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GenealogyDOTcoach Online Service for the Fledgling Genealogist
Everyone can use a great coach and a new genealogy service is striving to fill that need! GenealogyDOTcoach (SM) is a new online service matching up professional genealogists (called Genealogy Coaches) with people who want to have all the excitement of making their own family history discoveries, but need a little personalized help.
Janet Hovorka, co-founder of the new website, says, “With do-it-yourself sites like Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org it has become so easy for anyone to start climbing their family tree. But sometimes people get a little stuck in the process.”
In the past, genealogy hobbyists in trouble were either doomed to find another line to work on or hire a 10 or 20 hour research package from a professional genealogist. Many of us can’t afford the high prices of a professional researcher. Besides, what we really want is just a little help. GenealogyDOTcoach is striving to fill that need.
GenealogyDOTcoach: How it Works
As of today, there are 25 coaches across 47 genealogical categories. Areas of expertise include: getting started, DNA, writing a research plan, and even document translation. Many levels and types of expertise are found in these Genealogy Coaches with hopes of finding the right match for your specific need. The impressive list of coaches include some of the most well-known genealogists in the industry.
At the genealogyDOTcoach website, you can select a topic like Jewish Genealogy, Software Assistance, or DNA (and there are tons more). Once you have selected your category, you will see a list of coaches that specialize in that topic. Sessions can be scheduled with your genealogy coach for 15, 30, or 60 minutes at a predetermined rate.
Before your coaching session, an email link is sent that allows you to log-in to a private chat room. You will meet your coach face to face, via video chat, and be able to share screens and documents.
We Want to Hear From You
So, what do you think? Is this something that interests you?
We would love to hear what you think about this new service in the comment section below.
Thanks for reading, friends!
Scandinavian Genealogy Records – New & Updated Record Collections
Scandinavian genealogy records for this week pique the interest of researchers all over the world. Large collections of records for Sweden and Finland are among the list of new and updated genealogical records. Other collections include records for London, Ireland, and the United States. Oh! One last thing. We’ve added a Google search strategy you won’t want to miss!
Sweden – Church Records
FamilySearch recently updated a collection of church records for Sweden titled “Sweden, Gävleborg Church Records, 1616-1908; index 1671-1860,” this week. The collection includes church records from the county of Gävleborg. These church records include clerical surveys; registers of birth, marriages, and deaths; move-in and move-out lists; confirmations; and church accounts.
The digital images span the years of 1616-1908, however the records that are searchable by index (at this time) only include the years between 1671 and 1860. When browsing through the digital images that have not been indexed, you will want to search by parish, then by record type, and lastly, the volume and year.
Finland – Church Records
MyHeritage has published an impressive collection of 33 million Finnish historical records! This collection of church census books and pre-confirmation books were kept by the Lutheran Church in Finland. The reason these records are so important is that the Lutheran Church was the state religion for hundreds of years. Because of that, the church records essentially cover the entire population of Finland.
In rural areas, the church book records are organized by village, farm, and household. Within the cities these records were organized by quarter or street.
It is important for researchers to realize that Finland was part of Sweden until 1809. Church census records and pre-confirmation records were consequently written in Swedish until the mid-to-late 1800s. Don’t forget – FamilySearch wiki will give you a language cheat-sheet so you can get help with translating!
United Kingdom – London – Post Office Directories
London Post Office Directories 1842, 1851 and 1861, a browse only database at this time, is now available at Findmypast. You can browse over 1.5 million records from three London Post Office Directories. These directories include lists of traders, bankers, people employed by the crown, lawyers, and other officials. Though not indexed, they list names alphabetically by surname. You may be able to find your ancestor’s occupation, business address, or even their home address!
United Kingdom – Westminster
This collection from Westminster, Poor Law and Parish Administration includes over 1.7 million records. The parish administration was over several commissions and these records include bastardy papers, admissions, examinations, pauper records, valuations, and work house records.
Because there are so many different types of records in this collection, the amount of genealogically valued data will vary. Transcripts and digital images of the original documents are provided and can be searched by name, year, place, and record type.
Ireland – General Register Office Records
Irish Genealogy.ie has just released millions of personal records online for free! Births, marriages, and deaths are from the General Register Office. The expanded database includes the Birth Records Indexes from 1864 to 1914, the Marriage Records Indexes from 1845 (1864 for Roman Catholic Marriages) to 1939, and the Death Records Indexes from 1864 to 1964. To search these records, click here. You will find them under the Civil Records menu heading.
United States – New York City, Philadelphia, & Washington D.C. Newspapers
18th-century newspapers from three early capitals of the U.S. are new on the Chronicling America website. Browse through these digital newspapers for information about your ancestors. Nearly 15,000 pages have been added from The Gazette of the United States (New York, N.Y. and Philadelphia, Pa., 1789-1801), the National Gazette (Philadelphia, Pa., 1791-1793), and the National Intelligencer (Washington, D.C. 1800-1809). For even more information on how to boost your genealogy success using newspapers, check out Lisa’s book, “How to Find Your Family History in Newspapers,” in a digital e-book or traditional book form.
