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Title
Pub. Date
Duration
The Genealogy Guys Podcast #428
30 Jul 2024
00:55:18
News You Can Use and Share!
MyHeritage added 20 million historical records in June.
MyHeritage and Family Tree DNA announced a new partnership to connect DNA tests to family trees.
JewishGen announced a new partnership between its Romania Research Division and the Jewish Federation of Romania to photograph and document Jewish graves.
Drew talks about 19.4 million historical records released by FamilySearch in May 2024.
Book Review
The Guys review the latest book by Nathan Dylan Goodwin, The Deserter’s Tale, a new Morton Farrier genealogical crime mystery.
Listener Email
Sam writes about the new RootsMagic 10 update and the book. Drew warns listeners about some fake book entries in Amazon.
Stacy Cole responds to an earlier email about her strategies in researching the James James family in Georgia.
The Guys discuss their experiences at the South Carolina Genealogical Society's summer workshop at the South Carolina Department of Archives and History.
George shares how Patrick McCawley, the Deputy Director of Archives and Records Management, spent time sharing with him a history of South Carolina’s geopolitical organization from colonial times to the present. From parishes to electoral districts to counties and boundary changes, George now has a deeper understanding of South Carolina for his research there.
Thank you to all our Patreon supporting members for their support. Your Patreon support helps us improve our technology and provide even more podcast content to you! You can join us for as little as $1 a month or as much as you’d like to contribute. Visit https://www.patreon.com/genealogyguys to get started.
And don’t forget to order Drew’s new book, Generation by Generation: A Modern Approach to the Basics of Genealogy, from Genealogical Publishing Company (https://genealogical.com/) or Amazon.com.
MyHeritage added 123 million historical records in April and May.
MyHeritage added millions of Nordic newspaper pages to OldNews.com.
RootsMagic has released Version 10 of its award-winning software.
Listener Email
Jean-Daniel wrote to share an update about his research into Blaise Farny.
Karin educates us about names for Austrian ‘sailors’.
Lisa wrote to compliment Cathleen from New Hampshire’s research of her mother’s paternal grandfather, Georg Sokop. She was inspired to research a friend’s Jewish ancestry using DNA.
Ray has been researching his third great-grandfather, James James, and located two people of that name in close proximity. The county courthouse burned, and he is asking for other records to distinguish between the two men.
Drew discusses the upcoming South Carolina Genealogical Society’s upcoming conference at the South Carolina Department of Archives and History on 12-13 July 2024. He is presenting, and George will be there observing and conducting personal research in the archive.
George shares how he is preparing for his genealogical research at the South Carolina Department of Archives and History, at the Newberry County courthouse, and in the upstate South Carolina environs.
Drew discusses new features of AncestryDNA tools.
Thank you to all our Patreon supporting members for their support. Your Patreon support helps us improve our technology and provide even more podcast content to you! You can join us for as little as $1 a month or as much as you’d like to contribute. Visit https://www.patreon.com/genealogyguys to get started.
And don’t forget to order Drew’s new book, Generation by Generation: A Modern Approach to the Basics of Genealogy, from Genealogical Publishing Company (https://genealogical.com/) or Amazon.com.
The Genealogy Guys Podcast, in partnership with MyHeritage.com, is giving away a FREE MyHeritage DNA Kit. Please send an email to genealogyguys@gmail.com with your name and mailing address by no later than midnight U.S. Eastern Time on 31 August 2023 for your chance to win!
News You Can Use and Share
American Ancestors/New England Historic Genealogical Society has announced the 10 Million Names Project. The Project is a collaborative effort dedicated to recovering the names of the estimated 10 million men, women, and children of African descent who were enslaved in pre- and post-colonial America (specifically, the territory that would become the United States) between the 1500s and 1865. Learn more at https://10millionnames.org/.
A great new book written by African-American and Native American expert Angela Walton-Raji has been published by Arcadia Publishing, Inc., titled Oklahoma Freedmen of the Five Tribes. It is now available at Amazon.com.
Drew recaps the highlights of the newest records releases at FamilySearch.
Listener Email
Lisa sent a follow-up about her census mystery searching for her ancestor Felice Giuseppe Maturo and his brother, Liberato Maturo, in the 1910 U.S. Federal Census in New Haven, Connecticut.
Mell wrote to ask for suggestions to research her ancestor Felix White in the area around Columbus, Muskogee County, Oklahoma.
Lisa wrote about the Ancestry Hints, what they are and aren’t. This includes the “Family Data Collection” and “Geneanet Community Trees”.
Nicole is researching her Dulaney ancestral line from Virginia, supposedly back to Ireland. Drew shares some insights.
Thank you to all our Patreon supporting members for their support. Your Patreon support helps us improve our technology and provide even more podcast content to you! You can join us for as little as $1 a month or as much as you’d like to contribute. Visit https://www.patreon.com/genealogyguys to get started.
Please also tell your friends and your genealogical society about our free podcasts, our blog, and our Genealogy Guys Learn subscription education website.
And don’t forget to order Drew’s new book, Generation by Generation: A Modern Approach to the Basics of Genealogy, from Genealogical Publishing Company (https://genealogical.com/) or Amazon.com.
The International African American Museum (IAAM) has officially opened in Charleston, South Carolina, and is partnering with Vivid-Pix with the installation of Vivid-Pix Memory Stations that allow visitors to scan, restore, save, and share their precious photos, documents, and stories.
The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) has been gifted a new index containing 3.2 million searchable names to mark the centenary of PRONI. These are related to Valuation records between 1864 and 1933.
The General Register Office for England and Wales (GRO) now allows you to order instant-access images of birth records from 1837 to 1922 and death records from 1837 to 1887. The digital images cost £2.50 each and can be downloaded, and then printed. (The records are images of the details from the certificate but not the certificate itself.)
Drew recaps the newest records releases at FamilySearch.
Listener Email
Lisa wrote about her census mystery searching for her ancestor Felice Giuseppe Maturo and his brother, Liberato Maturo, in the 1910 U.S. Federal Census in New Haven, Connecticut. The Guys researched and Drew shares our findings.
Tom wrote about his ancestor who served in the Revolutionary War and who he just discovered was a enslaver in Kentucky.
The Guys discuss U.S. patents. For both of them, one of their great-grandfathers filed two patents for inventions. The Guys were able to search the USPTO (United States Patents and Trademarks Office) patent database at https://www.uspto.gov/patents/search or Google's Patent database, and quickly located the patent files. Each file contained a schematic diagram of the invention and text pages with detailed descriptions. (Trademarks can be searched in the trademarks database at https://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/search.) Please listen to the podcast for details about disconnects and reloading pages in the databases.
Drew recommended acquiring a small glass desktop whiteboard that can sit between the keyboard and display and provide additional storage. An example (the one that Drew bought) can be found on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09PBK52W5, but many companies sell them in a variety of colors.
Don’t forget to order Drew’s new book, Generation by Generation: A Modern Approach to the Basics of Genealogy, from Genealogical Publishing Company (https://genealogical.com/) or Amazon.com.
Thank you to all our Patreon supporting members for their support. Your Patreon support helps us improve our technology and provide even more podcast content to you! You can join us for as little as $1 a month or as much as you’d like to contribute. Visit https://www.patreon.com/genealogyguys to get started.
Please also tell your friends and your genealogical society about our free podcasts, blog, and our Genealogy Guys Learn subscription education website.
SUMMER SALE CONTINUES! The Genealogy Guys Learn subscription website is on sale for $64.00 per year – a 35% saving! We have scores of videos and written courses, and new content is added each month. Visit https://genealogyguyslearn.com/, click the Enroll Now button, and complete the subscription form. Be sure to click on the Add Coupon link and use coupon code Summer2023. This deal is for new subscriptions only and is in effect until midnight ET on 30 June 2023.
Library and Archives Canada (LAC) has announced the release of the 1931 Census of Canada. They are also collaborating with Ancestry and FamilySearch to make images and indexes available.
MyHeritage has released ReImagine, a new photo scanning and editing tool for iOS and Android mobile phones.
MyHeritage announced a recap of the release of 46 million historical records collections in May 2023. George recaps those collections.
The Texas State Library and Archives Commission (TSLAC) is pleased to announce a new partnership with the University of North Texas (UNT) Libraries. The TSLAC Newspaper Collection is now live and available for free online. More than 4,500 issues of historical Texas newspapers from TSLAC’s collection, published from 1855 to 1930, are available online through UNT’s Portal to Texas History.
Drew recaps the newest records releases at FamilySearch.
Listener Email
Judy in Avon, Ohio, wrote again to state that she had not fully explored the RootsMagic tutorial videos. She is now much more comfortable with RM9 and fully endorses it.
Judy also wrote that she has tested DNA with Ancestry and discovered one match that has taken her research back another generation. Drew provides some guidance about how to proceed.
Michael wrote to reinforce the idea of focusing research on one’s great-grandparents and setting goals for what you want to learn about them.
Cindy wrote again concerning her Swedish conundrum. She thanked The Guys for their advice. She has also done more research without success and asks listeners to share suggestions.
Jerry wrote to reference our Episode #407 and a link http://www.ancestrallines.net/overview/, a page that presents a new pedigree numbering system that has been developed for the family history and genealogy community as an alternative that visibly displays ancestral lines and generations in multiple presentation formats. He had trouble accessing the site, but The Guys confirmed that the .net site is still available.
Drew will be presenting this weekend, June 23-24, at the Barbara J. Brown Family History Seminar being held at the Archives of Michigan in Lansing. This annual event is a hybrid event. Participants can attend sessions either online or onsite. Registration details are available at https://www.michigan.gov/mhc/archives/family-history-seminar#RegistrationDetails.
Drew is busy preparing for his Irish research trip in early October with Donna Moughty and accompanied by his brother. He stresses that, before you make any research trip, prepare as much as possible in advance so you don’t lose valuable onsite time having to do that preliminary work there.
Don’t forget to order Drew’s new book, Generation by Generation: A Modern Approach to the Basics of Genealogy, from Genealogical Publishing Company (https://genealogical.com/) or Amazon.com.
Thank you to all our Patreon supporting members for their support. Your Patreon support helps us improve our technology and provide even more podcast content to you! You can join us for as little as $1 a month or as much as you’d like to contribute. Visit https://www.patreon.com/genealogyguys to get started.
Please also tell your friends and your genealogical society about our free podcasts, blog, and our Genealogy Guys Learn subscription education website. And the Genealogy Guys Learn site is on sale through 30 June 2023. (See above.)
SUMMER SALE! The Genealogy Guys Learn subscription website is on sale for $64.00 per year – a 35% saving! We have scores of videos and written courses, and new content is added each month. Visit https://genealogyguyslearn.com/, click the Enroll Now button, and complete the subscription form. Be sure to click on the Add Coupon link and use coupon code Summer2023. This deal is for new subscriptions only and is in effect until midnight ET on 30 June 2023.
MyHeritage has released a new update to the data in its Theory of Family RelativityTM. The number of matches has increased by 78% to 136,713,021!
MyHeritage announced the release of 20 million historical records collections in April 2023. George recaps those collections.
MyHeritage recently added the 1910 Norway Census Collection. It now announces the addition of high-quality images for the collection.
Ancestry and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) announced the resumption of the digitization of the War of 1812 Pension Files project. The indexed images will be available for free at Fold3 forever. Listen for updates about this important project.
