Thrifty Thursday - Free Genealogy Webinars!

I've shared on this blog previously my deep love for the Legacy Family Tree Webinars but I truly believe the wealth of the free genealogy education they provide is worth repeating.

So for this Thrifty Thursday post I give you the 2013 schedule of Webinars from the Legacy website.  There are still 8 months left in 2013 and a slew of webinars to choose from.

Register today and increase your knowledge for FREE!

P.S. Here's a tip....be sure and sign in to your webinar 15-20 minutes before start time to be sure you get a spot.  Attendee's are limited to appx. 1000.

Thrifty Thursday - FREE Webinar with Ol' Myrt!

On Monday, Jan 30, 2012 at 10 p.m. EST  join Ol' Myrt for  a FREE online webinar entitled Google Reader UPDATE.

Here is Myrt's description of the webinar. It's about time you used GOOGLE READER to pull in posts from your favorite genealogy bloggers. Since our last webinar on this topic, the good folks at Google changed their interface. This "workshop" webinar will demo in real time how to set up Google Reader with five basic blog feeds and create folders among other options of this free service. You've been meaning to get your blog reading better organized, so SIGN UP NOW!

Register by following this link.

Thrifty Thursday - GeneaWebinars

As I discussed in my last Thrifty Thursday post, I take advantage of as many FREE educational opportunities as I can as a way to stretch my genealogy dollars.

One of my favorite sites to visit is GeneaWebinars.  Created by Pat Richley-Erickson otherwise known as Ol' Myrt of Dear Myrtle Genealogy Blog, the site was designed as one space to organize all the genealogy webinars on the internet.  It's a one stop shop for those of us looking to further our genealogy education from the comfort of our home and/or those of us watching our budgets.

The calendar on this site lists tons of webinars available and marks those that are FREE!  For example, on the January 2012 calendar, 10 webinars are listed.  Everything from "How to Make Money from your Genealogy Blog" to "Kentucky Genealogy Crash Course".

To make sure you don't miss any upcoming Webinars be sure to click the + Google Calendar button on the lower right corner of the GeneaWebinars calendar and this will add the webinars to your personal Google Calendar!

Thrifty and organized!  That's a double win!

Follow Friday - Southern California Genealogical Society

So why is girl from the Hoosier state excited about following the Southern California Genealogical Society website? Because of the Jamboree Extension Series of course!

As a follow up to the popular extension series of 2011 the 2012 series will begin tomorrow, January 7th, with the FREE webinar "Me and My Laptop: Getting the Most Out of Your Laptop While Researching Onsite" presented by Linda Woodward Geiger.  The description says:

"Tips for making onsite research more efficient and productive using DropBox (or similar cloud) in conjunction with spreadsheets, word processing programs, genealogy software, and more."


Count me in!  If you want to register for the webinar follow the link here. 

To see the complete listing of webinars  click here.

Thrifty Thursday - Free January Webinars!

There is nothing thriftier than FREE and I love all the free webinars available to genealogists!

In January alone I will attend 3 webinars.

Yesterday I spent my lunch hour attending the Legacy Family Tree Webinar "Digital Books and Sites for Genealogists" presented by James Tanner of Genealogy's Star blog.  If you missed it, no worries, it should be available to listen to FREE for the next 10 days at this link.

On Monday, January 9th, I'll come home from work, make dinner, change into my p.j.'s and hop on my laptop at 7pm EST to attend the webinar "Introduction to the 1940 Federal Census" presented by Constance Potter and the Friends of the National Archives Southeast Region.  To sign up for the webinar follow this link.

Finally, on Tuesday, January 10th I'll follow the same schedule as Monday and tune in at 8pm EST to attend Thomas MacEntee's webinar entitled "10 Ways to Jump Start Your Genealogy in 2012" sponsored by the Illinois State Genealogical Society.  To register follow this link.

