May 11

2012 NGS Conference in Cincinnati, Day 3

One optional feature for this conference was the Guidebook app. What a great idea! I have not used something like this before and it is so very handy.

This app gives the latest conference news, several versions of the schedule, speaker and exhibitor information and has maps of the conference center and Exhibit Hall. I was easily able to make my own schedule of sessions and a to-do list. And I have all this with me at all times on my phone. I got the app for my Android phone from the app store and chose the 2012 NGS Conference. I highly recommend this app for future conferences.

 

 

Exhibit Hall 2012 NGS Conference

Sessions I attended today (Friday):

  • “Okay, I Got the Neighbors, Now What Do I Do with them?!” by Elizabeth Shown Mills, CG, CGL, FASG, FNGS, FUGA. Elizabeth gave us some very good information and some great research methods that I will definitely use in my general research and for my brick walls. One thing I learned is that in census records I should look at 15-20 families in both directions from my person of interest.
  • “Tracking Pennsylvania Ancestors: Keys to Successful Research” by Kay Haviland Freilich, CG, CGL. This was a very good session detailing where and how to research in Pennsylvania.
  • Shaking the Myth: Proving/Disproving Family Legends” by Jean Wilcon Hibben, PhD, MA, CG. I really liked this lecture where she explained the reasoning process to analyze family myths. The only problem with the lecture was the projected images. She used a small projector (about the size of a deck of cards) and the images from it were faint and very difficult to read. I’m sure the very small projectors are good for traveling but this one just didn’t have the brightness for the large room we were in. It was about 20 feet from the screen. Perhaps the images would have been clearer if the projector had been closer.
  • “German Language Skills for the Genealogist” by John Humphrey, CG. Another good session by John although I feel as though I took a crash course in German grammar. His explanation about verbs was very helpful.
  • “Lost in Pennsylvania? Try the Published Pennsylvania Archives” by Christine Crawford-Oppenheimer, MLS. Back to Pennsylvania again. In this session Christine explained how to use the 138 volumes of the in the 10 Series of the Pennsylvania Archives. The whole series is available on Fold 3 (www.fold3.com) for free. Her tips will surely help to search these records.

We attended the National Genealogical Society Quarterly 100th Anniversary Reception this evening. They provided a nice buffet and it was good visiting with friends.

I now have HappyFeet. After hearing several people talk about how good these insoles make their feet feel, I went down to the Exhibit Hall at the last minute and purchased a pair. Now I feel as though I’m walking on water! I even convinced fellow blogger Ruth to get a pair. Ruth, The Passionate Genealogist, http://blog.familyhistorysearches.com/ . (Thank you Ruth for the shiny Canadian penny. It is special to me because they just quit minting pennies.)

There is also a Junior Olympics competition going on at the Duke Energy Convention Center. It is fun to stop and watch them as we pass by on our way to sessions.

We’ll be saying good-bye to Cincinnati tomorrow.

May 10

2012 NGS Conference in Cincinnati, Day 2

Bruce Buzbee & Roots Magic

Over 1800 genealogists registered for the 2012 NGS Conference and it seems many many of them planned to attend the German sessions. The German sessions were packed today!

That should be of no surprise since Cincinnati is one of the major German cities in the country. If you were a smart conference-goer you would arrive at the room about 20-30 minutes before the start of the session.

Today I focused more on attending sessions than visiting the Exhibit Hall. Sessions I attended on Day 2:

  • “RootsMagic: Publishing Your Family History with Complete Documentation” by Bruce Buzbee. I always learn a lot when I attend one of his Roots Magic sessions. Bruce gave more information about the program than the title indicated. All of his tips will help as I clean up my Roots Magic program and when I upgrade to Roots Magic 5 after I get home.
  • “So, You’ve Found Your German Town of Origin: Now What?” by Teresa McMillin, CG. This session was packed. There were about 30 people standing outside the doors, not allowed to come in because the room was already full. One man graciously gave up his seat to another man who was very upset because he came to the conference to attend this particular lecture.
  • “The ‘www’ of German Genealogy” by John Humphrey, CG. This was another excellent German talk by a great German researcher and lecturer. They also had to turn away about 40 people because the room was full. John showed us many websites for German research. Thank you John! I can’t wait to try some of these websites.
  • “German Marriage Laws and Customs” by Warren Bittner, CG. It was interesting to learn about old German marriage customs. Many traditions seem to be carried over today. For example, “undertrunk”, an all-male drinking party before the wedding. Does that sound familiar??
  • “Locating and Understanding the Law: An Essential Part of Good Research” by Barbara Vines Little, CG, FNGS, FVGS. A lot of good advice for law research which seemed to focus a lot on Virginia.

John Humphrey, CG

As for the Exhibit Hall, so far I have gotten 2 free T-shirts, one for the 1940 Census from FamilySearch and one from Fold 3. I also received a nifty 1940 Census bag to carry all my stuff around. The bag was a gift from FamilySearch for becoming a 1940 Ambassador.

