Less than one week to go! RootsTech on the brain…

Don’t you hate how inevitably everything gets pushed off to the last minute?  I had such wonderful laid plans about how I was going to be on top of things and really organized for this trip.  This time was going to be different.  Yeah, right. 

Once again deadlines loomed.  Client reports were typed.  And there sat my pre-RootsTech list, alone, waiting for me to get to it.  Well, nothing like a deadline to get you into gear huh?  Seems that is the only way I really know how to work.

My checklist for what I want to take is starting to grow in length.  With weight and bag restrictions on airlines, I am actually beginning to worry if I can fit everything I want to bring.  I mean heck, I buy toiletries and clothes there…right?

So far, I have this on my list for things to bring with me and I plan to bring in my carry-on.  Believe it or not, I will check a bag of clothes.  Mainly because my main carry-on bag will be filled with items for my booth that I don’t want to ship or get lost. Oh, plus I have the reasons why.  Maybe you see something which you should bring too?  Or better yet, am I missing something that is not a typical need (such as gum, snacks, or something to read)?  Let me know!

Tech Gear:

·         Laptop / Cord / wireless mouse: the ultimate essential huh.  I really do need this for blogging, photo editing, and etc.  Usually it stays in my hotel.

·         Laptop lock: I know I should trust people, but I don’t.  I lock my laptop down where I go, especially in public places.

·         iPad / Clam Case / charger: this is what I take with me on the day of.  Much easier to take notes on, use in the library, or fiddle with genealogy apps while talking with new to me cousins.  The clam case is a hard shell cover with a Bluetooth keyboard.  LOVE it, mainly because I am clumsy and this prevents me from hurting it…so far.

·         Charging brick: these are the most awesome inventions and handy for on the go charging when you do not have access to an outlet.  Get one!

·         Selfie stick: do not laugh, this has been a life saver in a number of genealogy instances.  Mainly because I am short.  However, I am pretty sure I will be using it for pics of myself with people and of the crowd.  Make sure you get one with a Bluetooth connection because they are much easier to use.  I picked up mine from Target for less than $20.

·         Flash drives: for computers not attached to Dropbox or printers so I don’t use paper.

·         Apps: make sure you have the ones you need, or want, and that they are up to date.

·         Mobile hotspot: that way I am always connected…

Non-Tech Gear:

·         Flight stuff: My boarding pass will be on my phone, but I am always paranoid about missing flights.  So I write the information down on a note card and carry it with me.

·         My RT itinerary: which, because I am insane, is color-coded and annotated so I know what I am doing when.  I print a copy (and placed inside a sheet protector) and I have access to one on my mobile devices through Drive.

·         Passport: always an accepted form of ID.

·         Change of clothes: see part where I am messy.  Accidents happen, and sometimes clothes don’t arrive when checked.

·         Handi-wipes: choose your favorite brand but I am messy and usually feel gross when I fly.  Wipes are great for quick hand washes, face washes, or washing anything really.

Hacks to know and use:

·         I use an old hard sided glasses case to carry and store my phone and tablet chargers in.  Keeps them tangle free and all in one place.

·         Label everything with a mailing label which has how to get ahold of you at the conference (cell phone?).  If you lose something it should get back to you quickly!

·         Use binder clips to organize your headphones as well as your cables when you get to your room or research area.

Other Resources:

Need more tips? Like to watch videos?  Great!  Here are a few items I have found useful for packing and life hacks.  Pick and choose those that work for you.

·         How To: Pack Like a Pro by Heathrow Airport

·         How to Pack a Carry-on Bag by The Travel Channel

·         Tips on How to Travel Light by Genealogy In Time Magazine 

Sharing your stories in the digital age

I am a story teller, and a talker.  Sometimes it is hard to shut me up.  I also love to hear and read stories about what other people have done or seen.  I think that is one of the reasons I love being a genealogist and I bet it is what drew you here too.  However, we shouldn’t just love to immerse ourselves in others stories, we should be trying to get ours down to.  So, that is the question.  How do we save, share, and keep our memories in a way that others in the future can enjoy too?

For many people the old standbys are perfectly fine.  You can write your experiences and stories down in a journal.  Even type them on a computer. Put them in a blog! Or, whatever mode works best for you.  Some of the tried and true methods however are starting to fall by the wayside because the technology that they were made on is no longer available.  For example, all those reel to reel home movies or VHS tapes.  How many of you would have a way to play those today?  I know our VHS player broke 2 years ago and we haven’t replaced it.  Thus sentencing all those tapes on our shelf to sit there and glare at us in dust coated silence.

To bring yourself into the 21^st century you really need to try new tech and new toys.  These will make it quicker, faster, and easier for you to capture your life in real time as well as record your memories for the future.  Think about how you feel every time you uncover a family letter or a piece of writing that was made by your ancestor.  What would you give to hear a family member’s voice again?  You have the power to make that dream come true for the future researchers in your family.

