Jen Allen of FamilySearch.org joins the show next to fill us in on what to expect at this year's combined Roots Tech and Federation of Genealogical Societies conventions!  There's a lot happening in Salt Lake City, Utah in February, and you can participate from wherever you are, as Jen will explain.  Whatever your level of experience, Jen will rev up your engines talking about classes, speakers, and demonstrations of new technologies.

 

Fisher then talks to Missouris Glenna Johnson about the quilt she found dating back almost seventy years, following the passing of her mother.  It's turned into quite a project researching the names connected to it.  Hear all about it.  Then Fisher answers a listener question about the listeners DNA test... why didn't it reflect what he knew about his ancestry?

 

Then, Tom Perry is back from Las Vegas and the recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.  He's pumped up about all the new techie things that family historians will now be able to put to use!

 

That's all this week on Extreme Genes, Family History Radio!

Host: Scott Fisher

Segment 1 Episode 72

Fisher: Greetings Genies throughout the land! And welcome to another edition of Extreme Genes, family history radio and ExtremeGenes.com, America’s Family History show. Can I tell you, how hard it is to fit all that into a logo? I am Fisher, your Radio Roots Sleuth, on the show where we shake your family tree and watch the nuts fall out. Well, I’ve got to tell you how beneficial it is that so much photo sharing is going on right now online. Just this week I found three new pictures of a relative who was a policeman, beginning in 1900, and someone was good enough to dig out and scan a picture of him from maybe 1910 where he’s posed lurking over the top of some laborer threatening to pop him with his Billy club. It’s hysterical. And if you’ve got one of a kind ancestral picture, make sure you share them, you will make somebody’s day. I’ll tell you that you’ll have several days made for you next month when the fifth annual RootsTech opens up on Thursday February 12^th running through Saturday the 14^th in Salt Lake City, Utah. And this year, for the first time ever they are conventioning with the Federation of Genealogical Societies. Meaning more new products to be found, more inspiring keynote speeches, it’s going to be awesome. Even if you can’t be in Salt Lake City, there will be ways for you to participate online. We’ll get the entire story from Jen Allen of Family Search in less than six minutes. This is going to be like the Superbowl, the World Series, the NBA finals, NC AA tournament of genealogy all rolled into one. Then later in the show, we’ll talk to a Missouri woman who recently lost her mother which resulted in her finding a family history treasure no one knew mom had. What was it and what’s she doing with it? We will find out later in the show.

It is time once again for your family histoire news from the pages of ExtremeGenes.com. We begin with the discovery of a historic photo of a man named Falmouth Kearney of Moneygall County, Offaly, Ireland. I hope I got that right; I don’t want to offend the Irish. Kearney was an ancestor of a woman named Merlyn White. Merlyn a true blue genie was researching her family in Scotland recently, where she was told that she was a third cousin once removed from the president of these here United States, Barak Obama. That information led her to revisit a photo album to her by a great aunt who lived to be a 107. In the album she found images of Kearney and his wife Charlotte. It was professional researcher Megan Smolenyak who first made the identification of this man as the ancestor of the president as well as Merlyn. It wasn’t that long ago that Falmouth Kearney unmarked Kansas grave was discovered and received a headstone after a 136 years. Falmouth, according to Smolenyak was the most recent American emigrant on the president’s mother’s side having arrived in 1850. It was his identification that led to the president visiting Ireland in 2011. You know, you’ve got to admit presidents have it way too easy when it comes to family research. But for Merlyn White, she’s now got quite a story. See the link to all this with the pictures of the president’s ancestral couple at ExtremeGenes.com. Hey, are you looking for 19^th of 20^th century British wills? The Daily Mail reports that your quest may have just got a little easier. The British government has released online the wills of 41 million people, the earliest dating back to 1858. Until now you could find wills back to 1996, online. But this new release adds a 138 years to the stash of available online probate records. You can search the records for free and obtain an electronic copy for ten pounds. Included in the wills are those of Sir Winston Churchill and Charles Dickens. You can also see the wills of people like Alan Turing who cracked the enigma code that helped end WWII in Europe and Winnie the Pooh creator A.A. Milne.

