Received the following from Billion Graves today... This is pretty great news!

MyHeritage and BillionGraves Team Up and Launch International Initiative

Dear BillionGravers,  

We are pleased to announce a new collaboration with MyHeritage to digitally preserve the world’s cemeteries.

 

In this collaboration, MyHeritage calls upon its tens of millions of users along with millions of other family history enthusiasts around the world to work with BillionGraves to digitally preserve cemeteries around the world and capture their GPS locations.

BillionGraves and MyHeritage will work together to make the BillionGraves website and application available in 25 languages.  Along with other features, the BillionGraves app and website will also support Gregorian, Hebrew and Julian dates. The addition of these features makes the BillionGraves app the first of its kind to be made available to the entire world. 

The BillionGraves content is available for free on MyHeritage SuperSearch. In addition, MyHeritage is matching it for free to its 27 million family trees on MyHeritage and Geni.

Gilad Japhet, Founder and CEO of MyHeritage:

“We’re thrilled to embark on this global initiative with BillionGraves. Gravestones are among the most valuable information sources for family history research, and although there are many thousands of cemeteries worldwide, most of them have never been documented, and their information is not available online.  Time is chipping away at the gravestones and many are becoming unreadable over the years so it’s up to our generation to preserve them.”

Hudson Gunn, President of BillionGraves:

“We’re delighted to work with MyHeritage on digitizing the world’s cemeteries. At BillionGraves we are working to provide a comprehensive family history database for records and images from the world’s cemeteries—but it’s not something we can do alone. With MyHeritage’s support in mobilizing its massive user community and working with us to launch in 25 languages, we’ll be able to provide incredible value for millions of families and preserve this valuable data for generations to come.”

For more details about this partnership, visit the BillionGraves Blog or MyHeritage Blog.
Read the official press release on Business Wire.
Disclaimer: BillionGraves has not been acquired by MyHeritage and is still owned and operated by Otter Creek Holdings. BillionGraves has and will continue to remain a FREE resource to all.

Why I Use Archives.com and the Addition of 5 Million U.S. Vital Records

Have you ever tried Archives.com? I hear plenty of pros and cons about the value of Archives.com from others, however, I have been a subscriber for many years and I find the use of Archives.com vital when doing family history descendancy research, locating distant family members, friends and fellow high school graduates for reunions. I use a combination of obituaries, newspapers, and other records from Archives.com to help me locate and identify cousins. Not all cousins are involved in family history and genealogy work so I try to track them down and find them on social networking sites and make contact.

Many, many years ago, I volunteered to keep track of our fellow graduates from high school so we can make contact for reunions. With 650+ graduates from my class it can be a challenge to track them all down for reunions and other activities. A challenge is what happens when you volunteer to take on that responsibility, however, my success rate is really great since I started using Archives.com!

Archives.com has a great selection of historic newspapers, vital record indexes, military records, yearbooks, obituaries, cemetery listings and census records, besides the living people search that searches public records. There is also a learning center with plenty of articles from some well-respected genealogists and all the information you need to order original documents. And, you can create a family tree if you want.

Here is an example of the material they have. They just released more than 5 million birth, marriage, and death records to its members. If your family tree reaches into Alabama, Arizona, California or the District of Columbia, you will want to search in these records that were just added a few days ago. 

The new collections include:

Alabama, Marriage Index covers 1816 to 1957. Information varies from county to county but may include the names of the bride and groom, marriage date, marriage place, and the names of the parents. Coverage varies by county.

Arizona, Birth and Christening Index covers 1907 to 1917. Information may include the child's name, gender, names of the parents, birth date, birthplace, and christening date. Coverage varies by county.

Arizona, Marriage Index covers 1888 to 1908. Information varies from county to county but may include the names of the bride and groom, marriage date, marriage place, and the names of the parents. Coverage varies by county. The majority of records are from Arizona, Cochise, Maricopa, and Yavapai counties.

Arizona, Death and Burial Index covers 1910 to 1911 and 1933 to 1994. Information varies from county to county but may include the of the deceased, gender, parents' names, spouse's name, death date, place of death, date of burial, and place of burial. This collection includes records from Arizona, Cochise, Maricopa, and Yavapai counties.

California, Birth and Christening Index covers 1812 to 1988. Coverage varies by county. Information may include the child's name, gender, names of the parents, birth date, birthplace, and christening date.

California, Marriage Index covers 1850 to 1945. Information varies from county to county but may include the names of the bride and groom, marriage date, marriage place, and the names of the parents. Coverage varies by county.

District of Columbia, Birth and Christening Index covers 1830 to 1955. Information may include the child's name, gender, names of the parents, birth date, birthplace, and christening date.

District of Columbia, Marriage Index covers 1830 to 1921. Information varies from county to county but may include the names of the bride and groom, marriage date, marriage place, and the names of the parents.

District of Columbia, Death and Burial Index covers 1840 to 1964. Information varies from county to county but may include the of the deceased, gender, parents' names, spouse's name, death date, place of death, date of burial, and place of burial.

Archives.com members have access to more than 2.6 billion records. The Archives.com Collections page lists the latest additions. 

Disclaimer: Just for you info, I do not work for Archives nor Ancestry.com who purchased Archives just about two years ago. 

