Here is a collection of my tweets from the BYU Conference on Family History and Genealogy:

Keynote by David Rencher, AG, CG, Chief Genealogical Officer, BYU grad, past Pres FGS, plus much more
In overflow room. Too bad half of the slides are cut off.
Hard to give up what we are used to. Card catalog to microfiche to computer.
Goal of FamilySearch is to remove barriers to family history in their own products.
FamilySearch Labs is a workshop. Good use and feedback might lead to a finished product.
Updated Research Guidance will move to FamilySearch Wiki
Silver microfilm for original capture is still available. The diazo & vesicular film stock only supplied by Kodak. Expensive.
Short. Microfilm is going away.
Miracle. See how long church has made DOS work. Needed for Scottish Church records.
Didn’t know some were still using Universal Data Entry program for extraction. Replaced with FamilySearch Indexing.
FamilyTree feature of FamilySearch. Replacement of TempleReady
Even mistakes in NFS for the CGO (Chief Genealogical Officer)
Elder Brough – Members spend too much time reorganizing information on those whose temple work is already done
My question is: If you don’t have a firm foundation, how can you go do quality research? I do see Elder Brough’s point.
RecordSearch Pilot. 2.5 million rolls of film in Granite Mtn Records Vault. Plus still capturing images in the field
RecordSearch (RS) is serving areas not viable by for-profit companies.
Need to solve issue of how to know what you have already seen in Family History. Want to be a gazillionaire?
Over 250M names indexed in FamilySearch Indexing. Projecting 250M names a year.
FamilySearch Book Scanning partnership w/ BYU Family History Archives. 41.1 thousand volumes published. Available on BYU site.
My thought: What about home scanning to help with FamilySearch Book Scanning? Maybe through GenSeek?
FamilyHistory Support doing a great job!
FamilySearch resources spent to get information into homes. From Genealogical Society of Utah in 1894 to FHL, then FHC, Internet
Still doing research in a microfilm mindset. Need to think differently.

Karen Clifford, AG, FUGA – “Becoming & Remaining Focused”
How do you know that your ancestor is (or not) the same as someone else with the same name?
13 ways to stay focused – 1 Focus on the Goal
Goal setting – knowledge, research skills, organization abilities. Research Planner.
What is complete identity? name, variations. Research Planner is done in advance. Includes goal, your name, locality.
Separate planner for each goal. Jot down record groups that might solve the problem.
2 – Focus on Documentation
Record sufficient detail. Documentation tames chaos. What to record? complete names, dates, locations, family, associates.
3 – Focus on Organization
Things worth recording – Exactly what entry stated, names of associates & neighbors
4 – Focus on Sorting
Sort by YEAR, EVENT: location (largest to smallest)
Let children/grandchildren help with filing. Have system be that easy. Gets them involved.
5 – Focus on Facts vs. Traditions
6 – Focus on Recording All Clues. Make image, but transcribe everything or you will miss the clue.
3 Elements to Recording Clues – citation, transcription, analysis
7 – Focus on transcribed records, Don’t just cite sources.
8 – Focus on the territory. Evolving jurisdictions & locality clues.
AniMap, Wikipedia, gazateers, FamilySearch Wiki
9 – Become acquianted with the Historic Past
10 – Focus on the success of others
11 – Use charts & forms
12 – Focus on a filing system
13 – Focus on a report to yourself. That’s if for that presentation.

