Springfield, Illinois: Tracing the Tribe at FGS 2011

Tracing the Tribe is now in Springfield at the Federation of Genealogical Societies annual conference.

Many geneabloggers are attending and it is always good to see one's colleagues.

We'll soon be sharing notes on some excellent expert presentations. Two of my favorites focused on societies: building a better website and publicity tips. All societies should have the notes on these two informative programs.

Geneablogger guru Thomas MacEntee - who handled publicity for this event - arranged an excellent media hub - sponsored by RootsTech - complete with computer connections and very comfy seating. Readers on Twitter will have seen the prolific tweets of bloggers here.

Tracing the Tribe has been rather quiet for some time and this was due to a combination of heavy workload and very busy conference schedule. The calendar has finally slowed somewhat and we are getting back on track.

Of course, presentation deadlines are quickly approaching for both Jamboree 2012 (Burbank, California; June) the Who Do You Think You Are? LIVE 2012 family history fair (London UK; February).

Stay tuned for more.

Geneabloggers: 6 new blogs located

Tracing the Tribe doesn't know when Thomas MacEntee of Geneabloggers.com gets the time to search out these new blogs every week, but we are happy that he does!

He's discovered another six genealogy and family-history related blogs, bringing the total number of genealogy blogs at Geneabloggers.com to 1,935.

This week's topics include: a society blog, Midwest, Ohio, individual family histories, UK and cemetery.

Hamilton County Genealogical Society
Genealogical society, Midwest, Ohio

Share genealogical or other articles with those researching in Hamilton County, Ohio. The society encourages readers to post local family history or start their own blogs. All contributions are welcome. To become a contributing member, email Kathy Reed (put HCGS in the subject line).

Leaves & Branches
Individual family history

Primarily Southwestern Ohio. Families: BALLEIN, DAVIS, DONALDSON, DUDLEY, WARDLOW, OGDEN, LAMB, SHAPER.

Misadventures of a Genealogist
Individual family history (GUNTER, NC -> CA)

Sleeping Gardens
Cemetery blog, UK genealogy

Strawberry Shortcake
Individual family history

The Wiltsey Way
Individual family history (WILTSEY)

Read more about each blog here, in the original post.

Remember that writers of blogs for specific geographical areas may well be able to assist others with the same locations of interest, even if the families of interest are different.

FGS: Strategies for societies now available online

The Federation of Geneaogical Societies (FGS) has placed a series of expert papers on society strategies on its website.

February 28, 2011 – Austin, TX. The Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) announces that a vast collection of its Society Strategy Series papers is now available—free to the public—at the FGS website (http://www.fgs.org/societystrategy/).

The Society Strategy Series is a collection of papers filled with suggestions and instructions for the management of genealogical societies, historical societies, and family associations.

These papers have been expertly written by respected authors in the genealogy community to help you and your society grow and prosper.

Timely Topics by Well-Known Authors
Topics covered in the Society Strategy Series papers include:
·        Series I: Strategies for Societies
·        Series II: Strategies for Presidents
·        Series III: Strategies for Vice-Presidents
·        Series IV: Strategies for Treasurers
·        Series V: Strategies for Secretaries
·        Series VI: Strategies for Program Chairpersons
·        Series VII: Strategies for Librarians
·        Series VIII: Strategies for Editors

Most genealogists and genealogy society members will recognize the authors of the Society Strategy Series papers which include Jana Sloan Broglin, Karen Clifford, Betty Robertson Kaufman, Roberta “Bobbi” King, Gary Mokotoff, David Rencher, Curt Witcher, and the late Sandra H. Luebking and Marsha Hoffman Rising.

Newer Society Strategy Series topics are placed in the Members Only area of the FGS website for a period of one (1) year as a member benefit for FGS member societies. Additional new papers are being written and are planned for the coming year.

