Friday, January 21, 2011

My Jamboree Experience 2010

Genealogy Jamboree is a premier event of the year for many genealogists. One reason why it is so well attended is because it is so well run. I offer the analogy of how well taught a class is that I am currently taking on Historical Geography. Professor Larson has been teaching the course for 20 years so his presentation is well organized and refined. When somebody has a passion for something and knows it well, they make it a great experience for others. This is true of the folks at Southern California Genealogy Society who managed effectively 1700 participants including 500 first timers, and their passion for the event and for genealogy shows by their excellent communication with attendees and through their extentive program offerings throughout the year.

Some of the workshops I attended at the Jamboree were:
-Strategies for Finding Living Relatives
             -Using the Internet to find French-Canadian Ancestors
                          -Social Networking including the use of Twitter.

I also attended a Blogger Summit which featured polished bloggers sharing their ideas in a panel discussion format. Once I used the geography analogy above, I realized how closedly related the two topics are: genealogy and geography. One informs the other.

Historical geography covers the culture and the landscape of the area(s) being studied and offers clues to the genealogist about what factors our ancestors had to face in the environments they lived in. The whole experience of attending a major genealogy event like this one was exciting for the educational and sharing aspects but also just be a part of the energy of like-minded people.