Virtual Session Summary

We had a virtual DIRT meeting today from 1:30-3:30 PM.  We discussed the new Genetic Detective show (I hope you all get a chance to see it on ABC).  There were some great new breakthroughs made by members that were shared.  Some folks took advantage of the Fold3 for FREE over the Memorial Day weekend and found some wonderful family information.

Today our focus was again on Ancestry.com and how to take better advantage of their 24 billion records.  We work with Searching All Collections and also the Card Catalog.  A link to the recording of our session will be posted soon for anyone to review (unfortunately the full video was not captured).  Click here.  New video: Click here

Have a great week and keep busy searching for family information.

Or next meeting will be on Wednesday, June 3, 2020 from 1:30-3:30 PM EST.  The focus will be on using Family Tree Maker.  Please send me your questions ahead of time.

Hi all,

We had our session today from 1:30-3:30 PM,  where we covered some of the new enhancements made by Ancestry.com to their site.  Some of the specific examples are the Search Hints, Connections, AncestryDNA and general navigation of the site.  We drove down to "how to save a file" and either using a subscription account or just an account.

Please click here to see the video of our meeting.

I hope you are all getting a lot done while being locked down.

We had a good session today - Our next Virtual Session will be May 13: 1:30-3:30 PM.

1) General discussion of what members are working on
2) Suggested members to watch some of the Free Videos
     - Legacy Family Tree Webinars: post 1 per day in May, will be free
       for 1 week, if you want the syllabus: Click Here
     - Youtube: BYU Family History Library: Click Here
3) Family Tree Maker, how to do a backup: Click Here
4) How to find yearbook photos in Ancestry.com and download
5) How to colorize your  Black and White photos - For FREE
6) Watched part of the new Legacy Family Tree Webinar, "Smarter Search
     Strategies for Genealogy" by Thomas MacEntee
7) Tips on using Google for Genealogy and the wildcards: Click Here

DIRT Meeting 29 April

We had another fun time together, discussing the latest discoveries and tips.  Then we dove directly into discussing Family Tree Maker, using some of the modules created for each area of FTM.  Major areas discussed were:

Color Coding -why use it and how?
Letting FTM find mistakes in my Tree
Using Filters to create reports or indexes to focus my attention
Making a Book using the collections in FTM
Fixing Relationships and deleting a person from the tree

Syncing with Ancestry.com and when to use Ancestry or FTM to open up hints.

I hope you are all safe and healthy,

We will have another virtual DIRT session next Wednesday: May 6 from 1:30-3:30 PM.

DIRT Meeting - So great to interact with so many members.

I know everyone is staying safe and social distancing.  We held our second Zoom Virtual DIRT meeting, thanks to Kyle Kane for allowing us to use her paid account,

We first talked about how everyone was doing and if there were any questions.  There are some FREE genealogy webinars that you may want to take advantage of watching:

RootsTech 2020 (18 sessions): Click HERE
Legacy Family Tree (free for one week): Click HERE
BYU Youtube Channel: Click HERE

Our focus then shifted to Family Tree Maker.  I have sent out an Overview template for the Tree & Person Sections, which we discussed in more detail.

For help with Family Tree Maker, you can use their Live Chat Feature: Click HERE

I did offer to provided my "Home Developed Module" of some of the FTM features, Click HERE to see list of modules.  If you would like to dig deeper into one of these areas (only one at a time), please send me an email and I will provide you a link to the module.  Once you have looked at it and tried it for yourself, you an request another module (feedback would be appreciate so I can refine and improve the modules).

There was a recording made of this session and when it is available, it will be posted HERE.

If you want to practice some of the examples given today, here is a list of some of the areas covered: Click HERE

If you want to see the other Videos of FTM (like the one shown today), please send me an email.

We will hold another DIRT meeting next Wednesday from 1:30-3:30 PM to continue exploring the features of FTM and answering your questions.

Our first Virtual DIRT Meeting

It was a great meeting, everyone was helpful on the Zoom video.  Thanks to Kyle Kane for hosting the Zoom session.  We had fun together and got a chance to catch up with one another.

We covered the following areas:
1) Free Genealogy webinars are available on a variety of
    topics - go take a look
   - RootsTech 2020: Click here
   - Legacy Family Tree: Click here
   I do have the syllabus for most of these (the ones that provided a syllabus)
2) Getting involved in 52 questions/stories is still open
   - just send me an email if you want to join
3) Beginners Step #3 Know the area and time frame handout: Click here
   - we did an exercise where each group explored on of the
     following for finding where to get information
      - FamilySearch Research Wiki - Click here
      - The Family History Guide - Click here
      - Cyndi's List - Click here
4) Some still find the Genealogy Checklist helpful: Click here
5) Remember the Ancestry Library edition through CCPL is available
    from home during this "Stay at Home" time

Please stay safe and have some fun with GENEALOGY.

DIRT session was well attended. We had a variety of subjects.  

The first hour was:

New Items for discussion:

   - 52 Questions was a success in 2019, Lynn will send out

     an email to find out who wants to participate in 2020

   - Land Grant presentation: need 3 case studies, 3 states, first

     to request will get a case study done

   - GoogleGroup - to have members of DIRT ask questions and

     get answers from group - resounding yes - cover details

     at next meeting

   - Lynn will develop a survey for DIRT members for input

   - Introduced new FamilySearch.org - Research wiki -

        - Guided Research - try it

1) RootsTech 2020:

    - link to 18 free Live Streaming: Click here

    - Also provided 159 Handouts to DIRT mbrs at meeting

1) Cool new apps on FamilySearch, Ancestry, and Find A Grave

       Click here for handout:

       see 2 of the RootsTech Live Stream for more information

2) Bob's Corner on Special Collections: Click here

Second hour was focused on Beginners

1) Ancestry DNA color coding recommendation: Click here

2) Step #2 Organize and cite sources

    - Organize handout: Click here

    - Cite sources handout: Click here

    - Research Log: Click here

    - If you want the xls spreadsheet on citations, send an email

      to Lynn Baker