Geneabloggers Dinner Photos - Post 2

Here are the rest of my pictures from the Saturday night Geneabloggers dinner at the Marriott Hotel Daily Grill restaurant. We had about 35 in attendance here for a fixed price dinner arranged by Thomas MacEntee, who writes the Geneabloggers and Destination: Austin Family (and several other) blogs.

At the table closest to the entrance were (from left):

* Lisa Alzo (The Accidental Genealogist blog)
* Steven Danko (Steve's Genealogy Blog)
* Drew Smith (Rootsmithing, Social Networking for Genealogists and Genealogy Guys Podcast blogs)
* George G. Morgan (George's Genealogical Gleanings and Genealogy Guys Podcast blogs)
* Kathryn Doyle (California Genealogical Society and Library blog):

On the other side of the above table are (from left):

* Denise Levenick (The Family Curator blog - back of head, sorry Denise)
* footnoteMaven (footnoteMaven and Shades of the Departed blogs - partial face, sorry fM)
* Sheri Fenley (The Educated Genealogist blog)
* Elizabeth O'Neal (Little Bytes of Life blog)
* dick Eastman (Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter blog)




Astute observers of the above photo will notice an empty seat - it belonged to Cheryl Palmer (Heritage Happens and Graveyard Rabbit of South Alameda County blogs).

Now I have no clue where Susan Kitchens (Family Oral History Using Digital Tools blog) was sitting... but in the photo below, Susan is taking the picture in back of footnoteMaven and Sheri Fenley.

In the background is the 4th table, with:

* Linda Seaver (Randy's wife in blue dress)
* Dean Richardson (Genlighten blog)




Just before the food arrived, there was a real flurry of photographers trying to take pictures, and ending up taking pictures of each other taking pictures. In the photo below, Kiril Kundurazieff (Musings of a Mad Macedonian blog) and Cheryl Palmer are taking my picture while I take theirs.

So the only persons at this dinner that I haven't included in these pictures are Denise Levenick and myself (I think!). Hopefully, others will provide some pictures.

I'm sorry that I didn't get better pictures of everybody but they just wouldn't sit in their seats and smile - they were a dynamic, loud, fun group of geneabloggers who wanted to roam around the room and wouldn't mind anyone, let alone me.

UPDATED 10:30 p.m. Elizabeth straightened me out on who was sitting where - I fixed it, sorry Cheryl!

Tweeting the Bloggers Summit

As noted earlier, I Twittered all through the genealogy Bloggers Summit on Saturday at the SCGS Jamboree 2009 conference. You can see all tweets from the SCGS Jamboree at Twitter.com that use the #scgs09 hashtag..

The tweet posts are limited to 140 characters, and are subject to the wireless access in the hotel working flawlessly. It didn't, so I missed some of the rational comments made by the Bloggers Panel. Oh well, my rational memory is about 100 characters, if that! You will have to read between the Ines sometimes. Here are the tweets captured from my Facebook page, with an approximate time (some typos corrected):

9:29: almost ready to start - they're all in their places with bright shiny faces
9:30: interesting dress code - Eastman, Manson, Mr AI in t-shirts, Morgan, Danko and Meitzler in shirts/ties, ladies look good!
9:31: more bloggers in audience than on panel, I'm next to footnoteMaven, Sheri is hiding behind shades, Cheryl taking pix
9:35: Paula Hinkel starting... testing mics...George "can you hear us now"
9:36: Thomas MacEntee introduced as sponsor of Bloggers Summit. Big hand!!
9:37: "biggest group of geneabloggers to meet so far" - over 35 here
9:38: George's intro - lecturer, author, columnist, blogger, podcaster
9:39: Ancestry Insider - "man of mystery, hiding behind his mask"
9:40: Lisa Louise Cooke - looks stunning as usual, blogger, podcaster, videocaster
9:40: Steve Danko - blogger, lecturer, Polish expert

9:41: Pat Richley - lecturer, author, columnist, blogger, podcaster, videocaster, introduced fiance Gordon Erickson
9:42: Schelly Dardashti - lecturer, author, columnist, blogger, Jewish gen expert
9:43: Dick Eastman - EOGN blogger, lecturer, tech expert
9:43: Leland Meitzler - lecturer, blogger, author, publisher, editor
9:44: Craig Manson (Geneablogie) - blogger, author, columnist, lawyer, etc.
9:45: Lisa (Genealogy Gems) - uses digital audio recorder, blogs to bring readers to her podcasts and videos, two shows - Gen Gems podcast
9:47: Lisa - has Family History Made Easy podcast/video, has Genealogy Gems YouTube channel, "Socks to America" immigration story
9:48: Lisa - Sock family worked in laundry, had lots of soul, ... funny story, watch the video
9:49: Lisa - says sequel to Socks to America coming - maybe starring Ancestry folks

