The Genealogy Search

I had a wonderful time at FGS/Rootstech.  I am hoping to get to work tracking my ancestors with my new ideas as soon as possible.  I just need to get caught up in the office and with everything that has been neglected while I was away. I have already started to work on improving our society with classes I attended FGS Society day and the Innovator Summit.   Lisa Louise Cooke did a wonderful class on marketing and it applies across the board with both the society and my personal business. Me and Lisa Louise Cooke I must admit to being partial to Lisa. I worked for her in the expo hall (and previously),  she is one of the best bosses a person could work for.  She also allowed me to slip away to wander the exhibit hall and to attend some classes.  She didn't even mind when I was late getting to work on Saturday (the photo op with Donny Osmond was just too great to resist). I can't wait to attend FGS 2016 in Springfield.  Let this serve as a w...

Wow!  Completely overwhelmed and filled with new research ideas.  The day started out with Laura Bush and Jenna Hager Bush. Laura Bush and Jenna Hager Bush Spent the the majority of my day working for Lisa Louise Cooke - goodness that woman is the Google Goddess!  It was enjoyable talking to all her fans.  I also had the pleasure of working with Sunny Morton.  Sunny writes for Familytree, and works with Lisa Louise Cooke in many facets including the Genealogy Gems book club. Dick Eastman Thomas MacEntee and Laurie Desmarais I had the pleasure of sitting with many talented bloggers during Laura Bush's speech.  Some of my favorites including Lisa Louise Cooke, Amy Lenertz Coffin, Thomas MacEntee and Dick Eastman. I did attend a class by Michael Lacopo talking about tax records.  I will be hitting the tax rolls for my hard to find ancestors asap.  I also learned that Michael has a blog called Whose your Daddy that is a must read. Tomo...

Paula Stuat-Warren offered up some great ideas for affordable society seminars.  I am looking forward to putting her suggestions to work.  I was a little disappointed in the education programming topic, I was looking for something to help our society with programming ideas. Luckily I caught up with Lisa Louise Cooke in the innovator lectures to get my day back on track, she got my mind racing with ideas on how market the society.  Last lecture of the day coming up at 4 PM 'Killer YouTube Strategies for Societies" featuring once again the delightful Lisa Louise Cooke.

I finally had a chance to get a full look around the exhibit hall.  I purchased a couple of DNA tests- beware Matt and Mom it's your turn to take the test.  Hopefully at some point I will be able to get some cousins tested.  We were lucky and found a few vendors willing to donate prizes for our Pima County Genealogy Society's upcoming seminar in October featuring Lisa Louise Cooke. My two hour stint as a volunteer at the registration table went well.  I really enjoyed meeting and greeting folks as they checked in for the day.  Thanks SCGS for giving me a call in Tucson and getting me to agree to volunteer. I also was happy to see my memories for the sixties and the picture I sent in to be enlarged and in the convention hall.  Later tonight we will be attending the "New Year's Eve" Party. I bought a gift for my husband and was given a pen for my son-in-law as a thank you for his service in the Marines by the Uncle Ronnie thee penmaker.  The pens a...

I am so excited to leave tomorrow with friends Leslie Carney and Michelle Launi to head to Burbank, California for the Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree and Family Hisotry and DNA Genetic Genealogy in 2014 conference.  I am looking forward to learning more about  new technology and advances in  DNA and genealogy. Some of my favorite people will be there - Lisa Louise Cooke, Gena Philibert-Ortega, Lisa Alzo, and Janet Hovorka.   I am going to do my best to hear Rhonda McCure,  CeCe Moore, Stephen Morse, and Judy Russell. I decided to volunteer for a few hours at the registration check in on Saturday - hopefully I won't scare folks away!   Leslie and I will be attending the Society Leadership Workshop - we are looking forward to learning how to bring the best to our Pima County Genealogy Society members.  I have found an outfit for the Tie Dye Sunday and the sixties get together.  Watch out - The Trio from Tucson will soon be in...

