Classes brought to you by Yours Truly

June's been a crazy month...So I write to catch up after the craziness.  June is always crazy for me on the mom front.  In fact, I haven't had a chance to do family history the whole month, and I'm missing it terribly, BUT FamilySearch is down today and so I blog.  June is always when we completely over schedule our kids, visit the pool far too many hours, and, this year, get all medical procedures done because we've already hit our out-of-pocket max on our health insurance and it's starting over next month. YIKES! I write from my lovely Adirondack chair overlooking a beautiful mountainous lake.  Why from the chair, you ask? Because due to said insurance circumstance I had a last-minute knee surgery last week, and to tie it into family history, I inherited some crappy knees! Needless to say it's left me fairly immobile, and so I write. Some exciting news that is blog worthy amidst the crazy-busy family schedule though...I was able to attend the Sunday BYU Family History classes a couple times.  I wasn't able to get any pictures because I was too busy exploring the library, meeting new friends, and taking as many classes and notes as I could manage.  It's awesome, featuring conference-quality speakers for a price you can't beat--FREE!  The topics rotate often, so you can go each week and learn new things.  I took an English Research class this last time, and though I've taken many English Research classes in  my day, I learned a bunch of new information.  Plus, networking is fun, meeting other genealogy enthusiasts and many experts.  It's a can't miss if you live near enough to take advantage of it. During my BYU Family History visits I was able to meet and talk to Anne Tanner, who coordinates the classes there at the Library.  While chatting I expressed my interest in teaching some "mom" focused classes and she loved the ideas, so she plopped me onto the schedule and I've got a class for July, August, and September.  I'm ecstatic. I seriously LOVE sharing my passion for this stuff, and I think far too many moms miss out on the excitement of it because they think they don't have time or don't really know where to start, so hopefully I can help a few more ladies (and non-ladies of course--we won't discriminate) outside of my typical social groups. Sunday, July 10th Sunday, August 28th
Sunday, September 11th
To see the full quarter’s schedule:

So with that in the bag, I also started feeling super enthusiastic about being a Family History Consultant in my hometown.  I knew I wanted to do it, but with the family's evening demands, I 

wasn't sure how to go about it until it hit me that I could volunteer during the day if I could involve my kiddos.  So I immediately contacted the local family history center and scheduled a meeting. You can imagine how thrilled I was to walk into the building and discover that they had had the same vision and had already created a children's family history room, equipped with toys, family history coloring books, and beautiful painted interactive family tree.  So we put our brains together and the three of us decided to offer a class to the public geared toward moms doing family history with kids. 

Drum roll please...

I’ve been handing out the fliers at all of the kiddos activities, and got the local library to hand them out at their desk, so far the reactions have been a mix of “okay you’re a weirdo” and “that’s AWESOME!”, but mostly the latter.  I’m excited! Anyway, prepping both the BYU classes, and the Mommy & Me classes has kept me pretty busy in my spare time, but I'm thrilled about how things are coming together.  So I'll keep you posted about how they go. Until then, Happy Summer!

Family History on our Family Trip

We love National Parks in our family.  We work them into our travel plans as often as we can and we work on Junior Ranger badges with the kids to help them gain an appreciation and love for them too.  Our brainwashing is slowly working, and we find them using cute lines like “Look, there’s ANOTHER great view!” and “I want to stay here forever,"--proud moments in our family. So, when we planned our most recent Yellowstone trip I had no intention of involving family history in the trip, unless it was a little indexing or app hint matching during the drive to or from the Park.  BUT don’t worry, I found a way…

My hubby stayed back at the cabin one afternoon in order to get the baby a nap, so the older kids and I went off exploring around Old Faithful.  During our exploring, we decided to take a tour of the Old Faithful Inn.  It’s a magnificent historic building and I was thrilled when I found out they do tours, and to my surprise, the kids actually wanted to do it, too. I think their appeal had something to do with the endless sets of stairs you can see rising up to the top of the 75 foot lobby ceiling.  It’s truly awesome. 
The tour started at the huge clock in the lobby…so what isn’t historic about that baby?!! Most of it is original, and although they’ve updated the weight system that powers the clock, the original weights are there. That’s not the important part though.  What's important is this: how many families have photos in front of this grand clock from over the years; and beyond that, from somewhere in this historic park?  The first of it’s kind, Yellowstone was established in 1872 as a National Park.  Not only was it unique, and a must visit, but it’s been around long enough for all of us to have generations before us who have explored the beautiful terrain.


Here are some photos I scanned from my grandpa’s album “Old Yellowstone Photos”. After spending a weekend there I certainly recognize some of those scenes. Mesa Falls (just outside the West Entrance of the Park), the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, wildlife watching, and camping.                             Clearly they didn’t have the same rules and regulations about approaching the wildlife.

