Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Announcing a new book from ICAPGen

The following is from ICAPGEN.

ICAPGen is very pleased to announce the publication of a brand new genealogy book, hot off the press: Becoming an Excellent Genealogist: Essays on Professional Research Skills, edited by Kory L. Meyerink, MLS,
AG, FUGA; Tristan L. Tolman, AG; and Linda K. Gulbrandsen, AG. 

Genealogical research has become one of the most popular pastimes in the United States. As the popularity of genealogical research continues to grow, so does the need for guidance that takes the researcher beyond basic,
introductory instruction. This book provides higher levels of instruction to help you become a more excellent genealogist. It illustrates how to use sources and information better, develop more advanced research and
analytical skills, and learn new methodologies.

The book is softcover and 234 pages. Price is $19.95. Order yours today at 
http://www.icapgen.org/icapgen/node/2582

Digital version coming soon.

RootsTech 2013 Registration is Live with $149 Early-bird Pricing

The following is from RootsTech.  I am pleased once again to be an official RootsTech Blogger.

Registration is now live for the 3rd annual RootsTech conference on March 21-23, 2013 in Salt Lake City, UT. With several thousand attendees each of the first two years, the 2013 conference is shaping up to be the biggest and best yet! 

RootsTech, hosted by FamilySearch, offers an opportunity unlike any other to discover the latest family history tools and techniques, connect with experts to help  you in your research, and be inspired in the pursuit of your ancestors.  You will learn to use the  latest technology to get started or accelerate your efforts to findorganizepreserve, and share your family's connections and history. 

New in 2013! A full track of Getting Started classes and labs will help those new to family history learn where to start, how to build their family tree, and how to use technology to explore their connections. Learn more.

Register NOW and Save $70 with Early-bird Pricing!

Registration Options
Full 3-Day Pass
Access to everything RootsTech has to offer (250+ classes).         
$219 $149 (Early-bird Pricing)
One-day Pass
Full admission for just one day.
$89
Student 3-Day Pass
Student ID required.
$39
NEW! Getting Started 3-Day Pass
Beginner track with access to over 30 classes.
$49 $39 (Early-bird Pricing)
Getting Started One-Day Pass
A selection of fundamental classes to help get you started.
$19
Developer Day Pass (March 22)
A full-day technology program just for developers. 
$89

Learn more and register at  www.rootstech.org.

RootsTech has something for everyone, whether you are an avid genealogist, just getting started, or simply want to discover the latest technologies and solutions to better connect with your family. At RootsTech, come prepared to experience world-class content from speakers all over the country, an exciting exhibitor hall, and great keynote speakers.


Monday, September 24, 2012

UGA Fall Conference Report

This past Friday and Saturday I attended the UGA Fall Conference held at the Salt Lake Community College in Sandy, UT. When I first looked at the class selections I wasn't impressed.  I didn't think there were enough deep classes to pick from. (I've been finding that problem a lot recently with genealogy conferences.) It turns out that from the selection of classes I did find some great instructors and presentations.

The Friday Keynote address was from Robert Raymond on "Miracles and Serendipity in Genealogy".  I just love hearing these great stories that just send goose bumps up your spine.  Robert did a fantastic job.

I also attended two classes by Robert Raymond on "Baby Steps with Sources and Citations" and "Baby Steps with Evidence Analysis". Earlier this year I had attended Robert's Baby Step classes at the S. Davis Family History Fair. Robert told me he had reorganized the classes and instead of 5 or 6 classes it was down to 2. I just had to check them out. What I noticed missing was the maturity level selection for each section. Figuring out my maturity level previously really got me thinking about how I needed to improve. So this new format was a toss up for me. Great presentation, lots of info, just my personal interaction was gone. If I hadn't seen it the other way before I would have never missed them in this new version.

There were two classes from Karen Clifford that I attended, "How to Solve Research Problems" and "Pre-1850 U.S. Research Methodologies". Karen's always an excellent presenter. She has a lot of experience at it she's a college instructor on genealogy. She has written and teaches the genealogy courses offered at the Salt Lake Community College.  I need to figure out a way to take those classes. I want more depth on the subjects than what a one hour class offers.

Here are a couple of notes I made to myself during class.

1. Make sure I have all the Unique Identifiers on my ancestors - Ethnicity, Religion, Occupation, Social Status, Literacy.

2. Good older books to study: Genealogical Research Methods and Sources, The Handybook for Genealogists, and World Conference on Records Reports

3. Check out the National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collection - NUMUC

4. Learn more about the Lyman Draper Manuscript Collection.

There was a dinner break at 5:00 p.m. I stayed around for the pizza party. Sadly the pizza was late, but the UGA gave it to everyone free.  That was awful nice of them. I had a nice time talking to my fellow conference goers over dinner.

