DearREADERS,
Thanks to the centralized calendar at GeneaWebinars.com, genealogists interested in learning more about our craft may register for these online classes and seminars coming up this week. Be sure to verify the time in your neck of the woods. If you need a time zone converter see: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html
This centralized calendar provides information about how to attend genealogy-related online meetings, classes, hangouts, seminars and webinars, where there is a visual slide share and/or website or software demo for attendees to view.
Hosts may use a variety of platforms including Adobe Connect, AnyMeeting, Captera, Google Hangouts on Air, GoToMeeting, GoToWebinar, Live Meeting, Skype, Second Life, Web-Ex, and Wiggio, to name a few.
There are currently over 40 hosts with posting access to this calendar and blog, and over 200 hours of scheduled instruction for genealogists wishing to hone their research skills during the coming year.
AMAZING!
Happy family tree climbing!
Myrt :)
DearMYRTLE,
Your friend in genealogy.
Bruce Feiler, Paula Williams Madison and Stephen Rockwood
SALT LAKE CITY, October 27, 2015—RootsTech, the largest family history
conference in the world, announced the first three keynote
speakers in its all-star lineup for RootsTech 2016. The first general
session (Thursday, February 4, 2016) will feature three inspiring
speakers, which include New York Times bestselling author Bruce Feiler,
award-winning journalist Paula Williams Madison, and the president and
CEO of FamilySearch International, Stephen Rockwood.
Bruce Feiler
is a bestselling author and columnist for The New York Times, where he
writes the “This Life” column about today’s families. He is also the
writer and presenter of the PBS Series Walking the Bible and Sacred Journeys with Bruce Feiler.
His latest book, The Secrets of Happy Families, reviews best practices for modern-day parents from some of
the country’s most creative minds, including top designers in Silicon
Valley, elite peace negotiators, and the Green Berets.
“RootsTech is the premier event for people who care about family
history,” Feiler said. “I've become a passionate believer in the
importance of telling your family history as a foundational tool for
having a happy family. I can't think of a better audience to share my
own story with.”
After a successful career in
news journalism, Madison retired in 2011 and embarked on a search for
her grandfather Samuel Lowe, who returned to his native China after
living in Jamaica. Madison produced a documentary film on the topic, Finding Samuel Lowe: From Harlem to China. In April of this year,
HarperCollins published a memoir of the journey Finding Samuel Lowe: China, Jamaica, Harlem.
Attendees can expect to hear about Madison’s compelling journey, including the resources that helped her. “I used FamilySearch.org
to research and try to locate my family in China. This system will help
people like me find their families,” said Madison. “Family to me means
bloodline—past, present, and future. You have to honor the past as you
live in the present so that you can guarantee a future for your family.”
Stephen Rockwood is the new president and CEO of FamilySearch
International and managing director for the Family History Department of
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Prior to joining
FamilySearch, Rockwood was a successful entrepreneur, creating unique
service offerings for worldwide customers and building several
businesses from the ground up.
“We look forward to another
great RootsTech conference as we invite attendees to discover their
families in a world-class setting. We are thrilled to welcome Bruce
Feiler and Paula Williams Madison,” Rockwood said. “Their personal
experiences will be highly inspiring for many as we kick off this
exciting conference.
Visit RootsTech.org
to reserve your seat now to hear Bruce Feiler, Paula Williams Madison,
and Stephen Rockwood at the Thursday morning general session on February
4, 2016. Passes start at just $29.
RootsTech 2016 will be held on February 3–6 in Salt Lake City, Utah.
About RootsTech
RootsTech, hosted by FamilySearch International, is a global conference
celebrating families across generations, where people of all ages are
inspired to discover and share their memories and connections. This
annual event has become the largest of its kind in the world, attracting
tens of thousands of participants worldwide.
I've also enjoyed looking at MaryFoxworthy'sBig Grandma's House, including two striking photos of her beautiful grandmother. This was posted in her Photographs, Memories and Notes on a Family History Blog.
June Stearns Butka created a Google Docs slide show titled Tina May Hutchins 8 May 1874-1949. Read this to find out why Tina felt "Life is too short to hold grudges."
