Genealogy-focused Webinars and Instructional Videos -- What is out There?

At our Let's Talk...Genealogy discussion group meetings, we often mention attending webinars. At the last meeting someone asked, "What is a webinar?"

A webinar refers to a web seminar. It is web/internet conferencing that allows attendees and the presenter to come together from multiple locations using internet video/sound services in real-time, often with two-way communication. This online event could be a meeting, online workshop, training event, lecture, or presentation.

Related to this are recorded instructional videos, some of which may be recorded webinar events.

Why attend a webinar? It's another great learning opportunity. And even better, you don't have to leave home to do it. All you need  is a computer and internet connection. 

Not sure how to do something or feel you are missing something in your research? A webinar is a great way to learn more about a topic. Of course it depends on the speaker and that person's capabilities but more often than not the speakers of these various online webinars are of good or great caliber. They know their subject and speak/present well.

Instructional/How-To books are a great way to learn about a topic also, but for some people spoken/visual instruction works better. And if books work for you, webinars are an added tool.

So where do you find these webinars? We've put together a list below. This likely isn't all inclusive but it is a good list to get your started.

What does a webinar cost? Many are offered for free when viewed live. Some are then archived for viewing later and these archived videos may also be free, free for a limited time or require a membership to them to be viewed later. Some companies do charge a fee to view/attend a live webinar (sometimes called a class) or archived/recorded webinar/class. 

In the end, it is up to you to decide which ones to view/attend/use.

Organizations or companies offering "free" (see above) genealogy-focused webinars.
Legacy Family Tree's FamilyTreeWebinars
Legacy Family Tree is a genealogy program. The company behind the program hosts a webinar just about every week using the gotowebinar service (on internet company specializing in hosting online meetings.) The webinars are free when viewed live and generally are available for free until the day before the next seminar (about 7 days). After that, you have to be a member/subscriber to the webinar website. The upcoming webinar schedule for 2014 is available here and there is a link at the top of the list to register for multiple webinars at one time:  http://www.familytreewebinars.com/upcoming-webinars.php 

Illinois State Genealogical Society
The webinars are held generally on Tuesday nights and the society uses the gotowebinar service. They are free when viewed live. Afterwards, you need to be a member of the society to view the archived webinars. The society's 2014 webinars are listed here and you need to register for each webinar individually:    http://ilgensoc.org/cpage.php?pt=234

Southern California Genealogy Society
The webinars are held generally on Saturdays or Wednesdays and the society uses the gotowebinar service. They are free when viewed live. Afterwards, you need to be a member of the society to view the archived webinars. The society's 2014 webinars are listed here and you need to register for each webinar individually: http://www.scgsgenealogy.com/webinar/jes-index.html

New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS)
NEHGS has also started hosting genealogy webinars. The webinars are free and open to the public (unless otherwise stated) and archived for later viewing. The upcoming webinars (for about the next two months) is listed here:  http://www.americanancestors.org/online-programs/  
The society's archived webinars, video lectures and how-to videos (which are viewable my non-members) are available here: http://www.americanancestors.org/online-seminars/

Ancestry.com 
Ancestry.com announces its upcoming webinars on its blog site. http://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/ To find the latest list, scroll down through the articles to find the latest article on Upcoming Webinars and Events. Prior registration is required and the links to register are found in these articles. But it appears that you have to have a FaceBook account to register to view the webinar live. (Apparently no one has told Ancestry that not everyone is on FaceBook. So you might just have to view the archived version of the webinar.)
Archived Webinars are accessible in two places. 
http://www.ancestry.com/cs/us/videos
http://www.livestream.com/ancestry/folder
Ancestry also has a wide variety of videos archived at its YouTube channel located here: https://www.youtube.com/user/AncestryCom/videos

Some genealogy/ family history conferences have been streaming live (and/or recording) select presentation/panel discussion sessions from their conferences.
RootsTech family history conference
RootsTech is a yearly, multiple-day family history conference hosted by FamilySearch. Registered/Paying Attendees of the event can choose from a wide variety of presentation/discussion panels sessions to attend throughout each day of the conference. In 2013, RootsTech offered select sessions streamed live for viewing by people around the country. There was no cost to view a live session online though prior registration was required. These presentation/group discussion sessions were then archived so they could be watched later. The 2013 archived videos can be found here: https://rootstech.org/about/videos/
The RootsTech 2014 conference is February 6-8 in Salt Lake City, Utah. It will once again offer select presentation/discussion panel sessions streamed live; though the schedule for these live streamed events has not yet been announced publicly. Keep an eye out for this announcement. The 2013 sessions that were live streamed were informative and interesting. This year's should be too.

