If you attended the National Genealogical Society Conference in Richmond, VA, from June 1-3, you may have seen the North Carolina Genealogical Society booth with Executive Director Michele Doyle and our booksellers Russ and Diane Barberio, plus many volunteers, in the vendor hall. Many of you stopped by to say hello and we enjoyed hearing about your North Carolina ancestors. It was great to see so many of you at NGS. We had 37 new members join and 5 membership renewals. Several of our board members attended the pre-conference FOCUS (societies and libraries) event on May 31 to learn more about how we can make sure we’re doing the best we can for NCGS.
Our society entered the SLAM! Idea Showcase with an entry about the indexing partnership between NCGS and East Carolina University. Though we didn’t win, some of our members and local societies did. David McCorkle, 1st Vice President, won an honorable mention for his NC Historical Records Online and NC Lands grant project. He also was recognized with a National Genealogical Society Award of Merit for his project. The Wake County Genealogical Society was recognized with an honorable mention for digitizing the Wake County Cemetery Surveys. The Durham-Orange County Genealogical Society entered a video on ways to make virtual and hybrid society meetings more interactive. Everyone was recognized for their participation at the SLAM! Reception on May 31st. Congratulations to all who worked on these projects. For more about the competition and links to the video, go to https://upfront.ngsgenealogy.org/2023/05/2023-slam-idea-showcase-winners.html.
On June 2nd, NCGS sponsored a luncheon with speaker David Rencher. We spotted lots of familiar faces in the crowd and hope you enjoyed his fun talk about his North Carolina roots. Gay Baynes, our 2nd Vice President, worked hard to organize the event and we want to thank her for her work. The room was filled with lively talk, laughs, and, we’re sure, many tales of family lore.