Below are a few websites, apps, and resources that I think you might find helpful.  Check them out, you won't be disappointed!

Websites and Apps

Create Your Life Story 

Record Their Stories 

Reflect and Record 

Saving Memories Forever **Won the developer award at RootsTech 2014** 

StoryCorps 

StoryKeep 

StoryWorth  

Resources:

DoHistory.org  

Oral History Association 

Smithsonian Guide to Oral History 

Further Reading:

“What Kids Learn From hearing Family Stories” online at The Atlantic, by Elaine Reese 

Catching Stories  by DeBlasio, Ganzert, Mould, Paschen, and Sacks

Doing Oral History by Donald A. Ritchie

The Memoir Project by Marion Roach Smith

The Oral History Workshop by Cynthia Hart

IDG Post: Tech blog, twitter and genealogy

Social media has changed the face of the world we live in. Pictures, videos, and instant access to our friends and families thoughts have all made staying in touch a bit easier.  It is scary at times how easy information is passed on, but before you dismiss this new part of life as we know it, let me tell you an easy way that you can embrace a small part of the social media trend for your research.  Have you ever thought about what you can do in 140 characters or less?

Before you dismiss it, and think that Twitter is something those young kids do, I want to tell you how it really is a wonderful networking tool anyone can take advantage of.  Oh, and I promise to let you in on the important lingo too...

At this point, if you are not already using Twitter, I am sure you are asking “how could this benefit me?”  This is a legitimate question, one that I asked myself for years before I created my twitter account a few months ago.  Who in the world would really care what I had to say?  I truly didn’t understand that it is not just about you, the user, but it is a huge networking opportunity and community is what it is all about.

...

You can read the rest of this post at the IDG Tech Blog!  Hope to see you over there...

IDG Post: Tech review of AboutOne

Many of us have had the duty of going through stacks upon stacks of papers and minutia when a loved one has passed.  The filing cabinets of records, documents, and the flotsam that a person has collected over their life can be a daunting task for those who are left to sort through them.  Worse, is when you have a crisis that calls for an important document which has been conveniently been put away for safe keeping that you can now not locate.  What if there was a program that could help you keep your life, your family, you documents, and your history together in a way that is easy to pass along to the next generation?  Would you jump on it?  I know I have.

AboutOne is an online and mobile application designed to keep you and your family organized all in one place.  As a genealogist I was intrigued by the features that make this an amazing product for keeping a complete and accurate current family history that I could pass on.  Think of it, you can give your descendants a day-to-day view of what your life was like.  It nearly equivalent to finding that elusive family bible or treasured diary we all wish we had access to.

...

You can read the rest of this article at the IDG Tech Blog!  Hope to see you over there...

To Google+ or not to Google+ that is the question

At times I can be a bit out of the loop, and as I have pointed out here in the past, scared of change and resistant to it.  Yes, I am a Gen-Xer but I am entitled to have “fuddy-duddy” ways as some of my friends point out.  Seriously, if is aint broke why fix it?

Being married to a man to who is in the IT world, and has been known to build computer things from spare parts in the garage, is at times a challenge.  It took him years, years I tell you, to really convince me to use email and the internet after I got out of college.  Now I wonder what the heck took me so long since I now spend most of my time doing something on it.  The latest hurdle, much to the amusement of my friends, is I finally turned on text messages.  Yes I have lived this long without text messaging… so sue me.

My latest frontier to fully embrace in the new tech social media world is Google+.  I know it has been out for nearly 2 years, but I am slow to jump on bandwagons.  A few months ago I signed up for my free account, joined some groups, a bunch of people friended me, but now what?  Really, I don’t know how to work this newfangled thing and I am really confused as to its purpose. Particularly why we as genealogists have embraced it so fully while many other groups have nearly shunned it.  Of course I said that about Facebook and now I don’t know how I have lived without it.  Any one want to help enlighten me?

I have read posts by James Tanner, Daniel M. Lynch, Dorie Clark, and many others.  I do admit that I need to watch Dear Myrtle's webinar on the subject.  Or the one offered by Family Tree University.  That will be added to my to-do list.

It may be that I don’t have enough time in the day to read everything, do everything, and be everything that I want to.  In that case I may need to readjust my time management skills.  I am going to give it a bit more time while I figure out how to use it more fully.  Perhaps I am overwhelmed by the number of messages I get in my inbox daily from the different groups I have joined.  There is a lot of good stuff, just once again not enough time to read and digest it all.

On that note, I would love to know what you love/hate about this new way for genealogists to connect.  Is it a tool you use all the time?  Do you have any tips for me on using it better?  Let me know your thoughts since I hate feeling a bit on the frazzled side.  I am sure there is a reason why we love it so much.

Handwriting tools for your iPad

*This blog post originally was published on the In-Depth Genealogist blog page 18 February 2013.  

