by Lisa Cooke | Apr 11, 2015 | 01 What's New, Humor, images, Trees
“STWink Eye” by Source. Licensed under Fair use via Wikipedia – https://lisalouisecooke.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/FileSTWink_Eye.jpg.
After the passing of beloved actor Leonard Nimoy last month, MyHeritage.com took a closer look at his ancestry. Through resources on the world tree site Geni.com, MyHeritage discovered that this star of the Star Trek universe is related to another of its stars, though in the show they portray characters from different worlds.
According to a MyHeritage blog post, “Leonard Nimoy is William Shatner’s second cousin once removed’s wife’s first cousin once removed’s husband’s great niece’s husband’s fourth cousin’s ex-husband.”
Okay, so they’re very distantly and circuitously related! But they are, just like many of us. Click on the blog post above to see a chart showing their family relationship.
Celebrity genealogy aside, do you want to chart your own topsy-turvy family relationships? Click here to find out about relationship calculators and how they help relatives figure out how they are related to each other.
by Lisa Cooke | Jan 9, 2015 | 01 What's New, Ancestry, Newspaper, Research Skills
Recently Sue from Elk Grove, Illinois wrote in with a question about what to do when records were lost due to fire (or war, or disasters, etc.):
“We have been trying to locate information on my great great grandparents Hugh and Mae Sullivan. I have never been able to find marriage or birth records and have realized that it was mainly due to the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. Interestingly, through a directory from 1866, they may have lived only blocks from the origin of the fire. I have them in 1880 with 4 sons, the first of which was born just 10 months following the fire.
“I suspect that they may have lost other children in the tragedy. I am unsure which direction to go to find more of their story and any suggestions would be helpful. Several newspapers are reported to have lists of the missing but I have either been unable to read them or to locate them. Sam Fink’s list [an index of Cook County marriages and deaths] did not provide any information. I suspect that my ancestors were among the very poor immigrants that flooded into Chicago. There were relief societies and I have wondered if records were kept of those who were rehoused.”
Here’s my response to Sue:
I think you are on the right track with newspapers. Newspapers.com (owned by Ancestry) carries the Chicago Daily from 1871. Here is a screen shot of the List of Missing from Oct. 11, 1871. It might be worth a subscription to Newspapers.com to be able to really comb through all the issues.
Here’s a tip on working with less-than-the best digital images of historical newspapers. You can “invert” the actual image (have it read white-on-black instead of black-on-white), then darken it and add a little more contrast to get the most readable copy possible. This can be done right from the Newpapers.com viewer.
Also, in Family History podcast episode #37 I discussed a book specifically on Chicago research: Finding Your Chicago Ancestors: A Beginners Guide To Family History In The City Of Chicago
by Grace DuMelle. As I recall, it was a very comprehensive book and could give you good leads on where to look.
For more tips like these, read my book How to Find Your Family History in Newspapers. Inside you’ll find:
- Step-by-Step Instructions
- Worksheets and Checklists
- Tech Tools You Probably Aren’t Using But Should
- A Massive Amount of Location Specific Websites and a Case Study that Puts It Al Together
by Lisa Cooke | Sep 30, 2014 | 01 What's New, Ancestry, Census, Collaborate
There are lots of ways to find historical records about your ancestors online. Did you know there are also ways to learn who else has added that record to their trees–or who else is researching the same people you are? Here are two ways:
1. On Ancestry.com, when you are looking at an image of a record, there’s a sidebar to your right called “Related Content.” Click on it. Below other suggested records you will see a list showing anyone who has saved this record to their trees. You’ll see a link to that username and you can contact them. This is what it looks like: 
2. On LostCousins.com, you can enter the names of relatives whose names appear on specific censuses. Their database will search for others who are looking for the same people. This is a great resource for people with British Isles roots, as the site originates from there. Here are the censuses they support:
- England and Wales, 1841, 1881, 1911
- Scotland, 1881
- United States, 1880, 1940
- Canada, 1881
- Ireland, 1991.
Basic membership at LostCousins.com is free, but has limited functionality. You can only contact new people during certain windows of time during the year. With a £10 annual subscription, you can make new contacts anytime. 
Looking for more ways to find living relatives? Genealogy Gems Premium members can click here to access my full-length video class, Unleash Your Inner Private Eye to Find Living Relatives. Not a member? Click here to join.
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 | May 23, 2014 | 01 What's New, MyHeritage
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Celebrity genealogy aside, do you want to chart your own topsy-turvy family relationships? Click here to find out about relationship calculators and how they help relatives figure out how they are related to each other.