[UVPAFUG] Press release about meeting on Saturday 12 Feb 2011

2 Feb 2011
Journalists, please run this as a news item and/or in your calendar of events. Ward newsletter editors, please include parts of the first two paragraphs, and mention that there are classes for everyone. Email me, if you need further information. Thanks.

Don Snow


UTAH VALLEY PAF USERS GROUP MEETING
The next regular, second-Saturday-of-the-month meeting of the Utah Valley PAF (Personal Ancestral File) Users Group will be on Saturday, 12 Feb 2011, from 9 am to noon in the LDS "Red Chapel", 4050 North Timpview Drive (650 East), Provo. Information about the Users Group, main presentations, classes, and class notes are available on the Group website http://uvpafug.org and the press releases are at http://blog.uvpafug.org/ .

The main presentation for this meeting will be by Ron Tanner on THE FUTURE OF NEW FAMILYSEARCH. This will be a description of what is happening lately on the new.familysearch.org website and the planned integration of new.familysearch.org into www.familysearch.org. We will also discuss the vision of new.familysearch.org and how we are working to achieve this vision. The vision works to resolve some of the frustrations experienced by all users such as fixing or removing bad data, fixing relationships, sourcing, combining and separating, and recovering when someone messes up the data. Ron Tanner is a Product Manager for the Family History Department of the LDS Church and assists in the research and design of new FamilySearch and companion products. Currently Ron's assignments include overall product delivery for new.familysearch.org, the Asia rollout, and future product direction for FamilySearch. Ron has a Master's Degree in Computer Science from BYU and has previously worked as a product manager and engineer at Novell, Citrix, and Bell Laboratories. Ron and his wife CheRee live in Provo and have four children.

Following the main presentation there will be several classes about family history and technology with something for everyone at any level of expertise. The teachers and classes presently scheduled for this meeting are as follows: (1) Techniques & Tools for Streamlining Your Research, by Laurie Castillo; (2) MAC: Uploading to Ancestry and Creating a Web Site, by Ron Snowden; (3) Personalized Help, by Claudia Benson & Finn Hansen; (4) Q&A: The Future of New FamilySearch, by Ron Tanner; (5) Video of last month's main presentation: ePublishing, by Barbara Renick; (6) Ancestral Quest, by Merlin Kitchen; (7) Legacy, by Joel Graham; and (8) RootsMagic, by Diana Olsen.

All meetings of the Users Group are open to the public whether members of the Group or not. The Users Group has the goal of helping individuals use technology to further their family history and there are usually 100-125 attending the monthly meetings on the second Saturdays. The officers are Gerhard Ruf, President; Don Snow, 1st VP; Laurie Castillo, 2nd VP; Liz Kennington, PAFology Editor; Kay Baker, Gerry Eliason, and Don Engstrom working with finances and membership; and Bruce Merrill and Marie Andersen, working with the DVD Library. Several of these will be there to help with membership, answer questions, distribute the current issue of the monthly newsletter PAFology to the members, and check out DVDs of past presentations and classes to members of the group. Information about the Users Group, presentations, classes, and class notes can be found at the websites mentioned above. For further information contact President Gerhard Ruf at pres@uvpafug.org (801-225-6106) or 1st VP Don Snow at snowd@math.byu.edu or 2nd VP Laurie Castillo at laurie@everythingisrelative.net.

Don Snow, 1st VP of Utah Valley PAF Users Group
--
Dr. Donald R. Snow, Retired Professor of Mathematics, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah - snowd@math.byu.edu

[UVPAFUG] Press release of Utah Valley PAF Users Group for meeting on Saturday 8 Jan 2011

29 Dec 2010
Journalists, please run this as a news item and/or in your calendar of events. Ward newsletter editors, please include parts of the first two paragraphs, and mention that there are classes for everyone. Email me, if you need further information. Thanks.
Don Snow

UTAH VALLEY PAF USERS GROUP MEETING
The next regular, second-Saturday-of-the-month meeting of the Utah Valley PAF (Personal Ancestral File) Users Group will be on Saturday, 8 Jan 2011, from 9 am to noon in the LDS "Red Chapel", 4050 North Timpview Drive (650 East), Provo. Information about the Users Group, main presentations, classes, and class notes are available on the Group website http://uvpafug.org and the press releases are at http://blog.uvpafug.org/ .

The main presentation for this meeting will be by Barbara Renick on EPUBLISHING. Genealogists are motivated to preserve and share what they have found and by publishing they open their work to peer review (critique) which often brings to light possible errors and additional resources. Today there are two approaches to publishing: low or no cost electronic publishing (for part or all of research summaries and family history books) and the use of the Internet to find and manage the best paper publishing options. This presentation will be an extensive discussion of electronic publishing media, including online library catalogs with Web 2.0 user-added-content, different types of Wikis and Web sites, blogs, digitized books online, plus publishing to CDs and DVDs. Barbara Renick is a nationally known genealogy lecturer who lectures frequently at national and local genealogy conferences. She currently serves on staff and teaches at the LDS Regional Family History Center in Orange, California. She writes for several genealogy publications and has written several genealogy books, her most recent one being Genealogy 101: How to Trace Your Family's History and Heritage. That book was sponsored by the National Genealogical Society for their 100th Anniversary. She is also well known for the 'Z' Links page at her website http://www.zroots.com/ which is a favorite tool for many people. Her maiden name was Zuknick and she was born in Maryland to a German immigrant father and and a Tennessee hillbilly mother. She had a four-year scholarship in electrical engineering with an eye toward designing computers, but ended up graduating from BYU in nursing in 1974. After purchasing her first computer in 1983 she was asked to train and supervise a crew of workers for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for data entry of the International Genealogical Index and the Ancestral File. She teaches many family history classes, writes many family history articles, and is a frequent alpha and beta tester for software programs and Internet sites.

