RootsMagic Beta release

The long awaited RootsMagic Beta is finally here. (Along with the most awesome picture of the back of everyone at last week's conference.)

Some of the new, wonderful features include:

• RootsMagic To Go--never done before in any other software--you can run the full software off a jump drive so that you can take it anywhere. So handy.
  
• Shareable Events so that when you have entered the data and sources for one person, you just one-click it all to anyone else that was there.
  
• Shareable CDs that run on their own when you send a copy of your database to family members. They don't have to have any software or downloads to look at your data. Ok, not new but cool.
  
• FamilySearch Central screen that allows you to get a birds eye view of what you have linked to the new database and what has changed.
  
• Unicode support for other languages to keep the accuracy on all my foreign ancestors. They didn't all speak English.
  
• Source Templates with BCG standards and the ability to create new templates because it seems like every genealogical source has something strange about it.
  
• Lite and Fast processing so that it doesn't take over your computer. Bruce and Mike have worked really hard on this. The New FamilySearch interaction speed is amazing.
  
• Easy-on-the-eyes Clean Screens and soft colors that I really like.
• Incredibly nice guys who program it. What more can I say?
  

Check out the RootsMagic blog for whole low-down on all the new features.

Here is the press release:

RootsMagic Invites Public to Preview Family Tree Software

Free Preview of Leading Genealogy Software Now Available to the Public

SPRINGVILLE, Utah. — March 4, 2009 — RootsMagic, Inc. today announced RootsMagic 4 public beta, the latest version of the award-winning genealogy software which makes researching, organizing, and sharing your family history easy and enjoyable. During the public beta period, all are invited to download and experience the software, free of charge.

Impressive New Features

“RootsMagic 4 is the biggest release in our 20-year history of making genealogy software,” said Bruce Buzbee, president. “We’ve updated RootsMagic to work with the latest genealogical technologies available today, while staying true to our mission to make family history easy, accessible, and fun.”

RootsMagic 4 boasts an impressive list of new features including integrated web search, improved SourceWizard for citing sources, sharing events among multiple persons, creating pre-defined groups of persons, person and place mapping, recording DNA tests, and improved navigation and data entry. RootsMagic 4 is also one of the only desktop genealogy programs certified to work with “New FamilySearch”.

Freeing Your Data

“A common request that we hear from people is that they don’t want their data to be trapped in their computer,” said Michael Booth, vice-president of development. “One of the most popular features in RootsMagic 3 is our ‘Shareable CD’ which puts your data and pictures onto a CD or DVD along with a special copy of RootsMagic. You can then give the discs to family and friends and they don’t have to buy or install anything. It’s all there on the disc.”

“We’ve taken that a step further in RootsMagic 4,” explains Booth. “One unique and exciting new feature is ‘RootsMagic To-Go’. It allows you to install RootsMagic onto a USB drive and transfer data between it and your computer. This gives you the freedom to take RootsMagic and your data wherever you go- to work, on vacation, to the library- anywhere.”

Free and Available Now

RootsMagic 4 beta is available now for free at http://www.rootsmagic.com/preview. “We’re so excited about this new release, we wanted to give everyone a risk-free option to try it for themselves,” said Buzbee. Each person who wishes to participate will be given a registration key which will allow them to download and experience the software for the duration of the public beta period.

Users of other genealogy software products will find it easy to experiment with RootsMagic 4 using their own data. RootsMagic can directly import data from PAF, Family Tree Maker (through 2006), Family Origins, and Legacy Family Tree. It can also read and write data using the popular GEDCOM format.

The public beta also gives users the chance to give feedback and suggestions to improve the software. “Customer feedback is essential to us. All of the changes and improvements in RootsMagic 4 are in direct response to needs and desires expressed by our users,” said Booth. Buzbee added, “We’ve already received invaluable comments and suggestions from the early testers and we’re looking forward to hearing from the general public.”

About RootsMagic, Inc.

For over 20 years, RootsMagic, Inc. has been creating computer software with a special purpose- to unite families. One of our earliest products- the popular “Family Origins” software, introduced thousands of people to the joy and excitement of family history.

That tradition continues today with “RootsMagic”, our award-winning genealogy software which makes researching, organizing, and sharing your family history fun and easy. “Personal Historian” will help you easily write and preserve your life stories. “Family Reunion Organizer” takes the headaches out of planning those important get-togethers. And “Family Atlas” creates beautiful and educational geographic maps of your family history.

For more information, visit www.rootsmagic.com .

Source: RootsMagic, Inc.

Family Pursuit

Another company you might be interested in that we saw again in the St.George Family history expo is Family Pursuit. They have been showing their demos and beta at the conferences for a couple of years, but have just begun to actually roll out their product.

Mike Martineau and Les Eldredge et al. have created a "online, wiki-based family tree database" that allows users to upload private family trees to a collaborative website on either a community basis where you can work with other genealogists, or a private basis where family members from advanced to novice can work together on the family genealogy. I'm most intrigued by the private trees that promise to be a place for family discussions and social networking where family members can mentor each other, divide up and assign tasks, and keep and share reasearch logs together. You can add source citations and upload images to support findings. And you can share audio and video files to further flesh out the family stories. They say that "wiki-based merge/unmerge and undo/redo tools provide a fail-safe platform for true collaboration." (and possibly a good old-fashioned family fight? depending on your family :-) The idea of being able to work with other family members in a safe online system will certainly appeal to many genealogists and it looks like they have already worked out some of the collaboration issues that still need to be addressed in the New (albeit larger) FamilySearch system.

They are also under development as an affiliate of New FamilySearch. When Family Pursuit is able to link with FamilySearch, it will bring one family member's link with FamilySearch into the collaborative environment where the rest of the family can work on the information there, looking for duplicates, submitting new information and receiving updates when changes are made on NFS. Mike said in St. George that they are still working out some of the issues with NFS and their web based environment but hopes to have the synchronization working soon.

