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!

Three Months Until RootsTech 2023

Time sure flies. We are less than three months out from RootsTech 2023. 

At least for me, I designate time in pre-Covid, Covid, and post-Covid time frames. When talking about events that happened before 2019, I say it was pre-Covid. Remember when we last met together in person at RootsTech on March 2019? We were just starting to be concerned about Covid and precautions were just beginning to be put in place. RootsTech provided masks and hand sanitizer outside each classroom. Then, during Covid we had two years of virtual RootsTech conferences. That gave us the opportunity to include more people from around the world as we attended the virtual conference. Now, we will have the opportunity to view RootsTech 2023 in person or virtually. There will be 350+ classes over the hybrid format!

RootsTech has already started to publish their Road To RootsTech videos. If you are new to RootsTech, or an old pro, you will find some interesting tips in these videos.

Road To RootsTech Episode 1: Welcome was released in November. You can watch it on Facebook https://fb.watch/gOd3TlA6Yk, YouTube https://youtu.be/CYqFCHuwWQM, or Instagram https://www.instagram.com/reel/Ck4e21Mp0i_.

Road To RootsTech Episode 2: New Classes was released in December. You can watch it on Facebook https://fb.watch/hi49fsW98X, YouTube https://youtu.be/3k0YB4IKavQ, or Instagram https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cl1hmKSJaJz.

Road to RootsTech Episode 3: Testimonials was released in December. You can watch it on Facebook https://fb.watch/hAGPiXmaR-, YouTube https://youtu.be/XEcX5OcSh4U, or Instagram https://www.instagram.com/p/CmenA5pBPNl.

Road to RootsTech Episode 4: Main Stage was released in January. You can watch it on Facebook https://fb.watch/ixrew-ijq1.

Road to RootsTech Episoide 5: Expo Hall was released in February. You can watch it on Facebook https://fb.watch/ixqZWMNlaO.

RootsTech has begun to announce some of their speakers. In November, they had an online live discussion with three of the speakers, Lisa Cooke, Jenny Joyce, and Myko Clelland. You can see this video online at https://www.facebook.com/RootsTech/videos/2142135585995614 or https://youtu.be/Ak7bylrNCnQ. 

RootsTech has also announced three of their keynote speakers. 

Tuti Furlán is a psychologist, specializing in positive psychology and the science of happiness. She is a writer, international speaker, actress, and business owner. With her 20+ year career, she is considered to be one of the most influential and recognized public figure in Guatemala.

H.H. Sheikh Salem bin Sultan bin Saqr Al-Qasimi is from Ras al Khaimah. He has been a major contributor to achieving sustainability and food security in the UAE, and was awarded the Medal of Excellence for being an important figure in sustainable investment. He received the Inspirational Leader Award of 2021, the Social Development Leadership Medal, and the Leadership/ Responsibility/ Innovation International Certificate as one of the best social leaders in the world. H.H. also has a great love for bees and the importance of bee keeping. He is a global ambassador in the project to save bees from extinction.

Mona Magno-Veluz serves as the National President of the Autism Society Philippines. She designed and engineered national advocacy initiatives that continue to build institutional mechanisms to empower persons on the autism spectrum and those who care for them.

Have you purchased your in person ticket or are you planning on watching virtually. If you haven't registered, you can visit their website and register at https://www.familysearch.org/rootstech/event/rt2023. If you haven't registered yet, I will be giving away one free in-person 3-day ticket (valued at $98) during January. Keep an eye out on this blog and on my social media to learn how you can win this ticket.

I hope everyone has a happy holiday season and has the opportunity to spend time with family.

MyHeritage's AI Time Machine App

Over the last couple years, MyHeritage has released apps to colorize, enhance, and animate photos. You may have seen my previous posts about the Deep Nostalgia and Live Story apps which allow your photos to tell their own story. If you have been on social media lately you will probably have noticed that MyHeritage has released a new photo app. This new app is MyHeritage's AI Time Machine app. This app places you in 8 scenes from each of 62 historic periods including Ancient Rome, the Renaissance, WWI, Ancient Egypt, and many more. The AI uses photos that you upload and then adds them to these scenes. it takes about 30 to 45 minutes to create the images. I uploaded 15 photos with a variety of poses including full body, profile, and head shots to get my first set of images. Once I had those, I uploaded another 17 photos to get some different views. So, now I have 16 photos from each of 62 periods to go through. Some of these photos are impressive while others have some problems. I will provide some examples below.

16th Century

18th Century

American Pioneer

Cowboy

As you can see, those images are pretty impressive (even if they are of me) but some of the images just don't work. Some cut off the head. Others have multiple arms or extra fingers. And some just look odd.

Head cut off

Extra arms

    

Extra fingers

This app is a fun app to play with. I will probably use some of the images as profile pictures for social media. If you have some time to upload your photos you may discover some fun versions of yourself.

RootsTech Follow-Up - Veterans Day

Vernon Westerheide and family - WW II

Today, Friday, November 11 is Veterans Day in the United States. This day was established in 1938 to honor the military veterans of the United States Armed Forces. Many of us have long lines of military veterans who served in wartime as well as peacetime.

