07.13.08
Posted in Daily Journal, Genealogy Conferences at 1:27 pm by Administrator
San Francisco Bay Area genealogists who attended Saturday’s meeting at the California Genealogical Society and Library were treated to a lively and informative presentation on Breaking Down Brick Walls. The Sherman Room at the Society’s facility in Oakland was filled to capacity for the event.
Lavinia Schwarz, Nancy Peterson, and Jane Hufft
SOURCE: Lavinia Schwarz, Nancy Peterson, and Jane Hufft (Oakland, Alameda Co., California). Photographed by Stephen J. Danko on 12 Jul 2008.
Although billed as a panel discussion, Jane Hufft, Lavinia Schwarz, and Nancy Peterson presented a well-integrated series of three lectures that provided a new way to look at brick walls.
The session opened with a discussion of three big problems in genealogy: finding parents, spouse, and location. The approach to breaking through brick walls that Jane, Lavinia, and Nancy discussed is to Review, Reach Out, and Reframe.
REVIEW
What source types are essential to your problem and what sources have you failed to examine? Have you cited all sources so you know where you are? Keep a search record and construct a bibliography.
What needs a second look? Review census records (including neighbors). Reexamine surnames, including possible variations and misspellings. Read about the history for the region and the era. Evaluate family stories.
Are there sources and methods you haven’t yet examined? Think about maps, tax records, land records, scholarly journals, bibliographies in the backs of sources, military records, passport records, church records, and newspapers.
Is it time to start researching every relative and hanger-on? Research collateral lines: siblings with different surnames, all children descending from the relative in question, all brothers and sisters of the ancestor and the ancestor’s spouse.
Look for sources in other libraries (regional, university, local, historical, state). Ask the librarian for help. Are any applicable vertical files or manuscripts available?
How can you expand your search? Search newspapers in city, local library, and university archives. Visit the locale, set up contacts, find out whom else is buried at the local cemetery. Remember to search county-level records, land, probate, chancery court, and poorhouse records.
Consider hiring a professional researcher. A local person may be able to uncover information you can’t. Locate other researchers working on this line. consult with others, including friends and other genealogists, about your brick wall.
Evaluate your time. Is this problem keeping you from completing other research? Sometimes you need to accept the fact that certain information may simply not be there.
Use the Internet efficiently. Try multiple search engines including Google, Dogpile, Yahoo, Ask, Metacrawler, AltaVista, and LiveSearch. Review popular websites and databases such as Ancestry, NewspaperArchives, Footnote, etc.
REACH OUT
Network with others. Who knows more than you? Question family members, including extended family.
Search and post on RootsWeb message boards. Join a mailing list. Search and post on Genforum. Be prepared to wait a long time before someone posts a reply to your message.
Learn more as the brick wall tumbles. Build upon what you have learned.
Visit the area of your search. Visit the courthouse, libraries, genealogical societies, and historical societies. If you can’t go in person, join online groups, join a genealogical society in the location, or hire a local researcher.
REFRAME
State the problem in simple terms, gather all your notes that apply to the problem, and arrange the facts chronologically.
Prepare a timeline. Is the timeline continuous or are there gaps in it? What can you do to fill in these gaps?
Analyze the reliability, timeliness, and credibility of each source. Was the conclusion you reached about this source justified, or do you need to reconsider?
Is the source an original source or a derivative source? How close in time to the event was the source created? Was the preparer of the source in a position to know about the event?
Do the ages make sense? Could you be looking at two different people with the same name? Do the occupations make sense? Are you basing conclusions on unfounded assumptions?
Is there information missing when you expected to find it?
REST!
New sources and new contacts may come along. Working on another problem may give you fresh insights into this one.
Copyright © 2008 by Stephen J. Danko
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07.03.08
Posted in Daily Journal, Genealogy Conferences, software at 11:00 pm by Administrator
In my effort to learn more about the various genealogy software packages currently on the market, I attended Geoff Rasmussen’s lecture “Overview of Legacy Family Tree 7″ at the Southern California Genealogy Jamboree 2008.
Geoff Rasmussen at the Southern California Genealogy Jamboree 2008
SOURCE: Geoff Rasmussen at the Southern California Genealogy Jamboree 2008 (Burbank, Los Angeles Co., California). Photographed by Stephen J. Danko on 27 Jun 2008.
