Meet Me at Midwestern Roots 2016 in July

Join me at the Midwestern Roots 2016 conference in Indianapolis on July 15-16! Early-bird registration rate applies until June 30.

I look forward to speaking at Midwestern Roots 2016 in Indianapolis next month! Will you be there?

This conference has a unique Midwest vibe: welcoming and unpretentious but absolutely solid in the value and education it offers. Indianapolis is easy to get to from many U.S. cities. The conference venue itself, located on the outskirts of the city, is also easy to reach and has free parking.

“This year’s theme is #YourStory, and many sessions focus on the technologies that are changing the ways genealogists research and share their family history,” says the conference brochure.

I’ll be sharing a bit of my own story during an evening banquet: memories of the summer my family spent living like it was 1867 on the TV show Texas Ranch House. I’ll go behind-the-scenes of ‘not so reality’ reality TV, reveal what it was like to live the daily routine my Texan great great grandmother may have, and most importantly, share the ways in which the experience drew my family even closer together.

Join me for my classes:

  • How to Use Evernote for Genealogy
  • Google! Everything New that You Need to Know for Genealogy
  • How to Reopen and Work a Genealogical Cold Case

Lots of fabulous presenters (including some who have been on the Genealogy Gems podcast) will be at Midwestern Roots. Curt Witcher is giving the Friday opening session (he joined us to dive deep into U.S. census records in Genealogy Gems Podcast episode 10). CeCe Moore will talk about DNA, as she did on Genealogy Gems Podcast episode 178.

Here’s the scoop:

WHAT: Midwestern Roots 2016
WHEN: July 15-16, 2016
WHERE: Indianapolis Marriott East 7202 E. 21st St, Indianapolis, IN
REGISTER: Click hereEarly-bird registration discount ends June 30!

Pre-conference activities on July 14 include an all-day workshop for librarians and volunteers who work with genealogy sources as well as computer labs, writing workshops, preservation workshops and research opportunities for all attendees.

Bring my lectures to you

If you can’t join us in Indianapolis,   Genealogy Gems Premium website membership brings my most popular classes to you. Membership gives you a year’s worth of on-demand video classes and handouts. Among these classes are all the topics I’m covering at Midwestern Roots 2016 in even more depth including:

  • an entire Evernote for genealogy series,
  • three classes on my Google search methodology,
  • a “cold case” research class and a companion video on finding living relatives like a private eye.

Click here to see the full list of video classes, and consider giving yourself the best value in on-demand genealogy education around!

 

History of the ENTIRE World on a Single Map?

Partial image of Histomap of World History from Slate.com.

Partial image of Histomap of World History from Slate.com.

This might be the single most ambitious publication EVER: a chart that lays out the history of human civilization. It’s the ultimate infographic, created long before the era of the infographic!

What you see here is a partial image, a screenshot taken from a cool article on the 1931 Histomap: Four Thousand Years of World History.

It’s not perfectly accurate, it carries some cultural biases and ignorance of much of Africa’s rich history and the dates are given more as a range than anything. So what makes this a useful tool for genealogists?

We’re always looking for historical context: a way to understand how our ancestors fit into the “big picture” of history. Are you learning about a Portuguese or French line in your family? Learning by DNA tests that you have some deep Asian roots? Find these categories displayed on the map along with other dominant (or not-so-dominant) groups of your ancestor’s era. It’s cool to look at! Check out the entire map (and an explanatory post in this post by Rebecca Onion at Slate.com.

Timechart history of the worldGenealogy Gems Contributing Editor Sunny Morton owns a book with a similar chart in it: Timechart History of the World (Timechart series)
The Timechart History of the World. The oversize, double-sided stiff cardboard pages fold out to more than 30 feet of full-color Victorian-decorated timecharts. She highly recommends it for the coffee table, if your coffee table is big enough to handle it!

Bonus: The  Huffington Post has a neat article (with a photo) of another map from this series,The Histomap of Religion.  (Time Chart of World Religion: A Histomap of Faith Through the Ages)  Religions can be tough to trace forward over time, as various sects divide or merge. Every tool helps!

