Family ChartMasters Changes Hands

What a privilege this last 20 years has been.  When we started Family ChartMasters we had no idea the love and sweat and tears that we would invest.  But we especially didn't know how much we would adore the people we would get to spend this period of our lives with.  It has been my joy to help you share your family history, honor your ancestors and inspire the next generations in your family.  Thank you for everything.  What a tremendous ride it has been. 

I'm now going to go work on my own family history.  I'm going to preserve Kim's history.  I'm going to create a new family with a wedding to Dean Olsen in June. And I'm going to absolutely love having the time to be a genealogist myself.  So much love to you all.  I'll see you at a genealogy conference soon.  I'll be there in the audience with you.  

Family ChartMasters Announces New Ownership to Preserve and Display Family History Legacies

4 Apr 2024 - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

[Pleasant Grove, Utah] — Family ChartMasters, the leader in custom genealogy chart design and printing, is excited to announce a new chapter in its history. Crista Cowan, known online as The Barefoot Genealogist, has acquired the company from Janet Hovorka, continuing and expanding the vision of making family history more visible and cherished in homes around the world.

Founded by Janet and Kim Hovorka more than 20 years ago, Family ChartMasters has become synonymous with high-quality, personalized genealogy charts, helping thousands of families create conversation pieces showcasing the family history they have uncovered. Following the passing of co-founder Kim Hovorka in 2021, Janet continued on with their team, but Kim was such an important part of Family Chartmasters that it was difficult to go forward without him. Fortunately, Crista's passion for genealogy and commitment to the company's values and mission have paved the way for a promising future.

Janet expressed her gratitude and optimism, stating, "It's with a heart full of optimism that I pass the torch to Crista. Knowing her dedication to family history and her vision for Family ChartMasters, I am confident she will continue our legacy of preserving family stories with the same love and care we've poured into this company."

Under Crista's leadership, Family ChartMasters will continue to offer a range of family tree printing and design services.  Blank charts, to be manually filled in, are a great way to get started. Set style charts allow digital family tree data to quickly be imported for printing.  Working charts are a favorite for displaying the family tree at the next reunion.  The signature custom designed chart service offers an opportunity to work with a designer to create archival quality heirloom pieces that engage all generations.

Crista Cowan shared her enthusiasm in taking on this new role, "I am deeply honored to continue the legacy that Janet and Kim built. Their work has touched so many lives, including my own. I'm committed to maintaining and enhancing the services we provide. My goal is to see a family tree on the wall of every home, providing a visual representation of the stories that live in us and the bonds that connect us."

For more information about Family ChartMasters and its offerings, please visit FamilyChartmasters.com.

About Family ChartMasters:

Family ChartMasters is the leading provider of custom genealogy charts, with a mission to preserve family memories. Offering a wide range of design and printing services, they have helped create more than 40,000 charts for clients in 64 countries around the world, turning complex family history data into beautiful, meaningful artwork.

Contact:

info@familychartmasters.com

Connecting Over the Distance this Holiday Season

Kim and I were going through some boxes last weekend and found some treasures.  We found some old cassette tapes we had made when we were in college to send home to the family.  He has sent tapes home from Pennsylvania to Wisconsin and I had sent tapes home from study abroad in the Middle East to Utah.  We didn't know each other then so it was fun to listen to our younger selves.  They were treasures that our families kept with our letters and then returned to us when we got home.  We knew they were there but I'd forgotten about them.  What fun to discover them now.  We need to bring them into the digital age and store them with our other family history items.  

Likewise, my family had sent an old VHS tape to me while I was abroad.  I found this tape a few years back and took it to our Thanksgiving celebration.  My little sisters were so cute at that age and we got to see them and show the video to their current husbands.  We ought to dig it out this year and show their kids.  I remember when I received the tape I was so homesick I cried and cried while I watched it.  And I put it away and never watched it again because it made me so sad.  But what a joy to find now.  Pieces of family history that captured the every day and time capsuled it into the future.  

So I have a proposal for you if you are missing the regular holiday get togethers this year.  Make a recording, video or audio, and send it to your family.  Perhaps different parts of the family who are apart can share videos with each other.  Don't just let zoom conferences fade into the past.  Capture something and store it with your other family history items.  It might not seem very important now, but trust me, later it will feel like a cache of riches.  

Perhaps you can use costumes or props.  But it doesn't have to be a special production.  Tour your house.  Show them the projects you've been working on.  Take them through a day in the life.  Talk about past family gatherings.  Talk about what you want to do in the future.  Teach them a new (or old) recipe.  Talk about your family from the past.  Talk about your family now.  Talk about the craziness of 2020.  Someday we'll be on the other side of this strange year and we will have forgotten all the details.  It will be interesting to see what future generations think when they find out what we've been through.  

