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| Providence, Rhode Island, as seen from our hotel room |
For those of you who missed the 2015 NERGC conference in Providence, Rhode Island, all I can say is “Wow!” At least you are all well rested and don’t have sore feet. We were busy running around from dawn until well after dusk learning, socializing, and networking. Here is my list of highlights:
1. If you leave New
Hampshire at 5am you will beat the traffic to Providence, Rhode Island only if
you DON’T take Route 128.
2. The best part of
NERGC is meeting old friends as soon as you step into the hotel lobby. The first friend I met was Jen Baldwin of
Find My Past and the Ancestral Breezes blog – all the way from Colorado.
3. The first thing I
checked out at the conference center was the query board. Did you know there was a “Northeastern Smith
DNA Project”? http://smithconnections.com/index.cgi There are over 600 participants and 67
groups in this project, and special interest in descendants of Ulster
Presbyterian (Scots Irish) Smiths to New Hampshire. Contact N. Smith at cheman207@yahoo.com
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| Jennifer Zinck, Yours Truly, Rev. Blackstone and Marian Pierre-Louis |
5. The local
repositories and archives in Providence and nearby were open extra hours while
the NERGC conference was in town. Smart
move with over 900 genealogists in town!
6. Frugal Yankee
genealogists find ways to attend conferences without spending big bucks. Half of my genealogist friends were doing the
following:
a. Staying with friends, relatives, and
relatives of relatives near Providence
b. Commuting by car, train and commuter rail
from the Boston area. One drove four
hours to and from upstate, New York arriving in time for the first session at
8:30am and leaving after the last session at 5:45pm.
c. Many folks were packing food bars, sandwiches and water bottles for the duration instead of
buying the overpriced (and definitely not tasty) café sandwiches from the
convention center.
d. Volunteering and going to the free events,
but still sharing the social fun and excitement
7. Newly minted conference speaker (and blogger) Dave Robison not only gave his first major conference talk (and it was terrific), but on the first day, with just a moment’s notice, he also filled in for another speaker who couldn’t make it. So he got to practice his talk twice! Yay, Dave!
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| New England "Pirate Expert" David Allen Lambert with Yours Truly |
8. The Acts and
Resolves of Massachusetts, which is kept at the Massachusetts State Archives, contains
the early records of the laws against piracy in the 1700s. Was your ancestor a pirate? I have Thomas Tew of Rhode Island in my
family tree, or is it just a myth? Click
here to read more about him, http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2012/02/pirate-thomas-tew-guest-post.html David Allen Lambert of NEHGS gave a talk
about pirates, and he wants to consult with anyone who has researched the Tew
family. You can contact David at the New
England Historic Genealogical Society http://www.americanancestors.org/index.aspx
9. There is a
definite lack of diversity at NERGC.
There were very few faces of color in the audiences, or among the
speakers. I was happy to see fellow
blogger, Cheryl Holley, speaking about Native Americans in New England, and one
African American genealogy society in the expo hall. Where were the other people of color,
Hispanics, and religious genealogy societies, attendees and speakers?
10. A class on Canon
law was incredibly interesting, especially since I’m not Roman Catholic, but I've
been working on my husband’s Spanish ancestors, and my new son-in-law’s family
tree is all Irish, Italian and French Canadian.
If you ever have a chance to take this class by George Findlen, take it!
11. There is a
definite need for a genea-singles mixer or cocktail hour at genealogy conferences.
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| The Genealogy Blogger Special Interest Group |
Connie Billy of New Jersey – “Genealogy Journeys” www.genealogyjourneys.com
Janice Hamilton and others, from Montreal, Canada http://genealogyensemble.com/
Kate Lowrie “Kate’s Kin-nections”, from Massachusetts http://kateskinnections.blogspot.com/
Genevive De Haan, “Massachusetts
Backwards” http://minniehowe.blogspot.com/
Kathleen McCracken, of Virginia “Pine Trees and Pedigrees” www.pinetreesandpedigrees.blogspot.com
Best of all! At the luncheon today, sponsored by the Massachusetts Genealogical Council, Judy Russell challenged everyone to throw a $1 bill on the table to be collected for the "Preserve the Pensions Project". This project benefits efforts to digitize the pension records from the War of 1812 to be put online, at a cost of 40 cents per page. Ancestry.com had pledged to match all donation, and there were about 200 people present. The Federation of Genealogical Societies would also match all donations, making this a win-win proposition.
What was the final donation?
Well, over $1,300 was collected, making the final donation, after matches, over 20,000 pages!
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| This is just some of the genealogy bloggers who were at NERGC this week. Do you recognize these faces? |
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The URL for this post is
http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2015/04/what-did-you-miss-at-2015-nergc.html
Copyright © 2015, Heather Wilkinson Rojo
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