Randy Seaver's Saturday Night Fun: What Genealogy Books are on your shelf?

Which ones are my favorites?

Randy’s suggestion for tonight was to take a photo of my genealogy books and post. I just cleaned out a bunch of books, and realize taking these photos, that I still have quite a few favorites. Mostly you can see the titles in the photos but here’s a few to mention:

General genealogy books. On the left is Overland in 1846 by Morgan detailing the wagon trains to Oregon. One of my family, Rice Dunbar captained a train. The orange one is The Genealogist's Google Toolbox by Lisa Louise Cooke - so helpful. Several books by Emily Croom. To the right of them are two books for writing (what else?) books: Publish Your Family History by Dina C. Carson and Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. This was super helpful, it's a way to document sources with parenthesis instead of little numbers. So much easier. 

I love any books by W. Daniel Quillen are good resources. Of German Ways by Rippley is a very old book my husband bought about German traditions. (In the background are posters of my presentations.)

Lots of resources about countries Germany, France (the blue book French Genealogy From Afar by Anne Morddel) and Poland. The green book with the tiny wording is the book I wrote about my husband's family, The Ambellans from New York including Warren Spahn. The purplish book next to it is about Oberhoffen-sur-Moder, the town my husband's family came from. The horizontal books to the right are a recent French/English dictionary, a very old French dictionary (helps with archaic words) and a Dutch/English dictionary. You can see the orange German-English Genealogical Dictionary and another Ernest Thode book in the middle. 

This is when I get into the details of my Luxembourg and Belgian histories. They are written in French. The book on the left is a children's story book in French.

Okay, if you want to know anything that was indexed by the Henry County, IL Genealogical Society, I have it! Eighteen books on births, marriages, deaths, cemeteries, wills, and naturalizations. I was fortunate that a cousin who co-researched our Hiram R. Dunbar with me in the 1990's, sent them, for which I am extremely grateful. 

This was a very fun exercise! Hmmm...exercise, time to take my daily walk which is one of the few pleasures we are allowed to do in Illinois. (I am in agreement.) Stay safe everyone!

Randy Seaver's Saturday Fun Night

Rootech!

Have you gone to Rootstech? If so which years? I’ve only been once, 2018. 

Describe your experience. Amazing time. Huge!

Who was your favorite speaker? Henry Louis Gates. I wanted to see him for a very long time. Arrived an hour early thinking I’d be the first one there, but there were hundreds of people who came even earlier. I got a great seat and he gave an inspiring speech.

Did you talk with any genealogy "rock stars"? No, but I snuck a photo of Randy Seaver in the blogger area!

What was something you learned that you use over and over? I went to my third choice presentation when the two others were filled, but it was the best. U.S. Church records by Sunny Morton. She’s written a book about it since then. I use these records often. Did you know that one study showed you have a 65% chance of finding the town of origin in US church records? (Many times the immigrant is asked "Where were you baptized?")

Describe something you enjoyed in the vendor area. I loved seeing so many wonderful companies. I was pleasantly surprised by the scanning project that binds papers into books. And the antique experts who evaluate items.

Do you watch the streamed classes live? I tried this year, but missed the classes I wanted to see (wrong time.) But I watch most of the recorded programs. They are already available for 2020.

Did you visit the library? Yes!

Describe your experience. Spent hours and hours there. Friendly volunteers. Found a lot.

What was your favorite Salt Lake City experience not genealogical related? (A restaurant, a landmark etc.) We saw the Mormon Tabernacle choir practice in front of the large pipe organ. Wow!

What was a pleasant surprise about your visit that you did not expect?

1)The light train between the airport and hotel was cheap, clean, and easy. 2) Men in suits and ties and women in dresses. 3) How older people seem to mentor younger people. More connections between generations.

Randy Seaver's Saturday Night Fun - Surnames

Randy asked us to look into our data base and generate a report of our top 20 surnames. In Familytreemaker it's a pretty easy report. I was surprised that "None" came in third. But I looked at other genealogists who did this exercise, and while the name changes (LNU=Last Name Unknown) we typically have a variation of this when we don't know the name. My names are mostly in my direct or secondary lines. I'm surprised by the Louis name, while in my direct line, it is very far back so I'm surprised I dug up that many people. Another surprise is that my maiden name and my husband's surname did not make the cut.

Saturday Night 2019 Positive Geneameme

Randy Seaver’s Saturday Night blog had some great questions. At first glance, I thought, “I don’t have anything ‘new’ to add.” But then I got to thinking and realized that 2019 was a great year for genealogy.

1.     An elusive ancestor I found – Ancestry’s Thru-lines located two more generations (early 1700’s) of several lines of my Luxembourg family. They moved to another town, and another researcher found the records in an unexpected town.

