Category: Conferences

Posted on

Speaking at RootsTech 2018!

With a room of people, microphone checks, an interpreter and a whole bunch of enthusiastic and interesting people, my workshop began at 9:30 a.m. !!!

There were great questions, support from friends and even a French expert in the room (thankfully, I didn’t know until later, right?!) who told me that I did an excellent job and that he enjoyed my presentation …. whoa!!

The audience had some great questions and they all provided their emails and a list of the surnames they are researching so that we can help them with their research!  A document, listing all of them with these names, is being shared with them all in the hopes that they will make progress toward documenting their French-Canadian and Acadian families.

It was fun to be presenting to an international group – there were people from all over the United States but also Canada, France, Brazil ….. and those are the ones that I know!  And afterwards, people were stopping me in the hall to continue to ask questions – if you are reading this and have questions, please don’t hesitate to email me at judynmuhn@gmail.com.  I LOVE doing genealogy!!!

The day ended marvelously – with research!!!

Two of my clients are benefiting from my presence in Salt Lake, just a small walk from the Family History Library!  Rows on rows of microfilm, digital content, books, maps and so much more!  I haven’t been here since 2001 I believe and the updates/renovations/new art are beautiful, easy-to-use and empowering.

A truly sweet and helpful volunteer showed me the new way to make copies, create images from online content and even gave me a print card WITH MONEY ON IT!!!  She was awesome – and that has been my experience here at the FHL for years – volunteers eager and ready to help you.  She shared some amazing spiritual things with me – we had a lovely conversation.  What a blessing she was!  And I found things – lots of things for my clients.  Can’t wait to share.

Posted on

Arrived at RootsTech … wow!

OMG …. this is AMAZING!!  RootsTech 2018 … I made it and I’m so excited!!!

While it is just Tuesday night, I’m attending the Media Dinner, sponsored by FamilySearch, and an opportunity to get an advance look at what will be happening during the week.  In addition to being an Ambassador ( you post stuff on social media), as a Speaker and participant, I want to be “in the know” about it all as a First-Timer!!!

Meeting up with friends is a big, fun part of the conference and having some time to settle in was great.  The lines, while long, at registration moved fast AND I got to go to the really short (no one ahead of me!) VIP line to check in.

Then the Media Dinner!!  Some tools here at the conference are the overall conference app – guides you to the workshops, helps with what is in Expo Hall, and more!  You can see a list of attendees and connect with them if you are tracking someone down …. and who the keynote speakers are, where there is food, the day’s happenings, alerts and more!!!

A REALLY fun thing this year – using your family tree from FamilySearch to link to all of the attendees at the conference who have linked their trees – and you get a list of everyone attending who is your COUSIN!!!!!  OMG!!  I have over 200 people here who are related to me (mostly through my French-Canadians!) and I’ve reached out to see if we can meet …. stay tuned for possible pictures of “Cousin Connections”!!

We saw a teaser film of Relative Race too!!!  It’s from BYU TV … while you can get it easily here in Utah, the rest of us can view it on Google TV and other programs that pull from around the country.  The show is based on four teams of two family members.  They provide their DNA which is tested.  Family members from around the country then are found and the teams are given clues and maps (NO GPS allowed!!) to find the locations of relatives in the United States and must drive there the fastest to win.  When they knock on the door at the address provided, the person that opens the door is a previously-unknown relative!  It kinda got me choked up watching it as some of the meetings were very impactful.  I’m looking for this when I get home!

Well, that’s it for day one at RootsTech 2018!!!  Watch for more!

Posted on

RootsTech 2018 is coming!!!


Yes, that is ME – Speaker! I’m SOOOOOO excited! Offering two classes – Acadians & French-Canadians in North America and You CAN Take It With You! Mobile Technology for Genealogy. Can’t wait! I leave Tuesday and begin the incredible, the scary, the fun, exciting and learning opportunity that is being a speaker at the LARGEST genealogy conference in the world! Yes, you heard me .. the world!

Roots Tech 2018

RootsTech 2018 has over 300 classes, keynote speakers, an Innovation Showcase, networking, learning, meeting new people – I’m already hooking up with some likely cousins (all French-Canadians and Acadians are somehow related!) and a client from my Lineage Journeys work. And a helpful and kind participant in one of my workshops who is also an Acadian descendant….and friends from here in Michigan. And more … right? This is aligning to be so cool … can you tell that I’m excited! Watch for updates!

Posted on

A Month of Activities, Conferences and FUN!

Federation of Genealogical Societies, Association of Professional Genealogists, and the Michigan Genealogical Council – all in about a months’ time (well, kinda …. late September through October)…..

The late summer and early fall are a time in the genealogy community of much activity, conferences, meetings and learning. This year, I went from Pittsburgh, PA to Washington, DC and Lansing, MI with my own speaking engagements (my company is Lineage Journeys) and other work put in around the gaps. It has been a month of learning, networking, growing and even a few challenges here and there. All in all, a great experience with some new relationships within the genealogical community and some new research findings that are helping clients and even my own families.

AND one of the really interesting things that I learned about was how to get involved in the historic and very important indexing of the naturalization records of the State of Michigan, held by the Library of Michigan in Lansing – you can be part of getting those records ONLINE! Yes!!!

Michigan’s Naturalization Records can be transcribed by YOU!!!

All of us would LOVE to have EVERY record about our families posted on the Internet so that from the comfort of our homes, we could find everything we need. Well, that’s a lovely thought but SOMEONE has to do the typing, the uploading, the work! And it’s exciting and fun to be part of a project and work that is BIG – to be part of something historic….. so here’s your chance!!

