Mon, 30 July 2007
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 to the House of Representatives, representing more than 100,000 names and claims from 1789 to 1882. The collection is on sale for $19.97 at the link above. A new start-up company, MemoryPress, is offering a start-to-finish solution to publishing your personal or family history in a beautiful hardbound book. A new organization, Keeping Genealogical Records Open Workgroup (KGROW) has been formed to fight the closing of public records as a guise for a war against identify theft and terrorism. KGROW is a project of the Florida Chapter of the Association of Professional Genealogists. Listeners' email included: one of the better places to learn more about Mexican resources -- http://hispanicgenealogy.blogspot.com; a recommended Web site to learn about a wide array of data backup options -- http://www.BackupReview.info; and The Guys discussed organizational options for digitized materials, file naming options, and storage systems. George discussed an article published in Ancestors, the magazine of The National Archives in the U.K., concerning "The Lost Colony" of Roanoke Island. The settlement by Sir Walter Raleigh disappeared between August 1587 and 1590. Now, there is a project under way to use DNA to possibly trace any descendants of any settlers who may have survived. Drew and George reminisced about some highlights of the first 100 episodes of the podcast, and discussed some plans for the next hundred. They thank their thousands of listeners worldwide, and express gratitude to their loyal sponsors. |
Sun, 22 July 2007
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 devoted to discussing and reviewing genealogy-related software programs.
Responding to e-mail from a number of listeners concerning recommendations for Irish and Mexican research resources, Drew and George recommend two books by Ancestry Publishing: Finding Your Irish Ancestors: A Beginner's Guide, by David S. Ouimette, and Finding Your Mexican Ancestors: A Beginner's Guide, by George and Peggy Ryskamp They also recommend message boards at Ancestry.com and Genforum.com, mailing lists at RootsWeb.com. George discusses the imperative need to backup your genealogical data, and then The Guys discuss backup options, both on external hard disk drives and online sites such as Mozy (http://mozy.com/). George responds to a listener who wants to know how to effectively report missing census page images and indexing errors to Ancestry.com for correction. Next week's show will be the 100th Podcast! Don't miss it! |
Wed, 18 July 2007
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-uncle Brisco Washington Holder, thanks to research by a listener who located him in the Missouri Death Records Certificate database, 1910-1956. George talks about his subsequent research in other records, calls to the cemetery and the funeral home, and other possible records he will research while at the FGS Conference in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, in August. Drew makes additional suggestions, including references to the use of the new release of GenSmarts, V.2. Drew talks about online books and the wealth of printed genealogical sources, while George suggests the use of the book, Printed Sources, edited by Kory L. Meyerink (published by Ancestry in 1998) - an excellent reference to many published materials. |
Wed, 11 July 2007
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 village; and strategies for getting around "brick walls." The Guys also discuss the new release of GenSmarts, Version 2.0, a software tool that provides research suggestions and tools to organize your genealogy database contents.
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Fri, 6 July 2007
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 geopolitical entity at the time.
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