After dinner I attended "Deconstructing Your Family Tree: ReEvaluating the "Evidence" by Michael Lacopo. I really enjoyed listening to Michael, but I find I didn't write any notes down.  Must have been the pizza buzz. He was very knowledgeable about his family and showed us how he evaluated each bit of evidence he found on them. I would definitely attend another class offered by him.

The last class of the day for me was Leland Meitzler - "Genealogy on the Cheap".  I can't say I learned any thing new, but I did enjoy the presentation. Leland has a lot of personality.

The second day of the conference started with a fantastic Panel Discussion - "The Cool Parts of Family History: Kids Having Fun!" with Janet Hovorka, Susanne Curley and Bret Petersen.  I have to say I wasn't to excited about the title. As I've become older I find I enjoy my quiet past-time and sharing it with a bunch of kids doesn't appeal to me. After this presentation I found out how wrong my thinking was. We really do need to sell the older generation on working with the youth.

Janet showed us how family history is cheaper than therapy.  What benefits youths get from knowing the roots they come from. She suggested that we pay them to do some jobs for us, and that will help get them hooked.  She said a lot more but that's what stuck out to me.

Susanne Curley is the director over the Riverton FamilySearch Library. They are having great success with the youth there.  She also gave some stats I found interesting.

1. There are 1.7 million records added to FamilySearch each month. We have 3 billion records now.

2. Riverton FSL had 7,777 kids visit since January 2012. That is not including the 1,200 youth that attended Youth Conference.

Riverton will let you print out a fan chart and cloud chart of your family. The fan chart compels the kids to fill in the blank spots.  The cloud chart helps them see what surnames are in the their family tree. The size of the surnames determine how many people you have by that name. Riverton is also working on installing an Oral History Recording Studio.

Susanne showed several videos of the youth at their library. You really caught the spirit of how exciting this was for them. They are doing great things at the Riverton FamilySearch Library.


Bret Petersen was the final panelist and he showed us how he has worked with the youth, including his daughter.  I really liked the way he described genealogy to kids.  He showed a picture of a cut tree trunk and it's rings.  Each ring was a generation going back. Each ring made up the tree and made it strong.  That's what knowing about your family history and where you come from does for you.

Bret showed a video with his daughter using the Hello Photo iPad app by placing a negative on the screen. Then with a smart phone camera she would take a picture.  The negative was turned to a positive and you could view the photo.  His daughter would then show the pictures to her grandparents and they would tell her who that was in the family.  It was really neat.

After the keynote panel discussion I attended Barry Ewell's class "The 30 Second Genealogist - How to Find Genealogy Answers You Want Now (MyGenShare).  He demonstrated his new website MyGenShare.  Showing us how to go through the site and what types of materials you can find there.  I already have a subscription, and really love the books there. Seriously you need to go take a look at the books you can read on the website. I figured I saved money by getting a subscription instead of purchasing copies that I have no room for in my house. Most of what he taught in class could be learned by watching the tutorials on the website. He did tell us some great things to come but told me I couldn't blog about it yet.

The second class of the day I attended Alice Volkert's "Record Keeping Methods". The class was focusing on keeping paper and I wanted something on digital record keeping and online forms. So it wasn't a fit for me. Sometimes that just happens.  I left the class to find something different to learn.

Shelle Morehead's class on "Finding and Using Manuscript Collections" sounded good.  Boy, was I sorry I didn't get to hear her full presentation.  She is an electric speaker, full of pep and energy.  She really knows her subject.  Once again I heard about NUMUC I really need to check that site out.

The next class I attended was by Warren Bittner - "Complex Evidence - What is it, How it Works, Why it Matters".  All I can say is WOW!  I've never attended any of his classes before.  He is so knowledgeable and has a very logical teaching method. He took us through the steps on how he compiled indirect evidence on who the parents and family were for an individual.  The journey took us through city directories, maps, census, church records, death certificates, etc. What a masterful job.

Warren said there are two different types of genealogists. Those that read the "National Genealogical Society Quarterly" and those that do not.  He made me want to be a genealogist that reads the NGS Quarterly. He also made me want to take SLIG classes, because he is one of their instructors.

He also suggested that we read "Numbering Your Genealogy" found in the NGS Store. He mentioned that none of the genealogy program's register style reports follow the correct numbering system. I would like to see how RootsMagic measures up to this. Someone in the class mentioned that NEHGS has a template for the register report but I couldn't find it.