More Gems on Scandinavian Genealogy Records
Our Genealogy Google Guru Lisa Louise Cooke has a few more ideas for gaining access to more records and information about your Scandinavian ancestors. Here’s what Lisa says:
“You’ve probably already tried searching with Google to find more on your ancestors. But have you searched in Swedish, Finnish, or Norwegian? Start by going to Google Translate and entering your search query in English.
Google Translate will detect that you have typed in English. You’ll need to select the desired language from the drop-down menu in the box on the right. Above, I’ve selected Swedish. Google Translate has now translated my query. Highlight and copy the translated text.
Next, go to the Swedish version of Google, which you’ll find at https://www.google.se/. Paste the translation in the search box. I’ve changed “Otter” back to the actual name of the town “Otterstad,” because I didn’t need that to be translated! Here are my search results:
Notice, each webpage search result has a link you can click to “Translate this page.” Click it and you’ll go to that page, but it will appear in English!
I’m thrilled to see my husband’s great-great-grandfather’s name in this bottom result. I’m off to work on this family…have fun with Google Translate and the Scandinavian Googles!” – Lisa
Isn’t that an awesome search strategy?! This is exactly the kind of outside-the-box thinking Lisa is known for which she covers more in-depth in her book The Genealogist’s Google Toolbox Second Edition. In fact, there’s an entire chapter in the book about how to use Google Translate in exciting, innovative ways for genealogy.
Here are the links Lisa sent me for the various Scandinavian Googles:
And finally, here’s more on Scandinavian research from our website:
Episode 195
The Genealogy Gems Podcast
Episode 195
with Lisa Louise Cooke
In this episode, I’m celebrating the 100th episode of another podcast I host: the Family Tree Magazine podcast. So I’ll flashback to one of my favorite interviews from that show, an inspiring get-in-shape conversation for your research skills: how you can strengthen your research muscles and tone those technology skills to find and share your family history.
Listen now – click the player below
More episode highlights:
- News on Chronicling America and Scotland’s People;
- Comments from guest expert Lisa Alzo on millions of Czech records that have recently come online;
- A YouTube-for-genealogy success story from a woman I met at a conference;
- An excerpt from the Genealogy Gems Book Club interview with Chris Cleave, author of Everyone Brave is Forgiven;
- Diahan Southard shares a DNA gem: the free website GEDmatch, which you might be ready for if you’ve done some DNA testing.
NEWS: Genealogy.coach
NEWS: GENEALOGY WEBSITE UPDATES
- Scotland’s People
- Findmypast.com: Scottish records
- Chronicling America
- Chronicling America: New state partners join the program
- Chronicling America: Expanding its current scope
- MyHeritage Adds DNA Matching
NEW RECORDS ONLINE: FREE CZECH RECORDS AT FAMILYSEARCH.ORG
- Czech Republic Church Records 1552-1963
- Czech Republic Land Records 1450-1889
- Czech Republic School Registers 1799-1953
On browse-only records:
Though not fully indexed, the new Czech browse-only records number over 4 million. Click here learn how to use browse-only collections on FamilySearch.org.
Lisa Alzo, Eastern European genealogy expert and author of the new book The Family Tree Polish, Czech and Slovak Genealogy Guide comments on the significance of these records coming online:
“These records are a real boon for Czech researchers because at one time the only to get records such as these was to write to an archive and taking a chance on getting a response or spending a lot of money to hire someone to find the records or to travel there yourself to do research in the archives.
The church records contain Images and some indexes of baptisms/births, marriages, and deaths that occurred in the Roman Catholic, Evangelical Lutheran, and Reformed Church parishes, as well as entries in those registers for Jews.
Land transactions containing significant genealogical detail for a time period that predates parish registers. The collection includes records from regional archives in Opava and Tebo and from the district archive in Trutnov.
School registers contain the full name for a child, birth date, place of birth, country, religion and father’s full name, and place of residence.
While researchers should keep in mind that not everything is yet online, and FamilySearch will likely add to its collection, having these records from FS is an amazing resource for anyone whose ancestors may have come from these areas. And hopefully, there are more records to come!”
GENEALOGY GEMS NEWS
Story of My Life by Sunny Morton, life story-writing journal available as a print workbook and as a writeable pdf e-book
Diahan Southard will be at the Back to Our Past conference in Dublin, Ireland, October 21 to 23, 2016
Genealogy Gems app users: For those of you who listen to this show through the Genealogy Gems app, your bonus handout is a PDF document with step-by-step instructions and helpful screenshots for Google image search on mobile devices. The Genealogy Gems app is FREE in Google Play and is only $2.99 for Windows, iPhone and iPad users
Lisa Louise Cooke uses and recommends RootsMagic family history software. From within RootsMagic, you can search historical records on FamilySearch.org, Findmypast.com and MyHeritage.com. In the works: RootsMagic will be fully integrated with Ancestry.com, too: you’ll be able to sync your RootsMagic trees with your Ancestry.com trees and search records on the site.
Keep your family history research, photos, tree software files, videos and all other computer files safely backed up with Backblaze, the official cloud-based computer backup system for Lisa Louise Cooke’s Genealogy Gems. Learn more at http://www.backblaze.com/Lisa.
