NGS Wrap Up

Today I thought I would share some of the things I learned this week at the NGS conference.  I confess the list is a bit random, but after four days of intensive genealogy.... I think you get the picture.

• Pack light.
• Come with a plan and objectives.  
• Attend sessions about geographic areas that are new to you.  I attended a session on Kentucky research.  Many families from VA and NC migrated to Kentucky.  I never know when I might end up tracing a line to Kentucky. (This was one of my favorite sessions.)
• Kentucky had a star on both the confederate flag and the union flag.
• Wear comfortable shoes.
• Talk to the people sitting next to you.  I met great people and made new genealogy friends this week.
• Practice what you learn while the information is fresh on your mind.
• Don't be afraid to ask questions. Genealogists are very approachable and love to share their knowledge.

NGS - Day Four

The final day.

I started the day with an early session on using creative non-fiction to enhance genealogic writing.  I picked up techniques and tips to make my genealogy write-ups more interesting to the reader.  In other words, I picked up tips on writing so my family actually reads about our ancestors.

Another session on evaluating genealogy sources and their value rounded out my morning.  I took time for some research and then prepared to head home.  I confess sleeping in my own bed sounded very good.  Fortunately no fire works (after the Reds' baseball game) to wake me up.

NGS - Day Three

I started off my morning attending Angela McGhie's session on newspaper research.  Angela did a fantastic job  of presenting how to use newspapers in your research and how to find those newspapers.  I confess I do not use the newspapers as a resource nearly as much as I should.  I have a recent subscription to GenealogyBank.com and plan to spend some focused research time there in the near future.

Next up, I attended Barbara Vines Little's session on chancery records. As with her lecture on Tuesday, I came away with renewed confidence in being able to search out my ancestors in the chancery records of Virginia and understand what the documents are telling me. (Actually, I skipped an afternoon session in order to be able to do a little research in this area while things were still fresh on my mind.)

A session on proving/disproving family myths, lunch with a new genealogy friend and research kept me busy during the early afternoon.  Then back to the conference for another session and browsing time in the exhibit hall.  While I was there, I did some indexing of the 1940 census.  I then enjoyed catching up with my ProGen mentor Claire Bettag. At last it was back to my room for more research time.

Another great day at NGS!

NGS - Day Two

I started off my Thursday morning attending a excellent session on Kentucky research presented by  Don Richmyer of the Kentucky Historical Society.  I know what you are thinking.  I do not do Kentucky research.  No, I do not have have direct ancestor lines in Kentucky, but I (we) do have collateral Talbott and Owen lines who migrated there. There are also many surnames that are found in  the border counties of southwestern Kentucky and northwestern Tennesee that are in Halifax County, Virginia as well.

Oral history in the Talbott family refers to Kentucky cousins.  One tradition reports that John B Talbott (my GGG grandfather) visited family there prior to the Civil War.  Supposedly John brought back the pistol that he would later use in the Civil War.

My great grandfather Bossy Talbott has some type of connection to Kentucky.  Among his papers I have discovered correspondence with a legal firm in Kentucky.

After attending Don's session, I am interested in re-visiting the family's oral history and Bossy's connection to Kentucky.

I attended lectures in the afternoon by Tom Jones on Inferential Genealogy and Barbara Vines Little on finding the law that pertained to your ancestor in a particular time.  Both were excellent lectures that gave me a lot to think about.  I need to re-visit a couple of those brick walls in my family tree.  I might just have a couple of fresh ideas.

I went to dinner with three new genealogy friends.  (Yes, we did talk genealogy the whole time and no one's eyes glazed over!)  After that we were off to the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.  The NURFC deserves a post all its own.  This is a fabulous museum and one that is a must-see if you visit the Cincinnati area.  I'd love to go back and spend more time.

That's day two in a nutshell.  I'm looking forward to what day three brings.

NGS - Day One

My first day actually started Tuesday night with a blogger dinner hosted by FamilySearch.org.  I met new blogger friends, and I encourage you to stop by their blogs:

• Karen's Chatt  by Karen Bennett
• GeneaJulia by Julia Langel
• Karen's Genealogy Oasis by Karen Blackmore
• The Passionate Genealogist by Ruth Blair

Here are a few things I learned  about Family Search:

• Family Search has 530 million + images online.
• They have 1.7 billion indexed records.
• 30% of the image indexing for the 1940 census has been completed in 37 days.
• The 1940 census indexing project is just a small piece of the indexing projects that Family Search has ongoing.  VOLUNTEERS are needed.

On Wednesday morning, I attended the opening ceremony which included a presentation on the 1848 Cincinnati daguerreotype panorama by Patricia Moseley Van Skaik of the Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County.  The discoveries in the details of the photograph are absolutely amazing.  This topic deserves a post of its own, so look for one in the future.

The exhibit hall opened and look who I met!

That's me with Lisa Louise Cooke of the Genealogy Gems Podcast.  I started blogging after listening to her podcasts series.  Lisa gave great advice and Are You My Cousin is now three years old.  Thanks, Lisa!

I'm off to a new session, but I'll report on more later.

Leaving on a Jet Plane......

I will be attending the National Genealogy Conference in Cincinnati this week. I am so excited!  I will be posting this week about my experiences and the people I meet.