Well before RootsTech 2011, I was considering whether or when to get a genealogy DNA test done. I think it was at a Toronto Ontario Genealogical Society event that I first listened to an excellent presentation on new discoveries in the field. The presenters were so enthusiastic that I couldn’t help thinking that maybe the high cost was worth the potential expansion of my knowledge about my ancestry, or at least my geographical origins.
Since then, I followed up webinars and other presentations, including one at RootsTech 2012, to make sure I had enough information to confirm that it was worth it, to figure out which test to choose, and to select a vendor. I was fortunate to have a conversation at a dinner just after RootsTech 2012 with a project leader for FamilyTreeDNA. He filled in some gaps for me about the importance of group projects for furthering connections and sharing understanding that is possible with DNA information.
Then I took the plunge, sending for my testing kit from FamilyTreeDNA. In a future post, I’ll discuss the tests I selected and more about group projects.
Genealogy rockstar Josh Taylor gave an excellent webinar last night for the Illinois State Genealogical Society, detailing how he organizes his digital files for his professional and personal genealogy research. He uses a number of tools to make his research time more effective, such as spreadsheets, file naming and embedding metadata within image files. These…
Continue Reading »
My week in Salt Lake City is a wrap. At a post-RootsTech dinner last night hosted by Dick Eastman, I was asked my opinion of the conference. Several people nodded in agreement when I said some sessions were great, but there were too few for the intermediate and advanced genealogist. Two of the three keynotes…
Continue Reading »
The last three days were intensive, but fascinating. I had prepared for my research time at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City by reviewing the family lines that needed more information (basically all of them) and looking up some of the films that might be helpful. Using Evernote, I tagged census images and…
Continue Reading »
It seemed to take forever to get from Owen Sound to Salt Lake City, but that was partly because I did an overnight stop in Toronto. It wasn’t essential, but it allowed me to visit family and make sure that the forecast snow squalls didn’t get in the way. On the way from the SLC…
Continue Reading »
It turns out that going to a genealogy conference in February has a galvanizing effect on January resolutions. Like many others I resolved to get my genealogy stuff organized this year and, guess what, I really have to do it so I can make the most of my trip to Salt Lake City for RootsTech ….
Continue Reading »
As a volunteer at my county museum, I am currently cataloging table linens. There is plenty of variety in this category, everything from decades-old redwork pillow shams to tatted tablecloths. This week I came across a set of crepe paper table napkins, dating probably to the early 20th century. They were delicately thin and fragile,…
Continue Reading »
Marian Pierre-Louis writes of the importance of “getting local” with research in her Roots and Rambles blog and I couldn’t agree more. we are fortunate to have great tools to take us beyond the letters, records and even artifacts that might tell us stories of our ancestors. Not just maps, but street level views from…
Continue Reading »
Much of the time we spend on genealogy, we are hunting. We’re always looking for that precious document or artifact that will take us further in filling in the details of our family stories, and if we’re lucky, we find something. But now and then we get even luckier than that. A gift falls into…
Continue Reading »
As a volunteer collections assistant at my local county museum, I am currently assigned to cataloguing shelves of artifacts, such as the school materials I was working on this week. I picked up a small wooden box labeled “Fourth Gift” and was immediately taken back to when my children attended a Froebel school. The Froebel…
Continue Reading »
