Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

Raise your hand if you’re going to Midwestern Roots 2016!

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Two years ago, I had planned to attend the Midwestern Roots Family History and Genealogy Conference in Indianapolis. But then I had a work conflict that meant I had to cancel. (I had to lead a team to unpack and organize a beloved client’s new home and the movers did not care about my schedule!) At that time, I was thrilled that several Organize Your Family History readers were planning to attend and hoped to meet them.

This year I hope to have no such conflicts. I have registered for the conference, which will be held July 15 and 16. It looks like a terrific conference. I’m especially glad to be able to go, since I made the tough decision not to attend the National Genealogical Society’s conference this year, which is being held this week in Ft. Lauderdale. It’s too close to my annual organizers’ conference and I didn’t want to be away from home that much this month. (That turned out to be a great decision as we subsequently decided to remodel our kitchen and demolition starts this week. I need to be home to share the misery with my husband.)

If you’re planning to go Midwestern Roots and would like get together for coffee or sit together at a session, let me know. (I promise not to pressure you to become my BFF.) Just leave a comment and I’ll contact you via email or just email me through the Contact form. I posted a similar note before I went to RootsTech for the first time and ended up starting a wonderful friendship with Lori Krause, who reads this blog.

I’m really excited about attending the conference and learning so much. Getting to meet a blog reader or two would be icing on the cake!

NGS to live stream certain conference sessions

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NGS conference sessions to be live streamedOnce again, parts of the National Genealogical Society’s annual Family History Conference will be made available to those unable to attend the conference in-person. The conference will be held in Ft. Lauderdale May 4 to 7. NGS is offering two tracks, Land Records (May 5) and Methods for Success (May 6). Each track consists of five lectures and can be purchased for $65 (members) or $80 (non-members). Or you can buy both tracks for $115 (members) or $145 (non-members).

Registration is open now through April 22. To see a description of the lectures in each track go the Live Streaming page of the NGS website.

I’d been planning to attend the conference in person (I even have my hotel reservation), but am now thinking it’s not going to be feasible, due to conflicts in my schedule. So I’m really happy to know of the live streaming and to know that the recordings will be available to watch through August 7.

 

Taking notes at genealogy conferences

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Template for taking notes at a genealogy conferenceIf you’re going to RootsTech next week (or any other genealogy conference this year) I encourage you to check out the free template I created in Transpose.

Transpose is a business platform/website that I wrote about last year. It allows you to create templates (which they now call “solutions”) to create customized forms. You can also download solutions that others have created and uploaded into the Transpose Public Library.

I’ve created a bunch of solutions for my own use and uploaded seven solutions to the Transpose Public Library. One of these is a solution called Genealogy Conference Notes. It’s designed to make it easy to take notes at a genealogy conference.

I’ve only been to one genealogy conference since I created this solution (the Genealogy Society of Southern Illinois conference last August). Using the template, I created a new record for each lecture. The template allowed me to capture general notes from the lecture and also jot down which ancestors the information might apply to, along with action ideas. It worked out really well for me–I love having a structured place to take notes. When I got home, I had a list of concrete action steps.

I chose to take notes on my laptop, because I prefer a full keyboard. Transpose has an app you can use on a tablet or smartphone, but I haven’t yet tried out taking notes with my solution on a mobile platform.

If you’re interested in trying it, you’ll need a free account at Transpose. Go to the Genealogy Conference Notes solution in the library and just copy it into your account. There it will be among any other solutions you copy or download. Just click on the solution and create a new record for each lecture you attend. All the information you capture will be saved for you in Transpose, in a searchable and filterable database.

You can also use it as a basis creating your own solution that works better for your needs. The folks at Transpose work hard to make it easy for you to use the platform. Here’s a great getting started tutorial.

I can’t wait to use it for the next genealogy conference I attend!

Unfortunately, Transpose announced on November 8, 2016 that it is shutting down on December 9, 2016.

Registration open for NGS conference

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Registration is now open for the National Genealogical Society’s 2016 conference! It will be held May 4-7 in Ft. Lauderdale. I attended the 2015 conference and was very impressed by the quality of the sessions I sat in on. I’m planning to attend this year’s conference and am really looking forward to it.

For the past two years, I’ve attended RootsTech and have enjoyed it as well, though I found the enormity (15,000 or more attendees) a bit overwhelming. This year, it’s being held February 3-6 in Salt Lake City. I decided not to attend because we have a new puppy and I don’t want to saddle my husband with all the work. (Plus, I’d miss Bix, my puppy!) I hope to get back to RootsTech in 2017.

I’m also giving serious consideration to attending the Southern California Genealogical Society’s Genealogy Jamboree once again. I loved it last year. It will be held June 3-5 in Burbank, California.

Do you attend genealogy conferences? Which conferences will you attend this year? If you’re planning to be at NGS or the Jamboree, please let me know in the comments!

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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.