Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

Join my new mailing list!

By Leave a Comment

jointhelistI’ve just created an Organize Your Family History mailing list and I hope you’ll join it! Just click on the Mailing List tab on the black navigation bar at the top of this page and give me your name and email address. On the last day of each month, I’ll send out an email with the prior month’s blog posts. So if you’ve missed a post, you’ll get it in your inbox in one tidy package. I’ll also use the list to let you know when I’ve added new products, services, or free printables to the site.

Just click above or click right here to sign up.

Do you know The Story Trek?

By Leave a Comment

STRTK_LargeI have to admit I’d never heard of the television show The Story Trek before I attended the RootsTech conference. The host of the show, Todd Hansen, was one of the keynote speakers and he inspired us with the message that everyone  (and he means everyone) has an interesting story to tell.

On The Story Trek, Hansen goes door to door with a small television crew in a randomly selected city and neighborhood and asks whoever answers the door to tell his or her story for the television camera. Hansen is clearly gifted at extracting stories from people and the show is riveting. We saw excerpts during his enjoyable keynote (which you can watch here; it starts at the five-minute mark). That led me to locate full episodes of the show online. You can watch them on the BYUtv website or download the BYUtv app.

Two thumbs up from me. Enjoy!

Enjoy RootsTech from home

By Leave a Comment

rootstechlogoI’m in Salt Lake City at RootsTech 2014, a fantastic conference. My brain practically hurts from all the learning. And being around thousands of fellow genealogy enthusiasts is really energizing.

At the opening keynote, this lovely video debuted. I’ve enjoyed watching it since, and think you might like it too.

If you weren’t able to come, you can still benefit from some of the learning opportunities. Some of the sessions will be live streamed. Check out the live streaming schedule and perhaps you’ll be able to schedule some time today and tomorrow to watch live. You can read session descriptions first, so that you can see whether the streamed sessions will be of interest to you. To watch live, just go to the RootsTech homepage. Streaming videos are right there.

Some of the presentations will be archived. You’ll be able to find them here. Over at the RootsTech YouTube channel, you can watch interviews with various luminaries in the world of genealogy.

This year’s conference is large, but extremely well organized so it’s not overwhelming. Next year’s will be super-sized, since it’s being held Federation of Genealogical Societies conference. Mark your calendars for February 12 to 14, 2015.

Off to RootsTech!

By 9 Comments

rootstechlogoI leave tomorrow for Salt Lake City to attend RootsTech 2014. I’m really excited, but I have to admit I’m a bit trepidatious. I love conferences. You might call me a bit of a conference junkie. (Check out the credentials page of my Peace of Mind Organizing website and you can see how many organizing conferences I’ve attended.)

In the world of professional organizers, though, our biggest conference attracts at most 900 people. I just read an article in the Salt Lake Tribune that say that 10,000 people are expected to attend RootsTech. 10,000.

Gulp.

When I think about a conference that big, my hidden introvert rises to the forefront. I think how overwhelmed I might feel and how I might just want to take refuge in my hotel room.

So, to combat that overwhelmed feeling, I’ve developed a strategy, of sorts. I reminded myself that this is a tremendous learning opportunity. So I will attend classes and make a concerted effort to talk with exhibitors. And I will indeed use my hotel room for refuge when necessary.

If you’ve attended RootsTech before, I’d love to hear any suggestions you have for making the most of it. If you’re going this year and you’d like to arrange to meet, please let me know!

I know the conference will give me lots of information to report on here. So please keep you eye on the blog!

Join the mailing list!

When you first join the list, I’ll send you a few emails to help you organize your family history. After that you’ll hear from me at the end of every month when I send an email with links to that month’s posts. And every now and then, I’ll let you know when I have something special to promote.