Genealogy & Family Tree Video Classes

Choose from our vast catalog of free and Premium genealogy video classes and tutorials. Start by selecting a topic below. Tip: On desktop use Ctrl F (Win) or Cmd F (Mac) to search the entire list of videos by keyword. Note: The search box and Categories menu on the right (desktop) or the bottom of the page (mobile) apply to audio podcast episodes and articles.

Beginner

DNA

Elevenses

Ethnicities

Google

Maps & Geography

Methodology 

Organization & Preservation

Photos & Videos 

Records

Story & Sharing 

Technology Tools

Websites

Videos marked “Premium” require a Premium Membership. Premium Members also have access to the downloadable ad-free show notes handout for all videos. 

Beginner

Home Research – Family History at Home
15 Freebies for Genealogy
Free Genealogy
Inherited Genealogy – How to Deal with It
Data Flow for Genealogy
Getting Started with DNA Testing (Premium)
Google.com Getting Better Search Results (Premium)
Evernote for Genealogy  – Beginner
FamilySearch Strategy Essentials
FamilySearch Wiki Navigation
Take Control of Preserving Your Family History Information (Premium)
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DNA

5 Tips for Understanding DNA Results with Diahan Southard (Premium)
Autosomal DNA Results: Make the Most of Them with Diahan Southard (Premium)
DNA: Glue that Holds Families Together with Diahan Southard (Premium)
DNA Match with No Tree? No Problem! (Premium)
DNA Problem Solving
DNA Q&A with Ancestry’s Crista Cowan
DNA Painter Quick review with Blaine Bettinger
Forensic Genealogist – How to Become One with Dr. Claire Glen
Forensic Genealogy Future and Phenotyping (Premium)
Gedmatch Shared Matches Tool with Diahan Southard (Premium)
Getting Started with DNA Testing with Diahan Southard (Premium)
Organizing Your DNA Matches with Diahan Southard (Premium)
Mitochondrial DNA Quick Introduction with Diahan Southard (Premium)
Mitochondrial DNA Match Page Quick Overview with Diahan Southard (Premium)
MyHeritage DNA Genetic Groups
MyHeritage DNA Results: Get the Most Out of Them (Premium)
YDNA Quick Introduction with Diahan Southard (Premium)
YDNA Haplogroups Quick Overview with Diahan Southard (Premium)

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Elevenses with Lisa (2020: The 1st Year)

  1. Pilot (Premium)
  2. Research Plan (Premium)
  3. BSO Strategies (Premium)
  4. Mobile Organization (Premium)
  5. Online Organization
  6. Organization Paper (Premium)
  7. Organizing Data Q-A (Premium)
  8. Organize Digital (Premium)
  9. Evernote (Premium)
  10. Saving Your Genealogy from Destruction (Premium)
  11. Inspiring Ways to Captivate Non-Genealogists (Premium)
  12. Google Earth (Premium)
  13. Google Search – Get Better Results (Premium)
  14. Creating Family History Videos (Premium)
  15. Learning from History (Premium)
  16. Using Adobe Spark Video (Premium)
  17. Ancestry Top Tips (Premium)
  18. Irish Genealogy Professional Consultation (Premium)
  19. Filling Blanks in Your Research (Premium)
  20. House History
  21. Free Genealogy
  22. Your Ancestor’s Neighborhood (Premium)
  23. Google Photos
  24. Your Online Mindset (Premium)
  25. Elevenses with Lisa Viewers Voices (Premium)
  26. Newspaper Navigator and the Library of Congress
  27. Google Lens for Genealogy
  28. House Photo ID
  29. Family Bible
  30. Google Books
  31. Allen County Genealogy Center
  32. Artificial Intelligence
  33. Early American Genealogy (New England)
  34. Passenger lists
  35. Viewer Voices 2 (Premium)
  36. Rumsey Maps
  37. Provenance of Records
  38. A Cup of Christmas Tea with Tom Hegg (Dec 2020)

