We all need reminders now and then to work smart and stay focused. This week we’re going to revisit two early episodes of Elevenses with Lisa that will help you do just that. I’m bringing them out from behind the Premium Membership paywall and making them available for free this week. We’ll cover concrete strategies for staying focused on what matters most, while not losing track of opportunities that present themselves. You’ll also learn about free tech tools that you can put in place to give you peace of mind, take back those lost hours, and help you be more productive.
These will be presented back-to-back as Live Video Premieres on my Genealogy Gems YouTube channel. In part 1 we’ll cover what makes us vulnerable to getting distracted, and how a research plan can help. In part 2 we’ll talk about how to deal with BSOs (bright shiny objects!)
Watch Live: Thursday, August 26, 2021 at 11:00 am CT (calculate your time zone) Three ways to watch:1. Video Player (Live) – Watch live at the appointed time in the video player above. 2. Participate in the live chat by watching on YouTube (Live) – Click the Watch on YouTube button to watch live at the appointed time at the Genealogy Gems YouTube channel. Log into YouTube with your free Google account to participate in the live chat. 3. Video Player above (Replay) – Available immediately after the live premiere and chat.
How Alice the Genealogist Avoids the Rabbit Hole Part 1
Don’t let unexpected genealogical finds send you down a rabbit hole any longer. We’ll cover concrete strategies for staying focused on what matters most, while not losing track of opportunities that present themselves. You’ll also learn about free tech tools that you can put in place to give you peace of mind, take back those lost hours, and help you be more productive.
Vulnerability to Rabbit Holes
In order to improve in anything, you have to know your vulnerabilities. When it comes to falling down a genealogical rabbit hole I’ve identified 5 of the most common vulnerabilities:
Not having a crystal-clear research question
Not having your next steps mapped out
Not having a specific method for dealing with BSOs (bright shiny objects)
Not implementing that method consistently
No muscle to stick with your plan
We’re going to tackle 1, 2, and 3 above. With these in place I believe you’ll feel confident and take care of 4 & 5!
1. Write a Research Question
Before beginning your research, take a moment to write out your research question or statement. It will help guide you and keep you on task. Think about what you want to specifically accomplish. State your goal in specific terms: “Identify the village in Germany where Louise Nikolowski and her family were from so I can locate church records.”
Effective Research Questions
(Per the Board of Certification of Genealogists) Genealogy Standards #10: “Questions underlying research plans concern aspects of identity, relationship, events, and situations. The questions are sufficiently broad to be answerable with evidence from relevant places and times. They are sufficiently focused to yield answers that may be tested and shown to meet or not meet the Genealogical Proof Standard.” Genealogical-research questions:
clearly describe a unique person, group, or event as the focus of the question
clearly state what kind of information that you’re hoping to discover, such as an identity, relationship, event, or biographical detail.
Keep this research question in front of you by:
printing it out and setting it in front of your monitor
putting it on a “sticky” note on your computer’s desktop (virtually or physically!)
writing it at the top of your physical or virtual notebook.
2. Map Your Next Moves
Break your primary research question down into smaller, individual research questions. According to Elizabeth Shown Mills, after analyzing the existing data: “we prepare a research plan that defines:
the resources to be explored
the strategies to be applied
the individuals who are to be included in that search
any special circumstances that will affect the project.”
Example Question: Where is the birthplace of Gustav Sporowski (father of Alfreda) who resided in Gillespie, Illinois in 1910-1918?
Actionable Steps
Here are examples of questions to be answered that support the research question: Question 1 – Did he apply for citizenship? If so, what is listed? Question 2 – Find passenger list: what place of origin is listed? Question 3 – What was listed for other passengers accompanying him? (If any) Question 4 – Where are other Sporowskis from that are listed in passenger lists? For each question above, make a list of the resources (records) you need to find to answer these questions, and where you plan to look for them. Track the outcome. “we prepare a research plan that defines:
the resources to be explored
the strategies to be applied
the individuals who are to be included in that search
any special circumstances that will affect the project.”
Part 2 Video and Show Notes
Don’t let unexpected genealogical finds send you down a rabbit hole any longer. In this episode I cover concrete strategies for staying focused on what matters most, while not losing track of opportunities that present themselves. You’ll also learn about free tech tools that you can put in place to give you peace of mind, take back those lost hours, and help you be more productive.
Identify BSOs (Bright Shiny Objects)
You can’t avoid danger (to your current research plan) if you don’t know what it looks like! My test will help you determine if what has caught your eye while researching online is a BSO.
