The Genealogy Guys Podcast #431

Summary

The Genealogy Guys Podcast #431 — Detailed Summary

Date: November 27, 2024
Hosts: Drew Smith (B) & George G. Morgan (A)
Podcast Description:
A lively, weekly chat about genealogy news, technology, tips, and listener stories, with a focus on staying connected to family history and encouraging excitement for new tools, discoveries, and community milestones.

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Episode Overview

This episode offers a bustling roundup of updates from genealogy companies (MyHeritage, Ancestry, VividPix, FamilySearch), answers to listener questions about resources and tricky research scenarios, and a review of a popular genealogy mystery book. The hosts weave in stories, humor, and poignant moments while highlighting both technical and deeply personal aspects of family history research.

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News & Major Announcements

MyHeritage: “Live Memory” AI Photo Animation

[03:20 - 09:39]

• George introduces MyHeritage's new "Live Memory" feature, an AI-driven tool that animates entire photographs into hyper-realistic short videos, exclusively via the MyHeritage mobile app.
• Notable genealogy bloggers had emotional reactions to the feature:
  • Maureen Taylor (‘the photo detective’):
    “A stunning new development in family history storytelling. Seeing my ancestors move was surreal.” [08:15]
  • Roberta Estes (DNAeXplained):
    “It’s really powerful. I need a whole box of Kleenex now.” [08:29]
  • James Tanner (Genealogy’s Star):
    “Live Memory brings home the real emotion of genealogy and creates a stronger connection to your ancestors.” [08:40]
• Free during the launch period; a fee will be charged after.

Ancestry & National Archives: Korean War Draft Cards

[09:39 - 11:02]

• Drew reports Ancestry has started a five-year project to digitize, index, and publish millions of records from the U.S. National Archives.
• First release: U.S. Korean War Era Draft Cards (1948-1959) — over 10 million records, 20 million images, for men aged 18–25.

VividPix: Partnership with Alzheimer’s Association

[11:02 - 13:53]

• George praises VividPix’s photograph enhancement software and announces that 5% of all VividPix sales from Nov 1–Dec 3, 2024 (“Giving Tuesday”) will be donated to the Alzheimer’s Association.
• VividPix promotes using photos to stimulate memory and conversation in those affected by Alzheimer’s disease.

FamilySearch: 130th Anniversary

[14:09 - 17:05]

• Drew commemorates the founding of the Genealogical Society of Utah (now FamilySearch International) on Nov 13, 1894.
• Notable achievements:
  • 2.4 million rolls of microfilm digitized.
  • AI now used to read handwriting on records.
  • RootsTech 2024: Nearly 5 million online attendees, 350 million family connections made.
  • Over 1.5 billion people in the collaborative global family tree.
  • Over 6,000 FamilySearch Centers worldwide.

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Listener Emails: Insights & Tips

[20:22] MyHeritage User Guides

Listener: Julie

• Julie searches for a comprehensive book or guide for using MyHeritage.
  • Drew: No official book found, but he covers basics in his own recent book.
  • George: Contacted MyHeritage’s Daniel Horowitz for guidance; recommends searching YouTube for video tutorials, though finds detailed instruction lacking so far.

[22:58] Military Records Corrections & Tips

Clarifying Repositories

Listener: Peggy

• Corrects previous episode: National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) for military records is in St. Louis (not Kansas City).
• NPRC holds records from 1898 onwards; earlier records (War of 1812, Civil War, etc.) at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.
• Some records, especially Army and Army Air Corps, were lost in the 1973 fire, but partial/damaged files may still be available.

Alternative Military Research Tips

Listener: Ann

• Suggests searching local newspapers for service details, training camps, deployment, and local American Legion posts or libraries/historical societies for scrapbooks and articles.
  • Quote: “Local newspapers from those localities may provide some additional information.” [28:18]

[30:25] Ireland Research Trips

Listener: Judy

• Asks about Irish genealogy research trips after Donna Moody retired from running her Dublin/Belfast trips.
  • Drew: Confirms these trips are no longer offered, doesn't know of new options, but invites listeners to send information about alternatives.

[33:17] Natural Disasters & Genealogy

Listener: Kevin

• Shares how his family narrowly survived the 1889 Johnstown Flood, which could have eliminated his branch if things had gone differently.
  • Quote: “I do not know the story of how they escaped… but I’m grateful they did—otherwise I would never know if they didn’t.” [34:09]

[35:20] Podcasts Sharing Family Stories

Listener: Brian

• Seeks genealogy podcasts focusing on personal stories from everyday people.
  • Drew & George: Suggest searching for location/family-focused podcasts or those run by individuals (e.g., Mike Scazzari on Italian heritage), but note most general podcasts focus on technique or professional guests.

[37:41] German Immigration & Records

Listener: Mike from Minnesota

• Explains the challenge of finding his ancestor’s pre-1850 German-to-America ship manifest.

• Context: Left in 1847 (pre-dates many surviving records), research deduced emigration route via Rotterdam by piecing together naturalization, pension records.

• Discusses Klein Deutschland (“Little Germany”) in NYC and effects of the General Slocum maritime disaster (1904).

