WSGS 2014 Conference Arlington, Washington Day 3 and 4

Got up early and unhooked from the services, drove to the conference center early to find a level parking spot as the refrigerator got pretty warm the day before, then we had breakfast in the parking lot as it filled up. Watching all the volunteers was great also. Our cousin Ardys Vaughn parked right next to us and the Historical Records Project van was on the other side of us.
Josh Taylor was the first speaker on Saturday, his topic was Evaluating and Documenting Online Sources. His message was that URL's change so document the web site owner as this will not change.

 My next class was by Steven Morrison titled: Start Writing Your Ancestors Legacy Depends upon it. I have heard that many genealogists want to finish their research before they do the writing, but that might never happen. So start writing now.

Next was lunch a barbeque of hamburgers, potato salad and chips. It was interesting that we all picked the same chips on our table. They also had us tear our meal ticket in half, as the second half was for desert, an ice cream vendor set up his mobile pedal freezer in the parking lot and we got our choice of ice cream bars, ice cream sandwiches, ice cream cones or frozen bars.
Before lunch was a group picture of all the attendees in the hall by the auditorium.
After lunch was Josh again, his topic now was The Web, the World and YOU (Advanced Internet Researching), where he told about researching with his grandmother and finally finding his immigrant ancestor.
My next class was by Margie Beldin in the AHS Commons titled Anything but Genealogy: Non Genealogy Software for the Genealogist, and Margie is a wiz at showing these programs and how they can make your life easier.

In the Commons was this picture, and so I took a photo of it also.

Last session was Josh again titled Putting it Together: A Case Study, where he wrapped up all the research to finally find his immigrant ancestor.
Next the conference center emptied out very fast and we headed down the hill to a service station that had a big sign Propane as one of our tanks was empty, but got there too late for them to fill propane tanks, so off on I-5 on our way to Ocean Shores.  Saw the Space Needle on our way through Seattle.

Got into Ocean Shores about 10:30, hooked up electricity and went to bed. Got up next morning and got the propane tank filled, and back to our lot at Ocean Shores. The deer are very tame there (no shooting area).

You can see days 1 and 2 here

WSGS 2014 Conference Arlington, Washington Day 1 and 2

My sister Jacque Lane and I were at a campground in the North Cascades National Park about 100 miles from Arlington, Washington, and we headed to Arlington after breakfast. We headed for the Smoky Point RV Park, and had lunch and took a shower before we went to the WSGS board meeting at the Quality Inn breakfast nook. After the meeting we went to the Skookum Brewery for dinner and to get our packets for the conference.

The photo above and below are the people filing into the Byrnes Performing Arts Auditorium.

Soon after this photo was taken Ruth Caesar, President of the Stillaguamish Valley Genealogical Society introduced the Mayor of Arlington, Washington to welcome us to Arlington, Washington. If you look close you can see Shirley Penna-Oakes and Delma McLean in the front of this photo.

Eric Strochein taught four classes in the auditorium: The Foundations of Genealogy: Using Direct Evidence, Using Direct and Indirect Evidence: The Importance of Methodical Evidence Evaluation, Using Direct and Indirect Evidence: Correlating and Analyzing Seemingly Unrelated Evidence, and Indirect and Negative Evidence Case Study. I only went to the first three and then I went to the Palatine Immigrants: Tracing and Locating 18th Century German Immigrants Online. by Luana Darby.

Lunch was after Eric's second class, a box lunch at the Arlington High School Commons. Look close and you can see Cindi of Cindi's List in purple just right of center.

This was Frank and Delma McLean manning the WSGS booth.

After the Palatine class we had about an hour to visit the vendors, or walk around to get out the kinks of sitting most of the day. I did visit the Historical Records Project and got to meet Amber Raney the person I have been E-Mailing for about a year about the Scribe program to index the millions of records on the Digital Archives. Next was the evening banquet and the WSGS Annual Meeting. They had a wonderful buffet dinner for us. Then Mike McKinnon took the podium to start the meeting. Roger Newman the WSGS Secretary read the minutes and Kathryn Bowen did the Treasurers report.

Roxanna Lowe Recognitions chairman handed out the volunteer awards.

Donna Potter Phillips from Eastern Washington Genealogical Society got one, as a surprise from the Tri Cities Genealogical Society.

Our two volunteer awards were for Lola McCreary who did not make it to Arlington and Shirley Penna-Oakes.

Although there was 38 volunteer awards only eight of the volunteers were there. Ruth Caesar the Stillaguamish Valley Genealogical Society was really surprised. Steve Morrison our EWGS speaker for our October Seminar was also honored along with Donna and Shirley.

Next was the award for the best Genealogical Society Website, won by the South King County Genealogical Society, presented by Virginia Majewski.

Next was Bonnie MacDonald our retiring newsletter editor, and Donna Potter Phillips and Charles Hansen the new WSGS Bloggers, that will try to do as good a job as Bonnie has done for the last four and a half years. We need help so we need more bloggers.

Next Ruth Caesar presented Eric and Karen Stroschein with awards for all the hard work they did in organizing this years WSGS conference.

Last was the Keynote speech by D. Joshua Taylor talking about how to get generation Y interested in Genealogy.

You can see days 3 and 4 here .