RootsTech 2014 Announces Schedule of FREE live-streamed Presentation Broadcasts

The schedule of the FREE live-streaming videos of 15 of RootsTech's popular presentations have been announced. They start on February 6th at 8:30 AM MST. Remember this is Mountain Standard Time, so you need to adjust accordingly for your time zone. They can be watched live from your computer by visiting the conference website at https://rootstech.org/.

From FamilySearch

SALT LAKE CITY—RootsTech, the world’s largest family history and technology conference held in Salt Lake City, Utah, February 6-8, 2014, announced today that 15 of its popular sessions will be broadcast live and complimentary over the Internet. The live broadcasts will give those unable to attend in-person worldwide a sample of this year’s conference content. Interested viewers can watch the live presentations at RootsTech.org. The fourth-year conference has attracted over 10,000 registered attendees in-person, and leaders expect over 20,000 additional viewers online.

The streamed sessions include a sampling of technology and family history presentations. Following are the broadcasted sessions and speakers. All times are in mountain standard time (MST):

Thursday, February 6

10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., Top 10 Things I Learned About My Family from My Couch by Tammy Hepps

1 p.m. to 2 p.m., FamilySearch Family Tree: What's New and What's Next by Ron Tanner

2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m., Intro to DNA for Genealogists by James Rader

4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., Genealogy in the Cloud by Randy Hoffman

5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., Sharing Your Family with Multimedia by Michael LeClerc

Friday, February 7

10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., Storytelling Super Powers: How to Come Off as Your Family's Genealogy Hero by David Adelman

1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m., Tweets, Links, Pins, and Posts: Break Down Genealogical Brick Walls with Social Media by Lisa Alzo

2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m., Getting the Most Out of Ancestry.comby Crista Cowen

4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., Finding Family and Ancestors Outside the USA with New Technologies by Daniel Horowitz

5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., Do It Yourself Photo Restoration by Ancestry Insider

Saturday, February 8

10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., Become an iPad Power User by Lisa Louise Cooke

1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m., Information Overload: Managing Online Searches and Their Results by D. Josh Taylor

2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m., A Beginner’s Guide to Going Paperless by Randy Whited

4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., How to Interview Yourself for a Personal History by Tom Taylor

5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., Five Ways to Do Genealogy in Your Sleep by Deborah Gamble

About RootsTech

RootsTech is a global family history event where people of all ages learn to discover and share their family stories and connections through technology. The first annual conference was held in 2011, in Salt Lake City, Utah. Hosted by FamilySearch and sponsored by leading genealogical organizations, the conference includes hands-on demonstrations and forums to provide a highly interactive environment and accelerate learning. Content is geared to young and old, beginner to advanced levels.

FGS - Focus on Societies - Day 1

The first day of the conference was a success and fun was had by all. I attended David Rencher’s opening session about how to keep societies from extinction. He pointed out the following:

In order to understand why societies go out of existence, we must first understand why they exist in the first place.

Historically speaking, Rencher reminded us, genealogical societies were formed around a bunch of genealogy people who got together to talk about genealogy; these meetings often centered around potlucks.  People got together because they enjoyed the social experience. This has become much more difficult to maintain with the advent of the internet which increased access to records and material to people who no longer had to leave their homes.

In order to sustain a society, one has to evaluate the costs involved of each service provided and then identify ways in which to reduce those costs in order to reach a goal of a $0 membership. Remember why and how they got together in the first place? Additionally, the society’s mission statement must keep up with the changing landscape, including the technological changes.

The whole day was dedicated to the Focus on Societies sessions.  I attended two morning sessions, then we took a break to visit the Abraham Lincoln Museum and Library, and then I attended one more society meeting before ending the day.

The two morning sessions I attended were about copyright issues and internet collaborative tools you can use for outreach and education.  Most of the copyright information wasn’t new to me. However, I wish there was a webinar about it that I could play for my members and newsletter and journal editors so they will be informed, especially about sharing information with each other, whether it be a cool blog post you read about a new software tool or some genealogy you read out of a book that you would like to incorporate into your own family tree. A good point was made that as a society board member or editor, by following the copyright rules, we are providing good examples to our members/readers. It has been difficult for me to teach my newsletter editors the importance of obtaining permission and/or attributing the work to someone else. 

