22 September 2008

Great speakers at the BIFHSGO conference

I've never enjoyed a family history conference so much as the British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa conference this past weekend.

The four out of town speakers, Sherry Irvine, Chris Watts, Marian Press and Gary Schroder all attracted large and attentive audiences, answered lots of questions at the end of each of their sessions and in the hallway afterwards.

For those in Toronto, don't miss Chris Watts presentation this (Monday 22 September) evening for the Toronto Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society.

Presentations by local experts Jeffrey Murray, Jane Down, Lesley Anderson, Alison Hare and Glenn Wright were also well attended. I want to especially thank Lesley Anderson who not only made a conference presentation but also chaired a session, took a turn at the consultation desk and gave another talk at the pre-conference seminar. Lesley is seemingly tireless, volunteering at the Ottawa Family History Center, teaching genealogy and computer skills for the Ottawa Catholic School Board and serving as consultant for Ancestry.ca.

Others who spoke at pre-conference sessions were June Coxon, Elizabeth Kipp, Jeanette Logan and Rick Roberts.

Many attendees went away with copies of Finding Your Canadian Ancestor's, Sherry Irvine's book, co-authored with Dave Obee, signed by Sherry and purchased from the largest stand at the marketplace, that of Global Genealogy.

I discovered a few new (to me) resources at the conference that I'll mention in upcoming posts.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

2008 is only my second showing at the BIFHSGO conference but I agree that it was better than 2007.

Anonymous said...

I completely agree with John and Eric. I have been to about six previous BIFHSGO conferences and this one had speakers who had many original and 'different' things to share with us. A hearty vote of thanks to ALL the speakers, and sincere congratulations to all the volunteers who did so much work to organise the whole event and made everything run so smoothly.
A job extremely well done.