Mary Slawson “Tips for Making a Family History Interview Better”
She worked as a Forensic Accountant and did 100s of interviews a year.
Oral history – systematic collection of living people’s testimony of their own experiences. Not folklore, gossip, hearsey, rumor.
Prep – questionanaire, equipment,10:03 AM Jul 30th from web
Get written agreement of interview rights before the interview.
Pre-interview meetings could intensify anxiety, send questionnaire instead.
Brings 3 digital recorders, all running during interview from different locations. If use cassette no longer than 30min each side
Learn equipment well enough that you can use it in the dark. Try it.
Checklist:financial agreement, interview agreement, questionnaire, research, interview quesitons, address, archival pens, etc.
Items the invoke memories: pictures, music, smells (scent bag – cotton ball w/ pine scent, etc.), a favorite recipe, objects.
Ask questions about present before past or future
Attire plays a supportive role – not too casual or too formal. Grooming & cleanliness should be impeccable
Setup interview at right angle, keep table clear to show maps and objects. Also good for video, so interviewer is not on tape
Do your background research before the interview. Create timeline of events and take to interview.
Mix up order of questions. Short questions. Ask follow-up questions. Its OK to ask: beliefs,feelings,customs,religion,politics…
Interview the whole person. Think FBI profile. Motivations, attitudes, relationships, character, background, skills.
Timeline includes: wars,tech,depression,natural disasters,news,current events,music,fashion,movie,sports,etc.
Become a great interviewer: draw interviewee out,ask question,refrain from talking,develop listening skills,remain neutral,…
… ask clarification, but don’t correct; look for the full story (not just list of details) Sit on edge of chair, complete engaged
End on time, schedule next interview, send thank you card.
All field notes should be completed before you leave interview location. Your observations about the interview.
Preservation. Make back-ups. Transcribe from back-up. Safely store originals. No interview complete until in some repository..
QA – Counter on recorders to mark sections; levelier mic is a must; uses software that converts speech to text(review & correct)
Contract includes location where archive copy will go: LDS Church, Holocaust Museum, etc.
Limit use of scent bag to 3-4 scents per interview.
That’s it. Great job Mary!

Time for lunch, Wilkinson center, BYU Bookstore

Get ready for 2 hours with Mary E.V. Hill – “Organizing Your Paper Files In a Computer Day and Age”
Handout: Pedigree chart with circles 1-5, 8-9,16-19 blue circle; 10-11,20-23 green; 6-7,12-13,24-27 red; 14-15,28-31 yellow
Have been teaching this since 1996; saw need through teaching class at BYU
Links: http://bit.ly/K5XvT , Look for articles beginning with Organize http://bit.ly/3Gb1GD
Organize so you can pick it up, put it down, pick it up, put it down…
Simple organization is key. Setup a genealogy corner. Still need paper files-originals (certs, pictures, letters, maps, logs, etc)
Setup box with you + 4 generations. Checklist: http://www.familyrootsorganizer.com/tips/check.htm

Box setup. 4 steps.
1)Gather docs, 2)Do pedigree chart w/ parents, gp, 3) Divide docs by 4 surnames of your grandparents, 4) Fill in rest of ped chart
13 Steps to fill in the File System
FamilySearch has 12 steps at http://bit.ly/3bokMi Later added 13th step
Picture of what box will look like: http://bit.ly/iTSLa
1 – Go shopping. Gather supplies for your filing system: 2 boxes, hanging file folders in 4 colors, oliver hanging file folders…
… manilla folders 1/3 cut, permanent ultra fine black in pens, book highlighters, labels for file folders, Colored dots,
About $80 for supplies
2-Put copy of your 5 gen pedigree chart in the front of the box in an olive colored folder. Circle numbers as shown in handout
3- Print 5 gen chart from computer program
4- Separate the lines of your 4 grandparents by color.
5-Put 16 colored hanging folders (4 of each color)
6-Label colored hanging files (left-hand labels) with surnames Alphabetize surnames within each color.
7-Print 16 more pedigree charts, highlight separate surname lines and put 1 in each of the colored folders.
8-Setup a manila folder (tab on right) for each family. For multiple marriages, use a separate folder.
Don’t need left hand manila folders, so turn inside out.
Each manila has a colored label tab w/ LASTNAME, First + birth year of each spouse. More than 1 marriage, add marriage number.
PAF and Legacy prints color coded family group sheet. How about RootsMagic, Family Tree Maker & others?
Need to make a decision for where to put docs of people that are more than one color.
As needed add colored handing folders behind ones with surnames when you run out of space for manila folders.
9-File the manila family folders. Sort by color, then surname, then husband first name.
10-Put documents, family group sheet, to do list, research log, timeline, maps, research notes, etc. in each family folder.
Collateral lines? Make center tabbed manila folders for brothers & sisters.
11-Setup holding & locality files. Pure gold!
Holding files: One for each surname & put behind the surname folder. Put docs not sure where to put them. Others with same surname.
Locality Files: Folder for each location, sub location, record type.
12-Expand boxes as needed.
13-Keep the system updated and useful. Temporary inbox, then later in computer system and in person, location, surname holding file.
If you can find info in 3 min or less, system is working for you.
For digitized photos: has folder “images to sort”
Think about Heritage Collector for digitized file.
A box of descendants .
Wow. Lots to think about.

