Good morning, everyone. Welcome to RootsTech 2018. This is session RT9800, Online Genealogy for Beginners and Beyond. I'm Lisa Alzo. And I will be your presenter for this session. Before we begin, just a few housekeeping items, especially for those of you who are new to RootsTech. Again, the session number is RT9800. You can consult your syllabus for the handout. If you don't know how to get to that, you will download the RootsTech app for your device. Or, you can see the RootsTech website for more information. Please follow the policy for social media. I don't mind if you tweet about it, or post comments on Facebook, just as long as you respect the copyright of the presentation. And there is no recording at all without prior permission. That includes audio. And please, do not take photographs of the slides. This session is being recorded. Also, if you could please save your questions until the end. And we'll leave time for any questions that you may have. So I'd like to welcome you again. I'm really happy that you're here this morning for this session. So just to give you an overview of what we're going to cover in the brief 50 minutes or so that we have, we're going to show you how to jump-start the genealogy research process. I will share with you best practices for beginners, how to navigate some of the more popular online databases and websites. Just a basic overview, enough to get you familiar with them. Where to start your research for free. Because we all love free, right? And some additional tips and resources to help you along the way. My goal is to get you excited about your genealogy journey. So how many of you that are beginners have become interested in genealogy--family history--in a more traditional sense? Meaning, building a family tree, or becoming interested because, maybe, you inherited a pre-done genealogy, or you had information from family members, or you're just curious? How many of you came to this traditionally, in that way? OK, that's a good amount. And that's how I became interested in genealogy. I didn't even know what genealogy was. But I've been doing it for 28 years. And I started out as a writer. I was studying for my Master's of Fine Arts degree in nonfiction writing at the University of Pittsburgh, and I needed a topic for my thesis. And at the time, I was learning more about my Slovak ancestors. My ancestry is Slovak. Even though my name is Alzo, everybody thinks I'm Italian. But no, and I have the DNA to prove it. But I am Slovak. And it's Alzo in Slovakia. And I wanted a topic for my thesis, and I was writing about my Slovak grandmother coming to the United States in 1922. So I had to do a lot of genealogy research the old-fashioned way. Meaning traveling to repositories, going to libraries, talking to relatives. Getting the records by correspondence, and sometimes microfilm. So it's come a long way in those 28 years. And I'm still doing it. So a word of warning, you will become hooked. It will become an obsession for you. How many of you have come to genealogy because you took a DNA test? Anybody? Anybody see the commercials and say, oh, I need to do that. That looks interesting. So DNA has really revolutionized the genealogy field. And it's a wonderful tool that we can use to connect with people. And so there are many wonderful classes here at RootsTech on DNA testing. But a lot of genealogists, now, are coming to it because of DNA. And they're curious about their heritage, and their ancestry. But then you have to learn how to get the records to back up those DNA results. And that's what we're here to teach you. So going online can be an intimidating, scary process sometimes. There's a lot of information out there. Most of it is good, some of it is not as good. But we're going to help you sort through that. We're going to teach you some of the best places to begin. Now, I have another question for you. How many of you just start typing your names into databases? Anybody? Yeah, I did that too. And that is not always the best plan. And we're going to talk about that. But we all wish we had an easy button, right? We want to push that button, and our ancestors magically appear. And our charts. And we want it to look as easy as it looks on Who Do You Think You Are? Or Genealogy Roadshow. Or, we'd like Dr. Gates to come, and give us our genealogy, right? No, it's not that easy. And I've been doing this for 28 years. I still have brick walls. And I'm still hoping that those walls will come tumbling down. So you will have brick walls. Your problems will not be solved with an easy button. The first step in genealogy research is to write down what you already know. And that could be a lot, if you inherited genealogy research, or you talked to your parents and grandparents before they passed away. That might be very little. But you have to write down what you know. Start with yourself. Your name, your birthdate, where you were born. Your parents, if you have that information. If you have your grandparents, and you're lucky to go back further, write all of that down. Make notes about that. And then you're going to use that as your jumping off point. It's also very important to check home and family sources. Scour those