CNYGS All Day Meeting Saturday April 16

A week from Saturday is once again the Central New York Genealogical Society (CNYGS) meeting. The month of April is always a daylong meeting for CNYGS. This year we are in for a special treat.

The guest speaker is a prolific writer in many genealogy magazines, especially those put out by Moorshead Ltd. I have often jokingly played a game with her at conferences when she is standing in their booth behind a display of recent magazines. Sometimes she can pick out one that she doesn’t have an article in, but often she can’t. She also often teams up with Thomas MacEntee to present virtual Genealogy Boot camps on various topics. I am, of course, talking about Lisa Alzo who comes to us from nearby Ithaca, New York.

Lisa Alzo*

Here is a schedule of what is happening from the CNYGS promotional email:

9:00 – 10:30am “Packrat or Genealogist? Effective Methods for Organizing Your Family History Research.” Are you drowning in a sea of papers, documents, old photographs and other research materials?  This talk will cover how to organize family history documents, photographs, etc. for quick retrieval. Traditional methods and computer technology will be featured along with ways for distributing/sharing this information with others.

10:30 – 12:00 “Writing Your Family History Step-by-Step.” As genealogists we often focus on facts and uncover so much information that our research produces nothing but boring lists. In searching for the “facts” it is easy to overlook how historical events influenced our ancestors’ lives. This workshop covers how to bring your family tree to life by placing your own family stories in an historical context, how to organize your material and divide your writing tasks into small manageable pieces, and effective ways to illustrate where your family fits in with local, national and world history. As time permits, participants will have time to work on a selection of writing exercises.

12:00 – 1:15  Lunch: available on-site, bring your own, or visit a local restaurant.

1:15 - 2:15pm “The Write Stuff: Using Nonfiction Writing Techniques to Write a Better Family History.” As genealogists we often focus on facts and uncover so much information that our research produces nothing but boring lists. But do you really know what happened between the dashes of your ancestors’ lives? How can you share that information in a compelling and interesting way? This session will discuss how to using nonfiction writing techniques to produce a “can’t put down” family history that will keep the pages turning for generations.

2:30 – 3:30 PM- “Family History Writing Made Easier: Cloud-Based Tools Every Genealogist Can Use” Telling your family’s story is now so much easier thanks to a number of cloud-based notetaking and writing tools and apps you can access from home, your netbook or iPad, and even your smartphone. Learn about the latest tech tools and writing apps for bringing your family’s story to life!

 * Photo from Lisa's website, used with permission.