Janice Sellers wrote on the 54th anniversary of her parent's Miami, Florida wedding specifically for "family members who don't normally read my blog in
hopes that they'll be able to identify the people in the photos I don't
recognize." See Wedding Wednesday posted in her Ancestral Discoveries Blog.
One of my Photoshop tutors, Teri Chaffin, shared "My Dad" from her Yesterday to Tomorrow Blog. I didn't know your Daddy, Teri, but I also thank him for his service. Thank-you for sharing Theodor Jefferson White, Jr.'s memory with us as well as handsome grandson Carter. Have I missed anyone's entry? Do hurry and get those entries published.
Hangouts: Pay what you want. So it's simple. If you value the work Ol' Myrt,+Cousin Russandour beloved panelists do week in and week out on your behalf, please:
Check the GeneaWebinars Calendar
for exact dates of DearMYRTLE study groups and hangouts in
addition to over 200 hours of online genealogy classes, webinars, live streams and
tweetchats from other hosts and presenters over the next 12 months.
DearREADERS,
Pam described this week's WACKY Wednesdayhangout as "so informative and moving. Thank you,Thank you, thank you." Thank-you to Angela for a thoughtful and informative discussion. Ol' Myrt here learned much about African American, Native American and slave owners in the southern states and US territories in the decades surrounding the US Civil War. This history was not taught in the schools of my youth. We talked about slave owning Native Americans, the Removal of the Five Civilized Tribes, and the African American experience as they walked on the road to freedom.
As promised here is the list of links provided by Angela and a bit more of her biography.
Angela Walton-Raji is known nationally for her research
and work on Oklahoma Native American records, US Colored Troops, and teaching
beginners.Her book Black Indian Genealogy Research is the only book of its kind
focusing on the unique Freedmen Records found within the Dawes Records.She also includes several chapters and
documents in her book, focusing on the records that reflect Blended
Families---African and Native American families in many households.
A founding member of AfriGeneas.com, Ms. Walton-Raji is
also a genealogist specializing in information for beginners, via daily and
weekly online genealogy chats on AfriGeneas. As host of a weekly genealogy
podcast, a number of instructional videos and as an expert consultant on video
documentaries, Ms. Walton-Raji combines her skills as a genealogist with a warm
on camera personality that brings comfort to her viewers through and her
instructional videos on YouTube, while providing them with useful information.
A researcher with national reputation, Ms. Walton-Raji’s
talents have been recognized by the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC,
for over a decade.For over a decade,
she was a featured speaker at a number of Smithsonian events, and she is the only
genealogist in the nation, to present regular genealogy lectures at the
National Museum of the American Indian, in both Washington DC and New York
facilities.She was awarded the honor of
presenting a special series of genealogy lectures to coincide with the Smithsonian
Exhibition IndiVisible that has been
traveling throughout the nation. See: "An Ancestry of African-Native Americans:Using government documents,
author Angela Walton-Raji traced her ancestors to the slaves owned by
American Indians" Smithsonian Magazine , Feb 2010 http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/an-ancestry-of-african-native-americans-7986049
Beyond her public appearances, she is a published author,
host of 3 blogs a 12 year ongoing message board, 3 websites, and she hosts the
only weekly podcast devoted to African American genealogy.Her comfort with foreign languages and writing
skills, make her well known and well respected in the genealogy community.
In the Spring of 2010, her work was featured in a
in-depth interview with the Smithsonian magazine online.She
is an alumnus of the National Institute of Genealogical Research, Samford
Genealogy Institute and is a member of the faculty of the Midwest African
American Genealogy Institute. She was also a presenter at Roots Tech 2015.
She is well
traveled having traveled to Europe and African. Countries with which she is
familiar include:England, France,
Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Ghana, and Nigeria. She is speaks Spanish and has
a working knowledge of French.
Ms. Walton-Raji
currently lives in Maryland, She has spoken nationally since publishing her
journal and book, about American genealogy, and history. She has conducted
research for persons of black, white and American Indian backgrounds and has
assisted families with the documentation of their immigrant ancestors as well.