Last year, to commemorate the sentential of the First World War, the British released the wills of 280 thousand WWI soldiers, many of whom died in action. It’s impressive work considering each of the 41 million wills which typically contained more than one page, had to be scanned, uploaded and stored one at a time. And you think your job is tedious. To look through the index go to “gov.uk/search-will-probate” to create a free account. That’s, gov.uk/search-will-probate. And if you missed that, find the link to all this information now at ExtremeGenes.com. And, that is your family histoire news for this week. And by the way, consider yourself invited to “like” our Extreme Genes Facebook page. It’s a growing community of genies just like you, and frankly it’s not the same without you. And coming up next, we’re going to get the entire rundown on the mega convention we call RootsTech FGS, which is just weeks away, from Jen Allen of FamilySearch.org, and no matter where you are, you can be part of it, that’s in three minutes on Extreme Genes, America’s Family History Show.

 Segment 2 Episode 72

Host: Scott Fisher with guest Jen Allen

Fisher: Welcome back to Extreme Genes, family history radio and ExtremeGenes.com. It’s America’s Family History Show, and I got to tell you, coming up in just a few weeks it’s kind of like the Super Bowl, the World Series, the Gaming Championships, everything all rolled in to one because this year in Salt Lake City, Utah, RootsTech and the FGS for family history convention, are all going to be happening at the same time. And that means lots are going to be going on, and to help us figure out what we’re going to be participating in, Jen Allen is with us from FamilySearch.org. Hi Jen! Good to have you on the show.

Jen: Thank you! Thanks, it’s great to be here.

Fisher: I’m excited about this. I did my first booth there last year for Extreme Genes and I’ll be there again this time around, and so much is going on constantly I don’t think I realized till the first time through, you really got to plan for this. It’s almost like going to Disney Land.

Jen: That’s right, and of course it’s the happiest place as well.

Fisher: Yes. [Laughs] A lot of discovery going on there, and let’s talk about some of the highlights, maybe we start with some of the keynote speakers that are going to be there this year. We’ve got some big names coming in.

Jen: We have some really big names and we are excited for the experiences that they’ll bring with us and likely the inspiration they’ll leave with us after the stories that they share, and the things that they’re going to talk about in their own families. The biggest one that we’re very excited about will take place Friday morning, February 13^th during the conference and we’re welcoming former first lady Laura Bush. And she’ll be there to share some experiences like I said, and then later we’ll be joined by her daughter Jenna Hager, and in kind of an interview style keynote where her daughter will ask her mom some questions about their own family, about some stories in their past and experiences that they’ve had in life both in and out of the White House.

Fisher: Well, the Bush Family line is actually unbelievable, goes deep back in to New England as well as in to Virginia. And they say that President Bush is actually the first president, the early president Bush was the first president to actually be related to one third of the population of America.

Jen: That’s right. They have a very rich history even in their ancestral lines as well as obviously the public stuff that we have all heard and seen, and even some of those more private stories that maybe we haven’t heard.

Fisher: That will be interesting. Who else do we have in?

Jen: So, we are also really excited to welcome Donny Osmond who will be joining us on Saturday February 14^th, as we all know, very big singer, entertainer, and loves to be on stage. And we’re excited to see kind of a different side of him, not necessarily razzle and dazzle like he does so well, but sharing some more intimate stories about his family and the people who have inspired him through life.

Fisher: Boy and what a family history they’ve made moving forward huh?

Jen: That’s right. [Laughs] Exactly!

Fisher: He’s one of like eight siblings or something like that and then all of them have huge families as well so their reunions have to be enormously expensive. I don’t know how they do it. [Laughs]

Jen: It’s massive I’m sure. Exactly! [Laughs]

Fisher: All right, so those are two of the highlights, who else?

Jen: So we also have on Saturday AJ Jacobs who is a New York Times bestselling author.

Fisher: Yes.

Jen: Maybe you’ve heard of him?

Fisher: Had him on the show.

Jen: Oh, great. And he is the founder of the Global Family Reunion which is a really new and fun, exciting event that he is going to be holding next June in New York City. But the thing that we’re excited for him is to, again, kind of share a little bit of his experience of finding all of those cousins and building the world family tree, if you will.

