Blog - Lisa Louise Cooke

3 Reasons You Need the New Version of Google Earth Just Released

May 17, 2013 By Lisa

Google celebrated Earth Day by releasing Google Earth 7.1 and announcing some great new content! And there are three reasons you will want to make the upgrade:

1. New Hands-Free Navigation Technology
The big news with version 7.1 is Leap Motion support, a touch-free 3d technology that lets you “navigate Google earth with simple hand gestures.” The Leap Motion Controller ($79.99) will start shipping mid-July, so you’ve got some time to get to know Google Earth a little better before you start flying around in it like this:

You KNOW I have to get me some of that!

2. More 3D City Views
There’s also exciting new 3D data in Google Earth, most notably for New York City. But there’s also more imagery for other cities around the world: Innsbruck, Austria; Dijon, France; Cagliari, Italy and the Spanish cities of San Sebastian, Santander, Pamplona, Manresa and Burgos. Other U.S. cities with 3D coverage include Miami, FL; Houston, TX; Orlando, FL; Encinitas, CA and Spokane, WA.

3. The Addition of the 50th Country to Google Maps’ popular Street View Feature
You can now view 50 countries with Google Maps’ popular Street View feature. The newest nations to be added are Hungary and Lesotho (a tiny country within South Africa), and there’s new or updated coverage for Poland, Romania, France, Italy, Russia, Singapore, Thailand and other locations worldwide. Google calls this “the largest single update of Street View imagery we’ve ever pushed, including new and updated imagery for nearly 350,000 miles of roads across 14 countries.”

Help for Using Google Earth for Genealogy
How can you access these fabulous features, both for fun virtual travel and for seriously fun genealogy research? Upload the latest version of Google Earth for free (for PC, Mac or Linux). Then check out my Google Earth for Genealogy 2-CD Bundle. There’s a reason is this one of my best-selling presentations: Google Earth is one of the best genealogy research tools around! In these CD presentations, I show you how to locate and map ancestral homesteads; use historical map overlays; identify where old photos were taken; create 3D models of ancestral locations; create custom family history tours and much more.

Filed Under: Google Gem, Maps, Tech Topics, What's New Tagged With: 3D maps, ancestors, genealogy gems, google earth, Google Earth 7.1, Google Maps, historic maps, Leap Motion, podcast, Street View

Church Records for Genealogy on Archives.com

May 16, 2013 By Lisa

About 4.6 million genealogical records from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) are now available on Archives.com.

This project represents a unique collection for Archives.com, which partnered with the ELCA Archives to digitize and index about 1000 rolls of microfilmed records of affiliated church. According to the company, this collection represents records that have never been online before. It eliminates the major barriers we usually have in researching church records: not knowing which specific congregation an ancestor attended; not knowing where those records are now and not having easy access to them.

According to a company press release, “The records in these collections date from the mid-1800s through 1940 and include births, baptisms, confirmations, marriages, deaths, and burials. Details vary from church to church, but often include parents’ names, dates and places of the event, and other biographical details. Many of the churches were founded by immigrants from Norway, Sweden, and Germany and had immigrant families as their members.”

I was curious to see what I could find in the collection on my own family. You can imagine how happy I was to find this record (image below) of my grandmother, Alfreda Sporowski (image right) from Gillespie, Illinois:

Church record naming Alfreda Sporowski, from Archives.com’s collection of Evangelical Lutheran Church records.

I remember years ago writing a letter to the church and receiving a letter in reply with this information. Now I’m looking at the original document in just seconds from my home computer. We’ve come a long way!

Not a member at Archives.com? You can sign up here for a free 7-day trial membership.

Filed Under: Research, What's New Tagged With: Archives.com, church records, ELCA, Evangelical, family history, genealogy, genealogy gems, Lutheran, podcast

100 Years Ago Today in Newspapers

May 14, 2013 By Lisa

Spring is in the air, as it was 100 years ago today. On May 14, 1913 the Omaha Daily Bee, the front page sported a comic depicting the eternal struggle of suburban life – fighting weeds in an effort to achieve the perfect lawn.

(Omaha daily bee., May 14, 1913, Weekly Market Review Edition, Image 1 Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922)

You can view the digitized paper featuring “Mr. Suburbs” at the Chronicling America website, along with digitized papers ranging from 1836 – 1922.

To learn more about using newspapers to climb your family tree grab a copy of my book How to Find Your Family History in Newspapers.