Hangouts: Pay what you want. So it's simple. If you value the work Ol' Myrt,+Cousin Russandour beloved panelists do week in and week out on your behalf, please:
Check the GeneaWebinars Calendar
for exact dates of DearMYRTLE study groups and hangouts in
addition to over 200 hours of online genealogy classes, webinars, live streams and
tweetchats from other hosts and presenters over the next 12 months.
NOTE from DearMYRTLE: The following was received from our friends at FindMyPast about a "census substitute" for England and Wales. For further information please contact Alex Cox acox@findmypast.com.
Explore your world on the eve of war
41 million people recorded in one day on the eve of WWII
The 1939 Register will be launched online on November 2nd by Findmypast.com
in association with The National Archives. Dubbed ‘The Wartime Domesday
Book’, it is the most comprehensive survey of the population of England
and Wales ever taken
On November 2nd 2015, the eagerly awaited 1939 Register will be launched online by Findmypast,
a world leader in family history. Anyone can now discover their family,
their home and their community on the eve of WWII. Until now, the most
recent information available was the 1911 census. Owing to the 100 year
rule, the 1921 census will not be released until 2022, while the 1931
census was destroyed in the war and the 1941 census was never taken. The
1939 Register therefore bridges an important 30-year gap in history.
In
September 1939, WWII had just broken out. 65,000 enumerators were
employed to visit every house in England and Wales to take stock of the
civil population. The information that they recorded was used to issue
Identity Cards, plan mass evacuations, establish rationing and
co-ordinate other war-time provisions. In the longer term, the 1939
Register would go on to play a central role in the establishment of
post-war services like the NHS.
Comprising
1.2 million pages in 7,000 volumes and documenting the lives of 41
million people, the 1939 Register opens a window to a world on the brink
of cataclysmic change. Each record includes the names of inhabitants at
each address, their date of birth, marital status and occupation. A
wealth of contextual information, including period photographs never
before seen online, infographics, region-specific newspaper articles and
historical and contemporary maps, are personally tailored to each
record, offering a rich and unique user experience unrivalled by any
other family history research tool to date.
Findmypast
has undertaken a monumental task in digitising the 1939 Register.
Stacked end-to-end, the hard copy volumes would have reached twice the
height of St Paul’s Cathedral. Work on conserving, scanning,
transcribing and digitising the Register has been ongoing for more than a
year. Despite the challenge of translating 65,000 unique sets of
handwriting, including updates that have been made by hand up until
1991, Findmypast
guarantees at least 98.5% accuracy of readable records. The result is a
direct route to the past that will allow users to glimpse their family,
their home and their communities in 1939, as they’ve never seen them
before.
Paul Nixon, military expert at Findmypastsays: “The
1939 Register is one of the most important documents of modern British
history. It allows us to see where our relatives were living, with whom
and what jobs they did at the start of World War II. To help people
understand the period better and to create a picture of our world in
1939, we have added a range of contextual information to bring the
records to life. Maps, photographs, newspapers, and infographics will
immerse the user in the period and give a flavour of what life was like
for our parents or grandparents.”
Audrey Collins, family history records specialist at The National Archives says: “The
release of the 1939 Register is one of the most important events in
family history in a long time. The significance of these documents
cannot be underplayed; they provide a snapshot of life on the eve of
war. The online publication of the 1939 Register offers us the chance to
understand where our families came from, who lived in our
neighbourhood, and how it has changed over the years.”
The 1939 Register is available online only at http://www.findmypast.com/.
The Register is free to search but there is a charge to view the
records with different pay per view packages starting at £6.95. Owing to
data protection, there will be some closed records at the time of
launch, either because the individual recorded is still living and less
than 100 years old or proof of death has not been verified. At time of
launch 28 million records will be searchable. The Register will be
updated weekly. Findmypast, working with The National Archives, will
have an ongoing process to identify records which can be opened on proof
of death provided either by matching against robust data sets or
supplied by users. Records will also be opened as people reach the age
of 100 years+1 day.
Findmypast
(previously DC Thomson Family History) is a British-owned world leader
in online family history. It has an unrivalled record of online
innovation in the field and 18 million registered users across its
family of online brands, which includes Lives of the First World War,
The British Newspaper Archive and Genes Reunited, amongst others.
