Free Scanning by Ancestry.com at the Conference

Digitize Your Family Records
Ancestry.com will be providing NGS 2012 Family History Conference attendees the opportunity to have their family photos and documents scanned at the conference, for free, on their professional scanning equipment. It’s a unique opportunity to have your family history records digitized!

Conference attendees can sign up for 30-minute scanning sessions on Wednesday, May 9, through Friday, May 11, to be held from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM each day and Saturday, May 12 from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM. Scanning-session signs-ups will open each morning—sign up Wednesday morning for a Wednesday time slot, Thursday morning for a Thursday time slot. Scanning will be located in Room 238.

Scanning Details from Ancestry.com 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 cannot 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 Fragile or historical documents, photographs, bound books or albums and similar items will be photographed.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 30-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 in advance is crucial (see above).
• Generally we can scan about 50 documents per person in a 30-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.

Please send any questions to conferences@ancestry.com.

Free Scanning by Ancestry.com at the Conference

Traveling to Cincinnati

Have you made your Conference travel plans yet? There’s just a few days left until the 20 March early bird discount deadline. See the NGS Conference “Getting There” page for information about traveling to Cincinnati by air and by train, with contact information for the Conference travel agent. As always, look online for bargains.

The airport, located about twenty minutes away in Northern Kentucky, is within an hour’s flight of 50% of the U.S. population. Since Delta has a hub there and influences the market, it may be cheaper to fly to nearby airports in Dayton, Columbus, Lexington or Indianapolis. All four airports are less than two hours from Cincinnati. The Amtrak train station is located in the Cincinnati Museum Center, one mile from the Duke Energy Convention Center.

Cincinnati is easy to reach by car from many cities:

City..................... Miles......... Drive Time
Atlanta................ 461........... 7½ hours
Baltimore............ 510........... 9 hours
Buffalo................ 432........... 7½ hours
Charlotte............. 479........... 8 hours
Charleston, WV... 203.......... 3½ hours
Chicago............... 296.......... 5 hours
Cleveland............ 249.......... 4½ hours
Columbus.............107.......... 2 hours
Detroit.................. 263..........4½ hours
Indianapolis......... 98............ 2 hours
Louisville............. 99............ 2 hours
Milwaukee........... 382.......... 7 hours
Nashville.............. 273......... 4½ hours
Pittsburgh............ 288.......... 5 hours
Richmond............ 520.......... 9 hours
St. Louis.............. 364.......... 6 hours
Toronto............... 492........... 9 hours
Washington, DC.. 510.......... 9 hours

Traveling to Cincinnati

Early Bird Registration Discount Ends in One Week!

Register for the NGS 2012 Cincinnati Conference today! The early bird registration discount ends on Tuesday, 20 March 2012. In addition to enjoying a $35 discount, only early birds have the opportunity to order a printed syllabus. (Everyone will receive a syllabus on flash drive.) NGS members get even deeper discounts, so this is a great time to join.

Space is still available for most conference social events including the Friday night NGSQ 100th Anniversary Reception, Tuesday bus tour, Wednesday Cincinnati Museum Center tour and dinner, and Friday NGS luncheon featuring local celebrity Dan Hurley.

Two workshops are sold out: "The Mechanics of Compiling Your Family History," with Michael Leclerc, and "Understanding Court Records," with J. Mark Lowe, CG. Email Veronica at vtran@ngsgenealogy.org to be placed on the wait-list. The other two workshops still have space available: “Photo Detecting 101,” with Maureen Taylor, and “The Fraktur Type: An Obstacle to German Research That Can Be Overcome,” with John Humphrey, CG.

Early Bird Registration Discount Ends in One Week!

Speaker Profile: Michael Melendez, Session S-404, “How to Get Kids Involved in Genealogy”

For too long, the general public has seen genealogy as something for “old” people. Recently as the genealogy community has undergone a technology revolution and heightened media recognition through television shows like “Who Do You Think You Are?” this notion has eroded. But still the question remains, how does a younger person become interested in genealogy? As a professional or amateur genealogist, how do I share my family history with my children and grandchildren without driving them away?

