SHOW NOTES: A comparison of the top three genealogy websites and an update on the latest artificial intelligence news. Lisa interviews genealogy author Sunny Morton about her article “Three’s Company” from the March/April 2025 issue of Family Tree Magazine. They dive into a detailed comparison of the top three genealogy websites—Ancestry.com, FamilySearch.org, and MyHeritage.com—focusing on historical records, DNA tools, family tree features, and more. Sunny shares insights on how these platforms differ, their strengths, and practical tips for genealogists to maximize their research. Whether you’re a U.S.-focused researcher or tracing global roots, this episode has something for everyone.
Listen to Podcast Episode #293
To Listen click the media player below (AUDIO ONLY):
What Is a Historical Record and Does Its Definition Differ Between the Three Websites?
Timestamp: 00:31
Key Takeaways and Tips:
• Definition: A historical record is a document created in the past, ideally close to the time of the events it describes, offering a more accurate glimpse into history than later recollections.
• Differences: The definition varies slightly across platforms. Ancestry, FamilySearch, and MyHeritage count records differently—sometimes focusing on the primary person (e.g., the deceased on a death certificate) and sometimes including secondary individuals (e.g., parents or witnesses).
• Tip: Don’t assume every “record” is a unique historical document. A single certificate might be counted multiple times if it names several people. Check how each site labels the “primary person” to understand what you’re working with.
How Do the Number of Records Stack Up Across the Three Websites?
Timestamp: 04:43
Key Takeaways and Tips:
• Numbers Overview: Ancestry boasts ~60 billion records, FamilySearch ~66.24 billion (13 billion searchable names + 5 billion+ unindexed images), and MyHeritage ~32 billion.
• Ancestry: Strong U.S. focus; top 20 collections (e.g., city directories, yearbooks, newspapers) make up a third of its total, boosted by AI indexing of recent centuries. Less helpful for pre-1800 research.
• MyHeritage: More global, Euro-centric, with 40% of its total in its top 5 collections (e.g., family trees, newspapers via OldNews.com). Great for non-U.S. research.
• FamilySearch: Truly global, free, and diverse; top 20 collections are less than 20% of its total, plus 500,000+ digitized books. Hard to pin down exact counts due to unindexed images.
• Tip: Focus on “where and when” your ancestors lived. Use Ancestry for U.S. depth, MyHeritage for European roots, and FamilySearch for global coverage or record-loss areas.
What’s Your Elevator Speech for the Primary Strength of Each Website?
Timestamp: 12:50
Key Takeaways and Tips:
• Ancestry: U.S.-centric with vast records—start here for American research, paired with FamilySearch.
• FamilySearch: Free, global focus, no target customer—ideal for international searches and unique collections.
• MyHeritage: Euro-centric, excels in language translation (e.g., German trees)—perfect for non-English records and global connections.
• Tip: Before subscribing, browse each site’s catalog to see if it matches your research area. Combine platforms based on your needs—don’t skip one just because it’s not your “main” focus.
How Do They Stack Up for DNA Research?
Timestamp: 16:30
Key Takeaways and Tips:
• FamilySearch: No DNA tools—focuses on records, not genetics.
• Ancestry & MyHeritage: Both excel at DNA, making complex data accessible. Offer ethnicity estimates (improving over time) and match tools.
Ancestry: Groups matches by common ancestors; recently added shared matches of matches.
MyHeritage: “Theory of Family Relativity” maps person-to-person connections; accepts raw DNA uploads ($29 for advanced tools or free with subscription).
• Tip: Revisit DNA results every 3-6 months for updated ethnicity estimates and new matches. Rotate subscriptions if budget’s tight—your data stays, and hints accumulate.
How Do Their Family Tree Features Compare?
Timestamp: 23:26
Key Takeaways and Tips:
• Ancestry & MyHeritage: Private, individual trees you control—shareable if desired. Multiple trees allowed for testing theories. No source requirement, but tree checkers flag unsourced data.
• FamilySearch: One giant, public, collaborative tree—nothing private for deceased individuals. Emphasizes sources and reason statements to improve accuracy.
• Tip: Use online trees as “bait” for hints, keeping your full research offline in software. Politely ask public tree owners for sources if unsourced data intrigues you.
How Do They Compare for Searchability in Family Trees?
Timestamp: 29:45
Key Takeaways and Tips:
• All Three: Excellent search portals for minimal or detailed queries.
• FamilySearch Bonus: Search its tree even if you don’t contribute—great for harvesting clues about ancestors.
• Tip: Use tree searches strategically to uncover new leads or verify info, even if you’re not building online. Refine searches as trees grow to stay efficient.
How Do They Compare for Photos, Memories, and Stories?
Timestamp: 31:56
Key Takeaways and Tips:
• General: All are works in progress, with best tools on apps (not always ideal for big-screen users). AI-generated life histories check tree completeness.
