Nutfield Genealogy: Jamboree

Showing posts with label Jamboree. Show all posts

Monday, July 24, 2017

Our Family ChartMasters Heirloom Family Tree

Our Family Tree, by Family Chartmasters

Quite a few years ago, in 2011, I met Janet Hvorka of the Family Chartmasters at the Southern California Genealogy Society Jamboree in Burbank, California. She had a lovely booth all set up with lots of family trees, and we admired them and dreamed about ordering one someday. We looked at their pretty fan charts, and ancestor charts with photos, and just couldn't decide. Time went by…

In 2013 I met Janet Hvorka at her lovely booth again at the RootsTech genealogy conference in Salt Lake City. This time we ooohed and ahhhhed over more new family tree charts and dreamed a bit more about having a nice tree to display on the wall. There were big charts with lots of generations, all sizes and shapes, and even some that looked like real trees. Our daughter was getting married so we decided to wait so we could put the happy couple on a future family tree. Time went by…

In 2015 Janet Hvorka was at the New England Regional Genealogy Conference (NERGC) in Providence Rhode Island, with her lovely booth and even more charts and trees. She showed us all the new layouts and designs for family trees and multigeneration charts. We were very excited because the happy couple, my daughter and son-in-law, were expecting our first grandchild. We discussed a possible tree with Janet, and she explained how we could show all the ancestors, and our descendants on a family tree. Wow! We decided to wait until the baby was born so we could include the new name on the chart. Time went by…

NERGC is a biennial conference, so this year at Springfield, Massachusetts we toured the vendor hall and – you guessed it – we bumped into Janet Hvorka and her lovely Family Chartmaster booth again. Years had passed since we first thought of this possible family tree, and even though the vendor hall had several other vendors selling custom charts, and even though our grandbaby is now almost two years old WE DID IT! We gave Janet a down payment on a large wall chart with our family tree! It was a new kind of tree (drawn like a real tree), just like the 19th century tree charts I have admired in the past (click here to see a HASKELL family tree I photographed at the NEHGS library in Boston: https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/02/haskell-family-tree.html )

Well, you know me by now. NERGC was in April, and it is now July. Time went by… as we considered all our options and finally submitted our GEDCOM file to Janet. Then FamilyChartmasters got to work finagling all the generations and names into a free form tree with my ancestors on the right side branches, and Vincent’s ancestors on the left, and our descendants down in the roots. We worked via email with a very patient and skillful employee named Christine.

Over the next few weeks Christine took our email suggestions and tweaked branches, added generations, and squeezed in hundreds of names. The final result was wonderful!

Between email, this little booklet and the website
we were able to work with FamilyChartmasters to design
our family tree

We had the chart professionally framed and it hangs in our family room. At a family birthday party last weekend everyone had fun finding their branch on the tree, or even finding their own name! I don’t know if you can see in the photo because of the glare on the glass, but each leaf is not only labeled with a name, but the name of the country or state is on the leaf, too. There are nine generations in the branches, and our grandchild is down below!

Thanks Janet, Christine and everyone at Family Chartmasters! I would recommend their family trees to anyone who would like to hang a chart in their home. The process was easy, and well worth the time, affordable, and provided us with a real family heirloom. We all love the final result!

The Family Chartmasters website: https://familychartmasters.com/

Family Chartmasters at Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FamilyChartMasters/

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To cite/link to this blog post: Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Our Family ChartMasters Heirloom Family Tree", Nutfield Genealogy, posted July 24, 2017, (https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2017/07/our-familychartmasters-heirloom-family.html: accessed [access date]).

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Day Four ~ SCGS Jamboree Wrap Up

Here are my thoughts on the last day of Jamboree, and my thoughts about the entire conference…

We woke up extra early to attend the breakfast sponsored by the New England Historic Genealogical Conference. Rhonda McClure spoke about the interesting and humorous genealogy patrons she has worked with at the reference desk on the fourth floor of the NEHG library. These stories were interesting to me since they were so varied, everything from ethnic genealogy question to research stumpers. I know Rhonda from the library, but I have never heard her speak before.