Review your search results especially those that pop up in the Images category.
MAILBOX: Robin’s YouTube Success Story
YouTube video with Robyn’s father: Cleves, Ohio: Edgewater Sports Park
The Genealogist’s Google Toolbox, 2nd edition has an entire chapter on using YouTube to find family history in historical videos
YouTube for Family History: Finding Documentaries about Your Family
MAILBOX: FEEDBACK ON THE PODCASTS
Free, step-by-step podcast for beginners and a “refresher” course: Family History: Genealogy Made Easy
Genealogy Gems Premium podcast
SHAPING UP WITH SUNNY MORTON
Family Tree Magazine Podcast celebrates 100th episode
Sunny Morton has get-in-shape advice for us from strengthening research skills to toning tech muscles–from the article “Shaping Up” featured in the March 2010 issue of Family Tree Magazine.
More resources for genealogy education:
- Genealogy Gems Premium eLearning membership
- Family Tree University
- National Genealogical Society Educational Courses
- Boston University Programs in Genealogical Research
- Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree annual conference
GENEALOGY GEMS BOOK CLUB: Everyone Brave is Forgiven, the best-selling novel by British author Chris Cleave. A love story set in World War II London and Malta. This story is intense, eye-opening and full of insights into the human experience of living and loving in a war zone?and afterward. Everyone Brave is Forgiven is inspired by love letters exchanged between the author’s grandparents during World War II.
Video: Chris Cleave on the U.S troops coming to Europe in World War II
Click here for more Genealogy Gems Book Club titles
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.
The genetic genealogy community has a crush. A big one. Everyone is talking about it. “It has such great features.” says one. “It has a chromosome browser!” exclaims another. “It’s FREE!” they all shout. What are they talking about? GEDmatch. GEDmatch is a mostly free online tool where anyone with autosomal DNA test results from 23andMe, FTDNA, and AncestryDNA can meet and share information. All you need to do is download your data from your testing company and upload it into your newly created GEDmatch account.GEDmatch is set up just like your testing company in that it provides two kinds of reports: ethnicity results, and a match list. Remember that ethnicity results, meaning those pie charts that report you are 15% Italian and 32% Irish, are based on two factors: a reference population and fancy math. GEDmatch has gathered data from multiple academic sources to provide you with several different iterations of ethnicity reports. This is like getting a second (and third and fourth, etc) opinion on a science that is still emerging. It is a fun exercise, but will likely not impact your genealogy research very much. The more important match list does allow you to see genetic cousins who have tested at other companies. Of course, only those who have downloaded their results and entered them into GEDmatch will show up on your list. This means GEDmatch has the potential to expand your pool of genetic cousins, increasing your chances of finding someone to help you track down that missing ancestor. Many also flock to GEDmatch because they were tested at AncestryDNA and thus do not have access to a chromosome browser. A chromosome browser allows you to visualize the physical locations that you share with someone else. Some find this to be a helpful tool when analyzing their DNA matches (though in my opinion, it is not essential).GEDmatch also has some great genealogy features that let you analyze your pedigree against someone else’s, as well as the ability to search all the pedigree charts in their system so you can look specifically for a descendant of a particular relative.However, even with all of these great features, GEDmatch is still yet another website you have to navigate, and with that will be a learning curve, and certainly some frustration. So, is it worth it? If you are fairly comfortable with the website where you were tested, and you are feeling both curious and patient, I say go for it.It’s too much to try to tell you right this minute how to download your data from your testing site and upload it to GEDmatch. BUT you’re in luck, I’ve put step-by-step instructions for getting started in a FREE tutorial on my website at www.yourDNAguide.com/transferring.
By the way, have you tried GEDmatch? I would love to hear about your experiences. You can email me at guide@yourDNAguide.com.
DNA QUICK GUIDE BUNDLES: NEW AND ON SALE
Advanced DNA Quick Guide Bundle by Diahan Southard:
- Breaking Down Brick Walls with DNA
- Organizing Your DNA Matches: A Companion Guide
- DNA Third Party Tools
SUPER DNA Quick Guide Bundle by Diahan Southard with ALL 10 Guides
- Autosomal DNA for the Genealogist
- Mitochondrial DNA for the Genealogist
- Y Chromosome DNA for the Genealogist
and Testing Companies:
- A Guide to AncestryDNA
- A Guide to 23andMe
- A Guide to MyHeritage DNA
- A Guide to the Family Finder Test at Family Tree DNA
and Advanced Tools
- Breaking Down Brick Walls with DNA
- Organizing Your DNA Matches
- DNA Third Party Tools
Genealogy Gems Podcast turns 200: Tell me what you think?
As we count down to the 200th episode of the free Genealogy Gems Podcast, what have been YOUR favorite things about the podcast? Any particular topics, interviews or segments of the show? What keeps you coming back? What would you like to hear more of? Email me at genealogygemspodcast@gmail.com, or leave a voicemail at (925) 272-4021, or send mail to: P.O. Box 531, Rhome, TX 76078.
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