So put zoom away for a little bit.  Connect over the geographical distance this year, and see if you connect over the years too.  And let me know how it goes.

Adapting in Trying Times

This is my paternal great - grandfather and great - grandmother. Their names are Benjamin Butler Wallace and Rosa Olive Owen. They met and married in 1916. They had seven children, six boys and one girl. They had a family farm, and a daily milk route. They did not have much by worldly standards as they raised their kids. Despite not having much, Benjamin always thought with his heart and made sure to do everything in his power to make sure that his children were given everything they needed and that his wife was treated like a queen. These two individuals showed their children that with hard work, love and faith you can not only survive, but you can be the difference in other people’s lives. 

During the Great Depression, their dairy operations continued, but not all of their customers were able to pay. My great-grandfather knew that even though some of the folks on his route couldn’t pay (and they couldn’t necessarily afford for people not to), the milk that he was delivering was a necessary part of their diets. So he continued to deliver and told them not to worry about paying until they could afford it. He also allowed for the trade of goods or services and payment during these hard times. 

My great - grandmother, Rosa, had a motto, “Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.” This is a motto that was definitely lived by. My great-aunt, their daughter, Dorothy, recounted in her memories a great example of this. “When I was four years old, Mom made me a dress out of her old one on her treadle sewing machine. (She mentioned this in her diary.) If something could be used again, or for something else, it was accomplished. Mom even ironed the Christmas wrapping paper that had been used so it could be used the next Christmas. During the War, flour bags were made of material printed with attractive designs. I remember how excited I was when Mother made me a dress from one!”

Learning more about my ancestors, constantly gives me a greater appreciation for the sacrifices they made and for the life that I have.

Post written by Amberley Wallace, Designer, Family Chartmasters LLC

New front page for our website

Congratulations to Alex, our super programmer for another accomplishment that the rest of us think is magical.  Often his magic is spread behind the scenes, but this time it is out front where you can enjoy it too.  We have a beautiful new front page.  Check it out:

Go to familychartmasters.com to check out the full effect.  I think it shares our message better.  Let us know what you think in the comments below, and be sure to send in your family information for a free consultation so that we can get started on a chart for you!

Leveling Up Chat with Crista Cowan and the Virtual Genealogical Association

I've been writing a column now for the Association of Professional Genealogists Quarterly for the last couple of years and I've thoroughly enjoyed researching and studying some new topics for the articles.  Last year I did a full year series on a study we did about the perceptions people have about professional genealogists.  The study had some super surprising results--basically that 2/3 of people who hire professionals are not happy with the results, and combined with the fact that most people don't trust professionals to hire them in the first place, we're really only effectively serving 7% of the market.  There's lots of room for growth and improvement, starting with communicating the value of a professional and making sure the researcher sets expectations correctly so that clients are happy. I was honored to speak about the study as the Keynote for the APG Professional Management Conference in 2018, to give presentations to the ICAPGEN and APG boards and to present it for a Colloquium discussion at the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy.  I hope it has sparked some new movement in the genealogy industry. 

The latest thing I've been working on though is some articles on the Dunning Kruger effect and how it affects the genealogy community.  They will be published in the upcoming issues of APGQ for 2019.  I'm really excited to get this conversation started and see what we can do to change things up a bit.

Along with that, last night my dear friend Crista Cowan and I presented a webinar for the Virtual Genealogical Association entitled "Leveling Up in the Game of Genealogy"  We've made it available for everyone.  It was a great discussion and as always I loved hanging out with Crista.  I'm sure it will inspire you to be a better genealogist as much as it did for me.

You can see the show notes on Crista's website at http://cristacowan.com/LevelingUp

Lecture Summary: Lots of people approach family history like a video game-collecting the most number of ancestors or chasing the shaky leaves. In genealogy, just like in a video game, or in life for that matter, you don’t know what you don’t know. You could be playing along for years before you realize that there are power-ups and secret passageways in the game that can take you to the next level. In this session, attendees will learn about typical light-bulb moments and how to get to the “Did you know this was possible” stage faster. They will then be given a walk through on how to advance through the levels of the game of genealogy.

Attendees will be introduced to the Genealogical Maturity Model and the new concept of a continuum of genealogical proficiency. They will also be introduced to the high quality resources available for advancing their own skills.

The Today Show!

One of our charts made an appearance on the NBC Today Show!  The segment featured some Ancestry researchers and a client on a recent ancestral home tour to Sicily.  It is such a neat story about the Balistreri family and the connections that were made from his family history research.  It will make you want to travel to all your ancestral homes!

Check out the clip at:   https://www.today.com/video/dna-kit-discoveries-leading-to-new-travel-trend-1446689859528

The chart we made for their family is shown near minute 3:30.  But you will want to watch the whole thing because it is so lovely to see the family's experience.  And as the reporter says at the end of the clip, "The message is, go out there, and find out about your history before, honestly, it's too late!"

