Dick Eastman is the author of Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter, a weekly electronic publication with more than 25,000 readers. He wrote Your Roots: Total Genealogy Planning On Your Computer, published by Ziff-Davis Press. He is a frequent international lecturer, manager of the Genealogy Forums on CompuServe, former editor of Genealogical Computing magazine and also a former consultant and guest on the Ancestors television series on PBS.

Eastman will present four sessions: "Grandpa in Your Pocket" - High Tech Tools, Photographing Delicate Old Documents, Putting the Genes in Genealogy in a DNA World, Genealogical Research in 2007 - Humorous View.

Kathy Meade is the U.S. representative for Genline AB, a company that offers online access to the original Swedish Church Records from the 16th century to the 20th century. Besides working for Genline, Kathy volunteers at the Swedish American Museum in Chicago and assists patrons in researching their Swedish heritage. Prior to working for Genline, Kathy worked for more than 20 years in the Information Technology sector, including six years in Sweden and Norway where she learned to read Swedish and Norwegian.

Beginning Swedish Genealogy: Want to trace your Swedish roots but don't know where to begin? You don't know where your Swedish ancestor came from! Your ancestor changed his name! This presentation will provide steps and tips on how to begin your Swedish research and to overcome these obstacles. The class will include an overview of Swedish geography and explain why knowing what parish your ancestor came from is the key to Swedish research, Swedish names and spellings and an introduction to the types of resources and where to find these resources.

Doing Swedish Research in a Computer World: This lecture will familiarize you with the many electronic resources that are available for Swedish research. This class will present an overview of the CDs and online resources (both free sites and subscription sites) that can help you overcome the brick wall in your research. These electronic resources will include emigration information, military records, Swedish census records, church records, tax registers and message boards. Learn how some of these tools can help you discover the parish in Sweden where your ancestor came from.

Trace Your Family Using the Swedish Church Records: You now know your ancestor's name and the parish where he came from but how does one research using the Swedish church records? This presentation will give an overview of the Swedish church records and there will be an online demonstration showing step by step how to begin researching your ancestor using Genline's Swedish church records. The case study will show how one can begin to trace one's family back in time with only knowing your ancestor's name, parish and some date information such as birth or emigration date. Explanations and examples of the various types of church records will be presented.

Jim Puppe authored three personal family history books and is nearing completion of the fourth. He is a former member of the Heritage Education Commission and retired from the Veterans Administration. Jim continues to work on his genealogy, photography, and North Dakota historical projects.

Jim is our featured luncheon speaker. His address is about Small Town Unsung Heroes.

Verlyn Anderson, retired library director and professor of Scandinavian Studies at Concordia College, earned his advanced degrees at the University of Minnesota. He has escorted many study tours to Norway and the Baltic region for Concordia College, the Smithsonian Museums and the National Trust for Historic Preservation of Washington, DC. Verlyn and his wife, Evonne, served as resident directors of the Norway and the Baltic Program at the Oppland College in Lillehammer, Norway.

Online Norwegian Genealogical Resources: In this session, you will discover how to research your Norwegian and Norwegian-American genealogical questions by using the Internet. Among the most useful sites that will be discussed are the Digitalarkivet (Digital Archives of the National Archives of Norway), www.digitalarkivet.uib.no, the Norwegian American Bygdelagenes Fellesraad, www.fellesraad.com, Norway-Heritage: Hands Across the Sea, www.norwayheritage.com, and Cyndi's list of Genealogy Sites - Norway, www.cyndislist.com/norway.

Alice Ellingsberg is a Certified Genealogist and National Advisor, Lineage Research Committee, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution (NSDAR). Locally she serves as president of the Red River Valley Genealogical Society and Registrar of Dacotah Chapter, NSDAR.

Beginning Genealogy: Beginning Genealogy offers an increased understanding of your family's history and how to take the first steps to discovering your lineage. It takes time and patience but the reward will be identifying the potential for engaging in genealogical research, America's fastest growing hobby. Learn how to organize what you know and have in your possession; prove information and dates; write a research plan and document your sources.

Sharon Hoverson is Library Director and Archivist at Concordia College in Moorhead. She has taught cooperative education students the techniques of interviewing and has used these students to conduct an oral history project involving retired Concordia faculty emeriti and staff. Sharon is a past-president of the Heritage Commission.

Interview Techniques discusses methods for conducting interviews of family members and others. Sharon will offer tips on how to successfully record their memories.

Chandice Johnson, a member of the Commission, is the retired director of the NDSU Center for Writers and professor of English. He is well acquainted with all aspects of writing, publishing, copyright rules, and citations.

Organizing and Publishing Your Genealogical Records: This session will respond to the question, “How do I go about publishing my genealogical research?” Organizational strategies, ways of incorporating pictures, indexing, pagination, preparing copy for the printer, and avoiding copyright lawsuits will be discussed. Questions from the floor that do not tax the mental capacity of the presenter will be answered.

Naomi Bradbury-Marchand has worked as a Family Service Coordinator and Counselor in the funeral industry for ten years.  Naomi attended Minnesota State University Moorhead from 1984-1989, completing her education in the funeral industry through Westlawn Hillcrest Funeral Home, Cemetery and Crematory in Omaha, NE.

Using Funeral Home and Cemetery Records in Genealogy: This session will focus on information and discussion to retrieve family information from the funeral and cemetery industry.  Learn the rules and limitations facing the industry.  Also covered will be funeral history that will give clues to family positions from family funeral photos and heirlooms. Discussion on how to document information at upcoming funerals and burials to make genealogy research easier for future generations will be done.

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LaVern Ripley has been a professor of German studies at St. Olaf College since 1967. In the course of his career he has published 16 books, among them Of German Ways, the German Americans, Immigrant Wisconsin, the German-Bohemians, and The Chemnitzer Concertina. His articles have dealt with a multitude of topics, including quite a few about German Russian settlements in the Dakotas. One of his favorites was Gift Cows for Germany, which concerns the donations in 1921 of thousands of milk cows to orphanages in post-World War I Germany.

Family Research on Germans: Divided, Decided, Determined: This presentation refers to the many divisions and sub divisions and the linguistic barriers to researching the German family. Both the families and the researcher need to be determined.

German Family Genealogy: Hatched, Matched and Dispatched: This session will cover birth, marriage and death records in German family research.

Newspaper Technology and the Genealogist: Newspapers are a good resource for genealogists. We can use them more effectively when we understand some the of technological milestones, how they affected the industry and the information available to us.
 

Jim Specht has done extensive research in Germany and is familiar with civil and church archival records. He is working on Volume V of his own family history. Jim teaches accounting at Concordia.

Specht is presenting a session entitled German Records Research Techniques.

Duane P. Swanson, government records specialist and librarian in the Reference and Collections Management departments of the Minnesota Historical Society, has had 35 years of experience collecting and promoting use of research materials at the MHS. A native and current resident of Pine County, Minnesota, he holds history degrees from Hamline University and the University of Delaware. Of Swedish, Norwegian, and German ancestry, his research has extended to all three ancestral lands. He frequently lectures at genealogical conferences throughout the state.