ROOTS & BRANCHES

In the last 20-something years, it’s been a rare genealogy event at which I haven’t had some sort of extra role.

I’ve chaired a few major conferences.

I’ve spoken at loads more.

Sometimes I’ve been a vendor.

And other times I’ve been the official representative of one or another organization.

But for last weekend’s hybrid second annual East Coast Genetic Genealogy Conference at the Maritime Conference Center in Linthicum Heights, Maryland, I had the luxury of just being a participant.

No chairing, no speaking, no vending, no official repping.

Instead, I had the chance to listen to some of the top people in genetic genealogy offer case studies, methodology demonstrations, and, in the case of Blaine Bettinger, some musings on the future of genetic genealogy.

I also had a chance to have breakfast with my good friend Diahan Southard, the main person behind Your DNA Guide, while taking advantage of the great food the Maritime includes in its packages.

Truth be known, I did have a little bit of an extra agenda: I had toured the Maritime center a few years ago and was impressed by state-of-the-art technology the venue offers. I did want to “see it in action” on how well it would work in practice at linking up both segments of a hybrid conference, which is a trick such events often do not pull off well.

The conference used the Whova app as its event platform, which is what many genealogy groups doing virtual or hybrid conferences are using.

Having used Whova several times before, I was fairly well acquainted how to navigate the program and how to add presentations to my personal agenda to keep me on track during my day at the conference.

In addition to Bettinger’s talk, I saw in-person Mags Gaulden talk about using DNA to “cross the pond” to Europe and Kelli Jo Bergheimer explain how testing all siblings can be an advantage, as well virtually see Nathan Dylan Goodwin, author of several fictional DNA novels and a collaborator with Southard on DNA murder mystery events, recount how he uncovered the biological father of what turned out to be a “half-aunt.”

Another highlight was using Whova’s “Meet-up” function to find that Joni Leffler from Wisconsin also listed “Beidler” in the list of Interests in her profile.

After realizing she was a virtual participant, we set up a Zoom meeting to talk and had a delightful conversation about the conference and what we’ve been doing with our respective genealogies. It was a good use of technology to expand my circle of acquaintances beyond those who were in-person attendees.

As for why Leffler had loaded “Beidler” into the Interests in her profile?

Oh, that was because she has one of my books, not because she had the surname in her tree!