Extras gleaned from an in-person genealogy conference

 

                                                                                 Halifax Citadel at dusk 

New discoveries, databases and ways of researching abound in the world of genealogy. Maybe that's why there are so many conferences. In the old days, before we were all forced into the virtual world, conferences were something to be attended at the venue, usually a hotel/conference centre set up. In North America most of the big name conferences were in the US, which just made sense given their larger population. The only problem with that was that the records discussed and the methods illustrated were skewed towards American research. A lot of those don't come into play when it comes to Canada.

In an effort to beef up Canadian genealogy conferences, two Ontario based genealogists planned to hold conferences in different cities across the country. The first conference that got off the ground was in Halifax. So what if that was on the other side of the country for me, it was a great excuse to visit a city where I had friends and family. Besides, the topics were Canadian!

The conference sessions were good, but after hours activities hadn't been planned. Naively I had assumed that would be something laid on for those who were staying at the conference hotel, the Lord Nelson. So the first night I wandered into the hotel bar looking for a drink and a meal which is where I met up with another attendee, Barbara Rae-Venter. She had fascinating tales to tell about her foray into the world of investigative genetic genealogy. I remember her talking about the Lisa Project, an investigation that she covers in her recently released book, I Know Who You Are: How an Amateur DNA Sleuth Unmasked the Golden State Killer and Changed Crime Fighting Forever.

I'm reminded of many of the things she talked about that evening in 2017 when reading the book. At that time she had either not yet started the investigation into the Golden State Killer or was only in the preliminary stages of it. Still, what she told me about other cases she had been involved with opened my eyes to the possibilities of using DNA as an investigative tool. Meeting with Barbara was also illustrative of the networking possible at in-person events although that was the one and only time that happened for me at that conference. I wonder if that's one of the reasons why no more of those across Canada summits ever got off the ground.