I am really bad at taking notes at these conferences. I really appreciate handouts that are more than summaries or outlines, because then I can use them to refresh my memory of what is said.
This afternoon, I attended Jana Sloan Broglin's talk on "Hookers, Crooks and Kooks" which I anticipated was going to be about Census-Whacking, but it wasn't. It was about hookers, crooks and kooks ... Jana's Aunt Merle for example, who was a madam in Brooklyn for many years. She used family photographs and diaries, Civil War pension records, and census records to piece together the facts about Aunt Merle, who didn't run a boarding house. Then she described finding records for two other people in her research - including probate records, jail registers, liquor sales records and gaming device records, penitentiary records and liquor blacklists. Jana wore her flapper-style black lacy dress for this presentation. It was fun.
I tried to get into Geoff Resmussen's talk on Legacy 7 in the next session, but the room was very full so I went to hear David Lifferth talking about www.WorldVitalRecords.com in his talk "Innovative Family Tools to Connect Families." David summarized the current holdings of WVR (over 9,500 databases, over 1 billion names and records, adding more than 20 new databases a day). He described the partner relationships and the assets each partner brings to WVR. Then he showed how to search the databases, either collectively or individually. David mentioned that the are hosting some of the USGenWeb content and the WorldGenWeb content on their servers for free, which I didn't know, and appreciate. He didn't have time to get into detail on the FamilyLink social networking site, We're Related and My Family groups on Facebook.
WorldVitalRecords is offering a show special of two years US subscription for $39.95 (regular price is $49.95 for two years currently).
On the software front, Legacy Family Tree 7 Deluxe Edition (in the box) is being offered by Millenia for $19.95 as a show special (regular price is $39.95 for the boxed version, $29.95 for the download only).
I didn't go to Megan Smolenyak's dinner talk on "Right Annie, Wrong Annie - Annie Moore of Ellis Island" last night, nor to Dick Eastman's talk tonight on "Putting the Genes in Genealogy." I took my wife out to dinner both nights and we shared our day highlights. Linda likes to go to the pool and talk to everybody there, and encourage children to swim (she's a former swim teacher, too).
No comments:
Post a Comment