Drew recaps the newest record releases at FamilySearch.
Listener Email
Jennifer in Oberlin, Ohio, responded to the email from Judy in Avon, Ohio, that we discussed in Episode 415. Judy wanted help with learning to use RootsMagic more effectively. Jennifer suggested attending the weekly drop-in genealogy group at the Oberlin Public Library.
Missi wrote a long email asking for The Guys’ suggestions for how to restart her genealogy, what methodology to employ, how far to research collateral lines (siblings, in-laws, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.) There are lots of things discussed and some good suggestions provided.
Eric responded to Cindy from Episode 412 and her search for a Swedish immigrant. He suggested obtaining and reviewing naturalization records, which include the name of the person, country, and place of origin, name of the ship, port of arrival, and arrival date. The Petition for Naturalization form (second papers) required the name of the person now applying and the name under which the person arrived at the port. (They could be different.) The Swedish Household Examination Records are accessible at MyHeritage and can help in tracing the person back to birth, and the names of family members in the household.
The Guys responded to Tom in Episode 415 who was searching the 1910 U.S census records in Cranesville, Erie County, Pennsylvania, to locate ancestors. The Guys did a great deal of research, and then asked Tom to provide names. Drew researched again and unfortunately could not find the people in any of the townships or precincts in the county. He concluded that the family was away or missed by the enumerator.
Kathleen also responded to Judy in Avon, Ohio, offering supportive comments about learning basic tasks and then expanding her range, using RootsMagic’ videos, its online help, and maybe the new RootsMagic book.
Ashley wrote with a question about ancestors’ passport application records. The Guys suggested using Ancestry’s or MyHeritage’s collections: U.S., Passport Applications, 1795-1925.
Don’t forget to order Drew’s new book, Generation by Generation: A Modern Approach to the Basics of Genealogy, from Genealogical Publishing Company (https://genealogical.com/) or Amazon.com.
Thank you to all our Patreon supporting members for their support. Your Patreon support helps us improve our technology and provide even more podcast content to you! You can join us for as little as $1 a month or as much as you’d like to contribute. Visit https://www.patreon.com/genealogyguys to get started.
Please also tell your friends and your genealogical society about our free podcasts, our free blog, and our Genealogy Guys Learn subscription education website. And the Genealogy Guys Learn site is on sale through 30 June 2023.
Drew's new book, Generation by Generation: A Modern Approach to the Basics of Genealogy, has been published by Genealogical Publishing Company. It is being acclaimed as the best new book for beginning genealogists. You can order it at https://genealogical.com/store/generation-by-generation/ or at Amazon.com. A color ebook version will be available soon.
MyHeritage announced the release of 38 million historical records collections in March 2023. George recaps those collections.
FamilySearch has named Debbie Gurtler as the new Assistant Director of the FamilySearch Library.
Findmypast has released two important collections: Ireland, Diocese of Dublin Marriage Licenses, 1638-1858, and Ireland, Diocese of Dublin Wills and Grants, 1270-1858.
Listener Email
Jean wrote to announce that she has purchased Drew's new book for the West Hempstead Library in New York.
Laura in Connecticut wrote about researching the Smith surname in Ireland.
Judy in Ohio wrote to ask about getting help with learning how to use RootsMagic more effectively. The Guys suggested watching the scores of recorded videos at the RootsMagic site. (Visit https://www.rootsmagic.com/ and click the Learn dropdown list. There also are short videos on RootsMagic TV on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/user/RootsMagicTV.
D. A. wrote about the print quality of images in the new RootsMagic 9 book.
Donna Moughty responded to address Gabriel's Irish research request for suggestions in researching his ancestor James Thomas Donoghue. Donna's thoughtful comments will be helpful to all Irish researchers.
Rick in Wisconsin wrote concerning reporting formats that he can use for use in documenting his family's Benedict Arnold, who was not the infamous Benedict Arnold.
Tom posed a research conundrum he has encountered in researching his family in the 1910 U.S. Federal census in Cranesville, Erie County, Pennsylvania. He cannot locate the enumeration district (ED) for that place. The Guys spent some time replicating his research and delving into EDs in that area and, using people living in Cranesville in 1920 and locating them at the same residences in 1910, narrowed the ED down to #66. We've asked for specific names and will recheck those as well. Listener suggestions are also very welcome.
Don't forget to order Drew's new book, Generation by Generation: A Modern Approach to the Basics of Genealogy, from Genealogical Publishing Company (https://genealogical.com/) or Amazon.com.
Thank you to all our Patreon supporting members for their support. Your Patreon support helps us improve our technology and provide even more podcast content to you! You can join us for as little as $1 a month or as much as you’d like to contribute. Visit https://www.patreon.com/genealogyguys to get started.
Please also tell your friends and your genealogical society about our free podcasts, our free blog, and our Genealogy Guys Learn subscription education website.
Drew Smith’s new book, Generation by Generation: A Modern Approach to the Basics of Genealogy, has been published by Genealogical Publishing Company. It is being acclaimed as the best new book for beginning genealogists. You can order it at https://genealogical.com/store/generation-by-generation/ or at Amazon.com. A new Kindle version will be available soon.
RootsMagic has released RootsMagic 9 for both PC and macOS with the addition of new tools. There is a new book, Getting the Most Out of RootsMagic 9, that describes how to use the new version. As always, there are new videos about all the operations of the software. Learn more at http://blog.rootsmagic.com/?p=3635.
FamilySearch has announced that the 1931 Census of Canada will be released on 1 June 2023 at the Library and Archives (LAC) Canada website. Read more at https://library-archives.canada.ca/eng/corporate/website-updates/pages/census-1931.aspx. Following the release, LAC will collaborate with Ancestry and FamilySearch to create an advanced searchable database.
The International African American Museum has set its opening day in Charleston, South Carolina, for Tuesday, 27 June 2023. Learn more at https://iaamuseum.org/.
Listener Email
Susan wrote to say she was unable to order software from Evidentia at https://evidentiasoftware.com/. Apparently, they were migrating their website and encountered some delay with the transfer. However, the site is up and running again.
Gabriel wrote about an Irish mystery for his ancestor, James Thomas Donoghue. Listeners are urged to share ideas and suggestions.
Rosemary wrote about finding Order Book B (1812-1822) for Lewis County, Kentucky. Work is underway with the Kentucky Department of Library Archives and FamilySearch to make the images, transcription, and index available for use.
Don’t forget to order Drew’s new book, Generation by Generation: A Modern Approach to the Basics of Genealogy, from Genealogical Publishing Company (https://genealogical.com/) or Amazon.com.
Thank you to all our Patreon supporting members for their support. Your Patreon support helps us improve our technology and provide even more podcast content to you! You can join us for as little as $1 a month or as much as you’d like to contribute. Visit https://www.patreon.com/genealogyguys to get started.
Please also tell your friends and your genealogical society about our free podcasts, our free blog, and our Genealogy Guys Learn subscription education website.
Drew Smith's new book, Generation by Generation: A Modern Approach to the Basics of Genealogy, has been published by Genealogical Publishing Company. You can order it at https://genealogical.com/store/generation-by-generation/.
On January 4, 2023, the United States Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) proposed substantial increases to the fees required to access historical records held by the USCIS Genealogy Program. The proposed hikes are especially infuriating, given that many of these records should already be publicly and readily available at the National Archives. They have proposed a fee as high as $340 for a single document. Send your comments by Monday, March 6, 2023. Visit the "Records, Not Revenue" website at https://www.recordsnotrevenue.com/ to learn more about how to make your voice heard.
RootsTech, the FamilySearch annual genealogical mega-conference, will be held March 3-5. There's still time to enroll for in-person attendance or virtual participation at https://www.familysearch.org/rootstech/event/rt2023.
MyHeritage added 41 million historical records in January 2023. George details each collection.
Genealogical Publishing Company (https://genealogical.com/) has announced the “My GPC Library” subscription service that provides access to nearly 800 titles spanning 70 years of publishing. A 15% introductory discount is currently available for 6-month and 1-year subscriptions at https://genealogical.com/subscriptions/. More titles will be added over time.
Listener Email
Curt and Lisa both wrote to offer suggestions for Cindy's questions in Episode 412 regarding Swedish research.
Nancy responded to Donna's inquiry in Episode 412 concerning suggestions about methods for how to pay for foreign genealogical research.
Joshua asks about a format for a letter to be used in disproving incorrect family connections.
Judi sent a detailed email to Drew regarding Bannon families in Essex County, New Jersey, and in Ireland.
Timo wrote to advise how to turn off AirTag notifications for usual places.
Drew's Upcoming Ireland Research Trip
Drew discusses a genealogy research trip he and his brother are making to Ireland in October 2023. He continues to talk about the preparations he is making and will provide more over the coming months. And you can be sure he will report back about how well his preparations served him on the trip.
Thank you to all our Patreon supporting members for their support. Your Patreon support helps us improve our technology and provide even more podcast content to you! You can join us for as little as $1 a month or for as much as you would like to contribute. Visit https://www.patreon.com/genealogyguys to get started.
Please also tell your friends and your genealogical society about our free podcasts, our free blog, and our Genealogy Guys Learn subscription education website.
MyHeritage announces a new, free, searchable collection, Israel Immigration Lists, consisting of 1.7 million records from 1919 onwards, transcribed by MyHeritage from images stored at the Israel Archive.
Dr. Wanda Wyporska, Chief Executive Officer of the Society of Genealogists, is stepping down in March 2023 to accept a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity at another organization.
World Archives has rebranded as Storied and has launched a new, next-generation family history platform at https://storied.com/.
The Family History Library has been renamed the FamilySearch Library, and Family History Centers have been renamed FamilySearch Centers.
Drew recaps the vast new and expanded collections at FamilySearch from January 2023.
Listener Email
Dave asks for suggestions about the thousands of genealogy research tasks he has entered into his Family Tree Maker software. He would like suggestions for how to view these tasks on his iPhone and iPad.
Donna wants suggestions about methods for how to pay for international genealogical research, and The Guys ask listeners for input.
Irene provides tips for Drew on his upcoming Irish research trip.
Cindy is researching a friend’s Swedish grandfather who emigrated from Sweden to the U.S. She is looking for his origins in Sweden, and has performed extensive research but without success. George suggested MyHeritage’s collection of Swedish Household Examination Books and asks listeners for other suggestions.
Drew’s Upcoming Research Trip
Drew discusses a genealogy research trip that he and his brother are making to Ireland in October 2023. He continues to talk about the preparations he is making and will provide more over the coming months. And you can be sure he will report back about how well his preparations served him on the trip.
Thank you to all our Patreon supporting members for their support. Your Patreon support helps us improve our technology and provide even more podcast content to you! You can join us for as little as $1 a month or as much as you’d like to contribute. Visit https://www.patreon.com/genealogyguys to get started.
Please also tell your friends and your genealogical society about our free podcasts, our free blog, and our Genealogy Guys Learn subscription education website.
Shannon wrote concerning how to locate and obtain medical information for people who were institutionalized in asylums.
Drew’s Upcoming Research Trip
Drew discusses a genealogy research trip that he and his brother are making to Ireland in October 2023. He talks about the preparations he has begun and will provide more over the coming months. And you can be sure he will report back about how well his preparations served him on the trip.
