New Backgrounds

To get ready for the holiday season, and give you lots of new options for beautiful family history art pieces for your wall, we've hired a designer to create some new backgrounds for our decorative genealogy charts.  We've given them names so that you can easily tell us which one you like when you order.  Take a look:

Victoria
Click Here To See A Large Sample Chart Of This Background

Caroline
Click Here To See A Large Sample Chart Of This Background

Harriet

Audrey

Lydia

Beatrice
Click Here To See A Large Sample Chart Of This Background

Heather

Mary
Click Here To See A Large Sample Chart Of This Background

Annalise

Emma

Elizabeth
Click Here To See A Large Sample Chart Of This Background

Ashley

Any of these designs can be arranged to fit fan, bowtie, left to right or any other format.  This is the Julia background reformatted for different file types.

Click Here To See A Large Sample Chart Of This Background

Julia

So we are ready and waiting to get to work on creating a beautiful chart for your family gatherings this holiday season.  We can't wait to print a masterpiece for you.  The closer we get to the holidays, the busier we will be, so now is a great time to get started.  You can send us your information for a free consultation at http://www.familychartmasters.com/consult. 

Extreme Genes

I haven't been blogging much for a bit here because I'm working on another new project that we are just about ready to release.  But in the meantime, I wanted to tell you about a new radio show all about family history called Extreme Genes.  It plays every Sunday night and you can listen to it tonight over the web at 8pm Eastern at KNRS.com and through iHeart Radio. 
Scott Fisher is a popular radio host that I've listened to for years and it turns out he is an accomplished genealogist.  He has started this new show and I was privileged to be among his first guests.  We had a great time talking about charts.  You can check out this and other podcasts of the show at his website ExtremeGenes.com. And you can follow the program at https://www.facebook.com/extremegenes

Book Reviews and Signings

If you watch me on facebook, you know that last week I got to do a book signing at my alma mater--in the college bookstore.  Sweet.  Throughout my bachelor's and into my Master's in Library Science, I spent many, many happy hours in that bookstore and I own lots of books I bought there.  It was really fun. 

Funny how that signage meant so much to me even when we can create signage like that anytime.  :) 

The book is getting great reviews.  We've updated the reviews page on ZapTheGrandmaGap.com.  Check out all the reviews that have come up about the book at  https://zapthegrandmagap.com/reviews.html.  A few reviews have been added to Amazon.com as well but none have been registered at Barnes and Noble.com.  If you have seen any other reviews that I've missed, or if you would like to add one at either of these sites, we'd love to have your input.  Thanks so much!

Wisdom from My Dad

You know a little about my wonderful Father from the blog posts I've written about the traveling we've done together.  I am really blessed to have a great Dad and I know how extraordinary that blessing is in this world.  I wish everyone could have a Father like mine.  My parents, my husband, my children and my sisters are truly the greatest blessings I have.  That's probably why I work in family history and I've devoted so much time to helping people figure out how to use family history to create a close family like I am blessed to have.  (We drive each other crazy often--but they are still really great.)

Back to my Dad--  He is currently working outside of London which is part of why I was able to take him on his very own Who Do You Think You Are tour of his family's history this year.  While he's been there, he has written us alot of emails--not just your everyday "this is what's going on" emails, but pearls of Fatherly wisdom for my sisters and I and our kids.  Yesterday the email was about family history so I asked him if I could share it with you here.  Then you get the benefit of my great Dad too :)  This is it..

Dear Family:

Printed on the edge of every two-pound coin in England is the phrase "Standing on the Shoulders of Giants."  I think the British are pretty smart to put it there.  It gives us something to think about.  Each one of us stands on the shoulders of those who went before us -- of course our parents and grandparents, but also those who established and fought for our freedoms, our way of life, and our heritage in the church.  We are very blessed by those who went before us. 

The more I learn about history, the more I appreciate that I was born when and where I was born.  I have so many blessings that I did nothing to earn, develop, or create -- electricity, air conditioning, cars, computers, and all the wonders of science and technology.  I also received a rich heritage of freedom and liberty, knowledge, books, literature, music, and chances to go to school and learn about things in the world. Through the gospel, I have been given knowledge of spiritual and eternal truths that I would not have gained on my own, without the scriptures and prophets.  It just makes me thankful.

