What did you do for family history month?

I've managed to write three blog posts this month. I haven't done that in quite awhile. I am trying to do better with my posts but there are just so many things going on. For example, since I live in Florida, I have to watch out for hurricanes. We had two hurricanes come through about two weeks apart - Helene and Milton. Milton was definitely the worse of the two for us. We had over 120 tornado warnings in our area - not watches - during the afternoon and early evening of October 9. There were 19 confirmed tornados in the area of the circle where I live, many of them EF2 and higher. There were also multiple deaths caused by these tornados. 

Map of tornado warnings from Hurricane Milton, October 9, 2024.

So, what was I doing as these tornados were coming through? Well, I was doing a live feed for RootsTech to talk about the upcoming RootsTech conference on March 6-8, 2025. If you watch the video, you will notice that the tornado warning warnings go off during the live interview. 

RootsTech Live interview on October 9, 2025.

Speaking of RootsTech, you can still get the early bird pricing of $99 for 3-day RootsTech tickets until October 31. After that, the price goes up to $120. So if you plan on going, now is the time to buy tickets. Additionally, there will be a RootsTech promotional give away between the beginning of November and the end of January. Many of the RootsTech Media, including myself, will each be giving away two free tickets to RootsTech. More details will be forthcoming on this but you should watch the feeds for many of your favorite genealogy bloggers/vloggers including Aimee Cross, Connie Knox, Conference Keeper, and many others. I will provide an updated list when I am ready to begin this give away. One thing to note, you can get a refund on your purchased ticket if you win one of the free tickets so don't wait to buy your tickets.

Now that we have talked about the weather and RootsTech, let's move on to some other topics.

Some of you may know that I am the Education Director for The Family History Guide. Our mission is to greatly increase the number of people actively involved in family history worldwide, and to make everyone's family history journey easier, more efficient, and more enjoyable. The Family History Guide was created in 2015 and debuted at the BYU Family History Conference in Provo, Utah on July 15, 2015. Over the last 9 years, the Family History Guide has helped hundreds of thousands learn more about family history and discovering their ancestors and we continue to grow. Last year during RootsTech we began talks with the National Genealogical Society and this year we formalized that agreement. We are now partnered with NGS to provide educational materials for their members. Additionally, The Family History Guide was asked to be featured on ViewPoint with Dennis Quaid on PBS. The filming was done in September and we are looking forward to the episode being aired sometime after Thanksgiving.

Another thing that happened this month is that OurAncestories Genealogy turned 1 year old. My wife and I licensed our business in October 2024 in preparation for my retirement from a 9 to 5 job next year. We have been doing research for more than 25 years and thought we would start doing it professionally. We have had great support from our clients over the last year and have had a huge amount of research work in addition to our speaking events. We are currently working on 6-generation research projects for several people who are planning a heritage vacation to Germany next year. This research is tracing their families back to the early 1800s and late 1700s to determine the towns their families came from so they can plan their visits. I currently have over 60 German towns identified for the clients as well as towns in France, Belgium, and Luxembourg. My wife is heavily into genetic genealogy. She has been helping clients find their biological lines in some very challenging situations. One of the most challenging was a for one client who had a series of father-son relationships where the biological fathers were not know. He was not aware of this until we started his project.

My wife and I also completed our certificate in Advanced Methodology at the International Institute of Genealogical Studies (IIGS). We both received certificates with distinction. This certificate included 14 classes and we had to get A's in all classes to receive the certificate of distinction. 

Certificate of Distinction in Advanced Methodology from the IIGS

In addition to this blog, I also try to write in my other blog, OurAncestories, when I can. Both of my blogs have anniversaries in November. This blog is has been in production since 2008 and OurAncestories has been in production since 2009. I appreciate all of you who have been following me all these years.

One last thing - as we begin the holiday season (yes, the stores have already started putting up Christmas decorations), think of ways to include your family, both the living and those that have passed, in your gatherings and find ways to preserve your family history for those yet to come.

RootsTech2023 - Focus on The Family History Guide, Bronze Sponsor

Disclaimer: I am the Education Director for The Family History Guide. This is a volunteer position for a non-profit organization. I receive no compensation for my posts.

The Family History Guide is a Bronze Sponsor for RootsTech2023 along with others such as BillionGraves, BYU Pathway, FileShadow, Forever, GEDMatch, GenealogyBank, Generations, GENXT, Rootsmagic, and Vivid-Pix. You can read more about these Bronze Sponsors on the RootsTech blog.

