I can’t think of how else to describe what happens over the summer in the genealogy community. Of course, there are conferences all year long, but the summer is the time of the year with the most long conferences – most of the genealogy institutes are during the summer, and this year I was one of three speakers in the Ashkenazi Jewish track at the in-person week at GRIP genealogy institute in Pittsburgh. These in-depth institutes (in-person or streaming) are amazing for the amount of information that can be shared and the networking possibilities If you haven’t attended one, you should consider it.

This past week, live, in Salt Lake City, was the annual FEEFHS conference, bringing together an amazing group of researchers to learn and share European research resources and techniques. It was primarily in-person with some researchers live-streaming their talks. Next year FEEFHS will be virtual and the year after in-person – the plan is to be virtual in the odd-numbered years and in-person in the even-numbered years.

Both in-person and virtual conferences have their strengths. Virtual conferences allow people all over the world to participate and provides access to conference offerings to people for whom in-person attendance isn’t always a possibility. For example, in 2023 I was able to attend IAJGS in London in person and still present a couple of sessions virtually to FEEFHS which had both in-person and live stream offerings. All through the year I am privileged to speak virtually at many conferences all over the world which, given my work schedule and costs, would otherwise be impossible.

In just a few days, I travel again, this time to Philadelphia which is the site of the annual IAJGS conference and will see about 800 of us coming together to learn and share. During COVID I missed not getting together in person with all the people I know who are active in the genealogy community. There is something to be said for being up close and personal but, attending all the conferences all over the world in which I’m interested in, is just not feasible.

Over the last couple of years I’ve joined groups that offer monthly or bi-weekly talks and through membership also offer access to their growing library of recorded talks. For me, these are strictly r&r – what better way for a genealogist to relax than listening to other genealogists speak about research and resources!