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Ethnicities

German Genealogy for Beginners
German Villages – How to find them
Irish Genealogy Expert Solutions Beginner Part 1 (Premium)
Irish Genealogy Filling in the Blanks Intermediate Part 2 (Premium)
Italian Genealogy
Italian Dual Citizenship
Jewish Genealogy
Native American Genealogy
Public Records Office of Ireland

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Google

The Genealogist’s Google Search Methodology (Premium)
Google: Common Surname Search Strategies (Premium)
Google – Getting Better Search Results (Premium)
Google – 5 Genealogy Search Hacks (Premium)
Google – 5 Search Secrets for Genealogy (Premium)
Google – More Search Strategies (Premium)
Google – How to Reconstruct Your Ancestor’s World (Rootstech 2023)
Google Books – Getting Started (Premium)
Google Books – 10 Surprising Finds
Google Books – New Features
Google Drive (Premium)
Google Images Best Search Strategies
Google Lens for Genealogy
Google Photos Introductory Tour
Google Scholar for Genealogy
(Premium) 

Get Lisa’s book: The Genealogist’s Google Toolbox
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Maps & Geography

5 Ways to Use Old Maps in Your Research (Premium)
Best Websites for Finding Old Maps (Premium)
Create a Historic Map Collection for Your Research (Premium)
Davidrumsey.com Free Maps and How to Find Them
Exporting MyMaps to Import into Google Earth 
Google Earth for Genealogy
(Beginner) 
Google Earth – How to Plot Land
Google Earth: Time Travel (Premium)
Google Earth – Ways to Use it for Genealogy (Premium)
House History Research (Premium)
House Photo Identification
Illuminating Locations (Premium)
Neighborhoods in Google Earth (Premium)
Paths – Create Emigration Paths in Google Earth (Premium)
Rural Address – How to Find & Map Them
Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps – Beginner (Premium)
Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, Applying them to Research – Intermediate (Premium)
Sanborn Fire Insurance Map Collection at LOC
Towns of Origin – 16 Ways to Find Them

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Methodology

Big Picture in Little Details (Premium)
Birthdates Conflict and How to Solve It
Cold Case Strategies (Premium)
Finding Hard-to-Find Records
Free Genealogy
Home Research – Family History at Home
How Alice the Genealogist Avoids Rabbit Holes (Premium)
Living Relatives – How to Find Them (Premium)
Maiden Names 12 Strategies for Finding Them
Newspapers – How to Get the Scoop on Your Ancestors (Premium)
Productivity and BSOs (Premium)
Rate Your Readiness for Genealogy Success
Research Plans (Premium)
Restart Your Genealogy
Source Citations
Story Behind Genealogy Records
Timelines – Beginner (Premium)
Towns of Origin – 16 Ways to Find Them
Transcription and Analysis (Premium)
Witness Research

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Organization & Preservation

Archival Storage Options
Clean Up Your Genealogy Database
(Premium)
DAR – How to Join
Data Organization (Premium)
Digital Organization (Premium)
Digital Preservation Library of Congress Style
Documenting Family History with Shotbox
Evernote Organization (Premium)
Evernote: Organize Your Research (Premium)
Hard Drive Organization Part (Premium)
Heirlooms – Passing Them and Their Stories On (Premium)
How Alice the Genealogist Avoids the Rabbit Hole Parts 1 & 2
How Alice the Genealogist Avoids the Rabbit Hole Parts 3 & 4
Inherited Genealogy – How to Deal with It
Inspiring Relatives’ Interest to Protect the Family History (Premium)
Mobile Computing Organization (Premium)
Online Productivity (Premium)
Organize All this Stuff! (Premium)
Organize Your Online Life
(Premium)
Paper Organization (Premium)
Save Your Research from Destruction (Premium)
Take Control of Preserving Your Family Tree Information (Premium)
5 Family History Holiday Ideas

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Photos & Videos

5 Ways to Improve Old Home Movies
Creating Family History Story Videos (Premium)
Dead Fred – The Secret to Finding Old Family Photos
(Photo) Digital Preservation Library of Congress Style
Edit Your Home Movies
Frith Photo Collection at FindMyPast
Google Images (Photos) Best Search Strategies
Google Photos Introductory Tour
House Photo Identification
How to Make a Video with an Adobe App (Premium)
Solving Unidentified Photo Album Cases (Premium)
Video Magic (Creating Family History Videos) Part 1 (Premium)
Video Magic (Creating Family History Videos) Part 2 (Premium)
Video Magic (Creating Family History Videos) Part 3 (Premium)
Videos – 10 Ways to Add Volume to Family History with Videos (Premium)

