Jana's Genealogy and Family History Blog

Friday, August 7, 2015

Follow Friday ~ Fab Finds for August 7, 2015

A Note to My Wonderful Readers: Even though Fab Finds just returned this week, I'm going to have to ask for your patience again. Fab Finds will be on hiatus while I spend time with my family next week. Fab Finds will return on Friday, August 21, 2015. Thank you!

My Fab Finds for this week are (in no particular order)

HOW I SAVE COUSIN CONTACT INFO USING EVERNOTE AND THOUGHTFUL THURSDAY–Why don’t I have a death date or record for William H. Thorpe? by Diane Gould Hall, author of MICHIGAN FAMILY TRAILS
RootsTech Ramp Up AND A Deeper Look at The Family History Guide by James Tanner, author of Genealogy's Star
Using Amazon for Genealogy by Thomas MacEntee, author of GeneaBloggers
A brand new mapping tool, Norwayparishes.com by Laila N. Christiansen, author of Family and Such
Easy Steps to Creating a Family Tree Book by Lorine McGinnis Schulze, author of The Olive Tree Genealogy
Why You Can’t Find a Death Record (and Some Things That Might Help) AND Is It Time to Let Go of the Internet in Genealogy? by Amy Johnson Crow, author of Amy Johnson Crow Blog
Tuesday’s Tip: Naturalization Records by Nichelle Barra, author of Copper Leaf Genealogy
Find Family History With Flickr Search by Denise Olson, author of Moultrie Creek Gazette
30 Questions to Use for Family History Interviews by Julie Cordero, author of Oak Grove Genealogy
All Of My Ancestors Have Been Found! by Lee Drew, author of Lineagekeeper's Genealogy Blog
Family Reunions in the Digital Age by Family Sleuther, author of Family Sleuther Blog
Fuel the Find – Time to Give Back and Join the Challenge by Valerie Elkins, author of Family Cherished
FamilySearch Indexing: Why I care, do you? by Pat Richley-Erickson, author of Dear Myrtle
How to Share My Blog Another Way by Dawn Kogutkiewicz, author of Dawning Genealogy
5 Stories I Uncovered While Writing About My Ancestors by Devon Lee, author of A Patient Genealogist
photos can finally tell their stories! with storyshelf.com by Tami Osmer Mize, author of Relatively Curious about Genealogy
Do you schedule time for genealogy? by Janine Adams, author of Organize Your Family History
Thursday, August 6, 2015 BYU Conference 2015 by Janet Hovorka, author of The Chart Chick

The 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge by Amy Johnson Crow, author of No Story Too Small -

52 Ancestors Challenge 2015: Weeks 30 and 31 Recap

"May I Introduce To You" Interviews on GeneaBloggers.com

Ready for Your Close Up? Seeking GeneaBloggers Members for “May I Introduce To You” Interviews

To read blog posts about last week's BYU Conference on Family History & Genealogy, please check out the following blogs. I will also be sharing more blog posts about this wonderful conference in the future.

New Blog Discoveries

In Case You Missed Them….My Contributions to the Blogosphere This Week (I've also included my posts from the previous week while I was at the BYU Conference on Family History & Genealogy)

Jana's Genealogy and Family History Blog

Jana's Place

Update on Where I've Been

Thanks for reading!

Jana

Thursday, August 6, 2015

Lisa Louise Cooke and T.C. Christensen ~ Keynote Speakers at the BYU Conference on Family History & Genealogy

As I mentioned in my previous post, each day of the BYU Conference on Family History & Genealogy began with a wonderful keynote address. Today I'd like to tell you about the keynote addresses for days 3 and 4 of the conference.

Day 3 - July 30th Keynote Address

Thursday's keynote address was given by Lisa Louise Cooke, founder of Genealogy Gems, a genealogy and family history multi-media company. Lisa produces and hosts the very popular Genealogy Gems Podcast, which has been downloaded over 1.5 million times. She is the author of four books and also produces and hosts The Family Tree Magazine Podcast.

Her keynote address was titled "The Future of Technology and Genealogy: Five Strategies You Need."

I can't say enough good thinks about Lisa. She is a very popular worldwide genealogy speaker. It was a pleasure hearing her keynote address. I also attended one of her classes during the conference. She makes learning fun and is an excellent teacher.

Lisa pointed out that technology is changing so fast, but the good news is that we are empowered.

