The Genealogy Guys Podcast & Genealogy Connection

The Genealogy Guys celebrate their 100th podcast this week! George reports on the partnering of Diversity Restoration Solutions , Slave Descendants Freedom Society , and Family Tree DNA to offer African Americans the opportunity to research their DNA. Archive CD Books USA announces the availability of a new CD, the Digested Summary and Alphabetical List of Private Claims Which Have Been Presented...

George announces the new version of Heredis (v. X.2), available at  the MyHeredis Web site ( http://www.myheredis.com/index.html ), and a host of new and updated Ancestry.com databases. Drew discusses his experience with the Beta version of Family Tree Maker 2008 . He also announces the launch of the English language version of GeneaSofts ( http://geneasofts.geneanet.org/en/ ), a French site devot...

George announces the availability of the Beta version of Family Tree Maker 2008 and the opportunity to pre-order for mid-August delivery at the introductory price of $29.95 at the Ancestry Store . Drew and George acknowledge the undisputed "Genealogy Guys Podcast" Marathon Endurance leader! George announces the breakthrough of his >20-year brickwall to find the death date and location of his Great...

George announces a new version of Pocket Genealogist software and a list of upcoming conferences. George and Drew discuss listeners' email about: "The Portal to Texas History" at texashistory.unt.edu/about/ which contains digitized books, histories, and photos of Texas; the use of WorldCat ( www.worldcat.org ) and Google Books ( books.google.com ) to locate books containing information on a French...

George announces some British genealogical news and Web sites, including the medieval fine rolls of Henry III at www.finerollshenry3.org.uk . Drew reviews Andro Linklater's book, The Fabric of America . And Drew and George discuss "Geographic Hygiene" -- entering place names in a standard way and checking the accuracy based on the time period, the political boundaries, and the responsible geopolit...

George announces the new French and Italian services from Ancestry.com.  Drew researches the early days of musician Nellie Lutcher by checking census records.  And George and Drew discuss some books that Drew brought back home after his mother's recent funeral, including Drew's father's high school yearbook, a book of old photographs of Newberry, SC, and a heritage book from Newberry.

News includes the digitization of Canadian passenger lists (www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/genealogy), an interactive online map of Chicago (chicagoancestors.org), and Diane Rapaport's soon-to-be-released book The Naked Quaker: True Crimes and Controversies from the Courts of Colonial New England .  Listener mail includes details about Jewish marriage customs and a question about donating rare cemete...

News about new records at Ancestry.com, and the use of DNA to attempt to solve the mystery of the Lost Colony.  Drew returns from the Southern California Genealogical Society's Genealogy Jamboree and shares interviews with Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak of Roots Television (rootstelevision.com), Leland Meitzler of Everton's (genealogyblog.com), and Susan Kitchens of Family Oral History Using Digital To...

News of the upcoming Polish Genealogical Society of America (www.pgsa.org) conference in Schaumberg, Illinois on September 28-30, and listener mailbag with several items about military records, and an interesting find of funeral documents on eBay.  George discusses June weddings, and Drew provides more details about LibraryThing (librarything.com).  Drew also talks about how he uses newspaper data...

Drew clarifies the item from last week concerning using photo folders as screen savers, and updates the latest regarding finding the descendants of opera singer Henri Scott.  George and Drew discuss military records of all types.

News and announcements include Lisa Louise Cooke's new weekly Genealogy Gems Podcast (available online at genealogygemspodcast.com), the latest version of Reunion software for the Macintosh (www.leisterpro.com), the Records Access digitization and indexing program of FamilySearch, and the successful recent annual conference of the National Genealogical Society in Richmond (www.ngsgenealogy.org). ...

Listener mailbag includes an item from the editor of the Swedish American Genealogist (www.etgenealogy.se/sag.htm) about displaying photos as screen savers.  Drew discusses Argali (argali.com), PC software that makes it easy to look for phone numbers and street addresses, and George discusses mortality schedules.

Announcements include Footnote.com's Revolutionary War documents, the WeRelate.org wiki social networking site, the June 8-10 Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree in Burbank (www.scgsgenealogy.com/jamboree.htm), the LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City's study of genealogy to understand heart disease, and the Genealogy Concierge service of the Edinburgh Sheraton Grand Hotel and Spa.  Mailba...

