Member Society: They won a free 2011 conference registration

FGS member societies that advertised the FGS 2010 Knoxville Conference in their newsletter and/or quarterly were entered into a drawing to win a free conference registration to the September 7-10, 2011conference in Springfield, Illinois.

The winner that was announced in Knoxville is the North Hills Genealogists of Pennsylvania. This group is based in the Pittsburgh area and is a very active group. North Hills Genealogists now gets to award the 2011 FGS/ISGS Conference registration in whatever way it wishes!

The 2011 FGS/ISGS Conference Publicity team is announcing that members societies will have the chance to enter a contest to win a registration for the 2012 Conference. Watch this blog, the FGS website, and the FGS Voice for details this fall. This is a great way for member societies to help spread the word about this great educational event.

And the winner is . . .

On August 19th we posted about the chance to win a free registration for the 2011 FGS Conference in Illinois. To participate it was necessary to stop by the FGS booth in the Knoxville Exhibit Hall, check out all the things the Illinois State Genealogical Society was showing about the state and the city of Springfield, and register for the 2011 Springfield FGS/ISGS Conference. Well, lots of folks did exactly that!

The winner was drawn from all the paid 2011 registrations and the free registration goes to Darcie M. Hind Posz of Washington, DC. Congratulations, Darcie!

13,000 pages of War of 1812 pensions to be digitized

At the recent FGS Conference in Knoxville attendees donated almost $6500 to Preserve the Pensions! Your society can take up a collection at its seminars and workshops, too. Every dollar counts -- every dollar digitizes two documents!

The excitement level for this project is growing by leaps and bounds. 

For more on the Preserve the Pensions Project visit the FGS website.

Thank you to all who donated in conjunction with the FGS Conference.

Photos from Wednesday at the World's Fair Amphitheater

Dan MacDonald who capably does a lot of photography for the East Tennessee Historical Society provided a link to some photos from ETHS exhibits and from the ETHS Wednesday evening conference event with Sheila Kay Adams.Click on this link: http://danmacdonald.zenfolio.com/firstfrontier. Once you are on the site, click on the Slideshow button at the top right hand corner or scroll down to the bottom of the opening screen. I saw a lot of familiar faces in these photos.

More photos from Knoxville -- 2010 FGS Conference

Dr. Ken Heger and Connie Potter at the National Archives Booth

A group of dedicated Geneabloggers

Ancestry.com booth

Chicagoans at the Exhibit Hall entrance

Sandra Luebking helping at the FGS Booth

A quiet Exhibit Hall entrance before the opening

FGS Booth

FGS Board members Gordon Erickson and Tim Pinnick

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It's not your eyes!

Over the next couple of weeks you will see changes to the blog format and colors. We are working on the way it will look for the FGS/ISGS 2011 National Conference, September 8-11, 2011 in Springfield, Illinois. Your comments are welcome!

Winner of the biggest door prize at the 2010 conference!

At the Friday evening War of 1812 Preserve the Pensions Project reception, the winner of the major door prize was Lila Davis from Virginia! Talk about one very excited genealogist! This door prize package and the reception for everyone was sponsored by FamilySearch.

Lila won a trip to Salt Lake City complete with 2 Delta plane tickets, a week at the Salt Lake Plaza Hotel, two $200 food cards, and two $50 copy cards.

Each paid conference registrant received one ticket for this door prize. Additional tickets were given for each $10.00 donated to the project. Attendees at the reception lined up to donate and to receive a free copy of Dr. George Schweitzer's book on War of 1812 research.

The photo above is of the prize winner Lila Davis who is flanked by Project leader Curt B. Witcher, Manager of the Genealogy Center of the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, and David E. Rencher, Chief Genealogical Officer from FamilySearch. The photo is provided courtesy of Richard Williams, sales manager at the Salt Lake Plaza Hotel. 

Pictures from FGS Knoxville

Click here to see some excellent photos from the 2010 conference. These were taken by Dan MacDonald, a Knoxville photographer. He has given permission for FGS to show you these photos.

The photos below were taken at the FamilySearch booth in the Exhibit Hall. FamilySearch has given permission for FGS to show you these photos.

Conference Syllabus

The paper edition of the 2010 FGS Conference Syllabus sold out at the conference. There are some copies of the syllabus on CD left. The cost is $20.00 (includes postage).

Order from FGS, PO Box 200940, Austin, TX 78720-0940.

