Episode 266 Dealing with Inherited Genealogy

Show Notes: In this episode Lisa Louise Cooke discusses:

  • Organizing and Reducing inherited genealogical information
  • Ideas for donating portions of genealogy research
  • How to decide what to keep and what to toss
  • How to process information gleaned items such as compiled family histories

Click here for the full show notes.

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Episode 70 – Getting Started Using Evernote for Genealogy

Doing genealogy research generates a wide variety of research notes: typed and handwritten, audio, photos, video, and screenshots of information on websites. If you want one tool to pull together your current research projects, Evernote might just be the answer. In this video and article you’ll learn the role that Evernote can play, what it is and how to set it up, and your options for using for free or as a subscriber. 

evernote for genealogy tutorial

Evernote for Genealogy Video Tutorial

In this video and article Lisa Louise Cooke will discuss:

  • What Evernote is and the role Evernote can play in your genealogy research
  • How to get started with Evernote
  • Using it for free or as a subscriber
  • Best Practices for tagging, notebooks and more. 

Click here to get started with Evernote.

Use it for free or upgrade to get all the bells and whistles like OCR and use on all your devices. (We will be compensated if you use our affiliate link. Thank you for supporting this free show.)

 

Show Notes 

In my recent videos on how to avoid research rabbit holes that keep you from your genealogy goals, I mentioned that I use Evernote to capture BSOs or bright shiny objects that are interesting but not what I’m working on at the moment. So in this video I’m going to explain what Evernote is, and how to get started using it.

Give Evernote a try with our link

https://evernote.grsm.io/genealogy
(Using our link helps support the free show. Thanks!)

What is Evernote?

Evernote puts all your notes in one place and offers an incredibly fast and easy way to retrieve them.

Evernote is a:

  • website
  • software program for your computer (Win & Mac) that you download for free from their website
  • mobile app (iOS & Android): search for Evernote in your device’s app store
  • a web clipper for your computer’s web browser

Benefits

Genealogy can get a big messy. Information can be gathered from countless sources and in a variety of forms. You could funnel things through a cloud service like Dropbox. However, because Evernote is a note taking app, it offers unique and super helpful features:

  • Create all types of notes
  • From all of your devices. Thanks to Cloud synchronization you can take a note on any device and always have access to the most current version. (Free mobile app)
  • Web clipping – It allows you to clip items from the Internet (rather than saving entire bulky web pages),
  • OCR technology makes notes (such as newspaper articles) keyword searchable (subscription)
  • Data like URLs and the date you created the note is automatically included
  • No total storage limit, just monthly upload
  • You can use it for free, and upgrade for all the bells and whistles.

Getting Started with Evernote

  • Sign in for a free account at https://evernote.grsm.io/genealogy
  • Install the software on your desktop computer (Windows & Mac)
  • Download the web clipper to your browser (app store or Google it)
  • Download the free Evernote app to your mobile devices from the iTunes App Store or Google Play

Features & Costs

(Subject to change. Visit evernote.com/compare-plans)

evernote pricing plans comparison 2021

Evernote pricing plans comparison Sept. 2021 – See the website for the most current offer.

 

Software Home Layout

Evernote’s Home view gives you a summary of what you’ve got going on in Evernote. If Home is new to you and you don’t see it, simply head to the left Navigation menu and click Home.

Home gives you a place to sort of summarize what you’ve got going on in Evernote. It also allows you to add more personalization.

A fun way to personalize Evernote is by adding a background image. Click Customize in the upper right corner, and then click the Change Background button. Here you can add a preset image or add your own.

By default, Home comes with widgets such as:

  • Notes (highlighting your most recent notes, and Suggested notes based on your activity)
  • A Scratch Pad
  • Recently Captured items by type (web clips, images, documents, audio and emails)

While you’re in Customize mode, you’ll see additional available widgets like:

  • Calendar (allowing you to sync your Google calendar with Evernote)
  • Filtered Notes
  • Notebooks
  • Pinned Notes
  • An additional Scratch Pad
  • Shortcuts
  • Tags
  • Tasks

We’ll explore some of these further in a moment. But first, let’s create our first note!

