Scanfest is Coming...But Not Until September 30th

Scanfest is coming! For those of you who are regular Scanfesters, you may have accidentally marked September 23rd for the next Scanfest Day, since that is the fourth Sunday of the month. However, there are five Sundays in September, and our usual meeting time is the last Sunday of each month. Therefore, we will be gathering Sunday, September 30th at 11 AM, Pacific Daylight Time, and scanning and chatting until 2 PM, PDT.

For those of you who are wondering what Scanfest is, it's a time we genea-bloggers have set aside to scan our precious family documents, records and photographs for preservation's sake. Scanning can be one of those monotonous chores, put off until never. So in order to make it a little more interesting, we've agreed to meet online for three hours every month while scanning, and chat using Windows Live Messenger. It's a great way to get to know one another and exchange ideas about preservation, technology, and genealogy.

You don't have to have a genealogy blog to join us. We are always open to new "faces" at our Scanfest sessions! Here's how to sign up:

To join us, you'll need a Hotmail or Gmail account, and Windows Live Messenger downloaded to your computer (Mac users go here to download Microsoft Messenger for Mac). Although WLM states that it is compatible with Yahoo! e-mail accounts, we have had difficulty adding Yahoo! users to our chat conversation. Once you have gotten set up, send me an e-mail (see my profile in the right-hand menu) and I'll add you to our chat list. You'll receive an invitation message from me in the e-mail account that you've set up for Messenger, and will need to verify that I can add you as a contact. My Messenger account is identical to my Gmail account, except that it's "@hotmail.com".

Here's a list of some of the things I've scanned, either in part or fully, over the last seven months:

• * The Family Record Book of John Martin HOEKSTRA and Lillian Fern STRONG - my great-grandparents' family tree book (see scanning progress here).
• * Photos of my husband's TOLLIVER and COLLINS ancestors, loaned to me by my father-in-law and sister-in-law
  
• * Journals and investment documents of my grandfather, Adrian DeVRIES
• * Other family papers and photographs from the estate of my grandmother, Ruth Lillian (HOEKSTRA) VALK DeVRIES (here, here and here)
  
• * My black-and-white wedding photos - for the eventual creation of a Wedding Memory Book at MemoryPress.com

I have so much more I need to scan! I'll bet you do, too! Won't you join us?