What lectures are you looking forward to attending at #NGS2013?

As time flies by and the NGS Family History Conference gets closer and closer, what lectures are you looking foreward to attending?

This is my first time at NGS Family History Conference and I am very excited for all of the lectures I plan on attending.  However, there are a few speakers that I am looking forward to.

Elizabeth Shown Mills – I know, she is a well-renowned speaker on genealogical things.  I have become a stalker, er, fan of her work and I am excited to hear a few of her lectures.

Lisa Louise Cooke -  I have been looking to learn how to use Evernote with my genealogy research and when I saw that Ms. Cooke will be conducting a lecture on it, I knew that I wanted to attend it!

Thomas W. Jones -  Even before they announced his new upcoming book to be published soon, I had a few of his lectures highlighted.  I had heard from other genealogist that he was an excelent speaker.  I am looking forward to his methodology lectures.

These are just a few of the speakers that I am looking forward to attending their lectures next week.  Who are you looking foward to hear speak next week at NGS Family History Conference?  If your not going, who would you like to see if you were able to go?  Let me know!

Tricia

My Top 10 Tips for attending a Genealogy Conference.

In two weeks from today, I will be attending the opening session of the NGS Family History Conference in Las Vegas, NV.  I am really excited because this is my very first national genealogy conference.   In the past, the national conferences were not held near me and were too far for me to attend.  I have been planning for this conference since the day they announced that it was going to be held in Las Vegas, NV.  The last time this conference was on the west coast was in California in 2004.

Now that I am 95% done with my move to our new house, I can concentrate on the trip to Vegas.  I have developed some tips for the new attendees (like me) that I thought would be helpful.  These are based on my experience in attending the local conferences in the past.

 1.            Dress comfortably and wear good walking shoes.  I just purchased a pair of flip flops that are so comfortable!  I feel like I am walking on clouds!  There is a lot of walking involved at a genealogy conference so make sure you’re as comfortable as you can be.

 2.            Bring a sweater.  It would be better to dress in layers but for me, I prefer to bring a light sweater.  The lecture rooms have a tendency to be either too warm or too cold.  For me personally, I am good if it’s too warm, but if it’s too cold, I will use my sweater.

 3.            Bring some water.  Just as an opposite of tip #2, it can also get very warm in a lecture room too. One way to combat the warmness of a room is to carry a bottle of water just in case. 

 4.            Bring items to take notes with.  Now, I ordered a printed syllabus only because my process of learning means that I take a lot of notes on the syllabus page itself.  All those who didn’t register as an early bird will just have the syllabus on a flash drive.  So if you didn’t get to order the printed syllabus, you should bring with you a form of taking notes (ipad, laptop, or pad of paper with pen.)

 5.            Arrive early for your session.  Sometimes, especially if the speaker is a popular one, the rooms will fill to capacity.  When that happens, the room will be closed to anyone who does not have a seat.  This is due to fire regulations on the capacity of the room and NGS can’t make any exceptions.  If they do, they could get in trouble with the Fire Department and/or be fined.  I am a fan of Elizabeth Shown Mills and I know that she is a popular speaker.  I plan to get to her lectures early.  I know that her lectures will fill up fast and I want to make sure to have a seat.

 6.            If you have calling cards or business cards as a genealogist, bring them.  It will help you to network with others even if you aren’t a professional genealogist.  You never know you could meet a distant cousin and want to stay in contact.  Vista print offers an inexpensive way to order personal calling cards and business cards and your order can be expedited (for a fee of course!)

7.            Network!!!  Along those same lines, collect business and personal cards from others.  You never know when you might need some help in a distant area and they could get a copy of a document for you.

 8.            Don’t be a wallflower!  If you have questions, ask the person next to you.  It’s a great way to make new friends and you could have found someone to talk to about the same genealogy interests as you do.  This comes in handy when your family is tired of hearing you talk about genealogy.

 9.            Remember to be courteous to the speaker.  Don’t take pictures, unless you ask first.  Don’t get up to leave the room in the middle of their lecture, if you can help it.  The speakers put a lot of time and effort into their lecture and more often than not, they don’t get paid enough for it. 

 10.          Have Fun!!!  Yes.  This conference is a learning experience, but there are new people to meet, vendors to see and new speakers to listen to.  Relax and enjoy it all!

