The Genealogy Gems Podcast
Episode 13

Originally Published 2007
Remastered March 2014
By Lisa Louise Cooke

From the MAILBOX

Hello Lisa: I have just finished listening to your podcast on tracing family
members through school records. You mentioned some sources to
research.

Alan's Website

Many years ago I came across a list or resources to be found in the
home. I still have the photocopy I made,  but it does not say who
originally created it. I believe I found it at my local LDS.  Anyway
since putting it on my site, I and others who have come to that page
have added to it.

I really like your show and look forward to receiving your newsletter.

Allan Scahill

GEM:   Memorial Day & WW II Service Records

With the month of May comes Memorial Day, and in Episode Thirteen I thought it would be a good time to do a quick check for some military records.   If you have relatives who served in World War II here are a couple of free ‘must check’ websites for you.

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA): www.archives.gov/aad

The WWII enlistment records for the years of 1938 through 1946 are listed on the NARA website.  These records contain the majority of enlistments, approximately nine million men and women who enlisted in the U.S. Army, including the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps.  What I like about the NARA records is that they include the Army Serial Number, which I’ve not seen on the Ancestry version of the records.  And of course they are free at the NARA website.  They also have searchable WWII Prisoner of War Records.

Another great website for searching for soldiers traveling overseas or returning home after the war is Steve Morse’s All New York Arrivals Search Form.

I hadn’t thought of searching for traveling soldiers until I heard Steve Morse speak about it at a recent seminar.   As soon as I got home from the seminar, I used his form and immediately found my Great Uncle Elzie returning home on the Ile de France after being injured in the D-Day invasion.  With the availability of New York passenger lists up to 1957, many new research doors have been opened.

If you’d like more information or historical background on Memorial Day, visit the U.S. Memorial Day website.

GEM:  Family History Books

By now you may have seen my videos A Nurse In Training Part 1 & Part 2 on my YouTube channel.

A Nurse In Training didn’t actually start out as a video but rather a book.  I have found that by breaking up my research into digestible chunks of time and self-publishing them in hard cover books my extended family is able to understand and enjoy our family’s history.

I started self-publishing about a year ago.  We don’t live close to our families, so Christmas gifts have to be purchased ahead of time and shipped.  Family history books turned out to be a fantastic way to start sharing some of my research findings in an affordable way that could be easily mailed.

In the past I’ve sent CDs full of photos and documents. But in the end I think they were a bit overwhelming to the non-genealogists in the family.

I think there are many reasons for this:

Computer CDs are perceived as something technical and hard to use.   The material is chopped up, and individual photos and documents don’t tell a particular story smoothly and easily.

I think they’re also perceived as very time consuming.  Folks just don’t feel like they have the time to sit down and really give it the attention it deserves.  Also, many people find reading on a computer screen hard on the eyes. 

The solution: a good old fashioned book!  Books are still hard to beat for telling a story in words and pictures in a user friendly way.

But where to begin the story, and where to end it?  That’s the big question!  The temptation is to tell the story of one generation of the family.  That’s usually just too big of a project to take on.  The book will likely end up being lots of dates and names and not a lot of room for much else.  And there’s always the risk that it won’t be completed if it’s too large an undertaking.

I wanted my family to get to know these people in our family tree intimately.  That meant focusing in much closer than an entire generation of the family.  In the end, I started with my favorite ancestor:  my grandmother. 

I’ve transcribed many years of her diaries as I talked about in Episode Two.  One of the stories that really emerged out of them was her years spent in nurses training in the 1930s.  I learned so much through her journal entries, and I knew I had a good collection of photos from that period.    

I decided that my starting point would be her graduation from high school and her decision to enter the nursing field.  By the time I had pulled everything together from 1930 to 1933, I had more than enough for a nice size book. 

It’s really important to create your book with your audience in mind.  Your audience is your family member who will be reading the book. 

Here are my Top Six Tips for making your book fascinating to your reader:

#1 The Should Book Convey An Overall Theme
Start by reviewing all the available material you have.  That will give you a good sense of what the time period was like for your ancestor.  You’ll also start to understand their goals, experiences, and emotions.  Ultimately a theme should begin to surface. 

In the case of A Nurse In Training, I wanted to communicate my grandmother as a young woman taking on a new adventure away from home that ultimately led to this warm, caring woman’s successful career as a nurse.  I also tucked a bonus subplot in there of how she just happened to meet her husband at the same time!

