Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

New genealogy TV show

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NBC is debuting a new genealogy TV show called A New Leaf, hosted by Daisy Fuentes. (Remember her from MTV back in the day?) Two things about it seem particularly interesting to me:

Personally, I don’t watch live TV (I stream it) but I love that it’s a Saturday-morning show because I’m thinking it might draw young people into the genealogy fold.

The show, which is sponsored by Ancestry, will debut on October 5. It is part of NBC’s Saturday morning “The More You Know” block of programming. I plan to stream it on Hulu, my streaming service of choice. (I pay extra for advertising-free Hulu and it’s fantastic!)

According to the show’s Facebook page, “Each week, A New Leaf will teach viewers the importance of appreciating and understanding their family history in order to make important decisions to enact positive changes in their lives.” That sounds promising!

I’m speaking at RootsTech 2020!

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I was so excited to learn last Thursday that one of my speaking proposals for RootsTech 2020 was accepted! My talk is called “The Imperfect Genealogist” and it’s about not letting perfectionism get in the way of your genealogy research. I’ll talk about the areas of genealogy where good enough really is good enough and discuss some techniques for getting past perfectionistic tendencies.

The topic, of course, ties in with the podcast I co-host, Getting to Good Enough and I’m thrilled that I’ll have a few months to work on it. RootsTech 2020 will be held February 26-29, 2020 in Salt Lake City. Please let me know if you’re planning to attend!

I spoke at RootsTech 2017, on going paperless in your genealogy. But that time I had a fabulous co-presenter, Brooks Duncan of DocumentSnap. (Together, we created the Paperless Genealogy Guide.) Doing this solo is a thousand times more terrifying. But I think I’m up for the challenge.

I hope to see some readers there! Registration will open September 18 and I’ll be sure to remind you when it’s open!

Quick reminder: Watch Jamboree sessions by July 31!

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The Southern California Genealogy Society’s Genealogy Jamboree was held at the very end of May. As I posted then, they made recordings of twelve of the conference sessions available free of charge for those who registered by filling out the form on this website. The caveat was that those recordings would be available only until July 31.

It hit me this morning that I have one week to watch those recordings! And, as luck would have it, I’m on vacation this week in Washington state. I do hope I am able to make time to watch them before the end of the month.

I wanted to remind you about the deadline, in case you, too, had registered for the sessions but the forgotten about them. Even if you didn’t register back then, you can still register at the link above and watch them by the end of the month! I wasn’t expecting that when I checked and I’m glad to be able to share that info.

If you have registered, look in your email for a message with the subject line Login details from SCGS 2019 Jamboree Live Stream. The link to the video stream is there, along with your password.

Happy learning!

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!

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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.