Wow! I Was Mentioned in a Megan Smolenyak Webinar

On Wednesday, Legacy Family Tree hosted a Webinar by Megan Smolenyak (one of the few genealogists who might qualify as a household name) on how to find living people.  Genealogists usually focus on finding dead ancestors, but sometimes -- whether it's to contact living relatives for health information or DNA studies, put together a family reunion, or look for people you grew up with -- the search is for people who are still alive.  I was registered for the Webinar, but I didn't get to bed until 6:00 a.m. after a long day of work, so I managed to sleep through the presentation.

Imagine my surprise when I woke up and checked my e-mail, and a friend had sent a message saying that I was featured in the Webinar as an example!  The Webinar, Reverse Genealogy:  Finding the Living, discussed several strategies, one of which was "broadcasting" -- having a Web site, blog, Facebook page, etc. that relatives can find if they search for their surname.  One of the examples used was a post from my blog when I was contacted by a cousin.  The cousin found me because I have a Web page listing the family names I am researching.  Smolenyak mentioned that I was a professional genealogist and that I also post about my own family research.

You can view the Webinar free online until May 7, 2012, and it's also available for purchase.  My blog post is mentioned about 20 minutes in.

It's always nice to have someone cite your work, but this was really exciting.  Who knew that Megan Smolenyak read my blog?