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In this episode:

• Editor's Desk
• News From the Blogosphere
• Top Tips: Connecting with distant family
• Best Web Sites: WorldCat
• Best of Family Tree Magazine: Brick Walls
• Action Items

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Host: Lisa Louise Cooke

The Editor's Desk with Allison Stacy

July 2008 issue topics:

• Recharge your research
• Guide to French roots
• Reviews and ratings of six Mac family tree software programs
• Library resources across the country
• A guide to ancestral lodgings
• State Research Guides: Ohio and Florida

State Research Guides series available on CD

Individual state digital downloads available from the online back issue store

News from the Blogosphere with Diane Haddad

• Genealogy Insider blog
• Diane on NBC San Diego
• Launch of Family Tree Kids! and partnership with Tamagotchi
• Tamagotchi's "My Familitchi" Web site
• Family Tree Kids!

Top Tips
We talk to Maureen A. Taylor about how to make some of our own luck in finding distant relatives. Taylor is the author of Family Tree Magazine's Photo Detective blog and magazine column.

Here are Maureen's strategies from the article "Charmed Life: 5 Strategies for Creating Family Tree Connections" in the July 2008 issue of the magazine:

1. Post to Online Message Boards
2. Scour Photo Reunion Sites
3. Take a DNA test (Maureen's story)
4. Attend online auctions such as eBay (my experiences)
5. Go to a Reunion

Success stories thread at the FamilyTreeMagazine.com Forum

Best Web Sites

This month's featured Web site is WorldCat.

WorldCat Blog

Best of Family Tree Magazine
Topic: Breaking Through Brick Walls

Lisa's guest: Sharon DeBartolo Carmack, certified genealogist and Family Tree Magazine contributing editor

Family Tree Magazine's 2006 Genealogy Guidebook special issue devoted to brick wall solutions

Strategies for recharging your research from the July 2008 issue:

• Find the original.
• Review your records.
• Use a checklist. BONUS: Family Tree Magazine's Genealogical Source Checklist
• Write your family history.
• Google your ancestor.
• Look up neighbors and associates.
• Consult county and local histories.
• Read a state or county guide.
• Attend a seminar, institute or conference.
• Trace lines forward to locate cousins.
• Contact local historical societies.
• Get a second opinion.

Family Tree Magazine's Brick Wall Forum
(We pick one reader's brick wall problem and ask one of our genealogy pros to offer their expert advice in every other issue.)

This Month's Action Items

• Keep an eye out for that article on breaking through brick walls in the July 2008 issue and let us know if you break through some of yours. E-mail Lisa at FTMpodcast@gmail.com
• Stop by the Family Tree Magazine Web site and visit the Forum to participate in the discussion topic: "What research traps have you fallen into? And how did you climb your way out?"
• Watch for the second episode of our FREE podcast next month.

Have fun climbing your family tree!

 

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Listen to Lisa Louise Cooke's Genealogy Gems Podcast in iTunes and visit her Web site for great research ideas, podcast episodes and videos.