Riverton Family History Library Saturday Seminar

Approaching Saratov: A Director's Journey

In October 2013, THE SARATOV APPROACH started a historical journey in movie theaters.  But that's only part of the story.  Hear writer and director Garrett Batty share his experience of bringing this story to the screen and be inspired by some of the incredible behind-the-scenes miracles that occurred in the process.

Garrett Batty graduated from BYU Film School in 2000.  He and his wife moved to Hollywood, where he began working as an editor.  Years later he wrote and directed his first film, Scout Camp.  After working on several projects for the LDS Church, he accepted a full-time position producing Mormon Messages and other film and video content.  In 2013 he released his first theatrical feature, The Saratov Approach, which continues to introduce new audiences to missionary work.  He served a Spanish-speaking mission in the New York, New York South Mission and has served in elders quorum presidencies, high priests group leaderships, bishoprics, and as a stake executive secretary.  Garrett is happily married to Sherrie Lynn Fisher, from Kuna, Idaho, and they live in Draper with their four children.

Following the keynote presentation from 9:00 to 10:00 a.m., two blocks of four classes each are offered that cover topics of interest for beginning, intermediate, and advanced family history enthusiasts.

10:15 a.m. Choose one of the following four classes:

·         “Research Fundamentals for Consultants and Novice Genealogists”¾Sherry Zealley

·         “Online Midwest Resources”––Sherry Lindsay

·         “Your Personal Tree on Ancestry.com”¾Echo King

·         “Evernote: Your Virtual Genealogy Assistant”¾Sue Maxwell

11:30 a.m. Choose one of the following four classes:

·         “WHAT’S THE SOURCE?  Why We Should Document Sources and Citations!”¾Laurie Beardall

·         “English Records Before 1837—Parish Records”––Echo King

·         “Exploring Norwegian Parish Registers”¾Anka Magee

·         “Using Legal Documents in Family History Research”––Davis Farnsworth

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

RootsTech Saturday

This is the last day of a fantastic RootsTech 2014 conference!

The day started out in a super awesome way! The 9,000 additional people who showed up for the Family Discovery Day have started to make their way into the Salt Palace! Now the Expo hall is filing fast with renewed enthusiasm and excitement. There are about 4,500 youth, some wide-eyed and apprehensive. We will see how that progresses throughout the day. 

What can I possibly say about the keynote speakers today that most of you watched, either in person or over the internet, but WOW!  First, I have never seen anyone talk a s  f-a-s-t  a s Todd Hanson, the producer of The Story Trek. I thoroughly enjoyed the levity, the intensity, and the joy of his Searching For A Story clips.  He is adept at pulling the personal story from other's hearts and sharing it with us. I will be a devoted follower of his show from this point forward! 

If you want to watch the program you can! If you cable or satellite TV has access to BYUtv you can view it there. If not, you can watch the program online at BYUtv - The Story Trek. Register for a free account. 

Stephanie Nielsen, author of the NieNie Dialogues blog, is one tough young lady! I don't remember the last time I was so proud of someone for learning to overcome the worst of the worst and be willing to speak about it and share her experiences with the world. I was honored to be in attendance during her keynote address. Her story of survival to live a new life is breathtaking. Her belief in God has certainly given her extraordinary strength of spirit and body.

Nie's blog, NieNie Dialogues is located here.

Brief video and interview by Utah's Darrin Adams of Stephanie's (Nie's) story.

Saturday's  FAMILY DISCOVERY DAY was a super special day for LDS members, both adults and youth, and anyone else who chose to attend the sessions!

As I mentioned above, there were an additional 9,000 people in attendance on Saturday above the 8,000 in attendance throughout the prior two or three days. RootsTech made room for about 4,500 adults and about the same number of youth for one just this one day. You might have thought it would be a nightmare but it was wonderful. Have you ever seen so many youth at a genealogy conference in your life? Well, take a look...

Mostly youth registering for their Youth Discovery Day at RootsTech!

Youth enjoying the Expo Hall

Having fun at the Studio C booth

Youth with their matching shirts and colored RootsTech bags

Interacting with the youth was an enlightening experience. Some were walking around just trying to absorb the incredible amount of electronic media, mini-classes, and activities with wide eyes. Others, were just having fun, while still others were so excited to learn anything they could possibly cram into those active brains of theirs!  So refreshing to see and hear the buzz.

They were treated to inspirational messages from leaders of the LDS Church - Elders' Neil L. Andersen, Allan F. Packer, Bradley D. Foster.Other speakers included Elder Enrique Falabela, Heidi Swinton and John Bytheway. The youth have a particular love for the humor of John Bytheway!  The center of their message was to encourage youth to record, preserve and share their family stories. They were taught about the powerful features of the FamilySearch Family Tree and how to help others with their family history - most importantly to teach their family members to seek out their kindred. 

I particularly liked Elder Foster's presentation he gave to the youth on Saturday. He referenced a question that was posed in the prior month's Parade magazine, which asked: When a team of psychologists measured children's resilience, they found that kids who _______ were best able to handle stress.
   a. Ate breakfast together every day
   b. Knew the most about their family's history
   c. Played team sports
   d. Attended regular religious services

The answer was b. The more children know about their family's history, the stronger their sense of control over their lives and the higher their self-esteem. The reason: "These children have a strong sense of 'intergenerational self'-they understand that they belong to something bigger than themselves and that families naturally experience both highs and lows."

