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.

Top 10 Strategies for Finding School Records for Genealogy

Have you found all the school records there are to be had for your ancestors? Most of us haven’t, and the chances are very good that there are still some gems out there waiting to be found. Here are ten solid strategies that will help you track them down for your genealogy research. 

10 strategies for finding school records

Watch episode 82 below.

Because the movement for compulsory public education didn’t begin until the 1920s, many people assume that there few records to be had for genealogical purposes prior to that time. The reality couldn’t be further from the truth. Many children attended school much earlier.

In fact, it may be surprising to learn that the first public school in what is now the United States opened in the 17th century. On April 23, 1635, the first public school was established in Boston, Massachusetts.

The Boston Latin School, established 1635 first school

Illustration of the Boston Latin School  by Ebenezer Thayer, courtesy of Wikimedia

It was a boys-only public secondary school called the Boston Latin School, and it was led by schoolmaster Philemon Pormont, a Puritan settler. The school was strictly for college preparation, and produced well-known graduates including John Hancock and Samuel Adams. It’s most famous dropout? Benjamin Franklin! The school is still in operation today, though in a different location.

Thousands of schools serving millions of students have been established in the U.S. since the inception of the Boston Latin School. (According to 2015-16 data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) there are 132,853 K-12 schools in the U.S.) This means that the chances of there being school records for your ancestors is great indeed!

10 Solid Strategies for Finding School Records for Genealogy 

Here are 10 proven ways to find your ancestors’ awkward yearbook photos, sports triumphs, and much, much more.

1. Establish a Timeline of your Ancestor’s Education

Check your genealogy software database to figure out when your ancestor would have attended high school or college. Keep in mind, as recently as the 1960s, children did not go to Kindergarten but may have started school at about 6 years old and beginning in First Grade.

To keep my search organized, I decided to create a simple worksheet form in a Word document. It allows me to identify the right time frames, locations, and other pertinent information for my search, and record my progress along the way. 

Premium Bonus Download: Click to download the blank school records worksheet for your own school research use. (Premium Membership required.)

2. Consult Family Papers and Books for School Records 

Go through old family papers and books looking for things like:

  • school photos
  • senior calling cards,
  • high school autograph books,
  • journals and diaries,
  • fraternity or sorority memorabilia,
  • yearbooks and more.

When I dug through boxes and my grandmother’s cedar chest I found several records like…

a Report Card:

Example of a report card school genealogy records

My grandmother’s brother’s 6th grade report card found among family papers.

Grandma’s class picture from the 7th grade in 1925, Chowchilla, California. She is in the back row on the far right, and her brother is the boy in the center of the back row:

School Records: 7th grade class

Grandma (back row, far right) with her 7th grade class.

And Grandma’s senior portrait, 1930:

School records: senior portrait

Grandma’s senior portrait from 1930

3. Google for Academic Family History

From the professional website of the state archives to the family history site cobbled together by a cousin you’ve never met, the potential for finding school records on the vast expanse of the internet is limitless! Google is the tool to help you locate websites that include school-related records with lightning speed. 

Since I’m not sure which school my grandmother attended, I started off my search for my grandmother’s school with a simple query for the history of schools in the county where she lived as a child:

google search for schools

Google search for the history of school’s in the county

I was pleasantly surprised at the first search result. It’s a newspaper article from the Madera Tribune literally outlining the history of how the schools evolved in the county! It details such things as the driving forces behind where schools were located, when they were founded, and which ones at the time of the article were no longer in existence. 

history of schools article - genealogy records

History of Madera Schools Outlined in the Madera Tribune, September 1955.

Next, I focused my attention on the grade school listed on Grandma’s brother’s 6th grade report card that I discovered during my search of family papers. I Googled the name of the school, county and state.

A search like this can literally deliver millions of results. In fact, this specific search brings up over 1 million search results.

The Genealogist's Google Toolbox Third edition Lisa Louise Cooke

Lisa Louise Cooke’s book is available in the Genealogy Gems Store

You can typically reduce the unwanted search results by 90% by using search operators. These symbols and words give Google further instructions on what you want done with the words you are searching.

While I cover a large number of operators in my book The Genealogist’s Google Toolbox, I’m going to use just one of the most popular to dramatically improve my search for the Sharon school. 

