Next Stop: Salt Lake City

And the road show continues, this time with an unanticipated yet welcome diversion! I had planned to come home from Calgary yesterday and then rest a few days before I headed over to Peoria, Illinois for the Illinois State Genealogical Society's Fall Conference held on Saturday, October 23, 2010.

However, a few weeks ago I received an offer from Family Search to participate in their first ever Family Search Blogger's Day in Salt Lake City, Utah, on Thursday, October 21, 2010.  With a reworking of my schedule, I managed a day at home between trips (today) to do laundry, catch up on emails and to pre-post at my blogs for the coming week.  So now I'll fly into Salt Lake City and then on Friday fly to Peoria via Dallas.

Since this is the first such event of its type for Family Search, a small group of genealogy bloggers has been invited to participate in a full day of meetings, product reviews and activities. I'll have more to report here and over at GeneaBloggers on Thursday.

Family Search has generously offered to bring me out to Salt Lake City a little early so I can get some research time in at the Family History Library which I intend to do Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon. Also, I've decided to attend the Utah Genealogical Association annual membership meeting and banquet on Tuesday evening where I'll not only get to hear Mark Lowe but also discuss genealogy society issues with fellow bloggers Janet Hovorka and A.C. Ivory!

Stayed tuned for the next episode of "Where in the World is Thomas MacEntee?"

© 2010, copyright Thomas MacEntee

My Latest Project - ISGS Blog

You know what they say, "Idle hands . . ."  Well, I've never been one to shy away from a challenge and this one is actually a labor of love.  As the new Publicity Chair of the Illinois State Genealogical Society, I've been busy over the past few months trying to make certain social media tools such as blogs, Facebook and Twitter to work for ISGS.

This past Saturday, May 22, 2010, at our quarterly meeting, the Board approved my proposed social media plan for the society.  I greatly appreciate this vote of confidence and finally I can say that it is taking shape.

The Illinois State Genealogical Society blog is now ready for public consumption and contains lots of helpful information for those researching Prairie State ancestors.  In addition, ISGS now has its own Facebook fan page as well as a Twitter account!

If you get a chance please visit these sites and add them to your list of those you follow in the genealogy community.  ISGS has great plans for the next year including our Fall Conference in Peoria, IL on October 23, 2010.  And to top that, we'll be the host genealogical society for the FGS 2011 conference to be held September 7-11, 2011.

© 2010, copyright Thomas MacEntee

Holiday Blog Decorating!

As you can see, Destination: Austin Family has taken on a holiday look! I'd appreciate any feedback in the comments area as to what works, doesn't work etc.

Also, in case you want to do you own holiday decorating at your site, check out these resources over at GeneaBloggers:

• Resources for Holiday Blog Decorating

• Part 1: Backing Up Your Blogger Blog Before Installing A Holiday Template (video)

• Part 2: Installing A Holiday Template in Blogger (video)

© 2009, copyright Thomas MacEntee

Family History Month Fun at CGSL

Well I am finally back in the Midwest after a horrible ordeal of getting home from California. Let’s just say it involved a major Pacific storm, a flight that had to stop for more fuel in Las Vegas, and then arriving home in Chicago at 3:00 am this morning.

I was invited to present at a Family History Month event at the California Genealogical Society and Library this past Saturday, October 11, 2009 and can't begin to tell you what a great time I had.  Both presentations - Become a Genealogy Blog User and Building A Genealogy Blog were well attended and the participants were both welcoming and enthusiastic.

These events just don't "happen" - they require a huge commitment and planning mostly from volunteers.  My thanks go out to the following:

• to Kathryn Doyle and Tim Cox of CGSL for all their hard work and for cranking out the publicity machine. Imagine my surprise when I saw the event listed on SFGate!
• to my genealogy blogging colleagues Steve Danko of Steve's Genealogy Blog, Cheryl Palmer Fleming of Heritage Happens and Craig Manson of GeneaBlogie for their support.  I missed seeing my zany friend Sheri Fenley of The Educated Genealogist due to a family emergency but I know our paths will cross soon!
• to Craig Manson for his presentation on copyright issues and blogging – Craig has always been a great resource for such information and I know it was important for the participants to learn about and to understand these issues.
• to Craig Siulinski of the new genealogy blog August Legacy for being the genealogy blog “guinea pig” – he provided the base information needed to create a genealogy blog in the Build A Genealogy Blog session. This saved at least 30 minutes of time which would have been spent on the logistics of setting up a blog.
• and finally to all who participated as attendees. I was able to come up with some ideas for new posts about aspects of blogging such as Labels/Tags, email alerts and more. I can’t tell you how important it is to get this perspective from new participants.

