A few new testimonials

Roger Grua-one of our favorite customers--greeted me at a recent conference in Ogden, Utah with a big hug and a whole CD full of pictures of the charts at his family reunion. I have to show you a few of them here. We worked together over several weeks trying to figure out how to squish all of his data into small enough charts that he could lay them out on tables. It was a sliding scale between the size of font and the amount of tables he would have to find--so he worked on tables and I worked on getting a whole bunch of information into a reasonable space.

You can see in the pictures that the charts were a hit. Thanks for the great images Roger. We're glad we were able to help you display your information for your family.

Some of the other comments we have received this summer have included:

"I have now received the wonderful chart. I feel like we are some how connected at least you have a pretty good idea about all of us. All the way from Johan Schmidt to Jacob Daeda, and a bunch in between. The chart has accomplished all I had hoped. At a glance it is pretty clear who belongs to whom and half way across the room I can see the similarities and differences. Pretty neat family! Thank you so very much for your patient part in the whole project. I am sure we will enjoy this for a long time to come. It has encouraged lots of family dialogue which was a little more than I expected, just an extra bonus. My best to you and future projects."

"The chart arrived today. BEAUTIFUL ! Thanks again to everyone that worked on this chart. High FIVES all around. "

"This is beautiful, My mother is happy now. Thank you again for all of your patience, I think the chart looks fantastic."

We did several charts this summer with strong backgrounds that were meaningful to the family. This family home was a really important gathering place for family events and held great memories for all of the grandchildren. They wanted to display the family history in its context.

And then this chart was one of my favorites this summer. The Woods Family--get it? Finally a Family "Tree" theme that really made sense.

And then take a look at this great cascading descendant chart that is color coded. It was 19 feet long and 3.5 feet tall.


And Roger sent us another picture of his mother-in-law with the chart we did for her. This was such a great chart and we appreciate them letting us share it with you. She is a beautiful lady with a beautiful family. We love doing mother-in-law charts and while we know Rogers MIL loves him, we've had more than a few people come back and say that they finally had in-law approval when they presented one of our charts to them. So if you need any help there let us know :)

Unique family history presentations.

We've run in to a couple of interesting ways to present your family's history lately.

The first was at http://familyfun.go.com/parties/party-planning-ideas/cousin-fun-709930/4/. When we saw this in an old Family Fun magazine we had to try it out. So we made one for a family gathering this summer. This is our family in sugar:
licorice, cookies, mini M&Ms, chocolate sprinkles and frosting with chocolate sprinkles for doggie fur. Needless to say it was a hit.

Later, on our trip to the Grand Canyon a couple of weeks ago, we made one of those unplanned stops at Moqui Cave http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moqui_Cave and http://www.visitkanab.info/article.cfm?cat=3&id=29. This cave was once a secluded tavern in the time of Prohibition, and now houses an eclectic collection of florescent minerals and dinosaur tracks--one of those places that you stop at on family vacations. But the thing I was most interested in was this: At the bottom of the picture is a bas relief wood carving of the image at the top of this picture. In it are all of the family of Garth Chamberlain, the sculptor whose grandfather Thomas Chamberlain is the patriarch in this large family. Along the bottom is this:
Each of the people in the carving are labeled by name. It is an amazing picture in the first place, but then to see it lovingly carved in wood is really beautiful. You can see why it is displayed with the awards it won at various shows.

While we aren't offering any charts like these--you can design almost anything else through our custom design service. We'll show you the proof online before we print so that we can adjust it to exactly what you are envisioning. And then when you are ready, we'll take your payment and shipping information and ship it right out to you. Let us help you display your family's history in a beautiful and unique way.

Confidentiality

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

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

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

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

Changing plans--conferences, conferences, conferences.

Well you can't keep a good company quiet for long.

Thank you to all of you for the fantastic summer we've had. We've hired two more people and bought another plotter to keep up with everything(6!?! I don't know how Kim keeps them all running--it's all quite complicated). We're so happy to have been able to help so many people to display and honor their family history. It was good that we slowed down on conferences and focused on taking good care of your charts. We have barely stayed on top of things.

