MOUNT VERNON — Skagit Valley Genealogical Society (SVGS) is hosting its twelfth annual seminar, “Genealogy — All About Life” on Saturday, September 19, 8am-4pm at the Mount Vernon Senior Center, 1401 Cleveland. Guest speakers are two highly sought after speakers — professional genealogists Mary Kathryn Kozy and Jill Morelli. Topics include: Google’s Genealogy Tools, Top 10 Tech Tools for Genealogists, Researching Newspapers, and Writing Your Family History. Seminar admission is $40 for SVGS members and $45 non-members.“There are three global social trends that are creating a “genealogical El-Nino” for genealogical societies everywhere right now. First, the Baby Boomer generation is starting to retire by the millions. They are a population group that now has more free-time at their disposal.  Second, in Europe and the United States the popularity of television family history reality shows such as such as “Who Do You Think You Are?” are stimulating an interest in discovering one’s ancestry. And third, technology and software entrepreneurs are creating software “apps” to assist family historians with organizing and sourcing their discoveries and materials. An example of this trend is the RootsTech conference that attracts budding software designers as well as seasoned genealogists. Over 25,000 people, of all ages, attend the conference earlier this year. It was the second largest gathering of genealogists on the planet. Britain’s, “Who Do You Thing You Are?” conference being the world’s largest. These three current social trends are creating a “perfect storm” of interest in family history research. It is great to see a younger audience is now getting attracted to genealogy. Family research requires detective work and it is very stimulating and rewarding.” said Margie Wilson, SVGS genealogy librarian.

SVGS is bringing the best educators to our community so amateur family historians can break through research “brick walls.” This year to add excitement to the seminar SVGS is offering all attendees an opportunity to receive one of two door prizes:  A one-on-one consultation with a scientist/expert, who will explain how to interpret your genealogy DNA test results; or for beginning researchers, an opportunity to meet one-on-one with an expert family history researcher.

SVGS’ seminar will also be an opportunity to network with other genealogists, learn new skills from the experts, explore how to use the latest technology to improve your research, plus books and resources will be on-hand to expand your research horizons.

Questions: Kris LaRue (360) 770-0762 or svgsgenealogy@gmail.com. For details and online registration visit: skagitvalleygenealogy.org.