Discovering your family history can be illuminating!

       Are you new to genealogy or has your research hit a brick wall? Whatever your interest, our shows provide a variety of genealogically related topics that could help. You will learn about best research practices and standards, where and how to access information, tips for breaking through a problem and more. Featured guests often include expert genealogists and historians with geographic or ethnic specialties. It’s also likely you will hear a personal story of discovery that informs and inspires.

       Once aired, the shows are always available on YouTube at this website. New shows are aired on Fairfax Public Access (FPA) channel 10 during the second and fourth weeks of each month at the following times: Sunday 1:00 PM, Wednesday at 8:00 PM and Saturday at 7:30 AM.

       The show has been on the air since 1997 and is currently hosted by Chuck Mason and Janell Blue. It is produced by Sidney Sachs and sponsored by the Mount Vernon Genealogy Society of Alexandria Virginia.

       Links to previous shows are available for viewing below

       Charles S. "Chuck" Mason, Jr. CG is a Certified Genealogist. He is a Past President of the Fairfax Genealogical Society and also of the Mount Vernon Genealogical Society. Chuck teaches genealogy classes for the Fairfax County Adult Education program and lectures at many conferences in the Mid-Atlantic area. He is a frequent contributor to the National Genealogical Society's Magazine and authors "Genealogy News and Issues" for their on-line newsletter, Up Front with NGS.

       Janell Blue is currently president of the board of Mount Vernon Genealogical Society. She is also a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists, National Genealogical Society, Fairfax Genealogical Society, Texas State Genealogical Society and Ulster Historical Society. She is a native Houstonian and has conducted considerable research on her family lines who were among the early German immigrants to Texas. Additional projects have included early families in eastern North Carolina and New Hampshire.

       Prof. Sachs is retired from teaching Computer Information Systems at Northern Virginia Community College. She held many positions in JGSGW including President, Vice President, Recording Secretary and computer consultant. She was the Secretary of the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS) and started and headed its International Cemetery Project for seven years. She is the author of "The Dairies of Bernhard Cahn, ...".

       Dr. Sack, past president of the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies, was the founder and first president of JGSGW and is currently editor and co-owner of Avotaynu, The International Review of Jewish Genealogy. She co-directed several international genealogical seminars, including two in Israel and has served on the advisory committee of the Dorot Genealogy Center at Beth Hatefutsoth in Tel Aviv. Dr. Sack has co-authored several books, including Where We Once Walked: A Guide to the Jewish Communities Destroyed in the Holocaust and Guide to Jewish Genealogical Research in Israel. She edited Avotaynu Guide to Jewish Genealogy.

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Shows
Shows of special subjects:    Genetic and DNA    Jewish

