The Genealogical Council of Oregon (GCO) and Oregon Association of Professional Genealogists (OR APG) co-hosted the Summer Genealogy Fest this weekend.  Read comments from two of our members.

Kevin Mittge (Speaker and Attendee):

“The GCO Summer Genealogy Fest, held in Eugene on Saturday, August 2nd, was a wonderful and educational event.  Four members of the Siuslaw Genealogical Society were in attendance.  The main speaker, Thomas W. Jones, spoke on “Planning ‘Reasonably Exhaustive’ Research,” “Can a Complex Research Problem Be Solved Solely Online?”, “Debunking Misleading Records,” and “Will Your Family History Have Lasting Value?”  Other speakers covered land records, orphan trains, writing your family history, using spreadsheets in genealogy and much more.  Those who were unable to attend the conference can listen for free to Jones speaking on “Debunking Misleading Records,” available for a short time only.”  [Click watch video once you’re at the Legacy screen]

Mary Colgan-Bennetts (Attendee)

“The Tom Jones portion of the conference was so informative. I learned many new approaches to problem solving through his case studies. Tom’s session on “Can a Complex Research Problem Be Solved Solely Online” was fascinating. The answer to the workshops question is YES . . . . but . . . .
One cost saving tidbit he shared was that it might be cheaper to hire a professional genealogist in the Washington D.C. area to pull National Archive records than to go through the National Archives directly. And . . . . they send them as PDF documents.