About Me

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Lake Mathews (Perris), CA, United States
Born in Illinois, I grew up in Wilmette, a northern suburb of Chicago. I have one sibling, an older brother. I am married, for the 2nd time now, to Butch & got 4 children in the deal. They have gone on to make me grandmother 25 times over & great-grandmother to over 20!. After many years working in industry, I got my bachelors and masters degrees in speech communication, & was a professor in that field for 13 years. I retired in 2001 & returned to school & got my doctorate in folklore. Now I meld my two interests - folklore & genealogy - & add my teaching background, resulting in my current profession: speaker/author/entertainer of genealogically-related topics. I play many folk instruments, but my preference is guitar, which I have been playing since 1963. I write the "Aunty Jeff" column for the Informer, newsletter of the Jefferson County NY Gen. Soc. I work in partnership with Gena Philibert-Ortega & Sara Cochran as Genealogy Journeys® where we focus on educating folks about Social History. More about that: genaandjean.blogspot.com. More on our podcasts: genjourneys.podbean.com. More about my own projects: Circlemending.org.

Saturday, May 9, 2009

Genealogy Travels

It does appear that this is more a monthly, than a daily, or even weekly, blog. Hmm, well, at least I'm doing something.

I've had a little cold and that has kept me from staying on top of, well, anything! But I feel better now and ready to head to NGS in Raleigh, NC on Monday morning. I think I have most things packed (or on the list for the last minute) and have my schedule set, so now it's just a matter of making sure my alarm is set and I am up & on the way to the airport by 2:30 Monday morning. While I am not a morning person, I suspect that I will be too excited to sleep so it will be more an issue of leaving late Sunday than leaving early Monday!

This particular conference will be particularly special because it appears I will be installed as the new secretary for the Genealogical Speakers Guild (last I looked, I'm running unopposed). I really enjoy this group . . . they have an excellent newsletter and have given me some helpful networking opportunities. For genealogical speakers, I strongly recommend joining this organization: besides the networking, members each have their own pages to promote their genealogical speaking business. Check it out at <www.genealogicalspeakersguild.org>.

There is a lot of travel in my summer's plans and most is genealogy-related so this is just the first of many journeys (some longer than others). And most include living relatives, too, so that is another reason to look forward to them: I'll be visiting kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids in Utah, Arizona, Illinois, and Missouri.

Hope my readers are looking forward to their summer as well.