Genealogy Guys and Vivid-Pix Announce Genealogy’s Unsung Heroes Awards – Nominations for 2Q2019

The Genealogy Guys, George G. Morgan and Drew Smith, co-hosts and producers of the oldest continually produced genealogy podcast, and Rick and Randy, creators of Vivid-Pix, makers of RESTORE photo and document restoration software, today announce that the continuation of their partnership to acknowledge and celebrate those members of the genealogy community who digitize or index photos and other documents of value to genealogical researchers.  The Unsung Heroes Awards is a quarterly awards program designed to recognize its recipients in five categories: individuals, genealogical/historical societies, libraries/archives, young people, and a new posthumous certificate award.

Completed nomination forms are being accepted for the 2019 Second Quarter awards. Nomination forms (see below for link to the forms) should be emailed to genealogyguys@gmail.com and winners will be selected each quarter.  Winners will receive: a custom-made commemorative mug with their choice of two of their images; an announcement on an episode of The Genealogy Guys Podcast; a profile of the winner published on The Genealogy Guys Blog and the Unsung Heroes Blog at the Vivid-Pix website (www.vivid-pix.com). A certificate will be awarded in the name of the posthumous winner.

Nominations eligible for the second quarter of 2019’s awards must be received no later than May 15, 2019, and the winners will be announced on June 1, 2019. Due dates for later quarters will be announced on The Genealogy Guys Podcast; The Genealogy Guys Blog; the Unsung Heroes Blog at the Vivid-Pix website, but all nominations will remain in the running for future quarters.

Details and links to the nomination form can be found at the website for Aha! Seminars, Inc., producer of The Genealogy Guys Podcast, at https://ahaseminars.com/cpage.php?pt=24.

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Contacts:

George G. Morgan Aha! Seminars, Inc. http://ahaseminars.com aha@ahaseminars.com (813) 220-6274

Rick Voight Vivid-Pix https://vivid-pix.com/ rick.voight@vivid-pix.com (404) 664-9897

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Enjoying Vivid-Pix Restore

The Vivid-Pix RESTORE software has been hard at work on some of my poorest family photos lately, and I wanted to share just one example.

I have a number of photos taken at my great-grandparents home at 808 South Broad Street in Rome, Floyd County, Georgia, in 1906. These are the last photos known of the whole family because a) son Brisco W. Holder left after the elections in the Fall of 1906, and b) son Luther "Luke" Moffitt Holder died of tuberculosis in 1908 while traveling back from a health stay from New Mexico with his wife, Mary Choice Omburg Holder.

The images below were taken that summer day in 1906. Two of the female family members, stylishly dressed in shirtwaists and straw boater hats. The faded original photo at top didn't show much detail. It wan't until I used RESTORE on the original image to produce 9 potential alternatives was I able to see details and select the image seen at bottom.

Original image - 1906.
(Click to enlarge.)

Edited image with RESTORE..
(Click to enlarge.)

I now can see that the woman on the right is holding the hand of a small child of perhaps two years of age. There also is in front of the women a small, child-sized chair.

I can't tell who the women are, but I can employ a few strategies. First, I open my RootsMagic database and the family view of Green Berry Holder. I can then look at each of the children who were married and who had children living in 1906 of the age of approximately 15-30 months of age. There are 5 or 6 whose age fit the bill. While I don't have anything definitive to identify the women and the child, I do now have a much improved photographic image to consider in my research.

Viewing Your Ancestors' Home

Context is essential in learning about your ancestors and bringing their stories to life. Reading the evidence is one thing but being able to visualize the people and places imprints more vivid details in your mind's eye.

In my genealogical research, I often want to see the places where my ancestors lived. I have collected vintage postcards from the towns and events where they were. Like family photos, these can show me additional details. In my census research, too, my interest is often piqued to see the places where my ancestors lived. I've developed an easy way to try to do this.

