The past two and a half weeks have been fascinating for me. I helped staff a genealogy booth at the Eastern States Exposition, often called "The Big E." This 17-day fair is, in effect, a state fair for all six New England states.
1,096,463 people attended this year's Big E event, and it is estimated that more than 800,000 of them saw the booth of the New England Historic Genealogical Society during the 204 hours that we staffed the booth. That should elevate awareness of genealogy among the general public!
I hope to write soon about the experience of genealogy booths at large, non-genealogy events. However, I need to rest up from this event first before writing about it!
As if that wasn't enough, I took a day off from The Big E this past weekend and flew to Grand Rapids, Michigan, to attend the annual conference of the Western Michigan Genealogical Society. I made several presentations there and must say that I enjoyed the event. I think I enjoyed the very entertaining video introduction to my dinner talk as much as anyone in the audience. My thanks to Sure Irvine, Roger Moffatt, Judith Halseth, and the others who made my visit so enjoyable.
