Tuesday's Tip - Making Use of Genealogy Podcasts

One of the most interesting ways to indulge our passion for genealogy is to listen to podcasts and Internet radio. These can not only be interesting and entertaining, but also very useful for picking up some genealogy research tips. 

I have decided to bring together some of the best known genealogy podcasts in this post. I have not personally listened to all of them, but user opinion from others is very favourable.

• Geneabloggers Radio - If you look to the left of this post you will see that this blog is a member of Geneabloggers. This website is a fantastic resource for family history bloggers. One popular feature is Geneabloggers Radio. Although it used to be broadcast on Friday nights, it now follows a more irregular schedule. The archive of previous episodes is well worth listening to, and details can be found here.
• The Genealogy Guys - This is one of the best known genealogy podcasts on the Internet. The discussions by George G. Morgan and Drew Smith are entertaining and informative, and include news from the world of family history research. Over 200 episodes can be downloaded for free from iTunes here.
• Family Tree Magazine Podcast - The popular Family Tree Magazine produces a monthly podcast on their website. The July 2012 episode features tips on researching Revolutionary War ancestors, as well as news on the 1940 U.S. census. Episodes can be found here.
• Genealogy Gems Podcast - Genealogy Gems is the very popular website run by Lisa Louise Cooke. There is a wealth of information on this site, as well as seven seasons of podcasts, equating to over 100 episodes. Each episode lasts for around thirty to forty-five minutes. You will need to subscribe to listen to the podcasts, but this is completely free. This list of episodes can be found here.
• Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter - This newsletter is a terrific resource, and includes many highly interesting podcasts. Recent examples include an interview with Daniel Horowitz, the Chief Genealogist at MyHeritage, and an interview with Grant Brunner of Geni.com. Details can be found here.
• Digging Up Your Roots - Regular readers of this blog will know that my research is mainly focused on my Scottish ancestry. Digging Up Your Roots is a genealogy program radio show produced by BBC Scotland. It features advice and tips by the respected professional genealogist Dr. Bruce Durie. Unfortunately it is only broadcast for a couple of months of the year, but at those times it can be listened to on the BBC iPlayer service. Details of the program, including the Digging Up Your Roots blog, can be found here.

Hopefully you will find some, or all, of these links useful, and the podcasts entertaining. 

Findmypast.co.uk 10% Off

To celebrate the London Olympics Findmypast.co.uk are running a special offer whereby customers can get a 10% discount on their subscriptions. All you need to do is go to their subscription page, choose your package, and enter the code 'TORCH' when prompted. 

Be quick though, because the promotion ends at midnight on Thursday 26th July 2012.

Scottish Post Office Street Directories

I want to write a quick post about a fantastic free resource that I have been making great use of in my recent research. If you have Scottish ancestors then it could be worth your while to visit the National Library of Scotland's website. They have a range of Post Office directories free to view on the site in PDF format. They cover areas throughout Scotland, and range from 1773 to 1911.

Some areas are better served than others, with the big metropolitan areas like Glasgow having more records to view than small areas such as Peterhead. I managed to find listings for my ancestors in both the Glasgow and the Ayrshire directories. In total there are 694 directories to choose from.

The Post Office directories are a great resource for discovering where your ancestors lived at a particular point in time. Some of them also list occupations, adding another useful piece of information to your research. Some also include advertisements and business listings, and as such can give an extremely interesting glimpse of the business practises of the past.

Take a look at the Scottish Post Office Directories here.