Genealogy Gems Podcast Episode 250

10 Surprising Things You Can Find at Google Books

You will find the complete show notes for the topic discussed in this episode at the Elevenses with Lisa show notes page here.  

Google Books is a free online catalog of over 25 million books, 10 million of which are digitized and searchable. While you would expect to find books at Google Books, you may be surprised to discover there it also includes many other types of published materials. In this episode I’ll explain how to find 10 of my favorite surprising items at Google Books. 

Click below to listen: 

Learn More About Google Books for Genealogy

My book includes everything you need to know about improving your Google searches in Google Books:

The Genealogist's Google Toolbox Third edition Lisa Louise Cooke

Available in the Genealogy Gems Store

Premium Video mentioned in this episode: Google Books, the Tool You Should Use Every Day. 

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Podcast Resources

Download the episode mp3
Show Notes: The audio in this episode comes from Elevenses with Lisa Episode 30. Visit the show notes page here. 

 

Genealogy Gems Podcast Episode 241

Podcast host: Lisa Louise Cooke

May 2020

In this episode you’ll hear about the change to Google search results, how to reunite found items with their families, and 10 strategies for finding school records for your ancestors. 

Download the episode mp3

Watch Elevenses with Lisa live on the Genealogy Gems YouTube channel on Thursdays at 11:00 AM Central. After the live show you can watch the video replay at your convenience. You’ll find the show notes for Elevenses with Lisa here on the Genealogy Gems website.

Google Search Update

Watch Episode 6 which features the latest on Google search results.

New Google Message: No good results

New Google Message: “No good results.”

MAILBOX: Reuniting Family History

A while back I received an email from Tim. He writes:

“I’m getting back into genealogy in a meaningful way now that my dissertation is done and I realized that I don’t know what to do with all the ‘stuff’ I’ve taken photos of, picked up at yard sales, etc., that could be of genealogical value to someone but not me.  I’ve got yearbooks, pictures of the genealogy information inside family bibles, etc.  I used to be able to scan and submit to Mocavo for the world to use but that’s gone.  With the Rootsweb mailing lists shutting down, do you have recommendations for where I can submit these things so they benefit others?”

From Lisa:

As a matter of I do have a few recommendations for you!

These days a free blog is your own genealogy bulletin board with much greater reach than Rootsweb had. It’s a great way to get the word out about items that you have that you would like to reunite with their families.

Blogger.com (Google’s free blogging platform) is a good choice.

Video tutorials on how to set up a Blogger blog at my YouTube channel.

Also, listen to Episodes 37-40 of my Family History: Genealogy Made Easy podcast

New England genealogy

Free podcast by Lisa Louise Cooke

Lisa’s Tips for getting your blog posts:

  • One blog post per item
  • In addition to a photo, include as much text as you can that describes the item.
  • Tag the items with surnames, record types, and locations.
  • Encourage people to email you or leave a comment to get in touch.

 

Interview with Carly Kidd-Osborn

If you have an item that you picked up along your genealogical travels that belongs to someone else’s family history, the Shrubs to Trees – A Pay-It-Forward Genealogy Facebook Group can help. Caryl Kidd-Osborn is the Administrator, and in this episode she explains how the group has helped return over 1500 items to families and how you can enlist their help.

Shrubs to Trees – A Pay-It-Forward Genealogy Facebook Group

From Caryl:  “We are almost 2 years old and in that time we have returned over 1500 “lost” memorabilia items to living family. We’ve given back photos, bronze baby shoes, sheet music that was written by someone’s family member, a marriage license and even someone’s cremains. We aren’t a very big group but we have some wonderful folks who just jump right in with researching the items. It’s a private group since we are dealing with living people. It’s very much a collaboration. Our members are genealogists who, like me, just can’t leave an antique store without taking someone else’s family home with them!”

Here are just a few examples of the precious items that the group has managed to return to grateful families:

Reunited - baby shoes

Reunited: Little Renee’s baby shoes

 

baby picture reunited with family

Reunited: A photo of Frances Payne. “Our cutest return,” says Caryl.

 

Reunited marriage certificate

Reunited: Andrew Johney and Maggie Bosley marriage license. This was found at a dump.

 

Reunited photo

Sarah Fooks Tutherly – photo went to the Historical Society in Laurel, DE. The Fooks family was a prominent family in that town, she was a DAR member.

 

Reunited Vandermaas family

Reunited: The Vandermaas family. The parents had died before the children were of that age so this is a composite of the whole family.

 

GEM: Top 10 Strategies for Finding School Records for Genealogy

Click here for the complete article on strategies for finding school records.

10 strategies for finding school records

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Download the Show Notes PDF

 

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Family History Episode 39 – How to Start a Genealogy Blog, Part 2

Family History: Genealogy Made Easy
with Lisa Louise Cooke
Republished July 8, 2014

family history genealogy made easy podcast

Listen to the free podcast in your favorite podcast app.

https://lisalouisecooke.com/familyhistorypodcast/audio/fh39.mp3

Download the Show Notes for this Episode

Welcome to this step-by-step series for beginning genealogists—and more experienced ones who want to brush up or learn something new. I first ran this series in 2008-09. So many people have asked about it, I’m bringing it back in weekly segments.

