Mark Your Calendars - UVPAFUG Meeting!

UTAH VALLEY PAF USERS GROUP

The next regular, second-Saturday-of-the-month meeting of the Utah Valley PAF (Personal Ancestral File) Users Group will be on Saturday, 12 Apr 2008, from 9 am until noon in the LDS "Red" Chapel at 4000 North Timpview Drive (650 East), in Provo. The main presentation will be by Prof. Larry EchoHawk on SPIRITUAL BLESSINGS FROM KNOWING MY NATIVE AMERICAN ANCESTORS. He will describe his journey in searching for his Native-American ancestors, preparing their names for temple ordinances, and gaining a deeper appreciation of his Native American heritage. All of this involved many avenues of research including the Internet and the Family History Library. His wife Terry is also an avid genealogist and helped with this research.

There is a good article about Professor EchoHawk in Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_EchoHawk . He was born in Cody, Wyoming, raised in Farmington, New Mexico, and attended Brigham Young University on a football scholarship, then received his Juris Doctor degree in 1973 from the University of Utah. He practiced law in Salt Lake City and in 1977 became the General Legal Counsel for the Fort Hall, Idaho-based, Shoshone-Bannock Tribes. He is a member of the Pawnee Tribe and was the first Native American elected to a constitutional statewide office, serving as Attorney General of Idaho from 1991 to 1995. Currently he is a Professor of Criminal Law at BYU's J Reuben Clark Law School and presides over the BYU 7th Stake. He resides in Orem with his wife, Terry, and they are the parents of 6 children with 20 grandchildren. On 7 Aug 2007 he gave the BYU Devotional talk about his conversion and his heritage and a copy of that talk is posted online at the Journal of Book of Mormon Studies at http://farms.byu.edu/display.php?table=jbms&id=435 . You can also listen to that devotional at http://ldsfiles.com/newforums/ldsfiles-com-talk-repository/
4598-byu-devotional-unexpected-gift.html .

Following the main presentation there will be several classes taught concerning technology and family history. As usual, there will be something for everyone at all levels of expertise. The classes currently scheduled for this meeting are the following:

1. PAF5: Using Preferences, by Lila Sowards
2. Using Google in Genealogy, by Duane Dudley
3. Managing Genealogy Information Using PHPGedView (class 3 of 3), by John Finlay
4. Q&A on his talk by Larry EchoHawk
5. Individual Mentoring by Pat Andrus & Claudia Benson (including a German Internet Research mini class)
6. Video of last month's main presentation on The Future of Family History Centers, by Don Anderson
7. Legacy, by Joel Graham
8. Ancestral Quest, by Gaylon Findlay
9. RootsMagic, by Bruce Buzbee.
   

All meetings of the Users Group are open to the public whether members of the Group or not. The Users Group has the goal of helping individuals use technology to further their family history and there are usually 100-125 attending the monthly meetings on the second Saturdays. Several of the officers will be there, including Gerhard Ruf, President; Brian Cooper, 2nd VP; Lynne Shumway, PAFology Editor; Kay Baker and Gerry Eliason working with finances and membership; and Bruce Merrill, Eileen Phelps, and Marie Andersen, working with the DVD & Video Library. They will help with membership, questions, distribute the current issue of the monthly newsletter PAFology, and check out DVD's and videos of past presentations and classes to members of the group. Information about the Users Group, main presentations, classes, and class notes are available on the Group's website http://uvpafug.org and on their blog at http://blog.uvpafug.org/ . For additional information contact President Gerhard Ruf at pres@uvpafug.org (801-225-6106), VP1 Elder Don Snow at snowd@math.byu.edu, or VP2 Brian Cooper at vp2@uvpafug.org.