The Genealogy Gems Podcast Episodes
2011 – 2012 Season Seven
Episode 121
Part 2 of Lisa’s interview with Steve Luxenberg, author of the book Annie’s Ghosts
Episode 122
Find out what a Forensic Genealogist Does. Plus suggestions for “Family Medical History” reading, and how to find “Bonus Content” for Steve Luxenberg’s book Annie’s Ghosts
Episode 123
Taking Genealogy out into the Community. Plus Part 3 of Your Life in 5 Minutes, New Records, and a new name for Grandma.
Episode 124
A new way to search with Google, Photo Mystery, Newspapers with Tom Kemp, plus Part 4 of Your Life in 5 Minutes
Episode 125
Genealogist Shirley Gage Hodges will share her genealogical wisdom with you as well as talk about her status as “perennial student.”
Episode 126
The latest news from RootsTech 2012, my video interview with Nick Barratt, and an in depth look at Find A Grave with the website’s creator, Jim Tipton.
Episode 127
Interview with Historian Nick Barratt of the Who Do You Think You Are? TV series in the UK
Episode 128
WDYTYA Live recap, a Family History Mystery Solved, and an interview with Chris van der Kuyl CEO of brightsolid
Episode 129 Genealogy Gems Book Club: Running Away to Home with author Jennifer Wilson
Episode 131
Defective, Dependent, and Delinquent Census Schedules, and Ancestry acquires Archives.com.
Episode 132
Bonnets and Hats with Maureen Taylor, and the Genealogy Widower
Episode 133
Lisa interviews Henry Louis Gates about his TV series Finding Your Roots.
Episode 134 A Blast from the Past! This episode includes Episodes 1 and 2!
Episode 135
Interview with Linda Chavez of Finding Your Roots
Episode 136
Life After iGoogle! And the brand new Lisa Louise Cooke’s Genealogy Gems website has launched!
Episode 137
Food and Family History with author Gena Philibert Ortega Part 1. Includes a companion video, AND Bonus Video of Gena and Lisa in the kitchen cooking up a Blast from the Past!
Episode 138
Food and Family History with author Gena Philibert Ortega Part 2.
Episode 139
Head back to (family history) school! Lisa announces her brand new book Turn Your iPad into a Genealogy Powerhouse
Episode 140
Blast from the Past: Episodes 3 and 4. eBay Alerts, Family History Displays, Irish Genealogy
If you would love to take a genealogy travel adventure to your ancestral homeland, consider who might help you make it happen. Get inspired and ready with these tips!
“What I would really like to know is if you have any travel agent/agency that is great for Europe travel to do my own ‘Who Do You Think You Are.’ Any help or direction you can give would be much appreciated.”
I have just the thing for Joyce’s travel question! In the free Genealogy Gems Podcast episode 115, I interviewed Kathy Wurth, who specializes in family history tours of Europe. (You will find her contact information here on the show notes page for the episode.) Even if she doesn’t go to the locations you want to visit, I’m sure that she could help match you up with a travel consultant who does. Tell her “hi” for me!
Before you set off on your own genealogy travel adventure, get inspired and get ready! Here are some great resources for doing just that:
Get inspired! Listen to or read about these genealogists’ travel adventures to ancestral homelands that I’ve covered on Genealogy Gems in the past:
She Left Me the Gun: My Mother’s Life Before Meby Emma Brockes. An award-winning journalist tells the story of her discovery of her mother’s tragic childhood in South Africa. This is a genealogical journey, complete with trips to archives, poring over old court cases and dramatic reveals. This is the ultimate how-to book for exploring and sharing sensitive family stories because she shows you how it’s done. Listen to an excerpt of our interview with Emma Brockes on the Genealogy Gems podcast episode 174 and the full-length interview in Premium episode 118.
Three Slovak Women, Second Edition by Lisa Alzo. A popular genealogy expert’s story of three generations of Slovak women in the steel-producing town of Duquesne, Pennsylvania, and the love and sense of family binding them together. Click here to hear Lisa in the free Family History Made Easy podcast talk about her reasons for researching her family history and what she’s learned along the way, including in her travels in Eastern Europe.
If you want to take a genealogy travel adventure–or invite someone else to–please share this article with them! Just email a link or It’s easy, it’s free–and maybe you’ll pick up a travel companion! Happy travels!
It’s not really wedding season, but we are hearing wedding bells across the United States! New and updated marriage records are dotting the country. Among other record finds this week, we share new sources from Latin America and Nicaragua.
