Joe Everett is the Family History, Local History, and Microforms Librarian at the Brigham Young University Harold B. Lee Library. He has over 25 years combined experience in the genealogical field at BYU, the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, and Ancestry.com.

Joe manages the collections and patron services of the BYU Family History Library and serves as a faculty liaison to instructors in BYU's Family History undergraduate degree program and others involved in family history on campus from social to computer science.

At FamilySearch, Joe was a library program manager providing services for the more 5,000 family history centers. Previously at FamilySearch, he headed the International Reference floor at the Family History Library, and also worked for several years as a technical services librarian, cataloging Slavic and Germanic records. He has served on numerous strategic planning and program development teams at FamilySearch. At Ancestry.com, he worked in content acquisitions and content product and project management, putting genealogical databases online.

Joe earned a B.A. in Russian Language and in Family History/Genealogy (Germanic emphasis) from Brigham Young University and a Master of Library Science from Emporia State University (Kansas). He has been a member and officer in various library and genealogical associations and has lectured and published articles on U.S. and European family history research, historical geography, and migration.

26 February 2011

Þorrablót

I had a wonderful evening at Þorrablót, an Icelandic feast hosted by the Icelandic Association of Utah, with my wife and parents.  (My dad's maternal grandfather was full Icelandic.)  We had a special treat as we heard from BYU Professor Fred Woods, author of Fire on Ice: The Saints of Iceland, and  Dr. Kári Bjarnason, Head of the Public Library of Vestmannaeyjar, my ancestral home in Iceland. They are working on creating a museum exhibit in Vestmannaeyjar on Mormon emigration from Iceland, as over 200 Icelanders emigrated from there to Utah.  I spoke to each of them afterward about contributing material for that exhibit.  I also tried the sampler plate of traditional Icelandic foods--not for the faint of heart.  I confess I passed on the ram's testicles and sheep intestines.

11 February 2011

Who Do You Think You Are? - Rosie O'Donnell

Rosie O’Donnell returns to TV by relaunching her talk show, retracing her roots - National Celebrity Q&A | Examiner.com
This is a wonderful, in-depth interview with Rosie O'Donnell about her experience with Who Do You Think You Are? Rosie was deeply affected by her journey to her ancestral past, and the knowledge and perspective she gained about her heritage is transforming her life in positive ways.

What's Your Story?

BYUtv - What's Your Story?: We All Have A Story: The Process This is a great new program showing on BYUtv about storytelling, with master storyteller, Donald Davis.  The show takes you to one of Donald's workshops where everyday people discover their own stories, and how to tell them.

RootsTech

I'm having a great time working the Ancestry.com booth at RootsTech.  There are over 3000 attendees, they say, making this one of the largest genealogy conferences ever, if not the largest.  Meeting people and helping them find their ancestors is the greatest feeling.  The first man I assisted said, "If I get nothing else out of this conference other than what you have just helped me with, this whole thing will have been worth it."  I live for that!

Our booth is right across the aisle from FamilySearch, so I have had a chance to see many old friends and colleagues, which has been awesome.  So many great people!