  • George’s history note:
    “The PS General Slocum disaster… took the lives of over 955 people and essentially ended Klein Deutschland.” [41:37]

[44:31] Annulments, Divorces & Ancestral Lies

Listener: Michael

• Reminds researchers that formal divorce/annulment records may not exist due to couples remarrying without dissolutions, and lying on marriage applications was common.
• Drew: Ancestors regularly misstated ages, names, and statuses—censuses often list “widow” to avoid stigma.
  • George: Shares that his own grandmother lied about her age across several census years.

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Book Review: The Hollywood Strangler by Nathan Dylan Goodwin

[49:31 - 56:07]

Reviewer: Drew

• Third in the Venator cold case series; focuses on investigative genetic genealogy by a Salt Lake City firm.
• Realistic depiction of cold case DNA analysis, reference to high-profile genetic genealogists.
• “A wonderful book that goes into quite a lot of detail over the processing of DNA and ancestry, and how the protagonists solve crimes using DNA matches.” [50:12]
• A strong recommendation for anyone interested in the intersection of genealogy and crime fiction.

Writing Workshops

• Drew participated in Nathan Dylan Goodwin’s pilot fiction writing course, learning the structure of mystery fiction with a genealogy component.
  • “How do you write a mystery story with a genealogy component to it? How do you do the characters, the settings, the dialogue…” [53:34]
• Course may be offered again—watch for announcements if interested.

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Notable Quotes

• “If you can take a photograph that adds to the context—and animate it—it is just amazing… it’s a tremendous, tremendous bonus.”
  — George on Live Memory [09:08]

• “FamilySearch has digitized 2.4 million rolls of microfilm from more than 200 countries… Free access to information for more than 11 billion ancestors.”
  — Drew [15:02]

• “I thoroughly enjoy doing [family history]… Luckily, I have family members in the past that took care of keeping track of things, and I can trace each branch back fully five generations.”
  — Listener Kevin [34:13]

• "It's not like the modern world where everybody's got access to computers... Many of our ancestors were not entirely honest when they filled out documentation."
  — Drew [45:00]

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Product/Organization Notes & Tips

• MyHeritage Live Memory: Only available via their mobile app for now. Free at launch; charges after introductory period.
• Ancestry Military Records: Now available for Korean War era; more to come in multi-year digitization.
• VividPix Donations: 5% of sales through Giving Tuesday benefit Alzheimer’s Association.
• FamilySearch: Enormous, global free resource—especially valuable for collaborative research and unique, digitized microfilm content.
• RootsMagic & VividPix Sales: Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales noted—but details only in ads (not recapped here per guidelines).

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Research Tips Recap

• Don’t overlook local resources: newspapers, American Legion posts, libraries, and courthouses may hold unique records (service, marriage, divorce) or personal stories.
• For German-American migration pre-1850, consider alternative sources: naturalization papers, pension records, and route deduction in absence of manifests.
• Expect errors, omissions, and outright fabrications in official records—always triangulate evidence.
• Contextual events (e.g., disasters like the Johnstown Flood, General Slocum) dramatically shaped genealogies; factor them into your search.

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Closing Thoughts

• The hosts encourage listeners to talk with family over the holidays:
  “Be sure to ask questions and see what you can learn about their past and your family’s past. You never can tell where that next tidbit of a clue to solve your brick wall is going to come from.” — George [58:12]
• Send genealogy stories, questions, or podcast suggestions to [e-mail].

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For more info, products, and show notes, visit The Genealogy Guys website or follow on social media.

Transcript

[A]

Foreign.

[B]

Welcome to episode 431 of the Genealogy Guides Podcast, the longest running genealogy podcast on the planet. I'm your host Drew Smith and together with co host George G. Morgan, we cover news, tips and solutions for the genealogist community. In this episode, we bring you the Latest news from MyHeritage and Ancestry, vivid pics and familysearch. We share listener email about podcasts related to family history stories, user guides for myheritage, military records, research trips to Ireland, natural disasters, German immigration and annulments. We also include a book review for a recent genealogy mystery book. The Genealogy Guys podcast is sponsored by MyHeritage, Roots Magic and VividPix. And now on with the show. Welcome to another episode of the Genealogy Guys Podcast. I'm Drew Smith and I am joined as always by my co host, George G. Morgan. George, how are you doing today?

[A]

I'm doing terrific. What about yourself, Drew?

[B]

I'm doing great. Looking forward for, for those of our listeners who are who celebrate Thanksgiving mostly in the United States. We are, we are looking forward to that too. George, what, what are you looking forward to for this week?

[A]

Well, we're being a little unconventional again here and rather than having turkey and dressing and cranberry sauce and, and can mashed potatoes.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And, and all that quote unquote traditional stuff, we are departing again and we're putting together just a great spread in terms of a grand shard cutery board. Thank you. I have a word.

[B]

It's a fancy French term, right. Maybe I don't know what it is, but it is going to be fun. Lots of meats, cheeses, crackers and whatever else we have, we will have with that. So.

[A]

And little smokies and.

[B]

In a little mini crock pot. And it will last us a few days. Like any. There's enough food. It will definitely last us a few days. So. So we are looking forward to that. But we want to make sure because we, we're as most of you know, it's particularly again here in the United States, there's a lot of buying that goes on for the holidays right after Thanksgiving, what we call Black Friday. So I want y' all who are listening to pay special attention to the commercials in this episode because we will have a number of Black Friday specials you need to listen to if you would like to take advantage of those. So we won't cover them in the regular part, but they will be in the ads. So listen to the ads. But George, we're going to start with something that's been buzzing around the genealogy community. Right. There's something MyHeritage did.

