Can't Get to a Genealogy Conference or Society Meeting? Maybe You Don't Have To

Lately I've been thinking about the genealogy presentations I've had the pleasure of attending either in person or through webinars. I've learned at least one new thing, usually more than one, with each I've attended. It occurred to me that maybe they might offer more educational materials somewhere online. Sure enough, after doing a little digging, I found more.

Barry J Ewell is an accomplished genealogist who has lectured on a number of topics at several conferences. When I searched his name, I came across several of his presentations posted on the Family History and Genealogy website, including

• Journals, Diaries, Cards and Letters
• Digital Photography for the Genealogist
• Top 20 Lessons Genealogists Need to Know
• Newspapers-Hidden Family Treasures
• Setting Up Your Home Family History Center
• How to Effectively Use Historical Societies & Libraries
• Writing Family Histories, Oral & Audiovisual Interviews
• How Genealogists can Effectively Research on the Web
• Digitally Preserving Your Family History and Heritage
• Immigration & Migration
• How to Plan Your Next Genealogy Trip

Presentations include the PowerPoint slides in PDF format as well as the accompanying article.

The Portland Area Personal Ancestral File Users Group has on their site quite a few class notes from presentations that have been given. While these are referred to as notes, many appear to be the actual presentation word for word. Presentations cover a wide variety of ground from research techniques to using specific genealogy websites and everything in between. As of May 2011, presentations include:

• On The Trail of a Credentialed Genealogist
• Research Aid: Analysis Chart
• Research-Calendar-Land
• Research-Calendar-Master
• Dear Old Lady of Pisa
• Where Do I Begin on my Genealogy
• Combining and Separating Duplicate Records
• Cemetery Research
• Family Insight
• Building a Record When No Research Proves a Point (Elizabeth Shown Mills)
• Genealogical Proof-Useful Tips
• Genealogy Research Map
• Newspaper Facts Clues
• PC Users Only-Computers and Electronic Records
• Research Clues for Finding Female Ancestors
• Electronic Records Going from Disorder to Organized
• JR's File Management
• Variety in Records
• Genealogy Education-Enhance Your Research
• Using Census Records
• Clues in Census Records-Advanced Users
• Family Tree View outline for New FamilySearch
• Footprints of our Wanderers
• Finding Help for New FamilySearch
• Research Strategies
• Out on the Web
• Google Searches for Genealogy Research
• Google Your Family Tree
• Connecting Your PAF with New FamilySearch
• Creating a Family History Legacy Bookmarks & Hyperlinks
• Creating a Family History Legacy
• WorldVitalRecords.com
• NFS Preparing Names for Temple Work
• Family Skeletons: Turning from the Dark Side
• How Can I Make Better use of GenWeb in my Research
• Ten Steps to Cemetery Research
• Hiking on the Immigrant's Trail
• Improving Your Internet Experience
• Hard Drive Management for Genealogists
• Using GeneaNet.Org to locate other researchers working on my same families or locations
• Genetic DNA & Genealogy
• Getting Started with PAF, Part 2 (3 handouts in one)
• Do People Leave Home when Times are Good
• Immigration and Naturalization Records
• Attaching Multimedia Files in PAF
• New FamilySearch (the 48 page one includes images, the 7 page one does not)
• Working with Digital Pictures

All the class notes and handouts are in PDF form so you will need a program capable of reading this type of file (Adobe Reader is free). Because the notes are in PDF, you can easily save it to your computer for later reading or print a copy.

The Athens Regional Library System offers some handouts from classes and special presentations in their Heritage Room. While a few are location-centric, others would be helpful for anyone pursuing genealogy research. The handouts available include:

• Taking Care of Your Family Paper, Image and Book Treasures
• Getting Started with Genealogy: Basic Steps
• Getting Started with Genealogy: Outline
• Helpful Hints for Genealogical Research
• Places to Research in the Athens-Clarke County Area
• Resource Guide and Web/Bibliography
• Genealogy on the Internet
• Websites and Databases to Explore
• Heritage Quest Online: What You Can Find From Home (directions to access are for patrons of this specific library, but most libraries offer this. just contact your local library for instructions to access)
• Scottish Genealogy 2009 (two, the second is the extended version)
• An Abbreviated Timeline of Scottish History and Records
• Resources for Scottish Genealogy Research
• Materials for Researching Revolutionary War Ancestors
• PINES and WorldCat: Finding Materials in Distant Libraries (two parts, the first is slides and the second is the handout. While PINES is specific to Georgia, WorldCat is something all researchers should be aware of.)

These are just a few of the many handouts available. So even if you can't afford to attend a genealogy conference or don't have a genealogy or historical society nearby, you can still take advantage of the knowledge found in them. Look for another post with more handouts in the near future.