OGS Conference 2011 – Day 3

Although lectures did not start until 9:00 o’clock on Sunday, I had an early day, starting with the First Annual Families and NewsLeaf Breakfast at 7 o’clock.

We were all set to take a picture of the group to share with you, but the conversation got so interesting, and with Dick Doherty dropping by, we plumb forgot about it.

Joyce Fingland, the new editor of NewsLeaf and e-NewsLeaf was there, as was Judy Mills, one of the associate editors of Families, along with Kathy Baker, one of the proofreaders, and a couple of other guests, including Sarah Newitt, OGS Executive Director, and Fraser Dunford, the Executive Director Emeritus.

Then I went to the marketplace to say my hellos to people I promised to stop and talk to, and it included Ed and Rick's wives (Lynne and Jennifer, respectively) at the Moorshead Magazine table (Ed and Rick were still making their way back from NGS in Charleston, South Carolina), the OGS table, and the Dundurn Press table, where I heard of the exciting year they have planned for books. I also met with Louise St. Denis of The National Institute for Genealogical Studies, having just arrived from the NGS Conference 10 minutes before I saw her.

I also had my own aha! moment at the Conference. Talking to the nice folks at the Brant Branch table, I discovered some information on John Millership Merriman, who had come over to Canada in the 1920s, and ended up writing for the local newspapers. It was the latest discovery in a line of aha! moments stemming from a "Hi! Do you have anything on John from Canada?" letter I received a couple of years ago :-) (more on this in a later post) ...

So after I had my own “Meet and Greet” session, it was time to go to the closing plenary session to hear Dave Obee talk about social networking in his talk, “Blogs, Posts, Tweets and Apps”.

It made a good closing talk because it followed Brian Gilchrist's Houston Lecture talk Friday evening in that he explored all of the technology (which he says were invented for genealogists - why else would it have been invented?).

If you want to read some of the talks given at the Conference, you will be able to do so in the August issue of Families.

If you want to read Families, but are not an OGS member, you can now join for half a year, staring in June - in addition to regular membership benefits, you will be able to receive the August and November editions of NewsLeaf and Families, and four issues of e-NewsLeaf.

You can apply for membership at http://www.ogs.on.ca/membership.php

Next year’s Conference 2012 will be held in Kingston. The theme will be Borders and Bridges, and the War of 1812 will be explored.