Texas State Genealogical Society

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The Texas State Genealogical Society [TSGS] was founded on November 28, 1960, in Fort Worth, Texas, and is incorporated under the laws of the State of Texas as an educational and literary corporation. =====

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The TSGS is organized and operated as a non-profit tax-exempt Section 501(c)(3) as defined by the Internal Revenue Service and eligible to receive tax-deductible contributions in accordance with Code section 170. =====

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The purpose of TSGS is to promote, assist, develop, and conserve the genealogical and historical resources of Texas and to cooperate with local, regional, and statewide groups in promoting an awareness of the need to preserve family heritage. =====

ANNUAL CONFERENCE 1-3 NOVEMBER 2012, Fort Worth, TX
From the General Conference Chair, John Wylie

Details are sparce, but so far we have these plans in the works:

Our key speaker will be the nationally prominent Curt B. Witcher, MLS, FUGA, Genealogy Center Manager of the Allen County Public Library. In addition to Mr. Witcher presenting four valued talks on Saturday, he'll be helping us with the special tracks on Thursday. He'll kick off the Librarians Track with a facinating view of the future of libraries serving genealogists. Watch this Wiki article for more on this special learning track as it develops.

On Thursday Mr. Witcher will close the special track on local genealogical society leadership by sharing his unique views on the styles of society leadership that are proven yet badly needed as the number of local societies in the US continues to decline.

We haven't forgotten Friday. We're working on tracks for Texas researchers, for ethic groups (Native Americans, African Americans, Hispanic) and more. On Thursday and/or Friday we'll have beginners tracks and technology tracks.

And, we'll have some Un-Conferences. Never heard of an Un-Conference? Come to this one to find out. It's guaranteed to be challenging and provocative.

  It's early so we're very open to suggestions, Just jot them down here and in a week or so, I'll do my best to openly share our thoughts on any and all ideas. Or contact me at tsgs AT johnwylie DOT com

LOCATION: The Riley Conference Center of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Other events include the traditional Friday night Banquet, but this year we'll serve it with a twist. Stay tuned.

Some of our Committee are looking into a large public event (media?) on Thursday evening. Since we've never done this before, it could be some time before we have a rough outline to share. But we're very open to ideas.

As we did in 2011 in Houston, we're working on a FamilySearch track. It could be one-half day, one full day, or part of every day. The great 1940 census indexing will be finished by then, but with over 95% of historical records yet to be digitized, it will be decades before this job is done. Our spies recently caught wind of a major announcement by FamilySearch this fall. Stay tuned here!

The 2012 Conference is locally hosted by (not one but) three genealogical societies: Mid Cities GS, Arlington (TX) GS and the Grand Prairie GS. It's going to be a challenge and much fun to watch this collaboration develop. We'll show you how it goes right here on the FamilySearch Wiki.

Join us in Fort Worth, Texas for our annual conference featuring Curt Witcher, at the Riley Center of SWBTS on 1, 2, &amp; 3 November 2012.
Regarding the public / media event, if it fits with the overall plan it would be good to highlight some of the projects genealogists work on that benefit society - unclaimed persons project, identifying military family to help repatriate bodies of deceased servicemen and women, helping locate family members when a cemetery will be relocated, how societies donate time and money to preservation projects that benefit historians and genealogists, etc. With the fight for access to records, a search for positive media stories about genealogists is on my mind.