Newer shows are on top of the following list

Janell Blue talked about why people moved from the east coast to the midwest.	VIEW NOW
Using newsletters for your research.	VIEW NOW
Genealogical questions are often answered using multiple sources of indirect information. Janell Blue discusses her approach to finding the father of an early settler in North Carolina.	VIEW NOW
Using different types of maps for your research.	VIEW NOW
Chuck Mason details the search process using pre-online access to records that serve as the basis for resources for many of today's database sites.	VIEW NOW
Follow Janell Blue's travels as she looked for hwe ancestors and living relatives while in Europe.	VIEW NOW
Do not believe everything in a document.	VIEW NOW
Chuck Mason talked about want he should had done when he started to research.	VIEW NOW
Understanding the Records and What are They Telling You. Be aware of changes. One change is relating to the places our ancestors lived have taken place. These may be the names of streets, cities, counties, and other geographic locations. Another example is if you attend a church today, you will usually sit in a "pew". But did the word "pew" mean the same thing to your colonial ancestor as it does to you? Over time, the meaning of words has changed. To understand our ancestor’s lives, we need to understand the meaning of the words they used.	VIEW NOW
Using timelines to find how or why our ancestors did something.	VIEW NOW
Don't Make These Mistakes. Often researchers cause their own research problems by making assumptions. These assumptions are the reason they may not look at records. They incorrectly assume they will not find the answers they seek in the records. In other cases, they limit the records they search.	VIEW NOW
Understanding the Hidden Clues in Records? Our ancestors were governed by laws that may have restricted the records they could create. At what age could they be witnesses, own property, vote, make a will, and marry? Understanding the law can assist in understanding the lives of our ancestors.	VIEW NOW
Sharon Hodges talked about her second great grandfather, a German who arrived in NYC before the opening of Castle Garden and what it was like for an immigrant living in the lower east side of Manhattan. Sharon Hodges what it was like for immigrants traveling in steerage to get to the US.	VIEW NOW VIEW NOW
How immigrants from France and Italy got to Texas before it came part of the United States.	VIEW NOW
Study of history books to learn how people live.	VIEW NOW
1950 U.S. Census Records. All the quesions that were asked on it. To find someone, the National Archives' URL is "http://www.archives.gov/research/census/1950" and to find someone enumeration district use "https://stevemorse.org/census/unified.html". (Be careful since the hand-written names were extracted by computers and there are many mistakes. For example, the name Paul once came out as Cant.)	VIEW NOW
Mileva Hartman told about her family coming to the United States in 1951 from Germany.	VIEW NOW
Chuck Mason talked about his research of his Scotland ancestors.	VIEW NOW
Researching persons who were in the military during the American Revolutionary and Civil Wars using Fold3 website.	VIEW NOW
Researching persons who were in the military during the Civil and other US Wars. using Fold3 website.	VIEW NOW
Arthur L Johnson talked about his book "Just a Few Lines" which were based on letters by his family members that were in World War II. Arthur L Johnson talked about his book "On the Eve of War" which were based on travel of his three great-aunts that travel to Europe just before the start of World War II.	VIEW NOW VIEW NOW
Interview with Robert H. Pratt, Lt. Colonel (Ret.) US Army, about his ancestor, Adrian Vassar who was a 1st Lieutenant and quartermaster. attached to a civil war regiment of the U.S. Colored Troops. Adrian was one of several of his ancestors who served. Robert H. Pratt tell how to research your civil war ancestors. (list of resources)	VIEW NOW VIEW NOW
Colonial research in the mid-Atlantic (NY, NJ, PA, DL, and MD) colonies/states: How by who the land was settled.	VIEW NOW
Colonial research in the mid-Atlantic (NY, NJ, PA, DL, and MD) colonies/states: How the land was divided.	VIEW NOW
Bruce Summers talked about his family colonial history. Bruce Summers talked about what he does as a personal historian.	VIEW NOW VIEW NOW
Gum Springs Community: Ronald L. Chase, founding director and president of Gum Springs Museum provides a brief history of Fairfax County´s Historic African-American community. Researching Enslaved Persons: Carol Campbell shares instructive research information about her 2x great-grandfather who was an Alabama plantation slave but later served in the 136st regimen colored troops during the civil war.	VIEW NOW VIEW NOW
Historic Cemeteries: Janell Blue spoke about the history and restoration of Brownsville Cemetery in Bremerton Washington.	VIEW NOW
On-Line Resources: Janell Blue highlighted some of the many genealogy related website that provide free information and instruction along with their fee courses. They are Genealogy on Facebook, Legacy Family Tree Webinars, Diahan Southard Your DNA Guide, Lisa Louise Cooke´s Genealogy Gems, American Ancestors by New England Historic Genealogical Society, Family Tree Magazine, Utah Genealogical Society, Family Search, Roots Web, Fairfax Genealogical Society, and Mount Vernon Genealogical Society	VIEW NOW
Chuck Mason give a number of shortcuts (methods) that will save you time in doing your research. They include maintaining a log of all your research.          (1st of two shows)          (2nd show)	VIEW NOW VIEW NOW
Locating a Birth Parent: Jon Marie Pearson speaks with host, Chuck Mason, about finding her birth parent and offers suggestions for others who are searching. Finding Original Records: Jon Marie Pearson and host, Janell Blue, discuss the collection at Jefferson County Historical Society in Henderson NY. Records available only at the local level are often overlooked by researchers but they often provide valuable individual or contextual information involving those who lived in the community.	VIEW NOW VIEW NOW
Don't make these mistakes	VIEW NOW
Understanding Records and what they are telling us.	VIEW NOW
Janell Blue talked about how she did her research of her ancestor that came from Germany to Texas in 1840s.	VIEW NOW
Our hosts talked about using obituaries.	VIEW NOW
Sharla P Rausch, Ph.D. talked about the Daughters of the American Revolution and using their information for your family genealogy. Sharla P Rausch, Ph.D. talked about how she research her family history.	VIEW NOW VIEW NOW
Cheryl Batchelor talked about her family farming history including using the Homestead Acts which including being pioneers in Florida and later in Texas. Cheryl Batchelor talked about how to interview members of your family plus others.	VIEW NOW VIEW NOW
