Dick Eastman has posted "Wholly Genes Software Conference a Success" on his Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter blog. It provides an excellent overview of the conference and cruise. I counted heads several times, and saw no more than 100 people in the audience for the lectures.
I second his thoughts about the organization and execution by Bob Velke and the Wholly Genes crew - excellent work.
However, it was much more than a software conference. For me, the software part of it was secondary - nice to have and interesting since I'm not a TMG user (yet), but the real take-away gems for me were the genealogy presentations and the round tables and the one-on-ones.
The venues for the speaker presentations were a major problem, IMHO. It is obvious that Dick didn't witness the projection problems on Friday in the Princess Theater during Cyndi Howells' talk. The problems disrupted Cyndi's presentation and the viewers concentration - but Cyndi was a trooper. They had to cobble together a viewing area for several talks in the Palm Dining Room - set up a small screen, put 40-60 chairs in a small area, and there was no separation between speaker and audience. The Club Fusion venue left a lot to be desired as far as seating and seeing the speaker - it's essentially a disco and karaoke bar with lots of TV screens. Several talks had to be moved from the originally scheduled venue, but everyone adapted well. Even with the venue problems, the speakers and program content were excellent.
This Wholly Genes genea-cruiser wants to know:
* Where did all of the speakers hang out when they didn't have talks to give? Did anyone see any of them at the pool or in the casino, or in the lounges? Or even at dinner? I saw Dick Eastman at the ice cream stand - gotcha, Dick!
* How many Roots Television interviews from this cruise will be seen soon? Is that where Megan and Dick were?
* Does David Lambert ever breathe when he talks? How can his brain work faster than his mouth? But it does, obviously!
* Is there anything that Craig Scott doesn't know about military records?
* What did Robert Charles Anderson do on this cruise besides one-on-ones?
* Why weren't the hosted breakfasts and one-on-ones fully subscribed by the attendees? People really missed out if they didn't participate in these.
* Do any of these speakers ever stammer, forget what they are about to say, or speak in less than complete sentences? I didn't notice any glitches like this at all over 20 presentations and 4 round tables. Impressive.
I'm sure I can think of more questions...
Monday, November 3, 2008
I'm still on vacation - in Puerto Rico
Linda and I are still on vacation in Puerto Rico - we go home to San Diego on Wednesday.
We got off the Caribbean Princess on Sunday at about 10:45 a.m. and arrived at the Holiday Inn Express by taxicab at about 11:30. They even let us check into our room early. The small hotel lobby was packed with folks waiting for transportation to the cruise ship to start their Eastern Caribbean cruise. We unpacked, checked out the pool and Business Center, and were hungry (didn't get enough breakfast again on the ship? right...) so we wandered off onto Ashford Street and found Colombo's Restaurant - a small place with free wi-fi and decent food. I had a chicken quesadilla. We got back to the room and while Linda went swimming, I tried to connect my laptop to the hotel wi-fi with no success. So I went down to the Business Center and used their computer (15 minutes if someone is waiting). I managed to read my main email set, some of my blogs on Bloglines, and posted a blog on Genea-Musings. When I came back to the room, Linda was napping. We didn't go off to dinner until 6:30 p.m. and finally found Cafe de Angel on Ashford Street across from La Concha Resort. The food was OK, but the service was slow. There were political demonstrations along Ashford all evening - there is a close governor's race in Puerto Rico. We didn't get back until about 9:15, and I spent another hour reading blogs on Bloglines and wrote another post before bedtime.
We were up around 7 a.m. this morning, and went down for breakfast. We decided to go into Old San Juan today as tourists, so we took a cab to the Fort San Juan del Morro (known as El Morro) and toured it using our Golden Age National Parks pass. I saw genea-cruiser Vicky S at el Morro. Then we took a free trolley to the center of Old San Juan for shopping and lunch at the Old Harbour Brewery - they have a superb half-pound bacon cheeseburger with fries. We saw genea-cruiser Happy Dae on the street as they were going off to catch a plane. We did a little more shopping, but Linda had an allergic reaction to her food, and we took a cab home.
When we got back, Linda went off to the pool and I got the laptop out and uploaded all of the most recent pictures. Surprisingly, the laptop was able to connect to the Internet from the room, so I've posted several TMG cruise daily summaries - backdated to the days of the cruise so readers can read about the daily activities in the order of the events. When the series is completed, I'll write a summary post so that folks can read all of the posts in order.
I need to go read my email and blogs some more, and check in on Facebook too.
We got off the Caribbean Princess on Sunday at about 10:45 a.m. and arrived at the Holiday Inn Express by taxicab at about 11:30. They even let us check into our room early. The small hotel lobby was packed with folks waiting for transportation to the cruise ship to start their Eastern Caribbean cruise. We unpacked, checked out the pool and Business Center, and were hungry (didn't get enough breakfast again on the ship? right...) so we wandered off onto Ashford Street and found Colombo's Restaurant - a small place with free wi-fi and decent food. I had a chicken quesadilla. We got back to the room and while Linda went swimming, I tried to connect my laptop to the hotel wi-fi with no success. So I went down to the Business Center and used their computer (15 minutes if someone is waiting). I managed to read my main email set, some of my blogs on Bloglines, and posted a blog on Genea-Musings. When I came back to the room, Linda was napping. We didn't go off to dinner until 6:30 p.m. and finally found Cafe de Angel on Ashford Street across from La Concha Resort. The food was OK, but the service was slow. There were political demonstrations along Ashford all evening - there is a close governor's race in Puerto Rico. We didn't get back until about 9:15, and I spent another hour reading blogs on Bloglines and wrote another post before bedtime.
