Podcasts about pioneer girl

Madison author Beth Nguyen's latest book Owner of a Lonely Heart (Scribner, July 2023) is a memoir about parenthood, absence, and the condition of being a refugee: the story of Beth's relationship with her mother.At the end of the Vietnam War, when Beth Nguyen was eight months old, she and her family fled Saigon for America. Only Beth's mother stayed—or was left—behind, and they did not meet again until Beth was nineteen. Over the course of her adult life, she and her mother have spent less than twenty-four hours together. It was named a Best Memoir of 2023 by Oprah Daily, and was selected by Time, NPR, and BookPage as a Best Book of 2023.Beth joins host Sara Batkie ahead of the paperback release for a conversation about the expectations of motherhood, changing her name, and the fallibility of memory.Beth Nguyen is the author of four books, most recently the memoir Owner of a Lonely Heart, published by Scribner in 2023. Owner of a Lonely Heart was a New York Times Editors' Choice pick and was named a best book of 2023 by NPR, Time, Oprah Daily, and BookPage. Nguyen's three previous books, the memoir Stealing Buddha's Dinner and the novels Short Girls and Pioneer Girl, were published by Viking Penguin. Her awards and honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, an American Book Award, a PEN/Jerard Award from the PEN American Center, a Bread Loaf fellowship, and best book of the year honors from the Chicago Tribune and Library Journal. Her books have been included in community and university read programs around the country. Nguyen's work has also appeared in numerous anthologies and publications including The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The New York Times, Literary Hub, Time Magazine, and The Best American Essays.Nguyen was born in Saigon. When she was a baby, she and her family came to the United States as refugees and were resettled in Michigan, where Nguyen grew up. She received an MFA in creative writing from the University of Michigan and is currently a professor in the creative writing program at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Episode 83   On the Banks of Plum Creek ch. 15 "The Footbridge"   Join us this week as we compare the text to the original "Pioneer Girl" book text.

Nancy Koupal joins the 605 Podcast to talk about her book Pioneer Girl: The Path Into Fiction .

“It made me think about how our sense of identity really gets mixed up in names that other people give to us.” In real life, Bich Minh Nguyen now goes by the name Beth Nguyen - Beth is an award-winning writer and professor. In honor of AAPI Heritage Month, we wanted to share a conversation from the other podcast Modern Minorities - which features minority voices for all of our majority ears. Born in Saigon, Beth is the author of books like Stealing Buddha's Dinner, Short Girls, Pioneer Girl, and Owner of a Lonely Heart - her memoir in essays about post refugee life coming out later this year. Beth 2021 New Yorker article - “⁠America Ruined My Name For Me⁠” unpacks a necessary conversation about identity, adaption and assimilation - especially for those whose name is not hard to pronounce or understand. A refugee and a mother, Beth's moving work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The New York Times, and Literary Hub. Beth's awards and honors include an American Book Award, a PEN/Jerard Award from the PEN American Center, a Bread Loaf fellowship, and best book of the year honors from the Chicago Tribune and Library Journal. Beth has taught at Purdue University and the University of San Francisco - she is and is currently a professor of creative writing at the University of Wisconsin. You'll enjoy this candid conversation about growing between the cultures of two worlds

On this episode of Our American Stories, The Little House series of books have captured the hearts and imaginations of children and young adults worldwide. Written by Laura Ingalls Wilder, these classics have sold over 60 million copies in more than 100 countries.Here to tell the story are Dr. Dedra Birzer, lecturer in History at Hillsdale College and Editor-in-Chief of the South Dakota Historical Society Press (publisher of Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography)—Laura's memoir that her Little House book series would be based upon, and Pamela Smith Hill who is the editor of Pioneer Girl. Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Chrissie tells you about the serial killer family on the prairie: the Bloody Benders. Read the essay here: https://historywiththeszilagyis.org/hwts155 Find us on Twitter:The Network: @BQNPodcasts The Show: @HistorySzilagyi. Chrissie: @TheGoddessLivia. Jason: @JasonDarkElf.Send topic suggestions via Twitter or on our Facebook page History with the Szilagyis.History with the Szilagyis is supported by our patrons: Susan Capuzzi-De ClerckEd ChinevereLaura DullKris HillJoin these wonderful supporters by visiting patreon.com/historywiththeszilagyis. Suggested Reading: A recent biography of the Benders: Hell's Half Acre by Susan Jonusas. Pioneer Girl is available here: www.sdhspress.com/books/pioneer-girl The BQN Podcast Collective is brought to you by our listeners. Special thanks to these patrons on Patreon whose generous contributions help to produce this podcast and the many others on our network! AnonymousTim CooperChrissie De Clerck-SzilagyiThad HaitPeter HongMahendran RadhakrishnanJim McMahonJoe MignoneGreg MolumbyJustin OserTom Van ScotterDavid Willett Carl WondersYou can join this illustrious list by becoming a patron here: https://www.patreon.com/BQN

