My routine is probably very similar to most retired and semi-retired Genea-folks.  I make the social media rounds on my iPhone first generally while eating breakfast – email, Facebook, Twitter, Google+ responding, ‘liking’ and so forth.  I also check CBC News so I know what is happening in the world.  We gave up getting the newspaper awhile back.  Checking the outside world on an iPhone is faster than any conventional method I’ve found.

After breakfast I head downstairs to my genea-cave and fire up the laptop.  I then make my blog rounds via google reader;  respond to the emails that require more dexterity that a short iPhone reply allows.  I may do a blog post, check my various commercial websites or work on some of my volunteer activities.  Right now I’m preparing a Y-DNA talk I’m giving next Tuesday at the DNA SIG of my local genealogical society;  getting speakers for an event for our Toastmasters club and working on PR duties for an upcoming genealogy conference in April 2012, not to mention running a free registration giveaway contest for Rootstech.

And by then the day is well under way (or mostly over).  I try to make time for BALANCE every day – that means a walk, quiet qigong meditation or hard exercise such as an indoor soccer game….and maybe some poking around a genealogy database or perusing my genetic genealogy matches.  Doing genealogy is BALANCE isn’t it?

At the end of the day I put all of my electronics to bed on their respective chargers.  After all we need to be able to play again tomorrow.

Thanks for an interesting question, Jill.

Going to Genealogy Conferences is one of my favourite things to do.   At these conferences I make lots of connections and in the process get lots of business cards.

When I return home I have great plans to enter all of the contact information into my phone and toss the cards but it never seems to happen.  What DOES happen is I misplace the cards.

I recently downloaded an iPhone app that worked well as a genealogy business card scanner.  This handy app is called WorldCard Mobile and is available in the iTunes App Store.  It costs $5.99.  I have tried some of the free business card scanners but find this one works the best.

It is compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad and requires iOS 3.1 or later.

Here is a little video I made to show how quick and easy this business card scanner is.

How to use the World Card Business Card Scanner

1.Download the WorldCard Business Card Scanner in iTunes App Store on your iPhone

2. Click on the camera button. The app will show you a graphic indicating which way it wants the card orientated for the photo.

3. Optical character recognition allows the business card scanner to capture the information. There is an edit button if you wish to make any changes or add to the information.

4. Import the card information into the contact information by clicking the button on the upper right.

Very slick and easy. I like this app and recommend it.

I will be attending the FTDNA Project Administrator conference in Houston Nov 4 to 6, 2011 and Rootstech in Salt Lake City in February.  I plan to have my World Card Mobile app ready to be a business card scanner when I get new cards from my contacts at the conferences.

>>>> WorldCard Mobile Business Card Scanner app

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Disclosure – I received a trial copy of the WorldCard Business Card Scanner app to test although I don’t feel this influenced my review in any way.  If it didn’t work well I would tell you. Please see my disclosure policy.

Hi, my name is Joan and I’m a Genea-Conference Groupie.

Yep, I admit it, I’m hopelessly addicted to attending genealogy conferences.  If I had my druthers (and unlimited funds) I’d spend my time jetting around the world attending genealogy conferences.

The symptoms include random googling of search terms such as “genealogy + conference” and “warm places”.  You see, I live in Canada and considering we just had snow (again!), I’m sure you can understand.

In the last year (May 2010 to April 2011)  I attended no less than 6 Genea-Conferences and events in two different countries.

Here is where this particular Genea-Conference Groupie made her appearance in the past 12 months.

• April 2011. Alberta Genealogical Society. Edmonton, Alberta.
• February 2011.  Rootstech.org, Salt Lake City, Utah (attended as an Official RootsTech Blogger)
• October 2010.  Alberta Family Histories Society – Family Roots Event  with Dick Eastman, Thomas MacEntee and Lyn Meehan.  Calgary, Alberta
  
• June 2010 Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree, Burbank, California
• May 2010 – Dr. Colleen Fitzpatrick – Alberta Family Histories Society Event.  Calgary, Alberta
  
• May 2010 – Sherry Irvine – Alberta Family Histories Society Event.  Calgary Alberta
  
• January 2010 – Family History Expos, Mesa, Arizona (attended as Blogger of Honor)

And there are more to come.  I will be speaking on the Bloggers Panel in June at the California (SCGS Jamboree) in Burbank, California.

