And the winners are....

We have winners for the tagline contest.  Sorry it has taken so long to post, we wanted you to be able to see the posts and ran into a problems displaying the posts. We worked with the winners to get screenshots of the posts so that you could see them.

• 1st place - And winner of a reserved seat in the course of their choice in 2017 is....

The tagline sums up the SLIG experience for all of us. "Looking for ancestors, but finding friends." 

I have made some incredible friends though the years at  SLIG.  We have bonded over the homework, shared meals and amazing discoveries. Congratulations to Linda Harms Okazaki!

• 2nd place - And winner of a My Heritage Premium Plus Plan is...

This tagline struck a particular cord with me, "After four days of genetic genealogy at SLIG, I look in the mirror and wonder whose DNA is looking back." My mother passed away in 1989 and there isn't a day that goes by that I don't miss her.  That longing to be with her is ease when I look into my daughters' eyes and I see my mothers' eyes. Congratulations to Elizabeth Williams Gomoll!

• 3rd place - and winner of a DNA Analysis from LegacyTree Genealogists is...

The tagline of "the perfect way to kick off the year on a genealogical high note!"is so true for all of us! SLIG gets us on track each year in our genealogical research, helps us focus and set higher standards for ourselves. Congratulations to Melanie Frick!

And the winners are . . .

Sponsors and Prizes

SLIG 2016 offered a lot of fun and opportunity to share in some great door prizes.  

Before we announce this batch of winners, we need to offer thanks to the following sponsors for providing support (everything from event sponsorship to projectors) and door prizes for SLIG 2016:

Ancestry.com, MyHeritage.com, ICAPGen, FamilySearch, Maia’s Books & Misc., Foundation for East European Family History Studies, LegacyTree Genealogists, Virtual Institute of Genealogical Research, Visit Salt Lake, and the Hilton Salt Lake City Center.

Photo Share

Participants were asked to take a photo at SLIG - either with their own camera or at the TapSnap booth - post it on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook, and tag it with #SLIG2016 or @SLIGInstitute. Each tagged photo was entered to win.  Winners were randomly drawn and announced at the banquet by Michelle Ercanbrack of the SLIG marketing team.

1. Pre-reserved seat in the SLIG course of choice for 2017 - Maeaunna Miller @SouthKinections
2. MyHeritage one-year premium plus and data plan - Mike Bronner @mikebronner
3. Ancestry DNA kit - Clytee G @clyteeg, Instagram
4. One course in the Virtual Institute of Genealogy - Anne Irvine Savo @NutmegGenealogy
5. Visit Salt Lake Hydration pack - Valerie Elkins @valerielkins
6. Visit Salt Lake Hydration pack - Jamie Mayhew @jamie_mayhew

Room Monitors Drawing

SLIG couldn't function without the support of the room monitors each year.  These amazing individuals not only take care of their instructors and classroom needs, but assist us with on-site course registration on Sunday afternoon.  In addition to a thank-you item (SLIG mug), their names were entered to win an autosomal DNA kit donated by Ancestry.com. Michelle Goodrum is the winner of this great prize.

Video Interview Drawing

Ancestry.com donated a one-year world subscription for the winner of this random drawing.  All participants that signed up for and completed a video interview to help us with our 2017 and beyond marketing efforts were entered to win.  And the winner is:  Valerie Elkins

Hilton Stay Reward

Earlier in the week three lucky names were drawn to receive one night complimentary lodging, to be taken off their bill at check-out.  This was our way to say thanks for staying at the Institute hotel. These went to:  Terrell Spark, Dawn Bingaman, and Diane Faulk.

Special Acknowledgments

A special thanks was given to Paul Hawthorne for starting the "Unofficial" SLIG2016 group on Facebook, which facilitated great discussions both before and during SLIG.  Paul was given an extension to his one-year membership in the Utah Genealogical Society for his service.

Recognition was given to Martha Mercer of Maia's Books for the first official donation to the new SLIG Scholarship Fund.

UGA Awards

Each year UGA presents several awards at the SLIG completion banquet.  The organization reached out to board members as well as past Fellows of UGA and Silver Tray award winners for nominations to be considered.  The awards were presented by Bret Petersen, UGA President.

Bret Petersen presents the FUGA
award to Thom Edlund

Thomas K. Edlund, a specialist in East European area studies, languages and record sources, was presented with the UGA Fellow award.  Thom entered the profession of genealogy at the Family History Library following a career with the USA Intelligence and Security Command.  As the first Slavic bibliographer, he created and codified collection development and catalogued standards for nine countries. He was a founding member of the FamilySearch Issues Group, created to investigate and actualize the corporatizing of FamilySearch.  He also conducted private research, specializing in Balkan, Russo-German, and Jewish research. 

Thom presently works at Brigham Young University, where he has developed and instructed curricula for Latin source documents, Slavic source documents, advanced Latin paleography, Church Slavonic, Slavic paleography, and micro-regional/local history research methodology.  He serves as department chair for Cataloging and Metadata at the Harold B. Lee Library and represents the university as the East European Areas Studies Librarian.