Filed Under: Newspaper, Uncategorized, What's New

Tech Tool for Discovering What Your Speech Reveals About Your Heritage

May 13, 2013 By Lisa

How you speak can reveal much about your heritage.

If you’ve ever lived in or visited the U.S. or Canada, you already know we don’t all speak English the same way. But did you know that we actually speak eight different major dialects in North America?

The website North American English Dialects has put those dialects on the map. In fact, it even traces their origins and spread: 2 dialects from the west and 6 from the east, reflecting the way the English language originally spread across the continent.

Creator Rick Aschmann notes how we say our “r’s”, the 19 vowel sounds we use, and all those other great tiny variations that go into our Southern drawl or “broad-A” Boston-speak. Aschmann is just doing this project for fun, but he takes his map pretty seriously. He even asks anyone with a “native accent” to upload a sound file of themselves speaking.

It’s fun to look at this map and think about how our American or Canadian ancestors may have pronounced things differently than we do (or the same, depending on how far we’ve wandered). If your families have migrated within the past 50 to 100 years, click on some of the sound samples from your old stomping grounds and see if you catch some familiar cadences or phrases.

A Huffington Post writer says he could look at this map for hours and not get bored, and I agree! It’s complicated–there are lots of color codes and lines and such–but our speech is complicated, too. Some cities or small regions need their own enlarged maps to show neighborhood-level differences.

You can learn more about how our speech reveals our heritage and family history by listening to my interview with Dr. Robert Leonard Ph.D., Forensic Linguist in Genealogy Gems Podcast Episode 89. Dr. Leonard has been featured on the TV series Forensic Files and has a fascinating personal history as well.

Filed Under: Candian, History, Maps, What's New Tagged With: American English, ancestors, Canadian English, dialect, English language, genealogy gems, linguistic heritage, map, podcast

Family History and DNA: Spencer Wells at SCGS

May 9, 2013 By Lisa

A couple of months ago, I blogged the cool news that the Southern California Genealogical Society will be sponsoring a one-day genetic genealogy conference on Thursday, June 6, 2013 in conjunction with its annual Jamboree.

In the following video interview, a news reporter chats with Spencer Wells, one of the keynote speakers for “Family History and DNA: Genetic Genealogy in 2013.” They talk about how the National Geographic Society’s Genographic Project uses DNA to place us on a worldwide family tree. Spencer even helps the reporter take his own DNA cheek scraping on live TV.

Whether you’d love a teaser for the upcoming genetic genealogy conference or you’re just interested in DNA, check out this video:

Filed Under: Conferences, DNA, What's New Tagged With: conference, dna, family history, genealogy, genealogy gems, Jamboree, National Geographic Society Genographic Project, podcast, SCGC

100-Year Old Time Capsule Opens

May 9, 2013 By Lisa

Exactly one hundred years ago on April 22, a time capsule was buried in the basement of the First English Lutheran Church in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, U.S.A. During a ceremony this April 22, a crowd that included the governor oversaw the opening of the “Century Chest.”

The entire ceremony was captured on video. Skip ahead to the good part, where they start opening the packages in the enormous box, at about 1 hour and 10 minutes into the video. You’ll see a prize-winning plate from the state fair, an old desk telephone with its bright green cord still wrapped around it, an Edison phonograph machine, artwork, photos, newspaper articles, clothing, a pen used by U.S. President McKinley to sign the Free Homes Bill and more!

My question for you: what would YOU put in a 100-year time capsule? Leave your comments.

Filed Under: Get Inspired!, History, Memory Lane, What's New Tagged With: ancestors, genealogy, genealogy gems, history, Oklahoma, podcast, time capsule

Online Historical Maps: From David Rumsey to the DPLA

May 8, 2013 By Lisa

Opening pages of rare 1905 Sanborn Map of San Francisco, showing city just before 1906 earthquake. Find the entire map book at the David Rumsey Historical Map Collection

Genealogists rely on historical maps to help us navigate the geography of our ancestors’ lives. One of the most important resources available online is the David Rumsey Map Collection. Well, Rumsey recently announced on his website that he will be making more than 38,000 of his historical maps–everything he’s currently got online–available at the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA).

I blogged recently about the DPLA, which aims to create an enormous, free digital library we can all access online. It will be great to have the Rumsey map collection searchable on the DPLA so we can search these maps while we look for any other sources on any particular location our ancestors lived. “Maps tell stories that complement texts, images, and other resources found in the growing DPLA library,” says Rumsey. “And the open content policies of my online library fit perfectly with DPLA’s mission to make cultural resources freely available to all.” He applauds what the DPLA is trying to accomplish and even encourages other collectors to donate content.