How Alice identifies a BSO
Take the BSO Test:
Does this get me closer to answering my research question?
On a scale of 1 – 10 how potentially critical is this to my research?
Am I willing to give up finding the answer to my research question to pursue this?
Once you’ve identified BSOs, it’s time to implement a process for dealing with them so you can stay focused on our research question, as well as return to the BSO to explore its potential.
5 Ways to Capture & Return to BSOs
1. Use a Cloud Note-taking Service
Get yourself a free Cloud note-taking tool (Evernote, OneNote, Google Docs, etc.) and use it consistently. Use the website, software, and/or app to capture unexpected finds while researching. I happen to use Evernote. If you’re new to Evernote, here’s a quick video that will help explain it to you. Here’s an example of how I use Evernote to capture BSOs:
Create a tag in Evernote called BSO.
Each time you come across something that tempts you to deviate from your current focus, clip it and tag it with the BSO tag. This will allow you to move on with your research plan with confidence, knowing that it will be easy to locate and pursue the BSO later.
Add additional tags if desired to help you remember what it was about or why it interested you, such as a surname tag.
Evernote notes can have multiple tags, so use them.
Annotate the note to provide additional information as to why the BSO caught your eye, and what you plan to follow up on later.
Evernote will attach a link to the page where you clipped the item to the note. This means with one click you can return to the original source.
Notes tagged in Evernote
The benefit of using a Cloud-based note-taking tool is that your notes will be available to you on all your devices (depending on whether you have a free or subscription plan.) You can add additional information to your notes, and work with them anytime, anywhere.
Use Snagit to do Your Screen Clipping
You can also use Snagit to do your screen clipping and annotations. Automatically send the completed image to Evernote via the Share feature, or Copy and Paste it into a new note. Learn more about this powerful screen clipping tool: Elevenses with Lisaepisode 61– How to use Snagit for genealogy Elevenses with Lisa episode 67– Advance clipping techniques with Snagit. Get Snagit with our affiliate link and get a discount for a limited time. (thanks for supporting our free content!)
Don’t worry if it initially shows as Euros in the cart. When you enter your address including country, it will convert the currency appropriately.
2. Schedule BSO Time One of the main reasons we get side-tracked by BSOs while working online is that we are afraid if we don’t look at it right now we’ll lost it or never go back to it. By scheduling time specifically for working on tagged BSOs, you will feel more confident about letting them go while you are working on a research plan. I schedule my time in the free Google calendar. You can have several different calendars (i.e. categories of types of things you schedule.) Create a “BSO” calendar and color code it so it’s easy to spot. Schedule BSO time and follow up items as future events on your calendar. Set Notifications and Email Reminders for each item.
Create a “BSO” calendar
Scheduling BSO times means you can mentally let them go for now!
AUDIO PODCAST SHOW NOTES: In episode #289 of the Genealogy Gems podcast, Lisa Louise Cooke covers the groundbreaking LiveMemory™ tool from MyHeritage, a revolutionary advancement that harnesses the power of AI to transform still photos into mesmerizing short videos.
Launched on November 22, 2024, this innovative feature is an exciting evolution of the Deep Nostalgia tool introduced in 2021, which focuses on animating individual faces. Now, with LiveMemory™, users have the remarkable opportunity to breathe life into their cherished memories by creating stunning five-second videos with just a few taps in the MyHeritage app.
This tool offers an unprecedented and captivating way to reconnect with the past, allowing users to share their family stories in a dynamic and engaging format that resonates across generations. Don’t miss out on this unique chance to see your family’s history come alive!
Listen to the Podcast Episode about LiveMemory™
To Listen click the media player below (AUDIO ONLY):
LiveMemory™ is a new photo animation tool from the MyHeritage. It allows you to upload a digitized old family photo and turn it into a short video clip using AI technology. According to MyHeritage, “It animates the scene in the photo, reimagining it as if you had traveled back in time to watch it live. It’s the ultimate way to reminisce.”
MyHeritage is on the forefront of bringing new and exciting things to family history, ways to tell stories, to get people interested in family history and genealogy. In addition to all of the records, the tree building and the DNA, they have also focused a lot of their energy on photographs. I love that because I learn and I get inspired by seeing things visually, as do many of our relatives. So, it makes a lot of sense to focus on the photos that we have as a way to bring family stories to life.
What role does Artificial Intelligence (AI) play?
