The Genealogy Guys Podcast

The Genealogy Guys Podcast #137 - 2008 May 14

Thu, 15 May 2008 17:45:00 GMT

This week's news includes: Geni, Inc. (http://www.geni.com) announces the new functional availability for users to upload GEDCOM files; FamilyLink.com (http://www.familylink.com) announces its partnership with FamilySearch to add new functions to the Family History Library Catalog, making it searchable by Internet search engines and allowing users to annotate entries; Footnote.com (http://www.footnote.com) announces the addition of the 1860 U.S. Federal Census to its Civil War Collection; and the Social Security Administration has released its list of the most popular baby names for 2007.

Listener e-mail topics include: a family listed twice on the 1880 U.S. federal census -- in two enumeration districts; observations about the embedded player at "The Genealogy Guys Podcast" site; Drew discusses his findings in the 1910 and 1920 censuses for a Black Seminole family in Escambia County, Florida; and George responds to an inquiry about web sites to which photos of WWII service personnel can be uploaded and accessed by family members. George cited Dead Fred (http://www.deadfred.com), Ancestors Lost and Found (http://www.usgennet.org/usa/topic/ancestors/), and Honoring Our Ancestors (http://www.honoringourancestors.com/library_orphan.html).

George shares news about three web sites of interest to listeners:

Cyndi's List has a new page of Free Stuff at http://www.cyndislist.com/freestuff.htm that includes forms, free databases, software and more.
The Scottish Screen Archive at http://ssa.nls.uk is Scotland's moving images collection with more than 100 years of Scottish history and culture on film and video.
The Roscommon Historical Research site at http://www.roscommonhistory.ie has a great deal of genealogical material. Also check http://www.leitrim-roscommon.com.

The Guys share a poem and encourage any responses by listeners as to its origins.

The Guys discuss how they have used PowerPoint to create a presentation for a memorial service. The process can be used for heritage presentations, family reunions, anniversary celebrations, and many other genealogical projects.

The Genealogy Guys Podcast #136 - 2008 May 7

Fri, 9 May 2008 23:26:00 GMT

This week's news includes: the Vatican has issued a letter instructing all dioceses not to give any information to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, due to concerns about the Mormons' practice of posthumous rebaptism; a new Midwest Genealogy Center (see http://www.mcpl.lib.mo.us/genlh/mgc.htm) will open in Independence, Missouri, on 21 June 2008 with the largest collection of genealogical materials in the U.S.; DNA links have been found from the ancient "iceman" found in British Columbia in 1999 to at least 17 living people; an American couple touring in Germany visited a gasthaus in Binningen and were introduced to a relative -- a man who looked exactly like the husband. The men shared the same great-great grandfather.

Listen e-mail included: loss of HeritageQuest Online in the Satellite Beach, Florida, library; a thank you for our discussions of the Mozy (http://mozy.com/) computer backup facility; Catholic parish family books (Familienbuecher) in Germany; suggestions for locating information about Black Seminole people (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Seminoles and Seminole & Apalachicola Indian Records); a listener asks for help when his own DNA and that of his family members disagrees; teaching genealogy to and for kids; the occupation of "vanman" is defined; and the origins of the surname Turtle are discussed. [Drew referred to the book, A Dictionary of English Surnames: The Standard Guide to English Surnames by P.H. Reaney and R.M. Wilson, published by OxforndUniversity Press in 1995.]

George discusses the practical use of DNA in conjunction with genealogy, archeology, and geography in the research of the Lost Colony Center for Science and Research (http://www.lost-colony.com/). The "Lost Colony" was the second settlement on Roanoke Island on the Outer Banks of what is now North Carolina. It began in 1587 and it was there that Virginia Dare, the first English child born in the New World, was born on 18 August 1587. When the relief ships finally returned from England in 1590, the settlement was deserted, and a single word -- "Croaton" -- was carved into a post of the fort. Croaton was the name of one of the local Indian tribes. One suggestion is that the settlers were assimilated into one or more of the three tribes. The DNA testing and analysis being done by the Lost Colony Center for Science and Research is seeking to validate or refute this hypothesis, and the project is infinitely interesting.

The Genealogy Guys Podcast #135 - 2008 April 29

Thu, 1 May 2008 14:51:00 GMT

News this week includees: Geni.com (http://www.geni.com/) announces new features, including a family timeline, posted links, send gifts, and the family Forest; Progeny Software offers its Charting Companion software to produce great-looking charts in color and with photos -- click here for more information; and the Allen County Public Library in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, is presenting a Military Symposium 2008 on September 26 & 27, 2008, with guest speaker Marie Varrelman Melchiori, CG, CGL, and more information is available from Genealogy@ACPL.info.

The Guys responded to listener e-mail: Find-a-Grave (http://www.findagrave.com/) does include graves in the UK and other countries; locating the physical address for a rural postal box in 1935; more about the downloadable PDF file at http://www.thegeneticgenealogist.com about what to do with the results of your genealogy test; Catholic priest's census records; findings in old address books; another look at Chicago Public Radio's March 14th podcast about the kidnapping of Bobby Dunbar; an article titled "To Catch a Thief" at Smithsonian.com (click here to the exact location) tells how Civil war buffs got onto the trail of stolen documents; and Drew discusses uninterruptable power supply (UPS) units.

The Genealogy Guys Podcast #134 - 2008 April 22

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 22:55:00 GMT

In the News, The Guys review two new publications: Hookers, Crooks, and Kooks by Jana Sloan Broglin, and Kisses from a Distance by Raff Ellis. A baby's tombstone from 1894 is discovered on a houseboat in Charleston, SC.

George responds to a request about deed platting software: DeedMapper from Direct Line Software (http://www.directlinesoftware.com) sells for $99.00, while a free online deed platting tool is available for use at http://www.genealogytools.net. Drew follows up regarding the use of a final 'e' at the end of some surnames, such as Greene.

Chicago Public Radio's series, This American Life, has an interesting episode from 14 March 2008 titled "The Ghost of Bobby Dunbar" available as a podcast at http://thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=1234. It is a terrific story!

Drew talks about the term "countryman" and its origins. He then discusses ordnance maps and their use. George suggests copying online obituaries from newspapers and from funeral homes' Web sites and from their online guest books. The Guys end the show with a discussion of church directories and church bulletins.

The Genealogy Guys Podcast #133 - 2008 April 15

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 17:13:00 GMT

This week's news includes the following: Ancestry.com launches the Drouin Collection of 29 million French-Canadian names from, ultimately to include 37M names by mid-2008; Ancestry.com also launched the Former Colonial Dependencies Slave Register Collection, 1812-1834; RootsMagic has extended the early Bird Registration for this year's genealogy cruise to April 30th (see http://www.RootsMagicCruise.com); Wholly Genes has announced its genealogy cruise line-up (see http://www.WhollyGenes.com/cruise.htm); the My Genealogy toolbar is free and helpful for those researching their UK ancestors, and is at http://www.usefultoolbars.co.uk; and the National History Show will be held May 2-4, 2008, in Olympia, London, UK (see http://www.whodoyouthinkyouarelive.co.uk for information and tickets.)

The Genealogy Guys appear in their second episode of Down Under: Florida at RootsTelevision.com. Click here to see the new feature about famed Ringling Brothers circus performers, The Flying Zacchinis. You'll love it!

