It is hard to believe how quickly Saturday came.  The three morning classes this day were the ones I had most been looking forward to. 

First, I went to Railroad Men and the Records They Left Behind by Patricia Walls Stamm.  My paternal grandfather, his father and his grandfather all worked for the railroad, as did others in his line, so I was looking forward to learning more about the records available for them.  What surprised me the most is that railroad papers traveled with the person in charge of them. You have to look everywhere to find out who currently holds the archives for a particular railroad.  Most railroads have historical societies which can also help with these records.

My second session was Research Reports for Ourselves:More than a Research Log Presented by Paula Stuart-Warren.  I think everyone was surprised by the packed house for this lecture.  It was quite apparent that I am not the only one who does not, as Ms. Stuart-Warren said, treat her work as well as I would a client.

My number one takeaway from this class is to follow the BCG report standards, using proper citations, for all research done.  This will ensure that both I and other researchers know what has been done and what needs to be done in the future.  This class led perfectly into my last session of the morning, Information Overload? Effective Project Planning, Research, Data Management & Analysis by Elizabeth Shown Mills.

This was the best class of the entire conference, in my opinion, and I highly recommend purchasing the CD recording.  The premise of the class was that when genealogical programs came into being, researchers stopped writing research reports and good research logs and instead just entered data into the program and stopped.  Actually, data entry should be the last thing we do, only after all research and analysis is complete.  For more information on what our reports should look like, look on the APG website.  While sitting through this class it was made crystal clear that I need to stop researching and re-enter all of my data into a research log and a genealogy program, making sure all events are caught, that the citations are perfect, that I am looking at FANs and that I am analyzing the data, including writing down further research plans.

After this class I made one more loop around the expo, where I met Katie Chapman, one of the creators of Geungle.  To begin with, Katie is tremendously sweet and very knowledgeable about organizing ones genealogy.  I am very excited for this site to come live in the next few months, as I feel it will be the type of genealogy “program” that will pull together all that Paula Stuart-Warren and Elizabeth Shown Mills spoke of, which helping genealogists collaborate in a much fuller way.

After this, my husband and I headed out of Cincinnati, skipping the afternoon sessions, as I had to work Sunday and it is a long trip back to Syracuse.  I had an amazing time at this conference and cannot wait to attend the 2013 conference in Las Vegas.  I am also hopeful that I will visit Cincinnati again soon, as there is much of the city I have left to explore.

My first session of the afternoon on Friday was Making the DNA Connection by John Pereira of Ancestry.com.  This was a discussion on Ancestry’s new DNA test.  It looks interesting, but I really need to do more research before making a DNA test purchase.  There is a waitlist for this test and it is available only to members of Ancestry.com

My last session for today was Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion: Catholic Church Records by Dave Schroeder.  Having recently begun searching for my father’s side of the family and my husband’s mother’s family, Catholic Church records are going to be tremendously important.  I was pleasantly surprised by all of the information available on the records and that records are available beginning in the last 1800s.  Check with diocese archivists to see if records are available.  And remember, a small donation to the church never hurts.

After the session was over, we headed to dinner where I gave a brief beginning genealogy lesson to the server, who was interested in using the family history search as a bonding tool with her mom (she was college age).  I hope she decides to start this research.  After a full day of genealogy, I ended it with the latest episode of Who Do You Think You Are? and searching the British National Archives site for probate records.

It was hard to believe on Friday morning that the conference was half-way done.  I had learned so much already and some of the sessions I had been looking forward to the most were over the next two days.

I began day 3 with Printed Legends and Missing Footnotes: Dissecting 19th and 20th Century Compiled Genealogies by D. Joshua Taylor.  Most genealogists come across a compiled genealogy which is unsourced.  Surprisingly, these are not always correct  It is important to verify as much of the information as possible.  Additionally, remember that just because a like does not have a + next to it does not mean the line ends, they just did not have information on them, something I have found in my Perrine research.  My favorite tip from this lecture was to look for reviews of the book in its contemporary journals.  I had never thought of this.  This is a great lecture for purchase if you are wondering what to do with compiled genealogies about your family,

My second session was on Facial Recognition Software: Application for Genealogists? with Greg Kipper.  Kipper began by debunking what he called the “CSI effect.”  Despite what we see on TV, the technology is not currently there to identify people consistently with this software.  In the future, we can hope for improved technology that will be able to compare faces and make matches, which would be tremendously useful for unidentified family photos.

My last session of the morning was Documentation: The What, Why, and Where by Tom Jones.  I really liked how Dr. Jones made documentation so basic.  We need to have sources that allow yourself and others to find the information again.  Once you have the basics down, you can use books such as Evidence Explained (aff) to get into further detail.  This lecture would be especially useful to those new in genealogy, in properly sourcing your genealogy, or who get overwhelmed by Evidence Explained.

