Saturday, March 24, 2012

Memorable Quotes from Thomas Jones


... at the Fairfax Genealogical Society Conference I attended this weekend:
“My genealogical program of choice is Microsoft Word.”
Mine, too.  Though I copy a lot of what I put down into the notes page on my Reunion program.  He explained that there are just so many things you can do in Word - timelines, tables, etc.
“It would be extremely hypocritical for me to talk about organizing your office” (with just the hint of a beginning of a grin).  You could hear the intake of breath in the audience, followed by chuckles.  Take comfort, fellow slobs - even the great ones struggle with those piles of paper!  
In response to the question “So Ellener married 3 times?’  -- “So far....”

Other awesome things from the Conference:
Great presentations - attended all of Thomas Jones’ presentations (and I think I’ve only seen one of them before), two of Dear Myrtle’s (she’s just amazing - so informative and inspiring and makes genealogy so much fun (and funny!)), Chuck Mason’s “Defining the Problem and Mapping the Research Plan” (I so have to pay serious attention to this and get my act together), and Pam Sayre’s “Effectively Using NARA’s Finding Aids and Website” (brilliance and energy in action - when she explains how to “drill down” in the website and shows two or three different ways to attack a search on the website, it’s awe-inspiring (and would be overwhelming if she didn’t have great notes in the presentation summary)).  
I’m finally getting my autosomal DNA testing done with Family Tree DNA!  Bob McLaren did a mini-presentation on DNA testing for genealogy on Friday night and announced conference sale prices for Family Tree DNA.  So on Saturday I sat down at Bob’s booth, did the swabs, filled out the info, and out it will go.  Plus I’m going to see if my male Moore cousins will do the 67-marker test.
Won a door prize - a subscription to Archives.com!
It was soooo wonderful to have a genealogy weekend.
I miss my blog.
I miss my fellow genealogy bloggers and commenters and research cousins.
I miss my ancestors.

I will be back.

Saturday, March 17, 2012

SNGF Limerick

Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings has issued a Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge that has temporarily brought me out of my hole: 

1)  Make up a limerick about genealogy - it should be A-A-B-B-A in rhyme (don't worry about iambic pentameter and all that).  So here goes:

There once was a family named Floyd
Whose descendants are really annoyed
That despite spats and suits
Those irascible coots
Have left us of clues quite devoid.

Thanks, Randy!