  Memories of my bedroom where when I had measles and my Dad brought me little Scotty dog magnets and we played with them on my bed.  In the kitchen, where my Mom taught me to eat vegetables that I didn't like by piling on the butter.  The back porch where the ice Man delivered blocks of ice.  And many, many more.  Each house, and it's map brought back individual memories.  Maybe this isn't genealogy, but it is family history, or maybe only MY history, but it was fun going through all those memories."   From Deanna: "I was very touched by the story of your husband's relative whose mother took her own life due to what sounds like depression.  I have a loved one who has anxiety and depression, and I am so thankful we live in a time where education, resources and medical options are available to assist those who are struggling. I am also thankful for your podcast, Genealogy Gems, which was a great source of encouragement to me during a difficult season of being the caregiver of my struggling loved one. The research tips inspired me to keep looking for those elusive ancestors, and the many stories reminded me that most life journeys have difficulties.  Most importantly, however, I was reminded that we humans are quite resilient.  Thankfully, my loved one is doing much better now, yet I still look forward to each and every Genealogy Gems podcast.  In addition, I am planning on attending the upcoming seminar in Vero Beach, FL, which is being hosted by the Indian River Genealogical Society.  Although it's a bit of a drive for me, I couldn't miss seeing you in person!  Thank you for all you do, and may God bless the life journeys of you and your family!"     GEM: Genealogy Gems Book Clubwith Sunny Morton Our current featured book,  by Christina Baker Kline, is getting some nice thumbs-ups from Genealogy Gems readers. Just to catch you up, this is the story of two women. It starts with Vivian, an Irish immigrant child who loses her family in New York City and is forced to ride the ‘orphan train.' She's placed with several different families across the Midwest, with different results, but it's the same premise at every home: her life starts over fresh there, with new rules and expectations and little or no recognition of her past or personality. After following Vivian's life through her childhood and young adulthood, we fast-forward. Vivian is 91, and a teenage girl named Molly comes to help her clean out her attic. Molly is a Penobscot Indian who is in the modern foster care system. On the show, I read a passage from when Vivian meets Molly. On first glance, they are so different: an old white lady with money and a Native American teenager without resources. Molly immediately judges Vivian. But Vivian's response totally disarms her. And that's when it starts to get fun. I hope you will have a chance to read Orphan Train before our interview with Christina Baker Kline next month! More Good Reads from the Genealogy Gems Book Club: Fabulous Family Histories I think a lot of people make genealogy goals at the new year: goals like writing up your research. I've noticed that one of things people often stumble over when they try to write family history is what style of writing to use. Do they want to write like a college professor, scholarly and objective? Or should their personal feelings and opinions be part of the story? Or, even more nontraditional, should they fictionalize their ancestors' stories like a novel? My book recommendations this month are three published family histories—all fascinating reads—that happen to be examples of different kinds of writing. by Emily Bingham is perhaps the most engaging scholarly family history I've read. It's based on thousands of letters and other documents that make me just go green with envy—like, how did she FIND that document??? There are more than 50 pages of endnotes. I don't think the author is related to the Mordecais. My sense is that she's a historian who came upon a gold mine of a family, in terms of documentation, personality and themes she saw emerge down the generations of this family. I do like to read well-written scholarly history, especially about families and religion. I am fascinated by how religious beliefs make people tick, and their effects on family and community life, especially for a family like the Mordecais who belonged to a marginalized faith at that time in U.S. history. On the show I read the opening paragraph of the introduction, to give you a sense of her voice. Many of you may have read  by Ian Frazier, which came out several years ago and was popular among genealogists. Ian also wrote the best-selling books  He's an expert observer, insightful, compassionate, funny and honest. So it's no surprise he also uses a first person voice, or the use of “I” when writing about his explorations into family history. On the show I read a passage from page 9 where he is writing about his ancestor's hometown of Norwalk, Ohio, and we compare how different his voice is, but how effectively he wraps together his own experience with his research.  