Day 2
A little late in posting this as I had to drive 5 hours back from Edmonton and I was concerned about the roads with all the snow that arrived to remind us we are in Canada.
My first session on day 2 after Kyle Betit’s Keynote, was his session on Advances in Irish Research. This was a great overview for those doing Irish research and he highlighted many of the popular websites and some less-known resources. Claire Santry’s Blog – Irish Genealogy News continues to be the go-to place for anything new in the Irish Genealogy Community.
Next up was Diahan Southard’s Genetic Genealogy : Advanced and I was not disappointed. My biggest takeaway was learning when you have stacks of matches showing up in your chromosome browser it is probably an IBS (Identical By State). Either I had missed this information in the past or she explained it in her usual awesome way that it sunk in! (More information on IBS can be found on the ISOGG Wiki )
My last session was with John Reid with his talk on Finding Your British Family History in Newspapers. John let us know of the various newspapers available and highlighted all the funny and quirky things that can be found in them. Newspapers are gold for me as I don’t have a lot of family stories that have been passed down and they can help add colour to my bare tree. A site John shared that I did not know about was the Irish Newspaper site called Irish News Archive, again, how did I miss this?!
As with any conference, there were a few glitches, some with tech, some with the food, but I think the organizers did a fantastic job. It is no easy task to plan and execute these events and kudos to all who step-up to the plate so we could have a weekend of connecting and learning! I am going to head over to the AGS website and fill out their feedback form, make sure you do too.
My Genealogy Life 