NGS - Thursday May 10 Excellent Day

Another early day.........  sessions started at 8am and continued through 5p....... long day with great sessions which for me were around OHIO and GERMANY.  "Gateway to the West: Researching in Ohio"; "So, You've Found Your German Town of Origin: Now What?"; "The 'www' of German Genealogy"; "Palatines to America Luncheon with speaker Marianne S. Wokeck"; "Ohio's Common Plea's Court"; "Constrasting German Migrations; 18th vs 19th  Century".--- I really am getting closer to jumping over the pond to Germany, but not quite yet. Still need to find out that "village" in Bavaria and another in Hesse-Darmstadt. Some leads that maybe promising...........

The German Track of classes was in the same room with different speakers each session.  (Teresa McMillin, John Humphrey, Warren Bittner (sound familiar - he was the speaker at last months Sacramento German Genealogical Society Seminar- gave him a happy dance shout out from Sacramento & Jame Beidler) This track oof classes needed a class room 3 times the size to accommodate all participants - considering Cincinnati & Ohio has a big German population.

Speaking of Ohioans and Germans - Look who I ran into today............. a fellow Ohioan

Georgia Chun a member of Root Cellar Sacramento Genealogical Society plus she is one of the winners last year of Root Cellar's Family History Writing Contest.  AND............  a fellow  German

James Baker a member of Sacramento German Genealogical Society plus Jim has just earned his Certification of Genealogists CONGRATULATIONS!!  Jim is taking classes and also volunteering for the Board for Certification of Genealogists  booth in the exhibit hall

Also ran into Kim von Aspern Parker, APG member & Root Cellar Member (our new Board Secretary)sorry no picture. Kim is doing alot of volunteering - introducing speakers and volunteering at the Association of Professional Genealogists booth in the Exhibit Hall. Great Job Kim.

Ending of another full day of conferennce classes and socializing. Purchased several books for my own collection, a new t-shirt and trying out all kinds of new tools and resources available in the Exhibit Hall.

Night all.............. 

NGS Cincinnati: The Reunion

Wow, ya start goin' to enough genealogy-related conferences or cruises and you begin to 'know' people. Scott and I were happy to see Amanda E. Perrine at the FamilySearch Blogger Dinner on May 8, 2012.  Amanda and her husband, like me and my husband Scott, were on 2011 Legacy Family Tree cruise.  Congrats to Amanda who just graduated from Syracuse University with a Masters in Library Information Science. 

Pictured are (l-r) Amanda, Denise and Scott Richmond.

Posted by Denise Hibsch Richmond

NGS Conference begins- Wednesday May 9

Up early, picked up my registration packet and I am off and running.

I forgot to tell you that all the hotels in the area (Millennium Hotel (my hotel), Hyatt Hotel (Denise & Scott's Hotel) and the Hilton (and maybe others and parking lots too) are directly connected to the Duke Energy Conference Center with skywalks- most all of them are totally enclosed from the outside elements. This is the skywalk between the Millennium Hotel and the Conference Center

 ...........nice,  really NICE!!!

 The Conference starts off  at 8am with an Opening Session "Genealogy Buried in a Photograph: Amazing Discoveries in the Cincinnati Panorama of 1848" with key note speaked Speaker isher Patricia Moseley Van Skaik. She manages ones of the nations's largest genealogy collections at the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County. She is an online instructor, web developer, and recipient of RootsTech's Distinguished Speaker Award.

What a great Opening Session presentation from Patricia Mosley Van Skaik. On September 24, 1848, Charles Fontayne and William S. Porter set up their camera on a rooftop in Newport, Kentucky. It panned across the Ohio River capturing on eight separate plates a two-mile span of the nation's sixth largest city, Cincinnati. While Fontayne and Porter knew their project was an ambitious one, they could not have imagined that their daguerreotype view of Cincinnati would survive more than 160 years as the oldest comprehensive photograph of any American city. The original panorama is displayed in The Joseph S. Stern, Jr. Cincinnati Room at the Main Library - specially designed argon interior glass housing to protect it from deterioration.  More information Cincinnati Library

Waiting for the Exhibit Hall to open at 9:30am ............

