Just returned from Ft.Wayne, Indiana, and the FGS annual national conference. This was four days of intense learning; one day for helpful sessions on genealogy society management and four days of sessions spanning A to Z. The syllabus was a #5 "telephone book" which everybody complained about but everybody carried. Sessions (and the luncheon talks) presented basic how-tos and/or updates on the newest stuff going on...things (and websites) like Footnote, World Vital Records, Internet Genealogy magazine, Ancestry, FamilySearch Indexing and more. The vendors hall was like the proverbial candy store. At the Ancestry display, a daily drawing was held giving away books and flash drives...I won one on Friday and Saturday!
One big plus to this conference was the opportunity to use the new Genealogy Department of the Allen County Public Library. Hard to imagine that the good people of Ft.Wayne coughed up $88 million for this public library. They bill it as the largest genealogy collection east of Salt Lake City and it might just be so. This library is the home of PERSI, remember. The library was open until midnight on two nights just so we conference attendees could get our fill.
Yes, I know it's costly to attend a national conference. Next year the FGS conference will be in September in Philadelphia; the NGS conference will be in May in Kansas City. But your researching knowledge would expand and you certainly would enjoy attending, I guarantee it.
No comments:
Post a Comment