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Records

1931 Canada Census – 4 Fast Search Strategies
1950 Census Overview
1950 Census Questions
1950 Census Enumeration District Maps
1950 Census Indexing at FamilySearch
1950 Census Search Strategies (Premium)
1890 Census & Substitute Records
15 Freebies for Genealogy
Cemetery Research & Finding the Stories
Church Record (Premium)
Comparing the Newspaper Giants (with Sunny Morton) (New)
Compiled Family Histories at Ancestry 
Compiled Family Histories & Genealogies
– Best Places to Find Them (Premium
Early American Ancestor Records with NEHGS
Ellis Island Records (Passenger, Customs & Detention LIsts)
Family Bibles (Premium)
Freedmen’s Bureau (Premium)
Institutional Records (Premium)
Marriage Records – 5 Steps for Finding Them
Marriage Records Case Study with J. Mark Lowe
Marriage Records and Gretna Green with J. Mark Lowe
Newspapers – Getting the Scoop on Your Ancestors
Newspapers – 5 Top Research Tips
Newspapers at Google Books 
Newspapers – Finding Family Recipes
Newspapers – Reconstructing Your Ancestor’s Life
Newspaper Navigator at the Library of Congress
Newspapers.com – Digging Deeper (Premium)
Obituaries at Newspapers.com
Ohio Records at Ohio Memory (Premium)
Passenger Lists (Ellis Island Records)
Passenger Lists Deciphering
PERSI Like a Pro! with Allison Singleton (Premium)
School Records
Virginia Early Records

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Story & Sharing

Airplane! Director David Zucker on Family History
Behind the Scenes with Director David Zucker (Premium)
Christmas Cup of Tea with Author Tom Hegg
Creating Family History Story Videos (Premium)
Crime Stories with Author Nathan Dylan Goodwin
Elevenses with Lisa Pilot Episode (Premium)
Emigration Paths Tours in Google Earth) (Premium)
Genealogy Gems Viewer Voices 1 (Premium)
Genealogy Gems Viewer Voices 2 (Premium)
Inspiring Non-Genealogists in Your Life (Premium)
Instagram & Pinterest for Genealogy (Premium)
Interview Questions (Premium)
Learning from History with Daniel Horowitz (Premium)
Family History Narrative Research 
Reconstructing Your Family’s Amazing Stories (Premium)
Self Publish a Book! 
Share Your Life Story in a More Meaningful Way (Premium)
World War II Fallen Stories
Writing and Publishing a Family History Book

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Technology Tools

10 Tech Tools You Can’t Live Without (Premium)
Artificial Intelligence
AI Chatbots and Genealogy – should you use them?
AI Time Machine at MyHeritage
Apps – How to Find Essential Apps for Genealogy (Premium)
Cloud Backup (Premium)
Data Flow for Genealogy
Dropbox (Premium)
Evernote for Genealogy  – Beginner
Evernote: 10 Projects to Enhance Your Genealogy (Premium)
Evernote and Collaborative Genealogy (Premium)
Evernote: Creating a Research Plan in Evernote (Premium)
Evernote Organization (Premium)
Evernote: Organize Your Research (Premium)
Evernote: Making It Effortless to Use for Genealogy (Premium)
Evernote versus Snagit
Future of Technology & Genealogy (Premium)
GEDCOMs
Google Drive (Premium)
iPad – Genealogy on the Go (Premium)
Newspaper Navigator at the Library of Congress
Online Mindset – Take Control of Your Online Activity (Premium)
RootsMagic with Founder Bruce Buzbee
Snagit (Beginner)
Snagit (Intermediate)
Tech Can Wreak Havoc on Genealogy (Premium)
Time Travel Technology (Premium)
VPNs – Why I Use One
YouTube – Find Your Family History