by Patsy Trench is a first-person narrative about her Australian ancestors, who were among the first European settlers in that fascinating country. Patsy actually quit her job and traveled from London to Australia several times to research the story of her fourth great-grandmother and other relatives. She describes the book she wrote as “a hybrid: part family history, part memoir, part novel. The skeleton of the story…is as true as I could make it…. But I have put flesh on the bones, invented personalities for real people, circumstances behind the facts, all in the cause of turning my family saga into what I hope is an entertaining read. The dramatised scenes are from my imagination but the outcome of them is fact.” (Introduction, page 5) She cares a lot about her research, so she tries to make it clear in the text what's based on evidence and what's speculation, and she includes a detailed appendix that spells out where she took liberties. On the show I read a passage from page 86 about something her ancestor may or may not have done upon her arrival in the colony. You can hear the author's playfulness as she openly decides to buy into an unsubstantiated account for the purposes of good storytelling. Then she tells a good story, and we have a sense of the setting, other characters, social life and current events in her ancestor's new life in Australia (whether or not that specific incident actually unfolded as it did).  All in all, these three books—great reads in and of themselves—are also great examples of the different kinds of storytelling methods and voices we might choose to adopt when we write about our ancestors' lives. Happy reading from the Genealogy Gems Book Club!   GEM: Your DNA Guide at Genealogy Gems, Diahan Southard Family history organizations and studies based on individual surnames have been around for years. They are now integrating YDNA research into their efforts. Use surname projects to enhance your paternal DNA research!   Surnames are the flagships of our genealogical research. We name our files after them and we tag our research with them. We wear our last names proudly on pins and necklaces and T-shirts.   But surnames can also be misleading. Illiteracy, language barriers, and just plain carelessness led to misspellings and alterations, not to mention those ancestors who blatantly changed their name to avoid detection.   The advent of has changed the way many genealogists view surnames and their role in their genealogy. Because a man's YDNA is the same as the YDNA carried by each of the ancestors in his direct paternal line, the YDNA can act like a filter, clearly indicating which men with a particular surname, or variant, truly share a direct paternal line.   So how has YDNA testing affected family organizations that do surname research? I asked Debbie Kennett, a regular contributor to the International Society of Genetic Genealogy and who is also involved with the . The Guild of One Name Studies was established in 1979 to promote public understanding of one-name studies and preserve the information obtained by those studies.   “Virtually every common surname is now the subject of a DNA project,” says Debbie, including “just over 500 Guild members who are running a DNA project. That number has jumped up considerably just in the last couple of years.”   The quality of those projects varies. Debbie tells us that a quality YDNA project includes three elements: “presenting the DNA data, recruiting people from different countries and also correlating all of the genealogy information.”   Jean Morrison, a member of the Morrison surname project, says that because of DNA testing, “identifying where in Scotland this family originated prior to coming to America ca 1728 has become a realistic goal. The Morrison Q Group has identified through Y line testing at 111 markers, 22 individuals with an MRCA (most recent common ancestor) within eight generations.” In plain English, this means that a definite YDNA pattern has been associated with her Morrison surname and with a common ancestor eight generations back.   Noel and Ron Taylor were two early adopters of YDNA testing for their Taylor family project. Their first samples were submitted to the Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation in 2000. The former president and currently the head of the board of trustees for the Taylor Family Society, Noel says that using DNA “caught the attention of many people in our organization….It renewed great interest in the hearts of many people who had been doing research for many years [who may have] lost interest and were somewhat discouraged.” The Taylors have made significant breakthroughs with their DNA testing. They have connected several Taylor lines back to a common ancestor, verified their paper trails, and even found a line of Hodges that were actually Taylors!   It appears that YDNA is becoming part of the research plan for most family societies. But Debbie tells us that there is still much room for improvement in her organization. “Not all Guild members are running [DNA] projects. We have something like 2,700 Guild members so we are still not at the stage where the majority of Guild members are running projects.”   Besides The Guild, other organizations have been created to assist genealogists with their surname research, including a new organization just launched in November. 's goal is to “to build a collaborative environment where members are encouraged to develop their own approach to the investigation of their surname.” Kirsty Grey, chairman of the Surname Society, says that DNA testing has taken a front seat role in the research of one of their founders as well as several early members. “DNA is one of the many strands of family history research (and to a greater extent, surname studies) which can connect individuals, often where genealogical research cannot.”   That really is the bottom line. DNA, especially , can tell you things about the surnames in your pedigree that you can't learn in any other way. If you haven't yet, it's time to jump on the YDNA bandwagon and see what your DNA has to tell you.   DNA for Genealogy Resources: Quick Reference Guides by Diahan Southard   (for the best deal): ; Get the NEW AncestryDNA and FamilyTreeDNA 2 guide bundle Digital Guid es:    to learn about expert consultations with me. You'll get customized guidance on which tests to order and how to maximize your results for your genealogy research.   New! MyHeritage Digital Guide: (Click image above to order)   Pre-Order the 2nd edition of           Watch the newly

