News You Can Use and Share! MyHeritage added 235 million historical records in February and 794 million historical records in March. MyHeritage released a new DNA facility named Ancient Origins, with which you can trace your origins back 10,000 years. MyHeritage introduced Cousin Finder. MyHeritage has published United States World War II Draft Registrations, 1940-1947. FamilySearch has added free historical records from 32 countries in April. FamilySearch has introduced the new FamilySearch Cat...
Apr 23, 2025•1 hr 19 min
News You Can Use and Share! MyHeritage added 1.2 billion historical records in January. MyHeritage released Ethnicity Estimate v2.5, the long-awaited ethnicity model, including 79 different ethnicities Listener Email Tom asks if there are reference materials for using AI in genealogical and historical research. (Not YouTube) Pam is searching for immigration and naturalization records for a couple who arrived ca. 1893 and wants to know if other resources are available to help locate those records...
Feb 24, 2025•54 min
The Guys wish everyone a Happy New Year! George gives a shout-out to Ed Brown for his continued support for the podcast! News You Can Use and Share The Genealogy Guys issued a press release announcing the discontinuation of the Genealogy Guys Learn subscription educational website effective 1 January 2025. The Guys have partnered with Legacy Family Tree Webinars to migrate their video content to Legacy over time. MyHeritage has announced the suspension of services in Russia due to Russian regula...
Jan 21, 2025•1 hr 7 min
Drew's guest is Jarrett Ross, the GeneaVlogger. Jarred has been producing hundreds of YouTube videos about genealogy for the past 7 years. You'll learn how Jarred started with genealogy and video production, and a lot about the history of Sephardic Jews. You can find out more about Jarrett's videos at https://www.youtube.com/@GeneaVlogger
Dec 23, 2024•49 min
Drew's guest is Brian Rhineheart, owner of CivilWarRecords.com, a service that retrieves military-related records from the National Archives in Washington, DC. In this episode, Drew and Brian discuss the various types of military-related records available either online or only in physical form, and how genealogists can learn more about their ancestors' military connections prior to requesting records. Brian also offers listeners a code ("connection") valid from the original posting date of this ...
Dec 09, 2024•48 min
For all who celebrate it, the Guys wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving! News You Can Use and Share! MyHeritage has introduced LiveMemoryTM, a new facility to animate entire photographs. It runs from an app on your phone and is currently free. Ancestry announces its project to index and digitize Korean War-era military records housed at NARA. Vivid-Pix announces it will expand Alzheimer’s Research by donating 5% of sales through 3 December 2024. FamilySearch celebrates 130 years of family discover...
Nov 27, 2024•1 hr
The Guys have been on a hiatus because of Hurricanes Helene and Milton and the damage in Florida. News You Can Use and Share! David Rencher, Chief Genealogy Officer at FamilySearch, received the Italian Heraldic Genealogical Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award. MyHeritage has given its Inbox a fresh new look. MyHeritage added 56 million new records in September 2004. MyHeritage has updated its Theory of Family Relativity facility by 40%. Ancestry has launched its largest update to DNA matches...
Oct 31, 2024•56 min
News You Can Use and Share! MyHeritage has acquired MesAieux.com, Quebec’s most popular family history service with more than 15 million historical records. MyHeritage added more than 84 million new records across 16 collections in August 2024. MyHeritage has added 261 million obituary records to its OldNews facility. Listener Email Julie is searching for any Pennsylvania birth records from ca. 1810 and marriage records. The Guys share some suggestions. Drew talks about his recent participation ...
Sep 09, 2024•59 min
News You Can Use and Share! MyHeritage added 20 million historical records in June. MyHeritage and Family Tree DNA announced a new partnership to connect DNA tests to family trees. JewishGen announced a new partnership between its Romania Research Division and the Jewish Federation of Romania to photograph and document Jewish graves. Drew talks about 19.4 million historical records released by FamilySearch in May 2024. Book Review The Guys review the latest book by Nathan Dylan Goodwin, The Dese...
Jul 30, 2024•55 min
News You Can Use and Share! MyHeritage added 123 million historical records in April and May. MyHeritage added millions of Nordic newspaper pages to OldNews.com. RootsMagic has released Version 10 of its award-winning software. Listener Email Jean-Daniel wrote to share an update about his research into Blaise Farny. Karin educates us about names for Austrian ‘sailors’. Lisa wrote to compliment Cathleen from New Hampshire’s research of her mother’s paternal grandfather, Georg Sokop. She was inspi...
