Craig Scott to Guest on 1 March Show

Family Roots Radio is very happy to be welcoming Craig Scott, CG in our interview segment on our 1 March show. Craig is the owner of Heritage Books, one of the nation's largest genealogical publishers. But, Craig is not just a business man; he is an avid genealogist who has turned his passion into a means of helping hundreds of thousands of genealogists by providing greater access to genealogical data and instruction.

Craig is an engaging and knowledgeable genealogist and a popular speaker at local, state and national conferences. He has also taught at the nation's three largest genealogical institutes. You'll often find him in exhibit halls honoring his own Scottish ancestry by dressing in a kilt of his clan's colors.

Be sure to listen to Craig's insights about genealogical publishing. We've got some tough questions for him, from which you're sure to learn some important and new information!

Episode Three: Podcast Available

If you missed our third episode, you can listen to the archived version, or feel free to download a copy to your desktop or mp3 player.

The quickest way to download is to right click on the "download a copy" link above and select "Save Link As" (Mozilla) or "Save Target As" (Internet Explorer). You will then be given options where on your computer to store the file. Our podcasts are 60 minutes long and average approximately 12mb in size.

If you use Apple iTunes (available for Mac and Windows) to listen to podcasts, click here to subscribe via iTunes to Family Roots Radio.

Internet Census Records Discussed on 22 February Show

The census is often considered the backbone of American research. Few records are as comprehensive for either the United States or Canada (or Great Britain, for that matter). However, few records are as frustrating as well. While most are published online, accessing them can be a challenge. Then there's the problem of finding a person or family in the census. Major portions of our 22 February show will address these problems. Not only will we have census expert, Kathy Hinckley sharing her secrets, but in our interactive segment, we plan to explore two major FREE census sites. Get your browser ready to explore Census Online and the links it has to records all over the U.S. Then we'll compare it to Census Finder, which also has a awesome collection of links.

In our "Research Tip from the Pros" we'll cover one of the most frustrating problems of census research, finding lost families in large cities. It's amazing what you can do with the family's address! Our software tip will help you capture that information and preserve it easily.

Besides all of that, you won't want to miss our free data site of the week, along with a key "what's new" item that will help your research. Be sure to listen, live, or through the archive!

Kathy Hinckley to Guest on 22 February Show

Family Roots Radio is very pleased to announce that this week's guest is noted professional genealogist, Kathleen Hinckley of Colorado. Kathy has been a major contributor to the field of genealogy for more than 15 years. In addition to being an excellent genealogist, she is also a private investigator who specializes in finding lost family members and estate heirs. In her "spare time" she also serves as the Executive Director of the Association of Professional Genealogists (APG). As the owner of Family Detective, she has helped hundreds of families learn more about their ancestors, and their descendants. She is also the author of two important books in the field of genealogy: Locating Lost Family Members and Friends, and of special interest to our topic; Your Guide to the Federal Census. Her experiences are broad and varied, and we'll have a lively conversation. Be sure to tune in on Thursday, 1 PM Pacific, 4 PM Eastern (or listen to the archive shortly after the show).

More Links from 15 Feb Show

Thanks to all for listening to today's show. In addition to the links posted before the show, we talked about a couple of other sites we wanted to list for you. Matthew Helm mentioned the website We Relate as a very helpful place to search for surnames. We've linked to their search page, so you can experiment.

In our "Tip from the Pros" segment about using the Soundex code as a means of determining alternate spellings for your surname, we also mentioned the Name Thesaurus as a very helpful place to find alternate spellings, and even the spellings that match a Soundex code. They have a slick little program, so enjoy. If you need a refresher on the Soundex numbers, here it is:
1 = B,P,F,V
2 = C,S,G,J,K,Q,X,Z
3 = D,T
4 = L
5 = M,N
6 = R
The letters A,E,I,O,U,Y,H, and W are not coded.

The Salt List records were mentioned in GenWeekly. You can read the article at Genealogy Today.

