Google Earth Street View Story - Cool Video

Ya gotta love Google Earth's Street View!  It can bring you up close and personal to locations important to your family history. For instance in our family there's the house in
England where Grandpa Cooke was born...

And the Opera House where he and his mother played in the orchestra in the early 20th century...

It's almost like being there!  But what if you really could be there?  There's a great little video that brings street view to life. It's called 2nd Avenue, and it's one of the finalist WNET's Favorite short videos contest. Check it out and cast your vote for Street View!

 

Images like these are just the tip of the iceberg as to what Google Earth can do for your family history.  Watch this short video to see more, and my Google Earth for Genealogy DVDs will show you step by step how to do it all.

Family History Expo Comes to Houston, TX

Family History Expos is coming to Houston, Texas for the first time on April 6-7, 2012, and I'm very excited to help kick off the event as the keynote speaker, in addition to teaching four classes. Here's everything you need to know from the folks at Family History Expos. I hope to see you in class and be sure and stop by my booth in the exhibit hall and say "hi!"

 

PRESS RELEASE
Beginners to old-timers can get a Texas-sized jump on their family history April 6-7 at the Houston Family

History Expo 2012. Opening keynote speaker Lisa Louise Cooke will fire up the crowd with great ways to

get started and stay motivated to engage in family history during her opening address on Friday at 2 p.m.

Register online, by telephone, or at the door. The Expo will take place at the Houston Marriott South at

Hobby Airport. Registration begins and exhibits open at 1 p.m., Friday and at 9 a.m. on Saturday.

“Our 2012 theme is: ‘Your family history starts here!’” FHE Founder and President Holly T. Hansen said.

“We are so thrilled to bring our Expo to Houston this year. This is going to be a great event with such

quality information. I just can’t believe how great our presenter line-up is for this Expo!”

Hansen said Family History Expos is responding to a soft economy by lowering prices to make family

history education more affordable than ever before. “We know people are stretching their dollars as far as

they can and we want everyone to get the information they need,” Hansen said. The company travels

throughout the United States to help people get jump started on their family history and this year it is

presenting more shows than ever before.

Lisa Louise Cooke Brings Expertise, Excitement

Keynote speaker Lisa Louise Cooke is producer and host of the Genealogy Gems Podcast, an online

genealogy audio show at www.GenealogyGems.com .

In addition to her keynote address at 2 p.m. on Friday, Cooke will present a seminar on “Ultimate Google

Search Strategies” at 4:50 p.m. At 7:50 p.m. she will present, “Google Earth for Genealogy – Rock your

Ancestor’s World.”

Cooke’s Saturday presentations include “Getting the Scoop on your Family History in Newspapers” at

11:20 a.m. and “Sharing the Joy: Projects that Will Captivate the Non-Genealogists in Your Life” at 2:30

p.m.

“Our industry experts are people with years and years of experience who are delighted to assist family

history and genealogy researchers in breaking down the brick walls blocking paths to their pasts,” Hansen

said.

Expo to Feature Speaker from Kumasi-Ghana

Oral historian Paul Adjei, Worldbiz Business Chief Executive Officer will be on hand to enlighten

participants on his company’s efforts to preserve the oral history of the Akan, one of the most powerful

tribes in West Africa. Adjei and 20 field staff members are performing research on the tribe and collecting

oral genealogical data. Adjei will present on “The Importance of Oral Genealogy in Ghana” and “Challenges of

Genealogical Research" in Ghana.

Participants can attend any single class for just $20.

Exhibitors will be on hand to offer products and services to assist families in furthering their family history

research.

The cost to attend this two-day event is just $69 with pre-registration and $99 at the door. Pay only $59

for one day. Onsite registration will begin and the exhibit hall will open at 1 p.m. on Friday. The event will

close at 9 p.m. Exhibits and registration will re-open at 9 a.m. on Saturday. The exhibit hall will close at 4

p.m. Prizes donated by exhibitors will be given away both days and Grand Prizes donated by sponsors

will be given away at the closing ceremony. This event is sponsored by Family History Expos and

supported by FamilySearch.

Register now at

www.fhexpos.com or call 801-829-3295 for telephone registration.

Newspapers: Chronicling America Continues Growth!

