Vacation Recovery

My kid sporting some serious bedhead on vacation.

Ok, I'm pretty much caught up after two weeks away. My Google Reader is back down to 100 or so. Emails all answered. I even did a little work on my RootsMagic database just to get the genealogy gears cranking again.

Before vacation, I was reading anything and everything I could self-publishing. I have this book thingy I'm writing and I didn't want to screw it up. After numerous days at the beach, I'm in a more relaxed mode. If anything gets messed up, it will be chalked up to a learning experience.

With that in mind, I've been proofing the second draft of the blog book. It took some time away in another state to sort out the next steps. Now it's full steam ahead...with breaks for swimming of course. It's summer in Houston.
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Register Now for the 2011 FGS Conference

Just a few days left to take advantage of early-bird registrations rates and save $50 when you sign up for the Federation of Genealogical Societies annual conference. If you're on the fence, now is the time to hop off and join me at this great event. The rate changes July 1.

You don't have to be a member of a genealogy society to attend this conference. Everyone is welcome.

Sometimes beginning genealogists think that national conferences will have sessions that are too hard or out of their league. This isn't the case. There are so many sessions to choose from. You just have to have an interest in the topics presented.

If you want to sign up, but don't want to go it alone, let me know and I'll be your buddy. See? Then you'll know someone at the conference. 

Registration information

Conference program

Conference activities

FGS Conference news blog

See you in Springfield!

[Disclosure: I am an official conference blogger.]

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July Programs at the Clayton Genealogy Library in Houston

The Clayton Library Center for Genealogical Research is one of the premier genealogy institutions in the country, and it's right here in Houston! Here are some of the great events on their calendar for July:

Genealogy Basics Bootcamp
Saturday, July 2, 2011 10:30AM-12:00PM
Interested in your family history, but not quite sure where to start?  Found some information, but need to know what else is available?  Join the Bootcamp for an exercise in genealogy research resources!  This session focuses on starting genealogical research by examining basic tools, such as the pedigree chart, and basic research strategies.  Learn about the different genealogical materials available to researchers and how they lead to other sources. Reservations required.  Please call 832-393-2600.  Adults/Teens.

Military Research – American Revolution and Civil War
Saturday, July 2, 2011 1:00-2:30PM, 3:00-4:30PM
Researching family history can be as close as the home computer, but finding the best websites and resources can be frustrating.  Lynna Kay Shuffield will present two classes focusing on good Internet resources where you can locate primary source documentation or lineage information related to American Revolution military research and Civil War research.  You must register for each session you wish to attend.  This lecture is co-sponsored by Oran M. Roberts Chapter 440, United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Clayton Library/Houston Public Library. 

American Revolution Military Research
Saturday, July 2, 2011 1:00-2:30PM
Join Lynna Kay Shuffield for a presentation on searching for your Revolutionary War ancestors.    Reservations required.  Please call 832-393-2600.  Adults/Teens.
Civil War Research
Saturday, July 2, 2011 3:00-4:30PM
Continue with Lynna Kay as she provides information and resources for searching for Civil War ancestors.  Reservations required.  Please call 832-393-2600.  Adults/Teens.

Clayton Library Orientation
Saturday, July 16, 2011 10:30-11:45AM
Learn about the vast resources and how to efficiently utilize genealogical research materials housed at the Clayton Library Center for Genealogical Research.  No reservations needed, meet at the Information Desk in the library.  Adults/Teens.

Scrapbook Crop
Saturday, July 16, 2011 10:15AM-4:30PM
Come join us for a fabulous day of scrapbooking your family history!  It’s a potluck crop, so bring snacks, desserts, and sodas to share.  Cups, plates, napkins, etc. will be provided and a refrigerator and microwave are available.  Free wireless and electrical outlets.  Please bring your cutting pad.  A six foot table is available for each person. Reservations required:  e-mail lksfriday@sbcglobal.net or call713-692-4511.  Co-sponsored by Oran M. Roberts Chapter 440, United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Clayton Library/Houston Public Library.  Adults/Teens.

Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) Day
Saturday, July 25, 2011 10:30AM-4:30PM
Ever wonder how to join the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR)?  Representatives from local DAR chapters will be at Clayton Library for consultation and research help in preparing lineage papers for submission to the DAR.  No reservations required.  Adults/Teens.

A Vacation From My Ancestors

I'm taking a break from blogging, and this hotel room view is the reason:

I'll be back next Monday. Hopefully. If I don't come back you'll know I'm moving here forever.
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SCGS11 Jamboree Part 6

The Family Curator brought doughnuts for the GeneaBloggers on Sunday. They didn't last long.

