I'm totally swamped this week, getting ready for the New England Regional Genealogical Consortium Conference this week in Providence! So much fun to be had and so many fabulous talks to see by fabulous speakers like Lisa Louise Cooke and Judy Russell, not to mention D. Josh Taylor, David Lambert and ME!
So what is my plan? First, I'll be volunteering in the exhibit hall at both the Board for Certification of Genealogists booth and the Association for Professional Genealogists New England Chapter booth, so drop by and learn about these two fabulous groups. And make sure to drop by the Rhode Island Genealogical Society's booth too! My other favorite RI genealogical society always puts together a great booth in the exhibit hall, AFGS, and they have great books and French-Canadian research goodies for sale.
I'm really looking forward to the opening session, with John McNiff portraying William Blackstone, one of the first European settlers in RI, and the social hour and society fair in the evening. I figure I can even get to some of the Thursday talks in between!
I'll be at the "Becoming a Professional Genealogist" Special Interest Group on Thursday night in Room 553B, so drop by and talk about some of the skills you need to have the BEST job in the whole world!
The biggest items on my to-do list are two talks I'm presenting on Saturday, "GPS for Genealogy: Another Kind of Navigation", about using the Genealogical Proof Standard to solve complex evidence cases and the second "Which Autosomal DNA Test is Right for YOU?" about genetic genealogy and the autosomal DNA tests offered at the 3 major testing companies.
Don't miss out on RI talks by Cherry Fletcher Bamberg, FASG and Nathaniel Lane Taylor, FASG!
Even though I only live 20 minutes away, I'm going to stay downtown at one of the conference hotels so that I don't miss out on any of the fun, impromptu meetings that happen when almost 1000 genealogists get together for 3 days. Hope to see you there!
Showing posts with label AFGS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label AFGS. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 14, 2015
Monday, January 27, 2014
Challenges and Discoveries
One of my favorite places to work is the Reading Room at the Rhode Island Historical Society Library. Since its recent closure (see their website /http://www.rihs.org/), with deadlines looming, I have been forced (let's say challenged, instead) to seek out alternative repositories for my research. I've already posted about how much I love the Providence Public Library, but to avoid a trip downtown, where parking is difficult, I went off to the library at Rhode Island College. http://www.ric.edu/adamslibrary/. I had never been, but it was their school break, and they had one of the ProScan 2000 microfilm readers for my perusal of the Providence Journal. While I didn't have time to explore, it is definitely on my list of places to return to, particularly for it's special collections, The Cape Verdean Collection (http://ric.libguides.com/content.php?pid=179008&sid=1506076) and the Joseph R. Muratore Collection of Italian American materials (http://www.ric.edu/adamslibrary/assets/muratore.pdf).
My other trip was to Woonsocket, both the American-French Genealogical Society (http://www.afgs.org/) library, and the Woonsocket Harris Public Library (http://www.woonsocketlibrary.org/). While I have been to AFGS many times, the addition of the Family History Center, new computer databases and some lovely new donations (that I am not allowed to reveal), their collection of French Canadian and RI and MA resources is fantastic. I also found a unique source for records of the Catholic Diocese of Providence. Check them out for yourself, because I was amazed at the parish records they have on film. The public library was also a wonderful discovery. While I usually would use the microfilm at the RIHSL for the local newspaper, The Call, RIHSL does not have a ProScan microfilm reader to digitize the films. Everything on microfilm has to be printed. The digital microfilm reader at the Woonsocket Public Library was a boon! No printing out the pages and taking them home to scan. A bit of a drive, but perhaps more efficient in the long run.
While it's not much fun to truck around RI in the winter snow (and it snowed on my way to Woonsocket), the unfortunate closure of my main research library has helped expand my horizons, and forced me to be creative and more adventurous for my research, and that's not a bad thing, at all. Maybe I'll find some other new places while the library remains closed, and I'll have something new to write about!
My other trip was to Woonsocket, both the American-French Genealogical Society (http://www.afgs.org/) library, and the Woonsocket Harris Public Library (http://www.woonsocketlibrary.org/). While I have been to AFGS many times, the addition of the Family History Center, new computer databases and some lovely new donations (that I am not allowed to reveal), their collection of French Canadian and RI and MA resources is fantastic. I also found a unique source for records of the Catholic Diocese of Providence. Check them out for yourself, because I was amazed at the parish records they have on film. The public library was also a wonderful discovery. While I usually would use the microfilm at the RIHSL for the local newspaper, The Call, RIHSL does not have a ProScan microfilm reader to digitize the films. Everything on microfilm has to be printed. The digital microfilm reader at the Woonsocket Public Library was a boon! No printing out the pages and taking them home to scan. A bit of a drive, but perhaps more efficient in the long run.
While it's not much fun to truck around RI in the winter snow (and it snowed on my way to Woonsocket), the unfortunate closure of my main research library has helped expand my horizons, and forced me to be creative and more adventurous for my research, and that's not a bad thing, at all. Maybe I'll find some other new places while the library remains closed, and I'll have something new to write about!
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