Episodes

Have you ever wondered where all of those digitized versions of birth records, census pages, or city directories come from? Well, there is no Genealogy Stork. While quite a few organizations provide opportunities and services, the primary way that records are turned from physical page to scanned image to searchable electronic data is a process called indexing, and the three-step indexing process that FamilySearch provides includes a final step called arbitration. I don't know enough about it, th...

Ancestry's Summer of Pain seems to have ended, but what does Autumn look like? And have they left us in the Winter of our discontent? They're answering their phones again, the screens seem more stable, but their primary new feature, Potential Parents, is a wolf in sheep's clothing for any genealogist who wants to use best evidence and best practices to do their best work. Revel in my wrath as I discuss why this is not a good development, why the re-indexing of the 1870 census was a friendly-look...

Ancestry's Summer of Pain seems to have ended, but what does Autumn look like? And have they left us in the Winter of our discontent? They're answering their phones again, the screens seem more stable, but their primary new feature, Potential Parents, is a wolf in sheep's clothing for any genealogist who wants to use best evidence and best practices to do their best work. Revel in my wrath as I discuss why this is not a good development, why the re-indexing of the 1870 census was a friendly-look...

Ancestry's Summer of Pain seems to have ended, but what does Autumn look like? And have they left us in the Winter of our discontent? They're answering their phones again, the screens seem more stable, but their primary new feature, Potential Parents, is a wolf in sheep's clothing for any genealogist who wants to use best evidence and best practices to do their best work. Revel in my wrath as I discuss why this is not a good development, why the re-indexing of the 1870 census was a friendly-look...

Family ties, a slight genealogical mystery, a discussion of privilege, 19th and 20th-century classism in Midwestern America, and the value of comfort food all converge in this week's episode of The Family Cookbook. And, we welcome our new Food Correspondent, Rick Leonard of An American Genealogy! Rick shares with us the backstory of a family member who wasn't blood but who was central to his family for four generations, and then shares her recipe for a simple, hearty casserole, known to the fami...

Family ties, a slight genealogical mystery, a discussion of privilege, 19th and 20th-century classism in Midwestern America, and the value of comfort food all converge in this week's episode of The Family Cookbook. And, we welcome our new Food Correspondent, Rick Leonard of An American Genealogy! Rick shares with us the backstory of a family member who wasn't blood but who was central to his family for four generations, and then shares her recipe for a simple, hearty casserole, known to the fami...

Family ties, a slight genealogical mystery, a discussion of privilege, 19th and 20th-century classism in Midwestern America, and the value of comfort food all converge in this week's episode of The Family Cookbook. And, we welcome our new Food Correspondent, Rick Leonard of An American Genealogy! Rick shares with us the backstory of a family member who wasn't blood but who was central to his family for four generations, and then shares her recipe for a simple, hearty casserole, known to the fami...

This episode is a special treat, an interview with Joseph McGill about his incredible labor of love, The Slave Dwelling Project. He shares with us his background, his motivations, and what it's really like to encounter children and adults as an educator and historic preservationist in the rarefied yet crucial field of preserving the history of the enslaved in a world that speaks almost exclusively about the plantation owners and enslavers of history. We talk about the places where genealogy and ...

This episode is a special treat, an interview with Joseph McGill about his incredible labor of love, The Slave Dwelling Project. He shares with us his background, his motivations, and what it's really like to encounter children and adults as an educator and historic preservationist in the rarefied yet crucial field of preserving the history of the enslaved in a world that speaks almost exclusively about the plantation owners and enslavers of history. We talk about the places where genealogy and ...

This episode is a special treat, an interview with Joseph McGill about his incredible labor of love, The Slave Dwelling Project. He shares with us his background, his motivations, and what it's really like to encounter children and adults as an educator and historic preservationist in the rarefied yet crucial field of preserving the history of the enslaved in a world that speaks almost exclusively about the plantation owners and enslavers of history. We talk about the places where genealogy and ...

Have you ever looked someone up on one of those reverse-phone-number sites to see who the heck is calling you at 2am? Did you know that those sites, and the apps that go with them, are great for genealogy? In this episode I'll discuss my favorite, BeenVerified, and how I use it to find generations of family members when I'm shrubbing, and when I'm working with someone whose parentage is unclear and who is using DNA for research. Family trees need all the help that they can get; public records ag...

Have you ever looked someone up on one of those reverse-phone-number sites to see who the heck is calling you at 2am? Did you know that those sites, and the apps that go with them, are great for genealogy? In this episode I'll discuss my favorite, BeenVerified, and how I use it to find generations of family members when I'm shrubbing, and when I'm working with someone whose parentage is unclear and who is using DNA for research. Family trees need all the help that they can get; public records ag...

