Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

RootsTech 2020 Livestream schedule

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RootsTech 2020 is just around the corner. (My talk, The Imperfect Genealogist, is two weeks from today. Gulp.) If you can’t attend RootsTech in person, you can still watch some of the sessions online. In addition to the (paid) Virtual Pass option, you can watch livestreams of certain RootsTech sessions free of charge. Here’s this year’s schedule. (All times are Mountain Standard Time.)

Visit the Livestream page on the RootsTech website for descriptions of each of these sessions.

Wednesday, February 26

8:00 a.m. | Photos Capture the Story
Speaker: Jens Nielsen

9:30 a.m | What’s New at Ancestry
Speaker: Crista Cowan

11:00 a.m. | The Story of You on FamilySearch

1:30 p.m. | Adding Branches to Your Family Tree Using DNA
Speaker: Angie Bush

3:00 p.m. | Finding Your Elusive Female Ancestors
Speaker: Julie Stoddard

4:30 p.m. | Wednesday General Session – 10-year Celebration and Keynote
Speaker: Steve Rockwood, CEO of FamilySearch International

Thursday, February 27

8:00 a.m. | Unlocking the Power of the FamilySearch Wiki
Speakers: Danielle Batson, Jenny Hansen, Jeff Svare

9:30 a.m. | German Research for the Everyday American
Speaker: Karynne Moses

11:00 a.m.. | Thursday General Session
Speaker: Leigh Anne Tuohy

1:30 p.m. | DNA, Genealogy, and Law Enforcement: All the Facts
Speaker: Blaine Bettinger

3:00 p.m. | Tackling Difficult Chapters of our Family History
Speaker: Cheri Daniels

Friday, February 28

8:00 a.m. | Discover Your Family with Interviews and Sources
Speakers: Mat and Rachel Trotter

9:30 a.m. | 2019: Year of the Copyright
Speaker: Judy Russell

11:00 a.m. | Friday General Session
Speaker: David Kennerly

1:30 p.m | City Directories and Other New Collections on MyHeritage
Speaker: Mike Mansfield

3:00 p.m. | Preserving the Fabric of our Families
Speaker: Jennifer Hadley

Saturday, February 29

8:00 | Ancestry On the Go: Ancestry App Suite
Speakers: Peter Drinkwater, Kenric Russell, Victoria Smith

9:30 a.m. | FamilySearch App for Intermediate/Advanced Users
Speaker: Todd Powell

11:00 a.m | Saturday General Session
Speaker: Emmitt Smith

1:30 p.m. | Healing and Family History-The Emotional Side of DNA
Speaker: Robin Wirthlin

3:00 p.m. | Introduction to What Are the Odds? (WATO)
Speaker: Leah Larkin

That’s a lot of free information available to you! I heartily encourage to attend as many of these talks as you can, from the comfort of your computer, tablet or phone. In my experience, RootsTech presentations are top notch.

P.S. It’s not too late to register if you’d like to go in person!

NARA 2019 Virtual Genealogy Fair is tomorrow!

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This one really snuck up on me.

The 2019 Virtual Genealogy Fair is being offered (free of charge) by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) tomorrow, Wednesday, October 23, 2019. This is the seventh year for the conference, offered by webcast on YouTube. It’s a wonderful resource.

You can read the lineup, with detailed descriptions of the sessions and links to handouts, here. Just click on each session title to access the handouts. There will be six one-hour sessions, bookended by opening and closing remarks. The event starts at 10 am eastern and ends at 4.

I’m traveling tomorrow, so I was thrilled to read that I don’t have to watch live. The webcast will be available on YouTube to watch later. You can even request transcripts of the sessions, taken from the closed captioning.

While you’re on the 2019 Virtual Fair webpage, scroll down to access links to prior Virtual Genealogy Fairs sponsored by NARA. Those are available to watch as well!

Talking about downsizing on Generations Cafe

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I was so happy to be interviewed once again for Amy Johnson Crow’s  podcast, Generations Cafe. It’s a great podcast and I look forward to each new episode.

This week, Amy kicks off a series on downsizing, based on her recent experience in moving her parents from their home of many decades into a smaller space. In this week’s episode, called Downsizing and Family History, we talked at length about how it can be tricky for genealogists to decide what to let go of when they recognize the potential genealogical value of items for future generations.

The intersection of my work as an organizer and my passion as a genealogist is one of my favorite places to spend time, so I really enjoyed this opportunity to talk with Amy. (If you want to learn a little about how Amy organizes her own family history research, check out her How They Do It interview on this blog from July 2017.)

If you’re not already listening to Generations Cafe, I urge you to subscribe. If you’re new to podcasts, Generations Cafe is a great first genealogy podcast to subscribe to! The podcast showcases Amy’s clear-eyed view of genealogy and her excellent communications skills.

So glad to be a tiny part of it!

Who’s going to Midwestern Roots?

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The Midwestern Roots Family History and Genealogy Conference, sponsored by the Indiana Historical Society, is being held next weekend (July 19-20) in Indianapolis. I’ll be there. Are any of you planning to attend? I’ll be driving with my friend Vickie, whom I met through this blog. I’m always thrilled to meet blog readers at conferences!

I attended the 2016 Midwestern Roots conference and thought it was terrific. It was very robust, with lots of great educational opportunities.

This year looks like it’s going to be equally good. I’m excited to hear Joshua Taylor speak, both as a keynote and in breakout sessions. I didn’t get the chance to hear him at the NGS conference because of competing priorities. (I’ll never forget the time I heard him speak at the Genealogy Society of Southern Illinois conference five years ago and discovered we were cousins. I told that story in this blog post.)

I’ve downloaded the syllabus and saved it to both Evernote and my hard drive. (If you’re registered, the password to access the syllabus was emailed to you on July 3 in a message with the subject line “Midwestern Roots 2019!”) I’ve also downloaded the app. I love conference apps, which are so much easier for me to look at than a printed schedule. I was glad to see that this conference has one. I love that I can select my sessions now and see a streamlined version of the agenda (as well as the full one) so I’m not making last-minute decisions or fumbling around trying to figure out where I’m going next.

If you’re attending, please let me know if you’d like to meet up. If you’re interested in registering, it looks like there are still spots available. The deadline for registration is Saturday, July 13. Go to the registration page for the conference to buy a ticket. If you’re not able to attend, you might consider following the hashtage #MRoots2019 to see what you’re missing!