Listeners share lots of great information, including: "Catholic: Under the Hood" videocast about the Sicily-Rome Cemetery, resting place of WWII soldiers; print labels for your family heritage CDs and DVDs using Light Scribe software and disks (http://www.lightscribe.com/); search the Web site for the funeral home that recently handled arrangements for an individual -- they often have more detailed obituaries than the newspapers, guest books, and even photographs; a suggested reference for understanding land records and land platting is E. Wade Hone's book, Land and Property Research in the United States (Ancestry Publishing); The Guys offer tips for breaking through brick walls; and George responds to a request about his research on his great-uncle, Brisco Washington Holder.

George reviews and recommends three books:

Capturing Memories: Your family Story in Photographs by Maureen A. Taylor (Ancestry Publishing: 2007)

Bibliographic Checklist of African American Newspapers by Barbara K. Henritze (Genealogical Publishing Co./Clearfield Company: 1995 and Reprinted 2008)

Bad Baby Names by Michael Sherrod and Mathew Raybeck. (Ancestry Publishing: 2008)

On vacation!

Thu, 3 Apr 2008 14:50:00 GMT

The Genealogy Guys Podcast will take a short break while the Guys enjoy a Caribbean cruise with family and friends. We'll be back the week of April 14!

The Genealogy Guys Podcast #132 - 2008 April 1

Wed, 2 Apr 2008 04:15:00 GMT

Drew addresses proving relationships using mitochondrial DNA. He then discusses two genealogical books on the subject of DNA. They are: DNA & Genealogy by Colleen Fitzpatrick and Andrew Yeiser (published in 2005 by Rice Book Press) and Family History in the Genes by Chris Pomery (published in 2007 by The National Archives in Kew, Richmond, Surrey). Both are available through Amazon.com.

This weekâs news stories include: Roots Television at http://www.rootstelevision.com has won four Telly Awards in its first year in business; the National Genealogical Society has announced the appointment of Pamela K. Boyer, CG, CGL, its Education and Publications Director; and WorldVitalRecords.com (http://www.worldvitalrecords.com) has added 300 new databases from the Godfrey Memorial Library and will add 300 more each week this month.

Listener e-mail includes discussions concerning: âThe Vision of Britainâ system holds the full text of three 19^th century gazetteers at http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/index.jsp; LDS Family History Center personnel can provide expert advice to you before you reach the point of hiring a professional researcher; a listener asks for opinions about the National Genealogical Societyâs online course, âIntroduction to Genealogyâ; genealogy of U.S. presidential candidates is a topic of worldwide discussions; another recommendation is made for creating CDs/DVDs of family history information; the recessive gene responsible for red hair is declining and is expected to be obsolete by 2100; Arphax Publishing Company publishes excellent quality family maps by state and county, and can be found at http://www.arphax.com; and additional information about District of Columbia records is offered.

The Genealogy Guys Podcast #131 - 2008 March 25

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 14:57:00 GMT

This weekâs news includes: NBC has purchased rights to create an American version of the popular BBC reality series, Who Do You Think You Are?; NARA recently announced the availability of nearly 9 million WWII U.S. Army enlistment records at its Web site, but be aware that there were many records that could not be scanned â and the collection is therefore incomplete; Sen. John McCainâs new book, Hard Call, indicates his descent from Scottish heroic warrior Robert the Bruce, but the claim has been termed âbaloneyâ in the British press by professional genealogists; Jacksonville Public Library in Florida has begun an âASK a Librarianâ online chat service; I.R.I,S., Inc., (at http://www.irislink.com) has two new portable scanners of note.

Listener e-mail topics this week include: Genealogical Publishing Companyâs new CD by Michael Hait, titled The Family History Research Toolkit, has PDF format forms into which you can type information or use the forms for transcription purposes ($19.95 USD); a discussion of professional research services and researchers (Board for Certification of Genealogists at http://www.bcgcertification.org/ and the Association of Professional Genealogists at http://www.apgen.org/ and the International Commission for the Accreditation of Professional Genealogists at http://www.icapgen.org/) are three resources); missing census images at Ancestry.com were reported through the online Help facility and will be handled; a question about searching databases that are added to sites incrementally, and not wasting your time doing the same searches on the same data; an early pilot of the LDSâ online databases is available at http://search.labs.familysearch.org; use of Googleâs My Map feature to create maps of cemeteries and other locations in a specific area; scanning photos using Googleâs Picasa feature; Washington, DC, records storage repositories for that jurisdiction; and issues concerning placing oneâs genealogical data online.

The Genealogy Guys Podcast #130 - 2008 March 17

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 00:34:00 GMT

In this weekâs news: NARA (http://www.archives.gov) posts free passenger lists online, including Russian, Italian, and German lists to east coast ports; 1871 England and Wales census images are now complete on British Origins (http://www.britishorigins.com); The Generations Network, Inc. (http://www.tgn.com), parent of Ancestry.com, RootsWeb, Genealogy.com, and other entities, announced that they will move RootsWeb onto the Ancestry.com domain, using http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com, and that there should be no changes to the online experience of users â and that RootsWeb will continue to be free; and WorldVitalRecords.com (http://www.worldvitalrecords.com) now has over 1 billion names at its site.

The Guys respond to many listener e-mail topics: the correct pronunciation of Haaretz, the largest newspaper in Israel which is beginning a new start-up genealogy social network, is âHah-AH-retzâ, which is Hebrew for âThe Land.â; university databases and the possibility of accessing them remotely; missing census page images at Ancestry.com for Decatur County, Indiana; the availability of the 1846 Slaterâs Commercial Directory of Ireland at http://failteromhat.com/slater.htm.

The Guys continue discussing listener e-mail about DNA and Drew continues his discussion of the topic to try to educate us all.

The Genealogy Guys Podcast #129 - 2008 March 10

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 01:04:00 GMT

George delivers a lot of news this week: the New England Historic and Genealogical Society (http://www.newenglandancestors..org) has received a large gift of photographs from the family of Thaxter Spencer, including an unknown 1888 photo of Helen Keller and her teacher, Annie Sullivan; the Library of Congressâs digital preservation program has a new e-mail newsletter and you can subscribe by clicking here; NARA is soliciting comments from the public by 9 April 2008 regarding a proposal to enter into a non-exclusive agreement with The Generations Network, Inc., owners of Ancestry.com, to digitize and expand access to record holdings in NARAâs custody (see http://www.archives.gov/comment/tgn-preamble.html); Dublinâs Glasnevin Cemeteryâs registers are about to be placed on the Internet, and more information is available at http://www.cigo.ie; Genealogical Publishing Company (http://www.genealogical.com) has partnered with FamilyLink.com, Inc. (http://www.familylink.com) to make their databases available on WorldVitalRecords.com (http://www.worldvitalrecords.com); Haaretx, Inc. (http://www.haaretz.com/) announced with Famillion (http://www.famillion.com) the launch of a new genealogy and social network search engine aimed at connecting the Jewish people worldwide; MyGreatBigFamily.com (http://www.mygreatbigfamily.com) launches enhanced social networking websites for families; GenealogyBank (http://www.genealogybank.com) has added the first 20 Hispanic newspaper titles for 4 states to its online historic newspaper collection, covering the period from 1855 to 1956, and will add many more, ultimately covering the period 1808 to 1980; an ID thief is caught and imprisoned in New Zealand for fraud in the theft of thousands of dollars in student loans for deceased children whose birth certificates he had obtained.

