NGS 2014: Day 4

Today was the final day of the NGS 2014 conference. I began the day with Barbara Vines Little's session "A Treasure Trove of Rarely Used Records". Processioning records and road orders were among the sources that she talked about. I then attended Vic Dunn's session "Colonial Migrations in and Out of the Shenandoah Valley." He gave us specific information about every county in the Shenandoah Valley. That level of detail is very helpful! I I then went to the New England Historic Genealogical Society luncheon, where David Allen Lambert spoke about researching Confederate veterans after the Civil War. After lunch, I attended Donald W. Moore's session "Seventeenth Century Virginia Ancestors: A Research Case Study". My final session of the conference was Ann K. Blomquist's session "Virginia Colonial Parish Records". I need to get her book Southam Parish Land Processioning, 1747-1784: Goochland, Cumberland, Powhatan Counties. She had a copy with her and I saw the surname Mayo in the index more than once. I will definitely need to try to locate parish register records for my ancestors. Finally, I attended the National Genealogical Society annual meeting, and then headed back to my hotel. It has been a very educational and productive week. I plan to attend NGS 2015 in St. Charles, Missouri.

Pandemic Influenza Storybook

The April 30, 2014 issue of the Weekly Genealogist, published by the New England Historic Genealogical Society, contains an article on the influenza pandemic of 1918. Several links were included at the end of the article. One of them was of particular interest to me.

The Pandemic Influenza Storybook contains accounts (first-person and by family and friends) of the influenza pandemics of 1918 and 1957. The stories deal with courage, loss, and survival. As they see how real families were affected, readers will gain a better understanding of what people went through during the pandemics.

Stories may still be submitted. I have submitted the story of my great-grandfather's sister Marie (Schneider) Illig, who died in 1918 of bronchopneumonia due to influenza.