When the Genealogists Come to Town

I admit that I haven't been blogging much this year. It's been a period of transition following the death of my father, moving and adjusting to my new life. That doesn't mean that I haven't been doing genealogy, however!

My last post was last spring when I wrote about meeting up with Dear Myrtle and Mr. Myrt, Pat Richley-Erickson and Gordon Erickson. Since then, I've met up with two more genealogists who came to Lincoln. I still find it fascinating that we genealogists are able to get acquainted on social media, so once we meet IRL (in real life), we are already friends.

In August, one of my Facebook genealogy buddies, J Paul Hawthorne of Escondido, California was in town for business so we made plans to get together. 

Susan and Paul at the Nebraska State Capitol

We had a nice dinner, during which we talked nonstop genealogy. I gave Paul the ten cent tour of Lincoln, which included a photo op outside of the Nebraska State Capitol and the statue of our city's namesake, Abraham Lincoln. The next afternoon, in nearly unbearable heat, we toured Wyuka Cemetery, visited several of the points of interest on the self-guided tour and stopped at the memorials for 9/11, the Nebraska firefighters and the Nebraska Holocaust Memorial. We also made a stop at my Dad's grave in the veteran's section. A serviceman was there, placing pennies atop the stones of the veterans. He told me that he comes as frequently as possible to pay his respects.

This past weekend, Laura Prescott was making her way across the country as she is moving to Utah to work for Ancestry.com. She posted on her Facebook page that she was hoping to meet up with other genealogists along Interstate 80 to help break up her trip. I first met Laura when she spoke at the Nebraska State Genealogical Society's conference a few years ago. So, along with my fellow Lincoln genealogist, Gail Blakenau, we made plans to have breakfast on Sunday morning.

Gail, Laura and Susan

One thing you can count on when you get together with other genealogists, it's non-stop talking about family history and research. And I always learn something new! It was great seeing Laura again and to learn about her new adventure with Ancestry - developing online education classes. This is definitely something to look forward to in 2015.

Meeting Up with Dear Myrtle

I continue to be amazed at the power of online social networking. Yesterday morning over coffee I was browsing through my news feed on Facebook. I saw that Dear Myrtle, Pat Richley-Erickson, posted that she was in Iowa City, heading west. I jotted off a quick message and asked if she and Mr. Myrt might have time to stop in Lincoln on their way home to Utah. Within minutes, we had a plan to meet later in the day at a restaurant just off Interstate 80 on the north edge of town.

Susan and Dear Myrtle - Pat Richley-Erickson
The Floppy Hat Genealogy Meet Up

The Ericksons kept me posted throughout the day as to their location so we could plan to arrive about the same time.

This was our first time to meet in person, but we've known one another for several years because of Facebook. I've attended countless webinars and hangouts conducted by Pat and have learned so much about genealogy and tools from her.

I must admit, I felt honored to have her and Gordon "all to myself" for a nice relaxing dinner and to share our thoughts and experiences about genealogy collaboration, technology, presentation techniques and more. I was thrilled they were willing to schedule time in their travels to spend some time together.

Most genealogists on Facebook will likely agree with me - over the years, you get to know your Facebook friends as well, if not better, than the friends you see every day. You keep up with the highs and lows, the successes, family matters - all in addition to what we share with one another about our life in the genealogy world. I've been fortunate to meet several of my Facebook friends over the last four years - either at conferences or by getting together when they were passing through town. There's no awkwardness because we already know each other.

Pat and Gordon are intelligent, kind and interesting people. I'm honored to have them as friends.

Mr. Myrt (Gordon Erickson) and Dear Myrtle
Lincoln, Nebraska

Looking for Families of Civil War Veterans - a collaborative effort

A few days ago, KMTV in Omaha ran a piece on the Bellevue, Nebraska Cemetery Committee and their desire to place tombstones for seven unmarked graves of Nebraska Civil War Veterans at Bellevue Cemetery. It caught my interest and I posted the link to my Facebook wall. That generated quite a bit of chatter and included another Facebook friend from Omaha reaching out to the woman interviewed in the story.

We had so much chatter that we moved the conversation to the Nebraska Genea-Peeps group on Facebook - a small but active group of Nebraska genealogists and others who have ties to family in Nebraska.