The Guys read and respond to listener e-mail on many topics: George misread the URL for the multimedia presentation software called Passage Express (which should be http://www.passageexpress.com); a listener and the Web Marketing Director of NewspaperArchive.com provided information about and a free trial of their site at http://www.newspaperarchive.com; information is shared about the HP MediaSmart Server for compact file backups and extensive hard drive installation; a free site to convert files into other formats is available at http://www.youconvertit.com); the True Loverâs Knot will be featured in the May issue of Real Simple magazine (http://www.realsimple.com); Newberry Library in Chicago is working on a project to document and then digitize all state and county boundary changes in its Atlas of Historic County Boundaries Project (AHCBP) and has 23 states available online at http://www.newberry.org/ahcbp/; a listener shared the image of an 1880 census Enumeratorâs Daily Report to Census Office form that he purchases on eBay; and one listener shared information about her ancestry and, in particular, shared her related photos that she has uploaded to the Shutterfly photograph file sharing site at http://www.shutterfly.com.

The Guys continued with listener e-mail on the subject of genealogical DNA testing and will continue next week again with another descriptive discussion.

The Genealogy Guys Podcast #128 - 2008 March 3

Wed, 5 Mar 2008 01:08:00 GMT

This week's news includes: condolences to the family of Chuck Knuthson, a great genealogical speaker, researcher, and former board member of FGS, GSG, and other organizations; Halvor Moorshead, head of Moorshead Magazines [Family Chronicle, History Magazine, Internet Genealogy, and the new Discovering Family History] is retiring and has sold the company to staff members Ed Zapletal and Rick Cree.

Listener e-mail includes: Greek genealogical research links are available at Cyndi's List (at http://www.cyndislist.com/greece.html) and at Kimberly Powell's column at About.com (at http://genealogy.about.com/od/greece); a request for help reading an occupation on a 1920 census schedule for Flint, Michigan, draws a unanimous opinion from The Guys [Quarry]; thanks for suggestions for recording an interview with a mother who transcribed contents of a now-lost Bible; an explanation of the source for information used by a census enumerator to complete a mortality schedule in the 1880 census; and a true life story of backing up one's data.

Drew describes and discusses Mark Tucker's brilliant Genealogy Research Process map and textual description at http://www.ThinkGenealogy.com. It is derived from concepts of the Board for Certification of Genealogists and by Elizabeth Shown Mills, expert on the genealogical proof standard and author of Evidence Explained, the new and definitive book concerning citation of genealogical evidence.

Drew discusses the use of dictionaries to locate the definitions of older, more obscure terms found in historical and genealogical documents. The example he cites is the term, "Fresno," a piece of equipment once used for scraping road surfaces.

The Guys discuss databases for historical newspapers and more recent (ca. 1980 to present) newspapers. The companies discussed are LexisNexis (the Nexis portion); NewsBank's "America's Genealogy Bank" database; and ProQuest. Newspaper databases may be available through your local public library and/or your local college or university library. Drew discovered that sometimes the newspapers available in a database inside the library are greater in number than when you access the database remotely from outside the library. This can be due to differences in licensing contracts. George encourages listeners to check out all the databases available through their libraries.

The Genealogy Guys Podcast #127 - 2008 February 25

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 13:56:00 GMT

This week's news includes: Congratulations to Matt Wright who becomes editorial director at FamilyLink.com; a recap of a USA Today report of 18 February about states unsealing adoption records and opening original birth records to adoptees; passenger lists of persons leaving the U.K. for the U.S., Canada, and Australia during the 1940s are available at Ancestors Onboard at http://www.ancestorsonboard.com; the National History Show will be held on 2-4 May 2008 in the Grand Hall, Olympia, London, and tickets can be booked at http://www.whodoyouthinkyouarelive.co.uk.

Listener e-mail includes more kudoes for The Guys' "Down Under" video at RootsTelevision.com; Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps at the New York Public Library at (accessible now only at the NYPL), as well as digital maps and photographs in their digital gallery at http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/; a number of video options for creating heritage DVDs and slideshows using Apple Macintoshes and PCs have been suggested in various price ranges:

PowerPoint to Slideshow
12 Screencasting Tools for Creating Video Tutorials (suggested by Drew) at http://mashable.com/2008/02/21/screencasting-video-tutorials/
Adobe products at http://www.adobe.com
Apple products at http://www.apple.com

The Guys spend the remainder of the show discussing the intricacies of U.S. copyright laws and fair use standards. Definitely worth a listen!

The Genealogy Guys Podcast #126 - 2008 February 18

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 11:23:00 GMT

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

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

The Genealogy Guys Podcast #125 - 2008 February 11

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 05:00:00 GMT

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

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

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

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

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

The Genealogy Guys Podcast #124 - 2008 February 3

Tue, 5 Feb 2008 01:37:00 GMT

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

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

The Genealogy Guys Podcast #123 - 2008 January 26

Sun, 27 Jan 2008 23:27:00 GMT

This weekâs news items include: James LeVoy Sorenson, renowned medical device inventor, entrepreneur, and philanthropist died on 20 January 2008 at 86 â his companies list includes the non-profit Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation which provides DNA testing; Genealogical.com has launched a new blog at http://GenealogyandFamilyHistory.com; a wiki is available for users of FamilySearch and the LDS Family History Centers, at http://www.familysearchwiki.org.

The Guys respond to listener e-mail, including: genealogy software questions about DNA information and the GEDCOM 5.5 format standard; a site for sharing serialized family history information, with a sample at http://wwar1.blogspot.com; a suggestion to visit the extensive Genealogy and Family History Links Library at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~genealogylinks/; Bryan Mawerâs Sugar Refiners and Sugarbakers website at http://home.clara.net/mawer/intro.html about the sugar industry, primarily in the UK (16th-20th centuries); and a question about when shipsâ crew were included on manifests (and other forms), including information about INS requirements â at http://www.archives.gov/genealogy/maritime/great-lakes-crew-lists.html.

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

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

The Genealogy Guys Podcast #122 - 2008 January 16

Thu, 17 Jan 2008 16:54:00 GMT

This week's news includes many announcements. Memeria (http://www.memeria.com) launches the first house-call photo-scanning service; another genealogy podcast is available -- Genealogy Gems at http://www.genealogygemspodcast.com; WorldVitalRecords.com has changed its name to FamilyLink.com (http://www.familylink.com) and has formed partnerships with other companies in recent months; RootsMagic announces its 2008 Genealogy Cruise to the Mexican Riviera on Sept. 28 to Oct. 5, and details can be found at http://www.RootsMagicCruise.com. There are also many seminars coming up this year: San Luis Obispo County Genealogical Society (Feb. 2) (http://www.kcbx.net/~slogen/); St. George family History Expo 2008 (Feb. 8-9) (http://www.myancestorsfound.com/events/upcoming.php?event_id=1); Czechoslovak Genealogical Society International Symposium (April 11-12) (http://www.cgsi.org/news.asp?intNewsID=129); North Carolina Genealogical Societyâs 3rd Annual Speakers Forum (April 11) (http://www.ncgenealogy.org); Federation of East European Family History Societies Conference (August 1-3) (http://feefhs.org/).

The Guys respond to a load of listener e-mail this week! Danny, as a Mac user, canât use Clooz and so has made use of a free version of software program called Mac Journal; Drew discussed software options for Scottâs family which just celebrated its 101st consecutive family reunion; Michael loves U.S. Federal Agricultural Census records, but hates the microfilm â and he and George urge Ancestry.com and HeritageQuest to bite the bullet and digitize these and the remaining U.S. census records; several users commented on the need for the GEDCOM facility to be updated to also include graphics, while The Guys agree that software packages and online sites should be able to synchronize the data between both!