Get up to speed on the world of DNA and Genealogy in this episode. We'll explore in depth the ramifications of Ancestry closing down some of their DNA tests along with other businesses in their portfolio. Then you'll meet Your DNA Guide, Diahan Southard. She's a genealogy gem who will be joining us here on Genealogy Gems on a regular basis to help guide us through the murky waters of DNA research in easy to understand, and FUN terms.   Ancestry is shutting down 5 areas of their business In a recent media conference call Ancestry gave us the heads up that the next day they were going to announce the closures, and those of us on the call had the opportunity to ask questions before the announcement. While the spin is that they want to focus their efforts "in a way that provides the most impact, while also delivering the best service and best product experience to users" It is clear that these businesses were not their most profitable. It makes good business sense, and we certainly do want Ancestry to remain profitable so that it can remain in business. But that doesn't mean it won't be painful for many customers. The 5 areas shutting down are: Genealogy.com MyFamily MyCanvas LegacyDNA (y-DNA and mtDNA tests will be retired),  English version of Mundia These closures definitely did cause some pain with their customers, and I know that includes many of you listening right now. In fact I started receiving emails almost immediately that morning that Ancestry went public with this, and many of you also posted your comments on the  which I invited you to do in the newsletter article I sent out. In that article I told you that one of the most surprising moment in the conference call was when the Ancestry execs on the call were asked if the DNA samples that customer submitted, particularly those samples of deceased relatives) could be returned so as to be further processed by other companies.  The answer: No.  When pressed if they would allow customers to upgrade tests run on those samples before they were destroyed (yes, they made it very clear they will be destroyed) the answer was that well...they hadn't really thought about that. Leave it to genealogists to ask the important questions, and my hope is that Ancestry will take this question to heart before the closing date of September 5, 2014.  , and click through on the area you are interested in to get more answers to questions about the closures.  My impression during the call was that they were caught off guard a bit by the push back from those of us on the call regarding the DNA samples. Ancestry is focused on profitability - and I don't blame them for that, they are in business. If they don't remain profitable they go out of biz and we all lose. It probably wasn't as easy for them to think through the impact on every day family historians because some if not many of the top execs (and I've met them – they are nice people) are not genealogists. So first I want to share with you some of the comments I've received, and then I will give you some of my personal opinions on the subject.   Please click image to visit our Sponsor: & tell them you heard about them on The Genealogy Gems Podcast!   Comments from You: Graham in Australia writes: "This morning I found the following Ancestry DNA announcement in my email and felt the need to immediately respond. No sooner had I sent my response and your newsletter arrived on this very subject. I thought you might be interest in my response as I am sure there will be many people out there who will be similarly betrayed. I paid out some $250 in 2009 to have my Y-DNA test done with them knowing that this was going to be a long term investment to possibly find matches. I am glad Ancestry don't hand my superannuation savings. To ancestry: I am disgusted that ancestry is taking this action. You appear to only be after short term gains rather than the long term which is where the strength of DNA testing resides. In 2009 I invested in my Y-DNA test knowing that this will likely take several years to yield useful paternal match results which was the main thrust behind doing the tests. I don't know who is my biological paternal grandfather and have through the matching facility I have been in contact with the closest person yet and while quite distant it has given me some direction and hope that a match can be found in the future. Your action to remove this has just killed that possibility.  I for one will not be considering taking any autosomal tests with you as this will likely be dumped sometime in the near future." Roxanne in Oregon writes: "I am very upset with Ancestry.com and their comments about not returning DNA (Y & mt) samples or giving the opportunity to upgrade the test. Could this be just the beginning?  I understand about “business” but their policy of “destruction” is not acceptable.  This seems to violate a code of ethics that we have all come to rely on when giving samples to further science as well as our own research.  Who knows what the future will hold after we are long gone? Surely our DNA samples will become more helpful as testing becomes more acute. At the very least samples should be able to be transferred to another DNA lab, even if one needs to pay for it.   Who can we write letters to at Ancestry.com and at what address? Maybe if they get enough response the policy of “destruction” will be re-analyzed."    