Tonight we will be attending an Evening at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, sponsored by FamilySearch. This is free to conference attendees.

May 09

2012 NGS Conference in Cincinnati, Day 1

Indexing the 1940 Census at FamilySearch

The 2012 NGS Conference officially started this morning. Awards and recognitions were announced at the opening session. Here are some of the results:

Ohio Genealogy News (OGN) received first place for a society newsletter, Deb Cyprych & Jennifer Hershberger, editors. The Award of Honor was given to the Hamilton County Chapter OGS for their help to make this conference a success. Certificates of Appreciation were given to Kenny Burck, Deb Cyprych, Jean Nathan, Barb Gargiulo, Sandy St. Martin, Liz Stratton, Patricia Moseley Van Skaik and Jean Woll.

The Ohio Genealogical Society and the Hamilton County Chapter OGS were the local host societies. Thanks to their help and all their volunteers.

Patricia Van Skaik gave the opening presentation about The Cincinnati Panorama of 1848. She talked about the the daguerreotype and showed the details that can be seen with magnification. It is an amazing photograph.

After that the Exhibit Hall opened. We were very busy at the BCG booth that first hour. I walked around the Exhibit Hall at noon, made a few purchases and learned the following:

  • AncestorSync (www.ancestorsync.com) went live today, working in conjunction with Geni.com (www.geni.com). This program will enable you to synchronize your family tree across all your computers and a web pedigree. Only the web portion is available now but later this year they plan to have the availability to share information between individual home computers.
  • ResearchTies, a new on-line research log program, should be up and running this summer. This will store your research information in the cloud, sync with your computers and make it available wherever you are.  Cost will be about $25. (www.researchties.com)
  • FamilySearch announced six states that are completely indexed (1940 Census): Delaware, Colorado, Kansas, Oregon, Virginia and New Hampshire. You can now search these indexs for people in these states.
  • Tom Jones will speak at the British Institute in Salt Lake City, 8-12 October 2012.
  • Although Archives.com has joined with Ancestry.com each will continue to add new records to their websites. Memberships for each will remain the same. Archives also sponsored the opening session today.

Exhibit Hall 2012 NGS

I learned about researching my War of 1812 ancestor in a morning session by Craig Scott, CG. When I get back home I’ll start to work on my National Society United States Daughters of 1812 lineage application for Nicholas Headington.

I also became a 1940 Ambassador today. I applied and then wrote about the Census Community Project in last evening’s blog. I have been encouraging people to help index the 1940 Census and now I am an official ambassador. You can also become a 1940 Ambassador by signing up at https://the1940census.com/sign-up and writing a blog about indexing the 1940 Census.

 

 

 

May 08

2012 NGS Conference in Cincinnati–Tuesday

We have arrived! We are in downtown Cincinnati across from the Duke Energy Convention Center, the location of the 2012 NGS Conference. The convention center is a very nice, large facility.

This is the 4th NGS Conference Miriam and I have attended. We attended Milwaukee 2003, Pittsburgh 2004 and Nashville 2005. We have also attended a few FGS Conferences in between.

I got to see the Exhibit Hall this afternoon when I help set up the BCG booth, #431. There was a lot of activity in the Exhibit Hall and I can’t wait to look around tomorrow.

Also helping set up the BCG booth were Teresa McMillin, CG, Debbie Mieszala, CG, and  Elissa Powell, CG. Elissa is the co-director of GRIP [www.gripitt.org] and she mentioned that their July courses are nearly sold out. Only a few openings are available.

Elissa, Debbie & Teresa at BCG Booth.

This evening I attended a media/blogger dinner hosted by FamilySearch. We had a nice buffet dinner that was a German/Cincinnati chili/Montgomery Ribs/Italian mix. Each of us received a “tech-trap” gift. It was fun talking with bloggers that I see frequently at conferences–Shelly, Amy, Ruth, Tina, and with bloggers that I met tonight–Karen, Julia, Pam and Lisa.

Representatives from FamilySearch talked about their many on-line projects, but mainly they talked about the 1940 US Census indexing project. They reported that 30% 0f the indexing is complete in only 37 days. If this indexing trend continues the 1940 census index may be complete by July.

This is all thanks to the thousands of indexing volunteers. They have found that people often think of indexing as a way to leave a legacy or as a way to give something back. It is also a way for people to get a glimpse of “The Greatest Generation.”

I enjoy indexing the 1940 census and I encourage others to also give back by indexing. You can learn how to index and get started by visiting The 1940 Census Community Project [https://the1940census.com].

I believe I am prepared for the conference, which starts tomorrow. I have made copies of the speaker handouts from the syllabus, I have the Guidebook app on my cell phone, we have free WiFi in the hotels and in the conference center. It looks to be a great conference.

I’ll be at the BCG booth from 9:15-10:45 tomorrow. Stop by and say hello and learn about becoming a Board Certified Genealogist.

