Get a Handle on RootsTech Classes

I’ve been looking over the list of classes, presentations and other activities scheduled for the RootsTech conference coming up in February 2011. And if you are wondering whether you might benefit from the conference or not, I have put together a little grouping of classes based on what your interests are.

I look at the long lists of classes offered and really dislike having to sort through them to determine what might be of interest to me. Even a bigger issue is trying to figure out what the class might be about because of the creativity in naming classes. Maybe this will be of help to you. Invariably some classes will change and others will be incorrectly categorized but this list should give you a little better idea of what to expect.

Graphics - Photography

Are you a graphics designer (see the techie classes listed at the end), a closet photographer, or have you been gathering family photo’s and not quite sure what to do with them. Maybe you just need to brush up on your skills or learn some new techniques. If so, take a look at some of the offerings for both techies and genealogists in the field of graphics and photography. Skill levels are listed unless they are for all attendees.

-       Digitally Preserving Your Family Heritage

-       Geocoding Your Images

-       Advanced Photography Brings Ancestors to Life

-       Using Your Digital Camera to Copy Records

Web design and genealogy blogs/newsletters:

Do you have your own website and want to add some new spark? Are you a blogger and want to expand your publishing skills? Maybe you want to start a newsletter. Then check out the following classes.

-       Easy Digital Newsletters

-       Genealogy Blogs: Impact and Influence in the Genealogy Community

-       Using the internet to create family websites

-       Rapid Family Tree Client Creation Using Genealogy Cloud™

-       Self-Publishing for Genealogists and Genealogical Societies

-       Beginner to intermediate: Creating Faster Websites

-       Intermediate: Web Analytics: Measure and Improve

Reference – Research:

There is a large group of classes that will enhance your research skills online and provide you with tools and reference material to make your genealogy experience even better.

 -       Create your own Family Reference Library and Catalogue

-       The Fifty Most Popular Genealogy Websites (Really!)

-       Effective Database Search Tactics

-       Tech Tools for Finding Manuscript Sources

-       Cool Tools to Enhance Your Online Research

-       Leverage Google's Free Services

-       One-Step Web pages: A Potpourri of Genealogical Search Tools

-       It's in Our Genes: Revealing History via Technology (A DNA Project Case Study)

-       Creating One-Step Search Tools

-       Collaborating with Genealogists to Redesign a Digital Library

-       FamilySearch: Providing Genealogy Help Now and in the Future

-       Finding Your Family's Stories Online

-       Google News and Timeline

-       Guidance to Online Federal Land Records

-       Library Digitization: Genealogists’ Dreams Come True

-       21st century immigrant clusters

-       Google Your Family Tree - Part 1and 2

-       What Can I Find Online: An Interactive Case Study

-       From DNA to Genetic Genealogy: Everything You Wanted to Know But Were Afraid to Ask

-       How Should We Handle Sources

-       Zooming In on Townships

-       Accessing Online Federal Land Records and Plotting them on Google Earth

-       Getting More from Google

Electronic Devices and Media:

 I’ll bet you already have or you are getting a new iphone, Android, ipad, or other digital device  for Christmas this year. Want to learn more about them and what they can do for your genealogy? Check out these classes.

-       Best Uses of Mobile Devices

-       Toy Story – Electronic tools for genealogists

-       Mobile Apps for Genealogy

-       Using your Android Phone for Genealogy and Family History

Digital Media:

Then again maybe you want to do all your work online without using a device, or your are interested in getting records available online, or maybe you just want to know whether the digital you have will survive. Classes to attend will fall in this category.

-       Will Your Work Survive the Digital Age

-       Virtual Presentations Roundtable

-       Is the future of genealogy in the Cloud, on your phone or on the desktop?

-       Digitization of Irish Records

 

Societies and  Groups:

There are even a few classes that will help those who run a genealogical society.

