Free weekend at Find My Past Starts Friday, January 22

Find my past announced that from 5am Friday, January 22nd until 5am (MST) Monday, January 25, their world records will be made available for free! If you currently have a subscription for Britain, Ireland, US & Canada, or Australia & New Zealand records, you will have the World records available to you. And if you have a World subscription, you will get three days added to your current subscription.

FindMyPast records that will be available to everyone during this free weekend are:

• Irish family history records
• Passenger lists for ships sailing to and from Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and the U.S.
• The PERiodical Source Index (PERSI)
• UK parish records from as early as 1538
• Historical newspapers from across the world
• UK military records

And much, much more.

For more information and to get started, visit http://www.findmypast.com/freeweekend.

Endogamy Genetic Genealogy Presentation

 

The SOUTHERN ARIZONA JEWISH GENEALOGY SOCIETY

                proudly presents

ISRAEL PIKHOLTZ

on

ENDOGAMY

GENETIC GENEALOGY - CHALLENGES FOR JEWISH RESEARCH

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 7

2:00 PM

CONGREGATION BET SHALOM, 3881 E. RIVER RD.

Free to SAJGS members,  $5.00 for guests, (applicable toward $36.00 membership).

COPIES OF HIS BOOK WILL BE AVAILABLE, BOOK SIGNING TO FOLLOW.

        ENDOGAMY: One Family, One People
 (Ordering information available at www.endogamy-one-family.com)

A professional genealogist, Israel has been a featured speaker at the Israel Genealogical Society, the International Association of Jewish Genealogy Societies, JGS groups around the US as well   as at the South Suburban Historical and Genealogical Society of Chicago and the New England Historic Genealogical Society.  He has written for the IGS quarterly,  Sharsheret Hadorot,  the Association of Professional Genealogists Quarterly,  Avotaynu,  The Galitzianer,  and other genealogy publications.
 

The Demise of Ancestry's Family Tree Maker Software

Ancestry's Senior VP of Product Management, Kendall Hulet, made a shocking announcement yesterday: "We've made the decision to stop selling Family Tree Maker as of December 31, 2015." He went on to say: "Ancestry will continue to support current owners of Family Tree Maker at least through January 1, 2017. During this time, all features of the software, including TreeSync™, will continue to work, and Member Services will be available to assist with user questions." (Read the full announcement on the Ancestry blog post Ancestry to Retire Family Tree Maker Software.)

Family Tree Maker was the Golden Award Winner and ranked the #1 genealogy software program for 2016 by Top Ten Reviews. It has been one of the most popular software applications for genealogists for many years and its demise will be felt by many genealogists from beginners to advanced.



Legacy Family Tree and RootsMagic, the #2 and #4 ranked genealogy programs, respectively, each announced special pricing for FTM users wishing to switch and provided videos and guides on transitioning FTM databases into their programs. You can read the news articles at Legacy News, Update on the Family Tree Maker announcement, and the RootsMagic Blog, Family Tree Maker® users have a new home at RootsMagic; Upgrade offer with Free Book and Magic Guides.

In the meantime, members of the Pima County Genealogy Society that use Family Tree Maker will not be abandoned. The PCGS members only Family Tree Maker SIG will continue to meet from 10am to 12pm on the third Saturday through 2016, or for as long as the members wish to meet. Visit the PCGS Calendar on the Pima County Genealogy Society website for details. 

Family History Discovery Fair Schedule Available

The tentative class schedule for the Family History Discovery Fair on January 30, 2016 has been posted on the Tucson Family History Center's Wiki. The direct link to the schedule can be found here.
Six hour-long classes will run simultaneously from 8:30am to 3:15pm and one-on-one personal help will be available until 4:30pm.

The most popular classes from past years will be presented again, but there are 13 new classes being offered this year. The DNA class has been expanded from one class in 2015 to three classes in 2016.

They will post class descriptions over the next several weeks, as well as links to any handouts that you can print in advance of the Fair. Please check the wiki page periodically for those additions. Handouts will not be available at the event, please print them out and bring them with you.

Remember, this event is FREE and open to the public.

D. Joshua Taylor appearing in Green Valley February 19-20, 2016

Registration is now open for the Green Valley Genealogical Society annual seminar and workshop. Both are featuring D. Joshua Taylor, MA, MLS.

Taylor has appeared on several episodes of Who do You Think You Are? and is a host of the PBS series Genealogy Roadshow. He is the former Director of Education and Programs at the New England Historic Genealogical Society, the current President for the Federation of Genealogical Societies, and the Business Development Manager for findmypast.

The interactive workshop on Friday, February 19, 2016, is titled The History in your family history. Participants will learn how to use history to provide a deeper context to their personal genealogical research. Visit the GVGS Workshop webpage for details and a printable reservation form.

The seminar will be held the following day on Saturday, February 20. Joshua will speak on four topics that will spark every genealogist's interest. Details and a printable reservation form can be found on the GVGS Seminar webpage.

Both events will be held at the Valley Presbyterian Church, 2800 S. Camino del Sol, Green Valley, Arizona. Seating is limited to 30 participants for the workshop and to the first 100 registrants for the seminar.

Happy Family History Month!