For the lunch break, my husband and I went to the Istanbul Café, which serrves wonderful Turkish food.  I highly recommend the cold appetizer sampler and any of the doner kebab meals.  From here we went to the Ohio Book Store which has a large genealogy, local history and US history section.  If you have local ancestry here, be sure to check out the balcony at this used book store.

My afternoon on Thursday began with the Palatines to America luncheon feating Marianne S. Wokeck on “Framing Genealogy: How Family Research Enriches the Ways in Which We See the World".” (If anyone has a copy of the syllabus, please let me know, I was not able to snag one.)  I really enjoyed her talk, particularly the idea that how a person remembers a place changes based on age.  If you moved away at 8, everything in your mind will be bigger due to your small size.

After lunch, I headed to

German Marriage Laws and Customs by Warren Bittner.  I wish I could go to the Palatines to America conference to hear more from him.  This was a fascinating presentation, full of great photographs on the power point slides.

My key takeaways were on “stands” in German society (similar to an Indian caste), to look for word "dispensation" on a marriage record, because the diocese may have much more information on the couple trying to get married and that there was a time when religious ceremony and civil registration dates varied greatly, making everyone involved wonder when they were “officially” married.  This is an excellent presentation to purchase on CD due to the tremendous detail Bittner went into.

My last session was Assumptions: A Genealogical Slippery Slope by Claire Bettag.  This was a very useful lesson on how our assumptions can mean we do not do the best research.  She focused on the importance of collaborating many sources to go the truth.  Surprising to some, even official records can be wrong and they can be wrong on purpose, for reasons of the person it involves (the one often cited is a man lying about his age to go into the military early).  She also mentioned that rejected applications can contain the most information, similar to the dispensations I had learned about in the prior session.

After this session ended, I went to purchase some things from the BCG booth, then headed for dinner with my husband.  After getting lost on very pretty back roads in Kentucky, we found a great Mexican restaurant.  The rest of the night was spent zoning out to Big Bang Theory, Grey’s Anatomy and HGTV.

Day 2 (Thursday) of the NGS conference began in a much nicer fashion than day 1: not much actual gridlock on the highway and I arrived in time for the first session, which was on BCG certification.  As this is on my 5 year plan, I thought I should get some basics.  I only stayed for the first half of the session (it ran through 2 session times), but learned a lot.  It is time to go through the manual with a fine tooth comb, up my research reports and work on friends research so that I can practice writing “client reports”.

After this, I headed to Indexes! Indexes! Indexes! How to Find People Who Don’t Seem to Be There! with Elizabeth Shown Mills.  This was my first time seeing her speak and I was quite impressed by her presentation.  My favorite part was when she mentioned that “Cassell” can be indexed as “Cafell”, which I am hoping will help me with my Casell (but often spelled Cassel or Cassell) ancestors.

The best strategies she gave, in my opinion, was to use wildcards for vowels whenever possible and to consider ethnicity as a surname.  I never would have thought to look for Italian, Marco or German, Nicolas in my search, but if the person taking the information couldn’t understand or figure out the last name, they put it down like this, instead.  If you have had problems finding people in indexes (who hasn’t), I recommend purchasing this lecture CD.

I ended my morning by starting in a session, but by that 3rd hour of sitting, I had had enough, so I went to the expo to index the 1940 census and wander around.  I actually got so caught up in indexing (my favorite part was the indexer who put Long Island as a foreign country from the Bronx-indeed it sometimes seems like it is…), that I was a few minutes late to my lunch lecture.  I will write about this lecture and my afternoon sessions in the next post.

I spent the first hour of the morning on the parking lot known at the I-75 trying to get to the opening session at 8am.  Sadly, I missed the beginning of this session, but luckily heard Patricia Van Shaik speak on the Cincinnati Panorama of 1848, a daguerreotype.  I can not even begin to tell you how much I love what the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County have done with this photo; in fact, this type of project is the reason I went to school for my MLS.  You can explore the photo from their website.  If all libraries offered sites like this, with photos and historical information, our genealogies would be so much richer (side note: if your library needs an MLS to do this, I’m available!)

At 9:30 the exhibit hall opened.  I went in about 5 minutes late, as I was sitting next to a set of doors they never opened.  My first trip around the the hall was cursory to look at books I may want, people I may want to speak with and to get badge ribbons.  I was able to talk to Chris Whitten from WikiTree for quite a while.  I realized I have been remiss in not blogging about this wonderful new site, which I will make up for later this week.

My first workshop was Family Tapestry: Integrating Proof Arguments by Jeanne Larzalere Bloom (click link to see my write-up).  Later, I went to the APG luncheon, which I will write a separate post on later this week.

Read about the second half of my day here.