-       Internet Indexing for Societies and Groups

-       Self-Publishing for Genealogists and Genealogical Societies

Software:

We all use software in our genealogy endeavors. Here are some good old standards as well as some new software and tools to stretch your winks on.

-       RootsMagic: Sharing and Publishing Your Family Tree

-       New FamilySearch Made Easy with Ancestral Quest: Syncing both PAF and AQ Data with NFS

-       Stop Wasting Time with NFS: Better Practices to Improve Your Time Online

-       Personal Historian

-       The Power of PDF: Tools for Every Genealogist

-       Software Forecast: What Genealogists Need for the Future

-       NA:  Census Extract (Program)

-       Text to speech/Speech to text recognition

-       Freeware and Shareware for Family History

-       Why and What is Wikitext?

-       NA: Why Are There Two Aunt Sally’s? Using GenMerge and GenMergeDB to find and resolve duplicates in family data.

-       Lights, Camera, Action!

-       PARTs 1 and 2: PowerPoint 2010 for Presenters (two hour lab)

-       Names in Stone (cemetery mapping)

Social Media:

Have you been a little apprehensive about using social media online? Not sure what it will do for you? Well besides being fun you can learn a tremendous amount from others in the online community. Check these classes out and get all your questions answered.

-        Virtual Family Reunions:  Using Online Tools to Find More Cousins Than You Know What To Do With

-       Interactive Genealogists Parts 1 and 2

-       Tweet Your Ancestors: Social Media for Genealogists

-       Social Networking for Genealogists

-       Virtual Presentations: "Second Life"

-       Playground Rules for the Genealogy Internet Collaborative Space

The Techie Classes:

Yes, we could never accomplish what we do now in genealogy if we didn’t have the techies to help us along the way. Knowing how and why genealogists do what they do helps the techies do what they do! So if you are a techie or you want to be a techie, check out the vast array of classes and workshops meant just for you.

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-       Using GPUs for Image Processing

-       On the Road to Mashups: Integrating Data from API Providers

-       Family Social Graph (FSG) Mashups – A Family Gathering

-       Scalability in the Cloud

-       "No SQL" - Exploring the Super Powers of Graph and Document DBs

-       Using Microsoft Pivot to Show Genealogical Content

-       Bringing Distributed Version Control to Arbitrary Object Graphs"

-       Spring 3.0 meets FamilySearch API

-       Collaboration API

-       Watch and Notify API

-       Web services API 101 – Acronym Soup: REST, SOAP & XML

-       Identity API

-       Beginner to intermediate: Getting Started with API Development

-       Toward a responsible mobile strategy

-       Semantic Web Meets the Family Social Graph (FSG)

-       A Zombie Social Graph with XFN (XHTML Friends Network) and FOAF (Friend of a Friend)

-       Introduction and Comparison of Languages on JWM

-       360 Degree Virtual Panorama Photos/Photo Imaging for Producing Authentic On-Site Family History Root Experiences with Multimedia

-       ObjC/Cocoa

-       Systems and methods for spatially centric cemetery transcription

-       Systems and methods for geo-spatial and temporal interpretation of genealogical data

-       Legado: An Open-Source Python for Family History Research

-       An Exploration of the Integration of Social Networking Technologies into the Core Activities of Genealogical Societies

-       Genealogical Record Linkage

-       Beginner to intermediate: Finding Strategy in Design

-       Implications of GenesisGraphs on Source-Centric Collaborative Genealogy

-       Python Library and Gramps

-       Ruby Library

-       Scala: one language to rule them all!

-       Digital Preservation Tips for Programmers

-       Mobile Applications

-       Lessons from building Browser Plug-Ins

As you can see there is a myriad of topics, skill levels, and tools to help each and every one of us get a kick-start for the new year. So hurry and register right away before the early-bird registration is over on January 7th!  RootsTech Registration. 

RootsTech Keynote Presenters Announced

RootsTech just announced their keynote presenters for the upcoming conference in February.  Some highlights from their bio's are listed below.  This is going to be a superb conference! 

