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.

Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy 2016 and the UGA Award of Merit

As usual the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy was a phenomenal success and I enjoyed myself immensely.  This year was even more fantastic though because Kim and I were able to take the whole week off and simply sit in class.  For the last five years I've been involved with UGA and the SLIG committee in helping put on the institute, but this year I was able to just relax and be a student--enjoy it with my husband--and learn tons.  Thanks so much to our employees who kept Family ChartMasters humming and to the SLIG team for making the conference such a success.

Kim and I took Blaine Bettinger's Beginning DNA for Genealogy course.  If you haven't ever attended an institute, it is really something special.  We were able to take 20 courses just about DNA and it's use in genealogy.  Even though I knew quite a bit about DNA's use in genealogy, and we've had all of our parent's generation tested who were willing, along with all of Kim's brothers and our son, I'm really sure now that I have filled in all the holes, and have a really good understanding of the foundation of DNA research.  Not only that, I have a partner now who can work with me to solve genealogy problems and extend our research.  We studied YDNA, mtDNA, and atDNA and learned about all of the companies who do the testing, their pricing and databases, the third party tools that will help you interpret the data, the ways you can apply it to genealogy and the ethical considerations to be aware of.  We heard case studies about how it has been used to solve complex problems, and best of all, we were able to discuss the issues with many of the leaders in the genealogy industry as we spent the week with them.  I learned so much, over lunch, in the hallways and with dear friends.  So so awesome.  Blaine is a phenomenal teacher.  I really appreciate him as a well-educated instructor and as a good friend. 

As usual, I didn't think to take any pictures until the last day, and I'm shy about asking to take pictures with people anyway.  Here's Kim and I extracting strawberry DNA during the last class.  So fun to take the class together. 

One of the highlights of the week was getting to meet Jessica Taylor of Legacy Tree Genealogists. It was great to be able to talk to someone who is running a genealogy company and dealing with many of the same issues that we are.  Really competent genealogy business people are hard to come by so it is a real treasure when you find a new one.  I so appreciate all of our genealogy business friends that I can bounce ideas off and learn from and I'm so excited to find a new one. 

And to top it all off, I was completely surprised Friday night when they gave me the UGA Award of Merit for my service to the association.  I had so many people come up to me and thank me and tell me I had really done great things.  I was overwhelmed. And then, when I posted this picture to Facebook, the outpouring was unbelievable.  I had so many comments and likes, I've got to be careful not to get a big head.  Tessa Keough made my day when she commented, " you are so positive and enthusiastic. Your company provides a great product and you do lots of volunteer activities - people notice and see you do things for the right reasons, furthering genealogy and family history. You show that you can be "in it" for others and also be successful, all with graciousness. Congratulations - well deserved."  Wow.  

And all of this was ten times better because Kim was able to be there with me. It was so fun to introduce him to all my SLIG friends and have him to hang out with us. Thanks so much to our awesome people at Family ChartMasters for letting us go.  Life is just really really good.

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.

FamilySearch Blogger Dinner part II

So I promised to tell you about the rest of the blogger dinner.  They had some really interesting things to say about searching on FamilySearch

First Mark Gowan talked about the Record Hints.  They've been there for a while, but they are making things slicker with three new icons.  1) A gold icon for Record Hints.  These are places where indexing has uncovered a document that FamilySearch has been able to determine fits into your tree.  This is the same as the "Record Hints" that were previously on the right hand screen.  But the cute little magnifying class icon fits into other parts of the user experience--the pedigree chart, the descendancy view, etc.  That will help lead alot of the beginner users to the sources more effectively.  A good step in the right direction.  Other icons include 2) a blue icon for Research Suggestions and 3) a red icon for Data Problems.  These weren't really explained, but I'm excited to explore these more.  Anything that brings real research skills closer to the beginner is a good thing.

The power behind these icons is what is important though.  According to Robert Kehrer, FamilySearch has developed a really good algorithm that brings back good hints--not just hints-- an all important distinction.  Robert explained that the algorithm collects all of the person's data, and then collects all of the person's relatives and their data.  They take that whole cloud and compare it with the documents that have been indexed.  Then Robert showed us the new functionality that shows the whole family in that record and puts them on one side of the screen and shows the family from the tree on the other side of the screen.  Seeing those relationships helps a new researcher to make better decisions.  They can then go through and attach the source to each person in the tree.   This is a vast improvement over the previous user interface where you had to attach everyone separately through several steps. 

I applaud the movement toward source centricity and FamilySearch's continued efforts to make it easy for the beginner researcher to get into the documents easily.  This is a great step toward making it easier for newbies to play together with more advanced researchers.  FamilySearch will always need to work more on "newbie proofing"  One of FamilySearch's main agendas is to attract the 90%+ members of the LDS faith to genealogy.  Every step towards making it easy for newbies to focus on documents is a step in the right direction.  And as I've said many times before, that new person may have a box in the attic that solves all of your issues.  We have to love newbies if we are going to thrive as a community. But most of these screens work best with simple documents like the censuses.  Once you get into more complicated documents, it gets a little trickier.

