Pre-Conference Events on Tuesday, 8 May

Stretch the NGS 2012 Family Conference in Cincinnati to a fifth day by participating in these pre-conference events.

Librarians’ Day
Librarians who work with family history patrons are encouraged to attend this outstanding program from 8:45 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. ProQuest, the sponsor, will provide lunch for registered attendees. Sessions include Dr. Paul Tenkotte and Dr. Brian Hackett, "Solving History's Mysteries: The Intersection of Genealogy and Local History;" Louise T. Jones, MIS, "Kentucky Historical Society Collections Strategies;" Curt B. Witcher, "The Best of Times–For Genealogists and Their Librarians;" James Mainger, MSLS, "Thousands of Stories Behind the App: Bringing Digitized Images Together through Cincinnati’s 1848 Panorama;" Tour of Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County's nationally ranked Genealogy & Local History Department and Cincinnati Room, including the original 1848 Panorama and interactive display. For more information, visit http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/cs/librariansday.

BCG Education Fund Workshop
The Board for Certification of Genealogists Education Fund is sponsoring a full-day pre-conference workshop, “Editor’s Ink, Writer’s Lead,” from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. This enrollment-limited, six-hour, hands-on workshop covers both practical writing skills and the process used by peer-reviewed journals. Melinde Lutz Byrne, CG, FASG, and Thomas W. Jones, PhD, CG, CGL, FASG, FUGA, FNGS, editors of the NGS Quarterly, will provide opportunities for students to learn a variety of excellent writing techniques and practice capturing their enthusiasm for their discoveries in proper form. Attendees will participate in two sessions. Attendance is limited to 60, so register early! Registration is $110 and includes lunch. NGS conference registration is not required to attend this workshop. Visit this page to learn more.

Extended Hours at the Cincinnati Historical Society Library
The CHS Library at the Cincinnati Museum Center is offering special morning hours from 10 a.m. to 12:00 noon for a limited number of conference attendees. Register in advance by phone at 513-287-7030 or email library@cincymuseum.org. Registration is limited to 15 people. The CHS Library is located at 1301 Western Avenue. Normal library hours are Monday through Friday, 12:00 noon - 5:00 p.m., and Saturday, 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Parking is $6.00.

Pre-Conference Events on Tuesday, 8 May

New Features for the NGS 2012 Family History Conference

This year’s conference in Cincinnati will have the fabulous learning, aha insights, and sociable networking that are part of every NGS conference – plus these new features:

NGSQ 100th Anniversary Reception
A special reception on Friday, 11 May, from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m., will celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of National Genealogical Society Quarterly, one of the premier genealogical journals. The event will feature a gallery of displays about the history of the Quarterly and the people who were instrumental in its success. Admission is $15 and includes light refreshments. A cash bar will also be available.

Four Four-Hour Workshops
Thursday workshops will feature J. Mark Lowe, CG, “Understanding Court Records,” and Maureen Taylor, “Photo Detecting 101.” Saturday workshops will include John T. Humphrey, CG, “The Fraktur Type: An Obstacle to German Research That Can Be Overcome,” and Michael J. LeClerc, “The Mechanics of Compiling Your Family History.” All four of these intensive workshops are from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon, while the usual conference sessions are one hour long. The registration fee is $45 for each workshop. Space is limited, so register early!

Audience Levels
NGS adopted audience levels this year to guide attendees to the lectures that best meet their needs when planning a conference schedule. The audience level for each lecture is listed after the summary in the registration brochure and also appears in the online schedule. The levels are Beginner, Beginner-Intermediate, Intermediate, Intermediate-Advanced, and Advanced as determined by the individual instructors. Attendees are welcome to attend any lecture.

New Features for the NGS 2012 Family History Conference

My First NGS Conference - What a Learning Experience!

If you’ve never attended an NGS conference, you may wonder what it’s like. Don Rightmyer, editor of the Kentucky Historical Society’s Kentucky Ancestors, says he relished every minute of his first NGS conference last year, and we believe you’ll enjoy the 2012 conference in Cincinnati for the same reasons.

What a fantastic experience I had during my first NGS Family History Conference in May 2011 in Charleston, South Carolina. I arrived midday on Wednesday and from the moment I checked in and received my credentials until the final session on Saturday afternoon, it was one of the most informative and rewarding multi-day genealogical conferences I have ever attended.

One of the first decisions I was glad I’d made when registering online was to order a hardcopy syllabus. Being a traditional hardcopy book-lover, I was thrilled to receive the large bound volume containing all of the syllabus materials for every session offered. What a wealth of genealogical resource information it has been since I returned home.

Attending the annual NGS conference is challenging because you have such a vast selection of wonderfully informative sessions and great speakers to choose from that it puts your decision-making ability to the test. For me, there was never a single hour during each day’s schedule of presentations that there weren’t at least two or more sessions that I wanted to hear in person. The good news is that even though you can only attend one presentation, you can order CDs of nearly all the sessions while you’re at the conference or even once you have gone home.

The exhibit hall was one of the first places I visited when I had a break in the schedule of talks, and I returned to the exhibit area several times during the four days of the conference, further augmenting my own home reference library of published genealogical books and materials. I also got the chance to meet some of the booksellers and wonderful NGS headquarters staff members I’d been doing business with long-distance for several years but had never had the pleasure of getting to meet face-to-face.

The most meaningful and memorable part of attending the NGS conference was getting to hear several excellent genealogical speakers on a variety of different topics relating to genealogy research and family-history writing. That conference and the upcoming one in Cincinnati are packed full of numerous people who are extremely knowledgeable and do a great job in presenting the material they have mastered.

