Dean L. McLeod Professional Genealogist to Keynote

Dean L. McLeod : Full-time professional genealogist since January 1975. Founding Board Member, APG. Spent first ten years specializing in Scottish and English research. Former staff researcher, Brigham Young University Family History Services. Employed fifteen years American Research Bureau as Field researcher in San Francisco, CA.

Be Part of the Success of the Northern California Family History Expo

The success of this Expo is increased by your commitment to sharing this information with friends, family, and your community. Click here for a PDF flyer that you can print and distribute to community centers, libraries, genealogical and family history societies, local grocery stores, restaurants, and any other place you can think of. We provide you with these flyers to help insure the continued success of this marvelous Expo.  We appreciate your assistance and support of the Expo.

If you have not taken time to register yet, I recommend you do so now in order to save money, as it will go up at the door.

For those of you who are members of societies, genealogy clubs, library groups, historical associations, and other interested groups please share this announcement with your membership. We want to be sure everyone who may benefit from this event has a chance to hear about it and attend if they’d like to. So, please take time to tell your family history friends and neighbors about this event.

Here are a few highlights:

Keynote Address – Don R. Anderson, Senior Vice President for FamilySearch. Part of his duties include being the managing director of the world-renowned Family History Library, in Salt Lake City, Utah. You will enjoy learning what’s new and what’s coming.

FamilySearch to have Ask-an-Admin booth – Come with your questions and the administrators will be there to assist you and go online to fix things on the spot.

Arlene H. Eakle, Ph.D. – Teaching classes on New York Research, Records and Sources Specific to the Old South Migrations, and Using the United States Census, 1790-1840: Matching Early Data Correctly.

Carol Cooke Darrow , CG – Teaching Sources and Citations: Just Do It!, Not All Widows Have Dead Husbands, The Immigrant Experience, and The Naturalization Process.

MyHeritage to broadcast live via Google Hangouts – Come be a part of these great classes.

The National Institute for Genealogical Studies to give away a free online class to every attendee – plus chances to win more free classes. The free online class is valued at $89 (more than the cost of registering for the full Expo).

Genealogy’s Star Blogger, James Tanner, will be teaching Google, Ancestry, HeritageQuest and social media classes.

There will be additional classes on a variety of topics. To check out the full Agenda visit our website at:  http://www.familyhistoryexpos.com/viewevent.aspx?eid=52&past=0.

If you have questions don’t hesitate to contact us. We look forward to seeing you in Colorado Springs June 1-2, 2012.

Sincerely,

Holly T. Hansen

Crowne Plaza Colorado Springs
2886 South Circle Drive
Colorado Springs, Colorado 80906
June 01 – 02, 2012

We want to thank everyone who has signed up and plans to attend our first webinar. Your response has been wonderful, and the webinar is full! Therefore, we have set up to repeat our May 15th Class on May 16th. History tells us that not everyone will make it to the class. So you can still try to get in on the 15th but if it is full come back and sign up for the May 16th class at 7:00 pm.

And for those of you who were disappointed that you could not make it on the 15th this is a double good thing for you. We look forward to connecting with you on May 15th or 16th!

Getting Started with Heritage Collector – Part 1  (Overflow class to be held on May 16th)
Our first  series of will be dedicated to the Heritage Collector Suite. We will be sharing some great tips and ideas about new ways to organize, find and share your photos and family history. We will show you how to free up space on your on your hard drive by finding and deleting duplicate photos.  We’d love to have you attend our free webinar on  Tuesday, May 15th at 7:00 pm MST. Click on the following link to reserve your place at the webinar.

http://heritagecollector.com/Webinar/FHEwebinars.htm

We will also be offering some discounts and links to free graphics at the webinar.