Join your host Sarah Uthoff and Nancy Koupal of the Pioneer Girl Project as they talk about their latest book Pioneer Girl: The Revised Texts. The original Pioneer Girl - Laura Ingalls Wilder's previously unpublished memoir - was a run away bestseller and is still selling well. The follow up to that is a set of three books about Pioneer Girl. This is the second of this series. Do you need to buy? Tune in and see!

"The democracy of the future will sicken of a chronic and mortal boredom," was Aldous Huxley's prophecy for the United States in 1923. You won't be bored listening to these 20 recordings, selected by their readers, with topics ranging from Leacock's humorous Manual of Education to Unamuno's Tragic Sense of Life. There's an artist's diary (Thomas Cole); an after-dinner speech (Mark Twain); reflections on Beauty by John Burroughs; Willa Cather and Christopher Morley on writing; and Leibniz on the Origin of Things. Political topics include the Power of Third Parties; the House of Commons; the 1904 South Dakota Land Lottery; and an NAACP anti-lynching poster. The 1918 Influenza Epidemic mirrors today's Covid quarantine and mask requirements; while virtual adventure beckons in Königstein Fortress; an Equatorial Chinese Wedding; Nellie Bly; and An Humane Skeleton of Extraordinary Size. Finally, acts of heroism are celebrated in A Pioneer Girl and in Poland's Tadeusz Kościuszko. Genre(s): *Non-fiction --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/3daudiobooks0/support

How did Laura Ingalls Wilder come to be one of the nation's best-selling children's writers? By failing to get her autobiography published. In today's episode, Dr. Jones speaks with editor Nancy Koupal on the new book Pioneer Girl: The Revised Texts.

ingalls wilder pioneer girl 48 read aloud (this is the last episode of pioneer girl aka reading of the whole book is completed. maybe that i read on this channel for the next time from Gilbert C. Chesterton Die Midasmaske - verschiedene "neue" geschichten in DEUTSCH...)

“It made me think about how our sense of identity really gets mixed up in names that other people give to us.” She was named Bich Minh Nguyen, but now goes by the name Beth...because, in her own words published in The New Yorker, “America Ruined My Name For Me.” Having a name that is hard to pronounce and rooted in your heritage presents unique and difficult challenges, and it's an all-too-common experience for many immigrants. Born in Saigon, a refugee, and a mother - Beth is an award-winning author of many novels whose work has appeared in The Paris Review, The New York Times, and Literary Hub. She's taught at Purdue University and the University of San Francisco and is currently a professor of creative writing at the University of Wisconsin. Beth is at work on a series of linked essays about post-refugee life, titled “Owner of a Lonely Heart” - which we can't wait to read. Listen to our chat with Beth about growing up between the cultures of two different worlds, and you'll understand why her name change was necessary. LEARN ABOUT BETH: Website Social Media: Instagram / Twitter New Yorker article: “America Ruined My Name For Me” (April 2021) BETH'S BOOKS: Stealing Buddha's Dinner (2007), Pioneer Girl (2014), Short Girls (2009) MENTIONS: BOOKS: Harriet the Spy (Louise Fitzhugh) PERSON: Keanu Reeves - because of sequined pillow in her Zoom background --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/modern-minorities/support

