Category Archives: Events

Mid-Summer Catch-Up

Events, Genealogical Education, Genealogy Conferences, , , , , , , ,

I returned from a fantastic week at the Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh (GRIP) where I had the pleasure of taking “Advanced DNA” from Blaine Bettinger, Angie Bush, and Karen Stanbury, CG. I learned a lot and I learned I already knew a lot which is almost just as important when you are trying to build your confidence in your DNA analysis skills! GRIP has a fantastic line-up for July as well as their 2020 courses published. It’s one of my favorite institutes!

I have some exciting things planned for the rest of my year that I wanted to share:

Phew! I’m tired just thinking about it. I hope to see you at at least one of these events. Be sure to say hi if you see me about.

Our Field is Full of Worthy People: APG Award Nominations Sought

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It is so important to recognize people who are working quietly behind the scenes, in the forefront of the genealogical field, or somewhere in-between, while they are still active and alive and able to appreciate being appreciated!

Several calls for nominations were sent out from the Association of Professional Genealogists (APG). Awards will be presented at the APG Professional Management Conference being held October 4-6 in Kansas City, Missouri. The nominations are due by 10 July 2017 and should be emailed in PDF format to Kathleen W. Hinckley, Executive Director, at admin@apgen.org. Please put the name of the award in the subject line of the email.

Two awards are described below as received from APG.

Laura G. Prescott Award for Exemplary Service to Professional Genealogy

The Laura G. Prescott Award for Exemplary Service to Professional Genealogy was unveiled at the 2017 Professional Management Conference. APG President Billie Fogarty presented the award to Laura G. Prescott, a past APG President and longtime active member. We are now accepting nominations for the award to be presented at the 2018 Professional Management Conference to be held October 4-6 in Kansas City, Missouri.

This award is in recognition of exemplary professionalism and continuing encouragement to other professional genealogists. It acknowledges those with a career devoted to uplifting fellow genealogists and improving their career circumstances and opportunities, and dedicated service to the field of professional genealogy. The award is open to any member or organization in the genealogical community.

Nominations should include a written statement describing the nominee’s contributions to professional genealogy. The Awards Committee will recommend a winner to the Executive Committee.

APG Professional Achievement Award

The award honors an APG member with a record of exceptional professional achievement and contributions to the field of genealogy through individual excellence and ethical behavior in published research, public presentations, innovative organization leadership, writing or editing, or successful business achievement by creating valuable products or services. The winner will be a professional who has demonstrated a commitment to advance and promote the highest standards in the field.

The nominee must have been an APG member in good standing for at least one year prior to the nomination and twenty years of professional advancement in the field of genealogy. Nominees cannot be current members of the APG Board of Directors or APG contractors. Nominees not selected in a previous year remain eligible for nomination. Past recipients are:

2007 – Elizabeth Shown Mills, CG, CGL, FASG
2008 – Sandra Luebking
2009 – Lou Szucs
2010 – Christine Rose, CG, CGL, FASG
2011 – Thomas W. Jones, Ph.D., CG, CGL, FASG
2012 – Janet Robyn Worthington, JP, NZRN, Dip. FHS, FSAG
2013 – Helen F. M. Leary, CG (Emeritus), CGL, FASG, FNGS
2014 – Claire Mire Bettag, CG
2015 – David E. Rencher, AG, CG, FIGRS, FUGA
2016 – Eileen M. O’Duill, CG
2017 – Elissa Scalise Powell, CG, CGL

Nominations should include a written statement describing the nominee’s contributions to genealogy and APG. The Awards Committee will recommend a winner to the Executive Committee.

This Year’s Plans (2018)

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2018 Started with a BANG! I taught my first ever course at SLIG, co-coordinated with Kathryn Lake Hogan of Ontario, Canada. The course was “The Third Coast: Research in the Great Lakes Region.” It was a lot of fun and went very well. However, it was an intense process to prepare for such a large endeavor. Needless to say, I’m happy I did it and I’m equally happy that it’s done. And I will likely do it again in the future.

SLIG and a week of research at the FHL started this year for me, so I’m just now able to take a breath, take stock, and make plans for 2018 in terms of my speaking schedule and my own educational plans. My speaking schedule is light, which I chalk up to spending so much of my energy last year prepping for SLIG and not spending any time marketing myself or planning for 2018, with a few exceptions. I’m happy to have a bit of a break, however!