But now we are ready to get growing even more. Now, with more help trained, not only have we accomplished a real vacation away from work, but we are heading back into conferences--and just in time for some great ones. Here's what we are planning for the rest of this year:

• August 19th to 20th, 2011, Utah Genealogical Association Conference

Sidetrack here--You really ought to sign up for this one next weekend if you haven't. It is a screaming deal for only $20. The conference combines excellent presenters and hands on labs from beginning to advanced levels. Co-sponsored by the Genealogy department of Salt Lake Community College, there is an entire ICAPGEN track and a total of 144 classes over the two days.

We're also going to:

• September 7th to 11th Federation of Genealogical Societies Conference (Thanks to Pat Oxley for fitting us in last minute).
  
• September 17th, 2011, Ogden Regional Family History Conference, Ogden, Utah.
• September 24th, 2011, Las Vegas Family History Jamboree, Las Vegas, Nevada
  
• October 7th and 8th, 2011, Northern California Family History Expo in San Mateo, CA
• November 11th and 12th, 2011Georgia Family History Expo, Duluth, Georgia

I'm still slowing down the lecturing (UGA president and all that has slowed me down there) but we'll be available with discounts, fill-in-the-blank charts to work on and free consultations. So please come see us. We'd love to talk to you about how to display your family history.

Gratitude ... Just Gratitude.

Hugs and hugs and more hugs. We are on our way home from the Southern California Genealogical Society Conference and I am so sad to see it go. From the minute we walked in to the conference, I felt as if I had come home. These were my people. These are the people I love and care about because they are as passionate about family history as I am, and because they are good, good people. As we work with people more virtually, it becomes even more satisfying when you actually get to see those people in person. And it is so satisfying to work with people I respect so much, people like Randy Seaver, Lous Szucs, footnoteMaven, George Morgan, Drew Smith, Denise Levnick, Dick Eastman, Thomas McEntee, Amy Coffin, Warren Bittner, Kory Meyerink, Crista Cowan, Joan Miller, Kathryn Doyle, Lisa Alzo and so very many others. I learn so much from each of them and it was so good to have time to talk to them. These, my people--genealogists, are the best people in the world. There was an attendee who lost her iPad at this conference. She had come around several times looking for it and I assured her that someone would turn it in. Of course someeone did. That's just the crowd we run in. Thank you for how rich and wonderful you make my life. And for all the great hugs.

I also have more big time grattitude because the new name, Family ChartMasters, was very well received. Dozens of times at this conference we heard "I really like your new name" or "Yeah, we've seen you before." That is music to the ears of someone who has just changed their company's identity. We have known we needed to do it for a long, long time but knew it would be a painful process. While it has been alot of work, it hasn't been as nearly as painful as we thought, and it looks like everyone still knows where to get the same great service and the same great charts. Thank you all for that.

And speaking of the same great service, I am so, so grateful for Erin Roudabush who is holding down the fort at home. We've had the best year ever so far this year, and it has been very busy keeping everything straight. I am so thankful for how readily Erin has stepped up to the plate on so many levels. We are so blessed to have someone who understands our company so well, who knows how to run it better than we do, and who cares so deeply about what we are doing. Erin is an incredibly intelligent woman, a great example to me, and I am so honored to call her my friend and occasional therapist.

Friday night, I left the party to go up to my room and teleconference in to our Utah Genealogical Association board meeting--live from downtown Burbank. I really love these, my people as well and I'm so proud of what we are doing. Christy Fillerup, Sue Maxwell, Bud Wood, Barry Ewell, Patsy Hendrickson, Jason Harrison, Suzanne Curley, Kathy Palmer,Kevin Wolford, Dan Lawyer, and Adele Marcum. Wilma Adkins, Colette Ewell, A.C. Ivory, Gena Ortega, Julia Corry, Bret Peterson, Kris Whittaker, Gordon Lewis, Valerie Elkins. It is such an honor to work with all of you and I am so proud of what we are doing. I went to a session presented at SCGS about bringing your society into the 21st century, and every idea presented there we already have nailed down. We are doing some great things with UGA and I am so grateful to be a part of it.