- Shane Robison, Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy and Technology Officer, HP

Shane Robison is responsible  for shaping HP's corporate strategy and technology agenda and function. He is instrumental in steering the company's mulitbillion dollar research and development investment.

Overseeing the senior chief technology officers and the director of HP Labs, Robison drives the development of the company's global technical community and its research initiatives.

Shane also has responsibility for worldwide corporate marketing activities, including brand strategy, internal and external communications, digital strategy and hp.com, environmental sustainability, social innovation and customer intelligence. Shane received bachelor's and master's degrees in computer science from the University of Utah.

- Brewster Kahle, Founder of the Internet Archive and digital librarian

Brewster Kahle has been working to provide universal access to all knowledge for more than twenty-five years.

Since the mid-1980s, Kahle has focused on developing technologies for information discovery and digital libraries. In 1989 Kahle invented the Internet's first publishing system, WAIS (Wide Area Information Server) system and in 1989, founded WAIS Inc., a pioneering electronic publishing company that was sold to America Online in 1995. In 1996, Kahle founded the Internet Archive which may be the largest digital library. At the same time, he co-founded Alexa Internet which helps catalog the Web in April 1996, which was sold to Amazon.com in 1999. Kahle earned a B.S. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1982.

- Curt B. Witcher, Historical Genealogy Department Manager, Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana

Curt is chair of the American Library Association's Genealogy and Local History Discussion Group and participates in other genealogical and historical committees of that organization. Curt is a former president of both the Federation of Genealogical Societies and the National Genealogical Society and is the founding president of the Indiana Genealogical Society.

He is co-editor of the 1987 through 2005 editions of the Periodical Source Index. In 2000 he authored, African American Genealogy: A Bibliography and Guide to Sources. He also co-authored the "Native American Research: chapter of The Source: A Guidebook to American Genealogy. Curt was a research consultant for the PBS series Ancestors and, since 2003, is on the Genealogy Publications Committee of the Indiana Historical Society. He served for eight years as the National Volunteer Data Input Coordinator for the Civil War Soldiers System. He has received many awards for his work over the years.

- Jay L. Verkler, CEO, FamilySearch International

Jay Verkler began programming for a bank in Salt Lake City at the tender age of 12! After high school he served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Japan and returned to the United States to earn a degree in electrical engineering from MIT.


Jay joined Oracle in 1987. Six years later, at the age of 33, he left Oracle and cofounded "inCommon", a "push technology" startup company in San Mateo. Just two years later the company was acquired by Reuters Holdings Plc for its Tibco Software Inc subsidiary, to add its push technology to Tibco's multicasting broadcast technology. Jay Verkler is a driven man with a proven success in building enterprise software organizations from the ground up.

RootsMagic Adds FamilySearch Discussions and More

The following is important enough to all my RootsMagic friends out there that I wanted to make sure you heard about the latest updates to the software including "discussions" in new FamilySearch, new LDS Ordinance cards, and the ability to search over billions of online records directly without having to go to the other websites and type in your search. The following is from RootsMagic's latest newsletter.

   RootsMagic 4 becomes First Genealogy Software to Support FamilySearch Discussions

SPRINGVILLE, Utah. — December 14, 2010 — RootsMagic, Inc. announced the immediate availability of an update to their RootsMagic 4 and RootsMagic Essentials genealogy software which is certified by FamilySearch for their new "Discussions" service.  They become the first- and currently the only- software to offer this feature.  The update also adds new FamilySearch features including temple ordinance card tracking, historical record searching, saved logins, sharing of Family Ordinance Requests (FORs), and more.

Discussions Certified

The new FamilySearch system gives RootsMagic users a central platform where they can share their information and work together.  When the new FamilySearch system first became available, one of the principal collaborative tools were "disputes"- the ability to mark a piece of information as incorrect with a basic explanation.  In the latest update to FamilySearch, disputes have been replaced with fully-interactive "discussions".  By joining a discussion about a given person, you can make comments, ask questions, and post answers with others who are also interested in that person.