Its lead brand, also called Findmypast,
is a searchable online archive of over four billion family history
records, ranging from parish records and censuses to migration records,
military collections, historical newspapers and lots more. For members
around the world, the site is a crucial resource for building family
trees and conducting detailed historical research.
In April 2003, Findmypast
was the first online genealogy site to provide access to the complete
birth, marriage, and death indexes for England & Wales, winning the
Queen’s Award for Innovation. Since that time, the company has digitised
records from across the globe, including the 1911 Census which they
digitised in association with The National Archives.
The National Archives
is one of the world’s most valuable resources for research. As the
official archive and publisher for the UK government, and England and
Wales they are the guardians of some of the UK's most iconic national
documents, dating back over 1,000 years. Their role is to collect and
secure the future of the government record, both digital and physical,
to preserve it for generations to come, and to make it as accessible and
available as possible. The National Archives
brings together the skills and specialisms needed to conserve some of
the oldest historic documents as well as leading digital archive
practices to manage and preserve government information past, present
and future.
DearREADERS,
Talking with my dear friend Chris today, we delved into why Ol' Myrt prefers genealogy discussions as opposed to giving lectures. Conversations bring the subject matter down about ten notches in the PDL department.
When Ol' Myrt gives a lecture, it's all about me imparting information. But our genealogy conversation should not be about how much Ol' Myrt knows, but should be about how we can make progress in our family history research.
When we discuss a research topic, its more likely:
Your questions will be answered by someone in the panel.
We are more likely to internalize the methodology.
We see the advantage of using a new record set.
There is the added benefit of learning from other attendees. For instance, today, during Mondays with Myrt, our man in Ireland, +Tony Proctor, demonstrated a peculiarity and a work-around when downloading files from the England and Wales Electoral Registers 1832-1932 at FindMyPast.com. +Hilary Gadsby also figured out a different web browser works better.
Here's a short, 5 minute video recorded with +Cousin Russ titled Why Be Wacky?
Hangouts: Pay what you want. So it's simple. If you value the work Ol' Myrt,+Cousin Russandour beloved panelists do week in and week out on your behalf, please:
Check the GeneaWebinars Calendar
for exact dates of DearMYRTLE study groups and hangouts in
addition to over 200 hours of online genealogy classes, webinars, live streams and
tweetchats from other hosts and presenters over the next 12 months.
DearREADERS,
WACKY Wednesday is devoted to spotlighting one topic for the hour. When it comes to US Color Troops and African-Native American genealogy research Angela Walton-Raji immediately comes to mind. Ol' Myrt here has known Angela since the old AOL Genealogy Forum days, when we were both toddlers, of course! Angela will be our guest for WACKY Wednesday the 28 Oct, 2015.
Angela Walton-Raji
Angela hosts the weekly African Roots Podcast with over 340 episodes in her archive. You've probably seen a few of her presentations over at Family Tree Webinars. She speaks publicly and is the author of three genealogy blogs and maintains three genealogy websites:
Sure, you can VIEW the hangout here, but why not VIEW and COMMENT over in DearMYRTLE's Genealogy Community on Google+ where you'll find all the links we mention during the hangout.
FEE
This DearMYRTLE Hangout on Air is presented at no cost. If you find the information useful, consider the Pay What You Want business model Ol' Myrt employs:
http://blog.dearmyrtle.com/2015/03/hangouts-pay-what-you-want.html
VIEW and post COMMENTS before, during and after the Hangout on Air here: http://bit.ly/MyrtsNext
We open the "green room" 15 minutes early if you'd like to test out your microphone and webcam. Consider JOINing the panel when we "scramble" to mix up the conversation a bit with new panelists
RECORDED VERSION
If you miss the live events, catch the archived version at your convenience: http://bit.ly/MyrtsPrevious
Happy family tree climbing!
Myrt :)
DearMYRTLE,
Your friend in genealogy.
Hangouts: Pay what you want. So it's simple. If you value the work Ol' Myrt,+Cousin Russandour beloved panelists do week in and week out on your behalf, please:
Check the GeneaWebinars Calendar
for exact dates of DearMYRTLE study groups and hangouts in
addition to over 200 hours of online genealogy classes, webinars, live streams and
tweetchats from other hosts and presenters over the next 12 months.
DearREADERS, 