You don’t need every scrap of research and every photo to get this theme across.  It’s your job to be a sharp editor and to pick out the critical pieces.  You want the words and photographs that clearly communicate your theme to the reader.

#2 Create a Book that can be Read in One Sitting
Like it or not, if it takes too long read, they probably won’t.  Strive to create a book that doesn’t look intimidating.  I create books that are ten to twenty double sided pages.  People will be willing to pick up a thinner book off the coffee table.  If it’s well done they’ll find that all of a sudden they’ve finished the entire book without wanting to put it down.  The final goal is that they will walk away with a real sense of having gotten to know that ancestor.

#3 Your Book Should Contain the Best of What You Have
This goes back to conveying the theme and being a strict editor.  My grandma had many funny stories, but there just wasn’t room for all of them.  I picked the best of the best.  Anyone who reads the book should hopefully come away with the fact that she had a sense of humor and could laugh at herself.  So keep the content of your book focused, full of graphics and photos, and including the best of the best.  If you can capture their interest in the first three pages, you’ll have them for the entire book.

#4 Include Lots of Photos and Graphics
A picture is definitely worth a thousand words.  Since the number of words in this size book will be limited, photographs will be your best friend.  If you’re lacking in family photos, many of my previous podcasts will give you countless ideas for locating associated photos.  In A Nurse In Training I included scanned images of skating rink tickets, programs and announcements from my grandma’s scrapbook, and journal pages in my grandmother’s own hand.  These types of items really add texture and interest to your book, as well as help the reader to see that you’ve really done your homework.

#5 Keep It in Chronological Order
This may seem obvious, but it’s easy to get side tracked and start going back and forth in time.  Believe me, for the reader’s sake keep things in chronological order. You as the researcher know this information backwards and forwards, but this is probably your reader’s first exposure to it.  Be gentle with them and keep it straight forward and simple.  Your reader will thank you.

#6 Go for High Quality
High quality glossy pages, good image quality and a hard cover binding all shout to the reader “I’m worth your time, read me!”  For example, I found a drawing of Dameron Hospital where my grandmother worked, but it was a low quality image and didn’t translate well in the book.  As much as I wanted to include it, I ended up leaving it out. I’m glad I did; it wasn’t critical to the book and there were other ways to communicate the hospital to the reader.

Keeping these tips in mind, let’s talk about how to publish your own family history book.

I create my books in the Kodakgallery which is now Shutterfly at www.shutterfly.com.

There are several websites out there offering the ability to publish your own book.  I chose Kodakgallery because the program was very easy to use, the price was competitive, publishing and shipping time was FAST, and the quality was excellent.  I saw a book that a friend of mine published of his father’s World War II service years and it was gorgeous.  Again, quality is really key. Hopefully, these books will become family keepsakes and you’ll want them to be the highest quality possible.

I use the Classic Photo Book style which is 9” x 10-1/4" in size and includes ten double sided pages for a total of twenty pages, but you can certainly add more.  It comes in a hardcover that you can do in linen fabric, smooth matte or leather.  It also includes a window in the front cover that you can see your first photo through.  I really like that feature because it never fails to capture people’s curiosity and entice them to pick up the book and take a look.

They also have a larger Legacy Photo book which is 12” x 14”.  This is the size my friend used that worked really well because he was including large images of newspaper pages about the war.

I’m going to walk you through the steps of setting up a book in Kodak Gallery because it’s a resource I feel very comfortable recommending.  But again, there are other options out there, and my guess is that the publishing process would be pretty similar.  I have provided a Kodak Gallery link for you at my website at GenealogyGems.TV on the STORE page.  If you decide to use Kodak, I would really appreciate you accessing it through this link because it will help support the production costs associated with producing this podcast.  

In the Photo Books area of the website, click CREATE BOOK.

The first thing you’ll do is choose a cover material for your book.  I used black leather for A Nurse In Training which is really nice and has a light sheen to it.  It is $10 more than linen or matte.  I created a Guest Book for my daughter’s wedding where the right side pages were photos of the happy couple and the left side pages had space for guests to sign and write notes.  I used linen for that cover in the color “baby pink” and really liked that as well.  Ultimately, I think it comes down choosing a cover style that compliments the theme and contents of the book.  Once you’ve made your selection, click the NEXT button.

You will then need to choose a page design for your book.  For A Nurse in Training I used the design “Time After Time.”  It has a lovely antique look.  Go ahead and pick one you like.  Don’t worry, you can always change the page design any time before you make your final purchase.  When you’re ready, click NEXT.