Fisher: That is a very exciting thing. In fact, Extreme Genes is going to be a part of it in New York, right across from Sydney Field over at the old New York fairgrounds. And this is something that everybody can be a part of. So if you’re at RootsTech, on the Saturday of course, you’re going to want to hear this talk and what AJ’s putting together. He is an amazingly fun and funny person. It’s going to be a very entertaining talk undoubtedly. By the way, I want to make sure that we got the dates down for this, Jen, what are the dates once again for the beginning through the end of RootsTech.

Jen: Sure. So, RootsTech takes place Thursday February 12^th through Saturday the 14^th. On Wednesday February 11^th we have innovative summit which is an additional part of the RootsTech conference for those innovators and entrepreneurs and business opportunists who will be interested in kind of that piece of the family history world. So that’s taking place on Wednesday February 11^th before the official RootsTech starts on February 12^th.

Fisher: Now this is a lot of fun because these inventors, this is typically technology that we’re talking about, and some of the ideas that people come up with to help us with our family history research is absolutely off the charts and unbelievable.

Jen: That’s right. The thing that’s so exciting about RootsTech is, you know, we live in such a technology world and a digital age that it’s taking family history to a whole new level as we all know, and so that’s what we love about RootsTech as we try to highlight all of those different platforms and applications and programs that can make your experience that much more successful.

Fisher: You know, I think that’s where most people go to look now and that’s where they certainly should start, but it is amazing how much we ignore the old school way, and I think to our detriment because there are so many things hiding in attics, in people’s basements, and file cabinets and we still have to track down who aren’t out there and haven’t posted their things and find those folks so we can share them with the world. I’m sure we’ll hear some about that also at RootsTech.

Jen: Yeah that’s right. We have over two hundred classes offered during the three days of the conference and they range from anywhere to how to use social media, to do your family history, or how to take those thousands of digital photos we have now and preserve them for the future. The thing I like to tell a lot of people is that you know, our biggest challenge these days is to rifle through our attics and find all those pictures of our ancestors. But we’re also going to have a problem in the future when our descendents are rifling through millions of hard drives and thousands of photos.

Fisher: [Laughs]

Jen: So that’s our new challenge is because of all that technology and it’s so available, we now need to use it to make it easier on our descendents when they’re trying to look through all of our memories and our photos.

Fisher: Yeah, narrow some things down and make it a little easier on them. Anybody who’s ever lost somebody and have to clean out their home or apartment afterwards, it can be a nightmare and maybe we are creating a real problem.

Jen: That’s right. Just not in boxes, it’s on hard drives. [Laughs]

Fisher: And all these classes, they’re offered on different days throughout and people can sign up for that online right now, where do they go?

Jen: Yep. So if you go to RootsTech.org that is our website, it has all the information. It will show you the schedule of classes that are offered, and we also have a mobile app that’s available for your iPhone or your Android devices, even your Windows phone you can get that, and take a look at the schedule and create your own personalized schedule based on the classes that you want to attend and the events that you want to be a part of.

Fisher: So Jen, this is what, the fifth annual RootsTech?

Jen: That’s right. This is our fifth year.

Fisher: Unbelievable. And it’s being followed around the world as well because a lot of this is being televised to different centres in different continents, so this is pretty cool. The other side of it is it’s the first time that FGS, the Federation of Genealogical Societies is having their convention at the same time under the same roof with RootsTech. Tell us a little about that for people not familiar with it.

Jen: Yeah that’s right. We’re really excited to welcome the Federation of Genealogical Societies group with us. They will be holding their conference at the same time. We’ll be sharing the expo hall experience, so it’s really great for attendees to come and experience both conferences, but to kind of have those shared events as well. So FGS, their classes will officially start on Wednesday February 11^th with a full day of classes as well as all throughout the rest of the day through Saturday during RootsTech. So you can purchase an add-on pass to your RootsTech pass that will get you access to all of the FGS classes, or if you purchase your pass through FGS you can purchase an add-on pass for RootsTech. And the great thing about FGS is that they bring a different flavor and expertise to the conference and the classes that they offer, get a little bit more in to the research and the technical nitty gritty research questions we all have when it comes to family history.

Fisher: A little more advanced, would you say?