After lunch Wednesday (which will receive it’s own post later this week), I attended Fitting the Pieces Together: A Case Study in City Research by F. Warren Bittner, CG.  This was one of the best presentations I have ever seen.  Mr. Bittner is a wonderful presenter and his presentation was good for all levels of genealogists, in my opinion.  This is one I would recommend purchasing the CD for.

Bittner started with a basic overview of the genealogical proof standard and then put it into practice with a case study on his New York City ancestors.  The main takeaways from this lecture are that the address a family lived at in a city is one of the most important items you can have.  The second is that indirect evidence which comes from comparing documents tends to provide the best proof of identity.  Lastly, always make sure every statement you make is cited.  My favorite quote was that that when looking at  “complex evidence: Compare sources, resolve conflicts, must include a written proof summary. Otherwise, we doom the next generation to redo the research.”

The last workshop that I attended was

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Jury: The Evidence Presented Clearly Shows by Barbara Vines Little.  Little discussed the different types of proof summaries, list-style and narrative-style.  She said that the narrative-style tends to make a more convincing argument, as you can include more details.  The main takeaways from this lecture were that it is not enough to say that a record does not exist, you need to tell where you have looked for it and that these proof summaries, particularly if you use the narrative-style, become your written family history.

After the workshop ended, I sat in the NGS home-study course round table.  I did not stay long as this was for a more basic level than I was looking for.  I do highly recommend this course for beginner and intermediate genealogists.

Later that night there was a blogger meet-up at Champs in the Hyatt.  It was great to meet new bloggers and discuss the lectures people had went to.  I also met Jennifer Holik who has recently written a group of books on engaging the next generation of genealogists, some of which have lesson plans for every age level.  I looked through these briefly and am very impressed.  I plan on reading them and reviewing them on my blog as soon as possible.

Thank you for the great time out, ladies!

On Tuesday night FamilySearch sponsored a Media/Blogger dinner.  It’s not every day that you get to eat dinner with Paul Nauta of FamilySearch, the AncestryInsider, Leland Meitzler, Pam Schaffer, Sandra Benward and Denise & Scott Richmond (who I met on the Legacy Cruise in October).  I also met Ruth Blair, who shares my blogiversary and DearMyrtle said my business car was pretty (I can die happy now).

The main discussion was on the Community 1940 Census Project.  There are over 460 blog ambassadors for this program (including myself) and they are looking for more!  If you are interested and at the conference, there is a special offer where you can sign up and write a blog post and receive a very nice gift.

Over 101,000 people have volunteered as indexers and arbitrators, which is how 30% of the census has already been indexed.  This is likely the largest community indexing project and we can only hope to see more of these in the future.  Remember, if you index two batches while at the conference, you get a free t-shirt!

FamilySearch also told us that they have  collections from over 60 countries and over 1 billion indexed records.  I am most excited that they now have a contract with the Italian government to digitize and index for preservation purposes all civil records through 1940.  Having searched many of these records, I can say that having then online where you can zoom in and out and play with the coloring, will be tremendously helpful.

Thank you for such a wonderful experience FamilySearch!

The BCG Education Fund sponsored a full-day pre-conference workshop at the NGS conference today.  There were two parts, Dr. Thomas W. Jones on “Editing Your Own and Others’ Genealogical Writing” and Melinde Lutz Byrne on “Editor’s Ink: Writing for Genealogical Journals.”

For the pre-lunch session, I attended Dr. Jones’ lecture.  “Polishing is the greatest part of writing” according to Dr. Jones, it is also the hardest part.  When you begin writing you can start with anything: key terms, a description of what you want to say or full sentences.  If you cannot come up with anything to write, you probably should not be writing.  It is where you go from here, all the polishing, that is the difficult part.

I was amazed that as an NGS Quarterly editor, Dr. Jones routinely cuts 25-50% of the words sent to him.  The main rules for publication, after having interesting and well-done research, is to be concise, choose simple words and have a logical sequence.

After lunch, I attended Melinde Lutz Byrnes’ lecture, where she told us that “writing is thought.”  I learned that most journals have guidelines online that can help you decide if your publication should be submitted.

Prior to the conference Ms. Byrnes sent us a pdf of a rough draft journal article.  At nearly 30 pages long, this article was eventually cut down to 7 pages.  Our directions were to read the footnotes first, then the article, then turn each of the 90 paragraphs into 1 sentence and write 1 sentence that gives the overall theme of the article.

This will be the way I read every article in the future.  The footnotes give so much more information on the author and what you are about to read than I ever imagined.  This is apparently a tip from a well-known, long-term (and un-named) editor.  When an article is dense or confusing, turning each paragraph into a concise sentence makes it easier to understand.

These workshops made me more interested expanding my writing.  I am looking forward to combing my research for interesting and unique case studies that can be submitted to genealogical journals.