General

Do you listen to podcasts online or on your IPod/MP3 Player? They are free and very useful to the genealogist. In fact podcasts are all I listen to on my IPod! I subscribe to many different types of podcasts through ITunes.

The big one for me is The National Archives of England. They put new podcasts out regularly. They are recordings of slide presentations that are given at The National Archives in Kew. My only regret is that I am unable to see the slides and therefore the documents that they reference in the seminar.

I subscribe so every time my IPod is attached to my computer it is being updated. I have learned about World War 1 records, land and estate records, Irish and Scottish genealogy just to name a few. All this was done while riding the bus to the Ontario Archives.

Others that I listen to are “Digging up your Roots”, “Family History Expos Genealogy Podcast” and the “Genealogy Gems Podcast”. I also listen to other podcasts that can help with my genealogy such as “Oxford Biographies”, “Documentary One on RTE” (Irish Radio), “English Heritage” and “Great Lives”. These all provide me with background information.

One little gem I found for writing my family history was an Open University program which is found under ITunesU. Open University is a program on British television where people can take a university course by correspondence or just for interest. Open University has been around for a long time. There are seven episodes to help you write your family history.

These are just the ones I listen to; there are many others that cover a wide spectrum of genealogy. When you go in do a general search for both genealogy and family history. Some will come up under both searches but you will find others that can only be found in one search field. You may even find podcasts that do not relate to family history but to family. Go through the list to see what is there as you never know what you may find.

You do not have to subscribe to the general podcast. If there is one particular entry you are interested in you can download that specific podcast. You may discover that after a while the podcasts are not relating to your requirements so you can delete the subscription and try another one.

Unfortunately sometimes there are only a few podcasts to be found under certain titles. The last podcast may have been put up 2 or 3 years ago and then they stopped. Check these out anyway as you may find something of interest. Occasionally you will find a video podcast which adds another dimension.

Your local library may also allow for downloads of books that could relate to your family history or a book you may have wanted to check out. These can be downloaded from your public library website but you will only be able to use the files until the check out time has expired.

There are a wide variety of topics available in a format that is easily portable.

The one thing to remember is that all of these are free to download. Have fun!