LEGACY FAMILY TREE IS MORE THAN GREAT SOFTWARE

As many of you already know, Legacy Family Tree is very good software for keeping track of your precious family files. I use Legacy exclusively and love their product. I’ve tried almost all the genealogy products on the market, mostly because I do a comparison lecture on them but Legacy is definitely my favorite and the one I use full time and you can find a free trial of Legacy here and can use it as long as you wish. The surprise is: did you know that Legacy Family Tree is now offering some really good and informative webinars too?

Legacy very recently in 2010 began to offer several free webinars a month which are hosted by Go To Meeting and the best part is that they are totally FREE! Having attended a few of these now, I have to rate them as an A plus offering. I’ve tried some of the webinars which have been offered by some of the genealogy competitors and find these by Legacy to be among the best and in fact presented in a much better format than some others with bigger names! I have yet to have a failed start up with their programming and never a glitch during the presentations which I have attended. Their classes have been given by a variety of well known genealogists and the best part is that their presenters know how to speak! Today was another very nice instructional class featuring Thomas MacEntee, on “Google for Genealogists”. Thomas is a very knowledgeable presenter and Geoff Rasmussen representing Legacy did the moderation. Most of us read and try to learn new research tips and methods every day and each new piece of knowledge helps us along the road on our family trails. Today's lecture was full of great new tips for using many of Googles’ products that are of benefit to the family genealogist. I for one can’t wait to try out some features of Google Docs which Thomas featured (being a Word person, I never realized some of the great uses and templates within Google Docs). He also highlighted using Google Groups to post queries, I never would have thought of that either!

In short, be sure to check out the classes that are offered by Legacy on their website at Legacy Family Tree. You can sign up on their site to attend the webinar classes in person or you can view them after the presentation on the Legacy website where they are usually listed for viewing for 2-4 weeks after the live presentation. Today they announced that some of the webinars will now become available to purchase on CD for your home use also. The cost is quite reasonable. During the live webinar, guests have the opportunity to ask questions or submit questions live and they have gift drawings after the program for those in attendance. Some of the future classes include two different ones on the use of “New Family Search”; and ”Newspapers, Critical Resource to Complete Your Family Tree”; and Chasing Women-Finding Your Female Ancestors” with Leland Meitzler. The live classes are limited so be sure to check them out and sign up early. Remember they are FREE so there is no excuse for not exercising your brains and learning something new!

You Go Genealogy Girl #2-- Cheri

Kansas City Family History Expo-A Blast!

I can't believe it has been nearly two weeks since the awesome Family History Expo in Kansas City and they are already gearing up for the next one in Salt Lake City! Son, Jason , accompanied me to KC and attended the Expo with me. (I actually "invited him" to be my chauffeur). He was in for a surprise when he arrived at the Family History Expo as he expected a small conference and a few meetings! As usual, Holly and her group put on an exceptional Expo and we both had a wonderful time there. The class offerings were excellent and Jason who is a History major was more than pleased with what he learned. We also met some really great new friends from the world of genealogy, one of whom was Thomas MacEntee of Genea-Bloggers fame.

Thomas hosted several lectures which centered around the use of social networking sites to aid the genealogist. I attended his fine presentation on Facebook and went away with several new things to try out and some great tips on how to properly use Facebook: making it work for us as genealogists and how to "safely" set up a new account. I use Facebook daily but gleaned many tips for its productive use that I had never considered before. Thomas also presented a class on Social Networking: "New Horizons For Genealogists" and another on Twitter: It's Not Just "What I Had For Breakfast" Anymore. It was great to finally meet Mr. MacEntee! He welcomed us warmly to the Bloggers of Honor area and even passed out some of his famous badge ribbons to add to our name badges. Along with his Genea-Bloggers ribbon, I now proudly sport one that names me as QUEEN. (You Go Genealogy Girl #1 has one from the Loveland Co., Expo that says she is a DIVA...) Surely the Queen must rule!!!

Everyone there was super nice but Thomas made my son and I feel welcome right away! Thanks to him for adding to our fun Expo experience.

Thomas MacEntee also has a new book out this week called "Approaching the Lectern: How To Become A Genealogy Speaker". It is available as an e-book, epub for the Kindle, and in printed form. For a nice review of his book, click here to see the article by Susan Peterson on her Long Lost Relatives blog. For more information you can check out either of Thomas MacEntee's sites: Destination: Austin Family or The Connected Genealogist. I have the printed form on order and am anxious to see it. I know it will have great information to aid us with our genealogy presentations!

Tomorrow I will share some other personalities from the Expo...

You Go Genealogy Girl #2, Cheri

People at the Expo

Shortly after noon today I arrived home from Loveland, CO. The time went fast, but it was worth every minute. One of the great things about the Expo is getting to see familiar faces and make new friends. The Honor Bloggers had a specific area for blogging, but we could also blog and tweet in the classrooms, which many of us did.

We were easily identified by our beads, compliments of Thomas MacEntee. Of course, we had name tags and badges, again compliments of Thomas MacEntee ... the guy at Geneabloggers! Quite often we were asked to explain blogs, why they are fun and effective for genealogists. Tom did some lectures on social networking which were informative. As the Expo wound down I listened to people saying they might try creating a blog. So ... genealogists look for new genealogy blogs in the upcoming weeks and months.

My friend Leland Meitzler posed for a photograph by some of the books he was selling. Family Roots Publishing was a popular spot in the Expo. In fact, it was so popular you could hardly turn around without bumping into somebody.

In the group photograph you'll see some of the bloggers ... back row Gayle Gresham, yours truly YGGG #1, Tom MacEntee. Sitting is Lisa Alzo and Becky Jamison.

The guy in the blue shirt, with the smile is Michael John Neill of Illinois. He is a dynamic speaker who got a lot of enthusiasm going at the Expo. We had fun visiting about our recent trips to Salt Lake City to the Family History Library.

Behind the scenes were people who worked for months, weeks and days to make the Expo possible. Thanks to all for making it a memorable experience!

YGGG #1 - Ruby