This will bring up a box asking if you want to auto fill your book with photos you’ve already uploaded to the website, or if you want to add them page by page.  If this is your first book, I think page by page is the way to go.

Now you’re getting to the fun stuff: adding content to your book.  Anywhere you see a text box you just click inside of it and start typing.  The space for text can be somewhat limited though, so always preview your pages to be sure you didn’t lose any text.

To upload photos look below the image of the book and click the UPLOAD PHOTOS link.  You can browse your hard drive and select the photos and images you want to include.  On the publishing page your photos will appear beneath the book.  Just grab the photo and drop it into the DRAG PHOTO HERE box where you want it to appear.  You can preview the pages as you go by clicking PREVIEW right below the book spine.  Images can be adjusted with zoom & arrow movement features. Keep clicking next page until you have filled all the pages. 

Each page layout can be altered by clicking the CHOOSE PAGE LAYOUT button in the upper corner of the page.  Using a variety of layouts can add a lot of interest to your book.  Ultimately you’ll be selecting the layouts that accommodate your images and text.  Don’t be afraid of leaving white space on pages.  It makes the book easier to read and enjoy. 

Another nice feature of the book is the cover page.  Select a good, clear, preferably simple photo of your subject for the cover page.  It will be seen through a vellum page from the cover.  Under the photo you will want to put the title of your book, and on the second line add your name as author.

On the backside of the cover page you will want to create your dedication page using a text only page layout.  Here’s an example of what you could write:

First Sentene: State who the book's audience is

Second Sentence: Give credit to those who contributed materials

Third Sentence: STate your personal goal for the book, as well as your name and the year published.

I gave copies of my book about my grandma to my mom and my uncle.  It was the first time in years that I’ve seen tears in my uncle’s eyes.  He loved it; no toaster or tie could have made a better Christmas gift.  The following Christmas I did a book about my father-in-laws WWII naval years and sent a copy to everyone on my husband’s side of the family.  In the months following as I received RSVPs for my daughter’s wedding they were still raving about the book and how much it meant to them.  More than anything, they were so surprised to realize how little they knew about their father’s patriotic service. 

It’s a joy to create these books as well as to give them.  They’ve stimulated wonderful family conversations and I know they won’t end up in the next garage sale.  Remember: your research can be fascinating and understandable to others in your family.  It just takes a little creativity and effort.  What good is it sitting on a shelf?  Don’t wait until you are done with your research.  It will never happen.  Start putting pieces of your family history directly into your family’s hands with a beautiful family history book. 

In this episode you'll hear what you've been missing and how to get it from the Ancestry Wiki. Also how to do a very specialized type of Google search you may have never tried, a French-Canadian genealogy resource, and more.

Top 10 Reasons I Moved to Texas:

10. They have something here, it’s called weather

9. I live on an acre now so my neighbors don’t complain that they hear me over here talking to myself

8. There’s a Soft Surroundings store in Southlake! And a Pottery Barn, and a Coach purse store, and…

7. Genealogy Bloggers Amy Coffin and Caroline Pointer. If you know them, you understand

6. Wise County has just launched a new genealogy society and they wanted a speaker who lived less than three hours away

5. It’s been almost 10 years since I filmed a reality TV show out here, so I figure they’ve moved on.

4. My cat Ginger is from Texas and what she meows goes

3. After 18 years in California I finally get to have a pool in my backyard

2. They don’t have chicken fried steak  in California

1. My Grandsons - Davy and Joey!

The Piece of Family History that Miraculously Made Its Way Back to This Indianapolis Woman

A few years ago while attending a genealogy conference, I decided to conduct some on-the-fly interviews for The Genealogy Gems Podcast. I asked folks to tell me about the most prized family heirloom that they possessed.  I heard about everything from the door knob of a woman’s parent’s bridal suite, to the bedazzling flapper dress worn by a great grandmother.

All were interesting, but I was stopped in my tracks when one woman looked at me with pain in her eyes and declared “I have nothing. Not a thing. My cousins destroyed everything.”

It was a difficult concept to digest. As the acknowledged “keeper of the family history flame” in my family, I’ve been fortunate enough to have inherited an abundance of family heirlooms from both sides of my parent’s families. How sad it would be to have nothing concrete to hold in your hand; nothing to help you feel the generations that held the item before.

Since that day I’ve remained inspired to help people find ways to track down information and artifacts that make up their family history. Time and time again, I’ve found that just when you thought there was nothing left to find, an item will resurface. The Galaxy Quest movie quote (surely based on the famous words uttered by Winston Churchill in 1940) is one I cling to when it comes to genealogy: “Never give up! Never surrender!”