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Websites

Which Genealogy Website Should I Use? (Premium)
Ancestry – Compiled Family Histories 
Ancestry Top Search Tips (Premium)
Ancestry – What’s this Records Hint? Geneanet
ArchiveGrid (Premium) 
Ellis Island Passenger Search
FamilySearch Strategy Essentials
FamilySearch Wiki Navigation(Beginner)
FamilySearch Wiki Deep Dive (Premium)
Genealogy Center at Allen Co Public Library Website
Genealogy Giants – Comparing Ancestry, MyHeritage, FamilySearch, Findmypast (Premium)
Google Scholar for Genealogy (Premium) 
History Hub (NARA) 
Internet Archive – 10 Records You’ll Love to Find
MyHeritage – 10 Don’t Miss Features
Newspaper Navigator at the Library of Congress
Newspapers.com – Digging Deeper (Premium)
One-Step WebPages with Steve Morse
PERSI Like a Pro! with Allison Singleton (Premium)
State Library of Pennsylvania
U.S. National Archives – In Person Access
U.S. National Archives Website
WikiTree (Beginner)
WorldCat – 5 Things You Should Do

Discover the FamilySearch Wiki WOW Factor! (Beginner Tutorial)

Show Notes: The FamilySearch Wiki is like a free encyclopedia of genealogy! In this FamilySearch Wiki tutorial, discover the wealth of information the Wiki has to offer, and learn the secrets to navigating it with ease. We’ll also cover the number #1 reason people get frustrated when searching the Wiki and how to overcome it.

Watch the Video

RootsTech has set the class video to “private”. You can watch it on their website by going to the video page in their on-demand library. You may need to sign in to your free FamilySearch account in order to watch it. 

Enjoy this special free tutorial video which was originally presented at the RootsTech conference. Download the ad-free Show Notes cheat sheet for this video class. (Premium Membership required.)

What is a Wiki?

A wiki is a website that

  • Allows collaborative editing platform for users
  • doesn’t require HTML editing
  • has links to both internal and external resource pages
  • The FamilySearch Wiki is a lot like Wikipedia. It’s basically an encyclopedia of information. But the exciting part is that it’s specific to genealogy. This means you don’t usually have to worry about including the word genealogy in your searches.

What Does the FamilySearch Wiki Do?

The FamilySearch Wiki is focused on providing information for genealogy research such as:

  • how to find data
  • where to find data
  • how to analyze and use the data

What are the sources of Wiki content?

  • Original material was added from the old Family History Library research outlines.
  • User added material in their areas of genealogical expertise. The Wiki is constantly being updated by LDS missionaries and other volunteers as new material is discovered or released.

Don’t worry about Contributor info.

You’re going to see many things about wiki creation and management. Not everything is relevant to you when just wanting to find information. In fact, the majority of the Help section is geared to people creating, editing and maintaining pages. Don’t worry about being a contributor. Enjoy being a user.

2 Ways to Access the FamilySearch Wiki

  • Going directly to https://www.familysearch.org/wiki. Although you can sign into your free FamilySearch account on this page (in the upper right corner) it isn’t necessary in order to use it.
  • Logging in at the FamilySearch website. In the menu under Search click Research Wiki. By logging in and you’ll have access to additional features like participating in discussions, posting and creating watchlists.

The FamilySearch Wiki focuses on records, not ancestors.

Keep in mind that the purpose of the Wiki is to explain where genealogical materials are located and how to get access to them. The Wiki does not have individual ancestor information. If you want to find records, start by deciding specifically what kind of records you want.  Identify when and where the ancestor lived at the time the record was created. Then head to the Wiki to figure out what records are available and where they can be found. 

The Wiki links to:

  • Materials that available at FamilySearch.org or any other online genealogy website.
  • Materials that are not available at FamilySearch.org or any other online genealogy site.
  • Materials that were previously unknown or newly made available online.
  • Strategies and techniques for finding and researching genealogical records.

Types of Searches

Topic Search: When searching for information on a specific topic such as probate records, type the topic into the Search box. As you type, a list of pages with the topic word or words in the title appears below the Search box. If one of the listed pages is the desired topic, highlight and press enter. If you don’t pick from the drop-down list you will get a results list of every page that includes the topic.