basements, and attics, and boxes of information that you may have inherited from relatives, or your parents, or grandparents. And when I started, my mother--who is pictured in this photo--was my best source of information. She passed away in 2000, but I am so happy that I interviewed her. I did six oral history interviews with my mother. And I taped them. I didn't have an iPhone, or a video camera, at that time. I used a little mini cassette recorder. But I got her voice on tape. And I asked her questions about my grandparents. And luckily, my mother was also a pack rat, and she saved everything. She had my grandparents' birth certificates, and passports, and things like that. And so you want to go on a scavenger hunt. And maybe you don't have the information. Maybe a cousin, or a relative, does. And that's why, when we're connecting with cousins through DNA, or by building our family trees, maybe somebody has those pictures, or those documents, or those clippings. I was--I was fortunate in getting this little receipt from my paternal grandfather's papers from a cousin. And it was money that he sent back to Slovakia because he was working in the United States, and he sent back money to his parents. It had their address. It had my grandmother's maiden name on it. So you have to look everywhere for this information, before you even log online. Because you may be doing work that you already have. So it's very important. Photographs. I was able to get a picture of my paternal grandparents' wedding photo. And it was only because I reached out to my cousins, and asked, where, who has this information, who has this picture? And somebody provided it to me. So you need a research strategy. And this is important. And this is why I say, don't just start typing names into boxes. You want to write down who, what, when, where, and why. Who do I want to research? Maybe it's your paternal grandmother, or it's your great-grandfather. What do you want to learn about them? Do you want to learn where they were born and baptized? Do you want to learn what was the date they arrived in America, their passenger list, their immigration information? Or where your grandparents were married? Write down, define what you're trying to look for, and when. What time period are you looking at? And it's very important, because our immigrant ancestors came at different time periods. And laws affected their leaving their homeland and their settling in North America. So what were the laws of the time? The local laws, the national laws? It really impacts things like naturalization, and immigration passenger lists, and vital records. Each state has a different date for when vital records--birth, marriage, and death--it was mandatory to record them. Each state is different. So maybe you're searching in multiple states. So you're going to find different records of different time periods. And this also affects what goes online, and what's available. And also where. The place is extremely important, especially if you're trying to trace immigrant origins back to the home country. You must have the name of the ancestral town or village. You will not get far if you don't. So you're looking at all your American records, or all your Canadian records--if you're North America, it's US and Canada. But you want to get that information, because, generally, the naturalization petitions, or some of the other vital records, may have that name of the town or village on it. So where is very important. And why? And I don't mean, why are you doing genealogy? I mean, why did your ancestors make the decisions that they made? Why did they choose to leave their homeland, and come to a strange country? What were the historical impacts? We talk about push-pull factors of immigration and emigration. What brought them? What were they fleeing, what were they leaving? So this is all very important before you get started. And then you want to set yourself up for research success. You've probably seen in the exhibit hall, or throughout classes at RootsTech, that there are a lot of ways to record and share and organize your information. And so you have to find a system that works for you, and stick to it. And it's very important to log your searches, and keep track of the people that you find. And so you want to start by building a family tree. If you haven't already done this, you'll want to choose a genealogy software program. I will not tell you which one to use. You can experiment. There are several different ones. You can use Family Tree Maker, you can use Re-union you can use Roots Magic. You can use Legacy Family Tree. You can use other programs to keep track of your information. Now many of you--how many of you have created online trees? So, online trees are important, as well. My recommendation to you, though, is to have a local copy of that tree that you work with in your genealogy software program. Then you export it to what's called a gedcom. G-E-D-C-O-M, gedcom. And that is what you will upload to these tree sites. And you can make all your changes and verifications in your program, and then replace that file. Because you will have updates, you will have information. And so online family trees are good. But don't rely