Take a look at http://www.familypursuit.com/blog for more information or try it out at http://www.familypursuit.com

Report from the St. George Family History Conference

Yea. We are back in conference season again. I love conferences so much I hate to come home. Luckily we have a bunch planned--three straight weeks right now. I'm going to report. And hopefully I'll even get to a few classes to report on too.

I took a second to snap a quick picture during a couple of the busy periods. Registration was good this year and the lines for same day registration ran all the way out the door. We did well, and in talking to the other vendors, they did well at the conference too. After all the news lately about recessions and bailouts, we are relieved that it is looking like the genealogy industry is fairly recession proof. I think people fall back into their hobbies as an escape when they are stressed. And genealogy is a wonderful, powerful hobby to have--a good soul feeding way to spend your time. Apparently alot of people feel that way.

I have several companies and some lectures to tell you about over the next couple of days. Let's start with this: a good starting point for any genealogist--
Paul Larsen and his book "Crash Course in Family History" at http://www.crashcoursebook.com/. I have loved Paul's book since I first came in contact with it many years ago and it is always my first recommendation to any starting genealogist. It is a beautiful and graphically engaging book. When we started this business, it was my phone book and I referenced it constantly seeking partnerships and insights.
I got to see the galley pages for Paul's next edition. I was very flattered that he wanted my opinion on it. It will be another good one. And we have arrived--we are in it. I highly recommend this book.

Highlight of the conference came at the very beginning when I was able to go down early and help Holly with last minute preparations. Having helped early last year you would think I had a good idea about what it took to put on a conference like this, but again I have a new appreciation. It is quite a feat to keep 70 speakers, 45 vendors and 60 volunteers happy. And Holly does such a good job making the conferences fun with lots of swag and prizes and great organization. I'm going to do a better job of answering quickly when Holly needs something from me for a conference.

The other highlight includes of course going to dinner afterward with the great people we work with to talk about everything going on--my very favorite part of conferences. And as of tonight I have survived the low point. One of our desktops quit on us last week and then my laptop was fried during the first morning just as we were swamped. While I still have to take the laptop in to be fixed tomorrow morning, I had the cords here at home to test out the hard drive. We went straight to it when we got home and miraculously, the hard drive is fine and I can get at everything. Phewwww. Life is good.

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.

How to share your family history with your family.--social networking and the internet

The internet is a powerful tool for many things, especially genealogy and marketing. When you are trying to share your family history with your family members, you can put the power of the genealogy and marketing tools on the internet to work for you.

Many families will put up websites about their family history. And most of the genealogy softwares make that really easy for you. You can make the website as simple or as elaborate as you want to. You can post the current genealogy file, family reunion information, a message board for family members to post announcements, a calendar, stories, pictures and anecdotes. We put together http://www.jhattencarpenterfamily.org/ for my great-grandfather's family. Make sure you have taken out the personal information on anyone living, or restrict access so you can control who can see the information. Also make sure it is registered with google and other search sites so that you can be found by other genealogist cousins too. Like all other efforts to interest family members, pictures and stories draw people in more than anything else.

A blog is also a great way to talk about your family history. I suppose you know what that is since you are reading this blog. They are really easy to put together using www.blogspot.com or www.wordpress.com. Pictures and stories are great to publish for a blog. The GeneaBloggers group on facebook now has 384 members and I'm sure there are tons more out there with more every day. Check out www.geneabloggers.com for the Geneablogging Primer, information on the Genealogy Carnivals, the weekly genealogy blogging prompt, scanfest and data backup day as well as other great information.

Any internet marketer will tell you that although websites and blogs are great, they are harder to market because the user has to remember to go visit them. And in today's busy world that doesn't happen as much. So it is better to supplement that with some "push" marketing--something that will show up in the parts of the internet that they constantly use. For example, I may not go out and visit a website very often--even one that is important to me, but I always check my email. Therefore, if you send me an email newsletter, you are going to get more of my attention than if you tell me to visit your website. Thus--if you are "marketing" your family's history it is good to use some push parts of the internet.

Email newsletters can be great for sharing your family history. You can create a group in your email client and easily send out emails that way. Use a good descriptive subject line so that they can know what is inside before they open it. And make them interesting with good stories so your readers will always want to hear what you have to say. If you want to get fancy, a newsletter service like Constant Contact will help you create emails with beautiful templates and allow you to track who is reading your emails.

Other push ideas include social networking sites--especially for the 20's set. Facebook, and sometimes Twitter are as important to check as email for alot of the younger people I know. But Facebook is crossing generations quickly. My Mom signed up this week. For someone who looks at Facebook frequently, there are many ways to talk about your family history. Statuses, Picture albums, posted notes and links and etc all come up on a person's news feed and will be seen by anyone who checks their Facebook. Other social networking sites such as MySpace or SecondLife, LinkedIn, pulse.com, brightkite.com, tagged.com, wayn.com or any of the other networking sites out there can be used too. Pick the one that your family is most involved in.

Getting your family history out on the internet has two great benefits. 1) your family will see more of it. and 2) you may find other people interested in and researching the same ancestral lines. So get it out there--any which way. Let me know if you have other good ideas.

How to share your family history with your family--a reader's idea.

[I had a reader e-mail me with a great idea for involving your family in their family history. Thought you might enjoy it. --Janet]

We did a very short skit years ago patterned after the popular TV program at the time, "Unsolved Mysteries". We called it "Unsolved Family History". I have an ancestor who came to Utah in the 1850's from Wales, who moved from Utah to Canada in 1899 to escape being imprisoned again for polygamy. He would travel between Canada and Utah through the years until in 1906 he was killed in Warm Springs, Deer Lodge, Montana, which is where one of the mysteries lay. There had been 2 stories: 1 - He was killed by Federal Marshalls, and 2 - He was hit by a train. I had my children draw pictures of the story which we used as visual aids during the "performance." My husband's great grandfather had been a sherrif in the area at the time and we brought in the Federal Marshall possibillity using characters from my ancestry and my husband's ancestry, which made it really fun for everyone to imagine the possibility of the 2 families knowing each other way back then. My oldest daughter, who was about 10 at the time, narrated. At the end she made the same kind of request they made on the TV show about , if anyone has information on this person please call such-and-such number. It really went over quite well.