Vital records Search: FamilySearch recommends using the Guided Search for info on vital records.

Location Search in the search box: When only the name of any country, state in the U.S., province in Canada, or county in England is typed in the Search box you will be taken directly to that Wiki page. For example: If Texas is searched the result is the Texas, United States Genealogy page.

Page Title: If you happen to know the exact title of the Wiki article you want, type it in the Search Box.

How to Overcome the #1 Search Problem

Many people will search for something like marriage records, Randolph, County, Indiana, and they will get a list of results. The results don’t look as clear-cut as Google results, and they may not all be on topic. This is where we can get lost. I think probably the number one reason why people give up on the wiki is they get these kinds of search results. They realize, wait a second, this isn’t even Indiana, it’s talking about Kentucky! Why am I getting all these? It can be frustrating.

This happens because we tried to do it ourselves, with our own keywords. Remember, like most search engines, they’ve indexed their content to make it searchable, so that means they’ve already decided how they want to talk about a particular topic. Rather than just addressing marriage record first, the wiki focuses on the location. Where is this marriage record? So, focus first on the place unless you are just looking for general information on a general genealogy topic such as genealogy software. 

Pre-filled suggestions will appear as you type because the wiki is going to suggest what it has in the format it has it. Again, you may want to first go to the country, state or county-level page and then look for the record type.

If you’re looking for marriage records but you don’t see them listed it might be that the word marriage isn’t the keyword the wiki uses. Or it might be that the type of record you’re looking for is a state or federal record.

Don’t be discouraged if you don’t see what you want listed in the table of contents. It may just be a keyword issue. Let the work that they’ve already done in organizing their materials guide you. You’ll be more successful and also avoid frustration. The FamilySearch Wiki is just too good of a resource to miss.

The FamilySearch Wiki Search box

You can run three main types of searches:

  1. Single key words,
  2. phrases,
  3. and search strings. 

Resource: Wiki Search Help Page

Search Operators

  • Quotes: Odd Fellows – 49 results versus “Odd Fellows” – 32 results
  • Minus sign
  • OR
  • Word stemming applies: car will also find cars
  • Intitle:Dunkards
  • subpageof:”Requests for comment”
  • Numrange doesn’t work on the wiki
  • Use Google site search to search using Google’s engine and search operators!

Map Search

Generally speaking, the map is the best way to search for records and information that is rooted in a location. Start by clicking the button for the continent, such as North America. From there, select the county from the menu, such as United States, then drill down by state. This will take you to the Wiki entry for that state.

Location-based FamilySearch Wiki Pages

If you’re really new to research in a particular location, start with the guided research link on the location’s wiki page. You may also see links to research strategies, record finder, and record types.

Getting Started section – links to step-by-step research strategies and the most popular records.

The county pages are where the real magic happens because many records such as birth, marriage, death, and court records are typically available at the county level. There you’ll find out how to contact or visit the current county courthouse. Look for Boundary Changes on the page. Use your computer’s Find on Page feature by pressing Control + F (PC) or Command + F (mac) on your keyboard to more quickly find words like Boundary on the page.

Exploring Record Collection Pages

Many record collections have their own page on the Wiki. As you type, these pages will populate in the drop-down list. Example: German Census Records. Take a moment to read through the page and you’ll discover some important information that will save you time and headaches, such as:

  • When censuses were taken
  • National versus local censuses and their various levels
  • Censuses in areas where boundaries have changed over time
  • Various types of census forms we may encounter
  • The purpose behind the creation of census records in Germany
  • The kind of information we can expect to find in the German census
  • Other types of records containing similar information
  • Resource articles (including a handout from a past RootsTech)
  • Wiki articles describing online collections

There are a couple of actions we may want to take before going on to search for records. Here are a few:

Click on the Category to see what else is attached to this category – in this case we see some example images that are helpful in interpreting German census forms.

Click the Cite this page link in the left column if we plan to reference the page elsewhere.

Click Printable Version in the left column if we want a printable or PDF version of the page.

