Ancestry Day comes to San Francisco

Ancestry Day held this past Saturday (November 5, 2011) at the Hyatt Regency on Market Street in San Franciso, California. It was sponsored by the California Genealogical Society (CGS) /Oakland.

Were you one of the 900+?

I was lucky enough to be able to attend. I believe there were well over 900 attendees - it was SOLD OUT. Three out of the four sessions I attended were totally full- and I mean every chair in the room and these were all very large rooms. Lots of CGS members staffing and visable. The event was held on two floors of the Hyatt Regency.  KUDDOS to California Genealogical Society!! Great Job!!

Good information in our registration bags - and  a syllabus for the days sessions included, since you would only be able to attend 4 out of 16 sessions offered and with no repeat sessions........

MY SESSIONS:
          1)Emigration & Immigration Records Online/ Crista Cowan from Ancestry (excellent presentation and good resources);
          2) Finding Living People on the Internet/ Ron Arons of CGS (you remember him from an earlier presentation at Root Cellar in Sacramento) - this one is a new presentation of Ron's - not bad, good resources for tracking down those living people. I am really looking forward to putting some of these ideas into play;
          3) Breaking Down Brick Walls/ Susan Goss Johnston member of CGS......change your outlook, go sideways, and go back to basics;
         4) Your Family History with the Genealogically Challenged/ Crista Cowan from Ancestry.....  different ways of getting your family members involved with your research including the very youngest.

NOW I just need to find the time to try out these new ideas and resources!

"Dear Santa, would you add another hour to the day or a new day to each month? I need more time or learn how to be more organized and focussed. Thank you. As usual, there will be lots of giant home made chocolate chip cookies and milk for you. Love Sandi"

Another activity offered on this day were 15 minute consultations with a professional for $5. (you can't beat that price!! but you needed to sign up for this at registration) And from the time the day started (8:30am) till it closed at 4p there were 30 indivdual consultations happening every 15 minutes. Can you imagine that? You do the math - just say it was something that people really responded too. I was one of them at 12:20p table 30. My question was on Immigration. This was a disappointment but it was also a long shot.

A long day but well worth it....... I was up at 4am, on the road by 4:30am, parking at Pittsburg BART station, catching the BART at 6:30am to the Embacardero Station arriving 7:32am...... registration line just opened (and a 1/2 hour early) and the day begins with the first session of four starting at 9am. YES it was a very long day but a good one. I ran into several Root Cellar members along with many other genealogy friends from all over the area. On the 2+ rainy ride home with a friend, Vicki and I talked and talked about our day, our sessions, and how it applied to each of us.