Among the many tips that Lisa offered for using today's technology was a very cool online tool by Stanford University called Data Visualization: Journalism's Voyage West. This interactive map shows the growth of newspapers over time. I took a screenshot from the website. The website states, "This visualization plots over 140,000 newspapers published over three centuries in the United States."

Lisa also listed Evernote and Google Earth as great technology tools. I personally use Evernote and find it very helpful. Lisa told us about how one of her podcast listeners had used Google Earth to plot tombstones in a cemetery and then uploaded those links to Find A Grave. What a fantastic idea!

By the way, Google Earth Pro is now free. You can download it by clicking HERE.

During her address, Lisa talked about the democratization of technology. Lisa's Genealogy Gems podcast is a great example of this concept. She began her podcast eight years ago with the desire to share what she was learning. She told the audience that each of us has the ability to publish our own videos, DVD's etc. and that we can also publish our own family histories. She listed Lulu.com as a family history publishing option. Lisa also mentioned blogging as another way to share our family histories. I personally love this option. As Lisa mentioned, blogs are great for "cousin bait." I personally have had several new-to-me cousins contact me because they found my blog. And, I have a special category on Evernote for these cousin connections.

The last strategy Lisa mentioned was that we should listen to our ancestors. With that in mind, Lisa shared an incredibly moving and personal story. Near the end of her story she shared a picture of a priceless heirloom quilt that was miraculously discovered and which she inherited. Lisa shares this beautiful story in one of her Genealogy Gems Podcasts from 2008. It can be found at the 00:28:00 time stamp of "Episode 39 - Heritage Quilts, History Podcasts, Mail & More." To access this podcast, click HERE. Lisa shared a photo of this priceless heirloom quilt on Pinterest. To see this beautiful quilt, click HERE.

Lisa's keynote address was captivating. If you ever have the chance to attend one of her presentations, whether virtually or in person, I highly recommend taking advantage of that opportunity.

Day 4 - July 31st Keynote Address

Friday's keynote address titled "Angels Round About" was given by filmmaker T.C. Christensen. His movies include 17 Miracles, Ephraim's Rescue, The Testaments of One Fold and One Shepherd, and The Work and the Glory. I have seen all of these movies and loved them!

Mr. Christensen's latest movie called "The Cokeville Miracle", is a true story that took place in Cokeville, Wyoming on May 16, 1986. On that date, a man and his wife took 136 children and 18 adults hostage at Cokeville Elementary School using guns and a bomb. Miraculously, when the bomb accidentally went off, none of the hostages were killed. Several of the children said that they had seen and had been helped by angels.

Mr. Christensen said that most of the children who had an experience with an angel helping them identified them as an ancestor.

During his address, Mr. Christensen showed several powerful and emotional clips from "The Cokeville Miracle."

On stage with Mr. Christensen during his address were two Cokeville Miracle survivors, Katie Payne and Jennie Johnson.

Katie spoke after Mr. Christensen's remarks. She testified of the miracle “that those who love us who’ve passed on are still very close to us.”

During the question and answer period, Jennie told us that she didn't immediately recognize the woman who helped her as being one of her ancestors. But, when she was in 5th grade, she looked through albums and saw the woman who helped her out of the building. She originally thought the woman was a teacher, but the woman was her aunt who had died years earlier.

This was an incredibly gripping and inspirational keynote address.

Here's the official movie trailer for "The Cokeville Miracle." I'm looking forward to seeing this movie. Unfortunately, it isn't currently playing where I live. But, in answer to an audience member's question during the question and answer portion of the address, "The Cokeville Miracle" will be available on Netflix and DVD sometime this fall.

I found this amazing interview with some of "The Cokeville Miracle" survivors. I highly recommend watching it. You can do so by clicking on the link below.

"The Cokeville Miracle" - The Survivors

I'll be sharing more posts about The BYU Conference on Family History & Genealogy in the future.

Thanks for reading!

Jana

Wednesday, August 5, 2015

BYU Conference on Family History & Genealogy ~ Keynote Speakers - Days 1 and 2

Last week I attended the 47th annual BYU Conference on Family History & Genealogy, which was held Tuesday, July 28th - Friday, July 31st in the BYU Conference Center. I had a great time!

Each morning of the conference began with a keynote address. Also invited to attend these wonderful keynote addresses were the youth who were attending the myFamily History Youth Camp.

Day 1 - July 28th Keynote Address

Tuesday's keynote was given by Elder Gerald N. Lund, an emeritus member of the Second Quorum of the Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He is also a best-selling author of over 25 fiction and non-fiction books. I have personally read his historical fiction series "The Work and the Glory" and his book "Fire of the Covenant." I very much enjoyed these books and highly recommend them.