There were the typical concerns in the room about the common tree aspect of FamilySearch.  What about the sources that are hard to interpret?  Once you get out of the censuses it gets trickier.  Judy Russell mentioned a source where her Uncle is listed as Bertie and is listed as a girl when his real name was Bert.  The regular criticism of creating a common tree rather than having individual trees like Ancestry and MyHeritage is that the records aren't clean enough to come to a common consensus.  Robert and Mark had the best answer I've heard yet about FamilySearch's position on that.  He said they are "Idealists" that they believe most of the disputes will come to a consensus.  Lots of people think they are too optimistic.  While there will be some unending disputes, we can hope that they are right.  Time will tell.  I personally love that they ask for a reason when adding a source to the tree and give us a place for discussions.  While that won't help in some sticky situations with ongoing cousin wars, at least they are providing an avenue to capture that all important document *analysis* that most databases have overlooked in the past.  I remember talking to Ransom Love and others about this in our affiliate meetings years before new.familysearch was launched.  Even back then, one could see that the person with the most time to track the database is going to win the dispute--not necessarily the person with the most knowledge.  FamilySearch has always had that optimism.  In a couple more years, it will be interesting to see if the breakdown is 98% settled vs. 2% disputed, or 80% settled vs. 20% disputed, or 30% settled and 70% disputed. One can hope.

It was also good to hear the clearest explanation I've heard yet about copyright issues related to uploading images to the database.  FamilySearch is not policing copyright upfront--they don't require you to click a button to state that you have copyright permission (like we do at familychartmasters.com)  Their approach has been to state in the Terms of Use that the user is responsible for copyright and then deal with any complaints and problems that arise.  Hopefully the users will respect the copyrights of the record holders.  I know I have found some really great stuff that I'd love to add to the database, but really can't--I can only write good source citations that will point people in the right direction.  It was good to hear what the official policy and plan of attack FamilySearch is working with on that.

Finally, the best part of the night was when Robert went to attach a source to a person on the tree and lightning struck outside at that exact moment.  Considering that FamilySearch is sponsored by the LDS church, does that mean that your genealogy research can come with Divine approval?  Now there is something to really hope for. I only wish it could all be that correct.

Some Thoughts on Advanced Methodology

It has been a whirlwind January.  So much fun.  I got to take a week and go to the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy.  So many good friends there and so much to enjoy.  And then the very next day we took off to California for a week with my whole family to celebrate my parent's return from a 2 1/2 year mission abroad.  So much partying.  So much fun.  Thank you to Kim and Lara and Erin and everybody for letting me go. 

While I was at SLIG, I had the opportunity to attend Dr. Thomas Jones' Advanced Methodology Class.  This is such a well respected class, it fills every year within 5 minutes of when registration opens.  I had heard great things about this class, but I was more influenced by my previous interactions with Dr. Jones and some of the research stories that had been floating around SLIG.  Dr. Jones was always completely kind and respectful to me as UGA president in dealing with contracts and planning and such.  And as we developed the Advanced Practicum course, I loved hearing about the stories of how he and others had traced people who had moved, and remarried and changed their names throughout their lives by reading the nuances in the records.  I was looking forward to learning how to dance around the brick walls that other people have and how it was more about what you see in the records than what records you find.

I was not disappointed.  Alot of family history puzzles are solved not by your knowledge of the sources but rather the methodology of your research.  When I became involved in genealogy, I was frustrated with how often people took everything at face value, without an exhaustive search and without drilling down to original sources.  I'm totally a footnote nerd.  And I found my people here. 

I am proud to say my Master's degree in Library and Information Science held up well.  I was pleased

with that because I had heard horror stories about how demanding the class was and how hard the homework was.  I can't really say I learned too much, but it was really fun to hear about the stories of well researched problems.  Stories like how tracing an immigrant family's neighbors and the birthplaces of their children helped show exactly when this group of families had immigrated from Ireland, through Quebec and into New York and Indiana together and helped find the place of birth for the immigrant.  Or how lining up the tax, church, property, and vital information about a person can show that one person is really two people because of inconsistencies.  So so cool.  SLIG was the perfect mix of staying out too late with your friends, and then being surprised to be wide awake in a class about Federal Land records after lunch the next day.  I ate up every moment of class.

Like I posted on facebook, I found I was a bi-polar genealogist.  I LOVE the exacting details in Dr Thomas Jones advanced methodology class at SLIG. But I also love making it easy and attracting beginners to the joy of family history.

The biggest revelation that I had came at the very end of class.  Tom suggested that we need to make time to do our own research as part of our work.  He said that university professors have their own pet research projects--that's where they gain the materials for publishing and for their teaching.  I come from a long line of university professors so that resonated with me.  I had decided this year to work on more of my own family history instead of only working on everyone else's.  And I've been able to do alot of my own work of my own while I've been experimenting with my kids and writing my Zap The Grandma Gap books.  But other than that it always seemed a little self indulgent to work on my own research.  Now I can see that that is crucial to my development as a genealogy professional and as a speaker so that I don't stagnate.  If I had gotten nothing else out of the class, it would have been worth it for that one reason.  I now feel like I have permission to work on my own research as part of my professional development.  I'm so excited about that.

