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Genealogy Gems Premium Podcast Episode 134 is Published

by | May 3, 2016

The new Genealogy Gems Premium podcast episode 134 is now ready for Premium website members. Get tips for recording oral history interviews on your mobile device, start your Irish genealogy and more.

Attention Premium website members: you can now listen to the Genealogy Gems Premium Podcast episode 134. Two highlights of this episode for me are:

Lisa’s interview with Irish genealogy expert Donna Moughty. I do have an Irish line or two that I haven’t started tracking into Ireland. Donna’s encouraging advice have gotten me excited about revisiting those lines. Her specific tips are pointing right toward what I should do and where I should go next with my Irish kin.

Another favorite in this episode is Lisa’s segment on recording oral history interviews with your mobile device. Many of us usually have all we need to record an interview with a relative: a smartphone or tablet, a list of questions and a few minutes to spare. Lisa got me thinking about the conversations I want to record and how easy it will be using the apps she recommends.

Of course, there’s more than these two great segments in Genealogy Gems Premium Podcast episode 134. Check out:

A story of a researcher who recognized a distant cousin just from the family resemblance;
How listening to podcasts makes you extraordinary (and how one Premium listener went the extra mile–actually 26 miles);
A spotlight on a record set that can help you better understand your ancestors who traveled;
A free resource to help you troubleshoot website connection issues;
How one city is working to preserve a cemetery’s historic headstones–but not at the expense of its historic rose gardens; and
How to talk about DNA at your next family gathering.

Click here to listen to the Genealogy Gems Premium Podcast episode 134 and read/download the accompanying handout.

Are you getting the MOST out of your Premium website membership? Members have access to more than two dozen Premium videos, including the new video tutorial, How to Find Essential Apps for Genealogists. Click here to find more video classes exclusively for Genealogy Gems Premium website members.

We Dig These Gems! New Genealogy Records Online

by Lisa Cooke | Apr 30, 2016

How great to see these new genealogy records online! Those with German roots will especially want to check out new resources on Ancestry.com.

ENGLAND CHURCH. Findmypast.com has updated its collections of church baptismal and marriage records for Dorset, England. Those collections now together number about a million records.

GERMANY – MILITARY. Over 400,000 records are part of a new Ancestry.com collection of Bremen military lists (1712-1914). According to the collection description, “The core of the collection are the muster rolls created by recruiting commmissions including actual musters from 1894-1917 for men born between 1874 and 1899. These records are arranged in chronological-alphabetical order and contain detailed information about male military personnel in the city.”

GERMANY – CHURCH. An enormous collection of Lutheran baptisms, marriages and burials is now searchable on Ancestry.com. You’ll find over 24 million records from “parish registers from numerous Protestant communities in Baden, today part of the German state of Baden-Württemberg…[and]some communities to the north, such as Wiesbaden in adjacent Hessen.” Another new Ancestry.com collection contains over a million birth, marriage and death records taken from weekly church reports in Dresden, Germany for 1685-1879.

GERMANY – IMMIGRATION TO U.S. A new database on Ancestry.com catalogs German immigrants to the U.S., 1712-1933.

IRELAND NEWSPAPERS. Over half a million new Irish newspaper articles have been added at Findmypast.com. According to a company press release, “Significant updates have also been made to seven existing titles” and a new title from Northern Ireland for 1891-1896 is a “must-read for anyone with ancestors from that part of the country.”

U.S. – NEVADA DEATHS. Just over a quarter million records are part of a new Ancestry.com collection of Nevada death records for 1911-1965. The indexed images are state death certificates.

Got German roots? Click here to read an article on German newspapers in the U.S.

Is This Website Down or Is It Just Me? Downforeveryoneorjustme

by | Apr 30, 2016

When a website is down, use downforeveryoneorjustme to see whether the problem is on your end or theirs. Save yourself some hassle with this free web tool!

If you’re like me, you sometimes come across websites that just don’t seem to cooperate with you. Perhaps they never load, or you get some sort of an error message. It can be frustrating, particularly when you are hot on the trail of your genealogy research.

The good news is that there is a free website to help you quickly determine whether the problem is with your online computer access or whether it’s a problem with the website itself.

The site is Down ForEveryoneOrJustMe.com. This is what it looks like. Yes, this is the entire home page:

Simply type the link into their search box, click the link, and go. Downforeveryoneorjustme will give you an immediate response and offer to help you access other sites (like in the image below.)

When you Google the name of the website, you’ll see that they have webpages devoted to checking on the major social media sites with a single click:

According to Tech Crunch.com, this bare-bones site was created by a Twitter employee. It’s sure a handy tool!Knowing whether the problem is on your end or theirs helps you know whether to check your own internet service or whether to wait for the site to come back online.