And as always it is so good to see the other vendors that have become our family and catch up with them and how their families are doing. The vendors hall is the best place to hang out. Marlo and DeAnna Schuldt, Geoff Rassmussen and Dave Berdan, Leland Meitzler, Maureen Taylor, Paul Larsen, Lisa Louise Cooke, Allison Stacey, Daniel Horowitz and everyone else. I care deeply about these people and how their companies are doing. It is my privilege to call them friends and to recommend their products. And the best part of any conference is decompressing at dinner afterward, talking about how the day went and where the industry is. I am so grateful for the friends and mentors we have in Mike Booth and Bruce Buzbee and their families.

As the conference wound down, I found myself saying that I wish we could do it for several more days, but I don't know that I could do it. We headed out quickly because we need to get back to everything that needs to ship out Monday and to my beautiful, actual family. I am so thankful to have so much to go back to. Thank you for knowing where you can get the best help with printing your genealogy charts. And congratulations to Paula Hinkle, Leo Meyers and their team for another great conference.

One of the 101 best genealogy websites

We've just been honored with a great award from Diane Hadad and her team at Family Tree Magazine.

Family ChArtist was named one of the 101 best websites in the tech category for using technology in your genealogy search. You can view the whole article here at http://www.familytreemagazine.com/article/101-best-websites-2011 .

We really appreciate the recognition and look forward to helping more and more people celebrate their heritage with a beautiful visual display of their family's history.

UGA Mormon Trails Echo Canyon Tour. Come Join Us.

I wanted to make sure that you knew about the wonderful tour being put on by UGA about the pioneer trails east of Salt Lake City. I'm really excited to learn more about this area and this is the only day of the year you can explore Cache Cave. My family and I will be there. Ticket sales close soon.

Utah Genealogical Association Mormon Trails CHAPTER presents the Echo Canyon Tour.

Saturday, June 18, 2011 @ 7:30AM
(Registration deadline extended to Midnight, June 5, 2011. Lunch can be purchased with tour ticket)

The Mormon Trails Chapter of the Utah Genealogical Association is thrilled to offer a memorable trek back into history and to tour and experience the beauty of majestic Echo Canyon.

John Eldredge will be the guide for this tour. Mr. Eldredge has written the book, “The Illustrated Emigrant’s Guide,” a booklet written for the 2005 Oregon California Trails Association Convention. You will find Eldredge’s historical knowledge remarkable and appreciate his ability to tell about the artefacts among the ledges and emigrant trail.

View the video preview and register at http://ugagenealogy.org by midnight, June 5, 2011

To join UGA visit our website. Membership is just $35.00 per year. Members will also have access to all archived virtual chapter meeting presentations, UGA Genealogy Teaching and Training videos, discounts for registration to the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy, a free subscription to our quarterly journal Crossroads, and more.

Generation Maps becomes Family ChartMasters

For Immediate Release:

Easy to use genealogy chart printing service becomes even more accessible

Cedar Hills, Utah. — June 1st, 2011 — Generation Maps, the leading genealogy chart printing service, announces today that it is changing its name to Family ChartMasters.

“We’ve decided to rename in order to simplify and focus our message on exactly what we do the best, “ said Kim Hovorka, CEO, Family ChartMasters. “We’re proud of the excellent customer service we provide and the way we can customize any family’s information to any design a genealogist is looking for. Future users will be able to easily find us now, and future generations will benefit from the family history we are able to display for your family.”

The name Family ChartMasters also comes with a new concentrated tagline, Share•Honor•Inspire, expressing how a genealogist can use a genealogy chart to further their research. Users are encouraged to Share their research, Honor their ancestors, and Inspire their family members with their family’s heritage. Family ChartMasters continues to be an inexpensive, beautiful way to make your genealogy chart ideas a reality.

About Family ChartMasters
Family ChartMasters was established in 2004 to help families express their heritage in a beautiful and attractive way. Family ChartMasters charts provide a visual reminder of your family’s history and help establish feelings of love and confidence that come from knowing who you are and that you are part of a family. Family ChartMasters charts can awaken individual potential embedded in one’s inherited traits and nurture emotional healing through understanding a family’s history.

Family ChartMasters is the premier printing service for any kind of genealogy chart imaginable. In addition to the design-it-yourself online Family ChArtist program, Family ChartMasters continues to offer a multitude of custom chart printing services, including both decorative and working genealogy charts. Custom decorative designs come with an online preview system that gives you personalized attention and feedback until the chart is exactly the way you envision it. Working charts are oversized, inexpensive, family reunion-type charts that display your entire file in one place to write on and add more information. Family ChartMasters has printed working charts up to 800 feet long with information for over 30,000 people. Free consultations are always available at http://www.familychartmasters.com/consult.

