Discovering Embarrassing Family Secrets and Famous Third Cousins with Genealogist Crista Cowan From Ancestry.com

History Unplugged Podcast

History Unplugged

Society & Culture, History

4.2 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 16 October 2017

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Shake a family tree long enough and something embarrassing secret is sure to drop out: a felon uncle here, an illegitimate nephew there, a grandfather arrested for indecent exposure there. Genealogy can reveal all sorts of unexpected surprises. But it can also help you find second and third cousins that you didn't know were famous. To talk about the wonders of genealogy and how to do it right is Crista Cowan. Crista is the corporate genealogist for Ancestry.com. She was the indexing manager for the company and helped them archive more than 17 billion records. She has found records in libraries, archives, and courthouses. Recently she has used DNA as a powerful tool to locate and connect biological family members. Crista has been involved in family history research for more than 25 years and has been a professional genealogist since 2002. She specializes in descendancy research, Jewish Immigration, and sharing family history with the genealogically challenged. Crista regularly teaches Family History classes at her local LDS Family History Center and at conferences and genealogy societies around the country. She has been employed at Ancestry.com since 2004 and is known as The Barefoot Genealogist. RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Crista's Youtube Series: The Barefoot Genealogist TO HELP OUT THE SHOW Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews really help and I read each one. Subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher

Transcript

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0:00.0	The History of North America podcast is a sweeping historical saga of the United States,
0:09.4	Canada, and Mexico from their deep origins to our present epoch.
0:14.1	Join me, Mark Vinet, on this exciting, fascinating epic journey through time, focusing on the compelling,
0:20.8	wonderful, and tragic stories of North America's inhabitants, heroes, villains, leaders,
0:27.2	environment, and geography.
0:29.5	I invite you to come along for the ride!
0:59.5	Welcome to the History Unplugged Podcast, the unscripted show that celebrates unsung heroes,
1:14.6	myth busts historical lies, and rediscover the forgotten stories that changed our world.
1:21.3	I'm your host, Scott Rank.
1:29.3	Do you have someone in your family tree that you're embarrassed of?
1:32.5	Maybe you have an uncle that really got into pyramid schemes and try to get everyone
1:35.8	into AM way.
1:37.3	Maybe you have a great-grandfather who is a rest-ed for indecent exposure because he was the
1:41.1	town pervert.
1:42.4	Maybe you have a great-great-grandmother who had a not-so-good reputation about being too
1:46.5	sociable with the milkmen and the legitimacy of the rest of your family is called into question.
1:52.0	You can discover all those interesting types of family secrets and lore when you get into
1:55.8	genealogy.
1:57.0	I'm talking to a professional genealogist on this episode, Christa Cohen.
2:01.4	Christa has been doing genealogy since she was a child and she works for ancestry.com,
2:05.7	she's done so since 2004, to help them put together a massive database of different people
2:11.3	through family records and increasingly DNA tests.
	...

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