Ken Chahine on June 12, 2014 in AncestryDNA Comments of note on the Ancestry follow up post: “Also, did anyone else notice that they mentioned that many of the samples are past shelf life? How does FTDNA guarantee 25 yrs of maintaining our samples?” “What I'm a little less clear on is why you're just deleting the results off the website. Can't you simply archive them so that they're viewable? Does it really take that much effort or bandwidth to simply let me see my mtDNA haplogroup?” “BUT I have to question how committed you are to my research when you delete a valuable tool that I paid you for.” Susan on the Genealogy Gems Podcast fan page on Facebook: “Ancestry.com should NOT destroy the DNA! Especially for persons now deceased. They should make every effort to return samples if people ask for them by a specific date. I guess they're thinking about liability issues and bogus requests but I'm sure they can figure out a way to ascertain that the person asking is related to the DNA.” From Tom: Facebook page and online petition to persuade Ancestry.com not to destroy their YDNA and mtDNA samples and data. "Stop Ancestry.com's DNA Dump"    Lisa's opinion on all of this: It comes down to personal responsibility and forward thinking I think it's a mistake not to offer alternatives to their customers for retention of the samples. However, I always preach to you, my listeners that you need to retain control of all that is important to you and be responsible. We must be responsible and not put it in someone else's hands. When you test (particularly an older relative), you should save a sample and keep it in your lock box at home if it matters to you. I'm sympathetic to all involved because this is new territory and it's easy to miss thinking through the ramifications. But it's just like I recommend that you never use Ancestry as their one and only tree. Post your tree, that's fine, but retain the master on a database on your own computer, and then back up your computer! Finally, I think offering only autosomal is trendy rather than a true comprehensive product tool for the genealogist. I just published some excellent "Getting Stared" DNA Guides in my website store for this very reason. No test and no company is right for everyone. So in my opinion Ancestry is now no longer offering a true complete DNA service to genealogists. They are capitalizing on a trend. This is just my personal opinion of course. Linda writes: "I just purchased a dna kit from Ancestry.  Knowing now that they are discontuing that part of the program, can I send sample elsewhere?  Suggestions of what, where, how to get this done?” Lisa's Answer: If it were me, I would probably get a refund and start fresh with FamilyTreeDNA. Genealogy Gems Premium Podcast episode 92 includes an interview with their founder Bennett Greenspan. Also, we in our store that are excellent resources: Getting Started: Genetics for the Genealogist Y Chromosom DNA for the Genealogist Randy in Seattle was concerned about another one of the businesses Ancestry is dropping MyCanvas: “I just got a notice that Ancestry is dropping it's MyCanvas service.  I can understand not wanted to invest a lot into trying to keep it up to date with other printing services.  However, they are not only dropping the service, they are doing it in less than 3 months, all content will be deleted, there is no way to export the existing projects, and there is no alternative service to which all the work which has gone into existing projects can be transferred.   I am a long time Ancestry member and a follower of your podcasts and web page.  Generally I defend ancestry against a lot the complaints people have about them but this is pretty disheartening news for me.  I have puts 100's of hours into creating a number of ancestry projects and having a printed copy is not the same as having the electronic version available to update and get a new updated print. Do you have any suggestions on how to make concerns known to ancestry, and do you think there is any possibility of getting them to modify their plans.  I would be happy with finding some place or way to download the electronic projects and would at least appreciate more time to get my existing projects finished and printed, especially those I am creating for extended family who will want time to review and print their own copies.” Lisa's Answer: Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this. You can visit their original blog post on the subject . Leave a comment on that particular post - they are monitoring it. You can also click through on the MyCanvas link for more info. You can also tweet them on Twitter at @ancestry As to an alternative, personally I use Lulu.com. While it is not a genealogy site, it is excellent and print on demand publishing (books, photo books, calendars, etc.) They have been around quite a while and publishing is all they do, so I expect them to be around for a long time to come. Katharine in Ohio is also going to miss MyCanvas wrote: “My heart sank when I received the email from Ancestry.com about their MyCanvas section retiring. I just printed another chart as a wedding gift and have a couple more in the works. The service was just what I wanted, easy to work with, prompt and provided a beautiful product for a reasonable price. I've heard of Heartland and will investigate them. Can anyone else recommend places to have charts printed?” Lisa recommends:   Please click image to visit our Sponsor: & tell them you heard about them on The Genealogy Gems Podcast!   GEM: Diahan Southard, Your DNA Guide Diahan Southard has worked with the Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation, and has been in the genetic genealogy industry since it has been an industry. She holds a degree in Microbiology and her creative side helps her break the science up into delicious bite-sized pieces for you. She's the author of our DNA guides