Friday, October 28, 2011

Follow Friday - Ideas for Weekend Genealogy Fun

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Here are my recommendations for some Genealogy Fun this weekend:

1) Listen to Geneabloggers Radio tonight (Friday night, 9 p.m. ET, 8 p.m. CT, 7 p.m. MT and 6 p.m. PT) hosted by Thomas MacEntee. This week's topic is "Haunted By Ancestors – A Genealogy Halloween Special!" The special guests include:

* Former screen actor turned professional genealogist Henry Z (“Hank”) Jones Jr. Hank will be discussing his popular book, Psychic Roots and how our ancestors often appear to guide us from beyond the grave in our genealogical journeys. Heritage Quest has stated that Hank is “without a doubt the most motivating and entertaining speaker you will hear on genealogical research!”
*   Paul J. Bunnell who is not only a genealogist and an expert in Loyalist studies, but a certified Ghost Hunter with the International Ghost Hunters Society in Paranormal Investigation.
*  Melinde Lutz Byrne, FASG, who used to be a skeptic until she solved a haunting case that just couldn’t be explained any other way!
*  Jonathan Good of 1000memories.com who will fill us in on the new Shoebox application which allows a user to scan photos and documents from an iPhone!

2) Listen to the FGS Radio - My Society show on Saturday (2 p.m. ET, 1 p.m. CT, 12 noon MT, 11 a.m. PT) hosted by George G. Morgan this week. The topic is "How Special Interest Groups Can Add to Your Society."   The special guest is:

*   Carol Rooksby Weidlich, President of the Lee County Genealogical Society (LCGS) in Ft. Myers, Florida. Carol will discuss the importance of having special interest groups in a genealogy society and how LCGS has found success in leverage this concept.
*  In addition, we’ll be highlighting FGS member society, the Jewish Genealogy Society of Greater Washington in our weekly Society Spotlight feature.

3) Check out the recent Webinars on:

Let Your Voice Be Heard in the Digital Conversation, by Drusilla Pair (Legacy Family Tree)
* The Three Cs of Irish Research: Civil Registration, Church Records, and Census. by Judith Eccles Wight (Legacy Family Tree, free until 31 October 2011).
* Exploring FamilyLink.com and WorldVitalRecords.com by their founder, Paul Allen. (Legacy Family Tree)
* "Newspapers for Genealogists: Using GenealogyBank.com to document every day of your ancestors' lives" with Tom Kemp. (Legacy Family Tree)
* "Organizng for Success" with Karen Clifford (Legacy Family Tree)
* "The Power of DNA in Unlocking Family Relationships," with Ugo Perugo (Legacy Family Tree)
* "Leveraging the Power of "We": a Watershed Event in Discovering Where to Find Your Ancestors (Research Wiki, Research Courses, and FamilySearch Forums)," with Michael Ritchey (Legacy Family Tree).

* RootsMagic Webinars (all free) available at http://www.rootsmagic.com/Webinars/

* National Genealogical Society (NGS) Videos (some are free to view) at http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/cs/videos_online

* Thomas MacEntee's Explorinars, including:

** Easy Website Creation (free to view).
** Evernote - Easy Note Taking UPDATED (free to view)
** Facebook Pages vs. Facebook Groups (free to view)

*  Ancestry.com's YouTube page has 56 items on it now, including (free to view):

** Ancestry.com LIVE: Search with Ancestry Anne  with Anne Mitchell
**  Ancestry.com LIVE: One Question with the Barefoot Genealogist   with Crista Cowan

4) Respond to my Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge, posted on www.geneamusings.com soon after 12 noon Pacific time (that's 1900 GMT for those who understand time zones).

5) Go to a local genealogical society program. I'm not going to any local society this weekend, but you might want to check out what's offered in your area.

6) Go to a local or close repository with genealogy and family history material. Do some research in traditional resources or order FamilySearch microfilms online with original source records.

7) Do some online research in the latest record collections at:

*   FamilySearch (free, https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/list),
*  Ancestry ($$, http://www.ancestry.com/cs/reccol/default),
*  Fold3 ($$, www.fold3.com),
*  WorldVitalRecords ($$, www.WorldVitalRecords.com),
*  American Ancestors ($$, www.AmericanAncestors.org),
*  GenealogyBank ($$, www.GenealogyBank.com),
*  Archives ($$, www.Archives.com)

8) Add material (names, dates, places, notes, images, sources, etc.) to your genealogy software program. I still have two inches of paper collected from my vacation, and more from before that, and will try to enter some of it into my database this weekend.

9) Spend time with your family doing fun things. We are recovering from last weekend...where we made some great family history.  Your turn!

10) Go to a local cemetery and clean stones, take gravestone pictures, or transcribe epitaphs for your local society, for Find-a-Grave, or a similar online service.

11)  Attend Scanfest on Sunday, 30 October at 2 p.m. ET, 1 p.m. CT, 12 noon MT, or 11 a.m. PT, hosted by Miriam Midkiff.  See Scanfest is Coming! on Miriam's blog, Ancestories: Stories of My Ancestors.

Whatever you decide, please tell us about your genealogy endeavors on a social network or in a blog post. You never know when your experiences may stimulate or encourage others to do useful genealogy work.

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