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.

George begins with the genealogical news:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 The Guys wish everyone a very Happy Holiday Season!

The 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 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 "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.

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.

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.

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.

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:

1. 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.
2. A listener reports being able to successfully run Family Tree Maker from his flash drive (thumb drive).
3. 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.

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.

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!

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 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.

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 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 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:

1. "My ancestors' names were changed at Ellis Island."
2. "Everyone with the same surname is related."
3. "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."

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.)

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.

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 ™ 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?

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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".]

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.

Announcements include Footnote.com's Revolutionary War documents, the WeRelate.org wiki social networking site, the June 8-10 Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree in Burbank (www.scgsgenealogy.com/jamboree.htm), the LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City's study of genealogy to understand heart disease, and the Genealogy Concierge service of the Edinburgh Sheraton Grand Hotel and Spa.  Mailbag brings questions and comments about backing up USB flash drives, what to call former spouses of parents, how to cite items found in WorldCat, and how to create personalized maps using Google's My Maps feature.  George and Drew discuss database search strategies for atypical surnames and the use of reference resources (such as dictionaries) available in personal libraries and public libraries.

News includes the disastrous fire at the Georgetown (DC) Public Library and the new US/Mexican border crossing records collection at Ancestry.com.  Mailbag includes lessons learned from crashed external hard drives, access to a newspaper project ("Chronicling America") at www.loc.gov/chroniclingamerica, and a lot of listener feedback to the past podcast discussion of FindAGrave.  Other topics include ways to get the most out of Google, and more tips for genealogical spring cleaning.

George announces the website FamilyLink.com (a product of World Vital Records Inc.).  George and Drew discuss uploading GEDCOM files, the use of the FindaGrave.com website, and where to begin genealogical spring cleaning.

Announcements include the new Ancestry Press product (ancestrypress.com), free access to Ellis Island records thru April 30 (www.ellisislandexperience.com), and the annual Spring Seminar of the Alabama Genealogical Society at Samford University in Birmingham on May 5 (www.algensoc.org).  Major topics discussed include what to do when one inherits a large collection of family photographs, why you should record everyone with your research surnames in your geographic areas, and how you can make life easier as a member of the audience at a genealogical lecture.

Topics include: reminders about upcoming large conferences/seminars (NGS at ngsgenealogy.org, FGS at fgs.org, and the 2nd Annual Genealogy Seminar at Sea (www.genealogycruises.com); followups on translating Latin (www.nottingham.ac.uk/mss/online/skills/dating/latin.phtml), on newspaper archives, on testing one's skills (www.bcgcertification.org/skillbuilders/), and on looking for info from the Boston Transcript; backups of data; a new site for listeners to investigate regarding free live online family history classes (www.familyhistoryliveonline.com); the pros and cons of blogs vs. non-blog websites; possible problems using FamilySearch Indexing by a Linux user; an interesting drawing found in an Oxford County (Ontario) marriage book; the National Institute for Genealogical Studies at the University of Toronto (www.genealogicalstudies.com); feedback regarding show notes; the basics of subscribing to the Genealogy Guys Podcast using iTunes (so that one can sync the podcasts to an iPod), printing the show notes, and searching for content in past episodes; and whether or not to refer to siblings of direct ancestors as "ancestors".  George also briefly reviews the book Infamous Scribblers.

George and Drew discuss the transliteration of documents (such as those in Latin), and tips for translating from one language to another.  Drew also leads a discussion about using WorldCat to locate local newspapers, partially inspired by a listener's suggestion for using the U.S. Newspaper Program (www.neh.gov/projects/usnp.html).  Mailbag and news includes Roots Television's (www.rootstelevision.com) new RootsTube channel, the Virginia Freedmen Extraction and Indexing Project (blackhistorymuseum.org/bureau), the Indiana Marriage Indexing Project (www.indgensoc.org/indexing.html), the storage of genealogy files online, the new Web 2.0-style LivingGenealogy.com site, and the upcoming state conference in Ohio (www.ogs.org).

Drew reminds listeners to nominate individuals and genealogy societies for the awards offered by the Federation of Genealogical Societies (www.fgs.org/fgs-awards.htm); shares the British government's response to the e-petition to provide earlier access to the 1911, 1921, and 1931 British censuses; and announces that Cyndi (of Cyndi's List) has a new blog at cyndislist.blogspot.com.  George announces the Newberry Library's (www.newberry.org) annual workshop, this one focusing on Maps and Genealogy.  Other listener mailbag items include the records of the Old Bailey (www.oldbaileyonline.org), Chicago area burial records, ways to deal with thick or odd-sized documents, locating newspapers in archives, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee map collection (www.uwm.edu/Libraries/digilib/maps/), and equipment used to restore photographs.