9:51: Dick is surrounded by ladies, feels inadequate becuz he had a newsletter and doesn't use word blogging much
9:52: Dick - spectator, not humorist or entertainer, mentions addiction, writes about technology and genealogy
9:52: Dick - has lots of fun, goes to conferences, shares his fun on his blog
9:59: Schelly - fun to see colleagues in person. started in journalism - gen columnist for Jerusalem Post, editor said "who's interested
10:00: Schelly "...in dead people.?" Twitter got slow, sorry. Schelly is a really interesting blogger
10:00: Schelly - genealogists are no longer generalists - now are more specialized

10:03: Leland and AI are tweeting from podium. The only ones?
10:06: George taking blog provider survey - mostly Blogger, some wordPress, others. Damn wi-fi signal up and down
10:07: Pat has been talking awhile, while signal has been poor. DearMYRTLE is a sweetheart - showing audio capability of blog posts
10:09: focus of dearMYRTLE is on beginning genealogists.
10:10: about 100 in attendance...George showing iGoogle features for some reason

10:11: George reads Genea-musings, listed many other blog posts. Pat says "cool we have free space to write about our genealogy"
10:13: Craig has Geneablogie.net - wearing his Geneablogie t-shirt. Started as way to keep track of his own research
10:17: Craig - not too concerned about who reads it. Checkered past - many careers and roles, wrote stories, 2007 changed his blog life
10:18: wi-fi problems still - Craig got known with legal analysis of Ancestry.com database problems. Introduced footnoteMaven
10:18: Craig is happy to be blogging and sharing his knowledge. Big hand for his philosophical views
10:19: Mr AI - got into blogging becuz of frustration when working at ancestry.com. Organizations need a human voice in corporate speech
10:20: AI - if they don't work with us, we will talk about them until they do. Employee blogging is dangerous, may want to be anonymous

10:21: AI - Craig offered legal help to AI. AI tries to be a supportive critic to A.com and FSI. Graphics and pictures add to blog posts
10:23: AI - Fireshot has screen shot grabs for Firefox. Schelly uses Snagit. Paint.net used to add shadows to non-square objects
10:24: AI - has tech background and creates widgets - shows one for most recent FamilySearch Record Search databases
10:26: Leland - blogging since Nov 2003, into it becuz tech guy said he should to support company. Got genealogyblog.com URL
10:27: Leland - blogging took over his life, as bad as gambling. 6-8 hours a day. (Is that all?). Leland has photos of audience now
10:29: Leland - now runs Family Roots Inc - book store. Patti edits books, not blogs. Does news, new databases, book stuff

10:31: Leland out of job since 17 February, busy with Family roots Publishing and blogging. Has some sponsors for his blog - appreciates!
10:31: Leland - don't know of genealogy bloggers that make a living blogging...
10:33: Leland - wants to write a book about town of Arline Mills - worked on it for 20 years. Going to blog about it.
10:33: I need to get photos of the panel and audience...back in minute
10:36: Steve - run blog for over 3 years, primary info and original documents for his family history, and admin for 2 DNA projects
10:38: Steve - talking about DNA nobility group in Eastern Europe. Group found his blog and using his stuff. Niedzialkowski!
10:39: Steve - found a Nied--ski cousin, goes to Poland regularly, is helping Steve with research. All becuz of DNA projects and blog

10:41: Steve - cousin sent lots of material at Christmas. Much of it not microfilmed.
10:44: George showing George's Genealogical gleanings - tips for readers. Maintains Florida Gen society (Tampa) blog site.
10:45: George - societies not in competition with each other - should cooperate and share information
10:47: hi new twitter followers of @rjseaver. Thanks, will follow you later
10:49: George - talking about FGS-Tampa activities, blog not just "my research" - can be communication tool for other audience