 

It is a humbling thought that each of you stands on the shoulders of your parents, and your parents stand on the shoulders of their parents.  Your children will also stand on your shoulders.  It is comforting to me to know that you are building strong shoulders on which to stand -- even you grandchildren -- because your children will need a strong foundation on which to build their future.

I just thought this was a cool statement for a coin, 

Love,

Dad/Grandpa

Is he awesome or what?  

WIFFAC--Southern California and Ownership of my own family history

If you've been reading this blog for very long, you know my Mother's family comes from Southern California and I love going back there every June for the Southern California Genealogical Conference.  I've written many times about being able to explore my own family history and being able to take my children back to see where my Mom grew up.
Teenager Update--Family History Trip
Come See Us In Sunny CA
Nama--My Independent Spirit
And most recently about this trip on the Zap The Grandma Gap Blog at Taking My Daughter On A Family History Trip

This time I took my daughter and her friend and we had a wonderful time.  We went down to the Santa Monica Pier three times--an important place in my family's history.  We rode the carousel, and the Ferris wheel and walked around the pier.  We checked out the house where my Mom grew up, her schools, her neighborhood, the church she attended and where my Mom and Dad's reception was, the temple they were married in, the beaches where we hung out when I was a little girl, the Westfield Culver City Mall, and lots of other places important to our history.

But the best part was something I've been talking alot about with my kids and family history.  I wrote a recent blog post about it over at my ZapTheGrandmaGap Blog.  I gained real OWNERSHIP this year.   My phone battery wasn't cooperating, and the charger in the car was cooperating even less, so I had to really figure out the lay of the land without my GPS.  Like I wrote about last year, we had stopped by the neighborhood many times, but my parents were always driving, or we were following them in the next car.  By the time we went back and forth between Burbank and Westchester and Santa Monica several times this year, I was starting to feel like I really knew the lay of the land for myself.  I can't really describe how important that was for me.  I felt ownership of my family history and I felt connected to Southern California like I never had before.  I felt more a part of that history and those people.  I felt empowered to be able to connect them to the future generations.

So there were lots of awesome things going on at SCGS this year, great talks with the other vendors (as usual) my lectures went well, and a great venue and great people.  As always, the Southern California Genealogy Conference was fantastic this summer.  Paula and Leo and Viki and their team do such a fantastic job every year.  Jamboree is a great asset to the genealogy community.   But this year I was really focused making my own family history--having my daughter and her friend there, and getting an opportunity to really invest her and myself in my matriarchal family.  And that is priceless. 

Named to Family Tree Magazine's 101 Best Websites List Again!

Woohoo!  Thanks to Diane and Alison and their team for the love.  Another award to add to the 2011 award they gave us.  Check it out:
http://familytreemagazine.com/article/Best-Online-Genealogy-Tools-and-Trees-2013

Learning to cook like my ancestors did--What I did over the summer

  

This summer my kids and I volunteered up at This Is The Place State Park.  We had a wonderful time and learned so many things about the past.  We volunteered several years ago when the kids were little and I was always so impressed by what you can learn by reliving the past.  My ancestors were pioneers and it really makes their lives become real in so many details.  It is a great way to teach my kids some gratitude too.  I wrote Plan to Visit a Living History Museum recently for Family Tree Magazine.  There are just so many things you can learn from a Living History Museum. 

I've been getting to know this stove. It is a cast iron stove that we've been demonstrating cooking with.  We have made rolls, and cookies and pies.  It has been good food and lots of learning.  But mostly it has been alot of appreciation for what the women before us went through to feed their families.  Besides the kitchen garden, besides cleaning and gutting the animals, besides making everything from scratch, using a stove like this is a big deal, a really big, time consuming, complicated deal. And that's after all the work of collecting and chopping the wood. 