Perhaps Vincent and I were the only New Englanders at the breakfast? We had fun meeting everyone at our table, all native Californians with New England roots. Some even had New Hampshire ancestors. Most interesting was the blind researcher who sat next to Vincent. I never want to hear anyone ever complain about microfilm, reading manuscripts, or illegible handwriting again after talking about genealogy with this gentleman. I can’t imagine the difficulties he encounters every day doing the most simple research tasks. Yet here he was smiling enjoying family history. What an inspiration!

As for disabilities, I have a walking disability (leg brace) and I found Jamboree easy to navigate. I took frequent breaks (there were half hour breaks between sessions), and there was plenty of sitting during lectures for "get off your feet" time. I needed an ECV (as Disney calls them "electronic convenience vehicles") for Disneyland the day before we headed to Burbank, but I didn't need on for Jamboree. I know many attendees had wheelchairs and power chairs, and fortunately Jamboree is all one level, although there are many doors between the buildings which can be difficult without those large buttons to open them automatically (no buttons at this venue). I've been to many multi-level conferences, and the stairs can be a difficulty, and elevators can become over crowded between sessions. I didn't see any lines for elevators this week. There were no sign language interpreters.

In honor of the 50^th anniversary of the Southern California Genealogy Society, it was “Celebrate the 60s Day”. There were many attendees wearing colorful tie-died T-shirts, and lots of hippies with flowers in their hair wandering the halls. I also saw a few miniskirts, sheath dresses, and go go boots.

Next I attended a writing class “How to Write a Personal History that Captures Your Interesting Life” by author Dawn Thurston. She had some great ideas on using expository writing to make boring genealogy reports come to life as stories anyone, even non-relatives, would enjoy reading. Some of her ideas might help my blogging. Dawn’s syllabus was an excellent writing guide, and included a list of great books she thought had some nice examples of interesting and engaging writing. I hadn’t read any of the books on the list (yet!)

Major serendipity! I ran into this writing class late and took an empty seat next to a complete stranger. He turned and said “Heather!” and introduced himself as one of Vincent’s business associates (and genealogy buff) from the Burbank area. Vincent had told him we would be at Jamboree, and he attended Saturday and Sunday. I hope he had a great experience, too!

Since it was the last day, we wandered the expo hall again and made some last minute book purchases, picked up brochures and business cards and schmoozed with vendors. There were several ethnic associations I don’t see at New England conferences, such as Hispanic, Japanese and Korean associations. Unfortunately the Hispanic groups at Jamboree had a slant towards Mexican, Central American and South American culture and heritage and didn’t include Spain and Portugal.

We ended the day with Leland Meitzler’s lecture on “Your Ancestor’s Migration through Canals, Rivers and Waterways.” I was disappointed that he covered rivers, coasts and migrations west but ran out of time just before the canal information. I have ancestors who financed the construction of the Middlesex Canal, traveled New England canal systems, and migrated to cities in New England to work in the mills powered by the water in man-made canal systems. Maybe I can catch this talk by Leland again at a different conference.

One personal observation: the front end of the conference was loaded with the “Big” speakers, such as John Colletta, Judy Russell, Steve Morse, and Maurice Gleeson. I noticed that the pickings for Sunday classes only had one talk by Steve Morse no other big draw lecturers, and that the attendance was definitely sparser.

I missed the last session to meet up with a first cousin, who gave us a quick tour of the Burbank area before we had to get to the airport to take the “Red Eye” home to Boston. It was a whirlwind four days in Burbank between DNA Day, Jamboree, blogger reunions, meeting close and distant cousins, hanging out with some of my favorite genealogy speakers, overloads of genealogy information and lack of sleep.

When can I do it all again?

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The URL for this post is

http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/06/day-four-scgs-jamboree-wrap-up.html

Saturday, June 7, 2014

Day Three ~ SCGS Jamboree

We started the day out with another class by John Colletta,

"The County Courthouse: Your Trunk in the Attic".

Vincent always likes to sit in the second row, and we always found

Steve Morse sitting in front of us in several lectures.

So, it was time to ask him for a photo op....

Then it was time for the Genealogy Blogger Panel Discussion,

moderated by Thomas MacEntee....

Here we are... Yours Truly, Blaine Bettinger, Thomas MacEntee,

Nicka Smith and Randy Seaver!

After the panel we gathered as many genealogy bloggers

as possible into one big group shot!

I had fun hanging out with Judy Russell talking about our cats,

and seeing her prank Paula Stuart Warren's iPad! And Cyndi Ingle got the blame.