Thank you to all our Patreon supporting members for their support. Your Patreon support helps us improve our technology and provide even more podcast content to you! You can join us for as little as $1 a month or as much as you’d like to contribute. Visit https://www.patreon.com/genealogyguys to get started.
Please also tell your friends and your genealogical society about our free podcasts, our free blog, and our Genealogy Guys Learn subscription education website.
George talks about the record types he uses in researching the Zion Cemetery Project in Tampa, Hillsborough County, Florida.
Thank you to all our Patreon supporting members for their support. Your Patreon support helps us improve our technology and provide even more podcast content to you! You can join us for as little as $1 a month or as much as you’d like to contribute. Visit https://www.patreon.com/genealogyguys to get started.
Please also tell your friends and your society about our free podcasts, our free blog, and our Genealogy Guys Learn subscription education website.
MyHeritage added 71 million historical records in March, including French censuses!
MyHeritage added three important New York City historical records collections, including indices and images.
MyHeritage has added a multi-photo scanner to the MH mobile app.
The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in College Park, Maryland, has unveiled a new Mass Digitization Center. It will address digitizing records in various formats up to 10 times faster yearly.
American Ancestors has announced the appointment of Ryan J. Woods as its new President and CEO.
Ancestry announced its largest partnership with the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) to date. As part of the project, Ancestry will invest over the next five years to digitize tens of millions of records that will be added to Ancestry.com.
Ancestry has made a new record collection available to honor the 125,000 persons of Japanese descent who were unjustly imprisoned in the U.S. between December 1942 and January 1948.
FindMyPast has added more recent new records to its collections of Scotland Deaths (1855-2024), England and Wales Deaths (2007-2024), and Northern Ireland Deaths (1980-2024).
Listener Email
Cathleen describes her research into her mother’s paternal grandfather, Georg Sokop, including traditional and DNA investigations. She is looking for advice to extend her research.
Don writes about Swedish research, including Swedish churches and membership lists, and the resources at Ancestry and ArchivDigital.
Jean-Daniel wrote to thank us for sharing an email about Blaise Farny. He now has a great to-do list. He has located an Ivoryette photo of Farny from 1892, and is investigating to locate the original among family members so that he can see if anything is written on the back.
Tom wrote to follow up on slide scanning, and to suggest resources for scanning long panorama photos. He also discusses the Stories Behind the Stars Project, which seeks to preserve and expand the information about the more than 421,000 Americans who lost their lives in WWII. Check the STARS website at https://www.storiesbehindthestars.org/.
Nick let us know about his efforts to organize thousands of notes in Evernote, doing several each day.
Drew discusses attending his 50th high school reunion, what a wonderful time we had, and how important it was.
Drew will be presenting at the South Carolina Genealogical Society Conference on 12-13 July at the South Carolina Department of Archives and History in Columbia. George will also be attending and conducting personal research.
Thank you to all our Patreon supporting members for their support. Your Patreon support helps us improve our technology and provide even more podcast content to you! You can join us for as little as $1 a month or as much as you’d like to contribute. Visit https://www.patreon.com/genealogyguys to get started.
And don’t forget to order Drew’s new book, Generation by Generation: A Modern Approach to the Basics of Genealogy, from Genealogical Publishing Company (https://genealogical.com/) or Amazon.com.
We apologize for the delay in the publication of this episode. Hurricane Ian and some severe computer problems have presented production challenges.
News You Can Use and Share
American Ancestors/New England Historic Genealogical Society celebrated the lifetime contributions of David Rencher, Chief Genealogical Officer of FamilySearch, with its Preservation and History Award on 27 October 2022.
MyHeritage has announced three major improvements to their service:
Sorting abilities for Shared DNA Matches;
The addition of 30 new historical record selections and 31 million new records added in September; and
New and improved Family Statistics for your uploaded family tree/GEDCOM.
Nathan Dylan Goodwin’s newest book, the second book in the Venator Cold Case Series, The Sawtooth Slayer, has just been released in paperback and Kindle formats.
RootsTech 2023 registration is open for the largest genealogy conference, to be held 2-4 March 2023 in Salt Lake City, Utah. You may register to attend in person or virtually at https://www.rootstech.org.
George shares information about the BYU Family History Technology Lab at https://familytech.byu.edu. Genealogy-related games and research and visualization tools are fun and fascinating.
Drew highlights new and updated collections added at FamilySearch in September.
Listener Email
Daniel writes to describe a DNA brick wall challenge.
Tom B. discussed WWII-era photos and the fact that he has scanned them. Now, what should he do with the originals?
Tom S. wrote to share a brick wall breakthrough that he, his cousin, and his mother made by checking various online services and then going back and checking them for new record additions.
George discussed his work on scanning photos he has carried with him for as long as 60 years. He discussed the Fujitsu SV600 Scanner, the ScanSnap software that comes with the scanner, his storage in Dropbox, his naming conventions, and using Vivid-Pix Restore to improve the images. He discusses his conundrum about how to obtain images from photo negatives, Kodak photo disks, and other non-paper media. He shares surprises he found that help him identify persons in many unlabeled photos. Finally, he shares Tom B.’s concerns about what to do with originals.
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Thank you to all our Patreon supporting members for their support. Your Patreon support helps us improve our technology and provide even more podcast content to you! You can join us for as little as $1 a month or as much as you’d like to contribute. Visit https://www.patreon.com/genealogyguys to get started.
Please also tell your friends and your society about our free podcasts, our free blog, and our Genealogy Guys Learn subscription education website.
MyHeritage has added 74 collections with 130 million new historical records. Read our blog to learn more.
Unlock the Past has announced that the Family History Down Under 2022 Conference will be held 8-11 November 2022 at Castle Hill, near Sydney, Australia. You can attend in person or virtually. Full details and registration can be found at https://www.fhdu22.com/.
Findmypast has implemented Tree Search at its site “with instant connections and new discoveries waiting to help your family tree bloom.”
Findmypast has added Derbyshire Baptisms, Durham Marriages, and Northamptonshire Burials Baptisms.
FamilySearch was presented with the Historic Preservation Award by the Daughters of the American Revolution.
Drew highlights new and updated collections added at FamilySearch in July and August.
Listener Email
Angela had written asking for suggestions for locating railroad employment records in the U.S. for his Italian great-grandfather. Expert Paula Stuart-Warren provides a wealth of resource suggestions.
Karl asks about using DNA testing to identify the parents of Nathanial Oak, born circa 1645 in England or Wales. Drew provides suggestions regarding Y-DNA testing and joining a DNA surname group at Family Tree DNA.
Kristina writes to celebrate her success in finding a wealth of criminal records for her great-grandfather at the Indiana State Archives.
Giveaway
The Guys are giving away a copy of their Brick Wall Research Strategies quicksheet, based on their book, Advanced Genealogy Research Techniques (McGraw-Hill, 2013). Send an email to genealogyguys@gmail.com by midnight EDT on 30 September 2002. Write BRICK WALL in the subject line, and include your name and postal address in the body of the email. This offer is only valid for U.S. residents.
Please Support Our Sponsors
You can support our sponsors who bring these podcasts to you for free by visiting their links as follows:
Thank you to all our Patreon supporting members for their support. Your Patreon support helps us improve our technology and provide even more podcast content to you! You can join us for as little as $1 a month or as much as you’d like to contribute. Visit https://www.patreon.com/genealogyguys to get started.
Please also tell your friends and your society about our free podcasts, our free blog, and our Genealogy Guys Learn subscription education website.
The Genealogy Guys Learn subscription website has added several new written and video courses, with more coming regularly. You can subscribe at https://genealogyguyslearn.com/.
MyHeritage released 22 new collections in June.
Findmypast has added new records to its Middlesex Baptisms, Surrey Baptisms, and Greater London Burial Index collections.
Drew highlights new and updated collections added at FamilySearch this week.
Drew interviews Allison Singleton of the Allen County Public Library about their plans to mobilize photo scanning to retirement facilities.
Listener Email
Kathy writes to thank George for his spot-on coverage of the 1950 U.S. Federal Census and what is and isn’t available.
Karen in Australia tells us the difference of update frequencies at Ancestry’s ThruLines and MyHeritage’s Theory of Family Relativity.
Brian writes about digitizing your family history research as a method of guaranteeing that your work is preserved after you are gone. He also talks about surname binders and other organizational considerations. He suggests you check out the Ancestral Lines Pairing System at https://www.ancestrallines.net/overview/.
Judith is interested in the possibility of obtaining records from the Orange Orphan Home in East Orange, Essex County, New Jersey.
George responds to Jim about James Berry Holder [Sr.] and available records to verify both his birth and death dates.
Mark shares his six-step plan for organizing his genealogical materials. It is a focused task list that can be used by anyone.
Please Support Our Sponsors
You can support our sponsors who bring these podcasts to you for free by visiting their links as follows:
Thank you to all our Patreon supporting members for their support. Your Patreon support helps us improve our technology and provide even more podcast content to you! You can join us for as little as $1 a month or as much as you’d like to contribute. Visit https://www.patreon.com/genealogyguys to get started.
Please also tell your friends and your society about our free podcasts, our free blog, and our Genealogy Guys Learn subscription education website.
The Guys want to thank everyone in the genealogical community for supporting their decision to terminate sponsorship by Find a Grave and Newspapers.com (subsidiaries of Ancestry.com).
MyHeritage announces the release of the addition of two significant record collections: Norway Emigration Registers, 1867-1973, and the Vienna, Austria, Jewish Emigrant Applications, 1938-1939.
MyHeritage announces a new update to its Theory of Family Relativity.
The Genealogist has added a link to their Map Explorer georeference facility to the 1891 Census for the UK. It allows you to jump from the census household record to a detailed map to see where your ancestors lived and explore the neighborhood.
Findmypast has added half a million new records for Pennsylvania: List of British Prisoners in the War of Revolution; Episcopalian Births and Baptisms; Episcopalian Marriages; Episcopalian Deaths and Burials; and Episcopalian Congregational Records.
DNA Segment
DNA expert Diahan Southard returns to discuss with Drew a comparison of Ancestry's ThruLines and MyHeritage's Theory of Family Relativity.
Drew interviews Hayley Studer, CEO of achi, to discuss achi's involvement with the study of using photographs to engage persons who have memory issues.
Listener Email
Mark shares information about how he has used social media to create private Facebook pages for relatives to share posts, photographs, and other information.
Brian wrote to comment on the importance of sourcing all of the information you contribute to FamilySearch's Family Tree and to other online sites.
Karin listens in Germany and wrote to comment about our previous discussion of African ancestry showing up in DNA results, and also shared two important online resources for German research:
Gigi wrote about having located prison records for one man at Ancestry and subsequently connecting with a half-second cousin (his daughter).
Kate wrote to share her discovery of her great-uncle’s prison records and mug shots at the California State Archive.
Genealogy Guys Learn
The Genealogy Guys Learn subscription site continues to grow. New content is regularly added, with another new video coming in early August. Subscribe to Genealogy Guys Learn at https://genealogyguyslearn.com/.
Please Support Our Sponsors
You can support our sponsors who bring these podcasts to you for free by visiting their links as follows:
Thank you to all our Patreon supporting members for their support. Your Patreon support helps us improve our technology and provide even more podcast content to you! You can join us for as little as $1 a month or as much as you’d like to contribute. Visit https://www.patreon.com/genealogyguys to get started.