[A]

Yeah. If you'll let me tell it.

[B]

Okay, you tell it, George. You tell it.

[A]

I love it. And there is indeed a lot of buzz here. MyHeritage, as you all know, is innovative in terms of. Of technology and the addition of new records. And they just. They're just like the Energizer Bunny. They just are all over the place. But last year, they introduced a product online that. That allowed you to animate the faces of people in photographs. Well, they've gone one step farther here, and they have introduced a product called Live Memory, and it's trademarked. And let me just kind of read a few things here for you. Imagine that iconic photo of your mother as a young dancer, or you and your siblings playing together on the beach as children. Wouldn't it be amazing to revisit those moments and relive them as if the scenes were playing out right in front of you? Well, MyHeritage has news. Now you can. Their new feature, Live Memory, is available exclusively on the MyHeritage mobile app. Not on the. Not on the mainframe at this point. But what you do is you go to your. Your phone and download your. Your current newest addition of the MyHeritage app to your iPhone or. Or your Android. And then what you do is you go through. You. You will find Live Memory suggested to you the first time you do that. Or you can simply go to photos, and then you'll find Live Memory listed at the bottom. You pro. You provide access to the. To the photographs that you have, and they can. They can then be accessed by the MyHeritage app on your phone. And then you go into the Live Memory app and you start working with that. You select a photo and animate a single face in a photo and just begin to animate the entire photo, this time to bring the whole scene to life in a very highly realistic way. And the variety is really, really unlimited. Daniel Horowitz announced this to. To the people in his group, myheritage friend and those of us who were part of that group, we get early access to the announcements. Well, he did a meeting the other night and gave us all access to these things. And going into Live Memory, downloading the update of the MyHeritage app and going through the. Through the process, people have been downloading these. These photos and animating them, and then it sends the. The video to you, and then you can. You can share it anywhere you like. But I'll tell you, the genealogy Community is really abuzz with this. And genealogists, some genealogists have, have stated that when they saw some of these photos animated that they cried. You know, wedding photographs, getting together with, with siblings, playing with, with the family pet or all sorts of different things. So leading family history bloggers are raving about live memory. And there Maureen Taylor, who you would know as the photo detective, she called Live memory, quote, a stunning new development in family history storytelling. Seeing my ancestors move was surreal, unquote. And Roberta Estes from DNX explain, she actually said it's really powerful. I need a whole box of Kleenex now. And it and James Tanner, the author of Genealogy Star blog, said that life memory brings home the real emotion of, of genealogy and creates a stronger connection to your ancestors. And you've heard me talk about context, context, context. If you can take a photograph that adds to the context and animate it and see the, the people in, in that photograph suddenly become animate, it is just amazing. It's, it's a tremendous, tremendous bone. So go to the MyHeritage website, go to, go to the, the top and click on photo and then select in the drop down menu the Memory Live Memory app and, and get started. It's free for the time being, but after a while, after the introduction period, there will be a charge for it. But I think you'll be very impressed with what you see, Drew.

[B]

Okay, Ancestry made a big announcement at the beginning of November which we now want to share with you. This relates to an ongoing project. This is a, actually a five year project. Ancestry has committed to digitize, index and publish tens of millions of national archives. That's the U.S. national Archives records over the next five years. They've started with the first release from U.S. korean War era draft cards. That's 1948 to 1959. So that's over 10 million records, 20 million images that have been digitized and indexed. And these are men that were between the ages of 18 and 25. They were eligible to be drafted for 21 to 24 months of military service during this period. So we'll set, we'll put a, a link in the show notes as to where you can learn a bit more about that. But that again is just the first of what Ancestry is doing with the National Archives and Records Administration records relating to these military records. So very, very exciting news there. George, I think you've got something relating to Vivid Picks.

[A]

I do, I do. Vivid Picks, as everyone who listened to ST should know, is the premier piece of software available for working with and enhancing and making more legible the photographs and documents that, that you have images of. And so what you're going to find is that that vividpix, which has it. IT software out there, it's. It's a tremendous piece of software. I've been using it for several years. And then recently they. They announced their memory station and the fact that their memory station works with. With almost every type of scanner. So what they have done here, however, is they have just announced that they are very involved, of course, with memory awareness and Alzheimer's awareness. And so what they have done is they have announced that from November 1st all the way through, quote, unquote, giving Tuesday on December 3rd, 5% of all vivid Pics sales will be donated to the Alzheimer's Association. And the idea is that Vivid Pics, using photographs and other images that you can share those with with people who have degenerative memory disease and, and Alzheimer's, you can share photographs and spark them to reach back and share the stories associated with those. And that's amazing research. It's amazing work and I'm very proud that we're associated with vividpix for all of all that they've done with their software, with their Memory station, and, and now with their commitment financially to the Alzheimer's Foundation.

[B]

George, would you repeat that range of dates again as to when that will be?

