Genealogy Conference 2025: Day Three

 I arrived at the conference center at 7:30 am and there were already herds of tiny little girls with poofy hair and gigantic hair bows and impossibly long black eyelashes and red lipstick, all wearing matching cheerleading uniforms. It is impossible to describe the noise level in the lobby. Fortunately the competition was sound distance away. 

I picked up a cup of Starbucks which I diluted to a drinkable mixture with a cup of water and 2 creamers. And when I walked by the raffle tables, they called me over for a prize I won the day before!  I was actually buying extra tickets trying to win these and I am pretty excited. And yes, I could just buy the entry tickets but this is sport. 

I attended the first session for fun since I love case histories. It turns out the presenter has a connection to my town. I took her information for our local meeting program coordinator. The story was so heartwarming I almost cried. And the dna technique she used was something that could assist me in a mystery of my own - so I changed my schedule for the second class on her recommendation. 

I have always been a little bit afraid of DNA research and try to stick to paper. But I think even I can use the methods on this website, especially as the presenter explained it all to me in understandable words, step by step. I may try this tonight if I can stay awake. 

Again, chose this session for an interesting case history.  I did not realize that endogamy affects me too! And my husband's family.  This is when your dad's cousin marries your mom's aunt or two brothers from one family marry two sisters from another family.  Or, in her case, her mom and uncle married two people who were cousins.  And one of the cousins/aunts had a relative 2 back that married someone else . . . I can't remember but it all affects how you read your DNA.

I packed my lunch and ate at our local society table before attending this session. First, the presenter needs her own TV show. Great voice and what a personality. And she is a total expert. Amazing! She wove a story of tracing her 4th great grandmother through family documents she managed to unearth despite courthouse fires and a civil war and found a court case with accusations of adultery with one of two possible moms dying before the case made it to court. This could be a mini series. And then how she had to trace four family trees for all those generations to find willing participants for a mitochondrial dna test for the big bucks. And managed to solve that mystery. I was on the edge of my seat! 

I had attended a session with this presenter either last year or the year before. She had worked for the US government in Poland and did personal genealogy in her spare time so she knows every nook and cranny. I used what I learned before to locate an index of my husband's 2nd great grandparents marriage license but didn't know how to move forward. She showed me what to do next. And she had a lot of new websites and places to help find records. She always starts with a world history lesson and a geography of borders lesson and this great for the European history and geography challenged individuals like me. Poland changed shapes and governments and even disappeared for while between 1700-1945. 

And - call me queen of all door prizes. I was a winner again.  And this despite finding more raffle tickets that I purchased and forgot to enter left in my purse when I got home. 

This concludes the review of my genealogy conference. It was a challenge getting up this morning because I used some new information I received yesterday and stayed up way too late reading a 42 page 1800's court deposition where my new-to-me 3rd great grandmother sued a daughter-in-law and named her husband and all her children in the document. I am going to have a long week if I keep this up! 

Genealogy Conference 2025 Day Two

This morning the conference started an hour earlier taking into account the participants staying at the conference center and attending an early breakfast with a guest speaker.  

I tried my best to win some door prizes (spoiler alert, I did not) and remembered that I do not care for Starbucks coffee -too bitter 

My focus today was on my Mennonite great-great grandmother. This speaker was fantastic and I rearranged my afternoon schedule to attend another one of her sessions. 

I thought I was very smart to print little cheat sheets of each branch for easy reference to dates.  Well, I printed one for my husband's mom, one for my mom and TWO for his dad. Which meant I did not have a cheat sheet for my Mennonite grandmother. 

Due to the tremendous persecution of the Mennonites in Switzerland and Germany, they did not keep church records. And when they immigrated to the United States, they did not keep church records either. But they did pay taxes! And this session told where to find tax records and other civil filings. 

Another fabulous session. Every session was as good as the next. The presenters were all fabulous.  I have learned so much my brain hurts! And I am very grateful I bought the syllabus so I can refer back to the slides. 

No lunch today. I sat at my chapter table, visited with old friends and ate a delicious adult lunchable from Aldi. 

Okay, this was a for fun session. The presenter is a DNA specialist who focuses on endogamy. The session focused on an extended family member's origins and incorporated a history of family feuds in Kentucky at the turn of the 20th century and how she solved the motive of a murder with DNA. 

Back with my morning speaker who shared how to find all those civil records housed in Pennsylvania courthouses on different websites and the ones only available in person. 

Over 100 participants attended this session on a new feature on Family Search.  The room was completely full and people were dragging in chairs from other classrooms. 

