Tuesday, June 5, 2018

JAMBOREE 2018 ~ DAY 2 AND 3, A GREAT CONFERENCE - and SEE YOU THERE IN 2019

2018-jambo

On Friday morning my friend/roomie/fellow blogger, Debby Warner Anderson and I were up bright and early.  We had a 7 a.m. breakfast event with speaker Thomas MacEntee.  The breakfast was a small buffet and was well attended.  But, then Thomas is always an excellent speaker.  He talked to us about “How Do I Know What I Don’t Know?”  I picked up several good tips, as I always do when listening to Thomas.
  • In the 1940 census if there is a circle with an X next to a name, that is the person who was the informant and gave information to the enumerator.  I had heard this before, but had forgotten about it.  Good reminder
  • JSTOR is a website for journals and books.  They can often be obtained via inter-library loans.  “JSTOR is a digital library founded in 1995. Originally containing digitized back issues of academic journals, it now also includes books and primary sources, and current issues of journals. It provides full-text searches of almost 2,000 journals” 
With such a wonderful line up of speakers and classes, it is sometimes difficult to choose which class to attend.

NOTE:  Be sure to go to the Southern California Genealogy Society website for Jamboree to learn how you can view live streaming of some of these classes
.   
Here are the classes I attended on Friday and a few of the things I learned:

DNA and Digitization in Irish Genealogy by Brad Larkin, MBA, MCSE
I learned more about the Tithe Applotment books available for locating your ancestors in Ireland.  These are available on Ancestry.com
There were original Catholica Parishes and also Church of England parishes.  The parish records generally began in the 1830’s. 
Rootsireland.ie is a subscription site with Irish records
Family Search – The other 70% by Jill Morelli, CG
Jill reminded us that 70% of the records on Family Search.org are NOT indexed.
She gave the class many tips on browsing those unindexed records
Reconstruct Your Ancestor’s World with Google by Lisa Louise Cooke of Genealogy Gems
This was one of my favorite classes. Lisa gave us MANY hints for using Google search to our full advantage in our research.  I ended up purchasing her book The Genealogist’s Google Toolbox, 2nd edition (Revised and Updated).
Whether you use quotation marks, asterisks, or a minus sign, you can increase the chances of having your search produce websites that pertain to your ancestor.
Don’t forget about Google Books, Google Scholar, Google Patents, Google Alerts and YouTube when looking for your elusive ancestors.

me lisa louise cooke and deb
Me with Lisa Louise Cooke and Debby Warner Anderson
And in the afternoon, Debby and I attended a Visual Phasing Workshop by Blaine Bettinger.  I had attended a class on this subject, last year at the i4gg conference.  Visual Phasing allows you to use siblings and sometimes cousins, to recreate the DNA of your grandparents.  What a concept!  It is a very complicated process so attending this workshop was meant to help me understand the process better.
Here is a link to Blaine Bettinger’s website explaining visual phasing.  There are many other website links you can visit to learn more.

Deb Blaine & me
Debby, Blaine and Me
The Expo Hall was filled with vendors who shared all kinds of information and goodies with us.  It was abuzz most of the time.  It’s always one of my favorite parts of any conference.

On Friday evening, Debby and I relaxed with dinner and adult beverages in the bar/restaurant right there at the Marriott.  They had great food and we always ran into a bunch of other conference attendees to chat with. In the photo below you can see Brad Larkin and Blaine Bettinger in the foreground.
 
table at Marriott bar

On Saturday we were up early again to grab breakfast and then head to class.
 
I attended the following classes on Saturday?

Did I Get Everything? – Creating a Checklist for Genealogy Research by Thomas MacEntee
Thomas gave us some great ideas for being more organized and focused in our research.
USING EVERNOTE FOR CAPTURING NOTES AND IDEAS by Drew Smith
Drew covered a lot of basics in this class.  I’m pretty well informed on using Evernote since I use it daily.  But, I did pick up a tip about stacking tags.  I always new we could stack notebooks, but stacking tags was new to me.
Drew Smith & me
Me with Drew Smith
DIGGING PENNSYLVANIA ROOTS FROM YOUR DESKTOP by James M. Beidler
James covered the many resources available for researching Pennsylvania ancestors. 
USING HOMESTEAD RECORDS TO TELL YOUR ANCESTOR’S STORY by Michelle Roos Goodrum
I haven’t found an ancestors who were homesteaders, yet.  But, I figured I would go to this class and learn something new.  I wasn’t disappointed.  Michelle was an excellent presenter.  The story she told us about her homesteading ancestor was fascinating.  I hope one day I can find an ancestor who decided to homestead.
GRANDPA WORKED FOR THE RAILROAD by Janice Lovelace, PhD
I have many ancestors who worked for railroads in one capacity or another.  Dr. Lovelace presented an interesting review of the history of the railroad in our country and also some tips on where we “might” locate records for our ancestors who were employed by the railroad.
It was now 4:30 in the afternoon and Debby and I decided to head home.  It’s a 3 hour drive back to Ramona from Burbank.  And, many of you know how bad that L.A. traffic can be. We arrived safely at 9:30 p.m.  Exhausted, yes.  But, so happy that we attended this informative event.
 
To all the volunteers, speakers and exhibitors a HUGE thank you for a wonderful conference.

NEXT YEAR IS THE 50th ANNIVERSARY FOR THIS CONFERENCE.  It should be even more fantastic than ever.  I know I’ll be there, will you?

Jamboree 2019
  
Here are a few more photos of me with my genealogy friends.
Lise Harding & me
Lise Harding and me
Randy Deb & me
Randy Seaver, Debby & me
Me & Devon Lee
Me & Devon Lee
Me & Deb
Just about to head home - me & Debby
Happy hunting and see you next year at Jamboree 2019!
Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2018   Diane Gould Hall
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION


2 comments:

  1. Woo-hoo! I made the page. It was SOOOO great meeting up with you casually. This was a great conference and I'm so glad you got to spend time with your friend as well.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It was fun to finally meet you face to face. And, I enjoyed talking to Andy as well. See you at the next conference.

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