• MyHeritage: Leads with photo tools (enhancing, colorizing, animating) and “My Stories” for living-generation narratives.
• Tip: Use MyHeritage’s photo animations to engage family—watermarked as AI-generated, they spark curiosity without claiming historical fact.
How Compatible Are They for Syncing with Desktop Software?
Timestamp: 36:28
Key Takeaways and Tips:
• MyHeritage: Free Family Tree Builder syncs with online trees.
• Ancestry: Syncs well with Family Tree Maker (despite separate ownership).
• FamilySearch: RootsMagic and others pull sections of its global tree.
• Tip: Prioritize sync compatibility when choosing a site—check software options before committing to an online tree platform.
All information was to the best of our guest’s knowledge as of the date of recording.
Latest advancements in AU and their application to genealogy research.
Timestamp: 48:11
1. Gemini Updates by Google. o New Features Announcement (March 2025):
Google’s Gemini app rolled out significant updates, available to try for free, with enhanced features for all users and premium options for subscribers.
2.0 Flash Thinking Experimental:
Offers file upload capabilities (crucial for genealogy context), improved reasoning, efficiency, and speed.
Advanced users (subscribers) get a 1-million-token context window, allowing more extensive project interactions.
Free users can test it with a one-month trial of Gemini Advanced.
Deep Research Tool:
Now upgraded with 2.0 Flash Thinking Experimental, it searches and synthesizes web information quickly, producing detailed multi-page reports.
Available globally in 45 languages; free users get limited tries, while advanced users have expanded access.
Shows real-time reasoning, similar to Grok, enhancing transparency in research processes.
Personalization (Experimental):
Integrates with Google apps (starting with search) to tailor responses based on user history, e.g., genealogy-focused search patterns.
Users control personalization settings and can disconnect if desired.
2. Connected Apps Integration
Gemini now connects with Google Calendar, Notes, Tasks, and soon Photos (in English), allowing complex, multi-app requests.
Example: Genealogy applications could involve organizing research notes or creating itineraries from ancestral photo locations.
3. Gems Feature
A new customizable AI tool, free for all Gemini app users, enabling creation of personal AI experts for specific topics (e.g., genealogy).
Users can upload files and set instructions via the Gems Manager on desktop, tailoring it to repetitive research tasks.
Lisa plans to explore this deeply in upcoming premium videos and live streams, emphasizing its potential for genealogists.
4. AI Competition and Future
Gemini is positioned as a competitor to Grok, with features like file uploads and deep research mirroring Grok’s capabilities.
Lisa predicts AI will eventually replace Google search, with ongoing competition determining the leading AI tool.
5. Practical Tips / Getting Started with AI
Try Gemini at gemini.google.com; start with the free version, then consider the one-month trial of Gemini Advanced for full access.
Closing Note: AI tools like Gemini are like “shovels” for genealogists—essential for digging deeper and enhancing research efficiency. Stay tuned for more in-depth explorations in premium content!
Sign up today here. The Genealogy Gems email newsletter is the best way to stay informed about what’s available with your Premium eLearning Membership.
Join me for Elevenses with Lisa, the online video series where we take a break, visit and learn. Click to watch below, and scroll down for all the details from Episode 6.
(Organization training begins at 22:45)
Elevenses with Lisa is about connecting with each other and sharing ideas around family history. Margaret shared a wonderful story revolving around the recent discovery she made about the historical significance of a teacup collection that at first glance just appears to be a mis-matched lot.
Margaret’s “Bridge Tea” Cups
From Margaret in San Jose, CA:
I inherited these 6 teacups from my Mom, who only told me they were “wedding gifts.” I always thought them odd gifts for newlyweds. Why not a toaster?
Nevertheless, I loved dusting them as a kid, because to me there was nothing more thrilling than a matched set of anything, and the cups and saucers are so intricately decorated to complement each other.
I am in a True Tales/Memoir writing group and I recently read one of my stories aloud (virtually of course) about an ancestor honored at two Bridge Teas to celebrate her engagement. A member spoke up about the tradition at Bridge Teas for each attendee to bring a different matching teacup and saucer as an engagement present to the bride. I suddenly realized my Mom’s teacups were not odd wedding presents. They were given to her at a Bridge Tea by her girlfriends! I look at the six teacup sets now and see a circle of friends, each personality as unique as their teacup, symbols of friendship.
Tech Tip:
Google can’t always find what you’re searching for, and a few days ago they launched a new message that tells you that.
Now, if you run a search and Google can’t find what it determines to be a good match, you will see a prominent message at the top of the search results page that says “no good results available.”
While a message like that can be discouraging at first glance, you shouldn’t stop there. This message doesn’t say that what you are looking for doesn’t exist. It is only saying that Google can’t find it.
There could be several reasons for this, and the search results page will likely contain clues. By following the clues and incorporating the strategies I discuss in my book The Genealogist’s Google Toolbox, there is a very good chance that you can indeed find (with Google’s help) what you are in search of.
