This is an update to the post originally published on May 27th, immediately after our livestream from the opening reception in the expo hall at the NGS Family History Conference in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The conference gave us an excuse to build on the Ride Along theme GeneaBloggers transformed at this year’s RootsTech with DearMYRTLE and Kyla Bayang chatting with visitors and exploring news and highlights from the show floor.
The NGS conference is a very different sort of event, and this expo hall filled with local historical and genealogical societies was a very different kind of experience. It’s an insiders’ event that allows all of us bitten by the genealogy bug to celebrate and inspire each other.
This event created a number of very special opportunities we may be talking about in the coming months, but I wanted to take a moment to thank not only my buddy and roomie, Kyla, but also those who, as active Geneabloggers, were supporting our mission in their conversations with everyone at the conference. Without Paul’s tap on the shoulder, the crazy livestream never would have happened.1
In fact, two of our members received awards during the opening session recognizing their work over the years: Randy Seaver, Geneaholic, and Ron Chan.
As a well-known voice on Monday’s with Myrt, DearMYRTLE posted an article about Randy’s award of recognition on Thursday.)
You might recognize Ron for his extensive work in Chinese-American genealogy. Though most of his programming is with local groups here in the Bay Area, he’s also joined us as a guest at Projectkin for several posts and events.
I’ll take responsibility for some minor technical glitches, but I’m also proud that we tried. You’ll see these lessons weave their way into the success of future programs and events. As community members and participants from Projectkin and Geneabloggers, we were honored to meet so many new people and to thank our kind supporters.
I’m grateful to our host, Rick Voight, who went out of his way to make space for us in his platinum-sponsor booth space at the show, Vivid-Pix. In the video, you’ll see me chatting with founder Bruce Ha at Nanofiche, a fascinating solution for long-term image storage.
We came away from the conference with hundreds of notes, document scans, and inspired ideas. It’s going to take weeks to absorb them all. Thanks for coming along with Kyla and me.
If any of you, as members and supporters of our Projectkin and Geneabloggers, have an upcoming public event, we just might have some materials you can use to help share the story. I’ve tried to capture our joint mission to encourage family history storytelling at RideAlongPartners.org:
That domain property also gives us a quick and easy way to share photos, stories, and encouragement with organizations. You can see the update for the NGS conference here. We also shared little blue pencils and bookmarks (convenient for use at the ACPL Genealogy Center), but they are inexpensive and generic precisely so that we can keep using them at local events. Add your thoughts in the comments below or just reach out to Kyla or me directly.
Time zones can get especially complicated when software doesn’t agree on updates when you travel. I should have known to schedule the event in my Google Calendar in the Eastern time zone if I was expecting notifications while on-site.