Here are the awesome minds behind Shades of the Departed:

Paparazzi were everywhere, trying to make a buck off genealogy celebrities. 

Here are some of those stars:

Here's a view of the vendor hall. That's Ancestry's booth on the left.

And before I knew it, Jamboree 2011 was over. It was time to out the beads away for another year.

See you next June.

SCGS11 Jamboree Part 5

Here are a couple of things I liked about Jamboree. I took pictures so you could see them and possibly incorporate them into your own genealogy events as well. 

First is the surname wall. Attendees received labels in their bags with the invitation to fill them out.

After that, you put the labels on the wall by letter.

The wall was in a place that made it easy to read, plus it looked better than the empty space.

Southern California Genealogical Society displayed their "Photo and Filming Notice" prominently in several places throughout the venue. This notice is the reason I and many other bloggers were able to bring you so many pictures of Jamboree. You want your event publicized? Draw up a photo notice, too.

SCGS11 Jamboree Part 4

View from the panelist table of Blogger Summit part 1. I was fortunate enough to participate in the panel:

View from the audience of the panel in Blogger Summit, part 2. I was fortunate enough to call these people friends.

Moderator of both panels, Thomas MacEntee:

These are pictures of the Blogger Summit, parts one and two at Jamboree. The first portion discussed basic beginner issues of blogging. Moderator Thomas MacEntee created a blog in 5 minutes or less as promised. He also asked questions of the panel and we shared our answers with the audience.

The second portion dealt with more intermediate topics of blogging, including copyright issues, affiliate links and any questions the audience had.

When I first attended blogger panels at 2009 Jamboree, much attention was devoted to explaining blogs and defending their value to genealogy. We've come a long way since then. The 2011 crowd asked great questions with enthusiasm. Hopefully we'll get some more genealogy blogs in the mix.

Through this blog is how I met my genealogy friends. In talking to those friends, I learned about the annual Jamboree event. So when I was asked on the panel if I thought blogs were important to genealogy, my first instinct was to answer DUH! Thank goodness I didn't.

All in all. The blogger panels were a hit. I am thankful to have been a part of it.
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SCGS11 Jamboree Part 3

Friday night at Jamboree, the vendor Geni hosted an ice cream social for genealogy bloggers. The event and Geni's support deserves its own blog post, so here it is.

We were treated to an ice cream bar with toppings, music and a good time. So much of a good time, that I didn't take any photos.

This is not a photo of Randy Seaver and Cheryl Palmer. You did not see this. Deny, deny, deny. What happens at Jamboree stays at Jamboree.

Thanks again to the Geni.com crew for the great time!

SCGS11 Jamboree Part 2

Friday afternoon, I went to Elusive Immigrants - European Case Studies in "Exhaustive Research" led by Warren Bittner, CG. He shared a case study from his own family history, which was an attempt to locate the European hometown origin of his Bittner ancestor who settled in NewYork City. The speaker gave a real-life example of an exhaustive search and shared with the audience all the ways he tried to cross the pond with this line. The pieces started to fall in place when he expanded his search to siblings, friends and other family members. Researching a larger group led to the discovery of other brothers and eventually the German village from which they came. Bittner stressed the importance to going back over the books and records you studied before. The puzzle piece that solved his problem came from a book he had already reviewed. This was a skill-building session sponsored by the Board of Certification of Genealogists. I encourage you to attend these type of sessions even if you have no intention of pursuing certification. BCG sessions often give good research advice and leave you with new ideas for exploring your old research.

The next session I attended was Best of Class Testing: Do You Need It and Why? with Bennett Greenspan. I'm currently on DNA overload with all the sessions I took at the Clayton Library last week, but this was a chance to see the founder of Family Tree DNA in person so that's how I landed in this session. Thanks to all I learned from Debbie Wayne, I was able to follow along nicely through most of the presentation. I did get stuck at the mutation part. I'm still trying to figure that out. The take-away I got from this session was that it's not necessary to purchase the most expensive test right away. Take further steps when you have a question or are trying to get clarification. After the session I mozyed over to the Family Tree DNA booth and asked my question about margin of error and my Family Finder test. I now understand what it means and how it is measured, but there's no way I can explain it here.

I did not attend a session during the last time slot of the day. Instead, I had a nice chat in the hotel bar with Thomas MacEntee. Everyone thinks genealogists + hotel bar automatically equals hijinks, but that's not the case. This was a chance to catch up and bounce ideas off each other. I got some great ideas on self-publishing. From this little visit, I took away as much--if not more--than I would at a traditional session. I always tell conference attendees to budget at least 33% of your time for casual meet-ups with your peers because a lot of learning happens in these social groups. If nothing else, you'll laugh a lot.

