Conference Day One

Hello from Day 1 of the ‘National Genealogical Society’s Conference in the States Gentech 2006 Chicago--They Passed This Way’!

Long name ain’t it?

I got my lazy butt out of bed promptly at 5:45 am. Needed to be in the registration line when it opened at 7 am. I got ready and was down stairs at 6:50 and was # 3 in line. Unfortunately, the key to the storage area for the conference registration materials didn’t fit, so it was 7:15 by the time I got to the counter. It was a breeze! I got my seat in the Ballroom and was ready to listen to the Opening Remarks and Keynote speech.

Dr. Allen Weinstein gave the Opening Remarks. He is the Archivist of the United States. He’s been on the job only 16 months, so he said he is still new at it. He said the biggest task at hand is preserving and maintaining electronic records! It’s hard to keep up with technology…an example he gave—floppy disks! He said, “You have them? Throw them away! They’re obsolete.” He also is an amateur genealogist. He said 3 out of every 4 researchers at National Archives are now genealogists. So we are his main constituency.

John Philip Colletta gave the Keynote on The Erie Canal and Peopling of the Midwest. Not only did the canal transport cargo, but people! Many went on from the terminus at Buffalo to cross the Lakes and go to Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee and others places west. He figures about 3,000,000 came down it going to another life in its 100 year history. He covered how important it was in the economy of New York…what jobs were associated with the canal. Working for, on and along the canal was a lifeline to New York State.

Then we had a break because the Exhibit Hall opened. Booths with everything from books to maps to software to travel to demonstrations are set-up. Of course, I found many things I want, I need, I bought! Still going to go back for more tomorrow.

My first class session was the Immigration and Naturalization records at the USCIS. The USCIS used to be the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). The important point from this session was to apply for ancestor’s, who naturalized after 1906, records from USCIS. You could get the naturalization certificate and form from the court in which they petitioned, but that’s all. There is a great chance that the supporting documentation and other vital information sits in their file with the USCIS. So, guess I’ll be sending some requests off to DC!

After a great two hour lunch break, the second session I had was Illinois Digital Archives. I thought this would be a hands-on description of what was included and how to navigate through it. WRONG. He was the programmer so most of it was the programming side and scanning of documents, etc. Interesting, but not what I had hoped for.

The last session of the day was fantastic! The hour and 10 minutes flew by quickly. It was Five Proven Techniques for Finding Your European Ancestors. He was a very good speaker, had actual cases to prove the techniques and you could tell he really knew had the experience of using all five! He gave me some good ideas to use to track down the location origin of my Kriauciunas and Vasiliauskas families in Lithuania. He said a lot of the time in these tough cases, you have to research forward in order to research back. You have to cast a wide net and search for the group, not the individual. He said people migrated in groups, rarely alone. So there would be people in the same neighborhood, town, church, workplace that came from the same locale in Europe. Makes sense!

So after my pea-brain was overflowing with all this knowledge, I had to relax. So I went to the bar and had a beer. It was good—Sunset Wheat by Leinenkugel. Met a guy at the bar and talked about baseball and hockey. He is the archivist for the Detroit City Library System. We’ll meet up again sometime and chat some more.

After a great lunch of roast beef and swiss on a Kaiser roll and a fruit mix (with grapes, strawberries, honeydew, cantaloupe, watermelon and pineapple), I was a bit hungry at 6 pm. So I went to Giordano’s Pizza on the corner of River Rd and Higgins, about 1.5 miles from the hotel. It was beautiful weather, so I walked. Giordano’s is noted for Chicago Stuffed Pizza, so I got a small cheese with sausage, mushrooms and anchovies (yeah, I’m an anchovy lover). I could only eat half of it. So you can imagine the size of the thing, a small, if I could only do half! The other half will be lunch tomorrow.

Got back to the hotel and finished up all the reports I had to do for work. I got them done and emailed and am finished with work items for the rest of vacation!!!

So here I sit and catalog the events of today. I’m going to sign off and go peruse my genealogical treasures I purchased. I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying their week.

Tomorrow’s schedule is almost solely Central European records with 4 sessions on Beginning Research, Catholic Church records, Austrian military records and roundtable discussion closing out with the last session entitled Seven Ways to Jump Start Your Research. I really need that for some families!

Special hellos go out to Laura Lee, Suzanne and Will.

Oh, and the Sox beat Detroit again tonight 4-3. Tomorrow night, I’m there!

Have a wonderful Thursday!

Mark