The Company: Aha! Seminars, Inc.
Aha! Seminars, Inc., is a Tampa Bay-based company which has been providing training to library personnel and to genealogists since 1996. We offer seminars on a variety of topics, including but not limited to:
- Library personnel development
- Technology and the effective use of the Internet
- Evaluation of Web sites
- Working with online databases
- Genealogical research methodologies and record types
- Time management
- Presentation development
- Writing skills
In addition, Aha! Seminars, Inc., provides consulting services to libraries related to genealogical collection development, building relationships with genealogical societies, genealogical databases, and customized train-the-trainer services.
The company has organized workshops, conferences, and even a genealogical ocean cruise in 2001. Meeting and event planning services are also available.
Aha! Seminars, Inc., has led genealogical research trips, including one to London, England, in May 2005 for the Iowa Genealogical Society.
The President (and Principal Trainer): George G. Morgan
George G. Morgan is president of Aha! Seminars, Inc. He spearheaded the development of the Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) implementation program for Sears, Roebuck & Co. He also managed the development of an award-winning PC-based EDI software package while with Sears Technology Services, Inc., coordinated the construction of two state-of-the-art training facilities, and developed the training program to support a roll-out of the software to over 600 of Sears' smaller suppliers. George worked for Advantis, a subsidiary of IBM, coordinating development and production of over 60 training sessions for its annual customer conferences, attended by 1,500 to 2,000 of IBM's and Advantis' largest customers. These sessions spanned a broad spectrum of mainframe, mid-range and microcomputer applications including the Internet and e-mail, network communication technologies such as dial, leased line, ATM, ISDN, DOV, and LAN gateway, and customers' applications using the IBM network, products, and services.
In addition to his extensive responsibilities with Aha! Seminars, Inc., George is an avid genealogist. His interest began at age ten when he, his paternal grandmother, and his aunt began discussing his grandmother's family history extending back before the American Revolution. In the years since then, George's genealogical research has expanded to include all the branches of his family tree and he has investigated leads in materials in all sorts of places. Libraries, archives, and courthouses are among his favorite haunts, but he will leave no stone unturned, even to the point of tracking down the original 1914 newspapers containing his great-grandparents' obituaries in a records retention facility owned by a county board of education. He is a master in working with and understanding all types of genealogical record types in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia. With the advent of electronic research materials, he has become an expert in using software programs, databases, CD-ROMs of all types, Internet mailing lists, message boards, Web pages, search engines, directories, subscription databases, and all the major online services.
George is the author of the books The Genealogy Forum on America Online: The Official User's Guide and Your Family Reunion: How to Plan It, Organize It, and Enjoy It, both published by Ancestry.com. He has written chapters for several other genealogical and family compilation books. His most recent book is How to Do Everything with Your Genealogy, published by McGraw-Hill/Osborne as part of its highly successful "How to Do Everything" series.
George is a prolific writer in other areas as well. In 1998, he began writing the award-winning weekly online genealogy column "Along Those Lines ..." that appeared first in the Genealogy Forum on America Online and then exclusively at the Ancestry.com Web site from January 2000 to March 2006. That column now appears as a weekly blog at the Aha! Seminars, Inc. Web site, or can be accessed directly at a http://ahaseminars.livejournal.com. His other past online writing venues have included columns at the Genealogy Forum on America Online, the "Genealogy Tip of the Day" for the Sony Corporation's Emazing.com Web site and regular columns for Singapore-based Chineseroots.com. His hundreds of articles have appeared in numerous popular genealogy magazines, including Ancestry Magazine, Family Chronicle, Genealogical Computing, Heritage Quest Magazine, Internet Genealogy, the National Genealogical Society Quarterly, Southern Queries, and others in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K.
George is a highly popular speaker at genealogical conferences internationally. His range of genealogical interests and speaking topics is among the most diverse among the genealogical speaking community. He is available to travel anywhere and will customize presentation topics to the audience. George is listed in both the Genealogical Speakers Guild and the Florida State Genealogical Society's Speaker's Bureau.
George also teaches several online courses for MyFamily.com and teaches two online courses for the University of Toronto's Institute for Genealogical Studies in their Certification in Genealogical Studies Librarianship Certification Program.
George is a past president of the International Society of Family History Writers and Editors and a former director of the Genealogical Speakers Guild. He is a director of the Florida Genealogical Society of Tampa and the Public Relations Chair and Publicity Director of the Florida State Genealogical Society. He is the list administrator for the MONFORT-L genealogical research mailing list. He was program chair for the highly successful Federation of Genealogical Societies 2003 Conference held in Orlando, Florida. He is a former board member of the Florida State Genealogical Society.
George is a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists, the National Genealogical Society, the Society of Genealogists (U.K.), and more than twenty other genealogical societies across the U.S. and the U.K.