Happy Veteran's Day

I love Veteran's Day.  It makes me so grateful for the sacrifices that have been made for me.  I don't come from a particularly military family, but I do have ancestors and a brother-in-law who have served and we just can't thank them enough.

My Maternal Grandfather, Darrell C Dana shipped out the day after he married my Grandmother Eila.  They had a long happy marriage, but what a way to start.  It makes me sad to think of how lonely my grandmother must have been as a newlywed.

The day after he was married to Eila.

My Paternal Grandfather George Alvin Carpenter worked with German POWs here in the Western United States. He had spent time in Germany previous to the war and he knew German so he was able to get along with the prisoners better than most.  He had alot of compassion for them. The family story is that they were working in agriculture and when they hoeing beets, the first one finished was allowed to stand up and salute the German Army.

A couple of years ago, my daughter and I created a little video about some of the decorations we had created to honor the service of our veteran family members.  I enjoyed working on that with her and we both learned more about the sacrifices that had been made in our family.  It was a fun project. Take a look:

At Family ChartMasters, we honor our military year round.  We have special embellishments you can use to designate service.  You can see them and many of our other designs at https://familychartmasters.com/embellishments.html#emblems  We're always happy to work up something special for your family.  Some of the military icons are included here:

You can see a chart we created with some of these emblems here:

You can see she added military notations for the people who had served.

We'd love to create a beautiful chart for your family honoring the ancestors who have served as well.  You can start by sending in your information for a free consultation https://familychartmasters.com/consult/  We'll send you an online preview and work back and forth with your suggestions and more previews until it is the perfect way to honor your family.  Let us know what we can do to help you easily make a beautiful chart.

5 People To Impress With A Family ChartMasters Genealogy Chart

In case you needed some ideas for who you could give a Family ChartMasters genealogy chart to this holiday season, we have our top five to get you started...

1. Your Parents. Give a genealogy chart to your Mom and Dad to say thank you to them for giving you life.
2. Your Siblings.  Impress them with your research! Show them you have your act together and that you know who's who in the family.
3. Yourself. Enjoy the fruits of your labors as you see it all displayed in a beautiful custom genealogy chart.  Add photos, family quotes, flags, or any other embellishments that will make the chart unique to your family.
4. Your Children.  Pass down your heritage. A genealogy chart visually represents who they are and who they came from.
5. Your In-Laws. Earn brownie points when you present them with a gorgeous custom genealogy chart that represents their family.  They will finally like you!

The best reason to give a chart is that all copies of the exact chart are half off!  So do the work once and then have plenty of gifts to give at only 50% of the original price.

Click here to visit the Family ChartMasters online genealogy chart gallery for lots of chart ideas, upload your file here and we can get started on a chart for you, or give us a call at 801-872-4278. Check out our holiday deadlines here in order to get your genealogy charts in time for holiday giving!

Get Help From Professional Genealogists: Introducing genealogyDOTcoach

If you would love to print a genealogy chart from Family ChartMasters, but have hit a brick wall in your research, we have the solution for you! We are excited to announce the launch of our brand new company, GenealogyDOTcoach! We offer genealogy specialists (coaches) in over 45 different areas to coach you in a one-on-one session to help you find answers to your genealogy questions.  Visit genealogy.coach to book a session today!

8 Reasons To Choose Family ChartMasters For Your Genealogy Chart

We know that you may find other companies to design and print your genealogy chart...but here are 8 reasons why you should chose Family ChartMasters:
 
1. Experience. Family ChartMasters has been creating, designing, and printing genealogy charts for 14 years with thousands of happy customers. Take a look at Family ChartMaster's blog, TheChartChick, to read our many glowing customer testimonials.

2. Customer Service. Family ChartMasters serves you with high end customer service. Our customers have commented that our team is friendly, patient, and will meet your needs with a smile. We don't quit until you are 100% happy and satisfied.

3. Expert Designers. Our designers have created thousands of charts in many different styles and layouts.  They are experts in genealogy standards and willing to suggest complementary design elements, layout ideas, and color combinations that can display even the most complicated family relationships.

4. Any Kind of Chart. Family ChartMasters designs and prints ancestor charts, descendant charts, fan charts, circle charts, all-in-one charts, and inexpensive working charts for your family reunion so that attendees can write in updated info. We also design custom decorative genealogy charts that can be displayed as a beautiful art piece in your home.  These are all individualized for the needs of your family. The Family ChartMasters online gallery shows over 50 chart design ideas to get you started thinking about what type of chart you would like. If you need other ideas, we are happy to brainstorm and consult with you. 

