Vault Vednesday: Single Day Registration

The NGS Family History Conference begins next Wednesday, 28 April 2010. There are just 7 days left!

Did you know you can register for a single day of the NGS Conference? I’m looking through the the class schedule for this final edition of Vault Vednesday. And I’m thinking if I could attend just one day of the conference, Saturday might be it. Fifty classes, 10 tracks. CD-ROM containing syllabi for classes from the entire week.

Let me tempt you with just a few of the many classes I wish I could attend on Saturday:

• BCG Skillbuilding track. You know how I feel about genealogical maturity.
  • “Beating the Bushes: Finding Jacob Bush's Father,” by Elissa Scalise Powell looks like a great case study using the Genealogical Proof Standard.
  • “The Time of Cholera: A Case Study about Historical Context,” by Alison Hare should be a great case study about using historical context.
  • “Two Dan Dyes: Correcting Past Errors with Solid Evidence,” by Debra Mieszala sounds exactly like a problem in my ancestor I’m trying to get fixed.
• The West track:
  • “Faces of the River and the Records They Left Behind,” Patricia Walls Stamm.
  • “Utah Territorial Records,” Russell S. Lynch.
  • “Mapping the West,” Richard G. (Rick) Sayre. I confess; I am a cartophile.
• Writing/Photography track:
  • Anything by Maureen A. Taylor, “the Photo Detective.”
  • Anything about writing; you all would welcome a step-up in my writing skills.
• Records and More Records tracks. Records are essential to genealogical maturity.
  • All ten classes!
• Research Essentials track. “Essentials.” That says it all.
  • All five classes.
• ICAPGen track. Just like the BCG skillbuilding track, most classes apply to hobbyists and professionals, alike.
  • Anything about Google by Daniel Lynch—he wrote the book, after all.
  • “Advanced Methodology: The Paradigm of Family History Research,” John M. Kitzmiller. Again, methodology and genealogical maturity go hand in hand.
• GenTech tracks. Like Friday, there are ten classes filling two complete tracks.
  • “FamilySearch and its Unique Role in the Genealogical Community,” David E. Rencher, FamilySearch Chief Genealogical Officer.
  • “Social Networking for Genealogists,” Drew Smith. Again, the definitive book author. If you haven’t got the message yet, when you attend a national conference, you expose yourself to the experts who write the books.
  • Who can resist classes on new technologies like DNA, voice recognition, and global positioning system (GPS) devices in addition to old standbys: laptops, web sites, and a desktop family tree program.

Even if you can’t make the whole week, plan on coming for Saturday (1 May 2010).

Come on… You know you want to…