GenealogyClassBlog

For those of you ladies with an interest in scrapbooking, here is some news about an upcoming scrapbook camp. While this is not exactly genealogy, those who have an interest in preserving their family’s photos and keepsakes have a lot in common with those who have an interest in preserving their family’s history. It is because of that connection, this will be the second time that the retreat’s hostess, Becky Luster, has asked me to come present a program on genealogy to those attending the scrapbook camp.

My sister, Becky Becker Luster, is a Creative Memories consultant and she has put together her third scrapbooking getaway, called SAY Retreat III. SAY stands for “Scrappin’ and Yappin’. She has a large building at Camp Christian (near Chouteau) reserved for the event. Each attendee has a large, clear table to spread out her personal photographs, her own scrapbooking supplies from home, and she can use Becky’s tools and shop for new papers, albums, embellishments, and more, right on the spot. Becky provides yummy meals and gives out prizes (I hope that wasn’t a secret), and gives a presentation the first evening to explain the latest news from Creative Memories. I’ll be giving a very basic talk on researching in the federal census on Saturday. She’ll be promoting Creative Memories products, but she isn’t an arm-twister, so you don’t need to worry about high-pressure sales tactics. Having the products there just makes it convenient for the attendees to buy what they need as they work. I must admit, though, that the “store” is very tempting.

The ladies at the last SAY Retreat I attended were very fun and had a friendly competition going to encourage each other to get some very cute scrapbook pages completed. This is limited to ladies because one of the attractions of the retreat is being able to wear pajamas while scrapbooking. They share sleeping quarters and bathrooms, too. Many stay for the entire weekend, but there are registration rates for those who elect to come for only part, as well as for the whole 55 hours.

Visit Becky’s website and click on “My Files” for details. There is an online registration form that you’d mail in with your registration fee (listed on the form), but since the retreat will be so soon, I’d suggest contacting Becky to let her know you’re interested, too. There is a Contact Me link on her website.

I hope to see you there!

Two Saturdays ago I presented a program on Genealogy Software for the Tulsa City-County Library. To those who attended, I handed out a checklist that I’d created to use while comparing various genealogy software solutions. There are many factors that need our attention when we try to choose a program or other solution for organizing our genealogical data or in networking with others. As I had prepared what I was going to say about features to compare from one solution to another I realized that my students would need a place to make their notes about what they’d found. I suggested that they watch for whether the web site of the product was helpful and attractive, whether a demo version was available, whether there was a users forum or access to technical support. Not only is price important, but so is platform, version, and format. I also suggested that each person might be able to define some capabilities that would be deal-breakers for them, such as whether the solution could output onto large charts, whether it could handle multimedia, and whether their genealogy data could be transferred with little or no hiccups from their cousin’s computer to theirs. I hope that this checklist will be a useful tool for making those comparisons.

I am making the Genealogy Software Comparison Checklist available in .PDF format, and I am also removing the file I had previously uploaded, which was created in Microsoft Office 2003 (for Windows). Feel free to download this for personal use. You may need Adobe Reader to open the file (unless you have a Mac, and then Preview will do it for you). You can download Adobe Reader at http://get.adobe.com/reader/. I hope there are no compatibility issues with this one, so I’d like to hear about any problems that I might be able to correct, or any suggestions as to how the content could be improved.

And for those who attended the program, thanks for coming! Any success with finding a genealogy software solution?

I will be presenting a program for the Tulsa City-County Library’s Genealogy Center on Saturday, January 10 from 10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. The topic is Genealogy Software — what it does, how genealogists use it, and how to select a new genealogy software program. See the library’s description and find information about how to find the library at their Event Guide listing: http://www.tulsalibrary.org/eventguide/oeg.asp?Keyword=Genealogy

I have a link to the handout material, which is a list of the relevant links to helpful web sites, on the home page of my web site: http://www.desktopgenerations.com. As of today, the handout is much the same as it was when I prepared it for the same program I presented in July 2008, but I’ll be updating it this week.

The address of the Genealogy Center is 2901 S. Harvard. Their hours on Saturday will be 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.