Follow Friday ~ Listen to Podcasts

A podcast is like an online radio show, but you don't have to tune in at the same time every week. I use iTunes and subscribe to several podcasts, which I list below. From iTunes on my computer, I sync the podcasts to my iPhone and listen to them from the podcast app (icon at right) on my iPhone when I exercise.

I walk daily. I love listening to podcasts when I walk. These podcasts help make the time pass and I walk three miles before I know it!

Most of these come out weekly or every 2-3 weeks and are usually about 45-60 minutes long. I am sharing the iTunes image for each so you will know when you've found it if you're searching the iTunes store. I also share the link to each podcaster's website because you can also listen to these right from their websites.

The Genealogy Guys Podcast
 - Drew Smith and George Morgan have been hosting this podcast of genealogy news, information, and answers to readers' questions since September 2005! It started as a weekly podcast, but these men are are so busy that they now release a new podcast every couple of weeks.

The Genealogy Gems Podcast
 - Lisa Louise Cooke has been hosting her podcast full of genealogy "gems" for several years as well. She offers a couple of quick research tips (genealogical and technological) in each show, as well as answers questions from reader email. She also sometimes has interviews with interesting folks in the genealogy world.

Fieldstone Common
 - Marian Pierre-Louis started this podcast about a year and a half ago. Every week she interviews an author who has written a book about some aspect of New England (and sometimes New York) history. My "to-read" book list grows every month! In a recent podcast, Marian interviewed Jane E. Wilcox (see below), which was a wonderful conversation to listen to! (Look for Season 2 if you're subscribing through iTunes; Season 1 was recorded using BlogTalk Radio and she had to change the subscription setup when she changed from recording the show at BlogTalk Radio.)

The Forget-Me-Not Hour (Your Ancestors Want Their Stories to be Told)
 - Jane E. Wilcox hosts this radio show on BlogTalk Radio twice a month, interviewing a variety of historians and authors. One interview will be with a genealogist and/or historian with a New York state focus and the other interview will be with a genealogist or historian who strikes Jane's fancy. Jane is a great interviewer and has interesting guests.

BackStory with the American History Guys
 - I read about this podcast about a year ago at Marian Burk Wood's Climbing My Family Tree blog. This podcast, which is broadcast weekly on various public radio stations, is hosted by three historians, each an expert in the history of a different century - 18th, 19th, and 20th. The topics are as varied as U.S./Russian relations (April 25, 2014) to Fair Wages (March 28, 2014) to Alcohol in America (December 27, 2013).

The Genealogy Professional
 - More recently, Marian Pierre-Louis started this podcast in which she interviews professional genealogists in order to offer listeners ideas about what being professional genealogist entails. I have only listened to a couple of these podcasts, as I am not currently planning to become a professional, but it is very interesting to hear what a variety of jobs these professionals have and how they got to where they are.

Wait Wait Don't Tell Me
 - This podcast is just for fun. It is the weekly NPR radio program which has been on the radio since 1998 that I always forget to listen to when it's on during the weekend, so I subscribe to the podcast and enjoy it during the week.


So if you're saying: "I need to get out for a walk," subscribe to a couple of these podcasts, figure out how to get them on your iPhone, iPod, or other smart phone, and get walking and listening!

Follow Friday ~ FamilySearch

I was doing some exploring of Tennessee records at FamilySearch.org for my sister-in-law's family tree. I had to share what I found at the bottom of the death certificate of my sister-in-law's great grandmother, Alta May Bickel Smoot, (born 29 Aug 1881, died 27 July 1945).

And again, at the bottom of the death certificate of Alta May's mother, Margaret (Schwitzer or Sweitzer) Bickel, who outlived her daughter (born 4 Sept 1853, died 15 November 1947).

The undertaker is Fred Deadman at the Manchester (Tennessee) Funeral Home. Who else would appreciate this but other genealogists?

Follow Friday ~ my favorites

Many genealogists know about Dick Eastman's EOGN blog, but if you're relatively new to genealogy and have not heard about EOGN (Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter),  I just have to share that this is one of my favorites, and I find that the $10 annual subscription to his "Plus Edition" newsletter is well worth it! However, many of his postings can be read without the subscription, either by RSS feed or by subscribing to his (standard edition) email newsletter. If you are not familiar with EOGN, check it out. Some of the recent items that a reader might find interesting include an informative item about the current state of technology at The Internet of Things, his report from NGS, and an interesting historical fact about dinner knives. For other interesting genealogy tidbits, search his blog for "cousin" or "immigration."

I also want to share that if you have New England ancestors, a membership in the New England Historical and Genealogical Society is incredibly valuable. Membership in NEHGS gives you access to nearly 3,000 genealogical and historical collections in the form of online databases on its website at AmericanAncestors.org. At $79.95, an annual membership may seem expensive, but if you have ancestors that were in the New England - New York area for any amount of time, I think that you will find membership in this Society well worth it. Although I have not been actively researching this entire time, I have been a member for almost (omg) 20 years.

Follow Friday is a daily blogging prompt from GeneaBloggers, the genealogy community’s resource for blogging.