Extreme Genes

Every month, an expert from our sponsor 23andMe.com answers your questions about genealogy DNA.  This week, Dr. Joanna Mountain takes on a challenging listener question.  And Sarah O'Connor of GeneArtistry.com talks about her research into a century old jailbreak involving a great great uncle! Fisher opens the show with David Allen Lambert, Chief Genealogist of the New England Historic Genealogica...

Not many genies are passionate enough to buy their own cemetery, but Roy Schreffler of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania did!  Also, expert Karen Clifford gives us an overview on what it takes to research your southern ancestors.   Fisher opens the show with David Allen Lambert, Chief Genealogist of the New England Historic Genealogical Society and American Ancestors, who talks about the latest scientific a...

This week on Extreme Genes... more gems from newly released War of 1812 pension applications, AND talk with a woman who just learned she descends from a Cortez crew member and Jamestown!   Fisher opens the show with David Allen Lambert, Chief Genealogist of the New England Historic Genealogical Society and American Ancestors.  David has a story about a couple and their 60 years of wedding cake sha...

If you enjoyed the recent Perseid Meteor Shower, you would have really enjoyed what happened in 1833... likely the most spectacular meteor shower ever!  Linda Emlee, of Ray County, Missouri tells us all about it this week on Extreme Genes!   Fisher and David Allen Lambert from the New England Historic Genealogical Society open the show talking about a volunteer effort to restore a 19th century Afr...

It's one of the most remarkable family history stories we've ever had on the show!  Hear what one man's family had to face after an accident, family interviews, the removal of hair from a corpse at a funeral home, and DNA tests!   Fisher opens the show with David Allen Lambert with news about a reunion of a daughter and mother, separated by the Nazis in World War II.  They'll have the details.  Th...

Fisher opens the show with David Allen Lambert, Chief Genealogist with the New England Historic Genealogical Society and American Ancestors.  David has an assignment for everyone concerning one story in their history.  Listen to hear what it is.  He also shares a fascinating tip about pages of information that likely exist for your immigrant ancestor, held by the government beginning in 1940.  Wha...

Fisher opens the show with David Allen Lambert, Chief Genealogist of the New England Historic Genealogical Society and American Ancestors talking about naming patterns, and how they can often reveal the names of the parents' ancestors.  Are clues to your ancestor's ancestors sitting right under your nose?  Fisher and David will tell you how to break the code.  David then talks about the revealing...

Fisher opens the show with Chief Genealogist of the New England Historic Genealogical Society and American Ancestors, David Allen Lambert.  David talks about using Find-A-Grave and Billion Graves to create a burial lineage chart.  He also talks about the NASA "New Horizon" mission to Pluto and how a significant individual's human remains are on it.  Listen to the show to find out whose!  Plus, Dav...

This week on Extreme Genes- America's Family History Show, Fisher opens with David Allen Lambert of the New England Historic Genealogical Society.  David talks about FamilySearch.org's upcoming "Fuel the Find," an effort to get 100,000 volunteers indexing records for one week in August.  David shares his experience with a direct descendant of a very important figure in American and French history,...

Fisher opens the show with David Allen Lambert, Chief Genealogist of the New England Historic Genealogical Society and American Ancestors.  They share unbelievable news from MyHeritage.  Wait until you hear what they've done for you!  Also, big news from Ireland that could change everything in your Catholic research.  David explains why they've done it.  (It's a good thing!)  Plus, David's Tech Ti...

Fisher opens the show with David Allen Lambert, Chief Genealogist of NEHGS and American Ancestors.  Fisher talks about how liquor consumption increased during and after the Revolution to absurd amounts in the 1830s.  Exactly how much per person?  Fisher will tell you.  Then David talks about various heritage organizations you may be eligible for because of your ancestor's contributions to the caus...

Fisher and David Allen Lambert open the show with great news about FamilySearch's announcement about the new indexing project for the Freedmen's Bureau records... the largest collection of records of freed slaves.  What does this mean and how many records are involved?   Listen and find out!  Then David shares exciting Independence Day news... free access to some of NEHGS' earliest records from th...

