Sunday, June 9, 2013

SCGS Genealogy Jamboree Day Three

Day Three at the SCGS Genealogy Jamboree in Burbank for me included one class session, several visits to the Tech Zone and the Exhibit Hall, a session in the Demo Hall, a nap in the Blogger Lounge, a walk to the food mall, goodbyes and a train trip home.

*  We packed before going down to breakfast, and I put the laptop in the suitcase rather than carrying it around all day.  After breakfast at the breakfast bar with Thomas and Linda, I steamed over to Pavilion 1 to hear Thomas MacEntee's 8:30 a.m. presentation on "Successful Cluster and Collateral Searches."  He described "Collateral Search" (siblings and step lines) and "Cluster Search" (the FAN (Family+Associates+Neighbors) Club), and noted that our ancestors had their own social networks.  He also showed that there was probably much less privacy 100 years ago than in present society.  Record sets that are useful for cluster and collateral searching were listed and discussed.  Finally, Thomas showed a series of helpful websites and tools for research logs, spreadsheets and databases, timelines, mapping, wikis, education, and best practices for cluster and collateral searching.  This presentation was well delivered, humorous and very informative.

*  I went back to the room and brought the suitcases down to store them in the concierge room and checked out of the hotel.  I hung out in the Blogger Lounge for awhile, took a turn around the Exhibit Hall visiting friends and sites, especially FindMyPast (put in a plug for Canada Census records) and GenealogyBank.  Then I went to the Tech Zone (free computers with Internet connections) to finish my Best Of the Genea-Blogs post and update the Jamboree Compendium post. At 11 a.m., I went out and bought my hot dog and apple for lunch and ate with my wife in the shade.  She went back to the pool, and I sat in the Blogger Lounge and took a 30 minute nap.  Energized, I bounded off to the Exhibit Hall again, the Tech Zone again, and at 1:45 p.m. I attended the first 30 minutes of Lisa Louise Cooke's demonstration of creating Google Earth shows with web site links, photos and videos.

*  I left at 2:15 p.m. because I had to go over to Subway to get our sandwiches for dinner on the train, and got Linda a Diet Coke at McDonalds.  I braved crossing North Hollywood Way twice...saved my 5 minutes each way.  Back to the Blogger Lounge for awhile, one last turn in the Exhibit Hall to say goodbyes and thank Paula for another excellent Jamboree well done.

*  At 3 p.m., I redeemed my concierge bag checks, said my goodbyes to the bloggers in the Lounge, and we lined up for the shuttle bus to take us to the train station.  We got there with an hour to spare...and talked about the Jamboree in the shade (it was about 80F outside).  The train came on time (4:20 p.m.), we barely got seats and had trouble stashing Linda's walker, and they did it at Los Angeles station.  We ate our sandwiches, and I read my Lee Child book all the way to San Diego, arriving at 8:05 p.m.  Barbara picked us up and whisked us home by 8:30 p.m.

There were five class times schedule today, so I attended classes in 11 out of 17 possible class time slots.

The official attendance, according to Paula's blog post here, was 352 persons at the Family History and DNA Day on Thursday, and 1,178 at the Genealogy Jamboree from Friday through Sunday.  That is a significant reduction in attendance for this yearly event; the thought is that the National Genealogical Society 2013 Conference in Las Vegas four weeks ago may have affected attendance at the Jamboree.  From an attendee's point of view, it was great to be able to get seats in classes, be able to navigate the Exhibit Hall easily, be able to get a table in the restaurant quickly, the odds on winning a prize were higher, etc.

There was some news from the DNA Day about the $49 fee to import AncestryDNA and 23andMe autosomal DNA results into FamilyTreeDNA, but I don't think there was any earthshaking product announcements at Jamboree.  Legacy Family Tree software did talk about Version 8.0 in their presentations and was selling an upgrade to Version 8 for $20 when it is released (sometime this year, I'm thinking before the Legacy cruise in September).  We'll see.

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Copyright (c) 2013, Randall J. Seaver

1 comment:

Elizabeth Lapointe said...

Hi, Randy,

What did FindMyPast say when you asked them about the Canadian Census?

They have always been shy when it comes to Canadian records

Elizabeth