George and Drew discuss the recent announcement regarding Ancestry.com databases no longer being available at Family History Centers, and George also announces the new Iowa database.  George mentions his recent speaking engagement in Hot Springs Village, Arkansas, while Drew talks about his own visit to DeLand, Florida.  George reviews Kathy Chater's book about doing research in the UK and Ireland, and Nigel Cawthorne's book about unusual old English laws.  Listener mailbag includes a discussion of people who lived near county and state boundaries, considerations regarding posting copies of vital record certificates online, the Geneanet site (www.geneanet.org), the Kentucky Vital Records Project (kyvitals.com), a question about NewspaperArchives.com, a way to organize materials by type of record, the North Carolina "Cemetery Census" site (cemeterycensus.com/nc), a happy user who found relatives in the Kansas State Census database, an announcement of the University of Washington's Extension program for Genealogy and Family History (www.extension.washington.edu), and a question about using tripods for digital cameras.

George reviews several news books, including the multivolume set of Revolutionary War Period Bible, Family, & Marriage Records (www.revwar.patriotpublishers.com), a new book about colonial ancestors, and a fantastic new book about researching Mexican ancestry.  News includes the Jewish Genealogical Society in New York City's all-day seminar "Family History and the Holocaust: A Day of Learning" (www.jgsny.org/dayoflearning.htm).  Listener mailbag includes more info about timelines, where to find the Genealogy Guys Podcast show notes, how to "re-jump start" interest in researching one's family, a new podcast coming from the Czech Republic (pathfinders.cz), how to follow up on items found in the AGBI, whether or not one should trust earlier research done on one's family, a suggestion about the Genealogy Guys Podcast having some "cover art" for iTunes, and some detailed info on using a digital camera for taking photos of documents (via the Kim Komando Show site, at komando.com).

George and Drew share news (including a reminder of the planned research trip to London), and listener e-mail (ancestors who had pottery factories, and the U.K. National Archives podcasts).  George talks about using timelines and ancestor profiles to help explain why ancestors behaved as they did.  Drew points out that the ideas of inquiry-based learning and critical thinking apply to the processes that good genealogists engage in.

After a few news items about the NGS Hall of Fame (www.ngsgenealogy.org/comhall.cfm), German postcards at Ancestry.com, preservation information for family treasures from the Library of Congress (www.loc.gov/preserv/familytreasures/), the Practical Archivist Blog (practicalarchivist.blogspot.com), and the new ProQuest CSA company, George and Drew dig into the podcast listener mailbag to discuss (in no particular order):

1. wikis (davesqueries.pbwiki.com)
2. naming digital image files
3. attending national conferences (not just for professionals)
4. splitting personal databases into maternal/paternal lines
5. the Pro version of Flickr for publishing photos
6. a free image editing program (Paint.NET)
7. and an idea for promoting the Genealogy Guys Podcast!

Topics include new sorting features of WorldCat (worldcat.org), and a discussion of folksonomies, tagging, and metadata, especially as it applies to photographs on such sites as Flickr (www.flickr.com).  News and listener mailbag includes the use of vitalrec.com to learn more about when states began recording vital records, a Quaker genealogy conference (April 27th thru April 29th in Waynesville, Ohio - www.mlcook.lib.oh.us provides more information), photographic restoration (www.genealogy.com/10_restr.html),  tips on using digital cameras to record documents, and a reminder of several upcoming genealogy cruises.

News includes the Nevada marriage and divorce data now available on Ancestry.com.  Listener mailbag brings in items about the French-Canadian Drouin Collection coming to Ancestry.com (from the American-Canadian Genealogical Society at acgs.org), what may or may not be available at your nearest NARA branch regarding agricultural census schedules, and a new episode of Bill Puller's Genealogy Tech Podcast (genealogytechpodcast.com).  Major topics include George's "ancestor wall" of photographs in the living room, and Drew's discussion of how to get the most out of visiting a local genealogy society.

