UpFront with NGS: Lisa Louise Cooke

Showing posts with label Lisa Louise Cooke. Show all posts

12 September 2017

Visualize Chronicling America News via US News Map

Visualize Chronicling America News via US News Map

Chronicling America (via the Library of Congress) is a wonderful FREE historic newspaper (1789-1925) archive with an invaluable US Newspaper Directory (1690-present). We have frequently blogged about Chronicling America.

Sometimes the way the search results are presented can be a bit challenging to interpret (especially if there are many “hits”) as you try to “focus” on the results that you think will be most important to your research. To help with this The Georgia Tech Research Institute and Ehistory.org at the University of Georgia created a means to search on Chronicling American and then visualize the results across space and time via their US News Map portal.

Enter a search term and you can see the found articles located on a map and then you can correlate articles by time using that controller.

Lisa Louise Cooke (Genealogy Gems) has a YouTube video illustrating how to use this website.

Slate, via The Vault article Interactive Map Lets You Track How 19th- and Early-20th-Century American Newspapers Covered Any Topic describes this wonderful new website also.

If visually processing information is for you, do check out this website! If you have not yet visited Chronicling America, you now have no excuse not to.

What result most surprised you?

Editor’s Note: Thanks to the Polish Genealogical Society of America (PGSA) for including a mention of this database and the video from Lisa Louise Cooke in the September 2017 edition of its Genealogy Notebook.

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NGS does not imply endorsement of any outside advertiser or other vendors appearing in this blog. Any opinions expressed by guest authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the view of NGS.

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Suggestions for topics for future UpFront with NGS posts are always welcome. Please send any suggested topics to UpfrontNGS@mosaicrpm.com

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Unless indicated otherwise or clearly an NGS Public Relations piece, Upfront with NGS posts are written by Diane L Richard, editor, Upfront with NGS.

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08 June 2016

So Many Genealogy-Related YouTube Channels, So Little Time!

Are you taking advantage of all the videos posted on YouTube related to genealogy and family history research?

For the most part, I often just stumble across videos of interest embedded in a blog post or similar that I am reading. Once watching the video, I will see what other videos were created by the same source – basically, I check out the “channel” in which the video was found. Think of these channels kind of like tv channels except instead of NBC, ABC, CBS, etc., you have NARA, LOC, LVA, Ancestry, etc.

Since these platforms can be overwhelming, this is where finding “channels” of interest is key!

Do know that on YouTube when you visit a new channel, a video will start up immediately, so you will possibly want to pause that video and/or have your sound off as you explore.

Let’s look at a few of the genealogy-related ones that I am aware of or searched out as I wrote this post:

US National Archives

Library of Congress

Smithsonian (there are also separate channels for the various component museums)

FamilySearch

Ancestry

American Ancestors

Genealogy Roadshow (Seasons 1 & 2)

BYU Family History Library

Library of Virginia

Lisa Louise Cooke’s Genealogy Gems

Dear Myrtle

The Swedish Genealogy Guide

Nick Thorne, The Nosey Genealogist (British Family History)

As you can see there is a quite a bit of diversity in who/what has a channel – from national institutions like NARA to state-level ones like the Library of Virginia to individuals.

Something I like about videos is that I can listen to them in the background as I am doing other work (or fun). Then, if something catches my ear, I can pull up the viewer, rewind, and then actually “watch” a segment of interest.

If you know of family history-related YouTube channels that are must "check out" for our community, please post a comment!

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NGS does not imply endorsement of any outside advertiser or other vendors appearing in this blog. Any opinions expressed by guest authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the view of NGS.

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Think your friends, colleagues, or fellow genealogy researchers would find this blog post interesting? If so, please let them know that anyone can read past UpFront with NGS posts or subscribe!

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Suggestions for topics for future UpFront with NGS posts are always welcome. Please send any suggested topics to UpfrontNGS@mosaicrpm.com

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Unless indicated otherwise or clearly an NGS Public Relations piece, Upfront with NGS posts are written by Diane L Richard, editor, Upfront with NGS.

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03 September 2014

Behind the scenes at Who Do You Think You Are (WDYTYA) ...

Many readers have been watching Season 5 of Who Do You Think You Are?

If you are part of this crowd (or have never caught an episode) you might find this interview by Thomas MacEntee of Dan Bucatinsky, A Behind-The-Scenes Look at Who Do You Think You Are?, interesting.

“My interview with show co-producer Dan Bucatinsky, who also starred in the popular television series Scandal for which he won an Emmy, provided me with some interesting information about the celebrities, the research methodology and how each episode is created, from start to finish.”

I found this answer particularly interesting and relevant since it highlights that in producing the show they do run into the same issues that each of us has, that sometimes we just get stuck in our research ...

“As for having boring ancestors? “We’ve never turned people away for being boring. We have turned people away because there is no story, no narrative to follow. A document trail runs dry or we hit a wall or we can’t confirm a particular lead that we’re on. Like any mystery, you know, digging into someone’s historical ancestry is about following clues; it is what makes the show so fun to shoot because it is like a scavenger hunt. But if suddenly a clue were to run dry, your story would stop. So we do a lot of research at one time and once in a while someone’s story will either hit a dead end or it will just be ten generations of potato farmers and there’s nothing you can do about it.””

After initially writing this, I also learned that the Genealogy Insider (Diane Haddad) did an Interview With "Who Do You Think You Are?" Producer Dan Bucatinsky and you can have FREE access to a Lisa Louise Cooke Genealogy Gems Podcast where she also interviews Dan Bucatinsky – Episode 113 – An Interview with Dan Bucatinsky of WDYTYA?. These are all great ways to find out more about what is behind the producing of this popular show.