News includes the disastrous fire at the Georgetown (DC) Public Library and the new US/Mexican border crossing records collection at Ancestry.com.  Mailbag includes lessons learned from crashed external hard drives, access to a newspaper project ("Chronicling America") at www.loc.gov/chroniclingamerica, and a lot of listener feedback to the past podcast discussion of FindAGrave.  Other topics incl...

George announces the website FamilyLink.com (a product of World Vital Records Inc.).  George and Drew discuss uploading GEDCOM files, the use of the FindaGrave.com website, and where to begin genealogical spring cleaning.

Announcements include the new Ancestry Press product (ancestrypress.com), free access to Ellis Island records thru April 30 (www.ellisislandexperience.com), and the annual Spring Seminar of the Alabama Genealogical Society at Samford University in Birmingham on May 5 (www.algensoc.org).  Major topics discussed include what to do when one inherits a large collection of family photographs, why you s...

Topics include: reminders about upcoming large conferences/seminars (NGS at ngsgenealogy.org, FGS at fgs.org, and the 2nd Annual Genealogy Seminar at Sea (www.genealogycruises.com); followups on translating Latin (www.nottingham.ac.uk/mss/online/skills/dating/latin.phtml), on newspaper archives, on testing one's skills (www.bcgcertification.org/skillbuilders/), and on looking for info from the Bos...

George and Drew discuss the transliteration of documents (such as those in Latin), and tips for translating from one language to another.  Drew also leads a discussion about using WorldCat to locate local newspapers, partially inspired by a listener's suggestion for using the U.S. Newspaper Program (www.neh.gov/projects/usnp.html).  Mailbag and news includes Roots Television's (www.rootstelevision...

Drew reminds listeners to nominate individuals and genealogy societies for the awards offered by the Federation of Genealogical Societies (www.fgs.org/fgs-awards.htm); shares the British government's response to the e-petition to provide earlier access to the 1911, 1921, and 1931 British censuses; and announces that Cyndi (of Cyndi's List) has a new blog at cyndislist.blogspot.com.  George announc...

George and Drew discuss the recent announcement regarding Ancestry.com databases no longer being available at Family History Centers, and George also announces the new Iowa database.  George mentions his recent speaking engagement in Hot Springs Village, Arkansas, while Drew talks about his own visit to DeLand, Florida.  George reviews Kathy Chater's book about doing research in the UK and Ireland...

George reviews several news books, including the multivolume set of Revolutionary War Period Bible, Family, & Marriage Records (www.revwar.patriotpublishers.com), a new book about colonial ancestors, and a fantastic new book about researching Mexican ancestry.  News includes the Jewish Genealogical Society in New York City's all-day seminar "Family History and the Holocaust: A Day of Learning" (ww...

George and Drew share news (including a reminder of the planned research trip to London), and listener e-mail (ancestors who had pottery factories, and the U.K. National Archives podcasts).  George talks about using timelines and ancestor profiles to help explain why ancestors behaved as they did.  Drew points out that the ideas of inquiry-based learning and critical thinking apply to the processe...

After a few news items about the NGS Hall of Fame (www.ngsgenealogy.org/comhall.cfm), German postcards at Ancestry.com, preservation information for family treasures from the Library of Congress (www.loc.gov/preserv/familytreasures/), the Practical Archivist Blog (practicalarchivist.blogspot.com), and the new ProQuest CSA company, George and Drew dig into the podcast listener mailbag to discuss (i...

Topics include new sorting features of WorldCat (worldcat.org), and a discussion of folksonomies, tagging, and metadata, especially as it applies to photographs on such sites as Flickr (www.flickr.com).  News and listener mailbag includes the use of vitalrec.com to learn more about when states began recording vital records, a Quaker genealogy conference (April 27th thru April 29th in Waynesville,...

News includes the Nevada marriage and divorce data now available on Ancestry.com.  Listener mailbag brings in items about the French-Canadian Drouin Collection coming to Ancestry.com (from the American-Canadian Genealogical Society at acgs.org), what may or may not be available at your nearest NARA branch regarding agricultural census schedules, and a new episode of Bill Puller's Genealogy Tech Po...