Wednesday, October 4, 2017

[UVTAGG] Press Release for UVTAGG meeting Saturday morning, 14 Oct 2017, Provo

2017-10-04
Journalists and newsletter editors, please run this as a news item and/or in your calendar of events.  For a shorter version please show the main speaker and topic, give the UVTAGG websites, and say there are classes at all levels of genealogy.  If you need further information, please email me.  Thanks.

Don Snow -- snowd@math.byu.edu

[UVTAGG] Press Release for UVTAGG meeting Saturday morning, 14 Oct 2017, Provo

The next meeting of the UVTAGG (Utah Valley Technology and Genealogy Group) will be on Saturday, 14 Oct 2017, from 9 am to noon in the LDS "Red Chapel", 4050 North Timpview Drive (650 East), Provo.  This is the regular 2nd-Saturday-of-the-month meeting.  The main presentation will be by Kory L. Meyerink on THE BEST WEBSITES FOR YOUR RESEARCH THAT YOU PROBABLY AREN'T USING.  This will be a discussion of many helpful websites for family history research for genealogy, locations, types of records, finding aids, search engines, and more.  Kory L. Meyerink, AG (Accredited Genealogist) and FUGA (Fellow of the Utah Genealogical Association), has been involved in nearly every aspect of genealogy and family history for the past 40 years.  He started as a record searcher while attending Brigham Young University where he received an Associate Degree in Family and Local History, as well as a Bachelor of Science Degree in Psychology.  He later completed a Masters of Library and Information Science Degree.  His fluency in German came from spending two years in Germany and it helps in his professional work.  He is accredited in four areas of genealogy research:  Germany, Midwest, Mid-Atlantic and New England U.S., specializing in tracing the origins of German and Dutch immigrants.  He also served on the staff of the Family History Library in Salt Lake City as a reference consultant and later was the editor and coordinator of the Library’s publications.  In this position he developed instructional and reference material for the thousands of Family History Centers.  He also served as the primary content consultant for the PBS Ancestors television series.  In his work developing electronic products for Infobases, Kory’s tasks included serving as product manager for the LDS Family History Suite CD and he also developed the largest genealogical gazetteer and genealogical bibliography available on CD-ROM.  He was a vice-president of Ancestry Publishing during its acquisition by Infobases and migration to the Internet as Ancestry.com and became the first manager of acquisitions.  As a teacher, Kory has spoken at many local, state, and national genealogical conferences throughout the U.S. and Canada, including NGS, FGS, GENTECH, RootsTech and the annual BYU Family History Conferences.  For 20 years, he served as an adjunct history faculty member for the BYU Salt Lake Center and as a part-time professor for San Jose State University's well-known Masters’ program in Library Science.  As the founding director of the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy, he developed one of the nation’s largest such institutes.  His extensive publications include chapters in The Library, all editions of The Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy, and numerous articles and book reviews for the Genealogical Journal, Association of Professional Genealogists Quarterly, Genealogical Computing, New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, The Genealogist, and more.  He contributed numerous articles and columns for both Ancestry and Heritage Quest magazines and is the author/presenter of Doing Genealogy: Foundations for Successful Research, an audio presentation with workbook.  His major reference book, Printed Sources: A Guide to Published Genealogical Records (Ancestry: Salt Lake City, 1998), was named "Best Reference Book of the Year" by the American Library Association.  He recently served as the lead editor for the ground-breaking new methodology book, Becoming an Excellent Genealogist, published by the International Commission for the Accreditation of Professional Genealogists (ICAPGen), where he served for eight years as a commissioner.  His volunteer work also includes serving as a officer of the Association of Professional Genealogists (APG) and having been on the Board of Directors and President of the Utah Genealogical Association (UGA).  In 2000, along with two colleagues, he founded ProGenealogists, which soon became the nation’s largest professional genealogy research firm with hundreds of clients, worldwide. After acquisition by Ancestry in 2010, Kory continued to serve in the new company, rechristened AncestryProGenealogists, where he has worked with Ancestry’s management to help build the staff to more than 100 researchers, serving thousands of clients each year.  He continues to provide training, evaluation and support to management while managing a large research case load.  In 2017 the company named him one of their first “master genealogists.”  He is always a popular speaker.  Further information about him is at  https://www.progenealogists.com/expert/kory-l-meyerink  and  https://www.linkedin.com/in/kory-l-meyerink-8085497 .

After the main presentation, the following classes are currently scheduled this month.  See the UVTAGG website and blog (URL's below) for last minute changes and additions.

(1)  Kory Meyerink, THE FIVE MOST IMPORTANT ONLINE RESOURCES FOR YOUR U.S. GENEALOGY RESEARCH
(2)  Don Snow and Linda Snow Westover, RECENT GENEALOGY ARTICLES AND YOUR QUESTIONS
(3)  Don Engstrom, John Blake, and Lee Cox, ASK AN EXPERT (Personal Help)
(4)  Video of last month's main presentation, Tom Sederberg, THE BYU FAMILY HISTORY TECHNOLOGY LAB
(5)  Gaylon Findlay, ANCESTRAL QUEST

This is the regular UVTAGG meeting and all meetings of UVTAGG are open to the public, whether members of the Group or not.  The meetings have something for all levels of family history expertise and this includes youth, those just getting interested in genealogy, seasoned genealogists, and temple and family history consultants.  The Group has the goal of helping individuals use technology to further their family history and there are usually 60-70 people attending the monthly meetings, many of whom are temple and family history consultants.  The Group is experimenting with live-streaming of the meetings and classes using Facebook.  If you can't attend in person, see the link on the webpage.  You can join or renew your membership at the meeting or on the website  http://uvtagg.org  where there is also information about the meeting location, current and past presentations, classes, and class notes.  On the press release blog  http://blog.uvtagg.org  is a place to subscribe to receive emails of the press releases when they are posted the week before the meetings.  The officers are Gerhard Ruf, President; Laurie Castillo, 1st VP; Don Snow, 2nd VP; Eileen Phelps, Newsletter Editor; Don Engstrom, Membership; Rayanne Melick, Finances; Bruce Merrill and Marie Andersen, Video Library; and Rick Wightman, Chris Stevenson, Brent Nelson, and Rick Klemetson, Webmasters.  Several of these will be at the meeting to answer questions, help with membership, distribute TAGGology, the monthly newsletter, and check out or sell to members the inexpensive DVDs of past main presentations and classes.  Members receive TAGGology and have access to many genealogy resources through the UVTAGG's membership in the Federation of Genealogical Societies.  Gift memberships and DVDs make good presents for family history-minded relatives, friends, and temple and family history consultants.  Volunteers who help with the organization get membership for reduced rates.  For further information contact President Gerhard Ruf at  pres@uvtagg.org  (801-225-6106), or 1st VP Laurie Castillo at gengal@comcast.net , or 2nd VP Don Snow at  snowd@math.byu.edu .

Don Snow, 2nd VP of Utah Valley Technology and Genealogy Group (UVTAGG), snowd@math.byu.edu