Jun 30, 2024•53 min
News You Can Use and Share! MyHeritage added 71 million historical records in March, including French censuses! MyHeritage added three important New York City historical records collections, including indices and images. MyHeritage has added a multi-photo scanner to the MH mobile app. The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in College Park, Maryland, has unveiled a new Mass Digitization Center. It will address digitizing records in various formats up to 10 times faster yearl...
May 21, 2024•1 hr 8 min
News You Can Use and Share! MyHeritage added 168 million historical records in February. MyHeritage launched OldNews.com, a new website for exploring historical newspapers. MyHeritage introduced all-new profile pages with hints. Vivid-Pix announced the roll-out of Memory Stations, integrating scanning, its correction software, tagging, and more. Findmypast has begun digitizing, indexing, and publishing British Home Children records. The National Archives (TNA) announced that it will digitize the...
Apr 09, 2024•1 hr 6 min
David from Addison, Texas, is the winner of our drawing for a MyHeritage DNA kit. More drawings will be announced later this year. News You Can Use and Share! RootsTech, the world’s largest genealogy conference, takes place in Salt Lake City, Utah, and online next week, 29 February through 2 March 2024. FamilySearch International and American Ancestors announced a collaboration on the 10 Million Names Project. The project “seeks to recover the names and restore information to families of the est...
Feb 22, 2024•1 hr 18 min
Drew's guest is Donna Moughty, who led the research trip to Dublin that Drew joined in October 2023. In this episode, Drew and Donna discuss her experiences over many years in leading research trips to Ireland, and how researchers need to prepare before going on a research trip (no matter where their ancestors were from). To learn of Donna's background, see GC episode #002.
Jan 29, 2024•56 min
News You Can Use and Share! Don’t miss the opportunity to win a free MyHeritage DNA Kit. Listen to the MyHeritage ad later in this episode for details on submitting your entry to our raffle. MyHeritage recapped their activities in 2023: 4M DNA kits in their database 9M faces tagged with Photo Tagger 700M historical records added in 366 new collections 320M new Family Tree profiles added 4M MyHeritage and Reimagine mobile app downloaded 19M new Theories of Family Relativity™ New AI tools added: P...
Jan 23, 2024•1 hr 29 min
News You Can Use and Share The Genealogy Guys Learn site is still on sale through January 1, 2024! MyHeritage announces the release of a new exclusive collection: marriage certificates for North Rhine and Westphalia from 1874 through 1899. MyHeritage announces the release of AI Record Finder™, an interactive, free text chat to help locate historical records about an ancestor among MH’s 20 billion records. MyHeritage announces the release of AI Biographer™, which compiles a Wikipedia-like article...
Dec 30, 2023•1 hr 8 min
News You Can Use and Share We just added a new video to the subscription Genealogy Guys Learn site . It is "Archives and Special Collections: An Introduction" by associate librarian emeritus Drew Smith. MyHeritage memorializes two of its employees, Ron Shemer and Ilay Nachman, who were killed on 7 October 2023 at the onset of the Hamas-Israel War. My Heritage announced the addition of 43 million historical records in September 2023. MyHeritage released the 1931 Canada Census with a new index. Dr...
Nov 05, 2023•1 hr 5 min
In the previous episode, The Genealogy Guys Podcast announced that, in partnership with MyHeritage.com, we were giving away a FREE MyHeritage DNA Kit. The winner is Shontè Anthony from Maryland. An email with the code to redeem the kit is in the mail! News You Can Use and Share! The Black Cemetery Network (BCN) at https://blackcemeterynetwork.org is hosting an event in Tampa, Florida on 14 October 2023 from 10 AM to Noon to commemorate Black History and the Memorial Park Cemetery. It will begin ...
Oct 03, 2023•1 hr 25 min
The Genealogy Guys Podcast, in partnership with MyHeritage.com, is giving away a FREE MyHeritage DNA Kit. Please send an email to genealogyguys@gmail.com with your name and mailing address by no later than midnight U.S. Eastern Time on 31 August 2023 for your chance to win! News You Can Use and Share American Ancestors/New England Historic Genealogical Society has announced the 10 Million Names Project. The Project is a collaborative effort dedicated to recovering the names of the estimated 10 m...
Aug 10, 2023•52 min
News You Can Use and Share! The International African American Museum (IAAM) has officially opened in Charleston, South Carolina, and is partnering with Vivid-Pix with the installation of Vivid-Pix Memory Stations that allow visitors to scan, restore, save, and share their precious photos, documents, and stories. The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) has been gifted a new index containing 3.2 million searchable names to mark the centenary of PRONI. These are related to Valuation r...
