FGS 2015 Is this your 1st Time?

My 1st Trip to a Family History Library Center was in Milwaukee Wisconsin! on LaGrange Avenue. 

From where I lived it took me about 45 minutes each week on a Tuesday to visit. 

I was anxious and nervous. I just arrived after living in Seattle for 3 years. So my basic research was Oral History and what I could find online. I had joined Ancestry.com in 1997. So for 6 years that is what I could do. I was far far away from any of my Ancestral Homes of Research. I was new at Genealogy. So this was another 1st step!

It was like my 1st Day of School. I had my backpack ready. Pencils sharpened, I was finally gonna be around other Family Historians and Family Researchers. Genealogist. It was Awesome!

Is this your 1st time? I was asked. Me: YeS!....


When I arrived someone was there to Greet me and Explain the usage of the place and where everything was located and reassured me they were just around the bend to answer any questions and assist me. 

Before I got started they asked if I could sign the registry and let me know there was a donation box. I happily obliged! 

In my early days of research I had got a TiP that this is where you go to actually see documents and find things you couldn't online. They had a assortment of records. All the hours of painstakingly trying to read, magnify, write notes. Stay concentrated! as well as do the "ButtDance" on those folding chairs, all the while trying to keep warm. It was Milwaukee, Wisconsin. LoL. 

I remember my 1st Day. I was in Genealogy School. 

The microfiche!!! 



that I  hadn't used since probably High School were in full effect. All lined up. Access to what genealogy sites were around during that time period. My 1st Computer was a Gateway, it was after 9-11 and I was just getting use to the new systems. That is when I would go into Walmart and get a Free AOL disc every 30 days. Then I moved up to paying every month. I can't even remember when it became FREE I was with them for so long. 

It's also were the Ladies taught me how to use Family Group Sheets. Record Logs. Which I miss and every now and then. I have to get back to using them. I need to brush up on my habits of the Genealogical Proof that I learned so early. Now it's a habit I haven't kept up with and must go over some of my work and correct as I have gotten computer savvy and lazy. 

One thing those early teachings taught me were seeds that I can continue to grow on. They were the "Golden Days" of Genealogy and those things I was taught you can never go wrong with even with today's technology.

I haven't been back to LaGrange Avenue. The Army ended up sending us elsewhere. Your Home is where the Army sends you. So If I could! 

I would like to say Thank You to the Ladies there! They had patience with me. Little did they know they were teaching me so much in their small gestures.





So if FGS2015 Conference is your 1st Time!

Go and Look at my Fellow 2015 FGS Ambassadors.

 They have some GREAT Advice on Getting Your Trip Planned for SUCCESS!

I'm taking ADVICE from All my FGS2015Ambassadors



2015FGS Ambassador Jen Baldwin  from Ancestral Breezes had a Good Plan to Follow if it's your 1st Time going to FGS Conference!! She put together a Great List of "To do Things" and How to have Success!

And

FGS2015 Ambassador Diane MacLean Boumenot of One Rhode Island Family!

You still have time to REGISTER and Get out to the Largest and Historical Moment in Time for FGS2015 Conference combined with Rootstech

February 11th - 14th. Salt Lake City!




Hurry it's Not to Late!

2015FGS Registration!




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