Roots Television | Og Blog

Don't miss the video tour of WeRelate, the largest genealogy wiki in world. Don't know what a wiki is? This video is for you.

WeRelate is a free public-service wiki for genealogy sponsored by the Foundation for On-Line Genealogy, Inc. in partnership with the Allen County Public Library. With pages for over 350,000 people, WeRelate lets you connect with other researchers and cooperatively work on web pages for your ancestors. Your research can be documented completely online. You can upload GEDCOM files, upload and annotate scanned documents and photos, include family stories and biographies, and even generate maps of your ancestors' life events.

Og from Roots Television

As it turns out, you can teach an old dog new tricks. This week, we're serving up a healthy dose of DIY Genealogy as we highlight programs from our very own How To Channel. We'll start the week with "Vital Records", an episode from the popular television series, Ancestors, and we'll spotlight different instructional programs each day. Whether you're ready for a refresher course on the 5-step research process, or looking for a tour of the latest techie tool, the RTV How To Channel has something for everybody.

Og from Roots Television

By now, you have probably heard about the new partnership between the New England Historic Genealogical Society and Ancestry.com. If not, you can learn more about it here. Og and Dick Eastman caught up with both D. Brenton Simons, of NEHGS, and Loretto "Lou" Szucs, of Ancestry, at FGS 2007, where they shared more about their collaboration.

Og from Roots Television

Okay, you knew that you should have brought out the old photographs at your last family get-together. But you missed your chance, and now you have no idea why great-grandma Clothilde is wearing that ridiculous hat in her wedding portrait. Need help dating an old family photograph? Want to know where your mum and dad are standing in their honeymoon snapshot? Even if no one in your family has the foggiest idea, all is not lost. Watch as Maureen Taylor, the Photo Detective, leads you through three photo identification examples, showing what you can learn from your family photographs.

Og from Roots Television

Digital airbrushing isn't just for super models anymore. In the latest video from our Roots Lecture Series, Rick Laxman shows what photo editing software can do for your most precious family photos. We all have a few old photos that are a little worse for wear - a little mildew here or a torn corner there. Not only does Rick talk about common document problems, he demonstrates what renaming and organizing software can do for your digital image collection. With enough practice, you might even be able to airbrush away those pesky lovehandles!

Og from Roots Television

Og always wanted to be a paleographer, and now with Lynn Turner's help, he can! In the latest video from our Roots Lectures Series, Lynn Turner teaches a course on "Spanish Paleography" during the Hispanic Research Series at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. Lynn gives tips for reading and understanding Spanish parish records, including common phrases you need to know, parish book history and organization, basic rules and guidelines, most common abbreviations, vital records, and helpful resources. You can even view his lecture handout here. It's a paleographic paradise!

Og from Roots Television

After more than a decade of collecting, categorizing, and sharing the best genealogy links, Cyndi Howells of Cyndi's List fame is still going strong. In case you've been researching in a cave for the last 10 years, Cyndi's List is a directory of over 268,000 categorized internet links for genealogy. What's more, Cyndi adds the human touch, personally reviewing each and every link to weed out those non-relevant, and dare we say unsavory submissions. And to top it all off, the website is absolutely free!!

You definitely won't want to miss Dick Eastman's recent interview with Cyndi on the 2007 Wholly Genes Genealogy Cruise.

Og from Roots Television

If you're new to Roots TV, or just looking to hone your internet television skills, you won't want to miss out on Megan Smolenyak's guided tour of Roots Television. From our New and Featured videos, to the more than 20 channels of family history programming we offer, Megan teaches you how to make the most of your RTV experience.

If all you've seen of us so far is our homepage, you could be missing out. Want to know more about Irish diaries, Spanish paleography, Stalag Luft III, or Og's home movies? We've got a video for that. Interested in Hungarian immigration narratives, Choctaw ancestry, or what the deal is with mtDNA testing? We've got a video for that, too.

So take a sec to take a tour of Roots Television. You can find this video and other tips on our Help page.

Og from Roots Television

Think newspapers are only good for obituaries? Think again! Our latest episode from the Ancestors series is proof positive that newspapers are worth more than just a cursory glance. Here's the tease from the Ancestors website:

Lori Hammell-Davis's grandfather was a special man. He was reserved and carried himself with a sense of class. She always wondered about his past and suspected he grew up differently than she had in her middle class neighborhood, but she sensed she wasn't supposed to ask him any questions.

After his death, she felt it was safe to ask her grandmother about his past. Her grandmother said that she thought his family had been well to do and that his father had died when he was a young man. That was as much as she knew. Lori was shocked to discover that her grandmother knew so little about her husband of all those years.

The curiosity about his past lingered, and she finally decided to gather some clues. After two years of research, she finally had a breakthrough. While searching online, Lori found a connection to her grandfather's first cousin. This woman never knew her grandfather personally, but had heard many stories of his mother. Her mother told her that Lori's great-grandmother was a high society lady in San Francisco, but thought she may have been in some trouble with the law.

Now Lori's interest was soaring, so she decided to do a newspaper search to see if she could learn more. She went to the library and was guided to newspaper records for the San Francisco area. Looking for her great-grandmother's name, Dorothy Hammell, she came up blank, but she did find numerous listings for a Barbette Hammell. Could they be the same woman?