The final session I attended with Paula Stuart Warren was about creating a Society Handbook or Operating Manual of sorts. This is what I am trying to build in my genealogy society right now. I have requested that each committee submit a document about what they do, how they do it, and/or what they would like to see done or any improvements they would like to see implemented, especially if there were more volunteers. This session was good because we broke into groups and outlined what we would do if we held a particular board or committee position.

We didn’t attend the Old Fashioned Prairie Social because the description said it only had desserts and we were short one ticket. So we walked a block down to the Italian place to have dinner instead. Back in the hotel room by 7:30 to write this blog post and relax. I am hoping to get some photos of the museum uploaded as well and a blog post written about that. Tomorrow we are attending a breakfast panel hosted by Jonathan Good from 1000memories.com with Dear Myrtle and Josh Taylor. They will be speaking about how to engage the younger generation in genealogy by using various digital tools. Check out their website today! http://1000memories.com. 

Family Search Bloggers Reception at FGS

We finally made it to Springfield IL for the FGS genealogy conference which starts tomorrow. 

Tonight I attended the Bloggers Reception put on by Family Search that was held on the 29^th floor of the Hilton hotel in downtown Springfield, Illinois. This offers an opportunity for the bloggers to get together and meet each other in person and interact with the members of the Family Search team.  It is also a way in which Family Search can disseminate information about what they have been working on to fellow geneabloggers who can then share with their readers.

Some of the announcements on current Family Search projects:

1)      As many of you know, the 1940 census report images will be released on Ancestry.com on April 2^nd, 2012.  Family Search has joined a consortium to index it and make it free “in perpetuity.” They hope to engage the public and local genealogical societies for their help in bringing this project to fruition prior to the April 2^nd release date.

2)      David Rencher announced that Family Search did a 4 generation pedigree of the Abraham Lincoln family, framed it and presented it to the Abraham Lincoln Library and Museum this week. Prints of the pedigree will be made available for sale in the museum store.

3)      More news on the Civil War Records being released by Family Search can be found on their website at www.familysearch.org/civilwar. Information about places, regiments, and events can be found on their wiki along with current indexing projects that need your help! One thing that caught my eye was an indexing project of union soldiers’ headstones!

4)      If you are an indexing volunteer or would like to learn more about their volunteering opportunities, stop by the Family Search booth during their Volunteer Appreciation Reception on Thursday night from 6 to 8 pm.

5)      Be sure to check out the white paper on “Preserving Your Family History Digitally” which has been recently updated and discusses the advantages and challenges of preserving your family history records digitally.

6)      We also saw slides of the learning center webpages which have been redesigned and offer over 200 free learning courses for you to choose from.

Two huge announcements released this week include the transition of digital scanning from the field to on-site digital publishing and the replacement of the BYU archive of family history books which goes into beta this week in the Family History labs.

Field Express:

You may have noticed a lot of records being made available “by image only” prior to being indexed by volunteers. This is made possible by over 165 field cameras placed throughout the world which are responsible for capturing digital images and uploading online from the field.  This is much faster, providing a “digital pipeline” directly to the genealogists who used to have to wait years before content was captured, indexed, and delivered to the public. To date, turnaround time is approximately 4 weeks from capture to delivery; the goal is 2 weeks turnaround time.

The BYU Family History Archive will be replaced by the new Family Search Family History Books which can be found in the FamilySearch Labs. Check it out!

They also announced next year's RootsTech2012 conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, Feb 2-4, 2012. All FGS conference attendees receive a discounted $99.00 conference registration fee good for yourself and anyone else you would like to register while here at FGS. This is a $30 discount off of the early bird registration fee of $129 and almost half off the $189 full registration fee. 

Tomorrow is the Focus on Societies Day of the conference. I hope to gain insight into how to manage a genealogy society, provide education and outreach to our members, secure funding and setup fundraising events, and organize volunteers. 

FGS 2011 – Social Media Policy

FGS recently posted their social media policy to their website. I was very happy to see that they are allowing attendees to engage in various forms of social media like Twitter, Facebook, and live blogging about the speakers and conference highlights. In fact it is encouraged. This is a nice change from the last conference I went to that did not allow any cell phone use at all.

