A few thoughts after the Legacy Family Tree Webinars 24-hour Marathon

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Coming so quickly after RootsTech, the 24-hour Marathon always sends me into information overload. I look over the session list well before the event to see which ones would be useful to my genealogy practice. There are always a few that excite me, but frankly, there are some others that miss the mark. Let me be clear, I am a fan of Legacy Family Tree Webinars. They’re one of my regular avenues for self-education on genealogy topics. I just wish there was a bit more breathing room between RootsTech and the Marathon.

Access to the recordings is free at https://familytreewebinars.com/24 until April 30. They should all be available to view in the next day or so.

Most Important Presentation of the Marathon

Before I get into my view of the winners and losers, I want to call attention to what I consider to be the most important webinar of the marathon. Alec Ferretti’s Advocacy for Genealogy spelled out many of the situations that threaten our ability to obtain records vital to any genealogical search. Alec’s work with Reclaim the Records and on the board of the APG gives him high credibility. He issued a Call to Action to all of us regarding the continued funding of the National Archives. Anyone who has watched the news over the past few weeks has seen the Archives under attack. We need to apply pressure on our elected officials if we have any hope of being able to access records in the future. Please, if you don’t go back and watch any of the other webinars, make it a point to view this one. It’s too important to miss.

Other Recommended Webinars

DNA Meets the Paper Trail: Pedigree Triangulation Strategies for Early 19th-Century Research - Diana Elder does her usual great job of explaining a complicated DNA testing methodology in a relatable way. In this webinar, she presents a case study of proving who the father of a woman born in 1828 was through pedigree triangulation.

Breathing Life into Ancestral Stories: Using Social History in Genealogical Research - Robyn Smith shows why it’s so important for us to go beyond a recitation of dates and facts about our research subject. Robyn incorporates social and community history to produce reports that are likely to be interesting even to people who don’t generally want to hear about their ancestors.

GPTs for Family History: Unlocking the Potential of AI - What can I say? It’s Andrew Redfern talking about using AI. Andrew is a leading voice regarding the use of AI in genealogy. He knows his stuff and presents it fearlessly. In this webinar, Andrew wrote a custom GPT while online, allowing us to watch as he crafted the prompts to direct the AI engine to digest and format information. Live demonstrations are always risky, and this one encountered a problem with being able to read a PDF file. Andrew showed us how to troubleshoot the problem. I’ll let you see the result. This one is well worth your time.

From Research to Writing: AI Tools for Genealogists - Nicole Elder Dyer tackled a controversial topic and handled it very well. I know that many people do not believe AI should be used in serious writing at all. Nicole demonstrated ways that seem to me to be practical and ethical in using AI as a tool to help distill data into formats that can be adapted for documentation and reports.

Many Other Opportunities

So, I’ve told you about five sessions that I think are worth your time to explore. But don’t overlook the other 19 webinars. Some of them are what I would class as “niche,” for example, Gena Philibert-Ortega’s Names in Thread: Signature Quilts and Genealogy. It’s not in my wheelhouse. But I know of a few friends who would love it.

The difficulty of putting together a group of presentations for a conference, or a 24-hour marathon, is finding the right mix to appeal to a large number of participants. Geoff Rasmussen and his team always do a wonderful job. I encourage everyone to take a look at the entire list while they can be viewed for free. I’ve been a subscriber to the full series for some time. It’s an inexpensive way to further your genealogy education.