Louis Kessler, BSc. (Hons.), MSc.

Louis started his genealogy 40 years ago, about the same time he started computer programming. His University degrees in Statistics and Computer Science have given Louis a very different and innovative perspective on Genealogy research. He programmed his first genealogy report at University using a text-based word-processor. His other interest at the time was computer chess where he competed in two North American Computer Chess Championships.

Louis spent many years heading the Genealogical Institude, being Chair of the Archives Committee,serving as a Board Member and then as President and being named to the Advisory Council of the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada. He led the society's Cemetery Photography project in 1996. For several years, he was a member of the Manitoba Heritage Grants Advisory Council that reviewed heritage projects and awarded grant applications for the provincial government.

Louis built his personal website lkessler.com in 1997 and designed and operates the GenSoftReviews.com website where people go to review and rate their genealogy software. Louis was a member of the BetterGEDCOM initiative to create a new standard for genealogy data transfer and supports initiatives such as GEDCOM, FHISO, and Genealogy Stack Exchange that work for the betterment of genealogists.

In 2011, Louis released Version 1 of his own genealogy software Behold, designed to become the world's first report-based data editor for genealogy. In 2016, Louis got into DNA in a big way, and wrote his Double Match Triangulator program for autosomal DNA analysis. This program placed 3rd in the RootsTech 2017 Innovator Showdown.

Louis lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada with his wife Cheryl and two daughters. He retired in 2016 as the Manager of Load Forecasting at Manitoba Hydro, the province's electric and gas utility, after a 36 year career with the company. During his day-job days, genealogy, programming, stock market analysis and squash were his after-hour passions.

Louis is fluent in five languages: English, Delphi/Pascal, HTML, GEDCOM and DNA. He can also read Hebrew, Yiddish and (as of 2021) Russian.

Louis blogs regularly on his Behold site about the development of his programs and related genealogy, technology and DNA issues, and is proud to be part of the Geneablogger community. He tweets regularly from his Twitter account as @louiskessler and participates in #genchat and #genchatDNA chats on Twitter. He is often asking or answering questions on the StackExchange network of Q&A sites as lkessler.

Louis also participates in genealogical discussion groups on Facebook as Louis Kessler, and appears on About.me as lkessler.

Louis is a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists. Take a look at his APG profile.

Louis is a member of the Genealogical Speakers Guild. Take a look at his GSG profile.

Genealogy Speaking Engagements

• July 2020, An online presentation for the Virtual Genealogy Association and the topic is: DNA Raw Data Files.
• June 2020, I was scheduled to be a keynote speaker and lead a couple of workshop sessions at the Manitoba Genealogical Society's "Celebrating 150 Years of Manitoba Conference" in Winnipeg. Unfortunately, the society had to cancel the conference.
• Jan 2020, an online presentation at the Family History Fanatics eConference: A Winter of DNA eConference, featuring myself and 3 other DNA experts. My talk is on Double Match Triangulation.
• Sept 2018, a talk for the KDGS Conference in Kelowna, B.C. on "Using Double Match Triangulation to find DNA Ancestors".
• Feb 2018, a talk for the Manitoba Genealogical Society Seminar in Winnipeg on "DNA: The Journey".
• October 2017, three talks on DNA Testing and Autosomal Analysis at the Great Canadian Genealogy Summit in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
• July 2017, a computer workshop on Double Match Triangulator at the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS) Conference in Orlando, Florida
• Apr 2017, online demo of Double Match Triangulator to the Virtual Chapter of the Association of Professional Genealogists
• Feb 2017, presented in Salt Lake City at the RootsTech 2017 Innovator Showdown Semi-Finals and the Finals in a Shark-Tank-like format to judges Alan Doan, John Richards, Kenyatta Berry, Thomas MacEntee and Dalton Wright, as well as a large live audience and live-streamed audience. Louis' innovation: Double Match Triangulator, won 3rd place.
• Feb 2017, at the Brigham Young University Family History Technology Workshop in Provo, Utah, I presented: The Programming Challenges of Double Match Triangulator.
• Apr 2016, a talk for the Manitoba Genealogical Society Seminar in Winnipeg on "Genealogy Blogs and Blogging".
• Mar 2016, a presentation on "How to improve research with source-based genealogy" in Melbourne Australia
• Feb 2016, the 10th Unlock the Past History & Genealogy Cruise, New Zealand and Australia, giving eight presentations.
• Oct 2014, Gaenovium Conference organized by Tamura Jones, Leiden Netherlands. Presented "Reading Wrong GEDCOM Right".
• Feb 2014, RootsTech 2014, Salt Lake City. "Windows Phone for Genealogists".
• Oct 2013, at the Manitoba Genealogical Society Seminar in Winnipeg. A keynote presentation on "Ideas and More Ideas for Your Genealogy Society".
• Feb 2013, the 3rd Unlock the Past History & Genealogy Cruise, Australia. Gave seven presentations.
• Previously, Louis has helped teach courses on beginning genealogy and computers and genealogy, led several genealogy projects, and has given many presentations in his role with his Heritage Centre. Prior to retiring, Louis also often spoke on non-genealogy topics in his job at Manitoba Hydro, and has presented several times to the Statistical Association of Manitoba.