Helping Genealogy Societies Grow and Prosper
FGS is proud to make the Society Strategy Series available to the entire genealogical community as a means of helping societies become better at managing and growing their organizations.

About the Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS)
The Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) was founded in 1976 and represents the members of hundreds of genealogical societies. FGS links the genealogical community by helping genealogical societies strengthen and grow through resources available online, FGS Forum magazine (filled with articles pertaining to society management and genealogical news), and Society Strategy Series papers, covering topics about effectively operating a genealogical society. FGS also links the genealogical community through its annual conference -- four days of excellent lectures, including one full day devoted to society management topics. To learn more visit http://www.fgs.org/.

Editor’s Note:  Whether you have a robust society or are experiencing waning membership, whether you are a long-established society or just starting out as a society, this series is very useful to genealogy societies and similar organizations.

Society members should take a look and see if the articles can  help their organization solve problems and issues.

WDYTYA: Second NBC season starts February 4

Who Do You Think You Are? starts its second NBC season on Friday, February 4.

The original UK series spawned an entire genealogy-to-the-masses industry, and we may be well on our way on this side of the pond as well.

Most US-based genealogists believe the family history craze began here after Roots was published and then aired as a television series. It gave us hope that we could also investigate our own unique families.

The first season spurred awareness in the US, and the second season should continue the process of encouraging viewers to think about their own family histories.

The show only shows the results, so viewers are looking for help in how they can also find relevant information. Across the US, many viewers contacted their local libraries, archives and genealogy societies. 

Many geneabloggers discussed the ramifications of the American version of the show before it aired. Many of us made the point that on-the-ground local societies could receive the benefits by providing information to those who came knocking at their door for information.

A review of geneablog posts and Ancestry.com's own communications indicate several tips to build on the popularity of the show.

These include: 

• A society open house or beginners' workshop. While the majority of viewers may be newcomers, even experts and seasoned researchers found important information in certain episodes. Ancestry suggests that societies invite their members, community and local media to an open house during the premiere.  
• Contact local media. Talk to local newspapers and TV stations about how people can get started and how your society can help. One idea might be to research the ancestry of a local newsperson. The San Antonio Genealogical and Historical Society indicated that their local NBC affiliate publicized their event, filmed the society's library and conducted live interviews at two news slots.  
• Encourage members to spread the word. Those who are already passionate about family history and the most enthusiastic are often the best spokespersons. use Facebook, Twitter and blogs to llet people know about activities in conjunction with the new series.
• Prepare materials for beginners. Create a one-page “Getting Started in Family History” handout to handout through your group or activity. Encourage your local library to distribute a flyer or guide for their patrons and/or on their websites. And let people know via social media about the guide and where to get a copy. 
• Why should newcomers join your group? Planning a special event, offering workshops, media interviews, and other community events will provide interested audiences who will be receptive to an intro to your society and how it can help them. What about offering a limited-time membership discount?
• Brainstorm ideas with your society. How can your group increase local interest in the show as well as your society?  

According to a communication from Ancestry.com:

All in all, “Who Do You Think You Are?” continues to present the genealogy community with a golden opportunity to revolutionize, reshape, and redefine family history as a whole. It’s an opportunity to grow and strengthen societies, to infuse our community with younger audiences who can become the next generation of family historians, and to educate the public about what family history is and how to successfully research their heritage.

What will your society do to celebrate the show's new season?

Texas: 'Our Jewish Ancestry,' Oct. 17'

The Rio Grande Valley Hispanic Genealogical Society will present "Our Jewish Ancestry," on Sunday, October 17.

The program takes place from 2-4pm, in the Harlingen Public Library auditorium, in Harlingen, Texas.

The speaker is Diana Sotelo-Zertuche, a journalist, author, historian and speaker. The flyer for the event shows the speaker with a bubble quote, "Hace mucho eramos Judios" (A long time ago we were Jews).

For more information, send an email.

New Mexico: Two gen, history conferences, October

New Mexico genealogists have two October treats in store.