“Establishing Your Own Migration Trail” by Michael John Neill
What moved your ancestor? Economics, politics, family, acquaintances, friends, religion.
Migration chains – groups of people that moved over time.
Your ancestors are in an area for a reason. Not likely that a UFO just dropped your ancestor in Kentucky.
Look at who was involved in estate: witnesses, appraisers, buyers of property at auction, bondsmen
Land records: from whom was the first land purchase made? Might be a relative.
Bonds: marriage – bondsmen knew bride & group and put up money saying no issue legally to getting married.
last post should have been groom, not group
Other types of bonds – executor, estate, guardian. Bondsman different than a witness. Bondsman has legal responsibility
Tax lists – get names of neighbors. Easier to avoid census enumerator than the tax man.
Census records – look at others in same township; look in the cemetery;
Check pension records. Best pension record is when husband died and wife lost marriage record. Must contain affidavits.
Try searching database without names. Just include location of birth and death of ancestor and see if it might identify clusters
Database example using RootsWeb’s WorldConnect and Census on Ancestry
Church records – check sponsor’s of godparents of baptized children. Good chance they are related.
Done with the conference for today.

Outside Observations
Just noticed that search on #byugen only returns 99 of the 129 tweets from yesterday with that tag. Complete list at http://bit.ly/ratUX
Not sure how much I will be able to tweet today.
Less than an hour to go til my presentation. Room seats about 90 people. Wonder how many will attend?
My presentation went great! Wonderful group of people in the class.

“Hanging Out a Shingle?” by Crista Cowan
Lot’s of info on marketing from “Professional Genealogy” by Mills
Need to determine why you want to go into business and what you want to accomplish.
How do we get there? Budget 30-35% on marketing.
“You are a marketer who does genealogy NOT a genealogist who needs to market.” Not a bad thing if you are making a business.
She works full time at Ancestry and full time as a professional researcher.
Ready, Fire, Aim. Don’t spend too much time being a perfectionist.
Know your ideal client so that you can focus your marketing.
Ancestry identifies 4 typical client profiles.
APG – dues paying organization, agree to code of ethics; apgen.org, member directory, forum, magazine, APG-L, TGF-L, conf,networking
Check to see if there is a local APG chapter in your area: http://bit.ly/ihSOg
Check out subcontracting to get experience or exposure. Make friends w/ local librarians.
Mentions of Ancestry Expert Connect, Genealogy Freelancers, and other listing services.
Great way to market – speaking & writing. Google: “Call for Papers” genealogy
ezinearticles.com article aggregator
Should I be on the web? Depends on your target audience. Don’t have to do it yourself.
@cristacowan. Hello. Great presentation
Use social media: blogs, twitter, facebook
Easier to keep current clients: keep commitments, always provide next steps, follow up, keep in contact, ask for referrals
The Law of the Harvest. You have to plan BEFORE you can harvest. Set aside a portion of your time & $
The conference is complete.

On Twitter, you can find other tweets from the conference by searching for #byugen.

My presentation is one I have done before: “Navigating Research with the Genealogical Proof Standard.” We are allotted 4 pages for the syllabus material and so far I have used 3. Here is a preview of the syllabus material. Please provide constructive feedback.

P.S.  I will be presenting on Friday, July 31 from 1:30-2:30 p.m.  My presentation is part of the Methodology track.  I love to meet my blog readers, so attend the presentation or stop by afterwards and introduce yourself.

In March 2008, I presented at the BYU Family History Technology Workshop.  The topic was: 10 Things Genealogy Software Should Do.  The presentation slides are now also available on SlideShare.

This month we continued our study of Professional Genealogy by reading the following:

•  Chapter 2 – Educational Preparation by Claire Mire Bettag, CGRS
•  Chapter 8 – Alternative Careers by Elizabeth Kelly Kerstens, CGRS

Chapter 2 provided details on academic degrees or credit programs in genealogy. For example, BYU offers a BA in Family History – Genealogy as well as a Family History Certificate. Another certificate program is the Home Study Course provided by the National Genealogical Society. This chapter also talks about major conferences such as NGS, FGS, and those held at BYU. There are also numerous self-study options discussed. If I were to list all the educational opportunities, it would take pages. One newer series of conferences that is not mentioned in the chapter are those provided by My Ancestors Found. The chapter included mostly US programs but did mention some international ones.