We are all related. It's a matter of numbers back to Adam as to where we fall in this world family tree. (So be careful what you say to your neighbor or friend!) Each person has a story that tells who we are, which in turn, tells us who we are to become. There are 156,000 people on earth who leave us every day; we call that death. There are 384,000 new arrivals a day that we refer to as births. By the year 2015, it is expected that the earth will be home to 9 billion people. With the aid of technology we CAN connect them all together.

Comparing family history to a headstone in a cemetery, you have a name, a birth date, dash, a death date. However, the dash is what we are trying to identify -- it's our history.

Quotables: "What I would give for one tweet from my great-grandma!"

"Genealogy changes charts, but, Family History changes hearts!"

Overcome your barriers: It's not just for old people; it's not too hard; it's not too much technology. Let the youth lead! They will search out our kindred!

Elder Foster was very clear about the importance of all family members in searching for and learning about the dash between the dates of our kindred.

HELPFUL LINKS
To download and watch Elder Bradley Foster's presentation, click here.

Keynote presentations on video for Judy Russell from Friday's session and Todd Hansen.

If you or your group are interested in hosting a Stake Family History Fair, check this out.

Elder Allan Packer's presentation - Spiritual Passport

Elder Neil Anderson Youth Devotional

Plan right now to attend RootsTech 2015 which will be held February 11-16 in Salt Lake City, Utah!

RootsTech Friday

Friday opened with Judy Russell! If you don't know who she is then you need to. She is The Legal Genealogist and she keeps everyone involved with family history and genealogy OUT OF TROUBLE! No kidding, just follow her blog, on Facebook, or Google+ or any other way you can.

Did you realize that in just three generations your family history can be lost forever? It is vitally important to do reasonably exhaustive searching for your ancestors and document with complete source citations. You analyze your data for accuracy and resolve conflicts; then create sound written conclusions. This is just the basics of proven standards of research. She used a great example of a single document noting a brother that had been killed in 1776. That is the ONLY record of this brother. You pretty much know about your grandparents, but does your grandchild? Only you can take the facts and add your recollections to let your children and grandchildren know firsthand what you experienced.

Sad to say, but I was not familiar with Dr. Spencer Wells (nee, Rush Spencer Wells IV and that was a funny story, too.) from the National Geographic's Genographic Project. A geneticist, author, and documentary film maker, he captivated me! With the Genographic Project, he and other scientists around the world are working to capture a genetic snapshot of humanity. Not that I fully understood his research but his presentation is worth re-watching. His research will only get better with the exponential increase in DNA testing, but already has helped to understand the role of YDNA and it's ability to trace ancestral human migration. By the way, according to DNA research the majority of us came from Africa!

As the day progressed, many rushed from class to class picking up new ideas and getting a refresher on others. Mostly, because there was so much going on in the Expo Hall, I talked to people about their experience at RootsTech and I interviewed vendors. I found very, very few non-positive comments from attendees except finding an occasional class they attended that just wasn't for them, but not much else except for tired feet! (mine included) Those new to RootsTech were having a fantastic time and those returning remarked about how much better the whole conference was -- easy registration, classrooms that had seats, plenty of room in the Expo Hall to move around, over 50% new vendors, better classes, access to wi-fi, and NO STAIRS to contend with. Room temperatures seemed to be better, also. A few warm people and a few cold, but overall just right. That's BIG for a conference hall.

Mobile APP
The only thing I think that was not quite as good as last year was the mobile app. If you sent a message to someone from the 'connect' tab, there was no notification for the recipient unless they went to the page as if they were going to send a message. That was frustrating and rather useless. This year we could NOT SEE who was attending. You had to know or remember the exact spelling of someone's name or how they entered it at registration to even find their listing.

The other big thing to me on the app was the loss of being able to enter more than one class into a time slot. If you went to a class and realized that this just wasn't what you could benefit from and wanted to go to another class you didn't readily have a second choice already in your schedule. You had to go back to the sessions and read what other classes were going on and then locate that class. This was a real time waster.

If you went to the exhibitor page and then tried to look at the map from there the popup didn't line up with the map. So until you realized that, you were always looking for that vendor in the same place -- the center of the Expo Hall.

I did like the ability to sort the sessions by Track, Level, Category an Day. That was a good thing, especially for newbies. I found that some newbies to RootsTech knew more than they thought they did and were able to bump up to higher level classes. Hopefully, next year, the app will include the best of both the 2013 and the 2014 apps.

Expo Hall
There was so much for people to do in the Expo Hall without even attending specific classes. The Demo Theater had classes all day long about every 15 minutes or so. That was a real treat for someone who doesn't like to sit for an  hour. And the seats were great! Before and after...

Vendors
I can't say enough good about many of the vendors, especially since half of them were new to RootsTech this year. So many of them were prepared, actively engaging attendees and providing excellent knowledge of their products. They were able to show people why they couldn't live without their product. On the other hand, many were willing to say "this really isn't going to give you what you need." I wish they were all like that. The worst thing a vendor can do is sit behind their table and wait for someone to ask a question.

