Christmas Shopping

One of my favorite genealogy blogs is The Armchair Genealogist.  Lynn Palermo does a wonderful job with this blog and it is always chock full of useful information.  She recently posted "Ten Tech Gifts for Your Favorite Genealogist".  As long as you are shopping anyway, why not be nice to yourself or, at the very least, add some of these suggestions to your "wish list".

Here is Lynn's list of ten things that might make your family history search a bit more fun, interesting and high-tech.

1. Portable chargers for smartphone recharging- No more low batteries while out on your family history research trips. 
2. Noise cancelling headphones - Ideal for a family historian who travels! No more noisy airplanes.
3. Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner- This is not a new toy to genealogists, put it is a fantastic tool, and makes my list every single year. 
4. External Hard Drive - Genealogist's rule No. 1, back-up, back-up, back-up! Every genealogist needs one.
5. Evidentia 2 - Beyond buying the newest version of your genealogist's favorite software consider Evidentia 2. Evidentia takes research beyond organization, it helps analyze and draw conclusions based on the sources in their research. Great gift for the intermediate genealogist who is ready to take their research to the next level. 
6. Projector - A projector is great for home use but also ideal tool for the genealogy speaker in your life.
7. Live Scribe Pen - The infrared camera in the tip of the pen captures your handwriting, storing it on the built-­in memory. When it's paired to a tablet or smartphone, all notes are synced to the Livescribe+ mobile app.
8. Label Maker - Genealogists are avid organizers, with so much data and documents to manage how could they not be. That's why I guarantee that your genealogist will go gaga over a label maker. 
9. Microsoft Surface Pro 3- If I had my pick of tablets, this would be the one! 
10. SD Cards - It's always good to a few of these in your bag. There's some great Black Friday deals on now. Great stocking-stuffer for your favorite genealogist

I am going to add to Lynn's list, a list of things I find invaluable to my genealogy research:

1. Evernote - This is where I put EVERYTHING.  Evernote is a free program that runs on iOS, Windows, Android and Linux.  It is the repository of  all my research, notes (audio, typed and handwritten), photos and ideas.  It is one of the best tools I have ever used. It has a built-in camera function (that works with the camera in your phone or tablet).  Click here for more information.  
2. Genius Scan - I don't use a Flip-Pal scanner, mainly because my all-in-one printer does a great job of scanning, When I'm in the road, instead of carrying around another tech gizmo, I use Evernote's scanning capability or Genius Scan.  This is one of the most versatile scanning apps, is free, allows you to share your scans across dozens of programs and all platforms, And, best of all, lives in my phone, which goes with me everywhere, anyway.  You can find out more about this app by clicking here
3. Thumb Drives - One can never have enough thumb drives!  
   
   They (and the SC cards on Lynn's list) are invaluable for storing stuff you want to carry around with you.  I have quite a collection and was having trouble remembering what I had stored on each one.  So I recently took the time to do some digital housekeeping and attached small, round key tags to my drives so I would know what was in them! 
4. Dragon - Dragon is voice recognition software for your PC or Mac.  This program has improved immensely over the years, and is now rated as the number-one product in it's field.  If you spend a lot of time working on your desk or lap top, this is a great tool. 

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah!

--  submitted by Denise Doyon