The fire box on this stove was on the upper left and the oven was on the right.  You could feed wood into the side and into the front of the fire box.  Making the fire is really tricky, you have to be sure you are allowing enough air through so that the fire gets hot enough.  And different kinds of wood create different temperatures in the stove.  I suppose if I lived with it all the time, I would learn all of that but it was really tricky to get it to the right temperature this summer.  Once the oven is hot enough the burners on the left are your high heat, the burners in the middle are medium and the burners on the right are lower.  When you bake something in the oven, you have to turn it 1/2 way through so that it cooks evenly on both sides.  Dealing with this oven was like having another child.  It took several hours to heat it up to the right temperature, quite a long time to cook and then once the oven was cool, you needed to clean out all the ashes to make it ready for the next day.  It took two shifts of women all day just to produce a couple of items.  I can't imagine having to make three meals a day on it.  You wouldn't have time for anything else. 

One of the things I really learned to appreciate is that our ovens are insulated and cool to the touch on the outside.  Not so with this one.  It would have been quite a job to keep little kids away so that they don't burn themselves.  And then of course, it heats the house up really hot--which is great in the winter I'm sure, but really hard to handle in the summer.  It was soooo hot.  I don't know how the pioneers ever had cooked food in the summer but I do know why my ancestor's journals talk about the summer kitchen. 
 

It is a huge project to cook in this oven.   And then you have to do the dishes. I really missed the running water.  We had to bring in water from the back, make sure it was heated.  And then we had to wash and rinse every dish by hand.  It worked, but it took all day.  I'm sure it took every bit of energy every day to make the food for their families.  I have a whole new appreciation for women of the 19th century.  We all come from a strong lot. 

New Lectures

I've been teaching alot this year about what I found when I set about trying to figure out the best ways to engage your family with their family history and write my book.  Last week's lecture at the BYU genealogy conference went well and I'm the keynote this weekend at the UVTAGG meeting. Every time I teach it I learn new things and add more about what I've been experimenting with.

Zap The Grandma Gap
The 10 most important ideas to connect to your posterity by connecting them to their past. If they don't like family history you are doing it wrong. This class will take you from snoring and boring to exciting and inviting.

I'm excited this weekend to try out my new workshop too for the second hour of instruction.  This workshop was just accepted for RootsTech 2014 so I'm glad I get to try it out on UVTAGG first so they can help me work out the kinks.  

“Zap the Grandma Gap” Leave a Heritage Workshop 
How do you leave a heritage for your descendants? Based on the book and workbook Zap The Grandma Gap Power Up Workbook: The Particulars About How To Connect To Your Family By Connecting Them To Their Family History, (www.zapthegrandmagap.com) we’ll work together to brainstorm about what will work in your family. Power up with the group and let’s figure out together how to raise the next generation of grounded and inspired family historians. 

And I'm most proud of the fact that my 15 year old son submitted and was accepted to teach at RootsTech too.  He'll be teaching:

Get To Know Your Geezers.   (Apparently RootsTech does have a sense of humor.  He absolutely came up with that one himself.)

Get started in genealogy by visiting the top sites used by professional genealogists.  We’ll explore how to sign up and get started collecting your family history on the three biggest sites, Ancestry.com, FamilySearch.org and MyHeritage.com.  Recommended for 18 and younger. 

 
I've been working this summer on several new lectures.  See the list below.  For a full list of all my current lectures see www.janethovorka.com.  I love speaking to genealogy groups--I always learn so much and make such great friends.  If I can come speak to your group, let me know at janet@familychartmasters.com

Turn Your Family History Into A Coloring Book Workshop--Computer Lab Workshop 
Bring 5 fun family stories, a five generation pedigree chart and a few family images and you can turn your family history into a coloring/workbook for you to share with the younger members of your family. Great for family reunions or for gifts, we'll help you easily tell the story of your family in a fun and engaging way. 

Mom and Pop Culture: Creating A Culture of Family History in Your Family And Your Home 
Teach your family about their family history in a painless way by just breathing it into the life around you. The next generation can learn about their past simply in the way that you live. Give them all the soul satisfying benefits of knowing where they came from and build strong family relationships with a strong family narrative. 

In-laws and Outlaws: The Bylaws of Teaching Youth About The Family Skeletons
Sharing your family history can strengthen your youth and give them scaffolding for the future but every family has a few sticking points. So it is all in the way you frame it. Here are some rules for making sure your family learns from the past and proceeds forward into the future in a healthy way. 

Trip the Tree Fantastic: Intriguing Family History Trips for the Whole Family 
How do you prepare, organize and execute a family history trip for your family members so that they will enjoy the ride? These are the people who should care, how do you get them there? 

