Tech Topics Archives - 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

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

How to Grab Your Copy of a Free Digital Archiving E-Book

April 6, 2013 By Lisa

Digital archiving is a hot topic for genealogists these days. Digitizing our family documents, photographs and other artifacts is one more way to help us preserve and share our heritage. Well, the Library of Congress wants to help us out! It has published a free e-book, Perspectives on Personal Digital Archiving.

Scroll through the table of contents and you’ll see immediately why this book is valuable to family historians. There are lots of how-tos on preserving photos and other images: what file formats to use, cloud storage, adding digital captions, image resolution and more. There are sections on how everyday people are preserving their own digital archives. There’s even a great chapter on making sure your digital files live on after you pass away.

There’s an entire chapter on digitizing for the family historian. It gets to the heart of a genealogist’s file organization and storage needs: “Digital genealogy could result in a heap of text files (such as GEDCom files), image scans (most sites enable you to save an image in either JPEG, TIFF or PDF formats), audio files and video files. It’s best to follow the Library of Congress’s personal archiving advice, which is basically to:

1) organize everything within one collection folder
2) backup your collection onto several storage media in several different places
3) migrate your collection every five years or so to new storage media.

Don’t trust that a third-party genealogy service will always remain in business and keep your stuff safe forever. You should have your own copy handy and another copy backed up somewhere else.”

Great advice! Check out the entire book for yourself. And thanks to GenealogyBlog authors Leland and Patty Meitzler who blogged about this new e-book on their site.

Filed Under: Books, Get Inspired!, Organization, Photographs, Tech Topics, What's New Tagged With: ancestors, digital archives, digitization, family history, genealogy, genealogy gems, Library of Congress, podcast

Here’s What’s New (and Better!) at Chronicling America Historic Newspaper Website

April 5, 2013 By Lisa

Many of us know the fabulous Chronicling America newspaper site. Hosted by the Library of Congress, it catalogs all known U.S. newspapers and provides free access to more than six million digital newspaper pages. Well, this site keeps getting better. Content continues to grow and expand into other languages. And–something I personally love–the site will be easier to use on my iPad and iPhone!

Gazette Sentinel, Plaquemine, LA, Jan 20, 1860, Image from Chronicling America

First, let’s look at growing content: 130 new titles and 800,000 pages are new on the site. New titles include French and Spanish newspapers, like the French-English bilingual paper shown here.

‘We as genealogists can read as it were over our ancestors’ shoulders.’

Historical newspapers give readers a front-page view of American history. Recent additions to the collection echo popular feelings about presidential politics, slavery and westward expansion. We as genealogists can read as it were over our ancestors’ shoulders. Even if we don’t find them mentioned there specifically, we can learn a lot about their lives from newspapers of their day.

As I mentioned, Chronicling America now works better on mobile web devices. Specifically mentioned in a recent press release are “the ability to enlarge a portion of a newspaper page in a tablet or mobile phone device by using a pinch-to-zoom gesture. Also, a thumbnail navigator that appears on every page facilitates panning and zooming the image.” That’s a big improvement for users who have been frustrated at trying to use the site on the small screen!

Want to learn more about newspaper research for family historians–especially how to find newspapers online? Check out my book, How to Find Your Family History in Newspapers, available in paperback and as an e-book.

Filed Under: Newspaper, Research, Tech Topics, What's New Tagged With: ancestors, Chronicling America, family history, genealogy, genealogy gems, ipad, iPhone, Library of Congress, newspapers, podcast, tablet

New WikiTree Feature: Surname Following

March 28, 2013 By Lisa

Users of WikiTree, a shared family tree website, will notice a new feature on the website now: Surname Following. Utilizing the new Wiki Genealogy Feed, users can enter specific surnames to follow. They’ll receive updates via email when other WikiTree users update information on that surname on a tree or comment on that surname in the WikiTree G2G (“Genealogist to Genealogist”) Q&A forum.

WikiTree is a free website that aims to grow a “single, worldwide family tree that will eventually connect us all and thereby make it free and easy for anyone to discover their roots.”

Filed Under: Tech Topics, Trees, What's New Tagged With: WikiTree

RootsTech Report: It’s All About Stories

March 22, 2013 By Lisa

Salt Lake City, Utah

Lisa is all over RootsTech this year, teaching and running demos and–her favorite part–meeting many of YOU! So she’s asked me, Gems editor Sunny Morton, to send out a RootsTech Report for those of you who aren’t here.

In case you’re not familiar with this one-of-a-kind (and still evolving) conference, RootsTech is part traditional conference, part trade show. Top speakers teach technology-infused topics in packed classrooms. Industry leaders wow on the big stage, amplified by enormous monitors and sound systems.

Host FamilySearch International has pulled out all the stops to make the event bigger and better than last year: there are more attendees, more exhibitor space, more entertainment. A reported 6700 attendees preregistered, with an additional 2000 youth expected on Saturday and an estimated 5000 additional viewers tuning in to selected sessions at 16 satellite locations in 7 countries. With hopes to extend remote viewership in-language to ten times that number of locations next year, RootsTech is positioning itself as the world’s biggest and furthest-reaching genealogical conference.

Behind all the glamor, industry buzz, excitement of new services and products and everyday genealogists is a message FamilySearch is broadcasting to all who will listen: they want to recruit legions of new family historians who will preserve the stories of millions of lives. Though FamilySearch will continue to provide us millions of sources for dates-names-places, its new online family tree service is designed to capture stories, too, because that’s what makes genealogy meaningful to most of us.

