Let's Go to Expo! Part 3

The Internet is a great thing, but it can be scary, too.  Lots of things can go wrong, such as phishing and hacking and identity theft.  Genealogists are not exempt from these dangers.  Fortunately, we have Andrew Pomeroy.

Andrew is a partner at Limited Edition Publishers, who specialize in family histories and color-accurate photo books.  He is educated in business/marketing/technology, and he promises to help genealogists stay safe. At least,  he promises to help genealogists attending his lecture at the 2010 Mesa Family History Expo in Mesa, Az! His speaking schedule is as follows:

1/22/10 @ 4:30:    Internet Safety for Genealogists and Everyone Else
1/23/10 @ 11:00:  Connecting Families Through Facebook

Many, if not most, of you know that the Geneabloggers have grown from a small group of people navigating through each others' blogs to communicate to an approaching-1,000 member strong group on Facebook as well as each others' blogs.  Well, Anna Fechter, who has a B.S. degree in Sociology, can help family historians find and grow communities on the Internet!

Anna is the Community Operations Manager at Ancestry.com, and she is responsible for the day-to-day operations of Rootsweb, The Learning Center, and The World Archives Project. Community is her thing, and if you want it to be your thing, too, plan on attending her presentation:

1/23/10 @ 1:00:  Tapping into the Ancestry.com and RootsWeb Community.

I'd love to go to this presentation, except, well, er, uh....I'm presenting at the same time! I'll tell you about my topic a little later! I'm glad there will be a syllabus available of all presentations, because everyone will want to know all about everyone else's subjects!

Let's Go to Expo! Part 2

Today I will focus on two presenters for the 2010 Family History Expo in Mesa, Az., since I missed a few days for the Holiday.
Alice Volkert is on the board of the Southern California Chapter of the Association for Professional Genealogists. She focuses on general United States research and New England. She is also associated with the Family History Center in Orange, California. She is presenting on two topics at the Mesa Expo:

1. 1/23/10 @ 11:00: Digital Photography. Alice will discuss why the digital camera is one the most valuable tools for genealogical research.

2. 1/23/10 @ 2:30: Naming Patterns in Colonial New England. I suspect Alice has some tricky stories and tricks up her sleeve as she delves through the mysterious patterns (or lack thereof) of naming children in this early geographic area!

Anastasia Tyler is the Genealogy Research Manager for the Conferences and PR team at Ancestry.com. She is currently working on her accreditation on English Research, after having graduated from Brigham Young. She'll be presenting on two different occasions:

1. 1/22/10 @ 10:00: Getting the Most out of your Ancestry.com subscription

2. 1/22/10 @ 11:30: Best strategies for Searching Ancestry.com

Ancestry.com is constantly adding more data to their bases (sorry, couldn't help add a little twister there). Anastasia will tell you how to make the most of the site!

Let's Go to Expo!

It'a ONE MONTH until the Mesa Family History Expo! The event will occur at the Mesa Convention Center in Mesa, Az on January 22 and 23, 2010. The details can be found HERE. Since it is going to be the event of the year for all of Arizona, I thought I'd do some spotlighting. Over the next month you will get to "meet", right here at this blog, the people who will be making it all happen. I will introduce you to the presenters at this year's Expo. By the time all is said and done, you will surely want to be there in person to see it in 3-d!

I notice that the opening speech for this year is being held in one of the ballrooms at the Mesa Convention Center. At the first Mesa Family History Expo in November of 2008, the speech was held outside. The weather was a tad bit cool in the morning but warmed up by the time the speech began. The 2nd Expo here is in January, and though it IS Arizona we're talking about, the weather is likely to be less predictable.

The keynote speaker for this event is Tim Sullivan, the CEO of Ancestry.com. He is highly educated, having received an MBA from Harvard Business School and accomplished the honor of Morehead Scholar at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His topic for the opening ceremony? "Digital Expectations: Preserving Yesterday's Records for Today's Researchers". Attendees will get a look inside the process by which technology allows Ancestry.com and other organizations to do what they do for researchers around the world.

It's sure to be a HOT event in every sense of the word (and if you're coming from Buffalo or the Upper Peninsula, it's likely to be hot outside even if it's cold to us Arizonans!).

The Annual Carol-A-Long

Yep, it's that time of the year again: footnoteMaven's Blog Caroling. My first year's presentation was of a childhood favorite (whether it be December or July!), The Little Drummer Boy. Last year I included a video from a dog-blogger who'd created a video of dogs lip-synching to "Do They Know It's Christmas".

This year I chose a piece performed by one of my favorite groups, Celtic Woman. The voices of these women (and men, too) melt my heart, and the accompaniment fills the room with energy. I had the pleasure of seeing this ensemble perform a couple years ago and I was so impressed with every tune. I hope you enjoy this song and video. I present to you "Christmas Pipes".

