Flowering trees outside Salt Palace Conference Center, Salt Lake City

Managed to make it home from the 2010 NGS conference despite the lighting strike to the airplane during take-off and promise of a hard landing back in Seattle. This was my first genealogy conference and I was very impressed with the content and organization, kudos to all involved!

I met so many great people and learned SO much that I’m still overwhelmed. Since I’m a short attention span person, I’ll be posting my conference reflections in small chunks, probably for a while since there was so much info. But what are the highlights that I bring back?

Genealogists are social creatures.

I’ve never found it so easy, or people so willing, to strike up conversations and get to know you. And I’ve been to PTA conferences. Every single person I sat next to at a lunch or dinner was truly interested in getting to know me (and I them). I’ve met people who are already becoming great friends, greatly expanded my genealogical network, and also met folks who I wish I’d been able to get to know better. And Ken, if you’re reading, send me an email. Was hoping to see you in the last couple days of the conference but didn’t.

This is a serious discipline that we all need to be proud of.

So, I knew it was valuable to me before I went, but I found the fact emphasized throughout the conference. But what was also noted is that we undervalue what we do at a professional level. Indeed, we are professionals with a whole lot of specialized knowledge that has significant value and many of us even have certifications, accreditations, scholarly papers (not me yet, but planning to work on getting there). However, many of us may under charge for our services, apologetically deliver our invoice for work done, or not consider what we do “serious” work.

We need to get over it. If you are researching for a client, it’s because they have hired you to do something they either don’t have the knowledge or desire to do themselves. Because they value your expertise. And you don’t need certifications, accreditations, or scholarly papers to fall into that category. You just need your professionalism, experience, and a willingness to value what you do. That fact that you happen to love what you are doing? Bonus!

There are lots of specialties.

There are a few people who seem to know everything. They probably don’t, but the depth and breadth of their knowledge is impressive nonetheless. Many people though are specialized. They know A LOT about one or a few specific areas. And that’s OK. You don’t have to know everything about everything because honestly, you can’t. For me, I’ve come away knowing that you’ve got to start out somewhere and grow. You may pick the specialty or it may pick you. Being someone who is easily distracted by shiny objects, now I just need figure out how to actually maintain a focus.

We (genealogists) need to continue evangelizing the discipline, but not scare people.

I was excited to see the NGS sponsoring day-long classes in conjunction with the conference. These classes focused on beginning genealogy and genealogy for kids. I didn’t register for or attend these sessions, but I would be curious to know what they were like. The sessions I went to were very directed at how to do genealogy “the right way” and were definitely focused to the professionals, or professional wannabes. I heard a couple people mention though that they came to learn how to get over hurdles, but now feel like they have to go back and start over because they’ve been doing it “wrong”. Now, I’m totally an advocate for citing sources, resolving conflicts, and not just taking the low-hanging fruit. But we need to make sure we’re not preachy about it. If we are, we’ll lose the hobbyists and, worse yet, never get the younger generations interested who will be the ones to inherit and cherish all the hard work we’ve done.

So, that’s the summary of what I came home from NGS ’10 with. Lots of knowledge, new friends–and oh yea, a couple 15-generation pedigree chart forms for the kids. Now I just need to get them filled out. With proper citations, of course.