Janell Blue talked about writing a family story of the time of the pandemic of 1918.	VIEW NOW
Paul Phelps, chair of the Mount Vernon Genealogy Society's Writing Family History Special Interest Group talked about is to get some of your family history down on paper, even if it's just a paragraph or a page.	VIEW NOW
Paul Phelps talked about getting started in writing your family history.	VIEW NOW
Genealogy and the Warlock - Story of a Rabbi accused of witchcraft and the romanticizes story of him. Do not always believe what is printed.	VIEW NOW
United States Federal Census	VIEW NOW
Understanding the Genealogical Proof Standard, Chuck Mason talk about his experience using proof standard in finding his grandmother birth information.	VIEW NOW
Mary Ann Evan talked about researching your Polish ancestors.	VIEW NOW
How to begin doing Eastern European genealogy research with Mary Ann Evan.	VIEW NOW
Show about finding ancestor's vital marriage and death records.	VIEW NOW
Show about finding ancestor�s vital birth records.	VIEW NOW
Professional Genealogist FindingThingsforU, LLC talked about some of her research.	VIEW NOW
Char McCargo Bah talked about doing Afro-American genealogy.	VIEW NOW
Janell Blue talked about getting to know your ancestors.	VIEW NOW
Geraldine "Gerry" Ward talked about the Mount Vernon Genealogical Society Research Center.	VIEW NOW
Using U.S. Records to find an immigrant surname and village of origin was the subject of Carol Kostakos Petranek	VIEW NOW
Carol Kostakos Petranek talked about her trips to Greek for digitization and preservation of Church records	VIEW NOW
Patricia Walls Stamm talked about using the Natioanl Archeive (including College Park branch) and Library of Congress for research.	VIEW NOW
Federal Depository Library Program was the topic of the show with Patricia Walls Stamm.	VIEW NOW
Janell Blue talked about "causal research".	VIEW NOW
Our co-hosts talked about how they starting to do their genealogy.	VIEW NOW
Jeffrey Welch talked about finding lost relatives including Pocahontas.	VIEW NOW
Jeffrey Welch talked about his genealogy research.	VIEW NOW
Daniel Horowitz, Genealogy Expert of MyHeritage, talk about what are some of the new features and historical records released by the company. Daniel Horowitz, Genealogy Expert, explained some of the latest DNA features in MyHeritage for everyone that either test with or upload their autosomal DNA to MyHeritage. Andy Hochreiter, an instructor for Genetic Genealogy, is a special co-host of the show.	VIEW NOW VIEW NOW
Linda MacLachlan talked about five divide groups that starting different settlements in New England in colonial times.	VIEW NOW
Linda MacLachlan talked about doing research of her husband family from colonial times in New England.	VIEW NOW
Our hosts talked about common mistakes that are made when doing genealogy research.	VIEW NOW
Our hosts talked about understanding records since words and there meaning have changed over the years.	VIEW NOW
Robert Dunsfield discussed when and why Germans came to America from the 1600s on and through which ports they would have used. Robert Dunsfield talks about German church records which include more than only members of that particular church. The website for the online, searchable version with historical maps is Meyers Gazetteer.	VIEW NOW VIEW NOW
Anne Bolon (see annebhistory.com) explains the importance of the history of ancestry of your family and how this is done thru interviews. Anne Bolon (see annebhistory.com) talked about interviewing older persons in the family to understand the what and why of decisions they made. The circumstances and reasons are often very different from what were.	VIEW NOW VIEW NOW
Arline Sachs showed how many documents considered to be accurate actually contained errors that were copied over and over for over 150 years. It also showed more recent documents that contained errors in information such as names, ages etc. This emphasized the need to get many documents to make sure the information is correct.	VIEW NOW
Arline Sachs explained how one can translate an entire book (without knowing more than a tiny bit of the language) by using several on-line translation programs. The sample shown was from Hebrew to English, but the method can be applied to any language. A few samples were shown where on-line programs got confused, but by looking at several translation programs a good English version was achieved.	VIEW NOW
Paul McFarland talked about what you should do before doing a research trip to Ireland. Paul McFarland talked about getting started in Irish research.	VIEW NOW VIEW NOW
LaBrenda Garrett-Nelson, JD, LLM, CG�, CGLSM talked about ethics with DNA. LaBrenda Garrett-Nelson, JD, LLM, CG�, CGLSM talked about recent events with DNA.	VIEW NOW VIEW NOW
Pat Stamm talked about a 7 steps for a research plan process on our 400th show.	VIEW NOW
Pat Stamm joined hosts Arline Sachs and Chuck Mason and told how using the web you can locate books. The URLs are: www.worldcat.org www.familysearch.org books.google.com www.archive.org www.hathitrust.org	VIEW NOW
Carol Kostakos Petranek, Assistant Director of Washington DC Family History Center talked about the new cool features at FamilySearch. Carol Kostakos Petranek talked with Chuck Mason about "Digitizing and Preserving the World Records.	VIEW NOW VIEW NOW
Our hosts talked about planning a research trip.	VIEW NOW
Janell Blue talked about meeting her relatives on a trip to Poland.	VIEW NOW
Chuck Mason talked about what you may find when you clean a family home.	VIEW NOW
Mike Brownell and his counsin Juho Nieminen who is visiting from Finland talked about how they found each other.	VIEW NOW
Chuck Mason and Janell Blue talked about cemeteries and their records.	VIEW NOW
Our hosts talked about Funeral Homes and their reports.	VIEW NOW
Chuck Mason and Janell Blue talked about using the National Archives for genealogy research.	VIEW NOW
Chuck Mason and Janell Blue talked about getting started with your genealogy research.	VIEW NOW
Bob Dunfield talk about the historical and genealogical research into the lineage and lives of our German-speaking ancestors. (2nd show)	VIEW NOW
Bob Dunfield talk about the historical and genealogical research into the lineage and lives of our German-speaking ancestors. (1st show)	VIEW NOW
Chuck Mason and Janell Blue talked about interviewing family members.	VIEW NOW
Chuck Mason and Janell Blue talked about genealogical proof standards.	VIEW NOW
Sharon Hodges talked about common mistakes often made by less experienced researchers.	VIEW NOW
Sharon Hodges talked about naturalization laws and the various records created by those laws between 1790 and 1906.	VIEW NOW
Chuck Mason and Janell Blue talked about genealogical conferences and institutes that they had attached .	VIEW NOW
Chuck Mason and Janell Blue talked about Genealogical Education Websites. Links to them are find here.	VIEW NOW
