Take a Break and Plan Your Summer Vacation!

The winter weather/activities have started. It's raining here in Southern California and I know it's snowing elsewhere. Why not take a break and start planning for Summer 2019? How about a genealogy cruise?

See more details on my website at https://www.genagenealogy.com/ .

On The Road: Tour 2018

Courtesy of winnond and Freedigitalphotos.net

It's that time of the year when I leave the family at home and take a road trip! It's my annual speaking tour of Northern California! I'm excited this year to be on the road for 2 weeks offering 8 presentations and 1 workshop for 6 societies and 1 library. 

Will I see you there?

Schedule

July 15. Jewish Genealogy Society of Sacramento. Topic: Female Ancestors.

July 15. Sacramento Public  Library. Topic: Getting the Most from Internet Archive.

July 16 Lincoln Hills Genealogy Club. Topic: Read All About It

July 17 San Joaquin Genealogy Society. Topics: That's New To Me: Unfamiliar Websites for your Genealogy and Fabric, Cigars, and Murder: Reconstructing a Community of Women

July 20.  Mt Diablo Genealogy Society. Topics: 10 Databases You Didn't Know Were On Ancestry.com and 50 Websites Every Genealogist Should Know

July 22. California Genealogical Society and Library. (Please note that this is a workshop and requires prior registration and a fee. Space is limited) Topic: Reliving Their Lives: Experiencing, Researching, and Writing World War I to the Jazz Age

July 26 Marin County Genealogy Society. Topic: Her Name Was Not Unknown: Researching Female Ancestors

Interested in the schedule for Tour 2019? Are you part of a library or society in California? I am already scheduling that July tour and would love to provide a presentation or workshop to your group. Contact me for more details!

Did You #genchat #LadiesFirst?

Last Friday (April 13th), I had the honor of being a guest on #genchat. Have you participated in #genchat? GenChat is a Twitter chat that happens every other Friday night. Co-hosted by  @geneapleau & @leprchaunrabbit, a topic is discussed with questions being asked by the hosts and answers supplied by all in attendance. Because it is all text/images, and the information comes at a quick speed, it can take some getting use to. But the beauty of the chat is that you can use the GenChat hashtag (#genchat) to go back and read the chat at your convenience.

What can you expect to learn during #genchat? Everything from repository holdings, to helpful websites/collections, and tips from other researchers. It's an important service that is provided absolutely free.

If you want to participate in #genchat, you must have a Twitter account. Once you have an account (which is free), I recommend following the Twitter account @_genchat and the account of the two hosts listed above. And you can follow me (@genaortega).

Twitter is "cataloged" by hashtags (a pound sign and a word or words) so make sure to search on #genchat and #genealogy to find those tweets that can be beneficial to your research.

Courtesy of  @leprchaunrabbit.

Just to give you a flavor of what we discussed, here are some of my questions and tips. This is not everything I shared but it provides you an idea.

Thanks to everyone who participated in #genchat. I had a great time and hope you found it beneficial. Special thanks to the #genchat hosts (@geneapleau & @leprchaunrabbit)  who invited me to participate.