In the example below I put quotation marks around the name of the school. Doing this explains to Google that I want this phrase to appear exactly as I typed it in every single search result. You’ve probably noticed that when you search a phrase by itself, you’ll receive results that include only one of the words, or the words spelled differently, or in a different order. The quotation marks search operator prevents this from happening. It mandates that the phrase appear on every result exactly as you typed it.

google search for the school

Using Search Operators to Google the Grade School

Notice that I didn’t put quotation marks around the county name or the state. I recommend using search operators sparingly, at least in your initial search, to ensure that you don’t miss out on good results. If I were to put quotations marks around “Madera county” I would not receive any web pages that do mention Sharon School but just don’t happen to mention Madera County as a phrase. 

Notice also that this search resulted in just over 11,000 results, a small fraction of what I would have received had I not used the quotation marks! Even more important is that the results on the first few pages of are all very good matches. 

I could try a few more variations such as adding words like history, genealogy or records

My googling led me to the Internet Archive where I found old silent color movies shot in the 1940s. There were several films and one featured the local school in the area where my relatives lived. Many, many people were filmed! Could one of those faces be one of my relatives?! Learn more about finding genealogical information includes school records by watching and reading 10 Awesome Genealogy Finds at the Internet Archive.

using internet archive for genealogy

Click image to watch episode 43.

4. Search Newspapers

Historic newspaper are also a wonderful source of honor rolls, school sporting events and anything else having to do with school life.

While there are certainly more historic newspapers online than ever before, it’s still a fraction of what is available.

A visit to the Chronicling America website can help. At the home page click the U.S. Newspaper Directory button: 

Newspaper directory at Chronicling America

Click the U.S. Newspaper Directory button at Chronicling America

On the Directory search page, enter the state, county and town:

U.S. Newspaper Directory searching for the school town

Search the U.S. Newspaper Director for the school location.

On the results page, click the “View complete holding information” link: 

newspaper directory location Chronicling america

Click “View the holdings”

Now you can view all of the known available locations for this item:

U.S. Newspaper Director known holding locations

The item I searched for has three known locations.

In my case, the Chowchilla newspaper of the early 20th century has not been digitized and is not available online. However, the California State Archives in Sacramento has an extensive collection of microfilm. I was able to make the trip in person, and was certainly glad I did! They not only had the newspaper I needed but also countless other resources that were helpful for my genealogical research. 

School record: newspaper clipping

My Grandma listed by name in the newspaper for making the Freshman high school honor roll.

Here are additional resources to help you find newspapers for your school records research:

  • Local newspapers can also be found by searching for the public library website in the town where your ancestor attended school. Check the library’s online card catalog or contact them directly to see what newspapers they have and whether any can be loaned (on microfilm) through inter-library loan.
  • Click here to visit Newspapers.com by Ancestry website.  This is a subscription website with over 14,900+ newspapers from the 1700s–2000s and millions of additional pages being added monthly.
  • Click here to search Genealogy Bank – (This page includes a 7 day free trial option.) This popular subscription website has over 11,000 newspaper, 95% of which Genealogy Bank says are exclusive to their website. 

5. Consult U.S. State Archives and Libraries

The public libraries and state archives across the country are a treasure trove of genealogical resources, and that includes school-related records.

While it’s easy to stop by your local library for a search, it may not be as easy to make your way to the public library in the town where your ancestors lived. Turn to the internet to do your homework regarding the repositories, their holdings, and the most convenient and economical way for you to access them. 

A great place to start is the WorldCat website.

Start by conducting a search. Once you find an item of interest, enter your zip code under the “Find a Copy in the Library” section to identify where it’s available. 

worldcat search for school records for genealogy

Enter your zip code to determine your proximity to the libraries and archives.

As you can see, the name of the libraries are hyperlinked so that you can click through to the item on their website. This makes requesting a look-up or photo copy very easy. 

I can’t stress the value of State Libraries enough. Gere are three more excellent resources:

  1. Click here for the List of U.S. state libraries and archives at Wikipedia.
  2. List of U.S. State Libraries and Archives at the National Archives. 
  3. Click here to read Archivist Melissa Barker’s article called Using Vertical Files in Archives.

6. Contact State Historical and Genealogical Societies

In addition to newspapers, state historical and genealogical societies might have old yearbooks, school photograph collections or other records. For example, the Ohio Genealogical Society library has a large collection of Ohio school yearbooks.

Local historical and genealogical societies may also have school memorabilia in their small or archived collections.

To find contact information for a local historical or genealogical society, Google the name of the county and state and add the words genealogy, history and / or society at the end. For example: Darke County Ohio genealogy society

7. Search for Online Yearbooks

One of the most exciting genealogical record collections to have come out in recent times is Ancestry.com’s U.S. School Yearbooks 1900-1999 collection. It is an indexed collection of middle school, junior high, high school, and college yearbooks from across the United States.

