Steve's Genealogy Blog » Genealogy Conferences

Sunday at the Southern California Genealogy Jamboree 2010

Steve — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 07:21:25 +0000

The Southern California Genealogy Jamboree 2010 concluded with another series of fine presentations. I attended:

Susan Kitchens – “Tools to Capture Family Stories: The Interviewer’s Brain, Ears, and Mouth”
Gena Philibert Ortega – ” Citing Sources”
Louise St. Denis – “Are Your Ancestors Lost in Canada?”
John T. Humphrey – “Using Church Records Effectively”

While browsing the booths in the Exhibit Hall today, Bruce Buzbee of “Roots Magic” waved me down and told me that Gena Philibert Ortega’s son was collecting name badge ribbons and was missing the “Steve’s Genealogy Blog” ribbon. He brought me over to the booth where Gena’s son was helping his mom and I presented Gena’s son with one of my ribbons. I suspect I may have started something here! We may see more bloggers with their own blog ribbons at Jamboree next year!

Many thanks to the organizers, volunteers, and speakers at the Southern California Genealogy Jamboree who, once again, presented a flawless conference!

Saturday at the Southern California Genealogy Jamboree 2010

Steve — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 06:38:32 +0000

Saturday was a busy day at the Southern California Genealogy Jamboree 2010.

I attended seven sessions:

Jean Wilcox Hibben – “Shaking the Myth: Proving / Disproving Family Legends”
Thomas MacEntee, Stephen J. Danko, Elyse Doerflinger, Miriam Midkiff, and Randy Seaver – “Blogger Summit Part 1: From Novice to Reader to Blogger in 60 Minutes”
Thomas MacEntee, Craig Manson, Schelly Talalay Dardashti, Lisa Louise Cooke, and Kathryn Doyle – “Blogger Summit Part 2 – Now that You’re a Blogger”
Cath Trindle – “How Much Proof is Enough?”
Michelle Pfister – “Getting the Most from Family Tree Maker”
Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak – “Neglected History”
Katherine Hope Borges et al. – “International Society of Genetic Genealogy”

Sunday is the final day of Jamboree, but another busy day nonetheless. The final four sessions are tomorrow.

Friday at the Southern California Genealogy Jamboree 2010

Steve — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 07:28:57 +0000

The 2010 Southern California Genealogy Jamboree has begun!

Geneabloggers were in full force at the Marriott Burbank Airport along with many other genealogists. I arrived shortly after noon and was immediately impressed by the large number of attendees.

I stopped to pick up my registration materials, then hurried over to the geneablogger lounge in the main hotel where I picked up my geneablogger gift bag. Denise Levenick, Thomas MacEntee, and Joan Miller put together a great selection of goodies for geneabloggers this year. I’m sipping from my bottle of “Dreadful Springs” as I write this post.

I managed to attend three lectures:

Chris Child _ “Researching in Connecticut -Online and Offline”
David Rencher – “Methodology for Irish Immigration and Emigration”
Cafi Cohen – “Cousin-Connection Genealogy”

I almost missed the third lecture because I found myself still in deep discussion with Gary Boyd Roberts at the NEHGS booth when the third lecture of the day had begun!

It’s already late here in Burbank and tomorrow is a very busy day. I’ll be part of the “Blogger Summit Part 1″ from 10-11 AM on Saturday!

A Fine Day in Santa Barbara

Steve — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 03:07:47 +0000

I just returned from a trip to Santa Barbara, California where I presented two lectures to the Santa Barbara County Genealogical Society: “Genealogy and the Changing Map of Eastern Europe” and “A New Look at Immigrant Passenger Manifests”.

After the program, I was treated to a quick tour of Santa Barbara and, in particular, a personal tour of the library of the Santa Barbara County Genealogical Society, the Sahyun Library, located at 316 Castillo Street, Santa Barbara.