The mission of The Family History Guide is to greatly increase the number of people actively involved in family history worldwide, making their journey easier, more efficient, and more enjoyable. 

The Family History Guide has had a spot in the RootsTech Expo Hall since 2016. I have worked that booth both in-person and virtually over the years that I have attended RootsTech. This year, the booth is located adjacent to the FamilySearch booth so it will be easy to find. For those who will be attending in person, you will be able to ask questions about The Family History Guide and our website, and discuss ways you can use The Family History Guide in your group and as a training tool.

The Family History Guide will be broadcasting live for an hour each day beginning at noon Mountain Time. Virtual viewers will be able to stop in and see what is going on. On Wednesday, you will be able to watch us setting up the booth. On Thursday and Friday, you will be able to watch the booth activities. On Saturday they will be broadcasting our cornhole activity. Tune in to see what is going on each day.

For those attending virtually, you will be able to watch the following presentations from The Family History Guide's staff:

• Mining U.S. Census Records for Family History – Miles Meyer
• Working with the 1940 U.S. Census – Miles Meyer
• Map Your Way to Genealogical Success, Part 1 – James Tanner
• Map Your Way to Genealogical Success, Part 2 – James Tanner
• Map Your Way to Genealogical Success, Part 3 – James Tanner
• Welcome to The Family History Guide – Bob Taylor
• Tools for Consultants and Trainers in The Family History Guide – Bob Taylor
• Why We Need Our Family Story Now More Than Ever - Scott & Angelle Anderson

If you are attending in person, you will be able to see several presentations from staff of The Family History Guide.

On Thursday, March 2nd they will have the following class:

• 9:30am - James Tanner: Understanding and Researching the Records of the Great Migration, 1915-1970 (Room 155B)

On Saturday, March 4th they will have the following classes:

• 8:00am - Scott & Angelle Anderson: Opening the Heavens - A Live Panel Discussion With Young Adults From Around the World (Webinar)
• 8:00am - Bob Taylor: Introduction to The Family History Guide (Room 251)
• 8:00am - Texas Connect Panel Discussion (recorded session)
• 3:00pm - Scott & Angelle Anderson: You've Got This! Ideas, Resources, and Encouragement for Those with Ward Temple and Family History Callings (Room 251)
• 4:35pm - The Family History Guide Sponsor Highlight (Virtual)

In addition to all of these presentations, there will be live and recorded classes at the booth in the Expo Hall each day. Stop by their booth to see what is scheduled for the day.

2022 - The Year in Review

On the eve of 2023, I figured I would look back on my accomplishments and some of what I consider as the important events that happened in the genealogy world over the last year.  

After two years of Covid and virtual events, we were finally able to have genealogy events in person. The two years of virtual events did give us a great opportunity to participate in presentations beyond our usual area and it gave many organizations the opportunity to reach out to a broader audience. I spoke at 22 events during the year. Many of the local events were in-person while several international events were virtual. 

I was able to present at the Spring, Summer and Winter sessions of The Genealogy Show in the UK. My topics included Mapping Your Roots - Adding Maps to Your Analysis, Building the Story by Adding Newspapers, The Family History Guide, and Technology Trends in Family History. 

One of the biggest events was the second year of virtual RootsTech. In 2022, there were an estimated 3 million people who attended or were able to view the more than 1,500 presentations in over 30 languages. I presented four topics at the virtual RootsTech. The presentations included Discovering Online Dutch Archives, Discovering Online French Archives, Discovering Online German Archives, and a live panel discussion Building Community Context with Family History.

The Sandy Granite Family History Center in Sandy, Utah invited me to present several topics during their online classes. The topics that I presented were How Technology is Increasing Our Access to Archives, Mining the Census Records to Write Your Family Story, and Thinking Outside the Box. 

The Jewish Genealogical Society of Connecticut invited me to present Using Google Maps to Create Projects. That presentation focused on how genealogical data can be presented in map form.

I attended one in-person conference during 2022, the Martin County Family History Fair, where I presented three topics. The topics were Adding Maps to Your Analysis, The Future of FamilySearch, and Building the Story by Adding Newspapers. However, after speaking for three straight hours I lost my voice for about a week and was unable to speak at work. I'm sure some people were happy for that.

