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In This
Issue:
1. Latest News About the
Conference
2. DNA Tracks Attracting National
Attention
3. Special Events
4. Program-Speaker
Highlights
5. Articles by (and News About) Our
Speakers
6.
Other Attractions Near Portland
7. There is Still Time
to Volunteer
8. News from the Participating Societies and
Committees
9. Registration Information
10. About this
E-zine
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1. Latest News About The
Conference:
The Conference
Hotel is Filled!
The rooms at Conference Hotel – The Portland
Holiday Inn by the Bay – are now completely filled. But don’t despair – there are good
rooms available at nearby hotels. The Fairfield Inn at 340
Park Avenue in Portland is offering rooms at $79, with continental
breakfast, but only until March 1st.
Call 1-800-228-2800 or 207-871-0611 to make reservations. There are other nearby
hotels, as well, and there is still ample parking near the Conference
Hotel. Send an email to
john@konvalinka.com if you need
more specific information and email Nancy Daniels -- nancy.daniels@comcast.net --
if you'd like more information on sharing a room.
Early Registration Deadline coming
up!
Remember,
your registration must be postmarked BEFORE 1 March to qualify for the $99
full conference price. After
that, the price goes up to $125. And we expect that all of
the special events will be filled well before 1
March.
Your early
registration will also help us with space planning, printing requirements
and other important details.
They're Coming from Near and
Far!
While it's
gratifying to receive registrations from as far away as California, it's
also nice to receive notes like this one, with accompanied a
registration from Maine:
"I’m looking forward to the conference.
I’m so excited to have a really terrific conference practically
in my backyard."
Schedule Changes from the Printed
Brochure:
The
revised program brochure (which reflects the Shea/Carley switch announced
in an earlier issue of this E-zine) is now available on the Conference
website:
www.nergc.org/NERGCRegRvsdpdf.
Newspaper Publicity Campaign is in Full
Swing!
Many of you have
personally delivered (or we have mailed) Conference Press Kits to a
considerable number of newspapers in New England, including those in the
"hometowns" of our speakers and Participating
Societies.
But there is always room
for more publicity! If you have any personal contacts with editors
or other media people in your area who you feel would give the Conference
some favorable "ink" in their publications, we would be happy to mail you
a press kit to give to them (or we will mail one to the
publication if you give us the postal address information). The
Press Kit is available on the Conference website (www.nergc.org) or in "hard copy" form from
john@konvalinka.com.
[Back
to Top]
2. DNA Tracks
Attracting National Attention:
We know that DNA and Genetic Research are
providing genealogists with some powerful new tools to help break down
their brick walls. It is
interesting to see national DNA newsgroups (such as GENEALOGY-DNA-L@rootsweb.com) are publicizing the DNA tracks at
NERGC:
The New England Regional Genealogy Conference
(a joint effort of many societies) has two DNA tracks in their schedule.
For anybody in the area of Portland, Maine during March 31 - April 3, 2005 who is also
interested in Genetic Genealogy, this is a MUST PARTICIPATE
conference.
Five presenters will offer a range of
DNA-related topics:.
o
Diahan
Southard (Relative Genetics) speaking on "Verifying & Establishing Family Connections
through Genetic Genealogy"
o
Ugo A.
Perego (Sorenson), "The Power of DNA: Discovering Lost & Hidden
Relationships"
o
Bennett Greenspan (Family Tree DNA),
"Uncovering Your Roots with DNA"
o
Mary
Ann Boyle, "DNA Solution to Assumed Identity Mystery, a Case Study"
o
Robert
Charles Anderson, "Beyond Y- and mtDNA"
Dr. Bennett
Greenspan was recently interviewed by the Houston Chronicle newspaper.
You can read the interview on
the Houston Chronicle web site at http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/business/2996768
[Back to Top]
3. Special
Events:
Special Interest
Groups:
AFGS and ACGS are sponsoring the
French-Canadian interest group in Portland. Anyone belonging to a
French-Canadian Genealogical Society, or anyone with French-Canadian
ancestry or anyone who just wants to come is welcome. In other words - EVERYONE IS
WELCOME! We will meet informally, talk about issues that people bring up, eat, chat and
generally have lots of fun. Plan to attend. You will have a good time!!