Why am I a Genea-Conference Groupie?

1.  Because I’m an avid genealogist. I love the detective game; the chase, the fun of discovering one’s ancestors.

2. Because I learn something. I attend Genea-Conferences because I learn new techniques and not just about genealogy. I also learn about tools that can cross over to other interests, such as how to search effectively using Google Earth, for example.

3. Because I can share. I like to help and I can share tips and highlights of what I’ve learned.  I believe the recording of one’s family history and keeping accurate genealogy records are important.   Not everyone can attend a far flung genealogy conference.  I don’t share talks verbatim but I do like to take one action item away from every session I attend and share it with my Luxegen Genealogy blog readers so that they too can benefit.

4. Because Genea-Conferences are fun! I love the camaraderie and networking with fellow geneabloggers, genealogists and vendors.

I’m retired and have more time now.  If others can live vicariously through my genealogy conference experiences and I can share the experiences here on my blog, then it makes me feel good. I like to help.

Thomas MacEntee is running a series of posts about Genealogy Conferences this week.  (Genealogy Conferences – The Magic Recipe).

This Genea-conference groupie (me!) is planning to share her experiences based on her perspective of someone who attends a lot of conferences.

You can share too!

I urge you to weigh in with your experiences about genealogy conferences, whether it is one time a year or multiple times or once every five years.

Or if you haven’t been to a conference, why not?   Is it cost, is it distance?  Is it time?

What do you like? What don’t you like?  What would be your ideal genealogy conference?

Are genealogy conferences meeting the needs of those new to genealogy?  Are they meeting the needs of experienced genealogists?  What could be done better?  What is being done well?

You can bet genealogy conference organizers and vendors will be listening.  Your comments will help the genealogy conference become the best possible experience for you and fellow genealogists.

Everyone has a different perspective and background to share.  Every voice has the potential to affect change.

Please comment below.

Isabel Woodland - Nurse's Graduation 1925

There is a certain type of individual that is drawn to recording one’s family history.

As I see it, family historians tend to be curious people.  They sense the importance of recording what has happened in the past.  And they tend to be collectors.

My grandmother Isabel (Woodland) IRVINE (1898 – 1989) was all of these.   She was a true family historian.

And Grandma had another talent.  She was a writer.

She would have never considered herself a writer in the true sense of the word as she scribbled out her recollections of homesteading and nursing in Saskatchewan. As far as she was concerned, she was recording the family history for posterity so it wouldn’t get lost as memories faded and people passed on.

But she was a writer.  She wrote in a warm conversational style as if she was sitting across the kitchen table from you as she recounted her stories.

Irvine Family Farm Yard, 20 miles SW of Young Sask, 1950s

Here are Isabel’s words about a stay in the small town of Young, Saskatchewan while her husband Bill Irvine was away for a few days.

“Sometime between two and four a.m. a knock came on the door.  They wanted me to come quickly because there was a sick woman at Mrs. Oakenfold’s and she couldn’t get in touch with the doctor.  I hustled down a couple of blocks and was just in time to deliver a son for the wife of Mr. Carlson, the local butcher.  When everything was over, Dr. Cook arrived from a hockey game in Watrous.

After delivering the baby in Young, I realized I would probably be asked to act as a midwife in the “Hills”, a name given to the area covering the Providence and Meuse School Districts.  I contacted the doctors in the surrounding towns:  Davidson, Neaston, Hanley, Young, Watrous and Simpson.  I wanted permission from them to take charge of the maternity cases in the Hills.