We were up around 7 a.m. this morning, and went down for breakfast. We decided to go into Old San Juan today as tourists, so we took a cab to the Fort San Juan del Morro (known as El Morro) and toured it using our Golden Age National Parks pass. I saw genea-cruiser Vicky S at el Morro. Then we took a free trolley to the center of Old San Juan for shopping and lunch at the Old Harbour Brewery - they have a superb half-pound bacon cheeseburger with fries. We saw genea-cruiser Happy Dae on the street as they were going off to catch a plane. We did a little more shopping, but Linda had an allergic reaction to her food, and we took a cab home.
When we got back, Linda went off to the pool and I got the laptop out and uploaded all of the most recent pictures. Surprisingly, the laptop was able to connect to the Internet from the room, so I've posted several TMG cruise daily summaries - backdated to the days of the cruise so readers can read about the daily activities in the order of the events. When the series is completed, I'll write a summary post so that folks can read all of the posts in order.
I need to go read my email and blogs some more, and check in on Facebook too.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Genea-cruiser Randy is on dry land again
Hi readers...I've missed the daily interaction and busy-ness of blogging. Seven days without blogging is like, well, an eternity, it seems. But I've been busy! We've had some fun times, some informative times, some wet times, and even some boring times.
While many on board the Caribbean Princess were having the time of their lives - eating (gluttony), drinking (debauchery), and making Mary, er, merry (lust!), er, fools of themselves (knaves that they are), most of the geneaholics attending the TMG Conference were:
* sitting in Club Fusion watching Bob Velke and John Cardinal manipulate TMG and its' utility programs; Club Fusion is a night club with many TV screens around - fairly ideal for watching someone manipulate his computer - even if you're sitting at the bar with your laptop (that was me...). The morning meetings were here.
* in the Palm Dining Room hearing John Titford and Megan Smolenyak make their presentations to about 80 of us gathered around a small screen and being right up close to the speakers; two of the noon lectures were here.
* in the Princess Theater (think 500 seats in three levels, typical for evening shows) with a big screen, the speaker on stage at a podium, and about 100 genealogists scattered around the seats - only one or two within eye contact. one noon lecture and the late afternoon lectures were here.
Then there were the:
* hosted breakfasts with one of the speakers - we had about 30 minutes with Barbara Vines Little on Thursday before we went off on our tour of St. Kitts by scenic railway.
* Several evening round tables with David Allen Lambert of NEHGS on Military Records, Atlantic Canada, and DNA Research. Dave is a really knowledgeable and funny guy.
* One-on-ones on Saturday night with David Lambert, Elizabeth Shown Mills and Sandra Hewlett. I brought some of my "elusive ancestor" research problems to get their take on my work and suggestions.
* Meals and table sharing with a number of the attendees. While it often revolved around them mundane, we also did some analysis of the lectures, discussed our own research, and just talked almost every day about our days and lives.
* The Sunday cocktail party and Saturday "last night" cocktail party - great times - in fact, almost the only time I saw many of the speakers. The end of the Saturday party was the assembled geneaholics singing "I'm My Own Grandpa" led by Jhn Titford. Apparently, this is a tradition.
I have posts prepared for every day's activities but I cannot post them until I get the San Juan hotel wireless to connect to my laptop. I'm in the Business Center now with several others waiting their turn for the one working computer. I need to post this and give it up but will come back later today and start putting some real content on the blog.
We are in San Juan until Wednesday, when we fly home. If I can make the laptop connect yo the Internet, I will post some pictures from the cruise and my journal entries for each day.
I need to burn down my email stack too - I had 368 emails on my regular account and 264 emails on my mailing list eddress. I also have 764 posts to read on Bloglines, since last Sunday. Then there's Facebook to catch up on.
While many on board the Caribbean Princess were having the time of their lives - eating (gluttony), drinking (debauchery), and making Mary, er, merry (lust!), er, fools of themselves (knaves that they are), most of the geneaholics attending the TMG Conference were:
* sitting in Club Fusion watching Bob Velke and John Cardinal manipulate TMG and its' utility programs; Club Fusion is a night club with many TV screens around - fairly ideal for watching someone manipulate his computer - even if you're sitting at the bar with your laptop (that was me...). The morning meetings were here.
* in the Palm Dining Room hearing John Titford and Megan Smolenyak make their presentations to about 80 of us gathered around a small screen and being right up close to the speakers; two of the noon lectures were here.
* in the Princess Theater (think 500 seats in three levels, typical for evening shows) with a big screen, the speaker on stage at a podium, and about 100 genealogists scattered around the seats - only one or two within eye contact. one noon lecture and the late afternoon lectures were here.
Then there were the:
* hosted breakfasts with one of the speakers - we had about 30 minutes with Barbara Vines Little on Thursday before we went off on our tour of St. Kitts by scenic railway.
* Several evening round tables with David Allen Lambert of NEHGS on Military Records, Atlantic Canada, and DNA Research. Dave is a really knowledgeable and funny guy.
* One-on-ones on Saturday night with David Lambert, Elizabeth Shown Mills and Sandra Hewlett. I brought some of my "elusive ancestor" research problems to get their take on my work and suggestions.