Christa Cowan from Ancestry.com teaching from the heart and making people smile!

If you want to review the taped sessions from Friday's activities click here. 

#RootsTech Thursday

Why does life get in the way when you are trying to get things done? I'm way late on posting my thoughts from RootsTech. What can I say...

After a great opening day at the RootsTech Innovation Summit we started Thursday with great keynote presentations by Dennis Brimhall of FamilySearch, Annelies van de Belt, CEO of DC Thomson Family History (formerly brightsolid), and Ree Drummond of The Pioneer Woman.

Dennis Brimhall spoke, not only at the keynote, but several times during the conference. He reiterated many of the FamilySearch announcements that have occurred over the last few days and months. Throughout RootsTech he stressed the importance of photos and stories, now referred to as Memories on FamilySearch.

I am so loving this feature on FamilySearch. In one of my prior posts I talked about the photos and stories and showed pictures I have uploaded on my grandfather. I actually have more photos connected to my ancestors by cousins I don't know, than I have uploaded myself. I get such a warm feeling being able to "see" these family members. Now, more and more stories are starting to be added to the tree. Where are your memories? Save them to Family Tree so they will be there for your ggg-grandchildren to see.

So often, we think that we don't have any stories in our family, or maybe you are lucky enough to have many. Regardless, you can interpret the events in a person's life and visualize what that person had to go through in order to make a living, emigrate from their homeland, migrate, lose children along the way, and suffer terrible struggles and deaths. Analyzing these events creates memories. Now all you have to do is write it up and add it to Memories in FamilySearch. If you or someone in your family knew my great-grandparent or my cousin, I want to know what you remember or what your family has passed down to you. I so want to know my ancestors when I pass from this life to the next. I want to be able to say "I know about you. I know how you lived your life and the impact it had on my life.

Dennis Brimhall talked again about the partnerships that FamilySearch, Ancestry.com, FindMyPast (DC Thomson Family History), and MyHeritage have formed to benefit all people searching for their families. The big focus was on the fact that these companies will stop duplicating the filming of the same records around the world. They will work together so the records only have to be filmed and indexed one time. This should really speed up the process of getting more unique records out for all of us to use. FamilySearch will continue to forge partnerships in the future.

Dennis gave us a morning laugh with his "top 10 reasons to come to RootsTech" as you can see a few below. So start planning now to attend the RootsTech/FGS conference in Salt Lake starting on February 11, 2015. Yes, FGS (the Federation of Genealogical Societies) will join together for the spring conference (I know, it's really still winter, but I really dislike winter, so I will pretend).

Annelies van de Belt, CEO of DC Thomson Family History (formerly brightsolid) began talking about how she came to DC Thomson. Her appointment as CEO was made last August of 2013. At that time brightsolid was split into two separate entities - one being its online publishing and the other its online technology. Annelies is responsible for the online publishing. By October, the brightsolid company was renamed DC Thomson Family History. This allowed the company to focus on its core business which isits digital family history brands of findmypast and Genes Reunited. 

Annelies wants to expand the genealogical community to about 89 million. However, I don't remember her saying how large she thought it was currently. The point being, the company has plans to expand their business by forming these partnerships with FamilySearch, creating APIs so that others may find ways of creating apps or other programs to enhance DC Thomson's holdings. She talked of new apps for mobile devices to help users access the data easily on-the-go. So if you haven't tried findmypast and want to check it out before deciding to subscribe, go to any LDS Family History Center and give it a try. They have some fantastic British records resides many others around the world.

The last of the keynote addresses was Ree Drummond, author of the blog, The Pioneer Woman, a New York Times best-selling author, a host of her own cooking show on the Food Network, besides a wife of a cattle rancher and mother of four. She is really much, much more and she knows how to tell a story! I thoroughly enjoyed her tales of life on the farm. The bottom line I got from her message was that you can do whatever you want to in your life, make the most of it, and live to tell about it. Simply write about your life or the lives of your ancestors and other family members and preserve those MEMORIES for your posterity.

If you didn't get a chance to watch these keynote addresses online you can do that here. 

RootsTech Wednesday

If you attended #RootsTech 2014 I bet you feel like I do -- exhausted and enlightened! As Shipley Munson, from FamilySearch put it the first thing this morning -- RootsTech 2014 is all about new technologies, new methodologies and new directions! Let me add one to that and say, a renewed sense of possibilities.  The possibilities of new discoveries -- participation in new technologies -- and the increased possibilities for sharing and collaboration with all those thousands of cousins.

The Coming...

RootsTech is far-reaching even beyond the walls of this building and physical attendance. The latest attendance numbers have over 8,000 in attendance with people coming from every state in the U.S. except South Dakota --- hey where are you?  Another 4,000 will be in attendance on Saturday. Genealogists are here from 32 other countries. I have visited with people from England, Ireland, Denmark, Canada, Spain, Germany and Mexico - just to name a few.  Within the next three months or so, there will be about 622 sites around the world hosting familyhistory fairs and library sessions where contents from RootsTech will be broadcast.  When all is said and done, it is expected that as many as 150,000 people will have participated in this conference! That is impact!