I'm looking forward to future events with CGSL!

© 2009, copyright Thomas MacEntee

A Speaking Engagement Success

I just wanted to say a belated thank you to all those who attended my presentation "Social Networking- New Horizons for Genealogists" last Thursday, October 1st at the Cook Memorial Public Library in Libertyville, IL.  I was impressed that on a very rainy night over 20 people showed up to hear me speak about the ways in which social networking is changing the landscape of genealogy.

During my talk which also included live access to Facebook, Twitter, Genealogy Wise and many genealogy blogs, I discussed what makes up social networking.  I also covered some "do's and don'ts" for users to help protect their personal information yet still reap the benefits of networking with other genealogists.

I'm also happy to announce that I have been asked to make the same presentation for the Bloomingdale Public Library in Bloomingdale, IL on Wedensday, February 24, 2010.  I'm looking forward to meeting a new group of genealogists and I'm certain I'll have to update my presentation between now and then since changes to technology occur so quickly.

Finally, I'll be appearing at the California Genealogical Society and Library this Saturday, October 10, 2009 as part of their Genealogy Blog Workshop during Family History Month.  I have two presentations ("How To Use A Genealogy Blog" and "Building a Genealogy Blog") and I'll be followed by Craig Manson of GeneaBlogie who will be discussing "Blogging and the Law - Privacy Issues & Copyrights."  While I'm there I also know I will see not only Craig and Kathryn Doyle of CGSL but also Cheryl Fleming Palmer of Heritage Happens, Steve Danko of Steve's Genealogy Blog as well as Sheri Fenley of The Educated Genealogist.

© 2009, copyright Thomas MacEntee

DAF Nominated at Family Tree Magazine

I'm happy to report that Destination: Austin Family has been nominated in the NEWS/RESOURCES category as one of the 40 Best Genealogy Blogs by Family Tree Magazine.

I want to thank all the readers who nominated DAF which has been a labor of love for almost three years now! You can vote for DAF (or any one of the many great genealogy blogs nominated) by clicking here.  The blogs nominated in the NEWS/RESOURCES are:

About: Genealogy
http://genealogy.about.com

Anglo-Celtic Connections
http://anglo-celtic-connections.blogspot.com

DearMyrtle
http://blog.dearmyrtle.com

Destination: Austin Family
http://destinationaustinfamily.blogspot.com

Eastman's Online Genealogy Newslettter
http://www.blog.eogn.com

Genealogy Blog
http://genealogyblog.com

Genealogy Gems News
http://genealogygemspodcast.blogspot.com

Genealogy's Star
http://genealogysstar.blogspot.com

GeneaNet Genealogy Blog
http://genealogyblog.geneanet.org

Megan's Roots World
http://rootstelevision.typepad.com/roots_world/

Olive Tree Genealogy Blog
http://olivetreegenealogy.blogspot.com

Renee's Genealogy Blog
http://rzamor1.blogspot.com

The Ancestry Insider
http://ancestryinsider.blogspot.com

The Chart Chick
http://thechartchick.blogspot.com

Please select FOUR blogs from this category when voting.

Congratulations to all the nominees and don't forget to make your choices by November 5, 2009!

© 2009, copyright Thomas MacEntee

Yourfamilytreenow.com Stealing Genealogy Blog Content

A heads up and warning to other genealogy bloggers: a site called Your Family Tree Now which appears to be a blog post aggregator may be violating your copyright.

