ROOTS & BRANCHES

As genealogy conferences begin to claw their way back toward in-person normalcy, how to continue to serve a virtual audience has become a top priority for many.

This includes the annual National Genealogical Society, which went virtual on the fly two years ago during the initial wave of COVID-19 and then held an all-digital conference in 2021.

For this year, the NGS conference planners have created both an in-person event to be held over five days in Sacramento, California (May 24–28), and a two-day virtual “overlay” conference called “Online at Home,” to run May 27–28).

There will also be packages of pre-recorded lectures dubbed “On-Demand,” including one called “The Works” featuring 60 presentations on a USB, which is only available to registrants of either the in-person or “Online at Home” options. There are 20- and 40-presentation packages available for viewing from July through the end of 2022.

The in-person conference has all the trimmings of the pre-Pandemic events: Workshops, social gatherings, tours, and research gatherings are all on the agenda.

As a perk to restarting in-person vending, the Expo Hall will open earlier than in the past with Tuesday night event to serve as a grand opening.

NGS, which absorbed the Federation of Genealogical Societies in 2019, continues its commitment to genealogical groups by devoting the Tuesday of the conference to some “Focus on Societies” presentations that are available as a conference add on.

A couple of featured events will focus on people who’ve often been neglected at genealogy conferences.

The opening session on Wednesday will be presented by Stanford University Professor Gordon H. Chang on “The Chinese Who Built America’s Transcontinental Railroad.” On Friday, a documentary titled “Far East Deep South” will explore a complex history of Chinese families during the Jim Crow era of the American South, including their interconnected relationship with the Black community in Mississippi.

The NGS Reception and Banquet on Friday of the conference features Coleen Robledo Greene, who calls herself a “Latina Leprechaun and double half-Mexican.” Greene, an adoptee, will relate her story of learning about her biological family in her mid-40s.

The in-person program of presentations has an interesting mix of lecturers, some whom are conference veterans (your “Roots & Branches” columnist being one of them) and well as some newcomers.

Topics of the talks range from twists on the tried and true (such as Rich Venezia’s “Ship Manifest Indexes: A New Look at an Old Resource”) to those targeting more inclusion (like Jean Wilcox Hibben’s “Southern California Mission Indian Research: Repositories, Availability of Records, and Search Methods”).

Registration for the conference closes on April 18; special early-bird rates are available until March 31. For more information about the conference and to register, go to https://www.ngsgenealogy.org/conferences.