Have you ever looked someone up on one of those reverse-phone-number sites to see who the heck is calling you at 2am? Did you know that those sites, and the apps that go with them, are great for genealogy? In this episode I'll discuss my favorite, BeenVerified, and how I use it to find generations of family members when I'm shrubbing, and when I'm working with someone whose parentage is unclear and who is using DNA for research. Family trees need all the help that they can get; public records ag...

Did you know that family recipes have their own genealogy? I thought I was skimming yet another back-of-the-magazine recipe in a special family cookbook when I Googled Johnny Mazetti, and then one of its key ingredients, Sauce Arturo. It wasn't as simple as I thought. And it made me wonder: did my grandmother pick this recipe up in the Midwest, or did my grandfather's mother pick it up in Panama? A rather big question! I will never find the true answer, but I have solved it to my own satisfactio...

Did you know that family recipes have their own genealogy? I thought I was skimming yet another back-of-the-magazine recipe in a special family cookbook when I Googled Johnny Mazetti, and then one of its key ingredients, Sauce Arturo. It wasn't as simple as I thought. And it made me wonder: did my grandmother pick this recipe up in the Midwest, or did my grandfather's mother pick it up in Panama? A rather big question! I will never find the true answer, but I have solved it to my own satisfactio...

Did you know that family recipes have their own genealogy? I thought I was skimming yet another back-of-the-magazine recipe in a special family cookbook when I Googled Johnny Mazetti, and then one of its key ingredients, Sauce Arturo. It wasn't as simple as I thought. And it made me wonder: did my grandmother pick this recipe up in the Midwest, or did my grandfather's mother pick it up in Panama? A rather big question! I will never find the true answer, but I have solved it to my own satisfactio...

I talk a lot about component parts, or the basic how-to's of handling records, but what about the how-to's of building one person's life in your family tree? Genealogy has become an immediate-gratification online phenomenon, but it's not always that at all. How long should a 21st-century online researcher be expected to wait before work is done on any one person in their tree? This episode takes on that question, and replies with my ongoing battle to complete details about one person - my great-...

I talk a lot about component parts, or the basic how-to's of handling records, but what about the how-to's of building one person's life in your family tree? Genealogy has become an immediate-gratification online phenomenon, but it's not always that at all. How long should a 21st-century online researcher be expected to wait before work is done on any one person in their tree? This episode takes on that question, and replies with my ongoing battle to complete details about one person - my great-...

I talk a lot about component parts, or the basic how-to's of handling records, but what about the how-to's of building one person's life in your family tree? Genealogy has become an immediate-gratification online phenomenon, but it's not always that at all. How long should a 21st-century online researcher be expected to wait before work is done on any one person in their tree? This episode takes on that question, and replies with my ongoing battle to complete details about one person - my great-...

For our inaugural episode of the folkloric and gastronomic aspects of family history, I'm presenting a staple recipe from my family's cookbook. It entered my family with my mother's mother's stepmother, and every generation that has made it has put a unique twist on it since. Ethel "Itey" Garrard Drahos Hinzie, who brought it into the family with her marriage to my great-grandfather in 1935, was born in Indiana in 1886. My grandmother took over the recipe when she married in 1931. She, in turn, ...

For our inaugural episode of the folkloric and gastronomic aspects of family history, I'm presenting a staple recipe from my family's cookbook. It entered my family with my mother's mother's stepmother, and every generation that has made it has put a unique twist on it since. Ethel "Itey" Garrard Drahos Hinzie, who brought it into the family with her marriage to my great-grandfather in 1935, was born in Indiana in 1886. My grandmother took over the recipe when she married in 1931. She, in turn, ...

For our inaugural episode of the folkloric and gastronomic aspects of family history, I'm presenting a staple recipe from my family's cookbook. It entered my family with my mother's mother's stepmother, and every generation that has made it has put a unique twist on it since. Ethel "Itey" Garrard Drahos Hinzie, who brought it into the family with her marriage to my great-grandfather in 1935, was born in Indiana in 1886. My grandmother took over the recipe when she married in 1931. She, in turn, ...

Have you ever gotten frustrated that the records you REALLY need from a US city or state across the country (or world), one you'll NEVER travel to, hasn't released their vital records indexes online? Brooke Schreier Ganz felt that way about New York (as so many have) and she decided to do something about it. Listen to my interview with her as she explains her response to the problem: she created a FREE service (and two websites) called Reclaim the Records, a tax-exempt, charitable organization w...

Have you ever gotten frustrated that the records you REALLY need from a US city or state across the country (or world), one you'll NEVER travel to, hasn't released their vital records indexes online? Brooke Schreier Ganz felt that way about New York (as so many have) and she decided to do something about it. Listen to my interview with her as she explains her response to the problem: she created a FREE service (and two websites) called Reclaim the Records, a tax-exempt, charitable organization w...