For more information:
info@familychartmasters.com
www.familychartmasters.com
www.thechartchick.com
www.facebook.com/familychartmasters
www.twitter.com/familychartmstr

Naming Contest Winners

As you can see by how long it has taken us to come to this point, the re-naming of Generation Maps has been a long process. We had 348 contest entries. Since the contest closed on April 4th, we've been through several focus groups with a double blind look at all of the suggestions. We've weighed and discussed and hammered and examined and reviewed and sifted and hashed out and negotiated. I feel really good about the process. After building this company for almost eight years, with all the love and hard work we have poured into it, it is hard to rename and feel good about it even though we knew it needed to be done. But, I think we have the name that really expresses what we do and will take us into the bright future with a smooth path ahead.

At long last, we had a decision! So who won? When we went back through, we were astounded to find out that the winning entry was submitted by an employee. Good Grief. It wouldn't be fair to award an employee the contest prize.

So, we have decided to award 4 prizes. One for the person who submitted the name closest to the one we've chosen and next in line for being the winner. And three runners-up. They are:

• Steve Freeman Grand Prize Winner $300 Generation Maps Credit (Can't tell you yet or we'd have to kill you :-)

• Drew Smith Runner-up $50 Generation Maps Credit "On-the-Wall Genealogy"
• Amanda Forson Runner up $50 Generation Maps Credit "Kinprints"
• Marilyn L Quinby Runner up $50 Generation Maps Credit "See My Tree"

Congratulations to them. And thank you so much to all of our wonderful followers who worked so hard to come up with so many great options for us. We so appreciate you.

We're working on logos and everything involved in rebranding. It is a big project. We will announce the new name with the new website, facebook, twitter, newsletter and etc on June 1st.

Vendors

We've been busy with the renaming of the company and a wonderful pre-family reunion season rush this last several weeks (THANK YOU--we're loving it). I've been very quiet on the social networking front, so quiet that I'm feeling a little shy about diving back in. But I'm going to take a deep breath and do it. In return for this indulgence--I promise we'll announce the winner of the renaming contest here tomorrow :).

Luckily, I have caught the continuing posts in the blogging community prompted by Thomas McEntee's revealing Genea-opportunities and Genealogy Conferences--the magic recipe series. The discussion has been interesting. Here's something else to think about...

The view from where I sit:
I was particularly interested in Thomas's Us vs. Them post. I cross many us vs. them boundaries. I've been involved in conferences and the genealogy community from all sides. I currently have about 17 active lectures that I give in all sorts of venues--from webinars to Family History Center staff meetings to large national conferences, paid and unpaid, about our company and on completely different topics. I blog and tweet and facebook. I periodically teach genealogy at Salt Lake Community College. I'm president of the Utah Genealogical Association this year and in the past have been involved in setting up and running conferences--everything from venue to bills to food to vendors to speaker contracts (SLIG and etc, this year's annual conference will be August 19th and 20th, watch for info at ugagenealogy.org.) And of course as Development Director and Co-Owner of Generation Maps, I'm one of the vendors (cue the ominous Jaws music.)

With my Master's in Library Science degree I could do genealogy research and get credentialed but instead I've chosen to become one of them--the vendors. I've chosen to follow what I love--helping people share their genealogy and entice others into searching out their history by helping them display their family's history in beautiful ways. I'm finding that in some ways, by buying vendor's space at a conference, I put up barriers and some prejudices to our involvement in the genealogy community. To some people I become a "them."

In the last couple of months, I have watched some of our "vendor" partners be uninvited to conferences, told not to mention their company when speaking, and be excluded from social networking, promotional and educational opportunities. We observe a lot of mis-trust of anyone who is a "vendor" because they are "only in it to make money" or perhaps "only in it for the advertising." In some corners of the blogging community there are people who are wary of anything "commercial" and yet the definitions of what is commercial are sometimes ill-informed. I've seen database companies invited to participate in events because they are "helping" but then other companies excluded. We even had one conference years ago that uninvited vendors and then proceeded to advertise for the local restaurants at lunchtime. And yet we are consistently approached by some of those same entities to donate items for gift bags and drawings--which we are happy to do. These sometimes strange attitudes make it very hard for new and upcoming companies, or even established ones, to get the word out about their services.