The Library of Congress recently announced that "since October 2011, the National Digital Newspaper Program has expanded the Chronicling America site by more than 550,000 historic newspaper pages published in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Including titles like the Wenatchee Daily World (Wenatchee, WA), the Anti-Slavery Bugle (New-Lisbon, OH) and the Montana News (Lewiston, MT), these pages have been digitized from collections in Arizona, California, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington. More than 4.7 million pages are now available online, published between 1836 and 1922." Read more about it here.

Chronicling America is just one of many websites across the Internet offering free digitized newspapers.  However, the fragmented nature of online newspapers can make finding the one that holds your family history quite a challenge.  That's why I wrote Everything You Need to Know About How to Find Your Family History in Newspapers. 


Get the paperback book 
Get the pdf eBook (Save 20% on the ebook through March 7, 2012 with coupon code SPACIOUS305)

Win a Family Tree University Virtual Conference Registration

Online learning program will give away one three-day pass for March 9-11 event in sweepstakes
And Discount Coupon Code Below!

CINCINNATI, February 15, 2012—Family Tree University’s Spring 2012 Virtual Conference will feature three days of online genealogy learning, with 15 downloadable video classes, live chats and discussions, daily contests and more. And one lucky genealogist will get to experience it all for free. 

Enter the Virtual Conference Sweepstakes at http://www.familytreeuniversity.com/sweepstakes for a chance to win a free registration to the March 9-11 conference, a $199 value. You don’t have to travel across the country or even across town to participate: The conference takes place entirely online, with classes and discussions led by an all-star cast of genealogy instructors. Class topics include:

»        Using Steve Morse’s One-Step Site to Get Ready for the 1940 Census with Thomas MacEntee

»        Using Your iPad for Genealogy with Nancy Hendrickson

»        3 Cool Tools to Help With Your Newspaper Research with Lisa Louise Cooke

»        What’s in a Civil War Pension File? with Diana Crisman Smith

»        Online Resources for Polish Research with Lisa A. Alzo

»        Using Guardianship Records in Genealogical Research with Marian Pierre-Louis

For more details and a full list of classes, visit http://www.familytreeuniversity.com/virtual-conference

Sweepstakes entries must be received by February 23 at 11:59 Eastern Time; the winner will be announced February 24.

Winning the sweepstakes isn’t the only way to get a bargain on a Virtual Conference ticket: Family Tree University is giving all readers of this blog $40 off registration. Enter coupon code LLCOOKE when registering.

About Family Tree University

Family Tree University is part of the Genealogy Community at F+W Media, Inc., which also encompasses Family Tree Magazine—America’s most popular family history magazine—the Family Tree Books imprint and the ShopFamilyTree.com online store. These publications and products are devoted to providing engaging, easy-to-understand instruction that makes genealogy a hobby anyone can do. In addition to the virtual conference, Family Tree University offers more than 30 online genealogy courses and monthly live webinars.

Name That Tune - Family History Mystery Solved!

From the Genealogy Gems Mailbox:

Hi Lisa, You'll probably think I'm crazy, I love your podcasts, but I'm still catching up!!  In August I decided to listen to your current podcasts as you issue them, while still working my way through all your past podcasts.  I'm at number 59 and laugh to listen to you celebrate and sound surprised that you've reached a second anniversary, when I "know" that you've made it to 5 now!

Back in 2009. you ran a series of "Name that Tune" challenges, which I absolutely loved, I think I have old time music in my DNA.  It took me a day to recognize the "Missouri Waltz," I knew "The Dark Town Strutters Ball" right away; when I was little I named my doll "Honey" and always thought of those first lines "I'll be down to get you in a taxi, Honey...", I knew "I'll see you in my dreams" don't know if you are old enough to recall "Sing along with Mitch" when it was on TV, but we had all Mitch Miller's Sing Along albums and "I'll See you in my dreams" was among them.

Okay, so that brings me to the reason for this email.  In Episode 56, you celebrated "I'll See you in my dreams" and then played a brief 30 seconds of another tune, it was a violin instrumental.  Well as I said I've listened up to 59 and I've never heard the result for that last tune.  I think it may be "Thine Alone" by Victor Herbert.  It was from the operetta "Eileen".  Herbert was born in Ireland and emigrated to America, his more famous songs include "Ah Sweet Mystery of Life" and "The March of the Toys" from "Babes in Toyland" but he seems to have written hundreds of songs.

