The Family Tree
By Terence L. Day
Terence L. Day, genealogist and journalist, is on the Washington State University faculty. He welcomes e-mail at genealogy@moscow.com, or regular mail in care of the Tri-City Herald City newsroom, P.O. Box 2608, Tri-Cities, WA 99302-2608.
National convention comes to Northwest
This column was published March 18, 2001
Using your head to break through brick walls is just one of many tricks you'll learn by attending the 2001 National Genealogical Society Conference, May 16-19 in Portland.
Yes, that's the topic of one of 230 sessions packed into four days of meetings.
The national meeting might be a bit much for someone who has never attended such a huge conference. Many people would need days just to figure out which programs they want to attend.
But if large gatherings don't intimidate you, the conference could be a heck of a lot of fun and advance your genealogical research, as well.
In a quick skim through the conference brochure, I identified 98 sessions I might be interested in attending. But, by my calculation, a person only could attend 26 sessions because most run concurrently with other offerings.
For instance, I would like to attend Christine Rose's session on "The Family Historian: Ethics, Scandals, Traditions and Much More," but that means I would have to miss five other sessions running at the same time - including some that interest me.
Whether you're a callow beginner trying to get started or a gnarly old veteran genealogist looking to expand your expertise, you might want to consider attending a national genealogical workshop.
Northwesterners rarely will have a better chance than this NGS meeting, which is returning to Portland for the first time since 1991.
Several sessions focus on aspects of Northwest genealogical research, but the program covers the full gamut of genealogy, including one of the opening sessions on "How to Get the Most Out of Genealogy Conferences."
Here are just a few topics that caught my eye:
* Documents and Books on the Web
* Digital Imagine Solutions from Hewlett-Packard
* Northwest Origins in the Midwest and Earlier: Sources and Strategies for Tracing Northwest Pioneers through the Midwest to their Earlier Origins
(I ought to attend this one for ideas on how to trace my Barnes ancestors, who came across the Oregon Trail from Indiana. They settled first in Cove, Union County, and then went to Paradise, Wallowa County, and finally to Anatone, Asotin County, Wash., and Lewiston, Idaho.)
* Trouble in Paradise: Impact of the New Age on Genealogy
* Family History Physics: Einstein's Theory of Relatives
* A Shady Past: Tales Grandmother Never Told Me
* Where Do They Hide the Good Stuff? How to Get the Best Service from Librarians and Archivists
And these are just a few of the first-day offerings!
National conferences are more than a bit pricey for the proverbial retiree in tennis shoes, but certainly not out of the reach of many family genealogists - retired or otherwise.
One way of looking at the cost is to borrow an idea from the Bureau of Land Management or the Corps of Engineers. It's the multiple-use concept. You know, charge off the cost against more than one purpose. The cost of dams is rationalized as flood control, power generation, recreation and irrigation.
Plan to attend the Portland NGS conference as a vacation, or in conjunction with a vacation. Visit the Oregon Coast on the way to the conference or on the way home.
Registration is $185 for NGS members and $215 for others, or $70 a day if you want to attend only some days. Laboratory sessions have additional fees. Luncheon and dinner sessions run $21 to $36.
Special rates have been arranged with six hotels near the Oregon Convention Center where meetings will be held. Rates range from $89 to $133.
You might be able to save by staying at cheaper motels a little farther away. Or, if you are one of the many who has a recreational vehicle, I'm sure you can take a pretty good bite out of housing costs.
The convention center is well-served by Tri-Met public transportation and the Max Train stops there every 15 minutes.