The Genealogy Guys Podcast #209 - 2010 September 20

The news includes: Ancestry.com has added to its website more than 1,700 recorded oral history interviews from immigrants who arrived in the U.S. through Ellis Island. FamilyLink has partnered with Historic Map Works and will soon provide access to the world's leading historical map collection. Ancestry.com has launched the largest searchable online yearbook collection with more than 60,000 yearbook records. James R. Benn, B.A., M.L.S., has become the new director of the Godfrey Memorial Library in Middleton, Connecticut. Ancestry.com has released Family Tree Maker 2011 with more than 100 enhancements to the software. Sirius Genealogy 2.0 has announced that it has completed their transformation from a simple blog, into a complete online community for Amateur & Professional Genealogists. Membership is free. In addition to the general community atmosphere, SG2 has developed numerous Google Gadgets, Web Tools and other services to assist genealogists in their mission. Many more exciting tools are on their way! "Rare colour footage" of the London Blitz has been discovered in an attic. It has digitised and made available online at http://www.westendatwar.org.uk/category_idtxt__place.aspx. RootsTech, A New Genealogy and Technology Conference, will be held on February 10-12, 2011, in Salt Lake City. Learn more at http://www.rootstech.familysearch.org. ICAPGen will host a family history conference titled "Becoming an Excellent Genealogist" on October 22-23, 2010, at the Downtown Radisson Hotel in Salt Lake City. For more information and to register, visit http://www.icapgen.org. The Federation of Genealogical Societies 2011 Conference, "Pathways to the Heartland," will be held September 7-10, 2011, in Springfield, Illinois. More information will be available in coming months at the FGS website at http://www.fgs.org. The International Society of Family History Writers and Editors (ISFHWE) has announced its annual Excellence in Writing Competition for 2011. Details and an entry form are available at their website at http://www.isfhwe.org. Paul Larsen has released the fourth edition of his book, Crash Course in Genealogy. It is available in print and in an advanced digital eBook format (CD or instant download). Visit http://www.crashcoursebook.com to learn more or to purchase the book or download it. A recent article in the Toledo [Ohio] Blade at http://www.toledoblade.com/article/20100916/NEWS16/9150359 provides an update to the story of the Clyde, Ohio, cemetery that was struck by vandals. Repairs and restoration are under way. Listener email includes: Mitch is looking for details about his 3rd great-grandfather and hopes our listeners can help. He believes his ancestor appears on the 1852 California State Census for Placer County, Page 60, Line 28. However, the digitized image at Ancestry.com is so dark that he is having difficulty reading the first initial. He is hoping that the original census page or a better copy of the microfilm exist and can help him discern the intial. Can anyone visit the California State Library and personally check the microfilm for Mitch? Bill suggests that The Guys regularly report on what they are researching and the resources they are using. Walter commented on the discussion in the podcast from the FGS Conference in Knoxville, Tennessee, concerning which is the older U.S. public university: the University of North Carolina or the University of Georgia. He reports that, while Georgia was chartered first, UNC was the first to accept students and begin classes. William & Mary is older but was originally a private university. Dan suggested to Drew that he work with Newark City Directories for 1920 in his quest to locate his grandparents at that time. Karl followed up on our interview with Dr. John Philip Colletta, Ph.D., that was aired in February. Dr. Colletta discussed the use of "the Federal Cases" books for federal court research. Karl indicates that these books have been digitized and are available at the Internet Archive site at http://www.archive.org. He states that Volume 30 is the index, accessible at http://www.archive.org/details/gov.uscourts.fedcases.30_2. This will help you use Volumes 1-29. Clive asks for Drew's opinion about getting the most from a Y-chromosome DNA test, and whether he also needs results from the mtDNA test. Ann asks about viruses and phishing with the iPhone and iPad. Kay says hello and comments on how very much she enjoyed the FGS Conference in Knoxville. She is hooked and plans to attend other national conferences. Michael shares his method of storing information in the form of metadata with his JPEG images. Denis provided a link to the French version of Wikipedia for information about the town of La Clayette. (http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Clayette) Jenna asks Drew about the iPad and whether Legacy or RootsMagic 4 can be run on that device. She also asks about Dropbox. Audrey Collins from The National Archives in the UK reports that she is enjoying her iPad and accesses books from Google Books and the Internet Archive, and that she uses the GoodReader app. She also enjoyed George's "Carolina French." She shared copies of French marriage documents in TNA's collection so that Drew can practice his French. Dan is using an iPad app called Traces of the Past, a genealogy app. Drew will check it out and report on his experience with it.