Were your ancestors involved in the history of spaceflight and exploration? If they were – or even if they weren’t – you won’t want to miss our May 16th meeting!

WHEN: Sunday, 16 May 2021 (note change of day due to Mother’s Day)
TIME: 5:30 p.m. SLT (same as Pacific Time)
WHERE: The Fire Pit at Just Genealogy SLurl

We’ll be taking a field trip to the International Spaceflight Museum (ISM) at Spaceport Alpha, a volunteer-created and maintained sim dedicated to the history of spaceflight. Learn about rockets and spacecraft from the past, present, and future. Take a tour of the museum grounds in an amphibious vehicle. Visit the planetarium. Ride a rocket into space and explore the planets. There’s so much to do at the ISM!

Across the bridge is Explorer Island, home of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Second Life, which you are also welcome to visit. Several displays about current and upcoming missions are available including Mars Mountain.

A short business meeting will be held prior to the field trip.

All are welcome at our meetings. You do not need to be a member of the SLVGS in order to attend, but we’d love it if you’d join!

Genealogists enjoy sharing their research with others. But we usually focus on our own families and have a limited audience.

How can we “do good” with genealogy?

Join us on Sunday evening to discuss and learn about how YOU can help by participating in projects to expand the family trees of your specific community and help others discover their ancestors.

There are many projects that allow us to give back to our communities. For example, we can participate in projects that use existing records to reconstitute the families within a specific community and adding that information to FamilySearch. These communities could be a town or neighborhood or maybe an organization such as a school, church or other civic organization.

We can also work on helping reunite photographs with their families. Or participate in indexing projects. We’re sure you have other ideas on Doing Good with Genealogy!

Genealogist Miles Meyer will lead this discussion.

WHEN: Sunday, 11 April 2021
TIME: 5:30 p.m. SLT (same as Pacific Time)
WHERE: The Fire Pit at Just Genealogy SLurl

A short business meeting will be held prior to the program.

All are welcome at our meetings. You do not need to be a member of the SLVGS in order to attend, but we’d love it if you’d join!

About The Speaker

Miles Meyer is a scientist by training and has been active in genealogy for over 20 years in a variety of ways. His expertise revolves around new technologies, internet research, and FamilySearch. He is a Family History Consultant and current Director of the Vero Beach Family History Center. He has been speaking at genealogy conferences, including RootsTech Salt Lake, RootsTech London, and other events for over 10 years and assists others in researching their family histories.

Additionally, Miles has been a beta tester for several genealogy companies including AncestralQuest, FamilySearch, MyHeritage, BillionGraves, and BYU Tech Labs to name a few. He is also a Certified Trainer and the Director of Education for The Family History Guide. Miles has produced several training manuals and maintains several websites and blogs on genealogy-related activities.

Do you have a genealogy brick wall or a question that you’d like to run by the “hive mind” of your fellow genealogists?

Or do you need help to learn the basics of using Second Life® (walking, sitting, changing outfits)?

Come to the Fire Pit on Wednesday evenings in March for an informal hangout with members of the SLVGS and get answers to your questions!

WHEN: Wednesdays, 10 & 24 March 2021
TIME: 4:30 p.m. SLT (same as Pacific Time)
WHERE: The Fire Pit at Just Genealogy SLurl

NOTE: You do not need to be a member of the SLVGS to come to the hangouts, but we’d love it if you’d join!

If you’re looking for fun and exciting ways to engage your family members (especially teens and the youngest generation) in genealogy and family history, we’ve got a TREAT for you!

WHEN: Sunday, 14 March 2021
TIME: 5:30 p.m. SLT (same as Pacific Time)
WHERE: The Fire Pit at Just Genealogy SLurl

Taralyn Parker, Olivia Jewell, Camille Mecham, and Michelle Gardner will be the special guest speakers at our March meeting and will share their hugely successful project, the 21 Day Family Connections Experiment.

About the project:

The 21 Day Family Connections Experiment, a family history project, invites individuals to increase their connections with family past and present for a consecutive 21 days.

Started during the world-wide pandemic, a group of family historians thought it would be an excellent time to do an informal study about how connecting with both living and deceased family members can contribute positively to our overall emotional health and mental well being.

The family history activities in this 21 day experience go beyond traditional genealogical tasks. In fact they are short, simple, engaging, fun and can be enjoyed by children and families.

The program is titled, “The 21 Day Family Connections Experiment: Exploring the Power of Psychological Benefits and Social Connections in Family History.”

Bring the whole family to learn how YOU can participate in the 21 Day Family Connections Experiment!^[1]Please note that the Second Life Terms of Service restricts users to age 16 and above for general content areas. Attendees may invite family members younger than age 16 to watch the presentation at … Continue reading

A short business meeting will be held prior to the program.

All are welcome at our meetings. You do not need to be a member of the SLVGS in order to attend, but we’d love it if you’d join!

About The Speakers

Taralyn Parker is a journalist turned family historian who runs the blog Keep Moving Forward With Me. During the COVID-19 crisis, she helped create the 21-day Family Connections Experiment: a Family History Project. Whether she is teaching classes or traveling to ancestors’ hometowns, Taralyn is passionate about sharing family history and stories.

Working in the industry for 10+ years, Taralyn manages social media for various companies and organizations. She loves using her talents to help share goodness.

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Olivia Jewell is a family history presenter who has presented at RootsTech, BYU Education Week, and other related events.

