Blog - Page 36 of 39 - Florida State Genealogical Society

Tradition and Technology: Finding Your Society’s Balance

Explore a variety of techniques to assist your society in finding stable ground within the fast-paced world of technology.

D. Joshua Taylor, MA, MLS is a nationally known and recognized genealogical author, lecturer, and researcher and a frequent speaker at family history events across the globe. Passionate about family history, Joshua is the President of the New York Genealogical & Biographical Society (NYG&B) and also serves the genealogical community as President of the Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS)

Pits I Have Fallen In and How to Avoid Them

The best thing about making mistakes is the opportunity to learn from them. I’ve made my share of genealogical mistakes over the years, but I’ve learned that most of them have resulted from faulty assumptions. In this talk, we’ll examine eight commonly-held but incorrect assumptions and consider some strategies and resources to help head off errors before they happen.

Pam Vestal is a professional genealogist, writer, and speaker from West Linn, Oregon, and the owner of Generations Genealogy, LLC. She lectures throughout the western United States, and her work has been published in the Association of Professional Genealogists Quarterly.

Desperation, Displacement, Determination and Deuteronomy: Colonial Germans and what we can learn about them

Our early Germanic ancestors’ desperation led them to board ships for a three-month journey into the unknown. What factors drove them from Europe? How did walled towns, guilds, and social status determine who emigrated? Once here, how did their religion determine what records may exist for them and those to whom they might be related? We’ll explore these topics and discuss existing records and where they are located.

Sharon Cook MacInnes, Ph.D., is a professional genealogist, author, educator, and CEO of Ancestor Tracks. She started researching in 1976, long before the internet revolution.

From Chernorudka to Chicago – Lessons Learned From Tracing One Family’s Immigration Pathway

Using case studies, this talk shows step-by-step how to determine how your family members trekked from their ancestral towns Eastern Europe to new homes in the land of opportunity.
– Identifying your ancestral town
– Lessons learned from Uncle Abe’s passport, passenger lists, oral history, microfilm and online sources
– Birds of passage: immigrants who returned to Europe for other relatives
– From Russia to Baltimore to Russia – the great-aunt who gave birth in a Ukrainian jail
– Evading the European draft – immigration just before World War I
– The final step of immigration – becoming a U.S. citizen

Jane Neff Rollins is professional genealogist who specializes in Jewish genealogy, translating Russian documents, and breaking down brick walls.

Metadata for Digital Images

Metadata helps identify aspects of digital files such as scanned photographs including size, date taken, etc. Learn how to add or edit metadata and use it to your advantage in your genealogy research. Once an image is scanned, you can do more than just send the image to friends and family. Learn how to work with the metadata embedded in the file to add captions, information about people in the photo, when the photo was taken and more!

Thomas MacEntee is a professional genealogist specializing in the use of technology and social media to improve genealogical research and as a means of interacting with others in the family history community.

Ten Ways to Jumpstart Your Eastern European Research

Curious about your East European roots but don’t know where to begin? This session will show you how to “jumpstart your genealogy!” Learn the basics of how to investigate your family’s history using both traditional and online sources. Discover which records to tap into to identify your ancestral village, and how history impacts genealogical research. Tips for contacting possible relatives and writing to foreign archives, as well as strategies for overcoming the most common pitfalls and problems will also be discussed.

Lisa A. Alzo, M.F.A., is a freelance writer, instructor, and internationally recognized lecturer, specializing in Slovak/Eastern European genealogical research, writing your family history, and using the Internet to trace female and immigrant ancestors.

Using Free Third-Party Tools to Analyze Your Autosomal DNA

Although DNA testing companies provide their own analysis of test results, there are free third-party tools that allow test-takers to learn even more about their genomic heritage, including admixture calculators and the identification of genetic cousins. Together we’ll explore some of these tools and learn how to separate the wheat from the chaff.

Blaine Bettinger, Ph.D., J.D., is an intellectual property attorney by day and a genetic genealogist by night. In 2007 he started The Genetic Genealogist (www.thegeneticgenealogist.com), one of the earliest blogs on the topic. Dr. Bettinger has been interviewed and quoted on personal genomics topics in Newsweek, New Scientist, Wired, and others.

Problem Solving with Timelines

When you create a personal timeline of an ancestor’s life, it is easy to see facts, relationships, and stories emerge that were never before apparent. Learn how to create a timeline and the many uses for them in genealogy research and analysis.

Beth Foulk learned the love of genealogy from her father and for decades she has pursued this passion in a constant question for family history and stories. She shares this joy of learning through her speaking opportunities.

They’re Not on the Census: Using Non-Traditional Sources to Identify Slave Owners

Researching enslaved African Americans prior to 1865 is a difficult but not impossible task. Identifying slave holders, reconstructing family units and finding missing kin are all primary research goals for those developing family histories. Using methodology as an approach to problem solving, this webinar explores strategies to identify slave ownership. Following, attendees will be able to identify a variety of new research sources that will increase the probability of slave owner identification, reconstruct slave families as well as identify missing and unknown kin. With these new skills, the participant will be able to re-evaluate prior research for accuracy and completeness. They will also be able to complete a Verification of Documentation of Vital Records form to assure they have secured valuable documents. These additional tools and skills will improve the quality and accuracy of the research and will enable the attendee in adding context and content to the life of their ancestors.

Janis Minor Forté is an experienced genealogist, writer and lecturer who presents at national, state and local conferences. Recently, she presented lectures at the Ill. State Genealogical Society Conference, the NGS Conference in St. Charles and Roots Tech 2015 in Salt Lake City.

Family History – From a Pile of Pieces to a Puzzle Picture

You’ve started your family history, but the pieces don’t seem to fit and the jigsaw puzzle isn’t revealing a picture as you’d hoped? Sometimes it’s just a matter of turning a piece in another direction or fitting it into a different place in the picture. This lecture will show you how take that pile of pieces that don’t seem to fit and turn them into a finished product. At the conclusion of this lecture, participants will understand how to evaluate information, analyze documents, create a source citation and develop a research plan. This lecture works for both the beginner as well as experienced genealogists.

Donna Moughty, a Professional Genealogist and former Regional Manager for Apple Computer, has been conducting family research for over 20 years. She teaches and lectures on a variety of subjects including Internet, Irish research and computer topics locally and at national conferences and institutes.

Blog (page 36)