Here’s the example I showed in this episode. I was searching for the name of the musical group that Bill’s grandpa performed with in the 1940s, the Centennial Syncopators (seen below in the only photograph I have of the group.) The original was a sepia tone photo, but I love this version that I colorized at MyHeritage (image below.)
Centennial Syncopators musical group. (Salem, Oregon, circa 1940) Grandpa Mansfield is in the back row on the far right.
I was typing quickly on my phone, and as you can see in the image below, I have typos in the first word of my search.
Google indicated that “It looks like there aren’t any great matches for your search.” Google offered a few suggestions for alternative ways to search to try and get better results. Generally speaking, these are helpful suggestions. But as is so often the case, they really didn’t help with the very specific, genealogically-driven research that I was doing.
New Google Message: “No good results.”
Correcting the spelling was important to try, but it didn’t yield any better results.
Google Search – fixed spelling, but still not great results.
Instead of following the suggestions, I used the method I describe in my book. In this case I incorporated a simple search operator – quotation marks – and it made all the difference.
improving the search with the quotation marks search operator.
There, in the first two results, was grandpa’s name: Sydney Mansfield.
There is another strategy from my book that I like to use as well. Instead of digging straight into these Web results, I take just a moment to tap Images to see what my results look like visually. Image results give you a quick visual overview that can help you spot gems that might not be obvious from the snippets appearing in the Web view.
Google Image results.
Tapping the first result yielded a wealth of information.
Sidney Mansfield and the Centennial Syncopators named in an old newspaper.
Not only is Sidney Mansfield listed in the preview of the article (image above), but all of his band mates are too!
I’ve been redecorating my family room. this room is really the equivalent of a junk drawer, but MUCH bigger.
Family history and music are central themes in the Cooke household, so I was keen to incorporate both into this room. Below is a photo of my hubby playing the bass in the family room. This was about half way through the project, so things were still a bit jumbled.
The family room “before”
After seeing an episode of Restaurant Impossible where they used an old family photo as artwork in the redesign of a restaurant, I was inspired to do the same.
I started with the 2 ½” x 3 ½” photograph of Bill’s maternal grandpa, Sydney Mansfield, with the Centennial Syncopators of Salem, Oregon (circa 1940). Sid was an accomplished musician, playing the violin and the organ. (Bill was blessed with the musical DNA on both sides of his family. His paternal grandpa started his career playing in a theater orchestra in England at the age of thirteen, was a high school orchestra leader, and music teacher his entire life.)
The next step was to scan and dramatically enlarge the photo.
My scanner: The Epson Perfection V550 Photo flatbed scanner. (I LOVE this scanner! It can do the high resolution I need for all my projects. If you decide to buy online, I appreciate it when you use my links because we will be compensated at no additional cost to you. This helps support this free show.)
I set the scanner to Professional mode which provides much higher resolution scanning options.
Scanning resolution:1200 dpi.
My goal was a very large piece of artwork: 71” x 51” in a matte canvas, preferably mounted.
Printer:PosterPrintShop.com – After seeing the show, the folks at PosterPrintShop.com emailed me and offered a 10% discount promo code for for Genealogy Gems / Elevenses with Lisa viewers. Use coupon code: courtesy10x2020va
I did a lot of research and it was a challenge to find an online service that could meet my project needs. The most important thing to me was the size, so I decided on PosterPrintShop.com. They were able to produce huge custom sizes in the matte canvas. However, they didn’t offer frame mounting. That was fine though, my hubby is very handy and agreed to build the frame.
Wood frame for family history artwork
I uploaded my digital image, and I was happy to see that the printer immediately confirmed it was excellent quality for the enlargement. This gave me confidence that the finished poster would not be blurry or grainy.
In just three days it was up on my wall, sure to inspire many future evenings of music!
Completed project: family history art.
How to Organize All This Genealogy Stuff!
Save yourself future frustration and disappointment by putting a solid plan in place for all the types of genealogical items that will be coming your way: paper, digital files, data, and notes.
I personally use all of the organizational systems that I am sharing with you in this series on the show. They have proven to be reliable and efficient, and I can honestly say I have never lost a piece of paper. All my archival paper is off my desk, within easy arm’s reach.
But don’t take my word for it. Test drive these methods and feel free to adjust to suit your individual needs. Consistent yet flexible implementation is the key to success. Every family is different (and a bit messy) so it’s understandable that you may implement this system with some minor alterations to suit your particular needs.
The most important piece of the organizational puzzle is in your court. Your system will only succeed if you stick to it!
In this episode we discussed:
Organizing All This Paper! The Physical Items Organization System
We begin our genealogical research by pulling together information that we already have around our home. A lot of that information will be on paper in all shapes and sizes. The sooner you establish a place to store it, the sooner you will become more productive.