An example: On August 10, 2009, I posted the article Twitter and Genealogy Conferences here at Destination: Austin Family. That same day, Your Family Tree Now posted a portion of the same article with the same title under an author named "Genealogy."

The consolidated post (the first three lines) on the front page of the blog does not link to my original post nor am I credited with it. And given that the blog is rife with advertising, it appears to violate my Creative Commons License which specifies not-for-profit use only.

Here is a copy of the cease and desist email which I have sent to the site owner:

To The Owner of Yourfamilytreenow.com

This is to advise you that you are using copyrighted and protected material on your website/blog. Your illegal use of an article entitled Twitter and Genealogy Conferences” at http://yourfamilytreenow.com/twitter-and-genealogy-conferences/ is copied from my recent article “Twitter and Genealogy Conferences” at http://destinationaustinfamily.blogspot.com/2009/08/twitter-and-genealogy-conferences.html published at my blog Destination: Austin Family.

What makes your theft so blatant is not only the lack of attribution or link back to the original post, but that you use an author named Genealogy for the article.

This is original content and I am the author and copyright holder. Use of copyright protected material without permission is illegal under copyright laws.

Please take one or more of the following actions immediately:

• Provide compensation for use of my copyright protected material of $1000.00 USD for each article paid via PayPal.

• Remove the plagiarized material immediately.

I expect a response within 5 days to this issue. Thank you for your immediate action on this matter.

Other genealogy blog owners may want to check out Your Family Tree Now to see if their content has been improperly used and lacks attribution.

© 2009, copyright Thomas MacEntee

Under Construction

Well folks, I am revamping the "look" here at Destination: Austin Family today so don't be surprised if you see some odd layouts - it all depends at what point of our "makeover" you decide to visit.

Given the recent feedback on my GeneaBloggers site, I don't think the "magazine" format - where you get a snippet of a post and have to click "read more" - works and the font size was too small. As I get older, I am finding those blogs that are easiest to read and navigate have a larger font as well as a white or light background.

Thanks for your patience and feel free to let me know what works and doesn't work with the new layout.

Twitter and Genealogy Conferences

There is a lively discussion going on in the genealogy blogging community concerning Twitter and genealogy conferences. The main issue is this:

Does tweeting the proceedings of a presentation constitute a copyright violation of the presenter's materials or could it be considered permissible by the Fair Use doctrine?

The issue was first brought to my attention by Elizabeth O'Neal of the Little Bytes of Life blog who, like me, had attended the Southern California Genealogical Society's Jamboree in Burbank this past June where Twitter was used quite a bit during the Blogger Summit as well as other presentations.

Randy Seaver of the Genea-Musings blog and Janet Hovorka of The Chart Chick blog have both weighed in and I imagine that many more genealogy bloggers who attend conferences will also post about this. For that reason, GeneaBloggers has created a blog post summary at its site - this will probably be the hot topic for the week and as Amy Coffin of the We Tree blog stated on Twitter this morning, will place Twitter under the microscope at the upcoming Federation of Genealogical Societies conference in Little Rock, Arkansas next month.

For what it matters and being someone who lectures on social media and genealogy, here are my thoughts:

• Personally I don't follow any "play-by-play" tweets on Twitter whether they are about a football game (which I think is silly if I could watch it myself on television) or about a genealogy conference. I find such entries are distracting and tend to litter my Tweetdeck screen.
• True confession: when someone tweets a presention I use TwitterSnooze and force them into a Twitter nap. If I need to, I can use Twitter search to look at the individual tweets later in the day.
• I would much rather see a blog post by the person using Twitter during the presentation. As Janet Hovorka mentioned during one of her recent presentations, the wifi went out and not all the points were covered. AncestryInsider did clarify some points in a summary blog post after the presentation.
• I think there are more pluses than minuses for everyone (the presenter, the genealogical conference, the person using Twitter, and those following the tweets) in using Twitter during presentations. I think that a "best practices" can be developed in terms of such Twitter use which does not stray into the area of being too overly structured or heavy handed. To me, Twitter is all about freedom of speech and I'd hate to see too many "thou shalt nots" bantered about in the genealogy community.
• I use Twitter as marketing tool not only for Destination: Austin Family but for GeneaBloggers as well. If they haven't already hopped on board the Twitter train, presenters should learn how to use Twitter to their advantage to market themselves and their presentations.
• As a presenter I would actually not want to see tweets which were verbatim statements from my handouts. While I know it may fall under the Fair Use doctrine (less than three lines of text), if the presenter requests that presentation materials not be tweeted, that should be respected. I'd rather see a summary tweet or true "reporting" in the form of that person's impressions.
• I predict that when you attend upcoming presentations - be they stand-alone or at genealogical conferences - you will see a statement about tweeting the presentation either made verbally by the presenter or printed in the materials.
• Some presenters will actively encourage the use of Twitter during their presentations as part of marketing themselves, their presentation and their areas of expertise.
• Some presenters will request that those who tweet also follow-up with a "report" on their individual blog in case the landscape that is Twitter does not sufficiently communicate the salient points within a 140 character limit. I think this is only fair and not an unreasonable request.