The last lecture I attended this afternoon was Joshua Taylor

who gave a class on "The Web, The World, and You"

This year the speakers who are generating the most buzz in the social hours, bars and social media are John Colletta, Judy Russell, Josh Taylor and Steve Morse. Everyone was either watching them on live-stream or trying to squeeze into their sessions.

New to me this year are Dr. Maurice Gleeson, Bernice Bennett, Jordon Jones, Kathy Warburton and Rhonda McClure (who I've met at NEHGS but never heard her lecture before).

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Copyright 2014, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Friday, June 6, 2014

Day Two of the SCGS Jamboree

If you can’t be in Burbank this week, you can still watch the experts at the Southern California Genealogy Society’s annual Jamboree online!

The price is FREE ( underwritten by Ancestry.Com for the 50^th anniversary of Jamboree) for live streamed talks. See this website to register ahead of time:

http://www.scgsgenealogy.com/Jamboree/2014/LiveStream.html

Friday schedule (three hours difference from New England EST)

* FR009 - Friday 1:00PM - Judy G. Russell JD, CG, CGL - "Dowered or Bound Out: Records of Widows and Orphans"

* FR018 - Friday 2:30PM - Blaine Bettinger PhD, JD - "DNA and the Genealogical Proof Standard"

* FR027 - Friday 4:00PM - Paula Stuart-Warren, CG, FUGA - "Manuscript Finding Aids: Locating Migrating Family Records"

* FR034 - Friday 5:30PM - F. Warren Bittner, CG - "Proof Arguments: How and Why"

Saturday, June 7
SA003 - Saturday 8:30AM - F. Warren Bittner, CG - "Elusive Immigrant!"

SA019 - Saturday 10:00AM - Judy G. Russell, JD, CG, CGL - "Staying out of Trouble: The Rights and Responsibilities of Today's Genealogist"

SA027 - Saturday 11:30AM - Michael Leclerc - "Researching Your New England Ancestors"

SA037 - Saturday 2:00PM - Bennett Greenspan - "The Future of Genetic Genealogy"

SA039 - Saturday 3:30PM - Dr. Maurice Gleeson - "Researching Your Irish Ancestry"

SA053 - Saturday 4:00PM - Cyndi Ingle - "The Internet: A Genealogist's Printing Press"

Sunday, June 8
SU009 - Sunday 8:30AM - D. Joshua Taylor - "Resources of the DAR: Beyond Revolutionary War Soldiers"

SU012 - Sunday 10:00AM - Dawn Thurston - "How to Write a Personal History that Captures your Interesting Life"

SU020 - Sunday 1:00PM - Dr. Maurice Gleeson - "Ireland and the Slave Trade"

SU036 - Sunday 2:30PM - Denise Levenick - "Dirty Pictures: Save Your Family Photos from Ruin"

Other talks are being videoed for future release. Stay tuned at the SCGS website for further information.

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Thursday, June 5, 2014

A New Hampshire Yankee at Jamboree ~ Day One

Jo-Anne Mountain, Bennett Greenspan, Diahan Southard,
and Jake Byrnes, with moderator Blaine Bettinger

I'm in Burbank, California at the DNA Day preceding the Southern California Genealogy Society's annual Jamboree. Last night Ancestry.com made a timely announcement, which is on everyone's mind today. They announced that they are discontinuing their MtDNA and Y-DNA tests, to focus on the autosomal DNA testing.

I was with CeCe Moore and Judy Russell after the luncheon today for a minutes or two as they discussed their conversation during a group conference call with some bloggers and Ancestry. One was under the impression that the samples would not be kept, and the other thought that Ancestry stated that they were still considering what would happen to samples. Until there is public clarification from Ancestry, no one is sure what will happen to those samples. What is sure, is that you have only until September 5th, 2014 to download your test results before they are deleted from the Ancestry website.

But the controversy remains that no-one is clear on the fate of the samples already submitted to Ancestry. Bennett Greenspan repeated his company's guarantee twice today- that samples submitted to Family Tree DNA are kept for 20 years. This is important for people who submitted their grandparent's samples, and now their grandparent's have passed away. As new tests become available, they would like their grandparent's DNA tested again. Greenspan also gave the caveat that although the samples are kept, they are not always viable, or they do not always work with some of the newer testing. At least you can try with FTDNA, which is impossible if Ancestry destroys samples.