I received the okay from all of the doctors and, in addition they agreed to come if I needed them. As the closest doctor was twenty miles away with no cars or telephones, I knew there wasn’t much chance of getting help from town.  (This was between 1926 and 1936).

During this ten year period after my arrival at the homestead, I delivered thirty babies without a doctor or an anesthetic.  This was in the depression during the Thirties and I collected $10.00 to use for buying medical supplies.”

What a story!  Not only was Grandma a remarkable family historian and writer, she was a remarkable woman.  She delivered 30 babies for her neighbours and friends during a time when services were few and far between.

Even more remarkable, Grandma helped deliver me! (several decades later, of course!)

Baby Joan (the now grown up writer of this blog), Grandma Irvine and Joan's Mom Betty

We would not have this wonderful story today if Grandma hadn’t thought it important to record her experiences.

My Uncle Bob and I shared her words in the Women Pioneers of Saskatchewan Book 1 published in 2009.  Our biggest challenge was to condense all of the material Grandma had written in order to meet the publication guidelines.  Oh, that every genealogist and family historian would have such a problem!

Grandma…..Thank you for being “The One”.

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This post is part of Carnival of Genealogy’s 100th Edition – There is One in Every Family.  Congratulations to Creative Gene for 100 Editions of Carnival of Genealogy!

There is a new search engine on the block with a strange name – Blekko.  Then again Google was once thought to be a strange name.

Blekko’s claim to fame is being able to search ‘crowdsourced slashtags‘.   Slashtags are built in search tags such as /blogs or /date or /map or /calendar.  

I was interested to see how this would work with my favourite topic: genealogy. 

Here are the slashtags I tried on Blekko and the results.

Slashtag Search Term:

genealogy/people

Top 3 results: (results could have a Canadian bias, due to my location)

Dick Eastman - Meet Dick Eastman in Person

Leland Meitzler - Genealogy Blog

Muhammed Ali - Genealogy.com - Ancestry of Muhammad Ali

Slashtag Search Term

genealogy/blog

Top 3 results: 

Huntington - www.redneckrealities.com   (I was expecting geneabloggers not rednecks )

Cambridge police acted ‘stupidly’ - Ben Smith - Comments (1311 - Obama -  (another ???)

OGS Conference 2010  (okay…bingo…this is the Ontario Genealogical Society….but the rest? Where did they come from?)

Slashtag Search Term

surname/genealogy

Top 3 results: 

Surname Search - Instructions - Surnames - GenForum

SURNAME LISTS - Surnames Lists

Glossary of Surname Meanings & Origins

I also searched a couple of my surnames and locations and found the usual sites (mostly me posting on forums).

Blekko can give tags, seo and other info about a website.  Will it be useful for genealogy?  Probably.  A new search engine might give you different results.

Will Blekko become a verb like Google?  Only time will tell.

I got sidetracked with the slideshow and enjoyed seeing my Headliner Blog

ImageChef.com I Am Awesome

The Big Question for my gg-grandfather, James Kerr

Another narcissistic one - To My Kids….someday, perhaps?

Thanks Randy for the SNGF!

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More fun:

How to make a Genealogy Newspaper with your Twitter feed!

Listen to a podcast.

Amy Coffin of We Tree Blog has challenged us to listen to a genealogy podcast.

A podcast is “radio on the internet” that you can download and listen to any time.

The two genealogy podcasts I listen to on a regular basis are The Genealogy Gems Podcast and The Genealogy Guys.  I’ve decided to expand my horizons and see what is out there in the genealogy podcast world.

Here is a list of regularly updated Genealogy Podcasts:

• The Genealogy Gems Podcast

• The Genealogy Guys Podcast

• The Family Tree Magazine Podcast

• Irish Roots Cafe Podcast

• Family History: Genealogy Made Easy

Elyse Doerflinger of Elyse’s Genealogy Blog has written an excellent article on “Podcasts: Download Your Genealogy” in the August/September 2010 issue Internet Genealogy Magazine.  She mentions several other podcasts you might want to check out.

