Fairfax Fun!

I attended the Fairfax Genealogical Society Spring Conference in Virginia on 23-24 March 2012.  I won't go into a diatribe on the Northern Virginia traffic.  All I have to say is that I admire my friends who live in Northern Virginia and work in Washington, DC and Maryland.!!

Traffic aside, I had a great time! I was able to attend the Friday session this year (thanks boss for 1/2 day off!!) and heard Thomas W. Jones, PhD, CG, CGL, FASG speak on Advanced Critical Thinking Techniques.  Among the topics he discussed were the Genealogical Proof Standard, Correlation and Organizing of Facts and Evidence.  I came away with several ideas to start working on a few brick walls.  I was surprised to see the 3 Tracks on Friday full.  As this was the first time I had the opportunity to attend on a Friday, I wasn't sure what to expect.  Very pleasantly surprised to see a large number of people there!! My only complaint about Friday was the early dinner break.  Wouldn't have been so bad if  the vendors had been open........but then again I probably would have spent even more than I did!!

Saturday was THE DAY.  The vendors were there.  A lot more people were there.  (No traffic at 8:00 am on a Saturday!!)

Saturday offered 6 tracks.  The 6 Tracks were:

• National Treasure in the Nation's Capital with Pam Sayre, CG, CGL & Rick Sayre, CG
• Effective Organizational Methods with DearMyrtle
• Seeking Virginia Resources with Barbarba Vines Little, CG, FNGS, FVGS
• Re-Examining What You Already Have with Charles S. "Chuck" Mason, Jr, CG
• Introduction to European Research with Claire Bettag, CG, FUGA and Richard Camaur, CG
• African American Research with Char McCargo Bah

I attended the second one with DearMyrtle and Russ Worthington.  Not only were the sessions great but listening to the "Cousins" at times was priceless!! Too bad the session wasn't videotaped!! I came away from these sessions as well with multiple ideas on to move forward in my genealogy and organizing the PILES.  Here are a few lecture room shots:

All the Track presenters were very nice and approachable.  I personally got to say "hi" to Myrt, Russ and Char.  All have great blogs to read.  I saw the other presenters speaking to the attendees during the breaks.  To me it's nice to have that human connection.  That is one of the reasons I feel genealogy conferences are truly for ALL of us.

But one of the best things about the conference was speaking with fellow genealogy addicts!! You had folks who have researched into the 1600's and those who just started.  You also had folks who were not up on social media and those who love it.  And you had folks who had no idea what a blog is and those who have multiples (including one for their dog--and no not me, I have a cat!!).  I love to "people watch" and seeing the light bulbs go off when DearMyrtle was talking about blogs was great! I also had a chat with a few folks about blogs and it was great to see the folks realize that anyone can do this.  You can blog about whatever your little heart desires.  Hopefully we'll see a few blogs soon that got their motivation to start with this conference!!

Overall, I had a great time.  Hope to go again next year.  The dates will be 5-6 April 2013.  Maybe I'll you there!!