Here are the basics of the class:

• Brief overview of Heritage Collector
• How to create a photo collection
• Import photos into Heritage Collector
• Eliminate duplicate photos
• Search for and find photos in seconds
• Turn a photo collection into a simple slideshow

Register to attend one of our Webinars today! You will gain many research advantages by learning from the pros who know!

http://heritagecollector.com/Webinar/FHEwebinars.htm

Getting Started with Heritage Collector – Part 1
Our first  series of will be dedicated to the Heritage Collector Suite. We will be sharing some great tips and ideas about new ways to organize, find and share your photos and family history. We will show you how to free up space on your on your hard drive by finding and deleting duplicate photos.  We’d love to have you attend our free webinar on  Tuesday, May 15th at 7:00 pm MST. Click on the following link to reserve your place at the webinar.

http://heritagecollector.com/Webinar/FHEwebinars.htm

We will also be offering some discounts and links to free graphics at the webinar. Here are the basics of the class:

• Brief overview of Heritage Collector
• How to create a photo collection
• Import photos into Heritage Collector
• Eliminate duplicate photos
• Search for and find photos in seconds
• Turn a photo collection into a simple slideshow

Register to attend one of our Webinars today! You will gain many research advantages by learning from the pros who know!

http://heritagecollector.com/Webinar/FHEwebinars.htm

Antique Family history fan 24×36 $23.95 regularly $35.95

Click here for ordering details.

Any Family or Antique picture 24×36 $19.95 regularly $29.95

Click here for ordering details.

Family Proclamation/History 24×36 $23.95 regularly $35.95

Click here for ordering details.

Note: There are other sizes available,  multiple siblings in center of fan chart, etc., printing on canvas is also available.

One of the major problems encountered with sending photos by email is that the size of the file is blocked by the email recipient’s server. Even if the photo makes it through the email server, the photo’s file size could be so large that the recipient waits a very long time as photo downloads. This problem of large file size can make the recipient annoyed, rather than pleased to receive a photo.

You do not have to worry about the size of your photo files if you use a photo editing program to reduce the size of your file. REMEMBER, don’t edit your original or you may find that the only copy you have left of your photo is now so small that other uses of the photo are eliminated. Always make any edits, including reducing the file size on a copy of the original.

There are dozens of photo editing software programs available today that can reduce the size of a file for email and some of them are free. Two free programs are Irfanview,  and Google’s Picasa .

Irfanview has a whole variety of useful features, but it does provide a way to reduce the size of an image file:

Once again, make sure you are working on a copy of the original photo. One way to do this , is to open the file in Irfanview. Once the file is open as a picture in Irfanview, go to File>Save As, and choose JPG as the extension. Make sure to give the file a different name from the original. From the “Save As Type” list.  Choose the sliding “Save Quality: (Best to
Lowest) option. Then choose your desired file size. Again, it is important to remember to rename your file, so you keep the original file intact. Also be careful to observe where your reduced size file is being saved, so you don’t have to hunt for it later.

Picasa is another powerful free program for your computer that does a good job of reducing file sizes. Here are the instructions:

Open Picasa and locate the PHOTO you want to resize and select it.
Double click the photo to Enter the Picasa viewer.
Click File in the upper menu
Click Export to Picture Folder
(This process does not modify the original photo)
Click the Browse Button and change the location to save the file otherwise Picasa will save it in a default location (C:/MyPictures/Picasa/ …)
Enter REDUCED SIZE in the Name of Exported Folder: Box Reduce the PIXEL size to 640 by sliding the lever to the left. 640 is a good photo size to use on the internet. 800 is better if you are printing the photo. Your new photo file is smaller and now ready to email or upload.

You can learn a lot more about genealogy and technology by attending one of our Family History Expos=. Register to attend one of our Expos today! You will gain many research advantages by learning from the pros who know!

Google recently announced worldwide hangouts giving Google+ users the ability to broadcast live to the entire Internet.

“This really is a miracle. This tool will help make genealogy easier than ever before. Just imagine being able to communicate with people around the globe,” Family History Expos Founder and President Holly T. Hansen said.

At 7:50 p.m. (MST), June 1 Mark Olsen of MyHeritage.com and the creator of the longest Google Hangout (it lasted 77 days) will teach how to quickly connect with people from around the world to accomplish their genealogy purposes. Google+ users can join the conversation free online. In order to participate go to your Google+ page and look for “Hangouts” in the left column. Those who do not have a Google+ account can add a free account in minutes. Olsen will teach this technology as it applies to family historians and genealogists who want to teach each other, record information, or share experiences publicly. He will also teach a Saturday course focused on the recently released 1940 Census. This course will begin at 1:10 p.m. (MST) and will also be broadcast via Google Hangouts. Journalist, blogger and speaker Schelly Talalay Dardashti, also sponsored by MyHeritage.com, will present three courses via Google+ Hangouts. Following is a complete list of courses available on Google+ Hangouts:

Friday, June 1
7:50 pm: Google Hangouts – Connecting Genealogists with History Worldwide (Mark Olsen)
4:50 pm: Sephardic Research Comes of Age (Schelly Talalay Dardashti)
6:30 pm: Online Ancestral Communities (Schelly Talalay Dardashti)

Saturday, June 2
11:20 am: Social Media for 21st Century Genealogists (Schelly Talalay Dardashti)
1:10 pm: The 1940 Census (Mark Olsen)

The Colorado Family History Expo will be held June 1-2 at the Crowne Plaza Colorado Springs, 2886 South Circle Drive. Hours are Friday, 1-9 p.m., and Saturday, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Registration for the entire expo is $69 before May 31, and $99 at the door. To register for the expo visit www.familyhistoryexpos.com or call 801-829-3295.

© 2012 Family History Expos, Inc. – PO Box 187 – Morgan, UT 84050 — www.FamilyHistoryExpos.com

Before air-travel became common place there were three main types of travel – by water, by trail, and by train. Keep these in mind as you study migrations of people. Some migrations may have used all three in the crossing of the U.S.

General resources to check out include websites, books, and maps. Here are a few you worth checking out:

Websites:

Cyndi’s List
http://www.cyndislist.com/migration.htm

FamilySearch Research Wiki
http://wiki.familysearch.org/ (Once on the site search for “United States Migration”)

Early American Roads and Trails by Beverly Whitaker
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~gentutor/trails.html

The American West – History, maps, transportation, etc. -
http://www.tms.riverview.wednet.edu/lrc/westward%20movement.htm

The National Road – Site by the National Parks Service
http://www.nps.gov/fone/historyculture/nationalroad.htm

Oregon Historic Pioneer Trail – Site by the National Parks Services
http://www.nps.gov/oreg/index.htm

Diaries, Memoirs, Letters and Reports Along The Trails West
http://www.over-land.com/diaries.html

Emigrant Lists
http://www.over-land.com/emigrants.html

Books:

Adams, James Truslow. Atlas of American History. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1943. [FHL book 973 E3a; also on microfilm 1415259] (Some excellent maps of migration routes in America. Also includes many other maps of historical events in the U.S.)<br>

Atwood, Wallace W. The Physiographic Provinces of North America. Boston: Ginn, 1940.<br>

Billington, Ray Allen. Westward Expansion: a History of the American Frontier. 5th ed. New York: Macmillan, 1982. [FHL book 973 H3bw] (This is an excellent introduction regarding migration routes and settlement patterns, with a good bibliography and some maps)<br>

Turner, Frederick Jackson. The Frontier in American History. Tucson, Arizona: University of Arizona Press, c1986. Reprint. [FHL book 973 H2tf] (Turner is considered to be a leader in dissecting American history)<br>

White, C. Langdon & Edwin J. Foscue. Regional Geography of North America. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1943. (Considered a standard reference; supplements Atwood)<br>

Maps:

Historical Maps at the Perry-Castaneda Library at the University of Texas – http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/united_states.html

Trails West: A Map of Early Western Migration Trails – http://www.tngenweb.org/tnletters/usa-west.htm

Eldridge, Carrie. An Atlas of Northern Trails Westward from New England. Huntington, West Virginia; CDM Printing, c2000  (She has a series for different regions of the U.S. these contain very nice maps and trail descriptions)

Register to attend one of our Expos today! You will gain many research advantages by learning from the pros who know!

Upcoming Events from Family History Expos

Colorado Family History Expo 2012
Crowne Plaza Colorado Springs
2886 South Circle Drive
Colorado Springs, Colorado 80906
June 01 – 02, 2012

Northern California Family History Expo 2012
Crowne Plaza Sacramento Northeast
5321 Date Avenue
Sacramento, California 95841
July 06 – 07, 2012

Illinois Family History Expo 2012
Crowne Plaza Springfield
3000 South Dirksen Parkway
Springfield, Illinois 62703
August 03 – 04, 2012

Midwest Family History Expo 2012
Holiday Inn Convention Center
110 South Second Avenue
Kearney, Nebraska 68848
September 07 – 08, 2012