We have so much genealogy data available to us today at the tip of our fingers - a far cry from the way our ancestors had to do research. However, with all we have there is still an estimated 60 billion historical records that still exist and need to be digitally preserved and indexed. The bulk of online family history research today is focused on the records of North America, Europe and Latin America. Less than 7% of these records are searchable online today.  So one of your missing ancestors is still findable, but hiding - waiting for you and others to uncover them by helping to index them.  Thus, there is the possibility of uncovering their hiding places in your lifetime.  

It is estimated that at the present rate of indexing it will take 300 years just to index all the currently found data.  Every day, more records are being acquired and filmed more than are currently being indexed in a day. So that means we are going in the hole! 

So FamilySearch and current partners, Ancestry.com, FindMyPast, and Myheritage are joining forces to make this indexing happen in one generation - as little as 20 to 30 years! Well, at least for me, in my grandchildren 's lifetime.

As the RootsTech pirate, Capt. Jack Starling said "Dead men tell no tales -- but their obituaries do!"  Yes, the goal announced today is for 100 million obituaries to be indexed this year.  So, come on everyone, call your friends, find those missing South Dakotans, contact all your cousins and challenge them to a dual at indexing obits this year!  These obituaries tell the STORIES of our ancestor's lives. 

If 100 million sounds like a lot to do, let me break that down. If the 12,000 people in attendance here at RootsTech just transcribed one obituary a day for a year we would index about four million obituaries. If we get all 150,000 people who ultimately watch RootsTech online or at a fair or library to do the same, we would have about 55 million indexed obits. Much better! Now, if all 150,000 people who benefit in any way from RootsTech were to ask someone else to do the same, we actually could easily beat that goal of 100 million indexed obituaries in less than one year!  Come on, let's do this!!

Well, more to come tomorrow. Until then, enjoy a few pics from today's activities!  And,beware of typos - it's been a long day... Zzzzzzz

The Before...

The Prep...

The Start...

The Humor...

The facts...

The food...

The Entertainment...

The Going...

FamilySearch Works to Put the World’s Historical Records Online in One Generation - More Info at RootsTech

Thanks to Thom Reed and FamilySearch!

FamilySearch International (online at FamilySearch.org) is leading the way in digitizing and providing access to billions of historical genealogical records by collaborating with commercial family history companies and the online community. This collaboration will carve centuries off the time needed to increase access to the world’s historical records, enabling millions more people to quickly discover, share, and preserve family memories for generations. Read more about what new and exciting things are taking place as FamilySearch International works with it’s partners to put the world’s historical records online in one generation.

RootsTech: A Bigger and Better BillionGraves Coming Feb. 5th

From our friends at BillionGraves:

A Bigger and Better BillionGraves Available Feb 5th.

Hey BillionGravers,

Technology is revolutionizing the way we do Genealogy. So when it comes to technology, you want the best possible products available to help you in your quest to discover your family. At this years RootsTech convention in SLC from Feb 5th - 8th you will see hundreds of technologies aimed to assist you in your research.

BUT you won't find anything like what BillionGraves is introducing.

Eager to find out what it is? Well you will just have to come to RootsTech and visit us at our booth 815 to find out! Click on the green photo to the right for a map of conference hall. ->>

If you can't make to the conference this year, you will be greatly missed, but we'll still fill you in on all of the AMAZING things our developers have been working on for months. Check out our BLOG or our Facebook page to read all about our new enhancements as we release them this week! 

Riverton FamilySearch Library - FREE Seminar Feb. 15th

The Riverton FamilySearch Library will host a free seminar on

Saturday, February 15th, from 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

that will offer help to genealogists of all skill levels.

Approaching Saratov: A Director's Journey

In October 2013, THE SARATOV APPROACH started a historical journey in movie theaters.  But that's only part of the story.  Hear writer and director Garrett Batty share his experience of bringing this story to the screen and be inspired by some of the incredible behind-the-scenes miracles that occurred in the process.

Garrett Batty graduated from BYU Film School in 2000.  He and his wife moved to Hollywood, where he began working as an editor.  Years later he wrote and directed his first film, Scout Camp.  After working on several projects for the LDS Church, he accepted a full-time position producing Mormon Messages and other film and video content.  In 2013 he released his first theatrical feature, The Saratov Approach, which continues to introduce new audiences to missionary work.  He served a Spanish-speaking mission in the New York, New York South Mission and has served in elders quorum presidencies, high priests group leaderships, bishoprics, and as a stake executive secretary.  Garrett is happily married to Sherrie Lynn Fisher, from Kuna, Idaho, and they live in Draper with their four children.

Following the keynote presentation from 9:00 to 10:00 a.m., two blocks of four classes each are offered that cover topics of interest for beginning, intermediate, and advanced family history enthusiasts.

10:15 a.m. Choose one of the following four classes:

• “Research Fundamentals for Consultants and Novice Genealogists” - Sherry Zealley
• “Online Midwest Resources” - Sherry Lindsay
• “Your Personal Tree on Ancestry.com” - Echo King
• “Evernote: Your Virtual Genealogy Assistant” - Sue Maxwell

11:30 a.m. Choose one of the following four classes:

• “What's The Source?  Why We Should Document Sources and Citations!” - Laurie Beardall
• “English Records Before 1837—Parish Records” - Echo King
• “Exploring Norwegian Parish Registers” - Anka Magee
• “Using Legal Documents in Family History Research” - Davis Farnsworth

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

COME JOIN ME!

