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REXBURG, Idaho—The
semi-annual BYU-Idaho Family History Conference will be held Saturday, Nov.
9, on the campus. Co-sponsored by the Division of Continuing Education, the
BYU-Idaho Family
History Center and
the Snake River Connection to the Utah Genealogical Association,
the conference is open to anyone who has an interest in family history
work.
New
this year are workshops featuring Scottish and Danish research.
Workshops include classes at beginning, intermediate and advanced levels
and are taught by members of the BYU-Idaho faculty, area family history
center experts and area missionaries. The conference, which the school has
hosted for approximately 10 years, traditionally draws 400-500 from Idaho,
Wyoming and Montana.
Classes
begin at 8 a.m. and go until 5:20 p.m. The keynote address,
“Documenting Your Family History,” will be given in the Taylor
Chapel at 11:25 a.m. by Jimmy Parker, senior research associate for the
genealogy research associates and owner of the Heritage Plus Co.
While
some workshops focus on using technology in genealogy, other lecture-format
classes focus on research, says Shirley Hawkes, Continuing Education
program assistant.
“There
are so many classes that offer a wide range of information for beginning to
expert genealogists. It helps a lot in learning to use the computer and how
to take advantage of the Internet resources available nowadays,”
Hawkes says.
Blaine
Bake, the special collections librarian in the David O. McKay Library and
area family history adviser in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints, will teach a course on using the ancestral file, one directed to
Sunday School teachers and one for Family History consultants.
“Since
family history is one of the more technical-oriented parts of the gospel,
these seminars are great opportunities for people to acquire additional
skills as they try to carry out their family history, priesthood and temple
assignments,” Bake says. Offering classes to specific groups
“gives us a chance to focus on the actual details they’ll
need.”
Extra
lecture classrooms with large-screen computer projection capacity have been
added this year to allow instructors to demonstrate computer functions
while participants take notes. Additionally, six hands-on computer labs
will be available.
The
conference has benefits to participants at many levels. Hawkes says,
“For some, it’s a service to their family. For others,
it’s a hobby. The conference is a great resource that we offer to
help those people who have those interests.”
Registration,
which must be done in advance by Nov. 6, is $16 per person.
For
more information, including class schedule and registration information,
visit the “Community Classes/Conferences” link on the BYU-Idaho
Continuing Education Web site at http://www.byui.edu/ContEd/, e-mail
camps@byui.edu, or call the Continuing Education office at (208) 496-1040
or (208) 496-2336.
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