Not surprisingly, in today’s age, MyHeritage is accomplishing these photo innovations with artificial intelligence (AI).
LiveMemory™ springboards off of a tool that MyHeritage launched in 2021 called Deep Nostalgia™. It’s still available on the MyHeritage website in the menu under Photos. That feature had the ability to take a static photo, identify the faces and give you the option to select one of those faces to be animated. It was truly amazing.
Understandably, many of us looked at that and thought, “that’s great, but when are you going to be able to animate the whole photo?” Well, that’s exactly what LiveMemory does. It brings the photograph to life using AI.
AI has been able to “learn” how people and objects typically move by analyzing the massive amount of video online . This is much like how machine learning first got going by devouring all the digitized books on Google Books. It was able to learn language and then shape it. Now you can use AI chatbot products like Gemini or Chat GPT to create language by uploading documents, providing prompts, and so on. So, it’s not surprising that AI has been able to devour all of this video content and determine that arms move this way and legs move that way. Clothing flows in certain ways when you’re running. The minute details that can be internalized and used are endless.
How long are LiveMemory Photo animations?
MyHeritage’s LiveMemory animations aren’t very long. They currently run approximately five seconds.
Would you like a longer video clip? One way to achieve that is to download the .MP4 file and then import it into a video editor. Within the editor you can copy the clip and loop it. This allows you to generate a slightly longer video so your viewers can really take in the magic of it.
Within a video editor application you could take it further by adding some text that identifies the people or other elements of the video. You can also zoom in and out and add other features depending on the app you use.
How much does MyHeritage’s LiveMemory cost?
According to the company’s announcement, there are a variety of ways to gain access to LiveMemory to animate your photos. At the time of this writing, MyHeritage is making LiveMemory available for free but for an unspecified very limited number of videos. To create more than a few videos, an annual Photo plan or Omni subscription plan is required.
The annual Photo plan currently runs $49.90 yearly and is available exclusively on the MyHeritage app. It provides unlimited access to all of the MyHeritage photo features including MyHeritage In Color™, Photo Enhancer, Photo Repair, Deep Nostalgia™, and the Photo Scanner.
The Omni plan provides access to all of MyHeritage’s features. It currently runs $399 a year, with the first year being available for $239.
MyHeritage states, “As a thank you for their loyalty, Complete subscribers are eligible for a 25% discount on the Photo plan, and can purchase it for just $37.”
How many videos can I create?
Users with a MyHeritage Omni plan can create 30 videos annually. Photo plan users can create 20 LiveMemory™ videos annually.
No, there isn’t a desktop version of LiveMemory, at least not yet. Currently, you’ll need to use the MyHeritage app to create your videos. You can download the app for free from your app store. If you already have the app, you’ll want to ensure that it’s up to date. If you don’t see the LiveMemory “Try it now” banner at the top of the app screen, update your app.
How do I animate a photo with LiveMemory?
Tap the orange “Try it now” button on the Home screen of the MyHeritage app. You can also navigate to LiveMemory through the menu in the upper left corner of the screen.
Select a photo from the photos you’ve already added to your account or upload a photo from your phone. If you store old family photos on a cloud service like Dropbox, you can open the Dropbox app, select a photo and download it to your phone so it’s ready to use in the MyHeritage app.
Once selected, tap Next. Be aware this will activate the LiveMemory processing. Since there is a limit to the number of videos you can generate, be sure it’s the photo you want before tapping Next.
You’ll see a message on the screen that your video is being processed and that you will be notified by email. In a few moments or minutes, check your email. The video will be attached to the email sent to the email address attached to your MyHeritage account. Currently MyHeritage says they are saving the videos to your account; however, I don’t see a way to download them from their site or app. So, you will find the video attached to the email.
Click it to download it to your computer or phone. I like that it encourages us to retain the final content ourselves on our own computer, which I’m a big advocate of because I think it’s really important to not just have your family history on somebody else’s website. Even if they eventually store the videos in your account, download a copy to your computer where you have automatic backup installed. I’ve used Backblaze as my online backup for years. (Here’s my affiliate link which supports this free podcast: https://Backblaze.com/lisa)
Be prepared to be amazed when you watch your video!
My first attempt was a photo from the late 1950s of my husband Bill, he’s probably about six, with his family and his dad is playing the organ. His mom is pregnant with his youngest sister, Carol. This photo has hung on the wall by our piano for decades. And now MyHeritage has brought it to life!
Does AI ever get the animation wrong?
