Genchat, the genealogy Twitter chat sessions (or as it is offically known, “#genchat”) which I introduced to you back at the beginning of this year has proved to be such a hit that they’re continuing in 2014. And not only that, but the ladies behind #genchat are so incredibly organised and have already have the dates and topics that will be covered during #genchat sessions in 2014.
The idea of a #genchat session is that is you log on to Twitter (yes, to participate you need to be on Twitter) at a nominated time (see details of this below), and during the one hour period, the #genchat organisers ask a few questions that relate to that weeks topic, and those who are following along can respond with an answer. Be sure to use the hashtag #genchat.
To give you an example, the picture below gives you a small sample of the summary of last Friday/Saturday’s #genchat session below. The topic for this one was “Sharing Your Research with Blogs, Gifts, Books and Crafts” and as you would expect, it was really interesting. You can view the full summary with all questions and responses here.
#Genchat is held every 2nd and 4th Friday’s of the month, at 9pm central US time, which works out to be late morning to early afternoon in Australia, depending on your timezone (see that chart below, for a conversion).
But in addition to these, in 2014 the organisers are adding a third #genchat each month which is specifically focused on a geography based topic, and there’s even one about Australia coming up …
So here’s the schedule for 2014 … diary date those that you’re interested in, and we hope to see you there.
January 2014
Jan 10: Looking ahead: your goals for 2014
Jan 15: Going abroad: how to start international research
Jan 24: Capturing all the details: one document at a time
February 2014
Feb 7: RootsTech 2014! What new tech have you discovered because of genealogy?
Feb 19: Western Canadian provinces
Feb 28: NARA Across the States
March 2014
Mar 14: Early Census Years
Mar 19: The Great American Desert
Mar 28: Migration routes across the US
April 2014
Apr 11: Confused about Citations?
Apr 16: One Place Studies
Apr 25: The Tax Man: he left paperwork behind
May 2014
May 9: DNA: what have you gained?
May 14: Connecting to Australia
May 23: The Naturalization Process
June 2014
Jun 13: Online cemeteries: their role in genealogy
Jun 18: The Deep South
Jun 27: Occupational hazards: Understanding what paid the bills
July 2014
Jul 11: What did he say? Slang terms your ancestor may have used
Jul 16: Where in the world… have you researched?
Jul 25: DNA: best resources to understand the science
August 2014
Aug 8: Fraternal Societies
Aug 13: Eastern Canadian provinces
Aug 29: The Benefits of Transcribing
September 2014
Sep 12: Letting it rest: when to let the research sit
Sep 17: For the love of maps!
Sep 26: Managing multiple research projects
October 2014
Oct 11: Town collections and their value.
Oct 15: German Research
Oct 25: DNA: when it matches
November 2014
Nov 14: Secret Societies
Nov 19: The UK Archives
Nov 28: Accessing state collections
December 2014
Dec 12: The Religious Advantage: Church Records
Dec 17: Border changes over time
Dec 26: Your genealogy holiday gifts
If you are wishing to double check what time the #genchat session will be on it your area, be sure to visit www.timeanddate.com. I have done a conversion from Friday 9pm CDT US time, to Australian time, which shows the time on a Saturday in each Aussie timezone (at least while daylight saving is on anyway).
And don’t forget that we’ve not finished 2013 yet either. So there’s still more #genchats scheduled for the rest of this year.
To keep up with what’s on when, either “like” the Conference Keeper Facebook page, follow @ConfKeep on Twitter, and check out their website.