Feb 5, 2013
Genealogy Gems Podcast Episode 150
In celebration of this 150th episode and my 50th birthday, I bring you:
A Birthday from Long Ago
50 Fabulous Family History Favorites
Websites:
1. Familysearch.org
http://www.familysearch.org
They are the leaders in free online records. While it’s tempting to
just start typing in ancestors name for searches and hoping for the
best, a strategic genealogist determines what type of record they
want to find for a question about their ancestor, and then uses the
catalogue to determine if FamilySearch has those records. Catalogue
is one of the links above the search box, and while it doesn’t
stand out, that link is really the key to understanding what
familysearch has to offer. Click it and try out all the variations
of searches from place names to keywords.
2. Ancestry.com
They are the big daddy of the subscription genealogy record sites,
and of course in addition to records you can build your family tree
on the site. One of the questions folks usually get around to at
some point is how to delete and merge data in their Ancestry family
trees, and I recently posted a video by Ancestry’s Krista Cowan
that explain exactly how to do it.
3. Library of congress American
memory
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html
I’ve discussed this gold mine of public domain free ephemera
several times on the show including
episode 31.
and of course in Episode 54 I explained how I used the American memory website to locate the original sheet music for one of the songs in the Name that Tune segment.
4. US Bureau of Land
Management
http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en.html
If you are looking for U.S. Homestead records then this is the site
for you. And if you haven’t been there in a while you’ve got to
check it out because they’ve upgraded the site and added loads of
new content in including original Field Notes.
5. Google books
http://books.google.com
Premium Episode 91 – Paper, Ink and Books. One of the gems I tell
my students in my Google classes is that even if they have no other
interest in Google Books, go there and do a search on Ancestry
Magazine, because although the magazine is no longer published, all
ten years of issues are digitized, online and searchable at Google
Books. Now that’s a gem!
6. Google.com
How could I not include Google.com as a favorite website. I wrote
an entire book about it for goodness sake. A piece of noteworthy
news: have you noticed the changes to Google Image search
lately? I’ll be
highlighting those in an upcoming episode.
7. Stanford University’s Data
Visualization Mapping Journalism’s Journey West
http://west.stanford.edu/news/newspaper_visualization
You can see examples of it in action at my youtube channel in the
newspaper Research playlist. And I give you everything you need to
know about it in my book How to Find Your Family History In
Newspapers
8. The Atlas of Historical County
Boundaries
Published by the Newberry Library, it is a genealogist’s answer to
changing county boundaries over the years.
http://publications.newberry.org/ahcbp/project.html
Video in Premium Episode 70
9. FamilySearch’s Research
Wiki
https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Main_Page
OK if you’re not using this you are just plain old working too
hard! This site is
where all the greatest research minds at the Family History Library
come together just to help you find your family history. I
particularly turn to the Research Wiki when researching
internationally as they have some fabulous international
consultants who outline what you need to know get started, all the
way to the depths of the most obscure records that are
available.
10. Davidrumsey.com
http://www.davidrumsey.com
Genealogy is all about location, location, location, and that means
that historic maps are vital to your research. David Rumsey is a
cartographer here in the San Francisco Bay Area who has spent his
entire life collecting over 150,000 historic maps from around the
world. And over 30,000 of them have been digitized and made
available online through his website. Here’s a tip: be sure to sign
up for a free account to his website so that the highest resolution
maps will be available to you to download. And don’t just stop with
downloading the map, import your maps into Google Earth so that you
can view areas today and in the past. My Google Earth for Genealogy
video series shows you have to do it step by step and it’s
incredible what a difference it can make to you research. I’ll have
a quick little video in the show notes for you so you can see a
preview of it and the other techniques I teach on the video
series.
YOUTUBE CHANNELS:
Another fabulous gem out there is YouTube. Did you ever think that YouTube would be a fabulous genealogy gem? Well, it really is, and video is the fastest growing segment online and it’s not just cute cat videos and stupid pranks. There’s a ton of great genealogical related content, and I want to share some great family history channels to get you started
11. USNational Archives YouTube
channel
https://www.youtube.com/user/usnationalarchives
You’ll find hundreds of videos, and of course not every one of
them would be applicable to genealogy, so I recommend you click the
Browse Videos link under the banner at the top and then click
Playlists. This will sort the videos into topics. And of course, as
with all YouTube channels you can search by keyword in the
channel’s search box in the upper right corner. Since Google owns
YouTube, you can use all the Google tricks I’ve taught you over the
years and in my book The Genealogist’s Google Toolbox to find
exactly what you are looking for. I particularly love the 1940
census playlist and the one called Tracing WWII
12. AncestryCom
https://www.youtube.com/user/AncestryCom
Here again you will find an amazing number instructional
videos and the great thing about Ancestry’s channel is that they
give you a list of all the playlists right on the channel’s home
page so you find all the videos for a particular topic you are
looking for. If you are a paid subscriber to Ancestry, this channel
is really key to getting the most out of the website.
13. FamilySearch Channel
http://www.youtube.com/familysearch
FamilySearch offers over 70 videos, and is a particularly
worthwhile channel for folks who are new to family history
research. But let me tell you, if you need a bit of inspiration, or
just a feel good moment, don’t miss their new video called A
Survivor’s Pearl Harbor Experience. I will have it in the show
notes for you. It is one of my favorite videos.
