The Genealogy Guys Podcast & Genealogy Connection

• MyHeritage is making a landmark move to Whole Genome Sequencing for its at-home DNA test. See https://blog.myheritage.com/2025/10/myheritage-upgrades-its-dna-tests-to-whole-genome-sequencing/ for more details.
• MyHeritage has released a major update to its Theory of Family Relativity with 103 million new theories.
• MyHeritage announced that the 1921 England & Wales Census is now available to search online.
• MyHeritage has added 95 million marriage records extracted from newspapers using advanced AI on MyHeritage.
• Legacy Family Tree Webinars has expanded to offer a new series of webinars in Spanish.
• Newspapers.com and Gannett Co., Inc., are partnering to make hundreds of newspapers available online. [Gannett Co., Inc. has just rebranded as USA Today Co.]
• FamilySearch added 21 million new records in October and 18 million new records in November.

Listener Email

• Hal Barker writes to encourage people to use the Korean War Project website (https://www.koreanwar.org/) for research on military ancestors and family members involved in this conflict.
• Julia writes to inquire about organizing a genealogy society project about the Roe Institute. Drew recommends Trello as a preferred project management software package.

WikiTree will conduct a WikiTree Challenge in which volunteers will deep-dive into George's family tree and hope to break down some walls with new information. You can watch the Kickoff Meeting at 12:00 PM (Eastern Time) at https://wikitree.zoom.us/j/83430757286, and you'll want to watch George's results Reveal on 17 December 2025 at 8:00 PM (Eastern Time) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2Ea6XxZFRY.

You can see Drew's WikiTree Challenge videos at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDAtp16w5pU (starting at the 31 minute 18 second mark) and the reveal at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Lmu1Lc-fVM.

Registration for RootsTech 2026 is now open at https://www.familysearch.org/en/rootstech/registration.

Drew discusses his work with MyHeritage's Theory of Relativity matches.

Please let us hear from you at [email protected] with your questions and comments.

• RootsMagic has released RootsMagic 11, with a cleaner interface, better searching, the ability to create and save AI prompts with the AI Prompt Builder, and more powerful reporting.
• MyHeritage added 94 million historical records in July and 135 million records in August!
• MyHeritage has added 11 new creative effects to its LiveMemoryTM image navigator.
• The Jewish Board at http://JewishBoard.org announced the launch of two free genealogy databases: National Desertion Bureau Card Catalog (1911-1935) at https://150yearsofcare.org/ndb-database/, and the United Hebrew Charities of New York Recipients & Donors (1869-1877) at https://150yearsofcare.org/uhc-recipients/.
• The Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center and Vivid-Pix have partnered to host an all-day conference on 3 October 2025 from 9 AM to 4 PM in the ACPL Main Library Theater. Its focus is on working with elder care organizations to enrich the lives of dementia patients and their caregivers.
• FamilySearch added 5 million new records from twelve (12) countries.

Listener Email

• Laura writes to share a very successful newspaper research story.
• Tom writes to tell us about The Stories Behind the Stars project for which he volunteers. It documents the stories of the military personnel who served and sacrificed their lives during WWII.
• Christine wrote about Drew's discussion of County Laois in Ireland.

The Guys discuss the use of FamilySearch's Full Text Search facility and how it can open new, previously unindexed document collections at the site. Both George and Drew share examples of great finds using the Full Text Search.

Drew shares where he will be presenting in September and October of 2025. These include:

• A webinar for the Puget Sound Chapter of the APG on 22 September.
• Live at the Cleveland Public Library Genealogy Day on 4 October.
• Live at the Lakeland (FL) Public Library on 11 October.

Check these organizations' websites for details.

Please let us hear from you at [email protected] with your questions and comments.

• MyHeritage added 540 million historical records in May and 1.25 billion records in June! Among these are 731 million records from French newspapers, part of a push to expand its vast collections of new records from non-English language resources.
• Vivid-Pix has partnered with the National Institute for Dementia Education (NIDE) and PocketRN, through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, to assist in caring for aging memory care patients and their caregivers.
• FamilySearch International and Michigan State University have announced an extensive expansion to MSU's online collection, Enslaved, at https://enslaved.org/, and at FamilySearch.org. The new dataset uses the 1900 U.S. federal census records to document formerly enslaved individuals and their families. (Enslaved.org is worthy of your financial support.)
• FamilySearch added 30 million new records from eight (8) countries, including Italian civil registration records, Brazilian cemetery records, and records from the American Medical Association's deceased physicians (1864-1968).