2.     A great newspaper article I found – I found the Dutch newspaper, the Delpher, online for free. I traced obits from 1920’s to current to track down a living relative of the one brother (there were 15 siblings) of my 2^nd gr-grandmother Emilie Verbeke, who did not come to the United States.

3.     A geneajourney I took – I spent three wonderful days in Washington DC. Two days at the archives and one morning at the DAR. Lots of Civil and Revolutionary War records.

4.     I located an important record – My 3^rd-gr-grandfather, Hiram R Dunbar and his son John went to the California gold rush and came back wealthy. I thought because Hiram owned a dry-goods store in Illinois, maybe he made his money that way. But in John’s Civil War papers, he stated that he and his father mined for gold. Now I know!

5.     A new found family member shared - I found the only living descendent of my husband’s grandmother’s only brother, Herman. She had one photo of Herman. I’ve been looking for a photo since 1979.

6.     A genea-surprise I received – I actually finished my book “The Ambellan Family of Buffalo, New York including Warren Spahn.” Took three years (not counting the 30 years of research.) It’s selling well on Amazon.

7.     Social media post I was proud of – I got the most hits on my post about How to Read Difficult Writing (https://seedstotree.blogspot.com/2019/03/tip-for-reading-difficult-writing.html) but this is the post I’m also very proud of -https://seedstotree.blogspot.com/2019/10/my-genealogy-book-is-published-yippee.html

8.     A new genea-mate - I “met” many relatives, some of them “shirt-tale” by writing my book. I included contact information, and I’ve received phone calls, emails, and ancestry’s message. Made some great connections and learned new stories.

9.     A new genea-skill I learned – I am proud to say I know how to edit, index, create a cover and pretty much everything else need to turn a manuscript into a published book.  Took three and ½ solid months.

90.  I joined - ??

11.  A genealogy session I learned something from – I attended the DuPage Genealogical Society’s conference. Thomas MacEntee spoke on book publishing. I hung around and asked questions after the amazing presentation..and you can guess what happened next.

12.  Blog post that I learned something new – I read many of the Best posts listed on Sunday in Randy’s blog. There is so much I’ve learned – too many to pick out one in particular.

13.  A DNA discovery – A DNA match to my Buffalo Schattners, and the Schatners from Grand Rapids, Michigan.

14.  I taught a genea-mate how to – I teach a beginning genealogy class nearly monthly. Afterwards I’m willing to set up meetings to help the attendees. I love volunteering at my local genealogy library to inspire people to find family.

15.  I demolished a brick wall – (Does this count?) My brick wall was finishing my research into the form of a book. I had the manuscript for several years.

16.  Great website I visited – I spent a lot of time using newspapers.com this year. I can use it free from home through my public library card.

17.  A new book I enjoyed – Before and After by Lisa Wingate about an adoption scandal, How to Find Your Family in U.S. Church Records by Sunny Morton. Not new, but new to me Publish Your Family History by Dina C. Carson.

18.  I was excited to meet – Michael LaCopo. He gave a hilarious speech, at a dinner, about what he’s learned in 30 years of family research, that only we genealogy people would understand. I drove over an hour to see it and it was a 2019 highlight. We spoke after.

19.  I’m excited for 2020 because – I’m going to t-r-y to finish a second book and I’m teaching in New York. I created four new presentations and I look forward to rolling them out.

20.  Another positive I’d like to share – Even after 30 years, there’s always something new to learn and you never know where your research will lead.

   Happy New Year!

Are You a Genealogy Presenter? Top Tips and Tricks for Handouts and Presenting

While updating my 2019 presentations excel sheet (for taxes) and I am pleased and surprised that it lists 20+ presentations this year. These do not include the group discussions I help lead – it’s the stand-up-in-front of an eager audience, teaching a topic using a PowerPoint and handout. By adding variety of new genealogical subjects, 15 presentations are already booked in 2020. These are enjoyable afternoons or evenings for me. This business launched in 2012 and over the years, I’ve learned a variety of tips and tricks for growing a presentation business, improving handouts, and the art of presenting. Here’s my list, all you speakers out there, if you have other ideas, please let me know:

Growing your business:

To start, offer to volunteer to give presentations to libraries and genealogy groups.

New presentation? Again, volunteer. You’ll be able to smooth out rough spots before you present to a paid audience.

Arrive at least 30 minutes earlier, so your host isn’t wondering and you are calm.

Take your host’s contact information with you when you drive to the presentation, just in case you have a delay, or get lost. Give them yours so they may contact you too.

When they ask for you to sign a contract, send a photo, bio or presentation description, do so in a timely manner. Send the handout on time. I have been the host, and it’s annoying to have to repeatedly ask for these.

