Birth of Everyday Genealogy

Everyday Genealogy
What are you suppose to do with all the notes and handouts you accumulate while attending genealogy meetings, seminars, or just surfing the Internet?

I had asked myself this question just after coming home from an excellent presentation and wondering where to put my handout. There was the pile of unfiled family documents. This would be a logical place, but they were in no immediate danger of being filed. I found another stack of papers; these were copies of magazines I thought might come in handy and print outs of websites I did not want to forget. As I went through the stack, I found so many great sites I started making notes for myself and friends. I realized I had to organize all this valuable information in some manner, but was not sure how or where.

Flash forward a couple of weeks
My friend Pam Tremé and I do technology-related genealogy presentations under the name of the Technology Tamers. One Sunday I was surfing the net and toying with some ideas for presentations when the proverbial bolt of lightning struck me. Could we come up with 365 genealogy tips? I opened Excel and started typing in the titles of some of our presentations and articles we had published. Then I listed the 50 states, 5 or 6 countries one of us had researched and the major wars and conflicts in U.S. History.

I forwarded my list to Pam and told her I thought we should put together a desk calendar with a tip a day for genealogists. Pam showed mild interest and said, “This would be a good project for you.” It appeared that this would be a solo project. The winter in Florida was unusually cold. So, for the next few weekends, I was curled up on the couch researching and composing.

When I had over 200 tips, I started to put together proposals to send to various calendar publishers to see if they would be interested in producing my calendar. I researched the ratings for Who Do You Think You Are? and found statistics about the explosion of genealogy as a hobby. Encouraged, I formatted my first spreadsheet with the topics and my first 200 tips. Days became weeks, and finally, I received the publisher’s responses—Thanks but no thanks!

While not completely surprised, I was disappointed. I searched the various self-publishing sites but none of them accommodated my idea for a tip a day. I told my family I was giving up on the idea and put my spreadsheet away.

What happens in Vegas…?
My husband goes to Las Vegas a couple of times a year with his brother to play blackjack and bond. This year when he came back he had an announcement; Bill would find a printer for my calendar. My brother-in-law’s company prints cards (hotel keys, phone cards, etc.) but not calendars. Therefore, it had never crossed my mind to ask for his help. I was now entering the world of self-publishing. Oh, and I was about 165 tips short of my goal of 365!

It has been a long four months since that trip to Las Vegas and I have learned more than I ever wanted to know about ISBN numbers, selling on Amazon, creating my own website, and even translating this project to an iPhone application. Pam has been there encouraging me, offering additional topics, authoring the ‘New Year’s Resolution’ tips, and coming up with the title!

Everyday Genealogy
While putting together Everyday Genealogy, I learned so much about military research, the formation of the United States, and historical events I never knew. When I open up the latest edition of Family Tree Magazine or Internet Genealogy, I can smile at a ‘new’ website they are featuring and remember when I discovered it and added it to my spreadsheet.

Everyday Genealogy will hit the stands (that is, be shipped to my house) October 20th. Will it be a success? Can I sell 3,000 copies? I am not sure what the fate of Everyday Genealogy will be but 2010 has been one year of research I will never forget.

If you would like to see the results of all of my hard work—that is, order a calendar—email me at everydaygenealogy@gmail.com. Or, visit my website at everydaygenealogy.com to see sample pages from my calendar.

Pictures and Memories....

Pictures bring back memories of our youth and in my case of hours spent scanning them.

For the last couple of days I have been gathering pictures to include on Chuck and Shirley's new photo frame. Looking at them I remember vacations, family gatherings and hours spent scanning!

I did the majority of the scanning during some breaks in my employment and while I enjoyed not working a 'day job' scanning is WORK. Actually it is not just the scanning, but going through all the photo albums to find the pictures. In my case I gave up on the albums in the mid 1990's and started using boxes so that added another layer of frustration.

There is also the problem of getting the pictures OUT of the albums. I bought all those albums in the 1980's when the pictures magically 'stuck' to the page in the album. However, now in 2010 the pictures have become one with the page.

Another 'oops' I encountered while scanning was that no one ever mentioned coming up with a name convention! How many pictures can you call "Clayton_Smiling" or "Clayton_Crying" when you have 15 albums covering the first 10 years of a child's life?

So, as I go down memory lane looking AT the pictures I will also remember what it took to digitize them.

BTW - I will be bringing two digital video cameras and a digital camera to the anniversary party!

A Wedding Anniversay -> Another Genealogy Project!

My in-laws, Chuck and Shirley Schultz will be celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary in August. Such an occasion deserves a celebration and their children decided to have a party. While I had planned to attend, I didn't think it was going to be a 'project'.

I was wrong....

I mentioned to Chuck that it would be nice if we set up an area where people could be 'interviewed' and tell a story, memory, etc about his parents. We could record them (video preferred) and then edit it and make a nice dvd. He mentioned to his brother Billy, who was tasked with sending out the invitations. I told Chuck I could do a short write up that could be included in the invitation so people would have a chance to think of the story.

Today I found out I'm now in charge of the invitations! So, tomorrow it is off to Office Depot to find stationary and envelopes. Then I'll be surfing various sites for an appropriate template for the invitations.

Just another day in the life of a genealogist.... Oh, and while I'm at Office Depot I think I'll pick up name tags, since I can't quite place a few of the people on the guest list.

I'll keep you posted!