It’s fairly well known that YouTube is a great website to visit if you are looking for information, in video format, on any given topic. Want to watch an episode of 1950s television? Need a video to properly demonstrate how to assemble an item you bought that came with directions written by a martian? Or maybe you’d just like to sit back and watch those cute animal/human interactions. YouTube provides hundreds, if not thousands of opportunities to watch videos on almost any topic imaginable.

Yes, there are many genealogy-themed lessons, too. A lot of the videos are one-offs or a short series by a single person, who then stops creating new episodes.

However, did you know that there are actually genealogy channels that regularly post new content?

Here are several that I enjoy and all are free to watch. They present a variety of topics, conversations, news, tips, how-tos and resources helpful to genealogists.

American Ancestors

DearMYRTLE

Family History Fanatics

GenFriends with Cheri Hudson Passey

Lisa Lisson Are You My Cousin?

Lisa Louise Cooke’s Genealogy Gems

Maureen Taylor The Photo Detective

The episodes are much less formal than webinars, but will still enhance your genealogy knowledge. The nice thing is that they are all pre-recorded so you can view at your leisure.

Have you had the experience of knowing that you know something, but it’s pushed into the back of your mind and rarely makes it to the forefront of your thoughts? That’s how I feel about YouTube. I’ve only touched on YouTube in a couple of posts, but it’s not just a bunch of movie clips and old songs. It’s also a great genealogy educational resource.

Okay, if you don’t visit YouTube very often, here is a sampling of what is to be found. I looked for videos that had many views:

Software Help
Family Historian – Using Plug-Ins
Legacy – Searches, Sources and More
RootsMagic – RootsMagic TV (47 videos in this set!)

Organization
How I Organize My Genealogy by Elyse
Organize Your Hard Drive by Lisa Louise Cooke

Navigating the New Ancestry View (by non-Ancestry staff)
Exploring the Hidden Features of Ancestry’s New Image Viewer by Amy Johnson Crow

Using Google for Genealogy
The Google Genealogist by Devin Ashby

Digitizing Genealogy Items
Two Ways to Digitize Old Photos by digitwirlchannel

Reading Old Documents
Simple Tips for Reading Old Documents by Ancestral Findings

First Visit to the Family History Library
Family History Library Tour on the Mormon Channel

Brick Walls
10 Top Tips for How to Bust Through Your Genealogy Brick Wall by Lisa Louise Cooke

Research & Resources

Researching Newspapers for Genealogy for Free by Kenneth R. Marks
Autosomal DNA – A Step-By-Step Approach to Analysing Your atDNA Matches by Dr. Maurice Gleeson
Get the Most from NEHGS. . . at Home by the New England Historic Genealogical Society
Ten Source Citations that Everyone Needs to Know by Heather Collins, based on Evidence Explained by Elizabeth Shown Mills

This list could be endless as “genealogy” brings up 129,000 results! You are missing out on a great learning opportunity right on your own computer if you don’t check out YouTube.