That's all for the educational part of Friday at Jamboree. There were some evening festivities, too, but those events get their own post.
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SCGS11 Jamboree Part 1

Hello from the 2011 Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree!

Many bloggers congregated on Friday morning. It looked like this:

At noon, many of the bloggers moved over to the convention center, where Bloggers' Island was set up. It was a special section of chairs and tables with outlets and wifi access. This is so handy, especially when you're trying to blog about an event. Thank you to SCGS for our "special space."

Here is the beautiful Genea-Quilters quilt being raffled off to one lucky winner:

The sessions I was interested in started in the afternoon. I will blog about those in another post, but now I'm going to rest. Partying one's way through a genealogy conference is hard work!

What Happens at Jamboree...

Hello from bee-yoo-tee-full Burbank, California. I'm here for the 2011 Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree.

I drove in yesterday (Thursday). There was a writing conference that day so many of my genealogy friends were already there when I arrived.

As it tends to be the case, we all just picked up where we left off last time we saw each other. New friends were folded into the mix and we got down to business.

Did you know that The Educated Genealogist is also a Beauty Queen? Here she is dolling it up in the lobby. What? Don't people do this at NGS, too?

Later that evening, a bunch of us went to dinner. When we returned, we came across a little party in the outside seating area. I sat down with more genealogy friends and proceeded to laugh hysterically for the next 90 minutes or so. Rumors of a piñata being involved are greatly exaggerated.

This might look like candy is being stuffed up the backside of a piñata, but it's not. Deny, deny, deny. You do not see this. It didn't happen.

Why? Because what happens at Jamboree stays at Jamboree.

Today is the actual beginning of the conference. Look for more "educational" updates and less piñata updates in the future.

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Jamboree: Free Live Streaming Video Sessions

The Southern California Genealogical Society proudly announces that several Jamboree sessions will be available at no cost to genealogists and family historians around the globe. This offer is made possible through a special sponsorship provided by one of the conference’s exhibitor partners and long-time friend of Jamboree, RootsMagic.

Five sessions will be live-streamed on Saturday, June 11, 2011. The first session begins at 8:30 a.m. and the last session ends at 5:30 p.m. 

“This technological step forward is challenging and exciting for Jamboree,” said conference chair Leo Myers. “One of the missions of the Southern California Genealogical Society is to help educate genealogists and family historians, and we take that mission very seriously. We are so excited about the opportunity to reach hundreds of genealogists around the globe.” 

Sessions to be live streamed include the following. Click on the link to read more about each session and to register.

Lisa Louise Cooke 
SA009 – Google Search Strategies for Genealogists
Saturday, June 11, 2011 

8:30 to 9:30 a.m. PDT 

Curt B. Witcher, MLS, FUGA, IGSF 
SA019 - Fingerprinting Our Families – Using Ancestral Origins as a Genealogical Research Key
Saturday, June 11, 2011
10:00 to 11:00 a.m. PDT 

David A. Lambert 
SA024 – Researching Your Union Civil War Ancestors
Saturday, June 11, 2011
11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. PDT 

Kory Meyerink, AG, FUGA 
SA035 – But it Ain’t Really the ORIGINAL Record!
Saturday, June 11, 2011
2:00 to 3:00 p.m. PDT 

Kerry Bartels 
SA043 – The Many Facets of the National Archives Website (NARA)
Saturday, June 11, 2011
3:30 to 5:30 p.m. PDT 

The recordings are an extension of the popular SCGS online “webinar” (web-based seminar) series. Viewers can listen and watch a presentation by registering and then signing on to a website. The original webcast of the streamed video sessions and webinars are available to the genealogical community at no charge. Subsequent viewings of archived versions of the educational sessions are available to SCGS members through the Society’s website, www.scgsgenealogy.com. Donations are gratefully accepted through PayPal or through the SCGS website.

The Southern California Genealogical Society, founded in 1964, has more than 1,700 members. Located at 417 Irving, Burbank, the SCGS library has 30,000 volumes and is open to the public free of charge. SCGS publishes a respected quarterly journal for members; provides numerous lectures and seminars for beginners, intermediate and experienced researchers; sponsors a number of special interest groups; and hosts its yearly Jamboree which attracts some 1,800 attendees from all over the United States. 

