by Lisa Cooke | Jan 14, 2015 | 01 What's New, Apps, Canadian, Google Earth, Listeners & Readers
Awhile back, Barbara from Courtenay, British Columbia, sent me an excellent question about using Google Earth for Canadian genealogy. Then she sent me an excellent answer before I had a chance to answer it myself! Here’s what they were:
Question: “I live in Canada and a lot of the Google Earth articles involving land plats can’t be applied in Canada. The prairie provinces do have a similar land survey system, with townships, ranges and meridians. I found a website where these can be converted to coordinates that Google Earth will recognize. However, this particular website would like to be paid for providing this information (legallandconverter.com). Do you know of any way these numbers can be converted without paying?”
Answer: “I have some good news! My very smart son found a free website,
prairielocator.com, which will give you the coordinates of Section, Township, Range and Meridian for the Canadian prairie provinces. It doesn’t cover quarter sections, but that’s okay if you know which one your ancestor was on. Please pass this along to your Canadian fans or Americans who have Canadian ancestors (there are many, I know).”
Thank you, Barbara–and a special shout-out to your son for finding that resource to help genealogists use Google Earth for Canada research!
Here’s my two-cent’s worth: I just peeked at PrairieLocator.com and I see the site also has an app for the iPhone: Prairie Locator Mobile – for iPhone, by Lisa Cooke | Mar 31, 2015 | 01 What's New, Google, Google Earth, Maps
It may not help with genealogy, but Google Maps just got a lot more fun!
Yep, it’s PAC-Maps, and with this latest update you can find where NOT to go! Google has added imagery of “dangerous virtual beings, starting with Pinky, Blinky, Inky and Clyde. When navigating fruit-filled streets, determine at a glance which turns to pass to evade ghosts and get where you’re going safely. When you’re feeling a bit peckish, you can simply gobble up a few pac-dots or a cherry and keep on nommin’.”
I’m a little embarrassed to say how many hours I spent playing PAC-MAN in high school. Back then we had to hunch over a machine located next to the bathrooms at the local pizza parlor. Now you can take a break from your brick walls and walka walka walka around the world from the comfort of your desk. With PAC-Maps you can navigate select locations using the left, right, up or down arrows on your keyboard. Below is a screen shot from the desktop version:
Actually, PAC-MAN isn’t new to Googlers. Back on May 21, 2010 (yep, it’s official, I’m a Google geek) Google’s home page featured a desktop version that you can still play here.
When you’re ready to head back to your genealogy brick wall, take my new book with you. The Genealogist’s Google Toolbox Second Edition makes Googling for your family tree easier than every!
by Lisa Cooke | Nov 6, 2013
Here’s the code you will need for some of the coolest iPad bookmarklets. For these to work properly they must be copied EXACTLY! No extra spaces or characters.
Evernote:
javascript:(function()%7BEN_CLIP_HOST%3D%27http://www.evernote.com%27%3Btry%7Bvar%
20x%3Ddocument.createElement(%27SCRIPT%27)%3Bx.type%3D%27text/javascript%27%3
Bx.src%3DEN_CLIP_HOST%2B%27/public/bookmarkClipper.js%3F%27%2B(new%20Date().get
Time()/100000)%3Bdocument.getElementsByTagName(%27head%27)%5B0%5D.appendChild(x)
%3B%7Dcatch(e)%7Blocation.href%3DEN_CLIP_HOST%2B%27/clip.action%3Furl%3D%27%2
BencodeURIComponent(location.href)%2B%27%26title%3D%27%2BencodeURIComponent(docum
ent.title)%3B%7D%7D)()%3B |
You can learn much more about how to use Evernote for Genealogy by becoming a Genealogy Gems Premium that includes my 1 hour video class on Evernote, and the Evernote educational mini-series, in addition to over 100 Premium podcast episodes, and video classes.
Find Text:
javascript:void%28s%3Dprompt%28%27Find%20text%3A%27%2C%27%27%29%29%3Bs%3D%27%28%27+s+%27%29%27%3Bx%3Dnew%20RegExp%28s%2C%27gi%27%29%3Brn%3DMath.floor%28Math.random%28%29*100%29%3Brid%3D%27z%27%20+%20rn%3Bb%20%3D%20document.body.innerHTML%3Bb%3Db.replace%28x%2C%27%3Cspan%20name%3D%27%20+%20rid%20+%20%27%20id%3D%27%20+%20rid%20+%20%27%20style%3D%5C%27color%3A%23000%3Bbackground-color%3Ayellow%3B%20font-weight%3Abold%3B%5C%27%3E%241%3C/span%3E%27%29%3Bvoid%28document.body.innerHTML%3Db%29%3Balert%28%27Found%20%27%20+%20document.getElementsByName%28rid%29.length%20+%20%27%20matches.%27%29%3Bwindow.scrollTo%280%2Cdocument.getElementsByName%28rid%29%5B0%5D.offsetTop%29%3B
Instapaper:
javascript:function%20iprl5()%7Bvar%20d%3Ddocument,z%3Dd.createElement(%27scr%27%2B%
27ipt%27),b%3Dd.body,l%3Dd.location%3Btry%7Bif(!b)throw(0)%3Bd.title%3D%27(Saving…)%
20%27%2Bd.title%3Bz.setAttribute(%27src%27,l.protocol%2B%27//www.instapaper.com/j/ETD1
Wukqqnu1%3Fu%3D%27%2BencodeURIComponent(l.href)%2B%27%26t%3D%27%2B(new%20
Date().getTime()))%3Bb.appendChild(z)%3B%7Dcatch(e)%7Balert(%27Please%20wait%20until
%20the%20page%20has%20loaded.%27)%3B%7D%7Diprl5()%3Bvoid(0)
You can get more great tips and tricks by subscribing to the free Genealogy Gems newsletter in the upper right corner of this page. As a thank you gift you’ll receive my free 20 page ebook “5 Fabulous Google Search Strategies for the Family Historian”.
Pin It:
javascript:void((function()%7Bvar%20e%3Ddocument.createElement(%27script%27)%3Be.setAttribute
(%27type%27,%27text/javascript%27)%3Be.setAttribute(%27charset%27,%27UTF-8%27)%3Be.setAttribute(%27src%27,%27http://assets.pinterest.com/js/pinmarklet.js%3Fr%3D%27%2BMath.random()*99999999)%3Bdocument.body.appendChild(e)%7D)())%3B
If you use any of these online services there are more bookmarklets for you at iosbookmarklets.com:
CiteULike (Search, organize and share scholarly papers for free) <citeulike.org>
Hootsuite (Social media management) <hootsuite.com>
PDFmyURL (save anywebpage as a PDF) <pdfmyurl.com>
ProfessorWord (improve your vocab) <professorword.com>
RecordSeek (the only genealogy bookmarklet listed as of this writing) <recordseek.com>
Thesaurus.com
Wunderlist – <wunderlist.com>
Zotero (Collect, organize, cite and share sources) <zotero.org>
by Lisa Cooke | Sep 2, 2018
How to Set Up the Premium Podcast on Apple Devices The Genealogy Gems app does not include the Premium podcast because it requires a membership. Unfortunately Apple’s Podcasts App doesn’t (currently) support membership podcasts either. However we have two...
