Day 3 Re-cap #NGS2014GEN

Okay, day three was rough. Up late last night.  Up early this morning.  Not allowed to have any caffeine right now (cause it makes me sick) and then a full day.  Whew are my doggies tired!

One of the jobs I’ve had that last few days was room monitor.  If you get a chance to volunteer in the future for a conference this is a great job to have.  Originally I volunteered to be an ask me volunteer, but they were very desperate for monitors.  Of course my helium hand went up, and when I found out I could request classes (didn’t get them all) that made me very happy.  I really lucked out today with a slew of fantastic lectures. 

I learned so much, and honestly there is no way that I could fit it all in one post.  Probably I will have to talk about many of these later in conjunction with “Stuff” I find out during my research.  However, here is my best try.

First up was “How to Progress form Notes to a Draft Article” by Henry Hoff.  I was very interested in this, however, it really didn’t hit the mark for me.  Great class, but I don’t see myself submitting work to a scholarly journal any time soon and I am not sure I will ever do a published genealogy.  Right now, I seem to be on the educational side of writing and less the academic. 

Then I was entertained by Warren Bittner in “German Gazetteers and Levels of Jurisdiction.”  Why entertained?  Well you know it is going to be a fun class when he starts it off wearing a horned Viking helmet!  There was audience participation as well since the class knew the answers to his questions by the end.  Boy that was a lot of information in a short amount of time on German cities and records.

Since I have an interest in genetics, and possibly managing a project one day, I attended the session “Administering a Surname DNA Project” by Terry Barton.  It was good overall, but to me it was more basic than I needed.  Maybe I will have to sit down and personally pick someone’s brains one day.

Lunch then happened.  It consisted of food, talking, selling books, talking, meeting new people, oh and more talking.  Two hours of great fun!  Seriously, I talk a lot.  Sometimes people can’t get a word in edgewise. 

In the afternoon I made a great Kentucky contact with Don Rightmyer who taught “Using State and Regional Periodicals in Your Research.”  I love using obscure things for research and I really found some good tips in this one.  Like PERSI.  I am going to need to do more research on that one.  It sounds like a great database and I know several people who sing its praises nearly daily.  

To end my day I listened to Judy Russell talk on “DNA and the Golden Rule: The Law and Ethics of Genetic Genealogy.”  It was great to have confirmation from her that I am doing it all right and I have not violated any ethical standards.  My fear when I saw the title in the conference program was that I would learn that everything I do with DNA is wrong.  Good to know that my gut check still works. 

I was not able to stay for the banquet tonight, and I am sad that tomorrow is the last day.  However, my oldest will be with me tomorrow attending the youth camp!  Make sure to say hi and embarrass him.  No, seriously, just say hi it will make him blush.

Yep, I will be a room monitor for 2 classes tomorrow and I am still debating on what else to take.  Some amount of time will need to be carved out for one last circle of the exhibit hall.  One last chance to buy books you know!

See you tomorrow!  Don’t forget to follow my live tweets for information and follow the conference at #NGS2014GEN.  Oh, and I still have Richmond books on me.  If you want one ($10) message me, tweet me, or flag me down in the hallway.  Tomorrow’s the last day…wonder what I will discover.