All Notes View – Snippet View:

  • Left column = your files and organization
  • Center column = search for notes
  • Right column = the note you are currently working on

Change the layout by clicking the View Options icon (in Snippet View it appears at the top of the search column). This will give you a variety of layout options.

Change what appears or is hidden from view, and whether the view is dark or light by clicking View in the menu.

Notetaking 101

Create a note by clicking the New Note (+) button at the top of the screen.

Creating a new note is as simple as starting to type. Evernote saves your work instantly and without any extra effort on your part. Notes are saved in “the Cloud” on Evernote’s servers. This means all of your notes are automatically backed up. In addition, all of your notes will sync across all of your various computing devices. And Evernote facilitates sharing notes with others for research collaboration.

Click the Info icon at the top of the note to see the meta-data for that note. You can add and edit this information.

Types of Notes:

  • Typed
  • Sketched
  • Photos
  • Attachments
  • Video
  • Audio

Note Info has changed and can now be found by pressing Control + Shift + I on your keyboard, or clicking the More Actions (3 dots icon) in the upper right corner of the note and selecting Note Info.

Tagging is the Key to Organization

Add a tag based on important keywords associated with the note.

Examples of tags for genealogy:

  • Surnames (Cooke, Moore)
  • Record types (birth, census, land)
  • Locations (Indiana, Germany)
  • Time frames (1900-1909, 1910-1919)
  • Tasks (pending, add to database, follow up, etc.)

To tag a note, click Add Tag at the top of the note and select a tag from your list or add a new tag. Tags will appear in the left column. Click any tag in the left column to retrieve all notes with that tag.

Evernote Tasks

In June of 2021 Evernote added a Tasks feature. It operates just  a little differently than how I’ve been using tasks. Evernote tasks are:

  • To Do Items
  • Note Specific (versus a tag which can retrieve all notes with that task)
  • Often Deadline Driven
  • Assignable to Others
  • Searchable

Where is the Trash?

You will find Evernote’s Trash bin at the bottom of the Navigation bar on the left.

Notebooks

Notebooks take organization a step further. I create notebooks sparingly. I use them to divide Evernote up into workspaces: Genealogy, Personal, Business, etc. I also use them for long-term and collaborative research projects that I may want to share with others.  You can drag and drop notebooks on top of each other to create Stacks, although Evernote only allows one level of stacking.

How to create a new notebook:

  1. In the menu select: File > New Notebook
  2. Name the new notebook in the pop-up window
  3. Select notebook type – usually you would set it up to synchronize, but you do have the option to have the notebook reside only on the computer it was created by selecting Local

The Cloud and Synchronization

Notes are saved on your computer and in the Cloud on Evernote’s servers. This means all of your notes are automatically backed up, and also accessible from your account on their website. Your notes will sync across all of your computing devices that have Evernote installed. There’s no need to manually sync with the new version. It happens automatically whenever you’re connected to the internet.

Web Clipping

As you visit webpages, you can clip just the portion of the page that you want to remember and keep rather than printing the page or bookmarking it. You can type the source citation directly into the note. Clippings appear as images in the note.

How to clip a screenshot using the computer software:

  1. Right-click on the Evernote icon in your computer task bar.
  2. Select Clip Screenshot.
  3. Use the cross-hairs to draw a box around the desired content.
  4. Release you mouse and you will see a quick flash on the screen indicating the content has been saved as a note in Evernote.
  5. In Evernote click on the note to type additional information if desired.

How to download the free Evernote web clipper for your web browser:

  1. Go to: evernote.com/webclipper
  2. The download page will detect the browser that you are using and offer the correct web clipper. Click the download button.
  3. The Evernote web clipper will install in your web browser (look in the upper right corner of your browser for the elephant icon.)
  4. Sign into your Evernote account in the clipper.

Using the Browser Web Clipper:

When you visit a web page and find something that you want to clip, click the Evernote Web Clipper (elephant) icon in your web browser. The browser web clipper can save:

  • a full page (even the parts out of view)
  • an article
  • a simplified article (removing unwanted graphics and text not pertaining to the article)
  • a screenshot (where you precision clip with cross hairs)
  • a bookmark

As you clip you can select which notebook to file the note in and add any desired tags. It will also include the URL in the note header.