Please also tell your friends and your society about our free podcasts, our free blog, and our Genealogy Guys Learn subscription education website.
Family Tree Magazine announced their 101 Best Genealogy Websites for Genealogy for 2022, and the Genealogy Guys Podcast was again included.
MyHeritage published 11 million new German historical records (Germany, Hesse, Deaths)
MyHeritage added 1.3 billion historical records in 37 collections in April and May.
The Genealogist is a tiered subscription website for English genealogical research at https://www.thegenealogist.com/. They have announced the addition of georeferenced maps for the 1901 census. These allow you to search to locate people in the census and then view a map that pinpoints the residence so that you can gain a visual perspective of the exact location.
Findmypast has added: British Army, Recommendations for Military Honours and Awards, 1935-1990; South Africa, Local Armed Forces Nominal Rolls, 1899-1902; Britain, Campaign, Gallantry & Long Service Medals & Awards; England, Newspaper Birth Notices; England, Newspaper Marriage Notices; and England, Newspaper Death Notices.
FamilySearch has published its 100,000th article on the FamilySearch Research Wiki.
FamilySearch has announced that RootsTech 2023 will be a blended conference with both in-person and virtual presentations.
Drew shares highlights of new historical records at FamilySearch.
DNA Segment
DNA expert Diahan Southard returns with a new discussion with Drew about Y-DNA.
Mark shares information about how his Eagle Scout group project mapped and transcribed tombstones in the Aldrich Family Cemetery in his Rhode Island hometown. They then cleared tons of small brush. He has recently worked to add missing entries to Find a Grave.
Julie shared the 1950 U.S. Federal Census images with her parents. She downloaded the enumeration districts in which they lived. They enjoyed taking “a virtual” walk down the streets and remembering their neighbors, playmates, and schoolmates. Julie enjoyed their stories and learned a great deal about their lives.
Bill writes about how he uses the FamilySearch Family Tree In conjunction with his desktop database and trees he has loaded to Ancestry and MyHeritage.
Matt is seeking additional research strategies to obtain copies of a court case in Philadelphia for a 4th great-uncle.
Tom wrote about himself, his mother, and a sister having a small trace of African-American ancestry at the GEDmatch site. The Ancestry DNA matches also show a small percentage. He wants to know more. Drew provides some advice, including the possibility that this may be “noise” in the matches.
Curtis is looking for mug shots for his father’s father since he was arrested and spent time in prison several times.
Lynn asks about what to do with one’s genealogy work as inheritance.
Genealogy Guys Learn
The Genealogy Guys Learn subscription site continues to grow. New content is regularly added, with another new video coming in early July. Subscribe to Genealogy Guys Learn at https://genealogyguyslearn.com/.
Please Support Our Sponsors
You can support our sponsors who bring these podcasts to you for free by visiting their links as follows:
Thank you to all our Patreon supporting members for their support. Your Patreon support helps us improve our technology and provide even more podcast content to you! You can join us for as little as $1 a month or as much as you’d like to contribute. Visit https://www.patreon.com/genealogyguys to get started.
Please also tell your friends and your local genealogy society about our free podcasts, our free blog, and our Genealogy Guys Learn subscription education website.
Ancestry introduces its Ethnicity Inheritance powered by SideViewTM
Findmypast has added new records to its UK collection Electoral Registers & Companies House Directors.
Lynn Turner has been named the new Director of the FamilySearch Family History Library.
Drew shares an overview of new and expanded record collections at FamilySearch.
1950 U.S. Federal Census Discussion
Drew discusses the AI indexing processes in use by Ancestry and FamilySearch, and census records at MyHeritage.
Kathy from California emailed us with questions about the availability of a number of the different census record forms from this census. George covers the different forms used and whether they were imaged before they were destroyed and which are digitally available. These include P1 (Population Schedule), P2 (Individual Census Report), P3 (Infant Cards), P4 (Crews of Vessels Report), P5 (Overseas Census), P8 (Native Americans), and various P forms used for enumerating territories.
Michael from Germany used Stephen P. Morse’s extensive census tools at https://stevemorse.org/ to locate enumeration districts and access a sample P1 form.
Detailed information about the 1950 Census is available on the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) pages at https://1950census.archives.gov/ and on subsequent pages. Don’t overlook the FAQs at https://1950census.archives.gov/howto/faq.html which is filled with a wealth of information you should know.
Listener Email
Chris asks for suggestions about how to locate/pinpoint a specific headstone. George provides some suggestions.
Rebecca wants to know if there is a way for Find a Grave to notify a person when their memorials have been deleted or reassigned to another person.
Tina wrote to say she enjoyed the Vivid-Pix Memory Segment regarding using photographs with patients suffering from dementia patients. We will be hosting more interviews soon. Keep listening!
Tina also asked about how to balance using RootsMagic, Ancestry, and FamilySearch without feeling that she is duplicating efforts.
Timo in Germany wrote with suggestions about place name changes and how to structure them in your genealogy. He suggests the use in German research of the website at http://gov.genealogy.net/search/index. He says:
“The GOV is for Germany and many former German places the place to go to look up the former names, belongings in civil registers or churches. It might happen that a village belong[s] to the one civil register and to another church. With the GOV you could search for the current or the former name of a city, village, or a place itself.&rdquo
‘You will find both names and the time period, type (village), population (1492 in this case), webpages (GenWiki), external ID (which is for library uses), link to GenWiki, geo position = coordinates to find the place on a map.”
Maya wrote to say that she had about 200 letters written in Yiddish, which she does not read. She offered them to the National Library of Israel for digitation and preservation and possibly translation.
Jo Ann has an ancestor from Rowan County, North Carolina, whom she thinks may have been a spy during the American Revolution. She asks for places she might go to in order to investigate the story.
Matt in Omaha, Nebraska, tells us he uses quotation marks around a name – such as “Mr King” – to force the search for that exact string.
Laura writes to ask why someone might have/use two desktop genealogy database programs.
Ed is working on publishing a family history for distribution within his family. He has an older work that he would like to use and incorporate some of its content. He asks about how to give credit to the original author. The Guys discuss copyright and fair use considerations and suggest how the source citations could/should be included.
Genealogy Guys Learn
The Genealogy Guys Learn subscription site continues to grow. New content is added every month, and the May 2022 video is “Crowdsourcing Your Brick Walls” by Drew Smith. You can subscribe at https://genealogyguyslearn.com/.
Please Support Our Sponsors
You can support our sponsors who bring these podcasts to you for free by visiting their links as follows:
Thank you to all our Patreon members for their support. Your Patreon support helps us improve our technology and provide even more podcast content to you! You can join us for as little as $1 a month or as much as you’d like to contribute. Visit https://www.patreon.com/genealogyguys to get started.
Please also tell your friends and your society about our free podcasts, our free blog, and our Genealogy Guys Learn subscription education website.
Drew's guest is Jenny Ashcraft, Senior Content Copywriter at Ancestry.com for Newspapers.com. In this episode, Drew and Jenny discuss Newspapers.com, including search strategies, sharing what you find with others, and the Marriage and Obituary Indexes.
The Genealogy Guys Podcast #403
06 Apr 2022
01:13:10
News You Can Use and Share!
The 1950 U.S. Federal Census has been released and The Guys discuss several aspects:
The David Rumsey Map Collection has announced a partnership with Machines Reading Maps (MRM) to read and add searchable text to the map collection.
The Society of Genealogists has announced the beginning of a digital project called TreeSearch which will digitize historical pedigree rolls in their collection.
Findmypast has added 50K new Lincolnshire Burials, and the Quaker Women’s Petition of 1659.
FamilySearch is seeking volunteers for its 1950 U.S. Census Community Project.
The Genealogist at https://www.thegenealogist.com/ has updated their version of the 1939 Register with a new, detailed mapping feature and 258,000 newly unredacted persons.
Listener Email
David writes concerning using placenames for events based on what governmental entity was in control at the time of the event.
Marianna writes about GEDmatch and having received three suspicious email inquiries.
Suzanne asks about obtaining court records for a murder trial in Perry County, Alabama, in which some family were involved.
Genealogy Guys Learn
The Genealogy Guys Learn subscription site continues to grow. New content is added every month, and the March 2022 video is “Using AncestryDNA Today” by Drew Smith. You can subscribe at https://genealogyguyslearn.com/.
Please Support Our Sponsors
You can support our sponsors who bring these podcasts to you for free by visiting their links as follows:
Thank you to all our Patreon supporting members for their support. Your Patreon support helps us improve our technology and provide even more podcast content to you! You can join us for as little as $1 a month or as much as you’d like to contribute. Visit https://www.patreon.com/genealogyguys to get started.
Please also tell your friends and your society about our free podcasts, our free blog, and our Genealogy Guys Learn subscription education website.
Genealogy Connection #082 - Katrina Madsen, Ancestry.com Community Manager for Find a Grave
22 Mar 2022
00:49:45
Drew's guest is Katrina Madsen, Community Manager at Ancestry.com for Find a Grave. In this episode, Drew and Katrina discuss the history of Find a Grave, some of the recent changes in memorial management, and tips on how to search Find a Grave for your ancestors and relatives.
Genealogy Connection #081 - Crista Cowan, Corporate Genealogist at Ancestry.com
14 Mar 2022
00:53:10
Drew's guest is Crista Cowan, Corporate Genealogist at Ancestry.com and also known as the Barefoot Genealogist. In this episode, Drew and Crista discuss the upcoming release of the 1950 U.S. census, RootsTech 2022, and some recent announcements from Ancestry.
To learn of Crista's background, see GC episode #054.
The Genealogy Guys Podcast #425
09 Apr 2024
01:06:14
News You Can Use and Share!
MyHeritage added 168 million historical records in February.
MyHeritage launched OldNews.com, a new website for exploring historical newspapers.
MyHeritage introduced all-new profile pages with hints.
Vivid-Pix announced the roll-out of Memory Stations, integrating scanning, its correction software, tagging, and more.
Findmypast has begun digitizing, indexing, and publishing British Home Children records.
The National Archives (TNA) announced that it will digitize the 1941 National Farm Survey records thanks to a generous grant from Lund Trust.
DNA Segment with Diahan Southard
In our DNA Segment, DNA expert Diahan Southard discusses Family Tree DNA and Y-DNA haplogroups with Drew Smith.
Listener Email
Laura writes about backup GEDCOM files and MyHeritage, and Daniel Horowitz responds.
Anne writes in response to Jean Daniels' email about researching an ancestor. Anne cites Anabaptists in New York State.
Kristen is seeking more advice for locating records for a missing family member, Arthur Tozer.
Ashley wrote about changes that people make to FamilySearch records without sources.
Thank you to all our Patreon supporting members for their support. Your Patreon support helps us improve our technology and provide even more podcast content to you! You can join us for as little as $1 a month or as much as you’d like to contribute. Visit https://www.patreon.com/genealogyguys to get started.
And don’t forget to order Drew’s new book, Generation by Generation: A Modern Approach to the Basics of Genealogy, from Genealogical Publishing Company (https://genealogical.com/) or Amazon.com.
MyHeritage has published 5.8 million records from 28 collections from JewishGen (https://www.jewishgen.org/) made possible through a collaboration with the Museum of Jewish Heritage (https://mjhnyc.org/) and JewishGen.
