NGS 2014 Conference: Day 1

This morning was the much anticipated opening session of the National Genealogical Society 2014 Family History Conference in Richmond, Virginia. Approximately 2,200 people registered for the conference this year.  Sandra Gioia Treadway, the Librarian of Virginia and State Archivist, spoke on "The Evolving Library:  Planning and Adapting to Meet the Needs of Twenty-First-Century Researchers." Next year NGS 2015 will be held May 13-16 in St. Charles, Missouri and it was announced today that NGS 2016 will be held May 4-7 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

The exhibit hall with it's 76 exhibitor booths was mobbed after the opening session by a swarm of convention participants in search of "take aways" and conference ribbons provided by the vendors.  If you are here at the conference, stop by the Colonial Roots booth #615 and see Debbie Hooper, my ProGen 22 mentor.

Since my highest priority at this time is my certification through the Board for Certification of Genealogists, I am following the BCG Skillbuilding Track.  My first session was Elissa Scalise Powell's W121 - "Problems and Pitfalls in a Reasonably Shallow Search" where we were reminded that assumption is not part of genealogy.

Next I went to Thomas W. Jones' session W141 - "New Standards or Old:  Guidelines for Effective Research and Family Histories" where I learned about newly revised genealogical standards and how to apply them to research, compilation and writing.

I finished the day with David E. Rencher's session W151 - "Mining the Destination Data" and how to use all the data available to identify your emigrant ancestors.  Many of the sessions are being recorded and can be ordered through Jamb-Inc.com.

Well, it's the end on Day 1 and tomorrow I get to do it all again!