The Genealogy Guys Podcast #121 - 2008 January 6

Wed, 9 Jan 2008 05:50:00 GMT

Welcome to The Genealogy Guys^TM Podcast for 2008!

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

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

The Genealogy Guys Podcast #120 - 2007 December 29

Mon, 31 Dec 2007 02:21:00 GMT

George begins with two pieces of news: he will be appearing at the Mississippi Genealogical Society's Conference on January 19th. For more information, call 601.924.9346. He also announced that he is discontinuing his long-running "Along Those Lines ..." column, which began on AOL, then appeared for years at Ancestry.com, and has been a blog for the past two years. The blog at http://ahaseminars.livejournal.com/ will remain online through April 2008.

Listener e-mail provided some great information this week: Jerry highly recommends the Fujitsu Scansnap S510 scanner for its lightening speed, accuracy, and automatic feed. (Click here for a link to the Fujitsu product information.); The Guys do accept friend links at LibraryThing, and George has just been designated a LibraryThing Author; Megan tells about her research into an heirloom "True Lover's Knot"; Rollin asks about how to record a confusing death date, and shares information about a free Windows screen capture program he likes -- FastStone Capture 5.9 at http://www.faststone.org; Find-a-Grave's Rich Hrazanek reports that there are now over 20 million interments recorded at the site; and Patty asks about the indexing by Ancestry.com of the Drouin Collection and George refers her to Suzanne Adams at Ancestry for a status.

George discusses the progress of Web-based resources over the last 15 years, including databases, blogs, wikis, podcasts, and video. He especially likes RootsTelevision at http://www.rootstelevision.com which features lectures, conferences, different ethnic research resources, military research hints, DNA research discussions, genealogy for kids, reunions, and much more. The Guys will have more to say about RootsTelevision in 2008!

The Guys spent the last segment of the show recapping genealogical news, additions, developments, people losses, conferences and cruises, books, and more in 2007.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

The Genealogy Guys Podcast #119 - 2007 December 22

Sun, 23 Dec 2007 18:25:00 GMT

George begins with the genealogical news:

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

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

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

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

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

The Guys share listener e-mail and commentary about: Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps; professional looking âhomemadeâ tombstones using pure White Portland Cement and metal molds â and an example of the result can be accessed here; a suggestion to look further into the new Ancestry.com U.S. Passport Applications database for more than just the front/back of the application â often lots more information and photographs are included; filing systems are discussed; and a listener in Germany listens while driving the autobahn!

Drew discusses Macintosh operating systems and browsers, and then recaps new Macworld (http://www.macworld.com/) reviews of four genealogy programs: Reunion 9.04 from Leister Productions (http://www.leisterpro.com); MacFamilyTree 4.4 from Only Mac Software (http://www.onlymac.de) ; Heredis 10.2 from DSD Concept (http://www.myheredis.fr); and iFamily for Tiger 2.2 by KS Wilson & Associates (http://ifamilyfortiger.com).

George discusses a compilation book published by Ancestry.com in 2002 titled French-Canadian Resources, an excellent resource for those with French-Canadian ancestors.

The Guys wish everyone a very Happy Holiday Season!

The Genealogy Guys Podcast #118 - 2007 December 14

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 04:52:00 GMT

The Guys go straight to listener e-mail this week: the value of contacting genealogical societies for obit & funeral notice lookups and copies; Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps that have been made available at state sites, such as Florida (http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/UFDC/?c=sanborn), Georgia (http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/sanborn), and South Carolina (http://www.sc.edu/library/digital/collections/sanborn.html) and digital cameras used by The Guys: Pentax A20 Option Megapixel camera (see review at http://www.dpreview.com/news/0608/06082103pentaxa20.asp).

Drew recaps the instructions for accessing older podcasts. He also shares his "Genealogy Society Tip of the Week" about expending a little extra money for name/quality speakers for your society to attract visitors and new members.

George recaps the importance of making contact with and/or joining genealogical societies where your ancestors lived. They can also provide obituary and funeral notice lookups and copies from their local card or online computerized index files.

The Guys discuss the negative side of sharing information about living family members, especially when one becomes a debtor who becomes the subject of debt collectors. Some debtors are now accessing genealogical database as vehicles to persecute and ride relatives of a debtor, and that is illegal

Listener Nancy details the underhanded tactics of collectors who began contacting siblings, children, aunts, uncles, and grandparents of the debtor to harass and dun then for their relative's debt. George discovered that every state in then Union has laws governing collection agencies. Most, if not all, cannot by law contact anyone other than the debtor and his/her spouse directly. Contact with your state Attorney General's office to determine what YOUR rights are and what a collection agency can and cannot do. You will often find that the collection agent/agency is exceeding his or her authority.

George discusses his Pentax Option A20 (10 megapixel) digital camera, its features, and how he uses the Text setting and other features in his genealogical research.

Drew talks about Chris Dunham's "The Genealogy" site at http://www.genealogue.com and the Genealogue Challenge. George reminds listeners that The Genealogy Blog Finder is also one of the features of this great site.

George reviews William Dollarhide's new two-volume book set titled Census Substitutes & State Census Records. Volume I covers the Eastern States and Volume II covers the Western States. The books are available through Family Roots Publishing Company at http://www.familyrootspublishing.com.

The Genealogy Guys Podcast #117 - 2007 December 5

Thu, 6 Dec 2007 23:02:00 GMT

The week's news includes: NARA partners with TOPICS Entertainment to produce two filmed histories on DVD - WWII: A Filmed History and Aviation" A Filmed History from the National Archives, both 24-CD sets; Ancestry.com has completed digitizing and indexing the British Telephone Books, 1880-1984, the full collection of the British Telcom Archives collection; the Florida State Genealogical Society awards it's prestigious Award for Outstanding Achievement in Florida Genealogy to Hal J. Becker; readers of Oklahoma Living magazine have voted to award the Muskogee Public Library the best library in the state; Wholly Genes, Inc., announces its 2008 genealogy cruise with details at http://www.WhollyGenes.com/cruise.htm.

The Guys share reader e-mail about: inexpensive headstone options, including requesting markers from the Department of Veterans Affairs at http://www.va.gov/; more about DNA testing; binder organization and filing techniques; methods of locating military service numbers include:

   - Check county clerks' offices and post offices for registered DD-214s
   - Check funeral home records
   - Contact the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis
   - Contact the Department of Veterans Affairs
   - Some states have veterans databases online, such as Utah,
     Florida, and Missouri

Michigan's genealogical library facilities are touted at the Library of Michigan and the Archives of Michigan, as well as the Detroit Public Library's Burton Historical Collection.

George's "Web Site of the Week" is "Expert Links: English Family History and Genealogy," a massive collection of wonderful Web links at http://www.pricegen.com/english_genealogy.html?cpn=wvrnewsletter.

Drew's "Society Tip of the Week" addresses membership directories, benefits, issues, and publishing options.

The Genealogy Guys Podcast #116 - 2007 November 28

Thu, 29 Nov 2007 16:32:00 GMT

The "News You Can Use" this week includes: Announcement of the National Genealogical Society's awards and competitions, details about which are can be found at http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/awardscompcalendar.cfm; Ancestry.com has published U.S. Passport Applications for 1795-1925 at its Web site at http://www.ancestry.com; Fly Away Travel has announced its "2008 Genealogy at Sea" on October 25-November 1, 2008 on the Royal Caribbean's fabulous Liberty of the Sea, sailing from Miami to Puerto Rico, St. Maarten, and a private location at Labadee, Haiti -- with 8 great, internationally known speakers. Details are available at http://www.GenealogyCruises.com. Family Roots Publishing Company has just released a two-volume set of books, Census Substitutes & State Census Records by well-known author, speaker, and census expert William Dollarhide. Details are at http://www.familyrootspublishing.com/servlet/StoreFront.

