Full Rootstech Registration for $129

I see that other bloggers are talking about the Rootstech Earlybird registration of $149. As an Official Blogger I am able to offer you for just 12 more days a discount code that will give you an additional $20 off your registration. I am reposting my post from last week with this information.
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One of the perks of being an Official Rootstech Blogger is that I get to share special offers with my readers.

The first perk I can offer you is a BIG Saving on Registration for the full Conference so, if you are considering joining a few thousand other family history enthusiasts in Salt Lake City from 21-23 March 2013 it would be wise to register now and save.


You can save $90 off a 3-day, full conference pass when you use the discount code RT129 when registering. So you will pay just $129.

This discount is available until Oct. 12, 2012 to my blog readers!

To Register go to rootstech.org.

RootsTech, hosted by FamilySearch, offers an opportunity unlike any other to discover the latest family
history tools and techniques, connect with experts to help you in your research and be inspired in the
pursuit of your ancestors. You will learn to use the latest technology to get started or accelerate your
efforts to find, organize, preserve, and share your family’s connections and history.

Idiot Box

My husband and grandson enjoying the television last night.

Family History Through the Alphabet – T is for … Ten

The obvious choice for this T post would be Trove from the National Library of Australia but I'll leave that to someone else. In a blog post yesterday James Tanner spoke about "My top ten, can't miss, websites"; and that gave me an idea for a post. I am going to highlight my Top Ten Tools for Genealogy in alphabetical order (library training reigns).

Blogger  Although I have toyed with moving over to Wordpress I find that, although it annoys me sometimes, Blogger continues to serve me well as a blogging platform that enables me to reach out to other genealogists. 

Chrome Presently my browser of choice I love Chrome because it works so well with the other Google products I use and has a fabulous collection of addons that I access from my toolbar to make my browsing experience efficient and painless.

Evernote My previous posts tell my Evernote story: Family History Through the Alphabet – E is for …Evernote, Evernote - the presenter's pal, Google Docs and Evernote, 

Family Historian I took a great leap of faith when I ditched my genealogy database package in favour of Family Historian. Some of my posts describe the process: Family Historian Progress, I'm on a winner with Family Historian, 

Familysearch As well as providing online access to many genealogical records Familysearch also publishes some useful blogs (I love Tech Tips) and the Familysearch Wiki. I have been fortunate to have early access to the new Familysearch Family Tree which is one of the most exciting initiatives for family historians in a long time.

Google Docs, I use this package daily as my Office suite and love that I can access my documents easily from all of my devices or public computers. Here is how I use it for genealogy: Google Docs and Evernote

Google+ My social network of choice where I can organise  my contacts easily into interest groups and target my posts to those who have similar interests. I have a huge circle of genealogy contacts here.

Picasa Google's free photo management tool that I use everyday to organise, edit retrieve and share my photos. It copes with my 90,000 superbly (and doesn't crash). 

Trove Our nation's treasure from the National Library of Australia has to be on my list. This site is the best thing since sliced bread.

Twitter Although I don't use Twitter as much as I did before Google+ arrived on the scene I think Twitter is the best tool for sharing news and ideas from conferences and events. By following designated hashtags from events I can vicariously attend the event or, if I am there, can contribute to such an experience for others in the Twitterverse.

As James said in his post "So there you have the top ten for today. Of course, I may change my mind anytime."

The Power of Social Media

Today I took the Bambino north for an excursion to Tuggerah Library (one of Wyong Council's libraries) where I was greeted by the bubbly Reference Librarian, Michelle Goldsmith and work experience student Sharon (who happens to be one of my Twitter pals).   I was there at the library's invitation to present a workshop on Social Media for Family History.

Michelle and Sharon made me feel most welcome and were very helpful as I set up for the gig. I saw a couple of familiar faces from the Family Historian Interest Group in the room  plus a member of the Ku-ring-gai Historical Society where I am on the Committee; I also met a fellow geneablogger, Janelle, so I felt right at home. The venue was airy, comfortable and the computer and projector worked so things augured well for the talk.

Before I got started I put out a couple of messages on Google+ and  Facebook asking my contacts to say g'day to the assembled group. Very few in the group had any experience of social media so they were most impressed when, within a few minutes, we received greetings from the US and Australia. Kylie Willison of South Australia was first off the mark , thanks Kylie.

Thank you to all of you who sent messages - you provided a great practical example of how social media works - this is more powerful than just showing a series of screenshots. See the messagaes below.

Thanks to the folk at Wyong for inviting me along. I may have bamboozled some of the group but I think most of them went away with some understanding of how social media can be used to enhance their genealogy experience. I only noticed one person nodding off so at least I kept most of them awake and that for me is an indicator of success.

From Facebook

From Google+