BTW - we found out later this particular ancestor was hit by a train, when my grandfather's short history surfaced.

[Thanks Andrea]
Andrea Rounds E-mail: abrounds@finsvcs.com

Our 2009 conference schedule

Well, if I feel like I'm too busy now, just wait until conference season gets started again next month. We have planned on more conferences this next year than ever before. Woohoo. I love conferences. I can't wait.

Here's the schedule:

February 27th - 28th, St. George, Utah Family History Expo 2009
March 7th, South Davis Family History Fair
March 13th - 14th, BYU Conference on Computerized Family History and Genealogy
May 9th, Logan, Utah Family History Expo 2009
June 12th - 13th, Colorado Family History Expo 2009
June 26th - 27th, Southern California Genealogy Society
July 17th - 18th, Wyoming Family History Expo 2009
July 28th - 31st BYU Conference on Family History and Genealogy
August 28th - 29th, Salt Lake City, Utah Family History Expo 2009
September 10th - 13th, Eastern Washington Genealogy Society, Spokane
October 16th - 17th, California Family History Expo 2009

We have several on the calendar for 2010, but hey--let's get through this year first. Good grief.

We usually have one of the plotters with us to print charts on the spot, and we always have specials on several of our products. Be sure to come and see us at one of them.

We haven't decided on FGS and NGS 2009 yet. Since we have so many other good, big conferences to choose from, and because of the distance, we are waiting to see what gas prices are doing. Are you going to these?
May 13th - 16th National Genealogy Society Conference, Raleigh North Carolina
September 2nd - 5th Federation of Genealogy Societies Conference, Little Rock Arkansas.
Let us know and we may decide to go too.

Do you know of any others we should try?

How to share your family history with your family.--Surround Yourself

Back to the Marathon Blog Series. There are lots of other principles on this topic I have wanted to share.

Earlier I mentioned that probably the biggest principle of inspiring your family with your family history is to have it infused profusely into every aspect of your life. If you are excited about it, and if you have a good relationship, the more inclined your family is to be excited about family history too. One of the ways you can have your family history more present in your life is to get it out of the books, scrapbooks, off the computer and etc, and have it in front of your eyes every day. Displaying your family history in your home is a great way to get the people around you asking questions and being more aware of your family history.

Having my ancestors around me puts the broader perspective of a whole lifetime in my grasp and helps me prioritize better. To me, seeing my ancestors every day brings lots of questions to my mind. Such as:

• Would they approve of how I am using my resources right now?
• Am I raising my children to carry on the best things this family has tried to promote?
• What am I doing to improve this family?
• Is the current crisis going to be important in the span of my lifetime?
• What are these day to day activities adding up to be in my life?
• What is going to be important about me to my descendants?
• How am I going to be remembered? Do I need to change that?

For those you live with, or anyone who visits, displaying your family history can create interest and curiosity. The family history is everywhere in our house. It always has been. And anyone who has been here knows that our family's history is important to us. My kids know the stories around the pictures and the heirlooms. They know what these people looked like and that they were real people. But I also get asked questions by extended family and friends that come and visit.

You can:

• Display your pictures (or copies of your pictures if you want to put the originals away for safe keeping.)
  
• Display your heirlooms
  
• Display family history charts. (Hmm. Wouldn't know where to go to get help with that :-)
  
• Display Maps or Timelines of your family’s history. (We can help you with that too.)

You might present a family history display item to the person you want to interest. My sister made calendars for our family this past Christmas with a bunch of family photos and all the important family dates noted. It is a beautiful calendar that she put together online and had sent to her. Many genealogy programs will also create calendars with your ancestors' birthdays and anniversaries and etc.

For young children, displaying your family history in a geographical way can also be educational. You could put up a map showing where your ancestors are from, or you could mark the migration of members of ancestors and how you came to live where you do now.

You could also incorporate quilts, pillows and etc. All sorts of the things you use or decorate your house with can be turned into lessons on family history. Several years ago I made a quilt out of the photos in my parent's wedding album. As much as I would love to spend time looking at the wedding album, I've seen the quilt alot more often. Fabric Paint, Photo transfers, Embroidery, can be used to display your family history.

So however you do it, get some of your family history out where you can see it this week. And then tell someone about it and why it is important to you.

What I did for Christmas Vacation

I'm baaaack.

We had a crazy December. Each end of the year is getting busier and busier as Generation Maps grows. I'm happy to report that the holiday season was good for us and Generation Maps is doing well. I've begun to think this company is fairly recession proof as we continue to see growth in our contacts and sales. When you are involved in something important, people value that no matter what. And the people we worked with this holiday season expressed to us many times how meaningful and important family history is to them and how excited they were to be able to share it with their families. It was nice to be able to help so many people with something that they love and help them express the importance of their families and connections.

So after the long hours leading up to Christmas I took a break (as you have seen from my unusual quiet on the blog and facebook). I got some sleep. And my children were happy to see me looking at them instead of the computer screen.

Here are a few of the things we did to take a break:

• Made a gingerbread model of a friend's house as a gift (It kind of looks like our house too.)

• Introduced the kids to "I Love Lucy"--they loved it. (BTW if you haven't ever seen "Forever Darling" with Lucy and Desi, rent it. Lots of "dealing with your family history" themes.)


• Played Monopoly for the first time in years. Now that I own a business, it takes on a whole new meaning--I quite enjoyed it. I just might turn out to be a tycoon in this life, although I'm sure my son will outdo me there.


