Press Release: NGS AND FGS ANNOUNCE INTENT TO MERGE

I received the following press release today ~

NGS AND FGS ANNOUNCE INTENT TO MERGE

(21 August 2019)--In a historic move, the boards of the National Genealogical Society (NGS) and the Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) announced today their intent to merge. The two organizations, both non- profit leaders in the dynamic genealogy industry, will form one consolidated group that will continue to operate as the National Genealogical Society. Both boards approved a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) earlier this week, and jointly announced the news at the Opening Session of the FGS Family History Conference in Washington, D.C., this morning.

Leaders of both organizations believe this merger will serve the genealogy community by improving support of both individual members and societies in the pursuit of genealogical excellence.

The organizational structure of NGS will be modified to increase functions that support genealogical societies and family organizations. Digitization projects of genealogical importance such as the War of 1812 pensions will continue. The two organizations will continue to operate independently while all details of the merger are completed, no later than October 1, 2020.

Faye Stallings, President of FGS, said: “We are excited about this opportunity to combine with a premier organization that has been in operation since 1903. This will allow for improved and expanded services to help support societies.” Ben Spratling, President of NGS, commented, “We look forward to continuing the strong legacy of FGS as a ‘gathering point’ for family historians and societies all across the nation.”

Founded in 1903, the National Genealogical Society is dedicated to genealogical education, exemplary standards of research, and the preservation of genealogical records. The Falls Church, Virginia, based nonprofit is the premier national society for everyone, from the beginner to the most advanced family historian, seeking excellence in publications, educational offerings, and guidance in research. It also offers many opportunities to interact with other genealogists.

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Media Contact: 

Kathryn M. Doyle
Phone: 510-388-6477
kdoyle@ngsgenealogy.org

RootsTech 2018 in Review

The following is a press release from FamilySearch:

Salt Lake City, Utah (15 March 2018), The desire to discover and connect with one's family or ancestors brought together tens of thousands of family history enthusiasts from 43 countries and 50 states—and even more online—at RootsTech 2018. Celebrities Brandon Stanton, Scott Hamilton, Henry Lewis Gates, Jr., Natalia Lafourcade, and FamilySearch CEO Steve Rockwood keynoted each day of the popular 4-day event originating in Salt Lake City, Utah. Cool technology, popular consumer DNA services, and hundreds of how-to classes kept beginner to advanced attendees buzzing.

_{MISSED ROOTSTECH 2018? WATCH THE FULL KEYNOTES, AND SELECT SESSIONS ONLINE}

The 8^th annual conference continues to grow in popularity. More than 17,000 guests from every state and 47 countries gathered at the Salt Palace Convention Center, and more than 111,000 watched live using the internet. Keynote sessions were highlighted each day with special announcements from show sponsors Ancestry.com, LivingDNA.com, MyHeritage.com, and findmypast.com.

In his keynote, FamilySearch CEO Steve Rockwood suggested that when you discover you are related to someone, you treat him or her differently. Using geo fencing technology and a little engineering wizardry, FamilySearch enabled attendees to use its Family Tree mobile app feature "Relatives Around Me" to make connections with unknown cousins in attendance at the conference, showing how they were related and enabling them to communicate and rendezvous. Astonishingly, over half of the attendees (8,450 people) were connected with other conference goers. The total number of cousin connections found at the conference (from 1^st to 10^th cousins) were 2,334,110, which makes the average number of relatives discovered at the show per user 276.

_{WATCH STEVE ROCKWOOD'S ROOTSTECH 2018 TALK}

The show offered over 300 mostly packed class sessions on a vast range of family history-oriented topics, an expo hall filled with vendors’ displays and products, and enrichment events nightly filling every moment with family activity. It was energetic, lively, exciting, entertaining, inspirational, and educational.