The Guys respond to a wealth of listener e-mail covering topics such as: DNA testing; locating WWI serial numbers; marking multiple graves scattered across a single cemetery; displaying a family tree on one's Web site; the name change of naval hero John Paul Jones; an article in the Nov. 4th Cleveland Plain Dealer concerning the ancestry of Carl Stokes, the city's first African American mayor, and Megan Smolenyak's discovery of an 1845 document in GA identifying the mayor's g-grandfather; home demonstration/extension clubs still exist and may be a source for your ancestors' genealogical information; and reworking an old manuscript with newly discovered information.

The show concludes with Drew announcing the new Google Maps feature that allows you to not only create your own customized maps, but you can now invite other people to collaborate with you, add customized pushpin icons, graphics, videos, and other cool tools. Check out the My Maps user guide at http://maps.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=68480 for details about how to use this great new feature.

The Genealogy Guys Podcast #115 - 2007 November 19

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 18:37:00 GMT

George reports news items concerning: a new home for the Welsh West Glamorgan Archives (see www.swansea.gov.uk/westglamorganarchives); Geni (www.geni.com)announces that more than 10 million profiles have been created on their service; Ruth Emmel of the Lee County [FL] Genealogical Society (www.LeeCountyGenealogy.org) has published an excellent new book titled, Let's Plant a Family Tree: How to Start Your Genealogy Research, which is geared toward young people just beginning their quest; and Brisco Washington Holder's gravestone was set in place in Memorial Park Cemetery in Jennings, St. Louis County, MO, on 30 October 2007. (View the stone.)

The Guys explain DNA, the available tests, and the benefits of tracing DNA in your genealogy. Then they discuss organization of your genealogical materials and two types of filing system schemes.

The Guys close by discussing how they plan to research genealogy at their family Thanksgiving in Newberry, South Carolina.

The Genealogy Guys Podcast #114 - 2007 November 10

Tue, 13 Nov 2007 05:03:00 GMT

This week's show was recorded LIVE at the Texas State Genealogical Society Conference held on 9-10 November 2007 in Tyler, Texas, and hosted by the East Texas Genealogical Society. This was a great conference for The Guys and they were greeted, welcomed, and treated like kings!

The Guys present a definition and description of what a podcast really is. They then take questions from the audience and respond on topics relating to: French ancestors; locating information for a woman living in a New York state hospital (tuberculosis); obtaining transcripts from universities and records of teachers, professors, and fellowships; the possibility of a genealogical societies that lists records they are holding or projects they are working to complete; a description of G-mail; how do The Guys manage their collections of Web links?; The Guys' favorite Web sites other than Ancestry.com and Footnote.com; and the definition of "overjet" as it relates to wagons in which people migrated.

The Genealogy Guys Podcast #113 - 2007 November 2

Sat, 3 Nov 2007 23:37:00 GMT

News this week includes: the first ten years (1908-1917) of issues of Chicago's historic Polish newspaper, Dziennik Zwiazkowy (translated, Alliance Daily) has been digitized by the Center for Research Libraries and is fully searchable at http://ecollections.crl.edu, along with other interesting collections; GenWed.com (http://www.genwed.com/) is a new and growing Web site that will help you locate free online marriage records, and you can submit records for inclusion in the databases; and finally, on 30 October 2007, a gravestone has been set in St. Louis' Memorial Park for George's great uncle, Brisco Washington Holder -- his brick wall for over 20 years.

The Guys will be featured presenters at the Texas State Genealogical Society Conference in Tyler, Texas, next weekend -- 9-10 November 2008. More information is available at http://www.rootsweb.com/~txsgs/conference.pdf and The Guys hope you can drop by and say hello! George will be autographing limited numbers of his latest book, The Official Guide to Ancestry.com.

Mister Edd in Cape Coral, Florida, asked for advice for websites that help reunite people with old photos of their family members. George suggested Megan Smolenyak's "Honoring Our Ancestors" site at http://www.HonoringOurAncestors.com/orphanphotos.html and DeadFred at http://www.deadfred.com.

Drew's "Society Tip of the Week" was a recommendation of the use of a Web site called SurveyMonkey.com at http://www.surveymonkey.com/. Basic surveys for less than 100 responses are free; other size responses are reasonably priced for a monthly or annual basis. SurveyMonkey may be an ideal way to allow electronic voting in society elections, conducting surveys of members for preferred meeting and seminar topics, and obtaining feedback on programs, projects, and other subjects.

George's "Web Site of the Week" is a new Web site called GenDisasters at http://www.gendisasters.com which contains dates, descriptions, newspaper transcripts, drawings/photos of fires, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, train wrecks, bridge collapses, and more, with dates spanning from the 1800s to the 1950s. The site is searchable by state and county, and browseable. It is ideal for helping place your ancestors into historical context with these calamitous events and/or to determine which courthouses and other repositories may have been damaged and their records lost or destroyed.

The Guys share a collection of entertaining epitaphs from gravestones around the world.

Drew reviews a book by Andro Linklater titled Measuring America, and then The Guys discuss land measurement systems that have been used in the United States.

Finally, Drew discusses how to deal with missing data, such as maiden surnames, or no data whatsoever in your genealogical recording systems.

The Genealogy Guys Podcast #112 - 2007 October 27

Sun, 28 Oct 2007 01:22:00 GMT

News stories for the week include: The Generations Network, parent of Ancestry.com, is to be acquired by Spectrum Equity Investors; the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) (http://www.archives.gov/st-louis/military-personnel/) opens access to more than 6M new military personnel records, including all the Official Military Personnel Files (OMPFs) prior to 1946; Individual Deceased Personnel Files (IDPFs) can be obtained by following instructions at http://www.no-quarter.org/gui/nq_idpf.php; Nova Scotia Vital Records Database for BMDs is available free at http://novascotiagenealogy.com; Georgia Death Certificates (1919-1927) are now available online at http://www.GeorgiaArchives.org (Virtual Vault link); the Canadian Genealogy Centre (http://www.collectionscanada.gc/ca/genealogy) has two new search tools - Ancestors Search and That's My Family; NEHGS and Ancestry.com announce new member benefits as part of a collaborative agreement, including reduced joint membership fees; Sorenson Companies has launched a new Genetree (http://www.genetree.com), a DNA testing and social networking site; The National Archives (UK) will digitize the 1911 census (see press release at http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/news/stories/156.htm?homepage=news); The Guys will be key speakers at the Texas State Genealogical Society Conference in Tyler, Texas, on November 9-10, 2008 (information at http://www.rootsweb.com/~txsgs/conference.pdf); George begins teaching U.S. Immigration and Naturalization course at Pharos (http://www.pharostutors.com) and announces other upcoming courses there.

Listener e-mail includes:

A request for guidance on locating an old Web site gone missing. Drew suggests going to http://www.archive.org/ and entering the old address in the Wayback Machine box.
A listener reports being able to successfully run Family Tree Maker from his flash drive (thumb drive).
A listener asks abut the quality of courses from the National Institute for Genealogical Studies (http://www.genealogicalstudies.com/) and their helpfulness in achieving certification from the Board for Certification of Genealogists (http://www.bcgcertification.org). George responds that the NIGS classes are excellent and will help provide a firm educational foundation for certification.

George's "Web Site of the Week" is NewsBank Inc. and its product, America's Genealogy Bank (http://www.newsbank.com/genealogists/).

