Thomas Goes All Media Crazy

For those of you who haven't kept up with my latest shenanigans, let me just say that I've been exposing myself. I bet that caught your attention!

The exposure has been in different media forms since the start of 2011.  Some of this was planned and some if it was not and has taken on a life of its own.  Here's what's going on:

Rootstech: I attended the first RootsTech conference in Salt Lake City, Utah from February 10-12, 2011.  Not only did I have a great time meeting up with folks from all over the world - many of whom I've worked with online, but I also had the opportunity to deliver three presentations. One of them - a round table on Virtual Presentations was streamed live on the Internet and also recorded.

GeneaBloggers Radio: just before RootsTech, the premiere episode of Season 2 of Who Do You Think You Are? debuted on NBC. I started my own radio show - GeneaBloggers Radio - as a way for the genealogy community to discuss not just that night's episode of the show but also to discuss issues in the genealogy community and to share ideas. Let's just say after 7 episodes, this radio thing is really fun and starting to become popular. Last week for a St. Patrick's Day feature we had genealogists from all over the world including Ireland discussing how to find your Irish roots. And this week the show will be featuring nationally known genealogist Megan Smolenyak.

You can catch the episodes live here from 9-11pm Central each Friday evening. Also, each two-hour show is archived and can be played back at any time.

Listen to internet radio with GeneaBloggers on Blog Talk Radio

Webinars: And I've been very busy developing a line of genealogy education webinars for Legacy Family Tree Webinars that are delivered live online. In January 2011 I presented Google for Genealogists to 1,000 people who signed in from over 33 different countries around the world.  This week's webinar was entitled Backing Up Your Genealogy Data and is now available for viewing until April 4, 2011.

Click here to view the recorded webinar.

© 2010, copyright Thomas MacEntee

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Hiring a Professional Genealogist

In case you haven't heard my latest podcast at Geni.com, please take a listen here and also look at the episode notes which are filled with links to great resources.

I hope I've done the profession well - I tried my best to accurately describe when to hire a professional genealogist and what criteria to use when making your selection.  Most importantly I wanted to make sure that the public understands that genealogy is a profession for some of us and just like any other professional we invest quite a bit of time and money in our education and professional development.

© 2011, copyright Thomas MacEntee

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Who Do You Think You Are? Season 2 Episode 5 - Lionel Richie - My Thoughts

Last night, March 4, 2011, NBC broadcast the 5th episode of Season 2 of Who Do You Think You Are? which featured singer/songwriter Lionel Richie.  Here is my take on the episode:

• Lionel started his research with the help of his sister who ordered the Social Security Number application for their grandmother. I was glad to see this type of document used since it is often overlooked by beginning researchers (perhaps due to its price and waiting period when ordering?). SSN applications have so much information in them and in Richie's case it listed his grandmother's maiden name and the name of her father - Louis Brown.

• More good stuff: seeing Richie appear with researchers in the repositories where records are kept or are accessible, such as the scene with J. Mark Lowe in the Nashville Public Library. Scenes like this drive home the point that you can't find everything for your genealogy research just on the Internet. You have to get out there and go to the places where the records live!

• Most poignant scene: seeing how crestfallen Richie was when he realizes that the cemetery where is great-grandfather is buried in Chattanooga is abandoned and more than that, his ancestor is buried in an unmarked grave in the pauper's section.

• The research process, according to Lowe during his appearance on GeneaBloggers Radio last night, took about seven months, from April - December 2010. Sometimes I wish this was made clear to the viewing audience. There is a severe condensing and compressing of time in the WDYTYA episodes and it appears as if one could do this work in a weekend or a week!

• I was glad to see another episode on African-American genealogy and in fact, it probably used the same resources as the previous Vanessa Williams episode.  I wouldn't be surprised if Williams' ancestor who was elected to the legislature ran in the same social circles as Richie's ancestor Brown.

• The story of how Dr. Morgan Brown may have been the father of and owner of Louis Brown amazed me as did several other twists and turns in the story.  The fact is I shouldn't be amazed nor should most Americans - it is a lack of knowledge of African-American history that makes this so. I am hoping for more programs that will accurately depict not only what slavery was like and the inter-relationships between owner and enslaved ancestor, but also how several cities experienced an African-American Renaissance in the post-Civil War United States. 

• As many said on Twitter during the broadcast, "where did that hour go? Is it over already?" 

Overall, in my opinion, the Lionel Richie episode was the best episode of Season 2 of Who Do You Think You Are? One of my wishes for the series is that there should be a "further reading" or "explore more" feature either on the NBC website or in the DVD set for Season 2. A feature where the actual documents are digitized (and properly cited!) and you can follow the research process.  Such a format would go a long way to explain the journey in the search for Richie's ancestors.

© 2011, copyright Thomas MacEntee

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