Genealogy research is becoming more and more digital, but there will always be paper. Typically, the paper worth keeping will be precious items like original documents, postcards, letters, etc.
When you first acquire an item, you will “process” it, as I like to call it. This entails, reviewing it carefully, extracting all pertinent information and adding that information to a variety of locations (your personal genealogy database on your computer, your online family tree, transcription into another format, etc.)
After completely processing the information, you have a decision to make:
Do you archive this piece of paper? (possibly also digitizing it)
Do you digitize it and toss it?
Do you toss it?
If you determine the paper is precious and worth archiving, you will archive it in my 3 ring notebook system. Be absolutely sure that this paper is worth the precious real estate available on your office shelf.
My Genealogy Notebook System
This system organizes your paper to mirror the organization of your computer files (which we will cover in Elevenses with Lisa episode 7.) It is also based on your pedigree chart, meaning that it concentrates on your direct line of parents and grandparents, etc.
Since we can’t realistically keep every scrap of paper, typically the most important will be paper that relates to those ancestors you directly descend from. Whenever possible, opt to digitize (scan, photograph) paper, file it on your hard drive (backed up of course. I use Backblaze available here – we’ll be talking more about data in Episode 8), and toss the paper. Paper saved should be considered archival worthy. All other paper can ultimately be digitized (if desired) and tossed when you’re done working with it.
There are many advantages to my 3 ring notebook organizational system:
3 ring binders keep paper items secure, clean and protected.
They can be stacked neatly on shelves.
Binders allow you to easily retrieve items for a family.
When you remove a binder from the shelf, it is obvious where it should be returned.
Binders are flexible – allowing you to add and remove items easily without disturbing other items.
I have found that organizational systems that are complicated and completely unique are difficult to stick with. My simple binder system is organized under the same logic as the census. This makes it easier to follow and it dovetails nicely with your digital organization (which I’ll be discussing in Episode 7) and your genealogy research.
The census is organized by households (typically families) with a designated head of household (typically the father.) Of course, this isn’t always the case. There are always exceptions. But we are focused on a big-picture over-arching principle that will guide our organization.
Start with the ancestors closest to you. In my example, I began with my grandparents. Each direct line in your tree gets a 3-ring “surname” binder.
Tabs within the binder are organized by the head of household, just like the census. Again, typically, this is the man of the house.
Items are placed in acid-free sheet protectors and filed behind the appropriate head of household tab, in reverse chronological order, beginning with death records.
This process may take a while depending on how much you have already collected. Don’t worry about organizing everything in one sitting. If you have amassed a lot of paper, there is no need to stop all research until everything you have is organized. It’s just not realistic. All you need to do is get the supplies, set up your first generation of notebooks, and any notebooks for the lines you are currently researching. Use this method and file as you research and come across new paper. Schedule blocks of organization time and use that time to go back and process and file your existing paper. By doing this you can continue the fun of genealogy while continually making progress organizing and archiving your paper backlog.
Organizational success also depends on having the material you need on hand. Below is my shopping list, including what I generally think is the minimum number of items to start with. If you decide to buy online, I appreciate it when you use my links because Genealogy Gems will be compensated at no additional cost to you. This helps support this free show.
(1) set of 3-ring binder tab dividers (Regular or extra-large as you prefer. You can also buy clear tabs for direct line ancestors, and colored for others lines if you wish.)
Setting Up Your First Notebook
Create a cover and spine for your notebook in a simple Word document or other program. Save it as a template so that you can quickly generate covers and spines as needed.
Add the tabbed dividers to the notebook.
Label the first tab as Pending. This is where you will place items for that family line that you have not yet finished processing. Think of this tab as a staging area for paper you acquire throughout your research before they have been entered into your database.
Dividing Tabs: Label the second tab with the head of the family for the generation closest to you. Each generational head of household (Father, Grandfather, etc.) gets a tab. Label the remaining tabs as far back as you can. (Click here to jump to the spot in the episode on YouTube where I show the tabs.)
Generally, I organize the items behind the tabs in chronological order no matter who they pertain to within his family. This creates a sort of timeline. However, for a large volume of documents you could use colored dividing tabs to divide items by each person in his family while that person is in his household. If you do want to break things up a bit, you don’t have to have a colored tab for every family member. You could have one for the wife, and one for all the children. You could even have one for all the kids but break out just your direct ancestor and give him or her their own. Do what works for you, and then stick to it!
How to File Paper in the Notebooks
Filing Records for Women
Documents for female children are filed under their father prior to marriage, and then all documents generated after their marriage are filed under their husband.
A widowed woman has a married name, and her items are filed under her husband’s tab. If she remarries, all her items generated from that point forward are filed under her new husband unless you think you’ll have enough paper to warrant a new book. Otherwise, you can certainly just continue filing paperwork for her and her new husband under that tab. The choice is yours. Feel free to add cross-referencing notes.
