It’s almost June, and for me that means conference! And this year it really is a “season” as I have two conferences coming up – and I seriously need to get my behind in gear and prepare for them both.

Jamboree!

The Southern California Genealogical Society is celebrating its 50th birthday this year at Jamboree 2019, May 31 – June 2 at the Burbank Marriott. This will be my fourth year attending Jamboree and in those four years I’ve gone from nervously slipping in, feeling like a know-nothing, to . . . well, blogging about it! I usually go into Jamboree with some knotty problem in mind and choose sessions that I hope will help me progress down the road to a solution. This year my mission is less genealogy-focused and more practical.

William Kenton, George William Kenton, Charles Henry Kenton

This is one of our family’s most treasured photographs. The little boy is my great-grandfather, George William Kenton. He’s flanked by his father and his grandfather. Charles Kenton, my second great-grandfather, managed the general store in the photo. It’s on a street corner in Philadelphia, but we’ve never found out where or whose store it was. Someday I imagine I’ll have to page through the appropriate Philadelphia city directory to see if I can find it. The photo above is a scan of a color Xerox (remember those?) but this spring, during a massive organization and clean-out, I finally found the original tucked in a file folder in my mother’s house. I may have screeched when I opened that folder.

Jamboree has an amazing exhibit hall and there are usually several vendors who perform advanced photo restoration. I’ve always wanted to be able to bring this photo to the conference and see what they can do with it. At the very least I’d like to get rid of the tear and fold marks, which are part of the original photo, not the Xerox. So watch this space! Maybe we’ll get a great “after” photo!

Another Jamboree highlight for me is the booth of the Antelope Valley Genealogical Society. That may seem strange, since I don’t do any California research, nor do I live in the Antelope Valley. But the folks from Antelope Valley always bring interesting materials from their collections to share at their table. One year it was big books of maps from Pennsylvania including detailed plans of the village of Maytown, with names of households (my ancestors included) indicated on each home. I always enjoy browsing their booth.

Of course, Jamboree is really about the lectures. Without a specific research goal this year, I’m planning to enjoy all the interesting sessions that I’ve had to bypass in the past. I love history, and I’m going to immerse myself in stories and case studies that might not pertain to my genealogy, but still fascinate me. And honestly, it’s kind of good that this year’s Jamboree will be more relaxed for me, because two weeks later I head up to Sacramento for June’s second genealogy conference.

The International German Genealogy Partnership is having their 2019 International German Genealogy Conference in Sacramento, California this year, from June 15-17 at the Hyatt Regency. The Partnership is an organization of member groups (Partners) from all over the world dedicated to German genealogical research. Since half of my ancestors come from Germany, and I have yet to really delve into German research, I’m super excited that I’ll be able to attend.

In Sacramento I’ll definitely have research goals and I’m sure I’ll come home with my head full of information and ideas. There’s a LOT going on that weekend and the schedule is massive. I plan to arrive very early on Saturday and hopefully have a couple of hours to get the lay of the land and make some plans. I definitely want to become more familiar with German geography and migration patterns, and some lessons in reading and translating records would be great as well. With so many sessions to choose from, the only problem will be when two lectures I’m interested in are scheduled at the same time. (But that’s what the syllabus is for, right?)

So I’ll be kicking off this summer with some serious genealogical immersion, and will come home ready to take advantage of those longer days to push my family tree deeper into the past. Let conference season begin!