5. Any Size of Chart. The size of your chart depends on many factors including how many people are in your file,  how many generations are included, how much information is listed in the data boxes, and how many photos or other decorative details you choose to place on your chart. Our designers will work with you to design a size that works best for your needs. We can print your decorative chart in a standard frame size for easy framing, or we can print up to 150 feet continuous without a break.  The largest chart Family ChartMasters has printed was over 700 feet!

6. Any Kind of File.  Whatever file or form your data is in, we can turn it into a genealogy chart. Family Search, Ancestry, PAF, Gedcom, Legacy, RootsMagic, Family Tree Maker, Excel, Word, Apple Pages, or even your own handwriting. As long as you have the info, we can create a chart for you!

7. Creativity. The talented and creative Family ChartMasters designers can make your family's info come alive in a beautiful chart that works for your decor needs. Because our genealogy charts are hand-crafted, we have the ability to create original, one-of-a-kind charts that perfectly represent your unique family.

8. Trust. Family ChartMasters will represent your family's information in a way that will make you proud.  We have high standards for quality control in our inks and papers. We print and ship in time for your deadlines.  You can trust your genealogy chart with Family ChartMasters.

From inexpensive draft working charts to high end giclee canvas fine art pieces, Family ChartMasters is truly the master in genealogy printing. Give us a call or visit the Family ChartMasters website and we will gladly provide you with a free consultation.

New Online Genealogy Service: GenealogyDOTcoach

As you know, for us it has always been about making genealogy easier for everyone and helping people understand how important it is.  We think this is a game changer that will really help.  Introducing GenealogyDOTcoach.

Press Release:
New Genealogy Service Poised to Fill Critical Gap in Genealogy Industry

CEDAR HILLS, Utah - August 29, 2016 - A new family history service launched today that will fill a critical gap in the multi-billion dollar genealogy industry.  genealogyDOTcoach (SM) is a new online service that matches up professional genealogists (called Genealogy Coaches) with people who want to have all the fun of making family history discoveries for themselves but just need a little assistance from someone they can trust.

"With do-it-yourself sites like Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org it has become so easy for anyone to start climbing their family tree," says co-founder, Janet Hovorka.  "But, sometimes people get a little stuck in the process.  The traditional option at that point has been to purchase a 10 or 20 hour research package from a professional genealogist.  Many people can't afford that kind of help.  Others are reluctant to do so because they want the joy of making those family history discoveries themselves.  genealogyDOTcoach aims to fill that gap."

The service launches with 25 coaches across 47 different categories.  Topics include:  getting started; genetic genealogy/DNA; tree analysis and writing a research plan; and document translation.  Coaches also specialize in research for different regions of the world and different ethnic groups.  The initial group of coaches have an average of 25 years of training and experience a piece.  They are researchers, authors, and lecturers.  The impressive list of coaches includes some of the most well-known genealogists in the industry.

On the genealogyDOTcoach website, users can select a topic and see a list of coaches who specialize in that topic.  They can review comments and ratings from previous clients, to help them select a coach they would like to work with.  Sessions can be scheduled for 15, 30 or 60 minutes.  Pricing starts as low as $15 for 15 minutes.

Shortly before the coaching session, an email link is sent that allows the user to log in to a private video chat room.  There they meet face to face, via video chat, to share screens and documents with the genealogy coach, and receive the help they need to keep them moving along in their family history journey.

"Clients leave the coaching sessions with a game plan for how to move forward in their family history research," says Hovorka.  "Just like life coaches or athletic coaches, genealogy coaches can give you the boost you need to be better at what you enjoy."

About genealogyDOTcoach

Website:  https://genealogy.coach

Complete listing of coaches with their bios found here:  https://genealogy.coach/project/all-coaches/

Online Genealogy Courses at Salt Lake Community College: GEN1000 and GEN1014

Sign up here

I've just finished teaching the first semester of my new course "Making Money in Genealogy" at SLCC and I want to tell you about the two genealogy courses I teach for the genealogy program at Salt Lake Community College.  They keep me fresh and focused on the needs of genealogists as I get to work with wonderful students.  The program teaches you to become an excellent genealogist and are all taught entirely online.  In fact the entire SLCC program is academically rigorous and you can receive college credit while you are sharpening  your family history skills.  Now is the time to sign up for summer term  if you are interested.  I'd love to have you join us. 

I've been teaching GEN 1000 "Computer & Internet Tools for Genealogy" for 6 years now and I think it is a fantastic way for anyone to bring their genealogy technology skills up to date.  Kelly Summers and I wrote it together and we came up with a program that works for beginners as well as seasoned genealogists who just need to brush up on their tech skills.  After learning about basic genealogy research and documentation standards and how to enter your research into genealogy software, students use census and vital records to carefully document their own lives, their parents and their grandparents.  There are lessons about picture tagging and restoration, oral interviews, and internet publishing and sharing, and then the midterm project is just to take 6 hours to do something that needs to be done in your family along those lines.  After learning about continuing education opportunities and watching a webinar, and then surveying software and mobile apps, the final project is simply to turn in the three generation research compiled into software generated reports with complete documentation.  Grades are based on methodology, not the amount of research completed.  Most genealogists I know haven't taken the time to completely document the first three generations of their family and by the time the student is finished, they are ready to move forward with excellent technology and documentation skills.

