H is for Help Posted 10 April 2017 by Tessa KeoughAll during April we are blogging the praises of all the features, benefits, and resources available here at our Guild Website. Over the past two years our brilliant Website team, led by Guild members Kim Baldacchino and Ken Mycock, have been hard at work setting up the underlying structure, adding new material, and migrating/updating material from our old website. With so much construction and renovation going on, at times some of us might feel a bit lost. When that happens to me, I’m reminded of the Beatles tune – Help. Sometimes we simply need somebody to answer our questions or help us find what we are looking for. If this happens to you, from now on look no further than (cleverly titled) Help, found on the Guild Website’s drop down menu. Clicking on Help opens up a wealth of assistance: Instructions on how to reset your password All the contact information you need – if you have a specific issue or question, the contact person is a clickable link away AND we have posted the answers to 22 of the most frequently asked questions Video tutorials and guides to help you navigate the Guild Website, set up your Profile, and use the Guild Forums An alphabetical index (searchable) to all new posts, profiles, events, and pages An update on the status of our website migration Postholder and Web Editor guides (or logistics for working with WordPress on the Website) So the next time you are here at the Guild Website and feel a bit lost – perhaps you need to contact a postholder, or find out where [blank] is, or learn how to do [blank] – know that Help is just a click away. Give it a try!
G is for GoToWebinar Posted 8 April 2017 by Tessa KeoughYou may have noticed that the Guild took a break from hosting monthly online hangouts. Part of the reason was individual Guild members’ availability to plan and host a get-together and part of the reason was the logistics and quality issues associated with hangouts. The Guild recently set up a GoToWebinar account that we plan to use for pre-recorded as well as live webinars. We intend to showcase topics of special interest to all those focusing on surname research and one-name studies. The webinars will be available to members of the genealogy public during the webinar and for a limited time after the recording is uploaded to our Guild Website. Of course, the recordings will always be available to Guild members. Hosting a webinar series focusing on surname research and one-name studies continues the Guild’s mission of education, which is one of our responsibilities as a registered charity. In addition to our monthly Guild Webinar Series (and we are seeking ideas for a more catchy name – so put on your creative thinking caps and help us out!), we plan to take advantage of our GoToWebinar account for the following: Guild members Karen Rogers (Australia) and Michelle Patient (New Zealand) will continue to host their Surname Saturdays Webinars focusing on “Down Under” research Guild members Peggy Chapman (Canada) and Tessa Keough (USA) will host Quarterly Workshops/Meetings focusing on North American research Guild members Paul Featherstone (England) & Jim Benedict (Canada) will host the Members’ Website Project Meetings If national or regional representatives are interested in hosting a virtual Guild meeting, they can contact the Marketing Action Team (MAT – and no we don’t have superpowers) for assistance with scheduling and hosting a meeting Internal meetings of Guild subcommittees or teams can also be scheduled and held with the GoToMeeting feature of our account There are a number of additional ways we can take advantage of our GoToWebinar account. During our internal testing, we have found both the sound and image quality much better than hangouts. We should have an easier time with notifications, email invitations and reminders, the ability to include guest speakers and presentations, handouts and poll questions, and chat logs. If you have any suggestions of topics for our Guild Webinar Series or if you would be interested in sharing your knowledge and expertise by presenting during one of our webinars, please contact MAT or add a comment at the topic entitled Webinars & Meetings at the Guild WebForum. And watch this space for updates – we are almost ready to kick things off with GoToWebinar!
F is for FamilySearch Initiative Posted 7 April 2017 by Karen RogersF is for FamilySearch Initiative. Many of us wonder what might happen to our one-name studies in the future or what we would do if we had a hard-drive crash or a cloud service glitch. Two of the pillars of our one-name studies are to publish and preserve our work. When thinking about preserving your one-name study, why not take advantage of the Guild’s partnership with FamilySearch. The partnership is a way of preserving our one-name studies by uploading our trees into the genealogies section of the FamilySearch website. Thanks to the efforts of Guild member Marie Byatt, this FamilySearch Initiative is a free and secure method of preserving our one-name studies while sharing the fruits of our labor with the larger family history community. If someone is searching for your surname, their results will include your data. If you want to learn more about the FamilySearch Initiative and just how easy it is to publish and preserve your one-name study, visit the Guild Website. Simply use the drop down menu and select Resources, then select Guild Services, and click on Preservation with FamilySearch. While you are there, why not check out the other great services available to you as a Guild member! Some key features of the FamilySearch Initiative: (1) Your data will be preserved and FamilySearch will handle all upgrades to technology/server features, (2) the contributing Guild member is the only person who can update, replace or delete information – you have full control of your family trees, (3) it’s a simple process of uploading a GEDCOM (more information and instructions are at the Guild Website), (4) it serves as a useful backup for all your hard work, and (5) it is FREE. So why not have a look at some of your fellow Guild members’ data that is already available on FamilySearch. Marie Byatt serves as the Guild Co-coordinator for this partnership and is happy to help any Guild member with the process. Thanks Marie!
E is for Events Posted 6 April 2017 by Tessa KeoughWant to meet up with other Guild members? Want to share the Guild with family historians around the world? Want to learn how to use specific resources and records? Well then, you should check out events at the Guild Website. What kind of events am I talking about? Conference/AGM – held annually with speakers from the family history community, including Guild members. Our 2017 conference theme was Port and Starboard and our 2018 conference theme is National Treasures. Do you have an idea for a presentation or want to help the conference committee organize this event? Then reach out to the conference co-chairs. Seminars – held quarterly with speakers and topics selected by the seminar subcommittee, these one day events focus on specific topics. Recent past topics include DNA, Creating & Developing Your Website, and 20th Century Records as History. 2017 topics include Name of the Game, What’s My Line, Catalogs, Collections & Archives, and the West Country Movement. Knowledge Zone – Bob Cumberbatch and his team, who work their recording magic at conference and seminars, have posted recordings, slides, and handouts from conference and seminar events held from 2006 forward. Be sure to check out the Knowledge Zone for 209 Guild conference and seminar recordings. You can search by topic, presenter or date. [HINT – that is where you will find the 2017 conference recordings – already available to our worldwide membership.] Event Photos – our proof that the event happened! If you coordinate, co-host, or attend a Guild event, we want the photos. Whether you take photos of a regional meeting, your booth/table or presentation at a genealogy fair, national or international conference, Guild members enjoying themselves at the annual conference, or the crowds chatting up Guild members at WDYTYA?Live – memorialize it with event photos and share them at the Guild website. Add/Edit Events – no matter event what you plan to attend to help spread the word about the Guild, why not add that event to the Guild’s calendar (of events). If you add that event, other members may see the event listing and offer to help out and/or meet up with fellow Guild members. Where to find events? At the drop down menu click on Events. AND to check out the Knowledge Zone, click on Events, then Seminar Events and look to the right-hand side of the page for the clickable link (as shown below).