Google Videos entertaining

Was Rosie the Riveter your grandma? Was your grandpa one of the World War II versions of G.I. Joe? Many of that generation no longer are with us. Some of us never even knew those family members or got the opportunity to talk to them about what they did in the war.

But thanks to hundreds of digital projects popping up on the Internet, we can see and hear interviews with survivors of that generation. It may not be our own grandmas and grandpas, but their stories might be similar.

I found these resources while exploring the National Archives website at www.archives.gov, on a page labeled "Digitization Partnerships." From a bullet list, I honed in on Google and selected "National Archives on Google Video."

A mouse click took me to a "Google Videos" screen. By typing "Rosie the Riveter" in the search box, I hit the mother lode: pages and pages about the real Rosies, including interviews and film footage. Some of the best offerings are through YouTube, including some from such official sources as the Library of Congress.

I had an uncle who died on Saipan, so I entered that into the Google Video search engine. It sent me right back to YouTube for more enthralling footage.

If you have roots in the Appalachia area, you might want to learn more about how your ancestors made whiskey. In one video, "Poppy and His White Lightening," one grandpa walks his family through the process.

Try Google Videos for topics of interest in your family research, and you're bound to get a real education — just remember to consider the source and realize that some of it is entertainment.

If you were born in Illinois and adopted there after Jan. 1, 1946, you now can get a copy of your original birth certificate that will identify your birth parents — even if the adoption was a closed one!

The new law, which went into effect two weeks ago, makes getting the record easy and a giant first step for exploring family history. A request form can be downloaded at www.idph.state.il.us/vitalrecords/vital/pdf/MedInfo_Non_Cert_BC_Request_form.pdf and mailed along with a driver's license photocopy and a $15 check or money order.

But it isn't good news for all adoptees. The new law also allows the birth parents to request their names be deleted during their lifetime. To request anonymity, birth parents must complete a Birth Parent Preference Form. If the birth parents make the request, a child can get the record only after the parent's death.

A full text of the new law is at www.ilga.gov/legislation/publicacts/96/096-0895.htm.

NBC has announced a Feb. 3 start date for the third season of "Who Do You Think You Are?" The show will air at 8 p.m. Fridays. The network has not announced which celebrities will be doing family research this season.

It's getting a little late for holiday gift shopping for your family historian, but you might still be able to slide a few presents under the tree if you get online with the National Archives.

Many items ship within 24 hours, and a few actually can be downloaded. Go to http://estore.archives.gov to find categories ranging from apparel to videos. Some of the downloads include the first telephone conversation around the world; Douglas MacArthur presiding over the surrender ceremony on the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, ending World War II; or an interview with Albert Einstein calling for a world government.

A gift that will continue throughout the year would be a subscription to the Archives magazine Prologue. Any researcher would love this gift. Archive copies of the publication also can be purchased — a nifty way to present the subscription might be to attach to an old issue a note telling the recipient about the upcoming issues.