Organize Your Family History

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Making the best use of time at a genealogy conference

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time management at genealogy conferencesI’m attending the NGS conference this week and I’m thoroughly enjoying myself. One great thing about going to a conference is having the opportunity to block out the other distactions and focus on the topic at hand. This year, the conference is in St. Charles, a half hour from my home in St. Louis. That sounds incredibly convenient, but in fact in means that I miss the full genealogy immersion that I get when I travel to a conference. I have to head home in rush hour traffic, walk my dog, and deal with day-to-day life. Today, in fact, is my husband’s birthday, so as soon as I get home from the conference I’ll be turning off the research side of my brain!

Within the conference itself, there are some time-management challenges. For example:

  • How early do I need to get there to register on the first day? (Turns out not as early as I thought.)
  • The exhibition hall is open throughout the day and, of course, it is more crowded during the breaks between sessions. Today I decided to skip a class session in favor of touring the exhibition hall when I could get the chance to really talk to exhibitors. That turned out to be a good choice (though I’m sure I missed a good session), because I had two really great conversations. (Keep an eye out on the blog for the fruits of those conversations!)
  • Fitting in time to blog can be hard during a conference. Skipping this morning’s class gave me the time to write this blog post!
  • Of course, deciding which class to attend is always challenging because there are so many good options. Yesterday I made great choices. Here are the sessions I attended, all of them excellent.
    • Judy Russell’s keynote address, “Journey of Discovery”
    • Elizabeth Shown Mills class, “Dissection & Analysis of Research Problems: Ten Steps to a Solution”
    • “Anatomy of a Case Study: Steps Used to Write for Yourself or for Publication,” presented by Melinda Daffin Henningfield. It actually reinforced some of things Elizabeth said, which was great.
    • Jen Baldwin’s, “PERSI: Spanning the Generations”
  • One way I use to determine which class to attend is to pay attention to which are available as live stream and/or audio recordings. If I can view/listen later (for a fee) I may choose a competing class that is only available live.
  • Figuring out the best use of time during breaks is another challenge. Some sessions are in small rooms that fill up, so taking an advance look at class locations can help you get into the class you want. On the other hand, my friend wasn’t able to get into her first-choice class and ended up joining me Elizabeth Shown Mills’ class in a larger room and was so happy she did.  (And, of course, sussing out the less-crowded bathrooms is helpful during breaks as well!)

Sometimes I find myself getting wrapped up in making sure I use my time in the best possible way at a conference. But I try to remind myself to leave myself open to serendipitous connections. If I over plan, I might miss out on spontaneity. You never know where your next great learning opportunity or next great connection with a genealogist will come at a conference like this.

In an environment like the NGS conference, no matter how I spend my time, I pretty much can’t lose.

Photo by Devon Janse van Rensburg on Unsplash.

April 30 x 30 wrap up

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April felt like a really long month! I’m happy to say that I was able to do at least some genealogy research every day. But I don’t think I managed to do 900 minutes’ worth over the whole month. I’m really proud of my daily research, because I didn’t let travel get in the way. I was out of town nine of the 30 days.

Even though I didn’t manage 30 minutes every day, I think that doing at least a little bit of research each day was really beneficial. It kept me connected to my research and my ancestors and made getting started at any given session much easier. I’m looking forward to attending the NGS conference next week and it’ll be nice to be so connected with my research as I learn.

It’s May 3 and I didn’t research on the 1st and 2nd (I think I needed a break), but I’m looking forward to getting back into the swing of frequent (if not daily) research.

How about you? If you participated in the challenge, how’d it go? Did you find it beneficial?

 

Going to your first genealogy conference? Start here.

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I’m excited for next week’s National Genealogical Society Family History conference, which will be held in St. Charles, Missouri, practically in my back yard. One of my clients is attending for the first time (her first conference ever, in fact) and I’ll be there to show her the ropes. But here’s a slightly edited version of a post I wrote a couple of years ago for people attending their first genealogy conference.

I love going to genealogy conferences and have attended probably a dozen or so. If you’re attending the NGS conference May 8 to 11 (or any other conference, really), you might find these tips helpful!

  • Bring your family tree or have access to it on a device. I frequently hear things at conferences that make me want to check my tree, to see whether I have ancestors in a locality, for example. Once, I was able to verify on my tree that the speaker, Joshua Taylor, and I were related! (I blogged about that exciting moment here.)
  • Bring some way to take notes, either a notebook or device. (I prefer to take notes into Evernote on my laptop.)
  • Eat a good breakfast, because you’re going to need a lot of brainpower. And bring along a bottle of water to stay hydrated. I always bring trail mix or something too.
  • Be prepared to keep a list of next steps, because the sessions you attend will surely spark ideas for things to look up or other actions.
  • Take a class that doesn’t necessarily interest you–you never know what new interests it might spark. (This tip came from reader Jan Rogge in a comment on my blog post about attending the Missouri State Genealogical Society conference in 2017.)
  • If it’s a large conference with an app (as NGS is), download the app and decide what sessions you’ll be taking in advance of your arrival at the conference.
  • Make conversation with the person next to you. You may be in a position to help him/her or vice versa. Or you could even meet a cousin that way!
  • Take time after the conference to read your notes and process the conference materials you bring home.

Basically, be prepared to write stuff down because you’ll probably learn so much you’ll never remember it. Most of all, enjoy yourself!

Five things I wish my early-researcher self had known

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Earlier this year, I found a pile of papers from early days of my genealogy research and went through them to see what was of value. As I reported back, I let go of a lot of it and scanned some, and it was a worthwhile, if somewhat tedious, endeavor.

In a separate project, I’ve been evaluating the source documentation in my Reunion database. The way I cited and processed early sources was not always great, to say the least. As part of this project, I’ve been reexamining each source, which has helped me make the citation better and glean more information.

As I looked at my early research efforts, five things emerged that I wish I’d known back then.

  1. Always write down a source or copy a title page when photocopying something. In some cases, while examining the paper pile, I had no idea where the document had come from. In a couple of cases, a little searching online revealed the source. But what a waste of time.
  2. Assume you’ll remember nothing. I now keep notes in my research log because the work involved in trying to figure out why I copied or downloaded something  is another waste of time.
  3. Siblings matter. Early on, I researched only direct-line ancestors. I think it was because keeping track of collateral relatives felt overwhelming. I know better now. Keeping track of siblings (and cousins!) helps you evaluate information and provides critical clues.
  4. Indexes are clues, not sources. Some of the early sources in my Reunion database are indexes. Now, I don’t include an index as a source unless I’ve absolutely exhausted the possibilities for finding the actual document that was indexed. There is so much more information available in the actual document than the index itself. And, of course, indexes, which were created after the fact, are almost by definition less reliable than original sources.
  5. Be really critical. Early on, finding anything that seemed to support an idea I already had felt like a big win and I didn’t necessary examine it critically. But I’ve learned to critically evaluate every bit of evidence. I don’t automatically accept documents that support my hypotheses, nor do I reject evidence that does not. I like to think of it as sources earning their way into my database.

Genealogy is a process of constant learning. We all make mistakes at the beginning and with any luck we learn from them. (I’m still making mistakes and still learning.) Perhaps this short list will help someone avoid a couple of mistakes.

How about you? What do you wish your early-genealogist self had known?

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