National Archives Virtual Genealogy Fair
In 2013 for the first time, the National Archives hosted a Virtual Genealogy Fair with live lectures via the website UStream. Those lectures or the slides from those lectures are posted on the site and feature various federal records of genealogy interest:
http://www.archives.gov/dc-metro/know-your-records/genealogy-fair/
Keep an eye out for information on the 2014 fair. 

Other forms of webinars
Federation of Genealogical Societies 
Thought the focus of this society is on running a society, you may find one of it's archived webinar topics interesting. The society's archived webinars are located here: http://www.fgs.org/cpage.php?pt=30
The society announces its live webinars on it blog site, FGS Voice. 

Dear Myrtle Google+ Hangouts
Also Dear Myrtle, a nationally known genealogy personality, began hosting Google+ hangouts. These are get-togethers using Google's video conferencing feature. She has a link on her blog site to her Google+ community page. Some hangouts are announced (have a link) a head of time but some not until closer to the start time. You have to be a Google+ member to participate. (Google+ is Google's answer to FaceBook.) Usually there is a panel that participates using web cameras. Some of these video slots are invited as a panel members, some are just attendees. If there is a specific topic, it is announced prior to the hangout. The hangouts that are recorded are viewable on Dear Myrtle's YouTube channel located here:  https://www.youtube.com/user/DearMYRTLE/videos

Online Instructional Videos
FamilySearch
FamilySearch is the website of the Latter Day Saints of Jesus Christ (LDS/Mormons) who have been filming and collecting records of genealogy interest for years. Back before the internet, they produced and printed research guides and help guides to aid and instruct people doing genealogy. Since the internet they have moved these guides and helps to the FamilySearch Wiki. And on top of that they started a Learning Center which features the guides, helps AND instructional videos and classes. Here is the main page of FamilySearch's Learning Center:    https://familysearch.org/learningcenter/home.html
FamilySearch also has a YouTube channel with instructional videos located here: https://www.youtube.com/user/FamilySearch/videos

Here, there, every where. One way to keep track of what webinars are going on is the Genea-Webinars Calendar. It can be found on several genealogy blog sites. One such blog, is Dear Myrtle on her calendar page. Now it likely doesn't have every webinar out there but it is a good calendar of webinars to reference.

Speaking of calendars. Use your own Outlook or Google Calendar to keep track of the webinars that you have registered to attend. In addition to adding what and the time to the calendar date, in the where copy and paste the personalized weblink that you are sent in your confirmation of registration email. Also, set up a reminder -- either email or pop-up or both -- so you don't forget.

Have fun learning and exploring.

See you soon at the Mt. Clemens Public Library!

LE

MCGG Friday Group meets tomorrow January 10th at 1 p.m. -- Using Picasa to Edit and Organize your Photos

Our MCGG Friday Group meets tomorrow Friday, January 10, at 1:00 pm in the auditorium of the Mount Clemens Public Library. 

Our speaker will be Jack Vander-Schrier who will show us how to use the free program Picasa to edit and and organize your photos.

So for those of you who are in the Mount Clemens area with a few free hours to invest in genealogy learning, PLEASE JOIN US. 

See you soon at the Mt. Clemens Public Library!

LE

Library will be open Wednesday, January 8th, 2014; Let's Talk will be held

Hi Everyone

I heard from the library's director and assistant director that the Mt Clemens Public Library will be open on Wednesday, January 8th.

We will hold the Let's Talk...Genealogy meeting as scheduled.

If you feel comfortable driving, please join us.

See You Soon at Mt. Clemens Public Library! 

LE

Beginning Genealogy is January 8th, 2014 Let's Talk...Genealogy Meeting Topic

Join us Wednesday, December 11 at 7 p.m. in the Local History/Genealogy Room of the Mt. Clemens Public Library to discuss Beginning Genealogy: It's NOT As Seen On TV.
 
We'll talk about how to get started and what is really involved ... and those with some experience can share what they wished they'd known when we got started.

Please note that due to the recent bad weather, please check to make sure the library is open on Wednesday before you leave for the meeting. We will send an email to those on our Let's Talk email list and make a post on this blog to let you know if we are a go or no go for the meeting.
 
See you soon at the Mt. Clemens Public Library!

LE

MCGG Meeting Topics Revealed for 2014

Hi Everyone!

We have released MCGG's 2014 meeting schedules for our MCGG Friday Group and our Let's Talk...Genealogy discussion group (on Wednesday).

The meeting dates and topics can be found on the respective pages of this blog site or in our Southeast Michigan Genealogy Events calendar on the Calendar page. In addition, on our group's website you can find our meetings listed there along with a PDF of our meeting flyer.

We hope you enjoy the coming genealogy season.

See You Soon at the Mt Clemens Public Library!

LE

DNA and Genealogy is December 11th Let's Talk...Genealogy Meeting Topic

Join us Wednesday, December 11 at 7 p.m. in the Local History/Genealogy Room of the Mt. Clemens Public Library to discuss DNA and Genealogy. 