The last class I attended was Valerie Elkins "Finding Your Family Stories".  She did such a great job explaining how to take the information we have and make a story out of it.  It's the stories that really touch those not normally interested in genealogy. I need to do a better job writing up a story on my families.

My report on the UGA Fall Conference would not be complete if I did mention the popcorn. Vendors were offered a discount on their booths if they would sponsor an activity. This was to help encourage family members to attend.  RootsMagic had an old time photo booth. Gosh now I won't remember the names of who did what. One vendor had you look for clues by following a map and if you found all the answers you got a prize. Another vendor had popcorn, which was very popular. Family ChartMasters had a fun game where you drew a card and then had to figured out the relationship on a family chart.  There was also a room for younger children to play a few games. It looked like fun.

So that ended my UGA Fall Conference experience. Overall I had a great time and learned more about me and what I need to do to became a better genealogist. That is the true measure of success.

See ya tomorrow, for tomorrow is always another genealogy day!

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Logan FamilySearch Library Fall Conference

Theme: Find your Tree in the Forest

Sponsor: Logan FamilySearch Library

Keynote Speaker: Michael D Rossetti, Google, Inc.
Date: Saturday -- October 13, 2012
Time: 9:00 AM to 5:30 PM. Name-tag pickup starts at 8 AM.

Location: Bridgerland Applied Technology College, 600 W and 1200 N or 1400 N, Logan, Utah

Registration: FREE

Options:
Order a sack lunch ($7)
Order a printed syllabus ($8) to be picked up at the conference.

Note: A free electronic copy of the syllabus can be downloaded at loganfhc.org > Conference about 2 weeks prior to the conference (Oct 1st). You can print all of it (or select classes) at home if you like.

We do request that you pre-register soon at Loganfhc.org > Conference so we can plan classroom requirements

Thursday, September 20, 2012

UGA Fall Conference Friday & Saturday

The following is from the UGA.

UGA is innovating again with a new kind of event for teens and adults.  Classes, vendors and activities are scheduled for all experience and interest levels.  With fresh classes and an all new vendor's area with exciting activities for all ages, this will be a conference you don't want to miss.  UGA is bringing the PARTY to family history conferences:
This Friday and Saturday 9/21&22
Sandy Campus of Salt Lake Community College
9750 South 300 West, Sandy Utah.

You'll want to bring:
  • The youth in your family to get involved with the mobile apps classes, hands on labs, and activity booths.
  • map showing how to get to the conference.
  • Digitized family pictures for photo editing help and free All Occasion Card hands on projects.
  • Your genealogy information on a flash drive or in paper for any of the hands-on labs or to be able to ask questions.
  • Decisions on which classes  you want to attend, because it's going to be hard to choose from all the great classes.  Check out the schedule ahead of time to decide which classes you want to go to. 
  • A couple of dollars for pizza Friday evening so that you don't have to miss anything.
  • Your lucky socks so that  you can win the huge prize drawing on Saturday afternoon.  Then you can walk away with computers, subscriptions, or other great gifts.
  • The smaller children in your family on Saturday from 1-4pm for fun family history activities geared for the younger generation.
Online Registration is closed. Onsite Registration begins at 8:00 am. Learn more on the Conference Webpages.

Treasured Souls to Keep

Every now and then we just need pretty things in our lives.  When I find a pretty and functional item I just have to share.  Can I just say I drool over these boxes. The company name "Treasured Souls to Keep" describes my feelings exactly, about my temple cards for beloved family members.  They are more than just names on a card to me!

LDS Temple Family File Card Organizational System


                           

 LDS Temple Family File Card Boxes

These elegant organizers provide a special place for you to easily manage your family file temple cards as you progress each ancestor from Baptism through Sealing. Avoid losing cards and keep your treasured ancestors in mind with this useful file system. Hinged and Envelope Boxes include tabbed index cards: Baptism, Initiatory, Endowment, Sealing and Completed. Sliding Drawer box comes with tabbed alphabetical cards to file cards by family surname when temple work is completed.

Envelope Box fits nicely into temple bag, purse, or briefcase. Holds 75 cards comfortably with magnetic closure to secure cards as they are transported to and from the temple.

Medium Hinged Box holds 350 cards and has antique brass snap closure in the front and hinges on back.
Sliding Drawer Box holds 1000 cards safely and attractively for storage on book cases, desk, or shelves. Box comes with an antique brass knob and Treasured Souls to Keep charm and Rejoice charm dangles.

                                               or call 801-254-9023

logo


MyHeritage releases Record Matching

The following is from MyHeritage.


