Ogden FamilySearch 2013 Conference Presenter Biography

To return to the main Ogden FamilySearch 2013 Conference wiki page click HERE

Click on the outline's Presenters name (in blue) that you are interested to move directly to their Biography

= Presenter Biographies =

Scott Allen
Scott has a MS degree in Instructional Technology and is employed by Utah Education Network. During his spare time, Scott enjoys learning about his family history and using technology to share information online and make connections with living relatives. Scott and his family reside in West Point, Utah. Presentation Titles: 3. Saving Your Family History Securely in the Cloud 47. Using Technology to Share Your Family History Online and Collaborate with Others For Free

John Arrington Family
Arrington Family John and Ann Arrington along with their children, Nate (17), Haley (15), Carson (11) and Spencer (8), live in Pleasant View, Utah and are in the 9thWard of the Pleasant View South Stake. They love spending time together as a family camping, biking, and hanging out with extended family. They enjoy supporting each other in activities like soccer, baseball, swimming, and piano. John is a marriage and family therapist and Ann is a dental hygienist. Ann also referees high school and college basketball which evolved from a calling in church sports. The Arrington’s are relatively new to family history work. A few years ago they got their feet wet as their oldest son learned how to do indexing with his deacons quorum. Their family participated in ward and stake challenges to meet indexing goals and have recently become excited about finding family names to take to the temple. This work has been a great strength to their family as they have realized and felt the promises made by modern day apostles. 14. Family History Consultant &amp; Priesthood Leadership Training Part A….Nicole Hepler and John Arrington Family: Skit – Taking Names to the Temple

Doris Bateman
Doris Bateman graduated from Davis High, attended WSU and graduated from BYU with a degree in Sociology and Psychology. She has worked in various social service work positions. She has been actively working in and teaching family history for the last twenty years, and has been a Stake Family History consultant. Currently she is a Family History Consultant in her ward and serves on the staff of the Ogden Family History Center where she has taught classes in Roots Magic, newFamilySearch, and documentation. She has planned the curriculum for this conference for the past two years. She is married to Douglas G. Bateman and has 6 children and 9 grandchildren. Presentation Titles: 2. How Do I Start My Family History? 52. Documentation Made Easy

Mike Booth
Michael T. Booth is vice-president of RootsMagic, Inc. He is an accomplished trainer, having given hands-on entertaining presentations to thousands of individuals. With over 25 years of computer programming experience, Michael's latest creations are "Personal Historian" and "Family Atlas". He is also a developer of the popular RootsMagic genealogy software. Michael lives in Ogden, Utah with his wife, Sandy and their six children. Presentation Titles: 12. What’s New in RootsMagic 6 23. Roots Magic: FamilySearch Family Tree Made Easy 62. Personal Historian: Bringing Life to Your Life Stories

Debbie Burnett
Debbie Burnett lives in Sandy, Utah with her childhood sweetheart and husband Mike. She grew up in California and raised a family of 9 children, 3 of whom were adopted Indians. Their family had fun with saying that they had 3 cowboys, 3 cowgirls, and 3 Indians. The family moved 16 years ago to Utah and have blossomed into 32 grandchildren so far. Debbie has been involved with family history since she was a teenager and so has been through the great computer technology changes. She serves as a Church Service Missionary in the Salt Lake City Family History Library and has done so for 6 years. Debbie teaches patrons and missionaries FamilySearch Family Tree. She and her husband plan to serve a mission together by the end of this year. Presentation Titles: 42. First Hearts…Then Charts—FamilySearch.org &gt; Family Tree Sourcing 55. First Hearts…Then Charts—FamilySearch.org &gt; Photos and Stories

Carlos Camacho
Carlos writes: “I'm an Associate Specialist in the Adult Services area at the Weber County Library (entering into my 12th year). Member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints for the last 32 years (I was baptized when I was 8 years old). I love indexing as well as finding information about my ancestors through Family Search.” 40. Family Tree (Parte 1) en Español 53. Family Tree (Parte 2) en Español

Emma Lu Draper
Emma Lu Draper is a wife, mother, grandmother, and teacher holding a Master Degree in English and Communication. A published author and lecturer, she enjoys playing piano, gardening, sewing, genealogy and writing histories.