10:51: Q&A: "not a writer. Would blogging help me become better writer?" Dick: "blog is what you make it. I write articles."
10:52: Q&A: Pat: helps you become a writer, have to think about it, blogs are for local gen societies to communicate"
10:53: Q&A Pat: use your blog to do whatever you want. Craig: a forum for collaboration, society or family.
10:55: Steve: did autobiographical memories as part of Xmas carnival.
10:55: Q&A: What is name of blog directory? George: www.Geneabloggers.com, and http://blogfinder.genealogue.com
10:57: Lisa: if you're going to write a blog, make sure you can be found. Let audience know location, interests, etc.
10:59: Q&A: taking a break, back soon

11:12: break is over - Pat: power-bloggers don't take potty breaks
11:13: George: don't be afraid of speakers - talk to them, share with them. work the vendor hall. Support the vendors
11:14: George: Thomas has put together website - www.geneabloggers.com site. There to help folks get started.
11:17: George: blogging is as easy as using word processor. Starting new blog using Blogger.com - should have google account and Gmail
11:19: Q: How do you get columns to line up? Schelly: blogger software uses templates - columns, fonts, colors, backgrounds, banners etc

11:24: George is creating the Genealogy Summit Blog Extravaganza blog - but I can't see the URL
11:25: Q: blog or wiki? Steve: why not both.
11:26: Q: how do use blog for surname research? Thomas: put surname in blog, and locations. Title needs to reflect interest and focus
11:29: George is showing editing features of blogger posting. Schelly says use readable font, minimize colors, info must be quickly read
11:30: #scgs09 is not in top 10 Twitter topics yet, but we're trying!

11:32: George showing how to create a link - but he's typing it in instead of copy-pasting from a site.
11:39: George trying to get first post. taking a long time. Added some tags in "labels" in blogger. URL is http://sonofblogger.blogspot.com
11:40: Q: how long do blogs last? Leland: his blog went away, becuz controlled by tech guy. Then it went away - 6000 posts lost

11:44: Leland: blog will go away if hosting service is not paid. happened to him. back up everything.
11:45: George - shows to change the blog template. looks terrible. changing layout.
11:46: time has flown by here. Almost over.
11:47: Q: is there help page for beginners? George: blogger has help center.
11:48: Q: can you use Google analytics for traffic and info? Schelly: Yes, sign in through google account, find analytics.

11:53: showing a gen society blog - http://calgensoc.blogspot.com
11:54: Schelly mentioned using Rss feeds and email alerts to read posts - Bloglines, Google Reader, Feedburner, etc
11:56: Q; how do I make sure that it is saved forever? Lisa: is a blog the best vehicle to do it?
11:57: George: wants fam history blog of own family - set up a wiki site with person pages, and web site with family pages
11:59: George: you can mix and match and link them together in a mashup, or composite. Schelly: set up fam website on social network site
12:01: Craig recommends Footnote Pages to add content, photos, stories, etc. George: social network sites let you control access
12:02: It's noon and we're done. Thank you to the panel. To audience for q

-------------------------

To finish my thought above "... questions to panel" and encouraging folks to start a blog to share your research.

87 tweets in about 150 minutes. It would have been more if the damn wi-fi signal was strong! Go to Twitter to see all SCGS09 tweets.

At that point, wi-fi was slow, and I had to try to get folks to gather for a picture while the hotel staff was trying to turn seats into tables with chairs. We got a picture, but not everyone was there.

The funniest part of this panel session was when George created the http://sonofblogger.blogspot.com blog, when he hit Submit for the first post, Kathryn Doyle was already a follower! Others soon added their "Follower" icon.

There were about 100 in attendnace (my estimate) for the first 90 minutes, but only 60 or 70 for the second part of it. This bloggers session spanned two lecture sessions, so some people went off to hear something else.

I will have some comments about the Bloggers Summit in a later post.

Ancestry.com Name Change and YouTube Videos

I heard a rumor at the SCGS Jamboree that The Generations Network (TGN) was going to change their corporate name to Ancestry.com Inc. I forgot to wear my reporter's hat that day (and didn't have my trusty ballpoint pen) and I cannot remember who told me that - I don't think that it was an Ancestry employee.

If the name does change, this will complete a the circle - Ancestry.com, Inc. changed to MyFamily.com, Inc. in 1999, and then to The Generations Network in 2006, according to Wikipedia. Why change? Will they bring all of their properties under the Ancestry.com URL?

I just saw a tweet from Ancestrydotcom highlighting several new Ancestry.com YouTube videos at http://www.youtube.com/AncestryCom. There are five videos posted now. I watched one - they are short (one minute) and quite moving. The one I watched opens with a man trying to discover his roots, finding an ancestral record in Ancestry's databases, shows some vintage photos or movies, and tells about discovering a living relative who had more information about his ancestor.