MyHeritage releases breakthrough Record Matching technology for family history
Discoveries made easy: Millions of MyHeritage users to automatically receive relevant newspaper clippings and historical records, adding color to their family history
PROVO, Utah, LONDON and TEL AVIV, Israel – September 19, 2012: MyHeritage, the world’s largest family network, today announced the release of Record Matching, an innovative new technology set to change the face of the family history market. Record Matching will help millions of families learn more about their past by automatically discovering relevant historical records and newspaper articles dating back 300 years.
Record Matching is the next generation of family history exploration. It saves time by automating online research for users’ family trees, breaking through “brick walls” for dedicated genealogists, and giving beginners a significant boost with their family tree research. It works by comparing more than one billion profiles in family trees created by MyHeritage users to more than four billion historical records, to find relevant matches. It’s the only service of its kind to automatically research newspaper articles, books and other free text content through semantic analysis, to find articles that can shed light on the actual lives, personalities and achievements of one’s ancestors.  The Internet has helped bring family history to mainstream audiences, by allowing some of the research traditionally done in libraries and archives to be done online. Record Matching now simplifies online research by conducting it automatically.
Supporting 38 languages, MyHeritage has become the trusted home on the web for families worldwide wishing to explore their family history, share memories and stay connected. In addition to its expertise on collaborative family tree building, over the past year MyHeritage has positioned itself as a leading provider of historical records. Record Matching is an add-on feature for SuperSearch, the search engine for historical records successfully released by MyHeritage in June 2012.

MyHeritage Founder and CEO, Gilad Japhet, said: “Record Matching is a family history discovery maker and time saver, designed to delight both dedicated family historians and people with a casual interest in their ancestry. Over the past year we’ve expanded our consumer offering by complementing our social family tree network with a substantial amount of historical content. Record Matching now ties these two assets together, adding exciting new value for our users and giving us a unique edge in the family history market. It’s a significant step towards realizing our goal of bringing family history to the masses.” 

Record Matching utilizes the current global pool of more than four billion records on MyHeritage, including strong collections in the USA, UK, Ireland, Australia and Canada, with more content being added daily for additional countries. Users can receive birth, marriage and divorce documents, gravestone photos, death, burial and census information, military, immigration and other types of records in their Record Matches. More information about the lives of relatives and ancestors can be revealed in Record Matches from the world’s largest historical newspaper collection licensed to MyHeritage (currently about 120 million pages dating back to the 18th century), books and other free text materials. Record Matches also cover the 1930 and 1940 US census records and the content from MyHeritage-owned family history websites, WorldVitalRecords and FamilyLink

Developed in-house by MyHeritage engineers and family history experts, Record Matching technology is designed to mimic the work of a family historian as much as possible, finding matches that a human would consider plausible, and ruling out matches that a researcher would consider as incorrect. Based on multiple genealogical algorithms that match information in the record (names, dates, facts, relationships, etc) to the information in the family tree, semantic analysis, statistical engines and a false positive prevention sub-system, Record Matching provides a high degree of accuracy without sacrificing flexibility. Through its use of massive computational resources and systematic approach of comparing every person to every record, Record Matching makes discoveries that many users would not have the time or luck to find on their own.
Record Matching technology augments MyHeritage’s flagship Smart Matching™ technology that compares family trees to other family trees. The two technologies work together in a cycle that constantly pushes forward the users' knowledge of their family history. MyHeritage users will receive weekly email updates of their new Record Matches. On the MyHeritage.com website, all Record Matches found are consolidated in one interactive report, where users can conveniently review, filter, sort, confirm and reject their matches.
Record Matching has flexible phonetic and multilingual capabilities when researching names, covering many possible synonyms, different spellings and international variations.  Record Matches have an individual confidence score and can be viewed by person or by data collection. Additional features, such as saving information from Record Matches into online family trees, creating references and source citations and displaying real-time matches whenever a new person is added into the tree, will be added before the end of 2012.
As of today, Record Matching will run periodically for every user who has a family tree on MyHeritage. Record Matches found will be displayed for free as a shortened extract. For full access to the historical records delivered by Record Matches, MyHeritage offers affordable data subscription plans and pay-as-you-go credits which are also good for use on SuperSearch, the MyHeritage search engine for historical records. In complimentary collections under license, such as Ellis Island and Find-A-Grave, MyHeritage users will enjoy full access to the Record Matches for free. Family tree enthusiasts interested in receiving Record Matches are welcome to sign up for free at MyHeritage, import their family tree or build a new one using the site’s friendly tools, and receive their matches in less than 24 hours.

