The GeneaQuilters SCGS Jamboree Quilt

The Quilt Gets Hung

There is so much to do at the Southern California Genealogical Society's Genealogy Jamboree. In addition to classes by world class teachers, and shopping for wonderful tools to use in your research; there are raffle tickets for fab give aways, like books, and videos and other wonderful prizes. This year the GeneaQuilters took on the challenge to produce a quilt that could be raffled off to benefit the Southern California Genealogical Society's Scholarship fund.

The quilt turned out beautiful. I am so proud, I contributed two blocks to this quilt and I think they turned out great, if I do say so myself. There were many people who had a hand in making this quilt a reality. Go to the GeneaQuilters Face Book page to learn more about the putting together of this quilt.

The lucky winner will get not only the quilt, but a book with a picture of each quilt block along with the person who created it and the story behind the block.

I am informed that more than 100 tickets have been sold and it's only Saturday.

Didn't it turn out great

You'd better buy your tickets soon. This is a one of a kind quilt; and this picture does not do it justice. (But I feel it only fair to warn you...I'm going to win this quilt....I am going to win this quilt....I am going to win this quilt....(positive thinking)

Jamboree

Well, here it is the first official day of Southern California Genealogical Society's Genealogy Jamboree. It is off to a roaring start...The first lecture everyone is looking forward to attending is "Prostitution in the Wild West" presented by Jana Sloan Broglin, CG. While it looks like it might be a rippen good time I have elected to go the more sedate route and attend Warren Bittner's (another CG) "European Case Studies in 'Exhaustive Research' (For those who are unfamiliar: CG = Certified Genealogist)

Yesterday I volunteered at the Kids Camp. Wow, that was amazing. We had between 40 and 50 kids and about 20 - 25 parents. They participated in all kinds of great events from interviewing to being interviewed. (by Lisa Louise Cooke for her Podcast "Genealogy Gems") The kids also got to earn credits for their merit badges if they were Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts. They made "journaling jars" and played Genealogy Bingo. I know I'll be volunteering again.

My friend Elyse Doerflinger is over the top excited. She is threatning to burst into confetti at any momemt. She is young. I'm too tired (read too old) to get THAT excited but I have to admit...I'm pretty jazzed. This conference, more than any of the others I attend, has that kind of affect. It is the most friendly, most energetic...I don't know what it is exactly, but I want more of it. It's almost as good as caffine.

Haven't made it into the vendor booth yet, and class is about to start. So I'll be tweeting about that a little later (blogging about those things tomorrow too.) For now let me tell you about the I Pad give away....

Susan Kitchens got a huge laugh when she gave away an "I Pad" it was a EYE PAD.  It's kind of a visual joke so you may have had to have been there....

And why aren't you?  Next Year...Promise yourself...Next Year.

I Am The Face of Genealogy

This is the Face of Genealogy 

My great grandmother Felice Romero and her siblings

Thomas M. asked the genealogical bloggers to post a "This is the Face of Genealogy" blog post as a call to arms. He along with many other bloggers have risen up in protest against a terrible photo that accompanied a story in the LA Weekly. His is the most eloquent rebuttal yet (and there have been many less eloquent ones) to the awful picture printed next to a story about the Jamboree in the LA Weekly. Although the online version of the LA Weekly no longer has this photo, the damage has been done.

Genealogists from far and near are in an uproar about this photo. Why, you ask? Here is Thomas' explanation, and I can't say it any better so I will re-post it here.

Please, if you or someone you know is a genealogist, be they amateur family historian or professional, please, do your part by following the link to the LA Weekly and let them know you find this unprofessional and offensive. At the very least it inferred that the work we do is laughable.
The following is from GeneaBloggers

Is this the face of genealogy? Is this truly what the public sees in their mind’s eye when they hear the word genealogy?