As a vendor, I don't feel very different from other members in this community. In fact, I think many would be surprised to know that as I've moved throughout this community, I've found that many of the companies in the vendors hall make much less than many of the lecturers, authors, and professional researchers do. There tends to be a perception that the "vendors" are the only people who advertise. However, if you look around, there is self-promotion everywhere in this community. So to follow Thomas's generous transparency, I'm going to pull down one more curtain. Often the people you trust the most to bring you the genealogy information you need--bloggers, lecturers, authors, professional researchers, and etc. "the educators" are the ones who are succeeding at the self-promotion the best. I've seen the contracts and I've seen the affiliate checks. When you promote "the educators" but don't promote "commercial vendors" you have your lines crossed and confused. Why can't we all advertise? Anyone who is good at what they do deserves reimbursement.

Making a living is a good thing. I am sad to sometimes see a general mis-trust in this community towards anyone who is trying to make a living--speakers and researchers, but especially a mis-trust against helping vendors get the word out about what they are doing. I'm still trying to figure out where that comes from. I think in part it comes from having two major industry players--one who is highly subsidized and not interested in making a profit but very vested in maintaining their non-profit status, and one who is so interested in making a profit that it aggressively acquires other companies and opportunities in the marketplace. In any other industry, a hard day's work is rewarded handsomely because we want to see that person continue to do what they are doing. Isn't it time that we do the same in the genealogy community? If you want to see more companies and individuals who are working hard to make your genealogy adventure easier--support them. Help them get the word out about what they are doing. It is ok to make a buck on family history. We want them to make a living so that they can continue to do what they do--help us. It is in all our best interests to have a strong, thriving genealogy industry where vendors are welcomed and encouraged.

So please go out and thank a vendor today for making your genealogy endeavors easier. Go spend some money on your genealogy pursuit. And then tell someone about it when your money was well spent.

Webinars and Lectures

While we are slowing down for the summer on conferences, I've still been working on doing some webinars.

Recent and upcoming webinars include:

• Achiving Your Genealogy Work Using the Library of Alexandria Rule The November Beta of UGA's New Virtual Chapter
• Getting Your Notes and Sources Right in Your Genealogy Software May 7th from 11-12:30 MDT for the Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree Extension Series.
• Further Your Research and Unify Your Family Reunion with Beautiful Genealogy Charts.May 11th from 12-1:30 MDT for Legacy Family Tree Webinars.
  

I am also working on recording several of my lectures so that they can be used in various circumstances and you'll see lots more writing out of me in coming months.

Slowing Down

Whew!! she said wiping her brow with a flourish.

Next weekend, I will be home for the first weekend of this year. We have been through a string of conferences, events, and speaking engagements that have been non-stop. From Mesa to SLIG to RootsTech it has been tons of fun. There is nothing I love more than partying with the people who speak my language. But we've decided it is time to slow down.

Needless to say, no one can keep that kind of pace. There were several weeks where I was home long enough to do the laundry and then pack everything back up to take off again. You can see a few things have suffered. I haven't been blogging as much. I have lists of things to write about but haven't had a second to do it. I haven't been on facebook and twitter as much, and I won't tell you about how the clutter level at the house has slipped. Mostly I'm not sure I've been able to keep up with my sanity.

And on top of that, Generation Maps orders have been accelerating. Typically, our busiest times of the year have been through the summer (family reunions) and during the Holidays (gift giving). Usually we slow substantially during February and March. But this year we haven't. Sales have been steady and we've been working really hard to keep our customer service--the personal touch and attention to detail--up to our standards. At times it has been tough to keep everything humming at home with our clients while keeping such a hectic schedule.

So we've decided to slow down over the summer. I know my heart will be aching that we aren't going to be at NGS, NEHGS, or FGS. But we've decided it is more important to make sure that we are completely taking care of the customers we have. You can see on our calendar that we will be keeping the commitments we've already made. But we are going to focus on being prepared and ready to take care of your needs this summer. So go ahead and plan the chart for your family reunion, anniversary, or just to advance your research. We'll be ready and waiting to give you the individual attention that printing your family's heritage deserves.

