The day started with a class presented by Trevor Hammond entitled Getting to Know Fold3. While I use Fold3 to look for my military ancestors’ records I know that I am not using all the features and search engines available. Trevor was able to help us see many features and explain how Fold3 is constantly improving. Now I also need to go in and complete memorial pages for my 2 known maternal Civil War Veterans-Joseph Cornell and Portis Coolbaugh (see previous blog posts). If you have Military connections be sure to check out Fold3. There are many pictures there from various wars and they are always looking for help in tagging people in the photos. I also just had to ask Trevor about his Hammond line since that is one I research as well. (We will need to correspond and see if he are related. If we are, I will let you know in a future post.)
The second session of the day that I attended was presented by Kathy Warburton entitled Back Home in Ireland: Following the Trail to Patrick Murphy’s Origins. Kathy had great reminders to gather all the information you can in the US first before going overseas. (I have a Swedish ancestor Ebenezer Barry with a definite brick wall and this is a good reminder for me to look at neighbors in the area of Brooklyn he lived to try and find some other connections to Sweden.) Kathy continued to give us tips and strategies for doing research like looking at name variations, coming forward in time to find ancestors children and grandchildren for information and to learn about the history of the country you are heading back to for information of the time your ancestor left. She concluded by sharing a study she had done with very little basic information that showed how possible it was to find that elusive ancestor. She gave me hope that I can find Patrick and Susan Hughes in Ireland one day….soon.
My third session of the day was presented again by Trevor Hammond entitled Finding Your Family on Newspapers.Com. I have been thinking of getting a membership and after listening to all the great features on Newspapers.com and all the options to make researching easier like being able to save your clippings, being able to have a search tagged for following so that if anything new comes along you will be notified.
After lunch there was a drawing in the Exhibit Hall done by My Heritage. The last number called happened to be mine and I won a deluxe subscription for a year! How exciting!! I already use My Heritage and I’m interested in seeing all the Deluxe addition features which I currently don’t have but should be very helpful. Thank-you My Heritage for giving me a great ending to a wonderful weekend!! I rarely win anything so this was some treat!
On the last day they asked us to wear T-shirts that commemorated our home towns. Mine is a map of Long Island with the older lighthouses on it created by Don and Linda Lubov.
Fellow bloggers and friends, J. Paul Hawthorne and Diane Gould Hall, from The San Diego Genealogical Society compare their add ons to their name badges. Also note the beads denoting that people are ‘Bloggers’.
I was glad to spend some time with big time blogger Randy Seaver also from San Diego. Please check out Randy, Diane and Paul’s blogs for useful information for researching your ancestors. Thank-you to Randy and Diane for mentioning my blog posts in their blogs. I am so very new at this and enjoy learning from these 3 very talented people. I am honored to call them my friends!
Something that always amazes me about Jamboree is how nice and helpful everyone is. People came from all over. I even met a couple from Anchorage (my birthplace) and we saw each other frequently during Jamboree. Many friendships were made and so much information was learned. Now to just have the time to put what I’ve learned to practice. Stay tuned for future findings.
I hope you will be able to join us one day.
Would love to hear your comments and any information you’d like to share.
Enjoy the journey,
Debby
Thanks for the mention Debby. We certainly had fun and made some memories. I'm already excited about next year. But, first, I have to use all the great tips I learned. Or, at least try and use them.
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