This motto has never been so gloriously justified as it was recently when a woman from Indianapolis, Indiana received the surprise of a lifetime this Christmas.  The Purple Heart awarded to Pat Davis’ father, (a father she never met) was found recently and returned to her. Watch the compelling video below where the daughter holds the unearthed piece of family history in the palm of her hand. 

Kyla wrote: "I had old photos and letters returned to me by a woman who found me on a genealogy message board. Her father had obtained them from my brothers who were throwing them away. It was like a miracle."

NEWS:

RootsTech 2014 may have come to an end, but SCGS Jamboree is just around the corner

I’m pleased to return this year to speak at the 45th Annual Southern California Genealogy Jamboree. This popular conference, hosted by The Southern California Genealogical Society, runs June 6 to 8, 2014 in Burbank, California, USA.

The theme of the 2014 Jamboree is Golden Memories: Discovering Your Family History. It promises to pack tons of fun into a long weekend, as it always does.

My classes on Friday and Saturday include:

Who Needs Google Reader? Flip Out Over Genealogy Content with Flipboard!
Learn how to use the free Flipboard app to turn your favorite genealogy web content into your own free customized digital magazine. You will flip over how fun and easy they are to create and share. Perfect for genealogists and societies!

Ultimate Google Search Strategies for Genealogists
Learn Google search techniques, tricks and tips to achieve better genealogical search results, and then elevate your search to a strategic level. Finally, see how all of this applies across the spectrum of free Google Tools.

How to Create an Exciting Interactive Family History Tour with Google Earth.
Learn to tell your ancestor’s story in a captivating multi-media way in Google Earth. Incorporate images, videos, genealogical documents, and historic maps and bring it all together in a virtual family history tour for sharing and research analysis.

SCGS Jamboree 2014 welcomes 55 speakers, over 60 exhibitors, 134 class sessions for a variety of experience levels, and special events. Online registration is open on the Jamboree website, and the Marriott’s website is ready to take your reservation. Hope to see you there!  Read more about it here.

Genealogy Test Reveals Dad’s DNA Swapped in Artificial Insemination

It’s not uncommon for genetic DNA tests to reveal that you’re not related to people you thought you were. But here’s a twist I’ve never heard before.

A family who had a daughter by artificial insemination of the husband’s sperm eventually decided to do some DNA testing for family history. Imagine the wife’s shock when she discovered that her husband and daughter shared no DNA! 

They got a bigger shock when they did a little research. Apparently the biological father worked at the lab that handled the family’s insemination process. The man is dead now, but it appears he may have deliberately swapped in his own sample for the father’s.

Of course lots of questions have come up–including how many other children may have received the DNA of a man who was a convicted kidnapper.

My heart goes out to this family and to others who now fear their genetic fatherhood was hijacked. Read the full story here (it’s popped up in several news outlets now, but I first saw it at KUTV.com). Watch the video at the Genealogy Gems Blog

Newly Remastered and Republished Podcast Episodes

Family History Episode 16 – The Family History Library Catalog

Family History Episode 17 – Using Family History Centers Part I

Family History Episode 18 – Using Family History Centers Part II

What’s New at Evernote
“Synchronization is now about 4X faster than ever before. This applies to any version of Evernote that you use. Sync now often takes a couple of seconds to complete, and when you get a new phone or computer, downloading your notes will take much less time. If you have a small account, you might not notice that much of a difference. On the other hand, if your account is large, or you’ve been using Evernote for many years, or you share notebooks with other users, or your entire company uses Evernote Business, you’ll see massive improvements.”

A detailed overview of what Evernote did is now on their Tech Blog.

BillionGraves Now Accepting Your Documentation

I’m hearing so much these days about source citation and I love it! Everyone seems to be getting smarter and better at sourcing their research finds. And genealogy websites are making it easier and more collaborative. Here’s just one example, an announcement just made by BillionGraves:

“After months of work in response to hundreds of user requests, BillionGraves has added several new features designed to validate and enhance the headstone records found on BillionGraves.  The Supporting Record feature now allows users to upload evidence-based documents that support the BillionGraves records that have been collected through our mobile Apps. This means that users are now able to upload headstones, birth/death, burial, marriage, cremation, and many other types of records without needing a smart phone.

