Follow Your Ancestral Trail

The 2010 NGS Family History Conference will be held at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. Mark your calendars for 28 April–1 May 2010.

Whether your family helped settle the nation, migrated across the country, stayed in the same place, or recently arrived in America, this conference has much to offer. The family history resources in Salt Lake City, Utah, will provide a depth and breadth to your research. The Family History Library has an extensive collection of international records. A major focus of the conference will be increasing research skills in foreign countries.

Conference Highlights

Why Should I Come To This Conference?

• Extended Hours at the Family History Library. Spend time researching in a premier library collection. The Family History Library will stay open two hours later on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday during the conference.
• A Virtual Tour of the Granite Mountain Record Vault. During the opening session, FamilySearch will show a new multimedia tour of the vault where it stores master copies of the microfilm collection.
• International Workshops. The conference will offer workshops for Eastern Europe, Italy, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Hispanic countries. Each workshop will combine lectures and hands-on research planning and problem solving, and will include a prearranged lab time at the Family History Library. Pre-registration is required, but there is no additional fee beyond conference registration. More information will be posted soon.
• Ask-an-Expert Consultations. Expert researchers will offer advice in areas such as German, British, and Canadian research as well as general research. No additional fee beyond conference registration. Sign up during pre-registration.
• Beginner Workshops. For persons beginning their research, the conference includes workshops on Tuesday, 27 April and Saturday, 1 May. For a minimal fee, beginners will receive excellent instruction. Conference registration is not required.

What Else Will the Conference Offer?

• Program Sessions. Fantastic lectures cover a wide variety of topics by national top-notch speakers.
• Exhibit Hall. Stroll through an exhibit hall filled with vendors offering a wide variety of genealogy products and services.
• Sponsored Luncheons. Enjoy good food and an engaging speaker while networking with other genealogists.
• Board for Certification of Genealogists Education Fund Workshop. A full-day workshop on Tuesday, 27 April 2010.
• Board for Certification of Genealogists. A complete track of Skillbuilding lectures.
• Librarians’ Day. Librarians’ Day has become a standard pre-conference event for librarians serving genealogists.
• A Celebration of Family History Concert with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir will be held on Thursday, April 29 at 7pm.
• Tours of local sights and research facilities. Salt Lake City offers majestic scenery, pioneer history, and additional research facilities.

Preservation

How do you preserve your family information?

Is it all on paper in a book?
Is it all in your grandma's head?
Is it in a safety deposit box?
Is it on an external hard drive?
Is it on a flash drive?
Is it in a fire proof safe?
Is it stored online?

There are so many places we have available to us to store our information these days. Obviously, some places are more secure than others. I personally have several different locations and unfortunately not everything in one location. Most everything is on my external hard drive. My husband knows that if there is a fire and I am safe, grab the external, if I haven't done it already. This post is for me as much as everyone else, it is good to have a back up. It is good to have your information in more than one place. You never know when tragedy may strike.
I have been told that my grandfather's military records were in part of of the national archives that were burned years ago. We now have no record of much of what he did.
I have been thinking a lot about the people throughout the world who don't have the ability to store documents as I do. It is my responsibility to save what I have, in a way that should something happen to me, others will be able to find what I have done.
As you think about the possibility of losing not only your hard work on genealogy but everything you own, think of the people of Chile and that your donation can help them build theirs homes and lives. I have a friend sending care packages directly to those in need.
Sorry, tangent, an important one but a tangent nonetheless.
Find ways to store your hard found family information in a way that your descendants won't have to recreate the hours you have spent but will be able to move forward and work on making your family tree branches continue to grow.

Stories and Reminiscing

Stories are a wonderful way to share family history. I love getting with family members and taking about experience we all had together. It is fun to hear the different view points and perspectives. Especially as you grow older.
There are times when a younger person looks up to someone older, yet the older one remembers the younger as being a tag-a-long or just plain annoying. As you get older you can share stories about the past and let that person know who much they were looked up to many years ago.
There are also the stories that are retold by parents to different family members at different times. Stories often take on a life of their own and morph. There is usually as aspect of truth at the beginning but as time goes on, it becomes a creature of it's own. By talking about these stories, you can usually find the truth to know what was real and what was added with each telling.
When all is said and done, it is beneficial to have someone write down what was learned. A line here or there for a full on essay. Something that can be shared generations from now. This is what makes us real. Knowing that we really lived and experienced life. That was have experiences out of the ordinary along with the day to day living that continues on through the generations.

Labeling Photos

As many of us know, it takes a lot of time to label photos. We also know how frustrating it can be to have photos of family members; yet, have no idea who they are. Today I took a guess at a family photo. I based my names upon the ages. I fortunately still have someone alive who knew all these people so I can check my work, but many times we are not as lucky. And even this person who is alive, may not remember the names of his aunts and uncles. The old age thing can be a killer, no pun intended.
There are many different online services where we can upload our photos and then have them printed. I know that Shutterfly will print on the back of the photo any details you include. I personally think that if you are going to print photos, it is worth taking the time to write in the detail with a service like this. If you are going to keep them in an electronic format, give them a long name! There is nothing wrong with having a detailed name so you will always know who was in the photo. In organizing your photos on your computer, you can create folders for each event in each month in each year, so you have a detail from that side as well.

So go forth and label!

Roots

Since I love both family and photography, I like to blend the two from time to time. I have photos gallore of ancestors and headstones. My family teases me that I always have my camera ready to go. A photo adds so much to the story. Whenever possible, when writing about a person, I try to add photos of them and that event if possible. I am on a quest at the moment to find a photo of my great great grandfather and grandmother. Once I have them I will have a completed collection of photos of my ancestors for the 6 generations! Above is my great great grandmother who immigrated from England to Utah. She was part of the Hunt Wagon Company which was directly behind the Willie and Martin Handcart companies. (I have a great great great grandfather and grandmother who were in the Willie Handcart company.)
Another by product is that I think about family trees all the time which in turn causes me to be more aware of trees around me. This morning I was able to take photos of some ice covered trees with a clear blue sky above them.


As you go about your life, remember that a photo can help jog the memory and it also helps a person be just that, a person!

Past Times Genealogy - Finding Your Roots

I am thinking of using this as my "Winter Logo". Any thoughts?

Death Certificates

Death certificates are a good source of information, but sometimes can be inaccurate. It is best to compare multiple documents for accurate information but they are a great starting source to help you know where to look. I have been able to find birth certificate, parents and other documents because a death certificate helped point me in the right direction.


Much information on a death certificate is given by the living. I have one certificate that states: Education: Some college, no degree. I know with 100% certainty that the deceased did not graduate from high school, did not obtain a GED and most certainly did not go to college. Years from now, there is a good chance someone will think that this person when to college.
Causes of death are not always very specific either. This is when it is great to have stories and information from other family members. I have one person who was a miner and died at a young age due to "necrosis". It makes sense that he died of Black Lung. And then there is "cancer". It is especially important for knowing your own direct ancestor's type of cancer. Only recently did I learn my great grandfather died specifically of colon cancer. I have had other relatives have colon cancer as well. Knowing about my great grandfather will help me be on the look out for signs of this disease.
Death is not always a fun thing to discuss, but it is a part of life. Something that cuts us off from information, but death certificates can help us find information too.