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The enthusiasm continues to grow for
these informal mini-gatherings which will be held on the first night of
the Conference—Thursday at 7:30 pm—on a wide range of topics. These
get-togethers provide a great opportunity to meet conference participants
and speakers with similar interests.
These are the Special Interest
Groups that have been organized so far:
Cemetery Research, Court Records, Eastern
Woodland Indian Group, English Records, Federal Records NARA, French
Canadian Research and Scottish
Research...
...And continue to check
the website for new groups and let us know of any special interests you’d
like to be sure are covered -- and if you’d like to help organize or
participate in leading a special interest group. please contact Sherry Gould: sherrygould@direcway.com or Donna Walcovy: kona@konadesigns.com.
Donna also asks:
If you think you might be interested in
attending one of the Special Interests Groups, would you please contact
the host(ess) so we can have an idea about how many to expect.
That way we can assign specific rooms for the gatherings of the Special
Interest Groups and let you know in the March issue of the NERGC
Newsletter where each gathering will be located. Signs will also
be posted at Registration.
If you can't decide, that's OK, you can pop
into more than one gathering. Contacting the leader of a Special
Interest Group saying you'd like to attend does not mean you have to
attend. Remember, we're just trying to get an idea of how many are
interested so we can make room assignments.
Society
Fair:
The Massachusetts Genealogical
Council (MGC) will have a table at the Society Fair. MGC is
an umbrella organization representing both individuals and state
organizations. One of its leading functions is to represent concerns
of genealogists in government forums. MGC works to preserve and
protect state and local records and to guard the rights of all
researchers' access to public records. Stop by MGS' table and learn
about its one day seminar to be held
in July.
[Back to Top]
4.
Program-Speaker Highlights:
Jeanne
Gendreau Carley, CGRS, who is
speaking on "The 1704 French & Indian Raid on Deerfield (Mass.):
Tracking Descendants of Captives and Captors" is a descendant from both
the French military officers and an English captive. She is also a former journalist (a
feature writer for the New York Times and other newspapers and magazines
in this country and in London) and a public relations officer for
colleges, schools and a symphony orchestra. She was born and raised in
Minnesota and educated at Marquette University College of Journalism (BS)
and postgraduate work in California, New York and London colleges. She has lived in New England (on
Cape Cod) since 2000.
In addition to the information in an earlier
issue about Walter Hickey (who is speaking on “Getting the MOST
from Census Records”), we just received this testimonial from someone who
knows him well:
In great demand as a lecturer, Archives
Specialist Walter Hickey is our golden key to NARA records. With an unrivalled command of
genealogical uses of Waltham and Pittsfield holdings such as alien
registrations, naturalizations, passenger lists and census records, he has
entertained New England audiences for more than a decade with his often
irreverent and always informative presentations. While working at the Pittsfield
facility, Walter devised the index to the New York passenger records, one
of the most used set of records held by NARA. Walter has trained countless
volunteers at both facilities and has been instrumental in turning NARA's
Northeast facilities into some of the best research destinations in New
England. His article on nineteenth century naturalization records at
Waltham recently was published in the Fall, 2004, issue of PROLOGUE and is
available online at: www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2004/fall/genealogy_2004_fall.htm
[Back to
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5. Articles by (and News
About) Our Speakers:
·
Pamela
S. Eagleson’s award winning
article in the 2004 National Genealogical Society’s Family History Writing
Contest –“The Art, Trade, and Mystery of a Mariner: Captain William Greenway of
Philadelphia, Mariner and Patriot” – appears in the December 2004 issue
(Vol. 92 #4) of the NGS Quarterly. Pam will be speaking at NERGC on
“You’ve Dug ‘em Up, Now What?
The Account of a Winning Entry in the NGS Family History Writing
Contest”.
·
George
F. Sanborn Jr., FASG and Helen Ullmann co-authored the three-part article
entitled, "Some Descendants of Robert Mason of Boston, Massachusetts,"
that appeared in the October, 2003, April and July, 2004, issues of "The
New Hampshire Genealogical Record".
