Happy New Year!!

Contest Winners Announced:
The winner of the FTM Organize Your Genealogy Life CD:
Carroll Berryman

The winner of the 2 day admission ticket to the Mesa, AZ Family History Expo:
A.C. Ivory of UT
2nd winner: Patty Mitchell of AZ.

Get more information about the conference and banquet at Family History Expos

Lisa will be speaking at the Ontario Genealogical Society Conference in Toronto, Canada May 14 through the 16th of 2010 at the Doubletree Hilton at the Toronto Airport

The Armchair Genealogist: Follow Friday - My Top Five, A Year In ... By Lynn Palermo 

Genealogy Gems Premium Podcast Episodes can now be automatically downloaded to iTunes. For more information sign in and go to the main Podcast page.

Sign up for the free Genealogy Gems e-newsletter and receive the downloadable e-book 5 Fabulous Google Research Strategies for the Family Historian.

BRAND NEW: The Genealogy Gems Podcast iPhone app is now available for the iPhone and ipod iTouch. Get it at the iTunes App Store

NEWS:

ANCESTRY
Ancestry's new online family trees website, Mundia 

Also at ancestry they've announced the release of new and improved images for U.S. Federal Censuses. They’ve got clearer images for 1790-1900, and are working on 1910 through 1930. They’ve also posted better indexes for 1850, 1860, 1870 and 1900

FAMILYSEARCH
They have some New Projects you may want to know about.
Canada, British Columbia—Deaths, 1872-1986 [Part 3]
U.S., Indiana, Clark County—Marriages, 1811–1959
U.S., Minnesota—1875 State Census
U.S., Rhode Island—1905 State Census [Part 2]
U.S., South Dakota—1935 State Census [Part 2]

Genealogy Bank
Added newspaper pages online from 117 newspapers and 32 states including:
Augusta Chronicle (GA)
Seattle Daily Times (WA)
City Gazette (SC)
New York Herald (NY)
New York Herald-Tribune (NY)
North Philly Free Press (PA)
Political Digest (PA)

MAILBOX:
Premium Feed: Premium Member Patti Wilcox writes in: "Thank you thank you! I'm so happy with the iTunes feed for Premium members. I love being able to easily add to iTunes and now maybe I'll be the first to listen to new episodes!” and recommends Mac users use Safari rather Firefox to initially subscribe to the feed.

Genealogy Questions: Long time listeners Richard Yehle has a question about adoption research He writes:

"An ex-brother–in-law’s father had two brothers born in 1914 and 1916 who were placed in an orphanage in Stockton CA in an unknown year (I’d guess between 1920 and 1930). The family is looking for information on these two brothers but don’t know where to start. I can’t find either of them in the 1920 or 1930 census, nor their parents for that matter. They moved from New Mexico to Bakersfield CA by 1910 and apparently to Stockton CA at some point later, again my guess is after the death of the mother – but we don’t have that date. The location of the two orphans are not known. I suppose it’s possible that they took the name of their adoptive parents which could be a problem. The original surname is Torres which is also reasonably common. Any suggestions on where to start looking for these two?"

Do a search on Google Books - here's one on San Joaquin County orphanages
Here's a Benevolent Institutions publication from 1910.

Full text of "Benevolent institutions. 1910"

The San Joaquin County US Gen Web site is currently under construction but it looks like they plan on providing information about adoptions in the county.

Resources at Cyndis List

If you have strategies for Richard email Lisa.

Toolbar Emails: Genealogy Gems Podcast Toolbar Kathy Ott asks how to remove and hide the new toolbar.

How to remove the toolbar from a Mac:
In the Finder click on Applications (under Places menu)
There will likely be a "Toolbar" folder - click on that
There you should find the Genealogy Gems Podcast Toolbar folder - click on that
Click on the Uninstall icon

On a PC:
Open the Add or Remove Programs folder in the Control Panel
Click on the Genealogy Gems Podcast Toolbar
Click the Remove button

To temporarily hide the Toolbar on a PC:
Click on View from the menu
Unclick the toolbar

The Toolbar Search Box can be designated as a search box for the following sites:
- World Cat
- Google Books
- Google News Archive
- Library of Congress
- David Rumsey Historical Maps
- US Bureau of Land Management
- Wikipedia
- US National Archives
- UK National Archives
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Download the free toolbar

GEM: Mona Golabek
Listener Belinda Slocumb recommended a video to Lisa featuring pianist Mona Golabek and her unique presentation of her family history.

Listen to: The Romantic Hours

Become a Premium Member

CLOSING:
Lisa bids goodbye to the origins of her given name – the world’s longest-running daytime soap opera “As the World Turns” starring Eileen Fulton as Lisa Grimaldi (below).  The name "Lisa" was one of the top girl names in the 1960s.