First Day (Friday) at Jamboree

Last night, after a day of fascinating lectures (more on this below) I attended the live broadcast of the GeneaBloggers Radio Show. What a hoot. There were about 15 bloggers in attendance and many more listening in via their computers. (Technology still blows my mind) There is also a chat component going on during the broadcast. Thomas MacEntee did a masterful job of remaining focused even though there was a lot of crazy shenanigans going on around him.

This was followed by an ice cream social sponsored by Geni for the GeneaBloggers. My kind of event…did I mention I like to eat? There was your choice of chocolate or vanilla ice cream and a huge variety of toppings. A couple of crazy bloggers danced the hula complete with grass skirts and Pete the Parrot even got in on the act. I think things started (started?) to get out of hand when Pete met Perkins the Penquin. Don’t remember if that was before or after Randy Seaver put a skirt on his head. (Remember folks this was ice cream, imagine what happens when they hit the bar!)

Patricia and Footnote Maven

Everyone screams for ice cream

Sheri Fenley

Who is that with a grass skirt on their head?

Susan Kitchens 

Not everything at Jamboree is crazy party type fun…we actually get in a little learning too. Overwhelmingly the favorite class today seemed to be “Prostitution in the Wild West” presented by Jana Sloan Broglin, CG. From what I hear it was very informative and well presented. I myself went to Warren Bittner’s class “Elusive Immigrants – European Case Studies in ‘Exhaustive Research.’” One of the other bloggers (Amy Coffin) used a wonderful phrase for Mr. Bittner calling him a “newly minted CG.” I loved that turn of phrase so I repeat it here along with my congratulations to Mr. Bittner. (Can’t remember which person tweeted that particular phrase…if it was you sing out and I will give you credit.) Great class, well presented. This was a BCG skill building class and I learned a little bit more about what constitutes an “exhaustive search.”

GeneaBloggers Hard at work

Lisa Louise Cooke gave a superb presentation of what can be done with Google Earth. I purchased her two CDs (Google Earth for Genealogists) a couple of months ago and now I really must set aside a few hours to explore this wonderful resource. I know once I get it figured out I’m going to be working with it for hours and hours, it looks like it could be a lot of fun.

My last class of the day was with George Morgan. He took a subject that could have been fairly dry (Agricultural Census Schedules) and turned it into a very informative lecture with a few laughs thrown in. I now see how I can use these schedules to put flesh and muscle on my ancestors bones. By looking at the schedules and determining what the farmers in my family were growing and determining where they would take their goods to sell them, I can get a more accurate account of their day to day lives.

 Well, that was the first day of Jamboree and I can’t wait for tomorrow.