BYU Conference on Family History & Genealogy ~ First Impressions

Hello wonderful readers! I’m here at the BYU Conference on Family History & Genealogy. The conference began on Tuesday and it's already Thursday as I sit at my laptop writing this blog post. My days have been very full of classes, meet-ups with fellow genealogy bloggers, walking around the vendor hall, and more.

Yesterday, I published a blog post about the myFamily History Youth Camp, which I visited on Tuesday. If you'd like to read that post, click HERE.

Today, I'd like to start my series of blog posts about my experiences here at the BYU Conference on Family History & Genealogy.

It’s my first time attending this conference and I have to say that it’s fabulous. The conference is very well-run and organized.

The theme for this year's conference is "Strengthening Ties That Bind Families Together Forever."

As I walked through the front doors of the BYU Conference Center, very helpful and friendly staff members were sitting behind the front desk ready to register and assist conference attendees. Several times during the conference I've been back to ask questions, one of which was how many attendees are here at this year's conference. I was told that 750 people registered. That's not including the 62 youth that are attending the myFamily History Youth Camp.

To give you a sense of what the conference looks like, here are some photos.

Here's a display that sits right across from the main desk.

The main hallway is lined with vendors.

This is Janet Hovorka, Development Director of Family Chart Masters. She's also the author of the Zap The Grandma Gap books and workbooks. I was thrilled to finally meet her in person as we've been online friends for some time now.

The class offerings at this conference are amazing! I can't list all of the classes here on my blog. The list would be too long. But here is a list of the conference tracks.

• Beginner Track
• British Isles Research Track
• British Research Track
• Computers & Technology Track
• DNA Research
• FamilySearch Track
• FamilySearch Consultants Track
• Finding Stories Track
• German Research Track
• ICAPGen Track
• Immigration and Emigration Track
• International Research Track
• Land/Probate Records Track
• LDS Ancestral Research Track
• Methodology Track
• Military Records Track
• Online Research Track
• Preserving Family History Track
• Scandinavian Research Track
• Technology/Tools Track
• U.S./Canada Research Track
• Vendor Track
• Writing/Publishing Family History

Isn't this an impressive list? The classes I've attended so far have been wonderful and very informative and were taught by high-caliber instructors.

I'm so glad that I came to the BYU Conference on Family History & Genealogy. I've had a great time! I highly recommend this conference to everyone.

I'll be sharing more about the conference in future posts.

Thanks for reading!

Jana

 

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