solely on the online family tree. And there's a lot of reasons for that. One, online family trees can have a lot of errors in them. Also, what happens if a company changes their focus, or is bought out, or closes down? Things happen in the technology world and so you have to be prepared for that. And also, always read the terms of service. The TOS, Terms of Service. Because, what can they do with your information? What happens if they go out of business? What are your rights? What can you do to get your information off that online family tree? So it's very important to do that. Sample research logs. So I'm going to show you--I want you to keep a research log. And so you may have family tree software that keeps track of tasks, and where you enter your data. But I create a separate research log. And I will show you some specific examples of the columns in just a minute. But I keep a research log. And I use Microsoft Excel, because I can sort it, I can create columns. It's very easy to take it with me when I'm going on the road to research, and so forth. I also use Microsoft Excel because I have a Google Drive account with my Gmail email account, and I can upload that. And so if I go somewhere and have to use, say, the library's computer, I can still access my research log, because I can put a copy in the cloud. And so you can use Microsoft Word, you can use whatever works for you. But you want to record specific things about your online searches. And the first thing you want to do is have a column, the date that you start searching. You want to have the name of the research task. So that's this one, right here. So for example, if it's 1940 census, I want to find my grandfather or my grandmother in the 1940 census, you put that down. Then you put down the repository name, or the website. So maybe you're searching ancestry.com, or whatever website you're using. I also put the URL of that website so that I can easily go back to it. If you're using a repository, a physical repository, or a microfilm number, you can list that as well. The location or call number for a book, et cetera. And if it's online, I put online. So that keeps track of where I got that information. And then, other columns that I have include the source citation information. And this is the one thing that I have to stress, especially if you're beginners. Please cite your sources right from the start. And I tell you this from experience, because when I started, I was a bad, bad genealogist. I didn't really give details in my source citations. And I had to go back and look that up again, and redo that, as I was entering information into my family tree program. You want to make sure it's sourced. And so, source information, when you go in an online database--and I will show you an example of this--copy the source citation for that record collection, and paste that into your research log. Then, I put the date I completed the task. When I believe I found the correct ancestor, of the correct record, and I say, it's a positive result. Or on that date, if I don't find them, I say, negative result. I didn't find them in the 1940s census. What's my next step? And then I make comments. I can put in the comments section what I did. So for example, some of my research takes me offline. Because not everything is online, contrary to popular belief. So I have to research in repositories in archives in Slovakia. My cousin went to an archive in Slovakia. She went to the archive, and she retrieved my grandfather's civil registration birth record for me. So I made that note in my comments, that she obtained it for me. Who gave it to me, where I got the information. It seems like a lot of work. But it will save you so much time in the long run. So set up your research log to begin with in the format that you desire, whether it's Excel or Word or whatever it is. And then you can continue. So I will be doing a presentation tomorrow at the Genealogy Gems booth at 10:15 on research logs--specifically how to set one up, how to get templates, and where to use them. So I will do more information on that. In terms of citing your sources, Evidence Explained is the website that you want to go to. It is in the handout. Evidence Explained is also a book by Elizabeth Shown, S-H-O-W-N, Mills, M-I-L-L-S. Elizabeth Shown Mills wrote the book Evidence Explained. And it's how to cite every genealogy source that you will find, whether it's your interview with Aunt Betty, your census research on Ancestry, or your DNA test results. Evidence Explained is a big, thick book. There's a PDF version. Every library, generally, has a copy, especially if it's a genealogy library, or you can buy it online. Also, many booksellers will carry it. But EvidenceExplained.com is the website. And that is what you want to look to for proper source citations. So now, let's talk about some online sources to get you started. Now that you have the best practices, we'll move to the online resources. My number one site that I want to tell you about is Cyndi's List. And again, this is in the handout, but it's Cyndi, C-Y-N-D-I, Cyndi's List. It's an online list by a genealogist named Cyndi Ingle. She's had this website since 1996. And what it is is, it's a