·
Patricia L. Odiorne, who will be speaking at
NERGC on “Researching Your Maine Ancestors”, recently updated her slide
talk titled "In the Footsteps of the Pilgrims" to include are images of
St. Swithun's Church in Winchester, England and the church in Horsley
which are associated with Stephen Hopkins, and of the church at Great
Amwell, England where the family of Elizabeth Walker, wife of Richard
Warren, attended services. These locations were first confirmed and
published in The American Genealogist (Vol. 73 [1998] and Vol. 78 [2003]),
articles by Caleb Johnson and Edward Davies,
respectively.
Also, for the Southwick Historical Society,
Inc., Pat is author of an ongoing series of articles about Southwick,
Massachusetts families that have been published in the magazine
Southwoods A Journal for
Country Living. Included are
stories and family histories about some local members of the Legate,
Loomis, Nicholson, Moore, Hunt, Wheeler, Cannon, Holcomb, and Bartlett
families.
================
As we become aware of other published articles
by our Conference speakers, we will list them in future issues of the
E-zine. To be sure we don’t
miss any, please tell us about any recent articles you know
about.
[Back to
Top]
6. Other Attractions
Near Portland:
Not
far from Portland, the Maine State Archives in Augusta “maintains
approximately 95 million pages of official State records considered to be
permanently valuable. The earliest dates from 1639.” Many of these records can be
useful to genealogists researching in Maine – and the Archives has a
number of online resources at www.state.me.us/sos/arc which
can help focus your research and prepare you for a trip to the
Archives.
An informative article about the Archives
appears in the January 7, 2005 (Vol. 7, No.1) issue of the New England
Historic Genealogical Society’s eNews, edited by Rod D.
Moody and Valerie Beaudrault, which we quote (in part) with their
permission:
Maine State Archives
http://www.state.me.us/sos/arc
The Maine State Archives has a number of online
resources available to individuals researching their family history. Links
to some of these resources may be found under the Online Services header
on the home page. Click on the Archives Interactive link to open the
database search page. Most of
these databases are indexes to the records held by the Archives. They
include legislation proposed or enacted between 1820 and 1860, early court
cases from York, Washington, and Kennebec counties, the town and city
microfilm collection, miscellaneous municipal records filed with the
state, and maps. You will also find links to marriage and death databases
under the Online Services header. The marriage database index covers the
period January 1, 1892 to December 31, 1996, while the death database
index covers the period from January 1, 1960 through December 31, 1996.
A nice feature of this website is that there is
more than one way to access and search the databases. You can utilize the
website's search feature, as described above, or you can download the data
files of selected vital records and indexes by clicking on the Databases
for Downloading link on the home page. Most of the databases are in
MS-Access file format. The vital records databases are an exception as
they are text files. Instructions for downloading are found in the
introductory material on the page. These downloadable databases include
the vital records databases described above; the Courts 1696 - 1854
database, which is an index to early cases from the York County Court of
Common Pleas (1696-1760), the Kennebec County Supreme Court (1799-1854),
and the Washington County District Court (1839-1846); and a database of
maps from 1674 to 1989.
Those of you with Maine ancestors who fought in
the Civil War should explore the resources on the Archives' Civil War Page
(http://wwwstate.me.us/sos/arc/archives/military/civilwar/civilwar.htm).
From this page you can access summary unit histories; regimental,
municipal, and other related correspondence; and officers' photos. And,
those of you with Revolutionary War ancestors can look for them in the
Revolutionary War Land Grants and Pension Applications index (http://wwwstate.me.us/sos/arc/archives/military/revlist.htm).
There are many useful resources for the family
history researcher on the Maine State Archives website. Visit http://www.state.me.us/sos/arc/.
(To subscribe to NEHGS enews, visit the
website: http://lb.bcentral.com/ex/manage/subscriberprefs.aspx?customerid=6664)
Transportation to
Portland:
Portland is easily accessible by
car (mostly on I-95 and I-295 into Portland), and there is ample free
parking at our Conference hotel, the Holiday Inn by the
Bay.
