genealogy book club | Genealogy Gems

Genealogy Gems Podcast Episode 172: NEW Book Club

by Lisa Cooke | Oct 21, 2014 | 01 What's New, Australian, Book Club, British, DNA, Genealogy Gems Podcast, Inspiration, Listeners & Readers, Maps, Newspaper, Volunteer

Episode 172 of the free Genealogy Gems podcast is now available for your listening pleasure!

This is a big episode you won’t want to miss! Here are the highlights:

The top story is the launch of our NEW Genealogy Gems Book Club. I join Lisa on the podcast with some appetite-whetting description of the first featured book.
A listener writes in with a great success story on finding newspaper articles on her Australian ancestors.
A free interactive boundary map for British parishes and using Google Translate in your genealogy research.
What’s replaced Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness (RAOGK)? Lisa’s creative answer!
Your DNA Guide Diahan Southard tells us about a very cool DNA party in New Zealand hosted by the National Genographic Project.
A unique Star Trek-like journey into innovations of yesteryear!

Click here to listen to Episode 172. You can also listen and subscribe through iTunes and there’s even a Genealogy Gems app that gives your listening experience all kinds of extras. Click here to learn more about the FREE Genealogy Gems podcast and how to listen.

NEW Genealogy Book Club: Here’s a Gem Inspired by You!

by Lisa Cooke | Oct 21, 2014 | 01 What's New, Book Club, British, Genealogy Gems Podcast

We’ve heard from you, our readers and listeners that you LOVE to read! Well, we’ve just launched a great new FREE program for you: the Genealogy Gems Book Club!

This is an idea we have been percolating on for quite a while with your encouragement. You regularly send me the names of books you love. I also hear from publishers and the authors themselves. Now we can all come together as a genealogy book club community!

The Genealogy Gems Book Club is a virtual, no-commitment option that features a book every three months that I consider a genealogy gem. We will focus on mainstream nonfiction and fiction titles that explore themes you care about, like family ties, heritage and history. These are books you will want to read for pleasure and recommend to anyone, not just other genealogy lovers.

My favorite part of the Genealogy Gems Book Club is the exclusive author interviews that will appear on the Genealogy Gems free and Premium podcasts in the third month of the featured book (after people have had time to read it). After all, podcasts are all about conversation! I’ve learned in the past that you love interviews with authors, whether you have read the book or not.

The FIRST FEATURED BOOK is She Left Me the Gun: My Mother’s Life Before Me by award-winning U.K. journalist Emma Brockes. It recounts the author’s discovery of her mother’s traumatic childhood in South Africa. Genealogy Gems Contributing Editor and Book Club Guru Sunny Morton loves this book: “This is a genealogical journey, complete with trips to archives, poring over old court cases and dramatic reveals. It’s also about learning the past from living relatives. This is the ultimate how-to book for exploring and sharing sensitive family stories because she shows you how it’s done.”

Here’s how the three-month cycle works for this new genealogy book club:

Sunny Morton, Genealogy Gems Contributing Editor and Genealogy Book Lovers Group Guru

In the first month, Sunny Morton, our Genealogy Book Club Guru will introduce us to a new title on the Genealogy Gems free podcast, the Premium Podcast and on the Genealogy Gems blog. She will share a quick run-down on the book and why she recommends it.
In the second month, Sunny and I will discuss a gem from the book, and recommend additional titles in case you are looking for something more to read.
In the third month, our featured author will join the Genealogy Gems podcast for an exclusive interview. Excerpts from the interview will run on the free podcast and the entire interview will air on the Genealogy Gems Premium Podcast.

To follow the Genealogy Gems Book Club, go to our home page and sign up to receive our FREE monthly newsletter (you’ll receive my Google Search ebook too as a welcome gift!) Then check in periodically at the Genealogy Gems Book Club webpage, which summarizes all books covered to date and includes additional recommendations. And of course, subscribe to the Genealogy Gems Podcast in iTunes.

Ready to become a Premium member so you’ll catch the full author interviews as well as all the other in-depth coverage on the Genealogy Gems Premium podcast? Click here to learn more.