The 2012 Georgia Family History Expo, Day 2

     I was very excited for the second day of the Georgia Family History Expo and woke up way too early.  The day started at 9am with an hour to visit the vendors.  I bought four books and a CD from three different vendors, then stopped by the Ask-The-Pros table to get some advice on researching my Waters family brick wall.

• The first class:  Records of the War of 1812 by Robert Davis. It's interesting to watch him speak. He doesn't have any visuals or notes, but simply talks. He's very entertaining and amusing and obviously knows a lot about history.  I found out that there are a lot of records regarding the War of 1812, but they are scattered. Some are online and some haven't even been microfilmed! As with any war, pensions are a great place to start. Also, land grants can provide information on soldiers and their families.
• The second class: Thinking Outside of the Box by Drusilla Pair.  Dru had some great ideas for creative ways to share family history with family or in your community. I have a gift idea for my mom for Christmas and also ideas on how to better share my family history at family gatherings. Many of my relatives are interested in what I've found, though they don't necessarily care about the minute details. I think I'm going to write a small booklet about the Albea family to hand out. This will also serve as a template for eventually creating an actual book. A small step that leads toward a bigger step. I was also really inspired by what Dru has done with youth groups in her local churches to help inspire a passion for family history.
• Next up was lunch. We decided to take a long lunch, skip the next class and visit the vendors some more. I chatted with many of the vendors, some of whom had been to previous expos, others who were there for the first time. There's always something to tempt your wallet.  Here's my book haul:

• Final Class: this last class was a panel discussion with Paul Adjei and Bernie Gracy, discussing the importance of Oral history. It was really interesting to hear about the methods being used to record the oral histories that have been passed down for generations in Ghana. They've recorded over 1.5 million names into family trees. This segued nicely into Bernie Gracy's project to help record history with a geographical emphasis.  It was less a class than a discussion, but was still very interesting.
• The final event was the closing session and door prizes. I didn't win anything, but a few lucky winners did win Ancestry.com subscriptions and a stay at the Plaza Hotel in Salt Lake City. 

     I can't say enough how great these Family History Expos are. Every time I go to one I come away with new ideas and inspiration. It's taken me hours to write this blog post because I keep breaking away to start working on something new.  It's also great to meet new people and see familiar faces. I was honored to be asked to be an Official Blogger and enjoyed spending time with the other bloggers. I'm sad that the 2012 Expo is over, but am looking forward to next year. I hope to see you there!

Dru, Me, Tonia, Linda

 

The 2012 Georgia Family History Expo, Day 1

     I just got home from day one of the 2012 Georgia Family History Expo. It was a great day!  Like the last two years, the event was held at the Gwinnett Center in Duluth Georgia (only 10 minutes from home!).  I attended as a Blogger of Honor and have been tweeting throughout the event (@ValerieC84).  Here's a rundown of day one:

• I arrived early and checked in and met up with Linda, Tonia, Dru, Stephanie and Christa. 
• One of the ladies there with Ask-the-Pros had roots in Elbert County. Her (I think) Uncle married a Craft. I'll have to meet up with her again tomorrow - we're probably cousins of some sort.
• The Keynote Speech was by the ever entertaining Robert S Davis. He survived the lights fading up and down twice and his mic going dead. What a trooper!
• First Class: Georgia Land, Maps and Technology by Jennifer Dondero. She gave a lot of great places to find Georgia Maps, some of which I knew, others that I did not. I've used the Georgia Archives' Virtual Vault many times, but after this class I realized that I hadn't even scratched the surface of their Map collection! She also gave tips on using Google Earth that will be very useful.
• Second Class: Recording, Preserving, & Sharing Your Family's Oral History by Harvey Baker. This class was something of an introduction to the website, SavingMemoriesForever.com. I'd heard about this site/app before, but never really looked into it. It looks like just the thing I need to organize my audio files.  
• He also gave a lot of tips on why you should use audio to record your family's history. 
• Consider this: sometimes folks don't want their photo taken, so they certainly don't want you to record a video of them. However, with audio it doesn't matter how they're dressed or if they have a food stain on their shirt from the family reunion picnic. 
• Also think about audio files. They are almost always MP3. What about your video files? The formats vary and are often changing. You can convert them, or you can stick with audio.
• Video is often distracting. Not only are your subjects self conscious, but your viewers might get distracted by the visuals and miss out on the actual content.
• Lunch Break. Mom had picked up some brochures from the Gwinnett Visitor's booth in the expo hall and we had a discounted Chick-fil-A dinner!
• Third Class: "Non-Genealogy" Tools to Help Your Family History Research by Tonia Kendrick.   Boy did I learn a lot! Tonia introduced me to mind-maps and helped me figure out how to better use spreadsheets in my genealogy research. I'd tried some before with little success, but I'm going to try again. She mentioned a website called CensusTools.com that I've just got to check out. She also gave a brief intro to Evernote and OneNote that had me experimenting during the class. She also promised to put up copies of her FAN Club and Research Log spreadsheets on her blog.
• Fourth Class: Crossing the Great Divide: Little Known Federal Sources for Place of Birth before 1850 by Robert S Davis.  This class was just chock full of helpful information on finding information in places you've never heard of. He also explained why the information is there; the original purpose of the record. It was a bit complex, but he explained it well and I have new places to look for my ancestors.
• I bought a book from the Georgia Genealogical Society, "Georgia Research: a Handbook for Genealogists, Historians, Archivists, Lawyers, Librarians, and Other Researchers," by Robert S Davis and Ted O Brooke.
• I talked to the gentleman at the booth for GenealogyWallCharts.com. They have some great conference prices and I'm planning to take a Gedcom file tomorrow and see about buying a (few?) chart(s).

     Today was over much too quickly and I'm looking forward to tomorrow. If you didn't attend today, and you are in the area, I recommend you attend tomorrow. The first class is at 10am and a one day registration is $60. 

Me, Mom, my sister, Sarah

Your Ancestors Can Help Fight Cancer

     Did you know it was Movember? It's the month dedicated to growing mustaches, fighting cancer and raising awareness about men's health.  So how are your ancestors involved? Odds are some of your male ancestors sported a mustache. If you've got a photo of them, you can upload it to the Hairy Machestors Facebook page. For every photo of a mustache sporting ancestor (no beards allowed), Inside History Magazine will donate 50¢. Add a photo of yourself next to your ancestor and they'll donate $1.

     So far I've uploaded this photo of David J Witt and his wife, Alice.  I'll have to look through the rest of my photos and upload others that I find (I think there might be a five photo limit).

Small Changes with AncestryDNA

     It looks like Ancestry.com has started to make updates to their AncestryDNA layout. Take a look:

     They've rearranged some things, changed how they compare your ethnicity with your match and added a notes section.

• Moving the star, read/unread dot and trashcan don't really do anything except create space. 
• The changes to how your match's ethnicity is shown on the match page is a bit strange. I found the comparison confusing before, but this new view is only a little better. It might just take getting used to. 
• The biggest change is the ability to make notes about your match. This is really well done and is reflected with a "note" icon on your match list page.  

     This is a really good sign that Ancestry does intend to make their service more user friendly and will be adding features. I hope we get a search feature soon! I'd also like to see more icons added to the match list page, such as a leaf to indicate that there is a suggested ancestor hint.