I highly recommend the class.  If you can get in.  Registration for next year starts June 7th at SLIG.UGAGENALOGY.ORG 

YOU CAN NEVER TRUST A SOURCE IN ISOLATION  --  Thomas Jones

I'm teaching a fantastic new genealogy course at SLCC

If you read this blog, you may or may not know that I have been teaching Genealogy and Library Science courses for several years in the Continuing Education Department of Salt Lake Communtity College.  I was recruited by Karen Clifford to teach the Genealogy technology course that she and Lorraine Bourne had already developed.  It is three college credit hours and is taught entirely online.  This was a great fit for me.  I had been Lead Reference Librarian at SLCC before having my children and while there, I was on a multi-university team that wrote the first online class in the state of Utah.  (dating myself there aren't I?). Teaching online and creating engaging curriculums is something I've loved since my years teaching at BYU, SLCC, and then at my children's charter schools.

As I became more busy over the last couple of years, I kept teaching this class, I enjoyed interacting with the students but I didn't have time to do the technical and content updates that I wanted to with the class.  When Karen Johnsson asked me to teach a library course last year, of course I jumped at the chance to use my library skills, but the wonderful Library course developed by Jen Hughes made me want to find the time even more to update the Genealogy course and make it something worthy of this discipline I love and a worthy opening course to the whole Genealogy program.  The program has continued to develop too, with fantastic courses designed to help you prepare for certification, and taught by a world-class faculty with Kelly Summers and Sharon DeBartolo Carmack joining Karen and Lorraine and I.

Finally, this summer, Kelly and I dove in and re-wrote Genealogy 1000 Computer and Internet tools for Genealogy.  It is a fantastic course and I am really proud of it.  Anyone can take it, even an experienced genealogist who just wants to brush up on their tech skills.  The course is really quite brilliant.. It takes you through the basic principles of genealogy research and let's you explore and practice on the new technology by having you start with yourself and completely document and analyze the first three generations in your family.  So a beginner can start here, but even most experienced genealogists haven't usually gone back and really well documented their parents' and grandparents' lives.  It gives you the excuse to go back and do that first part right while you are trying out the new technology.

And the reason I want to take it myself is because of the "Preserving the Past and Present" module.  We go through websites where you can post your family history findings, blogs and social networking, interviewing, scanning and publishing and then your assignment is to pick a project that you have wanted to do and spend six hours working on what is most important in your history. It really is a chance to just spend some time doing what you have been wanting to do.  My sons have been talking about taking the course and  I really think it is a good enough course to hold their attention.  There are lots of videos and it is well organized.  I am excited to see what they would pick for the Preservation project.

I really loved working with Kelly.  We completely saw what needed to be done with the class in the same way, and we brought different skills and experience to the course which made a great combination.  I really respect and love Kelly as a person, and I'm really proud of what we've accomplished here together.

So take a look.... And come join us.  Registration needs to be done by August 16th.  You can take it from wherever you are... for credit or as an audit.  I know you'll learn something and you'll have an excuse to work more on your own family history.

Taking my Dad on a Who Do You Think You Are Tour

 Last weekend I got to take my Father back to where his patriarchal line originated in Bradford on Tone and Taunton in Somerset England.  It was such a privilege to get to show him around and help him experience some of the lives of his ancestors.  We stayed in a Yalland's bed and breakfast farmhouse near Taunton.  The room we had actually existed at the time our ancestors were there.  I'm still having a hard time wrapping my mind around the 1600s and the 1700s. 



I took Dad out to my favorite place, the Somerset Heritage Centre and he agreed to be my assistant for some research there for a couple of days.  The people there were so kind and generous to us.  Phil Hawking was very attentive when we had questions and did lots of work to help us uncover more information about our ancestors.  We came home with scores of images that I now get to go through.  When Dad's grandfather first wrote the Vicar in Bradford on Tone around the turn of the century and the Vicar started sending him information about his family from the parish records there, he wrote that a "most enjoyable pastime" ensued as he tried to piece together the records of his family.  I know just how that must have felt. 

Dad came face to face with the wills and deeds I found last year of his 5th and 6th great grandparents.  It is so mind boggling to see the signatures and wax seals on these documents that you know where signed before the Declaration of Independence and Constitution of the United States were signed.  It makes everything so real.  Even that old.

Dad helped me go through the parish registers that hold the records of his patriarchal line.  We digitized several years of records off the microfilm with Dad running the microfilm reader and me running the computer.  It was nice to sit together with him and fun to hear him say, "There's a Carpenter, there's a Carpenter."  We found the marriage records and christening records for many of his ancestors and we're going to have fun going back through and documenting and piecing together the siblings and the families.  Though my university administrator Dad knows how to research, you couldn't call him a genealogist, but I think he had fun. 

 We went to the church in Bradford on Tone where all of these parish records were created.  Here he is with the christening font in the church.  I don't know how old the font is but this is the place where generations of his family were christened.  It is amazing to think this is where they went to church. 

We had a wonderful dinner at the White Horse Inn again.  The people there have been so gracious to us when we have visited and the food is wonderful.  It has been really nice to visit there as many times as I have.  I feel so blessed to have been able to take my children and my father there now and it is so fulfilling to have been able to have been able to share this trip with my family reaching up and down.  

We went to High Street in Taunton where Dad's Great Grandfather was born and where his Great-Great Grandfather had a grocery store.  I haven't been able to figure out where exactly they lived but they lived somewhere on this block that is now a nice pedestrian mall.  We had a nice walk in the morning around Taunton. 

