28 July 2014

MGC Annual Seminar

The Massachusetts Genealogy Council (MGC) held their Annual Seminar this past Saturday in Mansfield, Massachusetts.  As usual, there was a great crowd of genealogists from all over New England and a few "foreigners" from New York who I ran into.  As members of the New England Chapter of the Association of Professional Genealogists (NEAPG),  Kate Lowrie and I attended representing NEAPG as a Gold Sponsor.  I also moderated a discussion group at lunch.  My topic was learning interview techniques to build family history "right from the horse's mouth" so to speak!

The day consisted of a number of presentations from some highly respected genealogists.  It's too bad we all couldn't attend every session.  Although it was my responsibility to greet people and answer their questions about NEAPG, I snuck into 4 of the presentations right around the corner from our booth.  I listened to Walter Hickey twice.  He spoke about immigration and naturalization from a very informed view. He had a career at NARA, the National Archives and Records Administration, and could give us some interesting tips on getting to the right sources quickly.  Later in the day, his presentation concerned census records.  While I'm pretty knowledgeable myself in that area, he brought up some good ideas.  Julie Michutka instructed us with her expertise in my next favorite software application, Scrivener.  And finally, I always like to hear Morehead's DNA presentations.  She had a very interesting analogy on distinguishing the role of Y-DNA versus mtDNA by comparing it to a space shuttle! The rockets represent the energy of the mtDNA driving the rest of the cell towards its goal of fertilization while the shuttle itself represents the Y and all the other autosomal elements.  That's a really short version of her explanation!

Between Kate and myself, we talked with dozens of people who, we hope, will consider joining NEAPG! We were definitely a busy group!



Here's a shot up the lobby in between sessions.


It was a long day for me.  I left Chicopee at 5:15 in the morning, got to the hotel to set up around 7.  Non-stop until it was time to go home around 4:30.  

I always appreciate the opportunity to "blend in" with my fellow genealogists.  Always something to learn, to share, and to experience.  Other than local events and meeting, the next "big one" is the New England Regional Genealogical Consortium's conference in Providence, RI affectionately referred to as NERGC or "NERK".  That's in April of 2015.  And the big news for me is that I'll be one of the speakers!  

Speaking of speaking, I need to start getting ready!  It'll be April before you know it!  See you there!

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