ingalls wilder pioneer girl 47 read aloud

ingalls wilder pioneer girl 46 read aloud

ingalls wilder pioneer girl 44 read aloud

ingalls wilder pioneer girl 43 read aloud

ingalls wilder pioneer girl 42 read aloud

ingalls wilder pioneer girl 41 read aloud

ingalls wilder pioneer girl 40 read aloud

ingalls wilder pioneer girl 39 read aloud

ingalls wilder pioneer girl 37 read aloud

ingalls wilder pioneergirl 36 read aloud

In the midst of protests and a pandemic, Jenny hosts a bonus readalong discussion of Ducks, Newburyport. What seems like the random thoughts of a pie-making Midwestern woman turn out to be so much more, and we untangle only a few of the threads in this complex tome. Spoilers Inside.Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 193: And I Feel Fine Subscribe to the podcast via this link: FeedburnerOr subscribe via Apple Podcasts by clicking: SubscribeOr listen through TuneIn Or listen on Google Play Or listen via StitcherOr listen through Spotify New! Listen through Google Podcasts Books discussed:Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy EllmannOther mentions:Pioneer Girl: the Annotated Bibliography by Laura Ingalls WilderSilent Spring by Rachel CarsonJennyBakes - lemon drizzle cake disasterJennyBakes - tarte tatinReading Envy Readers (Goodreads group)After the Cuyahoga River Fire - Great Lakes Now (video)Almanac of the Dead by Leslie Marmon SilkoMartian Time-Slip by Philip K. DickGalactic Pot-Healer by Philip K. DickThe Three-Body Problem by Cixin LiuApocalypse Whenever (Goodreads group)The City We Became by N.K. JemisinThe City and the City by China MievilleThe Fifth Season by N.K. JemisinThe Obelisk Gate by N.K. JemisinMarchpane review of Ducks, NewburyportIt's the End of the World by R.E.M. Related episodes:Episode 090 - Reading Envy Readalong: East of Eden with Ellie and JeffEpisode 093 - Spewing Science with Jeff Koeppen Episode 099 - Readalong: The Secret HistoryEpisode 116 - Make Margaret Atwood Fiction Again with Jeff Koeppen Episode 118 - Reading Envy Readalong: To the Bright Edge of the World Episode 137 - Reading Envy Readalong: The Golden NotebookEpisode 148 - Multiple Lives with Jeff  Episode 157 - Joint Readalong of Gone with the Wind with Book CougarsEpisode 185 - The Loyal Swineherd (Odyssey readalong)Book Cougars - Joint Readalong of Sapphira and the Slave Girl  Stalk us online:Jenny at GoodreadsJenny on TwitterJenny is @readingenvy on Instagram and LitsyJeff at GoodreadsJeff on Twitter Jeff is @BestDogDad on Litsy  

Laura Giannarelli is an actress who also reads books for the National Library Service. The National Library Service for the Blind Print Disabled is a part of the Library of Congress that provides materials for NLS "for people with temporary or permanent low vision, blindness, or a physical disability that prevents reading or holding the printed page. Through a national network of cooperating libraries, NLS offers books the way you want them: in braille or audio formats, mailed to your door for free, or instantly downloadable. NLS works to ensure that all may read by providing eligible patrons access to NLS materials regardless of age, economic circumstances, or technical expertise." Giannarelli has narrated many books that are available as part of their service for people with eye sight problems. Of most interest is her reading both the "Little House" books and Pioneer Girl. Join me as we learn about this important system, how Giannarelli got interested in Laura, and how she went about this entire project.

ingalls wilder pioneer girl 19 read aloud

ingalls wilder pioneer girl 18 read aloud

ingalls wilder pioneer girl 17 vorgelesen

ingalls wilder pioneer girl 16 read aloud

ingalls wilder pioneer girl 15 read aloud

ingalls wilder pioneer girl 14 read aloud

ingalls wilder pioneer girl 13 read aloud(ATTENTION: this podcast is now available - to hear,download and subscribe - on ITUNES under https://podcasts.apple.com/de/podcast/laura-ingalls-wilder-pioneer-girl-autobiography-in/id1492923000 and then "LISTEN TO AT APPLE PODCASTS"!!!)

