Genealogy Blogging Tips: Dictation App and More
Are you ready to start a genealogy blog (or improve one you already write)? Here's a quick Q&A for you, prompted by questions by Genealogy Gems Premium member Kevin: Q: "I am ready to start writing a blog but my typing is slow. Is there a dictation app (iOS) or...
Here’s How You Can Add Video to Evernote
Do you have old home movies, footage of oral history interviews or any other type of family history video to keep track of? I recently heard from Ricky with this question: Q: How do I add video to Evernote? A: Thankfully, it's easy on your computer: Open Evernote....
DNA Testing for Adoptees: Advice from Your DNA Guide
"Knowing your genealogical question can make DNA testing for adoptees (and anyone else) more focused and relevant. Being patient and determined—not quitting after a single test’s results—can also pay off, as it did for Paul Dobbs, a Welsh-born man who followed his...
Lunar Mission One: You Can Put Your DNA on the Moon
A new project backed by top British scientists is crowd-sourcing space exploration by offering donors the chance to put their DNA on the moon. Their first Kickstarter campaign successfully ends today: over £600,000 has been raised in less than a month! Lunar Mission...
Merry Cemetery Displays ‘Dirty Little Secrets’ of the Dead
A gravestone creator in a small town in Romania took his mission seriously to memorialize the dead. But he did in, er, "living color," so to speak. With plenty of colorful images and even dirty little secrets and gossip carved onto tombstones of the local residents at...
Evernote for Family History: OCR Handwriting and Uploading Data
So many of you are harnessing the organizing and storage power of Evernote for family history research (and probably everything else you know!). Every time I teach on Evernote, a round of excited follow-up questions follows. Here are two great questions from Karen: Q:...
Evernote for Family History: How to Solve a Pesky Evernote Web Clipper Problem
Recently Karen wrote in to say, "I'm taking the Evernote challenge!" (Good for you!) She has this question about using the web clipper when using Evernote for family history: Q: How do I get a clip out of Evernote and into my regular file system on my hard drive? I've...
RootsMagic + MyHeritage = Heritage Magic!
If you're a MyHeritage user, you know how powerful their search and record matching technologies are--and how many records and trees they have. If you use RootsMagic, you know how adeptly this family history software helps you build and maintain your master family...
Genealogy Gems Book Club: MORE Great Books Recommended
Looking for something fun to read this holiday season? Whether you need reading material for holiday travels or just want to curl up under a blanket at home, here are two great titles I love. I shared these with Lisa in the December episode of the Genealogy Gems...
Evernote for Family History: Organizing and Tagging Your Data
Recently Richard wrote in with great questions on using Evernote for family history. “Thank you for ‘reinvigorating’ my interest in my family history,” he says. “I watched [your Legacy Family Tree webinar] on Evernote twice and I am now a Premium user thanks to the...
Heritage Display: A Centerpiece for Your Holiday Table
Recently we heard from longtime listener and Premium member Linda in Sweden. She shared this creative conversation-starting centerpiece with us (see a link to her blog below for more pictures). “My local genealogical society celebrated its 30-year old...
AncestryDNA Review and Breaking News! Updates Launched
"This is really the first time a DNA testing company has so fully integrated genetics and genealogy. We can now find cousins in the database who do not share our particular genetics, but who do share some of the genetics of our common ancestor. This is huge." -Diane...
NEW! Nova Scotia and South African Genealogy Records on FamilySearch
Among the 3.7 million+ records new on FamilySearch this week are two updates that caught my eye for international regions that need more record sets online: Nearly 1.4 million images are now browsable in a newly-posted collection of Nova Scotia, Canada, probate...
Genealogy Book Club: Facebook Chat and More Book Picks
Many of you are reading (or have already finished) our Genealogy Book Club featured book for the quarter, She Left Me the Gun: My Mother's Life Before Me by Emma Brockes. In the just-published November episode of the Genealogy Gems podcast, Lisa and I...
MyHeritage Library Edition: Now at Family History Centers
MyHeritage has launched the MyHeritage Library Edition™ for libraries and other educational facilities around the world. Among the first to sign up for this service? The Family History Library. MyHeritage Library Edition™ is now available for free at every...
Historical Photos You Don’t See Every Day: Civil War Soldiers and Settlers of the American West
Recently listener Stacy sent us links to two fabulous collections of historical photos. The stories they tell--and the back story of one of the photographers--are just stunning. Civil War Soldiers The first collection is a sobering visual record of wounded Civil War...
HOW are We Related?? Use a Cousin Calculator
Recently, I heard from Shirley in Austin, Texas (U.S.) with a question about how her relatives are related to each other: "My GGM (Caroline 's) great grandfather (Franz Joseph) is the same as my GGF (Eduard 's) grandfather (Franz Joseph)....
1865 New York State Census Now on FamilySearch
Good news for those who had relatives in New York in the 1860s: the 1865 New York State Census is now searchable online at FamilySearch.org. Just five years earlier, the 1860 U.S. federal census counted nearly four million people in this its largest state. New York...