Jen: Yes. Definitely more advanced and more down that path if you kind of know what you’re doing, but now these classes will help you advance. And a lot of times they have classes that will focus on regions so if you know that you need to really focus on doing some research on one part of the world then they likely will have an expert there that can help you with that.

Fisher: You know that’s a really good point because I think a lot of people when they get in to genealogy they think that you know, one person can know everything about genealogy. And that’s really not possible because it’s different in every part of the world and every time period. So you have to kind of become a specialist in where your people are from and where you find commonality with other areas, that’s great, you can share that. But boy, if they’re breaking those things down like that, that would make for some great classes at RootsTech and FGS.

Jen: That’s right yeah, so we’re excited to have them and their experts’ comings to help field those questions a bit more.   

Fisher: You know really, in combination between the RootsTech experts and the FGS experts this is going to be the center of the universe for family history, that weekend starting Wednesday February 11^th right?

Jen: That’s right. Yes. One other thing we could mention is that we have some really great entertainment that will be coming to help us in between the times when our brain hurts and we’re focusing too much on the classes and just want to relax.

Fisher: [Laughs] Right.

Jen: So we have some great entertainment going on all three nights that we’re excited to bring that part of the conference as well.

Fisher: Well I’ll tell you too, from my experience just last year, is that you meet people from all over the world, there are all kinds of languages spoken there and some of these people I’m still in touch with, in Germany and in England and it’s a lot of fun to make those contacts and just to say, ”hey” once in a while and stay in touch with them and find out what they may have to offer in your research back in your home countries.

Jen: That’s right. The great thing about the family history world is, we all have the same interest in mind and everyone is very willing to help, and networking is a big part of it. Because like you said, if you meet someone who is an expert or at least more advanced than you are in a certain part of the world or a certain type of research, everyone’s really willing to help out and help you advance your own work. So this is a great place to meet those people and make those connections. It could be a lifelong help and assistance to you as you do your own research.

Fisher: Absolutely. They’re incredibly invaluable. Hey, we’ve got to mention Family Discovery Day by the way, which is usually on Saturdays right? Is that going on again this year?

Jen: That’s right, yeah. We have Family Discovery Day taking place Saturday February 14^th and that’s primarily for families’ ages eight through up who want to kind of come and get their feet wet a little bit. A little bit more beginners, and be inspired on the activities that go on around family history. It’s been so popular and we’ve been getting huge numbers that Family Discovery Day likely will be sold out here in just the next couple of days, which we’re really excited about. For those who have missed the opportunity, we’d love to see you next year or honestly, we have plenty of activities going on with RootsTech and tickets start at only nineteen dollars per day, so you could come for a very minimal fee and experience RootsTech still and get a lot of that training and experience that Family Discovery Day alone can’t give you anyway.

Fisher: Well, we’re just a few weeks away now Jen, so thanks so much for all the updates on this, lots to find out. Once again what is the website address to check this all out on?

Jen: RootsTech.org.

Fisher: Okay. RootsTech.org and you can make your reservations for tickets there, also check out classes and find out the entire schedule and map out your days in Salt Lake City for the FGS conference and RootsTech the fifth annual.

Jen: That’s right.

Fisher: She’s Jen Allen from FamilySearch.org marketing. Thanks so much Jen! And we’ll see you in a few weeks.

Jen: All right. Thank you.

Fisher: And coming up next, it’s a woman who has done what many of us have done when a loved one has passed away, rifling through her old possessions and finding some things she knew nothing about. We’ll hear Glenna Johnson’s story from Missouri, coming up next on Extreme Genes, family history radio, America’s Family History Show.    

 Segment 3 Episode 72

Host: Scott Fisher with guest Glenna Johnson

Fisher: And welcome back to Extreme Genes, family history radio. It's America's Family History Show. I am Fisher, your Radio Roots Sleuth. You never know where family history material's going to come up. Back, maybe 15 -20 years ago I had a cousin in Oregon who had a neighbour come by whose home had been built by our grandfather and an uncle. And he'd been doing some redesigning, and when he got in back of a wall he found my uncle's name written on one of the studs with the date on it and he presented that to my cousin. So there was one thing that I thought was kind of unusual. And people find things in all kinds of places. And on the line with my right now, from the area of Lawrence County, Missouri, is Glenna Johnson. And Glenna, you had that experience recently too. You lost your mom not long ago and you started cleaning out her place and you found some fun stuff.

