On April 19th I spent a rainy Saturday high and dry in a Tacoma hotel conference room listening to Dick Eastman. As most of you probably already know, Mr. Eastman is one of the most prolific genealogy bloggers around today and has been writing for his blog sense 1996. “You didn’t know he was in Tacoma” you say, otherwise you would have been there? Well Our Family Storybook’s Calendar had this event posted and we have many other genealogy related events, both local and national, listed. Take some time to visit our calendar and find out what you might be missing!

So, back to my rainy Saturday with Dick Eastman. Mr. Eastman started the day talking about the how and why to Sourcing your research and how collaboration can play an important roll. None of us do research in a vacuum, it takes a village! Considering the days weather, an appropriate title to his second topic, “Cloudy, with a Chance of Genealogy” he spoke about using the Cloud to store and back up your research. The Cloud can also be used to get access to your data on several devices from any location (as long as you have an internet connection). He convinced me that the Cloud has become an indispensible tool in the genealogist arsenal to better organized and keep our research safe. When was the last time you backed up your research?

After lunch, the afternoon was spent learning about using Worldcat to find genealogy books. You can find books from around the world and locate a book you might need for your research at a local library. Overall, it was a fun and informative day and Mr. Eastman ended the afternoon by giving us a humorous historical look at Maine Outhouses!

Thank you Mr. Eastman for visiting Washington State and sharing your knowledge.