Brandon Stanton, author of the blog and book Humans of New York, shared his story of how his dream job came true through hard work and determination. He said, "Following your dreams is nothing but hard work." He said that we shouldn't get to a place where you don't have to work, but to get to a place where you get to choose your work. His blog, and resulting books, illustrate the importance of all individuals. He says "listening is a scarce commodity" in this age of selfies. Stanton has found that everyone needs to tell someone about themselves, if they can find someone to listen long enough—a key to the success of his bestselling books that depict pictures and intimate and personal stories of people around the world. When asked why people share personal stories with them, he replied, "I ask." He says that the feeling of being validated, the feeling of being heard unlocks something in people that allows them to share.

_{WATCH BRANDON STANTON'S ROOTSTECH 2018 TALK}

Scott Hamilton, an Olympic gold medalist, is as energetic and affable today as he was during his career run of athletic medals. He shared a touching story about himself as an adopted child, his bouts with different types of cancer, and the help of “family” figures in his life. He captivated the audience with his love of family and how important families are in everyone’s lives. He told about his own family, his wife, and the miracle and blessings that are his two natural children and two adopted children from Haiti.

_{WATCH SCOTT HAMILTON'S ROOTSTECH 2018 TALK}

Henry Louis Gates, Jr., host of PBS's hit series Finding Your Roots, shared how an obituary of an "estimable" great aunt he read when he was a child planted the seed for his lifelong love for family history, and how knowing their stories can impact future generations. Gates shared how his journey through an Ivy-league education, African American roots, and a DNA test paved the way to a string of genealogy-related television shows that led to his current popular and long-running series on PBS. He introduced the DNA Detective, CeCe Moore, and explained how DNA is breaking down long held family history brick walls, dispelling myths, and blessing the lives of people young and old. He has created an initiative to introduce K-12 children to the joys and benefits of discovering their family histories in a summer camp called Finding Your Roots: The Seedlings.

_{WATCH HENRY LOUIS GATES JR., AND CECE MOORE'S ROOTSTECH 2018 TALKS}

Natalia Lafourcade, a Mexican pop-rock singer and songwriter, is one of the best known singers in the pop rock scene in Latin America. She shared the importance of family memories and quipped that family lore says she had French pirate ancestry. FamilySearch revealed a personal genealogy that confirmed her French roots, but could not validate the pirate family legends. She sang songs from her latest album, concluding with the Oscar-winning song “Remember Me” from the Oscar winning animated movie Coco.

_{WATCH NATALIA LAFOURCADE AT ROOTSTECH 2018}

The RootsTech 2018 Innovation Showcase, hosted by Extreme Genes'  Scott Fisher, addressed the state of historic records, digital memories and DNA.  Panelists included Judy Russell, legal genealogist, David Rencher, FamilySearch CGO, and Kurt Witcher, director of the Fort Wayne, Indiana, Allen County Public Library, Brewster Kale of Internet Archives, and five popular commercial DNA companies. 

_{WATCH THE INNOVATION SHOWCASE}

In concert with Brandon Stanton's keynote, RootsTech invited aspiring local photographers and writers to participate in a video-story contest. Over 200 people entered the contest, and the winners were Russell Hathaway, Karen Foster, Amberley Beck, and Cali Church. They received prizes such as a Dell laptop and Canon cameras. The pictures with their stories will be published in the future on RootsTech and social media channels.

RootsTech 2018's Family Discovery Day welcomed more than 26,000 attendees—mostly families with children. President Dallin H. Oaks, first counselor in the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and his wife, Sister Kristen M. Oaks, showed how they share their family history with their posterity. Their grandchildren and great grandchildren participated, sharing how they have been able to personally connect with ancestors through written histories, photographs, and stories.

Also participating in Family Discovery Day were Hank Smith and Jason Hewitt, and singers Evie Clair, Kenya Clark, and Alex Melecio.

_{WATCH THE FAMILY DISCOVERY DAY SESSIONS}

Find this announcement and additional photos online in the FamilySearch Newsroom.

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About RootsTech

RootsTech, hosted by FamilySearch, is a global conference celebrating families across generations, where people of all ages are inspired to discover and share their memories and connections. This annual event has become the largest of its kind in the world, attracting tens of thousands of participants worldwide.