Thousands of records are being uploaded every day and are breaking down genealogy brick walls and making connections that once seemed impossible. While working closely with our users and genealogists we found that there were many headstones and burials that just couldn’t be accounted for with our current systems; including unmarked graves, cremation scatterings, destroyed stones, and so on. Our Supporting Records features eliminate this problem while maintaining the validity and accuracy of the BillionGraves database.”

MAILBOX:

Answer to A Genealogical Google Search Question

Jo-Anne: “Is there a Google Earth Cd of the 1932 L.A. Olympic Games?”

Lisa’s Answer: I would try the following Google Search as follows...
"1932" Los Angeles "Olympic Games" "google earth" .KMZ

Quotation Marks around a word or phrase mean that the word or phrase must appear in all results. 

Adding .KMZ or .KML tells Google that you want Google Earth files as the highest priority. Put quotation marks around the file designation and you’ve just told Google to ONLY return Google Earth files.

Lisa wants to know: “What type of Google Earth files / maps / tours would you be interested in finding?”

What Would You do?

From a concerned listener: "I have a dilemma I'm not sure how to handle. I have a recent ancestor that I never met, but my parents knew. This ancestor did some remarkable things in his lifetime, but also some terrible things to members of his family, some of whom are still living. I want to write about the good things he did, but I don't want to upset the relatives he hurt. Do you have any suggestions on how to handle recent ancestors with difficult pasts?"

Lisa’s Answer: I'm sure different folks have different ideas on this. But for me, living relatives come first. If it causes pain to someone living their life today, then I would hold off. I would also feel I was being somewhat deceptive to write up only the positive elements of their life. Deception can be created by omission. And our life activities are interconnected. For example, if a man built and incredible company, it might have been at the expense of his children if they never received his love or time. That is part of the story.

To tell the true and complete story, I don't believe the genealogist can cherry pick. And therefore there are times when we must leave stories and lives alone until telling their stories would no longer cause harm to living people. I certainly would not want to allow "terrible things" to continue by bringing it back up in public. That's just my personal opinion on the situation. I hope all goes well in whatever you decide.

Lisa wants to know: What do you think? Have you faced this situation, on either end?

A Podcast for French-Canadian Research

Maple Stars and Stripes

Thank you to our wonderful sponsor

RootsMagic

GEM: The Ancestry Wiki with Crista Cowan

In this gem, Crista Cowan explains how to find the wiki, how to search it, and how to explore it because "we don't know what we don't know."

From Ancestry: “Do you want to know what birth records exist for a specific county? Did you just discover that your ancestor was in the military and need to know what military records might give you the most information about him? The answers to these (and MANY other) genealogy questions can be found in the Ancestry.com Family History Wiki.”

Producer: Vienna Thomas
Contributing Editor: Sunny Morton

Genealogy Gems Podcast Episode 163: Get ready to flip out with me over Flipboard. It’s a free app and web tool that you have to see to fully appreciate. In this episode I’ll take you behind the scenes at Flipboard in the Silicon Valley and talk to the folks who create the product that helps you enjoy the online content you love. I’ll also share a little discovery I made about family history when I threw my back out over the holidays (there’s got to be an easier and less painful way to do family history research!) and get you up to date on all the genealogy news.

The back pain in my family history was there all the times but I didn’t recognize it!  My Great Grandmother Louise’s “hand on hips” stance in many of the old family photos was more than just a sassy attitude. It reflected a family history of back pain that plagued my grandmother, my uncle, and me.

And what do you suppose folks will think a 100 years from now when the news stories are long gone, and they are reviewing the footage of the sign language guy at Nelson Mandela’s funeral?  A reminder that not everything we see in old home movies and photos may necessarily be as it seems?

NEWS:

Read: iTunes hits 1 Billion podcast subscribers

Happy 4^th Birthday Genealogy Gems App!  Get the App:

For Android
For iPad
For iPhone
For Windows 8

New Episodes of Family History: Genealogy Made Easy Podcast

Episode 9

The fourth annual Rootstech conference, hosted by FamilySearch, will be held February 6-8, 2014 at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City, Utah. In addition to renowned keynote speakers, the conference features over 200 classes, hundreds of booths in a huge Expo Hall, and evening events.