ingalls wilder pioneer girl 12 read aloud

ingalls wilder pioneer girl 11 read aloud

ingalls wilder pioneer girl 10 read aloud

ingalls wilder pioneer girl 9 read aloud

ingalls wilder pioneer girl 8 read aloud

ingalls wilder pioneer girl 7 read aloud

ingalls wilder pioneer girl 6 read aloud

ingalls wilder pioneer girl 5 read out

ingalls wilder pioneer girl 4 read aloud

ingalls wilder pioneer girl 3 vorgelesen

ingalls wilder pioneer girl 2 in english VORGELESEN

laura ingalls wilder pionier girl 1 VORGELESEN (das knacken des alten schutzumschlages - ihr kennt das ja schon - bitte ich zu entschuldigen, kommt nicht wieder vor! ebenso mein grauenhaftes englisch - damit muesst ihr allerdings leben)

In this special holiday episode of the Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast, fiction writer and memoirist Bich Minh Nguyen talks to hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell about her history as a refugee, recent news about the Trump administration's anti-immigrant policies, and her holiday traditions. Readings for the Episode: ·       Stealing Buddha's Dinner, Pioneer Girl, and Short Girls by Bich Minh Nguyen ·       “Trump Moves to Deport Vietnam War Refugees,” by Charles Dunst and Krishnadev Calamur, Atlantic.com Dec. 12, 2018 ·        ·       A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens ·       Little Women by Louisa May Alcott ·       "The Dead," by James Joyce ·       “The Netflix Christmas Movie Cinematic Universe Is Here,” Buzzfeed, Alanna Bennett ·       “It's a Wonderful Life,” film, 1946, dir. Frank Capra ·       “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,” short story by Ernest Hemingway. ·      “Santa Clo va a La Cuchilla,” short story by Abelardo Díaz Alfaro ·       “Is Denaturalization the Next Front in the Trump Administration's War on Immigration?” by Seth Freed Wessler, The New York Times Magazine, Dec. 19, 2018   Guests: Bich Minh Nguyen Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the summer of 2018 the name of Laura Ingalls Wilder was erased from a children's literary medal set up in her honour six decades ago. Readers of the Little House on the Prairie series of books were widely perplexed, but the original American pioneer girl now finds herself at the centre of the culture wars in the US. Nominating her is the broadcaster and superfan Samira Ahmed, who has been to Rocky Ridge Farm, now an historic museum in Missouri and Laura Ingalls Wilder's home. Joining Samira in studio is the novelist Tracy Chevalier. president of the Laura Ingalls Wilder club at the age of eight. At the centre of the controversy - the depiction in these books of native Americans. “Her works reflect dated cultural attitudes toward indigenous people and people of colour that contradict modern acceptance, celebration, and understanding of diverse communities,” was the judgment of the ALSC. This programme also includes Laura Ingalls Wilder's biographer, Pamela Hill; plus the Commanche writer Paul Chaat Smith in an extract from The Invention of the USA. "I feel worried," says Samira Ahmed, "that we've lost the ability to have nuance. I cannot read these books without feeling aspects of racism, but why shouldn't we be able to read them and still see the beauty in them." The presenter is Matthew Parris and the producer in Bristol is Miles Warde. Future programmes include Matt Lucas on Freddie Mercury, and Mark Steel on Charlie Chaplin on Christmas Day.

It's the 150th anniversary of Laura Ingalls Wilder's birthday this year and they are celebrating in De Smet, South Dakota, Laura's Little Town on the Prairie. The big event is going to be Friday, July 14th through Sunday, July 16th. Special guests will include prominent Laura authority William T. Anderson, Nancy Koupal of the South Dakota Historical Society Press, Dean Butler and Alison Arngrim - Almanzo Wilder and Nellie Oleson on the NBC TV show, and Judy Thompson who designed the cover art of both Pioneer Girl and Pioneer Girl Prespectives. Join host Sarah Uthoff and De Smet Memorial Director, Tessa Flak as we get all the details of this event. Join this special Little House on the Prairie or rather Little Town on the Prairie event. 

We look at what's going on in Laura Ingalls Wilder fandom this month including events around the country and Trundlebed Tales programs.Big events this month are in Marshfield, Missouri and Sioux Falls, South Dakota. April is pretty much the start of this year's Laura Ingalls Wilder season. We have a few events and we're looking forward to events that will only increase from her on in for the rest of the season. Whether you're interested in the Little House TV show or actual research, April has got what you're looking for. The conference is based on the runaway bestseller "Pioneer Girl."