Particularly helpful are pages 19-21 that provides questions in the areas of presenters, programs, sponsors, and other concerns that can be used to evaluate educational opportunities to determine which are right for you.

The chapter on alternative careers is interesting as it gives a brief description of more than 10 career opportunities in genealogy other than researcher, lecturer, teacher, and traditional genealogical author. For each career minimum requirements are discussed as well as how to begin. Missing from this list are newer pursuits such as blogger and podcaster which could be used in conjunction with any of these choices.

Currently I am a blogger, article author, and occasional lecturer. I continue to evaluate ideas on how to bring my skills as a non-genealogy software architect into a full-time career in the field of genealogy.

Practical Assignment

The practical assignment this month was to write an education plan and share it with my peer group. Here is my plan as it currently stands:

2008

• BYU Family History Technical Workshop (attend & present) – completed
• BYU Computerized Family History Conference – completed
• ProGen Study Group
• TG Study Group
• New FamilySearch Online training
• BYU free Online courses
• My Ancestors Found Conference – Mesa, AZ (attend & present)
• NGS Home Study (start)

2009
• My Ancestors Found Conference – Mesa, AZ
• BYU Family History Conference
• ProGen Study Group
• TG Study Group
• NGS Home Study (finish)

2010
• My Ancestors Found Conference – Mesa, AZ
• IGHR – Advanced
• BCG Certification (start)

This differs from what I submitted to my peer group as I learned some new things as the result of the Discussion Group Assignment.
 
Peer Group Assignment

The assignment for the peer group was to simply share our research plan with each other. This was helpful as motivation to think about and complete the assignment. It also was helpful to see what your peers are planning and to see how they formatted their plan. In a future revision of this education plan, I want to include more specific dates as milestones to track progress.

Discussion Group

Each discussion group was asked to pick an educational opportunity, research it, and provide a summary so that everyone in the ProGen Study Group can learn about the program. Our group selected the Home Study Course by NGS and followed the outline in pages 19-21 to evaluate the course. There were many questions that we didn’t know the answers to mostly in the area of course authors. After a few e-mails, we were able to get a detailed history of the course and its authors from Connie Lenzen, CG, who is a NGS Director as well as the chair of the NGS Education Committee. Thank you Connie for the quick response and the helpful information!

The discussion group had our online chat last week which was enjoyable. We discussed aspects of both chapters from our reading assignment as well as the Home Study Course. One of our members will be attending the Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research at Samford University this coming week and promises to share her experiences in next month’s discussion.Final note: I expect that the ProGen Study Group coordinator would appreciate it if I mention that the study group is closed to new members. This is not meant to be exclusionary, but each member of the group has committed to participating for the next year and a half (how long we expect it will take to complete the book). It would just be too chaotic if the membership of the group was constantly changing. Thanks for those who have expressed an interest. I hope that you will be able to at least follow along with my experience and do the assignments on your own.

Does genealogy have anything like a TED conference?

 From a small gathering in 1991 of 6 genealogy and genealogy software group leaders came the non-profit organization called GENTECH that hosted local and then national conferences to attract genealogists to computers and computer users to genealogy. Or more simply put, it merged genealogy and technology (see http://www.ancestry.com/learn/library/article.aspx?article=8480). In 2002, GENTECH became a division of the National Genealogical Society (NGS) and can still be seen in GENTECH tracks at the annual NGS conference. Most of these sessions focus on new genealogy software and internet sites, how to use technology for genealogy, and occasionally a glimpse of the future. Another conference that focuses on family history and technology has been held at Brigham Young University (BYU) since 2001 and is called the Family History Technology Workshop. In 2008, this workshop had about 100 attendees – most of them software developers with just a hand full of attendees that used (but did not create) genealogy software. An interesting part of this conference is that it is open to computer science students to present projects they have been working on as well as professionals in the genealogy software community. Some of these 20 minute presentations dealt with the human interface and design while others were much more technical. The area of genealogy continues to advance technologically and more focus is starting to be placed on the design of the user experience of software.