If you have already tested, share your experience. If you are considering testing, bring your questions.

See you soon at the Mt. Clemens Public Library!

LE

DNA and Genealogy is the new subject on the bulletin board in Local History and Genealogy Room.

Michigan Vital Records Online

Looking for births, marriages and deaths for Michigan but can't remember where someone said to find them on the internet?

Here's a run down of what vital records for Michigan are located where. I have indicated if actual records are available online.

FamilySearch - a FREE website of the Latter Day Saints of Jesus Christ (LDS)/Mormons
The LDS have been digitizing the microfilm collections and other records (with permission of the record owners) and placing them on their website, FamilySearch. Find the digitized collections from the homepage by clicking on search, scrolling down to browse by location and then clicking on the region you desire. So after you select United States, either scroll down the list of databases to find Michigan or in the left column scroll down to click Michigan to see just the Michigan databases.

Here you will find:
Michigan, Births, 1867-1902 (index and record images, from Michigan Department of Vital and Health Records)
Michigan, Marriages, 1867-1925 (index and record images, from Michigan Department of Vital and Health Records)
Michigan, Deaths, 1867-1897 (index and record images, from Michigan Department of Vital and Health Records)
Michigan, Death Certificates, 1921-1952 (index only, from Michigan Department of Vital and Health Records)
Michigan, County Marriages, 1820-1935 (index and images)
Michigan Death Index, 1971-1996 (index only from Michigan Department of Vital and Health Records, provided by ancestry.com)

There are also a couple of index only databases (Births & Christenings, Marriages, and Deaths & Burials) that are comprised of former parts of the International Genealogical Index (IGI) or Vital Records Index collections. You would need to check each entry to determine the original source of the information (extract from an original record or submission from a person).

SeekingMichigan - a FREE website of the Archives of Michigan
The Archives of Michigan's SeekingMichigan website is where you will find the Michigan Death Certificates Collection 1897-1920. These records are from the Michigan Department of Vital and Health Records. Use the Advanced Search and only search one database at a time in order to get filters specialized for the death certificates. There is no Soundex option in this search engine.

According to some news passed on from another group, the indexes of Michigan Death Records from www.familysearch.org will be added to SeekingMichigan in early 2014. After that the images of the certificates dated from 1921 to 1938 will be added to the site. The additional years will be added as the law allows. A search filter for mother's maiden name will also be added to the site.

Ancestry.com/Ancestry Library Edition - a $ PAY-service via home or library subscription
Ancestry is a commercial website. If you don't have a home subscription, then come into the Mt. Clemens Public Library and you can use the library's subscription. (Or check to see if your local library has a subscription.)

On Ancestry's website, you'll find the following index databases under Michigan:

Michigan Death Records 1897-1920 is an index to the death certificates found at SeekingMichigan. This database index has the Soundex search option and links to take you to the images on SeekingMichigan.

Michigan, Deaths, 1971-1996 (index only, original data from the Michigan Department of Vital and Health Records)

There are a couple other index only databases for vitals records that are based on the index only databases located at FamilySearch. Again, check where the information came from for each entry.

Related to civil vital records are church vital records. Ancestry has a database with index and record images called Early US French Catholic Church Records (Drouin Collection, 1695-1954). It contains records for a variety of states. For Michigan, there are several Catholic churches, including records earlier than when the State of Michigan began recording vital records.

County Government Websites like the County Clerk
Check out the county government website for the Michigan counties you are researching. Several have index databases that make locating records easier. Searching the database may be free but there may be a charge for seeing/accessing a specific record. Here are some examples.

The webpage for the county clerk of Macomb County has a searchable death index for deaths from about 1960 forward though there are some earlier ones included but not all the earlier ones. You can then order a death certificate through a service (or go in-person during their genealogy hours and request it in person).

The Oakland County government website has a genealogy research service page that allows you to search marriage and death records back to 1941 and then order/pay for a record you desire.

The Genessee County Clerk has a searchable index for deaths from 1930 and a marriages from 1963.

There are likely more by now with similar indexes.

Genealogical and Historical Societies/Groups and Volunteer Sites
You can count on many of these groups to create an index where none were available.
The Flint Genealogical Society has indexed the Genessee County births, marriages and death. And of course check out the Mount Clemens Public Library's Genealogy, Local History or Databases pages to see the various databases that volunteers from Macomb County Genealogy Group have helped create.

Suzette Bromley has created indexes to St. Clair County Marriages and Deaths.

Joe Beine, runs a website DeathIndexesOnline that keeps track of which counties in each state have indexes online. There are some other indexes (cemetery, obituaries) mixed in amongst this list.

So what are you waiting for? Get searching.

LE