Following the main presentation there will be several classes about family history and technology with something for everyone at any level of expertise. The teachers and classes presently scheduled for this meeting are as follows: (1) Scandinavian Research on the Internet, by Rick Mathews; (2) Fun Ideas for Family History Consultants, by Bret Petersen; (3) Personalized Family History Help, by Claudia Benson & Finn Hansen; (4) Making A List and Checking it Twice, by Barbara Renick; (5) Video of last month's main presentation: Introduction to Waypointing, by Travis Mecham; (6) MAC: Uploading to Ancestry and Creating a Web Site, by Ron Snowden; (7) Ancestral Quest, by Gaylon Findlay & Merlin Kitchen; (8) Family Insight, by Andrea Schnakenburg; (9) Legacy, by Joel Graham; and (10) RootsMagic, by Bruce Buzbee.

All meetings of the Users Group are open to the public whether members of the Group or not. The Users Group has the goal of helping individuals use technology to further their family history and there are usually 100-125 attending the monthly meetings on the second Saturdays. The officers are Gerhard Ruf, President; Don Snow, 1st VP; Laurie Castillo, 2nd VP; Liz Kennington, PAFology Editor; Kay Baker, Gerry Eliason, and Don Engstrom working with finances and membership; and Bruce Merrill and Marie Andersen, working with the DVD Library. Several of these will be there to help with membership, answer questions, distribute the current issue of the monthly newsletter PAFology, and check out DVDs of past
presentations and classes to members of the group. Information about the Users Group, presentations, classes, and class notes can be found at the websites mentioned above. For further information contact President Gerhard Ruf at pres@uvpafug.org (801-225-6106) or 1st VP Don Snow at snowd@math.byu.edu or 2nd VP Laurie Castillo at laurie@everythingisrelative.net.

Don Snow, 1st VP of Utah Valley PAF Users Group--

Dr. Donald R. Snow, Retired Professor of Mathematics, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah - snowd@math.byu.edu

[UVPAFUG] Press release for meeting on Saturday 13 Nov 2010

3 Nov 2010

Journalists, please run this as a news item and/or in your calendar of events. Ward newsletter editors, please include parts of the first two paragraphs, and mention that there are classes for everyone. Email me, if you need further information. Thanks.
Don Snow

UTAH VALLEY PAF USERS GROUP MEETING

The next regular, second-Saturday-of-the-month meeting of the Utah Valley PAF (Personal Ancestral File) Users Group will be on Saturday, 13 Nov 2010, from 9 am to noon in the LDS "Red Chapel", 4050 North Timpview Drive (650 East), Provo. Information about the Users Group, main presentations, classes, and class notes are available on the Group's website http://uvpafug.org and the press releases are at http://blog.uvpafug.org/ .

The main presentation for this meeting will be by Travis Mecham on INTRODUCTION TO WAYPOINTING. Waypointing is a process used to group document images together according to locality, record type, and year range in preparation for online publication. The Waypointing process creates a browse structure allowing users to focus their search on a single place and time. Waypointing is, in essence, a digital microfilm reader, allowing patrons of FamilySearch access to many images that they would otherwise have to access at a Family History Library on microfilm. This presentation will explain why this process was developed, as well as demonstrate how the Waypointing tool functions. Travis Mecham was born and raised in Cache Valley, Utah and graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in History from Utah State University in 2006. He received his Master's Degree in History in 2009, also from Utah State University. Currently an employee for FamilySearch in Salt Lake City, he now coordinates volunteer efforts for the Digital Browse Team, which oversees the use of the Waypointing tool.

Following the main presentation there will be several classes about family history and technology with something for everyone at any level of expertise. The teachers and classes presently scheduled for this meeting are as follows: (1) Using Google Effectively, by Sue Maxwell; (2) Publish Instead of GEDCOM, by Merlin Kitchen; (3) Q&A: Waypointing, by Travis Mecham; (4) Video of last month's main presentation Preserving Your Family History Records Digitally, by Gary Wright; (5) Personalized Help, by Finn Hansen & Claudia Benson; (6) Ancestral Quest, by Gaylon Findlay; (7) Legacy, by Dean Bennett; (8)
RootsMagic, by Diana Olsen & Renee Zamora.

All meetings of the Users Group are open to the public whether members of the Group or not. The Users Group has the goal of helping individuals use technology to further their family history and there are usually 100-125 attending the monthly meetings on the second Saturdays. The officers are Gerhard Ruf, President; Don Snow, 1st VP; Laurie Castillo, 2nd VP; Liz Kennington, PAFology Editor; Kay Baker, Gerry Eliason, and Don Engstrom working with finances and membership; and Bruce Merrill and Marie Andersen, working with the DVD Library. Several of these will be there to help with membership, answer questions, distribute the current issue of the monthly newsletter PAFology, and check out DVD's of past presentations and classes to members of the group. Information about the Users Group, presentations, classes, and class notes can be found at the websites mentioned above. For further information contact President Gerhard Ruf at pres@uvpafug.org (801-225-6106) or 1st VP Don Snow at snowd@math.byu.edu or 2nd VP Laurie Castillo at laurie@everythingisrelative.net.

As a reminder, the Utah Valley PAF Users Group does not meet during December since the LDS Chapel is needed for other meetings then.

Don Snow, 1st VP of Utah Valley PAF Users Group

--
Dr. Donald R. Snow, Retired Professor of Mathematics, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah -snowd@math.byu.edu