* Meals and table sharing with a number of the attendees. While it often revolved around them mundane, we also did some analysis of the lectures, discussed our own research, and just talked almost every day about our days and lives.
* The Sunday cocktail party and Saturday "last night" cocktail party - great times - in fact, almost the only time I saw many of the speakers. The end of the Saturday party was the assembled geneaholics singing "I'm My Own Grandpa" led by Jhn Titford. Apparently, this is a tradition.
I have posts prepared for every day's activities but I cannot post them until I get the San Juan hotel wireless to connect to my laptop. I'm in the Business Center now with several others waiting their turn for the one working computer. I need to post this and give it up but will come back later today and start putting some real content on the blog.
We are in San Juan until Wednesday, when we fly home. If I can make the laptop connect yo the Internet, I will post some pictures from the cruise and my journal entries for each day.
I need to burn down my email stack too - I had 368 emails on my regular account and 264 emails on my mailing list eddress. I also have 764 posts to read on Bloglines, since last Sunday. Then there's Facebook to catch up on.
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Saturday on the TMG cruise
The one day I didn't summarize on my laptop was Saturday. The day started in St. Thomas (US Virgin Islands) harbor with breakfast in the Horizon Court restaurant (usually scrambled eggs, bacon, English muffin or roll, banana, pear halves, and a Danish - hey, we had to get our money's worth! I am not unfat...).
Then we were off before 9 a.m. for our Bumpy fast ride on the top of the waves to Buck Island where we snorkeled in Turtle Cove (there were two turtles there - they spent most of their time on the bottom hiding from snorkelers) and Shipwreck Cove (where I didn't see the shipwreck, but others apparently did). Getting there was a lot of fun - two young ladies driving a 30-foot Zodiac boat (500 hp to twin outboards) - we got a little wet crashing through the tops of the waves at 30 mph or so. The water was fine, but it was rough in Shipwreck Cove. Linda had a hard time climbing back onboard the boat. We were back by 12:30 p.m. and I went up to lunch (cheeseburger, fries, cookie) and ate with Lee and Gene. I was grungy and sunburned, so went to the room and took a shower and put some coolant on my head and shoulders. I took a nap, read my book, and walked around the ship taking pictures of St. Thomas.
We packed our suitcases, and got dressed for the TMG hosted cocktail party at 5:30 pm. I shared some time with Cyndi Howells, Tony Burroughs and David Lambert, and several of the other attendees. I have some pictures of "notables" that I'll post later on when I have Internet access to my files (The Business Center computer doesn't have a USB port available). This was the first time I saw all of the speakers together, and we got pictures to prove it! The highlight was everybody in the room singing "'m My Own Grandpa"with bass John Titford leading us on the microphone and the words on the computer screens. It was fun. This, of course, gives me ideas for my own society... of course someone else would have to lead it - I sing in J-Sharp.
Then it was dinner time (Beef Wellington), and we ate with non-genealogists (we had the Anytime Dinner plan all week in the Palm Dining Room - great flexibility!) with 10 at our table. We talked a bit about genealogy and family history. I had to skip dessert (poor, poor not unfat Randy...) in order to run up to the room and put the suitcases in the hallway, and I grabbed my laptop case with my "elusive ancestor" summaries in them.
My first "One-on-One" was at 8:30 p.m. with David Lambert of NEHGS. I decided to ask for help on my elusive Thomas J. Newton of ME, MA and VT. Dave had some great suggestions for records I don't normally think of - unpublished church records, War of 1812 veterans, 1798 Direct Tax for MA/ME, and divorce records which might be in the Massachusetts State Archives. He even took my writeup to see if he could think of more things to look up. We had a little more time, so he looked over my Elizabeth Horton Dill (1794?-1869) birth parents problem too.
My second "One-on-One" was with Elizabeth Shown Mills, one of the most skilled genealogists on the planet. Elizabeth dissected my Elizabeth Horton Dill problem several ways, and didn't even comment on my poor source citations for several records. She gave me several excellent ideas for further research in original records - not transcripts or abstracts - like the later Barnstable County Deeds and probates, and probates for the sons of Thomas and Hannah (Horton) Dill. We discussed my hypotheses about the conflicts in the evidence I already have - and agreed they might be correct, but that I need much more data to build a solid case. I wish I had a steel-trap mind like she does! Impressive.
My third "One-on-One" was with Sandra Hewlett, who lives in Pennsylvania. I chose her so that I could discuss my elusive Mary Hoax (ca 1768-1850), wife of Martin Carringer. Sandy noted that I didn't really know where Hempfield township was in Westmoreland County, and that I need to consider deeds and probates for the Hoax/Hokes/etc. families in Westmoreland from 1773, and in Bedford County from 1771-1773, and in Cumberland County PA before that. She had a great book called Pennsylvania Line which had a complete listing of all towns, townships and counties, including maps showing how county boundaries changed. She also suggested checking records such as the 1773 and 1783 tax/census lists, Pennsylvania state RevWar muster rolls online at the PA State Archives site, and obtaining Martin Carringer's Bounty Land Warrant from NARA.
The evening ended with the David Lambert round-table - I joined it late and they were discussing tri-racial isolates in NC/VA/KY/TN area - and the Roanoke Colony members that might have left strands of Y-DNA in the area. Megan Smolenyak and Craig Scott were making suggestions and comments too - there apparently is an effort to find ancestral families of the Roanoke Colony adventurers and then find male descendants from those families to establish a Y-DNA database that might match the tri-racial isolates. Fascinating stuff!