For over 20 years, RootsMagic, Inc. has been creating computer software with a special purpose- to unite families. “RootsMagic,” the award-winning genealogy software which makes researching, organizing, and sharing your family history fun and easy. “Personal Historian” will help you easily write and preserve your life stories. “Family Reunion Organizer” takes the headaches out of planning those important get-togethers. And “Family Atlas,” which makes creating custom family maps fun and easy.

For more information contact Paula Hinkel, Jamboree Co-Chair, 818-415-5952.
Southern California Genealogy Jamboree - June 10-12, 2011
Southern California Genealogical Society
417 Irving Drive
Burbank, CA 91504
scgs@scgsgenealogy.com
www.scgsgenealogy.com

DNA Day at the Clayton Genealogy Library

Yesterday I attended DNA Day at the Clayton Library, which was hosted by the Lone Star Chapter of the Association of Professional Genealogists.

There were three sessions that discussed genetic genealogy and the use of DNA testing for family history purposes. Two sessions were taught by Debbie Wayne, CG, and another was led by a representative of Family Tree DNA. The whole shebang was presented at no cost to the attendees.

This event could not have come at a better time, as I have some pending and new DNA results of which I am struggling to make sense.

Here is my pie chart again for reference:

Based on what I learned yesterday, this pie chart is part of the Family Finder test, which deals with autosomal DNA. If I understood what was said, this chart is "me" and factors in both parents.

I didn't quite get the Family Finder test before yesterday, but now I know a little more. I knew mtDNA was all about the ladies, but was confused that my complete results were showing matches on my dad's side. Turns out it's the Family Finder that shows my dad's side, and this pie chart is part of that test.

I still stand by my theory that the Middle East slice is Jewish and that it comes from my mom's mom's side. Though I have a mtDNA test pending for my grandmother, I did not purchase Family Finder so she won't have a pie chart. Maybe I should do that. The two-generation difference between us would be a big deal if I am understanding this Family Finder autosomal DNA testing right.

This whole DNA post is giving me a headache. Ay yi yi. So much to learn.
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My Genetic Genealogy Pie Chart

In my last post, I confirmed that all of my family's outstanding DNA tests were received at the Family Tree DNA lab and are now being processed.

I also mentioned that my own test's results are starting to come out.

When I took this test, I knew a lot of the information would go over my head. I was correct. I'm still trying to interpret everything and understand what it means.

I expected to see a pie chart that said I had a lot of French and German in me. I expected that my Native American-ness would be likely non-existent. My ticket into the Chickasaw Nation was a white guy and my sixth-great grandmother is known only as "Halfblood Chickasaw" in published histories.

So when I sent off my DNA swabs, I had this pie-charted European vision in my head. That is what I expected to see.

Here is what I got:

It says Europe (Western European) 91.86%, Middle East 8.14%, each with +/-7.08% margin of error.

Any way you do the math, there's still a piece of Middle East pie on the plate.

Family Tree DNA defines "Middle East" as Palestinian, Iranian, Jewish, Adygei, Bedouin, Bedouin South, and/or Druze.

I suspect I fall in the Jewish category, and I suspect it's the Austrian/Hungarian line I'm currently researching. Even though they are all Catholic so far, that's the best scenario for me getting this result.

Of course, this is all speculation. That Middle East pie slice comes from somewhere. Is it my mom's side or my dad's? The five other family members' pending DNA tests should answer that question. When all is said and done, one side of my family is in for a surprise.

Until then, I will continue to attempt to understand all that is possible with genealogical DNA testing. Luckily there's a "DNA Day" event at the Clayton Genealogy Library tomorrow and I have reserved a seat. My friend Debbie Wayne, CG, is teaching two classes and Family Tree DNA is teaching another. Good thing, too. When it comes to DNA, Genetic Genealogy, and interpreting test results, I need all the help I can get!
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Family Tree DNA Testing Update

I've received arrival confirmations for all of the Family Tree DNA tests that were ordered for my family during their last sale. That means that all my selected relatives tested, all sent them back and they all were received at the lab. Yay!

Now the waiting begins...

I understand a little bit about the use of DNA information in genealogy. I don't expect a whole lot of striking revelations from this experience. I know that it's important to test your relatives while you can, so that's what I did. I don't have any mysteries to solve just yet.

To my family, I'll say I don't know what lies ahead. It may be that we don't find anything, but that someone else finds us. I just appreciate that you trusted my judgement and took these tests.

I also took a mtDNA test. Some of my results are already in. (It helps to live in the same city as the lab.) I don't know exactly what I am looking at, but I did find a surprise. It's worthy of it's own post. Stay tuned....
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