Carolina Aranda Symes de Espinoza
Carolina nació un miércoles 11 de noviembre en Santiago de Chile. Sus padres Pablo Juan Aranda y Valeria Symmes. Hermana mayor de tres hermanos, quienes crecieron en un núcleo familiar SUD. Su padre siendo un Ingeniero Comercial, estaba atento que sus hija tuviera una excelente educación, e hizo un estudio para saber cuáles eran los mejores colegios de Santiago de Chile, entre ellos estaba el Colegio Deseret, SUD. A él le gusto por su alta educación moral que enseñaban a sus alumnos. Desde ese momento Carolina comenzó a conocer el Libro de Mormón y muy pronto su familia era miembro activa de la Iglesia SUD. Su padre quien llego a ser un Obispo, y un hombre altamente motivador enseñó a su hija Carolina sobre los estudios genealógicos de su familia, donde ellas upoqueveníade familias americanas, canadienses, españoles y alemanas. Todo esto se transform enunasemillaque comenzó a germinar poco, poco. En el transcurso del tiempo ella obtuvo su bendición patriarcal, lo cual le dice muy claramente que ella tiene que hacer la genealogía completa de sus padres. Esto hizo que ella pusiera más empeño a lograr esta meta que nuestro Padre Celestial le ha otorgado. Ella fue maestra de Seminarios por seis años, esto incremento sus conocimientos. Se casó y sello a su Esposo Héctor Espinoza en el Templo de Santiago de Chile, tuvo tres hijos, Felipe (fallecido), Cristóbal y Valeria. Actualmente, ella es voluntaria del CHF de Ogden y Lider de HF de su barrio, lo cual ayuda a muchas familias hacer su genealo gía. Su meta es lograr lo que Nuestro Padre Celestial le ha mandado, “hacer la obra vicaria por todos sus antepasados fallecidos”. Ella ama la obra del templo y dice que es un arduo, largo pero hermoso camino que las bendiciones vienen a diario en la vida cuando nuestro Padre Celestial nos da un gozo infinito e indescriptible. Las bendiciones están a la puerta y solo hay que tomarlas y trabajar juntos con el Señor. CVAS/2012carolina A Presentation Title: 65. FamilySearch Indexación

Héctor de Espinoza
Héctor de Espinoza Presentation Title: 26. *FamilySearch.org (Parte 2) en Español

Arlene Eakle, PhD, AG
Arlene H. Eakle, Ph.D., is the president and founder of The Genealogical Institute, Inc. and a professional genealogist since 1962. She is an expert in tracing ancestors from the Southern States including the Appalachian Triangle-Southwest Virginia, Northeast North Carolina, Southeast Kentucky and East Tennessee. Her research for Scotch-Irish and Native American pedigrees from this Triangle, although difficult to document, is especially successful. She is experienced in New York research, tracing ancestors from New England and New Jersey across New York into Pennsylvania, Ohio and Tennessee. She is skilled in researching English, Scottish, Irish and Swiss German ancestors. Dr. Eakle was one of the founders and original trustees of the Association of Professional Genealogists. She currently edits four serials, and is a prolific writer with more than 90 titles to her credit. Presentation Titles: 10. Using Immigration Records to Trace Hard-to-Find Origins 30. Family History for Fun and Profit: The Research Process (Pt1) 43. Family History for Fun and Profit: The Research Process (Pt2)

Gaylon Findlay
Gaylon Findlay is the president of Incline Software, the company that creates Ancestral Quest. Incline Software is based in South Jordan, Utah. Gaylon has been developing genealogy software since 1993, and is the primary author of both Ancestral Quest and Personal Ancestral File. Prior to his work in genealogy, he spent his high school years in Frankfurt, Germany, served an LDS mission in Finland, graduated from Brigham Young University and spent 12 years in the San Francisco Bay Area as a computer consultant. He is married to Gale Johnson of Westminster, California, and they are the parents of 5 children. Presentation Titles: 24. What’s new in Ancestral Quest 14 63. Family Tree Made Easy with Ancestral Quest