Pinterest
Pinterest as has given users three more “secret” boards where you can pin privately.
Visit Lisa’s Pinterest boards at www.pinterest.com/lisalouisecooke

   MAILBOX:

Keith wrote: “I previously wrote you a few months ago when I launched my own blog, sonofswift.tumblr.com. I am happy to report that tomorrow marks my 150th post. Thank you for reading my first message on your show. I have since had it listed on Geneabloggers and started a weekly picture post, Wordless Wednesday. After spending a considerable amount of time trying to break down brick walls, I'm currently focused on learning about my, and my wife's, great grandparents, which I call "thickening the branch. In the new year I plan on releasing eBooks containing all my research from the past six months with accompanying trees. All of it is thanks to guidance I get from listening to your podcast. Thank you for all that you've done and will continue to do.”
www.Megankeith.com/past
Sonofswift.tumblr.com

Congratulations on your blog's milestone! Now anytime someone searches Google for one of your ancestors they will find you.  I'm so happy to hear that the podcast has been helpful to you in your journey.

From Maryann: “Sitting here addressing Christmas cards and grabbing a bit of lunch when I decided to check my email. Spotted your email and opened it up. Skimmed through it, went back to the top again to check out more of what you wrote about the RootsTech 2014 Flipboard magazine you put together. Looked over at the stack of cards still waiting, but thought I'd grab a few minutes to just get it downloaded. Thanks to your book, I already have and use Flipboard, so it didn't take long to find the magazine and subscribe. It looks FANTASTIC. Can hardly wait to sit down and spend time reading through the articles and watching the videos. Right now, though, that stack of cards is shouting me, so I'd better set aside my iPad (after reading your book, I chose a mini, and am forever grateful for the help your book gave me, especially in setting up my apps) and get back to them.”

And Taunja is also flipping over Flipboard: “I've had Flipboard on my smartphone and didn't know what to do with it! Just subscribed to the Rootstech magazine and it looks wonderful...thanks so much! Looks like a better learn a little bit more about Flipboard.”

  GEM: Flipboard Interview
If you’ve been listening to this podcast since the beginning, or have gone back and caught up on the previous episodes, then you know that I was a big advocate of iGoogle as a way to stay organized online. And one of the things I used to love to organize were all my favorite podcasts, blogs, and videos having to do with family history. I say used to because back in November 2013 Google did away with iGoogle, much to my dismay. They want their users to focus on Google+, which frankly is not a favorite of mine. In fact I was just reading the other day that Google’s CEO was saying that they made a big mistake in underestimating social media online, and that has put them in a position of constant catch up.

Well, it didn’t take long to track down some great alternatives, and in this gem I want to focus on the one I flipped out over for tracking and enjoying my favorite online media like blogs and videos. It’s called Flipboard, and if you have my book Turn Your iPad into a Genealogy Powerhouse, then you’re probably already familiar with it.

Now wait, don’t turn off this episode because you don’t have an iPad. You don’t need one to use and enjoy Flipboard. It’s a free app for Android and Apple devices – so we’re talking all kinds of smart phones and tablets can use it.

Now while the app allows you to pull together all your favorite RSS feeds together and displays them in a beautiful way, Flipboard also has a Magazine feature.  In a recent issue of the free Genealogy Gems eNewsletter – which you can sign up for on our homepage at www.genealogygems.com – I wrote an article all about a magazine I created all by little self using the free Flipboard web tools. These magazines – and I really call them magazine issues, because they are like stand along issues of a magazine – can be viewed on your computer web browser as well as the app, and you can add content from all over the web, and share it with others.

When I saw the magazine feature for the first time my mind just started racing with all the genealogical possibilities. I’ve created several free magazines that you can enjoy, and I’ll tell you more about how to access those at the end of this segment. But first, we’re going to head to the Silicon Valley and meet with the folks at Flipboard to get an up close and personal look at the company, the app, and these awesome magazines.

In this interview I travel to Flipboard's offices in Palo Alto, the home of a few names you might recognize, such as Facebook, and meet up with Todd Lapin. He is on Flipboard’s editorial team and runs their new blog focused on discovering of great content http://magazines.flipboard.com  and he also runs their MagMakers twitter handle: https://twitter.com/FlipboardMag

RootsTech 2014: Where Genealogy and Technology Converge is a free magazine available in the free app https://flipboard.com/  and on the web at http://tinyurl.com/RootsTech2014. The magazine pulls together great web content from RootsTech speakers, exhibitors, and official bloggers in one beautiful and convenient place.

Looking for more great genealogy themed Flipboard magazines? Check out two more new issues from Lisa Louise Cooke:

Using Newspaper for Genealogy and Family History 

Using Historic Maps for Genealogy and Family History 

Genealogy Gems Premium Members can hear for about using Flipboard for Genealogy in the upcoming Premium Episode #106 later this month. The episode will also include additional notes and instructions. Click here to become a Genealogy Gems Premium Member today.