FGS2014 - Day 2

Day 2 at the FGS conference began, for me,with the opening of the exhibit hall at 9:30.  I was on the second floor when it opened so I got an overhead shop of a small part of the hall.  There are a total of 87 booths in the hall ranging from Socities to bookshops to tech and internet vendors.  There are also 2 presentation stages in the hall with scheduled presenters.  The exhibit hall is open to anyone without charge and there are some nifty giveaways.  Dell Computers had 2 gb memory sticks or thumb drives and the FGS booth had an awesome pen that is also a stylus!  And of course the ribbons.  Ribbons are the currency of a genealogy conference.

Since I volunteered to work at the conference, I didn't go to any morning sessions.  Instead from 10:15 to 2:30 I sat at the ribbons table and passed out ribbons to those who were picking up their registration packets.  Everyone got the "I'm Connected" ribbon and those who were attending a FGS conference for the first time got a neon "First Time Attendee" ribbon.  We also had "War of 1812 Pension Preserver" ribbon for those who donated to the Preserve the Pensions drive.

After my shift was over, I wandered back to the exhibit hall and checked out some more booths.  I did run into several facebook genea friends and saw several members of my local genealogy group Schertz Cibolo Valley Area Genealogists.  Then it was time to head for the last two sessions of the day.

At 3:00 I went to the "Dead Men Talking: Using Probate and Estates to Solve Problems", part of the Records/Resources track, with Teri E Flack.  Teri spoke about how the probate process works and showed how it can be used to solve problems and determine relationships.  This would be especially useful with finding connections in the years before the 1850 census when relationships were not noted on the census returns.


At 4:30 it was time to visit the Methodology track and Judy G Russell.  Hew presentation "A Family for Isabella: Indirect Evidence from Texas Back to Mississippi" began by showing how evidence can be either Direct or Indirect depending on the question asked.  Then we saw using a combination of both types of evidence was used in a reasonably exhaustively search to find Isabella's family in records prior to 1840.  Even Isabella's children's death records were used in the search!

At 5:30 it was time to head back to the hotel for dinner and an adult beverage.

Tomorrow I will attend 2 morning sessions as well as a lunch presentation.  More fun to come!