Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Your Favorite Genealogy-related YouTube Channels

This week for Saturday Night Genealogy Fun, Randy Seaver has us watching online videos, or at least discussing them.

Come on, everybody, join in and accept the mission and execute it with precision.

1.  Do you watch YouTube videos on a regular basis?  What are your favorite YouTube channels for genealogy research?

2.  Tell us about your favorite YouTube channels in your own blog post, in a comment on this post, or in a Facebook Status  post.  Please leave a link on this post if you write your own post.

Well, as usual, I'm an underachiever compared to Randy.  I am subscribed to only 29 YouTube channels total.  I am still not a huge fan of watching videos online, even after all these years of Zooming, so I have to admit I do not watch "regularly."

Of those 29 channels, four are not related to genealogy at all.  (What?  Something in my life that isn't genealogy??)  Of the remaining 25, my favorites are:

• Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center.  They cover such a wide range of genealogical topics at ACPL that there is bound to be something related to your research.  I love that almost all of their presentations are available freely on YouTube afterward.

• Truckee Meadows Community College Library Open Genealogy Lab.  This is another place that has a wide range of topics.  When you sign up for their notification list, you also receive the summary after the presentations, including links that were shared, and announcements about upcoming talks from other organizations.

• Los Angeles Public Library Genealogy Garage.  Where else can you find recorded presentations on Armenian, Black, Chinese, Jamaican, and Scottish research?

• Partnership of Historic Bostons.  I enjoy these because while it's a narrow focus (Boston), it covers so much and the topics are so interesting.  I don't even have any Boston research right now, but I love their talks.

• Backlog Archivists and Historians.  I like Backlog's perspective.  These are professional archivists covering interesting subjects related to genealogy, such as handwriting.

• JewishGen.org.  Since Jewish research is one of my focuses, it makes sense that I would have a couple of Jewish channels on my list.  JewishGen is still considered the home of Jewish genealogy online, especially since it improved its coverage of non-Ashkenazi Jews.  Most of its weekly talks are later made available on the YouTube channel.

• YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.  This is focused on Ashkenazi Jews and topics beyond genealogy, but with more than 800 videos, there is so much you can learn here.

Like Randy, I prefer video to Podcasts, but overall I prefer reading to video.  I learn much better when I see the words.

Free Online Resources from Institute of Historical Research

The Institute of Historical Research is part of the University of London.  While its focus is on education for historians, it has several free resources available on the Internet that look as though they could be useful for family historians also.

A few free online courses are offered.  "Sources for British History on the Internet" sounds like a good resource if you have British ancestry.  "Palaeography Learning Materials" sounds really interesting, even though its emphasis is on Medieval manuscripts.  The process of learning how to read those scripts probably would be good experience for learning to read other difficult handwriting, such as Colonial American or Old German.  And if you are lucky enough to trace your family back to the Medieval period, you'll be prepared for the materials you'll be reading!

More than 200 archived Podcasts are on the site.  Topics range over all geographical areas, ancient to modern history, and specific topics such as agriculture, maritime history, medicine, oral history, and Christian missions in global history (these are just a few among dozens).  This type of information is wonderful for learning about the context of your ancestors' lives and the times they lived in.

The Digital Resources page has many links, including "Bibliography of British and Irish History", "British History Online" (Middle Ages to about 1900), and "Connected Histories:  Sources for Building British History, 1500-1900", which allows searches across fifteen databases (among them Old Bailey Proceedings Online, Convict Transportation Registers Database, and London Lives 1600-1800). And there's a blog called History Spot, to help you keep up-to-date on all the Podcasts and seminars offered.

There is so much great material here!  I think I'm going to start with the palaeography course ....