RootsMagic + MyHeritage = Heritage Magic!

If you’re a MyHeritage user, you know how powerful their search and record matching technologies are–and how many records and trees they have. If you use RootsMagic, you know how adeptly this family history software helps you build and maintain your master family tree. Now you can work more heritage magic by combining these powerful family history tools!

MyHeritage’s Smart Matching™ and Record Matching technologies have been integrated into newly-released RootsMagic 7 in a feature called WebHints. Whenever new records become available that match people in your RootsMagic tree, MyHeritage will send you a clickable alert. It’s kind of like having Google Alerts for MyHeritage embedded right within MyHeritage! Some records will be free to view; others will require a MyHeritage subscription. Either way, don’t you want to know what’s out there that you might be missing? (Bonus: WebHints also include hints from FamilySearch.org!)

Lisa Louise Cooke's Genealogy Gems PodcastPersonally, I’m so pleased to see this collaboration. RootsMagic is a longtime sponsor of the free Genealogy Gems Podcast. MyHeritage also sponsors our podcast now, too. These companies offer products I love to share with readers and listeners because they are truly “genealogy gems.”

A few more good-to-know facts:

  • RootsMagic assures users that “information sent by RootsMagic to MyHeritage for matching is never collected or shared, and is deleted after matching to ensure the complete privacy of RootsMagic users and their data.
  • You do have the option to turn off WebHints if you need to for whatever reason. In the software, go to Tools, File Options, and then uncheck WebHints.
  • MyHeritage matching technologies are also being integrated by Dutch genealogy software Aldfaer and the online genealogy services of Coret Genealogie in the Netherlands.

Is it time for you to try a free trial of RootsMagic and MyHeritage? Test drive them both with their freebie versions (still powerful and totally compatible with the paid upgrades). Click here to learn about RootsMagic 7 (and the free version, RootsMagic Essentials) and here to learn about free and paid subscription options at MyHeritage.com.

What are you finding in your WebAlerts on MyHeritage (or by searching the site yourself)? I’d love to hear from you! Post your discoveries on the Genealogy Gems Facebook page!

10 Brothers Served in WWI: An Amazing Story

Tyne Cot Cemetery. Photo by Sgt Jez Doak, RAF/MOD, via Wikimedia Commons at http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/74/War_Graves_at_Tyne_Cot_Cemetary%2C_Belgium_MOD_45156481.jpg

The Press (York, UK) recently reported a story about 10 brothers who all enlisted to fight in World War I and the hubbub that followed.

“The family became minor celebrities because of the brothers’ service, and their story was used as a recruitment tool as the war went on,” reports the Press. Fortunately, most of these Irish immigrant boys came home alive. The story reports the recent discovery of one of their graves.

Have you ever found something like this in your family–stories of extraordinary sacrifice made during wartime? Tell us about it on the Genealogy Gems Facebook page!

Season Four

The Genealogy Gems Podcast Episodes
2009 Season Four

Scroll to the bottom of each Podcast Show Notes Page and click the episode mp3 file to download the episode for listening.  It will take a minute or two for the episode to download, and it will open in your computer’s audio program (for example: Quicktime or Windows Media Player.)

Episode 61 Listen & Show Notes
A sneak peek at the new website GenSeek with Steve Nickle, President of Familylink.com.  And Part 2 of Lisa’s interview with Darby Hinton where they discuss the Hinton Family History.

Episode 62  Listen & Show Notes
Go Genealogical Channel Surfing:  Part 3 of Lisa’s interview with Darby Hinton about his new TV pilot Hintons Living History.  Hang Ten with Ken Marks, executive producer of the new TV series Legend Seekers.

Episode 63 Listen & Show Notes
Lisa conducts an exclusive interview with Dr. Tukufu Zuberi, star of the hit TV series The History Detectives.

Episode 64  Listen & Show Notes
New Online Newspaper Databases, An answer to a listener’s Family Tree Maker software question, A Gem of an Idea: Online Downloadable Source Citations, Interview with Maureen Taylor, and the History of Casey Jones

Episode 65  Listen & Show Notes
Interview with George Morgan, Mother’s Day, Odometer History

Episode 66  Listen & Show Notes
An Important Anniversary:  D-Day, Upcoming Genealogy Conferences, Genealogy Records Update, Interview with Kathy Meade of Genline.com about new features at the Swedish records website, and Paper of Record at the Google News Archive.

Episode 67  Listen & Show Notes
Jamboree Highlights, News, Interview with Genealogy Blogger Randy Seaver of the Genea-Musings blog

Episode 68  Listen & Show Notes
GenealogyWise, Lisa on the Genealogy Guys Pocast, Paper of Record Update, Interview with Genealogy Blogger Thomas MacEntee, 40th Anniversary of Apollo 11, A Special Collection at the DAR Library, Lisa to Teach Family Tree Magazine Webinar

Episode 69  Listen & Show Notes
The First U.S. Census, Interview with author and genealogist Tony Burroughs, “My Mother Was a Quilter” by Lee Drew,

Episode 70 Listen & Show Notes
Resources for understanding the U.S. Federal Census, Member Connect Tour with David Graham from Ancestry.