Old school yearbooks for genealogy

In June of 2019 Ancestry replaced old records with new updated records for most of the yearbooks found on the site. They also added new records from 150,000 yearbooks that previously only had images available. Later in August of 2019 they improved the collection even further by adding a staggering 3.8 million new records. This update also included 30,000 new image-only books.

Ancestry also has an extensive indexed collection of middle school, junior high, high school, and college yearbooks for Canada. Click here to search the Canadian collection. 

MyHeritage has an international collection of yearbooks. In the menu under Research go to the Collection Catalog and search for Schools & Universities.

Additional websites featuring yearbooks include:

Old-Yearbooks.com – According to the website, “Old-Yearbooks.com is a free genealogy site, displaying old yearbooks, class rosters, alumni lists, school photos and related school items. All materials on this site are the property of the submitter. You may not use the images, text or materials elsewhere, whether in print or electronically, without written permission from the submitter or this site.”

Classmates.com – “Register for free to browse hundreds of thousands of yearbooks! You’ll find classic photos of friends, family, and even your favorite celebrities. Viewing the books is always free, and you can purchase a high-quality reprint.”

E-Yearbook.com – Their goal is to digitize all old high school, college & military yearbooks. The site has millions of yearbook pictures digitized, they say they are adding thousands of new pictures every week. “From our estimates, we offer the largest collection of old high school, college and military yearbooks on the Internet today.”

8. Check Township Archives

You might be thinking you didn’t read that right, but you did. Townships are small areas within the county. These small townships may have their own archives or one room museums. They are often the holders of some pretty one-of-a-kind finds.

School Records found in the township records

The best way to determine what the township may have is to contact the township trustees. Google your township name, the county name, state name, and add the word trustee. You will likely need to give one of the trustees’ a phone call to ask what resources might be available.

Search for township trustees to find old school records

Google search example

9. Search ebay Auctions 

The auction website ebay is the perfect place to look for school record and memorabilia, particularly hard-to-find yearbooks. 

Conduct a search on the school or town you are looking for to see if anyone is selling a yearbook that you want. (You’ll need a free ebay account to do this.) Also, search for old photographs or postcards of the school building that you can add to your family history.

ebay search for school records

Initial search for school items at ebay

When I searched for Chowchilla California School, several auctions for school-related items from Grandma’s high school came up. Unfortunately, these are auctions for yearbooks after she had already graduated. But no worries! This search is only for today. Tomorrow someone could put up an auction for exactly what I want. There’s only one problem: no one has enough time to search every single day!

A way to save time and ensure that you don’t miss new auction items is to save your search.

Click the Save this search button toward the top of the page:

ebay saved search for school item auctions

Click the Save button to save the search you just ran.

By doing this, you will be sent an email any time a new auction comes up that meets your search criteria. You can learn more about setting up ebay saved searches for family history by listening to Genealogy Gems Podcast episode #140

Here’s another one of my favorite strategies: After you run your initial search, check the box on the results page to include completed listings. 

ebay completed search for school records

Click the Completed search box in the left hand column

In the revised “Completed” search results you may see some items that are of interest. If the item has a green price, it means the item was sold. If the price is black, it did not sell.

Each item will also have a link that says View Similar Active Items. Click that to see a list of items currently for sale that are very similar to one that you wanted.

You can also contact the seller of any item to inquire about the unsold item or to ask whether they have related items.  

school records for genealogy

Bought on ebay: A yearbook from the school where my husband’s grandfather was a music teacher 

I bought the yearbook above on ebay several years ago. It includes several photographs of my husband’s grandfather who was a music teacher at the high school back in the 1940s.

10. Call the School

If the school is still in operation, try calling the main office of the administration office. They may have old yearbooks and scrapbooks in their library or on display. If they don’t, they may very well be able to tell you where they can be found. 

You can obtain contact information by Googling the name of the school and the location.

Good times to try calling a school are mid-morning after kids are settled into class, or between 3 and 4:00 pm local time, when many of the kids have gone home but the school office is still open.

Best school records for genealogy

Tell Us About the School Records You Find

Using these strategies you are bound to find more school records for your genealogical search. Please leave a comment below and share what you found, where you found it, and which strategy you used. It will inspire us all to keep looking! And if you have a favorite strategy that we didn’t mention here, please do share that too. 

Resources

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)
RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE

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)

Become a Premium Member
RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE

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)

RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE

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

Become a Premium Member
RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE

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
RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE

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

Become a Premium Member
RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE

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

Become a Premium Member
RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE

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

RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE

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)

Become a Premium Member
RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE

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

RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE

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

Become a Premium Member
RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE

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

RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE

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

Pin It on Pinterest

MENU