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One of our newest board members, Jeffrey Vaillant, approached me at the Annual Meeting on Saturday and asked if I would be interested in some reports for the blog from the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy being held this week, January 11-15, 2010. Of course the answer was a resounding “yes!” You may recall that Jeffrey wrote a series last May on the NGS Family History Conference in Raleigh, North Carolina. Here’s his first installment:

Sunday, 10 January 2010
Salt Lake City, UT

On the road again, this time to the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy sponsored by the Utah Genealogy Association in Salt Lake City, Utah, of course. There are twelve programs offered. Two years ago I took the American Records & Research: Focusing on Families taught by Paula Stuart-Warren who is offering the same class this year. The other offerings are Mid-Atlantic Research, Scottish Research, Central and Eastern European Research, Immigrant Origins, Computers and Technology, Advanced Genealogical Methods, Producing a Quality Narrative, American Land and Court Records, Problem Solving, Accreditation and Certificate Preparation and U. S. Military Records.

Classes are all day and to really get immersed there are separate lectures at night! And there is the Family History Library only two blocks away from the Radisson where the classes are being held. That is a two block COLD walk as the weather forecast barely has SLC above 32 degrees F. all this week.

One of my genealogy goals for 2010 is to get the certification process under way, so I have elected to take the class on accreditation and certificate preparation being taught by Karen Clifford and Elissa Scalise Powell. Elissa was the mentor for our just-concluded ProGen Study Group (lasted eighteen months) so it will be fun having her as an instructor for the week. I am sure Karen will be as delightful.

Monday morning starts with a breakfast so it off to bed now to get rested up for a long day tomorrow.

– Jeffrey Vaillant

Read the entire series:
Report #1: 2010 Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy
Report #2: 2010 Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy
Report #3: 2010 Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy
Report #4: 2010 Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy
Report #5: 2010 Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy
Report #6 and A Recap: 2010 Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy

Helen Geary of Christchurch, New Zealand was trying to track down a “V. Deubler” researching surname DUNCAN who she knew from various Internet postings must be a relative living in the U.S. She located a genealogist named Verne Deubler who lived in the Bay Area and contacted him and was pleased to learn that while Verne wasn’t the “V. Deubler” she was seeking, he had come across her DUNCANs and knew a bit about the family. Verne kindly agreed to do some digging and to meet with Helen when she visited the United States.

What Helen didn’t know when she arrived at the CGS Library to meet with Verne in September was that the helpful stranger was a past-president and long-time board member at the California Genealogical Society. Verne is also the society’s most constant volunteer – logging in several days each week – handling email, working on indexing projects and overseeing the day-to-day “running” of the society. I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard President Jane Lindsey say that she couldn’t have served her office without Verne’s assistance.

Verne collected an envelope full of goodies for Helen including newspaper articles, obituaries and patent applications of the Duncan and Humes families. Helen’s gg-aunt, Mary A. Duncan, of Dunedin, New Zealand, settled with her family in San Francisco and married Robert Deniston Hume (1845-1908).

Photograph by Kathryn M. Doyle, 11/20/2009, Oakland, California.