Now because of this new information from Ancestry, the classes today have been full of questions. Everyone wants to know if their parents and relatives can "bank" their DNA. According to Greenspan, his company is looking into this possibility. I have no idea about the other companies such as National Geographic, 23 and Me, Britain's DNA, African Ancestry, etc. Perhaps their representatives are discussing this right now in the other sessions still going on at this conference today?

In March we visited Spain. My father-in-law living in Madrid is elderly and suffers from Parkinsons, so we had him give a sample for the Ancestry Autosomal test. Now I'm wondering when we will be returning to Spain so I can bring an FTDNA test, or some other test because of this controversy. I don't know how long he will live, or if he will even live until we can get back to Spain. It is sad to thing this way, but it is important to consider.

I'm very glad I decided to participate in the DNA Day today as part of Jamboree!

"Ancestry.com Pulls the Plug on Several Sites" from Geneabloggers
http://geneabloggers.com/ancestrycom-pulls-plug-sites/

"Ancestry.com Officially Retires Y-DNA and mtDNA Testing" from Your Genetic Genealogist
http://www.yourgeneticgenealogist.com/2014/06/ancestrycom-officially-retires-y-dna.html

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The URL for this post is
http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/06/a-new-hampshire-yankee-at-jamboree-day.html

Copyright 2014, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Thursday, January 30, 2014

I'm Going to Jamboree! So You'll be able to Read All About it Here in June!

The Southern California Genealogical Society holds an annual conference known as "Jamboree". I attended the Jamboree in 2011, and it is still my favorite of all the genealogy conferences I have attended. The 2014 Jamboree will be held in Burbank, California June 6 - 8, 2014 at the Airport Marriott hotel.

I'll be there, will you?

If not, you can tune in here to my blog in June to read all about it. Check the list of honorary bloggers attending at this link: http://www.scgsgenealogy.com/Jamboree/2014/GettingTheMost.htm

If you are a genealogy blogger, and if you display this badge on your blog, you just might win a fantastic prize (free registration!). For more information, click here:
http://genealogyjamboree.blogspot.com/2014/01/jamboree-tell-everyone-youre-attending.html

To register for Jamboree, click here http://genealogyjamboree.com/

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The URL for this post is
http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/01/im-going-to-jamboree-so-youll-be-able.html

Copyright (c) 2014, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Monday, June 13, 2011

A Yankee at Jamboree – Part 5 Wrap Up

The Geneablogger Pajama Party
Yes, this is what we look like in person! in PJs!

OK, after a steady diet of sleep deprivation, sandwiches grabbed on the run, an overload of information on heavy subjects such as DNA, ahnentafels, and citations your esteemed and honored genealogists begin to act a bit silly. The following photos are TOP SECRET….

The last day of Jamboree was a blur! I attended a great breakfast by the New England Historic Genealogical Society. David Allen Lambert gave a brief talk about some of the hilarious things patrons ask for at the reference desk. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so hard that early in the morning. He also showed the new NEHGS movie “Farseeing Vision: Connecting Families, Advancing History” which actually made me cry – it was so emotionally moving. That was me, in the second table from the front, wiping my eyes with my breakfast napkin. Great job, NEHGS, I’m proud to be a longtime member of such a wonderful organization. I hope everyone will have the chance to see this short film.

Genealogy Gems taped LIVE!

I had time to attend my last two lectures, check out of the hotel, hang out at Blogger Island for the last time, and also see the live taping of Lisa Louise Cooke’s Genealogy Gems Podcast. If you missed this live taping of the show, you can catch it later at http://www.genealogygems.tv/ Her guests were Family Tree Magazine’s enthusiastic young editor, Allison Stacy, and also graphologist Paula Sassi. Paula explained how a graphologist can examine documents written by ancestors and give clues to the personally traits of the writers through their handwriting. She examined a letter by one of Allison Stacy’s great grandmothers, and she also analyzed one of my ancestor’s letters! I had won the chance to have Paula look at a document through a contest online at the Genealogy Gems Facebook page. It was amazing to hear that Paula thought my ancestor was quite the irresistible “Lady’s Man”, something I was secretly hoping she wouldn’t say but it was obviously true!