Thom is president of the Foundation for East European Family History Studies (FEEFHS), where he has actively served in various roles for over twenty years, including ten years as the FEEFHS Journal editor.  He has most recently affected change in the FEEFHS organizational structure toward support of a more substantial role in education, indexing, and record discovery projects.

Thom is an active speaker, having made over 250 conference presentations.  He also acts as a representative for family history in multiple organizations outside the genealogy industry. We welcome Thom to the FUGA family.

Dick Eastman accepts the Silver
Tray award on the anniversary of
the first release of his newsletter

Richard (Dick) Eastman could have stayed home and opened the bubbly to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the first edition of Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter.  Instead, he celebrated with UGA board members, SLIG committee members, coordinators, instructors, and students at the 21^st annual SLIG banquet.

At that banquet, Bret Petersen, UGA President, presented Dick with the Silver Tray Award.  The award is given annually for scholarly contributions to the field of genealogy, traditionally demonstrated through publication efforts. That the banquet was on the 15^th of January, exactly twenty years from the date of his first release, was almost too good to be true, and Dick flew in just for the special occasion.

Dick has been involved in genealogy for more than 30 years.  He also worked in the computer industry in software, hardware, and management positions, for more than 40 years.  The two interests merged continually throughout his career, starting with the use of a mainframe computer to enter his family data on punch cards back in the 1970s.

Long before the invention of the World Wide Web, Dick started a Genealogy Forum on CompuServe, the leading commercial online service of the day.  In 1995, he decided to start a small weekly e-newsletter.  It began on January 15, 1996 with about 100 recipients and has since grown into a daily electronic publication, now read by 75,000 people around the world. 

Janet Hovorka receives an
Award of Merit from Bret Petersen

Janet Hovorka, past-president of UGA, received the President’s Award of Merit.  Janet served as vice president of UGA in 2009, and as president from 2010 to 2013.  Under her leadership, UGA developed new committee initiatives, long term planning, and doubled membership.  During her two-term tenure, Janet worked with various committees, including education, publicity, publications, exhibits, chapters, historical, award, website, and volunteer resources.

Janet also served on the SLIG committee and as the vendor liaison for the UGA South Davis Conference for five years, oversaw the UGA Sandy conference for two years, the joint UGA/ICAPGen conference in 2013, and helped provide oversight for UGA’s partnership role in the National Genealogical Society Conference held in Salt Lake City in 2010.  

Janet holds a master’s degree in library and information science, is an instructor in the genealogy certificate program at Salt Lake Community College, lectures on various topics across the country and internationally, is an author, and is owner of Family ChartMasters.

21st Annual Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy

Students from 45 states and four countries joined us in Salt Lake City for the 21^st annual Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy (SLIG) held January 10-15, 2016 at the Hilton Salt Lake City Center.  

Presented by the Utah Genealogical Association, the institute established new benchmarks with thirteen courses offered and 361 students attending. Over thirty of the nation’s top genealogists provided in-depth instruction on topics from advanced methodology to genetic genealogy.

Inquisitive group in the
Swing Across the South course

Special Events:  Anchoring the event were Rev. Dr. David McDonald, CG with uplifting plenary insights, “Thinking Genealogically,” and Judy G. Russell, JD, CG, CGL, with a memorable banquet keynote, “Suffer the Little Children.” 

The International Commission for the Accreditation of Professional Genealogists (ICAPGen) sponsored a new event, “SLIG Night at the FHL.”  Hosted by the Family History Library, the event provided classes, labs, and one-on-one consultations in specific areas of research.  

Lee Warthen instructs students at the
University of Utah Law Library

The University of Utah Law Library hosted Judy Russell's advanced law course on an afternoon field trip, while the Family History Library hosted course labs and consultation stations.

New this year:  the institute introduced “SLIG Central” with Maia's bookstore; a morning refreshment break; information tables from BCG, ICAPGen, UGA, and VisitSalt Lake; a video interview corner; an ancestor map/database; and new SLIG Swag. The area quickly became the networking center for the week as students posted photos, reviewed credentialing materials, and discussed course homework assignments over lunch. 

Participants networking at SLIG Central

Scholarship Fund:  Martha Mercer of Maia’s Books made the first official donation to the new SLIG Scholarship Fund.  While SLIG will continue to award the annual Jimmy B. Parker scholarship, the fund was set up to provide additional opportunities for deserving students to attend SLIG in the future.

Sponsors/Prizes:  Several organizations and vendors provided door prizes and support to this year's Institute.  We will mention them further in a later post, along with some of the contest winners.

Memorabilia:  Finally, SLIG presented each participant at the banquet with a SLIG2016 pin and announced the 2017 courses, which we will cover in a subsequent post. 

Colloquium:  The second annual SLIG Colloquium was held Saturday following the Institute.  It brought over 70 leaders from the genealogy industry together for a moderated discussion on the importance of genealogical standards and their place in the larger genealogy world.  A summary will be presented in the next issue of Crossroads.