Click here to view the Social Media Policy

They were also very clear about certain grey areas like photographs – they ask that you request the speaker’s permission before photographing them – and that you do not use flash photography; they also clarify that cell phones do not have to be turned OFF, but merely that the ringer should be turned off so as not to interrupt the presentation. Lastly, the social media policy clarified that although snippets and highlights are allowed to be broadcast, the speaker should be properly cited or credited, and presentation materials should not be reproduced “in full” during the conference.

Now will all of this even be possible? Paula recently posted a blog post to the FGS Conference Highlight blog about how a couple of co-chairs went around and tested these features in the conference center and the Starbucks across the street. It worked for them but you never know what happens when a couple thousand technology-savvy genealogists come along!

So make sure you get your Tweet on at FGS 2011!

You can follow my highlights on Twitter at Smitty327 or search for the hashtag #fgs2011. 

A Good Old Fashioned Prairie Social

Paula gave us a “heads up!” over at the FGS Conference Blog about what to expect if you plan to attend the Prairie Social on Wednesday night while attending the FGS Conference in Springfield, Illinois this coming September.

Do you think you can fit your Civil War uniform in your suitcase? 

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Disclosure: As an Official Blogger for FGS 2011, I received a complimentary pass to the Prairie Social on Wednesday night. 

Photo of General Robert E. Lee from Wikipedia and is in the public domain. 

FGS Luncheon Tickets Still Available

Do you hate to wait in that long line or fight the crowds at the concession stand for lunch each day at the conference?
Do you want a high-quality meal that comes with a salad, entree, and dessert?
Do you want to listen and learn from a long list of great speakers who are experts in the fields of genealogy, family history, writing, etc?
Do you want to network with other genealogists, speakers, and writers?

Then an FGS Conference Luncheon is the place for you!

Each day of the conference offers up to 4 different lunch options to choose from. The luncheons are a great opportunity to take advantage of at least once during the conference. I didn't sign up for any luncheons when I was at NGS in Charleston, however, I did receive the opportunity to attend one. It was so nice to just waltz right in, find a seat at a table, introduce myself and start talking to my neighbors about their research interests, where they were from, how they were enjoying the conference, etc. I didn't have to spend half my lunch hour waiting in line or looking for a place to sit or people to sit with. It was very relaxing and I had a lengthy conversation with my neighbor about whether he really needed to start using Facebook. I shared my experiences and he shared his concerns.

I definitely plan on attending at least one luncheon at FGS this year! Of course the hard part is choosing which ones to attend! And from what I hear, they are filling up fast! You can sign up for luncheons from now until the conference starts by using your pin number you are assigned when you sign up for the conference. But they are filling up fast!

To see a list of speakers and the menus being offered, click through each day's schedule of the program brochure.

Cheesecake anyone???

FGS Conference - Free Kids Camp !!!

FamilySearch is hosting a FREE kids camp on Saturday, September 10th from 9 am to noon at the Hilton Hotel in Springfield, Illinois.  This is a great opportunity to introduce your kids (ages 10-14) to the concepts of family history and genealogy: here they will learn how to interview relatives, collect information into a journals and their family tree, and do some hands-on work with computers to find information on their ancestors!

You don't have to be an FGS conference attendee to sign up for this event. It is open to the public and is being held in conjunction with the conference. So if you know anyone in the Springfield area who would like to attend, please encourage them to register.

You can register by sending an email to kidscamp@fgs.org. Provide the names of the kids who would like to attend and your contact information. For more information, visit FamilySearch Kids Camp.

FamilySearch is the leading genealogy organization in the world and is a service provided by the The Church of Christ of Latter-day Saints. For over 100 years FamilySearch has been gathering, preserving, and sharing genealogical records worldwide and providing access to millions of patrons via online at FamilySearch.org and through their family history centers in 70 countries. Learn more at FamilySearch.org. 

Register For FGS 2011 by July 1st and Save $50.00!!!