Search and Retrieval

Type a keyword into the search box and Evernote will locate and display notes that contain the keyword in the center column. This includes typed text from a website clipping or image, as in the example above. With a subscription, OCR technology makes it possible for you to search for words in Evernote to retrieve notes that include those words, both on the clipped image and in printed handwritten text.

Resources

Genealogy Gems Premium Videos including:

  • Organize Your Research with Evernote
  • Making Evernote Effortless
  • Using Evernote to Create a Research Plan
  • Evernote: 10 Projects You Can Do
  • Collaborative Genealogy with Evernote

Premium Members: download this exclusive ad-free show notes cheat sheet PDF
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How to Use PERSI Like a PRO!

Show Notes: PERSI

Learn how to use the Periodical Source Index (PERSI) like a pro! 

The Periodical Source Index known as PERSI is a subject index of an amazing array of genealogy and local history articles published by subject experts in newsletters and periodicals from all over the world. Discover bible records, source materials, ancestor charts, transcriptions of original records, and much more.

Search PERSI and you just may find out that you don’t have a genealogical brick wall after all. We’ll show you how! My guest, Allison Singelton, Acting Genealogy Services Manager at the Genealogy Center at the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, IN will guide you through:

  • where to find PERSI,
  • the best way to search PERSI,
  • and how to obtain copies of PERSI articles.
How to use PERSI Periodical Source Index

Video and show notes below:

Watch the Video:

How to Use PERSI like a PRO!

My guest: Allison Singleton, Acting Genealogy Services Manager at the Genealogy Center at the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Downloadable ad-free Show Notes handout including BONUS PERSI At-A-Glance section for Premium Members

What is the Periodical Subject Index known as PERSI?

(00:59) Allison: PERSI, the periodical source index is an index that we create in-house. It indexes periodicals (of genealogical value) from all over the world. These are periodicals such as newsletters, quarterlies, they could be anything from genealogical society publications, special interest group publications, surname or family society publications, or ethnic society publications. So, it’s a little bit of everything.

We are indexing the titles of those articles. It’s a subject index, and it’s full of amazing pieces of information that a lot of people don’t have access to from home otherwise. We’re able to take that information published by people in the locations where these publications are from, people with specific knowledge, that dive into a topic really deep. They’re the experts, the subject experts, and you’re able to get the information from the people who know the most, which is invaluable as researchers.

I absolutely love going through these different records. You may find Bible records, some source materials, ancestor charts, perhaps it’ll be a transcription of original records. You know, in fact, somebody actually found a transcription of records that later burned in a fire. So, that was a very exciting day, there were tears, it was awesome! So, you never know what you can find. Now, I don’t guarantee that everybody’s going to find a gem like that, but there is hope. There’s hope to break through some brick walls, maybe get some research techniques, or at least learn about some different people who are doing research on the same topics as you.

How Old are the Periodicals in PERSI?

(03:09) Lisa: Allison, a lot of these periodicals could be quite old, couldn’t they? I mean, I think about genealogy society newsletters. Those have been around well before we ever got online and started sharing information on the internet. So those included as well?

Allison: 100%. We have periodicals that go back to the 1800s. It’s pretty amazing to go through some of the results. I really enjoy being able to show someone that somebody’s already written something on their family history generations back.

How to Search PERSI

(03:51) Lisa: So, this is an index of a huge collection of genealogical articles published in a variety of Periodicals. You said it was a name index search. We’ve been talking a lot about indexing these days with the 1950 census. People are very aware that they’re going through and grabbing pieces of information out of the census and indexing them. This is sounds like it’s the same with these articles. So, we may not always necessarily search on the name of an ancestor, but rather a topic or a place, would that be fair to say?

Allison: It’s a mix. When articles are written, it’s the title of that article that is typically indexed. The exception is if somebody names an article, something like, Bones, and you don’t know exactly what that is. The indexers will put in that it’s about cemetery records. But it’s basically just going to go by the titles of those articles.

Not all of us have articles written specifically about our ancestors. I recommend doing not just a surname search, but also a location search, and topic search. There’s a lot of different types of searches you can do. We can dive a little bit deeper into that later, and folks are welcome to contact us for assistance. We would love to talk to anyone who wants to dive into PERSI a little bit deeper.