Explore related pages by clicking the What links here link in the column on the left. Notice it also shows if there are any other users watching the page.

Learn more about using Family Search

Videos at Lisa Louise Cooke’s Genealogy Gems YouTube channel:

How to Find Family History on YouTube in 5 Steps

Family history can be found in many places. We turn to steadfast repositories such as libraries, archives and historical societies. And these days we can also search online at free genealogy websites like FamilySearch, and subscription websites like MyHeritage and Ancestry. All have something unique to offer. 

Most importantly, we start our search at home, talking to our oldest relatives and combing through old family papers. We then turn our attention to the family photo albums and scrapbook on the bookshelf, and old home movies if we are lucky enough to have them.

The great news is that the closets in your home are not the only place where you can potentially find old film footage pertaining to your family’s past. The largest online video repository in the world is YouTube (which is owned by Google), and it is the perfect place to look for film. That’s why I’m so excited to share some of my YouTube search strategies from my new book The Genealogist’s Google Toolbox, 3rd Edition. These strategies can help you find old home movies (from your family or someone else’s family that came in contact with your family), news and newsreel films, documentaries, amateur and professional film footage, and countless other subjects that can shed more light on your family’s history. 

5 Easy steps to find your family history on YouTube

How to Find Family History on YouTube in 5 Steps

Does finding your family history on YouTube sound unlikely? Believe me, it’s not. YouTube is a treasure trove if you know how to search it. Here are 5 steps from my Google Search Methodology for Genealogy and how to apply them specifically to YouTube. 

Step #1. Create a Search Plan

Just like genealogy research, successful Googling, even on YouTube, requires a plan. Rather than searching willy-nilly, take a few moments to determine what it is you hope to find. Having a search plan will save you a lot of time and frustration!

The key to a good research question and plan is to be specific. This means that instead of just searching for family names or places, you have a specific event, place, and / or time frame in mind.

Below is a great example of searching with a specific plan in mind that I received from one of my Genealogy Gems Podcast listeners a while back. I have bolded the keywords that she incorporated into her YouTube search.

From Carol K.:
“I really enjoyed (Genealogy Gems) Podcast (episode) #223, particularly the segment with David Haas MD. (Editor’s note: that episode covers Dr. Haas’ vast collection of old home movies and his quest to upload them all to YouTube.)

I had tried researching YouTube for something about my family, including where they settled in Connecticut. I had not come up with much when I decide to search my dad’s ship, The USS Tuscaloosa (Image 1).

USS Tuscaloosa CA 37 P. 31 Wautur Clooses Photo Mario D

Image 1: Carol’s father, Mario Ponte, served on the USS Tuscaloosa

My dad, Mario Ponte, served in the Navy from 1936-1939 (Image 2).

  Image 2: Mario DaRin Ponte beside the USS Tuscaloosa – July 27, 1937

I knew he had been on a Goodwill South American Cruise in 1939 (Image 3) as he talked about it often and I even have the Cruise Book from that voyage.

Mario D. Ponte Goodwill Tour

image 3: U.S.S. Tuscaloosa South American Good Will Cruise route April – June 1939

Well, I’ll be if I didn’t find this story and film (on YouTube).

(Here’s the video’s description:)

On a goodwill tour of South America in 1939, three US cruisers found little goodwill in this angry sea. Newsreel cameras aboard the USS San Francisco recorded this epic struggle of the ships which included the USS Quincy and USS Tuscaloosa.

I don’t recall my father ever mentioning this to me, but my husband said he had heard the story. I only wish my dad were here to share this memory with me. At least, I have been able to share this treacherous event with many in my family.

When you see the tossing, turning and huge waves in the video, I feel they were lucky to have survived. Just think, if they hadn’t, I wouldn’t be here to tell this story today. 

Thanks Lisa and David. I’m now convinced that YouTube can be used for genealogy and to add to our stories.”

Carol’s fascinating success can be directly tied to the fact that she developed a research plan focused on specific information.

2. Craft Your YouTube Search Query

As you can see, Carol didn’t just search YouTube for her Dad’s name. In fact, unless your ancestor was famous in some way, that is likely not a strategy that will pay off.