All I can say about this conference's "top-notch faculty" is WOW - they are excellent speakers and have a wealth of genealogy research knowledge. The depth and breadth of these folks is tremendous. I really appreciate their sharing with us, especially in the "one-on-ones." That was challenging and fun.
Then we were off before 9 a.m. for our Bumpy fast ride on the top of the waves to Buck Island where we snorkeled in Turtle Cove (there were two turtles there - they spent most of their time on the bottom hiding from snorkelers) and Shipwreck Cove (where I didn't see the shipwreck, but others apparently did). Getting there was a lot of fun - two young ladies driving a 30-foot Zodiac boat (500 hp to twin outboards) - we got a little wet crashing through the tops of the waves at 30 mph or so. The water was fine, but it was rough in Shipwreck Cove. Linda had a hard time climbing back onboard the boat. We were back by 12:30 p.m. and I went up to lunch (cheeseburger, fries, cookie) and ate with Lee and Gene. I was grungy and sunburned, so went to the room and took a shower and put some coolant on my head and shoulders. I took a nap, read my book, and walked around the ship taking pictures of St. Thomas.
We packed our suitcases, and got dressed for the TMG hosted cocktail party at 5:30 pm. I shared some time with Cyndi Howells, Tony Burroughs and David Lambert, and several of the other attendees. I have some pictures of "notables" that I'll post later on when I have Internet access to my files (The Business Center computer doesn't have a USB port available). This was the first time I saw all of the speakers together, and we got pictures to prove it! The highlight was everybody in the room singing "'m My Own Grandpa"with bass John Titford leading us on the microphone and the words on the computer screens. It was fun. This, of course, gives me ideas for my own society... of course someone else would have to lead it - I sing in J-Sharp.
Then it was dinner time (Beef Wellington), and we ate with non-genealogists (we had the Anytime Dinner plan all week in the Palm Dining Room - great flexibility!) with 10 at our table. We talked a bit about genealogy and family history. I had to skip dessert (poor, poor not unfat Randy...) in order to run up to the room and put the suitcases in the hallway, and I grabbed my laptop case with my "elusive ancestor" summaries in them.
My first "One-on-One" was at 8:30 p.m. with David Lambert of NEHGS. I decided to ask for help on my elusive Thomas J. Newton of ME, MA and VT. Dave had some great suggestions for records I don't normally think of - unpublished church records, War of 1812 veterans, 1798 Direct Tax for MA/ME, and divorce records which might be in the Massachusetts State Archives. He even took my writeup to see if he could think of more things to look up. We had a little more time, so he looked over my Elizabeth Horton Dill (1794?-1869) birth parents problem too.
My second "One-on-One" was with Elizabeth Shown Mills, one of the most skilled genealogists on the planet. Elizabeth dissected my Elizabeth Horton Dill problem several ways, and didn't even comment on my poor source citations for several records. She gave me several excellent ideas for further research in original records - not transcripts or abstracts - like the later Barnstable County Deeds and probates, and probates for the sons of Thomas and Hannah (Horton) Dill. We discussed my hypotheses about the conflicts in the evidence I already have - and agreed they might be correct, but that I need much more data to build a solid case. I wish I had a steel-trap mind like she does! Impressive.
My third "One-on-One" was with Sandra Hewlett, who lives in Pennsylvania. I chose her so that I could discuss my elusive Mary Hoax (ca 1768-1850), wife of Martin Carringer. Sandy noted that I didn't really know where Hempfield township was in Westmoreland County, and that I need to consider deeds and probates for the Hoax/Hokes/etc. families in Westmoreland from 1773, and in Bedford County from 1771-1773, and in Cumberland County PA before that. She had a great book called Pennsylvania Line which had a complete listing of all towns, townships and counties, including maps showing how county boundaries changed. She also suggested checking records such as the 1773 and 1783 tax/census lists, Pennsylvania state RevWar muster rolls online at the PA State Archives site, and obtaining Martin Carringer's Bounty Land Warrant from NARA.
The evening ended with the David Lambert round-table - I joined it late and they were discussing tri-racial isolates in NC/VA/KY/TN area - and the Roanoke Colony members that might have left strands of Y-DNA in the area. Megan Smolenyak and Craig Scott were making suggestions and comments too - there apparently is an effort to find ancestral families of the Roanoke Colony adventurers and then find male descendants from those families to establish a Y-DNA database that might match the tri-racial isolates. Fascinating stuff!
All I can say about this conference's "top-notch faculty" is WOW - they are excellent speakers and have a wealth of genealogy research knowledge. The depth and breadth of these folks is tremendous. I really appreciate their sharing with us, especially in the "one-on-ones." That was challenging and fun.
My Genealogy Plan for Saturday, 1 November
We will dock today at 7 am in St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands in the eastern Caribbean. The Wholly Genes Conference on the Caribbean Princess is almost over - how did it go so fast! Here are my plans for the day:
7:00 am - there are hosted breakfasts with several of the conference speakers in Cafe Fusion - I didn't sign up for any of them. Maybe I'll try to crash one of them, or meet with newly made friends.
7:00 am - the ship docks in St. Thomas. We signed up for a tour and beach visit.
5:30 pm - Farewell Cocktail Party (open bar) in Club Fusion.
6:00 pm - the ship leaves St. Thomas.
8:30 pm - One-on-ones for 30 minutes with conference speakers. I am signed up for 30 minutes with David Allen Lambert, Elizabeth Shown Mills and Sandra Hewlett.