Elder Lund's keynote address was titled "They Are Not Dead, Only Living Somewhere Else." His address was wonderful. Elder Lund has seven children, twenty-nine grandchildren, and eleven great-grandchildren. His wife Lynn passed away in 2014. He said that Lynn loved the Savior, family, music, and family history. She also loved to take pictures. Her love of family history was passed down to her from her parents. And that love for family history has also been passed down to Elder and Sister Lund's children.

Here are some snippets from Elder Lund's address according to my notes and recollection:

One of Elder Lund's daughters gave him some advice regarding what to talk about during his keynote address. Paraphrasing her advice, she told him to talk about the doctrine of turning the hearts of the fathers to their children and vice versa, that genealogists love stories, and to tell how characters in some of his books are based on ancestors.

Elder Lund referred to Malachi 4:6 which states:

"And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse."

During a research trip for a book, Elder Lund traveled to the Hole in the Rock Trail. During this trip, one of his little grandsons said that they should "watch out for rattlesnakes and lobsters." Lobsters equaled scorpions. Too cute!

I can't remember when this happened, bur one of Elder Lund's granddaughters was involved in a car accident. She survived and wondered if her Grandmother Lund had been watching over her.

Some of the characters in his books share the same names as some of his own children and grandchildren.

During his address, Elder Lund showed the audience a special framed picture of Malvern Hall in England. I tried to find information about Malvern Hall online and found that it was built by Humphrey Griswold in 1690.¹

Elder Lund and his wife Lynn each descend from a member of the Griswold family of Malvern Hall. The Lund's were given this beautiful picture because they both descend from this Griswold family. After his keynote address, I was able to take a photo of him holding this very special gift.

Elder Lund's keynote address was a great way to begin the BYU Conference on Family History & Genealogy.

Day 2 - July 29th Keynote Address

Wednesday's keynote address was given by Robert Kehrer, Senior Product Manager at FamilySearch. Mr. Kehrer worked at Apple before coming to FamilySearch eight years ago.

His presentation was titled "FamilySearch: Past, Present and Future."

Mr. Kehrer said that he has seen a fundamental transformation during the last eight years he's been at FamilySearch.

Mr. Kehrer shared some interesting statistics which include the following:

From 2013 to the present, there has been a 234% increase in LDS visitors to FamilySearch.
From 2013 to the present, there has been a 1,035% increase in non-LDS visitors to FamilySearch.
Regarding records at FamilySearch:

In January of 2012, there were 1,033 record collections. As of July 2015, there are 2,019 record collections. That's a 95% increase!
Around 2010, there were 6,750 million indexed names. As of July 2015, that number has increased to 5.2 billion indexed names.
In January of 2012, there were 72 countries with records. As of July 2015, there are 91 countries with records.
Today there are 3.04 billion historical records, 5.172 billion names in records, 1.02 billion document images, 1.6 million catalog titles, 2.9 million microfilms, 975 million names in compiled genealogies, and 220,000 scanned genealogy books.

Mr. Kehrer shared some upcoming features at FamilySearch including the ability to send a message to someone on FamilySearch. I think this is a great new feature. Right now, if someone changes something in FamilySearch Family Tree, whether it is a positive or negative change, we have no way to contact them if they don't have an email address listed. In the future, we will be able to send that person a message. Who knows, maybe that person is a cousin we haven't met yet. And perhaps they have the family bible, family photos, letters, or stories we haven't heard before.

Another exciting future feature applies to the FamilySearch mobile app. I've installed FamilySearch's mobile app on my tablet and smartphone and it works wonderfully. Users can even search for records using this app. In the future, the SourceLinker feature presently enjoyed on the desktop version of FamilySearch will be available on the app as well.

I love FamilySearch and have enjoyed the many changes and improvements that have been made throughout the years. I also look forward to the future features mentioned by Mr. Kehrer in his excellent keynote address.

I'll be sharing more about the BYU Conference on Family History & Genealogy in future posts.

Thanks for reading!

Jana

1 "Our History and Malvern Hall - Saint Martin's School." Saint Martins School Our History and Malvern Hall Comments. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Aug. 2015.^↩

Thursday, July 30, 2015

BYU Conference on Family History & Genealogy ~ First Impressions

Hello wonderful readers! I’m here at the BYU Conference on Family History & Genealogy. The conference began on Tuesday and it's already Thursday as I sit at my laptop writing this blog post. My days have been very full of classes, meet-ups with fellow genealogy bloggers, walking around the vendor hall, and more.