Our guest this time is Nancy Koupal of the South Dakota State Historical Society Press. We've got a lot to cover this time. Koupal will discuss her past connection with Laura including finding the famous Ma and Pa portraits, her work bringing out "Pioneer Girl" and the upcoming "Pioneer Girl Prespectives,"  and this April's Laura Ingalls Wilder themed conference. There's always more that you can dig into when it comes to Laura Ingalls Wilder and we'll have a lot of fun doing that this episode.

In this week's episode, Megan rejoins us in the crushing world of reality, Richard Simmons is found and the world says "We didn't know he was lost", and we review the lovely book "Pioneer Girl". Little House fans unite!

Welcome to our sixth annual on air birthday celebration for author and pioneer Laura Ingalls Wilder. Laura fans are invited to call in and share either the story of how they became a Laura Ingalls Wilder fan, their favorite Laura Ingalls Wilder related experience, or annual family traditions based on Laura. Based on requests, I'm continuing it as an hour so you'll have plenty of time to call in. So please call in and help fill the time. If you want to share your story, but don't want to talk on air, you can send a story to me ahead of time or in the chatroom live during the show. Live callers or chat get time before sent in stories. Call tollfree 1 (877) 633-9389 Contact me through social media at Trundlebed Tales or send stories to info@trundlebedtales.com

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.     