Glenna: Yes, we did. We found some quilts and some artefacts from her wedding and stuff, and a chest in the attic.

Fisher: Doesn't that always upset you though when you find things like that, that they never told you about these things and what they meant and where they came from, what some of the history was?

Glenna: Yeah. And I think the people of that age group didn't discuss a lot of stuff, they didn't talk to family about it, it was in the past and they lived in the future and try and make the best of the future.

Fisher: That probably has to do with growing up in the Depression, don't you think?

Glenna: Oh, I'm sure it did. You didn't feel like you had anything that was worth discussing, and really, you did, you had more wealth in your history, and what you've been through than any type of material possessions could have.

Fisher: Right. So tell us about this quilt. Now, you found this, you were not expecting it, were you aware your mother was a quilter?

Glenna: No, I was not. I'd never seen her quilt at all. And it was a quilt that we think was given to her as a wedding gift, and it had neighbours' names on the block.

Fisher: Oh, that's fun. So this is basically all those people wishing her well back in the day.

Glenna: Yes.

Fisher: And were the names all on the quilt? Or was it complete? Or what was the state of the thing?

Glenna: It was all complete blocks, but it wasn't sown together. And it was a lot of family names and relatives, neighbours and stuff like that, and I had to finish it, I had to finish quilting around the squares and around the outer edge of it, and I had it machine quilted, it was just a quilt top blocks.

Fisher: And did it have any dates on it?

Glenna: Yeah, it did. It had some dates back in 1947 on it.

Fisher: Okay. So it was actually from the wedding date itself, it was birth dates or anything like that?

Glenna: No, it was just around that general area. That's what I was trying to find out when I ran that article in the paper was if anyone knew any information on it, because it was just in a general dated area. It wasn't on the date; it was even within two and three years.

Fisher: Huh.

Glenna: We don't know exactly when it was given to her, by who, and that's what I wish mom had been around that I could've asked her those things.

Fisher: So you say that some of these things then were separate, they weren't together, it was just the names? So it was basically a project waiting to be put together.

Glenna: Yes. I wish I had known it was theirs so I could've put it together for her instead of me.

Fisher: Yeah, makes a lot of sense. But it turned into basically a two generation project which's got to be a lot of fun.

Glenna: Yeah, it was, because I knew most of the people on there, I knew the names of the people that were on their back years and years ago. One of the blocks has a great grandfather on there. You know, it was quite a quilt and it had a lot of various names and dates, and it was fun to find those and seen them, and most of them were already deceased, you know? But, if I could've got it ahead of time, that's why it's so important to talk to your kids, tell them what you have, because they could finish that for you and you can enjoy it.

Fisher: Boy isn't that true! That is such great advice. What are you going to do with it?

Glenna: I'm keeping it. Nobody's getting that.

Fisher: [Laughs] Not going to put in the local museum, you going to frame it?

Glenna: I may. I don't know right now, got it on a quilt rack, but I may frame it someday and it keep it that way, or I may get a wall rack for it. I don't know what it's going to do, but I know I'm keeping it.

Fisher: Now, some of these names on here you say you don't recognize and so you're starting a little reach out to try to find out more about them, tell us how that's going.

Glenna: Real well. I've had a couple of responses on it, and they knew a lot of the genealogy and history and informed me on some of them, so I have learnt some of the others, but mostly it's still just the people that's on there that I know and knew or had heard of, is the ones that I know the most about.

Fisher: Are you writing a history of this thing to go along with it?

Glenna: No, I really never done much genealogy. I may, from this point, it may get me into it, but I hadn't done a whole lot. I did some research on the family three or four years ago and knew part of it, but yeah, it would be interesting to do some more history on it and log it. And I said that would be nice to put down at least who I know and who they are, and the names, and put corresponding stuff with those names so the kids will have it for later on.

Fisher: Right, because it's already almost 70 years old. That's unbelievable.

Glenna: Yeah. And it was in good shape. I just had to finish and put it together, and so it turned out really well.