RootsMagic is the first and only software certified by FamilySearch to offer this feature.  "Discussions are a tremendous step-forward in collaborative research," said Bruce Buzbee, president.  "As more and more people join discussions about their ancestors, the information contained in new FamilySearch will be more complete and hopefully more accurate.  Plus, you'll be surprised how many new cousins you will meet."

New Temple Ordinance Tools

RootsMagic is the first software certified by FamilySearch to reserve and request temple ordinances for deceased ancestors.  The new update adds even more tools to manage and track these ordinances.  "One feature that many of our users have requested is the ability to track temple ordinance cards," said Michael Booth, vice-president.  "RootsMagic can now retrieve a list of all your printed cards from FamilySearch and lets your keep track of to whom you've given each card and their progress as the ordinances are completed."  Added Booth, "I know my mom has been waiting a long time for this feature and will be putting it to good use."

The update also adds other enhancements such as graphically visualizing ordinance cards and the ability to e-mail and share Family Ordinance Requests (FORs) with others.

Search Over 1 Billion Historical Records

With today's launch of the updated FamilySearch website (www.familysearch.org), RootsMagic can now search for your ancestors through over a billion historical records using the integrated WebSearch feature.  Just click on the ancestor's name and RootsMagic will search FamilySearch's collections of censuses, probates, military records, and vital records for possible matches.  Many of the collections include pictures of the original records which are viewable at no charge.

FamilySearch Made Easy

The latest update to RootsMagic adds other new features to make working with FamilySearch even easier.  These features include filtering and narrowing-down groups of people to work with FamilySearch, saving your username and password for automatic sign-in, and several improvements in speed and reliability.  "Our mission is, 'Family History Made Easy', and that is exactly what this is," said Buzbee.  "As FamilySearch evolves, so does RootsMagic to make the process as simple as possible."

Free and Available Now

Discussions and ordinance card tracking are included in RootsMagic Essentials, free genealogy software which includes all of the FamilySearch features.  It is available for download at http://www.rootsmagic.com/essentials.  Current users of RootsMagic 4 and RootsMagic Essentials may update their software for free at http://www.rootsmagic.com/updates.

Users of other genealogy software products will find it easy to experiment with RootsMagic using their own data. RootsMagic can directly import data from PAF, Family Tree Maker (through 2006), Family Origins, and Legacy Family Tree. It can also read data using the popular GEDCOM format.

About RootsMagic, Inc.

For over 20 years, RootsMagic, Inc. has been creating computer software with a special purpose- to unite families.  One of our earliest products- the popular "Family Origins" software, introduced thousands of people to the joy and excitement of family history.

That tradition continues today with "RootsMagic", our award-winning genealogy software which makes researching, organizing, and sharing your family history fun and easy.  "Personal Historian" will help you easily write and preserve your life stories.  "Family Reunion Organizer" takes the headaches out of planning those important get-togethers.  And "Family Atlas" creates beautiful and educational geographic maps of your family history.

For more information, visit http://www.rootsmagic.com.

Source: RootsMagic, Inc.

Need a last minute Christmas gift? The RootsMagic Holiday Special is still available for a few more days until December 22nd. $20 plus shipping for both the RootsMagic software and book, "Getting the Most Out of RootsMagic -4". You can only receive this special discount from this page: Special Discount.  Added note: If you live close to me contact me and I can save you the shipping cost.

Official RootsTech 2011 Blogger!

I've been invited to participate as an Official Blogger for the RootsTech Conference February 10-12, 2011 in the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City, Utah! My guess is that you probably have never heard of this event, right? Well, RootsTech is a NEW genealogy and technology conference that is meant to define the future of genealogy! And looking over the list of classes, hands-on workshops, presentations, and  panel discussions, it certainly is THE conference to attend! Click here to see the Session Schedule for each day.