• Stopped cleaning up the house for a week. I highly reccomend it. Everything is still here. And clean-up-able now.


• Went to several movies and out to eat several times to just relax. We were snowed in on Christmas day though, which made for a nice peaceful holiday--new soft slippers and everything.
  

I hope you and yours had a nice holiday season as well. Now it is back to the treadmill, and the grindstone :-). Happy to go back to the things I love. I still have several more entries on the "Sharing your family history with your family" --slowest blog series ever. And we are working on several really fun, ornate custom charts for customers who were willing to wait until after Christmas. I'll let you know how it goes.

Dear GeneaSanta

Dear GeneaSanta,

This year I would like:

My Great Grandmother's high school ring that I lost. Sugar City High School 1919. Fit perfectly on my pinky. I don't know how in the world I could have lost it in college but I did. That has been so heartbreaking over the years, and I know I've asked before, but if I could have one thing, this would be it. Please bring it back. I just know you can do it.

The Expandable table of my Grandma Carpenter's that my sister sold at a garage sale. It would have matched my furniture so perfectly and we would have loved having Thanksgiving dinner around Grandma's table. I wish I had spoken up, or even bought it from her. If you could bring it back too, that would be great.

A family group picture of Kim's Swedish Anderson ancestors. We have had so much fun researching this line of the family. I have felt so close to them as I have studied the places they lived, and found church records about their challenges and losses. I have wondered about them as I've seen that they have married late in life, or lost young children to disease and death. I would love to see a picture of them. Surely someone brought one over to America with them to be able to remember the family by. If you could find it for me, that would be so great. If you happen across a journal, that would be incredibly wonderful too.

Thank you for the World War II Wedding Cake topper of Grandma and Grandpa Dana's you brought me last year. It is so precious. I have put it in our china hutch next to our wedding cake topper (ala Wilton). I wonder if our inexpensive Wilton cake topper will ever be as precious to someone as Grandma and Grandpa's cake topper is to me.

Also, my friends at school all tell me you don't really live at the North Pole, but are disguised in San Diego under the name Randy Seaver. Considering the "Genea..." name and his picture on facebook, I'm not sure. Please advise.

Lots of love,

Janet

Christmas Rush, A New Photo Article Published and FamilySearch Certified Affiliates Announcement.

Christmas rush is keeping me hopping, so I haven't been able to post much lately. We are pretty much done accepting custom charts (call me quick if you absolutely have to have it and are willing to pay a rush fee) but we are still taking orders for fill-in-the-blank charts and gift cards until the 19th. The new gift cards look really great--they are self explanatory, good for anything on the site and we send them to you with free shipping.

I have so much to tell you about, but it is going to have to wait a couple more weeks. Watch out in January, I'll probably bombard you. In the meantime, I'll cram a few other things into this post:

So first, I had an online article published yesterday at Meridian Magazine.com. You can see the article on Care and Repair of Photographs here. It is similar to the previous NGS article I wrote on the same topic, and I've briefly talked about the subject here on this blog. So the article should give you a much broader discussion. (Note in the bio that I have apparently become more famous for thechartchick.com than for generationmaps.com :-).

And then, I think I'll resort to spreading the news about what other people are writing. Renee Zamora beat me to it but I'm going to repost it here. Received this yesterday from FamilySearch Support:

**********************************************************
Information on FamilySearch Certified Software Affiliates

One of the Family History Department’s responsibilities in assisting family history consultants is to keep consultants informed about products and services that are available to help members with their family history work. In doing this, the department does not solicit or encourage consultants or members to purchase products or services. The department does not promote one product or service over another.

In the immediate future, Familysearch.org will be updated with a page that shares information about FamilySearch Certified Affiliates. FamilySearch Certified Affiliates are third-party companies and organizations that provide products and services with features that are compatible with FamilySearch programs. Certified PAF Add-ins are programs that allow people who use Personal Ancestral File (PAF) 5 to access, print, update, and synchronize with online information in the new FamilySearch. Please note that these products and services are developed and supported by their respective organizations, not FamilySearch.

To view the page that provides information about these programs, click here.

You are encouraged to learn about these affiliate products and the wide scope of services they provide. Additional information can be found about these affiliates and their services on their respective websites. These programs can be of great assistance to family history patrons as they use new FamilySearch, PAF and other family history programs.
***************************************************************

Likewise there is a new page linked from new.familysearch.org. http://www.familysearch.org/eng/affiliates/index.html. We understand that this page will be changing--hopefully it will be corrected to list our "print" certification soon.

Holiday Traditions--Carnival of Genealogy

While I have written about sharing your family history by utilizing your family traditions recently, I get to share a few more family holiday traditions thanks to the Carnival of Genealogy. I am so thankful to Jasia for giving me so many great excuses to play with my family history here on this blog. I hope you will check out my previous post for the real information and ideas. I'm going to stick to pictures on this one.

Hovorka

(Carpenter, Snow, Schwendiman, Dana and Romney)

Christmas Traditions.

A photo essay from past to present.

Christmas Trees and Music.

(The Fred and Ethel Schwendiman Family, date unknown possibly early 1930s. My mother's mother's mother's family)

Lining up the family for a picture

(The Rose and Erastus B. Snow Jr. Family 1933. My father's mother Hortense's family)

Sending Christmas Cards

(Patricia and Marcia Dana, 1949. My mother Patricia on left.)

Visiting Santa

(Patricia and Marcia Dana again. Christmas 1954.)

Gathering everyone together.

(Viola Schwendiman Romney Talbot family. Christmas 1963. My Mother Patricia in red, My Mother's Mother Eila in red on the right and my Mother's Mother's Mother Viola in black on the left.)

Spoiling the Little Ones Rotten

(Me on the left and Kim on the right. Christmas 1969 and 1957 respectively.)