I am including a few pictures from my family and my wife's family highlighting their military service. The first picture is my grandfather, Vernon Westerheide, who served in the Navy durign World War II. My father also served in the Navy in the 1960s and was stationed at  Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

My wife's father, Estill Herbert Walker, joined the Navy in 1942 when he was only 15 years old He was thrown out when he was getting ready to ship out to England and they discovered his age. He also joined the Army Air Corps where he learned to pilot aircraft and the Marines durign WW II.

My wife's grandfather, Estill Bowen Walker, served in the Army during WW II and achieved the rank of Lieutenant.

In honor of Veterans Day, several large genealogy databases are offering free acces to their records. FindMyPast is offering access from November 10-14. Fold3 is offering free access to their records from November 10-13. Take advantage of these offers while you can.

Estill Herbert Walker - WW II

There have been several talks presented at RootsTech during the 2021 and 2022 virtual conferences. These talks are still available. I will highlight just a few that may help you research your US military ancestors during this weekend and beyond.

1. Michael L. Strauss - Record Analysis: Military Service Records - Official Military Personnel Files (2021)
2. Lisa Ratzlaff - Basic Training: US Military Records (2021)
3. Margaret M. McMahon - Researching Ancestors in the US Military: Online and in Military Archives (2022)
4. Doug LeCheminant - RootsTech Goes to War: Preserving the Military Histories of Our Family (2022)
5. Margaret M. McMahon and Michael T. Mentley - Learning From US Military Records That Did Not Burn (2021)

6. 

   Lt. Estill Bowen Walker - WW II

   Rebecca Whitman Koford - What Does That Really Say? Records Analysis: 1812 Military Pension (2021)
7. Rebecca Murray - Servicewomen in WWII: Military Service Files & Photographs (2022)
8. Melanie McComb, Ann G. Lawthers and David Allen Lambert - A Call to Arms: Researching Revolutionary War Ancestors (2022)
9. Laura K. Anderson - Digging in the National Archives for War Department Documents (2021)
10. The Family History Guide Association - Exploring United States World War I Records (2022)
11. Elizabeth Swaney O'Neal - Resources for Researching Your War of 1812 Ancestors Online: Part 1 and Part 2 (2022)
12. Bernice Alexander Bennett and Toni Carrier - USCT Pension Files: A Rich Resource for African American Genealogy: Part 1 and Part 2 (2022)
13. Don Milne - Telling the Stories of 421,000 US World War II Fallen (2022)
14. Melanie McComb and David Lambert - Report for Duty: Find Stories of Veteran Ancestors (2020)

There are so many great resources in the RootsTech archive. Most of the talks are less than 20 minutes so they can easily fit into a break. 

Take this opportunity to remember your veteran ancestors, add their information on FamilySearch, and upload photos and tell their stories so future generations will remember the service of their ancestors.

RootsTech Follow-Up - Oktoberfest

October is known by most as the month for Halloween, the time when our kids run around the neighborhood looking for treats. For those of us who do family history October is Family History Month. And for those of us who are of German heritage, it is the month for Oktoberfest. Growing up in Ohio, many of the local towns, such as Minster, had their version of Oktoberfest. But now that I am living in Florida there aren't as many towns that celebrate Oktoberfest. My current town had its first ever Oktoberfest this weekend. I went and found out that it is pretty much like all the other festivals here. Lots of booths selling driftwood art, t-shirts, candles, and other crafts. The big difference was that many of the food venders were selling bratwursts instead of hot dogs and there were more beer tents.

But back to the reason I am writing this post - German heritage research and family history. Did you realize that RootsTech had several dozen talks about German research? These talks are still online and can be watched at your convenience. I'll highlight a few that might be of interest to you:

1. Discovering Online German Archives by Miles Meyer - Yeah, this one is mine but you still may be interested. This talk covers many of the online German Archives and how to do research in them. There is an extensive handout that provides links and information on each collection.
2. German Research for the Everyday American by Karynne Moses - This presentation is a bit longer than most RootsTech presentations at a little over an hour but it has a lot of information to cover. This presentation helps the beginning researcher find resources that help to bridge the gap between the United States and Germany.
3. Genealogical Research in Germany by Andrea Bentschneider - This is a three-part series consisting of German Church Books and Civil Records, Other Interesting Sources, and The German Archive System.
4. Finding Your German Ancestors by Richard Lynn Walker - This is a two-part series by an employee of FamilySearch. The first part discusses basic resources while the second part goes into more depth by discussing various websites where additional resources can be found.
5. German Immigration from Hometown to Final Destinations by James Beidler - This is a three-part series on resources to find your German immigrants and their hometowns. The parts are not found together as a series but you can find them at these links: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.
6. Finding German Records Using FamilySearch by Dana Palmer - This presentation covers the German record collections on FamilySearch. Step-by-step instructions are given to help users find records that are relevant to their research.
7. German Records, Words, and Scripts by The Family History Guide - I had to add this one not just because I am the Education Director for The Family History Guide but there are some great tips in this presentation to help researchers recognize common words and read German script.
8. German Vital Records: Finding the Clues You Need by Katherine Schrober - This presentation covers the main vital records (birth, marriage and death) and the information that you can find in those records. 
9. Useful Tools for Finding German Ancestors by Danna Palmer - Find out about some of the best sources to begin your German research in this presentation. Learn about using the FamilySearch Wiki and handwriting pages which will give you a start on your research.

