Attending a Genealogy Event
What Can You Get Out of Going to a Genealogy Conference?
Aug 15, 2007 Darlene Vaillancourt
Depending on where you live, you may or may not have the opportunity to attend a large genealogy conference or even a small workshop. Have you ever thought about going to these sorts of events?
If not, here are some good reasons why you might want to pack up the car and head off to the next conference in your region.
You can learn
Even if you're finding your own research is going smoothly, you can always learn new techniques and find out about new resources. Conferences will have a whole host of lectures and workshops that you can attend and hear about the methods of the professionals.
You can shop
This benefit of an event goes without saying. Conferences or conventions will have plenty of vendors selling software, books and other products for the genealogist. Not only will you find new products, but lots of old things as well. Booksellers often come to these events with vintage, hard-to-find or out-of-print books. You might find that limited edition city directory from 1845 that you have been desperate to find. This could also be the place to find privately printed family histories that are not available through regular channels.
You can network
A harder to define feature of genealogy events is the networking. Networking is meeting other people with similar interests, and sharing information and resources with them. Get talking with other attendees, especially those who attend the same workshops as you. Finding other people who may have information that you can use is invaluable. So many genealogy resources are hidden away in libraries, court houses and archives that sometimes the only way to discover them is to find someone else who already has. Who knows, you may even get to meet a distant relative.
You can get motivated
If your own research has slowed down and your interest is starting to wane a bit, a genealogy event will get you motivated to get back to digging. Being surrounded by history and family trees will surely get your juices flowing again.
Some events to look for
Most conferences are annual, and some of these have already taken place for this year. But if they are near you or just sound interesting, bookmark these pages and watch for news of their 2008 events. Larger events may have a theme each year but are fairly general in scope. You can also find smaller events that deal with certain regions or cultures.
BYU Family History and Genealogy Conference
A large event hosted at Brigham Young University, in Provo Utah.
Federation of Genealogical Societies Conference
Locations vary each year for this big gathering
Not sure if this is an every year event, but this is a 7-day genealogy cruise.
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