This morning I’m headed to the SCGS Jamboree. I hope to see you there. I will be texting when I can so if you want rto follow along, follow me at tricia530 on twitter.
I will also post all of the shenanigans and about the classes I will be taking and my daughters perspective as well. So stay tuned!!!!
See ya at Jamboree!!!!!
So far, I’m loving the new SCGS Jamboree’s app. I love that I can have a schedule, have a syllabus from a particular class emailed me me, and that I have a list of exhibitors at the ready!
If your going to SCGS Jamboree this year, you need this app!!! You can read about it and download it here.
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!
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:
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
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!
At the end of May, I posted a list of some goals that I had wanted to keep track of. I was originally just going to update that post now, but I have decided that I will instead make it a monthly series. I will try to post my monthly aspirations as close to the first of the month as possible. So, to read what I posted in my original “goals” post, you can go here. I have also decided to add a few catagories to keep my monthly aspirations more organized.
So, here is my update of last May’s goals.
July Aspirations:
So, this is what I aspire to complete this month. What are your plans?
Have a great day!!
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!
Day 3, the last day of Jamboree and I am a bit melencholy about leaving my new found friends at the end of the day.
This morning started at 8:30am with a very informative class on California Cousins by Cath Trindle. She discussed what records are available for those living in California and which ones have been lost or distroyed by naturals disasters such as the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906. My next class was Kory Meyerink who spoke on What Could Have Happened: Creating and Proving a Hypothesis to Solve a Tough Problem. Kory showed us the several steps needed to take in order to prove a hypothesis.
After my Proving a Hypothesis class, it was lunchtime. This time, most of us decided to get lunch from the Hotel’s food booth and sit at Blogger’s Island. We ate, talked and blogged, well tried to blog is more like it. It was fun chatting with everyone. I met some really great people. Here are a few:
This picture is of Amy Coffin and I. She is the writer/owner of We Tree Genealogy Blog. She introduced me to several of the genealbloggers. Such as:
This is Cheryl Palmer of Heritage Happens blog. When I first met Cheryl I had to do a double-take because she has an uncanny resemblance to someone I work with!
I also met Terri O’Connel of the Finding Our Ancestors blog. Terri was very kind and invited me to lunch on Friday.
After lunch, I had my last two classes left. The first of the two was Thomas MacEntee’s It Is Well With My Soul. This class was about finding your ancestors when disaster or misfortune hits. He had a long list of very good resources for us to use. I really enjoyed this class and learned a lot.
Me and Thomas MacEntee
My very last class was with John P. Schmal called Indigenous Mexico: An Introduction. In all it was an ok class, but I expected a little more. I was able to get a nugget of information here and there. After this class was over, I headed over to Blogger’s Island to say good bye to my new friends and I took one more picture.
Me and Elyse Doerflinger
Elyse is a remarkable young woman. She is the owner/author of Elyse’s Genealogy Blog, attends college, and speaks at genealogy conferences. She is a very personable young lady who brings everyone into the fun whether she knows them or not.
Needlesstosay, I had a blast at the 2011 SCGS Jamboree. I am definately doing it again next year. What would I change for next year? I think I will do the following:
I definately recommend this conference to any and all genealogists or family historian. It is a great learning experience and you get to meet others doing genealogy the same as you are.
Have a great day!
My breakfast. Yumm!!!
Kory Meyerink during the Genealogical Jepordy game. (Used with permission)
I had a few hours to kill before my next class so I went to the exhibit hall and chatted with a few vendors. I stopped by Family ChartMasters who makes gorgeous charts using your family history information. I loved the samples they had. They even had a very large one on the wall. It couldn’t all fit in my viewfinder of my camera!
Kim Hovorka of Family Chart Masters (Used with permission.)
I also stopped by the Geni.com booth and chatted with their Community Outreach Rep, Grant Brunner. They were all very nice and they sponsored the Ice Cream Social on Friday night which was lots of fun. Thank you so much to everyone at Geni.com!!!
Grant and the gang at the Geni.com booth. (Used with permission.)
There were so many vendors that I couldn’t get to them all as I needed to head to my class.
My first class of the day which was at 11:30am, was Thomas MacEntee’s Blogger Summit 2. Not only was I an attendee of this class but I also volunteered to be room monitor. All I did was make sure that the evaluation forms were handed out at the beginning of the class and collected them at the end. I was also responsible for making sure everyone had a seat and that no one was standing (fire dept. code), although this class didn’t fill to capasity, there were still a lot of people in the class.
After Thomas’ class, it was lunch time. I went with a group of geneabloggers to Denny’s and had an expensive BLT. I’m sure the higher cost of food at Denny’s was because of the proximity to the airport. I forgot that I had to monitor another class after lunch so I had to hurry back to the conference after paying for my meal. It was a class given by Geoff Rassmussen on the Overview of Legacy Family Tree which is the program I use for my family history research. I did learn a few new things in this class. My next and last class of the day was originally going to be The Many Facets of the National Archives Website given by Kerry Bartels, however, at the last minute I changed my mind and attended the SoCal Chapter of the Association of Professional Genealogist. I also learned something in this class as well. I learned that I am at a point in my life where I am ready to be a professional genealogist. Although I want to become certified someday, I am not ready to start doing this as a business. I will someday, just not now.
By the time my classes were done, I was tired and I missed my husband very much. So after my last class, I drove home. Next year, I will be staying at the hotel as I heard that I missed out on a great pajama party!
First I need to apologize for not posting this yesterday. After attending the classes I wanted, I went to dinner with my husband, then went to the Geneabloggers Ice Cream Social which was sponsored by Geni and by the time I got home I was dead tired and went to bed. My cell phone battery also died early in the day so I wasn’t able to take any pictures nor tweet anything from the conference. Today, however, I came prepared! I have my phone charger with me so that I could plug it into my computer to charge and I have included down time in today’s schedule so that I will have time to blog.
My first class on Friday was 12-Step checklist to Using Your Genealogy Computer Program by Geoffrey d. Rasmussen. I am so very glad that I took this class. It was on genealogy programs in general but because it was sponsored by Legacy, Inc, they used Legacy 7.0 (my genealogy program) for the examples in the presentation. Because of this, I was able to learn more about my program and that was what I was hoping would happen. I learned that there is a way to customize not only the toolbar but also the fields within the program to what I need. I also learned of a website called AniMap which is helpful for verifying the county within any US State for any given year. I really took a lot from this class and I enjoyed it very much.
My second class was Using AmericanAncestors.org with David Allen Lambert, NEHGS Online Genealogist. First Mr. Lambert is a very good speaker and keep the room engaged in his presentation. He spoke about how to use the NEHGS’ website, AmericanAncestors.org to get better results. Because of Steve’s New England ancestry, this class was very helpful to my research. I learned the databases that is available on AmericanAncestors.org and I also learned that if you email Mr. Lambert, he does email back.
My third and last class for the day was Central Mexico with John P. Schmal. To be honest, I didn’t expect much from this class. There were hardly any classes on Mexico at this conference but I took the ones they did have. I have been told be several people that mexico records are few and far in between because they are not up to date with the technology of today and are not digitized. I let others discourage me in my mexican research. Mr. Schmal however, gave me hope. He said that yes, they are not as technically advances as others are and that their records are not available online, but they are still available. He gave me tips on how to better search for the records and where to look. I now have renewed faith for my mexican research, now….just to get the patience!
In all, the first day of the 2011 Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree conference has been a hit! I had been able to get a seat in all of my classes and only one of them filled up to capacity. This first day was a great day!
