Conferences

Day two was another early start. There is no such thing as sleeping in at a conference.

The only lecture I attended on this day was the first one at 8 am. It was “Storing Your Tree in the Cloud: Online Management of your Data.” This is a topic that is still very new to me so the lecture was a good learning tool.

I spent the rest of the day wandering around the marketplace.

Findmypast.com had a booth there and I spoke with Brian Speckart who also shared a table with me at the FamilySearch blogger/media dinner. Brian told me that in the summer of 2012 there will be a subscription available that will include the findmypast websites from Ireland, the UK, Australia and the main .com website. The subscription will also include the British Newspaper Archive.

Brightsolid own findmypast and Scotlandspeople. I have used Scotlandspeople from the time it started and it is a wonderful website.

Ancestry and FamilySearch were very prominent in the marketplace. There were a lot of companies to help write, present and publish your family story. The usual associations and societies were in attendance.

The one thing that I miss from the modern marketplace is books. I love to use books and have a large reference library. I did get the fourth edition of John Grenham’s “Tracing Your Irish Ancestors.”

One down point was the absence of the Certificate of Irish Heritage booth. I was really looking forward to finding out more about them. I was not the only one because many people walked past our booth looking for them.

©2012 – Blair Archival Research All Rights Reserved

We arrived at the marketplace early on Wednesday to make sure that we had everything ready for the opening. This was the only day I was able to connect to the internet at the conference centre. The connection was busy for the rest of the conference.

The first lecture I was going to attend was “The Family Tapestry: Integrating Proof Arguments Into the Genealogical Narrative.” I left the booth 10 minutes before the lecture started and was unable to get a seat when I arrived. Thank goodness they recorded this one so I bought the recording.

The only other lecture I attended on this day was called “Snagit for Genealogists” which was very interesting. I have been thinking about getting this program and the lecture helped me make a decision. We were also given a free trial CD of Snagit.

I interviewed Lisa Louise Cooke who was in the booth next to ours. Look for the interview on this blog in the future.

©2012 – Blair Archival Research All Rights Reserved

It has been a few weeks since I returned from the conference and they have been very busy weeks. I will be posting my experiences at the NGS conference over the next few blog posts.

I was assisting Louise St. Denis and Susanna de Groot of the National Institute for Genealogical Studies at the booth for the Institute and the booth for Heritage Productions in the marketplace.

Tuesday was a tourist day. Susanna and I walked up to Fountain Square to have a look around and the Findlay market was there.

We then walked down to the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center located down by the Ohio River. It was a wonderful museum.

New things were learned and it was interesting to see the references to people who ended up in Canada and their experiences.

We went to the Rockbottom Micro Brewery Pub in Fountain Square for lunch. It was really good and the servers were very friendly.

After lunch we walked down to the Cincinnati Public Library to have a look at the daguerreotype of the city.

We saw a print that was on display on the main floor and then went upstairs to view the original that was kept behind a screen and in the dark to protect it.

When we entered the local history room the librarian opened the screen and turned on a back light so we could see it. It is amazing this piece of history still exists.

That evening I went to the FamilySearch bloggers/media dinner and met some old and new friends. I met Amanda Perrine of Amanda’s Anthaeum blog. Our blogs share an anniversary. Someone kindly took our picture.

We stayed at a hotel near the Cincinnati airport in Hebron Kentucky. So it was time to go back to the hotel for an early start the next morning.

©2012 – Blair Archival Research All Rights Reserved