If you are looking to increase your knowledge while watching your budget, be sure to check out all the FREE educational opportunities on the web!

 

Wordless Wednesday - Organized Genealogy Files

Back in November, over at Legacy Family Tree Webinars, I attended a webinar presented by Mary Hill entitled "FamilyRoots Organizer System".  Over Christmas break I implemented the color coding system with GREAT results!  This is just a small sample of what I was able to accomplish!

The webinar is now available to purchase for $9.95 by following the link here.

Thankful Thursday - Free Genealogy Education

It might seem a silly thing to be thankful for but with two sons in college at the same time my dollars are s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d thin these days!

But that doesn't stop me from taking advantage of many genealogy learning opportunities available.  I just look for those with a price tag to fit my current budget.....FREE!

I did a quick look back at all the learning resources online in the past year that I have taken advantage of and am blown away!  Keep in mind these are just the ones I can remember (this middle age brain isn't what it use to be!)

I have listened to:

12 Legacy Family Tree Webinars
 3 Explorinars by Thomas MacEntee
 1 Ancestry.com Webinar
 1 class on the Civil War recorded by Yale Univeristy
 1 PBS Documentary on the War of 1812 available online
Countless Friday nights listening to Geneabloggers Radio
Many Podcasts of Genealogy Gems

Not to mention all I've learned from the 100+  genealogy blogs that I follow! And the year isn't over yet!  I still have two more Webinars I am registered for in December!

All this FREE education has allowed me to save my genealogy education dollars for my first national genealogy conference - NGS in Cincinnati in May!

Today I am so thankful for all of you in the genealogy community who share your expertise with all of us.  The price tag may be free but it is PRICELESS to me.

Tech Tuesday - Webinar Overview - Backing Up Your Genealogy Data

As a part of my plan to increase my research skills I have been taking advantage of something new to me - Webinars!  Wow, what a world I have been missing out on!

On my lunch hour last week I listened to the archived webinar presented by Thomas MacEntee - "Backing Up Your Genealogy Data"  As everyone knows, Thomas is a wonderful speaker and it turns out he is just as gifted as a webinar instructor!

I have to admit to being lax about backing up my data on a consistent basis.  I thought the webinar would give me hints on developing a back-up plan and it did.  But I learned so much more!  I now have a firm grasp of what "cloud computing" is and, I am proud to say, am the new owner of a Dropbox account!

The biggest take away from the webinar for me was identifying where my genealogy files reside on my computer.  In addition to my FTM files I have files of genealogical photos, documents, emails I'd hate to lose in addition to all those favorite bookmarks.  It's been a long process finding all the files I need to backup but, as Thomas pointed out, my research represents a large investment for me in terms of both time and money. 

I need to start treating it as such.

If you want to purchase a copy of the webinar Backing Up Your Genealogy Files visit Legacy Family Tree Webinars for more information.  And while you are there be sure to sign up for Thomas's upcoming April webinars:

April 6, 2011 - Building a Research Toolbox. Are you overwhelmed with the number of online resources for genealogical research? Are you constantly working with unorganized bookmarks or favorites? Printing out lists of websites you use most? Learn how to build a research toolbox that is organized, easy-to-use, and can be accessed from almost anywhere. Presented by professional genealogist and Geneablogger.com's Thomas MacEntee, participants will learn not only some of the most important online resources for genealogical research, but also how to organize these resources into an easy-to-access and portable virtual toolbox.

April 21, 2011 - Dropbox for Genealogists. Are you familiar with Dropbox – a program that provides 2 gigabytes of online storage for free? Learn how to sign up for Dropbox, install the program and get started ensuring the safety and security of your genealogy research data. Seems too good to be true, right? Two gigabytes of online storage for free? And storage that can synchronize files across your computer, your laptop and even your mobile device? It is true, and you can learn how to leverage the power of Dropbox – a free online program to back up your genealogy data and even share files with friends and family.

See you in class!