Then, the new course I've just developed is GEN 1014, "Making Money in Genealogy."  This is the course I wish I had had 12 years ago when we started Family ChartMasters.  I've poured all of the things I've learned into this course to save the students all the learning curve I've had to overcome.  We survey genealogy opportunities and the structure of running  your own business and then the second half of the course is all about marketing (something all genealogists can improve on.)  By the end of the course you have written a complete business plan, begun branding, and interviewed a professional genealogist.  I think the course has everything students need to get started on the right track to becoming a successful genealogy professional. 

You can take either course for credit or as an audit and seniors who live in Utah can take each course for only $10.  The entire genealogy program at SLCC is an excellent curriculum that unfortunately is not very well known in the national genealogy community.  Hopefully that will change soon.  The program is designed to prepare students for credentialing with ICAPGEN or BCG and has fantastic instructors. There are 13 courses and you can complete enough in one year to obtain a certificate of completion. I've really enjoyed working with Kelly, Karen Clifford, and Sharon DeBartolo Carmack.  They are excellent genealogists and wonderful people.  I can highly recommend this program to anyone who is serious about becoming an excellent genealogist. 

Customer Testimonial By Geneablogger True Lewis From NoTeS To MySeLf

We love it when our customers are thrilled with our work.
At RootsTech 2016, we met geneablogger True Lewis who writes about her slave and European ancestors on her blog, NoTeS To MySeLf.  She set up an appointment with a personal designer at the conference and we were able to talk about different options for her custom chart.

True shared the positive experience she had with Family ChartMasters in a recent post from her blog and granted us permission to link to her blog in addition to sharing her thoughts here.

She says:
"I love looking for different genealogy products that will make my family history research stand out.  I'm always looking for something detailed and special for my family...I attended RootsTech 2016 in Salt Lake City, Utah.  I made my appointment to meet with a consultant 2 weeks in advance.  I met Ms. Janet on a Thursday...We discussed and went over ideas i had on how we could make this chart come to life.  This is the end product of what I had in mind."

She enjoyed how easy it was to work with Family ChartMasters. "I was able to choose every detail on this chart.  It was very personalized.  It came out to have a total of 35 pictures.  A Bible verse.  Trimming, edging and sepia background.  The size is 24" x 36" in stature.  There is no limit to what you can do for your chart...It arrived fast and in a shipping tube."

As we work with our clients, we are happy to help you get your genealogy chart exactly the way you want it and it shows.  True writes, "They were very patient with me in getting all the details from my tree I keep on Ancestry.com. I had a few revisions and they worked with every move I made...I'm excited about presenting this to the family. It feels so good to see all that I have come from....I can't even express my thanks to Family ChartMasters and their staff for making this masterpiece for me.  It will be cherished for centuries to come.  Thank you for all your patience, kindness and professionalism through the whole process."

True's experience with us made us smile. We would love to help you with your family history chart as well. Take a look at our gallery for ideas and inspiration and then visit our website for a free consultation.  We want to help you create the perfect chart for your family.

6 Steps to a Gorgeous Custom Genealogy Chart

We often hear the comment, "I'd like to have a genealogy chart printed, but I'm not sure where to start." Here's an infographic to make it easy for you. 

Click the image for a larger view (scroll in & out with ctrl+ and ctrl-)

MyHeritage Announces New Translation Technology

MyHeritage has just announced a ground breaking technology to assist in foreign language translation when doing genealogy research. This exciting new advancement automatically and accurately translates names across records in 17 different languages with more languages to come.  MyHeritage has played to their strengths in this beneficial innovation and is using their global reach in advancing the language capabilities available for family history research world wide. 

We are happy to see the successful growth of MyHeritage.  They have partnered with us as their exclusive chart printer and this summer we have especially experienced exponential growth as they continue to expand world wide.  We have printed their charts in many languages including Russian, Hebrew, Italian, Polish, Czech and Spanish and have shipped all over the world for MyHeritage including such exotic locales as Nepal, Saudi Arabia, Norway, Turkey, New Caledonia, and Ghana.  We are grateful for their partnership and look forward to their continued success. 

Your Online Genealogy Tips

I love Facebook.  Don't you love Facebook?  I mean, I guess, it has it's pros and cons, of course, but when it comes through for you, it usually does it with a bang!  Not too long ago, I was working on some new lecture materials and I thought I would pose a research question via my Facebook page to see what my friends there had to say about the subject I was working on.  I quickly had fantastic responses from some of the best researchers in the country.  You can't buy genealogy help like that.  So I thought I would mirror some of those ideas back to you here so that we could spread the brilliance around and make sure more people get to hear these great ideas. 

