Episode 153 - Blast from the Past Episode 10, and Darius Gray on Storytelling at RootsTech

Published: March 29, 2013, 4:35 a.m.

Enjoy a blast from the past with episode #10 featuring Steve Morse and his One-Step website. Then delight in Darius Gray, a genealogist and storyteller who provides tips on sharing your family history stories with your family, (recorded at #RootsTech 2013) GEM: A Blast from the Past -Episode: # 10\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0 \xa0 Original Publish Date:\xa0 May 01, 2007 GEM: Stephen Morse On August 21, 2007 I attended a seminar sponsored by a local genealogical society.\xa0 The speaker was Stephen P. Morse who is very well-known in the genealogy community for his ingenious database search tools available to everyone free from his website: It\u2019s estimated that nearly 40% of Americans today have an ancestor who arrived in the United States at Ellis Island.\xa0 I know I certainly do.\xa0 Well, ship\u2019s passenger records are really exciting to find and to work with.\xa0 If you have an ancestor who came through Ellis Island, you\u2019re going to want to make it a priority to find their record.\xa0 Steve Morse, described to those of us at the seminar, the success and the frustrations that he encountered in trying to retrieve records from the ellisisland.org database. Steve experienced much of the same frustration that we often do.\xa0 However, he just happens to be a world renowned engineer.\xa0 He holds electrical engineering degrees from three universities, which he put to good use when he designed the Intel 8086, the predecessor to today\u2019s Pentium processor.\xa0 And being an amateur genealogist he put those skills to good use by developing the One-Step Ellis Island website to make those records easier to find.\xa0 Since that time the One-Step site has really been expanded to include new search capabilities and an array of color-coded search forms. Today Steve recommends use of his Gold Form that searches all New York passengers using enhanced search options.\xa0 It uses the database at ellisisland.org but has its own search form and search engine that provides the enhanced features.\xa0 When you use the Ellis Island website you\u2019ll most likely have to keep going back and revising and adding to your search to get what you need.\xa0 But using the Steve\u2019s Gold Form website, all the search criteria are there on one page for you to choose from and use.\xa0 You\u2019ll be using your search time much more effectively \u2013 and you know me, I want to get the most I can out of my research time. The One-Step website started out as an aid for finding these ship passengers in the Ellis Island database.\xa0 Shortly afterwards it was expanded to help with searching in the 1930 census.\xa0 Over the years it has continued to evolve and today includes over 100 web-based tools divided into twelve separate categories.\xa0 They range from genealogical searches to astronomical calculations.\xa0 He even has a last-minute bidding form you can use for e-bay!\xa0 If you listened to Episode 3 of the Genealogy Gems Podcast on Ebay, then you know that I was excited to hear that! \xa0 Please let other genealogists know about how much you enjoy the Genealogy Gems Podcast: If you\u2019re enjoying the show & have an itunes account, would you please do me a favor?\xa0 Go to the \xa0and leave a positive review.\xa0 Thanks! \xa0 GEM: Interview with Genealogy Guru and Storyteller Darius Gray at RootsTech 2013 \xa0 \xa0 your genealogy group about how to use Google Earth for Genealogy! to see where Lisa will be speaking next in person