Salt Lake Institute Classes are filling fast

Some of the country’s best genealogical educators are gathering to help you gain expertise in a flash at the Utah Genealogy Association’s Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy, held 13-17 Jan 2014 in Salt Lake City. If you are looking for advanced skills, you can’t afford to miss this wonderful opportunity to learn from the professionals. Students are welcome to bring their own research projects and brick wall problems to work on during the week. Small classes and hands-on research with convenient access to Salt Lake City’s Family History Library guarantees that each attendee will receive excellent training to become a better genealogist.

SLIG was established in 1996 by the Utah Genealogical Association, and has become one of the premier genealogy education experiences in the country. Classes are taught in the mornings and finish in the afternoons leaving time for research at the Family History Library. Classes range from beginning to advanced. Attendees can choose between 10 tracks including:

• American Research and Records: Focus on Families, 
• New York Research, 
• Research in the South, 
• Advanced Research Tools: Land Records, 
• Credentialing: Accreditation, Certification, or Both?, 
• Producing a Quality Family Narrative 
• Researching in Eastern Europe 
• Advanced Evidence Analysis Practicum 
• Advanced Genealogical Methods and 
• Problem Solving, the 10th track is a hands on experience working on your own family history with advice from professional researchers. 

I've registered for the Advanced Genealogical Methods class and I'm so excited.  I've been able to attend SLIG the last couple of years and I have been completely blown away by the amazing instructors and the wealth of knowledge I've gained each time.  Course outlines and registration information can be found at www.ugagenealogy.org. Registration is limited and classes fill fast. Come strengthen your skills to discover your roots.

WIFAAC-- Awesome Books 1

Coffers, Clysters, Comfrey and Coifs: 

the lives of our seventeenth century ancestors 

by Janet Few

You may have found some information and documents about ancestors in the seventeenth century but you probably don't know much about their lives.  This great book by Janet Few will help you with that.  

I met Janet last year and was really impressed with alot of her ideas on the Facebook generation.  This year rather than reaching forward, I was so impressed with her expertise at reaching backward.  Janet is a fantastic resource in seventeenth century British lives.  She has spent alot of time as Mistress Agnes at the living history site Torrington 1646.  As she and her compatriot Chris Braund discussed with me at Who Do You Think You Are Live, you learn so much by trying to live as people did historically.  You come up with all sorts of issues that regular research and study don't teach you.  

This book is full of her wealth of knowledge.  It has chapters on homes and furnishings, household tasks, food and drink, clothing, gardening, medical practices and herbs (scary!) crime and punishment (even scarier!) witchcraft (yikes) and childhood pastimes.  Not only fascinating, the book makes you wonder how your ancestors survived :)  I learned so much that made my ancestors lives so much more real.  It really showed me how much we might put our modern preconceptions on our research and on reconstructing our ancestor's lives.  They lived so differently than we do.  

Besides many interesting facts and lots of wonderful pictures, there are also lots of "ah-ha" moments.  There is a picture of a square wooden trencher where we get the phrase "a square meal."  And when someone was punished in a pillory, their ears might have been nailed to the restraint thus leaving them "ear-marked."  The book is graphic, but realistic.  Lots to learn about the lives of our ancestors.  

You can get it at www.familyhistorypartnership.co.uk

WIFFAC--Books across the pond

I have lots and lots of books to tell you about in this new WIFFAC but I think we'll start with the ones I found furthest back--at Who Do You Think You Are Live.  Even though the world has shrunk so much with the advent of the internet, I'm amazed at how much we don't know about genealogists and genealogy resources in other parts of the world.  Even going through the British course at SLIG, I was again blown away by all the resources at WDYTYAL which I never would have known about.

The first set of books that are such great resources are put out by the Society of Genealogists in London.  Among other publications, they have the "My Ancestor Series" that is fantastic.
My Ancestor was an Agricultural Labourer by Ian Waller
My Ancestor was an Anglican Clergyman by Peter Towey
My Ancestor was an Apprentice by Stuart Raymond
My Ancestor was a Bastard by Ruth Paley
My Ancestor was in the British Army by Christopher and Michael Watts
My Ancestor Settled in the British West Indies by John Titford
My Ancestor was a Coleminer by David Tonks
My Ancestors were Congregationalists by DJH Clifford
My Ancestors were English Presbyterians or Unitarians by Alan Rustin
My Ancestor was a Fremason by Pat Lewis
My Ancestors were Gypsies by Sharon Silers Floate
My Ancestors were Jewish by Anthony Joseph
My Ancestor was a Lawyer by Brian Brooks and Mark Herber
My Ancestors were Londeners by Cliff Webb
My Ancestor was a Merchant Seaman by Christopher and Michael Watts
My Ancestor was a Mormon by Ian Waller
My Ancestor was a Railway Worker by Frank Hardy
My Ancestor was a Royal Marine by Ken Divall
My Ancestor was in Service by Pamela Horn
My Ancestor was a Studio Photographer by Robert Pols
My Ancestor worked in the Theatre by Alan Ruston
My Ancestors were Thames Watermen by James W Legon
How to get the most from Family Pictures by Jane Shrimpton
Tracing Births, Deaths, and Marriages at Sea by Christopher and Michael Watts.
Go to http://www.sog.org.uk and take a look at these and all of the other books around.  There is some fantastic research help there. 