Listener Email

• Joanne was thrilled with MyHeritage's addition of 1926 Canada Census records of Manitoba, Alberta, and Saskatchewan. These included both of her parents!
• Judi shares that Essex County, New Jersey, newspapers are accessible at the Newark [NJ] Public Library, and that the Newark News can be searched online. (See https://www.npl.org/collections-services/charles-f-cummings-new-jersey-information-center/inventory-of-new-jersey-newspapers-on-microfilm/.)
• Ken has been researching Sons of the American Revolution (SAR) and local studies. He has used census records and military documents, and he warns that there are transcription errors (manual and mechanized) that researchers should be alert to these, and continue their personal research to locate and include the original documents whenever possible.
• Laura writes to share some issues she has had with Newspapers.com and the responses she received from the company. She discusses the need to be alerted by online companies of known problems on that they are working to resolve.
• Jana responded to Drew's comments about Tennessee records, and she discusses that 'missing' individuals may have migrated to Georgia, Texas, Arkansas, and Missouri. Consider common migration patterns and check for records in other states.
• Paula is greatly concerned about shrinking genealogical societies. She is searching for resources and forums for discussions of strategies. George suggested contacting the National Genealogical Society for assistance.
• Mary is seeking advice on determining the parentage of an illegitimate ancestor. Drew offers advice about the use of DNA testing strategies.
• Lisa asks about the 1860 U.S. federal census agricultural census. Column 44 asks about molasses and its suggestions of values of the source: M for maple and S for sorghum. She has seen the value of 'CC' and wonders what that indicates. The Guys cannot find anything in any enumerator instructions, and they ask other listeners to share their knowledge and experience on this issue.

Drew provides a recap of his experiences at the South Carolina Genealogical Society's Summer Workshop in Columbia in July.

Drew will be presenting at the International Jewish Genealogical Society Conference in Fort Wayne, Indiana, soon and shares some thoughts.

Please let us hear from you at [email protected] with your questions and comments.

• Tom discussed records obtained from the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) in St. Louis, Missouri. He addresses how to obtain copies of all pages of the personnel file.
• Nancy asks for suggestions for naming computer files for women's records.
• Michael Fagan has developed a tool to print large family tree posters. The tool is free at https://faganm.com/diagram/.
• Laura wrote about using French spoliation claims in learning more about her ancestors.
• Julie bought a used Flip-Pal scanner, but it did not come with the stitching software to reconstitute the area images. George suggested visiting https://flip-pal.com/support/.
• Karen has read in Drew's Organize Your Genealogy book about using Evernote software. Drew assures her that Evernote is still a valuable tool.
• Ashley wrote to share more about the U.S. Federal Census and the 1880 Agricultural Census Schedule for North Carolina. She suggests additional places to locate images and indices that otherwise have not been digitized and added at FamilySearch, MyHeritage, and Ancestry.
• Gonzolo wants information about importing an old Family Tree Maker software file (.ftw) and generating a GEDCOM file. Drew suggested using RootsMagic Essentials software to do this.
• Nancy writes about having located a birth record for a woman in 1909 on which the birth certificate states that it was a single birth. However, the 1910 census lists two daughters of the age to have been born in 1909. How can you reconcile this?
• Donna is seeking help in locating a death record for Susan Godfrey and marriage records.

Drew provides a recap of his time at RootsTech.

Drew will be presenting at the Ohio Genealogical Society Spring Conference in Sandusky, Ohio, from 30 April to 3 May 2025.

Please let us hear from you at [email protected] with your questions and comments.

• 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. George recommends the Stephen P. Morse One-Step pages at stevemorse.org for U.S. ships' passenger lists and the Library and Archives Canada website at library-archives.canada.ca/eng/ and look for the collection of Immigration Records at library-archives.canada.ca/eng/collection/research-help/genealogy-family-history/immigration/Pages/immigration.aspx.
• Tom is seeking ships' passenger lists for ancestors who came to the U.S. or Canada in 1879-1880. George suggests the same records he recommends to Pam above.
• Jean Daniel in France provides us a fascinating update on his research into his 4x grandfather, Blaise Farny.
• Anne wrote to follow up on research into Calvin and Rhoda Reed. She discusses Cayuga County, New York, and places that she has used for different records resources.
• Tom discusses his research into the USS Trigger en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Trigger_(SS-564)). He has been using AI tools, including ChatGPT (https://chatgpt.com/), Perplexity (https://www.perplexity.ai/), and Claude AI (ttps://claude.ai/).

Drew will be presenting at RootsTech 2025 in Salt Lake City, Utah, on 6-8 March. Registration for RootsTech is open for on-site attendance and virtual sessions. Visit www.familysearch.org/en/rootstech/ for details.

Please let us hear from you at [email protected] with your questions and comments.