What I appreciate most about this entire issue is that genealogy bloggers are willing to discuss it (within blog posts and on Twitter) and report about it on their sites. This is the power of our community - we can have an exchange of ideas which will impact the greater genealogy community.

As Amy Coffin so deftly mentioned on Twitter, "I sense fear by those who have opinions on Twitter but don't use it or understand the many ways it can be used." Twitter, like other social media tools such as Facebook, are not going away and while many in the genealogy community may not want to embrace them, they at least need to recognize and acknowledge the impact - positive and negative - that they will have on our community.

I look forward to picking up these same discussions when we all meet in person at the next genealogy conference!

© 2009, copyright Thomas MacEntee

Federal Trade Commission Cracks Down On Bloggers

This information may have flown under the radar of most genealogy bloggers but it is important and could seriously impact the way some bloggers construct their posts. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has proposed new guidelines which could make bloggers responsible for misleading claims when they review products.

As highlighted in The Wall Street Journal and other news services, the FTC intends to regulate a fairly common practice among bloggers: how they review products and whether or not they are paid for such reviews (either outright or through free products and services).

Personally I have not reviewed many products although back in February I did review a YDNA kit which was provided to me for free by familybuilder. At the end of the review I did include a full disclosure of how I was asked to provide a review and how the product was provided to me at no cost:

"Disclosure: familybuilder sent me their YDNA kit at no charge for purposes of reviewing the process of taking a DNA sample, using a DNA kit for genealogy purposes, and to receive and interpret results. I am disclosing this as a matter of transparency and honesty of my opinion. My intent is to give a good review (meaning a well-researched and written review) not necessarily a favorable review of all products I receive gratis."

As a rule, I don't solicit free items for review from vendors, they usually approach me based on a recent post at my blog. I am very upfront about my disclosure policies and I tell them that my intent is to provide a good review - meaning it is thorough and my opinion of my experience with the product. This is not the same as a favorable review - if the product fails in my eyes or is less than what I or an ordinary consumer would expect I will convey such information in the posted review.

I am waiting to hear from other genealogy bloggers as to their past experience with product reviews, how they are contacted by vendors, what disclosure policies they use and what the proposed FTC guidelines might mean for their future review practices.

Puckerbrush Blog Award for Excellence

Each time I take a vacation - even a small one like this past weekend's break - I come back, go through hundreds of e-mails and about 1,000 blog posts in Google Reader and then find out I've won an award!

This time Kathryn Doyle over at California Genealogical Society and Library Blog has awarded me a Puckerbrush Blog Award for Excellence.

As Kathryn stated: "The award was created in honor of genealogy blogger Janice Brown by Terry Thornton, author of Hill Country of Monroe County, Mississippi, who explained that "Janice told us all about the word 'puckerbrush' in an article she posted August 27, 2007, at Cow Hampshire. Terry elaborated a bit further in a comment:

On any land allowed to go fallow and left untended, a wild assortment of wild plants grow – in some areas, this wild growth results in such a thicket of plants that it is almost impossible to push your way through the growth.