9:30 pm - Group Discussion on "Genealogical Free for All (A potpourri of topics)" by David Allen Lambert in Club Caribe.
I'll have to miss at least the first half of the Group Discussion with David because of my one-on-one with Sandra.
This is the last day of the cruise - on Sunday morning, we will be docked in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Linda and I are staying until Wednesday morning, when we fly home to San Diego. We hope to do a lot of sightseeing in San Juan. The hotel is supposed to have wireless Internet access, so I hope to be able to do some blogging and post some photographs from the cruise and conference week.
7:00 am - there are hosted breakfasts with several of the conference speakers in Cafe Fusion - I didn't sign up for any of them. Maybe I'll try to crash one of them, or meet with newly made friends.
7:00 am - the ship docks in St. Thomas. We signed up for a tour and beach visit.
5:30 pm - Farewell Cocktail Party (open bar) in Club Fusion.
6:00 pm - the ship leaves St. Thomas.
8:30 pm - One-on-ones for 30 minutes with conference speakers. I am signed up for 30 minutes with David Allen Lambert, Elizabeth Shown Mills and Sandra Hewlett.
9:30 pm - Group Discussion on "Genealogical Free for All (A potpourri of topics)" by David Allen Lambert in Club Caribe.
I'll have to miss at least the first half of the Group Discussion with David because of my one-on-one with Sandra.
This is the last day of the cruise - on Sunday morning, we will be docked in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Linda and I are staying until Wednesday morning, when we fly home to San Diego. We hope to do a lot of sightseeing in San Juan. The hotel is supposed to have wireless Internet access, so I hope to be able to do some blogging and post some photographs from the cruise and conference week.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Friday on the TMG Cruise
If it's Friday, it must be Antigua!! (It's pronounced ahn-teeg-ah"). This island is a little bigger than St. Kitts:
After breakfast, we went off on the Stingrays and Snorkel tour on the north side of the island, passing through the small town of St. Johns and into the countryside, arriving at a beach where we boarded small flat bottom outboard motor boats. The boats took us about a mile out to a fenced in pen with a smooth bottom and sting rays swimming within the pen. We used snorkels to swim along with them. Some of the staff handled the rays and let everyone touch them. We took some underwater pictures. This was 3 hours for about 45 minutes in the water. The drive to and from was pretty quiet – there was no tour guide, just a driver. I talked with several folks about genealogy on the way back. This is a photo of the boats we used:
Then it was off for the formal dinner in the Palm Dining Room. We ate with a couple from Pennsylvania and genea-cruiser Alice from Minnesota. Afterward, I came back to the room and ditched my coat and tie and went off for the 9:30 p.m. meeting in Café Caribe.
David Lambert hosted the discussion group on the topic of DNA testing and research. He has had Y-DNA, mtDNA and genomic testing done, and told stories about each of them. Several attendees described their experiences – Hal W. has run a surname project that found no links between three colonial New England immigrants with variants of his surname. I spoke briefly about my mtDNA test and finding exact matches, but have had no contact yet with them. David would like to have a project that collects Y-DNA or mtDNA sequences for specific colonial New England ancestors. He encouraged all to get tested, and to find near or distant cousins that can help fill out a genetic signature family tree. This was a very spirited discussion with many good experiences and ideas. David is very irreverent and humorous, which I appreciate and enjoy.
After breakfast, we went off on the Stingrays and Snorkel tour on the north side of the island, passing through the small town of St. Johns and into the countryside, arriving at a beach where we boarded small flat bottom outboard motor boats. The boats took us about a mile out to a fenced in pen with a smooth bottom and sting rays swimming within the pen. We used snorkels to swim along with them. Some of the staff handled the rays and let everyone touch them. We took some underwater pictures. This was 3 hours for about 45 minutes in the water. The drive to and from was pretty quiet – there was no tour guide, just a driver. I talked with several folks about genealogy on the way back. This is a photo of the boats we used:
When we returned, Linda went shopping, and I had lunch, then I came back for a nap. Later, I walked around the deck taking pictures and talked to several genealogy folks. At 5:45, I got dressed in my suit and went off to the Princess Theater for the last lecture of the conference.
“Virtual Cousin Research Project” was presented by Cyndi Howells. She had major troubles with the projector hookup – it would skew sideways frequently – but not on the laptop she was using, so it had to be the theater setup. This was one of the best lectures on the conference. Cyndi suggested that the Internet can be used very effectively to conduct a research project among a cousin network by using blogs, web sites, wikis, Google Tools, instant messaging, etc. A project requires a scope definition, a project administrator, a To-Do list, and cousins willing to contribute to and support the efforts. She suggested the project concentrate on a surname, or descendants of a person, or a locality. A blog, either open to everyone or open to only the cousins, can be used as a newsletter and coordination for the project. A web site can be used as a publication site for the project. Google Tools can be used for email to the project members, a home page for coordination and news, saving online documents in Google docs, etc. Cyndi used Terry Thornton’s Hill Country of Monroe County, Mississippi as an example of a locality blog. Everything she mentioned is free to the users and can be organized to include all of the project members – whether two or a hundred people.
