Family Day of Discovery Planned in Salem

By Sue Hughes, Salem Family History Center Director

The Family Day of Discovery jointly hosted by the Salem West Stake Family History and the Salem Stake will be held on Saturday, October 15, with the theme “Like Branches on a Tree, We All Grow in Different Directions, but Our Roots Keep Us Together.”  The Day of Discovery will take place from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at the Salem West Stake Center, 695 South 300 West, Salem, Utah.  The Day of Discovery event is free to the public, and a light snack will be provided.

Opening remarks will be by the two Stake Presidency’s and the keynote speaker will be Ron Tanner Product Manager for Family Tree at Family Search, in the Cultural Hall beginning at 9:00 a.m. After the opening and keynote speaker the classes will begin at 9:40 a.m.

There are 20 classes scheduled that are perfect for all abilities, from beginners, intermediate and advanced researchers, and that will cover a wide variety of topics which include: Fast Accurate Research with Family Search, Affiliate and Other Genealogy Websites, Fast Accurate Research with Google, Utah Research Beyond LDS Records, U.S. Vital Records on the Internet-Lesser Known Sources, Family History While You Sleep, How to Find Out More About Your LDS Ancestors, Planning Your Heritage or Roots Travel, U.S.-Mid West Research, How to Identify People in Old Photographs, Merging Duplicate records, Finding “Cousins” using Descendency Research, Mobile Apps – Tree & Memories, Maintaining and Protecting Your Computer, U.S. Census: How to Use and Mine It for Family History Clues, Deciphering Handwriting, Scandinavian Research, The Value of the Family Search Wiki, and there will be a youth track with classes aimed at involving youth in family history and it’s technology.

The presenters are experts in their fields, they are: Van Celaya, Laurie Castillo, Deborah Glenn, Paula Jewett, Todd Powell, Jerry Castillo, Colleen Stutz.  Their bio’s will be in the syllabus handout. There will be free hardcopies of the presenters syllabus’s available on the day of the event.

Mark your calendar and plan to spend the day learning, and enjoying the company of other’s involved in doing genealogy and family history.  It will be time well spent and an opportunity to learn and become involved in finding your ancestors.