The Genealogy Search

I wanted to share some of my favorite things from the first day of the Expo: 1.  Lisa Louise Cooke - Always an enjoyable speaker, author, GenealogyGems podcaster and a good friend. 2.  Gena Philibert Ortega - Gifted genealogist and author.  Stop by and see her books From the Family Kitchen and Tracing Your Female Ancestors with Maureen Taylor. 3.  Barbara Renick - I heard her speak for the first time in 2008.  She is an enjoyable and personable speaker - boy have I learned. 4.  FamilyRoots Publishing - Love updating my personal library, wish their booth wasn't so tempting. 5.  Photo Tree.com - Bought a cheater sheet for Elements 11 and the Photo Restoration Kwik Guide.   I cannot wait to get started. 6.  Meeting people who read my blog!  Thank you for introducing yourselves! 7.  New acquaintances and catching up with old acquaintances!   8.  Arlene Eakle - She is an encyclopedia of genealogical informa...

  The hardest part about attending an expo or conference is trying to figure out which programs to attend.  As usual the Family History Expo has scheduled several programs I would like to attend at the same time.  Barbara Renick is the keynote speaker.  I had the privilege of attending one of her computer classes at the 2008 NGS conference in Kansas City so I know I would like to hear her speak again.  Lisa Louise Cooke is back at the conference and she always has great information so I really want to see her again. Arlene Eakle is presenting and I always learn something new from her programs.  Donald Yates is presenting  a DNA talk that really sounds interesting and luckily will be presented both Friday and Saturday.  Now the question is can I clone myself so that I can attend every program I want before the morning?

I finally had a chance to make it through the vendor area!  There are some wonderful products.  I talked to Amy Herzog at www.digitalscrapbookmemories.com   again because she was such a pleasure to talk to yesterday.  I will soon be taking the plunge into the digital world.  I also had the chance to talk to the  Creative Continuum . They are a short run publisher and family history publisher.  They also have a series of three CD's to teach photo retouching. The Underhill's of Creative Continuum Rebecca Vastine and son with a sample of her wooden family chart   I also wanted to let everyone know about My Vintage Roots.  They make amazing wooden family charts.  You can see additional samples of their skills at  myvintageroots.com .  They are an Arizona company located in Prescott. Speaking of charts, if you want a family chart produced on paper you should head over to Janet Hororka's ...

What a wonderful  day.  The Expo brought renewed acquaintances and new friends  I really enjoyed seeing fellow Pima County Genealogy members .  The opening keynote by Arlene Eakle was very enjoyable.  Arlene shared several ideas and stories of researching. I took the opportunity to hear Lisa Louise Cooke speak twice.  Once on Evernote and again on  Common Surname Searches in Google.  Each  I hear her talk I learn something  new or remember something I had forgotten about.  I am ready to download Evernote and formulating new searches on Google. Colleen McHugh did a presentation during the diner hour in the Ballroom.  Michelle Goodrum and I happily helped Colleen out my passing  and gathering  entries for her drawing for RootsMagic5 that the folks at RootsMagic so nicely donated. Colleen McHugh  during her dinner time presentation The last  program of the day was by Ruth Maness, AG.  ...

So happy to see some of my favorite vendors will be at the Expo.  Arlene Eakle is not only delivering the keynote speech, she is also lecturing and has brought  The Genealogical Institute with her in booth #3.  Arlene's methods are very helpful in locating those missing ancestors, be sure to check out her booth.  The Stories To Tell booth is back.  Stop by and see Nancy and Biff Barnes, two of the nicest folks around for help with your families story in booth #35.  Lisa Louise Cooke and her daughter will be manning the Genealogy Gems Podcast booth. Look for Lisa Louise's new book How to Find Your Family History in Newspapers - hurry she only has a limited amount of her new book.  She has also authored several other books to help you with your research.  Visit the Genealogy Gems Podcast in booth #6.  Family Roots Publishing will be in booths #38-#41- I have a friend with a birthday coming up and that is where I will be looking for the per...

I am very proud to announce that I have been selected as a Blogger of Honor for the Mesa Family History Expo in Mesa, Arizona on January 20-21.  There is still time to make plans to attend this event.  Visit the Mesa Family History Expo  web page for registration information.  The event kicks off with keynote speaker Arlene H. Eakle, Ph.D., President and founder of The Genealogical Institute, Inc.  Arlene has over thirty years experience and is a wonderful speaker.  I hope you have the chance to sit in on one of her presentations during the expo.

What a fun day.  I ran into Michelle Goodrum of www.turning-of-generations.blogspot.com while standing in line at the registration booth, and my day just got better and better!  Lisa Louise Cooke gave a wonderful opening speech inspiring us old dogs to learn some new tricks.  My next stop was  to Organizing Your Genealogical Research with Nancy E. Loe, MA, MLS.  Nancy had a unique way of labeling her files - I may start to use some of her tips but the thought of redoing everything is a little overwhelming.   If you change the name of a file you would need to relink it to your family history software, perhaps not a bad idea if it make things easier to locate.  Both Lisa Louise and Nancy spoke of Evernote so I think I will seriously need to give it a try.  Right before lunch I attended Tips and Tricks for using Family Search and then lunch near the blog house.  I reconnected with Colleen McHugh of www.omchorations.blogspot.com and Mark Tuc...