 I will be there attending my list of classes, but if you see a Hispanic lady walking around with a pink purse and in flip flops, tap my shoulder and say Hi.  Or better yet, email me before the conference and we can meet for lunch.

NGS Family History Conference – Early Bird Registration to Close Soon!

Hurry and register for the 2013 NGS Family History Conference to be held in Las Vegas, Nevada on May 08-11, 2013.  You have ten more days left to register with the early bird registration fee.

The early bird registration is $195 but will only be good until March 19, 2013.  After March 20th, it goes up to $230.  This registration includes all four days of the conference and the Syllabus on a flash drive.  You can order the print version of the Syllabus for $25 more.  To register or to find out more about the 2013 NGS Family History Conference, click here.

I’m registered, are you?  Comment and let me know if your going or not.  Maybe we can meet up?

Have a fantabulous day!

Tricia

Vegas! Here I come!!!

Used with permission.

Is anyone else attending the NGS Annual Conference that is scheduled to be held on May 8 – 11, 2013 in Las Vegas, NV?  Well I am and I am extremely excited about this trip!

This morning, I received some great, wonderfully, AWESOME news!  I was selected as an official blogger for this year’s NGS Annual Conference.  This is my first time as an official blogger for a conference.  I was so excited to receive the news that I immediately text my husband and daughter!  (Well I really wanted to jump up and down and scream but I think the higher-ups would have frowned upon that type of behavior in my office!  )  This means that I will be bringing to you, my readers, updates and any interesting news involving the conference as I get a hold of them.  I will also be tweeting, blogging, and posting on my facebook, my google+ page, and on my LinkedIn account; all of the fun stuff and interesting tidbits that I will find out during the conference. 

After the rough last two months including the death in our family, my husband really needed a vacation away from home.  We discussed attending NGS’ Annual Conference and decided to add on a few extra days before the conference so that we can have some alone time together.  I know that my husband really needs this time away and that he is really looking forward to his golf time while I am in my classes at the conference.

So stay tuned and see what new things come next for the 2013 NGS Annual Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada!

See you in Vegas!

Tricia

Are you going?

It is exactly three weeks from the start of SCGS 2012 Jamboree today.  I am geared up and very excited to attend this year.  Not only will I be seeing my genealogy friends again, but my daughter will be attending with me this year.  It is her first time attending any genealogy conference and she is also excited for going.  I even talked her into being a guest blogger with her opinions of the conference from a 14 year-olds perspective.  We will see how she likes it.

If your on the fence about attending Jamboree this year, I highly recommend it as a great learning experience.  There are wonderful, well known, speakers in the genealogy field presenting classes such as Lisa Alzo, Elyse Doerflinger, Jean Wilcox Hibben, and Thomas MacEntee just to name a few.  There will also be an exhibitor’s hall with such noted companies as Legacy Family Tree, Inc., Ancestry.com and FamilySearch, again to just name a few.  If that doesn’t get you into the door to the conference, you will be meeting fellow genealogy researchers, family historians, genealogists and yes, even me.  

CLICK HERE FOR MORE JAMBOREE INFORMATION!!

Now that you’ve decided to go, let me know so that we can meet.  I love making new friends and meeting new people!

Tricia

Open! Open! Open!

I made it into Pro Gen 15!!  Starting tomorrow, I will embark on a focused genealogy journey to learn how to be a more professional genealogist!  I can’t wait to start.  It’s like that commercial where I am standing at the glass door looking in, saying “Open!” “Open!” “Open!”

I will post more about my experiences and assigment if and when I can.  Woo Hoo!!!  I can’t believe I made it!  Congratualtions to everyone in ProGen 15!

My 2011 accomplishments and goals for 2012 – Part 2

The other day I posted about my accomplishments made in 2011.  You can read it here.  Before we get to my goals lets take a look at a few stats on my blog.  Wordpress has gathered the statistics on my blog emailed them to me yesterday.  Since  the start of my blog in January 2011, it has been viewed 2,200 times.  Most of the visitors came from the U.S while others came from the Philippines and Australia.  The most popular five posts were:

• 1 Tuesday’s Tip – Converting Cassette recordings to Digital Files March 2011
• 2 Thank you National Genealogical Society for the best birthday present!!! May 2011
• 3 You heard it here first folks!!! February 2011
• 4 My Trip to the Los Angeles Superior Court.  March 2011
• 5 My Monthly Aspirations – A new ongoing series. July 2011

It was exciting to get these stats as I was unsure if there were many people reading it.  I’m glad to find that I didn’t need to worry about that.