We’ll tell you more about that–and other fun RootsTech updates–in upcoming posts. Meanwhile, tune in here wherever you are to join the fray: catch live streaming sessions and see what’s happening for yourself.

Filed Under: Conferences, familysearch, Tech Topics, What's New Tagged With: RootsTech

RootsTech 2013: There’s an App for That!

March 5, 2013 By Lisa

Are you going to RootsTech in March? Do you have an iPad, tablet or smart phone? Then you need to download a free app!

RootsTech 2013 is your personal conference assistant. It delivers to your palm all the information you need on exhibitors and speakers along with a map and customizable schedule. For example, I’m speaking at RootsTech in four different sessions. You can find each session listed by day or track under the Events icon, or you can go right to my name under the Speakers icon and see all four sessions at once, with a description and location of each one. Add one (or more) of my sessions to your own schedule. You’ll also find me under the Exhibitors icon. You can bookmark or schedule each exhibitor you want to visit, then mark them off as you do. I hope you’ll come see me at my booth!

You can even have a social life on this app. Publish a profile if you want others to see your name on a guest list. Then look for others who have done that under the Attendees icon. Create a network of Friends with whom you can chat and share notes (and meet for lunch!). Stay updated with the app’s News feed, and share in the conference buzz on Twitter and Facebook.

The link I gave you above takes you to the App Shopper for the iOS universal app; it’s also in Apple’s Apps Store.

#RootsTech2013

Filed Under: Conferences, iPad, Tech Topics, What's New Tagged With: app, RootsTech

Free Webinars: Photos on FamilySearch

February 18, 2013 By Lisa

There’s possibly no better way for genealogists to attract the attention of long-lost cousins than to post pictures they want! Now there’s a new place to do that: on one of the world’s leading FREE genealogical data websites.

FamilySearch is rolling out a new Photos feature that will help you share pictures and stories within Family Tree. They are offering two free hour-length webinars to teach us how to use this feature and answer our questions. Here’s the info and links to the webinars:

FamilySearch Photos: Getting Started

Thursday, February 21, 2013, 4pm EST/1pm PST

FamilySearch Photos: We Answer Your Questions

Tuesday, February 26, 2013, 3pm EST/12pm PST

To join the webinar, click on the appropriate link above before it starts (no preregistration necessary). Then select “Enter as Guest” and type your name. You can also call to listen in. In the USA/Canada, call 888-205-5513; other international callers should dial 1-719-955-0562. Enter participant code 422362.

FamilySearch is excited to announce two one-hour webinars focused on using Photos on FamilySearch.org. They will be presented by Tim Cross, the Photos Product Manager at FamilySearch. The first will be an introduction on how to use this amazing new feature, and the second will allow you to ask questions that you may have about photos, sharing stories, and linking both to the Family Tree.

FamilySearch Photos: Getting Started
Thursday February 21, 2013 at 2:00 p.m. Mountain Time
http://ldschurch1.adobeconnect.com/r3yj9djkc5m/

FamilySearch Photos: We Answer Your Questions
Tuesday February 26, 2013 at 1:00 p.m. Mountain Time
http://ldschurch1.adobeconnect.com/r5r1r0torjk/

Instructions for participants,

To join the webinar:
a.      Click the URL prior to the start of the webinar
b.      Select “Enter as Guest”
c.      Type your name in the field

For audio, call:
·        US/CAN Toll free: 1-888-205-5513
·        Int’l Toll: 1-719-955-0562
·        Participant Code: 422362

Filed Under: familysearch, Photographs, Tech Topics, What's New Tagged With: webinar

RootsTech: Countdown, Update!

February 17, 2013 By Lisa

We’re five weeks from RootsTech and counting down! The folks at RootsTech have sent out this registration update and contest invitation:

“Early bird registration has been extended for one more week. The $149 price will expire on 2/22/2013. We’ve seen some great momentum in registrations this week. So, we want to give every opportunity for folks to take advantage of the reduced price on a full conference pass. After 2/22 the price will move to a “last chance” price of $179 for a full conference pass. The “last chance” price will expire on 3/16, at which point the price will go to $219.

As you know, Story@Home is a new addition to RootsTech this year. Story@Home offers class sessions with award-winning storytellers, performers, and speakers to help attendees explore ways to use the power of story to connect with their family. We’re excited about the new perspective and dimension Story@Home adds to the RootsTech experience. You can learn more about Story@Home at www.rootstech.org/stories.

Our friends at Story@Home are running an Instagram Photo Contest. Official RootsTech bloggers are invited to help spread the word. Here are the contest details:

Prize: Story@Home + Getting Started pass ($79 value), Access to all Story@Home classes and Getting Started classes all three days of RootsTech. Contest Dates: February 20th-24th. To participate in the contest: Snap a picture you think tells a story. Examples include family, friends, places, events, mementos–anything that has meaning for you. Upload the photo to Instagram and share with us what story your photo tells. Include the hashtags #tellyourstory and #storyathome. The winner will be chosen by Random.org and announced on the Story@Home Facebook page Monday, February 25th. “Like” us on Facebook to find out if you’ve won: https://www.facebook.com/pages/StoryHome/175409965858537?ref=ts&fref=ts.”

Filed Under: Conferences, Tech Topics Tagged With: contest, RootsTech, Story@Home