We also discussed the great organization of sites under each county at Linkpendium. Here's a list of the topics, or subjects, for which they list different webpages:
[USA>State > County]
Projects
Bible Records
Biographies, Oral Histories, Diaries, Memoirs, Genealogies, Correspondence
Cemeteries
Census Records and Indexes
Estate Records
Ethnic
History
Introduction and Guides
Land Records
Libraries, Museums, Archives
Lookups
Mailing Lists and Message Boards
Maps and Gazetteers
Military Records and Histories
Miscellaneous Data
Newspaper Records
Obituaries and Funeral Home Records
Photographs, Postcards, Historical Images
School Records and Histories
Slaves, slave owners, and slavery in general – information
Societies
Surnames
Tax Lists
Transportation and Industry
Vital Records

Episode Two: Podcast Available

If you missed our second episode, you can listen to the archived version, or feel free to download a copy to your desktop or mp3 player.

The quickest way to download is to right click on the "download a copy" link above and select "Save Link As" (Mozilla) or "Save Target As" (Internet Explorer). You will then be given options where on your computer to store the file. Our podcasts are 60 minutes long and average approximately 12mb in size.

The showcase topic of this episode was Surname Genealogy Websites with special guest Matt Helm.

If you use Apple iTunes (available for Mac and Windows) to listen to podcasts, click here to subscribe via iTunes to Family Roots Radio.

Surname Genealogy Websites on 15 February Show

We're getting ramped up for our next show on 15 February and are going to be exploring one of the under-used aspects of the Internet for genealogy: Family and surname websites. There are literally tens of thousands of sites dedicated to genealogical information on one particular surname or a specific family. However, they can be hard to find amidst all the "data" sites out there. Of course we'll discuss Matt Helm's Genealogy Toolbox, but we'll also spend time in our interactive segment looking at Linkpendium, the web's largest list of genealogy sites.

Our professional tip for the show will focus in making sense of all those websites you've dumped into your "favorites" list on your browser. They're easily organized, so you can find that missing site again!

For our free site of the week, we'll explore the controversial ZabaSearch, and the so-called "private" information it has.

Then, since we missed it last week let's see if we have time to Unlock a Subscription Site and extol the virtues of PERSI.

There's not enough time to talk about them all, so this week's bonus sites of surname web listings include, of course, the ever popular Cyndi's List, with it's specific Surname sub-listing. Also consider Surname Finder in your search. You can find other such sites on the Genealogy Sleuth page, under the heading "Name Research."

Remember to tune in, 1 PM Pacific (4 PM Eastern). Podcasts for each episode will be available on Friday morning.

Matt Helm to Guest on 15 February Show

We are excited to have an early Web genealogy pioneer as our guest on Family Roots Radio for the 15 February webcast. Matt Helm began categorizing genealogy websites way back in 1994 and has been a leading figure in the field ever since. His Genealogy Toolbox was one of the first large collections of links and thousands of people have been able to find their ancestors due to his care in developing that list.

Matt and his wife April are also the authors of the best selling Genealogy Online for Dummies, now in it's third edition. In recent years, he's been making all of our research easier by digitizing old documents and posting them on the web. Many of the sources in his HistoryKat collection are not available online anywhere else. In addition, his Genealogy Portal provides a unique index to a diverse number of obscure genealogy sites.

With such an expert on Internet genealogy, you'll certainly want to tune in as we discuss effective ways to search the Internet for ancestors and relatives.

Surname Popularity

In our 8 February show, we answered an email regarding how to determine the popularity of one's surname. Of course, there are many aspects to such a question, but we mentioned a couple of web sites that provide some statistical studies of a surname's frequency in a given population. The most popular of such lists is from the U.S. Census Bureau, which has tabulated the data from the 1990 census. That information is best approached on their Frequently Occurring names page, where both surnames and given names (male and female) are available to be searched. Be sure to review their methodology page to understand the limitations of that data.

Wikipedia has a list of most common surnames for many different countries, drawn from various sources. For the U.S., they used the census bureau's above site. The same census data is used for the tables at MongaBay.com. An interesting site at RoyAshbrook.com apparently uses the Social Security Death Index to tell what rank a surname has in popularity. It does not generate a list of most popular surnames, but rather reveals a name's rank when typed into the box.

However, the frequency of a surname will vary over time. Hence, researchers may also want to use large databases, such as census indexes, to determine the relative frequency of a name in a specific place and time. For example, a database such as the SSDI would reflect the frequency of a surname in the first half of the 20th century better than earlier or later time periods.