Pajamas on Christmas Eve.

My Children--several years ago. (This picture actually started a new tradition--family pictures of each Christmas displayed together on the piano. You'll have to come visit and see all the adorable pictures sometime.)

I have several more posts to write in my Sharing your Family History with your Family series but have been hit with Christmas Rush at Generation Maps lately. That is the most recent Hovorka family tradition I guess--definitely a good one. I'm hoping to get a bunch more of of my series posted this week. We'll see how far I get. We'll get them done eventually. Enjoy your happy holiday season.

Report from the Mesa Family History Expo

I'm back. We have been partying again. I so love conferences. I brought you some pictures this time.


I caravaned down to Mesa with Dear Myrtle and Janene Morgan of Family History Expos. Myrt and I were so excited to see 1.99 gas in Panguitch we stopped to take a picture. I thought I would never see that again in my life. Hopefully Panguitch can be an example to the rest of the world huh? Myrt and Janene are great Caravan partners and we had a great time even though it was a long drive. Myrt bought a GPS system while we were down there and we all had a good laugh yesterday while she was telling us about how testy it was on the way home. The lady apparently gets louder and yells at her when she isn't obedient about turning left. You'll have to ask her about it.

We got everything started for Kimberly Savage's baby shower. Do you like the invitations I did? We are all about getting things out where you can see them :-). We are so excited for her. So we did posters announcing the new blog: http://www.babyshowerforkim.blogspot.com/. How else would you expect us to do it? You can find all the information there about where and when and the virtual webcast of it all. It sounds like the "reality" shower is going to be held at the Family History Library in Salt Lake. That would be an appropriate place.

The weather was gorgeous. It is so hard to come home. I can see why people retire to Arizona.
The people at this conference were especially warm and appreciative. I think we have found a wonderful place for a conference every winter. There were lots of people very excited to have us there. You can see the opening session was outside and we had a great crowd. How nice it is to be somewhere where you could plan a gathering for November outside and know it was going to be comfortable. Of course I'm hoping they don't ever plan anything for Mesa in July or August. :-)




I ran around like a one-armed Wallpaper hanger all through the conference. This one was an exciting one for me. If you read my blog, you know how I get along with our printers. Kim didn't come to this conference and my relationship with this plotter held true. I did manage to print everything I needed to, but there was alot of electronic manipulating going on. My lecture on Monday was preceded by a discovery that my powerpoint slides were MIA about an hour before the time slot, and the line at the booth was so long I was almost late to my lecture on Saturday. Lots of things to keep my heart rate up since the hotel didn't have a gym this time. Next time I think I'll just go for the gym--and make sure I bring our printing Guru. (Although--don't tell him--but I think I learned enough that I could pull the printing off easier next time. I'm actually getting pretty good at it.)

There was a great payoff for me when one person at the conference ordered a chart for his Mother Friday and then brought her in and surprised her with it on Saturday. She was so excited. And we had several wonderful people who were so appreciative. One man said that he was glad I wasn't charging according to how satisfied he was or he would really have to pay alot. I know we helped several people get their information out where they could hang it up on the wall and write in research ideas and findings. And I know we got several databases out and on the wall for upcoming family reunions where they could have family members write on the chart and add information that they needed to collect. And another great payoff this time was getting to meet some fun fellow bloggers. Kathryn Lake Hogan of http://www.looking4ancestors.com/ and Coleen McHugh of http://omchorations.blogspot.com/. I also got to meet Annaleise Taylor Dearinger and many other friends from facebook. It is so fun to get to know people you know online. And of course it is great to see all of our dear old friends that we get to see at all the conferences. We really enjoy the people we get to work with.

And Myrt made sure everyone got a chance to tie the cute quilt she brought for Kimberly. She even had some of the guys helping--it is really only a square knot from scouts right? And could we have matched everything any better? I think a fun time was had by all. (Except maybe my Mother who I brought to be able to go to classes but only got to one because she was drafted to help at the booth.--She says she had a good time though.) So go check out http://www.babyshowerforkim.blogspot.com/ and plan on coming to the next party.

A Message from Family History Expos--Learn the tech to trace your roots.

Learn the tech to trace your roots!
A message from Generation Maps and Family History Expos:

As a sponsor of the Mesa Arizona Family History Expo on Nov. 14-15, Generation Maps has made special arrangements with Family History Expos to extend their pre-registration for our loyal readers, until Nov. 7th at 10 AM MST. We urge you to take advantage of this special by registering at: http://www.fhexpos.com/events/upcoming.php?event_id=43. This is an opportunity to participate in more than 112 classes from learning about Computer File Management for Genealogists to finding your long lost Irish ancestor.

The EXPO will offer exciting presenters and exhibitors from all over the World. Here are a few of the highlights:

• Don R. Anderson will be presenting in the opening session. Don Anderson is the Senior Vice President of services for FamilySearch as well as FamilySearch Worldwide Support. In his role for FamilySearch, Don has traveled to more than 27 countries on five continents to ensure that services are available to those around the world searching for their ancestors.
• Beau Sharbrough is the Friday evening dinner speaker. Beau will share his talents by taking us on a musical journey in finding our roots. Footnote.com, as the Banquet Sponsor will be giving each attendee a free one month subscription to Footnote.com. You will enjoy this awesome website and all the documents provided to help you discover more about your family history.
• Professional Instructors will help you learn what you need to get off and running with your family history research. Enjoy classes like How Charting can further research, How to Find Where to Look, Immigration and Emigration Records on Ancestry.com, DNA Ancestry, Rootsweb: How can this community site assist you in your Family History Research?, Saving the World’s History one record at a time: World Archives Project, Finding your UK Ancestors, U.S. Census and Voter Lists, Mapping Your Family History with Family Atlas, FamilySearch Family Tree, Internet Research Magic… the Future of Family History, You will never look at your old photos the same way again and more!
• Vendors and Exhibitors in the Exhibit Hall include Generation Maps, DearMyrtle, Ages-Online, Ancestry, Family Tree Magazine, RootsMagic, FamilySearch, FamilyLink, Genealogy Gems Podcast, Legacy Family Tree, Ohana Software, Rootstamps, Family History Expos, LifeStory Productions, Footnote, Creative Continuum and the list goes on.
• Prizes from the vendors and advertisers offer some really great gifts to registered attendees, from a one week retreat at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City with a professional researcher for guidance, to software, books, t-shirts and more.

