The NGS Conference was Fantastic!

 I attended the National Genealogy Society conference last week. It was very convenient, as it was only a 15-20 minute drive from my home, or about half of what I do most mornings! It was my first time attending, my first ‘big’ conference, and a great experience!

I learned so much. There were so many knowledgeable speakers there with so much information to share! I had a couple of big take-aways from the conference that i think will help me immensely, and picked up some smaller tips as well.

First, I able to see some of the experts in action and follow their thought process in solving am ‘unsolveable' problem. Tough there may never be a perfect resolution to a particular problem, that doesn’t mean it can’t be solved. Too often, I run into a ‘dead end’ when I’ve researched and give up. For example, I’ve found a death record for my great-great grandfather and learned he was born in Bristol, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. There is no mention of parents on the death record, and unfortunately, his 1822 birth took place before births were recorded in Bucks County. Now what? Well, for the last ten years, my answer has been to move on to another line. How can I ever find his parents, let alone prove them? Now I know that the lack of a birth record does not mean I can’t build a case using other records. I just have to know where to look and how to put the case together!

The other big take-away I got?—I need to SHARE my research! It does no one any good if I’ve spent all these years researching only to keep my new-found knowledge locked away in my computer! I sat in on several writing sessions, and picked up lots of good tips, but none more important than this—It doesn’t matter WHERE I share my research—a family book or newsletter, a local genealogy publication, a national publication, or even a blog post—but it is important that I write SOMEthing and share it SOMEwhere!

I picked up some very specific tips to help me with my particular research problems by wandering the exhibition hall and talking to individual speakers at their booths. I stopped by James Beidler's booth after his session on ‘Beginning Your Search for Pennsylvania Roots to get some help with the great-great-grandfather I mentioned above. He suggested trying to find Grandpa in the freeholders tax records and hoping that a potential father lived nearby, then searching for a baptism record. Then I stopped by the St. Louis County Library’s booth after attending Dan Lillienkamp’s session on Ortssippenbücher to get advice on finding the towns my German ancestors were from. I now know to look for church records, as they were probably more detailed that the civil records.

I also had a big tech problem resolved! Many years ago I had an account on a site called Gencircles, and I’d loaded a few trees to it—long before I was as careful a researcher as I am now. I know that those trees were at best, incomplete, and at worst, possibly wrong! In the meantime, Gencircles was purchased by My Heritage. Though I could see the trees, I was unable to access them. I no longer have access to the email account that I used to create the trees with Gencircles, so i couldn’t just reset my password. I’ve been trying for a few years to get access unsuccessfully, apparently not able to explain my problem to My Heritage support in a way that they could understand what I was trying to achieve. But I stopped by their booth this past week, explained my problem, and within 15 minutes I had access to my old trees! Awesome! Thank you, My Heritage!

One more thing that happened at the conference—I sat down in one lecture hall and started chatting with the person next to me before the session started. She mentioned that she drove down from a small town about 2 hours away and that she was originally from the small town that I grew up in. We graduated from the same high school! In fact, her older sister graduated with me! After talking a bit more, something clicked, and I pulled out my iPad. I browsed while she chatted, and then asked her her maiden name again. I thought so—you are in my tree! It turns out, we are distantly related by marriage. Her cousin was married to my thrid cousin once removed!

I had a great experience at the conference and can’t wait to do it again. If you ever get the chance to go, you definitely should! You may just meet a cousin!

52 Ancestors in 2018 - Week 35: Back to School

 ​Summer is coming to a close, and this week our theme is ‘Back To School’! I could talk about one of the many teachers in my family, but, the theme brings to mind memories of my ‘back-to-school’s and of my elementary school in particular. Milton School was attended not only by me, but also by my sisters and brother as well as my dad, and presumably his twin brother and older sisters. I recently found a collection of old yearbooks and PTA handbooks among my papers. Here is the cover of the Milton School PTA handbook from 1961-1962.

Milton School PTA Handbook Cover
1961-1962

Milton was an old brick schoohouse, originally built in the early 1900s as a 4-room school. It was added onto more than once through the years to accomodate an increasing population. The school was originally heated by a coal-burning boiler that was still in use when I attended, and I can remember the hills of coal and being scolded to stay away from them. Here is a picture of some of my teachers from Milton. The teacher in the center, Mrs. Pyle, was my favorite, not only because she was a kind and caring teacher, but also because I had her for two consecutive years. I’m not sure who the other teachers are, but I believe the one on the right is Mrs. Starkey, our music teacher. That may be one of our student teachers on the left.

Milton School Teachers ca 1964
photo taken by KM Kolk
digitized 2018

 As the school-age population dwindled through the years, the school became obsolete, and was closed after the 1983-1984 school year. The building has become somewhat famous since closing because it has gained the reputation of being haunted. The story goes that a little girl was murdered by the janitor, who was then found hanged in the basement. This supposedly happened in the 30s, but I’ve never believed it. That would have been about the time my dad was there, as well as parents of many of my friends, and I never heard even a whisper about it! The building hosted ghost tours at one time and was featured on an episode of ScyFy’s Ghost Hunters as well as an episode American Hauntings podcast (Season 1- episode 3). The building was also the site of an investigation by Ghost Research Society.

Milton School was given a second life when an art glass company bought the building in the 1990s and used it as a factory for their work. About ten years ago, the building was revived once again as The Milton Schoolhouse, a small business incubator. The owners have invested a lot of time and money to renovate this formerly condemned building. A few years ago I met up with some grade school friends who I had not seen in 35-45 years or more. We stopped in the coffee house, and then took a tour of the building. It was fun to visit our old classrooms and reminisce about past good times, as well as see the new incarnations. The photos below are of Mrs. Pyle’s classroom and the cloak room. The owners have done a great job with the building!

Milton School - April 2015
photos taken by KM Kolk

 To learn more about my 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks project, read my introductory blog post.