Explosion!

Photo Credit: stock.xchng.com

After an amazing week in Las Vegas at the NGS 2013 Family History Conference, I'm back at  home and settling into my usual routine. Right? 

Um, no. 

As it happens, during the conference, D. Joshua Taylor sent out this tweet: 

Little did I know (or him for that matter!) the level of excitement this idea would generate. 

Thankfully, we certainly were not the only people thinking about doing something like this. The wonderful Kassie Nelson had already started a Facebook group for the very same thing. However, as a full time student and Mom, it was tough getting things moving for her. We banded together, and I am extremely excited that The NextGen Genealogy Network (NGGN) now has over 120 members! 

Just another Facebook group? Hardly. 

The organization is doing just that: organizing. We have filed incorporation papers and while we wait for that process to be completed, we are working on creating our structure, finding volunteers to fill those necessary roles to make everything click, and generating ideas for projects, goals and other objectives. 

What exactly is NGGN? 

Well, our mission statement should give you a pretty good explanation: 

"The NextGen Genealogy Network exists to foster the next generation’s interest in family history and engagement in our community through digital channels which virtually connect members throughout the world."

Yes, virtually. Our meetings, conversations, educational programs... everything will be online. We are truly hoping to reach those genealogists and family historians that do not carry a typical schedule because soccer games and scout meetings get in the way. Those folks that are interested, but are trying to get to their Biology 101 class on time. The people that cannot necessarily afford to join their local society, or feel out of place in that environment.

If that sounds intriguing to you, I invite you to do any one of the following three things:


Join our group on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
Fill out this Membership form to let us know you want in! 


As we continue to collaborate, we'll keep everyone posted on our progress. We do anticipate officially taking members sometime around the first week of July. Hope to see you online!

All of this is certainly keeping me busy, but it's such a good busy. I'm loving every moment of it. I am a proud, almost-card-carrying member ('cause we still have to make some cards!) of this organization, and I cannot wait to see what happens tomorrow!

Packing My Bags

Hello. My name is Jen, and I'm a blogger. 

In exactly one month from today, I'll be heading slightly southwest to Las Vegas, Nevada for the National Genealogical Society 2013 Family History Conference! I am excited for a whole bunch of reasons, and I simply cannot wait to get there! 

During the conference, I will be blogging away as an Official Blogger... but not here. Nope! I'll be over on The In-Depth Genealogist blog, collaborating with fellow pirate women, Stephanie Pitcher Fishman and Terri O'Connell, who are also attending. Together, we will represent the team at IDG, missing only 1/4 of our leadership; Jennifer Alford (but, she'll be at home helping us out!)

Another piece of the week I am super excited about? The three of us will also be hosting #genchat from the conference! The twitter based collaboration for genealogists will occur on Friday, May 10 LIVE from Vegas! We will be releasing the details as we get closer to departure date, but you can bet that a true social media event will be taking place that evening, and we are certainly hoping that many of our fellow conference attendees will join us in the fun! 

(If you haven't yet experienced #genchat, read all about it on Conference Keeper and come learn with us on April 12, as we discuss the FamilySearch Wiki!)

Over the next four weeks, I'll be posting more and more - on all the accounts I have! - about the conference. I love conferences. I love social media. It's all coming together for me in May! Posts will be here, on IDG and on the Conference Keeper blog: CK Updates! 

I am going to issue an invitation, too, to you. If you blog, if you blog about genealogy, if you are going to or will be blogging about the NGS Conference this year, please join our little group over on Facebook. IDG has created a group just for Genealogy Bloggers at NGS 2013; and we're using it as a platform for geneabloggers to communicate, make plans, share ideas and little tidbits we pick up about Vegas itself. All sorts of preparation for the conference. During the actual event, we'll be using it to share posts and arrange meet ups. Come be a part of the community! We'd love to have you. 

Imagine This: A List of All Genealogy Conferences

Have you imagined it? What would it look like? There might be a page for "national" conferences, perhaps another to list conferences and workshops by state. Maybe a tab or two devoted to Canada, Ireland, or Australia.

And that, all for free.

I tried to find it. Last week I spent two days searching the internet, then messaged folks on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn. Only to find, it didn't exist. There were some great options to use; certain organizations posted calendar pages; there is a Facebook page dedicated to the idea of a comprehensive list. But, they all required me to do extra work to find what I was looking for, and it just was not coming together for me.

What do to?

Everybody I asked left comments like, "wow, that would be great", or "awesome idea!"


Enter: Conference Keeper.

It took me all of fifteen minutes to make a decision, create a name, pick a theme and start putting the site together. I have a feeling it will consume a great deal of time moving forward, as I work to stay on top of the variety of functions that are hosted world wide on the topics of genealogy, family history, story telling, technology, small business and more. However, I am going to try.

It's a very simple concept. I've started by focusing on scheduled events around the United States, though I do have a short list of international events currently. It gives just the basics: name, date, city/state, and a link to the website for either the conference or the host organization.

You can easily contribute to the list, just use the "Contact Us" tab on the website, or message me through Facebook on the Conference Keepers page. Assuming I don't already have it on there, I'll add your event.

Time will tell where this will go, but in the end, the genealogy community now has a one stop shop style website to find the conference, seminar, workshop of interest in your area. No more wasted hours spent searching for each individual event, taking notes, comparing dates and "re-finding" the website you had an hour ago to make a decision on what to attend, when and where.

I hope it is helpful, and I hope you utilize it over and over.

February Goals

Deciding to document my genealogical goals on this blog is no small deal. This means I have to actually commit! Argh! Scary!

Ok, really. Here they are.