RootsTech - So Many Class Choices! Where do I Start?

Any time I attend a genealogy conference I am a bit bewildered as to where my focus should be for attending all the wonderful classes. So I put together a category list of the classes being taught. I know the RootsTech App has a category listing but, I wanted to take it a little deeper. Maybe this will help you to decide what classes to focus on this year, also. There are a couple repeats listed below because they fall into more than one category.

Wednesday's Developers Sessions
The developers of new products want genealogists to attend their sessions to provide the user perspective and offer suggestions concerning their products or perspective products. The seven sessions will cover subjects and questions having to do with Gedcoms; actual locations of genealogy events; an API for My Heritage; unscrambling sources and artifacts do define proof; designing 3rd party API's; and a discussion about what is genealogy and family history.

Getting Started and Overviews
GS1252 - Basic Online Resources for the Beginning Genealogist by Lisa Alzo
RT1420 - 1984-Thirty Years On by Dave Abee
RT1446 - From Pedigrees to Interactive Trees: A History of Genealogical Interfaces, by Charles Knutson
YOUTH1299 - Get to Know Your Geezers (FamilySearch, MyHeritage, Ancestry), by Matthew Hovorka

FamilySearch Family Tree
GS1153 - FamilySearch Family Tree: What's New and What's Next, by Ron Tanner
LAB1240 S/T - Adding Sources to FamilySearch Family Tree, by Kelly Summers

Family History Centers/Discovery Centers
LDS1610 - Putting the Family Back in Family History Centers, by Suzanne Curley
LDS1611 - Engaging Youth in Family History Centers, by Suzanne Curley
RT1488/RT2014 - FS Discovery Centers-The New In-Person Experience Manager, by Scott Stout

Indexing
RT1193 Introducing the new FamilySearch Indexing Program, by Scott Flinders

Involving the Family in Family History
GS1132 - Facebook is Family History: Engaging Young People in Their Own Stories, by Devin Ashby
GS1134 - Bridging Family History with Technology - a panel discussion
RT1234 - Zap The Grandma Gap, Leave a Heritage Workshop, by Janet Hovorka
RT1352 - How to Get Kids Involved in Genealogy, by Michael Melendez
RT1365 - Using Technology  to Involve All Generations in FH and Genealogy, by Claire Brisson-Banks
RT1379 - Run, Jump, and Collecting Coins: Gaming and Family History, by D. Joshua Taylor
RT1458 - Using AncestryDNA to Further Your Family History Research, by Kenny Freestone at Ancestry
RT1463 - Genealogy Meets Angry Birds: Making Interfaces More Addictive, by Dr. Charles D. Knutson
LDS1611 - Engaging Youth in Family History Centers, by Suzanne Curley

Cloud Services
GS1259 - Access, Backup, Share: Store Your Genealogy Records Online, by Randy Whited
RT1159 - Genealogy in the Cloud, by Randy Hoffman M.Ed.
RT1407 - Taking Your Family With You in the Cloud, by Richard Young
RT1194 - Data Backup from A to Z, by Andrew Klein from Backblaze

DNA
GS1170 - Introduction to DNA for Genealogists, by Jim Rader
RT1066 - Begging for Spit, by Blaine T Bettinger, PH.D., J.D.
RT1218 - Magnifying Your Maternal Line with Mitochondrial DNA, by Diahan Southard, BS
RT1269 - Ask the Experts 2014 - Genetic Genealogy Panel Discussion, by CeCe Moore
RT1272 - Using Genetic Genealogy ...for... Adoptees (and ... Brick Walls), by Cece Moore
RT1374 - Advanced Techniques for Use of Autosomal DNA Tests to ...Brick Walls, by Tim Janzen MD
RT1376 - Using 3rd Party Tools to Help You Get More from Your DNA Test Results, by Tim Janzen MD
RT1782 - Read World Cases from the Desk of a Genealogy Professional, by CeCe Moore

Get Organized
GS1208 - The Paper-Less Genealogist - Organizing Your Digital Files, by Denise Levernick
RT1251 - Digitally Organize Research and Note Files with Research Ties software, by Jill Crandell
RT1257 - A Beginner's Guide to Going Paperless, by Randy Whited
RT1284 - Creating a Digital Genealogy Scrapbook, by Barb Groth
RT1289 - From Chaos to C.A.L.M. - Organizing Digital Photos..., by Tom and Alison Taylor
GS1292 - Personal Digital Archiving for the Genealogist, by Tony Hanson
RT1394 - Presenting and Preserving Family History - You Can't Take it With You, by Donald R Snow
RT1417/RT1506 - Self-Professed Uber-Organized Freaks Talk Genealogy Tech Organization, by Lisa Louise Cooke

Digitize Your Data
RT1176 - Digitize Your Memories on a Budget, by Patrick Liechty
RT1185 - Putting Things in Their Place: Paying it Forward in the Digital Age, by Michael Cassara
RT1194 - Data Backup from A to Z, by Andrew Klein from Backblaze