Updated 11:30 a.m.: Ancestry sent out a press release this morning about their new "My Story" advertising campaign - the five YouTube videos - you can probably read it on several blog sites. Elyse Doerflinger attended the "What's New at Ancestry.com" presentation at the SCGS Jamboree and saw them played.

Geneabloggers Dinner Photos - Post 1

Here are some of my pictures from the Saturday night Geneabloggers dinner at the Marriott Hotel Daily Grill restaurant. We had about 35 in attendance here for a fixed price dinner arranged by Thomas MacEntee, who writes the Geneabloggers and Destination: Austin Family (and several other) blogs.

Here is our host, Thomas MacEntee, and his partner, George (both from Chicago area):


Across the table from Thomas and George were (from the left):

* Ruth Himan (almost a blogger now, one of my CVGS colleagues) from Chula Vista CA, who wasn't looking at the camera
* Schelly Talalay Dardashti (Tracing the Tribe: The Jewish Genealogy Blog) from Tel Aviv (furthest traveler to the GB dinner!)
* Lisa Louise Cooke (Genealogy Gems Podcast blog) from the Bay Area CA
* Lacey Cooke (Lisa's daughter and videographer) from the Bay Area CA



Across the table from Lisa and the others were (from the left):

* Amy Coffin (We Tree blog) from Houston
* Elyse Doerflinger (Elyse's Genealogy Blog) from Lomita CA
* Gini Webb (Ginisology blog) from San Diego
* Steve Webb (Gini's husband) from San Diego

At the back table were (from left):

* Craig Manson (Geneablogie blog) from Carmichael CA

* Illya D'Addezio (Genealogy Today owner) from New Jersey

* Jane Rollin (almost a geneablogger) from L.A. area (I think)

Across the table from the above were (from left):

* Leslie Mehana (Rooting Around Genealogy blog) from the L.A. area (I think)

* Gordon Erickson (not a blogger, Pat's fiance) from Virginia

* Pat Richley (DearMYRTLE Genealogy blog) from Utah

* Jean Hibben (CircleMending blog) from Lake Matthews CA

* Diane Wright (Graveyard Rabbit Travels Wright blog) from Corona CA area

This dinner was so much fun. They could hear the laughter out in the Conference Center from our special room. Inside, we could hardly hear each other talk.

I will have more pictures posted soon - need to get some homework done first! If anybody wants a copy of my photos, please email me at rjseaver@cox.net. Or you can just download them from here. They are all about 1 megabyte in size and the images are fairly good for my relatively old camera without a zoom lens.

SCGS Jamboree - Day 3 - a day of rest?

For this genealogy blogger, this was definitely a day of rest! There were plenty of opportunities to unpack the laptop, fire up IE7 and blog or tweet, but I waited until I got home to work the kinks out of my four tweeting fingers. Why? Because I could. I was tired of trying to meet deadlines and take notes and dozing off in the sessions, but never quite getting the full benefit of the dozes.

The highlights for me of Day 3 of the SCGS Jamboree included:

* After a fitful night's sleep (acid reflux strikes after a late dinner like the one last night!) I was up at 7 a.m. so that I could look presentable at the Ancestry.com sponsored Family Tree Maker 2010 Rollout breakfast for genea-bloggers. Guess what I wore!!! Oh, FTM 2010? Can't talk about it for awhile. Interesting presentation, good breakfast (bacon, eggs, french toast, orange juice for me), and fun table conversation. Thank you, Anastasia, Michelle and Mark for the invitation!

* Another swoop or three around the Exhibit Hall to say goodbyes to my society, vendor and blogger friends. I've only been "meeting folks" at conferences for one year now, but it was really great to meet and share with folks in the genealogy world.

* Somehow I avoided going to all of the sessions today. Some I wanted to attend were full, so I backed off and went to the geneabloggers lounge or the exhibit hall. Finally, I figured I would probably embarrass myself by snoring in the sessions so I stayed in my two favorite places!

* At 11, about 12 genea-bloggers were in the geneabloggers lounge (the Internet hookup area next to the coffee service) to participate in Miriam Midkiff's Scanfest. You can see our sterling comments in Miriam's transcript of the chat. Thomas tried to insert a video from his Netbook webcam into the stream and brought down several systems, we think! Susan let me write a few bits for Scanfest, but I was feeling pretty fried by now - although the blondies livened it up a bit with some songs and dance moves. Rather than get food crumbs all over everybody else's photos and negatives in Scanfest, we went to lunch!

