Zachary Campbell was 12 years old when he first met with Dennis Allen, well known genealogist with expertise in software technology. Zach's mother has asked Dennis to talk to her son about a project that might generate interest in history via technology.

 

Zachary and Dennis hit it off well from the start! in the fall of 2016, Dennis gave Zachary his first assignment. "His original assignment was to make a cemetery program that I could virtually walk through and see each headstone.  We stated he could do more with it, such as make it a game for kids as well or be able to click on it and pull up documents from various places," said Dennis.

 

With Dennis, Zachary started walking and measuring the cemetery in the winter 2016/2017. They discussed various components of such a program and Zachary took it from there!

 

"I was very proud of him since he taught himself the coding as he moved through the program build," commented Dennis proudly! Zachary's cemetery program far exceeded expectations. And he finished it for the 2018 Story County Fair, where he won, Special Science, Engineering and Technology Award and "Judge's Favorite" with 4H.

 

A genealogist always wonders what is the future for genealogy.  Many times we are frustrated that our children seem to take no interest in family history, even their own!  We are not the first generation of genealogist and will not be the last.  If you are curious about ways to interest your child or grandchild in genealogy, Zachary Campbell will be showing us his amazing project on October 24th, 10 am at the Ames Public Library, Auditorium.

 

Children love technology and can be self taught in many cases.  Come walk through a virtual cemetery created by 14 year old Zachary Campbell. And see how he has made a simple walk through program fascinating, functional and very helpful to researchers. Programs like this can make visiting a cemetery as simple as putting on your slippers and turning on the computer. Your grandchild can get involved, just encourage them and be creative.  Genealogy's future is in good hands!

 

 

 

Annual meeting and election of officers.

Display of writing and report examples in genealogical format.

We learned about prepping for a research trip last month -- now we are off to the State Historical Society of Iowa Library to research.  We'll plan to meet there at 10AM, have a library tour by staff, and then get to work.

Bring your genealogy and computer questions and we'll try to help you find a solution.

Holiday treats and research assistance provided ... along with some holiday music.

Take a deep breath!  What is the story you want to tell?  Where do you start your story?  Do you have your research, images, and documentation organized and easily accessible?  Who is your audience?

 

 

Dr. Lasley returns to discuss change and shifts in social strata: how lives changed due to influences and pressures of advertising, urbanism, consumerism, emerging professions and technology

Bring your genealogy and computer questions and we'll try to help you find a solution.

This presentation will deal with breaking down your story into segments or chapters to create the flow.

Is further research needed to color a segment?

 

 

 

 

Research identifies our ancestors by linking individual to families and families to generations.  But to truly understand their lives we must discover and share their stories.  This case study presentation explores techniques for reconstructing the past and effectively tell a family's multigenerational history.  This is "Emma's story."

Bring your genealogy and computer questions and we'll try to help you find a solution.

Write!  Now you have your ancestor profile, the preface, astory board which describes the content and flow of your story ... time to write.  Let's practice a bit ... 

 

Cris and Dennis will be bring their scanners and demonstrating how to scan and store your valuable images on your computer.

Bring your genealogy and computer questions and we'll try to help you find a solution.

This session will focus on compiling and printing your story.  What about self-publishing?

Question and answer, discussion.

 

It is challenging to find out much about our female ancestors due to legalities and norms of the times in which they lived.  Women were allowed to ...lots of things!  Women were "respectable roles" in lifes, roles were dicated by men, beliefs and law.  Some women rebelled, most didn't.

Bring your genealogy and computer questions and we'll try to help you find a solution.

We've worked hard all year on "telling our story" and now it's show time!  Selected stories will be read.

Bring your questions about genealogical research, documentation, writing your family story, how-to-do this or that, where to write for a resourc, where to find a resource and more.

Bring your genealogy and computer questions and we'll try to help you find a solution.