Mark Your Calendars - UVTAGG Meeting!

The next regular, second-Saturday-of-the-month meeting of the Utah Valley Technology and Genealogy Group - UVTAGG (Formerly the Utah Valley PAF Users Group - UVPAFUG) will be on Saturday, 09 Aug 2014, from 9 am to noon in the LDS "Red Chapel", 4050 North Timpview Drive (650 East), Provo.  Information about the Group, meeting location, main presentations, classes, and class notes are available on their website  http://uvtagg.org  and the press releases are at  http://blog.uvtagg.org .  On the blog you can subscribe to receive the press releases via email when they are posted a week before the meeting.

The main presentation this month at UVTAGG is by Jimmy Zimmerman of FamilySearch on DISCOVERING STORIES ON GOOGLE BOOKS.  Google has scanned millions of books and made them searchable online through Google Books.  Jimmy will discuss tips for performing effective searches, obtaining transcriptions, clipping pages, finding books when the full version isn’t available, and sharing discovered stories and photos on FamilySearch.org.  He describes himself as an Apple fanatic who loves discovering stories about his ancestors.  At FamilySearch he works with partnering organizations to help people discover, record, and share their family history.  He is a web developer and project manager and has a Master's Degree in Information Systems Management from BYU.  You can learn more about him at his blog  http://jimmyzimmerman.com/ which he has been writing since about 2005.  Among other things that you can learn there is the fact that his NoteFuser program won the Grand Prize in the 2012 RootsTech Developer Challenge.

After the main presentation the following classes are scheduled; check the meetings page at  http://uvtagg.org/  for last minute changes or additions.   

1. Q&A: Discovering Stories on Google Books, by Jimmy Zimmerman
2. Using LDS Partner Web Sites:  My Heritage, by Sue Maxwell
3. Online Cemetery Sites - More Than Just Tombstones, by Sharon Monson
4. Online Newspapers: Tips and Comparisons of the 6 Largest Databases, by Marilyn Thomsen
5. Ask An Expert (Personal Help), by Don Engstrom & Finn Hansen
6. Video of last month's main presentation Common Surnames - Finding Your Smith, by Juliana Szucs Smith
7. Ancestral Quest, by Claire Brisson-Banks
8. Getting Started with Legacy 8, by Brad Monson
9. RootsMagic, by Bruce Buzbee.

All meetings of UVTAGG are open to the public whether members of the Group or not.  The Group has the goal of helping individuals use technology to further their family history and there are usually about 100 attending the monthly meetings on the second Saturdays, most of whom are Family History Consultants. The officers are Gerhard Ruf, President; Laurie Castillo, 1st VP; Don Snow, 2nd VP; Renee Zamora, Secretary; Liz Kennington, Newsletter Editor; Don Engstrom and Rayanne Melick, Membership and Finances; Bruce Merrill and Marie Andersen, DVD Library; and Chris Stevenson, Webmaster.  Several of these will be at the meeting to answer questions, help with membership, distribute the current issue of the monthly newsletter TAGGology, and check out and sell to members of the Group DVDs of past presentations and classes.  Many members don't live close enough to participate in the monthly meetings, but pay the $10 per year dues to belong so they can receive the monthly newsletter via email and purchase DVDs of the presentations and classes.  Gift memberships make great presents for family history-minded relatives, friends, and Family History Consultants.  See more information about the presentations, classes, class notes, and to join the Group on the websites above.  You can also contact President Gerhard Ruf at  pres@uvtagg.org  (801-225-6106), or 1st VP Laurie Castillo at  laurie@everythingisrelative.net , or 2nd VP Don Snow at  snowd@math.byu.edu .