So it is with the growth of blogs --- so many that it is impossible to read them all. But in the puckerbrush eventually a few plants/trees become dominant and influence all who view them through the thick surrounding puckerbrush.

And it is those outstanding blogs whose influence spreads beyond just the surrounding rabble of puckerbrush that I'm honoring.

Terry has issued this challenge:

Henceforth these awards will be called the Janice Brown Puckerbrush Blog Award for Excellence. All blog authors are hereby challenged to name the ten blogs which have influenced their writing the most and list them as a tribute to Janice --- the Janice Brown Puckerbrush Blog Awards for Excellence.

Lately I've been thinking about all the wonderful blogs listed over at Geneabloggers (almost 425 at last count) and it is difficult for me to select even 10 of them which have had an influence on Destination: Austin Family and my passion for blogging and writing. But here is my list of those who've impacted not only how I pursue my genealogy research but for opening up a whole new word to my eyes and mind:

1. Creative Gene hosted by Jasia. This is the first true genealogy blog which I stumbled upon back in the September 2007 after I had committed myself to this blog (which I half-heartedly started in December 2006). At that time I was having a difficult time coping with my mother's Alzheimer's Disease and I found a kindred soul on so many levels. Jasia has been a constant inspiration, has welcomed me with the same open arms to the world of geneablogging which she does with all her visitors, and her writing style told me it was okay to write from the soul, as painful as that might be.

2. AnceStories: The Stories of My Ancestors hosted by Miriam Robbins Midkiff. From Miriam's site I learned not to run out of topics for blog posts and that it was fun to participate in carnivals and memes. Miriam's site is a wealth of information not just for genealogists but those getting a start in blogging.

3. Genea-Musings hosted by Randy Seaver. At Randy's site I learned that it was only natural to have more than one blog, that I could count on Randy to have his "ear to the rail" in terms of the latest genealogy news, and that it was a "good thing" to have fun and participate in "geneablogger games" especially on Saturday nights!

4. footnoteMaven hosted by footnoteMaven. Where do I begin? I often find myself talking way too fast and effusive about this wonderful blog (and the affiliated sites such as Shades of the Departed). Pure inspiration is the most efficient way I have of telling you the impact and influence fM has had on me. Not only has her information on source citations made me a better genealogist, she has opened up my eyes to the world of ancestor photography.

5. Apple's Tree hosted by Apple. One of my first instant friends back in 2007, Apple runs a site from a location in snowy upstate New York where my ancestors once trod. She was once of the first commenters on this blog and has been very helpful in getting started with my blogs.

6. GeneaBlogie by Craig Manson. If it weren't for Craig I wouldn't have received a valuable education on the topic of copyright and how it impacts bloggers. Not only does Craig have some wonderful posts on issues that are of importance to geneabloggers, he has some great posts about his family tree and his research.

7. Grace and Glory by Becky Jamison. I was privileged to find Becky, her blog and the blog of her father Ernie just at a difficult time when I had convinced myself that a) it wasn't worth it to be a "nice guy" all the time and b) there were no nice people left in the world. Not only does Becky run a super blog about her family and her research (all with some fab photos to boot!), but she has been so open to learning new things such as Twitter, Facebook and anything having to do with blogs!

8. Family Matters by Denise Olson. Another kindred soul especially when it comes to technology - we can both get so excited over a new application or a new product! Denise is often right on the pulse of new technologies that should be important and of use to genealogists.

9. Looking4Ancestors by Kathryn Lake. I first became acquainted with Kathryn in April 2008 when her blog got off the ground and I can count on her to keep me up to date with not only her own research efforts, but the world of Canadian genealogy. She and all the other Canadian geneabloggers make sure that I have resources to research my Loyalist ancestors.

10. Granite in My Blood by Midge Frazel. Besides being being another cousin of mine (others are Kathryn Lake, Becky Wiseman of kinexxions and Lorine Schulze of Olive Tree Genealogy), Midge not only is a technology fanatic, but also is an educator and knows how important it is to be able to impart knowledge to others - and to have the tools to do so.

These are my top ten and I hope that some of all of these geneabloggers will let us know which blogs have influenced along their blogging journeys.