George shares press releases about the renaming of MyFamily.com, Inc. as The Generations Network and about the new features of the Ancestry.com personal family trees.  The mailbag brings mail from listeners whose ancestors are from "Whales", who use portable applications (from portableapps.com) stored on a USB flash drive, and who are interested in DNA testing and whether or not census index errors are caused by an OCR process.  Drew follows up previous podcasts with information about his new Western Digital My Book external hard drive (used for backups) and about online phonebooks.  George describes the surprise in discovering what an old photo is made of, and talks about how Christmas Day was spent.  Finally, genealogist Jana Sloan Broglin returns for another interview by Drew.

Announcements include the relaunch of Ancestry Magazine, the purchase of ProQuest Information and Learning (the division of ProQuest that includes HeritageQuest Online) by Cambridge Information Group, the release of Calico Pie's Family Historian 3.1 (more info at www.family-historian.co.uk), The National Archives (UK) online release of UK Outbound Passenger Lists (with a 10% extra free if you buy units using code AOB10PCX) with more info at ancestorsonboard.com, and the ISFHWE Annual Writing Contest (more info at www.rootsweb.com/~cgc/contest.htm).  Listener e-mail asks about how to present (and sometimes limit) information shared with newly found cousins.  George and Drew, following up on last week's podcast in which they discussed the hardware they use, identify their favorite genealogy-related software tools (even when they aren't specifically for genealogy).  Finally, George and Drew review the new series of surname books published by Ancestry.com entitled "Our Name in History".

A podcast listener writes in about free census worksheets and tutorials at www.censusmate.com.  In response to another listener question, George and Drew discuss their computer hardware: desktop computers, notebooks, smartphones, wireless networks, scanners, multi-function printers, and digital cameras.   George talks about sources of information for learning about an ancestor's occupation.  Drew points out another source for relatively current newspapers: LexisNexis Academic.

As December begins, George suggests a place to shop for genealogy gifts: The Ancestry Store (theancestrystore.com), and he announces the new 1851 and 1861 Scotland census databases.  George also mentions the new test for U.S. citizenship.  The mailbag brings information about newspaper projects (www.library.uiuc.edu/inp and www.neh.gov/projects/usnp.html), and a question about a Texas application for a mortuary warrant.  Drew interviews Deborah Abbott about collateral lines research, slaveholder records, and things not to be overlooked on the U.S. census.  Finally, Drew thanks a listener for visiting the grave of Drew's uncle and sending along photos from the U.S. military cemetery near Cambridge, England.