As our tour finished up our tour guide told us a story about a lady who had come to stay at the Inn. She shared her story with the staff.  The woman’s grandparents had come to Yellowstone in the early 1900’s and stayed in the Inn.  While there, they’d taken a photo in front of the clock, and so had her mother, and now she was coming to do the same.  The staff at the Inn helped her take it a step further, though, when the woman produced a photo her grandmother had taken with an “X” marked on the window of the room they’d stayed in.  So they went outside, identified the room, and allowed the woman to check into the exact room her grandparents had stayed in nearly 100 years earlier.  They’ve done a lot to preserve the feel of the original rooms, so that experience had to be just wonderful for that woman.  As the guide was sharing that story, it got my genealogy juices flowing… "an X on a window? I have a photo like that!!"

I found an old postcard years ago when I was assembling my grandmother's life story book.  The photo was of the New House Hotel in Salt Lake City.  There was an “X” on one of the upper windows.  I'd post it, but of course when I went to insert it, it's no where to be found. Argh! When I found the postcard I didn’t think much of it, but as I continued to research I found that this was where their wedding dinner was held. Now during this tour I discovered that it was customary during this time to mark an “X” on the window to indicate which room they'd stayed in. So cool! I'm sure this isn't news to most genealogists, but it was to me.  I would have never even thought to ask.  AWESOME--I just solved a small mystery, just by vacationing with my family. Of course now I have to start a digging mission to find the postcard. Wish me luck.

Now go find your historic Yellowstone photos and see what you can re-create on your next National Park visit . . . .

FREE Live Stream 2016 Jaboree

Thank you ANCESTRY!!

Just wanted to pass this on to any fellow mom genealogists who can't always make it to the conferences, a great opportunity to catch some of the classes while in the swing of Spring Time mAdDNesS with the kiddos!  You can watch live or at your convenience on the Live Stream site until July 5th.


Quoted from the Jamboree 2016 mailer,

"Last week, we announced the schedule for the pay-per-view live streamed sessions from the Genetic Genealogy 2016 Conference. Thank you to genealogists around the world who have already registered for the DNA pay-per-view sessions.  

Now, it's time to release the rest of the news you've been waiting for - the schedule for the FREE live streaming from the 47th Annual Southern California Genealogy Jamboree.

We are very grateful to our Diamond Sponsor, Ancestry.com, which is underwriting the cost of the free Jamboree Live Stream. With their generous support, SCGS is once again able to bring you 14 hours of high-quality family history education free of charge."

I've checked out some of the classes and am about to register myself. 

Visit the Jamboree homepage to see class lists, registration info, and more information about the Genetic Genealogy classes.  Or check out the email that has a synopsis of all the information. 

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Happy streaming...

Some things only a Genealogist will understand…

I had a huge stack (as you can see) of binders to digitize, but the pages were those sticky kind where it’s like photograph suicide to remove…the only solution, a book scanner.  So to the BYU Family History Library I headed this weekend.  I couldn’t carry them all in so in enters the double stroller, I knew motherhood was preparing me for more than just mothering.
Sadly, that amazing book scanner I used last time was apparently on trial at the time and has since been removed.  To those of you interested in using it, they said they’ll be purchasing one in the 2017 budget year, so it will return in the future.  BUT--I had a task to do so I decided to check out the other options for book scanners.  They have some amazing flatbed scanners that really do a great job and are quite quick…12 huge binders of photos and 4 hours later I was done.
The great news is that during my time in the library I made some friends.  I love chatting it up with people and helping when I can, so I found myself in conversations with various people.  The girl next to me, Afton, was scanning some adoption paperwork for her younger siblings from Russia.  We got into conversation and I learned that she is a BYU student majoring in Family History. Yes, that IS what I said, majoring in FAMILY HISTORY…..somehow I doubt any other school offers such a major. Can I just say, I missed my lot in life.
She was great to chat with--definitely helped move the project along. The best part was that she introduced me to this new site, provided by none other than the BYU Family History Department.  Thank you BYU, you are continuously providing me with new genealogy toys.
Virtual Pedigree: https://virtual-pedigree.fhtl.byu.edu/
It’s a FamilySearch partner site, so it uses your FamilySearch tree.  It uses what they call Dynamic Navigation, which basically scrolls around and zooms according to where you move your cursor and what you click on.  It’s easy to navigate and very intuitive.
The idea behind the program is to help you easily find the lines in your family tree that need work, and have some record hints ready to go so you can get right in to the research. It’s great for helping you get started quickly when you’re not really sure where to start, especially for those of us with pioneer ancestors and lots of work that is already done.  Find those cousins that got lost in the shuffle over the years, and hopefully their families.

To use it, scroll to an ancestor several generations back (late 1700s is where I like to start), then click on that ancestor and select “set as root.”  This will populate that person as the central person in the tree, then start populating their descendants and ancestors.  You’ll see colored circles among their descendants and ancestors that indicate different research tips.  You’ll also notice on the right hand side a box entitled “Low Hanging Fruit”.  These are the ones with record hints already found in FamilySearch.  Awesome, right! The number next to it indicates how many Record Hints they currently have.
Okay, now go play, and let me know what you think!