14. UniversalNewsReels
http://www.youtube.com/user/UniversalNewsreels?feature=watch
With over 600 videos you are almost guaranteed to find something on
any world even topic. According to the channel’s description: “In
the pre-TV era, people saw the news every week in their
neighborhood movie theaters. Newsreels were shown before every
feature film and in dedicated newsreel theaters located in large
cities. Universal Newsreel, produced from 1929 to 1967, was
released twice a week. Each issue contained six or seven short
stories, usually one to two minutes in length, covering world
events, politics, sports, fashion, and whatever else might
entertain the movie audience. These newsreels offer a fascinating
and unique view of an era when motion pictures defined our culture
and were a primary source of visual news reporting.” I fully admit that one of my
favorites in the bunch is Much Ado About Hairdos filmed right here
in the San Francisco Bay area in the early 1950s. I think I might give that
Leopard hairstyle a try.
15. Library of Congress
channel
http://www.youtube.com/user/libraryofcongress
1218 videos. Use the Playlists! You’ll find Timeless treasures
and contemporary presentations from the Library of Congress in
Washington, D.C. at the Library of Congress Channel. The Library is
the steward of millions of recordings dating from the earliest
Edison films to modern day presentations held at the Library. Again
look to the playlists link to help you sort through the videos.
Some gems of note are the Spanish-American War playlist of videos,
and America at Work, America at Leisure playlist which is an
incredible collection of 150 films.
Here’s a description of that playlist from the channel: “Highlights include films of the United States Postal Service from 1903, cattle breeding, fire fighters, ice manufacturing, logging, gymnastic exercises in schools, amusement parks, boxing, expositions, football, parades, swimming, and other sporting events.
The majority of the films presented here are from the Paper Print Collection, while the remainder are from the George Kleine Collection, both residing in the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division (M/B/RS) of the Library of Congress. Both of these collections have printed catalogs available in the Motion Picture and Television Reading Room at the Library.
The films were selected from these two collections on the basis of the activities pictured in the films and the quality of the available prints. As many different types of work, school, and leisure activities as could be found were sought in order to show the broadest possible representation of activities at the turn of the century. The selection is limited, however, by what is available from these collections; not every possible occupation or leisure activity from the turn of the century is represented.
The films in the Paper Print Collection were deposited for copyright from 1894 to 1912 as positive pictures on paper. Many were deposited in this manner on paper rolls frame by frame. For preservation and access purposes, the Library of Congress has made 16mm prints of these Paper Print titles, and has more recently been making 35mm prints of selected titles.”
This collection is a wonderful way to revisit how folks spent their time in the early part of the 20th century.
16. Depression Era Cooking with
Clara
http://www.youtube.com/user/DepressionCooking
Clara Cannucciari is 96 year old cook, author great grandmother and
YouTube star. In these fabulous videos Clara recounts her childhood
during the Great Depression as she prepares meals from the era.
You’ll learn how to make simple yet delicious dishes while
listening to stories from the Great Depression. If you love these
videos as I do, you’ll love Clara's book: "Clara's Kitchen: Wisdom,
Memories, and Recipes from the Great Depression" and I’ll have a
link to that in the show notes.
17. Mike O’Laughlin
Channel
http://www.youtube.com/user/Mickthebridge
If you have Irish roots this is a must see channel. Mike is an
author of Irish Books, a producer of the Irish Roots Café Podcasts,
and a lover of Irish folk Songs. And he’s been at all this since
1978. You’ll find over 25 videos including some really wonderful
old Irish songs sung by Mike himself overlaying some captivating
imagery.
MOBILE APPS:
18. Flipboard
http://www.flipboard.com
Download the free app, sign up for your free account, and then load
Flipboard up with RSS feeds for all your favorite genealogy blogs,
podcasts, and video channels. You will end up with a gorgeous color
“glossy magazine-like” layout that you can easily flip through and
enjoy.
in iTunes
In Google Play
19. Dropbox
http://www.dropbox.com
sign up for a free account and then download dropbox to your
computers and mobile devices. You will then have seamless file
sharing and synchronization, as well as the added benefit of having
your files backed up on the Cloud.
In
iTunes
In
Google Play
20. Pinterest
http://www.pinterest.com
Think of Pinterest as a fun online bulletin board that makes it
easy to store and share the gems you find on the Web. Check me out
on Pinterest and follow my family history boards:
http://pinterest.com/lisalouisecooke/
In
Tunes
In
Google Play
21. Evernote
http://www.evernote.com
Evernote can help the genealogist remember everything! Sign up for
a free account, download the desktop client to your computer, and
then get the free apps for your mobile devices and you’ll be all
set to start taking notes of every kind. Notes are automatically
synchronized so you are never caught working on an old
version. Genealogy
Gems Premium Members can watch the video of my full length Evernote
for Genealogy class.
In
iTunes
In Google Play
22. RootsMagic
Hot off the press, this long awaited free app allows you to take
your entire genealogy database with you! Check out the free
recorded video webinar called RootsMagic for iPhone, iPad, and iPod
touch at http://www.rootsmagic.com/Webinars/
In
iTunes
23. Cycloramic
Shell out 99 cents and you’ll have an app that will spin your
iPhone around in a
circle taking glorious panoramic videos and photographs. Just set
your iPhone on Vibrate, set it on a flat smooth surface and watch
it spin.
In iTunes
24. Best Phone Security
This free iPhone app is produced by RV AppStudios LLC. According to
the app’s description “It senses when it's been touched or moved.
Then, a loud alarm starts blaring and a bright red light flashes,
making the joke on the thief! To stop the alarm you have to enter
your security PIN.
Use alarm on your iPhone/iPod/iPad when in public or also to catch
those sneaky friends and family who try to peek into your iPhone
when you're away. What really happens when you're in the shower,
sleeping, or just away from your device. Use this high quality app
to trigger an alarm.” This could come in very handy when you are
researching at libraries!
In
iTunes
In Google Play
25. Pocketbooth
By Project Box, 99 cents
Snap old time photo booth film strips with your family and friends.
A fantastic activity for Family Reunions!
In
iTunes
In Google Play
Stay tuned for the next episode where we wrap up with the second half of the list!