About MyHeritage
MyHeritage is the most popular family network on the web. On MyHeritage, millions of families around the world enjoy a private and free place to explore their history and share family memories. Pioneers in making family history a collaborative experience for the entire family, MyHeritage empowers its users with innovative social tools and a massive library of historical content. The site is available in 38 languages. The company is backed by Accel Partners and Index Ventures. For more information visitwww.myheritage.com.

Family History Library October 2012 Research Series

The following is from the Family History Library.

Free Research Series on U.S. Immigration Research
The Family History Library Hosts Events in October.
 
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH - Genealogists and family history enthusiasts looking for help with U.S.immigration research will be interested in U.S. immigration classes held at the Family History Library in October.  A free U.S. Immigration Research Series will be held on Saturday, October 13, at the Family History Library. The classes will include:

 9:00 a.m.   “U.S. Immigration, 1820-1954”
10:15 a.m.   “U.S. Naturalization Records”
11:30 a.m.   “Migration Routes Across America”

To view the class schedule online, go to https://familysearch.org/locations/library_class_schedule.  Classes will be held in the Main floor classroom of the Family History Library.  The library is located to the west of Temple Square on West Temple between North Temple and South Temple Streets in downtown Salt Lake City.  On Saturdays, parking is free to library patrons and is located behind the Church History Museum.  To register for these free classes, send an email to FHLClassReg@familysearch.org or call
801-240-4950. 


Free Research Series on Wales Research Peculiarities
The Family History Library Hosts Events in October.
 
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH - Genealogists and family history enthusiasts looking for help with Wales research will be interested in Welch classes held at the Family History Library in October. A free Wales Research Peculiarities Workshop will be held on Saturday, October 20, at the Family History Library. The classes will include:

 9:00 a.m.   “Names, Geographical and Personal”
10:00 a.m.   “Records and Research Strategies”
11:00 a.m.   “Practice Time”

To view the class schedule online, go to https://familysearch.org/locations/library_class_schedule.  Classes will be held in the B2 classroom on the second lower level of the Family History Library.  The library is located to the west of Temple Square on West Temple between North Temple and South Temple Streets in downtown Salt Lake City. On Saturdays, parking is free to library patrons and is located behind the Church History Museum.  To register for these free classes, send an email to FHLClassReg@familysearch.org or call 801-240-4950. 


Free Research Series on Hispanic Research
The Family History Library Hosts Events in October.
 
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH - Genealogists and family history enthusiasts looking for help with Hispanic research will be interested in Hispanic classes held at the Family History Library in October. A free Hispanic Research Series will be held on Saturday, October 27, at the Family History Library. The classes will include:

10:00 a.m.   “Crossing the Frontier: Finding Immigrant Ancestors from Mexico”
11:00 a.m.   “Beginning Hispanic Research”
12:00 p.m.   “Using FamilySearch.org to Find Your Hispanic Ancestors”
 2:00 p.m.   “LaBúsquedqa Genealógica en FamilySearch.org”
 3:00 p.m.   “Como Usar el Nuevo Family Tree”
 4:00 p.m.   “¿Y Ahora Qué? Como Hacer la Investigación Genealógica
(Con casos de estudios) ”

To view the class schedule online, go to https://familysearch.org/locations/library_class_schedule.  Classes will be held in the Main floor computer lab of the Family History Library.  The library is located to the west of Temple Square on West Temple between North Temple and South Temple Streets in downtown Salt Lake City.  On Saturdays, parking is free to library patrons and is located behind the Church History Museum.  To register for these free classes, send an email to FHLClassReg@familysearch.org or call 801-240-4950. 

Family History Center and FamilySearch Indexing Open House

The following is from FamilySearch.


FamilySearch

 
 

Family History Center & FamilySearch Indexing Open House


October 5, 2012 - 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Classes and presentations for family history center directors and staff, stake indexing directors, and priesthood leaders!

FamilySearch is once again pleased to announce that the Family History Center Open House will be held on October 5, 2012. If you are planning to visit Salt Lake City for General Conference, we would love to have you join us.
 
This event will have a special addition to our previous schedule.  We are excited to announce that the Managing Director of the Family History Department, Dennis Brimhall, will be our keynote speaker and will kick off the Open House at 8:00 a.m. in the Assembly Hall on Temple Square. The indexing directors will also attend the keynote address.
 
Starting at 10:00 a.m., the remainder of the Family History Center Open House will be held at the Church History Museum, located at 45 N. West Temple Street, Salt Lake City, in the lower level auditorium. The Museum is located next door to the Family History Library.
 