Lisa: The Genealogy Center is a specialty section of the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana. You guys have an extensive genealogy website we’ve talked about here at Genealogy Gems. Tell us about specifically what we’re going to find at the Genealogy Center website. How do we access PERSI and do these searches that you’re talking about?

Where is the PERSI Webpage?

(05:38) Allison: If you go to our website at GenealogyCenter.org, there is a green button on the left-hand side called Our Resources. Once you click on that, there are two options: Free Databases and On-Site Databases. Free Databases are the ones that you can access from anywhere in the world at any time of the day. Click on that link, then scroll down the menu and click on Periodical Source Index (PERSI).

Best Way to Begin Your PERSI Search

(06:09) Lisa: On the PERSI search page we see a lot of different options. Where do you typically start? Does it depend on what your genealogy question and plan is? Or do you have one favorite kind of starting place for your searches?

Allison: It depends on what my research question is. Typically, I do you like to do a Surname search first, just to see if I’m lucky enough to find an article for the surname I’m looking for. You never know what can pop up.

PERSI Search Strategy: Use Synonyms

(06:47) Once I’ve finished with that, I then go to the Location and start diving a little bit deeper. I’m usually looking for an event, so I want to search for all the different search terms that I can think of that surround that specific event. For example, if I’m looking for a Death Event, I’m going to look up the words death, died, burial, funeral, probate, wills cemetery, anything that has to do with a surrounding a death event. Don’t just search one word. Articles can come up under anything the author thought of to call it and some of them get pretty clever, which is interesting, but unhelpful.

How to Get a Copy of a PERSI Article

(07:41) Lisa: Well, you’ve really whetted our appetite for these really one-of-a-kind kinds of articles that are over at PERSI. How do we get access to the article once we found it in the index?

Allison: That is the beautiful part, you have multiple options.

Contact the Publisher

The first option would be to contact the publisher. I recommend going to the source when you want something. And many times, if you contact a publisher, especially if it’s a smaller periodical, or even a local one, you might be able to just find it online. Perhaps they’ve been digitizing their own periodical. Or perhaps someone would give you a copy. Sometimes there’s a nominal fee.

Search the title in WorldCat

Another option is to search the periodical title in WorldCat. If you’re unfamiliar with it, it’s an excellent research tool for genealogists. It’s a worldwide library card catalog. You can find where a local copy of a periodical would be, and maybe get an interlibrary loan or go to your local library where they have it.

Order from the Genealogy Center

Last, but not least, you can order it from us. There is a nominal fee, and you do get to fill out a form. We will fill your request as quickly as we can but give us about four to six weeks.

Digging Deeper with PERSI Search Strategies

(09:00) Lisa: You’ve given us a fantastic overview. Let’s dig a bit more into PERSI at the Genealogy Center website.

Allison: As I mentioned, the first thing that I typically do is start with a surname search. Something that I think is really interesting is when you have a name, which is a common word. So, one of the examples I like to give, it’s actually a surname that one of my colleague’s searches, Church. When you search church in things like newspapers, you get every church known to man building-wise or denomination, not surnames. The beautiful part of this database is it actually brings up the surnames.

Lisa: Fantastic! We don’t have to slog our way through all those other common words. It knows we’re looking for a surname.

Allison: Exactly! And then once you’re in here, you can search within the results. But if you do the search at the top of the page under the results, it will come up with anything that’s in the title of the article, the periodical, or the publisher. So, if you put in a location, such as Ohio, saying you only want results for Ohio, it’s also going to bring up Ohio if it appears in the name of the publisher. So perhaps it is something you’re looking for, or perhaps not.

Lisa: You mentioned that not everything is indexed in these articles. It’s really like you picked the top pieces of information that we would need in order to search the title, the year, and the publisher, so we’re not going to be doing a lot of just keyword searching.

Allison: Correct. You’re going to be looking for information in the article title. You’re looking for the events that your ancestor was involved in, or occupations, or you’re looking for anything that could have impacted your ancestors’ lives. The wonderful thing about periodicals is a lot of times they can add more of that story to your family tree.

Where are the PERSI articles held?

