Disappearing Website

While giving a presentation this afternoon, I discovered that I could not access this site. Luckily, I had a screenshot of it for the presentation reference.

After reviewing the DNS table I could not see a problem so I called my hosting company, GoDaddy. While the support person was very nice and polite, he could not find a problem either and suggested I contact Blogger for support. Reviewing it again, I found an incorrect entry in the CNAME table that was causing the issue. Strange how things get changed, the support person told me that the table was last updated  in January of 2012.

What does this have to do with you? If you come to the site and it says it is "Parked" at GoDaddy, please send me an email at familyhistorytech@gmail.com and let me know.

I just love computers.

RootsTech - Day -1

Stopped at Cabelas for an Elk burger on the way to SLC for early registration. That was the good part of the day. Got to SLC a little before 4pm, registration is open today 4pm to 8pm. Found our way up to the registration area and I was surprised at the number of people there.

There were 3 others in the line for the U-Z names, so I thought this shouldn't take long, 30 minutes later I finally got my registration. Each of the four of us had issues with registration. You would think an organization as smart as FamilySearch could nail registering. If tomorrow is anything like I saw today, it is going to be a nightmare up there. I'm glad my wonderful wife was willing to stop let me get my credentials.

To cap off the day, we got to Ogden where we are staying and the hotel room I booked is not the one I had thought I booked and those rooms are not available. The refrigerator is broken, they did bring us a working substitute until maintenance can come by tomorrow. Parking is even worse than it was last year, at least the parking lot elevator is working this time.

Well, there is always tomorrow and I am looking forward to a great conference.

Family Tree is Live for All Users

The familysearch.org blog today announced that Family Tree is now live on FamilySearch.org and is available to all users.

This now opens up the collaboration and other tools of Family Tree to all researchers. Many have been waiting for this, I hope they are not disappointed.

Family History Library to Shorten Saturday Hours

The Family History Library in Salt Lake City is cutting their Saturday evening hours. Hours have been until 9 pm, but will now be cut to 5 pm, matching the closing hours for Mondays.

The following is from GenealogyBlog:

SALT LAKE CITY— Beginning April 13, 2013, the Family History Library Saturday operating hours will change to 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

The change in hours will better allocate resources that were being spent on low-traffic hours late Saturday evening.

“This change is being made so that valuable staff and volunteer resources can be allocated to other busier times during the week that have greater patron demand,” said Don Anderson, director of the Family History Library. “This change will facilitate better service to patrons during the high-demand hours.”

For more information, contact Merrill White, Family History Library manager of Patron Services, at 801-240-6405 or WhiteDM@familysearch.org.

Genealogy Fair

Check out the Southeast Regional Library for an amazing Genealogy Fair on Saturday, February 9! Learn how to discover your own personal history and learn about the people in your family tree! A continental breakfast will be available compliments of the Southeast Regional Friends of the Library. Enjoy a free day of learning about a variety of genealogy subjects from Valley experts. Attend one or several workshops to learn how to sharpen your research skills for documenting family history.

The event will be held from 9am to 4pm.

09:00 - 10:00am - Valley Genealogy Societies and Organizations Meet and Greet
10:15 - 11:15am - DNA Testing & Genealogy or Discovering Your German-Russian Roots
11:30 - 12:30pm - Writing Your Family History or Immigration & Naturalizaton
12:30 - 01:30pm - Lunch
01:45 - 02:45pm - Arizona State Library Resources or Arizona Historical Society Resources
03:00 - 04:00pm - Q&A Panel: Getting Around Obstacles

Click here to see the class schedule and register for classes. Also check www.mcldaz.org for this and other great events.

FHExpo Presentation

For those of you who attended my session today on Facebook and Genealogy, thank you.

You can download the Handout and Slides by clicking on the links.

Arizona FHEXPO

A great afternoon at the expo. Attended a great session on researching Canadian census records by Kathryn Lake Hogan. During the lecture she mentioned the free Canadian Census site, automatedgenealogy.com.  While this site does not include the 1871 or 1881 census, it prompted me to once again check the records for my Great Grandfather, Arthur Patterson, born abt 1867 in New Brunswick on Ancenstry.com. Sure enough, there he was in the 1871  census, 4 years old, with his large family.

His record has evaded me for years, one more wall down...

Great day, thank you Kathryn for your presentation.