The Cool Parts of Family History: Engaging My Teenagers. 
The adventures and pratfalls of how it went when I tried to engage my teenagers in family history. Come be inspired by what might work with your kids. Get prepared to reach the toughest crowd in your family. 

Post It Forward: Lessons To Learn From The Family History Records My Great-Grandfather Left. What happens over three generations to the family history records in a family? And what will happen to your records over the next three generations in your family? My Great-Grandfather did his best to preserve his records for coming generations but he couldn’t foresee the iPad and YouTube generation. Likewise you can’t see into the future but there are measures you can take now to help make sure your Great-Great-Great-Grandchildren can learn about their heritage. 

The Mother of Connection: How my mother turned her children into genealogists and how you can too. 
This class will cover tons of ideas for creating excitement in your family about the people who came before. We’ll discuss activities and give resources for involving all ages. We’ll also talk about how to surround yourself with various reminders of your heritage to encourage curiosity in the family, and give a sense of perspective. You can create a feeling of belonging in your family members by sharing with them where they come from.

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.

Involving my kids

We've had a wonderful summer around here.  Lots of fantastic family history charts for all the family gatherings going on this summer.  And thanks to our wonderful team here at Family ChartMasters I've had some great time with the kids home for the summer too.  We've had a fun time making some videos about the family history projects we've done.  Have you seen them?  Follow the Zap The Grandma Gap blog for everything I've been learning about strengthening your family by helping them explore their family history. 

Take a look:

So I've been learning about how important the family dinner is for transmission of your family history.  This last project is perfect for teaching at the family dinner table.  Take a look:

I've really been able to tap into my daughter's love for crafts and decorating, we've had a good time together and she has learned alot about her family history in the process.  Win Win Win Win Win.  Let me know if it works in your family.

A taste of things to come.

We have been developing some new chart designs and I just put together a chart for my daughter's room.   We redecorated her room this summer and I put together a chart focusing on some of the ancestors she knows.  Take a look at this new design:

We'll be previewing this and several other new designs this week at the BYU conference.  Stop by and say hi if you are there.  And watch here as we roll out some fantastic new backgrounds to help you illustrate your family history in an exquisite way. 

WIFAAC--How to Archive Family Keepsakes

So there is another book I want to tell you about that I found at a genealogy conference this year.  At the Spring UGA Conference we had Denise May Levenick "The Family Curator" come out to give the Friday night presentation and speak at the conference.  She is a really sweet lady and I am glad to call her a friend.  She was kind enough to leave me a copy of her book: How To Archive Family Keepsakes.  I keep picking it up to blog about it but I keep getting drawn in and ending up reading it over and over again.  It is chock full of resources about what to do with your family heirlooms.  You may have already heard about it if you read the blogs because she did a great blog tour around the first of the year with it.  But I'm going to add my $.02 because it is just a really great book.

I love how clearly it is laid out with checklists and sample organization sheets.  It drew me right in at the beginning with pages on helping you distinguish what your goals are for a collection and creating some objectives about how you are going to deal with things.  I thought that was a great idea and something we don't think about enough.  But having a clear purpose in mind as we sort through and organize and archive helps us keep on track as to how we take care of our family treasures.

When I wrote my book, Zap The Grandma Gap, I was a little nervous about being bold enough to say that you shouldn't keep everything, but you should actually weed what you have so that the next generation of your family isn't overwhelmed.  Denise actually had a list of what to keep and what to not keep on page 48!  Yea!  I wasn't the only one.  She lists things to save, things to skim then trash, and things to trash.  It is a great guide for how to go about getting rid of things.

And I was happy to learn that we are kindred spirits in that we are both "fiend"s for china.  She says she has become the "family china shop" in case any of her family members change their minds about keeping the family dishes.  My grandmother loved dishes and silver too so I come by that honestly.

And I took good notice of her suggestions on page 94 and 95 of how to take care of quilts.  I heard some great suggestions at the SCGS conference about adding the story to my Grandmother's quilt, but Denise's book gives me all the know how on making sure the quilt itself is well taken care of.

The book is chock full of great ideas on how to care for your family treasures for the regular person.  It is a must read for anyone who cares about making sure their family can continue to treasure the past.  Look for it at her Family Curator site. And check out the rest of this review over at my Zap The Grandma Gap blog where I talk about her section on Digital Wills.  Good stuff!