“Virtual Cousin Research Project” was presented by Cyndi Howells. She had major troubles with the projector hookup – it would skew sideways frequently – but not on the laptop she was using, so it had to be the theater setup. This was one of the best lectures on the conference. Cyndi suggested that the Internet can be used very effectively to conduct a research project among a cousin network by using blogs, web sites, wikis, Google Tools, instant messaging, etc. A project requires a scope definition, a project administrator, a To-Do list, and cousins willing to contribute to and support the efforts. She suggested the project concentrate on a surname, or descendants of a person, or a locality. A blog, either open to everyone or open to only the cousins, can be used as a newsletter and coordination for the project. A web site can be used as a publication site for the project. Google Tools can be used for email to the project members, a home page for coordination and news, saving online documents in Google docs, etc. Cyndi used Terry Thornton’s Hill Country of Monroe County, Mississippi as an example of a locality blog. Everything she mentioned is free to the users and can be organized to include all of the project members – whether two or a hundred people.
Then it was off for the formal dinner in the Palm Dining Room. We ate with a couple from Pennsylvania and genea-cruiser Alice from Minnesota. Afterward, I came back to the room and ditched my coat and tie and went off for the 9:30 p.m. meeting in Café Caribe.
David Lambert hosted the discussion group on the topic of DNA testing and research. He has had Y-DNA, mtDNA and genomic testing done, and told stories about each of them. Several attendees described their experiences – Hal W. has run a surname project that found no links between three colonial New England immigrants with variants of his surname. I spoke briefly about my mtDNA test and finding exact matches, but have had no contact yet with them. David would like to have a project that collects Y-DNA or mtDNA sequences for specific colonial New England ancestors. He encouraged all to get tested, and to find near or distant cousins that can help fill out a genetic signature family tree. This was a very spirited discussion with many good experiences and ideas. David is very irreverent and humorous, which I appreciate and enjoy.
My Genealogy Plan for Friday, 31 October
Happy Hallowe'en, readers! Boo from the eastern Caribbean on the Wholly Genes Conference aboard the Caribbean Princess. We are on our way to Antigua. Here is my genealogy plan for today:
7:00 am - there are hosted breakfasts with several of the conference speakers in Cafe Fusion - I didn't sign up for any of them. Maybe I'll try to crash one of them, or meet with newly made friends.
8:00 am - the ship docks in Antigua. We signed up for a tour and beach visit.
6:00 pm - the ship leaves Antigua.
6:15 pm - "Virtual Cousin Research Project" by Cyndi Howells in Club Fusion.
9:30 pm - Group Discussion on "DNA Research and Suggestions" by David Allen Lambert in Club Caribe.
10:30 pm - go to my room and try to figure out what I want to discuss on my one-on-ones tomorrow night!
7:00 am - there are hosted breakfasts with several of the conference speakers in Cafe Fusion - I didn't sign up for any of them. Maybe I'll try to crash one of them, or meet with newly made friends.
8:00 am - the ship docks in Antigua. We signed up for a tour and beach visit.
6:00 pm - the ship leaves Antigua.
6:15 pm - "Virtual Cousin Research Project" by Cyndi Howells in Club Fusion.
9:30 pm - Group Discussion on "DNA Research and Suggestions" by David Allen Lambert in Club Caribe.
10:30 pm - go to my room and try to figure out what I want to discuss on my one-on-ones tomorrow night!
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Thursday on the TMG Cruise
Here is the view of the dock on St. Kitts that greeted us this morning.
We were up early because we had a hosted breakfast with Barbara Vines Little at 7 a.m. and an on-dock time of 8:20 a.m. for a tour to the St. Kitts Scenic Railway. There were eight of us at the breakfast in the Coral Dining Room but we had little time to talk about genealogy. We went off on our three-hour tour on an 8 mile-per-hour rocking narrow gauge sugar cane train, traveling mainly past the back yards of St. Kittians, many of whom waved as the train passed, especially the school children. Here is a picture of Linda and the choir onboard the train:
We were back to the dock by 12 noon, and Linda stayed in town to shop a bit while I came back to the boat for lunch. I ate lunch with Joanne from Oregon and Lorna from New Zealand, who are both TMG devotees. They extolled the virtues of TMG and I am truly convinced that it’s a very powerful program that the user can bend to his or her will, but is it worth that effort? We shared research experiences and Linda joined us a bit later. Linda went off to swim and I went to the room for a nap, the better to stay awake for the one genealogy lecture tonight. After my hour-long nap, I walked around the ship looking for genie folks to talk to, and found Lee and Charlie in the restaurant. The ship departed St. Kitts before 6 p.m., and we left the restaurant at 6 p.m. to go to Club Fusion.
The only speaker of the day was Cyndi Howells on “Plotting, Scheming and Mapping Online.” Cyndi is an excellent speaker, and covered her Ten Quick Tips about maps in 30 minutes, using many examples to illustrate her points. She also discussed finding maps on Migration Trails in detail, and showed some online map creation tools like Google Earth and Earth Point. Her syllabus has many URLs to explore. This was a great lecture – very helpful and informative.
We went to dinner at 7:15 p.m., and ate with three other genea-cruisers – Susan, Sharon and Truman. We shared our adventures of the day and our research experiences before we left after 9 p.m. Dessert was good, too!
David Allen Lambert had another Group Discussion at 9:30 p.m. on “Atlantic Canada.” There were about 30 of us around a table in Café Caribe and David described the records available for Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland. He has ancestry in most of those provinces, and has done extensive research at NEHGS and other repositories. Later, he answered questions from the audience. Even at the late hour, the conversation was lively, and David really knows his material. He passed around a book titled “Atlantic Canada Research” by Terrence Punch and George Sanborn published by NEHGS in 1997 that looks like a good one to have. Off to bed – we go snorkeling on Friday!