A mini Wilkinson Family Reunion in Burbank!

The perfect way to end the day was to see my uncle from Long Beach. I hadn’t seen him since my father’s funeral in 2002, when he came to Massachusetts to see his little brother laid to rest. I also got to meet two first cousins, one whom I hadn’t seen since 1965, when I was only three and he was about seven years old! This was a great way to end a genealogy weekend, by reuniting with family!

Then we took the “Red Eye” flight to Boston, and landed at 7:05 AM this morning. It was a whirlwind weekend, and very eye opening to see how genealogy research is conducted outside of New England. I’ve always considered myself very lucky to live within one hours driving distance of where 75% of my ancestors have lived for almost 400 years. It is very easy for me (most of the time!) to find records. I often forget that over American history many people migrated across the US from New England, and even more never lived here at all. There are some amazing repositories I’d love to visit someday, such as the SCGS library in Burbank, Salt Lake City, Cincinnati Public Library and the Allen County Library’s genealogy department.

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Sunday, June 12, 2011

A Yankee at Jamboree - Part 4

Can you name those Bloggers?
Just some of those who attended
Thomas MacEntee's Blogger Summit

Saturday afternoon at Jamboree, and I spent some time at Blogger Island hanging out with Donna Wendt, Thomas MacEntee, Footnote Maven, Diana Ritchie, Gini Webb, Cheryl Palmer, and I'm name dropping again! It's a great spot to hang out, relax for a few minutes and put your feet up, or work on your blog. Donna was passing out Aloha Delights (yummy macademia chocolates) so who could resist?

I attended two very good lectures this afternoon, and they were available via streaming video to folks via the internet. I'm not going give any more book reports on lectures here on the blog, but I will say that it has been great seeing lots of nationally known genealogists speak, some who I have not seen in New England. I've heard from Tony Burroughs, John Colletta (he was at NERGC this past April), Kory Mererink, and Gena Philbert Ortega. This alone was well worth coming all the way to Burbank. Curt Witcher gave a great talk on "High Tech and High Touch of 21st Century Genealogy", and now I'm tempted to go to his library in Indiana for a bit of research! Wouldn't that be a fun field trip?

I picked up a few good books at the vendor hall, which may be a problem since I only brought a rollie carry on suitcase. We'll have to make sure I don't get anymore conference loot after this!

Susan Kitchen designed the signs!

After the Saturday night banquet and lecture I had more time to hang out with bloggers, at a memorable PJ party. I have some pretty incriminating photos of your favorite genealogists to post in my next update! Some of you may have seen the twitter and Facebook posts on this....

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Copyright 2011, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Saturday, June 11, 2011

A Yankee at Jamboree - Part 3

Marcia Maloney of the
California Mayflower Society

Day two at the Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree, and I decided to spend the morning on the theme of “blogging”, specifically genealogical blogging (of course!). We attended a breakfast lecture by Thomas MacEntee on “Marketing to Genealogy Societies”. Many genealogists were at our table, including Joan Miller and Jana Sloan Broglin of the Ohio Genealogical Society. Thomas’s talk was heavy on social media, which can be a blessing to cash strapped societies since most of it is free. He showed many examples of successful websites used by many societies, including many I had never seen since they were from mid-western or western states. They are miles ahead of anything going on in New England, or with traditional societies like Mayflower which is sadly behind the times in utilizing social media.

Next, I attended two Blogger Summits, both hosted by Thomas again. The first was aimed at beginners, with a panel made up of Randy Seaver, Lisa Louise Cooke, and Amy Coffin. After some initial technical difficulties (no table, no microphones!) Thomas demonstrated how easy it was to start a blog using Blogger.com and then took comments from the panel and questions from the audience on issues such as copyright, prompts, widgets and the genealogical blogging community. This hour was well attended and the room was packed.

The second hour and panel discussion was less well attended, but I think anyone who thought the discussion would be “over their head” was missing out on more great discussion. The panel was made up of Dick Eastman, Elyse Doerflinger, Kathryn Doyle and Joan Miller, all bloggers representing commercial and non-commercially based blogs, as well as one society blog. Thomas posed some very interesting questions for discussion, such as “What is the view of vendors towards bloggers?” and “Are bloggers viewed as legitimate vehicles for information?” Copyright issues were a popular question, and the seasoned bloggers were able to give lots of advice to new or non-bloggers. I’m sad that this discussion was not videotaped, because it would have made a great inclusion on the Geneabloggers.com website!