Fisher and David Allen Lambert, Chief Genealogist of the  New England Historic Genealogical Society  and  American Ancestors , talk about some of the historic anniversaries happening right now.  One involved one of David's ancestors and a pitchfork!  Plus David has made a new "tech" find that is sure to make you both excited and uncomfortable!  It's called Periscope.  Hear what it's all about in t...

Fisher opens the show talking about his time in New York City emceeing at AJ Jacobs' Global Family Reunion, as well as his visit to the NYC Municipal Archives researching 19th century firemen records.  He then announces that David Allen Lambert, Chief Genealogist of the New England Historic Genealogical Society and American Ancestors, is joining the show to co-host the opening segment with his ins...

Fisher opens the show talking about the huge response to last week's program about DNA triangulation used to assist listener Shelley Smith identify her birth father, after more traditional means, including DNA, helped her identify her birth mother.  Fisher provides an update on what has since happened to Shelley, who has contacted both a half-sister (from the birth mother's side) and a half-brothe...

Fisher opens the show with a fascinating story about how World War II bombs still have the potential to kill people in both Britain and Germany.  Wait until you hear what happened in both countries recently and the statistics of how often live Allied bombs are found in Germany  every day !  He then talks about a New York realtor who recently had the unusual experience of being randomly chosen to s...

Fisher opens the show with comments received about his mother's 1947 (mis?)adventure, stowing away on a luxury liner to Hawaii.  Then, he'll have a remarkable tale out of St. Louis about a man who has allegedly hijacked a family's heritage for attention and profit.  Who is this man, what has he been doing, and how has his story been falling apart?  Fisher will explain.   Guest Kenyatta Berry, one...

Fisher opens the show with a bit of his own family history.  In 1947, his mother, Marquita Olsen, was one of four young women who stowed away on a luxury liner to Hawaii!  The newspapers reported they had attended a send off party on ship and while walking around touring the ship, the next thing they knew, they were on their way to Honolulu!  But Fisher's mother told a very different version, sugg...

Fisher opens the show with more family history memorabilia discovered on eBay.  The 1887 ribbons of the Veteran Firemen's Association, a group to which his great-grandfather belonged, have arrived, and now he has found DVDs of old movies from the 1940s in which his mother appeared an an extra!  Fisher also answers a listeners question about doing DNA tests on bits of hair left between the pages of...

Fisher is at it again!  He opens the show with his latest case... identifying a birth mother through "triangulation" with DNA tests.  Sounds tricky.  How does it work?  Fisher will explain.  Then on Family Histoire News, an English couple will soon become the newlyweds with the oldest combined age ever!  Just how old are we talking?  Wait til you hear.  Then, a woman has been reunited with the mot...

Fisher opens the show with the sad news that this week is the final week of  Who Do You Think You Are  for this season.  But also the exciting news that  Turn: Washington's Spy Ring  has returned to AMC... a great program set in occupied Long Island and New York during the Revolution.  And in "Family Histoire News," Julia Bell of Plymouth, England has found her grandfather.  You'll be amazed at ho...

Fisher opens the show with some fascinating "Family Histoire" news.  First, Spain is embracing its Sephardic Jewish heritage which was driven out by the Spanish Inquisition in 1492.  They are opening doors to all who can prove their Sephardic lineage, resulting in Jews around the world researching their Spanish heritage.  Then, it was an amazing discovery, just in time for the 150th anniversary of...

Fisher opens the show with an overview of the murder case he never imagined he would become a part of.  He sets up his conversation later in the show with a New Jersey woman who was his feet on the ground on the victim's hometown.  They would attempt to locate living family members thirty-two years after Theresa Rose Greaves went missing in Utah.  In family histoire news, Fisher reviews the strang...

Fisher opens the show with the story of a woman whose personal research got sidetracked by documents that told her the sad story of an English housekeeper who was sacked because she became pregnant.  By her husband!  Tesse Boase went to work to find out what happened to the woman after losing her job.  Then, the DNA study of the "closed" population of Iceland is over, and some interesting discover...

Fisher opens this week's show with Family Histoire News and a fond farewell to King Richard III.  Buried only a few days ago, the King gave Extreme Genes more than its fair share of stories over the past three years.  No five hundred year old body could have done more.  Fisher then shares the story of a slave who escaped to freedom in a more than unique way 166 years ago this weekend.  Wait until...