ROOTS & BRANCHES

The many faithful readers of “Roots & Branches” have may tire of the fact that I never tire of writing about German genealogy.

But with a pedigree that’s overwhelmingly German … I can’t help but get excited about this specific ethnicity.

And that’s also probably why my two favorite conferences in the two decades I’ve been attending such events were those sponsored by the International German Genealogy Partnership in Minneapolis (2017) and Sacramento, California (2019).

Registration has gone live for the next edition of Partnership get-togethers, a virtual conference to be held starting July 17 (Conflict of interest alert: I’m co-chairing this event!).

With the theme of “Researching Together Worldwide / Weltweit Gemeinsam Forschen,” the conference will bring together the world’s best speakers of German genealogy, and give registrants a chance for online socializing.

The event is built around two days of marquee speakers—some speaking in English, others in German, with translations for the opposite language—on July 17 and 24. The marquee roster includes Roger Minert, Diahan Southard, Michael Strauss, script Katherine Schober, Timo Kracke, Ute Brandenburg, Wolfgang Grams, and Judy Russell.

During the week in between, more than 50 prerecorded On-Demand sessions will be available for viewing online. This lineup includes Roland Paul, Irmtraud Tiemann, and Dirk Weissleder from Germany; Benjamin Hollister from Australia; Andre Hammann from Brazil; and Gail Blankenau, Fritz Juengling, and Michael Lacopo from the U.S.

There will be a virtual exhibit hall of sponsors, exhibitors and partners, and many “Connections” sessions—Zoom breakouts, essentially—in which the registrants will get the chance to interact with others from around the world who share their interests for specific aspects (geographic or cultural) of German-speaking family history.

MyHeritage, the leading global discovery platform for exploring family history with billions of historical records and family tree profiles as well as sophisticated matching technologies, has already signed on as a Gold sponsor for the conference. Other sponsorships are pending.

Packages offering just the marquee speakers or the On-Demand sessions are available but the best value is the “Combo” package offering all the presentations plus access to the exhibit hall, Connections sessions and bonus “demo presentations” from sponsors and exhibitors.

The top-of-the-line package, called the “USB Works” package includes all of the Combo items plus a preloaded USB flash drive with all the conference sessions for an Early Bird price of just $249.

Closer to the event, you’ll receive log-in information to help you build a profile identifying your specific genealogy interests. The more details you provide, the better you’ll be able to find other registrants and exhibitors with your same affinities during the conference as well as be made aware of what our sponsors and exhibitors have available to help you individually!

Registration can be completed at the following link: https://playbacknow.regfox.com/iggp2021.

Early-Bird registration discounts are available until March 31.

To stay up-to-date on conference news, be sure to sign-up for the IGGP conference newsletter here https://bit.ly/IGGPnewsletter.