Hi All, Having nothing better to do yesterday, two friends and I drove down to the convention center in Cincinnati to take advantage of the 'no admission charge' for the vendor displays at the NGS convention. There were a good fifty or more exhibitors - enough to get thoroughly worn out in the three hours we were there. There were the expected displays by Ancestry.com, RootsMagic, The Master Genealogist and Family Search. Some less well known exhibitors were: www.PhotoTree.com - Photo Restorers www.WikiTree.com - A free place to park your tree with biographical notes, pictures, etc. Tight security with allowed levels of participation in your tree. Gedcom upload and download permitted. Only limitation I could think of was you might have to work at it to update some folks by Gedcom. It would involve a manual merge after upload. Group participation in updating encouraged. www.Godrey.org - the Godfrey Memorial Library in Conn. Access to files requires membership. www.Shipindex.org - might be good for the deskbound seafarer. 140K records available free with 2.5 Mil for members. One item was fascinating to me. Memory Medallions. Small round plaques with the standard 'square' barcodes that have started appearing. You first buy (naturally) one of these unique barcode plaques and then enter a biography and pictures on the company's website. Its record number will be the same as that of the plaque. You place the small, round plaque on the headstone and a visitor with a SmartPhone, with camera and web access, takes a snap of the plaque. The phone's browser then is automatically directed to the biography, etc. www.memorymedallion.com The 1940 Census was a biggie at the event. Archives.com, findmypast.com and FamilySearch.org are combining their efforts to get it indexed while Ancestry.com is doing it on their own. I believe it was at the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society that one of the staff noticed my TIGS (Troy Irish Genealogical Society) T-shirt and remarked on its fine Web Site. So kudos to the webmaster-mistress and all the TIGS types who have contributed to the records posted thereto. Brad Miter

Hi Brad, thanks for the great review. I intend to keep this in my "keeper" mailbox. Also I am a member of the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society. I first heard of TIGS while attending a week of research with them in NYC. They recommended TIGS to anyone with upstate ancestry, especially the Albany and Troy area, and had high praise for the organization and web site. Marianne Arnold On May 12, 2012, at 4:54 PM, Bradford H Miter wrote: > Hi All, > > > > Having nothing better to do yesterday, two friends and I drove down to the > convention center in Cincinnati to take advantage of the 'no admission > charge' for the vendor displays at the NGS convention. There were a good > fifty or more exhibitors - enough to get thoroughly worn out in the three > hours we were there. There were the expected displays by Ancestry.com, > RootsMagic, The Master Genealogist and Family Search. Some less well known > exhibitors were: > > www.PhotoTree.com - Photo Restorers > > www.WikiTree.com - A free place to park your tree with biographical notes, > pictures, etc. Tight security with allowed levels of participation in your > tree. Gedcom upload and download permitted. Only limitation I could think > of was you might have to work at it to update some folks by Gedcom. It > would involve a manual merge after upload. Group participation in updating > encouraged. > > www.Godrey.org - the Godfrey Memorial Library in Conn. Access to files > requires membership. > > www.Shipindex.org - might be good for the deskbound seafarer. 140K records > available free with 2.5 Mil for members. > > > > One item was fascinating to me. Memory Medallions. Small round plaques > with the standard 'square' barcodes that have started appearing. You first > buy (naturally) one of these unique barcode plaques and then enter a > biography and pictures on the company's website. Its record number will be > the same as that of the plaque. You place the small, round plaque on the > headstone and a visitor with a SmartPhone, with camera and web access, takes > a snap of the plaque. The phone's browser then is automatically directed to > the biography, etc. www.memorymedallion.com > > > > The 1940 Census was a biggie at the event. Archives.com, findmypast.com and > FamilySearch.org are combining their efforts to get it indexed while > Ancestry.com is doing it on their own. > > > > I believe it was at the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society that > one of the staff noticed my TIGS (Troy Irish Genealogical Society) T-shirt > and remarked on its fine Web Site. So kudos to the webmaster-mistress and > all the TIGS types who have contributed to the records posted thereto. > > > > Brad Miter > > ===NY-IRISH-GENSOC Mailing List=== > Time for Society Members to pay up their **2012 Dues**. See the Website for details: > Troy Irish Genealogy Society > www.rootsweb.com/~nytigs/ > Click ON - "JOIN TIGS NOW!" to get form. > > > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Hi All, I broke my cardinal rule and sent out subject post without checking all the URLs. One was in error and is corrected and reposted below: www.Godfrey.org - the Godfrey Memorial Library in Conn. Access to files requires membership. Brad Miter