The animation is based on best estimates by AI. It usually comes out pretty natural-looking, but sometimes not so much. I did notice that sometimes the faces change a little bit as they’re moving and look some of the authentic look of the original photo.
Sometimes, things are just sort of this world. An example of that is the photo of my dad and I in the late 1960s playing on homemade Romper Stompers. Do you remember romper Stompers? If you watched Romper Room as a kid like I did, you’ll recall that they were sort of cups with long strings that you’d stand on and walk making yourself a sort of marionette. Hhmm, if you haven’t seen it. That doesn’t probably sound like it makes any sense! Back then we thought it was so cool. Well, my mom made me my own set of Romper Stompers with two tin cans that my dad drilled holes in and ran ropes through them. My photograph is of me and my dad on the back porch standing on Romper Stompers. You can only imagine what AI tried to make out of that. It didn’t understand that you lift one leg at a time. In the video, I end up hopping along two legs at a time, which would have been quite a feat!. My dad is even wider, leaping up and hanging in mid-air! So that video is a winner with my grandkids!
All this to say, keep this in mind as you are selecting photographs that might lend themselves more to movement and accuracy. if it’s an unusual action taking place, AI might not quite be able to make total heads or tails of it, but it’s entertaining anyway.
How can you tell if a video is a LiveMemory animated photo?
It’s important that family historians can differentiate between AI-generated content and the “real thing”. MyHeritage has stated their commitment to the responsible use of this technology. They add an “AI” watermark to all videos so everyone can tell the difference.
MyHeritage describes the video results as “highly realistic” “reenactments”, which is an interesting way to put it. They are reenactments created by artificial intelligence. They’re not authentic, so they distinguish them with that AI watermark around the area of privacy.
Are my MyHeritage LiveMemory videos private?
MyHeritage says they will not license or sell your photos to third parties and will not use them to train internal AI models. They also say in their blog post that it’s “based on technology from a third party that does not obtain rights to your photo or the output video. Your explicit consent is required granting MyHeritage permission to process your photo before activating the LiveMemory™ feature.”
They do ask you to use the tool responsibly and consider carefully the photos that you’re uploading. They do not allow pornography or offensive subject matter, or military scenes or photos of dead people. They actually have live people who will review the videos for violations.
As I saw the live memory results, I knew how I was going to be using it. Back in 2008 on the Genealogy Gems Podcast I talked about that we had received a box of Bill’s grandfather’s belongings from a cousin. Back in the day, Raymond and his wife Isabelle both played in the orchestra for silent films. In fact, that’s how they met. Bumpa played violin, and Nanna played the piano and organ. Later in the 1950s they used to get together quite often with the family for evenings of music. One evening they recorded the live music on a reel-to-reel audio tape and years later I had it digitized.
I’ve had this audio in the form of an mp3 file for years. And I have just one photograph from the 1950s of Nanna and Bumpa, dressed up in old-timey costumes, playing together. He’s playing the violin, she’s playing the piano. Finally, I had a way to create a video with the original music!
Raymond and Isabelle Cooke circa late 1950s (from the collection of Lisa Louise Cooke)
So, I animated the photo through the LiveMemory tool. Then I used my video editing skills to pull in the 5 second video and the audio file. I replicated the five second video clip a couple times, applied some zooming effects, added color adjustments, and added the music mp3. It all came together in a 35 second video of this photo coming to life complete with music.
I would not be surprised if down the road, MyHeritage finds a way to bring in audio. Perhaps some royalty-free music backing tracks. I’m sure that must be on their radar, because it’s just a logical extension of being able to expand into animating your photos. But if you want to see it now, here’s my version:
Here’s the video I posted on the Genealogy Gems podcast Facebook page and Instagram:
If you like what you see, head to the Comments section below and let me know. Then check out the links in the Resources section below to my video editing tutorial videos.
Spot This Genealogy Error and Fix It FAST!
I recently spotted what could be called “fake family history” on TV news program recently. Get the show notes and watch SpotThis Genealogy Error and Fix It Fast! as I share this weird example of mistaken identity on online & television news. I’ll explain how I went about solving the case. Then, try out these techniques when you spot errors in your own family history whether they occur on TV, in books, online family trees, genealogy blog posts or elsewhere.
Comment below:
What would you like to see next from MyHeritage? Longer clips? Full video editing capabilities? The ability to purchase a larger number of videos?
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News Release – For Immediate Release: April 4, 2012
Santa Monica, CA. April 4, 2012: The 1940 Census has finally been released and you can now browse the images online. But the waiting’s not over, since you still won’t be able to search the whole census by person until it’s fully indexed in several months.
