Jerry, Thanks for sharing. ~Pam On Thu, Feb 9, 2012 at 9:07 AM, Jerry Cowley <[email protected]> wrote: > Just thought I'd add a few notes from other sessions to this useful list > from Dr. Snow: > > 19. For one-step conversion programs for alphabets, calendars, > mathematics, enumeration districts, ZIP codes, and much, much more, see > www.stevemorse.org If you ever get a chance to see Steve present, take it. > > 20. Kory Meyerink discussed the various types of Internet searches: > phonetic, wildcard, truncation, Phrase search, Boolean, field searching, > limiting, proximity, string, controlled vocabulary, and nesting or > grouping. > Tips: usually less is more; look for Help; use Advance Search options; > think > of alternative search terms (what else could this be called?). > > 21. Ian Testor from Findmypast at BrightSolid talked about the > importance of story in research, particularly in motivation. He urged us > to > explore ethnic myths, legends, and ethnography of the culture being > searched. He explained why the use of a celebrity in "Who Do You Think You > Are?" motivates so many people. Tip: use alternative records, such as > newspapers, dog license databases, and court documents. > > 22. Dan Lynch, www.danlynch.net taught a couple of hands-on sessions > on > Google searching. If your FHC has his book, I'd recommend a look through > it. Consider searching a particular site type with site:com or > site:gov, > added to the terms. Find file types with added terms like filetype:ged or > filetype:doc. Watched for cached records (usually affiliated with "site not > found) by means of those faint arrows). Use a ? after a word to cut off > stemming; jump?, not jumped, jumping, etc. Use Google translate. The ~ is > replacing the + in searches. > > 23. The Barefoot Genealogist and Ancestry Ann gave us considerably more > than the advertised 5 new things at Ancestry.com. Some tips: look at the > "What's happening?" to keep up with changes. To find the card catalog > hover > the curser over the word Search and follow the bottom option. They have > maps. > > 24. James Tanner, an attorney from Arizona, explained copyright law > extremely well in his under-attended presentation. It's a slippery thing, > but protects the researcher as well as the author. Item: The Supreme Court > recently ruled that the United States must protect foreign copyright. If a > book were first copyrighted in Europe, for example, and that copyright has > expired in the US, but NOT in its home country, we must consider that it is > still copyrighted. Google the Berne Convention of 1886 for more treaty > information. The USA signed on two years ago. China never did. > > 25. Ron Tanner presented FamilyTree in NFS. Here is the information on > Open Edit we've been hearing about. Download his notes for more > understanding. The goal is nothing less than to document the genealogy of > mankind and preserve it for generations to come. > > 26. Ideas for FHCs include: training and classes as a priority, using > off-site training locations, collaborating with local libraries and > genealogical associations, and inviting the Spirit of Elijah, among many > other things. > > 27. Top Ten issues in NFS presented by Amanda Terry and Merisa Robbins > included invented ancestors, missing data, unchecked GEDCOM submissions, > body snatchers, proper name submission, not adding notes, symbols, or > numbers in the name field, incorrect combinations, long lists of reserved > names, incorrect gender, etc. Do regard a name as sacred. > > Several instructors mentioned extending the 95 year rule (not submitting > persons born in the last xxx years without permission of the closest family > member) to a 110 year rule. It will be functioning on the website shortly > with a full explanation. We are living longer. As a staff worker once > advised me: "Never do the work of someone that someone living may remember, > without getting permission." She was referring to collateral line work, not > direct line. Getting it in writing is a good thing. File the letter. > > Do visit the Rootstech website and download the syllabi. If I can do it, > just about anyone can. > > If you plan to go next year (in March), wear sensible shoes and don't carry > more than you must. You're on cement for three days. The food vendors are > excellent. The workers at the Salt Palace are great. The FamilyHistory > staff > is dedicated above and beyond. They were all wonderful. > > Jerry Cowley > Boise, Idaho > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------- > SOME THINGS I LEARNED AT ROOTSTECH 2012 > 2-4 Feb 2012, Salt Palace, Salt Lake City, Utah > ?2012 by Donald R. Snow > > These are not in any particular order and are only a few of the things I > learned and, undoubtedly, other people learned many other things. This > is posted at http://uvtagg.org/classes/dons/dons-classes.html and may > be used for any non-profit purpose, newsletter, etc., but please let me > know if you do use it. Thanks. [email protected] . > > 1. The entire RootsTech 2012 syllabus and program schedule is online > at http://www.rootstech.org for anyone to look and/or download > regardless of whether they attended the meeting or not. Those were > posted 2 or 3 weeks before the meeting so attendees could look at and > print off what they wanted, but it has also been available to everyone. > I think it's a very helpful thing for family history everywhere. > > 2. The keynote presentations and classes that were in the main > lecture room all day long each day, Thursday through Saturday, were > streamed live on the website and were recorded. They are now posted > there for anyone to watch. Jay Verkler's keynote address on the first > day about what's in the future for family history and technology was > really spectacular. > > 3. RootsTech 2013 will be 21-23 Mar 2013, so it will be 6 weeks later > in the year than this year's meeting. > > 4. Ancestry has several new things on their website, including some > new search techniques. On their census images they now have a way to > put a colored background behind the entire family you want and a > different color on the particular line of that family. With that it is > much easier to follow the entire census form across the page. They have > lots of other new stuff too. See their notes. > > 5. Dallan Quass of http://www.werelate.org has posted on his > website a table of name variants, 200,000 for sunames and 70,000 for > given names. These help greatly in genealogy searching. He has already > put it into operation on WeRelate and is asking people to fine-tune the > list as they do searches, if they see names that shouldn't be in the > list or know of others that should be. Anyone can download the table to > use themselves. I think Dallan also has a place variant list, but I > didn't attend that talk. > > 6. Someone mentioned that all the talks were being recorded and would > be posted along with the PowerPoint slides synchronized, but I didn't > hear that officially. > > 7. The class on Evernote discussed how it can be used for personal > and family history uses and that it has some really helpful stuff. > Also, there are add-ons for browsers that are helpful for Evernote and > many things, e.g. "Clarify" is an add-on that makes text from websites > show up with better formatting so it is easier to read and copy and > paste. Do Google searches for Clarify for the browser you use. > > 8. Barbara Renick's 19 pages of notes for her SnagIt workshop are > posted and have lots of helpful information. SnagIt is a very useful, > but commercial, screen and video capture program. > > 9. Fold3 http://www.fold3.com says they have the largest collection > of U.S. military records on the web. Much of it can be searched and > used for free. They had a half-price deal on their subscriptions for > RootsTech attendees, but also said that since Ancestry now owns them, > that anyone with an Ancestry subscription can get the half-price > subscription to Fold3 at anytime. On Fold3 there are Memorial pages set > up already for millions of people, e.g. already for everyone in the > Social Security Death Index, and you can set up others for free. You > can then add data, images, stories, etc., and link to the memorial page > from anywhere else, including from (new) FamilySearch. Eventually, > FamilySearch will allow us to upload images, etc., but not yet, so this > makes a good way to post images and data now and put the link into nFS. > > 10. There is a beta test of (new) FamilySearch going on right now to > add sources and active links into nFS, but you have to be invited. > > 11. Many of you are aware of the free 9-generation pedigree fan > chart that Matt Misbach's TreeSeek company is providing with your > FamilySearch data - go to http://www.createfan.com and log in with > your LDS account to generate it. You can view it and save off the pdf > or have it printed in various ways. Matt told me that you can do free > 9-generation fan charts starting with other PID's by going to his > http://www.treesee.com , using your LDS account, and entering the > starting PID in the box. > > 12. Darrin Lythgoe has just released version 9 of "The Next > Generation" software - http://www.tngsitebuilding.com . It is a > commercial program that makes web pages with your genealogy data for > posting online, but the web pages can also just be run on your own > computer to show your data in various ways. It requires the free PHP > which can be installed on your computer using a free download from > http://www.wampserver.com/en/ . > > 13. The Family History Library has a project of scanning FH books > that you bring in. See details on http://books.familysearch.org/ and > there are already over 40,000 FH books scanned and online there from the > FHL, BYU Harold B. Lee Library, Allen County Public Library, Houston > Public Library, and others. To have a book scanned you must hold the > copyright and give them permission or else it must be out of copyright > so it can be posted online. You take the book to the basement of the > FHL and they will have it scanned for you in a couple of hours. This is > a major resource of FH data. > > 14. MarkLogic http://www.marklogic.com has a program that organizes > and searches large databases that are not in uniform format. It allows > many different types of searches and updates the searches as new data is > added to the database. It is mainly for very large databases that > companies want to be able to search. The software is free and the > program is free to use, if the database is smaller than 40 gigs. I > haven't tried it yet, but it may be just what I need for the text file > database I have made of the personal letter collection of Erastus Snow > and his family. We have about 300 family letters and that many more > official and Church letters. The transcribed personal letter collection > alone is several hundred single-spaced typed pages with combined file > size of several gigs. I am anxious to learn how to use the program to > see if it is a good search tool for such a database. It has proximity > and other types of searches. > > 15. The website http://www.geni.com/ claims to be the world's > largest family tree with 61 million profiles (names). They have a basic > plan that is free and two higher commercial levels which have more > features. Some of their information is free and they have projects that > people are posting such as about the Mormon Battalion, the Nauvoo > Legion, Early Mormon Pioneers, early Mormon leaders, and many others. > You can upload GEDCOM's, photos, and documents, and they have a facial > recognition program that when you identify an ancestor in a photo it > searches the rest of your photos to see if it can find other photos with > that person. There is a way that libraries and organizations can sign > up so their members can use the Geni Public Access program free - see > http://www.geni.com/corp/geni-public-access-program/ - but I don't know > what that includes. > > 16. Family history consultants could attend certain classes for free > and those were all recorded and will be posted online at the Consultants > Training website. The schedule of FH Consultant talks is at > http://rootstech.org/trainingschedule and I think the Consultant website > where the notes and videos will be posted is > https://www.familysearch.org/consultant/ . > > 17. There was lots of information at the conference on mobile apps > for FH with entire classes on apps for iPads, etc. > > 18. FamilySearch is looking for lots of volunteers to index the 1940 > U.S. Census as soon as it is released on 2 Apr 2012. They estimate that > it will take several months to do the indexing and are encouraging > people to sign up at https://familysearch.org/1940Census . There are > already sites that help you find the 1940 Enumeration District, if you > know the address, so you can find your people before the index is > complete. One of the talks was by Steve Morse who has written about 200 > "One-Step" programs to search various websites or do various genealogy > tasks, one of which is how to find the 1940 Census Enumeration Districts > - see http://stevemorse.org/ . > > I learned lots more than this, but this is a start. It was a good > conference with something for everyone and we appreciate FamilySearch, > BYU, and all the other sponsors spending their time, money, and efforts > for us. > > Don Snow > > -- > Dr. Donald R. Snow, Retired Professor of Mathematics, Brigham Young > University, Provo, Utah - [email protected] > > > > > __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus > signature > database 6871 (20120209) __________ > > The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. > > http://www.eset.com > > > > Please send the one word message SUBSCRIBE or UNSUBSCRIBE to > [email protected] > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' > without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message >