For those who missed the party (it was really fun, wish you'd been there), I am going to recap the Q&A for you here, because it's something we can all reap the benefits of in our genealogy endeavors.  The questions was: What is you best online search strategy?  The results were extremely useful whether you are just jumping on the genealogy train or you've been around the mountain a few times already.  I'll do my best to give credit where credit is due because the tips are worth their weight in gold.

Almost everyone said to have a plan going in.  Some people said they had a plan for just one person at a time, some have their trees visually laid out in the background of their computer or on working group sheets right next to them.  George and many others said to stick to the plan you create, too.  But most of us also agreed that we tend to get sidetracked and fall into the tangential genealogy group from time to time.  However my friend Laura mentioned that sometimes when you allow yourself to get sidetracked that can often be when you find your answer unexpectedly.  Has that ever happened to any of you?  But Thomas also reminded us that sometimes genealogy research online is like Costco and we need to resist the temptation to try all the samples.  Which makes me sad because the samples are all so yummy and fun.  But I see his point completely. :)

For staying on target with our research, I loved Crista's suggestion to formulate questions you want answered before you begin.  By having a specific set of questions you're aiming to find the answers to, it focuses your search on what records you need to look at in order to answer the pre-formulated questions, thus yielding a generally faster and more successful search.  Of course, the librarian in me loves that suggestion.  Ann seconded that idea with the slant of questioning why she might feel like she needs to find a particular record, then asking herself if there are any alternative ways or records to gather the information she needs, before moving forward.  Questions and cross-referencing questions.  Nice.

Naturally we all wander now and then, no matter how disciplined we try to be, and I really loved the suggestions you all had for when that happens.  Helen said she keeps a word document open in the background and then when she finds she's taken a side-road, she'll write down where she went, so she can go back later and pick up the trail another time.  Anne mentioned that she uses Evernote for that purpose as well.  What other ways do some of you keep track of the various trails in the forest of family trees that you come across?  We've all got our own way of leaving a bread crumb trail and I am always interested to know what works for people.

Becky mentioned that Facebook itself is a great way to meet up with distant relatives to swap notes. Sue and Grant said the big three (Ancestry, FamilySearch, MyHeritage) and a few other online sites are where they start and then move outward from there.  Others say that having a variety of social media on hand in order to give your brain a break is a good option too.  I am particularly fond of Susan's suggestion to have a plate of chocolate chip cookies on hand for sustenance.  Why didn't I ever think of that one?

Russ also had a great suggestion over on Google+.  His hint was to make sure you understand how the search engine works on each website you are using.  I'm going to work on that myself because I'm sure my searches would run better if I new the nuances of the differences between each genealogy site.  Thanks Russ!

As some final advice, several folks mentioned the following and it really is a golden rule for online genealogy research: search and then research everything.  We've all been there: you find something that looks promising only to discover it is the result of someone else's poorly researched, improperly cited tree merging.  It's enough to make us all want to throw a tantrum, isn't it?  We have to remember that no matter how promising something looks, we've got to check and recheck and then recheck again the facts and sources.  It can be tedious and lead to days/weeks/month/years of frustration sometimes, but it is so very necessary.  What's that joke quote floating around on the internet these days?  "The problem with quotes on the internet is that you can't confirm their validity" -Abraham Lincoln.  Basically, amen!  Be diligent in checking your facts.  Everyone seemed to agree on that.

Did our Facebook discussion miss any high points for you in your online research habits?  I'm always looking for some new ideas.  What about you?  And if you aren't friends with these people on Facebook, go send them an invite.  Check out the actual discussion thread here and get to know these amazing folks.  They are fantastic friends and I learn a lot from them all the time.  I'm sure they'd love to talk to you too.  And don't forget to friend me on Facebook and Google+  I'd love to talk to you there anytime.

Conference Energy

My son teaching his class at the BYU conference.

Don't you just love conferences?  I love conferences.  I get to see and visit with so many friends, old and new.  Our team has enjoyed meeting with so many of you over the last couple of days at both the BYU Continuing Education Conference of Family History and Genealogy and the IAJGS in Salt Lake City.  We love talking to you all about our products as well as having the opportunity for you to sign up for our newsletter for charts and our 52 week newsletter for Zap The Grandma Gap.  I also especially loved seeing Matthew present his "Get to Know Your Geezers" class Tuesday.  Talk about a parenting payday!  But I would like to say that my team and I also really love the feelings we get being right there in the middle of it all.

