'Around the World in a Day: Let Your Fingers Do the Searching'
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WILMINGTON, Del.
More than 400 amateur to professional genealogists from nine states descended on Delaware's lone LDS stake center on Aug. 1 for a family history event, "Around the World in a Day: Let Your Fingers Do the Searching." The event, presented by the Wilmington Delaware Stake, was free and open to the public.
"We are thrilled with the tremendous response we received," said event cochairman, Andrea Osinchak of the Christiana Ward. "Genealogy is a very popular activity, and we're pleased that we could bring in top-notch keynote speakers for the community to enjoy."
The event was a first for the First State's only stake, which also takes in parts of Maryland and Pennsylvania. Many stake members assisted as volunteers for the event, setting up, serving as hosts and hostesses, providing items for exhibits, shuttling attendees to and from overflow parking, handling extensive computer equipment, making international foods, and decorating cultural rooms.
Service projects, which will allow others to access information about their ancestors online, were also part of the day. An exhibit from the University of Salisbury in Maryland gave attendees the opportunity to scan newspaper obituaries that will eventually be posted online.
Attendees were also invited to participate in FamilySearch's online indexing project, transcribing records that will become part of FamilySearch.org. Some 350 records had been transcribed and submitted by the close of the conference, and many attendees signed up to continue indexing at home.
In addition to several classes offered at "A Family History Event," attendees explored more than 25 interactive exhibits and cultural rooms, featuring online genealogical resources and research tools for various areas of the world. They enjoyed sampling international foods in each cultural room, and were often greeted by exhibitors wearing clothing representative of the region.
"The theme of the event was 'Around the World in a Day: Let Your Fingers Do the Searching,'" said Sister Osinchak. "As our attendees 'traveled' through each decorated cultural room, they had a feeling of having circled the globe in a day, as they learned about the vast resources that can be accessed online, at your own computer, in your own home. Even our handouts are 'virtual.' Rather than having paper handouts at the conference, information and resources from each exhibit will be posted online in mid-August, at www.afamilyhistoryevent.org, so that our attendees, and genealogical enthusiasts everywhere, can use them."
