WXFiles

2011 South Davis Family History Fair

2011-03-06T12:54:00.003-07:00

I enjoyed yet another family history fair. This year I attended classes on being a genealogy detective, Scandinavian church records, wikis, blogs, and social media, using blogs to replicate a standard website, and tips to use archives and historical societies.

The most interesting part of the fair was seeing all the 50+ yrs old attendees in the class on wikis, blogs, and social media. I wanted to give them all a high five for learning the new technology.

New Familysearch

2009-09-14T23:24:00.001-06:00

Just finished training for the new Familysearch that's going to be rolled out in our stake soon. The consultants had to do the training before they make it live to everyone. Will be very neat to have!

Familysearch Indexing

2009-05-18T00:08:00.002-06:00

I just finished my first batch of 50 indexed names. It was quick and easy. I downloaded the batch and the software from www.familysearchindexing.org. Anyone who has a computer and a few minutes a week should log in and help out.

Still here

2009-05-11T16:12:00.002-06:00

Been awhile. We're still here. The last few months I've been busy as our ward's family history consultant.

Templestudy

2008-09-18T15:41:00.004-06:00

I came across a great blog the other day on the temple. It has lots of great information and ideas:

Temple Study Blog

Family History Library

2008-08-16T21:42:00.003-06:00

In July I got to spend time in the Family History Library in Salt Lake City to research some family members from England. It was neat to be able to uncover some more information about ancestors from long ago. There is a wealth of information there to be found by those who search.

Nauvoo

2008-08-16T21:31:00.003-06:00

This June we got to go to Nauvoo, IL. We really enjoyed seeing the sights relevant to both church history and our family history. The spirit there is incredible. All of the missionaries' testimonies add to the experience of being on sacred ground.

The highlight by far was seeing and attending the Nauvoo temple. It is a monument to all those who worked and sacrificed to build it originally. It makes one understand the true importance of temples.

Spring

2008-03-29T18:41:00.002-06:00

The weather is getting a little bit warmer despite the periodic winter weather episodes. We we were able to get out our grill and enjoy a little bit of spring in the backyard. While I was waiting for the food to cook I was able to get a great shot of some of the buds on our Asian Pear tree.

Picasa

2008-03-26T15:24:00.002-06:00

With the purchase of a new camera along with finally organizing years of photos, I was looking for a way to share my photos with others. I found that in Google's Picasa photo sharing program anyone can use it to upload albums of photos for free. You can publicly or privately share them. The first 1 GB of photos is free. After that, additional storage is available for a minimal amount. It's a great way for others to see and download your photos without having to worry about email storage and other issues. The other great thing is that it works seemlessly with Mac's iPhoto.

Camera

2008-03-23T21:49:00.002-06:00

This week, after organizing a whole ton of pictures, we decided it was time to get a new camera. We shopped around and got a Nikon DSLR. It takes great photos. How amazing it is that we can take, edit, and produce such nice pictures without having to spend a fortune at a photo studio.

Pictures, Pictures, and More Pictures

2008-03-11T19:35:00.002-06:00

The past couple of days we've been trying to organize our digital photo collection -- no small task. We contemplated buying more software to handle the task of organizing and classifying our photographs. Another issues of concern is software forward compatibility and not losing all the meta data in a future program change.

We finally decided to use Apple's iPhoto already installed on our Mac. It is a fabulous program. It takes a new mindset to use it if you're used to Windows file systems. However, once you get going the features of categorizing, searching, and sorting are great. I'd highly recommend it. As for the issue of forward compatibility -- Apple's going to be around for a long time.

South Davis Family History Fair

2008-03-09T13:59:00.002-06:00

A few of my favorite things that I learned as I attended the family history fair yesterday:

1. You can make a free weblog by using www.blogger.com.

2. If you are retyping a document you can use software such as Nuance's Naturally Speaking to just dictate it verbally and finish around 3 times faster than if you had typed the document.

3. A digital camera can be a great tool in doing family history research. You can use it to photograph documents, people, places, cemeteries, etc.

4. Writing a personal history a little bit at a time can make the task more bearable, enjoyable, and interesting. You can also use software such as Personal Historian to help organize thoughts, ideas, and events.

Online

2008-03-09T00:11:00.000-07:00

After attending a session at the Davis County Family History Fair on blogging, I thought I'd try to set one up. When I realized the price was right, I figured I'd better go for it. Here it is in all it's glory. Enjoy tidbits about Brandon, Ellen and Susannah and our adventures here in Woods Cross, Utah.