For weeks, I’ve been planning to listen in to the GeneaBloggers Radio show, but I kept missing it. Lo and behold, I just discovered that I can listen in later. And lucky me, I caught the St. Patrick’s Day episode, full of great information and links I can use for my Irish research. Now I’m…
I am gradually following up on the wealth of information that was my RootsTech experience. One of the presenters I had particularly enjoyed was Josh Taylor, of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, who did an excellent presentation on what genealogists need software tools to do for us in the future. Near future, please! I was…
Brewster Kahle of Internet Archive fame kicked off the final day here in Salt Lake City with timely reminders about the value of personal histories and the great value of preserving and sharing them. The rest of the day’s sessions kind of riffed on that theme in interesting ways. An 1848 daguerreotype panorama held by…
My second day here at the conference started with an inspiring keynote from Curt Witcher of the Allen County Public Library in Indiana. He spoke knowledgeably and with passion about the technology-fueled future of genealogy. All of the day’s sessions were good, but two stand out especially. I heard some good news, that is, not…
The first day of sessions at the RootsTech conference made my brain hurt, but in a good way. The keynote was shared with two speakers and I could have done without the first, Shane Robison of HP walking through a slide deck he’d given to countless other hapless audiences, telling us very little new. Fortunately…
I had some great advice from a friend last week about my first trip to Salt Lake City this week. I’ve allowed a couple of extra days just for the Family History Library, but I know that time will pass way too quickly. Janet advised me to concentrate on books, rather than films, to get…
One week from today I’ll be on my way south, but not for the weather. I’m going to RootsTech, my first international genealogy conference. This one appeals to my enthusiasm for technology that is useful, especially if it works well for non-tech people, while feeding my appetite for genealogy research. Up to now, I’ve been…
With the help of a nifty tool I got from Sally Jacobs, the Practical Archivist, last night I managed to ever-so-gently liberate my sister’s collection of autographed 8×10 glossy photographs from one of the dreaded sticky “magnetic” albums. We scorn these albums and warn people against them, but I think we should acknowledge that any…
As a relative beginner in genealogy, I have lots of potential research goals. To work effectively, however, I need focused objectives. As in many other disciplines, the New Year is an ideal time to set new targets and fortunately there are experienced genealogists to guide me. Two of them, Denise Levenick and Amy Coffin, came…
The family tapes I am preparing to be digitized continue to yield unexpected treasures. I have several from visits between my mother and two of her aunts, who share wonderful details of their own lives and memories of the family matriarch, Nana. But one that I heard yesterday, probably from 1990, was an interview with…