Fisher: Well, you know, I love what you've done with it, the fact that you took it and now you've put this whole thing together, you've got a story out in your local newspaper there in Missouri, and people are coming to you, so it's really kind of turned into, it's quite a project for you.

Glenna: Oh, it has been, yeah. It's been a fun project. I've had a lot of people, you know, tell me that they've saw it and that they were interested in it, thought it was really neat and would like to see it.

Fisher: Well, we're going to tell our people that if they want to see it they can go to the link at ExtremeGenes.com, and there's a picture of you with your quilt in that article that you had run on the Lawrence County record there in Missouri. So thanks for sharing all your information with us, Glenna.

Glenna: Okay. Well, thank you.

Fisher: All right, and before we get to Tom Perry, our Preservation Authority who, by the way, is back from CES, that's the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. We do have time for a listener question. This from Tom in American Fork, Utah, he asked "I recently had my DNA reflect Zero German Connection, my second great grandfather and grandmother list in the 1860 and later US censuses that they're from Darmstadt. I also have two other lines that go back to Germany. How do I interpret this DNA result?" Well, Tom, that's a great and common head scratcher. A friend of mine recently returned from his grandfather's home town in Italy where generations of his family is buried. Similar to you, his DNA showed almost no Italian blood. And the best thing I can tell you is that you have to think of DNA test results as being similar to looking at the stars, at a glance they all look to be physically close, when in fact they can be millions of light years apart. DNA results only tie you to certain places at certain times, and not all times have been filled in yet. For example, your German ancestors may have been somewhere in Asia in earlier generations, which may be what you're seeing. As more samples are gathered around the world, you'll no doubt see results adjust. I've already seen changes in mine. Just remember, it's a work in progress, but we're still making great strides. Thanks for asking. If you've got a question, feel free to ask me [email protected], and coming up next, Tom Perry, our Preservation Authority, fresh from the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas with some exciting information for us next, on Extreme Genes, America's Family History Show.

 Segment 4 Episode 72

Host: Scott Fisher with guest Tom Perry

Fisher: And welcome back to Extreme Genes, family history radio and ExtremeGenes.com, America's Family History Show. It is Fisher here, your Radio Roots Sleuth with Tom Perry from TMCPlace.com, he's our Preservation Authority. And Tom, you're on the road once again. Where have you been?

Tom: I've been every place. It’s been really busy. I've been down at the Consumer Electronics Show, getting ready for RootsTech, being a single father again trying to raise a  twelve and seventeen year old. It takes up time! [Laughs]

Fisher: Yeah, it does take a lot of time, that's exactly right. So, you know, CES, the Consumer Electronics Show is always a lot of fun in Vegas, because there's so many things that apply to family history and preservation. What things did you discover there that you want to tell us about?

Tom: The first one we want to talk about, you might want to cover your children's ears when we talk about this, drones!

Fisher: Oh no! Now wait a minute! Wait a minute!

Tom: [Laughs]

Fisher: What do drones have to do with family history and preservation?

Tom: They are the coolest thing in the whole world.

Fisher: [Laughs] In other words, it has nothing to do with it. You just like them!

Tom: No! No! It really does! I mean, when people go to the booth where they're flying their drones, people are just absolutely captivated.

Fisher: Right.

Tom: Can you imagine a big family reunion, flying one of these for an overhead shot? Going to cemeteries, you know, and taking overhead shots to give people coordinates of where to find graves, do family photos. I mean, it just opens up a whole lot of things you can do. I mean, drones are amazing tools for family history.

Fisher: I just can't see somebody buying it though, just for this. [Laughs]

Tom: No.

Fisher: I think it’s for nothing but mischief, that's what it is.

Tom: No, no. These are under a hundred bucks. You can go to Radio Shack and pick up one on sale right now for fifty bucks.

Fisher: Wow!

Tom: It has a camera built in, at fifty bucks!

Fisher: You're kidding me!

Tom: No, I kid you not!

Fisher: I want one now! [Laughs]

Tom: [Laughs] Yeah, I can hear your fingers tapping online ordering one right now.

Fisher: Um hmm.

Tom: Really! I mean, fifty bucks and it has a camera built in. It remote control so as its flying, when you're ready to take your video or photos, you push the button and it takes a still picture, or it will shoot video as well. It’s absolutely incredible!

