Autumn 2014 presentations! Bloomington, Kalamazoo, Terre Haute, Indianapolis

All four of my presentations this fall are in the Eastern time zone, even though I myself am in Central. Check your calendar and join in the fun if you get the chance!


Wednesday 15 October, 3 pm -- "Why We Don't Write and How We Can," Monroe County Public Library, 303 E. Kirkwood, Bloomington, Indiana (advance registration required before 5 pm 8 October: http://mcpl.info/calendar/2014-10). Plus a second hour of discussion and examples.

Short version: If we don't write, we won't need to wonder what will happen to our genealogy stuff when we're gone. New.


Monday 20 October, 7 pm -- "Probate Will Not Be the Death of You," Kalamazoo Valley Genealogical Society, Portage District Library, 300 Library Lane, Portage, Michigan. (I spoke on property records here last spring: these people ask good questions!)

Short version: Everybody dies. Most have probates. Few make wills. Good genealogists will not stop with wills. Previously given at 2013 Indiana Genealogical Society conference in Bloomington.


Monday 10 November, 6:30 pm -- "A Case Study: Are We There Yet?" Wabash Valley Genealogical Society, Vigo County Public Library, One Library Square, Terre Haute, Indiana.

Short version: Follow the Chilcote trail from the 1900 Chicago census to an unmarked Ohio grave – and decide when there’s enough evidence to prove that George and Edward are two men or one man with two names. Previously given at 2013 National Genealogical Society conference in Las Vegas.


Saturday 22 November, 10 am -- "How Hoosiers Got Hitched," Indiana Historical Society, Eugene and Marian Glick Indiana History Center, 315 West Ohio, Indianapolis, Indiana (registration and entry fee: http://www.indianahistory.org/events/how-hoosiers-got-hitched).

Short version: Indiana marriage records have changed over the years. Between 1880 and 1930 in some counties more than one record was created for each marriage – some with different information than the others. A new naming system can help us tell them apart. New, based on the article of the same title that appeared in the Fall/Winter 2013 issue of The Hoosier Genealogist: Connections.





Harold Henderson, "Autumn 2014 presentations! Bloomington, Kalamazoo, Terre Haute, Indianapolis," Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog, posted 4 September 2014 (http://midwesternmicrohistory.blogspot.com : viewed [date]). [Please feel free to link to the specific post if you prefer.]

April speaking engagements

I'm looking forward to talking genealogy with folks in and around Plymouth, Indiana, and then Kalamazoo, Michigan!


April 15, 6 pm EDT -- Plymouth IN, Marshall County Historical Society: "Beyond Fort Wayne, Madison, and the Newberry: Welcome to the Other Midwestern Archives"

April 21, 7 pm EDT -- Kalamazoo MI, Kalamazoo Valley Genealogical Society: "Land and Property: The Records No Genealogist Can Do Without"




Harold Henderson, "April speaking engagements," Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog, posted 5 April 2014 (http://midwesternmicrohistory.blogspot.com : viewed [date]). [Please feel free to link to the specific post if you prefer.]

Speaking in Cincinnati and Bloomington

FYI -- hope to see you there!

Next Friday (the 26th) I'll be speaking at the Ohio Genealogical Society conference in Cincinnati on "First Steps in Indiana Research." (Tom Jones keynotes the day before.)

On Saturday the 27th I'll be speaking at the Indiana Genealogical Society conference in Bloomington on "Land and Property: The Records No Genealogist Can Do Without" and "Probate Will Not Be the Death of You." (Josh Taylor is the featured speaker.)





Harold Henderson, "Speaking in Cincinnati and Bloomington," Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog, posted 19 April 2013 (http://midwesternmicrohistory.blogspot.com : accessed [access date]). [Please feel free to link to the specific post if you prefer.]

Three Talks at FGS 2013

I will be giving three talks at the Federation of Genealogical Societies conference in Fort Wayne next August (just a little more than nine months from now):

Thursday, August 22, 5pm, "First Steps in Indiana Research," from Indiana's Big Four to some archives and county-level resources.

