SLIG 2018 - It's Hump Day!

Monday morning about 40 students gathered at the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy for the GPS and DNA course. That's short for A Practical Approach: Establishing Genealogical Proof with DNA. We were bright-eyed and anxious to learn.

We've listened to lectures. We've worked at getting Genomate Pro set up. We've all had challenges with the install and import of our data. But we're getting there! It's like climbing a mountain and hopefully, we're at the summit or pretty darn near. Because today is Wednesday, hump day, and some of us are starting to run out of steam from climbing the mountain.

We had some great lectures today and some good laughs. Michael Locopo educated and entertained us with his Hoosier Daddy case study. Then he gave an excellent presentation on the methodologies we should be using as we work our way through DNA cases. Paul Woodbury energized us after lunch with balloons to explain endogamy. Then he entertained us with a song from Into the Woods about endogamy. Paul can sing! For real!

This is how I am feeling tonight. I'm looking forward to a good night sleep!

#SLIGexperience

URL for this post: https://turning-of-generations.blogspot.com/2018/01/slig-2018-its-hump-day.html
 © 2018, copyright Michelle Goodrum

SLIG - Tech Day

This year SLIG held its first Technology Day on Saturday, January 21st. From my perspective and from comments made by other attendees, it was a resounding success.

I attended two sessions. Here's something I learned in each session:

Spreadsheet Tips and Tricks, by Kimberly Powell
When we get a spreadsheet (such as search results we've exported from FamilySearch) the names often are in one cell. This makes it impossible to sort by surname. We need to have first, middle and last names in separate cells. Excel's "Text to columns" feature takes care of this issue. On a Mac its under the Data tab.

Using Google's "My Maps" as a Research and Analysis Tool, by Cari Taplin
I love this tool but wasn't using it effectively at all. This hands-on workshop resolved that! My favorite takeaway was literally something I could take home and share with family members. Did you know you can add photos to the places you pin on the maps you make? I sure didn't. We took a trip last summer to visit ancestral homes, cemeteries and other sites. I added the pictures I took, along with background and descriptive information. Now I have something to share with a couple of family members who are interested in where we went and what we found.

Classes start in the morning. I'm in A Practical Approach: Establishing Genealogical Proof with DNA. It's going to be intense. That equals exhausting. But I am excited. Stay tuned!

#SLIGExperience

URL for this post: https://turning-of-generations.blogspot.com/2018/01/slig-tech-day.html

 © 2018, copyright Michelle Goodrum