Contest for a new name

Generation Maps is growing and we need your help! We have known for quite a while that the name Generation Maps doesn't exactly express what this company does and we are ready now to make a change. So we're offering a

CONTEST PRIZE
$300 Generation Maps Credit!

That could be

• a working chart every year for the next 10 years
• Two 30x40 giclee charts
• or one HUMONGOUS family reunion charts.

We need your help to come up with a name that expresses the family/heritage aspect of this company and tells of the beautiful and professional charts that we create. But we are also looking for something that is snappy and memorable and expresses the fun we have printing charts for our clients.

You can submit your brilliant new name for Generation Maps at http://www.generationmaps.com/contest.
Deadline April 4th 2011.

Thanks to all the geneabloggers who already got the information out about the contest during RootsTech. We've had several great ideas submitted already. Hurry and submit yours. First one to submit the best idea will be the winner.

Geneapress--The place to get genealogy news.

I'm very happy to announce a new blog that I'm hoping everyone in the genealogy community will read. It's called GeneaPress. (www.geneapress.com) I've been receiving lots of press releases and haven't been able to keep up with getting everything published like I would like to. There is also alot of redundancy in the blogging world if you read several of the popular blogs. This new blog will be a wonderful place for people to get the news first hand--from the press releases--and then your favorite bloggers will be able to stick more to the commentary on the news.

According to the "About" information on the blog:
GeneaPress is a communal effort by the genealogy and family history blogging community to manage the large number of press releases received from genealogy vendors and organizations. The goal is to create a repository where bloggers can link to the latest news about the genealogy industry.

Kudos again to Thomas MacEntee of Geneabloggers for leading out in another collaborative effort that will strengthen our genealogy community.

The Sociality of Family History part 3 of 3

Besides working with the Salt Lake Institute team like I mentioned in my last post, we were joined over the evenings and in meetings in the hotel with some of our wonderful board members this year. My fantastic 1st VP Christy Fillerup was Johnny-on-the-spot all week, helping even though she was trying to take a demanding course. And I got to know Kathy Palmer and Patsy Hendrickson so much better. Carrie Keele, our administrative assistant was so helpful too. We had great meetings with all of our new board members--Dan Lawyer, Sue Maxwell, Bud Wood and Jason Harrison. I'm so excited to be able to work with these good people. We had such a wonderful time together, laughing and having fun, working hard and learning. I just feel so incredibly blessed to be able to work with these people. I'm so lucky to get to be president with such an impressive board.

Maybe it is natural that an endeavor that studies relationships in families would bring about strong relationships among non-family members too. It seems that in all sorts of Family History endeavors, strong relationships--almost family relationships are formed between people who care about the study of families. It is a good thing when you have a support system for favorite interest. It is such a good thing to have people to talk to who appreciate the nuances of something you love.

I don't know how to write about it without far to many sugary adjectives. I'm sure I sound far too over the top. But I just can't express enough how much I'm loving working with the people in UGA and at Salt Lake Institute this year. It's such a party.

Looking forward to the next one--See you there.

The Sociality of Family History part 2 of 3

Conferences.

What can I say about conferences? You've heard me many times on this blog talk about the great fun we have at conferences. We are heading to the Mesa Family History Expo this week and I just can't wait. We have the St. George Family History Expo, the South Davis Family History Fair and the RootsTech conference coming up right away too. Add to that the teaching at family history centers, and Salt Lake Community College and you would think I'm conferenced out. But I'm not. I love getting to know genealogists. It's a party with people who are as crazy as I am.

This last week I got to see the most amazing conference, from the most amazing perspective. The Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy is an icon in genealogy conferences for a reason. It isn't a conference--where you will take a class on this and a class on that, but it is an institute--a place where you can go and take 20 course hours in a specific topic from the rock stars of genealogists. Literal rock stars. These people are incredible. And then you go over to the library and work with the instructors and the other students in your classes on finding and analyzing the information on your lines.