Classes and presentations are intended to provide training, information, and support for family history center directors, staff, and priesthood leaders with responsibility over family history. Classes will begin at 10:00 a.m. A question and answer session with FamilySearch employees will be the final session and end at 5:00 p.m.
 
In order to accommodate everyone who would like to attend, please register by going to:
 
Each person who wants to attend must register individually. There will be free parking available at the Conference Center north of Temple Square to those who register.
 
There will be limited, free handicapped parking behind the Church History Museum. Please contact Family History Center Support at 1-866-406-1830 to arrange for this special parking.
 
 A printable 8 1/2 x 11 poster is available here.

We can't wait to see you there!
 
The FamilySearch Team

2012 ICAPGen & BYU Center for Family History Conference

The following is from FamilySearch.


FamilySearch

 
 

Becoming an Excellent Genealogist – A Family History Conference


October 19 & 20, 2012

Held at the Ernest L. Wilkinson Center at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.

We would like to make you aware of a family history conference entitled, "Becoming an Excellent Genealogist," co-sponsored by the International Commission for the Accreditation of Professional Genealogists (ICAPGen) and the BYU Center for Family History and Genealogy, that will be held 19-20 October 2012 at the Ernest L. Wilkinson Center at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.

This conference will feature over 60 lectures in six tracks that will help people of all skill levels become better researchers. The keynote speaker will be Don R. Anderson, director of Patron and Partner Services for the Family History Department. Conference registration includes two full days of classes and a luncheon each day. Vendors will also be hand with the latest products and services. You can also attend ICAPGen's annual gala banquet on Friday evening (separate purchase required).

For more information about the conference, open this flyer, or visit http://www.icapgen.org/icapgen/events. To register online for the conference, visit https://www.icapgen.org/icapgen/catalog/icapgenconf2010.  For questions about the conference, or if you qualify for a discounted registration rate (for full-time students and CSM and full-time missionaries), send an email toregistration@icapgen.org.

We look forward to seeing you there!

The FamilySearch Team
 
 

Ancestry Free Census Guide

The following is from Ancestry.com


Continue searching
ancestry.com
the U.S. Census with
our FREE guide 


The census is often the best place to make discoveries about your family story. And our guide to finding your family in the U.S. Census (1790-1940) gives you tips and step-by-step instructions that will help you uncover details like addresses, ages, occupations, income, education level and more.
P.S. The 1940 U.S. Census is available for FREE right now on Ancestry.com.

Monday, September 17, 2012

Last Day for lunch orders at the UGA Fall Family Conference

The following is from the UGA.

Last day to order lunch for the conference this weekend.

You aren't going to want to miss a minute.  Make sure you don't have to leave campus for lunch.  

UGA is innovating again with a new kind of event for teens and adults.  Classes, vendors and activities are scheduled for all experience and interest levels.  With fresh classes and an all new vendor's area with exciting activities for all ages, this will be a conference you don't want to miss.  UGA is bringing the PARTY to family history conferences:
This Friday and Saturday 9/21&22
Sandy Campus of Salt Lake Community College
9750 South 300 West, Sandy Utah.

You'll want to bring:
  • The youth in your family to get involved with the mobile apps classes, hands on labs, and activity booths.
  • map showing how to get to the conference.
  • Digitized family pictures for photo editing help and free All Occasion Card hands on projects.
  • Your genealogy information on a flash drive or in paper for any of the hands-on labs or to be able to ask questions.
  • Decisions on which classes  you want to attend, because it's going to be hard to choose from all the great classes.  Check out the schedule ahead of time to decide which classes you want to go to. 
  • A couple of dollars for pizza Friday evening so that you don't have to miss anything.
  • Your lucky socks so that  you can win the huge prize drawing on Saturday afternoon.  Then you can walk away with computers, subscriptions, or other great gifts.
  • The smaller children in your family on Saturday from 1-4pm for fun family history activities geared for the younger generation.
And of course if you haven't registered yet--do it now--it will only take a minute and you won't have to stand in line for onsite registration.  Reserve your spot today on the Conference Webpages.

Ogden Family History Fair Report

Saturday, Sept 15th was the annual Ogden Family History Fair. I believe it is the third time being held at Weber State College.  It's also the third time I have attended and enjoyed this conference.

There were tons of classes to select from, but I wanted to immerse myself in the subject of Family Tree, with the goal of having a greater understanding of it. The conference began on a high note with a keynote address from Ron Tanner, Product Manager for FamilySearch. He was in remarkable form, very entertaining and delivered a lot of emotion and passion on the subject of FamilySearch, in particular new FamilySearch (NFS) and it's replacement Family Tree. I attended Ron's class after the keynote which gave us opportunity to ask lots of questions.  He's the man that can tell you what's happening at FamilySearch.