The Burning of the Gipsy – Behind the Scenes of Who Do You Think You Are?

Who Do You Think You Are?The final episode of TLC’s first season of Who Do You Think You Are? came with more than just an extra helping of ancestral drama. Along with the end of the season came the welcome announcement that WDYTYA? will  return in 2014 on TLC.

First, the final episode recap: American actor Jim Parsons explored his paternal line and discovered one ancestor who was lost in a tragic accident–and another who narrowly escaped death by guillotine.

The Ancestry.com research team reports, “When we went digging into Jim Parsons’ family tree we found his third-great-grandfather was Jean Baptiste Hacker, a phyWDYTYA Gipsy articlesician who was raised in New Orleans but moved to Plaquemine, Louisiana, after starting his medical career. Just a few years later, Dr. Hacker, along with his daughter Leocadie and his nephew, was killed in a tragic fire on board the steamboat Gipsy in December 1854.”

They documented the accident through an article from New Orleans paper the Daily Picayune (digitized at Newspapers.com and shown here):

Another line of research takes Jim’s ancestry back to France, where he learned one of his forebears was an architect to Louis XV. “The timing of Louis Francois [Trouard]’s appointment is significant: 1787 is only two years prior to the French Revolution. Four architects were executed during the Revolution, and another 25 were imprisoned. Yet Louis Francois escaped Republican retribution….”

“At the Chapelle de la Providence, a structure designed by his ancestor, Jim discovers the startling truth: Louis Francois had good revolutionary credentials, including houseguests such as Benjamin Franklin and John Adams.”

Along with that riveting last episode, TLC just announced it will bring back more of the same next season. On September 10, Digital Spy reported that 2014 will see 10 more episodes. Celebrity guests haven’t been announced yet, so stay tuned! We’ll keep you posted on future developments.

Meanwhile, TV watchers, mark your calendars for the American version of Genealogy Roadshow, the  PBS show scheduled to debut next week.

 

 

AncestryDNA Results Improving for Jewish and Hispanic Ancestry

dna_magnifying_glass_300_wht_8959Ancestry.com has improved the ability of AncestryDNA to find good matches for Jewish, Hispanic and other ancestries that maybe weren’t so precise before. Here’s the lowdown, quoted liberally from Ancestry.com’s press release:

The problem: Predicting genetic relatives among customers of Jewish and Hispanic descent and some other groups. “In DNA matching, we are looking for pieces of DNA that appear identical between individuals,” says the release. “For genealogy research we’re interested in DNA that’s identical because we’re both descended from a recent common ancestor. We call this identical by descent (IBD). This is what helps us to make new discoveries in finding new relatives, new ancestors, and collaborating on our research.”

“However, we also find pieces of DNA that are identical for another reason. At one extreme we find pieces of DNA that are identical because it is essential for human survival. At the other, we find pieces of DNA that are identical because two people are of the same ethnicity. We call these segments identical by state (IBS) because the piece of DNA is identical for a reason other than a recent common ancestor. This, we have found, often happens in individuals of Jewish descent.”

“The challenge in DNA matching is to tease apart which segments are IBD, and which ones are IBS….Most Jewish customers find that we predict them to be related to nearly every other Jewish customer in the database….Detecting which cousin matches were real and which ones were bogus has always been a challenge for these populations.”

First step toward a solution: “By studying patterns of matches across our more than half a million AncestryDNA customers, we found that in certain places of the genome, thousands of people were being estimated to share DNA with one another–likely a hallmark of a common ethnicity. Our scientific advancements… have allowed us to effectively “pan for gold” in our matches–by throwing out matches that appear to only be IBS, and keeping those that are IBD.”

“While the problem was more pronounced in customers of Jewish and some Hispanic descents, we observed this problem across all ethnic groups.  So, all customers will see increased accuracy of their DNA matches, and significantly fewer ‘false’ matches.”

AncestryDNA results with better matches found by this method “will be available in the coming months,” says the release. They plan to email existing customers when results are ready.

Genealogy Gems Podcast Episode 141

In this episode we are pulling back the curtain on the Antiques Roadshow, as well as talking a bit about what to include and not include in your family tree.

