Free Conference for the Deaf by FamilySearch

SALT LAKE CITY — 8 Jun 2012 -- In conjunction with a Bi-Annual Genealogy Workshop for the Deaf, there will be a Conference for the Deaf on Sunday, June 24, 2012, held in the Little Theater of the Conference Center from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.  All deaf and hearing friends of the deaf are invited to attend.  Elder John K. Carmack will be speaking. 

The Conference Center Little Theater is located to the north of Temple Square on West Temple between North Temple and 200 North Streets in downtown Salt Lake City.  Free parking is available underneath the Conference Center accessed from West Temple Street.  

2012 BYU Family History and Genealogy Conference

We invite you to attend the 44th Annual Conference on Family History and Genealogy. July 31-August 3 at the Brigham Young University Conference Center in Provo, Utah. This year's theme is "Strengthening The Ties That Bind Families Together through Family History." Family historians of all skill levels are encouraged to attend.

Keynote speakers for the conference include Richard E. Turley, Jr., assistant Church historian and recorder for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Under his guidance in 1999, the Family History Department launched the popular FamilySearch.org website. Wednesday's keynote speaker will be John Titford, a writer, broadcaster, and genealogical consultant from England. The Thursday keynote speaker will be Rod DeGiulio, director of FamilySearch Data Operations. More then 130 classes will be offered on a variety of topics, including: exploring family trees, hands-on workshops, FamilySearch, international research, German research, youth and genealogy, getting support from priesthood leaders, computers and technology, methodology, etc. A complete schedule can be viewed on the conference website.Two hands-on workshops will also be offered.

• "The German Gothic Handwriting Workshop," taught by Warren Bittner, will be held from 9:45 a.m.–noon on Tuesday. Participants will learn to decipher the German Gothic handwriting used on many genealogical records in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Scandinavia.

• The second hands-on workshop, "Building a Genealogy Website," will be held 1:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesday. Millions of genealogists and historians are using the Internet to find lost ancestors. This workshop teaches you how to make your research available to the world and collaborate with others by creating your own family history website. Learn the basics of Google Sites and how to share your information through stylish, professional, and interesting ways for researchers to browse. It will be taught by Rebecca Smith, Noel Coleman, and Hannah Allan.

More Than Half of the U.S. 1940 Census Community Project Completed

From FamilySearch...

1940 U.S. CENSUS COMMUNITY PROJECT MAKES HISTORIC RECORDS FOR 18 STATES SEARCHABLE BY NAME, CELEBRATES MILESTONE OF 75 MILLION NAMES INDEXED THROUGH NATIONAL VOLUNTEER EFFORT

More than Half of the 1940 U.S. Census Records Indexed in Just Two Months Thanks to Thousands of Volunteers Across the U.S.

07 June 2012

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH (June 7, 2012) – The 1940 U.S. Census Community Project announced today that its searchable index of 1940 U.S. census records has reached – and surpassed – the halfway mark toward completion. Thanks to the efforts of more than 125,000 volunteers, more than 75 million names from the 1940 U.S. census have been indexed with 18 state records already available to the public on all Project partner websites, including the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Archives.com, FamilySearch.org and findmypast.com. The records will also be made available in more than 7,000 public libraries nationwide in the coming months by ProQuest. The national service project, the first and largest of its kind, aims to establish a comprehensive searchable database and make the 1940 U.S. census records available for free.

 

Following just two months of volunteer indexing, records for the following 18 U.S. states are currently available and searchable by name, location and family relation:

• Alaska
• Arizona
• Colorado
• Delaware
• Florida
• Hawaii
• Idaho
• Kansas
• Louisiana
• Mississippi
• Montana
• Nevada
• New Hampshire
• Oregon
• Utah
• Vermont
• Virginia
• Wyoming

“We believe that all people deserve free access to the 1940 U.S. census records so they can learn more about their family history, ancestors and the past. With the help of the Community Project partners, and especially volunteer indexers across the nation, we’re halfway to our goal,” said Megan Smolenyak, spokesperson for the 1940 U.S. Census Community Project. “We didn’t expect to make this much progress only two months after the 1940 census records were released, so we’re excited and thankful to all of the enthusiastic volunteers.”