Fisher: And do you have to get it from the drone afterwards?

Tom: No, this one at this price point only has an SD card.

Fisher: Okay, so there's no Bluetooth associated with it.

Tom: Nope, nope. You want to go to something like that, and they're still not that bad. You can go into one that's called the Zano Torquing Groups Ltd has a nano drone that's only $170, and you can actually program it to your phone to send the photos to your phone. And you can have it GPS to your phone, so as you're walking down the street, it following you like a puppy.

Fisher: [Laughs] I like that!

Tom: You know, it goes with you wherever you go. I guess you could give one to one of your kids and have them take the phone and you can remotely follow what they're doing, make sure they get from grandma's house okay.

Fisher: All right, now you're getting me going here a little bit, because I'm thinking, "Wow, I mean, kids’ little league games to get shots of the team from the air, wouldn't that be something!"

Tom: It would be absolutely incredible! And with this iPhone app, that makes it just even cooler. I mean, it’s just absolutely incredible the things they're coming out with these drones. You know, a couple of years ago, we thought that 3D printing was so cool and was evolving so fast, drones has just jumped them.

Fisher: Yeah, absolutely.

Tom: Jumped right over them. The next thing is, this is really cool, we talk about having your iPhone with you or your Android and recording grandpa talking. Well, there's a new company that has a product, it’s called IK multimedia iRig mic, and it actually plugs right into iPhone. Its only $100, you can buy an app to run it that only eight dollars. And the neat thing is, this gets full 24 bit audio, it absolutely incredible!

Fisher: Wow!

Tom: So that makes it so much easier if you want to just use your regular iPhone, you plug this into it. And if you have the newer iPhones that has the fire jack on it, plug it into there, and it’s just instantaneous the way it ties into your phone. The audio is just so much better, it’s absolutely incredible!

Fisher: Yes. That would be full body audio right there.

Tom: Oh absolutely!

Fisher: Does that have any effect on dealing with room noise and that type of thing?

Tom: Yeah, in fact it does. It has some in the app you can go and do all kinds of adjustments, and even has some onboard things you can do as well to adjust the audio to get the right sound you're looking for. And I have said a million times before, don't ever just trust it, always plug in a set of earplugs and put them in so you can hear. Because like we've talked before, you're going to get ambient noise.

Fisher: Right.

Tom: Okay, another thing that's really, really cool that we've talked a lot about are the solid state drives or the SSD drives. They have no moving parts in them, so they don't pick up vibrations when you're using them if you have them hooked up to your phone or your computer or whatever you're doing. And the neatest thing about them is, Samsung just came out with a brand new SSD drive, it’s called a T1, and its only $180 and it weighs only one ounce.

Fisher: Wow! [Laughs] You're kidding!

Tom: No! You have never been able to touch solid state drives under a couple of hundred bucks. And so, this one's only $180, and it’s so small, it give you a lot of options. It’s about the size of a business card. And so what you can do, if you're sending stuff off to one of your kids in college, some files that maybe they want, put it on and send it to them, and then they can have their photos and send it back to you. And the neat thing about it also, it uses the new EXFAT format which is E X F A T format, which means you don't have the incompatibility problems between PCs and Macs anymore.

Fisher: Boy! It just keeps getting better and better doesn't it?

Tom: Oh it is! It’s absolutely amazing. And one neat thing about this too, they come in multiple sizes. You can get big ones for a little bit more money, but you take this and you send it with your files to your aunt, then she puts her stuff on it, sends it to the next one, send it to the next one. And then after its gone all the way around the group once, every body's got everybody's stuff.

Fisher: That's a great idea. Great stuff! All right, we're going to continue with Tom Perry here in just a moment, back from the Consumer Electronics Show, and find out some of the latest things that may affect our preservation in family history, when we return in three minutes on Extreme Genes, family history radio and ExtremeGenes.com, America's Family History Show.

Segment 5 Episode 72

Host: Scott Fisher with guest Tom Perry

Fisher: All right, we're back, final segment, Extreme Genes, family history radio, ExtremeGenes.com, America's Family History Show. And we've got Tom Perry on the line, fresh back from the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. We've been hearing about all kinds of exciting new stuff that can affect our world of family history research and preservation. What else do you have for us, Tom?

