Both as the host of the Genealogy Gems Podcast and in real life, Lisa Louise Cooke is warm, inviting, and full of interesting conversation. An expert genealogist herself, Lisa is always well-informed and genuinely interested in what her listeners want or need to know.
Lisa’s offers family historians a multitude of great (intangible) Freebies through her podcasts:
- Family History: Genealogy Made Easy – The BEST deal around, as far as I’m concerned! Lisa walks fledgling family historians step-by-step through the in-and-outs of family history research. By the end of the series, you’ll feel as though you have wings to fly to the top of your family tree and beyond.
- Genealogy Gems Podcasts – Regular free podcasts are published about twice a month, and included updates from the world of genealogy, answers to listener email, and interviews with movers and shakers in the genealogy community.
- Family Tree Magazine’s monthly radio show/podcast – Each episode features interviews with genealogy experts and Family Tree Magazine (FTM) editors. The current show, for example, carries a Census theme, and includes interviews with FTM editor Allison Stacy on “Secrets of the Census,” and researcher/writer David Fryxell about his article, “Everybody Counts” which highlights the evolution of the census.
Watch Lisa’s interview with Photoloom President Scott Huskey.
But Free Stuff Friday isn’t about Intangibles, is it? (The correct answer here is “No, Renee, it is not. It is about free Stuff.”) Which brings me to this week’s…
Freebie o’ the Week: Genealogy Gems Toolbar
What it is/does: This toolbar links to the best of Genealogy Gems and delivers the freshest content directly to your browser – including the Genealogy Gems website, Facebook, Twitter, blog and videos, as well as links to Lisa’s top choices for the best free genealogy websites, a webpage highlighter feature, and a search box. Once installed, you can customize it with any of thousands of free apps from the App Marketplace.
How to get it: Just go to http://thegenealogygemspodcast.ourtoolbar.com/ and click the download button. Installing was amazingly simple, and took me less than a minute.
Downside? The toolbar takes up about a third of an inch of screen real estate, but other than that I can’t see a downside.
Why it’s cool: Are you kidding? Look at it – slim, sleek, and busting out with focused family history information at the click of a mouse. I like that it doesn’t invade my screen, but instead sits there politely, just waiting until I need it.
In the spirit of full disclosure, I must tell you that when I was at the St. George Expo, Lisa gifted me with one of her beautiful Genealogy Gems pins so I could sport some bling. (Most people recognize that I am somewhat Bling Challenged.) However, that in no way influenced my opinion of her or her podcast, because I already thought they were both great!
