The Genealogy Life in the Piney Woods is Amazing

View from my hotel room.

For the next few days, I am tucked away in the Piney Woods of Texas attending the 17th Annual Angelina Genealogy Conference in Lufkin, Texas. And? I'm having a fabulous time meeting new folks from Texas {and one so far from Alabama} and learning all sorts of cool research tips.

I have issues though. As soon as I picked up my registration materials and entered the Math and Sciences Building {shudder} on the Angelina College Campus where the conference is held every year, I think I'd been there all of 10 minutes and I'd already purchased books from Tejas Publications' booth. I snagged Military Bounty Land 1776-1855 and Courthouse Research for Family Historians both by Christine Rose. 

The first I picked up because I thought it'd be very helpful to me, and the second was completely an impulse buy. You'd think with just my naughty grandfathers {not to mention others}, I'd be well-versed on courthouse records, but, well, you just never know. I might learn something new. Something that might make a difference. {Surely there is a part of the courthouse in Bexar County, Texas, that my Big Paw Paw's antics and dealings are not recorded. I'll let you know when I find it.}

Then I moseyed over to Merry Baker Langlinais' booth. She's written about a 100-year-old secret in her family tree, and she has to be a very good storyteller because she had me sold on the book in 3 minutes, but just as I was going to maybe walk away and think about making another quick book purchase {Crazy talk. I know.}, she mentioned she lives in San Antonio. So, we struck up a conversation about San Antonio and come to find out she'd graduated the same year as my Dad {1955} at the same high school in San Antonio, Brackenridge High School. {What are the odds, right?}

Before I knew it, her daughter was swiping my credit card on her Square credit card reader attached to her iPhone and Merry was signing my newly purchased Silenced Only by the Dawn: A Gallant Woman and Her Carpenter. It reads, "To Caroline, whose father was my Brackenridge High School classmate! Life is amazing! Best Wishes Always, Merry Langlinais."

Is that cool or what?

So then I thought it prudent that I get away from the vendor booths as quickly as possible and find my classroom for my all day workshop on immigration and naturalization given by Trevia Wooster Beverly. And I'm glad I did. My head is ready to burst with all the information that Trevia went over. While she did include some overall stuff, she also had so many tidbits of obscure Texas information and resources.

And that's the thing I love about smaller regional conferences. I don't need a genealogy conference to give me technology-related presentations. I've got a pretty good handle on that. {Although I think going to a technology-only, non-genealogy conference would be very beneficial to me.} And I'm well beyond basic genealogy tips. And I'm not going to say I know everything there is to know about advanced search and analysis methodologies {That's a mouthful.} because there's always something new to learn. And I do get that kind of ongoing education elsewhere and in different ways.

But what I like about a smaller regional conference is that I always learn about the obscure regional resources. And you know what? Like a lot of other things, they aren't ever online. {And usually they're not on anyone's schedule to be digitized either.} And these obscure resources can be what breaks open research for myself and my clients. Not to mention at a smaller regional conference, I can meet and talk to speakers and attendees a lot more easily. And out-of-print {and not digitized} regional books can be had that are extremely hard to get anywhere else. 

And? You just never know who you're gonna meet.

Like your Dad's high school classmate who's written this intriguing book that includes a 100-year-old family secret. {Totally gonna start reading that tonight.}

Check back tomorrow when I'll share some resources that I've learned that just might be helpful to you in your research. {And hopefully I can stay away from the book vendors. Although, at least 2 more books have caught my eye...}

And? I have to agree with Merry. Life is, indeed, amazing!

~Caroline

---