compilation of all the genealogy-related websites that are out there. And I think she has over 300,000-some links on her website. Now, Cyndi does not store any data. There are no records on her website. She will link you to external websites, where you can get that information. What she does is organize it into categories. So you can click on the categories. And you will see in the next screen what the categories, some of them are. And then you will see subcategories. And it's very neatly and nicely organized. So how many of you have typed your names into Google, or something you're looking for, for your ancestors, into Google? You know that you can get an overwhelming amount of results using Google. Cyndi's list is a better way to search for genealogy-related information, because it's only genealogy. And she verifies every link. So there's no bogus or wrong information, or bad sites that you will click on through her website. She verifies everything. And so Cyndi's List is organized into categories. So you can find a category for any topic. If you're looking for adoption, she has information. That you're looking for DNA testing, she has links to websites. And in the parentheses, she'll have the number of links per category. What I use Cyndi's List for is location research. So I will click on--she has links to every country. So if you're looking for Ireland, or you're looking for Italy, or you're looking for Germany, or for me, I look for Slovakia, she has links for those specific countries. And again, if you're looking to do state research--so if you're looking for Utah, or Pennsylvania, or New York, you will click on that, and she will have a link to the vital records office where you can get vital records. I also use Cyndi's List for occupations. So I find my ancestors in the census, and I see they have an unusual occupation. Or I want to learn more about their occupation. I use Cyndi's List. My grandfather was a coal miner. She has a category on coal mining, with websites. And people create their own websites. There are many websites out there that are created by individuals, or societies, or groups, that are very, very informative. And so they may not come up with your Google search. Cyndi's List will get you to those websites. Cyndi's List is one of my favorite starting points. You can spend the next year going through Cyndi's List. But it is a wonderful resource. And it's completely free. And it's been around since 1996. So you can follow Cyndi on social media, and learn more about her. So three key things to take away about Cyndi's List. It's free, since 1996. She has no records on her site, only links to external sites. And it's a great starting point to learn about any genealogy subject. So that is Cyndi's List. Next, we'll talk about FamilySearch. And so, it is free. And this is, again, one of the best websites to start with when you're a beginner. I know that there are many FamilySearch family history consultants in this room. So you are familiar with the website, I am sure. But I will take you through some basic steps on what you need to know. So FamilySearch is the website for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And hopefully, while you're here at RootsTech, those of you that are out-of-towners, you have visited the massive Family History Library, and have seen all the wonderful resources that are over there. FamilySearch is the digital portion of that. And what you want to do, when you first go to the website, there are many components on that, you want to create a free account if you have not done that. And so that's way up at the top, at the right. You will click on Free Account. Set it up with an email address and password. And then you will be ready to go. You will need that free account to view records, to view images on the site, to do your family tree. FamilySearch has a family tree feature to record stories, to do other things on the FamilySearch website. You will need that free account. So you want to do that first. There's a search tab at the top. And that's where you're going to find a lot of the information. And so when you pull down that search tab, there are different options. And we're going to go through a couple of those options right now. You can also click in the middle, and click on search, or click on the family tree, and so forth. But you want to get that free account, again, so that you're ready to go. And then you will go to what's called the FamilySearch Wiki. So under the search box, there's something called the FamilySearch Wiki. How many of you have used Wikipedia to look up information? So Wikipedia is an online knowledge base where you can pretty much type in any topic, and get information on it. FamilySearch is a family history research wiki, and it's compiled by the experts. People that work at the library. People that are other experts in other areas. And there's a lot of content on this wiki. You can search by a place or topic, by typing something into that search box. You can also click on the countries. You can also go over to the left-hand side and click Browse Wiki Content, or Browse by Country. I always go to the Browse by Country. And then I go for a place, so that I can find more specific