* Back from lunch (I went over to Subway in 100F heat to get $5 footlong sandwiches for lunch and dinner on the train home), I went to the GB lounge and chatted with everyone there. We probably had 15 or 20 geneabloggers at one time or another. Occasionally I walked through the exhibit hall for exercise, but resisted buying books and things.

* We said our goodbyes to everyone, and got the shuttle to the train platform (there was some shade!), the train was on time (4:25 p.m.) but packed - I stood until Glendale - and we made it to San Diego right at 7:45 p.m., and were home by 8:15 p.m. Pretty efficient way to go to L.A. I read most of the syllabus on the way home, and caught two catnaps besides!

* Spent some time waiting for Linda to check her email, unpacked, found everything, then checked my email, read 200 blog posts from the last two days, and then wrote this post.

I feel really guilty that I didn't attend more sessions (I went to 4, counting the blogger Summit). Being with my geneablogging colleagues was much more fun and entertaining than watching endless Powerpoint presentations with small print. Thank yous to Thomas and Denise for really organizing the geneabloggers, and to everyone for making this so much fun that even non-bloggers wanted to join in the activities.

I will post some pictures (found my camera USB cable - it was hiding in my laptop bag), and try to post the Bloggers Summit tweets on Monday. I'm collecting all of the blogger comments about the Jamboree and will try to summarize them unless someone beats me to it (please, please, my fingers are cramping...).

Best of the Genea-Bloggers? Tomorrow - I found those notes too in my laptop case!

Best of the Genea-Blogs - June 21-27, 2009

Several hundred genealogy and family history bloggers write thousands of posts every week about their research, their families, and their interests. I appreciate each one of them and their efforts.

My criteria for "Best of ..." are pretty simple - I pick posts that advance knowledge about genealogy and family history, address current genealogy issues, provide personal family history, are funny or are poignant. I don't list posts destined for the genealogy carnivals, or other meme submissions (but I do include summaries of them), or my own posts.

Here are my picks for great reads from the genealogy blogs for this past week:

* Useful Item #2 - Netbook by Cheryl Rothwell on the Ancestor Hunting blog. Cheryl describes her Netbook setup and her likes and dislikes. I want one too!

* A Genealogy Blog Primer by Thomas MacEntee on the Geneabloggers blog. Thomas created a primer on blogging for genealogy, and has a PDF version and a presentation version. This is a keeper!

* “The TRUTH is Out There…” by Arlene Eakle on the Arlene Eakle Genealogy Blog. Arlene lists some truisms and illustrates them by her own research examples.

* My Recent Picture Goldmine! by Elyse Doerflinger on the Elyse's Genealogy Blog. Elyse is enjoying her recent capture of family pictures, and shares some of her goodies with us.

* How to Contact Living Relatives by Gena Ortega on the Gena's Genealogy blog. Gena's excellent advice, and example contact letter, should be heeded by all researchers.

* Last Man Standing by Thomas Fiske on Lelands Meitzler's GenealogyBlog. Thomas's guest article discusses a fascinating case study - read it! There are unique records in many places, and Thomas found some of them!

* Blog Your Family Tree by Dick Eastman on the Eastman Online Genealogy Newsletter blog. Dick covers the what, why, when, and how of writing a genealogy blog. Try it, you may like it!

* Mourning Visiting Cards by footnoteMaven in her History Hare column on The Graveyard Rabbit Online Journal blog. fM summarizes the use and look of mourning visiting cards - do you have any of these?

* A Festival of Postcards - Main Street by Evelyn Yvonne Theriault on the A Canadian Family blog. There are 22 entries in this Carnival dealing with postcard pictures of "Main Street." Fascinating blog posts!

* Would Genealogy Interest You If You Were Handed the Answers? by Chris Staats on the Staats Place blog. Interesting question, and thoughts about the answers, thanks Chris!

* Grandpa Liked to Sing by Lee Drew on the FamHist blog. Lee's post about his grandfather's talents are wonderful - what a great family history story for Lee's progeny.

* The Best of GeneaBlogie! by Craig Manson on the Geneablogie blog. Craig has an impressive list of his all-time "best-of" posts, by topic, of his blog. Good reads here.

