Snuggle up on the cold winter nights with a cup of hot chocolate and the genealogist's favorite TV series, "Who Do You Think You Are." The season premiers on 3 February, NBC Friday nights, 8 pm eastern time. Beginning March 25th there will be 10 part series debut of "Finding Your Roots" on PBS. Each episode will last one hour. Check your TV listings for the time and station in your area.
This year we will see increased webinars and online videos. There are listings at the GeneaWebinars blog http://blog.geneawebinars.com/. Internet links to videos and webinars can be found at
Mid-Continent Public Library - Presentations http://www.mymcpl.org/genealogy/online-presentations.
Legacy http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/webinars.asp.
South California Genealogical Society Jamboree Extension Webinars
Southern California Genealogical Society
FamilySearch - Learning Center
https://www.familysearch.org/learningcenter/home.html
The National Archives - You Tube
http://www.youtube.com/user/usnationalarchives
GenaBloggers Online Radio by GenaBloggers
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/geneabloggers
RootDig.com Webinars Michael John Neill's Genealogy website
Some webinars are free and others have a minimal fee for viewing. There are many more than listed above. You should also search You Tube for genealogy related webinars.
Will webinars and videos take the place of genealogy conferences? This is a question that has been tossed around in the genealogy community. While some conferences are pricey to attend, others in smaller communities are not and yet you will gain research knowledge. In my opinion, conferences will continue as we all need to be educated and spend time together to learn about our research.
Conferences in 2012 include the RootsTech - Family History & Technology Conference http://rootstech.org on 2-4 February in Salt Lake City. Last year some of their presentations were made available in live sessions on Internet. Keep this in mind if you cannot attend. The National Genealogical Society National Genealogical Society conference, "The Ohio River Gateway to the Western Frontier, " will be held 9-12 May in Cincinnati, OH. The next Federation of Genealogical Societies conference will be 29 August - 1 September in Birmingham, AL. Check their web site Federation of Genealogical Societies for upcoming details. The Family History Expo http://www.familyhistoryexpos.com/expos.aspx will have conferences throughout the year.
The big news for 2012 is the release of the 1940 Federal Census. A few years ago I was telling genealogists to eat their Wheaties or Cherrios and stay healthy so they were around for the release. The enumeration was taken as of 1 April 1940, however, that doesn't mean it was the actual day the enumerator was taking the information. The type of questions asked and the information gleaned was as of that date. The census will be released on Monday, 2 April 2012 because the 1st falls on a Sunday. It will not be microfilmed, but rather scanned and it will take a little longer for indexes to begin appearing at Internet sites.
FamilySearch.org FamilySearch International continues to astound all of us with the digital records appearing on their web page. Some of the rumors that I hear indicate are that this will be a banner year for digital images on FamilySearch. As of the beginning of this month there were 1,000 collections on their web site.
Ancestry.com Ancestry.com will release the 1940 US Census free and also forecasts many additions for 2012. These include an index to 1911 UK Census, new US and international church records, more US birth, marriage and death records, more US state censuses, vital records of Pennsylvania and Massachusetts and US Quaker records.
Fold3.com http://www.fold3.com hosts 85,527,452 records which include military record images. These are from the Revolutionary War to the Vietnam War. Coinciding with the War of 1812, researchers will see more images going online that pertain to that war. Fold3.com allows researchers free access to the War of 1812 Pension Files. These are all not complete, but worth checking.
This is just a sampling of what is store for the researcher in 2012. Start marking your calendar so you don't miss out on anything.