Subscription online genealogy databases…detective work made easy?  Or not?

Genealogy detective work made less expensive?  Perhaps….

One such genealogy database is Archives.com, launched in July 2009.  Archives “helps every day people and advanced genealogists trace their family trees”.  They have compiled a “database of over one billion fully searchable records and historical documents and are constantly adding new, premier collections.”  It is also billed as a less expensive means of researching one’s ancestors.  Regular cost is $39.95/year with other shorter term options available.

My access to the site was through a free demo membership as part of a Geneablogger Welcome Bag received at the recent SCGS Jamboree in Burbank California.  I decided to take Archives for a short test drive.

Please note I’m not the first to blog about Archives.  Fellow geneablogger Randy Seaver wrote about this service on his Genea-Musings website in April 2010.  His comments were followed up by a reply from Archives.  Family Tree Magazine wrote an article on their blog soon after Archives launched, and there have been others.

Archives Test Drive – The “Aumack” Test

The search individual I used was Jacob Aumack, my husband’s great great grandfather, born in Montgomery County, NY in 1821 and a resident of Michigan most of his adult life.   I have collected a fair bit of information about this individual over the years from both free and paid databases along with information from more conventional sources.   I know he was a civil war vet and which regiment he fought in. I have also collected newspaper reports and stories from local history books about this family, along with Jacob Aumack’s probate and other information.   We are privileged to have an extensive well documented book about the Aumack family researched by distant cousins. The name is relatively unusual as are the various surname variants.  I consider myself to be a competent researcher having spent 20 years researching genealogy and almost 35 years in medical research.  Researching Jacob Aumack will be a good test drive of the search capabilities of Archives.com in comparison to two other large databases I subscribe to (Ancestry and Footnote).

My goal: to see what Archives.com could tell me about Jacob Aumack (and associated family members) in a cost effective manner.

Search #1.  Entered name “Jacob Aumack” only (no dates, USA location only).

Results: 61 results were found and a suggestion to “Save Record” so it can be added to one’s family tree and access it any time through the “My Records” tab (when logged in).

Additional Sources were also suggested (note these are all FREE websites easily accessible to anyone.  For a new researcher this information may be of value.  Seasoned researchers know these websites).

http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/
http://www.familysearch.org/eng/default.asp
http://pilot.familysearch.org/recordsearch/start.html

Okay, 61 results are manageable.  Let’s see what we’ve got.

Births (4) - Bingo!  The first record of the four is our Jacob Aumack.  The source is the U.S. 1860 Federal Census Index and lists Jacob (age 39), his wife (Harriet) age 37 and the names and ages of the five children.

The catch – in order to view the actual image, one has to pay $2.95.  Archives.com has partnered with Footnote.com and the image is viewable at Footnote.  It turns out this image is one of the FREE images available on Footnote.    (And an image I had saved previously from my Footnote.com and Ancestry memberships).  I also save the typed version of this record to the Archives “My Records” section.

The other 3 Jacob Aumacks birth records are intriguing although they aren’t the correct Jacob.  I think I know where they fit into our story but I move on with my mission at hand after a quick peek.  (As we genealogists know, it is sooooo easy to get side tracked!).  I can come back to these later either on Archives or on Footnote, where the images are held.

Deaths (11) - no results match.  This is not surprising as it appears their source is the Social Security Death Index (SSDI). Our guy died in 1917 prior to the start of that index (1937 to current). It is important to note one can search free through a couple of other online databases (Genealogy Bank and Ancestry/Rootsweb).  My preference for SSDI searches is Genealogy Bank because of the way they present their results).

A couple of the records returned were from the California Death Index, none of them Jacob.

Other Vital Records (8) - We have a match on the first record:  Jacob’s death on the 15 November 1917 at the age of 96.  This record was from the free site familysearch.org.  Records found on familysearch.org can be accessed through a LDS Family History center.

