William L Kelly Sr Youth Scrapbook

This is the scrapbook created by my grandfather, William L. Kelly, Sr. at the age of 10 years.

William L Kelly Sr - youth scrapbook age 10 from Susan Petersen

The Organized Genealogist - My New Blog and a Discussion Group

Note: This is a duplicate post from my new blog, The Organized Genealogist.

It has been quite a week at The Organized Genealogist! What started out as "just another blog" and Facebook group has created a life of its own.

In addition to this blog, I've created a Facebook Group, also called The Organized Genealogist. I posted about it on my Facebook timeline and invited a few friends to join in the discussion. On Saturday my friend, Judy Shutts from Voices in Time, posted about the group in Facebook's Ancestorville community. Ancestorville has more than 30,000 participants and they began flocking to The Organized Genealogist like crazy.

Other Facebook friends and blogs started mentioning the group and as of this morning, we are approaching 1,000 group members! One of them commented this morning, "you've created a monster!" I feel like it. I immediately had to get by with a little help from my friends and fellow bloggers Becky Jamison (Grace and Glory), Deb Ruth (Adventures in Genealogy) and Linda McAuley (Documenting the Details) stepped up to help me administer the group and stay on top of membership approvals. I could not have made it through the past two days without them!

In addition to the tips offered and advice sought, I am LOVING all of the photographs that people are posting of our genealogy spaces. Some have commented that the group name should have been The DIS-organized Genealogist or Hoarders: Genealogy Edition. What's fun about this is that we can post the photographs of our mess and clutter, and then in a few weeks be able to display, with pride, our transformation.

We had some good natured fun with Drew Smith of The Genealogy Guys. He posted a photo of his bare naked desk, nothing on the bulletin board, nothing on the white board, no papers to be seen anywhere. After we voiced our amazement, Drew then posted the photo of the OTHER side of the room. Relief! He's just like the rest of us, but his piles and boxes look a bit more organized.

So, we are having a great time and the support of the membership is already providing inspiration and motivation to those who need a little extra push in getting their genealogy under control.

Where to find The Organized Genealogist:

Blog: http://organizedgenealogist.blogspot.com/

Facebook Discussion Group: http://www.facebook.com/groups/organizedgenealogist/

Facebook Page (notifications from the blog): http://www.facebook.com/TheOrganizedGenealogist

The link to this post is: http://longlostrelatives-smp.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-organized-genealogist-my-new-blog.html

What I learned at the NSGS state conference

The Nebraska State Genealogical Society (NSGS) had yet another exceptional speaker at last weekend's annual conference with Beth Foulk. Beth is a volunteer instructor at the Midwest Genealogy Center in Independence, Missouri.

Beth is my kind of conference speaker with her enthusiasm, passion and knowledge. All of her sessions were great and my favorite focused on using timelines to help with your genealogy research. I've used the timeline feature on Ancestry.com on several of my direct ancestors. Not just listing events that are associated with a document, I would add the births and deaths of family members, so I could put together a bigger story of my ancestor's life.

Beth showed many examples of timelines she has created in Microsoft Excel. I love Excel for data management and her samples gave me a lot of new ideas on organizing timelines outside of Ancestry and my genealogy software. I can hardly wait to get started on these!

I especially liked how she had a column to reference the sources for data items. I envision having a separate tab in Excel with complete source citations that is linked from the data field in the main timeline. She also demonstrated how a person could color code specific events, such as property transactions, as a visual method of identifying what information needs to be gathered. I also plan to use a timeline in Excel to track the migration patterns of family members through each year's census.

One of the other gems that Beth discussed was the Hathi Trust digital book site. http://m.hathitrust.org/ This site provides a search of digital books available online, or an entry showing where to find the book in a library. This will become another item in my toolbox for finding books, alongside Google books and World Cat.

I always leave genealogy conferences with a wealth of new ideas, excited about trying new things. This year's conference was no exception.

Posted with Blogsy

Genealogy Abundance in Nebraska

Can you say Genealogy Abundance?! If you have an itch to continue your genealogy education, there a plenty of classes, workshops and conferences to select from during 2013. Below are upcoming events for March and April. For a list of other upcoming events throughout 2013, visit this page.

To add or update an event, please email me at sooznebr@gmail.com.