So what do you have lurking in your closet?

Og from Roots Television

Dick Eastman managed to catch up with his good friend, John Cardinal, creator of The Master Genealogist Utility and Second Site. Watch as John talks a bit about how you can use the Utility to convert your jumble of genealogical data from disparate programs and import them all into TMG software. He also shares how the TMG Utility is actually contributing to the fight against cancer. And if you've been wanting to publish your research on the Web, or share your data with family on CD, you'll want to learn more about his Second Site.

Og from Roots Television

Nothing says "Happy New Year" to Og like a good television marathon. Ah, how Og remembers the olden days before Roots Television, watching hours upon hours of the Twilight Zone and hanging on bleary-eyed until the stroke of midnight. But this year, Og is ready to try something new.

Roots Television is pleased and proud to announce its first ever All-Ancestors-All-the-Time New Year's Eve Marathon! Catch up on your favorite episodes from the popular PBS series, Ancestors. Start from the very beginning with Season One's Episode 1 Getting Started, and ring in the New Year with Season Two's Writing a Family History. It's enough to make you wish midnight would never come.

Og from Roots Television

If you've been dying to learn more about probate records, census research, writing a family history, newspapers, military records, immigration records, and so on and so forth, you will be just as excited as Og is to learn that Roots Television now has the complete PBS Ancestors Series, including Seasons 1 and 2, online for your viewing pleasure.

Enjoy inspiring personal stories, from Jeff Gallup's return to his Sicilian homeland, to Steven Spielberg's work with the Shoah Foundation, to the historic More family reunions, and more. And learn from renowned guest experts, including Cyndi Howells, Tony Burroughs, Curt Witcher, Sharon Carmack, Dick Eastman, Alan Mann, and countless others.

So take a sec to peruse the clickable episodes list - you're bound to find something you like! And if you'd like more information on each episode, check out the Program Guide.

Season 1:
101: Getting Started
102: Looking at Home
103: Gathering Family Stories
104: The Paper Trail
105: Libraries and Archives
106: Military and Census Records
107: African American Research
108: Your Medical Heritage
109: High Tech Help
110: Leaving a Legacy

Season 2:
201: Records at Risk
202: Family Records
203: Compiled Records
204: Genealogy and Technology
205: Vital Records
206: Religious Records
207: Cemetery Records
208: Census Records
209: Military Records
210: Newspapers as Records
211: Probate Records
212: Immigration Records
213: Writing a Family History

Og from Roots Television

Nothing makes Og giddier than checking out our viewers' submissions to RootsTube. The latest video tutorial from our friend at Photo Grafix is a great step-by-step walk-through of how you can use Photoshop to clean up those fuzzy, scuzzy ink-jet prints we all have of our favorite family photographs.

Which brings Og to his next point - don't be stingy, share your experience with the rest of us! Have a slick way to organize your genealogy data files? Found a new gadget to help you make the perfect scrapbook? Even have a favorite recipe from the old country? Og wants proof. Dust off your video camera, steal your teenager's webcam, and let your light shine. Submitting videos to Roots Television so easy, even a caveman could do it!

Og from Roots Television

Whether you're about to head off to your local genealogical library, or fret at the very idea of being anywhere near that many books, you might learn something new from the library and archive how-to videos we're featuring this week.

In episode 105, Libraries and Archives, from the popular PBS Ancestors series, you'll tour the largest genealogical library in the world - the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah. Learn how you can prepare to visit a genealogical library or archive and see what resources are available once you get there.

Where Records Are Stored is a short instructional module that leads you through the steps of choosing which record repository is right for you. Choosing the right repository, or place where records are stored, all depends on the type of record you are looking for.

Og from RootsTelevision.com

After you've interrogated all of your living relatives, and made your first few forays into online databases and your local genealogical library, many of you will find that you need some pretty specialized help. For anyone reasonably near the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, you might want to look into the FHL Research Series. This week, we're featuring videos from the Hispanic Research Series, including Finding Mexican Ancestors on the Internet, Mexican Genealogical Research, and Spanish Parish Records.

Next in line at the Family History Library is the Ireland Research Series on March 29th. In addition to their research series, the FHL offers individual classes covering everything from Italian Gazetteers, to German Handwriting, to England Nonconformist Church Records, and US Southern States Research. So if you have an inkling to travel to one of the largest genealogical libraries in the world, it might be worth your trouble to schedule your trip around their many free courses.

Og from Roots Television

This week on Roots Television, learn more about what census records can do for you. In episode 106 of Ancestors series, Military and Census Records, Garry Bryant tells how his feelings about serving in the Vietnam War changed when he discovered his military roots, including ancestors who fought in the Revolutionary War. This program features guest expert Curt Witcher.

Because of their broadness of scope, census records are an invaluable resource to virtually every genealogist. In Census Records, Ancestors episode 208, learn why census records are called "mini-biographies," where to find U.S. census records, how they are organized, and how to use the Soundex index. Also learn how Darius Gray used census records to find his family, and hear tips from professional genealogist Elizabeth Shown Mills.

Finally, Information Sources Defined highlights the three major sources of information - people, objects, and records - and what they have to offer.

To purchase copies of the Ancestors Series, visit the official Ancestors website.

Og from RootsTelevision.com