Mark Your Calendars - UVPAFUG Meeting!

UTAH VALLEY PAF USERS GROUP MEETING AND NEW LOCATION

The next regular, second-Saturday-of-the-month meeting of the Utah Valley PAF (Personal Ancestral File) Users Group will be on Saturday, 14 Feb 2009 (Valentine's Day!), from 9 am until noon IN THE EDGEWOOD/RIVERSIDE LDS CHAPEL, 3511 North 180 East, Provo, Utah. Note the Group has moved from their old location to this new LDS chapel which is behind the Jamestown shopping plaza on the east side of University Avenue in the Provo "River Bottoms". You get to it by going on 3700 North east from University Avenue and then south on 180 East. There is a map showing the new and old locations on our website given below.

The main presentation, AVOIDING PITFALLS IN YOUR FAMILY HISTORY RESEARCH, will be given by Jake Gehring of the LDS Church's Family History Department. Every genealogical researcher must take care not to fall victim to some classic poor behaviors in the field. These include not performing a thorough survey of available research, lack of research documentation, and failing to take advantage of educational opportunities to further their own skills. This presentation will help you learn practical and sensible ways to approach these problems to improve your research and make genealogy more rewarding.

Jake Gehring is former editor of Genealogical Computing and lecturer and author of several dozen articles in genealogical journals on topics ranging from GIS to lineage-linked databases to query management. He has been heavily involved in genealogical publishing and digital publishing technologies for over ten years. His career highlights to date include work as product manager for search features and functionality at Ancestry.com, the largest genealogical web site on the Internet; director for RootsWeb.com, the largest free community of genealogists on the web; and publisher for HeritageQuest, a division of ProQuest Information and Learning, the largest and most successful provider of genealogical data to public and academic libraries in the United States. Jake is currently employed with the LDS Church as manager of its Data Operations Group. He is responsible for key processes that publish genealogical records on the Internet. Jake is active in the professional genealogical community and currently serves as President of the Association of Professional Genealogists. Jake graduated from Brigham Young University with a degree in Genealogy/Family History and lives in Woods Cross, Utah with his wife and family.

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. FAP 2 PAF, by Ralph Hansen (Only Ralph knows what that title means.)
2. Documenting Sources in PAF5 and new FamilySearch, by Duane Dudley
3. Q&A: Avoiding Pitfalls in Your Research, by Jake Gehring
4. Video of last month's main presentation: FamilySearch Wiki: Now and in the Future, by Michael Ritchey
5. Legacy 7, by Joel Graham
6. RootsMagic 3/4, by Bruce Buzbee
7. Ancestral Quest 12.1, by Gaylon Findlay.

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, including Gerhard Ruf, President; Brian Cooper, 2nd VP; Beth Ann Wiseman, PAFology Editor; Kay Baker and Gerry Eliason working with finances and membership; and Bruce Merrill, Lynne Shumway, and Marie Andersen, working with the DVD & Video Library, will all be there. They will help with membership, answer 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 the press releases are at http://blog.uvpafug.org/. For further information contact President Gerhard Ruf at pres@uvpafug.org801-225-6106, VP1 Don Snow at snowd@math.byu.edu, or VP2 Brian Cooper at vp2@uvpafug.org.