New Mexico Genealogical Society Conference, Friday-Saturday, October 15-16, in Albuquerque, will be followed by the New Mexico Jewish Historical Society, Friday-Sunday, October 22-24, in Las Vegas.

The New Mexico Genealogical Society Conference is its 50th anniversary. Details: Early registration (through September 15) is $35, members ($55, others); banquet, $35; hotel, $69 per night(Marriott Pyramid Hotel). The theme is ¿Quién Eres? (Who are you?). See below for speakers. Another reason to go: The New Mexico History Museum will debut “Hilos de la Memoria,” an exhibit on oral histories relating to New Mexico.

The New Mexico Jewish Historical Society Fall Conference - the 23rd - is themed "Adventures Along the Santa Fe Trail," set for Friday-Sunday, October 22-24, at the historic Plaza Hotel in Las Vegas, NM. The focus is on the Jews of Las Vegas and Northeast New Mexico. See below for speakers. Pre-conference tours include: historical Jewish Las Vegas, Montezuma Castle and Montefiore Cemetery, the oldest Jewish cemetery in the state. For more details, send an email. Saturday night includes a 19th-century liturgical music at the old Congregation Montefiore. See below for speakers.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Speakers: New Mexico Genealogical Society Conference

-- Paul Hutton, Ph.D, Keynote, "Billy the Kid"
Award-winning speaker and UNM history professor

-- Al Regensberg, "Migration around New Mexico"

Learn to use migratory patterns to solve the mystery of where or when your ancestors

came from; the process of reversing migratory patterns to locate appropriate Catholic parish records for genealogists with a New Mexico heritage.

-- Robert J. Tórrez, "Rio Arriba County"

Overview of a new to-be-published book on the county where New Mexico was first settled. Author, former state historian and historical lecturer.

-- Krysten Baca, "Getting the Most Out of Ancestry.com"

A genealogist on the Ancestry.com public relations and conference team, her responsibilities

have included conducting research on new content and celebrity research.

-- Jim Greene, "FamilySearch.org"

Explore how FamilySearch proposes to help curb the loss of records worldwide and increase the volume of records accessible online.

-- Krysten Baca, "Best Strategies for Researching using Ancestry.com"

Workshop and "how to" strategies on the fine points of online research.
-- Richard Melzer & Robert J. Tórrez, "Rich and Powerful Hispanic Leaders in the Rio Abajo"

Historians, authors and lecturers.

-- Rick Hendricks, "Research In and About Durango and Parral"

Researcher, author and NMSU history professor; learn how to research the archives of Durango and Parral.

-- Bennett Greenspan, "FamilyTreeDNA"

President & CEO of FamilyTreeDNA.com, Greenspan; DNA testing for Genetic Genealogy, how to pick the right person to test, understanding results and other questions regarding DNA. Bring your questions!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Speakers: New Mexico Jewish Historical Society Conference

-- Susan Califate Boyle, National Park Service

"History of Hispanic Participation in the Santa Fe Trail Trade"

-- Laura Gonzales, New Mexico Highlands University

"Las Vegas: Place of Encounter"

-- Sharon Niederman, Raton

"Synagogues on the Santa Fe Trail - History of Temple Aaron (Trinidad, Colorado) & Congregation Montefiore (Las Vegas)"

-- Melanie LaBorwit, Albuquerque
"History of the Jews of Las Vegas"

-- Noel Pugasch, University of New Mexico

"The Jewish Commercial Presence in Mora County, New Mexico, 1860s to the 1940s: A Brief Overview"

