From Paper To People

No, seriously, get out of your head, Whenever you hit a brick wall, a Jeffrey, a Jeffreytina, one of Ancestry's infamous hang-ups, someone who's a 125cM match on AncestryDNA but who won't build a tre…

While I truly enjoy meeting my ancestors, I have learned that the greatest joy in genealogy and family history work is the live people I meet and get to know. Melanie McComb is one of those people. I…

Did you ever take Home Economics in school? In the 1950s, only girls and women did, all the way through college. My mother ended up taking Home Economics at the University of Hawaii because she was t…

If you are a fan of PBS' Genealogy Roadshow, you know who Kenyatta Berry is. If you are on Genie Twitter, you know who Kenyatta Berry is. If you have been to, or seen talks from, SLIG or RootsTech, y…

Wow, was this weekend big! Correcting one set of errors about my grand-aunt led me to find an absolutely horrific story about her, her husband, and her children. I'm telling it to you in all its gory…

Happy New Year, and welcome to Season 2! I meet so many people who have no idea about that which should not be a well-kept secret: Twitter is fantastic for genealogists! If you do the right things in…

In Western culture, what's the most important Christmas food? The Christmas cookie! There are entire baking competition TV series about the creation and decoration of Christmas cookies. There are ent…

Time for a quick episode of The Genie News, to keep you apprised of a week of good things and some things you might not have known. Listen to the end for the best news of all! The podcast is now on i…

Have you ever wondered what an old-fashioned, 19th-century, British-traditioned Yankee Thanksgiving was like? In the land of the original Pilgrims, did they really eat turkey? This episode draws on r…

We're talking folklore again, but this time about the hardest gathering challenge of all: you vs. a room full of your family or friends at holiday celebrations. I'll tell you about my first folklore …

I'm back after a brief illness-induced break, and while I'm not up to teaching yet, I am definitely here to celebrate! How much do YOU know about Diwali? I knew basically nothing but the name until I…

It's Episode 3 in our bonus series for Fall - vintage recipes mix with straight-up US history this week as we talk about how the Great Depression changed what newspapers did to extend assistance to h…

It's Episode 2 in our bonus series for Fall - vintage recipes, foodways, social and cultural history culled from early- to mid-20th century newspapers. We're hitting all the holidays that fall in Oct…

So, Latter-Day Saints, your family history is all done, right? WRONG!!! Not only can you work on your tree more (another nag for another day), you can use your special powers in Ancestry to benefit n…

Welcome to a new feature for Fall - a bonus series in addition to regular episodes, a jump backward in cooking and cultural history. Since October, November, and December all contain holidays celebra…

It's Autumn, but who needs Pumpkin Spice EVERYTHING when you can join me and our Midwest Food Correspondent, Rick Leonard of An American Genealogy for an old family recipe - Gingerbread Waffles. And …

Have you ever wondered where all of those digitized versions of birth records, census pages, or city directories come from? Well, there is no Genealogy Stork. While quite a few organizations provide …

Ancestry's Summer of Pain seems to have ended, but what does Autumn look like? And have they left us in the Winter of our discontent? They're answering their phones again, the screens seem more stabl…

Family ties, a slight genealogical mystery, a discussion of privilege, 19th and 20th-century classism in Midwestern America, and the value of comfort food all converge in this week's episode of The F…

This episode is a special treat, an interview with Joseph McGill about his incredible labor of love, The Slave Dwelling Project. He shares with us his background, his motivations, and what it's reall…