RootsTech 2018 Announces Lineup of Keynote Speakers

The following is a press release from FamilySearch:

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH (January 31, 2018), RootsTech 2018, the world’s largest family history conference hosted by FamilySearch International, announced its full lineup of keynote speakers, including Brandon Stanton, Scott Hamilton, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and Natalia Lafourcade. Fueled by the popularity of DNA genealogy, social platforms, and related mobile apps, RootsTech had over 50,000 in-person and online attendees in 2017. The conference is held in Salt Lake City, Utah, February 28 through March 3, and select content is broadcast live daily online.

Keynote Speakers

RootsTech 2018 kicks off Wednesday, February 28, with the latest in DNA genealogy classes and other popular topics and a keynote by Steve Rockwood, CEO of FamilySearch International. Brandon Stanton, a world-renowned photographer and storyteller, will then take the stage March 1 to share his remarkable gift of photographing and sharing people’s stories on his website, Humans of New York. Stanton’s art focuses on everyday people—illustrating that every life has an important story. The website and associated Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram posts led to his two New York Times bestselling books.

Scott Hamilton, hailed as one of the greatest male figure skaters of all time, will address the crowd on Friday, March 2. His skating prowess won Hamilton an Olympic Gold Medal, World and US Championships, and induction into both the United States Olympic and World Figure Skating Halls of Fame. Hamilton is a cancer survivor, career TV broadcaster, author, motivational speaker, and—most importantly to him—husband and father.

Saturday, March 3, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., will share his experiences in documenting genealogical and anthropological finds on film and African-American research. Gates is perhaps best known for his current role as host of Finding Your Roots, his groundbreaking genealogy series on PBS. This Emmy Award-winning filmmaker has created 18 documentaries, PBS productions, African American Lives 1 and 2, and documents the lineage of more than a dozen African Americans using genealogy and DNA; Faces of America, a four-part genealogical series, explores family histories of twelve diverse North Americans; and his six-part, The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross, won multiple prestigious awards.

Natalia Lafourcade, internationally recognized singer, songwriter, and one of the most successful singers in the Latin America pop rock genre, will also keynote on Saturday, March 3. She is perhaps most known recently as the voice in the closing credits of the hit Disney movie Coco singing the popular song “Remember Me.” Lafourcade, who has captured hearts all over Mexico and in countries around the world, will share her musical talent and love for family on the RootsTech stage.

Classes

RootsTech 2018 offers more than 300 classes and activities for families and individuals with varying interests and skillsets. Select classes will be broadcast live. Learn more or register at RootsTech.org.
Find this announcement online in the FamilySearch Newsroom. 

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About RootsTech

RootsTech, hosted by FamilySearch, is a global conference celebrating families across generations, where people of all ages are inspired to discover and share their memories and connections. This annual event has become the largest of its kind in the world, attracting tens of thousands of participants worldwide.

About FamilySearch

FamilySearch International is the largest genealogy organization in the world. FamilySearch is a nonprofit, volunteer-driven organization sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Millions of people use FamilySearch records, resources, and services to learn more about their family history. To help in this great pursuit, FamilySearch and its predecessors have been actively gathering, preserving, and sharing genealogical records worldwide for over 100 years. Patrons may access FamilySearch services and resources free online at FamilySearch.org or through over 4,921 family history centers in 129 countries, including the main Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah

President Dallin H. Oaks to Speak at RootsTech 2018 Family Discovery Day

President Dallin H. Oaks to Speak at RootsTech 2018 Family Discovery Day 

Salt Lake City, Utah (24 January 2018), RootsTech 2018 Family Discovery Day is pleased to welcome President Dallin H. Oaks of the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and his wife, Sister Kristen M. Oaks, as the keynote speakers at Family Discovery Day at 1:00 p.m. MST on Saturday, March 3, 2018. They will share insights from their family experience in family history work, the importance of individual families and family connections, the corresponding importance of temples and temple work, and insights into how each person can contribute to family history based on their circumstances. Family Discovery Day is a one-day, free event, but registration is required at RootsTech.org. (Find and easily share this announcement online from the FamilySearch Newsroom).

