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!
I’ve never been to a conference but many of these recommendations would work just as well if you are going to a family history fair. Oh the number of times i got there and realised I’d left some useful material at home.
Karen
https://heenan.one-name.net
Karen, glad you found it helpful!!
This is so timely! I am sitting here taking a break from perusing the syllabus for the NGS conference—my first genealogy conference! I was thinking of coming here to ask about tips for first-timers!
One of the things I’m wondering about it printing out the syllabus for classes I plan to attend. I’m pretty sure I’m the ‘hand-written notes’ type. For one thing, I have a short-term photographic memory, and if i actually write something down, I can visualize it on the page late. Also, doodling helps me pay attention. But I also fear that if I started typing notes into a word processor, etc, I’d get hung up on the formatting (‘I should BOLD that’, ‘indenting would help this look organized’, ‘oh, should have used a numbered list instead of bulleting!’ ‘THAT’s a pretty font’…lol!)
I’m trying to decide between a couple of option. I could print out the syllabus and take notes or doodle on the syllabus. Instead, I could just take some paper along and use it for notes and doodles, and follow along on the syllabus with my iPad. Any experienced conference goers out there who want to weigh in?
Kim, taking notes by hand is totally legit. The problem with printing out the syllabus is that it’s so big that you probably want to only print out the handouts for the classes you plan to attend. But if you change your mind, you won’t have that handout. So I’d vote for bringing along paper to take notes on (and doodle) and look at the handouts on your iPad or just look at the speaker and worry about the handouts later.
I hope that’s helpful. I look forward to seeing you at the conference!
Janine, how did you find out about all these conferences?
That’s a good question, Debbie. I’m a member of NGS, so they email me about this conference. And once you go to a conference, you’re usually on their mailing list. I see mention of conferences on blogs. And I’m fortunate that readers of this blog tell me about them. That’s how I found out about both the Genealogy Society of Southern Illinois conference and the Midwestern Roots conference, both of which are relatively local and both terrific. But you can simply google “Genealogy conferences” followed by the year and there are links to conference listings.