National Genealogical Society

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

Last night I attended the FamilySearch Blogger/Media dinner at the Hyatt hotel in Cincinnati. A great time was had by all and FamilySearch provided a tasty meal. It was all things Cincinnati from chili three ways, ribs, fried chicken and fresh kettle chips. Dessert was an ice cream sandwich made with cookies.

I enjoyed the company of Karen Blackmore of Karen’s Genealogy Oasis, Karen Miller Bennett of Karen’s Chatt, Lisa Lisson of Are You My Cousin?, Julia Langel of GeneaJulia, David Rencher who is the Chief Genealogical Officer at FamilySearch, Merrill White who is a FamilySearch Patron and Partner Services, Britnay Warnock FamilySearch Social Media and Brian Speckart of findmypast.com.

Paul Nuata started the presentation by telling us that they now have a contract to digitize the civil registration records from 1802 to 1940 for Italy.

Every day 10,000 support volunteers are available online at familysearch.org to help answer research questions and provide personalized research guidance. They can respond to questions in 13 different languages.

Jim Erickson of FamilySearch gave us a great presentation on the accomplishments of the 1940 US Census indexers. They are enthusiastic and moving along at a fast rate to get the project finished.

There are 3.8 million images in the 1940 US census project. FamilySearch hope to have 400 million new images online in 2012. The Granite Mountain Vault holds 3.5 billion images.

FamilySearch are working on some new technological innovations to improve the indexing and searching capabilities of the website.

The BillionGraves.com index will be available on FamilySearch in the coming weeks and they will be announcing a new project for Memorial Day.

After the presentation everyone stayed around to chat and catch up. I met Amanda Perrine of Amanda’s Anthenaeum we share the same blog anniversary. I also met Dear Mrytle and Pam Schaffner of the Digging Down East blog.

This is just the start of a wonderful week filled with all things genealogy. Today is the first full day of lectures and the market place opens at 9:30. If you are attending please drop by and see me at the National Institute for Genealogical Studies booth.

©2012 – Blair Archival Research All Rights Reserved