[A]

And if you don't mind, it began November 1st.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

And it goes through Giving Tuesday on November 3rd, 2024.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

And that's 5.5% of all vivid Pics sales. And. Okay, so share that news.

[B]

Right. Speaking of dates, George, any idea the significance of the date November 13, 1894.

[A]

My grandparents were dating.

[B]

Well, I. That's probably not the biggest impact on the genealogical community as a whole.

[A]

It is.

[B]

I'm you. Maybe to you. Okay. But let's talk about how November 13, 1894, which was just now, as we record this, just over 130 years ago. This is the founding date of the Genealogical Society of Utah, which became Family Search international. And so 130 years. So we're having a family search is celebrating. We will celebrate with them on that. But a few milestones on what FamilySearch has certainly done over the last several years, which is quite impressive. They digitized 2.4 million rolls of microfilm that was in 2021 records from more than 200 countries and principalities and put them online through a new image viewer, which means there is free access to information for more than 11 billion ancestors. They've started using, they started using AI to read handwriting from these digital copies. So because there's more stuff than can be handled by volunteers, by human volunteers, but volunteers can still of course go to the familysearch.org website and click on get involved and help out to improve what the artificial intelligence has done. RootsTech, of course has not only it was. Has been going on for a number of years now, but they started during the global pandemic. They started offering free online access to classes so that millions of people around the world could access. And the one from this past year, 2024 had nearly 5 million online attendees and people made over 350 million connections. Family connections. Yeah, the, I know the, the records, the, the family tree, the collaborative family tree that continues to improve over time. 1.5 billion people in the collaborative tree. There are more than 6,000 family search centers around the world where people can get free help. And so, you know, there's just so, so, so much. So you should go to familysearch.org and just see everything that's there. You know, we talk about this in almost every episode, but again, 130 years worth of stuff that, that has been done by FamilySearch.

[A]

And when you think about literally the billions of records that they have available online for free to access that you can spend a huge amount of time doing your research and collaborating with other people, sharing information. So don't overlook FamilySearch as one of your primary research tools for sure.

[B]

All right, George, we're going to stop. We're going to take our first commercial break before we. And just a reminder, please listen to the ads because some of those ads are, well, all the ads are going to have some time sensitive information. If you want to take advantage of what is being offered by our sponsors, then please listen to them carefully because those sales will not last forever. And if you will, yes, listen to our sponsors and patronize our sponsors. We appreciate that. And after we come back, we will get to some listener email and later in the podcast, a book review. So stay with us. Act fast to take advantage of the latest sale by MyHeritage. They've done it again. MyHeritage has slashed the price of on MyHeritage DNA lower than ever before. Don't miss this chance to Explore your origins. At 67% off MyHeritage DNA makes a meaningful holiday gift. And at a price like this, you can get one for everyone on your list. Discover your origins from across 2,114 geographic regions. Find new relatives through DNA matches. This is the leading DNA kit in Europe, the best for users with European ancestors. And this is the perfect complement for for your family history research. Enjoy free shipping on orders of two or more kits, but this offer expires November 29, 2024 at midnight. Go to MyHeritage.com and click the Order now link at the top of the page. Black Friday is almost here and RootsMagic hasn't forgotten. Are you looking for a gift that will really bring the family together? Then give the gift of software that unites families. Save up to 50% on RootsMagic software, including Personal Historian 3, Family Atlas and New RootsMagic 10 through Monday, December 2, 2024. Use the code Friday2024. That's F R I D A Y 2024 to receive your discount. There is no limit on the number of discounted copies you can buy during this limited time offer. That means only $24.95 for a new RootsMagic 10 license, only $19.95 for Personal Historian 3, and only $19.95 for Family Atlas. But don't delay. You have until Monday, December 2nd to use code Friday 2024 to receive these discounts. Welcome back. You're listening to the Genealogy Guys Podcast. George, I think I might have a question about a book here, if I may. Right. Am I first? I think I'm first.

[A]

First.

[B]

All right. Julie has written us to say she's up to episode 406. She started in the beginning a couple of months ago. She was getting radiation treatment for breast cancer, so that's when she started listening. But she wonders if anyone has done a book about my heritage. She's been trying to figure out how to use it better, but she wonders, anybody done a book? Because there are people have done books for ancestry and for family Search. She says she loves the podcast. She's become better with her genealogy that she's been working on since 1982. So yeah, that's 10 years longer than I have, Julie. So that's a long time. Now. The answer to your question, Julie, is not that I know of. I have not heard about a myheritage book.

[A]

George, I just shot an email. Just before we began recording this podcast, I shot an email to our friend Daniel horowitz at @myheritage to ask him if he's aware of any user guide for MyHeritage or any extensive training videos. And so I'll wait to hear something back from him.

[B]

Right.

[A]

I did go into YouTube and did a search for MyHeritage and you can do the same thing too. And you'll, you'll see video announcements of, of a variety of things, including the, the live memory or memory.

[B]

Live and live memory.

[A]

Yeah, live memory and. But I'm looking for, for detailed point by point instructions and I didn't find them, but we'll see what Daniel comes back with.

