RootsTech..... for me and YOU.

Yes, I'm off before sunrise tomorrow (Jan 31) to attend RootsTech in Salt Lake City (2-4 Feb). It's an exciting time of learning how technology can help us do better, safer and more efficient genealogy. But you can attend, too, virtually! Several of the sessions are being streamed live during those three days and all you have to do is sit at your computer and tune in.........here is the schedule and the link:

RootsTech Conference Will Broadcast Select Sessions Free Online

SALT LAKE CITY—RootsTech, a leading family history and technology conference held in Salt Lake City, Utah, February 2-4, 2012, announced today that fourteen of its popular sessions will be broadcasted live and complimentary over the Internet. The live broadcasts will give those unable to attend worldwide a sample of this year’s conference content. Interested viewers can watch the live presentations at RootsTech.org. The second-year conference has attracted over 3,000 registered attendees.

 

The free online sessions include the keynote speakers and a sampling of technology and family history presentations. Following are the fourteen broadcasted sessions and speakers. All times are in Mountain Standard Time (MST):

 

Thursday, February 2

8:30-10:00 am, Inventing the Future, as a Community (Keynote Address) by Jay L. Verkler

11:00 am-12:00 pm, Do I Trust the Cloud? by D. Joshua Taylor  

1:45-2:45 pm, Effective Database Search Tactics by Kory Meyerink     

3:00-4:00 pm, Twitter – It’s Not Just “What I Had for Breakfast” Anymore by Thomas MacEntee  

4:15-5:15 pm, Eleven Layers of Online Searches by Barbara Renick     

 

Friday, February 3

8:30-9:30 am, Exabyte Social Clouds and Other Monstrosities (Keynote Address) by Josh Coates

9:45-10:45 am, Publish Your Genealogy Online by Laura G. Prescott     

11:00 am-12:00 pm, Optimize Your Site for Search Engines by Robert Gardner    

1:45-2:45 pm, Genealogists “Go Mobile” by Sandra Crowly  

3:00-4:00 pm, Google’s Toolbar and Genealogy by Dave Barney      

 

Saturday, February 4

8:30-9:30 am, Making the Most of Technology to Further the Family History Industry (Keynote Address) by Tim Sullivan and Ancestry.com Panel

9:45-10:45 am Genealogy Podcasts and Blogs 101 by Lisa Louise Cooke    

11:00 am-12:00 pm, Future of FamilySearch Family Tree by Ron Tanner

1:45-2:45 pm, Privacy in a Collaborative Environment by Noah Tatuk   


So in a sense, we can learn something together!!!  I shall miss the February meeting; see you in March.

Your Digital Digest committee works for YOU.

This is the editorial committee for the EWGS Digital Digest:  Gerry Gosche, Juanita McBride, Pat Bayonne-Johnson, Jeanne Coe, Diane Boyd (also our webmaster), Bill Hire (assistant webmaster), Bette Topp and Donna Phillips. We met on Tuesday, 17 January, to plan the next several issues of the Digest, working diligently to ensure that the content is of worth and interest to our members and to those living elsewhere coming to our website for their research needs. We work for YOU. All we ask is that you click to the www.EWGSI.orgwww.EWGSI.org  website and take the time with our new digital publication as you did with our paper publication. And most certainly, we would welcome input and participation from YOU.

March 10.......... Is Your Calendar Marked????

EWGS  SPRING  SEMINAR

10 March 2012

Spokane Public Library

We are very fortunate to have an All-day Seminar Featuring

THE   ULSTER  HISTORICAL  FOUNDATION

With

Fintan Mullan & Dr. Brian Trainor

From Ulster, Ireland

           Learn about Irish Emigration from Ireland to America

        Irish and Scots-Irish Family History Research

             Sources for Research by County

             Check-in time 8:30 a.m.

                       Seminar: 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Your own brown bag lunch. Time for lunch break is 12:30–1:30

You may also choose from places

in  the Riverfront Park Food Court

$20.00 for EWGS Members                                              $25.00 for non-members

Number:______________                                                                            Number:______________

Dues are $25.00 __________

Total Payment: $_____________                    

                                                                                                                                                               Name:__________________________________

                                                                                                     Address_________________________________

Phone:_________________________________ 

Email:_________________________________

Mail to:  EWGS P. O. Box 1826, Spokane, WA 99210-1826

New Year's Resolutions???

This is one of my favorite pictures. It is a painting by Norman Rockwell and appeared as a Saturday Evening Post magazine cover in the 1950s. Since this piqued my interest way back then, and I'm still interested in family history today, I count myself lucky! But on to New Year's Resolutions......... why make them only to ignore or break them by the end of January? How about just look at and analyze your days and see where and upon what are you spending the majority of your time? Will that something matter in 100 years? The thrift shops are (unfortunately) full of quilts and crocheted items and painted china. A thoroughly cleaned house will be messy again within a week. Your family, your ancestors, were, are and will be of interest continuing forever so why not concentrate on your family and your family history??  EWGS stands ready and willing to assist you; wouldn't you like to know if there was a one-eyed pirate in your family tree?

What You Missed January 7, 2012 Luncheon

The January 7, 2012 luncheon started with the buffet line, good food.

After lunch the EWGS officers for the 2012 year were lined up so everyone can see them.

Announcements for the February, March and April meetings. The past presidents and distinguished service members were asked to stand, and then the speakers Doug Seibol and Mary Ellen Locke showed pictures of their trip to western Siberia to meet Doug's Seibol relatives that were still living in that area today. They had actually tracked him down as a Seibol uncle had migrated to Odessa, Washington in the early 1900s. Very interesting pictures.

Wordless Wednesday New Look at Library

New look in the genealogy section of the library, three of the broken microfilm readers have been removed, then they swung the vertical file around where a couple of microfilm readers were before.

Spokane's Vintage Postcards

Don't we all love old postcards? Especially of places dear or interesting to us? Our morning newspaper carried a bit extolling the appeal of old postcards of Spokane (Paul Turner, 3 Jan 2012, www.spokesman.com). We here in Spokane are so very lucky for there has been a book compiled of a great many of these wonderful old scenes. Vintage Postcards from Old Spokane, 2005, by Duane Broyles and Tony and Suzanne Bamonte, is a book we each can have (Google it) for our own enjoyment. And this makes me wonder.........have similar books been compiled about other places where I've lived or where my ancestors lived?? Hummmmm..........