Ancestry announces the new Ancestry Stories on the Ancestry mobile app to combine photographs, shared historical records, and text to craft a story about an ancestor in your family tree.
Drew shares complete details about the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and the upcoming release of the 1950 U.S. Census on 1 April 2022. (See the NARA page at https://www.archives.gov/research/census/1950
Drew talks with Sue Kaufman, Senior Manager of the Clayton Library Center for Genealogical Research (part of the Houston Public Library) in Houston, Texas.
Listener Email
Drew follows up on Kendra’s cemetery project work previously discussed in Episode #401. (The Zion Cemetery Project uses Trello as a database management tool.) Kendra works with the Randolph County Public Library in Asheboro, North Carolina. They have an interactive cemetery map at https://www.randolphlibrary.org/ under History & Genealogy>Randolph County Cemeteries (or https://randolphlibrary.libguides.com/c.php?g=710731&p=8447398).
Pam asked about GEDmatch (https://www.gedmatch.com/) and the ability to specify that you do or do not want your data to be accessible by law enforcement.
Sunni asked about headright, especially concerning her ancestor in Georgia, and asks why headrights might possibly only be partially executed. George provides an explanation of what a headright is and how some may not have been completed.
Michael asks Drew about his Boddie/Bodie family. Drew provides lots of details and refers Michael to the book, Seventeenth Century Isle of Wight County Virginia, by John Bennett Boddie.
Genealogy Guys Learn
The Genealogy Guys Learn subscription site continues to grow. New content is added every month, and the March 2022 video is “Using AncestryDNA Today” by Drew Smith. You can subscribe at https://genealogyguyslearn.com/.
Please Support Our Sponsors
You can support our sponsors who bring these podcasts to you for free by visiting their links as follows:
Thank you to all our Patreon supporting members. Your support helps us improve our technology and provide even more podcast content to you! You can join us for as little as $1 a month or as much as you’d like to contribute. Visit https://www.patreon.com/genealogyguys to get started.
Please also tell your friends and your society about our free podcasts, our free blog, and our Genealogy Guys Learn subscription education website.
Vic has used Fiverr (https://www.fiverr.com/) to locate translators and has worked with a French translator.
Kendra is working on several African American projects, including slave schedules, a church, and a cemetery. She asked how the research on the Zion Cemetery Project is organized. Drew and George provide lots of details, and they invite listeners to share their project information.
Zion Cemetery Project
Drew presented at a community meeting on 16 February 2022 at the Tampa Bay History Center. Dr. Antoinette Jackson, the Anthropology Chair at the University of South Florida and primary investigator for the project, led the meeting. She showcased the Black Cemetery Network (https://blackcemeterynetwork.org/) which was created to provide a coordinated place for Black cemetery research and preservation projects. The Guys urge our listeners to check the site, join, and to share details about projects in their areas.
Thank you to all our Patreon supporting members for their support. Your Patreon support helps us improve our technology and provide even more podcast content to you! You can join us for as little as $1 a month or as much as you’d like to contribute. Visit https://www.patreon.com/genealogyguys to get started.
Please also tell your friends and your society about our free podcasts, our free blog, and our Genealogy Guys Learn subscription education website.
Welcome to our 400th episode of the Genealogy Guys Podcast! We’re celebrating this milestone – in addition to our 80 episodes of Genealogy Connection!
The Guys congratulate the Johnson County Genealogical Society in Overland Park, Kansas, and the Pinellas Genealogy Society in Largo, Florida, on their 50th Anniversary Year!
News You Can Use and Share
Newspapers.com celebrates its accomplishments in 2021, including 25 million clippings by users, and shares some plans for 2022.
Findmypast has released the long-awaited digitized 1921 Census of England and Wales. FMP has also released the 1921 Census of England and Wales Official Reports, and these add summarized data to provide more insight into the lives of the communities in which your ancestors may have lived.
Drew shares his regular recap of highlights of new historical records at FamilySearch.
Listener Email
Debra asked about consumer credit directories. George reached out to genealogist and author Michael J. Leclerc who provided the background of these interesting directories which ultimately became Dun & Bradstreet. Learn where the records are located and the rules for access. (Michael’s book, Benjamin Franklin’s Family: Volume I: English Ancestors, is a definitive book on the man.)
Jason and Rachel shared their experiences with the reMarkable 2 e-ink tablet and how it helps them with their genealogical work. The Guys also shared how they are using their reMarkables.
Eric wrote to provide feedback on our recent discussion about how to record location names on events in genealogical databases.
Kimberly wrote to share one of the RootsMagic 8 reports that can help you determine who might be around for the 1950 U.S. Federal Census.
John wrote to describe how he uses PowerPoint templates for timelines.
Rich obtained records for his uncle’s WWII service in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the top-secret operations group. The OSS Society at http://osssociety.org can help put you in touch with someone who can help with your research and access.
Anita asks about computer-assistive/OCR software that might scan and translate handwritten French documents.
Zion Cemetery Project
George provides an update on his research into people buried in the erased African-American Zion Cemetery in Tampa. Drew provides a project update.
The Guys Speak
The Guys will be presenting for the Ventura County [California] Genealogical Society’s virtual conference on 19 February 2022.
Genealogy Guys Learn
The Genealogy Guys Learn subscription site continues to grow each month with new content. You can subscribe at https://genealogyguyslearn.com/.
Genealogy Book Club
The Guys are participating in a virtual genealogy book club hosted by the Florida Genealogical Society of Tampa. Is your society doing anything like this? Let us know!
Support Our Sponsors
You can support our sponsors who bring these podcasts to you for free by visiting their links as follows:
Thank you to all our Patreon supporting members. Your Patreon support helps us improve our technology and provide even more podcast content to you! You can join us for as little as $1 a month or as much as you’d like to contribute. Visit https://www.patreon.com/genealogyguys to get started.
Please also tell your friends and your society about our free podcasts, our free blog, and our Genealogy Guys Learn subscription education website.
The Guys welcome two new sponsors to our family: Newpapers.com and Find a Grave.
Researchers studying the Clotilda, the last known slave ship to reach America, have discovered much of the ship is still intact. They anticipate that there may be surviving DNA and other artifacts.
FamilySearch has published a Year in Review for 2021.
Drew provides an overview of the latest updates from FamilySearch.
Listener Email
Tom asks questions about the reMarkable tablet and their data plans.
Tom has also digitized Super-8 movies from Christmas 1960. He is also looking for a timeline to use to track his father’s WWII military service. George suggests checking Cyndi’s List at https://cyndislist.com/charts/timelines/. Listeners are urged to email The Guys with their suggestions.
Karen is searching for information about an ancestor who settled in Augusta County, Virginia. She and a cousin are trying to determine if he came from Ireland, and they are questioning the veracity of a book that published content extracted from old county records that purport that he (and others) were Scotch-Irish.
Bunny is looking for suggestions for kick-starting her Polish ancestral research.
Matthew M. shares an extensive website that provides free access to digitized church registers from across Europe, including Germany, Austria, Poland, Serbia, and Slovenia. The site is Matricula Online at https://data.matricula-online.eu/en/.
Matthew G. is frustrated that the tax records for New Jersey are locked at FamilySearch. Drew suggests using their free look-up service as one aid, but raises the question for FamilySearch as to whether these records can be unlocked and made available.
Genealogy for Librarians and a New Book
Drew is teaching a genealogy course for librarians at the University of South Florida in Tampa in this new semester. It will incorporate videos made with Vivid-Pix and some of the foremost genealogy librarians in the U.S. The students will be using the pre-publication text of his forthcoming beginning genealogy book that will be published this year.
Zion Cemetery Project
George has been immersed in researching people buried in the “erased” African-American cemetery in Tampa. The project seeks to learn more about the people buried there, their families, any descendants, and more. He shares his vision of some of the products of this project.
Genealogy Guys Learn
The Genealogy Guys Learn subscription site continues to grow each month. Drew has recorded a video, “Organizing Your Genealogical Files”, that has made its debut this month. New content is added every month. You can subscribe at https://genealogyguyslearn.com/.
Thank you to all our Patreon supporting members for their support. Your Patreon support helps us improve our technology and provide even more podcast content to you! You can join us for as little as $1 a month or as much as you’d like to contribute. Visit https://www.patreon.com/genealogyguys to get started.
Please also tell your friends and your society about our free podcasts, our free blog, and our Genealogy Guys Learn subscription education website.
The Guys announce the winner of the drawing for the Irish quicksheets by Donna M. Moughty as Richard A. Yehle of Sacramento. Look for the next drawing in the coming year.
The Genealogy Guys Learn subscription educational site is on sale through 11:59 PM EST on 1 January 2022. Get an annual subscription for $69.00 – 30% off the regular price of $99.00 by using coupon code HOLIDAY2021. We have more than 40 videos and 20 written courses, with new content added each month! Enroll at Genealogy Guys Learn at https://genealogyguyslearn.com/ before this sale is over!
News You Can Use and Share
MyHeritage has announced that they have surpassed one million subscribers.
Vivid-Pix and Reunions Magazine share “7 Best COVID Travel Tips” in the December 2021 issue of the magazine.
Findmypast has added the new Kent Electoral registers (1570-1907) and additions to the Kent Burials collection. They also added Warwickshire, Coventry Workhouse Deaths (1845-1943), Warwick Baptisms, and Waterford Poor Law Unions Board of Guardians Minute Books.
Free registration for RootsTech 2022 has opened at http://RootsTech.org. (Drew will be speaking.)
Drew provides an overview of the latest updates from FamilySearch.
Listener Email
In anticipation of the release of the 1950 U.S. Federal Census in April 2022, Laura asks how to produce a report from RootsMagic 8 of people alive at the time of the census.
Keith is searching for his maternal grandfather. He can find a WWII draft registration card but cannot locate him in the 1940 census.
Concetta asks about restricted FamilySearch records and how to locate them.
Book Review
The Guys review Nathan Dylan Goodwin’s latest Morton Farrier, Forensic Genealogist, mystery titled The Foundlings. He weaves a masterful tale about researching several infants born out of wedlock who were abandoned. The Guys think this is another excellent book from a talented author.
Tech Review
The Guys have each acquired a great new tool, the reMarkable 2. It is an ultra-thin tablet for taking notes, drawing, converting handwritten notes to text, saving them as PDFs to the cloud, organizing notes and documents, emailing notes, downloading PDFs and webpages, note-taking on PDFs, and even reading eBooks. (It isn’t a web browser.) The writing surface is almost identical in feel to writing on paper, and there are loads of templates for almost any type of note-taking or project you can imagine. The reMarkable 2 is a great tool to help you stay focused, and The Guys talk about how they are using theirs. Learn more at https://remarkable.com/.
George talks about how he is continually working on his personal genealogy using MyHeritage, RootsMagic 8, and other tools. Drew talks about how he has been working on cleaning up his places in RootsMagic 8. The Guys also talk about their work on the Zion Cemetery Project.
Don’t forget to take advantage of the Genealogy Guys Learn sale!
Thank you to all our Patreon supporting members for their support. Your Patreon support helps us improve our technology and provide even more podcast content to you! You can join us for as little as $1 a month or as much as you’d like to contribute. Visit https://www.patreon.com/genealogyguys to get started.
Please also tell your friends and your society about our free podcasts, our free blog, and our Genealogy Guys Learn subscription education website.