Elder Oaks is a strong proponent of family history work and redeeming the dead. He notes that family history work is more than gathering names and dates and encourages everyone to do something. He and Sister Oaks will share special insights into where families belong in the tapestry of human life and the weaving in of individual family heritage—past, present, and future.

Additional Family Discovery Day special guests are Hank Smith, Jason Hewlett, Evie Clair, Kenya Clark, and Alex Melecio, who will celebrate families, the inherent strength of family, family history, memories, and family support.

Popular inspirational speaker and BYU professor Hank Smith has spoken to audiences in nearly every state in the U.S. Smith loves to teach youth and young adults from the scriptures, and he reminds listeners that life in a family has its challenges, but the rewards are eternal. He returns by popular demand from RootsTech 2017 Family Discovery Day.

He will be joined on stage by Jason Hewlett, a world-class performer, who uses comedy, music parody, and impressions to receive standing ovations from audiences worldwide. He began his career with Las Vegas Legends in Concert and has been a member, since 2003, of the National Speakers Association. He has appeared at more than 2,000 events and venues during the past 10 years and is one of the country’s premier corporate event headliners. He has performed in every major casino in Las Vegas, appeared on the nationally televised Jerry Lewis Telethon, and has won numerous Best of State Entertainment Awards in Utah. Together, these two will show youth how to make family history fun!

Evie Clair (13) a recent finalist in America’s Got Talent 2017, credits her father, one of her biggest supporters and her inspiration, for her determination and talents. She began onstage as Annie at the Hale Center Theater at age 8. She arranges music on the piano, released two pop singles before she was 12, sang her original song on a movie soundtrack, and is a popular YouTube performer. Evie’s father passed away a week before her final performance on America’s Got Talent. She sang her original song for the final show with celebrity James Arthur, who tweeted that it was his new favorite song.

Alex Melecio, originally from Sinaloa, Mexico, is an accomplished Latin singer who combines the masculinity of the classic Mexican Charro with the soft sweet poignancy of a pop balladeer. Melecio’s music is fresh and inventive, featuring an acoustic pop sound of his own. His music speaks of hope, courage in hard times, and the longing for home, blending tradition with invention. He has won the hearts of Hispanic audiences in concerts performed in homes to shows in front of 20,000 people. In 2012, his voice reached a national audience as a finalist on Tengo Talento, Mucho Talento, one of the most popular television shows among Hispanics in the U.S.

Kenya Clark, a member of One Voice Children’s Choir and a band singer with the Caleb Chapman's Sound House, has been a singer all her life. This year she toured Japan and France with the One Voice choir. Her Moana video cover won Best Music Video by the 2017 Utah Music Awards.

In addition to hearing guest speakers, guests can attend numerous free sessions specifically designed to help Latter-day Saints with callings and give them the latest tools and resources, one-on-one help, interactive activities, inspiring messages, and fun.

RootsTech Family Discovery Day is a one-day free event for LDS individuals and families to celebrate their heritage on March 3, 2018. Although RootsTech originates in Salt Lake City, Utah, interested parties around the world can join live online. Video streaming will be in English, Spanish, and Portuguese.

Admission is free, but event registration is required. Visit RootsTech.org/family-discovery-day to register.

Watch the live stream

If you can’t attend Family Discovery Day in person, you can still participate virtually! General sessions will be streamed live on the home page of LDS.org in English, Spanish, and Portuguese so that members of the Church around the world can participate.

Watch later

If you can’t watch live on March 3 starting at 1:00 p.m. MST, videos of the messages from Family Discovery Day will be archived at lds.org/discoverfamily for later viewing in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.

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About FamilySearch
FamilySearch International is the largest genealogy organization in the world. FamilySearch is a nonprofit, volunteer-driven organization sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Millions of people use FamilySearch records, resources, and services to learn more about their family history. To help in this great pursuit, FamilySearch and its predecessors have been actively gathering, preserving, and sharing genealogical records worldwide for over 100 years. Patrons may access FamilySearch services and resources free online at FamilySearch.org or through over 5,000 family history centers in 129 countries, including the main Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Finding Your Roots' Henry Louis Gates Jr. to Keynote RootsTech 2018

The following is a press release from FamilySearch:

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH (9 January 2018)--RootsTech is pleased to announce Henry Louis Gates Jr. will be a keynote speaker at RootsTech 2018 on Saturday, March 3, 2018, at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City, Utah. (Easily find and share this announcement online in the FamilySearch Newsroom.)

