May 14, 2007

My days are filled with discovering more about internet resources for family history and genealogy. Last week I was preparing for Saturday's Honolulu County Genealogy Society meeting where I helped discuss "Ancestry.com." Our President, Tom Bopp, does a wonderful job getting all the technology together, and many of the 30 members who were present had their laptops connected via Clear Channel wireless and could follow the presentation projected on a screen from Tom's laptop and a projector.

I showed an example of ancestrypress which is the part of Ancestry.com where you can print out in "book" form, the genealogical information/trees/stories/photos, etc that you have at your family history site. It's quite innovative right now, but there will be many more places on the web that offer working online and all your work is available on the Web.... Web 2 ... it's called now.

I even tested recording the meeting with my iPod and a special microphone attachment. I just set it on the table, and the Belkin microphone picked up the whole meeting. I downloaded the hour of audio from the iPod to my computer, then edited it with my Roxio "Sound Editor" software. I'm learning how to use this software, which is a little more complex than in the last version. I split the resulting 52 minutes of audio into three parts and e-mailed Part 1 to Harriet, who was unable to attend the meeting. Part 1 lasted 19 minutes and totaled 8.8 MB in the e-mail attachment. Only takes about 2 minutes to upload. AOL is only able to upload 16MB in an attachment.

Many from the Genealogy Society meeting (May 12th) went to the Tree Tops Restaurant again for lunch. This is in the rain forest area in the back of Manoa Valley by the University of Hawaii. After the lunch we had a board meeting there, which was the first for our new board. I wore a beautiful orchid lei that my daughter, Alisa, in Arizona, had delivered to me for Mother's Day, from a local florist. It was beautiful.

My fellow travelers on last year's trip to Mongolia came over to my house May 10th where we watched more of my videotape from that fabulous adventure. We watched a couple hours of our cavorting around with all the camels, goats, and sheep and trudging up sand dunes in the Gobi Desert. We also watched Joung's photos from her recent trip to Bali. We just put her CD into the CD player and watched her photos as a slide show. Phyllis, has just returned from a Windjammer sailing vacation, and Renate just returned from a trip to Samoa. Jim goes to Baton Rouge every three months to care for his elderly mother. It's tough to get us all together in one spot at the same time as we're all over the globe.

Beginning of a Blog

Greetings to all who might read this blog - the product of a world adventurer who has had an underlying (and not so underlying) addiction to genealogy and family history. I'm living in beautiful Hawaii - a continuation of the westward migration my family has made through the generations from Wales, England and Scotland, and then From Plymouth Rock to Diamond Head

With renewed vigor in stepping into the world of the mysterious internet, and while listening to the Genealogy Guys podcast from October 23, 2006, today I am inspired to try out creating this blog. I gave a presentation March 3rd, at our Genealogy Society, titled "Podcasts, Blogs and RootsTelevision" - in which I mentioned how easy it would be to set up a blog - so here it is! My "web log" or blog will probably take the shape of a journal.

17 March 2007 - Saturday - Happy St. Patrick's Day - Honolulu, Hawaii

Last night I got together with friends from the Honolulu County Genealogy Society for a workshop about Ancestry.com and Family Tree Maker. There were five of us, but it kept us busy all evening. Harriet and I acted as guides for the others and got them up to speed about the benefits of getting the latest editions and subscriptions. In one evening there were oooohs and ahhhhs to be heard as new discoveries were made.

Plans for the year:

I'm busy with the technicalities of planning my summer and fall activities - which include plane reservations to Arizona to visit my daughter and her family. I'll be taking the grandchildren for an intergenerational Elderhostel week in S.W. Utah, and also a week at a time-share exchange at Pinetop, in Eastern Arizona, for a week in the mountains. Both my daughter's and my birthday will be celebrated before I leave. August 11th, I'll get a flight to Ft Wayne, Indiana to attend the Federation of Genealogical Societies Annual Conference and do some research at the famous Allen County Library - Genealogy Section. I've got reservations at a B & B near the library and convention center so it should be very convenient and productive.

Plans are that my Hague cousins, Dorothy and Don, on returning from their Civil War Battlesites travels, will stop in Ft Wayne and pick me up to go back to Des Moines, Iowa with them. I expect I'll stay there a while and we can do more Hague family research in Polk County. I also want to squeeze in Pearce research in Boone County, Iowa; Wallace and Williams research in Warren County, Iowa, and other assorted branches.

I'll be making some decisions about a month-long trip to China in September. After a wonderful experience last August in Mongolia and a trip on the Trans-Siberia Railway across Russia, I think I've got to return and see more of that part of the world.

But first, the dreaded income tax deadline is fast approaching, so my time today will be filled with that preparation (I hope).