Track: Skill Building

Tracks at the TxSGS 2019 Family History Conference are designed to help you concentrate on a specific area of research or skill development. Use this information as you plan your schedule. 

All lectures included in your registration if you sign up for the full conference. If your register for a single day, all lectures on that are included. Workshops are optional and have limited seating. You must register in advance. Lunches with speakers are also optional and must be purchased in advance. These may be selected during registration or added before September 30.

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Sessions: Skill Building

Expand your abilities beyond the basics! Learn how to analyze facts and multiple record sets to uncover hidden stories, organize your genealogy for effective research, develop advanced search strategies, and more.

Friday, 2:30 pm to 3:30 pm – Organizing Your Genealogy While Downsizing and Planning for Your Retirement, Devon Noel Lee
Are you drowning in so much research that you’re wasting time and not climbing your family tree? Are you concerned that no one will want your research when you’re finished with it? Learn how to organize your research with an eye toward efficiency and preserving for the future. (All levels)

Friday, 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm – Teasing Out the Hidden Story Behind the Genealogical Facts, Pam Vestal
One of the biggest challenges we face when writing family histories is how to turn the bare facts into tales worthy of being read, showing that our ancestors were real people, not just names, dates, and places. By digging deeply into the genealogical details, we can bring their stories to life. (All levels)

Saturday, 9:00 am to 10:00 am – Using Digital Libraries: Search Strategies for Family Historians, Elizabeth O’Neal
Looking for books about your family history? You may be able to find them without leaving the comfort of your home! Millions of books have already been digitized and are free to use as well as download to your personal library. Learn where to find the best digital book collections, how to strategically search them, and how to save your finds to your computer or cloud storage for later reference. (Beginner, Intermediate)

Sunday, 9:00 am to 10:00 am – Reconstructing Communities Using Genealogical Resources, Ari Wilkins
Recreating communities can provide rich and insightful details about an ancestor’s life and surroundings. This lecture will demonstrate ways to combine data from census records, Sanborn maps, and city directories. (Beginner)

Sunday, 10:30 am to 11:30 am – Women’s Suffrage: Their Rights, Roles, and Limitations, Michael Strauss
Life for the early American woman was often burdened with setbacks. With no voting rights, limited educational opportunities, and virtually no legal identity, women sought to be equals in society. Explore the history of women from colonial times to the twentieth century using numerous genealogical records from English common law to citizenship and suffrage as women gained the right to vote. (Beginner, Intermediate)

Sunday, 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm – Making Molehills out of Mountains: Organizing Your Research Piles, Cari Taplin
Organization allows researchers to better utilize research time. In addition to time management techniques, learn methods for organizing documents and notes as well as how to build a better research log. Being organized either digitally or on paper gives you more time for the thrill of the chase and stops you from repeating research steps you’ve done before. Turn those mountainous piles into organized files! (All levels)

Skill Building Workshops (Seating limited, $30, must be registered in advance)

Friday, 9:00 am to 11:00 am – Descendancy Research: Another Pathway to Genealogy, Michael Strauss
Genealogists are often taught that the only way to successfully research a family line is to search backwards through time, going back as far as one can. This lecture assumes a new focus on research by tracing all the descendants of an ancestral couple to present. In addition, we will examine the methodology for finding living persons who may hold the key to your family history research. (Beginner, Intermediate)

Friday, 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm – Overcoming Record Loss, Kelvin Meyers
We all face it: record loss. Whether the courthouse burned; the clerk tossed them; the relative, autograph hunter, lawyer, or surveyor took them; they succumbed to heat, humidity, insects, fading ink, or war; or distance from the courthouse was a barrier to their creation – the records that we want – the records that could answer our questions aren’t there. The solution: in many cases it’s possible to overcome the problem, but it requires diligence, perseverance, and willingness to look beyond the obvious. (Intermediate)