Amidst her busy schedule as a mom of four, she has learned to incorporate her technological savvy and family history experience to teach busy people of all ages simple ways they can incorporate family history into daily life using modern technology to make it easy and fun.

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Camille Mecham is from southeast Idaho. She still lives there with her husband and 3 kids.

She has taught at the Rexburg FamilySearch Center, the South East Idaho Genealogical Conference, and at RootsTech in 2020.

She runs The Mommy Genealogist where she shares how to share family history with your family, especially kids.

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Michelle Gardner: For as long as I can remember, I’ve been teaching others of all ages how to use tech to their advantage the easiest way possible. I LOVE connecting with people and creating opportunities for individuals to connect with others, so much so I got a degree in Recreation and Non-profits. This love has also driven me to genealogy work and helping others get through genealogy roadblocks in their own family history.

February 14th is the day we celebrate LOVE. But as genealogists, one thing we DON’T love is brick walls blocking our ancestors!

Please join us on Valentine’s Day for an open-mic, genealogy problem-solving discussion. Bring your bricky-est brick wall, and let’s see if the “hive mind” of our membership can bust it down!

A short business meeting will be held prior to the discussion.

WHEN: Sunday, 14 February 2021
TIME: 5:30 p.m. SLT (same as Pacific Time)
WHERE: The Fire Pit at Just Genealogy SLurl

All are welcome at our meetings. You do not need to be a member of the SLVGS in order to attend or share your brick wall – but we’d love it if you’d join!

For information about how to join the SLVGS, please visit our Membership Page.

Join us for a ghostly field trip and spooky presentation on Researching Cemeteries by SLGVS Vice President, Cheri Daniels.

Topics covered will include; cemetery versus graveyard, cemetery design clues, iconography, access laws, management, online databases, and pre-Find a Grave inventories.

After our business meeting, we will take a surprise field trip to a spooky fire pit for the presentation, followed by an exploration of a virtual graveyard to look for iconography clues. Don’t be alarmed if you encounter an ancestral ghost or two!

The winner of the FamilySearch Indexing Contest will be announced, so get busy indexing!

WHEN: Sunday, 11 October 2020
TIME: 5:30 p.m. SLT (same as Pacific Time)
WHERE: The Fire Pit at Just Genealogy SLurl

All are welcome at our meetings. You do not need to be a member of the SLVGS in order to attend – but we’d love it if you’d join!

For information about how to join the SLVGS, please visit our Membership Page.

About The Speaker

Cheri Daniels, MSLS, is the Vice President of SLVGS. During the day, she serves as Head of Library and Archives at the Kentucky Historical Society as well as Editor of Kentucky Ancestors Online, their free genealogy publication. Other duties at KHS include Rights and Reproductions Coordinator, Project Director for Kentucky Ancestors Town Hall (event and soon-to-be state PBS program in 2021), and This Week in Kentucky History (NPR radio program).

She holds a B.A. in History and an M.S. in Library Science (MSLS), with a concentration in Archival Care and Management. For over 25 years she has worked in various types of libraries, including 11 years at the University of Kentucky, and 9 years at KHS. Her genealogy work pre-dates her career and continues to be a driving force. She is also a contributing author to the 2018 book from McFarland Publishers Genealogy and the Librarian.

Be watching for her latest project to be launched soon: The BloodRoot Podcast.

Other roles include DAR Member, blogger at Genealogy Literacy, Journeys Past, and speaker/on-air talent for regional/national events/programs (FGS: 2017, NGS: 2012/2014/2019, RootsTech: 2014/2019/2020, Travel Channel’s Mysteries at the Museum: 2014, WTVQ Kentucky History Treasures: 2014, 2016, Kentucky Ancestors Town Hall: 2017-2019, This Week in Kentucky History: 2018-2020).

The Second Life Virtual Genealogical Society’s September meeting will feature genealogist Miles Meyer who will share “Introduction to The Family History Guide.”

The Family History Guide is a website focused on enhancing your skills in genealogical research. This site provides step by step tutorials on using FamilySearch, Ancestry, MyHeritage, and FindMyPast as well as helpful hints on researching different types of records.

The Family History Guide also provides training on how to research locations from the country level all the way down to individual counties. You can track your progress as you go through each lesson and take quizzes to see if you are retaining the information presented and, if you need to review a topic again, it is as easy as going back to that lesson and following the steps provided.

A brief short meeting will be held prior to the presentation.

WHEN: Sunday, 12 September 2020
TIME: 5:30 p.m. SLT (same as Pacific Time)
WHERE: The Fire Pit at Just Genealogy SLurl

All are welcome at our meetings. You do not need to be a member of the SLVGS in order to attend – but we’d love it if you’d join!

For information about how to join the SLVGS, please visit our Membership Page.

About The Speaker

Miles is a scientist by training and has been active in genealogy for over 20 years in a variety of ways. His expertise revolves around new technologies, internet research, and FamilySearch. He is a Family History Consultant and current Director of the Vero Beach Family History Center. He has been speaking at genealogy conferences, including RootsTech Salt Lake (2019) and RootsTech London (2019), and other events for over 10 years and assists others in researching their family histories.

Additionally, Miles has been a beta tester for several genealogy companies including AncestralQuest, FamilySearch, MyHeritage, BillionGraves, and BYU Tech Labs to name a few. He is also a Certified Trainer and the Director of Education for The Family History Guide. Miles has produced several training manuals and maintains several websites and blogs on genealogy related activities.