The First Genealogy Conference I Attended

It was back in 1983, June 24-25 to be exact. I still had a six year old at home. The place was Charleston, Illinois and the event was sponsored by the Illinois State Genealogical Society and Eastern Illinois University. The local host was the Coles County Genealogical Society. I enjoyed the conference and have not stopped attending such conferences.

I still have the syllabus and the list of the registrants. It was interesting to scan the list and see names I recognize. Some are still involved in genealogy, several later became friends, and some have passed on. I don't recall meeting any of them at the conference, it was later some of these folks and I became friends. I can just imagine the genealogy conference those that are no longer with us are having!

Just some of those names I recognized are Doris Roney Bowers, Peter Bunce, Carole Callard, Bob & Mary Lou Delahunt, Pat & Ray Gooldy, Joan Griffis, Marty Hiatt, Dorothy Lower, Sam McDowell, Michelle McNabb, Robert Parkin, Joanna D. Posey, George Schweitzer, Carol and Donald Shiffman, Byron Sistler, Roberta Smith, Loretto Szucs, and David Thackery. I am sure there were some others whose names I should have recognized.

I probably heard Lou Szucs speak about Chicago research. I have always remembered a session that had slides about historic barns but as I look over the program, cannot figure out what that session was. There was a session on Computer Genealogy by Joanna D. Posey. Oh, I wish I could hear that today and compare it to the way things are now. One sentence from the syllabus material for that session made me giggle a bit tonight: "Would you like your computer to talk to other micro-computers or to a large data bank to exchange genealogical information?"