 We visited the churches in Taunton where some of Dad's ancestors were married.  I lucked out this time and every church we went to was open.  It was so exciting to go in and see where these people were married and where they went to church.  We found a Congregationalist church that was built when Dad's Great Grandfather was a young child just down the street from where his family lived.  He grew up to leave the Anglican church and become a Congregationalist minister.  So I'm wondering if that new church had something to do with his going into the ministry.  More research to do.  :)  Here's Dad in front of St. James church where his fifth great grandparents were married just over 250 years ago. 

And as a final treat, after we came back into London, the next day we went out to find the plot in the Gravesend Cemetery where many members of this family came to be buried.  I hadn't scoped this site out before so when we walked in and found this fantastic tombstone it was a great surprise for me. It listed the seven family members buried there including Dad's Great-Grandparents and Great-Great Grandparents. The tombstone was in wonderful shape and had a wealth of genealogical information on it.   Such a fantastic find.

So on my way to speaking at the Who Do You Think You Are Conference this year, we had our own who do you think you are tour.  It was fantastic.  Simply lovely. 

Confidentiality

So we took our first real family vacation since we started this company, where we really left everything and let our employees pick up the slack. Hopefully none of you noticed. While we have traveled more than I could ever imagine with this company, and it's been a great education for the kids, it has always been with the email and sometimes phones attached but this time we left them home. It was blissful, and as any company owner would know--quite a feat.

I have some great pictures of all of us at the Grand Canyon, Mesa Verde and Arches National Park. Cute, funny and just beautiful. But the one I'm going to show you is this one:
Yep. Just me. Because our children are still minors, you aren't going to find them in any of our pictures or social networking on the net. I've kept them and information about them very tight to my chest because they are the focus of my life and too precious to treat with even the slightest shade of risk. Now they are getting older, and I'm probably being a little neurotic at this point, but unless you happen to meet them at a conference you probably won't be hearing about them anytime soon.

Sometimes you want to do the same with a genealogy chart. In each of the genealogy database programs, you can mark the people you want to keep confidential. In most genealogy programs it is called privatizing, using privacy settings or marking a person, event or relationship as confidential. Sometimes it is just a setting on who you want to export to a gedcom but then you can send the file to us that way and those people will be excluded. Look up the word private or confidential in the help screens on your program and they will tell you how your program does it.

Normally though, we don't need you to do any special processing before you send us the file. You can send us the actual file in any format, you don't even have to create a gedcom. In fact we would prefer that you didn't because people often inadvertently exclude people they want on the chart. Just send us the whole file and we'll just take out the parts we need. The file doesn't go anywhere else, and we'll delete it in 30 days as soon as we know you are happy with your chart. At that point, we are happy to go in and create a confidentiality setting for all the living people or anything else like that. But we probably won't know which ex spouses you don't want to show, or step children or even black sheep if you are so inclined. So on those you may want to privatize them yourself. Or just let us know specifically who to take out. We're happy to help you any way we can to make this easy for you.

Recommendations

I have worked with A.C. extensively over the last year with the Utah Genealogical Association. He is a vibrant spot in the genealogy world. You'll do well to watch his information on Mac genealogy and mobile genealogy and he also does lookups at the Family History Library in Salt Lake. Take a look:

For immediate Release
Sunday, January 2, 2011

A FRESH LOOK FOR A NEW YEAR

Find My Ancestor Has Received a Makeover

January 2, 2011 - Taylorsville, UT. Find My Ancestor has announced the redesign and update to their site. The site has received many new pages and features including new downloads, new resources, a completely new blog design, social media integration and
many more. With the new design, Find My Ancestor is much easier to navigate and find
your way around making it a more enjoyable experience for the users. Using the new
website builder makes it very easy for creating new pages, quickly allowing Find My
Ancestor to be able to create more pages, how-to’s, downloads and many other features
to help it’s users learn more about genealogy and the tools available to help them in their
research.

About A.C. Ivory

As a genealogist specializing in the use of technology, social media and Mac computers, A.C. Ivory relies on his young genealogist perspectives to relay the importance of using the new tools and resources that will help genealogists achieve their research goals faster, easier and more efficiently. As the creator of FindMyAncestor.com, he has striven to provide genealogists with genealogical news, events, conference reports and new technology updates available to help genealogists in their research efforts.

About Find My Ancestor

Find My Ancestor provides various services to the genealogy and family history community including education, design, Family History Library research assistance and more.

A.C. Ivory is the driving force for Find My Ancestor. A.C. Ivory has been involved with genealogy and family history for over 4 years. A.C. Ivory is only 23 years old and full of genealogy knowledge and ambition.

Follow Find My Ancestor on Facebook (http://facebook.com/findmyancestor), Twitter (http:// twitter.com/findmyancestor) and on our blog at http://blog.findmyancestor.com

BYU Genealogy conference

Even though Randy has already beat us to it...

http://www.geneamusings.com/2009/07/almost-as-good-as-being-there.html (Funny how he can be so on top of it when he wasn't even there. :-) I'm looking forward to when I get to retire and actually do genealogy and write for my blog. But I'm sure I'll never keep up with Randy.)