Before you could blink an eye, our group of Nebraska genealogists was on task - pooling our resources and scouring our various subscription sites and Googling like crazy. We were determined to help find living relatives of these seven Civil War veterans. Other people involved in the project joined the task. Several of our Nebraska Genea-Peeps group adopted one of the seven and worked in tag teams to locate information.

By the end of the day, we were posting documents we had discovered, obituaries found and names of possible living family members. To say we were obsessed is an understatement. By the end of the day, we probably had well over 100 posts/comments on the page and we made our discoveries. A couple of the women worked their clues via Twitter conversation.

This morning, we have some strong leads as well as some brick walls. So we are going back to square one to start over on those. This is such an exhilarating and exciting project to collaborate on! We're having such a good time - and also testing our genealogy research skills.

It's just another example of how the power of social media really works in genealogy.

If you have Nebraska family ties or just want to join in on the project, please come visit our Nebraska Genea-Peeps group on Facebook! A splendid time is guaranteed for all!

Thank you to all of the awesome Nebraska genealogists for their contributions to this random act of genealogical kindess!

New Playground in Town: Technology for Genealogy

There's a new Facebook group in town for genealogists - Technology for Genealogy. Three weeks ago I realized that there really wasn't a common online playground for genealogists to get together to ask questions, share tech news and visit about how we use technology for genealogy.

Just in case I might have missed it, I messaged my pal, Thomas MacEntee, to see if he knew of any such group. After all, if Thomas doesn't know about it, no one does! Thomas' reply was basically "great idea, go for it!"

In a few minutes, the Facebook group was hatched. I invited a few friends, posted a message on my Facebook wall and Twitter. Before I could finish configuring the group settings, the online genealogists were flocking to this new gathering place. People were really jumping on the bandwagon and there were nearly 100 members during the first hour.

Three weeks later, we are quickly approaching 400 members, much due to mentions by Thomas MacEntee, James Tanner and Lynn Palermo of the Armchair Genealogist.

While the chatter has calmed down a bit after the first week, there is still plenty of information sharing going on regarding the technology tools that we use for genealogy. If you have a question about a product or need to learn the "how to" of software, apps or other technology, this is the group for you.

Lincoln, Nebraska "Genea-Tech" group


Along the same lines, I've started a Genealogy Interest Group through my local society, the Lincoln-Lancaster County Genealogical Society. We had our organizational meeting last Sunday with 10 members and three guests present. We brainstormed the various technology topics we wanted to pursue in depth, then  narrowed down the topics to four major themes. Our next session in September will be a comparison of some of the major genealogy software programs. My hearty thanks goes out to Drew Smith (one of the Genealogy Guys) who graciously shared his PowerPoint slides from a presentation he did for his society this month. It's a great starting point for us without having to re-invent the wheel.

It's very clear that technology is a hot topic for genealogists - we just can't get enough! And it's an ever changing field with new devices, apps, software and web sites emerging on a daily basis, a person really needs to keep up with it.

Kindle for Genealogy Facebook Group

Are you passionate about genealogy? Are you passionate about your Kindle? If so, the Kindle for Genealogy Facebook group is for you! In only a week, we have more than 50 genea-kindle-aholics participating in the discussion. We are sharing recommendations on ebooks for genealogy, apps we use for genealogy, troubleshooting tips and more. Come share in the fun!

Kindle for Genealogy Facebook group

and check out our

Kindle for Genealogy Links (pdf file)

Nebraska Genea-Peeps Group on Facebook

Are you a genealogist living in Nebraska? Do you research your Nebraska ancestors? If so, I'd like to invite you to join a Facebook group called Nebraska Genea-Peeps:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/144381855641807/

It's a group for genealogists living in or researching in Nebraska. You can ask questions, share research tips and Nebraska resources. At some point, we hope to plan some informal in-person get togethers, ride sharing to events or day-long research trips or do some cemetery hopping.

Recently, someone posted a request for help in finding an obituary for her grandfather, and within a few minutes, we discovered a source for the obituary, which she was able to order online.

We also post upcoming genealogy events. Come join in!