Updated: 3 March 2013

Date & Location	Description
February 27- March 6, 2013 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. Wednesday evenings Southeast Community College Continuing Education Center 301 S. 68th St Place Lincoln, NE	Intermediate Genealogy: Research Your Family Tree Instructors: Marcia Stewart, Cynthia Monroe $29
March 5, 2013 7:00- 8:30 p.m. Family Search Center Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints 3000 Old Cheney Road Lincoln, NE	Beginning Genealogy – Getting Started Presented by Audrey Nitz
March 7, 2013 1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. St. Paul United Methodist Church 12th and M Streets Room 155 Lincoln, NE	LLCGS - Lincoln-Lancaster County Genealogical Society First Thursday Discussion Group Facilitated by Bob and Arlene Houser
March 9, 2013 9:00 – 11:00 am Unadilla Community Library Research Room 700 G St Unadilla, NE	Otoe County Genealogical Society Genealogical Open Lab Assistance in research – free for class attendees
March 10, 2013 2:00 – 4:00 p.m. Walt Branch Library 6701 S. 14th st Lincoln, NE	LLCGS – Lincoln-Lancaster County Genealogical Society Help session for genealogy and idea exchange
March 10, 2013 2:00 – 4:00 pm Palmyra Memorial Library 535 Illinois Place Palmyra, NE	Otoe County Genealogical Society Genealogical Open Lab Assistance in research – free for class attendees
March 10, 2013 2 p.m. Swanson Conference Center Institute for the Culinary Arts Metropolitan Community College, 32nd and Sorensen Parkway Omaha, NE	Douglas County Historical Society Extreme Weather: The 1913 Easter Sunday Tornado Panel discussion
March 12, 2013 7:15 p.m. Eastridge Presbyterian Church 1135 Eastridge Dr Lincoln, NE	LLCGS – Lincoln-Lancaster County Genealogical Society Monthly Program Hiring a Professional Genealogist; Presented by Kathy Buhrman
March 12, 2013 7:00- 8:30 p.m. Family Search Center Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints 3000 Old Cheney Road Lincoln, NE	What’s in the Family History Center? Presented by Tina Wells
March 14, 2013 7:00 pm Talmage Public Library 405 Main St Talmage, NE	Otoe County Genealogical Society Village Tour – pioneer stories from the Talmage area, historic photos, books and more
March 16, 2013 9:15 a.m. – Noon Mormon Trail Center 3215 State St Omaha, NE	GOGS – Greater Omaha Genealogical Society Making Sense of the Census – Using U.S. and International Censuses
March 17, 2013 2:00 – 4:00 p.m. Walt Branch Library 6701 S. 14th St Lincoln, NE	LLCGS – Lincoln – Lancaster County Genealogical Society All Things Irish – come celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with Irish music, artifacts, memorabilia, Irish genealogy resources, light refreshments. Erin Go Bragh!
March 19, 2013 7:00- 8:30 p.m. Family Search Center Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints 3000 Old Cheney Road Lincoln, NE	Genealogical Communications Presented by Tina Wells
March 20, 2013 7:00 p.m. Nebraska Methodist College 87th and Burt Sts Omaha, NE	GOGS – Greater Omaha Genealogical Society Bill Henry will discuss the veterans project he will be doing.
March 20, 2013 2:00 p.m. Great Room Chatelaine 6201 Normal Blvd Lincoln, NE	LLCGS – Lincoln-Lancaster County Genealogical Society Third Wednesday Discussion Group Facilitated by Lila Garner
March 21, 2013 12:00 Noon Nebraska History Museum 15th and P Streets Lincoln, NE	Nebraska State Historical Society Brown Bag Lecture Series Rob Bozell examines evidence on where the Pawnee people came from and when.
March 23, 2013 9:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m Nebraska Methodist College Josie Harper Campus 87th and Burt Streets Omaha, NE	GOGS – Greater Omaha Genealogical Society All Things German: Roger Minert ·         Surnames in German-language Regions of Europe ·         Research in Other German-language Regions of Europe ·         Troubleshooting in Germanic Family History Research Case Studies
March 24, 2013 2:00 – 4:00 p.m. Walt Branch Library 6701 S. 14th St Lincoln, NE	LLCGS – Lincoln-Lancaster County Genealogical Society Technology Interest Group: Using OneNote for Genealogy Presented by Susan Petersen
