{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"Episode 215","description":"The Genealogy Gems Podcast Episode #215 with Lisa Louise Cooke In this \u201cBlast from the Past\u201d episode, Lisa gives voice to the era of silent films, in a unique approach to understanding her great-grandmother\u2019s life. Her passion for this mostly-forgotten film genre comes through in her conversation with film archivist Sam Gill of the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum in Fremont, California. Don\u2019t miss these fun segments, too: A listener writes in after discovering a birth mom\u2019s story in passport records (see what lengths he goes to in order to access the records!). Just after RootsTech 2018, Your DNA Guide Diahan Southard reports on the latest DNA news you\u2019ll want to know. NEWS: ROOTSTECH 2018 DNA NEWS ROUNDUP FROM YOUR DNA GUIDE DIAHAN SOUTHARD           First up was MyHeritage, showing their support for the 7 million adopted individuals in the United States with their new DNA Quest campaign. MyHeritage will provide 15,000 DNA test kits to eligible participants free of charge, in order to help these adoptees use DNA to reunite them with their biological families. With this initiative they \u201chope to make this project a shining light for corporate philanthropy and an example to be followed by other commercial companies in their own lines of expertise to make the world a better place.\u201d MyHeritage has assembled an advisory board of genetic genealogists and genetic counselors to help drive this project and ensure it meets the needs of the community. If you or someone you know is interested in participating, you can head on over to the DNA Quest website (www.dnaquest.com) to fill out an application. But you better hurry, the application deadline is April 30, 2018.  Next, addressing the biggest problem in genetic genealogy, namely the looming What Next? question facing millions of newly swabbed participants, MyHeritage announced the Big Tree \u2013 a giant network of genetic and genealogy results that will automate much of the match comparison and tree searching to replace your head-scratching with light-bulb moments. They have already made significant headway on this project, as reported in the journal Science, which MyHeritage\u2019s own chief scientific officer Yaniv Erlich collaborated on. The journal reports that the team of scientists successfully extracted public family trees from Geni.com (a MyHeritage daughter company), and then used a computer program to clean up and link the trees together. It sounds like MyHeritage will be adding genetic data to this kind of tree data in their Big Tree project. MyHeritage isn\u2019t the only company out to improve the DNA matching experience. UK based LivingDNA announced that they plan to add DNA matching to their popular origins test by third quarter 2018. When they launched in October of 2016, LivingDNA was not offering cousin matching, but opted instead to focus all of their resources on providing very detailed origins reports, including breaking down the UK in to 46 categories. In the months since their launch, they have been working on a genetic matching system, called Family Networks, that will appeal to a wide range of users and will \u201creduce the risk of human error and take away the tedious task of figuring out how each person on a user\u2019s list are related to one another.\u201d They are promising an experience that provides \u201ca level of relationship prediction and specificity beyond anything currently on the market.\u201d  So it sounds like if you are currently struggling with turning your DNA matches into genealogical discoveries, our testing companies want you to know you are not alone, and they are working hard to provide solutions to these problems. Time will only tell if they can succeed. Diahan also provides answers to questions asked about this blog post announcing updates to MyHeritage DNA matching technology and its new chromosome browser. MAILBOX: TOM\u2019S PASSPORT SEARCH SUCCESS Kathleen Head\u2019s passport applications U.S. passport applications on Ancestry and FamilySearch through 1925 National Archives article on passport applications U.S. State Department passport application (since 1925) copy requests Frequently asked Questions about the Freedom of Information Act   BONUS CONTENT for Genealogy Gems App Users                 If you\u2019re listening through the Genealogy Gems app, your bonus content for this episode is a marvelous soundtrack of silent film music, played live (you\u2019ll hear audience laughter occasionally in the background) and supplied by Sam Gill at the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum. The Genealogy Gems app is FREE in Google Play and is only $2.99 for Windows, iPhone and iPad users.               Lisa Louise Cooke uses and recommends RootsMagic family history software. From within RootsMagic, you can search historical records on FamilySearch.org, Findmypast.com and MyHeritage.com.             