United States – New York – Marriage Records
The not-for-profit organization called “Reclaim the Records” has just added the New York City Marriage Index to the public domain. We welcome this first searchable database of the 3,124,595 marriage licenses filed in New York City between 1950-1995. It’s free and searchable online at this time.
These records were finally won after a settlement was reached between the city of New York and Reclaim the Records. The organization won 110 reels of microfilm made from the masters in the City Clerk’s Office vault. This covers the handwritten marriage license index for 1930-1972. They also won a copy of a text-searchable database covering 1950-1995.
The search engine for these marriage records recognizes soundalike surnames, spelling variants, wildcards, common nicknames, year ranges, borough preferences, and more.
There are some records that are missing for Manhattan for 1967. Those Manhattan records do exist at the City Clerk’s Office on paper, however.
United States – Arkansas – Ohio – Tennessee – Washington – California – Marriage Records
FamilySearch joins the party by updating many of their U.S. marriage collections. Arkansas, Ohio, Tennessee, Washington, and California are among those updated over the past week.
The Arkansas Church Marriages, 1860-1976 collection is still rather small, but the newly updated records include items from Columbia and Woodruff counties.
Ohio, County Marriages, 1789-2013 collection is quite large and being added to regularly. Though not all have been indexed, you can browse through over 1.5 million marriage records by county. The collection consists of an index and images acquired from local courthouses. You may find:
Licenses
Certificates
Declarations
Affidavits
Loose documents
Abstracts
Licenses to perform marriages
The Tennessee, County Marriages, 1790-1950 is an even larger collection of marriages with more than 3.3 million records. I was particularly excited to see the Claiborne County marriage records from as early as 1838 are available online. You can see an example of these handwritten records below.
Early Claiborne County, Tennessee Marriage Record found on FamilySearch
Next on our list of new and updated collections of marriage records are the Washington, County Marriages for 1855-2008. The index includes marriage records for Clallam, Lewis, Pacific, Snohomish, Thurston, and Wahkiakum counties. Images for both indexed and non-indexed counties are available to browse. Additional records from other counties will be added to the collection as they become available, so check back often.
And lastly, the California, County Marriages, 1850-1952 of over 2.4 million records is a must see. This collection includes several different types of documents such as licenses, certificates, registers, applications, affidavits, and stubs. Currently, the collection is 99% complete. It should be noted that not all indexed names will have a view-able record image due to contractual agreements, however most will.
Latin America – Books
Over 50,000 early Latin American books housed at the University of Texas are now available online in the public domain. That means that anyone can search the digitized pages of these wonderful historical books.
You will find these digitized volumes online at Google Books or HathiTrust. If you need to learn about how to effectively utilize Google Books, take a look at this helpful video from Lisa.
Nicaragua – Civil Registrations
FamilySearch offers the Nicaragua Civil Registration, 1809-2013 records online. 2.5 million records have been digitized and 1.1 million are indexed. These civil records include birth, marriages, and deaths from Nicaragua. The text of the records is written in Spanish.
Civil registration is mandatory in Nicaragua; therefore most of the population has been registered. The civil registration records are considered a reliable source for doing genealogical research in that locale.
Birth records usually contain the following information:
Date and place of birth
Child’s name and gender
Legitimacy
Parents’ names
Parents’ age, race, status and residence
Occupation of father and mother
Names of witnesses
Marriage records may contain the following information:
Date and place of marriage
Groom’s name, origin and occupation
Bride’s name, age and residence
Bride’s origin and occupation
Names of witnesses
Death records contain the following information:
Name of deceased
Date, place and time of death
Cause of death
Legitimacy of deceased
Civil status and occupation of deceased
Name of spouse, if married
Parents’ names
Parents’ civil status and residence
Names of witnesses
Sometimes, burial information
More Gems on Marriage Records
To learn even more about researching marriage records for family history, listen to Lisa’s free podcast episode titled Using Marriage Records in Family History. This episode is part of a series called Family History: Genealogy Made Easy. This specific podcast is all about marriage records and how to find and utilize them for your research.
If you have not yet taken the opportunity to engage with Genealogy Gems through our free podcast, please join us. You can find the free episodes listed here.
For further in-depth tips and techniques, subscribe as a Premium Member and enjoy the Premium Podcasts just for members! There is always something more to learn in the world of genealogy and we want to share it with you.