Is it actually possible? Sadly, it is. It’s over. Completely and utterly. Finished. Who Do You Think You Are? Live has been looming on the genealogical calendar for so long and now, the stands have been packed up and we are all returning to our homes across the nation, nay the globe. ‘We’ includes all the family history society volunteers, companies, professional genealogists, members of the public and everyone else who made this ‘weekend’ (Thursday to Saturday) so special.
Checking out of the hotel and losing your base is never the greatest experience but the Hilton Hotel has provided an excellent facility – local, affordable (who would have guessed that part!) and also the ‘home’ of various other attendees (Joe Public and volunteers). The day has, for me, been filled with varied conversations from finding long lost family in South Africa to teaching beginners how to order BMD certificates online and everything in between. It really is remarkable the records which are available and the knowledge out there now with regard to how to trace the lives of our ancestors. Who’d have thought it?
One lecture for me today and the battle of the audio equipment was well and truly mine! I delivered ‘The Raw Materials of Industry and Industrial Power’ in Studio 4 – the same one as yesterday, so it was like home from home. [Photograph credit (left): Christine Woodcock @genealogytours]
We had a brief Society for One-Place Studies ‘team meeting’ over lunch and it was lovely to catch up with Janet Barrie, Suzie Morley and of course, Janet Few (though Janet and I had crossed paths a number of times during the event, as per usual).
Some people have been at WDYTYA for three days and I have completely failed to touch base with them. That’s what these events are like though…. And so, here I sit on the train home and wonder: When will we all meet again? Well for me, I will see Maurice Gleeson, Brenda Turner and Christine Woodcock again in just six weeks at the Ontario Genealogical Society Conference in Barrie (29 to 31 May). Others…. who knows?
Here’s to next year’s event – or will there be another WDYTYA?Live later in 2015?? [Note: there have already been two dates publicised for next year’s event!! 7-9 April or 28-30 April – what will it be!?]
