You’ve organized your ancestors in group and pedigree charts, written their stories, cited sources, stacked photographs into piles, collected pertinent maps, scanned copies of original documents—now what are you going to do? It is time for the next step: Arranging all of this work into a publishable family history.

While this task can seem dauting, it doesn’t have to be. Learn the do’s and don’ts of page layout and design to create a professional looking book as well as one that invites the reader to keep on reading. Your ancestors—past, present and future—will thank you.

PAT GORDON was on the staff of the defunct annual Angelina College Genealogy Conference and still does occasional society seminars. She is past president of the Fort Worth Genealogical Society. She holds a B.A. in Journalism from University of Texas at Arlington and a M.S. in Media Studies from Texas Christian University.

Knowing where to look can sometimes be the most difficult part of research. This presentation is filled with stories and examples of the often unknown, unfound, and unused death documents.
Patti Todd Gillespie brings energy and humor to her classes. An avid hobby genealogist for 30 years, Patti formed Family Lines & Stories, her own research company, 5 years ago. She researches for clients and speaks to groups, small and large, in and out of Texas. A former teacher of French & English, Patti very much enjoys presenting.

She serves on the FGS 2020 program committee and will coordinate Genealogy Essentials at TIGR 2021. In 2019 Patti spoke at RootsTech, served as past president of Lone Star APG, and continues as a founding member and 3 rd term President of the Wise County Genealogical Society (WCGS), while serving as one of the Commissioners of Wise County Historical Commission; in 2018 she was asked to be the secretary for Texas State Genealogical Society (TxSGS).

Patti was recruited to serve on 3 committees in 2017: Association of Professional Genealogists--Lone Star Chapter, Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy (SLIG), and the newest national institute, Texas Institute for Genealogical Research.

In 2016 Patti was selected to assist NARA Fort Worth with indexing slave manifests and she spoke at the Texas State Genealogical Society state conference.

In 2015 she performed as the chairman of the video and streaming portion of the national Professional Management Conference sponsored by the Association of Professional Genealogists (APG), and she was awarded the Birdie Monk Holsclaw IGHR award. Patti is a founding member and third-term president of the Wise County Genealogical Society, and she also teaches a six-week beginner's genealogy course in her community. Patti attends as many conferences and watches as many webinars as possible while managing clients, husband, children, grandchildren, rescue dog and acreage in Decatur, Texas. )

Manuscript collections can be a goldmine of information for family history researchers. Learn about where to find collections, how they are organized, how to use a finding aid, and the variety of interesting items that can be found in the collections.

 ARI WILKINS, a graduate of Louisiana State University, has been actively researching family history since 1998. Ari worked with the esteemed genealogist, Dr. James Rose, for many years on his final project Generations: The WPA Ex-Slave Narrative Database. She is the owner of the genealogical consulting company, Black Genesis. Ms. Wilkins also works as a contributor for Proquest’s African American Heritage database.

Ms. Wilkins has spoken nationally at the National Genealogical Society, Federation of Genealogical Societies, Texas State Genealogical Society, Ohio Genealogical Society, Samford Institute of Genealogical and Historical Research, Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy, American Library Association, RootsTech, and a multitude of local societies.

Ari has been a Library Associate at Dallas Public Library since 2007. She teaches a series of basic research classes using popular genealogical websites. She specializes in African American research.