Episode 218 – It’s All About You
Genealogy Gems Podcast Episode 218
with Lisa Louise Cooke
In this episode, Lisa answers your questions and shares your comments. Hot topics on your minds that are covered in this episode:
- discovering new records online,
- working with other people’s online trees,
- hard-to-locate military records;
- and getting help with early Pennsylvania research
NEWS: GOOGLE EARTH STORIES COMING
“Google Earth to let users post stories, photos in coming years” at DNAIndia.com
Lisa’s FREE Google Earth video class: How to Use Google Earth for Genealogy
The Genealogist’s Google Toolbox, 2nd edition and Google Earth for Genealogy Video Series
Try Google Earth for Chrome (you must use the Chrome browser to access)
Download the free Google Earth Pro software.
Available in the Genealogy Gems Store
Video series available at the Genealogy Gems store
NEWS: FAMILYSEARCH REACHES 2 BILLION IMAGES
Why you should have a free FamilySearch account and use it!
How to use the FamilySearch Catalog (it’s free! Everyone should use it!)
GEMS NEWS: LISA’S NEW COLUMN IN FAMILY TREE MAGAZINE
Purchase the May/June issue in print or digital download format
Subscribe to Family Tree Magazine: print format, digital download format or get a great price for both!
StoryWorth for Father’s Day: Invite your dad to share stories with loved ones every week, and then get them all bound in a beautiful hardcover book at the end of the year. Go to http://www.storyworth.com/lisa for $20 off when you subscribe. This Father’s Day is actually a gift for you, too!
BONUS CONTENT for Genealogy Gems App Users
If you’re listening through the Genealogy Gems app, don’t forget to check out your bonus content for this episode! The Genealogy Gems app is FREE in Google Play and is only $2.99 for Windows, iPhone and iPad users.
MAILBOX: SARA’S FRIDAY RECORD POST DISCOVERY
Click here to view several recent Friday records posts and see what new records have appeared online lately!
Tell Lisa Louise Cooke about your “Friday records post” discoveries or anything else at genealogygemspodcast @ gmail.com or call the podcast voicemail at 925-272-4021.
MAILBOX: ONLINE FAMILY TREE MATCHES
Reviewing tree hints at Ancestry.com
MAILBOX: BACK TO RESEARCH AFTER 10 YEARS!
Lisa’s recommendations to a new Genealogy Gems Premium eLearning member for getting back into the swing of research:
Watch the Premium video, “Take Control of Your Family Tree” (Premium eLearning membership required)
Listen to the Family History: Genealogy Made Easy podcast by Lisa Louise Cooke. It’s a great series for learning the research ropes and well as refreshing your skills.
Listen to Lisa’s other podcast
Lisa Louise Cooke uses and recommends RootsMagic family history software. Visit www.RootsMagic.com
Lisa Louise Cooke uses and recommends RootsMagic family history software. From within RootsMagic, you can search historical records on FamilySearch.org, Findmypast.com and MyHeritage.com.
Keep your family history research, photos, tree software files, videos and all other computer files safely backed up with Backblaze, the official cloud-based computer backup system for Lisa Louise Cooke’s Genealogy Gems. Learn more at https://www.backblaze.com/Lisa.
MAILBOX: MILITARY DRAFT REGISTRATIONS
Click here to read about finding military draft registrations
INTERVIEW: JIM BEIDLER ON PENNSYLVANIA RESEARCH QUESTION
James M. Beidler is the author of The Family Tree Historical Newspapers Guide and Trace Your German Roots Online. Learn more Pennsylvania research techniques in his on-demand webinar download, Best Pennsylvania Genealogy Research Strategies.
Click here to read a summary of some of Jim’s tips AND find a collection of links we curated to help you find more Pennsylvania birth records online.
MyHeritage.com is the place to make connections with relatives overseas, particularly with those who may still live in your ancestral homeland. Click here to see what MyHeritage can do for you: it’s free to get started.
