Thomas MacEntee (United States)
As a genealogist specialising in the use of technology and social media to improve genealogical research and to interact with others in the family history community, Thomas MacEntee relies upon his 25 years of experience in the information technology field.
Born in the Catskill Mountain region of New York, Thomas was introduced to his ancestry in 1993 when he discovered a published copy of his family’s genealogy from 1916. Working with a detailed accounting of his Dutch ancestry, Thomas has continued to trace the other roots and branches of his family for the past 15 years. After attending The George Washington University in Washington, D.C., earning a Bachelor of Arts in Art History with a minor in Spanish Language and Literature, a career involving computers and the Internet was not on the radar for this lover of history and the liberal arts. But life has a funny way of interfering with “best laid plans.”
While working for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Thomas was asked to learn all about a new-fangled machine called the IBM Personal Computer and then teach others in his department. Thus began a fascination with desktop computer technology and training. By then an “accidental trainer,” for the next 22 years Thomas went on to work in some of the largest global law firms in the world including Skadden Arps and Latham & Watkins as a trainer, technical writer, applications analyst and project manager.
Fast-forward to the present: Thomas now shares his knowledge of technology and experience as a genealogist with others through various forms of social media and speaking engagements. Through his business High-Definition Genealogy, he provides consulting services in the genealogy industry covering such areas as market research, education, technology and more. As the creator of GeneaBloggers.com, Thomas has organised and engaged a community of over 2800 bloggers to document their own journeys in the search for ancestors.
After spending close to 20 years in Northern California, Thomas currently lives in the Andersonville neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois. Thomas is widely sought after for presentations and classes focusing on social media and technology as a way to assist genealogists and genealogical societies.
Web site – http://hidefgen.com
Unlock the Past Cruises – 4th
Publications
- Staying safe on social media (ebook)
- Wolfram|Alpha for genealogy and family history research (ebook)
Topics
- Building a genealogy research toolbox
- Genealogy cloud computing
- Google Alerts for genealogists
- Google Books for genealogists
- Metadata for digital images
- Pinning your family history
- Staying safe using social nedia
- Wikis for genealogists
- Wolfram|Alpha for genealogists
- You use WHAT for genealogy? Wonderful uses for unusual tools
