The FBI files, one of the original titles we launched with on Footnote back in January 2007,  include tales of espionage during World War I, case files for German aliens who were politically suspect, records pertaining to Mexican neutrality, and reports dealing with alleged violations of Federal laws. While doing some digging in these file, our expert content specialist Beau Sharbrough uncovered some valuable gems that can be found there—The Application for Exception from Classification of Enemy Alien.

Today, I’ve resolved to tell you about one kind of record in the FBI Case Files. That record is an “Application for Exception from Classification of Enemy Alien.” It’s a mouthful.           

Read all about Beau’s discovery of Exceptional Records in the FBI Case Files from his blog.

We just wanted to remind everyone that some of the Footnote team will be in Ft. Wayne, Indiana this week for the FGS Conference. We will have our booth set up next to Dick Eastman and the laptop lounge. So, if you are planning on going to the conference, we would love to have you come by and visit. Plus you can relax in the laptop lounge. We look forward to seeing you and having a great conference. Look for a future post about the conference with pictures.

We will be holding a meeting of Footnote.com members at the 2007 FGS Conference in Ft. Wayne, Indiana on Saturday, August 18, 2007 at 2pm. The meeting will be held at the Grand Wayne Center Board Room. Footnote members who live in the Ft. Wayne area or who will be attending the 2007 FGS Conference, are welcome to attend. We will discuss future plans, solicit member opinions, give out door prizes and have fun with Dick Eastman and Beau Sharbrough. Anyone who is interested may attend. Seating will be limited. If interested please contact Elizabeth.

The following is a list of upcoming Footnote Member Meetings we will be holding the remainder of 2007.

• Salt Lake City, Utah: Friday, July 20, 2007 at 3pm IAJGS 2007 Conference
• Fort Wayne, Indiana: Saturday, August 18, 2007 at 2pm. We will meet in the Grand Wayne Center Board Room 2007 FGS Conference

Footnote members who live in these areas or who will be attending any of these conferences, are welcome to attend. We will discuss future plans, solicit member opinions and give out door prizes. Anyone who is interested may attend. Seating will be limited. If interested please contact Elizabeth.

We will be holding a meeting of Footnote.com members at the 2007 ALA Annual Conference in Washington D.C. on Saturday, June 23, 2007 at 2pm. The meeting will be held at The National Archives building in downtown Washington D.C. Footnote members who live in the Washington D.C. area or who will be attending the 2007 ALA Annual Conference, are welcome to attend. We will discuss future plans, solicit member opinions and give out door prizes. Anyone who is interested may attend. Seating will be limited. If interested please contact Elizabeth.

We will be hosting a meeting of Footnote.com users at the National Genealogical Society Conference in Richmond, Virginia on Saturday, May 19, 2007 at 10:00 AM. Footnote users who live near Richmond or who will be attending the 2007 NGS Conference, are welcome to attend. We will discuss future plans, solicit user opinions, give out door prizes, and have fun with Dick Eastman and Beau Sharbrough. Anyone who is interested may attend. Seating will be limited. If interested please contact Elizabeth.

This past weekend Beau, Donna, and I traveled to sunny St. George to participate in the conference. Donna and I enjoyed the conference as we talked to both novice and experienced family historians as they visited the Footnote booth in the Exhibit Hall. We were thrilled to meet many people who were already using the site. Our own Beau Sharbrough gave three classes and spoke at the Footnote sponsored dinner on Friday night. Dick Eastman joined Donna and me in the Footnote booth. I must say it was fun to have a genealogy celebrity with us at the conference. Footnote recently began sponsoring Dick’s fabulous newsletter.

Those that visited in the booth asked some great questions and offered great suggestions. We learned that it would be beneficial to clearly communicate the level of completion for the different collections. There was a lot of curiosity surrounding the content from NARA we will be featuring on the site next. We also heard the need for a Footnote newsletter. It’s this type of feedback that will help us build a better product.

The conference had a great turn out and I had the chance to meet a lot of wonderful people. Throughout the conference people shared their enthusiasm for family history. I loved hearing people’s eureka moments when they finally found a record that was crucial to the next step of their research. The family historians I met at the conference had a great passion for the past and the documents that preserve history. I must say the family history bug was contagious and I spent several hours this week working on my own family history research. We would also like to congratulate Em Shipley who won a free Annual Membership to Footnote. We felt the conference was a great success and like to thank all those that participated!