Don’t forget to register for the FGS Conference by July 1^st, 2011 to take advantage of the $50.00 discount being offered. After July 1^st, the registration price goes up by $50.00. However, you can use this extra $$ in the exhibit hall to purchase that book you’ve been looking for, some t-shirts, software, and other goodies; or two conference luncheon tickets; or use it to join us at the FGS 35^th Anniversary Celebration where you can maybe win a trip to Salt Lake City for two!

So what are you waiting for! It’s easy! Register here. 

Local Gen Society Mentioned all the Way out in Burbank!

Last weekend several members of my local genealogical society, Durham-Orange Genealogical Society (D-OGS) met in the small conference room of the Chapel Hill Library to watch live streaming videos of some of the presentations that were broadcast from the Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree in Burbank, California!

I brought in some sweet tea, lemonade, cheese and crackers and homemade cookies for snacks! I hooked up my laptop to the projector that was provided by the nice library staff and started up the live stream of video and audio projecting on the somewhat smaller than usual, but workable, screen.

Photo of my laptop, projector and projector screen. The audio from the presentation came from my laptop. Had there been more people, I probably would have needed an additional set of speakers hooked up to my laptop. I will remember this for next time. Photo by Ginger R. Smith, 11 June 2011

Photo of Lisa Louise Cooke from the Genealogy Gems Podcast. Photo from the SCGS Jamboree Page

The first live broadcast started promptly at 11:30 am with Lisa Louise Cooke talking about “Google Search Strategies for Genealogists.” If you were watching this video at home, you might have heard Mrs. Cooke give us a shoutout – she mentioned that there was a genealogy society in North Carolina meeting at the local library to watch some live streaming video presentations together! Talk about getting the word out there! All the way from Burbank California! We all waved back to her on the video screen and I was just tickled pink!

I don’t know about all of you, but I thought I knew everything there was to know about performing Google searches. Boy was I wrong! Did you know you could put dates in your searches? Just type in Ginger Smith 1990…2011 and the search results will come up with my name and then it will bold all of the years mentioned in this time frame?

And did you know there was a synonym search using the ~ ?

What about the *? You can use this between two words in your search to catch phrases that might have an additional term between them.

Another feature that I found interesting was the use of the related tool. If you find a website that you like and you want to find other pages just like it, you can type in your search related:http://www.webaddress.com to find other pages just like it. This can be useful for finding those family pages.

These are just some of the things I learned in Mrs. Cooke’s class. I wasn’t the only one who took several NEW things away from this class!

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Photo of Curt Witcher, Senior Manager for Special Collections at the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, IN. Photo from the SCGS Jamboree Page

The next video we watched was by the Allen County Library Director, Curt Witcher, who was to talk about “Using Ancestral Origins As a Genealogical Research Key.” We had several technical difficulties with this video, as did the several hundred other people who tuned in to watch. Luckily the people at home also had access to a live chat room, so we were able to share in the experiences of the technical difficulties. We used this time to discuss some of the “business” of our society and our website. We have formed a great partnership with a local guy named Allen Dew who has created an outstanding website cataloging the local cemeteries in North Carolina and Virginia. On his website, cemeterycensus.org, he has links to each NC county, with each cemetery listed and transcripts posted along with photos and links to google maps and directions on how to find the cemeteries.

Not all counties are complete at this time, but the counties of Durham and Orange, and the present day counties of Chatham, Caswell, Randolph, and Wake that were originally part of Olde Orange County are already populated with over hundreds of cemetery listings.

Allen also has links and helpful hints about how to inventory, photograph, and upload information about cemeteries you run across and would like to make available on the website.

And because we have a cool little partnership going on with him now, he added this nifty little banner with a link to our society’s website:

Check it out! Cemeterycensus.org.

OH, and back to the Curt Witcher video, he talked a lot about determining the ethnicity of your ancestors and then learning all you can about that particular ethnic group in that part of the country in which they lived. He recommended that you seek out ethnic-specific newspapers and journals.

He also emphasized that our ancestors stuck together in their tight little ethnic groups: they emmigrated together, they settled together and they migrated together, so if you cannot find your ancestor, look for their neighbors or other members of their close ethnic group. Also, if you are having trouble identifying your ancestor’s ethnic group, look at their religion for clues. They too will have records.