Patricia Walls Stamm, GM, CGL talked about using the non-population sections of a US Cencus.	VIEW NOW
Patricia Walls Stamm, the education manager of the National Genealoical Society, talked about using libraries.	VIEW NOW
Daniel Horowitz, the Genealogy Expert at MyHeritage, talked about what new is available to users of MyHeritage. Show included remarks from Jim Bartlett about the success he had since using their product.	VIEW NOW
Jim Bartlett and Israel Pickholtz talked about their Surname projects.	VIEW NOW
Israel Pickholtz talked about his new book Endogamy: One Family, One People Paperback	VIEW NOW
Sharon B. Hodges talked about what to do if your family came to the United States and did not enter through New York.	VIEW NOW
Sharon B. Hodges talked about what to do with your research if no one want it.	VIEW NOW
Peter Lande, a volunteer at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM), talked about how one should do research there, starting on the second floor.
Leslie Anderson, a Research Librarian at the Alexandria Virginia Library, talked about the many unexpected things you may find in her (and other) research libraries.	VIEW NOW
Leslie Anderson told about what she had to do to write the winning article in the NGS Annual content.	VIEW NOW
This show with guest Carol Kostakos is about Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness (RAOGK.org) explaining how anyone can help with genealogical research. When you use an index someone else volunteered to do the indexing. This was about various ways one can contribute.	VIEW NOW
Carol Kostakos explained about the Family Search web site and Family History Centers.	VIEW NOW
Our hosts talked about the need of learning what was happening at the time of your relatives.	VIEW NOW
Vadim Alskan and Ellen Hegen talked about new acquisitions at the United States Holocause Memorial Museum. The second talked about information from England speaking counties.	VIEW NOW
Vadim Alskan and Ellen Hegen talked about new acquisitions at the United States Holocause Memorial Museum.	VIEW NOW
Nadia Lipes, an Ukrainian Jewish genealogist and guide explained what one should do before asking the help of a professional genealogist in another country.	VIEW NOW
Nadia Lipes, an Ukrainian Jewish genealogist and guide, talked about resources that she accesses in Ukraine.	VIEW NOW
Genie Milgrom talked about how she search her maternal lineage back to pre-inquisition Spain and Portugal.	VIEW NOW
Genie Milgrom talked about her unbroken maternal lineage going back as far as 1480 to pre-inquisition Spain and Portugal.	VIEW NOW
Mark Strauss explained how he used Autosomal DNA to contact formerly unknown family members.	VIEW NOW
Mark Strauss told how he and his family went on a visit to his ancestral home town of Z�t�ny, which is now in Slovakia.	VIEW NOW
Hosts Arline Sachs and Chuck Mason discussed how inherited artifacts or documents can give you clues to the life of the family.	VIEW NOW
Sachs and Sacks talk about the important of networking with others.	VIEW NOW
Sachs and Sacks discussed some success stories where genealogists used persistence and some unusual means of finding relatives. The web site mentioned in the show is Promethease, a literature retrieval system that builds a personal DNA report based on the scientific literature cited in SNPedia and a file of genotype (DNA) data from 23andMe, FamilyTreeDNA, and Ancestry.com.	VIEW NOW
Patricia Walls Stamm, GM, CGL talked about death different types of newspapers and the different items other than obituaries they can be used for.	VIEW NOW
Patricia Walls Stamm, GM, CGL talked about death has many faces.	VIEW NOW
Chuck Mason talked about secret societies.	VIEW NOW
Arline Sachs and Chuck Mason talked about different problems they had doing research.	VIEW NOW
Ronald Nicely talked about how in Pennsylvania he did his research for his new book "The 50,000 Year DNA Journey of the Knussli Family"	VIEW NOW
Ronald Nicely talked about his new book "The 50,000 Year DNA Journey of the Knussli Family"	VIEW NOW
Sharon Hodges spoke of the conditions under which immigrants traveled to the new world. She explained how the conditions of steerage passage changed over the years.	VIEW NOW
Arline Sachs and Chuck Mason welcomed Sharon Hodges who talked about the conditions of tenement housing at the beginning of the 19th century and about the various communities such as Jewish, German, Italian, etc.	VIEW NOW
Arline Sachs and Chuck Mason talked about the different types of classes that are offered, through genealogy societies, county education, historical societies, etc. and what to expect.	VIEW NOW
Chuck Mason explained what the different categories of professional genealogists, such as professional, certified etc. and what they can do to help the genealogist.	VIEW NOW
State Censuses	VIEW NOW
Arline Sachs and Chuck Mason discussed the things that genealogists should and should not do when publishing their research.	VIEW NOW
Guest Alan Rems, a volunteer in the Virginia Room in the Fairfax Library, told about the marvelous Judaic collection that is there. All types of Judaic material useful for genealogy is included, even some maps.	VIEW NOW
Laura Wickstead, librarian at the Virginia Room of the City of Fairfax Regional Library in Fairfax Virginia spoke of the library's amazing collection of genealogy material, both Jewish and general. The email address is: va_room@fairfaxcounty.gov and the web page for the Fairfax county library is fairfaxcounty.gov/library.	VIEW NOW
William E. Howard III talked about how his ancestors came to this country on the first ships to both Massachusetts and Maryland, about another ancestor who married her escort on the trip to the new world, and how genealogy and DNA worked together to improve his family tree.	VIEW NOW
Pat Stamm joined our hosts to talked about using the public libraries.	VIEW NOW
Pat Stamm talked about getting old United States' military records.	VIEW NOW
Chuck Mason talked about Estate Inventories and what they can tell about how life was.	VIEW NOW
Chuck Mason talked about Guardianship Records and how to use them in Genealogy.	VIEW NOW
Check out the neigberhood where your family lived.	VIEW NOW
Lou Albert talked about researching French-Canadian ancestors. The focus of this show was late 19th and 20th centuries. He showed many books that can be used for research there. Some web pages mentioned were: American French Genealogical Society American-Canadian Genealogical Society French-Canadian Heritage Society of Michigan Programme de Recherche en Demographie Historique The introductory book was: French Canadian Sources published by Ancestry.com	VIEW NOW
Lou Albert talked about researching French-Canadian from the beginning of settlement. He showed many books and talked about different resources.	VIEW NOW
