Southern California Genealogy Jamboree 2018-Friday and Saturday

The Southern California Genealogical Society does such an amazing job of pulling this Jamboree off.  This year was the 49th year they have done this.  The speakers were amazing, the venue is great and everything seems to run seamlessly, at least for us the attendees it always seems that way.  BRAVO and Thank-you to all the volunteers that pull this off!!  I know it is a tremendous job that takes hours and hours of planning and so much behind the scene work.  We do appreciate all you do!!

Friday and Saturday were the official Jamboree Days and the theme this year was Unlock Your Lineage.

Between Friday and Saturday I attended another 9 sessions and a workshop.  Here are some of the highlights of what I learned:

Friday began with a Breakfast Banquet and Thomas McEntee’s talk entitled How Do I Know What I Don’t Know?  Fast Tracking Your Genealogy Education.  Thomas started by reminding us that it’s OK to admit that we don’t always have the knowledge when it comes to researching and methodology.  He gave us tips on creating lists of where our knowledge gaps are so we can determine where to go to build our new bank of resources. 

                                                 Thomas MacEntee and myself

Annette Burke Lyttle’s talk was entitled Reconstruct a Life: Chasing Uncle William through the Wilds of Cyberspace.  Annette took us through online research of her Uncle William to determine his occupation in Laramie and how many wives he really had.  She demonstrated the techniques she used for answering her questions by using Wikis, Cyndi’s List, Google, Online Trees, digitized books and newspapers.  I think I prefer learning new techniques when they are demonstrated through the use of a case study.

Lisa Louise Cooke’s talk was entitled Reconstruct Your Ancestor’s World with Google.  Lisa is a great presenter who is very enthusiastic and easy to listen to.  She showed us several places beyond the typical Google search (such as; Google Books, Google Scholar, Google Patents, YouTube and Google Earth Pro) where information can be found about your ancestors that make your stories much richer.  I had heard Lisa’s talk last year about Google and YouTube and added some interesting clips (click on the links) to my post entitled Recording A Family Thanksgiving Tradition which I think made the story a lot more interesting.

Friday afternoon I took a 4 hour workshop with Blaine Bettinger entitled Visual Phasing Workshop.  Blaine walked us through how you can use your sibling’s DNA to reconstruct your Grandparents DNA.  WOW!  Can you imagine that is even possible.  After he walked us through the painstaking manual process for comparing the segments of chromosomes to make this determination he thankfully showed us a computer program that Steven Fox developed that makes this entire process soooo much easier.  The workshop was a pretty intense 4 hours but I was able to keep up, more or less,  and I understood why Blaine felt it was important for us to understand the process.  We all definitely needed a break after that.

Myself, Blaine Bettinger and Diane Gould Hall

Saturday:
Craig Roberts Scott’s talk entitled Civil War Medical Records demonstrated his depth of knowledge on the subject.  Craig took us through NARA (National Archives and Records Administration) finding aids for medical records that are often rich in genealogical information.  I had thought that the records I have on my ancestors who fought in the Civil War were complete and now I know I have a whole new untapped source to look at.

Lisa Louise Cooke had a Mini Power Session at the Genealogy Gems booth in the Exhibit Hall where she talked about 4 great apps that can help you with your story telling.  Several of them I will need to try very soon.

Diane Gould Hall, Lisa Louise Cooke and myself

I stopped by the Mayflower Society booth in the Exhibit Hall.  I have sent in my application to become a member of the Mayflower Society.  I asked if they knew of anyone who makes period dress for the Pilgrims and they informed me that in 2020 for the 400th Anniversary of the Mayflower the Society may be marching in the Rose Parade.  Sounds exciting!

Annette Burke Lyttle’s talk entitled How Research Plans Can Up Your Genealogical Game really made me think about my ‘research plans’.  I have listened to discussions previously on Research Plans and have used them at times but I think you need to hear some topics over again until it really resonates for you.  Annette discussed coming up with that specific research question and how to identify sources that are available that my provide you with answers.  My big take away from this when I am researching in a new area is not to just hit the SEARCH button but to research all the possible sources of information in an area about a topic before I hit the Search button.  I kept thinking about my post on Mary ? King.  I have no idea whether she was born in Germany or in Pennsylvania.  The other problem is what records are even available to search in Pennsylvania in 1814?  Definitely a technique I will try with this question.