The Guys announce the winner of the drawing for the “Basics of Birth Certificates” quicksheet as Karen Webster of Queensland. Look for the next drawing later in the program.
News You Can Use and Share!
MyHeritage has introduced labels for DNA matches.
News by way of the Society of Genealogists (https://www.sog.org.uk/)
The National Library of Scotland has added Ordnance Survey maps for more than 400 English and Welsh towns (1840s to 1890s) at https://maps.nls.uk/os/townplans-england/towns.html. More will be added later.
The Society of Genealogists has launched its Forum, an online place at its website (https://www.sog.org.uk/) for members to connect and share with others with common interests.
Findmypast has added to its United States Obituaries Notices collection. It has also added the United States Freedmen’s Bureau Marriages. Indian Army Records of Service 1900-1947 have also been added. The 1939 Register has been updated to make available a number of previously redacted records.
Drew provides an overview of the latest vast updates from FamilySearch.
DNA Segment with Diahan Southard
Drew discusses how to get your DNA out there in as many places as possible with Diahan. Diahan provides directions here: https://www.yourdnaguide.com/transferring?rq=transfer
Listener Email
Kathleen talks about Facebook and finding our podcast.
Dana discusses searching for records of a great-grandfather from Poland who relocated first to Canada and then to the United States, and what challenges citizenship records presented. Dana also shares that creating a spreadsheet comparing the timelines of the great-grandfather and others can be very useful.
Natalie thanks The Guys for suggestions about how to join a FamilySearch indexing group for Eau Clair County, Wisconsin.
Matt discusses his ancestors’ frequent movements between Germany and France before emigrating to the U.S.
Tom discusses DNA matches, and the fact that some people upload a tree that may not be a biological family tree. The difference between a ‘genealogical family tree’ and a ‘biological family tree’ can confuse matters when adopted people are researching DNA matches.
Donna M. Moughty, who leads excellent research trips to Ireland, has two planned trips in 2022: one in May and another in October. The trips will go to both Dublin and Belfast. Please visit her website at https://www.irishfamilyroots.com/ for details about the 2022 trips.
The Guys discuss using fan charts to represent your family tree and to help maintain focus on your linear research.
Quicksheet Drawing
Our next quicksheet giveaway is a trifecta! Donna M. Moughty has donated her three excellent guides in her Irish Research Series. Guide #1 is “Preparing for Success in Irish Research”; Guide #2 is “Irish Civil Registration and Church Records”; and Guide #3 is “Land, Tax and Estate Records in Ireland”. Send an email to genealogyguys@gmail.com by midnight Eastern Time on 15 December 2021. Put IRELAND in the subject line and your name and postal address in the body. Winner will be announced on the next podcast.
Thank you to all our Patreon supporting members for their support. Your Patreon support helps us improve our technology and provide even more podcast content to you! You can join us for as little as $1 a month or as much as you’d like to contribute. Visit https://www.patreon.com/genealogyguys to get started.
Please also tell your friends and your society about our free podcasts, our free blog, and our Genealogy Guys Learn subscription education website.
HOLIDAY SALE! The Genealogy Guys Learn subscription education site is on sale for only $69 this holiday season. Our regular annual subscription price is $99, and this sale price of $69 is a 30% savings! Genealogy Guys Learn currently offers 40 video and 20 written courses with new content added every month. Courses range from beginning to advanced topics. A complete list of current courses and new topics coming soon can be found at https://ahaseminars.com/cpage.php?pt=29. Learn from The Genealogy Guys, producers since 2005 of the longest-running genealogy podcast, and expert researchers, presenters, and prolific authors! This sale is in effect from November 25, 2021, until 11:59 PM Eastern U.S. time on January 1, 2022. Take advantage of this great price by going to the website at https://genealogyguyslearn.com/, click the red Enroll Now! box at the bottom of the screen, fill in the information requested, and add the code HOLIDAY2021 for your discount.
The Genealogy Guys Podcast #396
03 Nov 2021
01:17:33
The Guys announce the winner of drawing for the “Brick Wall Strategies” quicksheet as Dana from Salem, Oregon. Look for the next drawing later in the program.
News You Can Use and Share!
RootsMagic 8 has been released.
MyHeritage has updated its Theory of Family RelativityTM facility and massively increased the number of theories being produced.
MyHeritage has added 462 million exclusive new French historical records.
Nathan Dylan Goodwin’s latest forensic genealogical mystery book, The Foundlings, has just been released.
Findmypast has added new U. S. marriage records and has released new marriage and banns records for Essex, England, 1537-1935.
Findmypast has announced that the 1921 Census of England and Wales will be released on 6 January 2022.
Drew recaps the vast new and expanded collections at FamilySearch.
DNA Segment with Diahan Southard
Drew discusses MyHeritage's Theory of Family Relativity with Diahan.
Listener Email
Steve writes about locating his biological grandfather through DNA research.
Stuart shares the usefulness of records in the “British Royal Navy Allotment Declarations 1795-1852” collection at Findmypast.
Carol and Ed both wrote to express how much they enjoyed the interview with Bruce Buzbee of RootsMagic on the Genealogy Connection podcast (episode #080).
Ed wrote about our discussion concerning pedigree collapse.
Jean wrote to provide listeners with additional online resources for New York marriages.
Tom asks about how valid are low cM levels in DNA matches and asks what level of grandparents should he be searching for.
Cathy writes about Civil War records for homes for disabled veterans.
Natalie asks how she can get involved with indexing at FamilySearch for a specific area of Wisconsin and specific church records.
David wants advice about locating records of a great-great-grandfather who died at sea while emigrating from Ireland to the U. S. in the 1850s-1860s.
Quicksheet Drawing
The Guys will give away a quicksheet reference guide for “Basics of Birth Certificates”. Send an email to genealogyguys@gmail.com by midnight Eastern Time on 15 November 2021. Put BIRTH in the subject line and your name and postal address in the body. The winner will be announced on the next podcast.
Thank you to all our Patreon supporting members for their support. Your Patreon support helps us improve our technology and provide even more podcast content to you! You can join us for as little as $1 a month or as much as you’d like to contribute. Visit https://www.patreon.com/genealogyguys to get started.
Please also tell your friends and your society about our free podcasts, our free blog, and our Genealogy Guys Learn subscription education website.
The Guys announce the winner of the drawing for the “Basic Birth Certificates” quicksheet as Francis from Cumming, Georgia. The next drawing is announced later in the program.
News You Can Use and Share
MyHeritage announces its new and improved colorization model for MyHeritage in ColorTM.
MyHeritage has added two significant new collections. They are the Newspaper Name Index, USA and Canada, and the Scotland Census, 1841-1901. MyHeritage will be adding an index to the other half of the newspaper collection soon.
The Society of Genealogists in London announced that its library catalog has been made available on the Library Hub Discover service.
Findmypast has added the largest collection of historical local photographs, the Francis Frith Collection, to its searchable collections.
Findmypast has added a new feature to the 1891, 1901, and 1911 censuses. It is a link for every search result to the Comprehensive Gazetteer of England and Wales 1895 and a detailed map is displayed on which you can see where your ancestors lived.
Findmypast has added new parish records for Warwickshire, the Warwickshire, Coventry, Midwife’s Birth Register 1845-1875, and Turks & Caicos Life Events.
Ancestry has released its new DNA ethnic estimates and includes 8 new regions.
Drew recaps the vast new and expanded collections at FamilySearch.
DNA Segment with Diahan Southard
Drew discusses endogamy vs. pedigree collapse with Diahan.
Listener Email
Judy writes to discuss challenges with New York State marriage records.
Pam asks about records included in the updates from FamilySearch. George responds with suggestions, including a detailed discussion about how to use the search records facilities at FamilySearch for the following categories of records: indexed collections; image-only collections; and the catalog. He also recommends the use of the FamilySearch Research Wiki to access records online.
Stacy Cole shares keen insights into the idea that the enslaved, once emancipated, took the surname of their last enslaver.
Ryan wrote to provide an update on his research from six years ago about records relating to his great-grandmother’s suicide. He has had success finding elusive records and shares his experience.
Update on the Zion Cemetery Project
Drew provides an update on the fascinating Zion Cemetery Project in Tampa. He and volunteers are working to identify descendants and family members, gather information about the interred's lives and historical context, and create a lasting memorial. They are collaborating with University of South Florida faculty and alumni, members of local genealogy societies, community members, and nationally known professional genealogists. More updates will be shared in future podcast episodes.
Quicksheet Drawing
The Guys will give away a quicksheet reference guide for “Brick Wall Research Strategies”. Send an email to genealogyguys@gmail.com no later than 12 midnight Eastern Time on October 1, 2021. Put BRICK WALL in the subject line and your name and postal address in the body. The winner will be announced on the next Genealogy Guys Podcast.
Thank you to all our Patreon supporting members for their support. Your Patreon support helps us improve our technology and provide even more podcast content to you! You can join us for as little as $1 a month or as much as you’d like to contribute. Visit https://www.patreon.com/genealogyguys to get started.
Please also tell your friends and your society about our free podcasts, our free blog, and our Genealogy Guys Learn subscription education website.
George and Drew are available for virtual presentations for your local society. Contact us at genealogyguys@gmail.com.
The Genealogy Guys Podcast #424
22 Feb 2024
01:17:31
David from Addison, Texas, is the winner of our drawing for a MyHeritage DNA kit. More drawings will be announced later this year.
News You Can Use and Share!
RootsTech, the world’s largest genealogy conference, takes place in Salt Lake City, Utah, and online next week, 29 February through 2 March 2024.
FamilySearch International and American Ancestors announced a collaboration on the 10 Million Names Project. The project “seeks to recover the names and restore information to families of the estimated 10 million men, women, and children of African descent who were enslaved in pre- and post-colonial America, including the area that would become the United States.”
DNA Segment
In our DNA Segment, DNA expert Diahan Southard discusses Ancestry DNA with Drew Smith.
Listener Email
Douglas responds regarding our discussion of slide and negative scanners. He reminds people to check with their local library for the availability of a scanner for checkout. He was able to use a Wolverine slide and negative scanner. (It and the Kodak model discussed on the last podcast are available through Amazon.)
Mike writes again to provide additional information about the Old Fulton Postcards website and the New York local government historians’ (LGH) roles.
Ryan asks about two different marriage records dated the same date in adjoining states for the same couple.
Laura writes in response to Dennis’ questions about writing a family history, and uses the “52 ancestors in 52 weeks” approach presented by Amy Johnson Crow.
Matt is seeking a missing Pennsylvania death record from 1914. He has conducted extensive research and is looking for more suggestions.
Kristen is seeking advice for locating records for a missing family member, Arthur Tozer.
Thank you to all our Patreon supporting members for their support. Your Patreon support helps us improve our technology and provide even more podcast content to you! You can join us for as little as $1 a month or as much as you’d like to contribute. Visit https://www.patreon.com/genealogyguys to get started.
Please also tell your friends and your genealogical society about our free podcasts, blog, and the Genealogy Guys Learn subscription education website.
And don’t forget to order Drew’s book, Generation by Generation: A Modern Approach to the Basics of Genealogy, from Genealogical Publishing Company (genealogical.com/) or Amazon.com.