I was given the option of ordering a hard copy of the record from VitalChek if I wish.  It appears one has to go through the whole search process again to order the record – state, city etc.  The familysearch.org gave me Pipestone, Berrien County Michigan, but not the city.  At this point one is stymied unless one has the city.  I happen to have this information from other sources.  (City is Eau Claire) and was able to proceed to the order window.  Cost of a 1st copy is $36  + a $8.50 VitalChek fee (shipping fees not included).   Total cost $44.50 + shipping.  I abort the order and move on.

The other 7 records do not belong to our Jacob or his immediate family.  Next!

(I did check them and have a good idea where they fit in.  Just about all the Aumacks in that time period in that part of the world are connected).  Again, back to the search at hand.

Living People Search (22) – nothing there. Our Jacob died in 1917.

Cemetery Listings (6) - nothing there.  This search was of 168 cemeteries with information collected from the SSDI and California Death Index.  This is a similar search to the Death Records above.

Note at each step we are given the option to set up an “Ancestor Alert”.  An Ancestor alert will notify you if your search term is found anytime in the future.  I assume it is similar to a ‘google alert’.    I enter Jacob Aumack into my Ancestor Alert.

Original Obituary Listings (3) - no matches

Surname History was rather interesting and gave a map of the name distribution, name variants and the possible origin of the name (Dutch or German: see Aumick).

Aumack Surname History Map

My next steps would be to run additional names from the family and expand the search. I’d also search surname variations, perhaps neighbors and families that have married into our Aumack family and so on.   I’d keep a research log and document my sources as I go.

Did Archives Come Through?

Did Archives meet my goal of finding information about Jacob Aumack? Yes, and no.  I didn’t find anything new, but then again I’m probably not a typical user of this service, being an experienced researcher. Archives did bring some other Aumacks to my attention which I will explore in greater depth.

In my opinion, Archives.com could be a useful screening tool for new researchers, but less useful for seasoned ones or those that already have paid access to the large online (and more expensive) genealogy databases.

It is important to be aware that some of the information can be searched and possibly obtained elsewhere for free.

Cost vs Search Trade Off

Was Archives cost effective? Membership is $39.99 plus additional costs to access individual records.   This could add up if one gets on a roll.  (It happens with genealogy).   There are options to purchase for shorter time periods and there is a 7 day free trial.

I believe Ancestry and Footnote give the genealogist better search capabilities and more records but then again they cost more.  The annual world deluxe membership for Ancestry at the time of writing is $299.40/year.  Ancestry US or Canadian memberships are less.  Footnote is currently $79.95/year. They regularly offer specials at less.  Both have free trials as does Archives.com so I suggest trying before buying.

The end user would need to weigh the cost vs search trade off.

Other info about Archives.com:

• Expert Genealogy Articles for free
• Ability to create an online family tree and attach records (membership option only)
• Ability to save records
• More records being added.
• County Records Search

Recommended Action -  Try the Archives free 7 day trial or short term membership to see if it meets your needs first.  Give it a pass, if you already have a Footnote or Ancestry membership.

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Links to databases mentioned:

• Ancestry – www.ancestry.com
• Archives – www.Archives.com (update – Sept 1 2011 – Archives added the US census to their database)
• Footnote – www.footnote.com (update August 2011 – Footnote is now called Fold3).

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Disclaimer:  I received my demo member copy of Archives.com free as part of a Geneablogger Welcome Bag at a large genealogy conference, the Southern California Genealogical Jamboree in Burbank, California June 2010.  The compensation I may receive as an referral marketer to provide opinion on products, services, websites and various other topics does not affect the topics or posts I make in this blog.  I call it as I see it and receiving a commission is secondary to my main goal of making cousin connections.

UPDATE:  I receive many requests from visitors trying to contact Archives. com. I don’t work for them but I can refer you to their FAQ page,  then click on the link at the bottom that says: click here to open a support ticket or email: support@archives.com.