Being the new Utah Genealogical Association president, I was thrown into administrating SLIG with a new director--the wonderful Adele Marcum--and many members of the new committee who had never worked at Institute (thanks so much Jill Woodbury, Sherry Stevens, Kerry Farnsworth, you guys are not only brave but incredibly competent). And thanks be to Luana Darby, the infallible past UGA president who has kept the ship afloat through some hard years and was there for us with every question we had. I'm so glad she hasn't abandoned ship yet. I so appreciate her companionship. I just wish I'd gotten a picture of everyone together. Something to put on the list for next year. I think if anything, we hopefully proved that we learn quickly from past mistakes.

As is typical with genealogists, the attendees at SLIG were sincere, sweet people. I can't count how many times we heard, "no problem." We had people pitch in and help with handing out lunches, stapling and handing out syllabus materials, taking tickets and etc. And that doesn't even begin to talk about how they helped each other and the great companionship that goes on at Institute. That is why Kim and I choose to run Generation Maps. I love the people in this industry. Genealogists as a whole are good, kind people.

And the coordinators and instructors were patient and generous with a new untested team. These instructors are incredibly knowledgeable--the rock stars of genealogy in the US. I loved the level of conversation all week, and thoroughly enjoyed the classes I got to sit in on. But they are knowledgeable AND generous. I didn't know until this week how truly amazing they are all the way around. They take a personal interest in each of their students and do one on one consultations all week in small and large blocks of time. I was so honored to be able to work with them this week. They all worked diligently with me to put together a 3 year plan for SLIG that will put the conference on a stronger footing. And one of the highlights of the week for me was to be able to present Tom Jones with the UGA Silver Tray award for publishing, to present Paula Stuart Warren as a Fellow of UGA and to present Wilma Adkins with the 2010 Award of Merit. They are, each of them, both scholarly and magnanimous. They are rock stars who are somehow able to make you feel important too.

It was so fun to be so immersed in the sociability of Family History last week. I know many of us came away with life long friends. The level of conversation was so invigorating and energizing. It was great to be able to talk to people who speak my language. Coming back to my regular life, where everyone thinks I'm mildly crazy, it was nice to know there are people out there like me. And it was so great to party with them for a week. Can't wait until next year.

The Sociality of Family History part 1 of 3

You'll have to allow me to wax sentimental here for a bit.

I've been traveling around Utah last fall with Sue Maxwell to re-vitalize and re-energize the UGA chapters around the state. We had a wonderful time in November with Christy Fillerup visiting with the ladies of our new Cedar City Chapter.

It was so beautiful to see the great support group they had formed in Cedar City. That is such an important part of genealogy. There are times that my non-genealogist friends think I'm crazy. But it is so good to have good friends who understand. To have a shoulder to cry on when you just cannot find that marriage record, and to have someone who will jump up and down with you when a distant cousin sends you pictures.

We had such a wonderful time talking with these sweet ladies. They took such good care of us. They are passionate about the same things we are. We learned alot from them and look forward to learning alot more. It was amazing how the common ground of family history could create such fast friends so quickly. I was amazed at how quickly we had soooo much to talk about.

Some may think that real life meetings are going by the wayside in this busy virtual digital world. And while it is great to have the convenience of virtual meetings and to make friends with social networking, I don't think they will ever replace the beauty of a support group where you can share your successes and frustrations with people who understand.

It is good to have someone who understands your passion.

Recommendations

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

For immediate Release
Sunday, January 2, 2011

A FRESH LOOK FOR A NEW YEAR

Find My Ancestor Has Received a Makeover

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

About A.C. Ivory

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

About Find My Ancestor

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

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

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

Family History--What's in it for me.

Last year, while we were putting together a new Generation Maps Mission Statement, I spent some time reflecting on why Genealogy is important. I've been putting together some new lectures for 2011 and I want to show you one of the graphics from one of the sets of Powerpoint slides. To me, it clearly explains the 4 reasons I believe Genealogy can save the world. (Said with a little tongue in cheek, but not much.)