Here’s where I’m planning to be this coming year:

  • Beginning in April, I will be facilitating a discussion group on the topic of becoming a Certified Genealogist® hosted by Jill Morelli and the Seattle Genealogical Society. (For more information email: jkmorelli@gmail.com)
  • National Genealogical Society Annual Conference, Grand Rapids, Michigan, May 2-5 where I am presenting: W144 “Third Coast: How the Great Lakes Shaped America”; S423 “Casting the Net: Denominational, Ethnic, and Specialized Newspaper Research”;  S456 “Using PERSI Like a Pro”
  • Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research (IGHR), Athens, Georgia, June 2-7 where I will be taking “Writing and Publishing for Genealogists” taught by Tom Jones
  • Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh (GRIP), Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, July 22-27 where I will be taking “Women and Children First” by Judy G. Russell
  • International Society for British Genealogy and Family History (ISBGFH), Salt Lake City, Utah, October 15-19 where I will be taking “Researching Your Irish and Scots-Irish Ancestors” by Fintan Mullan and Gillian Hunt and my husband will be taking “Scottish Research: The Fundamentals and Beyond” with Paul Milner

There are some other items in the fall that are still materializing but this is what I have planned so far. I hope you make the investment to enhance your genealogical education plan with conferences and institutes. Nothing beats being in class with other genealogists!

And if your society is planning an all-day seminar, consider me for your speaker. I have a lot of topics to choose from. Check my Lecture Topics page for a complete list.

More 2017 Plans… and into 2018!

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So a few more things have been finalized that I can now mention publicly.

I have two all-day seminars scheduled this year:

  • 12 August 2017 – Ark-La-Tex, in Shreveport, LA holds an annual conference. This year I am their conference speaker! See this link for details.
  • 7 October 2017 – San Antonio Genealogical and Historical Society, I will be the annual seminar speaker for this group as well. You can find out more information about the seminar here.

The BIG NEWS that I want to share is that I will be a co-coordinator in a course at SLIG in 2018!

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I will be teaching a course with Kathryn Lake Hogan, with special appearances by Judy Russell and David Ouimette! The course will cover the Great Lakes region, more than a general survey, and intended to highlight the unique nature of history, records, documents, and methodology surrounding research in the Great Lakes region, both from the U.S. and Canadian sides. Watch for more details on this course coming soon!

Genealogy-world News

Events, Genealogy General

I have had a VERY busy summer which has resulted in a very inactive blog. However, there have been several happenings in the genealogy world that I wanted to share. You may have already learned about some of these, but if not, check them out:

1. From the FGS Voice Website: “The Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) and the National Park Service’s Palo Alto Battlefield National Historical Park announce a partnership to develop a searchable database of more than 130,000 soldiers of the U.S.-Mexican War…The database will allow descendants of U.S. soldiers to connect to their personal history and help Palo Alto commemorate and tell the stories of these soldiers. After the database is developed, unit histories, digitized documents, and information on U.S.-Mexican War soldiers will be added. Efforts will also be made to include names and information about Mexican soldiers in this war.” This is going to be another fantastic partnership from FGS for preserving records.

2. The Board for Certification of Genealogists (BCG) has partnered with Legacy Family Tree Webinars for their monthly webinar series. From the news release: “The Board for Certification of Genealogists and Legacy Family Tree Webinars are excited to announce a new partnership. Legacy, host of the webinar series at FamilyTreeWebinars.com, will now also serve as host, producer, and publisher for future BCG webinars. This arrangement will produce and promote high-quality education in genealogy standards and methodologies by one of the leading creators of genealogy webinars.” The first webinar under this new partnership will be “Another Kind of Navigation: GPS for Genealogy” presented by Shellee Morehead, Ph.D., CG on Tuesday August 16, 8pm Eastern and can be registered for at: http://familytreewebinars.com/webinar_details.php?webinar_id=477

3. PERSI (the PERidocial Source Index) has a new landing page on FindMyPast. From the PERSI webpage: “The Periodical Source Index enables you to easily locate key information about people and places. It contains over 2.5 million entries from thousands of historical, genealogical and ethnic publications, making it an invaluable, comprehensive family history resource.” PERSI is one of my favorite resources. I will be giving a lecture on the subject at the Association of Professional Genealogists Professional Management Conference September 22-24, 2016 at the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

4. “Refining Internet and Digital Skills for Genealogy,” a new SLIG course being offered by Cyndi Ingle (of Cyndi’s List), is sure to be one of those courses you think you might not need but you really do. We all get really comfortable with our computers, and our data and research processing systems, but we don’t know what we don’t know about how to be better or more efficient researchers. From Cyndi’s List Facebook Page: “There are still some spots open for SLIG 2017, the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy. My course is, “Refining Internet and Digital Skills for Genealogy.” We will focus on getting your digital research organized, performing more productive searches online, locating records and repositories necessary to move your research forward, using tools that help you analyze data in your research, and the final output of your research efforts. If you’ve been spinning your wheels for a while and want to take full control over your computer, please join us in SLC next January. Sign up for the course here: http://slig.ugagenealogy.org.”

Those are four things that I’ve been excited about in the genealogy world. I hope you check some of them out and can utilize, donate, or benefit from them! Happy summer!

