Remembering Families
Happy November everyone! Wow, can you believe the holidays are upon us already??
Things have slowed down just a bit for me on the family research front since last posting. I did get a chance to go to the St. Louis Genealogy Conference back on the 14th of October. It was held at the LDS church in Chesterfield, and above all, was FREE! I was lucky enough to find out about it only a few days before it started, and got my registration in before it filled up. I was surprised to find out over 300 people had registered to attend, and it looked like most of them did!
This year's theme was "Remembering Families". I think I only saw one or two attendees around my age, but that never really bothered me. I started off the morning with Dennis Northcott's two classes - one on Finding Ancestors at the Missouri History Museum Library, and one on Researching Civil War Ancestors. I have to say, out of all the classes that day, these two were my favorite, and I couldn't wait to get started digging in to their online Genealogy and Local History Index. I can't believe I still haven't taken the time to visit the museum in person.
These two classes were followed by a simple, yet delicious lunch, served buffet-style in the gymnasium. The main course was dutch-oven stew, and wow. It reminded me a lot of the beef stew Mom makes, which is absolutely a good thing.
2017 St. Louis Genealogy Conference: Remembering Families
Then I finished up the day with two final classes - one on the Missouri State Archives, which was informative, and the final class on Getting Started Writing Your Family Stories, which was disappointing, to put it nicely. I was hoping for some tips and tricks for more creative, thoughtful writing, but instead was just presented with the standard questions of "who, what, when, where, and why".
Either way, I left the event feeling tired and overall happy I'd attended. You really couldn't beat it for a free genealogy event in my own hometown.
The next day, Mom came out to Washington and she, Casey and I went to the annual chili cookoff. We had a great time filling our bellies with chili of all flavors and consistencies, and topped it all off with giant sno-cones to cool ourselves down a bit.
That following Saturday, Casey and I went out to the cabin with Dad and the gang for some more chili (you can never have too much chili in October) and family fun. It had cooled down to a perfect day to ride the gator and sit around eating and talking by the fire pit.
Just last week I was able to finish my first two genealogy classes and was completely satisfied with my "A" and "A-". The next two begin on Monday, and I'm ready to dig back in for sure! These short winter days are sure to make for some cozy study sessions next to the fireplace! Bring it on!