Salt Lake Institute Classes are filling fast

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

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

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

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

WIFAAC-- Awesome Books 1

Coffers, Clysters, Comfrey and Coifs: 

the lives of our seventeenth century ancestors 

by Janet Few

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

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

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

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

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

WIFFAC--Books across the pond

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

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

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

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

New Series.. What I Found At A Conference

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

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

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

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

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

Upcoming Presentation Schedule

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Tricky Chart

J. Hersh requested a tricky chart from us recently.  He wanted to show everything he had collected on 300+ people including 200+ photos and all of the in-laws' ancestors and step families, etc.  It was a tricky chart--and we always enjoy a good challenge.  We appreciated his willingness to let us share it with you here:

And this is what he sent us via email when he received the chart:

The chart arrived late yesterday afternoon. I must say that you did an outstanding job.

It is so large that it will take me a while to orient myself to look at all of the entries. However, no matter what, it is terrific. The paper quality is better than I expected. I thought it might  be textured making it a bit tricky to get good photo reproduction. Fortunately, it is smooth and a good weight.

Your team's level of competence is matched only by the incredible patience and unfailingly high standards of customer service. Everything you represented was delivered  as promised with respect to the quality, time line, design and price.

It has been a delight to have the experience combining old world customer service and new world technology.

It surpassed all expectations and fulfilled my dream.

Thank you so much.

Precious Photo

John Sneed sent us this photo this week.  We loved it and asked that we could share it with you.  He said, "You can really see the joy in her face in the picture - thanks for making that joy a reality!  The chart was a big hit at the birthday [her 90th] and generated lots of great "genealogy" discussions from my family. A real accomplishment since they don't like to discuss the family history."


We are so delighted to be able to help you John.  She is so adorable.  A picture truly is worth a thousand words. 

Come to our demos at NGS

If you are at the National Genealogical Society conference tis week you'll want to stop by our booth at lunch time.  We have a treat in store for you.  Besides my 9:30 class Saturday morning where I'll teach you all about how to "Visualize and Share Your Family Tree" in Pavilion 6, we've teamed up with Loss Louise Cooke of Genealogy Gems to bring you there days of great ideas in the vendor's hall that will quickly and easily help you with your genealogy research. 

I'll be teaching these classes:
THURSDAY 12:30 pm 
5 Best Ideas to Involve Your Family with Family History
FRIDAY 1:30 pm
Beyond Scotch Tape: Easy Charts to WOW Your Family Reunion
SATURDAY 12:30 pm
Making Family History Fun for the Next Generation

and Lisa will be teaching these classes:
THURSDAY 1:30 pm 
3 Free Cool Tools for Newspaper Research You Need to Use
FRIDAY 12:30 pm
Turn Your iPad or Tablet into a Genealogy Powerhouse
SATURDAY 1:30 pm
How You Can “Time Travel” using Google Earth!
So at 12:30 and 1:30 you'll know where to be to get the best ideas at NGS!
Booths #411 and #415  See you there.

Two Mother's Day Sales to Honor Your Heritage

We sent out an email today about the Mother's Day sales we have going.  I'll post them here too so that everyone gets to hear about it.  If you didn't get the newsletter, you can sign up here. 

Two Mother's Day Specials That Will Strengthen Your Family Relationships And Help You Honor Your Heritage.

Mother's day is a great time to celebrate the heritage you've been given and we want to help you honor and give back to the mothers and grandmothers in your life.  We've paired up offers from FamilyChartMasters.com and ZapTheGrandmaGap.com for some great ideas to show your love to the mothers and grandmothers in your life.

