ROOTS & BRANCHES

The National Genealogical Society’s conference returns to Richmond, Virginia, in just a few months, and is designed for family history researchers at all levels—beginner, intermediate, and advanced.

Presentations by local experts and nationally known speakers is one of the hallmarks of family history conference, and the Richmond event (which runs from May 31 to June 3) includes topics such as:

• Records and repositories in Virginia and neighboring states
• Resources and techniques for researching African American, Indigenous Peoples, Jewish, and other ethnic groups
• Local and federal government records including military, tax, and land records
• Use of DNA to help determine relationships
• Methods to analyze and evaluate evidence

The in-person program of presentations has an interesting mix of lecturers, some whom are newcomers and others are conference veterans; your “Roots & Branches” columnist being one of them, presenting “Pennsylvania’s Launching Pads into Virginia,” which has a tagline of “Virginia long predated Pennsylvania, but once Philadelphia became the top port, families came through the Keystone State to the South. Learn about records and routes.”

But lectures aren’t the only features at the conference; there will be an expo hall of sponsors, vendors and exhibitors, and Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania will be in the house! The expo hall will have a grand opening on Wednesday evening (May 31) and then run for the three succeeding days (June 1 to 3).

On the first day of the conference, there will be an add-on called “Focus on Societies” (which is a nod to the merger of the former Federation of Genealogical Societies into NGS in 2019), as well as a number of tours and activities that are also separate buys (since registration is limited for these events, they need to be purchased in advance of the conference).

A variety of luncheons sponsored by individual genealogy groups are also available.

As was the case in last year’s NGS conference, there will be a virtual “overlay” conference during the last two days (in this case, June 2 and 3) with some marquee-level speakers—we’re talking folks such as Judy G. Russell, Barbara Vines Little, Blaine T. Bettinger, and Thomas W. Jones. These “Online at Home” programs will be live-steamed from Richmond and available either as a separate buy or included in the in-person registration.

Registration for the conference ranges from $140 for single days to an early-bird price of $295 for the full conference (for NGS members, the non-member price for early birds is $80 higher(. For those attending virtually, the “Online at Home” price is $215 for NGS members.

 Early-bird registration for the conference closes on March 31. For more information about the conference and to register, go to https://www.ngsgenealogy.org/conferences.