Personal Life Media

As a little girl Lisa Louise Cooke was always captivated by her family history.  She spent hours at the knee of her maternal grandmother taking notes about her memories, and leafing through dusty old family photo albums. 

As she approached her teenage years Lisa’s parents divorced.  As an adult, Lisa married and had three daughters of her own.  Becoming a mom solidified her commitment to creating the kind of family she dreamed of, and one that would last a lifetime.  Her passion for discovering her family history resurfaced, and she has spent the last twenty years in search of the generations that came before. 

In discovering a wide range of interesting, hard working and often courageous ancestors, she tapped into a new personal strength.  It’s been a rewarding experience, full of surprises and satisfaction. 

Along with this passion for family history, Lisa’s background in corporate human resources, theater and the arts have merged into an exciting venture called Genealogy Gems.  Her goal is to guide others through the process of discovering their family history in a way that is productive, rewarding, and fun. 

To accomplish this Lisa created the Genealogy Gems Podcast, an online genealogy radio show available through her web site www.genealogygems.TV and iTunes.  Her podcast and website strive to help listeners make the most of their family history research time by providing innovative ideas and fascinating interviews with genealogy experts.  And she provides creative ways for listeners to share their findings with their families through innovative projects and motivational stories. 

Through her book Genealogy Gems: Ultimate Research Strategies Lisa provides how-to instructions for all of the gems featured in the first season of the show.  And she dishes up daily doses of genealogy news and fun to readers through her Genealogy Gems News Blog.  With the addition of videocasts Genealogy Gems has emerged as the front runner in family history multimedia.   Lisa also thrives on interacting with her audience in person and can often be found lecturing at national conferences

In addition to her own podcasts, Lisa produces and hosts The Family Tree Magazine Podcast, a monthly show featuring behind the scenes information and interviews, and writes and producers videos for the magazine as well.  She also produces videocasts for Family History Expos the leading genealogy conference provider, again bringing her multimedia talents and genealogical expertise to the world of family history.

Motivated by her lifelong passion for history, in 2006 Lisa starred in the PBS eight hour history miniseries Texas Ranch House. She had the opportunity to live in West Texas with her family to live for three months on a 400,000 acre cattle ranch with no electricity or running water, circa 1867.  Lisa says, “It was a once in a life time opportunity to not only see what is was like for my great great grandparents who lived in Texas in 1867, but also a unique opportunity to bring my own 21st century sensibilities to the same environment and find a way to survive.”  In addition, she appears on PBS’ Texas Ranch House web site <http://www.pbs.org/wnet/ranchhouse/>, the TV documentary The Making of Texas Ranch House, and Meet The Cookes, a two hour local cable TV special she wrote and presented.  She’s been featured in magazines such as Ancestry, Family Tree Magazine and True West, as newspapers such as The Oakland Tribune and The Washington Post.

Lisa’s mission is clear:  “Everyone has a family, which means everyone has a family history waiting to be discovered.  That history is part of world history.”

It’s time to take your place in history.