Sharon Hodges talked about where to find information of people that lived in the District of Columbia.	VIEW NOW
Sachs and Mason talked to John and Carole Hirschmann about what their unusual finds when they went to Germany to find out about their ancestors.	VIEW NOW
Sachs and Mason talked to John Hirschmann about how he planned a trip to Germany to do research.	VIEW NOW
Chuck Mason and Arline Sachs discussed how and where to find the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) 1933-1943 Records. Some selected websites are National Association of Civilian Conservation Corps Alumni; National Personnel Record Center St. Louis, MO, Civilian Personnel Records; and United States History - Civilian Conservation Corps.	VIEW NOW
Chuck Mason and Arline Sachs discussed how and where to find the Works Projects Administration (WPA) 1935-1943 Records.	VIEW NOW
Arline Sachs, Sallyann Sack and Chuck Mason talked about the 300 shows that have been recorded and the 150 that are on-line for anyone to watch. They briefly discussed some of the shows they found most interesting and/or most helpful for genealogical research.	VIEW NOW
Fintan Mullan and Dr. Brian Trainor talked about the how to tracing Irish and Scots-Irish ancestors.	VIEW NOW
Rachel Leah Jablon talked about the websites she used for her Ph.D. dissertation.	VIEW NOW
Fintan Mullan and Dr. Brian Trainor talked about the Ulster Historical Foundation which is a long-established, highly reputable research and publishing agency. It offers extensive knowledge on the sources available for tracing Irish and Scots-Irish ancestors.	VIEW NOW
Our panel of experts talked about some common errors made by them when they started to do genealogy.	VIEW NOW
Sharon Hodges, CG joined our hosts Chuck Mason, CG and Arline Sachs to talked about the importance of recording proper citations for all your genealogy information.	VIEW NOW
The topic was the Nationalism and Immigration records at the National Archives	VIEW NOW
Pat Stamm, the education manager of the National Genealoical Society talked about the educational opportunties available for genealogy.	VIEW NOW
Sharon B. Hodges, CG talked about knowing the local history.	VIEW NOW
Pat Stamm talked about the differ death records.	VIEW NOW
Sharon B. Hodges, CG talked about avoiding pittfalls.	VIEW NOW
Richard Camaur talked about the important of knowing history when doing genealogy.	VIEW NOW
Richard Camaur joined our host to talk about the coming to an understanding between you and the professional genealogist before hiring him/her.	VIEW NOW
Non-Federation Local Researchs	VIEW NOW
Federation Local Researchs	VIEW NOW
Genealogy Societies	VIEW NOW
Finding Lost Cousins	VIEW NOW
Network TV Shows	VIEW NOW
Little Germany	VIEW NOW
Thomas W. Jones, Ph.D., CG, CGL talked about Inferential Genealogy, deducing ancestors' identities.	VIEW NOW
Linda Woodward Geiger, CG, CGL talked about what to consider when making a personnel genealogical web site.	VIEW NOW
Thomas W. Jones, Ph.D., CG, CGL talked about teaching Genealogy at the College Level at Boston University. Classes are both in the classroom and on-line.	VIEW NOW
Pamela Boyer Sayre, CG, CGL talked about GEDCOM (GEnealogical Data COMmunications) files which are special forms of text files used for transferring genealogy data between genealogy programs without retyping the data. They can be read by any word processor and have the file name extension of ".ged".	VIEW NOW
Leslie Bouvier talked about do Scandinavian research.	VIEW NOW
Sharon B. Hodges talks about early naturalization records in the United States.	VIEW NOW
Leslie Bouvier, a professional editor, talked about how she edited papers.	VIEW NOW
Chuck Mason talked about World War II draft requirements and how to get them.	VIEW NOW
Sharon B. Hodges talks about doing research at different repositories for information.	VIEW NOW
Our hosts talked about how they keep track of the many paper documents they collect and of locations they have already checked.	VIEW NOW
Steve Morse talked about his 1-step web pages.	VIEW NOW
Chuck Mason talked about the different World War I draft requirements and how they are useful for genealogy.	VIEW NOW
When the 1940 census is released in April 2012, it will not have a name index. Such an index will not be available for perhaps up to six months after opening day. So finding people in the census will involve searching by location instead. Dr. Stephen P. Morse told how to find your names by finding the proper Enumeration Districts (EDs) by using his One-Step website, so the census can be accessed.	VIEW NOW
Colleen Fitzpatrick, PhD, a forensic genealogical consultant for major military and civilian organizations, talked about the identification of the remains found in the wreckage of Northwest Flight 4422 that crashed in Alaska in 1948; identified the remains of the Unknown Child of the Titanic; and several other cases. The web site is "http://www.identifinders.com/" and the blog site is "http://identifinders.wordpress.com/".	VIEW NOW
Cherly D. Crosby talked about the vast quantities of archived historical information which previously furnished only on microfilm that is now available on the internet as full text searchable databases by Accessible Archives.	VIEW NOW
Linda MacLachlan talked about early New England research. The comprehensive index mentioned on the show can be find at http://www.americanancestors.org/pre-1636-new-england-immigrants/.	VIEW NOW
Colleen Fitzpatrick, a forensic genealogist, explained who she can date a picture by looking at minute details overlooked by most of us.	VIEW NOW
Kim Phillips from Sydney talked about the free on-line vital records of Australia.	VIEW NOW
Sallyann Sack and Arline Sachs talked getting started in genealogy.	VIEW NOW
Linda MacLachlan talked about the Mount Vernon Genealogy Society which she is the president.	VIEW NOW
Daniel Horowitz talked about using mobile devices for helping genealogists to sharing family information.	VIEW NOW
Daniel Horowitz, Chief Genealogist of MyHeritage talked about that free web site.	VIEW NOW
Federal Land Records, which date from the founding of this country, including where and how they can be accessed, were discussed by Pat "DearMYRTLE" Richley-Erickson and Chuck Mason, CG.	VIEW NOW
DearMYRTE author of a genealogy blog for helping beginners, showed how easy it is to set up your own blog and to access others.	VIEW NOW
Peggy Pearlstein talked about using the Library of Congress web site.	VIEW NOW
The volunteer crew for the show asked some of their questions.	VIEW NOW
Sandra MacLean Clunies, CG talked about how to plan, produce, and publish for a memorable reunion occasion. She is the author of A Family Affair: How To Plan and Direct the Best Family Reunion Ever.	VIEW NOW
Sandra MacLean Clunies, CG talked about strategies for identifying �the lost ladies� in your lineage.	VIEW NOW
What you should do before attending a conference	VIEW NOW