Keep your family history research, photos, tree software files, videos and all other computer files safely backed up with Backblaze, the official cloud-based computer backup system for Lisa Louise Cooke\u2019s Genealogy Gems. Learn more at https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/Lisa. GEM: INTRODUCTION TO SILENT FILMS (Image above: a page from Lisa's grandmother's journal) Genealogy Gems Podcast Episode #2 about transcribing family journals and letters was remastered in Episode #134. Episode #8 Stanford Theatre, Palo Alto, CA (shows silent films) Internet Movie Database (IMDB) Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum: the website for this museum is packed with resources: links to Chaplin-Keaton-Lloyd film locations; the International Buster Keaton Society; Classic Images Magazine; a timeline and early history of film and more. Films mentioned in this episode: Diary of a Lost Girl starring Louise Brooks (watch trailer) Safety Last starring Harold Lloyd (watch here) The Mender of Nets with Mary Pickford (watch here) The Blot directed by Lois Weber (watch here) Don\u2019t Park There with Will Rogers (watch here) Flivvering by Victor Moore Wife and Auto Trouble directed by Bill Henderson (watch here) A Trip Down Market Street (watch here) Wings (watch here) All Quiet on the Western Front (watch here) Destruction of San Francisco by Blackhawk Films (watch part here) Four Sons (watch trailer) INTERVIEW: SAM GILL, FILM HISTORIAN AND ARCHIVIST               Shown above: Sam Gill and Lisa Cooke at the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum on the day of this interview. Throughout their conversation, you hear the sounds of excited theater patrons filling the auditorium before a screening. Sam Gill\u2019s interest in silent film dates to 1966, when as a college student he traveled to Hollywood to interview his aging heroes from the silent screen comedy era. For more than 20 years, he was Archivist of the Academy\u2019s Margaret Herrick Library, where he established the Academy\u2019s Special Collections and helped it grow to its current status as the preeminent repository for the study of American cinema. He is currently a Board Member of the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum. Over the years, he has consulted on or otherwise contributed his expertise to numerous film festivals, museum film programs and film history books. Sam recently sent us these delightful photos (below) of himself over the years: (Image 1) 1966: His first trip to Hollywood (Image 2) 1974: A news article about a research trip to Florida (Image 3) 2017: A birthday party for Diana Serra Cary (Baby Peggy), the last surviving star of the silent screen, held at the Edison Theater of the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum; also shown is Rena Kiehn, the museum's publicity director and store manager San Francisco Silent Film Festival How to identify old cars in photographs (a technique that adapts well to film!) National Film Preservation Foundation (click here to see where to find films they have helped preserve, including Japanese internment camp footage) Old Town Music Hall             Start creating fabulous, irresistible videos about your family history with Animoto.com. You don\u2019t need special video-editing skills: just drag and drop your photos and videos, pick a layout and music, add a little text and voila! You\u2019ve got an awesome video! Try this out for yourself at Animoto.com.             MyHeritage.com is the place to make connections with relatives overseas, particularly with those who may still live in your ancestral homeland. Click here to see what MyHeritage can do for you: it\u2019s free to get started. GEM: HOW TO FIND SILENT FILMS If you\u2019re looking for a specific movie, start with a Google search with the name in quotations (and, if you like, anything else you know about it, such as an actor or director\u2019s name or the year). You may find lots of results, including a Wikipedia page and film history write-ups, but if you want to WATCH it, limit your search results to Video. You can also turn to free curated collections online, such as: 101 free silent films: the great classics (links to free film footage on YouTube, Internet Archive, etc.) YouTube playlist of silent movies Internet Archive Silent Films collection: feature and short silent films uploaded by Internet Archive users Silentmovies.info: watch several classic silent films Netflix.com: Netflix subscribers can access the service\u2019s little-known collection of silent films by entering the Netflix link for browsing its film categories and then the category specific to silent films, 53310: http:\/\/www.netflix.com\/browse\/genre\/ 53310 (Click here to read an article about this tip, along with Netflix\u2019 full list of specific film categories.) YouTube: watch for free, rent or buy, as shown here: More places to explore for silent films: Turner Classic Movies (TCM.com): under TCMDb, click Database Home and search for a title you want to watch Amazon.com: Search for titles in the Video section; or search the Classic Silent films category Your local public library (search catalog: try searching for an actor\u2019s name as author) Ebay: May be the right place to purchase a hard-to-find title. Click here to view current results for a search on silent films, filtered to include only movie\/film items.   PRODUCTION CREDITS Lisa Louise Cooke, Host and Producer Sunny Morton, Editor Diahan Southard, Your DNA Guide, Content Contributor Hannah Fullerton, Production Assistant Lacey Cooke, Service Manager Disclosure: This document contains affiliate links and Genealogy Gems will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on these links (at no additional cost to you). Thank you for supporting this free podcast and blog! 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