I use Google a lot but sometimes it takes going to a lecture about it to get back in the habit of using Google to it's full potential.  Last week I attended Lisa Louise Cooke's 10 Ways to Achieve Google Search Success for Common Surnames.  One of the search methods she talked about was a linked search. A search for my Poundstone ancestors looking for a related link to a specific website would be as follows: poundstone LINK:www.ancestry.com The second search method she reminded me about is related search.  A query utilizing this search method would be: poundstone RELATED:www.fold3.com Try both of  these search strategies to see what new results you can find regarding your family.  You can learn more from Lisa Louise Cooke about Google and many other genealogy related subjects by listening to her podcasts at  Genealogy Gems .

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?

Crista Cowan from Ancestry Aces provided the following blog prompt: When you encounter a new location, a new time period, a new religion, or a new military conflict in your family history where do you do to learn about it so you can do better genealogy research?  What are your favorite resources for genealogy education? First I consult the books in my personal library.  I have built up my library to roughly over 100 books.  Some of my favorite standbys include: Map Guide to the U.S. Federal Censuses, 1790-1920 by William Thorndale and William Dollarhide Census Substitutes & State Records Vol 1 and 2 by William Dollarhide The Researcher's Guide to American Genealogy by Val D. Greenwood Land and Property Research in the United States by E. Wade Hone Online my favorite sites include: U.S. GenWeb  http://usgenweb.org/ FamilySearch, the Learning Resources area, specifically the Research Wiki   https://www.family...

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...

The Arizona Family History Expo is just around the corner.  The event is January 20th and 21st in Mesa.  Visit  Arizona Family History Expo  to register for the event. I am looking forward to seeing some of my fellow Pima County Genealogical Society members that I have convinced to attend the Expo.  Too bad the expo is on our regular meeting day, we will leave Barbara Salyer and the rest of the society members to hold their own while we gather new info to share with the group. I am also looking forward to seeing Lisa Louise Cooke of Genealogy Gems, catching up with some of my favorite vendors - perhaps check in to some digital scapbooking????? and checking in with Bruce Buzbee and the RootsMagic crew.  I promised to assist our wonderful member Colleen McHugh during her dinner break presentation What do Skeletons and Family History Have In Common?   I will also be looking forward to seeing my fellow Geneabloggers and meeting some new folks while I a...

How awesome is it to get to attend a genealogy class sitting at home.  I have attended approximately ten webinars so far and I just love the convenience.  If you are looking for a chance to learn a few new tricks I would subscribe to GeneaWebinars at http://blog.geneawebinars.com.  This blogspot  is put together by Myrt, DearMYRTLE (otherwise known as Pat Richley).  Now I am sure that the blog's webinar listings do not include everything available in the world - Myrt certainly has round up a huge plethora of offerings.  She lists upcoming webinars and archived webinars that are still available for viewing.  I like to keep an eye on Legacy and RootsMagic's webinars.  Legacy has some wonderful speakers including Thomas MacEntee (he's the man), Dear Mrytle, Janet Hovorka, Leland Meitzler, and of course Geoff Rasmussen.  RootsMagic offers a vast array of how to use their software webinars.  There are many other organizations and companies ...

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...

I am so glad that I had the opportunity to attend the banquet Friday night at the Expo.  Dinner was excellent, the company was even better and the presentation outstanding.  The evening started with bloggers seated among the tables sharing the "tech to trace your roots".  I had the good fortune of sitting with Lisa Louise Cooke, Bruce Buzbee and Thomas MacEntee.  The live Genealogy Gems Podcast with Lisa Louise Cooke and her stage manager daughter Lacey Cooke was very entertaining.  Podcast guests included Anastasia Tyler of Ancestry.com (recently featured on The Martha Stewart Show), Bruce Buzbee of Roots Magic - the new sponsor of Genealogy Gems Podcast,   Gena Philibert Ortega, of   Gena’s Genealogy Blog , and the witty and entertaining Thomas MacEntee.  Anastasia shared what we should expect from Ancestry in 2010, talked about the new TV series Who Do You Think You Are? premiering  March 5.  Gena shared how easy it is ...

It is quickly approaching, the Mesa Family History Expo.  I am looking forward to seeing my genealogy friends!  Lisa Louise Cooke is hosting the  Mesa Arizona Family History Expo Banquet which should be a blast.  Colleen McHugh -  I am sure you will do a wonderful job presenting - I stop in and say hi!