Holy Smokes, where did all the people come from?

Classes during the day were good, lots to think about, more resources to consider. "Strategies for Finding "Unfindable" Ancestors"; Paradigm Uses When Searching Online Genealogical Records"; "Getting to Know Your Ancestors: Integrating Social, Economic, and Political Background into Family History".

Took advantage of a planned Museum Tout and Dinner. It was held at the huge buidling that use to be the Main Railroad Station.  WOW!   First picture is of the Union Terminal in minature - yes it is a mini mock up of the real station.

And thiis is a view of the 1940 Cincinnati skyline  again in minature. You just  have to see it in person to appreciate the workmanship. It is amazing.

Good Night all....... tomorrow is another full  day.

NGS Wordless Wednesday from Cincinnati OHIO

I jusst couldn't pass up showing you this picture I took in the lobby of my hotel, Millennium Hotel. It was early afternoon and way too early for incoming people to check into the hotel. This is what the lobby looked like till after 4pm

Like the old saying says "Offer a great Conference and they will come" AND THEY DID IN NUMBERS

NGS- Touring Cincinnati

It rained last night but clear and dry by the time I got up and got moving around. I signed up for a pre-confernece activity - bus tour through Cincinnati and into Kentucky (probably be able to see Indiana). Tour lasted about 4 1/2 hours. Lots to see and do. NGS/ OGS scheduled three large very comfortable buses. Each bus had several docents & they each took the same route from a different point in the tour. Learned alot about the history, the neighborhoods, and the tri state area.

and two differnet views of the city... one from up in the hills overlooking the city of Cincinnati and the  other from across the Ohio River in Kentucky.

We drove through the towns of  Newport and Covington,, Kentucky and back into Cincinnati, Ohio driving by the water front (lots of renovation/construction right now), past Paul Brown Football Stadium, Freedom Center, Great American Ballpark, Fountain Square, Lytle Park, Taft Museum, Museum Center and Cincinnati History Museum, the International Proctor & Gamble Main Offices  (takes up blocks) and more.

Kenny Burck, President of the Hamilton Chapter of the Ohio Genealogical  Society was on my bus. He knows everything about this tri state area- great resource. What a great guy and such a great sense of humor. That's one Kenny!! It was a good day.

Ending the day with a special "blogger" dinner sponsored by FamilySearch.org. They gave us some insight on what is happening with the organization, how we can work together better and more efficiently, update on the 1940 Census Indexing Project.(there is still a big need for more indexers. Are you indexing yet? Call me and I will get you started)....... Good food and good company....... Denise and I attended representing Root Cellar Ramblings Blog.

NGS Conference begins at 8am in the morning. Night   ZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzz!!!

Tuesday's Tip: Death Records: A Check List of Ten Documents Every Genealogist Should Acquire

The California Genealogical Society's e-News always includes a column called "Editor's Picks: Links from the Blogosphere" by Kathryn Doyle.  The links are to posts from other blogs selected as worthwhile reading.  I always find the referrals helpful.  The May 2012 edition included a link that caught my eye - an article written by William Dollarhide for the GenealogyBlog created by Leland Meitzler.  (Both websites definitely excellent choices to follow.)

William Dollarhide wrote with wit and wisdom about death records.  I hope you'll get a chuckle and a few research reminders from it.  Click the link below for the article. 

Death Records: A Check List of Ten Documents Every Genealogist Should Acquire

posted by Denise Hibsch Richmond

NGS- Cincinnati Alert for Root Cellar Extraction Committee

Today while I going through the online catalog at the Cincinnati Public Library I was
pleasantly surprised to find............... (I know the library is a  member but still it always gives me a warm fuzzy feeling knowing I had something to do with the books on their shelves)

AND on the shelves.............

Great Job Marilyn and all you pencil pushers!!