information on that place. So when you click on Browse by Country, you will get a screen that looks like this. And you can go down and click Hungary, or Germany, or Italy, or United States. And then, when you go to United States, you'll get a breakdown by state. Then, that state wiki page will have information on counties. And it will have all sorts of great information for you. And so, when you go you--you click on that country. And each country has different amounts of information. Some are very robust. Some are very minimal. So it just depends on where you're searching. But the wiki, this is an example for Slovakia, where I search. And so you have things on the right-hand side that are categories, like civil records, census records, things like that. Anything in blue, you can click on, and it will take you to another page of information. It will have some getting started links. It will have some other miscellaneous links available for that particular country, or page, or topic. If you will scroll down to the middle, you'll see--sometimes you'll see a map. Sometimes, you'll see this button that says Online Records. If you click that blue button, it will take you to a screen that will show you a lot of the records that are online. And so you'll go to a screen that kind of looks like this. And it'll say--whatever's in blue, you can click on. And so for example, for Slovakia, FamilySearch has digitized a lot of the church and synagogue books. And that is what I want to look at. So I click, and it'll take me to a screen where I can find information. They also have links to external sites. So for example, this Virtual Cemeteries of Slovakia is not a FamilySearch site. But there's a link, and I can follow that link. They also have, of course, the search boxes where you can search for their digital content. And we'll talk about that in a minute. But that is a good way to find out what is available online. So look for that big, blue button that says Online Records. And that's through the wiki. You can also search, under that search tab when you pull it down, something called the catalog. And this is really important, because, as I stressed before, not everything is online. So FamilySearch has 20 billion rolls of microfilm in their vaults. So they're bringing a lot of those records online. They're indexing. Maybe some of you have been involved in the indexing of records. Also, they have cameras in the field, now, to digitize records in archives. But the catalog is the best way to find out what is available, and how you can access it. So in the catalog, you can search for a place. And I usually go and type a place name in. And sometimes it will autofill in, and then you'll select the place. And then you can see what's available. So I can go and read what other collections for Slovakia they may have for my ancestors, for what I want to look at. What's really important, here, is the source citation. So this is what you want to copy. When you get into a collection, and you see the record, copy that source citation. You can click copy, and add it to your FamilySearch family tree. Or you can copy it, slide your mouse over, copy it. And you can then paste that into your research log. So that's what I always do. Before I even download any images, I get the source citation and I copy that. And so it's very easy to use. It's very user friendly. So for example, if I want to find records for Liverpool, Lancashire, England. That's where my husband's family is based. I type in, Liverpool. And it comes up with England, Lancashire, Liverpool. I hit the search button. And then it'll come up with other screens. And it'll give me a whole list of things that are available through FamilySearch. And say I want to find church records. I click on the church records link. And then, it will take me to another screen. And then it will tell me what's available, and I select that screen. And then I can drill down to the collection that I want. And so I can see that they have church records starting 1757 to 1878. I can scroll down, again--and what's really important is to scroll all the way down. Read the film notes. Read the availability. And so you'll see sometimes, here, it'll give you a film number or location. And it may have an icon there. And it may have a camera with a little search magnifying glass. And that will--you may see different icons in different collections. So you've got to know your icons. Number one, the camera with the magnifying glass means you can browse the image online. So FamilySearch has made them available in their digital collections. They may be name-searchable, they may be browse images only, or they may be an index-only collection. It varies. Now, you may see a little film icon. And it'll say, this item is available on microfilm at this family history center. What that means is, here in Utah. Here at the Family History Library. It used to be you could get the film sent to your local family history center. They no longer do that. So you have to either come out here, which is fun to do, and do the research yourself, or find somebody based in Utah that can get that microfilm copy for you. So not everything is online. Some of it is still microfilm only. You may