Jul 18, 2023•1 hr 1 min
News You Can Use and Share! SUMMER SALE CONTINUES! The Genealogy Guys Learn subscription website is on sale for $64.00 per year – a 35% saving! We have scores of videos and written courses, and new content is added each month. Visit https://genealogyguyslearn.com/ , click the Enroll Now button, and complete the subscription form. Be sure to click on the Add Coupon link and use coupon code Summer2023. This deal is for new subscriptions only and is in effect until midnight ET on 30 June 2023. Libr...
Jun 20, 2023•57 min
News You Can Use and Share! SUMMER SALE! The Genealogy Guys Learn subscription website is on sale for $64.00 per year – a 35% saving! We have scores of videos and written courses, and new content is added each month. Visit https://genealogyguyslearn.com/ , click the Enroll Now button, and complete the subscription form. Be sure to click on the Add Coupon link and use coupon code Summer2023. This deal is for new subscriptions only and is in effect until midnight ET on 30 June 2023. MyHeritage has...
May 30, 2023•1 hr 7 min
News You Can Use and Share! Drew's new book, Generation by Generation: A Modern Approach to the Basics of Genealogy , has been published by Genealogical Publishing Company. It is being acclaimed as the best new book for beginning genealogists. You can order it at https://genealogical.com/store/generation-by-generation/ or at Amazon.com. A color ebook version will be available soon. MyHeritage announced the release of 38 million historical records collections in March 2023. George recaps those co...
Apr 27, 2023•1 hr 4 min
News You Can Use and Share! Drew Smith’s new book, Generation by Generation: A Modern Approach to the Basics of Genealogy , has been published by Genealogical Publishing Company. It is being acclaimed as the best new book for beginning genealogists. You can order it at https://genealogical.com/store/generation-by-generation/ or at Amazon.com. A new Kindle version will be available soon. MyHeritage announced the release of cM Explainer™, an innovative, free new feature on MyHeritage that estimate...
Mar 21, 2023•1 hr 2 min
News You Can Use and Share Drew Smith's new book, Generation by Generation: A Modern Approach to the Basics of Genealogy , has been published by Genealogical Publishing Company. You can order it at https://genealogical.com/store/generation-by-generation/ . On January 4, 2023, the United States Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) proposed substantial increases to the fees required to access historical records held by the USCIS Genealogy Program. The proposed hikes are especially infuri...
Feb 23, 2023•55 min
News You Can Use and Share! MyHeritage announces a new, free, searchable collection, Israel Immigration Lists, consisting of 1.7 million records from 1919 onwards, transcribed by MyHeritage from images stored at the Israel Archive. Dr. Wanda Wyporska, Chief Executive Officer of the Society of Genealogists, is stepping down in March 2023 to accept a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity at another organization. World Archives has rebranded as Storied and has launched a new, next-generation family histor...
Jan 29, 2023•59 min
News You Can Use and Share! MyHeritage announces Global Name TranslationTM for DNA Matches. (See our Genealogy Guys Blog posting at http://blog.genealogyguys.com/2022/12/myheritage-announces-new-global-name.html . Drew shares the 2022 FamilySearch Genealogy Highlights. Drew recaps the vast new and expanded collections at FamilySearch from November and December 2022. Book Review George and Drew review Nathan Dylan Goodwin’s latest genealogy mystery book, The Sawtooth Slayer , a Venator Cold Case....
Dec 31, 2022•1 hr 3 min
Watch the Genealogy Guys Blog ( blog.genealogyguys.com ) or our Facebook page ( www.facebook.com/genealogyguys ) on Friday, 25 November 2022, for a big announcement! News You Can Use and Share! MyHeritage has completed publishing the 1950 U.S. Census for all the states and territories. MyHeritage has released a new, fun photo tool called AI Time MachineTM. The Society of Genealogists has announced the purchase of new premises for themselves in London. Drew recaps the vast new and expanded collec...
Nov 22, 2022•57 min
We apologize for the delay in the publication of this episode. Hurricane Ian and some severe computer problems have presented production challenges. News You Can Use and Share American Ancestors/New England Historic Genealogical Society celebrated the lifetime contributions of David Rencher, Chief Genealogical Officer of FamilySearch, with its Preservation and History Award on 27 October 2022. MyHeritage has announced three major improvements to their service: Sorting abilities for Shared DNA Ma...
Oct 30, 2022•1 hr
News You Can Use and Share! MyHeritage has added 74 collections with 130 million new historical records. Read our blog to learn more. Unlock the Past has announced that the Family History Down Under 2022 Conference will be held 8-11 November 2022 at Castle Hill, near Sydney, Australia. You can attend in person or virtually. Full details and registration can be found at https://www.fhdu22.com/ . Findmypast has implemented Tree Search at its site “with instant connections and new discoveries waiti...
Sep 14, 2022•44 min