I have finally unburied at work enough to post a little about the BYU Genealogy conference last week. Fabulous conference. It has a little different layout for the vendors than the rest of the conferences we do. Most of the vendors are out in the hallway and I usually get to sit at the end of the hall with two chairs right next to our table. I should really set up a video camera next time, because I get to sit and visit with all the best people. (Of course then they might not dish as much.) At the BYU conference, it gets really quiet between classes so we have lots of time to talk. I really LOVE that.

I actually tried hard to pop in and out of a few classes this time too. Some of them I got to stay for more than others. I tried to catch some of Karen Clifford's and Peggy Ryskamp's classes on getting accredited. I bought Karen's book, Becoming an Accredited Genealogist. You can get it directly from her at tamiwgra@aol.com. With my Master's in Library Science I haven't worried about getting accredited much, but it is something I'd just like to do for myself. Now if I could just find 2 minutes to rub together to work on it. Don't hold your breath, but I'll let you know when I get serious.

My classes "Certified Genealogy Software that makes New FamilySearch Easier" and "Basic Research Practices in the Age of New FamilySearch" went well. I was nervous about the second one because it was a brand new lecture and usually I like to try them out in a smaller venue a few times before I hit a bigger conference with them. I basically go through the GPS standard and apply it to New FamilySearch. The comparison isn't great right now because they are still working on creating better source citations at FamilySearch, but they *are* working on it and I have full confidence that New FamilySearch will eventually become the resource we all hope it will be. I have a few things I need to tweak on the lecture, but I had tons of people stop at the booth and say they appreciated both lectures. I don't usually get that kind of response so I must have done something right. Or struck some kind of nerve...

But then Mark Tucker gave a lecture on Friday focused just on the GPS standard and hit the ball out of the park. He is a master at graphics and that is such a usefull skill when trying to explain something as complicated as genealogy research practices. He posted his slides at: http://www.thinkgenealogy.com/2009/07/28/navigating-research-with-the-gps-july-2009-update/ They are fabulous. I talked to Mark afterward and he said he had followed the book Slideology in creating those great slides. I have a copy of that coming in the mail--can't wait--but then I'll need to redo all my slides I'm sure.

Ancestry Insider and I both tweeted Mark's class: AI gave me permission to post both sets of tweets together. Here they are:

