National Genealogical Society Conference 2015

The National Genealogical Society (NGS) 2015 conference will be held in St. Louis, Missouri on 13-16 May. NGS was founded in 1903 and aims to serve and grow the genealogical community by providing education and training, fostering increased quality and standards, and promoting access to and preservation of genealogical records.[1] The yearly NGS conference is probably the one to attend for industry professionals and keen genealogy enthusiasts.

Among many other events and exhibitions, the conference features a large number of lecture 'tracks', with each track having talks that focus on different aspects of the same thematic area. Last week, NGS released the topics and speakers for 2015. There will be five lectures/workshops specifically related to Irish genealogy:

Immigration, Thursday, 4pm

A Methodology for Irish Emigration to North America, David Rencher, AG, CG, FIGRS, FUGA. Lacking a location in Ireland to begin research may necessitate learning to use the sources and methodologies for solving the problem with Irish resources. **Live streaming, see link at the end of article for more details**

Immigration & Migration, Friday, 8am

Navigating the Best Online Sources for Irish Research, Donna Moughty. Think you can’t do Irish research because all of the records burned? Although the 1922 fire was devastating, many surviving records are now available online.

Immigration & Migration, Friday, 9:30am

Unpuzzling Ireland’s Church Records, Donna Moughty. No records or burned records? Navigate through the various religious sources to guide you to the origins of your Irish ancestor.

Immigration & Migration, Friday, 11am

Scots-Irish Research, Robert McLaren. Learn who the Scots-Irish are and are not, how to get started, and good sources for research, both online and elsewhere.

Workshop, Saturday, 8-11am

Workshop on Irish Law Libraries, David Rencher, AG, CG, FIGRS, FUGA S409. This workshop will outline the records available in a law library for conducting Irish research; cover the proper source citation methodologies for citing Irish legal records; outline the available web resources and discuss the major libraries in the US and Ireland, including the Smurfit Collection at St. Louis University Library in St. Louis. Two-hour workshop with additional fee of $25.00.

Some of the lectures will be live streamed, see the conference websites for more details. For a full list of lectures, click here to read the conference brochure.

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[1] National Genealogical Society. About NGS. Year Unknown.
http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/cs/about_ngs: accessed 13 November 2014.