Come and participate in this unique opportunity to learn, have fun, meet new people, and get motivated to do more than ever before with your family history. This is an unprecedented bargain for only $75.00, and the benefits are priceless! Share this message with your family, friends, and neighbors through cyberspace so everyone can have an opportunity to participate in the Mesa Family History Expo. They will thank you for helping them discover their family history. We appreciate you!

Stop by our booth to learn about Generation Maps.

Discover and preserve your heritage!
Join us in Mesa, Arizona at theFamily History Expo Nov. 14-15, 2008
Visit http://www.fhexpos.com/events/upcoming.php?event_id=43 for further information
801.829.3295
Copyright © 2008 Family History Expos

How to share your family history with your family.--Events

Another in the Sharing Your Family History Series. There are lots of ideas out there for sharing your family history with your family by having some kind of event. These can be a one time thing, or you could set aside a regular and recurring time, like the first Monday of the month or something. The idea here is to gather the family members and do something together to celebrate the life of an ancestor.

Any of the following ideas will work for a family event:

Guess who’s coming to dinner.
I know several people who have hosted a dinner like this. You can enjoy the culture of that ancestor for dinner, food/music/decorations. Of course use any pictures or heirlooms, etc belonging to that person. You might try it as a surprise--form questions about the person and have family members guess who the dinner is about. Then tell stories about that person during dinner. Or you might do some activity after dinner that the person enjoyed.

A question a week about your family history.
A scaled down version of "guess who is coming to dinner" is to try to infuse family history in to life a little more regularly with a short interest grabber. You might try this at a regular time such as dinnertime, or every once in a while in an e-mail if your family is more spread out. Ask a question (you could even have a small prize for the winner--like exemption from the dishes) And then of course--follow with a story.

Celebrate an Ancestor’s Birthday.
Along the lines of "guess who is coming to dinner" is to celebrate the person's birthday. This could be as elaborate as you want to make it, or it could just be stories and cake. Again, for the birthday you might go someplace or do something they liked to do. My Mother-In-Law's birthday was April 15th. I think this coming spring, we will try to get our taxes done early, and instead of worrying about that, take our kids out to dinner to celebrate her life and tell them about the Grandmother they unfortunately don't remember. A much better way to spend the evening of April 15th, don't you think?

Culture Night
If your family stayed in a single area for a long time, or you want to do something that includes a branch of the family, rather than just one ancestor, you could try a culture night. Similar to the above, you could celebrate a holiday or time period with food and activities that they might have done. (German Christmas in July, England in World War II.) Skits of a story or a person can also get everyone involved.

Many of these ideas work great for Family Reunions, or can become a sort of family reunion in and of itself. They can be a bit more work, but the payoff can be great. Let me know if you try it.

2nd Triathalon--Mission Accomplished

We did it again! Amy, Me, Laurie and Kristy

I have to tell you that last mile feels so good. As I was coming down that last stretch, I hit a great song on my mp3 player: Jon Schmidt--All of Me. You can hear it here or here. Oh Man. If you haven't ever heard of him go listen. When I hit Jon Schmidt's stuff on my exersize mix it is so inspiring. And this last mile was like being in my own personal Nike commercial. It just feels so good.

But I have a confession. I do triathalons but I'm slow. Just in case you ever want to come cheer us on, just know, you'll be standing there waiting a loooooong time. The people at this triathalon were alot more competitive. There was a spectator at the end that yelled, "You're still a winner." I had to laugh. I thought I was a winner until he said that :-). And I wanted to yell back, "Yeah well, I'm running and your sitting on the side." :-) Maybe someday I'll get more competitive about it but for now I'm having fun. I do want to thank the 4 gracious people who kindly let me pass them though. I'm not worried about winning but it does feel good to pass someone.

You ought to try it sometime.

In the game of tag you have to be fast...

Picture: Eila Mae Romney Dana:
My Maternal Grandmother.

Man. This blogging community is high speed. You turn around and someone tags you and you are it. Just like when we used to play in our front yard with all the neighborhood kids--I'm going to move quick this time so I don't get stuck being "it" forever. Ahh. Late summer evenings.

Thanks to Bruce Buzbee at the RootsMagic blog and T.K. at Before My Time for tagging me. Fun to see old friends and make some new ones in the neighborhood. So here we go..

10 Years ago I:

• Brought a child into the world. (of course the most important)
• Finished scrapbooking my life and my husbands life up to that point (and haven't done much more since but at least did it archivally)
• Found and bought the house we live in now.
• Saw my Mother-in-Law for the last time before she passed away.
• Was exhausted and blissful raising small children.

5 Things On Today's To Do List.

1. Answer Emails (done)
2. Change my Facebook Status (done)
3. Do a podcast interview for Dear Myrtle and Family History Expos (done)
4. Write this blog post (almost done)
5. Clean my office (never done)

5 snacks I enjoy:

• Onion Rings
• Donuts (my favorite foods are all shaped the same?!?)
• Heart attack popcorn (Kim makes it with soooooooo much butter--to die for.)
• Ice Cream from Cafe Galleria in Midway
• Anything I didn't have to cook.