Filing Collateral Lines:
Collateral relatives are the ones that descend from the brothers or sisters of your direct ancestors (i.e. nieces, nephews, cousins). File paperwork for collateral relatives under the direct ancestor they are most closely related to, or in a tab at the end of the family binder called Collateral Relatives. (That’s what I do.) Strive to digitize as much as possible. Chances are, you won’t have a lot of paperwork to archive for collateral relatives. If you do, ask yourself if you really need all of it!
Eventually your families will branch out into other surnames, and you will need to start new binders. Use the smaller 1″ 3-ring binder for this purpose.
As your research progresses, you may need to move the family from a 1″ binder to a 3″ binder. But some families, particularly those farther back in your family tree (where there is less original archive-worthy paperwork) will be adequately accommodated by 1″ binders. Save space by not automatically moving families into 3″ binders.
Organizing Heirlooms
My system includes a Family Heirloom Tracking binder and digital file folder. Each page features one heirloom and includes:
Notebook cover and spine template Word documents (Log In required) Click here to download.
Why Do You Do Genealogy?
I don’t know about you, but I get asked a lot by people who aren’t into genealogy, “Why do you do it?”
I’ve given this a lot of thought over the years, and I’ve come to an important conclusion:
Quote by Lisa Louise Cooke
Please take a moment to share in the comments as to why you do genealogy. I’d love to hear your personal reasons.
Watch episode 7 of Elevenses with Lisa on how to organize your genealogy data.
Questions and Comments
Did you like this episode? What resonated with you? What goals are you setting this week? Do you have a questions for me? Please leave your comments and questions below. I can’t wait to hear from you, and I look forward to seeing you next week on Elevenses with Lisa.
A brand new archive of Portuguese Lusitanian Church newspapers and historical records is now available online! Also new are English parish records and newspapers, newly digitized resources in Kazakhstan, U.S. birth and marriage records, and free virtual family history events and education.
Portugal: Church newspaper and historical records database
The earliest copies of the Jornal Igreja Lusitana 1894 to 1923 – the Lusitanian Church Newspaper – have been digitized and made available online by the Portuguese public archive. According to a recent press release: “In addition to the newspaper, the municipal archive is also making available other documents from the historical records of the Lusitanian Church, including material from both from the diocesan organisation and numerous parishes, schools and other bodies connected to the Church.” Click here to access the archive.
Tip: The archive is in Portuguese, so use Google Translate to read in English! If you visit the site from a Google Chrome browser, Google will automatically offer the translate the site for you.
Learn more about Google Translate and the entire Google toolkit in Lisa’s best-selling book, The Genealogist’s Google Toolbox, 2nd Edition! Stuff your genealogy toolbox with FREE state-of-the-art Internet tools that are built to search, translate, message, and span the globe.
English bastardy indexes, parish records, and newspapers
Uncover secrets of your ancestor’s past! Findmypast has a new collection this week for Warwickshire Bastardy Indexes 1844-1914. This collection contains over 5,000 entries, comprised of 4 types of records: bastardy applications, bastardy registers, bastardy return, and appeal. “Each record provides the name of the mother, and most records include the name of the putative father. The records do not contain the name of the child.”
New at Ancestry.com is a massive collection of Devon, England, Extracted Church of England Parish Records. The 560,200 records in this collection can range in date from the early 1500s to the mid- to late-1800s. More records for England are new at Ancestry.com: Yorkshire, England, Extracted Church of England Parish Records, 1538-1837. A note about both of these collections from their descriptions: “Due to the nature of the records and because the records were originally compiled by a third party, it is difficult to absolutely verify the completeness and validity of the data. The information in this collection is as correct as it was when Ancestry.com received it, and has merely been reproduced in an electronic format.”
Kazakhstan: Periodicals, books, and more being digitized
Over 42,000 pages from the general fund of the national library of Kazakhstan have been digitized, totaling more than 5 million pages. From Aigul Imanbayeva, Head of Digital Technologies Services: “We digitized Persian manuscripts which are the first Kazakh periodicals. This is the Kazakh newspaper. Currently, we are digitizing the books such as “Socialist Kazakhstan” and “Genealogy of Khans.” Click here to learn more and see a short video about the project.
United States
New York. Over at Ancestry.com is a new collection for New York City Births, 1910-1965. Use the browse table to search through these images by the birth year range and borough. The images for this collection are provided courtesy of www.vitalsearch-worldwide.com.
New Jersey. Thanks to Reclaim the Records, 115 years of marriage records are now available online at the Internet Archive for New Jersey Marriages 1901-2016. Each file is listed year-by-year (or occasionally by a year range), and then the marriages are listed alphabetically by surname.
