Speaker Profile: Robert Raymond

Robert Raymond is a content strategy analyst for FamilySearch, the largest genealogical organization in the world. FamilySearch is a nonprofit organization sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Before FamilySearch, Robert worked at Ancestry.com for nearly six years. He is the staff trainer at a local Family History Center where he can be found in the trenches every Wednesday night. Robert is the shadow writer for one of the web’s most popular genealogical blogs and is the creator, author, and webmaster of an acclaimed family history website where he has published 1,700 pages of information, including numerous articles, dozens of personal histories, dozens of maps (several of his own creation), and photographs of hundreds of pages of genealogical records. Robert holds over a dozen technology patents and has a masters degree in electrical/computer engineering from Brigham Young University where he was honored as a Kimball Scholar.

NGS Class: Friday, April 30, 2010 at 8 a.m. on GenTrack

Doing Research in Real Time - An Exhilarating Collaboration Experience!

Speaker Profile: Ismael Orrantia

Ismael Orrantia, started doing genealogy research in 1989 by going to the Catholic Church archives and also the civil registry. After moving to Utah in 1997 he continued his research in the Family History Library, has identify his ancestors back to Spain in the Valle de Mena at the north part of Spain back to the mid 1500’s and also his mother side of the family are from the pyramids in Monte Alban. From that day on he has studied about research in Latin-America. Ismael works in the Family History Library as a Research Consultant for Latin-America.

Ismael Orrantia is married to Veronica and have one daughter. In his free time he is a volunteer in the indexing program for familysearch.

NGS CLASS: Thursday, April 29, 2010 at 8am

"Hispanic Workshop" on the International Track

Speaker Profile: Michael Ritchey

Michael Ritchey has worked for FamilySearch since 2000 as a U.S. Reference Consultant at the Family History Library, as manager of Research Support, and most recently as a community content manager of FamilySearch Wiki, a site full of research advice written for the community and by the community. Michael is a former family history center director, Family History Consultant, and professional freelance genealogist.

NGS Class: Thursday, April 29, 2010 at 8:00 am on the "GenTech" track.

"FamilySearch Research Wiki: Why I Participate"

Enjoy!

Digitizing Your Family Records - Free to the Public at NGS

Scanning Announcement...An opportunity to preserve those precious photos and/or documents for future generations.

Ancestry.com is excited to provide NGS Conference attendees the opportunity to have their family photos and documents scanned at the conference, for free, on our professional scanning equipment. It’s a unique opportunity to have your family history records digitized!

Conference attendees can sign up for 15-minute scanning sessions on Wednesday, April 28, through Saturday, May 1, to be held during the exhibit hall hours. Scanning-session signs-ups will open each morning—sign up Wednesday morning for a Wednesday time slot, Friday morning for a Friday time slot. Details on the scanning room location to come soon.

Will you be bringing items to scan? Please help us plan accordingly by letting us know how much and what you’ll be bringing. (http://2010ngsscanning.eventbrite.com/)

Scanning Details You’ll Want to Know
Document types accepted

• We can scan any document type, but the maximum size supported is 22" by 15". Any type of photograph, including tintypes, is accepted. Unfortunately we can not scan slides.
• More recent photographs or stable documents can be scanned at a much quicker rate on our high-speed scanner – meaning that you can have more documents scanned during your scanning session. Fragile or historical documents, photographs, bound books or albums and similar will be photographed.We can scan any document type, but the maximum size supported is 22" by 15". Any type of photograph, including tintypes, is accepted. Unfortunately we can not scan slides.
• More recent photographs or stable documents can be scanned at a much quicker rate on our high-speed scanner – meaning that you can have more documents scanned during your scanning session. Fragile or historical documents, photographs, bound books or albums and similar will be photographed.
• Copyright and re-publishing rights for the material are strictly the responsibility of patrons, but we reserve the right to reject any document for any reason.
• There is always a possibility that damage to older, more fragile documents may occur during the scanning process. Ancestry.com urges patrons to use their best judgment when choosing documents to be scanned.

Document preparation

• Before your scanning session, please remove all staples, pins, and fasteners as well as any tape or sticky material from your photos and documents. These items can harm the scanning equipment.
• Please sort all of your documents and pictures by size, largest to smallest, before entering your session. This will enable our scanners to more effectively finish your documents in the time allotted.
• Photos mounted in an album will be digitized as a single image. Bound books do not need to be unassembled, but can be quite slow to digitize. Material stored in sleeves should be removed prior to the scanning session; materials remaining in sleeves will be digitized with the sleeves in place.

Scheduling

• You will be able to sign up for a 15-minute time slot, on a first come, first served basis. This time slot will include any document preparation not completed prior to the scanning session, so proper document preparation is crucial (see above).
• Generally we can scan about 50 documents per person in a 15-minute slot, more if documents and photos are newer and/or not fragile.
• Due to demand, we can accommodate only one scanning session per person during the conference.
• The scanned files will be saved to a thumb drive (provided by Ancestry.com) and given to attendees for their own use.
  
  

Speaker Profile: Craig H. Miller

Craig Miller currently serves as Senior Vice President of FamilySearch.org. He is responsible for the product strategy of FamilySearch’s products and services.