In 2001, the U.S. Senate unanimously approved legislation to designate October as "Family History Month." The bill, sponsored by Utah Senators Orrin Hatch and Robert Bennett, encouraged President Bush to "issue a proclamation calling upon Americans to observe it with appropriate ceremonies and activities." ¹ Genealogists across the country have hearkened to our president's proclamation ever since. Social media has been inundated with Family History Month articles, tips, conferences, and suggestions for family activities since Thursday.

There are several events happening in and around Tucson in celebration of Family History Month 2015. Visit the Pima County Genealogy Society website for some of them. Check out yesterday's blog post Bringing Genealogy Education into Your Home for some others. Whatever you choose to do this month, celebrate Family History Month by finding out a little bit more about where you came from.



                                                                                                                                                            
SOURCE:
1. Lee Davidson, "Family history accorded its own month," The Deseret News, Sep. 27, 2001, p. B4; digital images, Google News (https://news.google.com/news/advanced_news_search?as_drrb=a : accessed 4 Oct 2015), Archives Search.

Bringing Genealogy Education into Your Home

Every year around this time, we start thinking about furthering our education. And every year we are given many opportunities to increase our knowledge and research skills for free, or nearly so. Here are some ways you can bring the classroom into your own home. Most of these webinars have a chat box available during the live broadcast for attendees to ask questions, making it seem almost like being in the room with the presenter.

Note: Times given below are in the hosting organization's time zone. To determine local time, visit the Time Zone Converter, enter the date and time of the broadcast, select the From Time Zone (for example, US/Central), select the To Time Zone (for example, US/Arizona), and click on the green "Convert Time Now" button.


Family History Library Webinars
Each month, the Family History Library hosts a number of free online family history webinars. The list of upcoming webinars are on the Family History Library Classes and Webinars wiki page. I counted 23 webinars scheduled for October and 6 for November. Topics range from researching in US church, cemetery and vital records to improving skills in citing sources, organizing your research, and solving tough research problems to international research techniques in England, Germany, Italy, and Portugal and much, much more. Most of the Latin America webinars are taught in Spanish. And that is only in the months of October and November!  Registration for these webinars is not necessary—simply go to the webinars wiki page 15 minutes before the webinar begins and click on the link next to the group teaching the webinar (US/Canada, British Isles, International/Scandinavian, or Latin America). You can also find recordings of past webinars on pretty much every country that same wiki page. Handouts for all upcoming and past webinars are at the Family History Library Class Handouts wiki page.


Legacy Family Tree Webinars
Every Wednesday is Webinar Wednesday at Legacy Family Tree Webinars. Prominent Genealogists give a free hour-long presentation every Wednesday at 12pm Mountain, except the second Wednesday which is at 7pm Mountain time. Once a month an additional webinar is offered on Friday, also at 12pm Mountain. The webinars are free, but pre-registration is required to attend the live session. Following the live webinar, the recording will be available to view for free for about a week. After that, you must be a paid member to view the recording. You also must be a member to download the handouts. Visit their website to see the schedule for the rest of this year and to register for webinars you wish to attend live.

Illinois State Genealogical Society (ISGS) Webinars
ISGS offers a webinar on the 2nd Tuesday of each month at 8pm Central time. These webinars cover topics on a wide range of research methodology and strategies relevant to all genealogists, not just Illinois and the Midwest. And the presenters are some of the best-known genealogy speakers. The live broadcasts are free and open to the public. After the live broadcast, the recording is available to ISGS members only. Visit their Upcoming Webinars page for the schedule for the rest of this year and to register for the live broadcast.

Southern California Genealogical Society (SCGS) Webinars
Live SCGS webinars are broadcast the first Saturday and third Wednesday of each month. Saturday sessions are held at 10am Pacific time and Wednesday sessions are held at 6pm Pacific time. The webinars are presented by professional genealogists and lecturers. The live broadcasts are free to the general public; the recordings are available only to SCGS members. To view the schedule for the rest of this year and to register for the webinars, visit the SCGS Webinar Series website.

BCG Webinars
The Board for Certification of Genealogists present occasional free webinars. There doesn't appear to be a schedule of those webinars, but they announce the a few days in advance on their blog SpringBoard News and Notes. To receive email notification of upcoming webinars, visit their blog and scroll down to the Email Notification area, enter your email address where indicated and click the Subscribe button. Pre-registration is required to attend the live viewing. BCG offers recordings of some of their past webinars, some are free but most are available for a fee. Previews and links to all videos are available on the BCG Webinars page.

New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) Online Classes
NEHGS offers online educational programs in the form of webinars, videos, and online classes. Most webinars are available for NEHGS members and Guests. Registration is required. Visit their Online Classes webpage for the schedule and to register. Archived webinars are available from their Learning Resources webpage and from the AmericanAncestors YouTube channel. Most of the webinars are about using the resources available at NEHGS and AmericanAncestors.org, but also give instruction on how to do research in the New England states and Canada. AmericanAncestors databases are free to patrons of the Tucson Family History Center.

As you can see, there are many options for furthering our education in genealogy. Take a look at what is offered between now and the end of the year and go for it! I promise that you won't be disappointed.

Do you know of any other options? Tell us about them in the comments below.

                                                                                                                                                                    

Image: Written by Meg, ePortfolio (Megan E. Ford) / CC BY-NC-ND 3.0