You had a loyal listener named "Jeannie" who called you with the names of the first 4 songs, I laughed at the similarity in our names, but anyway, I'm going crazy, did anyone else ever recognize that song?  If you go to iTunes, there is a good instrumental version of "Thine Alone" on the Album "The Music of Victor Herbert & Sigmund Romberg" performed by George Melchrino.  It is a lovely song.

I can't tell you how many wonderful memories those songs gave me!!  Yes, I am working on my Family History and really enjoy all your podcasts, videos, blogs and advice.  I did finish your Family History: Genealogy Made Easy podcast series, got to get to work on the Family Tree Magazine Podcast too!!

Thank you so much for all you do!
Jean Goggins

Dear Jean,
No, no one ever dad identify that song - until now!  I totally agree after listening to "Thine Alone" on iTunes that is the song.  I'm so glad you emailed me about it!  In fact I was just talking about that "name that tune" series and the old reel-to-reel that of Grandma and Grandpa in my recent presentation  Genealogy Blogs and Podcasts 101 that was streamed live on the RootsTech website (and is still there on video - part of the Saturday Recap). 

I'm so glad you're enjoying the podcasts.  Thanks for writing and solving this family history mystery!
Lisa

Indiana Genealogical Society Annual Conference

February 20, 2012 –Fort Wayne, Indiana: The Indiana Genealogical Society (IGS) is holding its annual conference on April 28, 2012 at the Allen County Public Library (ACPL) in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Debra S. Mieszala is the featured speaker. Her talks include:
·        Lessons from a Snoop: Collaterals and Associates
·        Bringing Our Soldiers Home
·        Digging Through Documents Word By Word
·        Patently Unique: Locating Patent Records, Onlineand Off

A second track of sessions features:
·        What’s New with FamilySearch with Michael Hallfrom FamilySearch
·        Finding Indiana Records and Research inFamilySearch with Michael Hall
·        Becoming an Expert on Using Ancestry with ACPLlibrarian, Melissa Shimkus
·        Writing a Book Using Family Tree Maker andMicrosoft Word with Curtis Sylvester, President of the Allen CountyGenealogical Society of Indiana

Registration is $30 for IGS members, $40 for nonmembers and$45 at the door. Registration forms and online registration are available at http://www.indgensoc.org/conference.php.

Spend the day learning from experts, researching in thecountry’s second largest genealogical library and collaborating with othergenealogists.

Come a day early to join the IGS pre-conference and gainresearch time in the library. Topics on April 27, 2012 include:
·        Indiana County Genealogists Show N’ Tell
·        Social Media for Our Societies
·        Ask the Experts Panel

Registration for the pre-conference is only $5 or $7 at thedoor. Find out more at www.indgensoc.org/seminar.php.

About the IndianaGenealogical Society
Formed in 1989, the Indiana Genealogical Society strives tohelp preserve and publish materials relating to the people who settled thestate. IGS has been at the forefront of efforts to make Indiana’s historicalrecords more accessible to the public by indexing and digitizing records. IGShas more than 500,000 records on its website, representing all 92 of Indiana’scounties. Learn  more about IGS at http://www.indgensoc.org.   

Open-Source Genealogy Database of Name Variants Announced

Here's the latest from Ancestry:

"Ancestry.com, BehindTheName.com, and WeRelate.org announce an improved approach to finding variant names in genealogy searches.  Up to now, most genealogy websites have had to rely upon Soundex to return variant names in response to searches. These approaches often miss variants that should be returned, or include variants that aren't very similar.

Ancestry.com, BehindTheName.com, and WeRelate.org have created an open-source database of name variants that is free for any website or genealogy software developer to use. Tested against pairs of names provided by Ancestry.com, it reduces the number of missed name variants by over 25% in comparison with Soundex.

How you can help: A large portion of genealogical expertise involves learning variant spellings for the surnames in your tree. By adding your variant spellings to the database, searches on any website that uses it will include your variant spellings automatically. You can review and add variant spellings here: 

http://www.werelate.org/wiki/Special:Names

In addition, we need people to review the changes that others have made to the database, to make sure that we have multiple pairs of eyes reviewing the names that are being added and removed. You can review changes that others have made here: 

http://www.werelate.org/wiki/Special:NamesLog

More information about the project can be found at:
http://www.werelate.org/wiki/WeRelate:Variant_names_project"