There was also another bookseller that made me wish I could take home suitcase after suitcase of books.  Pen and Sword had so many British History books and they were all so detailed.  Book after book of resources that you don't see at home such as:
Jewish Lives by Melody Amsel-Arieli
How Our Ancestors Died by Simon Wills
Tracing Your Irish Family History On The Internet by Chris Paton
Tracing Your House Hisotyr by Gill Blanchard
Air Force Lives by Phil Tomaselli
Tracing Your West Country Ancestors by Kristy Gray
Tracing Your Ancestors Through Death Records by Celia Heritage
Tracing Your First World War Ancestors by Simon Fowler
Tracing Your Royal Marine Ancestors by Richard Brooks and Matthew Little
Tracing Your Army Ancestors by Simon Fowler
Tracing Your Aristocratic Ancestors by Anthony Adolph
Tracing Your Lancashire Ancestors by Sue Wilkes
The Wills of Our Ancestors by Stuart Raymond
Tracing Your Merchant Navy Ancestors by Simon Wills
Birth, Marriage and Death Records by David Annal and Audrey Collins
Tracing Your Ancestors From 1066 to 1837 by Jonathan Oates
Tracing Your Service Women Ancestors by Mary Ingham. 
And there are several dozen more at http://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk. 

So if you have British ancestors, you'll want to take a look at the offerings from these two booksellers.  There is fantastic stuff on all the details of your ancestor's lives.  Enjoy.

New Series.. What I Found At A Conference

I'm going to start a new series on this blog.  WIFAAC.  I get to go to so many genealogy conferences, and I find so many great things, but in the middle of the blitz of a conference I'm never able to blog much. 

I sometimes wish I was one of the bloggers that have time to go to classes and blog and social network during a conference but I'm not, so I don't get to blog real time much.  My time at conferences is spent talking to customers, speaking, sometimes even administrating the conference.  My evenings are spent working with partners, dealing with orders, putting last minute touches on lectures and demos and sometimes even managing my teenagers.  Even when we get home, it seems that all of the other bloggers have already covered everything, but often I find a few treasures they don't mention.  So here in this series, sometimes way too late, I've decided I'm going to talk about the exciting things that I've found at conferences anyway.  

I've been keeping a list of all the things I've wanted to blog about from the conferences I've been able to go to this year.  With the launch of the new book, and getting the workbook written it's been a busy year so far so the list just hasn't gotten fleshed out here--yet.  But there are some really cool things to talk about, so I've decided I'm just going to do it--no matter how late it is. 

I had a good friend in college that I made a deal with.  We agreed that no matter how long it has been since we had been in touch, we'd never make excuses, we'd just be glad to hear from each other and be happy to be in touch now.  Hopefully this will be a little like that.  Sometimes it might take me a while to get some blog posts written, but hopefully they can just be about great information anyway. 

And with that explained...  I'll get started blogging on several things I've been wanting to tell you about. 

Upcoming Presentation Schedule

It has been a busy first half of 2013.  I have barely been able to keep up with everything.  Charts have been busy, the new books have been busy.  I have a huge list of things to catch up with and tell you about here and after this weekend I should be able to get going on that.  In the meantime, I hope I'll be able to talk to you in person.   Here is where I'll be in the near future:

This week, at the Southern California Genealogy Jamboree I am presenting:
Friday 11:00 - 12:00
Double Your Membership, Double Your Fun:
The UGA Case Study
Friday 2:15 - 3:15 Demo Stage
Apples and Oranges:
How the Genealogy Softwares Create Charts
Saturday 1:45-3:15 Demo Stage
10 Great Ideas to Zap The Grandma Gap
and Connect Your Family With Their Family History
Saturday 3:30 - 4:30
Saturday 4pm
Book Signing (as well as sales and signing in our booth all weekend long)
Beyond Scotch Tape: Charts to Fascinate Your Family
Sunday 2:30
Let’s Get This Party Started:
Family History Conferences for the Whole Family

Next weekend on June 15th I'll be giving the Keynote at the Riverton Family History Library.  
9-10 am  "How to Zap The Grandma Gap and Connect To Your Family By Connecting Them To Their Family History."

On Tuesday June 18th I'll be speaking at the Pleasant Grove Family History Center
"How to Zap The Grandma Gap and Connect To Your Family By Connecting Them To Their Family History."

On June 23rd I'm speaking at the BYU Family History Library.
4:30-5:30pm  "Engaging Your Family With Their Family History."

On August 2nd I'm speaking at the BYU Conference for Family History and Genealogy. 
11:00-12:00am  "Your History Makes Them Take A Nap, Come Learn To Zap The Grandma Gap"

On August 10th I'm giving the Keynote address at the Utah Valley Technology and Genealogy Group. 
9:00-10:00am   "How to Zap The Grandma Gap and Connect To Your Family By Connecting Them To Their Family History."

Then on September 14th we'll be at the Ogden Family History Conference

12:30-1:30pm  The Cool Parts of Family History: Engaging My Teenagers Case Study
1:45-2:45pm  Beyond The Fan and Scotch Tape: Charts to Fascinate your Family

And on September 21st we'll be at the Logan Family History Conference
I'll be teaching:
The Cool Parts of Family History: Engaging My Teenagers Case Study
Beyond The Fan and Scotch Tape: Charts to Fascinate your Family Times TBD

Lots of new and exciting things going on.  I hope we'll see you there.