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 Photo of D-OGS members Ginger, Holt and Carol watching David Lambert’s video on Finding your Union Civil War Ancestor. Photo by Ginger R. Smith, 11 June 2011

My faithful society members and I stuck around for the 3^rd video in the series which was by David Lambert who spoke about “Researching Your Union Civil War Ancestors.”

We talked a LOT during this presentation about the various records David displayed on the screen and exchanged stories about what we had found – or not found - on our own ancestors.

A good time was definitely had by all. I wrote this post to illustrate what you can do even as a little genealogical society. This didn’t take much to prepare – all I had to do was call the library to book the room and request a projector and screen, announce to the society members and cross post to other society newslists, and then wait for them to show up! I probably would have had more people show up if it weren’t summertime and if I had had more advanced notice about this event. I found out about the live streaming of these videos being offered on Monday, waited two days to hear back from the library and announced on Wednesday for this meeting on Saturday.

The free live streaming of these presentations were made available by the Southern California Genealogical Society and RootsMagic. Thank you! 

Free Guided Tours of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library

The Federation of Genealogical Societies and the Illinois State Genealogical Society have teamed up with the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library to offer conference attendees free behind-the-scene tours of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library during the FGS/ISGS Conference in September 2011. Tours include a visit to the following areas of the library:

* Closed Stacks

* Steve Neal Reading Room

* Newspaper/Microfilm Collection

* Manuscripts Collection

* Audio-Visual Collection

* Conservation Lab

* Microfilm Lab

The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library is “the premier repository for materials relating to the history of the Prairie State.” Originally created in 1889 as The Illinois State Historical Library, it was charged with collecting and preserving "books, pamphlets, manuscripts, monographs, writings, and other materials of historical interest and useful to the historian, bearing upon the political, religious, or social history of the State of Illinois from the earliest known period of time."[1]

The new Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library is a public, non-circulating research facility that houses this material documenting all aspects of Illinois' history. Its most noteworthy holdings are its published resources, manuscripts, newspapers, audiovisual materials, and Lincolniana.

For genealogy purposes, the published resources include family histories, cemetery inscriptions, birth, death, naturalization and marriage transcriptions (NOT vital records as most of these records are from pre-1900s). Material on most Illinois counties including county histories, atlases and plat books, census schedule indexes and/or census transcripts is also very valuable to genealogists and can be found at the library.

Conference attendees can pick up your FREE tour tickets at the conference Hospitality Table located in the lobby of the Prairie Capital Convention Center beginning at 3:00 on Tuesday, September 6th.  You will need to stop at the registration booth first to pick up your registration packet and nametag. Then show your nametag to the person at the Hospitality Table and they will provide you with a tour ticket. Space is limited and you must have a ticket, so pick up your tickets as soon as you arrive. ALPL Tours are for registered conference attendees only.

Library Location:

The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library is located at 112 N. Sixth Street, Springfield, just a 3.5 block walk from the Convention Center. Directions and further instructions will be available at the Hospitality Table or you can download the Visitor Map here.

Tour Schedule:

Wednesday, September 7

10-11 AM & 2-3 PM

Thursday, September 8

10-11 AM & 2-3 PM

Friday, September 9

10-11 AM & 2-3 PM

Between now and September learn more about the library at alplm.org. This is an exciting opportunity you don’t want to miss!

Questions? Direct tour questions to: isgsfallconf2011_02@ilgensoc.org

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[1] The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library & Museum, website (http:// http://alplm.org./home.html : 10 June 2011). 

I'm an Official Blogger at FGS Conference 2011!!!

I just got word that I have been elected an Official Blogger at the FGS Conference in Springfield, Illinois in September 2011 “Pathways to the Heartland.” I’m really excited about this opportunity for many reasons:

1.       This is my first FGS Conference

2.       This is my first time as an “Official Blogger.”

3.       I’m very excited to be joining other great geneabloggers – you can see the complete list here: http://www.geneapress.com/2011/05/fgs-names-official-bloggers-for-fgs.html  - Some are even coming from as far away as California!

4.       I’m excited to visit Illinois where some of my ancestors came from and to check out their local resources!

So what does this mean?