Photos-Preservation-Archival
GS1084 - Scanning Tips and Tricks, by Robert Raymond
GS1112 - Metadata for Digital Images, presented by Flip-Pal®
GS1113 - Got Photos? Creating Keepsakes Using Family Photos, presented by Flip-Pal®
GS1292 - Personal Digital Archiving for the Genealogist, by Tony Hanson
LAB1089S/T - Do It Yourself Photo Restoration, by The Ancestry Insider
LAB1253S/T - Metadata Hands-On Lab I and II, by Randy Whited
RT1088 - Do It Yourself Photo Restoration, by The Ancestry Insider
RT1205 - How to Scan an Elephant - Digitize Your FH, by Denise Levernick

Publishing Your Family History
RT1169 - Self-Publishing Your Family History, by Gale French
RT1179 - Create Family History Heirlooms with MyCanvas, by Lorilee Wgner at Ancestry.com
RT1246 - Publish Before You Perish - Leaving a Genealogical Legacy, by Loretta Evans
RT1254 - DIY Publishing for the Family Historian: Tips, Tricks and Tools, by Lisa Alzo
RT1435 - Latest Trends in Publishing for Genealogists, by Marlis Humphrey
RT1464 - Family History Books: Start to Finish in Six Steps, by Nancy and Biff Barnes of Stories to Tell

Family Trees
RT1077 - View Your Family Tree in 3 Dimensions - Charts, by Pierre Clouthier at Progeny
RT1082 - Online Trees: The Root of All Evil?, by Jen Baldwin
RT1228 - Using Prezi to Visualize and Reinvent Your Family Tree, by Brandi Burns

Research 
Get Started:
  GS1447 - Top 10 Things I learned About My Family From My Couch: Beginning Internet Genealogy, by Tammy Hepps
  RT1110 - 5 Ways to Do Genealogy in Your Sleep, by Deborah Gamble
  RT1275 - Automate and Improve Your Genealogy Searches: Record Matching, by Eastman, Tanner, Seaver
  RT1325 - Effective Database Search Tactics, by Kory Meyerink
  RT1360 - How the Internet Makes Us Sloppy Genealogists, by Laura Prescott
  RT1386 - Learning How to Tune Your Ancestry.com Search, by Anne Mitchell at Ancestry.com

Online Resources:
  GS1331 - Big Sites, Little Sites - All Online, by Sharon Monson
  GS1375 - Information Overload - Managing Online Searches and Their Results, by D. Joshua Taylor
  RT1097 - Finding Living People on the Internet by Ron Arons
  RT1238 - Finding Biographical Information Online: Free Digitized Genealogy, History Books and Newspapers, by Kelly Summers
  RT1311 - Getting the Most Out of Archives.com, by Amy Johnson Crow at Archives.com
  RT1355 - Unlocking the Power of Irish Land Records at findmypast.com, by Brian Donovan at findmypast.com
  RT1495 - Using Mocavo to Propel Your Research, Michael J. Leclerc at mocavo.com

Historical Newspapers:
  RT1359 - Treasures within the Ivory Tower - Remote Access to Special Collections, by Laura Prescott
  RT1069 - Getting the Most out of Historical Newspapers, by Peter Drinkwater at newspapers.com
  RT1318 - It's News to Me! Historical Newspaper Research, by Pamela Weisberger

Land and Maps:
  RT1098 - Mapping Madness by Ron Arons
  RT1189 - Land Records, Using New Technologies by David W. Moore
  RT1310 - Cartography for Genealogists - Mapping Across Time and Generations, by Pamela Weisberger

Specialty Research:
  RT1109 - Doing FH in Sub-Saharan Africa-Challenges, by Dr. Osei Agyemang Bonsu
  RT1255 - Deciphering Foreign Language Records, by Randy Whited
  RT1278 - Finding Family and Ancestors Outside the USA with MyHeritage, by Danile Horowitz at MyHeritage.com
  RT1334 - Exploring and Researching Your Jewish Roots, by Pamela Weisberger
  RT1486 - Searching the Digital Archive of Norway

Misc Research:
  GS1480 - Applying Technology to Each Step of the ...Research Cycle, by Karen Clifford
  RT1095 - Putting the Flash on the Bones, by Ron Arons
  RT1101 - Your Portable, Sortable Research Log, by Jennifer Patterson Dondero
  RT1103 - Electric Fans (Friends, Associates, Neighbors), by Jennifer Patterson Dondero
  RT1213 - Common Surnames: Finding Your Smiths, by Juliana Szucs Smith at Ancestry.com
  RT1406 - Deciphering Old Handwriting Online, by Harris and Black
  RT1410 - Billion Graves and Find A Grave - Making Them Easy to Use, by Richard Young
  RT1430 - Mergers and Acquisitions: The Business of Expanding Your Family Tree, by Pamela Weisberger
  RT1941 - Doing Time: Prison Records as Genealogical Resources, by Judy G. Russell
  LAB1462F/S - Family Timelines with Treelines.com, by Tammy Hepps at Treelines.com