If these and other questions have ever occupied your mind, then you need to attend Michael Melendez’s lecture entitled, “How to Get Kids Involved in Genealogy.” Michael is a 22-year-old genealogist employed by Global Genealogists. He recently founded the Family History Detectives at Brigham Young University for young adults. Michael also has been directly involved with several Family History Kids’ Camps at the SCGS Jamboree in Burbank, CA, including the 2009 Kids’ Camp which had an attendance of over 80 kids between the ages of 8 and 15.

Michael’s lecture will teach you how to approach genealogy from a different perspective which will not only be more exciting for younger people, but for you as well. Learn about different creative projects you can undertake with youth along with fun supplemental websites. After attending this lecture, you will definitely believe that this hobby is definitely not just for retired people!

Speaker Profile: Michael Melendez, Session S-404, “How to Get Kids Involved in Genealogy”

How to Choose? Ten Tracks Per Hour!

Have you checked the 2012 conference program to figure out which sessions you’ll be attending? If so, you’ve already seen how hard it is to pick just one session at a time – out of ten tracks every hour! If you haven’t read the schedule yet, this partial list of tracks and topics included with conference registration is bound to whet your appetite:

GenTech: 29 lectures on iPads, wikis, blogging, social media, privacy, facial recognition, cloud storage, e-Books, genealogy apps, digital archiving, Snagit, Google Earth, Ancestry.com, FamilySearch, RootsMagic, online education and office applications, specialized uses of Excel and Word, searching databases, Israeli resources…

Researching in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio’s Neighbors: 20 lectures on Ohio records, land, Spring Grove Cemetery, Common Pleas Court, Cincinnati; Kentucky records, tax lists, Northern Kentucky, Kentucky Historical Society, court records; Indiana history, orphans, online records, Disciples of Christ, lesser known resources; St. Louis, Pennsylvania, Michigan...

Methodology and Research: 18 lectures on urban research, “unfindable” ancestors, Fugitive Slave Act, indexes, lies and omissions, inferences, compiled genealogies, GPS trails, family legends, solving mysteries, indirect evidence, data management, missing records…

BCG Skillbuilding: 17 lectures on transcribing and abstracting, analyzing evidence, certification, assumptions, collateral associates, lineage societies, documentation, proof summaries, German language skills, creative nonfiction techniques, research reports, handwriting…

German, African American and Ethnic Research: 15 lectures on German records, Palatines, websites, marriage laws, migrations; African American brick walls, key skills, migration to Ohio, nineteenth century women, free people of color; Irish, Native American, English topics...

Working with Records: 15 lectures on tax lists, river and canal records, law, vital records, manuscripts, urban records, chancery records, probate, family records, Catholic records, railroad records, property, local histories, 1940 census, villages of origin…

Military Records: 13 lectures on the records of wars including the War of 1812 and the Civil War

Photos, Writing and Publishing Family History: 10 lectures on finding, dating, identifying, fixing, sharing photos; integrating proof arguments and social history, writing with style, publishing

Migration: 8 lectures on trails and migration to Ohio, westward from New England and Pennsylvania, Kentucky to Missouri

DNA: 5 lectures on testing, mtDNA, results, non-European ancestry, health

Repositories and Records: 5 lectures on special collections, Library of Congress, Cincinnati Library, law libraries, Ohio Genealogical Society

Research Essentials: 5 lectures on newspapers, census, maps, common sense guidelines, Midwest records

Sharing: 5 lectures on involving children, Ohio immigrants, WPA, online resources, interviewing

That’s 180 lectures! Some tracks don’t even have enough room for all lectures related to the topic. For example, German research lectures may be found not only in the German Research track but in the BCG Skillbuilding track and Working with Records track. Search the entire program by track, speaker, suggested audience level and date.

Since 10 lectures take place in each time slot, there may be times when you have to miss some sessions you’d really like to attend. The syllabus will have materials for all lectures provided by speakers and audio CDs for most lectures will be available for purchase.