March 26, 2013 7:00- 8:30 p.m. Family Search Center Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints 3000 Old Cheney Road Lincoln, NE	Census Records Presented by Carrie Pierson
March 28, 2013 5:30 – 8:00 p.m. Palmyra Memorial Library Palmyra, NE	Otoe County Genealogical Society Genealogical Workshop Series $10 for class, workbook and software CD
April 4, 2013 1:00 – 3:00 p.m. St. Paul United Methodist Church 12th and M Sts Lincoln, NE	LLCGS – Lincoln-Lancaster County Genealogical Society First Thursday Discussion Group Facilitated by Bob and Arlene Houser
April 5, 2013 7:00 p.m. LDS Family History Center 11027 Martha St Omaha, NE	GO-PAF meeting Program to be announced
April 9, 2013 7:15 p.m. Eastridge Presbyterian Church 1135 Eastridge Dr Lincoln, NE	LLCGS – Lincoln-Lancaster County Genealogical Society Monthly Program: Census Substitutes: Mired in Fraud and Politics
April 13, 2013 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Nebraska Community Blood Bank 100 N. 84th St Lincoln, NE	LLCGS – Lincoln-Lancaster County Genealogical Society Part 1 of 2 Putting the Pieces Together genealogy workshop Presented by Phyllis Ericson Fee $20 for two sessions (April 13 and 20)
April 14, 2013 2:00 – 4:00 p.m. Walt Branch Library 6701 S. 14th St Lincoln, NE	LLCGS – Lincoln-Lancaster County Genealogical Society Display Your Family Tree with Charts and Posters Presented by Phyllis Ericson
April 14, 2013 2:00 – 4:00 pm Palmyra Memorial Library 535 Illinois Place Palmyra, NE	Otoe County Genealogical Society Genealogical Open Lab Assistance in research – free for class attendees
April 17, 2013 7:00 p.m Nebraska Methodist College Josie Harper Campus 87th and Burt Streets Omaha, NE	GOGS – Greater Omaha Genealogical Society Monthly Meeting Blogging Your Family History Susan Petersen
April 17, 2013 2:00 – 4:00 p.m. Great Room Chatelaine 6201 Normal Blvd Lincoln, NE	LLCGS – Lincoln-Lancaster County Genealogical Society Third Wednesday Discussion Group Facilitated by Lila Garner
April 18, 2013 5:30 – 8:00 p.m. Palmyra Memorial Library 535 Illinois Place Palmyra, NE	Otoe County Genealogical Society Genealogical Workshop Series $10 for class, workbook and software CD
April 18, 2013 12:00 Noon Nebraska History Museum 15th and P Streets Lincoln, NE	Nebraska State Historical Society Brown Bag Lecture Series Jeff Barnes, author of “The Great Plains Guide to Custer” discusses regional sites associated with the Boy General
April 20, 2013 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Nebraska Community Blood Bank 100 N. 84th St Lincoln, NE	LLCGS – Lincoln-Lancaster County Genealogical Society Part 2 of 2 Putting the Pieces Together genealogy workshop Presented by Phyllis Ericson Fee $20 for two sessions (April 13 and 20)
April 20, 2013 9:15 a.m. Mormon Trail Center 3215 State St Omaha, NE	GOGS – Greater Omaha Genealogical Society Part 1 – Searching the World’s Records Part 2 – the Name Game
April 17, 2013 7:00 p.m. Nebraska Methodist College 87th and Burt Omaha, NE	GOGS – Greater Omaha Genealogical Society Monthly program to be announced
April 20, 2013 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Nebraska Community Blood Bank 100 N. 84th St Lincoln, NE	LLCGS – Lincoln-Lancaster County Genealogical Society Part 2 of 2 Putting the Pieces Together genealogy workshop Presented by Phyllis Ericson Fee $20 for two sessions
April 20, 2013 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. Lincoln Family History Center Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints 3000 Old Cheney Road Lincoln, NE	Family History Conference Details to be announced
April 27, 2013 9:00 am – 4:00 pm Nebraska Methodist College 720 N. 87th st Omaha, NE	GOGS – Greater Omaha Genealogical Society Spring Conference: Paul Milner, Irish Research See web site for registration fees Flyer
April 27, 2013 7 a.m. Bus loading at Southeast Community College Campus parking lot 8800 O Street Lincoln, NE Additional pickups in Beatrice, Tecumseh and Auburn	Shake Your Family Tree bus trip Trace Your Family Tree at the Midwest Genealogy Center in Kansas City. $89 See page 19 of the course catalog