I was also able to speak at a virtual event in Kingston, Jamaica where I presented two topics: The Family History Guide and FamilySearch Indexing.

One sad note is that 2022 was the last year of me leading the German Genealogy Interest Group for Indian River County Genealogical Society. We decided to close out the group this year after I had led the discussions for several years. To replace this group, I will be leading the newly formed FamilySearch Genealogy Interest Group beginning in 2023. This group will still be virtual and is available for all members of the Indian River Genealogical Society to attend.

I started teaching a family history class at the Indian River Youth Guidance Academy this year. We had a handful of students attend the after-school program where we helped them learn basic family history skills including interviewing, timeline development, and online research. The students presented their findings in December and were able to show each other what they learned about their families. This class will likely be an annual class each fall.

At the end of 2021 and early 2022, I was working on compiling the stories of WW II veterans from around Minster, Ohio. I added the information to FamilySearch Memories for those that I was able to find and I wrote stories about those that were my relatives on my blog at http://ourancestories.blogspot.com. 

In 2022, I changed my focus a bit and began working on several projects to add families from Auglaize, Darke, Mercer, and Shelby counties in Ohio to FamilySearch. One of the projects was the 5-a-Day Project from BYU Linking Labs. This project sends you an email with five record hints each day that you can use to add sources to families or add new people to families on FamilySearch. The second project that I worked on was from Goldie May. Goldie May is a free app that you can add to your web browser. They have a volunteer project where you can select records by location or surname and then add them to FamilySearch. I also worked on records through the BYU Linking Lab's Map App. This app allows you to select records on a map and add them to FamilySearch. Another project that I participated in was the Family Bible Preservation Project. The goal of that project is to attach family bible records to people on FamilySearch. Many of these bibles have been rescued from thrift stores, flea markets, or garage sales and their records may be important to someone's family history research. All of that work in 2022 led to me adding nearly 25,200 new bits of information on FamilySearch. That total consisted of nearly 1,900 new individual profiles, nearly 1,000 Memories, and over 22,300 sources.

I also continued my work as the Education Director for The Family History Guide. I presented information about The Family History Guide at six venues and mentioned it in another dozen talks over the year. The Family History Guide has continued to grow and provide resources to help make your family history research easier, more efficient, and more enjoyable.

What do I think were the big news items in the genealogy world in 2022? Well, the biggest was probably the release of the 1950 US Census and the combination of human and computer aided indexing. Many of us participated in this this process which made the records of over 150 million people listed in the 1950 US Census searchable on multiple platforms, including FamilySearch, within a short period of time.

The 1921 United Kingdom Census was also a big item for 2022. The 1921 UK Census contains almosrt 38 million names and is now available on FindMyPast. Basic searches are free but you will need a subscription to view the images.

MyHeritage Time Machine

MyHeritage released the AI Time Machine. You can upload several photographs of yourself or anyone and then let the Time Machine convert them into photos from various time periods. I enjoyed playing with this app and created several hundred images of myself through time. I wrote about the app recently on my blog.   

Of course I have to talk about the FamilySearch milestones during 2022. The FamilySearch FamilyTree now has 1.46 billion people with 2.48 billion sources attached. Users now have access to 16.88 billion searchable names and records. The digital library has expanded to include over 555,000 digital books from 17 partner libraries. And the FamilySearch Wiki reached 100,000 research articles in 2022. All of this new information is availale to users for free!

We can expect another great year in family history research for 2023!

RootsTech 2023 will be a hybrid conference with both in-person and virtual opportunites. I am again a RootsTech Influencer and will be offering a chance to win a free ticket to Rootstech (a $98 value) in January. You can learn more about RootsTech 2023 and register for it on their website. 

After a 2-year hiatus, I will be coordinating and hosting the 4th Annual Indian River Genealogy Conference on March 25th. We have a great list of speakers lined up and the conference theme is Connecting to Ancestors Through Family History. We have a variety of door prizes which we will be giving out at the conference along with some special deals that we will publicize online. Keep an eye open and maybe you will find those deals at the end of February.

I am taking a three week family history trip to Germany with my son and about 50 other relatives this fall. We are planning on visiting the villages, churches, and homes of our ancestors.

What else is to come? I am sure we will see some big news from the major genealogy companies around RootsTech. I will be posting as many of these announcements as I can so keep checking back.

As we end 2022 and look forward to 2023, I would like to wish everyone a happy and prosperous 2023!