Organize Your Family History

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Want to meet up at the Midwestern Roots conference?

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Midwestern Roots 2014 conferenceI can’t believe it’s almost August already. Next week I travel to Indianapolis for the Midwestern Roots Family History and Genealogy conference. I’m very excited. I love conferences in general and I’ve really enjoyed the genealogy conferences I’ve attended so far. RootsTech 2014 was especially valuable for me.

Before I went to RootsTech in February, I posted here and was so happy to hear from a reader, Lori Krause, who was attending. She’s a fellow Missourian (though she lives on the other side of the state) and we spent a lot of time together at the conference and have also visited the Midwest Genealogy Center together subsequently.

So I thought I’d see if anyone is going to the Indiana conference. If so, maybe we can get together for coffee or sit together at a session. (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’m heading up early for the pre-conference session on preserving original family documents on Thursday morning.

I’m very excited about this learning opportunity. And I hope to multiply the benefit by meeting one or more readers of this blog!

Are you attending Midwestern Roots Family History and Genealogy Conference?

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Midwestern Roots 2014 ConferenceI’m very excited! I just registered for the Indiana Historical Society’s Midwestern Roots Family History and Genealogy Conference, August 1 and 2 in Indianapolis. Indy is within driving distance for me, so when I saw the caliber of the offerings at this conference, it was a no-brainer to sign up. Presenters include Thomas MacEntee of Geneabloggers and High Definition Genealogy; Lisa Louise Cooke of Genealogy Gems (in fact, I found out about the conference through Lisa’s newsletter); Anne Gillespie Mitchell of Ancestry.com, and Warren Bittner, genealogical researcher and trustee for the Board for Certification of Genealogists, among other great speakers.

I also signed up for a pre-conference session on preserving original family documents, presented by Romana Duncan-Huse, senior director of conservation at the Indiana Historical Society. I’m very interested in continuing my education on preserving inherited items.

If you’re an avid conference-goer like me and live near Indianapolis or wouldn’t mind traveling there, I encourage you to check out the program at the link above. At only $150, it’s a very moderately priced conference.

If you plan to attend, please let me know!

NGS conference offering live streaming

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Live streaming at the NGS conferenceI’m not going to be able to make it to the National Genealogical Society annual conference this year; my husband’s birthday falls during it. So I was delighted to see that NGS is offering, for the first time, live streaming of ten of its lectures (for a fee).

Interested genealogy researchers who can’t attend the conference (to be held in Richmond, Virginia, May 7 to 10, 2014) can sign up  to watch broadcasts of one or two tracks. Track One is Records and Research Techniques. Track Two is Virginia Resources and Migration Patterns. The charge is $65 (members) or $80 (non-members) for either of the tracks and $115 (members) or $140 (non-members) for both of the tracks

Once you register for streaming, you can watch the events live or view them at any time during the subsequent 90 days. You’ll also receive an electronic version of the conference’s syllabus.

People who are actually attending the conference may also register for the streaming, in case they want to watch these talks from home after the conference.

For complete information and registration details, visit the NGS website. Registration for streaming closes on April 30.

 

 

5 things I learned at RootsTech

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5 things I learned from RootsTech

Family History Library

I’m still processing all I learned from last week’s RootsTech conference. But several main points are top of mind and I want to share them with you:

It’s all about story. Gathering names, birth dates and death dates is the backbone of genealogical research. But filling in the gaps with stories is what brings the research to life. That might mean interviewing relatives. But it also means searching for documents (like court and probate documents) that can provide valuable information to fill in the blanks.

Genealogists are generous. I heard a talk from Michael Cassara of DigiRoots who not only volunteers with Billion Graves to share information from the headstones of New York City’s Calvary Cemetery, he also buys old, identified photos from flea markets and tries to get them to the descendants of those pictured. How great is that? So inspirational. That kind of generosity inspired me to sign up as an obituaries indexer at FamilySearch.org.

It really is a small world. I met up with one of this blog’s readers (shout out to Lori Krause!), with whom I enjoyed sitting at the keynotes and having lunch daily. We’re both researching ancestors in tiny Vernon County, Missouri. (The population of the entire county is only twice the number of attendees at RootsTech.) I serendipitously sat next to a gentleman who had lived for 15 years in sparsely populated Franklin County, Washington, where my grandparents lived and where my grandfather published the newspaper. So it’s very likely he met my grandfather. It’s amazing to me that in a conference of 10,000 people, I met someone who had met my grandfather in the middle of nowhere. (Oh, and the above-mentioned Michael Cassara knows my husband’s first cousin, Joan Marcus. They both work in the Broadway theater world.)

A conference of 10,000 people doesn’t have to be overwhelming. RootsTech was so well organized that except when the keynote session ended the first day and I was in a crush of people, I never felt overwhelmed. There were no long lines. Registration was lightning fast. It was truly professional conference and I’d go back in a heartbeat.

I want to go back to the Family History Library. One evening, conference attendees were invited to the famed LDS Family History Library for research and pizza. Though the library staff were swamped, I was lucky enough to confer with professional genealogist Lyn Rasmusen who helped me confirm that my records on my great great grandfather, George Washington Adams, were correct. (I had stated worrying that I had him in the wrong regiment in the Civil War.) Just that little taste of the expertise and resources available at the library has me itching to go back!

Incidentally, the video archive of RootsTech 2014 talks is now available. There are 14 classes and 3 keynotes available for you to watch from the comfort of your home, free of charge. I’ll be watching the classes, since I didn’t see any of them live. The keynotes were all great. I encourage you to take advantage of this great resource!