Interesting side note -- I participated in a FamilySearch Bloginar announcing updates about RootsTech a couple of days ago as I was traveling by car across the desert of Southern California! The bloggers were given a couple of possible ways to participate in this FamilySearch event -- either by using a software called ConnectPro where I could see the presentation and hear the audio on my computer, or I could call in using my cell phone, use a passcode, and hear the audio only. Well, you can imagine that using my laptop as I drove would not exactly work so out came my iphone! It worked like a charm! I tell you this to emphasize how easy it can be to intertwine genealogy and technology which is what the conference is all about.


RootsTech will bring together users and creators of technology to stimulate innovation! Genealogists all over the world use technology daily, and at RootsTech you can see how this all works together to influence the future of genealogy. It doesn't matter if you know a little or a lot -- there is something at RootsTech for everyone.


Early Bird Registration -
Don't miss out on the $99 Early Bird Registration! You only have until January 7th to get your registration in for the early bird deal. On January 8th the price goes to $150. There are also special rates for students with current IDs. Click here to register now!


Join me at RootsTech. If you can't be there you can follow me here on my blog or on Twitter @geneasue. Hashtags: #rootstech #genealogy

FamilySearch Records Update

FamilySearch Wraps Up Genealogical Gifts for the Holiday Season

Nearly 4 million images added from 7 countries

 Nearly four million new digital images are now available on FamilySearch.org. These collections include the first images from South Africa, as well as records from Brazil, Canada, Germany, Guatemala, the Netherlands, and the United States. About 1.7 million of these records are indexed.

 See the chart below for the complete list of newly added or updated collections.

Project	Digital Images	Indexed Records	Comments
Brazil, Catholic Church Records	100,110	0	New images added to existing collection
Canada, Quebec Catholic Parish Registers, 1621-1900	85	79,936	New records linked to images; most images already published
Germany, Hessen, Darmstadt City Records, 1627-1939	55,528	0	New images
Guatemala, Civil Registration, 1877-1934	0	22,448	New records added to existing collection
Netherlands, Civil Registration, 1792-1952	1,505,610	0	Images added to existing collection
Netherlands, Zuid-Holland Province Civil Registration	6,349	0	New images
South Africa, Orange Free State, estate files, 1951-1973	79,466	15,879	New records linked to images; multiple images per record
U.S., Maryland, Register of Wills Books, 1792-1983	62,763	0	New images
U.S., Minnesota Territorial Census, 1857	342	156,888	New records linked to images; most images already published
U.S., North Carolina, County Marriages, 1762-1979	39,836	45,204	New records linked to images; partial collection, with more images to come
U.S., World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942	2,040,944	1,371,394	New records linked to images; includes the states of Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas, and Wisconsin

FamilySearch.org -- Better Than Ever!

Big Changes at FamilySearch.org

Updated Site Now Available; More Improvements to Come

SALT LAKE CITY–FamilySearch announced several changes today for its family history website, FamilySearch.org. Online patrons will find millions of new records and images, over 40,000 helpful articles, over 100 interactive courses of instruction, and a dynamic forum to ask personal genealogy questions. The changes have been in testing for some time. FamilySearch will continue to implement the new website in phases to ensure all critical elements are functioning as desired. Once complete, the website will be promoted more broadly.


The new site offers the following free benefits to FamilySearch patrons:


• Millions more scanned, historical documents and indexes that are published more frequently.
• An improved search experience that looks through more content and gives more accurate results.
• A thriving online genealogical community where patrons can give and receive help.
• One user name and password for all FamilySearch products and services.
• Responsive, reliable, and scalable hardware and software that will allow the site to grow and improve.


FamilySearch has published a helpful document called “Adjusting to the New Version of www.familysearch.org” and a video tutorial that summarizes the changes to the new site. These new guides can be found under the “Changes at FamilySearch.org” link.