Friday, August 23, 2pm, "Beyond Fort Wayne, Madison, and the Newberry: Lesser-Known Midwestern Archives," a personal selection of useful archives I have known in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin.

Saturday, August 24, 8 am, "Three Ways to Improve Your Speaking Ideas," sponsored by the Genealogical Speakers Guild with some ideas applicable even to those who don't lecture.

If none of these tickle your fancy, FGS has plenty more to offer, and the Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center as a jumbo-sized research bonus.




Harold Henderson, "Three Talks at FGS  2013," Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog, posted 13 November 2012 (http://midwesternmicrohistory.blogspot.com : accessed [access date]). [Please feel free to link to the specific post if you prefer.]

Updated list of presentations

I've uploaded my latest brochure of presentations (known as "lectures" to those of us of a certain age) over at Midwest Roots. Paper copies (again for those of us of a certain age) will be available at the Genealogical Speakers Guild table at FGS conference in Birmingham, Alabama, this coming week. Mainly I'm about records, research, writing, and education, but with a twist. I'm also about the proof argument from hell, spiral staircases, and the genealogy police.



Harold Henderson, "Updated list of presentations," Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog, posted 26 August 2012 (http://midwesternmicrohistory.blogspot.com : accessed [access date]). [Please feel free to link to the specific post if you prefer.]

Weekend Wonderings: Taking Notes

This past week there was a bit of discussion on the Transitional Genealogists Forum about note-taking, especially at conference lectures. Do you take notes at all? With pen and paper? On a laptop or tablet or phone?

Does other peoples' electronic note-taking bother you, either as a listener or as a speaker?

I find myself splitting the difference. Sometimes I take notes the old-fashioned way, but they are often illegible. Sometimes I'm the guy at the side of the room using one of the very few electric sockets. Either way, I need to find a way to reunite the notes with the syllabus, and a way to locate them both again when that topic arises in my work and I need to double-check the six crucial steps in tracking down a War of 1812 veteran!



Harold Henderson, "Weekend Wonderings: Taking Notes," Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog, posted 14 July 2012 (http://midwesternmicrohistory.blogspot.com : accessed [access date]). [Please feel free to link to the specific post if you prefer.]

Weekend wonderings for your comment

I see that Rootstech 2013 once again will not compensate most speakers. I attended 2012 and enjoyed the energy of the festive exhibit hall more than most of the talks. Most developer presentations seemed pretty advanced; most genealogy presentations not so much. A friend who's more techie than I am didn't find a lot of interaction between the two tracks.

Which makes me wonder. Will the best speakers -- and the best-prepared ones -- respond to this call for papers? How will the non-compensation policy advance the goal of bringing genealogists and developers together, rather than just having separate tracks?

Yes, I'm a member of the Genealogical Speakers Guild, and, yes again, I'd rather be paid than not. But I also do plenty of volunteering, and I might be more ready to volunteer to speak at Rootstech if I could figure out the strategy.


Harold Henderson, "Weekend wonderings for your comment" Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog, posted 20 May 2012 (http://midwesternmicrohistory.blogspot.com : accessed [access date]). [Please feel free to link to the specific post if you prefer.]

Lecturing -- as if blogging wasn't enough!

My current brochure describing available genealogy lectures is posted at Midwest Roots. We've got orphans, the great research state of Indiana, colliding sources, Sherlock Holmes, death by probate (NOT), and more.

If you want to hear a sample, my web site is not that sophisticated yet. Feel free to drop by the National Genealogical Society conference in Cincinnati at 9:30 AM Friday (Indianapolis Orphan Asylum) and Saturday (Indirect Evidence) . . .



Harold Henderson, “Lecturing -- as if blogging wasn't enough!” Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog, posted 2 May 2012 (http://midwesternmicrohistory.blogspot.com : accessed [access date]). [Please feel free to link to the specific post if you mention it on line.]