Thomas MacEntee’s talk entitled Secrets of the US Federal Census: How did Enumeration Really Work raised some really good questions about our probably number one source of information when we are researching.  Thomas, who is a great speaker, talked about how each of the Census’ had their own quirks, sometimes hidden information and the different ways to access the census data.  I use the census so much that this will really cause me to go back and look at the information in them with new eyes.  This was a great way to end Jamboree.

Some time with friends and fellow bloggers

 Randy Seaver, myself and Diane Gould Hall

There were several talks I would have liked to have heard but just not enough time in the day.  I was able to buy and download the talks for a fee.  Another great perk of the conference.  If you were unable to attend but think you’d like to investigate some of the sessions I attended be sure to go to Southern California Genealogy Society website and click on Jamboree and Buy Past Recordings to order yours.


I was very pleased to get my first set of Blogger Beads on Friday night from Elizabeth Swanay O’Neal and the GeneaBloggers Tribe.

If you have any corrections or additions or stories to share I look forward to hearing them.
Enjoy the journey,
Debby

Southern California Genealogy Jamboree 2018-Thursday

WOW!!  Three days packed with genealogy learning, connecting with old friends and making new friends.  It is always so amazing to be in an environment were there are over a thousand people who share the same passion you do -all in one place at one time.  The energy level was so high for all three days.  I am so glad to have today to reflect and relax. 

The Southern California Genealogical Society does such an amazing job of pulling this Jamboree off.  This year was the 49th year they have done this.  The speakers were amazing, the venue is great and everything seems to run seamlessly, at least for us the attendees is always seems that way.  BRAVO and Thank-you to all the volunteers that pull this off!!  I know it is a tremendous job that takes hours and hours of planning and so much behind the scene work.  We do appreciate all you do!!

Fellow blogger and good friend Diane Gould Hall and I drove up to Burbank on Wednesday night to avoid much of the LA traffic. 

Thursday was a special additional day where you could take part in one of two special tracks for the day –a course of DNA study entitled Link through DNA or a family history writing day entitled Love Your Family Legends.  I choose Love Your Family Legends because I want to be able to write more interesting stories about the information I have learned about my ancestors. 



Here are some of my many great experiences for Thursday:

Jill Morelli’s talk entitled Just Do It! Self-Publishing Your Family History gave some really good information and tips about self-publishing and led me to believe I really can finally get my great grandmother’s over 100 letters from 1880-1910 published (see posts re Carrie’s Letters).

Lisa A. Alzo’s talk entitled Show, Don’t Tell: Creative Non-Fiction Writing for Genealogists discussed tips and techniques about how to share the factual information in more compelling and interesting ways so we can actually feel like we are walking in our ancestors’ shoes.  After this session I happened to see fellow blogger and friend Randy Seaver and told him I feel like I should go back and rewrite all my previous blog posts to make them more interesting…lol.  I can only hope my future posts will be more interesting.

Andrew Lee’s talk entitled Writing Compelling Family Stories took us through the understanding of basic story types, defining the basic story and the writing process. He left us with “A story is more than just a set of facts, a compelling story will transport the reader to the time and place and make him an observer to the events described.”  I think I need to have this as a sticky note posted in my work area to remember whenever I am writing a family story.

Crista and Susan Cowan ‘s talk entitled Writing Fascinating Family History One Story at a Time reminded us of the importance of writing down our own stories.  While we are so involved in telling other’s stories we forget about the importance of telling our own stories.  Mother and daughter team led us in a great fun writing activity where we got started writing our own stories.

Maureen Taylor’s talk entitled Photo Stories: How to Tell the Tales in Your Pictures showed us how to look beyond the person in the photo as we so often forget to do.  Even if you are lucky enough to know the names of the people in the photo there is so much additional information you can learn about their lives by carefully looking at the rest of the photo.  I used a photo my cousin Rebecca had shared with me of her great grandmother Ella Billard Terry riding in a horse and buggy that I will discuss in a future blog post.

Thursday night Diane and I decided to attend a banquet dinner where Diane Southard was the guest speaker.  Her talk entitled Rewriting History with DNA, Two Mindy’s, a Will and Country Music was an interesting tale of paper and DNA research to find answers to long asked questions and new family.


Stay tuned for information about Friday and Saturday’s classes.  If you have never been to Jamboree consider going next year for the 50th Birthday Bash!

If you have any corrections or additions or stories to share I look forward to hearing them.
Enjoy the journey,
Debby