Social Media and Collaboration:
GS1132 - Facebook is Family History: Engaging Young People in Their Own Stories, by Devin Ashby
GS1260 - Tweets, Links, Pins, Posts: Break Down Genealogy Brick Walls with Social Media, by Lisa Alzo
GS1344 - Story Collaboration: Understand the Different Options, by Dave Dickson at storylava
LSB1491T - Google+ Hangouts on Air: The Panelists' View, by DearMyrtle
RT1201 - Crowdsourcing Your Brick Walls, by Drew Smith
RT1351 - Tips for Successful Research Collaboration, by Luther A. Tychonievich
RT1373 - Capturing and #SharingStories in 140 Characters or Less, by D. Joshua Taylor
RT1452 - Piecing Together History: Crowdsourcing Events to Glean the Most..., by Cheri Daniels


Stories - Your Own and Your Family
GS1114 - Storytelling Super Powers: How to Come Off as Your Family's Genealogy Hero, by David Adelman of ReelGenie
GS1344 - Story Collaboration: Understand the Different Options, by Dave Dickson at storylava
GS1229 - Oral History Basics, by Brandi Burns
GS1288 - How Not to Bore Your Family and Friends-Storytelling 101, by Tom and Alison Taylor at Pictures and Stories, Inc.
GS1307 - How to Interview Yourself for a Personal History, by Tom Taylor at Pictures and Stories, Inc.
GS1340 - The Power of Questions: how will formed questions can prompt memories, by David Dickson at storylava
LAB1230F/S - Personal History Made Simple Through Technology, by Larson and Gardner
LAB1342F/T - Storytelling in a Sea of Social Media, by Dave Dickson at storylava
LAB1403S/T - Virtual Personal History, by Michael Stringham
LDS1924 - Where Do I Belong?, Flipping Your Story and FH Upside Down, by Carol Rice
RT1105 - Emerging Technology and the Family Narrative, by Ryan O'Donnell
RT1188 - The Digital Family History Author, by Chas Hathaway
RT1206 - Scrivener for Family Historians: Organize, Write and Share Your Stories, by Denise Levernick
RT1224 - Discovering Stories on Google Books, by Jimmy Zimmerman
RT1305 - 45 Memories in 45 Minutes, by Tom and Alison Taylor at Pictures and Stories, Inc.
RT1332 - Creating Your Hometown Legacy, by RaNae Roberts
RT1373 - Capturing and #SharingStories in 140 Characters or Less, by D. Joshua Taylor
RT1389 - Putting Your Ancestors In Historical Perspective: Extracting Stories from Military Records on Ancestry and Fold3, by Anne Mitchell
RT1425 - Behind the Scenes of the Ancestry.com Research Team, by Michelle Ercanbrack at Ancestry
RT1451 - I Remember, by Sandra Crowley
RT1456 - Story by Story, Preserve Your Family's History, by Tammy Hepps at Treelines.com
RT1464 - Family History Books: Start to Finish in Six Steps, by Nancy and Biff Barnes of Stories to Tell
RT1494 - Sharing Your Family History Using Multimedia, by Michael J. Leclerc
RT1781 - Put Pizazz in Your Writings with SmartArt, WordArt, and Screenshots, by Nancy Waters Lauer

Spanish Speaking Classes
RT1146 - Writing Newsletters and using MailChimp, by Sonia Meza
RT1147 - Hangouts and Hispanic Genealogy, by Sonia Meza

Technology
Blogging:  
  RT1061 - Using Tools and Organization for Creating a Valuable Family History Blog, by James Tanner
  RT1313 - Personalizing WordPress

Evernote: 
  LAB1200F/S - Using Evernote as Your Primary Tool for Capturing Notes and Ideas, by Drew Smith
 RT1322 - A Mobile Genealogist: Using Evernote for Genealogy Research, by Alice Kane

Flipboard:
  LAB1263F/T - Flipboard for Genealogy: Create Incredible Mobile Magazine, by Lisa Louise Cooke
  RT1437 - Flipboard Your Family History, by Marlis Humphrey at myAncestories.com

Mac and iPads:
  RT1107 - Using Macs and iPads for Genealogy, by Nancy E. Loe
  RT1223 - Mac: Simple Tricks to Save You Time, by Jimmy Zimmerman

Mobile Devices:
  RT1118 - Windows Phone for Genealogists, by Louis Kessler
  RT1178 - Keep Your Library on Your Portable Device, by Nancy Waters Lauer
  RT1326 - Can I Do Genealogy on my Tablet?, by Pamela Brigham
  RT1471 - Take Your Research Anywhere with Ancestry.com's Mobile App, by Jason Butterfield at Ancestry
  YOUTH1243 - A FH Mystery: Bring Your Sleuthing Skills and Your Gadgets, by Crosby Ravensworth

YouTube:
  RT1508 - How to Use YouTube for Family History: Setting Up Your Own ...Channel, by Lisa Louise Cooke

Miscellaneous
RT1225 - Discover the Future on Kickstarter (for funding), by Jimmy Zimmerman
RT1277 - Extended Genealogy Services Using Family Graph API, by Uri Gonen at My Heritage.com
RT1780 - More Than Just a Pretty Face: Technology and the Client Experience, by Jennifer Patterson Dondero
RT1784 - Online Genealogy Courses Exposed!, by Elissa Scalise Powell