The lecture I attended was a basic introduction to Legacy Family Tree 2008 and included discussions of older features, features new to version 7, and features to be added in the future.
As with many other genealogy programs, Legacy Family Tree can calculate relationships between people in the database. However, Legacy can calculate non-blood relationships and additional relationships if two people are related in two or more ways. Legacy can also set bookmarks for specific individuals that appear as tabs at the bottom of the screen.
Legacy can check the entire database for errors in place names. Specifically, the USA County Verifier will check to see if the county included in a place name is correct for the time period.
The main screen of Legacy includes events of birth, christening, death, and burial, allowing the user to quickly enter christening and burial information at the same time the user adds birth and death information.
Legacy’s privacy settings allow the user to mark entries as private or as invisible on reports and exports.
The new Source Writer in Legacy will create source citations according to the standards in Elizabeth Shown Mills’ book Evidence Explained by guiding the user through a series of questions. Sources can be formatted as footnotes, endnotes, or bibliographies and are automatically created as the user types. Subsequent citations of a previously cited source are also properly created. Geoff explained that Legacy will be adding a utility to help the user convert existing source formats to current standards.
Legacy provides research guidance, suggesting sources for given events. The user can click “plan to search’ to add a source to the “to do” list.
For mapping locations, Legacy uses Microsoft Virtual Earth, allowing the user to see locations in a variety of views, including a “bird’s eye” view.
Legacy Family Tree can produce many types of books on the user’s desktop, and can include both maiden and married names in the index.
Legacy includes many charts including many new to version 7. Geoff mentioned DNA charts and “Males Only” charts as examples. In the charts, the user can move boxes around and add backgrounds. Printouts of charts can be ordered directly from within the program.
Geoff presented a second lecture on Saturday entitled “Legacy Family Tree: Why Even Professionals Use It”. Unfortunately, I was not able to hear his second lecture because it conflicted with another lecture I wanted to attend.
At present, I have not tried Legacy Family Tree 7. While Legacy offers a free version of its software, the free version does not include many of the features I would like to try out, including the new Source Writer, Wall Charts, and Mapping utilities.
Copyright © 2008 by Stephen J. Danko
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06.29.08
Posted in Daily Journal, Genealogy Conferences, DNA at 11:00 pm by Administrator
While at Jamboree, I had the pleasure of participating in the Genealogy Blogger Summit with Megan Smolenyak and hearing her two presentations on DNA entitled Trace Your Roots with DNA and Beyond Y-DNA: Your Genetic Genealogy Options.
Megan Smolenyak and Steve Danko at Jamboree 2008
SOURCE: Megan Smolenyak and Steve Danko at Jamboree 2008 (Burbank, Los Angeles Co., California). Photographed by Marcy Brown 29 Jun 2008.
Megan defined genetic genealogy as DNA testing for the purpose of learning about one’s heritage and described it as a complement to traditional genealogy.
Of all the DNA tests available, the Y chromosome tests are the most popular. These tests include the test for short tandem repeats (STRs) and the test for single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) on the Y chromosome. The STR test looks for the number of times a particular DNA pattern is repeated at places on the Y chromosome called markers. The results of this test defines a man’s Y chromosomal haplotype.
Since only men have a Y chromosome, women can only participate in this test by proxy, meaning that women must find a male relative (father, brother, uncle, male cousin) to be tested in her place. The Y chromosome is passed on from father to son, and can be used to trace a man’s ancestry from his father’s father’s father’s father. Because the Y chromosome is inherited in this way, analysis of the Y chromosome can be used either to support or disprove relationships.
A second Y-DNA test examines SNPs, mutations in the DNA that are so rare that they are assumed to have occurred only once in human history. The result of SNP tests define a man’s Y chromosomal haplogroup. The haplotype, identified by STR analysis, can be used to predict the haplogroup, and the SNP test can be used to confirm the haplogroup and provide additional details about the haplogroup.
Although only men have a Y chromosome, both men and women have mitochondrial DNA which they inherited from their mothers. Although men have mitochondrial DNA, they do not pass it on to their children. Thus, analysis of the mitochondrial DNA provides a test for one’s mother’s mother’s mother’s mother. Because mitochondrial DNA changes very slowly, it is not quite as useful as Y-DNA to examine relationships among people. Nonetheless, mitochondrial DNA can still be used to support or disprove proposed relationships.