Now on to my goals for 2012!!

1.  Education – Well I have been accepted into the next ProGen Group and it should start sometime this month. I’ve already purchased the book we are working out of, Professional Genealogy by Elizabeth Shown Mills and have read it completely.  I am anxious in getting this started and completing it.

2.  Contest – Well I am working on and will complete my submission for the NGS Family History Writing Contest.  You can read about it here.  I am still working on the draft and verifying family relationships.  I am hoping that I win this contest.

3.  Writing –  Like most bloggers, I want to post more to my blog and be more consistent.  Well I have two outlets that will help me to keep this goal.  First, I am participating in Geneabloggers 52 Weeks of Abundance Genealogy.  What is 52 Weeks of Abundance Genealogy?  You can read about it here.  The second outlet is from BlogHer.com.  They have a monthly NaBloPoMo or National Blogging Post Month.  I will be participating in the posts for January.

4. Research – I want to work on and extent the Luna and Stanard family line.  I also need to interview my dad’s older sisters, specially my Aunt Jessie who this April, will be 100 years old.

5.  Organize –  I have been reading other genealogist’s goals for 2012 and I have notice that there are several that have that same goal and I do when it comes to organization.  I want need to organize my photos in a better fashion so that it could be easily found and to label them to be easily identifiable.  I also need to go through my Legacy Family Tree database and verify or correct the citations.

6.  Technical – I really, really, REALLY would like to get by the end of this year a digital recorder for those interviews I need to conduct and a FlipPal!!  I have heard nothing but great things regarding FlipPal and am jonesing for one really badly!!!

7.  Earlier this year, I was interviewing my uncle during a telephone call and he told me that he found my grandmother’s grave site in Santa Clara, CA.  However, he told me that she was buried in a pauper’s grave and that there is no tombstone.  So I want to go and take a look myself and talk to the employees at the cemetery to see what information they can give me.  I am thinking of planning this trip for spring or early summer.

8.  In anticipation of the 1940 Census being released in April 2012, I have volunteered to help with indexing.  My goal is to complete indexing a minimum of 100 pages (1940 census and other documents) by the end of 2012.  I volunteered with FamilySearch.org.  I highly recommend that if you can, volunteer to help with indexing with FamilySearch.org.  You can find more information here.

9.  I would love to breakthrough my brickwall.  My brickwall is my grandmother, Vicenta Luna.  I have been told of her birth date and found the marriage and death information, but I have no collaboration information on her parents.  I have been told that her father was Esteban Robles and her mother has the first name of Pabla, but that is all I have.  I know of no other relatives other than those from my grandfather’s line.

10.  Last but not least, it is my goal to attend SCGS Jamboree in June 2012.  I hope to not only see the friends I made last year, but to definately meet new ones.

So that is my list of goals.  I can’t wait to read more from other genealogist!

Happy New Year y’all!!

Tricia

My 2011 accomplishments and goals for 2012 – Part 1

In following Thomas MacEntee’s Open Thread Thursday, in which he asks “What did I accomplish in 2011?” and “What are my goals for 2012?”, this is part one of a two part post answering his questions.

Education – When I first started my blog, less than a year ago, It was my goal to get more serious about my genealogy research.  I had been doing genealogy research off and on for several years before the start of my blog.  I had figured that my first step back into the genealogy world had to be with education.  I had not been serious about my research for so long that I felt I may have lost my touch on my research techniques or with keeping up with genealogical technology.  I not only attended the SCGS Jamboree in Burbank in June but I met a bunch of new friends as well!  To also supplement the Jamboree conference, I attended a list of webinars, some live and some after they were originally produced.  I feel now that I have not only caught up with the times, but have surpassed my genealogy education that I had originally started with.  Another education item that I had applied for was for the next ProGen study group.  I was accepted and put on a waiting list.  Woo Hoo! I should be joining a group shortly after the new year.

Research – With the new education that I had gained, I was able to put them to good use.  I had found not only my grandfather’s Mexico Baptism record, but also for two of his daughters, and his three brothers.  It was more recently where I believe I found the baptismal records for my great-grandfather’s siblings, but that relationship still needs to be proven.  These documents caused my family line to be extended another two generations into Mexico.  This is the farthest I have gotten on my dad’s line for the last ten years.  I have also research and expanded my husband’s family back a few more generations.

