National Genealogical Society Conference

Last week the National Genealogical Society (NGS) annual conference took place in St. Charles, Missouri, outside of St. Louis. This is the biggie as far as genealogy conferences go. The presenters are some of the best in the field and the 2000+ attendees have incredible learning opportunities from beginner (How do I get started?, How do I organize all the information I've found?, Isn't everything online?) to advanced methodology for analyzing data, proving relationships when no record states the relationship, using DNA as a research tool, reading Old German script, and just about everything in between.

So far I have only been to one NGS Conference, two years ago in Las Vegas. It was an amazing experience to be with a couple thousand other family history enthusiasts and wonderful to hear the top genealogists lecture: Elizabeth Shown Mills, Tom Jones, Barbara Vines Little, and so many more. It was even better than I had anticipated. Unfortunately, the conference is held in early May during the school year so I can’t take off work to go again until I retire. Las Vegas was close enough that I could make it for the last two days of the conference.

A new feature that began with last year's conference in Richmond, Virginia, for those of us unable to attend was two days of streaming classes. This year two tracks were again offered, five classes on each of two days. The topics were immigration and naturalization and methodology techniques. I was only able to watch one class live last week, Warren Bittner’s excellent presentation on German research, but I have access to all ten lectures until August. As soon as the quarter is over I will switch into genealogy mode--or even before, since the Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree will take place June 4-8 in Burbank. I'll be there for the whole conference, including DNA Day on Thursday, June 4th. Attending conferences is a great way to build genealogy skills and meet others who share this passion. Many lifelong friendships begin at conferences.