Discussion Panels

• May 2018, Louis is one of those answering questions in a Twitter #genchat session about Jewish Genealogy.
• Mar 2018, Louis answered questions in a Twitter #genchatDNA session about triangulation on Twitter.
• June 2016, Ontario Genealogical Society Conference, Toronto: "The Future of Genetic Genealogy". Louis sponsored this talk and introduced the moderator Elizabeth Kaegi (DNA expert) and speakers: Maurice Gleeson (DNA and Family Tree Research), CeCe Moore (Your Genetic Genealogist), David Pike (Professor, Memorial University of Newfoundland), Judy Russell (The Legal Genealogist).
• Feb 2016, the 10th Unlock the Past History & Genealogy Cruise, New Zealand and Australia: "Future Proofing Your Genealogy". Moderator: Helen Smith (HVSResearch). Other Panelists: Paul Blake (Genealogy Lecturer), Jan Gow (Beehive Books), Judy Russell (The Legal Genealogist), Shauna Hicks (Shauna Hicks History Enterprises).
• Oct 2014, Gaenovium Conference, Leiden, Netherlands: “Current and Future Genealogical Standards”. Moderator: Bob Coret (Genealogie Online). Other panelists: Sue Adams (Family Folk) and Phil Moir (DC Thomson Family History)
• Feb 2013, the 3rd Unlock the Past History & Genealogy Cruise, Australia. "Social Media Panel". Moderator Jill Ball (GeniAus), Other panelists: Shauna Hicks (Shauna Hicks History Enterprises), Alona Tester (Gould Genealogy), Helen Smith (HVSResearch)
• Feb 2012, RootsTech 2012, Salt Lake City. "Sources, Citations, Meta Data". Moderator: Ancestry Insider. Other panelists: Ryan Heaton (FamilySearch), Robert Gardner (Google), John Vilburn (Real-Time Collaboration), Dallan Quass (weRelate.org), Bruce Buzbee (RootsMagic) and Robert Burkhead (FHISO).

Interviews and Guest Appearances

• July 2021 - My Week as the WikiTree Challenge Guest. The WikiTree people worked all week on my ancestry. Three sessions: My Intro, a mid-week review, and the Reveal at the end of the week. Followed by a session on Mondays with Myrt.
• Nov 2020, Interview by Ditsa Keren for DNAweekly: Discover Your DNA Matches with Double Match Triangulator

Papers and Publications

• Aug 2014, submitted a second paper "Standardized Sources and Citation Templates" to the Family History Information Standards Organisation (FHISO) in their call for papers.
• Fall 2013, wrote an 8 page article "Software Reviews" for Family Tree Tracker magazine, 1st edition, by Citrus Media (Australia).
• June 2013, submitted a paper "Nine Necessities in a GEDCOM Replacement" to the Family History Information Standards Organisation (FHISO) in their call for papers.
• Sept 14 to Dec 7, 1994, Louis wrote a 7-part bi-weekly genealogy column in his local newpaper.