Click on the link here:The Library of Michigan’s Naturalization Records Project which will take you to the page you can see here … there are instructions, it’s an online indexing tool (working with Family Search) so you don’t have to download anything to your computer that you don’t like or want. And you too can be part of something historic!!!
Seeking Michigan

AND THANK YOU FOR GETTING INVOLVED!!!!

Posted on

Winner Announced!

CONGRATULATIONS to KimberlySavage!!!

Winner Announced

CONGRATULATIONS to Kimberly Savage!!!Kimberly won our giveaway of a FREE registration to the RootsTech 2018 conference in Salt Lake City!! She will join me and thousands of others in networking, learning and sharing at the largest worldwide gathering for genealogy.

Ok, enough shouting, right? But it’s exciting to welcome a fellow family researcher to the event, which will be my first too, but I’m also presenting so, for me, it’s an opportunity that is just too wonderful. I’m a networking DIVA and love the interaction and excitement of talking about your families, finding others researching similar lines and helping those who are just beginning the process – my way of “paying it forward” is to do the best job I can in sharing how to do the research and find the records that will help someone to know their family’s stories.

And, I’m hoping to meet Kimberly there – we have emailed and she’s saying that she will find me at the conference so that we can meet. That will be fun! And maybe she and I will find out too if we are cousins (my husband and friends will tell you that I’m always figuring out how someone is my cousin – we ARE all related, you know!!!).

So, congratulations Kimberly and thank you to all of you who entered the contest by following me here on the blog. Watch for upcoming content that will help those of you researching Ontario, French-Canadian, Quebec,
Michigan or First Nations/Native ancestry – those are the areas that I specialize in as well as doing genealogy overall. Let me know if I can help you: judynmuhn@gmail.com

Posted on

YOU HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY TO WIN!!!!

YOU HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY TO WIN!!!! A FULL REGISTRATION TO THEROOTSTECH 2018 CONFERENCE in SALT LAKE CITY in 2018!!!!

Roots Tech 2018

Roots Tech 2018

Imagine – the LARGEST genealogy conference IN THE WORLD!! Thousands of genealogists, companies that support them, books and webinars, demonstrations, labs, opportunities to learn new research skills and find out about the repositories that will help you to document your family’s history …. that’s RootsTech 2018 in Salt Lake City, Utah in 2018!

As I will be there offering two workshops – Acadian & French-Canadian Research and You CAN Take It With You: Mobile Genealogy Tools – I would love to meet you! However, you have to GET there! SOOOOO …

I’m offering you a chance to win a FREE (yep, you read that right!) registration for the whole RootsTech 2018 conference (airfare, hotel, meals and lab sessions not included). Click at the bottom of the photo to go directly to the website for more information, HOWEVER – did you see the “Subscribe here” in the upper right area of this site?? That’s how you can enter to win my contest – subscribe to my blog!!! It’s easy and I’ll pick a winner by random draw from those who subscribe – you get EXTRA entries for a chance to win if you tell your friends to subscribe to my blog (email me at judynmuhn@gmail.com with the list of names of your friends!). Simple as that!

The rules??

You MUST enter by Sunday, October 29th by 11:55 p.m. – that’s your DEADLINE!

The winner will be announced on Monday, October 30th here on my Blog, on my Lineage Journeys Facebook page and will be contacted via email.

Questions? Contact me at judynmuhn@gmail.com BEFORE Sunday, October 29th – I won’t respond to emails on Sunday, the 29th, so please let me know if you referred people who signed up with their emails BEFORE the contest ends, or with questions.

Posted on

A GREAT GENEALOGY CONFERENCE

VISITING WASHINGTON, D.C. & ATTENDING A GREAT GENEALOGY CONFERENCE!!!

DAR Entrance

Having JUST returned (it was just over a week ago) from the Association of Professional Genealogist’s (APG) Professional Management Conference (PMC) in Washington, D.C., there were SOOO many things learned to pass along!First – don’t go to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA for short), or the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR for short) Library and Headquarters or any of a number of locations when researching without preparing ahead! These are amazing research facilities but with millions of records, categories, topics and time periods, you will waste alot of time if you haven’t looked at the catalog online.

As I knew for months that I was going – that’s me (my company is Lineage Journeys) at the top sharing my Poster Session entitled What’s In A Name: Clues to Ethnicity & Name Changes – so I began early on to do my online research. Thanks to the APG for the helpful webinars on getting around D.C., the archives and more, I was prepared and ready. The focus of my one day of research (I SOOO wish I had more time and money to do this!) was my husband’s family’s descent from a number of Revolutionary War soldiers. Because others have become DAR members from descent from the same ancestors, I found those applications online at the DAR’s great website (https://www.dar.org) so I was prepared to walk into the library and obtain the documents that were used to prove their lineage.

Was I about to be amazed!!!! Would you look at this incredible room?? This is heaven to a genealogist, besides the spectacular architecture, right?! Not only did I easily obtain the documents that I wanted about my husband’s Revolutionary ancestors (really??! A birth record from 1750 and more!) but I was in this environment that was comfortable, helpful (the staff and volunteers of the library are gracious and warm) and I was given good advice, guidance and maximized my time so well that I was able to take a leisurely stroll back to the Metro for the ride back to the hotel.

So my big tip for today? PLAN AHEAD, RESEARCH AHEAD, and by all means, LEARN about where you are going AHEAD so that you use your time well.

Posted on

Announcing some great news

Genealogy Forms

2018 is lining up to be a great year for genealogists everywhere and I get to help by sharing research tips & strategies at the #RootsTech 2018 Conference RootsTech 2018 (the LARGEST in the genealogical world!) in February 2018 and the National Genealogical Society’s 2018 Conference in Grand Rapids, Michigan in May 2018!