Genealogy is, no secret to us within the community, contagious (for lack of a better word).  It's such an important work we do, connecting our families--past, present, and future.  There is such a force and energy around it that to say it's a hobby is almost a fallacy.  It may start as a hobby for some of us, but once you get going, you know it's so much more important than that little word.  Golf is a hobby.  Knitting is a hobby.  Jogging, scrapbooking, bowling, and baking are hobbies.  Genealogy... well, that's life saving on so many levels.  It's not a hobby.  Genealogy has the power to change people's lives almost instantly.  Even when we discover unhappy things from the past within our families, those things can bring so much understanding and healing to our present.  Eventually the knowledge of those things can change our future.  I know we all understand that on a logical level (I hope we do) but sometimes it's easy to forget.  Until you get to be around hundreds of other people feeling the exact same feelings and then it just becomes palpable and electric.  It becomes a tangible fact that this life of research and records reaches so far in every direction of time that we can't even fully comprehend the good we are doing.

So, I just felt the need to tap into that energy and share it a bit with all of you.  It was so great to see so many of you this week.  If not, I hope we'll see you at the next conference.  You'll find us there, happy to meet with you.  And if you are far away, or can't make it for some reason, well, say "hi" right here in the comments.  I would love to hear about some of your great conference moments from this week or in the past.  Conferences are a wonderful place to get energized, learn more and make new friends. See you at another one soon.

Conferences

There are two big conferences this week and next that I'd like to tell you about. I will be making the rounds at both and invite you to stop by and say "hello," if you happen to be attending either. Members of my team, Erin, Lara, and Michelle, will all be in attendance (at one or both conferences) as well.  Be sure to look for us.  We love being able to meet and talk with all of you when the opportunity arises.

The first conference I want to tell you about actually opened yesterday, July 27th, and will run through August 1st. It is the 34th IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy in Salt Lake City, Utah. Be sure to check out the schedule from the link above, as there will be some great classes. I won't be presenting at this conference but I'll definitely be around, so keep an eye out for me and I'll watch for you.

The second conference, the BYU Conference on Family History & Genealogy, is starting tomorrow, July 29th, and both Matthew and I will be presenting here. We are each teaching classes on Tuesday, the first day. Matthew will be presenting "Get to Know Your Geezers" at 11:00 am.  I will have two classes that day, back-to-back.  I'll be presenting "Family Reunion Activities for All Ages" at 12:15 pm and then "Zap the Grandma Gap: Family History for Youth" at 12:45 pm.  Check out the other classes available at the link above, but hopefully Matthew or I will see you in one of our classes.

We love conferences and we love being able to teach others new ways to be more involved in their personal family histories. I look forward to meeting up with friends, both old and new, this week!

WDYTYAL--My observations about British genealogists.

I'm going to get a little bit out of chronological order here. I'm going to tell you in the next blog posts about the great genealogy conference we just went to--Who Do You Think You Are Live in London England. I learned so much there that we as American Genealogists need to make note of. Then after a few blog posts to that effect--I'm going to go back and tell you more about what we found when looking for Trefusis. It was amazing and hopefully by next week I will have gotten my mind around it all.

These observations are just that, observations I personally made while talking to the consumers at Who Do You Think You Are Live. I recognize that these are sweeping generalizations, and are only based on my experiences, not any formal sampling of the genealogy community in England. However every observation I make here I observed consistently in many people as we were talking to them at our booth at the conference last weekend. I do think we are in a unique position to analyze these differences since we constantly see the actual genealogy files from people all over the world, and when we are at conferences, we are talking to people specifically about the research they have already accomplished and how to best print it out.

British genealogists are archive oriented while American genealogists are Internet oriented. It seemed that for the Brits that I talked to, doing genealogy online was a second thought. In fact, an amazing amount of the people we talked to did not have any of their information digitized, I would estimate 40-50% of the people we talked to had nothing but hand written research. The rest had entered their information into genealogy Internet sites. Only about 10-20% had anything in a genealogy software. They all knew what a gedcom was, they just didn't see much reason to use one other than to get their information back out of a genealogy website. I think Americans have to do their genealogy online because they are so far away from the records. But unfortunately I'm told that the Brits aren't any better than we are at citations. Their genealogy stands on the archives, but neither one of us are any good at documenting it. Darn.

British genealogists are not name collectors like Americans are. In America we have people come up to us at conferences consistently and ask if we can print, 10,000, 15,000 or 20,000 names on a chart. (we can, our record still holds at just over 30,000 people which took 600 feet of charts). In England the consistent question was, " you probably can't print my file it is 200, or 240, or 260 people. When I showed pictures of some of the large charts we do in my lecture, I was met with some really strange looks.

British people didn't seem to be sharing their research with cousins or looking at the research of other people. Of those who had their information online, it didn't seem that they were looking for other people's research, but rather more documents to tie in. There was no name collecting going on that I could see. Again, I was never once approached by someone wanting to print out over a thousand names. I get approached about that in the states all the time and there isn't a conference that goes by where we aren't approached about printing 8,000 to 20,000 names at least a couple of times.