As an “Official Blogger” I will be:

• bringing news to you in the weeks before the event
• highlighting conference events during my stay in Illinois, including lectures, regional resources, and exhibition events
• wrapping up with lessons learned, information gleaned, ideas shared, etc after the conference

It is my intention that the folks at home will be able to share this experience alongside with me. Stay tuned for all the updates.

And many thanks to The Federation of Genealogical Societies and the Illinois State Genealogical Society for this opportunity! 

More NGS Conference Fun (Day 2)

Day 2 (Thursday, May 12, 2011) was full of BCG skills building with Thomas Jones, case study analysis of deeds and wills with Elizabeth Shown Mills, and Carolina record reviews with Brent Holcomb and Mark Lowe.

THE BCG – WHAT IS IT?

The Board for Certified Genealogist accreditation process is something you go through to become a Bard Certified Genealogist. This process is based on standards set forth by experts in the field of genealogy; it encompasses not just genealogy, but professionalism, writing skills, and ethics as well. It incorporates the BCG Standards Manual (picture on the left) and tests your skills in several different areas.  This was not just an information class. This instruction discussed each section of the application, what materials were required to complete them, what skills were tested, and how each section was evaluated.

Recommendations

The instructors recommended to start compiling your materials prior to submitting your preliminary application because you only have 1 year to complete the pocess; they also suggested that you read back issues of the NGSq, the BCG’s OnBoard newsletter, The American Genealogist and relevant chapters from the Professional Genealogy book that apply to each section of the application. You can also download articles, test questions, and examples from the skill building section of the BCG website.

What’s New?

1)      There is no longer a 5 yr waiting period to apply for the Certified Genealogical Lecturer accreditation

2)      Applicants must submit the original manuscripts of works if they’ve been previously published

3)      Each work sample must involve different individuals and families

4)      The case study format is no longer an option for the kinship-determination project

What is the Pass/Fail Rate?

The percentage of applicants who pass is 42 due to an insufficient amount of sources, poorly written citations, and inability to follow directions.  Word to the wise: Make sure you are ready and serious about becoming a Certified Genealogist, have someone check over your work and your citations and read other case studies!

Elizabeth Shown Mills, CG, CGL, FASG, FNGS, FUGA

ANALYZING DEEDS AND WILLS

I See What It Says, But What Does It Mean by Elizabeth Shown Mills

This was my first challenging session of the conference and my introduction to a case study in a classroom environment – Just up my alley! Oh – and of course, my introduction to ESM herself!

The session started with a will that we evaluated line by line. A few things I learned right off the bat:

1)      Most wills were “scribed” by a lawyer and presented to the testator who signed it or left their mark. These “scribed” wills were often templates used by most lawyers to represent basic will drafts. ESM said that all of the religious jargon written in the first paragraph about giving his soul to God, burial in Christian-like and decent manner, etc does not necessarily mean he was a religious man unless this will was holographic and had been written in the testator’s own hand.  

2)      Any will that starts with “In the name of God Amen” was not written or signed by a Quaker as they did not swear to anything.

3)      If the testator requests his slaves be freed, he might be Quaker; however there are other religions that discourage slavery as well like Methodists.

4)      Slave increases followed the mothers, so if “Jessie and Judah and their increase” are to be freed – Jessie and Judah are both mothers, NOT a family unit (mother and father).

5)      “Reputed wife” is a term to describe a woman who is living with a man she is not legally married to probably because she is “making do” with another male’s help; although she and her children have no legal rights to this man’s property.

6)      The “late Mary Smith” is a woman who was formerly known as Mary Smith; she is not deceased.

7)      Many testators gave property to a woman’s children and not to her because she could remarry and the new husband could mismanage the property.

8)      “Trusted friend” was a legal phrase often referring to a non-heir but relative of some sort.

9)      Usually the scribe is the first person who signed the document (witness). You can look for additional docs written by this witness and look for similar spelling errors within each one to determine if he was the scribe. Also, men used distinguishing marks beside their names to tell them apart from other men of the same name.

10)   To “devolve” is to acquire by inheritance

Here are 10 new and important things I learned from the example of a will that we analyzed.