After that I plan to attend the session “Researching Your War of 1812 Ancestor” by Craig Scott, CG. I hope to get some research tips to help with my US Daughters of 1812 lineage application for Nicholas Headington. I always learn something from Craig.

After that that, who knows? I might skip an afternoon session to browse the exhibits and shop and learn.

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s report…

May 04

Kudos to Indiana Indexers

Michael Hall of FamilySearch, Indiana Genealogical Society, Allen County Public Library, April 2012.

Last Saturday I attended the Indiana Genealogical Society’s Annual Meeting at the Allen County Public Libraryin Fort Wayne.  Speakers included Debra Mieszala, CGSM, Michael Hall, Melissa Shimkus, and Curtis Sylvester. I focused on the Internet sessions, hoping to get some new information and tips about on-line research.

[Update: Several hours after I posted this blog FamilySearch Indexing on Facebook posted that Indiana is NOT 100% indexed, as was reported last Saturday. Evidently not all of the Indiana images and batches were included when they started indexing but they are now available. FamilySearch apologized for the confusion. Nevertheless, the Indiana indexers, as well as all indexers deserve Kudos.]

Michael Hall’s first session was “What’s New with FamilySearch.” I was impressed to learn that Indiana is 100% indexed as far as the 1940 census is concerned. Kudos to the Indiana indexers! It is the third state to be completely indexed, following behind Delaware and Kansas. The index for Indiana should be available on-line in 2-3 weeks.

Michael talked about other FamilySearch indexing projects. Indexing the 1940 census is at the forefront now but there are over 125 current indexing projects in 7 languages. He pointed out that indexing provides a meaningful service that allows one to give back and pay it forward.

The last couple days I have indexed several batches of 1940 census pages from neighboring Allen County, Ohio. I would love to index Mercer County! I enjoy indexing and plan to continue with other indexing projects after the 1940 census is completed.

There are over 125,000 volunteer indexers and most are not LDS members. He also mentioned that there is a phone app to index the 1940 census but stressed that it would not be advisable to index while driving.

The most recent FamilySearch initiatives are the 1940 census, their Civil War Project and the Italian Records and Research. They hope to have all the records in the Granite Mountain Vault digitized in 5 years.

I was excited to learn that FHL microfilms can now be sent to your local library. Michael pointed out that it is very helpful if the library has a microfilm reader.

Michael also talked about some features of FamilySearch.org that I do not regularly use. About 40 pages are added to their Wiki each day. He showed examples of scanned documents and collections from some Indiana counties that are on their Wiki and pointed out that it would be a good place to detail your local society and their holdings. You can connect with people around the world on the FamilySearch Form. He gave the example of getting help with a German language translation. FamilySearch has over 400 free on-line Research Courses that range from beginner to experienced researcher.

Melissa Shimkus presented a session “Becoming Expert on Using Ancestry”. Melissa gave many tips for achieving good results from an Ancestry.com search. Her tips ranged from using wild-cards to the simple and advanced searches.  A ? will replace 1 character and an * will replace multiple characters. You can use the symbols together and you use multiples of either.

Melissa suggested populating only 3-4 items/life events when performing a search on Ancestry.com. Most important would be first and last name, the place where they lived and possibly date of birth. Giving too few items will result in many hits while being too specific will result in fewer, more precise hits.

Ancestry.com has over 30,000 browsable collections and they are found in their Card Catalog, under Search.

Saturday’s conference was very informative and I even had time to go upstairs and do a little research.

Next week is the annual National Genealogical Society [NGS] Conference in Cincinnati. My friend Miriam and I will be traveling to the conference together. I will get early access to the exhibit hall since I volunteered to help set up the BCG [Board for Certification of Genealogists] booth. FamilySearch is hosting a dinner Tuesday night for the Geneabloggers. I am an Official 2012 NGS Conference Blogger so I will try to blog about my conference experiences every day.

I have been trying to get things organized and ready to take to Cincinnati. I have been putting conference information on my netbook and my Kindle. I have been trying to decide which sessions to attend and what booths I want to be sure to visit in the exhibit hall. NGS has a helpful daily conference blog that that tells about the speakers and exhibitors. And there is the shopping. Yes, I have my list of items [mainly books] that I want to purchase. It should be a good time

I never look forward to packing and this year is no exception. I always take too much, but we always drive, so who cares?

One thing I am rather excited to try out on this trip [I’m going put on my dental hygiene hat and talk a little dentistry now] is the travel case of my new Philips Sonicare DiamondClean 300 Series power toothbrush. The case is the charger and the power cable has a USB connection that will hook up to an electrical outlet or to my laptop! How cool is that?? My toothbrush is a tech tool!

Sonicare DiamondClean 300 Series Toothbrush w/USB charger.

Charging case of Sonicare DiamondClean 300 toothbrush.

 

 

I look forward to seeing some of you at the conference next week. Even if you aren’t in Cincinnati you can read all about it here.