A Yankee at Jamboree – Part 5 Wrap Up

The Geneablogger Pajama Party
Yes, this is what we look like in person! in PJs!

OK, after a steady diet of sleep deprivation, sandwiches grabbed on the run, an overload of information on heavy subjects such as DNA, ahnentafels, and citations your esteemed and honored genealogists begin to act a bit silly. The following photos are TOP SECRET….

The last day of Jamboree was a blur! I attended a great breakfast by the New England Historic Genealogical Society. David Allen Lambert gave a brief talk about some of the hilarious things patrons ask for at the reference desk. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so hard that early in the morning. He also showed the new NEHGS movie “Farseeing Vision: Connecting Families, Advancing History” which actually made me cry – it was so emotionally moving. That was me, in the second table from the front, wiping my eyes with my breakfast napkin. Great job, NEHGS, I’m proud to be a longtime member of such a wonderful organization. I hope everyone will have the chance to see this short film.

Genealogy Gems taped LIVE!

I had time to attend my last two lectures, check out of the hotel, hang out at Blogger Island for the last time, and also see the live taping of Lisa Louise Cooke’s Genealogy Gems Podcast. If you missed this live taping of the show, you can catch it later at http://www.genealogygems.tv/     Her guests were Family Tree Magazine’s enthusiastic young editor, Allison Stacy, and also graphologist Paula Sassi. Paula explained how a graphologist can examine documents written by ancestors and give clues to the personally traits of the writers through their handwriting. She examined a letter by one of Allison Stacy’s great grandmothers, and she also analyzed one of my ancestor’s letters! I had won the chance to have Paula look at a document through a contest online at the Genealogy Gems Facebook page. It was amazing to hear that Paula thought my ancestor was quite the irresistible  “Lady’s Man”, something I was secretly hoping she wouldn’t say but it was obviously true!

A mini Wilkinson Family Reunion in Burbank!

The perfect way to end the day was to see my uncle from Long Beach. I hadn’t seen him since my father’s funeral in 2002, when he came to Massachusetts to see his little brother laid to rest. I also got to meet two first cousins, one whom I hadn’t seen since 1965, when I was only three and he was about seven years old! This was a great way to end a genealogy weekend, by reuniting with family!

Then we took the “Red Eye” flight to Boston, and landed at 7:05 AM this morning. It was a whirlwind weekend, and very eye opening to see how genealogy research is conducted outside of New England. I’ve always considered myself very lucky to live within one hours driving distance of where 75% of my ancestors have lived for almost 400 years. It is very easy for me (most of the time!) to find records. I often forget that over American history many people migrated across the US from New England, and even more never lived here at all. There are some amazing repositories I’d love to visit someday, such as the SCGS library in Burbank, Salt Lake City, Cincinnati Public Library and the Allen County Library’s genealogy department.

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Copyright 2011, Heather Wilkinson Rojo