What if there were a TED-like conference to spread the best ideas about technology, entertainment, and design in genealogy and family history? There are so many fascinating things happening with technology in genealogy that could be distilled at a level all could understand or at least leave us awe struck. Not enough is currently being done in the area of design in genealogy, but with raised awareness of such a forum many would likely rise to the occasion. The genealogy community could only be bettered by the results. We all have families and ancestors, but not everyone is interested in genealogy. Entertainment is mostly untapped when it comes to genealogy. It has the potential of interesting millions in their ancestry at a level and to a degree that is comfortable to them. One example of the blend of genealogy and entertainment is from the music group, Venice, and their song “Family Tree.” Imagine an annual conference where genealogy’s greatest thinkers and doers present their ideas worth spreading to the world. Imagine a venue where passion can be seen in presentation and performance that inspires, is fascinating, or is just plain beautiful.

If genealogy had a TED-like conference, what topics would you like to see presented in the areas of technology, entertainment, and design?

1. Human Interface
2. FamilySearch Projects
3. Automated Record Extraction & Linkage

Within each section were 3-4 presentations by both students and professionals that lasted about 20 minutes each.  The archived content contains a paper for each topic and optionally the presentation slides.  Twenty minutes is not a lot of time to present all the information that was contained in the paper so think of the presentation slides as a quick overview whereas the papers are more in depth. 

Human Interface

Student projects:

• Interactive Fan Charts: A Space-saving Technique for Genealogical Graph Exploration – the fan chart is great for visualization, now it can be used to navigate your family tree
• Geospatial Family History Research: Designing a Research Tool
   (aka Family Tree Mapper) – mashup of Google maps and data sources such as the new FamilySearch allows plotting family history on an interactive map
• Contextual Note-Taking for Family History – mount a digital camera to a microfilm reader, hook the camera to a laptop, and use software to capture images of the microfilm and enter notes

Non-student project:

• 10 Things Genealogy Software Should Do – Ten ideas on how to improve genealogy software

FamilySearch Projects

Non-Student projects:

• Lessons from FamilySearch Labs – FamilySearch Labs group gives 9 lessons learned while building more useable family history applications over the last year and a half
• Open Edit and Source Centric – explores how structured genealogy sites can still apply wiki-style collaboration
• Keeping it Spinning: A Background Check of Virtual Storage – comparison of virtual storage providers

Automated Record Extraction & Linkage

Student project:

• Utilizing Stacking for Feature Reduction in Graph-Based Record Linkage – analysis of how to more accurately combine relevant information from multiple sources to individuals in a pedigree

Non-student projects:

• Pattern Markup Language: A Pattern-Based Tool for Quickly Automating Genealogy Data Extraction – a language and tools for extracting genealogy data from websites
• Genealogical Record Linkage on International Data – challenges faced when linking records from these languages and cultures: Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Cyrillic, Scandinavian
• Can a Layered Approach to Historical Family Reconstitution Make a Difference in the Final Results? – comparision of two methods to identify families and lineages in data sets

Here are links regarding the presentation:

• Paper - 18 pages
• Slides - 29 slides
• Video (recorded later) - 17:30

Would you like to see these 10 ideas implemented in the genealogy software that you use?  How can these ideas be improved upon?  I encourage you to respond.

The Genealogy Software Community is in great need of innovation and it is great to see an innovative company like FamilyLink.com spend some time “in the trenches” doing family history.  Maybe they will come to understand and embrace the Genealogical Proof Standard and Source Citations and find ways to implement them in software in ways that won’t scare those who are starting out in family history.

Paul references a talk given by Marissa Mayer at Stanford a few years ago on the topic of Google’s culture of innovation.
She included the following 9 points:

1. Ideas come from everywhere
2. Share everything you can.
3. You’re brilliant. We’re hiring.
4. A license to pursue dreams.
5. Innovation not instant perfection.
6. Data is a-political.
7. Creativity loves constraint.
8. Users not money.
9. Don’t kill projects.  Morph them.

I met Paul last week during the BYU Computerized Genealogy and Family History Conference and was impressed by his sincerity and desire to grow the family history economy.  This latest announcement is continued proof that he is out to make a positive change in the world of genealogy and family history.