I have a confession:  I love hand writing notes.  Not only is the feel of pen on paper absolute bliss to me, but there is just something about pulling out a pad of paper and writing on it.  Even if I just need to jot down a quick reminder, an idea, a grocery list, or a doodle to pass the time.  I am also one of those people who if I write it down I tend to remember it longer than any other way.

Hand-written notes are old school in today’s high-tech world, but I found the answer to my note taking habits with a couple of amazing apps.  On the downside, neither of these apps have a function to add voice memos, which if you like to make voice memos to yourself or want to attach an interview to your notes you won’t have that option.  Sorry folks to android users – both of these apps are for the iPad, but I am on the lookout for great android-based ones for other tablets.

First, I recommend you look into the app Penultimate, created by Evernote, and for the low price $0.99 everyone should give it a try. It appears Evernote is looking into making an app for android-based tablets a reality in the future.  Penultimate allows to you write, draw, add pictures, and keep notebooks of your thoughts together.  Plus, you can create a PDF of your work and upload it to Evernote or Dropbox, email it directly to a friend, open it in GoodReader, or share it with iTunes file sharing. I don’t know about you, but I can be a note book snob and prefer grid patterns for note taking. If you are like me and have a paper preference Penultimate comes with graph, lined, or plain paper for you to choose from.  There is also an in app purchase option of 6 different paper templates for music, pictures, lists, and games.

For a bit more, there is a fancier handwriting note app called Noteshelf.  At $5.99 it is not a king’s ransom, but it is an app you may need to think about before diving into buying it.  Like Penultimate you have notebooks that you create and customize for your purposes.  There are more types of paper and notebook covers to choose from as well as varying styles of pens and markers for your use. Of course, if you do have the desire to type an item into your note this app gives you a typing option with varying fonts and sizes for the text. If you are concerned about privacy, Noteshelf has the ability to password protect individual notebooks for security, unlike Penultimate.  Noteshelf allows you to tweet and Facebook your pages as well as share them via email, export as a PDF, publish to Evernote and Dropbox, and send them to an iOS compatible printer.

Now that you have an app to try for your note-taking needs it is important to have a great stylus to make your words, and doodles, come to life.  Recently I was introduced to a stylus that bears the closest resemblance to a ball point pen you can get for a reasonable price.  It is called Jot and is made by Adonit. Amazingly enough the Jot works with all capacitive touch screens on the market.  Instead of a clunky rubber tip that can be unpredictable in its line Jot gives you a fine point stylus with a disk on it.  The disk provides the contact that the tablet needs to draw your line, but you have more precision and control with where you line goes and how you write.  The one drawback is it works best with no screen protector or least a newer one.  If your screen protector is old and scratched I found the disk has difficulty making the right contact and your words will not appear. Finally, there are 5 styles to choose from ranging in price from $19.99 to $99.99.

With these apps and a new stylus you will be well on your way to digital note taking in no time.  Hopefully it will keep you from wondering where on earth you placed that very important note, besides in a very safe place.  Happy writing!

Update:

As is the way with technology, there was an update to one of the apps listed above that came out after my print deadline.  This should make anyone wanting to check out Penultimate very happy.

On 31 January 2013 Evernote, the company who owns Penulitmate, released on their blog an announcement about the new version 4 now available.  Better yet, they are offering it for FREE!  However, if you are not an Evernote user (and if you aren’t, why not?) be aware that you will not be able to access some of the new advanced features without an account.

A few of the upgrades include:

• Cleaner interface
• More accessible functions
• Sharing with Evernote is now a core function
• Searchable handwriting software
• Access your notes anywhere Evernote is installed

I have to say, this is one of the more exciting things that has happened today!  Happy note taking!!

Have You Seen The New Going In-Depth Digital Magazine?

If it wasn’t evident by the big image on the side of the blog, I am one of the new writers for the In-DepthGenealogist (IDG).  Why am I writing this, today, when I have been talking about it for well over a month?  Well, you see the first issue of the digital magazine, Going In-Depth, is live today.  This is big, and I am so happy to be involved with it.  My next adventure in my genealogy journey is starting. 

For those of you who still don’t know about the IDG, be sure to check out the website and not just the magazine.  The IDG is a free newsletter, blog, forum, as well as magazine that has as its primary goal advancing knowledge for all genealogists, hobbyists and professional, in an educational and entertaining setting.  You can find the IDG team on Facebook and Twitter @indepthgen as well.

I am currently writing the Technology Blog on the website and The Society Pages column in the magazine.  My blog posts will cover gadgets, gizmos, and everything tech related a genealogist may want to use.  There is a lot of technology out there that I think can cross defined barriers and be used in our world just as much as another.  This is really fun, and I get excited each time I sit down to write about what new things I have found.  The Society Pages is a column about lineage societies. It will give highlights of societies that you may want to join as well as advice, tips, and tricks on all that goes into applications.

So come check it out!  I don’t think you will be disappointed in the least bit.