Instead, she assembled the pertinent information and used that in her query. Here are the keywords and phrases I pulled from her email:

  • The USS Tuscaloosa
  • Goodwill South American Cruise in 1939
  • Mario Ponte 
  • Navy from 1936-1939

I included her dad’s name in this list because it never hurts to run your ancestor’s name through a search just in case something pops up. You never know what might be on YouTube. For example, perhaps a childhood friend has uploaded an old home movie to YouTube and named him as being in the movie too!

When conducting your initial YouTube search, include all the important information. If the results are unsatisfactory, you can always remove or add search terms. Since we can’t be sure what if anything is on YouTube pertaining to our research subject, we have to be flexible, and that means expecting to run several variations of our search. We’ll talk more about that in step 3. 

In Carol’s case, her research plan was focused on finding a video pertaining to the U.S.S. Tuscaloosa’s Goodwill cruise that her father participated in. She could start with a search such as:

USS Tuscaloosa Goodwill South American Cruise in 1939

The results for this search query are excellent and include the video that Carol found:

YouTube search for family history

Image 4: YouTube search for family history

3. Analyze Your YouTube Search Results

Even though these results successfully delivered the video that satisfied our research plan, we would miss tremendous opportunity if we didn’t take a few extra moments to further analyze the results. You never know what else might be out there!

Here are just a few of the things you should be looking for when reviewing your YouTube results:

LOOK FOR: Should I be more specific in my search query?
Look at our search results (Image 4 above). What stands out to me is that there appear to be many different videos on YouTube about war time ships and cruisers. This is great for family historians, but it means that there are more results to look through than we might have expected.

As you have probably experienced in the past, not all the words in our search query are included in every search result we receive. There is a way to quickly and easily find only videos that specifically mention the words and phrases we want to find. By putting quotation marks around “U.S.S. Tuscaloosa” we can tell YouTube to only give us videos that mention that exact phrase.

When Google searching (and Google is the search engine under the hood of YouTube), quotation marks function as a search operator. They tell Google specific instructions about what to do with our word or phrase. In this case, they tell Google that the phrase is mandatory, and must appear exactly as typed and spelled. The one exception is the periods in U.S.S.  Generally speaking, Google disregards punctuation, so it ignores the periods. It doesn’t matter whether you include them or not.

It is important to note that operators don’t always work as consistently in YouTube as they do in regular searches at Google.com. That being said, it’s great to have a variety of tools that we can use to improve our searches, and they are definitely worth a try. My book includes a wide range of additional search operators and how to use them. 

Running a second search on “USS Tuscaloosa” opens many new video opportunities (Image 5):

Quotation marks search on YouTube

Image 5: Search results for a query containing the quotation marks search operator.

This search not only includes the 1939 tour, but also other videos of the ship that may also be applicable to the family’s history. As you can see, sometimes less words in a search is more!

LOOK FOR: What do the unwanted video results have in common?
Sometimes you may notice that you are receiving many results that are not a good match for what you are looking for. When this happens, take a look at your results and try to come up with words that are associated with the unwanted videos, and have no relevance to your goal. 

Image 6 (below) is an example of search results in YouTube for the following query:

USS Tuscaloosa Goodwill Cruise in 1939

Identify unwanted videos and words in the YouTube search results

Image 6: Identify unwanted videos and words in the YouTube search results

While the results page includes a few good matches, it also includes current videos about quarantines on ships which is a viral topic at the time of this writing. Since these are not applicable to our search plan, we will want to eliminate them, and we will do that in Step 4. 

4. Improve Upon Your YouTube Search Results

In a case like the one above (Image 6) where you are receiving several video results not applicable to your research goal, you can try literally subtract the unwanted words that you identified in Step 3 from your search. In most cases, this should remove the videos that contain those words in their title or description.

To do this, use the minus sign (-) search operator in conjunction with the word. Here’s an example of how we can do that with this search:

USS Tuscaloosa Goodwill Cruise in 1939 -quarantine

This search will remove the results that mention quarantine.