[B]

Sure. And let me also mention that the book I wrote last year that came out in early 2023, I do discuss all of the major online repositories, so I discuss Ancestry, family, search myheritage, and find my past. And I do cover a few pages for each one as to, you know, using them and what's involved with using them. So you might take a look at that. But yeah, if we learn anything, hear anything from Daniel or anyone else about a book, well, we'll, y' all will be some of the first to know. We'll tell you.

[A]

Yeah, absolutely.

[B]

All right, George, I think you're up next with something.

[A]

Yeah, I've got a couple of things here. Have to announce them. I've got two emails here. The first from Peggy and her subject here is military records in your latest podcast. And she took me to task and I appreciate that. She said, glad you guys are back and safe down after the hurricanes. We fared well here in Anna Marie island, but many did not. So sad. After listening to your latest podcast, I've been a listener for years. I wanted to share a few updates for you on your latest podcast for the answer you provided on military records. I mentioned in that podcast that the National Personnel Records center is the source for, for many, many types of military service records. And I said that the records were in Kansas City. I'm bad. They are in St. Louis. And I knew that as well as I know my own name.

[B]

Who are you again, George?

[A]

Yeah, whatever.

[B]

Yeah, but.

[A]

And then Peggy goes on to expand and say that the National Personnel Record center in Kansas City, they only hold records for conflicts including.

[B]

You mean St. Louis?

[A]

Yes, St. Louis.

[B]

Yeah, it's. You aren't in Kansas anymore, George.

[A]

Follow the yellow podcast. Yes, yes, but okay, they only hold records for conflicts including and after the Spanish American War in April 1998 and not before and not the Revolutionary War, the Civil War and so forth.

[B]

All War of 1812. Yeah.

[A]

Now those 1812, those are all with the National Archives in Washington. I'll also add, in case you didn't know, the United States was involved, involved in the Boxer Rebellion in China back around the time that Spanish American War happened. And those records, those service records, are also at the NPRC in St. Louis. The backup time to to get your records request fulfilled is no longer how extreme it was during the pandemic, but it's all they do have records for Vietnam and through the present. And that's, that's not necessarily true, I don't think, Peggy. I think the Vietnam records are still with the Department of Defense. They may have acceded them, but I haven't seen anything to that effect. And it said the writer of an inquiry will likely have trouble getting records if their ancestor was in the army or Army Air Corps, the precursor to the Air Force, as those were pretty much totally lost in the fire in 1973. And that's true. However, if you make a request for records that were damaged or destroyed, whatever did survive, the National Personnel Record center personnel will actually go into the the damaged records and they've been trying to preserve those for years and they will come up with a digitized copy for you of whatever they have. And that may be, that may be a great start. Remember, too, that when we're talking about military records that from the first World War on, when people were discharged from the military, they were urged to take their discharge record and take them to the county courthouse where they lived and file them or file copies of them there so that if something happened to the copy you had, you always had a place to go for those. And remember that those honorable discharge records entitled you to educational programs, home mortgage loans, medical benefits, and even more. So keep that in mind. So thank you, Peggy, for trying to keep me honest. Second, I have another email and this is from Ann and she says happy to hear that you survived the hurricanes with minimal damage and disruption. I wanted to provide some additional suggestions with regards to searching for info about World War II service records. I have not had good luck with Nara and have only been able to get very limited records there. I was searching for info about one of my maternal uncles who died when I was a child. I had better luck getting info about his service from local newspapers, which reported on local men who had been drafted, where they were undergoing basic training, where the units may have been assign and any deployment. Now, obviously some of those were were top secret but and would not have been disclosed in newspaper articles. But, but that is a a place to go. And says my dad, who also served, was from a small town near Pine Camp, now Fort Drum in upstate New York. I have his service records so I've never needed to research them. However, there are many articles about the various units training at Pine Camp and some of the men stationed there in the local newspapers. In this case primarily Lewis county and Jefferson county newspapers. So if you knew, if you know either the unit or or where someone received their basic training, local newspapers from those localities may provide some additional information. Another option might be the local American Legion post where her grandfather lived. If he was involved with the Legion, they might have some info about his service. And a local library or historical society might have World War II era scrapbook or other materials about local boys who went off to war. And good luck. Thank you, Anne. Appreciate all that. Drew.

[B]

Yeah. So Judy from Canada writes us to say I love your podcast. It started with your older ones and enjoying working my way through them. I was, I was very interested in Donna Moody's course that Drew attended in Dublin slash Belfast. I understand that, however, that she does not do it anymore. That is correct, Judy. In fact, yes. Her last one, her, her research trip was October of 2023 and when I found out about it about, I don't know, a year beforehand, she had already said that would be her last. So I made sure to be on it since I knew I'd be retired by October 2023. I should add also that she took she actually had two different groups of people, although there was some overlap between the two groups. There was a group of people that went to Dublin for a week and then another group that had some of the same people but also different people that went to Belfast for a week. I only my brother and I only went on the Dublin trip because we were only researching our County Leash ancestors and we decided to skip our Smiths and Riley's from County Cabin, which if I was researching them, I'd want to go on the Belfast trip. But anyway, yeah, Don is not doing those anymore. Judy says she has a James Murphy From Dublin, born 1794 at Her Bennett grandfather who was born in County Down, Belfast. So I'm very interested in both locations. We have been to Ireland, but as I'm not familiar with the resources there, it can be very time consuming to find anything. Do you know of anyone else who does this trip or would one of you consider doing it? Best wishes and thank you for all you do for the genealogy community. Judy, thank you, but neither George nor I would consider doing it. We are not Irish experts as Donna Moody is and there are several other experts out there. But when Judy asked, do I know of anyone else who does this trip, meaning a trip like it, I do not know myself. Now with all of our listeners, someone may know that someone is advertising or doing or continuing to do research trips to Ireland. And if you do, email us to genealogyguysmail.com so we can bring it up on one of the next episodes and let people know what out what's out there, because that's a very popular place to do research and there may be someone who's taken over or not so much taken over, but is also doing research trips. So sorry with the kind of bad news, Judy, but you know, that's, that's we will share what we learn, particularly from our listeners on that topic. So thank you. All right, George, what we got next?

