Southern California Genealogical Society's 2010 Jamboree: Day Two (Friday) - Part II

When I returned to the Marriott from the Evergreen Cemetery Tour, I went at once to the "blogger lounge" to pick up my Geneablogger Welcome Bag. It contained all kinds of freebies from various genealogical products companies and other bloggers, as well as my Geneablogger button and my mardi gras beads that all geneabloggers wore. Denise Levenick, a.k.a. The Family Curator, has a photo of the Welcome Bag Team and the list of sponsors here.

Hanging out in the lobby were many more of my longtime online blogging friends, and before you know it, I was exchanging hugs with some of my favorite people:

• my distant cousin, Randy Seaver, of Geneamusings - and I later met his wife, the Angel Linda (she really is an angel!)
• Thomas MacEntee of Genebloggers and the Pearl Mesta of genealogy bloggers
• Steve Danko of Steve's Genealogy Blog
• Amy Coffin of WeTree
• Holly Hansen of FamilyHistoryExpos
• Cheryl Palmer of Heritage Happens

I'm sure there were others as well, but my memory is starting to blur! I then went to my first lecture, "Research in Connecticut: A Crossroads of Resources" by Chris Child, staff genealogist at NEHGS. My fellow society members, Donna and Cecily, joined me and we sat together. I got some ideas for where to look for records for my PHILLIPS brickwall that peters out in Sharon, Connecticut. I wasn't ready to sit for another hour in the next session, and the choices that were offered were mostly topics I was already familiar with, so I went to hang out in the blogger lounge again. On my way, I met Craig Manson of Geneablogie.

For the last session of the afternoon, I attended Arlene Eakle's "American Migration Patterns into Central US." I've long been a fan of Dr. Eakle, ever since I borrowed conference tapes of her informative and powerful lectures from my genealogy society's tape tub. She gave numerous examples of alternative records to use to trace migration patterns, including "occupation maps," maps which show things like all the iron works on the east coast at a particular time period if your ancestors were iron workers and "disappeared" from a certain area.

After the lecture times ended, I wandered around the exhibitors hall for a while, talking to vendors and introducing myself to a few online friends such as Lisa Louise Cooke of the Genealogy Gems Podcast. A mariachi band was playing lively music in the background and keeping everyone entertained. I had not planned to attend any of the evening banquets; soon after I retired for the evening, exhausted from my long day, yet thrilled by all the day's adventures!

Day One
Day Two - Part I
Day Three
Day Four
Day Five