JoyFLIPS to give away 4 Apple iPads at its RootsTech 2017 launch

Innovative new technology for scanning family photos and sharing the stories they tell being launched at world’s largest family history technology event 

JoyFLIPS, a revolutionary new technology for discovering, preserving and sharing family history RootsTech 2017, where they will give away four Apple iPad-2 tablets during the event, Feb. 8-11, 2017, in Salt Lake City. JoyFLIPS is also a semi-finalist in the annual Innovator Showdown competition to be held during the conference.
will be launched at

Attendance at the conference is not necessary to win. Anyone opening a free JoyFLIPS account on February 8 through 11 will be entered into the daily drawings. All JoyFLIPS accounts created before the event opens will be included in the drawing on February 8.Winners will be each day at the JoyFLIPS booth #1335.

“Our mission is to take family history mainstream by providing the hundreds of millions of people worldwide, who have trillions of old print photos, with the JOY of using them to easily discover, share and preserve their family’s history” said Vincent Titolo, JoyFLIPS co-founder and CEO. “To accomplish this, we have been quietly at work for several years developing innovative technology that will automate this journey for millions of families worldwide.” He added.

“We are thrilled to be a semifinalist in the Innovator Showdown as we launch the free and unlimited JoyFLIPS platform at RootsTech 2017” added Scott Shebby, JoyFLIPS co-founder and CTO. For information about attending RootsTech and the Innovator Showdown. 


ABOUT JOYFLIPS JoyFLIPS is a Software as a Service (SaaS) platform that allows millions of people worldwide to discover and preserve their family history by connecting old print photos and family storytelling to the vast resources of historical documents now available online. Our technology provides the tools to scan, preserve and share thousands of print photos, and to pass down the stories they tell through storytelling in voice and text. We then automatically connect these stories to related historical media from numerous sources. For more information about JoyFLIPS technology visit http://www.joyflips.com or download the free iPhone app.

ABOUT ROOTSTECH 2017 RootsTech, hosted by FamilySearch, is a global conference celebrating families across generations, where people of all ages are inspired to discover and share their memories and connections. This annual event has become the largest of its kind in the world, attracting tens of thousands of participants worldwide. RootsTech will be held on Feb. 8-11, 2017, at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. The Innovator Showdown will be held on Feb. 10 2017, also at the Salt Palace.

ABOUT THE JOYFLIPS ROOTSTECH 2017 iPad GIVEAWAY Drawings will be held each day from February 8th through 11th. The winner on the first day of the event, February 8th, will be picked from both accounts created on February 8th and accounts created before that date. Daily winners on subsequent days will be picked from accounts created before 12pm CMT on that day. Winners will be randomly selected and announced at the JoyFLIPS booth #1335 and on the JoyFLIPS Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/joyflips/. Winners will also be notified by email. No purchase is necessary. Employees of JoyFLIPS or FamilySearch and their immediate family are not eligible. Prizes will be an Apple iPad 2 with 16GB memory, WIFI and Bluetooth connectivity, refurbished and guaranteed for 90 days. Prizes will be delivered to winners at the show or by mail. Attendance at the event is not required. Eligible entrants must be over 18

And the winner is......

I am excited to announce the winner of my RootsTech pass giveaway was Casandra Wagner!!  Congratulations Cassandra and I look forward to seeing you in Salt Lake City this February!

Win a Free Pass to RootsTech!

Well it is that time of year again, time to give away a free pass to RootsTech! 

I have one complimentary RootsTech plus Innovator Summit 2017 4-day pass ($299 value) to give away to someone very lucky!

This pass includes the following:

■ Innovator Summit
■ over 200 classes
■ Keynotes
■ General sessions
■ RootsTech classes
■ Getting Started classes
■ Expo hall
■ Evening events

To enter the contest is simple, promise!  Simply go out to a Rafflecopter giveaway and enter to win.  Some of the options you can enter everyday, so make sure you take advantage of all your possible chances.

RootsTech 2016 Pass Giveaway

So… who wants to go to RootsTech?  Last year was my first year and since it debuted I told myself I would eventually make it out to Salt Lake City.  I had never been before so this sounded like the perfect opportunity, and it was. 

Well, as a RootsTech Ambassador I get to give out a RootsTech 2016 Pass to one lucky person!  Which of you wonderful readers will it be?

To enter is easy.  My friends over at the In-Depth Genealogist are helping me run the contest.  All you need to do is go to their blog, follow the directions, and enter the contest.  You can enter up to 1 time a day if you have a Twitter account!  (if you do have one I hope you follow me @tntfamhist)

The contest starts today, October 6th, and closes at 11:59 on October 21^st.  I will draw a name from the entries the morning of the 22^nd with the help of raffle copter and publish that name here during the afternoon.  Like I said, it is easy!

Hope to see you in Salt Lake City this February!  

A grammar checker giveaway is the perfect gift for every writer

You all know that I write a lot.  Well, not as much on this blog as I want to, but I still write A LOT. Recently a company named Grammarly made a wonderful infographic talking about writers.  You may have seen it on Huffington Post.  I have written about their company before in another post and I will admit that I still love their stuff.

If you are not sure who this company is, check out their website link above.  I really like their grammar checker and have used it in the past when a paragraph just didn’t look quite right.  Of course, the best part is that there is a free service.  Once you try it and you really like it you can choose to upgrade to a premium account for $11.66/month.  So why aren’t you over there checking your work right now?