• Understanding and Emotional Healing. If you haven’t found someone in your family history who is a scoundrel, you haven’t done enough family history. Likewise, if you haven’t found anyone in your family who accomplished amazing things, you haven’t done enough family history. My husband and I run a genealogy chart printing company. As we print descendancy charts for family reunions, it never ceases to amaze us how often we can see trends running through family lines, even just in the vital information on a genealogy chart. Divorces, or illegitimate children can sometimes be seen running through generations on some lines, and then you can see where when one person breaks the cycle, and intact families follow. In my own family, among many other things, there are lines of addictive personalities and I know that is something I come by easily. And in my husband’s family, it is easy to see where the trend started that gave my mother-in-law her sense of self. Understanding these trends, and how they play through the generations can help us heal and deal with family members in a more compassionate and understanding way. I know some of the personality traits ran through my family, and into me, long before I started collecting family history. But now I understand them so much better.
• Realizing Potential. I've written many times about being inspired by your family history. (It's easier to broadcast to the world, than all my stories about healing and understanding the problems in my family's history.) Once when my very scientifically minded son was struggling over yet another dreaded book report, I made the comment to him that he certainly had it in him to write well because he came from a long line of prolific writers. After a bit, he stopped the procrastination and finished up the report. I am continually amazed at how such small comments inspire confidence in my children. Likewise, in my 20’s, when I was given a short personal history of my great-grandmother, I found that she had been through a hard trial similar to mine at about the same age. It inspired me to know that those trials hadn’t defined her life and she had gone on to be very successful. I recently learned more about the sacrifices she made when she was the same age I am now. I look at my challenges and say “I can do this. It’s in my DNA.”
• Grounded and Enveloped in Love. If you think about how much your grandmother loved you, you can imagine how much your great-grandmother, or even great-great grandmother loves you even though you might not have had a chance to know them in this life. I want my children to know as much as they can about the sacrifices that have been made in their behalf by their ancestors so that they could have the good life that they have now. Family history is often a solace for people whose current family ties aren’t what they want them to be.
• Spiritual Power. I've written many times about the spiritual power of Family History. I usually like to call it Serendipity, because that takes out some of the religious connotations. The coincidences, psychic connectedness, hunches, “I don’t know why,” luck, synchronicity, inspiration, intuition, and providence cross all religious, social, political and etc. boundaries. Megan Smolenyak wrote in her book, In Search of Our Ancestors,“If you were to gather fifty genealogists in a room, chances are that forty-five of them would readily admit to having experienced a few unexplainable incidents in their search for roots.” (pg.1) I teach a class on serendipity that is one of my favorite classes to teach because you can feel everyone in the room give a sigh of relief that they aren't the only crazy genealogist. And when I open up the floor and ask the class if they've ever experienced serendipity in their research, I get to hear the most fantastic stories. I absolutely love teaching that class. It leaves everyone with an amazing sense of awe and an awesome feeling of connectedness.

So go out and share your love of family history with someone--especially your own family. You just might save the world for someone.

Verklempt

If you ever watched Saturday Night Live when Mike Meyers was on, he had this on-going skit called "Coffee Talk'' and got `verklempt'' at the mere mention of Barbra Streisand. I'm really not Yiddish, but I've studied German and Hebrew, and I think this is the best word at the moment.
Flattered but overwhelmed.

Overcome.

Saturday I was installed as the president of the Utah Genealogical Association.

Yikes.

I would be scared spitless, but Luana Darby has done a wonderful job the last two years getting UGA into a place where someone in their right mind would be willing to take on this responsibility. During Luana's presidency, the organization has completed a new website and new social networking communication avenues including a stronger newsletter system, facebook, twitter, blog (Thanks A.C. Ivory). This last year we've put together a better organization including a renewed committee structure and books for each committee chair to begin passing down the institutional knowledge that will sustain UGA in the future. And Barry Ewell has orchestrated the purchase of a new virtual meeting system that will not only make the organization run more smoothly, but also has facilitated the development of our new Virtual Chapter, and the UGA Online Training and Tutorial Library. While Luana was in office, our journal Crossroads (yea David Ouimette and Christy Fillerup) has been revamped and the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy (go Adele Marcum) has remained one of the premiere sources of genealogy training in the country. And probably the biggest accomplishment of Luana's presidency was the immensely successful hosting of the National Genealogical Society Conference in 2010 which showed off Utah’s assets to the genealogy community at large, strengthened UGA’s status in the genealogy community and set UGA on a strong footing for future development.

So we are in good shape. We have a great new board. I have two fantastic Vice Presidents, Sue Maxwell and Christy Fillerup. And we are excited to take UGA into a new year. It is the 40th anniversary year and there is lots to get going on, lots still to do. Let me know where you want to help.