 

Since April 2, Community Project volunteers have indexed more than 75 million records and this number continues to grow quickly as more than 7,000 volunteers sign up each week. The timely progression of making the census records freely searchable online is a direct result of the growing numbers of volunteers. Those interested in lending a hand can learn more and sign up to be an official 1940 U.S. census volunteer indexer at the 1940 census website (the1940census.com). The project will release free searchable records for individual states as they are completed. 

 

The 1940 U.S. Census Community Project is a joint initiative between the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Archives.com, FamilySearch.org, findmypast.com, ProQuest and other leading genealogy organizations. Thanks to advancements in technology, online volunteers worldwide can lend a voice to countless untold stories of their ancestors living, working and persevering as the “Greatest Generation.”

 

“Volunteer indexers have the unique opportunity to step into the past and read through hand-written records captured by census enumerators as they walked from house to house,” said Joshua Taylor, spokesperson for the 1940 U.S. Census Community Project. “Through indexing, volunteers are essentially reliving history and helping provide others with the access they need to gain greater insights into the life and times of their own ancestors more than 72 years ago.” 

 

To learn more about the 1940 U.S. Census Community Project, track real-time progress of volunteer indexing efforts or become a volunteer, visit the1940census.com.   

 

About the 1940 U.S. Census Community Project

The 1940 U.S. Census Community Project is a web-based, national service project with the goal of creating as soon as possible a free, high quality online index linked to the complete set of census images. The index will allow the public to easily search every person found in the census and view digital images of the original census pages. The collection will be available online for free to the general public at 1940census.archives.gov, , Archives.com, FamilySearch.org, findmypast.com, ProQuest.com through public libraries. All of these organizations are respective website sponsors of the community project. Archives.com, findmypast.com, and ProQuest will make substantial financial contributions to make the 1940 U.S. census online name index possible and will work with the nonprofit organization FamilySearch to bring additional new historic records collections online—making even more highly valued family history resources available to the entire genealogical community.

Dennis Brimhall, Managing Director of Family History Department to Speak

Dennis Brimhall

Come to the Riverton FamilySearch Library on 

Tuesday, June 12, 2012, 7:00 p.m.

The Doctrines of Family History Work

A Discussion with Dennis Brimhall, Managing Director, Family History Department

Elder Dennis C. Brimhall was named a member of the Sixth Quorum of the Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on April 4, 2009.

Elder Brimhall received a bachelor of science degree in Zoology from Brigham Young University in 1972.  He later received an MBA from Northwestern University.  He began his career in 1974 working as an Associate Administrator at the University of Utah Medical Center and later as Chief Operating Officer at the Medical Center at the University of California San Francisco and then as Chief Executive Officer at the University of Colorado Hospital.  Currently he is managing director of the Family History Department for the Church.

Elder Brimhall has served in numerous Church callings, including full-time missionary to Auckland, New Zealand, elders quorum president, stake mission president, high councilor, stake president, and mission president.

For more details, see our website:  www.familysearch.org/fhc/riverton 

FREE Seminar-Riverton FamilySearch Library

Riverton FamilySearch Library to Host Seminar on

Using Google Search to Connect with Your Past

June 16 from 9:00 A.M. to Noon

RIVERTON, UTAH¾Doing genealogical research has historically involved combing through dusty records in courthouses and scanning rolls of microfilm. But today, Internet searches bring the world’s genealogical treasures to your fingertips.

In his keynote presentation, “Using Google Search to Connect with Your Past,” speaker Michael D. Rossetti will use live Google search examples to demonstrate tips and techniques for maximizing the efficiency of your family history research on the Internet.

