The Genealogy Gems Podcast Episode #211 with Lisa Louise Cooke In this episode, host and producer Lisa Louise Cooke talks with Barry Moreno, Historian at Ellis Island. Hear about the life cycle of this busy U.S. immigration station (1892-1954) and Barry’s research into thousands of Ellis Island employees—men and women—who worked there. HelloFresh: Visit hellofresh.com and use promo code gems30 to save $30 off your first week of deliveries. More episode highlights: Archive Lady Melissa Barker tells us about the National Archives Citizen Archivist program—and Lisa profiles a volunteer effort coordinated by the British Library to geo-tag thousands of old maps that are already online. A giant genealogy lost-and-found! Two listeners write in about rescuing old artifacts and returning them to those who might be interested. Military Minutes contributor Michael Strauss talks about Official Military Personnel Files for 20th-century US servicemen and women—files that were unfortunately partially destroyed. Hear what he learned about his grandfather. NEWS National Archives Citizen Archivist Project, reported by The Archive Lady, Melissa Barker The British Library Georeferencing Project Flickr Commons collection of digitized maps from the British Library Collections—mostly 19th century maps from books published in Europe. Use Google Earth for genealogy! Check out these resources: FREE Google Earth for Genealogy video The Genealogist’s Google Toolbox, 2nd edition by Lisa Louise Cooke. This book has 7 full chapters on Google Earth! Available in print and e-book form. Google Earth for Genealogy Video Training by Lisa Louise Cooke. Available now as a digital download.     NEW FOR GENEALOGY GEMS PREMIUM MEMBERS “Share Your Life Stories More Meaningfully” Premium Video Every life is fascinating when it’s well shared! Learn from the author of Story of My Life: A Workbook for Preserving Your Legacy what stories you have that are worth telling--and several inspiring reasons to write them. Review different kinds of memories, why some memories are more vivid that others, and how to flesh them out. Learn tips for researching gaps in your memories, how to turn a memory into a good story, what to leave out and several ways to share your stories.   BONUS CONTENT FOR GENEALOGY GEMS APP USERS If you’re listening through the Genealogy Gems app, your bonus content for this episode is a preview of the new Premium video class, “Share Your Own Life Stories More Meaningfully” by Contributing Editor Sunny Morton. The Genealogy Gems app is FREE in Google Play and is only $2.99 for Windows, iPhone and iPad users   MAILBOX: ROLAND’S HEIRLOOM RESCUE MAILBOX: NEW LISTENER PHOTO RESCUE PROJECT What can you do with a collection of unidentified photos? Return them to a loving home. In this case, it was a local historical society. Linda wisely kept the collection together because often there’s power in what some of the photos may tell you about others. Get them digitized and online so those who want them can find them. The historical society put images on Find A Grave memorials and Iowa GenWeb. They even plan to display them for locals to look at personally and try to identify! Historical and genealogical societies can also share mystery photos on their websites (or their local library’s website if they don’t have their own) or on their blogs, Facebook pages or even in their regular newsletters. These are great conversation pieces, especially when you can later report that you have solved the mystery! (Click here for more tips aimed at supporting genealogy societies.) Photo mystery SOLVED: Savvy tips to identify old photos Lisa Louise Cooke uses and recommends RootsMagic family history software. From within RootsMagic, you can search historical records on FamilySearch.org, Findmypast.com and MyHeritage.com. RootsMagic is now fully integrated with Ancestry.com: you can sync your RootsMagic trees with your Ancestry.com trees and search records on the site.   Keep