The Genealogy Search

I use Google a lot but sometimes it takes going to a lecture about it to get back in the habit of using Google to it's full potential.  Last week I attended Lisa Louise Cooke's 10 Ways to Achieve Google Search Success for Common Surnames.  One of the search methods she talked about was a linked search. A search for my Poundstone ancestors looking for a related link to a specific website would be as follows: poundstone LINK:www.ancestry.com The second search method she reminded me about is related search.  A query utilizing this search method would be: poundstone RELATED:www.fold3.com Try both of  these search strategies to see what new results you can find regarding your family.  You can learn more from Lisa Louise Cooke about Google and many other genealogy related subjects by listening to her podcasts at  Genealogy Gems .

Crista Cowan from Ancestry Aces provided the following blog prompt: When you encounter a new location, a new time period, a new religion, or a new military conflict in your family history where do you do to learn about it so you can do better genealogy research?  What are your favorite resources for genealogy education? First I consult the books in my personal library.  I have built up my library to roughly over 100 books.  Some of my favorite standbys include: Map Guide to the U.S. Federal Censuses, 1790-1920 by William Thorndale and William Dollarhide Census Substitutes & State Records Vol 1 and 2 by William Dollarhide The Researcher's Guide to American Genealogy by Val D. Greenwood Land and Property Research in the United States by E. Wade Hone Online my favorite sites include: U.S. GenWeb  http://usgenweb.org/ FamilySearch, the Learning Resources area, specifically the Research Wiki   https://www.family...

The Arizona Family History Expo is just around the corner.  The event is January 20th and 21st in Mesa.  Visit  Arizona Family History Expo  to register for the event. I am looking forward to seeing some of my fellow Pima County Genealogical Society members that I have convinced to attend the Expo.  Too bad the expo is on our regular meeting day, we will leave Barbara Salyer and the rest of the society members to hold their own while we gather new info to share with the group. I am also looking forward to seeing Lisa Louise Cooke of Genealogy Gems, catching up with some of my favorite vendors - perhaps check in to some digital scapbooking????? and checking in with Bruce Buzbee and the RootsMagic crew.  I promised to assist our wonderful member Colleen McHugh during her dinner break presentation What do Skeletons and Family History Have In Common?   I will also be looking forward to seeing my fellow Geneabloggers and meeting some new folks while I a...

I am so glad that I had the opportunity to attend the banquet Friday night at the Expo.  Dinner was excellent, the company was even better and the presentation outstanding.  The evening started with bloggers seated among the tables sharing the "tech to trace your roots".  I had the good fortune of sitting with Lisa Louise Cooke, Bruce Buzbee and Thomas MacEntee.  The live Genealogy Gems Podcast with Lisa Louise Cooke and her stage manager daughter Lacey Cooke was very entertaining.  Podcast guests included Anastasia Tyler of Ancestry.com (recently featured on The Martha Stewart Show), Bruce Buzbee of Roots Magic - the new sponsor of Genealogy Gems Podcast,   Gena Philibert Ortega, of   Gena’s Genealogy Blog , and the witty and entertaining Thomas MacEntee.  Anastasia shared what we should expect from Ancestry in 2010, talked about the new TV series Who Do You Think You Are? premiering  March 5.  Gena shared how easy it is ...

I can't pick out just one thing about the Expo I enjoyed the most.  There were so many wonderful classes, and people.  I had a wonderful time filling in at the Genealogy Gems booth, I met some wonderful folks that stopped by and had the opportunity to talk with other vendors at the show.  The banquet was a lot of fun and I had the opportunity to meet Bruce Buzbee of Rootsmagic and Thomas MacEntee of blog, Facebook and Twitter fame and best of all spend some time with Lacey and Lisa Louise Cooke.  Lisa Louise and Lacey  engineered a great live podcast after dinner was served.  I attended many classes my mind was jam packed with information.  Now I need to sit back and go through all of the information and goodies I picked while I was there.