Prior to employment with FamilySearch.org, he has worked as a private engineering consultant, worked for Novell as Vice President and General Manager and worked as an engineer for the Air Force.

He graduated from the University of Utah with a degree in Electrical Engineering.

NGS Class: Wednesday, April 28, 2010 at 11 am

Genealogy in a Cloud: Guaranteed to turn the Genealogical World as you know it Upside Down!

Speaker Profile: Daniel Schlyter

Daniel Schlyter works in the Family History Library’s VIP and Public Services Unit where he does special projects involving European records. He has been assisting library patrons in using the library collection since 1978; 18 years in International Reference, 10 years in Collection Management and 2 years in US and Canada Reference. His specialization is in Eastern European, German, and Jewish research. He is an Accredited Genealogist for Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

His own ancestry is Scandinavian and he has done considerable research in Sweden and Denmark. Mr. Schlyter served on the board of directors of the Polish Genealogical Society of America from 1984 to 1999 and on the board of the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies from 2000 to 2008. He has authored several genealogical books and numerous articles as well as Family History Library instructional material. His broad experience in genealogical research, acquisition and analysis makes him a real asset to the Library.

NGS Class: 29 April 2010 at 8am

Eastern Europe Workshop

Speaker Profile: Jim Greene

Jim Greene was born and raised in Palo Alto, California, but also spent part of his childhood in Annandale, Virginia and Lakewood, Colorado. After serving a two year LDS Church mission to Argentina Jim graduated with a bachelor degrees in both Spanish and Business Management from BYU, then earned an MBA degree from Penn State.

Jim worked for IBM for 10 years in New York and Salt Lake City. He became a Product Manager with Novell over its flagship NetWare product, and after 10 years with Novell he felt prompted to join FamilySearch and work on the new FamilySearch project. He led the preliminary research phase where Product Managers traveled throughout the world interviewing people to help understand their family history needs. Seven years later Jim continues to work to bring out FamilySearch Products by ensuring that messaging and training is directed to appropriate audiences.

Jim is an avid bicyclist, and commutes daily to downtown SLC on his bike from his home in Sandy, UT. Jim and his wife Charity have 4 children and 1 grandchild.

NGS Class: Thursday, 29 April 2010 at 2:30 pm

The Power of Community and the Web 2.0: Tools to Foster Collaboration and Community

Early-bird Registration ends March 8th!

The 2010 NGS Family History Conference has so much to offer! With a theme of "Follow Your Ancestral Trail" there will be something for everyone!

1-10 simultaneious talks during 5 time slots each day

2-An exhibition hall filled with genealogy-related products and services

3-Sponsored luncheons with great food and an engaging speaker

4-International Workshops for Eastern Europe, Italy, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Hispanic Countries

5-Beginner and Intermediate Expert Assistance with consulting on German, British, Canadian and general topics

6-Kid's Camp

7-Many great additional places to research besides the extended hours provided at the Family History Library

8-The Mormon Tabernacle Choir will perform a mini-concert at special conference opening, Thursday evening, April 29th

Early-rate up till March 8th! Register here at http://ngsgenealogy.org/cs/attendee_registration

Check out all the events right on this section of the NGS website!

Meet the editors of the NGS Quarterly at NGS Conference

Thomas W. Jones, Ph.D., CG, CGL, FASG, FUGA, FNGS, works full-time as a genealogical author, editor, educator, and researcher. A past president and former trustee of the Board for Certification of Genealogists, he has co-edited the /National Genealogical Society Quarterly/ since 2002. Tom lectures frequently in national and local venues, where he is known for information-packed lectures benefitting genealogists at all skill levels. His many articles and lectures
address genealogical research methods, proof, and problem solving. Tom teaches “Evidence Evaluation and Documentation” in Boston University’s online and classroom-based genealogy certificate programs, “Advanced Genealogical Methods” at the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy, and “Writing and Publishing for Genealogists” at Samford University’s Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research.

Melinde Lutz Sanborn, FASG, has been a genealogist since 1976. Author or editor of over forty books and numerous articles, she currently edits the New Hampshire Genealogical Record and co-edits the NGS Quarterly. She has held offices in many genealogical organizations and is currently Vice President of the American Society of Genealogists and Vice President of the Massachusetts Genealogical Council. She holds the ASG seat on the FGS RPAC committee and is the Program Director and a faculty member of Boston University’s Genealogical Research Certificate program.

The editors will be at the NGS Conference Booth on Thursday, 29 April, 2010 at 10:30 am!

Speaker Profile: Ruth Ellen Maness

Ruth Ellen Maness, AG®, Sr. Research Consultant, International Unit FHL; Co-author, Passport to Paradise…; Legacy of Sacrifice…; Lecturer, Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS), National Genealogical Society (NGS), BYU, ICAPGen conferences; Instructor, UGA Salt Lake Institute; Author, Scandinavia – Questions & Answers in Everton’s Genealogical Helper; Field trip experience in Scandinavia, Germany, most of U.S., England & South Africa.

NGS Class:

Advanced Swedish/Finnish Research