British people seem to be obsessed with getting the whole picture. Over and over and over again we were asked about charts showing all the brothers and sisters in a family, showing all the descendants that come from several ancestral lines, or all-in-one trees. They were not interested in the straight ancestral lines. They wanted to see all the lines and all the families.

British people are very localized in their research unlike Americans who have to know lots of different localities. In America we have to get our ancestor back over the ocean before we can do much. And then when we do we often have ancestors from several different countries. In my parent's generation you were talking about maybe 1-3 different countries because the immigrants had usually married within their own culture. But in my generation you are usually talking about 3-6 different areas of research and that will double again for my children's generation. We are a melting pot, and in being so, American genealogists have to learn to do research in several different areas. For the most part, British genealogists are dealing with one country, maybe Ireland or Wales or Scotland, and all of the records are treated the same. Even within the states we have 50 different ways the records have been kept. So genealogy is just a much harder scholarly research endeavor in the states, even though we aren't as inclined to be do the real research into the real documents but rely on compiled genealogies more.

In all, I think the British people are very very lucky to be so close to the record repositories and to live in a culture so closely tied to the past. I came away feeling that America is highly new and quick and flashy and disposable. But more on that to come...

Coming up next:

• What has caused the excitement in England and why are they able to have so much interest in genealogy?
• Differences in Marketing between the British and Americans
• What the Americans need to learn from the British about how to hold a genealogy conference.
• Janet Few--Harnessing the Facebook Generation--a fabulous lecture I got to go to.

And then, once I've processed it a little more, I can't wait to show you what I found at Trefusis.

Antique Genealogy

So I've been learning alot about antique genealogy practices in our extraction project. It's been quite interesting.

With cursory glances through the information that has been digitized, it looked like my great-Grandfather was keeping good track of the sources he'd used to find the information in his volumes of family group records. I've taken several friends to the Family History Library in Salt Lake to look up old family group records submitted by aunts or grandparents. And in the little box they were given to record the source of the information, there was often nothing listed, or a quick "family records" notation or something like that. My friends were left with little to nothing to go on. Glancing through Joseph's records it looked like he had real notations on each page, and I had looked forward to going through and really being able to build on his work.

But now that we are into this project, I'm finding that those notations--though blessedly consistent, are pretty brief. Often it sites parish records for the places listed in the group sheets. But as we've gone to look for those records at the library, we are finding that there may be several parishes in that vicinity and we are unsure which one Grandpa was referring to. It won't take much to figure out, but I'm realizing that perhaps Grandpa wasn't quite as meticulous as I had previously supposed.

Also, there are lots of abbreviations of place names throughout his work. I think there are two reasons for this. First, he was from England and in the British notations we are working on he didn't have to write it out, he knew where he was talking about. But three generations removed now, we don't. We'll have to go figure it out. But in Grandpa's defense, secondly, the family group sheets that were the standard back then didn't leave alot of room to be able to spell out all the details in the place names. He did what he could with the space he had.

It also looks like alot of his work was based on marriage records. I'm sure waiting for letters from England was tedious. It appears he went straight for the marriage records, and then estimated the births for each bride and groom and then went about piecing things together from there. There are alot of family group records with exact marriage information and estimated births.

I'm really proud of the fact that Joseph Hatten Carpenter, my Great grandfather was a member of the Genealogical Society of Utah, a fellow of the Institute of American Genealogy in Chicago, member of the Society of Genealogists of London, member of the National Genealogical Society in Washington D.C. and the National Genealogical Research Institute as well as other geographic and historical associations. I wish I could talk to him about my work as UGA president this year. I would love to hear what he thought about that.

In April 1959 Joseph wrote: "I have now reached my 98th birthday and I feel I can do little more to add to my several lines of ancestry. I can do nothing more with Rev. Grubbs, Rector of Spaxton, Somerset, who has so grossly deceived me. I leave the further solution to my descendants to attend to it when Grubbs died and a successor comes in who can more readily furnish the records of the Gibbs, Elliotts, and Carpenters of Tugswell Manor. Thus I close my research labors." However he continued working on his genealogical records until he died at the age of 103.

I wonder what Joseph thought about the generations that would come next and if they would try to build on his work. I'm sure he could never have imagined the databases, the software, and ipads, and google searches that would be available to us today. I know he did the best he could to pass things down to us in an organized way. I wonder what I should be doing to make sure that things are ready for future generations. Probably the most important thing would be to make sure that the next generation is vested in it and committed to keeping things updated and moving forward. Still working on them. Hopefully that is where we are headed.

Picture--Joseph and his second wife Lydia in 1961