There were two other instructors on Family Tree, Debbie Burnett and Edith Reeves. I attended each two part class that they offered, giving their own twist on Family Tree.

Ron Tanner's Keynote Address and Class Notes

We have to change the way we do genealogy.  Instead of playing the game "Go Fish", we need to play fair in the genealogy pool.  The goal is to build a "Tree of the Human Family", everyone working together, so we can stop researching the same people over and over again.

There was a rumor going around that this coming Wednesday, Family Tree was going to be released to the public. That is not going to happen.  The plan is to go public next month. Then when people visit www.familysearch.org they will see a Family Tree link. Everyone will be able to look at it.  If you want to edit, make changes, you will need to register or login to your account to do so.  There will be no more need to request an invite.

After the public release of Family Tree there will be a three month or so time frame that New FamilySearch will be still live. Early 2013 New FamilySearch (NFS) will be gone! (Personally, I think this time frame for duel access if to give FamilySearch Affiliates time to make changes to their programs to transfer over to Family Tree.)

In October all the Temple features will be fully functioning in Family Tree.  We will then be in Pilot phase of Family Tree until the end of the year.  They will be adding the Add/Delete person features, Helper function, and the ability to Print.

Next year we will get the ability to scan and attach our own documents.

Ron was asked about adding GEDCOMs.  We were told they are writing a new GEDCOM system.  It will be available on FamilySearch in November. When you add a tree by GEDCOM it will use a tool to compare the GEDCOM with records that are already in Family Tree.  It will show you the status of how many are already in the Family Tree, and how many are new.  You will only be able to add the new people, but first you have to search the tree and compare possible duplicates on each one.  The process is purposely more painful for adding GEDCOMs so it stops the resulting pain others feel cleaning up the duplicates.

Separate from Family Tree is another Trees area on FamilySearch.  If you go to FamilySearch now you will find the Trees link under the word "Discover Your Family History"  This section is for Ancestral File (AF), Pedigree Resource File (PRF) and patron submissions.  This is the best area to upload your GEDCOM instead of the Family Trees. Ron told us patrons will have the ability to remove their old Pedigree Resource File submissions.  That is going to help clean up FamilySearch tremendously.

There are tutorials on learning how to use FamilySearch Family Tree.  They have plans on creating more of them.  You can find the tutorials at: http://familysearch.org/tree-training .

Instead of Combine & Separate that was in NFS, Family Tree will have a Merge & UnMerge function.  You will also have the ability to mark individuals as "Not a Match".

When the Pilot Phase of Family Tree is released in Oct the Combine feature will be turned off in NFS.  This is due to all the issues involved with the two systems sharing information.

Right now there is no system to deal with LDS Temple Ordinances that have been reserved by patrons and left undone for years.  The Church and FamilySearch are evaluating the status of these old temple cards.  They may be having these old cards released to the Temple to be done. Another option is the ability to share your ordinances with others to complete. These items are still in discussion.

I loved Ron's presentation and am excited for all the new changes and great things to come with FamilySearch.

Debbie Burnett Class Notes

  • The NFS Personal Identification No. is now simply ID No. in Family Tree.
  • Searches can be refined. Advanced search will allow you to search by parent and it will return back all their children.
  • In your Temple Ordinance List you can use Ctrl-F to locate a person you are looking for.
  • The History List will remain even after you logout.  It will save the last 50 people viewed.
  • The Source Box is like a clipboard to attach sources to people.
  • Once a source is attached from FamilySearch records you can remove them from the Source Box. It will not delete the source from the attached people.
  • There is a difference in the links to Ancestry if you are using your own account or the FHC's Ancestry Institution account. This does effect the source links to documents from Family Tree to Ancestry.

Edith Reeves Class Notes

  • There are Practice Activities on the Family Tree Training webpage to help you familiarize yourself with the program features. You can find them at: https://familysearch.org/tree-training
  • Edith said you can remove any source in your source box after you attached it to someone. Debbie earlier said you can only do this with FamilySearch sources.  I watched Edith's demonstration and she appeared correct.
  • You can copy a source attached to someone on Family Tree to your own Source Box and reuse it.
  • There are some lost children and pedigree lines on Family Tree from the NFS move.  You will have to just search for the people to connect the lines.

Renee's Observations

My notes may not make sense to the readers that are not familiar with Family Tree.  I encourage you to watch the videos on - https://familysearch.org/tree-training .

