Day 2 at NGS2014

      Another great day starting with a lecture by Diane Florence Gravel. The topic was New Strategies for Old Problems.  She emphasized the importance of researching the FAN club of our ancestors and talked about county and town records, newspapers and manuscripts. The PERSI Index was another sourse suggested. She mentioned Heritagequestonline.com and Findmypast.com as two places to access the index. For those of us at NGS2014, FindMyPast.com is offering a free 30 day subscription.  Just go to their booth and they will sign you up, no credit card information needed!
 
 My next two hours were spent in the BCG Certification Seminar.  Becoming Certified is something that I have been thinking of doing. Judy Russell,  Elissa Scalise Powell, and Debbie Parker Wayne went through the steps involved in the certification process and explained the best ways to prepare.
 Skill building is something I will continue to do, and maybe one day I will be "on the clock".

BCG Certification Semin

  BCG's 50th Anniversary is this year and celebrated with a Lunchon today. After a great meal we were able to hear from the former and current Presidents of BCG talking about past accomplishments and future goals.

   Elizabeth Shown Mills' session filled up so quickly that people were turned away as early as a half hour before it started! It was a great lecture on Using Evidence Creatively~Spotting Clues In Run of The Mill Records. Her lecture emphasized the importance of looking at all information found about an ancestor. The examples she showed really made me think about the way I look at the documents I find. Who would have thought that you could plot where people lived using Jury Records!

 My choice for the 2:30 Session was -Can a Complex Research Problem Be Solved Solely Online?, given by Tom Jones. This was a great lecture! Likening research to a jigsaw puzzle, we were told that we should find enough pieces until we can see the picture.
  In the case presented the pieces were entertaining and sometimes confusing, but in the end a picture presented itself. It was of a man who lead a very unconventional life. I don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't heard this lecture. All I will say is, if you ever get an opportunity, do it. It's quite a story!

  Evening Lectures were held at 7 pm and I chose to go to Maureen Taylor's class Sefies, Mugshots and Instant Pictures: Early Photography and Your Family. What a fun hour of looking at some great old pictures! We learned that selfies are nothing new, people have been taking pictures of themseves for years. She showed us mugshots of women who dressed the part for their particular crime and another mugshot of a man and woman that looked like an ordinary husband and wife with trees as a backdrop. There were lots of pictures of people from various time pictures just having fun. Since I love old pictures, I really enjoyed it!



 To end the night, I met up with a wonderful group of people from The NextGen Genealogy Network. A great way to wind down from a busy day.

NextGen Meet and Greet

 Looking forward to reporting on Day 3!