Michael is a software engineer and has worked for some of the most exciting companies in the computer world: Google, Apple, Intuit, and Informix. He has as also worked for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Brigham Young University. He has had the opportunity to work with both software and hardware on everything from nuclear reactor simulators to today’s Google Chrome browser. Lately, Mike has been spending his time assisting Google in the development of web page tagging standards that will help improve the quality of family history-related search results.

Following the 9:00 a.m. keynote presentation, there will be two blocks of four classes each that will cover topics of interest to both beginning and advanced family history enthusiasts.

Classes to be held from 10:00 to 11:00 a.m. are:

           ·         “Be a ‘Fan’ of the Genealogy Research Communities on Facebook”¾Fran Jensen 

• “Organizing Your Genealogy”¾Beth Taylor
• “Top 20 Lessons Genealogists Need to Know”¾Barry Ewell
• “Finding Descendants of Your Ancestors”¾Don and Diane Snow

The classes available from 11:00 a.m. to noon are:

           ·         “Be a ‘Fan’ of the Genealogy Research Communities on Facebook”¾Fran Jensen 

• “Solving Really Tough Research Problems”¾Beth Taylor
•  “Where Did That File Go?’ Understanding and Organizing Computer Files”¾Sue Maxwell
•  “New England Resources at the Riverton FamilySearch Library”¾Linda Baker

Registration is not required for this free seminar. The Riverton FamilySearch Library is located in the LDS Riverton Office Building at 3740 Market Center Drive. The facility is near the intersection of Bangerter Highway and 13400 South, just east of The Home Depot.

FREE UVTAGG Classes in Provo

UTAH VALLEY TECHNOLOGY AND GENEALOGY GROUP MEETING (UVTAGG) 

The next regular, second-Saturday-of-the-month meeting of the Utah Valley Technology and Genealogy Group - UVTAGG (Formerly the Utah Valley PAF Users Group - UVPAFUG) will be on Saturday, 09 Jun 2012, from 9 am to noon in the LDS "Red Chapel", 4050 North Timpview Drive (650 East), Provo. 

The main presentation this month will be by Don and Diane Snow on YOUR PERSONAL GENEALOGY LIBRARY:  FAMILY HISTORY BOOKS ONLINE.  The Snows will show information about family history books online, how to find them, what formats they are in, and how to use them.  They will show various organizations that are scanning and posting FH books such as the Family History Library, Google, Internet Archive, and others.  There are already thousands of FH books online and most are free to download.


Donald R. and Diane M. Snow are both Californians with Utah roots; Don's ancestors are the Snows from Southern Utah and Diane's are the Manwarings from Northern Utah.  They are both retired from BYU where Don taught Mathematics and Diane taught Humanities.  Since retiring from BYU, they have been on four Family History missions for the LDS Church.  One of these was as the Directors of the New York Family History Center in Manhattan and another was serving in the London Family History Center in the Hyde Park Chapel.  They have been involved with family history for many years and Don has been a Vice President of the Utah Valley Technology and Genealogy Group since the 1990's.  They are frequent speakers at genealogy and family history conferences and the details of their talks and schedules are at  http://uvtagg.org/classes/dons/dons-classes.html . They have 6 children, 30 grandchildren, and 4 great grandchildren and are snowbirds spending half the year in Provo and half in St. George. 

Following the main presentation will be the class period and, as always, there will be something about family history and technology for everyone at any level of expertise.  The teachers and classes presently scheduled for this meeting are:


(1)  FamilySearch Family Tree, by Merlin Kitchen;  
(2)  Q&A, by Don and Diane Snow;  
(3)  Video of a past presentation or class - Your Choice;  
(4)  Personal Help, by DonEngstrom & Finn Hansen;  
(5)  MAC Projects Discussed and Reviewed, by Ron Snowden; 
(6)  RootsMagic, by Sue Maxwell;  
(7)  Legacy, by Dean Bennett; and 
(8)  Ancestral Quest (teacher to be announced).
                        
All meetings of UVTAGG are open to the public whether members of the Group or not. The Group has the goal of helping individuals use technology to further their family history and there are usually 100-125 attending the monthly meetings on the second Saturdays.