Midwest Family History Expo

I am in Kearney, Nebraska attending the Midwest Family History Expo. This is a two day event at the convention center in Kearney. The center is associated with the Holiday Inn Motel in Kearney. It is a very nice place with plenty of space for the presentations.

They have 4 session each day with your choice of 1 of 6 lectures per session. There is a nice variety of subjects to choose from. There are several vendors for local  businesses and Family Roots Publishing with a great selection of books.

FamilySearch.org is here and is a supporter of the expo. There is a blogger lounge for the bloggers who are in attendance.

Family History Expos is the overall organizer.

This is the first time the Midwest Family History Expo has been held in Kearney. Hopefully the event will return and become a major event.

Interactive gravestones link to online tales of life.

Summing up the life of a dearly departed relative with just a terse description etched in stone may become a thing of the past with the introduction of interactive codes on gravestones.

One funeral company in the southern English town of Poole is offering to add quick response (QR) codes to headstones which will link smartphones to online memorials illustrated with pictures, videos and contributions from family and friends.

Chester Pearce funeral directors said QR barcodes enable visitors to learn a lot more about the person buried beneath gravestones than the age, dates of birth and death and the odd biblical passage or literary quote usually written on them.

"It's about keeping people's memories alive in different ways," managing director Stephen Nimmo told Reuters.

"When you lose somebody, whether it be suddenly or ongoing, you can really struggle with things.

Talking about them is very important, keeping their memory going is very important and this is just an add-on to that."

QR codes, a barcode that can be scanned with smartphones or QR scanners, allow users to pull up information on the internet and are frequently used in advertising and marketing campaigns.

"It's a new technology, it's something that there will be people who like it, there will be people who don't and that's the same in everything that we do," Nimmo said.

He said he has seen demand growing for QR codes as they catch the imagination of the public.

Chester Pearce charge about 300 pounds ($477) to create a code that can also be placed on gravestones, benches, trees or plaques and is linked to a page on their QR Memories website.

Gill Tuttiet, 53, was one of the first customers in Poole to use the technology for her late husband Timothy.

"Tim was quite outward-going and game for anything. I think this is the way forward and Tim would have wanted that, and it's making a process that's hard possibly easier," Tuttiet said.

The website linked to the code shows a profile of the departed, pictures, videos and tributes from family and friends.

Close friends and family given a password are also able to add personal messages of their own.

"We've all got a story to tell," Nimmo said.

(Reporting by Li-mei Hoang, editing by Paul Casciato)

THINGS TO KNOW

If you missed the general meeting you missed a lot of good information. It should be uploaded soon to the regular site. Randy Seaver had given two very informative lectures. In one lecture he discussed the trials and tribulations of tracking down his wife’s family in England, Australia and the US. The other lecture was information on Cloud Computing and innovative websites, devices and apps available on the internet. One not to miss is http://blog.billiongraves.com/ All you have to do it take the picture and the phone will put the GPS location on for you and upload it to the web. It is one of the easiest apps. The app is free, and there is the option to make a purchase in the app to be able to search for a record, but you can buy the convenience of searching on mobile if you desire. They have lots of fun things that they do like organizing groups of people to go to the cemeteries and take picture.

THINGS TO KNOW

THINGS TO KNOW http://www.idaillinois.org This is a site for Illinois Digital Archives. Audio is hard to hear but information is great. Some of the information you can find here…telephone books for some years in the 1930’s…some biographies of famous people from Illinois…newspapers. Have fun…wonderful website. Don’t forget to search for digital records for your home state!!!

The San Deigo Genealogical Society Library is moving. the merger with San Deigo Public Library is something we have been working on for years. It has come to fruition. Cataloguing of books is coming along and a mid March 2013 move is planned. Although the holding will move the Society will continue to have Wednesday classes at the SDGS Library at 7343 Ronson Road, the Beginning class will precede the second Saturday meetings at 9 am with monthly meeting at 10 am with always great speakers and refreshments. September meeting and January Annual meeting will always be all day seminars with outstanding speakers and opportunity drawings. The Education Committee Chair Penny McBride has plans for expanding and publicising even more educatinal opportunities.

Lisa Alzo’s September 8 Seminar Topics Following is a brief description of the topics Lisa will be presenting at our September 8 Seminar at the Handlery Hotel in Mission Valley. Cost is $40 which includes the four-lecture seminar, box lunch with drink, and door prizes. Any of you who have heard Liza speak, will agree when we say she is entertaining, energetic, knowledgeable and lots of fun. The Registration form is attached or go to our web site at http://casdgs.org. Click on Meetings and Events, Calendar of Events, September 8 and Download: Seminar Registration Form. The deadline is 30 August, so sign up now! Demystifying Eastern European Research  Anyone who has attempted to trace their ancestors back to Eastern Europe understands the special challenges and frustrations involved. Border changes, language differences, political considerations, and exotic-sounding surnames often complicate the research process. This session covers the most common myths and misconceptions and how to work around them. Show, Don’t Tell: Using Nonfiction Writing Techniques to Write Better Family History Do your family members start yawning and rolling their eyes when you mention Family History? This presentation will show you how to create interactive family histories using free, or low-cost online tools for adding photos, video, maps & more to bring your ancestor’s stories to life. You have the power to change family indifference or boredom into excitement about family history. Books, e-books, blogs, newsletters, family websites, online scrapbooks, memory or memorial pages, slide shows or presentations, video tours and social media will all be discussed as tools for making family history more interesting. Immigrant Cluster Communities: Past, Present and Future There are a handful of “cluster” immigrant communities throughout the United States that blossomed during the immigration influx of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Exploring “cluster genealogy”—the process of researching those relatives, friends, and neighbors who lived near an ancestor—can often break down brick walls in the search for individual family lines and help to place our ancestors’ lives in historical context. For those descendants who’ve moved away from such traditional immigrant enclaves, 21st-century technology can be used to rebuild “cluster communities” in the virtual world. This lecture will cover: How to identify chain migrations or cluster communities using key records; ways to share and collaborate with other researchers, and the benefits, pitfalls, and obstacles associate with a shift to “virtual” cluster communities; and how to use tools such as social networking sites, Wikis, etc., build online genealogical communities. 365 Ways to Discover Your Family History Serious genealogists recognize that they are never truly “done” when it comes to their research. However, while researching our roots, we often find that the process can become tedious and even frustrating, especially when you stumble across the inevitable “roadblock(s).” This session will discuss some of the ways to make the research process fun and challenging throughout the year, using your calendar as a genealogical research guide, and even how to utilize holidays to enhance your family history quest. Presentation will offer innovative approaches to common research tasks to assist both the novice and more experienced researcher.

The 1940 Census Index Just Keeps Building

I took a look at the index completion map at FamilySearch this morning and saw some more states listed as searchable. There are now 24 states ready to be used by genealogists and non-genealogists alike.

The states are: Alaska, Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Montana North Dakota, New Hampshire, Nevada, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia, Vermont, Wyoming