FGS goes virtual

Final Federation of Genealogical Societies conference online

COVID19 has claimed another in-person victim — this time, the planned 2020 conference of the Federation of Genealogical Societies, scheduled for 2-5 September 2020, in Kansas City.

That’s the bad news, and it’s bittersweet indeed since this is the last year for the FGS conference as a stand-alone event in light of the merger with the National Genealogical Society which becomes final later this year.

The good news is, there will still be a 2020 conference of the Federation of Genealogical Societies.

But instead of an in-person get-together, the 2020 FGS conference will be virtual.

That announcement — long expected in light of the continuing issues of the pandemic and the high risk to the folks who like The Legal Genealogist make up the demographic of the genealogical community — came today in a press release from FGS:

Due to the ongoing concerns about COVID-19 around the nation and our concern for the health and well-being of attendees and volunteers involved with the Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) 2020 Family History Conference, we are pleased to announce that the conference is going virtual. “Although we are very saddened that the last FGS conference will not be an in-person celebratory event in Kansas City, the well-being of everyone involved with the conference is our utmost priority,” said FGS President Faye Stallings.

FGS is developing a virtual conference event that will be a combination of both live and on-demand programming. FGS 2020 Live! will be a full-day event planned for Wednesday, September 2, and will include popular genealogy lecturers such as Thomas W. Jones, David E. Rencher and Judy G. Russell. In addition to this full-day event, many more lectures will be made available to participants starting later in September as well as some of the workshops we had planned. All conference registrations will be converted to virtual registrations, and fees for any add-ons such as special events and luncheons will be refunded. If you haven’t already registered, you will be able to register for the virtual event in coming days. More details concerning the virtual conference will be coming soon.¹

I’m honored to be included as one of the live speakers, and delighted we’re all going to have the chance to learn more about the many topics that will be part of the virtual conference.

When it’s available, the additional information will be on the FGS 2020 conference website here.²

It won’t be the same, no — but it will still be fun and a great opportunity to learn from some of the very best of our community’s instructors.

Hope you’ll join us.

Cite/link to this post: Judy G. Russell, “FGS goes virtual!,” The Legal Genealogist (https://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog : posted 15 June 2020).

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