Indiana Genealogical Society - Annual Meeting

Indiana Genealogical Society Annual Conference

Spent the last few days attending the IGS Society Management Seminar, County Genealogist Roundtable, and Annual Meeting. 

FRIDAY, APRIL 15

Friday morning found us at the Hancock County Library in Greenfield for the IGS Society Management Seminar.  Interesting topics for the day included a presentation by Jim Corridan, the Indiana State Archivist; and an introduction to www.IndianaMemory.IN.gov – a digital archive of the Indiana State Library. 

SATURDAY, APRIL 16

Saturday’s events were held at the Sterrett Center at Fort Benjamin Harrison.  Once used as the enlisted men’s club, this historic building has been repurposed into a meeting and reception hall.  The speaker for this year’s event was Diane VanSkiver Gagel from Ohio.  Ms. Gagel presented very engaging presentations on Historic Military Records, Roles of Women in the Civil War, and Writing Family Narratives.

One of my favorite things about conferences is meeting new people, and this conference was a gold-mine of interesting people.

Harold Henderson, of northern Indiana, is someone I met online through the Pro-Gen Study Group, and it was a pleasure to meet Harold in person; as well as Andrea Ackerman, another Pro-Gen Study Group member.

Tina Lyons, a fellow Geneablogger who I spotted because she was wearing her Geneablogger pin, writes the blog GenWishList.blogspot.com -an interesting combination of family history, project updates, and genealogy time management techniques.  I really appreciate her ideas on listing your genealogical research goals on a monthly basis, as a way of keeping on track.  Tina was also elected Vice President of the Indiana Genealogical Society for the next year.  Congratulations to my fellow Geneablogger!

Lastly, on Friday I became acquainted with a rather quiet gentleman who was sitting with the rest of us ‘techno-genealogists’ (we were the ones with laptops in the back of the room) he only introduced himself as Michael, a member of IGS, who lived in Utah, and worked at Family Search.  WELL, on Saturday, Michael introduce himself again, and handed me his business card..."Mr. Michael Hall, the Deputy Chief Genealogical Officer at Family Search".  Interesting turn of events, but a very pleasant gentleman who was just as interested in my new experiences blogging, as I was in his professional pursuits.

Overall, an extremely informative weekend, lots of notes and  many new ideas!