Excerpts from Flight to Freedom Program

Ajena Rogers, a descendant of James A. Fields and I will be presenting “Flight to Freedom” for the College of William and Mary's Lemon Project on Friday, March 15, 2013 at 6:00 PM. The event will be held at the Bruton Heights School in Williamsburg, VA. Here are some clips from the performance we did at Fort Monroe last August. We have another performance coming up in May at Fort Monroe and one at the Hanover County, VA Tavern. We are extremely excited particularly about the tavern engagement because her ancestor Martha Fields worked there as a Cook when she was enslaved by the Winston family.

Family History Workshop

My Introduction to E-reader/Tablet Technology

Increasing the Font Size on my NOOK reader is one of my favorite features.

I am new to e-reader/tablet technology and have been a bit slow in embracing this technology.  In late May of this year, I purchased a NOOK Simple Touch e-reader, because I had seen it repeatedly on the textbook website of a school where I’m taking classes.  Prior to the summer term, the textbook list for the course I was enrolled in said that there was no textbook for my course.  A few days prior to the start of the course, I was informed by the instructor that there would be a required textbook.  Since I was scheduled to go out of town for a conference within a few days of learning about the textbook, my dilemma was how to get the textbook quickly so that I would not fall behind in my class readings.  After a little Internet research about e-books and e-readers, I skeptically decided to purchase a NOOK during my out-of-town trip, and purchased the NOOK Simple Touch. 

Later that afternoon, I purchased and downloaded my textbook to the NOOK reader, and sat in my hotel room and began reading and playing with the features of this new technology.  “This is great,” I said to myself, “to be able to download my textbook and not have to wait on it to arrive in the mail.”

To my surprise, the text on NOOK reader was easy to read and hold.  The size of such a small device was one of the reasons I was reluctant to embrace the e-reader.  When I discovered that the font size of the e-reader could be increased, I knew money spent on this new technology was a great investment.  Since purchasing my NOOK, I have not only enjoyed using it for textbooks, but also for pleasure reading, as well as saving documents in .pdf format and loading them to read on my NOOK.

This morning as part of my Black Friday Shopping, I purchased the new Kindle Fire HD in which I will report on later.

The 2012 Atlanta History Expo Begins

2012 Atlanta Family History Expo Conference Participants Visiting Exhibit Tables

The 2012 Atlanta Family History Expo began this afternoon at the Gwinnett Center in Duluth, GA with registration at 1:00 PM and the opening keynote session at 2:00 PM by renowned author and speaker Robert S. Davis, M.Ed, MA. Early conference participants began the Expo by visiting the various exhibit tables in which they could talk to exhibitors, see genealogical product demonstrations, learn about useful services to aid them in their genealogy and family history quest, and thumb through books and other literature before making decisions on which one(s) to purchase.

Hanging Out at the Bloggers Table

2010 Atlanta Family History Expo Bloggers of Honor Table

I am looking forward to attending the Atlanta Family History Expo next month. My first expo attendance was in 2010 also in Atlanta. One of my favorite parts of the expo was hanging out at the Blogger table. In fact, I enjoyed it so much that I skipped a few sessions just so I could remain at the table and enjoy the presence of my fellow bloggers and the numerous visitors to our table.

I had met most of the bloggers online prior to the conference, but it was even more exciting to meet them face-to-face. The Official Bloggers (also known as Bloggers of Honor) of the Family History Expo receive full registration benefits and have the following responsibilities:

• Pre-Conference: announce and promote the expo, sponsors, exhibitors, and activities, as well as share press releases.
• During Conference: share daily happenings at expo, share blogging tips with attendees, and highlight websites, tools, and discoveries made.
• After Conference: Summarize overall conference experience.

So as I prepare for the conference, I am also preparing for the blogging tasks by looking at new social media tools and new features in Twitter and Blogger. One of the new tools I’m looking at is called Storify which I found on the blog of fellow Blogger of Honor, Linda McCauley of Documenting the Details. Storify is a website that creates and preserves stories or timelines using social media, photos and videos and I like the way that Linda has used it to document the story of other genealogy conferences. Click here for a sample of how Linda used Storify at the 2012 Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) Conference.

To others who have served as official bloggers at any genealogy conference, what other tools or tips do you have to share with the  2012 Atlanta Family History Expo Bloggers of Honor?

2012 Atlanta Family History Expo Blogger of Honor

I am pleased that announce that I will be a Blogger of Honor at the 2012 Atlanta Family History Expos. I attended the 2010 conference and had a FANTASTIC time where I met numerous bloggers and genealogists whom I had gotten to know online prior to 2010.

I will also be conducting a workshop at this conference entitled “Thinking Out of the Box - Creating Things with Genealogy.”

(All Levels) Is genealogy only about who begat whom or would you consider thinking out of the box by creating a new way of researching and sharing your genealogical stories? In this workshop, participants will learn ways to be creative in sharing their genealogy research.

Congratulations to the other Bloggers of Honor.

Happy 49th Birthday to Me!

Flight to Freedom Production

I am pleased to announce a new historical production entitled:  Flight to Freedom: The Fields Family and Freedom's Fortress, which will be held twice on Saturday, August 11, 2012 at 10:00 AM and 2:00 PM at the historic Fort Monroe.  This production will be a collaborative endeavor with myself and Ms. Ajena C. Rogers, a descendant of James A. Fields.  Mr. Fields was a part of the first graduating class of Hampton Normal and Agricultural and Institute (now Hampton University) in 1871.  We will present a dramatic interpretation of her family’s escape from slavery in Hanover County, VA to Fort Monroe during the Civil War.  This production will include dramatic readings enhanced with us singing, multimedia PowerPoints, and video clips.  The event is free to the public.

For more information on the Flight to Freedom production, click here to visit this website.

For more information on James A. Fields, visit the James A. Fields House Blog at www.jamesafieldshouse.blogspot.com

Blog Talk Radio Show - “Thinking Out of the Box - Creating Things with Genealogy”

Listen to internet radio with BerniceBennett on Blog Talk Radio