Yesterday, I published a blog post about the myFamily History Youth Camp, which I visited on Tuesday. If you'd like to read that post, click HERE.

Today, I'd like to start my series of blog posts about my experiences here at the BYU Conference on Family History & Genealogy.

It’s my first time attending this conference and I have to say that it’s fabulous. The conference is very well-run and organized.

The theme for this year's conference is "Strengthening Ties That Bind Families Together Forever."

As I walked through the front doors of the BYU Conference Center, very helpful and friendly staff members were sitting behind the front desk ready to register and assist conference attendees. Several times during the conference I've been back to ask questions, one of which was how many attendees are here at this year's conference. I was told that 750 people registered. That's not including the 62 youth that are attending the myFamily History Youth Camp.

To give you a sense of what the conference looks like, here are some photos.

Here's a display that sits right across from the main desk.

The main hallway is lined with vendors.

This is Janet Hovorka, Development Director of Family Chart Masters. She's also the author of the Zap The Grandma Gap books and workbooks. I was thrilled to finally meet her in person as we've been online friends for some time now.

The class offerings at this conference are amazing! I can't list all of the classes here on my blog. The list would be too long. But here is a list of the conference tracks.

Beginner Track
British Isles Research Track
British Research Track
Computers & Technology Track
DNA Research
FamilySearch Track
FamilySearch Consultants Track
Finding Stories Track
German Research Track
ICAPGen Track
Immigration and Emigration Track
International Research Track
Land/Probate Records Track
LDS Ancestral Research Track
Methodology Track
Military Records Track
Online Research Track
Preserving Family History Track
Scandinavian Research Track
Technology/Tools Track
U.S./Canada Research Track
Vendor Track
Writing/Publishing Family History

Isn't this an impressive list? The classes I've attended so far have been wonderful and very informative and were taught by high-caliber instructors.

I'm so glad that I came to the BYU Conference on Family History & Genealogy. I've had a great time! I highly recommend this conference to everyone.

I'll be sharing more about the conference in future posts.

Thanks for reading!

Jana

Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Fun and Learning at the myFamily History Youth Camp

As I mentioned in a previous post, I was asked to visit the myFamily History Youth Camp, which is taking place at the same time as the BYU Conference on Family History & Genealogy. On Tuesday I attended part of the “FamilySearch Training and Tree Analysis” Lab at the myFamily History Youth Camp. It was held at the Religion and Family History area in the Harold B. Lee Library.

I was so impressed with what I saw. Each youth sat at a computer, which was opened to FamilySearch. Amanda Terry, who works at FamilySearch, was the instructor. She did a great job!

During the lab Amanda asked the youth to answer some poll questions. It looked like they were able to answer the questions on their computers and the results were posted on the big screen in front of the class. Very cool.

Another neat aspect of the camp is that the youth have been asked to complete a research project during the week. For this project, each youth was given a worksheet to fill out. They were asked to choose an ancestor, write down their name, and then write down what question they have about that ancestor. For example, where or when did that ancestor die? In the next section of the worksheet the youth are to write down what they know about their ancestor. The final section of the worksheet asks the youth what record or records they could use to answer their question, and what the results of their record search were. The youth are going to be able to use the lab to finish their research project. I think this is a fabulous way to teach the youth the genealogy research process.

I was given some very interesting stats for this camp.

The total number of youth attendees is 62. This is the first year for this family history camp. I was told that registration reached capacity very quickly and that they couldn’t let anyone else register due to lack of housing. I think it is very exciting that so many youth wanted to come to this camp! Hopefully next year there will be more housing available so more youth will be able to attend.

This year's attendees are from Arizona, California, Florida, Idaho, Colorado, Maryland, Oregon, Texas, Washington, and one attendee is from Canada. 1/3 of the attendees are from Utah, and 2/3 are out-of-state attendees. Of the 62 attendees, 18 are males and 44 are females.

In addition to the labs and other activities, the youth had a combined dance with Especially For Youth on Tuesday. They also took a trip to the Family History Library, Temple Square, and the Discovery Search Center in Salt Lake City today. More learning and fun is planned for the remainder of the camp, which ends on Friday afternoon.

I think this camp is a fantastic opportunity for youth to learn about family history. The dates for next year’s myFamily History Youth Camp are already set. It will be held July 25^th – July 29^th, 2016 at the BYU campus.

I will be posting about my experiences at the BYU Conference on Family History & Genealogy in future posts.