Professor Dru and Lisa Alzo

Exited to have met Lisa Alzo author of Three Slovak Women at the Bloggers of Honor table. She is also author of The Accidental Genealogist blog. I took one of her online classes through GenClass several years ago.

Professor Dru and Thomas MacEntee

I had the privilege to meet the Great Thomas MacEntee of Geneabloggers, Master of Genealogy and Social Media at the Bloggers of Honor table.

I'm Here!

The 2010 Atlanta Family History Expos has officially begun and I am sitting at the Bloggers of Honor Table now with Amy Coffin of We Tree Genealogy Blog. A few minutes ago the blogger table was full, but now everyone except for Amy and I, have left to go to sessions.

TweetDeck

I loaded TweetDeck on my computer today to use with Twitter and began using it this evening. I love the muticolumn screen and being able to see columns such as for my all friends, mentions, and direct. You can also customize columns such as adding one for #fhexpo. I'm looking forward to using TweetDeck during the 2010 Atlanta Family History Expos which begins tomorrow morning.

What is TweetDeck?

Preparing for a Genealogy Conference

For those of us who will be attending the 2010 Atlanta Family History Expos next week, I’m sure we’re all busy this week finalizing our travel plans, deciding what to pack, and browsing the syllabi for the conference to determine what classes we will be attending. And for us presenters, even possibly doing last minute tweaks of our presentations.

One thing I do when preparing for a major genealogy conference trip to type planning lists in Microsoft Excel because it enables me to categorize and sort the list so I can make such decisions as what things to pack, what workshops I’d like to attend, or what things I’d like to do such as research or visiting family, friends, or tourist sites in conference area. This same list can also be typed using the Tables feature of a word processing software package in which you can also sort and type in columnar format.

Here are tips from two other bloggers who give invaluable tips about preparing to attend a genealogy conference. Enjoy!

• The Rock Star’s Guide to Genealogy Conferences
• Prepare Before Attending a Genealogy Conference

Vendors at Atlanta Family History Expos

Not only will be be lots of genealogists at the 2010 Atlanta Family History Expos, there will also be numerous vendors. For more information, read Myrtle's "Old Myrt" blog posting entitled, Atlanta GA: FHExpos Meet the Vendors.

Syllabi for the 2010 Atlanta Family History Expos

The syllabi for the 2010 Atlanta Family History Expos are online now. (Click Here)

Bernie Gracy and Location Based Genealogy

A few months ago, I became interested in geography and geographic information science (GIS) so I enrolled in a GIS class at a local community college. Later I wanted to learn more about how geography and GIS could be used with genealogy so I typed in the keywords "geography and genealogy" in YouTube. Through this search, I discovered the work of Mr. Bernie Gracy who specializes in located-based genealogy.

Location is a huge part of a genealogists' quest; afterall we spend numerous hours trying to locate an ancestor's whereabouts and movements. Sometimes if we examine an ancestor's surroundings and location, we may discover numerous bits of new information. For example, I took Mr. Gracy's advice about focusing on location from his interview with Lisa Louise Cooke (see below) and scanned through an 1870 census in the Matoca townshop of Chesterfield County, VA focusing on the occupations of residents of that county. This census was used only because that was my research focus at the time I discovered the videos by Bernie Gracy. I was researching Charles Lundy, the alleged second husband of my slave ancestor Ellen Moore of Greensville County, VA when I discovered the videos below. During my scanning, I noticed a large number of people in Charles Lundy's community with the occupation labeled "works in cotton factory." Charles' occupations, however, was listed as Farm Laborer on this census. Further research validated my assumption that there a cotton factory in the community where Charles Lundy was living in 1870. I also learned through my research that there were several cotton factories in Chesterfield County, VA during this time.

I was thrilled to learn recently that Mr. Gracy will be presenting three workshops at the 2010 Atlanta Family History Expos. I look forward to attending these workshops as well as meeting him. The three workshops are:

• An Introduction to AncestralHunt.com


• Breaking Down Brick Walls with Location Based Genealogy


• Technology and Techniques for Conducting Location
  Based Field Research
  

Below are several videos of Mr. Bernie Gracy in which he explains location based genealogy.

The First Law of Geography




Interview of Bernie Gracy by Lisa Louise Cooke, Part 1



Interview of Bernie Gracy by Lisa Louise Cooke, Part 2

So Many Choices, So Little Time

ALL ROADS LEAD TO ATLANTA on November 12-13, 2010 for the 2010 Atlanta Family History Expos. I've been busy finalizing my travel plans and preparing for the upcoming expo and I am so thoroughly excited about attending this conference and meeting so many genealogists from around the country.

Conference Workshops. Part of my preparation has been examining the conference program to plan for the workshops I'd like to attend. This has been a challenging task with so many choices of workshops, and so little time. There will be only ten workshop sessions (nine room each session,) but since I will be conducting one during one of these time slots, that leaves me with only nine possibilities. So now my task is to PRIORITIZE and determine which nine workshops I need the most. Ah, Decisions, Decisions. I'm sure that other conference attendees are having this same dilemna.

My Workshop. I'm glad that I examined the conference program again because I see that my workshop, Let Your Voice Be Heard in the Digital Conversation, has been moved up to the Friday, 11:30 a.m. slot instead of Saturday at 2:30 p.m.

The focus of this workshop is on adding audio or voice messages to spice up text‐based communications in documents, emails, and Internet sites. This workshop will help participants discover free audio recording tools on their computers and guide them in understanding the added benefits of enhancing digital documents with audio and voice messages.

I am also excited that I will be a Blogger of Honor at this conference.


REMEMBER THAT ALL ROADS LEAD TO ATLANTA on November 12-13, 2010. Hope to see you at the conference.

One More Month!

Looking forward to attending the 2010 Atlanta Family History Expos next month this time. One more month today will be Saturday, November 13th when I'll be presenting a workshop at the Expo entitled Let Your Voice Be Heard in the Digital Conversation.

The focus of this workshop is on adding audio or voice messages to spice up text‐based communications in documents, emails, and Internet sites. This workshop will help participants discover free audio recording tools on their computers and guide them in understanding the added benefits of enhancing digital documents with audio and voice messages.

I look forward to being one of the Bloggers of Honor at this conference and writing about events at this wonderful conference. I am thrilled that I will have an opportunity to meet numerous bloggers and genealogists whom I've gotten to know through the Internet during the past few years.

Blogger of Honor

I am pleased that announce that I will be a Blogger of Honor at the 2010 Atlanta Family History Expos. All year long I have read about the other Bloggers of Honor at the various Family History Expos around the country. In November, it will be my turn and I look forward to meeting numerous bloggers and genealogists whom I have gotten to know online during the past few years.

I will also be conducting a workshop at this conference. (Read more)

Congratulations to the other Bloggers of Honor.