Thank you for making this conference such a huge success!

FGS 2010 welcomed more than 1800 participants throughout the week's activities. Participants included more than 1000 conference registrants, 169 librarians, and nearly 100 volunteers. We were also joined by 500 eager beginning genealogists during Saturday's Ancestry.com events. Others included 102 registrants at the Association of Professional Genealogists Professional Management Conference and countless area residents who visited the Exhibit Hall. Special events for attendees included "Come & Sit a Spell" with Sheila Kaye Adams on Wednesday evening which drew 300 individuals and Thursday night at the Museum of Appalachia with more than 400 in attendance.

Exciting door prizes offered by conference vendors such as a cruise for two to Bermuda, an IPad, Deluxe Ancestry subscriptions, week-long stays in Salt Lake City hotels, and others brought a boisterorus crowd to the extended Exhibit Hall hours on Friday evening. The War of 1812 Preserve the Pensions reception on Friday evening was a rousing success. We thank FamilySearch for sponsoring the evening and providing the extravagant door prize - and you for attending and supporting this project.


The bottom line -- a very successful conference all around! A round of thanks to our speakers, vendors, and local co-hosts, The East Tennessee Historical Society and the Kentucky Historical Society, and our numerous sponsors and participating organizations including our platinum sponsors FamilySearch and Ancestry.com.

The end of a week that is almost indescribable

And that is a good thing. No, a great thing. It has been a conference where people are sad that it is ending. Just about an hour and a half left.

Registrants, vendors, volunteers, speakers, local people visiting the Exhibit Hall, the 500 people at the Ancestry Day, and many others have had so much fun, learned a lot and I think that many of them will be in Springfield, Illinois next year. A lot of people have already signed up and paid to attend next year's conference.

The FGS Board of Directors, the East Tennessee Historical Society and all those volunteers thank you for attending. We wish other blog readers could have joined us, but maybe next year.

Delegate of the Conference

John B. Morehiser, the Delegate from the Jefferson Genealogical Society in Louisiana, is the overall Delegate of the Conference. Congratulations John!

John has won for his society a free registration for the 2011 Federation of Genealogical Societies and Illinois State Genealogical Society Conference in Springfield, Illinois 7-11 September 2011.

His society may award the free registration in any way it wishes. The Jefferson Genealogical Society is a member of the Federation of Genealogical Societies. Is your society a member of FGS? If not, please ask them to join. Check out the details at www.fgs.org.

Delegate of the Day for Saturday

Janis Forte of the African American Genealogical and Historical Society of Chicago is the Saturday Delegate of the Day.

Later this afternoon we will publish the name of the Delegate of the Conference after the winner is drawn from the four Delegates of the Day.

Delegate of the Day for Friday

John B. Morehiser the Delegate from the Jefferson Parish Genealogical Society in Louisiana is the Friday Delegate of the Day.

Become a Friend of the FGS 2011 Conference on Facebook

Help spread the word about the 2011 FGS Conference in Springfield, Illinois by looking at the FGS 2011 page on Facebook. Please click on the "Like" button on the Wall page. How long will it take to get to 100 supporters?

Delegate of the Day for Thursday

Scott Fitzgerald from the East Texas Genealogical Society is the Thursday Delegate of the Day. Each of the FGS member societies appoints a Delegate to FGS. If you are here at the conference and are your society's delegate, stop by the FGS booth in the Exhibit Hall. That is the place to sign up for the chance to be the Friday or Saturday Delegate of the Day and then to be drawn as the Delegate of the Conference.

Need to ship things home from the conference?

On Saturday a packing and shipping service will be available from 9:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. It will be placed next to the registration booths at the Clinch Street side of the Knoxville Convention Center. They offer regular mail, UPS, and FedEx shipping with a small surcharge.

The United States Postal Service mobile unit that was supposed to be here backed out and we apologize for that.

FGS 2011 Springfield, Illinois

Hotel reservations for the 2011 FGS Conference do not open until September 15, 2010. We will give you details on the hotel before that date. But, mark your calendars!

Delegate of the Day for Wednesday

The Delegate of the Day for Wednesday, 18 August, is Connie Olson representing the Michigan Genealogical Council. Connie's name, along with the Delegates chosen for Thursday-Friday, will be placed into a drawing. The winning society receives a full conference registration for the 2011 Conference in Springfield, Illinois. The society can then award the free registration in any way they wish.