The Sahyun Library

The library houses an impressive collection of books and microforms, a computer lab, and rooms for meetings and presentations. The fireside room in particular is a warm and inviting space for personal research and meetings.

Fireside Room

The facility is the gift of the family of Dr. Melville Sahyun, an immigrant from Lebanon whose distinguished career in biochemistry and pharmaceutics led to the development of a number of commercial products, the best known of which is Visine.

Fifty years ago, Dr. Sahyun planted a seed of a Cherry Tree of the Rio Grande (of Brazil) which grew into a beautiful tree on the property. The tree has great sentimental value to the Sahyun family and, so, when the Santa Barbara Genealogical Society decided to expand the library by building an addition, the Society relocated the tree to another location on the property in order to allow room for the expansion and save the tree.

Cherry Tree of the Rio Grande

The library includes over 14,000 items, the books being the most obvious to visitors to the library.

Stacks at the Sahyun Library

In all, a fine day in Santa Barbara.

Santa Barbara County Genealogical Society October Program

Steve — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 06:11:52 +0000

I’m pleased to announce that I will be presenting two lectures at the Santa Barbara County Genealogical Society this coming Saturday, October 17, 2009. The event will be held at the First Presbyterian Church, Constance and State, Santa Barbara, California.

The program begins at 9:30 AM with a lecture on “Genealogy and the Changing Map of Eastern Europe”. This presentation will help attendees understand how the changes in borders, nationalities, and languages affect genealogical research in Central and Eastern Europe.

Finding the place of origin of an immigrant is crucial to finding historic records for that immigrant’s ancestors. Complicating matters are the changing borders in Europe during the past two centuries as the territorial acquisitions obliterated some nations from the map. Border changes in Europe affected not only the map of Europe, but also the records on which genealogists depend to document their ancestors’ lives.

The second lecture begins at 11:00 AM and is entitled “A New Look at Immigrant Passenger Manifests”. This presentation will survey the available US passenger manifests focusing on annotations and markings on the manifests that lead to additional information.

Immigrant passenger manifests provide family historians with important information about the origin, immigration, and destination of their immigrant ancestors. Passenger manifests after 1892 frequently include marks and annotations that can provide additional information about the experiences and activities of the immigrant. Some of these notations were made at the time of immigration; others were made years or decades later. Some describe corrections to the manifest, but other annotations can lead to other records that document the lives of the immigrant.

I’m looking forward to this trip. I haven’t been to beautiful Santa Barbara in many years, and the visit is sure to bring back pleasant memories of my previous two visits there.

If you are in the Santa Barbara area, please plan to attend!

The Wici Dancers

Steve — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 05:30:12 +0000

At last weekend’s conference of the Polish Genealogical Society of America, the Wici Dancers entertained attendees at the Saturday luncheon.

Wici Dancers 1

SOURCE: Wici Dancers 1 (Schaumburg, Cook County, Illinois). Photographed by Stephen J. Danko on 19 September 2009.

Wici Dancers 2

SOURCE: Wici Dancers 2 (Schaumburg, Cook County, Illinois). Photographed by Stephen J. Danko on 19 September 2009.

Wici Dancers 3

SOURCE: Wici Dancers 3 (Schaumburg, Cook County, Illinois). Photographed by Stephen J. Danko on 19 September 2009.

Wici Dancers 4

SOURCE: Wici Dancers 4 (Schaumburg, Cook County, Illinois). Photographed by Stephen J. Danko on 19 September 2009.

The 2009 Conference of the Polish Genealogical Society of America – Day 2

Steve — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 06:30:59 +0000

The 2009 Conference of the Polish Genealogical Society of America (PGSA) ended on Saturday. I attended four lectures out of the thirteen offered:

Kahlile Mehr – “Online Databases of the Polish State Archives”
Loretto Dennis Szucs and Julianna Szucs Smith – “A Dozen Ways to Jumpstart a Family History Project”
Loretto Dennis Szucs – “They Became Americans – Finding Naturalizations and Ethnic Origins”
Loretto Dennis Szucs – “Hidden Sources for finding Family Stories”

I attended all three lectures that Loretto (Lou) Szuczs presented in the afternoon. It was sort of my “afternoon with Lou Szucs”.

