GeneaSpy: NGS 2016 Fort Lauderdale: Day 1

The day began with everyone attending the keynote address by Dr. Connie L. Lester’s “Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives”, which was very insightful into the early Florida pioneers. Next, I helped at the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy’s booth and answered questions about our institute. Following a whirlwind tour of the vendor hall, I headed up to the third floor to begin the first of four days of intuitive genealogical learning by the best in the lecturing circuit. When I plan my class schedule, I not only choose the heavy hitters, but also choose speakers that I have never heard before, and subjects that are new to me.

I don’t do reviews of the classes I took in my blog posts; I focus on the visual aspect of the conference as a whole. Any class photo’s I took of the teachers, I was granted permission by them. I did take a couple of ‘before class begins’ photo’s which I hope was OK. Out of the 409 photos I took, I’m only publishing the best and most pertinent to the point I’m trying to get through.

Schedule Day 1: Wednesday, 4 May 2016

· Keynote: “Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives” Connie L. Lester, Ph.D.

· Booth Help: Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy

· “Problem Solving in the Problem-Riddled Carolina Backcountry” – Elizabeth Shown Mills, CG, CGL, FASG, FNGS, FUGA

· Booth Help: Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy

· “A New Document! Now What?” – J. Mark Lowe, CG, FUGA

· “Developing a Successful and Efficient Research Plan” – Gail Jackson Miller, CG

I was invited by my good friend, Mark Olsen of MyHeritage, to join him and a bunch of VIP’s on a dinner cruise aboard the yacht “Sun Dream”. That was one of the best things that happened to me while in Fort Lauderdale. To mingle with all these icons in the genealogy world was thrilling! Listening to Dick Eastman and David Lambert talk about the beginnings of computer genealogy was priceless, not to mention the funny conversations with them and Shannon Bennett.