Today, we're turning back the clock to talk about two of my favorite eras, the 1950s and—well, the second one is a surprise. I'll tell you later in the show when I introduce the NEW Genealogy Gems Book Club featured title! But first, we'll talk a little news—from a new Google innovation to two new record collections online that fill in a hole in American documentary history. I'll read some mail from YOU about the new Ancestry site and family history blogging. NEWS Wouldn't it be great if your smartphone alerted if you left your keys or eyeglasses behind when leaving the house? Google is working on it, based on a recent  it filed. The patent describes a device that uses short-range wireless technology to link your smartphone with other must-have items like your wallet, keys or glasses. The idea is that if you leave a location with one item, but leave other items behind, an alarm will go off. A commentary website explains that “the user can control the amount of distance between the mobile device and the paired object that must exist before an alarm goes off. They can also control the type of alarm, as well as how often the device checks to see if all paired objects remain nearby.” Here's a drawing from the patent. In one way, it makes me think that Google is taking its Alerts out of cyberspace and right into our daily lives to help them run more smoothly. Do you use Google Alerts? Setting them up lets me find out about new content online as it becomes available—24/7—relating to my favorite keyword searches. I use Google Alerts to automate my online genealogy searches and follow other favorite topics. You can learn more about Google Alerts AND how to search for patents like the one I was just talking about—for household items and inventions that shaped our relatives' lives—in my book, * In last month's podcast, I mentioned the Civil War Soldiers & Sailors Database in response to a question from a listener who was looking for a good resource for Civil War sailors. Unfortunately, as I stressed in the , the percentage of sailors included is still fairly low in that database. So I was pleased to see a new collection on recently: U.S. NAVY SURVIVORS.  to a post about it. Nearly 2 million records in this collection come from case files of approved pension applications between 1861 and 1910, so they include Civil War survivors and later Navy veterans until just before World War I. I love seeing all these new record collections that appear online that, ever so gradually, fill in the gaps to help us find our ancestors! At Genealogy Gems we blog about new record collections online every Friday—watch for those on our ! * Finally, there's another record set coming online that will just be HUGE for those researching African-American ancestors. Freedmen's Bureau records are finally being fully indexed! Anyone with African-American roots or who has ANY Southern ancestors should know about these. The Freedmen's Bureau was organized after the Civil War to aid newly-freed slaves in 15 states and Washington, DC. Destitute whites were also helped. For several years the Freedmen's Bureau created marriage records, labor contracts, and other records of families and their military service, poverty, property, health and education. The richest documents are the field office records of each state. (Here's a  to a great article from the National Archives about these records.) A few field office records are already transcribed or indexed; you can find links at the . Now FamilySearch and other national partners have issued a call to action for the genealogy community to help finish indexing them all—an estimated 1.5 million records—within the coming year. A press release says the “records, histories and stories will be available on . Additionally, the records will be showcased in the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture, which is currently under construction on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., and expected to open in late 2016.”   MAILBOX Recently I heard from Patty, who says, “Not long ago I listened to the podcast in which you encouraged people to send the links to their genealogy blogs, and after seeing this week's newsletter, I thought I finally would.” “I started a blog last summer to share my research with my family, which is fairly spread out throughout the country.  I also wanted to document a trip to Italy that my husband and I took last October, which included genealogy research as well as the chance to meet newly discovered relatives there. My website is Thanks for all the great info you provide!” You're welcome, Patty, and I have to say, I hear from SO many people about the power of blogging your family history. Most people start because they're just bursting to share their family history finds, and they want to do it in the small bite-size pieces that work so well on a blog. Many of them also hope to connect with other descendants who may stumble across their blogs and contact them. And you know, it really does happen! If you're ready to start blogging your family history—or to get re-inspired and get BACK to it—I recommend you listen to my how-to series on the FREE or * Finally, we continue to hear feedback on the new Ancestry site. On the Genealogy Gems Facebook page, Cynthia told us, “I absolutely love it! At first I was confused, but took the time to figure out how to find what I wanted, add new facts, photos, etc. It was a challenge and now I will never go back to the old way.” Also on Facebook, Paris told us she misses the “show how we're related” feature with its icon, and Ken misses now having the family group view. Nora also wrote in with more detailed comments on her three favorite features. In short they are: That when you are given the option to accept hints, you now have yes, no AND MAYBE options. (And I agree—that's so much more practical to have a MAYBE option.) She loves the Lifestory view, especially since it gives the option of removing historical events you don't want to include from an ancestor's timeline. She finds it easier to merge facts about the same life event when reported by multiple sources. Nora even shares step-by-step tips for how she merges facts on the new site. Here's a to her full comments, along with helpful screen shots. * A third piece of mail comes from Carol in St. Louis, Missouri. She was frustrated that she couldn't read my entire email newsletter. “Would love to know what you are saying,” she says. But my newsletter email doesn't fit in her email window. She says, “I don't want to toggle to the right to see the end of each line and then have to toggle back.” I don't blame her! That's annoying. The good news is that anyone who has trouble with my emails not fitting in their viewers can fix it pretty easily. Email sizing is related to your computer's screen resolution setting and a variety of other variables. It's different for everyone. In cases where it doesn't come through to your email account right, we provide a link at the top of the email that you can simply click to view the email on a new web browser tab fitted to the page. To get the free Genealogy Gems email newsletter, just sign up in the box in the upper right-hand corner . We don't share your email address with anyone else and you get a free e-book of Google tips for genealogy just for signing up.   Sunny and I discuss her digital backup plan (or lack thereof!) My solution for her:                GEM: Find Your Family History in the 1950s What comes to mind when I say these words? Sock hops. Drive-ins. Juke boxes. Fuzzy dice. Letterman jackets. Poodle skirts, bobby socks and saddle shoes. 3D movies. Hula hoops. Of course, the 1950s. Do you remember any of these fads, or have you seen any family pictures that show them? Of course, the fifties weren't all fun and games. Think the Korean War, McCarthyism, the Iron Curtain. The 1950s was also a time of complex social problems and conflict throughout the world. What about finding records about your fabulous family in the 1950s? You know, we're always told to start researching the most recent generations. But national censuses and many vital records have privacy blackouts. So I want to mention four major resources for finding family in the ‘fifties: Oral history interviews. In many families, there's at least one person around who remembers the 1950s personally. If there's not, then look to the memories of the next living generation, who often know at least some important things about the past. Interviewing a relative is one of the most fun and meaningful ways to learn your family history. After all, you're learning about the past first-hand (or second-hand, if you're asking about someone's parents). You can ask specific and personal questions of the kind that don't appear on a census record. You can deepen your relationships with those you interview and gain a better understanding of the lives that led to you. Older people often love to have someone take a sincere interest in them. The Family History Made Easy podcast has a . Here are some tips about interviewing your family: Reach out with sincere interest in that person, not just their memories of others who have gone. Be patient and respectful