So, there are a dozen great presentations from RootsTech 2022 that should get you motived to start researching your German heritage. I hope you have fun exploring these links and have a great Family History Month/Oktoberfest/Halloween!

A Look Ahead to RootsTech 2023

Have you watched all the videos from RootsTech Connect 2022? Probably not since there are more than 1,500 sessions on 85 topics in over 30 langauages. But you still have 5 months until a new set of videos are available for RootsTech 2023.

RootsTech 2023 is scheduled for March 2-4, 2023. It will be both virtual and in-person, so you will still have the opportunity to watch from home or you can travel to the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City to watch the speakers live. The in-person conference is $98 for all three days while the virtual conference is FREE! When you visit the website, you can subscribe to receive email or text announcements about RootsTech. They plan to open registration on October 6. Registration will be important for those hoping to be in-person since there will be a limit on the number of attendees. However, there is no limit on the number of virtual attendees. But even if you intend on attending virtually, you should register since that will activate enhanced features that you won't be able to access if you aren't registered.

Each year there is a RootsTech app. The app for RootsTech 2023 is expected to be released in February a couple weeks before the conference.

The theme for RootsTech 2023 is "Uniting" and they hope to bring inspiring experiences for all during the conference. They currently have over 200 virtual calsses in 42 languages scheduled but this should increase as more topics and speakers are suggested. You can even suggest a speaker for the line up.

There will be some differences between the virtual and in-person experience. For example, some live classes will not be broadcast on the virtual platform. Sessions will be catered for your location so you don't have to wake up at 2:00 am to see your favorite speaker if you are watching virtually. The virtual platform is expected to allow for watch parties and many talks will be on demand. People who are attending in-person will be able to access the virtual platform to watch classes.

Why should you consider attending RootsTech in-person?

1. You get to meet the speakers and vendors and ask them questions or just have a conversation. 
2. The excitement of the event and meeting all of your favorite genealogists and friends.
3. There are many small classes that occur in areas like the Expo Hall which aren't available virtually.

Why should you consider attending RootsTech virtually?

1. It is much cheaper. 
1. Hotel rooms in the area range from about $200 to over $500 per night.
2. Airline flights can be several hundred to several thousand dollars.
3. Registration for the virtual conference is free.
4. You don't have to go out for food. You can just grab a sandwich from your refrigerator.
2. You can watch much of the conference on demand. I know my schedule when I attend in-person is usually waking up at 4:00 or 5:00 am and getting back to my hotel room at 11:00 pm.
3. You can have watch parties with your friends and family.

I am a RootsTech Influencer for the 2023 conference. As part of my responsibilities, I will be providing updates on a regular basis and will have important announcements and prizes, including a free 3-day RootsTech pass. Follow me for the next couple months to learn more about RootsTech 2023.

You can watch the RootsTech Announcement on Youtube or the article at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Newsroom to get more information.

RootsTech Follow-Up - Family Connections

Hello everyone. Here in Florida our hurricane season starts on June 1 and we already have our first storm brewing. Many people say we don't have seasons in Florida but they would be wrong. We have several seasons - Dry Season, Wet Season, Hurrican Season, and Lovebug Season. Each one has it's own special conditions that we have to adapt to. Oh yeah, we also have Winter which usually lasts for 7-10 days sometime in January and February where the temperature can drop below 40 degrees F.

With our first tropical storm system sitting off the coast providing several inches of rain, it is a good time to stay indoors, work on family history, and connect with family. For many of you, it is summer and this is the time for your family to be together, take vacations, and visit far flung family. 

We are now a couple months out from our last RootsTech and RootsTech has started to develop monthly themes to help people find videos related to specific topics. This month the theme is Family Connections. This theme focuses on discovering your legacy, family traditions, telling stories, and activities you can do with your family.

Are you looking for some quick and simple ideas for fun family history activities? Family history should not be boring. Family members can become deeply involved in their family histories if you make it fun and engaging. Here are a couple RootsTech videos that can help you make family history enjoyable for the rest of your family.

• Shenley Puterbaugh presents 10 simple activities in her short video 10 Virtual Family History Activities to Connect with Family. 
• Kelechi Obioha Ohabughiro discusses his experience involving children and others in their family history in his short video Fun Family History Activities.
• Scott and Angelle Anderson present ideas that you can use to enhance your family reunion or any family gathering in their video Family History Activities to Supercharge your Family Reunion.
• Tori Bush talks about storytelling and why stories are so important to sharing your family history in her video The Power of Storytelling: Taking Family History off the Shelf through Storytelling.

These are just a few of the RootsTech videos which focus on involving your family, building connections, telling stories, and having fun while learning about their family history. Take some time to view these videos and others from RootsTech and let me know about your experiences.