I was up bright and early, as always happens to me in a new location. The first sessions began at eight, so we were on our way to the convention center by 7:30. Our plan was to view sessions that were presented live and not recorded. The recorded sessions we could view when we got home. Hopefully, Facebook friends will talk about the sessions they enjoyed seeing live-streamed.
The first session was to listen to Rick Sayre's presentation “Finding your World War I or WWII soldier.” His 14-page syllabus is filled with advice on methodology and has many links to online sources. I thoroughly enjoyed it. He was also giving another session on the National Archives, but I was working the BCG booth, so missed it.
The second session was Judy Russell’s talk called “In That Case: Using Published Court Cases.” She showed us the two websites Case.law and CourtListener and the kinds of information we might find in these published cases.
The third session was Michael Lacopo’s “I am Poor, Obscure, Plain, and Little: Researching Invisible Ancestors.” In this presentation, Michael spoke of little-used records such as poorhouse records, tax records, church business records, civil & criminal court records, and manuscript records such as store ledgers, diaries and journals, and records of charitable organizations.
Between these sessions, I worked the BCG booth twice, first between 10:30 and noon and again from 3:00 to 4:30. It’s fun talking to genealogists thinking of being certified and answering questions from those looking at the sample portfolios.
Between all of this, I ran into many genealogist friends: Cheri Hudson Passey, Nicole Dyer and Diana Elder, Jill Morelli, Carly Morgan, and Gena Philibert-Ortega, to name a few. Unfortunately, I took no selfies and don’t remember everyone I gave hugs to. I also visited the NGS booth and met Matt Menaches and Lauren Henretty, whom I knew only from our conference Zoom meetings. Gena a video of me talking about the upcoming conference and why you should come. Lastly, the CDG group met and we took a group photo.
I did not stop at any of the booths except at the Sons of the American Revolution to see Bill Burchfield, a genealogist at the library. We talked about research I want to do in Kentucky, both in Louisville and in Frankfort.
By the time I got back to the hotel, I was beat! I walked 8,800 steps today.
#RootsTech2025, #BCGCertification, #NGSConference2025, #SAR
Sounds like a fabulous day 1 of RootsTech! That 14 page handout sounds phenomenal.
ReplyDeleteI believe even virtual attendees can download them.
DeleteSounds like you had a fun, productive day!
ReplyDelete