Help, however, is at hand. Findmypast.com has come up with a way to make your search quicker and simpler – by offering to do the searching for you.
Findmypast.com is the new U.S. addition to the global network of findmypast family history websites, launched in a limited, early form in time for the 1940 Census. Its unique new, customized feature, created for the 1940 Census, is called “We’ll find them for you” and is now live.
All you have to do is to visit findmypast.com, submit the name of the person you’re searching for, plus some extra clues, and findmypast.com will email you as soon as the person’s records become available.
“We’re taking the hassle and delay out of searching”, says Brian Speckart, marketing manager of findmypast.com. “With this new feature, findmypast.com is going the extra mile to help you find your past as quickly and easily as possible.”
While the whole census won’t be searchable for several months, the records of individual U.S. states will be made searchable earlier, one state at a time. A couple of them are likely to be done by mid-April.
Some genealogy sites are offering to alert users simply when a particular state has been indexed. “But we’re going further and finding the particular individual you’re looking for”, says Speckart.
You have to tell findmypast.com in which state the person was living at the time of the 1940 Census. “As soon as that state is indexed, we run a program against the data to find the individual you’re looking for you and then email you the links we find”, says Speckart.
The job of indexing states one by one is being done by an army of volunteers under the banner of the 1940 Community Project, of which findmypast.com is a proud member.
Visitors to findmypast.com will be able to use the site’s new “We’ll find them for you” feature to submit details of the person they want to find.
Supplying the person’s first and last name and state where they were living in 1940 is all that’s required but providing additional clues will help findmypast.com narrow down the search results. Other helpful information includes approximate year of birth, likely birth city, place of residence in 1940 and names of other household members.
The new service isn’t just limited to family members either. Users can submit details of celebrities or other public figures and ask findmypast.com to find them too.
“So, if you happen to know that Marilyn Monroe’s real name was Norma Jean and which state she called home in 1940, we’ll find her for you too”, says Speckart.
Have you ever heard of the “Irish Reproductive Relief Fund?” That name made me wonder what it was all about (and I was totally wrong). It was actually a program ahead of its time, and its records can help you trace your hard-working, poverty-stricken Irish ancestors. The records are now online for the first time at Findmypast, along with a new, easier-to-search version of the 1911 Ireland census.
“The Irish Reproductive Loan Fund was a privately funded micro credit scheme set up in 1824 to provide small loans to the ‘industrious poor’ – those most affected by poverty and famine,” says a press release from Findmypast.
“This collection of almost 700,000 records, which span the period of the Irish Potato Famine, provides unique insight into the lives of those living in Ireland during one of the darkest periods in its history. The handwritten ledgers and account books reveal the changing fortunes of Irish ancestors and their subsequent movements in Ireland and across the world. Now anyone can go online and research individuals and families to find out more about where they lived, their financial situation, their social status and more besides.”
Brian Donovan, Head of Irish Data and Business Development for Findmypast, said, “These incredibly important records provide an exceptional insight into the lives of the poor across the west of Ireland from Sligo down to Cork. The people recorded are precisely those who were most likely to suffer the worst of the Famine or be forced to emigrate. These remarkable records allow us to chart what happened to 690,000 people like this from the 1820s to the 1850s, giving a glimpse of their often heart breaking accounts of survival and destitution, misery and starvation. We are very lucky to be able to tell their stories.”
These new records complement an expansive collection of Irish records at Findmypast, including Irish Petty Sessions, Irish Prison Registers, Irish newspapers, Irish Births 1864-1958 and over 800,000 Irish marriages dating back to 1619.. Another new online Irish record collection is the Clare Electoral Registers, which include early female voters.
Here’s a tip for Irish genealogy researchers from Findmypast: “The Ireland Census 1911 is an excellent starting point for anyone researching their Irish ancestors. Findmypast’s powerful search will for the first time allow family historians to search for more than one family member at the same time, helping to narrow down results, and by birth year and by spelling variations of a name – all making it easier than ever to trace Irish ancestors.”
Here’s a tip for Irish genealogy researchers from Findmypast: “The Ireland Census 1911 is an excellent starting point for anyone researching their Irish ancestors. Findmypast’s powerful search will for the first time allow family historians to search for more than one family member at the same time, helping to narrow down results, and by birth year and by spelling variations of a name – all making it easier than ever to trace Irish ancestors.”