2013 NGS Conference - Day 4

I set the alarm last night so I could get up early enough to shower and actually sit down in the Paradise Cafe for breakfast.

My first class was at 8 am, presented by Elissa Scalise Powell - Baker's Dozen Steps to Writing Research Reports. She gave a very detailed lecture of the process of compiling and writing that all important report that I should have been doing all along. I've been jumping from ancestor-to-ancestor, record-to-record, collecting information I thought I needed. Not realizing that I should be documenting all the steps of positive and negative research results. I've taken several of these classes from the different Skill Building Tracks during the conference. I'm so glad I attended this session.

My next class was at 9:30 am, presented by Laura Murphy DeGrazia - Of City Slickers and Straphangers: Tracing Urban Ancestors. This speaker was fun to listen to. She was from Long Island New York, and even poked fun of her own accent. When I was at Rootstech this past March, I hung out with a woman who was also from Long Island New York. If I closed my eyes, Laura sounded just like her; her topic was great. Stressed the need to know the locality, ethic and religious background of your ancestor who was a city-dweller. She gave us great examples of her written works, problems and strategies with URLs for more research.

I took a break and went over to the Exhibit Hall and purchased a book from the NGS booth. I got a signed copy of his new book, Mastering Genealogical Proof by Thomas W. Jones. I attended several of his sessions this week. Several of the speakers have referenced different books in their talks. "Professional Genealogy: A Manual for Researchers, Writers, Editors, Lecturers, and Librarians" and "The Researcher's Guide to American Genealogy: 3rd Edition". Since one of the book sellers was marketing a 10% discount and free shipping, I ordered both books. That will save me from having to schlep them home in my luggage.

At 2:30 pm I'm going to attend the session, presented by Gordon Atkinson - Getting to Know Fold3. I took Gordon's first class on Wednesday, very informative so I believe this one will be an overview of the resources available on Fold3. Looking forward to it. Our local library has a free trial of Fold3 until June.

After that class I'm going to drop off my excess baggage in my room, then jump on the Monorail for a ride to the end, MGM Grand. I'll be back in time to attend Dick Eastman's After the Conference Dinner being held tonight at our hotel