George announces a genealogy conference in Tallahassee, Florida (www.talgen.org), a computerized genealogy conference in Provo (ce.byu.edu/cw/cwcompu), and three different genealogy cruises between late October and mid November, and reminds listeners of the writing contest deadline for ISFHWE (www.rootsweb.com/~cgc/contest.htm).  Listeners share their successes in keeping local museums in business (www.gerisgenes.com/scmuseum.html), ask how to cite census records, ask how to do genealogy on a budget, tell us about the Genealogy Guys being on a French genealogy wiki (www.geneawiki.com/index.php/Recherche_Etats-Unis), solicit UK listeners to sign a petition to release census info (petitions.pm.gov.uk/CensusInfoFreed/), and talk about how much fun it is to volunteer for the FamilySearch Indexing Project.  Drew gets ready to begin his new job as an "Information Literacy Librarian" at the University of South Florida and discusses information literacy concepts with George, and both share their suggestions for being more helpful when posting queries to mailing lists and message boards (especially including the name of the county in which a town is located).

George and Drew again share news and listener mailbag, including a way to store files using Gmail (https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1593/), a question about how to handle conflicting information, some questions relating to Macintosh-using genealogists and suggestions about adding places to queries on mailing lists and message boards, and a question about what to do when you're left with many boxes of a grandparent's collected papers.  George announces the 2007 conference of the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS) to be held in Salt Lake City (www.slc2007.org), shares a listener suggestion about USAPhotomaps software (jdmcox.com), announces Footnote.com's digitization project involving NARA images (www.footnote.com/nara), and announces the Scottish parochial register images availability online (www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk).

George and Drew announce the new ProQuest offerings (two African-American newspapers, and a Civil War-era collection of pamphlets and newspapers).  George points out the renovated British Library website (www.bl.uk), and remarks on the ability to search Ancestry.com for public family trees.  George and Drew also talk about Donna Moughty's recent talk to the Florida Genealogical Society about "Who Is the Head of This Household?" (a census overview) and Donna's role within the Genealogical Speakers Guild (www.genspeakguild.org).  George also discusses a new findmypast.com offering, "Ancestors on Board", available online at www.ancestorsonboard.com, which covers outbound passengers lists from the UK. 

Listener mailbag brings in the correct pronunciation of "Quinte", a brief review of Legacy software, a great eBay sucess story involving an ancestral heirloom, podcasts from the National Archives (UK), how to order "The Source" for delivery in Germany, the availability of the online version of Internet Genealogy magazine, a reminder about ICAPGen accreditation, the volunteer project to index Family History Library microfilm at www.familysearchindexing.org, a question about how to keep up with new content at the LDS FamilySearch site, ways to convert digital images into word processing text, and a system for tracking both paper and digital documents.

Drew returns from visiting Salt Lake City, where he attended board meetings of the Federation of Genealogical Societies and did some research in the Family History Library.  George announces the new Ancestry.de service for German research.  Drew describes his FGS activities, and shares some of his discoveries in the FHL, including a possible War of 1812 ancestor.  George discusses the differences between transcriptions, extracts, and abstracts.

The next episode of The Genealogy Guys Podcast will be published late Tuesday.  We were originally hoping to do a podcast today (Sunday), but the quality of the wireless connectivity in the hotel room at Salt Lake City has made it difficult.  We appreciate your patience!

George shares the URL for the UK postcards site (www.oldukphotos.com), talks about the Genealogy Blog Finder (blogfinder.genealogue.com), and discusses the latest issues of Digital Genealogist magazine (www.digitalgenealogist.com) and Internet Genealogy.  Drew tells about a podcast listener who used Google Maps to find something interesting about the French terrain, and notes that several listeners have brought up LibraryThing at www.librarything.com (an online tool for keeping track of one's personal library).   Drew discusses his recent library visit where he discovers the benefits of examining the newest books, and Drew and George share their tips for getting past brick walls, including unsolvedancestry.com.

George and Drew take a look back at 2006, a look ahead to 2007, and discuss a variety of ideas for doing genealogy during the winter months.  Among the items discussed during news, announcements, and listener mailbag: the extended deadline for submitting lecture proposals to the FGS 2008 Philadelphia conference (www.fgs.org); the plans for a U.S. version of the popular U.K. "Who Do You Think You Are?" TV series; the name change of 1837online.com to www.findmypast.com; a website for displaying old U.K. photos; and an interesting new site (www.familysearchlabs.org) that keeps up with the latest technology projects of the LDS.