Links from 15 March Show

We had a great show with Myra Gormley on March 15. Her insights into RootsWeb will make us all more successful as we continue to mine that great site for more data on our ancestors. Among other things, she mentioned some instructional guides to help researchers learn more. They are posted at RootsWeb as their "Guide to Tracing Family Trees." With 31 brief guides, you'll be certain to learn new things about your family history search.

We also discussed a couple of other important websites. At NewEnglandAncestors.org, they have a few free websites for St. Patrick's Day. Our news item featured a great collection of passenger lists from England at AncestorsOnBoard.com. Meanwhile our free data site was the new site, Immigrant Servants, with it's growing list of colonial immigrants. Remember, that, and most of our free data sites are all listed on the Genealogy Sleuth page; maybe you'll want to make that your own homepage! Stay tuned for more great sites and research tips.

RootsWeb on 15 March Show

RootsWeb is rightly considered one of the most important and helpful websites for family historians. With all of the FREE data on the site, we all use it regularly, but there is much more to this site than most of us realize! It is a large and deep site with an estimated billion names or more on its thousands of pages. However, it's not easy to get the most out of this wonderful collection. Join our guest Myra Gormley as we explore this complex site, and help you find even more information there about your ancestors. Be sure to be logged onto RootsWeb as we explore it further in our interactive website segment.

Of course, that's not all of the show. Our question of the week deals with a thorny immigration issue, while the weekly news item reveals another subscription site offering FREE data for the next few days, as well as a new site with 30 million passengers. Our free data site of the week reveals an unhearlded site with information on colonial immigrants you'll want to check out.

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.