Conference Highlights

Your family is waiting for you. . . .

Come find them deep in the heartland at the Midwestern Roots 2008: Family History and Genealogy Conference! The Indiana Historical Society will host the conference at the Indianapolis Marriott East, Aug. 15 and 16, 2008, with pre-conference activities on Aug. 14. Midwestern Roots 2008 will feature more than 30 presentations by national and regional experts and cover a range of topics, from sources, methodology and technology to DNA, storytelling, photo preservation, Internet linking and much more. Speakers will include Richard Eastman, Roberta J. Estes, Alan January, Susan Kaufman, Charles F. Kerchner, David Lifferth, James Madison, Nancy Massey, Stephen Morse, Christine Rose, Bob Sander, Beau Sharbrough, Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak, Betty Warren and Curt Witcher.

Indianapolis is just a short trip from many midwestern metropolitan areas. The conference center is conveniently located off I-465 with free parking and two hotels in order to fit your budget. Multiple registration options are available so that you can plan on attending all three days or just the one day that fits your hectic schedule.

Several pre-conference activities will be held on Thursday, Aug. 14. The Indiana State Archives, the Indiana State Library Genealogy Division and the Indiana Historical Society’s William Henry Smith Memorial Library will conduct tours throughout the day, and all three libraries will be open Thursday evening for extended research hours. At the Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana History Center you can attend workshops to learn how to prepare your family history for publication or to learn about hot Internet genealogy sites. You can also visit the new History Lab for a session on conservation. Library staff and volunteers who answer questions from genealogy patrons will enjoy a workshop designed especially for them.

Following a picnic dinner at the History Center on Thursday evening, three pioneers in genetic genealogy will explore the evolution of DNA testing for genealogy research and DNA’s potential and present-day uses for genealogists in the panel discussion The Evolution of Genetic Genealogy. Panelists include Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak, chief family historian and North American spokesperson for Ancestry.com; Roberta J. Estes, founder of DNAeXplain; Charles F. Kerchner, founder of one of the first Y-DNA surname projects; and moderator Curt Witcher.

James Madison will open the conference on Friday morning with a heartwarming presentation on the importance and use of wartime letters for family history. The Kathryn Miller Professor of History at Indiana University, Madison will relate stories from his new book Slinging Doughnuts for the Boys: An American Woman in World War II. Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak will entertain conference goers at Friday evening’s reception and dinner with a mini-film festival. Opening Saturday’s sessions, Smolenyak will share Cases That Make My Brain Hurt, showing how brothers could be uncle and nephew and how the 1853 death of a toddler in Scotland could help solve a Civil War mystery.

Click here for a complete schedule.