Salt Lake Family History Library promotes genealogy with your family

Just received this from FamilySearch. Kudos to them for getting the children involved. Hope you can take advantage of some of these opportunities.

Family History Library Sponsors

SUMMER of SLEUTHING

Are you looking for a fun activity to keep your children occupied this summer? Would you like to learn more about your family? Do you need a kick start to organize your family records?

“Summer of Sleuthing—Save Our Ancestors” (SOS) is a family summer activities program sponsored by the Family History Library to introduce families to the fun of family history. With a series of weekly challenges, families can participate in activities that will help them learn more about themselves and their ancestors. The program will also be available online at familysearch.org.

Summer of Sleuthing will begin at the Family History Library on Saturday, June 6, 2009 at 9:00 a.m., 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. Families are invited to come to the Library and register that day and participate in activities and classes. They will also receive packets to take home and complete. The challenges in the packets can also help youth in accomplishing goals in Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, Primary Achievement Days, Young Women, and Young Men.

As part of the challenges, family members are encouraged to keep a journal of their experiences and create memories together as a family. We encourage you to share this message with all families, both Church members and those who are not. We hope that this experience will bring families closer together as they gain an appreciation for the lasting treasures to be found in family history work.

Sincerely,

FamilySearch Support

Father's Day Sale

(another reprint from our newsletter)

"Fatherhood is pretending the present you love the most is soap on a rope." --Bill Cosby.

How about something for Dad this year that he'll really love: a representation of his family that shows off the results of all his love and sacrifices over the years.

10% off
ANY Generation Maps Product
Promotion Code: dadday10per
Expiration Date: 6/30/2009

Planting an Ancestor Garden.

A reprint from our newsletter. Sign up at the bottom of the Generation Maps Main Page.

I went out this week and gathered several vases full of lilacs to fill my house and office. My maternal grandmother Eila Dana loved lilacs and thus they are one of my favorite flowers too. With the smell all around me and everytime I look over at the bouquet on my desk, I remember her fondly. (That is her on the left).

We have planted all kinds of other plants in honor of our ancestors too. Some of them include:

• Tomatoes--for my Dad who loves fresh tomatoes from the garden.
• Beets--for my Grandfather Carpenter who helped prisoners of war weed beets during World War II
• Begonias--for my Grandfather Dana who always had beautiful begonias on his deck.
• Lilacs--for Grandma Dana of course.
• Tiger Lillies-- for Kim's Grandmother Anderson who had big clumps of them in front of her house.
• Impatiens--for Kim's mother who had them all over her front yard.
• Crocuses--for my Mother who got all excited that spring was coming when they would peek through the snow.
• Roses--for my Grandmother Hortense Carpenter who helped me make potpurri with rose petals from her garden when I was a child.
• Hollyhocks--from my Great great Grandmother Schwendiman's house where they posed for many pictures. (That's her in the picture right under the arch with her mother Great great great Grandmother Williams)

What plants run in your family? Plant a few this spring in their honor. Maybe even get some plant markers to show off who you are honoring. And then share them with your descendants. Happy spring!

Another podcast interview about Generation Maps

My Interview on the upcoming Logan Family History Expo.
Podcast here.

Conferences and lectures

I've been busy reviewing syllabus materials and submitting contracts today for speaking at conferences. Managed to get proposals off to 7 other conferences this week too (pfhew--wiping my brow). I'm giving three lectures tomorrow in Kemmerer Wyoming. Here is what is coming up as far as my speaking engagements go:

• May 2nd "Serendipity and other Miracles: Why you need family history." "Where to Start when you inherit Genealogy" and "Making New FamilySearch easier with Certified Genealogy Software" Kemmerer Wyoming Regional Family History Conference
• May 9th Generation Maps at Logan Family History Expo (not actually speaking, Pfhew--wiping brow again).
• June 12th and 13th "Serendipity and other Miracles: Why you need family history." and "Making New FamilySearch easier with Certified Genealogy Software" Colorado Family History Expo
• June 26th-28th. "Where to Start when you inherit Genealogy" and "Using Genealogy Charts to further your research." Southern California Genealogy Society.
• July 17th-18th "Serendipity and other Miracles: Why you need family history." and "Making New FamilySearch easier with Certified Genealogy Software" Wyoming Family History Expo
• July 28th-31st "Basic Research Practices in the age of New FamilySearch" and "Making New FamilySearch easier with Certified Genealogy Software" BYU conference on Family History and Genealogy
• August 28th-29 "Serendipity and other Miracles: Why you need family history" and "Digitally Enhancing your photos" Salt Lake Family History Expo
• And a few other small/private speaking engagements (wiping my brow with a dramatic flourish)
  

Sorry for the random capitalization and punctuation. I'm edited out today.

To register for these great conferences, check my previous blog post on the conferences Generation Maps is going to.

After Dick Eastman's review of NERGC's conference, we are thinking about striking out for Springfield Mass. in 2011. Congratulations to them on such success this year. I have agreed in the past with Dick's opinions on how to hold a good conference. And it sounds like this one (though a good distance for us) would be one to try. We'll look forward to that. Let us know if you are planning to be there too.

Making sure your family history work survives you.

Depending on what format your family history work is in, a library may or may not accept it. Stefani Evans wrote a good starting point article on this for the Las Vegas Sun yesterday. In reality, the situation is much the same as a personal or family history. If it is quality work, it will be valuable to someone and it will be preserved.

Take a look at the article:
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/apr/30/correct-format-saves-genealogical-work/

An assortment of new resources

Browzing though the current Library Journal reviews I came across a few resources my Genealogist friends might be interested in. Take a look at these, or head over to your local library to see if they have bought them yet.

Underground Railroad: Encyclopedia of People, Places and Operations. 2 volumes 746 pages. Wouldn't it be exciting to find an ancestor in here? Maybe one of your family's towns is there.

Greenwood Encyclopedia of Courtship and Sexuality through history. 6 volumes. 1620 pages. I would like to look up some ideas on Swedish courtship and marriage practices in this one for some research we've been doing on Kim's family. Maybe it will help you with yours.

Greenwood Encyclopedia of Clothing through American History: 1900 to the Present. 2 volumes. 820 pages. This one would be helpful in identifying photographs. A new version of the full encyclopedia covering mroe time periods is scheduled to come out in Jan 0f 2010.

And a couple of website resources looked good too:

Documenting the American South: a digital libary of primary sources on the culture, literature and history of the South from the holdings at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Encyclopedia of Alabama. A well designed site developed by the Alabama Humanities Foundation and Auburn University. While I wish the history section was larger, the articles are well written and include good lists of additional resources. There is alot of history in all of the sections though, including cemeteries in the "geography and environment" section, and lots of biographies in the "people of alabama" and other sections. So use the search feature but browse around a bit too.

Hope one of these helps you get around a tough research spot. You never know where you might stumble across something.