Kathy and Ron Flamm
Kathy Flamm started doing extraction in about 1998. At that time someone would have written down the data from an image, and Kathy would enter the information onto the UDE - Universal Data Entry system. In about 2000, Ron as a high councilman was assigned to work with the Stake extraction director. After a few years, our stake obtained some micro-fiche readers and each person had a reader in their home, and would read the information from the reader and type it into UDE. The next step was where a both a microfilm and digital image was provided, and a split screen could be used to view and enter the information. In February of 2006 Kathy and Ron were called as the Stake extraction directors. Mid-year, the church introduced indexing, and before the year was over, our stake switched from extraction to indexing. The most records done by our stake over that time of both indexing and arbitration combined was over 1.4 million records. They are indexing enthusiasts. Presentation Title: 54. Introduction to Indexing

Emil O. Hanson
Emil O. Hanson, PhD., is currently serving as the Director of the Ogden Family History Center. He has been an educator most of his adult life, retiring 17 years ago, as the Dean of Student Administrative Services at Weber State University. He is married and is the father of 6 adult children with many grand and great grandchildren. He is a convert to the LDS faith and will testify of the importance of family history work. Presentation Titles: 4. Research Using the Ogden FamilySearch Library’s Website 39. Writing Your Personal History

Joanne Hanson
Joanne was born and raised in Salt lake city, Utah. She graduated from West high School and Business school in Salt Lake. She later graduated from Weber State University with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Education. She is married to Emil O. Hanson, Director of the Ogden Family History Center. She is the Mother of five boys plus one daughter and another daughter (a Niece) Grandmother and Great Grandmother of many special ‘beings’. She retired as teacher and coordinator at Head Start with Ogden City Schools. She has served with her husband as a missionary and a volunteer at the Ogden Family History Center for the past seventeen years. She has taught many courses at the center over that period of time and been a presenter at many family history conferences. She has been a co-creator of Teaching manuals and a CR for the center. She has been a lifelong volunteer in church activities and was a leader in the Cub Scouts program for over fourteen years. She is the third generation family history gatherer with a daughter coming along as the fourth generation. Presentation Titles: 6. “I Didn’t Know That!” 46. Organize in Color (Pt1) 59. Organize in Color (Pt2)

Nicole Hepler
Nicole Hepler is a family history enthusiast at heart. With an MS in Technical Writing, and more than a decade enjoys family history work and has gained a greater appreciation for her ancestors. She appreciates the wonderful lessons she has learned from them in researching their lives. She is an active journal writer and a strong believer of keeping records. She is grateful for the blessings that are promised by Howard W Hunter in taking family names to the Temple. He states,“I have learned that those who engage in family history research and then perform the temple ordinance work for those whose names they have found will know the additional joy of receiving both halves of the blessing” (Howard W. Hunter, “ A Temple-Motivated People,”Ensign, Feb. 1995, 6). Nicole and her husband Bryan are the parents of three great children. They live in the Ogden area. Nicole is currently serving as a Ward Family History Consultant and volunteers at the Ogden FamilySearch Library. 14. FH Consultant &amp; Priesthood Leader Training (Pt A) and Skit, Taking Names to the Temple 28. FH Consultant &amp; Priesthood Leader Training (Pt B)

Susan Holdaway
Susan Holdaway is a family history enthusiast at heart. With an MS in Technical Writing, and more than a decade of professional writing and editing experience, she recently merged her professional skills with her family history passion by writing and publishing the eBook Make Your Family History into an eBook: A Step by Step Guide. Visit her website familyhistoryebooks.com to read how eBooks and family stories can work together to share your family heritage. Presentation Title: 5. Learn How to Make a Family History eBook