PRODUCTION CREDITS
Lisa Louise Cooke, Host and Producer
Sunny Morton, Editor
Hannah Fullerton, Audio Editor
Lacey Cooke, Service Manager
Disclosure: This page contains affiliate links and Genealogy Gems will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on these links (at no additional cost to you). Thank you for supporting this free podcast and blog!
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Resources
Genealogy Gems Podcast Episode 255 – National Archives Catalog
The U.S. National Archives Online Catalog for Genealogy
In this episode Lisa Louise Cooke will answer important questions such as:
- What kind of genealogy records can be found at the National Archives website?
- Which genealogy records are not available at the National Archives?
- How do I search for records at the National Archives online Catalog?
- How can I retrieve only digital items from the National Archives Catalog?
- How can I get better search results in the National Archives Online Catalog?
- How do I download files from the National Archives Website?
- What is the Record Group Explorer?
This audio comes from my YouTube video series Elevenses with Lisa episode 40.
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Podcast Resources
Download the episode mp3
Show Notes: The audio in this episode comes from Elevenses with Lisa Episode 40. Visit the show notes page here.
Find Old Film Footage Online: YouTube and Google Video Search
Old film footage can make your family stories truly unforgettable–even for those relatives who seem to forget every fact you tell them about your genealogy! Follow these tips to find old film footage and video online.
If a picture’s worth a thousand words when you share your family history, how much more do you think a video is worth?
A while back, we told the gripping story of Betty McIntosh, a Honolulu reporter-turned-World War II spy. What fun it was to research and share on the blog! The post has multimedia sources threaded throughout: an image of a young Betty from the CIA’s website, news articles, oral histories with more memories of Pearl Harbor, a YouTube video interview with Betty, and even a dramatic radio broadcast clip from the day of the attack, when the media was trying to reach the mainland with news of the attack.
We found all those sources via Google searching. And while we could go into great depth on how to find each of those kinds of sources (and I do, in resources such as my book, The Genealogist’s Google Toolbox), in this article, I wanted to share some tips on finding old film footage online, using Betty as a case study. Think about how you might use these tips to look for old video or films related to your family history–and let me know what you find! I’d love to hear from you.
How to find old film footage online: 4 tips
1. Search for your topic on YouTube, the world’s largest video-sharing website. My book The Genealogist’s Google Toolbox has an entire chapter devoted to YouTube searches for family history, so I won’t go into great depth here. I will tell you to think of search terms that pertain to the family history stories you want to share: a person’s name, a place, an event in history, or even an occupation or industry. Enter those search terms at YouTube.com.
Betty lived in the 20th century and was recognized publicly for her work during her own lifetime. So there was a good chance that old film or video would exist about her. And they do! A YouTube search brought up video interviews with her, such as this one:
2. Repeat the searches on Google. YouTube searches can only bring up what’s actually been put on YouTube. Google searches are much wider, across millions of websites, and you may find some other wonderful resources. When your Google search results come up, click Videos to narrow your results:
You’ll have some duplication with results from YouTube. In the case of Betty McIntosh, I found two additional videos that didn’t come up on YouTube. One of them was at NBC News.com and the other was an hour-long interview on C-Span!
3. Run multiple searches on both Google and YouTube. Repeat your searches with various search parameters to broaden or narrow your results, or to capture different kinds of results. In Betty’s case, keywords such as spy and reporter were important to filter out unwanted results.
Remember that Google and YouTube aren’t specifically designed for searching for name variants like your favorite genealogy website is. So these sites may not recognize nicknames or other name variants, such as “Elizabeth” instead of “Betty.” Also search by surnames only, maiden and married names and even initials. Here’s a quick video tutorial I did on using asterisks to search for name variations on Google:
4. Pay attention to copyright restrictions if you want to share old film footage, such as if you’re making your own family history video. For example, I found these copyright restrictions for using C-Span video (noncommercial use is allowed and there’s even a handy video clipping tool right on the site if you want to clip part of it and save it).
More on YouTube for Family History: Get Inspired!
6 Tips for Using YouTube for Family History
History documentaries online can help you understand your family’s story
My Most Amazing Family History Find Ever–and It’s On YouTube