Lisa Alzo is a popular genealogy writer and speaker, and the author of the book The Family Tree Polish, Czech and Slovak Genealogy Guide: How to Trace Your Family Tree in Eastern Europe. You can learn more about Lisa at lisaalzo.com.

Genealogy Connection #048 - Lisa Alzo, Writer and Speaker

"The Genealogy Guys" are two avid genealogists who host a weekly chat. The podcast includes news of the genealogy community, book and software reviews, guest interviews, and a lot of fun chat.

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News You Can Use and Share!  MyHeritage added 71 million historical records in March, including French censuses! MyHeritage added three important New York City historical records collections, including indices and images. MyHeritage has added a multi-photo scanner to the MH mobile app. The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in College Park, Maryland, has unveiled a new Mass Digitization Center. It will address digitizing records in various formats up to 10 times faster yearly. American Ancestors has announced the appointment of Ryan J. Woods as its new President and CEO. Ancestry announced its largest partnership with the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) to date. As part of the project, Ancestry will invest over the next five years to digitize tens of millions of records that will be added to Ancestry.com. Ancestry has made a new record collection available to honor the 125,000 persons of Japanese descent who were unjustly imprisoned in the U.S. between December 1942 and January 1948. FindMyPast has added more recent new records to its collections of Scotland Deaths (1855-2024), England and Wales Deaths (2007-2024), and Northern Ireland Deaths (1980-2024).  Listener Email  Cathleen describes her research into her mother’s paternal grandfather, Georg Sokop, including traditional and DNA investigations. She is looking for advice to extend her research. Don writes about Swedish research, including Swedish churches and membership lists, and the resources at Ancestry and ArchivDigital. Jean-Daniel wrote to thank us for sharing an email about Blaise Farny. He now has a great to-do list. He has located an Ivoryette photo of Farny from 1892, and is investigating to locate the original among family members so that he can see if anything is written on the back. Tom wrote to follow up on slide scanning, and to suggest resources for scanning long panorama photos. He also discusses the Stories Behind the Stars Project, which seeks to preserve and expand the information about the more than 421,000 Americans who lost their lives in WWII. Check the STARS website at https://www.storiesbehindthestars.org/. Nick let us know about his efforts to organize thousands of notes in Evernote, doing several each day.  Drew discusses attending his 50th high school reunion, what a wonderful time we had, and how important it was. Drew will be presenting at the South Carolina Genealogical Society Conference on 12-13 July at the South Carolina Department of Archives and History in Columbia. George will also be attending and conducting personal research. Thank you to all our Patreon supporting members for their support. Your Patreon support helps us improve our technology and provide even more podcast content to you! You can join us for as little as $1 a month or as much as you’d like to contribute. Visit https://www.patreon.com/genealogyguys to get started. And don’t forget to order Drew’s new book, Generation by Generation: A Modern Approach to the Basics of Genealogy, from Genealogical Publishing Company (https://genealogical.com/) or Amazon.com. Please let us hear from you at genealogyguys@gmail.com.

The Genealogy Guys Podcast #426

News You Can Use and Share!  MyHeritage added 168 million historical records in February. MyHeritage launched OldNews.com, a new website for exploring historical newspapers. MyHeritage introduced all-new profile pages with hints. Vivid-Pix announced the roll-out of Memory Stations, integrating scanning, its correction software, tagging, and more. Findmypast has begun digitizing, indexing, and publishing British Home Children records. The National Archives (TNA) announced that it will digitize the 1941 National Farm Survey records thanks to a generous grant from Lund Trust.  DNA Segment with Diahan Southard In our DNA Segment, DNA expert Diahan Southard discusses Family Tree DNA and Y-DNA haplogroups with Drew Smith. Listener Email  Laura writes about backup GEDCOM files and MyHeritage, and Daniel Horowitz responds. Jenna writes to respond to Sheila’s quest to digitize and tag a 30” long x 6” high-resolution photograph. She shares FamilySearch’s ability to tag people in a Memory at  https://www.familysearch.org/en/help/helpcenter/article/tagging-people-in-a-memory. Anne writes in response to Jean Daniels' email about researching an ancestor. Anne cites Anabaptists in New York State. Kristen is seeking more advice for locating records for a missing family member, Arthur Tozer. Ashley wrote about changes that people make to FamilySearch records without sources.  Thank you to all our Patreon supporting members for their support. Your Patreon support helps us improve our technology and provide even more podcast content to you! You can join us for as little as $1 a month or as much as you’d like to contribute. Visit https://www.patreon.com/genealogyguys to get started. And don’t forget to order Drew’s new book, Generation by Generation: A Modern Approach to the Basics of Genealogy, from Genealogical Publishing Company (https://genealogical.com/) or Amazon.com. Please let us hear from you at genealogyguys@gmail.com.