We were up early because we had a hosted breakfast with Barbara Vines Little at 7 a.m. and an on-dock time of 8:20 a.m. for a tour to the St. Kitts Scenic Railway. There were eight of us at the breakfast in the Coral Dining Room but we had little time to talk about genealogy. We went off on our three-hour tour on an 8 mile-per-hour rocking narrow gauge sugar cane train, traveling mainly past the back yards of St. Kittians, many of whom waved as the train passed, especially the school children. Here is a picture of Linda and the choir onboard the train:
We were back to the dock by 12 noon, and Linda stayed in town to shop a bit while I came back to the boat for lunch. I ate lunch with Joanne from Oregon and Lorna from New Zealand, who are both TMG devotees. They extolled the virtues of TMG and I am truly convinced that it’s a very powerful program that the user can bend to his or her will, but is it worth that effort? We shared research experiences and Linda joined us a bit later. Linda went off to swim and I went to the room for a nap, the better to stay awake for the one genealogy lecture tonight. After my hour-long nap, I walked around the ship looking for genie folks to talk to, and found Lee and Charlie in the restaurant. The ship departed St. Kitts before 6 p.m., and we left the restaurant at 6 p.m. to go to Club Fusion.
The only speaker of the day was Cyndi Howells on “Plotting, Scheming and Mapping Online.” Cyndi is an excellent speaker, and covered her Ten Quick Tips about maps in 30 minutes, using many examples to illustrate her points. She also discussed finding maps on Migration Trails in detail, and showed some online map creation tools like Google Earth and Earth Point. Her syllabus has many URLs to explore. This was a great lecture – very helpful and informative.
We went to dinner at 7:15 p.m., and ate with three other genea-cruisers – Susan, Sharon and Truman. We shared our adventures of the day and our research experiences before we left after 9 p.m. Dessert was good, too!
David Allen Lambert had another Group Discussion at 9:30 p.m. on “Atlantic Canada.” There were about 30 of us around a table in Café Caribe and David described the records available for Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland. He has ancestry in most of those provinces, and has done extensive research at NEHGS and other repositories. Later, he answered questions from the audience. Even at the late hour, the conversation was lively, and David really knows his material. He passed around a book titled “Atlantic Canada Research” by Terrence Punch and George Sanborn published by NEHGS in 1997 that looks like a good one to have. Off to bed – we go snorkeling on Friday!
My Genealogy Plan for Thursday, 30 October
We will dock today at 8 am in St. Kitts in the eastern Caribbean. But the Wholly Genes Conference on the Caribbean Princess is not over - the tourist part begins! Here are my plans for the day:
7:00 am - there are hosted breakfasts with several of the conference speakers in Cafe Fusion - I didn't sign up for any of them. Maybe I'll try to crash one of them, or meet with newly made friends.
8:00 am - the ship docks in St. Kitts, and everybody really wants to get off. We signed up for a tour and beach visit.
6:00 pm - the ship leaves St. Kitts.
6:15 pm - "Plotting, Scheming and Mapping Online" by Cyndi Howells in Club Fusion.
9:30 pm - Group Discussion on "Atlantic Canadian Records" by David Allen Lambert in Club Caribe.
I hope I'm not too tired or sunburned from the day in the tropical sun to attend the lecture and the group discussion.
7:00 am - there are hosted breakfasts with several of the conference speakers in Cafe Fusion - I didn't sign up for any of them. Maybe I'll try to crash one of them, or meet with newly made friends.
8:00 am - the ship docks in St. Kitts, and everybody really wants to get off. We signed up for a tour and beach visit.
6:00 pm - the ship leaves St. Kitts.
6:15 pm - "Plotting, Scheming and Mapping Online" by Cyndi Howells in Club Fusion.
9:30 pm - Group Discussion on "Atlantic Canadian Records" by David Allen Lambert in Club Caribe.
I hope I'm not too tired or sunburned from the day in the tropical sun to attend the lecture and the group discussion.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Wednesday on the TMG Cruise
The first program today was TMG’s Bob Velke presenting “Advanced TMG: Customizing Reports” and “Customizing Charts.” These were very useful for this novice TMG user. I followed along for awhile, and finally was able to make an ahnentafel list (just names, dates and places in ahnentafel order) from my database. Bob went over my head fairly quickly with setting flags, and manipulating text reports for public consumption by controlling narrative output. He didn’t get around to the Book Manager. There are sample TMG report outputs at www.whollygenes.com/samplereports.htm.
In the second hour on TMG Charts, Bob demonstrated chart elements, filtering charts and other chart options. Again, I concentrated on making a chart I want – a descendant or ancestor chart for a number of generations. The key is using the options to control chart content and formatting – boxes, lines, fonts, colors, etc. The Charts use the Visual Chartform program which is included in TMG. The TMG program is very powerful and flexible – the user can add boxes, frames, colors, etc. to create a custom chart.
I missed the third program – John Cardinal’s “Second Site for Advanced Users.”
The 12 noon lecture was “Femme Covert or Femme Sole: Women and the Law” by Barbara Vines Little. Barbara covered how the English Common Law concerning women and property was applied in the colonial times. She had many examples that demonstrated how single and married females fared in property transactions, and discussed many of the intricate details involved. I must have missed a bit of this talk while reading the syllabus (or zzzzz, I don't know...), because it seemed to go pretty fast.
