The Genealogy Guys Podcast & Genealogy Connection

George and Drew welcome their newest podcast sponsor, Vivid-Pix, with an interview with its CEO, Rick Voight.  Rick shares his background in the photo industry, and describes his company's RESTORE photo and document restoration software.

George and Drew then announce the partnership between The Genealogy Guys and Vivid-Pix as sponsors of the Unsung Heroes Awards program for individuals and organizations who scan, digitize, index, and/or transcribe photos and documents. Details about the program can be found at vivid-pix.com/unsungheroes, and nominations for the first set of awards are due by February 15, 2019.

Kenyatta Berry returns to Genealogy Connection to discuss her new book, The Family Tree Toolkit.  To learn even more about Kenyatta, also listen to Genealogy Connection #010.

Questions or comments about the show? Email genealogyguys@gmail.com

The Genealogy Guys take a look back at 2018 and a look ahead at 2019.  

The news includes:

• MyHeritage announced that its Family Tree Webinars are now closed-captioned.
• The book There is Something About Edgefield is an Award Finalist in the 2018 Best Books Award in the category of History-United States. We reviewed the book in Episode #339. Congratulations!
• Findmypast announces a trial of a revolutionary new newspaper search. They also announced records of the Cheshire Diocese of Chester Parish Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials.
• Scan-a-Thon, a 72-hour scanning marathon, will take place on 11-14 January 2019. For more information, contact Eowyn Langholf at eowyn@wikitree.com.
• FamilySearch was awarded the PRSA Silver Anvil Award for its historic Freedmen’s Bureau Project.
• Drew recaps the latest in FamilySearch’s new images and indexed records.

The Guys describe a great evening with Kenyatta D. Berry at the John F. Germany Public Library in downtown Tampa. A review of her new book, The Family Tree Toolkit: A Comprehensive Guide to Uncovering Your Ancestry and Researching Genealogy, can be viewed on the Genealogy Guys Blog 15 December post.

Listener email includes:

• Kudos to George on his post at the Genealogy Guys Blog titled My Parents Married Twice! on 13 December 2018.
• Thomas commented on the discussion about DNA beneficiaries in Episode #352.
• Hugh asked questions about RootsMagic’s interface with Ancestry.com called TreeShare.
• Lisa had questions about managing media in Family Tree Maker for Mac.
• Lili is working on lineage society applications and wants to know specifically how many sources for each fact are required and/or acceptable.
• Roger asks about DNA testing on a lock of hair from his great-great-grandmother.
• Betsy is seeking resources about people who went west in the early 1860s to participate in the gold rushes there.

The news includes:

• MyHeritage announced Shared Ancestral Places, a new facility in its MyHeritage DNA.
• MyHeritage announced that artifact testing is on its way.
• MyHeritage held a very successful conference, MyHeritage LIVE, in Oslo, Norway, and videos of the keynote by Gilad Japhet and 23 other presentations are available for free at https://familytreewebinars.com/MHLIVE2018.
• Findmypast has added 106K Pennsylvania Cemetery & Burial records, and a variety of English and Scotland military records.
• Findmypast has partnered with Living DNA to launch a new discovery experience with a breakdown of 80 global regions, including 21 across Britain and Ireland.
• FamilySearch is partnering with the Dallas Public Library to digitize the library’s extensive family history book collection.
• FamilySearch announced free access to more than 150 million Italian historical genealogical records.
• Drew summarizes the new and updated collections at FamilySearch.

Drew reviews two new books:

• Nathan Dylan Goodwin has published a new book, Ghost Swifts, Blue Poppies, and the Red Star. It introduces a new character, Mrs. Harriett Agnes McDougall, who investigates the circumstances surrounding her son’s death during the Great War.
• Family Tree Books has published a new edition of Nancy Hendrickson’s book, The Unofficial Guide to Ancestry.com. The new book provides great advice for maximizing your use and searches of Ancestry.com and features new chapters about AncestryDNA.

Drew explains what the recent announcement means that in rare instances a male can pass mitochondrial DNA to his offspring.

Listener email includes:

• Susie thanks George for his recent presentations in Roswell, New Mexico, and says she has already been applying new techniques she learned in a recent research trip to Vermont.
• Statch thanks The Guys for a recent blog post about money used in colonial America. They remind people to read the blog at http://blog.genealogyguys.com where they will find that post and recent posts about:
  • Using a perpetual calendar
  • School records
  • Online library reference resources
  • African Americans and Native Americans
  • Hispanic resources
  • Jewish resources
• Linda thanks The Guys for explaining why the Castle Garden website and Stephen Morse’s One-Step searches reveal different results. She also recommends Amy Johnson Crow’s Generations Café podcast and specifically her episode on Overlooked Things on FamilySearch.
• John shared his experience with searching census records for his family surname, how the enumerators butchered it, and how he used various keywords for his ancestor’s medical profession to locate misspelled and mis-indexed records.
• Laura turned on FamilySearch WebHints in her RootsMagic database and found many new records. In particular, she describes three marriage records that provided new insights for her family.
• Van is caught up with listening to all of our podcasts! He writes about research into South Carolina records and discusses questions about family groups found. Included are the used of DNA in this research.
• Joseph wrote in response to Beth’s Mennonite research in Episode #352, and provided some reference sites to help with Pennsylvania Mennonite research:
  • Genealogical Society of PA - https://genpa.org/
  • GSP's PA Research Guides - https://genpa.org/public-collections/pennsylvania-resources/
  • Historical Society of PA - https://hsp.org/
  • HSP's Card Catalog on FamilySearch -https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2524622
  • FamilySearch Wiki (Mennonites) - https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Mennonites
  • Mennonite Heritage Center Genealogy Resources - http://mhep.org/library/genealogy-resources/
• Daniel responded from Spain about Laura’s DNA “mess” and raised the issue of financial impacts of sharing the stories.
• Kelvin wrote about DNA artifact testing and comments on how helpful he is finding discussions on the Genetic Genealogy Tips & Techniques Facebook group. Interested listeners may want to join.
• Tedi asked about genealogical software that can be used on both a desktop and iPad.

The Guys discussed a brand-new DNA tool, Genetic Affairs, which can currently be used with your AncestryDNA, 23andMe, and Family Tree DNA results in order to cluster results. The tool’s website is at http://geneticaffairs.com and has a 12-page manual available for download.