Lisa: I see an article mentioning Abigail Church Witchcraft Case. It came out of a periodical published in 1924. Is this something you would have on your shelf at the Genealogy Center?

Allison: Yes. The result includes our call number, which tells you exactly where to find it in our library.

A Fourth Option for Obtaining PERSI Articles

(12:44) Lisa: I don’t see anything clickable in the search result. Tell folks again how we get them the article this is referring to.

Allison: We offer the three options I mentioned before: contacting the publisher, searching WorldCat, or ordering from our library. There’s always the fourth option of looking to see if it’s been digitized online. Since the Abigail Church article was published in 1924, there is a good possibility that it might be online somewhere. You can Google search the title of the article and that might bring it up. But the first thing I would do is contact the publisher, Ohio History Connection, and see if they have the periodical available either online or could send you a copy. The next thing I would do is take the title of the periodical copy it and put it into WorldCat to see if it’s available in a location near you. You can simply enter your little zip code at WorldCat, and it will list the holding libraries in the order they are closest to you.

Lisa: That’s just such a great tool.

Allison: It really is! Now if you wanted to order it from us, which you definitely can, there is a link on the results page to order articles. It’s going to bring you to a PDF form, and you get to fill this out and then send it to us via email. It does say that there’s a charge, it doesn’t necessarily need to be prepaid. If you want to prepay it, you’re welcome to. Our address isn’t on this specific form, but you can find our address on our website pretty easily. The most important thing is to fill out the form with the information and know that there is a $7.50 charge for the form. You will be billed an additional 20 cents per copy page. It does take quite some time to pull the articles and then make the copies. Everything is done by hand. It’s not digitized.

Lisa: And will we receive a digital copy, like a PDF? Or do you actually mail us the paper copy?

Allison: It depends on what you would like. I would recommend noting that you would like it via email or a paper copy.

Lisa: And also, I noticed on that form, there’s a spot for several articles. So, since we were going to pay the $7.50, we might want to take a second to see if there are any other articles we want. The form allows us to order several for that one price, right?

Allison: Yes, it’s $7.50 for this entire form which includes up to six articles. The requests are filled in the order that they’re received. We work hard to ensure your order is accurate, and you’re getting the information that you are seeking. In fact, we look to see if there are additional pages that are not included in the article title that are applicable to what you request. So, we are definitely trying to make sure that every customer gets the information that they are seeking.

Lisa: And at the library, you have the advantage of looking at the original, the paper copy, not just in a database, so you can do that little extra search.

I really liked your idea of the Google search. I actually did that with one of the articles I found in PERSI, and discovered that the item was fully digitized over at the Internet Archive. I was able just to go ahead and see it in the moment, which was really neat.

Google Searching for PERSI Articles

Allison: Yes, and I highly recommend that. All you have to do is highlight the article title and copy it. Next, paste that title into Google and see what comes up. If you don’t get a result right away, you can try putting quotations around the title to search it exactly. It’s always worth it to do a search and see if you can find it online for free.

More Strategic Searches at PERSI

(18:03) Lisa: You’ve been at the genealogy center quite some time, and you’ve seen so many of these periodicals. Help the genealogists really fully grasp what the potential is here. How we should be thinking about searching. I’m guessing we’re not always going to be really hyper-focused on our individual ancestor, but we’re going to think about them in the context of their life and see if there’s an article that touches on that. Tell us a little bit about how to strategize.

Allison: Sure, there’s a couple of ways to do it. I prefer to go into the location database and look specifically where they lived. We usually know where our ancestors were, even if it’s just the state. I would search the county and state when possible. Next you’ll get categories that you can look through.  You can then see which ones larger and which ones are smaller. In my search History is the category with the largest number of results. Look for things that really stand out. Perhaps I’m looking for World War II information. I would want to click on that topic and then kind of go down and see if it looks like there is a periodical that was published in Fort Wayne.

Lisa: I imagine that when you do find something, let’s say we find an article that really just hits the mark, it tells us the periodical it was published in which might be an opportunity for finding even more in that same periodical. You can just search by publisher?

Allison: Yes, you can search by a publisher, you can search by the year, and you can search for the periodical. So, let’s say we found a ton of what we need from The Beacon. We can just search that publication. There are 323 entries from the Beacon from that total of 370 that we started with.