-- Panel 1: Crypto-Jews in Las Vegas and Northeast New Mexico:
Isabelle Medina Sandoval, Santa Fe (Mora)
Orlando Mondragón, Santa Fe (San Luis, Colorado)
Hon. M. Christina Armijo, Albuquerque (Las Vegas)
-- A. David Scholder, Founder
"Reflections on the Establishment of the New Mexico Jewish Historical Society"
-- Panel 2: Legacy of Las Vegas’s and Northeast New Mexico’s Rich Jewish Past:
Betty Mae Hartman, Albuquerque
Gerald Meyer, Laramie, Wyoming
Nancy Paxton, Albuquerque
Mortimer Herzstein, San Francisco
-- Panel 3: Renaissance of the Las Vegas Jewish Community:
Diana Presser
Kate Immerman

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

In words that are moving for all genealogists, the New Mexico Genealogy Conference theme is taken from a poem by Sabine R. Ulibarrí, PhD. See the conference link above for the Spanish version of ¿Quién Eres?

Who Are You?

If you forget where you came from, can you know where you're going?

If you've lost your past, where is your future?

If you're a man without a history, you're a man without a future.
If you turn your back on your parents, what can you expect from your children?

If you have no kinship with your family and your community,
when you laugh, you laugh alone, when you cry, you cry alone.

A solitary present without a yesterday or a tomorrow without parentage,
without fellowship, without friends, without brothers.

How alone you are in the world, How lost in the white mist.
Alone, with your guilt on your back. Alone, with your loneliness.

We can all relate to those words.

Youth awards: The way to go!

All genealogists know that new blood is the life of our passion and our commitment to learning about our ancestors.

Bringing new researchers into our world is the way to go. Even better is a determined effort to get young people involved.

In addition to learning about their individual family histories and ancestors, this pursuit increases and hones writing skills, personal interest in world history, language study and other additional skills.

Tracing the Tribe has talked for a number of years about a tiered award system for students (elementary, middle/junior, and high school). From local awards, winners could move to state or regional awards, and then a national award.

Such a competition - especially for Jewish genealogy, but equally applicable to all genealogy societies - would bring much-needed publicity and interest at all levels from students, parents and schools.

High school junior or senior winners could indicate the award on university applications, setting themseves apart from the sea of similar applicants, and this would also help elevate the study of family history in the eyes of academics at many universities.

Here's the announcement of the NGS Rubicam Award, given to 2009 winner Thomas Adams.

Dear Fellow Genealogist:

Young people with an interest in the history of their family, in search of a summer project, seeking to satisfy a school assignment or club project will want to see the videos of Thomas Adams, the 2009 winner of the National Genealogical Society Rubincam Youth Award.

Created by award winning filmmakers Kate Geis and Allen Moore, the videos go live today at the society’s website, http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/ and will soon appear on YouTube. The three short segments are:

· The Award: Genealogy puts history into personal perspective for high school student Thomas Adams, recipient of the Rubincam Youth Award.

· My Research: Young family history sleuth Thomas Adams talks about his "Eureka!" moment.

· Inspiring Others: Thomas' discoveries encourage his friends to follow their own
roots.

For more information, contact NGS President Jan Alpert.

What groups are willing to run with this idea to create more interest among young people in family history?

Australia: Visiting Sydney, Day 1

Ziva drove me to the airport, before dawn, to catch an early morning flight to Sydney to see my cousins.

Bob and Di met me at the airport and, since time was so limited, they drove me around to get a feeling for this beautiful city. The weather was sunny and breezy and Bob shared his love for the city where he has lived for more than three decades.

For lunch, we went to the Sydney Fish Market for fish and chips. An amazing building full of fresh everything that can say "glub glub."

Some of them were still speaking!

Name a creature of the water and it is on ice or in a tank somewhere here. There are also other kiosks inside (sushi and more).

At 2pm, Bob and Di dropped me off at the Kent Street site of the Society of Australian Genealogists, where I met the SAG program director Carole Riley, a GenClass.com colleague Kerry Farmer and MyHeritage.com's Linde Wolters (who lives in Sydney). From left, Carole, Kerry and Linde:

We had a quick tour of the excellent facilities, library (there is another archive offsite), talked genealogy - what else? - and went for refreshment to the cafe across the street. First it was 3.20pm and the next time we checked it was 4pm. If I wasn't being picked up by my cousins, we could have gone for several more hours.