JanetHovorka: Going to actually twitter Mark Tucker's lecture. We'll see what Ancestry Insider and I duplicate.
JanetHovorka: Genealogy Proof Standard--by Mark Tucker at BYU "How many people own evidence explained? How many people understand it? laughs
AncestryInsider: Mark Tucker, "Navigating Research with the Genealogical Proof Standard."
AncestryInsider: His slides are posted on his blog: http://www.ThinkGenealogy.com/map/ Go ahead and follow along!
JanetHovorka: Good thing AI is sitting in front of me. Reminding me to use the #byugen
AncestryInsider: Hi, Chart Chick!
JanetHovorka: Professionalism only came to Genealogy in mid 1960s, Citation article by Mills in late 1979 Cite your Sources by Richard Lackey 1980
JanetHovorka: 1997 Evidence by Mills 2000 BCG standards Manual Evidence Explained 2007
AncestryInsider: Implied step in GPS: Define research goals (slides 10-14). Illustrate the process with a case study: Worth Tucker's birth info.
JanetHovorka: The best way to not get lost is to always know where you are GPS proof standard and Geographical Positioning systems
AncestryInsider: Where do I start my research? What record to start with? He teaches boy scouts that knowing where you are prevents getting lost.
JanetHovorka: Define: Statement, Question, Hypothesis. Research plan and research log Start with Known Information
JanetHovorka: Known Information: give source, information found, and Informant/relationship. That is where you start.
JanetHovorka: How do you come up with Research Strategy? Familysearch, research guidance, genealogy software, personal experience, society, FHC
AncestryInsider: GPS: #Genealogical Proof Standard
JanetHovorka: FamilySearch Research guidance is a great way to get started on your research strategy. Follow that plan, find source, update log
AncestryInsider: Covering through slides 22, research plan.
AncestryInsider: Slide 32, picture of his sweetheart (which we all assume is his wife).
JanetHovorka: Do I really need to do anymore? Step 1 of GPS Reasonably exhaustive search in reliable sources that may be pertinent
JanetHovorka: Just because we are tired does that make it an exhaustive search? Oh yeah!
AncestryInsider: GPS Step 1: Reasonably exhaustive search of reliable sources for pertinent info.
JanetHovorka: Source Provenance: Tracking the derivative source back to the original. Why do we care? Helps decide which is the better source?
JanetHovorka: Would you go so far to see a hard copy rather than an electronic version? If I could, yes.
AncestryInsider: Source Provenance: The issue is, what are the better sources? Original source is better than derivative.
JanetHovorka: Great slide graphics for Mark Tucker's lecture at www.thinkgenealogy.com Mark is great at graphics.
AncestryInsider: A derivative is better than the sources derived from it. Independent origin strengthens confidence.
AncestryInsider: Slide 39 introduces another important form. Research Analysis.
JanetHovorka: Every time there is a derivative, there is a chance for a mistake to be made, a chance for something to be lost.
JanetHovorka: Research Analysis document list every source and analyze whether derivative or not
AncestryInsider: GPS Step 2: Collect a complete and accurate citation to each source of information that is used.
JanetHovorka: Legacy, RootsMagic and FamilyTreeMaker all use Mills templates for sources.
JanetHovorka: Step 3 GPS Cite each source- Complete Accurate Citation. Mills. You need both Evidence and Evidence Explained. if only 1, get EE
AncestryInsider: Recommends Mills' _Evidence Explained_. All the latest genealogy software supports templates matching this book.
JanetHovorka: Why citation guidelines? The sources that we consult are different than others. Like a silver set engraved with a wedding date.
AncestryInsider: Aside: EE is necessary because genealogists use a wide range of sources well beyond those in Chicago or Turabian.
JanetHovorka: Mills can help you cite derivatives. Ancestry Insider: Assume the URL is going to change.
JanetHovorka: Different databases cite sources differently, familysearch, ancestry, different than evidence explained. We need to stick to one.
JanetHovorka: Mark envisions a world where an image on the internet is downloaded with a complete and accurate citation. I wish
AncestryInsider: (Thanks @JanetHovorka) Should there be one set of common citation guidelines? (slide 49)
JanetHovorka: Step 3 Analyze, correlate, information, evidence. Primary and Secondary information. Great graphics/slides.
AncestryInsider: Slide 54: Sources can be original, derivative (goes into types of derivatives). Slide 55: Information can be primary or secondary.
JanetHovorka: Sources: Original (image copy, record copy, duplicate original) Derivative (transcript, extract, abstract)
JanetHovorka: Information: (primary, secondary) Evidence: (Direct, indirect, negative)
AncestryInsider: Sometimes derivatives can be treated as an original, such as photographic copies such as micofilm or digitized.
JanetHovorka: Census original, census fed copy, microfilm copy, digital, printout. Derivatives. Skipping back helps. What errors could happen?
JanetHovorka: Can the baby have first hand knowledge of the birth event? :-) Only primary sources are people who were there.
AncestryInsider: Primary information comes from those with first-hand knowledge. Review your sources, information, and evidence for types they are.
JanetHovorka: Spiritual evidence has not been accepted as evidence since 1965. --Ancestry Insider. #byugen :-) I'm remembering to quote you on that.
JanetHovorka: recommending findagrave.com
JanetHovorka: Have to keep track of whether you are talking about sources, information or evidence. Picture of gravestone perfect example.
JanetHovorka: Don't take things as truth because they are carved in stone :-)
JanetHovorka: Death certificates perfect example of primary and secondary information.Does the bereaved ever really remember the right birthdate?
JanetHovorka: Counting up the sources, you can completely count how the sources prove something by what kind of source, information, and evidence
AncestryInsider: GPS Step 4: Resolve any conflicts/contradictions in the information.
AncestryInsider: See the excellent example of slide 79 showing conflicts in our case study of Worth Tucker's birth info.
JanetHovorka: "Bad news guys we have to resolve the consequence" #byugen No "I'm going with that one."
JanetHovorka: List conflicts and record the analysis and resolution
JanetHovorka: Darn I have to quit while we are still resolving conflicts. Have to go back to the booth. I leave the rest to you with a salute AI
AncestryInsider: No conclusion is ever completely final.
marktucker: My presentation went great! Wonderful group of people in the class.

You can look at other tweets on the conference by looking for the hashtags #byugen at Twitter.

These are two fabulous thinkers--especially in the realm of how to use sources. Sources is really THE all important thing in Genealogy. Go check out other work they have done in the area at: http://www.thinkgenealogy.com and http://www.ancestryinsider.blogspot.com.

Looking forward to the next conference...

Triathalons and Patience in Genealogy

You may be wondering why you haven't heard anything from me this summer about doing more triathalons. (I'm sure you were just wondering that.)

I fell in early March. It was one of those strange falls where you hit it just wrong. Well, I hit my left knee really hard. Flat on the cement. It didn't really hurt the day of, but then I could hardly walk for the next couple of days. I knew I had done something to it, but I didn't want to deal with it. My father's family has a thorough history of knee problems and lots of knee replacements all around. So I just went into denial, and didn't want to go there. I tried to exercise some, and thought I would just push through it. I still had a month or two before I had to be ready for the first triathalon I wanted to do.

Turns out--not such a great idea. A couple of weeks ago, I finally gave in and went to the doctor. I'm sure I aggravated it more by trying to keep going. I should have just taken it easy. The good news was that I have good cartilage--part of my father's family's problem. Bad news, my muscles were all out of whack from trying to limp around on it, and my knee cap is messed up. I went into physical therapy to move things around, but I have the patience of a gnat and still want to push it too far. So I'm working on it slowly and surely.

I'm sure there is a family history lesson in this. I think you sometimes just have to have patience. I taught my serendipity class in Colorado last weekend. I talked about how there are lots of stories about how strange things happen to come together to further a genealogist's work, and most genealogists have experienced that. Randy Seaver calls them Geneagasms. It was fun, and at the end of class I opened it up to the class members and heard some more great stories. In fact, there was kind of a relaxing sigh, that they could acknowledge these hunches, or coincidences without thinking it was only happening to them. But in relating some of those stories, I had to stop and caution the class, that you can't expect serendipitous things to happen. Genealogy--in my experience--really comes in fits and starts. You work and work and work and then you catch a break. In fact, the really good serendipity stories are so good precisely because someone has been working on the problem for many years, and then finally a miracle happened. You just have to have PATIENCE. Wish I was better at that.

