Thursday is over...already???

My eyes were getting tired of that small type...

That was a quick day! Seems like I was just in the shower getting ready to hike to the Hyatt.

What a great weather day and a great conference day. I really enjoyed the walks today. It was cool, sunny and a slight breeze. Lots of sun.

I started the day today learning more about a piece of software I've had for a few years. GenSmarts is a program which accesses your regular family tree data program, applies some artificial intelligence and derives research suggestions. It contains collections in some of the libraries around the country, so not only does it list what you need to fill in the blanks, but also suggests where you can find it. It also notes if the records can be found on-line, and will access that on-line program with a click of the mouse. Makes things easy. EXCEPT it has too much intelligence. Last time I ran it against mine, it gave me almost 10,000 suggestions! So got some tips about how to use the new version and the filters. I can set the filters to only look for certain information. We'll see how it works when I get home.

Next session was on Post-Adoption research. I've never really had any experiences with researching adopted individuals. It was interesting to hear how the laws are so different from state to state. The speaker talked about some of the pitfalls in the research plan. She had a case study which was about a girl in Chicago who was Irish and Lithuanian! Even if you cannot get the original birth certificate, she gave us clues on other records that should be open and available that you can garner information from.

The third session was about Irish Archives: Out of the Ashes. In 1922, a fire destroyed most of the major record collection at the Irish Record Office in Dublin. The presenter gave us titles of various collections which try to recreate some of those records. It seems that the archivist at the time of the fire had a great idea to call on people who were doing research at archives before the fire to contribute what items of information they copied while they were there. It's interesting what great things are in these collections.

Took a nice walk at lunchtime back to Crown Center Mall but so did about 500 people from other meetings! I wanted Chinese or Greek, but the lines were out the door. I decided on Italian and found a great place called Milano. I had the lunch special...lasagna del giornio. It was a half order of lasagna and a salad. The daily lasagna today was roasted chicken and asparagus with alfredo sauce. WOW! It was great, and being just a half order I wasn't stuffed. I then walked around the area and took some photos. I'll try to put them on the pic blog... www.mbellpics.blogspot.com .

The afternoon sessions were a Part I and Part II about British Isles Internet Strategies. Mr. Milner went through scads of websites pertaining to British records. I went to visit some of them tonight and found some things. At least I didn't find anything in the execution files!! Part I covered General records and England, Part II was Wales, Scotland and Ireland.

I met a nice lady from Lewis Kansas in Western Kansas. She was waiting after lunch to go to the same sessions on British records. We swapped stories and talked about Iowa...she is originally from Iowa.

After the sessions, I traipsed over to 20th and Main to Hereford House for a steak. I got a 12 oz top sirloin, steak soup, ranch potatoes and a beer. It was a great steak...got it medium, it was tender and juicy. MMMM..... I finished off with a lemon Italian cream cake. Then I had the long walk back to 30th and Main. I swear these blocks are twice as big as Nashville blocks. It felt like I walked 2 miles back!

Tomorrow's schedule:

8:00 am Becoming an Accredited Genealogist Workshop Part I
9:30 am Becoming an Accredited Genealogist Workshop Part II
11:00 am AAD: Access to Archival Databases
2:30 pm Our National Treasure: The Library of Congress
4:00 pm Indexing from A to Z

So, sounds like some note taking in the morning!!

Well, it's getting late. Need to rest these legs...they tightened up after that walk back.

Keep reading as I finish the week and learn about the Nation's Records.

Mark