Sallyann Sack talked about "Halbrook's original name" and how she found it without too much trouble.	VIEW NOW
Boris Feldblyum talked about "False Conclusions" with Sallyann Sack and Arline Sachs.	VIEW NOW
Sharon B. Hodges talked about "Maryland Repostonies"	VIEW NOW
Sharon B. Hodges talked about "Using Census Records"	VIEW NOW
John Humphrey, C.G., author of Finding Your German Ancestors: A Practical Guide for Genealogists, joined our hosts talking about the history of Germans coming to the United States in the last three hundreds years. -->	VIEW NOW
John Humphrey, C.G. talked about the detailed genealogical records for millions of German soldiers, public officials, police, firefighters and teachers dating back to the 1930s and '40s that is available at the U.S. National Archives.at College Park, MD -->	VIEW NOW
Ronald Nicely told of meeting his Native American cousins, descendents of his 4xgreatgrandfather's brother, who had been captured by the Native Americans when he was only 5 years old, 225 years ago. Based on this history Nicely wrote "The Indian Capture of Jacob (Kneisle) Nicely". -->	VIEW NOW
This show discusses the online version of Ele Toldot. This collection from notebooks has an individual page of data for each of almost 10,000 Jew who died in Frankfurt-am-Main until from 1200 to the early twentieth century. It was compiled by Shlomo Ettlinger. The collection was placed on the web by the Leo Baeck Institute. -->	VIEW NOW
Sallyann Sack described the censuses compiled by Sir Moses Montefiore in the 1800s of Jewish inhabitants of the Holy Land, Alexandria, Sidon (Saida) and Beirut. -->	VIEW NOW
Richard Camaur discussed birth, marry and death records in Europe and how to find them. -->	VIEW NOW
Richard Camaur discussed military records in Europe with an emphasis on the Austrian-Hungarian empire. He explained how and where to find such records. -->	VIEW NOW
Linda Woodward Geiger, CG, CGL talks about doing American Indian research, in particular the Cherokee Indians. -->	VIEW NOW
Pamela Boyer Sayre, CG, CGL of Memory Lane Genealogy talks about Social Security Sleuthing .-->	VIEW NOW
Co-hosts Sachs and Mason discuss writing letters or emails and what one should and should not ask or and what to include in a request for information. -->	VIEW NOW
Guest David Marshall, producer of lifestory video biographies, explained how he makes videos about a family through many hours of interviews. He explained what he had to do to make sometimes hesitant seniors speak of their family lore. -->	VIEW NOW
Dr. Albert Kaganovitch talked about the history of the small Jewish town of Rechitsa in southeast Belarus in the 17 to 20 centuries. -->	VIEW NOW
Sharon B. Hodges introduced many overlooked sources of information such as voting records and other sources. -->	VIEW NOW
Edwrd David Luft joined Sallyann Sack and Arline Sachs to discuss different type of directories.-->	VIEW NOW
Ron Arons discussed a variety of websites for finding historical maps and the basics of Microsoft Maps (www.bing.com/maps) and Google Maps (maps.google.com). He also talked about online mapping tools, including Microsoft's MapCruncher facility, IBM�s Many Eyes, Muckety.com, and others. -->	VIEW NOW
The importance of the census records was discussed with our hosts and Sharon B. Hodges. -->	VIEW NOW
Sallyann Sack talked about how, after 30 years of following false leads, she was able to finally solve the mystery of her grandfather. -->	VIEW NOW
Kenneth X. Robbins, editor of the forthcoming multi-volume study on Jews of India, gives a background and history of the study. -->	VIEW NOW
Arline Sachs and Leslie Bouvier discussed how Excel (or other spreadsheet program) can be used to supplement any standard genealogy program and aid in research. -->	VIEW NOW
Ron Arons talked about his new book "Wanted! U.S. Criminal Records", a reference that lists archives, libraries, courts and online sites with the information one needs to track down the black sheep in your family. -->	VIEW NOW
Arline Sachs and Leslie Bouvier discuss different methods of research used in Germany even though both reasearched the same general area, Hesse. -->	VIEW NOW
Finding towns and names from the old country. Sallyann Sack and Arline Sachs discussed numerous documents that can be used to find out where a person may have came from and what names that person had used before. -->	VIEW NOW
Sallyann Sack, founder and Chair of the Executive Committee of International Institute for jewish Genealogy (IIJG) in Jerusalem talked about the different activities of the institute. It is committed to developing Jewish genealogy into a recognized field of academic investigation, Within the realm of Jewish Studies and in association with a broad range of other sciences on an inter-disciplinary basis. IIJG seeks to do this by conducting scholarly research into all aspects of Jewish genealogy, both independently and collaboratively with other institutions and social scientists, as well as by promoting the teaching of Jewish genealogy at university level. -->	VIEW NOW
Ethics = value based judgments. Dr Thomas Jones, editor of �NGS Quarterly�, joined our hosts to discussed what one can, should or should not include on a published family tree. What kind of information should be given about a living person, or how honest is honest. What if one person wants something added and another says �no�. Who �owns� the data? Who has the right to publish it? -->	VIEW NOW
Dr Thomas Jones, editor of �NGS Quarterly�, discussed being careful about using the Internet for gneealogy. One must carefully check the sources of the data found on the web. Were did this data come from? If one can click on some information and see the source data, then it has more of a chance of being right. Often there are known errors found in data on the web. One person may have found the correct information but the older data is still being used as though it were true. One must also be aware of the conclusion reached, and of information presenhted out of context of the original. Incomplete information may also slant a conclusion. -->	VIEW NOW
Prof. Sachs and Dr. Sack talked about getting started in Genealogy. Included was a case study about finding information using the internet. -->	VIEW NOW
Chuck Mason joined Arline Sachs to talk about a web site "Find A Grave.com" which allows people to add information about both graves and cemeteries around the world. -->	VIEW NOW
Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak, Chief Family Historian of Ancestry.com, talked about using her genealogy methods to find the next-of-kin of unclaimed persons and remains of military bodies. Also discussed was using DNA to show that her husband's family was different than hers. -->	VIEW NOW
