Wild & Wooly "GONE TO TEXAS" - FGS Conference - day 1

Editor's note: Today's post was written by Sandra Gardner-Benward


Slept good last night, up early and ready  to go (barely) for Day 1 of FGS Conference........... GOOD GRIEF it is still dark outside with the night lights still on........ when does the sun come up here? AND to top it off it is already in the 90's and very humid.

Attended a Find My Past VIP Society Leadership Breakfast.........  it was very well attended, can't believe that there are that many early birds. YUCK!  

Look at the wonderful thank you gift from Find My Past & Mocavo. It is a cell phone stand and charger.                                  Nice! Really nice! Thank you!

Opening Plenary Session -  "Riders on the Orphan Trains"........... with Phillip Lancaster and Alison Moore. It is all about the largest child migration in history. Between 1854 and 1929 over 250,000 orphans and unwanted children were taken out of New York City and given away at train stations across America. Children were sent to every state in the continental United States; the last train went to Sulphur Springs, Texas in 1929. This was a multi-media program with live music, a video montage with archival photographs and a great reading from the novel, "Riders on the Orphan Train"- EXCELLENT

Exhibit Hall opened this morning and I have sessions but I do have an hour so in I went............ More later


"Don't Call Your Relatives, Let Them Call You",  with Marian Pierre Louis. Mostly Social Media. Getting your surnames out there and seeing who replies back.........  hopefully cousins.

LUNCHEON: " Effective Search Techniques and Sourcing Your Conclusions on FamilySearch,org with Robert Kehrer.  This was a box lunch luncheon and done very well, with fresh tasting good sized sandwiches, chips, cookie and bottle of water ($12)......  can't beat it!  Very interesting presentation, Several good tips for searching through FamilySearch Trees.

"Discovering Female Ancestors" with Melissa Tennant -just reenforced what I already know to do. I guess I need to get back to basics and list out the brickwall women, list out all the titles they have (mother, daughter, sister etc) and list out all the localities that she may have been too, put the two lists together and go from there.

 "Dead Man Talking - Using Probate/ Estates to Solve Problems" with Teri Flack-just interesting and hearing the subject from a totally new person. I understand it a little bit better now.

"Before Crossing the Ocean" with Melissa Tennant- this is really getting back to basics, reviewing all my existing documents, making sure I have gleamed all I can from them. Review what I still need to find before jumping the pond to the British Isles and Germany. Not sure where else to look for my Germany ancestors since you do need to know the exact city/town/village/parish in order to start looking in Germany........  all I have is Bavaria and Hesse Darmstadt. That is it!!

Long day, and it is still HOT and HUMID. I am relaxing in the lounge in the hotel where it is cool.



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