1. Blog more. There were many reasons I began this project, but the two that are most important to me were to improve my writing skills and to maintain a routine examination of my own research projects. During the past several months my blogging has been inconsistent at best, especially in terms of frequency. My goal for February is to blog about something twice a week. I have started a list of possible topics, and of course, I am open to suggestions. If there is something you are interested in learning more about, let me know. 
2. Create two new pages for both of my TTTP sites: Summit County, Colorado and Colfax County, Nebraska.  I have very much enjoyed the Trails to the Past project that began this past fall for me. Certainly it has given me the opportunity to learn a great deal more about both areas of the country. It has also forced me to be creative when it comes to finding new resources. My local library has been wonderful for the Summit County page, but being distant from Nebraska requires that I work harder to find new information for that area. Because of this, I do feel that the Nebraska page has suffered some, so to define my goal even further, I will create the Colfax County pages first. 
3. Girl Scout Project. This particular venture has truly given me a chance to go back to the basics in my own work and reevaluate some of the technical sides of the process that I have developed bad habits for or taken short cuts with. So, I'm grateful for it. February's meeting topic is yet to be determined, so I will need to develop my lesson for the girls for the month, prepare examples, and provide them with their homework. 
4. Continue the Social Media campaign.  My current efforts with creating an online presence and developing a reputation in the genealogical community appears to be making an impact. So, that focus will continue until my "audience" has grown and I feel confident that the name of "Ancestral Journeys" is out there, and known. Of course, this may take years. I think I can handle that.
5. Continue to develop standardized forms/information for Ancestral Breezes.  The necessary communication tools for new clients should be in place before I take on clients, yes?  I've been working on this as I am able, and have developed two to three very solid documents, all with the objective of providing the client with information.  February should see two to three more, including a tracking log (time and research), standardized invoice form, copyright information, and a release for publication purposes (so I can use other people's families to write about). 
6. Historical Document Preservation. Being the proud owner of a rather extensive library of photographs, letters, newspapers, certificates and other documents is a task I will gladly accept. It does, however, come with some responsibility. There is quite a bit more to digitally preserve in my collection, and they deserve some quality time with me. I now have the tools necessary to do this, and do it right, so there are no more excuses. My goal is to scan and save at least 200 new items this month. Storage is a whole different beast. Maybe next month... 

Six is a good number, right? 

Guess I'll be checking back around 1 March 2012 to see how I did.... and sadly, I don't think this counts as one of this week's blog posts, since it's not technically February yet. 

Ancestral Journeys... The Story of the Rockies One Person At A Time

I am pleased to announce today the launch of:

Ancestral Journeys

... The Story of the Rockies One Person At A Time

As Summit County's only genealogical research service, and one of very few in the Rocky Mountain region of Wyoming, Colorado and northern New Mexico, (including Colorado's "western slope"), we are proud to represent professional genealogy in this region. Our services include research assistance, genealogical reports, internet and software training/education, and service oriented programs; educating the next generation about how to find their own ancestral trail. Located in Breckenridge, Colorado, we can offer you professional and respectful research at a reasonable cost. 

Member, National Genealogical Society

You can contact us via email and social media: 

ancestralbreezes@gmail.com

Twitter @ancestryjourney

Facebook Ancestral Journey

Or via this blog... 

My Education

Over the past year, my focus has been on expanding my research abilities, gaining experience in web page design and upkeep and teaching. Using the resources available to me, I have managed to learn quite a bit about all three of those goals, and the learning continues.

Lesson One: It is not easy to maintain a website in which the goal is to continually add more information and new sources with new ideas - all for free. How I would love someone to pay me just $1 per hour for the work that goes into the Summit County, Colorado and Colfax County, Nebraska Trails to the Past sites! It is truly difficult, and Colfax County is the more frustrating of the two. Since I am not in Nebraska, and have no access to Nebraska's libraries or countless resources, I am dependent on my own library system to supply me with information, the already existing websites that I do not want to copy, and my wallet - which is pretty much empty.  An ever expanding level of respect is being developed in me for all those that came before, especially those site administrators at Rootsweb who really started the county-by-county genealogy website concept.

Lesson Two: Social networking is a must. Let's face it: Twitter is not going anywhere (to quote my dear brother), and I either have to play or get off the 'net.  You can follow me on Twitter... @ancestryjourney, Facebook and Google +.

Lesson Three: Teaching girls about genealogical records when some don't even know what a phone book is has been a bit more challenging than originally anticipated. Keep your fingers crossed; on Thursday we will be talking about maps. Hopefully I am more successful there than I was with the phone book idea. I hope no one pulls out a GPS on me...

Although I will agree that my research skills have grown in 2011, I do have to say that I really wish archives offices, courthouses, cemeteries and LDS Family History Centers all came equipped with babysitters. Two year old's do not like walking around cemeteries so Mommy can take pictures of anything with words on it. Two year old's do not like waiting for a volunteer to make copies of ten select pages from a record file, one page at a time. (Bless her heart, she was so patient with us!)  Other researchers do not necessarily think its cute when said two year old starts "reading" aloud from her Elmo book in the middle of a very quiet room. At one point this year, I said to my father that his granddaughter had, "probably been to more cemeteries than you have." Over Thanksgiving, we made a list, and sure enough, she has.

We were at the library today (thankfully there for her this time - not me! Gotta' love story time!) and my now nearly three year old daughter pulled a book off the shelf while we were in "Mommy's section." The book was entitled Famous Last Words, compiled by Ray Robinson. It was just so appropriate for me, I had to check it out.  Maybe I should let her pick the books out every week!

(For more on the Trails to the Past organization, or to access my two sites, please visit us at: http://trailstothepast.org/.  Volunteers are needed around the country!)