By JENNIFER ROBINSON
Genealogy scholars of all ages will gather at BYU for the 1999 annual Genealogy and Family History Conference August 3-6.
This year’s conference will focus on international genealogical research, the latest developments in World Wide Web information and changes in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint’s Family History Department.
BYU religious education, history department, conferences and workshops and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint’s family history library are the sponsors of the conference.
Conference speakers include LDS Family History Library employees, BYU professors and genealogy experts, said Valiant Evans, BYU conferences and workshops coordinator.
Evans said the conference will offer a variety of classes on how to research ancestors from different areas of the world. Conference classes will also cover the latest technologies available for genealogical research.
Cyndi Howell, author of the family history Web site, www.cyndislist.com, will be a keynote speaker at the conference, said Kip Sperry, director of the Genealogy and Family History Conference. He said Howell’s site features over 52,000 links in over 100 search categories.
Sperry said other highlights of the conference will include the LDS Church’s Web site, FamilySearch, and the new personal ancestral file or PAF for Windows 4.0.
According to the conference booklet, classes featured in the conference include the following: European and Nordic Research and Repeats, Family History Center Operations, Genealogy Computing, Writing and Publishing, Research Methodology, United Kingdom and Ireland Research, U.S. Localities and U.S. and Canada records.
He said genealogy classes are not ranked according to difficulty, but introductory classes will definitely be offered.
Evans said the conference will teach people how to do genealogical research based on individual skill, level and available tools.
Registration for the conference will begin Tuesday at 7:30 a.m. in the BYU Conference Center. The four-day conference fee is $149. The first Devotional address will be given at 8:30 a.m. by Elder D. Todd Christofferson, a member of the Quorum of the Seventy of the LDS Church.
BYU students have the option of taking this course to receive two credit hours of History 393R, according to the conference booklet. Students may call (801) 378-4853 to be sent a list of course requirements. Students may also visit the conference Web site at http://coned.byu.edu/cw/cwgeneal/index.htm, for more information.
