Lisa's Recent Travels

Swedish Genealogical Society in Edina, MN and a side trip to Winthrop, MN.

Above: Speaking at the Swedish Genealogical Society

Above: Bill (left) with his new found Larson cousin.

Oslo Norway – MyHeritage

Above: Speaking at the MyHeritage conference in Oslo, Norway

The Viking Ship Museum

with my genealogy crew at the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo, Norway

Read Are You Part Viking? By Anna Swayne

A Visit to Sweden

Above: Lacey in Gothenburg, Sweden

Non-Genealogical Recommended Reading:

Unlearn Your Pain by Dr. Howard Schubiner

Mailbox

High school teacher Lindsey called in to share an unexpected occurrence of genealogy serendipity.

Here the original Genealogy Gems Podcast episode 185 where George Ella Lyon reads her poem.

Read more about and watch the video I created for Tom Boyer of his Where I'm From Poem

MyHeritage.com is the place to make connections with relatives overseas, particularly with those who may still live in your ancestral homeland. Click here to see what MyHeritage can do for you: it's free to get started.

Give the gift of story with Storyworth

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Followup on GGP 223

I'm organizing and digitizing my Grandmother's old home movies with Video Conversion Experts. I told my uncle about it and now he's sending me the rest of his old home movies! Video Conversion Experts is the company that Dr. Haas used to convert his films. They did an exceptional job in post production restoration, and are known for this work in the film industry. They are the ideal company to go with if you want to invest in the highest quality of restoration. They are currently running a terrific 35% off sale now through 12/21/18.

I'm digitizing my family's High 8 home movie tapes with Larsen Digital. The list of mediums that they can digitize is one of the most extensive I've seen. They are even able to digitize the unmarked audio tape that I found among my grandmother's hoem movies. Kristin and her team are well known in the genealogy community and are based in Utah. They have graciously extended a 15% off to my listeners. Use the coupon code: GenGem

Discount is valid on: video tapes, movie film, audio reels, audio tapes, slides, negatives, photos & specialty film.

Your feedback on episode 223

On Instagram from Erin:

"I loved this episode Lisa! Anna's song is so beautiful too! I learned a lot and the way you shared this story was wonderful. A favorite gem for sure."

From Greg in New Zealand:

"I'm loving the new narrative/profile episodes and had noticed the evolving voice and style in GGP 223. You and your team are wonderful writers...David Haas' story reminded me of my good friend Mark Holtze. An editor in Toronto, Mark has digitised all of his grandfathers' 16mm vacation films from across Canada in the 50s, 60s and 70s. They are brilliantly presented. Mark is very talented. I think they're worth sharing with your listeners. I don't know Mark's connection to this posting specifically but it's an amazing one on his playlist."

I couldn't agree more! Here's the description of the video: A number of 8mm film reels were purchased at a Flea Market in New York City for $10. They ended up being home movies taken in the late 40's and 50's. How they ended up at a Flea Market in Manhattan all those years later is one thing, but most importantly was getting the films reconnected with the family. ...60 years later....

Thank you to our sponsor:

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Organizing the videos you find online

After listening to episode 223, Kate was inspired to head to YouTube in search of videos that illustrate her memories. She writes:

"I've been trying to set up a collection of my memories on you tube. Do you have any thoughts on to put this together? Is it possible to add clips and not full videos?"

My suggestions:

YouTube: Organize with playlists

You can use Playlists to group the videos you find by topic. You could create playlists for locations, timeframes, people and so on. Sign in with your free Google account which will give you access to your YouTube "channel." When you find a video, under the title of the video click the plus sign that says "Add to". Select a playlist from the playlists listed in the dropdown menu. These are playlists you have already created in your account. If it's a long list, use the search box to search for a playlist title. Or create a new Playlist by clicking "Create New Playlist" at the bottom of the menu.

Unfortunately, YouTube doesn't give you a way to add your own notes. And you can't create clips of videos (at least not as of this writing), but I do know that when you share a video you can mark that it start at a point in the video that you select. Which brings me to my next suggestion…

Pinterest: Organize Videos into boards on Pinterest

If you would like to have even more control over organizing the videos that you find, and you want to be able to add your own notes and memories, consider using Pinterest. In your free Pinterest account you can create as many boards as you want. Create a board for each topic (much like with the Playlists I suggested previously) and save YouTube videos to them. And of course, you can save any other online content "memories" that you find along with them if you want. The beauty of pinning is that you can add your own notes and memories, plus you can set the video to begin at any point within the video that you want. Simply click "Share" under the video in YouTube, and click to check the box for "Start at." Next, click on the player timeline that runs across the bottom of the video on the spot where you want the video to begin playing. Finally, click the Pinterest icon in the Share area to pin it to your Pinterest board of choice.

Profile America: TV Tech

Thursday, December 13th. The important holiday business of viewing such classics as "It's A Wonderful Life" and "A Christmas Story" on home TVs owes much to a technological advance this month 80 years ago. In December 1938, Russian-American engineer Vladimir Zworykin was awarded two patents for cathode ray tubes. One was for the iconoscope to capture video images. The other was for the kinescope, which displayed television and computer monitor images for decades until the advent of flat panel screens. Whatever the ills of TV programming, obviously the American people consider it an appliance for a wonderful life. More than 98 percent of American households own at least one set, a percentage that has held steady for years and across all age groups.