Genealogy Happens in San Diego

Kim Harrison (left), and Michelle Enke of the planning committee surround Ron Arons who was one of speakers at the Genealogy Happens at the Genealogy Reference Desk (see my previous post of December 11th) pre-conference held in San Diego on January 7. Does it look like Kim, of Ancestry.com, is making a transition to the other side? Michelle, of the Wichita Public Library, clearly is not making the transition to convict any time soon.


Ron and the other three speakers were all interesting and informative.  The other speakers were: 
David Rencher, Director of the Libraries Division of the Family History Department, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints;
Drew Smith, Genealogy Guy  http://www.genealogyguys.com/; and
Curt Witcher, Manager, Historical Genealogy Department, Allen County (Ind.) Public Library. 
When I attend an event like this, I usually believe it was time well spent if half of the presenters are good. In this case, all four of them "hit it out of the park" on both content and presentation. Actually, I should have said all five. Bill Forsyth of Proquest presented a case study over lunch that was equally outstanding.


Look for other events planned by this committee coming in June in New Orleans, next January in Dallas and Anaheim in June of 2012. These events are scheduled on Friday before the beginning of the conferences of the American Library Association. They are very useful to both those searching their own families and library workers who help genealogy searchers.