April 15, 2007

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Check out your ancestor's tax records using the links at Cyndislist

GEM #1:  Great San Francisco Earthquake 

"Hello, Frisco" by Harvey Hindermeyer courtesy of U of Cal, Santa Barbara Library

Below: C. A. Burkett (on left) c. 1906

USGS website

The Virtual Museum of the city of SF

Remembering the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake an audio recording by NPR.

The San Francisco 1906 Earthquake Great Register 

BOOK:  Denial of Disaster: The Untold Story and Photographs of the San Francisco Earthquake

San Francisco 1906 Earthquake Marriage Project by sfgenealogy.com

GEM #2  Shake Up Your Research Stategy

Step 1: Locate the event on a Timeline History.com  This Day In History  Step 2:    Internet Searches 

1. Google (For Alerts see Episode 3)
2. Google Images  
3. Ancestry  Ebay (see Episode 3) 
4. State Historical Society 
5. State Archives 
6. Census - Find neighbors and do a quick Google & Ancestry search on them.   
7. YouTube.com (see Episode 4 for more info on using YouTube)

Article by Cynthia G. Fox Income Tax Records of the Civil War Years. 

GEM #1:  Anna-KarinÃÂ's Genealogical Podcast

GEM #2: Civil War Research

(The song Battle of Manasas courtesy of University of California, Santa Barbara Library.  Sam Houston portrayed by Roger Koehn.)

The Civil War began at Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, SC 146 years ago this week on April 12.

The Historical New York Times Project - The Civil War Years 1860-1866   

Civil War Soldiers & Sailors System Website    

Military Indexes Website    

Civil War Research Guide

GEM #3 - Surname Tools

Germany Surname Mapping:  Geogen

For British Surnames:  The Orange Hedgehog Surname Profiler

Email me with comments, questions or suggestions.  Be sure & let me know what state you're from, and how you heard about the podcast.

Welcome!  New to the podcast?  I've left you a message on the website voice mail (right column).  Just double click "Lisa" to listen.  Then, start with the ARCHIVES link & Episode #1.  To learn more about Podcasts and how to subscribe for FREE to the Genealogy Gems Podcast (so you'll catch every new episode!), click on the "Frequently Asked Questions" link in the right column to learn all you need to know.  Now, for more info on Episode #06... 

350 Years of American Jewish History

JewishGen The Home of Jewish Genealogy

Calling all videos:  Have you found a great genealogy related video on YouTube.com, or did you add a family history video of your own?  Then email me and tell me about your gem.  Be sure to include a link to the video.   

GEM:  Cast a Shadow on Your Ancestors  In episode #5 (below) I talked about adding silhouettes to the database file of an ancestor when you don't have a photo.Creating your own silhouettes: 

1. Take a photo of a person in profile against a neutral background.   
2. Blanket the photo background with white acrylic or tempera paint 
3. Fill in the image with a heavy black permanent marker, curing the shoulders down for a classical pose.   
4. Add fun details like cowlicks, eyelashes, hats, and jewelry that express the persons personality with a fine felt-tip pen. 
5. Photocopy the doctored photos onto quality art paper.  Since glossy papers work print best, you could also use your computer scanner to scan the image into your hard drive.  From there you can add it to your database, or print it out onto glossy photo paper for mounting. 

Welcome!  New to the podcast?  I've left you a message on the website voice mail (right column).  Just double click "Lisa" to listen.  Then, start with the ARCHIVES link & Episode #1.  To learn more about Podcasts and how to subscribe for FREE to the Genealogy Gems Podcast (so you'll catch every new episode!), click on the "Frequently Asked Questions" link in the right column to learn all you need to know.  Now, for more info on Episode #05...

Irish Roots CafÃïà:  http://www.irishroots.com  

NEW: Voice Mail Box

1. To leave a message:  Click "LEAVE A MESSAGEÃÂÃÂÂÃÂÂ
2. Opens a window: enter your name, and email address (not public). 
3. Have a microphone plugged into your computer 
4. Click RECORD

GEM #1:  You Tube Follow Up

Bill Puller of the Genealogy Tech Podcast was a real gem for teaming up with me last week on how to use the YouTube website - Thanks Bill!