Well, I can still relate triathalons to any experience. I've got to get back at them so that I can start braging about it again. "That reminds me of a triathalon I did once...."

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.

Sources 2

I'm all into source integrity lately. (Did you click on any in my last post? :-D) Here is another good link today.
Six Genealogy Myths to Avoid
Thanks Family Tree Magazine. Good Stuff.

Sheva the Fair, my most famous Great-Grandmother

For today's carnival of genealogy I've chosen to tell you about my most famous ancestor who changed the course of Jewish History. Sheva of Alexandria also known as Sheva the Fair.

Sheva is the seventeenth great-grandmother of my father's mother through my Sylvester, Streeter and Schram lines. She was born in 34AD in Alexandria, Egypt and brought by her parents to En-Gedi Israel in 45AD. From the extant sources we know that she grew up happily with her two older brothers there by the spring in En-Gedi where her father was a sandal maker.

Sheva changed the course of history in 74 AD when she was taken prisoner by General Lucius Flavius Silva, the Roman commander of the 10th legion stationed at Masada. As I'm sure you know, Masada was one of the last strongholds of the Jewish people after the fall of Jerusalem. As described by Flavius Josephus in his book Jewish War (7:143) the seige of the Romans against the Jewish Sicarians on the inpenetrable Masada was one of the great military standoffs in history. The Romans withstood the heat of the Negev desert to build 4 forts and lay siege to the fortress, eventually building a siege ramp of thousands of tons of rock which still stands today. According to Josephus (Jewish Antiquitites 2:434), the fortress walls were breached by the battering ram on 16 April 74AD where the Romans found that 961 of the 966 men, women and children who had occupied the mount had taken their lives in a mass suicide rather than be captured by the Romans.

The famous Israeli archaeologist Yigael Yadin discovered Sheva's papyrus codex journal when he excavated Masada in 1964. It was found with a primitive roman mirror, linen scarf and some high heeled sandals (only worn by Roman nobility.) The journal has shed much light on the life of the Roman soldiers and specifically Silva. While Sheva wrote of her growing love for Silva and their deep relationship, it also describes her gentle turning of his heart towards compassion and respect for the Jewish people. It is because of Sheva that Silva became a life-long advocate for the Jewish people. Through Sheva's journal that we know of Silva's response to the suicide at Masada, "A victory? What have we won? We've won a rock in the middle of a wasteland, on the shores of a poisoned sea." Tragically, while the fortress was under seige, Silva gave her the choice of returning to Rome with him or taking the means necessary for her to live independently of him. Rather than being a kept woman, she chose to take the wealth and soldiers Silva offered her and return to Alexandria. It was with Silva's money that she became one of the founding benefactors of the famous Library of Alexandria, one of the largest libraries in the ancient world. The sculpture above stands in the library courtyard. Later fragmentary sources tell of her finding love with Demetrius of Phaleron. While she had three children with Demetrius, including my sixteenth great-grandfather Theophrastus, it is known that she always felt her soulmate was Flavius Silva.

Much has been written and said about Sheva in the many books, articles and etc. about Masada and the Library of Alexandria. In fact, Sheva was portrayed by Barbara Carrera in the 1981 movie Masada. Barbara met with me and my grandmother to do research for the role early in 1981. She ended up doing an ok job I think but didn't really capture the beautiful grace of this amazing woman.

Genealogical information on my father's mother's mother's line is from Ancestry's One World Tree and these personal websites.

Sources

A great companion to my New FamilySearch rants.

Top 5 Absolutely Worst Genealogy Resources...Ever...I Mean These Are Horrible

Thanks Tim Great Laugh.

Where to put your genealogy endeavors

I ran across an interesting section in Organizing your Family History Search: effective ways to gather & protect your genealogical research by Sharon DeBartolo Carmack (Betterway Books: Cincinnati, 1999) about what to do with your genealogy research when you don't have an office. (Or like me, when your projects overflow out of your office.)

Your dining room table looks perfect until it is time for dinner, so here are a few options:

• Try a cabinet style computer desk, or a folding screen to take over a corner of the family room.
• Take over a large closet, you can build shelves (or I got mine from IKEA) and make a desk out of an ironing board (my closet desk is from an old kitchen countertop when we were remodeling.)
• Get a laptop instead of a desktop (Sharon says you can make an office out of anywhere, even the bathroom if you need to when you have a laptop)
• Make use of the library for books and journals--don't buy as much. (good advice for all of us--overflowing office or not.)
• Go ahead and use the kitchen table--buy tv trays for eating
• Move to a climate where you can eat on the patio.
• (I would add--just eat out)
• Kick a kid out of their bedroom.
• Or just go for the "I'm hopelessly hooked on genealogy" decor

Sharon's book was light and humorous with some good ideas. Thankfully, I have a great office--I needed a place to be able to get away and work. But I also turned the closet in that office into shelving space and a second desk. My daughter has claimed the second desk and joins me to do her homework there. Now if either of us could just keep the desks cleaned off....

