GCGS 2017 Day 3 - Sun, 15 Oct 2017

#cangensummit2017 – The final day at the Great Canadian Genealogy Summit in Halifax, Nova Scotia was a half-day with 6 talks in 2 tracks.

We all met for a breakfast together, and then I led off repeating my talk from the day before on intro DNA. I had a few less people than the day before since many had already been at my first talk. It was again well received with many good questions. A few people met to talk to me one on one afterwards.

My talk a bit later on using Autosomal DNA to help find relatives was a full room and I enjoyed giving it. I always prepare my presentations as something that I would like to hear. Most of the attendees in this class already administer one or more DNA tests, so I had the right group to talk to. Hopefully they left with a few new ideas. 

At noon, Christine Woodcock and Kathryn Lake Hogan, the organizers of the Summit (great job!) thanked everyone and closed the conference.

I got a chance to have some good conversations with Mags Gaulden (Grandma’s Genes), Pamela Wile of the Genealogical Association of Nova Scotia, Cheryl Levy (whose talk I listened to yesterday), and I also had another nice talk with Derrell Oakley Teat.

Once it was over (I really hate the end of conferences), I had the afternoon available and I headed to Pier 21 where millions of Canadian immigrants arrived.

There at the research centre, I ran into Jim Benedict (who was another speaker at the Summit) and his wife who apparently had the same idea as me, and we had a nice talk.

I learned a few things. Most of my ancestors did not arrive at Pier 21, since it only began operating in 1928. My ancestors mostly arrived at Pier 2, which no longer exists. The research room has people who help you look up the ship’s record on Ancestry.com, which also has the passenger list of immigrants. If I’d have known they do that, I’d have done it myself long ago. There was a long line of people waiting so after I found out what I needed to know, I excused myself to allow others to get their chance. I did come away with several pictures of my ancestors ships from the research.

I followed that up with a half hour personalized guided tour of the museum, and then spent another hour visiting the rest of the museum myself. I did not realize that this Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 became a National museum in the same year that the Canadian Museum of Human Rights in Winnipeg opened (about 5 years ago) and the two are the only National museums in Canada that are outside of Ottawa.

Overall, an excellent day for this genealogist.