UPDATE September 2011 -Archives.com have indicated that their customer service policy is to refund the full cost of a membership if a person forgot to cancel their membership before the free trial period ended.  Users can email customer support at support@archives.com or phone 1-888-896-4442.

]]> http://www.luxegen.ca/genealogy/review-archives-com-genealogy-database/feed/ 43 http://www.luxegen.ca/genealogy/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-google-feeling-lucky/ http://www.luxegen.ca/genealogy/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-google-feeling-lucky/#comments Sun, 06 Jun 2010 03:18:17 +0000 © Joan Miller - Luxegen Genealogy. http://www.luxegen.ca/?p=3985 Randy Seaver of Genea Musings regularly challenges the online genealogy crowd to some Saturday Night Genealogy Fun.  The Mission this week -
1) Go to http://www.google.com/ and enter a search term and click on the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button.

2) Try your name, your local society, favorite genealogy terms, whatever you want. Do at least three, and as many as you want if you have time. Be creative! Have fun!

3) What did you learn from this exercise?

1.  My Feeling Lucky Findings:  (note these are all from www.google.CA not .com. The search engine defaults to the .ca in Canada.

• “Joan Miller” – gave me a real estate company.  One of the Realtors has the same name as me.  Do you know how many Joan Millers there are in the world? Lots!

• “Luxegen” – arrived at my website Luxegen Genealogy – http://www.luxegen.ca .  That’s a good thing!

• “Alberta Family Histories Society” – landed right on the AFHS webpage -http://www.afhs.ab.ca/

• I’m the creator and caretaker of our newly launched blog at the AFHS so that was my next “Feeling Lucky” search: Bingo...that’s where we landed.  Even without quotes we got there.

• “family history luxegen” bought up a page called Topsy that linked back to a post of mine where I discuss citing sources.  It appears my post was picked up by Topsy from my Tweets @luxegen.

• “Surname Saturday” brought up Thomas MacEntee’s Geneabloggers website.

• “Genealogy Conferences” brought me to About.com’s Genealogy Events page.

• “Conferences Genealogy” (with the terms reversed) took us to the Geneablogger Conference page.

2.  What did I learn?

• Luxegen and the new AFHS blog are being found on the first “Feeling Lucky” search

• My tweets on Twitter are being indexed by directories I didn’t know about

• Reversing the order of the search terms gives different results.

Thanks Randy for another fun SNGF.

Many genealogists are posting educational and useful content on a daily basis on their blogs.  I learn something new every time I check my blog reader.

There are blogs that cater to surnames or personal research.  There are regional blogs, blogs written by ‘graveyard rabbits’ doing cemetery indexing, blogs for pro-genealogists, blogs by libraries and archives.  Whatever your interest there is probably someone out there writing about it.  People can leave a comment on a blog and good discussions and suggestions can follow.

The quickest way to determine if new content has been added to a blog is to subscribe to the RSS feed.  RSS stands for really simple syndication.    It is the big orange RSS button on the right hand side of the blog.

View the following YouTube Video to learn how to subscribe to a blog from a RSS feed.

In the video we are given 2 things
1. how to get a RSS reader
2. how to subscribe to blogs and news

Google has a reader build into their Gmail account and is the one I recommend if you are just starting out. (Register for a gmail account here if you don’t have one).  Once set up with a reader go to your favourite blog We’ll use this one as an example.
http://www.luxegen.ca

Click on the big orange RSS feed button at the top of the page (right hand side) and subscribe.  All new content to the blog will appear in your reader.

To view your reader:
If you are doing this in gmail, open up your web browser to http://www.gmail.com, log in and choose “Reader” at the top left of the page.  You will see the latest headlines from all the blogs and news that you are subscribed to.  I have Dick Eastman’s blog in my reader along with the other genealogy blogs I am following.  I can quickly scan the subject lines to see if there is an interesting blog post I want to read.

Go to http://www.geneabloggers.com for a list of genealogy blogs and subscribe.

But before you do that, don’t forget to subscribe to my blog by clicking on the big orange RSS button at the top of the page today!