Click this link YouTube.com, and search "Genealogy Gems" to find my two new videos:  "A Nurse In Training Part 1"  & "A Nurse In Training Part 2".

GEM:  Bring Sites Back From the Dead with Google

After pulling up an error page in Google: 

1. Hit the Back button 
2. Click the "cached" link  (This should bring up a copy of the page as it appeared at the time that Google indexed that page, with your search terms highlighted in yellow.)

The Wayback Machine (http://www.archive.org/web/web.php)    

GEM:  Spice up your database

When you don't have an ancestors photo, find something that represents what you do know about that person.  It really does help you see them more as a person and less as an entry in your database. 

Email me with comments & questions

My Odeo Channel (odeo/cd49194c34ae1437)

Episode: # 4  Show Notes   

I'm excited to announce a new collaborative effort with the Genealogy Tech Podcast, but first...

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY    

A Tribute to My Irish Roots...    

Margaret (nee Scully) Lynch  Born July 17, 1839 in Limerick, Ireland 

Find your Irish ancestors now with this book: 

"In Search" will take you step by step back to Britain and Ireland.  

From the MAILBOX:  For those of you new to Genealogy, Kay has a great posting about getting started.    Another Amateur Genealogist

DVD Gem:  Berkeley Square  -  My oldest daughter and I have been glued to this DVD since we started it.  We are both HUGE Pride & Prejudice fans (The A&E version) and are thrilled to find a serial of the same caliber. Each episode of the 10 episodes is packed with romance, intrigue, and plot twists that have kept us glued to the couch. 

GEM #1:  YouTube.com 

I'm pleased to announce that the Genealogy Gems Podcast and The Genealogy Tech Podcast (GTP) are joining forces to bring the power of YouTube.com to you.  In this episode, I'm covering how to find those video gems that will compliment your family history research.  In episode 009 of the GTP, Bill Puller will be covering some of the technical details on how to use the site and upload your own famiy history videos.  We want you to get the most out of YouTube!

The site lends itself beautifully to family history research by offering a method for finding & sharing videos pertaining to your family and research.  To become a Free member:

1. Go to the "Signup" page
2. choose a user name and password
3. enter your information.
4. Click the "Sign Up" button

Caution:  Be aware that there is objectionable content on Youtube.

East Prussia Video...

South east england old film  A film made up of very old footage from the 1920s offering a tour of Margate, England and surrounding villages...

To view the videos in my playlist on YouTube.com, type GENEALOGYGEMS in the search box, & click SEARCH. You'll get a "No results found" message, but just go over to the left side and click PLAYLISTS.  Then just click on the link.

Be sure to tune into the Genealogy Tech Podcast Episode #09 for great how-to info on uploading your own Family History Videos to YouTube!

GEM #2: Correspondence Logs

Here is a Correspondence Log Template for you to use.

Get your own Box.net widget and share anywhere!

I'd love to hear from you - Email me  with comments & questions.  I read every email.              

A big thanks to Bill Puller of the Genealogy Tech Podcast, for mentioning the Genealogy Gems Podcast in his March 7 blog.  I really recommend that you check out his blog / podcast.  He's got a real handle on the technical side of genealogical research & thank goodness he's sharing it with the rest of us! 

Before I get to the Episode #3 show notes (below), I want to be sure that folks new to podcasting know  How to Subscribe to this podcast for FREE:  

If you don't already have itunes installed on your computer... 

1. Go to http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/ 
2. Enter your email address in the box on the left & click the "Download itunes 7.1 Free button 
3. Follow the prompts. 
4. Once installed, open up itunes on your computer 

Now you're ready to subscribe to Genealogy Gems Podcast... 

