UGA Summit of Excellence 2023: What a Fantastic Genealogy Event, Once Again!

What a fantastic, fun filled, 3-day event of premier genealogical education that was! There were genealogical presentations on such a wide variety of topics, and from so many well-known speakers! With so many presentations going on live at the same time, you had to pick and choose carefully which ones you wanted to see live and right away. I’m not too worried about missing others that I really wanted to hear, because they’ll be available in a couple of weeks from now, until the end of December!

Even though I’m not a beginner, I still joined the FREE “Getting Started for Beginners Day”. I had the time, it’s always good to support and cheer on your peers, and it gave me an opportunity to see how others present and check out their slide shows! 😉

Which did I get to watch? I had the chance to hear:

• Essential U.S. Records for Newer Genealogists, by Nancy Loe
• Research Your Family for Free: Free Resources for Family Historians, by Amber Oldenburg
• Adding Leaves to the Right Branch-From Name Collecting to Name Confirmation, by Cheri Hudson Passey
• The FamilySearch Wiki is the Essential Swiss Army Knife for Family Historians, by Virginia Pratt
• The Keynote Speaker, Craig Scott
• Deciphering German Civil Records, by Charlotte Champenois
• Join the Fan Club!: Using Cluster Research to Break Down Your Brick Walls, by Adina Newman
• Look Closer: Think Outside, but Look Inside those Boxes, by Jean Wilcox Hibben
• Getting Started with Your Irish Family History Research, by David Ryan
• DNA 101: Tools and Techniques for Beginning Genetic Genealogists, Alice Childs
• Using Ethnicity Estimates and Locality Research to Shed Light on a DNA Project, by Diana Elder
• Writing Quality Client Reports, by Whitney Tolman
• Using DNA to Verify Your Tree, by Maria Witwer
• Cousin Bating and Cousin Stalking, by Christine Cohan

Hopefully I’ll have time to watch a couple of others, I had to miss because of coinciding with other talks I wanted to hear, when the recordings come out. 😉


I don’t usually join a lot of presentations at an event, but I am learning that even if you think you know the topic inside and out, there is ALWAYS something new to learn!

I learned a lot of new German research tips from Charlotte, in which most weren’t even part of the main presentation but rather the adlibs and sidenotes!  

I learned about the new, since June 2022, Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland from David Ryan, which I knew absoultely nothing about before this!

Even though I’m not a beginner, I actually learned some new tips from Cheri Hudson Passey, on the beginners day!

I loved how Whitney Tolman reminded us to “Find out what your clients like”, reminding us that not all clients need or want a long drawn-out report. Some like more details, while some may not and would rather have charts, graphs, or pictures. I definitely concur, thanks Whitney!

And even though I have been using the majority of the same techniques since the beginning of my research days, I had never thought about the DAR descendant database for cousin bating, which I learned from Christine Cohan!

I enjoyed all the presentations that I got to hear, and I commend everyone on a job well done! My absolute fave of the entire conference though, the Keynote Speaker, Craig Scott! I’ve got to say, he was about the best keynote I have ever heard, for ANY kind event! I learned some tips for business marketing analysis, being on the lookout for industry trends, and a few other business tips!
 
Were you able to join the Summit of Excellence genealogy conference this year? If so, what were you able to learn?
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If you missed the UGA Summit of Excellence this year, don’t worry, there is always next year! 😉

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Learn about more fantastic genealogy events, classes and presentations in Genealogy Events.