What is GeneaSpy?

GeneaSpy is an avid genealogist who attends national, regional, and local genealogical conferences, to learn about genealogy.

Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Jamboree 2016: Day 3 Final

Sunday, the final day of a glorious Jamboree conference. Today I, as with past Jamboree’s, leave about mid-afternoon on a two-hour drive back to Escondido. This final day was awesome, as the past few days have been. It started off with a breakfast sponsored by LegacyTree Genealogists with Paul Woodbury giving an impassioned talk about his trip to discover his ancestors in France. At the breakfast, Melanie Frick was presented the 2016 Suzanne Winsor Freeman Memorial Genealogy Grant and Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree Scholarship by Denise Levenick. Congratulations!

 Today, Jamboree also had a contest about wearing your hometown shirt and a quick response about it. There were some great entries, but I liked Randy Seaver’s San Diego shirt the best. It had a large map on it and he pointed out the different places he lived. His wife Linda also had a matching shirt.

 This conference, as with others I attend around the country, are fun, informative, and exciting, but Jamboree has a different feel about it. Could it be the location? The climate? The people? I think these play a big part of it. So, as always, I shall return next year to this grand genealogy conference.

 Schedule Day 3: Saturday, 5 June 2016

·       Breakfast: “Preparing Good Ground: Fostering Interest for Coming Generations” – Paul Alan Woodbury.

·       “Handwriting Analysis for Genealogists” – Ron Arons.

·       “Why Were They There? Merging Evidence to Understand Migration” - J. H. (“Jay”) Fonkert, CG®.


·       “Use Timelines to Organize, Analyze, and Evaluate Evidence” - Annette Burke Lyttle.


Elevator ads? Who'd ever thought.

Breakfast event.

Melanie Frick & Denise Levenick

Paul Woodbury's mentors.

The always entertaining Sheri Savory.


Hometown contest.

Linda & Randy Seaver with their San Diego shirts.

The winner!

Randy Seaver

Debby Anderson

Jean Taeuffer and her Healdsburg shirt.

Sheri Savory & Ron Arons make Jamboree fun!

Until next year...

Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Jamboree 2016: Day 2

Saturday, another full day of genealogy classes, meeting new people, and attending a banquet with Genealogy Roadshow’s Kenyatta Berry. Two speakers that I saw for the first time and who I thought was in the top five articulate and witty speakers at this conference were Michael John Neill and Kim R. von Aspern-Parker. Both were excellent in their presentations and very knowledgeable!

  After classes, I met up with the NextGen Genealogy Network in the Marriott Hotel with a very pregnant Melanie Frick presiding over. There were some new people this year attending and we all did introductions. Melanie unveiled the new “community” page on the website, which I thought was an excellent idea.

 Later I attended a dinner banquet which featured Kenyatta Berry from Genealogy Roadshow. I sat with several friends and even met a new one too! Kenyatta was awesome as always, speaking about the inner-workings of the Genealogy Roadshow and how she came to be auditioned for the show. My San Diego friend, Debby Anderson, won a free registration to Jamboree and DNA Day next year! How awesome is that!

 Schedule Day 2: Saturday, 4 June 2016

·       “Publicize It and Publicize It: Increasing Attendance at Society Events” - Paula Stuart-Warren, CG®, FUGA, FMGS.

·       “Reconstructing Families in pre-1850 Census Records” - Michael John Neill.

·       “Putting America to Work: Records of the Works Progress Administration (WPA)”. - Peggy Clemens Lauritzen, AG(R).

·       “Blog Your Family History: Eating the Elephant One Bite at a Time” - Jill Morelli.

·       “Maximizing Your Use of Evidence” - Thomas W. Jones, PhD, CG®, CGL®, FASG, FUGA, FNGS.

·       “Railroad Records” - Kim R. von Aspern-Parker.

·       NextGen Genealogy Network Meet-up


·       SCGS Banquet: Secrets from PBS’s Genealogy Roadshow” – Kenyatta D. Berry, Esq.















Good friend, Diane Hall.

Steve Morse of One-Step Webpages.

Lisa Alzo, the Accidental Genealogist.

Author James M. Beidler.

San Diego County attendees.