October Salt Lake City Family History Library Retreat 2012
Salt Lake Plaza Hotel
122 West South Temple
Salt Lake City, Utah 84101
October 22 – 26, 2012

Georgia Family History Expo 2012
Gwinnett Center
6400 Sugarloaf Parkway
Duluth, Georgia 30097
November 09 – 10, 2012

Ruby Coleman, blogger for the You Go Genealogy Girls and Nebraska Roots and Ramblings, has been selected as Nebraska Genealogist of the Year by the Nebraska State Genealogical Society. She will be a speaker at the upcoming Colorado Family History Expo to be held on June 01, 2012 1:00 pm to 9:00 pm and June 02, 2012 from 9:00 am to 4:30 pm at the Crowne Plaza Colorado Springs, 2886 South Circle Drive, Colorado Springs, Colorado – 80906.

Ruby will be presenting on More than Google: Doing an Effective Search, and Inter-library Loan … a Hidden Gold Mine for Genealogists.

The following is information about some of our speakers/exhibitors at our upcoming Colorado Family History Expo in Colorado Springs, CO on June 1-2, 2012. We will have an array of vendors with the latest tools and techniques to help in verifying your ancestors. We also have an agenda filled with speakers to help you move your research along. If you have not already registered, please click here to register for the Colorado Expo. If you have registered, please tell a friend and have them register too.

Google Hangouts – Connecting Genealogists with History Worldwide

Google+ is quickly becoming a go to place for genealogy. Never before has it been easier to connect, share, and record family history – gather for a genealogy society meeting – attend a genealogy conference – meet with a client – connect for the first time with a distant cousin – interview an elderly relative and much more.

Mark Olsen of MyHeritage.com and the creator of the longest Google Hangout which lasted 77 days will teach how to quickly connect with people from around the world to accomplish our genealogy purposes. Mark will teach how you can very quickly join a hangout in process or create your own. He will also teach how you can use this technology to gather your family or society together to teach, record and share experiences.

This and all of Mark’s presentations will be broadcast live to the Google+ community and assuming a good internet connection will involve genealogists from around the globe.

Finding Your Ancestors on FamilySearch

Wouldn’t it be great if FamilySearch.org could read your mind and find the exact information you need about your ancestor? Do you ever get frustrated when you put in your search terms and the results are not what you expect or want? As good as FamilySearch is at anticipating your needs, there are some things you can do to get better and more accurate results. Timothy Cross’ presentation provides six expert tips for finding your ancestors on FamilySearch. Using these tips you may just find those elusive ancestors you’ve been searching for.

Help Us Make the Colorado Expo More Successful

You can help us make this event even more successful by sharing this information with friends, family, and your community. Click here for a PDF flyer that you can print and distribute to community centers, libraries, genealogical and family history societies, local grocery stores, restaurants, etc. to help insure the continued success of this marvelous Expo.  We appreciate your help and support.

Why Should You Attend One of Our Expos?

Following are some of the benefits for attending our Expos:

• Class Handouts Syllabus includes more than 300 pages of research guidance.
• Free online class offered by Genealogical Studies valued at $89.00
• Download, view and study class handouts before the event so you can come prepared with questions.
• FamilySearch developers, consultant training, and expert researchers from the Family History Library will be there teaching classes.
• Ask-the-Pros booth where you can bring personal research and genealogical questions to discuss with our professional researchers $50 value.
• Exhibit area filled with vendors who have unique products and services, family historians and genealogists love to learn about. (Our book vendor alone will have more than 400 titles to browse or purchase. Books selected based on expert knowledge by Leland K. Meitzler who really knows what people need to be successful.)
• Speakers and vendors from throughout the United States, Canada, and Israel. A unique opportunity to increase skills and networking with other researchers.
• Meet bloggers who will be talking about the event via twitter, blogs, and other social media.
• Amazing door prizes each hour and grand prizes at the end of the Expo! People qualify to win prizes by attending classes (Grand prizes include a gift bag filled with FamilySearch specialty items, $900 in online classes offered by Genealogical Studies of Ontario, Canada; a professional research package valued at $500 offered by Arlene H. Eakle, PhD and more)

Get Your Room Reserved Now!

Crowne Plaza Colorado Springs

Run of the House – $99

Make your reservations early. Make your reservation online by clicking on the logo at left or call 888-233-9527.