I’m just back from Odessa Texas where I presented a full day seminar at the Permian Basin Genealogical Society. I got to enjoy a big dose of Texas hospitality and had an absolutely wonderful time.

Next up I’m heading to Kelowna British Columbia for the Kelowna & District Genealogical Society Harvest Your Family Tree 2012 Conference where I will be again doing four presentations as well as a Meet the Speakers panel. 

MAILBOX:

Family Tree Magazine Digital Subscriptions from Kathy:  “I subscribe to Family Tree Magazine.  Can I download my print subscription to my iPad….as you can with other subscriptions?  Or do I need to pay for each issue that I download? Family Chart Masters helped me with my Family Tree Chart.  It was beautiful and was a hit at our Family Reunion.  Janet was so helpful.  Thank you for the recommendation. Love your podcasts.”

Lisa’s Answer: The Family Tree Magazine digital subscription is separate from the print subscription, unless you have purchase their VIP Subscription. So you can either purchase individual digital issues from the Shop Family Tree Store, or you  can purchase a separate annual digital subscription. I think they keep it separate because not everyone wants both. Click here for a $10 off coupon for ShopFamilyTree and when you use that link it also supports the free Genealogy Gems Podcast.  Thank you!

Get Lisa’s Book Turn Your iPad into a Genealogy Powerhouse

Paperback

Ebook

 

Replacement for RAOGK

From Mary in Iowa: “In Podcast #139, Ricky asked about a successor to the Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness website.  There are actually three Facebook groups (not pages) carrying on the task of looking up genealogy information and other requests.  They are RAOGK, RAOGK – USA, and RAOGK – International.  You need to be a member of the Facebook group to post a message or request, but most requests for membership are granted quickly.”

Generous Genealogists

Gen Gathering

Scott from Oakland Maine:I am in need of some advice regarding an un-cooperative family member.  My father’s brother wants nothing to do with our family, and in years past once referred to himself as the “black sheep”.  He has absolutely no interest in genealogy and is not at all willing to be a part of the family story that I am putting together.  My question is, how do I reference this character in my tree.”

Lisa’s Answer: I imagine every family has a tough nut on a branch of the family tree!  I’m a firm believer in the truth, and what I would do if it were me is to include basic data (that is publicly available) on him on my private, personal family tree. On trees and other info you make available publicly, (such as an online family tree) I would list him and his immediate family only as “Living” and whether they are male or female. In the end you have to do what seems right for you.

From Glenn:Just wanted to say a quick thanks for both podcasts you produce…I’ve been interested in the Family History for some time…Recently my interest has arisen again, of course I have made classic mistake in not documenting everything, and just collecting names, dates and so forth.  So in the last 6 months I’ve been citing sources and updating the database. One of the quandaries I have is when do you stop, not so much vertically, but how wide do you go, in relation to cousins, second cousins and families? Probably the main question I have is trying to decide whether to get a subscription to Ancestry.com or not, I feel I’m at that stage where online document will help out, in filling in the leaves on my branches.”

Lisa’s Answer: Go as wide as you want and are interested in. I would recommend adding basic info for someone you find who you won’t be pursuing, so that if down the road you run in to a brick wall and you need to do some cluster research or reverse genealogy, you will have new leads to follow. RE: Ancestry – I think you will find that Ancestry membership is a very cost effective and time saving way to do your research. Mine has been invaluable. See if you can find a 7 day free trial to check it out and confirm they have the kinds of records you need.

GEM: Diane Haddad Pulls Back the Curtain on The Antiques Roadshow

Music in this segment:

The Antiques Roadshow Remix

By The Elusive MrHatchard

Available on the SoundClick.com website

GEM: Halloween History Tidbits

Halloween Mason Jar Lanterns

Vampire Hunting Kit from the 1800s

GEM: Newspaper Milestones

On September 15, 1982, USA Today began publishing

On September 18, 1851, the New York Times issued its first edition

On September 25, 1690, the first newspaper in America was published for one day in Boston before being shut down by British authorities unhappy with its content.

Check out this episode

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