Can non-Jews attend the annual International Conference of Jewish Genealogy and learn anything that will help them? Hear Chuck Mason, a certified genealogist, answer this question and compare it to conferences of the Federation of Genealogical Societies and the National Genealogical Society. -->	VIEW NOW
Sharon Hodges, a professional genealogist, talked about the history of passports and how to use them for genealogy. -->	VIEW NOW
Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak would talk about Roots Television, an internet channel by and for avid genealogists and family history lovers of all stripes. -->	VIEW NOW
Sharon Hodges, a professional genealogist, talked about the difference requirement of doing genealogy research in large cities and small town. -->	VIEW NOW
Our hosts talked about what you should do while on a research trip and what to be prepared for. -->	VIEW NOW
Our hosts talked about what needs to be done before deciding to go somewhere to do research, including contacts by writing letters and phoning. -->	VIEW NOW
Daniel Horowitz talked about motivating students through genealogy to identify with their family and learn other subjects such as geography, history and math by investigating their family�s history. He published a study guide name �Searching for My Roots� to help children, parents and teachers to do genealogical research work; describing a step-by-step process with small activities and examples of all the necessary task and subjects that need to be covered and guide them thru all the necessary steps and keeping things as simple as possible. -->	VIEW NOW
Fred Blum talked about how he found lost relatives. -->	VIEW NOW
Chuck Mason talked about the records that can be found in a courthouse. -->	VIEW NOW
Daniel Horowitz talked about his FREE internet service MyHeritage.com for sharing your family tree and photos with the people you know. It use face recognition technology to help identify unknown people in old pictures. -->	VIEW NOW
Fred Blum, President of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Philadephia, would talk about their August 2 to 7, 2009 International Conference on Jewish Genealogy. -->	VIEW NOW
Chuck Mason, President of the Fairfax Genealogy Society and former president of Mount Vernon Genealogical Society joined our hosts in answering the question "Why join a genealogy Society?"	VIEW NOW
Our hosts talked about many newly available sources, which are not enough for a full show, but might be important to the viewer.	VIEW NOW
Lindsey l. Tonsager, a lawyer in the media and comunications group at the Washingotn, D.C. office of Covington & Burling, will talk on copyright questions that may arise in the course of genealogical research and the publication of family histories and other works on genealogy.	VIEW NOW
Chuck Mason, President of the Fairfax Genealogy Society, talked about probate records and estate inventories and what could be found in such records.	VIEW NOW
Charles "Chuck" Mason, Jr., CG talked about finding different types of death records such as cemetery record. burial plots and funeral home records.	VIEW NOW
Margo Williams talked about doing Native American Research.	VIEW NOW
Margo Williams talked about doing Afro-American Research	VIEW NOW
Dr. Sacks and Prof. Sachs discuss their recent trip along with 38 others researchers to be the first group to do research at the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolson, Germany. This is the location of all Nazi records captured by the Allied Nations.	VIEW NOW
Rita Souther talked about doing American Indian research.	VIEW NOW
Rita Souther talked about Family History Centers.	VIEW NOW
Faith Klein and Arline Sachs talked about what they do with their information.	VIEW NOW
Our hosts discussed the many research facilities that are invaluable for research but that need to be visited in person. Many places have only a small portion of their data on-line, or have only an index of their holdings. It is necessary to understand what can be found and how to access that data.	VIEW NOW
Sallyann Sack, who just returned from ITS (International Tracing Service) in Arolson, Germany explained the advantages of a person doing research there. She and Gary Mokotoff will lead the first tour there, from May 5 to 9, to do Holocaust research. The overall index which includes everyone who even asked about anyone is available only there. To register for the trip contact Gary Mokotoff.	VIEW NOW
Jeffery S. Malka will go online to show his "Sephardic Genealogy" web site "http://Sephardicgen.com".	VIEW NOW
Documentation: After interviewing family, one must follow-up by finding documentation for the people or events mentioned. The most common types of documents were discussed and sources for many were given.	VIEW NOW
Interviewing:Sallyann Sack and Arline Sachs discussed the very important activity of interviewing when beginning doing genealogy. Different techniques and methods were explained and the types of questions to be asked were mentioned.	VIEW NOW
Micheal Matsas, author of "The Illusion of Safety, the Story of Greek Jews during the Second World War" talked about his book and where he found the information. One place was the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum in Hyde Park, New York.	VIEW NOW
The 10th anniversary show reviewed some of the highlights of past shows and previewed upcoming topics. One new web site mentioned was Famillion.com, which is a world wide family record project that will try to connect people all over the world.	VIEW NOW
"The Source, A Guidebook to American Genealogy" is the definitive reference for genealogical research in the US. New in this edition are materials on doing research on the internet, something genealogists now need to learn. Also mentioned was a new web site call Footnote.com where 2 millions National Archives' images are being added each month.	VIEW NOW
Elias Savada tells us about the various resources he uses to trace his family in New York City. His guide was the book "Genealogical Resources in New York" published by the Jewish Genealogical Society of New York. His uses the microfilms of vital records at the New York City Municipal Archives. Before going there, he assembles a chronological list of records he wants to examine/photocopy by using databases from the German and Italian Genealogical Groups. Steven Morse�s website makes searching these databases much easier. Savada places all the retrieved certificate numbers into a computer spreadsheet and sorts it by date to make finding the information at the Municipal Archives easier. He also mentions that pictures of many tombstones from upstate New York are found at JewishData.Com and the New York Times which can be found at some local county libraries that subscribe to ProQuest.	VIEW NOW
Our hosts talked about different phonetic algorithm "Soundex" for indexing names by sound, not by spelling, in different databases with names.	VIEW NOW