I have more name dropping! I met up with Ruth Himan, but she had to leave Jamboree early and we didn’t have long to visit with each other. Also, I finally met up with Elizabeth O’Neal and Susi Pentico. My Mayflower cousins, Marcia Maloney, Dottie Wilson and Erica Hahn were dressed as Pilgrims at the California Mayflower booth, so I got a bunch of good photos. I had time to eat a quick sandwich with Marcia (she is a Putnam cousin, and a member of NH Mayflower as well as in the Orange County Colony) and get ready for a full afternoon of lectures.

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Friday, June 10, 2011

A Yankee at Jamboree - Part 2

Day one of the Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree, and I attended three excellent lectures. The first one was “It’s not your Ancestor’s Library” by Patricia Mosley Van Skaik of the Public Library of Cincinatti. I learned a lot, because this was part of the Jamboree that was supposed to be for librarians- but I went anyways! It was excellent to learn how libraries are now starting their own digitizing projects, and Cincinatti has one with a new machine that can scan 2,400 pages an hour! These collections are local treasures, often donated for digitizing by local citizens who are not ready to donate material, but are willing to participate by having it scanned. There were examples of projects going on at lots of other libraries, and resources that librarians use to search for genealogical information. She also mentioned several ways to keep up with the wave of new information coming on line, and #1 on her list was BLOGS! She used Dick Eastman’s blog as an example, but feel free to fill in with any of your favorite genealogy blogs (*ahem!*)

The second lecture was “The Secret Lives of Women” by Gena Philbert Ortega from www.yourfamilyhistorysearch.com She gave a great talk on why researching women was so very different from researching men. Instead of relying on names, first, she uses locality. By researching the primary source material of a town, you can find what life was like for women, and maybe even find your female ancestors. Using quilt and cookbook databases, she showed examples of archival and online sources that genealogists usually don’t examine. I’m seriously thinking of going to another one of Gena’s lectures this weekend, it was that good!

My third lecture today was John Colletta’s talk on Ellis Island. He explained the history of Ellis Island and immigration, showing how and why many immigrants between 1892 and 1924 to New York never passed through Ellis Island! Surprise! The reasons are good, and may change your family history. I heard John speak twice at the 2011 NERGC conference in Springfield, and he was great here. He is one speaker I will be seeking out online and at other conferences.

In between I visited the Vendor Hall and “Blogger Island”. I met many Mayflower Cousins at the California Mayflower table, and I knew some from the 2008 Trienniel Plymouth Congress. We all plan to meet up for dinner together at the banquet. I also met Lisa Cooke from the Genealogy Gems, the staff at NEHGS (Gary Boyd Roberts, Brenton Simons, Tom Champoux, and David Allen Lambert), and I finally met the Footnote Maven and Randy Seaver’s lovely wife, Linda. The vendor hall is huge, and it will take several trips before I see everything.

Still ahead are the banquet, Thomas’s Radio Show and the Blogger Ice Cream Social Sponsored by Geni.com ! By the way, I never did get that siesta this afternoon!

A Yankee at Jamboree- Post 1

We arrived at 1:30AM due to bad weather in Boston, and went straight to bed. At 6 AM it was time to get up, eat breakfast and find the Jamboree registration. Of course, at the hotel elevators the first person I ran into was the Grand Poobah of Geneablogging, Thomas MacEntee. Bingo!

After the first session, I wandered over to the pavilions and ran into Elyse Doerflinger, official social butterfly of the Jamboree. This was terrific because within two minutes she had introduced me to Terry O’Connell and dragged me over to the unofficial hangout for bloggers off the Marriott lobby. This was their secret lair until the official “Blogger Island” opens at noon. Here I met so many more bloggers I hope I got all their names: Cheryl Palmer, Amy Coffin, Dick Eastman, Sheri Fenley, Susan Kitchens, Nancy Loe, Joan Miller, Donna Peterson, Donna Pointowski, Diana Ritchie, Randy Seaver, Gini Webb… it was a virtual Who’s Who museum of Geneabloggers! This was fun to meet them all in person, even though we had all met virtually on line at each other’s blogs, on Facebook, Twitter or in the chat room peanut gallery during Thomas’s radio show. I also bumped into David Allen Lambert from NEHGS and picked up my blogger's goody bag from Thomas and Gini. I walked out with at least six new ribbons on my ID tag, too! Then I hit my room for a little siesta before the main sessions begin after lunch. I’m exhausted already!