Other DNA tests available to both men and women include tests for ethnic and biogeographic origins. Some of these tests provide percentages of different geographical groups such as Indo-European, Sub-Saharan African, Native American, and East Asian, while others are designed to provide details about African and Native American ancestries.
Still other DNA tests can provide information about inherited medical conditions and physical traits.
Megan pointed out that those who participate in DNA tests often have a specific purpose in mind. Some wish to learn if two people have common origins, while others may wish to uncover connections that paper trails can’t. DNA analysis can help solve personal history mysteries, including cases of uncertain parentage.
Copyright © 2008 by Stephen J. Danko
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06.28.08
Posted in Daily Journal, Genealogy Conferences at 11:00 pm by Administrator
I haven’t had a spare moment at Jamboree, but I wanted to post this photo taken at the Genealogy Blogger Summit.
Some of the Genealogy Bloggers at Jamboree
SOURCE: Some of the Genealogy Bloggers at Jamboree (Burbank, Los Angeles Co., California). Photographed by Linda Seaver 28 Jun 2008.
Linda Seaver was kind enough to take photos of this group of genealogy bloggers including: seated, from left: Kathryn Doyle, Dick Eastman, George Morgan, Steve Danko; standing, from left: Leland Meitzler, Schelly Talalay Dardashti, Randy Seaver, Craig Manson, and Elizabeth O’Neal. Other genelaogy bloggers were in attendance but, unfortunately, weren’t present for this photo.
The Genealogy Blogger Summit was great fun with Leland Meitzler hosting bloggers Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak, George Morgan, Steve Danko, Schelly Talalay Dardashti, and Randy Seaver. Leland skillfully kept the discussion moving for over an hour and a half and then opened the discussion to questions from the audience.
As you may have already heard, audience member (and author of Little Bytes of Life) Elizabeth O’Neal stole the show by moblogging from her cell phone and posting the first picture from the summit, LIVE!
Thanks to Paula Hinkel of the Southern California Genealogical Society for organizing this great event.
Copyright © 2008 by Stephen J. Danko
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05.24.08
Posted in Daily Journal, GuestBlog, Genealogy Conferences at 11:26 am by Administrator
Today’s GuestBlog is written by Paula Hinkel of the Southern California Genealogical Society.
Deadline Alert
Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree 2008
June 27, 28, 29 at the Burbank Airport Marriott
There’s still time to join us for Jamboree! Don’t miss the largest genealogy conference on the West Coast. Advance registration closes 15. Of course you’ll be able to register at the door, but why not make life
easy and register in advance?
–The registration process will be a breeze. You won’t have to wait in line to have your registration processed. –You get to wear an official printed name tag.
–You can purchase tickets for the special events. These will not be available after June 15.
Seats are still available for all of the special events, including the Friday night banquet with Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak; Saturday Effective Society Management breakfast and panel discussion; Saturday evening’s dinner with Dick Eastman; and the Sunday morning Presidential Genealogy with Chris Child and Gary Boyd Roberts of NEHGS. Reservations for the meals will close on June 15.
Don’t forget to register for the newly added events:
- Hollywood Forever Cemetery, bus transportation and guided tour by cemetery historian Karie Bible. 8:30am-12noon on Friday, June 27. Cost $30.
- FREE Introduction to Genealogy taught by Beverly Truesdale 9:00am-12noon Friday, June 27.
- FREE Kids Genealogy Camp taught by Starr Campbell, Hailey J. Campbell and Michael Melendez from 9:00am-12noon Friday, June 27.
In addition, we have arranged with Lockett Tours for a “Slice of the City” tourist bus trip on Thursday afternoon, June 26. The tour is $30. Find all the details at http://tinyurl.com/59xjqd.
This year, the program will include speakers and lectures of particular interest to those researching German, Eastern European, and Jewish roots. These include John T. Humphrey on German records, Peter Lande on “Holocaust Records as a Source for All Genealogists,” which includes how to obtain records from Bad Arolsen; Steve Morse on “One-Step Webpages” and several others.
Many well-known professional genealogists, among them Dick Eastman, Tom Underhill, Arlene Eakle, and Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak, will speak about online and traditional resources, tech applications for genealogy, including several DNA talks, German ancestry, genealogy applications for today, such as family health histories, dealing with family secrets and black sheep, finding living relatives, and more.