Genealogy Connection #078 - Nicka Sewell-Smith and the Freedmen's Bureau Records
30 Aug 2021
00:53:13
Nicka Sewell-Smith returns to Genealogy Connection, and the discussion focuses on the newly released Freedmen's Bureau records freely available on Ancestry.
To learn more about Nicka, listen to episode #073 of Genealogy Connection, and visit her website at Who Is Nicka Smith?
The Genealogy Guys Podcast #394
24 Aug 2021
01:05:24
News You Can Use and Share!
Ancestry announces the release of a massive collection of Freedman’s Bureau records with every-name indexing and images. The records are free to use with your free Ancestry guest membership.
Ancestry announced a change in its Terms of Service concerning their rights to use content that members upload.
MyHeritage announced that it is acquiring Filae, the French genealogical company.
MyHeritage has released 9.7 million new and updated records for Pernambuco, Brazil, and 4.7 million birth, marriage, and death records from New Zealand.
MyHeritage has made major improvements to its Online Family Tree, and these improve navigation and access to records links.
The Society of Genealogists in London, England, has appointed Dr. Wanda Wyporska as its new CEO, effective 1 October 2021.
Findmypast has released new and updated collection records: Scotland, Parish Births (1564-1929), Marriages and Banns (1561-1893), and Deaths (1564-2017); British Army, Royal Engineers (1900-1949); British Army tracer cards; Essex Parish Records; Royal Engineers Casualty Cards; an expanded Greater London Burial Index, and more.
Findmypast is making over 1 million pages of 158 historical British newspapers available for free.
Drew recaps the vast new and expanded collections at FamilySearch.
DNA Segment with Diahan Southard
Drew discusses the importance of descendancy research with Diahan.
Listener Email
Stuart reported on his recent success with Drew’s Key Lime Pound Cake recipe. (Drew originally discussed this recipe in a December 2019 episode, and emailed copies to anyone who requested it.)
Jane asks for suggestions about what to do with her mother’s 60+ years of genealogical research files.
Quicksheet Drawing
The Guys will give away a quicksheet reference guide for “Basics of Birth Certificates” in the U.S. Send an email to genealogyguys@gmail.com by midnight U.S. Eastern Time September 1, 2021. Put BIRTH in the email subject line and your name and postal address in the body. The winner will be announced on the next podcast.
Drew’s WikiTree Challenge
Drew’s genealogy was the focus on a one-week genealogy challenge at WikiTree. Volunteer researchers delved into his genealogy to break through brick walls and to expand his knowledge. Watch the two YouTube videos – the Challenge and the Results – to share the excitement. Here are the links:
Thank you to all our Patreon supporting members for their support. Your Patreon support helps us improve our technology and provide even more podcast content to you! You can join us for as little as $1 a month or as much as you’d like to contribute. Visit https://www.patreon.com/genealogyguys to get started.
Please also tell your friends and your society about our free podcasts, our free blog, and our Genealogy Guys Learn subscription education website.
MyHeritage has released 10.7 million records for the Austria-Hungary Roman Catholic Indexes. 1612-1966, and Austria, Vienna Catholic Church Records Index, 1585-1918.
MyHeritage has upgraded their Theory of Family Relativity facility for DNA matches to allow you to confirm or reject a theory.
American Ancestors has introduced a new database for the only surviving copy of the 1810 U.S. Federal Census for Salem, Massachusetts.
ScotlandsPeople has announced a delay of the release of the images of the 1921 Scottish Census until the latter half of 2022. Thanks to the Society of Genealogists for providing us with that news!
Findmypast has published new or expanded collections: Ireland, Court of Chancery Bill Books (1627-1884); Ireland, Court of Exchequer Bill Books (1627-1884); Ireland, Petty Sessions Court Registers; Scotland, Dumfries and Galloway Census & Population Lists (1792-1821); Manitoba Vital Records; U.S. Census of Revolutionary War Pensioners (1840); U.S., Lord Dunmore’s Ethiopian Regiment, 1776; additional England Roman Catholic Parish Registers; Pembrokeshire Parish Registers; Scotland, Modern and Civil Deaths & Burials (1855-2021); Australia, Inward, Outward & Coastal Passenger Lists (1826-1972); and Canada, Black Nova Scotians (1784-1837).
FamilySearch has announced dates and details about RootsTech 2022.
Drew recaps the vast new and expanded collections at FamilySearch.
DNA Segment with Diahan Southard
Drew discusses with Diahan the new Ancestry DNA feature that allows you to identify how you are related to your matches, if you know.
Listener Email
Alan wrote to discuss questions about reducing his library’s holdings.
Kristina shared details about how she solved a brick wall using Geni.com, newspapers, and DNA.
Pam wrote about the dilemmas faced when trying to sort through donations to her local historical society. Drew and George discuss the need for library and archive policies to guide both libraries and donors. Drew shares insights from the GENEALIB mailing list. Note that the following link will work only for GENEALIB subscribers: http://listserv.usf.edu/scripts/wa.exe?A1=ind2107&L=GENEALIB&X=O6A5CAB430DB224809C#4
Thank you to all our Patreon supporting members for their support. Your Patreon support helps us improve our technology and provide even more podcast content to you! You can join us for as little as $1 a month or as much as you’d like to contribute. Visit https://www.patreon.com/genealogyguys to get started.
Please also tell your friends and your society about our free podcasts, our free blog, and our Genealogy Guys Learn subscription education website.
NARA's National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) has a backlog of 500,000 outstanding records inquiries. It is estimated that it will take 18-24 months to resolve the backlog.
The British Library and Findmypast have announced the renewal of their long-term partnership to digitize the British Newspaper Archive and make it available online.
Findmypast has added new collections or new records to: Middlesex Baptisms; Carmarthenshire, Wales, Parish Records; Scotland Roman Catholic Parish Registers; Yorkshire Monumental Inscriptions; England Roman Catholic Parish Registers; and Crime, Prisons & Punishment records and mugshots.
More than 400,000 naturalization records for the Bronx and Queens, New York, will become available online as part of a new federally-funded project.
FamilySearch International announced the release of the FamilySearch GEDCOM 7.0 standard. The new data standard will accommodate media and other data in addition to text. Developers will certainly be busy programming to implement the new GEDCOM standard.
Drew recaps the vast new and expanded collections at FamilySearch.
DNA Segment with Diahan Southard
Drew discusses working with distant matches with Diahan.
Listener Email
Jean congratulated us on our inclusion in Family Tree Magazine’s 101 Best Genealogy Websites. She also shared that she had success with using the old Ancestry message boards to locate a grandfather's cousin.
Donna Moughty won one of the Russia Genealogy Research guides and it gave her the incentive to restart her research into her grandfather who was born in what now is Ukraine. She also has a few openings for her Ireland research trips this October. Learn more at https://www.irishfamilyroots.com/ or email her at moughty@mac.com.
Graeme wrote about the discovery of 215 unmarked graves on the property of a residential school in Canada for indigenous children. He asked Drew for what processes of investigating and repatriating the children’s remains can be used.
Tom wrote about his DNA research for his wife’s biological grandfather.
Thank you to all our Patreon supporting members for their support. Your Patreon support helps us improve our technology and provide even more podcast content to you! You can join us for as little as $1 a month or as much as you’d like to contribute. Visit https://www.patreon.com/genealogyguys to get started.
You should also tell your friends or your society about our free podcasts, our free blog, and our Genealogy Guys Learn subscription education website.
George and Drew are available for virtual presentations for your local society. Contact us at genealogyguys@gmail.com.
The Genealogy Guys Podcast #391
27 May 2021
01:04:21
News You Can Use and Share
MyHeritage announced a new filtering option for the DNA Matches page. You can filter based on any of their 2,114 Genetic Groups.
Ancestry announced that it now has more than 1,400 regions offered between communities and ethnic regions in its DNA matches.
The Society of Genealogists in London, the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, DC, and The National Archives in Kew, Richmond (London) have all reopened with limited capacity and required reservations required.
Findmypast introduces new and improved address search in census records.
Findmypast has added new collections or new records to: Australia, Military Commemorative Rolls & Rolls of Honor; Kent Parish records; the 1939 Register; British Army, Royal Engineers; Coldstream Guards; Monmouthshire Parish records; Glamorganshire Parish records; Australia Inbound, Outward & Coastal Passenger Lists 1826-1972; Middlesex Poor Law records; Scots Guards’ service records (WWII); Norfolk Churchyard and Memorial Images (browse); Scotland, Modern and Civil Births 1855-2019; Scotland, Modern and Civil Marriages 1855-2019; Scotland, Modern and Civil Deaths & Burials 1855-2021.
Drew recaps three weeks of vast new and expanded collections at FamilySearch.
DNA Segment with Diahan Southard
Drew discusses with Diahan what the TiP report is on Family Tree DNA and how to use it.
Cyndi Says
Cyndi Ingle says that we shouldn't worry about what others are doing.
Russia At a Glance Reference Guides Giveaway
We are giving away two copies of Genealogical Publishing Company’s at a glance reference guides. If you are interested, send us an email to genealogyguys@gmail.com by June 1st. Include RUSSIA in the header line and your name and mailing address in the body. We’ll draw two winners after June 1st.
Listener Email
Floreen wrote to thank us for the Genealogy Connection interview with Drew Smith.
Patrick shares his success locating family members in Iowa who “disappeared” after 1881.
James wrote to share his frustration with delays with obtaining military records from the National Personnel Record Center. (The facility was closed for over a year with the pandemic and is now beginning to work to catch up.)
Cindy couldn’t locate her grandparents in the 1930 census. She reminds us all not to forget newspaper research.
Terri is looking for an unknown father. Drew suggested using DNA testing and joining the Facebook group DNA Detectives for more help.
Laura shares how MyHeritage helped her discover an uncle she never knew existed.
We’d like to thank all our supporting Patreon members for their support. Your Patreon support helps us improve our technology and provide even more podcast content to you! You can join us for as little as $1 a month or as much as you’d like to contribute. Visit https://www.patreon.com/genealogyguys to get started.
You should also tell your friends or your society about our free podcasts, our free blog, and our Genealogy Guys Learn subscription education website.
Drew's guest is...Drew Smith! After receiving a number of requests from listeners, George interviews Drew as the Genealogy Connection guest.
Drew is the genealogy librarian at the University of South Florida Libraries in Tampa, has authored or co-authored several genealogy books, is a regular columnist for the Association of Professional Genealogists Quarterly, and speaks regularly at local, national, and international genealogy meetings and conferences.
MyHeritage announced significant updates to their website Navigation Bar.
MyHeritage has introduced Deep NostalgiaTM special animations to its photo collection.
The National Archives in the UK (https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/) will reopen its reading rooms on 27 April 2021. Advance reservations are required.
Findmypast has added new records to existing collections: Norfolk Baptisms; Norfolk Banns & Marriages; Norfolk Burials; Philadelphia Roman Catholic Parish Records; England & Wales Deaths 2007-2020; Ireland, Northern Ireland Deaths 1998-2020; Cincinnati Roman Catholic Parish Registers; Cambridgeshire, Licensed Victuallers; and more.
Drew recaps huge new and expanded collections at FamilySearch numbering in the millions of records.
The DNA Segment with Diahan Southard
Drew and Diahan discuss MyHeritage's new Genetic Groups and how to use them.
Cyndi Says
Cyndi Ingle of Cyndi’s List tells us that it's time to refresh.