5 places I've lived (Some longer than others)

1. Salt Lake City, Utah
2. Berkeley and Torrance, California
3. Nazareth and Jerusalem, Israel
4. Nairobi Kenya (only about a week and a half--does that count?)
5. Fukui Japan

5 Jobs I've had

• Mother
• Development Director for a Genealogy Chart Printing Company :-)
• Lead Reference Librarian
• Kindergarten to 8th grade Technology Teacher
• Instructor at a University

5 bloggers I tag to play. (Making new friends.)

Lidian at http://thevirtualdimemuseum.blogspot.com/
Denise at http://www.familycurator.blogspot.com/
Becky at http://beckysgraceandglory.blogspot.com/
Elyse at http://elysesgenes.blogspot.com/
and
Schelly at http://tracingthetribe.blogspot.com/

How to share your family history with your family.--Take them with you 2

Ok. You are going to think I'm crazy with this one. But my kids have quite enjoyed going with us on some heavy duty research. I know you will think I'm nuts, but you might give this one a try. Don't underestimate the interest or attention span of the family you are trying to involve in their family history.

My kids and I have actually quite enjoyed trips to the cemetery. I was inspired by Starr Hailey Campbell's book The Adventures of James: A Trip to the Cemetery. I read the book with my kids and then we tried it. She suggests you:

›Take a picnic
›Make file cards on who you are looking for. Have a prize for finding the right stone.
›Make maps
›Make rubbings
›Take a cemetery kit with treats, water, cleaning supplies, etc.
›Tell them about the person as you are traveling, cleaning headstones.

We put together a cemetery kit with CheeseIts, one of my grandmother's favorite treats. (You know, everything with kids goes well when there is food involved.) We sat and cleaned her stone to make a rubbing and I told them all about her. And we took a large sheet of paper so we could make a rubbing-genealogy chart of sorts of the ancestors we had in that cemetery. The kids really had quite a good time and have even enjoyed going back.

If you take them to a Library or Family History Center you might try to let them try to find something new. Or you might give them an easy find, something you already know about but know might peak their interest. The 1930’s census is very detailed, and a good place to start. If you ever take a group of kids who don't know much about their family--like a scout troop or such, the 1930 census is close enough to know who to look for (Usually grandparents or so), and can spark curiosity about their lives. With your family you might also try a Scavenger Hunt—Let them explore and find the sources for what you already know. My kids quite enjoy the trip. They really get excited when we find something new. We usually take them out to dinner and make it a fun evening. It probably doesn't hurt that we let them play on the internet so we can finish up when they start to get bored. But even though we sometimes give in a little at the end, but it is well worth it when they look forward to going again the next time.

How to share your family history with your family.-- Take them with you.

For the next idea on sharing your family history with your family, try taking them with you to places in your family's history, and as you do your research. It is fun to record the places in your history with pictures and video of today, especially with your current family involved. One of the most moving experiences I have ever had was a couple of years ago when I took a day, and took my children to the places where I lived when I was their ages. We went to my elementary school, to the playground near my childhood home and to the church I went to. I was so moved to see the span of my life all in one little afternoon, and watching my children play where I had played made me really stop and evaluate where my life was and where I wanted it to go. I took some beautiful pictures that day. I put them side my side with pictures of myself in my lecture, but for the sake of my children, I don't think I'll post them here. You'll just have to catch one of my lectures I guess.

As you take a journey like this, be sure to record the places with pictures and video. One of the ways I became associated with my husband's family history was when we would visit his mother after we were first married. She would take us out to all the family sites in the area and I'm so grateful now for those pictures and video--especially with her narrative. It is also fun to compare the modern pictures with antique pictures. These are the pictures of my Grandparents' house in Westchester California: Left, just after they bought it for 6 thousand dollars, Me and Grandpa when I was little, and right a couple of years ago.

Besides taking them to tour your own family's history, you might take them to other places that help them visualize your family's history. I love places of re-enactment, such as:

• Williamsburg, Virginia
• Plymouth, Massachusetts
• Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
• Mystic Seaport, Conneticut
• Old Sturbridge, Massachusetts
• This is the Place State Park, Utah
• Civil War reenactments
• Frontier reenactments

We volunteered for two summers up at This is the Place. It was so fun. My kids know how to thread a large loom, spin wool, train oxen, play pioneer games like graces and walking on stilts, and how to survive without air conditioning. They also really enjoyed Williamsburg last year. I even learn alot at these places. It is interesting for all of us. Did you know that as they settled the west, to make a street sign, you would have put the pole upside down from the way the tree grew, so that the cell structure was upside down and wouldn't suck water up the tree the way it would when it was alive?

You also might try regular Historical Sites/Visitors Centers/Museums such as:

• Ellis Island
• A Grist Mill
• Oregon Trail
• or any Local Sites, they don’t have to be far away.

At some of these places you can take advantage of classes, you can learn the skills and games of the time or sometimes there are activites or camps for kids.

Find a place to go and take a day trip with your family. Not only can you relax and enjoy some time together, but you can also talk to them about your family history. Enjoy.

The Generation Map Genealogy Chart

Another of our working charts that helps with getting a database or regular genealogy file out where you can see it is the first chart we ever did--the Generation Map. We called it a "generation map" because it was so much more than a genealogy chart--it maps out all of your genealogy file. In retrospect, I don't know if calling it a map --and thus our company--was such a great idea. Maybe a little confusing. But it doesn't seem to be much of an issue anymore. We are good enough at "mapping out" your genealogy that people have gotten to know us and what we do.

So let me tell you about it.

A Generation Map starts on the left and goes out to the right with the ancestors of the starting person. But then, it fits the children and grandchildren of each of the ancestor couples in under the couple. Let me show you with a close up:

The couple is listed together and then their children are listed beneath them. Those children are listed with their spouses. And then those children's children are indented underneath them.

