OGS Conference & What I learned

We had a great time in Columbus at the Ohio Genealogical Conference! My friends from Miami County headed down on Wednesday and I met up with them on Friday for the last 2 days.

Me, Sharon Watson, Doug Carey, & Stephanie Winchester
The Miami County Gang

I continue to see the value of attending these great events. Even if you can't go to all of them or if you can't stay all 3 days, or 4 days or whatever, attending even a portion is well worth your time.

I learned some pretty cool things. First, if you plan to leave on Saturday, don't park under a building that is closed on Saturdays. Yeah..that was fun. A big thanks goes out to the nice man who helped me get through the locked building and to my car.

Second, when you park at an underground location, be sure to pay at the designated pay location prior to trying to leave the garage....and make sure you get your ticket back as proof you paid. Shout out to the other nice man who came to the rescue to get me out of the garage!

Now before you think that the only thing I learned were some street smarts, let me leave you with this quick list of fun things I learned from my classes.

* FamilySearch has an app gallery - Found online at FamilySearch. It will give you tried and true apps for genealogists. You can find it https://familysearch.org/apps/ . Search through to see what apps you might be interested in getting.

* Good reads for the Revolutionary War:  "Encyclopedia of the American Revolution", "Forgotten Patriots", "Devil of a Whipping: The Battle of Cowpens". I attached a link to Amazon on each title for you! Did you know that pensions for the Revolutionary War could be picked up on the 4th of March and September each year? Yep. And, the pension was picked up from a bank. Isn't that interesting!

* BCG (Board of Certified Genealogists) have free webinars every 3rd Tuesday of the month. You can learn how to see these here. They look really good and I can't wait to watch them from here on out.

* If you have ever been interested in becoming a Certified Genealogist, you will want to visit the BCG booth at one of these types of events. They bring examples of how a certification portfolio is to be organized. It really helped me to visualized how I need to organize mine.

* "Mastering Genealogical Proof" by Thomas W. Jones is a must have in any professional genealogist's library. BCG even offers a study group to go chapter by chapter in the book. A second book entitled "Professional Genealogy" by Elizabeth Shown-Mills is also a must have and has a study group as well. (I attached a link to each so you can buy them now!)

* If you had a DNA test by Ancestry.com, you should transfer the data to FamilyTreeDNA.  There are even more ways to use your DNA to break through brick walls by doing so.  The cost of transfer is $39.00, but well worth it!  At the website, you will do an "autosomal transfer".  You can learn more here.

I learned much more, but these are just a few of the things that stuck out!  Perhaps as I learn more about some of these, I will write some blogs about them individually.  Tune in next time!