The Guys discuss America's Genealogy Bank, some search hints, and George relates some finds that caused him to do the "Genealogy Happy Dance."

Drew discusses outreach programs offered by libraries. The Guys ask for listener input about what services they have and/or want libraries to provide to them as genealogists.

The Genealogy Guys Podcast #111 - 2007 October 16

Fri, 19 Oct 2007 15:22:00 GMT

Ancestry.com's new DNA facility came online at their Web site this week, allowing people to order paternal or maternal DNA tests and getting their results online to compare against other testers.

Listener e-mail includes: several more Hispanic genealogy Web sites - http://www.rootsweb.com/~cafara/index.html, http://www.gsha.net, and http://www.loscalifornianos.org; a recommendation of a book about the coal mining industry, The Day the Earth Caved In, by Joan Quigley; the ten most expensive telephone directories ever sold at http://abebooks.com/docs/Community/Featured/Genealogy; a new genealogy board game at http://www.genealogyboardgame.com; and online vital records for Shelby County, TN (http://register.shelby.tn.us/index.php).

George's Web Site of the Week is The National Archives (U.K.) site at http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk where you'll find online records, indexes, tutorials, exhibits, and lots more.

George reviews and discusses Footnote.com (http://www.footnote.com), a great genealogy subscription Web site.

Drew discusses mindmapping, a method of problem solving. He suggests a Web site at MindMeister.com that offers you up to 6 free mindmaps (http://www.mindmeister.com), and Mindjet (http://www.mindjet.com) which sells MindManager software.

The Genealogy Guys Podcast #110 - 2007 October 10

Sun, 14 Oct 2007 00:01:00 GMT

This week's news includes details about the public outcry against the planned early closure date for the General Records Office (GRO) in the U.K., and Ancestry.com announces a digital scrapbooking application for members.

Listener Thomas alerts others to a number of resources for Hispanic Heritage Month: The Society of Hispanic Historical and Ancestral Research (SHAAR) (http://members.aol.com/shhar/) and its newsletter (http://www.somosprimos.com); Library of Congress Hispanic Reading Room (http://www.loc.gov/rr/hispanic) and the Index to the Enciclopedia Heraldica Hispano-Americana (http://www.loc.gov/rr.hispanic/geneal/index_gc.html/); HISPAGEN (http://www.hispagen.es/portal/enlaces.php); the Argentine Genealogy Database (http://familias-argentinas.com.ar/us_principal.htm); and the new portal to the Online Spanish Archives (http://pares.mcu.es); the society, Los Floridanos (http://www.losfloridanos.org); the Cuban Genealogy Club of Miami (http://www.cubangenclub.org); and the Cuban Heritage Collection at the University of Miami (http://www.library.miami.edu/umcuban).

George's Web Site of the Week is Griffith's Valuation 1848-1864 at http://failteromhat.com/griffiths.htm, which is searchable by surname and viewable by county in alphabetical sequence. This is a great site to help locate ancestors during these year for which census records are not available due to fire.

The Guys discuss methods for finding live people and some of the experiences they have had. They then discuss "pathfinders," which are the instructional guides found as printed guides in libraries and/or at libraries' Web sites. They are guides to using the various collections or working with specific resources.

George just found a digital copy of another important great-uncle's death certificate. Can you guess where he found it? Listen for the answer and a review of another great Web site next week!

The Genealogy Guys Podcast #109 - 2007 October 5

Sat, 6 Oct 2007 22:47:00 GMT

We apologize for the delay in the release of this week's podcast. George suffered from laryngitis this week and was unable to record until Friday evening.

The news is extensive this week. Pharos Tutors (http://www.pharostutors.com/) announces that George has joined their online training staff to teach U.S.-related genealogical staff. His first class begins on 30 October 2007 with the topic of U.S. Immigration & Naturalization Documents. Another new Pharos course features expert Helen Osborn training a class in the use of The National Archives (TNA) U.K. Web site, its extraordinary contents and tools, and more.

Macintosh users have a new tool in MacFamilyTree 5, produced in a beta version by Synium Software. The beta test version may be vulnerable to errors and crashes at this point. However, Mac users will revel in testing this new version of the software. Visit the Synium Software site for more information.

ScotlandsPeople has announced enhancements to searches of census forms, and improvements to images and their handling.

World Vital Records, Inc. (http://worldvitalrecords.com) and Allcensus (http://www.allcensus.com/) have partnered to provide digitized U.S. Federal Census images at the WorldVitalRecords.com Web site.

The new issue of Internet Genealogy Magazine is out and has a wonderful collectionof new articles. Visit http://internet-genealogy.com for more information.

George's Genealogy Web Site of the Week is About.com's Genealogy area at http://genealogy.about.com. Kimberly Powell is the knowledgeable, talented, and affable guide for that area, and she fills the site with great information and tips for breaking through those dastardly brick walls. "Brava, Kimberly!"

The National Archives (TNA) in the U.K. announces the availability of 5,000 registers of Nonconformist records that may be searched online; the AncestorsOnBoard Web site is up to 1939 in the searchable outbound passenger lists project; you can now personalize, save, customize, bookmark your searches at their site. Finally, Recordkeeping magazine is a quarterly publication by TNA that describes great resources, recordkeeping strategies, and case studies. It is a fabulous online resource, in PDF format, that you absolutely must check out. You can access information about it and download the Spring 2007 issue at http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/recordsmanagement/advice/recordkeeping.htm.

The mailbag brings announcements of two new Jewish research resources from the U.K., as well as a new 3-D digital imaging resource developed by Carnegie Mellon that can be used to decipher eroded cemetery inscriptions.

George provides in-depth information about scanning old family photographs in the second of a two-part discussion of digitization technology.

The Genealogy Guys Podcast #108 - 2007 September 25

Thu, 27 Sep 2007 19:48:00 GMT

The news includes announcements of new content at WorldVitalRecords.com and information about the Florida State Genealogical Society's annual conference in November.

George's Web Site of the Week is the Civil War Soldiers & Sailors System (http://www.itd.nps.gov/cwss/) maintained by the U.S. National Park Service. He also talks about the books, The Naked Quaker by Diane Rapaport and Uncovering Your Ancestry through Family Photographs by Maureen A. Taylor.

In the first of a two-part discussion, The Guys talk about scanning photographs and the issues related to graphics file types, scanners, and software.

The Genealogy Guys Podcast #107 - 2007 September 18

genealogyguys@gmail.com — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 18:07:00 GMT

News this week includes: a $10M donation by Norman B. Leventhal to the Boston Public Library's map collection; publication of new fees for ordering copies of documents from the National Archives and Records Administration (see press release); announcement by The National Archives (UK) of the availability of Nonconformist birth, marriage and death records online; and the release of free upgrades to Family Tree Maker 2008.

George's Web Site of the Week is the Perry Castaneda Library Map Collection at the University of Texas at Austin (http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/index.html).

The Guys discuss tips and suggestions for using microform readers. They also address the topic of excellent genealogical magazines that are available.

The Genealogy Guys Podcast #106 - 2007 September 12

Thu, 13 Sep 2007 03:23:00 GMT

The News includes: the launch of a new 9th The Generations Network, Inc., Web site at Ancestry Web site for Sweden (at http://www.ancestry.se); the introduction of DNA Ancestry (at http://dna.ancestry.com) and DNA testing services; and the announcement of Cook County, Illinois, births, marriages, and deaths online by January of 2008.