Rumsey has spent years collecting thousands of old maps and putting them online. Now he’s working to share them even more widely. His entire collection of about 150,000 maps will eventually be housed at Stanford University. Meanwhile, we can all enjoy the thousands of images we can search on his site or at the DPLA.

Google’s free program Google Earth includes nearly 150 historic maps in the Layers panel. You can also add historic maps downloaded from Rumsey’s site to Google Earth by using the Overlay feature. My video tutorial series called Google Earth for Genealogy will show you how. You can also get step-by-step instructions in my book The Genealogist’s Google Toolbox. Or get them all in a discounted bundle.

Filed Under: Maps, What's New Tagged With: David Rumsey, digital library, digitized maps, DPLA, family history, genealogy, genealogy gems, historical maps, maps, podcast

Danish Version of WDYTYA Being Filmed

April 30, 2013 By Lisa

The Danish Broadcasting Corporation is filming its own version of “Who Do You Think You Are?”–which we’ve learned via two U.S. newspapers!

According to the Bureau County Republican and the NewsTribune (Illinois Valley), popular Danish actress Suzanne Bjerrehuus was in the area filming stories of her great-great-grandparents, who emigrated from Denmark to the American Midwest in 1869. (They apparently left behind one of their six children, from whom Bjerrehuus descends.)

As part of her whirlwind family history tour, Bjerrehuus reportedly visited the Danish Immigrant Museum in Elk Horn, Iowa. If you have Danish roots, you should probably check out their website. They have a Family History & Genealogy Center, which specializes in helping people find links to their Danish immigrant past. They provide research and translation services and they’ve helped people connect with long-lost relatives in both Denmark and the United States.

Filed Under: Immigration, Societies, What's New, Who Do You Think You Are? Tagged With: ancestors, Ancestry, celebrity genealogy, Danish, Danish Immigrant Museum, Denmark, family history, genealogy, genealogy gems, genealogy TV, podcast, Suzanne Bjerrehuus, wdytya

More Family History Records on FamilySearch.org

April 25, 2013 By Lisa

FamilySearch.org keeps adding records at a phenomenal pace, thanks in large part to the efforts of thousands of volunteer indexers around the world. In fact, they recently celebrated the billionth record indexed since they started community indexing in September 2006.

Here’s a list of online collections with records recently added or improved. Do you notice that this new list is “browsable only?” That means you can scroll through them online, but there’s not a searchable index yet. FamilySearch staff and volunteers are imaging record sets even faster than indexers can get them indexed!
Want to help? Join over 133,000 active indexers who index projects of their choice, from U.S. naturalizations to Brazilian church records. Join the effort here.

Collection	Indexed Records	Digital Images	Comments
Australia, Tasmania, Civil Registration, 1803-1933	0	73,580	New browsable image collection.
England, Northumberland, Miscellaneous Records, 1570-2005	0	11,631	Added images to an existing collection.
Italy, Bari, Trani, Civil Registration (Tribunale), 1866-1910	0	6,549	Added images to an existing collection.
Italy, Caserta, Santa Maria Capua Vetere, Civil Registration (Tribunale), 1866-1929	0	2,961	Added images to an existing collection.
Philippines, La Union, Diocese of San Fernando de La Union, 1801-1981	0	25,464	New browsable image collection.
Spain, Cádiz, Testaments, 1550-1920	0	48,616	Added images to an existing collection.
Spain, Province of Cádiz, Municipal Records, 1784-1931	0	49,363	New browsable image collection.
Spain, Records of Widows and Orphans of Spanish Officials, 1835-1960	0	44,021	Added images to an existing collection.
U.S., Missouri, Cole County Circuit Court Case Files, 1820-1926	0	28,638	Added images to an existing collection.
U.S., Ohio, Southern District Naturalization Index, 1852-1991	0	92,436	New browsable image collection.
U.S., South Dakota, County Naturalization Records, 1865-1972	0	124,277	New browsable image collection.