Our Listeners Speak
Laura discusses the fact that her family cannot be found in the 1920 U.S. federal census.
Jeffery has built his own cemetery website so that he can see people’s information the way he prefers. You can check it out at http://www.wikigrave.com/.
Pat writes about the probate for her South Carolina ancestor.
Vic wrote seeking advice for how to label his photographs so that they are easier to organize, file electronically, and quickly locate. George recommends Vivid-Pix RESTORE software (https://vivid-pix.com/) that can enhance all types of images, add metadata, and then allow quick searching.
Joshua writes about FamilySearch and its multiple collections of birth and marriage records, and that sometimes each collection’s content is often different. George addresses marriage records: marriage indexes, marriage bonds, and marriage books.
And finally...
We'd like to thank all our supporting Patreon members for their support. Your Patreon support helps us improve our technology and provide even more podcast content to you! You can join us for as little as $1 a month or as much as you’d like to contribute. Visit https://www.patreon.com/genealogyguys to get started.
RootsMagic has invited the public to participate in a community preview of RootsMagic 8 to provide pre-release feedback. Visit https://www.rootsmagic.com/preview/get/ to get involved.
MyHeritage ...
... announced the release of a new record collection, United States Border Crossings from Canada, 1895-1956.
... introduced Photo Storyteller, a new way to record stories and add narrative behind your favorite family photos.
... .announced Deep Nostalgia to animate faces on your family photos.
... added millions of historical Lithuanian-Jewish records from the LitvakSIG’s work, 1795-1940.
... introduced Genetic Groups using high resolution of 2,100+ geographic regions.
Nathan Dylan Goodwin has a new book, The Chester Creek Murders, featuring new characters and forensic DNA research.
Findmypast has introduced a new and improved image viewer and has added many new and expanded collections: Ireland, Londonderry City Burials (1853-1961); New York Catholic Parish Registers (browse) for Bronx, Yonkers, and Ulster Counties; additions to the Denbighshire Parish Records; and additions to Essex Baptisms, Kent Baptisms, and Kent Marriages
FamilySearch has remodeled its library in Salt Lake City and has launched a new webpage.
Drew recaps huge new and expanded collections at FamilySearch.
We’ll be participating in the Wisconsin State Genealogical Society (WSGS) Gene-A-Rama on April 9-10 and the Ohio Genealogical Society Conference on April 14-17.
Drew has been writing a daily blog entry throughout March about his work with his ancestors on the collaborative FamilySearch Family Tree.
Drew is also coordinating the project to document African Americans interred in Tampa’s Zion Cemetery and their descendants.
We have new Patreon members this week. We’d like to thank all our supporting Patreon members for their support. Your Patreon support helps us improve our technology and provide even more podcast content to you! You can join us for as little as $1 a month or as much as you’d like to contribute. Visit https://www.patreon.com/genealogyguys to get started.
You should also tell your friends or your society about our free podcasts, our free blog, and our Genealogy Guys Learn subscription education website.
George and Drew are available for virtual presentations for your local society. Contact us at genealogyguys@gmail.com.
Genealogy Connection #84 - Donna Moughty, Irish Research Expert and Research Trip Leader
29 Jan 2024
00:56:20
Drew's guest is Donna Moughty, who led the research trip to Dublin that Drew joined in October 2023. In this episode, Drew and Donna discuss her experiences over many years in leading research trips to Ireland, and how researchers need to prepare before going on a research trip (no matter where their ancestors were from). To learn of Donna's background, see GC episode #002.
The Genealogy Guys Podcast #388
16 Dec 2020
01:32:40
The Genealogy Guys Learn subscription education site is on sale through December 31, 2020 for $69 for your first year's subscription (new subscribers only). Regularly $99, this is our lowest price of the year! Visit http://blog.genealogyguys.com/2020/11/genealogy-guys-learn-on-sale-through.html for full details of obtaining the discount and our current course catalog. (Listen to the podcast to get the discount code.)
The winner of the Genealogy Publishing Company’s At a Glance sheet on “Polish Genealogy Research” is John from North Tonawanda, New York.
The Association of Professional Genealogists (APG) presented its 2020 awards. Included are Loretto Dennis “Lou” Szucs as recipient of the Laura G. Prescott Award for Exemplary Service to Genealogy and Amy E. K. Arner, who received the Honorary Life Membership.
Michael J. Leclerc has been selected as the new managing editor of the Association of Professional Genealogists Quarterly.
Findmypast has added new collections or new records to: Scotland Monumental Inscriptions; US World War II Casualty Lists; Essex Baptisms; Devon Baptisms; Berkshire Probate Index; Yorkshire Monumental Inscriptions; U.S. Obituary Notices; and Ireland Billion Graves Cemetery Index.
Enslaved.org has built a robust, open-source online facility to discover and explore nearly a half million people and 5 million data points for enslaved Africans. From archival entries to spreadsheet entries, the lives of the enslaved can be seen in richer detail. Visit https://enslaved.org/.
FamilySearch has announced that it is has added 20 languages – up now to 30 languages – for researching in its website.
Drew recaps three weeks of huge new and expanded collections at FamilySearch.
DNA Segment with Diahan Southard
Drew and Diahan discuss CODIS, the DNA database used by U.S. law enforcement, and how the major DNA testing companies interact (or not) with U.S. law enforcement.
Cyndi Says
Cyndi Ingle tells us that it is time to review.
We Hear from Our Listeners!
Tom wrote to thank The Guys for leads to books and other materials about life in Scotland and its history between 1900 and 1930. He also describes some ironies he has discovered in WWI and WWII in his wife’s family.
Mark shared his brick wall happy dance that resulted from locating a social item in a 1902 newspaper gossip column.
William is trying to locate a birth certificate in Texas for his grandfather. He has located one for his grandfather’s brother but not for his grandfather. Suggestions are welcome from our listeners.
Lisa wrote to discuss her genealogical numbering using the Ahnentafel method and how she files her evidence.
We’d like to thank all our supporting Patreon members for their support. Your Patreon support helps us improve our technology and provide even more podcast content to you! You can join us for as little as $1 a month or as much as you’d like to contribute. Visit https://www.patreon.com/genealogyguys to get started.
You should also tell your friends or your society about our free podcasts, our free blog, and our Genealogy Guys Learn subscription education website and the current sale through December 31, 2020.
ProQuest and Ancestry have extended remote access to Ancestry Library Edition in participating libraries through March 2021.
MyHeritage announced that Family Tree Builder software is now available for the macOS Catalina and macOS High Sierra platforms.
MyHeritage has published three new collections from Wales: Wales, Parish Births and Baptisms; Wales, Parish Marriages and Banns; and Wales, Parish Deaths and Burials.
The National Archives (TNA) in the UK has announced that they are doubling the monthly limit on downloading free digital records from their website from 50 to 100. You must register for a free account on their site.
Findmypast has released: Warwickshire, Coventry Blitz, German Air Raids 1940-1941; British Armed Forces, First World War Soldiers’ Medical Records; new Yorkshire Baptisms; new Yorkshire Monumental Inscriptions; British Armed Forces Soldiers’ Wills 1850-1986; Ireland, Londonderry (Derry) War Memorial 1914-1918; and British Red Cross & Order of St. John Enquiry List, Wounded & Missing 1914-1919.
Newspapers.com announces the first phase of their Marriage Index Collection – 50 million wedding announcements.
Geni announced that its World Family Tree now connects over 150 million profiles.
Drew recaps the huge new and expanded collections at FamilySearch.
DNA Segment with Diahan Southard
Drew discusses with Diahan how traditional paternity tests differ from the autosomal DNA tests that genealogists use.
Cyndi Says
Cyndi Ingle tells us to file as we go.
We Hear from Our Listeners
Tom asks about having hired a consultant who created his tree at Ancestry.com under her account. He wants to download that GEDCOM to RootsMagic but cannot share that tree with other people per the Ancestry settings. He is looking for suggestions for how to deal with this.
Tom is looking for books and other materials about life in Scotland and its history between 1900 and 1930. Drew provided some book references, but we welcome our listeners’ input and suggestions.
Mark is searching for a great-grandfather ostensibly born in Alabama in 1881. He thinks his great-great-grandfather may have been “insane”. He is seeking suggestions on how to research the legal and practical aspects of “insanity” in the 1800s. We ask our listeners to share their knowledge and suggestions.
Review and Drawing
Drew reviewed “Polish Genealogy Research”, a Genealogical Publishing Company quick sheet by Rosemary A. Dembinski Chorzempa. GPC is giving one copy of this quick sheet away to one Genealogy Guys Podcast listener. Listen to the episode on how to enter this drawing. But act fast!
Contact Us!
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You should also tell your friends or your local genealogical society about our free podcasts, our free blog, and our Genealogy Guys Learn subscription education website and the current sale through December 31, 2000.
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Genealogy Connection #74 - Michael Cassara, Speaker
09 Nov 2020
00:53:32
Drew's guest is Michael Cassara, a New York City-based genealogy speaker specializing in Italian and Sicilian research topics, as well as topics about research in NYC and New Jersey. In addition to being a speaker at genealogy conferences, he is a casting director.
Learn more about Michael by visiting his website at DigiRoots.net.
The Genealogy Guys Podcast #386
03 Nov 2020
00:48:24
News You Can Use and Share!
MyHeritage has just released a major collection of Historical Norwegian Church Records (1815-1938) including millions of digitized and scanned records of births and baptisms, marriages, deaths, and burials.
MyHeritage has released three historical record collections from Wales: Parish Births and Baptisms; Parish Marriages and Banns; and Parish Deaths and Burials.
Ed Thompson of Evidentia will be producing a new YouTube Livestream, the “Genealogy Software Showcase” to showcase the software in detail, its functionality, and more. Get in at the beginning by joining for free at https://genealogyshowcase.tech/.
Findmypast has released: England & Wales Non-Conformist Births and Baptisms for Surrey Methodists; Jamaica Life Events; Caribbean Rolls of Honor WW I; new records of Kent Baptisms and Burials; 90K new Warwickshire Burials (1874-2016); Scotland, Ayrshire Census & Population Lists (1801-1831); and records from the Greater London Burial Index for St. Olave’s (1583-1665).
Drew recaps the huge new and expanded collections at FamilySearch.
DNA Segment with Diahan Southard
Drew asks Diahan to explain why some DNA testing companies ask for saliva (spit!) and some are fine with cheek scrapings. Learn more at: https://www.yourdnaguide.com/ydgblog/2019/11/26/dna-test-no-saliva-spit
Cyndi Says
Cyndi Ingle tells us about the importance of doing screenshots.
Drew is actively involved with researching the African-American Cemetery in Tampa that was “erased and built over. Here is his presentation for the 2020 Family Heritage Festival coordinated by the Tampa Hillsborough Public Library system.
Drew’s Family Research
Drew discusses his recent focus on his Weinglass ancestors and their descendants. He has made some progress on one of the family lines.
We’d like to thank our newest Patreon member, Simona MacAngus. Your Patreon support helps us improve our technology and provide even more podcast content to you! You can join us for as little as $1 a month or as much as you’d like to contribute. Visit https://www.patreon.com/genealogyguys to get started.
You should also tell your friends or your society about our free podcasts, our free blog, and our Genealogy Guys Learn subscription education website.