Our Deepest Discount Ever On Canvas Custom Charts 2 Days Only

If you've been waiting to create one of our beautiful canvas giclee masterpieces, now is the time.  Honor your Mom and teach your family about their heritage with a beautiful expression of your family.  Submit your files by midnight Thursday and get 1/2 off any custom canvas giclee genealogy chart. 
Sale Price: $54.95 - $142.45 Regular Price: $109.95-$285.95 S & H: $11.95Send us your files now.  We'll work back and forth with you until it is just what you are looking for, and have it shipped in time for Mother's Day.  Sale ends midnight May 2nd

Zap The Grandma Gap BooksNew Lower Pricing and Mother's Day Special

Because of the amazing reception we've already had for our new books, we have a new distributor who has allowed us to be able to dramatically drop the prices.   And we've dropped them even further for the Mothers and Grandmothers in your life.  Check out the excerpts and the great reviews.  A quick and easy present to strengthen your family and honor your heritage.
Our Price: $30.00 S & H: $5.00Order now, sale ends May 7th
When you honor the mothers in your life you strengthen those family relationships and create a culture of respect and gratitude in your own life and in the next generations of your family. Let us know what we can do to help you in that endeavor.  We send you our best wishes for a healing, inspirational, wonderful and blessed Mother's day. 

(And don't fret if  you want to take advantage of this opportunity to treat yourself to a chart or the books you've been wanting for yourself.  Your Mom would be proud of you for sharing your family's heritage and for taking good care of yourself too.  :))

The end of my UGA presidency

Another president of the Utah Genealogical Association will be voted in at our board meeting tomorrow night.  As I come to the end of my term as president of UGA I’ve had some time for reflection.  I’ve been so privileged to be able to serve as president of this great organization.  I’m lucky to be the president who has been able to actually serve longer than the maximum 2 years—because of the change in our fiscal year last year, I’ve been able to serve 27 months.  It has been a joy.  I believe strongly in what UGA is trying to accomplish and every minute I’ve spent serving here has been a great blessing to me.  As I wrote about in my last president’s message for UGA's Crossroads Magazine, I’d like to tell you how UGA has blessed my life and why I’m so thankful to have been able to serve as the president. 

1)    I’ve broadened my circle in genealogy.  When I first became active in UGA, I was constantly amazed at how many people I didn’t know who worked in the field of genealogy.  I had been going to genealogy conferences, speaking, and running a company for eight years and I thought I really knew a lot of people in our community.  But I found that there are several circles in this community that don’t see much of each other.  There are the professional genealogists and librarians, the FamilySearch employees, the Ancestry employees, the conference goers, the FamilySearch Center volunteers, the vendors, the hobbyists and the zealots, people inside and outside of Utah who all get to brush shoulders in the activities that UGA sponsors.  I’ve gotten to know a myriad of people who I probably wouldn’t have run into otherwise and they have enriched my life and my research immensely. 

2)    I’ve made dear, dear friends.  Many of the people I’ve worked closely with have become lifelong friends who I turn to when I need support and who know that they will always find support from me.  It is such a blessing to have good friends who are as passionate about family history as I am.  My neighbors don’t always understand my passion, but through UGA I’ve found a network of people who get it.  They know the soul satisfying journey of finding out where you are from and I’ve been so privileged to be able to share that journey with them. 

3)    I’ve become a better genealogist.  The resources that UGA sponsors are tremendous.  We had an amazing week at SLIG this year, as we always do, and it always blows my socks off what I didn’t know.  The Virtual Chapter has been a great resource to our community, and the various other conferences and events UGA holds always teach me something new.  Our conference next weekend is slated to be another world class education opportunity.  Committee meetings and emails back and forth with volunteers have even taught me amazing things that have helped my research.  The more active you become in UGA, the more brick walls will just seem like research you didn’t know how to do.  I promise. 

4)    I’ve had an opportunity for service.  It is very easy in today’s fast world to become concerned only about your own world and how things affect you.  Volunteer service is important to help you become less selfish, to be able to clearly see the needs of other people, and to keep a broad perspective on things.  I love this  quote by George Bernard Shaw :
This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being a force of nature instead of being a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no 'brief candle' to me. It is a splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.

I really think my service in UGA has softened my heart, helped me see areas of myself that need improvement and helped me care more about my fellow man.  My time in UGA has been a refining experience and I am better for it.  Some might ask if spending untold hours working for UGA might have been better spent on something else—perhaps something that would bring in income.   I’ve spent much of my time at UGA actually paying employees for doing things I should be doing.  But I honestly feel that the sacrifice of my time here has brought great blessings into my family, my company, and my life.  And I am very thankful for that.

So while I'll have more time for blogging again, I know I will continue to take full advantage of all the great education resources UGA offers.  And I hope to see you there as well.