The deed example was equally as difficult to work through, but I was able to follow along the rationale of it. It took good ole genealogy and two or three hypothesis formulation and testing to figure out the most plausible scenario.

Genealogy conferences need to have more case studies like this. I think these kinds of classes help to bridge the gap between the beginner genealogists and the experts.

NORTH AND SOUTH CAROLINA RECORDS

First up was Brent Holcomb’s talk on land records. He gave a brief history of how land was distributed by the Lord Proprietors and then quickly went through many of the digital images that can be found on the South Carolina Archives website. Everything else kind of either went over my head or way too fast to take in.

Mark Lowe’s presentation on Inheritance Laws and Estate Settlements was a little bit better to manage, but the information was still hard to take in without having actual records or case studies to use as examples. Most of the information was links to save for later for when I encounter a word I an unfamiliar with. Mark tapped into the social media aspect by posting many of his links to his twitter account: @JLowe615.

That sums up the lectures I attended on the 2^nd day of the conference.

Photo of the BCG Standards Manual copied from Amazon website. 

Photo of ESM from NGS Website

NGS – Last Day and Return Trip Home

I know I only posted a couple days’ worth of messages about the conferences’ classes and the fun times we had, but trust me – and I know you know me by now and know that I WILL give you in depth detailed information about the lectures I attended – eventually – but for now I wanted to write a little reflection before I get caught up in all of the technical mumbo jumbo about all the research, writing, and genealogical skills that are filling up my head right now.

Let me start off by reiterating that I HAD A BLAST.  I cannot emphasize that enough. But you want to know why? Well the speakers were knowledgeable and accessible first of all, and they talked about topics of interest to me and they highlighted topics that I had not encountered before or often wondered about. Their case studies also offered more practical “hands on” experience for me to hone my skills with and to see how I matched up with the folks around me. The exhibit hall booth vendors were likewise friendly and helpful and always up for making new friends. Here is a photo of Dear MYRTLE and I:

I LOVED having genealogy buddies to meet up with, sit with during lectures, ask about which speakers were funny and informative and which ones would put you to sleep; which lectures were up to par with my skill set and which ones were more for the beginner genealogists. Here we are between classes taking a breather:

Photo from L-R: Linda McCauley from Documenting the Details, Cherie Cayemberg from Have You Seen My Roots?, me, Liz Tapley-Matthews from My Tapley Tree and its Branches.

And of course, what conference would be complete without having at least ONE lecture together on the last day?

“Blogger Row…”

Photo: Jennifer Woods from Climbing My Family Tree, her daughter, and I

Photo:  Linda McCauley from Documenting the Details and Cherie Cayemberg from Have You Seen My Roots? and Jennifer Woods. 

Photo: Greta Koehl from Greta’s Genealogy Bog and I.

And yes, that is technology sitting on their laps and in their hands. I was technology free today so that my phone and computer could be fully charged on the 5 hour trip home. Speaking of my trip home…I am so thankful for my car pool mates, the Eliases who are members of my local genealogical society and neighbors. Although we stayed in separate hotels during the conference, they picked me up each morning and dropped me off each evening. We ate lunch and dinner together. I got to ride in their electric car on the trip to and from Charleston. It gets 50 miles to the gallons!

Here is a picture of the Eliases with NGS President Ann Hilke:

And of course, as I’ve mentioned, we met several other members of our local genealogical society along the way. This is Dan Durham from Lacey, WA:

Well today was a full day of classes, the sealing of several friendships, and a long drive home. But I made it. I survived my first week-long National genealogical conference. I leave you with this photo that was taken in Florence, South Carolina:

And don’t worry, I have more posts to come. I’m not sure when, but it will be soon.

All photos copyright of Ginger R. Smith, 13 May 2011.

NGS Conference - First Round of Classes

While blogger.com was down last night, we were out on the town having some good ole backcountry seafood at this little place right on the water called "The Wreck." [Photo above from L-R: Cathy Elias, Ginger Smith, Rob Elias taken outside of "The Wreck" seafood restaurant in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, May 12, 2011. Photo copyright Ginger R. Smith, 2011].