First, I locate the person or family in the US federal census and make note of the details in the left-hand columns regarding street name and house number. This is most effective of course, in a municipal or urban environment. The image below shows the 1910 US census for Rome, Floyd County, Georgia. My great-grandparents lived at 808 South Broad Street in Rome.

1910 US federal census, Rome, Floyd County, Georgia
(Click to enlarge.)

Second, I go to Google Maps and enter a search for the address, When the map page is displayed, I use the Street View facility to go to ground level and then manipulate the 360° viewer to see the address. If I am lucky, the building still stands and I can see what it looks like today. That is the case with the image below, captured from Google Maps.

The Holder home at 808 South Broad Street in Rome, 

Floyd County, Georgia.

Image from Google Maps.

(Click to enlarge.)

The passage of time may work against you and the house or building may have been razed or replaced. However, if you do locate a photo in Google Maps, that can add another layer of visual context to your research on the individual and their family.

We Have a New Portable Recording Microphone!

Our new Yellowtec IXm portable dynamic microphone arrived yesterday. We saw it at Podfest and ordered it from a dealer in Ocala at a discount. We'll be using this for live interviews on-site at conferences and other venues. 

Thanks to our sponsors and Patreon supporters 

for making this possible.

MyHeritage Offers Free Access to Irish Records - March 14–20, 2019

Free Irish Records for St. Patrick’s Day!

•  By Esther · 
• March 13, 2019
•  · Historical Records

Do you have any Irish roots? According to a survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau, the Irish diaspora in the United States alone numbers more than 33 million people — 10.5% of the total U.S. population, and roughly 5 times Ireland’s population of 6.7 million. This isn’t even counting the descendants of Irish immigrants in countries around the world.

In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, we’re offering all MyHeritage users FREE access to all our Irish record collections from March 14–20, 2019.

Search Irish records on MyHeritage for free

The Irish people have a history full of many ups and downs, with some instances of extreme “unluckiness,” times of sadness, famine, and war. So why do people often refer to the Irish as particularly lucky? 

Because of Ireland’s tragic past, many Irish left Ireland and immigrated to the U.S. or elsewhere to find better lives. Irish immigrants in the U.S. struggled to succeed, and they worked very hard. They were mistreated by many who believed that the Irish settlers’ good fortune was due only to luck — not hard work and perseverance. Others believe that the expression points to the financial good fortune of the Irish and Irish-Americans as successful miners during the gold and silver rushes in the 1850s.

Perhaps the expression comes from a deeper part of Irish heritage and legacy. “The luck of the Irish” is a tribute to the hard work and determination of the Irish people, who, despite all the challenges that they have faced over the years, still have good luck. Many Irish people have been forced to emigrate from their homeland over the years, and despite battling challenges and pitfalls, they have continued to prosper and survive, generation after generation.

Do you have the luck of the Irish? Search our Irish records for free today to see if you have any Irish ancestry.

F+W Media, Inc., Files Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

F+W Media, Inc., publishers of many magazines including Family Tree Magazine and many genealogy books, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and reorganization on Sunday, 10 March 2019. It is unclear as to the impact on its publishing activities, Family Tree University, and other activities in the genealogy arena. The army of authors of books and magazine articles are, of course, concerned about payments and royalties. This include both of The Genealogy Guys.

The article at https://www.csbankruptcyblog.com/2019/03/articles/recent-developments/new-delaware-chapter-11-filing-fw-media-inc/# and at numerous news outlets online summarize the situation at present. We will report more as information becomes available.

Our New Sound Mixer Has Arrived!

Our new sound mixer, the Rode RODECaster Pro Integrated Podcast Production Studio, just arrived today! We saw several and compared them while at the 2019 Podfest Multimedia Expo last weekend, and we were very impressed with this state-of-the-art mixer. It replaces our 10+ year-old economy mixer.

We'll soon be using the new mixer to improve sound quality overall, including equalizing the channels and doing better editing. 

We owe a very special thank you to our fantastic sponsors and our generous Patreon supporters for making the conference and this purchase possible!

Listen up for even better podcasts soon!