Dr. Gates is perhaps best known in genealogy circles for his current role as the host of Finding Your Roots, his groundbreaking genealogy series on PBS, now in its 4^thseason. The series combines traditional genealogical paper research with genetic Y-chromosome DNA, mitochondrial DNA, and autosomal DNA to discover the family history of well-known Americans.

Gates has been engaged in genealogical and anthropological studies for most of his career. Prior to Finding Your Roots, he hosted and co-produced African American Lives 1 and 2, using genealogy and DNA to document the lineage of more than a dozen African Americans and hosted Faces of America, a four-part series examining the genealogy of 12 North Americans of diverse ancestry—also for PBS.

As an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker, he has created 18 documentary films. His six-part PBS documentary series, The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross (2013), which he wrote, executive produced, and hosted, earned the Emmy Award for Outstanding Historical Program—Long Form, as well as the Peabody Award, Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award, and NAACP Image Award.

Gates is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University (first titled the W.E.B Institute for African and African American research)—a position he has held since he arrived at Harvard in 1991. During his first 15 years on campus, he chaired the Department of Afro-American Studies as it expanded into the Department of African and African American Studies with a full-fledged doctoral program.

He has authored or co-authored 22 books and is also hailed as a literary scholar, journalist, cultural critic, and institution builder. Professor Gates serves as chairman of TheRoot.com, a daily online magazine and chair of the Creative Board of FUSION TV. He also oversees the Oxford African American Studies Center, the first comprehensive scholarly online resource on the topic and, through a funding grant, has developed a Finding Your Roots curriculum to teach science through genetics and genealogy.

Gates received his B.A. in English language and literature summa cum laude, from Yale University, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in English Literature from the University of Cambridge in 1979. Since then he has received 55 honorary degrees and numerous prizes. In 1981 Dr. Gates was a member of the first class awarded “genius grants” by the MacArthur Foundation. In 1998, he became the first African American scholar awarded the National Humanities medal. He was named to Time’s 25 Most Influential Americans list in 1997, Ebony’s Power 150 list in 2009, and the magazine’s Power 100 list in 2010 and 2012.

He is currently a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and serves on a wide array of boards, including the New York Public Library, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the Aspen Institute, Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Whitney Museum of American Art, Library of America, and the Brookings Institution. In 2017, the Organization of American States named Gates a Goodwill Ambassador for the Rights of People of African Descent in the Americas.

For more information, or to register, go to RootsTech.org. 

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About RootsTech


RootsTech, hosted by FamilySearch, is a global conference celebrating families across generations, where people of all ages are inspired to discover and share their memories and connections. This annual event has become the largest of its kind in the world, attracting tens of thousands of participants worldwide.

Humans of New York Brandon Stanton to Keynote RootsTech 2018

I received the following press release from FamilySearch:

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH (25 October 2017), RootsTech is delighted to announce that Brandon Stanton, creator of Humans of New York, will be the keynote speaker at RootsTech 2018, on Thursday, March 1, 2018. Stanton is a world renowned photographer and storyteller. He is recognized for his incredible talent of telling the story of everyday people he photographs, helping them feel important. At RootsTech 2018, Stanton will share his story, motivations, and some of the messages that his camera has captured in his quest to find the stories that drive the lives of the people of our world. Easily find and share this announcement online in the FamilySearch Newsroom.

In 2010, Stanton was laid off as a bond trader in Chicago. Undaunted, he bought a camera and set out to create a photographic census of 10,000 everyday people on the streets of New York. He published his initial work on his website, Humans of New York, and then added quotes of his subjects to create short, heartfelt, personal glimpses from their lives. His efforts were noticed—gaining over 20 million fans across Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Stanton’s work beautifully illustrates that every life has a story—an important story. He masters the art of visually telling each person’s story, which he now conveys in his popular new weekly Facebook series for a TV show called Humans of New York: The Series. Some messages are sweet, some surprising, some sad, and many contain homespun nuggets of insights that people have found in the chronicles of their lives.