Free virtual family history events
Mark your calendars! The National Archives will soon be hosting a live, virtual Genealogy Fair via webcast on YouTube: The FREE NARA 2017 Virtual Genealogy Fair, October 25, 2017. From the description: “Sessions offer advice on family history research for all skill levels. Topics include Federal government documents on birth, childhood, and death; recently recovered military personnel files; Japanese Americans during World War II; 19th century tax assessments; and a “how to” on preserving family heirlooms.” Simply tune in to their YouTube channel to watch live!
November 4, 2017 is the North Carolina Virtual Family History Fair. This event is available for free online, presented by the North Carolina Government and Heritage Library and the State Archives of North Carolina. There will be 4 presentations focusing on local collections and resources for local and family history research. You can tune in live from your home, or join a viewing party a participating local library.
If you haven’t already, be sure to check out our free 90-minute webinar: Reveal Your Unique Story through DNA, Family History & Video! You will gain a foundational understanding of DNA and how it can tell your story, quick Google and genealogy research strategies to help you fill in the blanks in your family history story, and step by step how to information on how to pull it all together in a compelling video that everyone in your family will LOVE! Watch for free below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iXqxWAnHRQ
Disclosure: This post 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 Genealogy Gems!
This episode’s got a bit of holiday sparkle! Lisa Louise Cooke welcomes Genealogy Gems Book Club author and Victorian lifestyle expert Sarah Chrisman to the show to talk about Victorian holiday traditions, some of which may still live on in your own life. Following that conversation, Lisa shares a fun description of Victorian-era scrapbooking: how it’s different than today’s scrapbooking hobby but also how it reminds her of modern social media.
More episode highlights:
Three success stories from Genealogy Gems listeners: a Google search with great results, a brick-wall busting marriage record and yet another YouTube find for family history (people keep telling us about those!).
Your DNA Guide Diahan Southard chimes in with what she likes so far about MyHeritage’s new DNA testing service.
An internationally-themed German research conference and a makeover for the Scotland’s People website.
The newly-relaunched ScotlandsPeople website has several exciting new features:
Mobile-friendly web design and an enhanced search function;
A quick search option for searching indexed records by name and an advanced search for specific types of records;
Free access to several records indexes;
More than 150,000 baptism entries from Scottish Presbyterian churches (other than the Old Parish Registers of the Church of Scotland) have been added and more are coming, as well as marriages and burials;
More types of records held by National Records of Scotland are coming, including records of kirk sessions and other church courts;
Explore the site for free, including handy how-to guides for using Scottish records such as statutory records, church registers and census returns.
MAILBOX: GOOGLE SEARCH SUCCESS STORY
From Joan: “I used one of the handy hints from your presentation at the South Orange County California Genealogical Society’s all day seminar in Mission Viejo, CA. I entered some of my common named ancestors, used the quotes, added a time frame and included some key words, like locations. Most of what I found were my own queries and posts. That shows it works!….
One thing I was amazed at was a multi-page article I found: ‘The Lincoln Kinsman,’ written in 1938. It included a lot of information on the Bush family [which is another of her family lines]. The article even included what I think is my ancestor Hannah Bush Radley.” (Click here or on the image above to see a copy of “The Lincoln Kinsman” at Internet Archive.)
Listen to a free 2-part series on cold-calling distant relatives or others as part of your genealogy research: “Family History: Genealogy Made Easy podcast, episodes 14 and 15.”
BONUS CONTENT for Genealogy Gems App Users:
A handy cheat sheet with 14 tips from that series on cold-contacting distant relatives. It’s updated with brand-new suggestions, including ways to find potential relatives’ names during the research process. The Genealogy Gems app is FREE in Google Play and is only $2.99 for Windows, iPhone and iPad users.
Gay entered “Freeport Texas history” in YouTube and found historical newsreel footage of the opening ceremony of a local water treatment plant. She and the women in her family were seated on the front row. Here’s a screenshot from that footage: maybe this is a stylish young Gay in sunglasses? (Watch the video here.)
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. By the end of 2016, RootsMagic expects to be fully integrated with Ancestry.com, too: you’ll be able to sync your RootsMagic trees with your Ancestry.com trees and search records on the site.
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 http://www.backblaze.com/Lisa.
INTERVIEW: VICTORIAN CHRISTMAS WITH SARAH CHRISMAN
Sarah Chrisman lives her life every day as if it’s the Victorian era. Her clothing, household, pastimes, chores and more all reflect the time period.
Listen as Lisa and Sarah talk about the Victorian Christmas tree; gift-giving, crafts, decorating and things that might surprise us about holiday celebrations during that time.
First Wheel in Town: A Victorian Cycling Club Romance. This is from her series of light-hearted historical fiction set in an era she knows well!
Sarah Chrisman joins me again later this month on the Genealogy Gems Premium podcast episode 142 to talk about what it’s like to live every day like it’s the late 1800s. Don’t miss it! Not a Premium member? Click here to learn more about the perks of membership!
Legacy Tree Genealogists provides expert genealogy research service that works with your research goals, budget and schedule. The Legacy Tree Discovery package offers 3.5 hours of preliminary analysis and research recommendations: a great choice if you’ve hit a brick wall in your research and could use some expert guidance. Click here to learn more.