Listener e-mail reports include: many Pennsylvania Land Records are now online at the Pennsylvania State Archives at http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/bah/dam/landrec.htm; the Birmingham [Alabama] Public Library has an interesting and fun video it ints collection on YouTube.com. Watch it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAxrLJ5nw_g. A posting in the Mental Floss Magazine's blog at http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/7710 discusses and shows photos of "Strange Gravestones."

Drew delivers his weekly Genealogy Society Tip. George's Web site of the week is Genwriters: Writing for Future Generations, at http://www.genwriters.com. The site was created by Phyllis Matthews Ziller and contains extensive tutorial, how-tos, and reference resources for writing family histories, biographies, and other historical documentation.

Drew talks about Chris Dunham's blog, The Genealogue, at http://www.genealogue.com/, and about the Challenges posted there. The information is fun and informative, and the Challenges are excellent practice in honing your research skills. The Guys then discuss the use of City Directories in your research and tips for using them. (With thanks to Amy Johnson Crow, CG.) The Guys then examine and discuss some old family photographs that Drew's brother has uncovered, and their attempts at identifying the subjects. We learn about a Jewish mutual aid society, and George suggests studying old photos' environment and surroundings for additional clues to dating and identifying clues.

The Genealogy Guys Podcast #105 - 2007 September 4

Thu, 6 Sep 2007 03:26:00 GMT

The Guys share some listener e-mail, including a recommendation for a Web site that reviews and ranks online computer back-up services at http://www.BackupReview.info, and additional land patents being digitized and indexed at the Bureau of Land Management, General Land Office Records, site at http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/. RootsMagic announces a new minor update for the RootsMagic software.

George discusses his "Web Site of the Week," the Online Searchable Death Indexes & Records, at http://www.deathindexes.com.

The remainder of the podcast is devoted to helping to debunk three prominent genealogical research myths:

"My ancestors' names were changed at Ellis Island."
"Everyone with the same surname is related."
"Naming patterns will solve all your brick walls."

The Guys discuss the facts of these issues and how you can manage your expectations so as not to fall into "the assumption trap."

The Genealogy Guys Podcast #104 - 2007 August 28

Thu, 30 Aug 2007 15:39:00 GMT

George delivers this week's significant news items, and the Guys follow with listener e-mail items, including a definition of the cemetery inscription, "DoP."

This is followed by a discussion of three newer "social networking" sites for genealogists: Geni (http://www.geni.com); Famillion (http://www.famillion.com/); and MyHeritage (http://www.myheritage.com/).

The Guys discuss the new Family Tree Maker 2008. They then talk about concerns over the Internet Biographical Collection made available at Ancestry.com and some issues associated with caching of Web sites by both Web search engines and corporations offering aggregated collections of Web sites for topical use. (Note that Ancestry.com has since withdrawn the collection in question.)

The Genealogy Guys Podcast #103 - 2007 August 21

Sat, 25 Aug 2007 20:30:00 GMT

The distribution of this week's podcast was delayed due to problems with the U.S. Domain Name Server (DNS) and our podcast network. We apologize for the delay.

George's news items include: details about the LDS' FamilySearch Genesis digitization project; Family Tree Maker 2008 has just been released for sale; the new portable digital microfilm scanner called the ST Genie from S-T Imaging; and two big conferences coming in 2008. This week's listener mail includes R.J.'s quandary about his Sommerfelt line. Drew asks listeners to check out R.J.'s blog at http://schulzresearch.blogspot.com and to consider the challenge, and to send us e-mail suggestions for him.

The guys discuss the FGS Conference held in Ft. Wayne on August 15-18, and describe their experiences in the new Allen County Public Library's genealogy collection. They then discuss the much anticipated book by Elizabeth Shown Mills, Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace. It is the most complete reference about source citations ever written, and is brilliantly organized. It is available from Genealogy Publishing Co. in hardcover and in electronic format at Footnote.com.

The Genealogy Guys Podcast #102 - 2007 August 12

Mon, 13 Aug 2007 02:13:00 GMT

George's news report this week includes: the announcement of the non-exclusive agreement between NARA and CustomFlix Labs (a part of the Amazon.com group) to make thousands of NARA's historic films available for sale through Amazon.com in DVD-on-Demand format; The National Archives (U.K.) and Ancestry.co.uk have reached an agreement to make the digitized pension records of more than 1 million soldiers who fought in WWI (catalogue group WO 364) available for search and download at the Ancestry Web site; and The Generations Network will sponsor a Youth Fair at the FGS Conference in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, this coming week. In addition, George announces Irish Fest in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on August 16-19, 2007, at Henry W. Maier Festival Park. Fly Away Travel has announced its Genealogy Seminar at Sea, October 25-November 1, 2008, at www.genealogycruises.com aboard the fabulous new Royal Caribbean Liberty of the Seas. Steve Danko has begun a blog for the United Polish Genealogical Societies Conference 2008 to be held in Salt Lake City on April 18-21, 2008.

George introduces a new feature, the Web Site of the Week. This week's site is IPUMS USA's U.S. federal census enumeration forms (1850-2000) and enumerator instructions AND census questions for the population schedules 1850 to present (except 1890). The site is at http://usa.ipums.org/usa/voliii/tEnumForms.shtml.

Drew discusses comparisons of four major genealogical software packages for PC users in the U.S.

Drew also presents his second installment of his new feature, Genealogy Society Tip of the Week.

The Guys conclude with a discussion of identity theft, genealogy, and the relationship or non-relationship between the two.

The Genealogy Guys Podcast #101 - 2007 August 6

Wed, 8 Aug 2007 01:44:00 GMT

George reports on stories about: Footnote.com's new partnership with ACPL; new content at HistoryKat; ScotlandsPeople's Registers; The Remembering Site; the launch of StoryofMyLife.com; and the release of Elizabeth Shown Mills' new book, Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace.

Listener mail includes: Jungle Disk, an application to help store your data at Amazon.com's S3 â Storage Service; and a directory of Online Searchable Death Indexes & Records (http://www.deathindexes.com/).

Drew launches a new feature on the podcast, "Society Tip of the Week."

George discusses conference syllabi, why it is important to retain them in your personal reference library, and how to purchase surplus syllabi from NGS and FGS in the U.S. after their conferences. Drew shares information about the thorn, a letter used in the Anglo-Saxon and Icelandic alphabets.

Drew and George discuss the discovery of an historical cemetery survey performed by the Hillsborough County [Florida] Historical Commission and published in 1954. The survey had been almost completely forgotten, but the Guys are going to investigate the contents for a project that their local genealogical society is doing on Find-a-Grave. How will you preserve your ancestors' cemetery information?

The Genealogy Guys Podcast #100 - 2007 July 29

Mon, 30 Jul 2007 17:38:00 GMT

The Genealogy Guys celebrate their 100th podcast this week!

George reports on the partnering of Diversity Restoration Solutions, Slave Descendants Freedom Society, and Family Tree DNA to offer African Americans the opportunity to research their DNA. Archive CD Books USA announces the availability of a new CD, the Digested Summary and Alphabetical List of Private Claims Which Have Been Presented to the House of Representatives, representing more than 100,000 names and claims from 1789 to 1882. The collection is on sale for $19.97 at the link above. A new start-up company, MemoryPress, is offering a start-to-finish solution to publishing your personal or family history in a beautiful hardbound book.

A new organization, Keeping Genealogical Records Open Workgroup (KGROW) has been formed to fight the closing of public records as a guise for a war against identify theft and terrorism. KGROW is a project of the Florida Chapter of the Association of Professional Genealogists.

