FGS Conference 2010: Recovering Back Home

My husband, Chris, and I just returned from the Federation of Genealogical Societies conference in Knoxville Tennessee. It ended yesterday and our drive home was only three hours. This is only the second genealogical conference I’ve ever attended, but I know from other conferences, including FGS last year in Little Rock, Arkansas, that there is a lot to absorb in a small amount of time. So I push myself to the limits, eat on the run, make sure my mornings include a cup of Java, and maximize every minute of each day.

Even though it’s only been a few days, there are sacrifices which we all have to make. When we arrived home my bird feeder was empty, my mailbox was full, my plant looks like this,

and my bananas look like this!

Oh and silly me... 
Ancestry.com had offered free scanning of old photos and documents. Since I’m already working on my own scanning project I thought I could take advantage of this big company's scanning capabilities. All you had to do was sign up ahead of time for a session, bring your items to scan, and they would do it for you and digitize them giving you a free thumb drive! Well, I thought they had those high-speed scanners that would scan your printed photographs at high speeds - like 100 per second. So I brought this:

Boy, was I wrong! 

The scanners they brought were for large or oversized photos and documents which were manually (meaning one at a time, by a human being) laid on the flatbed and a button was pressed which triggered the cameras button. They must’ve thought “this woman is crazy”! But they were kind enough to scan probably a couple hundred loose photos onto two thumb drives. I’m very grateful because it’s less work for me, but I sure learned my lesson not to do that again!

I couldn’t possibly tell you all of the neat tips and tricks that I learned at the conference. That’s why they have a conference after all. But I can give you at least one. When you travel anywhere for researching and your using your thumb drive, make sure you put an address label on it with your identifying information in the event you lose it.

I will usually attend a conference with a list of items I wish to purchase from the vendors in the exhibit hall. The only thing I had on my list was the Professional Genealogy book because I just signed up for the ProGen course and it begins September 1st. I spied another book which I had been told about and wanted, not for genealogy but for the Living History work that my husband and I do, called Woman’s Life in Colonial Days.

Most people know I love my Legacy Family Tree Software and in Little Rock I had purchased AniMap. I played around with it a little but I haven’t been utilizing it because I don’t know the software very well. I found this AniMap tutorial CD at the Legacy vendor. And my one and only impulsive buys was also a Legacy product Map My Family Tree - because I would love to start using more maps in my research.

Everyone who registered for the conference was given 30 tickets to drop into the boxes for drawings at the vendor tables. This year significant prizes were given away including an iPad, a cruise, a trip to Salt Lake for seven days and so many other goodies I can’t list them all here.

I don’t want y’all to hate me, but the truth is - I always win prizes from drawings - ALWAYS. Last year I won a year subscription to OneGreatFamily.com. My friends tease me about winning all the time and it’s a big joke! I had my eye on the iPad this year. Friday night they announced the big giveaways and one of my friends from our local society one the trip to Salt Lake! The names were all announced and I didn’t win a thing.

However, I never checked the bulletin board at the end of the conference which announced other drawings not part of the slew of grandiose announcements Friday night. While driving home my husband says to me rather nonchalantly “oh by the way, I checked the list on the bulletin board and you won a premium account with MyHeritage.com for a year!” Well I’ll be!!! I had picked up a free copy of their software on disk, but this!?!?

I’m not sure whether or not to tell my friends or they might un-befriend me!

As we get back into the swing of things, prepare grocery lists, answer e-mails, follow up on phone calls, nose-to-the-grindstone and all that kind of thing, here’s one last tip. Take all of your conference materials, handouts, CD’s, vendor materials, contact’s business cards, - the whole banana, and consolidate them so you can sort through it after the return-home rush of tasks. I have very little that I’ve kept, as I try to weed out things along the way, but everything I have has found its place in an expandable pocket which I’ll keep in my office by my computer to work on in small bites.

My next big event is the Atlanta family history Expo 2010,November 12 & 13th in Atlanta. My goal is to sort through all these conference materials before then. Wish me luck!

Copyright © 2010 Joanne Schleier

My Ancestor Talked to Me!

My husband is attending a conference in Colonial Williamsburg - YIPPEE! That means that I can do more research on my Jamestown/Williamsburg ancestors, the Pettus's, for a few days. The other evening I was waiting for him to finish up so we could go to dinner. It was cold and it was POURING! Now, had we driven my vehicle, I would have had an umbrella. But does my husband keep one in his car? NOOOOOO.

I made my way to the bookstore in the area of the Williamsburg Merchants - in the rain - determined to purchase an umbrella now that I was soaked to the skin anyway purchase another new journal. The last one I bought was at the same store. I wonder why it is that when I travel, I want to write more?

Anyway, I get to the book store and thumb through the leather journals until I find one the right size, unlined and about half the cost of the rest of them. I had already seen that the umbrellas were by the door and I'd grab one on the way out so I could have both hands free to fondle the covers and pages of the journals.

I turned to leave when all of a sudden, the radio that had been playing pop music with a disturbing beat (for a bookstore), sounded as though it was playing one of my favorite songs - Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber. The sound was so faint. I was determined to figure out if my ears were playing tricks on me. Did they change the station? How could they go from pop to this on the same station? It called me to attention and drew me in. I looked a the ceiling to find the nearest speaker. As I strained to hear the soft melody, I walked in that direction.

It was real. So, I stood there, KNOWING. Because I believe this is how the spirit world communicates with us (a little nudge, some recognition of something, a deja vu moment)  I waited, in disbelief for the "aha".

I was under the speaker now and it was the song I thought it was. As I looked around me, I was now right in front of the bookshelves of local interest, including Colonial Williamsburg and Jamestown. OK! Now what? Well, there was a book I had been interested in picking up about an archeological dig that was done on the 17th century plantation site of my 9th great grandfather, Col. Thomas Pettus, they are called Littletown and Utopia in the area of Kingsmill.

I am browsing the shelves as I listen to the music, which still has me in disbelief. Then suddenly, there on the BOTTOM shelf, the very last book in the CORNER, wrapped in plastic no less, is the book I've been wanting to get my hands on - Kingsmill Plantations 1619-1800 by William M. Kelso!

I picked it up still listening to the music. I smiled and said "thank you" out loud to acknowledge whatever angel, guide, ascended master, ancestor, God - whatever you want to call that energy.

I have heard of this happening to many-a-researcher, both amateur and professional. In fact, at the my first conference last year, FGS in Little Rock, AR, I purchased 2 books published on the subject called Psychic Roots...Serendipity and Intuition in Genealogy and More Psychic Roots by Henry Z. Jones, Jr. I read both of them in about a week!

Do you trust your instincts? I can't tell you how many times this has happened to me. If you are awake to the hints and heighten your senses - you will have it happen to you too. When you least expect it. Like dodging the rain by finding yourself a bookstore while you're on vacation. Even though it happens to me quite a bit, I still can't believe it when it does. So, I decided to blog about it - every time. Then I can tabulate how much it happens and how frequently. This was the first time this year, so maybe at the end of the year, I'll count the frequency.

Has this ever happened to you? If you're a blogger, write a post about it and share your link with me and my readers in the comment section. I'd love to read yours!