Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

Don’t miss the 2025 National Archives’ Genealogy Series

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For the fifth consecutive year, the National Archives is offering its free multi-week Genealogy Series. I’m a day late to be telling you about the first session, but you can watch the video! In 2021, the National Archives transformed its annual one-day virtual Genealogy Fair into a multi-week Genealogy Series. The first session, Revealing Ties to Espionage in the Office of Strategic Services Records, was held yesterday. You can watch it here.

For the rest of the series, there will be weekly lectures on May 21, June 3, June 11 and June 17, from 1 to 2 pm eastern. No registration is required; you can watch live and ask questions of the presenter at the NARA YouTube channel. (You can also watch later without the opportunity to ask questions.) This year’s series doesn’t have a central theme; instead it provides a variety of interesting talks.

Visit the NARA website to see the program and details about each talk, including a preview of the slides for the upcoming talks in the series. Links to each talk will be available on the day of the event (and remain available after). According to the website, “You are invited to attend, participate, and ask questions during our sessions’ YouTube video premieres. Presentations are pre-recorded videos broadcast on the U.S. National Archives’ YouTube channel. Throughout the broadcast, you will be able to ask questions, and the presenter will respond in real time. After the initial showing, the video and handouts will remain available on this web page and YouTube.”

What’s also great is that NARA provides a Genealogy Series and Fairs Past page with links to all the sessions for the four prior Genealogy Series as well as the one-day virtual Genealogy Fairs they held from 2013 to 2019. That is a lot of free learning!

RootsTech 2025 is just around the corner!

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RootsTech 2025 starts a month from tomorrow! This year’s theme is “Discover.” It will be held 6 to 8 March 2025.

If you haven’t registered yet, you can register for the in-person conference ($129 registration fee for three days or $79 for one day) or the online conference (free). Whichever way you go, you can start building your schedule now. Here’s a detailed blog post from RootsTech on how to plan your schedule.

Looking at the schedule, I see that this year there are 151 online classes to choose from and 236 in-person classes to choose from. If you have the ability to attend in person, I doubt you’ll regret it. Not only do you get more options for classes, you get to meet presenters and fellow participants and explore the expo hall and, best of all, you can leave your non-genealogy cares behind and focus on your research interests while you’re there.

I’ve attended four RootsTech conferences in person (2015, 2017, 2018 and 2020) and thoroughly enjoyed each, despite my dislike of crowds.

If you’re serious about your genealogy research, I urge you to register for RootsTech and create your class schedule, whether you’re attending in-person or online. It’s an unparalleled learning opportunity!

 

First keynote speakers announced for RootsTech 2025

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The first four keynote speakers have been announced for RootsTech 2025, the giant genealogy conference sponsored by FamilySearch. It will be held March 6-8, 2025, both in-person in St. Lake City and virtually. Those four speakers are:

  • Author Ndaba Mandela (grandson of Nelson Mandela)
  • Prominent artist Dana Tanamachi
  • Olympic Gold Medalist Tara Davis-Woodhall and her husband, Paralympic Gold Medalist Hunter Woodhall

To learn more about these speakers, check out this page of the RootsTech website.

My experience attending four (I think) RootsTech conferences in person is that the keynotes are outstanding. Even if I didn’t think I had an interest in the speaker (I’m looking at you, Donny Osmond), I always ended up enjoying the talk and gaining something from it. I’m sure these keynoters, and all the rest they’ll announce in the coming months, will be great.

Registration is now open for the conference. The fee to attend in person is $129 for a three-day pass or $79 for a one-day pass. The virtual conference is free of charge (but requires registration). Here’s a preview of the class lineup with a schedule promised soon.

Both options for attending the conference are terrific. I’ve attended both in-person and virtual RootsTech conferences and speaking for myself, I get a lot more out of attending in person. When I’m there I can forget about family responsibilities and focus on my genealogy. I can meet fellow genealogists and see the latest products and services in the Expo Hall. I also would come in a little early so I could spend some time at the Family History Library.

The virtual conference has the advantage of being less expensive and less effort. However, when I register for the virtual conference, I always have the best of intentions but I have a hard time prioritizing it. The result is I’m seldom able to devote the time I want to the conference since I’m juggling home and work responsibilities at the same time. I’m definitely less focused on my genealogy if I’m attending virtually.

If you’d like to whet your appetite for the 2025 conference or get a feel for what you might learn, visit the on-demand library of past RootsTech keynotes and classes.

I won’t be attending the 2025 conference but if you’re tempted, I encourage you to give some serious consideration. It’s a great way to deepen your research!

 

Genealogy resources at new St. Louis County Public Library headquarters

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I’ve been a little out of touch with life outside my apartment and the hospital but I’m finally focusing on email and was delighted to learn that the renovation of the St. Louis County Public Library’s headquarters has been completed and that the building, complete with its new genealogy room, has been re-opened. I drove by recently and it’s a lovely building!

Genealogy classes are being offered at the Emerson History and Genealogy Center in new headquarters in September (and beyond), including classes on doing newspaper research, beginner genealogy and interpreting DNA results and more. Click on the link above to see a list of the upcoming genealogy classes, including some offered at other branches. The library system also offers virtual programs and digital archives.

The new library branch, known as the Clark Family Branch, has a Memory Lab where you can bring photos or other documents to be digitized. The library also has a Library of Things that includes two kits that can help genealogists. One is a scanning kit with a Chromebook and flatbed scanner that can be borrowed for 21 days. The other is an oral history kit that includes a portable recorder and a lavalier microphone, as well as a memory card and adapter and a folder with instructions on conducting oral history interviews.

A St. Louis County Library card is required to access some of the genealogy sources, though there is a “register as a guest” button for the classes. So you may be able to register for virtual classes that interest you, even if you don’t live in the St. Louis area.

All residents of St. Louis County, St. Louis City, and St. Charles County are eligible for free St. Louis County Library cards. Residents of neighboring counties can receive a card for a $50 annual fee.

Once my life settles down, I look forward to exploring the Emerson History and Genealogy Center at the new Clark Family Branch!