[A]

Okay, I have an email from Kevin and Kevin says I found your podcast months ago when I'm just getting around to listening to it. I just started your most recent episode and and hearing you talk about the hurricanes and other natural disaster events to take into consider while researching your family history prompted me to email you about a near miss that would have wiped out a whole branch of my family, thus altering the future from that point on. My paternal great grandfather Nicholas Rosenbaum was born in Johnstown, Pennsylvania on June 3, 1889. If that sounds familiar. Johnstown was the victim three days after in the Great Johnstown flood. And you can certainly go to Wikipedia and other places on on the Internet to learn more about the the Great Johnstown swat. I do not know the story of how they escaped the largest disaster in the nation at that time, but I'm grateful they did, otherwise I would never know if they didn't. Anyway, just wanted to share that with you. I'm a little more than a novice when it comes to my research, but it is one thing I thoroughly enjoy doing. Luckily, I have had family members in the past that took care of keeping track of things, and I can trace each branch back fully five generations, nearly six for a few members. So I look forward to listening to you guys in the future. I learn a lot. Kevin Appreciate hearing that.

[B]

So a couple more items here, George. One is from Brian who says, do you know of a genealogy podcast which shares people's stories of family history research? Last month the Los Angeles Daily News and the East Bay Times published a story about what I found out about my grandfather. And then there's a link. Brian, I don't know of a genealogy podcast that really shares general people's stories. Certainly on this podcast we we discuss answers to brick wall questions and things of that nature when we can or if someone's made a breakthrough, how they made it. I but again, many of the genealogy podcasts out there are focused on particular techniques or particular sets of records, often involving a number of one or more professional genealogists who are either guests or co hosts. And so again, if our listeners know of one where the episodes are focused on some family history story, let us know. We will share that with our listeners. George, any comments on that or.

[A]

Yeah, well, I, I know that there are some genealogists who, who take their research into the podcast land and, and actually recorded podcasts about their particular family. Mike Scazzari, an old friend of ours, has done that for his Italian family.

[B]

Right.

[A]

And that's one of them. There also are some podcasters who are involved in historical research, in particular in perhaps a particular town or city or, or county. And you might look for, for the Words podcast and the name of the place or the county and do a search on that and see what you come up with. But as far as a general podcast for, for sharing family stories, I don't really know a lot of those.

[B]

Right. Yeah, I can't say I do either. George, I've got one more that I can share. I don't think you have any more at this point, right?

[A]

Yes, I do. Yes.

[B]

Oh, you do?

[A]

Yes. Oh, I'm sorry.

[B]

Go ahead.

[A]

Yes, I have an email here from Mike in Minnesota who's writing about immigration. And in our episode 429, he says, hello, gentlemen, I was listening to your podcast last night and you were talking about immigration and the stories behind it. This really struck a chord with me. One thing I've wanted to find for all my ancestors who immigrated to United to America are the, he says, five W's. Could that be W5s?

[B]

I guess. Unless it's who, what, when, where, and why.

[A]

Okay, maybe I have one ancestor who's who seems to always miss the cutoff dates when it comes to this. My ancestor left Germany in 1847. He shows up in Friedrich Mueller's works on German immigration, and he was listed in Philby's Immigration Books series. Through the 30 years that I've been researching, I've been able to deduce that he left with other single men from his area in northern Westphalia and went via Rotterdam to New York City. This came from his naturalization and pension records. I've never been able to find the ship manifest. This is my number one want the Germans to America series. Those great books starts in 1850, and he says his ancestor came in 1847. I've looked through the New York City passenger list at FamilySearch and could not find them. Do you think it doesn't exist. Not sure, he says of those ancestors, I have found I always look up the ship in the newspapers and I found some pretty interesting tidbits about the voyages that way. For example, one mentioned how it had passed a glacier and on one of them the crew set fire to it after the vessel made it here because they weren't paid what they should have been. Oh. Oh, interesting. Anyway, my ancestor that I'm wanting to find the ship list for left Germany because of a combination of primogeniture laws. At the time he had an older brother and also that potato famine which didn't just affect Ireland. With no land and no trade, he wasn't an attractive mate. So without being able to ask him, that's what I conclude. Lastly, you mentioned too about the German population of New York City, another topic that I love. Klein Deutschland in Manhattan was at one time the third largest German speaking city in the world. This is behind Berlin and Vienna. It all essentially went away after the General Slocum disaster which killed over a thousand of the more prominent Germans. Well, I don't know about that, Mike, but I, I did a little research on the PS General Slocum S L O C U M. The PS in front of it stands for paddle steamer.