The Victorians coined the phrase “scrapbooking:” they literally pasted paper scraps into books. As an embellishment, those who could afford to bought “relief scraps,” such as the ones shown here. These were like the precursors of modern sticker sheets or die cuts, printed just for the scrapbooking hobby. You could buy colorful images of everything from flowers or children to animals, or angels or Father Christmas. These images were raised or embossed on the paper, which is why they called them reliefs.
Relief scraps could be used as embellishments around other items on scrapbook pages, but sometimes they were the only decoration on a page, arranged in pretty patterns.
I don’t think there is any dispute that the four major online resources for genealogy include Ancestry.com, FamilySearch.org, Find My Past, and My Heritage. Of those four, only Ancestry.com has attempted any real integration of DNA test results into traditional genealogy.
That is, until recently. On May 19, 2016 MyHeritage announced that they will be adding a DNA matching service to their offering, and then on November 7th announced they would be conducting DNA tests themselves. Now, MyHeritage has enjoyed partnerships with 23andMe and Family Tree DNA for quite some time now, but those partnerships have been woefully underutilized and are little more than an affiliate service, where MyHeritage provides a discounted rate to test at those companies.
There is no question that the launch of DNA Heritage fully into the genetic genealogy market is exciting news. In fact, it is something I have been pushing for ? we absolutely need someone to challenge AncestryDNA. Competition is good.
In September they began to provide matching results for individuals who had uploaded their results. As of today, uploading your results is still free, so if you have been thinking about it, you may want to take advantage sooner rather than later. As expected, the matches are only as good as the depth of the database, and it is early in the game, so their database is small, but even now we can get an idea of what to expect from MyHeritage as they take their first steps into genetic genealogy.
One of the most exciting elements of their November 7th announcement is their development of a Founder Population project where they have handpicked individuals to represent their reference population for calculating ethnicities. They plan to launch with 25 population groups, but will likely increase to 100 in a fairly short amount of time. This is a far more advanced ethnicity report than is currently offered anywhere else.
After you have figured out how to download your raw data from your testing company (see my instructions here: http://www.yourdnaguide.com/transferring), and then managed to add it to My Heritage (you have to add a family tree to MyHeritage to do this, see further instructions in their May press release), and waited the requisite time to process, you will receive a notice that you have new DNA matches.
For a full review of the features and ins and outs of where to click and what to look at, please refer to the September blog post from MyHeritage.
As for my favorite features, I like how they list all the possible relationships that make sense between you and your match taking into account multiple factors like your age, gender, and your genetics instead of a simple, generic range like 2nd-4th cousins. The accompanying chart that visually shows you all possible relationships is also very helpful. You can access it by clicking on the little question mark icon next to the relationship suggestions. I like that these suggestions remind us that our genetic relationships have different genealogical interpretations. Meaning that genetically, a 2nd cousin once removed, a first cousin twice removed, and a second cousin, all fall within a similar genetic range and it is impossible to determine your exact relationship based on the genetics alone.
I also like that they are providing all three genetic descriptors of your relationship: total amount of shared DNA, how many segments are shared, and the size of the longest piece of shared DNA. While this more of an intermediate to advanced piece of your results, it can be important as your relationship analysis becomes more involved.
One unique claim made by MyHeritage in their press release about their matching feature addresses a main concern that genetic genealogists have: the lack of pedigree information provided by their matches. MyHeritage claims that 95% of their DNA samples have pedigrees attached. That is remarkable! However, from my own quick calculation of my matches, the number with pedigrees is more like 60%.
They also indicated that they will soon be doing a bit of pedigree analysis for you by providing a list of shared surnames and locations between you and your match based on the pedigrees you have both submitted. This will certainly be a welcome addition.
According to the November 9th Q and A they haven’t decided yet if the ethnicity features will be available to those who only transfer, and they hint at many more features they have in the works that may only be offered to those who purchase their test.
In short, the MyHeritage site is currently functioning much like the top three genetic genealogy sites (Ancestry, Family Tree DNA, and 23andMe) and like the free tool Gedmatch, offers a meeting place for those who have been tested at one company to meet those who have tested at another, with the added bonus of a promise of new features on the horizon.
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Have you used WPA records for genealogy? Their Historical Record Surveys and local and oral histories may help you in your family history research. Existing records and locations vary widely. Here are tips to help you in your search.
In the late 1930s and early 1940s, employees of the Works Progress Administration (WPA, also known as the Works Projects Administration) created new resources for U.S. genealogical research. It’s possible you’ve even consulted some of these without being aware of their WPA origins. After all, the projects and their formats varied. They didn’t always prominently credit the WPA and some were printed long afterward. We’re going to shine the spotlight on WPA-era local histories, oral histories and statewide Historical Record Surveys.