Lisa: I notice that as you type the results automatically updated.

Allison: Yes, it automatically updates. So, if I want to search for articles on medical topics I just start typing medical in the title. I get four different results. Well, medical is a good keyword, but I might also want to search on Red Cross. You need to be kind of creative with your searching.

Lisa: And I see that it again updates as you type. So, you’re actually kind of testing out med, medic, medical as keywords as you’re typing.

Allison: Yes, I don’t even have to finish the word and I start getting results. Just start playing around with the different terms that you can think of surrounding your ancestors’ lives.

Demystifying the Periodical Subject Index (PERSI)

(24:05) Lisa: I think about how many people have at some point heard about PERSI but then got a little intimidated. They weren’t quite sure how it was going to help, and then when the get to the website they weren’t quite sure how they were going to find what they wanted. Give us your final elevator pitch on why they should invest the time and try the PERSI search engine.

Allison: PERSI is constantly updated. We have around 3 million subject entries and that number is going up. We are constantly adding more information. It’s a database that you’re going to want to search periodically from time to time to see what pieces of information might be there for your ancestors.

We’ve already built the framework for our family trees with the names and dates and places. We want to add more to that. We want to add more of the meat to our family by adding new stories. Our ancestors lived amazing lives, and hopefully searching PERSI can help you find some of those stories. And you know, if you’re looking for ancestors who are proving to be elusive, occasionally you can find information in PERSI that has been previously thought lost.

Lisa: That is such a great point. It’s really not a brick wall, until you’ve made your way to the Allen County Public Library website and the Genealogy Center to check PERSI.

Resources

Downloadable ad-free Show Notes handout including BONUS PERSI At-A-Glance section for Premium Members

 

5 Steps to Finding Marriage Records

Show Notes: Marriage records are essential to building your family tree. Here are the 5 steps you need to in order to find an ancestor’s marriage record. 

Watch the Video

5 Steps to Finding Marriage Records for Genealogy

Downloadable ad-free Show Notes Marriage Records Worksheet for Premium Members

A really good Spring cleaning task is to look through your family tree, starting with yourself and working backwards, and just checking to see if you have all the vital records for everyone. Vital records include birth, marriage and death records. Civil marriage records are typically some of the oldest vital records, and offer valuable information. 

Step 1:  Determine the time and place.

Time and place are critical to marriage record searches. Records like census records can help you get within 10 years of a marriage, and can also help you narrow in on the location of the wedding. Thankfully, all U.S. Federal Census records are free and online at FamilySearch.

Marriage records are typically filed at the county level. However, they can sometimes be found at the town level, particularly in New England. 

It’s very important to identify the correct county at the time of the estimated marriage. You can do that using the Newberry Library’s Atlas of Historical County Boundaries. Click on the state and then select the time frame. 

Step 2: Use a genealogy guidance website

Genealogy “guidance” websites pull together information from a variety of sources to aid you in your research in a particular area. Here are two of my favorites:

The FamilySearch Wiki 

Click on North America > United States > State. Scroll down the state page and click on the county. Use Alt + F to quickly search for the word marriage.

The wiki will likely also provide you with links and clues as to where to find the records. Remember, it’s not always a comprehensive list, but it’s a great place to start.

Learn more about the Wiki with these videos:

If civil marriage records had not yet started when your ancestors married, look for church marriage records. Learn more with my video: How to Use Church Records for Genealogy (Premium)

US GenWeb

  • All-volunteer website
  • Organized by state and then county.
  • Great place to tap into the collective brain trust of genealogists interested in the same area.
  • Provides information such as when records started, how to access them, or if they are no longer available.
  • Provides links to online records.

Step 3: Genealogy Records Websites

If those leads don’t pan out, next turn to major genealogy websites. Start with the free FamilySearch, then if you have subscriptions to sites like Ancestry or MyHeritage, use those. (Note: These are affiliate links and we are compensated if you make a purhcase.) Only a fraction of these website’s record collections are included in their hints and suggestions. This means that the card catalog is essential if you want to scour all the records. 

Learn more about searching Ancestry’s card catalog: Ancestry Top Tips and Hot Keys (Premium)

Step 4: Contact the jurisdiction that originally created the records

If you don’t get the record that way, you’ll need to do it the old-fashioned way: contact the county or town clerk.