* Tukufu Zuberi Wows Researchers at Jamboree by Lisa Louise Cooke on the Genealogy Gems News blog. Lisa talks about her interview with the presenter of The History Detectives TV show.

* Vacation Lampoonery by Donna Pointkouski in her The Humor Of It column on footnoteMaven's Shades of the Departed blog. Donna shows some, well, intriguing, photographs from vacations past and present. Funny post!

I encourage you to go to the blogs listed above and read their articles, and add their blog to your Favorites, Bloglines, reader, feed or email if you like what you read. Please make a comment to them also - all bloggers appreciate feedback on what they write.

Did I miss a great genealogy blog post? Tell me! I am currently reading posts from over 490 genealogy bloggers using Bloglines, but I still miss quite a few it seems.

Read past Best of the Genea-Blogs posts here.

What I did at Jamboree - Saturday - Day 2

Whew, I'm tweeted out and didn't have time to post anything today. Here are highlights for my day:

* Went to hear Ron Arons talk on Mapping Madness - great presenter, interesting topic, good audience. Ron was substitute "teacher" for this presentation, got an A+ from me.

* Got to blogger summit room, set up my laptop and worked in Twitter to live tweet it. See http://twitter.com/rjseaver for the live tweeting of the Blogger Summit meeting - 2.5 hours. Others tweeted about it too - littlebyteslife, hikari17, acoffin, several others. DearMYRTLE and other bloggers have photos.

* Lunch in convention center - talked to bloggers, readers, colleagues. Ate outside - it was warm in the sun.

* Took my flash drive to GenerationsMaps and Janet loaded my GEDCOM file, and provided a 7 foot long 8-generation chart for me. She took a picture of us with the chart - see her post here. Cool - thanks, Janet!

* Walked around the exhibit area, then went to Lisa Alzo's presentation of Murder, Mayhem and Town Tragedies. Interesting talk, a complex story, and good solutions. Lisa has wonderful stories!

* Decided to go take a nap rather than go to a 3 p.m. talk - good decision!

* Went off at 4 p.m. to go to Dollarhide's talk, but room was very full. Walking back, talked to Paul Larsen about his Easy Family History book and site.

* Time for the Facebook face-to-face meeting - talked to bloggers, colleagues, etc. Had a snack to tide me over until late dinner.

* Went up to dress for dinner. Came down and sat in the cool breeze with footnoteMaven and several others, then went to Bloggers dinner. There were 33 there. Linda and I sat with Dean Richardson and shared family and genealogy stories. There were lots of pictures taken and lots of laughs, and I'm sure others will share about it.

* Got my laptop and went to lobby to write this post. Talked to Hovorkas, Buzbees and Illya D'addazio while trying to blog. Back to room by 11:30... major yawn!

My hope had been to post pictures today of the blogger events, but I'm afraid I left my camera USB cable at home - either that or I've lost it somewhere. So - pictures when I get home!

All in all - a fun day. One more day and we go home on the train. It is so much fun to put personalities to the faces and words of my blogging colleagues. There is such a wonderful camaraderie in our Genea-Blogging community - lots of support and little criticism. We've built a fun and good thing, blogger colleagues.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Which genealogist would you like to meet?

It's Saturday Night - time for more Genealogy Fun!

It's been a really fun Saturday for me so far - I'm at the SCGS genealogy Jamboree while you're reading this, and I've been talking to over 30 genealogy bloggers, attending the Bloggers Summit, enjoying the exhibits and several classes, and tonight is our Geneabloggers banquet hosted and arranged by Thomas MacEntee at the hotel.

But this is about you - here is your SNGF assignment for tonight:

1) Identify one genealogist that you would like to meet. The person could be living or deceased.

2) Why do you want to meet with this person?

3) What would you talk about? What questions would you ask this person?

4) Write about your choice on your blog or in Comments to this post.

Here is my choice:

1) Terry Thornton - writer of the Hill Country of Monroe County, Mississippi blog.

2) I chose Terry because he is a gifted writer and lives in a beautiful and fascinating place so different from Big City, Pacific Ocean San Diego.

3) We would talk about family, about family history, about life experiences, about food, about cemeteries, about places we've been, about people we've met and admire, about genealogy bloggers. The discussion will last a long time, I think!

I had several more people in contention for this answer, but realized that by Saturday afternoon I will have met some of them in person! [I wrote this on Thursday so that I can "enjoy" the SCGS Jamboree events.]