WPA Records for Genealogy: Local Histories
In Annie Barrows’ novel The Truth According to Us, Layla Beck heads to the small fictional town of Macedonia, West Virginia to write a local history as a WPA assignment. Drama ensues, both in Layla’s personal life and as she tries to learn local stories, which everyone reports a little differently. (We featured this book in the Genealogy Gems Book Club.)
Actually, local histories were written as WPA projects. Their scope, topics, and formats varied, depending on the unique background and resources of each region and how active WPA workers were in each state and county. For example, WPA historical materials in Morrison County, Minnesota include “histories on townships, cities, churches, schools, businesses, the military, and miscellaneous county history topics,” which have since been collected and reprinted by the county historical society. Many historical projects included photographs, such as this one for the city of New Orleans.
WPA Records for Genealogy: Oral Histories
WPA workers also captured oral histories of individuals, too. Many were collected in American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936 to 1940, now online at the Library of Congress. According to the collection description, “The documents chronicle vivid life stories of Americans who lived at the turn of the century and include tales of meeting Billy the Kid, surviving the 1871 Chicago fire, pioneer journeys out West, factory work, and the immigrant experience. The documents often describe the informant’s physical appearance, family, education, income, occupation, political views, religion and mores.”
Other important WPA oral histories are narratives of former slaves and their families. You can browse an enormous collection of these online at the Library of Congress. These aren’t the ideal eyewitness accounts we wish for, as they were gathered so long after the end of slavery, from many who were young children at the time. Also, many researchers believe interviewees may not have spoken candidly, especially to white interviewers who may have known them personally.
It’s a long shot to find an ancestor mentioned by name in WPA oral histories. In some instances, pseudonyms were even used for names and places. But, you can still learn a lot from others’ descriptions of daily life and unusual events your ancestors may have experienced.
From one of the slave narratives mentioned in this article.
Historical Record Surveys
The Historical Record Surveys created by the WPA are among the most genealogically-valuable of their projects. “Under the auspices of the WPA, workers went to archives, historical societies, public and university libraries, and compiled inventories of manuscript collections,” writes Bryan Mulcahy in an online report. “They went to courthouses, town halls, offices in large cities, and vital statistics offices and inventoried records. Besides compiling indexes, they also transcribed some of the records they found.”
Today, many of their efforts still exist. They include indexes to cemeteries, newspapers, and naturalization records, as well as inventories of courthouse records, church records, and other manuscript collections in various archives or libraries. Of course, some records may have been moved or destroyed since inventories were created, but knowing what records existed around 1940 and what they were called may help you locate surviving collections. Some indexes, such as those of cemetery tombstone inscriptions, may actually be more valuable since they captured information from tombstones that may no longer exist or be legible.
A blank WPA Historical Records Survey church records inventory form. Image courtesy of the State Archives of Florida. Click this image to find it online at Florida Memory.
One great example is the Historical Records Survey for the state of Oregon, described as “the most comprehensive documentary project of Oregon history and related records of its time.” It includes historical essays, document transcriptions, interviews, research notes, photographs, pamphlets and more. According to its collection description, “The territorial and pioneer periods of the mid-to-late nineteenth century receive the greatest attention, with an emphasis on the growth of state government and infrastructure, business and agriculture, transportation, education, biography, and relations between social groups. Native Americans figure prominently in this collection.”
Finding WPA Records for Genealogy Online
Some WPA projects were carried out on a federal level and others by state agencies. They were never centrally published or collected. Today, surviving original files and published volumes are scattered across the country. Some can be found in the National Archives, many in state libraries or societies, and many more available at local repositories.
A Google search such as historical records surveys and the name of the state and/or county is a great way to start your search for WPA records for genealogy research. Some results will lead right to the kinds of resources you want, such as this guide to WPA records in archives in the Pacific Northwest. Others, such as this one for the Iowa Historical Records Survey published in The American Archivist, are mostly a history of the effort. However, they do contain several useful bibliographic citations to records that were created. Add the name of the county to your search and you may find more targeted results, such as this library catalog entry for the inventory of the Jasper County archives. Click here to learn more about Google searches for genealogy records you want to find.
Remember, though, that many WPA publications and collections aren’t identified as such. Don’t fixate on needing to find WPA listed in the title. Just concentrate your efforts on finding the local and oral histories, photos, historical record indexes and inventories, and other resources that may be out there. When you find one created during the Great Depression, you’ll know it may have been done by the WPA.
Love what you’re reading and want to learn more? Go deeper into genealogy “gems” like these in Lisa Louise Cooke’s Genealogy Gems Podcasts. Lisa produces a free internationally-renowned monthly podcast that’s had over 2.5 million downloads! Additionally, Genealogy Gems Premium website members also have access to her full archive of monthly Premium podcast epidodes: check out a full description of these here including Episode 2 on WPA records for genealogy.
First Wheel in Town