Finally, going to the NGS conference in Charleston gave me the impetus to visit a number of places in and around the Charleston region of our country that I’d been wanting to visit for many years. One of the most memorable was the Andersonville National Historic Site, the home of the National POW (Prisoner-of-War) Museum, which is well worth the time and effort to go visit.

If you’re trying to decide whether or not to attend the NGS Conference in Cincinnati in May 2012, I encourage you to do it and see for yourself if what I’ve said isn’t also true for you. The conference will be fantastic, you will be overwhelmed with the amount of new information and insights you will gather, and you’ll be in the Ohio/Indiana/Kentucky region and find lots of great places and historical sites to visit during your travels to and from the conference. I’ll plan to see you in Cincinnati in May.

My First NGS Conference - What a Learning Experience!

Surname Research Catalog Opens for Registered Conference Attendees

The Surname Research Catalog for the 2012 Family History Conference is now open. This is a great opportunity for conference attendees to connect with other researchers and collaborate on common ancestors.

The Surname Research Catalog is a list of surnames that registered attendees of the NGS 2012 Family History Conference are researching. The catalog contains surnames, dates, and locations as well as contact information for the person who submitted the listing.

If you are researching a family with the same surname and time period, feel free to contact the person who submitted the surname. If you decide to meet and exchange information at the conference, there will be a Surname Research Catalog meeting area in the conference exhibit hall which can be used as a meeting place.

Submissions to the catalog will be accepted through 1 May 2012 and the catalog will remain open until the end of the conference, 12 May 2012.

The Surname Research Catalog is available for registered attendees of the conference at http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/cs/surname_catalog.

Surname Research Catalog Opens for Registered Conference Attendees

Special Conference Events, Part 4

Thursday, 10 May 2012: Research at the Public Library of Cincinnati & Hamilton County

On Thursday night, the Public Library of Cincinnati & Hamilton County extends its hours exclusively for NGS Conference attendees. This free event provides an opportunity to research in one of the nation’s leading genealogy libraries, featuring holdings from all fifty states and more than twenty foreign countries as well as unique resources from Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana. Additional library staff will be available to guide researchers to their areas of interest.

Join fellow genealogists for this special evening at the Public Library. There is no limitation on the number of participants or need to register but you must show your conference badge for entry. Doors open to the NGS event at 6:30 pm and remain open until 11:30 pm. For more information about the Public Library of Cincinnati & Hamilton County, visit http://www.cincinnatilibrary.org/.

The library is located two blocks east and two blocks north of the Duke Energy Convention Center, even closer from some of the downtown conference hotels. Researchers may walk, take a taxi or drive. Street parking is free after 5 pm. Maps will be available at the Conference information booth near Registration in the Duke Energy Convention Center.

Special Conference Events, Part 4

Special Conference Events, Part 3

Thursday, 10 May 2012: National Underground Railroad Freedom Center

FamilySearch and the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center invite you to spend a memorable evening on Thursday from 6 to 9 pm at this museum located in downtown Cincinnati on the banks of the Ohio River. The Freedom Center will be open exclusively for NGS Conference attendees to view the exhibits without charge.

A Smithsonian Institution affiliate, the Freedom Center tells the story of the enslaved crossing over the Ohio River on the journey to freedom. They were assisted by men and women of all backgrounds who had created a secret network of escape routes that came to be called the Underground Railroad. The mission of the Freedom Center is to reveal stories about freedom's heroes, from the era of the Underground Railroad to contemporary times, challenging and inspiring people to take courageous steps for freedom today.

The Freedom Center has five major permanent exhibitions, including the world's first museum-quality, permanent exhibition on the subjects of modern-day slavery and human trafficking, as well as a full calendar of changing exhibits, programs and activities. A FamilySearch Center is onsite, in the John Parker Library, to assist people searching for their ancestors. For more information about the Freedom Center, visit http://www.freedomcenter.org.

Conference attendees may walk, take a taxi or drive to the Freedom Center. Walking from the Duke Energy Convention Center or the conference hotels takes less than 15 minutes.

Special Conference Events, Part 3

Special Conference Events, Part 2

Wednesday, 9 May 2012: Cincinnati History Museum Tour, Dinner and Union Terminal Program

An exclusive tour of the Cincinnati History Museum, one of the largest and most significant urban history museums in the country, has been reserved especially for NGS Conference attendees. Experience the tremendous Art Deco rotunda of the Union Terminal train station, and see a model of the City of Cincinnati from 1900 to the 1940s with working trains and inclines. Sit in an antique Cincinnati streetcar, and explore a large homefront exhibit on World War II. Immerse yourself in a re-creation of the Cincinnati waterfront in the 1850s, including a steamboat ninety-four feet long. Learn about the “Brown Water” navy and how the western rivers were of strategic and logistical importance to the Union during the Civil War. The Cincinnati History Museum features exhibits on transportation, industry and many facets of the American experience that go beyond local interest.

The tour will last about one hour with easy walking including some up and down ramps. Following the tour, enjoy a private reception complete with cash bar and a delectable buffet dinner. The evening will end with a short program by a museum docent on the building of the magnificent Art Deco Union Terminal rotunda and train station.

Buses will leave from the Duke Energy Convention Center at 4:45 pm (subsequent buses will leave when loaded) for the short ride to the Cincinnati Museum Center. This tour will accommodate most individuals who can enter a bus with limited assistance. Following the program, buses will begin loading (about 8 pm) to return to the Convention Center. The price of $65.00 includes bus transportation, a ticket to the Cincinnati History Museum, a buffet dinner and the program. Seating is limited to 220 participants. For more information about the Cincinnati Museum Center, visit http://www.cincymuseum.org/. To make reservations for this event, use the online registration system.

Special Conference Events, Part 2