Thank the host at the beginning of your presentation and give a personalized reason why you are honored to be speaking. (I.E. You’ve heard good things about the group or you have family in the area or in one case – I was the last presentation the group had before they disbanded.)

Handout:

Make sure it is readable. Some presenters create the easy three-slides-to-a-page-plus-lines for notes. The words may be so small they are not readable.

If you do use the slide format, leave less important slides out with a save-as and then deleting minor slides before printing.  

Be considerate of the number of pages to be printed. I’ve seen 12 pages but six is max.

Better yet, use an outline format. Takes up less paper and easier to read. (I use it.)  

In PowerPoint>File>Export>Create handout>Outline. Then a little editing.

While the subject is handouts, leave some information off your handouts. You want to see the attendees write notes. It’s part of class participation. You’ll know they are tuned in.

Depending how you feel, you might want to put a copyright symbol or even a little note to not copy without your permission.   

Include your email in case there are follow-up questions.

Attendees LOVE resources, websites and books. Check website links at least once a year. To avoid a cluttered look, use the website name in your PowerPoint, but place the URL in the handout.

Keep a copy with you when presenting. People may ask where something is in the handout or you may refer to it for other reasons.

Presenting:

Bring water – maybe your host will have water for you, but if not and you get a cough or dry mouth, you are glad to have something to sip. (It’s also good if you need a moment to think before answering a question.)

Wear something with a decent pocket so you have a place to put the little microphone box. I just slip into a pocket.

If presenting at a library, suggest they pull appropriate books to be checked out. Also preview their website for their available resources and databases. Refer to the website in the presentation. Better yet, show how to use it before or at the end of your presentation.

Laser pointers are nice.

Bring a second copy of your presentation and handout. If you bring your laptop, copy to a flash drive and bring. If just a flash drive, bring two flash drives. Just last week, no handouts were copied, but the host took my flash drive, made copies, while I started the PowerPoint presentation using my laptop.

Do not expect internet to be available, even when the host says it will be. I set up my PowerPoints with screen shots. If internet is available, it’s a bonus.

PowerPoint slides should have large easy-to-read letters. Too many words, the audience can’t read everything before the slide changes. Bullets are better than paragraphs. Keep words minimal. Pictures improve your look. Consider a relevant theme.

This tip comes from my daughter who taught. “They don’t know what they don’t know.” This means if you updated your presentation, but brought the old one by mistake, the audience doesn’t know. If you forgot to explain something, the audience doesn’t know. Just keep going and smile. If you remember later in your presentation, say it then.

Decide how you feel about people taking photos during your slide presentation. If you prefer they don’t, ask the host to make that announcement in your introduction. Or add a slide in the beginning with a camera graphic and your preferred camera rule.

Leave time for questions at the end of your presentation. I add a cute “Questions?” slide.

Throw in words like “Good question” so people are comfortable about asking.

You learn good ideas for adding to your presentation or even for a new presentation through questions and comments.

If you don’t know the answer, give a resource that might hold the answer, instead of giving the answer itself. Or better yet, ask attendees if they know the answer.

Hang around to enjoy people conversations and possibly treats! It’s a great gig – being with people who enjoy talking about what you enjoy talking about!

My Genealogy Book is Published - Yippee!

I realize that this is a bit of self-promotion, but after 40 years of research and two years of writing and editing, my first book is available on amazon. I enjoyed learning about my husband's grandmother and the 20 other members of her family who immigrated to Buffalo. Thank you to everyone who encouraged and helped me in my journey. 

Randy Seaver's October 19th Saturday Night Genealogy Fun Question

Randy Seaver usually has an interesting Saturday Night question. This week, he asked us to list inherited items. He gave us a list of possibilities to get us started, which is really nice.

Ancestoral items I inherited for which I’m grateful:

Mother’s side

A living room set – couch, two chairs. My grandfather’s 1929 engagement present to my grandmother, complete with the ding that resulted from a ketchup bottle being hurled during a skirmish between my mother’s brothers. My dad and I refinished the furniture and had it reupholstered.

A 12-gallon ceramic crock that my grandfather used to boot-leg.

My gr-grandfather’s dining room stained glass chandelier and dining room table.

My grandmother’s diamond and sapphire ring and pink glass dishes.

Father’s side

Three pairs of my grandmother’s gold earrings which I wear frequently.  A gold lapel pin that was her mother's. I've had it dated to the 1860's so maybe it's even older.

Two rings my dad always wore.

A photograph album. My grandmother and I labeled the photos before she died at 99 years old.

  

My mother is still living and going strong, so there hasn’t been a lot of distribution yet. I have many little items also, but these are the bigger pieces. I treasure them and the memories of these wonderful loving people.