Genealogists are very good at doing research and collecting many facts about our families. For a number of reasons, however, most of us delay publishing the results of this research. Mike Karsen, a professional genealogist, explained how to write your family history in books that vary from a simple 30 pages to one that contains detailed biographies and places your family in historical context. Your goal should be to organize your findings and share them with your family NOW!	VIEW NOW
Benjamin B. Terner explained how he encouraged and helped people to write their family memoirs as short stories. By giving people one topic, such as 'your mother' to write about, successive meetings end with a creative description of the family one knew.	VIEW NOW
Suzanne Levy, librarian of the Virginia Room at the Fairfax County library in Fairfax City, Virginia explained how the library has become a major resource for Jewish genealogy. She showed some of the reference materials that are available there and explained how individuals can make use of these resources, some of which are online. She also mentioned how local libraries are a useful source for doing genealogical research.	VIEW NOW
Edward David Luft explained how he located where a missing ancestor not originally find in the 1860 census was by using tax records at the National Archives and land maps at the Library of Congress. Books mentioned were A Checklist of the Nineteenth Century County Maps in the Library of Congress and United States Department of Commerce's "Twenty Censuses: Population and Housing Questions, 1790-1980"	VIEW NOW
Thomas W. Jones, Ph.D., CG, CGL, editor of National Genealogical Society Quarterly talked about the skill set and knowledge base for effective genealogical research. Web sites mentioned were Samford University's Institute on Genealogical and Historical Research National Institute on Genealogical Research Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy National Genealogical Society NGS online learning center BYU free Web courses National Institute for Genealogical Studies	VIEW NOW
Stephen H. Snell talked about the initial steps that have been taken in planning the Snell family reunion for October 2009. First he had to find others people who are descened from the Thomas Snell who came over from England in the 1639. Some interested respondents became planning committee for the reunion. The committee created into four subgroups - arrangement, history, DNA and publicity. The book used for planning the meeting was Great Meeting, Great Results by Dee Kelsey and Pam Plumb.	VIEW NOW
Our hosts talked about methodology for beginning genealogical research. The discussion was based on the first chapter, Methodology: How to be a Genealogist by Eileen Polakoff, from the book Avotaynu - Guide to Jewish Genealogy.	VIEW NOW
Carol Whitton talked about reading old handwriting and German Script and gave the following helpful English sources: Kip Sperry's Reading Early American Handwriting Kent P Bailey and Ransom B. True's A Guide to Seventeenth-Century Virginia Court Handwriting and helpful German sources: Roger P. Minert's Deciphering Handwriting in German Documents, analyzing German, Latin, and French in vital records witten in Germany Edna Bentz's If I Can, You Can Decipher German Records. English Web Sites: Roots Web's Old Alpha Letters Ancestry.com's Tips for Reading Early American Handwriting USGS Geographic Names Information System German Web Sites: genealogy.net's Old German handwritten Scripts National Geospatial Intelligence Agency's GEOnet Names Server genealogy.net's German Town Locator by Arthur Teschler	VIEW NOW
Richard DiBuono talked about doing research on the web and in Italy. The following sites were mentioned on the show. All encompassing and best is Cyndi's List-Italy/Italia Mormon Church (LDS) Genealogy Website Ellis Island Immigration Records (from 1892) Family Immigration History Center Castle Garden, N.Y. Immigration Records (from 1830 - 1892) POINT organization (Pursuing Our Italian Names Together) Italian Genealogical Society of America Regalis: Guide to Italian Genealogy Research Italian Genealogical Group Roots Web (including USGen Web and WorldGen Web projects) Italiamerica (partly commercial) Ancestry.com (fully commercial): www.ancestry.com	VIEW NOW
Naomi Baumslag, MD, MPH talked about her book Murderous Medicine Nazi Doctors, Human Experimentation, and Typhus. More than 1.5 million concentration camp prisoners plus others in ghettos died of typhus, a preventable disease because Nazi Germany deliberately sought to create environments that would engender typhus.
Sallyann Sack spoke about a future project of the International Institue for Jewish Genealogy which is to reconstruct Holocaust destroyed communities. In one town already use as a test, family trees in the form of 25 GEDCOM files were combined using GenMerge. The results discovered over 30 additional names of unknown persons missing.
Peter Lande talked about the possible access to the International Tracing Service data now that the Germany government has change their position on making them available to other governments.
Downsizing and preserving your valuable documents.	VIEW NOW
Resources an author of an article in Avotaynu used to trace some of distance cousins.
Warren L. Miller, Commission Chairman of the US Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad talked about the Commission which was created by Congress in 1985 in response to concerns about the deterioration and destruction of cultural sites in Eastern and Central Europe of significance to U.S. citizens.
Our hosts goes online to demonstrate the following free websites that they found to be useful in their own genealogy: Family Search, Steven Morse, Hamburg Records, Yad Vashem, JewishGen and Avotaynu.	VIEW NOW
Library of Congress Online Catalogs with Dr. Peggy Perlstein. Included were Print and Photographs, Sound Online Inventory & Catalog, Basic Search and Guided Search, and Other Libraries'Catalogs. [LOC modified their web site since this show was taped.]	VIEW NOW
18th and 19th century Southern Germany with author Emily C. Rose - She told how she did the research for her book "Portraits of Our Past: Jews of the German Countryside" and gave helpful hints to doing research in Germany.	VIEW NOW
Patricia Walls Stamm, GM, CGL talked about lists and city directories.
Sallyann Sack talked about New York and other states' Freedom of Information Laws.
Our hosts taked about common mistakes in genealogy.
Bernice Kaufman and Shifra Cheilst talked about there trip to Poland.
Pat Stamm, the education manager of the National Genealoical Society, talked about using the Family Search web site. (2 shows).

Click here for shows taped in earlier years

Web Sites Mentioned on Most Shows Avotaynu JewishGen Jewish Genealogy Society of Greater Washington (JGSGW)     Steven Morse

For information about the series, e-mail the producer Sidney Sachs.

© Sidney Sachs, 2005-23