Melbourne 2016

UTP 2016, 2013

Gaenovium 2014

RootsTech 2012/14/17

More info about Louis and his genealogical activities are at: www.lkessler.com/genealog.shtml

All presentations are designed to be about 45 minutes, but most can be lengthened with more detail added.

I go through and update my presentations for each event, customizing them to the venue and audience expected. Presentations can be made for any level: beginner, intermediate or advanced; technical or non-technical.

Genealogy Research:

• How To Improve Your Research With Source-Based Genealogy.
  • Go from source to evidence to conclusions. This is a step-by-step guide to show you how to do it, and how you can use to it guide your genealogical research.
• Organizing Your Genealogy Documents ... The Better Way To Do It.
• Going Paperless - Making Your Genealogy (and Your Life?) Digital
• First Steps in Going to Paperless Genealogy.
• Recording Your Sources - Are Citations a Necessary Evil?
  • You already know how important it is to record your sources, but it's so tedious. Here are ways to streamline the process and make it work for you.
• Using Life Events and Ages To Solve Genealogy Problems.
  • There's a wealth of data in important event dates of your ancestors' lives. The dates provide ages which not only allow consistency checking, but also help you solve problems.
• What's in a Date? Using Dates Effectively.
• Comprehensive Consistency Checking Made Easy
  • In order to record your genealogy as accurately as you can, you want to make logical conclusions and as few mistakes as possible. Just like a spelling and grammar checker is an essential tool to make your writing better, a consistency checker will prevent you from making silly errors that can easily be avoided. Few programs today offer a full range of consistency checks. Find out what’s really needed, and what checks you really need.
• Online A's for Your Genealogy Q's
  • As a genealogist, you have questions: how to best research something; how to interpret the data; how to organize it all; and how to get the darn stuff into your computer program. Here's where you can go for answers.
• The Genealogy Research Process, the Genealogy Proof Standard, and You.
• Genealogy Standards. What Are They? Do I Need to Follow Them?
• Names, Events, Dates and Places Aren't Enough. Here's What You Can and Should Record.
• Biblical Genealogy: Tracing Back To Adam.

Genetic Genealogy

• What DNA Newbies Need to Know When Starting your DNA Journey. (For Beginners)
• What to do once you get your DNA matches (Intermediate)
• How small a segment is too small? (Intermediate)
• DNA Autosomal Segment Mapping Techniques (Intermediate)
• Using Triangulation to Map Your Chromosomes. (Intermediate)
• Using Double Match Triangulation to Find DNA Ancestors (Advanced or Workshop)
• Your DNA Raw Data and what you can do with it. (Advanced)

Computerized Genealogy

• Organizing Your Genealogical Research ... The Better Way To Do It.
• Organizing Your Genealogy Computer Files ... The Better Way To Do It.
• Entering Your Data Into Genealogy Software ... The Better Way To Do It.
• Making the Most of your Genealogy Software
• Genealogy Software - Choosing and Using.
  • Choosing genealogy software is like choosing a car. What's right for one person is not necessarily right for someone else. Here's some information that will help you decide what's best for you.
• GenSoftReviews - Reviews and Ratings Of All the Genealogy Software.
  • GenSoftReviews is the like TripAdvisor, but for genealogists. It uses user reviews to judge the quality of each program. Come learn how you can use GenSoftReviews to help you find and decide on new genealogy software to try.
• 1000 Genealogy Programs in Less Than an Hour
  • Are you aware of the variety of programs that can help you with your genealogy? If you're just using 2 or 3 programs, or couldn't name more than a dozen, then you're missing out.
• Why Aren't Today's Genealogy Programs Any Better?
• 6 Bad Things About Today's Genealogy Software (Can Be: 1, 2, 3 or 6 Talks)
• The Ideal Genealogy System.
• Who Will Win the Battle Between the Online Databases To Build the World Family Tree?
• Who Will Win the War Between FamilySearch and Ancestry.com and MyHeritage?
• The Best Way To Put Your Genealogy Data On Your Website Is Not What You Think.
• Cousin Baiting: How to do it.
• Merging Other People's Data - Beware!

