Friday, November 11, 2011

Follow Friday - More Weekend Genealogy Fun

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Yes, you should have some Genealogy Fun this weekend.  I recommend:

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 "Our Veteran Ancestors: Military Records and Genealogy." The special guests include:

Ellen Rohr of the group Families for Forgotten Heroes who will explain how she and others are working to reunite unclaimed remains of veterans with their families.
*  Polly FitzGerald Kimmitt, CG℠, of Kimmitt Genealogical Research, a certified genealogist who has been using her forensic skills in Army repatriation projects involving remains of veterans.

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 Thomas MacEntee.  This week's topic is "Genealogy and the Vital Records Access Crisis."  The special guest is:

Frederick E. Moss, FGS legal advisor and member of the Records Access and Preservation Committee, a joint committee of the Federation of Genealogical Societies, the National Genealogical Society, and the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies. Fred will help us understand how access to vital records is currently being threatened and what you can do to ensure access for all genealogy and family history researchers.
*  The highlighted FGS member Society is Root Cellar - Sacramento Genealogical Society.

3) Check out the recent FREE Webinars on:
It Is Well With My Soul: Finding Ancestors Amid the Rubble of Disaster and Misfortune, by Thomas MacEntee (Legacy Family Tree, free until 21 November)
FamilyRoots Organizer System, by Mary Hill (Legacy Family Tree, free until 14 November 2011)* Cracking the Case of Nathan Brown's Parents, by Marian Pierre-Louis (Legacy Family Tree, free until 14 November)
* Let Your Voice Be Heard in the Digital Conversation, by Drusilla Pair (Legacy Family Tree)
* 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)

* 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 Channel has 98 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
** Ancestry.com LIVE: Lorraine's 5 Tips for Online Grave Digging with Lorraine Bourne
** Ancestry.com LIVE: How do I use newspapers on Ancestry.com to find out more about my ancestors? with Crista Cowan


** Emigration & Immigration Records Online with Crista Cowan @ Ancestry Day San Francisco
** Ancestry.com LIVE: How to Find Your Civil War Roots on Ancestry.com  with Anne Mitchell
**  Find Them Fast: Secrets to Searching Ancestry.com with Laura Dansbury @ Ancestry Day San Francisco 
**  Five Tips for Digging Up Answers at Ancestry.com with Jeanie Croasmun @ Ancestry Day San Francisco 

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 going to the San Diego Genealogical Society Fall seminar on Saturday featuring Lou Szucs.  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 content (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. My wife's on vacation in Cabo San Lucas, the grandkids are busy with their parents, and I have to spend the weekend doing genealogy.  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.

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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