If I left anyone out, let me know! Why am I posting this instead of taking a nap? I'll write more later!

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Copyright 2011, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Sunday, June 5, 2011

The Face of Genealogy

I don't live on the West Coast, but I will be attending the Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree. The website LA Weekly published an offensive article and photograph about the upcoming Jamboree, which has made the genealogical community quite upset. I won't reproduce their article or photograph here, but if you are curious you can follow this link.

Thomas MacEntee at http://www.geneabloggers.com/face-genealogy/

[ Note: UPDATE: the offensive photo was removed and replaced with a photo of the Jamboree app! It appears that the text has changed, too. This is the power of blogging! However, as of 7 PM on Sunday June 5th, no apology or retraction from the L.A. Times. ]

In response, the members of the Genealogical Blogging Community have decided to run posts showing our own faces of genealogy. I believe this image represents my family history:

Charles and Comfort (Boodey) Caverly

Friday, June 3, 2011

A New Hampshire Yankee at Jamboree!

map by Daniel K. Wallingford, circa 1930s or 40s
Norman B. Leventhal Map Center, Boston Public Library. http://maps.bpl.org/details_10494/

Yes, I’m excited. I know I’m a rather laconic Yankee, but I’m trying.

When I was growing up, and even now, New Englanders had a rather insular point of view. I lived in Beverly on Boston’s North Shore. When I was about eight we removed to Holden, in Central Massachusetts. You would have thought we were taking the wagon train west to parts unknown. The weeping and wailing of family, who all thought they would never see us again. We had all lived in the same town since the 1630s. Boo hoo!

And then I went to school in Cambridge, which is practically Boston for anyone but the Cantabrigians. You’d never believe their point of view until you remember why Boston is called “The Hub”. They all think Boston is The Hub of the Universe. One townie took a vacation once a year to go to the Burlington Mall. “It’s way over there!” (It’s about 12 miles from the Hub, better take a map and survival gear.) These types of peculiar people still exist in Boston.

When I was growing up “out West” meant New York. Beyond that was… I don’t know, foreign parts? I had never been west of Niagara Falls. California was a place in the geography book that we read about, but did anyone actually go there? After I was first married we went to Europe, which was completely acceptable, to visit my in-laws. Why was Europe acceptable and not Texas or Washington or Arizona?

When I won the chance to go to the Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree I realized that I was heading to someplace completely different. Instead of packing up serious, boring suits and business cards, I was told to pack a funny hat, mardi gras beads (whatever they are!), and new PJs for a blogger pajama party. Whoa….

This is going to be fun!

[This is all written tongue in cheek-- I’ve grown up a lot in the past 30 years, and have expanded my point of view. I even live out of state, although Londonderry, New Hampshire, is only about 35 miles from where I was born in Massachusetts. I have actually traveled to Hawaii, Alaska, Mexico and even San Francisco. I even went to Michigan once! Honestly! But Burbank, California is going to be a first!]

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Copyright 2011, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

I'm going to SCGS Jamboree!

Yippeee!

Even though I was away and incommunicado in Spain, on April 29th Thomas MacEntee, on his Genealogy BlogTalk Radio Show, announced that I was the winner of a free registration to the Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree! (Please see the right sidebar for a link the Jamboree website and to archived versions of this wonderful internet genealogy radio show).

With the luck of free registration, some Marriott points and frequent flyer miles I will be attending this conference in June. Stay posted, and I promise to not be incommunicado while I'm in Burbank. I'll be posting stories from Jamboree, and keep everyone updated with the latest genealogy news from the conference.

Message #1- I'm already loving the Jamboree 2011 app for my iPhone! I can't tell you all the ways I tried to put together a Rube Goldberg style version of this app on my iPhone for the 2011 NERGC conference in April using Google Documents, scanned schedules and links to the NERGC website. This new app will blow your mind!

Thanks, Thomas and SCGS!

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Copyright 2011, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

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