The prior version of the site will still be available through the transition period.


(Editor's note: I don't know about you but, I cannot find a document by that exact name so, I think this is the one FamilySearch is referring to. Also remember that change is inevitable and we will adjust to the changes. But in the meantime, be patient -- you may just find you like it better than the old version.)

New LDS.org Website Launched

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has launched their new website.  The new homepage offers many new and updated features, quick links and resource materials.  The updated site has a more current and visually appealing design and a new search engine.

With a little effort you will find the new site more useful and user friendly. I played around with the new site and am finding I really like it. The new SEARCH process is feature rich and I can find my search results easily. There are a few collections that have not been converted to the new site yet so periodically you may be directed back to the old classic LDS.org site until everything has been converted.

There are some simple, yet subtle, features on the homepage, so be careful you don’t overlook them. This first image is at the very top of the screen, above the “white space”. 

Click on the MENU button to see a complete menu of the site listed in columns by category.

Click on the TOOLS button to see such items as the CALENDARS, WARD and STAKE Websites, and your ward DIRECTORY.

Then look carefully to the right and you will find the SEARCH box. As you type you will be prompted with possibilities.  On each page you arrive at you will be given a sidebar to further filter your search. It’s very useful!

The top portion of the “white space” on the website provides links to Church video’s and you can click though them by pressing the light blue arrow tab on either side of the image.

The balance of the page is designed in useful columns with quick links to further features, a shortcut back to the old “classis” LDS.org, upcoming events and messages from the prophets and apostles.

At the very bottom of the “white space” don’t miss the link to the Home Page Archive! This will take you to back issues of the homepage features.  And always take the time to view the very bottom of the webpage. Here you will find extra shortcuts to Menu items, Resources, and the Most-Visited Content on the site.

Now if you want even more HELP with the website, click here to watch the video lessons!

NGS Opens Registration For 2011 Family History Conference

NATIONAL GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY OPENS REGISTRATION        

FOR THE THIRTY-THIRD

2011 FAMILY HISTORY CONFERENCE

CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA, 11-14 MAY 2011

Where the Past is Still Present

America's fascination with ancestry is increasing because of the recent television series "Faces of America" on PBS and "Who Do You Think You Are" on NBC. The National Genealogical Society is pleased to announce that registration opens today for next year's conference, which will be held at the Charleston Area Convention Center, 5001 Coliseum Drive, North Charleston, SC 29418, 11-14 May 2011. The Society selected Charleston because of its significance in American history. In addition to attending the NGS 2011 Family History Conference, participants will have an opportunity to tour Charleston's historic buildings, churches and homes as well as its many museums and research facilities. The National Genealogical Society anticipates 2,000 genealogists from around the country will attend next year's event. Read more.

April 2011 will mark the 150th Anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War at nearby Ft. Sumter, so the four day family history conference will feature talks on both Revolutionary War and Civil War records.  More than seventy-five nationally recognized speakers will provide over one hundred and eighty lectures on a wide variety of topics including research in South Carolina and the surrounding states, migration patterns, religious records, research methodology, and problem solving. The conference program will also include lectures about researching various ethnic groups including Germans, Cherokee, African Americans, Huguenots, Irish, Scots, and Scots-Irish.

Special Saturday workshops include an all day beginner's workshop, "Genealogy 101: Getting Started with Family History" and a "Kids' Kamp" for children and young adults ages eight through sixteen.

An exhibit area with more than one hundred exhibitors will be open and free to the public Wednesday through Saturday including the latest in genealogical software, online research providers and DNA testing services.

Founded in 1903, the National Genealogical Society is dedicated to genealogy education, high research standards, and the preservation of genealogical records.  The Arlington, VA-based nonprofit is the premier national society for everyone, from the beginner to the most advanced family historian, seeking excellence in publications, educational offerings, research guidance, and opportunities to interact with other genealogists.  Please visit the NGS Pressroom for further information.