For dinner, we went to a Lebanese restaurant with our cousins' friends and had a great time talking genealogy, DNA and much more.

Tomorrow, say my cousins, I'll get to see koalas, kangaroos, wallabies, wombats, emus and other unusual animals. Looking forward to that!

Internet Research: Just the tip of the iceberg

Not everything is online, and sometimes we still need to dig out the facts the old-fashioned way.

This great poster, developed by the California Genealogical Society (Oakland, California) is available for sale.

I saw it at the Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree 2009 in June, but forgot to get my own copy. I'll pick one up at Jamboree 2010 (June 11-13, 2010).

It was developed by CGS volunteers. Read more about the project here.

Purchase the 11-inchx17-inch poster for $13 (including tax and US postage), two posters are $23, and three are $33 (buy three and they'll give you another one for free). Posters are sent in a mailing tube. If you'd like a poster mailed elsewhere than in the US, email the CGS for information.

To purchase a poster, send a request and payment (US check) to:

The California Genealogical Society and Library
2201 Broadway
Suite LL2
Oakland, CA 94612-3031

San Francisco: Geneablogging workshop, Oct. 10

The California Genealogical Society and Library is celebrating October Family History month with numerous events.

My good friends and geneablogging buddies, Thomas MacEntee and Craig Manson, will present "Blog Your Genealogy: Why, How, Do's and Don'ts," from 1-4.30pm Saturday, October 10 at the California Genealogical Society and Library in Oakland.

Are you curious about genealogy blogs? Or have you dismissed them as fluff and not worth your valuable time? Two experts will show why blogs are more than just "the latest fad" and how they are a valuable way to enhance your genealogy research.

The three-session afternoon presentation is suitable for teens and up, so bring along your younger family members - who already know everything about blogs, but perhaps not that much about genealogy!

Both Thomas (always smiling, creative and ebullient) and Craig (calm, reasoned and a true gentleman) are renowned geneabloggers who will share their expertise and have some fun. The Thomas and Craig duo should go on the road more often! They will show why blogs are more than just “the latest fad” and how they are a valuable way to enhance your genealogy research.

Thomas is a genealogist specializing in the use of technology and social media to improve genealogical research and as a means of interacting with others in the family history community. With more than 25 years of experience in the information technology field, Thomas writes and lectures on the many ways blogs, Facebook and Twitter can be leveraged to add new dimensions to the genealogy experience. As the creator of GeneaBloggers.com, he has helped organize and engage a community of more than 600 bloggers who daily document their own journeys in the search for ancestors.

Craig is Distinguished Professor and Lecturer in Law at the Capital Center for Public Law and Policy (University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law, Sacramento). He teaches administrative law and has been a lawyer for 28 years. In 2004, he began the study and practice of genealogy. He writes the popular blog, GeneaBlogie and a weekend column called Appealing Subjects on the highly-regarded magazine Shades of the Departed. Although GeneaBlogie focuses on genealogy, Craig often writes about legal topics of interest to genealogists.

The program:

1-2pm: How to Use a Blog. Start with the ABCs of blog use in a basic introductory demo. Leave with a list of great genealogy blogs to read, tips on how to best use the information found in blogs and wonder why you didn’t start following blogs sooner!

2:15-3:15pm: Building a Genealogy Blog. With the help of an audience member, Thomas will create an individual family history blog right before your eyes.

3:30-4:30pm: Blogging and the Law. Learn about copyright laws and how to protect your information on your blog.

Only 30 can attend what will be a very popular session (quick registration advised!). It is free for CGS members, while others pay $10, which can be applied toward membership on the day of the workshop. Registration (email) required, no walk-ins permitted.

For other October events at CGS, click here. For a map, click here.