A featured session will be the first-ever Blogger Summit, which will feature seven of the leading genealogy bloggers: Dick Eastman of Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter; Steve Danko of Steve’s Genealogy Blog; George G. Morgan, Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak of Megan’s Roots World and RootsTelevision, Schelly Talalay Dardashti of Tracing the Tribe, Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings. Moderating the panel discussion will be Leland Meitzler of GenealogyBlog.com.
Why not take the train to Jamboree and avoid $4 per gallon gas, traffic and parking? For those coming from the San Diego area, The San Diego Genealogical Society has organized a group trip on the Pacific Surfliner. Contact Phyllis Quarg [phylbq@cox.net] for information on their group tour. The Burbank Airport Train Station is directly across the street from the Marriott, and the shuttle will pick you up at no charge. Check out your transportation alternatives!
You can find full descriptions of speakers, lectures, evening events, and you can pre-register at this website: www.scgsgenealogy.com and the Jamboree blog at www.genealogyjamboree.blogspot.com
Save the Dates: Woohoo!! We are thrilled to announce that dates have been locked in for the next two years at the Burbank Airport Marriott Hotel and Convention Center in Burbank. Save the dates now for June 12-14, 2009, and June 11-13, 2010. How’s that for planning ahead?
Paula Hinkel
Co-Chair
Southern California Genealogy Jamboree
Southern California Genealogical Society
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05.11.08
Posted in Daily Journal, Genealogy Conferences at 12:01 am by Administrator
The California Genealogical Society held a membership meeting on Saturday, May 10 at the Society’s library in Oakland, California.
Jane Lindsey, President of the Society, began the meeting with a discussion of upcoming Society activities, including a Workshop on Scandinavian Research on June 14, four classes on Irish Research by Nora Hickey on July 9, a panel discussion on Breaking Down Brick Walls on July 12, a Workshop on Publishing Your Family History on August 9, and a Society research trip to Boston from September 21-28.
Steve Harris, collector of City Directories and Phone Books, announced that he has acquired 1000 new directories, including 600 for California cities. His collection is located across the hall from the California Genealogical Society Library and is open on the second Saturday and third Friday of each month (or by appointment).
The featured speaker for the day was Steve Morse, creator of the One-Step Webpages, who presented two lectures: “The Jewish Calendar Demystified” and “What Color Ellis Island Search Form Should I Use?”.
The Jewish Calendar Demystified
Various calendars have been developed throughout history to mark the passage of time and are commonly based on the solar calendar (the secular calendar), the lunar calendar (the Muslim calendar), or a combination of the two (the Jewish calendar).
Molad, the new moon, defines the start of the new month. A lunar month lasts 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes, and 3 1/3 seconds, or 29 days, 12 hours, 793 halaqim. There are between 12 and 13 lunar months in a solar year.
Because 19 years encompass almost exactly 235 months, the Jewish calendar employs a cycle of 19 years, as do the Chinese calendar and the Ancient Greek calendar. In a cycle of 19 years, the Jewish calendar includes 12 common years of 12 months, and 7 leap years of 13 months. Leap years occur in years 3, 6, 8, 11, 14, 17, and 19 of each 19 year cycle.
The months in the Jewish calendar are:
- Tishri -30 days
- Heshvan - 29 days
- Kislev - 30 days
- Tevret - 29 days
- Shevat - 30 days
- Adar 1 - 30 days (Adar 1 occurs only in leap years)
- Adar 2 - 29 days
- Nisan - 30 days
- Iyyar - 29 days
- Sivan - 30 days
- Tamuz - 29 days
- Ab - 30 days
- Elul - 29 days
However, a common year is 8 hours, 876 halaqim too short and a leap year is 2 hours, 491 halaqim too long.
Thus, the first day of Tishri will drift from the molad of Tishri (the new moon that marks the beginning of the month of Tishri). If the molad falls on the first day of Tishri, everything is fine. If the first of Tishri arrives too soon, the Jewish calendar adds one day to the preceding month of Heshvan (this is called a complete year). If the first day of Tishri arrives too late, the Jewish calendar subtracts a day from the preceding month of Kislev (this is called a defective year).
