NGS 2012 Recap :: Fantastic!

First of all, I have to agree with many of the other genea-bloggers who have posted their thoughts about the NGS Conference in Cincinnati - IT WAS FANTASTIC!

All of the sessions I attended, with the exception of one, were excellent. And the company was incredible. It was so much fun meeting and spending time with “old friends” whom I knew through their blogs as well as meeting some new ones.

Of course, I spent a lot of time with my room-mate Laura Cosgrove Lorenzana and hung out a lot (during sessions and lunches and evenings) with Susan Clark, Linda McCauley, Tina Lyons, and Shelley Bishop. I also met Amy Johnson Crow, Kathy Reed, Lori Thornton and several others whose names I don't recall at the moment!

Two social highlights for me came on Saturday - the first was when a blog reader, Linda Edwards, caught my attention as a group of us were walking into the Hyatt after the sessions were over. She recognized me and I'm very glad that she came forward and said so! It was a really neat moment. Thanks, Linda!

Later that evening after supper at Champs with Kathy, Susan, Linda, and Laura we were relaxing and talking with each other when DearMyrtle came in. She sat down and chatted with us for a while then moved on over to her supper group. From what I understand, Laura and I left too soon - an hour or so later some of the more well-known speakers, including Elizabeth Shown Mills, came into Champs. I'm sure that Susan and Linda enjoyed their time rubbing shoulders with the “rock stars” of genealogy!

As I stated above, all of the sessions I attended (except one) were excellent. All of the presentations by Thomas Jones and Elizabeth Shown Mills were filled to capacity but luckily I was able to get into all of them. It was worth getting there a bit early or waiting in a long line to enter their sessions. Even though I have no intentions of becoming a “professional” genealogist, the practices they espouse regarding documentation, research reports, etc. can be put to use in my own research - hopefully making it better. I discovered that in some ways I already use some of the concepts they talked about but definitely not to the fullest extent.

The last session by Mills was partially titled “Information Overload” and it was appropriately named for by that time my head was nearly bursting with so many ideas and so much new information and thinking about how to apply it all to my research in the hopes of finding some of those elusive ancestors!

Lori Thornton and Becky Wiseman (photo taken by Susan Clark).

Susan Clark and Becky Wiseman (photo taken by Lori Thornton).

The view across the Ohio River from our balcony seating at the Moerlein Lager House on Thursday evening.

Supper was a braised short-rib grilled cheese sandwich with sweet potato chips. It was oh, so good! Laura had the shrimp tacos shown in the background. And yes, a little beer was imbibed.

The conference was over and everyone was homeward bound. Tina Lyons stopped to say goodbye as I was watching the vendors below dismantle their displays.

I want to thank everyone I met but especially Laura for being my room-mate and Susan, Linda, Kathy and Tina for allowing me to tag along to lunches and spending some time with them in the evenings. It truly made the conference more special for me! Thanks, everyone! It's such an understatement, but I had a great time...