I was so glad I attended last week’s family history conference from the National Genealogical Society. It was a terrific conference for me. I attended NGS four years ago, the last time it was in the St. Louis area, but I got more out of this year. I think that’s because I’m further along in my research so the more advanced classes were more helpful to me. Sometimes we hear talks that we need to hear just at the right time.
Over the course of four days, I attended 14 classes. My brain hurt a little at the end! I used the terrific NGS app to select my classes before the conference and I was so grateful that I didn’t have to make on-the-spot decisions. I did a great job of selecting because all the classes I took, except one, were very helpful.
One highlight of the conference was attending four classes taught by Elizabeth Shown Mills. Of course I was familiar with her work (Evidence Explained is legendary!) but I don’t think I’d ever actually listened to her speak, certainly not in person. Without exception, all of her classes were excellent, but her class on Context was mindset-shifting. She offered an explanation for why context is so important, along with specific suggestions for how to find context for our ancestors’ lives. I was so grateful for the opportunity to briefly chat with Elizabeth after that session and tell her how valuable I thought it was.
Elizabeth sets some impressively high standards but if I can strive to come close to them, I know I will be upping my game.
Another highlight of the conference was meeting up with some blog readers as well as talking with a podcast listener. And I met some really terrific folks just by sitting next to them in sessions.
I’m planning to take a research trip to Kentucky next month and many of the classes fed right into that. I took classes on planning a research trip, on Kentucky resources, on locating obscure and hidden resources, and of course the class on context. Also helpful will be the classes on breaking through brick walls (which Elizabeth Shown Mills prefers to call stone walls–more on that in a future post). I hope to do some thorough preparation so that I can make the best use of the local resources when I’m in Kentucky.
Next year’s NGS conference will be held in Salt Lake City from May 20 to 23, 2020. Based on the quality of this year’s conference, I’m planning to attend! If you’ve ever wondered whether going to a genealogy conference was worth the time, expense and effort, for me the answer is most assuredly yes.
More, More! I hope you do a blog each on these classes!
They sound wonderful.
I’m going to my first conference in August (FGS in DC) and am really trying to prep well for the experience. I’ve already started ranking the classes I hope to take with the tips you gave in mind.
Melissa, I’m excited for you to go to your first conference! All your planning will be helpful, but I hope you leave yourself open to the unexpected as well! Will you be doing any research at repositories while you’re in DC?
Thanks for the encouragement to blog more about the conference. I’ll do that (though I don’t know that I’ll write a post on each class)!
I appreciate your comments!
I went to DC last year for a work conference on college health. I planned an extra couple days for research. I went to the National Archives. The staff there is very helpful. I also briefly visited the Library of Congress and the DAR headquarters.
Know what you want in advance. FYI, if you are looking for Civil War pension files, they wanted me to look up the numbers in the ancestry database to put on the forms. They pull records every hour or so. My least favorite was DAR. I think they would have been more helpful if I was a member. They just showed me their library. I didn’t plan ahead really for that though. The Library of Congress was beautiful. Someday I will go back to DC. There is so much there.
I also enjoyed the NGS conference. It was my 4th NGS conference. Last year I couldn’t go to Michigan in May because my daughter was having a baby then. I went to Rootstech instead. The quality of classes are equal for both conferences, but Rootstech had a much bigger exhibit hall. I would have liked to see more vendors in St. Charles, but space was limited. NGS may have outgrown that location, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Also, Rootstech is more “flashy”. I do prefer NGS because the locations change. I am looking forward to next year in Salt Lake City and 2021 in Richmond. I will definitely be attending both (unless another grandbaby is coming).
I agree with you, Leslie, that the quality of presentations at both RootsTech and NGS is great. I prefer the smaller crowds at NGS. Of course, with the smaller crowd comes the smaller exhibit hall, so it’s give and take. Thanks for commenting!