My initial impression of Family Tree and it's wiki style, using the all-on-one-page concept, was favorable.  As I watched the demonstrations by Debbie and Edith it became quite painful to watch all the scrolling.  I wanted to yell use the Page Up, Page Down, Home & End keys on your keyboard.

As simple as it was to add sources, there was also a lot of clicking and page jumping involved. It would seem like you could keep one window open to your source box and another to Family Tree. Definitely need to play in this area.

It took me a little while to realize that when they moved people from NFS to Family Tree they came over as one combined person.  It doesn't have the separate people combined in one folder concept anymore, meaning you can't uncombine them. With uncombining in NFS you could remove the incorrect person's records and all their junk would disappear.  In Family Tree you have to clean it up.  I can see a huge benefit for those that have clean records in their genealogy databases to refer to. The need to have your own separate database for your genealogy is not going away any time soon.

See ya tomorrow, for tomorrow is always another genealogy day!

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Volunteer Opportunity at the Family History Library

The following is from the Family History Library.

Volunteer Opportunity at the Family History Library

The Family History Library is looking for dependable, non-missionary volunteers to serve at their Reference Desks. This opportunity could help Accredited Genealogists and potential AGs with renewals and experience in
pedigree analysis and problem solving. It would also help build skills for future employment possibilities and interactions with clients.

The responsibilities would involve helping patrons with genealogy research and computer questions on the British, International, and US/Canada floors. Volunteers would need to serve for a minimum of 2–4 hours per week for at
least 6 months. They would need to meet the dress and grooming standards and abide by the rules set by the Family History Library. Some skills assessment and training may be required. Depending upon availability and
skill sets, you may or may not be selected. Any Accredited Genealogist or those who have passed at least Level 1 of the AG test may apply. Those interested in volunteering should contact Yvonne Sorenson, sorensonyj@familysearch.org for an application.

UGA Virtual Chapter Meeting

The following is from the UGA.


September 20, 2012, 7:00 pm MDT @ 

The UGA Virtual Chapter meets online on the third Thursday of each month except December. These meetings are free to the public. To attend the presentation, go to virtual.ugagenealogy.org and on, the date and at the time of the meeting, click on the UGA logo. Enter the presentation as a guest. Archived copies of our monthly meetings are available to UGA members only. UGA Membership is only $35.00 per year. To join UGA, visit our website at ugagenealogy.org. Look down the blue panel and select the option to "Join UGA!" Follow the prompts.

Introduction to FamilySearch Family Tree

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

FamilySearch Survey with Interesting Questions

I just took a survey from FamilySearch and I found the questions asked very interesting.
  1. FamilySearch is considering developing a system to help coordinate family history work within a family or family organization. Would you be supportive of other family members contributing to your family tree?
  2. Would you feel comfortable asking other family members to help research someone in the tree? 
  3. Would you help support other family members that asked where they could help on the family tree?
  4. FamilySearch is considering developing a system to help coordinate family history work within a family or family organization. Would you use a service that helped you coordinate with other family members on where they should work in the tree?
  5. Would you use this coordination system to assist and mentor other family members that were working on the family tree? 
  6. In your role as family coordinator, would you want to review the family history work of other family members as part of the mentoring process? 
  7. Do you believe that more family names would be submitted to the temple if you could coordinate the work being done in your family tree?
I really like the sounds of the system they are considering.  It reminds me of the website FamilyPursuit, I loved it, but I couldn't get my family members to join.  Now if it was right on FamilySearch they might be more inclined. It's my hope that FamilySearch really does develop such a system.

2012 UGA Fall Conference

The following is from FamilySearch.

 

Come Climb Your Family Tree at
UGA's Fall Conference


September 21-22, 2012

Bring your family to explore your roots!

The Utah Genealogical Association Fall Conference will be a new kind of event for teens and adults.  Classes, vendors, and activities will include all experience and interest levels.  Activities for young children from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.
 
  • -The conference will be at the Sandy Campus of Salt Lake Community College near the 106th South off ramp of I-15.
  •  
  • -Friday September 21, 9:00 a.m. - 8:30 p.m. and Saturday September 22, 9:00 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.
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  • -Lunches will be available for pre-order and pizza and snacks will be available to purchase Friday evening.  
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There are two hours of classes Friday evening on the latest technology and getting started as a beginner that are perfect genealogists and people just getting started.  With a fresh schedule and vendor's activity booths, this will be different than any genealogy conference you've ever seen.
 
There is individual, family and partial conference pricing and a free Family History Consultant track. Limited seating available.
 
Reserve your spot today at www.ugagenealogy.com.

Thanks!

The FamilySearch Team