A simple work-around for the loss of Google App Launcher

So I know this isn't exactly part of the topic for my blog, but seeing as technology is a huge part of my life and a huge part of why I love doing genealogy I feel that it is in fact appropriate.

I spent several hours today trying to figure out how to install the Chrome App Launcher on my new computer.  I am an avid user of Google and many of its applications, and I often try to encourage people to use their product because they offer so many amazing and wonderful features. They have tons of great resources even for genealogy, but that's a post for another day.  So when I discovered the Chrome App Launcher a few years ago, I was thrilled because frankly I use Google stuff way more often than I use any Windows apps but I have a PC.  That said, after hours of getting stuck without an option to download the launcher, I finally found this article, Retiring Chrome App Launcher.  Basically Google has decided to discontinue support of the Chrome App Launcher, and remove it, so obviously they no longer have it available for download. Blah!! 

Without going into how incredibly disappointed I am about their decision, I wanted to offer a work-around to others experiencing this problem.  I spent some time trying to figure out another option because of course the Windows Start screen doesn't display the apps with their correct thumbnails, so creating a "group" (I think that's what they're called) on the start menu isn't a good option.


So here's the WORK-AROUND:

Open Chrome, and go to your app library. Visit: chrome://apps/

Right click on each app that you'd like to have available on your desktop and choose "Create Shortcut". Check the "desktop" check-box and click "create".

This will add a shortcut to your desktop for every app you'd like to have available.  Don't worry we
won't leave them there.

Now create a folder and name it whatever you'd like it to show on your Taskbar, I used "Chrome
Apps".  File that file wherever you'd like it to be.  I just used the original location that the apps were actually stored but anywhere will suffice as long as you can find it.

Now RIGHT CLICK on the Taskbar, go to "Toolbars" then select "New Toolbar".

Navigate to the folder you created with your Chrome Apps and select it. VOILA, you now have a little toolbar labeled as Chrome Apps that you can click and it opens up all those shortcuts.

It's not as pretty as the launcher but it works pretty much the same.

I'm sure there are other solutions, but hopefully this will be helpful to someone.

Truly March Madness...DiGITizE your old stuff!

Aside from my brackets being shot after 2 days of basketball madness, my parents' basement flooded.

It was a mess.  THANKFULLY about 5 years ago I went on a digitizing craze.  During that time I digitized almost all my mom had as far as family photos and documents were concerned.  Unfortunately, due to my mad organization skills tons of the photos I had digitized got ruined because they were all together in folders and the dampness of the house made the photographs all stick together.  Ironically the ones heaved in drawers were totally fine because they weren't tightly packed. LESSON LEARNED.

But after a full weekend of cleaning, sifting, and sorting here's a peak at my mess that I have to sift through now...

Apparently after my uncle passed away my mom had inherited a lot of his documents and photos which also had a lot of family history stuff in there.




Look at this gem...

It's a family log from 1901.  It has tons of names and dates of births, deaths, marriages, blessings, baptisms, etc...I was so excited to get it digitized.  I sneaked a visit into the BYU Family History Library last weekend with my 7 year old to get it done.  She appeases my obsession once in a while. Sometime she even pretends to enjoy it with me.  The library has some great book scanners, and it was super fun to involve my kiddo, though she insisted that she wasn't actually doing family history work because "it was only pushing a button".

I LOVE finding new treasures!  There's lots of other treasures in this pile too...but it'll take some time before I'm able to report on all of them.

Bottom line...if I hadn't digitized when I did, I'm certain we would have lost some irreplaceable stuff. Unfortunately we did lose some originals but we have really great digital images of those pictures that we can print, copy or share.  Yes, it's a lot of work and it requires some planning, but it's worth it.  So if you haven't yet digitized your stuff and you'd like some guidance on where to start, check out my post about DIY Digitizing.

DIY Scanning

Scanning or digitizing your family treasure trove can seem to be an incredibly daunting task, but it doesn't have to be.  If you take a few minutes to educate yourself on the basics then you can make an informed decision about the best route for you and your archive.

I got going on it myself in 2010.  I admit photos was an obsession before family history entered my radar--I'd say photos, digital scrap-booking, and family movies was what led me to discover my love for genealogy.  So I'm pretty sure I am genetically hard-wired this way.  So with 6 years of experience under my belt and research on the subject I'll give you the basics.

First of all, assess what you've got, and what you can and want to digitize.  You'll likely be surprised at the things that you'll find as you start to dig.  Things like photos and documents are easy to scan, but many of us have things like film, tape, & heirlooms that can be a little more tricky to digitize.

Next, learn a bit about file formats and resolution.  You'll want to know what your ultimate goal is...are you digitizing for display, preservation, or just as back up.  Here are some super brief articles to get you up to speed quickly: Learn about file formats & Learn about resolution.

Now you'll want to decide which approach is best for you, here are some ideas and things to consider about each. I'll save the best for last...