LOCAL ANCESTOR ROUNDUP DEMYSTIFIES GENEALOGY
By Kathleen M. Nevin

Monterey County Herald
89348
Jan 30 2009

When I look around my home office, I sometimes feel like I’m drowning
in paper. While most genealogists today store much of their family
history research on computers or "thumb drives," this popular hobby
still generates voluminous amounts of paper — backup copies, "to do"
lists, "next step" lists, books, correspondence, photographs. What
to do with it all?

I hope to get answers this Saturday at the 28th annual Ancestor
Roundup, when keynote speaker Richard Rands presents "Organizing Your
Stuff." President of the Silicon Valley Genealogy Computer Group
and director of the Los Altos Family History Center, Rands brings
more than 30 years of genealogy, computer and organizational skill
to the seminar.

"The goal is to help researchers organize their genealogy ‘stuff’
to make your research more effective and more accessible," says
Janet Brigham Rands, Richard Rands’ wife and genealogy partner of 10
years. Janet Rands is also on the schedule at the Ancestor Roundup. Her
classes will cover another hot topic in genealogy, how to harness
the goldmine of information found at Google Books and Google Earth.

Many instructors return to the Ancestor Roundup each year. Rose Marie
Capodicci will again help students find their Portuguese ancestors,
while Pamela Erickson provides the clues needed for "Finding Elusive
Females," one of the more challenging aspects of family history
research.

Local researcher, author and lecturer Linda Avakian has researched
her Armenian roots for nearly 30 years. Her classes in immigration
and naturalization provide invaluable tips for all genealogists.

Genealogy is one of the fastest growing hobbies, attracting new
people every day. It seems that nearly everyone wants to know where
they came from.

For nearly 30 years, the Monterey Peninsula has been fortunate to host
a major annual Genealogy Conference. Co-hosted by the Commodore Sloat
Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and The Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the annual Ancestor Roundup is
scheduled for this Saturday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The Ancestor Roundup includes a full day of classes and includes
lunch. Registration is $30. The all-day seminar will be held at the
Family History Center and classrooms at The Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints, Noche Buena and Plumas avenues, in Seaside.

For Ancestor Roundup information and registration, call event co-chair
Marilyn Knowles Riehl at 625-2513.

Some tips When tracing your family tree, sooner or later you’ll come
to a point where you need to let go of some hard-earned cash. Whether
it is for a birth certificate from the local registrar’s office, the
research shortcuts that an online database provides, or the services
of a professional genealogist, check out these savvy spending tips:
·Do your homework. Before plunking down money for a subscription
database, hit the search engines and your favorite genealogy hangouts
and ask others for their opinions. ·Be wary of ads and services that
promise a lot for a little, such as "Locate old classmates, missing
family members and loves of your past! Find anyone." While some search
services are indeed legit, others basically separate you from your
money for a set of links to freely available public records. ·Ask
yourself whether the same information might be available elsewhere
for free. While many genealogical records are only available at a
cost (it does cost money to store, maintain and provide access to
records), there are millions of genealogy records available for free
on the Internet. ·When in doubt, check with the community library
or courthouse. Librarians and court clerks are wonderful, helpful
individuals, and many are happy to help with lookup requests and
photocopies for a reasonable fee. ·Utilize the resources of your local
family history center. An arm of the Mormon Family History Library
in Salt Lake City, Family History Centers operate in 64 countries,
and more than 100,000 rolls of microfilm are circulated to the centers
each month. — From Kimberly Powell, author of "Everything Family Tree"
by Adams Media (2006).

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