Summer and Fall Schedule

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The summer is fast approaching! It seems like Christmas was not that long ago. (Don’t tell anyone but I still have a string of Christmas lights hanging on our banister.) Since April is already here, I thought I’d take a moment and share my Summer and Fall travel and speaking schedule with you. Exciting things are on my horizon and I hope to see some of you at one of these events!

April

May

  • May 7 – 15, my spouse and I will be taking a trip to Salt Lake City for nothing but research, research, research!
  • May 21 – I will be attending the Austin Genealogical Society Annual Seminar featuring Thomas MacEntee.

June

  • June 2-5 – I will be attending the Southern California Genealogy Jamboree, and will be presenting on Sunday.
  • June 15-25 – I will be on a family vacation to Detroit Lakes, MN with a few genealogy stops tucked in somewhere along the way.
  • June 26- July 2 – I will be attending GRIP and taking the Forensic Genealogy course.

July

  • July 9 – I will be speaking at the Austin Genealogical Society, Education Program – “Intermediate Concepts in Genealogy”
  • July 17 – 22 – This year I am lucky enough to attend both weeks of GRIP. The second time, I am taking the Practical Genetic Genealogy course.

August

  • August 3 – I am presenting a webinar for the Minnesota Genealogical Society titled “The Third Coast: How the Great Lakes Shaped America”
  • August 13 – I will be speaking at the Austin Genealogical Society, Education Program – “A Tour Through Major Record Types”
  • August 25 – 27 – I will be attending GenStock to see what it’s all about! (Click here to read a blog post from Rev. David McDonald, CG who attended last year.)

September

  • August 31-September 3 – I am attending the FGS Annual Conference in Springfield, IL.
  • September 17 – I will be presenting an all-day seminar in Hot Springs Village, Arkansas for the Village Genealogical Society.
  • September 22-25 – I am attending the APG’s Professional Management Conference in Fort Wayne, Indiana. I will also be presenting a program on Thursday titled “PERSI Possibilities: Better Research with ACPL’s Periodical Source Index”

October

November

  • November 11-13 – I am considering attending the FamilyTree DNA Conference in Houston, but we will see what my budget and energy will allow by then. After writing up this list, this one may have to wait until next time.
  • November 17 – I will be speaking at the Sun City (TX) Genealogy meeting.

Wow! I’m exhausted just writing this up! Well, that’s what’s in store for me for the rest of the year. I’ve got other projects underway as well. So, if you find yourself near me at any of these events, be sure to say ‘hi’!

Event Schedule for 2015

Events

bigstock_calendar_54869811It just wouldn’t be right if I got this list out in January, or even before the new year started, now would it? Here are the genealogical events I plan to attend in 2015. This year’s schedule is light because of my recent move but I am networking and working at getting into the speaking rotation here locally (Austin, TX area) but for now, only a few lectures are planned this year so far. I do hope to see some of my friends and colleagues at some of these exciting events!

And just because I tend to miss getting this out before the year begins:

  • January 11-15, 2016 – I anticipate attending SLIG, hopefully taking the course “Corpus Juris: Advanced Legal Concepts for Genealogy” from Judy G. Russell OR “Writing a Quality Family Narrative” from John Colletta OR “Research in the South” from Mark Lowe OR … well, there are too many courses I’d like to take!

I hope to see you at one of these and I hope your genealogical year is as much fun as mine is looking to be!

Upcoming Event Schedule (May 2, 2013)

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bigstock_calendar_54869811I just wanted to share the events I will be attending as well as the programs I will be giving for the rest of the year. I have a busy few months ahead!

  • May 4: “Evernote” Presentation – Colorado Chapter APG
  • May 23-June 2: Road trip to visit family and do a little research in Ohio
  • June 8-14: I will be attending Elizabeth Shown Mills’ course on methodology at IGHR (Birmingham, AL)
  • June 21-July 5: Family vacation to Minnesota (I don’t have any ancestors up there, so I will probably do a lot of reading and/or writing when we aren’t fishing and canoeing.)
  • July 10: “A Nose for the News” presentation – Adams County Genealogical Society
  • July 20-27: I will be attending Tom Jones’ course at GRIP (Pittsburgh, PA)
  • August 6: “Genealogical Education – Institutes and Home Study Options” – Boulder Genealogical Society‘s “You Asked For It” series
  • August 21-24: I will be attending the FGS Conference in Fort Wayne, IN
  • September 10-13: I MAY be attending a research trip to Salt Lake City with the Castle Rock Genealogical Society
  • September 21: “The Power of the Family Legend: How I am Related to Roy Rogers” presentation at Castle Rock Genealogical Society
  • October 1: “Evernote & Evidentia” – Boulder Genealogical Society’s “You Asked For It” series
  • October 5: I will be attending the first annual Rocky Mountain Genealogical Seminar featuring D. Joshua Taylor
  • November 21: “Evernote” Presentation – Larimer County Genealogical Society
  • December 3: Title still to be determined, topic is county histories and mug books – Boulder Genealogical Society