May 8, 2012

A Fine First Day in Cincinnati

Well, the time for the 2012 National Genealogical Society Conference, “The Ohio River: Gateway to the Western Frontier,” has finally arrived. For me, it’s wonderful to have this conference so close to home. To those of you who are traveling from other states, welcome to Ohio!

I drove to Cincinnati this morning with my friend and colleague Stephanie Fishman of Corn and Cotton Genealogy and The In-Depth Genealogist. Our first stop was the Duke Energy Convention Hall to get our registration materials. NGS had everything well organized, and the process was quick and easy.

Then I was off to do a little pre-conference research. My first stop was the University of Cincinnati Archives and Rare Books Library. I was on a quest to get a digital picture of my great-great-grandfather’s 1881 Declaration of Intention. Parking and getting to the library on the UC campus was a challenge, but once I was there, everything went smoothly. I had called ahead as they suggest, and the librarian had the document ready and waiting for me. I'll share it here soon.

After I left UC, I drove to Vine Street Hill Cemetery, previously known as Carthage Road Cemetery. My great-great-grandparents, John and Mina Herrel, lived in Cincinnati from 1880 to about 1905. Sadly, that means that they buried three children in the city during those years. However, after viewing the cemetery records, it appears that the Herrel children buried there were not theirs. I’ll need to do more research to determine if they represent a previously unknown collateral line.

The office at Vine Street Hill Cemetery in Cincinnati

Back downtown, FamilySearch hosted an informative dinner program for bloggers at the Hyatt. Among the news they shared was:

  • Updated and new collections include Ohio Births, Ohio Marriages, Pennsylvania Marriages, Philadelphia and New York Passenger Lists, and various types of Civil War records
  • The 1940 Community Census Project has 650 societies participating and 460 blog ambassadors; for state status updates, see the1940census.com 
  • To date, FamilySearch has logged 170,000 new indexers in 2012
  • Six states have been published, eight states are at 100%, and eight more states are at 40%
  • Arbitration is pretty much keeping pace with indexing efforts, lagging only a day or two behind
  • If we keep going at the current rate, we could have the 1940 census fully indexed well ahead of schedule--perhaps as early as July
David Rencher of FamilySearch

Part of the attentive audience of bloggers
I’m looking forward to the start of the conference tomorrow morning. If you're at NGS, please keep an eye out for me and say hi!

2 comments:

  1. Hi, Shelley,

    I really enjoy reading your posts on the NGS Conference. You bring the conference to life, and make it so interesting.

    Sorry, I can't be there because I live in Canada, but I enjoy hearing about your experiences.

    Keep up the good work.

    Elizabeth
    www.genealogycanada.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you for the lovely comment, Elizabeth. It gave me the energy I needed to write my next post. The conference is wonderful but there's so much to do that it's tiring, too!

    And thanks for leaving the address for your blog--I'll visit it soon :)

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for reading my blog! I welcome and appreciate your comments.

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