AMTRAK also has good service into Portland from
Boston and points south.
Here is the website link for fares and
schedules of the AMTRAK Downeaster:
www.thedowneaster.com.
This link shows all of the places that the
Downeaster stops: www.thedowneaster.com/station_information.php.
This makes it an ideal transportation method for those traveling to NERGC
from the Boston area or some parts of New Hampshire.
Also, the Conference Hotel is near the Portland
Airport and Bus Terminal and
offers courtesy vans for transportation to and from Portland International
Jetport, Amtrak Train Station and Bus Terminals. Look at www.innbythebay.com/amenities.html.
It is under the section marked "Hotel
Features".
[Back to
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7.
There is Still Time to Volunteer
From Ruth Wellner,
Volunteer Chair:
The best conferences are
always the result of great volunteers. So, why not become one and be a
part of the great success that NERGC 2005 will be?
Please email me at rqw@wellner.org. or drop me a note
(to Ruth Wellner, 20 Battles Rd, Westminster, MA 01473) and tell me
how you’ll be able to help.
Please be sure to include your name, phone number, email, and the
days and times you could be available.
The following areas are
where we need volunteers: Registration desk (sign in the
attendees), banquet ticket collectors (collect tickets at the door, see
that the speaker has what he/she needs), room monitors (make sure the
speaker has was he/she needs, introduce speaker if no has been designated
to do this), vendor hall monitors (see to needs of vendors and aid
conferees in finding vendors) and "gophers" (someone to run errands and
see to unforeseen needs). Please give as much time as you
can. We are depending on you and we know you will have a lot of fun doing
it! Thank you!
Publicizing the
Conference:
With less than two months until the
Conference begins we have a continuing need for volunteers help to help
distribute publicity material to your local libraries, archives and Family
History Centers – and to check back at these facilities periodically to
re-stock them if necessary.
We
have a particular need to personally deliver flyers and brochures to LDS
Family History Centers throughout New England, because many of them
do not have readily available mailing addresses. Your help here will
be particularly appreciated!
Please
send an email to john@konvalinka.com if you can help
in your area and we will send you a supply of Conference brochures and
flyers.
Ancestors Road
Show:
The NERGC 2005 can still use
additional skilled genealogists to help staff the Ancestors Road Show
on Friday and Saturday,1 and 2 April. NERGC attendees will have the
opportunity to sign up to spend 15 minutes with a skilled genealogist to
review and ask for direction on one family history roadblock that they are
struggling with. If you are able to commit an hour or
more to volunteer to help with this exciting and rewarding event
please e-mail Allison L. Ryall, Ancestors Road Show Chair, at allison@allisonryall.com.
Be sure to include your area of expertise and the time(s) that you are
available to help with the Ancestors Road Show.
Special Interest
Groups:
Please contact Sherry Gould: sherrygould@direcway.com or
Donna Walcovy: kona@konadesigns.com if you can
help with any of the Special Interest Groups that have formed thus far, or
if you would like to organize an additional group.
Conference
Newsletter:
Deb Esposito looking for a volunteer to work
with her on the newsletter which is published each day of the Conference
to inform the participants of any changes or additions to the
schedule. Ideally, this volunteer would become the newsletter chair
for the next Conference. Some
MS Word experience is necessary.
Please contact Deb at
978-345-2459 or Deb.esposito@shackleton.org
or espositodeb@comcast.net.
[Back to
Top]
8. News
from the Participating Societies and
Committees:
American French Genealogical
Society:
Don't forget, AFGS will have the Drouin Fiche
at the conference. If you are
stuck in Quebec you might get some help
with the fiche. The Red Drouin books
will also be for sale along with
other books that will help you with your
research.
Rhode Island Genealogical
Society:
At the Rhode Island Genealogical Society
(RIGS)'s booth they plan to have our Rhode Island Cemetery
computerized data base up and running. This has 3071 Rhode Island
Cemeteries out of some 3200 cemeteries in the data base, containing some
426,000 gravestone inscriptions which represents about 95% of all Rhode
Island gravestones. In addition, they expect to have the books and
research material that RIGS has marketed for some 4 or 5 years. These
8 books and a CD have been perennial favorites.