Register now and choose your sessions later, or do it all at once. This is just for space planning, and you can change your mind if you decide you’d rather attend a different session. Whatever you do, be sure to register by March 20, the early bird discount deadline!

How to Choose? Ten Tracks Per Hour!

Three Rootstech Lectures Win a Place at NGS 2012 Family History Conference

The National Genealogical Society and FamilySearch are pleased to announce their selections for the Best of RootsTech lectures to be presented at the 2012 Family History Conference. Three lectures were chosen from the RootsTech conference held in Salt Lake City, 2-4 February 2012.

Congratulations to the winners, Barbara Renick, Kory Meyerink, and D. Joshua Taylor!

The winning selections were chosen from the many excellent topics and lecturers based on the RootsTech attendee survey, type of content and speaker delivery, and skill level of the lecture. NGS has been a leader in bringing technology to the field of genealogy since its merger with GenTech in 2002. GenTech was created to facilitate communication among persons interested in genealogy and technology. NGS and FamilySearch continue that goal today in partnering to educate the genealogy community by encouraging lectures on identifying some of the best products, techniques, and methods that merge technology and genealogy.

The winning selections are:

"Snagit for Genealogists" presented by Barbara Renick on Wednesday, 9 May, 4:00 p.m.

Snagit (screen capture program from http://www.TechSmith.com) helps genealogists create digital research logs, automate sharing research, and scrapbook family stories in a palatable format.

Barbara Renick is a nationally known genealogy author and lecturer who serves on the NGS Board of Directors and teaches at the Orange FamilySearch Center in California.

"Effective Database Search Tactics" presented by Kory Meyerink, MLS, AG, FUGA, on Thursday, 10 May, 11:00 a.m.

Research success depends on knowing the best way to search different databases. Includes Boolean, truncation, fielded, proximity, phrase, wild cards and wild word searches.

Kory Meyerink is founding partner and senior genealogist with ProGenealogists. He is an adjunct professor, author of Printed Sources, popular speaker and writer, founder of the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy, past president of the Utah Genealogical Society.

"Do I Trust the Cloud" presented by D. Joshua Taylor, MLS, on Saturday, 12 May, 8:00 a.m.

Discover the basic concepts and "how-tos" of cloud computing and low-cost solutions for storing your genealogical data.

Josh is the North American business development manager for brightsolid online publishing and the vice president of administration for the Federation of Genealogical Societies.

Three Rootstech Lectures Win a Place at NGS 2012 Family History Conference

Exhibitor Spotlight: Family Tree Magazine, Booth 432

We at Family Tree Magazine are super-excited our Cincinnati hometown will be the center of so much family history enthusiasm at the National Genealogical Society 2012 Conference. Here are 10 reasons to visit us in exhibit hall booth 432:

1. Ask what goetta is (hint: you might find it on a menu).

2. Pick up a free copy of the May/June 2012 Family Tree Magazine featuring our Cincinnati research guide plus articles on Irish genealogy, tracing Catholic ancestors, verifying and using information from online trees, and more.

3. Ask about local resources we’ve used to research our own Cincinnati ancestors.

4. Meet author of My Life & Times: A Guided Journal for Collecting Your Stories, Sunny Jane Morton, Friday, May 11, 2 to 3 p.m.

5. Browse our newest family history books including The Genealogist's Census Pocket Reference, Discover Your Family History Online, From the Family Kitchen, and Family History Detective.

6. Pick up favorites such as our Organize Your Genealogy Life! CD, Family Tree Magazine 2011 Annual CD, My Family History Research Planner, and more.

7. See what we have for helping you trace German ancestors (Germans were about 60 percent of Cincinnati's population by 1900) and African-American ancestors (Cincinnati was a Great Migration destination in the 1900s).

8. Drop your name in our fabulous door prize drawing.

9. Take advantage of show specials for Family Tree Magazine subscriptions and renewals.

10. Ask for directions to our excellent Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County or the nearest Skyline Chili.

Exhibitor Spotlight: Family Tree Magazine, Booth 432