Join StLGS For Our 1st Virtual Family History Conference!

(Thanks to Karen Goode, StLGS's vice-president for programs, for contributing to this week's blog post.)

St. Louis Genealogical Society has broken through our own brick wall––making virtual presentations! We have been in the planning stages for bringing meetings, classes, and other programs to our members for a couple of years. However, we were moving slowly and never actually got around to it. Well, that is all in the past because we finally have done it! A bit of silver lining in the current health crisis is that it has jolted us into action, and now, you will have the opportunity to see and hear Judy Russell’s presentations from the comfort of your home, no matter where you live. Plus, you will have access to all ten lectures online as digital recordings.

Presenting St. Louis Genealogical Society’s First

Virtual Family History Conference

Featuring Judy Russell, "the Legal Genealogist"

(Sponsored by George “Butch” and Carol Hilbert Welsch)

The conference will have two parts. First, you will have the opportunity to attend four live virtual presentations from Judy Russell! If you have heard any of Judy’s lectures, you know she is truly a gifted speaker.

Saturday, 18 April 2020
1:00 p.m. (Central Time): The Discriminating Genealogist: Telling Good Evidence From Bad
3:00 p.m. (Central Time): Living with Legal Lingo

Sunday, 19 April 2020
1:00 p.m. (Central Time): “Death by Undue Means"––Coroners’ Records
3:00 p.m. (Central Time): “Don’t Forget the Ladies”––A Genealogist’s Guide to Women and the Law

Each of these live presentations will include a question and answer time at the end. The presentations, along with the Q and A, will be recorded, so if you want to watch a presentation again, you can.

We are using Zoom, an internet platform, to host the live presentations and digital recordings. Zoom has a limit of 100 participants for each live talk and those spots will go to the first 100 registrants who sign in for each lecture. If you cannot attend the live session, you will still be able to watch all of Judy's lectures on the Zoom website afterwards. Recordings will remain active for ninety days, so you may watch them at leisure.

In addition to Judy Russell, the virtual Family History Conference will include recordings of all the  lectures that would have been part of our original conference. Unfortunately, because of the present quarantine due to COVID-19, some of our other speakers will not be able to provide their presentations at this time, but they will record them at a later date. We will post those recordings online when they are ready and give registrants ninety days to view them. We will keep you updated as we add their virtual presentations to the Zoom site.

Registration for the Conference

Registration for the live Judy Russell webinars AND all ten of the digital recordings is now open. The cost is the same as it was for the in-person conference: $55 for StLGS members and $65 for non-members. All of the information you need to register is on our website.

Once you have registered, you will receive an invitation to the FHC via the email address you provide. (Note: The email will come to you during the week before the live webinars.) Copies of the complete syllabus including all the handouts will be available to you as downloadable PDFs. Our volunteer staff has been hard at work making the process easy and user friendly.

If you have already registered for the conference, you do NOT need to register again. We have contacted all registrants via email, asking how you want to proceed. If you have not replied, please send a note to treasurer@stlgs.org indicating whether you want to attend the virtual conference and access the recordings or if you want a refund. We will not automatically refund registration fees without a request from the registrant.

Questions? Send an email to programs@stlgs.org and the vice-president for programs will get back to you. No one is currently in our office, so please do not call.