Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

Who’s going to Midwestern Roots?

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The Midwestern Roots Family History and Genealogy Conference, sponsored by the Indiana Historical Society, is being held next weekend (July 19-20) in Indianapolis. I’ll be there. Are any of you planning to attend? I’ll be driving with my friend Vickie, whom I met through this blog. I’m always thrilled to meet blog readers at conferences!

I attended the 2016 Midwestern Roots conference and thought it was terrific. It was very robust, with lots of great educational opportunities.

This year looks like it’s going to be equally good. I’m excited to hear Joshua Taylor speak, both as a keynote and in breakout sessions. I didn’t get the chance to hear him at the NGS conference because of competing priorities. (I’ll never forget the time I heard him speak at the Genealogy Society of Southern Illinois conference five years ago and discovered we were cousins. I told that story in this blog post.)

I’ve downloaded the syllabus and saved it to both Evernote and my hard drive. (If you’re registered, the password to access the syllabus was emailed to you on July 3 in a message with the subject line “Midwestern Roots 2019!”) I’ve also downloaded the app. I love conference apps, which are so much easier for me to look at than a printed schedule. I was glad to see that this conference has one. I love that I can select my sessions now and see a streamlined version of the agenda (as well as the full one) so I’m not making last-minute decisions or fumbling around trying to figure out where I’m going next.

If you’re attending, please let me know if you’d like to meet up. If you’re interested in registering, it looks like there are still spots available. The deadline for registration is Saturday, July 13. Go to the registration page for the conference to buy a ticket. If you’re not able to attend, you might consider following the hashtage #MRoots2019 to see what you’re missing!

Free live streaming of this weekend’s Genealogy Jamboree!

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The Southern California Genealogical Society puts on a terrific conference each year. It’s called the Genealogy Jamboree and it’s being held this weekend in Burbank, California. I attended the Jamboree in 2015 and it was excellent. Since I’m not able to go this year, I was thrilled to learn that 12 sessions will be live streamed and that there is no charge to watch!

It gets better: You don’t have to watch the sessions live (though you can). They will be available for viewing until July 31, 2019. The live stream is being made available free of charge through the generosity of Ancestry.com.

To take advantage of this, you must register by filling out a simple form. You don’t even have to be a member of SCGS.

Check out the conference’s website to see a listing of the 12 sessions that are available for free viewing. Syllabuses will be included!

Note: Free live streaming is available for the non-DNA portion of the conference only. Two days of the four-day conference are devoted to genetic genealogy and those sessions are available for streaming as well, but a fee applies. Here’s a link more information on the streaming the genetic genealogy sessions.

The genealogy community is so generous. There are so many opportunities to learn without paying much. The hard part is finding time for all the learning!

Highlights of the NGS conference

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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.

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.