As an illustration, consider the surname "Young." In the 1790 U.S. census, this name ranks 13th in frequency. The RoyAsbruck site places it 29th, while the 1990 census lists Young in 28th place. It appears that the addition of more non-British surnames to the U.S. population in the last 200 years has diminished the frequency of Young, and perhaps many other surnames.

One other problem with such lists is that they generally don't combine similar spellings: Young and Younge (44,828 in 1990), and should Younger and Youngers also be combined with Young?

For a different, but related take on surnames in the U.S., see Hamrick Software's surname maps that show the relative distribution of a surname in the U.S. population in 1850, 1880, 1920 and 1990.

Ancestry provides similar maps showing specific numbers of families with any surname in 1840, 1880 and 1920 in their free Family Facts page. For more sites, try searching Google for surname distribution or surname popularity. Have fun!

Episode One: Podcast Available

If you missed our first episode, you can listen to the archived version, or feel free to download a copy to your desktop or mp3 player.

The quickest way to download is to right click on the "download a copy" link above and select "Save Link As" (Mozilla) or "Save Target As" (Internet Explorer). You will then be given options where on your computer to store the file. Our podcasts are 60 minutes long and average approximately 12mb in size.

The showcase topic of this episode was Immigration Sources with special guest John Philip Colletta.

If you use Apple iTunes (available for Mac and Windows) to listen to podcasts, click here to subscribe via iTunes to Family Roots Radio.

Immigration Sources on 8 February Show

One of the great features of an Internet radio show is not just the ability for anyone with a computer to listen, regardless of where they live, nor is it just the opportunity for people to download an MP3 file of the show to listen on their own schedule. Rather, I think a great benefit is the opportunity to make the show truly "interactive."

With Family Roots Radio, we'll be answering email, both on and off air, but even more interactive than that is the ability to walk each and every listener through the web sites we're discussing in a particular show. Each week, we'll post the website links right here, before the show, so that during the show (live or later via streaming audio) you can click on the links and follow along with the discussion. We will even list "bonus" websites here; ones we probably won't have time to discuss, but that pertain to one of the show's topics. If unplanned websites come up during the show, we can add them to this page soon after the show. And, of course, listeners are always invited to post comments about a show right here as well.

For our first show, along with our guest John Colletta, we're going to explore the famous Ellis Island website. You may have used it a few times, but we want to point out a few features you may not be familiar with. Of course, such a discussion also has to touch on Stephen P. Morse's famous "One Step" web page that makes it easier to search this complex data.

In our "What's New" segment, we'll briefly touch on some items at GenWeekly.com.

Our "Free Data Site of the Week" will be the Genealogy Sleuth page.

Whenever you've got questions, whether before, after or even during a show, just email them to korym@familyrootsradio.com. Questions of a general nature may be answered on the show, or here on the Family Roots Radio webpage. For more specific questions, we'll try to respond directly to you within a few days of receiving your question.

Our discussion of fee-based data sites will focus on PERSI, the Periodical Source Index. While you may not have ready access to PERSI, you can read more about it (for free) in Rick Crume's article at Family Tree Magazine.

Some bonus sites for this first show include:
Castle Garden
Immigrant Ship Transcribers Guild
Olive Tree Genealogy Passenger Lists

I hope you enjoy the show! Podcasts for each episode will be available on Friday morning.

John Philip Colletta to Guest on 8 February Show

Greetings, and welcome to Family Roots Radio! We are excited to be launching this new venture, and to bring the knowledge and experience of some of America's best genealogists to the shows listeners.

We are particularly pleased to have John Philip Colletta as our very first guest. I have known Dr. Colletta for at least 15 years and have personally learned much from his books and teachings. He is an outstanding genealogical speaker and educator. In addition to conducting workshops for the National Archives, he is an instructor at two of the nation's premier genealogical institutes: the Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research at Samford University (Birmingham, AL) and the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy.

His book, Only a Few Bones is a wonderful example of an engaging and instructive history of a family tragedy. However, he is probably best known for his work with immigration issues, including his popular book, They Came in Ships, now in a third edition from Ancestry. Since it's one of my favorite topics, and pertinent to virtually every North American genealogist, that will be the main theme of our first show.

So, be sure to tune in to the VoiceAmerica Channel on Thursday, 8 February at 1 PM Pacific Time (4 PM Eastern).

For more information on Dr. Colletta, please visit his website.