The Rub

In a recent event article at the LAWeekly website, the above photo was used in a brief article about the upcoming Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree being held in Burbank, California from June 10-12, 2011. I’ll be there as well as close to 70 other members of GeneaBloggers.

What I don’t know is whether there will be any new visitors to Jamboree this year, especially if they saw the LA Weekly article. My first thoughts are:

• What were they thinking?

• Did the author Skylaire Alfvegren actually select the photo or perhaps it was some smart-aleck editor? The way the text is written, with the byline Gene Genies, I think that this is more the work of an editor.

• What were they thinking?

A quick search of the image on Google Images shows that the photo used is not even the original work of LAWeekly. This also reinforces my suspicion that a young, inexperienced editor who believes everything is free on the Internet just lifted the image from another site and slapped it on the copy.

What You Can Do

I urge readers of GeneaBloggers to send a letter to the editor of the LAWeekly using their online form at http://www.laweekly.com/feedback/EmailAnEmployee?department=letters. I don’t often make these “calls for action” but we as genealogists and family historians have a responsibility – especially to the younger people – to show them exactly what is the face of genealogy.

I Am The Face of Genealogy

Also, I’m asking that every genealogy blogger put up their favorite ancestor photo with the simple post title “This Is The Face of Genealogy.” Together, hopefully we can turn this offensive piece into a win situation for the genealogy community.

This too is the face of genealogy....remembering those who came before us and honoring our families.

This is also the "Face of Genealogy" a letter written by a grandmother I never got to meet. How I wish I could have known her. This letter and my genealogy research helps me learn who she was.

Please, we work very hard at what we do, we love what we do, and it means a lot to us. Help the LA Weekly understand why what they did is unforgivable. Not only did they potentially damage a wonderful event (the Southern California Genealogical Society's Genealogy Jamboree) but they smeared the name of "Genealogist."

Starting June Out Right

Normally this time of year I'm sitting by the pool, working on my tan and catching up on my reading every morning. Not this year. The weather sucks. So I'm inside, bundled up. Forced to do unseemly things such as clean out my file drawers and digital files (photos files, Ancestry Shoebox, e-mail folders etc.)

These are all worthy chores, but they are CHORES. In addition, I need to clean house. My house looks like a cyclone hit it with all the clutter. When I came in from NGS (National Genealogical Society) I had to "hit the floor running" (as my mother used to say) and prepare a lecture for my local FHC (Family History Center.) So all the papers I had gathered at NGS ended up on the dining room table along with the books and papers I used to prepare the lecture. My suitcase remains on the bedroom floor, half unpacked; laundry is almost caught up, but sitting in sorted piles waiting for a turn at the washing machine and my to do list is slightly overwhelming.

So...what to do? Why sit down and write my blog of course.

I have given myself a challenge to write my blog every week for the month of June. That's only four posts; I should be able to meet that, right?  But it seems as if every time I have a great blog idea and am moved to write I'm in the middle of one of those pesky chores, and I just can't stop in the middle of cleaning out my file cabinet, can I? Please give me permission.

So even though I had no great insight to write about and no special theme I sat down to start June off right. I considered writing about the lecture I gave last week. I considered writing about how yesterday (Memorial Day) hit me stronger than usual with memories of my dad. I considered writing about Southern California Genealogy Society's up coming Genealogical Jamboree. I even considered just picking an ancestor at random and writing about them. Then I tried signing into my blogger account and was told my blog no longer existed. SAY WHAT?

Is it like when you don't use your muscles....they atrophy? Is that what happened to my blog? I didn't write in it for more than a week and, poof, it's gone? Or did Blogger feel my last post was too controversial and wiped me out? Did some hacker pick me at random and banish all my hard work? No...just a computer glitch. All is well. Whew.

But it made me realize a couple of things. Number One, how important my blog has become to me and Number Two, how irritated I become when things don't work the way they are supposed to, and Number Three, just how much I don't want to clean up my files.

But, I've started June out right...I wrote my blog.