Early vital records are often moved to the state level. That contact information can likely be found on the FamilySearch Wiki page you found, or you can Google:
County name, state “marriage records”

Check the following repositories:

  • State Library
  • State Archive
  • State Historical Society
  • County Historical Society
  • Other: _________________________________________

Step 5: Google Search

If all else fails, turn to Google to see if there are any other repositories or online resources outside of the largest genealogy websites and archives. Use search operators to focus your search.

Example:  Randolph County Indiana “marriage records” 1880..1900

The quotation marks ensure that the exact phrase (Marriage records) is included on each web page result you get.

Two numbers separated by two periods is called a Numrange search. This instructs Google to also ensure that each web page result includes a number (in our case, a year) that falls within that range. It’s a great way to target marriage records from a particular time frame. 

Learn more about marriage record research with these two instructional videos:

Resources

Downloadable ad-free Show Notes Marriage Records Worksheet for Premium Members

 

Listen to the Genealogy Gems Premium Podcast on Android Devices

FOR ANDROID USERS: How to Get the Premium Feed on Your Android Mobile Device

Recommended app: Podcast Addict for Android, available in the Google Play Store.

Follow these steps to set up the Premium Podcast using the Podcast Addict app for Android. Examples shown below are on a tablet, so keep in mind that it may look slightly different on your device.

1. Download the Podcast Addict App

      Podcast Addict app

Google Play Store

On your device, go to the Google Play Store and download the Podcast Addict app.
(*Note: If you’ve never used the Google Play store you may be required to set up an account, including payment information. This is unrelated to Genealogy Gems, but necessary in order to download apps from the Google Play Store.)

Recommended app: Podcast Addict for Android, available in the Google Play Store.

Follow these steps to set up the Premium Podcast using the Podcast Addict app for Android.
NOTE: Examples shown below are on a tablet, so keep in mind that it may look slightly different on your device.

2. Add the Genealogy Gems Premium Podcast Feed

Tap the + icon to add a feed

Tap “RSS Feed, YouTube/Twitch Channel, Soundcloud URL”

In the “RSS feed URL” field, copy and paste this address to ensure it is exactly correct with no extra spaces at the end (the feed address is case sensitive):
https://lisalouisecooke.com/Premium_Feed/feed.xml

  • Check the box for “Authentication (Premium Podcast)”
  • Type in your Genealogy Gems Premium Membership username and password. You MUST use your membership username, NOT your email address.
  • Tap “Add”

Your Podcast home screen will now have the Genealogy Gems Premium Podcast.

Tap the podcast icon.  It may appear yellow like this or it may be our logo) to reveal all episodes, starting with the most recent episode at the top of the list.

3. Downloading Episodes

You can download episodes so that you can listen offline, without an internet connection or using your device’s cellular data. Download an episode by tapping the down arrow icon on the right:

Once the episode is downloaded, a play button will appear that you can click to listen. A small download icon will appear indicating that this episode is downloaded to your device:

3. Listening to Episodes & Viewing Show Notes

When you open the app, tap the Genealogy Gems Premium podcast to access episodes:

You can go straight to the episodes you’ve already downloaded through the app’s menu. Tap the three lines icon:

Then tap Downloaded episodes:

On this screen are only the episodes you have downloaded for offline listening. To return to all episodes just tap the 3 line icon in the upper left corner.

4. Deleting Downloaded Episodes

After you have listened to a downloaded episode, you can delete it to free up the space on your device. (Don’t worry, all of the episodes are still available through the main podcast feed in Podcast Addict.) To delete an episode in the Downloaded Episodes area, tap the 3 dots icon on the episode you want to delete:

(Note: If you want to delete all the episodes that you’ve already played, click the 3 dots icon at the very top of the right-hand corner, and then tap “Delete Played Episodes”)

On the page for that downloaded episode tap the trash can icon to delete it from your device:

Need More Help?

If you’re experiencing error messages or other technical difficulties, please visit our Premium eLearning FAQ page and head to the Troubleshooting section towards the bottom. You’ll find answers to the most common causes of problems and solutions and tips to fix them.

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