Barry Ewell at the St George Family History Expo

I have always said I learn more from the vendor's hall than I do from the classes at conferences. But I went into the last three conferences hoping to slip into a few classes to review here on my blog. I only got to one so far, however I'm going to keep trying. We are glad our vendor's booth has been so busy and my own teaching keeps me running too. It would probably help if I wasn't talking so much with the attendees and other speakers and lecturers but it is just too much fun to catch up with everyone.

I did get to catch Barry Ewell's class "Internet Security for the Genealogist" at the St. George Expo. Barry is a celebrity around here not only for his great classes but also because he so generously shares his knowledge and powerpoint slides. If you send a message to: bj57barry@msn.com and put in the subject line: "St.George_Send All" he will send you the .pdfs of all his powerpoint slides for his three lectures in St. George--1) Million Dollar Genealogy on a Slim-Pickens Budget, 2) How to Effectively Conduct Genealogy Research on the Internet, and 3) Internet Security for the Genealogist.

I went to his Internet Security class expecting a refresher on how to keep your genealogy information private, but instead got a class on how to keep your computer healthy--unexpected but well worth it. Genealogists do a large amount of surfing and downloading and can get into trouble with viruses and spyware. While we do our share of protecting around here, I jotted down a few notes that it might be good for you to review too:

• Barry really likes Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. After my recent computer breakdown, I downloaded Firefox and I am quite loving it. Lots less glitches and it seems faster. I like the interface a little better too.
• Barry also said to stay away from Norton Utilities--it has a large footprint (takes up too much memory) on your computer and often conflicts with other software. He likes the McAffee suite, Kaspersky suite, and WebRoot that you can get for $30 a year. Well worth it to protect yourself. He recommended the Internet Security Suites Software Review to check out which one is right for you.
  
• He also reminded me to hit ctrl-W (or on an apple command-W) to close pop up windows. If you click on the x in the top right corner, it can still take that as a response and download something to your computer.

When you guard yourself against malicious internet problems, you end up guarding everyone else you work with too. Don't be the person to pass it on. There were lots of other suggestions in his lecture that you might need reminding of--write Barry for his slides to make sure you are following good internet protocol for protecting your computer and your files.

Barry is also in the process of launching mygenshare.com, a website devoted to "learning, sharing, contemplating, collaboration or simply enjoying genealogy." It looks like it will be a great place to go for training. I'm looking forward to seeing what he has in store. You can sign up for his newsletter there so that you can be informed on what is coming.

Generation Maps receives Family Search Developer Award

At the Family Search Developers conference today, Generation Maps received the:
WEB USE OF MEDIA CATEGORY: Best Website Feature for Printing Award.

By simply typing in your New FamilySearch username and password, Generation Maps can take data from the new database to print any kind of decorative or working genealogy chart. The award highlights our work in making navigation of the database easier by printing the big picture of the data—off the screen and out where it is all visible.

Early users are really excited to see the extensive data from the database in one piece. One lady said she thought she had been the only person working on her Eastern European lines, and was thrilled to find other cousins to collaborate with, and to be able to see exactly what they had done and compare it to her work.

New FamilySearch is built to encourage collaboration. On each of your ancestors, you are able to see what other people have added about that person. While the system is still being rolled out, and has lots of improvements in the works, it promises to bring a whole new level of collaboration to family history work.

Several years ago Generation Maps was asked with 6 other companies to become one of the LDS church's early commercial affiliates and to develop products to work with the new database that will eventually replace FamilySearch. We have since become one of the first certified affiliates. (http://www.familysearch.org/eng/affiliates/index.html). As we sat in the development meetings, we tried to come up with ways that Generation Maps could help the user navigate that database. We focused on getting things out and off the screen to be able to see the big picture--something we do best.

Overall, Generation Maps continues to be your one-stop, easy to use, very affordable source for all kinds and sizes of genealogy charts—all of these available with new FamilySearch data or any easily uploaded genealogy file.

Working Charts -

Inexpensive, expansive charts designed to display many generations of data all on one chart. Perfect for assisting your research, family reunion displays, etc.

FamilySearch Family Tree Charts -

Designed to help you navigate the information, then efficiently analyze, organize and clean up the data found in the new program.

Decorative Charts -

Beautiful handcrafted, decorative charts for framing. Select from various backgrounds, fonts and embellishments; add photographs, include step families or other relationships, then create exactly what you want. Generation Maps individually handcrafts each chart, giving personal attention to quality and detail. With decorative charts, the user will receive a website link to your chart via email so you can approve your creation before it is printed.

There is no software to purchase, no program to learn, and no need to search for an over-sized, professional, archival printer. Extra copies of any personalized genealogy chart are half-price, making them perfect for gift giving. Gift certificates are also available. Generation Maps helps you surround your family with a sense of their heritage and charts are a wonderful, easy way to explain to your family members the research that has been accomplished. With Generation Maps, it's easy — just pick out your chart, upload your files, and it arrives on your doorstep! Generation Maps (http://www.generationmaps.com/) is the place to come for all your genealogical chart printing needs.

More information can be found at http://thechartchick.blogspot.com/search/label/New%20FamilySearch and http://www.generationmaps.com/

What if you could facebook with your ancestors?

A link from my sister's blog. Times are a changing.
http://flandrosrus.blogspot.com/2009/02/reunion-time.html
Quite an idea.