It is shaped funny because it has to have dynamic spacing (spacing that moves depending on how much information there is) to fit the children and grandchildren under each couple. But what is wonderful about that is that the dynamic spacing keeps the chart to a managable size. To plot out 18 generations in a regular left to right pedigree, without children, on the large genealogy file I inherited, goes out about 70 feet tall. In a Generation Map, it stays at about 8 feet.

At this time we offer color coding by:
By Surname
By Birth Place (we use this at the parish level for our Swedish file so that we can see who is on what microfilm)
By Death Place
By Burial Place
By Gender
LDS Ordinances
By Lineage (which helps you if you need to adjust to the strange layout)
By Generation

We have found that this is a real genealogist's chart. It may take a day or two to get used to the layout, but then everyone loves how it gets everyone out where you can see them. We print it on inexpensive working chart paper so that we could keep the price to $29.95 for the first copy and $14.45 for any extra copies. That way you can write all over it as your research progresses and be able to print out others when you are ready for a new one.

As we have printed these, we get comments like "Now I can finally see everything I've been working on all these years." And we have chosen this as one of the charts that can really help you see what is in the New FamilySearch database. You can get one from your data there as soon as you have a log in, or you can get one from your regular genealogy computer file. You can get one here, or learn more, or ask us questions. Let us know what we can do to help you get your genealogy infrormation out where you can see it.

The smile on a little girl's face.

Since I did a more recent photo in the last Carnival of Images, I looked and looked for a picture a few generations back for this Carnival. The theme is "funny bone: a picture that never fails to bring a smile to your face." But the fact is, my ancestors back further weren't all that funny. I would hope they weren't as serious as their pictures attest. So I go only one generation back for this post. To my mother.

Ahh bliss. A favorite toy. And I couldn't resist this one:

Mom looks really interested in that book doesn't she? Apparently she would rather be out in her car. The best part was when I showed this to my son and he said, "Is that a laptop?" I swear I read him books. I really did -- and still do.

We had a customer once who had a bunch of cute ancestor children pictures done as gallery wrapped giclees to decorate a nursery for a new baby. Pictures of Grandma and Great Grandma as little girls playing and Grandpa all decked out in his cowboy getup. How cute is that?

How to share your family history with your family,--Traditions

And now, for another installment in the most drawn out series ever to be geneablogged.

One of the ways family history usually gets passed down in a family is through the transmission of family traditions. As we are heading into the holiday season, stop for a minute and think about your family's traditions and how you will celebrate with the people you love. You can probably make them even more Family History oriented very easily.

Traditions often center around the holidays you celebrate. They can include traditional foods and traditional activities. Like many other families, we always open one present on Christmas Eve. But probably unlike your family, we always have ministrone soup, clam chowder, Swiss bretzeli, and English trifle for Christmas Eve, each food a reminder of some of our heritage. One year I tried to change that and it didn't feel right. What traditions does your family have surrounding the holidays you celebrate?

Religious holidays are usually particularly traditional and family oriented. Hannukah, Easter, Ramadan, Eid al Fitr, Kwanzaa, Chinese New Year, Lent, Passover and etc., whatever your family celebrated might be a good place to start with your current family. Heritage holidays are also a good place to focus as well, St. Patricks Day, Cinco de Mayo, etc. How about participating in a good community celebration with your family? Is there a church you could visit, or a parade or festival? Take those people with you who you are wanting to share your family history with. Help them get a feel for the culture of your heritage. Alot of the little towns around us celebrate Swiss days, or Octoberfest, or the Greek Festival or whatever. Hopefully there is some of that in your area too.

The holidays that you grew up with are probably very deep in your psyche. I remember a Thanksgiving day one year when I was in the Middle East. It was very strange that no one was interested. It was just a regular Thursday there, and I couldn't help but wish I was back in my Grandmother's kitchen. Those are the feelings that ground me in my family's history. And those are the feelings I hope my children would have about the holidays I have celebrated with them.

Next, see if you can make some of your traditions more family history oriented. For several Christmases, we have decorated a family history Christmas Tree. We have simple ornaments with ancestors' pictures, and we decorate with things they might have used, like popcorn and cranberries. We finish it off with a paper chain on which we write things we are grateful for--comforts that we have now that they didn't, things that they sacrificed to be able to provide for us. Even more authentic would be to participate in some of the activities your ancestors might have done--although I wouldn't suggest German candles on the Christmas tree--I have a friend who about torched the whole house with that one. So try some new family history oriented traditions, but keep in mind that some of them aren't as popular any more for good reason. :-)

Also, in this next year, as you celebrate with your loved ones in the traditions that you have inherited from your family, be sure you talk about the people and events that established the trend. Make sure they don't eat trifle every Christmas eve and not know why. Take a minute and talk about the first time you did this, or the person it reminds you of. Make sure that your traditions are celebrations of your family heritage and it will hopefully bring your living relatives closer to your ancestors.

And then, the rest of the year, there are probably other smaller traditions that you can pass on too. Superstitions and just common things your family does are important to re-create. My great-grandmother would lick her thumb and stamp her hand to make a wish every time she saw a white horse. While my kids and I don't do it every time, we do it once in a while, and I tell them about Great-grandma. Maybe it is blowing dandelion seeds, or eating pizza backwards, or a saying "bon appetite" before eating. Tell your family about it, and tell them where it came from.

My Ancestors Found becomes Family History Expos

Newsflash:
My Ancestors Found--the company that has brought you several wonderful family history conferences--has realigned their company name to reflect their growing focus, Family History Expos. Along with the name change comes a new blog, website, and podcast. Check them out.

Here at Generation Maps we are excited to see My Ancestors Found kick this into a higher gear. We have long been fans of their family history conferences, and have hounded them for years to do more. We are excited to be sponsors for their conferences, and you will always find us supporting them in whatever way we can. Check out our schedule for next year, and you will find us at every one of their events. You should try one (or several) too. They are the best conferences we attend. I guarantee the avalanche of knowledge you will gain will be well worth it.