The Genealogy Guys Podcast #425

David from Addison, Texas, is the winner of our drawing for a MyHeritage DNA kit. More drawings will be announced later this year. News You Can Use and Share!  RootsTech, the world’s largest genealogy conference, takes place in Salt Lake City, Utah, and online next week, 29 February through 2 March 2024. FamilySearch International and American Ancestors announced a collaboration on the 10 Million Names Project. The project “seeks to recover the names and restore information to families of the estimated 10 million men, women, and children of African descent who were enslaved in pre- and post-colonial America, including the area that would become the United States.”  DNA Segment In our DNA Segment, DNA expert Diahan Southard discusses Ancestry DNA with Drew Smith. Listener Email  Douglas responds regarding our discussion of slide and negative scanners. He reminds people to check with their local library for the availability of a scanner for checkout. He was able to use a Wolverine slide and negative scanner. (It and the Kodak model discussed on the last podcast are available through Amazon.) Jeannie discusses FamilySearch’s computer indexing problems. Mike writes again to provide additional information about the Old Fulton Postcards website and the New York local government historians’ (LGH) roles. Ryan asks about two different marriage records dated the same date in adjoining states for the same couple. Laura writes in response to Dennis’ questions about writing a family history, and uses the “52 ancestors in 52 weeks” approach presented by Amy Johnson Crow. Matt is seeking a missing Pennsylvania death record from 1914. He has conducted extensive research and is looking for more suggestions. Kristen is seeking advice for locating records for a missing family member, Arthur Tozer.  Thank you to all our Patreon supporting members for their support. Your Patreon support helps us improve our technology and provide even more podcast content to you! You can join us for as little as $1 a month or as much as you’d like to contribute. Visit https://www.patreon.com/genealogyguys to get started. Please also tell your friends and your genealogical society about our free podcasts, blog, and the Genealogy Guys Learn subscription education website. And don’t forget to order Drew’s book, Generation by Generation: A Modern Approach to the Basics of Genealogy, from Genealogical Publishing Company (genealogical.com/) or Amazon.com. Please let us hear from you at genealogyguys@gmail.com.

The Genealogy Guys Podcast #424

Drew's guest is Donna Moughty, who led the research trip to Dublin that Drew joined in October 2023. In this episode, Drew and Donna discuss her experiences over many years in leading research trips to Ireland, and how researchers need to prepare before going on a research trip (no matter where their ancestors were from). To learn of Donna's background, see GC episode #002. 

Genealogy Connection #84 - Donna Moughty, Irish Research Expert and Research Trip Leader

News You Can Use and Share!  Don’t miss the opportunity to win a free MyHeritage DNA Kit. Listen to the MyHeritage ad later in this episode for details on submitting your entry to our raffle. MyHeritage recapped their activities in 2023:  4M DNA kits in their database 9M faces tagged with Photo Tagger 700M historical records added in 366 new collections 320M new Family Tree profiles added 4M MyHeritage and Reimagine mobile app downloaded 19M new Theories of Family Relativity™ New AI tools added: PhotoDater™, AI Record Finder™, and AI Biographer™ 3M photo dates estimated with PhotoDater 26M photos uploaded 2,112 webinars on Legacy Family Tree Webinars 605 articles added to the MyHeritage Wiki   George recaps MyHeritage’s Historical Record Collections added in December 2023. Drew recaps FamilySearch’s 2023 highlights. FamilySearch announced the historic release of the 1931 Census of Canada. Drew shares what to expect from FamilySearch in 2024.  DNA Segment Our popular DNA Segment returns with expert Diahan Southard and Drew Smith in conversation about 23andMe. Listener Email  Mike writes about genealogy podcasts and the lack of references made to the newspaper research site, Old Fulton New York Postcards website at https://www.fultonhistory.com/ for a collection of New York newspapers and postcard images, and Advantage Archives at https://www.advantagearchives.com/. Sheila writes concerning how to get a “long photo” (30” long x 6” high) scanned and then how to locate software to tag each person’s face with their name. The Guys suggest obtaining advice from archivists at university archives and special collections, and state/provincial/national archives, to find out who offer large scanning jobs services. Julie writes to discuss her and her daughter’s interesting DNA matches (and non-matches) with another individual on different websites. Dennis’s 40 years of collecting data in Germany and Ireland was entered into Family Tree Maker and uploaded to Ancestry. The data seems to have disappeared and he asks for suggestions. He also seeks suggestions about how he and his sisters can/should format the family history they are planning to compile. Laurie writes to ask about the possibility of a researcher being able to bulk-download data from databases such as Ancestry for a specific county. Diana writes to advise us that there is a law in New York state requiring that each county have a county historian to help preserve and promote the history of that county. They can guide you to resources and other organizations. There is a website at https://www.aphnys.gov where you can identify and contact these people. Judy asks for advice and recommendations about sorting potential ancestors who share the same name in a specific area at the same time. Tom has inherited family photos, slides, and negatives from his mother. He is seeking information about scanners to effectively digitize these things. George suggests the Kodak Slide N Scan with a 5” color LCD screen which scans to an SD or SDHS card.  Thank you to all our Patreon supporting members for their support. Your Patreon support helps us improve our technology and provide even more podcast content to you! You can join us for as little as $1 a month or as much as you’d like to contribute. Visit https://www.patreon.com/genealogyguys to get started. Please also tell your friends and your genealogical society about our free podcasts, blog, and the Genealogy Guys Learn subscription education website. And don’t forget to order Drew’s new book, Generation by Generation: A Modern Approach to the Basics of Genealogy, from Genealogical Publishing Company (https://genealogical.com/) or Amazon.com. Please let us hear from you at genealogyguys@gmail.com.

Genealogy Connection #048 - Lisa Alzo, Writer and Speaker

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