Christmas Pipes

Words and music by Brendan Graham]

Christmas pipes, Christmas pipes
Calling us calling on Christmas night
Call us from far, call us from near
Oh play me your Christmas pipes

Christmas bells, Christmas bells
Over the hills and over the dells
Ringing out bright, ringing out clear
Oh ring me your Christmas bells

Christmas strings, Christmas strings
Playing the peace that Christmas brings
Fiddle and bow, gentle and low
Oh play me your Christmas strings

(1st verse)

O Holy night
The stars are brightly shining
It is the night

Christmas choir, Christmas choir
Christmas carols 'round Christmas fire
Holy night, angels on high
Round up your Christmas choir

Christmas band, Christmas band
You're waiting for me with your Christmas band
Cymbal and drum, rattle and hum
March out your Christmas band

Good to be home to your Christmas pipes

Success At Last!

Oh my gosh! What a HUGE success story THIS is! I can hardly contain myself.

As a child, I remember the holiday spread that my dad's mother, Mary (HODICK) McHUGH would put out. Not just the Christmas Eve dinner, but the cookies and the candies (remember ribbon candy?) and just about anything you could ever dream of putting into your mouth! Alas, I was more of a tomboy when I was a kid, hence, neither grandmothers nor mother could get me into the kitchen to learn how to do the things that they did. To this day, if I have any regrets, it is that I did not partake in culinary endeavors with my elders when I had the chance.

Well, to follow up last year's GeneaBlogger Cookbook, Thomas MacEntee put together a version for 2009 with a focus on Holiday Treats. It can be found HERE. I didn't have an entry for this year, since I really didn't have anything to contribute to a holiday-themed cookbook. But I DID have use for the recipes found within the pages of this year's edition! We're having a cookie exchange at work tomorrow, an event which terrifies me given my lack of baking ability. I once tried a simple sugar cookie and it was disastrous!

So I spent the afternood baking. Yes, you heard me, baking. I used one cookie recipe from a Taste of Home recipe magazine (I love that magazine!), and I must say it was quite easy!
I've seen these coookies called many things, but this book called them "Nutty Orange Snowballs". I usually see them called Sandies, and they are a Christmas favorite of mine. This year, for the first time since Grandma (HODICK) McHUGH died in 1976, I get homemade Sandies!

Then I tried a cookie recipe from the GeneaBlogger Winter 2009 Cookbook desccribed above. I chose Lynn Palermo's (The Armchair Genealogist) recipe for Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies. It was shocking enough to have ONE cookie come out right, but to have TWO in ONE DAY? It is nothing short of a Miracle! I truly felt my Grandmas' presence today!

So, Lynn, do they look right? They sure taste good!

Had She Been Born Today...

My loyal readers might be a bit tired of my posts about Aunt Marianne, dad's oldest surviving sibling who was born in 1930 with Down Syndrome. But they will also know that I often ponder how her life might have been had she been born today. This morning I saw a video of a young woman in New Zealand whow was born wtih DS about 31years ago. Her accomplishments are amazing, albeit still quite unusual in modern times. But I hope that she is an inspiration to future generations of children and young adults born with this very special condit ion.

Dear Genea-Santa:

I haven't been a very good blogger this year. I've slacked off on more than one occasion. So much so that I've missed out on many activities. But I promise, I will do better. There is one thing that would surely help me:

The distinguished looking man in the back there is my great-grandfather James O'ROURKE, and he is pictured here with his wife Mary (KEARNS) and daughters Mary (Mae), Betty, and Margaret (Nellie). James and Mary had two other children, James (my grandfather) and Lucille, who was special, from what I hear.

I know quite a bit about Mary's family: She was the daughter of John and Bridget (DONAHUE) KEARNS. She was one of seven children (with siblings Winifred, Genevieve, Lawrence, Jeremiah, John, and Francis), and her parents were Lawrence and Mary (KEHOE) DONAHUE.

Mary, aka Mae, married James JORDAN, an ophthalmologist who fixed my big brother's eyes when he was a wee one, and his descendants now are well known in Pittson, PA and surrounding areas for their work on people's eyes. Betty married George ROCHE, and Margaret, aka Nellie, married Frank McCARTHY.

But I know nothing about my great-grandfather James O'ROURKE's family. So Santa, won't you please give me the energy I need to order vital records in hopes of finding out who James' parents were? I have James' years as 1876-1944; at least that's what is on his headstone, of which I have a photo thanks to my cousin, Pat Sharpe-Dunn. If you give me some help with this, I promise to be a better blogger.

Well, I promise to be a better blogger anyway, but I still would love some help!