Reporting from BYU Genealogy Conference -- Part Six Thursday

Back for the afternoon, we didn't really have a break because they inserted a class at noon from Daniel M. Lynch on Google+. Of course, I had to go to that to see what was going on. I found out that I haven't explored the site much yet. I think the genealogists are early adopters of this site, so I will get more into the site.

Quickly following Lynch, I went to a class by Alan Mann called, "Getting Informed without Being Overwhelmed: Blogs, Wikis and Social Networking." Now, why would I go to a class on blogs, wikis and social networking? Aren't I about saturated in these? Well, yes. But there is always the possibility that there is something I have overlooked. That has worked well at every conference I have attended. I find the most useful suggestions from classes on subjects I am fairly well acquainted with. Of course, there is always the random class on something I have never heard of, but by and large I am trying to increase my skills in the areas I am most involved with.

Alan Mann is always interesting and informative. He explained Blogs in a very useful way. I was happy to see another mention of WeRelate.org  and Wiki.familysearch.org. The list of types of sites he covered is impressive, blogs, wikis, forums, and overall RSS feeds. It is the type of class every genealogist needs to take, unless they are already into every one of these areas. One new area he mentioned was the Facebook FamilySearch Research Communities. He explained news and post aggregators in detail, which was very helpful.

Next, it was a class called "Conserving Our Personal Collections" by Shellee A. Morehead. This was definitely a class I needed, especially from the opening about having a specific codicil to a will to take care of the stuff. She also starts by mentioning the National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (NUCMC) This is the second time I have heard this collection mentioned during the conference, I must get into this catalog.

This turns out to be a lecture to me to get back into the huge pile of stuff I have all over the house and in the garage. I don't think anyone will appreciate the tens of thousands of pages of documents and photographs that I have unless it is organized in some way. As Morehead says, stored properly and labeled. "Do not store family history materials in basements, garages, attics or storage units. Oops, I have already violated this rule by having 30 or so boxes of stuff in the garage. I do have to note that I have over 73,000 scans, so far. I probably have more than that left to do.

Put all of these documents into collections? How would that be possible?

The last class of the day, Daniel M. Lynch returns with Google Images. He covers some basics of searching; who are we looking for, where were they and when did the event occur. Searching for images and videos involves a careful selection of keywords. Sometimes you can find things that are close but not exactly of the person or event. Very good information about an area I have mostly neglected.

Off to the last day of the conference.