Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

Free organizing class offered by NYG&B next week!

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January 9 to 13, 2023 is NYG&B Week! That week, the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society is offering a week of “interactive talks, lectures and opportunities to digitize your own financial history.”

I was excited to see that the week kicks off with an organizing talk by certified genealogist and certified genealogical speaker Julie Miller. I think Julie is a terrific speaker and I was so pleased when she agreed to be interviewed for my How They Do It series, back in 2021.

D. Joshua Taylor, one of the other presenters is also a great speaker and How They Do It interviewee. I’m not familiar with Susan Miller, but I look forward to learning from her.

Here’s the lineup of events for NYG&B week:

  • Four Essential Building Blocks to Organizing Your Genealogy from Julie Miller at 7 pm eastern on Monday, January 9 (online only)
  • Onsite Research in New York, presented by Susan Miller at 5 pm eastern on Tuesday, January 10 (online and in-person)
  • Live Q&A with D. Joshua Taylor and Susan Miller at 4 pm eastern on Wednesday, January 11 (online only)
  • Preserving Your Digital Family History Materials presented by NYG&B President, D. Joshua Taylor at 6 pm eastern on Thursday, January 12 (online only)

In addition, if you’re in New York, you’re invited to bring your family records to the NYG&B each afternoon that week (January 9 to 13) and use their high-speed scanners to digitize them.

All these events are free of charge. Visit the NYG&B Week events page for descriptions and for links to sign up for each.

Registration open for RootsTech 2023 (in-person and virtual!)

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Interested in attending RootsTech 2023? You have a decision to make. After two years of a virtual conference, RootsTech will be back in 2023 as an in-person event. But the organizers have taken it to a new level: In addition to the traditional in-person conference they will also offer a full virtual experience, with over 200 on-demand classes.

The conference will be held March 2 to 4, 2023 in Salt Lake City, Utah. You can register (for either in person or virtual) on the registration page. The fee for the in-person conference is $98 and registration for the virtual conference is free.

I have to admit, I’m torn. I love RootsTech and all the energy that comes from being with thousands of fellow genealogy enthusiasts and attending classes live and in person. Despite my best intentions, I did not take full advantage of the offerings of the last two virtual RootsTech conferences. (The good news is that it’s not too late to see last year’s sessions!)

I attended (and spoke at) RootsTech 2020, which was held at the very end of February right before the world shut down. I didn’t get sick. I’ve had COVID once and am triple boosted. But I’m still a little wary of attending a large conference. And, of course, with travel expenses, attending the conference in person is a bigger financial commitment. So I may register for the virtual event today and give myself a deadline to decide about attending in person.

How about you? Are you planning to register for either option? If I decide to attend in person, I’ll post here and perhaps we can have a meet up.

(Free) Wikitree conference coming up!

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Yesterday, I sat in on Amy Johnson Crow’s Live YouTube video covering news in the genealogy world. (If you’re not on her mailing list so you hear about these events, I encourage you to sign up!) One of the things she mentioned that I wanted to share with you is Wikitree Day coming up on November 4 and 5. This free genealogy symposium starts on Friday, November 4 at 8 am eastern and runs through 8 pm eastern on Saturday, November 5.

The first day covers general genealogy topics with familiar (and excellent) speakers like Amy Johnson Crow, Thomas MacEntee, Marian Burk Wood and Maureen. Here’s the link for the first day’s schedule. There are one, two or three speakers to choose from in each time slot. The presentations are pre-recorded, which is how they can present them through the night. I noticed that some are repeated; I think this is a great way to reach people in various time zones around the world!

The second day focuses more on Wikitree itself. I have to admit that I’ve never used Wikitree, but Amy extols its virtues and I’m definitely interested in learning more about this collaborative family tree. The second day offers to separate video tracks, so there is plenty to watch. Here’s the schedule.

The conference is free and registration is required. Here’s the link to register. I just registered!

 

 

Free access to all of Newspapers.com this weekend!

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In honor of Mother’s Day, Newspapers.com is offering free access to their premium collection through May 9.

I happily pay for a Newspapers.com Publishers Extra subscription because I find so much great information there. But if you’re not a subscriber, I encourage you to give it a whirl for free this weekend. I suggest you check the available newspapers (you can search by state) and make a list of the family members you can search on in various localities before you start.

It’s great to see what kind of news your ancestors may have made. And, of course, finding obituaries can be a treasure trove of information. (Just remember to a grain of salt!)

Personally, I have found lots of little articles about my family members that individually can feel kind of tedious to process but collectively can paint a nice picture. (I find it’s worth the time to download and add the information to my database.) And every now and then I find something more juicy, like an article about my grandfather’s uncle being arrested for assault for beating up a citizen who voted against his father in an election for county judge. (That’s an image of that article from the 4 Nov 1909 edition of the Messenger-Inquirer of Owensboro, Kentucky at the top of this post.)

If you have some time on your hands this weekend, you might enjoy exploring Newspapers.com at no cost. And you might find it helpful to check out my blog post, How I Process Newspaper.com articles.

Before you get started, I encourage you to come up with some research questions. That will help you use you research time well. It’s so easy to fall down a rabbit hole with newspaper research!