I'm not sure how many people are attending.  There is a block of 5 rooms that hold about 50 people (the 6th room in the block is our marketplace). Then there is an adjoining hallway with two rooms that hold "93" and one at the end that is about that size, too.  Not all the rooms are full all the time. Thursday had less participants, many arrived this morning to attend Friday and Saturday. And there are always more that attend just on Saturday so they don't miss work. 

The convention center is huge and it has been nice that it is just our conference. But that was changing as I left at the end of the day. There is a giant cheerleading competition (the kinds with little girls and lots of lipstick) on Saturday and Sunday and the families were all checking in. They have set up barricades to keep the groups separate and I hope it works smoothly. The girls are very cute but the noise (mostly the parents in the hallway) can get very distracting. 

Genealogy Conference 2025 - Day One

Up extra early for my first day at the State Genealogy Conference! I had several comments of interest so I want to share while it's fresh in my mind. But I am also exhausted so there won't be much detail, lol. 

Arrival was great. I brought a foam cup of coffee with me and when I picked it up from my cupholder in the car, I squeezed it and coffee exploded all over the inside of my car.  Things got better after that. 

My niece joined Ancestry and has me exploring a Revolutionary War ancestor and this presenter was excellent! 

I skipped the luncheon and went to Olive Garden where I sit by myself and eat soup and salad while gathering my notes. I started this the first time I attended and it is my tradition. And it is delicious. 

This presenter let AI pick his graphic. Pretty funny. 

This was a much more worthwhile session than I expected. 

More military records! This was a great session I learned even more. 

I have attended sessions with this speaker before and he is great.  And even better, I was talking to the woman behind me after the session and she gave me some great info on finding the marriage record of my husband's great great grandparents. I have some file numbers from a Polish site and wasn't sure where to go next.  

And I won a door prize! 

The conference ended at 4:40 pm and I jumped in my car to drive a mile down the road to the May Day 2025 - International Workers Protest. 

Yes, wind and rain again. I had my husband drill holes in my foam board sign for the wind. It worked pretty slick. 

They counted over 200 like-minded citizens and we had two boom boxes playing great hits like Country Joe and the Fish and Tracy Chapman. We boogied and waved to the honking passersby. 

I have a great video but I can't figure out how to share it.  

Then I drove home, stopping for a bag of burgers. Overall - 12 hours later and I am exhausted. And tomorrow I have to be dressed and out of here by 7:15 since the conference starts earlier on Day Two. 

My granddaughter's school had their Art Show tonight and she won the Art Council Award! 

And it was her stage premiere in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I am going to the final performance on Sunday. 

It's after 11 and I better be getting to bed! Back tomorrow with Day Two. 

And - I did buy the syllabus for the entire conference so if you have any specific questions I can look them up.  

Hope everyone had a great weekend! We had a slumber party with three grandchildren. Now we are resting. 

Our exciting news is that I hooked up with a new egg dealer. My old egg dealer and her wife and biracial daughter have all their ducks in row to move to Windsor Canada on May 18th and have sold the flock. 

The new eggs! I used to work with her mother when she and her brothers were in 4H. And raised chickens. She is now a registered nurse in the big town ER and has four children of her own. And chickens. 

She sells them for $3 a dozen at a cute little stand on her farm. She found out that people were buying her eggs and selling them for $5 as their own. She posted that she is only selling to friends now and I got on the list! She texts when she puts them out and I pick up from her driveway where they are in a cooler in the stand, washed and with an ice pack. 

Washed is a big deal because around here the cool kids like the unwashed ones (you know, with chicken poop on the shell). They also like unpasteurized milk which is somehow legal to sell now in my state.  And they feed the unrefrigerated, unwashed eggs and unpasteurized milk to their unvaccinated children. Luckily I'm too old to be a cool kid. 

We have an exciting week planned! Today a man came to our driveway and fixed a chip in the windshield of my husband's vehicle. 

Tomorrow my stove is being delivered! And I am pretty excited about that! Just in time for another family dinner Tuesday.

Wednesday my state genealogy conference starts and I will be busy through Saturday. And because it is meant to be, my Thursday May 1st protest will be at the mall just down the highway from my conference. 

Sunday I will be attending a preschool music performance at the Lutheran Church and leaving the parking lot to drive 1 hour and 45 minutes to my granddaughter's high school performance in Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. 

I am grateful for some new fangled thing that her school is doing online. I was able to order a rose and some candy with a personal note to be delivered for every performance. And three roses (big spender) for the final performance which is the one I will attend.  This way I don't have to find a florist, transport the flowers and clutch them during the play. And the profit goes to the theater department.