(Audio Podcast) In this episode of the Genealogy Gems Podcast, Lisa Louise Cooke explores exciting developments in the world of historical newspapers, including the revival of a beloved search engine and major enhancements to a key U.S. archive. Discover the latest innovations from MyHeritage that can supercharge your family tree research and photo storytelling, along with a spotlight on Ancestry’s exclusive new membership program. Plus, Lisa shares a personal interview reflecting on the profound ways genealogy can inspire healing and connection.

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Genealogy News

Veridian is bringing back Elephind

What was Elephind: Originally a free search engine for historical newspapers, aggregating millions of digitized pages from libraries worldwide; it was a go-to tool for genealogists hunting ancestors in old news articles, obituaries, and ads before it went offline.

Who is Veridian: A digital collections software company specializing in preserving and making accessible historical newspapers; they’ve digitized over 247 million pages, partnering with institutions to build searchable online archives.

What’s New : The announcement “It’s Official: Elephind Is Returning!” Elephind is relaunching later this year with upgrades like semantic search (for more intuitive, context-aware queries) and an AI search assistant to help refine results and suggest related content.

What’s the difference between keyword and semantic search? Keyword search relies on exact word matching. It retrieves content that includes the specific terms entered by the user—without interpreting context or intent. Semantic search uses natural language processing and machine learning to interpret the meaning behind a search query—not just the literal words used. Unlike keyword search, which looks for exact matches, semantic search can identify synonyms, related concepts, and contextual relevance–helping it better understand user intent, even when not explicitly stated.

Chronicling America’s Upgrade is Here

The URL chroniclingamerica.loc.gov will continue to be the home of the Chronicling America collection and will permanently redirect people to the new site.

Resources to assist you with using the new site:

Overview of the Upgrade: It now includes enhanced search tools, better navigation, and new features for browsing over 20 million digitized newspaper pages from 1777–1963. The upgrade includes an improved image viewer for zooming into details like faded text; advanced search options for filtering by state, language, or ethnicity; and title records with historical context on newspapers.

Start searching the new Chronicling America Newspaper Collection.

MyHeritage News

MyHeritage Wiki – MyHeritage is looking to grow the MyHeritage Wiki contributor community,

Contributor perks include:

MyHeritage subscriptions
Personalized gifts
A dedicated contributor page showcasing their articles, biography, and personal/professional links (including social media profiles)”

How to Get Involved – Fill out this form.

LiveMemory™ Now Features Fun New Effects and Improved AI Technology

What’s New: MyHeritage’s photo animation tool now includes fun effects (e.g., colorization, enhancements) and improved AI for more realistic animations, bringing old family photos to life with movements like smiles or head turns.

Benefits for Genealogists: Enhances storytelling by animating ancestors’ images; useful for sharing with family or in presentations—AI improvements mean better handling of damaged or low-quality photos common in heritage collections. It builds on existing tech to add emotional depth to family photos.

Read more about it at the MyHeritage blog.

25 Billion Historical Records Published in June at MyHeritage

Scale of the Addition: Massive update including birth, marriage, death, census, and immigration records from various countries—boosting MyHeritage’s total to over 20 billion records. The records focus on underrepresented areas like European and U.S. collections; genealogists can search for specific datasets via the blog post for targeted family breakthroughs. This is one of the largest single-month additions.

Read more about the new records at the MyHeritage blog.

Finding and Fixing Tree Inconsistencies – Free Webinar Replay Video

MyHeritage’s Consistency Checker identifies common tree errors like duplicate entries, date mismatches, or source conflicts. This free webinar replay video will show you how to use it.

Ancestry introduced Club 1890

Ancestry recently launched its exclusive invitation-only Club 1890, reminiscent of Disney’s Club 33. Learn more about Ancestry’s Cub 1890.

Key Features of Ancestry Club 1890:

Expert Coaching: Monthly one-on-one sessions with a genealogy expert and weekly group coaching sessions.
Advanced Learning: Access to exclusive events and personalized assistance designed to enhance research skills.
VIP Services: Early access to historical records, reserved seating at events, and priority access to customer service.
Premium Perks: Discounts on professional research, travel, and custom mementos.
Other benefits: Includes an annual All Access Family Plan, Pro Tools, four DNA kits per year, and a $100 gift card for Ancestry’s merchandise store.

**Crista Cowan of Ancestry.com Interviews Lisa Louise Cooke on the Stories that Live in Us Podcast**

Read more about it in the Genealogy Gems newsletter.

In this interview with Crista Cowan (The Barefoot Genealogist) on her podcast “Stories that Live in Us” I share my personal story – from a childhood filled with divorces to surviving cancer. It’s been a journey that has revealed to me the ways in which family history can be a real source of healing and hope. At the center of the conversation is my story of genealogical serendipity that led to the discovery of an heirloom quilt. “My great grandmother held a deep Christian faith and wrote to my grandmother for years encouraging her to return to hers. Her quilt was her final letter, not only to my grandmother, but to my father and me.” Colossians 2:2

Thank you to Our Sponsors

MyHeritage – Click here to start finding your family history at MyHeritage

Newspapers.com – Get 20% off a Publisher Extra subscription. Click here and use coupon code GenealogyGems

2 Comments

Nancy Caton on 2025-08-14 at 11:13:30

I really loathe the whole differentiated pricing thing that has arisen out of the internet. The internet was supposed to allow folks to quickly research and get the best price for things, in other words democratize pricing. It used to generally, and to some extent still does for used cars, possibly for books, though that’s a two edged sword.

And you are right, if I had a spare $5k, I would hire a pro, or take a trip to the homes of my great grands, not join ancestry.com’s club. It doesn’t help with sources that don’t exist on ancestry, of which there are many. Their website has always been designed to keep one on their site diligently following all those hits and quaking leaves. Their filters were inadequate, and there were ridiculous answers to searches.

Hallucination is not new with AI – as recently as the teens you could still search for someone with bmd dates prior to 1800, and get results from the social security death index. Since social security was introduced by FDR, even children of the oldest recipient would not have anything to do with someone who died prior to 1800.

It seems to me that this idea may have the same result that the Disney private club did, make many folks like me sign off permanently because of the impact on the experience of the non-rich. I liked the lottery aspect of the quick tickets, but wouldn’t go now when the only way to get those is to pay through the nose.
Micki on 2025-08-15 at 03:24:16

Club 1890, wow. If I can afford $5,000 membership I would just hire a genealogist to do the research for me.

Summer Genealogy Update: Fall Research Prep – Episode 298