see a camera icon with a key. That icon with the key means that you cannot browse or view that image from home. You will need to go to your local family history center and use a family history center computer to view that digital image. And I find this for some of the Ukrainian records that I use, some of the other restricted collection records. You may find those restrictions. And this is because of the agreement that FamilySearch has with that repository, or that archive. And so they have different agreements that are covering different types of records. And so if it is locked, there's a reason for it. So you go to your family history center, and ask the people there to help you view that image. FamilySearch also has the Learning Center, which is excellent. So again, under the Get Help button at the top right of the screen, there's an arrow. When you pull down that arrow, you will see options. So if you click on Learning Center, you will get this page that has--it's searchable. And you will be able to find topics on anything. Census records, getting started, organizing your genealogy, Hungary, research in Hungary, getting started in Irish genealogy, military. All sorts of videos, or PowerPoint presentations, or presentations that have handouts. There's a variety of materials. It's free, and it's in the Learning Center. So make sure that you're utilizing that. Go home and look at what the classes are. It's just a phenomenal resource. So three key things about FamilySearch. It's free, but you must have an account. Sign on with your account. They have digital records that you can search in their digital collection. Some have restrictions on them. They also have the catalog that you can search for the microfilms. They have the Wiki, and the Learning Center. So those are the highlights of FamilySearch. I encourage you to go to their sessions. And also to visit them in the exhibit hall if you have further questions. I'm going to talk about Google very, very briefly, because we do Google our ancestors. And one thing that Google has is it has this little button at the top that has these nine dots on it. These are the Google Apps. So Google is more than just a search engine. And if you click on that little icon there, you will get a screen--and several screens--that look like this. And you'll see things like Google Drive, Google Translate, YouTube, Search. You'll see things like Blogger, you'll see Earth, you'll see all these different products. And there are sessions here on using Google. But I just want to cover a couple of highlights of Google for genealogy. And the one thing I do want to mention is, you can go on to Google and get help for each of these apps. And so whether you're using Google on your phone, or your tablet, or your desktop, they will explain how to use each of these apps. So we're not going to spend a lot of time on that. But what I want to show you is, Google Alerts. Google has something called Alerts. And when you go into those apps, you can find it, or you can do google.com/alerts. If you have a Gmail account, it's very easy to sync with that. If you have another email account, you can still use it. But what you do is create alerts for information you're looking for. So how many of you would like to do genealogy in your sleep, because we don't have enough time to do it, right? Google Alerts will let you do that. You type in a name. So for example, I want to find out anything that comes online that might have information about my grandfather, John Alzo, in Duquesne, Pennsylvania. Because that's where he settled. I can create a string, a Google Alert, that will look for all those words, and turn up the results that have those. So maybe newspaper articles come online. Or other types of information. I've put in all my ancestors' names, and I've found some interesting things coming up with, my cousins will do something, and there'll be news about family members that are in the newspaper. And I'll get to see things that they do. And so Google Alerts. And I have one for myself. It's a good idea to put a Google Alert for your name. And because I have a website, and also because I'm on social media. Because you want to know what people are saying about you. And believe me, you cannot hide. If you do anything, public records, you may turn up in a Google search. So don't think you can hide. But Google is great for genealogy. And so I created an alert for RootsTech. RootsTech 2018. So I was getting notifications about all the wonderful things that were going to happen at RootsTech. So that's what I use Google Alerts for. If you have questions, you can see me afterwards and we'll talk more about that. The other app I use is Google Translate, because I do a lot of work in foreign records. And it has really improved, now. It used to be that it wasn't as good. But it is so accurate, now. It's really great. So if I'm going to Slovakia to meet my relatives, I want to learn how to say, "How are you?" And so I can type in, How are you? And then I can select from a list of languages. And I have it translate into Slovak. So, [SPEAKING SLOVAK] I will say to my relatives. And I can also then click on the sound icon, and it will pronounce it for me. So I can