when you ask questions. It can take a while to establish a rapport and discover the kinds of memories that person most wants to share. The best skill you can have is that of a good listener. Don't interrupt. Don't judge. And listen so intently that you can ask great follow-up questions. Newspapers are my second resource. Turn to these for more recent relatives' obituaries and other articles that mention them. Use hometown papers to discover more about a relative's daily life, current events that would affect them, popular opinions of the time, prices for everyday items and more. Thanks to the internet, it's getting easier than ever to find family members in newspapers. Some newspapers have been digitized, though this isn't as common with more recent papers that may still be under copyright protection. Still, you can use online resources to discover what newspapers served your family's neighborhood, or even whether an ethnic, labor or religious press would have mentioned them. Each country and region has its own online newspaper resources. In the US, I always start with the US Newspaper Directory at Chronicling America. (In this case, DON'T start with searching digitized papers, which only go up to 1922.) From the , click on , and you'll get a fantastic search interface to locate ALL newspapers published in a particular place and time, as well as the names of libraries or archives that have copies of these papers. Links for newspapers outside the United States include: , the and the . Remember, historical societies and even local public libraries are also wonderful places to look for newspaper holdings. My book, , gives you all kinds of tips for what to look for in papers and how to locate them, both online and offline, and in free and subscription resources. City directories are the third place I look for recent relatives. By the 1950s, most towns and cities published directories of residents, mostly with telephone numbers. I use annual directory listings to track families from year to year. These might give you your first clue that someone moved, married, separated, divorced or died. I can often find their exact street address (which is great for mapping them out!), who lived at the house and sometimes additional information like where they worked, what their job was or who they worked for. Ancestry has , clear up to 1989. But most other online city directory collections aren't so recent, probably for copyright reasons. Look for city directories first in hometown public libraries. I would call the library and see if there is a local history or genealogy room where they handle research requests. Also check with larger regional or state libraries and major genealogical libraries. These are pretty straightforward research lookups and may not be that expensive to request copies of your relatives' listings in each year for a certain time period. The fourth and most fun place to look for relatives, I think, is in historical video footage! YouTube isn't just for viral cat videos and footage of your favorite band. You can look for old newsreels, people's home movies and other old footage that's been converted to digital format. It's not unusual to find videos showing the old family neighborhood, a school or community function, or other footage that's relevant to your relatives. Use the YouTube search box like you would the regular Google search box, because it's powered by Google. Enter terms like “history,” “old,” “footage,” or “film” along with the names, places or events you hope to find. For example, the name of a parade your relative marched in, a team he played on, a company she worked for, a street he lived on and the like. It's hit and miss, for sure, but sometimes you can find something very special. My Contributing Editor Sunny Morton didn't really believe me that YouTube could be a great source for family history finds. She set out to prove me wrong—and I'm glad she did! Almost immediately, with a search on the name of her husband's ancestral hometown and the word “history,” she found a 1937 newsreel with her husband's great-grandfather driving his fire truck with his dog! She recognized him from old photos and had read about his dog in the newspapers. What a find! Her father-in-law was stunned, because he never met his own grandfather, who died in 1950. You can learn more in my all-new second edition of , which has an entire, newly-updated chapter on YouTube. So that's four places to look for 1950s relatives: in family memories, newspapers, city directories and YouTube footage. So what ABOUT those 1950 and 1951 censuses around the world? Spotlight on the 1950 US Census: The 1950 US Federal census won't be released to the public until April 2022. If you REALLY need an entry on yourself or immediate relatives, you can apply to receive copies of individual census entries from 1950-2010. It's not cheap—it's $65 per person, per census year. But if you're having research trouble you think would be answered by a census entry, it might be worth it. to the page at Census.gov that tells you how to do this (it's called the “age search service”). Ancestry does have a . It's a little gimmicky, because it appears to be just a slice of their city directory collection from the mid-1940s to the mid-1950s. But this is still a good starting point to target US relatives during this time period. I have some interesting factoids on the 1951 censuses for England, Canada and Australia, which aren't available yet to the public. At , you can at least download a blank form for the 1951 census in England. That site says: “There was no census in 1941 and only limited population information from the 1939 National Register, making the 1951 census highly significant in tracking changes in society over 20 years. The 1951 Census revealed that the population of Britain had exceeded 50 million. It was the first census to ask about household amenities (outside loos) as Britain began to clear slums and rebuild housing after World War II. Questions about fertility and duration of marriage were reinstated. The Registrar General for England and Wales, Sir George North, asked women to be more honest about their age. Many women of the time felt that questions relating to age were of a too personal nature. Information from previous censuses suggested that women had adjusted their age upwards if they married young and down if they married later. Problem pages in newspapers and magazines were flooded with queries from distraught women, fearful that their true age would become public knowledge.” That's so funny to me now, as our age is a basic piece of all our identifying records! So a good substitute for the 1951 census may be England's electoral registers, at least for those who were qualified to vote. An Ancestry description of states that these “registers typically provide a name and place of abode, and older registers may include a description of property and qualifications to vote. Registers were compiled at a local level.” That webpage has helpful tips on searching registers by location through 1954. What about Canada? They do censuses every 10 years on the years ending in “1” also, and a population and agriculture census in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta every 10 years in the years ending in “6,” according to the . By law, you can't get personal information yet from post-1921 census returns except about yourselves or for pension or other legal purposes. The site does say that “Third parties cannot obtain information about another individual without the individual's written consent,” which leads me to wonder you COULD get them if you did have consent, but that might not be easy or possible to get from the relatives you're researching. You'll hit up against the same privacy issues in Australia for 1951, but what is online is the entire , with free downloadable chapters on topics like land, transportation, communication, education, welfare, labor, wages, prices, the population, vital statistics, and several different types of industrial reports. You won't likely find ANY ancestors mentioned by name, but you can read generally how the country was doing at the time.                 GENEALOGY GEMS BOOK CLUB:   The new Genealogy Gems Book Club featured title is , edited by Pamela Smith Hill. This autobiography was written by Laura in the 1930s, and is the basis of her popular Little House children's series. But her actual autobiography was never published, and it's the “grown-up” version—more detailed, more explicit—of all those stories and her recollections of family, and neighbors, wagon trains and homesteads: pioneering in an American West that was fading away. Across the cover of the first tablet she scrawled “Pioneer Girl.” These real stories behind the Little House stories will intrigue--and sometimes stun--any Laura Ingalls Wilder fan. What makes this book a standout and a prime candidate for genealogists? The immaculate research that went into it. The stunning example it sets for source citations, which consume large portions of most of the pages. And the often never seen before photos sprinkled throughout that bring the people and times to life visually for the reader.  