Episode 71 Listen & Show Notes
The new Genealogy Gem rhinestone pin, The Mailbox, Member Connect with Ancestry, Part 2, Family History Thoughts with Lee Drew “Choices & Consequences,”

Episode 72  Listen & Show Notes
Civil War Records, The Mailbox, Probate Records with Jana Broglin, Sorting Your Bookmarks Alphabetically in Safari,

Episode 73 Listen & Show Notes
It’s All About You and Genealogy!  New Digitized Newspapers, Premium Episodes.

Episode 73 Video Cast  Show Notes
Genealogy News Segment

Episode 74 Listen & Show Notes
An Amazing Story Featuring the DeadFred Web Site (Interview with Joe Bott)

Episode 75 Listen & Show Notes
The New Free Genealogy Gems Toolbar, The Mailbox, Interview with David Rencher, Head Genealogist at FamilySearch About the Digitization of Records and the Future of FamilySearch.

Episode 76 Listen & Show Notes
News, Mailbox, The 1810 Census, Part 2 of Lisa’s Interview with David Rencher Head Genealogist at FamilySearch.org, the Free Genealogy Gems Toolbar.

Episode 77 Listen & Show Notes
News, Mailbox, Interview with Maureen Taylor “The Photo Detective” about ancestral hairstyles, Family Storytelling During the Holidays.

Episode 78 Listen & Show Notes
News, Mailbox, the New Genealogy Gems Podcast App for iPhone and iTouch, Adoption research, 45 History, and a video of Mona Golabek and the inspiring story of her family.

Episode 79 Listen & Show Notes
This episode is a broadcast of the LIVE Genealogy Gems Podcast presented at the Family History Expo in Mesa, Arizona on January 22, 2010 featuring guests Gena Philibert Ortega, Thomas MacEntee, Bruce Buzbee and Anastasia Tyler.

Episode 80 Listen & Show Notes
Lisa’s special guest is Irene Johnson (you know her from the PBS TV series Ancestors).  She worked at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City for 15 years and gives us her best tips and tricks.

Digital Family History Books at Your Fingertips

Do you sometimes wish you had your own enormous library of family history reference books? Or do you dream of how nice it would be to live near a major research library? Or do you ever wish the family history book in your hand had been better indexed so you could turn exactly to the page you need?

Digital books essentially make these dreams come true by putting books at your virtual fingertips with fully-searchable text (no indexes needed!). And FamilySearch’s digitizing project (a partnership with Allen County Public Library and other major research libraries) now has 100,000 titles scanned, more than 80% of which are online.

If you haven’t used the free Family History Books section at FamilySearch.org, you should go browse it right away. According to a press release, “The majority of the books online are family histories, with a smaller portion made up of cemetery records, local and county histories, genealogy magazines, and how-to-books, gazetteers, and medieval histories and pedigrees.”

Your family may be hidden in one of these books – and they’re now searchable with just a few keystrokes. What keywords should you try? Of course, your ancestor’s surnames, including variant spellings. Also search for other words associated with their lives: the name of their hometown, church, school, employer or industry, ethnic group and even surnames of friends or associates.

You can contribute to FamilySearch’s digital books library, too. If  you are attending the Federation of Genealogical Societies conference next weekend in Fort Wayne, Indiana, you are invited to bring your own titles for scanning by FamilySearch and Allen County. They are most interested in autobiographies and biographies containing genealogical material; family histories with genealogical information; indexes to records; local and county histories; and yearbooks.

To contribute a digital book, FamilySearch says: “Permission must be obtained from the author or copyright holder before copyrighted books or photos can be scanned. (Most books that were published before 1923 are in the public domain and do not require permission.) There is no limitation on the size of a book for scanning, but photos should not be larger than 8.5 x 11 inches.”

We have a WINNER! Family Tree Magazine Giveaway

Congratulations to Amanda, the winner of our Family Tree Magazine Digital Subscription Giveaway!

We did the giveaway to celebrate my article in the December 2013 issue of Family Tree Magazine, co-written with Genealogy Gems Contributing Editor Sunny Morton. The article is all about collaborating on our genealogy research.

family history genealogy blogs are cousin baitI think it’s cool that Amanda’s big on collaboration herself. She blogs about her research at ABT-UNK. (Yes, that’s the name of her blog: it combines two common genealogy abbreviations for “about” and “unknown.”) Amanda points us to a recent post, “a really good example of collaboration via my blog.  The two photos in the post http://www.honeytraveler.com/pharmacy/ were provided by two cousins of different degrees who found me via my blog, and five different people (so far) have been involved in identifying the people in the “Christmas Cousins” picture.  I’ve connected with lots of other kin who found me via my blog (including a distant cousin in Lithuania, who helped me break through a brick wall there), and they have provided a wealth of information and wonderful photographs!”

Congratulations, Amanda, both on winning our giveaway and on your excellent research and blog. Keep it up! And thanks to Family Tree Magazine Editor Diane Haddad for donating the subscription.

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