Maine Genealogical
Society:
If NERGC whets your appetite for more
research in Maine, mark your calendars:
On Saturday, October 8, the
Maine Genealogical Society will host its annual conference at Kennebec
Valley Community College in Fairfield, Maine. The conference will offer several
day long tracks including one designed for beginning genealogists. Local, regional, and nationally
known speakers will participate including Dick Eastman and Walter Hickey
of NARA. Registration
fees: $10 for members of MGS;
$15 for non-members. Details,
directions, and registration information at www.maineroots.org
Connecticut
Professional Genealogists Council:
CPGC will have its own booth and will also
'man' the NERGC 2007 booth, where you can learn the details about the next
NERGC #9! -- the next New England Regional Genealogical Conference, which
will be held in Connecticut in 2007.
Exhibit Hall:
Vicky Ryan and Jim Holmes report that Exhibit
space is almost sold out -- there are only a few booths (8 x 10
feet) still available. To see a floor plan of the Exhibit Hall,
go to: www.nergc.org/floor.htm.
For more information or to reserve remaining booth space contact Jim
Holmes: jimholms@cs.com or Vicky Ryan: vrya@prodigy.net.
Remember, the Exhibit Hall will open to
conference registrants and other shoppers (the general public) at 6:00
Thursday evening and there will be "unopposed exhibitor times" throughout
the conference between lectures and meals for everyone to
browse.
Publicity:
Our bulk mailing and emailing campaigns
continue: to societies, repositories, online services, mailing lists
and APG members and others who will be interested.
And (as mentioned above) Press Kits have been
delivered to many newspapers and other publications in New England,
including the "hometown" newspapers of Participating Societies and
Conference speakers.
YOU CAN HELP! Can you arrange for some publicity
or news about the Conference in any magazine or newsletter where you might
have contacts? The Press
Release is on the NERGC website: www.nergc.org/press_kit.htm
and we can provide any
additional information you think would be helpful.
AND:
Can you help us gain a wider circulation for this Conference E-zine
– by emailing it to all members of your Society – and to any others who
you think will be interested in the Conference? We already have over 200
subscribers and would like to double that number for the remaining issues.
FINALLY:
If you have ideas and suggestions for additional publicity, please
email us (john@konvalinka.com
or troutbrook48@yahoo.com) Many thanks!
Room
Sharing:
Nancy Daniels has graciously offered
to provide a "bare bones" roommate matching service for people who
would like to share a hotel room at the Conference. If you would
like to take advantage of this service, send an email to nancy.daniels@comcast.net
[Back to
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9.
Registration Information:
Gratia Mahony, Registration Chair,
reports that the pace of registrations is brisk, and continues well ahead
of previous NERGConferences.
The Conference brochure and registration form
is available for download at the Conference website www.nergc.org. Here you can see the full
conference program and the many lectures and special events to choose
from.
If anyone would like a brochure and
registration form mailed to them, please contact Melinde Sanborn: melinde44@comcast.net.
[Back to Top]
10. About
this E-zine:
This e-zine is sent to you at your request or because
of your involvement
in NERGC 2005.
This and earlier issues of this e-zine are available
on the NERGC Website www.nergc.org.
We welcome
your thoughts and suggestions for items to appear in future issues.
We also encourage you to email any questions you may have about the
Conference to the Conference planners. We will try to answer them
here and by email. Please
address all questions and comments to john@konvalinka.com
Please
feel free to share this newsletter with others. Permission to email,
copy, print is granted.
If you received this newsletter from a
friend and you'd like to receive future issues directly:
a) Send a
message to: john@konvalinka.com
b) Include
"NERGC" in the subject -- to bypass spam filters
c) Put "subscribe" in
the body of the message
That's it. Your address will NOT be
shared and there will be no advertising as a part of the
e-zine.
[Back to
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© 2005 New England Regional Genealogical Conference
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