Editor’s Note: I have knowingly done research three times for this show.Two of the three times the research trail just went cold in the sense that we could learn a lot about the person and yet not details that make for watchable tv nor could we determine parents or enough details to do much with!.

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NGS does not imply endorsement of any outside advertiser or other vendors appearing in this blog. Any opinions expressed by guest authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the view of NGS.

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Think your friends, colleagues, or fellow genealogy researchers would find this blog post interesting? If so, please let them know that anyone can read past UpFront with NGS posts or subscribe!

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Suggestions for topics for future UpFront with NGS posts are always welcome. Please send any suggested topics to UpfrontNGS@mosaicrpm.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Unless indicated otherwise or clearly an NGS Public Relations piece, Upfront with NGS posts are written by Diane L Richard, editor, Upfront with NGS.

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Want to learn more about interacting with the blog, please read Hyperlinks, Subscribing and Comments -- How to Interact with Upfront with NGS Blog posts!

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27 May 2014

NGS 2014 Family History Conference – Session T219 – Tech Tools That Catapult the Newspaper Research Process into the Twenty-First Century

Another in the series on sessions I attended at the NGS 2014 Family History Conference.

T219 Tech Tools That Catapult the Newspaper Research Process into the Twenty-First Century, Lisa Louise Cooke, Syllabus page 177

We love newspapers. They are sometimes the only source of data, as well as color, about a person we are researching.

As someone who has done a lot of newspaper research, online and offline, my biggest (though not only) takeaways from this talk were:

1. Reminded about Stanford Newspaper Data Visualization

2. Learned about www.NewspaperMap.com (check it out)

3. Encouraged to use the free Web clipper for Evernote (which strengthened my resolve about using Evernote; another in this series talks about a presentation on Evernote that I attended)

I had previously been introduced to the Stanford Newspaper Data Visualization website from the perspective of seeing the big picture of newspaper growth over time -- The Growth of Newspapers Across the U.S.: 1690-2011. I just hadn’t thought to use it as a visual means to identify where newspapers were located for a locale I was researching; imagine me slapping my forehead when I heard about this. Even though the State Library of North Carolina has a neat newspaper locator tool, it doesn’t have a visual component and it doesn’t help me when dealing with border communities. On this map, I can see newspapers at a certain time (say 1829 – see image above) and in the case of NC, I can also see what newspapers were published in VA, SC, TN and GA which may have relevance to the NC locales I am researching.

The associated syllabus pages provide lots of details about sources for information about extant newspapers and also Lisa’s Top 5 Newspaper Tips.

Editor’s Note: This session was NOT recorded. Hopefully a friend attended the conference and you can learn more!

Editor’s Note: This series is not presented in any particular order.

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Want to learn more about interacting with the blog, please read Hyperlinks, Subscribing and Comments -- How to Interact with Upfront with NGS Blog posts!

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NGS does not imply endorsement of any outside advertiser or other vendors appearing in this blog. Any opinions expressed by guest authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the view of NGS.

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Follow NGS via Facebook, YouTube, Google+, Twitter

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Think your friends, colleagues, or fellow genealogy researchers would find this blog post interesting? If so, please let them know that anyone can read past UpFront with NGS posts or subscribe!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Suggestions for topics for future UpFront with NGS posts are always welcome. Please send any suggested topics to UpfrontNGS@mosaicrpm.com

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Unless indicated otherwise or clearly an NGS Public Relations piece, Upfront with NGS posts are written by Diane L Richard, editor, Upfront with NGS.

22 May 2014

NGS 2014 Family History Conference – Session T242 – Finding Relatives Like a Private Eye

Another in the series on sessions I attended at the NGS 2014 Family History Conference.

T242 (R) Finding Relatives Like a Private Eye, Lisa Louise Cooke, Syllabus page 219

A key element of doing this is recognizing that “Unless a person is actively making an effort not to be found, they leave a paper trail!”

I could identify with what she called Principle #4: Few People are Free from Bureaucracy. There was someone I was tracking who didn’t want to be found (absconded with church money, abandoned his family, was a bigamist, etc) and it was his desire to receive a pension for national guard service that ultimately unraveled his death (and life) – read more about how I discovered much about this person’s life and death in Looking For A Man Who Didn’t Want to Be Found!

And Tip #8: Check Campaign Contributions was not on my radar at all. I had never heard of Open Secrets and its Donor Lookup service. On this site, you can check contributions back to 1990. This site was fascinating. I had no idea that such information was public. Another site mentioned was CQ Moneyline donor search which goes back to 1980 (only showing donations for each 4 year election cycle).

Based on my own experience, I will say that with people increasingly using cell phones (versus land lines) and being fairly mobile in where they live it seems like it has become harder to track living people than it once was. Whether it’s cousins to share notes with or individuals you would like to ask to participate in a DNA study, finding the living sometimes takes priority over documenting the dead. I now have a few new resources to consider and tactics to employ. Hopefully some of these living individuals will not be as elusive as they once were based on using Lisa Louise Cooke’s suggestions!

The associated syllabus pages provide an overview of the 8 research tactics suggested by Lisa Louise along with many internet references for where you might search.

Editor’s Note: This series is not presented in any particular order.

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Want to learn more about interacting with the blog, please read Hyperlinks, Subscribing and Comments -- How to Interact with Upfront with NGS Blog posts!

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NGS does not imply endorsement of any outside advertiser or other vendors appearing in this blog. Any opinions expressed by guest authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the view of NGS.

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Follow NGS via Facebook, YouTube, Google+, Twitter

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Think your friends, colleagues, or fellow genealogy researchers would find this blog post interesting? If so, please let them know that anyone can read past UpFront with NGS posts or subscribe!

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Suggestions for topics for future UpFront with NGS posts are always welcome. Please send any suggested topics to UpfrontNGS@mosaicrpm.com