lection	Indexed Records	Digital Images	Comments
Australia, Tasmania, Civil Registration, 1803-1933	0	73,580	New browsable image collection.
England, Northumberland, Miscellaneous Records, 1570-2005	0	11,631	Added images to an existing collection.
Italy, Bari, Trani, Civil Registration (Tribunale), 1866-1910	0	6,549	Added images to an existing collection.
Italy, Caserta, Santa Maria Capua Vetere, Civil Registration (Tribunale), 1866-1929	0	2,961	Added images to an existing collection.
Philippines, La Union, Diocese of San Fernando de La Union, 1801-1981	0	25,464	New browsable image collection.
Spain, Cádiz, Testaments, 1550-1920	0	48,616	Added images to an existing collection.
Spain, Province of Cádiz, Municipal Records, 1784-1931	0	49,363	New browsable image collection.
Spain, Records of Widows and Orphans of Spanish Officials, 1835-1960	0	44,021	Added images to an existing collection.
U.S., Missouri, Cole County Circuit Court Case Files, 1820-1926	0	28,638	Added images to an existing collection.
U.S., Ohio, Southern District Naturalization Index, 1852-1991	0	92,436	New browsable image collection.
U.S., South Dakota, County Naturalization Records, 1865-1972	0	124,277	New browsable image collection.
Brazil, Civil Registration, 1870-2012	0	44,220	Added images to an existing collection.
Germany, Brandenburg, Berlin, Probate Records, 1796-1853	0	449,478	New browsable image collection.
Germany, Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach, Jena, City Directories, 1810-1935	0	3,721	New browsable image collection.
Germany, Saxe-Meiningen, Saalfeld an der Saale, Miscellaneous City Records, 1876-1920	0	8,433	New browsable image collection.
Italy, Benevento, Benevento, Civil Registration (Comune), 1861-1929	0	5,700	Added images to an existing collection.
Italy, Cagliari, Cagliari, Civil Registration (Tribunale), 1866-1929	0	53,195	Added images to an existing collection.
Italy, Siracusa, Siracusa, Civil Registration (Tribunale), 1900-1942	0	146,387	New browsable image collection.
Luxembourg, Census Records, 1843-1900	0	199	Added images to an existing collection.
Netherlands, Bibliothéque Wallonne, Card Indexes, ca. 1500-1858	0	1,033,852	New browsable image collection.
Peru, Huánuco, Civil Registration, 1889-1997	0	13,015	Added images to an existing collection.
Peru, Junín, Civil Registration, 1890-2005	0	43,771	Added images to an existing collection.
Peru, La Libertad, Civil Registration, 1903-1998	0	28,331	New browsable image collection.
Ukraine, Kyiv Orthodox Consistory Church Book Duplicates, 1840-1845	149,902	0	Added index records to an existing collection.
U.S., Alabama, Estate Files, 1830-1976	0	181,004	Added images to an existing collection.
U.S., Maryland, Probate Estate and Guardianship Files, 1796-1940	16,963	173,751	Added index records and images to an existing collection.
U.S., Oregon, Tillamook County Records, 1854-1967	0	64,546	New browsable image collection.
U.S., Washington, County Records, 1856-2009	0	210	Added images to an existing collection.
Venezuela, Archdiocese of Merida, Catholic Church Records, 1654-2012	0	7,472	Added images to an existing collection.

Filed Under: familysearch, Records, Uncategorized, What's New Tagged With: ancestors, family history, familysearch, genealogy gems, indexing, podcast

MyHeritage Releases Family Tree Builder 7.0 Software

April 24, 2013 By Lisa

One of the most popular family history websites in the world, MyHeritage, has released Family Tree Builder 7.0, an updated version of its free family tree software.

Family Tree Builder allows users to construct their family trees and decorate them with photos, historical records and more. This new version uses the company’s “Record Matching” technology, which according to Chief Genealogist and Translation Manager Daniel Horowitz, “automatically researches every individual in the user’s family tree and looks for matching historical records with high accuracy.”

A cool new feature is cross-platform synchronicity. According to a company press release, “The new version now syncs your entire family history in both directions between your computer and your family site on MyHeritage, as well as smart phones and tablets, and opens new channels for discovering relatives and billions of historical records with our advanced matching technologies. This means you can now access your family tree securely not just from your computer but also from your online family site, smart phone or tablet device, and even grow the tree and add more information and photos to it, any time and anywhere. All additions and changes will sync back to your Family Tree Builder software on your computer.”

Click here to learn more and download it for free.

Filed Under: MyHertiage, Tech Topics, What's New Tagged With: ancestors, family history, Family Tree Builder, genealogy gems, MyHeritage, podcast, software