Melanie Frick hosting The NextGen Genealogy Network Meet-Up

The NextGen Genealogy Network Meet-Up

The NextGen Genealogy Network Meet-Up

The line for the banquet!

Heather Goebel (center), Lydia Goularte (right).

Mother - Daughter, Patricia & Elena

Sold-out banquet!


Leo Myers

Awesome dessert!

Kenyatta Berry


Diane Hall & Debby Anderson

Selfie with the beautiful Kenyatta!




















Sunday, June 12, 2016

Jamboree 2016: Day 1

Jamboree day 1 proper got into full swing today with everyone arrived and ready to start learning genealogy! I took some great classes today including Randy Whited’s “Genograms” which he included a My Colorful Ancestry chart with his ancestors in it and also a genogram that I made earlier in the week in which I showed the naming pattern of “Alexander Travis” in my paternal line from the early 1800s to the 1900s. Make your own here. Thank you, Randy!

 At the end of the day, I attended the banquet which featured David E. Rencher of FamilySearch with another inspiring talk. I was invited to sit at the VIP table earlier in the day by Jane Van Tour of SCGS – Thanks, Jane! At the table sat Mark Olsen of MyHeritage, Genealogist Richard Sherer, David E. Rencher of FamilySearch, Leo Myers of SCGS, Genealogist Barbara Renick, and a few more. There were two awards given out by the Federation of Genealogical Societies and presented by David E. Rencher. Paula Hinkel of SCGS for her many years of work for Jamboree and myself for the shareable chart I made that went viral around the world. I was so shocked and surprised! I am so honored and humbled by the recognition. Thank you FGS!

Below are the classes I took.

 Schedule Day 1: Friday, 2 June 2016

·        “Why and How to Become a Professional Genealogist” - Jean Wilcox Hibben, PhD, MA, CG® and Jamie Lee McManus Mayhew, PLCGS.

·        “Use Social Media to Benefit Your Society and Your Research” – Randy Seaver.

·        “Genograms for Family Medical History and Cluster Research” – Randy Whited.

·        “Plot, Plan & Scheme: Storyboarding for Genealogists” - Lisa A. Alzo, M.F.A.

·        “Cluster Methodology: A Case Study in Upstate New York” - Karen Mauer Jones, CG®, FCBS.

·        “Patriot or Not? Using the GPS on a Closed DAR Line” - Elissa Scalise Powell, CG®, CGL®.

·        Banquet: “Givin to the Future by Preserving the Past” -  David Rencher, AG(R), CG®, FIGRS, FUGA.


Now for some pictures…

Sunrise from my room.

Deborah Sweeney looking over her schedule.




I snuck in... Shhhh.

Behind the scenes during set-up.

Before the vendor hall was open.

Jean Hibben & Jamie Mayhew's class.

Randy Seaver's social media class.

Eating lunch by the pool - the Seaver's

Are we at a genealogy conference? Yes, Jamboree!

Jessica Taylor of LegacyTree Genealogists

Geni was there!

The Barefoot Genealogist, Crista Cowan of Ancestry.com

Legacy Family Tree on hand!

My favorite conference bag. I take it everywhere!

Randy Whited's very eye opening genogram class.

A genogram I created highlighting naming patterns. Thanks Randy for including it in your presentation!


Laurie Desmarais & Kim Cotton having fun!

Good friend, Elyse Doerflinger.

Bruce & Laurie Buzbee - RootsMagic!

Good friend, Ron Arons.

Excellent class!!! This I needed!

First time hearing Karen Jones... awesome!

Paula Hinkel makes Jamboree fun!

Paula can't stay away!

Good friends, Diane Hall & Randy Seaver. 

Computer scientists, Karen & Brian Leverich.

Great class!

I see this guy every year... thank you!

I got dressed up for this one! No jeans!




Award presented by David E. Rencher. 

Suprised!


Classic Leo Myers!

Thank you FGS! Signed copy to be mailed.


Thanks, Lise Harding, for #MyColorfulAncestry fun project at Jamboree!


Patricia Stanard, Elyse Doerflinger & Kim Cotton enjoying a night cap.


Very sad news when I got back to my room.


Long, but very productive day. Tomorrow is another full day!!!