You can subtract multiple words from your query if you wish. Each word should have a minus sign touching it, and there should be a space between each subtracted word as in this example:

USS Tuscaloosa Goodwill Cruise in 1939 -quarantine  -princess  -coronavirus

Googling, whether at YouTube, Google.com or any of the other free Google tools, is an art form, not a black and white science. We need to try variations in order to learn from what works and what doesn’t. To reach our goals, we need to try adding in more of what we want, and removing what we don’t want. In this case I would also try adding to my query that that cruise was in South America, and that the phrase USS Tuscaloosa is mandatory. Here’s what that search query would look like:

“USS Tuscaloosa” Goodwill South American Cruise in 1939 -quarantine

Remember, we’re not going for perfect results, we’re mining all the different “veins” in the YouTube gold mine by running multiple versions of the same basic query. Feel free to experiment with mixing and matching keywords and operators.  The results may be worth it!

Learn more about Google Search operators in my video:

GOOGLE GURU TIP: 
Conduct each variation of your search in a new browser tab. This allows you to compare the results side-by-side while retaining each query, making it easy to return to the queries that are performing the best.

You can also potentially improve upon your YouTube search results by using the Tools button to reveal the secondary filter menu. (Image 7)

YouTube search filter

Image 7: Click “Filter” to reveal the YouTube search filter options

These filters won’t prove useful in every case, but they do offer some handy options for narrowing the scope of your search. 

5. Capitalize on Your Results

When you find a video that meets your research goals, there’s a good chance that the person or company that uploaded and published the video (publishers are called “Creators” by YouTube) may have more videos on that subject. Here’s a quick and easy way to find out. 

On the video page, you will see the name of the Creator right below the video in the left corner. (Image 9)

More videos found on YouTube

Image 9: More videos found on YouTube

Click the YouTube Creator’s name. This will take you to their YouTube channel. Every Creator who has published a video has a YouTube channel. It’s sort of like their own home page for their videos. There you will be able to see and search any additional videos they have published. Click Videos to see all their videos. (Image 10)

More videos on the Creator's YouTube channel

Image 10: More videos on the Creator’s YouTube channel

If the channel has a lot of videos, click Playlists in the channel’s menu to see how they are grouped by topic. You can also search the channel for keywords and phrases by clicking the small magnifying glass icon on the far right end of the menu.

A Bright Future for Family History on YouTube

In Step 3 we analyzed the search results for Carol’s YouTube search. Let’s take another look at those results:

YouTube search results for family history

Image 8: Over time new videos are uploaded to YouTube waiting to be found.

It’s interesting to note that in addition to the video that Carol found which was published 4 years ago, another video on this topic was published a year later. 

It’s estimated that more than 500 hours of video is being uploaded to YouTube every minute. This is up from the 400 hours per minute announced in 2015 by YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki. 

Among that vast storehouse of film footage I’ve found countless videos that have enhanced my family’s story. And readers just like you email me the gems they unearth. I love receiving these success stories. Thank you to Carol for sharing hers! If you make an exciting discovery using these strategies please share them in the Comments. It will inspire us all to continue our search. 

The bottom line is that the potential for finding your family history on YouTube grows dramatically minute by minute, so don’t wait another minute! 

Resources

The Genealogist’s Google Toolbox, 3rd Edition (book)
by Lisa Louise Cooke, print book available at the Genealogy Gems store here.

The Genealogist's Google Toolbox Third edition Lisa Louise Cooke

Lisa’s new book is available at STORE in the menu or go to shopgenealogygems.com

The Google Search Methodology for a New Decade (video class)
1 hour video class and downloadable handout, part of Genealogy Gems Premium Membership. Learn more or subscribe here

Watch the Google Search Methodology for Genealogy

Watch the Premium video class Google Search Methodology for Genealogy

About the Author: Lisa Louise Cooke

About the Author: Lisa Louise Cooke

Lisa is the Producer and Host of the Genealogy Gems Podcast, an online genealogy audio show and app. She is the author of the books The Genealogist’s Google ToolboxMobile GenealogyHow to Find Your Family History in Newspapers, and the Google Earth for Genealogy video series, an international keynote speaker, and producer of the Family Tree Magazine Podcast.

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