The Summer Genealogy Season

Here in the Northland, our summer days are long, but our summers are short. Our big Genealogy Season is winter, when the days are short and the cold snaps are long. There just isn't enough time for genealogy. People tend their gardens and send the kids to camp in the summer.

But, hey, genealogists need summer camp, too. Some of you will be heading to Birmingham in about a week for the ultimate genealogy summer camp at Samford. It's too late to sign up for IGHR, but there still might be a few spots open at the new GRIP institute in Pittsburgh.  I'll let others who know more about GRIP pitch it, but I want to remind you of a couple of other great summer time genealogy opportunities.

At the top (or the front) of the list is the Southern California Genealogy Jamboree next week in Burbank. I will be attending for the first time, and am excited to be offering three lectures. I'll be talking about finding Grandpa's land on maps, tricks to finding pre-1850 ancestors, and testing the veracity of family lore. I am having a great time preparing the family lore talk. Using the case of John Fawkner's three previously unknown wives, I will be showing how family lore can be partially true, exaggerated or incomplete. If you haven't already registered, get yourself to the Jamboree website (http://www.scgsgenealogy.com/Jamboree/2012jam-home.htm).

Next on my agenda is the 2013 Federation of Genealogical Society conferences in Birmingham in August. So you can't get to IGHR? You can still do some genealogy in Birmingham. I will be presenting a version of the Fawkner story there, plus offering a Society Day talk on defining mission and standards for society journals. Learn more at http://www.fgs.org/2012conference/.

The most urgent beginning of summer news is this: Registration opens Saturday, June 2, for next January's Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy. I will be there leading a case study exercise in Course 10 -- the genealogy practicum course coordinated by Angela McGhie and Kimberly Powell. This course opened to rave reviews last January. The other instructors for the 2013 are Tom Jones, J. Mark Lowe, Stefani Evans and William Litchman. But, there's more. Yes, there are 10 other courses to choose from. And, if you get your homework done early, you can hang out in the Family History Library two blocks away.  Afterall, it will be January -- a great time of year for some indoors genealogy exercise.