Janet Hovorka
Janet Hovorka received a B.A. in Ancient Near Eastern History and a Master's Degree in Library and Information Science from BYU. She accepted teaching and library positions at BYU and Salt Lake Community College before having her three wonderful children. She and her husband, Kim Hovorka, own Generation Maps (www.generationmaps.com), an online genealogy chart printing service that was the first company to be FamilySearch Certified by the LDS Church. She writes The Chart Chick blog (www.thechartchick.com), winner of the 2009 Geneablog award. She is currently serving as Past President of the Utah Genealogical Association and has presented 100s of lectures all over the country to help countless people find out more about their family’s history. Presentation Titles: 38. The Cool Parts of Family History: Engaging My Teenagers Case Study 49. Beyond Scotch Tape: Charts To Fascinate your Family

Christi Jacobsen
Christi Jacobsen began working in a genetics laboratory when she was a senior in high school. Her genetics work then continued as an undergraduate research assistant to Dr. Scott Woodward in ancient DNA studies. She graduated from BYU in 2003 with a bachelor’s degree in Molecular Biology and began working for Sorenson Genomics designing and creating genetic tests used in genealogy. Christi is married to Joey Jacobsen. They have two darling daughters and they love to travel together. Presentation Title: 37. Creating Connections with DNA: a Step-by-step Guide

Eleanor C. Jensen
Eleanor C. Jensen lives in Riverside, Utah with her husband Robin. She is the mother of 11 children and 39 grandchildren. She is a retired elementary school teacher. Family History has always been a favorite hobby. She currently serves as Family History Consultant in her ward, and enjoys helping others, especially youth, do Family History &amp; teaching classes on Family Tree. She loves to collect family, ancestor, and pioneer stories providing her family with a valuable resource to build a strong foundation in Jesus Christ. Presentation Titles: 7. Involving Youth in Family History from Research to the Temple 20. Strengthening Families Through Generational Stories

Don Koldewyn
Don Koldewyn graduated from Weber High School, Weber State College and the University of Utah. After retiring thirteen years ago, he has been “anxiously engaged in a good cause,” which is family history research, specializing in the Netherlands. He is a ward Family History Consultant and a volunteer at the Ogden Family History Center, where he is always excited to help people learn how to use the online Netherlands databases. He also conducts the Netherlands Research Society meetings where those involved with Dutch Family History meet and help each other with research. Presentation Title: 64. Netherlands Internet Research

Barbara Lewis
Barbara continues as staff member at the Ogden Family History Center, helping patrons with their British research. In the past year she has taken a keen interest in Find-A-Grave, periodically teaching classes in this important resource. She lives in Plain City, having lived in North Ogden for many years, but she was born and raised in Royal Oak, Michigan. Presentation Titles: 34. Find a Grave 56. Irish Research On the Internet

Sam Lower
Sam received a Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from USU, followed by a Master’s of Engineering and Technology Management from Southern Cal. He has served as the mayor of Plain City and is the chairman for the Weber Area Council of Governments. He has served at the Ogden Family History Center since 1994, spending many years as an Associate Director. He is the father of six children, 19 grandchildren, and some really great great grandchildren Presentation Titles: 19. Think Your Family history Is All Done?—Try Cousin Research (Pt1) 33. Think Your Family history is All Done?—Try Cousin Research (Pt2)

Bradley Marchant
Bradley D. Marchant is a native of eight states. He has been doing family history research since he was 16 years old, so nearly half of his life. He is currently employed as a Scandinavian consultant at the Family History Library. Bradley regularly does research in multiple languages and is known for his keen sense of research skills and thinking outside of the box. He loves a good challenge! When not chasing down ancestors, he can usually be found chasing his dog Prince Caspian on hikes! Presentation Titles: 17. More on your Mormon Lines 31. Beginning Swedish and Finnish Research 44. Swedish Research without Microfilms: Online Swedish Research