Tom: This next one, for people that want to do some interviews, but they want to use video and they might not have the best lighting in the world. Light kits used to be expensive; they were like $1500 and up.

Fisher: Yes.

Tom: They were big. They were bulky. Well, there's a new one out that's called the Lume Cube GoPro portable light system. And this cube is only about sixty bucks.

Fisher: [Laughs]

Tom: And if you want to set up something, yeah, I mean, sixty bucks.

Fisher: Wow!

Tom: I mean anybody can afford that.

Fisher: Yes.

Tom: And it’s just a kind of a little cube that gives you enough highlight to make the pictures look a lot better. And if you want to set up a family reunion and maybe get several of these, then the price goes down only fifty bucks a piece.

Fisher: Unbelievable!

Tom: Oh it’s crazy!

Fisher: You know what it reminds me of is, about ten years ago, when suddenly everybody started creating audio studios in a closet in their basement, because it was so cheap.

Tom: Exactly.

Fisher: Things that used to cost $30,000 then would cost five.

Tom: Absolutely! My first true RAID editing system was $30,000!

Fisher: Ohh!

Tom: And you can buy one today that blows it away for less than ten.

Fisher: [Laughs] That's just the way it works, keeps getting better.

Tom: Well, one thing too about this lume cube, one thing that's really neat about it is, you can download an app to your Android or your iPhone and totally run it.

Fisher: From your phone? Of course!

Tom: Yeah, you can totally run the whole thing from your phone. You can adjust for red eye all at the same time. You know, it’s all LED, so there's no heat involved like in the old days. And the color temperatures are absolutely awesome on it, so they look natural. They don't look bleeded out or stuff when people used to just get a lamp and take the shade off of it and people kind of look orange and yellow. You don't have any of those kinds of problems anymore.

Fisher: So that's been resolved. All right, what else has CES resolved for us?

Tom: Okay. [Laughs] Another thing is, people are always talking to me about camcorders. Some people are in the low budget, some people are in the high budget. If you've got a high budget, this camera's totally kick butt! It’s amazing! JVC has really been leading a lot. I've always been a Sony guy, but JVC has been doing a lot of stuff in what they call 4k, which is the absolute best of the best. In fact, if you've been to Costco, Sam's Club and seen the new TVs coming out, the big ones are called 4k. The resolution is even better than our standard High Def televisions. It’s just almost like you want to touch it, because you think, if you touch it, you're going to feel the person standing there.

Fisher: [Laughs]

Tom: Or touch the orange. It’s just, the clarity is amazing! And this new JVC, it’s called a GYLS 300, it’s a 4k, and it’s just absolutely drop dead! It’s expensive, it IS about 4k.

Fisher: Okay.

Tom: But it’s incredible! And the neat thing about this is, when they get this technology and its really expensive ones, then the ones that are down the road that aren't as expensive, they add some of that technology to them, so the old ones are $200 to $300 are now a lot better quality than the ones that were 2000, 3000 just a couple of years ago. So if you're in the market for a new camcorder, go check out JVCs website. When you're ready to buy, I would really suggest you go to BHPhoto.com. B, as in boy, H as in Harry, photo.com and check out the prices on their website, and if you still have questions, call these guys, they're back in New York. They're awesome people. I work with them all the time. I've never had a problem with them. And you can go and say, "Hey, this is what I'm looking for." or "This is what my budget is." Give them some different ranges and stuff on audio, video, film, anything, and they'll be able to help you find a camera that fits your category, but if you're a wedding videographer or somebody who wants the best, this 4k is absolutely incredible.

Fisher: All right, Tom, great talking to you again. We’ll talk to you again next week. And this is exciting stuff, so keep it coming!

Tom: Will do!

Fisher: That wraps it up for this week. Thanks once again to Missouri's Glenna Johnson, for sharing with us the story of her mother's quilt that she recently found and what she's doing with it and Jen Allen from FamilySearch.org who filled us in on everything that's coming up with FGS and RootsTech in just a few weeks. If you missed it of course, catch it again on the podcast through ExtremeGenes.com, iTunes or iHeart Radio's talk channel. Talk to you again next week. And remember, as far as everyone knows, we're nice, normal family!