learn how to do it. And then, if you have the app on your phone, you can speak into it. It's just amazing what you can do with Google Translate, now. I don't usually use it for a really long blocks of text in my research, because sometimes it doesn't pick up regional dialects from Slovakia very accurately. But it is getting so much better. Or maybe you're researching in records, and you see things that you don't recognize. So, [SPEAKING POLISH] is the Polish word for parish books. This is something that I see all the time. What does that mean? OK, it means parish books. Church records. So this is really helpful if you're doing foreign research. So Google Translate is another app that I use quite a bit. Blogger. Anybody have a genealogy blog, here? Write a genealogy blog? Anybody read genealogy blogs? Anybody not know what a blog is? That's OK if you don't. A blog is an online page, diary, information space. And there are blogs on every subject under the sun. There are more than 3,000 genealogy and family history blogs. And you may see people walking around RootsTech with beads, or with a genealogy bloggers tribe button. That means we've been blogging about our family for many, many years. I write a blog called The Accidental Genealogist that talks about my journey in family history, and how I tie it in to writing. Every March--so we're in March now--I run a Fearless Females blogging prompt series on my blog. There are 31 prompts there that you can use to write about your female ancestors every day. And that's what I do on my blog. There are blogs on every topic. So if you type a subject into Google, chances are you're going to be getting a blog page, too, because there's key words that are used, and so forth. And so blogging is really, really a big thing. And it helps you find relatives. It's called cousin bait for a reason. If you write a blog, people will find you, because it gets pushed out into Google. And I've had relatives contact me saying, thank you for writing your blog. I had one of my Alzo cousins contact me in 2008. I never knew that this family in Slovakia existed. This woman in London contacted me, and said, we're cousins. My parents still live in the village. And I went there in 2010, and I met my relatives. I met her parents. Our grandfathers were brothers. And they--our grandfathers never even met, because my grandfather came to the US, and 12 years later his brother was born. And my grandfather never went back to Slovakia. So they corresponded and send pictures back and forth. But I found my cousins--my cousin--her grandfather and my grandfather were brothers. And we've been in contact ever since. We Skype every month. And I met my family. I had my cousin take a DNA test. It was just an amazing experience, all because I had a blog and she found me. So Blogger is a great--it's a free platform through Google that you can use to set up a blog. So three key things about Google. Create a free Gmail account. That will give you access to all of their apps, where you sign in for it. And then, you can explore all the different apps that are available, as I showed you. And set up those Google Alerts for your genealogy, because it's very useful. More about Google, again--Genealogy Gems booth. Lisa Louise Cooke will be doing a session at 12:15 tomorrow on what's new with Google. A not-to-miss session. So let's talk about some of the subscription sites now, very briefly. And then we'll break in about eight minutes or so for questions. So many of you are probably familiar with Ancestry.com. And so that is a subscription-based website. And of course, you can try that out. Many libraries have Ancestry Library Edition. You can also do a free trial. Ancestry has a lot of wonderful information. A lot of excellent United States records. Some German collections. Some Europe collections, UK. Just a wealth of information. You can also put your tree on Ancestry. And you can also, then, do their DNA test, link up your tree, find cousins, search the records, link up your records, do a lot of things on the Ancestry website. It is a subscription-based website. As I said, try before you buy. But I can tell you that I'm happy using Ancestry. I can sit at home in my jammies and find information on my ancestors 24/7. It's worth the yearly subscription fee that I pay. Now, every genealogist is different, so that's why I advise you to try it first. But Ancestry is excellent for trees, and DNA, and an extensive search of US records, like census records, military, passenger lists, and other different types of records. So that is one subscription site you can look at. The other one is MyHeritage. MyHeritage also lets you build a family tree. They have records available. They have a new enhanced passenger list collection which is wonderful. They have DNA testing. And so you can take a MyHeritage DNA test. And you can connect with cousins through MyHeritage. I like MyHeritage because it's very strong for those of you with Eastern European ancestry. And I connect with a lot of matches on MyHeritage that I don't have on Ancestry. So MyHeritage is excellent. So again, you want to kind of cast a wide net when you're doing genealogy, because not everybody uses the same DNA test. Not