Marilyn Markham MLS, AG, CGSM
Marilyn Markham, MLS, AG, CGSM, has worked in the LDS Family History Department for 28 years, including 14 years at the Family History Library. She currently works in the US/Canada Reference Unit at the Family History Library. Marilyn has taught many times at the Library and at various conferences. Presentation Titles: 8. The Big 4 – About U.S. Census, Church, Land, and Probate Records 21. New England Research: An Overview 50. The 2nd War of Independence: The War of 1812 61. U.S. Records Before 1850

Lisa (Mary Elizabeth) McBride AG
Lisa is a research consultant for the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. She is a native of Colorado, but spent most of her youth in the Chicago-land area. After five years in Mesa, Arizona, she moved to Utah in 1981. Her specialties are Southern States and Canadian research. She especially enjoys learning and researching about military history in Tennessee and Virginia. Most of her own ancestors came directly from England to the Midwest United States. In addition she has a New England Mayflower line, a Pennsylvania Dutch line, and a line of English South Africans. She is actively involved as a FamilySearch Family Tree Power User, a FamilySearch indexer, and as a contributor the the FamilySearch Wiki. She and her husband have a large family with 8 children, their spouses, and 14 grandchildren. She teaches piano, and enjoys travel, gardening, and healthy cooking. Presentation Titles: 18. Searching in FamilySearch 32. FamilySearch Wiki 41. Using Online Resources 58. Introduction to U.S. Census Records

Leland Meitzler
Leland Meitzler Presentation Title: 48. Mobile Scanning with Flip Pal Scanner

Mark Olsen
Mark Olsen Presentation Title: 25. My Heritage Record Matching

Leonard Plaizier
Leonard Plaizier has served at the South Davis Family History Center since 1996 as an Advisory Council Member, Technology Specialist, and Outreach Specialist. He teaches classes on doing family using Legacy Family Tree. Tests genealogy software programs. He bridges genealogy and technology. He enjoys doing family history activities with his children and grandchildren. Presentation Titles: 11. DEMO: What’s New in Legacy Family Tree 8

Luis y Marta Quintana
Somos naturales de Ponce, Puerto Rico y nos unimos a la Iglesia de Jesucristo de los santos de los Ultimos dias en el año 1977. En el año 1985 nos movimos a Maracaibo, Venezuela por mi trabajo y en el 1990 llegamos a Utah. Desde que nos bautizamos en la Iglesia nos sentimos muy responsables por la Historia familiar y desde entonces hemos estado embarcados en esta gran obra por la salvación de nuestros antepasados. Al trabajar por ellos les hemos sentido muy cerca y esperamos encontrarles algun dia para poder decirles que ya les conociamos. En el año 1995 trabajé como obrero (veil worker) en el Templo de Jordan River. Hemos trabajado como consultores de Historia familiar y actualmente somos voluntarios en el Centro de Historia Familiar de la Región de Ogden (ORFHC). Resumen de las clases de Family Search: En la primera clase hablaremos de la capacidad que tiene el programa Family search, como podemos aprender usando los recursos; wiki, cursos de investigación y los Forums de discusión. Tambien mencionaremos el programa de indexar (indexing y como utilizar el Blog para noticias y eventos de Historia Familiar. En la segunda clase abundaremos mas en la utilizacion del programa Family Search y mostraremos ejemplos. Presentation Titles: 13. FamilySearch.org (Parte 1) en Español

Edith Reeves
Edith Reeves graduated from Davis High and Weber State College with a major in History and minor in Library Science. She selected both fields with the intent of researching family history. She served a mission in the Switzerland Zurich Mission. She married Ben Reeves a year after return. They have 5 children and 6 1/2 grandchildren. Currently she is serving as Family History Consultant, and as a church service missionary in Family Tree and Product Support. As a staff member at the Ogden FamilySearch Library, Edith teaches classes in FamilySearch Family Tree. Presentation Titles: 15. Family Tree, the Next Step (Pt1) 29. Family Tree, the Next Step (Pt 2)