1. Use your curser to highlight the following address:  http://genealogygemspodcast.com/rss  
2. Press the Control key and the letter C key on your keyboard at the same time to COPY the address to your computer's clipboard
3. In itunes, Select ADVANCED and SUBSCRIBE TO PODCAST from the menu
4. A small window will open. 
5. Press the Control key & the letter V key at the same time on your keyboard to PASTE http://genealogygemspodcast.com/rss into the box.
6. Click OK

The podcast will automatically load into the Podcasts section of your itunes library.   You will now receive new episodes whenever they are published, & be able to listen to them in itunes anytime you want! 

GEM:  GOOGLE ALERTS & EBAY FAVORITE SEARCHES (what I refer to as Ebay Alerts) 

GOOGLE ALERTS: 

Check out Bill Puller's podcast Episode #8 of the Genealogy Tech Podcast.  You can create a thousand!    (Idea:  Start with those items you highlighted in your family journals (See episode #2 below) 

EBAY FAVORITE SEARCHES: 

Here's how to create a Favorite Search in Ebay... 

1. Enter keywords in to the All Items SEARCH box and click SEARCH
2. (Consider clicking the Search title and description box to insure you are getting everything)
3. Once you get the search refined to give you good results, click ADD TO MY FAVORITE SEARCHES (just below the search line on the right side of the screen)
4. This opens a window where you can elect to create it as a new search, or replace one of your existing searches.  Usually you will just be creating a new search.  Make sure the EMAIL ME box is clicked so you will receive email notifications when new items are listed.  You can choose how long you want to receive emails.  (This can be modified at any time through MyEbay)
5. Click SAVE SEARCH

You'll probably receive your first emails tomorrow morning! 

Examples:
LARSON screwdriver...

San Joaquin Cotton Oil bale of cotton... 

Here's a link to my current Ebay listings   

GEM: FAMILY HISTORY DISPLAYS  

Shadow Box...

Wall Display... 

I'd love to hear from you!   Email me  with comments & questions.   

GEM:  Transcription of Family Journals & Letters

Start with what you know.    Then talk to your oldest relatives first before you lose them.   

• Ask for letters and journals 
• Invest time into combing through and transcribing them into a digital format (such as a Word document) 
• Print it out and go through it with a highlighter 
• Highlight, names, places, dates, etc. 
• Create a list of the highlighted items and do a Google search on each (both text & images where applicable) 

Transcription is worth it! 

One of my inspirations:  the autobiography of my husband's grandfather Raymond Harry Cooke born March 6, 1894 in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England.    This journal led to the discovery of the following photograph...

The Rose Theatre Staff  in 1914 (Material courtesy of the City of Regina Archives":

Bottom left corner: Raymond Harry Cooke.  To his upper right, Miss Belle Osborne.  They later married, and remained so for over 50 years.

Please email feedback and questions.   I read every single email.  And be sure to let me know how you heard about the podcast.   

Episode 01 February 25, 2007

by Lisa Louise Cooke

My goal in creating this podcast is to provide you with inspiration and innovation to help you get the most of out your research time.  There's never enough time to work on your family tree, is there? So when you have some precious moments to dig into your roots, you want to be mining gold nuggets, not dead ends. 

Genealogy Gem: Google.com allows you to restrict search results to a specific website.  

1 - Go to your favorite genealogy website
2 - Highlight the website address (URL)
3 - Hit the Control key and the letter C at the same time on your keyboard  (this copies the website address to your computer's clipboard.)
4 - Go to Google.com
5 - Click in the Google search box to place your cursor there
6 - Hit the Control key and the letter V at the same time on your keyboard  (this pastes the website address in the search box that you just copied from the other site.)
7 - Hit the HOME key on your keyboard (this takes your curser to the beginning of the URL address in the search box)
8 - Now type a keyword you want to search (a surname for instance)
9 - Hit the space bar on your keyboard
10-Then type SITE: (be sure to include the colon after the word SITE:)
11- Click the SEARCH button

You will receive search results just like a regular Google search, except these results show only pages where your keyword appears in the website you chose to search, rather than every website on the internet!

Believe me, once you use this gem, you will never go back to slogging through hundreds of pages that have nothing to do with your family.  Try it today!

I hope you'll subscribe to this podcast so you won't miss a single gem packed episode.   Email me with feedback, suggestions, and questions.