SCGS Jamboree Highlights - Friday Post 1

It's been a full day of talking, listening, laughing and sharing with genealogy bloggers and vendors. The highlights so far:

* The train trip from San Diego to Burbank was great - 3.5 hours to go 140 miles with a smooth ride and fun people. There were 16 on this SDGS sponsored trip.

* Meeting bloggers I had not met before - Sheri, Amy, footnoteMaven, Maureen, Thomas, Susan, Kiril, Lisa, Cheryl, Elyse, Illya, Bruce, Gini, Leslie, Jay, Lisa, and others? And those I had met before - Elizabeth, Denise, Pat, Leland, Dick, George, Drew, Ancestry Insider, Schelly, Craig, Steve, Dean, Kathryn, Jean, Arlene, Paula, Janet, Geoff, Sue B, Diane W., others? My memory of who is here is failing... That's at least 36!

* Sat in on Maureen Taylor's presentation about Photographs of Revolutionary War Soldiers - fascinating photos, great commentary. This will be an excellent book.

* Interviewed by Lisa Louise Cooke for Genealogy Gems pod/videocast. A new experience.

* Twittering is being done in exhibit hall, presentations and the bar... and shown on big screen in registration area! Best one so far was Susan Kitchens' itemizing debris found in lobby seat.

* Geneabloggers swag bag provided by Thomas and Denise includes free RootsMagic 4, free wall chart from GenerationMaps, food, water bottle, other goodies. Thomas provided Mardi Gras beads and Amy a "Rock Star" ribbon.

* Met Tony Macklin and Sharon Hoyt of Ancestry Search team.

* Tom Underhill has a couch and coffee table in his display booth for reading his coffee table sample books.

* Great show discounts - RootsMagic 4 for $20 and 3 for $50. Legacy for $20. Ancestry for $119/$239 for new members. Footnote for $50 for new members.

* Lots of people here - enthusiastic, friendly, interested. Hungry and thirsty too!

* Had dinner with Gini and Steve Webb and Elyse Doerflinger at George's Greek Cuisine in the fast food court across the street. Topped off with ice cream at Dreyers in the same center.

* The free wi-fi in the hotel lobby works fine once you figure out how to connect to it. Some can connect easily, others can't connect at all depending on their laptop settings. About 10 connected at 9:15 pm.

* Met some people who are not bloggers - Brenton Simons, Ron Arons, Cath Trindle, Julie Miller, probably others - memory fails...

UPDATED 9 p.m. to add names and dinner comments.

First look at 2010 Census Form

The 2010 United States Census form is available to see in PDF format at http://2010.census.gov/2010census/pdf/2010_Questionnaire_Info_Copy.pdf.

It is two pages, formatted to be folded so that the "page" on the right of Page 1 of the PDF is the top page of the folder, and the "page" on the left of Page 1 of the PDF is the last page of the folder.

Only 10 questions for the head of household:

1. How many people were living or staying in this house, apartment or mobile home on April 1, 2010. (fill in number)
2. Were there any additional people staying here April 1, 2010that you did not include in question 1? (choose from list)
3. Is this house, apartment or mobile home -- (owned by you with a mortgage, owned by you without a mortgage, rented, or occupied without payment or rent). (choose from list)
4. What is your telephone number? (fill in blanks)

5. What is Person 1's name? (fill in blanks)
6. What is Person 1's sex? (check male or female)
7. What is Person 1's age and date of birth? (fill in blanks)
8. Is Person 1 of Hispanic, Latino or Spanish origin? (choose from list)
9. What is Person 1's race? (choose from list)
10. Does Person 1 sometimes live or stay somewhere else? (choose from list)

The questions for Persons 2 to 6 are:

1. Print name of Person x (fill in blanks)
2. How is this person related to Person 1? (choose from list)
3. What is Person 1's sex? (check male or female)
4. What is Person 1's age and date of birth? (fill in blanks)
5. Is Person 1 of Hispanic, Latino or Spanish origin? (choose from list)
6. What is Person 1's race? (choose from list)
7. Does Person 1 sometimes live or stay somewhere else? (choose from list)

For persons 7 through 12, they ask for:

1. Name (fill in blanks)
2. Sex (check male or female)
3. Age and Date of Birth (fill in blanks)
4. Related to Person 1? (check box yes or no)

Will some people object to filling this out? It seems fairly non-threatening to me.