[B]

Ah.

[A]

And so this thing was, was built in the. In about 1881 and it had, it had problems over the years. But on June 15th, 1904, a German group had chartered the ship to take them to an island where they were going to have an annual picnic. Unfortunately for them, a fire broke out on board. And this was on June 15, 1904. And it was the largest maritime exact episode in American history until eight years later when the Titanic sank.

[B]

Right.

[A]

But the official records showed that there were a total of 1358 people total on board. 955 of them died, 175 were injured and 228 were uninjured and survived. But as you, as you said, Mike, there's a lot of history putting the, putting the area of the German community into context is powerful and historical events like this are, are, are very interesting to add to your perspective. What do you think, Durham?

[B]

Oh, I know. I mean those, the history events that we don't know as much history about. That's one reason I listened to the podcast Lore L O R E. It covers both real events, real historical events as well as it has a sort of a. Another thing called lore legends where they just discuss some stories that often are just ghost stories or things that don't really have a Lot of good, you know, support for the in documentation. So they're still entertaining. But the fact that they cover a lot of history of all kinds going back hundreds and hundreds of years, as well as more recent, there are things in it from the 20th century and, and maybe even into this century. I. It's just something I would recommend to anybody and they've got lots of episodes out there to list to. So I encourage you to listen to Aaron Menke's Lore L O R E. George, we have one last thing here from Michael who enjoys listening to our shows. Michael says this is about annulments, divorces and lies.

[A]

He.

[B]

Michael says, I listened to Your episode number 4:30 podcast over the weekend. He sent this to us about two weeks ago and he wanted to comment on the user question about annulments and the lack of divorce records. Something that wasn't mentioned is it's possible to couple separated and the partners remarried without any formal dissolution. I have seen plenty of people in my tree lie on their second or third marriage application about past marriages, either omitting them in altogether or quoting a divorce that didn't actually happen. This is especially easy if one or both of the ex partners has moved away and it's not as if the county clerk was going to fact check the application. Good point, Michael. It's not like the modern world where everybody's got access to computers and can see if there is was a divorce or other things that people can look up. And so that's, that's a good point. And so, you know, we, we probably should say this a little more often. Not to, not to be insulting, but I'm sorry, but many of our ancestors were not entirely honest when they filled out documentation. They misrepresented names, they misrepresented their ages, either becoming younger or older, and certainly they misrepresented their marital status. So just be aware of that, that that may have happened in your own family in a number of cases. George.

[A]

You're absolutely right, Drew. My paternal grandmother lied about her age on the censuses and from 1900 where she had been recently widowed, all the way up through 1950. When she died in 1966, she was a month shy of her 94th birthday. Yet if you, if you calculated all the lies she told to sense numerators, you, you would have thought she was about 62. Yeah, and, and, and remember too that, that there were stigmas placed in society on divorced people.

[B]

Oh yeah.

[A]

And that divorces weren't, weren't normally published and spread around and talked about, but yeah. You never can tell. And separations where people separated, sometimes they never saw each other again. Sometimes it took a few years and they re. And they got back together again.

[B]

Right. Yeah. I mean, I was going to say just, just realize that being listed in a and again, I think particularly for women, but in a census, as she might say she's widowed when she's really divorced. And that was just again, relating to that stigma and so forth. Or just George. George, I think we're gonna stop and take our second commercial break. And when we come back, I'm gonna tell you a little bit about a book I just finished reading and maybe even about a book, another book that's in the works. So stay with us from now until giving Tuesday. Vividpix is discounting their most popular products. You can purchase them for yourself or as a gift. For example, you can purchase the Photo Reminiscence Therapy, Education and Memory Station software bundle for only 99.99, a 50% savings over the regular price. Or you can save 25% over the regular price of memory station home with PRT continuing education with a sale price of $729.99. And if you're looking for Vividpix restore software used to improve old faded photos and documents, you can save 40% and purchase it for only 2999. To gain these discounted prices, use coupon code TURKEY 2024. That's T U R K E Y 2024. But remember, the sale ends on giving Tuesday at midnight Eastern time on Tuesday, December 3rd. Welcome back. You're listening to the Genealogy Guys podcast. George the book that we received in the mail not so long ago is, is the Hollywood Strangler by Nathan Dylan Goodwin. Our friend Nathan has published another book in the Venator Cold Case series number three, which is his second series. Morton Ferrier is his first series, which Morton Ferrier said almost entirely in England for the most part, but he's been.

[A]

Out of England, too, a little bit.