- In a defective year, Heshvan is 29 days, Kislev is 29 days, a common year is 353 days, and a leap year is 383 days.
- In a normal year, Heshvan is 29 days, Kislev is 30 days, a common year is 354 days, and a leap year is 384 days.
- In a complete year, Heshvan is 30 days, Kislev is 30 days, a common year is 355 days, and a leap year is 385 days.
But here is where things get more complicated. There are four rules that further govern the Jewish calendar.
- If molad Tishri falls on a Sunday, Wednesday, or Friday, the first day of Tishri must be delayed by one day. If Tishri begins on a Wednesday or Friday, Yom Kippur would fall on a Friday or a Sunday, making it impossible to prepare food for the day after the Yom Kippur fast, due to Sabbath restrictions. if Tishri begins on a Sunday, the seventh day of Succoth would fall on the Sabbath.
- If molad Tishri occurs at noon or later, the first day of Tishri must be delayed by one day in order to ensure that the new crescent moon is visible during the first day of the year.
- If molad Tishri falls on a Tuesday at 3:11:20 AM or later, then the first of Tishri is delayed by one day, otherwise both rules 1 and 2 will be invoked, making the previous year too long (356 days).
- If molad Tishri after a leap year falls on Monday at 9:32:43 1/3 AM or after, then the first of Tishri is delayed by one day, otherwise the previous leap year would have been delayed by both rules 1 and 2, making the previous leap year too short (382 days).
Biblical creation began on the 25th of Elul in year 1 and ended on the 1st of Tishri in year 2. Today, May 11, 2008 is the 6th of Iyyar in the year 5768. The conversion from the Gregorian calendar which we use today to the Jewish calendar can be computed on Steve’s One-Step Webpage for Jewish Calendar Conversions.
The Jewish calendar slowly creeps forward compared to the astronomical year since a year lasts 365.2422 days, but the Jewish calendar, on average, lasts 365.2468 days. Thus, the Jewish calendar will creep one day forward every 217 years. The Gregorian calendar which is in common use today is also subject to calendar creep, but the Gregorian calendar creeps forward only 1 day every 3333 years. By comparison, the Julian calendar which was replaced by the Gregorian calendar crept forward 1 day every 128 years.
What Color Ellis Island Search Form Should I Use?
Steve’s second lecture described how and why he developed his One-Step Webpages. In short, he began development of his webpages because he realized that the Ellis Island database search form often required multiple steps in order to find an entry, but the Ellis Island search engine itself was capable of performing several of these steps with a single command. And so, Steve developed a search form (the White Form) to search the Ellis Island database in one step, using the search engine at the Ellis Island site.
As time passed, and Steve continued to develop his webpages, he entered into collaborations with others who had the necessary expertise to further improve the search form. Soon, the Blue Form was developed that employed an independent search engine that would search the data from the Ellis Island site. The Blue Form searched only Jewish records. The Blue Form could perform a Soundex search, it could search by town, year of birth, partial ship names, by arrival month & day, and marital status. The Ellis Island search engine could not search by these parameters.
The Blue Form was followed by the Grey Form, which could search by the same parameters as the Blue Form, but the Grey Form could search non-Jewish records.
In November 2006, Steve released the Gold Form. The Gold Form uses its own search engine and can search all Ellis Island records by all parameters that were transcribed. The Gold Form replaces both the Blue Form and the Grey Form.
Now, users of Steve Morse’s One-Step Webpages can use the Gold Form as their first choice, enabling them to use the most powerful search engine and the most complete search form available for the Ellis Island database. The White Form is still available for those who may wish to employ an alternate search using the search engine at Ellis Island, but with a more complete search form than is available at Ellis Island.
Copyright © 2008 by Stephen J. Danko
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04.21.08
Posted in Daily Journal, Family History Library, Genealogy Conferences at 10:21 pm by Administrator
Today’s UPGS 2008 program was largely devoted to research in the Family History Library.
The International Floor was buzzing with activity as Polish researchers swarmed the microfilm readers. Unused readers were hard to find.
I heard several people speak of successes. I had an unexpected success today as I reviewed the microfilms for my Niedziałkowski ancestors from the Szwelice parish in Poland. I had decided to carefully review the films for this parish to try to catch anything I’ve missed before and to try to find a connection between my Niedziałkowski ancestors and the other Niedziałkowskis in the Szwelice records.
