Diana Elder

About Diana Elder

Diana Elder AGⓇ AGL is a professional genealogist, author, and speaker. She is accredited in the Gulf South region of the United States through the International Commission for the Accreditation of Professional Genealogists (ICAPGen). Diana graduated from Brigham Young University with a degree in Elementary Education and has turned her passion for teaching to educating teens and adults in proven genealogy techniques. Diana is the author of Research Like a Pro: A Genealogists Guide and creator of the “Research Like a Pro” study group. She writes regular articles for FamilyLocket.com, the genealogy website created by her daughter, Nicole Dyer. She presents regularly at genealogy conferences, sharing the methods she uses every day to solve challenging genealogical problems.

Get Your “Rookie Smarts” On: Liz Wiseman and Buddy Valastro at RootsTech 2017

Feb 16, 2017

Think of a time when you were a rookie. What happened? How did you operate? What did you do when you didn’t know what to do? What were your aspirations? Liz Wiseman, author of Rookie Smarts: Why Learning Beats Knowing in the New Game of Work, asked us these questions during her keynote address at the Innovator Summit portion of RootsTech 2017. Straight out of business school, Liz found herself a rookie in a fast growing...

“Those are my people”: LeVar Burton and African Heritage Day at RootsTech 2017

Feb 10, 2017

Sitting in the Salt Palace this morning during the keynote address, I shared an incredible moment with thousands of people. Having just listened to LeVar Burton’s masterful words on the importance of storytelling and family, we watched as Thom Reed from FamilySearch presented LeVar with his family history. He cried and we cried when he looked at the marriage document of his grandparents and said, “those are my people.” Thom showed him his grandfather’s signature on the...

Finding Samuel Lowe: China, Jamaica, Harlem – February Book Club Selection

Feb 2, 2017

How do you go about finding an unknown grandfather? What if the only information you have is a name and a country: Samuel Lowe from China. With a combination of hard work and a bit of family history serendipity, Paula Williams Madison finally put to rest the gaping hole in her family’s history. She relates her journey of discovering her Chinese family in her book Finding Samuel Lowe: China, Jamaica, Harlem. It’s a tale any family historian...

Experience RootsTech 2017 from the Comfort of your Home

Jan 31, 2017

Are you interested in seeing what RootsTech 2017 is all about? Is this the year that you’d like bump up your genealogy education? Not able to travel to Salt Lake City to attend in person? With several sessions being streamed live and archived for later viewing, you can participate from the comfort of your home. 2016 was the first year that I attended RootsTech in person. Prior to that I waited until the streamed sessions...

Goal for 2017: Becoming an Accredited Genealogist

Jan 27, 2017

One year ago I posted my goal for 2016: to become an Accredited Genealogist. Luckily I gave myself a caveat that if I didn’t get it done in 2016, there was always 2017. Well, it’s officially 2017, and I do need the extra time to meet this goal. What did I learn last year? Where am I in the process? Why would you want to explore accreditation? Good questions that I’ll try to answer. January...

The Adventures of Cowboy Bob: The Big Snowstorm

Jan 21, 2017

Memories are fleeting. Why do we remember some things in vivid detail and others not at all? As I’ve been writing stories based on my dad’s memories, I’ve realized that the stories he recorded were those that made an impact on him. Enough of an impact that 70 years after the event, he still recalled them vividly. Seeing the wonder of snow through my Arizona grandchildren’s eyes, I gained insight into my dad’s memory of...

Voices from the Past: A Family Letter Transcription Project – Part Two

Jan 18, 2017

Do you have a letter collection or ancestor journal that you’d like to transcribe, but the task seems overwhelming? I previously shared my friend Karen’s experience with inheriting over sixty family letters from 1828 to 1921. She learned how to archive the letters and developed a great system for enlisting the help of other family members in transcribing them. Today, with her permission, I’m sharing the steps she took. How to Set up a Family Letter...

Voices from the Past: A Family Letter Transcription Project – Part One

Jan 11, 2017

If you unexpectedly discovered a large collection of family letters spanning almost a century, what would you do with them? How would you preserve them? What would you learn from them? How would you share them with other family members? My friend Karen inherited over sixty family letters from an aunt who discovered in her garage. They needed immediate attention, so despite her busy life, Karen took on the project of figuring out what to...

The Round Barn – A Biography of an American Farm: January Book Club Selection

Jan 4, 2017

What would you do if you promised your grandfather at age 15 to write his story? If you were Jackie Dougan Jackson, you’d eventually gather up all 70 years worth of letters, documents, and assorted papers stored in the attic; interview hundreds of people, and publish the story of The Round Barn, one hundred years after it was built. It would include not only the building of the unique round barn W.J. Dougan designed to...

Why DNA? How I Connected a Family Line with Y-DNA Testing

Dec 27, 2016

Are you intrigued with the idea of using DNA to break down your brick walls? Have you done a DNA test but don’t know what to do with your results? Have you wondered what the future holds for DNA and genealogy? You might want to consider attending RootsTech 2017 where more classes than ever will focus on DNA. Popular genetic genealogist, CeCe Moore, will be giving the Saturday keynote address and she is certain to entertain and...