CGS President Jeffrey Vaillant generously makes time to write and send reports from conferences. This year he is attending the NGS 2012 Family History Conference in Cincinnati. Thanks, Jeffrey!
National Genealogical Conference-Day One
Cincinnati, OH 9 May 2012
Great first day! It started with a presentation by Patricia Mosley Van Skaik on the Genealogy Buried in a Photograph: Amazing Discoveries in the Cincinnati Panorama of 1848. Rather than words, go here to see it for yourself: Cincinnati Panorama of 1848.
On the way to the opening of the trade show, Vinnie Schwarz, Tim Cox, and I stopped to have our picture taken by another attendee on his handy iPad. Hopefully he has sent it for posting. The exhibit hall has more room than I recall in the past, allowing the 2000+ attendees ease in getting around. All the usual suspects were displaying their wares and FamilySearch and Ancestry were the space hogs! The 1940 U.S. Census Project was on the floor so I was able to walk away with a tee shirt after indexing two more batches. Stopped to say hello to the Photo Detective, Maureen Taylor, and told her we were looking forward to seeing her in early June for the CGS Day with the Photo Detective. She told me all her consultation times have been taken so I asked her to consider coming a day earlier for more.
Then it was off to Strategies for Finding "Unfindable" Ancestors with Dr. Thomas Jones. It was a great class in methodology and research.
I attended the Association of Professional Genealogists luncheon. (Vinnie and Tim went out to the local chili feed.) Curt B. Witcher spoke on the Expectations of 21st Century Genealogists and was entertaining as well as insightful. While he was focused on the individual genealogist, I think some of his ideas can apply to a genealogy society as well.
Since I came early to do some of my own research, the afternoon lecture Moving Out: Migration Patterns into the Midwest by Carol Elise Smith AG, was spot-on for my thinking process. We all need to shed our modern-day view and consider how people moved about in the late 1700s and early 1800s. As Carol put it, "they did not have stuff to move!" and the routes taken were formed by geography. It was a solid presentation.
The day was topped off by a trip to the Cincinnati History Museum which is located in a renovated Union Station at the west end of the city. Great renovation with art deco motif. They started construction in August 1929 and completed the original structure in March 1933 at a cost of $41M. The History Museum has a working model of Cincinnati in 1940 with trolleys and trains running. It is a HUGH exhibit reminding me of the one in Chicago at the Museum of Science and Industry.
The evening included dinner and was attended by 230+ people. People are another important part of this conference as we exchange genealogy and learn from each other.
Read the entire series:
Report #1: 2012 NGS
Report #2: 2012 NGS
Report #3: 2012 NGS
Report #4: 2012 NGS
Report #5: 2012 NGS
Copyright © 2012 by Kathryn M. Doyle, California Genealogical Society and Library
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