Let me just start off by saying that I’m really enjoying the conference. One thing that has held me back from attending these conferences in the past is the fear that my capabilities and interests would lie beyond the expertise of the classes and speakers. However, this has clearly not been the case. The classes are informative and challenging and I often found myself struggling just to keep up with the examples provided. I have loved the case studies provided by Elizabeth Shown Mills and John Colletta and I feel that these have been instrumental in bridging the gap between the beginner and intermediate genealogists and family historians.

Before I get into the lectures I attended, let me recap some of the fun stuff I did:

Raffles and Certificate Courses:

Yesterday, I entered a raffle to win a scholarship for the Boston University Certificate genealogy course. This is a good thing because the bigger of the two courses is around $2500!!! A scholarship would be great! And I could complete the coursework from home in my pajamas! – even better! In order to enter the raffle, I had to take my card to four different booths – the Association of Professional Genealogists (APG), National Genealogical Society (NGS), New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS), and the Boston University – and get it stamped, then return it to the Boston University Booth. While I was at the NGS booth, I learned about the Home Study course that they offer. It is a self paced course you take from a CD and costs under $500.00.

More Friends:

I met up with two other members of my local genealogical society (the Durham-Orange Genealogical Society of North Carolina). I also met some folks at the North Carolina Genealogical Soceity. They asked me if I was a member, but I couldn’t remember! I guess I need to keep better tract of what I am a member of and preferably join them at the same time, so I can keep tract of when I need to pay my dues more easily.

Classes - Day 1:

The classes I took on the first day were pretty low key as I was trying to acclimate myself to the convention center floor plan, exhibition hall, and time schedule of classes. I attended the following lectures:

      1)      The Library of Congress: Pursuing Your Family History in the National Library by James P. Sweany: I hope to write more about this later as I put some of the things I learned into practice. You know me, I don’t believe what I’m told unless I can actually get it to work! Much of his presentation highlighted what users could do from the website and what they could do without having to physically visit the Library. For example, the LOC will loan out many of their microfilms to your local library;  They have online Civil War Photographs (Glass Negatives) in their Prints and Photographs Collection, Maps, Building surveys, bibliographies, and local history and genealogy resources by state. One under used resource is the Chronicling America Collection. You can search the blue box, however, the newspaper options are scarce. If you search for a newspaper in the directory (green box on the right), you can pull up all of the newspapers for a certain time period for a certain area, and then find a list of all of the library holdings for that newspaper. It will even tell you the previous and subsequent names of that newspaper! This is a great resource. Be sure to check out all of the digital collections! Even if you don’t find a photograph of your ancestor in them, you might find a photograph of the city or town in which he or she lived providing valuable historical context.

2)      Teasing the Silent Woman by Barbara Vines Little: In this lecture, Little reminds us that women were not conceived of as individuals, but as people in relation to other people, events, or situations. A woman was “the wife of” someone or “the daughter of” someone. She urged the genealogist to look at her family background in relation to the community, information that can often be found on the census, ie, economic status, education, religion, military, & employment. When a woman married, she suggested we look at whether she moved up or down in social and economic status; did she live closer to her family or his family? Did she live with her children? All of this information can help to build a clearer picture of your female ancestor’s life.

3)      Solving Genealogical Problems by Isolating Errors in Records by Henry B. Hoff: Hoff gave a ton of examples in this lecture, but did not offer many clues about how to resolve them. He did remind us that the familial terms of “Brother-in-law” could mean step-brother, “cousin” could mean anything, and “Uncle” could be a non-blood relative but closest friend.

      4)      Ground Transportation and Routes in Early Colonial Carolina by Thomas R. Magnuson: This was my favorite lecture of the day. I didn’t realize it at first, but Tom is from Hillsborough, NC, the next town over from where I currently live. He also organizes the “First Sunday Hikes” in which he takes groups of people out to certain areas, gives them a guided walking tour and teaches them about the land, or in some cases, the neighborhoods. I know about this event because we announce it each month in our local genealogical society newsletter. Tom is very knowledgeable about the physical terrain of the land as well as the documents surrounding it such as deeds and plats. His non- profit company offers group training in protecting these “assets” through Stewartship. Please feel free to contact him via his website for more information. His website is http://tradingpath.org.