Thursday, October 6th, I will be presenting “Free Genealogy Classes, Webinars, and Online Learning” at the Monterey County Genealogy Society meeting. It will be at 7pm, at the corner of Noche Buena and Plumas in Seaside, California.
There are hundreds of opportunities for online learning in the world of genealogy, and some of the very best resources are FREE! This class provides an overview of all the best free resources for genealogy education today.
Well, On Granny’s Trail just topped 16,000 views, so to celebrate this random achievement, I decided to share a fun podcast with you from Stuff You Missed in History Class that will help you learn a little more about the Western States. Stuff You Missed in History Class researched the true story and presented their findings in this podcast.
It’s called “The Peralta Grant and the Baron of Arizona,” and is quite entertaining. It’s about a determined would-be swindler and how he nearly acquired an enormous portion of Arizona for himself. Genealogists will be interested in his creative forgery and the prodigious amount of “proof” he produced to claim his grant.
And to think my ancestors might have ended up with this guy (James Addison Reaves, not Vincent Price) as their landlord!
You can also check out the link to the blog post about this podcast for a few more resources on the topic.
Enjoy the podcast, and thanks for following On Granny’s Trail!
Spoiler alert: If you brag about tracing your genealogy back to Adam and proudly display a family Coat-of-Arms over your mantel, you might want to skip this post. And I’m pretty sure you are not going to like episode 5 of Extreme Genes as much as I did. I have just begun to listen to some Extreme Genes podcasts, and Episode 5 is titled “Tracing Lineage Back to Adam and Eve.” I really enjoyed listening to host Scott Fisher and guest Gordon Remington discuss this as well as the Coat-of-Arms topic.
I wanted to let you all know about Extreme Genes, found on the Mormon Radio Channel. It’s rather new on the genealogy scene and has some interesting programs in talk-show format.
I enjoyed episode 5 because my husband calls me the Genealogy Mythbuster. On occasion, I come home after a day at the Family History Center having ruined some unfortunate person’s cherished oral family history with new-found facts. I don’t enjoy this, but sometimes those pesky facts just stare you in the face. Take it from me, the non-descendant of the first Governor of Virginia, William Gooch. All us Gooches are non-descendants of Governor Gooch, but lots of us don’t want to hear it. Sorry. But he had no heirs. Rats.
Adam, on the other hand, did have heirs, fortunately! And while I am one of them, I know the paper trail is dubious. And that Gooch coat-of-arms, forget about it. Sorry. Listen to episode 5 and you’ll understand. It is an entertaining episode, for sure!
I kid you not. The National Archives is hosting a FREE virtual genealogy fair September 3-4 that you can attend in your pajamas. When was the last time you attended a FREE genealogy conference of this caliber? Never, right? And did I mention it will cost you nothing? Thank you American Taxpayers. I feel like I just got a little tax refund. Continue reading “FREE Online Genealogy Conference from the National Archives! Sept 3-4”
I am happy to share my newest discovery with you…the “Stuff You Missed in History Class” podcast.
It is soooo fun and interesting you simply must check it out! I only happened across it yesterday and already have listened to “5 Historical Hoaxes”, “Ned Kelly’s Last Stand”, “Okichi the Tragic Geisha”, and “The Big Stink of 1858”. There are so many more I can hardly wait to listen to. Good thing I spend so much time in my car!
Each episode explores a fascinating story from history, researched by hosts Katie and Sarah. I appreciate their scholarly approach to historical research, and I also appreciate their wit and their “Get a load of this!” delivery. I have learned a lot of interesting history in the process, because they talk about these stories in context of the bigger historical picture.
If you are wondering what a podcast is, it is a kind of broadcast over the internet that you can download and listen to at your convenience. You can subscribe to a particular podcast and have episodes delivered to your listening device (phone, ipad, computer) automatically. Then when you are on the treadmill and are tired of watching Dr. Oz at the gym, just plug some headphones into your phone and there you go, A History of Underwear!
Here are some tips for podcast fans from iTunes. iTunes has a lot of podcasts available for free download, and you can find them for searching key words, like “Genealogy”. Be sure to spell it right!
On Granny's Trail 