A good half of my retired time is spent doing genealogy, and Lisa Louise Cooke has become a major part of my training for all the new techniques and media used by modern-day amateur genealogical researchers.

I cannot remember how I found her, but I was already listening to her podcasts before I went last May to the National Genealogical Society’s Annual Conference.  

  

Here’s the rub, though.  I began listening to her podcasts sometime during the past year, but she had been doing these podcasts since 2007.  When I started out, I had over 150 to catch up.  Honestly, they were that valuable in the information they contained.

  

Well, I finally caught up while training for the Great Florida Cattle Drive, which Chuck and I did recently.  Training required walking up to eight miles every day.   Walking the full eight required about two and a half hours a day.  I walked each day while listening to her podcasts.  I caught up about two weeks before the cattle drive. 

Lisa Louise Cooke is the owner of Genealogy Gems, a genealogy and family history company. She is Producer and Host of the Genealogy Gems Podcast.  This online genealogy audio show can be found  at www.GenealogyGems.com, in iTunes, and through the Genealogy Gems app. I use her app, and it even helped me maintain my place in playing her podcasts.  

  

The Genealogy Gems podcast is about an hour long and a new one plays every month.  These inspiring podcasts bring genealogy news, research strategies, advice, and expert interviews; and I can listen to them almost anywhere–walking, driving, or even sitting in my living room.  Before training for the cattle drive, I used to listen to her on my iPhone while working in my garden.

She has also written several books, including “Turn Your iPad into a Genealogy Powerhouse”, “How to Find Your Family History in Newspapers”, “The Genealogist’s Google Toolbox”, and “Genealogy Gems: Ultimate Research Strategies”, and the video series “Google Earth for Genealogists.”  I have several of these and found them very beneficial.  Thanks to her, I no longer lug notebooks and papers into libraries, now I just carry my iPad.

  

Lisa works closely with “Family Tree Magazine” as producer and host of the Family Tree Magazine Podcast, a regular article author for the magazine, and curriculum developer and instructor for Family Tree University.

She is also sought after as a genealogy speaker.  
She is married to Bill, the proud mom of three daughters, and like me has added the role of Grandma to her resume.   
If you get a chance, check her out.  She’s a shining star in her field.