Loretto (Lou) Dennis Szucs

SOURCE: Loretto (Lou) Dennis Szucs (Schaumburg, Cook County, Illinois. Photographed by Stephen J. Danko on 19 September 2009.

I skipped one lecture I had planned to attend by Michael Mikoś on “The Partitions of Poland and What They Meant to Our Ancestors” because I was meeting with a Polish translator, getting help with an 18th century mortgage document from Poland and, by the time I made it over to the lecture hall, all seats were taken.

In addition to the lectures, the conference attendees were treated to a lunchtime banquet where the PGSA presented several awards and the attendees watched a performance of traditional Polish dances by the Wici Dancers.

The 2009 Conference of the Polish Genealogical Society of America – Day 1

Steve — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 03:31:03 +0000

Today was the first day of the 2009 Conference of the Polish Genealogical Society of America. The lectures presented today were:

Stan Schmidt – Case Study ”Finding Family the Easy Way – Let Them Find You”
Karen Stanuch, Joan Fenili, and Janet Halfar – Case Study ”Anna and Her Sisters”
Ken Nowakowski – Case Study ”The Four Sisters”
Jadwiga Cyparska, PhD – “You Are Able to Understand Polish, Too!”
Dr. Michael Mikos – “Visiting Poland: The Glory of the Past and the Promise of the Future”
Cynthia Piech – “Folk Costumes of Various Regions of Poland: Influences, Styles, Fabric, and Details”

I was able to speak with Michael Mikos and Cynthis Piech briefly at the end of the day’s events and get a photo of each of them.

Michael Mikoś

SOURCE: Michael Mikoś (Schaumburg, Cook County, Illinois). Photographed by Stephen J. Danko on 18 Sep 2009.

Cynthia Piech

SOURCE: Cynthia Piech (Schaumburg, Cook County, Illinois). Photographed by Stephen J. Danko on 18 Sep 2009.

Today’s lectures were easy to listen to: entertaining, interesting, and informative. Tomorrow’s lectures delve into some pretty heavy stuff: archives, history, gazetteers, sources, cemeteries, and more.

PGSCA Summer Seminar

Steve — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 06:56:40 +0000

The Summer Seminar of the Polish Genealogical Society of California (PGSCA) will be held this coming Saturday, August 22, 2009 at the Weingart Senior Center in Lakewood, California.

I will be presenting four lectures during the daylong seminar:

Genealogy and the Changing Map of Eastern Europe
A New Look at Immigrant Passenger Manifests
Using DNA and Indirect Evidence to Establish Family Relationships
Genealogy Blogs: New Ways to Disseminate Genealogy

The seminar begins at 9 AM and ends at 5 PM. A morning snack and a Polish luncheon catered by Teresa Turek will be provided.

I’m looking forward to seeing some old friends and meeting some new ones!

More information is available at the PGSCA website.

More Photos from Jamboree 2009

Steve — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 06:30:37 +0000

A few more photos from Jamboree 2009:

Dianne, Steve, and Cheryl

SOURCE: Dianne, Steve, and Cheryl (Burbank, Los Angeles County, California). Photographed for Stephen J. Danko on 26 June 2009.

Bloggers Relaxing

SOURCE: Bloggers Relaxing (Burbank, Los Angeles County, California). Photographed by Stephen J. Danko on 26 June 2009.

Elizabeth and Amy

SOURCE: Elizabeth and Amy (Burbank, Los Angeles County, California). Photographed by Stephen J. Danko on 27 June 2009.

Thomas, Elizabeth, and Kathryn

SOURCE: Thomas, Elizabeth, and Kathryn (Burbank, Los Angeles County, California). Photographed by Stephen J. Danko on 27 June 2009.