OK, back to the image at hand.  This graphic talks about why having strong writing skills can make you better at your job.  Let’s face it, genealogists do a ton of writing.  We write for clients, we write for lectures, we write articles for publication or for family and sometimes we write for ourselves.  Recently I realized that I am spending 6-8 hours, 5-6 days a week, sitting at my computer writing.  So yeah, with all that time on a keyboard I can see how we might be better than other professions who don’t write (like we do) all the time.

Now Gramarly does admit that the study can’t determine why those who write well tend to make more or appear to be more successful in their field.  However, I tend to agree with them that the skills a writer develops, like attention to details, probably help a lot to move them up the ladder.  My dream is to one day have an office with a door and no, putting a door in the dining room does not count.

Make sure you check out this infographic as well as the Gramarly website.  It’s a pretty neat site I am sure you will get a lot out of it!

Speaking of which.  If you do check it out, and fall in love with it leave me a comment below before February 21st and one of  you will receive a free account.  How about them apples?!

*This was a sponsored post by Grammarly. I did not receive any payment for this review, I was simply asked to review thier infographic.

Reminder: Book give away ends tomorrow!

This is a reminder that the book giveaway for Dr. Bill (William L.) Smith's 13 Ways to Tell Your Ancestor Stories. To see the full details, and to enter, see my post from last Saturday.   

Pass the word to your friends and family then enter to win here or on my Facebook page.  Contest will end Midnight Saturday 6 April 2013.  Check back on Monday for the winner.

Good Luck!!

Blog Book Tour and Giveaway: 13 Ways to Tell Your Ancestor Stories

Today I am happy to participate in a blog book tour for the new book by Dr. Bill (William L.) Smith 13 Ways to Tell Your Ancestor Stories.  Oh, and give away a copy of the book!  Yes, a free copy of his brand new book!  Details on the giveaway are listed at the end of the review.

I am a person who is always looking for new and inventive ways to share what I discover with the rest of my family.  You can only do the same thing so many times, but then again, sometimes the old standbys can be done in new and different ways too.  Currently I share my family stories when I write this blog, send email updates, or post to my twitter and Facebook accounts.  In the past I have created artistic family trees, scrapbooks, and transcribed more items than I care to admit.  But is that it out there? It appears that it isn’t.

Dr. Bill gives his readers more ways to share their stories as well as helping them to understand what that particular type of media means.  13 Ways is truly 13 different types of storytelling that a family historian can do.  From writing about family to talking about family there is an idea for how to share your heritage that everyone can relate to.  That is what I enjoyed most from the book, the feeling that anyone could do this. 

For those who do decide to tell their story using one of his 13 Ways, there are worksheets at the end of each section to help you create your family story.  That was exciting to me because I didn’t feel like I had been given a lot of information and then sent off into the deep end of the pool to try to figure things out my own.  These worksheets walk the reader through the creative process, ask you why you are doing it, how you are going to do it, and what outcome are you looking for. 

As an example, the section on using art and artifacts as a way to tell your family stories struck a particular cord with me.  I have quite a few heirloom objects in my possession, and I know that in the future I will inherit many more.  My husband jokes that we will have to buy a bigger house or at least a storage room at some point to fit all the family possessions I will receive. 

I started down the road of recording these heirloom stories in February for the Family History Writing Challenge.  Recording the stories and taking photographs has been great, but I still felt that there was more that I could be doing. After reading the section on this topic and looking at Dr. Bill’s worksheet I was happy to say I have a larger goal now and I am looking at turning my stories and pictures into a family heirloom book for my descendants and my living family members who are interested.  I just needed that extra guidance to help focus my ultimate goals.

With the guidance and inspiration offered by this book I am sure many of the projects in my head will come to fruition.  I hope you will check it out and see what stories you can tell.  To read the other posts from the blog book tour look at this post on Dr. Bills blog.

For the latest on Dr. Bill, his writings, and stories check out his blog Dr. Bill Tells Ancestor Stories.  He is also a contributing writer at the In-Depth Genealogist with me.  Read his column, The Heritage Tourist, published in the IDG’s digital magazine Going In-Depth.

Giveaway: One copy of Dr. Bill’s 13 Ways to Tell Your Ancestor Stories

Saturday 30 March 2013 – Saturday 6 April 2013

I will be giving away 1 free PDF copy of 13 Ways to Tell Your Ancestor Stories.  For a chance to win a copy all you have to do is the following:

1)      Leave a comment here on my blog with an email address (I suggest you use the format: username at whatever dot whatever)

2)      For an additional entry like the link to this post on my Facebook page TNT Family History

Using Random.org I will pick one winner from the entries.  The winner will be announced here on Monday 8 April 2013 and I will contact you with your prize.  Good luck!!

Description of the Book:

Do you have family history and ancestor stories collected and researched?
Do you want to share them and tell your stories, but don't know how or what venue to use?

This book has your answer.

Preservation and interpretation of your ancestor stories will occur most effectively if you use multiple approaches to telling your ancestor stories to your family and interested others. Showing you how to this is the purpose of this book.

The content of you telling of ancestor stories includes your life as well as the lives of your two parents, four grandparents, eight great-grandparents, sixteen great-great grandparents, etc., and their siblings, aunts, uncles and cousins. Ancestor stories include the social context in which these folks lived, their clothes, their farms or ranches, their religion (or not), their occupations, their loves and antagonisms, their education (or not), their friends and neighbors, and the mundane details of their daily lives.

13 sections suggest a variety of ways to tell your ancestor stories; each section has a Planning Worksheet to assist you in doing it most effectively.

"Telling a story about an ancestor can be a gift to oneself and to one's family. It is powerful to have your stories heard. Judy Shintani"