The annual Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree is one of the larger genealogy conferences of the year. In fact, it is the largest such conference on the west coast. The 2008 Jamboree will be held soon: June 27, 28, and 29 at the Burbank (California) Airport Marriott.
Many well-known professional genealogists, among them Tom Underhill, Arlene Eakle, and Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak, will speak about online and traditional resources, tech applications for genealogy, including several DNA talks, German ancestry, genealogy applications for today, such as family health histories, dealing with family secrets and black sheep, finding living relatives, and more. I will also be making several presentations at this year's Jamboree.
This year's program will include speakers and lectures of particular interest to those researching German, Eastern European, and Jewish roots. These sessions will include John T. Humphrey speaking on German records, Peter Lande on "Holocaust Records as a Source for All Genealogists," which includes how to obtain records from Bad Arolsen; Steve Morse on "One-Step Webpages," and several others.
A featured session will be the first-ever Blogger Summit, which will feature seven of the leading genealogy bloggers: Dick Eastman of Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter; Steve Danko of Steve's Genealogy Blog; George G. Morgan, Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak of Megan's Roots World and RootsTelevision, Schelly Talalay Dardashti of Tracing the Tribe, and Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings. Moderating the panel discussion will be Leland Meitzler of GenealogyBlog.com.
The Jamboree also includes some events that I am not used to seeing at genealogy conferences:
- Hollywood Forever Cemetery tour, bus transportation and guided tour by the cemetery historian Karie Bible. 8:30 am - 12 noon on Friday, June 27. Cost: $30.
- FREE Introduction to Genealogy taught by Beverly Truesdale 9:00 am - 12 noon Friday, June 27.
- FREE Kids Genealogy Camp taught by Starr Campbell, Hailey J. Campbell, and Michael Melendez from 9:00 am – 12 noon Friday, June 27.
- Lockett Tours' "Slice of the City" tourist bus trip on Thursday afternoon, June 26. Cost: $30.
One of the secrets of the Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree's success is the selection of dates: unlike most genealogy conferences, this is a weekend-long event. OK, I'll concede that the Jamboree starts at Friday noontime (except for one presentation for genealogy newcomers on Friday morning), but the majority of the events are held Friday evening and all day Saturday and Sunday, when working folks can attend. The result is a much higher attendance.
You can find full descriptions of speakers, lectures, and evening events at: http://www.scgsgenealogy.com and at the Jamboree blog at: http://www.genealogyjamboree.blogspot.com.
It is now too late for "early bird" reservations, but the standard fees seem reasonable: $90 for admission to the three-day event. Single-day admissions are also available for $45 to $50, depending on the date. Members of the Southern California Genealogical Society also receive discounts from those prices; you might want to spend $30 for a membership and then receive part of that money back in the form of a discounted ticket to the Jamboree.
I'll be at this year's Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree. Will I see you there?
