Saturday Recap- SCGS Jamboree - 2014

Almost one week ago.  I can't believe it.
Three sessions this morning.  Again I had so many choices.  I am going to watch Warren Bittner’s “Elusive Immigrant” later since it was streamed and will be on the SCGS site for members.  I heard him speak, I think in Las Vegas, about searching for ancestor and the story and process were great.  This is as good a reason as any for you to join SCGS, even if you never go to Jamboree.

So I heard Paula Stewart-Warren speak about research reports for ourselves.   This is a practical approach to presenting information and keeping track of my research that I know I can do.  I just need to become a little more organized and actually get started.  Thanks Paula. 

Next, to stay out of trouble.  Yes, Judy Russell’s presentation was “Staying out of trouble: Rights and Responsibilities of Today’s Genealogist.”  Some basic steps are to understand copyright laws, at a basic level so we don’t infringe on someone’s rights.  We must carefully determine "fair use” if we want to even quote any part of a document.  AND, we really must read and understand “terms of service” with all of the websites we use.  Not knowing the law isn’t an excuse.  I appreciate Judy’s thoroughness in providing resources and references for each of her talks.  This time period I missed John Colletta’s talk on the state archives and presentations about Ancestry, newspapers.com, FamilySearch.org, and using a Mac for genealogy. 

Right before lunch I heard Daniel Horowitz talk about MyHeritage.  Not everyone knew that you could make our family site private if you wished.  There are many ways to connect with other researchers using “Smart Matching” and ways to find records with “Record Matching.”  And, there is the free Family Tree Builder software also.  I missed Randy Whited’s session on photos and documents organization, John Colletta’s talk on “Seventeen Repositories, One Life:…” and the blogger summit, which is always fun.

This was just the morning.  Perhaps you can believe my head was spinning.  I’m so glad we had 1 ½ hours for a break.

Right after lunch, there were sessions on Mind Mapping by Thomas MacEntee, Elyse Doerflinger and Josh Taylor on Tech that Isn’t Scary, and Bennett Greenspan  on “The Future of Genetic Genealogy.”  I went to the session on LegacyFamilyTree since I wanted to learn some new tricks.

How can you choose between Josh Taylor’s “…Advanced Internet Researching” and Janet Hovorka’s “Back to Basic Research Practices…”?  A real dilemma.  I chose Josh’s because Janet’s was being videoed and I then bought the video.  If you have Irish ancestry, I think you would have wanted to hear Dr. Maurice Gleeson on “Researching Your Irish Ancestry Online and at Minimal Cost.”  Fortunately for you, this was another session that was live-streamed and will be available at SCGS in the future.

One more time period and then collapse.  I went into another session on DNA and genealogy.  Unfortunately, my mind wasn’t up to functioning at this point and I left early.  I went across the street for an early dinner and to my room.  I looked over Sunday’s schedule, starting organizing for packing, and went to bed early. 

So, another great day at SCGS Jamboree.  Only one more to go.  And I’m only going to be there for the morning.  But that’s another story for another day.