Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

NARA 2018 Virtual Genealogy Fair is tomorrow!

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I almost missed telling you about the 2018 Virtual Genealogy Fair offered (free of charge) by the National Archives. It’s tomorrow, October 24. This is the sixth year for the conference, offered by webcast. It’s a wonderful resource.

You can read the lineup, with detailed descriptions of the sessions and links to handouts, here. Detailed descriptions of the sessions are posted here, which is also where handouts will be posted when they’re available. (Classes are marked either Beginner” or “Experienced.”) There will be six one-hour sessions, bookended by opening and closing remarks. The even starts at 10 am eastern and ends at 4.

I’m busy with a client 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 don’t have to register.

Special thanks to my cousin, Jerry Brown, who alerted me to this year’s conference. It had flown beneath my radar this year.

Don’t let perfectionism paralyze you

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As I mentioned earlier this summer, I’ve started a podcast with Shannon Wilkinson called Getting to Good Enough. Every week we release a new episode about overcoming perfectionism so you can do more of what you love.

Perfectionism can certainly come into play with genealogy research, which Shannon and I explored that in this week’s episode. Shannon is a newer genealogy researcher (she went with me to RootsTech this year) and she has some perfectionist tendencies. She was very fortunate to uncover a literal treasure trove of family documents when she was cleaning out her mother’s home after her mother moved to a care home. She quickly became overwhelmed by the responsibility of the stewardship of these documents and was striving to handle them perfectly. She was paralyzed and couldn’t get started on working with them.

In Episode 20 of the podcast, which is one of our “Good Enough in Practice” episodes where we explore how we’re embracing good enough in our own lives, Shannon and I discuss how perfectionism can interfere with progress in genealogy research. We brainstormed how she could get started with her documents and she put together a plan. Shortly after our discussion she was able to get started processing them. I encourage you to give it a listen. I think it’s an interesting discussion.

You can listen right on our website or on iTunes or Google Play or Stitcher.

Generations Cafe: A new podcast from Amy Johnson Crow

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New podcast from Amy Johnson CrowI’m an unabashed fan of genealogist, writer, and lecturer Amy Johnson Crow. I always jump at the chance to hear her speak at a conference. And I was thrilled when she interviewed me at RootsTech a few years ago. Most recently, I was able hear her speak for two days at the Missouri State Genealogical Society conference in August. In her talks, Amy always delivers solid, well-presented information.

At that conference, she confided in me that she was going to start a podcast. I was happy to hear that because I’m a big fan of podcasts and I know she has so much to share.

That new podcast, Generations Cafe, launched on September 20. Amy has published three episodes so far and they’re excellent. Her podcasts are short and focused. (The first three are between 10 and 15 minutes each.)

Since my own podcast is about getting over perfectionism, I was delighted that the first episode of her podcast was called Is Perfectionism Ruining Your Genealogy? (And I was tickled pink to hear her mention my name in that episode!)

If you don’t love podcasts (or haven’t tried them and are unsure), definitely check out the Generations Cafe posts on Amy’s website because for each episode she has written an accompanying blog post that provides, in written form, the information that is shared in the podcast.

I’m very excited to see what Amy will be exploring and her podcast will definitely be on my list of must-listens!

 

 

Join me on October 13 at the St. Louis Genealogy Conference

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St. Louis Genealogy ConferenceThe St. Louis Genealogy Conference, a free conference sponsored by the St. Louis Missouri Stake of the LDS church, is less than a month away! Registration is still open. If you’re in the St. Louis area, I encourage you to attend.

The conference will be held Saturday, October 13, from 8:45 am to 2:45 pm at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, 15081 Clayton Road, Chesterfield, MO 63107. This will be my third year attending. The organizers do a great job of putting together a professional conference, with a rich and varied schedule of classes. I’m honored to be presenting for the second year in a row.

I’ll be speaking about staying focused in your research, something I know many of us struggle with. Other topics to be covered include courthouse research, early American research, newspaper research, DNA, and sessions on specific repositories. There’s a beginner’s track, as well as a track on German research. All at no cost to the participants.

If you plan to attend, please let me know in the comments or via email. I’d love to meet you!