FGS Part 5

Saturday was the last day of the FGS conference.

The first morning session that I attended was "The Land Grant Processes of North Carolina and Tennessee," taught by J. Mark Lowe. I've seen him speak before and I know he's very knowledgeable on the subject. He gave a brief history of the states to help us understand how the records came to be. Then he showed how to access various catalogs and information online. I was pleased because he used Davidson County for some examples and I have a research interest there (Williamson <1830).

Session number two for me was "The Anatomy of a Will and the Records it Spawns," taught by Christine Rose. She's a big name in my book and was on my bucket list of genealogy speakers I want to see. She was great and naturally knew her subject. We looked at various portions of wills and analyzed them for clues that might indicate the existence of other records. I even learned a couple terms I had never heard.

On this day, I was able to have lunch with several bloggers and a couple of their husbands. This is one of the perks of attending a conference. Sessions are swell, but these meals with friends are all about the memories.

When everyone went back to the convention center, I played hooky and walked around Knoxville. It's a great town. There was a farmer's market, so I bought I cookie. I also took some pictures of historical buildings.

In the early evening, I attended the last session of the conference. I decided to go to Paula Stuart-Warren's "Railroads in the South: Locating Their Records and History." My interest is in Midwest railroad history, but I knew the speaker would be of benefit to me and she was! She provided lots of great leads on where to find information. She also gave a couple of web sites that my son will be interested in so this session was win-win.

For dinner, I went to a party at Missy Corley's sister's house. I hung out with some genealogy friends and met some new people, too. Missy made her grandma's taco meat recipe and a good time was had by all.

When I returned to the hotel for the night, most of the genealogists were gone from the lobby and a new crop of unfamiliar people were checking in. The conference was over.