Hundreds of free genealogy and family history videos almost disappeared, perhaps forever, last week when Megan Smolenyak announced that Roots Television would be closing its virtual doors. Luckily, enthusiastic support for the site through emails, tweets, Facebook and messages, has convinced Megan that there is a demand for educational genealogical videos and that Roots Television meets a different need, and even audience, than network reality genealogy shows like Who Do You Think You Are? and Faces of America.

Thank you Megan for continuing to provide us all with such a rich genealogical resource. We're glad Roots Television decided to stick around!

A new free online index of Minnesota marriages from all 87 counties went online last month.The Minnesota Official Marriage System (MOMS) shows the bride and groom's name, the year of marriage, and the county that maintains the record. Marriage certificates can be ordered for a fee. A list of counties with their index dates is available here.

The Minnesota statewide marriage index is a great addition to other wonderful online Minnesota vital records collections and indexes, including the Minnesota Birth Certificates Index and Minnesota Death Certificates Index from the Minnesota Historical Society

World-renowned African-American genealogy expert Tony Burroughs is giving a free genealogy seminar for the Ancestry.com webinar series this coming Thursday, March 11, at 8:00 p.m. EST (GMT +5). In his free webinar, "Avoid Traps in African American Genealogy," expert Tony Burroughs will share his unique wisdom and experience to help you in your search for your Black roots. Visit Ancestry Webinars to learn more and to register.

Friday's Who Do You Think You Are? episode touched on a number of interesting research dilemmas - including what to do when you encounter conflicting information. In this case, the conflicting information was an obituary for the son of Sarah Jessica Parker's fourth great grandfather, John S. Hodge, which stated that he died en route to the California gold rush in 1849, while his son, John Eber Hodge, was apparently born in late 1850 or in 1851. How could John S. Hodge be the father of John Eber Hodge?

In this situation, the researchers kept digging. Following the "gold rush" trail brought out in the obituary, they discovered a John S. Hodge from Ohio listed in the 1850 census living in El Dorado, California. From there, I'm not sure of the research path they took, but I encountered a clue to John S. Hodge by searching for "John S. Hodge" and "gold" in Google Books. Read more...