NERGC Day 2

My second day at NERGC began with a nice breakfast at the hotel followed by a short walk down Elm Street. A VERY short walk! The morning temp was 31F and quite windy. I left my winter coat in my car, and it seemed like too much bother to search the parking garage for my car to get it. The entire walk, I could hear my mother’s voice in my head chastising me for leaving it in the car. I glimpsed some murals down an alleyway, and detoured to check them out. I’m so glad I did!

Once back to the warmth of the hotel, I took a walk through the registration area. As I predicted, there were a bunch more queries added to the board. So many in fact, that they needed to add another board!

The message board only had a few more pinned messages, but I’m guessing that is due to the conference app. I read in one of the updates that more than half of the attendees have downloaded the app.

I did not attend today’s luncheon, so I ventured out into the city. It is amazing how many ethnic restaurants there are in a short radius. Venezuelan, Greek, Mexican, Italian, Indian, Ethiopian, Vietnamese, Nepalese, Spanish, etc. You definitely won’t go hungry in Manchester! I had intended to have lunch at the Irish pub, but they were having kitchen issues and would be opening late. As my next session would be at 1:45, I ate elsewhere. I chose a Hungarian restaurant, Lala’s Hungarian Pastry. I had a delicious chicken goulash. There was also a huge selection of Hungarian pastries and cookies. I may or may not have bought a small package of assorted cookies to snack on later…

After waddling back from lunch, I headed to the exhibit hall. A lot of people were still at the luncheon or in workshops, so it wasn’t very crowded. There are so many vendors and societies represented. From small, local societies to the big companies like American Ancestors and Ancestry, there is a lot to take in. There are vendors selling just about anything you can think of that is genealogy related. Books, maps, jewelry, family charts, magnets, keychains – everything!

The Gravestone Girls create beautiful artwork from the images found on old New England gravestones.

https://www.gravestonegirls.com

Tim Firkowski really got into the spirit!

https://www.thegenealogyassistant.com

Our Fun Tree had lots of beautiful genealogy related jewelry.

https://www.ourfuntree.com

Kelly and Wendy, along with the other volunteers from the Massachusetts Society of Genealogists, made sure to let folks know about the benefits of their society.

https://www.msoginc.org

The day ended with a banquet after which Blaine Bettinger presented The Helen Marley Story. It was a fascinating case study where Blaine identifies his great grandmother’s biological mother utilizing indirect evidence and targeted DNA testing. Genealogists may be the only group of people who can be held spellbound for an hour while someone talks about their research process. Again I had a tableful of interesting dining companions. Between my new friends and Blaine’s great presentation, I was sad when the night ended. C’est la vie. Tomorrow is a new day with new adventures.