In doing so, I found a marriage record for Adam Bonislawski and Petronella Niedziałkowska. Seeing this marriage record rang a bell in my head: where had I seen those names before?
Then it struck me - those were the parents of Czeslawa Bonislawska, the wife of my Great Grand Uncle, Franciszek Niedzialkoski! I have a record of them in the 1900 US Federal Census with their three children who were born in Poland: Czeslawa, Jan, and Władysław. I also have the marriage record of Franciszek Niedzialkoski and Czeslawa Bonislawska who were married in Massachusetts in 1904.
And, there’s more! Petronella’s parents were Ludwik Niedziałkowski and Józefa Pomaska, who were already in my database. Even if Franciszek and Czeslawa had not married, I’d be related to them both!
The UPGS 2008 conference held its closing banquet this evening after the Family History Library closed. The keynote speaker was Steve Morse who spoke on his “One-Step” WebPages. It seems that my path keeps crossing that of Steve Morse, but that’s really not surprising. Steve is a very popular speaker. His keynote address at UPGS 2008 was his 100th speaking engagement, an occasion he celebrated by showing a picture of a 100 złoty Polish banknote!
I have one more day of research at the Family History Library before I return to San Francisco. Wish me luck for my last day in Salt Lake City!
Copyright © 2008 by Stephen J. Danko
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04.20.08
Posted in Daily Journal, Genealogy Conferences at 10:55 pm by Administrator
Zzzzzzzz.
Everyone here at UPGS 2008 has commented on how slow the WiFi connection is here at the Plaza Hotel. The slow speed caused a few speakers to change their presentations since reliable, fast Internet connections can’t be secured.
To top things off, the city is planning to shut the electricity off at the hotel tonight. I guess I’ll be using the alarm on my cell phone tonight.
Today, I attended a Skype conference with Poland, a lecture by Orvill Paller on his visit to Poland with the Genealogical Society of Utah (the Family History Library), a demonstration of AncestryPress by Kelvin Hulit, a lecture on Social Media by Beau Sharbrough, and a lecture on Post-Mortem Records by Ceil Jensen.
The final event of the evening was a Funeral Card scanning party, where participants brought their Polish Funeral Cards to be scanned by dedicated volunteers (including me). The scanned images will be uploaded to a free database on Footnote.com.
That’s all for now. I’m signing off, hoping to get this article posted before the power goes out!
Copyright © 2008 by Stephen J. Danko
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04.19.08
Posted in Daily Journal, Genealogy Conferences at 10:42 pm by Administrator
Today the weather in Salt Lake City was a bit overcast and breezy, though still warm. The weather made little difference, since I spent most of the day in the sessions at the United Polish Genealogical Societies Conference at the Salt Lake Plaza Hotel.
The first order of business was a Skype Conference hosted by Tomasz Nitsch whereby we connected with the Polish Genealogical Association meeting in Gdansk; with Adam Kamiński, president of the Pomeranian Genealogical Association; and with Marek Jerzy Minakowski, webmaster of the http://www.wielcy.pl website.
Adam Kamiński explained how the genealogical societies in Poland were organized and described some of the projects of the Polish Genealogical Association and the Pomeranian Genealogical Association, including efforts to digitize and index sources of genealogical information. One project of the Pomeranian Genealogical Association is to photograph and index records of the Pelpin Diocese, allowing visitors to view the records on computer, thus helping preserve the original records.
Marek Jerzy Minakowski showed how to access his website and search for information about Poles important in history. I searched for the surname Niedziałkowski in the database and found several entries for individuals with this surname.
A Skype Conference was also held with Fred Hoffman in Connecticut who discussed Polish given names and surnames. He mentioned that, while Polish given names number in the hundreds, Polish surnames number in the hundreds of thousands, and that surnames did not become consistent in Poland until after the partitions of Poland in the late 18th century. Some common suffixes that Fred mentioned include:
-icz, -ycz, -owicz, -ewicz = “son of”
-owski, -ewski, inski, -ynski = place name
-ala, -ała = “one who is always doing”, prominent feature
-ek, -ak, -ik, -yk, -uk = diminutive (-uk most common east of Poland’s current borders)
The final presentations of the morning were Kahlile B. Mehr’s talk about Acquisitions at the FHL and my own talk on Genealogy Blogs: New Ways to Disseminate Genealogy Information on the Internet. I missed Kahlile’s talk, of course, since mine was at the same time. My talk on blogs included information on the types of blogs, how to set up a blog, advantages of blogs, and a survey of the variety of genealogy blogs on the internet today.