[B]

A little bit. A little bit. But, you know, he's broadened out a bit. But the point is the Venator series is set with a firm, an investigative genetic genealogist firm in Salt Lake City. And very interesting, there's a group of researchers, certainly they know genealogy, but they, they know DNA quite well. And so what they do, if you haven't seen this series, but you're interested in how do investigative genetic genealogists do their work, you may have seen online or on television Cece Moore, who's done this kind of work and Helped the police solve cold cases. Sometimes after many decades, it happened. So the, the Hollywood Strangler is a case set in LA during the 1980s. And some of us, you remember some of the, the bad events in, you know, that we know of from history of people being murdered in, in that area, some associated with Hollywood, for example. So the Hollywood Strangler is certainly in line with that about someone who kills a number of people who seem, have mostly connections with the silver screen in some way. So one of the cold case homicide units, the one in Los Angeles, turns to venator to see if they can solve a cold case. They have some evidence they want to look at. So again, a wonderful book that goes into quite a lot of detail over the processing of DNA, over, you know, what information is already provided to these investigative genetic genealogists, what they do in order to work backwards in time from the DNA to the ancestors to find the ancestral couples and then work forwards in time on all of these groups. They, you know, these clusters of people till they get to one or more individuals who have to be related to all of these people that the DNA matches. So fascinating. I loved it. There's also other, other things going on in the book in terms of the various characters, whether it's their personal lives, what's going on with that. So I won't spoil any of that, but it's very interesting and again, it does mention names of real life people, real life professional genealogists, friends of mine as, as well and George's. And so it's interesting how he works those into the story with their permission of course. But they're, they're, they're in there. So, so congratulations to Nathan. Again, if you're interested in genealogy fiction, and particularly genealogy fiction that pertains to how DNA is used to solve crimes or solve unknown persons, you know, giving them a name to who they really are when remains are found. You would enjoy the Hollywood Strangler by Nathan Dillon Goodwin, a Venator cold case. So come up with that. The last thing I wanted to say, George, was that I may have mentioned this on a previous episode, but I've been enjoying taking a class from Nathan, a writing course. And for those of you who maybe didn't hear me talk about this in an earlier episode. Yes, this was a six week, I'm sorry, seven week course that I started in September, it ended in mid October. And this is his first, his pilot group. So we were the first guinea pigs for this 20, about 25 of us in the class. And so we Learned some of the basics of how do you write a mystery story with a genealogy component to it? How do you do the characters, how do you do the settings, how do you do dialogue? All the things that are important to a successful fiction book, but with a slant on genealogy. And so today, which was my deadline, I submitted my final assignment, which was like a big chapter in a book that I might publish someday. So you never know. We'll see. I'll see my feedback from Nathan, but keep your eyes and ears open in case Nathan advertises another of his courses. I mean, I think he wants to probably evaluate how this one went and then decide what to do going forward. So please keep that in mind if you've ever had any interest in it. George and I watch a lot of British television, British crime television, so it's actually does suggest things to me. But I mean, you know how these things are structured, how do they entertain?

[A]

Yes, yeah, yeah.

[B]

And all of that. So we're, we're. And by the way, if you have any series that you really like that are particularly British crime series like that, mysteries, email us@genealogy guys gmail.com. you may be ones that George and I already watch and listen to, but, you know, we would love some new suggestions.

[A]

Yes. Yeah. Nathan is really one of my very favorite authors and he joins the, the list behind Agatha Christie and Miguel Marsh and, and, and maybe Dorothy Sayers maybe. And maybe even Arthur Conan Doyle. But.

[B]

It'S remarkable, it's interesting, George, that ever since I started taking the course I spent when you and I watch these shows, I'm also kind of analyzing it as to how they do things, how do they introduce characters, how do they do dialogue, how do they do settings, all those things that you have to think about and make work. And so it's, it's. I'm not saying I, I still enjoy the shows very much, but there's another part of me that's kind of seeing how do they do it and make it good. So. Yep, yep. So. All right.

[A]

It's hard, it's hard to believe, Drew, that. I mean, Nathan's been a writer for a long time.

[B]

Oh yeah.

[A]

And he, his first book, Hastings at War, was published in May of 2005. Nathan was born in Hastings, England.

[B]

And that was a non Fiction. Yes.

[A]

And it was followed by, by some other historical things. But his, his first foray into fiction writing culminated in the publication in September 2013 of Hiding the Hiding the Past.

[B]

Yep. Just over 10 years ago. So he's been doing it that long I know it's hard to believe.

[A]

Amazing. Yeah.

[B]

So, yeah, unfortunately he said he will not be at Roots Tech. I won't get to see him in early 2025. It's just not always that financially feasible to travel From England to RootsTech every year, but hopefully the year after. But it was good. I got to see him and his husband Robert at their booth a number of times at the Roots Tech this this year. So. So yeah. So the best best wishes to you on the publication of the Hollywood Strangler. And George. Oh, that might be something you want to buy as a gift for your favorite mystery murder mystery friend who loves, loves those kinds of things or buy it, you know, or, or ask put it on your wish list for something to buy for you. So for, for the holidays. So. Yep. George, anything else before we wrap things up for right before Thanksgiving?

[A]

I don't think so. I'd like to wish all of our listeners a happy holiday season coming up. And it's not just Thanksgiving.

[B]

Oh, no, there's a ton of holidays in November, December.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And early January. And we wish whatever you do, celebrate, enjoy it with your family and your friends. We hope you have a wonderful time.

[A]

And, and in the course of your celebrations with your families and your friends, be sure to ask questions and see what you can learn about their past and your family's past. You, you never can tell where that next tidbit of a clue to solve your brick wall is going to come from.

[B]

Right. All right. All right. Until our next episode. Take care, everybody. And again, keep listening. Send us your [e-mail] yes, we look forward to your emails. So take care, everybody. Bye bye.

[A]

Sa.