After lunch, John Grenham presented ”Irish Genealogy on the Internet.” John noted that the major sources of Irish genealogy information are census records, the civil BMD records, Church records and property records. There are other records, such as wills, estates, newspapers, and directories. He discussed the online information available for each of these record types. The 1901 and 1911 census records are partially available on several web sites, some commercial and some free. General Register Office records for some years are online, as are some church records. Property records online are Griffith’s Valuation and the Tithe Applotment records from the 1830’s. More records have come online in the past year, but several repositories are slow in adding record images due to their worry about losing walk-in customers – they are putting indexes online, but to obtain the images you have to either pay a significant fee or go to the repository. This was a very useful talk for me – I have not done any Irish research, but have wondered about it.
Next up was Craig Scott on “Beyond Pension Research: You Stopped Too Soon.” Craig really knows this military and NARA stuff well. He said that it is important to know and understand the federal pension laws over time – from 1818 to 1873 and beyond. He also said that there is more to pension research than just finding and obtaining the pension application. The additional records available for Revolutionary War pensions are found at National Archives branches. They include the Pension Office Ledgers and Payment Cards, and the Final Payment vouchers and Settled Accounts records. Craig had many examples of these records and the information they hold. He said that copies of pension applications on www.Footnote.com are of better quality than the original paper copies available on microfilm at NARA. I missed quite a bit of this talk due to an irresistible urge to nap – I’m just glad I didn’t snore.
The last lecture of the day was Tony Burroughs on “Finding Your Ancestors in City Directories.” Tony discussed the information that can be found in City Directories, and displayed many excellent examples from his own family research in Chicago and Chattanooga. He focused on finding information in between census years to find residences, occupations, spouse’s names, etc. He said that locating houses may be hampered by changes in street names, changes in house numbering systems, etc. One of the most useful parts of city directories is the reverse directory – listed by street address rather than by name. Tony listed some online resources for city directories and repositories that have significant collections. He suggested using www.Worldcat.org to find specific city and year publications held by repositories.
We ate dinner with several other genealogists tonight. After dinner, I came back to the room and worked on my daily journal notes.
This was our last day at sea heading for the Caribbean - we dock in St. Kitts in the morning. The genealogy conference schedule is lighter from now on.
In the second hour on TMG Charts, Bob demonstrated chart elements, filtering charts and other chart options. Again, I concentrated on making a chart I want – a descendant or ancestor chart for a number of generations. The key is using the options to control chart content and formatting – boxes, lines, fonts, colors, etc. The Charts use the Visual Chartform program which is included in TMG. The TMG program is very powerful and flexible – the user can add boxes, frames, colors, etc. to create a custom chart.
I missed the third program – John Cardinal’s “Second Site for Advanced Users.”
The 12 noon lecture was “Femme Covert or Femme Sole: Women and the Law” by Barbara Vines Little. Barbara covered how the English Common Law concerning women and property was applied in the colonial times. She had many examples that demonstrated how single and married females fared in property transactions, and discussed many of the intricate details involved. I must have missed a bit of this talk while reading the syllabus (or zzzzz, I don't know...), because it seemed to go pretty fast.
After lunch, John Grenham presented ”Irish Genealogy on the Internet.” John noted that the major sources of Irish genealogy information are census records, the civil BMD records, Church records and property records. There are other records, such as wills, estates, newspapers, and directories. He discussed the online information available for each of these record types. The 1901 and 1911 census records are partially available on several web sites, some commercial and some free. General Register Office records for some years are online, as are some church records. Property records online are Griffith’s Valuation and the Tithe Applotment records from the 1830’s. More records have come online in the past year, but several repositories are slow in adding record images due to their worry about losing walk-in customers – they are putting indexes online, but to obtain the images you have to either pay a significant fee or go to the repository. This was a very useful talk for me – I have not done any Irish research, but have wondered about it.
Next up was Craig Scott on “Beyond Pension Research: You Stopped Too Soon.” Craig really knows this military and NARA stuff well. He said that it is important to know and understand the federal pension laws over time – from 1818 to 1873 and beyond. He also said that there is more to pension research than just finding and obtaining the pension application. The additional records available for Revolutionary War pensions are found at National Archives branches. They include the Pension Office Ledgers and Payment Cards, and the Final Payment vouchers and Settled Accounts records. Craig had many examples of these records and the information they hold. He said that copies of pension applications on www.Footnote.com are of better quality than the original paper copies available on microfilm at NARA. I missed quite a bit of this talk due to an irresistible urge to nap – I’m just glad I didn’t snore.
The last lecture of the day was Tony Burroughs on “Finding Your Ancestors in City Directories.” Tony discussed the information that can be found in City Directories, and displayed many excellent examples from his own family research in Chicago and Chattanooga. He focused on finding information in between census years to find residences, occupations, spouse’s names, etc. He said that locating houses may be hampered by changes in street names, changes in house numbering systems, etc. One of the most useful parts of city directories is the reverse directory – listed by street address rather than by name. Tony listed some online resources for city directories and repositories that have significant collections. He suggested using www.Worldcat.org to find specific city and year publications held by repositories.
We ate dinner with several other genealogists tonight. After dinner, I came back to the room and worked on my daily journal notes.
This was our last day at sea heading for the Caribbean - we dock in St. Kitts in the morning. The genealogy conference schedule is lighter from now on.
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