Since his journey began in 2010, Stanton and his camera have roamed the streets of New York and through more than 20 different countries, including the streets of some of the world’s most remote and troubled regions. The storytelling power of his social media sites have provided a platform to raise money to help change the situations of thousands of people in difficult circumstances.

Stanton is also the author of two books that catapulted to number one on the New York Times Bestsellers list: Humans of New York (2013), and Humans of New York: Stories (2015). His Children’s book, Little Humans (2014), a 40-page photographic picture book, was featured on the New York Times Children’s book bestseller list.

Learn more about Brian Stanton’s RootsTech 2018 appearance or his Humans of New York website, Facebook, and Instagram pages.

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About RootsTech

RootsTech, hosted by FamilySearch, is a global conference celebrating families across generations, where people of all ages are inspired to discover and share their memories and connections. This annual event has become the largest of its kind in the world, attracting tens of thousands of participants worldwide.

FamilySearch's New Web Tool Makes Ancestry Records Easier to Find

Hurray for indexing! This is great news!

The following is a press release from FamilySearch.

FamilySearch's New Web Tool Makes Ancestry Records Easier to Find 

Salt Lake City, Utah 

(25 September 2017), FamilySearch International, a leader in historical records preservation, has launched its new web-based indexing tool. Indexing is a technology used to make the world’s historical records freely searchable online for family history research. The new program makes it easier for online volunteers to participate using web-enabled computers, laptops, or tablets, and enables FamilySearch to expedite its online publishing of completed indexes. (Find and share this announcement and its graphics online in the FamilySearch Newsroom).

New features enable volunteers to work on tablets, modify the layout of their dashboard based on personal preferences, set and track individual goals, and create groups with friends or others interested in working on a common project.

Global nonprofit FamilySearch digitally preserves billions of historical records online to help individuals with their family history research. It has published billions of images of historic records from all over the world online. Researchers can find the record images in FamilySearch's Catalog or Historic Records Collections online. But searching through billions of images online in search of one's elusive ancestors is not fun for the average person. They want to type in an ancestor's name and known context, press Enter, and voilà, see highly matched results from their search query.

"That requires an index," said Jim Ericson, marketing manager for FamilySearch Indexing. "Until the records are indexed online, they can only be discovered by browsing through often enormous collections of digital images. With a digital index, researchers can locate records in seconds by using a person's name and other helpful information as search terms. A searchable index saves researchers time and effort by returning search results from the entire collection in a matter of seconds."

Ericson says the new web-based indexing platform will enable more volunteers to participate worldwide and increase the rate at which FamilySearch can make indexed records accessible online. "It is a straight-forward experience that no longer requires people to download software," said Ericson.
Using the new tool enables volunteer indexers to help make it possible for millions of people to have personal family history discoveries quickly with just a few keystrokes. Indexing also fuels hints, a new feature on FamilySearch.org that makes finding records even easier by mapping indexed records against a person’s family tree and sharing high probability ancestral matches with them.
The web-based indexing program also has new built-in helps, plus a lab section that allows you to test upcoming product features and enhancements for the new program.
For first-time volunteers, simple training provides step-by-step instructions. To participate, go to FamilySearch.org/indexing, and click the link to web indexing.

RELATED
Check out or plan to participate in the Worldwide Indexing Event, October 20-22, 2017.

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About FamilySearch
FamilySearch International is the largest genealogy organization in the world. FamilySearch is a nonprofit, volunteer-driven organization sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Millions of people use FamilySearch records, resources, and services to learn more about their family history. To help in this great pursuit, FamilySearch and its predecessors have been actively gathering, preserving, and sharing genealogical records worldwide for over 100 years. Patrons may access FamilySearch services and resources free online at FamilySearch.org or through over 5,000 family history centers in 129 countries, including the main Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.