Marlo Schuldt
Marlo Schuldt is President of LifeStory Productions, Inc., an Orem, Utah based company that develops family history software and provides assistance to individuals desiring to gather, prepare, print, and share family history. With BS and MS degrees from Brigham Young University, he recently patented the Heritage Collector Software. He is the father of five and the grandfather of twelve including twin grandsons. Presentation Titles: 22. Converting Old Tape Recordings and Working with Sound 36. Demo—Heritage Collector Suite Software—A Complete Family History System (photographs and more) 60. Smart Phone Family History

Gene A. Sessions PhD
Gene A. Sessions, Brady Presidential Distinguished Professor of History at Weber State University, was born in Ogden, Utah, and received his Ph.D. degree from Florida State University in 1974. He is the author and editor of numerous works, including Mormon Thunder: A Documentary History of Jedediah Morgan Grant (1982, 2008), Latter-day Patriots: Nine Mormon Families and Their Revolutionary War Heritage (1975), Prophesying upon the Bones: J. Reuben Clark and the Foreign Debt Crisis, 1933-39 (1992), Camp Floyd and the Mormons: The Utah War (with Donald R. Moorman, 1992), The Search for Harmony: Essays on Science and Mormonism (with Craig J. Oberg, 1993), Utah International: A Biography of a Business (with Sterling D. Sessions, 2002), and Mormon Democrat: The Religious and Political Memoirs of James Henry Moyle (1975, 1998), for which he received the Mormon History Association’s annual award for best edited work. He has also been a consultant on documentaries and committees exploring the Utah War and the Mountain Meadows Massacre and is past president of the Mountain Meadows Association. He and his wife Shantal have four children and seven grandsons. Presentation Title: 16. The Mormon Reformation

Annie Strawn
When Annie came to the U.S. years ago as a young bride who spoke only Danish, she found a job at the Family History Library, where she worked for several years. She knows Denmark and Danish research from the point of view of a native and has taught these skills to others for many years. She serves on the staff of the Ogden FamilySearch Library and leads the Scandinavian research group at the library. Presentation Title: 9. Danish Research on the Internet

Wayne Summers
Wayne W. Summers lives in North Ogden Utah, the husband of a great wife, Donna Mae Summers, and father of 5 fabulous kids and 25 super grandkids. He was raised in Tremonton Utah and graduated from U.S.U. in 1962 with a B.A. in History and Management. He served a Mission to Japan &amp; Okinawa. He retired from Defense Depot Ogden after 36 years as a training Officer and Industrial Engineer. He has taught computers and computer applications for 10 plus years in many of the senior centers in Weber County setting up his own computer labs in 2-3 of the cities. The most interesting computer lab was in the Judges Courtroom at the Plain City Offices! For the past 6 months he has also taught at the Brigham City FamilySearch Library. He has taught computers at the Ogden FamilySearch Library and designed, converted, and implemented the current website for Ogden with GREAT assistance from co-worker Ron Hinkley. He appreciates the opportunity to be with you today. Presentation Title: 57. Research Using the Ogden Family Search Library’s Website

Ron Tanner – Keynote Speaker at 8:30 a.m.
Ron Tanner is a product manager for the Family History Department. His primary responsibility is to lead a team doing research and design of Family Tree and companion products. Ron has a master’s degree in Computer Science from BYU and has previously worked as a product manager and engineer at Novell, Citrix, and Bell Laboratories. Ron and his wife CheRee have four children, 2 sons-in-law, a daughter-in-law, and one grandchild. Presentation Title: 1. FamilySearch Family Tree Roadmap plus Q and A

Arron Wheeler
Arron Wheeler received his BS and Master of Education Degrees at Weber State. He served an LDS Mission in Ecuador from 1982-1984. He is a Spanish teacher in a junior high school and has traveled to schools in Ecuador, Spain &amp; Costa Rica. He has been involved in genealogical research for several years and is a well-known family history teacher and consultant in his local area. Arron and his wife, Dianna, have four children and live in Plain City. Presentation Title: 35. I Found My Tree Online, Why Do I Need Family History Software?