The first afternoon session I attended was Beau Sharbrough’s talk about Polish Research on Footnote.com, a survey of the records on Footnote.com and how user contributed content greatly enhances the value of the site.
I then attended Michael Hall’s presentation on the Family History Books Digitization Project at the FHL. I was quite surprised to discover that the project to digitize family histories involves the cooperation of the Allen County Public Library, the Harold B. Lee Library at BYU, BYU Hawaii, the Clayton Library Center for Genealogical Research at the Houston Public Library, the Family History Library, and the LDS Church History Library. Over 11,000 titles are currently available as searchable PDF files at a number of internet locations including http://www.familyhistoryarchive.byu.edu, http://www.familysearch.org, http://lib.byu.edu/online.html, and http://www.acpl.lib.in.us/genealogy/index.html.
The final presentation I attended for the day was Baerbel Johnson’s discussion of online mailing lists, in particular the mailing lists at Rootsweb: http://lists.rootsweb.ancestry.com/. She discussed the value of subscribing by either the LIST version or the DIGEST version of the mailing list, provided hints for searching for relevant lists (don’t get too specific with the search terms), showing good “list manners”, and posting effective queries.
I finished up the day by attending the banquet of the California Genealogical Society held at Lamb’s Grill in Salt Lake City, the final event of the CGS research week at the Family History Library. I had an enjoyable time having dinner with my fellow CGS members who discussed their successes at the FHL that week. I look forward to reading about the event on Kathryn’s CGS Blog.
It’s now late in the evening. There’s another busy day in store for me at the UPGS conference tomorrow, with eleven talks including my presentation on Genealogy Gadgets and Gizmos. I’ll be speaking right after lunch in a room without windows, so that should allow everyone to get a good hour’s nap in the early afternoon!
Copyright © 2008 by Stephen J. Danko
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04.18.08
Posted in Daily Journal, Genealogy Conferences at 9:13 pm by Administrator
Today was quite a day in Salt Lake City. I woke to beautiful clear skies and temperatures that were downright balmy! It’s hard to believe that snow fell in Salt Lake City earlier this week.
Several genealogical societies are meeting in Salt Lake City this week. I’m attending the United Polish Genealogical Societies (UPGS) conference, but the California Genealogical Society (CGS) is also in Salt Lake this week. I’ll sneak out of the UPGS meetings tomorrow evening to have dinner with the CGS at Lamb’s.
In the meantime, I spent a good part of the day at the Family History Library. Today was my French Canadian genealogy day at the library where I tried to hammer away at some brick walls. Unfortunately, I didn’t have as much luck as I had hoped, but I found three relevant compiled genealogies in:
White, Stephen A., Hector-J. Hébert, and Patrice Gallant. 1999. Dictionnaire généalogique des familles acadiennes. Moncton, N.-B.: Centre d’études acadiennes, Université de Moncton.
Research at the Family History Library was interrupted twice today by evacuations. I’m not sure the reason for the evacuations, but I was told that they may have been due to bomb threats in response to the recent news reports about the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (no connection with the Mormon Church or the Family History Library).
After the second evacuation, I just went to supper and then to the opening session of the UPGS conference.
It looks like this year’s UPGS conference will be the largest on record and the first to have two separate tracks of lectures. So far, everything seems to be going smoothly. Conference chair Ceil Jensen and the host Polish Genealogical Society of Michigan really have their act together - even the conference syllabus is impressive.
The evening program was a viewing of the 2007 documentary entitled Our Polish Story, a film that describes the experiences of Polish immigrants and their descendants in Detroit. Copies of the DVD can be ordered from:
Our Story Of LLC
28345 Beck Road
Suite 404
Wixom, MI 48393
The cost is $19.59 plus 6% tax and $5.00 shipping.
Tomorrow’s program begins with a Skype video conference with a Polish genealogy conference being held concurrently in Poland. Can’t wait!
Copyright © 2008 by Stephen J. Danko
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