Plucking Stories from the Family Tree

Speaker: Suzette Martinez Standring

Stories of adventure, courage, or quirkiness make ancestors come alive, and help us to understand much about ourselves. A one-page written snapshot preserves a milestone, or experiences from a different era, or details of a special person as a lasting treasure. Such a written remembrance to family and friends can be a unique gift.  Suzette Martinez Standring will illustrate how we can create stories that linger on the minds of readers.

Suzette Martinez Standring is a syndicated columnist with GateHouse Media, teaches writing workshops nationally and is a former president of The National Society of Newspaper Columnists. Her award winning books, The Art of Column Writing (2008) and The Art of Opinion Writing: Insider Secrets from Top Op-Ed Columnists (2014) are used in many national journalism courses.

Scrivener Software, a Tool for Writing Your Family History

Speaker: Julie Michutka

Julie Michutka will introduce you to Scrivener—a powerful software app for writing up your genealogical research. Scrivener is ideal for work that entails gathering a variety of resources, writing in short segments, experimenting with different orderings of those segments, and then creating a variety of outputs. It can be used to produce both print and digital publications.
Julie Michutka is a professional genealogical researcher and a teaching assistant, course developer, and facilitator for Boston University’s Online Genealogical Research Programs. She holds degrees in Classical Studies and Latin from the University of Michigan and the Boston University Certificate in Genealogical Research.

Click here to download handouts

Research Help

12:30 pm – come early to join the following discussion groups:

Ask the Experts – for help with U.S. research
Bessarabia Special Interest Group
Litvak-Baltic Special Interest Group (covers Lithuania, Latvia & Estonia)
Poland Special Interest Group

4:00 pm – meet with the Belarus Special Interest Group

Admission is free for members, $5 for non-members. Refreshments will be served.