Listeners' email included: one of the better places to learn more about Mexican resources -- http://hispanicgenealogy.blogspot.com; a recommended Web site to learn about a wide array of data backup options -- http://www.BackupReview.info; and The Guys discussed organizational options for digitized materials, file naming options, and storage systems.

George discussed an article published in Ancestors, the magazine of The National Archives in the U.K., concerning "The Lost Colony" of Roanoke Island. The settlement by Sir Walter Raleigh disappeared between August 1587 and 1590. Now, there is a project under way to use DNA to possibly trace any descendants of any settlers who may have survived.

Drew and George reminisced about some highlights of the first 100 episodes of the podcast, and discussed some plans for the next hundred. They thank their thousands of listeners worldwide, and express gratitude to their loyal sponsors.

The Genealogy Guys Podcast - 21 July 2007

Sun, 22 Jul 2007 12:37:00 GMT

George announces the new version of Heredis (v. X.2), available at the MyHeredis Web site (http://www.myheredis.com/index.html), and a host of new and updated Ancestry.com databases. Drew discusses his experience with the Beta version of Family Tree Maker 2008. He also announces the launch of the English language version of GeneaSofts (http://geneasofts.geneanet.org/en/), a French site devoted to discussing and reviewing genealogy-related software programs.

Responding to e-mail from a number of listeners concerning recommendations for Irish and Mexican research resources, Drew and George recommend two books by Ancestry Publishing: Finding Your Irish Ancestors: A Beginner's Guide, by David S. Ouimette, and Finding Your Mexican Ancestors: A Beginner's Guide, by George and Peggy Ryskamp They also recommend message boards at Ancestry.com and Genforum.com, mailing lists at RootsWeb.com.

George discusses the imperative need to backup your genealogical data, and then The Guys discuss backup options, both on external hard disk drives and online sites such as Mozy (http://mozy.com/).

George responds to a listener who wants to know how to effectively report missing census page images and indexing errors to Ancestry.com for correction.

Next week's show will be the 100th Podcast! Don't miss it!

The Genealogy Guys Podcast - 15 July 2007

Wed, 18 Jul 2007 03:12:00 GMT

George announces the availability of the Beta version of Family Tree Maker 2008 and the opportunity to pre-order for mid-August delivery at the introductory price of $29.95 at the Ancestry Store. Drew and George acknowledge the undisputed "Genealogy Guys Podcast" Marathon Endurance leader!

George announces the breakthrough of his >20-year brickwall to find the death date and location of his Great-uncle Brisco Washington Holder, thanks to research by a listener who located him in the Missouri Death Records Certificate database, 1910-1956. George talks about his subsequent research in other records, calls to the cemetery and the funeral home, and other possible records he will research while at the FGS Conference in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, in August. Drew makes additional suggestions, including references to the use of the new release of GenSmarts, V.2.

Drew talks about online books and the wealth of printed genealogical sources, while George suggests the use of the book, Printed Sources, edited by Kory L. Meyerink (published by Ancestry in 1998) - an excellent reference to many published materials.

The Genealogy Guys Podcast - 9 July 2007

Wed, 11 Jul 2007 16:55:00 GMT

George announces a new version of Pocket Genealogist software and a list of upcoming conferences. George and Drew discuss listeners' email about: "The Portal to Texas History" at texashistory.unt.edu/about/ which contains digitized books, histories, and photos of Texas; the use of WorldCat (www.worldcat.org) and Google Books (books.google.com) to locate books containing information on a French village; and strategies for getting around "brick walls." The Guys also discuss the new release of GenSmarts, Version 2.0, a software tool that provides research suggestions and tools to organize your genealogy database contents.

The Genealogy Guys Podcast - 4 July 2007

Fri, 6 Jul 2007 00:10:00 GMT

George announces some British genealogical news and Web sites, including the medieval fine rolls of Henry III at www.finerollshenry3.org.uk. Drew reviews Andro Linklater's book, The Fabric of America. And Drew and George discuss "Geographic Hygiene" -- entering place names in a standard way and checking the accuracy based on the time period, the political boundaries, and the responsible geopolitical entity at the time.

The Genealogy Guys Podcast - 27 June 2007

Fri, 29 Jun 2007 11:41:00 GMT

George announces the new French and Italian services from Ancestry.com. Drew researches the early days of musician Nellie Lutcher by checking census records. And George and Drew discuss some books that Drew brought back home after his mother's recent funeral, including Drew's father's high school yearbook, a book of old photographs of Newberry, SC, and a heritage book from Newberry.

The Genealogy Guys Podcast - 16 June 2007

Sun, 17 Jun 2007 12:33:00 GMT

News includes the digitization of Canadian passenger lists (www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/genealogy), an interactive online map of Chicago (chicagoancestors.org), and Diane Rapaport's soon-to-be-released book The Naked Quaker: True Crimes and Controversies from the Courts of Colonial New England. Listener mail includes details about Jewish marriage customs and a question about donating rare cemetery books. In response to a listener question, George and Drew describe their list of essential books for the genealogy reference shelf.

The Genealogy Guys Podcast - 14 June 2007

Thu, 14 Jun 2007 15:35:00 GMT

News about new records at Ancestry.com, and the use of DNA to attempt to solve the mystery of the Lost Colony. Drew returns from the Southern California Genealogical Society's Genealogy Jamboree and shares interviews with Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak of Roots Television (rootstelevision.com), Leland Meitzler of Everton's (genealogyblog.com), and Susan Kitchens of Family Oral History Using Digital Tools (familyoralhistory.us).

The Genealogy Guys Podcast - 4 June 2007

Wed, 6 Jun 2007 02:25:00 GMT

News of the upcoming Polish Genealogical Society of America (www.pgsa.org) conference in Schaumberg, Illinois on September 28-30, and listener mailbag with several items about military records, and an interesting find of funeral documents on eBay. George discusses June weddings, and Drew provides more details about LibraryThing (librarything.com). Drew also talks about how he uses newspaper databases to locate obituaries for distant cousins.

The Genealogy Guys Podcast - 28 May 2007

Wed, 30 May 2007 01:58:00 GMT

Drew clarifies the item from last week concerning using photo folders as screen savers, and updates the latest regarding finding the descendants of opera singer Henri Scott. George and Drew discuss military records of all types.

The Genealogy Guys Podcast - 21 May 2007

Wed, 23 May 2007 00:49:00 GMT

News and announcements include Lisa Louise Cooke's new weekly Genealogy Gems Podcast (available online at genealogygemspodcast.com), the latest version of Reunion software for the Macintosh (www.leisterpro.com), the Records Access digitization and indexing program of FamilySearch, and the successful recent annual conference of the National Genealogical Society in Richmond (www.ngsgenealogy.org). George discusses Robert Pols book Family Photographs 1860-1945, and how to use books like Joel Whitburn's Pop Memories 1890-1964 to identify the songs that were popular when your recent ancestors were living. Drew clears up a few puzzles in kinship terminology, and talks about his attempt to discover the living descendants of the late opera singer Henri Scott. [Note to listeners: In the episode, Drew mistakenly refers to Henri's daughter Eunice as "Emma".]

The Genealogy Guys Podcast - 14 May 2007

Wed, 16 May 2007 00:37:00 GMT

Listener mailbag includes an item from the editor of the Swedish American Genealogist (www.etgenealogy.se/sag.htm) about displaying photos as screen savers. Drew discusses Argali (argali.com), PC software that makes it easy to look for phone numbers and street addresses, and George discusses mortality schedules.