Writing – In twenty days from today, it will be the first anniversary of my blog.  I remember during high school that I always wanted to be a writer.  A mystery writer to be exact, but I have found that I prefer writing about my family history instead of fiction.  I have done more writing in the past year then I did when I took a creative writing class many, many years ago!

Contest – Ever since I had decided to get serious about my family genealogy, I had decided to enter the NGS Family History Writing contest.  However, I was waiting to do this for when the NGS conference was either 1) in a state that my research was concerned about or 2) was in a state that was close to me so that if I didn’t win, it wouldn’t cost too much for me to attend.  Well it was published that the 2013 NGS conference would be in Las Vegas, NV.  I have since drafted part of my submission and have put my research on my research family into high gear.  I have until December 31, 2012 to submit my entree for this contest.  Wish me luck!!

These are the main accomplishments that pop out in my head.  When putting it down in black and white, it is amazing to me that I actually did all of this!  :-)  I can’t wait to see what I accomplish next year!

NEXT….my goals for 2012!

My Genealogy Obsession’s Editorial Calendar – 31 Weeks to a Better Genealogy Blog

     I know that I’m late with this posting, but Tonia Kendrick at Tonia’s Roots has started a series called 31 Weeks to a Better Genealogy Blog.  I have participated in one here and there and decided to participate in this posting.  On September 18th Tonia post dealt with developing an Editorial Calendar.  She stated that by developing an editorial calendar, it would help by better organizing my time and that I would not wonder what I am going to write about.  I also agree with Tonia in that the editorial calendar could give consistency to my blog.

     Although Tonia uses a spreadsheet to keep track of her editorial calendar, I am more of a visual-type of girl.  I just found online a blank calendar page.  I printed it out and wrote my blog information on it along with the publishing schedule of posts that I would like to write about including my weekly and monthly series as well.

So here is my editorial calendar:

     As you can see, I have postings that will be on a certain days every week, while the others posts are monthly postings.  I did make a few changes from what I have been doing.  For example, I will still be doing my Monthly Asiprations near the first of the month, but I decided to post my updates weekly instead of at the end of the month.  This is because I felt that my monthly udates were getting long.  In fact, the last one had to be cut into two different posts.  So I felt that by making my updates at the end of the week (Saturdays), it wouldn’t be so long of a post.

     Here is a desciption of what I will be writing about:

• Monthly Aspirations (1st Sunday of the Month) – My genealogy goals for the upcoming month.
• Military Monday (2nd Monday of the Month) – Stories of my military ancestors and any military story related to genealogy.
• Thankful Tuesday (Every Tuesday) – All things I am thankful for including genealogy items.
• Wordless Wednesday (3rd Wednesday of the Month) – Photo posting only of my ancestors with a short description of who is in the picture.
• Thursday’s Teachings (2nd Thursday of the Month) – All things genealogy edcation related.  This includes my genealogy education goals, what I have already completed, and highlighting one at a time, any genealogical education opportunity available.
• Friday’s Favorites (Last Friday of the Month) – My favorite genealogy things, i.e. books, websites, tools, software, ect.
• Saturday’s Updates – A weekly update of genealogy tasks or projects from the previous week.
• Motivational Monday (Last Monday of the Month) – Genealogy things that keep me motiviated that I hope will motivate you too.

     So, I will be starting this editorial calendar today but I will be skipping my monthly aspirations for this month.  I hope you like this calendar.  What do you think about an Editorial Calendar?  Comment and let me know.

2011 SCGS Jamboree – Recap

2011 SCGS Membership (required for Early Bird Registration of Jamboree)                              $30

2011 SCGS Jamboree Registration - early bird                                                                                       $90

Genealogy books purchase from the Exhibitor’s Hall                                                                        $97

Parking at Marriott Hotel (2 days)                                                                                                         $20

Overpriced BLT at Denny’s across the street from the Marriott Hotel                                         $11

Meeting great friends and learning from excellent speakers                                              PRICELESS!!!

         I will definately be attending again next year but this time, I will be staying in the hotel and possibly bring my daughter.  Is there an age limit for Jamboree?  I wonder.  I had a great time and can’t wait to see everyone again!