The New England Regional Genealogical Consortium (NERGC) 2015 conference was held in Providence, Rhode Island from Wednesday, April 15 through Sunday, April 19. I attended five seminars on both Friday and Saturday, and all were fantastic.
On Friday morning I attended Donna Moughty's excellent presentation, "Navigating the Best Online Sources for Irish Research" and Cheryll Toney Holley's absorbing lecture, "Navigating New England Waters via Native American Thoroughfares." A delicious lunch with table discussions, hosted by the New England Chapter of Professional Genealogists, followed the morning presentations. I was delighted to host a table discussion on Italian Research with an engaging and convivial group. The handout for the table discussion is available from the sidebar to the right or by clicking here. In the afternoon I attended Dwight Fitch's informative presentation, "Western Frontier Settlements of Massachusetts Bay Colony 1650-1710", Edwin Strickland's scholarly "Westmoreland - Connecticut's Lost Colony" and Michael Tougias' excellent presentation and discussion of "King Philip's War in New England."
On Saturday morning I attended Michael Brophy's excellent talk on "Descendancy Research", followed by Pauline Cusson's informative lecture, "Navigating Brick Wall Research in French-Canadian Records." A delicious lunch accompanied by an engaging talk with legal genealogist Judy Russell followed the morning presentations. In the afternoon I attended Bruce Frail's instructive presentation on "Sailing through Paperwork to Order a VA Headstone" and two fascinating back-to-back lectures on DNA research led by Blaine Bettinger, "The Science Fiction Future of Genetic Genealogy" and "Using Free Third-Party Tools to Analyze Your Autosomal DNA."
The conference was a well-attended and energizing experience. It was a great deal of fun to acquire new information and tips for my genealogical research toolkit and to reconnect with my colleagues and friends. In addition, this was my first visit to Providence and I thoroughly enjoyed the city and its delights, especially the superb culinary experience. I greatly anticipate the next NERGC conference in 2017 at Springfield, Massachusetts.