Episode 39: How to Start a Genealogy Blog, Part 2

This week we continue to explore the world of family history blogging, a terrific way to share your findings, connect with other researchers and long-lost relatives, and pass on your own research experiences. In the last episode The Footnote Maven advised us on how to get started blogging. In this episode I interview TWO more successful genealogy bloggers:

  • Denise Levenick, author of The Family Curator Blog and alter ego of “Miss Penny Dreadful,” who writes on the Footnote Maven’s Shades of the Departed blog. Denise will tell us about the origins of her Family Curator blog, and why she feels motivated to write it.  And she’ll also share some of her top tech tips!
  • Schelly Tallalay Dardashti, author of the Tracing the Tribe blog. She’ll tell us how she got started blogging, and what really got her hooked on it. She’ll tell us about her process for posting articles and how much time she spends blogging, and will dispel the myth that you have to be technically inclined to have a blog.

This episode is your personal genealogy blogging training with some of the best in the biz!

Denise Levenick: The Family Curator

Denise, a native Californian, has worked as an editor and journalist since publishing a neighborhood newspaper in grade school and has taught both journalism and literature in Pasadena schools for 19 years, so it’s no wonder that she took to blogging.

Here are some highlights from my conversation with Denise:

  • She says that “each of us is a family curator with responsibility.”
  • Use a free downloadable software program called Transcript. I found the most recent version available and described online here.
  • She mentions a blog called Family Matters on the Moultrie Creek website.
  • Denise mentions Evernote, free software helps thousands of genealogists keep their research organized and their sources (online and offline) at their fingertips. Want some help using Evernote for genealogy? Click here to read some of my top tips.
  • She also mentioned Scribefire. (Update: Scribefire is now a web browser extension.  Chrome: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/search/scribefire There is also GenScribe here: http://genscriber.com/genapps/start)

Schelly Talalay Dardashti: Jewish genealogy specialist

Schelly Talalay Dardashti has tracked her family history through Belarus, Russia, Lithuania, Spain, Iran and elsewhere. A journalist, her articles on genealogy have been widely published.  In addition to genealogy blogging, she speaks at Jewish and general genealogy conferences, is past president of the five-branched JFRA Israel, a Jewish genealogical association, a member of the American Jewish Press Association, and the Association of Professional Genealogists.

Highlights from the conversation with Schelly:

  • “You don’t have to be a techie to blog!”
  • She mentions using Feedburner for headline animation. Feedburner was bought by Google; learn more about headline animation from Google here.
  • Schedule blog posts in advance for your convenience.
  • Got Jewish DNA? She recommends testing through Family Tree DNA because they have a critical mass of Jewish DNA samples already in their system.
  • Genealogy conference recommendation:  The Southern California Genealogy Jamboree.

Genealogy Gems Premium Podcast Episode 173

Premium Episode 173 This special episode is the audio version of the “Video Magic” video. Download the audio file mp3Download the show notes PDF Resources: Watch the Video Magic video series here. Included in the video are family history video examples...

RootsMagic Update And Free Support for Users

Recently I heard from my friends at RootsMagic about a new version of their excellent family history software, as well as tips for getting help using it. I’m a huge fan of RootsMagic software-click here to read my RootsMagic review. I’m also huge fan of keeping your master tree on your own software rather than just in an online tree (click here to read why). From the RootsMagic press release:

“We have released a new update for RootsMagic 7 users, version 7.0.5.0.  This update includes the option to automatch with FamilySearch when doing WebHints, as well as a number of small bug fixes.” Click here to see a list of what is new and fixed. “If you haven’t already downloaded the update, look for the “Update Available” indicator in the lower right corner of your RootsMagic 7 program screen, and click on it.”

A Note About RootsMagic Help

“While we try our hardest to make our software as easy to use as possible, we also realize that a program with as many features as RootsMagic can sometimes seem intimidating. That’s why we try so hard to provide as many ways to get help as we can.

On the other hand, we are a small company (yes, we try to look big) and can often get buried with the amount of support calls and emails we receive. But the one thing we don’t have a shortage of is great customers who are willing to help each other.

Way over half the support requests we receive are answering “how-to” and “can the program do this” kinds of questions. Did you know that we have message boards, mailing lists, and other ways to talk to other RootsMagic users to get answers to a lot of these questions?  We also have online classes (webinars) and tutorial videos (RootsMagic TV) to help you learn how to use the features of your software.  We have an entire knowledge-base of answers to frequently asked questions.” To see all the different ways you can get help with RootMagic software, click here.

We are proud to have RootsMagic as a sponsor of the free Genealogy Gems Podcast.

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