Arizona Family History Expo Wrapup

Now that I've had a few days to recover and reflect on the Arizona Family History Expo, I'd like to share with you which lectures I attended and something I learned from each. I hope you find this helpful.

Friday began with Nancy Loe's, Organize Your Genealogical Research, where I learned it's perfectly OK to arrange your digital and paper files differently. In fact, that's what she recommends. I breathed a huge sigh of relief when I heard this. The other organizing presentations I have attended and reading I have done on this topic have all recomended organizing paper and digital files the same way. Unfortunately, I realized, after I had re-organized my digital files several months ago, that I had done them each differently. I am having absolutely no problem finding anything, so based on Nancy's recommendation, I am not going to worry about it. Whew!

Since I am not particularly familiar with tax records, I stepped out of my comfort zone and attended Leiland Meitzler's, Using Tax Records to Extend Your Genealogy. Here I learned you can figure out how old a man was depending on when he began appearing in the local tax records, if you also familarize yourself with the local laws, for that time period. The laws of the time tell when a man had to begin paying a tax.

Next up, Arlene Eakle speaking on, Track Hard-to-Find Southern Ancestors in Land and Property Records: State by State. My ears perked up when Arlene explained there is a relatively new resource available that will allow researchers to connect their Tennessee ancestor to North Caroline during and after the Revolutionary War, if he claims military service from North Carolina. Maybe I can finally make some progress on my Low ancestors from Knox County, Tennessee!

I ended Friday with Pat Richley, aka Dear Myrtle, and her talk 7 Habits of Highly Effective Genealogists. She compiled her list based upon the recommendations of her genealogist colleagues over in Second Life. Pat spent some time talking about Gensmarts and how it can help you research more efficiently. I like efficiency!

Over the course of the weekend, I attended Bridget Cook's talks which you can read about in Post 1 of the FHE.

Lisa Louise Cooke started my Saturday off with How to Create Awesome Interactive Family History Tours with Google Earth which I wrote about in Post 3.

The last presentation I attended was Dear Myrtle's, How Ancestry Trees Can Jumpstart Your Research. She did a live demo for us so we were able to see just how quickly those "shaky leaves" begin appearing once you upload your tree. I was glad I heard this presentation since Pat had some great tips and explained the difference between the shaky leaf (quick and easy data base results) and the magnifying glass which gives the results of a deeper search.

I hope this information is of help to you in your research. If you have the opportunity the listen to any of these presenters in the future, I recommend each and every one of them.

© 2011, copyright Michelle Goodrum

Disclaimer: As a Blogger of Honor for the Arizona Family History Expo, I did receive a free registration and dinner. This in no way influenced my opinions expressed herein. In fact I would have attended the Expo even if I would have had to pay.