everybody uses the same online tree service. So you want to connect with all of these different places. But again, you can try MyHeritage out. See if you like it. Go talk to them. They are also in the vendor hall, as is Ancestry.com. I want to quickly mention Findmypast. If you're doing British research, Ireland, any UK research. Again, you can put a tree on there, you can search their unique collections, and you can find more information on your British and Irish relatives. Findmypast is excellent for the research I do for my husband, because his ancestry is British-Irish. Also, don't be afraid to type your name, and search different websites even if you think your ancestors may not have been in that place, or might not be in that collection. For an example, I tend to put names into databases, just in case. Findmypast had a free weekend a few years ago where you could search for free. I typed my ancestors' names in, and I got a hit on British newspapers for my relatives, my Fencheck ancestors. They were Slovak. But my great-grandfather spent time in the UK, Before he got on the ship to come to the US. He worked for his passage. And he spent a few years in the UK. And I found a death notice for a child that fell into a pan of hot water and scalded himself, and he died. And I found a little obituary that named that family. And I was able to get the death record for that infant. And so that filled in gaps in my family tree. Had I not searched Findmypast, I might not have found that information. So always be open to all the different databases. Now, if you want a good side-by-side comparison of all the different online sources, Sunny Morton did a presentation at last year's RootsTech on the comparisons of Ancestry, Findmypast, FamilySearch, and MyHeritage. I believe it is still currently up online. If you cannot find it online for RootsTech 2017, you can also find her on Legacy Family Tree Webinars. And if you're not familiar with Legacy Family Tree Webinars, go visit their booth in the exhibit hall. They are now owned by MyHeritage. But you can get eight years' worth of webinars for a $50 a year membership. And there are classes on every single topic, from DNA, to Scandinavian research, to German research, to technology, to getting started, to organizing. So many subjects. All for a subscription for $50 a year. And so Findmypast, there's some webinars on Findmypast. There's some webinars on using these Ancestry, FamilySearch, MyHeritage. Sunny's webinar is the one that you want to look at. And it is available on MyHeritage to subscribers. So three key things about the paid sites. Always go on and try, compare the features, what are you looking for. Try them before you buy them. And consider your research focus. One may be better at this time in your research than the other. So use your genealogy money wisely. We're all on budgets, and so we want to make sure we're getting the most research for our money. So you want to make sure that you do that. So genealogy is one part skill--you have to know how to find the records, where to look for the records. One part persistence--don't take no for an answer. And just because an online service doesn't have the records for your ancestor today, that doesn't mean that in two weeks, or a month, or six months, or a year, that they won't have a collection of Catholic church records, or of census records, or of any newspaper clippings. Whatever it is. They may come up with that database. And so always keep on top of what's going on in these online databases, in these collections. And serendipity. Sometimes things just happen out of the blue that you can't explain. You connect with cousins through DNA matching. Or somebody finds you because you wrote a blog, like in my circumstances. And so serendipity will intervene in your research. I have had it many times. I promise you, it will happen. So as we wrap up, I want to just leave you with this thought. Be serious about your research. You know, we're going to be like this young lady. We're intent on finding our ancestors, we really want to get those answers. And we want to solve those brick walls. But don't get so caught up in the process of it that you lose having fun. Genealogy should be fun. It should not be a chore. It should be a discovery. We should enjoy learning things about our ancestors. So you want to look like these young folks. They're doing the genealogy happy dance, because they just found their ancestors. Or they just found a DNA match. So you want to jump for joy when you're doing genealogy. So I just want to point you to my website, which is LisaAlzo.com. Here you can find more information about my background, other publications, books that I've written, articles that I've written. I have a newsletter, and it comes through my Accidental Genealogist blog. You can sign up. I don't spam you. I give family history tips, and I give you information about the industry. So sign up for my newsletter. Follow me on social media. And if you have any questions, feel free to use the contact form to send me an email. I would be happy to answer your questions. So we are going to end now. And I want to thank you for coming. And then, we will take some questions. [APPLAUSE]