GEDCOM and Your Genealogy Data

• The Beginners Guide To the Minimum You Absolutely Need To Know About GEDCOM.
• Warning! Data won't tranfer: GEDCOM transfers.
  • Don't lose the data you've spent hundreds of hours entering into your genealogy program. Learn about GEDCOM transfers, its limitations, and what you should do about it.
• GEDCOM: Its History, the Present, and Where It's Going.
• The FHISO Initiative To Create a New Genealogy Data Transfer Standard.
• Nine Necessities in a GEDCOM Replacement
  • The GEDCOM standard is almost twenty years old and will inevitably be updated or rewritten at some point in the future. People expect all data to transfer correctly between programs, but more often than not find that it doesn’t. Here are Nine Necessities in a GEDCOM Replacement.
• How to fix GEDCOM.

Behold (My Genealogy Software)

• Why Behold?
  • Are you ready for: Seeing all your data in one report; Instant organization; Multiple languages everywhere; Editing like in a word processor; Source-based data entry; Evidence/conclusion modeling; Virtual Merging. The template has been laid.
• How To Best Use Behold To Help You Do Your Genealogy.
• Checking Your Genealogy Data With Behold.
• Life Events - Visualizing a Person's Life
  • Most genealogy programs just regurgitate the facts you entered. You know those facts, and you’ve already used them for what you can. But it is possible to multiply the usefulness of a few facts by displaying them in context of a person’s life story. Learn how genealogy software reports can be improved to provide you with information that can help you understand your ancestors better, and help you with your research.
• The Future Of Behold - Innovations In Genealogy Software.

Genealogy Societies and Conferences

• Ideas and More Ideas For Your Genealogy Society.
  • How do you keep your members interested, active and involved? What can you do to gain publicity and attract new members? What kind of programs will be useful, interesting, and maybe even make money? You need ideas. Here's plenty of them.
• Organizing and Conducting a Cemetery Photography Project.
• Rootstech - a Summary - and Why You Must Go To Rootstech.
• Genealogy Cruises - the Better Way To Conference.
• Why Genealogy Is Everyone's Solemn Duty.
  • We know you're an avid genealogist, and you know genealogy is one of the best hobbies in the world. What you don't know is why you and everyone else must do it. This amusing talk presents two dozen aspects of genealogy to inspire you.

Jewish Genealogy

• A Beginner's Guide To Jewish Genealogy
  • This will get you up and running. (1) Getting Started, (2) Adding to What You Have, (3) Computerizing, (4) Getting Serious, and (5) Making It All Worthwhile.
• Jewish Genealogy - What's Different and Where To Find It
  • If you are researching a Jewish connection in your family tree, here is everything that's different about Jewish Genealogy that you'll need to know, and the resources you'll need to do it.
• Jewish DNA - What's Different About It? - What's Endogamy?
• Resources for Jewish Genealogical Research of Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

Stats, Stocks, Chess and Stuff

• Winning Contests With Statistics.
• A Volatility-Based Stock Market Spinner Strategy.
• Gambling, Lotteries, and What's the Best Way to Win a Million Dollars?
• Computer Chess History and Future.
• Can a Computer Play Perfect Chess?
• How To Program a Computer To Play Chess.
• If I Didn't Have Genealogy As My Hobby, It Would Have Been Chess

Louis can also give Workshops on using his Genealogy Software

• Getting full value out of Behold
• Autosomal DNA Analysis with Double Match Triangulator
• What Genealogy Software is best for you? GenSoftReviews