ROOTS & BRANCHES

There was a collective sigh from many in the family history community when the National Genealogical Society announced at last year’s conference in Richmond, Virginia, that the 2024 event would be fully virtual.

After two COVID-19 years of virtual-only NGS conferences in 2020 and 2021—the former of which was turned on a dime from in-person to online literally as the pandemic happeded—the 2022 and 2023 editions were held in a hybrid format at truthfully paled by comparison to what such conferences had been in the “before times.”

So it certainly wasn’t unreasonable for the organization to call timeout and say that this year’s virtual conference would give NGS a chance to decide on the future of how and even whether to sponsor such a get-together in person, with all of the associated complications of involving hotel blocks, venues, and food-and-beverage minimums.

Of course, I need to give my disclaimer of conflict of interest: I’m one of the speakers for the upcoming virtual conference and have given a bit of input into the structure of it.

I like the overall feel of the program that has emerged under the theme of “Expanding Possibilities,” which will run on the WHOVA app from May 16–18, with live Q&A sessions with speakers who’ve prerecorded their lectures.

Yes, there are perennial heavyweights such as Thomas W. Jones and Judy Russell presenting on their respective specialties of evidence and legal issues.

And I’m heartened to see my friend Shamele Jordon getting a chance to show innovative programming such as “PARKing Day” and “Genealogy Quick Start” as well as another colleague in the German genealogy space, Katherine Schober, talk about church records not (yet!) digitized.

But I think the real expansion in “Expanded Possibilities” is the way NGS has added a fair number of new speakers to the mix, even as the total number of presentations has been reduced (the beauty of virtual is that even though there will be fewer presentations, all of them are prerecorded and will be available through Aug. 15).

There will be sessions on topics that have seldom or never been seen at national conferences in the past—on rural ancestors … records that tracked down a “romance scammer” … artificial intelligence topics … LGBTQ+ family history … women in 19^th century asylums … the largest indigenous tribes in the U.S. … and so much more.

On the conference’s opening day (May 16), genealogy organizations enjoy a full day of dedicated programming, including the popular SLAM! Idea Showcase. All registrants may also begin to explore the virtual Expo Hall and connect with our sponsors and exhibitors. Pre-conference workshops and virtual tours are also available.

As for me? I’ll be talking about “Method to the Madness: Investigating Every Possible Newspaper for Your Ancestors” on May 18.

To learn more about the next NGS Family History Conference, go to the URL https://conference.ngsgenealogy.org/.