Welcome to our fifth annual on air birthday celebration for author and pioneer Laura Ingalls Wilder. Laura fans are invited to call in and share either the story of how they became a Laura Ingalls Wilder fan, their favorite Laura Ingalls Wilder related experience, or annual family traditions based on Laura. I was very pleased with the response the last two years and so we're going to try it again. Based on requests last year, I'm extending it to an hour so you'll have plenty of time to call in. Please consider calling in and sharing your story and if you missed it in 2014, start working on your story for 2015. If you want to share your story, but don't want to talk on air, you can send a story to me ahead of time or in the chatroom live during the show. Live callers or chat get time before sent in stories.

Bich Minh Nguyen is the guest. Her new novel, Pioneer Girl, is available now from Viking. The San Francisco Chronicle calls it "[A] sincere and moving novel... a surprising synthesis of the personal and the public, the intimate and the epic, the historical and the fictional. Nguyen takes two disparate strands of our national mythology and weaves them into a powerful and wholly original American saga." And Kirkus Reviews says "Nguyen has a perceptive understanding of the tension between mothers and daughters and the troubling insights to be gained from digging into the past. An unexpected pleasure, with a well-drawn and compelling narrator." Monologue topics: Las Vegas, pot, gambling, losing, winning, ethics. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join host Sarah Uthoff as she catches you up on what's going on in Laura Ingalls Wilder fandom during October 2014. October is always a quiet month, but join us to catch up on all the news.

With a couple of weeks of school under our belt, we are back and ready to talk about a childhood favorite: Laura Ingalls Wilder. Thankfully, we don't live on the prairie, but we sure love reading about it! Her new novel Pioneer Girl is not suitable for children which makes us want to read it even more! Other topics of discussion include eating real food, The Great Gatsby, and the amazing Burris family! Really, we are all over the place this week, but I blame it on the heat.

Another installment of previewing the year in Laura Ingalls Wilder fandom. There are a lot of events and some new projects coming out in 2014. Get a heads up for books and get a heads up on Laura events you might want to attend.

Students in my classroom are creating podcasts in which they interview characters from the stories we read. In this particular episode students are interviewing characters from the story Pioneer Girl, by Andrea Warren. This story is about a pioneer family trying to survive on the plains.