NGS Cooks up 2008 Conference

The Barbecue Capital of the World is home to the National Genealogical Society’s 2008 annual conference <www.eshow2000.com/ngs> May 14-17, 2008.

Kansas City’s Hyatt Regency Crown Center will host the classes, workshops and exhibits. Program topics include Midwest research, adopted ancestors, African-American and American Indian roots, genetic genealogy, land records and more.

Registration costs $175 for National Genealogical Society members or $210 for nonmembers until the March 31, 2008, early bird deadline; thereafter, it’s $210 for members or $245 for non-members. Want to attend the conference for just one day? You can do so for $95 (early birds) or $100.

New this year, the typically phone book-size syllabus is on CD, but early bird registrants can get it on paper.

Admission to the exhibit hall, featuring representatives from local genealogical societies, archives and services (including Family Tree Magazine), is free.

Nearby repositories will tempt conferencegoers, too. The National Archives and Records Administration’s Central Plains regional headquarters <archives.gov/central-plains/kansas-city> is in the suburbs south of downtown. About 20 minutes to the east, in Independence, Mo., the Mid-Continent Public Library is slated to open its new Midwest Genealogy Center <www.mcpl.lib.mo.us/genlh/mgc.htm>in May 2008.

Keep up with field trips to these repositories and other special programs on the conference blog <ngs2008conferenceblog.blogspot.com>.

From the May 2008 issue of Family Tree Magazine.